“Brother Terrance… something terrible has happened! Have you heard the news? A strange Pokémon suddenly appeared in LaRousse City and has been wreaking havoc everywhere. No one here seems capable of stopping it, though a bunch of robots are keeping its destruction in check.”
“You’re in LaRousse City?” Terrance frowned.
“Yeah.” After Ash spoke, he turned the camera toward the outside, and Terrance immediately saw a scene of devastation.
Steven and Terrance exchanged glances. Using the authority granted by their Elite Four and Champion medals, they immediately discovered the incident unfolding in LaRousse City.
No one knew when it had started, and there was still no mention of it anywhere online.
“There’s no way something this serious wouldn’t have generated any news online.”
“And neither the LaRousse Group nor the local police have requested assistance from the League. That’s extremely strange.”
Terrance quickly caught sight of the strange Pokémon Ash had mentioned. For some inexplicable reason, its figure seemed familiar to him.
It was called Deo-something, a Pokémon that had appeared in one of the anime movies. Since it had not received much screen time and was nowhere near as popular as Mewtwo, Terrance, who had only been a casual viewer, barely remembered it.
Still, that association alone was enough. None of the Pokémon connected to the anime movies were easy to deal with—they were either Legendary Pokémon or Mythical Pokémon.
“Ash, listen to me. Find somewhere safe to hide immediately. Don’t try to be a hero, your safety comes first. I’ll head over there right away.”
“Okay!”
After ending the call with Ash, Terrance looked toward LaRousse City and said to Steven, “If I was only somewhat suspicious of the LaRousse Group before, I now believe they’re a prime suspect.”
“The timing is a little too coincidental.”
“I still don’t fully understand what’s going on… but are you confident?” Steven asked.
“If the LaRousse Group truly did this, then it means they had some kind of secret, underhanded dealings with Team Aqua and Team Magma. Given all the crimes those two organizations have committed, the LaRousse Group will find it nearly impossible to recover.”
Steven might have been amiable, but he had no intention of showing mercy to Devon’s competitors. That was especially true now that the LaRousse Group was suspected of sabotaging Devon’s plan and colluding with Team Magma and Team Aqua. He could not let them off lightly.
“If they dared to have Team Aqua and Team Magma openly intercept Devon’s transport ship, I’m afraid the LaRousse Group has already destroyed every piece of incriminating evidence. Without evidence, even if Archie and Maxie personally admitted that they were connected to LaRousse, the League still wouldn’t be able to punish them…”
After all, the LaRousse Group’s influence was simply too vast. Like Team Rocket in Kanto, no one was willing to openly fall out with them.
“That meteorite may be the key.”
Terrance then explained his plan.
He racked his brains, trying desperately to recall the anime’s major plotline, but he could not remember anything involving a meteorite striking the planet. It truly left him at a loss. Still, something kept nagging at Terrance. Under normal circumstances, the incident in LaRousse City and the approaching meteorite might have seemed completely unrelated. But now, with the crucial factor of Ash being in LaRousse City, he had no choice but to consider that the situation might be more complicated.
“You want Zinnia to summon Rayquaza directly?”
“Yes, but in secret. If the summoning fails, no one will know. If Rayquaza successfully appears, it presumably won’t stand by and allow the meteorite to fall. Once everything is already set in stone, outsiders won’t be able to pursue the matter. Even if they do, we can distance ourselves from any responsibility. We’ll only need to find a scapegoat when the time comes. I’ve been thinking: stealing components of the spatial teleportation device involves enormous risks. Without sufficient benefits, no ordinary person would consider it worthwhile. Assuming the LaRousse Group is behind this, what could possibly make them risk being exposed for colluding with Team Magma and Team Aqua just to obstruct Devon’s plan?”
“Not even tens of billions in profit would be worth taking such a risk. The only possibility is that if they didn’t do this, the LaRousse Group might face total destruction.”
“Now that an incident has erupted in LaRousse City, don’t you think it looks somewhat like the LaRousse Group is facing total destruction?”
“They’re deliberately slowing the spread of information about this incident. Their intent is obvious: they’re afraid outsiders will discover something they shouldn’t know, further worsening their predicament. The strange Pokémon currently wreaking havoc throughout LaRousse City is our most important point of investigation.”
“When I left, Zinnia seemed to be searching for something.”
“It should be a Key Stone. The Draconid people want to use the power of a Key Stone and the meteorite to reactivate the rainbow-colored meteorite and complete the summoning ritual. However, they only have one Key Stone, so they can’t complete the ritual. Zinnia already told me about this, but Devon refused to provide them with another Key Stone.”
“Then I’ll go to LaRousse City, while you go to Zinnia.”
Terrance and Steven quickly divided their responsibilities. Steven would find Zinnia, while Terrance would meet with Ash to uncover the truth behind the incident in LaRousse City.
…
…
LaRousse City.
LaRousse City was suffering destruction at the hands of Deoxys. Although most of its residents had already entered emergency shelters, the current president of the LaRousse Group was furious as he watched the crystallization of the group’s achievements—the technological city representing the highest level of technology in Hoenn—gradually fall into ruin.
He was currently harshly questioning the team responsible for guarding Deoxys about what had happened, yet all he received was a vague, nearly meaningless answer.
“P-Perhaps this Deoxys sensed its companion calling out to it, awakened a new power, broke free of its restraints, and escaped…”
The Professor in charge of Deoxys at the LaRousse Group spoke fearfully. Deoxys had suddenly broken free of its restraints and awakened from its slumber, something no one had anticipated. The restraints had been reinforced based on the upper limit of Deoxys’s power. In theory, they should have continued to suppress its mind and vital activity indefinitely. But just now, Deoxys seemed to have surpassed the limits of its life and successfully escaped.
The LaRousse research team had been continuously recording the changes in Deoxys’s energy and gradually improving the restraints. Such a sudden surge of energy had never occurred before.
“No matter what, this incident must be suppressed, and this Deoxys must also be recovered.”
Inside a building equipped with the most advanced defensive facilities, the president of the LaRousse Group watched as numerous high-tech devices once again forced Deoxys into a desperate situation, his expression grave.
Hopefully… hopefully this Deoxys’s sudden rampage would not have an enormous impact on the LaRousse Group.
[Author Note:I originally intended to directly write the meteorite plot from Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, but the game’s plot was described too straightforwardly. I deleted it, rewrote it, then deleted it again because it was difficult to connect with the main storyline. So I had a sudden idea and combined the game’s plot with the anime’s plot. I’m currently reviewing the movie’s details, so progress is a little slow.]
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