What happened?
They looked at James, who was now sitting obediently to the side, full of doubt in their hearts.
"It's your turn, Musashi."
Baimu unlocked Musashi's handcuffs and made a "please" gesture with his hand.
The fiery Musashi was not the type to give up so easily. She immediately shot James a look, trying to get him to do something, but seeing no reaction from him, could only click her tongue.
Then she headed into the forest.
Half a minute later.
Under the curious gazes of Ash Ketchum and the others, Musashi came back with a dark expression, sat down next to the soulless James, and hugged her knees without saying a word.
"Musashi… James…"
Meowth was almost being devoured by the terror in his heart. Seeing Baimu turn his eyes toward it, it trembled, at a complete loss for what to do.
Why did James and Musashi turn out like this after just one trip to the forest?
Could it be that their souls had been eaten?
Unable to resist, Meowth staggered step by step toward the forest, feeling as if the Baimu following behind it was an evil ghost.
"Did Mr. Baimu do something to them?"
"I'm really curious too…"
"How about we go eavesdrop?"
"Let's not. That feels kind of disrespectful to Mr. Baimu."
"That's true."
Ash Ketchum and the others whispered among themselves, which aroused Princess Ji Meiya's curiosity. She asked, "This Mr. Baimu, isn't he your companion?"
"No…"
While they were talking—
Baimu came back with Meowth, whose face looked like it was about to ascend to nirvana, only calmness left in its expression.
He turned to Ji Meiya and asked:
"Princess Ji Meiya, may I borrow your aircraft for a bit?"
It was after three in the morning; there was no way to call Hoopa over to open a portal, so he could only rely on himself.
"You can, but… do you know how to pilot it?" She looked doubtfully at Meowth, then at James and Musashi, and buried her questions deep down.
"I don't, but my Pokémon does."
He smiled and pointed at the Porygon II not far away that was staring at Magearna.
The two of them were both Artificial Pokémon, and seemed a bit curious about each other—especially the latter, which simply could not understand the structure or nature of Soul Heart.
How was that thing even made?
"Porygon II!"
"Palli!"
Pulled out of its curiosity, Porygon II came flying to Baimu's side, and then, on his command, dove into the aircraft.
Ji Meiya's airship, based on mysterious science, was mainly structured around an intelligent system, so there was no need to worry about Porygon II being unable to operate it.
It was purely mechanical things that it couldn't handle.
"Amazing, it can actually pilot an airship." Hitron's eyes shone as he grew even more interested in Porygon II.
Baimu's expression turned a bit strange as he called Musashi and James onto the airship.
Rotom was Hitron's masterpiece. With Porygon II performing so well, would Hitron change his mind and go make a Porygon Atlas instead?
Porygon isn't an Electric Attribute Pokémon, you know!
Whatever.
Let things take their course.
"You guys go on ahead, I'll catch up soon."
Baimu waved to Ash Ketchum and the others, then piloted the airship away with the Rocket Team trio, quiet as chicks.
What had he done?
Nothing at all.
He had just said three sentences to them.
To James: "You don't want your fiancée Lu Meijia to find out where you've gone, do you?"
To Musashi: "You don't want the Blissey in Happy Town to lose its nursing job because it helped you steal things, do you?"
To Meowth: "You don't want your first love, the cat Madonna, to suffer because of you, do you?"
After hearing that, no matter what kind of inner struggle they had, the Rocket Team trio became the most well-behaved darlings in the world.
Baimu didn't expect those three lines to work for very long anyway. He just transported them to the nearest police station, handed them over to Miss Jun Sha, and, after confirming the charges on their wanted notices, told them:
"Don't let me see you again, or don't blame me for being rude."
He believed those three would behave for quite a while.
As for the Rocket Team trio's Pokémon, they were of course all handed over to Miss Jun Sha.
Even though they were villains, there was a bond between Rocket Team and their Pokémon; it wasn't a purely exploitative relationship.
——
The road to the Nibel Plateau was long.
Because that guy Volcanion flat-out refused to ride the airship, even though Baimu quickly caught up with Ash Ketchum and the others, they still had to travel until daybreak before seeing the iconic Flower Field.
Youx Lijia and Dedenne ran excitedly onto a big rock to look into the distance.
"What a beautiful flower field!"
The group jumped down from the airship and took a short break to ease the fatigue of their long journey.
Suddenly.
A Fletchling flew over from afar.
"Here to welcome us?"
Volcanion raised its head, but as soon as the Fletchling came close, it started chirping in an extremely flustered way.
"Yah-yah-deh! Yah-deh-deh!"
"What!?"
Volcanion's relaxed expression instantly turned grave. It hurried toward the direction Fletchling had flown from, the hunting bracelet on its leg activating and forcing Ash Ketchum to be flung along toward it once again.
But very soon.
Baimu overtook both it and Ash Ketchum with an even faster speed, and saw that Amaura, covered in wounds and staggering as it moved.
In the early XY anime settings, Amaura is a kind of Pokémon that's extremely afraid of heat; there was even an episode that specifically elaborated on how much it needed a cold environment.
But that setting got completely overturned in the later movies.
And in Carlos Champion Karonai's team, there's even an Aurorus.
All you can say is that when the anime writers set up the story, they basically didn't communicate at all—or they just turned around and forgot their own settings.
"Uu..."
The heavily injured Amaura collapsed onto the ground.
Without a second thought, Baimu pulled out a Pokeball to send out Blissey, and at the same time grabbed his emergency medical backpack.
"I'll leave it to you!"
He gave Blissey a quick instruction, then looked at Volcanion and Ash Ketchum who had rushed up behind, swept a glance at the slightly fearful Fletchling, and ran farther ahead.
"Mr. Baimu! Where are you going?"
Ash Ketchum shouted in confusion, and Volcanion was a bit puzzled as well. It lowered its head to look at the battered Amaura, its attention instantly drawn to it.
"Those injuries are serious!"
Its voice was rather heavy.
Hitron and the others came up from behind, closely followed by Ji Meiya, who'd been piloting the airship. She shouted, "Move it up onto the ship!"
"Mind your own business! I'll carry it!"
Volcanion roared back in rebuttal, unfastened the burly long arms on its back, and turned to look at Blissey, who was treating Amaura.
"Happy~"
Blissey focused on treating Amaura, then suddenly looked off into the distance.
Boom!
A terrifying explosion resounded, and a column of smoke mixed with fire shot up into the sky.
Volcanion's expression changed. It rushed in the direction of the blast. "It's that guy!"
"Mr. Baimu!"
Ash Ketchum hurried after it as well.
Soon after.
The two of them saw a small car scrapped and engulfed in flames, and not far away, Baimu pinning a stranger to the ground and cuffing him.
"Perfect timing! Put out the fire, put out the fire!"
He waved at Volcanion, then, hearing the poacher under him still shouting "Let me go, quick!", promptly smacked the back of the man's head.
Smack!
The world instantly fell quiet.
"This person is..." Ash Ketchum stared blankly at the scene.
"A Pokémon poacher. A bunch of infamous scumbags—you shouldn't be unfamiliar with the type."
Baimu smiled at him, then pointed at the rocket launcher beside them. "Illegally possessing a destructive weapon and intending to use it on a person—this guy can forget about freedom for the rest of his life."
"..."
Ash Ketchum watched the practiced Baimu at work and thought, no wonder he's connected with the international police, he's way too skilled at arresting people!
On the other side.
Volcanion doused the burning vehicle, and said to Baimu, who had taken out his phone to contact someone, "Judging from what you said, you're very familiar with this lot?"
"I've arrested more than just a few."
The latter waved a hand. "From organizations to individuals, from merchants selling Pokémon to hunters recklessly capturing them. The place I used to live was a paradise where this scum could do whatever they wanted."
"Hoh?"
"Of course, now it's become their hell. Whoever comes, I'll nab whoever—free to walk right into my hands." Baimu smiled at Volcanion. "Humans aren't all bad guys. There are plenty of good people too."
Ash Ketchum cut in excitedly, "That sounds awesome! Mr. Baimu, where are you from?"
"The Ore Region, a place you haven't heard of."
"Ore? I really haven't heard of it..."
"Hmph."
This Mythical Pokémon, who had no fondness for humans whatsoever, looked at him, then glanced at Ash Ketchum and Hitron and the others, lowered its eyes, and turned away.
"I can grudgingly admit that humans also have good ones and bad ones, but I can only speak for myself."
The tsundere Pokémon said so.