"Alright, now only Dragon General King Kai is left," Feng Che murmured. "Once he's defeated, I can finally wrap things up."
"Given that I've already captured five of the Poacher organization's Generals, my training camp points should be comfortably at the top of the leaderboard." Feng Che knew that once this joint operation concluded, the first-place spot would undoubtedly be his.
"But what exactly does King Kai want with all this electricity generated by the Wind Valley's massive turbine array?"
To find the answer, Feng Che used his telekinesis to seamlessly scan the memories of the captured brothers, Jecal and Jecksee. A startling realization soon took shape in his mind.
"King Kai actually has the Dark Stone in his possession."
"Fascinating. A Mythical Dragon that can only be awakened by someone bound to the Unova region." Feng Che mused. "King Kai obtained this Dark Stone decades ago. Since then, day in and day out, year after year, he has been channeling astronomical amounts of electrical current into it."
"He intends to awaken Zekrom and use its supreme might to conquer an entire region for himself."
"Unfortunately for him, after all this time, Zekrom remains completely dormant. It's highly likely that King Kai's ideals are constantly shifting, lacking the absolute conviction needed to resonate with the dragon."
"Perfect. I'll seize the Dark Stone directly and awaken Zekrom myself. When the time comes to execute Giovanni's Rainbow Rocket operations in the Unova region, Zekrom will afford me immense leverage."
"The Sinnoh region is already effectively under my control. If I can secure Unova and Hoenn as well, pooling the sheer volume of resources from three entire regions should easily propel my primary Pokémon to the Grandmaster rank."
"Once I achieve that level of power, I can finally choose to sever my ties with Team Rocket and become a completely free agent."
Feng Che smiled faintly. After plundering all the valuable spoils from Jecal's stealth craft, Mewtwo used its psychic power to cleanly store the entire vessel into its private spatial pocket.
The Gathering Storm
Inside the Central Citadel, General King Kai paced frantically back and forth across his office floor. His eyes were heavily shot with blood, and the ash tray on his desk was piled high with grey dust. The entire room was choked with thick, swirling cigar smoke.
Slam!
The heavy doors were suddenly pushed open as Raizo, one of Kai's trusted lieutenants, rushed into the room, dropping down onto one knee. "Lord King Kai! Terrible news! The Valley of Flames has fallen. The World League forces have breached General Nien's defenses and taken him into custody!"
"What is the status of Longchuan and Jecal?" Kai's raspy voice drifted out from the thick haze. Through the dense layer of smoke, Raizo couldn't read the volatile expression shifts on his commander's face.
Flick. Kai struck a match, igniting another heavy cigar. He took a long, deep drag, exhaling a fresh cloud of smoke from his nostrils.
"General Longchuan has also been arrested. General Jecal... has vanished from his sector," Raizo forced himself to speak, bracing for the impact.
"What did you say?! Jecal turned tail and ran?!" King Kai exploded in a thunderous fury, his face flushing a dark, bruised violet. "Excellent! Marvelous! When disaster strikes, the rats really do scatter!" His outraged roars reverberated violently through the stone corridors of the citadel.
"But what about Jecksee? Why didn't he stop him? Tell me, where is Jecksee?!" Kai glared down at the kneeling messenger with eyes as wide as copper bells.
"General Jecksee engaged in a brutal dogfight with Gym Leader Feng Che of the Viridian Gym. Shortly after the clash, General Jecksee also vanished without a trace. Our surveillance scouts were positioned too far out in the valley, so they couldn't discern exactly what transpired at the crash site," Raizo stammered, his entire frame trembling like a cornered quail.
"Feng Che... Feng Che again! Why is it that every time I cross paths with that brat, everything falls apart?!" Kai spat the name repeatedly, a pure, murderous intent solidifying in his chest.
"Forget it. There's no time left anyway. Mobilize the entire Dragon Army! I'll show the world the true pedigree of the Dragon General!" The anxious commander strode out of his office, intent on personally deploying his final layers of defense.
"Hmph, fortunately, I am a man of contingencies. Aside from Zekrom, I've spent years cultivating this masterpiece." Kai returned to the high-tech laboratory housing the Dark Stone. Resting near the electrified containment vat was a magnificent, uniquely altered Pokémon. Its body continuously strobed with terrifying surges of pure electrical friction. Sensing Kai's approach, the beast lowered its head in a submissive gesture of acknowledgement.
"Thanks to your raw output, I finally broke through the peak Elite threshold and stepped into the rank of a true Champion," Kai smiled manically. "I've deployed the bulk of the Dragon Army around the base of the mountain. Those ravenous Druddigon will tear anyone who steps into my domain into picked-clean bones."
The Alliance Councils
Meanwhile, the scattered fronts of the World League had successfully linked up at the base of the mountain. Though they had captured five of the six acting Generals, the cost had been severe—several high-level trainers and Elites had sustained critical injuries and were currently being teleported off the island by the Psychic corps for emergency treatment.
Steven Stone and Wallace stood at the center of the encampment, their exceptional strategic records during the breach earning them the temporary command of the joint forces. At that moment, they were studying a high-resolution holographic map with grim expressions.
"This is a precise spatial rendering of King Kai's citadel, compiled through the synchronized psychic projections of Caitlin, Lucian, Tate, Liza, and myself," Sabrina explained, lifting a hand to smooth back her long black hair and adjusting her tangled strands. "The fortress is perched atop an sheer mountain peak, and the surrounding ridges are crawling with thousands of Elite-level Dragon-types. If we attempt a conventional ground assault, we will be bogged down by their sheer numerical advantage and ground to pieces by attrition."
"My proposal is simple: we bypass the vanguard entirely via a targeted Teleport, injecting an elite strike team directly into the heart of the citadel to challenge King Kai. Once the commander is neutralized, the dragon horde will lose its coordination," Steven addressed the assembled trainers.
"That is impossible," Sabrina countered immediately, her tone flat and unyielding. "With our current combined capacities, we cannot anchor a teleportation coordinates inside the castle walls. I can feel a massive network of anti-psychic dampening arrays embedded throughout the mountain rock. They are severely warping the space around the citadel."
She paused, her eyes narrowing slightly. "However... if we combine our focus, we can securely drop a small team near the lower paths of the mountain. But to make that drop viable, we will need a secondary force to draw the attention of the primary dragon horde. If we drop you into a dense nest of thousands of Druddigon without a distraction, you will be torn apart within seconds."
Steven turned his gaze toward the psychic twins, Tate and Liza, seeking validation.
"Our readings match Sister Sabrina's conclusions exactly. The spatial distortion makes an internal drop completely unviable," Liza and Tate explained in unison.
"Very well. We split our forces," Steven decided, his voice carrying the calm authority of a Champion. "We form a compact elite strike cell to breach the citadel and secure King Kai, while the main body stays behind to tie down the Dragon Army. Sabrina, how many trainers can your circle drop safely, and what is the maximum range?"
"Three individuals at most," Sabrina replied, closing her eyes briefly to calculate the cognitive strain before rendering her verdict. "Working together, we can place you precisely at the rocky approach near the foot of the mountain."