During the advance of Red and Hitmonchan, they unexpectedly ran into a Team Rocket patrol squad, and an unnecessary battle was forced to begin.
"Come out, Raticate."
"Come out, Zubat."
"Come out, Muk."
Three beams of white light faded, and three Pokémon appeared before Hitmonchan at the same time, glaring fiercely at Hitmonchan, who was warming up for battle.
"Finish them quickly and come catch up." Red ordered, turning around and using Teleport to vanish from the spot, leaving the three Team Rocket members staring at each other in confusion.
(What did I just see?) x3
"You small fry can come at me all you want. I don't want to delay my master's time." Hitmonchan said calmly, disdainfully letting the three Pokémon attack first.
"How dare a mere Pokémon look down on us like this!" one of the Team Rocket members shouted angrily, commanding his Raticate to attack Hitmonchan.
"Raticate, use Crunch."
Seeing this, Hitmonchan calmly analyzed the direction of Raticate's attack with steady eyes. With a small step, he dodged the attack, then turned and struck Raticate with Power-Up Punch. Although it couldn't knock Raticate out in a single blow, it did raise Hitmonchan's attack power.
"Muk, use Sludge Bomb."
"Zubat, use Astonish."
Seeing that Raticate alone couldn't defeat Hitmonchan, the other two Team Rocket members simply joined in the assault. After all, they were hardly honorable people—why bother caring about fairness?
A piercing scream came from Zubat's mouth, stabbing painfully at Hitmonchan's ears. However, Hitmonchan possessed the Inner Focus ability and would not fall into a flinching state. Picking up a small pebble, he tossed it straight into Zubat's mouth, forcing it to obediently shut up.
Right after that, Muk spewed out countless clumps of sludge. Hitmonchan dodged again, then struck Muk with Mach Punch, only to discover that he couldn't deal effective damage to Muk's body. Instead, Muk used its elasticity to disperse the power of the attack.
"Looks like your strength isn't that impressive after all. That brat actually dared to leave you here alone. What a complete joke."
The mocking words stabbed deeply into Hitmonchan's pride. Those words weren't just belittling his strength—they were also denying the trust that Red had placed in him.
Flames of anger ignited within Hitmonchan's fists. He wanted to see just how many punches that arrogant Muk in front of him could withstand.
With the boost of the Iron Fist ability, combined with the earlier Power-Up Punch enhancement, the power of Hitmonchan's punches had already reached a terrifying level. One punch slammed into Muk's body, and blazing flames burned across Muk's form, causing it to scream in pain.
"Hey! Are you blind or something? Hurry up and help!" the Team Rocket member shouted angrily. His Muk was clearly stalling for time, yet the other two were just standing there watching the show.
"Raticate, use Take Down!"
"Zubat, use Poison Fang!"
Raticate and Zubat moved at the same time, rushing behind Hitmonchan and preparing a sneak attack from the rear.
(Trivial tricks.)
A human-like smirk appeared on Hitmonchan's lips as he sneered in disdain. Stepping on Muk's body, he avoided the attack. Meanwhile, both Raticate and Zubat's attacks ended up hitting Muk instead.
"What the hell are you doing?!" the Team Rocket member cried in despair. The three of them had been completely toyed with by Hitmonchan.
In order to end the battle quickly, Hitmonchan took a stance and flexed his muscles, using Bulk Up.
"Hey, hey... why do I feel like something's wrong with that guy?!"
Steam suddenly began rising from Hitmonchan's body—something that only happened when the body's muscles had been drastically strengthened.
Hitmonchan rushed forward at high speed and used Comet Punch. Countless iron fists mercilessly smashed into the faces of the three Pokémon, knocking them to the ground.
To prevent the three humans from interfering, and without intending to take their lives, Hitmonchan used the rarely employed Vacuum Wave, knocking the three Team Rocket members unconscious before immediately leaving the scene.
"Strange... where did that guy Damon disappear to?" Red muttered while stroking his chin.
Logically speaking, his sudden intrusion into the underground experimental base should have immediately drawn Damon's attention. Yet along the way he had only dealt with minor grunts. A few squad-leader-level figures appeared, but they still couldn't stop Red's advance.
Seeing this, Red could only guess that some internal conflict had occurred within the experimental base, causing Damon to leave ahead of time.
...
Inside the cold laboratory, a young gray-haired man stared viciously at the Jolteon before him. He hadn't expected that Test Subject No. 2, which had been escorted here, had been pretending to be weak the entire way. In truth, its stamina had already completely recovered.
"So the people from Team Rocket are all useless trash. They can't even control a single test subject." the gray-haired man said irritably, looking at his occasionally twitching left hand, clearly the result of the electric current released by Jolteon.
Jolteon bit through the control device restricting its body, its hateful gaze locked firmly onto the gray-haired man. Under the man's slightly surprised eyes, Jolteon released electricity from its entire body. High-voltage currents, like serpents of lightning, struck the gray-haired man's body.
"Interesting. I didn't expect your stamina to be this abundant. But your value is already over. I've already obtained the genetic serum from your body." the gray-haired man said calmly, feeling no pain from the electricity flowing through him. It was as if the current released by Jolteon had all been redirected into the ground by the man.
The gray-haired man placed the serum taken from Jolteon onto the instrument and turned to activate another hidden switch. Countless mechanical tentacles suddenly seized Jolteon's limbs, restricting its movement once again despite its frantic struggling.
"You just watch quietly and witness the birth of a miracle!" the gray-haired man said excitedly. Madness flickered in his eyes, making Jolteon shudder in fear. The seemingly human man in front of it felt extremely dangerous.
The gray-haired man manipulated the experimental equipment in front of him, analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of the genetic serum. Then he pressed a switch, and a cage slowly appeared behind him.
Inside the cage was a Dodrio, exhausted and extremely emaciated.
What made the scene even more pitiful was that this clearly undernourished Dodrio had not only suffered abuse from Team Rocket, but its body was also covered with wounds caused by repeated forced blood extractions.
Those wounds had only been hastily bandaged by the impatient Team Rocket members. The treatment did nothing to relieve Dodrio's injuries; instead, the wounds kept tearing open and becoming infected, causing the condition to worsen further and further.