Ignoring Latios, who fled the garden with a shattered ego, Lorze and Latias had a satisfyingly hearty battle and then fell asleep in each other's arms.
Beside the young man's gentle face, a system prompt box popped up with a line of flashing text—
[New Ability: Safeguard (Latias)]
While they were sound asleep, a Meowth walking on two legs tiptoed into the garden.
He was startled by the young man and Latias. Actually sleeping naked on the grass, meow, h-how indecent, meow!
But he wasn't here for them. He sneakily climbed up to the elevated pool: the crystal-clear Soul Dew sat quietly on its pedestal, leaving Meowth mesmerized.
So beautiful, meow...
He stood on the edge and tried to reach out and pull out the Soul Dew, but due to a moment of carelessness, he fell into the water with a plop!
I'm done for now, meow!
Climbing back out of the pool and shaking off his wet body, Meowth realized he hadn't been discovered.
After some effort, the thief cat slipped out of the garden holding the Soul Dew...
Latios in Alto Mare didn't return to Mewtwo and Ash. Instead, he transformed into the appearance of a young man and wandered the streets absentmindedly. As a result, he bumped into Lorenzo and Bianca coming home from work.
"Huh, Latios? Why are you wandering around here? You look... in a bad mood?"
"Good boy, what happened?"
But Latios bit his lip tightly and ran off indignantly: Can you understand the pain of having your sister banged by someone else!
Seeing this, the two had no choice but to follow. But after turning into a deserted dark alley, sharp leaves suddenly flew down from overhead!
Rustle rustle rustle!
Latios stopped abruptly and backed up, standing together with Lorenzo and Bianca. Looking up, there were two people striking flashy poses and a Victreebel standing on the roof.
"Wh-Who are you people?"
Facing the girl's question, the duo, as if triggered by a keyword, began their performance!
(I'll just put the full version this first time, and skip it in the future...)
"Since you sincerely asked!"
"We will mercifully answer you!"
"To prevent the world from being destroyed—"
"To protect the peace of the world—"
"To carry out the evil of love and truth!"
"The cute and charming villainous characters!"
"Jessie!" "James!"
"We are Team Rocket, soaring through the galaxy!"
"White hole! A white tomorrow awaits us!"
"Wobbuffet~"
Jessie and James suddenly realized that even without Meowth, their opening speech didn't seem much different... No, that wasn't important right now. Their target was—
Latios!
It was really not easy to wait for this guy to be alone... The opportunity was too good to miss.
But Latios wasn't afraid at all. He immediately reverted to his original form, shielding Bianca and Lorenzo behind him—
The current him was completely different from the him this morning. Although it was embarrassing to admit, Mewtwo and Kirlia had indeed helped him a lot.
Latios erupted with powerful Psychic-type energy, unleashing Confusion at Jessie and James, but they smirked and pushed that dumb-looking Wobbuffet to the front!
"Wobbuffet!"
Psychic hit Wobbuffet! However, the other party acted as if nothing had happened, and a layer of colorful energy coated its body. This is?
Before he had time to react, Latios was struck by the powerful energy of Wobbuffet's Mirror Coat with a loud crash, instantly fainting...
"Victreebel, Sleep Powder!"
The terrifying flower resembling a pitcher plant leaped down from the roof, scattering sleep-inducing powder towards Bianca and Lorenzo, knocking them both to the ground as well.
"Done. The most important thing is still Latios~"
"Meowth's side seems to have gone smoothly too. Next... hehehe, won't catching Pikachu be a piece of cake!?"
James and Jessie had already started fantasizing about their promotion and raise, popping champagne in advance. Of course, they had to thank the thief sisters for the intel that made all this possible.
The two deftly tied up the captives and met up with Meowth, then sneaked towards the cathedral together...
At that time, Lorze and Latias had just woken up. Lying on their sides under the shade of a tree, holding hands and looking at each other, they both laughed.
Latias was truly beautiful. Her dragon snout was short, thick, and round, very cute. Above those large, bright orange eyes were perfectly cute eyelashes that trembled slightly as she blinked, hooking Lorze's soul away.
The young man changed into a fresh set of clothes, held the dragon sister's small claw, and took out a Love Ball—
"Latias, come with me, okay? We'll go together—including Big Sister Mewtwo and Kirlia, of course—to play all over the world."
"I also like Lorze so much! But would it be bad to just leave my brother here alone like this?"
"Then we can just come back and visit every once in a while."
"Okay~ Latias wants to be with Lorze forever!"
Just as she reached out her claw and touched the Love Ball, Ash's loud shout suddenly rang in the young man's ear—
Lorze turned his head and saw Ash's trio, along with Mewtwo and Kirlia, running into the garden in a frantic rush!
"What happened?"
"Latios is missing! And the streets were suddenly blocked by iron chains... and a strange water current captured Pikachu!"
Dun dun don!
The thief sisters should have already been taken care of, right? How did this still happen?
Lorze rolled his eyes: Captured Pikachu? Could it be the Team Rocket trio?
Everyone came to the pool, and the Soul Dew had indeed been stolen.
"They should be at the cathedral... let's go together and rescue Latios and Pikachu!"
As they hurried along, everyone explained the sequence of events to Lorze: Originally, Mewtwo and Kirlia were helping Latios practice his moves. Later, everyone went out to the streets to play and eat together.
Latios suddenly said he had to go home for a bit, and they hadn't seen him since...
The young man scratched his head awkwardly. He probably wandered off because his ego was shattered. With his strength, he might actually not be able to beat Team Rocket: losing to the God of Wobbuffet isn't shameful.
At this time, the streets were bustling with noise. Everyone was in a state of extreme panic, and the entire city was completely paralyzed.
It seemed the situation was quite grim.
Lorze suddenly threw on his black cloak and pulled up the hood. Latias beside him had her eyes flicker, suddenly feeling a surge of security.
—Serious mode, activated!
At the same time on the other side, Jessie inside the pod was laughing wantonly.
"Gegegegege! This is really so much fun!"
Jessie had barely touched it but was already playing it with consummate skill, making James and Meowth sigh with emotion—Is this a naturally gifted player?
But a faint worry also rose in their hearts...
"Hey, hey, Jessie... that's enough, right? We've already caught Pikachu..."
"Meowth agrees, meow. Meowth has a bad feeling about this, meow..."
The tied-up Lorenzo and Bianca were awakened by their commotion and couldn't help but be dumbfounded.
Latios was trapped inside the device, and those people were actually using the power of the Soul Dew through the device!?
"Wh-What are you doing! Stop it right now! People with malicious intentions using the Soul Dew... will cause this island to disappear along with it!"
"Ah, ah, Jessie, stop it quickly!"
However, Jessie inside the pod suddenly realized, why had this system suddenly gone out of her control?
That Soul Dew had already become cloudy, and the pod completely sealed itself, spinning frantically with Jessie inside!
When Ash and Lorze's group arrived, James, Meowth, Lorenzo, and Bianca all wore expressions of despair. The elderly Lorenzo even fainted because of it...
Tch, are we still too late?