The Lightning Gang's young master left with his men, and Reiji recalled Toxicroak. Then Golbat carried him out of the field.
By the time the crowd realized what had just happened, the place exploded. People started shouting and looking around for him, but he was already gone.
The news spread anyway.
Someone had challenged the Lightning Gang. That was huge. Everyone who had seen it wanted to be the first to tell someone else.
The 2 weaker gangs heard about it almost right away. Both of them were thrilled. If this stranger and the Lightning Gang tore each other apart, they could clean up afterward and take over the Lightning Gang's turf.
Both gangs were thinking the same thing. The alliance they had been circling around fell apart the moment Reiji stepped in.
It was not that the gang bosses were stupid. Their world was just small. All they cared about was this one patch of streets. In the end, this was still just a gang fight. If the League sent real troops in, every one of them would fold fast.
Reiji slipped into an alley after leaving the battlefield and finally let out a breath.
That little performance had gone well enough. One take, no mistakes. The rest would be easier.
"Boss, what now?" Naoki caught up to him in the alley, still breathing hard. He had not expected Reiji to provoke the Lightning Gang's young master on the spot. He had not been ready at all, and his heart had nearly jumped out of his throat.
"What else? We keep going." Reiji leaned out and checked the street. There were not many people nearby, so he recalled Golbat. "Take me to the Lightning Gang's base."
He was going to send Gengar in first.
The challenge from earlier did not matter yet. If Gengar checked the place and they could handle the gang, Reiji would show up tomorrow.
If they could not handle it, he would simply skip the match. The other side did not know who they were anyway. Let them search all they wanted.
People could talk as much as they liked. Reiji did not care.
"Got it. This way." Naoki saw that Reiji was calm and settled down too, then led the way.
"Wait."
Reiji had just started to leave the alley when Gengar rose out of his shadow. It was holding another Gengar, already hypnotized.
"Well, look at that. It followed us all the way here." Reiji smiled, curious now. Whoever sent it had guts. "Gengar, hypnotize it again and make it lead us to its Trainer. I want to see who's bold enough to track me."
With Gengar and Naoki guiding them, they reached a large manor belonging to the Lightning Gang. Naoki confirmed this was the right place, and Reiji silently thanked his own luck.
If he did not have Gengar, the other side really might have traced them back.
"Gengar, go in with it and bring the Trainer out."
"Gar." Gengar's voice echoed in Reiji's mind. Then it took the captured Gengar and slipped into the manor as a shadow, searching for the Trainer.
Reiji and Naoki waited in the woods outside.
The manor sat near a large wild forest, far from the old district. Who would have guessed the Lightning Gang's base was not in the old district at all, but out here in the suburbs? They really knew how to live.
On the way over, Gengar had told Reiji what happened. The other Gengar had followed Naoki's shadow back.
Naoki felt a chill when he heard that. Ghost-type Pokémon were hard to guard against, especially when they were good at hiding and could move in so many different ways. It made him want one of his own. If he did get one, he would choose Gengar. Reiji had one, after all.
That Gengar was not weak either. It was close to quasi–Elite Four tier. If Reiji's Gengar had not caught it by surprise, it would not have gone down so easily. Shadow power had done serious work again.
Gengar thought the captured one was strange too. Its mental strength was weak. One glare and a bit of hypnosis had been enough to drop it.
Before long, Gengar brought the Trainer back under hypnosis.
The moment Reiji saw him, he laughed. "Let him go."
Gengar had brought back 2 Pokémon, Gengar and Ditto, plus 1 person.
And Reiji knew that person.
Gengar probably recognized the unlucky kid too. They had met before.
"Gengar, take this recorder. Find the human I fought earlier and stay near him. Record whatever he says." Reiji turned on a voice recorder and handed it to Gengar. "Also check the people who talk to him. If you can figure out how strong their Pokémon are, even better."
"Gar."
Gengar took the recorder and slipped back into the manor through the dark like a thin black snake. No sound. No trace. Another neat use for shadow power.
Darkrai had shadow power too, plus telepathy. Too bad...
Once Gengar left, Reiji took out a bottle of water and poured it over Tai.
That was right. This unlucky kid was Tai.
Team Rocket had probably sent him here as an undercover agent. No wonder the Gengar that came to scout them was so easy for Reiji's Gengar to catch.
A quasi–Elite Four-tier Gengar should not have been that fragile. The weakness Reiji had guessed before was probably showing now. Tai's Gengar lacked Ghost-type energy. Its hiding ability was like a front tire with no air. In front of a Gengar with shadow power, it had nowhere to hide.
And Tai was working undercover in the strongest gang.
Was Team Rocket planning to move on Mandarin Island North?
Might as well wake him up and ask.
"Mm? Mm?" Tai woke groggily, his head heavy. The first thing he felt was a hand over his mouth.
"Tai, calm down. It's me." Reiji spoke quietly by his ear. "Don't panic."
"Boss?" Tai's eyes slowly focused. In the moonlight, he could make out Reiji, but not his real face. Reiji was using Ditto as a disguise, same as him.
Reiji had used different voices before and after the battle. Only now, after seeing Tai, did he switch back to the voice Tai knew.
"It's me. What are you doing here?" Reiji waited while Tai recalled Gengar, woke Ditto, and put it back on his face.
"Boss, I'm on a secret Team Rocket mission. I've been undercover in the Lightning Gang for about a week." Tai told him the truth without hesitation. He had no loyalty to Team Rocket.
"Boss, he's the Team Rocket spy you mentioned?" Naoki heard Team Rocket and immediately remembered what Reiji had said before. They had someone inside Team Rocket too. So it was true.
"Yeah. This is Naoki, former leader of the Rock Gang in Trovitopolis's underground black market. This is Tai, a kid I met underground in Trovitopolis." Reiji introduced them, and the 2 shook hands.
"Naoki, I've heard a lot about you," Tai said as they shook. "Back then, I was just a waiter at the port bar. People talked about your group all the time."
"That's all old news," Naoki said. "How are things in Team Rocket? Must be rough."
"It's been okay. I've met a few people who helped me, so the Trainer road hasn't been that hard." Tai smiled and looked at Reiji.
Reiji was one of those people. He had helped Tai 3 times.
The first time was saving his life underground in Trovitopolis.
The second was giving him a Pokémon. Reiji had called it payment for keeping a secret, but Tai knew killing him would have been easier.
The third was in Gringey City. Reiji had solved a problem that had been bothering him for a long time with just a few words.
"Enough catching up. Do that later." Reiji cut off the mutual praise and got straight to Team Rocket.
"Boss, Team Rocket sent a lot of undercover agents here," Tai said. "I'm in charge of them. They've been spread across every gang in the old district, with the most people inside the 3 biggest gangs. I'm inside the strongest one, the Lightning Gang."
"Team Rocket plans to hit this place?"
"I don't know. The order from above was to lie low and wait. Nothing else yet." Tai shook his head.
Even after showing enough strength to become a unit leader with a group of useless grunts under him, he still did not know Team Rocket's real plan.
"They may not have had one before," Reiji said. "But if we move, that could change."
Knowing Team Rocket, if Reiji took down the Lightning Gang, they would step into the gap, absorb the other 2 gangs, and lock down the old district. From there, they could plant themselves firmly on Mandarin Island North.
"Boss, why did you provoke that guy anyway?" Tai still did not understand it. "Did he mess with you?"
At first, Tai thought Team Rocket had sent in a new undercover group and was getting ready to attack the Lightning Gang. But he had not finished gathering the intel yet, and if Team Rocket wanted to move early, they would have told him, the man in charge here.
That was why he sent Gengar to scout.
He never expected to find Reiji.
And now Gengar's weakness had been exposed too.
"It's a long story, so I'll keep it short." Reiji told Tai about the armed merchant ship they had hijacked. On paper, it had been a private ship. In reality, it belonged to one of Team Rocket's undercover channels. They had also killed Team Rocket's spy at the Mikan Gym.
Now they were targeting the strongest gang in the old district because they needed to pull Team Rocket's and the League's eyes somewhere else. They were tired of flies buzzing around them.
"Boss, so that was you?" Tai blinked. "Team Rocket already put out a bounty inside the organization. A hundred million for your identities and your heads."
"Heh. A hundred million? They think pretty highly of us." Reiji gave a helpless smile. Being noticed by Team Rocket was not good.
Then he asked, "Last time we met, your Gengar was Advanced tier, right? Why is it still so weak? Did something go wrong?"
"You were right, Boss. My Gengar is unbalanced." Tai smiled bitterly. Reiji had warned him before that Gengar's Poison side was too strong.
Now it had quasi–Elite Four-tier strength on paper, and its Poison-type power was ridiculous, but its Ghost side was weak.
Because of that, its hiding skills and mental strength were poor. Other Pokémon at the same level could find it easily. Most of the time, Tai had Gengar hide in the forest and only brought it with him when he had to go out.
"It's fine. Take it slow. If your Gengar is going to reach Elite Four tier one day, the chance might be here." Reiji sighed inwardly.
Tai's Gengar had enough Poison-type strength to reach Elite Four tier. The problem was its Ghost side. It was like being born with a bad leg.
If Reiji gave him the Ghost-type Plate fragment, Tai's Gengar would have no trouble reaching Elite Four tier. But that fragment was priceless. Reiji was not generous enough to hand it over. Tai would have to solve this himself.
"Boss, that Gengar was his?" Naoki was getting more surprised the more he listened. This Tai had a Gengar, had known Reiji for a long time, and sold out Team Rocket without hesitation.
Was this what people called personal charm?
"The Gengar that followed you was his," Reiji said, patting Tai's shoulder. "It should be close to quasi–Elite Four tier now."
Who would have thought the bar kid he met back then would already be a quasi–Elite Four-tier Trainer?
Tai's Muk was probably quasi–Elite Four tier too. It was his starter Pokémon and had eaten plenty of poison. Its growth speed should be close to Weezing's.
"Boss, Gengar's been giving me a headache." Tai sighed. He was working hard to earn money for Ghost Gems so he could patch up Gengar's Ghost-type energy.
"Haha, take it slow. Now, tell me what you've found. You've been inside the Lightning Gang for days. Don't tell me you came away empty." Reiji had not dragged Tai out here just to catch up. If Tai had infiltrated the Lightning Gang, Reiji was going to use that intel.
"I found a lot," Tai said.
He thought for a moment and started with the boss.
"The Lightning Gang boss really is an Elite Four-tier Trainer. But he's injured."
"What? Injured? Who did it?"
"The information Team Rocket gave me said he was suspected to be injured. I think that's why they sent me here—to confirm it. My guess is a Team Rocket Elite Four-tier Trainer did it. Otherwise, the report wouldn't have been written that way."
"Team Rocket again." Reiji suddenly understood. "No wonder the old man lets his son act so loud. He's trying to make noise and hide the fact that he's hurt."
Then Reiji asked, "How long has it been since the Lightning Gang boss went out?"
"Since I got here, I've only seen him leave once. He went into the city by car. I had Gengar follow him. He went to the Electric-type club."
"His Pokémon might be getting treated there." Reiji almost could not hide his smile in the dark. "I thought we were looking at a fighting rooster. Turns out it's a sick chicken. Well, that's lucky."
Team Rocket had done him a real favor.
At first, he thought he might become free muscle for the other 2 gangs. Then he thought Team Rocket might end up the biggest winner. Now it looked like he was the one cutting in at the perfect time.
"What about the others? How strong are they?"
"Boss, the Lightning Gang's second and third are both quasi–Elite Four-tier Trainers, but they've been kept hidden. They also have more than 10 Advanced-tier Trainers. Everyone else is weak."
"Good. Want a chance to earn a big merit?" Reiji smiled and patted Tai on the shoulder.
Since Team Rocket wanted into Mandarin Island North's black market, and since they had already helped injure the Lightning Gang's Elite Four-tier boss, Reiji did not mind helping Team Rocket take a swing.
[End of chapter]
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