Chapter 23: The Youth Takuma Appears

Chapter 23: The Youth Takuma Appears

In that mysterious building.

The building at this time no longer resembled its previous state. The researchers, once visible everywhere within the building, had all vanished. And those mysterious figures in black cloaks who originally guarded all the exits and key passages were also no longer at their posts.

Only a gaunt figure remained on the spacious first floor of the building, holding a spherical object enveloped in black smoke.

"Soon, very soon it will be mine."

The gaunt figure wore a cloak, its face pale under the hood, but the dark light that occasionally flickered in its eyes was enough to make one shudder.

It dragged its feet, heading towards the highest floor of the building.

Left behind were piles of black dust scattered on the ground in human-like shapes, which dispersed when the wind blowing into the building swept over them.

The building was left in dead silence.

…

Back in the treehouse surrounded by green vines.

A human youth, three Pokémon.

"Hello, I am Rio, my Pokémon species is Riolu. This is Machop, and Poliwhirl," Rio introduced, hearing that the human child before him could communicate.

"Wow, what kind of Pokémon is Riolu? I've never seen it on my computer at home."

The human child, Takuma, was extremely interested in this unfamiliar Pokémon, Rio, asking excitedly. Before Rio could answer, he pointed to the earpiece on his head and chattered endlessly at Machop, "Hello there, Machop! Is this thing of yours a language translator? Does it collect the fluctuations produced during speech through internal components and then convert them into a language that humans or Pokémon can understand through a converter? What is its frequency range? Can the upper and lower thresholds be customized..."

The barrage of questions gave Rio a headache.

However, these professional questions piqued Machop's interest. He readily squatted down and engaged in a detailed Q&A with Takuma, who was sitting on the floor, completely ignoring the fact that the human before him was just a child.

"Ugh," Rio, feeling dizzy from listening, glanced at the silent Poliwhirl, only to see that the latter had long since moved to the side, sitting with its eyes closed in repose.

After patiently listening to Machop and Takuma's discussion for a while, Rio couldn't help but interrupt them.

"Alright, you two can save these topics for later. You are, um, Takuma, right? How did you end up fainting in this place?"

Takuma reluctantly paused his discussion with Machop. However, thinking about what had happened not long ago, a trace of lingering fear appeared on his small face. "I was kidnapped by several men in black and taken to a place like an experimental base. Then they locked me in a room. Before, apart from three meals a day delivered by the men in black, they didn't let anyone else contact me. But yesterday, no one delivered food for a long time, and I accidentally discovered that the door lock was broken. So, I escaped. When I fled to this vicinity, I was too hungry to bear it and fainted. Then I saw you all when I woke up."

The child narrated with clear logic. His eyes, catching sight of the small backpack Poliwhirl had placed on the ground, instantly lit up. "Ah, I stole that from the experimental base—cough, cough, no, I took it out. I think there must be something good inside."

"The people who kidnapped me must be bad guys. It's definitely a good thing that I took their stuff. I'm not a thief, you know."

Seeing the somewhat strange looks from the Pokémon, Takuma chuckled sheepishly.

"Experimental base?" Machop, as if having thought of something, hurriedly pressed further, "Then did you see an elderly man with white hair, wearing a pair of black square-framed glasses, and a V-shaped mustache under his nose?"

"An old grandpa, hmm..."

Takuma frowned in recollection, then suddenly slapped his thigh. "When I was escaping, an old grandpa also ran out from the room next door! He looked just like you described, wearing a white lab coat. After he helped me open the main gate of the experimental base, he didn't run with me. Instead, he was muttering something like 'cannot let such a mistake continue' and then ran towards the upper levels of the experimental base."

Hearing Takuma's account, Machop was overjoyed, looking as if he was about to set off immediately.

"Wait, big brother," Rio stopped Machop. "Don't be hasty. I feel something is a bit strange. Let's get clear on things before acting. We've been searching for so long already; this little while doesn't matter."

"Hmm." Machop suppressed his impatient heart and, after calming down, also thought of a few points.

"Takuma, where is the experimental base you escaped from?"

"Probably in, this direction? It's quite a long way. The experimental base is surrounded by mountains." Takuma leaned against the wall of the secret base, peeking out, and uncertainly pointed in a direction with his finger.

The base created by [Secret Power] in the large tree was like a treehouse, with a wooden floor and walls made of dense leaves. Although it was tightly enclosed, there were still some gaps, large and small, through which one could peek at the outside situation.

"The direction you're pointing is... east." Comparing it with the map, Machop and Rio huddled together to study it. Relying on a Pokémon's natural sense of direction, Machop quickly pinpointed the approximate location of the experimental base on the map.

On the right side of the map, to the east of the forest, it corresponded to Sunrise Valley, which was located to the west.

"Huh, big brother, what's this place here?" Rio's claw pointed to a large area circled in red on the right side of the map.

Machop frowned. "Do you remember I told you about a Highly Poisonous Swamp inhabited by a group of Poison and Ground-type Pokémon?" He tapped the area circled in red with his hand. "There, this is it. In that case, if we want to go to the experimental base, we must first pass through this Highly Poisonous Swamp..."

"Highly poisonous, huh? That's troublesome." Rio scratched his head, a difficult expression on his face.

Deadly poison was a very troublesome status condition. In game battles, Pokémon afflicted with "Poison" or "Toxic" status would lose a certain amount of HP each turn. Even more troublesome, outside of battle, HP would also be deducted every fixed number of steps. Correspondingly, in the real Pokémon world, "poisoned" could be a fatal status condition. No wonder the map had a red circle around the Highly Poisonous Swamp to remind of its danger!

And even more dangerous, many Pokémon and a powerful leader inhabited the Highly Poisonous Swamp. Sneaking in without alerting them would probably be impossible.

However, Rio instantly realized something.

"Since you had to pass through the Highly Poisonous Swamp, Takuma, how did you escape?"

Hearing Rio's question, Takuma grinned and fumbled with his collar, then, as if clicking some button, "Poof!" a mask inflated from the collar of Takuma's clothes and covered his face.

"This is my self-modified 'All-Environment Adaptive Equipment Jacket'! It can be assembled into a gas mask, a diving oxygen mask, and infrared night vision goggles. And also," Takuma bent down and tapped the shoe on his right foot. "As long as I'm fast enough, no Pokémon can catch me."

"Click!" A row of wheels slid out from under Takuma's sneakers. The mechanical structure at the back of the shoes transformed, extending two jet nozzles from which a faint airflow subsequently sprayed.

"Look, as long as I increase the output power, I can... Whoa!"

"Boom!" The sneaker's jet nozzles sprayed out a powerful cyclone. The immense impact slammed Takuma's entire person against the wall of the base. Fortunately, the walls of the base were made of soft leaves and vines, providing Takuma with strong cushioning and preventing him from getting injured.

"Hehe, that's how I ran out."

Sitting on the ground, Takuma smiled embarrassedly.

Rio looked speechlessly at Takuma's array of high-tech products, his mind wildly complaining.

Sure enough, are all 10-year-old kids in the Federation... no, the Pokémon world, monsters? Like X-Satoshi (Ash), X-Shigeru (Gary), X-Goh (crossed out), and the like.

"Can you lend me this set of equipment?" Machop's eyes lit up.

"Sure," Takuma agreed readily, completely unconcerned about the value of his equipment.

Rio instantly saw through Machop's idea.

"No, big brother, even if you single-handedly penetrate the atmosphere... ugh, I mean, the Highly Poisonous Swamp, and recklessly charge into the experimental base to find the Professor, how are you going to bring an old man back?" Rio felt they still needed to play it safe and tried to persuade Machop.

"We'll talk about what happens after, later. After searching for so long, I finally have a clue about the Professor. I must find him." The usually calm and steady Machop was now influenced by his eagerness to find the Professor and had also become impatient.

"Ah, I also remember many Pokémon chasing me back then. Their eyes were red, and they were really scary. And among them was a super huge Pokémon. When it ran, the ground shook, and it almost broke my running shoes," Takuma said with lingering fear.

Hearing that those Pokémon in the swamp were also exhibiting this abnormal state, Rio felt even more strongly that they needed to plan carefully.

Rio and Machop argued continuously. Poliwhirl, who had been leaning against the wall resting, suddenly had a change in expression.

"Stop arguing, be quiet!"

Poliwhirl said in a low voice. Hearing the warning, the two Pokémon and one child all fell silent.

They only heard the sound of flapping wings outside the base, "flutter, flutter," coming from a distance and then approaching. After flying around for a while, the sound gradually disappeared into the distance.

"Whew." Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

"I still think..."

Before he could finish his sentence.

"Caw—" A loud, fierce bird cry suddenly sounded right beside their ears.

Immediately after, a pair of crimson giant claws, glinting with sharp, cold light, tore through the wall of the base, grabbing towards the Pokémon and Takuma with a ferocious aura!