Chapter 81: The Vile Actions of the Poaching Gang
"The light of justice shines upon the land..."
Rio hummed a nonsensical melody, walking cheerfully on the road outside Verdant Leaf City.
"Where should I rest tonight? Hmm, maybe I'll go find my little brother Taillow again?"
As he was thinking, his foot tripped over something.
"What's this?"
A pink wallet lay quietly on the ground.
Rio bent down to pick it up and couldn't resist opening it to take a look.
"Could this have fallen out of that bag from before... Hmm? There's a photo."
Inside the wallet, besides a few crisp banknotes and some miscellaneous items, a folded photo caught Rio's attention.
Unfolding it, he saw a little girl in the photo, wearing a princess dress, with a cheerful smile as she leaned against a snickering Ralts, facing the camera.
The more Rio looked, the more familiar the girl in the photo seemed.
"Ah, isn't this that girl from the cake shop earlier... What was her name again? Ming... Ming Rizhao?"
He remembered that in the cake shop, the girl had indeed complained to her Ralts about losing her wallet.
Rio looked up at the dark night sky and decided to go to Verdant Leaf City tomorrow morning to see if he could run into the girl and return the wallet to her.
"If I can't find her, then I'll just have to secretly leave it at the police station..."
Suddenly, from under a large tree not far from Rio, a few deliberately lowered voices were heard.
"Captain, how was the scouting this morning?"
There's gossip to be had! Rio instantly perked up, tiptoeing to hide in the grass (the all-purpose hiding spot—grass), and then pricked up his ears to listen.
"There were a lot of tourists today, and the guards who usually maintain order have been busy all day. I believe tonight they'll be too tired to be as alert as usual. So, tonight is our good chance."
"Yes, and we also disguised ourselves as tourists this morning to scout the place. We have a good idea of which areas have weaker security."
"That's good. As long as we steal those rare Pokémon from the reserve, we'll make a fortune this time."
Pokémon Poachers!
Hearing this, Rio's heart tightened. His expression became serious as he quickly figured out the identity of this group of people.
"But, why has that organization's demand been so high recently? And they're very generous, the rarer the Pokémon, the more money they give. Even our usual stock of stolen Pokémon can't satisfy them. Could it be that they're..."
A voice filled with doubt spoke up.
But it was immediately cut off by another fierce voice in a low growl.
"Shut up! Don't be nosy about things you shouldn't be asking about!"
Perhaps frightened by the fierce voice, the group fell silent for a moment.
As time passed, more and more people gathered. They were all wearing black vests and masks, fully equipped with various gear. What caught Rio's attention the most was that they all carried several Poké Balls on their waists.
"Is everyone here... Huh? Where's Old Six?"
The poacher referred to as "Captain" counted the numbers and finally found one person missing.
"I remember he said he wanted to go to Verdant Leaf City to satisfy his itch," someone replied.
The captain snorted coldly.
"A real fool, can't even prioritize important business. We're not waiting for him. Let's get ready to move out."
The men checked their equipment, then silently moved towards Verdant Leaf City.
Rio, having witnessed the entire process, knew this was bad.
"No, I can't let this damned group of poachers succeed... What should I do? I can't just report it to the police directly; what cop would believe a Pokémon that randomly came to report a crime?"
"But I can still go to the police station, pretend to be a Pokémon that escaped from the reserve, attract their attention, and then lead the police to the Pokémon Ecological Reserve."
Rio pondered his plan. Just as he was about to make a move, he felt a numbness in his back, as if something like a needle had pricked him. An intense paralyzing sensation instantly surged through his entire body.
"D-done for... I was careless... didn't dodge..."
His consciousness was so paralyzed that he was about to faint. In a daze, he only heard the last few surprised voices.
"Oh, look, there's a Pokémon here we've never seen before."
"It looks pretty rare."
"Hmph, perfect. Sell this Pokémon to that organization, and we might even get a good price for it."
Damn Pokémon Poachers...
…
"Clang," "Clang."
A noisy sound woke Rio from his unconscious state.
"Ugh, this is..."
Opening his hazy eyes, Rio found his hands and feet shackled by iron chains, and his mouth gagged. He was imprisoned in this manner in an iron cage just big enough for his body.
"Was I... captured by those poachers?"
The moment he saw the iron cage, Rio remembered what had happened before he fainted.
Looking out through the bars, Rio saw that the iron cage holding him was placed on a truck. In front of the truck, several men in black vests, with their masks taken off, were smoking and talking and laughing wantonly.
And beside his iron cage, many other Pokémon were receiving the same treatment: their limbs were also shackled, their mouths gagged, and they could only whimper and cry mournfully.
"Damn it, what the heck are these chains made of? They're so hard."
Rio tried to move his hands, attempting to cut the iron chains with his extended claws, but even after nearly wearing his claws down, he saw not a single trace of a break in the chains.
"Tch, can't be helped. I can only see if there's a chance to escape."
Having experienced so many major events, Rio was relatively calm. He glanced at the Pokémon beside him, especially the few large ones—an Altaria, a Seviper, and a Lairon—and mentally calculated how he could cause a commotion and then escape in the chaos.
As for rescuing the Pokémon present, he would have to find a way to move freely first before making any plans.
That's what Rio was thinking. Then, he saw a group of humans walk back, at the same time commanding their own Pokémon to carry a large group of bound Pokémon. The humans waiting by the trucks skillfully took the unconscious Pokémon, put various restraining devices on them, and finally locked them in iron cages.
One of them, who looked like a leader, said, "Alright, this is the last batch. We can withdraw once the brothers who are creating the diversion get back."
"Captain, the haul is pretty good tonight," someone beside him said with a laugh.
The captain took out a cigarette from his pocket. Someone immediately lit it for him. He then took a satisfyingly deep drag and said, "It's alright. Those guards were pretty stupid. They were lured out with a simple trick, making it easy for us."
After puffing out some smoke, he said in a vicious tone, "But that bunch from the Pokémon Gym arrived too quickly. We didn't manage to catch the most precious Pokémon. That damned Gym Leader..."
The people beside him also chimed in with curses for a while.
After another while, it seemed the last group of people had also arrived. So, all the poachers put on their black overcoats, got into their respective trucks, and started the engines, preparing to leave.
"Don't rush, don't rush. There will be a chance," Rio comforted himself, patiently waiting for an opportunity.
"Vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom," the trucks started one after another, driving away from Verdant Leaf City.
As the trucks started, the few poachers sitting in the back of the truck, watching over the cages, also seemed to relax, chatting and laughing.
However, what caught Rio's attention was that one of the poachers sat silently to the side, not participating in their comrades' conversation.
The quick-witted Rio instantly sensed something was amiss. He extended his Aura energy to carefully sense, and his scalp instantly tingled.
"Oh my god, this girl... how is she so bold?"
Aura is a unique wave possessed by every living being. It reflects the essence of a being's soul.
Like those poachers, perhaps because they had done too many bad things, their Auras were very mottled, with large patches of blemishes spread all over them. Their color was not an azure blue tone but leaned more towards a dirty greyish-black, which made Rio, who was very sensitive to Aura, feel nauseous.
In the cake shop earlier, Rio had secretly extended his Aura to sense that young girl's Aura. When he saw that pure and flawless azure blue Aura, Rio was secretly surprised.
And now, seeing in his Aura perception vision that one Aura, shining like a lightbulb and appearing exceptionally pure and untainted amidst a group of sewage-like Auras, Rio knew with his tail who had secretly infiltrated the group.