CHAPTER 1497: A DISTANT CALL

Autumn arrived earlier in Crown City of the Sinnoh region compared to other places. It was only the beginning of September, yet some of the leaves in Crown City had already started turning yellow.

That day, in a dense forest far from the outskirts of Crown City, a flying vehicle slowly landed on the grass. Immediately afterward, a large group of League soldiers in military uniforms stepped out, and each of them was accompanied by a fierce Houndoom.

Then, under the soldiers’ protection, several people in white lab coats disembarked from the aircraft along with two women dressed in ordinary clothing.

If Yuga were here at this moment, he would definitely recognize these two women as Aniya and Amina, with whom he had dealt before.

Since being handed over to the League, these two had been held in custody almost the entire time—especially Amina, who had come from another world.

The reason the League had brought them here today with such caution was to send Amina back to her original world.

After a long period of research, the League’s scientists had finally found a way to return her.

Amina obediently followed behind the lead scientist. Her heart was full of joy, because she could finally return to her world and no longer live a life under constant surveillance.

The leading professor took out a box. Upon opening it, there were several Poké Balls inside.

"These are your Pokémon. The League has taken good care of them. We’re returning them to you today so that you can bring them back with you," the professor said kindly.

Amina accepted the box and sincerely expressed her gratitude: "Thank you, Professor Pedro."

Professor Pedro shook his head and replied, "I hope you’ll live well after returning." With that, he turned and continued walking without looking back.

Sending Amina back required the use of some complex machinery. After speaking, Professor Pedro and his assistants and students busied themselves with preparations.

The soldiers who had escorted them had already encircled the area to prevent any accidents caused by intruders.

Taking this opportunity, Amina walked over to Aniya and said, "I’m about to leave. Please take care of yourself from now on. And... I’m sorry. Because of me, your life has been completely disrupted." As she spoke, she hugged Aniya. Perhaps because they were about to part, Amina felt deeply guilty toward her.

"I will. You take care too."

Aniya hugged Amina back tightly. Her heart was filled with sadness, and her voice nearly broke into tears.

Strictly speaking, the two of them were actually the same person, just from different worlds.

After this event, the League would likely formally release Aniya, but her position as a Gym Leader was certainly gone. Because of that, Aniya felt lost about her future.

Though Aniya’s current fate was in part due to Amina’s incitement, Amina had also helped her in many ways. For a moment, Aniya didn’t know whether she should resent Amina more or feel grateful to her.

Back when Amina was arrested, she took full responsibility and tried to clear Aniya of any suspicion. But the League wasn’t foolish—there was no way they wouldn’t uncover the connection between the two.

Amina quickly said her goodbyes to Aniya, and by then Professor Pedro’s preparations were complete.

Professor Pedro called Amina over to the massive machine and explained to her:

"This is the place where you first arrived in our world. According to our tests, the space here is indeed more active than in other places. But I can’t guarantee with 100% certainty that you’ll actually return to your world. Are you sure you want to try?"

Amina nodded firmly. "I’m sure. I want to go back to my own world."

Professor Pedro nodded as well. "Very well, let’s begin. Please step onto the platform in the center." He pointed to the central platform of the machine.

Hearing this, Amina hugged tightly the box containing her Pokémon, took a deep breath, and stepped onto the platform.

"Professor, everything is ready. We can begin!" Pedro’s student shouted.

Professor Pedro nodded, then turned to the flying vehicle behind him and shouted:

"Celebi!"

"Celebi~"

As Professor Pedro’s voice fell, a cheerful Celebi flew out of the aircraft and, following Professor Pedro’s instructions, stopped above the machine.

This Celebi was the Forest Guardian of the Sinnoh region. To send Amina back, the League had gone to great lengths to find it and bring it here to assist.

The machine developed by Professor Pedro and his team alone was not enough to send Amina back to her original world—they still needed Celebi to escort and protect her. With Celebi’s protection, at the very least, Amina would not be in danger during the time-space travel.

"Start the machine," Professor Pedro said to his student.

With a buzzing sound, the machine began to emit a strong light under Amina’s feet.

"Celebi, we’re counting on you," Professor Pedro said again to Celebi.

"Celebi~"

Celebi nodded and rapidly flapped its wings. Under its long cry, a wondrous melody began to echo through the forest, as if the entire forest were responding to Celebi’s call.

Swish swish... swish swish...

The trees gently swayed. Small dots of green fluorescence from Celebi’s body fell into the halo beneath Amina’s feet. Time and space seemed to undergo a subtle change.

It was also the moment when Celebi was at its most defenseless.

Just then, a sudden, rapid flapping of wings was heard. A large Beedrill clad in armor appeared next to Celebi and landed a powerful X-Scissor attack on it. Celebi let out a miserable cry and fell from the sky.

No one saw how the Beedrill had appeared.

This unexpected turn of events left the surrounding soldiers completely unprepared.

Because Celebi was injured, the glow from the machine gradually dimmed again.

"Celebi!"

Professor Pedro shouted and was just about to run toward Celebi when someone suddenly grabbed his wrist. He turned around and saw that the one grabbing him was one of his own students.

"Alex, you..."

Before the professor could finish his sentence, the student named Alex knocked him unconscious.

Professor Pedro was already in his sixties; how could he match the reflexes of the younger Alex? He had no ability to resist at all.

"Alex!"

"Alex, what are you doing?!"

"Alex, are you crazy?!"

...

At the moment the professor collapsed, the other students all stared at Alex in disbelief, still not understanding what was happening.

At the same time, the League soldiers had already engaged the Beedrill—but to be precise, it wasn’t just one Beedrill. A whole swarm of Beedrill had arrived.

As soon as Celebi was taken down, another group of Beedrill descended from the sky.

This swarm of Beedrill was incredibly powerful, especially the one leading them. No one was a match for it.

The leader of the League troops sent to protect Professor Pedro this time was an Elite Four candidate, but even he wasn’t able to withstand a single move from that Beedrill.

On the other side, Amina, after a brief moment of shock, saw that Professor Pedro had been knocked unconscious and immediately opened the box in her hands, taking out a Poké Ball. A Jumpluff was released.

Seeing Alex holding onto Professor Pedro, Amina furiously shouted, "What do you want to do to the professor?!"

During the time Amina was imprisoned, Professor Pedro had always treated her well. She wasn’t exactly a good person, but she still knew how to be grateful.

Seeing the furious Amina, Alex instinctively took two steps back. He knew very well that the woman in front of him was a Champion-level Trainer.

Just as Amina was about to snatch Professor Pedro back from Alex, someone descended from the sky.

"How about I be your opponent?"

The person who arrived was Giovanni. On his back was a miniature flying device that allowed him to fly freely.

"You are..."

Amina stared sharply at Giovanni, her eyes filled with wariness.

Giovanni smiled and replied, "My name is Giovanni, the leader of Team Rocket. Today, I’ll have to trouble Miss Amina to come with me."

After speaking, he turned to look at Alex and said, "Alex, take Celebi and Professor Pedro and leave first."

"Yes, Mr. Giovanni," Alex replied respectfully.

Amina said, "If you want me to come with you, let’s see if you have the strength to make me!" As she spoke, she pulled out another Poké Ball and released a Champion level Cacturne.

Giovanni casually tossed out two Poké Balls. Opposite Amina now stood a Persian and a Nidoqueen.

Nidoqueen’s eyes were cold, and as it looked at Amina’s two Pokémon, it was as if it were looking at lifeless objects. Persian, on the other hand, had a face full of contempt, as if the two Champio level Pokémon in front of it were nothing more than ants.

Giovanni had gone through a lot of trouble to plan this operation. Recently, Team Rocket had suffered heavy losses at the hands of the League—a large number of their bases were taken down, and countless members were arrested. He had been burning with anxiety for quite a while, and today was the perfect chance to turn the tables.

"Jumpluff, Acrobatics! Cacturne, Dark Pulse!"

At Amina’s command, Jumpluff and Cacturne launched their attack first. Jumpluff turned into a streak of white light and charged toward Persian, while Cacturne shot out a flying arrow formed of a black energy ring at Nidoqueen.

Persian moved with agility, slightly lifting its upper body as a paw covered in black light struck harshly at the incoming Jumpluff.

With a pained cry, Jumpluff was sent flying backward.

At the same time, Nidoqueen swung both fists, effortlessly dispersing Cacturne’s Dark Pulse.

Even though Jumpluff and Cacturne were Champion level Pokémon, Giovanni’s Persian and Nidoqueen were Master level.

Seeing this scene, Amina widened her eyes in disbelief. She immediately realized that she was no match for Giovanni and quickly shouted to Anya:

"Aniya, stop Alex! Don’t let him take Professor Pedro and Celebi!"

Aniya was one of the detained individuals and didn’t have any Pokémon on her. At that moment, she was still being guarded by a soldier, so how could she possibly intercept Alex?

Originally, Aniya didn’t need to come along, but she had wanted to see Amina off, and that’s why she was specially permitted to accompany them—who would’ve thought such an unexpected event would happen?

Professor Pedro’s other students did want to help stop Alex, but they were all researchers—the Pokémon they had were either assistants or pets, completely incapable of defeating Alex.

They had previously thought that Alex was the same as them when it came to being a Trainer—just another weakling. It wasn’t until today that they realized he was actually strong.

Many of them had worked with Alex for years, but today felt like they were seeing him for the first time.

Alex quickly broke through the blockade. Riding a Pidgeot, he carried Professor Pedro and Celebi into the sky.

Celebi actually hadn’t lost consciousness—it was simply unable to move due to its injuries, and had been confined by Alex inside a specially designed container.

"Celebi~"

Looking down at the forest growing farther and farther away beneath it, Celebi let out a long, mournful cry. The sound passed through the container to the outside, causing the entire forest to fall into sorrow along with it.

Sha sha... sha sha...

At that moment, in certain forests across the Kanto Region, the Johto Region, the Unova Region, the Kalos Region, and the Alola Region, the forest deities simultaneously raised their heads and looked in a particular direction.

Coincidentally, Mr. Kuni’o happened to be paying respects to the Celebi statue in his family shrine that day. In the instant he looked at the Celebi statue, he seemed to see a fleeting shadow of Celebi, and he thought he heard Celebi’s voice calling across time and space.

The moment was very brief—so brief that Mr. Kunio nearly thought he was hallucinating.

The same feeling was experienced by Yuga, Florges, and Nana, far away in Verdanturf Town.

That day, Yuga was in his new shop practicing the craft of making Pokéblocks. He wanted to become a top-tier Pokéblock maker as soon as possible. When he suddenly heard that voice in his ears, his hand paused instinctively.

"Boss, what’s wrong?" Misaki asked, puzzled upon seeing Yuga stop what he was doing.

"It’s nothing," Yuga shook his head.

At that time, Florges was inside the Battle Tower clearing stages. Her opponents were two fierce Aggron. Celebi’s call caused her to lose focus for a moment, and she was immediately sent flying by the Aggron.

By the time she came to her senses, the main system of the Battle Tower had already determined that she had failed the challenge.

As for Nana, she was asleep at the time. Her body was being controlled by Shasha, who was in the middle of teaching other Gardevoir. Celebi’s call forcibly replaced Shasha’s consciousness with Nana’s.

Back on the other side, Alex, carrying Celebi and Professor Pedro, disappeared into the horizon in the blink of an eye. Meanwhile, Amina was swiftly defeated by Giovanni—her two Pokémon severely injured, lying motionless on the ground with their fate unknown.

Persian leapt beside Amina, its eyes emitting a strange glow. The moment Amina met its gaze, she felt dizzy and overwhelmed, and then collapsed backward.

Persian caught the unconscious Amina in time and carried her over to Giovanni.

Giovanni patted its head and said, "Well done."

Persian obediently nuzzled Giovanni’s palm.

Now that the objective had been achieved, Giovanni didn’t intend to further trouble the League people. He called out to the Beedrill: "Alright, let’s go."

After speaking, he picked up Amina, recalled Persian and Nidoqueen, activated his mini aircraft, and soared into the sky. The Beedrill quickly followed.

Watching Giovanni leave so calmly, the remaining League members looked at each other helplessly—none of them knew how they would explain this to their superiors.