Pokémon: My Titles Know No Limits! [255]

The grunt stared blankly at the monitor, stunned by the strange group standing at the base entrance.

What the heck?

Why was a Slowpoke riding on someone’s back?

Wait, no—that wasn’t the point!

They were standing right outside the disguised entrance to their base!

Panic rising, he quickly nudged the grunt next to him, who was casually flipping through a magazine. “Ōno... Ōno, stop reading! There’s someone at the gate!”

Ōno snapped to attention. “Someone’s there? Where?”

He looked toward the screen his partner had pointed at—but then frowned.

“There’s no one there…”

The monitor feed showed nothing but a pair of Magnemite drifting leisurely past, lazily sparking against the camera housing—probably discharging some excess power.

The other grunt blinked, frozen.

“But I swear I just saw—”

“Relax,” Ōno cut him off with a sigh. “You’re probably just seeing things. Come on, we’re in the Valley of Steel. Who in their right mind would come here?”

He returned to his magazine.

It had been shipped from Kanto. The cover featured this year’s Indigo Conference Champion—a rising star named Gary Oak, grandson of the famous Professor Oak.

His partner began to waver. “You think… maybe I imagined it?”

Probably just a hallucination. Or maybe it had been a passerby.

After all, not only was their base hidden in the remote Valley of Steel, but its entrance was heavily camouflaged and secured with a password lock. Even if Steven, the Champion of Hoenn, showed up himself, there’s no way he’d be able to waltz in unnoticed.

With that reassuring thought, he relaxed and pulled out his phone to check the latest news.

Apparently, those idiots in Team Aqua had hospitalized the president of Devon Corp. Looked like there’d be plenty of drama in the coming days...

Meanwhile—completely unnoticed by either of them—

---

Inside Team Rocket’s Hoenn Base

Gary let out a long sigh and finally set the Slowpoke down.

He couldn’t say whether the experience had toughened his spirit, but his back had definitely been trained.

Blue glanced around the surroundings. “August, how did you even know the password?”

When she saw the security panel earlier, she thought they’d have to blast their way in. But August had simply keyed in a code—and the door had opened like magic.

August: “I swiped it from Matori.”

“…So proud of yourself, huh,” Sabrina muttered.

“Alright, now that we’re inside, this base is officially the property of the Kanto Division of the International Police,” August declared. “And to prevent Team Rocket from sabotaging our new property, we’re splitting up!”

Sabrina casually lifted a hand, using psychic energy to knock out a Rocket grunt who had just turned the corner. “Go ahead.”

“Right—Sabrina, take Blue and clear out the supply depot. I’ll go with Gary and secure the surveillance room. After that, we’ll take these Rocket grunts out, one by one.” August gave Gary a firm pat on the shoulder. “How about it, Champion Gary? Ready?”

“…This counts as the second task, right?” Gary asked weakly.

“Of course… not!” August flashed a grin. “This is work.”

“No time to waste—move out!”

...

Donning Rocket uniforms they’d prepared in advance, August and Gary made their way through the base’s corridors. August had also slipped on a mask to complete his disguise, while Gary wore some light makeup.

Thanks to August’s disturbingly convincing Team Rocket aura, no one even questioned their identities.

Gary, on the other hand, was clearly uncomfortable and nearly blew their cover several times.

"Next time we go undercover, don’t say you work under me!” August hissed in frustration as they turned a corner. “You’re a total liability.”

“…Not like everyone’s a method actor like you,” Gary grumbled under his breath.

Honestly, with the way August carried himself, even Giovanni might hesitate to accuse him of being an imposter.

“What was that?” August raised a brow.

Gary flinched. “N-Nothing! I just thought I overheard someone in Team Rocket mention Giovanni…”

“You think Giovanni knows we’re coming?”

August let out a short laugh. “There’s no way Giovanni would be in H—”

Mid-sentence, August suddenly stopped talking.

Now Gary was the one frowning. “What is it?”

“I just remembered something…”

A while back, August had received intel from Johto—someone had spotted a Rocket airship taking off before the start of the Indigo Conference. At the time, he’d even emailed Giovanni to ask if he’d left Kanto…

He’d suspected Giovanni had moved operations to another region.

No way it’s that much of a coincidence… right?

Before he could dwell on it, they arrived at the door to the surveillance room.

August shook his head to clear the intrusive thoughts.

No matter—he’d just grab a grunt and ask them directly.

With that, he grabbed the Poké Ball at his waist and flung the door open.

As he strode in, his voice rang out loudly:

“Hands on your heads! Stay where you are! You’ve been found out!”

Gary: “……”

Are we… being a little too bold right now?

---

Inside the Surveillance Room

Ōno and his as-yet-unnamed partner were lazily chatting about the situation in Hoenn and the supposed “grand plan” of their boss, Giovanni.

The moment they started hyping themselves up about how they were going to take over the entire Hoenn region, both men were filled with righteous passion.

Then the door burst open.

A strange-looking fellow barged in, yelling something they didn’t quite understand.

He was saying something about them being "exposed" and ordering them to put their hands on their heads and kneel down.

Their first reaction?

SMACK!

Both Rocket grunts jumped to their feet and gave a deep 90-degree bow. “We’re sorry, sir! We were slacking off—we won’t do it again!”

Gary stood there, completely dumbfounded.

What... just happened?

Team Rocket was apologizing to them, the intruders.

He had absolutely no idea how to process this.

August blinked in surprise, then glanced at the magazine and phone on the desk—and it suddenly all made sense.

They think I’m here to conduct a surprise inspection.

After all, the uniform he was wearing wasn’t just any Rocket outfit—it was a special officer’s uniform, personally issued by Giovanni himself.

August chuckled inwardly but kept a straight face. “Report. Any unusual activity in the surveillance feeds?”

The two grunts breathed a huge sigh of relief and quickly responded, “No sir, everything’s normal in the control room!”

Then, realizing that sounded a bit too much like they’d just been goofing off, one of them added hastily:

“Well—except, uh, the gate cam picked up four suspicious figures earlier.”

August and Gary exchanged a look. August gestured for Gary to follow up. “Four figures? Did you get a good look at them?”

The grunts bent forward again and replied, “Not really. They disappeared quickly. Might’ve just been passing through… We just remember one of them was carrying a Slowpoke. A real weirdo.”

Gary: “…”

Yep. Here it comes.

He could already picture August laughing at him for that.

Sure enough, August was biting back a grin when he asked, “When’s Giovanni expected to return?”

That’s when the two grunts started getting suspicious. “Didn’t the boss just leave this morning?”

They frowned and finally dared to glance up—only to realize something wasn’t right.

They’d never seen this “officer” before.

And the guy next to him… looked kind of familiar?

“It’s the weirdo!” one of them suddenly shouted.

Gary: “???”

Before he could react, a shadow flashed across the room—Gengar had silently slipped in and now had both grunts suspended in the air by the neck with a pair of [Shadow Claws].

They were out cold in seconds.

Now the room was quiet again, except for August doubled over with laughter, one hand on his knee, the other clutching his side.

Gary’s face had gone completely black with embarrassment.

But as a benevolent superior, August managed to rein in his laughter—somewhat. After all, mocking subordinates wasn’t entirely professional.

“Ahem… So, they said Giovanni left this morning. I can’t believe it—Giovanni actually is in Hoenn.”

August hadn't expected his throwaway comment earlier to turn out true.

Gary exhaled in relief when he saw that August wasn’t planning to dwell on it.

“So… are we pulling out?” Gary asked.

From his perspective, now that they knew this was Giovanni’s current base of operations, the plan to use it as their own fallback location was basically void.

But—

“Pull out?” August looked at him like he was nuts.

Gary hesitated. “I mean… it’s Giovanni. Team Rocket…”

“So what?” August waved a hand. “Him being here doesn’t change anything.”

“But—”

“No ‘but.’ Rocket are criminals. We’re the cops. It’s always the thieves who avoid the police, not the other way around.”

He shrugged. “It’s just a shame I didn’t get to ask where Giovanni went…”

As he spoke, August began disabling all the surveillance equipment and yanked the broadcast system’s power lines, bundling them neatly and stuffing them into Gengar’s mouth for safekeeping.

Once he finished, he clapped his hands. “Alright. Time to start the hunt.”

...

“Golbat!”

“Mareep, Thunderbolt!”

Electric arcs shot through Mareep’s fluffy coat, discharging with a snap—the bolt caught the Golbat mid-air and dropped it in a smoking heap, taking out its trainer with it as electricity danced across his twitching body.

“That’s number thirty-two.”

Since the “hunt” had begun, that was the thirty-second Rocket grunt August had taken down.

Not a huge number—but considering he was deliberately using newly-caught Pokémon like Mareep and Lapras, it wasn’t bad at all.

Just then, another Rocket grunt charged in from around the corner.

August was about to send out Marshtomp—maybe this would be enough to trigger its evolution into Swampert—when—

WHAM!

A Blastoise dropped from above and crushed the grunt beneath its shell.

Blue appeared at the far end of the hallway.

August swallowed the command he’d been about to issue. “Blue? What are you doing here? How’s your side?”

“Sabrina already locked down the logistics team. I heard the fighting over here and figured I’d lend a hand,” she replied, scanning the hallway.

Clearly, this area had been much more heavily defended.

Not like the storage depot, which had mostly been staffed with non-combatants.

As she spoke, her Torchic—now evolved into Combusken—kicked a flanking Koffing out of the air. The Rocket trainer behind it tried to rally but was instantly pinned by Combusken’s clawed foot at his throat.

“Y-You dare attack a Team Rocket base?! You’ll regret this!” the man shouted, defiant even as he trembled.

August, who’d been about to praise Blue, burst out laughing. “Team Rocket base? I’ve wrecked, what, four? Five of these by now? Still standing, aren’t I?”

The Rocket grunt was about to shout back when August casually wiped the makeup from his face.

And the man froze.

“...August?”

Strictly speaking, he didn’t personally know August.

But he’d seen his photo in Rocket’s internal bulletins. A picture plastered with blood-red letters:

DO NOT ENGAGE. IF SIGHTED, SPLIT UP AND RETREAT IMMEDIATELY.

It had left quite the impression.

Seeing him in person now, the grunt’s knees nearly buckled—even as a Rocket member.

August gave a friendly smile. “Good to know my reputation made it all the way to Hoenn. Touching, really.”

Then he casually gestured to Blue’s Combusken.

WHAM!

A flash of movement—Combusken’s fist cracked down on the grunt’s head, knocking him out cold with surgical precision.

Just then, Gary’s voice came through August’s earpiece.

“August, my side’s basically cleared. Most of the resistance in the base is down. Just a few stragglers left…”

Say what you will about Gary—August made fun of him constantly—but now that he was a Champion, he could definitely handle himself.

“Leave them to me,” August said.

He pulled out another Poké Ball—and released Gardevoir.

Their eyes met briefly. Without a word, Gardevoir nodded.

The elemental plate beside her began to levitate, spinning slowly in the air as waves of psychic energy pulsed outward, sweeping across the entire base.

Then she vanished.

Whoosh.

A few minutes later—

Fwsh!

Gardevoir reappeared, levitating over a dozen unconscious Team Rocket grunts, held suspended in the air by psychic force.

Then she gently released them.

THUD.

The bodies hit the floor like sacks of potatoes.

“…What was that?” Blue asked.

“Gardevoir used [Future Sight] to scan the entire base,” August explained. “Then teleported straight to each target, took them out, and brought them back.”

Blue looked at Gardevoir, impressed.

She was pretty sure Gardevoir hadn’t been this powerful before…

Gardevoir simply smiled softly.

---

T/N: wtf gardevoir is getting broken do you think she'll be able to match Elias's gardevoir one day

This is a fan translation of 我，宝可梦称号大师！ by 落唯 白良. All rights to the original work belong to the creator. Please support them by exploring their original work or sharing it with others if you can. Thank you for reading and supporting my efforts to bring this story to a wider audience!