Ash, with his invincible physical body, wants to become a Pokémon Master...

He and Xiaosheng immediately took the Pokémon back to the center to make preparations.

"Just lick the Torchic like that, just lick it like that..." Ash said with a sly grin.

"This entire energy block is yours, so you'd better be a good girl and help me out!"

The little turkey kept licking the cubes in the box with its little tongue, and responded sweetly.

"Okay~"

It's like a scene of perverted kidnapping.

After giving up a delicious Energy Cube, May's Torchic was tricked into agreeing to help.

However, the two waited anxiously in the center, but Miss Joey did not return for a long time.

"Xiao Zhi, isn't Miss Nurse Joy a little too late?"

"It's a bit late. There's still an hour before the new trainer arrives. Could something have happened to Nurse Joy?"

Just as Ash was wondering whether he should contact Nurse Joy, the door to the central laboratory was suddenly pushed open.

"Miss Joey?... It's you sisters!"

Unexpectedly, it was Haruka and Musashi who rushed in, looking quite hurried.

"Ash, Max, so you're here! That's great, I've finally found you!"

"Hey, why are there three Hoenn starter Pokémon here? These aren't your Pokémon, are they, boss?"

"Oh, it's quite rare to see these three gathered together outside of a doctoral research institute. They're all being trained very well."

Just then, Musashi and Kojiro happened to see the three little creatures at Ash's feet and became curious.

Xiao Sheng could only offer a hurried explanation.

"Haha, Miss Joy entrusted us to take care of them temporarily. They're for a rookie trainer who just had her birthday."

"We're all waiting for Nurse Joy to come back so we can arrange the Pokémon selection ceremony for the new trainers."

"There's nothing to see... Oh, right, sisters, you should go and rest up front. You must be tired after exercising for so long. Let me pour you some tea!"

"What's wrong, Xiaosheng? Why are you so concerned about me today?" Xiaoyao was quite surprised by her younger brother's sudden attentiveness, thinking that he had finally grown up.

But then she remembered her important companion.

"Xiaosheng, where's my turkey?"

"Ah, well... um... it was too tired from playing, so it fell asleep," Ash quickly explained.

Meanwhile, Xiaosheng quickly and quietly pushed Torchic behind Xiaozhi with his foot.

"That's right, sister, don't disturb it. You should go and rest too. You've worked too hard exercising and you're all sweaty!"

"stare……"

As siblings who grew up together, Xiao Sheng's little tricks couldn't escape Xiao Yao's sharp eyes.

She immediately realized something was wrong.

"Something's wrong. That Torchic hiding behind Ash is clearly my Torchic!"

"How could that be? My sister is so smart today."

"Hey, what do you mean by that? Do you think I can't see through it?"

"Why is my Torchic standing among the three Pokémon that are being chosen for new trainers?!"

"Shoku, Satoshi, give me an explanation!!!"

Realizing they'd been caught red-handed, Ash and Max could only awkwardly scratch their heads.

But then, a great cat stepped in and saved them from their embarrassing predicament.

"Meow, little girls, why are you chatting?"

"Musashi, Kojiro, we must have something more important to say since we rushed back like this, meow!"

"Oh, right!" Kojiro immediately realized.

"As soon as I got back to the Pokémon Center, I felt relaxed and forgot everything."

"What's wrong?" Xiao Zhi was a little confused when he saw that they all suddenly panicked.

At this moment, May brought her Torchic back, and immediately grabbed Ash's hand and ran outside.

"Something terrible has happened, Ash! Nurse Joy has been kidnapped by a group of thugs!"

"what?"

Chapter 400 Pillars of the Sky

"What exactly happened, Xiaoyao? Tell me in more detail!"

Xiao Zhi was very surprised to hear that Miss Joy had been kidnapped.

In broad daylight, someone actually dared to abduct innocent young girls on the street. It's truly enviable, but not so despicable!

And the person they kidnapped was Nurse Joy from the Pokémon Center—they really had the guts to do that.

Ash left Max to guard the starter Pokémon and immediately pulled May along as they ran out. On the way, May quickly took the opportunity to explain the situation to Ash.

"Just now, when we finished training, we suddenly heard an explosion coming from the beach not far away."

"When we got there, we saw an injured Wailord being hoisted up by several aircraft, and Miss Joy was also knocked unconscious and taken away by a black-haired girl."

"My hunting butterflies aren't fast enough to catch them, so I had to come back to you."

As a kind-hearted nurse, Miss Joy is highly respected by the locals wherever she goes.

Xiaoyao was very worried that something might happen to her, and Xiaozhi understood her feelings, so he could only gently comfort her.

"I understand the general situation."

"But the most important question now is, after so much time has passed, Miss Joey might have been taken to a very far place. Are there any clues?"

Although Ash's aura is particularly powerful in finding living beings, its sensing range is ultimately limited.

It would be really difficult for Ash to find someone like searching for a needle in a haystack.

However, Kojiro quickly ran up at that moment.

"Boss, we actually have a lead."

"Those spaceships were actually designed by me and Meow Meow."

"you?"

"Meow, this is what we handed over to offset the wages we had withheld. It also includes designs that Yamado and the others worked on..."

Looking at the constipated expressions on Kojiro and Musashi's faces, Ash had a pretty good idea of ​​which group was responsible.

————The finishing touch————

At this moment, in an unnamed area of ​​the sea off Kaina City, a black spaceship was hovering above a large group of trapped Wailords.

"You idiot!"

Inside the spaceship base, Yamado, dressed in a black captain's uniform, angrily roared at a girl with a friendly smile in front of him.

"Why did you think of bringing Joey from Kaina City along? Release her immediately!"

"But Captain, you said that if anyone dares to obstruct Team Rocket's operations, we must show them how powerful the world's number one evil organization is."

"...I even told you to wear your uniform, but you didn't!"

"Captain, you only gave me one piece of clothing. If I wash it, I won't have anything to wear."

"Higana! Subordinates are not allowed to kiss their superiors on the lips!!!"

"Yeah, right! Captain Amado, if you make a mistake, I should definitely point it out. It's all for the good of the organization!"

"Ugh, you annoying girl, how dare you use the organization to pressure me..."

The two continued their conversation in a manner that didn't resemble a leader and subordinate, making the other Team Rocket members in the cockpit almost burst into laughter.

This enraged Amazon, who then expelled all unrelated personnel.

Although Amado was angry, he didn't blame the girl too much in the end, and even admonished her in a teaching tone later.

"Higana, you are a very promising newcomer."

"Remember, our organization's goal is to capture as many rare Pokémon as possible, then sell them all and make a fortune!"

"Of course, our Rockets' ultimate goal is to conquer the world, but before that, we need to accumulate funds for that!"

"So if you want to make money peacefully, you absolutely must not provoke forces like the Joey family that are easy to get into trouble with."

"Now, I order you to go and send that Joey back immediately!"

"Yes, Captain Amado."

After giving a respectful salute, the girl named Higana immediately turned around and took Joey back from the prison.

As Yamado watched her retreating figure, he sighed helplessly.

"Sigh, I really don't know if she even listened to me."

Amado actually likes Higana very much because the girl is smart, cute, and incredibly capable.

They discovered a promising talent in the Hoenn region, and he even volunteered to join Team Rocket.

She's just a bit too capable, which has led to Yamado becoming overly reliant on Higana, dumping all the work on her.

For example, the mission to capture the escaped Wailord leader was originally Yamado's job, but she dumped it all on Higanbana.

Even so, Yamado still argued vehemently.

"Koshiro and I are the highest-ranking commanders of Team Rocket in the Hoenn region. For a newcomer to be able to work alongside my gentle and lovable leader is an opportunity that many people would envy!"

Kosaburo has reservations about this.

"Hey, Little Three, what kind of look is that? I entrusted him with such an important task earlier to train new talent!"

"It's Kosaburo!"

"You're just trying to slack off. If you go somewhere on your own, you might accidentally bring back Miss Joey, this big trouble!"