Upon hearing Cain's words, Drake showed a hint of hesitation.
Compared to Norman, Cain's strength was slightly inferior.
However, when it came to Cain, Drake had complete confidence in his abilities.
In Drake's opinion...
Cain was someone with great vision—and the power to turn those ideas into reality.
After several collaborations between them, it was clear that Cain was not like those League trainers—flowers raised in a greenhouse.
He possessed real skill.
"Are you sure?" Drake asked seriously, without rejecting him outright.
And given Cain's current level, in that improvised meeting room, he was already among the most outstanding there.
Aside from Drake, Sidney, Glacia, and Norman, probably no one else could guarantee a sure victory over him.
Cain nodded, his gaze firm.
"I'll go too!" said Steven suddenly.
Phoebe and Wallace also wanted to volunteer, but Drake interrupted them directly.
"No. In this kind of mission, the fewer people, the better. Cain has psychic powers, and his Slowking can teleport to ensure his own safety. If you all go together, it won't help—on the contrary, you might become a burden," Drake declared sharply.
Although his tone was stern, Steven and the others fully understood the reasoning behind it.
For a moment, silence filled the air between them.
Cain smiled and patted Steven's shoulder.
"Don't worry, I'll be fine. Trust me."
Since they had decided to send Cain, taking advantage of the night's cover was without a doubt the best option.
"Are you sure I shouldn't go?" Norman asked, watching Cain as he left.
Hearing that, Drake smiled and shook his head. "That boy is truly skilled. When it comes to survival ability, I'm not even sure I could surpass him."
"Oh?" Norman was surprised by Drake's evaluation.
Such a high appraisal of Cain?
One had to remember that Drake was the leader of the Elite Four and a Dragon-type specialist. How could he claim Cain's survival skills might exceed his own?
In fact, if this had been before the Kanto League tournament, Cain wouldn't have agreed to take on this mission.
But after learning the concealment technique from the Sacred Church, he had gained great confidence in his ability to hide himself.
As long as there weren't any Sacred Church infiltrators within Team Magma or Team Aqua, his safety was completely assured.
Moreover, after leaving Celebi's dimension last time, Cain had secretly placed a psychic marker on Shelly, the Team Aqua Executive, and on Tabitha, the Team Magma Executive.
If nothing unexpected had happened, those markers should still be there, making it easy to locate their positions.
After saying his farewells to Steven and the others, he summoned Slowking and vanished directly into the forest.
Upon reappearing, Slowking informed Cain that both psychic markers still existed, though they seemed to be slightly blocked by something. Even so, he could sense their direction.
It wasn't Cain's first time entering Meteor Falls.
The tunnels behind the waterfall—formed by the erosion of meteorites—were a labyrinth of interconnected passages.
To move more efficiently, Cain also summoned Drapion.
With just Slowking and Drapion, his safety inside Meteor Falls was assured.
It was well known that no wild Pokémon in that place could pose a threat to him.
As he advanced, Cain ordered Slowking to leave psychic markers every few intervals.
At the same time, by combining his own psychic powers with Slowking's, they could greatly expand their detection range.
In one of the books he had studied, there was mention of a method to superimpose a trainer's psychic power over that of their Pokémon.
That enhancement could only be maintained for a limited time, and it placed some strain on both trainer and Pokémon, so it couldn't last too long.
The strength of the effect depended directly on the trainer's level of psychic power and their control over it; as for the duration, it depended on both their physical endurance.
That middle-aged man in black, whose power Cain had once witnessed, had managed to boost his Alakazam's strength by three levels, though Cain didn't know for how long it lasted.
Cain and Slowking had performed simple experiments of their own.
Slowking's power was greater than that of that Alakazam, but Cain's control over his psychic abilities wasn't as refined—so at best, he could grant a two-level boost for no more than half an hour during battle.
However, at that moment they weren't in combat.
In a non-combative state, they merely overlaid their psychic power without causing fatigue—though they didn't gain any real boost in strength either.
For others, the place would have been an impossible maze; for Cain, it was like having a minimap.
Moreover, thanks to his system, every passage within Meteor Falls was being gradually recorded into a digital map.
That map was drawn in Cain's mind as he progressed.
He moved step by step toward the locations of the two psychic markers.
When he encountered walls blocking his path, Drapion took care of clearing the way.
Its digging ability was unmatched.
As long as the rock wasn't extraordinarily hard, nothing could stop Cain and Drapion for more than ten seconds.
As for the wild Pokémon, under the subtle pressure emanating from Drapion, none dared to approach.
...
Elsewhere in the cavern.
Two groups dressed in uniforms of different colors stood face to face within a wide underground chamber.
The atmosphere was heavy with tension.
On one side were the blue uniforms of Team Aqua.
On the other, the red uniforms of Team Magma.
At the front of each faction stood their leaders.
Team Aqua's leader, Archie—a burly, middle-aged man with a thick beard and blue outfit. His prominent muscles were clearly visible beneath his clothes.
Opposite him stood Team Magma's leader, Maxie, wearing a red coat, glasses on his face, and his hands clasped behind his back, exuding an air of intellect.
No one dared underestimate them.
"Well, well, it's been a long time. Didn't expect to see you here. What's wrong? Not hiding anymore?" Archie said with a loud laugh.
Maxie adjusted his glasses and replied coldly, "And you—leaving the sea to act on land? Aren't you afraid the League will wipe you out?"
Although Archie and Maxie now represented rival factions, they came from the same place: a small village on a remote Hoenn island.
As children, they had been good friends, but their ideological differences had led them down separate paths.
Who would have imagined they would one day become leaders of two massive organizations capable of shaking the entire Hoenn region?
The village they came from had its own ancient history and myths.
It was there that their obsession with Groudon and Kyogre had been born—the desire to dedicate their lives to those beings as a way to fulfill their ideals.
But that village was destroyed by a tsunami, leaving only Maxie and Archie alive.
It was as if they had been chosen by fate.
After a moment of silence, Maxie spoke. "Staying at odds like this is pointless. In the end, it's the League that will benefit. Why don't we talk about cooperation?"
(End of chapter)