Pokémon: Above the Top-Chapter 211: The Little "Villain" Is About to Strike

"The captain is right. Besides, I've been training too hard lately," Sato nodded mechanically, then followed along obediently.

'Let's pretend to be controlled for now,' Sato thought to himself, although this so-called mental seed clearly had some effect even during normal situations.

Absolute agreement with Archie!

"Let's go!" Archie glanced at the three of them, clearly very satisfied; he had just gained three outstanding subordinates.

Sato was incredibly powerful, with a Trainer talent far beyond those he had previously controlled.

As for Joseph, no need to say more, his outstanding breeding talent and powerful support and healing abilities made him a rare gem.

And Mark... well, he could be considered a bonus. After all, someone had to be the supporting cast, right?

As they exited, Mark and Joseph instinctively fell in behind Archie. There was nothing deliberate about it, but it made Sato all the more uneasy.

Thankfully, he possessed Dark Energy... and it was strong enough to destroy the mental seed.

Otherwise... Joseph and Mark were by no means ordinary people, and yet when facing Archie's methods, they were completely helpless.

After returning to the port, Archie didn't ask what the three planned to do. He directly ordered them to return to the ship and wait.

Joseph and Mark nodded without hesitation, and Sato had no choice but to follow.

They were still in the enemy's main base. The only way to leave was on that boat, so for now, all they could do was lay low.

The three of them returned straight to the boat. While chatting with them, Sato realized that after leaving Archie's side, they behaved exactly as before.

Mark was still that carefree and Joseph was just as clever and understanding as ever.

"Vice-captain, why didn't you come down and take a look? There's so much interesting stuff below! Kyogre is seriously powerful!" Mark bounced up to Maxie, rattling off his praise like a firecracker.

Sato noticed that neither Mark nor Joseph showed any change in attitude toward Maxie. It was clear the mental seed only worked on Archie.

"I've already been down there, so I stayed to guard the ship. Why are you back so early? We're not leaving until tomorrow."

"The captain told us to come back, so we came back!" Mark replied cheerfully, then ran off to "play" with the other crew members.

As Mark left, Sato clearly saw displeasure on Maxie's face before he strode into the cabin.

Seeing this, a thought crossed Sato's mind. After saying a word to Joseph, he returned to his room alone.

"Gengar!"

Sato called softly, and first a pair of golden eyes appeared in the air, followed by Gengar's body.

Those golden eyes had grown more dazzling with Gengar's increasing power; they looked nothing like a typical ghost.

"Geng~"

Gengar looked at Sato with concern. It had seen everything that happened during Archie's ritual, but Sato had long since given the order not to appear without permission.

And as a smart ghost, it clearly knew that the situation at the time wasn't something it could affect alone. So it had silently memorized the scene to report to Sato later.

"Don't worry about me. I want you to follow Maxie. If you see him talking to Archie, make sure to record it."

Sato pulled out a voice recorder and handed it to Gengar. Gengar already knew how to use it.

"Gengar!" Gengar nodded, then slowly vanished into the air. As Sato sensed Gengar's emotional feedback disappear, he knew it had gone off to spy.

Maxie clearly wasn't under control, and he definitely knew something. Now that he seemed dissatisfied with Archie, there was a good chance he might reveal something.

Sato thought deeply. He now had three objectives: escape Archie's control, eliminate the mental seeds inside the other two, and finally, settle "debts"!

The first task wasn't urgent. As long as Sato didn't slip up, once they reached the next town, he could simply knock out Joseph and Mark and take them away.

This chapt𝓮r is updat𝒆d by ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom.

The remaining two tasks were much more troublesome.

Sato didn't dare use Dark Energy to help them. After all, the brain was far too delicate, and Dark Energy only responded to him. Even a small mistake could lead to who-knows-what.

For now, all he could do was gather as much intel as possible. Investigate Archie and Maxie's situation, and then sabotage their plans!

Sato had never harmed others first, yet someone had come to harm him. So what if they were future leaders of Team Aqua and Team Magma?

In Sato's mind, the little devil villain that hadn't worked in a long time was now gleefully pinning down the little angel... this time, it was his turn to strike back.

---

Night fell. Most of the crew had returned to their cabins to rest. After all, Rosen Island had no inns or bars.

After the ship doctor incident, none of them dared to stir up trouble again anytime soon.

Through the window in his room, Sato saw that Archie had returned as well. Delighted, he sat cross-legged on the bed and began meditating, quietly waiting for Gengar's report.

Perhaps it was because of the mental seed, but his Dark Energy -which hadn't grown in a while- actually strengthened a little once more.

To make sure he always had peak combat power, Sato would meditate whenever he had the time.

Rosen Island was eerily quiet at night. Everyone on the ship had gone to sleep early. Suddenly, a pair of golden eyes appeared in Sato's room. Gengar had returned safely from gathering intel!

"Good job!" Sato immediately opened his eyes and took the voice recorder that Gengar handed him.

Gengar slowly vanished again. It still had to remain on guard for Sato.

Putting on the headphones, Sato listened to the conversation between Maxie and Archie. In the dark room, the sound of a pen scribbling occasionally echoed.

He listened three times in a row, carefully recording every important piece of information. Once he confirmed nothing was missed, he immediately formatted the voice recorder.

In the pitch black, he took his notebook and began extracting useful details.

"Red accuses Blue, hypnotize all three, leave no one."

"Next stop, Pacifidlog Town."

"New targets, four people, all handled by Red."

"Red's base, Tower Town."

Once he sorted through all the information, Sato wrote it all down again and then burned it.

----

The next day, the ship set sail as usual. The three of them passed the time as they always did.

Only this time, Sato refrained from training his Pokémon. Instead, he chose to rest and play around with Umbreon.

However, every night, Sato would send Gengar out with the voice recorder to eavesdrop on Maxie and Archie's conversations.

Five more days passed. The three-mast ship finally arrived at Pacifidlog Town. A crew member named Courtney invited four native Hoenn Region Trainers aboard!

Sato knew, these four people in front of him were going to be controlled by Maxie in the same way, at a place called Tower Town!