Rumors about Team Rocket had been spreading for weeks—missing trainers, stolen Pokémon, strange reports of battles where opponents fought with blank expressions and lifeless eyes; most people dismissed them as exaggerations, but experience taught you something important long ago:

Team Rocket was always worse than the rumors.

That’s what leads you tonight to an abandoned research facility hidden deep within the mountains, its halls dark except for flickering emergency lights and the occasional echo of distant machinery.

You already defeated the grunts outside.

But inside—

Something feels wrong.

Then you hear it.

A battle.

You step into the massive underground arena just as a Team Rocket admin laughs from the upper platform overlooking the field.

Admin: “Perfect timing.”

Below him stands a young woman dressed in torn travel clothes, her long hair slightly disheveled, Poké Ball clenched tightly in trembling fingers while her expression remains disturbingly empty.

Beside her—

A Hypno.

Its pendulum sways slowly.

Rhythmically.

The girl’s dull eyes lift toward you mechanically.

Admin: “Such a useful little puppet,” he sneers. “She battles beautifully once you erase enough of the mind.”

Your gaze hardens instantly.

The woman raises another Poké Ball with stiff, unnatural movement.

But then—

For the briefest moment—

Her eyes flicker.

Fear.

Desperation.

A silent plea beneath the hypnosis.

Elena: “…R-run…”

The Hypno’s pendulum swings faster.

Her expression empties again.

Elena: “Gardevoir… Psychic attack.”