"Want to go out and catch a movie tonight? The remake of ‘Hachiko–The Arcanine Story’ is out. A lot of trainers with dog Pokémon have been watching it lately."

Julian and Nicole were already heading out as they spoke.

Julian had been thinking about watching a movie with Nicole—but the movie choice was actually made by Arcanine.

Arcanine: 'I want to see if there’s any dog in this world more loyal to their trainer than me.'

Dog Pokémon could be surprisingly competitive.

Maybe every dog Pokémon that wanted to watch this movie had the same thought:

Dog Pokémon: 'When it comes to loyalty, I’m the undisputed number one.'

"Mm, you decide."

Nicole nodded.

Her research projects hadn’t been too demanding lately, so she had some free time to spend with Julian.

"Zoro~"

Just as they were about to leave, Zoroark suddenly called out to Julian.

Zoroark: "Human—wait."

Julian turned to look at it.

Then, to his surprise, Zoroark held out the Pokémon egg in its hands toward him.

Zoroark: "I entrust my child to you."

Its trainer had committed a grave crime. Despite its desperate efforts to protect them, the trainer had still been arrested, and it had been confined here ever since. And it had already rejected several trainers who tried to capture it.

Most likely, it would spend the rest of its life in this facility.

And its child? Sooner or later, it would be taken away to become a human’s Pokémon.

That was an inevitability it couldn’t change.

So if that was the case—why not choose a trainer it actually liked to raise its child?

That’s why it had picked Julian.

In Zoroark’s eyes, someone who wielded the power of Aura like Julian practically came with a "Good Guy" label on his head.

Not to mention, the Metagross at his side had subdued it in a single move—proof that Julian had exceptional talent in raising Pokémon.

As a parent, of course it wanted the best future for its child.

And Zoroark was certain that Julian would accept. After all, its child had inherited its potential—it would undoubtedly grow into an incredibly powerful Pokémon in the future.

But then—

Julian: "No thanks."

With that, he took Nicole’s hand and walked away, leaving Zoroark utterly stunned.

Zoroark: (⊙_⊙)？

At first, it thought the human was just playing hard to get.

But when it saw him actually leave with the woman—even shutting the door behind them—it realized… Julian wasn’t pretending.

Looking down at the egg in its arms, Zoroark started to doubt itself for the first time.

---

Outside, Julian pulled out his phone and booked their movie tickets for the evening.

"I’ll head out first. I’ll come pick you up later," Julian said.

"Good."

Nicole responded simply.

RUMBLE—!!

Just as Julian was about to leave, the ground suddenly began to shake violently. Tables, chairs, and equipment rattled uncontrollably as the lights flickered wildly.

Metagross used Psychic to stabilize Julian and Nicole, keeping them steady.

BOOM!!

Another deafening explosion rocked the area, the tremors growing even more intense.

Inside the building, staff members quickly evacuated, most accompanied by their Pokémon. Surprisingly, none of them looked particularly panicked.

After all, this was Imperial University, and the breeding facility was built to withstand disasters. While the quakes were strong, they weren’t enough to collapse the structure.

Soon, Julian and Nicole made it outside.

"Anyone still inside?" Julian asked, glancing at Metagross.

Metagross scanned the area with its psychic powers—aside from a few Pokémon confined in reinforced glass enclosures, the building was empty.

As for those Pokémon—there was no need to worry. They were all Elite-level, tough enough to survive a building collapse.

Not to mention, the specially designed glass could withstand attacks from Pseudo-Champion-level Pokémon, making the enclosures the safest place to be right now.

BOOM!

A loud boom came from a certain direction, and black smoke was already rising from that area.

"That’s Incubation Room No. 1."

Julian wasn’t too familiar with the Research Institute’s layout, but Nicole recognized it immediately.

"Probably a Pokémon broke out."

This wasn’t the first time something like this had happened—which explained why people hadn’t panicked earlier.

Pokémon researchers often dealt with violent outbreaks during studies. While some only got injured; the unlucky ones died.

And escaped experimental Pokémon were fairly common, too.

"Julian, can you check it out? Incubation Room No. 1 has the highest security protocols," Nicole said, a bit worried.

If a Pokémon had still managed to escape under those conditions, then something serious must have happened.

"Alright, I’ll go take a look."

Julian nodded.

Metagross immediately used Teleport to bring him to the site.

Right as they arrived, he saw a Sandslash rampaging and causing massive destruction through the area. A few Pokémon researchers were trying to stop it using their own Pokémon, but the Sandslash effortlessly crushed them.

This Sandslash was level 80—at the peak of Elite tier—but it was only displaying the power of an early-stage Elite.

Otherwise, given its level, this entire area should’ve been a pile of rubble by now.

"Metagross."

Julian didn’t waste time. They were still on campus—casualties couldn’t be allowed.

And this Sandslash was clearly feral and aggressive.

With Metagross stepping in, the Sandslash was swiftly suppressed.

The surrounding researchers, upon seeing the Silver-White Metagross, immediately knew who had arrived.

A middle-aged man hurried over to Julian. "Julian, Thank you! We owe you one this time."

"What happened?" Julian asked curiously.

He had already scanned the area—no fatalities, but several people and Pokémon were injured.

"Our staff were tricked by this Sandslash. They thought it was genuinely sick, but the damn thing was faking it the whole time."

"Luckily, its injuries hadn’t fully healed, or this could’ve been way worse. This Sandslash was the main Pokémon of an S-class wanted criminal," the man explained.

An A-class criminal typically had Pokémon at the early to mid-stage Elite-level, while S-class ranged from late to peak Elite-level.

SS-class? That was Pseudo-Champion level.

And SSS-class? That was Champion-level—though, thankfully, no criminal of that caliber had emerged yet.

Elite-level Pokémon were as intelligent as humans. Underestimating them was the real stupidity.

"Where’s its Poké Ball?"

"It’s in the storage room—someone’s already gone to get it," the man said with a wry smile.

To prevent staff from illegally claiming Pokémon from the facility—and to ensure their own safety—all Poké Balls were stored in a secure storage room.

Before long, someone arrived with the Poké Ball and recalled the Sandslash.

The chaos at Incubation Room No. 1 had caused quite a commotion. Many people had rushed over to see what was going on.

Nicole also hurried over from Incubation Room No. 3.

But since Julian had already handled the situation, the latecomers could only piece together what happened through secondhand accounts.

*****

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