Team Rocket’s Second-in-Command! [451]

“Battle? Of course not.” Luo Yuan smiled and shook his head. “Actually, I’m here to help you.”

“Help?” Upon hearing that, Cynthia wondered if there was something wrong with her ears.

She glanced around—Team Rocket grunts were pinning League trainers to the ground one by one and tying them up. Cynthia simply couldn’t associate what she was seeing with anything remotely close to help.

If this counted as help, then the time she stormed Team Galactic’s headquarters with her squad could be considered a humanitarian rescue mission!

This was so absurd, Cynthia didn’t even know how to respond for a moment.

Seeing that Cynthia didn’t seem to appreciate his good intentions, Luo Yuan shook his head.

“You know about Cyrus’s plan, don’t you?”

“Of course I know about Cyrus’s plan. But what does that have to do with helping?” As much as she found this ridiculous, the mention of Cyrus made her open her mouth to ask.

One of the main objectives of the Sinnoh League’s operation was to capture Cyrus, the leader of Team Galactic, and dismantle the organization once and for all.

But Cyrus had yet to show himself, which made her start to suspect he wasn’t even at their headquarters.

Even before Team Rocket showed up, she’d been trying to figure out where Cyrus might be. What she didn’t expect was to get intelligence about him from Team Rocket of all people…

Luo Yuan didn’t answer directly. Instead, he clicked his tongue twice and said, “Tsk… So you really don’t know anything. The Sinnoh League is even more incompetent than I imagined.”

Cynthia’s expression darkened. To a Sinnoh Champion, such blatant ridicule of the League was infuriating.

But right now, she was entirely at Luo Yuan’s mercy, with no way to fight back.

Then Luo Yuan continued, “Team Galactic is in the middle of a plan to summon Palkia and Dialga—to create a new world. That much you know. But what you probably don’t know is that they’ve already captured the lake guardians. They’re one step away from summoning Palkia and Dialga. The reason Cyrus isn’t at headquarters is because he’s out handling that.”

This was intel they’d find out eventually anyway, so there was no need to keep it hidden.

Hearing that, Cynthia’s blood ran cold.

She had known about Cyrus’s new world plan, but she never imagined it had progressed this far.

If what Luo Yuan said was true, then Sinnoh was already in deep crisis—without anyone realizing it.

And the League was completely oblivious.

“Now you see why I said Team Rocket is here to help you, right?”

Even though Cynthia still didn’t want to accept it, after hearing Luo Yuan lay everything out, she had no choice but to admit that the Sinnoh League had truly failed this time.

As the largest official organization in Sinnoh, they hadn’t noticed a thing going on right under their noses—until an outsider like Team Rocket came along to spell it out.

In a way, what Luo Yuan said about “helping” wasn’t entirely wrong.

As much as she wanted to deny it, her education told her to respect objective facts.

And this—was a disgrace.

Luo Yuan was quite pleased with the look on Cynthia’s face.

Of course, he hadn’t said all this just to amuse himself. It was because, for now, Team Rocket didn’t plan to openly break with the League.

Yes, even though they’d captured so many League members—including two Elites and even a Champion—Luo Yuan had no intention of burning bridges with the League.

Team Rocket had already infiltrated both the Johto and Kanto Leagues, with Giovanni himself even seated as Champion. If they went to war with the League now, wouldn’t that be shooting themselves in the foot?

And so, this conversation was his buffer.

It wouldn’t undo the fact that Rocket had captured so many League trainers, but at least it might prevent an all-out war with the Sinnoh League.

Cynthia, of course, had no idea what was going through Luo Yuan’s mind. She was still digesting the information he had just dropped on her.

If what he said was true, then the real threat wasn’t the Team Galactic members who had already been cornered, nor the sudden appearance of Team Rocket in Sinnoh—it was Cyrus, who was trying to use Palkia and Dialga to forge a new world.

As dangerous as the other two were, they still fell within the realm of conventional threats.

But Cyrus? He genuinely intended to destroy the world.

At that thought, Cynthia turned to Luo Yuan. “So, you’re planning to take on Cyrus?”

“Of course. But before we go,” Luo Yuan said, pulling out a pair of handcuffs and waving them at her, “I need to make sure you Sinnoh League folks don’t cause me any trouble.”

“Wait!” Cynthia blurted when she saw the cuffs. “Maybe… maybe we can cooperate!”

Cynthia wasn’t willing to go down without a fight.

Part of it was her pride—being captured as the Champion was a humiliation. But she also genuinely worried whether Team Rocket could handle Cyrus. She didn’t want Sinnoh’s future to rest solely in their hands.

Even if the gap between her and Luo Yuan’s power was immense, she still wanted to be part of the fight against Cyrus.

And for that, she was even willing to suggest… working with Team Rocket.

“Cooperate?” Luo Yuan raised an eyebrow.

That was something he hadn’t anticipated.

He’d considered many scenarios—but not that Cynthia would voluntarily propose cooperation. After all, Rocket and the League had always been natural enemies.

For her to make this choice, she must’ve gone through some serious inner conflict. It was clear that she had realized just how much of a threat Cyrus posed to Sinnoh—far greater than the threat of Team Rocket’s invasion.

To be honest, working with Cynthia had both pros and cons.

The advantage was having an extra hand against Cyrus, and it could potentially reduce the hostility Team Rocket would face operating in Sinnoh.

The downside? If he brought Cynthia along, he’d have to avoid revealing his identity—which meant he couldn’t use his usual Pokémon from his position as a Johto Elite.

But honestly, if this escalated into a full-on clash of legendaries, those Pokémon wouldn’t be much help anyway.

Weighing the pros and cons, it wasn’t a hard decision.

“I don’t seem to have a reason to say no,” Luo Yuan said.

Just as Cynthia breathed a sigh of relief, Luo Yuan’s tone shifted: “Of course, I still need to take some precautions…”

—

T/N: i love cynthia

This is a fan translation of 我，火箭队二把手！ by 落唯 All rights to the original work belong to the creator. Please support them by exploring their original work or sharing it with others if you can. Thank you for reading and supporting my efforts to bring this story to a wider audience!