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Just as Green lost consciousness, Jigglypuff hurriedly carried her away from Gemini Island.
"Articuno broke out of the ice?! And it's actually fighting someone! Did reinforcements arrive from headquarters?!"
Harley was running in the direction of the canyon, so he could naturally witness the disturbance occurring over there.
He assumed that the only ones who would dare battle Articuno at this moment were members of Team Rocket, so he ran back toward the canyon even more enthusiastically.
Harley understood that no matter what, the Badge had to be delivered there first to help the personnel from headquarters capture Articuno.
"The one who can fight Articuno must be one of the three executives, right? Could it be Koga or Lt. Surge? Or perhaps Sabrina?"
As Harley ran, he wondered which of the three executives had come to assist.
But he didn't need to speculate for very long—after all, he had already returned to the canyon he'd just fled from.
Then Harley saw the figure standing with his hands casually in his pockets, looking completely nonchalant while simultaneously suppressing Articuno with overwhelming superiority.
"Ah, so it was you who came!"
"Oh~~~ Is that Harley? The Light Red Badge is with you—bring it over here quickly."
"Although I can suppress it right now, my Badge was given to Sabrina to help suppress Moltres. It's a bit troublesome to capture this one without a Badge."
The visitor spotted Harley and immediately issued his instructions.
"Yes! Here you go!"
Upon hearing this, Harley immediately threw the Badge he had just reclaimed back to the person who had arrived, congratulating himself that he had managed to retrieve the Badge from Green. Otherwise, he would be in serious trouble right now.
"Good. With the Light Red Badge, I can now suppress your strength to Champion level or even below Champion level."
"Although capturing you would normally require the cooperation of various machines, since I'm handling this personally, I don't need those things."
Giovanni, who always wore a black suit wherever he went, held up the Light Red Badge and spoke with absolute confidence.
"SCREEEECH!"
Articuno panicked the moment it saw the Light Red Badge. It desperately wanted to escape immediately, but Giovanni was completely suppressing it with just three Pokémon.
Right now, it didn't dare turn its back on these terrifying opponents, especially that incredibly fast Mega Beedrill. It could sense that if it showed even the slightest opening, it would be defeated—even without being suppressed by the Badge.
So it could only watch helplessly as a strange beam of light from the Light Red Badge struck it, and its own strength dropped by more than half in an instant.
"Pitiful three Legendary birds—each of you has lost your original power. If it weren't for that, how could you possess so little strength that I could suppress you alone?"
"Your strength has already weakened considerably, and now you're being suppressed by the Badge. If we, Team Rocket, don't capture you, then who should we capture? Hahahaha!"
Giovanni couldn't help but laugh when he witnessed Articuno's power suddenly plummet.
"I've had enough entertainment. It's time to finish you off."
After Giovanni finished laughing, his eyes suddenly changed, becoming cold and calculating.
"Nidoqueen, Rhyperior, use Giga Impact!"
"Roar!!"
Nidoqueen and Rhyperior bellowed, gathering all their energy and rushing toward Articuno at tremendous speed.
Actually, as a Flying and Ice-type Pokémon, it should have been very easy for Articuno to dodge such attacks. It would only need to fly upward lightly to evade.
However, it had just been suppressed and injured by these three Pokémon, and now the massive Mega Beedrill that radiated a menacing aura was still watching it from above. At this point, let alone flying, it even found dodging the attack extremely difficult.
After all, Giovanni's Pokémon were so powerful that even this Legendary Pokémon felt genuine fear.
If it weren't a Legendary Pokémon with inexhaustible energy reserves, it would have been completely exhausted earlier when it used various powerful moves to repel the three opponents.
However, as Giovanni had stated, even though it possessed inexhaustible energy, its own fundamental strength was no longer what it once was. Now suppressed by the Light Red Badge, it was no match for Giovanni.
"SCREEEECH!"
As Articuno let out a piercing cry, it was struck by both Nidoqueen and Rhyperior simultaneously, and then it lost control of its body and plummeted straight toward the ground.
However, it could still continue fighting. Because of its nature as a Legendary Pokémon, it would almost never become completely exhausted.
Legendary Pokémon could be defeated by powerful human trainers, but they couldn't be completely overwhelmed unless the opponent could harness the power of nature itself—only then could they be truly vanquished.
So even though Articuno appeared seriously injured at the moment, it would be able to recover at any time as long as it was given some respite.
Of course, there couldn't be a Badge suppressing it. Otherwise, even if it recovered, it would only return to the reduced strength level caused by the suppression.
"Hmph, sometimes I truly envy Legendary Pokémon like you who hardly age and never run out of energy."
Giovanni was already middle-aged. Although his strength could still be maintained at its peak, after reaching middle age, unless there were special circumstances, his abilities would only continue declining.
This referred to the trainer's own physical capabilities. After all, as people grew older, not only did their mobility deteriorate, but their stamina and judgment would weaken as well.
No matter how much experience one accumulated, it was ultimately futile. Hadn't everyone noticed that Agatha was one of the Elite Four, yet she never dared to move around excessively during battles?
She didn't dare move because she feared depleting her physical stamina too quickly, which would prevent her from properly commanding her own Pokémon.
That's why Giovanni said he envied them. After all, he was approaching the downward slope of his life.
The reason he had hastily launched this operation against the Kanto Region wasn't only because of Elite Four member Lance, but also because he sensed that his decline was approaching. He wanted to accomplish Team Rocket's grand ambition while he was still at his strongest.
"Never mind. Even though I can't knock you out completely, I can still beat you badly enough that you won't be able to fight back."
Giovanni shook his head, dismissing his reluctance about aging, and spoke directly to Articuno.
"Mega Beedrill! Deliver the final blow! Use X-Scissor!"
"Bzzzzzz!"
Mega Beedrill brandished the four massive poisonous stingers on its body and rushed toward the fallen Articuno.
Its four poison stingers crossed together as it charged toward Articuno. Then the force generated by the impact caused the stingers to open instantly, striking Articuno directly with two crossing slashes.
"SCREEEEEECH!"
After being hit by this attack, Articuno immediately released a wail that sounded like a death cry, then kept convulsing on the ground as if experiencing tremendous agony.
"Harley, retrieve the capture device and secure it."
At that moment, Harley finally snapped out of his daze after hearing Giovanni's instructions.
The boss had won. He had defeated Articuno easily by himself.
Looking at Giovanni at this moment, standing with one foot planted dominantly on Articuno, silently declaring his absolute victory.
The fanaticism in Harley's eyes intensified even further, and he couldn't help but shout out.
"Long live Team Rocket!"