A dazzling aurora enveloped White Snow Mountain.
Within the clouds, a completely blue avian Pokémon revealed its form.
Its beautiful blue feathers shimmered with the luster of ice, while the crest atop its head—formed from three dark-blue diamond-shaped feathers, glittered brilliantly amidst the snowstorm.
Its eyes were red, and its short gray beak matched the color of its long, slender legs.
Its ribbon-like tail was even longer than its entire body, its deep-blue color identical to that of the crest.
As it appeared, an indescribable pressure swept across the entire mountain.
"What terrifying pressure…"
Silas raised his head alongside Ampharos, his expression grave.
Under normal circumstances, the Ability Pressure wasn't nearly this overwhelming.
At most, it only slightly increased an opponent's stamina and energy consumption.
But for true Legendary Pokémon, when empowered by immense strength, they could use Pressure alone to render opponents unable to attack or even cause them to faint outright.
After all, Pressure was one of the most common Abilities among Legendary Pokémon.
For them, it was practically a declaration of their arrival.
This was the first time Silas had truly experienced the oppressive aura of a Legendary Pokémon.
The three Legendary Beasts had been relatively friendly toward him before.
"Hurry! Put all the materials into the machine!"
Higher up the mountain, the Team Rocket squad leader urgently directed the mission members as they prepared to restrain Articuno.
The familiar red cubic stones appeared once again.
And so did the incredibly expensive activation materials.
One of the members stared greedily at the setup.
"If all this stuff were mine, I could probably raise at least an entire team of Champion-level Fire-types."
"No kidding. This thing burns money like crazy. Where does the organization even get this stuff?"
"Stop wasting time! If you keep dragging your feet, we're all going to die!"
Seeing Articuno's gaze gradually shifting toward them, the squad leader despite standing in freezing weather was sweating profusely.
He practically wanted to slap the two idiots.
How had people this dumb survived this long?
"Gulp."
Someone swallowed nervously.
All the Team Rocket members silently sped up their movements.
No matter how valuable something was, it only mattered if they stayed alive long enough to enjoy it.
At that moment, they could only pray that the scientists' calculations were accurate.
Otherwise, none of them would survive Articuno's wrath.
Articuno's gaze swept downward.
One human with Pokémon carried a mixed aura around him: its own kind the Legendary Beasts the lake guardians and faint traces of two even greater beings.
The other group of strange humans carried only the bloody scent of Pokémon from White Snow Mountain.
Nothing else.
Articuno instantly determined who the enemy was.
"SKREEEE—!"
Its furious cry echoed through the sky.
For countless years, Articuno had continuously displayed its strength precisely to prevent Pokémon and humans alike from coveting the power of its future offspring.
And now, just as the time was approaching, these foolish humans had dared invade its nest directly.
At that moment, Articuno only had one thought: bury these despicable humans beneath endless snow.
Its icy wings spread wide as the entire bird dove downward at a speed invisible to the naked eye.
"Not good!"
The moment Articuno vanished from sight, the Team Rocket captain realized disaster was coming.
But the materials had only just been fully inserted.
The machine still needed more than ten seconds before activation.
At that moment, he desperately wanted to curse the scientists.
Why couldn't they design the thing to activate instantly with one button press?!
What he failed to consider was just how catastrophic a sudden release of that much energy would be.
"Everyone prepare to attack!"
Thinking frantically, he shouted for the members to release their Pokémon.
Dozens of Pokémon of various shapes and sizes instantly crowded the mountaintop.
"Whooooosh—"
An icy wind slowly swept past.
To the horror of the Team Rocket members, the seven or eight Pokémon guarding the front line instantly transformed into frozen statues trapped inside solid ice.
From start to finish, the process took less than one second.
"T-This…"
Before coming here, they had all heard stories about the strength of Legendary Pokémon from members of other squads.
But only after experiencing it firsthand did they realize how badly they had underestimated the definition of "power."
Those were seven or eight pseudo-Elite-level and Elite Level Pokémon combined together.
Several of them even possessed extremely high resistance to Ice-type attacks.
Not even an Ice-type Champion could achieve something so effortlessly.
One block of ice after another rapidly formed.
Then suddenly, the Team Rocket members realized the freezing wind was now sweeping toward them.
Their expressions changed dramatically as they staggered backward, desperately ordering their Pokémon forward in hopes of stopping Articuno's indiscriminate assault.
Because of the strange mixture of familiarity and disgust it felt, Articuno didn't immediately destroy the strange machine.
Besides it didn't believe such weak humans could truly threaten it.
Still, a faint sense of unease lingered in its heart.
"Better eliminate these humans quickly… then speak with that mysterious human afterward."
While manipulating Ice-type energy, Articuno silently thought this to itself.
One…
two…
The attacks rushed straight toward the Team Rocket members, almost completely ignoring the Pokémon charging forward to intercept them.
"Just a little more, just a little more…"
The captain hiding in the rear stared frantically at the machine.
If he had known this would happen, he would've ordered the materials inserted earlier.
Sure, some activation energy would've leaked away, but that still would've been better than this situation.
The other squads dealing with Zapdos and Moltres hadn't encountered anything this terrifying.
He couldn't understand why.
What the captain failed to realize was that strength was only one factor.
Environment mattered too.
On White Snow Mountain, Articuno's power was amplified far beyond how much Moltres could gain within a volcano.
Even Silas, who had already quietly approached nearby, felt like he might not need to intervene at all.
Articuno alone seemed fully capable of wiping out the entire group.
Then his eyes landed on the machine worth an astronomical amount of money.
His eyes instantly gleamed brightly.
Arceus above, he swore he had never seen something so luxurious before.
If he dealt with these guys couldn't he secretly pocket a few things afterward?
Silas honestly didn't consider himself greedy.
Even though he could only see part of it from his position, the glowing red core in the center was obviously far too valuable for him to safely keep.
But the rare Fire-type items surrounding it…
secretly taking one or two hundred million Pokédollars' worth shouldn't be a problem, right?
"I'm rich, I'm seriously rich…"
Silas muttered nonstop under his breath.
He finally understood why Lance and the others were so wealthy.
So Team Rocket had basically been delivering resources directly to them this whole time.
If this much was being spent just for Articuno, then the price involved with the other Legendary Pokémon would only be even higher.
By that logic this was an absolute blood profit.
Silas suddenly felt it was time to reveal his true identity as the mortal enemy of evil organizations.
Not for anything noble.
He just wanted to earn some "hard-earned money."
"Wait, what exactly are these guys still waiting for?"
Silas frowned while looking at the few surviving Team Rocket members.
According to Zero's scans, among all the Pokémon they had released, only two had actually reached Champion-level strength.
No matter how strong Lance and Cynthia were, Team Rocket wouldn't send such a pathetic bunch to deal with Articuno.
That was why, despite desperately wanting to destroy the device, Silas still hesitated to launch a surprise attack.
At such close range, if the enemy released Champion-level Pokémon, the resulting destruction would be difficult to control and his own safety wouldn't be guaranteed either.
"Bzzzzz—"
A deep crimson pulse flashed across the white snowy mountain.
"SKREEEE!"
Articuno let out a cry completely different from before.
Around the device, portions of the snow actually began melting.
"Holy crap it's really that effective?!"
Silas's eyes nearly bulged out of his head.
The snow at White Snow Mountain's summit could practically be considered an external manifestation of Articuno's Ice-type energy.
Melting it with Fire-type power wasn't remotely as simple as it sounded.
"Heatran?"
The exact same thought that Lorelei once had instantly appeared in his mind.
Mainly because among Fire-type Legendary Pokémon, Heatran was generally considered the easiest target.
As a Pokémon born within volcanoes, its strength among Legendary Pokémon wasn't particularly overwhelming, nor did it have any especially powerful backing.
But Silas quickly dismissed the idea.
Even if Heatran personally appeared here, it probably still wouldn't be enough to suppress this Articuno let alone some related item.
"Ho-Oh, Reshiram or Groudon?"
He quickly narrowed the possibilities down to the three major Legendary Pokémon associated with Fire.
Ho-Oh was immediately ruled out.
Its relationship with Lugia was on an entirely different level.
If one of Ho-Oh's artifacts caused Articuno harm, Silas absolutely refused to believe Ho-Oh would just sit back and ignore it.
Besides, that glowing red core definitely didn't look like a feather.
Groudon was unrealistic too.
If Team Rocket actually knew where the sleeping continent deity was hidden, they would've already gone to war with Team Magma long ago.
Which left only Reshiram, one of the Tao Trio.
Silas suddenly felt incredibly frustrated.
Team Plasma was seriously that useless?
They were literally based in Unova and still somehow let distant Team Rocket steal the prize first?
He knew most evil organization leaders besides Giovanni were at least somewhat stupid, but he honestly hadn't expected them to be this stupid.
Cracking his neck, Silas sighed.
"Seriously hesitation really does lead to defeat. The ancients weren't lying."
Still, after looking at the Pokémon the enemy had released, he silently thanked Arceus he hadn't charged in recklessly earlier.
"ROOOAR!"
A massive Charizard covered in black stripes roared furiously at Articuno.
"Shadow Charizard, use Flamethrower!"
The squad captain sneered coldly, finally regaining confidence as he ordered the unusually colored Charizard to attack.
Black flames surged forward toward Articuno, strengthened by the machine's fiery domain.
Articuno flapped its wings, scattering wave after wave of Powder Snow.
The enhanced flames from Charizard were indeed powerful, but under Articuno's counterattack, they quickly dissolved into steam and vanished into the air.
But that was far from the end.
"Rapidash! Houndoom! Magmar! Magcargo! Use Flamethrower!"
The exact same black markings.
The exact same black flames.
One attack after another blasted toward Articuno in the sky.
"Heh, Dark Balls really are incredible. Shame about these Fire-types, though."
One surviving Team Rocket member looked thrilled.
Another snorted disdainfully.
"What's there to pity? They're trash that's going to die anyway. Might as well put them to good use first."
Silas stared solemnly at the five abnormal Pokémon.
Even without Team Rocket explaining it, he already knew what these shadow Pokémon created through Dark Balls were.
This wasn't his first encounter with them.
The last time had been during the emergency mission in Viridian Forest.
But compared to the severely out-of-control shadow Pokémon from before, these ones were now actually obeying their Trainers' commands.
Sure, the commands didn't seem capable of being too complicated but this was already a massive improvement.
At the very least, just being able to safely stand near shadow Pokémon was insane enough already.
In the air, Articuno unleashed Ice Beam after Ice Beam to counter the shadow Pokémon's Flamethrowers.
It was effective.
But ultimately useless.
Because under the relentless barrage of fire attacks, only a tiny portion of its attacks could even reach the area around the device.
And even those instantly evaporated into steam upon entering.
The squad captain wiped the sweat from his forehead and finally relaxed slightly.
"If we maintain this for a little longer, it won't be able to fight anymore."
"So five Elite four-level Pokémon really can hold off a Legendary Pokémon. Guess they're not that impressive after all."
One Team Rocket grunt spoke carelessly.
The captain rolled his eyes.
Not impressive?
Shadow Pokémon at Elite Four-level level were completely different from ordinary Elite Four-level Pokémon.
That power came from sacrificing their own lives in exchange for a short-lived burst of strength.
And that was on top of the machine's enhancement.
With all those conditions stacked together, Articuno still had enough spare power to threaten them.
Without the machine's fiery domain, they still would've died to Articuno eventually.
The only difference would've been how long it took.
At this point, the captain had already given up on his teammates mentally.
The fiery domain continued expanding outward.
Feeling the intensely unpleasant aura, Articuno was forced to gradually retreat.
It could instinctively tell, if it entered that area, it would suffer serious damage.
"So only Fire-types can avoid being harmed?"
Silas frowned at the scene before finally realizing it was time to act.
"I'll handle it."
Blaziken, which had already been prepared, spoke through Aura with blue light glowing in its eyes.
"The main target is the core of that device. Find a way to remove it. As long as it's taken away, Articuno can finish them off itself. If necessary, just destroy it by force."
Silas immediately identified the priority target.
The multiple Elite Four-level-shadow Pokémon weren't the true issue.
That machine was.
Blaziken nodded.
"Gallade, it's up to you."
After spending time meditating, Gallade still hadn't fully recovered, but teleporting only Blaziken was still manageable.
"Calculating coordinates."
Blue-purple psychic light engulfed Gallade's body.
Seven or eight seconds passed.
"Coordinates confirmed!"
The moment Gallade spoke, Blaziken instantly appeared directly above the machine.
"BLAZE—!"
Intense flames erupted from Blaziken's legs
then rapidly spread to engulf its entire body.
.
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