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"Giovanni…" Nina's voice was quiet behind her mask, carrying a faint trace of nerves. This was clearly her first time taking part in an operation like this, and the weight of it showed. She gave Jacob a small wave.
"You came alone?" Jacob asked, looking her over. He recalled Eleanor mentioning she would be joining the operation. So why wasn't she here?
"Yes." Nina gave a short nod, then glanced carefully around them, as though she wanted to say something but wasn't sure she should.
"Don't worry. I've already swept the area. We're safe here," Jacob said, picking up on her hesitation.
"Alright." Nina nodded again, then said, "Eleanor was supposed to come. But the Giant Laboratory is about to launch its experiment, and she couldn't slip away at the last moment. She called me and said she wouldn't be able to make it."
Jacob nodded slowly at that.
With the Giant Laboratory's project on the verge of launch, he had stepped back from the day-to-day work there—leaving the Imperial Capital as its hands-off director. That meant someone else had to stay behind and keep things in order.
Eleanor, the laboratory's deputy director and one of the few people who knew the secret of Gigantamax, was the obvious choice to hold the fort. She'd had no option but to remain in the Imperial Capital.
It was a frustrating turn of events for Jacob. He had hoped to use this opportunity to draw Eleanor fully into Team Rocket's fold and push her into choosing a side once and for all.
Nina's eyes moved carefully across Jacob's face. "Jacob," she said in a measured tone, "please don't even think about harming Eleanor, or using Champion Meyer to do it for you. I'm not only saying this because she's my closest friend. Her background makes it a far more serious matter than you might think. Moving against her would bring you nothing but trouble."
"I know. You don't have to worry—I'm not going to do anything reckless." Jacob shook his head, a faint, tired smile crossing his lips. After learning of Eleanor's unusual identity, he had never once seriously considered eliminating her. Had he wanted to act against her quietly, he would have found a way to do so long before now.
Eleanor's lineage as a descendant of a legendary hero made the situation delicate in a way Jacob found genuinely difficult to work around. Her father had fallen in a large-scale battle twenty years ago, giving his life bravely in service of others.
Jacob sometimes found himself wondering whether Eleanor's stubborn, hard-to-read personality was shaped, at least in part, by losing her father when she was so young.
"Alright. That's enough on that subject," Jacob said, straightening. "Let's go over the plan for tomorrow."
"Right."
The following day brought a clear blue sky stretching out over an endless sea.
On a deserted island, three figures stood together.
The tall man among them wore a blazing mask—carved in the shape of Ho-Oh's sacred fire, with a feather-shaped flame rising from its surface. It was Giovanni's unmistakable Ho-Oh feather mask, unique to him alone.
At his side stood two striking women.
The first was tall and graceful, with long golden hair falling loose down her back. Her fair skin caught the sunlight and seemed almost to shine. She wore a bold red dress that stood out sharply against the island's pale scenery. Her face was covered by a fiery mask, though the sacred flame pattern on it differed from Giovanni's—hers bore the shape of a phoenix, flames curling in a lifelike swirl, as though the bird might burst into rebirth at any moment.
"Phoenix." That was the codename she had chosen for herself. It spoke of nirvana and renewal—a mark of the end of a long chapter of wandering and running, and the beginning of something new. This was Sylvia.
The second woman wore a thick mechanical helmet, with a fiery mask hanging beside it more as decoration than protection. The sacred flame pattern on her mask was unlike any other—the mask was split cleanly down the middle. The left half kept the original design of a standard mask, untouched and unchanged. The right half had been replaced entirely by a fiercely burning sacred flame.
Only she knew the true meaning behind that design. She had created it herself.
She had not chosen a codename. Everyone simply continued to call her Whitney.
Not far from the three of them, confined in an iron cage, was Andrew.
Compared to the last time Jacob had seen him—some months ago—Andrew looked worn down. Thinner. The long stretch of time spent locked away in the basement had left its mark on him. His skin had taken on a pale, unhealthy tone, his eyes were flat and distant, and his overall state was clearly poor.
High in the sky, not far off, a Gigantamax Corviknight drifted overhead like a great moving fortress. Its Blade Bird companions circled and glided around its enormous frame, quiet and precise—like the finest reconnaissance Pokémon one could wish for.
Nina sat atop the broad, armored back of the Gigantamax Corviknight, wearing her own fiery mask. The sacred flame pattern on hers took the shape of a dragon—a nod to her strongest type, and also to her family name.
Behind her stood three others: Zion, Layne, and Edwin. All three wore fiery masks of their own.
Zion's mask bore the image of a top hat. Layne's displayed a pair of white gloves. Edwin's showed a skull.
The top hat and white gloves reflected the role the Zion siblings had long played as attendants and housekeepers. Edwin's skull, on the other hand, stood as a contrast to the Paradise Group he was associated with—a quiet irony in its own right.
The three of them stood behind Nina, their eyes occasionally drifting toward her tall, composed figure.
This was the first time any of them had seen both Nina and the Gigantamax Corviknight in person.
They couldn't help but trade quiet, wondering glances among themselves. When had Team Rocket acquired another permanent Gigantamax Corviknight? And who was this masked woman they were calling the "Dragon"? A new recruit?
They had never seen her. Never even heard her name mentioned before.
Was she Giovanni's hidden trump card?
Just how many cards was he holding back?
Jacob stood in the shade of a tree, keeping out of the direct sun. The island heat was brutal, the kind that could leave a burn on exposed skin without much warning.
He surveyed his surroundings quietly, his expression focused.
The location he had passed on to Champion Meyer was only a general area—nothing specific. The exact spot would only be sent to the Champion an hour before the meeting was set to begin. That precaution was deliberate, meant to leave no time for prior arrangements.
On top of that, the island Jacob had actually chosen sat outside the general area he had described. That, too, was intentional. He wanted Champion Meyer arriving without any groundwork laid, without any backup quietly positioned ahead of time.
The goal was simple: catch him entirely off guard.
And to push every advantage as far as it would go, Jacob had set the exchange for 2 AM, and had borrowed Raya's Cresselia for the occasion.
After all, both Darkrai and Cresselia drew considerably more power from the night than from daylight hours.
Time, place, and strength—all tilted in my favor. What exactly are you planning to counter with, Champion Meyer?
The full moon sat high in the night sky. The sea rolled in slow, steady waves, their sound filling the quiet around the island.
Jacob stood on the shore, checking the time on his Pokégear. Two hours remained until the agreed meeting time.
His preparations were thorough. He knew that. And yet a faint restlessness sat somewhere at the back of his mind, refusing to settle entirely.
Champion Meyer was no ordinary opponent. He was a seasoned, highly respected Champion with a reputation that had been built over many years of hard battles.
This was Jacob's first time going up against a Champion of that caliber directly.
Gigantamax Lapras. Gigantamax Grimmsnarl. Gigantamax Corviknight.
Three Gigantamax Pokémon on his side.
He stared out at the dark water and wondered, quietly, whether it would be enough.