Giovanni's mind was razor-clear. He knew Mewtwo only obeyed him on the surface; deep down, it didn't trust him at all.
That was why he hadn't issued orders at the start. With Mewtwo's pride, it would never listen—trying to command it would only make him look foolish.
So he waited until the tide turned against Mewtwo before speaking up.
If Mewtwo escaped a crisis by following his instructions, then trust would begin to form. And even if Mewtwo ignored him and paid the price, regret would take root—also useful for cultivating that trust.
That was Giovanni's brand of calculated cunning.
Now, Mewtwo had been forced into a corner. The opponent's Flash Cannon was about to smash through its defenses when Giovanni's voice cut in by Mewtwo's ear.
Just as Giovanni had predicted, Mewtwo instinctively chose to follow his command and used Teleport to evade.
Blue light flared over Mewtwo's body as it vanished in an Instant Move—reappearing away from Mega Metagross's Flash Cannon.
The silver-white beam lanced straight through and slammed into the helicopter behind Giovanni.
Boom!
The helicopter exploded into a ball of fire, a small mushroom cloud blooming where it had sat.
"Nice work, Metagross." Nozomi was thoroughly satisfied with the scene before him.
He'd never planned to take Mewtwo down in a single strike. From the start, his real target had been Giovanni's helicopter.
Destroy the chopper, and Giovanni's group would be stranded here.
Once Lance arrived with reinforcements, Giovanni would be a turtle in a jar—nowhere to run.
Giovanni didn't know all that, of course. But a man of his intellect could easily guess Nozomi's intent from the helicopter's destruction alone.
"So you're cutting off my retreat, are you?"
Giovanni's face darkened. He felt he had been completely outmaneuvered.
Ever since he'd become Team Rocket's boss and expanded its power across Kanto and Johto, it had been a long time since he'd tasted a situation like this.
"Mewtwo, Shadow Ball!" he ordered, anger tightly leashed.
Mewtwo disliked taking orders from him, but the Pokémon before it was clearly formidable. With the limiter in place, it might not be a match.
Mewtwo refused to lose. It raised a hand and fired a Shadow Ball—choosing, this time, to heed Giovanni's command.
"So you've set your pride aside, have you?"
Metagross batted the Shadow Ball apart with ease, but the smile faded from Nozomi's lips as his eyes sharpened.
To him, Mewtwo itself wasn't the real problem. Strong as it was, it had been born only recently and lacked battle experience. With Mega Metagross at his side, Nozomi had plenty of ways to win.
But with Giovanni calling the shots, the situation became far trickier.
As Team Rocket's boss, a former Viridian Gym Leader, and the man once known as "Giovanni of the Earth," he stood among Kanto's top tactical minds.
"Metagross, stay sharp!" Nozomi called.
"Wrrrnnn!"
Metagross spread its four limbs, scarlet light glinting in its eyes—its only answer.
"We go first. Take the initiative—Metagross, use Meteor Mash!"
Mega Metagross shone brightest in close quarters. If they wanted to beat Mewtwo, they'd have to rely on that.
Giovanni didn't know all of Mega Metagross's strengths, but he understood one principle well: whatever the opponent wanted to do—don't let them.
"Mewtwo, dodge and keep firing Shadow Ball!"
He immediately ordered Mewtwo to avoid a direct clash.
With Mewtwo's mobility, he could keep kiting Mega Metagross with Shadow Balls. In the end, victory would belong to him and Mewtwo.
"Metagross, use Agility—then start spinning!"
Nozomi's command left Giovanni momentarily baffled.
"Start spinning"? Since when was that a move?
But when he saw Metagross's motion, he understood.
Metagross planted itself as the axis and began to rotate at high speed—its whole body becoming a steel-gray top. The four razor claws, driven by that rotation, formed a ring of teeth like a buzzing saw along the "top's" edge.
The whirling mass tore the air, a slicing howl trailing behind it.
Then Mega Metagross drew a gleaming arc through the sky and lunged straight for Mewtwo.
In raw speed, it was nearly twice as fast as before.
Caught off guard, Mewtwo couldn't slip away in time. It had to bring up the massive telekinetic spoon in its hand to block.
Clang-clang-clang-clang!
Claw met spoon in a nonstop storm. With Metagross spinning at full tilt, its claws clashed with Mewtwo's spoon dozens—hundreds—of times each second.
The relentless vibrations left Mewtwo's arms numb.
At the point where the spoon's handle met Metagross's claws, the grinding left a deep groove—Metagross's talons had bitten halfway through.
Mewtwo's expression tightened. If this kept up, the spoon would snap. But at this range, it couldn't think of a clean way to dodge. It tried to Teleport again—
Only to feel two currents of psychic power already locked onto it.
Even so, staying put was no longer an option. Mewtwo had no intention of testing Mega Metagross's claws with its own body. Without time to think, it Teleported again.
Swish!
Mewtwo vanished from before Metagross.
The instant it reappeared at a new position, Nozomi's shout rang out.
"Dragonite—Dragon Pulse!"
Mewtwo looked up—and froze. At some point, Dragonite had already taken aim. Its jaws were wide, draconic energy surging, a Dragon Pulse about to fire straight at it!
Nozomi had anticipated the Teleport. The moment Metagross began its assault, he'd locked onto Mewtwo with his own psychic senses—then ordered Dragonite to charge an attack for the predicted reappearance.
At this point, there was no time for another Teleport. Mewtwo could only throw up a thin veil of energy over its body and hope it would hold.
Boom!
The Dragon Pulse smashed into Mewtwo, the invasive Dragon-type energy riddling that veil with holes.
Dragonite, however, wasn't Metagross, and Dragon Pulse wasn't as overwhelming as Flash Cannon. It could do no more than this.
Mewtwo shrugged off the blast and moved to counterattack—when a rending force tore in from behind.
Crack-crack-crack!
The battered energy veil shattered. Razor-sharp metal claws slammed down onto the armor plating over Mewtwo's body.