Chapter 83: Strength, Purpose, Ambition — I Will Surpass Him!
Ariana was having a terrible time.
What had she done to deserve being hunted down by two Kanto Elite Four members?
The Vileplume launch had obviously been Bruno's Hitmonlee — the "Kicking Demon," with legs that could extend and retract to strike targets at absurd range.
"This is bad, Gladion."
Ariana's complexion, never particularly warm, had gone the color of ash.
"I don't enjoy fighting those weaker than me," Bruno said, his voice low and unhurried. "But you're Team Rocket. I won't let you go. Give yourselves up."
"Are you JOKING—"
Ariana had no intention of being arrested, and Gladion even less.
"Pointless resistance."
Bruno didn't say anything else. His job was to put them down and hand them to the officers. That was it.
Elsewhere.
"Pikachu — Thunder!"
"Charizard — Air Slash!"
Red gave his orders in a tight, low voice. A crackling gold bolt and a sky-splitting blade of compressed air converged from both angles.
"Nature's Madness."
Mammon smiled faintly.
Tapu Fini's cry rang out. The ground blazed pink. A shockwave of pink light surged forward.
Fairy-type — Nature's Madness. The signature move of the Tapus.
The shockwave met Thunder and Air Slash head-on. No contest. Both attacks shattered against it.
The pink wave kept moving, remnant force carrying it straight into Charizard and Pikachu. Both tried to dodge. Neither made it.
Both Pokémon were launched off their feet. Pink, yellow, and blue light detonated on impact.
The blast wave nearly took Red off his feet too — he threw both arms up and leaned hard into it, barely keeping himself upright.
That's strong.
Watching Red's two front-liners go down in a single hit, Erika stood frozen.
"Surf."
Tapu Fini's body shimmered ocean-blue. A wave surged up from nothing, Tapu Fini riding it forward.
"Blastoise!"
Red's hands were fast. A powerfully built Blastoise materialized in front of him, green Protect barrier snapping into place.
BOOM.
The wave crashed down and swept over everything ahead of it.
When the water receded, the ground was wreckage. Pikachu and Charizard lay soaked and motionless.
Tapu Fini drifted in place, expression serene, looking down at Blastoise and Red without triumph or disappointment.
Red's brow was tight. He returned Charizard and Pikachu without a word, eyes fixed on Tapu Fini.
"I told you. Your development time isn't enough. The gap between us is larger than you think." Mammon tilted his head.
This was why he had no interest in fighting the weak. Boring.
Red: "…"
He pulled his cap lower.
In that short exchange, he'd understood it clearly. The person across from him — one year older, that was all — was operating at a level that was, right now, simply out of his reach.
Red knew his own talent was real. Since setting out at the start of the year, he hadn't lost to a single peer — not one. Not anyone his own age.
Anyone.
Even his twin brother Ash — they'd fought once and Red had won.
His rival Green was the only one who could match him, their battles splitting roughly even.
But everyone else? Red had never once felt pressure from a peer Trainer.
Until today.
"If you're smart, leaving now is the right call. You can't beat me. You know that." Mammon watched the silent boy across from him, unhurried.
He understood his own position too. He was one of the lucky ones — someone the world had favored. Power of Viridian. Trainer talent that put him firmly in "monster" territory.
And when two monsters were evenly matched in talent, time was decisive. For Trainers like them, every month of development translated directly to strength. One year of growth separated him from Red right now, and that year was everything.
"…"
Red didn't answer. He just opened another Poké Ball.
A Venusaur — exceptionally developed — landed heavily in front of him.
He understood the gap. He wasn't going to run from Team Rocket anyway.
"What a stubborn personality." Mammon clicked his tongue, then shrugged. "Fine."
He looked the Venusaur over with genuine interest. Was Red actually running the in-game roster? Pikachu, Charizard, Venusaur, Blastoise — if so, the last two would be—
"Mewtwo."
The air went quiet.
Then it hummed.
In Red's perception, the air itself began vibrating — a deep, resonant oscillation that built in his ears and wouldn't stop. His vision tilted. His body trembled without his permission, knees wanting to buckle under something he couldn't see.
In front of him, Blastoise and Venusaur looked like they were carrying the weight of something enormous. Both were sweating. Both were straining just to stay upright.
Pressure.
Pressure unlike anything Red had ever felt in his life.
He looked up.
A black armored figure was descending from above — humanoid, unhurried, landing in front of the boy with a sound like a verdict.
Its face was hidden behind the helmet. Only its eyes were visible, and those eyes held a slow, burning violet light.
What is this Pokémon?
On the broken ground, the armored figure settled into place before Mammon. Red forced himself upright against the pressure, ignored everything his body was screaming at him, and stared — fixed his red eyes on the armored shape and on Mammon behind it, burning them both into his memory.
"I've lost interest in continuing this." Mammon's mouth curved slightly. He glanced to the side.
Armored Mewtwo understood. Its right arm raised, violet light swaying in its eyes.
"Wha — hey, HEY—"
A girl's startled cry. The black-skirted girl from before floated out from wherever she'd been hiding, lifted by psychic force. When she saw Mammon looking at her, she gave an awkward smile.
"Uh. Hi there. You're very handsome."
"Spying is a bad habit, miss."
"I wasn't spying, I was just passing through—" Leaf laughed awkwardly, trying to move. Nothing worked. She couldn't budge.
I'm so done.
"I should go check on my people." Mammon half-turned. "Both of you — stay out of trouble from here. If you try to stop me again, I won't promise to be lenient."
"We will be completely, totally well-behaved!" Leaf laughed with the energy of someone who meant every word. Stop him? Not a chance. Not in this lifetime. He looked about her age but he was an absolute monster — and that Pokémon—
She looked at Armored Mewtwo and the dread in her eyes was genuine. The sheer malice radiating off it made her skin crawl.
"Then we understand each other." Mammon smiled faintly. "I imagine we'll meet again."
He turned and walked. Armored Mewtwo followed. Erika hesitated, then sighed quietly and followed too.
Red straightened and moved to have Venusaur and Blastoise cut off the retreat.
"Please, please don't—" Leaf immediately grabbed his arm. "He let us go. If you push it and he turns around—"
The man was a senior Rocket executive. Nobody knew what he'd do if he actually got angry. He'd already given them more mercy than they'd had any right to expect.
"…" Red's jaw worked. Then the tension slowly left his posture. He pressed his cap down and looked at the ground.
Leaf exhaled. She watched the three figures walking away, something uneasy turning over in her chest — a feeling she couldn't quite name. Something almost impulsive, which was unusual for her.
"Wait."
"Hm?"
Mammon stopped. Half his face turned.
"You're Gym Leader Giovanni's son, aren't you." Leaf chose her words carefully. "Why would someone like you join Team Rocket?"
She'd spent so long running from that darkness, trying to put it behind her. And here was this boy — talented, with everything ahead of him — who had walked toward it deliberately.
Mammon heard her. Erika turned to look at him. So did Red.
"You want a reason?"
Something in Mammon's expression quieted. His eyes moved to the distance — toward the sound of the ongoing battle, the crashes and cries that hadn't stopped.
"Sometimes," he said, his voice settling into something different, "no matter how hard you work — no matter how much sweat you pour into something — the value of what you've built can be dismissed with a single sentence."
The words reached the three of them at a slight distance, like something carried on wind.
"Strength. Purpose. Ambition. When I was given the name 'son of the greatest Gym Leader in Kanto,' that name was all I had. Beneath it there was nothing that was mine. I was performing a role — the son of a legend."
He paused.
"So why should I perform a hollow name?"
His voice sharpened.
"I won the Indigo Conference. I captured legendary Pokémon. I accomplished things he never did. I did all of it."
"I will prove it to everyone — I have already surpassed him."
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