Chapter 182: Mammon Arrives in Unova! Steven, Let's Go Help Unova's League!
Day two.
Caitlin woke early and opened her bedroom door — only to walk straight into Tamao, dressed in casual clothes.
Worth noting: the room Tamao had just emerged from belonged to Mammon.
Caitlin's expression went very flat. She regarded Tamao in silence.
"Good morning, Lady Caitlin~" Tamao offered a small, polite bow.
Caitlin's eyes tracked Tamao's somewhat unsteady posture. She pressed her lips together and nodded once.
"Morning."
"Lord Mammon's still asleep. I'm going to draw him some hot water."
Tamao made a smooth, graceful exit on light footsteps.
Caitlin watched her go, expression souring further. She knew exactly what had happened the night before.
What kind of garbage building is this?! The walls are paper-thin!!
She was an adult now. Mature. She did not eavesdrop through walls anymore, thank you very much.
But last night's... activity... had reached her ears whether she wanted it to or not. And Tamao, of all people — the cool, composed one, the elegant one —
How could someone who looked like that make sounds like that—
"Hmph."
A dismissive sniff. Just a handmaiden. Beneath consideration.
Mammon and Caitlin ended up staying in Ecruteak for two more days after that. Couldn't really be helped — Tamao had her charms, and the Dance Theater itself was the kind of place that made people forget they had places to be.
Especially once the other three sisters returned. Five sisters, and genuinely all five of them had something.
But Mammon hadn't forgotten his actual business. Once Kagura and Gladion got back, the four of them booked flights, and they were off.
Team Rocket's expansion didn't pause for anyone.
The Unova region — geographically, an enormous distance from Kanto.
Castelia City. One of Unova's most developed metropolises, and one of the grandest cities on the entire continent.
Castelia — "soaring cloud," "auspicious cloud."
"Whoa~ this is incredible!"
Stepping out of the airport and taking in the skyline, Kagura couldn't help the awed exclamation.
Castelia genuinely was breathtaking. A coastal city, built to staggering scale — its skyline a forest of towers shouldering into the sky, the streets below choked with hurrying pedestrians moving in every direction.
Kagura had never seen anything on this scale before. Mossdeep and Slateport, back in Hoenn, suddenly felt almost quaint by comparison.
That wasn't to say Hoenn's cities were objectively worse — but standing as one of the genuinely world-class megacities, Castelia's sheer modernity hit differently. There weren't many places that compared.
"Right? Let's get moving. This is where our Unova base is going to be."
Mammon adjusted the long black coat he was wearing — an elaborate piece the sisters had stayed up all night sewing for him. He'd never been particularly invested in fashion; black shirt, black pants had been his default look for as long as he could remember.
But the gift had been a genuine gesture, and frankly — he had to admit the coat looked good on him. Something about it shifted his whole presence.
"Lord Mammon, this is the building we purchased."
The group arrived first at the financial district, where Gladion gave the rundown.
Castelia was the commercial and economic heart of Unova, which meant land here came at a premium. Fortunately, Team Rocket had money. A great deal of money.
The Alola and Hoenn branches were both running stably now — Alola's, in particular, was practically printing currency at this point. On top of that, Mammon had recently pulled ten billion in liquid funds out of Steven, so the organization's coffers weren't exactly strained.
Not that he'd been short on cash to begin with.
The group rode the elevator to the top floor. The building had originally been leased out, but Gladion had simply bought the whole complex outright.
"Nice. Good sightlines." Mammon walked to the floor-to-ceiling windows, taking in the open view with evident satisfaction.
"I've already started hiring staff," Gladion reported. "We should be fully operational soon."
"Good work, Gladion. You actually have a talent for this." Mammon's tone was equal parts genuine praise and gentle teasing. "You sure you don't want to pivot careers?"
It was probably something he'd inherited from Lusamine — that uncanny administrative gift. Gladion's talent for running an organization was, genuinely, impressive.
The problem was his ambitions lay elsewhere entirely.
"Please don't tease me, Lord Mammon." Gladion shook his head. "Speaking of which — I'd like to use my accumulated merit to redeem Ho-Oh."
A formal request, the way exchanges for legendary-tier Pokémon were supposed to go — through someone at Mammon's level directly.
"Wait, your merit's already that high?" Kagura blinked, genuinely startled. That's fast.
She personally had zero interest in most of the legendaries on the current redemption list — being from a meteorite-worshipping background, her tastes ran exclusively to Dragon-types. She'd actually had her eye on Dratini, which only cost 50,000 merit, but even that was still out of her current reach.
A legendary like Ho-Oh cost 100,000.
"That's right." Gladion nodded.
"Have you forgotten how busy Gladion was in Hoenn?" Mammon rolled his eyes at her. While in Hoenn, Gladion had been handling both Rocket's business development and periodic field deployments against rival organizations — easily the busiest senior officer in the entire Hoenn branch.
Kagura laughed sheepishly. Fair point. Outside the actual fight against the Hoenn League, she'd mostly been napping or in private training.
"No problem. Go ahead and file the request — I'll have Ho-Oh transferred to you shortly." Mammon nodded at him. "One thing, though — for a Pokémon like Ho-Oh, you still have to complete the actual capture battle yourself."
He added the clarification.
"Though given your skill level, that shouldn't give you any trouble."
The wild Ho-Oh Rocket had on hand was Elite-Four-tier — well within Gladion's reach.
"Understood!" Gladion's eyes lit with renewed determination. Ho-Oh! He'd finally have a legendary of his own. (Silvally: ...?)
His original target had actually been Phione — but Lance had already redeemed it before Gladion got around to filing the paperwork.
Couldn't be helped. Lance had been working diligently in Alola, racking up merit at an impressive pace, on top of the substantial backlog he'd already accumulated.
Word was, these days Lance took his beloved Phione out for a stroll through the streets of Alola every single day, just to feel satisfied. He'd been posting short clips of it in the group chat constantly, to the point that Gladion genuinely couldn't take it anymore.
Right — Rocket's senior officers had formed their own group chat. The Three Admins, the Four Generals, and newer senior officers like Gladion, Guzma, and Maxie were all in it.
Worth noting: Chakra had not been invited.
"By the way, Lord Mammon," Gladion continued, with the casual air of a man absolutely not being casual, "now that the Alola operation has fully stabilized, I think it would make sense to transfer Lance over here."
"Mr. Lance has more management experience than I do. I imagine he'd handle things even better."
"Lance, huh?" Mammon's eyebrow rose. He shot Gladion a look that wasn't quite a smile.
"Sure. Honestly, it's been a while — I'm a little overdue for seeing him anyway." He didn't push back on the suggestion at all.
The Alola business operation really was running smoothly enough at this point that Lance had become somewhat underutilized there, since he only needed to set broad direction now.
"As for you, Gladion — get to Champion-tier as soon as you can. You've got the raw talent for it."
"Yes, sir!"
Gladion's response came back instantly, serious. He wanted exactly that — to reach Champion-tier as fast as possible.
Not just for himself. For Lillie. To be the kind of strength she could lean on, without question.
"If you ever need a sparring partner, come find me. I'd love to." Kagura grinned, friendly and genuine.
Her own burdens had lightened considerably these days — she practically smiled by default now. Her vendetta over Shelly's death was largely settled, and Mammon's word on the meteorite threat had eased her mind about the rest of her tribe's prophecy.
"Same here, Gladion. Good luck." Caitlin offered a small, encouraging smile.
"Thank you both." Gladion nodded, grateful. Sparring against genuinely strong opponents was the fastest path to real growth, and he absolutely needed people at that level.
"Mammon, this region's evil organization is Team Plasma, right?" Kagura piped up, practically vibrating with anticipation. "When are we going to go mess with them?"
If Rocket had landed in Unova, the local "evil organization" obviously couldn't be left standing.
"No rush. This one isn't like Magma or Aqua."
Mammon settled into the executive chair, the corner of his mouth lifting.
Team Plasma — the antagonist faction from Black/White and Black 2/White 2. Nothing like the joke that Magma and Aqua had been.
In fact, setting aside the original Rainbow Rocket, Team Plasma might genuinely be the strongest evil organization on record.
First leader: N. Second leader: Colress. And the true mastermind pulling strings the whole time: Ghetsis.
Setting aside Ghetsis himself, both N and Colress were exceptionally gifted — both Champion-tier trainers in their own right.
N in particular was a singular case.
The amusing part, of course, was how it had all shaken out. Both N and Colress had ended up reformed by the story's end, while Ghetsis got beaten down by a literal child not once but twice and basically lost his mind in the process.
Against a group like that, Mammon was genuinely looking forward to playing this one out properly.
"Still — new arrivals should at least pay a courtesy visit to the neighbors." He tapped a finger against the arm of his chair. He had no intention of launching a full operation against Team Plasma right now. But dropping in to say hello was warranted — let the "neighbors" know exactly who'd just moved in.
The Unova League itself was, frankly, too weak to interest him at all. Team Plasma was the only thing here worth his attention.
"Gladion. Have someone look into where Ghetsis is currently located."
Mammon issued the assignment.
Ghetsis — one of the so-called Sages, technically. In practice: an ambitious, ruthless schemer entirely lacking in either sage-ness or restraint. He spent considerable energy publicly preaching his "Liberation" doctrine across the region, which had earned him an official designation from the Unova League as a cult-promoting criminal.
His actual personal strength wasn't anything to dismiss either — not quite Champion-tier, but genuinely formidable, comfortably among the strongest Elite-Four-tier trainers around.
Which was, not coincidentally, exactly why the League had never managed to catch him.
"Yes, sir!" Gladion nodded.
Hoenn. Lilycove City.
"Steven! Steven, this is bad!!"
Wallace burst into Steven's office in a state of considerable urgency, finding him hunched over a map.
"What's wrong? Actually, Wallace, perfect timing — I'm going to need a few days off. Can you cover my duties?"
Steven folded the map away instantly, clearing his throat.
Wallace's face went completely flat.
"Absolutely not. Don't even think about it."
He'd stake his entire personal credibility on it: that look on Steven's face meant exactly one thing — he wants to go dig up rocks.
"Steven, how can you let your guard down like this? Mammon only just left Hoenn — and you're already slacking off?"
Wallace, the personal disappointment radiating off him.
Steven looked back at him with absolutely no expression whatsoever.
"If I recall correctly, I happened to see someone wearing a dress yesterday."
...Damn it. Did Wallace really have the nerve to lecture him about anything right now?
"Ahem. Steven, I'm actually here on serious business."
Wallace cleared his throat and steered the topic elsewhere.
"What is it?" Steven hadn't even bothered hiding the map anymore — he just pulled it back out and kept studying it.
Two months without a single rock-collecting expedition. The itch was getting unbearable.
"It's Team Rocket! Something about Mammon's group!"
"They're back?" Steven's expression changed instantly. Surely not. The Alpaca Game Corner had been completely quiet — he hadn't sent anyone to harass it.
And what was even left in Hoenn for them to take, anyway? Land, sea, and air had all already been swept clean, not a single legendary left worth stealing. Rocket would be wasting their time.
"No, not that."
"Oh." Steven relaxed.
"They've gone to Unova!!"
Wallace's tone was tangled — genuine concern for Unova, mixed with something that sounded suspiciously like excitement.
"Unova?" Steven blinked. "How do you even know that?"
"You forgot? We have a mole inside Rocket. According to his report, he just got notified — they're heading to Unova."
Wallace rolled his eyes. Their inside contact wasn't exactly high-ranking within Rocket, but even a low-level source could yield useful directional intel.
"I see... Unova's in for it, then."
Steven let out a long breath. Unova's League was already on the weaker side as it stood — there was no way it could withstand the kind of disruption Mammon's Rocket brought wherever it went.
"Steven, shouldn't we go help Unova's League? Standing against evil Team Rocket is everyone's responsibility!"
Wallace offered his proposal with great solemnity.
In fairness — ten percent of his motivation here was genuine civic duty. The other ninety percent was that he'd never actually been to Unova, and the idea of hosting a Grand Contest there had real appeal.
"Are you out of your mind?"
Steven stared at him, blunt.
Buddy. Where exactly is this confidence coming from. Worried your cross-dressing photos aren't viral enough yet? Or are you angling for another couples photoshoot with Senior Wallace's old rival Diantha?
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