Chapter 187: Unova's Too Hard — Let Plasma and Rocket Kill Each Other?
Opelucid City. Home to the Unova League's headquarters, and the venue for Unova's regional tournament, the Opelucid Conference.
Alder, long absent, had finally returned to this city.
It had been years since his last extended stay. Years on the road.
In the conference room, Unova's Elite Four had gathered alongside Looker and Officer Jenny.
"Team Rocket is making moves on our territory, and Team Plasma's circling like a vulture. What's the plan?"
The League President — an older man, somewhat heavyset — broke the silence, his voice grave.
"..."
Alder leaned back in his chair, arms crossed, exhaling heavily, his expression dark.
He still couldn't quite process it. Team Plasma — actually waking the dragon from Unova's founding mythology. No wonder Ghetsis had been so insistent about wanting to "cooperate" against Rocket.
Plasma had a real trump card this whole time, after all.
And that trainer — the one Zekrom had recognized—
Alder's brow tightened, recalling the green-haired young man's striking, unsettling features. Those eyes had been hollow, unfocused. He hadn't looked like a living person so much as a puppet with no soul left inside it.
And he'd called Ghetsis "Father." Was the boy actually Ghetsis's son?
Whatever the answer, one thing was painfully clear: Unova's situation had become genuinely dire. Team Rocket pushing in from outside. Team Plasma destabilizing everything from within. The League had been handed an impossible hand.
Alder's scalp prickled. He rubbed at his temples, turning options over and over, finding none of them good.
"Given our current strength, going after either side directly would end badly." Officer Jenny spoke up, her voice gentle but pointed. "Is there a version of this where we simply let Team Rocket and Team Plasma fight each other?"
She'd phrased it as delicately as she could manage. The truth, unspoken but understood by everyone present, was that Unova's leadership simply didn't have the firepower right now. The Elite Four were solid, unremarkable. And Alder—
Everyone in the room knew exactly what that meant. He hadn't fought a serious battle in years. What more could anyone reasonably ask of him?
Bluntly: between Team Rocket and a Plasma armed with Zekrom, the Unova League couldn't realistically beat either one.
"I wouldn't even write my own protagonist into a corner this bad." Shauntal muttered the comment under her breath. The Ghost-type Elite Four member's one real hobby outside battling was novel-writing, and clearly the irony wasn't lost on her.
"Letting Rocket and Plasma tear each other apart — fine in theory," Grimsley said, cutting in. The Dark-type specialist, sharp in his tuxedo, leaned forward with a skeptical look. "But what happens if the fight breaks out mid-city? In the middle of a population center?"
"Rocket's already shown its hand in Kanto and Hoenn both. They don't operate with any regard for civilian safety — none whatsoever." His tone was flat.
Letting the two organizations bleed each other dry was, ideally, the cleanest outcome available. But the where mattered. This was Unova's land they'd be fighting over.
What if the collision happened in a city center? Did the League stand back and watch civilians get caught in the crossfire? Or did they pivot to evacuation duty while two criminal armies tore the streets apart?
The image, honestly, was almost comical in how bad it would look.
"And per the intelligence we received from Hoenn," Looker said, activating a projector, pulling up profiles for Mammon, Caitlin, and Kagura, "Team Rocket has no fewer than three top-rank executives present. Which means, at minimum, three Champion-tier individuals operating in this region right now."
"Kagura — a member of the Meteorite clan, Dragon-type Champion. Her strength reportedly rivals Hoenn's own Champion, Steven. Caitlin — a Psychic specialist, formerly the proprietor of Sinnoh's Battle Castle."
"Now functioning as a dedicated Psychic-type Champion within Rocket's ranks. Her team is reportedly extremely formidable — she's defeated former Hoenn Champion Wallace twice."
Looker's tone stayed serious as she continued.
"And finally, this one — Mammon. His personal combat capability is already considered top-tier, but more critically — he possesses Hoenn's legendary Pokémon, the Lord of the Deep Ocean, Kyogre."
She gave special emphasis to the figure at the center of the projection.
Alder's eyes narrowed, fixed on the black-haired young man.
"Kyogre is fully under his control. I want to be absolutely clear, everyone — if we allow Team Rocket and Team Plasma to fight unchecked, it won't take long before Plasma is simply absorbed whole into Rocket."
Looker's voice was grim. It had happened exactly this way in Hoenn — Magma and Aqua both swallowed up entirely, becoming fuel for Rocket's continued expansion.
"And at that point, an even more powerful Rocket — one reinforced by Plasma's resources — would become something we genuinely could not handle."
"Hold on — Looker." Grimsley's brow tightened. "All three of these Rocket executives are in Unova right now?"
"Correct. I had Driftveil's surveillance pulled, along with passenger manifests for every flight from Kanto into Unova over the recent period."
Looker's voice was low.
"Mammon, Kagura, and Caitlin — all three arrived in Castelia just days ago."
"...Tch."
Grimsley went silent. He sank back in his chair with an audible click of his tongue.
What was there left to say, honestly?
A heavy silence settled over the entire room. Three Champion-tier executives, one of them holding an apex ancient legendary — and on the other side, a self-proclaimed "Hero of Ideals" personally endorsed by Zekrom.
Neither side was anything Unova could afford to provoke right now. So what exactly were their options?
The sense of helplessness in that room was something none of them had ever experienced before. Genuinely, collectively, no one had any idea what to do.
"I'll appeal to the other regions for assistance," the League President said finally, exhaustion plain in his voice.
"President..." Alder's expression twisted with guilt. "I'm sorry. This is on me — I should have been stronger."
If he'd kept himself in fighting shape, the President wouldn't be reduced to going hat-in-hand to other regions for help. However you sliced it, that wasn't a good look for anyone.
"Alder, you've already given a great deal to this region. You don't need to carry this on yourself."
The President's tone was reassuring.
"And there's no shame in it. Hoenn did exactly the same thing, not long ago."
He offered a small, tired smile. Asking for outside help was never a comfortable position to be in — but Unova wouldn't even be the first region forced into it this year. Hoenn had set that precedent already.
"What matters most right now is getting through this crisis. Whether it's Plasma or Rocket — we can't let either one tear this region apart unchecked!"
The President's voice carried real authority on that last line.
"Yes, sir!" The room answered as one, serious and unified.
"Good. I'll go reach out to the other Champions and Presidents now. The rest of you, keep working out a strategy."
The President rose and exited the room, leaving Alder and the others behind.
"Champion Alder. I have an idea." Grimsley turned to him abruptly.
"Go ahead."
"You mentioned earlier that Ghetsis — under Rocket's pressure — wanted to cooperate with us." Something calculating crossed Grimsley's expression. "If that's the case, once reinforcements from other regions arrive, we could use that offer to lure both Ghetsis and the so-called Hero of Ideals out into the open."
"You want to take down Ghetsis and the boy with Zekrom first?"
Looker grasped the implication instantly, her frown deepening.
"That's an enormous risk, Grimsley. If it fails, we'll have driven Team Plasma into open hostility against us, permanently."
"Better that than waiting for Rocket to absorb Plasma and come out even stronger. If anything, Looker, you're being too cautious."
Grimsley clearly didn't share her position.
"First — Plasma was already our enemy. It's a criminal organization. It's already on the wrong side of this."
"Rocket doesn't have the manpower for a full occupation here yet — they're strong at the top, but thin everywhere else. Plasma, on the other hand, you all know exactly what they are."
"And now they have someone Zekrom personally recognizes. If Plasma starts leveraging the founding myth to manipulate public sentiment, the threat scales fast — faster than Rocket's."
His tone stayed level throughout.
"As I see it, Plasma is the more dangerous problem right now, and it's also the softer target. Easier to actually beat."
"We have no guarantee we can beat them. We have no real data on what Zekrom is even capable of in combat." Looker pushed back, holding her ground.
"If our ambush fails, we risk pushing the Hero of Ideals directly into Rocket's arms. And then what — we're facing a Rocket reinforced by Zekrom?"
"My read is that the priority should be steering Plasma into a direct collision with Rocket. Once reinforcements arrive from other regions, we can move on the winner."
Looker and Grimsley's positions had diverged completely, the conference room turning into an outright argument between the two of them.
Alder's head throbbed. Both arguments had real merit. He had no idea which path to actually commit to.
While the Unova League agonized over strategy, Mammon's group had already moved on.
Blueberry Academy — the institution introduced in Scarlet/Violet's Indigo Disk DLC, geographically situated here in Unova.
Mammon, Caitlin, and Kagura arrived at the campus.
Though a relatively new institution, Blueberry had already established itself as the premier school in the entire region — and notably, it maintained its own Terastal technology program.
Terastalization was a Paldea-exclusive Pokémon enhancement method capable of altering a Pokémon's type, derived from Tera Orbs engineered by Professors Sada and Turo. The Tera energy stored in a Tera Orb allowed a single Terastallization, after which the orb required either contact with a fully-charged Tera crystal or a recharge at a Paldean Pokémon Center before it could be used again.
"Can I help you?"
Campus security stopped the three of them at the front gate.
"Hello," Mammon said, warm and easy. "We've always been curious about Blueberry Academy — thought we'd come take a look around."
"I see. Please register here, then." The guard was friendly enough. "Some areas of campus are restricted to visitors — please be mindful of the signage."
"Of course." Mammon nodded.
After registering at the gate, the three of them made their way onto campus proper. They hadn't gotten far before Mammon's eyes locked onto something in the distance.
A young man and woman, both black-haired, both sporting an unusual hairstyle — two crossed strands of bangs falling over their foreheads, hanging low enough to brush the bridge of the nose.
A striking, hard-to-forget look.
The primary targets of this entire trip.
Kieran and Carmine.
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