Chapter 258: Paul! Do You Need Stronger Pokémon?
"Lady actually joined Team Rocket?"
Cynthia could hardly believe it — Platinum, a kind, refined girl like that, joining Team Rocket. This was—
"Yes. It's all because of me. If it weren't for me, Platinum never would have made a decision like that," Mr. Berlitz said, pressing a hand over his face in anguish, at a complete loss for what to do. Platinum had been a girl with boundless promise ahead of her.
"Champion Cynthia, I beg of you — please, bring Platinum back. Whatever it costs, I'll pay it." Mr. Berlitz pleaded with Cynthia again, consumed with guilt — if it weren't for him—
"I understand. I'll do everything I can."
Cynthia's expression was conflicted. She'd more or less pieced together what must have happened by now — it wasn't hard to guess. Something in her sank heavily. Caitlin, and now Lady — one her closest friend, the other a junior trainer she'd taken under her wing — both of them, joining Team Rocket. Cynthia felt genuinely low at the thought.
"Professor Rowan, who exactly from Team Rocket took you?" Cynthia composed herself and turned to Rowan.
Rowan had stayed silent this whole time, perhaps caught up in his own guilt as well.
"Mammon — he called himself Mammon, the leader of Team Rocket. Two girls were with him — one was named Caitlin, and the other must have been Kagura," Mr. Berlitz answered before Rowan could even open his mouth, unable to wait.
"So it really was Mammon's group..." Cynthia's expression turned heavy. After Alola, Hoenn, and Unova, Team Rocket had finally set its sights on Sinnoh too.
Honestly, Cynthia had half-expected this. After what happened in Hoenn and Unova, she understood well enough — making an enemy of Mammon was simply not a wise move. As long as Mammon didn't cause real trouble within Sinnoh itself, she could quietly tolerate Team Rocket setting up a branch office here or whatever else. She knew all too well just how terrifyingly powerful Mammon really was.
"Mr. Berlitz, I'll do everything in my power to bring Lady back. Please, both of you, get some proper rest for now." Cynthia's mind churned with a thousand thoughts as she offered him what comfort she could — though whether she could truly bring Platinum back, she genuinely wasn't sure.
"Thank you. Thank you so much. Everything rests on you now, Champion Cynthia."
Jubilife City — celebrated as the city of gathered happiness. Of every city in Sinnoh, Jubilife stood as the most thoroughly modernized, its streets bustling with a constant flow of people. It also stood as Sinnoh's largest metropolis, a hub connecting every corner of the region.
Mammon's group of four arrived in Jubilife, stepping into a sleek, imposing office tower.
"Lord Mammon, our members have basically finished consolidating here."
"Good work, Gladion. Now, let's have someone go scout out the location of Team Galactic's base."
Mammon sat in the executive chair, giving Gladion his instructions.
"Since we're new arrivals here, it'd only be polite to properly introduce ourselves to our local 'colleagues,'" Mammon said, a knowing smile on his lips. In truth, Team Galactic's overall strength wasn't much to speak of — Cyrus was basically the only Champion-tier threat among them, and honestly, he had a point too: what exactly did Team Galactic think it was doing, planting a mole inside Team Rocket?
"Understood." Gladion nodded, then glanced at the girl standing awkwardly beside the desk.
"Oh, right — this is our new senior executive, Platinum, though it seems she prefers going by Lady. New to our ranks — a genuinely exceptional trainer," Mammon said, introducing her to Gladion.
Senior executive? That meant Elite Four-caliber, then. Gladion looked mildly surprised, though it also felt somehow inevitable. Recruiting a talent-freak girl like this on their very first day in Sinnoh would normally be shocking — but coming from Lord Mammon, it wasn't really surprising at all.
"Lady, this is Gladion — same rank as you, Elite Four-tier. Feel free to spar with each other when you have time," Mammon added, introducing them properly.
"Hello," Gladion greeted Platinum first.
"Hello. Please look after me," Platinum said, visibly tense and awkward, bowing rather formally in return.
Understandable, honestly — she genuinely hadn't expected Team Rocket's internal atmosphere to be like this. And this place — Team Rocket ran an actual office building? Platinum was stunned. This was nothing like the evil organization she'd pictured in her head at all.
"Lady."
"Yes?" Platinum answered with a start, almost reflexively.
"No need to be so tense. We don't have that many rules around here — just relax a bit," Mammon said, raising an eyebrow.
Platinum pressed her lips together. Easy for him to say — but how was she supposed to be sure that was actually true? And regardless, she still didn't like Team Rocket, and she still didn't like Mammon, who'd forced her into joining in the first place.
Mammon understood that well enough, of course, though it didn't bother him much — deep-seated first impressions weren't easy to shake, but it wasn't a serious problem either.
"Have you finished your Sinnoh journey?"
"Yes. I've already collected all eight badges." Platinum nodded — collecting badges hadn't been particularly difficult for her. Sure, Sinnoh had some genuinely strong Gym Leaders — Volkner at the Sunyshore Gym, for instance. Volkner was Elite Four-caliber himself. But setting aside the fact that Volkner generally didn't go all-out against challengers, even at full strength, Platinum was confident she'd still have beaten him.
Not that having her badges mattered anymore now, though. Her face dimmed slightly at the thought — as a member of Team Rocket now, there was no way she'd get to compete in the Lily of the Valley Conference anymore.
"Did you run into any Team Galactic executives during your travels?"
"I did," Platinum said, thinking back. "I ran into Commander Saturn near Lake Acuity before."
Mammon considered this, thoughtful. Sounded like Team Galactic's plans weren't as far along as he'd expected. Their operation to capture the Lake Guardians was being run in three separate parts — Commanders Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn each leading their own teams to the three lakes to capture the respective legendaries.
Platinum hesitated a moment.
"What is it?" Mammon caught the shift in her expression.
"Team Galactic seemed to be plotting something. They're trying to capture all three legendary Lake Guardians — I think they already took Azelf. And that Commander Saturn mentioned his associate was headed to Lake Verity — probably to go after Mesprit." Platinum sounded genuinely worried, mostly because Commander Saturn had said something quite bizarre at the time — something about giving birth to an entirely new universe. It had left her more than a little unsettled.
"Don't worry about it. Those Team Galactic trash won't succeed. Once we've located their base, we can go pay them a visit," Mammon said, gesturing for her to relax.
Platinum felt a small measure of relief at that. She still didn't like Team Rocket, but if they could take care of Team Galactic in the process, that was at least one good thing to come out of this.
"And Lady — you really don't need to feel any guilt over joining our organization," Mammon added, glancing at her. "You've probably heard about Team Rocket's reputation, but I can tell you now, with me leading it, the kind of low, tasteless evil you might be imagining just isn't something we do."
No — it's exactly because you're the one leading it that I'm worried about my future! And that statement doesn't exactly deny we do evil either! Platinum sighed inwardly. The scene at Professor Rowan's lab, where Mammon had used her own father as leverage against her, was still vivid in her mind. How could she possibly not be worried?
"Gladion, send someone to keep watch around Lake Verity. If Team Galactic shows up, report it immediately."
Mammon mulled it over — better to stay ahead of Team Galactic regardless. If Cyrus really managed to summon and control both time and space deities, that wouldn't be anything to laugh about. These evil organizations rarely amounted to much on their own merits, but there was no denying their real talent for causing genuine trouble.
"Understood." Gladion continued relaying orders to his subordinates.
After going over a few near-term tasks, Mammon's group left the building, heading toward the villa they'd already purchased. They'd be spending some time in Sinnoh going forward, so naturally they'd need a few places to settle in. Caitlin, of course, technically already had a private villa somewhere in Sinnoh — but that residence sat squarely within the Sinnoh League's line of sight, so buying a new one made more sense.
But as they passed by a training field, Mammon's steps slowed slightly, catching sight of something.
Inside the field, a boy in a long-sleeved jacket and long pants was putting his Pokémon through intense training. He had purple hair, and a face carrying an unusually cold, mature severity for his age.
"Interesting."
Mammon raised an eyebrow, eyeing the purple-haired boy with genuine surprise. Because this was none other than Paul — Ash's rival from the anime's Sinnoh arc. The original coiner of that iconic line: "You're useless."
Didn't do a Kanto journey in this world? Interesting — seems there's been some changes here after all.
Mammon watched Paul's training session with real interest. In canon, by the time Paul met Ash, he wasn't actually a rookie trainer anymore — his older brother Reggie had mentioned that Paul's very first regional journey had actually been in Kanto, which meant by the time he reached Sinnoh, he was already an experienced trainer. During his Sinnoh journey, aside from Torterra — his veteran holdover — Paul had built an entirely new core lineup centered around Electivire.
Ash had plenty of rivals over the years, but Paul stood out as an especially vivid, memorable one — not only powerful in battle, but genuinely infuriating in temperament through most of the early-to-mid Sinnoh arc, cold and merciless enough to grate on anyone's nerves. But that was who Paul was — after his older brother Reggie had his spirit broken in a crushing defeat by Kamishiro and ultimately gave up being a trainer, Paul had grown into someone who chased raw strength above all else — a pure power-tier fanatic. He'd even catch Pokémon, immediately check their potential through the Pokédex, and only keep training the single best one — releasing the rest without hesitation. Classic case of letting raw stat potential dictate his entire roster.
Ash operated on the complete opposite philosophy — he never cared about a Pokémon's innate talent or power ceiling, focusing instead on the bond and emotional connection he built with each one. Which made the clash between Ash and Paul practically inevitable — their core philosophies on raising Pokémon were fundamentally incompatible.
But through his continued contact with Ash, Paul was visibly shaped by him over time, gradually coming to value the bond with his Pokémon more. Even in the Lily of the Valley Conference quarterfinal against Ash, when his heavily-overleveled Electivire fell to Ash's surging Infernape, Paul had still comforted Electivire afterward, and openly acknowledged Infernape's strength. A clear mark of how far Paul had come.
No question — anyone who'd watched the entire Sinnoh arc probably felt something, seeing Paul reach that moment. Genuinely, the character carried real weight and charm.
And in Pokémon Journeys, Paul had even gone out of his way to catch three specific Pokémon just to come find Ash again, using battle as an excuse to help train him further. That, right there, was Paul's own deep, quiet form of "affection" for Ash.
Mammon thought it over, then walked toward Paul on the training field.
At that moment, Paul had just finished a training session with his Aggron — or rather, more accurately, Aggron hadn't managed to hold up through it.
"Come back. Useless."
Paul recalled Aggron, expression blank, and stared down at the Poké Ball in his hand. This Aggron clearly wasn't cutting it — it hadn't been able to handle even this level of training, and this wasn't the first time either. Having already committed to training it, Paul wasn't the type to give up over minor dissatisfaction — he'd genuinely put in the effort to develop it properly. But failing the same training session repeatedly, over and over, wasn't something he could accept either.
"Looks like you're having some trouble there. Is it that the Pokémon just isn't cutting it for you?"
The sudden voice made Paul's brow furrow, turning toward the approaching boy.
"Who are you?"
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