Chapter 264: The Legendary Slow Start Giant! Mew, Eat a Little Less
Meanwhile, back in Hearthome City, someone else had noticed something was off too.
The Galactic Hearthome Building had been echoing with the sounds of intense battle for a while now — and at one point, an attack even blasted straight through a wall of the building. Something was clearly very wrong here. Especially with defeated Galactic members being repeatedly marched out and loaded onto vans, one after another.
This—
A passerby quietly called the police, and it wasn't long before a string of squad cars showed up. Mammon, of course, had planned for exactly this — a few Rocket elite members in plainclothes had already been posted to intercept.
"Champion Cynthia personally organized this operation against the evil organization Team Galactic. You can't go in and disrupt it," one of the Rocket elites said, blocking the path in front of Officer Jenny and her colleagues, delivering the fabrication with perfect composure.
"That's impossible! We haven't received any notification about this!" Jenny didn't buy it for a second — if this really were an operation Cynthia had organized, how could the Hearthome City police department not have been informed? Even with time pressure, surely a single phone call couldn't have been too much to ask. A quick heads-up call wouldn't have taken any real time at all. So Jenny wasn't swayed in the slightest by Cynthia's name being invoked — if anything, she eyed the two men blocking her way even more suspiciously.
"Nothing impossible about it. Time was tight, there wasn't time to notify anyone. If you don't believe us, feel free to check with Champion Cynthia directly," the Rocket elite said, staying perfectly composed.
The man's unshaken, confident tone gave Jenny pause. Could this actually be true? But it shouldn't be — this didn't add up.
"If you're lying, you're finished," Jenny said, pulling out her phone. She didn't personally have Cynthia's contact information — but Supreme Commander Jenny did!
Seeing Officer Jenny actually start dialing, the Rocket elite felt a flicker of genuine alarm.
Jenny got through to Supreme Commander Jenny and got Cynthia's private number from her.
"Champion Cynthia."
"Who's calling?"
"This is Officer Jenny with the Hearthome City police. There's a situation — a group of unidentified individuals is currently attacking the Galactic Hearthome Building, which we understand is one of Team Galactic's bases."
Jenny reported the situation accurately. "There are two men here claiming this operation was ordered by you. Is that true?"
Cynthia went quiet at that. She'd certainly never issued any such order — she'd spent the last two days entirely occupied trying to track down Mammon's group, with no time to spare for Team Galactic. But someone invoking her name to openly attack a Galactic base in the middle of the city—
"Who's leading the operation on-site?" Cynthia asked, voice perfectly level.
Jenny looked at the two Rocket elites.
"Lady — Platinum Berlitz."
The Rocket elite answered exactly as Mammon had instructed.
Berlitz? Jenny's brow furrowed slightly — she certainly knew the Berlitz family name.
"That checks out, then. Officer Jenny, apologies — I must have forgotten to notify you all," Cynthia said, apologetic. "You don't need to get involved in this operation — just make sure no civilians wander into the area and get caught up in the crossfire."
"Understood." Jenny acknowledged the order. Something still felt a bit off to her, but since Cynthia herself had confirmed it, she'd go along with it.
Cynthia, meanwhile, immediately had her Garchomp carry her at full speed toward Hearthome City. That has to be Team Rocket. Team Rocket was striking Galactic's operations — and using Platinum to lead the charge, no less.
Cynthia's expression turned deeply conflicted. Her most promising junior trainer — surely she wasn't already starting to take on Team Rocket's shape? No, that shouldn't be — Lady was a good girl. If it weren't for Mammon forcing her hand, she never would have joined an evil organization willingly.
Hearthome City.
"Boss, Officer Jenny's been drawn off."
"Well done. Go collect two hundred merit points for yourselves."
Mammon nodded, offering a smiling word of praise.
"Thank you, Boss."
A few sentences exchanged for two hundred merit points — the two Rocket elites looked distinctly pleased with themselves.
"So Poacher J is deliberately making her way toward Sinnoh's northern edge?" Mammon mused. Poacher J — one of the poaching syndicate's most notorious high-tier operatives. She operated exclusively within Sinnoh, well known throughout the local industry, practically never short of contracts. Clearing out Sinnoh's poaching network properly meant dealing with her eventually. As a top-tier poacher, J wasn't just personally capable — she also commanded her own crew, making her one of the few genuinely leader-like figures within the poaching world. Well — from J's own perspective, her subordinates were probably just disposable cannon fodder for critical moments, but still.
"If I remember right, J's crew also has a large stockpile of Steel-types worth seizing," Mammon considered. J's people had accumulated a fair number of "treasures," especially a sizable haul of Steel-type Pokémon. Sure, quality among them was probably "mixed," but Steel-types were Steel-types regardless — good material to hand out as rewards to subordinates. And with that many of them, surely a few would turn out to have decent potential.
"So the northernmost target is Snowpoint Temple?" Circling back to the map, Mammon studied it thoughtfully.
Snowpoint Temple — a shrine at Sinnoh's northern edge, and the resting place of the legendary Pokémon Regigigas. That's right — Regigigas itself.
Legend held that Regigigas had dragged the continents into place with ropes, shaping the land of Sinnoh — or "Verity," as it was once called. And the "legendary giants" themselves — Regirock, Regice, and Registeel — were said to have been crafted by Regigigas from crystallized rock, glacial ice, molten lava, electrical energy, and draconic power.
Worth noting: Regigigas's base stat total sits at 680 — what the games colloquially call "box legendary" tier. Normally, a stat total that high would get a Pokémon banned from standard competitive play — but Regigigas, notably, doesn't get restricted. And that's entirely thanks to its Ability, Slow Start.
In-game, Slow Start works like this: for five turns, both Attack and Speed are halved. And Regigigas only ever has this one Ability — you can't even use an Ability Capsule to swap it out for something else. The truly absurd part: even in Pokémon Legends: Arceus — a game that technically doesn't use the Ability mechanic at all, being an action-RPG spinoff rather than a mainline entry — Regigigas still, somehow, gets slapped with a Slow Start debuff the instant it appears in battle, standing in for its missing Ability entirely.
Genuinely absurd, honestly — meaning that in the Pokémon universe, under literally any circumstance, Regigigas simply cannot escape Slow Start. Hard not to wonder if Regigigas broke some kind of cosmic law somewhere along the way — even the Pokémon it personally crafted, Regidrago and Regieleki, got flawless Abilities like Dragon's Maw and Transistor, and even Regirock and its siblings got the perfectly serviceable Clear Body. No idea where Regigigas picked up this cursed Ability from — if there's ever a chance, someone really ought to ask it directly.
"Snowpoint Temple is a fairly mysterious place, too," Caitlin remarked, noticing Mammon's interest in it. "Supposedly some kind of legendary Pokémon dwells within, but no one's ever actually laid eyes on it inside the temple itself, as far as anyone knows."
"Wrong method," Mammon said, smiling.
No question Regigigas slept inside Snowpoint Temple, but waking it up wasn't nearly that simple. You needed Regirock, Regice, and Registeel present simultaneously, performing a coordinated action together — that would rouse Regigigas properly. There was also a simpler, brute-force method: destroying three specific pillars inside the temple, which would also wake Regigigas — though it would surface enraged. That was the approach Poacher J had used in canon, and it worked exactly that way.
Caitlin tilted her head slightly but didn't press further. Whatever the case, Mammon seemed genuinely interested in Snowpoint Temple, so she figured she'd get to see whatever legendary lay hidden inside eventually.
Mammon considered a moment, then placed a video call to a certain pink cat.
The call connected quickly. The background looked like the interior of the Tree of Beginning — Mew was there, happily crunching through a bag of chips and gulping down cola. Well, Mew really was quite clever — a little instruction had been enough to teach it how to use modern communication tech.
"Whoaaa? Mammon, myaa."
Mew's adorably fuzzy telepathy came through.
"Right, Mew — I need you to put Regirock and the other two into their Poké Balls and hand them over to the guards outside. Have them transfer them over to me — I need them for something."
"Okie-dokie, myaa. Mammon, Mammon, can you have them send over some more of these chips, myaa? They're so good, even better than the little cakes."
"Sure, that's fine, but Mew — has your face gotten rounder?" Mammon eyed the pink cat on-screen suspiciously, feeling like Mew's cheeks looked distinctly puffier than before.
"That's ridiculous! Mammon, honestly! I am NOT getting round, myaa!" Mew was thoroughly indignant. Sure, it had been eating a bit more lately, but it definitely wasn't at "getting round" levels, okay.
"Sure, sure, just try to pace yourself a bit, all right."
"Heheh~ Mammon's the best, myaa. Love you, mwah~"
"Watch a little less of whatever nonsense TV you're bingeing, and get some exercise with Zapdos and the others sometimes, got it?" Mammon said, torn between amusement and exasperation. "Mwah" — genuinely, what is happening.
"I know, I know, Mammon, Mammon — oh, and have them send over more juice and cola too, myaa. Enamorus and the others love it, they're almost out."
Eyeing the pile of juice bottles accumulated in the corner of Mew's video feed, Mammon seriously doubted the pink cat's account of events.
"Okay, just pace yourself, all right?"
"Don't worry, don't worry, myaa." Mew thumped its chest, promising solemnly.
Hanging up the call, Mammon glanced over toward the Galactic Hearthome Building and noticed Nora's group had just come down. No question, the executive battle had wrapped up too — Mammon had already spotted Jupiter and Saturn, faces stony with fury, being marched into the van.
But oddly, Nora's group also looked visibly unhappy. What was going on here?
"Welcome back, everyone. Great work — you successfully took down Team Galactic's base. Well done," Mammon said, rising to greet them with a smile.
"Mammon, Mammon! Settle this for us — this is completely unfair!" Nora pouted, thoroughly wronged, launching into an indignant account of someone's "shameless conduct."
"We were up front battling those two executives' Pokémon head-on, and then this guy—" Nora pointed straight at Paul's blank, unbothered face. This kid clearly wasn't a good person from the start!
"This guy was genuinely underhanded! He actually had his Pokémon ambush both executives from behind and just straight-up captured the both of them!"
Nora was thoroughly aggrieved — there'd only been two executives total, and both of them had gotten snatched by one guy pulling a sneak attack from the shadows.
"Oh?" Mammon raised an eyebrow, mildly surprised, but eyeing Paul with real appreciation. Not bad, not bad at all — this kid's got real promise. Genuinely a natural fit for Team Rocket.
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