Chapter 160: Even Without Kyogre, You Still Can't Beat Me!
"Looks like Kagura and Teacher Steven are having quite the fight."
Standing on the nearest island, Mammon glanced toward the far side where Mega Flygon and Mega Metagross were clashing in fierce, unrelenting combat.
Both Kagura and Steven were going all out — that much was clear.
At their level, though, reaching a decisive conclusion quickly wasn't going to be easy.
"Steven will beat Kagura. Without question." Giovanni said it quietly but with certainty.
"Mammon — whatever Pokémon you have, whatever power you've gathered, one fact doesn't change. Team Rocket is an evil organization."
His voice dropped into that low, resonant register.
"It has no place in this world. It is not recognized by this world. The Pokémon League will dismantle Team Rocket — we will not stop."
Giovanni's words were righteous, measured, and struck like a bell.
Leon and Cynthia both nodded. He was right.
"Evil this, evil that — my ears have grown calluses." Mammon made a dismissive sound.
"Crowning yourselves defenders of justice — how refreshingly self-congratulatory. Still, let me offer a word of advice."
Mammon stepped on his own shadow, and from the darkness — accompanied by a sinister "keh heh heh~" — Shiny Gengar rose slowly upward.
"Boasting out loud like that only reveals how frightened you are."
At those words, the expressions of all three shifted slightly.
Boasting? Of all people to talk about boasting. Who exactly was the one who'd been insufferably cocky from the moment he arrived?
"When you think about it, you're all honestly a little comical. Talking big every day without saying anything — do you genuinely believe you can beat me?"
Mammon's mouth curved slowly, and between two fingers, a brilliant gem appeared as if from nowhere.
"Even without Kyogre — you can't win."
"Gengar!"
The Key Stone blazed. Shiny Gengar turned that unsettling grin on the three of them as rainbow evolutionary light ignited across its silver-grey body.
In a blink the light scattered, and a white Mega Gengar planted both arms against the ground, black eyes hollow and gleaming as they fixed forward.
"Be careful — this Gengar is Mammon's starter. It's extraordinarily strong." Giovanni kept his voice low, warning Leon and Cynthia.
Both of them nodded. They already knew.
"Mewtwo."
Dark Mewtwo stepped forward, the deep-purple flame in its eyes igniting.
"Take Mammon down quickly. Groudon probably won't last much longer."
Giovanni glanced toward the churning sea in the distance. Through the chaos of waves, he could just make out the red colossus being repeatedly dunked and surfacing, Groudon's furious roars reaching them even from here.
But there was no question — Groudon had been completely overwhelmed.
Even Giovanni hadn't anticipated this. He'd heard from Mammon that the Orbs were critical — but the gap between Primal Reversion and the base form turned out to be this enormous. Two ancient legendaries that had been evenly matched moments ago were now completely one-sided.
Absurd.
"Right! Together!"
Leon's expression hardened. He committed immediately.
"Charizard! Blast Burn!"
He called it without hesitation. Even in heavy rain, Leon's first instinct was to lead with Mega Charizard X's most powerful Fire-type move.
Dark Mewtwo or Mega Gengar — neither had a Fire resistance.
And Charizard X's Fire-type attacks were among the most devastating in the world.
But what happened next was not expected.
Charizard X opened its mouth. Fire-light condensed. Blast Burn came pouring out —
And then, at visible speed, the flame began to shrink. Weaker. Dimmer.
Until the rain extinguished it entirely.
Mega Charizard X stared at the empty air where its attack had been, completely blank.
Where did my fire go?
"—?!" Leon's pupils contracted.
"What—"
Cynthia and Giovanni both stared.
"Ha ha ha ha~" Mammon laughed freely.
Leon's face went hard as stone. He looked up at the torrential rain above them.
It was the rain?!
That couldn't be right. He wasn't arrogant enough to believe his Charizard was the single strongest in the world — but by any honest measure, it was among the top few. And what Charizard X was best at, what it was most renowned for, was its Fire-type attacks.
Leon knew precisely how rain affected Fire moves in battle. Reduced power — that was normal. He'd factored for it.
But his Mega Charizard X's Blast Burn being put out completely by the rain?
He had never seen this. Not once in his life.
"Ara ara~ I seem to have forgotten to mention something."
Mammon watched the three of them with that unhurried, pleasant look.
"Primal Kyogre's ability is called Primordial Sea. It's a weather condition that surpasses ordinary heavy rain in every sense."
He said it at a leisurely pace.
"Primordial Sea cannot be overwritten by any standard weather move or ability. And while Primordial Sea is active — all Fire-type moves simply cannot be used."
Mammon's grin widened. This was the dominion of Primordial Sea.
The three of them absorbed this in visible shock. Fire-type moves rendered completely unusable? A weather condition this absolute actually existed?
"Wait — at Larousse, Primal Kyogre's Primordial Sea wasn't active. It Reverted but the Sea wasn't running—"
Cynthia caught something, mid-sentence. Then her eyes went still.
She had already figured it out.
"I see Cynthia isn't entirely slow after all. At Larousse, the reason Primal Kyogre couldn't run Primordial Sea was the black Rayquaza's Delta Stream."
Because of that black Rayquaza, of course.
Cynthia's brow pressed tight.
"Delta Stream is a top-tier weather ability that is no less powerful than Primordial Sea. Kyogre's strength is below the black Rayquaza's — so it naturally couldn't override the black Rayquaza's weather."
Mammon said it calmly. The black Rayquaza's power was indisputable. Losing a weather contest to it wasn't a mark of shame for Primal Kyogre.
"Today, however, there's no Rayquaza here to interfere with Primordial Sea. It can run without limit."
Mammon said it with quiet significance.
The full weight of what that meant still hadn't landed for the three of them.
"No Fire moves — it doesn't matter. We can still fight."
Leon's expression was grim, but resolute. Fire moves being taken off the table did genuinely constrain Charizard X's options — but it wasn't out of the fight.
"Charizard! Dragon Rush!"
Leon ordered it.
ROOAAR!!
The dragon's roar was deafening. Mega Charizard X surged skyward on great wings, pure draconic energy condensing into the shape of a rampaging dragon, and dove at Dark Mewtwo at tremendous speed.
Dragon-type Dragon Rush!
"Pin Missile!" Giovanni called at the same time.
Mega Beedrill's wings blurred, and all five stingers blazed with white light.
Bug-type Pin Missile!
A dense, relentless barrage of needle-missiles filled the sky, every angle covered, bearing down on both Dark Mewtwo and Mega Gengar.
With Adaptability amplifying the boost, Mega Beedrill's Pin Missile was extraordinarily powerful.
Dark Mewtwo raised one arm, and a deep-purple psychic barrier materialized.
The Pin Missile arrived first — wave after wave of needle-beam impacts hammering the barrier in rapid succession.
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
The continuous detonations were deafening, the explosion smoke rising only to be swallowed instantly by the rain.
Dark Mewtwo's eyes flickered with a constant, shifting light, the barrier shaking under each impact, becoming harder to hold.
After three volleys of Pin Missile, Mega Charizard X's Dragon Rush arrived — crashing into the barrier with full force.
Dark purple and blazing blue-dragon collided, the spectral dragon screaming silently, hammering the psychic barrier without mercy.
Dark Mewtwo poured more psychic energy into the barrier, trying to shore up what was already crumbling — but it wasn't enough.
CRACK—
A sound like shattering glass. Dragon Rush broke through the psychic barrier.
Dark Mewtwo's eyes went cold. Psychic energy condensed on its right palm, and it caught the oncoming dragon with bare force.
Mega Charizard X bellowed, the sheer power driving Dark Mewtwo steadily backward.
BOOM.
A violent detonation — Mega Charizard X was thrown back by the recoil, Dark Mewtwo sliding back a distance before finding its footing.
Dark Mewtwo straightened. It looked down at the mark on its right palm. The light in its eyes flickered without stopping.
"Well?" Mammon asked it with an easy smile.
"Formidable. In this limiter, I fear I'm not a match for them." Dark Mewtwo's telepathy was rough and dry.
"Of course not. They're some of the finest Trainers in the world."
Mammon looked at Mega Beedrill and Mega Charizard X across from them. Giovanni and Leon's aces.
"Interesting. Then I'll fight at full strength."
Dark Mewtwo reached up and removed the restraining limiter armor from its body. The deep-purple psychic force that had been contained within expanded outward like an aura, filling the space around it.
Leon and Giovanni's expressions sharpened simultaneously.
On the other side, Cynthia's Mega Garchomp and Mega Gengar remained locked in their own standoff. Mega Gengar was entirely unbothered — it had half a mind to pull out the little cake and soda it had stashed in the shadows and enjoy watching Dark Mewtwo's battle from a comfortable distance.
As for Groudon —
Glug. Glug. Glug.
…
Elsewhere.
Steven's battle with Kagura was still raging.
Kagura's strength was genuinely beyond what he'd expected. Even against his ace Metagross, while he held a marginal edge —
It was only marginal.
His Aggron, meanwhile, was being punished by her Naganadel, which kept the match from going his way. It couldn't be helped — Aggron was too slow and heavy. Naganadel was an Ultra Beast from Alola, with absurd speed and devastating Special Attack. Aggron couldn't get a hit in; it just kept taking damage.
Steven knew better than to rush.
But then —
Beep. Beep. Beep.
He didn't want to answer it. But the phone in his pocket kept vibrating, over and over. He pulled it out.
Roxanne.
He frowned and answered, and by the time the call ended, he stood completely still.
"You're fighting me and you're on your phone?"
Kagura saw it and felt an immediate, burning flash of disrespect.
"Hold on — Kagura, there's something I have to deal with."
Steven didn't have the luxury of staying in this fight anymore. He recalled Metagross and mounted Skarmory.
He left Mega Metagross to hold the line and made for Leon and Giovanni's position as fast as Skarmory could carry him.
Mega Metagross was going to take a beating from Mega Flygon and Naganadel without him directing it — he knew that. No choice.
"Hm?"
Mammon looked toward the incoming Skarmory.
"Mammon!!"
Skarmory landed beside Leon and the others. Steven's voice carried real anger — which was unusual. He was normally the most composed person in any room. Seeing him like this meant something had happened.
"You look upset, Teacher Steven. What's going on?" Mammon spread his hands with a look of total innocence.
"Mammon! Whatever happened — you know exactly what you did! What have you done?!"
Steven forced his emotions under control and demanded an answer.
Roxanne had contacted him with an emergency alert. Two-thirds of Hoenn had been hit with unprecedented rainfall.
Mauville, Slateport, and Rustboro — the cities that had been first under the storm were already struggling. The drainage systems couldn't keep up. Water was pooling in the streets and backing up.
Rustboro in particular was a disaster. It was a city famous for its waterways — the canal network was one of its defining features.
Right now, Rustboro was being submerged.
The water in the streets had risen to knee height on an adult.
If this continued —
Rustboro was going to become Atlantis.
(End of chapter)
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