"Can you win?"
When Rainbow Giovanni said that, Dark Mewtwo Y wanted to slap him across the face.
Win your ass! How the hell is it supposed to win?Wait, no — technically, yes — the other side is guaranteed to win!
Dark Mewtwo Y glared viciously at Rainbow Giovanni, then turned back toward the terrifying legends before it, each exuding overwhelming power.
Its body involuntarily drifted backward. Even though Dark Mewtwo Y had always been confident in its strength, against this lineup…
Rainbow Giovanni clearly understood what it meant, and fell silent.
"Heh… well done, Mewtwo. You can come back now."
Rainbow Giovanni began clapping slowly, his expression calm but his eyes flickering.
Dark Mewtwo Y retreated even farther — though it floated in the air, it was now behind Rainbow Giovanni.
"Giving up already?" Dylan asked, his tone half-smile, half-mockery.
"Today has been enlightening," Rainbow Giovanni said coolly. "It seems my horizons were too narrow. Dylan, I don't believe there's any direct conflict between us, is there?"
"Oh? Are you trying to negotiate?" Dylan chuckled, sarcasm dripping from his voice.
"Why not? I see no need for pointless hostility. Since this world has someone like you, I'm willing to withdraw immediately — and I assure you, I will never step foot in this world again. How about that?"
Rainbow Giovanni's voice was calm and steady. To bow when outmatched — what of it?
For a man like him, able to bend or stand tall as needed, swallowing his pride to survive was simply another tactic.
"At this point, Mr. Giovanni, saying that is a bit ridiculous," Dylan replied lightly. "Your subordinates are still in my custody."
"They offended you — they deserve their fate."
Rainbow Giovanni's tone didn't waver. Losing his executives was regrettable, but acceptable — as long as he escaped, the Rainbow Rocket Team would live on.
"Unfortunately, I have no intention of letting a threat like you walk away," Dylan said with a smile.
Rainbow Giovanni was far too dangerous — a man who commanded the resources of an entire world, who could traverse parallel dimensions, and whose ambition had no limit.
Letting him go? Dylan would have to be brain-dead.
He was sure that if Giovanni escaped, he'd regroup, prepare, and come back stronger than ever.
"Two sides suffering losses — that's not a wise man's choice," Rainbow Giovanni said darkly, the malice in his eyes flaring.
True, he wasn't Dylan's match right now. But he had laid contingencies — and if he didn't fear provoking those monstrous legendaries' wrath, he might've already used them.
"Two sides suffering?" Dylan sneered. "You give yourself too much credit, Giovanni. Besides, without Mewtwo, you might not even be able to beat our Giovanni."
He was certain now: Rainbow Giovanni wasn't a true grand-master-level Trainer — maybe elite champion-class, but not beyond.
"So you're determined to drag me down?" Rainbow Giovanni's face darkened.
"I told you — you overestimate yourself. You think I brought Groundy out here just because he's cute? He's the Lord of the Land."
Dylan sighed.
Primal Groudon: (︿)
So in Dylan's eyes… I'm just the cute mascot?
Holding the Earth Plate, the primal being sulked — but when it looked up at its "big brothers" in the sky, it swallowed its complaints.
Alright… maybe it really was the little brother here.
Rainbow Giovanni suddenly had a bad feeling.
"Groudon."
"GROAAAR!!"
Primal Groudon stomped hard. A surge of ground energy rippled out, cracking the earth — and a Dugtrio hidden below was blasted into the open.
Rainbow Giovanni's face fell. His backup plan — exposed and destroyed.
"You found it?"
"Against someone who can cross worlds, leaving a few traps is just common sense," Dylan said with a shrug.
Rainbow Giovanni specialized in Ground-types, after all. Better to be safe.
"Mewtwo!"
Rainbow Giovanni finally snapped, shouting at Dark Mewtwo Y.
They had to retreat — staying any longer was suicide.
But before it could teleport, two enormous psychic pressures locked onto it.
Dark Mewtwo Y froze. It looked up — the twin Light Dragons were staring directly at it.
What terrifying psychic power!
And it wasn't just telepathic suppression — even space and time themselves seemed to coil around it, alive, binding it completely.
Cold sweat poured down its face.
"Mewtwo! What are you doing?!" Giovanni barked.
"What am I doing? My pressure's a hundred times worse than yours!" Dark Mewtwo Y snapped back, voice gravelly.
"You think I can move? The moment I twitch, those monsters will vaporize me!"
It jabbed a finger toward the legendaries towering above.
Giovanni's face twitched. This is a disaster…
"Interesting," Dylan murmured. "Its attitude is completely different from our Mewtwo's."
He remembered — this one had always been sharp-tongued toward its Trainer. Maybe a side effect of its mutation?
"Giovanni-san," Dylan said suddenly.
"Hm?" The local Giovanni blinked.
"How about you arrest him? It's not every day you get to fight your parallel self."
Giovanni's eyes glinted — he'd been itching to deck this pretender ever since he'd eyed Silver.
"But that Mewtwo—"
"Relax," Dylan interrupted. "Necrozma and the others are watching it. It won't move. And he's got nothing else up his sleeve."
"…I see."
Giovanni smiled faintly. "Then that's fine."
"Father will definitely win!" Silver cheered.
"So, you're letting him fight me?" Rainbow Giovanni sneered. "How amusing. You think I'd lose to some washed-up version of myself?"
"You talk too much," Giovanni replied calmly. "Was I always this mouthy?"
Even facing his own reflection, he stayed composed — though something twisted inside him.
A world-dominating version of himself… brought low so easily.
Rainbow Giovanni's face flickered. Why couldn't he stop running his mouth?
"You're a loser too now," Giovanni said evenly. "Can't handle that?"
"I just didn't expect to fall here, that's all." Rainbow Giovanni took out his Poké Balls.
"But I won't lose to you. I am the strongest Giovanni!"
He released Nidoking and Nidoqueen — his pride and proof of power.
He would win.
And then—
"How… how is this possible?!"
Rainbow Giovanni stared in disbelief at his defeated Pokémon — Marowak and Rhyperior fallen before Giovanni's Kangaskhan and Dugtrio.
He — the conqueror of another world — had lost to a "native" Giovanni?!
"You were only stronger because of Mewtwo," Giovanni said coolly, hands slipping into his pockets. "There's nothing impossible about this."
"The water runs deeper here than you think."
Yes — the world Rainbow Giovanni came from clearly wasn't as chaotic as this one.
He stood frozen, crushed not by defeat but by who he'd lost to — himself.
"Well done as always, Giovanni-senpai," Dylan said, walking up. Hoopa hovered beside him in its confined form.
"What are you going to do with him?" Giovanni asked.
"I've already prepared housing for these parallel intruders," Dylan said, stretching lazily. "We'll keep them locked up."
Killing them outright would've been simpler — but interrogation later might prove valuable.
"Hoopa."
"Got it~!"
Hoopa's eyes glowed blue; Rainbow Giovanni's six Poké Balls floated out from his belt.
Dylan pocketed them, then raised the Master Ball toward Dark Mewtwo Y.
"I'll go in myself," the Pokémon rasped, floating willingly inside.
"You're more… self-aware than I expected," Dylan said, smiling.
Apparently, it didn't care much about Giovanni's capture — only its own survival.
"He saw me as his perfect weapon," Dark Mewtwo Y murmured telepathically. "I saw him as a way to find stronger opponents. We used each other — nothing more."
"I like your honesty," Dylan said. "We'll talk later."
After recalling his legendaries, Dylan used Hoopa's ring to send Giovanni and Silver back to Viridian City — then teleported himself and the captured Rainbow Giovanni to the Indigo Plateau.
But the moment he arrived at the special containment quarters—
"Help! HELP! Somebody save me!!"
The screams made Dylan blink — and even Rainbow Giovanni froze.
That voice was unmistakably Rainbow Colress.
"What the hell…?" Dylan hurried inside — only to find Rainbow Colress pinned to the ground, face bruised and swollen.
On top of him sat Rainbow Archie, gripping his hair and snarling.
"You think you can talk back to me, huh? You call that power? From now on you'll address me as Boss Archie, got it? Or my fists'll teach you manners!"
Archie's scarred face twisted into a savage grin as he slapped Colress again.
The humiliated scientist whimpered and nodded frantically.
Dylan's expression twitched — his gaze slid toward the corner, where Rainbow Maxie and Rainbow Lysandre huddled silently.
…So Archie had become the prison boss?!
"Ehhhhh…" Dylan rubbed his temple. Maybe he had overlooked something.
After all, without Pokémon, that mountain of muscle could probably flatten the other three bare-handed.
"Dylan," Rainbow Giovanni said quietly, eyes on Archie's brawny frame, "I don't think there's any deep hatred between us… but please, whatever you do, don't put me in the same room as Archie."
He looked genuinely pale.
The last thing he wanted was to end up like Colress — pinned under that brute.
(End of chapter.)