"Zapdos, use Thunderbolt!"
The moment the Ultra Ball burst open in midair, a thousand serpents of lightning went wild!
Crackle!
Zapdos descended with wings spread wide, its long beak spitting a roaring surge of electricity!
"Hssssss!"
From the gap in the doorway, an Arbok lunged out with jaws gaping, dark purple venom dripping from its fangs.
The hood at its neck flared completely open, savage patterns glaring like a demon's face under the flashing lightning—standing squarely in the path of the oncoming current!
The deadly toxin boiled between Arbok's fangs, condensing in front of it into a jagged blade of energy that forcibly corroded Zapdos's golden lightning until it faded away.
"Heh heh…"
The sharp click of high heels approached, Ariana's slim fingers twirling a lock of crimson hair as her red lips curved in a dangerous smile.
"So this is the famous Gym Leader Grey, and that oh-so-high-and-mighty Zapdos… but it seems you're both… nothing special, are you?"
She stopped behind Arbok, meeting Grey's eyes through the slowly thinning toxic mist.
"That was just a probe. Miss Ariana, you don't actually think that's all I've got, do you?"
Grey's lips lifted in a faint smile. Then he patted Zapdos a couple of times and started roasting it: "Just look at you. How is your progress these days this slow? Even a Team Rocket Executive is out here clowning you for being weak!"
"If this keeps up, never mind Articuno—you won't even beat Blaziken. After Blaziken there's Breloom, then my three dojo enforcers, and all the way down to Dratini. At that point there's just no way to rank you any lower."
"Time's tight, and you were already on the weaker side. If you slack off like this again, that's not gonna fly. When even Team Rocket starts looking down on you, you're really making Articuno's name go to waste."
"Zee-zee!" (Excuse me, what do you mean, 'a disgrace to Articuno'? Grey, you'd better explain that one to Zapdos! I can accept everything else you said, but you leave Articuno out of this!)
Zapdos had been quietly listening to Grey's lecture at first, but that one line about "disgracing Articuno" snapped its patience. It started swearing on the spot, not sparing a single thought for Ariana standing not far away.
"Do neither of you realize that getting distracted in the middle of a battle is a very bad habit?"
Ariana squinted, pressing a fingertip to her lower lip as the tip of her tongue flicked out to lick it.
Sluuurp~
"Today, I, Ariana, am going to properly slay a god."
Her fingertip traced slowly across her red lips, a shard of cold light flashing in her eyes. "Arbok, send them a nice little present. Use Gunk Shot!"
"Hss-ka!"
Arbok's jaw suddenly stretched to an astonishing angle, the muscles in its throat writhing violently.
Poison-type energy churned into a thick ball in its mouth, the surface crawling with disgusting bubbles.
With a tooth-aching gurgle, that orb of condensed toxin was ready to fire, the very air around it warping under corrosive heat!
Gunk Shot—high-powered Poison-type move.
Every kind of Pokémon manifested it differently; compared to Pokémon like Muk or Garbodor, most others used it by condensing a single, dense projectile.
That purple-black mass of sludge screamed through the air, and wherever droplets splattered onto the metal floor, they sizzled and smoked, sending up nose-stinging fumes.
Grey didn't even twitch an eyebrow. "Flamethrower."
"Cha-o!"
Blaziken's chest swelled, and a gold-red column of flame erupted from its beak like a volcanic eruption.
In an instant, the torrent of fire smacked straight into the oncoming Gunk Shot.
Sizzle!
The toxic sludge vaporized on contact, bursting apart into clouds of drifting violet dust.
The leftover heat still didn't fade, driving Arbok staggering backward again and again as the edges of its scales began to blacken and curl.
"Wait—that power?!"
Ariana's pupils shrank hard, her fingertips unconsciously digging into her palms.
This intensity of flame…
Was completely wrong.
Her Arbok was Elite Four-class— and not just some fresh entry-level one either. At the very least it should have been able to match a run-of-the-mill regional Elite Four head-on.
But its strongest Gunk Shot had just been burned away in a single hit.
If Arbok hadn't pulled back in time, it would already be a roast snake.
A move with that kind of power was absolutely beyond an ordinary Pokémon.
Which meant…
Grey's Blaziken had also reached Elite Four level!
At that thought, a drop of cold sweat traced down Ariana's spine—only to be boiled away in the very next second by sheer, forcibly-suppressed battle lust.
"Heh… now we're talking."
She flicked her long hair in a show of ease, but her pale-pressed lips betrayed the tension.
Sensing its trainer's wavering heart, Arbok's hood tightened uneasily.
"Miss Ariana, you don't seriously think that just because I have a Legendary, I only use Legendaries, right? Or did Petrel forget to mention just how strong the rest of my team is?"
Grey's smile stayed mild.
But to Ariana, it was more than a little chilling.
In her head, she'd already cursed out Petrel's ancestors to the eighteenth generation.
What did he mean, Petrel 'didn't tell her'?
Wasn't that just saying Petrel had been hiding things from her?
Out of basic trust in her colleague, Ariana's first instinct was to deny it.
They were the Four Executives who'd even done time together for Team Rocket's sake. If anyone was getting iced out, it should've been Proton, right?
Targeting her, the "weak woman," what kind of hero was that supposed to be?
No, wait, what was she even thinking?!
"You're trying to bluff me?!"
Catching herself spiraling, Ariana snapped back to her senses and glared at Grey. "The Four Rocket Executives are as close as siblings. Whatever happens, we always stand on the same front."
"Is that so? 'Close as siblings,' huh. So you really don't know Petrel sold you out to save his own skin earlier?"
Grey smiled thinly and started spinning his own little 'secret history.'
After all, Petrel wasn't here right now, and there weren't any surveillance cameras in this area either.
He could say whatever he liked.
Unless Petrel showed up in person, his word was law.
"W-what? There was something like that? Impossible! He personally sent me the request for reinforcements! How could he betray me?!"
Ariana's heart wavered.
"Then have a guess—why do you think Gym Leader Sabrina just happened to show up at your location?"
Grey shrugged lightly. "Because as long as he could send in another Executive of the same rank, he'd get a nice promotion and a big payout."
"…"
Ariana really didn't want to admit it, but what Grey was saying…
Was exactly the sort of thing Petrel would pull.
So despicable it wrapped back around to being perfectly in character.
Only Petrel could manage a stunt like that.
"B-but there's nothing I can really say about that…"
Ariana still forced herself to calm down, meeting Grey's gaze head-on.
"Oh, and by the way, your specialty typing? Petrel sold that out too. The Pokémon you use, the moves they know—he handed it all over to me, word for word."
"What?! That bastard Petrel…"
"Now—Mach Punch!"
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