"Hmph! Team Rocket, Team Whatever—I don't care. Down here there's only my Team Aqua! We're the real chosen ones!"
Archie snorted, head held high, sounding ridiculously proud.
Kanto's Team Rocket? So what? How could they possibly compare to his Team Aqua?
And Kyogre was right in front of him. He was just one Blue Orb away from his dream.
As long as he got the Blue Orb, he'd be able to control Kyogre!
Then he could build the true 'Pokémon dream homeland'!
The sea was the origin of everything, the true source of life. Only by expanding the sea could you build a perfect paradise for Pokémon.
That was Archie's ideology.
"Oh?"
Damian gave Archie a half‑smile.
"I don't know how many people Team Rocket brought, but now that you've seen Kyogre, there's no way I'm letting you walk out of here."
Archie's rough features slowly took on a dangerous edge.
If they'd been from Team Magma, that would've been one thing. But they turned out to be Team Rocket.
Archie didn't really take Team Rocket seriously—once he had Kyogre, forget some Team Rocket, even the Pokémon League wouldn't be able to stop him!
But right now he still hadn't found the Blue Orb. These people could not be allowed to leave.
"Interesting. You planning to throw down with us?" Damian's smile deepened.
"Hah! I don't stoop to bullying little brats like you." Archie snorted arrogantly.
He believed in crushing everything with brute force. A few kids this young? Hardly worth a look.
"Shelly, you grab them."
Archie turned his head back and went on staring at Kyogre with crazed eyes.
"Yes."
Shelly dipped her head slightly. She really had a bad feeling—this was the guy who'd managed to win Courtney over.
Shelly knew perfectly well: that woman Courtney was genuinely insane.
Most of the time she looked blank‑faced, slow, and cutesy, but once she "flipped," she was exactly the kind of girl the internet called a yandere.
And Courtney had always been loyal as hell to Maxie. Now she'd actually joined Team Rocket—and seemed to have done it willingly. That was very off.
But Archie was right—they couldn't let these people go. This was Kyogre's slumbering place.
If word ever got out that Kyogre was sleeping here, they'd be done.
"Don't say we're ganging up on you. Nothing that happens here can be allowed to leak outside."
Shelly's expression was dead serious as she opened the Poké Ball in her hand.
A Mightyena leapt out, landing in front of her.
All the other Team Aqua members likewise sent out their Pokémon.
It was basically a sea of Mightyena, Golbat, and Muk.
"Relax. Come at us however you want."
Damian chuckled, completely unconcerned.
"Low‑tier trash—no matter how many of you there are, it doesn't mean anything. Trash is still trash."
Damian said it like it was the most natural thing in the world.
"What?!"
"Did he just call us trash?! You arrogant little brat!"
"I'm beating you to your knees today, I swear!"
Before Shelly could say anything, the Team Aqua grunts were already losing it, their rage meters spiking.
"How outrageous!" Shelly's face didn't look great either.
Having someone point at your face and call you small fry—what normal person could swallow that?
"Heh～" Damian only laughed softly and waved a hand behind him.
Gladion stepped forward with a cold face and sent out a Zoroark.
"Night Daze."
A sharp fox‑like cry rang out as a black shockwave exploded outward.
And that was that.
Under Gladion's Zoroark's AoE, the ground was suddenly covered in "corpses." Only a few Pokémon were still barely breathing—like Shelly's Mightyena.
"Pfft～ if you can't even take one move from Gladion's Zoroark, what else are you if not trash?"
Damian marveled aloud.
Shelly's tanned skin flushed red with fury, her very full chest heaving—but she had no comeback.
How could they be that strong?
Shelly stared, still in shock, at the Zoroark.
Standing just behind and to the side of Damian, Courtney was almost giggling.
Joining Team Rocket had way too many perks.
With strength like hers, all she had to do was follow along behind and wait to reap the benefits. As for the enemy—there'd always be a big shot stepping up to handle things.
"Hahahaha～ looks like you've got some bite after all."
Archie's deep, booming laugh rolled over.
The muscle‑bound man in the blue bodysuit bared his teeth, eyes locking on Gladion.
He hadn't expected his whole group of subordinates to go down without even taking a single move.
"In that case, I'll be your opponent."
"..."
Gladion gave the musclehead a sidelong glance, his gaze growing dangerous.
All that muscle on Archie's frame reminded Gladion of some very bad memories. His temper was already starting to flare.
Gladion opened another Poké Ball. Silvally landed with a heavy thud.
"I won't bully you, kid. Name."
Archie was completely confident.
He was Team Aqua's boss—Archie himself!
"Team Rocket executive. Gladion." Gladion replied flatly.
"I'm Team Aqua's boss, Archie! The man destined to change the world!"
Archie puffed out his chest and shouted, voice booming. His chuuni levels were off the charts.
Then again, this was a guy who could run around all day in a skin‑tight suit and feel zero shame about it.
"This world hasn't fallen so low it needs you to change it."
Gladion looked at Archie like he was a moron. Where exactly did this guy's confidence come from?
"A guy like you could never understand my dream!"
Archie spoke proudly.
"Let me show you my power!"
He was sure of it—before he changed the world, he wasn't going down in some hole like this.
Victory was his.
"Let's battle!"
And then—
"This is impossible!!"
Archie collapsed to his knees, staring in disbelief at his defeated Mightyena and Crobat.
Yup. He'd lost. To Gladion.
"I actually lost! Has the world abandoned me??"
Archie's expression twisted in despair as he pounded his fist into the ground.
He was supposed to be the chosen one!
Seeing even their own boss fail to beat that cold blond boy, the Team Aqua members all gulped and unconsciously took a step back.
"Damn it! We got this far, actually found Kyogre—and we still couldn't pull it off?!"
"Hey, you done having your little meltdown over there?"
Damian strolled lazily up to Archie.
"Where exactly do you get the nerve to think Kyogre would ever acknowledge you?"
Damian tilted his head, looking down at Archie as he spoke with open mockery.
"From your ridiculous pecs?"
"As long as I have the Blue Orb!"
Archie's temper flared. There was no way he was swallowing Damian's ridicule. He glared up at him.
"Right, right—because as long as you've got the Blue Orb, you think one little Orb lets you keep Kyogre on a leash forever?"
Damian was honestly entertained.
"There are always trash fish like you who think they can control legendary power forever just by waving around some trinket."
The Blue Orb and Red Orb were literally fragments of Kyogre and Groudon's own power. Sure, the orbs could give you some temporary control.
But there was no way that control would last—especially once Kyogre and Groudon got their full hands on the orbs and went through Primal Reversion.
At that point, you were just done.
Just like in "Pokémon Generations"—Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre both made Maxie and Archie pay with blood.
In "Pokémon Generations," Archie got full‑body tackled by Primal Kyogre. There was no surviving that.
Maxie's ending probably wasn't any better. Primal Groudon was already blasting Solar Beams everywhere—if a stray shot so much as brushed him, he'd be dust.
Thinking you can control those two super‑ancient Legendaries with just the orbs…
You think that fat‑headed fish and the flightless lizard are as good‑tempered as Ho‑Oh or Xerneas?
Archie's face twisted badly, his gaze flickering.
Could it really be wrong?
"The orbs are literally part of their power, and you're delusional enough to think you can use their own strength to keep them chained? Isn't that just hilarious?"
Damian walked over to the pool, looking down at the still‑slumbering Kyogre in the center.
He had to admit—Kyogre really was beautiful. Especially after Primal Reversion.
"Damian, you wanna catch it?"
Zinnia walked up beside Damian, curiosity in her voice.
She could tell Damian's desire for Kyogre was burning hot. He really wanted it.
"Yeah. But it's a real headache."
Damian had never liked doing things he wasn't at least somewhat sure about.
Kyogre was asleep right now. Waking it up didn't necessarily require a Blue Orb or Red Orb.
If Armored Mewtwo went all‑out and dropped a Thunder on Kyogre, that'd probably "electroshock" it awake.
But that'd be pointless. Shadow Mewtwo hadn't been a match for Ho‑Oh before; going up against Kyogre would be just as sketchy.
And unlike Ho‑Oh, waking Kyogre up wasn't exactly a good thing.
"Find the Blue Orb and it's yours, yeah?" Zinnia grinned.
"You think I'm as dumb as Archie?"
Damian shot the Draconid Lorekeeper a sideways look.
Archie: "?"
"How do you know if you don't try? Maybe Kyogre will just fall for you on sight." Zinnia was just here for the drama.
Hearing that, Damian actually paused to think.
She'd hit him right where he lived.
The whole Ho‑Oh thing, sure—he'd known from the start that he and Ho‑Oh weren't compatible. Going after it had always been a long‑shot at best.
But Kyogre was a different story.
Kyogre's "taste" in partners was an unknown—but it definitely wasn't the same as Ho‑Oh's "pure heart" nonsense.
"At the end of the day, what you really want is natural energy and beating the lizard, right? I can give you both."
Damian thought for a moment and pulled out an Ultra Ball, rolling it between his fingers.
What did Kyogre actually want?
Whether it was Kyogre or Groudon, they'd once fought to the bitter end for natural energy.
That energy was insanely good for them, so they'd gone to war over it.
But thousands of years later, even without natural energy in the mix, once the lizard and the fat‑headed fish were awake at the same time, they would go hunting for each other and throw down.
At this point, there didn't need to be any other factors—just pure personal beef.
Groudon and Kyogre didn't need a reason to fight anymore. All they needed was each other's faces.
"If you can hear me, answer me. I'll help you take down Groudon. You be my partner. How about it, Kyogre?"
After thinking it over, Damian spoke to the slumbering Kyogre with a cheerful smile.
"If you wanna say no, just shake your head. If you don't respond, I'll take that as a yes."
Hearing Damian's utterly shameless line, Archie and the others—already tied up by Gladion—could only twitch.
"Too shameless! Absolutely no morals!!"
Archie cursed this Evil Team Rocket brat in his heart.
What do you mean "if you want to reject me, shake your head"? And "no reaction equals consent"??
Kyogre was out cold, sleeping like the dead—how was it supposed to hear him?
Obviously, Damian didn't care what Archie and the others thought.
Seeing Kyogre give no reaction at all, Damian nodded in satisfaction and, without the slightest hesitation, hurled the Ultra Ball at it.
"Perfect. Off you go, Ultra Ball!"
Just turning his back and walking away? Yeah, Damian couldn't do that.
Which left only one option—throw a ball at Kyogre!!
Under Archie and the others' stunned stares, the Ultra Ball traced a perfect arc through the air and tapped Kyogre.
Kyogre's huge body dissolved into red light and got sucked into the Ultra Ball.
Holy crap.
This punk was for real.
Even Archie hadn't dared to throw a ball at Kyogre.
And this kid actually did it.
He really wanted to catch Kyogre???
~~~
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