Chapter 83: Celebi vs. Mewtwo
That evening, Ryan and the other two boarded a plane to Pallet Town and arrived at Ryan's ranch early the next morning.
"Wow! How luxurious!" Rosa envied the ranch.
Even Celebi loved it, happily flying around the courtyard. Wherever Celebi passed, the trees and flowers grew more luxuriantly.
"Roar!" A roar echoed, and an Aerodactyl descended from the sky, landing in front of Ryan.
"Yes. I'm back for a while, and I'll have more travels later. Let's go to the ranch first. Don't worry, if you're lucky, you'll be able to compete in the Silver Conference," Ryan patted Aerodactyl's head and said.
"This is your Aerodactyl, Ryan. It looks so impressive," Ruby looked at the Aerodactyl with envy.
"Well, I won't bother you for now. After all, someone from the League is coming, and I still need to deal with them. Let me tell you a secret: the closer to my ranch center, the higher the potential. The same goes for several special areas. The better the location, the higher the potential of the Pokémon," Ryan winked at them.
Ruby and Rosa nodded and excitedly began their search. Ryan jumped onto Aerodactyl's back, which carried him back to the main building.
Upon entering, he saw Lorelei and Blaine sitting on the sofa drinking tea, accompanied by two unfamiliar League officials.
Ryan's mouth twitched as he said, "Lorelei, Blaine, how cautious is the League? They actually sent you two here."
Lorelei said helplessly, "It can't be helped. The League has been outmaneuvered by you so many times, they'll definitely be more careful."
"Yes. After all, we've heard about the Celebi incident, and the League also wants us to come. Please, for our sake, don't charge us too much," Blaine said.
"Three selections, twenty million each. That's my lowest offer," Ryan said after a moment's hesitation. "We'll negotiate next time, but this time, each of the premium Pokémon I'm providing will be twenty million."
"Okay. Fine," Lorelei pulled out her phone and called the League.
After a moment, Lorelei said, "Five selections is the minimum. After all, the League needs to play it safe. But the price can be raised to fifty million each."
Ryan thought for a moment and said, "Okay, deal. Ten this time. Five hundred million up front, and then I'll take you to choose."
Lorelei nodded and sent a message to the League. Two minutes later, Ryan received the payment. Now fully funded, Ryan instantly converted his resources and purchased two Ability Capsules for Greninja and Sylveon.
Five hundred million in, two hundred million spent in an instant - a painful loss for Ryan. Fortunately, none of his main team members were premium grade anymore. Otherwise, even with expensive enhancement items, Ryan wouldn't have been able to afford upgrades no matter how much money he had.
Ryan had actually considered what would happen if he gave a premium Pokémon a Rare Candy or Protein. However, based on his experience, enhancement items could only help Pokémon below premium rank reach premium rank, and for premium Pokémon, they were probably just regular supplements.
He took Lorelei and Blaine to the area where premium Pokémon were raised. It was an independent ecological preserve Ryan had specially commissioned. The League had heard about this place, specifically for raising premium Pokémon, and had spared no expense, using the finest materials to build it.
There were mountains, rivers, ice fields, and volcanic areas - all carefully constructed to simulate natural habitats, allowing the Pokémon to better settle in the preserve. Of course, this also cost the League a considerable amount of money.
Lorelei went directly to the ice field and selected an Alolan Vulpix, which Ryan had captured in the Alola region. Originally, Ryan had intended to train it himself, but Lorelei, upon learning of this, had requested it. Considering his good relationship with Lorelei, and the fact that she had previously served as his training partner, Ryan had saved it for her.
Lorelei collected the Alolan Vulpix, feeling satisfied. Blaine also picked up an Alolan Marowak from the volcanic region. With its dual Fire and Ghost typing, it was well worth his training.
Then, two League officials began their selections, choosing from a prepared list.
"Mantine, Natu, Lanturn, Crobat, Haunter, Machamp, Corsola, and Sharpedo," Ryan counted. "Including the two from Lorelei and Blaine, that makes exactly ten."
Judging by their selections, most were specifically chosen, likely requested by Elite Four members or Gym Leaders who had applied through the League. There was probably a Champion involved too, but he didn't know who.
After sending them off, Ryan instructed two of his ranch hands to tell Ruby and Rosa to go to the Ecological Preserve to make their selections. After all, each of them showed great potential as trainers, and their future achievements were bound to be significant. Any help was appreciated; they would all be part of Ryan's network.
"Boom!" A deafening roar echoed.
Ryan had just released his Pokémon, letting them get acquainted with their home, when he heard an explosion. He couldn't sit still anymore and jumped onto Aerodactyl's back. Aerodactyl carried Ryan to the source of the explosion.
Celebi and Mewtwo faced each other. Mewtwo already had a spoon in hand, pointing it at Celebi. Celebi's body was also radiating temporal energy, clearly getting serious.
"Stop it! Why are you two fighting?!" Ryan jumped off Aerodactyl's back and landed hard.
"Ryan, we're just sparring," Mewtwo said, puzzled. "Isn't this normal training intensity?"
Sparring? That kind of destructive power is called sparring?! What does that mean? Are they trying to level the mountain?!
"Continue, I'll observe," Ryan said, sitting cross-legged on the ground to see what the two legendary Pokémon were training for.
Mewtwo nodded, spinning the spoon in the air a few times before hurling it at Celebi. Celebi instantly teleported away, dodging Mewtwo's attack, and launched countless psychic orbs into temporal rifts.
If there was a move that best suited Celebi, it would be Future Sight. Not only did it deal massive damage, but for Celebi, who could manipulate time, predicting his opponent's next move was incredibly easy.
Mewtwo frowned, and a surge of ice energy instantly gathered around the spoon. The spoon thrust forward, sending the frigid energy piercing toward Celebi like a lance.
But several psychic orbs materialized from temporal space, shattering the ice spears. More psychic orbs then appeared, hurling themselves at Mewtwo from all angles.
Mewtwo spun the spoon with incredible speed, and the psychic orbs exploded upon impact. Though individually minor, they still dealt cumulative damage.
After the psychic barrage ended, Mewtwo used Recover, restoring himself to perfect condition, then sent a large number of his own psychic orbs into dimensional space.
Celebi chuckled softly and fired a beam at Mewtwo, enveloping it in a ring of light. It was Heal Block! It sealed Mewtwo's recovery abilities, preventing it from using Recover.
Celebi then gathered energy between his hands and thrust forward, launching a concentrated Shadow Ball barrage toward Mewtwo.
Mewtwo teleported behind Celebi and struck fiercely with the raised spoon.
"That's enough," Ryan said. "Aerodactyl, use Stone Edge to separate them."
Aerodactyl roared, and two rows of sharp stones flew toward Mewtwo and Celebi. Mewtwo shattered the stones with a powerful Psychic blast, while a barrage of psychic orbs shot toward Celebi. Celebi's own Future Sight orbs emerged from temporal space, colliding with Mewtwo's psychic attacks in thunderous explosions. A massive Shadow Ball also destroyed Aerodactyl's remaining stone projectiles.
Ryan thought to himself that he had finally managed to stop them. But looking at Aerodactyl, he realized that his fossil Pokémon had also touched upon legendary power, otherwise it wouldn't have been able to interrupt the attacks of two mythical beings. Although these two legendary Pokémon weren't yet at full maturity, at least now, the data his Pokédex gave Ryan included the classification "Legendary Pokémon" in their entries.
(End of Chapter)
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