Oleana yanked out an Ultra Ball.
The instant the ball appeared, the already-unstable Dynamax particles in the air seemed to find a drain; they surged toward the Poké Ball in a frenzy.
"Go—Milotic!"
She slammed the ball hard onto the floor.
This time, there was no normal flash of white.
Instead, a column of dark red light shot straight up to the ceiling.
Space itself began to warp.
The long, slender body of Milotic swelled rapidly under the blood-red glow.
Its form ballooned to a monstrous size, and those smooth scales were shrouded in a layer of dark red energy.
Three cloud-like Dynamax rings spun slowly around its head in the red fog.
Gigantamax—
No, a Dynamax Milotic.
But this Milotic was far bigger than it had any right to be.
Down here, right next to the source of Dynamax energy, its size had broken past the usual limits.
Its tail coiled at one end of the corridor, the giant serpentine body almost filling the entire passage. Those crimson eyes looked down at Jason, as if staring at an ant on the ground.
"Roaaaar!"
Milotic let out a long, drawn-out scream.
The sound formed a tangible shockwave in the cramped space; the glass of the side pipes shattered instantly, and coolant burst out in white jets.
"Crush him!" Oleana jabbed a finger at Jason, her face twisted.
Milotic moved at her command.
It didn't bother with fancy moves—it went straight for brute force.
The underground water network was torn apart by a surge of violent energy.
Countless streams of water converged in front of it, forming a towering tsunami dozens of meters high.
Max Geyser.
In this sealed underground corridor, there was nowhere to dodge.
This was a flood that would scour everything in its path down into the earth's core like a sewer overflow.
Gast saw that wall of water bearing down and instinctively tried to grab Jason and phase through the wall.
"Jason! That thing's way too big! It's too cramped here, I can't move properly!"
Iron Valiant raised its blades, trying to throw up an energy shield to tank the hit. Even at its level, taking a Dynamax-boosted attack like this head-on would hurt—a lot.
"No need to run."
Jason's voice was still calm.
He stared at the incoming tidal wave and didn't even shift into a guard stance.
"Did you memorize the type chart or not?" Jason asked suddenly.
"Huh?" Gast was caught off guard.
"What's Water weak to?"
"Electric, obviously."
"Good enough."
In the split second before the wave crashed down, Jason moved.
His body changed again.
The pink slime rapidly rearranged itself.
He bulged out into a round, chunky shape.
His skin turned into a thick, rubbery dark green, like elastic insulation. Where normal eyes should've been, two big fake white orbs popped out, staring blankly; his real beady eyes were pathetically tiny, just above his mouth.
His belly ballooned into a huge, semi-transparent sphere sloshing with yellow current.
Paldea specialty—Bellibolt.
A dopey, chubby frog, slow to move, usually just lying in mud, staring at nothing.
But to serious battlers, it's one of the nastiest special walls around.
The instant his transformation finished, Milotic's Max Geyser slammed down.
BOOOOM!
Thousands of tons of water smashed into him. The impact made the entire floor quake violently.
Iron Valiant, Gast, and Miraidon had to retreat into the corner, bracing behind the walls just to stay upright.
Oleana watched the zone swallowed by water and a smile of savage satisfaction spread across her face.
"Reckless fool! In the face of Dynamax power, your little tricks are worth nothing!"
Her smile froze quickly.
The water receded.
Where the frog should've been pulverized, that big green, stupidly cute frog was still standing right there.
It hadn't fallen.
It hadn't even budged.
Jason, in Bellibolt form, had skin with extreme insulation and elasticity, and its base stats skewed hard toward bulk. Under a maxed-out player like Jason, his special defense had been cranked to absurd levels.
More importantly, there was his ability.
Electromorphosis.
When hit, he charges up, doubling the power of his next Electric move.
Right now, Jason's body was crackling with yellow arcs. That killer Max Geyser hadn't just failed to kill him—it had turned him into a fully-charged battery.
He blinked those tiny real eyes and wobbled his giant fake eyes on his belly.
"That it?"
He opened his mouth and dropped the taunt.
Oleana stared, eyes wide, unable to accept what she was seeing.
"Wh–what is that thing?! Why isn't it dead? Milotic! Again! Use Max Hailstorm!"
She refused to believe it.
Dynamax Milotic's eyes flared and gathered energy again.
This time, the temperature plummeted, and moisture in the air crystallized into huge icicles, raining down toward Jason.
He still didn't dodge.
For a short-legged thing like Bellibolt, dodging was almost a foreign concept.
THUNK. THUNK. THUNK.
Ice spikes slammed into his rubbery belly, making dull booms, then bounced away.
Painful? Sure, a bit. But against his swollen HP and defenses, it wasn't much more than an aggressive massage.
"Had enough yet?"
He'd tanked two waves, and the electricity inside had peaked.
"You're Water-type. So I won't hold back."
He slapped both tiny hands against the floor.
The yellow orb in his gut flared blindingly.
Parabolic Charge.
An Electric move that hits everything nearby and heals the user for half the damage dealt.
Stack that with Electromorphosis's double power?
Even without Dynamax, this was going to hurt.
ZZZZZZT!
A thick yellow bolt burst from Jason.
It didn't travel straight like a normal Thunderbolt but bent in weird parabolic arcs, homing in on the giant Milotic.
The current wrapped around Milotic's entire body in an instant.
"Uuuaaah!!"
Milotic shrieked.
Electricity screamed over its wet scales. Water conducts; for a Water-type, this was a nightmare.
Worse, the current wasn't just inflicting damage—it was stealing.
Visibly, streamers of red life energy were torn out of Milotic along the electric paths and sucked back into Jason's body.
The HP he'd burned tanking those two hits refilled in an instant.
He even over-healed.
Jason squinted contentedly.
"Not bad. Bit fishy, though."
On the other side, Milotic's titanic body started to convulse.
Its Dynamax energy destabilized under the electric barrage.
Parabolic Charge just kept ticking.
Oleana stared, horrified.
Her prized Dynamax Milotic had turned into a giant portable power bank, and that stupid green frog was draining it dry.
"Stop! Stop it! You'll destroy her!" Oleana screamed.
"You're the one destroying her," Jason said, ramping up the voltage. "You forced her to Dynamax in this hellhole, burning up her life just to guard your boss. You're the executioner."
At last, with one final crack of lightning, Milotic couldn't hold out.
CRASH!
The colossal body slammed onto the floor.
The red Dynamax aura flickered and vanished.
Its size shrank rapidly, returning to normal. Its eyes were spirals. Completely knocked out.
The clotted red cloud of energy dissipated with it.
The corridor restored its original width, though the floor was a mess of water and shattered ice.
Jason dropped the transformation.
The pink blob popped back out, shaking water off his body, looking refreshed.
"Done and dusted."
Oleana was totally limp on the floor now. She stared at her unconscious Milotic, eyes hollow—like her entire belief system had just collapsed.
"How… how could this happen… the Chairman's plan…"
Jason shot Iron Valiant a look.
"Tie her up," he said. "Don't let her cause any more trouble—but don't kill her. Officer Jenny will want someone to arrest later."
Iron Valiant nodded and strode over.
It casually ripped a broken metal pipe from the wall and bent it like dough, binding Oleana's arms and legs. Crude, but effective.
Oleana didn't resist. She'd lost the will to.
Jason walked up, looking down at this pathetic woman.
"In this world, only strength and brains are reliable," he said. "Loyalty without brains? This is what it buys you."
He turned away, leaving her, and headed for the sealed core door.
The door was thick, with three separate key locks and biometric scanners.
Normally, you'd need keycards, or hack the system.
Jason couldn't be bothered.
"Iron Valiant, over here," he called, pointing at the door. "Looks sturdy. Try your blade."
Iron Valiant had just tossed Oleana into a corner; at the command, it strode over.
It regarded the door—a slab of alloy thick enough to shrug off conventional explosives—and its red optics flashed.
It gripped its polearm. The pink energy blades surged to three meters in length.
No power-up pose.
Just a clean, horizontal cut.
Zzzzzzzch!
The sound of metal being sliced clean through made everyone's teeth hurt.
A glowing red cut line appeared down the door's surface.
Then came a second slash.
And a third.
Iron Valiant carved out a neat triangular segment like it was cutting tofu.
"That'll do."
Jason nodded, satisfied.
He backed up, then hurled himself forward, slamming his body into the cut-out section.
THUD!
The heavy metal triangle toppled inward, smashing into the floor with a colossal crash.
A surge of even denser, darker red energy poured through the gap.
The room beyond was fully exposed.
The air in the control chamber was suffocatingly hot.
This was the apex of Hammerlocke's power plant—and the heart of Galar.
The vast circular space was filled with floating holo-screens, all flashing red alarms. Energy graphs had blasted past their safe limits and were shooting upward at a terrifying rate.
In the center, a raised platform.
Chairman Rose stood there.
He still wore his trademark grey suit, but now the expensive custom ensemble was rumpled and creased.
His tie hung crooked, his perfectly slicked-back hair had come undone; strands of grey stuck to his sweaty forehead.
He had his arms flung wide, shouting at the massive reinforced glass wall in front of him.
"Behold! This is the power of the future! The infinite energy that will save Galar!"
On the other side of the glass lay a bottomless reactor pit. Dark red Dynamax particles churned, coiling into a massive energy vortex.
At its center, the legendary beast—Eternatus—was slowly waking.
Below Rose, Leon was half-kneeling.
The "unbeatable" Champion looked anything but.
Half his cape was charred away, his face was smeared with soot, and his breathing was ragged and heavy.
His ace Charizard knelt in front of him, battered to hell. Its flames still burned—but far dimmer than normal.
It had just fought a brutal battle, not to defeat an opponent, but to stall this insane ceremony.
"Stop this, Chairman!"
Leon pushed off his knee and struggled to his feet.
"You're going to destroy today's Galar! Look outside! Those rampaging Pokémon are attacking the city! This is your idea of saving it?!"
Rose spun around, staring down at Leon from above, eyes blazing with the indignation of a misunderstood martyr.
"The sacrifice of the present is for the survival of the future! You're too short-sighted, Leon! All you see is today's matches, today's petty peace! But I see a crisis a thousand years from now! If we don't act today, in a thousand years Galar's energy will be gone! Our descendants will live in darkness!"
His voice boomed through the chamber, heavy with self-righteous emotion.
"Only I—only I have the courage to bear this hatred! I'm doing this for all humanity! For—"
"For your stupid giant ego, maybe."
A lazy, cutting voice sliced clean through Rose's monologue.
It wasn't loud, but in this wound-up, explosive atmosphere, the languid sarcasm rang out crystal clear.
Rose's face froze.
Leon blinked.
They both turned toward the control room entrance.