While Lance and Archer were locked in a fierce, inseparable battle, Aomori easily dealt with a few guards and entered Team Rocket's private collection vault.
Faced with all sorts of rare materials, Aomori naturally helped himself to everything. Even if he didn't need them, he could give them to Sabrina to help exchange for useful supplies.
After finishing his plunder, he moved into another room. This one housed the captured Pokémon.
"Scyther, Geodude, Machamp, Electabuzz..." Aomori saw many familiar Pokémon. They were listless and caged.
Further back, the rarity of the Pokémon increased. Aomori saw the Kanto region's starter Pokémon: Charmander, Squirtle, and Bulbasaur.
"Huh, do they even have the Hoenn region starters?" Aomori paused in front of the cages holding Torchic and Mudkip.
Torchic's final evolution, Blaziken, has Fire and Fighting dual typing. Not only is it cool, but it would also be a major asset when fully grown.
Meanwhile, Mudkip's final evolution, Swampert, along with Absol, Pidgeot, and Aomori, could form an unconventional rain team, which would also be a great combination.
Listing them as potential candidates, he continued to look further.
When he looked at the last sealed transparent cage, Aomori's eyes widened.
Inside, among some miscellaneous Pokémon, a figure was curled up. Aomori approached the cage, examined the face closely, and stated with certainty, "That's right. I've only ever seen one person with such perfect features."
The person inside had the exact same face and clothes as Aomori. The only difference was the pitiful expression on their face.
"It can't be Mew, right?"
The facts proved Aomori was dreaming. He had Darkrai use Hypnosis to try and calm the Pokémon inside. However, apart from the one that looked like 'Aomori' turning into a rock and playing dead, all the others transformed into soft, purple-bodied Pokémon with a pair of small eyes in the middle.
"Dittos, as expected."
Ditto can freely change its cell structure to transform into anything it sees. Some can even use the original moves of the Pokémon they transform into.
It is rumored that Ditto is an artificial Pokémon created by Team Rocket using Mew's genes. Looking at the pile of Dittos in front of him, Aomori found this theory very plausible, unless Team Rocket had happened to poke a Ditto nest.
He was highly interested in the Ditto that could transform into his likeness, so he opened the cage.
The Ditto realized the danger and changed into a Pidgeotto, attempting to escape, but Aomori caught it in his hand.
"What else can you turn into? Show me."
Seeing that it couldn't break free from his "evil clutches," the "Pidgeotto" wriggled and transformed into the humanoid Pokémon with four arms—Machamp.
The "Machamp" grabbed Aomori's hands with its four arms and tried to throw him, but despite all its strength, Aomori didn't budge.
"Not bad. It has the strength of five men."
The "Machamp's" body squirmed again, and this time it became the black-bodied Darkrai.
The two Darkrai looked at each other and simultaneously tilted their heads in confusion.
Aomori's eyes lit up and he gave a command: "Darkrai, use Shadow Ball."
Both Darkrai conjured black Shadow Balls at the same time, but one of the Shadow Balls was noticeably larger.
"Interesting, very interesting."
After using Shadow Ball, the Ditto was visibly exhausted and reverted to its original form.
Its color was lighter than the others, closer to pink.
Having witnessed Ditto's transformations, Aomori made up his mind: he would catch Ditto and make it his fourth partner.
Want Dragonite, Salamence, Garchomp, Blaziken, Swampert? One Ditto can satisfy all your needs.
He crouched down, held Ditto in his arms, and established a telepathic link using his psychic power.
He spoke to it mentally: "Ditto, are you willing to follow me? Follow me, and from now on, you will know no hunger or pain. You will be with me. As I am immortal, so are you."
Through the telepathy, Ditto felt Aomori's sincere emotion. Recalling its miserable Pokémon life before, it shed tears, nodded its head, and thought, It couldn't be worse than here, and he looks like a good person.
A Poké Ball was thrown by Aomori, and Ditto happily bumped into it on its own.
He successfully caught Ditto!
Immediately after, Aomori spent 50,000 Points to form a contract with Ditto.
"Ditto, I look forward to training with you."
"Ditto!" The Ditto, who had transformed into Aomori's likeness, shook hands with Aomori.
That felt a bit weird.
"From now on, do not turn into me without my permission."
Ditto looked slightly wronged. He was so gentle before the capture, but now he's flipped the switch.
Finally, it transformed into a glove, which Aomori put on his hand.
After capturing Ditto, Aomori lost interest in the remaining Pokémon. He opened all the cages, releasing every Pokémon inside.
He had Darkrai take the spoils and retreat first, while Aomori himself headed toward the source of the continuous tremors.
"That must be Lance and Team Rocket fighting. A battle of such high caliber is not to be missed."
…
Meanwhile, Lance's situation was not looking good.
Because they were deep underground, neither he nor Archer dared to command their Pokémon to use high-power moves. They had tacitly agreed to use close-range moves to decide the winner, allowing Team Rocket, with its greater numbers, to gradually gain the upper hand.
Dragonite, Gyarados, and Kingdra all bore injuries of varying degrees.
"Surrender, Lance. We have Team Rocket members outside, and you are nearly 100 meters underground. You can't escape," Archer stared at the Dragon Master, who was starting to falter, and attempted to recruit him. "If you agree to join Team Rocket, we can even help you take the Champion position."
"Archer, save your breath. I am a Dragon Master. What I want, I'll strive for myself." Lance then gave a strange smile. "Besides, I might not even lose yet."
"Huh?" Archer sensed something amiss and was about to launch a full assault when he heard Lance say, "Dragonite, Gyarados, use Dragon Rage!"
"What? Are you crazy?"
Dragonite and Gyarados broke away from their opponents, both tilting their heads back to unleash Dragon Rage at the ceiling above them.
With a "Boom!" the ceiling shattered and crashed onto the floor, separating Lance and Archer's Team Rocket Grunts.
The tremor ceased without spreading further. Archer breathed a sigh of relief, then asked in fear, "Are you trying to get yourself killed?"
Lance, separated by the debris, waved at Archer. "I have great faith in Team Rocket's construction quality! Bye for now!"
He recalled Gyarados and Kingdra, had Dragonite smash through the wall, and flew off in the other direction.
"Archer-sama, what should we do?"
Archer thought for a moment and asked, "How long until we can restart the security system?"
"About ten more minutes."
"Send some people to guard the elevator entrance. Destroy the elevator if necessary. The rest of you, follow me to the central control room to prevent him from taking the base! Also, call for backup. Have some of the people above come down."
"Yes!"
"Lance, let's see how you plan to escape now!" Archer said through gritted teeth.
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You can read the ahead chapter on Patr-eon if you're interested: p-atre-on.c-om/Overgod [Just remove the hyphen to access normally]