"So… it's because of Giovanni?"
Green's pretty face pinched tight, her thoughts knotting together until she looked genuinely rattled.
She could sort of piece together what Damian meant. A fallout with Giovanni? A need to prove himself? A stubborn refusal to live under someone else's shadow?
Even so, she still couldn't wrap her head around it.
Was a family bond really that fragile?
Green had been kidnapped when she was little. She'd grown up aching for the day she could return home. To her, "family" wasn't something you tossed aside—it was the one thread you held onto when everything else was stripped away. It was because she wanted that bond back that she'd survived that place at all.
"Red… you okay?"
Ahead of them, Damian and his two companions were already gone—vanished like they'd never been there. Green's chest felt tight with a mess of emotions she didn't want to name, and she turned to Red.
"…"
Red shook his head once.
Green clicked her tongue, frustration slipping out as complaint. "Honestly. Gym Leader Giovanni really went and created a walking disaster for the Kanto League. I don't even know if Lorelei and the others can handle him."
And if she was being honest?
She didn't think Lorelei could win.
That Damian was strong in a way that didn't feel reasonable. Like the rules everyone else lived by simply didn't apply to him.
Yeah. Fine. It was Giovanni's fault.
If Giovanni had cared for Damian properly—really cared, not just trained and molded and demanded—would this have happened?
"…"
Red stayed silent, the same as always. He recalled Blastoise and Venusaur without a word, then turned and started walking.
This was his first loss like this. Not a narrow defeat. Not a hard-fought collapse.
A crushing.
To Damian, Red hadn't even qualified as an opponent.
Damian… Damian!!!
A light flickered in Red's crimson eyes—sharp, wordless, dangerous—while the image replayed again and again in his mind: Damian, and that armored Mewtwo staring down at him as if he were nothing.
Next time.
Next time it wouldn't end like this.
…
Elsewhere, half the battlefield had already been swallowed by frost and snow.
"Thunder Punch!"
Metagross's massive claws flared with crackling electricity as it hammered down toward Dewgong.
Dewgong snapped its tail, pivoting with startling agility. Its body spun into a high-speed whirl, turning into a rotating ice top as shards sprayed outward.
Ice Spinner.
Boom!
Ice Spinner slammed into the Thunder Punch. Metagross had brute force on its side, and Dewgong clearly couldn't win a straight clash—so it didn't try. It let the collision carry it backward, riding the force and slipping away on the retreat.
And the rotation did something else, too: the electricity that should've bitten deep only grazed, dampened by the spinning momentum and the icy flow around Dewgong's body.
Lorelei's eyes were cold as cut glass. "Hydro Pump."
Lapras opened its mouth and unleashed a roaring column of water straight at Metagross.
"Psychic!"
Caitlin didn't hesitate. Tapu Lele's psychic power surged up, intercepting the Hydro Pump in midair.
The two forces met, ground against each other, then detonated into a violent spray that scattered across the snowy field.
Caitlin's expression tightened. So strong…
She was running hot—focused, alert, thrilled in a way she rarely allowed herself to show. Lorelei wasn't just an Elite Four member. She fought like one of the strongest in Kanto, because she was.
The battle dragged into a stalemate again.
But Caitlin could feel the truth under it: she was losing ground.
Lorelei's Ice-type formation was suffocating in a positional fight. Metagross could only do real damage up close—and every time it tried to close the gap, it had to punch through layered pressure.
Blizzard from Dewgong. Blizzard from Lapras.
A wall of white violence.
Even if Metagross forced its way in, Lorelei had the experience to punish it immediately. For the first time in a long while, Caitlin felt that rare, irritating sensation of having no clean line forward.
And yet—
She was enjoying it.
A strong enemy. A real fight. A battle that demanded more than talent.
Lorelei's voice cut through the snow. "You're decent. But you're not my match."
"The winner hasn't been decided," Caitlin said evenly. Her tone stayed elegant, but her eyes were sharp. "Isn't it a bit early to declare that?"
She wasn't someone who liked using underhanded methods for sport. Not in a fight like this. She had power—true psychic power—and she preferred to temper herself the right way.
If it came down to survival, that was different. She wasn't about to get dragged off in cuffs and thrown into a cell.
Lorelei's gaze didn't change. "Then you might want to start thinking about whether you can tolerate prison food."
Her eyes shifted, just slightly, toward Caitlin's flank.
Caitlin followed the glance.
A man with a sturdy build and a bare torso was walking over as if he'd been taking a leisurely stroll, not entering an active battlefield.
"Elite Four Bruno."
Caitlin's brows drew together.
Bruno.
"Lorelei," Bruno's deep voice rolled over the ice. "You done yet?"
Lorelei didn't even look impressed. "Didn't I tell you to watch the perimeter?"
"Those two Team Rocket executives are already down," Bruno answered, muffled and blunt. "I waited. Got tired of waiting. Came to help."
He sounded like this was an inconvenience cutting into his weightlifting schedule.
As for Gladion and Athena—
"Quiet."
Officer Jenny snapped the cuffs onto them and marched them toward a police car. Athena's face was a storm. Gladion stared down at the metal around his wrists as if he couldn't quite believe it.
He—Gladion, heir to the Aether Foundation, genius trainer of Alola, the one who commanded Silvally—
Was sitting in the back of a Kanto police car on his first trip to the mainland.
Is this… right?
His stomach turned.
Damian, hurry up and save me.
"Two executives…?" Caitlin's expression tightened. "You caught Gladion and Athena?"
Bruno looked over, squinted like he had to recall the names, then shrugged. "Yeah. Those two."
Caitlin went quiet.
Lorelei's patience ran out. "Then help me. Let's end this."
Bruno didn't argue. His Hitmonlee rose onto its toes, light and ready, warming up with a quick bounce.
Caitlin's posture sharpened immediately.
This wasn't a warning anymore.
This was the trap closing.
Two Elite Four members—one controlling the field from range, the other built to rip you apart in close quarters.
The battle resumed.
And the moment Bruno joined, the fight stopped being a contest and turned into pressure—pure, merciless pressure.
Metagross went down first, finally buckling under Hitmonlee's Blaze Kick.
Tapu Lele was badly hurt as well. Caitlin's jaw tightened; she recalled Metagross and sent out Gallade and Gothitelle, trying to stabilize, trying to carve out space.
It wasn't enough.
Lorelei and Bruno were too clean, too coordinated, too experienced at turning small advantages into inevitability. Gallade fell. Then Gothitelle.
Tapu Lele remained, stubborn and bruised, still fighting—but its breathing was ragged now, its movements slowed, its body marked with impacts.
Lorelei's voice was quiet. Final. "That's it."
Caitlin let out a slow breath. She'd done everything she could. This was her limit—for now.
Lorelei regarded her without warmth. "You lasted longer than I expected. But evil organizations only end one way."
Caitlin's composure returned like a veil dropping back into place. She wore a faint smile—soft, almost relaxed—like she hadn't just been cornered and battered.
"Lorelei," she said mildly, "you sound very sure of yourself."
Lorelei's brows tightened. Something flickered behind her eyes. Caution. Suspicion.
Caitlin's tone stayed smooth. "I don't like saying this either… but if you want to take me, you'll have to get past him first."
"Him?"
Bruno scratched his head, confused. Another powerhouse? Another Team Rocket member nearby?
Lorelei's gaze cooled further. "Who?"
Caitlin's smile deepened by a hair. There was something unmistakably proud in it now.
"Don't you think I'm right… Damian?"
Her words had barely settled when—
"Tsk."
A voice came from behind her, light and amused.
"If you want to bully Caitlin," the voice continued, playful and lazy, "you really do have to ask me first."
From the shadowed edge of the frozen battlefield, a young man stepped out in a white shirt and black trousers. For a heartbeat, something like a faint, eerie chuckle seemed to ride the air—then Damian stepped onto a brighter patch of ground and the atmosphere snapped back into place, as if the shadows themselves had been disappointed.
Lorelei's eyes narrowed. She recognized him instantly.
"Damian… and Erika?"
Her gaze slid past him.
Erika stood behind Damian, quiet and tense in a floral kimono that looked painfully out of place amid the frost and wreckage. She met Lorelei's stare, then gave Damian a helpless look—as if to say, This is your idea of 'subtle'?
Lorelei's expression iced over completely. "Kidnapping an official Gym Leader, Damian. You've got nerve."
Damian lifted a shoulder in a lazy shrug. "I'm already Team Rocket, Lorelei. That moral lecture doesn't really land."
Then his eyes drifted—casual, shameless—straight to Lorelei's chest.
"And speaking of nerve," Damian added, sounding almost impressed, "you're the one who's really big here."
His tone carried pure, unapologetic admiration.
Truthfully, Lorelei's figure was ridiculous. Damian didn't even want to imagine how refreshing it would be to bury his face in those huge breasts
Lorelei's face turned ugly in an instant. Her eyes darkened, the cold sharpening into something that could cut.
Even Bruno looked shocked.
Seriously?
Kid, are you suicidal?
Do you have a death wish—you actually dare to tease Lorelei?
----
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