Chapter 128: Steven, Save Me!! — Giovanni's Beedrill!
"This is who Mammon really is! This — is all of me!"
At those words, all three of them finally couldn't keep the shock off their faces.
"Mammon! What you're doing is wrong!" Steven's voice came out harder than he intended.
"A person's purpose and ideals — if you need a criminal organization to give them meaning, then they were already built wrong."
Cynthia pressed the same point.
She genuinely couldn't comprehend how Mammon's thinking had twisted into this shape.
"Mammon — you've always been you. Uniquely, completely you. You don't owe anyone proof of your right to exist."
"That's your idealism talking." Mammon's laugh was cold.
"Cynthia. You still don't understand why Caitlin would choose Team Rocket over coming back to you."
He held her gaze.
"Your life has been perfect. That doesn't mean everyone else's has been."
Cynthia went slightly pale. Something complicated moved through her expression.
"I've played along long enough. Time to wrap this up."
Mammon glanced to the side. Kagura had already badly wounded both Regirock and Registeel — Shujiro would be finished soon.
Nemona, on the other hand, was holding her own against Caitlin — that fight was genuinely even.
As for Wallace — he had apparently transitioned into cheerleading for Nemona from his aerial vantage point.
Big Rice Sensei's performance, as reliable as ever.
"Don't you dare — Mammon, you're not leaving here today!" Steven's eyes were set. They'd come this far.
They were not giving up.
"Mewtwo."
Mammon put both hands in his pockets and said it once.
Armored Mewtwo's deep violet eyes flashed.
The wind stopped.
An instant later, two black tornadoes tore upward from flat ground and bore down on Giovanni's group like living things — funnels of force spun entirely from psychic energy.
"Aurorus — Stone Edge!"
Steven scrambled, shouting the order.
Aurorus roared. Jagged rocks tore upward and screamed toward the two psychic tornadoes.
The Stone Edge hit — and was simply swallowed.
Damn—
Steven's face went grim. Were they just going to stand here and watch Mammon walk away?
"Twineedle."
A low, quiet voice.
A yellow shape accelerated across the ground at arrow speed and reached both tornadoes — twin stingers blazing white, driving into them hard.
CRACK. CRACK.
Two sharp detonations. Both tornadoes stopped, shuddered, and came apart.
Steven and Cynthia both went still, staring at the yellow figure.
It was a Beedrill.
A Beedrill. The final evolution of Weedle — one of the most common wild Pokémon in any forest.
And that completely unremarkable Beedrill had just punched through two psychic tornadoes generated by Armored Mewtwo.
"…Hm."
Mammon, already heading toward Kagura and Caitlin, turned back. He looked at the Beedrill with genuine surprise.
"That Beedrill — Gym Leader Giovanni, that's yours?"
Cynthia looked at Giovanni, whose expression had gone very still and very quiet. No question.
"Ah. My first Pokémon. Forgive me for not mentioning it sooner." Giovanni's voice was subdued.
No — there's nothing to forgive. This Beedrill was absurdly strong and they both knew it.
Steven's eyelid twitched. His own Aurorus — a solid mid-tier staple of his team — couldn't put a dent in those tornadoes with a full Stone Edge. This Beedrill had dissolved them with Twineedle.
The gap that implied was significant.
That Beedrill is on a completely different level.
"Mammon." Giovanni's voice was low and heavy. "I'm sorry. I failed to give you what you needed. I know that."
He paused.
"But Team Rocket is not where you belong. I refuse to accept that. And—"
He didn't finish the sentence.
Beedrill had already launched — a bolt, a streak, moving like it had been fired from something. The speed was nearly impossible to track.
CRACK.
Armored Mewtwo raised one arm. The deep violet psychic barrier lit up — and Beedrill's stingers were already sinking into it, visibly pressing inward.
Armored Mewtwo's hand tightened. A formless shroud of psychic force closed around Beedrill.
Beedrill felt it immediately. Both stingers drove outward in hard sweeping arcs and tore the psychic grip apart, and Beedrill retreated at high speed, putting distance between itself and Armored Mewtwo.
It's extraordinary.
Steven and Cynthia both had the same thought at the same moment.
It had engaged Armored Mewtwo directly and come out of it without falling behind. Giovanni's Beedrill was something else entirely.
"I knew it." Mammon's grin spread wide. Something dark passed over his face, like a shadow settling. "A man like you, Father — of course you had one more card you weren't showing."
"And because of you — I'm even less inclined to let you walk away from here."
Giovanni finally finished his sentence. His expression was sorrowful and heavy in equal measure.
"Saying this now is too late." Mammon's smile was cold mockery.
"And you still can't stop me from leaving."
Armored Mewtwo raised its right arm.
Kagura and Caitlin came streaking across from the far side — and with them, Wallace, who arrived with the same velocity and considerably less dignity.
Kagura and Caitlin wore the composed expressions of people whose side of the battle had gone pretty well.
"Wallace!"
Steven's face changed immediately. How was Wallace captured again?
"Wallace-sensei — time for a scenic flight." Mammon beamed at him pleasantly.
"Mammon! What are you—?!" A very bad feeling rose in Wallace's chest.
Mammon said nothing. He just spoke to Mewtwo.
"Mewtwo."
Armored Mewtwo's palm swept upward. Wallace shot skyward like a missile.
Wind hammered his face. His complexion went white instantly.
"AAAAAAHHHH!! STEVEN HELP ME! STEVEN!!"
"WALLACE!!"
Steven watched his best friend become a distant dot in about one second flat.
"Beedrill!" Giovanni sent it skyward without hesitation.
"Well then, everyone — this has been genuinely entertaining. See you next time."
Mammon turned to Steven's group and the approaching Nemona and Shujiro, and gave them a cheerful wave.
"Mammon! Don't you dare—"
Steven wasn't about to accept this. But Beedrill was already flying to get Wallace, and nothing else on the field was going to stop Armored Mewtwo.
"You can't stop this. Save the effort, Steven-sensei."
Armored Mewtwo lifted them all skyward.
"Oh — and if you want to catch me next time, Steven-sensei, you'll probably want to put together a stronger lineup. I'm looking forward to it."
Like he was saying goodbye to dear friends.
Then Armored Mewtwo and all three of them vanished in a flash of light — gone, at a speed that left no time for anyone to react.
The field went quiet.
A moment later, Beedrill descended from the sky.
Cradled carefully in its arms — princess-carry style — was Wallace, white-faced, still processing whether he was alive.
That had genuinely terrified him.
The silence stretched.
"So… do we chase them?"
Nemona hesitated, then asked the question cautiously, looking around at the others.
Her own fight had actually gone reasonably well — she and Caitlin had been fairly even. But clearly things hadn't gone so smoothly for the others.
Shujiro had been completely dominated by Kagura. Steven, Cynthia, and Giovanni's battle had gone badly. As for Wallace — best not to even get into it.
Six Champions against three.
And it had ended like this.
These Team Rocket people were genuinely terrifying.
Nemona finally understood why Hoenn had put out a call for outside help.
And apparently Team Rocket had originally started in Kanto — which meant the Kanto League had been keeping a lid on this whole time? How?
"No point chasing. Catching up to Mammon — it's not feasible."
Steven pressed two fingers to his forehead and rubbed slowly. His voice was flat with exhaustion.
This battle had given him a much clearer picture of Mammon. He wasn't sure that was comforting.
"I'm deeply ashamed." Shujiro's voice was genuinely mortified. "I couldn't even bring down a single executive of a criminal organization."
"Shujiro, please — don't blame yourself. Team Rocket is a formidable force. We didn't capture them today."
Steven managed a small smile. A visible effort.
"But we have more information than we did. We can use it to prepare for next time."
It was a bad result. Six Champion-tiers, an unprecedented mobilization — and they hadn't caught a single person. Who could have predicted it would go like this?
ROOAAR!
From a distance, across the sky, a roar.
They all looked up. A Charizard was approaching fast.
The man on its back spotted them, visibly brightened, and came down.
"Is that Champion Leon?" Nemona blinked and recognized him immediately.
"I'm so sorry — I'm late. Had a bit of a situation on the way." Leon climbed off Charizard, rubbing the back of his head with an embarrassed grin.
He'd flown from Wyndon, following his navigation the whole way — and had somehow still ended up off course. If one of the League coordinators hadn't happened to spot him on the outskirts of Rustboro, he might not have made it at all.
"The Team Rocket members — ?" Leon looked around at the battered Pokémon, the cracked and blasted ground, the general air of things having recently gone very wrong.
He looked increasingly uncomfortable. They'd already finished, hadn't they.
Steven: "…"
Steven's face did something complicated. He forced his expression into something politely neutral.
So this is Galar's undefeated Champion.
He'd learned something new today.
"Team Rocket has already retreated."
He sighed and said it plainly. Leon had come to help, after all.
Though honestly — Steven privately doubted that Leon arriving earlier would have changed the outcome. Unless Leon had a Pokémon somewhere near the level of Giovanni's Beedrill, the difference in headcount hadn't really mattered once Armored Mewtwo was on the field.
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