Chapter 135: Rayquaza Descends! Go Get Mammon!
"Yes — we ran into Mammon and Caitlin in Larousse City."
Cynthia and Nemona had picked up Steven's call.
"What would he be doing in Larousse?" Steven was puzzled.
Larousse was a relatively obscure high-tech city — the Battle Tower was its main claim to distinction, and not much else. Steven couldn't work out the logic.
But knowing Mammon, there was always a reason. He didn't go anywhere without purpose.
"Not clear. He said he was just passing through, but I don't believe it."
"Mm. Come back to Lilycove for now, Cynthia — Professor Sycamore sent over a batch of Mega Stones from Kalos. You should come take a look." Steven paused. "I'll have the local coordinator put Larousse on alert."
Even having located Mammon's position, Steven wasn't going to act rashly. Armored Mewtwo's demonstration in Rustboro had made a strong impression. Without Mega Evolution, they weren't in a position to press the engagement.
We need Mega Evolution first. Once the Champions can access it, we'll have a real chance.
"Understood." Cynthia nodded.
But Nemona beside her had stopped moving. She was staring at the sky, eyes going wide.
"Cynthia-senpai! Look up there!"
Cynthia looked up.
For once, genuine shock crossed her face.
A massive green dragon was descending from the sky — vast and swift, crackling with an overwhelming, ferocious presence.
"Rayquaza!"
Cynthia recognized it instantly. One of the ancient legends of this region — Hoenn's Sky Dragon.
But why would Rayquaza appear here? Nothing happened without reason.
"What?" Steven's voice came through the phone, confused.
"Champion Steven — Rayquaza has descended. It's directly above Larousse City right now." Cynthia's expression tightened. A legendary Pokémon appearing without warning over a populated city was not good.
The legends slept or stayed deep in the wilderness for reasons. When one surfaced, something had drawn it out.
"What?!"
"There it is."
Mammon looked up at the green dragon dropping from the sky without particular surprise.
Deoxys Individual Two broadcasting its psychic range at full power was, from Rayquaza's perspective, essentially a declaration of challenge. Announcing its presence as loudly as possible, right in the middle of Rayquaza's sky.
An invader from space — with the arrogance to make itself visible.
On the rooftop, Deoxys opened its eyes. The incoming Rayquaza filled its vision immediately — enormous, bearing down at high speed.
"ROOAAR!!"
Rayquaza's roar rolled across the sky. Pure draconic energy condensed in its jaws.
Dragon Pulse.
Deoxys Individual Two's eyes shifted rapidly. A sharp surge of danger instinct spread through every part of it.
It abandoned the psychic scan and launched backward into the air.
BOOM.
A concentrated beam of dragon energy tore through the space where it had been and struck a residential building below.
The Dragon Pulse detonated.
The explosion and the column of fire rose together. The entire two-story villa was consumed in the blast.
Alarms screamed across the city. On the street nearby, pedestrians fled in every direction.
Rayquaza paid none of it the slightest attention. It twisted mid-air and drove after Deoxys without pausing.
Dragon Pulse after Dragon Pulse hammered outward in a relentless barrage. Deoxys had no choice but to keep moving, keep dodging.
It didn't understand why Rayquaza was this savage — this absolute in its aggression. But even this gentler Individual Two, with a temperament noticeably calmer than Individual One's, could only absorb so much before it ran out of patience.
It tried something else first: using the crystal at its chest to transmit a signal of peace toward Rayquaza.
Rayquaza ignored it completely.
"Vicious."
Mammon watched the relentless offensive with a quiet note of appreciation. That was some genuine hostility. Either Rayquaza was simply this aggressive toward all powerful extraterrestrial visitors, or something about Deoxys's presence specifically triggered this response.
He didn't intervene. In practical terms — unless Deoxys was extraordinarily careless, this Rayquaza, without access to Mega Evolution, was going to have a difficult time actually killing Individual Two.
Mammon turned and made his way toward Caitlin and Lillie. Both of them had messaged him the moment the first explosion went off.
They were standing in an open training ground — a better choice than positioning themselves next to high-rises. If Rayquaza's Dragon Pulse went even slightly off-target, a building wouldn't survive the impact. It would simply collapse.
"Caitlin. Lillie. Are you both all right?"
Mammon reached them and checked.
"Fine. But Mr. Mammon — what is that?"
Lillie's expression was worried, her eyes fixed on the aerial battle unfolding above the city.
She was right to watch — Deoxys had started fighting back. There was a limit to how long even Individual Two would absorb punishment without responding.
"Rayquaza and Deoxys. Both legendary Pokémon."
Mammon gave a brief summary of the situation — the hostility, such as it was, being entirely one-sided from Rayquaza's perspective.
"Rayquaza is being completely unreasonable." Caitlin's assessment was direct.
The least it could do was determine whether Deoxys actually had hostile intent before trying to kill it. Watching it simply attempt to suppress another Pokémon without inquiry — this was Dragon-type territorial aggression in its most unfiltered form.
Lillie wasn't sure how to characterize what she was seeing. She had genuine feelings about it, but none of them organized into words.
High above, Rayquaza's Dragon Pulse missed again — and Deoxys, shifted into Speed Forme, answered with a Psycho Boost that connected squarely with Rayquaza's chest.
Rayquaza snarled in fury. The impact knocked it downward — it crashed into the side of a building.
The building buckled and toppled. Dust and debris erupted into the sky.
Deoxys Individual Two hovered, looking down at the cloud of wreckage from above. Its form shifted back to Normal. It waited.
"ROOAAR!!"
Before the dust had cleared, Rayquaza's roar tore through it. The dragon burst out, Dragon Pulse already firing.
Fast. Deoxys dodged — but not quite fast enough. The shot clipped its left shoulder and detonated it.
Deoxys made a muffled sound and pulled back sharply. Its regeneration was already active — the missing shoulder reconstructed itself in seconds.
Rayquaza came screaming in again without pause.
This time, Deoxys Individual Two didn't retreat.
It moved forward to meet the charge.
Even the gentler Individual Two had limits.
Two high-tier legendaries met in open combat above the city.
Below, Larousse paid the price — but the city's sparse population meant the damage to people was limited, at least.
"Due to an ongoing Pokémon battle, all residents are requested to evacuate the city in a calm and orderly manner—"
"Repeat — due to an ongoing Pokémon battle—"
The city's broadcast system carried the coordinator's voice citywide — steady, unhurried, professional.
Cynthia and Nemona were already moving through the streets, directing evacuation flows.
"How did this even happen?" Nemona stared at the aerial battle, baffled. "Why is Rayquaza fighting that other Pokémon?"
More pressingly — Rayquaza, a legendary, was not winning.
"And that thing is strong."
Nemona shook her head. She'd grown up hearing mythological stories about legendary Pokémon in various regions, but had always taken them as stories. Watching the collateral damage radiating from this battle — even the secondary shockwaves were destroying buildings — she was recalibrating.
She wondered idly whether Paldea had anything comparable hidden somewhere. The giant underground crater, maybe? She wasn't sure. She'd been in Paldea since she was eight, and she'd never heard stories like this—
(Her father ran the company behind the Rotom Phone, which had first appeared in Galar. Her birthplace tracked accordingly. And as for why Galar didn't feature legendary lore of this scale — anyone familiar with that particular game's legendaries could fill in the blanks. The flagship legendaries of that region had their species rewritten by narrative. No further comment necessary.)
"Could this be your doing, Mammon?"
Cynthia's mood had gone heavy. Looking at the city being torn apart around her, she had gone straight to him.
It was too convenient. Rayquaza appearing without warning. A mysterious Pokémon fighting it that had appeared from nowhere. And Mammon happened to be in this exact city at this exact time.
"Nemona."
"Yeah, what is it, senpai?"
"We're going to find Mammon."
"—Huh?"
Nemona blinked, then looked at Cynthia's expression and nodded.
Wait — did Cynthia-senpai think Mammon caused this?
Nemona thought about it. But — could he really have arranged this?
"Even if he didn't cause it — we need to ask him to intervene. The city can't survive much more of this."
Cynthia's expression was set.
Steven and the others were already en route to Larousse, but even setting aside whether they'd arrive in time — even if they did, could they stop Rayquaza and that unknown Pokémon?
Cynthia didn't think so.
But Mammon — Mammon might have a way.
Asking a criminal organization for help was absurd. She knew that.
But weighed against an entire city's safety — it wasn't even a close call.
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