Chapter 314: Mammon: This Pokémon Is Absolutely a Great Match for You
Did Kanto have any new-generation trainer who could rival this fearsome Sinnoh prodigy?
Misty found the question genuinely difficult. Ash was already the single most absurdly talented trainer she'd ever personally witnessed.
As far as she currently knew, the only real candidates were Ash's own brother Red, and — maybe — Mammon's little brother, that standoffish, faintly ominous-looking Silver kid?
But Silver, at best, was probably about on par with Ash right now. And she had no idea whether Ash's brother Red could actually go toe-to-toe with Platinum or not.
Then again, that wasn't really something she could figure out just by speculating in her head. At the end of the day, who was actually stronger came down to a lot of factors, and how someone performed in the moment mattered a huge amount too.
What came next was simple enough.
With Entei already caught by the girl, Ho-Oh naturally wasn't going to linger.
It had arrived in a good mood; it left in a considerably worse one.
After all, in just that short span of time, its already-thin guardian order had lost yet another member, and on top of that, its honest, adorable, endlessly useful Marshadow had been "stolen" clean away by Mammon.
There was no way in hell Ho-Oh's mood was going to stay good after that.
Worth noting, too — before it left, Mammon straight-up flagged it down and forced it to pose for a few group photos.
Yeah — that one was purely Mammon's own personal indulgence. Ho-Oh hadn't wanted to agree to it at all.
I mean, seriously — you already made off with two of my subordinates AGAIN, and now you want a photo op too? Dream on!
But after Mammon dropped the line, "You don't want me taking Ash along on a robbery next time, do you?" — Ho-Oh, choking down a mouthful of humiliation, agreed.
It really, truly didn't want a child with such a pure heart getting deliberately steered down the wrong path over something this petty.
The one small comfort was that its judgment hadn't been wrong. That kid named Ash — even after all these months — his heart was still just as clean as ever.
Once Ho-Oh left, Platinum couldn't wait any longer and released Entei right away, pulling out a high-grade healing spray to tend to it.
"From today on, we're partners. Looking forward to working with you, Entei."
Platinum flashed Entei a huge, friendly smile.
Sure, she hadn't quite appreciated Entei's looks at first — but now that she'd caught it, the more she looked at it, the more she liked what she saw!
A magnificent beast like this — do you have one? Because I do!
Her big, bright eyes crinkled into crescent moons of pure delight. This was, after all, her very first Legendary Pokémon catch ever.
Entei felt the warmth radiating off Platinum and let out an internal sigh. Part of it had wanted to spend the rest of its life in service to Lord Ho-Oh.
But there was nothing to be done about that now.
Besides — Lord Ho-Oh had implicitly consented to this. So this wasn't really betrayal, was it?
Entei let out a low growl toward Platinum, signaling its acceptance.
"I promise I'll take you all the way to the top, Entei! I swear it!"
Platinum threw her arms happily around Entei's neck, making her most sincere vow.
Entei, sensing the girl's pure, earnest hopes, couldn't help but let a very human warmth flicker into its eyes.
It gently nuzzled its huge head against her hair in response — a small, affectionate gesture.
"Man, that's so nice—" Ash was practically green with envy.
Come to think of it, this whole trip up Mount Tianqing, he'd gotten to meet Ho-Oh again and even had a battle with it. Mammon had "found" that Marshadow, and Platinum had caught Entei — all three of them had walked away with something.
"If you asked Ho-Oh, Ash, and told it you wanted to catch Raikou, I bet it wouldn't say no. It'd give you the chance."
Mammon said with a smile.
After all, anyone with eyes could see how fond Ho-Oh was of Ash — if Ash genuinely wanted to catch a member of its guardian order, Ho-Oh would surely be willing to give him the shot.
"At Ash's current level? Tough luck." Misty pursed her lips, delivering the blunt truth without hesitation.
"My Pikachu is NOT worse than Raikou!" Ash shot back, thoroughly displeased.
"And besides — ehh, I'm not really that interested in Raikou anyway. I've already got Pikachu."
He reached up and gave the Pikachu on his shoulder a gentle pat on its little cheek, speaking his mind honestly.
It wasn't just Raikou, either — Entei hadn't interested him much either. Setting aside personal taste, with Electric-type Raikou and Fire-type Entei, both would've overlapped with typings he already had on his team.
Misty let out a helpless groan and smacked her forehead. Brock chuckled softly too.
That's the LEGENDARY Raikou we're talking about!
Sure, the typing overlapped with Pikachu — but so what if he raised two Electric-type mainstays? The important thing was: it was Raikou!!
Misty still felt it was a genuine waste. Sure, Ash's electric mouse was noticeably stronger than most other Pikachu — but in her view, that was purely because Ash had poured his whole heart into raising it.
Purely in terms of raw combat power, surely Raikou would still outclass Pikachu?
Still, Misty understood that Pikachu meant something to Ash that was on a completely different level — so she didn't press the point further. She got it, that was enough.
"Hey, Dawn, once we're back and rested up, want to have a battle?"
Ash extended a challenge to Platinum. He was, after all, a battle fanatic through and through — he loved Pokémon battles more than almost anything.
Platinum was strong — but so what? A battle didn't have to end in victory to be worthwhile. And besides, this was just a friendly, private match — think of it as training.
"Sure, I'd love to battle you too, Ash."
Platinum agreed without a moment's hesitation, flashing a refined smile perfectly befitting a noble young lady.
"I can't wait!"
Ash was already practically buzzing with anticipation.
Watching this warm, cheerful scene unfold, Mammon — still absently scratching Marshadow's belly — couldn't help smiling too.
Then he glanced over at Ash, thought for a moment, and fired off a text message.
—
They left Mount Tianqing and headed to the nearest town, where the group shared dinner together.
Afterward, they made their way to a nearby training field, and Ash and Platinum began their friendly match.
The outcome, unsurprisingly, was never really in doubt — Platinum's skill outstripped even Paul's, and her tactical setups were razor-sharp.
Ash lost again — and this time even worse than his loss against Paul.
Still, his spirits stayed high. Unlike sharp-tongued Paul, Platinum's manner made an ordinary loss sting a lot less, even if he was a little frustrated.
"You're incredible, Dawn! Feels like I'm gonna have to work even harder than hard if I want to beat you."
Ash was still fired up, feeling the weight of real pressure bearing down on him — but it was the good kind of pressure.
A rival like this! This kind of strength! Awesome!
"Keep at it — I'm looking forward to battling you again sometime too," Platinum said, her lovely, fair face bright with warmth, without a single word aimed at deflating him.
To her, Ash genuinely was a rival worth looking forward to as well.
Team Rocket's environment really was well suited to helping trainers grow. She had no doubt Ash's strength would keep climbing faster from here.
"Ash, if you want to beat Dawn, pure effort alone is going to be a tall order. While you're working hard, everyone else is working hard too, you know," Mammon said with a smile.
"Then I'll just work twice as hard, yo!" Ash declared without a shred of hesitation, full of confidence.
"Heh — spoken exactly like you. Alright then, Ash, what's your current team lineup?"
Mammon chuckled, genuinely curious.
"Ummm..." Ash blinked, not quite sure why Mammon was asking.
"Pikachu, Charizard, Bulbasaur, Squirtle, Snorlax, Gengar, Dragonite, Lucario, Nidorina."
Misty rattled it off from memory instead — as Ash's traveling companion, she knew his lineup inside and out.
Or rather, she'd personally watched him catch every single one of those Pokémon herself.
Mammon raised an eyebrow. No Fearow, no Butterfree? Or had those already left the team, so Misty just hadn't counted them?
"Oh, actually, that reminds me — Ash, how come your Bulbasaur and Squirtle haven't evolved?"
Platinum asked, puzzled. With Ash's skill, getting a Pokémon to evolve shouldn't be much of a challenge at all.
Evolution represented an enormous jump in raw strength for a Pokémon. As an accomplished trainer herself, Platinum had plenty of firsthand authority to speak on the subject.
Especially with textbook examples like Magikarp versus Gyarados, or Feebas versus Milotic — the contrast before and after evolution could hardly be more stark.
Evolution was, after all, one of the fundamental sources of Pokémon's own particular charm as creatures.
Bulbasaur versus Venusaur, Squirtle versus Blastoise — which one was stronger was frankly obvious at a glance.
"Ah, well..." Ash scratched his head, a little embarrassed.
"It's 'cause Bulbasaur and Squirtle don't really want to evolve. I respect their choice."
That was the reason he gave. Yeah — it really was just that: he respected his Pokémon's own wishes.
"I see..." Platinum didn't really have a counterargument to that.
If it were her in his position, she'd probably respect her Pokémon's choice the same way Ash did. Still, that inevitably came at the cost of some raw combat strength.
"But it's not really a problem, though — even without evolving, as long as I raise them right, I bet they can still get really strong," Ash said, taking it in stride, ever the optimist.
"But that puts you at a natural disadvantage against genuinely tough opponents, Ash," Mammon said — though he didn't see it as such a minor issue.
For trainers of roughly comparable strength, the choice of core lineup and typing matchups mattered enormously — especially for "monster"-tier trainers like Ash and Platinum.
Mammon would freely admit that Ash's Bulbasaur and Squirtle were both exceptionally talented within their own species — but staying unevolved was, undeniably, a weakness.
Of course, Pokémon were creatures with a certain idealistic streak to them — even unevolved, it wasn't as though they were incapable of transcending their own bloodline and becoming genuinely powerful.
Take a certain old monster's own ace, for instance — a similar case.
But could you really compare the two situations? How many years had that old monster spent raising his ace, versus how long had Ash even had his team?
Sure — down the line, Ash could absolutely raise his Squirtle and Bulbasaur to a level no weaker than his Gengar or Snorlax.
But that would take an enormous amount of time and effort — and there was no denying that, strictly speaking, right now Squirtle and Bulbasaur were the pieces dragging down the rest of Ash's lineup.
Venusaur and Blastoise, whether in raw power or tactical utility, were simply leagues ahead of Bulbasaur and Squirtle.
"Ehh... but they don't want to evolve. I can't exactly force them to," Ash said. Clearly he had no interest in going that route — it would run completely against everything he stood for.
Sure, he genuinely wanted to get stronger — but never, ever at the cost of overriding his Pokémon's own will.
"No, no, no, that's not what I meant, Ash. Since Squirtle and Bulbasaur don't want to evolve right now, why not raise a different Grass-type and Water-type mainstay alongside them?"
Mammon said with a smile.
"But..." Ash had braced for Mammon to say something else entirely. Still, when he caught Pokémon, it was always about that gut connection — and that was even before factoring in that he already had Squirtle and Bulbasaur covering those slots.
"As it happens, I've got a Water-type little guy on hand with a ton of potential — and I'm pretty confident it'd be a great match for you specifically, Ash."
Mammon pulled out a Poké Ball, smiling pleasantly at Ash.
"Huh?" That piqued Ash's interest. If Mammon was saying it like that, now he was curious.
"That said, as the boss, I already gave you an Ultra Beast when you joined the organization — I can't just hand you this one for free too."
The corner of Mammon's mouth curled up, looking every bit the sly, grinning fox.
"You'll owe me a favor down the line. Don't worry, though — nothing that'll go against what you want."
Yeah — Mammon had his sights set on Ash's family. To put it bluntly: his older brother.
How to put it — if he could rope Red into Team Rocket too, that would honestly be hilarious.
Granted, the difficulty on that one was a fair bit higher — Red was a lot more rational and mature than Ash, and Red's opinion of Team Rocket... wasn't great, to put it mildly.
But with Ash, his own little brother, helping to make the pitch — heh.
Just picturing Ash, in his capacity as a Team Rocket exec, inviting Red to join up — Mammon could barely keep a straight face.
That would be way too entertaining.
"Sure, no problem helping out. Can I see the Pokémon first, though?"
Ash didn't think twice about the "favor" part — he had a lot of goodwill toward Mammon these days.
Doing Mammon a favor? Big deal. As long as it wasn't something outrageous or against his own moral line, he'd help out ten times over without blinking.
Ash was a lot more interested in this supposedly great-match-for-him Pokémon Mammon was talking about, anyway.
"Of course. Take a look yourself."
Mammon handed over the Poké Ball — one he'd specifically had Lusamine pull some strings to source from over in Kalos.
"Come on out."
Ash opened the Poké Ball, and a pale blue Pokémon appeared before him.
"Is this... a Froakie?"
(End of chapter)
☆☆☆
-> 20 Advanced chapters Now Available on Patreon!!
-> https://www.pat-reon.co-m/c/Inkshaper
(Just remove the hyphen (-) to access patreon normally)
If you like this novel please consider leaving a review that's help the story a lot Thank you