"Pikachu, stop, I'll do it!" Ash waved his hand and had Pikachu halt the Thunderbolt it was using.
Pikachu, whose body had already been flashing with golden Thunder Light, suppressed the urge to fire off the electricity, drawing all the lightning coiling around it back into its body.
If it were an ordinary Pokemon, it probably would've already fired the Thunderbolt. Saying you can control it freely is easy; actually doing it is anything but.
Ash shot Iron-Masked Marauder a cold look, then his figure vanished on the spot, only to appear the next second in front of the rampaging Tyranitar.
"Bang!"
Tyranitar's Double-Edge slammed squarely into Ash. The boy squeezed his eyes shut and turned his head away, unable to bear watching.
In his mind, no matter how Sturdy Ash's body was, taking a full-force hit from a behemoth like Tyranitar could never leave him unscathed.
Yet in reality, Tyranitar hadn't hit Ash at all. Because Ash knew very well that even if he could tank the blow, it would inflict irreversible damage on Tyranitar.
He chose to completely redirect that impact.
Ash braced both hands against Tyranitar's head, his whole body unmoving like a boulder. That force, enough to shatter bedrock, was dissolved layer by layer in an almost mystical manner—transmitted from shoulders to hips, then down both legs, all of it guided into the ground beneath his feet. Immediately after, his arms tensed and he heaved, flinging Tyranitar bodily into the air!
When the boy opened his eyes, the first scene that entered his vision was a teenager barely one-seventy tall, forcibly hurling a nearly three-meter-tall Tyranitar up into the air!
His mouth dropped wide open, his jaw almost hitting the ground, his throat too tight to squeeze out a single sound.
Who on earth was this boy called Ash? Could he be a Pokemon wearing human skin? How could a human possibly pull that off!
"Thud!"
Tyranitar's massive body traced an arc through the air, then was firmly caught by Ash and gently lowered to the ground. The heavy impact made the earth tremble faintly, yet didn't kick up so much as a pebble.
Right after, the Aura Power surging within Ash poured into Tyranitar like a tidal wave, severing completely the evil force coiled around it.
This was the power he had detected when he channeled Aura Power earlier; cutting the connection wasn't hard for him. The reason Tyranitar could still move after losing its ability to battle was precisely because of this force.
"You're free now." Ash rose to his feet, wiped the sweat from his brow, and shot Iron-Masked Marauder a cold, piercing glare. "Next, it's your turn. I will never forgive you."
Yet Iron-Masked Marauder showed not a hint of fear. Instead, the corner of his mouth curled into a triumphant grin. "Is that so? What a coincidence, I wasn't planning to let you walk away either. If I let you go today, I'm afraid I'd never sleep soundly again."
"Look out!"
At that moment, a clear, bright voice rang out. Ash turned at the sound and saw Misty and the others had arrived—and the one shouting was Serena.
She wasn't warning Ash, but calling out to that boy.
The boy's name was Samuel Oak, and right now he was staring blankly in Serena's direction, completely failing to process what she meant.
The next second, a jet-black Pokeball struck the Celebi in Samuel Oak's arms with pinpoint accuracy.
Celebi didn't even have time to struggle before it was swallowed by a beam of black light and drawn into the ball.
The scene caught everyone off guard.
Only Iron-Masked Marauder burst into a pathological cackle. "Hahahahaha! I've caught Celebi! With the power of time and space, plus the amplification of the Dark Pokeball, from now on the entire world will be under my control!"
"You bastard!!" Samuel Oak snapped back to his senses and lunged like a madman at the Dark Pokeball in front of him, trying to smash it and rescue Celebi.
But a jet-black figure was faster than him.
Razor-sharp claws flashed past, and Samuel Oak's hands were instantly drenched in blood as the Dark Pokeball was snatched away.
The figure was the very Pokemon Iron-Masked Marauder had secretly released while commanding Tyranitar—his Weavile.
Unlike the stolen Tyranitar, Weavile was one he had raised personally. Its Level had already reached Gym Advanced Level, its strength second only to Tyranitar empowered by the Dark Pokeball.
But since even Tyranitar wasn't a match for Ash, Weavile had even less chance.
So Iron-Masked Marauder had never intended to fight head-on. A feint to the east, strike to the west—first use Tyranitar's life as leverage to pin down Ash's attention, then quietly send out Weavile to snatch the Celebi in Samuel Oak's arms with the Dark Pokeball amid the chaos.
The plan succeeded flawlessly.
Now, as long as the Dark Pokeball was in his hands, he would possess the strongest Pokemon in the world!
"Over my dead body!"
The instant Ash processed what happened, he charged at Weavile, closing the distance almost in the blink of an eye.
But Weavile had been ready. It suddenly hurled the Dark Pokeball far into the distance!
Light flared in Ash's palm as a cerulean Aura Sphere shot out like a meteor, instantly catching up to the Dark Pokeball and blasting it to pieces!
"Boom—!"
From the shattered Dark Pokeball, a beam of green light burst free; Celebi regained its freedom.
The heart that had been lodged in Samuel Oak's throat finally fell back into place. That was close… just a little more and Celebi would've been stolen by that villain.
"Come back, Celebi!" Samuel Oak shouted anxiously up at the sky.
However, Celebi didn't fly back to him as he hoped, but instead shot straight toward Iron-Masked Marauder!
Ash slowly lowered his hand, his expression so dark it looked like it could drip ink. Damn it, was he still too late?
"Hahahahaha! You thought destroying the Dark Pokeball would save Celebi? The power in the Dark Pokeball has already been infused into Celebi, including the will inside the ball that only obeys me. Now Celebi is my Pokemon and will conquer the world for me!"
Iron-Masked Marauder's laughter echoed through the forest. He had finally gotten his wish. Capturing Celebi was the first step toward ruling the world, and also the hardest!
Now that time and space were both in his grasp, whether others came or went was entirely up to him!
But with the power he possessed now, what reason did he have to run? The first thing he was going to do was kill everyone present to make sure no information about Celebi leaked out.
Otherwise the League would grow suspicious, and then even with Celebi's power, world domination would become much more troublesome.
As long as he wiped out the League by catching them off guard, he could save himself a lot of trouble.
"In your dreams! I choose you, Mewtwo!" Ash hurled a black-and-gold Pokeball. With a flash of light, Mewtwo appeared, arms folded, Levitate in midair.
Having not been out for a long time, Mewtwo's expression was somewhat displeased. Normally, aside from mealtimes, she always stayed inside the Pokeball.
This Pokeball was a specially made Pokeball; meditating inside it increased her strength much faster than outside. On top of that, even inside the ball she could observe the outside world, so unless something special happened, she wouldn't come out.
But today's situation clearly counted as special.
The opponent was a member of Team Rocket and had used a Dark Pokeball—two things Mewtwo hated most. On top of that, Celebi had been brought under his control. Under circumstances like these, she naturally had to act.
'That Dark Pokeball is different from the ones Team Rocket originally used. You modified it?' Mewtwo's icy voice sounded in Iron-Masked Marauder's mind.
Iron-Masked Marauder's heart lurched. He glanced around, then finally locked his gaze on Mewtwo in the distance. "You're the one talking to me?"
Mewtwo tilted her head slightly, neither confirming nor denying.
"Telepathy, huh? A Pokemon I've never seen before… wait, that look, it seems familiar… You're Giovanni's ultimate weapon—Mewtwo!" Iron-Masked Marauder thought for a moment before recalling Mewtwo's name and appearance.
Mewtwo's existence was, of course, top secret within Team Rocket, but since Iron-Masked Marauder had even managed to get his hands on a Dark Pokeball, having Mewtwo's data wasn't surprising.
Once he recognized Mewtwo, greed flashed in Iron-Masked Marauder's eyes. "What an unexpected bonus. Looks like today I not only get Celebi, I also get to reclaim Team Rocket's original final weapon!"
"Mewtwo, you hold off Celebi. I'm gonna beat that bastard's face into a pig's head!" Weapon this, weapon that—every word out of the guy's mouth was stomping on Ash's landmines. He wasn't going to hold back for even a second longer!