According to the lore, there are many ways to awaken Kyogre and Groudon.
The first and most well-known method is using the Blue Orb and Red Orb. When used in the Cave of Origin in Sootopolis City, they can summon these two super-ancient Pokémon representing the ocean and the land, respectively.
The second is this Legendary Giant Rock, which possesses immense energy. Once they sense the energy it emits, Kyogre and Groudon will awaken from their deep slumber and advance toward the Giant Rock's location in their Primal Reversion states.
At this moment, after hearing Hakuya's explanation, there was no need for further elaboration. Steven and Roxanne deeply understood just how severe the destruction brought to the Hoenn region would be if these two super-ancient Pokémon were fully awakened.
"I understand. For now, let's split up and hurry deeper into the cave to intercept them in advance," Steven said, his expression and tone turning dead serious. "In addition, to prepare for any unexpected developments, I will immediately notify the League and request the Elite Four, League G-Men, and Gym Leaders from nearby towns to come assist."
"Mhm."
Hakuya nodded in agreement with Steven's precautionary measures.
Team Aqua and Team Magma's progress was already much faster than theirs. If they could stop their operation in advance, that would naturally be for the best.
But if they couldn't make it in time, they needed to prepare for the worst-case scenario.
Sidney, Phoebe, Glacia, and Drake—the four Elite Four Trainers—along with his good friend Wallace, and the closest Gym Leader, Norman of the Petalburg Gym. These were the absolute top-tier combat forces in the Hoenn region that Steven could think of at the moment.
If the situation became too critical, their only remaining option would be to request the Elite Four and Champions from other regions for assistance.
When Hakuya finished his call with Steven, Roxanne also put away her communicator and walked over.
"I've already notified Officer Jenny in Rustboro City. A large number of police officers will be arriving shortly..."
"As expected of Ms. Roxanne." Hakuya gave a thumbs-up, praising her decisive handling of the situation. "Even if they manage to escape from the cave ruins later, they definitely won't be able to slip through the inescapable net laid out by the police outside."
"You flatter me."
Although Roxanne was happy to receive Hakuya's praise, having entered her serious mode, her pretty face remained tense and stern. She focused all her attention on stopping the operations of Team Aqua and Team Magma.
Having made all the preparations they currently could, Hakuya and Roxanne simultaneously looked at the Team Aqua squad leader, who was tied up like a dumpling.
"Move. You're leading the way."
"O-Okay..."
The Team Aqua squad leader's face fell, his expression looking even uglier than if he were crying.
After all, even if he wanted to stubbornly choose death over submission, the Legendary Pokémon Latias was glaring at him threateningly from mid-air. The moment he refused, he'd be hit with another wave of merciless psychic brainwashing.
...
Deep within the cave.
"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!"
"This is bad, Lord Matt! An unknown Trainer has broken in!"
"Huh? Intruders got in?!"
Hearing the loud shouts from the guards at the tunnel entrance, Matt, who had been standing on a large boulder supervising the work, furrowed his brows tightly. As if realizing something, he turned around with a look of astonishment.
Then, seeing a pair of young men and women charging in like they were playing a Musou game, his pupils contracted slightly.
Matt selectively ignored the handsome, black-haired young man and instead focused his gaze on the woman beside him.
"The Rustboro City Gym Leader, Roxanne... So it's only one Gym Leader?"
Seeing her signature ribbon-like hairstyle and academy uniform, the anxiety hanging in Matt's heart completely settled down.
The reason Team Aqua had survived for so many years without being completely wiped out by the League was due to their intelligence advantage and adaptable tactics. As an elite Admin of Team Aqua, it was naturally impossible for him not to recognize the major Gym Leaders of the Hoenn region.
Roxanne: the Gym Leader of Rustboro City, also serving as a teacher at the Trainers' School.
Her specialty is the Rock-type. Her battle style possesses both the rigor of an academic and the tough, sweeping, grand nature unique to Rock-types. Rumor had it she had only taken office as a Gym Leader a few years ago, and her ace Pokémon was the Rock/Steel-type Probopass.
Matt looked at his partner Mightyena beside him, which was baring its fangs with a ferocious expression, and put on a "the advantage is mine" look.
If there were two or three Gym Leaders here, he might have issued the retreat order without hesitation. After all, the strength of Gym Leaders truly wasn't something ordinary people could match. But since there was only one, the situation was completely different.
Right now, they possessed an absolute numerical advantage.
"..."
At the same time, Roxanne was also observing the opponents before her.
As an academic Trainer, she always liked to observe and get a basic read on her opponents before a battle.
To be able to stir up trouble in the Hoenn region and evade annihilation by the League for so long, the elite Admins of this evil syndicate were naturally not ordinary scrubs. Judging by the aura radiating from that Mightyena, Roxanne could roughly estimate that this guy's strength was absolutely not weak.
If it were a straight one-on-one duel, taking him down would not be an easy task at all.
Let alone the fact that the number of grunts stationed here was simply way too high...
"Don't be afraid! There's only two of them! So what if she's a Gym Leader? We have over a hundred people! Everyone, send out all your Pokémon! We can drown them in sheer numbers!"
Upon learning that League personnel had broken in, this joint grunt squad formed by Team Aqua and Team Magma had panicked immediately. But after being yelled at by the elite Admin Matt, they woke up as if from a dream and completely regained their composure.
"That's right! Over a hundred against two! The advantage is ours!"
"Dammit! How much do these League Trainers look down on us?! For our leader Maxie!"
"What the hell are you yelling about?! It's for our leader Archie!"
Being a bunch of extreme lunatics to their very core, combined with their numerical superiority, the highly conformist Team Aqua and Team Magma grunts instantly clamored together, commanding their Pokémon to launch an attack.
Unlike the squad they encountered at the tunnel entrance earlier, the grunts stationed deep within the cave were undoubtedly the elite of the elite. The Pokémon they sent out were uniformly comprised of Mightyena and Golbat, and one could even spot a few Crobat and Houndoom among them.
Let alone a rookie Trainer who hadn't been traveling for long, even an experienced Elite Trainer who had been through countless battles would inevitably feel their heart race and panic when facing this massive, overwhelming army of Pokémon.
"Ms. Roxanne, I'll leave those few guys to you."
Patting the young teacher's shoulder, Hakuya couldn't wait and charged right in.
He didn't care about the number of opponents at all. In fact, the more people there were, the more excited he felt.
Just in time, too. To deal with that Wonder Guard Regigigas in the randomized world, Floragato needed to properly train her Fighting-type moves. Now, suddenly having such a massive number of decent-quality opponents suited their desires perfectly.
"Houndoom, use Flamethrower."
Accompanied by sharp snarls, surging red flames resembling several fire dragons fiercely struck out.
But facing these sudden [Flamethrower] attacks, Floragato didn't retreat; instead, she advanced. The dancing leaf blades she whipped up acted like an impenetrable shield. Countless emerald leaves burned and fell as a result. Amidst the descent of these beautiful red leaves—like a goddess scattering flowers—the [Low Kick] she had been charging up came crashing down from above, violently smashing into the foreheads of the opponents who couldn't dodge in time.
The Fighting-type [Low Kick] was super effective against the Dark-type Houndoom!
Seeing this, several Crobat circling in the air wore cold expressions. A steel-blue luster instantly coated their wings as they prepared to launch a sneak attack from behind, attempting to exploit the gap where Floragato was executing her downward kick and had no time to observe her surroundings.
The Pokémon composition of this temporary elite squad formed by Team Aqua and Team Magma was unexpectedly well-balanced. They had Houndoom controlling the ground with Fire-type moves, Mightyena engaging in close-quarters combat, and Golbat and Crobat in the air perfectly timing their coordinated attacks. A moment's carelessness would result in a sneak attack from their [Air Slash] and [Steel Wing] moves.
"Perfect timing! Floragato, strike back with Sucker Punch!"
"Meowha——"
In sync with her Trainer's command, Floragato instantly lowered her body. The rock-paved ground shattered entirely with her kicking motion, erupting into countless fragments and stone powder.
—Viewed from the front, this figure rocketing toward the opponents had already condensed into a piercing, chilling green shooting star.
T-Too fast!
Looking at Floragato, who had moved later but struck first, both the Crobat facing her head-on and the grunts commanding them from behind instinctively felt their pupils contract. This awe-inspiring [Sucker Punch] clearly exceeded their imaginations.
Even using the Steel-type [Steel Wing], facing Floragato's [Sucker Punch]—which was backed by clearly overwhelming stats—they gained absolutely no advantage. In the end, without exception, they all wailed and plummeted to the ground.
Landing incredibly gracefully alongside the falling Crobat, Floragato gathered Grass-type energy in her palms, spun around, and casually unleashed a [Petal Blizzard]. The attack blasted away the packs of Mightyena—who were baring their fangs and brandishing their claws, attempting to close in with [Crunch]—sending them flying backward several meters.
"Dammit, how can this guy's Pokémon be this strong?!"
Watching Floragato weave through and strike the horde of Pokémon like a swimming dragon, Matt felt sweat profusely beading on his forehead.
The last time he sweated this much was during a routine operation when he happened to catch a distant glimpse of that League Ace G-Man's Dragonite. To avoid battling that monster, he had immediately aborted the mission and led his grunts into retreat.
But now, Matt actually had a strange illusion that this unknown Trainer's Pokémon was in no way inferior to the former. If this never-before-seen cat Pokémon hadn't deliberately held back a significant amount of power just to train her Fighting-type moves, his Mightyena and Crawdaunt would have been elbowed to the ground in a single strike.
Withdrawing his gaze, Matt turned to look at Hakuya, who was commanding Floragato from a short distance away.
A Pokémon Trainer's combat strength consisted of two parts.
First was the hard power displayed by the Pokémon.
Second was the hard power of the Trainer themselves.
Both were indispensable, and the latter was perhaps even more important.
While in restricted battles regulated by the League, a Trainer mostly took on the role of a backline commander, in no-rules wild battles, the Trainer themselves was required to possess sufficiently strong physical fitness and agility.
Otherwise, the moment the opponent used the Trainer as a hostage, no matter how powerful the Pokémon was, it would ultimately have its hands tied.
Thinking of this, seizing the opportunity while Floragato was still engrossed in using his Mightyena and Crawdaunt to practice her [Low Kick], Matt's face turned cold, and he decisively charged straight at Hakuya.
—To resolve this completely one-sided, overwhelming situation, capturing this Trainer was the optimal solution.
Hakuya turned his head, only to see the muscular man charging at him with a raised fist.
"Oh? Instead of running away, you're actually charging right at me?"
Realizing what this elite Team Aqua Admin was trying to do, his expression became a bit weird.
Having practiced snapping saplings with his bare hands and swimming across oceans so many times in the randomized world, and sometimes even having to tank various overpowered attacks head-on, his current physical fitness was absolutely not something ordinary Trainers could compare to.
Therefore, facing this true-man's Trainer duel actively provoked by Matt, Hakuya accepted it without the slightest hesitation.
"Stop right there—!"
Kicking off the ground violently with his right foot, kicking up dust from the hard stone floor, Matt lunged toward Hakuya like an arrow released from a bow string.
The five fingers of his left hand, stiff as iron pincers, twisted into the shape of an eagle's claw, as if ready to seize Hakuya's vitals in the very next moment.
This was the grappling technique Matt was so proud of, but he had clearly underestimated his opponent.
"What...?"
Under Matt's disbelieving gaze, Hakuya faced his attack without a trace of panic on his face. Instead, with a speed too fast for the naked eye to track, he sidestepped, easily dodging the grapple.
—Hakuya's appearance was far too deceptive.
Even though he looked like a pampered young master, and even though he didn't seem very old... on the level of sheer physical strength, he vastly surpassed Matt—a sailor who had battled winds and waves on the open ocean and forged a body of powerful muscles.
"Not bad power, but your speed is a bit too slow."
Having sidestepped to dodge Matt's textbook grappling maneuver, Hakuya offered his critique.
From the howling wind rushing past his ear, it was clear that while this Team Aqua Admin hadn't gone completely insane and tried to take his life, he definitely had the intention of incapacitating him.
If he had run into a Trainer who didn't pay much attention to physical training, this move might have actually worked.
It was just a pity...
He had run into Hakuya, the Arch-Tempered King.
Looking at Matt, who had missed his strike and completely lost his lower body balance, Hakuya ruthlessly countered with a vicious knee strike.
Taking a direct, brutal hit to the abdomen, the immense inertia forced a wail from Matt's lips as he was sent flying backward like a kite with its string cut.
Subsequently, this elite Team Aqua Admin coughed up blood and smashed heavily into a nearby stone wall.
"La-woo~"
The little jet plane, invisible in mid-air, cast a somewhat pitying look at Matt, who was now embedded in the rock wall.
Getting kneed like that... his life must be flashing before his eyes right now, right?
"Meowha~"
At this moment, Floragato dusted off her cat paws and walked over.
However, judging by her squinting eyes and yawning motion, she seemed quite dissatisfied with the wild battle just now.
"Did you take care of all those Pokémon?"
"Meowha~"
"Is that so? I thought that Pokémon raised and commanded by Trainers would at least have some practical combat value, whether in fighting power or base stats. I didn't expect them to still be this weak..."
Hearing Floragato's dissatisfied muttering, Hakuya couldn't help but find it highly amusing. He then reached out and rubbed her head.
"It's fine. We'll just find stronger opponents for you to hone your Fighting-type moves on next time."
"Meowha~"
"Cough, cough, cough—"
Although this was just a rather mundane daily conversation between Hakuya and Floragato, falling into the ears of Matt—who was currently embedded in the stone wall—it caused him to directly cough up another mouthful of blood, almost losing his breath completely.
Taking on over a hundred opponents single-handedly... and not only did you not find it difficult, but you actually felt they were too weak and you didn't even get a proper warm-up?! Where the hell did this devil come from?!!!
At this moment, having finally managed to pry himself out of the stone wall, Matt looked at the black-haired young man slowly approaching him, his expression turning extremely ugly.
"You bastard... cough, cough... J-Just who exactly are you?!"
"Heh~ Don't look at me like I'm some kind of monster. I'm just a passing-through, ordinary Trainer." Faced with Matt's eyes filled with horror and dread, Hakuya shrugged his shoulders and, following protocol, used vines to tie up this Team Aqua Admin securely.
If it were a female Admin like Team Aqua's Shelly, he might have been in a good mood and held back a little. But against a musclehead like this who actively initiated a Trainer duel, he naturally chose to go all out.
"Alright. Your screen time is officially over."
Hakuya looked at the tightly bound Matt and smiled.
"Where exactly is your leader Archie right now? If you cooperate and tell us, when Officer Jenny and her police force arrive, the League might reduce your sentences a bit."
"..."
But after a short wait, Hakuya dropped his smile and expressionlessly called the little jet plane over.
Another guy who takes a brutal beating but still keeps his mouth stubbornly shut.
Against these ocean-cult fanatics, it really is better to just use psychic brainwashing.
And after a thorough interrogation of this elite Admin, Hakuya and Roxanne frowned simultaneously, ultimately receiving the news they wanted to hear the least.
—The leaders of these organizations had already relocated the Legendary Giant Rock to another location much earlier.
"Dammit! I didn't expect those guys to move this fast. We were a step too late after all..."
Roxanne gritted her teeth, her frustrated words ultimately dissolving into a sigh.
After receiving her notification, the Rustboro City police force acted very quickly, having surrounded the perimeter of the ruins tightly over ten minutes ago. But unexpectedly, this evil syndicate was even faster. They had already moved the Giant Rock out over half an hour ago. The remaining members here were doing nothing more than photographing the murals and excavating fossils.
Even Matt, as an elite Admin, only knew that the leaders had moved the Giant Rock to the ocean near Rustboro City, specifically inside a submarine in the deep sea. There was absolutely no way to find them in a short amount of time.
"Right. What we need to think about now is how to deal with the crisis that is about to unfold."
Hakuya rubbed his chin and took over the conversation.
The only reason he knew the Giant Rock would awaken Kyogre and Groudon was entirely due to his past-life intelligence.
But those guys from Team Aqua and Team Magma clearly didn't know this. Upon obtaining the Giant Rock, they would inevitably activate it and attempt to harvest the energy inside for their own goals. The resulting outcome was glaringly obvious.
—The 'fat fish' and the 'flightless lizard' that had been slumbering for thousands of years would highly likely awaken and enter their Primal Reversion states.
"If that's the case, Mr. Hakuya, I believe we need to return to Rustboro City as quickly as possible."
Having similarly anticipated the consequences, Roxanne looked at Hakuya beside her, her expression instantly turning anxious.
"Alright."
Hakuya nodded in agreement without objection.
He completely understood Roxanne's burning anxiety at this moment.
As the Gym Leader of Rustboro City, besides accepting scheduled challenges from Trainers and providing them with basic tactical guidance daily, Roxanne also bore the crucial responsibility of protecting the safety of the local town.
A battle between two super-ancient Pokémon would inevitably cause massive destruction to the surrounding area. Therefore, before they fully awakened, she needed to arrange the evacuation of the coastal residents—and perhaps the majority of Rustboro City's population—as quickly as possible to prevent any casualties.
Sigh~
The Hoenn region truly is plagued by disasters—