Chapter 84: Are You Suicidal? You're Flirting with Lorelei?
"So — it's because of Giovanni?"
Leaf's pretty face had scrunched into a knot of complicated thoughts.
She'd caught the general shape of what Mammon was saying. He'd joined Team Rocket because of tension with his father? Or to prove something to himself?
But she still didn't understand it, not really. Was the bond between family really that fragile?
Leaf had been taken from her family as a small child, and the longing to return to them had been what kept her going through everything that followed. Family was the most precious thing she knew. It was the thread she'd held onto.
It had been what got her out.
She looked ahead. Mammon, Mewtwo, and Erika had already disappeared from view.
Leaf stood there for a moment with something complicated in her chest, then looked over at Red.
"…"
Red shook his head.
"Giovanni really did create a supervillain for the Kanto League," Leaf muttered. "I wonder if Lorelei and the others can even handle him."
Honestly, she doubted it. Mammon was strong in a way that didn't quite make sense.
Well. All Giovanni's fault, probably.
If he'd actually been a decent father, Mammon wouldn't have had whatever psychological wound had driven him here.
Red said nothing. He quietly recalled Blastoise and Venusaur, turned, and walked away.
This was the first time Red had ever lost like this. He hadn't even been a real match.
Mammon—
The name rang in his head. The image of Mammon and Armored Mewtwo looking at him together — that stayed.
Next time will be different.
Elsewhere.
The terrain in this part of the district had been more or less transformed into a winter landscape — frost and white covering everything in sight.
"Thunder Punch!"
Metagross's two massive claws crackled with electric light and hammered down toward Dewgong.
Dewgong flicked its tail with practiced speed and spun into a tight rotation — an icy top, chips of frost flying in every direction.
Ice-type — Ice Ball technique.
BOOM.
The spinning mass met Metagross's Thunder Punch head-on. Metagross had the raw strength advantage — Dewgong couldn't match it in a direct exchange. But using the rotational momentum, Dewgong deflected off the impact and skidded back, borrowing the force rather than absorbing it. The electricity from the Thunder Punch transferred through the contact but only grazed Dewgong in the end.
"Hydro Pump." Lorelei's eyes were ice-cold.
"Psychic!"
Lapras's Hydro Pump surged straight for Metagross. Caitlin responded immediately, directing Tapu Lele to intercept.
A Psychic blast met the water column. The two attacks hit and detonated.
"She's strong."
Caitlin's expression was serious, the intensity of it keeping her completely alive. This was genuinely difficult.
Lorelei deserved every word of the reputation. The ice-type formation with those two — Lapras and Dewgong — in a positional battle was almost suffocating. If Metagross tried to close distance it had to push straight through a blizzard of ranged attacks, and Lorelei knew exactly how to handle a Metagross up close anyway.
For the first time, Caitlin found herself not knowing where the next move was coming from.
And she was enjoying it.
"Your skill is genuine. But you're not at my level."
Lorelei's voice was flat. She'd taken the measure of Caitlin's ability by now.
"The outcome isn't decided yet, Elite Four Lorelei. You're getting ahead of yourself."
Caitlin didn't agree. Until the very last moment, anything was possible.
And she'd been deliberately restraining herself throughout — no underhanded moves, no psychic shortcuts. She wanted to earn this. If it came to a genuinely critical moment, self-preservation would override that, but she wasn't going to let herself get arrested over pride.
"You might prefer to think about whether you'll adjust to prison meals." Lorelei's gaze shifted sideways.
Caitlin followed her eyes.
A heavily built man with no shirt was walking in their direction.
"Elite Four Bruno."
Caitlin's expression tightened. Bruno. Kanto's Elite Four Fighting-type specialist.
"Not done yet, Lorelei?" His low voice carried across the wreckage.
"I told you to watch the perimeter."
"Those two executives are handled. Waited a while, figured I'd come help."
Bruno scratched the back of his head. He had weights to get back to. Standing around outside indefinitely wasn't in his nature.
As for Gladion and Ariana—
"Don't move."
An officer snapped handcuffs onto both of their wrists and steered them toward a waiting police car.
Ariana's face was thunderous.
Gladion stared down at the cuffs on his wrists and went very quiet inside his own head.
He was the son of the Aether Foundation's director. A recognized talent in Alola. The Trainer who carried Silvally. And he was apparently about to eat prison food.
This was his first visit to Kanto.
He'd arrived by police car.
Was this right? Was any of this right?
Gladion felt completely unmoored.
Lord Mammon. Save me. Yo.
"Two executives — you got Gladion and Ariana?" Caitlin's brow furrowed.
"Mm. I think that's who they were." Bruno glanced at her, thought about it, and confirmed.
Caitlin went quiet.
"Let's not waste any more time. Help me finish this."
Lorelei didn't have more to say to Bruno. Her opinion of him was what it was.
Bruno said nothing. Hitmonlee flexed one leg experimentally.
Caitlin's expression settled into something more careful. Two Elite Four members. Both sides of her.
This was not a joke.
The battle continued.
But the outcome was obvious. Caitlin had already been on the back foot against Lorelei alone, and with Bruno entering the field, it became completely one-sided.
Lorelei's team controlled the field with ranged attacks and positional pressure. Bruno's team was pure close-range devastation. Together, the two of them left Caitlin with nowhere to go.
Metagross went down to Hitmonlee's Blaze Kick within minutes. Tapu Lele took serious damage.
Caitlin sent out Gallade and Gothitelle in succession. It didn't change the math.
Lorelei and Bruno were simply too strong. Two opponents simultaneously was a pressure that exceeded what Caitlin could manage right now. Gallade and Gothitelle fell one after the other, leaving only Tapu Lele still standing — bruised, breathing hard, covered in wounds.
"I think that's as far as I go."
Caitlin exhaled quietly. She had given everything she had. This was her current ceiling.
"Honestly, reaching this point — I'll give you credit for that." Lorelei's voice was flat. "But Team Rocket meets the same end regardless. This is how it always goes."
"You seem rather certain of victory, Elite Four Lorelei."
Caitlin's smile returned — soft, composed, entirely unhurried.
"Hm?" Lorelei's brow furrowed. She read the calm in the girl's face and didn't like it. What does she know?
Are there more Rocket operatives here?
"I'd rather not have to say this, but if you want to take me anywhere — you'll need to get past him first."
The warmth in Caitlin's smile carried something that was, unmistakably, pride.
Him.
Bruno scratched his head. Another strong Rocket operative hiding somewhere?
Lorelei's expression went cold and still.
"Don't you think, Mammon?" Caitlin asked quietly.
She'd already felt it. His presence — that specific signature her psychic sense had learned to recognize. As long as Mammon was nearby, the rest of the world stopped feeling like a threat.
"Ha~ Well. If someone wants to pick on Caitlin, they do need to ask me first."
A light, lazy voice from not far behind her.
Accompanied by a deeply unsettling "Keh heh heh~"
A boy in white stepped slowly out of the shadows.
Then, one second later, Mammon stepped on his own shadow, and the sound effect stopped.
"Mammon? And — Erika?"
Lorelei's eyes narrowed slightly. She knew the face. Giovanni's son, now Rocket.
Then her gaze moved past him to Erika standing at his back — floral kimono, clearly out of place in this devastated landscape, almost comedically incongruous with everything around her.
Erika caught Lorelei's look and gave her a helpless glance that communicated everything.
"I see. Kidnapping an official Gym Leader." Lorelei's tone went cold immediately. "Bold move, Mammon."
"I'm already in Team Rocket," Mammon said, unbothered. "That comment's a bit rich, Lorelei."
He shrugged.
"And speaking of big — you really do have the biggest—"
His gaze dropped to Lorelei's chest with an expression of genuine admiration.
"—personality in the room."
Lorelei's face went arctic.
Bruno's eyebrows shot up.
Dude. His expression said everything. Are you trying to DIE? You're flirting with Lorelei?!
You are absolutely unhinged!
☆☆☆
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