Chapter 324: Chairman! Bad News — Team Rocket Has Come For Us!
The back-to-back losses had clearly stirred up a subtle shift in Serena's mood.
But as the gifted young trainer she was, Serena's ability to reset was genuinely impressive — she shook off the tangled mess of thoughts crowding her mind and threw herself back into the battle.
Serena's third Pokémon was Jolteon — one of Eevee's evolutions, a high-speed special attacker.
This time Serena played it far more carefully — but it still made little difference. Having already taken down two of Serena's mainstays, Pheromosa's Beast Boost had already triggered twice, its Speed climbing to a genuinely terrifying degree.
Jolteon was a high-speed special attacker too, but against Pheromosa as it stood now, it looked practically like a raw recruit by comparison. Not only could it not keep pace with Pheromosa's movements, even in a direct exchange of blows, Jolteon simply wasn't in Pheromosa's league.
Still, at a critical moment, Serena managed to pull off some clever play.
Pheromosa's decisive High Jump Kick landed on Jolteon — a hit that should have knocked it out cold on the spot.
But Serena had Jolteon use Endure.
Normal-type Endure — lets a Pokémon survive even a lethal blow, barely hanging on. (PS: in-game, this leaves it with 1 HP.)
Endure held firm against Pheromosa's decisive High Jump Kick, and Jolteon fired back with an explosive point-blank Thunder, landing squarely on Pheromosa.
Pheromosa managed to leap back to create distance the instant it saw the attack coming, but the Thunder still connected regardless — dealing a genuinely significant blow to Pheromosa.
But that single opportunity still wasn't enough to turn things around — Pheromosa followed up immediately with a Focus Blast, sending the already-spent Jolteon down for good.
With that, Pheromosa had now taken down three Pokémon in a row, unscathed!
"What a formidable young lady."
Diantha's gaze, fixed on Platinum, had turned genuinely solemn.
In her eyes, Serena was already an outrageously gifted rookie — Diantha genuinely believed Serena would reach Champion-caliber strength before long.
Champion-caliber, within her first year! What kind of frightening natural talent was that?
And yet here was Serena, thoroughly outclassed by someone her own age.
Having a single opposing ace sweep three of her Pokémon in a row was an exceptionally rare thing to see, even in a full team battle.
Could Serena still pull off a comeback? To Diantha, it looked all but impossible at this point. After all, Pheromosa was only Platinum's lead-off Pokémon — who knew what other aces she might still have in reserve?
"Serena's not actually bad here, Miss Diantha. Don't you find something a bit off about this?"
Mammon watched the two girls continuing to battle on the field — honestly, the outcome was no longer in question. There was no way Serena was going to beat Platinum.
"Please, go on, Mr. Mammon." Diantha looked at him, puzzled.
"Serena's team is a little on the weak side, strength-wise." Mammon looked over at Serena's fourth Pokémon, Clefable.
Which meant her fifth would presumably be her Mega-slot Absol, followed by whichever of the Kalos starters she'd received.
Serena's current core lineup, in Mammon's assessment, honestly wasn't much to speak of. Was there some real strength there? Sure, a little — but not much. Frankly, it was weaker than Platinum's original lineup, let alone Platinum's current one.
Diantha's brow furrowed slightly. She wasn't especially inclined to agree with Mammon's point — because what Mammon was implying, essentially, was that Serena's own team was holding her back.
"Mr. Mammon, what do you think the relationship between a Pokémon and its trainer should be?" Diantha asked, her tone serious.
"I understand what you're getting at, Miss Diantha, but don't jump ahead just yet."
Mammon chuckled, replying to her.
"'There are no weak Pokémon, only weak trainers' — there's nothing wrong with that saying in itself, but we do need to weigh it against the actual circumstances."
"Here — Miss Diantha, where do you think the gap between Serena and Dawn actually comes from?"
Mammon gestured toward the two girls on the field.
"..." Diantha had no answer for that.
"In my view, Miss Serena's talent as a trainer is genuinely outstanding — a rookie who just set out this year, showing this level of skill already, could honestly be called a 'monster.'"
"But as things stand right now, if Dawn were to go all out in a genuine full-strength battle, I think she could beat three Serenas. And that's being conservative."
Mammon said this slowly, deliberately — and yes, that really was his honest assessment.
Pheromosa was powerful but fragile — within Platinum's own lineup, it only really counted as a mid-tier mainstay, and a mid-tier mainstay that was fairly easy to exploit once you knew how. Platinum's true aces, at this point, were really her Mega Garchomp and her recently-caught Entei.
"So why is there such a massive gap in strength between the two of them, Miss Diantha? Where do you think the problem lies?"
Mammon asked her.
Diantha opened her mouth, but found no ready counterargument.
"I'm not denying that Dawn's current skill as a trainer exceeds Serena's right now — but as long as the gap in trainer skill isn't fundamentally massive, you shouldn't see a difference in outcome this exaggerated."
"The main reason here is that the gap in raw strength between their respective aces is simply too large."
Honestly, what Mammon was saying here was a little sophistic. Platinum's raw skill as a trainer genuinely did outstrip Serena's at this point — after all, Platinum had been through Team Rocket's training regimen and had racked up a great deal of real battle experience. The gap in trainer skill wasn't insignificant enough to be dismissed entirely.
Still, the biggest factor really was the gap between their respective core lineups and the raw strength of their aces.
But Platinum's own homegrown Champion-caliber Garchomp genuinely was capable of completely overpowering Serena on its own merits, too.
At the end of the day, the environment a prodigy trainer like either of them grew up in mattered enormously. Sure, there was a genuine gap in raw ace strength too.
Serena's current core lineup really was fairly middling — sure, under her own careful training, they'd become genuinely strong. But run up against a "monster" of comparable natural talent, and the pressure of that gap shows immediately.
Honestly, Serena's current situation was much the same as Ash's had been before — you don't notice it in ordinary matches, but the moment you face an opponent on the same tier, your natural weak points get exposed.
Altaria? Meowstic? Clefable?
It wasn't that Mammon looked down on these Pokémon — as he'd said, Serena could absolutely train any of them into something genuinely powerful.
But that would take time.
Given the same amount of training time, how was Altaria supposed to compete with Garchomp? How was Meowstic supposed to compete with Pheromosa?
How was Clefable supposed to compete with Entei?
Wasn't that just setting them up to fail?
"If Serena had access to a growth environment with better resources, I think she'd transform very quickly."
"What do you think, Miss Diantha?"
The nerve of this guy — not even trying to hide it!!
A faint twitch crossed Diantha's fair, composed face. Why don't you just say it outright — "have Serena join Team Rocket and I'll give her more resources"? Ridiculous!
Whatever Team Rocket can offer, the Kalos League can offer too!
Trying to poach Serena away? Not a chance!
The battle wrapped up quickly. Watching her Greninja go down to Platinum's Empoleon, Serena couldn't help but drift into a momentary daze.
Defeated. This full team battle — she'd lost, cleanly and decisively.
Across the whole match, she'd only managed to take down one Pheromosa before losing to Platinum's second ace, Empoleon.
How to put it — genuinely deflating.
"Are you okay, Serena?"
A gentle voice reached Serena's ears, pulling her back to the present slightly.
Serena looked up to find Platinum already standing right in front of her.
"I'm fine, really... Dawn, you're really amazing~"
Serena pressed her lips together, forcing a smile as she offered Platinum genuine praise.
She'd always thought of herself as a genuinely excellent trainer, especially among her peers — but today's battle had genuinely taught her a lesson.
"Thank you~ You're really strong too, Serena."
Platinum smiled without showing her teeth, her expression a mix of bashful and reserved.
Serena felt a little awkward at that. Really strong, huh? You just swept me two-for-six...
A result like this unmistakably reflected a massive gap in raw strength between the two of them. Sure, part of it came from Serena's unfamiliarity with Pheromosa's specific traits — but Serena had no interest in making excuses for herself.
A crushing defeat was a crushing defeat.
"I didn't mean anything by that — if it were the old me, I'd probably have been about the same as you, Serena. But I've gotten a lot, lot stronger since then."
Platinum, realizing her words might not have landed quite right given the situation, quickly explained further.
"?"
Serena looked puzzled.
"It was Mr. Mammon — he helped me become so much stronger," Platinum said with a smile, her voice full of genuine gratitude and reflection.
A better growth environment, superior resources, powerful Pokémon — Mammon had never held back on any of it. Take Entei, for instance — Platinum understood perfectly well that it had essentially been a gift from Mammon.
And that only strengthened Platinum's resolve further. As long as Mr. Mammon's convictions never "curdled," Platinum would stand firmly on his side, even against the Pokémon League itself!
Hearing Platinum's words, Serena blinked in surprise.
Mr. Mammon helped make Dawn stronger? What does that even mean?
But Platinum clearly wasn't about to go into specifics, given that Kalos Champion Diantha was standing right there beside them.
"A wonderful battle, Miss Serena. You really are an outstanding trainer."
Mammon walked over, offering his praise with a smile.
"Compared to Dawn, I still have a long way to go." Serena shook her head, unable to shake off a flicker of disappointment at his words.
"Dawn is the strongest new-generation trainer out of Sinnoh — no need to be discouraged, Miss Serena. And honestly, I think if you keep working hard from here, beating Dawn isn't out of the question at all."
Mammon encouraged the girl.
"That's right, Serena, you need to have more confidence in yourself."
Diantha felt she couldn't just stand there silently — otherwise Mammon was going to end up saying all the encouraging things first.
"Thank you. I'll keep working hard."
Serena pressed her lips together, thanking Mammon with a small smile at his warm expression.
But in truth, what occupied most of her thoughts right now was what Platinum had said a moment ago — that Mr. Mammon had helped her get stronger.
If it worked for Dawn, shouldn't it work for me too?
But how, exactly?
Serena hesitated. She and Mammon had, after all, only just met — asking him directly outright felt a little too forward.
Still, she genuinely couldn't stop thinking about it. Serena had always had a competitive streak, and having just suffered such a crushing defeat, she badly wanted to know exactly how Platinum had gotten so much stronger.
Never mind. I'll ask next time.
After chatting a while longer with Diantha and Serena, Mammon took his leave with Caitlin and Platinum.
The moment she watched the three of them walk away, Diantha immediately said her own goodbyes to Serena and rushed back to League headquarters in a hurry, straight to the office of the Kalos League Chairman.
"Chairman! Bad news! Team Rocket has come for us!"
(End of chapter)
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