Chapter 347: Lysandre: "Malva, Save Me!"
Lysandre carried absolute confidence in himself, and his mechanical arm launched two Poké Balls out.
At a pair of low growls, a Pyroar and a Gyarados appeared before him.
Gyarados needed no introduction; Pyroar, a Fire/Normal-type — worth noting, the shape of Pyroar's mane bore a striking resemblance to Lysandre's own hairstyle. And Lysandre's own Gyarados, much like Mammon's, was a Shiny, red-colored variant.
"Not done yet."
The Key Stone on Lysandre's mechanical arm flared to life. The red Gyarados let out a low growl as the light of Mega Evolution flashed brilliantly.
In the blink of an eye, Mega Gyarados stood before them, its presence even more menacing.
"Come on, Serena. Let me see what you're capable of now."
Lysandre's gaze fell on Serena — he'd known her since she first set out on her journey.
Throughout Serena's travels, he'd genuinely played the role of a wise, mature elder figure to her, often sharing his own beautiful vision for the world with her.
And now, the two of them stood, at last, on opposite sides.
"I will absolutely stop you, Lysandre!"
Serena's fists slowly clenched, that unshakeable resolve in her eyes leaving Lysandre momentarily, faintly, thrown.
Such a bright, dazzling will she carries.
"Heh heh heh~ mere surface-level flowers, nothing more. Do you truly believe you can bear real fruit?"
But in the next instant, Lysandre steadied himself again.
"I won't allow it. This world, polluted by shortsighted, foolish humanity!"
"What kind of nonsense is this? Your outcome's already set in stone," Mei snapped, genuinely unable to stomach any more of Lysandre's "ranting."
"What gives you the right to think you're some kind of savior — with THIS level of strength?"
As far as Mei was concerned, if this world genuinely had a savior at all, that person could only be Mammon!
Lysandre's expression darkened. "I have witnessed far more than any of you ever could. You have no idea what I've personally lived through!"
"So what?" Touko shot back.
"The world is exactly what it is right now. It isn't perfect — and precisely because of that, it exists at all, and precisely because of that, people like us, who genuinely long for something better, exist too."
Touko released her Emboar, thoroughly unable to accept Lysandre's philosophy.
"Lysandre, you keep saying this world isn't beautiful — but isn't it your own narrow, stubborn mindset that's blinding you to the beauty that's already there?"
Platinum picked up the argument, releasing her Garchomp in front of her.
"Nothing in this world is ever truly perfect — and it's exactly because of that imperfection that we have hopes and dreams at all. But you, stubbornly, deny all of it, choosing instead to destroy it wholesale."
Perfect? What in this world was ever truly perfect?
In Platinum's own eyes, the only thing genuinely close to perfect was Mr. Mammon — but even he wasn't truly perfect either. He had his own desires, after all; setting everything else aside, his personal life certainly wasn't exactly a model of virtue. And to achieve his goals, Mr. Mammon was more than willing to employ methods most ordinary people would find genuinely unacceptable.
But none of that diminished Mr. Mammon's own extraordinary, heaven-envied talent and excellence.
"No! That's not true!" Lysandre had clearly been rattled, his voice noticeably more agitated now.
Narrow-minded? Stubborn?
That wasn't it at all. Everything he believed had come from what he himself had personally lived through!
"Nonsense! A pack of wet-behind-the-ears children — what could you possibly understand?"
But Lysandre, genuinely mature by nature, managed to regain his composure quickly despite the brief flare of irritation the girls' words had provoked in him.
"Yeah, yeah, sure, we don't understand anything, you understand it ALL, don't you," Mei said, dripping with sarcasm.
"Alright, sisters, no point wasting more words on this deranged man — someone this deep in his own delusion, the only thing that actually works is knocking him flat."
Mei figured trying to "talk sense" into this lion-headed man and get him to recognize his own errors was thoroughly unrealistic at this point.
They'd have to bring the real firepower.
Lysandre let out a low chuckle.
"If it were your organization's leader, Mammon, standing here, I'd admittedly have some real concern. But the four of you children? What could you possibly do to me?"
Lysandre said, perfectly composed.
It wasn't that he was underestimating them out of arrogance — the facts simply spoke for themselves, didn't they? Even four-against-one, victory would surely still be his.
"Ha? You're honestly identical to that Cyrus guy."
Mei clicked her tongue. These evil-organization bosses really did seem to pull their confidence to look down on them from somewhere genuinely baffling.
"Come on, today I'll teach you properly just how foolish it is to underestimate us based on that narrow little mind of yours."
"Hydreigon! Dragon Pul—hm?"
Mei was just about to launch her attack when she immediately noticed something — a thick pillar of flame rushing straight at her Serperior.
That was Flamethrower!
"Hydreigon!"
Hydreigon let out a low growl, releasing a pure burst of draconic light — Dragon Pulse!
BOOM!
Dragon Pulse and Flamethrower collided violently midair, exploding in a fierce detonation.
A pretty solid Flamethrower.
Mei's lovely brows arched.
"Looks like you're in a bit of a bind, boss."
The leisurely tone and unhurried footsteps that followed both conveyed a distinctly casual, unbothered manner.
"Not a bind at all," Lysandre corrected flatly.
"Sure, sure, though Aliana and the rest have all been captured, hasn't she? What do you think about that?"
A fierce-looking Mightyena led the way in, and behind it walked a man and a woman. The one who'd just spoken was the woman in red sunglasses.
"Elite Four Malva?"
Serena stared, stunned, at the familiar woman — one of the Kalos Elite Four, no less.
Beside Malva stood a silent young man.
"Hello~ Serena, long time no see." Malva waved a hand in greeting.
But Serena's mind, right now, was anything but calm.
"Tch~ so one of the Kalos Elite Four is secretly a Team Flare operative. The Kalos League really is..."
Mei let the sentence trail off, but everyone present understood exactly what she meant.
Mei genuinely thought, right about now, that even Unova was in better shape than this.
Sure, Unova's own League had grown weak and rudderless following Alder's loss of drive — but at least their Elite Four wasn't rotten from within! This was the LEAGUE'S OWN ELITE FOUR!
And yet Kalos's turned out to be a secret Team Flare operative? If word of this got out, people would laugh themselves sick.
"Little girl, watch your tone — this is simply a difference in goals, nothing more." Malva shrugged.
"Tch~ I've got no interest arguing this with you — you scum don't deserve to be heard." Mei had no patience left for chatter.
Malva's eyes narrowed slightly. This little girl had quite the mouth on her.
"Perfect timing, actually — help me finish off these four, then we'll head to Geosenge Town for the final phase of the plan."
Lysandre had no more patience for talk himself. The plan came first now.
"Sure." Malva had already intended as much.
Clearly, Malva shared Lysandre's own dismissive assessment of Mei and the other three. At the end of the day, they were just a bunch of young girls — how strong could they really be?
"Alan, which one do you want?"
The young man named Alan set his gaze on Serena — Serena, the gifted young prodigy Lysandre had spoken of so often. He'd wanted to test himself against her for a long time now.
"These three should account for most of Team Flare's remaining top leadership — good timing, we can wrap them all up together," Platinum said quietly.
She'd originally assumed it was just going to be Lysandre alone; having two more Team Flare higher-ups pop up unexpectedly worked out perfectly.
"Yeah, let's bag them all! Then we go take on that Zygarde thing?" Mei sounded genuinely thrilled.
"That Zygarde's probably not something we can handle right now, honestly. Better to leave that to Mr. Mammon," Touko said, thoroughly unimpressed.
"Touko, what kind of talk is that? We're supposed to become top-tier executives eventually — where's your ambition?"
"...Not even going to bother responding to that."
Touko rolled her eyes.
The final matchup shook out as follows: Serena versus Alan, Mei versus Malva, and Touko and Platinum against Lysandre together.
—
Outside, meanwhile.
Diantha had Gardevoir Mega Evolve, then decisively fired off a Moonblast straight at the corrupted Zygarde.
BOOM!
The Moonblast connected fully, exploding on impact. Zygarde let out a furious, guttural roar, its compound-insect-like eyes snapping instantly toward Mega Gardevoir and Diantha.
That gaze, drenched in resentment and fury, sent a jolt of alarm straight through Diantha.
Did I just make it angry?
The corrupted Zygarde's massive body coiled, black-red energy condensing ceaselessly.
Diantha immediately released her Hawlucha, which swept her up and carried her back through the air.
"Gardevoir! Hold your ground!"
At Zygarde's shriek, the ground around Gardevoir began violently churning, black-red hexagonal points of light surging like a tidal wave, engulfing the guarded Mega Gardevoir completely.
Ground-type Thousand Arrows! One of Zygarde's signature moves!
RUMBLE-BOOM!
A thunderous shockwave rippled outward without pause, and nearby buildings, caught too close to the blast, collapsed under the impact of Thousand Arrows.
Carried into the air by Hawlucha, Diantha's pupils trembled violently.
This kind of terrifying power — is this what a mythological Legendary actually is?
Diantha understood immediately: this dreadful Zygarde was absolutely, categorically beyond anything she could handle alone.
She pulled out her phone immediately and dialed someone.
Mammon had to step in.
And besides — hadn't he specifically promised, in their earlier agreement, that he'd help protect Lumiose City?
With a Zygarde this massive rampaging right in front of her, if it kept going unchecked, wouldn't the entire city end up reduced to rubble?
—
Lysandre's research institute.
Mega Mightyena, struck head-on by Dragon Pulse, went flying and crashed hard into the ground, light flashing as it was forcibly knocked back out of its Mega Evolution.
"How is this even possible?!"
Malva had thoroughly lost her earlier air of leisurely composure, staring at Mei's Hydreigon and Serperior — and at Mei standing behind them — with a genuinely sour expression.
"Turns out that's really all you've got, huh. And I thought you'd be something impressive."
Mei jutted her chin up proudly. Not much of a challenge at all.
A mere Elite Four? Please. This girl right here is a Senior Officer of Team Rocket!
"..."
Malva fell silent, genuinely unable to fathom how someone this young from Team Rocket could possibly be this terrifyingly strong.
She was now certain — that Hydreigon and Serperior were absolutely Champion-caliber Pokémon.
And this was only a Senior Officer? What about the other three, then?
Malva glanced over at the other fight, and — no surprise there either — Alan had already been tied up hand and foot. Yeah, he'd lost even faster; his Mega Charizard X had been thoroughly, one-sidedly steamrolled by Serena's Greninja, ending the fight almost instantly.
Having beaten Alan, Serena had already joined the righteous three-on-one assault against Lysandre. Yeah — Lysandre was now single-handedly fighting Touko, Platinum, and Serena all at once.
Facing three opponents simultaneously, the pressure bearing down on Lysandre had reached an unprecedented level — even releasing Honchkrow and Weavile again did him no good at all.
Damn it! How are they THIS strong?!
And this was only one against three; Lysandre didn't even want to imagine how things would go if that bun-haired girl joined the fight too.
But right now, he was already drenched in sweat, genuinely unable to hold on any longer!
"Malva! Come help me! Malva?!"
Lysandre finally, at last, called out to Malva for support.
But when Lysandre turned to look at her, Malva had just finished getting bound up by Mei, offering Lysandre an awkward, but polite, apologetic smile.
"Boss, I think I might actually need YOUR rescue more right now..."
Lysandre: "..."
(End of chapter)
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