Giovanni's gaze was deep as he folded his arms and looked at Pryce, "That's your voice, right?"
"It is mine, but..."
Pryce really wanted to say "but I never said that," yet before he could open his mouth, one of the massive cannons behind Giovanni suddenly began to glow.
———
Koga sat cross-legged inside a cramped, single-person control room, grinning as he directed his Pokémon.
"That's it, just like that. Fire Sludge Bomb and blast the hell out of him!"
"At this level already, and you're still thinking about explaining things? Explain my ass."
"The savior's meticulously laid plans, and you think I'd let you clear them up with just a few words?"
The Arbok in front of him hissed, nodding in agreement. The massive patterns along its neck lit up as it controlled the Poison-type cannon to unleash a terrifying attack.
Koga's combat strength was already at the Elite Four level. With the spaceship's amplification, this strike was enough to threaten even a Champion.
Seeing that horrifying Poison-type fluctuation, Pryce's eyelid twitched. He immediately gave up trying to explain and swung his arm toward Mamoswine.
The next instant—
"ROAR!"
Mamoswine let out an earth-shaking bellow, its thick forelimbs slamming into the ground. The seabed rock layers ten thousand meters below were instantly enveloped by extreme cold.
A layer of solid ice several meters thick, gleaming like diamonds, burst upward from the ground, forming a towering wall of ice in front of Pryce.
BOOM!
The terrifying Sludge Bomb amplified by the ship's cannon slammed violently into the ice wall.
The viscous, highly toxic purple energy exploded fiercely with a dull roar. Corrosive poisonous power crazily eroded the solid ice, producing a harsh sizzling sound. Vast sections of ice instantly turned an eerie purple and rapidly melted away.
Ice shards and toxic mist splashed everywhere. The ice visibly dissolved at an alarming rate, yet in the end, it still managed to block this powerful strike that could threaten a Champion.
Pryce's figure flickered in and out of view behind the violently shaking ice wall.
"Giovanni, listen to my explanation!", Pryce's voice came through the ice wall, tinged with frustration.
"That voice recording was absolutely fabricated. Someone's framing me. If I really wanted to harm Silver, I would've done it long ago!"
Koga's voice echoed along the cannon barrel, "What, you already killed my young master?"
Pryce: "..."
'Holy shit, damn it!'
"Explain?", Giovanni's voice was icy cold as it cut off Pryce's words.
He didn't care whether what Axel said was true or false. He only needed to know that his son had been taken by Pryce. That was enough.
Before finding his son, only by constantly striking at Pryce could Giovanni feel that he was still alive.
Only in the process of searching for Silver could Giovanni feel that he was a father.
As for Axel's intentions, or the authenticity of that recording, none of it mattered.
The only thing on his mind was to capture Pryce and find Silver!
"Sabrina!", Giovanni barked sharply.
Above the ship, a hatch opened. The Psychic Gym Leader Sabrina floated out expressionlessly, her eyes instantly lighting up with a dazzling blue glow.
Vast psychic power surged like an invisible tsunami, ignoring physical obstacles as it slammed straight toward Pryce behind the ice wall.
The target of the Psychic attack was Pryce's brain itself.
"Hngh!", Pryce let out a muffled grunt, his face going pale beneath the mask.
Sabrina's psychic power was already formidable. With the ship's amplification, it became downright terrifying. Pryce felt a massive force of psychic energy crash into his mind, as if it were altering his very form.
The thick layers of ice covering his body, disguising him as a giant, fell away and instantly transformed into an ice crystal doll!
Pryce hurriedly retreated, staring at Sabrina in horror. If not for that layer of ice crystal shell, he himself would've been turned into a doll.
"Mamoswine, blanket the entrance with Blizzard!"
Mamoswine took a deep breath, then unleashed an endless torrent of frigid wind mixed with ice shards from its mouth.
A violent blizzard instantly swept across the entire cavern entrance area. The temperature plummeted, and visibility dropped to nearly zero.
This wide-area attack wasn't just to block vision and psychic targeting. It was also an indiscriminate assault on Giovanni's group, as well as Archie and Maxie's submarine.
Pryce felt that if he didn't create an opportunity to escape now, he might really be captured by Giovanni.
Having lost almost all of his adopted sons and daughters, Pryce appeared utterly powerless when facing the entirety of Team Rocket.
"Lt. Surge!", Giovanni gave another order.
"Hahaha, finally my turn! Let my lightning light up this deep sea!", Lt. Surge's wild voice boomed from the ship's loudspeakers.
The massive cannon on the side hatch of the ship finished charging instantly, dazzling golden lightning converging.
Just the surge of energy alone caused nearby Water-type Pokémon to fall unconscious one after another.
"Thunderbolt, combined attack, fire!"
ZZZ! BOOM!
Terrifying electricity condensed into a golden lightning pillar. Like a spear of judgment, it tore through the raging blizzard and struck Pryce's ice barrier with pinpoint accuracy.
Under the horrific energy assault, the ice wall trembled violently. Huge swaths of ice crystals shattered and melted, cracks spreading like spiderwebs.
The pressure on Pryce skyrocketed. Sabrina's psychic assault continued without pause. Mamoswine had to divert power to defend, leaving it unable to attack at full strength.
Lt. Surge's lightning bombardment was devastating, and Koga's poison attacks could come again at any moment.
Even more terrifying were Mewtwo, watching like a predator from the side, and that lethal Beedrill.
Pryce realized that there was no way he could gain any advantage against a prepared encirclement like this, let alone awaken the legendary beasts.
A flash of icy light burst forth as rampant Ice-type power covered the entire cavern entrance.
Taking advantage of the moment when Giovanni's group couldn't see clearly, Pryce and Mamoswine instantly turned into ice statues. At his side, a Delibird appeared at some unknown moment, grabbed the ice statue, and flew upward along the ice passage.
When the icy light dissipated, Archie and Maxie, who had been trembling in the corner the whole time, stared in shock.
'Wait, why are we left behind?'
Facing Team Rocket's terrifying lineup, Archie and Maxie's legs went soft, nearly collapsing to the ground.
At the start, when they cooperated with Pryce and the Aether Foundation, they had planned to borrow the latter two's power to save themselves some effort.
But now it seemed they were courting disaster.
Even if they really managed to awaken Kyogre and Groudon, could they actually wrest control of those gods from Pryce and the Foundation?
They couldn't understand how, as villains of the same region, the gap between them could be this huge.
Pryce could reach the Seafloor Cavern from the surface without relying on any external aid, purely through the power of his Pokémon. That was already power bordering on godhood.
Yet even such a terrifying existence was still utterly powerless in front of Team Rocket.
"Cough~ Cough~", Archie was the first to react, looking warily at Giovanni in front of him.
"How about... we give these two to you?"
Giovanni let out a cold laugh, looking at Archie and Maxie with disdain.
"Anyone who walks alongside that Pryce fellow is cut from the same cloth, and you're even worse than him."
"At the very least, he actually raised two decent Pokémon. You, on the other hand, only think about how to obtain the power of legendary beasts."
"With you lot, can you even hold onto that power?"
"If the two of you are capable of capturing Kyogre and Groudon, then when I overthrow the League and rule the world, I can let you govern the Hoenn region."
"Or if you help me find Mew, I can also grant you the power to command gods."
"If you can't do either... then you'll die here."
After saying that, Giovanni ignored Archie and Maxie, turning and returning to the ship with the two Pokémon at his side.
The armor on Mewtwo's face opened, dense crimson psychic light bursting forth as it enveloped the ship, which had nearly been sunk by Pryce, and carried it back toward the surface..
———
With Pryce gone and Giovanni gone as well, Archie and Maxie looked at each other in silence.
The members of Team Aqua and Team Magma were completely dumbfounded.
If they hadn't seen wrong, their bosses had been looked down on?
And also, their submarine had already been destroyed. Now that Pryce and Giovanni were both gone, how were they supposed to get back?
"Boss, what do we do now?", The subordinates looked helplessly at their leaders, feeling nothing but despair.
Archie and Maxie exchanged glances, the corners of their mouths twitching.
What the hell could they do?
They had already tried earlier. With just their own strength, they couldn't even get close to those two gods, let alone awaken them.
After losing the submarine, they couldn't withstand the pressure near the Seafloor Cavern. Once they left this cavern, whether human or Pokémon, they'd be crushed flat by the immense seawater pressure.
Now the only way for them to survive was to slowly dig their way back to the surface from the Seafloor Cavern.
"Everyone listen up. Release all Pokémon that can use Dig, as well as any that know Ground-type or Rock-type moves. We're digging our way out to save ourselves."
"Those without such Pokémon, go look for some of the ordinary fish that were electrocuted earlier. Keep them as dried rations."
Although Archie and Maxie were weaker in strength, they were still leaders of two organizations. They quickly reacted and came up with a self-rescue plan.
At the same time, Maxie even threw out a small piece of bait, so the subordinates wouldn't lose their motivation to survive.
"You all saw it just now. Villain organizations from other regions are absurdly strong. That means we still have plenty of room to grow."
"Just now, my Camerupt and Archie's Sharpedo both managed to get close to those two powerful gods. Given enough time, they'll be able to comprehend the energy around the gods and gain even greater power."
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