"Caitlin, take Lillie somewhere safe."
Damian gestured for Caitlin to bring Lillie to a safer location to wait.
"Huh? Mr. Damian, you're not coming with us?"
At that, Lillie grew a little anxious. After hearing about the grudge between Rayquaza and Deoxys, she really did feel bad for Deoxys—
But Rayquaza's strength was undeniably terrifying. It seemed like the best thing for them to do was not get involved.
"I'm planning to give Deoxys a hand. What Rayquaza's doing right now isn't right."
"But…"
"No buts, Lillie. If we want humans and Pokémon to get along better, it's exactly this kind of help that matters."
Damian smiled as he answered Lillie.
"And trust me on this. I'm really strong."
"..."
Lillie pressed her lips together. She knew very well that Mr. Damian was a powerful Champion‑tier Trainer.
But in a clash between legends like this… was it really okay?
"In that case, please take Nebby with you, Mr. Damian. Nebby's really strong too—it can definitely help you."
Lillie stopped trying to talk him out of it. She took out Nebby's Poké Ball and handed it to Damian.
"Thanks, Lillie."
"It's okay—but Mr. Damian, please come back safe, okay? Can you promise me that?"
"Don't worry. I'll be fine."
The girl's earnest feelings were so intense that Damian found himself giving her a serious promise.
"Mm!" Lillie nodded hard.
Caitlin led Lillie away, planning to move to a safer spot to watch from. Of course she believed in Damian; Damian never did anything he hadn't prepared for.
"With this, we're fully covered."
Damian turned Lunala's Poké Ball in his hand. With Mewtwo and Lunala, taking down this Rayquaza wouldn't be a problem.
But Rayquaza was never the thing Damian worried about—at least, not this Rayquaza that didn't even know how to Mega Evolve.
Honestly, Damian just couldn't believe the Rayquaza from the Draconid people's legends would be this much of a pushover.
The Rayquaza line's ceiling was insanely high. Take the Shiny Mega Rayquaza from Hoopa's movie, for example—it could kite and dance around six top‑tier legends.
Or the Mega Rayquaza from the "XY Mega Evolution – Special Episodes": with a single Dragon Ascent, it forced both Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre out of their Primal Reversion forms.
Sure, that was a surprise intervention after Groudon and Kyogre had battered each other senseless, but a one‑shot on both still proved just how strong that Mega Rayquaza was.
Whereas this Rayquaza… was struggling this hard against a single Deoxys, going fifty‑fifty at best. Even without Mega Evolution, it shouldn't be this exaggerated.
There was even a canon battle showing how strong a real Rayquaza was against Deoxys. In "Pokémon Generations," Brendan rode Mega Rayquaza into space to smash the Meteorite from the Draconid prophecy—and ran into a Deoxys hiding inside.
That Deoxys was strong and could freely swap forms. And then what happened?
It got steamrolled by Mega Rayquaza without Brendan giving any commands.
Mega Rayquaza crushed it from start to finish. One last Dragon Ascent blew straight through its Defense Form and shattered it. They weren't even on the same level.
"I wonder if, once it starts losing, other Rayquaza will swoop in."
Damian narrowed his eyes slightly, watching the fierce clash between Rayquaza and Deoxys.
He was actually pretty confident that if he could command Deoxys Individual Two, taking down this wild Rayquaza wouldn't be a problem.
After all, this Rayquaza's offense was painfully simple—brainless face‑rush and Dragon Pulse spam, relying purely on its own busted stats.
That said… Rayquaza's stats really were ridiculous.
Deoxys had hit Rayquaza three times, yet Rayquaza just shrugged it off, roared, and went right back to duking it out. You could barely tell it had taken any damage.
Meanwhile, if Deoxys got tagged by Rayquaza—no, even just grazed by a Dragon Pulse—it was either dead or maimed.
That was the charm of a raw stat monster.
So it wasn't that this Rayquaza was weak; it was more that it didn't know how to do anything besides charge.
Beating this muscle‑head Rayquaza wouldn't be hard. The real question was whether taking it down would draw out other, stronger Rayquaza.
While Damian was mulling this over, a Garchomp came skimming in low, landing quickly in front of him.
"Damian!"
Cynthia and Nemona hopped down from Garchomp's back.
"Champion Cynthia, Miss Nemona—what brings you here?"
Damian put on a very convincing look of surprise.
"Damian, is that Pokémon fighting Rayquaza related to you?"
Cynthia went straight to the point, fixing Damian's face with a tight stare.
"Tsk～ so you're here to pin this on me, huh."
Damian clicked his tongue in amusement.
"When things are going well, nobody thinks of me. The second something like this happens, you rush over to interrogate me. Champion Cynthia, you really are…"
He didn't bother being polite, openly mocking her.
Nemona was so embarrassed she wanted to curl her toes through the pavement. Damian's words made it obvious he was saying this had nothing to do with him.
Even if he was with an evil organization, splashing dirty water on him like that was still pretty awkward.
Yeah. This girl was still way too pure.
"If I misjudged you, I'll apologize. But, Damian, you—"
"I don't need your apology, Champion Cynthia. You're still as high and mighty as ever."
Damian cut her off. It wasn't like he actually doubted Cynthia's character.
Cynthia's brows knit.
"And why should I explain anything to you? Champion Cynthia, aren't you giving yourself a bit too much credit here? Are we really that close?"
Damian let out another laugh, killing the conversation in one blow.
"If you're here to beg for help, then at least show the attitude of someone who's asking. Or are you sure you're not just here to squeeze intel out of me?"
"So you do know info about Rayquaza and that Pokémon?"
Cynthia's expression grew heavy. As expected, Damian really did know the inside story.
"Ahh～ that's right. So?"
"Damian, please tell us what you know. If they keep fighting like this, the whole city's going to be destroyed."
Cynthia drew in a deep breath and addressed Damian with sincere urgency.
If they wanted to stop those two Pokémon, first they had to understand what was happening.
Otherwise, charging in blind might only make things worse.
And with Rayquaza and Deoxys both being that strong, trying to stop them by force wasn't exactly realistic.
"What's that got to do with me?"
Damian grinned, utterly unconcerned.
"You…!"
Nemona wanted to lash out—but then she remembered who she was talking to and shut her mouth.
He was Team Rocket. Yelling at him about conscience and morality would've been a joke.
"What do you want?"
Cynthia stayed calm.
"Let me think."
Damian propped his chin on his hand, letting his gaze roam over Cynthia from head to toe without restraint.
That barefaced, hungry stare made Cynthia tense up on instinct. She had to forcibly suppress the crawling discomfort prickling along her skin.
This guy…
Cynthia honestly felt like Damian had just looked at her the way a big bad wolf eyed a little white rabbit. She could practically see "I want to eat her alive" written on his face.
"Tsk～ looks like you're not ready yet. In that case…"
Damian tilted his head.
Even if he told them about Rayquaza and Deoxys, there really wasn't much they could do.
"Once this is over, how about you take some couple photos with me?"
Damian's grin turned downright lewd.
And once they were done, he'd just post them to the Sinnoh League forums. He didn't even dare imagine how Trainers in Sinnoh would react.
It'd probably feel like "the sky is falling" to them.
"Couple photos…"
Cynthia's expression grew strained.
She'd never even dated anyone in her life. She'd never thought about getting a boyfriend. And now she was supposed to jump straight into couple photos?
"Senior, this guy is totally up to no good!"
Nemona finally felt like she had to say something, or she'd really just be a piece of furniture.
The two of them were acting like she wasn't even there.
"..."
Cynthia went quiet. Did Nemona really need to remind her?
Damian's eyes on her earlier had been exactly like a hungry wolf's; he'd made no effort at all to hide the fact that he was drooling over her body.
"It's just photos?"
"Of course."
"You can guarantee you absolutely won't…"
Absolutely won't grope me or take advantage of me?
Cynthia's pride made it hard to say those words aloud, but her meaning was perfectly clear.
"Of course. Trust my character, Champion Cynthia—I'm a very gentlemanly guy."
Faced with Damian's baffling self‑confidence, Cynthia could only answer with silence.
What else was she supposed to say?
"You've got some nerve on you."
Nemona couldn't hold back anymore. Coercing Champion Cynthia like this and still calling yourself a gentleman?
"Heh～ I am the Team Rocket member you all call 'Born Evil,' after all." Damian scoffed.
"Per our agreement, you should be telling us what you know now."
"No problem. Let's talk."
Damian looked up at the Rayquaza and Deoxys battling in the sky.
"Rayquaza dwells in the ozone layer. It treats the entire sky as its territory and drives out all Pokémon that come from space."
Damian explained, slow and easy.
"And Deoxys—that Pokémon fighting Rayquaza right now—is a Pokémon from space. So you get it, right?"
"Rayquaza wants to wipe Deoxys out?"
Damian had made it more than clear enough that both Cynthia and Nemona could follow.
"Exactly. Rayquaza can't tolerate 'space stowaways' like Deoxys showing up in its territory, so it'll hunt them down until Deoxys is dead."
In other words, Rayquaza didn't know Deoxys's core secret; otherwise, it wouldn't have flown off four years ago.
It definitely would've stuck around, found a way to grind Deoxys's core crystal to dust, and then left.
What, was it supposed to happily wait for Deoxys to regenerate and come back for round two? Rayquaza didn't have that kind of free time.
"This…"
Once that was confirmed, Nemona looked completely lost as she glanced at Cynthia.
What were they supposed to do?
Help Rayquaza kill Deoxys? But what exactly had Deoxys done wrong?
Help Deoxys beat Rayquaza? If they had that kind of power, would they even be talking to Damian right now?
Cynthia was speechless too. She checked her phone; Steven texted that they still needed some time to get to LaRousse City.
Cynthia drew in a long breath.
No matter what, they had to at least try.
Even if they couldn't win, they had to think of a way to stop those two Pokémon and protect this innocent city.
"You two look pretty lost, girls. Seems like you need help."
Damian's amused voice slipped into their ears at just the right time.
"You have a way to stop Rayquaza and Deoxys?"
"Of course. I can help you beat this Rayquaza."
Damian made a point of stressing "this Rayquaza"—yeah, just this one. No after‑sales included.
If a stronger Rayquaza that could Mega Evolve showed up later, that had nothing to do with him.
Either way, if things kept going like this, he found it kind of pointless. At best, Deoxys Individual Two would just get blown back into core‑only form and sink into slumber again. Rayquaza's raw stats were just too outrageous.
But that didn't line up with Damian's plans at all. He was pretty greedy for this Deoxys Individual Two's body.
As for a stronger Rayquaza showing up to cause trouble—Damian actually thought that would be a great opportunity.
That fat‑headed fish had been asleep for so long; it was about time he reminded it what a Rayquaza beatdown felt like, and used the chance to farm some affection with the fat‑headed fish.
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