C091 - A legendary lesson for Giovanni

AN: One a more positive note, 2 more aux chapters are up since a few days ago. I've listed the random people Pete meets and important canon characters staring in the story so far and the pokemon of the three permanent farm inhabitants, let me know if I missed something or if the way I present it with the minimal options webnovel gives me is too hard to read.

Also if you're bored, I'm writing a story called Whims of Chaos. Check it out if you like Community (the first three chapters anyway), One Piece, the concept of a soul getting tossed into new worlds with no apparent reason other than getting stronger, or my writing. Different from what I posted in the AuthorNote several chapters ago, there will be no harem because there will be no permanent love interest from what I can see. Instead, the MC will sleep around once his mood settles at the prospect of having several lives to remember, most likely not forming a deep enough bond that can be called a romantic relationship with anybody. Chapters will appear sparringly because I'm trying to fill up the chapters for this novel once more, but they are 4.5k-5.5k words in length when they do appear.

__________________________

The battlefield stilled for a moment as a Golem and a Houndoom appeared. Courtney's Leavanny eventually broke the stalemate by shooting a Solar Beam at Golem followed by Pete's Torterra and Ludicolo doing the same.

Giovanni never lost his smile, however, giving Pete a bad premonition, and he was right to have it. The moment all three beams vanished, Alakazam stood in Golem's place with a psychic shield bursting into pink particles.

'Light Screen can be trained to hold against three Arceus damned Solar Beams? That's ridiculous!' Pete thought with wide eyes.

Just as the situation seemed completely bleak, though, a cold wind gently passed through the forest near the cliff all of a sudden. The difference in temperature was jarring, making all four trainers shiver for a moment as they tried to look for the source.

Inside the basin, in the far distance, a sky blue evergrowing dot was slowly forming in between two giant balls of lava. Since Pete clearly saw two fire energies fighting against the water and ice type energies, he thought about how Suicune might have actually miscalculated and had to hold her own against not one but two Heatran.

As fire tried to win over water, the fight of the three legendary pokemon slowly drew closer. The pokemon of the three trainers got out of their fighting postures and closed in on them in a defensive circle while Giovanni looked at the fight with solemn expressions.

A thousand thoughts ran through the older man's mind as he identified Suicune with a high-tech looking glass, and he gave Pete and his company a deep look. Someone protected by a legendary pokemon was a terrible choice for retaliation. Since he and his pokemon 'played with their food' and failed to obtain the bag filled with pokemon he wanted for his once more growing roster of subordinates, he could only choose to give up.

He could always choose to go about it in roundabout ways, like targetting Pete's family. Attachment was another weakness Giovanni frowned upon, which is why he barely interacted with his young red-haired son Silver and would continue to do so until he proved himself. Nobody should technically even know their connection outside of his most trusted circle - well, Pete did, not that Giovanni was aware.

As Pete was rest assured that Giovanni had stopped fighting them and that some of his pokemon kept their vigilance up against the enemy team, he finally decided to observe the fight of legendary pokemon. It was outside anything he expected.

All three pokemon didn't look to be using actual moves but simply wielded the elements like tools. Giant waves of cold water tried to drown out the rising lava. If anything, it looked like the two Heatran repeatedly used the moves Overheat and Flamethrower followed by Suicune using Surf, directing the waters to certain 'hot spots' with non-stop Hydro Pumps, forever changing the landscape of the basin with every step the three pokemon took.

Acutely aware that they had no business helping Suicune at all, Pete pondered over his choices. He couldn't keep rescuing pokemon in the forest with Giovanni looming over them, and he wasn't aware of the man's thoughts of retreat. Choosing to first get further away, Pete was about to ask Reuniclus to tell the other psychic pokemon to teleport away with as many pokemon as he could when a golden feather with white plumage at its base and a little longer than his hand shimmering in all the colors of a rainbow landed in front of him. From the corner of his eyes, he saw the same happening to Courtney and Jasmine as Pete hurriedly looked up.

High in the sky, a giant fire red peacock-phoenix-mix with a white belly leaving behind a rainbow colored trail with every flap of its wing hovered and watched over the fight of the other three legendary pokemon. Ho-oh did not yet interfere for reasons unknown, but the three feathers clearly indicated to Pete that it approved of their actions.

Without the legendary pokemon looking down to them, another one of Ho-oh's feathers fell down from above, this one a blinding red that fell on Giovanni's Mega Beedrill even as it tried everything in its power to dodge. Once it did contact the pokemon, Beedrill was lit aflame with temperatures that bizarely looked hotter than anything the two Heatrans did so far, yet did not increase the temperature in the immediate surroundings.

As the flames ran their course, a white light engulfed Mega Beedrill as it reverted back to its regular form, though still with blistering burns covering it in its entirety.

"Sacred... Fire?" Pete mumbled as he saw the legendary pokemon wipe out Mega Beedrill in one move without even looking.

In his mind, that should have been Ho-oh's original signature move Sacred Fire that had a high chance of leaving a burn, but after watching the three pokemon duking it out in the basin, he was no longer sure. Pete hurriedly looked to the few fire pokemon who watched that move like his Arcanine or the two Camerupt of the girls and hoped they might have gotten some inspiration. And maybe Ho-oh's feather could help to fully learn whatever Ho-oh just did.

Giovanni's expression turned furious for a moment, but he knew better than to further antagonize a legendary pokemon that was not known for its kindness like a Mew, for example. So he chose to ball all his pokemon except for Alakazam. Before he could ask it to get them away as far as possible, he caught something in his hand that was thrown to him by Pete. It was a rotund glass vial the size of an apple.

"Burning salve made with Rawst Berries and a little something extra. It's a lot more effective than the Burn Heal sold by Silph Co," Pete explained.

He, as a person, didn't have much to lose, but naturally, he thought about how this might affect the people around him, like Jasmine's family. Beedrill was bound to make a full recovery anyway with Giovanni's resources even as limited as they were right now, so why not help out with that in the hopes the leader of Team Rocket would refrain from targetting the Feelgood's seed business?

And it wasn't like Giovanni could copy the salve with his researchers unless he managed to steal his cross-breed tree of Oran and Occa, which was the 'little something extra' he put into the mix. The berries of that tree didn't have any seeds, so outside of grafting branches of this single tree only he owned onto another, he couldn't sell this berry en masse to begin with. All the effort he did put into the project was growing more cross-breed saplings for his own, the Joy family, and all the professors he was acquainted with - and they were all very much averse to any villainous organization.

Giovanni pocketed the vial and gave Pete a deep look that Pete couldn't place. Then, without saying another word, Giovanni and Alakazam shimmered out of existence by using Teleport.

"Okay, team. We're back on mission. Find as many wounded pokemon as you can and bring them over. We have plenty of berries here, and Mega Milotic will use Misty Terrain along with Haze to make this place soothing and cool. Psychic and Fairy team, I'm relying on you to use your healing moves at your discretion. Those of you who followed me to the Joy Clan's mission at that forest fire in Kanto several weeks ago know how to best split your efforts so please direct those that weren't there," Pete explained as he gathered everyone's attention.

It was hard for most pokemon to peel their eyes from the fight of the legendaries, but every pokemon did so with determined expressions. Jasmine had released the fire pokemon from the basin as promised, recruiting the grateful pokemon as helpers to gather more wounded pokemon.

It was, of course, in their nature to eat those pokemon they judged wouldn't make it anyway, especially the few Houndoom, but even then, they eventually had their fill and did as Jasmine asked without any more tricks.

Inside the Misty Terrain generated by Mega Milotic, Pete's various fairy pokemon used Floral Healing as often as possible while the psychic pokemon used Heal Pulse on the wounded pokemon. Pete's oldest Comfey was tasked with keeping Aromatherapy up, driving away the overwhelming sulfuric, burned stench of the volcanic eruption and increasing the effect of the burn salve the three trainers and the Miltank applied.

After everything had been put into motion, Pete walked over to Reuniclus, who was tending to Flygon.

'How's she doing?' Pete asked over his bond to Reuniclus.

He didn't get a voiced out response like he did with Mega Milotic, much to Reuniclus owns chagrin, but their bond was deep enough that Pete understood everything his first ever pokemon 'said' in reply.

Flygon was out of danger for now, but she wouldn't wake up anytime soon. The quad-effective ice punch from Giovanni's Nidoking was clearly a critical hit that had almost ended Flygon's life.

For things like this, Pete carried with him a Hyper Potion that he quickly fed to the non-responsive dragon pokemon despite his most proficient healer having used Heal Pulse repeatedly already.

"We've play-trained for fun and for all of you guys to have deep move pools and bonds to one another. That's what I created all those games for other than making sure you aren't all bored out of your minds. You guys still fight a lot, I admit, but with lots of moves to choose from and therefore having the typing advantage a lot of times, none of you truly train to increase the power of your moves, only your stamina," Pete solemnly narrated as he watches the unconscious form of his most prideful pokemon, "I think there's a different kind of game I'll devise for you."

His phone started ringing as he made his declaration and it was Elm scolding him for being so reckless with his own life that he would stay close to a volcanic eruption instead of having his Reuniclus teleport him away instantly. Elm's anger only increased when Pete sheepishly told him about Giovanni being present, yet his scorn vanished completely when Pete opened up the camera feed to show Ho-oh up in the air and Suicune fighting two Heatran.

A few silent moments later, he still scolded Pete for staying so close to the fight for his little healing operation regardless, no matter how much his eyes were shining from seeing that Pete was in the presence of four legendary pokemon.

The fight itself raged on for another hour, in which Ho-oh merely hovered over the group as a sort of guardian spirit, guiding the volcanic ash in the air gently back into the basin with every flap of its wings.