Chapter 113: Mammon Smells Like Another Woman!!
"Ahh. That was satisfying!!"
Kagura returned Salamence with complete contentment.
A proper battle against a strong opponent — there was nothing quite like it.
"Caitlin — let's do a full rematch sometime! All-out, every Pokémon."
She was already looking forward to it. The one thing holding her back was that Caitlin hadn't fully crossed into Champion-tier yet.
When she did — that was going to be a genuinely interesting fight.
"I'll work toward it." Caitlin's smile was composed.
"Right, right. But hey — something fell from the upper floor during our battle, didn't it?"
Kagura wandered toward the garden beds, puzzled.
"I believe so. Kagura — I'm quite tired, I'll rest before dinner."
Caitlin nodded and went in through the back door, already turning her focus inward to process what she'd learned from the sparring session. Fighting Kagura had been instructive in ways that needed quiet reflection.
"No worries, go ahead. I'll look."
Kagura rummaged through the shrubbery. Found something. Held it up.
A shoe. A black high heel, nose-down in the soil.
She stared at it.
"It must have come from that room." She looked up at the second-floor window, curtains drawn. "Why is it so... damp. And this smell—"
She brought it closer, then immediately held it at arm's length.
Emmm.
She wrinkled her nose. She couldn't quite articulate what the smell was, only that it was distinctly unusual and somewhat difficult to categorize.
"That room should be Courtney's, shouldn't it? Does she even wear heels? And how did her shoe end up in the garden?"
Kagura looked at the closed window a moment longer, shrugged, and tossed the shoe back in the general direction it had come from.
Some questions weren't worth pursuing.
Mammon emerged from Courtney's room looking thoroughly refreshed.
Courtney was genuinely something else. Quiet and restrained by default, but when that restraint came down she was remarkably focused in her attention, and the soft sounds she made when she was trying not to make sounds were—
Well. The enthusiasm had maybe gotten slightly out of hand. The shoe situation was evidence of that. Fortunately Caitlin and Kagura had been completely absorbed in their battle.
He was heading downstairs when he found Caitlin coming in from the garden.
"Back already."
"Kagura is quite strong. I'm not her match yet." Caitlin's voice was even.
"I saw some of it. But you will be — I'm certain of that."
He said it with the easy warmth of someone who genuinely believed it. Caitlin's progress over the past months had been remarkable; she just needed a little more time.
"Mm~"
Caitlin smiled — a soft, private smile, her eyes reflecting the light.
"You should rest. I'll call you when dinner's ready. Mega Evolution takes it out of you, especially when you're channeling on top of it."
"Thank you, Mammon."
"We don't need to be formal about this."
He smiled back.
Caitlin lifted her skirt slightly and went upstairs — graceful, unhurried. But as she passed him, her nose registered something.
Her feet kept moving. Her expression stayed smooth.
Her eyes, however, had changed.
Mammon smells like another woman's perfume.
Caitlin climbed the stairs without breaking stride. Her jaw was doing something very small and very controlled.
Which one. She ran the scent back through her memory. Which one of them—
Oh.
Courtney.
The good mood she'd been carrying from the sparring session evaporated completely.
She had been gone for one afternoon. One afternoon of training, and someone had taken that window.
Unbelievable.
She'd filed Courtney as nonthreatening. Flat affect, professional manner, no apparent personal ambitions beyond tactical ones. She'd completely miscalculated.
The woman was going to need much closer monitoring.
The following morning.
"Mammon — there's a Contest Spectacular in Slateport tomorrow."
Caitlin ate her breakfast with her customary elegance. She had, in the time since yesterday, completed her investigation and confirmed what she already suspected.
Courtney was drinking something warm and looking out the window with the slightly glazed expression of someone whose body was registering that yesterday had been memorable in several ways.
Caitlin's gaze rested on her for approximately two seconds longer than necessary.
You. Courtney. Quiet, competent Courtney with the unassuming affect, who had apparently decided that "captured enemy admin" was just a temporary status on the way to something else entirely.
No threat whatsoever, Caitlin had concluded originally.
She revised this assessment upward.
Still — Courtney's actual strategic position was not strong. First-timer, minimal leverage, no particular claim. She posed no real obstacle to someone who had been here from the beginning.
Let her have her moment. It costs me nothing.
Caitlin was entirely unbothered. Completely.
I am not bothered by this even slightly.
Courtney glanced up, met Caitlin's expression, and felt something she couldn't name but which suggested she should probably sit slightly further away.
"A Contest Spectacular?" Mammon turned it over. He personally had little interest in Contests — the discipline rewarded a different kind of training than he focused on. But watching wasn't the same as competing.
"I've always been curious. I heard a great deal about them in Sinnoh but never attended one in person."
"Then we'll go. But you can't sleep in — it starts at ten."
"Mm~ I'll try my best to wake up."
Caitlin's expression conveyed the difficulties this would present. She was not, at baseline, a morning person, and yesterday's exertion hadn't helped.
"That's all I ask."
After breakfast, Mammon and Caitlin headed out. Courtney cited physical discomfort and stayed to rest — entirely understandable for reasons she didn't specify — and Kagura was asleep and showed no signs of becoming otherwise. Neither of them was needed for the morning's actual business.
They met the Aqua contingent at the northwest coast of Mauville. Archie was already there, having changed into a form-fitting black uniform that was somehow even more structurally revealing than the Team Aqua blue.
"You really commit to that look," Mammon observed.
"It's practical for fighting." Archie grinned. "Lord Mammon — I'd like to introduce someone. This is Brawly. He's also willing to join Team Rocket."
The man beside Archie was built on similar principles — taller, broader, with the bearing of someone who had made a lifestyle out of physical training.
Team Aqua's third admin, Brawly. The other two admins accounted for.
"Good to have you." Mammon gave him an approving look. "Stay with Archie for now."
"One thing — Matt got arrested by Officer Jenny," Archie said, scratching his head. "No way to get him out. Sorry."
Matt — caught during the Mt. Chimney operation. Archie had no means of a police station rescue, and honestly the judgment to recognize that was correct.
"We'll manage." Mammon kept his expression neutral.
Telling Archie that Matt was the one I knocked out and handed to Jenny personally seems unnecessary.
"Let's move."
Archie straightened up with the energy of someone who had been waiting for this exact moment.
The group set out across the water on Water-type Pokémon — Mammon and Caitlin riding Metagross at altitude. The target island was about ten minutes northwest of Mauville.
Inside the Magma base's command room, Maxie was working through a stack of intelligence reports.
The nagging urgency hadn't left him since Team Rocket appeared. He'd sent the tip to the Hoenn League — and then what? Silence. No visible action.
Useless.
"Mt. Pyre."
He stopped.
Found it. The information he'd been looking for — the Red Orb's location. Mt. Pyre. A couple in residence at the summit.
If he could secure the Red Orb, Groudon was within reach. And with Groudon under control—
Land was what mattered. More land meant more space for humans and Pokémon alike. That was the world worth building.
No more delays. Get the Orb first.
He reached for the call button.
His office door flew off its hinges with a detonation of dust and debris.
Maxie dropped into a crouch immediately, eyes sharp on the doorway.
"There you are, Maxie. Get out here."
The voice was unmistakable. Archie. Swaggering through the dust cloud with absolute zero regard for the structural damage he'd just caused.
"You shouldn't be here." Maxie pushed his glasses up, cold and calculating. Even if Team Aqua had somehow obtained this base's location, the numbers shouldn't have worked. "Aqua's strength isn't—"
"Oh, I'm not Aqua anymore." Archie's grin was the specific smile of someone who had been looking forward to this conversation. "Allow me to introduce myself — Team Rocket, now. And Lord Mammon promised I could settle this personally."
"...???"
For the first time in Maxie's memory, something cracked in his composure.
Team Rocket. Archie had joined Team Rocket.
He finally registered the others behind Archie — a composed young man and a striking young woman he'd never seen before.
"Wait — I think we should—" Maxie started.
He discovered he couldn't move.
"You don't mind if I film this?" Mammon held up a camera with a genuinely pleased expression.
A grudge match between the former Aqua Boss and the Magma Boss. This absolutely needed to be documented.
"Fine by me!" Archie cracked his knuckles. The sound echoed.
"His Poké Balls are secured." Armored Mewtwo had already extracted them. The psychic hold on Maxie released.
Maxie's color was not good. He looked at the advancing Archie and at the distance to any available exit.
"Archie." He stepped backward, carefully. "Let's be reasonable. I think there's room for a conversation here—"
"There's plenty of room." Archie kept walking. "For my fist and your face."
"Stay away from me! Keep your distance! STAY BACK—"
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