Chapter 114: I Walk In and There's Archie Beating Up Maxie
Inside the Magma base, a scene of considerable one-sidedness was in progress.
"SUPLEX CITY!!"
Archie launched himself airborne and came down on the considerably less sturdy frame of Maxie with his full body weight.
"AAUGH—"
Maxie made a sound that had never previously been associated with the Team Magma leader.
"SPINNING LARIAT!!"
Archie hauled him upright, locked him in, and began rotating at a speed that suggested prior experience in this activity. His palm connected with Maxie's face in a metronomic rhythm.
Smack smack smack smack.
Maxie's glasses went somewhere. Two teeth followed.
"MONKEY STEALS THE PEACH!!"
"IRON CLAW!!"
"WILD FRENZY!!"
Approximately fifteen minutes later, Archie stood over the thoroughly processed form of Maxie — who had achieved the glazed, distant expression of someone conversing with ancestors — and gave him a magnanimous thumbs-up.
"Now THAT was a satisfying wrestling match!"
Maxie was, objectively speaking, not much of a physical opponent. But Archie could respect the endurance. The man had taken everything and kept not quite losing consciousness.
Respect, skinny rat. You can take a beating.
"Alright, don't put him in actual medical jeopardy."
Mammon ended his filming and walked into the office, studying Maxie's newly rearranged face with interest.
Without Pokémon, a man built the way Archie was built was a genuinely different category of problem. Maxie had tried to fight back at a few points — each attempt had been resolved by a palm to the face that rearranged his sense of spatial orientation.
The footage was exceptional.
"Relax, Lord Mammon — I'm a professional. He'll be up and functional inside three days, no permanent issues."
Archie's smile was the particular smile of a man at peace with himself and the universe.
The weight off his chest was immeasurable. Years of Maxie evading every direct confrontation, and now — resolution. Complete, satisfying, thorough resolution.
The joys in life are simple, when you think about it.
"Good."
Mammon picked up the intelligence file from Maxie's desk and raised an eyebrow at it.
"The rest of the base is yours. Absorb whoever you can — we still need more people. Have Shelly handle the recruitment pitches, since you're better at other things."
He said this with genuine diplomacy. Archie's persuasion skills ran in a very specific direction.
"Leave it to me, Lord!" Archie thumped his chest.
"Hardcases get held for labor. Don't waste too much time on them."
Mammon and Caitlin walked out.
With that, Team Magma and Team Aqua were both resolved. Hoenn's criminal underworld was now considerably more organized.
Outside the base, the ocean air came in off the water. The sky was a deep, unbroken blue, its reflection on the surface creating the impression of an upside-down world with no ceiling.
"Mammon — what's your plan for Kagura's situation?"
Caitlin tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
"Less complicated than it looks." Mammon shook his head.
The prophecy meteorite wasn't urgent. And Devon Corporation, the Berlitz family, the Johto Pokémon Association — formidable on paper, but none of them were the Pokémon League itself.
"The main question is what she actually wants. Surgical — only the people responsible — or everything associated with them."
He paused.
"My read is she's not the scorched-earth type."
"She isn't." Caitlin reached the same conclusion with certainty. "Kagura operates on hatred that's specific, not hatred that spreads."
"Right. If it's just the people directly responsible, it gets simpler." Mammon shrugged. "We take her to Devon Corporation ourselves. Find the right moment."
Devon's president, Joseph Stone — Steven Stone's father — had been present at the Buried Tower incident. Among the responsible parties, he was the most accessible.
"Mm~"
"For now — Mt. Pyre, Caitlin."
Mammon glanced at the intelligence file in his hand and let his mouth curve upward.
Mt. Pyre — also called the Volcanic Tomb — sat on a small island southwest of Mauville. Like the Pokémon Tower in Lavender Town, Sinnoh's Lost Tower, and Unova's Celestial Tower, it served as a resting place for departed Pokémon. At its summit, an elderly couple had been quietly keeping watch over two particular items.
Armored Mewtwo carried them up on a psychic platform. The summit was modest — a small house, two old people repairing a bench when they arrived.
"Hello — good afternoon." Mammon's smile was its most reassuring.
"My, hello there. And you are...?" The old woman looked up.
"A friend of Champion Wallace's. He mentioned you're the keepers of two special stones — is that right?"
He invoked Wallace's name without a flicker of guilt.
One collaboration, and I'm sure Sensei wouldn't mind the association.
"How would you know about that? Are you truly his friend?"
"Of course. Here — a photo." Mammon produced his phone.
He and Wallace. From the Jagged Pass meeting.
Wallace in his normal clothes, which was the important detail.
The old couple leaned in together.
"That is Champion Wallace."
"It is."
"We've received information that Team Magma and Team Aqua have been searching for two special stones — almost certainly the ones you've been protecting." Mammon's expression shifted to appropriately concerned.
"Oh dear — what do we do?" The old woman's composure faltered visibly.
"Please don't worry. The Hoenn League won't allow criminal organizations to threaten civilians." He let this land, then pivoted. "Champion Wallace asked me to come escort you both to Lilycove City — for your safety, and the stones'."
"Lilycove — that's quite far away for us..."
The couple exchanged a look.
"I understand, but staying here may not be safe—"
"Young man." The old man had come to a decision. "If what they want are the stones — take them to Champion Wallace yourself. As long as they don't fall into the wrong hands, that's what matters."
"Are you certain?"
"It's fine. That's what matters — not the stones staying with us."
And then—
Mammon walked away from Mt. Pyre's summit with a wooden box under his arm.
"The League's name really is useful." He turned the box over in his hands, genuinely impressed with how smoothly that had gone.
Doing it honestly would have taken considerably longer. The alternative was doing it the way Magma and Aqua had been planning to — which would have involved significantly more structural damage to everyone's morning.
At least this way the old couple doesn't have to feel responsible for anything.
He opened the box at the foot of the mountain.
Azure blue and deep crimson — two soft glows rose from the interior.
"Oh, they're beautiful~!" Caitlin's composure slipped for a moment.
They genuinely were.
Mammon lifted the Blue Orb. Crystal-clear, luminous — and inside it, unmistakable: the Alpha symbol, rendered in light.
That symbol would appear on Primal Kyogre's body upon Primal Reversion. Its counterpart — Omega — corresponded to Groudon.
"With this, I can exert short-term influence over Kyogre. Not a long-term solution, but it's something." He turned the Orb in the light.
The key constraint: the Orbs were fragments of Kyogre and Groudon's own power. Temporary control was possible — but triggering full Primal Reversion required returning the Orb to them or letting them absorb natural energy, and once Primal Reversion was complete, the control was gone. The Orb stopped working. What remained was an uncontrolled Primal legendary, which was everyone's problem simultaneously.
Archie had been planning to just throw the Blue Orb at Kyogre. The mental image was difficult.
What Mammon actually wanted was a Primal Kyogre that fought for him. Not a temporary lever. A genuine partner.
"I believe you'll get there." Caitlin smiled softly. "Kyogre will come to recognize you."
"Hope so. Though this particular fish sleeps like it's dead — it didn't even register the Orb's presence through the Ball."
He couldn't help but find Kyogre's schedule charming, in its way. Fight Groudon. Sleep. Wake up. Fight Groudon again. Thousands of years of this, without variation or apparent grievance.
Committed, honestly.
Caitlin covered her mouth and laughed.
"Let's get dinner and rest. Big day."
He pocketed the box and stretched, rolling his shoulders. After dinner — post the wrestling footage online, see if anyone watches.
Evening came to Slateport City.
Wallace, restored to his natural habitat of a coastal city with active Contest infrastructure, stepped out of his hotel into the salt air with a visible improvement in his overall life force.
"This city." He looked at the harbor lights coming on. "The wind here has always been exactly right."
He'd performed in Slateport many times. It felt like home in a way that Lilycove's League offices simply didn't.
"Let's eat." Steven appeared beside him.
They found a restaurant nearby, got a private room, ordered.
"Wallace."
Steven had been looking at his phone with an expression that didn't quite know what to do with itself.
"What?"
Steven turned the phone to show him the post that had just come across his feed.
EXPLOSIVE: REAL FOOTAGE — Team Magma Leader vs Team Aqua Leader, LIVE PHYSICAL ALTERCATION. Who wins?!
Steven had ironclad opinions about clickbait titles and rarely engaged with them.
He'd clicked anyway.
And then he'd watched Archie methodically introduce Maxie to a comprehensive catalog of wrestling techniques for the better part of three minutes.
"...Mammon posted this." Steven said it carefully.
Wallace stared at the phone.
A beat.
"I want to see the comments."
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