Chapter 121: Giovanni: "Fight Team Rocket? I'll Help You!"
"Champion Wallace — we've received responses."
Jenny walked into the office and found Wallace and Steven immediately separating with the guilty energy of people who had been doing something they'd rather not explain.
She tilted her head.
Wallace's composed expression had a specific quality of strain underneath it. Steven's face was doing something she couldn't quite categorize.
"Is everything alright?"
"Perfectly fine, Jenny. Continue, please."
Wallace had minimized the forum window with the practiced motion of someone who had been doing exactly that for several days now.
"Sinnoh, Galar, and Paldea have all responded. Cynthia will come personally. Champion Leon is currently in the field and unreachable — his team is working to locate him, and he can assist once contact is reestablished."
Jenny's expression remained professional.
"Paldea: Chairman Geeta can't be released from her administrative duties, but she's dispatched Champion Nemona. From Kalos, Calem is temporarily unavailable. And Kanto—"
She hesitated slightly.
"Rather than an Elite Four member — who are all currently engaged — Chairman Goodshow is sending a Gym Leader. He vouches personally for Champion-tier capability."
"A Gym Leader?" Wallace looked up from the closed laptop. "Which one?"
"The Viridian City Gym Leader. A Mr. Giovanni."
Silence.
"Giovanni," Steven said carefully. "As in... Mammon's father."
"According to Kanto League records, yes. Giovanni was cleared of any awareness of Mammon's activities — the League conducted a full review after the incident. Chairman Goodshow personally attests to his character."
"He's Mammon's father," Wallace said again, with the air of someone testing whether this sentence made more sense the second time.
It didn't, particularly.
"The relationship is apparently quite strained," Jenny offered. "Based on everything that happened in the Celadon incident — Giovanni was present when Mammon made his public defection, and by all accounts he was genuinely shocked. He's been advocating through League channels for an intervention ever since."
Steven was thinking.
"His motivation makes sense," he said slowly. "If Mammon is his son and he genuinely didn't know, he'd want to correct the situation."
"And his actual capability?" Wallace pressed.
"Goodshow says Champion-tier. He's apparently been holding a reputation within Kanto for years — very well-regarded among the Gym Leader corps."
Wallace and Steven exchanged a look.
"Viridian Gym Leader," Wallace said.
Steven nodded.
Neither of them was saying what they were both thinking, which was that Viridian's Gym Leader being Champion-tier was unusual for a Gym position, and that Goodshow vouching personally carried significant weight.
"If Goodshow guarantees the capability," Steven said, "we take it."
"Then we have three confirmed allies: Cynthia, Nemona, and Giovanni."
"And Steven connected with the person he mentioned — the former Champion?" Wallace asked.
"Drake's been located. He'll be available." Jenny checked her notes. "That's four. Five if Leon surfaces."
Wallace was doing mental arithmetic.
"We now have more Champion-tier assets than we started with." He straightened. "And Steven's formal status as Champion means our cross-regional requests carry more institutional weight."
Jenny nodded.
"I'll confirm with all parties."
"Good." Wallace's expression had developed the particular resolution it got when he'd made up his mind about something that mattered.
He reopened the laptop the moment Jenny left.
The thread was still there. The post under the "Photographer Mammon" account was titled: SHOCKING: The True Nature of Hoenn's Two Champions — What Kind of Relationship Do They Actually Have?
The photos were very clear.
Wallace looked at them for a long moment.
"You know," he said, in a tone of studied detachment, "the technical quality is genuinely impressive."
"The lighting is quite good," Steven agreed, from across the desk.
"And the composition."
"The backgrounds were well-chosen."
"I'm told I have very good natural posture."
"You do."
A beat.
"We are never speaking of this again," Wallace said.
"Agreed," Steven said.
They went back to reading.
The comment section, for what it was worth, had transcended normal forum discourse.
WAIT WAIT WAIT this is REAL??
Wallace and Steven going on a date in Slateport and someone caught the whole thing??
I need to lie down. I need to lie down RIGHT NOW.
The look on Steven's face in the third one I am going to pass away—
"Champion-tier couple" YES OBVIOUSLY—
Okay but can we talk about how actually good these photos are? Like the photographer clearly has genuine skill??
Steven you need to propose immediately
THE HAND HOLD IN PHOTO SEVEN—
Wallace closed the tab.
Opened it again.
Closed it.
"The comments are very enthusiastic," he said.
"They are," Steven agreed.
"My fan base has expanded in an unexpected direction."
"It has."
"I am the Hoenn Champion."
"You are."
"...The photo quality really is quite good."
"Mammon has a good eye," Steven said, which was an absolutely neutral assessment that meant nothing.
Wallace decided to refresh the comment count and immediately regretted it.
At the same time, he thought, six Champion-tier allies. Plus Drake. Possibly Leon if his team can find him in whatever geological feature he's currently lost inside.
Against three of theirs, plus the Tyranitar and whatever else Mammon hadn't deployed yet.
The math was improving.
I'm going to catch you, Wallace thought, at the forum window. And you're going to take the photos. One hundred sets. Starting with the ugliest possible outfits I can find.
Slateport City. The villa.
"Maxie — how's the deliberation going?"
Mammon sat beside the hospital bed, taking in the extent of the plastering work.
Archie had been thorough.
"I'm not interested in joining Team Rocket." Maxie's voice was even, if somewhat strained by the number of ribs currently receiving structural support. "I have goals. An actual vision."
"I know."
"Unlike some people who only think about muscle and impact."
He did not look at Archie, who was not in the room, but the direction of the sentiment was clear.
"You're smarter than Archie," Mammon agreed. "I've always known that. Which is also why you should understand that Team Magma is finished and you're currently a lone entity with no organizational backing."
He let that sit.
"Your intelligence assets — your research capability — that has genuine value. What I'm offering isn't a demotion. It's a platform."
Maxie was quiet for a moment.
"You said finding the Red Orb was stupid. That Groudon would destroy us."
"I said relying on the Orb to maintain indefinite control was stupid," Mammon corrected. "Which it is. Using the Orb to establish initial contact, to study Groudon — that's different. You could learn more about Primal Groudon in a week of actual access than in a decade of theoretical research."
The difference between "I'll control a legendary" and "I'll study one up close" was significant. Maxie's eyes moved slightly.
"And the landmass question—"
"I'm not going to tell you that's a worthless goal," Mammon said. "Creating habitable land space has actual merit for Pokémon and people both. The question is method. Relying on a Primal legendary to do it isn't a method — it's a catastrophe."
"Then what is?"
"That's a question worth researching properly." Mammon shrugged. "Which requires resources. Which requires an organization."
Maxie's expression had the quality of someone recalibrating a fundamental assumption.
"And Archie—"
"Archie is Archie. You would not be in the same division."
A pause.
"I can prove I'm more valuable than that idiot," Maxie said.
"I have no doubt."
"Then I'll join." His voice was flat and certain. "And when I've recovered, I want to make very clear to Archie exactly where he ranks relative to me."
"That's between you and him." Mammon stood. "Rest. We'll discuss assignment when you're mobile."
"One question."
Mammon paused at the door.
"You already have Kyogre. Are you going to go after Groudon?"
"Eventually." The smile that appeared was comfortable and unhurried. "But not yet."
Mammon's phone rang as he left the building.
He listened for a moment, thanked his contact, and hung up.
"What is it?" Caitlin asked, reading his expression.
"Hoenn League has been assembling reinforcements from other regions."
"How many Champion-tier?"
"Three confirmed. But—" He started to smile. "One of them is my old man."
Caitlin stared at him.
"Giovanni."
"Goodshow sent him." Mammon turned this over. The absurdity of it was genuinely delightful. "They needed a Champion-tier from Kanto and couldn't spare the Elite Four, so they asked the Viridian Gym Leader."
Caitlin's expression was doing something carefully restrained.
"And your old man said yes."
"Apparently." Mammon looked at the sky. The afternoon light was pleasant and completely indifferent to the situation.
He was thinking about scenarios.
Option A: let Giovanni's cover be preserved, use this as an opportunity to put some distance between them publicly.
Option B: demonstrate something. In front of the assembled cross-regional Champions. In front of Giovanni himself.
I'll think about it, he decided.
"Caitlin."
"Yes?"
"If Giovanni shows up to fight Team Rocket — what do you think the old man's going to say when he sees me?"
Caitlin considered this with genuine thoughtfulness.
"'Nothing complicated — the boy just loves showing off,'" she said.
Mammon burst out laughing.
She was probably right.
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