Chapter 207: Reshiram: Get Back Here, Black Dragon — Fight Me Like You Mean It, Yo!!
High above Victory Road, Unova's two legendary dragons faced each other — Zekrom, black as obsidian, and Reshiram, blazing white.
On the ground, N stared up at Reshiram with deeply furrowed brows.
Ghetsis, still locked in Dark Mewtwo's psychic grip, drifted down in front of Alder's group. Alder moved fast — the moment Ghetsis was within reach, he had him secured, and wasted no time patting him down and relieving him of every last Poké Ball.
With that, Ghetsis had nothing left to threaten anyone with.
"N!! What are you doing?! Get over here and get me out of this!!"
Ghetsis's voice cracked between fury and panic. He needed his monstrous foster son to come through for him right now.
"Zekrom!"
N heard it. He set his jaw and called out.
Zekrom's tail turbine lit up — deep, terrible lightning crackling across its obsidian frame, arcing and hissing with barely-contained force. The electricity coiled into a massive ring that enveloped the black dragon's entire body.
Fusion Bolt. Zekrom's most powerful signature move.
Zekrom roared and drove straight downward, targeting Alder's group below.
Alder's face went pale. The sensation of being locked in Zekrom's sights hit like a physical blow — a deep, involuntary dread that made it hard to breathe.
Move. If that hit connects, none of us are walking away from it.
"Blue Flare."
Mammon's voice was entirely calm.
Hmmmm~!
Reshiram's clear, melodious cry rang through the sky. The turbine at its tail ignited — thick blue-white flames roaring to life in an instant.
A torrent of brilliant blue fire erupted from Reshiram's maw and surged directly at Zekrom.
Blue Flare. Fire-type. Reshiram's most powerful signature move.
The attack came too fast. Zekrom couldn't dodge — it threw Fusion Bolt forward to meet it head-on.
BOOM.
The collision split the sky.
The shockwave hit like a wall — a thunderclap that rattled eardrums and shook the ground underfoot. Gold lightning and blue fire churned against each other in a roiling mass of light, shockwaves rippling outward in concentric rings that flattened the grass in every direction. For a moment the entire sky seemed to belong to nothing else — no ground, no clouds, just the collision of two elemental forces fighting for the same space.
CRACK.
A second detonation, and the stalemate broke. Both attacks tore apart simultaneously, the backlash flinging Zekrom and Reshiram in opposite directions.
Raw power for raw power — from the beginning of time, Zekrom and Reshiram had always been equal. Neither had ever beaten the other on strength alone.
"Mammon, Mammon~! Help me, help me~!"
Reshiram's telepathy lit up in Mammon's mind, practically vibrating with excitement.
Mammon's mouth curved.
"Genesect."
He sent the Shiny Genesect up.
The red shape streaked into the sky like a flare, making directly for Zekrom.
This white dragon is a little much, Mammon thought, watching it. But it's my white dragon. Might as well indulge it.
"Hmm~!!"
Reshiram steadied itself and, at the sight of the Shiny Genesect moving into position, let out another thrilled cry and dove back toward Zekrom — the two of them angling in from different directions, a pincer closing.
Today, the black dragon was going to understand what True power actually looked like.
"..."
Zekrom's eyes sharpened as it tracked both incoming threats. It pulled back, trying to find space.
"Zekrom!!" N issued a command.
Zekrom's tail turbine began charging again—
And then the Shiny Genesect hit the throttle.
Extreme Speed. The acceleration was instantaneous, almost impossible to track — a red blur that crossed the gap before Zekrom could react and slammed into the side of its head hard enough to knock it sideways with an involuntary cry of pain.
"Thunder!!" N's brow creased.
Zekrom snarled and called the lightning — a bolt of pure gold crashing down from the stormclouds directly onto the Shiny Genesect.
The Shiny Genesect was already moving. It pulled back just clear of the strike.
And the gap it left was immediately filled by a clean, concentrated pulse of dragon energy that caught Zekrom square in the chest.
Dragon Pulse. Reshiram's.
The impact detonated against Zekrom's scales and the black dragon lurched, a deep groan escaping as its massive body tilted sideways —
BOOM.
A second hit, a cannon blast at point-blank range, erupted against Zekrom's flank and sent it plummeting.
Techno Blast. Shiny Genesect.
Zekrom hit the ground with an impact that shook the earth.
"Hmm~!!"
Reshiram descended slowly, circling, its blue eyes looking down at Zekrom from above with unabashed triumph.
"Black dragon. Is this all you've got?"
"..."
Zekrom lay in the crater it had made and glared up at Reshiram with undisguised fury.
Two-on-one. Are you SERIOUS. What is there to be smug about—
Zekrom was struggling to maintain composure.
Reshiram sensed Zekrom's indignation, and genuinely did not care.
The Shiny Genesect drifted down to Reshiram's side, hovering level with it, regarding Zekrom with the blank, emotionless attention of heavy artillery at rest.
"Do you feel it? This is what Truth looks like. What could mere Ideals ever do against Truth?"
Reshiram had never felt this good in its life. It was absolutely getting in Zekrom's face about this.
Big brother Kyogre hasn't even shown up yet, and Zekrom's already struggling. Incredible.
As for the question of whether two-on-one was a cheap win?
Hilarious. Did Zekrom understand what Truth meant? Winning was winning. Who said anything about fair?
"Are they… saying something to each other?"
Wallace watched the exchange between the two dragons with a thoughtful expression, unable to make out a single sound beyond the draconic cries. But that beautiful white dragon definitely seemed to be communicating something.
"..."
Giovanni, who possessed the Power of Viridian and could in fact understand every word of it, had a very strange look on his face. He opened his mouth, reconsidered, and said nothing.
He genuinely didn't know how to translate this.
N, who could also understand Reshiram perfectly, pressed his lips together and said nothing either.
"Zekrom, are you all right?"
"I'm fine. But N — we need to go. If we keep fighting, I'm going to take serious damage. And then we won't be able to run at all."
Zekrom's voice was low and directed.
"But Father—"
N looked at Ghetsis, restrained and fuming in Alder's grip, and hesitated.
"N. We can only help anyone else if we keep ourselves intact first."
"…I understand."
N made the call. Retreat. Rescuing Ghetsis was something that could be planned for later — if N got captured here too, it was genuinely over.
"ROOOAR!!"
Zekrom threw its head back and bellowed. The stormclouds above churned violently, and bolts of lightning rained down in a cascade across the road.
Thunder — multiple strikes.
Reshiram and the Shiny Genesect scattered to avoid the barrage.
In that window, Zekrom scooped N up and launched into the sky, driving hard in the opposite direction.
"HMMMM~!! (Black dragon!! You COWARD!! Running away?! If you have any spine at all, come back and FIGHT ME PROPERLY, YO!!)"
Reshiram froze for a half-second, then immediately gave chase, crying out at the retreating Zekrom.
It had not expected Zekrom to bolt this decisively. Unbelievable. This was pathetic. A black dragon that would run from a fight — Reshiram was genuinely embarrassed to share a legend with this creature.
From somewhere below, Zekrom's response was a silent, furious internal monologue about a certain shameless white dragon who had promised a one-on-one and delivered a two-on-one ambush, and who now had the absolute nerve to talk about fighting properly.
Zekrom did not dignify it with a response. It was already gone.
Mammon watched them go without particular concern. He could have stopped them — stopped both of them — if he'd wanted to.
He just didn't see the point.
Meanwhile, Ghetsis's expression was as dark as a winter sky. He had mentally cursed N approximately a thousand times. The ungrateful little — just turning around and running and leaving him here—
But N was gone, and there was nothing to be done about it.
With N fled and Ghetsis arrested, the Plasma elites that Ghetsis had brought were also finished — rounded up entirely by the Unova Elite Four and their police backup.
Team Plasma: total collapse.
Not ideal — N was the important one, and he'd gotten away — but the result wasn't nothing. Alder and the others couldn't quite bring themselves to celebrate, though.
"Something on your minds?"
Mammon looked at Alder's group with mild interest.
With N gone, every set of eyes on the road had shifted to Mammon. Unsurprisingly.
"Mammon." Alder took a breath and kept his voice level. "What exactly is it that you want?"
He genuinely didn't understand this young man. The operation today would have been a clean failure without him — they wouldn't have caught anyone, let alone Ghetsis. And yet Mammon had handed Ghetsis right to them.
"Team Rocket is consolidating control over Unova's underworld. Someone like Sage Ghetsis is a pest — better to let the League handle the pest removal."
Mammon's smile was sunny.
Ghetsis, arms secured, gave Mammon a look of pure, concentrated loathing.
"Besides," Mammon added, spreading his hands in a display of innocence, "I was honestly going to dump him in the ocean and let the Magikarp deal with him. I assume none of you wanted that."
"Mammon." Alder's voice was serious. "Have Team Rocket withdraw from Unova. Name your terms — I will do everything in my power to meet them."
"Oh?"
Mammon raised an eyebrow and let his gaze move across the assembled faces — Steven, Cynthia, Leon, Giovanni.
"Champion Alder, you've gathered quite a collection of Champions here. Even invited my dear father." A theatrical note of wonder entered his voice. "And after all that preparation, you're offering me a deal? Forgive me if I find that a little hard to believe."
"I give you my word," Alder said, and his expression was unambiguous.
Mammon with the Dragon of Truth, with Primal Kyogre, with Dark Mewtwo — going to war with him was a different calculation than going to war with Team Plasma. Steven had told him about Primordial Sea. Mammon almost certainly wasn't reckless enough to flood an entire region, but almost certainly wasn't a comfortable margin when the alternative was negotiating.
"I think you know what we want, Champion Alder."
Mammon looked at him with an expression of easy interest.
"..." Alder's expression went flat.
He knew. Steven had told him that too — Team Rocket wanted legitimacy. Official recognition of their presence and operations.
Which was out of the question. Team Rocket was a criminal organization, end of sentence. Acknowledging their right to operate was the same as declaring organized crime a legitimate industry.
"Mammon. The Unova League won't agree to that."
"Then I suppose we'll meet again, Champions."
Mammon took the refusal without any sign of disappointment and smiled pleasantly.
No urgency. The pressure wasn't at the breaking point yet. Once it was — once the weight became unbearable enough — they'd come around the same way Hoenn had. The League always did.
Besides, he had N to find.
Mammon walked away — unhurried, Caitlin at his side — right in front of the assembled Champions, none of whom moved to stop him.
Now wasn't the time to fight him.
"Heheh…" A cold, contemptuous sound from behind Alder. "So these are the League's Champions. That Mammon was standing there being as arrogant as he pleased — and you just watched him leave."
Ghetsis. Of course.
He was furious about the double standard. Alder's group had come after him with everything they had — and Mammon walked away untouched?
"Ghetsis." Alder looked at him with the cold patience of someone who has already won and knows it. "Save your energy. You're not leaving prison in this lifetime."
"Heh." Ghetsis let out a low laugh. "Perhaps. But I know something useful."
His voice carried a particular weight.
"There is a legendary Pokémon — and if you find it, even Mammon won't be unbeatable."
(End of Chapter)
☆☆☆
-> 20 Advanced chapters Now Available on Patreon!!
-> https://www.pat-reon.co-m/c/Inkshaper
(Just remove the hyphen (-) to access patreon normally)
If you like this novel please consider leaving a review that's help the story a lot Thank you