By the time Ash reached the first-floor lobby, the first thing he saw was a Garchomp with a collar around its neck and bloodshot eyes, rampaging wildly.
A dark crimson Hyper Beam blasted from Garchomp's mouth and swept across a huge area. Everywhere it passed, the metal walls shattered and melted, then rained down toward the floor.
"Latias!"
Ash called out, and beneath him Latias immediately understood. Psychic power burst forth and instantly caught the falling chunks of rubble and the orange-red molten steel radiating intense heat from above.
Only then did Ash have the chance to look at Team Rocket's trio.
All three were wearing identical white lab coats and white masks. Judging by their faces alone, they looked like complete strangers he had never met before.
Especially Meowth, standing on top of Wobbuffet's head, he looked exactly like some overweight middle-aged head researcher. There wasn't the slightest flaw in the disguise.
If not for the familiar Aura, which would never lie to him, Ash might really have been fooled into thinking these three strangers had nothing to do with Team Rocket.
When it came to disguises, Team Rocket's trio had truly reached the pinnacle.
At that moment, everyone else started arriving one after another.
First came the Professor, rushing out of his office in a panic after hearing the commotion.
Clemont poked his head out from the corner upstairs, and right behind him came Serena and Bonnie, both fresh from bathing, their hair still damp.
Serena wasn't wearing black stockings this time, but that did nothing to lessen her charm. Her fair, slender legs, glistening with a moist sheen, together with her fresh, radiant beauty, made her even more captivating.
"What happened?"
As the Professor ran out from the corridor, his view was limited, so he didn't see the crazed Garchomp right away. Instead, he first noticed the three figures in white lab coats.
"Who are you people?"
"You asked who we are?"
"Then we'll graciously answer you!"
"..."
"That's right, meow!"
"Wobbuffet!"
"For once we didn't get interrupted! This feels amazing, meow!"
"Oh, they're the nice funny guy and lady Ash told us about!" Bonnie said in delight.
That single sentence instantly sent Team Rocket's trio into a rage.
"You're the good people, meow! We're villains!"
"Exactly! Your whole family are good people!"
"Don't go slapping labels on people, twerp and little twerp!"
At that moment, the Professor was completely stunned.
He stared blankly at Meowth, who had just spoken human language. "Meowth can talk?"
Hearing that, Meowth grinned smugly.
"Yep, I can talk, but from now on, Garchomp belongs to us, meow!"
Before he even finished speaking, Garchomp snapped out of the stiffness from using Hyper Beam. In a violent fury, it immediately locked onto the flashy, attention-grabbing trio as its new target.
A blazing black-red Hyper Beam erupted from Garchomp's mouth.
In an instant, it swallowed the trio whole and exploded.
Caught completely off guard, they were blasted away on the spot, their bodies punching a massive hole through the roof of the lab.
"We're blasting off again!"
After sending the trio flying, Garchomp turned to flee.
Ash naturally wasn't about to let it escape so easily.
After all, he had known Team Rocket's trio were going to stir up trouble this time and had deliberately given them the chance, all for the sake of completing Latias's task.
Damaging the lab was one thing, he could afford to pay for that. The important part was that no one had been hurt.
But if Garchomp were actually allowed to get outside, wrecking the city would be the least of the problems. A large-scale bloodbath was an outcome Ash absolutely could not accept.
"Stop it, Dragon Pulse!"
Latias first used Psychic to seal and reinforce the lab's main doors, causing Garchomp to slam into a dead end and fail to escape.
Then she opened her mouth and unleashed a massive torrent of Dragon-type energy.
Garchomp lashed out savagely, gathering an even larger mass of Hyper Beam energy in its mouth once again.
However...
Setting aside the fact that Latias was still a secondary legendary, Garchomp specialized in physical offense while Latias excelled at special offense, yet the two of them were clashing with special attacks. The outcome was obvious.
Dragon Pulse surged from Latias's mouth, condensing in midair into a raging dragon-shaped mass of energy that came crashing down from above, swallowing both Garchomp and its Hyper Beam whole.
Very quickly, Garchomp lost the ability to battle.
The fight was over.
[Task complete. Enhancing Ability... Enhancement complete.]
[Type]: Dragon / Psychic
[Ability]: Levitate I (Rises from the ground, preventing Ground-type moves from hitting it; Speed is increased to 1.2x, Attack is increased to 1.1x)
[Base Stats]: Total 600, HP 80, Attack 80, Defense 90, Sp. Atk 110, Sp. Def 130, Speed 110
Lowering his gaze, Ash looked at the new Ability enhancement effect.
[Can Be Enhanced]
[Ability]: Levitate II (Rises from the ground, preventing Ground-type attacks from hitting it; Speed is increased to 1.5x, Attack is increased to 1.25x)
[Enhancement Task]: Defeat one of the following, Will, Lucian, Caitlin, Drake, Rosa, Drasna, Raihan, or Hassel.
Rosa?
The first thing Ash noticed wasn't the specific effect of the second-stage enhancement, but Rosa's name on the list.
In this life, Ash had chosen to land in Aspertia City when he arrived in Unova, so the one he met wasn't Iris.
Instead, it was Rosa, the heroine of Black 2 and White 2, the busty girl with the twin buns, sometimes rendered unofficially as Mei.
The two of them had traveled together the whole way and gradually fallen for each other.
What Ash hadn't expected was that Rosa's strength had grown so quickly.
They had only been apart for a few months, yet according to the system's evaluation, she had already surpassed Misty and reached Elite Four level.
Still, after thinking about it carefully, it made sense.
Misty was strong, very strong even, and she had even gotten a Gyaradosite from him, but the only real powerhouse on her team was Gyarados.
Rosa was different.
She had Hydreigon, Haxorus, Dragonite, Salamence, Altaria, and Serperior.
As everyone knew, Dragon-type Pokémon generally had very high base stats, while Bug-types tended to have low ones.
And on Rosa's team, aside from her starter partner Serperior, there were five Dragons.
Even Altaria, the weakest among them, could Mega Evolve just like Salamence.
That was a full team of six high-potential Pokémon.
As long as their levels were high enough, being judged as Elite Four level was only natural.
It looked like once he finally made a name for himself, the Kanto League, jointly formed by the Kanto and Johto regions, might need more than just a new Champion. Even the Elite Four lineup would be due for a major shake-up.
Pulling his wandering thoughts back in, Ash quickly did the math in his head for Latias's stats after the second-stage enhancement.
110 × 1.5 = 165.
80 × 1.25 = 100.
Her Speed would become even higher, fast enough to surpass Mega Aerodactyl's 150.
And if he could get Latias's Mega Stone, that number could swell even further.
Unfortunately, some things were hard to obtain no matter how much money you had.
As a Legendary Pokémon, Latias and Latios's Mega Stones fell into exactly that category.
It wasn't that Ash couldn't afford them, there were just too few of them, and none could be found.
He wondered whether Kalos, the region where Mega Evolution had truly flourished, might have one.
Otherwise, he would have no choice but to search in Hoenn, the land where Mega Evolution first appeared. Since that was the region where Latias and Latios's kind were said to dwell, the odds of finding one there were indeed fairly good.
Still, speaking of Hoenn...
Considering the future battle over the giant Mega Stone that would erupt on that land because of Rayquaza, Groudon, and Kyogre, Ash really would have to make a trip there eventually.