Early the next morning, the cooldown for 'Friend Out of Thin Air' ended. Caleb immediately rushed to the grassy field behind the Lord's Hall and eagerly activated the skill.
The familiar dimensional rift appeared for the third time...
Soon, a dark figure slowly stepped out from within. He moved cautiously, eyes scanning the unfamiliar surroundings with clear wariness.
Caleb began mentally running through the list of native characters he'd encountered before, wondering which one had just arrived. But before he could finish reviewing all the possibilities, the figure fully emerged from the rift.
Buzz cut, around 170 cm tall, dressed in a tailored black suit, and eyes as sharp as a hawk's... The moment he stepped out, his piercing gaze locked directly onto Caleb.
Caleb: "..."
Giovanni: "It's you?!"
Caleb didn't answer. Instead, he calmly studied Giovanni's appearance, quickly concluding this couldn't be the Giovanni from the Collapsed World, since that one was already dead.
That left only one possibility.
This was the Giovanni from Cynthia's world... The one he had met in the first Instance, Infernal Affairs.
As Caleb assessed Giovanni, the Team Rocket boss was doing the same with the young man before him.
Handsome, composed, his expression so calm, it was impossible to read his thoughts. Compared to their last encounter, Caleb had undergone a complete transformation; his youthful naivety had been replaced by an aura of calm reliability.
'What had happened to him?' A flicker of doubt crossed Giovanni's mind, but he snapped out of it almost instantly.
Remembering that this very man was responsible for the downfall of Team Rocket and the ruin of decades of his hard work, Giovanni moved with lightning speed, yanking a Poké Ball from his belt.
In a flash of white light, a powerfully built Nidoking materialized between them.
Caleb: "…."
Faced with an enemy who had destroyed everything, Giovanni had no intention of playing nice. The moment he regained his senses, he commanded without hesitation, "Nidoking, use Megahorn!"
Responding instantly, Nidoking let out a thunderous roar. Invisible currents swirled violently around its body, layer upon layer of pressurized wind coiling tightly around the purple horn on its head.
Then, with unstoppable force, it charged straight at Caleb.
Caleb didn't move. Not a muscle twitched on his face. He simply stood there, utterly still.
For a split second, Giovanni felt an absurd illusion that the creature barreling toward Caleb wasn't a Nidoking capable of shattering boulders, but a wobbly plastic toy car.
Nidoking closed the distance in the blink of an eye, already within striking range.
Giovanni sneered inwardly, his lips curling in contempt, 'So much for transformation... This fool is clearly frozen in terror.'
But the next second, his smirk vanished. His curled lips stiffened, his expression locked in a mix of shock and fury..
Mewtwo had appeared before Caleb in an instant, effortlessly catching Nidoking's horn with one hand.
Then, Mewtwo's eyes narrowed slightly as he glanced past the terrified Nidoking and fixed a dangerous stare on Giovanni.
"Mewtwo?!" Giovanni was visibly shaken.
He couldn't fathom how Mewtwo had appeared here. As the former leader of Team Rocket and the mastermind behind Project Mewtwo, no one understood Mewtwo better than he did.
And yet…
Even the brilliant Giovanni's mind went completely blank for a few seconds. It had been nearly a year since he last saw Mewtwo.
Back then, right after Mewtwo destroyed New Island's lab, Giovanni had approached it with a proposal for an alliance. Mewtwo not only rejected him, it shot his helicopter out of the sky.
Since then, he'd never seen Mewtwo again. The last he'd heard of it was in Professor Kukui's recent research paper from the Alola region.
'If Mewtwo is in Alola… then is this Alola?' Giovanni's mind raced.
Caleb was also deep in thought. People like Giovanni were walking time bombs. He was liable to resurface at any moment and unleash chaos.
During the Team Rocket incident in Johto, Giovanni never showed his face. Caleb certainly didn't believe he'd suddenly reformed and become a law-abiding citizen of the Pokémon League.
His eyes narrowed as he turned to Giovanni, wondering if he should tie him up and interrogate him about his recent past and what he was plotting.
Giovanni instantly noticed Caleb's unsettling gaze and tensed.
"What do you intend to do?" he demanded coldly.
Caleb replied flatly, "Nothing much."
Then, with a subtle glance exchanged between Caleb and Mewtwo, the legendary Pokémon immediately understood. He casually tossed Nidoking aside, then pinned Giovanni in place with psychic energy.
A blue glow flickered in Mewtwo's eyes. Giovanni struggled futilely, forced to lock eyes with the legendary Pokémon.
As the proud leader of Team Rocket, he'd never endured such humiliation in his life. Helpless and enraged, he wanted nothing more than to kill someone.
But before he could even process the thought, Mewtwo's psychic force surged into his mind, sweeping through his memories with blinding speed.
Giovanni's mouth opened slightly. His eyes glazed over, his expression turning vacant and dazed.
"Did you find anything?" Caleb asked.
Mewtwo withdrew his psychic probe and reported: >..I saw traces of other organizations in his memories. Team Magma, Team Flare… and others..<
Caleb froze for a moment, then quickly grasped the implication... He turned to Giovanni.
'Could it be that this world's Giovanni was secretly collaborating with villainous teams from other regions? That would explain his absence during the crisis with Pryce in Johto. It seems he temporarily abandoned both Johto and Kanto. If that's true… the situation is far more serious than I had imagined.'
Caleb had no desire to witness the birth of a Team Rainbow Rocket alliance, and even less to see all the evil teams unite to wreak havoc...
>..What should we do now?..< Mewtwo asked.
Caleb thought for a moment, then decided, "Erase all his memories related to Team Rocket."
>..Understood..<
Mewtwo didn't hesitate. He acted immediately.
Minutes later, Giovanni slowly regained consciousness. He blinked, disoriented, and looked around in confusion.
"Who am I? Where is this? What are you doing?" he asked weakly.
Caleb: "..."
He turned to Mewtwo.
Mewtwo gave an innocent shrug, saying: >..My hand slipped..<
And because of that 'slip', Mewtwo had accidentally erased all of Giovanni's memories.
Caleb gave Mewtwo a thumb up, "Good job."
'Right?' For once, a faint smile appeared on Mewtwo's face. In his opinion, people like this were better off eliminated entirely...