"You must be Agatha."
Ace adjusted his expression and spoke, "I saw a picture of you at Professor Oak's place. Even though you're older now, I can still see what you looked like when you were young."
"Another brat who got a Pokédex from Oak?"
Agatha frowned, her impression of Ace plummeting instantly.
Agatha and Oak were once close friends and rivals in their youth, but then Professor Oak gave up battling and turned to Pokémon research.
This angered Agatha.
In Agatha's eyes, Oak was stronger than her. If he had continued on the path of battling, he would definitely have been at the ceiling of combat power back then.
Agatha longed to defeat Oak, but she never got the chance again.
This was unacceptable to Agatha.
Furthermore, at that time, Agatha had deep feelings for Oak. One could say that if Professor Oak hadn't abandoned Pokémon battling, it was very likely that Agatha would have chosen to marry him.
But things happen, and Professor Oak's choice was almost a betrayal to someone as somewhat obsessive as Agatha.
The love she once felt for Professor Oak was now matched by her hatred.
And because of this, she had no kind words for anyone who received a Pokédex from Professor Oak.
Especially when she thought about herself still being single while Oak had a house full of children and grandchildren, Agatha absolutely couldn't swallow that anger!
"Are you trying to battle me?"
Ace glanced at the Gengar family emerging from the shadows. He quickly surveyed them; there were easily one or two hundred Gengar here.
If he fought head-on, he might not be able to defeat Agatha, not even if he released Mewtwo!
After all, while Mewtwo was growing rapidly, it was still in its growth phase and hadn't reached its later stage of overwhelming power.
Mewtwo could handle twenty or thirty Gengar and Haunter, but with fifty or sixty, Mewtwo would be in a tough fight.
As for one or two hundred here...
Forget it. In a real life-or-death struggle, Mewtwo would just be beaten senseless.
"Heh heh."
Agatha didn't reply, but let out an eerie chuckle.
Ace's muscles tensed. The next moment, Aerodactyl carried Ace soaring into the sky, and Gengar and Victreebel instantly retreated.
Immediately after, an Arbok burst through the ground, rushing towards Ace with extreme speed, attempting to bite him.
"Swoosh!"
But in an instant, Victreebel's Vine Whip quickly wrapped around Arbok's upper body, the sharp vine stabbing directly into Arbok's body.
"Clang!"
Arbok's tail twisted, directly blocking Victreebel's Vine Whip. The sharp metallic sheen on its tail clearly indicated that Agatha had modified her Arbok with a deadly tail stinger!
The next moment, Arbok's muscles swelled, directly snapping Victreebel's Vine Whip. After breaking free, it swept its tail in a wide arc towards Victreebel.
"A Shiny Pokémon, huh..."
Ace looked at the oddly colored Arbok and instantly understood its Shiny characteristic.
"Death's Mark."
Ace recalled the plot details. This Arbok of Agatha's could change the patterns on its belly, allowing it to additionally boost its four stats: HP, Attack, Defense, and Speed.
However, Ace wasn't sure if this boosted power came out of thin air, or if it drew power from other stats to enhance one aspect.
"Let's try it..."
The next moment, Blastoise blocked Victreebel's path. The metallic tail stinger left a mark on Blastoise's shell, but it didn't break its defense.
Victreebel painfully retrieved its broken Vine Whip. Without Ace's help to restore it, it would probably take Victreebel a day or two to recover its Vine Whip on its own.
"Attack!"
Ace waved his hand. Blastoise's cannons aimed at Arbok and Agatha. As Ace's voice fell, a Hydro Pump blasted towards Arbok, while from the other cannon, a Dark Pulse rapidly shot towards Agatha.
Two attacks simultaneously targeting different directions made Agatha's eye twitch uncontrollably.
A Poké Ball opened, and a Crobat surged out, grabbing Agatha and dodging the Dark Pulse.
Although Agatha dodged the attack, the Pokémon behind her suffered.
The Dark Pulse exploded amidst the group of Pokémon, and dark,
Ghost-type energy surged out, knocking several Gastly and Haunter off their
feet, instantly incapacitating them.
"You brat, you're not bad..."
A vein throbbed on Agatha's forehead, her face extremely dark.
Meanwhile, Arbok's belly pattern changed again, its speed instantly increasing. With a flash, it coiled around Blastoise.
As the pattern changed once more, Arbok's muscles tensed, and it began to constrict Blastoise.
"Withdraw."
Blastoise immediately withdrew, pulling its entire body into its shell. A massive turtle shell slammed onto the ground, its immense weight causing the Arbok wrapped around it to twitch in pain.
"Rapid Spin!"
Ace, full of cunning, had Blastoise open its shell. A cannon barrel extended, and then began to spray water.
As one cannon fired, the shell began to spin rapidly, directly grinding the attached Arbok into the ground!
"Boom!"
Arbok couldn't take it anymore. It suddenly released Blastoise's shell, pushed with force, and sent the shell flying.
However, one side of Arbok's body was already scraped raw, and trickles of blood slowly flowed down its upright body.
"Damn brat!"
Seeing this, Agatha yelled furiously, "Rock Slide!"
At Agatha's enraged roar, Arbok suddenly opened its mouth. An invisible force began to spread outwards, and the entire abandoned power plant started to collapse. Large chunks of debris rained down on Ace and his Pokémon.
"Om!"
Mewtwo burst out of its Poké Ball, pointing a finger upwards. An invisible barrier protected Ace and his Pokémon within a shield. The collapsing debris had no way of causing any harm to Ace and them inside the shield.
"Attack!"
Seeing that Ace was still unharmed, Agatha frowned slightly, feeling a bit anxious.
At Agatha's command, the Gengar family, who had been watching from the sidelines, rushed towards the shield. Various Ghost-type moves slammed into the shield!
Ace's pupils contracted. He quickly recalled his Pokémon, and Mewtwo instantly grabbed Ace, using Teleport to get away from their original position.
"Boom!"
The barrier shield shattered instantly. A large number of conflicting moves directly exploded on the spot. A powerful shockwave hit them. Ace and Mewtwo, floating in mid-air, could feel how strong that force was.
"Quantity truly creates quality," Ace shook his head helplessly. "We're clearly outmatched. Retreat."
Mewtwo nodded, flashed away with Ace, and left the abandoned power plant area.
In the ruins of the abandoned power plant, Crobat landed with Agatha. She looked at the spot where Ace had vanished, her brow tightly furrowed. She muttered, "He's a formidable opponent. I wonder if Lance can deal with him."