The black-and-yellow hornet-like silhouette flickered in and out within the flames.
Beedrill!
Whoosh—
The blazing punch Blaziken threw shook the air, the gale howling behind it—only to halt dead an inch in front of Beedrill's chest!
Ting!
Beedrill's stinger lightly, almost lazily, tapped forward. The instant needle tip and fist met, the raging flames vanished like they'd been swallowed by a black hole—snuffed out without a sound!
Blaziken stared in disbelief at the few wisps of smoke curling off its fist.
Beedrill, meanwhile, only gave its wings a faint buzz. The cold light refracted off its stinger swept across Grey's eyes like a razor-thin arc.
Not even an ember left behind…
Seeing this, Grey's brows pinched together slightly. The way this Beedrill controlled its power was precise to the point of being terrifying…
[Pokémon: Beedrill]
[Type: Bug / Poison]
[Level: 85]
[Ability: Sniper]
[Moves: omitted]
The system window popped up, and just looking at it made Grey's heart pound.
Level 85. An absurdly high level.
On paper, it was "only" twenty-one levels higher than his Annihilape at 64, but the difference between them was far, far greater than that number suggested.
"Blaziken, return for now."
Grey took out a Poké Ball and, in one smooth motion, recalled Blaziken.
Then, aside from Articuno, Riolu, Kirlia and Breloom, he returned all of his other Pokémon as well.
At this level of combat, you couldn't rely on numbers to pile up and bury the opponent.
Only quality good enough could even hope to break through.
And among the Pokémon currently at Grey's side, if nothing else, in terms of sheer ability to take a hit…
Articuno was in a league of its own.
It was a legendary, after all. Of course it could take more punishment than an ordinary Pokémon.
As for how much more?
That depended entirely on the difference in strength between the two sides.
Giovanni's Beedrill was incredibly strong, but up against Articuno and the others, it would definitely need more than a couple of hits to bring them down.
As for the rest of his Pokémon… those were the "handy little tools" he was definitely going to need later.
"Gym Leader Grey, with one of your Pokémon stalled, what will you choose to do when faced with the trump cards I still have left?"
Giovanni's voice was cool.
Beedrill hovered at his shoulder like a statue, its twin stingers crossed over its chest.
The cold light flickering in its eyes was identical to Giovanni's own.
Both were simply waiting for their prey's final struggle.
Giovanni appreciated Grey—but if a trainer like this couldn't be used by him, it was better to deal with him sooner rather than later.
No matter how sharp a blade was, if it couldn't rest in his hand, it should be broken before it ever left its sheath.
He stroked Beedrill's stinger, which still held a hint of the heat from Blaziken's Fire Punch.
Just like Grey's value, fading away little by little with each act of resistance…
A dead man had no value at all.
Since Grey had kept rejecting Team Rocket, and even turned him down when he personally extended the offer—
A trainer like that really was better off eliminated!
"Beedrill, finish him."
Giovanni's command was as light as a sigh.
He was regretting that Grey couldn't be brought under his command—
And regretting that the League was about to lose a Gym Leader with such potential.
Beedrill's wings beat, and its silvery stingers instantly darkened to a poisonous purple!
All the venom surged, toxic slime dripping from the needle tips and burning neat little holes into the floor wherever it landed.
It lifted its spear-like stingers. Its wings vibrated so fast they were almost invisible, and in the blink of an eye it vanished from where it hovered, lunging straight for Grey!
Whoosh!
In just a few seconds, that purple glint was already three inches from Grey's throat!
The wind pressure off the tip of the needle was enough to slice a bloody line along the side of his neck!
Seeing Beedrill unleash a killing blow, Grey's Adam's apple bobbed slightly. "Your turn."
As soon as the words left his mouth, the skin on his face suddenly rippled, and a lump of purple, amorphous Pokémon peeled away from it.
Ditto!
And in the very instant it dropped free, Ditto had already completed Transform in midair.
"Bzz!"
The Beedrill Ditto had transformed into appeared out of nowhere, its twin stingers crossing into an X and catching the fatal strike perfectly!
Sparks burst where the two stingers clashed, lighting Grey's face. He wiped the blood from his neck and chuckled. "Surprised?"
"Ditto? Impossible. When the difference in strength is that big, even Ditto can't copy a target perfectly!"
Suspicion creased Giovanni's face.
He could tell this Ditto's base strength was low—not even at the level of a typical Gym challenger.
Compared to his own Champion-tier Beedrill, the gap was more than just "huge."
Even if Ditto transformed into his Beedrill, at best it should only be able to reproduce about seventy percent of its power.
But just now, that "bootleg" Ditto had actually shown signs of pressuring his genuine article!
When did the counterfeit start outclassing the original?
It made no sense!
"Ditto, can you keep going?"
Seeing the fake Beedrill's heavy breathing, Grey asked worriedly.
After all, this was Green's Ditto. He couldn't let it suffer any serious injuries while it was under his care.
"Ditto…" (It's fine. I can still fight for a bit.)
Ditto shook its head. In its Beedrill form, it beat its wings, all three of its stingers gleaming at once.
With a strange rhythm, it wove its front stingers back and forth, even its tail stinger perfectly mimicking the original's attacking posture.
Transform, at its core, meant putting yourself into the role.
If you couldn't immerse yourself in it, how could you ever become a perfect copy of your opponent?
This Ditto didn't just copy the shape—it copied the heart.
If it wanted to come as close as possible to a perfect Transform, it had to figure out what kind of Pokémon its opponent was in a very short time.
Fortunately, Beedrill's "label" as a species was pretty simple.
Pure offense and speed.
High speed, high attack, paper-thin defense.
That was basically the standard kit for hyper-offensive Pokémon.
Which allowed Ditto to read its opponent quickly.
It even roughly picked up on what moves it could use.
"If Transform is your so-called trump card, Gym Leader Grey, then you really are disappointing."
Giovanni's first reaction to Grey using Ditto to block him had been shock.
But he buried that surprise almost immediately.
Thinking back on the recent exchange, Giovanni realized that at the very beginning, Ditto's fake Beedrill had been firmly suppressed.
In other words, Grey had done something to bring that fake Beedrill up to a level where it could compete with his real one in such a short span of time.
All he had to do was figure out Grey's little trick and dismantle it, and dealing with Grey himself would be no more than a few stabs from his Beedrill.
"Ditto, close in on that Beedrill. Articuno, use Blizzard to cover Ditto."
Seeing Giovanni drifting into thought again, Grey decided to take the initiative and break up his concentration.
Whooo, whooo!
Articuno's wings snapped wide, and Blizzard exploded from between its feathers. The conference room's temperature plummeted in an instant, and even Beedrill's speed was slightly affected!
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