Pokémon: Raising Abandoned Pokémon into Legends

"I specialize in dealing with stubborn mules—even if you’ve got a supercomputer brain, I’ll out-stubborn you."

After the second Explosion, Rio and Charizard returned to the mountain, standing once again before the critically injured Metagross.

"Good work, Charizard—eat this and rest in your Poké Ball." Rio fed Charizard a Revival Herb and recalled it.

Then he pulled out the Master Ball. With a flash of light, Mewtwo appeared.

"I need your help with something," Rio said.

"What is it?" Mewtwo didn’t refuse.

"Nothing major—this Metagross has it out for me. It keeps using Explosion the moment it sees me. From my experience dealing with stubborn types, it’ll probably do it again. So I need you to use Protect to shield me."

Rio fed Metagross another Revival Herb, then quickly stepped back beside Mewtwo.

Soon, Metagross opened its eyes. The moment it did, Rio repeated his previous move—throwing a Poké Ball first. This time, the ball wobbled twice before Metagross broke out.

But this time, it didn’t immediately use Explosion. It noticed that Charizard was gone—and in its place was an unfamiliar Pokémon. Metagross locked its gaze onto Mewtwo, analyzing the power radiating from it. After two seconds of scanning, no warning sounded.

Metagross concluded that Mewtwo wasn’t as strong as Charizard—and prepared to charge in with Bullet Punch.

Rio, however, raised an eyebrow in surprise. What’s this? No Explosion this time? Has it finally come to its senses? Ready to fight fair? Beat it into submission and then catch it?

"Mewtwo—hit it! But don’t kill it—leave it with just enough fight left to catch," Rio said excitedly.

Mewtwo followed the command. Its eyes glowed as it activated Psychic.

[Warning! Warning!] The alarm blared inside Metagross’s mind just as it was about to use Bullet Punch.

[Detected overwhelming psychic energy—far surpassing Charizard’s power. We are outmatched. Win probability: 0%.]

[Since victory is impossible, optimal course of action: Explosion.]

Hearing that warning, Metagross didn’t hesitate. It switched from Bullet Punch to Explosion. Under Rio and Mewtwo’s gaze, it began to glow white once more.

Rio’s excited expression instantly froze. He burst into curses—

"Are you kidding me?! I swear I’ll—"

BOOM—

The explosion drowned out his voice. Rio, protected by Mewtwo’s barrier, stared in frustration as Metagross collapsed once again.

Got my hopes up for nothing.

A minute or two later, the explosion’s aftermath subsided. Rio, refusing to give up, prepared for a fourth capture attempt. He wanted to see how many times this Metagross could use Explosion. He wasn’t in a rush—he had plenty of Revival Herbs. Being the League Champion meant he didn’t have to buy most things anyway.

Just as he was about to feed Metagross another Revival Herb, Cynthia’s voice came from behind him: "What are you doing? Aren’t you trying to catch it? Why does it keep exploding? Is the battle really that brutal?"

Rio turned to see Cynthia covered in dust and looking thoroughly battered—clearly, the three consecutive Explosions had taken a toll on her too.

"It’s not my fault—this Metagross keeps using Explosion the moment it sees me," Rio said helplessly.

"It uses Explosion on sight? How is that possible?" Cynthia didn’t believe him. Then she noticed Mewtwo standing nearby. "What Pokémon is that? I’ve never seen it before—it’s so cool!"

"It’s called Mewtwo—an artificial Pokémon."

"An artificial Pokémon!" Cynthia gasped, covering her mouth in amazement.

Mewtwo stared at Cynthia expressionlessly. Though it said nothing, it felt a small sense of satisfaction at her words—especially "so cool."

"Bii~"

At that moment, Metagross, having recovered from its near-fatal state, saw another human and another Pokémon before it. Its supercomputer brain immediately began analyzing.

When the warning blared again, the win probability was once again 0%, and the suggested solution was once again Explosion.

A blinding white light filled Rio and Cynthia’s vision.

"Wait—it’s serious?!" Cynthia shouted.

"Garchomp—run!" She started to flee—but barely took two steps before she was lifted off the ground. She looked at Mewtwo in surprise. Then—

BOOM—

Just as the explosion was about to hit Cynthia, the scene before her vanished and was replaced by a new one—a hundred meters in the air. Cynthia looked down at the mushroom cloud below, then at Mewtwo, Rio, and her Garchomp. Garchomp looked just as bewildered as she did—it hadn’t even had time to react before being forcibly Teleported.

"Mewtwo is a Psychic-type—it just used Teleport to get us out," Rio explained.

Cynthia’s mouth fell open. She said nothing, but her expression said everything—which gave Mewtwo a small sense of satisfaction. Protect had a chance of failing if used repeatedly, so it had switched to Teleport instead.

A minute later, after the dust settled, Mewtwo Teleported them back to Metagross.

"See? Now do you believe me?" Rio said, pointing at the Metagross with a grin.

"Then how are you going to catch it now? It wakes up and self-destructs—it’s already done it four times in a row," Cynthia asked, choosing not to answer his question directly.

And after that experience, she decided to give up on catching this Metagross herself.

"How else? I’m going to outlast it. To the very end," Rio said with a stubborn huff.

Just then, he noticed that Metagross’s Explosion proficiency had risen from 46% to 47%. He let out a bitter laugh. Are you serious—am I here to help you grind move proficiency?