"Haunter!!"
The Haunter of a thousand years let out a mournful wail of unwillingness as its body was torn to shreds by dozens of Absol that swarmed it!
A millennium of existence was destroyed in an instant.
It wasn't that it didn't cherish its talent; after all, in the wild, to survive, one had to become stronger by any means necessary.
The fact that it had lived for a thousand years was a testament to its ability.
It was a pity it ultimately failed to advance to the Elite Four Level Level, but dying at the hands of an Elite Four Level Pokémon allowed it to witness the Elite Four Level's power.
Even without using any city-destroying moves, it was defeated by the terrifying strength inherent to an Elite Four Level.
No matter how unwilling it was, a loss was a loss.
Bang, bang…
Puffs of smoke rose as the Absol's Double Team vanished, leaving only its true form proudly waving its claws, shaking off the residual Ghost-type energy.
It walked up to Matt, nudged its head against its Poké Ball, and was recalled.
As for Matt, he glanced at the area where twisted black mist still lingered and smiled helplessly.
There was nothing he could do; this was Madame Boss's Pokémon, and an Elite Four Level at that. Even if he had ten times the courage, he wouldn't dare to complain.
Although they hadn't captured the Haunter of a thousand years, there were no longer any Pokémon on the island that could threaten Team Rocket.
However, Matt sighed as he looked at the messy safe zone behind him and the numerous corpses.
The casualties this time were still quite high.
Thankfully, they had eliminated the Haunter of a thousand years before it could use Dream Eater, otherwise the casualties would have been even more severe.
Matt instructed the two overly startled Chiefs, "What are you two still doing standing there? Hurry up and clean up the mess!"
They finally came to their senses, responded, and quickly ran off.
Matt frowned as he looked at the still churning, wailing black mist, and waved to the Charizard above, "Charizard, Flamethrower…"
Just as Matt was about to command Charizard to burn the black mist, Giovanni, who had been staring at the mist, suddenly spoke:
"Wait, don't rush."
Matt didn't know what Giovanni was planning, but he could only wave to Charizard, who was ready to use Flamethrower, telling it to hold off for now.
Charizard flapped its wings and flew up again, but it watched the black mist below along with Pidgeot, just in case.
Matt asked Giovanni in confusion:
"Did you find something? Oh, right, you just fed your Haunter to that Haunter of a thousand years. What are you planning to do?"
Giovanni smiled and explained to Matt why he had done that.
"It's just a small experiment. I once witnessed the birth of Ghost-type Pokémon under my Haunter's Hypnosis."
"Based on the characteristics of Ghost-type Pokémon, with such a large number of souls, some Ghost-type Pokémon are bound to be born. If we use the energy of a Quasi-Elite Four Level as a foundation, I wonder if a special Pokémon can be born."
After hearing this, Matt felt that Giovanni's approach was clearly unreliable, and he had a different opinion.
"Aren't you afraid of failure? These souls are unstable. Even if a Ghost-type Pokémon is born, it could be a ticking time bomb."
Giovanni didn't care about any of that. "That's why I fed my Haunter to it, to increase the possibilities."
Then he spoke indifferently, without a trace of pity, "It doesn't matter if it fails; it's just an experiment."
This indeed matched Giovanni's personality. Since he wanted to do it, Matt let him. But this kid, it turned out he had been calculating all this from the very beginning.
However, Matt was a bit puzzled as to how Giovanni knew that the Haunter of a thousand years was fake, considering even Absol had been fooled.
If Giovanni didn't say, he couldn't ask.
Matt looked at the focused Giovanni and casually said, "I'll have Pidgeot and Charizard watch over you. I'll go deal with the aftermath first."
Giovanni replied without looking back, "Understood, thank you for your hard work."
Matt wasn't offended and turned to leave.
At this moment, the Beedrill and the others had also returned. They didn't disturb Giovanni, but also curiously watched the constantly struggling and deforming black mist.
Time quietly passed.
Meanwhile, due to the death of the Haunter of a thousand years, and with Matt sending the survivors to notify them, the team members sleeping soundly in their tents had all woken up.
The aftermath was thoroughly handled. Although over a dozen team members, two Chiefs, and dozens of Pokémon had died or been injured, the incident was finally resolved.
As they were tidying up, they also noticed the strange scene around Giovanni, not understanding what he was doing.
However, that wailing black mist was indeed quite frightening; they certainly didn't dare to approach it.
It was now almost sunrise. If it didn't succeed soon, the black mist and the souls within it would likely all dissipate.
But at this moment, the black mist, apart from being slightly smaller, showed no other changes.
Even Giovanni himself was frowning, "Is it not working?"
If he hadn't sensed a lingering energy inside with his Power of Viridian, Giovanni would have long since ordered the Charizard and others watching nearby to destroy the black mist.
After a while longer, a ray of sunlight shone from afar, just grazing the black mist, and a shrill scream erupted from the frantically struggling black mist.
White smoke billowed from it, as if it were being consumed by flames!
The black mist was gradually shrinking, and no miracle seemed to be occurring.
Giovanni watched the weakening energy inside, rose expressionlessly, took the Poké Ball that had previously contained Haunter in his hand, looked at the button that had lost its light, and casually said:
"Let's go. It seems to have failed."
The Beedrill and the others immediately returned to Giovanni's side.
As for Charizard and Pidgeot, seeing that Giovanni was fine, they flapped their wings and flew towards Matt.
Matt saw them return and noticed Giovanni's lack of joy, shaking his head helplessly, "Did it really fail?"
Thump!
Suddenly, Giovanni's foot stopped in place. At the same time, within that last wisp of black mist, a pair of small eyes snapped open.
"Gastly…"
Upon sensing the scorching sunlight, it tried to flee in terror.
Giovanni, however, suddenly turned around and spoke, "Persian."
Persian's body instantly vanished from its spot, reappearing behind the Gastly that had just been born from the black mist.
A shadow enveloped the tiny Gastly, blocking the sunlight it hated, but it felt a chill from its very soul.
It tried to escape, but a large mouth easily Bit it, leaving it nowhere to hide.
Then a tall figure appeared before it, watching it with extremely cold eyes.
"This should count as, the son paying for the father's debt."
Slap!
A Poké Ball landed on it, and red light flashed! Ding!
Gastly
Ghost-type and Poison-type
Female
Aptitude: Blue
Ability: Levitate (Pokémon with this ability are immune to Ground-type moves)
Level: 1
Height: 0.90 m
Weight: 0.15 kg
Moves: Confuse Ray, Lick, Double Team, Payback
Egg Moves: Astonish, Smog