"Useless!" Ditto said coldly. It hadn't expected that the defective Three-Headed Bird would be so pathetic, unable to withstand even a single Double Cross Chop from Mega Beedrill.
After briefly adapting to Beedrill's pressure, Ditto transformed back into its human form again. However, its face looked somewhat exhausted. Clearly, mimicking the appearance of the gray-haired young man was also quite physically taxing for Ditto.
Seeing this, the blood-red Gyarados opened its massive maw and used Crunch toward Ditto!
Ditto trembled and quickly leaped up to dodge the attack, but its abdomen was struck by Gyarados's sideways Iron Tail. The powerful impact slammed Ditto into the wall, smashing a spiderweb-like crater into it.
In pain, Ditto couldn't help but spit out blood. Yet no one showed the slightest sympathy for this scene. Only the three Pokémon revealed expressions of satisfaction from their revenge.
Seeing Ditto in such a miserable state, Dodrio's once-dull eyes regained their brilliance with joy, and tears uncontrollably slid from the corners of its eyes. However, Red and the Pokémon had no intention of mocking Dodrio—only sympathy.
Seeing the chance for revenge, Dodrio excitedly used Drill Peck with all three of its heads at the same time. The three sharp, rotating beaks were like lethal spears as they suddenly appeared before Ditto.
(Damn it!)
Ditto rose in panic and immediately transformed into Golem, blocking Dodrio's attack. It then used Take Down, sending the Dodrio that was trying to kill it flying away. Fortunately, Red quickly used psychic power to protect it.
Ditto returned to human form again, retrieved a speaker from behind, and placed it at its throat.
"Didn't you notice I was stalling for time? You foolish brat!"
The progress bar on the display screen behind Ditto had already reached 99%. Clearly, the cloning experiment for Test Subject No. 0 was nearing completion, and the Three-Headed Sacred Bird was about to appear.
"I'm starting to doubt whether Professor Hemlock is really as impressive as people say. The Pokémon he raised are actually stupid to this extent," Red mocked. The Pokémon beside him revealed looks of anticipation, clearly having already noticed the existence of the Three-Headed Sacred Bird.
"We just wanted to destroy it right in front of you," Thousand-Year Gengar said leisurely.
"You arrogant fools! I'll definitely make you regret the decision you made today!"
Ditto roared hysterically. Then, under the watchful eyes of Red and the Pokémon, it slowly transformed into a puddle of liquid and flowed downward.
"Looks like this guy wants to merge with the cloned Three Sacred Birds," Red guessed, signaling his Pokémon to prepare for battle.
"Don't worry, boss. Our strength isn't that weak," Thousand-Year Gengar said confidently.
An ominous aura spread upward from below. The surrounding alarm sirens sounded like the apocalypse about to arrive, pounding against the hearts of Red and the Pokémon and putting them on high alert.
Suddenly, everything before them fell silent. Before even a moment passed, chaos erupted in front of Red. A grotesque creature suddenly appeared in the air above, controlling the sky with its enormous wings.
"I'm increasingly unable to understand human aesthetics..." Thousand-Year Gengar muttered as it looked at the Three-Headed Sacred Bird above.
The body of the Three-Headed Sacred Bird was extremely bizarre. The heads on the left and right were Articuno and Zapdos respectively, each extending its own wing. The head of Moltres in the center controlled the body, blazing with scorching flames along its back. In addition to the three tails unique to the Three Sacred Birds, it also had three grotesque legs below.
Compared to the previous failure of the Three-Headed Bird clone, the Three-Headed Sacred Bird appearing before Red now looked more like three normal Sacred Birds forcibly stitched together.
"That guy fused into the brain. Only the Moltres head in the middle has consciousness," Red said, pointing to the central Moltres head of the Three-Headed Sacred Bird. Only that head showed signs of observation, while the other two heads lacked any light in their eyes, merely empty shells being controlled.
'I'll go first!'
The blood-red Gyarados roared again, forcibly weakening the Three-Headed Sacred Bird's attack power. Immediately after, it used Hyper Beam, releasing a beam of light toward the Three-Headed Sacred Bird.
The Three-Headed Sacred Bird reacted instantly. Flames, lightning, and ice were released simultaneously, merging together to oppose the power of Hyper Beam. With the combined strength of the three techniques, it even suppressed the Hyper Beam.
'Let me handle it!' Beedrill said in a low voice. Its afterimage vanished from the spot as it instantly appeared behind the Three-Headed Sacred Bird and crossed its arms to use Cross Chop again.
However, this time the Three-Headed Sacred Bird was prepared. Flames ignited behind it, obstructing Beedrill's attack. Forced to change its plan, Beedrill could only use Pin Missile to wear down the Three-Headed Sacred Bird's stamina.
'Watch me knock you down!'
Charizard was covered in purple-gold dragon killing intent, transforming into a giant energy dragon that charged head-on toward the Three-Headed Sacred Bird. Fearing Charizard's strength, the Three-Headed Sacred Bird tried to dodge in advance, but Thousand-Year Gengar, hiding in the shadows, used Hypnosis to hold it in place!
A violent collision erupted with terrifying destruction. The Three-Headed Sacred Bird in the sky stiffened completely before crashing to the ground with a loud "bang."
"No way... that's it?" Thousand-Year Gengar boasted smugly. It floated over to the Three-Headed Sacred Bird and deliberately made a mocking ghost face.
(Damn it… If it weren't for you ganging up on me…)
Ditto inside the Three-Headed Sacred Bird thought angrily. If it were one-on-one, it might have been able to win using this cloned body. But it had run into Red's "absurd" team. They attacked without hesitation at all—nothing like the battle style a ten-year-old boy should have.
"Gyarados, you'll deliver the final blow," Red said.
The blood-red Gyarados pressed its massive tail onto the back of the Three-Headed Sacred Bird. Ignoring the flames burning against its body, it aimed at the Sacred Bird's head at close range and began gathering the energy for Hyper Beam!
(This is bad—I have to get out of here!)
Ditto looked at the forming Hyper Beam in terror and struggled frantically. However, Red had already used psychic power to restrain Ditto in place, allowing the blood-red Gyarados to take its revenge properly.
The dazzling beam poured into the body of the Three-Headed Sacred Bird. The genes that had just stabilized inside its body collapsed again under the power of Hyper Beam.
An explosion erupted before their eyes. The Three-Headed Sacred Bird in front of Red returned once more to a mass of bloody flesh, a sight that made people want to vomit.
Red frowned in disgust at the gradually rotting lump of flesh before him and signaled Charizard to quickly burn it to ashes so it wouldn't pollute his eyes.
At that moment, Hitmonchan, who had rushed over in a hurry, happened to bump into Abra, who had just Teleported in. The two Pokémon fell to the ground. Since they already disliked each other's behavior, they naturally started bickering and lightly fighting.
Fortunately, Hitmonchan reacted first and knocked lightly on Abra's forehead as a reminder that Red was waiting for their support.
In order to reach Red's location as quickly as possible, Abra brought Hitmonchan along using Teleport, moving back and forth through different rooms. Along the way they occasionally ran into Team Rocket members who had just awakened, but they couldn't withstand the cooperative attacks of Hitmonchan and Abra and were easily defeated by the two Pokémon.
Finally, Hitmonchan carried the completely exhausted Abra on its back and arrived at the laboratory that had just experienced the battle.