Ever since the original operations of Team Rocket resumed in Kanto, the name "Hive" had spread across the globe. Naturally, Archie had also received the news.
Originally, he had expected that sooner or later he would form an alliance with Hive—but he hadn't anticipated that it would happen like this.
Now it was obvious: Team Aqua had been thoroughly infiltrated by Hive. In fact, even this submarine, himself included, was entirely composed of Hive members. His assimilation into the organization was already a done deal. Volkner had only asked for his opinion out of superficial respect.
Archie sighed inwardly and gave a nod.
"I agree to the merger of Team Aqua into Hive."
"Excellent," Lucius replied with a subtle nod.
At that very moment, a system message appeared before him:
[Mission Complete: 'Destroy or Replace Any One of the Following Organizations: Team Magma, Team Aqua, Team Galactic, or Team Flare.]
[Reward: Collective Will.]
"You originally founded Team Aqua to harness Kyogre's power and create a world of oceans," Lucius said flatly. "But now, the world faces a far greater threat. Lugia and Ho-Oh intend to purge human civilization. If they succeed, Team Aqua—and all humanity—will be reduced to ashes. Your vision of an oceanic utopia would disappear with it."
He sent Archie all available data on Lugia and Ho-Oh, then instructed him to resume command of the submarine.
Lucius knew someone as cunning as Archie would make the right decision. But if he couldn't prioritize correctly, Lucius wouldn't hesitate to discard him. After all, there were others capable of commanding the Hoenn division.
As the submarine advanced toward the abyssal sea, Lucius turned his attention to the newly unlocked reward.
Collective Will — a passive ability. Every infected host who genuinely embraced the Source would channel energy into the Emperor Strain. The more sincere the believers, the more power it gained.
Interesting.
Previously, he had been just a central brain—a controller of countless branches. But now, those branches could feed power back into him, strengthening the core.
It was like a nation: the more citizens it had producing and consuming, the greater the national output. Ideally, the more people there were, the more collective value they created, and the stronger the country became.
Hosts who sincerely embraced the virus were like diligent citizens, constantly creating value. Those who were infected but not loyal? They were like workers punching the clock—doing the bare minimum, offering little in return.
Damn… it's practically a loyalty gauge.
Lucius could now sense the energy output of every infected individual—who was contributing more, and who was falling behind.
For instance, among those near him now—Archie, Matt, and Shelly—Matt's energy output was slightly higher than the others, but not by much.
Surprisingly, the highest contributors weren't the leaders, but rather some of the lower-ranking Pokémon and individuals like Flora and Sham, indicating their unwavering devotion to Hive.
Lucius simply sat there, motionless, and could feel waves of energy converging toward him. Unexpectedly, even Anabel—a host not fully under his control—was providing more energy than most Champions or executives.
Heh. Who would've thought Anabel's attitude toward Hive had shifted this drastically during this time?
While this ability did reveal who was truly loyal, Lucius didn't particularly care about that—he could already sift through their memories if he wanted. What truly mattered was the energy now being centralized at the Source.
Thanks to the combined support of his infected hosts, he had grown nearly fifty percent stronger than before.
There really is strength in numbers... I'll need to infect even more hosts.
He glanced at his updated mission list:
New Mission: Infect a Mythical Pokémon — 0/1
A grin tugged at his lips.
Since the task still showed incomplete, it meant the infection had to be fully established to count.
Before leaving the Distortion World, Houndoom's ambush had allowed the virus to begin infecting Giratina. Now that a day and night had passed and there was still no sign of Giratina in this world, it meant the deity remained in the Distortion World and hadn't launched an attack yet.
But just because it hadn't attacked didn't mean it was still tangled with the defending Pokémon back there. The more likely scenario? It was watching—waiting—from the shadows, trying to locate Lucius.
The world is vast. And with the Emperor Strain suppressed, as long as I keep a low profile, it won't find me easily. The more time I buy, the deeper the infection runs.
By now, the submarine had reached the depths of the ocean. It was pitch black—sunlight couldn't penetrate this far. The crew relied solely on sonar and onboard lighting systems.
Eventually, they reached the base of an undersea mountain.
It was a colossal rock formation rising from the seafloor—so massive that even under full illumination, its true scale was hard to grasp.
"This ridge might be just as vast as Mount Silver…" Matt murmured, staring at the readings from the scanner.
"Activate the Infinity Energy Drill," Shelly ordered.
A deep, grinding roar filled the waters. The enormous mechanical drill began to spin rapidly, churning the seabed and creating powerful currents. Wild Pokémon, startled by the noise, fled the area in a flurry of motion.
Even inside the submarine, Lucius could hear the deafening screech of metal boring into rock.
Thanks to Lucius's interference, Team Aqua had acquired Submarine Explorer 1 a full year ahead of schedule. And unlike the original timeline, they hadn't modified it to resemble a Sharpedo. With the raw propulsion of Infinity Energy, they swiftly drilled a tunnel into the undersea mountain.
Looks like everything's going smoothly.
Lucius disembarked with Archie, Matt, Shelly, and several other Aqua members as they stepped into the newly opened sea cave.
The cavern lay within the mountain itself. Unlike the pitch-black ocean floor outside, the water and rocky walls here shimmered faintly with a mystic blue-golden hue.
The glow was unnatural—ominous—and awe-inspiring.
Glancing at Archie excited expression and the dazzling blue orb in his hand—its surface cut into countless facets, gleaming with the most brilliant light in the world—Lucius allowed himself a faint smile.
In the original canon (Pokémon Generations, Episode 8), Team Aqua arrived at this location a year later. Matt stayed on the coast to monitor the situation, while Archie led a team into the cavern.
At the climax of that tale, it was Shelly, using data from the Hoenn Weather Institute, who deduced the true magnitude of Kyogre's power. Realizing that Archie had no hope of controlling it, she rushed in to stop him from awakening the beast.
But here, because of Lucius's intervention, none of that transpired. Shelly and Matt both followed Archie into the depths of the cavern.
No one—except Lucius—understood just how terrifying Kyogre's power would be once awakened.
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