Chapter 255: The Daughters: We’ve Been Waiting Forever!

Stage One—Escape from the Kitchen of Death.

Misty was the first to charge into the kitchen course.

The sensor overhead instantly flashed red.

A chef robot nearly three meters tall descended from the ceiling, its six mechanical arms separately wielding a ketchup spray gun, mustard bombs, a salad-dressing water cannon, and a mayonnaise shotgun.

"WARNING! WARNING! Unauthorized kitchen intruders must undergo the baptism of condiments!"

All six mechanical arms opened fire at once.

Streams of ketchup wove a dense red barrage through the air.

Misty lowered her body.

"Golden Gyarados, Dragon Dance! Dodge them!"

Golden Gyarados twisted its enormous body through the barrage.

Its tail swept out in a wide arc, knocking every mustard bomb behind it away—

Straight toward Cynthia, who had just entered the course.

Garchomp slammed on the brakes.

Cynthia’s expression didn’t change in the slightest.

"Dig."

Garchomp plunged headfirst into the floor, taking Cynthia underground with it as the two vanished beneath the kitchen tiles.

The next second—

They burst out of the ground directly beside the exit of the kitchen course.

They had skipped every single obstacle.

"Cynthia is the first contestant to clear Stage One! Garchomp’s Dig has done the job!"

Elesa, meanwhile, chose the simplest strategy possible.

She lay flat against Hydreigon’s back as it skimmed through the kitchen at the perfect ultra-low altitude.

"Hydreigon, keep this pace."

The instant she finished speaking—

An entire row of chef robots ahead simultaneously raised their nozzles.

Mayonnaise.

Mustard.

Barbecue sauce.

Condiments came spraying toward them from every direction.

Elesa narrowed her eyes.

Then, in the very next second, she honestly buried her face against Hydreigon’s back.

"No way around this. Just charge through."

Hydreigon beat its wings.

It precisely threaded its way through the condiment barrage.

Then—

BANG!

A chocolate-sauce cannonball came flying in.

It struck Hydreigon directly, temporarily blinding it.

Elesa, riding behind it, was completely drenched in chocolate sauce.

Diantha, on the other hand, maintained an elegant pace from beginning to end.

With the pink-haired Gardevoir maintaining a psychic barrier around her, every condiment attack was deflected half a meter before it could touch her body.

Not only was Diantha far ahead thanks to Teleport—

She even had enough spare time to fix her hair.

However—

A completely unexpected blast of chili oil suddenly struck Gardevoir directly in the face.

It had come from a hidden nozzle inside the wall.

There had been absolutely no chance to anticipate it.

Gardevoir was temporarily blinded as well.

Without the psychic barrier, Diantha was immediately bombarded from every direction by countless condiments.

She took a deep breath.

Then she pulled off her high heels, carried them in one hand... and started sprinting barefoot.

[VIP Chat Group]

[Skyla]: Master took off her high heels! She’s serious now!

[Brock]: Fun fact: A woman taking off her high heels is the equivalent of a warrior removing his training weights.

[Gary]: ...Why do you know that so well?

[Brock]: Naturally, through my meticulous observation! Every little thing an older beauty does, I always— (gets jabbed in the kidney) Numb... it’s numb...

Stage Two—Courtyard Golf Obstacle Course.

The track was incredibly narrow, barely wide enough for a single go-kart.

Towering hedge walls rose on both sides, while sharp turn after sharp turn filled the course.

The moment Cynthia charged into the courtyard—an extremely familiar introduction rang out from the sky.

"Prepare for trouble!"

"And make it double!"

"To protect the world from devastation—OW! The ball fell before we even finished the motto!"

A gigantic golf ball nearly three meters in diameter dropped from the sky—

Straight toward Cynthia.

Garchomp whipped around with Dragon Tail.

BOOM!

The giant golf ball was smashed away.

It spun wildly through the air before crashing into the scoreboard outside the course, causing the electronic display to explode into a string of garbled symbols.

Up in the hot-air balloon—

Jessie was holding a golf club and stomping her feet in frustration.

"Darn it! We messed up the very first shot! Meowth, aim properly next time!"

"Roger that, meow!"

Meowth adjusted the angle of the launcher.

Another gigantic golf ball screamed toward Elesa from behind.

Elesa was still lying on the back of a Hydreigon completely covered in chocolate sauce.

Hearing the sound cutting through the air behind her, she didn’t even bother raising her head.

"Hydreigon, Tri Attack."

Three beams of different colors fired simultaneously.

They struck the golf ball and blew it apart into a burst of multicolored fireworks.

The fragments hadn’t even reached the ground when a second ball came screaming toward her.

Somehow, James had dragged out another launcher.

Now they were firing from both barrels.

"Are you guys ever going to stop?!"

Elesa wiped the chocolate sauce from her face.

"Hydreigon, sweep them with Dragon Pulse!"

A wave of energy blasted forward in a wide fan.

Three giant golf balls exploded one after another in midair.

By the time the smoke cleared—Elesa had already passed the final turn of Stage Two.

Diantha followed close behind.

Her high heels had been abandoned back in the first stage.

She ran barefoot across the grass while the pink-haired Gardevoir maintained a transparent psychic shield ahead of her.

Jessie and James fired simultaneously.

Four giant golf balls came at her from two different directions.

Blue light suddenly blazed in Gardevoir’s eyes.

Every golf ball froze in midair.

Then—

They were hurled straight back the way they’d come.

One smashed through the balloon’s envelope.

The other three reduced the launchers to scrap metal.

"Looks like Team Rocket’s blasting off again!"

The Team Rocket trio clung to their rapidly deflating balloon as it sailed away into the distance.

Diantha elegantly lifted the hem of her dress and lightly jogged across the Stage Two finish line.

Misty was the last to enter the courtyard course.

She assumed the contestants ahead had already cleared out all the obstacles.

So she rode Golden Gyarados forward at full speed.

Then—

One stray giant golf ball suddenly dropped straight toward her head.

"You think an ambush like this can stop me?!"

Misty grabbed onto one of Golden Gyarados’s horns.

"Gyarados, Hyper Beam!"

A golden beam tore straight through the golf ball.

Fragments rained down from the sky.

Golden Gyarados roared.

Its tail slammed violently against the ground—

And its entire body launched into the air.

With one tremendous leap, it cleared the final three turns in a single bound.

Stage Three—Mother-Daughter Relay Sprint.

At the starting line, the four daughters had already been waiting for what felt like forever.

Cynthia was the first to reach the relay zone.

Tiana took a leap of faith straight onto Garchomp’s back, her movements quick and decisive.

"Mom, GO! Show them what Sinnoh speed looks like!"

"Stop talking. Watch what’s ahead."

Cynthia’s voice remained as calm as ever.

Elesa and Diantha entered one after the other.

When Miori saw her mother covered in sweat and chocolate sauce, she immediately burst out laughing.

"Mom, you look like you just crawled out of a chocolate hot pot."

Elesa grabbed her daughter’s hand and immediately started sprinting.

"We’ll talk about that later. Time to run!"

Diantha was considerably more composed when she reached Elaria.

Elaria obediently waited where she was.

The moment she saw Diantha running barefoot, she hurriedly took off her coat and held it out.

"Mommy, you’ll hurt your feet running barefoot. Wrap them in this."

"Good girl."

Diantha bent down and picked Elaria up.

"Hold on tight."

Gardevoir used psychic power to lift both of them from the ground—

Then propelled them forward.

Misty was the last to arrive.

After picking up Raina, Golden Gyarados repeatedly used Splash to leap forward.

Somehow—

Its speed was even faster than before.

It quickly caught up with the other three groups.

Tiana glanced over her shoulder at the three teams desperately chasing them.

Then she leaned close to Cynthia’s ear and whispered something.

The slightest change appeared on Cynthia’s expression.

Then she gently nodded.

Tiana held out her palm with an extremely serious expression.

"In the name of the Lord of Time and Space—"

"SPEED UP MY MOM!"

Golden light exploded from her palm.

Temporal power poured into Garchomp as though it cost absolutely nothing.

Garchomp’s speed instantly doubled.

Its entire body transformed into a dark-blue blur—

Carrying Cynthia and Tiana with it as they shot straight across the finish line.

...

TL: Yo that’s cheating