"This is the place, then.
Number One's storage point."
Elsewhere.
A man dressed entirely in red appeared on the screen.
With his glasses, he looked like a research scholar, carrying a somewhat refined air.
In stark contrast to him.
Was the bearded, heavily muscled man sitting before the screen.
"Hmph! You're still as sneaky as ever. What a waste."
The muscular man sneered. "You didn't even dare come here in person, Maxie!"
"I'm not an idiot like you, with a brain filled entirely with muscles, Water Rat."
Maxie on the screen immediately shot back at his old rival's mockery. "Never stand under a dangerous wall. That is my principle."
"So that's your excuse for sending your subordinates while hiding alone in the shadows?"
Archie's face was full of ridicule. "I really don't know how someone like you gets people to work desperately for you."
As the leaders of Hoenn Region's two major dark organizations.
Maxie and Archie differed enormously in every respect, not just appearance but personality as well.
It was as if this also proved the clash between their differing goals and beliefs.
Over the course of their long conflict.
Conversations like this had happened more than once.
Naturally.
Team Magma and Team Aqua were sworn enemies most of the time.
But faced with the immense pressure from the League, these two perceptive leaders would cooperate when necessary.
They both understood clearly that victory or defeat between themselves could not truly decide or bring about anything.
Only when the battle between the two legendary Pokémon came to an end could it be determined whether the world would become entirely land or be covered by seawater.
Before that.
In order to awaken the god slumbering in an unknown region, they did not mind facing the League together.
Of course.
During