In the afternoon sun, everyone sprawled on their beach chairs, a little drowsy.
"How are they still not here? Your calculation isn't off, is it?" Jace Rowan asked Auron Vale, sounding listless.
Auron took a calm sip of cola. "If it's off, it's off. What, you get an itch if no one's clobbering you?"
Jace choked on that, but didn't get mad. He shot back, "Then our reward's going to fly away, isn't it?"
Auron flicked him a glance, then turned away and ignored him. What kind of weird questions are these? Am I supposed to ring up Team Splash and ask them to come over so I can net them all and trade them in for prizes?
"Boom!!"
A sudden, violent blast rolled in from the city, snapping the sleepy mood to pieces.
"What was that?"
"You're asking me? How would I know?"
Tim Wynn sighed at Jace, then turned toward the direction of the explosion.
Auron looked too. Smoke was coiling up from inside the city, and his expression tightened. "Coincidence? At a time like this… let's hope it's not what I'm thinking."
"Get ready. Team Splash might be on their way."
He raised his voice to warn the others.
Whether or not they caused the explosion, if Team Splash was anywhere nearby, they wouldn't pass up a chance like this.
Everyone fixed their attention on the sea. They waited a long time—until the sparks in the city died and the smoke thinned—but no sign of Team Splash broke the surface.
Serena Elm studied Auron's focused profile and asked in a small voice, "Could it have just been an accident?"
Auron didn't relax his guard, but he nodded to go along. "Mm. It was probably just an accident."
He knew more than Jace and the others. Last night he had spoken not only with the police on the phone, but also with the Elite Four member who had come to support them.
That Elite Four had told him Team Splash had an undercover on Longguo's side. If Team Splash planned an operation targeting Longguo, the inside man would send word.
And just before noon, that Elite Four messaged Auron: Team Splash did indeed have an operation today—and it was inside Longguo's borders.
That was why Auron had gone on high alert the instant he heard the blast. He feared it was a decoy to draw police manpower away, so Team Splash could throw everything at Auron's group.
He was still turning it over when his phone went off, its sudden ring making everyone jumpy at once.
Under a barrage of glares, Auron put on a pained smile and answered.
"Hello? Captain Li, what's wrong?"
"Auron, there's been a traffic pileup on the road. We're stuck. Be careful—I suspect Team Splash set this up. Whatever you do, be careful. The mission isn't important. Your safety comes first, do you hear me?"
Captain Li's strained voice crackled through the speaker—but Auron no longer had the bandwidth to answer.
The seas, which had been calm enough, suddenly heaved—great walls of water reared and came thundering down toward them.
Fortunately, after receiving the insider's tip, the police had already quietly evacuated the civilians near Auron's group.
"Gengar, Lucario—Ice Beam!"
Auron threw Lucario's Poké Ball; at the same time, Gengar sprang out of Auron's shadow.
Both Pokémon snapped off Ice Beam at the onrushing surge. A wide section of water froze solid—but the next swell plowed into it, shoving the ice-laden wave onward to smash into the sand.
"Empoleon, Ice Beam!"
"Golurk, Icy Wind!"
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"Decidueye, Light Screen!"
"Ampharos, Light Screen!"
The heartbeat of delay Gengar and Lucario bought with Ice Beam was all Jace's side needed to react and move.
Three Pokémon piled on with Ice Beam, stacking ice across the wave, while Golurk flung out Icy Wind to drag the temperature down faster.
Decidueye and Ampharos planted themselves in front of the team and raised Light Screen, trying to soak some of the impact.
"Milotic, Cloyster—Ice Beam!"
"Mismagius, Ice Beam!"
"Dragonair, Ice Beam!"
In short order, with a concerted push from all their Pokémon, the wave froze fast—just short of where Auron's group stood.
"Ampharos, Power Gem!"
Seeing the water locked up, Jace immediately had Ampharos shatter it.
Ampharos gathered energy and hurled a brownish bolt at the frozen surge. It punched a hole through—but didn't break the entire sheet.
Even so, the hole was enough. Through it, they could see beyond, where heads were popping up from the water—Team Splash operatives surfacing behind the ice.
Jace took one look and instantly sent out Torkoal. The weather flipped to Sunny Day.
"Shiftry—Solar Blade!"
Shiftry raised its right hand, drawing down sunlight. A brilliant column of light fell from its palm. The effect was immediate: the ice split in a great, ragged mouth.
But Team Splash had already noticed the weather shift. They reacted fast, ordering their Pokémon to use Rain Dance.
The sky turned to steady rain.
Torkoal was just one tortoise; there was no way it could stand up to that many Pokémon altering the weather at once.
It didn't matter now. All of them locked eyes as the water under the ice came into view, then spoke in unison:
"Hit the surface—Thunderbolt!"
Every Pokémon that knew Thunderbolt fired into the sea. The charge raced through the water instantly, snapping into Team Splash's swimmers beneath and those bobbing at the surface.
In a blink, Pokémon floated up everywhere, eyes spiraling—and with them, scores of Team Splash grunts, bodies charred black.
And yet the Team Splash operatives on the surface barely twitched, as if the current hadn't touched them. The Water-type mounts beneath their feet were rolling spirals, but the handlers were fine.
Jace squinted and shouted, aghast, "Those scumbags are wearing insulated boots!"
Everyone's stomach lurched. The two plans Auron had floated last night were now in pieces: the Sunny Day plan was a wash, and the "water conducts electricity" plan hadn't landed as hoped.
Auron's face darkened. "No helping it. We'll have to slug it out. Let's pray we can hold until backup."
He spoke, then immediately snapped, "Gengar—Thunder!"
Insulated boots or not, nobody had lightning rods on their heads. Under rain, Thunder lands true—one strike, one down.
Thunder was single-target, though. Against a sea packed with Team Splash, it wouldn't thin the herd fast. Even so—at a time like this, one less foe is one less problem.
Farther out, two figures faced off—one standing on a Dragalge, one astride a Gyarados.
"You've grown bold, Team Splash—stirring up that kind of chaos inside Longguo's borders. You're not afraid we'll come knocking?" the one on Dragalge said.
"Elite Four Yue, you misunderstand," the one on Gyarados replied. "That was just a gas canister truck exploding in transit. How could an accident like that have anything to do with Team Splash? We're very law-abiding here in Longguo."
Elite Four Yue let out a short laugh atop Dragalge. "Heh. You know the truth better than anyone."
(End of this chapter)