With the high-tier elixirs and compressed berries providing a swift baseline replenishment, the Pokémon recovered their operational metrics at a spectacular velocity. However, by the time their data bars flashed green, Guinaifen's own cognitive fatigue hadn't fully cleared.
But time was a scarce resource on this grid. They had to strike before the five secondary dreadnoughts Yao Feng had requested crossed the regional border.
"We execute precisely according to the parameters," Guinaifen warned, checking the terminal links one last time. She looked directly into Sushang's eyes, then offered a swift, tight wink to Qing Lan. "Keep your spacing tight. If the defense grid overclocks past our calculations, abort the script and pull back immediately. We can always map a secondary breach."
Sushang caught the untelegraphed shift in Guinaifen's gaze, immediately parsing the underlying message: Keep the NPC intact. She returned a sharp, resolute nod that said, Leave the flank to me.
Within this hyper-realistic system, a player avatar's data-wipe simply meant a temporary offline penalty, but the mechanics governing a key narrative figure like the Maiden of Ecruteak were a total black box. If Qing Lan fainted within an active combat zone, it was highly probable the special storyline would fracture permanently, locking the entire galaxy out of the server-first Ho-Oh encounter.
As the first streamers on the galactic network to publicly trigger the mythic chain, they dared not risk a permanent failure.
The Alakazam Matrix
Using the ancient, overgrown pine roots as a visual shield, Guinaifen scrambled up a steep basalt ridge. From this high altitude, she held a clean, sweeping perspective of the entire corporate valley encampment, while remaining completely outside the standard detection radius of the perimeter drones.
She systematically initialized her team's setup macros, using a series of PP restoring potions to maximize their move-capacity pools. She also swapped her party's held items for specialized status-restoring berries, anchoring a passive, continuous healing loop into their active code.
"Vanguard deployment, go!" Guinaifen commanded mentally. "Dragonite Alpha, lock onto the left flank. Sushang's Dragonite, break right. Tyranitar, lead the ground cluster and shatter the center line!"
Having analyzed her previous command bottleneck during the orchard brawl, Guinaifen had engineered an ingenious optimization loop. In high-density environments where multiple assets operated across separate fronts, the physical limits of human speech created an artificial lag; no matter how rapidly a coordinator barked orders, the vocal translation would always remain a step behind the field's progression.
To bypass the latency, she established a direct, high-frequency mental link with Sushang's Alakazam, routing her tactical commands directly into the psychic's cognitive matrix.
The choice of Alakazam over a high-tier asset like Slowking was a calculated decision. While Slowking possessed an arguably grander, philosophical depth of intellect, Alakazam's brain functioned like a pure, localized supercomputer—capable of taking Guinaifen's compressed conceptual inputs, expanding them into precise battle logic, and projecting them into the minds of the frontline Pokémon instantaneously.
"Dragonite: Thunderbolt, Extreme Speed, Dragon Rush..." ➔ [Alakazam: "Speed!"]"Tyranitar: Stone Edge, Earthquake, Crunch, Payback..." ➔ [Alakazam: "Earthquake!"]"Lapras: Hydro Pump, Psybeam, Sheer Cold..." ➔ [Alakazam: "Cold!"]
Positioned on her mountain perch, Guinaifen surveyed the three active fronts like a master grandmaster. Her thoughts mapped the field with fluid perfection—flicking from a left-flank speed calculation to a right-flank elemental trade within a millisecond.
By utilizing Alakazam as a high-speed data router, she compressed her spoken commands into single words. "Speed" translated instantly into a maximum-velocity Extreme Speed parry on the left; "Earthquake" manifested as a localized tectonic rupture in the center.
The sudden, synchronized eruption of three high-tier assault groups caught the Cihuai Corporation completely off guard. Although their perimeter guards were on alert, their tactical models hadn't anticipated a single remnant force launching a multi-directional blitz.
"Chairman! The rogue trainers have re-engaged!" a frontline commander shouted into the executive network. "They're running a synchronized frontal breach across three independent sectors! Our defensive lines are buckling!"
Inside the flagship command deck, Yao Feng snapped his eyes toward the tactical display. "What did you say? A frontal breach?"
He wondered if his ears were malfunctioning. His garrison was large enough to occupy a mid-sized planetary hub, yet a handful of wild sandbox players dared to initiate a head-on, open-field trade?
"The data is absolute, Chairman! The enemy's command efficiency is completely off the charts; our squad leaders are being systematically dismantled before they can lock their targets! The frontline requests the immediate deployment of the overclocked emitter weapons to stabilize the sectors!"
"Where are the trainers' coordinates?" Yao Feng demanded, his fingers tightening on his armrest. "Did the drone snipers lock onto their physical profiles?"
"The trainers have mapped our visual fields perfectly, Chairman. They are managing the entire cluster from deep within the blind spots; we haven't logged a single human heat signature."
Yao Feng paused, a slow nod escaping him as he parsed the report. He assumed his tactical officers wouldn't stumble over a basic tracking sequence. "Deploy the primary emitter towers to reinforce the outer lines. Order all unassigned guard details to converge on the three breach points."
He intentionally maintained a small, specialized security contingent around the central airship hull to prevent a stealth insertion, but with the frontline reports indicating an absolute, high-level massacre across three sectors, he naturally calculated that all three champion-tier trainers were leading the charge on the perimeter.
In his view, raw human skill carried a strict numerical ceiling. If the high-tech emitter platforms could lock down the mythic sovereigns, they could easily grind down ordinary Pokémon through pure structural weight.
Following the movement of the heavy weapons, the vast majority of the corporate drone swarm drifted away from the center, leaving only a microscopic surveillance loop to guard the primary hull.
The Circuit Inversion
"Guinaifen's distraction has cleared the lanes! Move, move!"
Sushang and Qing Lan slipped out from the dense foliage, their profiles perfectly masked by the chaotic explosions rocking the perimeter. Directly ahead lay the main airfield basin—a wide, concrete-capped plaza patrolled by a sparse guard line.
"The silver compass is vibrating toward the interior of the grounded flagship," Qing Lan whispered, her eyes locked on the shattered rotor housing of the central transport. "We need to sever the internal power matrix to drop the surveillance web."
"Right," Sushang nodded, checking her belt. "But how do we inject an electrical surge without frying our own anchors?"
Guinaifen's technical instructions had been brief: use an Electric-type move to trigger a system-wide short-circuit. But she hadn't detailed the exact execution parameters.
Fortunately, while Qing Lan carried the air of an innocent maiden, her training in ancient mechanism-purification had left her exceptionally sharp. She pointed toward the raw, exposed fiber-optic bundles glistening inside the sheared rotor housing.
"The structural insulation was stripped away when your Tyranitar sheared the blades," Qing Lan analyzed rapidly. "If we inject a targeted surge directly into that core line, the feedback loop will cascade into the primary reactor. Espeon, coordinate... Teleport into Thunder Wave!"
FLASH.
With a seamless psychic jump, the two girls and their primary anchors materialized directly onto the steel roof of the command airship.
Xiao Fu's forehead gemstone flared with a sharp, lavender light, directing a continuous stream of electromagnetic Thunder Wave particles directly into the exposed circuit breach. But the flagship's industrial shielding was massive; the low-voltage status move simply dissipated against the copper wires without triggering a system trip.
"The baseline voltage is too low to crack their breakers," Sushang muttered, her eyes narrowing. "Slowking, step up! Channel your energy into a concentrated Thunder Punch! Focus entirely on the current infusion—ignore the physical impact!"
Under Sushang's direct command, the heavy psychic reptile stepped toward the housing, its fist crackling with a dense, crackling orb of yellow electricity. Slowking micro-managed the release, treating the move not as a kinetic strike, but as a high-density power injection.
ZAP-BOOM!
A spectacular cascade of blue sparks erupted from the rotor shaft. The electrical surge punched clean through the primary distribution blocks, triggering an instantaneous, catastrophic breaker failure across the ship's internal network. The heavy engine hum died instantly.
"System trip confirmed!" Sushang grinned.
Inside the pitch-black control room, Yao Feng's terminal screens abruptly died, plunging the entire command tier into absolute darkness.
BEEP—BEEP—
Within three seconds, the automated emergency batteries clicked over, flooding the consoles with a dim, crimson auxiliary illumination.
"Report! Why did our primary power grid flatline?" Yao Feng hissed, his voice echoing in the crimson dark. "Did the drones log a kinetic strike on our reactors?"
"Chairman... an uncataloged voltage spike back-fed from the damaged rotor housing, forcing a total safety shutdown of the main engines. The mechanics are running diagnostic overrides now."
"What about the sovereign containment locks?" Yao Feng's posture turned instantly rigid. If the suppressive voltage fields dropped, the three mythic entities would reduce his remaining garrison to ash within minutes.
"The emitter blocks operate on a completely isolated, independent energy cell, Chairman. Their data barriers remain at 100% integrity."
"Excellent," Yao Feng exhaled, sinking back into his command seat. He remained convinced that his tactical layout was flawless, choosing to maintain his position at the central terminal to coordinate the outer sectors. "Accelerate the engine restart. Maintain the drone search on the perimeter."
The Chamber of the Sovereigns
Leveraging the lingering confusion caused by the power failure, Qing Lan and Sushang utilized their Psychic assets to project a low-frequency Hypnosis field down the main corridors, quietly neutralizing the few remaining security officers before they could trigger an alert. Guided by the pulsing silver needle of the Volcanic Anchor, they breached the heavy sliding doors of the central cargo bay.
The sight that greeted them was agonizing.
The Three Legendary Beasts were locked within heavy, translucent containment cells, their internal metrics flashing a critical, exhausted gray. Suicune had entirely ceased her resistance, lying limp against the steel floor as her chest rose and fell in shallow, ragged gaps.
Entei and Raikou continued to throw their heavy shoulders against the energy fields, but every impact merely triggered a violent, violet kinetic backlash from the overclocked collars around their necks, forcing a low, mournful rumble from their throats.
Sensing fresh human boots entering the bay, Raikou's eyes flared with an instant, instinctual electricity, his massive fangs bared in a defensive snarl. But as his sensors tracked the familiar profiles of the two girls who had shielded him in the valley, the current receded, his heavy head lowering as a quiet, pleading silence settled over the chamber.
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