“Put it down, Hibiki!” Kenta commanded angrily, almost in tears from disappointment. “That thing’s no good!” Turning to face Professor Krane, who was still trapped in the room, Kenta glowered at him as rage flared up in his chest. “You cheating bastard,” he spat furiously, marching the frightened scientist into a corner while shining the flashlight directly in his eyes. “Are you proud of your little decoy? Did you think I wouldn’t notice?” Teeth gritted together, his vision a haze of red, Kenta reached out and grabbed Krane by the knot of his tie. He pulled the terrified older man up close to his face, until the two of them were almost breathing down each others’ nostrils. Kenta’s face was livid with wrath. “Well, I’ll bet you didn’t think this part through,” he grated through his teeth, shaking Krane by the neck. “Now you tell me where the real Snag Machine is. I must save Bakuphoon. Tell me, you worm, or I’ll punish you-”
“Megahorn!”
Snorlax, who’d been blocking the door, was suddenly pitched across the room like a giant stuffed doll. Bolt reacted instantly, pulling Hibiki out of harm’s way, and Snorlax landed on Krane’s desk and crushed it with a great smashing noise. All eyes turned to the cleared doorway, where three guards and a Heracross stood in attack poses. The stag beetle pokémon, unbelievably, had taken Snorlax under its horn and flung him like a catapult with its strength. Now Snorlax lay fallen, defeated, and Hibiki raised his Heavy Ball to recall him with a shocked expression. Kenta clenched his fist.
No! We will NOT be defeated here!
“Bolt!” he commanded, pointing at the Heracross, “Aerial Ace, go!” Instantaneously, the Salamence lifted off and hurled into Heracross with wings spinning like a propeller blade. The enemy pokémon was sent hurling backwards into the laboratory’s exterior glass wall, where it shattered through and dropped out of sight in a rain of shards. One of the guards turned and dashed away to attend to his fallen pokémon, while the other two raised their own pokeballs to attack Bolt. Out flew a Gardevoir and a Rhydon, and before their feet had touched the floor, Kenta gave his next command.
“Earthquake!”
At once, Bolt shot up at the ceiling with one clap of his wings. With another enormous flap motion, he dive-bombed between the guards’ two pokémon and smashed the ground on all fours, sending a devastating tremor through the laboratory. Every glass item in sight shattered with a deafening noise, and everyone covered their heads as a lethal rain of shards sprinkled down from above. Gardevoir and Rhydon lay motionless on the ground, their nerves shot from the relentless rattling. Kenta hurried up to Bolt’s side and patted the Salamence’s cheek, a fierce smile on his face. “Amazing work as always, my friend.” He looked around. “Now, is anyone else going to get in the way, or can we leave without causing further damage?”
“Hey!”
Kenta turned around; Hibiki was waving insistently at him while holding Professor Krane by the shoulder. The professor himself lay semi-conscious on the floor, groaning softly as he lay with his head on Hibiki’s knee. “Should we take this guy?” asked Hibiki hurriedly, looking fearfully at Kenta. “He’ll know where the real Snag Machine is. He can still helpful to us!”
For just a moment, Kenta was all for the idea. But something stopped him from scooping up the professor and commanding Bolt to fly for all he was worth, a powerful guilt that overcame even the intensity of the situation at hand. Indeed, Krane would’ve been useful, but there was something more important to be considered. Consistency: Kenta had to be consistent with his beliefs. All was for naught if he fell short here.
“No.” Kenta beckoned Hibiki away from Krane, to himself, his shoulders slumped. “We can’t do it. We can’t kidnap him.”
“What? But . . . but why not?”
Kenta looked at the ground, feeling the weight of defeat pressing the energy out of him. “Because if we stole him, he’d be right about us. And we’re not thieves. Isn’t it bad enough that we’re liars?”
“Wha-?” Hibiki stared at him. “Kenta, what are you saying? It’s okay to borrow their Snag Machine, but not their professor?”
“It was never okay to ‘borrow’ their Snag Machine,” said Kenta bitterly. “Both of us knew that from the start. And look what it’s caused. There has to be a better way.”
“Yes, look what it’s caused,” came a new voice from out of nowhere. “Glaceon, Ice Beam attack, now!” Suddenly, immediately, a chilling ray of frost struck Bolt in the chest just below his neck, and worked its way rapidly down the rest of his scaly body. The Salamence gave a high-pitched roar of surprise and agonizing pain, which faded into nothing as the freeze stiffened his throat.
“BOLT!” cried Kenta in alarm, running up to his enormous winged pokémon as it collapsed to the ground. “No! Bolt, hold on!”
“You. Miserable. Fraud.” The redheaded young man from earlier, Maikeru, strode up to the fallen trainer and pokémon with a look of irked composure on his face. A sky-blue Eevee evolution trotted at his side with an icy mist surrounding its body: a Glaceon. Maikeru stood over Kenta from three feet away, with one hand on his hip and the other under his chin as he looked down in displeasure. “So, you weren’t an officer at all,” he said in disgust. “And you thought you’d attack my home and my mentor, in hopes of stealing the gift that keeps on giving to all pokémon thieves. Well, you got what was coming to you.”
Maikeru’s eyes flicked to Bolt’s unmoving form. “I regret doing that to this dragon, though. Such a fine-looking pokémon he is. If you’d just given him up to G.R.I.P. like a good person, he wouldn’t have had to endure my Glaceon’s Ice Beam.” His eyes narrowed. “Indeed, he didn’t deserve it. You should’ve taken the blow. Or perhaps your little partner there, who took advantage of poor Kaoru’s kindness. Tsk, but I’m wasting my words. All outlaws know the difference between good and evil in their hearts, but they choose to be evil anyway.”
“We’re not evil!” protested Hibiki, meeting Maikeru eye-to-eye. “We didn’t want this! All we wished to do was-”
“Don’t.” Maikeru put out his hand, indicating Hibiki to stop. “Don’t feed me that. I’ve faced more criminals than you have hairs on your head, boy. You have a Master Ball. You have illegal uber pokémon. And you have about seven billion yen’s worth of damages against you. You are beyond my sympathy.”
“There’s no point in talking to him,” said Kenta, getting up slowly with a morbid smile on his face. “He’s convinced of himself in his mind. I’ll tell you what; I’ve never heard anyone more right, and yet wrong.”
“Oh, am I right, but wrong?” asked Maikeru half-interestedly, as he and Hibiki watched Kenta recall Bolt into the Friend Ball. “Do tell me what you mean, before the guards take you away to court.”
Kenta met his eyes, still bearing the same smile. “No.”
“No?”
Hibiki straightened up as Kenta’s eyes flicked back to him. “There’s something I’ve been meaning to show you for a while,” he called to his brother, holding up the Master Ball for him to see. “But I’ve somehow always managed to avoid it until now. You might’ve been wondering where I get my boldness from; the certainty I won’t be hurt by wild pokémon, or defeated by trainers around my level. Last but not least, you’ll now see why electrical assaults don’t work against me. After this, your confidence will be renewed, and you’ll have the strength to fight another day.”
Maikeru raised an eyebrow, staring at Kenta’s Master Ball. “What in the hell are you talking abou-?” he said, then stopped short at the sight of his opponent’s posture. Kenta had his arm back and knees bent, and before Maikeru could say another word, he threw the Master Ball high into the air. For a moment, it whirled gracefully in an upward ascent, then it exploded open. All at once, the atmosphere was filled with blinding light, and the air crackled with the sound of electrical power. Maikeru stared up at the wonder above his head, jaw hanging, unable to pull his eyes away.
“Impossible . . . how can it be? How could you have-?”
Hibiki gazed up at the winged beacon of golden light, lost for words, able only to repeat Maikeru’s words in his mind. Impossible . . . impossible . . . impossible . . .
Above everyone’s heads, bathed like an angel in golden light, hovered the legendary bird of thunder and lightning, Zapdos.
“You never stood a chance against us, from the very moment you first laid eyes on us,” Kenta boomed, making sure his voice was heard above the pressure-filled environment. He advanced on Maikeru, as blindingly bright forks of mini-lightning shot down from Zapdos’s body above and illuminated the left side of his face. From the legendary bird’s wing beats, gusts of powerful wind whipped all through the insides of the lab, making reality to anyone present that the place was experiencing an internal thunderstorm.
“Yes,” Kenta continued, hair whipping in his incensed face, “at any time, we could have summoned this calamity to destroy you. Even now, what is stopping me from giving the order, and taking away everything you have? Nothing but the feeling of already knowing what it’s like.”
“Glaceon, Ice Beam!” shouted Maikeru, and almost before he’d completed the command, a freezing blue ray shot from his pokémon’s mouth. But Zapdos seemed to have seen it coming and whirled out of harm’s way; it had used Detect. The next instant, a bolt of lightning flashed down through the hole in the ceiling and lit Glaceon up like a torch. An explosive thunderclap resounded, rattling the very walls of the place with the force of its noise. Everyone, even Kenta, had to squeeze their eyes shut and push their hands over their ears from the intensity of the attack, and when they’d looked up, there was Glaceon twitching on the floor, its nervous system fried.
Alright, that’s enough chat . . . time to escape.
Kenta beckoned Hibiki to his side, glaring down at the fallen pokémon as he did so. Maikeru stared at his ice pokémon in horror and disbelief, and only looked up when the colossal Zapdos landed in front of him. Kenta leaped up onto the legendary bird’s back and pulled Hibiki up with his arm, then glanced back one more time at Maikeru. He was surprised to see that the latter wasn’t looking at him, but had become distracted by a movement in the background. The elevator at the rear of the lobby had opened, and a blue-haired girl about eleven years old charged out with a concerned face.
“Big brother! What’s happening? What is that?”
“No, Jovi!” shouted Maikeru, looking severely alarmed. “Get back! It’s not safe!”
“Is that your sister?” asked Hibiki, clinging to Kenta’s waist from his seat on Zapdos’s rear. As the great golden bird lifted off, he cupped a hand to his mouth and shouted a departing message as loud as he could.
“Don’t worry her like that! You were never in any danger!”
Then they were gone, streaking towards a dark, cloudy sky that had been clear minutes ago.
“Megahorn!”
Snorlax, who’d been blocking the door, was suddenly pitched across the room like a giant stuffed doll. Bolt reacted instantly, pulling Hibiki out of harm’s way, and Snorlax landed on Krane’s desk and crushed it with a great smashing noise. All eyes turned to the cleared doorway, where three guards and a Heracross stood in attack poses. The stag beetle pokémon, unbelievably, had taken Snorlax under its horn and flung him like a catapult with its strength. Now Snorlax lay fallen, defeated, and Hibiki raised his Heavy Ball to recall him with a shocked expression. Kenta clenched his fist.
No! We will NOT be defeated here!
“Bolt!” he commanded, pointing at the Heracross, “Aerial Ace, go!” Instantaneously, the Salamence lifted off and hurled into Heracross with wings spinning like a propeller blade. The enemy pokémon was sent hurling backwards into the laboratory’s exterior glass wall, where it shattered through and dropped out of sight in a rain of shards. One of the guards turned and dashed away to attend to his fallen pokémon, while the other two raised their own pokeballs to attack Bolt. Out flew a Gardevoir and a Rhydon, and before their feet had touched the floor, Kenta gave his next command.
“Earthquake!”
At once, Bolt shot up at the ceiling with one clap of his wings. With another enormous flap motion, he dive-bombed between the guards’ two pokémon and smashed the ground on all fours, sending a devastating tremor through the laboratory. Every glass item in sight shattered with a deafening noise, and everyone covered their heads as a lethal rain of shards sprinkled down from above. Gardevoir and Rhydon lay motionless on the ground, their nerves shot from the relentless rattling. Kenta hurried up to Bolt’s side and patted the Salamence’s cheek, a fierce smile on his face. “Amazing work as always, my friend.” He looked around. “Now, is anyone else going to get in the way, or can we leave without causing further damage?”
“Hey!”
Kenta turned around; Hibiki was waving insistently at him while holding Professor Krane by the shoulder. The professor himself lay semi-conscious on the floor, groaning softly as he lay with his head on Hibiki’s knee. “Should we take this guy?” asked Hibiki hurriedly, looking fearfully at Kenta. “He’ll know where the real Snag Machine is. He can still helpful to us!”
For just a moment, Kenta was all for the idea. But something stopped him from scooping up the professor and commanding Bolt to fly for all he was worth, a powerful guilt that overcame even the intensity of the situation at hand. Indeed, Krane would’ve been useful, but there was something more important to be considered. Consistency: Kenta had to be consistent with his beliefs. All was for naught if he fell short here.
“No.” Kenta beckoned Hibiki away from Krane, to himself, his shoulders slumped. “We can’t do it. We can’t kidnap him.”
“What? But . . . but why not?”
Kenta looked at the ground, feeling the weight of defeat pressing the energy out of him. “Because if we stole him, he’d be right about us. And we’re not thieves. Isn’t it bad enough that we’re liars?”
“Wha-?” Hibiki stared at him. “Kenta, what are you saying? It’s okay to borrow their Snag Machine, but not their professor?”
“It was never okay to ‘borrow’ their Snag Machine,” said Kenta bitterly. “Both of us knew that from the start. And look what it’s caused. There has to be a better way.”
“Yes, look what it’s caused,” came a new voice from out of nowhere. “Glaceon, Ice Beam attack, now!” Suddenly, immediately, a chilling ray of frost struck Bolt in the chest just below his neck, and worked its way rapidly down the rest of his scaly body. The Salamence gave a high-pitched roar of surprise and agonizing pain, which faded into nothing as the freeze stiffened his throat.
“BOLT!” cried Kenta in alarm, running up to his enormous winged pokémon as it collapsed to the ground. “No! Bolt, hold on!”
“You. Miserable. Fraud.” The redheaded young man from earlier, Maikeru, strode up to the fallen trainer and pokémon with a look of irked composure on his face. A sky-blue Eevee evolution trotted at his side with an icy mist surrounding its body: a Glaceon. Maikeru stood over Kenta from three feet away, with one hand on his hip and the other under his chin as he looked down in displeasure. “So, you weren’t an officer at all,” he said in disgust. “And you thought you’d attack my home and my mentor, in hopes of stealing the gift that keeps on giving to all pokémon thieves. Well, you got what was coming to you.”
Maikeru’s eyes flicked to Bolt’s unmoving form. “I regret doing that to this dragon, though. Such a fine-looking pokémon he is. If you’d just given him up to G.R.I.P. like a good person, he wouldn’t have had to endure my Glaceon’s Ice Beam.” His eyes narrowed. “Indeed, he didn’t deserve it. You should’ve taken the blow. Or perhaps your little partner there, who took advantage of poor Kaoru’s kindness. Tsk, but I’m wasting my words. All outlaws know the difference between good and evil in their hearts, but they choose to be evil anyway.”
“We’re not evil!” protested Hibiki, meeting Maikeru eye-to-eye. “We didn’t want this! All we wished to do was-”
“Don’t.” Maikeru put out his hand, indicating Hibiki to stop. “Don’t feed me that. I’ve faced more criminals than you have hairs on your head, boy. You have a Master Ball. You have illegal uber pokémon. And you have about seven billion yen’s worth of damages against you. You are beyond my sympathy.”
“There’s no point in talking to him,” said Kenta, getting up slowly with a morbid smile on his face. “He’s convinced of himself in his mind. I’ll tell you what; I’ve never heard anyone more right, and yet wrong.”
“Oh, am I right, but wrong?” asked Maikeru half-interestedly, as he and Hibiki watched Kenta recall Bolt into the Friend Ball. “Do tell me what you mean, before the guards take you away to court.”
Kenta met his eyes, still bearing the same smile. “No.”
“No?”
Hibiki straightened up as Kenta’s eyes flicked back to him. “There’s something I’ve been meaning to show you for a while,” he called to his brother, holding up the Master Ball for him to see. “But I’ve somehow always managed to avoid it until now. You might’ve been wondering where I get my boldness from; the certainty I won’t be hurt by wild pokémon, or defeated by trainers around my level. Last but not least, you’ll now see why electrical assaults don’t work against me. After this, your confidence will be renewed, and you’ll have the strength to fight another day.”
Maikeru raised an eyebrow, staring at Kenta’s Master Ball. “What in the hell are you talking abou-?” he said, then stopped short at the sight of his opponent’s posture. Kenta had his arm back and knees bent, and before Maikeru could say another word, he threw the Master Ball high into the air. For a moment, it whirled gracefully in an upward ascent, then it exploded open. All at once, the atmosphere was filled with blinding light, and the air crackled with the sound of electrical power. Maikeru stared up at the wonder above his head, jaw hanging, unable to pull his eyes away.
“Impossible . . . how can it be? How could you have-?”
Hibiki gazed up at the winged beacon of golden light, lost for words, able only to repeat Maikeru’s words in his mind. Impossible . . . impossible . . . impossible . . .
Above everyone’s heads, bathed like an angel in golden light, hovered the legendary bird of thunder and lightning, Zapdos.
“You never stood a chance against us, from the very moment you first laid eyes on us,” Kenta boomed, making sure his voice was heard above the pressure-filled environment. He advanced on Maikeru, as blindingly bright forks of mini-lightning shot down from Zapdos’s body above and illuminated the left side of his face. From the legendary bird’s wing beats, gusts of powerful wind whipped all through the insides of the lab, making reality to anyone present that the place was experiencing an internal thunderstorm.
“Yes,” Kenta continued, hair whipping in his incensed face, “at any time, we could have summoned this calamity to destroy you. Even now, what is stopping me from giving the order, and taking away everything you have? Nothing but the feeling of already knowing what it’s like.”
“Glaceon, Ice Beam!” shouted Maikeru, and almost before he’d completed the command, a freezing blue ray shot from his pokémon’s mouth. But Zapdos seemed to have seen it coming and whirled out of harm’s way; it had used Detect. The next instant, a bolt of lightning flashed down through the hole in the ceiling and lit Glaceon up like a torch. An explosive thunderclap resounded, rattling the very walls of the place with the force of its noise. Everyone, even Kenta, had to squeeze their eyes shut and push their hands over their ears from the intensity of the attack, and when they’d looked up, there was Glaceon twitching on the floor, its nervous system fried.
Alright, that’s enough chat . . . time to escape.
Kenta beckoned Hibiki to his side, glaring down at the fallen pokémon as he did so. Maikeru stared at his ice pokémon in horror and disbelief, and only looked up when the colossal Zapdos landed in front of him. Kenta leaped up onto the legendary bird’s back and pulled Hibiki up with his arm, then glanced back one more time at Maikeru. He was surprised to see that the latter wasn’t looking at him, but had become distracted by a movement in the background. The elevator at the rear of the lobby had opened, and a blue-haired girl about eleven years old charged out with a concerned face.
“Big brother! What’s happening? What is that?”
“No, Jovi!” shouted Maikeru, looking severely alarmed. “Get back! It’s not safe!”
“Is that your sister?” asked Hibiki, clinging to Kenta’s waist from his seat on Zapdos’s rear. As the great golden bird lifted off, he cupped a hand to his mouth and shouted a departing message as loud as he could.
“Don’t worry her like that! You were never in any danger!”
Then they were gone, streaking towards a dark, cloudy sky that had been clear minutes ago.