The woman—no, it should be Sird—one of the three current executives of Team Rocket, looked at Ace and Zinnia with some surprise. They knew her name and were deliberately targeting her.
It seemed that a peaceful resolution was out of the question today.
Just as Sird was thinking this, Aerodactyl and Salamence opened their mouths simultaneously. Two beams of purplish-black Hyper Beam instantly shot out, blasting toward Sird and her Starmie in mid-air!
"Flee!"
Sensing the sheer destructive power contained within the two Hyper Beams, Sird instantly realized she was no match for them. Therefore, the only option left to her, besides death, was to escape.
As the Hyper Beams approached, Starmie's core glowed. In a flash, Starmie used Camouflage to conceal both itself and Sird. The two Hyper Beams passed through Sird's original position, but they had already vanished without a trace.
"Trying to run? Gardevoir!"
Gardevoir instantly spread its arms. Invisible psychic power rapidly diffused outwards, extremely accurately capturing the life signature of the fleeing pair.
"Psychic!"
In the next moment, a powerful psychic force restrained Starmie and Sird. Simultaneously, a crushing force began to grind against Sird's body.
"Crack!"
With a sharp sound, Sird broke out in a cold sweat of pain. She could clearly feel one of her ribs snap!
"I can't escape like this; they have a Pokémon that can track my presence." Sird painfully looked towards Gardevoir. She knew that if she didn't deal with Gardevoir, she would never be able to escape this place!
Thinking quickly, the Starmie beneath her erupted with a psychic burst of its own. While protecting Sird, it also gave her some room to maneuver.
A Poké Ball dropped. A Banette shot out. From within its body, a black shadow rapidly surged out, charging straight at Gardevoir.
But just as the black shadow was about to reach Gardevoir, a massive figure suddenly blocked the way.
The black shadow merged into the Tao Dragon , but the Tao Dragon snorted coldly. The black shadow of the curse was instantly repelled from its body, slowly dissipating in the air.
"Damn..."
Sird's pupils contracted sharply. Before she could react, the Tao Dragon unleashed its Extreme Cold Thunder Flame (Kyurem's ice/Zekrom's electricity fusion attack). In an instant, the flames completely swallowed Sird and her Pokémon.
"Boom!"
The Extreme Cold Thunder Flame struck the sea. Accompanied by a roar, a column of water shot into the sky. The violent explosion caused the entire sea area to shake intensely, stirring up a considerable tidal wave.
"Is she dealt with?" Zinnia frowned, witnessing the terrifying destructive power. She felt uneasy, wondering if it had been too easy.
"No, she escaped." Ace shook his head, then looked at Gardevoir.
Gardevoir also shook its head at Ace. The Tao Dragon' attack had interfered with its psychic power, and the original lock-on had been broken.
"Continue the search. She cannot be allowed to return alive." Ace threw out two Poké Balls. Lapras and Blastoise immediately plunged into the water, swimming rapidly towards the explosion point to search for Sird's trace.
Gardevoir instantly used Teleport to appear at the site of the explosion, its psychic power spreading out once more, searching for any life signature in the vicinity.
Ace and Zinnia landed on the Tao Dragon. Aerodactyl and Salamence shot into the sky. Being the fastest, they acted as aerial scouts, ready to immediately eliminate Sird if she appeared in the air.
A net of inevitability was cast. It was safe to say that if Sird showed her face, she would face a situation with virtually no chance of survival.
Sird was well aware of this, which is why, cornered as she was, she chose to risk everything for a final chance at life!
Deep beneath the sea, a massive block of ice encapsulated Sird and her Pokémon. Simultaneously, Starmie's Camouflage disguised the entire block of ice as a deep-sea reef. Without careful inspection, one would never notice this ordinary-looking rock.
Furthermore, because she was frozen, Sird's life signature was infinitely close to zero. Even if Gardevoir's psychic power swept over the area, it would register it as nothing more than a real reef, ignoring the presence within.
If this was all there was to it, Sird would likely have escaped this time.
However, Ace had sent out Lapras, the Pokémon most sensitive to ice.
As Lapras and Blastoise approached the vicinity of the area, the icy bloodline within Lapras instantly sensed something was wrong. Following its instinct, Lapras guided Blastoise to the ice block disguised by Camouflage.
Blastoise swam forward, wrapped its arms around the ice block, and, with a strong pull, uprooted the disguised ice block.
Holding the ice block, Blastoise and Lapras exchanged a look and nodded. The two Pokémon then swam toward the surface.
Soon, the two Pokémon breached the sea surface. Having lost the protection of Camouflage, the ice block revealed its true appearance.
Inside the frozen block of ice, Sird's face was filled with terror. Starmie and Banette were positioned as if trying to resist, but all three were completely encased in the ice.
"End her."
The Tao Dragon flew over with Ace and the others. Ace spoke flatly; he would absolutely leave no survivors this time!
Lapras let out a low cry. Within the ice block floating on the sea, the ice, controlled by Lapras, generated numerous ice spikes that plunged directly into Sird and her two Pokémon.
Ace coldly watched Sird, who was now pierced all over by the ice spikes, his eyes showing no pity.
"Crack!"
But just then, the ice block began to shatter. Cracks appeared on its surface.
A flash of confusion crossed Ace's mind. But then, Ace saw the Banette inside the ice block. Its mouth, which was normally sealed shut by a zipper, now had the zipper completely pulled to the other end.
The opened mouth of Banette exposed a concentration of thick, twisted, and strange energy within.
"Retreat!!"
Ace roared. All the Pokémon immediately retreated, moving far away from the ice block containing Sird.
"BOOM!"
The ice block exploded from the inside. A vast amount of gloomy, strange energy instantly spread outwards, turning that small space into a deadly void.
In the moment the energy erupted, Ace keenly sensed that Sird and Starmie had vanished like a phantom.
"She's utterly ruthless."
Ace gritted his teeth. When the energy dissipated, the Tao Dragon flew back to the spot. Floating on the surface of the sea was the Banette, drifting gently with the waves, clearly without a life sign.
Ace looked at Gardevoir. Gardevoir quickly performed a search, then shook its head: "Master, I can't find them."
Ace's expression was grim. Clearly, he had been tricked by Sird.
She had used the life of her Banette as a distraction to buy herself time to escape.
With this delay, trying to find Sird again would be next to impossible.
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