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"ROOOAR!"
The howl of a powerful engine rolled through the air.
On the distant horizon, a massive black truck was racing toward Kael's location at a speed completely at odds with its enormous size.
Its huge body was covered in a matte black alloy that swallowed light, like some legendary meteoric iron fallen from the heavens.
At a glance alone, one could feel the sheer defensive power contained within it.
Below, eight giant reinforced wheels bore the truck's immense weight, carving two deep tracks through the wet, muddy ground.
It was like a roaring beast of black steel charging forward, unstoppable, its crushing presence spreading wider and wider as it drew near, until the very air seemed too heavy to breathe.
In the enormous rear compartment, large enough to hold an entire small Onix, sat a twelve-person Trainer squad.
Aside from the rows of red-and-white Poké Balls hanging visibly from their belts, every one of them was fully equipped, stern-faced, and battle-ready.
If not for the words Blue Crystal printed across their heavy jackets, it would not have been hard to mistake them for the armed unit of some distant little country.
The most noticeable among them was the broad, bald man seated at the very front of the squad.
Sosuke was one of the armed Trainers employed by Blue Crystal Marine Park to maintain order among the Pokémon within the grounds.
As a League-registered Trainer who had already reached the doorstep of elite level, he had naturally become the captain of this squad.
But in truth, Sosuke did not care much about the title.
Nor was he especially invested in the job itself.
Born into a family of professional Trainers, he had spent more than twenty years chasing the highest seat a Trainer could attain.
But because his natural talent had never been exceptional, he had remained trapped in an awkward middle ground even now, already well into middle age.
And once a man reached that age, life's burdens came in waves, like weeds tangling around his legs and keeping him from taking another step forward.
Family. Children. Parents. Work.
The growing weight of responsibility had settled onto his shoulders and slowly worn away the drive and fire he once had in his youth, even taking all his hair with it.
In the end, to ease the financial pressure on his household, he had compromised.
He accepted this job at Blue Crystal, a position that consumed enormous amounts of time and offered almost no room for advancement, but came with generous pay.
Sosuke frowned, his eyes locked on the tablet in his hands as he replayed the incident footage captured by the park's surveillance system over and over.
There had been cases before of Pokémon attacking touring cars in the park.
But nothing remotely this severe.
The park vehicles were built with a defense strong enough that even fully mature Pokémon would struggle to break them open.
And yet this one had been overturned and smashed apart with ease.
If that Sobble had not suddenly stopped attacking, then before his team arrived, the staff member and tourist trapped inside might well have been torn apart by its strength.
Fortunately, the special monitoring equipment inside the vehicle was still sending back stable life signs.
At worst, the people inside had suffered light injuries.
Their lives were not in danger.
"Haa..."
Sosuke let out a quiet breath.
At least nothing truly catastrophic had happened.
If anyone had actually died from a Pokémon attack, then as captain of the rescue team, he would have faced serious punishment as well.
As for that Sobble.
Sosuke stared at the blue figure sitting quietly in the grass on the tablet screen, his face stern and heavy.
SKREEECH.
Before he could think any further, the shriek of tires tearing against the ground sounded sharply outside, yanking him back to reality.
Realizing they had arrived, Sosuke shot to his feet and barked at the team in front of him.
"Out."
"Stay alert."
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Orderly, rapid footsteps filled the truck as the team members gripped their Poké Balls and rushed out in two lines, splitting left and right.
Click. Click. Click.
Bursts of red light flared across the grass as Poké Balls snapped open.
The moment the Trainers leapt from the truck, they released their partner Pokémon to ensure their own safety.
Murkrow, cold and silent, radiated a dark, ominous air.
Camerupt, hot-tempered and fierce, exhales waves of scorching heat.
Seviper, low and coiled, its fangs glinting with deadly purple venom.
One after another, Pokémon of every type and shape appeared across the open grass.
Some were huge.
Some were small.
Their elements differed, their forms varied.
But they all shared one thing in common.
The unmistakable confidence that came only from being carefully trained by experienced Trainers, something completely different from the feel of a wild Pokémon.
Clearly, the Trainers had already communicated with their partners on the way here.
The instant those powerful Pokémon emerged from their Poké Balls and landed on the grass, every one of them locked onto the only target on the field.
The small Sobble.
Sosuke focused on directing his team as they pulled Aaron and Hannah from the wrecked touring car.
At first, he gave no obvious special attention to the Sobble at all.
Because he believed that with the overwhelming strength of the dozen or so Pokémon in his team, there was absolutely no creature anywhere in the marine park that could survive even one combined strike from them.
Escape was out of the question.
In fact, the pressure unconsciously released by so many battle-hardened Pokémon alone was enough to make any ordinary Pokémon in the park tremble and lose all will to fight.
This Sobble may have possessed strength far beyond others of its level, but compared to the Pokémon his team had raised and trained so carefully, it was still nowhere close.
At least, that was what Sosuke believed.
Until he turned his head and looked at the field for himself.
There, in the open grass.
Pokémon of every shape and type, each one radiating a powerful aura, had gathered together in a tight formation, all of them facing the same direction as if confronting some terrifying monster.
And in stark contrast to that.
Sobble.
Small.
Still.
Sitting calmly atop the shallows, completely composed despite being surrounded by dozens of Pokémon far stronger than itself.
The contrast was so intense that it left the whole scene almost absurd.
"Gulp..."
In the silence hanging over the field, someone, one of the Trainers, perhaps, swallowed hard.
And the sound was suddenly loud enough for everyone to hear.
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~Support with 200 PowerStones = 1 Bonus Chapter
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For early access to advanced chapters on P-atreon:
P-atreon/iamxeno
(Just remove the - hyphen to access normally)
Thank you so much for your support and for reading!