Deep within Team Aqua Base, alarms blared through the command center.
"Boss, we’ve got intruders at the main gate," Izumi reported, pointing urgently to the monitor.
Archie looked up at the screen, his eyes narrowing. A Garchomp effortlessly slashed through the reinforced Oreburgh gate with its razor-sharp claws, metal giving way like butter on a hot day. Behind it followed a trainer moving with determined purpose.
Wherever they advanced, members of the Aqua organization fell like bowling pins, completely outmatched and overwhelmed.
"Is that him?" Archie immediately recognized the intruder. John. The man who had defeated Maxie.
The surveillance feed suddenly exploded into static. A Gardevoir trailing behind John had sensed the surveillance and destroyed the camera with a precisely aimed Psychic attack.
"Sir, I’ll stop him! You should evacuate!" Izumi jumped to her feet, already reaching for her Pokeballs.
"No need," Archie replied calmly, taking another sip of his coffee. "Every historic moment deserves a witness. Besides, talents like his should be given a chance." He glanced sideways at a group of scientists frantically calibrating the Dive device.
They still had some time. "I’ll meet him myself."
Garchomp’s attack tore through the Oreburgh gates with the ease of a hot knife through ice cream. Its claws left jagged gashes in the metal as it created an opening large enough for John to follow.
"Keep moving!" John commanded, following close behind with a treasure detector in hand.
The solid steel bar on the device pointed unwavering in one direction, indicating it had locked onto a legendary Pokemon item. John knew exactly what he was tracking within the Aqua Base, it could only be the Master Ball.
After racing down a long corridor, they hit a dead end, a solid wall blocking further progress.
"Dig!" John ordered without hesitation.
The treasure detector’s only drawback was its one-track mind, it simply pointed directly toward the target regardless of what stood in the way. This meant John had to forge straight ahead through whatever barriers emerged.
Gates? Slash through them. Walls? Tear right through.
Any mechanisms, obstacles, or pathways that would require careful navigation in a game could be simply demolished in reality with enough raw power.
John felt a surge of satisfaction, understanding how Lance must have felt sending his Dragonite crashing through walls. With enough strength, building codes became mere suggestions.
Garchomp reached forward with powerful claws and ripped an enormous hole in the wall, revealing a research laboratory beyond. As dust and debris settled, a frightened voice cried out.
"I-intruders! We’ve been breached!"
"Gardevoir, Hypnosis!" John snapped his fingers.
The Gardevoir that had been shadowing him protectively immediately teleported into the lab. A series of thuds followed as bodies hit the floor, sounding like someone dropping a sack of potatoes.
When John stepped through the opening, he found a brightly lit laboratory with more than a dozen researchers sprawled unconsciously across the floor, all taking an unscheduled nap courtesy of Gardevoir’s psychic influence.
Following the treasure detector’s guidance, John quickly located his prize, a distinctive Pokeball. The lower half gleamed white while the upper portion was a rich purple, with insect-like compound eyes in purple-red adorning the sides. A bold letter "M" marked its center.
Without question, it was the Master Ball.
John snatched it up and slipped it into his bag before checking its attributes on his Gameboy.
[Master Ball: A specialized Pokeball capable of catching any wild Pokemon with 100% success rate.]
Seeing this simple yet powerful description, John couldn’t help but take a deep breath. Was this setting up the Kyogre versus Groudon confrontation that traditionally followed raids on the Aqua and Magma bases?
"Just wait," he muttered. "If I get the chance to enter that storyline, you’ll all be carrying my name soon enough."
After calming himself, John checked his mission objectives. He’d been so focused on obtaining the Master Ball that he’d neglected to review the actual mission parameters.
[Mission Objective: Defeat Archie, Leader of Team Aqua]
[Secondary Objective: Defeat all Aqua members (32 targets remaining)]
[Time Remaining: 93:12:37 of 120:00:00]
"Defeat all Team Aqua members... ninety minutes should be enough time." He frowned, looking back at the path of destruction they’d carved. "But I’ve been cutting straight through walls like a demolition crew with anger management issues. I’ve probably missed most of the Aqua grunts along the way."
This complicated matters. "I’ll need to backtrack to the entrance and sweep through properly."
Then John remembered a technique he’d learned from Zachary , a senior Pokemon investigator, a way to use Psychic as a reconnaissance tool.
"Gardevoir, Mega Evolution!" John raised his arm, revealing the Z-Power bracelet on his wrist.
Multicolored light flashed as Gardevoir transformed into its Mega form, power radiating from its elegant silhouette.
"Gardevoir, PsychicReconnaissance!"
"Gardevoir~" Mega Gardevoir clasped its hands before its chest as purple psychic energy illuminated its body. It rose gently into the air, and an invisible wave of energy pulsed outward, spreading in all directions.
Confusion, Psychic, and mental power were essentially three names for the same energy, each highlighting different aspects of this versatile power. Confusion manipulated objects, mental power interfered with consciousness, and Psychic represented the broad spectrum of this ability’s effects.
Compared to elemental types like Water, Fire, or Grass, Psychic moves offered the greatest versatility. Teleport, Future Sight, Power Split, the applications seemed endless.
Reconnaissance was another application within the Psychic spectrum. By reducing the intensity of Confusion while maximizing its range, a Psychic Pokemon could perceive all objects within its influence.
The stronger the Pokemon, the greater the range of this psychic scanning. By triggering Mega Evolution, John had amplified Gardevoir’s special attack power to extend her Psychic to its absolute limit.
In previous tests, John had discovered that Mega Gardevoir could scan a radius of up to 10,000 meters, more than enough to map the entire Aqua Base in seconds.
"Gar-devoir!" Mega Gardevoir descended gently, the scan complete. In mere moments, it had mapped the entire facility’s layout and identified the locations of every Aqua member within.
"Perfect," John smiled. "Take me to the nearest Aqua grunt. We’ll clear out the minions first, then deal with Archie himself!"