There were more of them than David had expected. Their voices were low and deliberate, but his Aura carried their words to him as clearly as if they had been speaking right beside him.
"Boss, what's the higher-up thinking? Why go to all this trouble just to break in here? That Moltres feather we picked up is priceless, sure — but is it really worth this kind of risk?"
David's jaw tightened. So the disruption to the fishing competition had been their doing. And from the sound of it, they already had the God of Fire's feather.
It seemed he hadn't been the only one to land somewhere useful.
"Monkey's right, Boss," a rougher voice agreed. "A Moltres feather isn't worth poking the Cloudspire Alliance. They'll have this whole area under lockdown by now. High-ranking Alliance trainers stationed at every exit. Even if we get what we came for, we'd be walking straight into a trap on the way out."
A pause, then the leader's voice — quieter, harder, with a note of barely concealed impatience.
"You're all thinking too small. This isn't an ordinary Moltres feather."
"…Not ordinary?"
"Legend has it that Lugia, the Sea God, has three divine servants who help it regulate the world's climate — the God of Fire, the God of Ice, and the God of Thunder. What we just obtained is the God of Fire's own feather. The three assistant gods are considered the mightiest among all Legendary Bird Pokémon. Still think it's not worth it?"
No one answered.
"As for the Cloudspire Alliance — I've brought every Elite-level Pokémon from our branch. And Sea Pillar is already on his way to support us. All we need to do is hold out a little longer. This is a coastal region. Once we reach the outer sea, they can't touch us. At worst, the local branch lies low for a few years."
A low laugh from somewhere in the group. "And by then, with the credit from this operation, we'll be back at headquarters. Whatever happens to the branch after that — not our problem."
David listened in silence, committing everything to memory. This was clearly not an improvised operation. The leader's familiarity with the temple layout, the pre-positioned resources, the mention of a support figure already en route — it had all been planned well in advance.
He also noted that the leader had held something back. The Feather of Moltres and its counterparts were extraordinary, but legendary resources at the level of three secondary divine Pokémon alone would not normally justify antagonizing the Cloudspire Alliance — widely regarded as the most formidable of the four major alliances when it came to official power. There was something else here. Something the leader had chosen not to share with the others.
The remnants of the Sea God's own power, even as a rumor, were enough to make desperate people take desperate risks.
✦ ✦ ✦
Sea Pillar.
The name surfaced in David's mind as he turned it over. If he was right, Sea Pillar was one of the Ten Pillars of Supremacy — the highest-ranking members of the Supreme Organization, each of them at least Elite-level. It was a structure not unlike the Apocalypse Society's Seven Apostles.
That explained it. Ordinary criminal outfits wouldn't have the nerve — or the firepower — to operate openly in Cloudspire Alliance territory. Only the Supreme Organization would be bold enough to try.
David let out a slow breath and glanced down at the Poké Ball clipped to his side. It was the one his father had given him — Dragapult. School hadn't started yet, so he hadn't returned it. He hadn't expected to need it this soon.
He ran through the situation carefully. Belon City's Gym Leader, who ran the Azure Wave Gym, was a renowned Coordinator and a veteran Elite-level Trainer. The local Alliance garrison would almost certainly include one or two quasi-Elite Trainers as well. For a criminal group to move openly here, they had to be strong. And the leader had confirmed it — Elite-level Pokémon from their branch, and a member of the Ten Pillars incoming.
His own team had come a long way since the semester began. Zorua, Kirlia, and the others could handle ordinary Professional-rank opponents without much difficulty. But Professional-rank and Gym-level were separated by more than just numbers. A Gym-level Pokémon had completed the first full transformation of its internal energy — a threshold that put it in an entirely different class. David had seen it firsthand during the incident on the train near Cloud City: a Gym-level Pyroar, barely provoked, had been seconds away from causing mass casualties. Only Dragapult's presence had made negotiation possible at all.
If it came to a fight here, the weight of it would fall on Dragapult.
The temptation to have Dragapult launch a surprise attack and end things quickly was real. But then the group stepped through the entrance, and David's system quietly returned a result on the Pokémon walking point at the front of their formation.
Obstagoon. Dark and Normal type. Level 61. Purple aptitude.
Elite-level. That settled it.
What a shame, David thought, and let the idea go.
✦ ✦ ✦
The group entered the Thunder God's Hall — seven or eight of them in total, with the man in black at their head. The two who had been asking questions walked just behind him, and the rest fanned out at the rear. A handful of Pokémon moved at the front and back of the column, scouting ahead and covering their retreat.
None of them looked at David.
The entire group passed him by without so much as a glance, moving straight toward the inner sanctuary.
David waited until the last of them had gone through, then exhaled quietly and reached down to scratch Zorua gently behind the ears.
"Good work," he murmured.
Zorua's Illusion had held perfectly — whatever the group had seen standing against that wall, it hadn't been David and his Pokémon.
From deep within the inner sanctuary, a beat later, came the sound of furious cursing, followed by something heavy being smashed.