Pokemon: Criminal Life

Chapter 230: 230-Flight Plan

"That's a strong energy signature," Sieg said, watching Milotic settle beside the water's edge. "Level fifty at minimum. That's not a lightweight even by Elite-rank standards."

His own heaviest hitter, Crawdaunt, was sitting at forty-five. Milotic had it beat by a margin that was worth acknowledging.

Then Cynthia released the second one, and Sieg quietly revised which of the two he was more worried about.

Gastrodon was small, soft-looking, and considerably less impressive on the surface than a creature that radiated rainbow light just by existing. It blinked at him with the placid expression of something that had spent most of its life in shallow coastal water and was fine with that. He clocked its level at freshly Elite-rank, maybe just over the threshold.

Which would normally make it the less threatening of the two. Except he remembered the ability.

Water Absorb. Every Water-type move that hit Gastrodon went in, got converted, and came back out as boosted Special Attack instead of damage. His two main Water-types, Crawdaunt and Sharpedo, were also his two primary damage dealers. Against Gastrodon, both of them were functionally useless in their strongest element.

Lower level. More dangerous to his specific team. He filed that for the Grand Festival and moved on.

"West Sea variant, right?" he asked. The coloring was obvious enough, the red-brown and pink of the western variant rather than the green and blue of the eastern one.

Cynthia looked mildly surprised that he'd noticed. "Yes. Caught in the western part of Sinnoh, past Mt. Coronet." She settled into the explanation with genuine interest, the way she talked about most things related to Pokémon. "Coronet splits the region pretty cleanly, so Shellos and Gastrodon on either side developed differently over generations. Same species, totally separate appearances. The eastern ones are blue and green. The ones on the western side came out like this."

"Same Water-Ground typing as Swampert," Sieg said. "One weakness, and it's a big one."

"Grass, four times over." She didn't sound particularly concerned about it. "It's very manageable."

He released his own team.

Crawdaunt first, then Sharpedo, then the three fliers: Honchkrow, Pelipper, and Mantine. Cynthia ran her eyes across all five of them with the attentive look of someone building a reference file in real time, which was exactly what she was doing. This was the practical point of the introduction: knowing what your partner was working with before you needed to rely on them in a confined space with no time to ask.

"One thing worth saying before we go in," Sieg said. "I'm running a rain setup. Pelipper's got Drizzle, and I can layer Rain Dance on top of that. Which means if Garchomp's Sandstorm goes up at the wrong moment, we're going to have a weather collision."

Cynthia nodded immediately. "Garchomp won't open with Sandstorm unless there's a specific reason. Good to know."

"And your Gastrodon. If we run into Water-types inside, let it take the hits."

"That was already the plan."

They looked at the briefing material together for a few minutes, cross-referencing the partial floor plans against the survey data from prior expeditions. The core of Sea Mauville sat at the center of the structure, accessible either through the submerged outer deck or directly from above via the open sections that had corroded through over the years. The outer approach meant threading through the full length of a colonized building that stretched for kilometers of flooded corridor, clearing out whatever had moved in along the way. The direct aerial approach meant dropping straight into the core, skipping most of that, and dealing with whatever was concentrated in the most sheltered and resource-rich area of the structure.

"Aerial," they both said, more or less at the same time.

Sieg pulled off his outer jacket and stowed it in the dimensional ring, leaving just the short-sleeved expedition shirt underneath. Better mobility, and he was going to end up wet regardless of the approach.

"Outer deck approach would take two full days minimum," Cynthia said, tucking the Pokédex away. "Assuming nothing major blocked the route. Which it would."

"Something always does."

He recalled everyone except Honchkrow. Cynthia recalled Milotic and Gastrodon and released Garchomp, which hit the sand and stretched to its full height in a way that made clear it was pleased to be out. She stepped up onto its back in the practiced, careful way of someone who had made peace with the fact that Garchomp's scales were essentially armored plating and sitting down was not a comfortable option. Standing it was.

Sieg looked at Garchomp from close range for the first time since the Chansey.

The conditioning was just extraordinary. Every scale edge was exact, every joint and muscle transition handled in a way that suggested someone had put serious, consistent thought into optimization over a long period. It looked like something that had been built rather than grown, except the life behind the eyes made clear it was very much the other way around. He caught himself wanting to run a proper Breeder's check on it, get the full data, figure out what techniques Cynthia used, and whether any of them were things he hadn't considered.

He shelved that. Not the right time, not the right relationship yet.

Both of them lifted off from the beach in roughly the same moment, Honchkrow catching the sea wind smoothly and climbing without effort, Garchomp's wings working with the precise, powerful strokes of something engineered for exactly this. The southern beach dropped away below them, and the ocean opened up ahead, dark blue and wide, the broken silhouette of Sea Mauville visible a few hundred meters out.

"My Gastrodon's Water Absorb," Cynthia said as they flew. "If we come upon any Water-types, it goes in first. Don't waste Crawdaunt or Sharpedo on something it can just eat."

"Agreed. Pelipper and Mantine are useful for the weather setup. Crawdaunt is the main damage output once rain's up. Sharpedo is for anything that needs speed more than power."

"And Honchkrow?"

"Honchkrow handles whatever doesn't fit in the other categories."

Cynthia glanced over at him, sitting comfortably on Honchkrow's back with the sea wind going past him, and something crossed her expression that might have been mild envy if she'd let it settle into an expression.

Garchomp was exceptional. It was also not particularly designed for casual passenger comfort. She had the core muscles for it; she'd been riding it long enough to manage, but there was a specific kind of ease that came from having a mount that had Flying-type energy running through it and had been raised from early on to carry people.

She looked at Honchkrow again.

She looked at Togekiss in her mind.

When we get back, she thought, I'm doubling your meal portions until you're big enough to carry me properly.

Ahead of them, Sea Mauville was getting closer, the tilted deck and the rusted superstructure resolving into detail as they crossed the water. Something moved in the shadow below the surface near the outer wall, visible for a moment and then not.

"They know we're coming," Sieg said.

"Good," Cynthia said. "I'd rather they're paying attention than surprised."