Chapter 17

One hour later, Ace, Phillip, and Phoebe were still sitting in the lobby of the Pokémon Center. They had submitted their non-legendary Pokémon for healing. Some were able to be healed right up in the healing unit and were back to perfect health within ten minutes. Others, like Draco, needed more extensive care and had to be admitted.

None, however, were in as bad of shape as the yellow and black-striped Pokémon.

The three champions had silently agreed that they would wait until they were at Professor Rowan’s laboratory before they healed up their legendaries that battled Regigigas. They didn’t want to draw even more attention at the Pokémon Center.

The crowd outside had mostly dissipated, and there were sirens in the distance signifying emergency services cleaning up the surface damage done to the surrounding areas of the Snowpoint Temple resulting from their battle with Regigigas.

Ace’s face was in his hand, Phillip just sat leaning all the way back with a blank expression on his face, and Phoebe’s face was leaning on her right palm with her eyes closed. A Chansey had come over to them earlier and used Heal Pulse to help patch up their cuts, scrapes, and bruises.

Heal pulse had healed them physically, but emotionally, they were all still very rattled and on edge.

The front doors suddenly slid open. Candice and two Snowpoint City police officers walked in with serious expressions on their faces. Ace, Phillip and Phoebe stood up sensing that this wasn’t a social call.

“You three need to come with me,” Candice said sternly. “The council needs to know what exactly happened down there in the temple.”

Ace frowned. “I need to stay here and make sure—”

“This isn’t a request, Ace,” Candice said, cutting him off. “Considering the collateral damage out there, the council demands to know what exactly you did after I allowed you access to the lowest floor. You’re lucky no one was hurt, otherwise you’d be in handcuffs.”

Ace, Phillip, and Phoebe looked at each other.

“I don’t want to leave it,” Ace said, referring to the yellow and black-striped Pokémon still in the trauma room.

“Ace, we need to tell them what happened,” Phoebe said softly.

“But—” Ace started.

“Ace, we’re going,” Phillip said firmly, cutting him off. “That Pokémon is in the best of hands now, and I’m not about to bail you out of jail.”

Ace let out a deep exhale. “Alright.”

“Good. Now come with us to City Hall,” Candice said, turning towards the door.

The three champions followed with the two police officers right behind them.

The police van rumbled deeper into Snowpoint, its tires crunching on frost-slicked asphalt. Streetlamps washed the snow-covered sidewalks in pale light, pedestrians moving in quiet clusters, their scarves pulled tight against the cold. The interior city looked calm, almost untouched by the chaos beneath the temple.

Ace sat pressed against the backseat window, eyes scanning the sidewalks. Phillip sat beside him looking straight ahead, while Phoebe rested her head lightly against the frosted glass, silent. Candice rode ahead of them in the middle row, her scarf pulled high, staring out the windshield.

For a moment, Ace almost let himself breathe. No cracks in the roads. No sign of falling ice. The storm had passed.

Then suddenly, POP!POP!

The van jolted violently as both rear tires blew. Metal shrieked, rubber shredded, and the whole vehicle spun sideways, fishtailing across the ice-slick street.

“Hold on!” the driver barked.

The van slammed into a light pole with bone-rattling force. Glass spider-webbed across the windshield. Phoebe yelped, clutching her face. Phillip slammed against the seat in front of him with a grunt, clutching his chest.

For a beat, there was only the ringing in their ears.

The two officers scrambled out, guns drawn. “Tires are shot! Snipers!” one shouted.

The words barely left his mouth before two suppressed cracks split the night. Both officers jerked, blood blooming across their uniforms, and collapsed onto the snow.

Candice screamed. “Oh my god!” Her voice cracked. She was a gym leader, a battler, but she didn’t deal with real guns and killers. She wasn’t used to bullets or ambushes ... but Ace was.

Ace’s instincts snapped into place, memories of raiding the Team Rocket hideout, Team Aqua base, and the Team Galactic building instantly flooding his brain. He vaulted over the middle row, yanking the sliding door open.

“Ace, what are you doing?!” Candice shrieked.

“Finding my target,” he growled in a low and lethal voice.

He rolled into the snow, his ears straining and his eyes scanning rooftops. There, he saw a faint but unmistakable glint on a roofline two blocks down. A sniper scope. Ace could hear the fallen officers groaning and barely conscious as their bullet wounds bled from their chests.

He dove for one of the fallen officers grabbing his pistol on the ground near him just as two bullets sparked off the pavement near his feet.

“They’ve got sightlines. They’re boxing us in,” he called to the others still in the van.

Then came the crunch of boots in snow from the opposite alley. At least half a dozen shapes moved, shadows resolving into figures.

“Get down!” Ace hissed, motioning sharply toward the van.

Phoebe, Phillip, and Candice ducked low, crouching on the floorboards as bullets cracked overhead. A confident and cruel voice rang out from the alley.

“Listen up! We’ve been tracking your movements since the quakes in Hoenn. We know you’ve got the Regigigas. Come out nice and quietly. Hand it over, and maybe nobody else has to get hurt!”

“Bullshit,” Ace muttered, pressing his back against the van, pistol tight in his hand.

The voice called again, louder this time. “You’re surrounded! We got snipers on the rooftops, and we’ve got the street. You got twenty seconds before we use our Pokémon to flush you out!”

Inside the van, Candice’s hands trembled as she fumbled with a Poké Ball. Ace leaned in through the shattered window, his tone clipped, urgent.

“Psst! Candice. You still got that Froslass on you?”

Candice answered softly, her voice trembling. “Y-Yeah, but why—?”