Chapter 6

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 10 minutes. Others needed more extensive care and had to be admitted. None were in as bad of shape as the yellow and black-striped Pokémon.

The three trainers 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.

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. The council needs to know what exactly happened down there in the temple.”

“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 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 door with a grunt, clutching his shoulder.

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 not used to this. Not bullets. Not ambushes..., but Ace was.

Ace’s instincts snapped into place. He vaulted over the middle row, yanking the sliding door open.

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

“Finding my target,” he growled. His voice was low, lethal.

He rolled into the snow, ears straining, eyes scanning rooftops. There, a glint, faint but unmistakable, on a roofline two blocks down. A scope. He dove for one of the fallen officers, yanking the pistol from his holster just as two bullets sparked off the pavement near his feet.

“They’ve got sightlines. They’re boxing us in.” He thought to himself.

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 voice rang out from the alley sounding confident and cruel.

“Listen up! We know you’ve got the Pokémon from the temple! Come out nice and quiet, 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! Snipers got 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?”

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

“It’s Ghost-type. Release it in here, have it phase through the wall and materialize behind those bastards. As soon as it’s clear, use Blizzard.”

Her eyes widened. “That’ll freeze half the street!”

“Good,” Ace snapped. “I want them blind and panicking.”

Candice hesitated, heart hammering. She’d fought challengers, faced ice storms, but this was different. She didn’t deal with real guns and killers. Her fingers shook around the ball.

“Ace—I-I don’t know if that’s a good ide—”

“Trust me!” His voice cut like a blade. “Do it now!”

The voice outside barked again. “Ten seconds!”

Candice squeezed her eyes shut, then clicked the ball inside the van. Froslass appeared in a shimmer of frost, its spectral body hovering silently.

Candice’s tone dropped to a whisper. “Go. Get behind those men without being seen and use Blizzard.”

Froslass vanished, slipping through the steel like smoke. For a heartbeat, there was nothing. Then ... WHOOOOOSH!

A storm of ice exploded from behind the alley. The ambushers screamed as the Blizzard tore into them, the street instantly engulfed in whiteout. Pedestrians shrieked, scattering; car tires screeched as drivers swerved and skidded to avoid the chaos. Glass shattered as storefront windows cracked under the sudden frost.

“Move!” Ace roared.

He burst from cover, sprinting low and fast, pistol raised. The snipers on the roof fired wildly through the storm, but their shots went wide, swallowed by the swirling ice. Ace dropped to one knee, sighted, and squeezed the trigger. One sniper cried out, tumbling backward into the drift.

Phillip climbed out next, teeth bared, Poké Ball already in hand. “Blaze, cover fire!”

Blaze, fresh off being healed at the Pokémon Center, erupted from its ball with a roar, launching a Flamethrower skyward. The flames carved a path through the blizzard, scattering the second sniper and forcing them off their perch. Phoebe followed, flanking to the other side, releasing Atlas with a flash of steel. The metallic titan crashed into the street, its claws gleaming, blocking off one end of the alley.

Screams and curses echoed through the storm. The ambushers stumbled, half-blind in the swirling snow. Ace fired again, dropping one. Froslass appeared and reappeared like a phantom, striking with Ice Beams before vanishing back into the gale. Bullets cracked past Ace’s ear, close enough to sting. He dove behind a parked car, exhaling sharp steam into the freezing air.

Candice scrambled out last, her scarf whipping violently in the blizzard. She recalled Froslass to her side, her voice shaking but steady. “You’re insane, Ace.”

He flashed her a grim smile. “Welcome to my world.”

All of Ace’s non-legendary Pokémon had suffered extensive injuries that couldn’t be fully healed by the normal healing unit at the Pokémon center, which meant they had to be admitted. So, he’d have to rely on his own skills for this.

The blizzard Froslass had whipped up was still howling, snow and ice ripping through the street like a white curtain. The goons’ silhouettes flickered in and out of view, half-hidden behind the haze. Gunmetal glinted once, twice, but the storm blurred everything beyond a few yards. Taking cover behind the wrecked vehicle, Candice clutched the outside door handle, knuckles bone white.

Stay hidden.” Ace ordered, voice low but hard as stone.

“What are you going to do?” she whispered, her voice trembling, fear cutting through the wind.

Ace racked the slide of the pistol, eyes narrowing. “Put an end to this.”

He made his move, staying low. Snow bit his face, but he embraced it, blending into the whiteout. The first thug rounded the vehicle, flashlight beam cutting through the snow. He barely had time to register movement before Ace’s hand shot out, wrenching the pistol aside. A sharp elbow crashed into the man’s ribs, another strike to his jaw, and he crumpled into the snow.

Ace yanked the man’s scarf loose and wrapped it around his own mouth and nose, disappearing back into the storm. Another goon stumbled forward, muttering curses, eyes darting through the veil. Ace dropped low, sliding across the icy pavement, and fired once. It was a clean shot into the thigh. The man howled, collapsing into the drift. Non-lethal, but enough to take him out.

Two more came charging at the sound, their outlines just visible in the storm. Ace ducked behind a parked car, bullets shredding the metal above him. He rolled out, sprinting low. One clean sweep of his leg took the first off balance. Ace grabbed his collar mid-fall, pivoted, and slammed him headfirst into the hood. Out cold.

The other swung the butt of his rifle, catching Ace across the shoulder. Pain flared, but Ace absorbed it, spun, and hammered two lightning-fast strikes, one to the gut and another to the throat. The man wheezed and crumpled.

Pedestrians were screaming, scattering from storefronts. The howling Blizzard made it worse: glass windows cracked, snow whipped into shops, mothers clutched children as they bolted for cover.

The final pair of attackers regrouped, shadows emerging from the storm, weapons raised. Ace dove behind a toppled trash bin, breathing hard, snow melting against his burning skin. He timed their advance. One step, two...

Then he exploded forward. The pistol barked once, striking one in the hand, weapon clattering into the snow. Ace closed the distance, pivoting hard, and drove his knee into the thug’s gut. As he dropped, Ace spun, ducking under the last man’s wild swing, and slammed his fist across his jaw with a crunch of bone. The man spun, dazed, before Ace shoved him face-first into the snow.

Just then a Beartic appeared behind Ace with a deafening roar, presumably belonging to one of the attackers Ace just knocked out. Beartic raised its paw to slash Ace, but right before it struck...

FWOOOOOMMM!!!!!

A blast of fire shaped like a five-point cross struck it dead in the chest knocking the Beartic off its feet and sending it flying into a car on the opposite side of the street. The Beartic snarled in pain before fainting.

Ace looked behind him, then up. Blaze was floating overhead with Phillip on its back.

“You’re welcome, asshole!”

Ace grinned. “I knew there was a reason I keep hanging around you!”

“Still not sure why I hang around you!” Phillip yelled back, but he was smiling too.

Silence returned, save for the hiss of wind. All seven lay groaning or unconscious, weapons scattered across the icy street. Ace stood over them, chest heaving, bruises blooming under his jacket, pistol still raised until the last thug stopped moving. Blue and red lights flashed in the distance. Snowpoint PD skidded onto the street in convoys, officers pouring out, weapons drawn. Candice stumbled out of the wrecked SUV, waving them down.

“Hold your fire! They’re down!”

Officers swarmed the street, cuffing the groaning assailants. Ace, battered but standing tall, holstered the pistol and finally exhaled. His breath fogged in the cold. He glanced back at Candice, Phoebe, and Phillip who were still huddled by the SUV.

“Road’s clear,” he said flatly. “Let’s move before someone else tries their luck.”

Candice found her voice again. “We still need to go to City Hall. The council needs to know what happened here and in Snowpoint Temple. After that we go to the police station to file reports about all this.

The drive into Snowpoint continued in tense silence after the ambush. Ace sat rigid in the back seat, bloodied knuckles resting on his knees, eyes locked on the frosted window as the city crept past. Phoebe leaned against the glass, scarf pressed to her bruised cheek, eyes shut but breathing steady. Phillip cradled his shoulder, jaw tight, but said nothing.

Candice sat alone in the middle row, posture stiff, scarf draped across her lap. She’d barely spoken since Ace dropped the last of the attackers. Her gaze fixed ahead, and her silence was almost louder than the hum of the engine.

Outside, the city looked deceptively calm. Pedestrians pushed through three inches of snow, coats pulled tight, bags tucked under arms. Street sweepers worked to clear the latest drifts, and a few cars rumbled carefully across the slick roads. Only faint cracks in the cobbled streets and scaffolds around shaken storefronts hinted at the earlier chaos.

Fifteen minutes later, the vehicle slowed, tires crunching against packed ice.

Snowpoint City Hall loomed ahead, a hulking granite structure, its pillars half-shrouded in snow, lanterns burning like watchful eyes. The square before it, however, was anything but serene.

A barricade of police units and city guards cordoned off the front steps. Behind them, a restless crowd had gathered. There were townsfolk bundled in coats, reporters jostling with cameras, and protestors shouting over one another. The air buzzed with fear and curiosity.

“Is it true the temple collapsed?!”