"Oh wow! So fast!"
Gary exclaimed in excitement as he felt the wind blowing against his body.
Riding on Magnezone before had been far too slow. Now, sitting on Garchomp, it felt like they were flying. If it weren't for the fact that his body couldn't handle it, Garchomp could have gone even faster.
In just three hours, they crossed half of the Sinnoh Region and were about to reach Floaroma Town.
Just as they were approaching Floaroma Town, Garchomp suddenly stopped.
"What's wrong?" Gary asked.
"Chomp."
Garchomp indicated that something was happening below.
Gary tilted his head and looked down. He saw a dark green armored vehicle on the ground. Several men in black uniforms stood around it, and in front of them stood a woman with short silver hair.
"J?!"
Gary was shocked when he saw the woman leading the group. He hadn't expected Hunter J to appear here.
Hunter J was a Pokémon hunter who specialized in capturing Pokémon on commission, and her methods were different from those of ordinary Pokémon hunters.
When most Pokémon hunters received a commission, they would go out and search the wild for the target species. Hunter J didn't bother with that—she went straight for capturing other Trainers' Pokémon instead.
Since searching the wild for a client's specific request was a waste of time, she found it far more efficient to simply steal a Trainer's Pokémon directly. All she needed to do was ask around or hack into a Pokémon Center's database to find out what Pokémon nearby Trainers owned, then go and take it by force.
That was exactly why Hunter J was wanted by the Sinnoh League. However, due to her strength, ordinary Trainers were no match for her at all. It wasn't that the Pokémon she personally owned were particularly powerful—the real issue was her illegal technology: a gun capable of petrifying Pokémon.
Any target struck by the light from the petrification gun would fall into a petrified state and become completely unable to move. Even Legendary Pokémon couldn't resist it. Although there was an element of surprise attack involved, once petrified, a Pokémon couldn't remove the effect on its own.
At that moment, the person standing opposite J was a young Trainer who had sent out an Aggron.
"Someone wants your Aggron!" the hunter said, raising her weapon and aiming it at Aggron.
Neither Aggron nor its Trainer had ever seen this kind of illegal technology before, and they assumed it was nothing more than an empty threat. After all, Aggron's defense was incredibly strong—ordinary firearms couldn't hurt it at all.
Biu!!
A golden-brown beam shot out from the muzzle and struck Aggron directly.
"Sh...!"
Aggron suddenly found that it couldn't summon its elemental power, and its entire body stiffened. The area hit by the beam began to turn to stone, and the petrification quickly spread. Before long, Aggron had become nothing more than a stone statue.
"What?! What did you do to my Aggron?!" the young Trainer shouted in disbelief.
"Now... Aggron isn't yours anymore." With a wave of her hand, a disc about one and a half meters in diameter flew out from the armored vehicle behind her and hovered near Aggron's feet. A transparent barrier extended to enclose the petrified Aggron, and it floated up and drifted back toward the armored vehicle.
"Give me back my Aggron!" The young man rushed forward with a furious roar.
"Ariados, use String Shot," one of the henchmen said, casually tossing out a Poké Ball.
Flash!
A massive spider Pokémon appeared. Ariados spat sticky silk toward the young man, entangling him completely.
"You bastards, bring Aggron back!" the young man roared helplessly, but there was nothing he could do against them.
"Retreat."
Hunter J had no intention of killing anyone. She had no issue with stealing Pokémon, but killing a person would bring down the full force of the League and Interpol on her.
J was, after all, a businesswoman. Peace was good for business.
However, just as J and her crew were about to retreat, a golden arc of electricity struck down from the sky and landed directly on the armored vehicle.
In an instant, the vehicle failed to start, its electronics disrupted by the sudden magnetic interference.
"Who's there?!"
Everyone was startled and immediately looked up toward the sky. They spotted Magnezone, hovering there in its distinctive UFO-like shape.
"Don't look up. Look over here."
A voice came from behind them. Everyone turned to see a young man standing with two Pokémon at his side—Garchomp and Gardevoir. J's expression tightened at first, but the moment she saw Garchomp and Gardevoir, her eyes lit up. Both species were worth a fortune on the black market. If she hadn't been wearing tinted glasses, Gary might have actually wanted to gouge her eyes out just from the sheer greed in her expression.
"Salamence, use Flamethrower. Ariados, use Night Shade." J threw a Poké Ball without hesitation.
Flash!
A Salamence appeared and spat flames toward Gary, while the Ariados beside it fired twin black beams from its eyes.
"Psychic, Stone Edge!" Gary ordered.
"Sala!"
"Chomp!"
Gardevoir's eyes glowed blue as she fired a beam of psychic energy, while Garchomp slammed its claws into the ground, sending jagged rock blades erupting upward one after another.
The two sides' attacks collided. Psychic instantly overpowered Night Shade, and Ariados was sent flying backward.
Stone Edge and Flamethrower clashed evenly, with neither move overpowering the other—but Ariados couldn't get back up regardless.
[Lv.42 Ariados / Gym-tier]
"Take it!"
At that moment, J had already turned her petrification gun toward Gardevoir and fired.
Gardevoir had already sensed what was coming. She smiled faintly and easily sidestepped the beam. It missed and struck a rock behind her instead—since it was already made of stone, there was no visible change.
"You people really do value money over life," Gary said, releasing every Pokémon on his belt.
Flash!
Rhyperior, Electivire, Glaceon, Weavile, and Metagross appeared one after another, joining Garchomp and Gardevoir—eight Pokémon in total.
J's eyebrows shot up. She was completely confused as to why Gary had eight Pokémon with him. Normally, a Trainer could only carry six. What made it worse was that every single one of his Pokémon had already reached its final evolutionary form, and each one radiated overwhelming strength.
It seemed as though Gary had somehow already known her secret weapon was the petrification gun and had come fully prepared. Staying here any longer clearly wasn't a good idea.
"Let's go."
J recalled Ariados and immediately leaped onto Salamence's back.
Salamence responded instantly, carrying her away from the scene without hesitation. In one breath, more than twenty meters of distance had already opened up between them.
Gary and his Pokémon were stunned. They hadn't expected her to retreat so decisively—abandoning her own subordinates without a second thought.