The cavern hums with residual static and the smell of burnt ozone. Valeria stares at the hole in the ceiling where the containment unit ascended with Zapdos inside. Metang's Premier Ball weighs on her belt like an accusation.
Franklin sits on a chunk of fallen rock. His hands still tremble. Ralts floats beside him, dim and curled into itself. Across the cavern, Batgirl photographs HYDRA equipment without speaking. Harley kicks shattered drone pieces across the floor, the metal skittering into shadows. Ivy presses her palm to the wall with her eyes closed, Roselia drooping in the crook of her arm.
The silence holds until it can't.
"We need to go after Zapdos." Franklin's voice cuts through the hum. "Now. Not in an hour. Not after a strategy session. Right now."
His hands are still charged, faint light flickering at his fingertips. Ralts stirs at his feet.
"I can still fight. Ralts can still fight." He stands. "I'm not sitting on a rock while HYDRA disappears with a legendary Pokémon."
Valeria watches his jaw tighten. She recognizes the look. He's not asking. He's demanding.
"Ralts is barely floating." She keeps her voice level. "Metang took a direct hit protecting me. Every Pokémon in this cavern is running on fumes."
Franklin's expression hardens.
"Chasing HYDRA right now isn't brave. It's sloppy. And sloppy gets people hurt."
"Sloppy is better than nothing."
The words land like a slap. Franklin steps closer, his hands clenching at his sides.
"I held back my power in that fight. I held back because I was scared of hurting someone. I'm done holding back." His voice rises. "Every second we waste is a second HYDRA gets farther away."
Ralts stirs at his feet, picking up his frustration. A psychic ripple pulses outward and Valeria's temples throb. The pressure builds behind her eyes.
She can feel the argument tilting toward something neither of them can take back.
Batgirl steps between them.
"You're not wrong about the clock." She addresses Franklin first, then turns to Valeria. "And you're not wrong about our condition."
She pulls up a holographic display from her gauntlet. Red dots blink across a topographic map.
"I've been tracking HYDRA's extraction pattern. They'll have a staging area within twenty miles. Probably temporary while they figure out how to move something that big."
The map rotates. Valeria studies the terrain.
"If we go in blind, we lose surprise." Batgirl shrugs. "I say we pull back, heal our Pokémon, and use the time to gather intel on where HYDRA is holding Zapdos."
Harley cuts in before Batgirl finishes her sentence.
"I didn't climb a mountain and fight armored goons just to go home and file a report!"
Her mallet rests against the wall. Her hand keeps drifting toward it like she's ready to swing at something.
"Zapdos is in a cage right now. Every second we stand around debating is a second that bird stays trapped." She jabs a finger at the ceiling. "Hit hard. Hit fast. That's the play."
Ivy opens her eyes and pulls her hand from the wall.
"Your heart is in the right place." She fixes Harley with a tired look. "Your head isn't."
Roselia shifts in her arms, its roses catching the fading light.
"The Green is quieter now. Wherever HYDRA took Zapdos, the land feels the absence." She presses her uninjured hand to the stone again. "I can track it. But not instantly. It will take time to read the disturbance and follow the trail."
Harley crosses her arms. "How much time?"
"Hours. Maybe." Ivy's voice is flat. "And the trail is already fading."
"Hours is too long!" Franklin's hands spark. "HYDRA could move Zapdos again. They could start whatever they're planning to do with it."
"Going in without intel is how we end up captured alongside it," Batgirl counters.
The argument circles back to where it started. Voices overlap. Harley gestures wildly. Franklin's frustration bleeds into the air. Batgirl's tactical calm frays at the edges. Ivy's patience wears thin.
Valeria watches the loop and feels something shift.
She's been waiting for someone else to make the call. Batgirl. Ivy. Anyone with more experience. But they're all looking at her. Not waiting for the right answer. Waiting for any answer at all.
She thinks about Metang placing itself between her and Zapdos's lightning. The flash. The impact. The way it moved without hesitation, without calculation, without asking if the odds were good.
Loyalty isn't about having the best plan. It's about being the one who steps forward when no one else will.
"We're going to the trailhead."
Her voice cuts through the noise. The arguing stops.
"Not to wait. To regroup." She looks at each of them in turn. "Kamala's team is already en route. We'll combine our intel, get a read on HYDRA's staging area from Batgirl's scans, and let Ivy start tracking the Green's disturbance."
She takes a breath.
"Then we move. Together. With a plan."
The cavern goes quiet.
Franklin's jaw works. "What kind of plan?"
Valeria holds his gaze.
"I don't have it yet."
The admission tastes like copper. She pushes past it.
"But I know what happens if we split up. HYDRA picks us off one by one." She gestures at the ruined equipment, the scorch marks, the hole in the ceiling. "We've already seen what a containment unit does to a legendary Pokémon. I'm not letting that happen to any of them. Or any of us."
Franklin holds her gaze for a long moment. His hands stop sparking. Ralts floats up to rest against his shoulder, its horn dim but steady.
He looks away. Not agreement, exactly. But not a fight anymore either.
Batgirl nods. "I can have a preliminary location within thirty minutes if I tap the Aurawood Ranger network."
Harley slings her mallet over her shoulder.
"Thirty minutes. Better not turn into three hours."
Ivy confirms the trail will hold. "Zapdos's energy is violent and distinctive. It won't be hard to follow once I have a starting direction."
Franklin is quiet for a beat. Then he stands. Ralts floats up beside him. He doesn't argue further.
The decision holds.
…
They climb out of the mountain in the late afternoon light. The sun hangs low over the ridge, painting the canopy in shades of amber and rust.
Valeria takes the rear. She watches the group ahead of her. Franklin beside Batgirl, asking about HYDRA encryption. Harley and Ivy side by side, Houndour trotting at their heels. Roselia's roses turning toward the fading warmth.
Her mind is already building the framework. Combined team status. Batgirl's intel. Ivy's Green-tracking. Franklin's cosmic power as a contingency. Kamala's team's observations from the power plant.
The pieces are there. She just has to fit them together.
…
They emerge at the trailhead to find Kamala, Doreen, and May already waiting.
Kamala sits on a fallen log with Eevee in her lap and a cut above her eyebrow. Doreen stands nearby, Emolga perched on her shoulder, both of them looking like they've been through a blender. May's suit is torn at the shoulder and Joltik sparks weakly on her arm.
Kamala looks up at Valeria.
"You look terrible."
Harley drops onto the log beside her.
"You should see the other guys."
The tension cracks. Something like relief moves through the group.
Batgirl steps forward to debrief Kamala's team. Her holographic display flickers to life, showing the cavern layout, the containment unit, the HYDRA insignia.
Valeria hangs back and watches.
Franklin sits beside Kamala. Ralts and Eevee touch noses, a small gesture of comfort between two tired creatures. Harley immediately starts complaining about the lack of snacks. Ivy stands apart, Roselia's roses turning toward the sun, reading something in the Green that only she can see.
Eight people. Eight Pokémon. A team that assembled itself without anyone officially forming it.
May walks over to Valeria. Joltik chirps once from her shoulder.
"Is it true?" May's voice is quiet. Direct. "Did HYDRA actually get Zapdos?"
Valeria confirms it.
May's expression doesn't change, but Joltik's sparks flicker brighter for a moment.
"What's the plan?"
Valeria looks at the cracked Pokédex in her hand. The HYDRA entry still glows on the screen. The serpent symbol stares back at her.
She looks up at the eight people in the clearing. Battered. Tired. Still here.
"We're going to get Zapdos back."
She closes the Pokédex and slides it into her belt.
"And this time, we're going to do it together."
***
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