Up the mountain, Franklin led the scouting party through thinning trees. The static trail was faint — residual electromagnetic energy from Zapdos's transport, clinging to the rocks and soil like a scent. He followed it the way you follow a scent. Stop. Feel. Adjust. Move.
Kamala walked beside him, Eevee trotting ahead. Doreen flanked the other side, Emolga gliding between the trees. Harley brought up the rear.
"We should split the search pattern," Doreen said. "Cover more ground."
Franklin stopped. Felt. Adjusted. "Staying together is safer."
"Safer isn't faster."
"Fast isn't smart."
Harley stepped forward. "Kid, I love the whole 'feel the energy' thing, but we're wasting time. Every minute we spend feeling our way up this mountain is a minute Hydra could be moving that bird."
Franklin didn't turn around. "We stay together."
Houndour growled once. Low. Quiet.
Harley's jaw tightened. But she fell back in line.
They pushed deeper. The forest got quieter. The static got stronger.
At the trailhead, Ivy's eyes snapped open.
Roselia's glow surged — bright, sudden, the roses flaring gold. Ivy gasped and caught herself on the tree trunk. Her hands were trembling.
"Ivy?" Batgirl was beside her in a second.
"I felt it." Ivy's voice was thin. "Not the trail. The destination." She looked at the others, her green eyes wide. "Zapdos is down there. Alive. Being compressed. The energy is folded in on itself, trapped in a space too small for what it is."
Valeria stood. "Can you pinpoint the location?"
"I can feel the wound. The poisoned soil. The severed roots." Ivy closed her eyes again. "It's close. Northeast. Maybe two miles."
Valeria's gauntlet chirped. She looked at the scanner. Electromagnetic interference. Industrial grade. Two miles northeast. She cross-referenced with Batgirl's relay data from the Aurawood investigation.
"Same frequency," Valeria said. "Same modulation pattern. HYDRA equipment."
She keyed her comm. "Franklin. Northeast, two miles. I'm reading heavy electromagnetic output. Can you feel it?"
Static. Then Franklin's voice, tight and focused: "Yeah. Yeah, I feel it. It just got stronger. Like a door opened."
"Forty minutes," Valeria said. "Map the exterior and come back."
"Copy."
The comm went silent.
Ivy opened her eyes. She looked at Valeria. "We need to move."
"You can barely stand."
"I can stand enough."
Batgirl checked her gear. Frogadier's ball. Escrima sticks. Batarangs. EMP charges. She looked at the mountain, then at the group, then at the mountain again.
"May," she said. "Can Joltik move?"
May looked at the tiny Pokémon on her belt. Joltik sparked bright, then dim.
"Yeah," May said. "Joltik can move."
Valeria looked at Ivy. At May. At Batgirl. Three people who should be resting, preparing to hike two miles of mountain terrain because the alternative was waiting while Hydra did whatever they were doing to Zapdos.
Valeria picked up Lunatone's Premier Ball and clipped it to her belt.
"Let's go," she said.
The groups converged on a ridge overlooking a ravine.
Franklin's team arrived first, breathing hard. Harley wasn't even winded. Kamala's Eevee was panting. Doreen's Emolga had landed on her shoulder and wasn't taking off again.
Valeria's team arrived ten minutes later. Ivy was leaning on Batgirl. May was carrying Joltik in her hands. Valeria's gauntlet was scanning, feeding her data in fragments.
They all looked down.
Built into the mountainside, camouflaged against the rock face: a structure. Vehicle entrance large enough for transport trucks. Guard posts at the corners, manned. Sensor arrays on pylons, rotating slowly. Power conduits running underground, visible where the soil had been disturbed.
It wasn't hidden. It was built to be overlooked.
From this angle, the seams were visible. The door was right there.
Valeria scanned with her gauntlet. Partial readings — the device was still damaged — but enough came through. Reinforced structure. Multiple sublevels. Heavy electromagnetic output consistent with a containment field designed to hold a legendary.
Batgirl counted eight visible guards. She noted sight lines, patrol patterns, gaps between sensor sweeps. Her mind built an infiltration model she didn't share.
Ivy stood at the ridge's edge with Roselia glowing in her arms. She closed her eyes.
"Zapdos is down there," she said. "Compressed. Suffering. The energy is being forced into a shape it doesn't want to hold."
Franklin stared at the bunker. His hands were flexing. Opening, closing, opening, closing. Ralts pressed against his leg, feeling his frustration and guilt and need to act.
Harley hefted her mallet. She looked at the bunker. Then at the group.
"So," she said. "The bird is right there. The door is right there. The goons are right there." She planted the mallet on the ground. "And we're up here. On a ridge. Talking."
Valeria didn't look at her. "We don't have a full layout. We don't know how many operatives are inside. We don't know the containment specifications. Going in blind is how people get captured."
"Going in later is how they move the bird."
"Going in stupid is how we lose."
Harley's eyes narrowed. "You calling me stupid?"
"I'm calling the situation complicated."
Franklin turned from the bunker. "Valeria's right. We need a plan."
"We need to move," Harley said. "Every second we stand here—"
"I know." Franklin's voice was quiet. Flat. "I know what every second costs. I can feel it. But charging in without knowing what's down there doesn't help Zapdos. It just gives Hydra more hostages."
Harley looked at him. At his flickering hands. At Ralts pressed against his leg.
"You feel it too," she said. Not a question.
Franklin nodded.
Harley looked back at the bunker. She didn't say anything else.
Valeria's gauntlet flickered. She pulled up what data she could: the entrance, the guard rotation, the electromagnetic signature from below. It wasn't enough. It was never enough. But it was what they had.
"Two teams," she said. "Infiltration and distraction. Batgirl, May, and I go in through the east service conduit. It's narrow enough that their sensors won't flag it as a breach. Harley, Ivy, Kamala, Doreen, Franklin — you create noise on the north side. Draw the guards out."
Harley grinned. "Now you're talking."
"We're not here to fight," Valeria said. "We're here to get Zapdos out. Everyone clear?"
Nods all around. Even Franklin, though his hands were still flexing.
Ivy placed Roselia on the ground. The Pokémon's glow steadied. "The Green is wounded here," Ivy said quietly. "But it remembers what it was. I can feel the roots beneath the concrete. They're waiting."
"Then we give them something to grow through," Batgirl said.
Valeria looked at the group. Heroes and villains and kids, standing on a ridge above a Hydra bunker, about to do something that would either save a legendary Pokémon or get them all captured.
She thought about Beldum. About Metang. About the moment her partner had stepped between her and a bolt of lightning because the math didn't matter anymore.
"Together," she said.
They moved down the ridge.
***
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