The second layer of the safe held a batch of syringes filled with a dark, viscous liquid. Nova recognized it immediately. It was the same dangerous substance that every member of the Original Team carried with them — a potent, engineered toxin unlike anything found in nature.
There were over a hundred of those syringes on that layer alone. On the black market, they might fetch at least two million Coins. But to Nova, the whole lot wasn't worth more than a bag of kitchen scraps.
At least kitchen scraps aren't laced with poison.
He pulled the syringes out and set them aside, then had Nidoking use Flamethrower. The flames washed over the pile until nothing was left but a smear of ash on the concrete floor.
With that dealt with, Nova turned back to the safe and got to work on the rest.
The top three remaining layers turned out to be far more useful.
The third layer held rare materials harvested from Poison-type Pokémon. There were detached tails from Seviper, still faintly glistening with venom. Poison sacs removed from Drapion's tail tips. Beedrill stingers. The barbed tentacles of Tentacruel.
Nova stared at them for a moment.
These were probably the supplements Taylor had been feeding his ace Pokémon, Arbok, on a regular basis. And Taylor, being Taylor, had not been gentle in obtaining them. Every single item in that layer had been taken from a living Pokémon — its organs, its weapons, its means of survival. Obtaining them almost certainly meant those Pokémon were dead.
Nova even found a cluster of Arbok fangs tucked into one corner of the layer.
So Taylor had not only killed other Pokémon for Arbok's sake, but had fed his own partner the remains of its own kind. To someone who genuinely cared about Pokémon, that was hard to accept.
Still, Nova was not one to let his feelings get in the way of reason. The damage had already been done. He couldn't undo it. What he could do was make sure these materials weren't wasted. These Pokémon had already lost their lives; leaving the materials to rot in a ruined building wasn't going to bring them back. If anything, using them to strengthen Nidoking — and by extension, making it easier to stop organizations like the Original Team — was a better outcome than leaving them here.
He packed the materials into his backpack and moved on to the fourth layer.
This one was more straightforward. Heavy precious metals and ores filled the space, dense enough that Nova could feel the weight shift through the bag when he lifted them. Taylor had clearly organized the safe with the items arranged by value from top to bottom — which meant, in his estimation, these ores were worth at least as much as gold and platinum, and more than the drugs or the cash below.
Nova took everything without hesitation. There was no reason not to.
He had come prepared. Instead of using the Original Team's standard-issue flight pack, he had bought a high-capacity mountain trekking backpack specifically for this job. Even so, by the time he finished with the third and fourth layers, it was nearly full.
The fifth and final layer surprised him.
When Nova opened it, he actually paused and looked around, half-wondering if he had somehow gotten into the wrong safe.
The layer was filled with gemstones and jewelry. Diamond necklaces, sapphire rings, jade bracelets, ruby earrings — all of them polished, well-crafted, and clearly expensive. The kind of items you'd expect to find in the collection of a wealthy socialite, not a man who spent his days running criminal operations in places like Lune Town.
Nova blinked at it for a moment, then shrugged.
Taylor apparently had a taste for fine jewelry. That was hardly his most unusual quality.
He swept the lot into his backpack, pressed the zipper shut with some effort, and let out a long breath.
Not a wasted trip after all. Taylor, in a roundabout way, had been surprisingly generous. First, the bounty on his head had given Nova a period of comfort he hadn't known since arriving in this world. Now, the man's entire life savings were going toward funding Nova's future.
If Nova ever made it to the top — won a regional championship or something close to it — Taylor deserved at least a passing mention in the credits.
Now came the harder part: rest up, stay out of sight, and find a way out when the Original Team showed up to finish what they started.
Nova was just about to look for a quiet corner in the rubble to wait it out when Corviknight swept back down from the sky. It had been circling overhead in a wide, cautious patrol, and this return was not casual. It landed fast, wings folding sharp.
A warning.
Nova returned Nidoking to its Poké Ball without a word. Its size made it the easiest of his team to spot. He pulled back behind a broken concrete pillar, his cat and dog Pokémon close behind him, while Corviknight settled at his side. Its feathers were dark as iron, nearly invisible against the shadows of the collapsed building. With it there, Nova felt reasonably confident he could handle whatever came.
Two minutes passed in silence.
Then he heard it: the sound of Pokémon moving at speed on the road nearby. Riders, heading in this direction.
The distance was too great and the ruins too cluttered for Nova to see clearly. He couldn't tell how many there were, or whether they were heading for these ruins specifically or just passing through. He waited.
Half a minute later, the sounds stopped. They had pulled up in the parking lot at the edge of the ruins.
So they were here for the ruins. That settled the question of destination.
But who were they?
Nova waited, watching the shadows, and tried to work it out. Original Team members following up on something they had left behind? Locals who still believed there were valuables buried in the remains of the old market?
Then he caught a glimpse of their mount Pokémon through a gap in the rubble.
A Rapidash. A Dodrio. And an Arcanine.
Nova understood Rapidash and Dodrio well enough in this context. But Arcanine gave him pause. Arcanine were practically the symbol of Security Officers — disciplined, loyal, with a strong instinct for justice. They weren't the kind of Pokémon that typically showed up in the company of criminals or aimless treasure hunters. Getting one to partner with you required a certain kind of trust that most people on the wrong side of the law simply didn't have.
Something wasn't adding up.
The group moved into the ruins carefully, picking their way through the debris, and then one of them spoke.
"Deputy Captain, this whole place has already caved in. Do we really need to search it again?"
It was a young male voice. Tired, a little uncertain.
The reply came immediately, clear and confident, and Nova felt a jolt of recognition the moment he heard it.
"There are still reports going around Lune Town that Toxic Spikes were set in this area. If the Original Team bothered to lay traps here, it means there's still something in these ruins worth protecting. We can't afford to overlook that."
Nova already knew who was speaking before he saw her. But knowing didn't make it less strange. His confusion didn't clear, it deepened.
Why was she here, of all places?