Chương 39: The Easy Answer

Fifty-nine. Rine knelt beside the first cage. The collar's trigger monitored distance, tampering, and a radio heartbeat transmitted from somewhere deeper in the mine. Cutting it would detonate. Moving the Clefairy beyond the chamber would detonate. Disabling the wrong wire would detonate. The blast was small. Small enough to preserve Moon Stone fragments. Large enough to remove a Clefairy's head. Team Rocket had not invented cruelty. It had industrialized lessons other criminals understood instinctively.

"Gastly, doors." The Ghost split his attention between the rear exit and main tunnel. His cohesion wavered. Fifty-two. Raticate struggled inside the suppression net. Veyra held the surrendered guard on the floor. Golbat and Cinder fought above, wings striking through fungal light. Rine opened Identify until pain formed behind his eyes.

Collar assembly: commercial quarry charge modified for proximity control Receiver frequency: encrypted Primary trigger: remote heartbeat loss Secondary trigger: clasp tension Power source: internal cell Removing the battery broke the circuit and triggered the detonator. Blocking the signal simulated heartbeat loss. Keeping the signal alive was safer.

"Your radio," Rine said to the guard. The man hesitated. Veyra tightened her jaws around his boot. He threw the radio. Rine caught it. Forty-three. No visible control app. The heartbeat came from a dedicated transmitter. Psychic energy could imitate physical movement. Dark energy could absorb signals, which was exactly what he did not need. Aura detected living rhythms, not electronics. He needed Lyra. The anchor bead remained dark.

Rine pushed psychic force into the collar receiver, feeling rather than understanding tiny oscillations. The signal pulsed seven times a second. He matched it. The timer paused. Forty-one remained on the wall display. The collar did not detonate.

"Gastly," he said through clenched teeth.

"Find Vale. Tell him the transmitter stays active." Gastly hesitated.

"Go." The Ghost vanished through the rear door. Without him, every electronic rhythm pressed directly against Rine's concentration. Three collars. Three slightly different receivers. He held the first pattern and reached for the second. Blood warmed his upper lip. Veyra released the guard and moved beside him.

"Watch him." She did not turn. Her nose touched his shoulder. The contact steadied his aura. He found the second rhythm. The third slipped each time he caught it. Thirty-eight. From the tunnel came a wet hiss. An Arbok entered. It was not Cassian's. This one was female, older, and scarred across the hood. A trafficker followed behind with one hand on a detonator harness.

Arbok — Level 27 Ability: Intimidate Potential: Green — Uncommon Moves: Glare; Poison Fang; Crunch; Acid Spray; Coil The pattern on her hood expanded. Fear struck the room. Intimidate was not mere appearance. Type energy carried predatory pressure through muscle and instinct. Veyra lowered herself despite fighting it. Rine could not move without losing the collar signals. The trafficker smiled.

"Frostfang."

"You know me."

"Everyone knows fifty thousand credits." The man held up the detonator. A second indicator blinked beside the stalled mine timer.

"Let the collars go," he said.

"Walk over with the dog." The simple answer was to kill him. Rine knew exactly how. The man's mind sat behind weak training and stronger confidence. Rine could drive a psychic spike through his visual cortex, stop the hand before it pressed, and let Veyra burn Arbok. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. Three steps. Maybe two. Killing had become a tool he no longer needed anger to use. He held two collar rhythms and searched for the third.

"No." The trafficker pressed halfway.

"Arbok, Poison Fang." The snake moved. Veyra met her. No electrical current. No reckless charge. She exhaled Smog. The weak Poison move did little damage to another Poison-type, but the black cloud obscured Arbok's hood. Intimidate pressure broke with eye contact and pattern disrupted.

"Left," Rine said. Veyra dodged the fangs and bit behind Arbok's jaw. Release. Retreat. The snake coiled. Rine found the third signal. All three collars stabilized. He had no attention left for defense. The trafficker drew a pistol. Kecleon appeared behind him. One moment, only stone occupied the space. The next, a long tongue wrapped around the man's wrist and pulled his aim upward. The shot struck the ceiling. Vale came through the rear door covered in dust.

"Transmitter secured!" Gastly followed, carrying a metal box in his vapor. Rine released the artificial rhythms. The collars continued receiving their real heartbeat. He collapsed onto one hand.

"Cinder, Will-O-Wisp!" Fletchinder's blue flame struck Arbok. The burn disrupted her coiling strength. Veyra tore free before Wrap closed around her. Golbat dove toward Rine. Gastly intercepted with Mean Look. The Flying-type froze long enough for Cinder to strike it sideways with Quick Attack. Vale tackled the trafficker. The detonator skidded across the floor. Rine caught it psychically. The first guard—the one who had fled—reappeared in the rear doorway. He carried a mining charge against his chest.

"Nobody gets the stones," he said. Vale froze. The man's thumb rested on a dead switch. Identify returned the charge radius. The holding chamber, lower tunnel, and everyone inside. Rine's knife was in his hand. He did not remember drawing it. Distance: five meters. Throwing was unreliable. Psychic force could guide the blade. The throat, eye, or hand offered targets. The easiest answer returned. The man looked directly at him.

"Do it, Rocket." He wanted Rine to prove the name. Rine let the knife fall.

"Gastly, Hypnosis." Gastly's eyes changed. Not the overwhelming visual spiral of Poliwhirl. Ghostly suggestion moved through the dim fungal light, subtle and cold. The bomber blinked. His thumb tightened. Veyra howled. The sound struck the chamber like a physical wave. It was not her self-call. It carried territory, danger, and pack command amplified by Dark energy. Arbok recoiled. Golbat lost rhythm. The bomber's eyes turned toward her for one fatal fraction of attention. Hypnosis entered. He sagged.

His thumb loosened. Vale caught the dead switch before it opened. No explosion came. Silence lasted less than a second. Then Arbok attacked her own Trainer. The trafficker shouted as her burned coils wrapped his legs. She did not bite. She held him while Cinder forced Golbat to the ground and Kecleon disabled the pistol. Veyra stood in the center of the room, ribs glowing faintly. Identify opened.

Veyra — Level 12 Howl mastery: Proficient, 21% Roar: developing — unavailable Mutation Stability: 57% Pack coordination response strengthened Her howl had not won through power. It had created the opening another partner used. Houndour did not abandon sick pack members. They hunted through communication no outsider fully understood. Veyra had made Rine, Gastly, and perhaps even Vale part of that instinct.

"Good," Rine whispered. She looked at the fallen knife. Then at him. Rangers reached the chamber nineteen minutes later. Lyra's anchor had delivered the message. Cerulean deployed a cave unit through a western access point while Guild teams followed their markers from Route Four. The delay felt like hours. Rine and Vale spent it disarming the collars with the transmitter held active. The sedated Clefairy received reversal medication one at a time.

The first woke frightened and used Disarming Voice, sending Rine backward into a cage. He considered that a promising sign. The second woke singing. Every conscious human in the chamber began to fall asleep until Gastly absorbed the sound through a spectral barrier and looked extremely pleased with himself. The third Clefairy did not wake. Identify showed an overdose, body temperature falling, pulse weak. Rine carried her toward the incoming medics. No one stopped him to question ownership.

By moonrise, the traffickers were restrained. Arbok and Raticate entered protective evaluation. Golbat chose to remain inside his ball after its Trainer was removed; the Guild marked the registration contested. The bomber woke under Psychic suppression and demanded an attorney. Vale gave him one. Law felt obscenely generous beside the collars. That was the point. While documenting the camp, Rangers found a locked case behind the Moon Stone sorting table.

It contained payment ledgers, buyer codes, and photographs of rare mutations offered through private auctions. Veyra appeared on page seventeen. The image had been taken inside the Celadon institute. On page twenty-three, Rine found photographs of children. Not the rescued forty-seven. Different dormitories. Different faces. Each file listed aura sensitivity, obedience ratings, and projected Trainer value. One facility code repeated: PALLET AGRICULTURAL PLACEMENT ANNEX Rine's hands went cold. Another orphanage.

Vale read over his shoulder.

"We send it to Iron Talon."

"I go there."

"You go to Pewter." Rine turned.

"You are injured, restricted, and personally identified by the network," Vale said.

"If you run toward every file Gideon leaves, he chooses your route."

"Children are inside."

"Then give the evidence to people capable of reaching them without delivering the target Gideon wants." The logic sounded like cowardice. That did not make it wrong. Rine transmitted the full case to Mara and waited until she confirmed receipt. Iron Talon investigating. Do not approach Pallet. That is an order, request, and personal plea. He hated all three versions. He obeyed. The recovered Clefairy were carried east toward Cerulean for treatment.

Before leaving, the first one approached Veyra and placed a tiny hand against the pale band on her chest. Soft light passed between them. Heal Pulse was not a standard technique for every Clefairy, but this one knew its shape. Warmth eased the inflammation around Veyra's cores. The Clefairy then touched Rine's hand. No light followed. Apparently, his condition did not inspire the same generosity. Vale laughed. Rine let him. They left Mt. Moon by the western passage before dawn.

Behind them, Rangers dismantled cages. Ahead, Route Three descended toward Pewter City. They camped for two hours at the western mouth while medics cleared Rine to travel. Vale brewed coffee strong enough to qualify as a Poison-type move. Rine drank it anyway.

"You dropped the knife," Vale said.

"I noticed."

"Why?" Rine watched dawn gather along the ridge.

"He wanted me to prove what he thought I was."

"That usually isn't enough reason to choose a worse tactic."

"It wasn't worse."

"Hypnosis could have failed."

"The throw could have missed. Psychic guidance could have triggered his hand. Killing him might have opened the switch." Vale accepted the operational answer but not the whole of it.

"And?" Rine looked at Gastly sleeping inside Veyra's shadow.

"I wanted another answer to exist." The hunter poured out the remaining coffee. It smoked against stone.

"That's expensive."

"So is becoming the kind of person who sees only one." Rine suspected Vale had paid for that lesson personally. He did not ask. The provisional board contacted him while they packed. The hearing remained scheduled, but the Mt. Moon incident had added commendations and concerns in equal measure. Use of unapproved field techniques under lethal threat: review required. Preservation of captive life: favorable. Partner medical compliance: favorable.

Exposure of medically restricted Pokémon to criminal engagement: review required. The verdict would not reduce itself to heroism. Rine no longer wanted it to. Veyra had chosen to enter the cave, but he had accepted responsibility for the contract. Gastly had overextended because Rine commanded him to find Vale. Success did not erase those costs. He added his own statement before anyone requested it. The road to becoming a Trainer apparently included confessing when victory had been messy.

Gideon would have hated that. The thought improved Rine's morning. Before they left, Rine returned to the cave mouth and listened. No Clefairy song came from below. Rangers, machines, and evidence teams disturbed the mountain now. It would take time before the colony trusted the chamber again. Rescue had consequences even when it succeeded. Veyra called once into the dark. After a long silence, a distant voice answered. Rine did not know what it said. Veyra turned toward Route Three. That translation was enough.

They followed the descending road together as sunlight reached across the western stone. Pewter waited below. For the first time, Rine believed he might reach it as himself.