Lost in thought, Cynthia naturally hadn't forgotten that she was currently in the middle of battle.
Facing the two Water-type Pokémon her opponents had sent out, after brief consideration, she deployed the combination of Ludicolo and Pelipper.
As Pelipper took the field, its Drizzle ability activated, and dense raindrops began falling from the sky above the battlefield.
A blue light suddenly flashed across Ludicolo's body—that was its Swift Swim ability, which dramatically boosted its speed in the rain.
Watching this scene unfold, Cynthia was montarily stunned, then suddenly realized sothing important.
According to normal logic, in single battles, Pelipper would have to enter first to activate rainy weather with its ability, and then Ludicolo would switch in afterward to benefit from the rain boost.
But in double battles, both Pokémon could take the field together like this, allowing Ludicolo to imdiately benefit from the rain right from the start of the battle!
This concept was completely different.
And if this was how it worked in the ga, it would be even more significant in the real world.
Although most official battle regulations between trainers followed 1-on-1 formats, with occasional 2v2 double battles that weren't considered mainstream...
In certain special situations, battles had no rules whatsoever.
For instance, when fighting dangerous wild Pokémon in extrely harsh environnts—in those monts, trainers wouldn't care about any rules and would release every battle-capable Pokémon they had to survive the crisis.
In such situations, the instant Pelipper appeared and activated rainy weather, all five remaining Pokémon on the team could benefit from the rain boost right from the start.
The power of just one Pokémon could provide incredible battle enhancents to the entire team.
This possibility represented the upper limit of what their group of Elite Four mbers and Champions had been discussing—the potential of "weather teams."
Pelipper's Rain ability made Cynthia even more determined to test this concept.
Speaking of which, since there were 2v2 double battles, she wondered if this ga would feature 6v6 scenarios as well.
If such battle chanics existed, the turn-based ga rules would prevent the chaos that occurred in real-world battles... which could help train trainers to handle these special situations...
While thinking, Cynthia commanded Ludicolo to use ga Drain on the opponent's Sharpedo, then switched Pelipper out for Sceptile.
With her moves, the battle officially began.
...
The Pokémon levels of these two Team Aqua mbers who had blocked her path weren't particularly high. With the rain boost and type advantages, Cynthia easily defeated them.
They spat so harsh words before running off.
Only then did Cynthia notice that the top floor of the research facility she'd reached through the secret passage was quite spacious, filled with nurous desks, chairs, and laboratory equipnt.
But the place was now completely empty, with debris scattered across the floor—clearly Team Aqua's attack had forced all the researchers to evacuate.
Following the trail of destruction deeper into the top floor, Cynthia encountered more Team Aqua mbers along the way.
Like the previous two, they challenged her directly. However, their strength was similarly weak, and their Pokémon were all Water-types without exception, easily handled by the two Grass-types on Cynthia's team.
Throughout the entire series of battles, aside from the PP [Power Points] of her Grass-types' moves, their HP bars hadn't dropped at all!
This was the importance of sustainability that Cynthia had considered with ga Drain—against those Water-type Pokémon, ga Drain's power with type effectiveness could achieve one-hit knockouts, allowing both Pokémon to convert the massive damage dealt into health recovery, keeping them at full strength at all tis.
After several battles, Cynthia had grown lazy about sending out Pelipper to activate rainy weather, simply letting her two Grass-types drain their opponents dry.
Within just a few minutes, Cynthia had successfully cleared out all Team Aqua mbers on the fourth floor, finally arriving at the entrance to the central control room.
This appeared to be the most crucial research area within the entire facility, where all the data was stored.
Standing before the entrance was a blue-haired woman wearing a bandana. Her deanor clearly set her apart from the other Team Aqua mbers.
Seeing Cynthia's arrival, a blue exclamation mark imdiately appeared above her head, and without any dialogue, she entered the battle interface directly.
[Team Aqua Admin Shelly challenges you!]
The admin was indeed worthy of her title—this battle proved far more challenging than Cynthia's previous encounters with regular Team Aqua mbers. This woman's Pokémon weren't simply pure Water-types like before, but were strategically chosen for coverage.
For example, Walrein with its Water and Ice typing, and Masquerain with Water and Bug typing—both could deal effective damage to the two Grass-types on Cynthia's team.
Not only that, but her Pokémon's strength and levels averaged around 45, even stronger than Norman had been at the ti.
The good news was that thanks to the extra experience boost provided by Victini throughout her journey, battling nurous wild trainers and Team Aqua mbers had brought Cynthia's team to an average level of 48.
Combined with the solid quality of her team composition, she managed to successfully defeat this Team Aqua admin without major incident.
With the admin's defeat, nothing could stop her from entering the depths of the research facility.
Cynthia took a deep breath, opened her bag to use so items for simple recovery of her team's condition, then took another deep breath and pushed open the door in front of her.
The scene that t her eyes made her pause in surprise.
Behind a massive wooden desk sat an elderly man with graying hair, wearing a white lab coat.
To the old man's left and right stood two Team Aqua mbers, both wearing special uniforms identical to the admin she'd just battled, clearly holding the sa rank and status.
And at the other end of the wooden desk... sat a man quietly.
Cynthia had naturally seen this person before.
He was Team Aqua's leader—Archie!
At that mont, as Cynthia's character pushed open the door, Archie's gaze fell upon her across the desk. A red exclamation mark imdiately appeared above his head, and his weathered voice rang out with the prompt.
[So it's you, little one. Didn't expect you to show up again—you're like a ghost that won't stay down.]
[Unfortunately, my patience has limits. Since you've co looking for trouble again, don't bla for what happens next!]
With that, he stood up directly and walked toward Cynthia.
As he walked, he turned his head toward the other end of the wooden desk.
[Old man, I suggest you tell that secret quickly, or you'll watch this girl sink to the bottom of the ocean!]
A secret?
Was that the purpose behind Team Aqua's attack on this place?
Cynthia took a deep breath, preparing for battle.
But at that mont, she suddenly realized a problem—he was Team Aqua's leader after all, which ant he should be at least a Champion-level trainer!
Maxie's previous performance on the volcano had proven this point.
Her character's current strength had no chance of resistance against Archie. So how was she supposed to fight?
But at this critical mont, just as Archie reached Cynthia, the white-haired old man in the researcher's coat behind the desk suddenly shouted.
[Stop! I'll tell you! Don't hurt her—what you want is in the third hidden compartnt of the left cabinet!]
At these words, Archie imdiately stopped in his tracks, giving one of his two guards a aningful look. The guard quickly stepped forward to the nearby cabinet and indeed found a black USB drive in a hidden compartnt.
He inserted it into the computer on the desk, carefully checked it, nodded to Archie, then pulled out the USB drive, placed it in a bag, and handed it over.
Archie took the USB drive from his guard's hands, his eyes blazing with overwhelming excitent. He gave Cynthia a deep look, then turned and strode away, raising one hand and bringing it down sharply.
The next instant, the two Team Aqua admins on either side of the long table imdiately surrounded her from left and right.
The change in the situation made Cynthia frown slightly.
Although the most threatening presence, Archie, had left, careful observation of these two admins' uniforms revealed subtle differences from the one who had blocked her at the entrance—perhaps their rank and status were even higher.
Correspondingly, their strength would be even greater!
So with her team's current power, she really wasn't confident she could handle both Team Aqua admins simultaneously.
Fortunately, she had Victini as her trump card—the double type effectiveness bonus for each Pokémon should help her get through this crisis!
In that case, let's battle!
Just as the ga screen froze and was about to enter the battle interface, with Cynthia about to begin a difficult fight—
A massive silver-white figure crashed directly through the skylight of the top floor, accompanied by countless glass shards as it struck down at the two Team Aqua mbers.
Brilliant white light flashed, and the two Team Aqua admins collapsed to the ground without even making an extra move.
The scene unfolded so suddenly that even Cynthia was montarily stunned. When she recognized the familiar figure before her, only surprise remained in her heart.
—Because it was Steven sitting on Skarmory's back!
At that mont, Steven had naturally noticed Cynthia's presence as well. He looked toward her, a smile spreading across his handso face.
"Strawberry Ice Cream, didn't expect to see you here again. What a coincidence."
At the sa ti, the white-haired researcher's face showed surprise the instant he saw Steven, becoming so excited he could barely speak clearly.
"You... you are..."
After all, this was the Champion of the Hoenn region—how could he not recognize him?
"Take it easy, sir. Could you please tell what happened here?"
Steven said as he jumped down from Skarmory's back, picking up the two Team Aqua admins from the ground and propping them against the wall.
Although both had collapsed, they maintained steady breathing—clearly Skarmory's attack had been deliberately restrained, rely rendering them unconscious. Otherwise, with the full power of a Champion-level Pokémon, these two would have been reduced to nothing.
This also demonstrated just how incredible Steven's Skarmory's power control was.
Steven skillfully pulled handcuffs from his waist, cuffing their hands behind their backs before standing up and turning toward Cynthia.
"Perhaps... Strawberry Ice Cream, it might be easier for to understand if you explain. I'd appreciate it."
After a brief screen blackout, a line of text appeared before Cynthia.
[Through your description, Steven has temporarily understood the situation.]
"So you're saying Team Aqua made such a big show of force, deploying three admins and even having their leader personally involved, just to send people in to steal a USB drive?"
His face showed so confusion as he turned to look at the old man.
"Sir, may I ask what files were stored on that USB drive?"
The elderly man seed to have recovered from his excited state, his face now showing so bewildernt.
"They ca in demanding the weather monitoring data from our entire research facility for the past month. Although I don't understand what they want to use it for, I figured it couldn't be anything good, so I held out and didn't give it to them. But they still managed to take it just now."
Steven nodded.
"Understandable. You were trying to save this child—I would have made the sa choice."
Then he followed up with another question:
"Please think carefully—did they take anything else?"
The old man imdiately shook his head.
"I don't think so... they ca straight for after entering."
At this point, Steven's face also showed a thoughtful expression as he pondered and muttered to himself.
"Strange, Hoenn region weather monitoring data... what does Archie want with that?"
At that mont, the air seed to freeze, falling into complete silence.
And joining him in thought was Cynthia in front of the computer screen.
Stealing weather monitoring data?
And the submarine blueprints from before...
What exactly was Team Aqua planning?
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