In the sky above the tottering S.S. Anne a gap was torn open in the encircling formation, and a fierce-looking man riding a Salamence broke through first, with two men and a woman following behind him.
"Don't think you're getting away!"
Behind them came Looker of the International Police in a trench coat, riding a Pidgeot and holding close on their tail, with the plainclothes men close behind him.
"Go, quickly, Aerodactyl, fly this way."
Vance said it hurriedly, sending the Aerodactyl off to one side, because the line those people were retreating along ran straight through where he was.
To keep from being caught up in it he had no choice but to get clear, and since he had kept a safe distance earlier he managed it in time.
Only he had become separated from Nolan, and had no idea where he had got to.
Amid the crossing energies of the moves, someone ahead of them fell.
"Fourth Sister, quick, save her!"
Ryder shouted. The one who had fallen was Fourth Sister.
"Rooaar—"
Feeling its Trainer's mood, the Salamence gave a furious roar and came back killing, striking several people out of the air one after another and pinning down even Looker as he came up behind; luckily Jeffrey Thorne, the Elite-Four-class power aboard the S.S. Anne, arrived belatedly and joined Looker to take on Ryder.
But even two against one they could not bring him down. Their Pokémon held the Salamence hemmed in only with difficulty, and were beginning to give way.
The Elite-Four-class Salamence was far too strong. It was worthy of the name pseudo-legendary — with several Pokémon of its own rank closing in to kill it, it did not flinch in the least.
Ryder's other two companions took the chance to fly downward, meaning to reach Fourth Sister where she had been knocked out of the sky.
Besides the loyalty the four of them held to one another, a good part of their property was on her, so a rescue was certain.
The two of them were not weak either, with Gym-class fighting strength, but the police party naturally had Gym-class men of its own, and they went to intercept while several others dropped quickly to seize the fallen woman.
"Splooosh—"
The water churned violently and a Water Pokémon came leaping out of it with the woman.
"Blastoise, Hydro Pump."
"Starmie, Confuse Ray."
"Kingler, Bubble Beam."
...............
The pursuing police sent their Pokémon in one after another, trying to keep her there.
But the woman was no weakling herself, and at the critical moment she used her own psychic power and broke out of the trap.
The next moment a Shedinja appeared and attacked her.
The International Police naturally knew all about the four of them, knew that the woman among them was a Psychic, and had deployed Pokémon chosen against her.
Not only the Shedinja: several Psychic-type Pokémon appeared as well and closed in with it.
A Psychic is strong, certainly, but not invincible, and countered on purpose like that she came off badly.
Under the massed Pokémon the woman gradually gave way, and one careless moment saw her spatial pack struck.
The damaged pack split open and object after object sprang out of it and fell into the water.
"Second Brother, Third Brother, quick, the things have fallen out!"
"Coming."
The Second and Third Brothers she had called for arrived and drove back the men coming at them, and had just reached for the fallen things when the pursuit caught up again.
"Some of you, get those things gathered up, they may well be what the Kalos Academy of Sciences wants. Quickly."
"Those are ours."
"Heh. Give yourselves up."
"Damn you. I'll take you with me."
"Boom—"
Wave after wave burst up as the two sides closed again, and the backwash of the moves kept the water rolling, rising and falling, until the whole place was in confusion.
A great many of the things were carried off in every direction with the waves.
"Second Brother, stop fighting, let's pull out first. If we don't we won't get out at all. I've got a few of the things; we'll let the rest go."
"Rooaar—"
The Salamence dropped suddenly out of the air with a man standing on its back, and that man was Ryder; with a lift of his hand he drove back the police coming at him and killed several of them along the way.
"Up here, quickly, we have to go. Their reinforcements are almost on us."
Ryder said urgently.
Only then did the man they called Second Brother jump up onto the Salamence's back, unwilling as he was, and as the three of them crowded onto it together Looker and Jeffrey Thorne came in to cut them off again.
"Ryder, hand over what you took from the Kalos Academy of Sciences. You're not getting away today."
"Heh. Not getting away? That remains to be seen."
Ryder only laughed at the threat; to his mind it carried no weight at all. If a thing like that frightened him, why would he be in this line of work? He might as well go home and farm.
"Big Brother, Fourth Sister's pack was damaged. The things have spilled down there."
"Big Brother, I could only get two. There wasn't time for the rest."
Ryder heard them out, looked at the men on the other side growing more numerous by the moment, and simply let it go; dragging it out any longer would end badly.
"What's mine isn't easy to take. Salamence, Dragon Rage!"
"Rooaar—"
A dragon's head of raw energy appeared and swept out in every direction, leaving Jeffrey Thorne and Looker no choice but to give way before it; the sea below churned on and on under the blow, heaving mountainously, and the scattered things went drifting away with it.
"Kraboom—"
In the spray that filled the whole sky, the Salamence carried the four of them away fast into the distance.
"Leave a squad here to collect them. Mr. Jeffrey Thorne, you come with me."
Looker said it; Jeffrey Thorne heard him, and though his face worked, he went along all the same.
Several of the police and the people mustered from the S.S. Anne stayed where they were to fish the things out, but the things had scattered too far and there were too many people about, and it all came to a mess.
The S.S. Anne had not sunk; she was only badly damaged, and the fighting had left casualties, and Locke, who was in charge, was seeing to the aftermath.
"We are the International Police. We ask all Trainers now: if you fish anything up, you may bring it to us to exchange. The reward will certainly satisfy you, and for anything of high value you may even take a starter Pokémon in exchange. Remember, everyone, what we want above all is a combination case, with experimental data inside."
One of the International Police had taken out a loudhailer and was flying about on his Pokémon. It was one way of going at it.
Some way off, Vance watched the four of them go and looked at the din of it all, and no longer felt like going back aboard the S.S. Anne; he meant to find Nolan and then leave straight away.
Then suddenly Vance told the Aerodactyl to stop. Below him a broken box was floating.
What had caught him was not the broken box but the thing inside it: a stone, with the shape of a genetic helix formed at its centre, giving off a faint coloured light.
"That's a Mega Stone!"
Vance knew it at a glance and cried out; with a turn of thought he teleported the thing into his hand and, very fast, put it away in his storage bracelet.
He looked around him; as it happened there was nobody near, and what he had done had gone unseen, and his racing heart slowly settled again.
"A Mega Stone, of all things! Who would have thought it. But this isn't the time when Mega Evolution is supposed to have turned up."
Past the shock, Vance also found it strange that he should have run into a Mega Stone here.
Could it have something to do with the people the International Police were chasing?
Still, that could wait. Get the prize in hand first and think afterwards.
With that, Vance called the Aerodactyl on and began searching the area, to see whether he could find anything more.
And Vance was not the only one searching just then; a good many of the bolder ones were out looking too.
They had seen things go into the sea a moment ago, and now that it was safe it was exactly the time to look; if a man could turn up one treasure, he was made.
Handing it in or keeping it were both excellent outcomes. Fish it out first, decide later.