The next day, with the scorching sun high in the sky, Lorelei knocked on Ash's door and saw Mars tied up securely.
"This person is—"
"She is one of the four executives of Team Galactic named Mars. She is also the person in charge of the Orange Islands. Last night, she already confessed the location of the Team Galactic branch and where Miss Cynthia is being held," Ash said calmly as he casually placed several cups of hot milk on the table.
Last night, he, Misty, and Serena had already interrogated a lot of information out of Mars. Most importantly, they had pried the location of the Team Galactic branch and Cynthia's whereabouts from her mouth.
As righteous people, they naturally couldn't use any torture that would leave Mars's skin in tatters. However, some forms of torture are more unbearable than physical injury—such as the simplest one: tickling.
They had Mewtwo hold her completely still and then used Psychic power to amplify the sensations in the soles of her feet. What followed was a tickling torture more terrifying than death by a thousand cuts.
Under such torture, even a man of iron would have to spit out the information!
At first, Mars tried to fool Ash and the others with fake information. Perhaps she had already anticipated the possibility of her failure and deliberately revealed false intel. As long as Ash believed it, he would be lured into a trap.
That was a place where even Cynthia had suffered a great loss. Even if Ash went there, he certainly wouldn't gain any advantage—at least, that was what Mars believed.
But such lies were like a child's trick in the eyes of the human lie detector, Mewtwo, full of loopholes.
By monitoring heart rate, tone, and emotion, Mewtwo could distinguish whether a person was telling the truth or a lie. Thus, Mars's strategy of deception ended before it even began.
Ultimately unable to withstand the "tickling torture," Mars confessed the location of the Team Galactic branch and Cynthia's whereabouts. As it happened, those two locations were exactly where Ash and the others were heading: Shamouti Island!
Team Galactic had obviously learned the news that Lugia, God of the Sea, was on Shamouti Island. After all, this was information that could be obtained just by asking Nurse Joy. Although Nurse Joy had told him because of his status, this news was clearly not a well-kept secret.
With Team Galactic's methods, it wasn't strange that they could obtain this information.
Therefore, they had already moved their branch to Shamouti Island long ago.
But if they had simply moved to Shamouti Island, the League wouldn't have failed to find them. Currently, the League had searched for who knows how long and still hadn't discovered Team Galactic's base.
Shamouti Island and its surrounding area were only so large, and Team Galactic's branch wouldn't be too small. The reason the base's location hadn't been found was that Team Galactic had placed it—underwater!
This was something that neither the League, the Elites, Ash, nor even any normal person could have imagined.
What kind of place was Shamouti Island? That region was plagued by storms and surging waves year-round. Just trying to sail on the surface was extremely difficult, so the idea of placing a base on the seabed seemed impossible.
But Team Galactic had created a device that could submerge the entire base on the seabed, and it was even mobile underwater.
Because of this, the League was completely unable to find any trace of Team Galactic.
Cynthia had obtained the information that Team Galactic was underwater, but when she sent the message and headed toward the base, the information was intercepted by Team Galactic and never reached the League's hands.
Team Galactic had also prepared for Cynthia's arrival long ago. They set a trap and trapped her inside the base in a cage created using the power of a god. Even Cynthia couldn't possibly break out of it.
However, they also had no way to deal with Cynthia. The only thing they could do was keep her trapped until her supplies ran out.
The only good news obtained from Mars was that the Spatial Backpack Cynthia carried seemed to store an unknown amount of food and daily necessities. As a result, even though Cynthia had been trapped for a month, she was still full of energy inside.
Once, when Team Galactic opened the cage to check on her condition, they were nearly caught by a opening she exploited to try and force her way out.
That cage was made using Palkia's power. Although it had a very strong binding effect, it only had a binding effect and couldn't cause any harm to the person inside. Furthermore, due to the influence of spatial power, they couldn't even set up surveillance inside.
Therefore, to check on Cynthia's situation, they could only silently open a small hole in the Spatial Barrier to observe her.
Even such a momentary vulnerability was directly seized by Cynthia, who nearly shattered the barrier by focusing her attack on that single point.
After that, they never checked on Cynthia's condition again. Whether she was dead or alive inside, they would only open the Spatial Barrier after their plan succeeded.
"—It's good that Cynthia is okay. Then let's set off for Shamouti Island now." After hearing the information Ash gathered yesterday, Lorelei also breathed a great sigh of relief. A rare look of relaxation appeared on her tense, pretty face. As long as Cynthia was fine, everything was fine. However, Cynthia probably wouldn't be able to hold out for much longer, so they had to hurry and find her.
Thus, Lorelei suggested setting off for Shamouti Island immediately. Only by seizing every second could they reduce the chance of any accidents happening to Cynthia.
"Yeah, I've already had Pidgeot transferred over from Professor Oak. Miss Lorelei, you and Serena ride Pidgeot, while Misty and I will ride Charizard over there," Ash said, tossing two Poké Balls. The majestic Charizard and Pidgeot appeared in the clearing.
Since they had a definite destination, they couldn't continue slowly riding on Lapras. Flying through the sky was undoubtedly the fastest route, so Ash decisively transferred Pidgeot back.
"Alright, then what about her?" Lorelei tilted her snowy chin toward Mars. The four of them had their seating arrangements sorted, but there was one extra person here.
To get to the Team Galactic base, Mars was definitely indispensable. Without her to lead the way, even if they knew the base was near Shamouti Island, they wouldn't know how long they would be searching in the dark.
"As for her—just tie her with a rope and let Pidgeot carry her along. Don't worry, my Pidgeot can handle the weight."
"Hey, hey, hey!! Is this how you treat a prisoner? Can't you give me some better treatment? After all, you still need me to point the way!!" Mars rolled her eyes and complained indignantly.
The issue isn't whether your Pidgeot can carry me, it's whether my 'ride' is comfortable or not!
Wait, according to Ash, it's not even a ride—she'd be completely tied up while flying! This is sheer prisoner abuse!
Is this how 'righteous' people are supposed to act?!
"There's no need for preferential treatment for someone like you. If you do bad things, you have to be punished!!" Misty said with her hands on her hips, snapping back at Mars without hesitation.
That night, they had been quite frightened by this person, only to find out she was a total noob—well, calling her a noob might be a bit much. Compared to them, Mars was still overwhelmingly powerful, but compared to Ash, she was indeed a noob.
She didn't even have a single Champion-level Pokémon. With Ash on his guard, she couldn't possibly harm a hair on his head. The images Mewtwo projected into their minds that night clearly demonstrated this.
Even so, the two of them had been terrified at the time, so there was no way they would give Mars a friendly face.
Right now, they were just letting Pidgeot dangle her while flying. Not flying low over the sea to douse her with seawater was already the height of kindness!
Meanwhile, Ash and Lorelei acted as if they hadn't heard Mars at all, continuing to casually discuss the division of labor and formulate the plan for entering Team Galactic's interior.
For someone like Mars, if you gave her a nice face, she'd likely try to take advantage. So the best approach now was to ignore her and make her behave; they would still need her help to enter the Team Galactic base later.
If they didn't keep her in check now, when would they?
Mars's mouth twitched, knowing that her protest was futile. For now, she could only suppress the anger in her heart and wait for a chance to turn the tables.
On Little Orange Island, Trainer battles were still in full swing. But no one knew that Ash and Lorelei had already left. When they departed, Ash specifically had Mewtwo use Psychic power to mask their tracks, ensuring they left without a trace.
They wanted the people on the island to think they were still there. This way, they could deceive others and slip into Team Galactic's base unnoticed.
The Team Galactic branch in the Orange Islands had two leaders. Besides Mars, one of the four executives, there was also a guy named Charon.
Judging by the name alone, Charon sounded much more imposing than Mars. But in reality, this man named Charon was far inferior to Mars in terms of strength. The reason he could rank among the four executives was that he was a—scientist!
He was a researcher whose skills matched his reputation. In terms of knowledge, there were probably very few people in the League who could rival him.
In terms of knowledge, Professor Oak might not be inferior and might even surpass him, but Charon's strength lay not just in knowledge, but in his terrifying research and development capabilities.
Professor Oak was just a professor, not a scientist. A scientist is different from an ordinary research scholar.
Charon's dread was well-known within Team Galactic. It could be seen from his ability to fuse Yveltal's power into Little Lugia and use Palkia's residual power to create a Spatial Barrier that even Cynthia couldn't break.
Although he and Mars were both leaders of the Orange Islands branch, according to Mars, she actually followed Charon's orders most of the time. This was true for the Lugia matter and the setting of the trap to capture Cynthia.
Even her act of playing dumb and pretending to be an innocent little girl this time was Charon's idea.
That guy's intellect was on a completely different level from ordinary people. If the person he was targeting wasn't Ash, even a Champion might accidentally fall into the trap he set.
Charon was also the greatest opponent for Ash and his group on this trip.
At night, winds howled and waves surged around Shamouti Island. At this time, there were almost no ships or creatures on the sea. Even Water-type Pokémon didn't dare to surface casually; otherwise, the churning seawater might directly sweep them into the waves. Even for Water-type Pokémon, it would likely be a disaster.
Not just on the sea, but also high in the sky, the howling winds and frequent lightning and rain made it basically impossible for any flying Pokémon to exist. But now, two exceptions appeared: an orange-red figure and a brown-white figure weaving through the storm.
Even weather akin to a category 13 typhoon couldn't stop Ash and the others from advancing.
Transparent shields rose around Charizard and Pidgeot, basically reducing the impact of the storm to a minimum.
"This stormy weather is related to a god." Just as they entered the range of Shamouti Island, Mewtwo's voice echoed in Ash's mind.
These disasters, which looked like they were formed naturally by heaven and earth, were actually influenced by a deity rather than being naturally formed.
"Is it Lugia?"
"Probably not. I can feel two God Domain Level powers mixed in the weather. In terms of strength, they might be on par with me."
Being on par with Mewtwo meant they were around the Initial God Domain Level. Based on the reputation and legends of the God of the Sea, Lugia should have at least Advanced God Domain Level strength.
In other words, the power affecting the area around Shamouti Island wasn't Lugia's, but that of other deities—and two God Domain Levels at that!
Since when did God Domain Level entities become so common?
Ash suppressed his doubts. The matter of these two God Domain Level Pokémon could wait until after Cynthia was rescued. For now, finding the Team Galactic base was the priority.
"According to Mars, the Team Galactic base is down there. Ash, can you have Mewtwo investigate below?" Lorelei asked Ash while looking at the churning waves below.
"I'll try—Mewtwo says he found it. There is indeed a giant submarine-like base down there, and it contains a divine aura." In less than a second, Ash gave a reply.
Mars hadn't lied to them. A hundred meters below the sea surface, there was a giant base shaped like a submarine. Not only that, but it also had the aura of divine power. If Mars's information was correct, that should be the spatial cage formed by Palkia's power.
Cynthia was inside that thing!