"Everyone, keep your guard up. Team Plasma has deployed an immense network of surveillance cameras throughout these waters," Vio's telepathic voice resonated within the collective consciousness, his finger pointing toward a dense cluster of drifting translucent entities. "Furthermore, they have heavily seeded the marine layout with wild Frillish."
The Frillish drifted gracefully through the currents, their billowing, veil-like arms waving gently. Lacking any lower limbs, the males of the species sported a light blue hide while the females vibrated in soft pink. Beneath their delicate, porcelain-like appearance lay thousands of microscopic, toxic needles lining their ruffles, capable of rapidly paralyzing prey to induce silent drowning. Wild Frillish were notorious for binding swimming targets within their silken arms, dragging them down into the crushing depths of the abyss.
"Pay close attention to your surroundings. The toxicity metrics of these Frillish have been artificially enhanced and modified through Colress's specialized genetic engineering," Vio cautioned the strike force gravely. "Do not permit them to latch onto your mounts. These creatures harbor a profound fascination with living organisms; they envelop humans or Pokémon within their tendrils, systematically suffocating them to absorb their spiritual life force and expand their own parameters."
The ancient ruins anchoring Team Plasma's stronghold were colossally massive. The precise moment Feng Che cleared the surface tension, a towering, submerged structure closely resembling a ruined Leaning Tower of Babylon loomed through the dark sapphire water. Thousands of native Water-type Pokémon swarmed dynamically around the perimeter of the submerged monolith.
Feng Che's sharp gaze even caught sight of a wild Tirtouga cluster nesting near the base of the structural columns. The Prototurtle Pokémon featured a deep blue primary hide, its face shielded by a rugged, blackish-blue bone mask. Its webbed forelimbs were fortified by dense skeletal plates, and matching its prehistoric testudine anatomy, its heavy carapace was marked by six distinct indentations, ending in a sharp, rock-solid beak.
"Those Tirtouga are cloned specimens Colress engineered by extracting and sequencing viable genetic material from ancient Cover Fossils," Vio explained, continuing his technical brief. "Colress's mastery over genetic cloning is exceptionally profound. Deep within his central laboratory, he holds an immense garrison of rare, highly specialized Mythical Pokémon engineered entirely from scratch."
"At present, he is even conducting forbidden trials to clone genuine Legendary deities. Fortunately, the raw energy matrix required to sustain a true god is far too immense; Colress has failed to stabilize a perfect Legendary clone thus far. Instead, his current focus has shifted toward splicing and blending distinct genetic sequences from two separate Pokémon species to engineer an entirely new evolutionary tier. However, that line of research has yet to yield a stable success."
Vio continued to outline Colress's scientific achievements, entirely unaware that a micro-camera seamlessly camouflaged as a piece of deep-sea coral had already mapped out their exact entry vectors.
Deep within the central command bunker, the monitoring operative immediately routed the real-time telemetry straight to Sage Giallo, who was currently spearheading the outer security patrol.
"Lord Giallo, we have confirmed visual tracking on the traitor Vio. He is currently guiding a strike force straight toward the main ruins. Please advise on tactical engagement."
"Unleash our marine vanguard," Giallo responded coldly over the comms array. "This stretch of ocean shall serve as the absolute, permanent burial ground we have so meticulously engineered for them."
Following Giallo's definitive directive, the monitoring operative slammed a primary manual switch. A colossal automated hangar bay groaned open along the lower chassis of the ruins, and a massive wave of Gyarados, Corsola, and Cursola swarmed out into the open water. This was the specialized aquatic division Team Plasma had spent years cultivating for defensive warfare.
The Corsola shimmered in their natural pink hue, their underbellies and limbs a pristine white, flanked by four small horns along their backs. Branches of beautiful coral crested their skulls—constructs that, while structurally brittle and easily severed, could fully regenerate within a brief three-day window. In the natural ecosystem, Corsola along with Staryu served as the primary prey items for the ravenous Mareanie lines.
"Damn it! Our infiltration has been compromised!" Vio's frustrated voice crackled across the telepathic bridge. "They've completely overhauled the security sectors. My original stealth corridor is heavily covered. All units, prepare for immediate engagement!"
Vio directed his Kingdra to unleash a sweeping Whirlpool, whipping up a massive localized vortex to stall the frontline.
"Greninja, use Water Shuriken!" Feng Che commanded smoothly.
Greninja raised its webbed palm high, the surrounding ocean currents instantly responding to its massive elemental parameters. An exceptionally massive, hyper-compressed shuriken of liquid energy materialized above its crown, spinning at a manic, lethal velocity.
With a sharp flick of its wrist, Greninja launched the colossal blade. The spinning projectile tore across the water, reshaping the fluid environment into a gargantuan maelstrom that raced straight toward Team Plasma's aquatic division.
The massive spatial suction of the Water Shuriken swept dozens of Gyarados and Corsola into its swirling vortex. Only a handful of Corsola managed to anchor themselves firmly to the seabed reefs to avoid being pulled away. Within seconds, the brunt of the marine vanguard was violently propelled upward by the force of the current, breaking the surface of the ocean far above.
The cataclysmic impact of the technique violently churned the ocean floor, kicking up centuries of fine silt and sand until the entire deep-sea sector was plunged into an absolute blackout of murky water. Within the blinding cloud, Feng Che and the hundred elite Trainers completely vanished from visual tracking.
"Report, Lord Giallo! We have entirely lost telemetry on Vio's strike force!" the command operative reported frantically, desperately cycling through the submerged camera arrays only to find zero trace of the intruders.
"Abort the visual search. Vio has undoubtedly bypassed the perimeter to enter the structural core," Giallo growled, his fists tightening in deep frustration. "He discovered these ruins during his youth; his mapping of the architecture runs far deeper than our current security layouts. Curse it... if Colress's primary experiment hadn't reached such a critical milestone, we wouldn't be forced into a passive holding pattern like this, bound to defend the interior walls."
Meanwhile, within an uncharted transit corridor deep inside the ruins, Vio was seamlessly guiding Feng Che's vanguard through a labyrinth of stone chambers.
His earlier technical assessment proved completely accurate—holding the Dialga Dragon Scales cleanly neutralized the temporal anomalies laced into the architecture. Upon crossing the threshold, Iris had lost her footing and stumbled directly into a shimmering time rift; if it hadn't been for the temporal resonance of the Dialga scale secured on her person, she would have been instantly consumed and aged to dust by the chronal trap.
As Feng Che moved deeper down the corridor, his eyes locked onto the sprawling array of ancient murals lining the high stone walls. The artistry was profoundly majestic, meticulously documenting the historical fracture of the primordial dragon into the distinct entities of the Tao Trio.
"During my early expeditions here, we successfully harvested several feather-like ancient scales left behind by the original dragon," Vio explained, noticing Feng Che's deep interest in the stone reliefs. "However, the murals themselves stop short of unmasking the exact reason why the primordial dragon chose to fracture its own divinity."
"Did your teams locate any ancestral treasures within these vaults? Standard historical ruins of this caliber inevitably anchor a core artifact," Feng Che inquired, his tone thoughtful.
"The ruins do indeed house a primary treasure, but it remains securely locked within the absolute inner sanctum," Vio replied, turning his head toward the youth. "The core chamber is shielded by an incredibly dense psychic barrier. Our teams expended an immense amount of scientific and elemental resources, yet we failed to compromise its structural integrity. If it piques your interest, once we systematically dismantle Team Plasma, I shall personally guide you to the threshold of that psychic barrier to see if your parameters can crack it."
"Found it. This is the botanical marker we need," Vio muttered, his eyes locking onto a specific cluster of wild foliage erupting from a fissure in the ancient stone. He carefully harvested several unique berries and distributed them among the core leadership.
"The chemical aroma emitted by these berries is violently reviled by the native guardians of the ruins. Crush the pulp and coat your skin with the juice; it will ensure safe passage. The primary guardians anchoring these corridors are massive flocks of Swoobat."
"I personally subdued and conditioned these Swoobat clusters years ago to serve as the structural defense line for the vaults. However, they are engineered to respond exclusively to a highly specific sonic frequency—a frequency Ghetsis systematically rotates every few cycles to lock me out of the system."
As the words left Vio's mouth, they rounded a sharp bend in the grand corridor, only to find the stone floor heavily littered with the unconscious forms of hundreds of Swoobat.