"You bastard!" the grunt spat. "I told you everything — why won't you let me live?"
Nova looked at him calmly. "The warehouse and the finance office — I would have found those on my own in a few minutes."
"Taylor's location — I would have tracked him down eventually, with or without your help."
He paused. "But if you stay alive, I'll never be able to sleep easily again."
"I didn't see your face! I don't even know who you are—"
"That doesn't matter. Safest saw me."
"Then go kill him!"
"He's not a terrorist. I have no reason to kill him. He's not exactly a good person, but he doesn't deserve to die."
"Neither do I! I'm just a low-level grunt — the higher-ups forced me into everything I did!"
Nova's expression didn't change. "Is that so?" He turned and pointed — first at the warehouse, still burning steadily, then at the pool filled with bones. "You were part of this. Both of them. And you still think you don't deserve to die?"
The grunt's mouth opened, but no sound came out.
"Taylor went to Forest City to run illegal drug experiments," he finally said, his voice breaking. "I told you everything. Please — just let me go."
"Good," Nova said simply.
He rose to his feet. For one brief moment, the grunt believed he might actually walk away. Then he felt a faint, sharp sting at his left temple — almost nothing at all.
The terror came a second later, when he realized he could no longer feel his body. His vision went dark.
"Don't panic," Nova said quietly. "The dizziness is normal."
Those were the last words the grunt ever heard.
At Nova's signal, Nidoking extended its armored forearm. Two thin needles fired from the gaps between its scales, piercing the grunt's left temple with precision. The concentrated poison from Poison Sting passed directly through the skull into the brain. The terrorist's life ended in seconds.
Letting him go painlessly was Nova's only acknowledgment that the man had given him what he needed.
Nova crouched down and unclipped the two Poké Balls from the grunt's belt. Then he turned to Corvisquire and told it to collect every Poké Ball it could find throughout the building — from the dead, from the dying, from everyone.
Twenty-seven Poké Balls in total.
Nova thought about that number for a moment. If he had walked in without the element of surprise, he would have been facing twenty-seven Pokémon, most of them above level thirty. Not impossible, but the sheer weight of numbers would have made it a brutal fight.
He looked at the pile of Balls and considered what to do with them.
The most straightforward option was to sell them. Lune Town had no shortage of wealthy criminals who would pay well for a batch of battle-ready Pokémon, no questions asked. It would be easy money.
But that would be putting weapons in the hands of more criminals. And regardless of what anyone thought of him personally, Nova had no interest in being known as someone who armed the underworld.
He could hand the Balls over to Harmony City's Security Bureau and claim whatever official reward came with them. That was the cleaner option on paper. The problem was that every Original Team member in the building was already dead. Delivering twenty-seven Poké Balls without any living trainers to account for them would raise questions he did not want to answer.
And beyond that, foot soldiers like these were arrested in batches every year. They didn't carry bounties worth anything significant. The poaching ring tied to Original Team in the mountains was proof enough of that. The real prize was Taylor. Capturing or eliminating him would bring a reward that actually meant something. These grunts and their Pokémon weren't worth the trouble.
After thinking it over, Nova made his decision: release them here.
Lune Town was not a comfortable place for every species, and these Pokémon had been used in service of a criminal organization. The saying goes that weapons don't choose their targets — people do. But Pokémon are not weapons. They are thinking, feeling beings, not tools.
Even if he handed them over to the Norlandia Alliance, they would most likely end up confined in a Pokémon Prison.
Releasing them gave them a harder life, but a free one. That was worth something.
The side effect — nearly thirty former terrorist Pokémon suddenly loose in the streets of Lune Town — would certainly cause chaos. The local powers controlling this town would have their hands full dealing with the fallout.
Outside, Nova's assault on the bazaar had already drawn attention from every gang in the area. A cluster of onlookers lingered at a safe distance, watching the building and trading theories in low voices.
"Did you hear? It's an agent from the Advent Church — took out Original Team's whole hideout in one strike."
"Your sources are all over the place. Safest told me it was a chemist Taylor had hired. The deal went bad and they turned on each other."
"Think about it for a second. Who else would dare hit Original Team head-on like this? If I'm wrong, I'll eat my words."
"Could be Alliance Security coming in for an arrest?"
"Don't be such a Wimpod. If Security were here, the whole town would be locked down with cordons. Would it be this quiet?"
While they were still debating, someone spotted movement inside the half-ruined bazaar.
Nearly thirty Pokémon burst out through the collapsed entrance in a pack, wild-eyed and agitated.
"W-what is that?!"
"Those are Original Team's Pokémon — why are they all loose?!"
"Stop standing there staring — run! If they catch you, that's your problem!"
The streets emptied fast.
By the time Nova stepped out of the rubble, the area around the bazaar was completely deserted.
He had Nidoking use Earthquake twice, then follow up with Earth Power. The remaining structure of the bazaar came down in pieces, reduced to broken bricks and dust. Whatever evidence might have connected the scene back to Nova was buried under it.
The only section he left standing was the finance office. He intended to come back for that safe once he had a way to get past a lock like that.
He had no idea the gangs outside had already tagged him as an agent of the Advent Church, or what kind of history that organization had with Original Team. That was a problem for another time.
His immediate concern was getting to Forest City. The Tamar Desert stretched for thousands of kilometres, and crossing it on a mountain bike was simply not possible. He would need to return to Harmony City first and find another way.
Once again, Nova felt the inconvenience of not having a Pokémon that could carry him over long distances. Back when Nidorino had been able to keep pace on the road, it had been enough. But now that it had evolved into Nidoking, that option was long gone. His best hope was that Corvisquire would evolve soon and grow large enough to fly him.
He glanced at the bird perched nearby — still at level 25, nowhere close to its next evolution — and let out a quiet sigh.
No choice. He would pedal.
The ride back was uneventful. Neither the locals of Lune Town nor any wild Pokémon from the desert gave him any trouble, and by the following dawn Nova rolled back into Harmony City.