The skinny man curled his lip, unimpressed by the stocky man's words. "It's precisely because this kid isn't ordinary that we need to make a move! Think about it, how much can you get off robbing a pauper? This one clearly comes from a good family. Robbing him is worth twenty ordinary jobs. High risk, high reward. Whatever line of work you're in, you've got to love it!"
The stocky man wanted to argue back, but the burly man in the blue headscarf was clearly the more dangerous of the two, and he cut in first. He slapped the skinny man across the head. "Spouting nonsense like that, are you trying to get into Nivan University?"
Stung by the slap, the skinny man's temper flared for real. "Then tell me what to do! We can't just stand here and watch him walk off!"
While the far side of the dunes was in an uproar, things on Nova's side were calm. His partners stood ready, waiting for his command.
Nova raised his binoculars and looked where Vibrava had pointed. Sure enough, he spotted a few figures moving along the hills in the distance. They clearly believed their numbers gave them the advantage, because they weren't bothering to hide or take cover. At that very moment, they were also peering back at him through their own binoculars.
Nova lowered his binoculars and raised a middle finger toward the dunes, a gesture that needed no translation.
The man in the blue headscarf pulled his binoculars away, eyes narrowing in anger. "He's got some nerve on him. This isn't someone we can scare off with a bit of posturing."
"Then what do we do?" the skinny man asked.
"What do we do? This one's going to be trouble," the stocky man muttered.
If Nova could have heard them, he would have had an answer ready: trouble was exactly what they were about to get, because he had already decided to flip the board on them.
"Meowscarada, Aqua, Little Love, get the equipment ready," Nova said. "Azir, give me a Sandstorm that reaches the sky. Let's give those three a taste of it."
More than half of Nova's team was made up of Rock, Ground, and Steel types, none of which took any damage from a Sandstorm, and Rock-types among them stood to gain a boost to their Special Defense while the storm raged. Since they were heading into a desert region, Sandstorm's tactical value here was enormous, and with Gilbert covering the costs of the expedition, Nova had no reason to hold back.
He fitted Safety Goggles on the partners who would otherwise be worn down by the storm, and put on a pair himself. The gear did more than shield the eyes. It threw up a fine barrier around the wearer that kept out both wind-blown sand and the spores kicked up by certain Mushroom Pokémon.
With everyone ready, Vibrava beat its wings to build up power. A moment later, that force tore free and twisted the surrounding sand into a towering, roaring column that climbed into the sky.
Watching the wall of sand rushing toward them, the skinny man didn't panic. Instead, he asked, sounding almost pleased with himself, "What's he playing at? Does he actually want to fight?"
The man in the blue headscarf sneered. "Young and reckless, that's what he is, using a Sandstorm to go after people. What kind of trainer walks into the Tamar Desert without a pair of Safety Goggles?"
The stocky man frowned. "Once this storm hits, we won't be able to see a thing over there. You think he's trying to run?"
He had it half right. Nova had raised the Sandstorm to blind them, but not so he could run. It was to hide his real plan.
The trio, certain their numbers gave them the upper hand and that the boy wouldn't dare come at them directly, assumed he was simply trying to slip away.
Nova had no such intention. He'd watched them grind away for days without managing to bring down that Rhydon, and from that alone he had a fair read on their skill. Ordinary trainers might not have been able to match them, but set against someone like Aston, the Elite Trainer Nova had faced back at the gym, this trio wasn't close.
So why should he go easy on them?
These three clearly weren't new to this, shaking down travelers for a living. Somebody should have put a stop to it long ago, and today, it seemed, that somebody was Nova.
The storm swept forward fast. In moments it had reached the trio, but their Safety Goggles kept them from taking any damage.
Guarding the three men were their own Pokémon: a Barbaracle, a Magneton, and a Persian. The first two, being Rock and Steel types, had nothing to fear from the sand, but the Persian couldn't hold out in it for long.
Pokémon gear didn't come cheap. Even Nova, who had built up some savings of his own, hadn't been able to equip his whole team before Gilbert started covering expenses. And men like these, who made their money through dirty tricks, tended to burn through it just as fast, on drink, on gambling, on chasing after women. They weren't the type to spend it kitting out every Pokémon on their team with goggles.
So the stocky man had no choice but to recall his Persian and reach for a Ground-type instead.
He figured that with two Pokémon still out and guarding them, nothing could go wrong in the brief moment it took to make the switch.
But it was exactly that narrow gap he opened up that gave Nidoking, who had been lying in wait beneath the sand, the opening it needed.
Then everything happened at once.
A great black-and-silver shape burst out of the storm like a bomber diving from the clouds, hurtling straight at the trio without hesitation.
Brave Bird.
Corviknight, who had been charging the attack from within the sandstorm the entire time, was going all in.
The moment they saw the attack coming, Barbaracle and Magneton threw up their shields on instinct.
But there were only two shields, and three men standing behind them.
Corviknight's Brave Bird looked like the real threat, but it was only a feint. The attack that would actually decide things was already crouched low on Corviknight's back, waiting.