David was enjoying a day at the water park with his Pokémon, sliding down the water slides one after another.
Zorua shook its whole body, flinging droplets of water off its fur. Zorua did not really like getting wet like this, except when David groomed its fur every day.
"Alright, next let's try the rafting ride, and after that we can go jet skiing..." David said with a smile, already planning the rest of the day with his Pokémon.
Suddenly, his Aura Power reacted on its own, and a cold chill ran through his body, making him shiver.
"What's happening...?"
Sensing that something was wrong, David immediately released his Aura Power and scanned the area around him.
Sure enough, he noticed something strange right away. Through his Aura Power, he could feel that several Pokémon heading toward him carried Aura that felt clearly abnormal.
Looking up, he saw a few small Pokémon, a Pidgey, a Meowth, and a Pichu, quietly moving closer to where he stood.
Since the water park allowed small and medium-sized Pokémon inside, and plenty of Pokémon were already playing around the park, nobody paid any attention to these few newcomers.
If David hadn't been able to sense the strange Aura fluctuations radiating from their bodies, even he might not have noticed anything unusual about these ordinary-looking Pokémon.
His instincts weren't wrong. Something really was going on, and this was no accident. Whoever was behind this was clearly targeting him.
Watching the Pokémon draw nearer, David turned to move away, but it was already too late.
As if sensing that David had noticed them, the Pokémon suddenly sped up and charged straight at him.
Without warning, their bodies began to swell rapidly. A dark, corrosive energy expanded inside them until they burst apart like overfilled balloons.
"BOOM!"
A massive explosion tore through the air. The sound was so loud that everyone nearby was momentarily deafened. The blast released a wave of dark energy that swallowed an area dozens of meters wide.
Once the smoke cleared, the ground for dozens of meters around looked as though it had been scooped out by heavy machinery, a crater two to three meters deep, completely consumed by the dark energy without a trace left behind.
The energy that splashed outward reached almost a hundred meters further. This dark energy seemed to carry a strong corrosive property. Anything caught even at the edge of the blast was badly corroded.
Watching his handiwork from a distance, Yade stood there a little stunned. He had expected good results, but not results this good!
Those Pokémon had been living bombs he had sent in, meant to create an opening for his Inteleon to land a clean shot. The bombs themselves were new goods he had bought on the dark web, supposedly extremely powerful and well reviewed among people in his circle.
Still, he hadn't expected them to be this destructive. Even a full-power attack from a Gym Leader's strongest Pokémon might not have done more damage than this!
A grin spread across his face. Could David have already been killed in that blast? If so, he could pack up and leave right now.
But reality, as usual, wasn't so kind to him.
David's Pokémon had sensed the danger the instant it appeared. Without hesitation, Kirlia used Teleport to whisk David and the others away.
However, in the rush, and with too many people to move at once, they only managed to teleport about twenty meters, enough to avoid the very center of the blast, but not enough to escape it entirely.
Both Zorua and Lucario threw up their defenses in time, but the explosion's power was too great, and the strange dark energy made it worse.
Their defenses shattered. Even with the force greatly weakened, and even with David's own Aura Power shielding his body, he was still sent flying by the shockwave. His Pokémon, too, were left dazed and unable to reach him in time.
Fortunately, right at the moment of the explosion, the special Poké Ball on David's belt flashed red, and Dragapult appeared just in time, catching him out of the air like a rescue arriving right on cue.
The shockwave itself was nothing to Dragapult, who brushed it off with ease. But when it came to the spreading dark energy, even Dragapult's eyes narrowed with unease.
For a moment, everything went silent. Then screams, cries for help, and shouts of pain and anger broke out all around.
"Help! Someone help me, my leg is broken!"
"Waaah... Mommy..."
"What's going on? Where are the police? Somebody call the police!"
"Damn it, who did this? Setting off something like this in public, that's practically terrorism!"
The whole section of the water park fell into chaos after the explosion.
Given how many people usually filled a water park, even though this spot wasn't the most crowded, the blast had still covered several hundred square meters, so David was far from the only one caught in it.
"Damn it!"
Looking at the scene around him, David felt a surge of anger. He never imagined someone would go so far as to set off something like this in a place full of ordinary people.
If Kirlia hadn't reacted so quickly, and if he hadn't had Dragapult, a gift from his father, at his side, the outcome could have been far worse.
Even so, the force of the explosion had left him badly hurt. His whole body ached, and a thin line of blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.
But the explosion had only been the opening move. Whoever was trying to kill David clearly wasn't finished yet.
As the smoke cleared and Yade saw that David hadn't been blown apart after all, a cruel smile crossed his face, and he began preparing the next stage of his plan.