The young trainer nad Ichki instinctively turned toward the direction of the voice, curious to see who could be so relaxed in such a dangerous situation.
With a whoosh, as he turned his head, a shadowy figure suddenly appeared. He didn't see the person clearly but caught sight of a black trench coat, red gloves, and a mask.
Ichki's eyes widened in shock.
Before he could process what he was seeing, a nearby mber of the Shadow organization called out in alarm:
"Joker?!"
In the blink of an eye, the masked figure moved like a blur, closing the gap with the Shadow mber. A sharp blow landed, and the man crumpled to the ground, unconscious.
Ichki finally registered what had happened and recognized the Pokémon standing beside the masked figure—it was the black Eevee he had seen before during a challenge at the Cianwood Gym!
Umbreon grabbed the unconscious Shadow mber by the back of his shirt with her front paw, her small body sohow managing to lift and fling him directly into a train car.
Crackle!
anwhile, in the surveillance room, Elena, the Shadow scientist, suddenly stood up, her playful deanor replaced with shock. The monitors in front of her had gone fuzzy, displaying only static.
"The caras have been disabled?!"
...
Back at the station, the remaining Shadow mbers, still holding their loot bags, froze in alarm.
"Joker!?"
Dozens of them had heard the stories—so from captured colleagues, others from public news reports. There was no mistaking it.
"Everyone, release your Pokémon imdiately!" one of the leaders among them barked, panic in his voice.
It was common knowledge that Joker had access to the recently-revealed Poke ball Disruptor, a device capable of disabling Poké Balls. The device had sent shockwaves through the Pokémon world after reports surfaced that it could lock Poké Balls shut, preventing trainers from releasing or recalling their Pokémon.
Even Pokémon strong enough to break free by force needed ti to do so. Lower-leveled Pokémon trapped in such tight spaces often risked injuring themselves in the process.
But before the Shadow mbers could act, Joker was already on the move.
Amid the chaos of panicked Shadow grunts and confused passengers, Stephen, wearing his Joker disguise, pulled a remote control from his coat pocket.
"Good work, Killer Queen," he said with a sly grin, pressing the button.
The grunts hurriedly fumbled with their Poké Balls, trying to release their Pokémon.
But nothing happened.
"Poké Balls... aren't working?"
Ichki murmured, taking out his own Poké Ball and pressing the button repeatedly, only to find it completely unresponsive.
"Could it be... the Poke Ball Disruptor they reported on the news?"
Ichki turned to look at Stephen, his face full of disbelief.
"Without the help of your Pokémon, you're all just ordinary people," Stephen said mockingly to the Shadow mbers. Then he turned to the stunned passengers.
"Well? Do I need to tell you all what to do next?"
A bespectacled young man, looking sowhat bookish, was the first to react. Without a second thought, he lunged at the nearest Shadow grunt.
His actions set off a chain reaction, like a bomb going off in a calm lake.
"Ahhh! Shadow! I'll fight you to the end!"
"Everyone, let's attack together!"
"Hey! Be careful where you're swinging! You hit !"
Hundreds of passengers, pitted against just a few dozen Shadow mbers, quickly overwheld their opposition.
"rcy! rcy!"
"Help... soone call the police!"
"Stop hitting ! Let's talk this out!"
The grunts were thoroughly beaten, their cries for help drowned out in the chaos.
Amid the uproar, two young girls with pink hair, no older than six or seven, darted toward the burlap sacks on the ground.
"My Snubbull! My Snubbull!" one of the girls, wearing round glasses, cried out as she reached for the bags.
In her haste, she tripped over one of the fallen Shadow grunts, nearly falling face-first to the ground.
"Whitney!" the twin-tailed girl behind her scread in panic.
At the last second, an arm reached out, catching the bespectacled girl by the waist.
She looked up to see a masked face staring back at her.
"Careful there, little miss," Stephen said gently. He picked up a Poké Ball from the bag and handed it to her.
"This is your Snubbull, right?"
"Mm-hmm..."
Whitney quickly took the Poké Ball, her face crumpling as she held it close.
"I'm sorry, Snubbull... I couldn't protect you..." she sobbed.
"Everything's fine now," the twin-tailed girl, who seed to be her friend, reassured her.
"Thank you..."
Whitney buried her face in her friend's arms, crying uncontrollably.
"Alright, everyone, that's enough," Stephen's voice rang out, cutting through the chaos.
"If you don't stop, those grunts might die."
The passengers paused, realizing the truth in his words, and gradually stopped their assault. Though many still looked warily at the masked young man, they couldn't deny that he had saved them.
"Everyone, leave quickly," Stephen urged.
"Don't forget, there's still poison gas lingering in the station."
Hearing this, the passengers finally snapped out of their daze.
"Let's go! Hurry up!"
"That black-coat guy... thank you!"
"Hey, your mask is pretty cool!"
"If you ever turn over a new leaf, I'll be your fan!"
As they rushed toward the exits, many took a mont to thank Stephen.
He smiled faintly, tossing the unconscious grunts into the train cars with the help of his Umbreon.
"Thank you, big brother..."
Stephen turned to see Whitney, her tear-streaked face looking up at him.
"Don't worry about it, little miss," he said, slipping into a theatrical tone as he playfully mimicked a famous phantom thief.
Whitney stared at him in awe.
"You're... Joker!?"
A sudden voice cut through the mont.
"Wait, that voice..."
Ichki's expression darkened as realization hit him. The woman who had spoken—it was the sa voice from earlier on the broadcast.
Elena!
Ignoring the revelation, Stephen calmly took gas masks from the fallen grunts, handing them to the two girls. After securing one for himself, he opened the train doors.
"Umbreon," he called.
The sleek black Pokémon, now in the train's control room, pressed the lever to activate the train.
As the train began to move, it shot out of the station at high speed, with Umbreon leaping out of the window just in ti.
Watching the train disappear, Ichki was left in a daze.
"Wait... where's my gas mask?"
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