At exactly 1:00 PM, the airship bound for Harmony City departed on schedule.
Nova had taken a seat on the port side by the window. Looking down, he could see a worker at the air station using a Pokémon with powerful Psychic energy to release the thick anchor cables connecting the airship to the ground. The moment they came loose, the airship rose steadily, like a balloon finally freed from someone's grip.
Two large turbofan engines hummed at the vessel's tail, pushing it forward with quiet, reliable force. At roughly eight hundred metres above the ground, the airship levelled off and began its long westward journey.
For Nova, an airship was the most sensible way to travel right now — but it was far from the fastest. The route from Goldenlight City to Harmony City was long, and under ideal conditions, the journey took around eight hours. Change in weather could push that to sixteen, and in truly bad conditions, a delay of a day or two was not unheard of.
Fortunately, the pace of life in the Pokémon world tended to be relaxed. Most people did not have appointments so pressing that a few hours' delay would ruin things. If something genuinely urgent came up, there was always the option of spending more to hire a Flying-type Pokémon for faster travel.
With that in mind, Nova had come fully prepared to spend the rest of the day on board. He found his seat, pulled out his headphones, slipped on a sleep mask, and settled in to rest as much as he could.
At some point during the first stretch of the flight, the airship's security officer stopped by to introduce himself. As one of the few Trainers on board with real battling experience — even if Nova still considered himself a work in progress — he would be a useful person to have on hand if anything went wrong. The officer made note of that and moved on.
Nova slept soundly for about four hours before being gently woken by a flight attendant making the rounds for the dinner service.
The experience was quite different from what he remembered of air travel in his previous life. Back then, flight attendants were typically young and neatly uniformed. On this airship, things were far more relaxed.
The woman handling dinner distribution looked to be in her fifties or sixties, round-faced and warm-eyed, with the natural ease of someone who genuinely enjoyed her work. Helping her were two Ambipom, their long, nimble tails working efficiently to carry and hand out meal boxes while their faces wore expressions just as cheerful as their owner's. Each passenger received their box with a small, enthusiastic bow, and the Ambipom accepted payment with clear delight, bowing again in thanks.
Meals were not included in the ticket price, and plenty of passengers had brought their own snacks for exactly that reason. But watching those Ambipom approach with bright, wide eyes full of quiet eagerness, it was genuinely difficult to say no.
Nova certainly could not manage it. A meal box came to thirty-six Coins, which was not cheap. He opened it anyway, took a bite, and was pleasantly surprised. The food was genuinely good — clearly prepared with care by the woman herself, nothing like the reheated microwave trays he had suffered through on flights in his previous life. Thirty-six Coins felt entirely fair.
Satisfied and properly full, Nova gave up on sleeping for the time being. He put his headphones back in and watched the scenery pass through the porthole.
The airship had dropped to below two hundred metres by now. Night had come, and flying lower was the safer choice after dark.
The security officer, who had been resting since the flight began, finally had work to do. He slid open the starboard safety door to reveal a small external platform — a narrow, railing-enclosed space built specifically for his post. Nova watched as the officer stepped out and released his Noctowl, a well-built level fifty Night Owl Pokémon whose keen eyes were well suited for scanning the darkness. The chance of encountering wild Pokémon rose as the airship neared the ground, and Noctowl was more than capable of sending any wandering Pokémon on their way.
The scenery below had been changing steadily since they left Goldenlight City and headed northwest. The thick, primeval forest of the region had given way to open grassland, and now, as night deepened, the vegetation below was growing sparse and patchy. Within about an hour, the airship would likely be crossing into the Gobi Desert. After that, another two hours or so across the sands would bring them to the outskirts of Harmony City.
Nova was beginning to think the journey would pass without incident. He leaned back, ready to close his eyes again.
Then something shifted.
A tall, broad-shouldered man rose from his seat near the back of the cabin. He was dressed entirely in black — a worn, heavy trench coat, a baseball cap pulled low, dark sunglasses, and a mask covering the lower half of his face. He looked out of place in a way that was hard to ignore.
He walked toward the rear of the cabin as though heading to the restroom. But when he reached the emergency exit, he stopped — and threw a Poké Ball.
"Ariados! Use String Shot on the emergency exit!"
"Huan!"
The Ariados reacted instantly. String Shot was second nature to it. Within moments, the doorway leading back out to the safety officer's platform was sealed behind a thick mesh of white silk, layer after layer, until the opening was completely blocked.
But the man was not finished.
"Now use Spider Web!"
More silk shot out, and this time the Ariados wove it tightly across the sealed door in a reinforced web pattern, anchoring the layers in place. The combined result was a barrier that would not budge easily from either side.
This man was trying to trap the security officer outside.
On the platform, the officer had already felt something was wrong. He threw himself against the door once, then again — it would not move. He quickly recalled his Noctowl and sent it out in front of the door, trying to tear through the silk.
Inside the cabin, passengers were reacting. Some were demanding to know what was happening. One man near the front, short-tempered and quick to act, had already thrown a Poké Ball of his own.
"Electrode! Use Tackle!"
"Wait — don't —"
Nova tried to call out a warning, but it was already too late. The Electrode barrelled straight into the Spider Web and rebounded hard, threads of sticky silk wrapping around it on contact. It struggled, unable to move freely, its momentum entirely gone.
It was an understandable mistake. Ariados and its signature Spider Web move were rarely encountered within the Norlandia region. The man had clearly never battled against one before, and he had paid for it immediately.
The criminal was not about to waste the opening. While the Electrode was still tangled and slowed, he directed Ariados straight into a follow-up Bug Bite, and the Electrode went down.
A heavy silence fell across the cabin. The other passengers had seen what happened — a Trainer had charged forward confidently and been put on the ground in two moves. Uncertainty spread through the group, and no one moved.
Nova, however, was already thinking ahead.
This man had trapped the security officer outside the cabin and was now holding a Pokémon that, as far as Nova knew, had no business being in the Norlandia region. That combination was too specific to be random. A criminal operating with outside intelligence, with access to Pokémon from beyond the region's borders —
Nova had a strong feeling this was connected to the poaching ring he had helped dismantle just the day before.
And an equally strong feeling that this man was here for him.