1. Ash's Story (Part 0: Prologue)

Chapter 20: The Terror Beneath Ice

International Police Headquarters looked too peaceful for the kind of training it gave.

Ash stood outside the modern building with Alice beside him, both of them wearing travel coats over their training clothes. The sun reflected from the glass walls, and the city around them moved like nothing dangerous had ever existed.

Alice adjusted her cap with one tired hand. "We finished it."

Ash looked at the headquarters doors behind them. "Looker said we passed."

"He said we passed after scolding us for running into danger too many times," Alice reminded him.

Ash winced slightly. "That still counts."

Alice's smile faded when she looked toward the airport shuttle. "After the League Hall meeting, I understand why Adam wanted this. Team Terror keeps using places, people, and panic against us."

Ash nodded, thinking of the eighteen lights across the Sevestar map. "Dad said training does not make us adults. It only helps us stay alive until the adults reach us."

"That is the most Adam thing possible," Alice said.

Looker stepped out of the headquarters before they could leave. His brown coat moved in the wind, and his expression carried the serious kindness Ash had learned to recognize during their training.

"Remember what I have taught," Looker said. "Observe first. Do not enter a trap merely because it uses someone you love as bait."

Ash looked down. "That sounds very specific."

"It is specific because you are very predictable," Looker replied.

Alice covered a small laugh with her hand.

Looker handed Alice a small emergency communicator. "If anything feels wrong when you return to Atem Castle, contact me immediately."

Ash frowned. "Why would something be wrong already?"

Looker did not smile. "Because Team Terror waited long enough to learn your routines. I hope I am only being cautious."

Ash accepted that answer, but it followed him onto the flight home.

The flight to Sevestar felt longer than it should have.

Ash watched clouds slide beneath the plane window while Alice reviewed the emergency checklist Looker had given them. He tried to sleep twice, but every time his eyes closed, he saw Zane's smile at Lunar Villa and Minami's face in the mine.

Alice noticed without looking up. "You are thinking loudly."

Ash turned from the window. "Serena says that too."

"Serena is right," Alice said. "You are worried about the Team Terror battle."

"Everyone is preparing," Ash said. "That should make me feel better."

"It does not?" Ash shook his head. "It makes me feel like Team Terror is preparing too."

Alice closed the checklist and looked at him fully. "Then we return carefully."

The plane landed in Sevestar under a clear sky. A League transport waited for them, but the driver was not one Ash recognized. That was the first small wrong thing. The second was that the driver said almost nothing.

Alice touched the communicator in her pocket.

Ash watched the road toward Atem Town. The castle rose in the distance, bright against the hills, but no training Pokémon crossed the outer fields. No staff moved near the gate. No familiar voices called from the courtyard.