"Sensor anomalies in three bodies of water in Johto. Lake temperatures are dropping. Team Galactic has made its move."
May pushed her phone in front of Lin Hao. An encrypted message from Morty filled the screen. In the Pokémon Center lobby, the sea breeze sent the wind chimes clattering. Several Trainers were queuing around the transfer machine, none of them noticing what was happening at the table in the corner.
Lin Hao glanced at the message without speaking, then lifted Pikachu away from the bowl before its tail could fall into the soup. Pikachu cried out indignantly, but just as it was about to protest, its ears suddenly turned toward the window.
May swiped down to the second message. "The observation station east of Ecruteak City detected anomalous energy. Its waveform matches the incident where Lake Acuity in Sinnoh dried up." She opened the third message. Only a few words remained on the screen: "It's right nearby."
Lin Hao pushed his empty bowl aside, his chair legs scraping softly across the floor. May stared at him. "Isn't Team Galactic supposed to be in Sinnoh?"
"Cyrus living in Sinnoh doesn't mean he can't reach into Johto." Lin Hao took the phone, tracing his fingertip over the waters off Cianwood City and the cliffs to the north before stopping on a stretch of reefs with no roads marked.
Inside system space, Mewtwo's voice cut in. "Master, there are low-frequency spatial fluctuations twelve kilometers east of Cianwood City. Their frequency is close to the spacetime rifts Dialga left behind."
Lin Hao switched off the screen. "Can they open it?"
"Not yet, but someone is collecting the residual energy."
"Overtime again."
Ho-Oh chimed in. "Master, I can patrol."
"No." Lin Hao didn't even have to think. "You gave off your aura last night. Going