"Mewtwo, shut up!" Lin Hao muted Ho-Oh's wailing. The scenery outside the car slipped past as the sky darkened.
It was already evening when they returned to the hotel. May went to her room to organize the information she had gathered at the mining site that day.
Lin Hao stood on the balcony. The sea breeze carried a salty tang, and the distant sunset stained the sea and sky red. Hoenn was a wonderful place, if not for Team Galactic.
His phone vibrated with a message from Red: "No unusual activity at Mt. Coronet. Cynthia's people are on watch around the clock."
Lin Hao replied, "Understood." Another message came in, this one from Steven: "We leave at six tomorrow morning. Mt. Pyre is a three-hour drive from Lilycove City. I've asked Sidney to meet us at the foot of the mountain."
"All right." Lin Hao set his phone on the table. Pikachu was dozing at the foot of the bed, its tail swaying now and then.
He closed his eyes. The system space was unusually quiet. Ho-Oh had stopped chattering, Groudon was no longer complaining, and even Mewtwo had withdrawn to one side without a word.
"What's wrong?" Lin Hao asked.
After a long silence, Arceus's voice came from the deepest part of the space, each word carrying a faint tremor. "Master, my scales are resonating."
Lin Hao opened his eyes. "What does that mean?"
"Someone is trying to activate the preliminary sequence for a space-time passage," Arceus said very softly. "Not a full activation. Just a probing pulse."
"From where?"
"I can't locate it. The pulse was too brief-less than zero point three seconds."
Lin Hao rose and walked to the window. "Cyrus is testing the Red Chain?"
"Perhaps."
"Hasn't he still got work left to do?"
"If he's