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The power plant of Mauville City is located in the southeast of the city. Yes—this power plant stands near New Mauville, the abandoned facility.
This plant was likewise designed by Wattson, the city's chief engineer.
However, unlike the abandoned New Mauville plant that severely damaged the surrounding ecosystem, this one was designed after Wattson traveled to Lumiose City in the Kalos region to study. It is an extremely eco-friendly power plant.
In addition to continuously supplying Mauville City with electricity through tidal and wind power, the plant has also built special peripheral facilities that provide free electricity to certain wild Electric-type Pokémon living nearby (similar to the power-supply devices Clemont once dreamed up for wild Electric-types when he was young).
Because of this, the new power plant has become one of the major gathering sites for wild Electric-type Pokémon around Mauville City. (That said, the main lair for most wild Electric-types is still the unmanaged abandoned power plant.)
However, when Sato and the others arrived at the perimeter of the plant, both the power station and those free electricity-supply facilities had been tightly wrapped up like dumplings in thick white spider silk.
Many wild Electric-type Pokémon that normally frequented the area were now bound together with layers of webbing and were being used by the Galvantula clan as living batteries.
To the Galvantula clan, the electricity stored inside other Electric-type Pokémon was far more "delicious" than the power generated by the plant itself.
Clearly, the Galvantula occupying the power plant were extremely domineering. Not only did they refuse to share the plant's electricity with other wild Electric-types, they even captured them and treated them like slaves.
"These Galvantula are absolutely despicable. They're nothing but hooligan Pokémon. We have to drive them out."
Aina, the young girl bursting with a strong sense of justice, clenched her fists the moment she saw the scene, grinding her teeth in anger. She looked as though she wanted to rush out immediately to rescue the captured Electric-type Pokémon.
The other team members hiding in the bushes nearby echoed her sentiments. Some of the young men—clearly smitten with the fair-skinned and pretty Aina—worked extra hard to put on expressions that screamed, I'll definitely help you.
"Don't worry, Aina—we'll definitely chase them away. But first, we need to find the manhole entrance to the sewers. Only after cutting off the plant's power supply can we really go all out against those Galvantula."
Seeing the expressions of the men beside him, Sato quickly whispered to Aina, carefully redirecting her heated emotions elsewhere.
To speed up the sewer reconnaissance, the team decided to split into four groups.
At present, Sato and Aina were part of an eight-person team tasked with surveying the southern section of the power plant's sewers and shutting down the emergency switch for the southern area.
"Alright, Mr. Tyler."
Aina immediately lowered her head after hearing Sato's words and replied a little embarrassed.
She had realized she'd gotten carried away earlier—some patrolling Joltik and Galvantula nearby had almost noticed the traces of their group hiding in the bushes.
Before long, Sato found a manhole leading into the plant's sewers. After leaving one person behind to guard the opening and provide a stable position reference, the remaining seven quickly opened the manhole and descended inside.
Because the plant's sewer system was independent from the city's sewer network, it was far cleaner than typical city sewers. Still, having gone long without sunlight, it was damp and chilly.
Especially at night, the temperature here was several degrees lower than outside. Not long after entering, everyone put on jackets to keep warm.
Since there wasn't much sewage or trash, Pokémon like Grimer—which commonly appeared in sewers—were nowhere to be seen.
And because the nearby manholes had been sealed for a long time, there were no Golbat either.
As Sato and the others moved forward, everything around them was eerily quiet. They encountered no attacks from wild Pokémon along the way.
Even so, none of them let their guard down. The reason was simple: ever since entering, they had all faintly sensed a pair of hostile eyes watching them.
Being chosen by Wattson to participate in this mission meant none of them were weak. Like Sato, they trusted their sense of danger.
By their estimation, something that lived here—likely Ghost-type Pokémon—had been following them, and it clearly wasn't friendly toward intruders.
Unfortunately, none of them had Pokémon with moves like Foresight, making it extremely difficult to locate Ghost-types hidden through invisibility.
Sato did have psychic sensing, but what troubled him was that he couldn't detect the enemy's presence at all.
"Under the water… or hiding inside the thick walls?"
Sato turned his gaze toward the pitch-black channel on the left, its bottom impossible to see, and thought deeply. At present, the only blind spots of his psychic detection were that deep waterway and the surrounding thick walls.
"Damn it—what the hell is it? Always tailing us. This is seriously getting on my nerves. If you've got the guts, come out!"
One short-tempered male teammate finally snapped under the tension and shouted, trying to provoke the hidden enemy.
Surprisingly, it worked.
Not long after he spoke, a cold gust suddenly swept in from the right side of the group.
Everyone was already on high alert. The moment the chill appeared, all eyes snapped to the right.
"Kehehehe~"
At that instant, a Banette and two Shuppet emerged straight out of the thick wall, letting out eerie laughter as they stared maliciously at Sato and the others.
Immediately, clusters of pale ghostly flames formed around them and shot straight toward the team.
"Volbeat, Charge Beam!"
"Manectric, Thunderbolt!"
"Camerupt, Rock Slide!"
As the Banette and Shuppet launched their attack, the team instantly commanded their Pokémon to counter.
The ghostly flames were no match for the combined attacks of their Pokémon and were quickly shattered.
However, using their innate ability to pass through walls, the Banette and Shuppet immediately slipped back into the walls. In an instant, all the attacks unleashed by the team's Pokémon struck nothing but empty space.
"Everyone, watch the left!"
At the same time, Sato sensed something and shouted a warning.
But it was already too late.
Countless tentacles suddenly burst out from the waterway on the left. Caught completely off guard, two teammates closest to the channel were instantly bound by the tentacles and dragged rapidly toward the water.