A Leader's Intent

Wait, is that-?

...

I see now.

So this is what they are actually planning.

I suppose I am the cause of all of this, then.

Dream Eater stood in one of the designated battlegrounds in the primary Team Dominion hideout. His Gengar, Midnight, was poised, facing the prey that stood before it and its trainer. Strapped to the ghost Pokemon's backside was a strange device, one made of steel. It had yellow bulbs on it that glowed in harmony with the light bulbs in the room.

Dream Eater had finally returned to the primary hideout after many days of being out in the field. As soon as he had gotten back, he had started doing what he usually did while he was inactive. He was dedicating each moment of his time towards training Midnight.

A trio of Pokemon faced Midnight, all with the unwavering, though foolish, intent of defeating Midnight. The Pokemon were from some of the other various CPP locations that Team Dominion had stolen from. The three Pokemon included a Furret, a Heracross, and a Hariyama. Overall, Midnight had many significant advantages in the situation. It would allow the battle to be over with much more quickly.

Midnight suddenly darted from its position, moving in a blur. The eyes of its opponents darted here and there, trying to keep up, but in vain. Midnight's movement would have been near impossible to track even for a Pokemon close to its level, much less these Pokemon, whose only use was farming and not battling. Dream Eater could only comprehend his Pokemon's whereabouts because he knew where it was going to end up.

Midnight rebounded off the ceiling, streaking straight towards the ground. It released a single bolt of lightning that struck Hariyama directly in the center of its stomach, blasting the arm thrust Pokemon backward into the concrete wall 20 yeards away. The wall cracked and bits and pieces of rubble flew in every direction. The walls in this complex, however, were very thick, and so the impact didn't do any real damage. Hariyama didn't move from where it had been put by Midnight's Thunderbolt attack.

The bulbs of the device on Midnight's back glowed brighter for a small moment at the same time the Pokemon's eerie grin briefly grew wider. The machine had no true name, but many referred to it as the Experience Increaser or EXPI for short. It was another one of Team Dominion's personal inventions, similar to the Trans-attack. The device did exactly what the name implied. When a Pokemon was defeated by another Pokemon with the EXPI, much more experience was gained. It allowed Midnight, as well as many other Pokemon belonging to Team Dominion operatives, to level up much faster than the average Pokemon. With it, Midnight had nearly reached level sixty. It was the strongest Pokemon anyone in Team Dominion owned. Dream Eater had checked.

With one enemy down, Midnight moved on to the next. Throughout the entire time since the ghost-type had moved, Dream Eater hadn't uttered a single command, nor a single word. He hadn't needed to. He had only been required to explain to Midnight the specific actions and maneuver's he had wanted the Pokemon to do before letting it loose upon its rather unfortunate victims. So far, Midnight had performed Dream Eater's commands word-for-word. However, it had been a small achievement.

Furret immediately scurried over to where Midnight stood after it had landed a Thunderbolt attack on Hariyama. Dream Eater could see dark energy surrounding the Furret's right hand, which was clenched into a fist. Furret was trying to land Sucker Punch on Midnight. Due to the Gengar's type, Sucker punch would deal a fair amount of damage, even though the Furret was far below Midnight in level.

However, even if the two Pokemon were the same level, Dream Eater wouldn't have been worried. He had seen this coming. It made sense that the Ferret would try that move as soon as an opening presented itself and that that move would be Sucker Punch. He had advised Midnight to prepare for it earlier.

Right before the Furret's attack would have landed, Midnight moved swiftly away from the danger, causing the brown striped Pokemon to swipe through empty air. Midnight, however, didn't counterattack. Rather, it switched its focus onto Heracross, who had yet to move. In fact, it seemed that the bug-type Pokemon was still trying to figure out where Midnight was. It had yet to realize that it was about to face the same fate as Hariyama.

Midnight brought its hands together, leaving a few inches of empty space between them. Drops of dark purple energy formed and broke away from the Gengar's fingertips and accumulated between its hands to form Shadow Ball. Midnight spread its hands and the ball of ghost energy was launched like a cannonball towards the helpless Heracross. It struck the single horn Pokemon square in the face. Heracross wasn't sent as far as Hariyama, though it did tumble across the hard floor, sending more pieces of concrete around the large room.

With the two stronger opponents, Midnight could now focus on the final and weakest one. Furret once again attempted to hit Midnight with Sucker Punch, and just like the previous time, it failed to even brush its fist against Midnight's ghostly purple skin as the Gengar swiftly dashed away with the surprising grace of a dancer.

With only one opponent remaining, Midnight could use Hypnosis without having to worry about a separate enemy taking advantage of how long the move took to complete. Midnight's red eyes flared as it activated Hypnosis, giving off a small amount of light. It stared intently at Furret; one might even think Midnight was gazing into Furret's soul, trying to force it into a deep sleep. However, Furret closed its eyes and looked away, resisting Hypnosis and remaining fully awake. Dream Eater gritted his teeth. He sometimes hated how Hypnosis could miss every once in a while.

Midnight's eyes stopped glowing, and it didn't move as Furret's tail began to glow with a white-gray light. Furret approached Midnight on all fours and lept into the air. Midnight was unable to react; it always became slightly light-headed after using Hypnosis. It wasn't much of a delay, but it was enough for a quick Pokemon to land an attack.

Furret flipped forward and brought its glowing tail down on Midnight. Iron Tail. Midnight crumpled to the ground and a dent formed in the concrete floor from the impact of Iron Tail. Furret leaped away from Midnight, its tail resuming its normal color.

Dream Eater sighed. His goal was to get through every trio of Pokemon Team Dominion had available for farming without Midnight being touched a single time. This was the first time Midnight had been hit with an attack, breaking the streak. They had gotten rather far, defeating almost thirty Pokemon before Furret's Iron Tail had put them back at zero.

Such a shame, Dream Eater thought to himself.

Furret was prepped and ready for when Midnight would get back to its feet. It crouched low to the ground, its snakelike body hovering with a few inches above the floor. Soon, Midnight began to move once more. It stood back on its feet then remained perfectly still. Based on the surface of Midnight's skin, one wouldn't think the shadow Pokemon hadn't taken any damage at all. Dream Eater, however, saw more than what was on the surface.

Midnight's ridiculous grin remained as always, but there was something different about its eyes. They were still red with tiny, black pupils, but they held a different emotion than before. Midnight was almost always calm and cold, emotions that were reflected in its eyes when they were dull. But now the eyes were vicious, displaying intense anger. Though its body didn't take damage, its pride had taken a major blow.

A single Thunderbolt struck Furret and launched it to the other side of the room many yards away. It crunched against the wall and fell limp to the ground, knocked unconscious. Dream Eater nodded to himself as the bulbs on the EXPI briefly glowed for the second time.

Wait, Dream Eater thought as he realized something. His body stiffened only slightly. They've only glowed twice. That means-

The Heracross, which Dream Eater had foolishly thought had been defeated, decided to discontinue its trickery and attack Midnight, who could not see it. Based on its unbelievable fast speed, Dream Eater guessed that Heracross was using Aerial Ace, a move that couldn't be evaded.

Dream Eater opened his mouth to warn his Pokemon of the approaching danger despite Aerial Ace's hit-to-miss ratio, but there was no need. Midnight rounded on Heracross before it was only a few yards away and flared its eyes. Heracross stopped in its tracks and slumped to the ground, sleeping. Its momentum carried it across the floor, coming to a halt at Midnight's feet. Midnight had managed to use Hypnosis before Heracross's Aerial Ace had reached it.

The Gengar leered upon Heracross's sleeping form as it opened its grinning mouth. White threads flowed out from every opening above Heracross's shoulders and into Midnight's mouth. Heracross began to thrash on the floor. Throughout the entire time, Midnight's eyes held an insurmountable hunger within.

Then it was done. The white threads stopped flowing and Heracross's thrashing digressed to twitching. The EXPI's bulbs glowed briefly. Midnight fired off another Thunderbolt at Furret's body across the room. Dream Eater supposed it was for good measure.

Dream Eater removed four Poke balls from his pocket. He pointed one at Midnight. The ghost-type shrunk as it was transmuted into photons that the Poke ball could contain. Dream Eater used the other three Poke balls to do the same to the defeated Pokemon. He then left the large, empty room through a door behind him in the corner. He didn't bother thinking about the damage he left behind; he decided to let it be someone else's problem.

The halls of the rest of Team Dominion's hideout all looked exactly the same. They were slate gray, smooth, and empty save for the occasional door or air vent. The doors were all virtually identical; some had a word or two painted on them in varying colors. This was done so each could member could claim a room for themselves. The words painted on the doors were the codenames of the operatives who had taken up residence in the respective rooms. Dream Eater's own room had the words "Dream Eater" written on his door in black. The doors without names painted on them were either bathrooms, storage closets, or large, empty areas like the one Dream Eater had just been in.

Dream Eater's footsteps echoed down the corridors and he headed towards the storage room. It was two floors down, and the stairwell was on the other side of his own floor. He thought it was rather annoying how far away it was from the best room for Pokemon battles.

Team Dominion's hideout was an underground complex. The leader conveniently discovered it soon after Team Dominion was founded. It was a rather appropriate place for a criminal organization to be in operation. Above the hideout was a small, abandoned building in a large city. Nobody besides Team Dominion operatives had entered the property in years. Nobody would be discovering them anytime soon.

Dream Eater passed a closed door in one of the halls. It looked like any other save for the one word painted on it. "Extrasensory," it read in pink. The first thing Sleep Squad's leader had done when she had been shown the layout of the complex had been to claim this room as her own. It was the room with the most number of outlets, as well as air vents, compared to any other, which satisfied her need for multiple computers. Few argued with her and those who did had given up quickly. Dream Eater often went to her room in the rare cases he wanted to use a computer since he didn't have his own.

After a few more minutes of walking, stairs, and multiple turns, Dream Eater arrived at the storage room. The door providing access had a poor painting of a Poke ball on its surface. Dream Eater wondered how someone could possibly paint such a simple object so badly. He concluded that it was done either lazily or hastily; most likely the prior. Dream Eater put his hand on the knob, twisted, and pushed all in the same motion. The door swung open, granting him entry.

Dream Eater had always found this room to be slightly more fascinating to look at than all the other rooms in the Team Dominion hideout. It was about a fourth of the size of the room Dream Eater had used for battles. The walls were lined with yet another one of Team Dominion's original machines: the healing station. Each one looked like a small metal box with six indents on the top. A Poke ball fit perfectly into these crevices. The machine would then begin to heal the Pokemon in the Poke ball, up to six at a time. It saved having to take out your Pokemon and treat it with potions all the time.

Wires were strewn all over the floor, all originating from a single point in the center of the room. A PC and a monitor was placed on a small table. The wires in the PC connected to each healing station, allowing someone to see the Pokemon being healed using a certain program. An operative was sitting on a stool in front of the PC working on something Dream Eater couldn't see. The operative was different than the one who had been sitting at the PC when Dream Eater had come to borrow the three Pokemon he had just defeated. They must have change shifts while he had been busy battling.

He was a younger man, maybe about a few years older than the member who had been captured during their last heist. He had already forgotten that boy's name; it was irrelevant now that he was no longer a part of Team Dominion. Dream Eater could tell just by looking at the operative stare at the PC that he had an energetic personality. However, it seemed that he was forcing it down in an effort to be chill.

Dream Eater didn't know which squad the operator working in the storage room belonged to. Dream Eater thought his codename might be Fire Spin, which meant he would be on Burn Squad. He didn't want to risk using the wrong name, however, so he would avoid addressing him with one.

The operative looked up as soon as Dream Eater opened the door. He looked like he wanted to give a greeting, but held his tongue. Dream Eater didn't feel like giving one himself, so they simply went straight to conversation.

Dream Eater held up the three Pokeballs containing the Pokemon he did not own. The devices were not registered to anyone trainer, as traditional Poke balls were. This allowed anyone to use them.

"These have fainted," Dream Eater said. "Put them in a healing station, then give me three more."

Fire Spin - Dream Eater decided he would simply call him that in his mind - wordlessly rose from his stool to take the Poke balls. Dream Eater handed them over. Fire Spin turned away and approached a healing station with three empty crevices and placed the Poke balls inside. The machine hummed, and small orange lights appeared next to each Poke ball, a sign that the machine was healing them.

Fire Spin then proceeded to return to the PC. He sat back down on the stool and typed a few keys on the keyboard. He then furrowed his eyebrows and frowned at something on the monitor.

"What is it?" Dream Eater asked.

"It's just that none of the Pokemon we have here are fully healed," Fire Spin explained. "I can't give any to you until they are." Fire Spin leaned back as far as the stool would allow. "I've certainly never seen anything like this happen before. I wonder how it happened. A lot of people must have been borrowing today."

Dream Eater sighed. No, he thought. I simply tore through them too quickly. Healing stations were effective, but they were also slower than potions. Especially when so many were connected to the same power source and running at once. Team Dominion was still working on a way to make the process faster.

"That's fine," Dream Eater said. "I'll just come back when they're healed."

Fire Spin nodded. He still looked like he wanted to start up a conversation but was holding himself back. Dream Eater turned and left the storage room, moving slightly faster than usual. He didn't want to give the member any more time to finally open his mouth.

What now? Dream Eater thought. He was out of Pokemon to battle and, therefore, left with limited options to satisfy his boredom. He could try and find another member of Team Dominion to battle, but the would take to long for Dream Eater to consider it worth his time. Most members didn't like battling him since he was too strong and seldom lost. However, the leader might be willing to battle…

No. He wouldn't go there. He didn't want to talk to him unless it was absolutely necessary. Dream Eater would find something else to occupy himself.

The only other thing Dream Eater could do that he enjoyed at least a little bit was examining the Team Dominion member page. There were, at some times, some entertaining things there. Sometimes a member would post a video of themselves stealing someone else's Pokemon. Or maybe there would be petty squabbles between members as the argued like five-year-olds trying to decide who was the best. Things like that.

Dream Eater went all the way back to Extrasensory's room. He would need a computer to access the page since he didn't have a phone with him. When he reached the door, he knocked twice. There was a moment of stillness before the door swung open, and Extrasensory faced him. She wore a black sweatshirt and a pair of black sweatpants. She wasn't wearing any shoes, and her long blonde hair was pulled back into a messy ponytail. The room behind her was almost completely dark. The only sources of light Dream Eater could make out were the computer monitors in the room.

Extrasensory raised her eyebrows. "You again?"

"I'd like to use a computer," Dream Eater stated.

"You know, if I could just get you to leave me alone, nobody would ever bother me," she remarked.

Dream Eater didn't say anything. He didn't feel like responding to that.

Extrasensory sighed. "All right, come on in." She moved aside to allow Dream Eater entry.

Dream Eater was surprised. It usually took more than that to get inside Extrasensory's room. She had been reluctant to allow him to use a computer the first few times he had asked. That was he had explained that he didn't want to be in the same room as her any more than she did with him. She had seemed to get angry at that remark. In any case, it usually took several minutes of talking. He supposed that Extrasensory had finally gotten used to it.

The room was a mess. A small bed with tangled sheets was shoved into one corner of the room and the rest of the room included wires, tables, chairs, potato chip bags, potato chips, a near-empty trashcan, and computers. There was a single mini-fridge next to the bed. At first glance, Dream Eater thought it was a nightstand.

"So, what'll it be today?" Extrasensory asked as they both sat down at their computers. "Stalking people on our site?"

Dream Eater's surprise was replaced by a slight annoyance. "Please do not talk to me," Dream Eater said. "Especially not when you plan to mock me."

Extrasensory snorted, and silence ensued. Dream Eater opened the Team Dominion application on the PC and made a quick scan. Things seemed pretty uneventful. Perhaps he had been wrong to try to use this for entertainment today. He looked at the various posts members hade made for everyone else to see and found nothing interesting.

Then, a certain post suddenly caught Dream Eater's eye. He clicked on it so he could focus more easily. The thing that had drawn his attention was that it was directed towards the main operatives of Team Dominion.

Dream Eater read the post. His eyes traveled from side to side as he worked his way down. When he was finished, he found that his curiosity had peaked. He clicked on the username of the poster so he could send him a direct message.

To: 000493

From: Operative Dream Eater

I saw your post. Send me the file you were talking about.

Dream Eater waited a few minutes after hitting send. He was then rewarded with a message in his inbox.

To: Operative Dream Eater.

From: 000493

Here you go.

Dream Eater opened the document and silently looked it over. He never had to take a second glance at anything, nor was he ever doubtful or amazed as he read. When he was finished reading through the document, he calmly closed out of the Team Dominion application and shut the computer down. He stood and move towards the door to leave.

"Going so soon?" Extrasensory asked. She was sitting with her bare feet placed on the table as she leaned back in one of the only proper chairs in the Team Dominion hideout. Only the leader's plushy couch that he kept to himself could rival its softness.

Dream Eater didn't turn to face her as he spoke. He opened the door to exit. "I've decided that I should probably discuss something with someone I know." He shut the door behind himself.

Leader laid back across his brown leather couch. It had been really the only thing he had wanted when everyone had moved into the underground complex. Well, only that and this large spacious room to suit his king-like needs. Along with access to any Pokemon he wanted. As well as an army of soldiers to do his bidding. But that wasn't important.

Leader rested the back of his head against one of the armrests of the couch and laid his legs on the armrest on the other side. He held a normal Poke ball above his face, turning it with his fingers and examining it from all angles. He wasn't looking at anything about it in particular; he was simply gazing upon it. For the first few seconds of rotating the Poke ball in his hand, he could almost forget how bored he was. Those seconds, however, were gone in what felt like an instant. Leader sighed and let his arm fall beside him, hanging over the front of the couch and touching the floor.

Leader wanted more than anything to be out in the field, completing these heists and raids himself. Even so, he knew that he was more useful where he was, guiding everyone else and telling them what to do. Not only that but if Team Dominion ran into bad luck like those two others who were captured a few days ago and Leader himself was caught, the entire team would collapse. He was sure of it.

The room the Leader was in was one of the largest in the underground complex and it was the second-farthest away from the main entrance to the complex. The farthest room was connected to this one. That room was much smaller than this one, so Leader used it as a sleeping area or a place to go when he didn't want to be disturbed. There was a discreet exit in that room he could go to in the doubtful case that Team Dominion's hideout was overrun with hostiles.

Various pieces of exercise equipment were scattered on the right side of the large room. Usually, Leader would be working out to rid himself of his boredom, but he had done so for the past week. He needed a bit of a break. The other side of the room consisted of tables with computers and empty food plates, along with a refrigerator. Leader had already spent many hours that day on a computer and had gotten bored of it after a while.

Just when Leader thought he was going to snap into insanity, the entry door to the room opened. Leader had to make an effort not to sit up quickly; he wanted to maintain his reputation of composure and slight indifference. In reality, he was excited that he'd be able to talk to someone. Especially when he saw who was entering.

The visitor wore all black, which was the common choice of many of the members of Team Dominion. It was the color Leader had chosen to represent Team Dominion, after all. The visitor wore a pair of sweatpants, a long-sleeved shirt, and a pair of boots. His short blonde hair was a contrast to the color of his outfit. His face had been clean-shaven the last time the leader had seen him, but now there was some stubble forming.

Leader forced himself not to smile too widely. He allowed himself a tiny smirk as the visitor approached him.

"Hello there, Dream Eater." He said the codename in a slightly mocking tone, barely noticeable to someone who wasn't paying attention. "I believe only squad leaders are able to visit me. Even then, they need to make an appointment."

Dream Eater sighed and Leader's smirk grew a little bit more. Leader had purposely chosen not to make Dream Eater a squad leader just in an attempt to bother him. Both of them knew that.

"Come on, Phillip," Dream Eater said. "Call me by my real name."

Leader raised his eyebrows, still keeping a straight-ish face. "What do you mean?" He asked. "Isn't Dream Eater your codename? Just as Leader is mine?"

"It's bad enough to call others these stupid names," Dream Eater said. "I only do it because I don't know their real ones. I also only made one for myself because it didn't seem like you would leave me alone if I didn't. So just spare me and call me by my real name."

Leader let himself go and grinned widely. "How've you been, Luke?"

Luke, or Dream Eater as he had decided to call himself after Leader's insistence that everyone needed a codename, was Leader's older brother by four years. They had grown up with a one-sided relationship. Leader had enjoyed spending time with Luke, though Luke had been rather indifferent. Leader had been crushed in his younger ages when his parents had told him that he wasn't allowed to see Luke anymore. They had said he had become a criminal and that being around him was bad for Leader.

After starting Team Dominion, Leader had almost immediately sought out Luke so they could work together after more than ten years of being apart. He had offered Luke a Pokemon, Gastly, and a place to hide. Luke had accepted and had spent almost all of his time with that Pokemon. Leader knew Luke would never admit it, but he thought that Luke was happy that he had finally found something close to a real friend, something Luke had never had before. He called his Pokemon Midnight, and it had quickly developed into the strongest Pokemon Team Dominion had at its disposal. It might have even been one of the strongest Pokemon in the world at that moment.

"I've been trying to get rid of my boredom," Luke said, "And I came across something you might want to know. I'll tell you, then I'll be off."

"You're not going to spend time to give me an update?" Leader asked. "We're brothers, you know. We should check on each other every once in a while."

"You still sound so much like a child, and you're nearly thirty."

Leader chuckled.

"Anyway," Luke said, "I thought I'd tell you about something I saw on the Team Dominion application. Have you looked around there lately?"

Leader hadn't, and so he answered accordingly. He usually didn't find anything worth looking at on the application. He had only developed it so he could gain followers to his cause.

"Well, I saw a post only a few minutes ago," Luke explained. "It was from a low-ranking member. He was trying to get the attention of one of the higher-ups. He said he had hacked into the CPP database and had found something we might find useful."

Leader chuckled. "Oh, did he? What did he find? Something our hackers already discovered?"

"He found the farming facilities."

Leader froze and stopped chuckling. He stared straight at the ground beneath his feet. Not a single muscle on his body so much as twitched for about a second. Even after that second, his movement was rather minimal.

"We couldn't even find those," he breathed. He looked back at Luke, who didn't seem to feel even the slightest bit of what Leader was feeling right at that time. "How many?" He asked.

"Only two," Luke replied, "And they're in other countries. But he says there's more, and he thinks he can find their locations. There are probably even a few in our own continent."

Leader sat back. The farming facilities were CPP sponsored locations that gathered and raised Pokemon eggs and newborn Pokemon. It wasn't the fact that he now had access to the locations of those farms that made Leader feel the way he did. It was the fact that nobody in Team Dominion could find even one through hacking. The locations were more encrypted than the schematics for the Dominance ball had been.

"I think I know what you're thinking about," Luke said. "Do you think he can do it?"

Luke was referring to something only the two of them knew about. It was Leader's real goal. Sure, the goal of Team Dominion was to use Pokemon as weapons in the hopes to dominate a large nation, or even the world. However, this was only part of what Leader planned to achieve.

He had seen something on the day of the first Arceus when the white light had enveloped him along with the rest of the world. It had been a creature, one he had been unable to see the exact details of. It had four legs, and it had been a little larger than himself. Leader was sure he had never seen anything so magnificent in his life. He had thought about it every minute since that day to the point where he became obsessed with it.

When he had decided that the creature must have been a Pokemon years later, he had wanted nothing more than for that Pokemon to be his. He knew it was what must be, as no one else had reported sightings of anything resembling what Leader himself had seen through the light. He had made it his undying goal to find it and capture it. He had sought out the Dominance ball solely for this purpose, since it was better designed to capture Pokemon on the first attempt, unlike the classic Poke ball. Leader's intentions had never wavered, not even while he knew it lived in the sky, out of any normal man's reach.

He had recently found out through rumors online that the CPP had a way to get to wherever the Arceus had come from. As soon as he had discovered this, he had mindlessly spent all of his money on hackers so they could find any sort evidence of these rumors within the CPP's database. He didn't even know for sure if the rumors were true or false. He didn't care. Such was his obsession.

His hackers had searched under every stone they could get their hands on and had come up with nothing. However, Leader knew there were more stones that were out of their reach. He had simply needed someone who could go that deep. Until now, he had continued to search while leading Team Dominion. He was becoming desperate to obtain someone who could do what he required. If he couldn't find a way to capture that Pokemon, he didn't know what he would do.

Leader pierced his gaze into Luke's. "It doesn't matter whether I think he can do it or not," Leader said. "All that matters is that this guy is already ten times better than any hacker we've come across so far. I'll most likely be needing him."

Luke nodded. "So, what do you want me to do?"

"We need to make him more loyal to us. Send him a Dominance ball, and give him a whole bunch of points." Leader wanted nothing more than to summon this mysterious hacker right then, but he knew he shouldn't be so hasty. He had been let down multiple times before. "Have him find a few more things from the CPP database. Just to be sure he's worth our time," he added.

Luke nodded again and turned to leave. As he exited the room, Leader repeated the determined vow that daily went through his head, his voice below a whisper.

"You will be mine."