My first impression of Unova was the sight of its spectacular skyscrapers piercing through the clouds.
Our ship docked at Castelia City, which serves as the financial hub of the region. It's one of the more prosperous cities of the region thanks to its location and also the economic development it underwent that made it into what it is today. It's not like there aren't any skyscrapers in Hoenn, but I don't recall visiting any city where so many skyscrapers are congregated in one place to create such a grand view.
"Got its own charm, huh?" Elesa grinned as all of us admired the view from the deck while waiting for the ship to be properly docked. "Welcome to Unova, folks."
"Will we be staying at Castelia City, or are we staying somewhere else?" Skye asked aloud and we all turned towards Looker upon the question.
"About that," Looker cleared his throat with a cough before glancing in my direction. "We have a sponsor who was adamant on providing the accommodations during our stay here, although he was insistent on keeping it a secret because apparently, he wanted to "surprise his baby sister" and is planning on meeting us directly at where we will be staying for the foreseeable future. I see no reason to refuse the gift, so..."
"You gotta be kidding me," I blurted out when I finally made the connection. "There's no way he's going to be here."
"I'm sure he arrived before we did. After all, Hoenn is closer to Unova as compared to Indigo."
"I guess this is the time to say Thank You Vel!" Skye teased as she slung an arm around my shoulders. "But seriously, this is real sweet of your brother, isn't it?"
"He tends to… go over the top when it comes to me," I admitted, and then decided to just call him directly through my x-transceiver now that the cat is out of the bag. Vance picked up after a few seconds, a little too quick compared to usual. From that alone I could tell that he was expecting me.
"Heya, sister dear!"
"So, I heard that you arrived in Unova before me and that you didn't bother to inform me about it, brother dear."
"Ah, so Looker told you everything?"
"Not everything. Just enough to know that you are sponsoring the interpol's accommodations in Unova when there is no need to."
"Hey, if my baby sis has to go out there to save the world she better be staying in the most comfortable residence there is. Besides, you didn't forget what kind of assignments Dad gave you before you sailed to Unova, right? I'm here for that very reason and so I thought, why can't we just live together while we are at it? It would make things so much more convenient."
"You mean the business ventures we are planning to undertake in Unova?"
"What else? You seriously thought that you were going to tackle the entire thing alone without help? I am the help."
"Okay, that's great and all, but…" I peered down from where I am standing at the deck of the ship, trying to spot Vance through the veritable sea of people at the pier our ship is docked at. "Are you at the pier? Cos I don't think I see you and we need you to guide us to our accommodations…?"
"Oh, Sebastian will be there. Don't worry, he knows what you look like. You can't miss him."
"And who is Sebastian?"
"I guess you can say that he is our butler?"
"You guess?"
"He does a lot of odd jobs for us, hard to pin down an exact word for it," I could almost imagine Vance shrugging his shoulders as he said that, "but his zangoose is usually by his side and it is not exactly a commonly seen pokemon in Unova, so just look out for a buff old man with a zangoose and that should be Sebastian."
The call came to an end when the captain of the ship announced that the ship had been docked and that we could finally disembark. Each of us took our own luggage, got down the ship, showed our passports at the customs to get our identities checked before we were allowed to officially pass through Unova's borders. True to Vance's words, an elderly man wearing a suit approached us the moment we were done checking in and arrived at the arrival hall, the zangoose which Vance talked about accompanying him.
The first thing that caught my eye was the butler's neat and immaculate appearance. His hair is entirely white, his white beard trimmed neatly to perfection. There are wrinkles on his face which gives him the look of a gentle old man so his sharp looking eyes felt a little out of place. He's also very tall and somewhat muscular, his shoulders are so broad that I wouldn't be surprised if he was a professional boxer in his youth.
"Miss Velda," Sebastian bowed with his right hand placed over his chest. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you."
"Likewise, Sebastian," I returned the greeting, trying my best not to act flustered or embarrassed with how so many eyes are suddenly on me. Sebastian draws attention with his mere presence alone, and the sight of him bowing to me already incited a few gossips from the public as far as I could see.
"Young Master Vance is waiting for us at Nimbasa City. I have already prepared the accommodations for you and your friends. With your permission, I can teleport us there now," Sebastian inquired and I nodded my head in approval. He released two pokemon, a medicham and a claydol. The medicham immediately took my luggage for me before doing the same for everyone else in the interpol using its psychic powers, stacking them nicely like a tower of jenga blocks. The claydol glowed in the typical psychic hue that almost all psychics exude before utilising Teleport and in just a blink of an eye, we arrived at a luxurious looking apartment block.
"This way, please," Sebastian led the way with his medicham, who levitated our luggage into the building while it was at it. The interior of the first floor of the apartment block felt as if I stepped into a luxurious hotel with how lavish it was decorated. Vance was already there waiting for us with that usual goofy grin on his face.
"Welcome, everyone! Thanks for coming and for taking care of my sister all this while!" Like an unstoppable hurricane, Vance greeted and swiftly shook everyone's hands before any of them could get a word out of their mouths. "Feel free to treat this place as your home away from home for however long you guys are planning to stay here. The top floor belongs to me while the second highest floor belongs to Vel but other than that, feel free to choose whichever floor you like!"
"Wait, we get an entire floor to ourselves?"
"Yup!" Vance cheerily answered Skye's question before swiftly putting his arm around my shoulder and pulling me to his side. "I'd imagine that you have a lot of questions to ask but it's been a long, loooong time since I could talk to my sister, so please excuse us for the moment. If you have any queries about the accommodation just approach Sebastian over here, he will take care of everything. Alright, see ya!"
"Vance, wait-"
Vance's gallade appeared from out of nowhere and teleported us away before I could make any objections. We arrived at what I suspect to be Vance's room given how messy it is.
"Mum will scold you if she sees how messy your room is."
"Eh, she's not here to see this," Vance waved his hand dismissively before obnoxiously ruffling my hair despite my protests. "But more importantly, I get to see my baby sister again!"
"Stop it!" I tried to avoid his hand, which is actually harder than it looks. Vance finally had his fill of messing with my hair after what seemed like forever, or more like he had to reluctantly stop it after I threatened to do bodily harm when my patience exceeded its limit.
"Alright, what's the plan you have for me?" I got straight to business as I sat down on a nearby chair.
"What? Nothing to say that you missed your dear brother? Maybe give me a souvenir or two from Indigo? I'm hurt, Vel, I'm so hurt."
"Oh wow, I've missed you. Souvenirs? I got some for Mum and Dad but, uh… Might have forgotten about yours. But I really missed you. Really."
"At least speak with a more sincere tone! You are not even trying!"
"I think I miss Macky more," I grinned as I beckoned at Vance's shadow and true enough, Macky emerged and greeted me with his usual cackle.
"Sorry Macky, I don't have any pecha berries with me at the moment, Wacky ate it all."
Macky let out a pitiful whine at my words.
"Is it just you?" I turned to look at Vance after giving Macky the hug he demanded.
"Me and Sebastian. He was a great help to me too when I first started out in training to be a proper heir. I'm sure you can learn a lot from him."
"How's he like? And, uh… Anything I need to know before working with him?"
"I just know that he's been helping us ever since grandpa was still around," Vance scratched his cheek in thought. "He's usually a rather reserved person but I think he first met grandpa after grandpa helped him once and Sebastian just decided to stay on to help him after that. After grandpa passed away, he became Dad's right hand man and at the rate this was going, mine too, unless he found someone to take over his job."
"He does look like he's at the perfect age to retire."
"Don't let that fool you. Sebastian can be really nasty if you piss him off. When I was like… fourteen or so, I think, Dad brought me to a high class social gathering as part of my training and Sebastian tagged along for the trip. On our way home we were ambushed by some goons wanting to undermine our family's influence. Dad and I didn't even have to lift a finger, Sebastian took care of all of them on his own with only one zangoose. I even timed him and it only took him like three minutes."
"Wow, grandpa struck a jackpot by hiring him."
"Yeah, and grandpa's health was really bad in his last years and that was one reason why we don't see Sebastian that often, because Sebastian is often outside running errands for grandpa in his stead until Dad was ready to take over, or that is what Dad told me. When the handing over was finally complete Sebastian indicated an interest to help manage and expand our family's business as our representative, so we never really saw him in person. Although, I'm pretty sure Sebastian doesn't have any children or even a spouse. At least, that's what I think because Dad did remind me not to probe into his personal life or his past. Oh yes, that is what you need to know before working with him, do not probe into his past, Dad's words."
"Any other important people that I have to know that are also working for us?"
"Sure, there are, but you wouldn't be seeing them for quite a while so for now, focus on forming a good relationship with Sebastian because I have to leave before he does cos I still have work at the Battle Frontier. You will rely on him more often than relying on me while in Unova."
"Okay, then… What do you want me to do? Where to start?"
"For now, I will get Sebastian to arrange a meeting with our possibly-maybe-future major partner in Unova. Here, read this," Vance passed a folder over to me which I quickly browsed through, only to look at him in disbelief when I saw just who the other party was.
"The Brilliance Group… The Euclids? Isn't that Elesa's-"
"No, she's not. I mean, not any longer," Vance quickly explained. "That's why I brought you here, not discussing this outside where people might overhear us by accident because this is not something the Euclids want the public to know. I don't know the details, but Elesa was disowned by her family. The Euclids are rather touchy about the subject so do not bring it up in their presence. From what I know, after Elesa was disowned she was soon… "adopted", kind of, by another family of equal standing, the Dandolos. I assume you already know who the head of that family is."
"Grimsley," I connected the dots instantly. "Elesa was Grimsley's apprentice."
"That was probably the same time she became his apprentice. Anyway, both families are really old and ancient and it's not too far off to say that the status they hold in Unova is similar to how we are viewed in Hoenn. However, the two families were never close and are always butting heads with each other. The only anomalies from their families were Grimsley and Elesa's father, who were extremely close friends despite their families' feud but Elesa's parents passed away when she was about your age, so that is probably the main reason why Grimsley took her in when she was eventually disowned for reasons unknown later on."
"I never knew that she had such a history but… Would Grimsley be… I don't know, offended that we are in a partnership with the Euclids? I do have to work with him as an interpol agent."
"I'm sure he already knew about this a long time ago. He's not that petty and besides, the deal the Brilliance Group is offering is too good to pass up. We need to at least try and see if a partnership with them is possible."
Vance then pointed to the folder that I am holding in my hands.
"Your homework is to read up and familiarise yourself with the business venture that we will be discussing, and also to read up more about our business partner and the people controlling the Brilliance Group. Sebastian will let us know when he has finally arranged a time to meet their representative, so just be ready by then. If you have any questions, then just feel free to ask me or Sebastian. I've checked with Looker and confirmed that your interpol duties won't start right away, so you have enough time."
"You should have just told me about this before I arrived at Unova so that I could be done with it earlier. I was so bored during the entire journey."
"Where's the fun without the surprise? And oh, you reminded me, the pokeballs of your pokemon that you transferred home before you boarded the ship, they are with me."
Vance passed over the familiar looking pokeballs and I excitedly took them over with my hands. It's been so long since I last saw them.
"Just don't release Kratos in here. There's a private courtyard outside to let out the bigger members of your team."
"I'm not stupid," I retorted, knowing that the entire building will collapse if I release a tyranitar in the room.
"Eh, could have fooled me sometimes."
"If anything, you are the stupider one out of us two."
"Oh really? Then I guess you can go alone to meet the Euclid representative and don't need my help-"
"Okay, I'm the stupider one."
"That sounds more like it."
"... Asshole."
"No cussing! Seriously, you only cuss when Mum is not around! This is why she keeps thinking that you are the obedient one when you are not!"
"That's because I'm not stupid enough to do so when she's around, unlike you," I argued before flipping the pages of the folder in my hand. "Actually, do you think Elesa would mind if I ask her about her family? It's definitely the fastest way to get to know the Euclids."
"I leave it to your judgement, I've never met her before."
"My family? Really?"
As it turns out, the city that we will be staying in for the foreseeable future is at Nimbasa, which is coincidentally the city that Elesa is in charge of. Elesa was still sticking around with us when I exited Vance's room to search for her because as she had explained, she doesn't want to go back to work so soon and is thus procrastinating for as long as she is able to.
"No, I don't mind talking about them, it's just that the current head of the family is my grandfather and we never got along. What possessed you to want to do business with them? Even doing business with Grimsley would be much better even if he's a grouchy old man 99 percent of the time."
"Uhm, it was a family decision?"
"Fair enough. Let's see, where should I start… Alright, from the top it is. Ever heard about our region's Culture Purge four hundred years ago?"
"A little in passing," I admitted.
"A little, hmm… Then… I'm not sure if Hoenn taught their kids about this, but ever heard of Ability Holders?"
"I heard a little from Morty."
"Okay, I think I know where to start the story. For some weird reason, our region has been teeming with Ability Holders since the start of time. Ability Holders are a lot more prevalent in Unova than other regions and are thus an integral part of our history, so maybe you not knowing them until now shouldn't be a surprise since they have so little presence in Hoenn. To keep things simple, Ability Holders were the trigger to the Culture Purge. The Culture Purge was more like… a genocide. It took place about a hundred years after Unova was officially united by our first Champion and it all started from xenophobia. Now, how much do you know about our first Champion, the Mad Conqueror, Nicholas Harlow?"
"Morty told me that he was an Ability Holder relating to dragon types."
"Correct. His ability to command dragons was too terrifying, leaving a lasting impact on the survivors. He was like an unstoppable berserker, and could often charge into battles alone without reinforcements and somehow win despite the impossible odds. His reckless fighting style coupled with his unbelievably stellar track records eventually earned him the epithet of the Mad Conqueror and his presence alone encouraged many other Ability Holders to band together and stand behind him, further consolidating his strength."
I nodded along to show that I am following. Seeing that, Elesa continued.
"However, that fear he sowed left a lasting impact even after a hundred years since Unova's unification. That fear eventually turned into xenophobia, with people fearing anyone relating to Ability Holders due to the chaos they brought about during the warring states. As you would imagine, that xenophobia eventually culminated into a nationwide witch hunt. Everything and anyone related to an Ability Holder were hunted, down to the last man, woman, child, and even their pokemon. Countless records and history relating to that particular period and especially in relation to Ability Holders, they were burned and destroyed. It was a massive loss of our history and culture, which is why this period is now known as the Culture Purge. Unova was a literal mess, almost to the point of dissolving itself. It was our darkest time."
Elesa took a slight pause before continuing.
"Things eventually settled down, but not through the work of the then Champion, but by the collective efforts of many prominent families in Unova who voluntarily stepped up to quell the civil war. Today, this coalition of families is known as the Five Weapons of Unova, assisted by the Twenty Assisting Houses that exists to support the most powerful five families that are vital to upholding the peace in Unova. It's very much like what your family is doing in Hoenn. There is a popular saying passed down in our region about these families: Led by five, followed by twenty, protecting Unova's truths and ideals until the end of time."
"Five Weapons?"
"There's a long history behind why they are called as such but I will skip it for now. You just have to know that each of the five families represent a weapon: Sword, Spear, Dagger, Shield, and Bow. Over the past four hundred years there have been changes of which five families are qualified to be considered as part of the Five Weapons. If a current Weapon is no longer powerful enough to continue with their duties as one they will be replaced by a family more powerful than them from the Twenty Assisting Houses, with the one being displaced demoting to becoming an Assisting House. Among the original five, only two families had retained their seat of power ever since the very beginning and they are my family, the Euclids, and their supposed equal, the Dandolos which Grimsley now leads. The Euclids represent the shield, the ones who protect the land while the Dandolos represent the dagger, the ones who deal with all of the region's dirty work. Obviously, people fear the Dandolos a lot more than any of the other families just for that alone."
"So that is why the two families keep butting heads with each other?"
"Pretty stupid, right?" Elesa moaned dramatically. "But that is why I'm so confused why my family is considering doing business with yours. My family is located at Nimbasa, the city of entertainment, their main businesses have very little to do with pokemon and in fact, they don't like pokemon in general and never got along well with any of the other influential families that deal with pokemon like the Dandolos. This was one reason why I was disowned, because I go against everything that they tell me not to do. I… I don't love my family at all, Vel, not for a lack of trying. They are all control freaks that dictated the better part of my life until I escaped and seeked refuge from Grimsley. I became a Gym Leader partly to spite my grandfather, and became a model that works with pokemon to rub it further into his face so that wherever he goes in Nimbasa, he would see my face plastered somewhere and be reminded that there is a stain in his family called Elesa."
"An ancient family that never dealt with pokemon suddenly expressed an interest to do so? With such a huge overseas project and with a family like mine?"
"Precisely! Suspicious, right? Something fishy is definitely going on here! Be careful, Vel, that grandpa of mine is heartless, especially towards pokemon, so I wouldn't recommend transacting any pokemon with him. I know it's not my place to butt into your family's affairs but really do think twice before entering into any sort of agreement with any businesses under my family's control. Don't agree right away to anything they might offer you no matter how good that deal might be."
"Frankly, I think the same too after listening to what you told me, which begs the question of why my dad wanted me to handle this. On the other hand, I am also curious about the Dandolos family cos, you know, as a backup plan if talks with your family fall through? They are equals, right?"
"Oh, doing business with them? If so, Grimsley would probably send Gavin or Amelia to talk to you since business is more of their forte. Gavin was the one who helped me to build my model agency from the ground up, and his daughter Amelia looks like she might surpass him in just a few years. I hadn't seen a business deal that they couldn't handle."
"And who are they?"
"Gavin is Grimsley's younger brother, and Amelia is Gavin's daughter, which would make Amelia Grimsley's niece. Keep this to yourself, Grimsley has three younger siblings, but they do not necessarily adopt the Dandolos name for secrecy's sake. It has been a practice in their family ever since hundreds of years ago. Remember what I said about their family being the one responsible to deal with all of Unova's dirty work? Secrecy is needed in their line of work and also for their own protection. This is why they are the dagger. Not an honourable weapon like the sword, but one that maximises efficiency and can be easily hidden. To the public, there are only two Dandolos families that they know of. The first one is Grimsley and his immediate family, which would include his wife Gladys who had passed away some years ago, and Asher, the son he just lost to the Lacunosa Invasion. Now that I think about it, I'm not sure if he will ever declare to the public about Jayce being his son, but that is his problem."
Elesa then began to talk about the other Dandolos family she mentioned.
"The second Dandolos family is the one belonging to Grimsley's younger sister, Giselle Dandolos. She's divorced, nearly beat her husband to death herself when she caught him cheating on her, but she has two children from that marriage that took on the Dandolos name like her and out of the two, Giselle's daughter is the most frightening Dandolos in her generation excluding Asher. Her name is Leticia. She's young, only twenty years old if I recall correctly but if you are dealing with the Dandolos, you need to be wary of her if you don't want to get eaten alive. Asher was the next in line to succeed Grimsley since he was more capable but now that he's gone, she's very likely going to be the one taking Asher's place, which would mean that meeting her will be inevitable if you are going to delve into a long term business partnership with the Dandolos."
"You say that she is frightening, but how and why?"
"She's a very capable trainer, for one. Yes, it's expected of a Dandolos due to their history with pokemon, but not all Dandolos will choose to become a trainer even if most of them do. Amelia isn't one herself. Unlike her family's history, Leticia is not a Dark Specialist but a Poison Specialist, and those are really nasty if they truly know what they are doing. Just look at Petrel and what he nearly did to Blackthorn. All of the dirty dealings that the Dandolos have to partake in, she has been participating and trained for it alongside Asher since she was eight. She's really nice to anyone who is a Dandolos, but extremely venomous to anyone who dared to do her family harm, even if it's her own father. Remember when I said that her mother was divorced? Leticia poured acid on her father's face for cheating on their mother and was smiling the entire time. I was there to see it."
"A-Acid?!"
"Extracted from her own arbok no less. She's also a very talented chemist and pharmacist, so much that Grimsley didn't ask her for a reason when she asked him for permission to use the family's funds to set up a pharmaceutical company and she didn't betray his trust, her company is doing really well and is raking in quite the profits for the family. Basically, anything relating to chemicals or drugs, she is the girl you need. You remember the blueprints of the drug we retrieved from Team Rocket that helps slow the side effects of Mega Evolution on trainers? I bet the first person Grimsley gave a copy of that blueprint is her and knowing her, she already came up with an improved version of it."
"Sounds like someone not to piss off."
"Oh I know what you mean. I'm glad that she sees me as one of them because, come on, it's acid. From an arbok, and the one she picked to raise is the most venomous variant among its species. If anyone ever does that to my pretty face I wouldn't want to step out of my house ever again but anyway, back to the topic at hand. If you really want to know about the Euclids, I'm actually not the best person to talk to because it's been years since I last talked to them. I have no clue as to what they are up to right now. If you want to know more about them, you should ask somebody else."
"Who?"
"I already told you, the Dandolos. Who else would know the Euclids better than their biggest rival? But knowing Grimsley, he probably won't give you the time of the day and to be perfectly honest, he's too busy with his work as an Elite Four to help you. I can help arrange to let you meet Leticia though, she's as close as you can get to meeting a spokesperson for the Dandolos that is not Grimsley himself. She would probably be more than happy to tell you all of my family's dirty little secrets and let's face it, it's just too suspicious for my family to suddenly want to work with yours. The Dandolos will want to know and they will help if it means pissing my family off."
"But… acid…"
"Just don't piss her off, really. It's not that hard."
"Unfortunately, I have a tendency to unknowingly do just that."
"Too bad then."
"... Come with me to the meeting?"
"Nah, I will be swamped with work by then, but if you really want to leave a good impression on Leticia you can consider gifting her some rare toxins, she has a love for those. Salazzle's toxins are quite hard to get in Unova from what I know so if you have any of those, that would make a great gift in her eyes."
"Toxins?"
"She's a Dandolos. You saw for yourself how Grimsley is, you cannot evaluate a Dandolos using common sense. All of them are madmen, that trait runs in their family."
A family of lunatics. Good grief, why is nothing ever easy?
Character and pokemon list:
Velda Vera, Age: 13, Female, Pokemon Trainer, Member of the International Police
Pokemon on hand:
1) Rapidash (Flamel), male
2) Swampert (Bigblue), male
3) Banette (Dolly), female
4) Flygon (Snap), male
5) Absol (Kelsa), female
6) Charizard (Toothless), male
7) Cradily (Lily), female
8) Espeon (Rena), female
9) Pachirisu (Fuzzy), male
10) Tyranitar (Kratos), male
11) Clefairy (Joy), female
12) Nidoqueen (Ness), female
13) Pangoro (Hulk), male
14) Porygon-Z (Jarvis), genderless
15) Scizor (Archer), male
16) Lapras (Chill), female
17) Gengar (Wacky), male