"My baby sis is dolling herself up today! Oh gosh, wait, don't move! I need to send a pic to Dad and Mum-"
"Try taking one single picture and I will poke your eyes out," I threw a cushion at Vance in mild irritation. He knew for a fact that I hate being treated like a doll.
"B-But…"
"Aren't you supposed to be the "help"?" I asked while making air quote motions with my fingers. "I don't see any help from you, brother dear."
"Hey, it takes a lot of work to compile and gather information, you know! Where else do you think all that info in that little folder I gave you came from?!"
"Oh I think it would be a lot more helpful if, you know, someone could accompany me to a meeting with the spokesperson of a renowned family of lunatics, who I was told by a very credible source had once poured arbok acid on her father's face."
"You have to go on these kinds of meetings on your own eventually, you need more exposure-"
"You are just lazy."
"... Maybe a little, but hey, Sebastian will be with you."
"I'm sure he's not going to get involved in the discussion when I am there. It will be weird if the servant is in charge of the negotiations when the master is present. Argh, whatever, where's the thing I asked you to help me prepare?"
Vance rummaged through the pile of messily stacked objects near his table before bringing out a small box the size of my palm. He opened the box, revealing an intricately designed mini bottle sitting within.
"The salazzle toxin you have been harping about. It's not easy trying to get this into Unova, Vel, this is classified as illegal stuff in this part of the world. I hope you appreciate the effort I took to get it."
"This might just be the only thing that can help us if we are to try and build good relations with the Dandolos, because the way I see it, our planned partnership with the Euclids is bound to doom even before it even begins. If we want to expand our business into Unova we need to consider other alternatives and the Dandolos family is the best that we are going to get," I answered as I carefully put the little box into a brand new handbag I found in my new room. Our family had always lived incredibly humbly despite our wealth and status, but Dad was apparently not joking when he said he would introduce me to the world of the rich that is befitting of our social status. I have an entire floor to myself in this building, and I have one entire room designed to be my personal closet. Clothes, shoes, and accessories of all kinds are in there, most of them branded and luxury goods. The handbag that I am using now is also picked from there, along with the dark purple dress that I am wearing and matching shoes.
I'm still not used to such a lifestyle, to be honest. I would always choose the little house at the Petalburg farm over this anyday, but I do know that images have to be upheld in our social circle for others of equal status to take you seriously. Dressing the part is just one small aspect of it.
"Alright, I'm off. Wish me luck," I bidded Vance goodbye before hurrying out of the door and taking the lift to the first floor. Sebastian is already waiting for me at the front with a sleek black car. Upon spotting me, he helpfully opened the rear door, allowing me to enter, before taking the driver's seat himself.
It was a silent ride to our destination, a high-end restaurant that Leticia had chosen for the location of our meeting. Throughout the journey my attention was on the view of the streets outside, watching both in curiosity and also in awe at how the city could evolve into the bustling sight that it is today. The only city I saw that could ever be compared to Nimbasa and Castelia in terms of economic development would be New Mauville.
In the pokemon world, cars are not a preferred means of transport. That is largely due to the presence of pokemon because with these creatures around, the maintenance of asphalt roads for distances as large as those between cities is absurdly difficult. If people who are not trainers have to travel from one city to another, they would usually take a bus ride from service providers who are trained to send their customers on long road trips despite the pokemon threat, or if they are rich enough, pay for teleportation services or raise a pokemon for the very sole job of transportation. Thus, a car's usefulness is largely limited within a city where they are driven locally. I'm not too sure about the other regions but in Hoenn, the public transport service is so highly developed and heavily relied upon that most people do not need to purchase a private car to go from place to place. As such, personal vehicles are usually only bought and used by the rich, because there really isn't much demand for it from the common folk.
Even in this life, I only ever sat in my family's car a few times, because I never had a need to when there are always faster and more reliable options available. Teleportation, flight, Shadow Sneak, riding on Flamel, any of these could travel faster and safer than a car could any other day.
However, this is Unova, not Hoenn, and thus a personal vehicle is needed when I am about to meet a very important guest in a city as large as Nimbasa. Ever since Team Plasma invaded Lacunosa, the Unova League had no choice but to enact several harsh laws to prevent something similar from happening ever again. Pokemon above certain sizes are not allowed to be released from their pokeballs in any of their cities except for several designated spots approved by the League, although that size restriction differs from city to city. Teleportation into and from the city is largely forbidden, so if anyone wants to travel to somewhere else through Teleport they have to first make their way out of the city and to do so, and they could only arrive at their city of choice by teleporting outside of it at specific teleportation spots designated by the Unova League.
The exceptions are private properties, like the place that I am currently staying at, where we as the owners can teleport into and from there as long as we had filed the proper paperwork with the local authorities beforehand. Those are just one of the many laws that were put in place in light of the current unrest and in any case, there is no way we could teleport to the restaurant where I will be meeting Leticia or hitch a ride on Flamel's back because while I am allowed to teleport away from our residence, I am not allowed to teleport directly to the restaurant. Doing so will be a blatant disregard of the law.
The silent journey to the restaurant proved Vance's claim that Sebastian is not a man of many words. Under usual circumstances I would try to initiate a conversation but the anxiety I am getting for the meeting later just left me with no mood for it. Even if I know that I had prepared myself as best as I could, this is still the first time that I will be doing something for the family's business as their representative. Not just as Velda Vera, but also as the heiress to the noble Vera family. Every word I say, every little action that I take, they will all reflect upon my family and the last thing I want would be to disappoint my parents.
I had probably dozed off halfway into the ride, because the next thing I remembered was Sebastian gently waking me up before I stepped out of the car with him helping to hold the door. Sebastian excused himself the moment he escorted me to the door of the private room where Leticia was said to be already waiting for me. I took a deep breath, plastered a polite smile on my face before entering the room.
My attention was immediately drawn to the slim woman sitting on the other end of the table. She's incredibly beautiful. Just a look from her, or even how she placed her glass on the table after noticing my entrance, just that alone would give you the impression that she had been through some kind of aristocratic upbringing because she is just so unbelievably graceful. Her black dress is form fitting, accentuating all the curves that she has in the right places. Like me, she has blonde hair although hers is in a much lighter shade, but her scarlet eyes are what I deemed to be her most defining trait. I could see why Elesa described her as someone to look out for in our conversations because Leticia is not even bothering to conceal the lethality she possesses behind those eyes. She's like a fully bloomed rose that is not hiding her thorns, beautiful and dangerous all the same.
"Good evening, I hope you had a comfortable journey here, Unova isn't exactly safe these days. I am Leticia Dandolos. Please, have a seat."
"Velda Vera. Sorry that I kept you waiting," I apologised before taking my seat opposite hers, my eyes briefly observing the massive stoutland resting by the side of Leticia's chair. Stoutland? Isn't Leticia a Poison Specialist? A companion pokemon, perhaps?
"Don't worry, I only just arrived too. I hope you don't mind me taking the liberty of placing the order for you. I chose this place for our meeting partly because of their signature fusion style cuisine. From what I understand, Unova's cuisine tends to be a little too heavy on foreigners' tongues and I don't wish for you to leave this meeting with an unpleasant memory, so I chose a place that would best cater to your tastes."
"Thank you, I really appreciate it," I replied with a smile before taking out that small box containing that illegal item and passing it over to her. "A little gift, Elesa said that you would love it."
Her stoutland had perked its head up the moment I took out the box, nose sniffing at the air in its direction. Leticia had taken out the bottle within, uncapped it, and I could see how her eyebrows were rising a little in surprise the moment she took a quick sniff at its contents after bringing the bottle close to her nose. The slight tug at the edge of her lips told me that she likes the present.
"It looks like I owe Elesa another favour to receive such a pleasant gift. You have no idea how cumbersome it is to procure salazzle's toxins, and Alola are very strict about the trade of their native species to anywhere outside their region. Trying to get my hands on a salazzle is even harder than getting their poison since Unova and Alola aren't exactly on the best of terms right now."
"I'm curious, what are you planning to do with that?" I asked, to which Leticia simply replied with a foreboding smile.
"That would be telling, wouldn't it? Let's just say that it will relate to what my family is known for and salazzle poisons are some of the most corrosive things to ever exist on this planet."
… I probably shouldn't have asked.
I was saved from the awkward atmosphere when the waiter came in and served us our dishes. I was surprised at seeing a tempura dish, never expecting to be able to eat Hoenn's famous dish here. It's obvious that this is not a traditional tempura dish that I am familiar with since there are obvious inclusions of Unova's food culture, but still a surprise nevertheless.
"The food's good," I spoke after taking the first bite. Leticia obviously had taken great care to pick the perfect location of our first meeting, even taking into consideration my preferences as a Hoennian.
"Hearing that makes me at ease, I was worried that it might not be to your tastes," Leticia replied just as politely. "I had heard the gist from Elesa about why you wanted to meet me. Is it true that the Euclids are trying to enter into a business agreement with your family?"
"It's true."
"I would say this upfront, they are not worth considering if the business agreement has anything to do with pokemon. Those heathens have no respect for them," Leticia stated as her right hand scratched the back of her stoutland's ear, causing the large canine pokemon to wag its tail at her in happiness. "If your family truly wants to expand your business to Unova, you can consider working with us, or I could even recommend a few other interested parties to you even if they are my family's business rivals as long as it can keep you from working from the Euclids, they are the worst sort."
Wow, just wow.
"I had heard a little about your family's feud with the Euclid, but this…"
"Your reaction is understandable. From what I am aware, Hoenn do not rely as much on their noble families as Unova do. The only notable families left who still have a presence in Hoenn are yours and the Stones while we still have twenty five families running most of the things required to keep Unova working. As for the feud between my family and the Euclids, I guess it's inevitable that it will happen over the course of four hundred years, but it will never be at the expense of Unova's wellbeing. We may dislike each other, but we know when to draw the line."
Leticia gracefully placed her utensils down, taking a short pause from her meal.
"I might be sidetracking a little, but I had heard from my uncle that it was you who helped rescue my cousin from the Rocket hideout at Five Island. On behalf of our entire family, I thank you. You have no idea how learning the existence of Project Illusion has affected us. To say that we were enraged at Indigo would be an understatement."
"I didn't do much, it was mostly Grimsley and your cousin's pokemon doing all the work. He had escaped though."
"My uncle is certain that the wayward cousin of mine will be making his way to Unova. Actually, very likely, he had already arrived but is just too stubborn to come and meet us for reasons unknown. He's giving me a massive headache because it's just so hard to track down someone who's not supposed to exist. If it's not too much to ask, do inform me if you have any sightings of him during your stay here. Our family will be very grateful for your assistance."
"No promises, but I will see what I can do."
"That's more than what I could ask for," Leticia replied with a sincere smile before carrying on. "Considering that you are our family's benefactor, I would like to express our sincerity and reiterate once more that embarking on a business partnership with the Euclid family would not be wise for reasons already stated. If you need a business partner in Unova, there are always better options out there."
"We will do our own investigations on our end, but if it does end up with anything like you or Elesa said, that they dislike and possibly mistreat pokemon, then we will terminate any possible business endeavours with them. We wish to expand our business overseas, but the Vera Family will never sell a single pokemon to someone who might mistreat them, much less a group as large as the Euclid's Brilliance Group."
"That is more than enough for me. I'm sure that the results of your investigations will agree with what I had said today, so if you are interested, we can discuss the possibility of a partnership between our families instead."
It took me a lot of self-discipline to not cheer for joy. This was the outcome that I had been hoping for, the true purpose of this meeting. Ever since I learnt from Elesa that her family had never liked pokemon I was planning to take the risky decision and cut off any possible business dealings with them, because their actions goes against everything I was taught about pokemon and as a Vera. The very first thing I learnt from my father about pokemon was about respecting them, and we never sell pokemon to anyone if they are even the slightest bit untrustworthy in that aspect. It is our duty and responsibility as pokemon breeders.
However, a business opportunity lost is still an opportunity lost. Losing the chance to work with a partner like the Brilliance Group would mean stagnating our family's advance into the international market and Unova is full of unique pokemon that are hard to find anywhere else. It would be a huge help to our first overseas venture if we could strike an agreement with a local Unova business to provide us the pokemon we need, and preferably a group as influential as the Brilliance Group. The Dandolos might not be in the pokemon breeding industry, but what they have are the connections we sorely need to make our expansions a reality.
Leticia probably knows that too, but this is just both of us taking advantage of what we both need. My family needs a point of contact in Unova and likewise to Leticia, this is a huge business opportunity for her family on top of rubbing it into their rival's face. As much as Grimsley is a total disagreeable prick, I know that I can trust him and the family he leads to treat the pokemon that we will be selling to and buying from with proper respect and care.
"As you would have already known, my family doesn't deal with pokemon breeding, but we have a lot of connections to nearly everything in Unova. Our family has a respectable share of the pie in the transportation business, that is something you would need to ship your pokemon to every town and city in Unova. I can introduce you to a few other respectable local breeding businesses that I know can be trusted to handle pokemon properly and I can assure you, what they can offer would not be any less than what the Euclids can provide. After all, nobody would turn away a business opportunity offered by the Veras when it comes to pokemon."
"That would be very helpful," I smiled in return.
"What I do want to know, and pardon me for asking, is if you can indeed represent your family in such an important matter. After all, you are only thirteen and while the legal technicalities can be easily bypassed via loopholes, we do want assurance that your family is standing behind any decisions that you would make in this possible partnership."
"I am given full authority by my father in regards to our businesses in Unova. If my age is indeed an issue, I can arrange for you to meet my older brother who is also the heir. He's here in Unova, but unable to come for today's dinner due to other reasons."
That reminds me, I will have to strangle that lazy brother of mine the moment I return.
"That would not be necessary. I just needed to check for the sake of our future business partners that I am planning to invite into this arrangement. Since we are both interested in this business venture, I will send word back home to get my lawyers and Amelia to hash out a draft arrangement that is beneficial to us all and we can continue our future discussions from there. Ah, speaking of which, Amelia would probably want to make friends with you."
"I had heard a little of Amelia from Elesa. I heard that she's good at business?"
"And she's about the same age as you," Leticia helpfully added with a faint smile on her face. "So young, yet already taking on so many responsibilities, but I guess that is what happens when one is born a genius. It helps that she loves the thrill of making money, but she doesn't have many friends her age because she doesn't share interest in the things her peers would. Both you and her are similar, in the sense that you have to deal with facets of the adult world at your age because of your family background. I'm sure that the both of you will have many things to talk about."
"You are not wrong, the only friends my age that I have are Tate and Liza and I don't see them often due to our line of work. It does get lonely sometimes," I admitted. "On another unrelated note, is it fine if we discuss the Plasma problem? It's the reason why I'm here in Unova in the first place as an interpol agent."
"Team Plasma," the expression on Leticia's face darkened almost immediately at the mention of their name. "You found the right person to ask, our family is at the forefront of the battle in getting rid of those heretics. Uncle also did say to cooperate with the interpol in all affairs relating to them. What does the interpol need help with?"
"Information, for starters. We only just arrived and our team are not Unovans with the exception of one, but she's a researcher so she couldn't provide us with much information. The second would be to clarify with the League the outcome that they wish for us to help them achieve seeing how this is a sensitive issue for the populace because religion is an unavoidable aspect for this situation. Is it outright eradication, or just suppression?"
"You can ask Alder a hundred times and the answer would always be the same. It will always be the eradication of Team Plasma," Leticia affirmed. "Team Plasma had crossed the line the moment they decided to engage in terrorism acts at Lacunosa. They know full well that the town is where my family had been for centuries and proceeded to murder the future head of the family, my cousin Asher. They purposely chose to strike at that particular day. I don't know how they knew, but they knew that there would be no Dandolos to defend the town that day except for Asher. Our family is well-known for cleaning up major threats to the region and we will be the first obstacle they will face should they want to try anything funny. Destroying our town, killing our future leader, all of it would serve to severely weaken our family and the public's trust in us and thus, allowing Team Plasma the freedom to do whatever they want until we can reconsolidate our strength. That attack on Lacunosa was carefully planned, Velda. Team Plasma had to be planning this for a long time, they cannot be ignored."
Leticia drank a sip from her glass, possibly thinking about something, before continuing.
"I would inform my subordinates to check again with my uncle and Alder on what we can share with the interpol in regards to the Plasma problem, but I believe that it's likely you will be given close to unrestricted access considering the urgency and the interpol's recent achievements with helping to exterminate Team Rocket. The only thing I would ask of you is to help keep an eye out for that missing cousin of mine and to inform us if you came across any of his sightings. We are almost certain that he was at Lacunosa to visit his mother and brother's graves, but we had lost track of him there onwards."
"Do you know what he could possibly be planning?" I asked, also having a vested interest to track Jayce down because he is the last among us seven and we need to know if he knows something we don't behind our shared secret.
"No, but we speculate that it could be revenge, revenge for Asher," Leticia shared. "He had lived his entire life knowing nothing but killings and deception, I'd imagine it would be difficult for him to change that way of life. He only has less than five years to live, so what else could he want to accomplish in this period of time? Uncle said that he's driven by a strong sense of self-loathing and hate and maybe in his eyes, getting rid of Team Plasma would be akin to doing something good for a change, using the skills he acquired and is the best at to achieve something otherwise impossible for most."
"If it's for revenge, wouldn't utilising the resources your family has be more efficient?"
"Yes, which is why we were wondering why he has not yet chosen to return to us," Leticia sighed tiredly with a hand placed on her forehead. "Amelia was so excited to see him too."
"He was a spy, do you think… that maybe he could be planning to do the exact same thing he did to Team Rocket?"
"We thought of that possibility as well, but we all feel that it's not feasible if he wants to bring them down within five years. He doesn't have the luxury of time, so that same method will not work."
"I will inform my colleagues to keep an eye out for him," I reassured Leticia, not knowing what else to say about this issue.
The topic of conversation for the remainder of the dinner was something more light-hearted, but it still doesn't answer that one question that I had been thinking about.
Why did Jayce not return to his family?
It was getting into the night when my dinner with Leticia ended. Leticia had kindly walked me out and Sebastian returned to my side as soon as he spotted me. Leticia bade me farewell after we had exchanged contacts, promising that she will contact me soon for both affairs relating to our business partnership and also relating to Team Plasma. She left with a single bodyguard while Sebastian escorted me to the car.
"I assumed that the talk went well?" Sebastian initiated the conversation as he started to drive the car out onto the road. I was pleasantly surprised by his initiative, but replied immediately to our family servant who had been serving us for decades.
"Yes, we will be doing business with the Dandolos instead, along with a few more business partners that Leticia is planning to rope into as well. This meeting simply confirmed my suspicions that the Brilliance Group is likely not a good business partner when it comes to any business relating to pokemon. I will have to inform Dad of this arrangement. Sorry, Sebastian, but you will probably be swamped with work soon, and sorry for making you wait."
"Do not say that, Miss Velda, it is part of my job. You did well, because Master Griff never expected that the business agreement proposed by the Brilliance Group would go through. He was fully expecting that such an outcome will occur and I daresay that you passed his test with flying colours."
"Wait, what? A test?"
"And I am what he would say, your examiner for this test," Sebastian chuckled as our car made a turn on the road. "Master Griff would be proud of you. It's not easy to be able to find another business partner on the same scale and influence as the Brilliance Group and persuade them to do business with us on the very first meeting. Usually, hashing out an agreement like this would take much longer."
A test, now that kind of explained everything, like why Dad would give me to work on a business agreement with a shady prospective partner. He probably wanted me to learn how to identify and filter out a shady business partner and how to seek new ones to replace the business opportunities we would have lost.
"I'm lucky I had the right connections," I admitted, knowing that if it wasn't for Elesa things would never progress that smoothly. I would have to do something to thank her, but that's something for another day.
"For people at your position, having the right connections is the prerequisite to do what you have to do. This is the lesson that I believe Master Griff wants you to take away from this incident. At least you did better than Young Master Vance did during his test. Let this be a shared secret between us, but he took a lot longer to complete the first task Master Griff assigned him."
"Do tell," I asked, perhaps a little too eager, because anything that I could use to blackmail Vance with is worth their weight in gold. Sebastian merely chuckled as he stopped by a traffic light with the red light shining as the universal signal to stop and strangely enough, there were no other vehicles around us. Not like I paid it any mind at that moment since I was so distracted by the thought of getting a possible future blackmail material to use against Vance. I simply attributed the lack of vehicles to the fact that it is late into the night.
I should have found it odd that a road can be this empty for a city as bustling as Nimbasa.
A beam of high-powered headlights suddenly shone into our eyes from the opposite end of the street, blinding me for a few seconds as a loud screech could be heard. I thought I heard Sebastian's muffled voice calling out for me before I felt the familiar cold touch of the shadows drowning out everything else. When I finally managed to open my eyes, I was sitting on the side of the road. Another car had collided into the car which I had been sitting in and had burst into flames. Dolly and Wacky had shown themselves and the shadows beneath me were swirling in a furious manner and it's only then I realised that they had just quite literally saved my life.
That was really too close.
"Sebastian!" I stood up and shouted, trying to locate the aged man. I heard his voice before turning around, spotting Sebastian running up to me with his claydol, zangoose, and medicham already released. He's bruised and cut up in several places, but otherwise fine.
"Thank God, you are safe," Sebastian let out a sigh of relief upon spotting me before his gaze went to my ghosts. "Young Master Vance did inform me about your ability to command ghosts and to move around through Shadow Sneak, but this is my first time seeing it in action."
"What about…" I turned towards the burning vehicles, eyes fixed on the car that collided into ours.
"Miss Velda, please stay behind me," Sebastian stood in front of me, arm outstretched to prevent me from taking another step forward. "This is no accident, it is a premeditated act of attempted murder. Be alert to your surroundings, I am currently unable to teleport you out of here due to unknown interferences which I personally suspect to be the usage of Darktycin technology, and I am also unable to contact Young Master Vance as all forms of communication are currently down."
"Someone out for my life so soon? Wow, I'm really not welcomed in Unova," I cannot help but snark as I tried to think of a reason why my life is being targeted right now. Whoever is doing this obviously came prepared, but I cannot think of any reason why.
"Jarvis?" I spoke into my x-transceiver only to receive a negative response from my porygon-z, confirming that all network communications are indeed down. I immediately released Flamel, Archer, Rena, and Fuzzy from their pokeballs, knowing that we will need to start running for our lives soon.
"Show yourself," I called out into the dark as I made a discreet hand signal behind my back for the ghosts hiding in my shadow to seek out our attackers. I should have realised sooner how the lights in this area had suddenly just gone out. Nimbasa is a sleepless city, there is no way it isn't lit up at any time of the day.
'From our left!'
Rena's warning gave us enough time to react as Archer swiped at a scrafty that was attempting to ambush us from our blindspot. More pokemon suddenly emerged, each of various typing and species as they tried to quickly overwhelm us with their numbers.
"Claydol!"
Sebastian's claydol wasted no time in creating a powerful psychic barrier to keep the attackers out but this is not the solution. No psychic barriers will last long enough in the face of such numbers.
"Dolly, Confuse Ray, sow as much chaos as you can. Wacky, you too, go create some mayhem."
My ghosts eagerly acknowledged my commands as they disappeared into the shadows. Chaos erupted in the next instant as infighting started to occur within the pokemon swarm, courtesy of Confuse Ray.
I jumped up onto Flamel's back, uncaring if the motions of doing so created a new tear on the expensive dress that I am currently wearing in the process, and held a hand out to Sebastian.
"Sebastian, hurry!"
Sebastian immediately got the memo and took my hand to swing himself up onto Flamel's back, sitting right behind me. Flamel let out a loud neigh before charging straight ahead through the use of the Battering Ram technique that we created in the earliest part of our journey in Hoenn, creating a path out for us to escape as the rest of our pokemon followed behind. A beartic remained standing in our path as it began to charge at us.
"Zangoose! Intercept!"
Sebastian's zangoose picked up speed and ran ahead of us, immediately engaging the bearctic in battle and preventing it from blocking Flamel's charge. It bought enough time for us to bypass the bearctic and Sebastian brought Zangoose back to our side by recalling it back into its pokeball once we were at a safe distance away. Dolly and Wacky had also returned to my side and were running alongside us through hovering in the air. However, there is now one problem.
I'm lost. Everything in Unova is so unfamiliar to me, which way is out?
"Sebastian, which way?"
"Turn right!" Sebastian suggested and Flamel immediately did a right turn, galloping straight down onto a much narrower road as the pokemon swarm started to chase after us from behind, the effects of Confuse Ray starting to wear out on them. Running can only get us so far, we need to find a way to shake off our unknown pursuers. I'm hesitant on releasing my bigger and more destructive pokemon because we are in the middle of a city. I do not want to be the one paying for collateral damages even if I know my strongest battlers could easily turn the situation around with their presence alone.
Also, it's best not to remain in one spot for too long until we can flush out our unseen attacker. We need to keep moving, but the horde of pokemon out for our blood is an issue too. We need to put them down before they catch up to us and we need to do it fast.
"I guess there's no other way. Dolly, you know what to do, but be careful."
Dolly vanished into the darkness as I heard her loud screech sounding out from behind us. I signalled for Flamel to come to a stop as my trusty starter braked to a halt and turned around, just in time to see Dolly's Destiny Bond taking effect and causing all of the pokemon behind us to faint.
"That is an ingenious idea," Sebastian commented as I recalled the unconscious Dolly back into her pokeball. Destiny Bond is extremely useful in such situations where you can use it to defeat an entire horde of pokemon at the cost of only one, although for the pokemon in question to be able to do so it must first go through extensive training to be able to spread the effects of Destiny Bond to as many targets as it could. Agatha's teachings were helpful in that regard.
'Rena, sense anything?'
'Malicious intent is everywhere, mistress, but I am unable to pinpoint an exact direction. It is starting to fade, however, so our attacker might be making a run for it after this failed attempt on your life.'
"Let's just hope that one of the ghosts has managed to mark them," I muttered under my breath as I signalled for Flamel to continue moving and hopefully we will arrive somewhere with a network connection soon. The usage of Darktycin, jamming of communications, even managing to clear out the roads in the bustling city of Nimbasa, whoever wanted me dead sure did pull out all the stops to do so and had the means to arrange the best possible trap.
Question is, just who had I offended within my first month in Unova, and why do they want me dead?
AN: I had heard your voices. The consensus I received from RFTS latest update was that you guys don't mind me releasing chapters of a few select stories in advance despite it potentially spoiling the overall plot. I personally prefer to update the stories concurrently as the plot goes along but I do not have time to write out the chapters for all the stories yet. I have no idea when the Unova arc could start if I chose to go down that route.
There were some of you who suggested to combine all the stories into one. I agree it's a valid option, but I'm afraid that it would not be possible for the Unova arc, at least, because this way the plot would be heavily skewed in IJWTTTW, RE, and RFTS direction as these are the stories which the chapters were already mostly written out in. Maybe I would consider doing something like that in the Kalos arc, we shall see.
Double updates today for IJWTTW and most likely tomorrow as well. Take it as my compensation for finally updating after so long.
As usual, I hope you enjoy the story thus far.
Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you, the start of the Unova Arc.
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