The meeting that Looker wanted us interpol agents to attend that day was to brief us on our own individual assignments. The assignment Looker gave me was simple. I am to use my connections as a Vera to get myself acquainted with influential people, families, or organisations in order to find out more about Team Plasma and what they are up to.
That brings me to where I am now at Floccesy Town, a small town situated in the southwestern part of the Unova region. From what I heard it is also Champion Alder's hometown. Word has it that a long time ago, the town used to be a grassy meadow and was populated by people in search of pokemon. Eventually both humans and pokemon started living together right here and this was how Floccesy Town came to be.
The person I am going to meet is Myles Aguirre, the head of the Aguirre family who is part of Unova's Twenty Assisting Houses. Among the Twenty Assisting Houses, the Aguirre family has the closest working relationship to the Dandolos and has been supporting them ever since the end of the Culture Purge.
I've decided to meet the Aguirres for several reasons. One, Elesa and Leticia had recommended that getting to know the Aguirres will be a good place to start due to the close relationship between the Dandolos and Aguirre family. Secondly, the Aguirre family is one of the partners that Leticia had convinced to join in the partnership between my family and Leticia's. Thirdly, like my family, the Aguirres have been involved in the business of pokemon breeding for a long time and possess one of Unova's largest pokemon farms, which was one reason why Leticia felt that they are the most suitable candidate to be one of our business partners.
The place where the Aguirre family set up their farm is located north of Route 20 near where Floccesy Town is. That place is known as the Floccesy Ranch and to my knowledge, has a great track record for producing pokemon with exceptional pedigree for specialised fields, the most common ones being pokemon bred for battle, transport, or other utility uses that might be useful for other situations for whatever organisations might need pokemon for. While our family's farm does breed and produce pokemon with exceptional pedigree as well, the focus of our business has always been more of being able to provide a larger variety of species of pokemon for our buyers rather than the pokemon's pedigree itself.
"Really quiet and peaceful, isn't it?"
Flamel agreed with my statement with a soft snort as he slowly trotted along the roads of Floccesy Town. The size restrictions regarding the kind of pokemon allowed to roam within human settlements are not as strict in Floccesy, so Flamel is able to accompany me on my journey as I rode on his back, just like how I always did when we were on our journey in Hoenn.
Sure does bring back memories.
Floccesy Town reminds me a lot of Verdanturf Town in Hoenn, mainly because both towns have an abundance of flora and greenery. However, while Verdanturf is a town surrounded by flowers, Floccesy is situated within a vast meadow with huge trees growing around the town's perimeter. I guess Floccesy does look a little like Fortree City as well, but Fortree city is a city where huge trees like these are grown within the city itself and where its residents built their homes within them and is thus, fundamentally different.
Nothing can ever quite beat the unique sight of Fortree City, in my opinion. I had never seen or heard any other city quite like it.
We arrived at Floccesy Town much earlier than the agreed time with Myles Aguirre. This was done on purpose, so that I will have the chance to do my own sightseeing in this remote yet beautiful town. This town doesn't seem very much affected by whatever schemes the Plasmas are cooking up which again, is mainly attributed to its remote location.
"We should go and see the Old Clock Tower and the Pledge Grove. It shouldn't be too hard to spot the clock tower… Ah, there it is. Let's go, Flamel."
The clock tower of Floccesy is a must-see for any tourists who went out of their way to visit this remote location of Unova and I will admit, the Old Clock Tower is nothing special when I finally see it for myself. It's just a battered looking old clock tower with a light purple roof and a huge bell. In fact, it looks abandoned judging from how vines are growing around the base of it and the hands of the clock are missing. However, the clock tower has been here since the town's beginnings and is said to have witnessed the entire history of Floccesy Town. Despite the clock tower being in a state of disrepair, there is a unique charm to it as well.
"Maybe it's time for me to change my profile picture, and maybe we can take a team picture while we are at it too. The last one we had was the one we took as Sootopolis and our team had grown so much since then. Heh, Kratos was still a pupitar back then. Look at him now."
I decided to indulge in my own rare bouts of vanity and took several pictures of myself and the clock tower. It was a little hard to get the right angle but with Jarvis' help, I managed to snap a profile picture worthy shot of me riding on Flamel's back with the Old Clock Tower as the background. Unfortunately, I am not allowed to release so many pokemon within the town and especially not pokemon like charizard or tyranitar, who are well known for their destructive tendencies. Fortunately, the Pledge Grove that we are intending to visit does not have such restrictions. According to what I heard from a local, hardly anybody visits that place.
The Pledge Grove is located at the north of the town and is fairly easy to spot the route leading to it, a long stretch of grassy path that leads out of the town and it took a while to traverse even with Flamel galloping at an average pace. Nevertheless, we reached the grove, a small secluded area hidden by the tall lush trees around it. Right at the very end of the grove, a huge rock with three deep cuts carved into it can be seen. If the folktales passed down in Floccesy are to be believed, these cuts are left behind by the Unova's Swords of Justice, namely Cobalion, Virizion, and Terrakion, as a form of pledge. As to what the pledge is about, for whom and for what, nobody knows.
The perfect spot to take a team picture.
"Alright guys, arrange yourselves. Small ones at the front, bigger ones at the back- Kratos, you are no longer a small little pupitar, have some self-awareness and move yourself to the back. Fuzzy, stop flying around for a moment and find yourself a spot in the photo. Toothless, you join Kratos at the back too."
After rearranging ourselves so that we can all be seen in the photo, including the huge rock with three deep cuts as our backdrop, Jarvis levitated my camera to the appropriate height with Psychic and remotely activated the shutter, capturing this moment into a photograph and marking our trip to Unova. Even some of the ghosts that were usually hiding in my shadows had made an appearance to join in the photo as well.
"Good job, Jarvis. This looks good," I praised my porygon-z as it made a whirring sound in reply, sounding pleased at itself. Some of my pokemon crowded around me as well, curious to see how the photo turned out.
"Kratos, can you stop thinking of destroying things for a second? That rock belongs to Unova's Swords of Justice, they are Legendary Pokemon. So unless you want to get your ass whipped to oblivion, don't touch that rock."
Kratos let out a dissatisfied rumble for being disallowed to chew on the huge rock that is even bigger than him in size. Toothless and Snap are simply outright laughing at him for being scolded by me once more.
"You want a solo picture of yourself?" I asked Fuzzy when he squeaked very loudly to catch my attention from where he was standing on the top of the rock, waving with excited gestures and doing hilarious poses while he was at it. I don't see why I couldn't indulge him, so I took a few pictures of Fuzzy too.
My x-transceiver rang at that moment, so I picked up the call.
"Hello?"
"Vel! I saw it! Your new profile picture, gosh, it's so goooood! So pretty! Where are you right now?"
"Hi Liza. I'm at Unova, Floccesy Town. That tower you see in the background is their town's Old Clock Tower."
"Oh yes, that building is so profile pic worthy. I'm jealous now, Vel. I want to take pictures at places like that too but I have work! WORK! AHHHHH! I NEED MY VACATION!"
"If you were jealous about that, how about this?" I replied with an evil smirk as I turned on the video function and showed Liza the tranquil and picturesque view of the Pledge Grove.
"This is the Pledge Grove, a place where Unova's Swords of Justice was said to have once appeared. See that huge rock where my tyranitar is? The cuts carved on it were said to- KRATOS! I told you to stop trying to chew on that rock!"
"That rock belongs to Unova's legends?! But your tyranitar…"
"Sadly. Let's hope that they do not find out about us being the culprit," I sighed when I spotted the noticeable chew mark on the side of the huge rock that looked like something had taken a bite out of it. Ness and Rena are now reprimanding a not so repentant Kratos.
If the Swords of Justice are anywhere as powerful as Zapmolcuno… Nope, I don't want to think about it.
"Anyway, I think this place is a good place to take profile pics too. If the angle is just right…" I shifted myself and the camera's position, getting myself a good angle and showing Liza how I could possibly take another perfect profile pic worthy shot with that huge majestic looking rock and Liza started to scream in jealousy.
"I want to go there too! I WANT TO GO THERE TOO!"
"Too bad," I stuck my tongue out childishly and had Jarvis take another shot for me. Huh, this one looks even better than the one I took at the Clock Tower, maybe I should just use this photo as my new profile pic instead.
"You are evil, Vel. Evil! You were not like this before!"
"I just never had a chance to show you my dark side. By the way, where's Tate?"
"Eh, he's out doing Gym Leader things while I'm stuck in the gym entertaining challengers. The Gym Circuit season is going to end very soon so we suddenly have an influx of challengers who procrastinated for too long and only start trying to get our badge and Juan's to qualify for the upcoming League Tournament. Good luck to them though, cos this is the last week before the season officially ends. At least, nobody has managed to defeat all of my gym trainers today to reach me, so I can still relax a little. That said, hey, when are you coming back to Hoenn to rechallenge the circuit on the Elite level? We should have a rematch!"
"I'm not suicidal enough to face your main team in battle, thank you very much."
"It's just a friendly rematch, rematch!"
"More like a one-sided massacre on your part, and you said I am the evil one."
"I'm not the evil one. The evil one is you! You!"
"A pleasure doing business with you, Ms Vera."
"Likewise, Mr Aguirre."
After much negotiations and agreeing to the details of the contract, our deal was concluded with a handshake. Like this, the partnership between my family, the Dandolos, and the Aguirres is almost set in stone and what's left would be the official signing of the contract. There may be another party or two who might join us, but at this point it doesn't really matter if they do or not because just the Vera, Dandolos, and Aguirre families cooperating with each other will be enough to kickstart this project.
"Seeing you handling yourself so well at your age makes me think that maybe it's really time for old timers like me to step down," Myles Aguirre let out a hearty laugh once the deal was concluded as he began to show me the Floccesy Ranch. It's huge, but not on the scale of what my family had done in Hoenn. Nevertheless, it's still very impressive in terms of scale and size.
"You jest, Mr Aguirre. You still look young."
The portly middle-aged man let out another laugh as we both observed the pokemon roaming about the ranch in a private corner that Myles Aguirre had led me to, somewhere away from prying eyes and ears. While the business deal between our families has been concluded, the other reason why I'm here hasn't been addressed.
The moment Myles Aguirre was certain that whatever we will be saying next will not be overheard, he handed over a leaflet to me.
"I'm unable to verify the exact details but as far as my family can dig into it, Team Plasma will be involved in this upcoming event."
I took a closer look at the leaflet Myles Aguirre had passed over to me to scrutinise the details.
"An auction?"
"An underground auction," Myles Aguirre corrected. "The leaflet you see here, this is not something anybody can get their hands upon. This leaflet is an invitation to that auction, and is something only influential people with the right connections to the underworld will ever receive. As it happens, I do have these connections. What I overheard was that the featured item of this auction is what Team Plasma will be trying to get their hands on and it is rumoured to be something relating to Ability Holders. This is all I can find out."
"Something relating to Ability Holders? And Team Plasma is interested in it?" I wondered out loud as I tried to make the connection. "For them to express such a huge interest in it, whatever that item may be must be very valuable, or very dangerous. I wasn't aware that Team Plasma has a vested interest in Ability Holders, so are Ability Holders going to be their focus in the foreseeable future?"
"I'm afraid that's most likely the case," Myles Aguirre agreed with a nod of his head. "This auction will be held masquerade style, where all attending participants will be required to wear a mask to disguise their identities. It is a precaution undertaken by the auction house to ensure the confidentiality of the attending bidders in order to safeguard their reputation as the best underground auction house in the underworld. I believe that works in your favour, Ms Vera, as it would be detrimental to you if people were to know that the heiress of the Vera family were to make an appearance in an underground auction house as infamous as this. In any case, if you want to make further investigations into the Plasma problem, this auction should be the perfect chance to do so without drawing attention to yourself or the interpol."
"I understand. Thank you," I thanked Myles Aguirre with a smile, to which he waved it off with a smile and a casual wave of his hand,
"Don't think too much about it. I'm just playing my part as a member of the Assisting Houses to help protect Unova. Unfortunately, unlike the families that make up the Five Weapons, my family has neither influence nor power comparable to theirs in order to investigate this matter in greater detail. Information gathering is the only thing my family is capable of in fulfilling our duties to protect Unova. The timely arrival of the interpol is just what we need to put this gathered information to good use."
"We will not disappoint," I assured Myles Aguirre. I'm grateful for his help, because this is the first real lead the interpol managed to come across regarding the Plasma problem and if all goes well, we might be able to make some headway into getting rid of this fanatic cult. At the very least, right now, we have just managed to learn that Team Plasma has a vested interest in Ability Holders.
"I'm certain you won't, but do prioritise your own well-being above all else. Like I had reiterated before, this is an underground auction held in the black market. All sorts of people will be flocking to that place on that day. Walking into there will be like walking into a tank filled with sharpedos, you will never know who is going to be who's prey. Even if you have no wish to be a predator, at least ensure that you will not be anyone's prey before heading there."
An underground auction, the black market. Truthfully, I had never been to such places before but I guess paying those places a visit will be inevitable as long as I'm involved in this line of work. Myles is right, there is a need to exercise caution when heading there to conduct further investigations about Team Plasma.
"I will keep that in mind."
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