"This means attack?"
"Yes, and this means retreat," I slowly curled the fingers on my left hand in a specific manner as I demonstrated to Iris how I achieved giving out wordless commands to my pokemon. It's an invaluable skill to have, especially when I was still an undercover operative where I have to prioritise anonymity and silence above all else. Conducting assassinations are a lot easier when you do not need to verbalise your orders.
"Try it. Try commanding umbreon to attack and then retreat."
Iris eagerly stretched her left hand outwards, her fingers pointing ahead before curling in that same manner I just taught her. Umbreon complied with what she just commanded him to do, easily shattering a small boulder in the training ground we were in before leaping backwards.
"Fun?"
"Fun!" Iris agreed boisterously with a large smile on her face. "Can I try commanding Drei too?"
"Only after you can command at least five different pokemon at the same time, then we will move on to hydreigon," I told her as she immediately looked crestfallen and resorted to swinging my arm to get me to relent.
"Jaaaayce~"
"Five pokemon. No more, no less."
"Okay," Iris reluctantly agreed and worked on practising familiarising herself with twisting her fingers to switch seamlessly between the two wordless commands I just taught her.
Every Dark Specialist has their own unique ways of getting their team to work with each other and mine is just one of many. Still, the best part of being a Dark Specialist is that many things that you have learnt in your journey to be one can easily be applied elsewhere. Many Dark Specialists eventually ended up acquiring the skill to be able to command their team with minimal words, a skill that they tend to have better mastery over among other specialists, and this is something that can be taught and passed on to other Specialists.
"What are you doing here?" I asked with a slight frown when I spotted the owner of that mop of yellow hair walking into the training ground with her emolgas following after her.
"What? I'm not allowed to use this place?" Elesa asked as she stood beside me to watch Iris hard at work. She passed over something into my hand.
"Unlike a certain IT Consultant, I'm not that petty of a person. Here, feel free to drink it."
I cannot help but check on the expiry date printed on the bottle, prompting Elesa to let out an exasperated sigh.
"Have more trust in me, I'm not that evil to give you expired milk," she opened her own bottle as well before taking a sip out of it.
"Can never be too careful these days."
I opened the bottle and drank a gulp, realising that my sense of taste had really deteriorated since the last time I drank this beverage because I can now barely taste the sweetness of the milk. Now, drinking this just feels like drinking plain water with a slightly thicker texture.
"Look, I… Sorry, it wasn't my intention earlier to trigger something…uh, personal for you," Elesa broke the ice while trying her best not to fidget.
"Don't be sorry, I wasn't being mature in my response either. It's not a matter of right or wrong back there, merely a difference in opinion. You have Iris' best interests at heart and that's all that matters."
"You really treat her as your kid, huh."
"Don't be ridiculous. She just reminds me of the reason why I'm still struggling to fight and also how similar certain aspects of our circumstances were. I just can't help but think how different things might be if someone had pulled me out when I was her age like what I had done for her. I just couldn't help but think that if there was someone like that who was there to save us, maybe some of my fellow comrades might still be alive, things like that. I guess taking care of her is just a way to help me feel better, as if I can do something to atone for everything I had done. In the end, it's nothing but fulfilling a selfish desire on my part."
"A good deed is a good deed no matter the cause. Anyway, I heard from Leticia that you had decided to eventually succeed your father to be the next head of the family?"
"I'm not particularly interested, but I see no reason to refuse either. More importantly, the only possible candidates are me and Leticia and she's not willing for reasons I'm sure you understand too."
"Drats, that means that I will have to work with you in the future. Oh woe is me."
"And you prefer working with Leticia? I was of the impression that the both of you are always at loggerheads, especially when it comes to things like comparing your breast sizes."
That unexpected remark immediately caused Elesa to choke on her drink.
"W-Where did you hear that from?!"
"Does it matter?"
"Not, a word, about it," Elesa warned me as she kept her voice low, her face much redder than usual. "That was so long ago when we were still stupid teenagers! And we were drunk, so stop talking about it!"
"Ah, so it's an embarrassing moment from your past," I smirked as I drank another sip of my beverage.
"This discussion ends here."
"Will it? I find it to be rather intriguing."
"Look here, Jayce Dandolos, if you don't want to be electrocuted to the point of being confined to your bed for the whole month-"
"Elesa!"
Iris finally realised that Elesa was here too as she ran up to her in excitement, cutting off whatever threats Elesa was promising if I so much as probe into her embarrassing past. A smile had plastered over Elesa's face the moment she heard the girl calling for her.
"Hello, Iris. Training?"
"Uh huh! Jayce is teaching me how to command pokemon without saying anything!"
"That's rather advanced," Elesa let out a low whistle of appreciation and spared a glance at me. "Are you sure she can keep up?"
"She's smart enough."
"If you say so."
I let Iris off to play with hydreigon as her reward since she had been hard at work for the past few hours, something which she took great glee in doing so. She's still disappointed that hydreigon is the only dragon type in this place, but I don't think that will be so for long. I'm planning on trying to find a suitable dragon type for her to partner up with. Since her ability is so potent that she can easily tame adult dragons, I might just get and give her a fully grown dragon as a gift. It might sound irresponsible to do so and it's an obvious breach of PWL regulations regarding giving pokemon to children that are too powerful for them to yet tame, but I believe that as long as she can indeed handle a fully grown dragon on her own then there should be no reason not to do so. Doing otherwise will only stunt her growth because Iris clearly is special enough to warrant some special treatment.
"I heard you want a piece of Team Plasma?" Elesa asked me the moment Iris was out of earshot.
"Who in this family wouldn't?" I asked in return.
"Fair enough. If that's the case, want to try teaming up?" She offered and I looked at her, signalling to her to elaborate.
"I'm not sure if you know about this, but there's this special group working under the PWL called the International Police, or interpol in short. Currently, they are here in Unova on PWL orders to cooperate with the Unova League in bringing Team Plasma down. They are made up of people who are the best in their respective fields from all around the world, specially put together by the PWL to solve bothersome things like this."
"I already knew that. Looker approached me back in Indigo but I snubbed him in the face."
"Really? Now that's something I want to see. Anyway, the orders that Alder gave Grimsley and I are to assist the interpol through whatever means necessary. We are the point of contact between the League and the interpol and since you are now more or less agreed upon by the family to be the next leader of the family, this is probably something that you should get involved in, and better sooner than later."
"Might not be a good idea for me to join, if that is what you are insinuating. I'm pretty sure I had assaulted one of their agents about two months back, even if that was due to a misunderstanding."
"We know. It was because we heard of her run-in with somebody that could possibly be you that Leticia finally managed to track you down. How else do you think she managed to find you?"
"The meeting with the interpol is going to be awkward."
"Yeah, awkward, for you," Elesa scoffed. "Anyway, I'm not doubting your capabilities, and I'm sure you have already made some headway in your independent investigations and sabotage work. Still confuses me as to how you did that working alone with close to no resources at your disposal, but it's definitely quicker to bring those bastards down if we work with a group like the interpol, agree? Especially after adding the fact that you also now have the family's own resources to utilise?"
"I don't trust Looker, and I had my fair share of being trapped working for organisations with goals that are seemingly self-righteous," I plainly stated as I finished the last drop of my Moomoo Milk. "If it's just cooperation, fine, but I'm not going to work under him. If he doesn't like the way I work, sucks to be him. If he interferes with my work, sucks to be him too, because I'm going to make his life difficult."
"Grimsley never really did trust Looker too and he's usually right when it comes to this sort of thing, so I guess some distrust might be warranted. Anyhow, I'm scheduled to meet them tomorrow for a regular meetup. Do you want to come?"
"Tomorrow is fine. Just inform me of the time and place and I will be there."
Elesa brought me to her city the next morning, teleporting straight into a piece of private land within the city where even the city's rules do not extend to. Owning a piece of private land in an expensive city like Nimbasa is costly, and I'm almost certain that the reason why the interpol can set up their headquarters here is because they have a sponsor supporting their cause.
It seemed that winter had come early in Nimbasa, because I was of the impression that it would only start snowing here in about two more weeks to a month from now. Yet, Nimbasa was clearly covered in a light shower of snow when we arrived. Elesa told me that while this was certainly unexpected, it's also not unheard of for Nimbasa to experience the winter season much earlier than the other cities in the region.
"It's only Looker and Velda around today, not too sure where everyone else is," Elesa informed me as we headed into the building. "Oh, for the record, Velda is the girl you nearly murdered and her family also has business dealings with yours, so be nice."
Ah, I remember now. Velda, that's her name.
"Contrary to popular belief, I wasn't trying to take her life, but thanks for the heads up anyway," I replied as I made a discreet signal that meant "Lookout" and "No killing" for zoroark and spiritomb to see out of Elesa's sight, knowing that they are keeping close to me while staying invisible.
We took the lift up to the third floor to reach the meeting room and I spotted the two interpol agents that we were supposed to meet the moment we entered. I only had a second to observe this new environment because right after, darkness exploded from the girl's shadows as they lunged at me.
This was exactly why I signalled for my pokemon to be on the lookout. I just knew something like this would happen.
"Imprison!"
Spiritomb emerged upon my command and casted an Imprison upon the shadows, preventing them from getting close to striking range for a short while as I pulled Elesa along and leapt back at the same time, releasing bisharp and ninetales from their pokeballs. The shadows were obviously ghosts belonging to Velda and ghosts are a vengeful sort that are able to hold grudges spanning over years and even decades. I'm not surprised that they were attacking me out of their own accord because the girl doesn't strike me to be the type to let her personal feelings get in the way of her work.
"I will handle this," I told Elesa as I placed myself in front of her while signalling the signs for Capture and Trainer at zoroark while raising my arm horizontally, subtly giving enough space for Nosy to emerge from my smartwatch and slink right into the illusions zoroark had weaved to hide his presence. Ninetales growled menacingly as she stood in front of me with her body crouched low, already ready to rumble.
"Let's go, girl. Safeguard, Hex. Scatter them, but don't burn the place down."
Ninetales put up a protective veil of Safeguard, just in time to prevent the barrage of Confuse Rays and Will-O-Wisp from making our lives miserable. Bisharp charged towards the centre of the shadowy mess, forcing them to scatter with a Feint Attack and clearing the way forward. I felt zoroark finally getting into position through my innate ability to sense dark types and lightly stomped my foot once, just audible enough for zoroark to pick up, and I felt the psychic energy pulling me through time and space to get me to where I want.
"Checkmate."
Ally Switch, a very useful move that allows instant relocation between the user and the target. A proficient user of this move is even able to switch the locations between the user and its trainer and in this case, is one of the more viable moves that a non-battler like Nosy is able to use to great effect on the battlefield. Zoroark's only job was to hide Nosy's presence along with his own and bring Nosy towards where Looker and the girl were under the cover of the illusions. After that, Nosy will swap his position with me using Ally Switch.
This was how I am now standing behind the girl, my right arm wrapped around her neck in a light chokehold while my left arm was outstretched and pressing a dagger at Looker's neck. I'm not planning to hurt them, but I do need to let their pokemon know that any careless movements on their part can now possibly bring harm to their trainers.
"Now, are you guys calm enough to listen, or do we have to scatter you into wisps of smoke?" I directed my question at the admittedly huge number of ghosts that were now infesting the room and glaring at me in vengeful anger. Individually, they are not much of a threat, but they can be dangerous to even someone like me when they are coordinating as a group with a single objective and mind.
"Not bad."
Looker let out a low whistle of appreciation with his hands still in his pocket, unafraid of the dagger pressing against his neck and I know it takes more than this to truly endanger this man. We both know that he is allowing me to place a knife on his neck because he doesn't want to escalate the situation any further. There's no way Looker is this incapable and there's no way he can be so easily caught.
"Rocket's Exterminator indeed. After our previous encounter I can understand why Skye said running into you just once is able to give her nightmares for months," Velda's words were calm even while being held in my chokehold.
"Anything I say now would only seem like an excuse, but I do apologise. I had thought that you were Plasmas or people along that vein. In my defence, I do have the right to do what is needed to prevent myself from being robbed of something I spent more than a hundred million on."
"Fair enough, it's partly my fault too, I had also thought that you were one of those people. Now, are you going to continue holding me hostage, or are you going to let me go?"
"Are they planning to allow us to talk like civilised people?" I jerked my head lightly in the direction of the ghosts she commands.
"Dolly, Wacky, thanks for the concern, but please head back to the shadows. He's not going to hurt me."
A banette screeched with rage while pointing angrily at me. In response, zoroark let out a low growl of warning as he showed himself, standing beside me in a crouch. I simply look down at the girl.
"You have no pokeballs to recall them into?"
"Only for a few. Most of them are wild, they aren't mine. They are usually rather protective of me and what you did to us last time had made them very mad and you know just how ghosts are, they are vindictive. Even I cannot control them when they are like this."
I get what she is hinting at. Basically, I am the cause of why this happened in the first place and since this is the mess I created, I should be the one to resolve it.
"Let's do this the stupid way. I saw a training ground located right behind this building when I arrived so let's settle our score there. Five seconds, I will give them five seconds to give all they got in trying to kill me. If they succeed, they will have their revenge. If they fail, then let bygones be bygones and we finally get on with what we are here for this morning. Deal?"
The ghosts howled in agreement, screaming for blood and surety of their vengeance. I simply allowed spiritomb to Shadow Sneak my team and I to the training ground and I see Velda and her ghosts appearing at the training ground using that very same technique. Without delay, the horde of ghosts immediately started amping up their powers and even the ground started to shake in response to the collective power that they were accumulating.
"Hey, I haven't even said start yet," I remarked as I released my entire team. Exeggutor had immediately erected his strongest barriers the moment he sensed the threat the ghosts posed.
"You never said that they couldn't make preparations in advance either," Velda shrugged her shoulders, obviously not planning to take my side and with very good reasons to. "You should start the countdown as soon as possible, because while we are not as powerful as you are, we are still powerful enough. The longer you allow them to accumulate power like this the more likely you are going to die, and I'm sure that none of us want this to be a source of conflict between our families."
"Fine," I raised my hand in the air as my team began to gather their power as well, signalling them a sign to defend. I chopped my hand down.
"Five seconds, start."
Shadow Balls, Hex, Will-O-Wisp, Confuse Ray, attacks of all sorts began raining down on us the moment the signal to start was given. We were immediately pushed back by the sheer kinetic force of the bombardments but our shields still held thanks to exeggutor's efforts.
If her ghosts are already capable of this level of destruction, I don't want to imagine what kind of shit the girl will be capable of when the day comes where all of her ghosts reach their final evolutions. Maybe I really should count my lucky stars that they are not quite there yet.
"Zoroark! Disrupt it!"
Zoroark's Night Daze dispelled a powerful wave of Ominous Wind that might give us trouble should it reach us. Ninetales' Heat Wave whipped up a scorching wind of heat that blew the ghosts far away from us, giving us the space we needed.
Three seconds left.
I understand that this entire affair is my fault, but I'm pissed too. I'm not in a good mood after having these ghosts waste my precious time for some stupid grudge that they couldn't let go. I understand that holding grudges is in their nature, but I do want to make it very clear that I am not somebody that they can mess with. I will make them understand that I am powerful enough to be out of their reach and taking revenge against me is never going to be possible. If they have any grievances they can shove it up their ass. If they want to blame someone, blame their fate for ever meeting me.
To steamroll them with overwhelming unquestionable might is the best way to quickly rid yourself of pesky vengeful ghosts, something that I had tried and tested several times back when I was younger. You simply need to scare them into giving up any notions of vengeance entirely.
"Aim: destroy their bodies, but no killing. Exeggutor, barriers at full power. Hydreigon."
Hydreigon perked up upon hearing his name. I pointed upwards and hydreigon released a condensed roar of released bloodlust when he understood what I needed him to do.
"Nuke them to oblivion, Draco Meteor."
Some of the largest meteors I had ever seen fell from the skies and repeatedly struck at the training ground we were at with uncanny accuracy, the attack hidden from the outside world by zoroark's efforts because I do not want the local enforcements to come knocking on the doors. We were not spared from the Draco Meteor either, hydreigon's self-destructive methods would mean that we will also get caught in the crossfire but we had specifically trained for such a situation. The barriers created by the rest of the team held and protected us against hydreigon's very own attack as hydreigon continued to nuke the training ground to kingdom come.
The promised five seconds ended just when the last meteor hit the ground. Honchkrow helpfully dispersed the dust and smoke with her wings, revealing an utterly wrecked and smoking crater that once used to be a training ground five seconds ago.
'All enemy ghosts dispersed into nothing,' Exeggutor dutifully informed us and I looked back at the girl standing at the opposite end of the training ground and was also protected by a psychic barrier, courtesy of her espeon. I can see her staring at the carnage in front of her with wide eyes of partial fear and disbelief as she finally understands the difference between us and the silent message I wanted to convey.
Yes, it is my fault for assaulting her and I am sorry, but do not push any further than this. I am allowed to be arrogant, to be unapologetic, simply because I am dangerous enough to back it up. I am not someone that can be reasoned with using the widely accepted social morality that the world adheres to, because I had never done so as I never felt a sense of belonging in this world until very recently.
More importantly, do not mess with me, because I can and I will erase anyone from the face of the earth if I really want to.
"Five seconds are up, any other objections?" I asked coolly as Velda's espeon openly bristled at us, perceiving us to be a threat to its trainer after that earlier display. Velda simply looked at her espeon and presumably talked to it telepathically because the espeon reluctantly stood down a few seconds later.
"Impressive, but was this really necessary?" Velda gestured to the destruction around us as she walked up to me with only an absol, espeon, pachirisu, and scizor accompanying her. I recalled most of my pokemon except for ninetales, zoroark, and spiritomb in a silent show of goodwill.
"For me, yes, because you have shown me that you hold no control over your ghosts when their anger gets the better of them. Uncontrollable beasts will always have to be put down."
"They are usually not like this. This is the first time I've seen them act out like this too," she replied coldly with her arms crossed and the both of us now standing face to face with each other just a few feet apart. "Right now, I'm starting to regret ever helping Grimsley to get you out of that warehouse."
"So I've heard."
"In that case, I'm sure you wouldn't mind if your petty saviour wants a little payback?"
It all happened in a split second. Our movements were suddenly restrained by something unseen and I was slapped with such force that I accidentally bit the inside of my cheeks and tasted blood. We were able to move right after as Velda took a few steps back, a satisfied smile adorning her face.
"Now we are even," she said with a deceptively sweet voice as a heavily injured banette reappeared beside her, cackling in delight. My mind worked over the details I had just experienced and observed, finally piecing out how she managed to get the drop on us. That banette had obviously managed to evade even exeggutor's detection earlier and it hid itself long enough to do what it just did.
"Imprison… no, before that, Phantom Force?"
"You are really good to be able to deduce that much so quickly with so little. Yes, it was more likely a stroke of pure luck that Dolly managed to hide herself with Phantom Force just before she could be taken out. I still have no idea behind the truth of how this move actually works, but we found out that as long as she doesn't trigger the second part of this move, she's basically undetectable as far as we are able to verify thus far. Her only job was to restrain you and your pokemon for that one second so that I can slap you."
"Fair enough, I deserve that," I accepted her act of petty revenge as I spit out the blood in my mouth. Like I said, I deserved it, even if I had to take drastic measures to make it clear to her ghosts that it would not be wise to cross me ever again and to swallow down whatever grievances they had with me. Ghosts are simply a problematic lot that I never wanted to tangle with if possible, and that banette's usage of Phantom Force just further proved this point. If a single slap is needed to bury the hatchet, fine, I can take that.
Velda held up her hand and looked at me expectantly. I looked at it for a few seconds before accepting it.
"Now that bygones are bygones… Velda Vera, interpol agent."
"Jayce Dandolos," I replied and Velda smiled in return.
"Let's go back to the meeting room. We have a lot to discuss," she patted the banette hovering beside her as the shadows rose to engulf us all.
Velda Vera, huh?
Guess there are competent people within the interpol after all.
Name: Jayce Dandolos
Age: 22
Pokemon Team:
1. Ninetales, female
2. Exeggutor, male
3. Weavile, male
4. Honchkrow, female
5. Umbreon, male
6. Hydreigon, male
7. Drapion, female
8. Zoroark, male
9. Bisharp, male
10. Shiftry, male
11. Porygon-Z, (Nosy), genderless
12. Greninja, male
13. Spiritomb, male