Tracking down where the Vera girl was wasn't hard, not when I had been to her current place of residence once where the interpol are currently staying at in Nimbasa. I happened to spot her walking alone on a nearby street close enough to that building where I know she stays in, so I sent spiritomb to lure her over. She had said that all seven of us are Ability Holders with the ability to understand pokemon of the typing that we are "fated" with and hers is relating to ghosts. Spiritomb is the best candidate for the job.
I spotted her following spiritomb from where I was observing in secret and made my way to the dark alley that I wanted spiritomb to bring her to. I don't know what spiritomb told her exactly, if he even told anything to her at all, but she looked extremely wary given that she had released several pokemon out the moment she stepped foot into the alley. It's a smart thing to do on her part.
I signalled for zoroark to drop the illusion that was cloaking me but to continue to keep up the illusion around this small area in the dark alley that I wanted to talk to Vera girl in private without any outside interference. I saw how she tensed and nearly jumped when I suddenly appeared in front of her just less than ten metres away without being detected by any of her pokemon, including her espeon.
"No need to be so tense, I don't plan on hurting anyone as long as I'm not being attacked. I'm just here to talk," I explained as I stood back up properly from where I was leaning my back against a wall earlier.
"I knew something was up when I saw that spiritomb. What is it?" She asked as she walked a few steps closer before stopping entirely, being close enough to have a proper conversation while still keeping a healthy distance from me.
"You said to let you know if there are any new developments, didn't you? I'm not sure if the interpol already knows about this but if you haven't, then maybe you might want to know that the League recently discovered that Team Plasma had built a huge underground labyrinth connecting the entire region. How, why, what, who, when, where; everything else is unknown at this point. They are still too busy trying to map the entire thing out and it is not going to be done anytime soon."
"We received word about that recently, but thanks for informing me anyway," She replied. "Is that all?"
"I'm also here to ask you for a favour."
"Hoh, a favour? You are the last person who I imagine would ask a favour from me."
"Feel free to name your price. I don't know what I can give you that you don't already have since you already have it all, but I can do things that nobody can. If you need to remove anyone from existence, be it your family's enemies or anyone that you just want to see gone, just give me the word and they will be gone," I offered and the reply I received was her rolling her eyes.
"I don't need an assassination."
"The offer's still there."
"No, before that, what do you need me to help you with anyway?"
"Is your family able to get your hands on a lapras? Preferably a battle type, I know their species generally avoid battles so it might be hard to find one that is willing to fight when they are already so rare."
"You found the right person, I have one myself," Velda replied and my surprise grew a little. She has a lapras?
"Can I ask why you need one?" She pressed on and seeing that there is no need to hide this from her, I simply told her the truth.
"Iris wants one, and I don't see why not. Besides, there are things that I want to test regarding her ability. Her ability is very similar to mine and also with what you described what the seven of us can do. I had met three other Ability Holders recently, and apparently none of them had seen any Ability Holder with the same kind of powers as we do. From what they told me, commonly seen abilities are usually physical or mental augmentations, or increased immunity or resistance towards a certain pokemon type. I know of one Normal type Ability Holder who said a cofagrigus tried to curse him only to fail, that's what I meant. Basically, usually abilities are only supposed to give Ability Holder a slight pokemon characteristic in terms of typing. Sensing? Befriending? That's not in their dictionary and the only recorded Ability Holder in Unova with such an ability, as far as they knew, was Champion Harlow."
"You are saying that we are not normal, even for Ability Holders."
"Yes, that's what I'm trying to say, which brings me to the next point. Assuming that this is something unique to only us seven due to our reincarnation, then where does Iris fit into all these? She's not like us, yet possesses abilities similar to us."
"A confusing conundrum indeed," She said with a sigh. "Alright, thanks for informing, I will see what I can find out on my end as well. Still, why a lapras for her?"
"As a Vera you should know that there are several species of pokemon who are not dragon types but yet display very draconian characteristics. Usually these species of pokemon are those that are theorised to have been branched out from a dragon type ancestor from the prehistoric era until their dragon typing disappears entirely in this day and age. I'm simply curious as to whether Iris' ability extends to those pokemon as well because pokemon like lapras, for example, do have noticeable traces of dragon type DNA in them. It is also one of the perfect pokemon for her. Not just to test things out, nor is it only just to add into her team when she is finally old enough to be a trainer, but also because lapras are a very gentle species as a whole so the chances of things going really wrong is much lower as compared to trying to give her a charizard or a tyranitar."
"Those are all valid points," She agreed, "but even for me, trying to get a suitable lapras will take some time. My father did take a while to get a suitable one for me that is not only capable of transporting me across large bodies of water, but also a powerful battler. Finding another one like mine, even when there is an available pack of lapras for the picking, is going to take a while. I can get one for Iris, just not immediately."
"That's good enough for me," I nodded my head, satisfied that things are going much smoother than planned. "Still no idea what you want to ask for in exchange?"
"I guess there is one," She spoke after pondering in silence for a few seconds. "I have three dark types and I want to help them get stronger. I asked your father and Sidney for advice before. Your father said to go observe them, to look at more documentaries about them and that helped initially. Sidney told me about the history of dark types and Dark Specialists and taught me about the mentality needed to be one, about needing to be comfortable cheating your way through despite how wrong you feel that is. But, I don't… That just feels all like theoretical work to me, I need something more… practical, if that makes sense to you. I need to learn something more hands-on that I can use to get some visible results."
I eyed the absol next to the girl before looking back at her.
"What other dark types do you have?"
"Pangoro and tyranitar."
Pangoro and tyranitar… Not exactly the species that I am overly familiar with, but I do know a thing or two about them, especially tyranitars. I had seriously considered adding one of those monsters into my team before but scrapped it when I realised that doing so was much more trouble than it's worth. Besides, hydreigon is already enough to fill in the role of the tactical nuke on my team.
"I will try to see what I can do but before that, there's something I have to let you know upfront. I cannot "teach" you in the literal sense. The day I do is the day I die and before you say anything else, no, I'm not being dramatic or exaggerating. I'm being serious. In any case, this is not something we can be discussing here even if zoroark's illusions are hiding us, I will just show you why and what I mean later. Are you free right now?"
"I'm free for the whole of today."
"Good," I replied as I released exeggutor out from his pokeball. "I will bring you back to my place, assess you and your dark types with my own eyes, then I will see what I can do for you and your dark types. If you don't mind, I would like you to also introduce your lapras and tyranitar to Iris, see if her ability extends to their species as well so that we can observe the extent of what she can do with it. There's really too little information regarding her ability. It's best that we help her figure things out as much as we can instead of her trying to do so herself and get hurt in the process."
"Doable. I have a charizard too, if you are interested in letting Iris meet him. He won't hurt her with me around."
"That's fine, it shouldn't be a problem if we are there supervising the entire process," I agreed. "Just leave one or two of your pokemon out with you and recall the rest, exeggutor will bring us there. Depending on your progress this might either only take a few hours, or one entire day."
Teaching Velda whatever little I could possibly teach her without giving away my own secrets was uneventful, but at least we discovered that Iris' ability extended to even pokemon species that are not dragon types, but exhibit draconian characteristics. Granted, her ability gives her a very limited influence over such pokemon that it doesn't seem to be of much help in getting them to like her as much as dragons will do for her, but at least we now know that there is such a thing.
Days continued to pass after my meeting with Velda. Between helping Elesa out with anti-Plasma efforts and dropping by for a visit back home at Lacunosa every now and then, I wasn't completely idle in this period of time. I approached Leticia and asked her to show me the ropes of what our family really does, something which she agreed to readily despite her already busy schedule.
Leticia and Asher were the ones who were able to juggle handling our family's businesses as the older ones among our generation. The businesses that we are involved in are varied; there are those that can be seen in the light by the public, then there are also those that can only exist out of sight. Leticia used to only help out with the latter because Asher was the one handling the former. After his death, Leticia had to help out with both because my father had to devote all of his time to protect Unova from Team Plasma as a member of Unova's Elite Four, forcing him to appoint someone to take over his duties as the interim head of the family in his stead but all of my uncles and aunts already had their hands full, so he had to choose someone from my generation. In the end, the person my father appointed was Leticia, the only candidate left to help with managing the family's affairs until my arrival.
Leticia does not let her personal feelings get in the way while she is working. When she is in work mode her focus is entirely on work alone and it does help in the efficiency when she guides me on how she manages the family's businesses. Unlike families like the Euclids who specialise in a single field, our family has fingers in many pies. A little of this, a little of that, and it becomes a respectable business empire when everything is combined together. On the surface, what can be referred to as our main businesses are largely concentrated around transportation services and hospitality services. In recent years we have had a larger involvement in the chemical and engineering sector thanks to Leticia's efforts.
In regards to the darker side of our family, our family has roots in the mafia. In fact, our entire family was mafia when we first contributed to ending the Culture Purge four hundred years ago and this was how we became the "Dagger" of the Five Weapons, because till today we are simply the best suited family to keep Unova's darkness on a tight leash.
While we are no longer mafia, we still hold a large influence in the underworld. We had long since given up trying to eradicate the darkness completely because that is simply an impossible endeavour, so our next best option is to be able to control them and prevent them from growing into a cancerous tumour. Many gangs and mobs defer to us because they fear our strength and notoriety. Since we cannot completely rid ourselves of the numerous underground casinos and shady dealings taking place everyday in the region, we supervise them and bring them under our control, collect fees from it, and use those dirty money for a good cause much like what Team Rocket had once done for Kanto. If there is a problem festering in the underworld that grows to be too huge, then we nip them in the bud with immediate effect. Uncle Gustav is my father's right hand man when it comes to managing such affairs and he was the person Leticia was learning from until Asher's death forced her to step up and lead the family in my father's stead.
All of the affairs our family is managing, both dark and light, requires a very acute financial awareness. Fortunately, I have experience in dealing with large sums of money when I was still Executive Plague. Arawn was a very good teacher when it came to teaching someone how to read financial statements, interpret the numbers, and how to do forecasting and budgeting. He was the one managing the bulk of Team Rocket's businesses, both the legal and illegal ones, and under his leadership Team Rocket had managed to amass a fortune that rivalled an entire nation. He would make an extremely successful businessman or a politician if he wasn't a Rocket. This was why he was the chief financial officer of the organisation. If it wasn't for his teachings I would still be helplessly lost in Leticia's lessons.
Looking back, sometimes, I really do wonder how all of our fates would have changed if Kain didn't happen and Team Rocket never existed, but there's no point to it now.
"I think we can stop here for today," Leticia suggested after we had been at it for a few hours already. She was introducing to me one of the larger corporate groups that belongs to our family, telling me about the nature of their businesses, the people who they appoint to manage it in their stead, how our family usually manages the business, and the recent financial performance and industry trends that I will need to know to eventually take over what she and my father had been doing. We don't micromanage everything because that is impossible, we delegate work to people who we appointed and trust to do it for us, only checking in every now and then. Still, as the person who the family prefers to lead them in the future, I need to know what is to be known as their future leader.
"Thank you for today," I thanked Leticia and she dismissed it with a wave of her hand.
"It's no problem at all. I don't oversee this group all the time either, I just drop by and do a spotcheck every now and then or be present when there's a major decision to be made. Usually that is uncle's job, but I have been doing most of the important decision making ever since I had to take on that role. However, since you are now here…"
"You can take a break, I will do the decision making when the group needs a representative from our family," I reassured her and her reply was one of her usual alluring yet deadly smiles that I have long since associated with her. The rose really is the most suited flower to describe her; beautiful, alluring, irresistible, yet deadly and to approach at your own risk because you have to brave the thorns to pluck it. However, despite not being a Dandolos by blood Leticia loves the family as fiercely as we do, and her thorns are never present when she is in the presence of our family.
"Since we are free for the moment, interested in testing out a new cologne I concocted?" Leticia asked and I cannot help but wonder where on earth she found the time to indulge in her hobby of creating perfumes when she was already this busy. Sure, she turned her hobby into a respectable business and created a relatively new yet vastly popular perfume brand that caters to a wide variety of customers, but I also know that she does not have the time to be stuck doing research and development in creating new products and she employed experts for that very cause.
"Where did you even find the time to do so?" I asked and followed after her as she led the way to a room within our ancestral home that she fashioned into her own personal perfumery workshop. Leticia simply put a finger on her lips in a way that would have seduced any other men, probably me included, if I had never seen her as my cousin.
"Secret~"
In the end, things didn't go as planned and I never had the chance to test the cologne Leticia wanted me to see. We happened to run into her mother, Giselle, on our way to the perfumery.
"There you are, just when I needed you. Jayce, darling, if I could borrow a little of your time- Oh, are the two of you busy?"
"Not at all, Mum, but you did interrupt me trying to teach him in appreciating the finer aspects of perfumery. Oh well, there is always another day. See you later, Mum, cousin."
"It's been a long time since I'd seen her so relaxed. This girl, her one true passion is in concocting and synthesising all sorts of chemical compounds. Poisons, drugs, medicines, those sorts of things, you name it she could probably do it given time. Haven't seen her indulging in her hobby for a long time now, not since the invasion," Giselle told me after Leticia had disappeared around the corner and beckoned me to follow after her to her own personal study where aunt Giselle does her work when she has to work remotely from the mansion. "You should probably understand it better than anyone else since you are experiencing it first-hand and are taking the drugs she made. How's your body, by the way? Feeling better?"
"The deterioration has slowed considerably, thank you for asking. Leticia is very good at what she does," I answered.
While the deterioration of my illness slowed significantly not long after I came over to Unova and was something that occurred on its own for no explainable reason, Leticia's contributions cannot be ignored either. She obtained the blueprints of the drugs that Team Rocket had made for me through my father, analysed it, consulted other experts on this matter, and improved the existing formula even further. While my illness is still an incurable one, she has still managed to do something to slow its progress to the point that it is no longer an immediate concern.
Of course, the damage that had already been done to my body prior to that is irreversible. I am no longer as fast, as fit, nor as strong as I used to be when I was at my peak and my body most likely would never achieve what it once did ever again. That's fine, I'm simply grateful that my life has been prolonged for just a little longer and Leticia was the one who made it happen. She had made good promise on the claim she made on that night where we had first gotten to know each other, that if she put her mind into it even prolonging my life for another fifty years more isn't an issue. Now, I'm starting to believe that she really can do so. She's just that brilliant and I could see why the adults had considered her to be a potential candidate to lead the Dandolos family after my father.
"I had been wishing that she would not place so much pressure on herself, but I understand that girl better than anyone else. The more you tell her not to, the more she would do what you wanted her not to do. In any case, thank you, darling. You might not realise it, but whatever you had been doing ever since you returned has been helping to gradually ease her stress. I can see her smiling a lot more often now and that really eases my mind."
"I don't think I helped much, but if you say so."
"Learn to accept the praise given to you by your elders. Now, if only she gets herself a boyfriend to look after her when I can't, then it would be perfect and I wouldn't need to fret so much. Who knows, I might be a grandmother before your father becomes a grandfather," Giselle teased as she pushed open the door to her personal study and invited me in before closing the door shut. "There was this really smart boy around her age that she met a few years back that I think was a great fit. I think Let was rather smitten by him too… What's his name? Ah, whatever, we can gossip about my daughter's love life later. For now, take a look at this."
Giselle walked over to her desk, unlocked the safe underneath it to retrieve a folder before passing it over to me. I opened it up and quickly browsed through the folder. I didn't bother to hide my surprise.
"This is…?"
"As you see it," My aunt affirmed with a nod of her head. "I discussed this arrangement with your father and we both felt that it would be good if you join EDGE, even if it is just for this period of time until we remove Team Plasma. Now this might get a little long and boring, but I do need you to be patient and listen so that you can understand why we felt this was necessary."
I nodded, showing that I understand.
"As you would already know, Unova is a very unique region in more ways than one. The unique diversity of pokemon species that you cannot find anywhere else aside, we have an abundance of something that other regions don't: Ability Holders. However, the impacts of Champion Harlow's infamy and the Culture Purge affected the course of the region's history in ways that I'm sure you are already aware of so I won't go into the details. The outcome is that Ability Holders are not willing to stand out and are always concealing themselves among the populace because they are afraid of what might happen to them if they were found to be possessing an ability they never asked to be born with. Yes, we are no longer back to the days of four hundred years ago where they were being actively hunted, but that fear is still very real and sadly, very well-founded."
"I saw and heard it for myself when I was working with those EDGE operatives. It's… a little sad," I admitted as I recalled the life Reed mentioned that he had lived through based on the few hints he had dropped in our conversations. My aunt agreed with my sentiments with a tired sigh before she continued to explain further.
"From the region's standpoint, Ability Holders are also a very invaluable resource that can bolster our military might. I'm sure you have seen for yourself what they are capable of despite being few in numbers. No matter how insignificant their individual ability might be, they can be very effective under the right situations, especially if we are able to assign the most suitable person for the mission he or she is most suited to handle. That was how the idea of EDGE first came about, to create a small elite task force of supersoldiers consisting of Ability Holders, just them and them alone and hopefully, this might be the start of a small step in trying to help them gain recognition and acceptance from our xenophobic populace. So far, EDGE has never failed us when it comes to achieving the results we expected from a unit of supersoldiers. However, they are ostracised even within the USF itself simply for them being who they are. When it comes to getting the public to recognise and accept EDGE the results are mixed, but that is still better than nothing. For now, flip to page three."
I flipped the folder to the page my aunt wanted me to look at.
"Despite EDGE being a part of the USF and thus, a military unit that answers only to the League and the Champion, our family's support was what made founding EDGE possible. Our family has been the biggest supporter and sponsor of EDGE ever since its founding and thus, why we have such a close working relationship with them. Every single leader of the family thus far has close relations with EDGE; your father is no different and so will you since you will be the one taking his place. However, you are even more special than the previous leaders of the family because you are the first among them to possess an ability. That gives you an edge- no pun intended- but you can forge a closer relationship with EDGE than anyone else in this family ever could, because you are one of them. EDGE is a very invaluable strategic military resource, darling, I cannot stress this enough. We need to ensure that they can continue to function even if more than half of Unova's population are still unwilling to accept them today. As their biggest supporter, we need to ensure that they can continue to function in order to protect the region."
"So that is why you want me to enter as one of them. Not just to forge a closer relationship, but to also understand for myself how they really work."
"It's not just that. EDGE is also at the forefront in our fight against the Plasmas, so you might be able to make some headway in this matter while working with EDGE instead of falling back and relying on that risky plan of yours to go undercover. To add on, this might also help you in understanding your own ability even further. Our family had a scant few Ability Holders throughout our long history and they were also dark inclined like you are, but none of their abilities were like yours. From what I read from the family's records, the most they could do was to hide their presence from psychic types or possessed better resistance to psychic or ghost influences. We still have no idea how your ability came to be either. Anyway."
Aunt Giselle took the folder from my hands, flipped it to another page before showing it to me.
"I took the liberty of dropping a word to the EDGE Commander to let you in and he agreed with me that you will prove to be a valuable addition to EDGE. I had to let him know about your true identity and your past in Indigo but rest assured, that secret rests with him and him alone. You are given special privileges, so to speak, because you are the only "part-time" operative and your duties as a Dandolos will precede any duties that you might encounter as an EDGE operative, so you might not always be around in EDGE because your duties as the heir of the Dandolos family is far more important. If required to choose between fulfilling your duties as a member of EDGE or as a Dandolos, your priority will always be the family first and EDGE second, I have hash this out with the EDGE Commander and he will understand."
"Understood."
"As for their internal structure, EDGE is further split into five other smaller teams: Black Sight, Red Touch, Green Taste, Blue Smell, White Sound; named after the five senses and primary colours, and each team is further split into three smaller other teams. I took the liberty of entering you into EDGE under your old cover of Jacob Myers since you don't seem willing to reveal your identity as a Dandolos yet, but I advise you to at least let your Team Captain know that you are affiliated with us because people are going to ask questions about why you are always not around and always given special treatment. Maybe consider sharing that piece of knowledge with whatever team you might be assigned to. Just tell them Hi, I am Jacob Myers and I am affiliated with the Dandolos. Have a good day, that sort of thing. It will prevent people from asking too much whenever our family is being mentioned. I leave it up to you how you want to do it."
"I won't disappoint," I reassured my aunt, knowing that she must have pulled many strings and put in a lot of effort to help me get this opportunity and exposure she knows is beneficial to me, the future leader of the family. She's right, I will be able to further my investigations about Team Plasma while working as an EDGE operative and I might be able to find out more information about Ability Holders in a place where the best of them gather. My inclusion into EDGE can also display our family's support for it and forge closer relations with them to enable us to better protect the region as per our family's duty. Aunt Giselle's arrangements had killed many birds with one stone.
Still, I have one stupid question that I had been dying to ask and I'm blaming that annoying model why I am harbouring that question in the first place.
"You know, I'm blaming Elesa for this but ever since you mentioned the EDGE Commander I just cannot help but wonder…" I slowly drew out my words as I looked back at my aunt.
"That EDGE Commander, does he have a codename that goes by… Edgelord or something?"
Yes, I'm totally blaming Elesa for why that stupid question popped into my mind in the first place. Her and her love for stupid puns.
Aunt Giselle simply stared at me in shock before breaking out into a huge laugh. It did take her quite a while to calm down and she didn't quite answer my question.
"You will know soon, darling, you will know soon."
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
14. Pikachu, (Grumpy), male