[Part 1]
Doctor Nagamasa peered through the blinds of his office, just in time to see two massive figures zoom across the gloomy skies, rattling the bulletproof glass with their sheer speed. Just like they did every twenty minutes or so, even at night. Which, in his humble if educated opinion, was an absolute peak of idiocy.
He spent literal years rotating League stuff through the compound, in an attempt to find a way to capture the Butcher. Through all this time, he repeatedly requested the higher-ups to provide the facility with the resources needed to make the process possible in the first place, only to be met with delays, maybes and red tape. The assholes just did not bother, deciding that time, efforts and lives of the research staff were not valuable enough to lift a finger.
The Buther was highly dangerous and, if captured, also highly valuable. That was widely understood from the beginning. However, League's first thought when met with a new 101 is to send a team or two of 101s to subdue it. Except, one or two teams were not enough to capture Butcher. Neither were five teams, and neither was a dozen. Which was why the League higherups, believing it to be a lost cause, sent doctor Nagamasa here, in an attempt to capture the Butcher through other means. To salvage the situation.
And doctor Nagamasa could work with 'salvaging the situation', except, his communications with the League had shown, that they were not really interested in doing so.
See, what League higherups wanted was a silver bullet. Something that could take Butcher down in one fell swoop, like finding out a type weakness or effective strategy they would level the playing field with. Except, they've already spent over a dozen of Steel and Ghost Type 101s to try to subdue Butcher, and that's to say nothing of other Types.
Except, capturing the Butcher was a matter of research, wasn't it?
If something was too dangerous to take on in a fight, it was only logical to try to find other ways to deal with it. Like a psychological or a instinctual weakness that could be exploited. Like trying to imprint the subject on one of the researchers, or finding some sort of a major phobia to incapacitate it.
THIS is what his facility was working towards for all these years.
They've lost many brave researchers establishing that no Pokeballs, not even Master Balls could capture Butcher if it did not want to be captured. They've lost many more establishing which Pokemon triggered aggressive responces from the Butcher. And they've lost three times as much figuring out the rules of engagement.
And many of these sacrifices could had been avoided, if the League did not decide to sit on their hands and twiddle their thumbs. If they provided Nagamasa with the assistance he requested. If they had done SOMETHING over these years, rather than assure him that 'his work is deeply appreciated, but they do not have resources to spare'.
Because three days ago, a new set of orders came down the line, because something, or rather someONE was collecting uncaptured 101s, and their facility was one of the possible targets. And in order to prevent that someone from accomplishing a thing the League was not able to do for years, they've opened the Vault, and sent in someone with Latias and Latios.
Latias and Latios! The Legendary Psychic Dragons! One of whom is capable of sensing hostility and translating from Pokemon to human and back without any need for Mystics, and the other being able to sense locations of living beings and materialising someone's memories and thoughts! If they had even ONE of these two, they could make weeks' if not months' work of progress every day! Nagamasa LITERALLY asked for these two specific Pokemon for DOZENS of times!
And they were not here to help. They were here TO PATROL. To zoom around like a glorified security system!
To perform in inefficient and pointless security theatre to secure an objective that would've been secured YEARS ago, if only the higherups took Nagamasa's requests seriously!
He took a deep breath, and was about to step away from the window, when the two Psychic Dragons suddenly changed their course, and landed next to… Someone pretty far away. It was difficult to see even dragons themselves, let alone their riders, or the person they located.
"SIR, WE'VE GOT A WOMAN CLAIMING TO BE A NEW RESEARCHER HERE. THE LEAGUE ID CHECKS OUT," one of the patrolmen contacted him.
"Send her here," he sighed.
Yeah, it was about time for a new researcher to arrive, they needed someone to replace Keijun. It was kinda weird that this new researcher arrived on foot instead of via a car, or a bus - but League's resources were kind of strained after the Tedorigawa massacre, so them sending someone by train was not impossible. And hey, at least Yoshikage was going to be able to take it slightly easier from now-
Hold on a minute.
Usually, a new member of the research team was assigned within a week from Nagamasa's request. Keijun's corpse was found yesterday, and retrieved today. Nagamasa was the one responsible for contacting the League to pass all the necessary documentation related to any casualties in his team, and for requesting new members.
Did he even send that email?
Feeling sudden chill down his spine, he went back to his laptop, and checked everything he sent recently. There were only two emails in the past 24 hours. One to request Latios and Latias' assistance in the research from his handler, and one to issue soundproofing for the research team' living quarters. Nothing about Keijun or to request someone new.
Could she be sent by the League ahead of time?
A knock on the door informed Nagamasa of her arrival. Sitting down in his chair, doctor steeled his expression.
"Come in."
A tall woman - a foreigner? - in a vintage Goodra hoodie entered, looking to him with a slight apprehension.
"Hello, doctor Nagamasa?"
"Ah, you must be our new researcher. Miss-?"
"He-Heihachiro," she answered. Not a foreigner, it seemed, though the name sounded pretty masculine. Maybe mixed race. Well, it did not really matter.
"Right, miss Heihachiro, I'm glad to have you on board, though we were not exactly prepared for your arrival. At least, not so quickly"
"You did not receive an email?"
DId he not?.. He quickly checked correspondence for the past week, and - huh, there WAS an email from his handler telling him about sending this girl, Heihachiro, just three days ago. It was clearly marked as read, did he… Did he forget somehow? Huh, maybe the Psychic Dragon patrols did more of a number on him that he realised.
"Ah, right. Excuse me, it slipped my mind with all the chaos," he gestured vaguely outside, where the air patrols just made another pass over the airspace - except, judging by the sounds, they made yet another detour. Did the League send someone else, or-
A bright light suddenly flashed through the blinds, causing Nagamasa to jump. Striding towards the window, he peeked outside, just in time to see another flash, as Latias shot a Dragon Pulse at something not even a hundred meters from Nagamasa's office. He did not see WHAT the dragon attacked, but Latios seemed to be of the same mind, as it shot yet another beam at the ground.
Whatever they were shooting at was… Moving towards the entrance?..
"What the…"
Before Nagamasa could even decide wherever to comm the patrolmen or to call the researchers for assistance, he heard a loud crack.
Huh.
[Part 2]
She looked down at the still body of Nagamasa. Luckily, he was just unconscious. She did not have any love for the local League members, but it did not mean she wished to kill them all with her own bare hands. The ones in the Honnoji facility were kind of an exception, so unless she saw any evidence that this doctor and his people were anything close to Yakamino and Tarano, she did not plan to kill them.
Not intentionally.
Looking outside, she held back a choice swear. She had a feeling that Latios and Latias were going to be a problem for Okehazama's special brand of visual camouflage. This fight did not surprise her, but she did not like it. They were supposed to sneak into the facility, recruit the 'Butcher of Anegawa', and sneak out. Now, they had to fight their way in instead. ANd she'd prefer if they did not kill anyone they did not absolutely HAVE to.
Which meant that while Okehazama and possibly Nagashino were busy with their Legendary opposition, she had to take care of every human in this place.
Hopefully, they had enough handcuffs for everyone.
