The auction for tonight was over the moment the bid for the last item concluded. I have garnered a lot of attention for winning the bid but I also have no interest in getting to know the busybodies who were attempting to get to know me. It was troublesome, but I still managed to slip past the busybodies undetected and headed for the private room to collect the prize I bidded for.

Who I assumed to be the organiser, or at least somebody who was able to act in the capacity as a representative or a spokesperson of the auction house, was there to greet me. The little girl who could not possibly be over four or five years of age was standing beside him timidly, her hands cuffed and attached to a chain as though she was nothing but a dog, like a commodity to be sold to its new owner, me.

All I wanted was to hurry and meet with that mysterious Team Plasma supporter, leave this place as soon as possible and deal with the headache that comes with caring for small impressionable children later. I simply swiped my card on the payment terminal he presented as the payment process itself. After the organiser confirmed that the payment had indeed been processed, he bowed with a perfect smile as expected of someone of his station and gestured towards another private room beside mine.

"Thank you for your patronage, sir. I believe that you have somebody else to meet."

I simply nodded wordlessly and started to walk towards the room, only to feel a small pair of hands timidly gripping onto my pants. I looked down, spotting the trembling little girl who I had just bidded for over a hundred million in my attempt to ruin Team Plasma's plans.

Dammit, she better not cry.

"Hax… Haxorus… Help… Need help…"

I looked back at the organiser, who simply elaborated.

"As far as we know from the guest who auctioned off the girl, she was found as a feral child who lived among dragons. As a result, her speech capabilities are not yet fully developed."

That doesn't really answer any questions of mine, but it is still useful information to know.

"That haxorus, how much is it worth?"

The organiser tried to hide it but I know he was taken aback by my question. His professionalism allowed him to quickly recompose himself as he made his reply.

"That would not be necessary. Consider the haxorus a gift from us, all we ask for is your continued patronage. However, I see a need to gently remind you that the haxorus is… not in the clean bill of health, as you would have seen earlier. It cannot be reasoned with, and drastic measures had to be taken to subdue it and it's unlikely to survive the night."

"Just capture it in a pokeball. The stasis effect will be able to prolong its life until proper medical attention can be administered," I ordered before turning back to the girl. "You, stay here. Don't run away if you don't want to get hurt."

Ah shit, what I had in mind was actually something else entirely. I seriously could have worded it better.

Still, I don't have time to mull over my words as my objectives here were not yet completed. The middleman who I am impersonating was supposed to meet this mysterious Team Plasma supporter under the guise of the auction tonight. The purpose of this auction was to create an opportunity for Team Plasma to meet their supporter without making it seem as if they had connections to each other. After all, to those not in the know, now that "I" had bought the girl, it is not uncommon for the "bidder" to want to meet the person auctioning her, the "seller". Even if someone managed to trace us here they cannot immediately accuse the seller being in cahoots with Team Plasma, aka me. The auction is a useful front for this seller to give him plausible deniability even if he somehow got discovered interacting with someone with ties to Team Plasma.

Whoever this mysterious supporter is, he sure knows how to keep his hands clean.

I headed for the room, finally meeting the person who I was originally here for. I know Nosy had remotely activated the recording device hidden in my pocket and also the pinhole camera carefully hidden within my mask, something which I would need if I want to further analyse whoever I will be meeting later in my own free time.

There's no doubt that the person sitting on the luxurious couch was a man. There were no pokemon in sight. He gave me a silent gesture to sit on the couch opposite his as weavile clambered off my shoulders and bounced off the couch, treating it like a trampoline.

"I believe I had told you many times before, you should know better than to let these creatures out around me."

That was a small surprise, but nothing that I couldn't handle. I don't think his voice was being disguised through a voice modulator and he sounded old, so he was probably getting on in his years. From his words, he is not a fan of pokemon either.

In that case, why support Team Plasma, an organisation calling for "the liberation of all pokemon"? To someone like him, wouldn't it be better to have pokemon enslaved or better still, eradicated?

"One can never be too careful around these parts, especially in places like these. These creatures, as you called them, make excellent lookouts in my line of work," I answered as I made myself comfortable and tried to piece together a picture of this man from whatever little clues I could spot.

"Hmph, to rely on them to such an extent... I don't expect much from you or your little gang anyway," The man scoffed as he crossed his fingers. "Is that voice modulator really necessary here?"

"Just last week somebody nearly took my life. I call this a necessary precautionary measure," I replied with a half-lie because it was true that the original person who I am posing as had a close brush with death, courtesy of yours truly.

"Fine, an acceptable excuse," the man begrudgingly took the excuse as it was and continued with the conversation. "Back to business it is. Other than to remind your forgetful employer that it is through my assistance that they are able to continue with their schemes, I called you here to tell you one thing and one thing only, and that is for you to tell your employers to show some… sincerity, if they want to continue with their schemes, just as I did when I gave them possession of the girl outside."

There it is, the information that I am here for. Also, things are just as I expected it to be. Through this supporter's connections, Team Plasma was able to get their hands on things that they wanted, like the little girl which I had just bidded for. The supporter could have just given them the girl in private, yet he went to great lengths to put up a show by auctioning off the girl instead, needlessly revealing her existence to the underworld and attracting all sorts of attention to her. His objective was clear; it was to remind Team Plasma their place and just who they were depending on in order to continue with their plans, because just like how this supporter could easily provide them things that were usually unobtainable, it was also equally easy for this supporter to cease his support entirely.

If this supporter is truly as crucial to Team Plasma's plans that he is making himself out to be, then there is no question that I have to first take him down in order to exterminate Team Plasma.

"While I believe I understood your point, for the avoidance of doubt for both parties, please do clarify and elaborate," I played the part of a cautious messenger in order to extract the information I sorely need. That seemed to irritate the old man, but he acquiesced to the request nonetheless.

"That fossil they had been harping about, it will be cumbersome, but I can get it for them. However, I will need them to clean out the remaining trash, especially those meddling… Dandolos. You have to agree that their absence will be beneficial for all parties, no?"

"Absolutely," my voice was cool and emotionless, but deep within I know it is anything but that. Somehow, my family was being targeted by an unknown party which was powerful enough to not only be highly regarded by Team Plasma, but was actually crucial in allowing that organisation to continue its operations, and I don't like it.

"I'm not unreasonable. I know better than anyone how hard it is to remove Grimsley from the picture but he's not the only Dandolos screwing with our plans. Leticia Dandolos, find her, and get rid of her. The earlier, the better."

Leticia Dandolos? I believe I had heard that name not long after my arrival to Unova. My father did mention that my family is actually bigger than it seems, I will have to dig a little further to understand just who she is.

"Three months," the man laid down his terms with a tone of finality. "In three months I want concrete evidence that that bitch has been taken care of. She has been a thorn in our side for far too long."

The man stood up and left without bothering to spare another glance. I left soon after, spotting the little girl who I had just bought over curled up in a corner of the room and looking at me with fearful eyes. The organiser yanked her up onto her feet upon spotting my reappearance, causing the girl to let out a short muffled cry of pain as he passed her over to me along with a pokeball which I presumed contained the injured haxorus. I simply led the girl out, not wanting to stay here any longer. I will mull over what I am supposed to do with her later.

The girl didn't put up any resistance as we made our way to the secret exit via the backdoor of the venue. At first glance, it seems that she had learnt a long time ago that resistance was futile and doing so will only bring about pain. It would obviously be best if she could be adopted by a family that can actually provide her some form of love that a child her age needs but she is a descendant of Nicholas Harlow. There will always be scrupulous individuals vying to get their hands on her and for now, she is the safest if she is with me.

But damn it, I know nothing about children. Never been one, and had forgotten what it means to be one. Jane would know how to deal with a traumatised child, but not me.

The things I would do to have Jane by my side now.

We walked along the deserted alley as the night provided us with the cover we needed, the masquerade mask still worn on my face and will never be removed until we are completely safe. I felt zoroark's and honchkrow's presence as they rendezvoused with us from where they were keeping a lookout outside the auction house all along, staying out of sight of anyone nearby. I made a subtle sign with my hand for them to scout out a spot where we can teleport out of here without getting spotted, intending on losing the stalkers which I know had been following us for a while now.

If they thought that I hadn't realised I was being followed, then they have another thing coming.

I purposely made a left turn at the first available opportunity as zoroark cooperated by weaving an illusion to hide our presence at the same time. To them, I would just appear as if I had disappeared into thin air the moment they made the same left turn. At that very moment, honchkrow flew down using this brief opportunity and grabbed onto my shoulders as she flew me up onto the rooftop with me carrying the girl with just my right arm. She felt so light and from holding her I could only feel her bones and barely any flesh, and I cannot help but wonder just how malnourished she must be to be so.

Whoever was trying to track me definitely had experience in this field, and the fastest way for me to lose that annoying tail is if I get rid of him immediately. With my decision made, I released shiftry from his pokeball. With shiftry protecting the girl, I can now focus on removing our pursuers.

"Shiftry will guard you. Don't make a sound and don't move from this spot if you don't want to get hurt."

The little girl timidly nodded in understanding as she crouched and huddled up upon herself in a little ball. I have no idea what she had been through to act this way, but it couldn't be anything pleasant.

Honchkrow flew me across the dark sky, allowing me to get a bird's eye view. I cannot help but smirk in amusement when I spotted that familiar brown-haired man that was with the girl from the auction house. So he's the one who was trying to track me. In that case, where's the girl? The girl was definitely somebody important and resolving this little problem will be so much faster if I can scare her into submission.

"There is a blonde-haired girl who was with him. Find her."

Honchkrow silently flew in the direction where we came from and gave a soft squawk, indicating to me that she was hiding in that abandoned building not too far ahead. We landed silently on the rooftop as zoroark and weavile skulked about on the ground floor while remaining out of sight. I released bisharp and greninja out of their pokeballs and quietly signalled to them that we will be doing a capture before we made our way down to where honchkrow had spotted the spoiled rich girl that had the bright idea of trying to follow after us.

Oh I can already guess what she's planning from this alone. She must be thinking that if trying to get the dragon girl through the auction was impossible, then trying to rob me after I left the auction house would be the next best option. After all, this was an underground auction that we were in and I couldn't possibly lodge a police report unless I wanted to send myself to jail. There's no harm for her in trying.

I might as well use this chance to teach her a lesson. In the underworld, there will always be someone smarter and more dangerous than you will ever be. She shouldn't poke at things she has no place messing with.

I do feel the need to be cautious because the girl has an espeon and espeons are excellent sensors. That doesn't mean that their abilities are absolute, because I am a Dark Specialist and dark types always have ways to fully hide or camouflage their presence from psychics. I found her on the eighth floor in an abandoned unit, looking out from the window as though trying to search for us with that espeon by her side. Anyone less experienced might have missed it, but her shadows were a little darker than they should be and it occasionally twitches a little on its own accord when it's not supposed to, which would mean that there were actually ghosts hiding within it. That is something that we have to factor in as well.

Once I confirmed that neither the girl or her espeon had spotted us yet and that zoroark and weavile had also gotten into their positions, I flicked my fingers in a certain set pattern that my team and I had long since gotten used to.

Capture. Intimidate. Do not kill. Ghost. Watch out.

Our steps were silent as we gradually got closer and closer to the girl. Zoroark's cloaking capabilities were indispensable as even the espeon did not sense our approach when we were merely a few steps behind them. Once we were close enough, I simply lowered my head to be able to whisper directly into the girl's ear just a few centimetres away.

"Looking for me?"

She jumped and turned around, her espeon immediately perceiving me as a threat and leaping at me with bared fangs. There was no need for a signal. Weavile had intercepted and taken down the espeon before it could do me harm, slamming it into the nearby wall as the espeon lost consciousness immediately. It never stood a chance.

"RENA!"

Oh, so the espeon had a nickname.

As for the girl, I myself am enough. I simply grabbed her from behind by the neck and slammed her down onto the floor, restraining her and preventing her from accessing her pokeballs. She struggled in futility but made one last desperate attempt to break free.

"Dolly!"

Ghosts that I knew had to be hiding in her shadows tried to burst out of the darkness only to fail. Bisharp had coated itself with dark type energy and was using it to hold them in place as he stood atop the girl's shadow casted on the floor by the moonlight, not like the girl could see it because I didn't give her the opportunity to turn her head and look around. They wouldn't be able to break out of the shadows that they were hiding in to save their trainer and I could literally taste the girl's fear when she realised that even her ghost types wouldn't be able to save her for reasons she didn't understand why.

I had killed children before, but that was when I was the Rocket's Exterminator and had no choice but to do so. There is no longer a need for me to be the Rocket's Exterminator anymore and thus, I have no wish to kill unless I really have to, especially when it comes to children, but that will not stop me from providing her with an experience so unforgettable that she will never want to step another foot into the darkness again.

This is for her own good. The lesser children who had strayed off the right path like Jane and I did, the better.

This will be a life changing lesson she will never forget.

"Now now, we really don't have to do this, but since you were so eager to make friends, why don't we get to... know each other a little better?" I whispered directly into her ear, knowing that this was more than enough to unnerve her when she was at her most helpless and vulnerable. Truth be told, I was half-expecting her to piss in her pants because I am someone who could make even the toughest men beg on their knees, which she didn't. Kudos to her.

"Let me go-! Ah!" She struggled and let out a cry of pain when my grip on her neck tightened to uncomfortable levels, making her struggle to breathe and forcing her to cease all resistance. She is a gutsy one alright, because she never did stop trying to resist and so, I decided to whip out my dagger without a hint of warning and stab it into the floor just a centimetre away from her face. That did the trick, it always does.

"Since you don't seem to understand the kind of things you are poking at. We can do this the easy way, or the hard way," I spoke in a sickening pleasant voice as my fist violently pulled at her hair, causing her to let out a muffled cry of pain as the edge of my dagger lightly skimmed across the skin of her neck, just enough to draw a little blood but not cut anything important. "The easy way will be for you to forget everything that has ever happened tonight. You have not been to that auction house, you have not seen what happened inside, and you forget everything about me. You go back and enjoy that pampered rich life of yours and go back to being the spoiled rich brat that you are, never taking a single step into such places ever again. We good?"

"Go fuck yourself," She spat back venomously, the viciousness in her tone taking even me by surprise. Does she really not understand what she had gotten herself involved in? Well, there's always a first for everything.

"Then the hard way it is."

I slammed her head against the floor, giving her a mild concussion but not enough to knock her out cold. I am indeed curious as to who this girl is and the family which she belongs to because after all, it is only wise to know the identity of the enemy I will be making out from this run-in. I can feel her slipping in and out of consciousness as I pried the masquerade mask off her face, finally getting a good look at her.

Weavile let out a shocked yip in what I fully interpreted as an uh-oh. Greninja croaked in a manner that told me that we had just royally fucked things up. Even bisharp, who was still focusing on preventing those pesky ghosts from interfering, had gone even stiller than he usually was.

I recognised her face too. How could I not, when I had seen it for myself after I had read the files Looker gave me regarding the interpol while I was hospitalised at the Indigo Plateau and had taken a good look at the profiles of all its current members.

This girl is an interpol agent, which would mean that the only reason for her being here in such a place was because she was here on Looker's orders. She is from an ancient family of Hoenn, almost like how the Dandolos are treated and viewed in Unova, which would explain how she was able to part with almost a hundred million like they are pocket change due to the wealth her family had accumulated over the centuries. Worst of all, I think that old man of mine once mentioned when he was visiting me in the hospital that it was a little girl from the interpol who rescued me from the Rocket Warehouse on Five Island. Now, what are the chances that she is the same little girl who so happens to be my saviour? What's her name again? Ve… something. Her name starts with a V, that I am sure.

Oopsie

Everything made sense now, but it did make everything seem awkward in retrospect. No wonder weavile told me he felt like he had met the espeon before, because they had indeed met before.

"Put her to sleep."

Spiritomb emerged upon my command and formed eye contact with the girl as she slumped and fully fell unconscious just a second later. After knowing just who the girl really is, this encounter just became… awkward, really awkward.

"You really should have remembered sooner when and where you have met that espeon," I chided weavile, who only argued back in indignation that it was not his fault that the girl hid her face with a mask and that he was not born with the ability to recognise the girl's scent like houndoom or ninetales could. Still, I can take advantage of this situation to have her help me with a pressing problem.

I slipped haxorus' pokeball into her handbag. The haxorus is temporarily safe while in stasis within the pokeball, but that does not change the fact that it needs urgent medical attention. The only place that could possibly save its life is the pokemon centre but identifications are needed to access the pokemon healthcare system. As someone with no identity, that is something I cannot afford to do, because going there seeking treatment for haxorus would immediately expose that I am an illegal immigrant, so to speak.

The girl, however, will face no such problem. Who knows, maybe she might be able to tame this haxorus and if so, it will be a valuable powerhouse that she will need in her line of work. Would this count as a suitable recompense for the treatment I subjected her to tonight? I do hope so, because currently there is nothing else I can offer as an apology.

"Let's go, her companion might be coming back anytime now. Bisharp, knock those ghosts out already, just don't kill them by accident."

Bisharp drove a surge of dark type energy into the girl's shadow and they immediately went still. I gave our surroundings another glance, making doubly sure that we were not being seen or followed before booking out of here and heading back to where I had left that little dragon girl with shiftry.

Honchkrow took me on a silent flight once more as I looked down below, just in time to spot the girl's companion making his way back to her through the deserted streets after trying in vain to find me. That eased my worries a little, because his return meant that she won't be left there defenceless for long. He would be in for a big scare the moment he found her in the state I left her in though.

"To think I would make such a blunder. I must be rusty, huh?" I asked honchkrow, who simply gave a squawk in reply.

"Yeah, let's agree that this is all weavile's fault for not recognising her sooner and that we shall never bring this up again."


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