The local law enforcement caught up to us just about fifteen minutes later. I had expected them to arrive earlier since it's hard to miss a commotion on such a large scale. I fully understand that they have a job to do, so I intended to cooperate and was expecting to just give my testimony and then be on my merry way.
Now, I'm just getting incredibly annoyed.
"And I'm telling you for the fifth time, you are catching the wrong person. I'm the victim here."
My impression of the Unova police was that they just wanted to pin the blame on somebody and call it a day and since they weren't able to catch the perpetrator, they tried to shift the blame towards me. It's getting very late into the night. I had tried to be cooperative but they just snubbed the goodwill that I'm showing them in my face and I really don't have the patience for this. I even tried getting this to be over and done with by revealing my identity as an interpol agent working for the PWL but they just ignored it.
So, I simply tried calling for Vance's number through my x-transceiver since the communication jamming is now gone. However, I was interrupted by the police officer doing the interrogation even before I could do a single thing. Oh how I miss Sebastian, but sadly he was led away to a separate room when the police stated that they wanted to take our testimony. Maybe they are underestimating me because of my age, but it's just me alone with this annoying officer in the interrogation room now.
"Excuse me, miss, but we are in the middle of an interrogation here."
"Excuse me, Mr Officer, but my brother would be worried that I am not yet home at this time, I have the right to be allowed to at least make a call and tell him that I'm alright."
"Now look here-"
"No, you look here," I slammed my hand on the metal table as darkness burst out of my shadows, my patience now fully and utterly spent. Wacky emerged and pinned the annoying officer against the wall, and a part of me felt some sort of vindictive pleasure in seeing him shiver at the mercy of a pissed off ghost. "You will let me make the call, or I will let you let me make the call. Are we in agreement?"
"Y-You can't j-just-"
"I can," I snapped back as Wacky's disturbing long tongue started to slowly lick the side of the officer's face, causing him to tremble uncontrollably. I paid him no mind, however, as I was too tired and frustrated to care but I did take a pause when I was about to dial Vance's number.
Come to think about it, dialling her number instead would probably get me out of this mess a lot quicker.
"Alright, I have spoken to them. You can go now."
"You are a lifesaver," I thanked Elesa as we walked out of the police station together. As I had thought, getting the local Gym Leader to bail me out is the fastest ticket out of my predicament.
"I just want to get back to my beauty sleep," Elesa yawned with a hand over her mouth. "And it's not exactly a secret that half of the police force is made up of inept fools. Those kinds you see there? They hate dealing with trouble, and will do what they can to push the blame to someone else so that they can wrap up the case as soon as possible. I'm not saying that there aren't any who are worthy to wear that uniform because there are, but most of those you see manning the front desks? Those are just slackers who want nothing more than a steady nine to five job."
"Is it really okay to have your law enforcement like this?" I asked, knowing very well that this is not how Hoenn's LSDF works since I had been one myself, even if it was only just for a short while.
"I am supposed to work with the police as a Gym Leader, but I don't have any authority when it comes to how they run things," Elesa shrugged, conveying the what-can-I-do meaning perfectly. "Anyway, do you need a lift? I might as well drop you and your butler off since it's on the way."
I looked at Sebastian, who merely nodded his head in agreement.
"That will be nice."
"Alright, follow me. You might as well tell me all about your meeting with Leticia while we are at it."
I wasted no time heading back up to my room after Elesa dropped us off with her fancy luxurious sports car. I'm dying to get myself a shower as soon as possible and change out of this dress. It's torn in several places thanks to me trying to run for my life earlier and I'm not sure if it can ever be repaired, but that is not my foremost concern.
"Yes, I'm fine," I repeated back those same words to Vance for what seems to be the umpteenth time while trying to dry my hair with the hairdryer. He had come knocking on my door when I was almost done with my shower, no doubt Sebastian had already briefed him on what had happened earlier.
"I should have tagged along."
"You couldn't have foreseen that, we don't even know who wanted me dead."
"And that's the problem. We've only been here for a week or two, who could we have possibly offended?"
"Maybe it's just our status as Veras. We draw attention just by being us," I suggested, "but I just confirmed with my ghosts through Rena that we had tagged the attacker. The next time we see him or her, we will know."
"Tag?"
"A little trick Agatha taught me, something that can only be done if a trainer has command over a certain number of ghosts. It does have its limitations, but it works well under certain circumstances. Basically, what I've done is to instruct one of the ghosts to seek out the attacker while we were on the run and sneak into their shadow. That ghost will hide itself there, and when the attacker is in our vicinity once more, the ghost will alert us and we will know that the attacker is nearby."
"Is it… reliable? For all we know we may never bump into that bastard again."
"They are out for our heads and they failed on their first attempt, it's likely that there will be a second attempt."
"I mean, having a ghost to hide in the shadow part."
"Ghosts are patient creatures, brother dear, especially when it comes to taking their sweet revenge. Ghosts are immortal, and when you have an immortal body you can afford to waste a lot of time, which they don't mind doing if it means getting to see something interesting. The only drawback is that communication between the ghost I sent and those still with me is impossible until we are within a certain radius of each other, but since I'm certain that there will be a round two with our attacker, meeting them again is only just a matter of time."
"Where did my cute and innocent baby sister go? Who are you and what did you do to her?"
"Quit being dramatic," I sighed. "Is there anything else? Cos I'm really tired and want nothing but to knock myself out. Can I leave it to you to tell Dad and Mum that I have struck a verbal agreement with Leticia to deal business with her family instead? She will be contacting our company directly, so get our compliance and finance team prepared. She will also be looking to rope in a few other Unova breeding farms to work with us so it is probably going to be a joint venture or sorts. In any case, working with Brilliance Group is a no go, not with how the way they do things goes against our family's teachings."
"Alright, leave it to me, you go catch some sleep," Vance's big hand ruffled my hair and since I am too tired to do anything else or resist, I settled for giving him the death glare which did absolutely nothing.
"Stop, touching, my, hair."
That irritating brother of mine knows how much touching my hair without my permission irritates me and he knows it.
I was about to lie down on my bed and go straight to sleep after shooing Vance out of my room when I decided to first walk over to my dressing table, rummage through the top drawer, and dig out the bottle of sleeping pills that I haven't been relying on for a long time. I have a feeling that I might need it, tonight's close brush with death still made me shudder when I remembered just how close that car managed to crash into us and killed me if it wasn't for Dolly. I had chosen to forget many things from my past life in order to live my new life as Velda Vera, but dying from a car crash in my past life is not something that I can easily forget.
It really was too close for comfort.
I popped a pill into my mouth despite Rena's disapproving frown. I know she has my best interests at heart, but I'm really just too tired and just not ready to face my inner demons at this moment.
"Scold me all you want tomorrow, just let me sleep first," I murmured as I lay on the bed and pulled the covers over myself. Rena jumped and curled herself up beside me, nuzzling her face close to mine. Not a single word was exchanged, but that is all the support I need.
It was a dreamless night.
"It's rare for you to sleep in," Vance commented the moment I made my appearance in the common area where we usually have our breakfast late next morning. I simply shrugged my shoulders in response.
"Had to use sleeping pills."
That comment made Vance's eyebrows raise a little higher. I can hear his silent question of "Are you alright?" but a slight shake of my head reassured him that it is nothing for him to concern himself about. Ever since my experience at Lilycove Vance had learnt when to not push for an answer, and I am grateful that he had caught the hint and changed the topic of conversation.
"I had already fed your pokemon, other than the ones who were in your room," he said as I took out the huge jar of pokemon food from the kitchen. These are specially made by us for our pokemon and according to what they had feedback to us, is a lot more delicious than the commonly bought factory-processed variant.
"Thanks," I replied as I filled up the bowls of the pokemon who usually slept in my room to keep me company.
"Sleeping pills? What happened?"
It was then I realised that we were not alone. Mary and Akamu are also having their breakfast with us and I could also see them trying to feed baby Silver.
"Had a rough night," I gave a vague answer to Mary's question before deciding that I shouldn't just dismiss her like that when all she did was to show concern. "I sometimes have to rely on those ever since the Lilycove Invasion."
"Ah," Mary seemingly understood the words I had left unsaid. "Still, try not to rely on those too much. It's not healthy, I'm speaking from experience."
"I will keep that in mind. Thanks," I replied with a small smile and took my seat beside Vance, who had helpfully passed over some toast and a cup of warm milk. Breakfast was a lot more silent as we focused on eating our meals.
"Looker will be calling for a meeting later," Akamu spoke up, catching my attention.
"You are staying to help?" I asked, surprised that the couple are actually going for an interpol meeting.
"There had been some... changes to the circumstances," Akamu explained. "In any case, Mary and I will be staying in Unova for quite a while, so we might as well help Looker while we are at it. We owe him a favour for helping us leave Indigo as soon as we did."
"As long as you know what you are getting involved in, I guess?" I replied, knowing that the couple has a better understanding of Looker than I do. If they think it is worth staying to help, then I'm not in a position to say otherwise.
"So anything you want to do until the meeting?" Vance asked in between mouthfuls of food. I took a few moments to think about it before giving my answer.
"Try to see if I can put what I learnt into practice? Mainly focusing on trying to achieve "teamwork" for my dark types, whatever that really means, and helping Dolly with Shadow Sneak and see if we can unlock a new skill or two. I'm starting to think that I might need to revisit a few other ghost type moves and see if we can create anything special from it."
In regards to dark types, I'm starting to give up trying altogether at this point. Everything is just so vague about "teamwork" and "cheating". Sidney told me it's all about the mindset and that if I cannot understand it, then it's best if I abandon it entirely. I don't think I have reached the point of abandoning any further attempts to learn more about dark types, but I am probably close to doing so.
It's just so frustrating.
"And if time permits, walk around and explore the city," I added, remembering that my first and foremost concern is to fulfil my dream of travelling the world and that my job as an interpol agent is merely secondary. I should visit Elesa's gym someday and see for myself what her legendary catwalks are like.
"You free tonight?" I turned to ask my brother, who simply nodded his head and sent me a silent look to ask me about why I'm asking him that question in the first place.
"Elesa's famous walks, the one she does on the catwalk in her gym, it's one of the main attractions in Nimbasa. Don't you just want to see for yourself what it really is like?"
"I have a feeling that Flannery will put me into a steamer if she knows about it."
"Just say that I am the one who wanted to watch it and that you are accompanying me out of concern for my safety. Last night, remember?"
"You won't sell me out, right?"
"Why would I? I'm your dear little sister."
"That's exactly why I'm worried, sister dear."
I had nothing to do after the meeting, so Vance and I decided to visit the Nimbasa City Gym as per what we had discussed earlier that morning. As I soon learnt, the way Elesa conducted her gym challenges are a little different from what I was familiar with the ones I had experienced in Hoenn.
For Elesa's gym challenge, the challenger will have to first defeat four of her gym trainers consecutively in one sitting. After that, the challenger will then be granted the right to challenge Elesa. However, the challenger will not be able to battle her right away. Elesa is an extremely busy woman, so scheduling the battles of every single challenger who had earned the right to face her for her Bolt Badge to accommodate her own busy schedule is necessary. These battles usually take place in the evening and usually, her gym trainers will try to cram as many of these battles into a single night for Elesa's convenience.
The Nimbasa Gym consists of two different buildings for that very purpose. One of those is where the challengers get to challenge four different gym trainers to earn their right to challenge for the Bolt Badge. The other building is where those who succeeded in the first part of her challenge gets to challenge Elesa herself, right under the eyes of everyone who will be watching the battle play out. That building is where Elesa does her legendary walk that the whole of Unova is crazy for and if I do say so, people from other regions as well where she is also as popular.
The building where Elesa holds these battles has a big stage and also a long catwalk to allow Elesa to strut her stuff. The spectators will be spectating from below. Elesa does not require anyone to pay any entrance fee for spectating these battles and so anyone from the public can come in at any time to view those battles when it is being held. From what I know, whenever Elesa is here to battle her challengers it is almost always full house in this building. Spectating Elesa doing her walks and battling her challengers is one of the main attractions for tourists and also a favourite sport for the locals.
So that is where Vance and I are now at. We turned up at the gym at an earlier time to beat the crowd, find ourselves a good spot, and waited until everything began. It was then I realised just how crazy Unovans are over their supermodel and Gym Leader. You wouldn't believe how loud the cheers and screams were the moment Elesa made her appearance in her signature yellow and black getup. The way she walked along the catwalk was so good that hoots and whistles could be heard loud and clear and not just from perverted men too, even the ladies were doing it just as enthusiastically.
That also includes that brother of mine, who had truly been converted into an Elesa fan the moment she did her famous walk.
"What did someone mention in the morning? Something about… not wanting to be put into a steamer?"
"It's Elesa, Vel! ELESA! WHOOOO!" Vance let out a loud cheer as well when the crowd started cheering once more. Somehow or another, he managed to find himself a board with a picture of Elesa printed on it, waving it frantically in the air like how many of her devout fans are currently doing, screaming their lungs out for their favourite idol.
"Here, take it!" The person sitting beside me on the other side very generously passed over to me one of those boards as she too, began to wave her own board just as crazy as everyone else around us are doing. I took a look at the board in my hand, before deciding to just half-heartedly wave it in the air like everyone else so as not to appear as the odd one out. Gotta bask in the mood and all that to relieve the true Unovan experience. When in Unova, do what the Unovans do, yeah?
"ELESA! ELESA! ELESA!"
The crowd began to chant in unison when Elesa took her spot on the stage, beckoning for the first challenger of the night to release his pokemon. Elesa's gym is the fourth in the Unova circuit, so the battles we will be witnessing are Intermediate level ones. She does get Elite level challenges from time to time, but those are much rarer because nobody really wants to go up against a Gym Leader at their full power. It's near impossible to beat someone who is acknowledged by the League as one of their thirteen strongest trainers in the region.
Of course, similar to my experiences in participating in Hoenn's gym circuit, the pokemon Elesa uses at this current level to battle her challengers are also not from her main team. Still, that does not hinder her at all because watching how she commanded her pokemon is like watching a masterful piece of art. Even I learned a thing or two just by watching her.
"Brings back memories, doesn't it?" I asked softly, knowing that Dolly could hear me from where she was currently hiding in my shadow. She's one of the earliest pokemon to join my team and had been with me since the Dewford Gym challenge. Looking back, we have already been through so much. I can still remember when Dolly was a small little adorable shuppet and how we first met when she pulled that prank on me in the pokemon centre.
The challenger lost in no time at all. Elesa's gym challenge is known by many to be one of the hardest for its recommended skill level alongside Clay's. Drayden's was said to be equally notorious as well, but that is to be expected from the final gym in the circuit. This is so different from my very own experiences because in Hoenn, gym challenges are very rarely a public affair. Usually, these battles are private and only the challenger, Gym Leader, and gym trainers will be involved and spectate the battles.
A crowd as huge as this spectating the challenges I had been through? Never experienced it before until I competed in the Ever Grande League. There was never an audience for my challenges until then; that's just how different Unova and Hoenn conduct their gym circuit.
Elesa judged that the challenger was worthy enough to receive her Bolt Badge, and the crowd cheered wildly once more when she presented her badge to the challenger.
There were quite a few other challengers that stepped up after that. Somehow or another, I soon found myself gradually cheering alongside the crowd whenever they started to cheer as well. The atmosphere here was just that infectious. Some of the battles were subpar and not every challenger was rewarded with a badge, but there were a few battles that were extremely exciting to watch for an Intermediate level challenge. They were so close in defeating Elesa.
Was this how the Gym Leaders felt when they watched my battles when I was going about challenging the Hoenn circuit? I think I can start to understand the excitement they felt.
"You are going to get a sore throat tomorrow morning," I helpfully reminded my older brother who had not stopped cheering at the top of his lungs the moment this started.
"But she did another walk, Vel! LOOK! ELESA! ELESA! ELESA!"
Just what kind of charm did Elesa subject my older brother to? She converted him to be her diehard number one fan in just a single night and she wasn't even trying.
"Look, if you really want to get up close to her that badly, why not try completing her gym challenge on the Elite level and battle her for real?"
"Are you serious? Have you ever seen how nasty those Thunder Waves are? And those pokemon are only of the Intermediate level, I don't want to imagine the kind of things the pokemon on her main team can do with Thunder Wave. Come on, Vel, it would be too cruel to subject my pokemon to such torture just to fulfil my selfish desires. Oh look, she's doing another walk! ELESA! ELESA! ELESA!"
I simply whispered to my trusty porygon-z hiding in my x-transceiver.
"Jarvis? You'd better be recording this."
Now, potentially another blackmail material was acquired. Wonder what kind of price Vance is willing to pay for to ensure that this video does not accidentally find its way to Flannery?
Oh dear, I'm so evil. Whatever sin did Vance commit in his previous life to get himself such an evil little sister?
"ELESA! ELESA! ELESA!"
He's still chanting her name. Probably will be for the rest of the night.
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