It took me a few days to truly walk out of that fear.
I don't know how to describe the trauma associated with that event, the feeling of being so helpless and so defenceless with your life being utterly controlled in someone's grasp. The feeling of knowing that he could end your life with a single thought if he ever felt like it. The feeling of hopelessness that came when you realised your best defence and your hidden tricks were so easily rendered useless without you knowing how, and only exacerbated when you knew that nobody would be there to save you no matter what you tried.
That kind of fear is the kind that makes you feel naked and defenceless, as if he could easily see through you no matter how you tried. It's the kind of fear that makes you understand that there's nothing you can do to escape and that your life is now in his hands.
It still makes me shudder that such a man is now working for the Plasmas.
I'm just so grateful that I have a brother who is always supportive of me. I wouldn't have recovered as quickly as I did if it wasn't for him accompanying me through those few days. I also have Looker to thank, because it was during my lesson with him that I discovered I had somehow managed to unlock my ability to understand ghost types like how my fellow reincarnated friends had.
Yes, I am not ashamed to admit that I was obsessed with testing out the limits of my new abilities ever since I unlocked it.
There was one unexpected development from my encounter with the masked man that took away the little girl from the auction. After Vance brought me back, Sebastian was the one who took over my personal belongings and helped get Rena the medical attention she needed to make a full recovery. He was the one who discovered that I had an additional pokeball in my handbag, a pokeball with a pokemon already contained in it.
A pokemon that is definitely not mine.
"A haxorus?"
"According to the nurses, it was heavily injured and would have succumbed to its injuries soon if it did not receive medical treatment. There were signs of abuse as well and there was no way to track who it originally belonged to. Miss Velda, I believe somebody intentionally left this haxorus for you."
Haxorus are not commonly seen to begin with, and it is almost impossible to spot a wild haxorus outside of the Unova region and Mount Hokulani in Alola. Even with my family's connections I had only caught a few glimpses of this creature before and they were usually sold as soon as our customers got wind that we had a few on our farm. The last time I saw a haxorus it was during the recent underground auction.
"It's the same one from the underground auction," Vance said when we finally released the haxorus from its pokeball under our pokemon's protective supervision. They have a right to be wary because after all, this is a fully grown dragon we are dealing with.
I probably should be thankful that the haxorus did not try to attack us on sight the moment it was released, but Vance and I immediately recognised this haxorus as the one we saw from the auction. However, the haxorus is not in the least interested in making friends or getting to know us better. It simply acts indifferent to us, preferring to be alone than to mingle.
The mystery of how it found its way to me aside, I'm not going to blame it for having trust issues considering the abuse it must have suffered under the hands of the auctioneers. I'm already very thankful that it is not acting antagonistic towards us and creating even more trouble for us. I considered releasing it back into the wild, but a quick consultation with Skye removed that idea from my head. From her experience as a Ranger, pokemon with a history of abuse would not adjust well to suddenly being returned back to the wild. Usually, these pokemon would end up creating havoc that would ultimately attract the attention of Pokemon Rangers to forcefully subdue it and in certain cases, leave them no choice but to put them down if it cannot be reasoned.
Transferring it to my family's farm is also an option. I'm sure my father is more than capable of both taming it and taking care of it. However, this haxorus is an abused pokemon suffering from trauma and possessing obvious distrust towards humans, and it being a full grown dragon further magnified the problem. There are trainer guidelines set by the PWL for handling pokemon with a history of abuse and trauma, but sadly those are simply words on paper because nobody really adheres to it in practice due to a lack of enforcement, but that's besides the point.
If I were to go strictly by those guidelines, and use the PWL's rating scale to gauge the category of classification and danger rating in which this haxorus belongs to, haxorus would fall under a few categories which would immediately make it a potentially lethal threat simply because it is 1) an adult pokemon and 2) a dragon type, and 3) pokemon with confirmed history of abuse or trauma.
A traumatised adult dragon with distrust towards humans is definitely going to be dangerous no matter how you try to sugarcoat it, that is the truth of the situation. According to the PWL's guidelines, taking care of this haxorus would require the trainer taking care of it to possess the full set of eight badges. For non-trainers, which largely applies to pokemon therapists, they would require a PWL recognised certification that proved them to be capable of the job.
Despite my young age, I'm an eight badge trainer and thus, legally qualified to take care of the haxorus. The haxorus is somewhat comfortable with my presence, which is a positive sign, but is currently not comfortable with being under the care of anyone else. Further consultation with Skye convinced me that putting the haxorus into the hands of another trainer or transferring it into an unfamiliar environment might or might not create additional stress for it and it is not a risk worth trying. Thus, for its own mental well-being, the haxorus would be sticking around for the foreseeable future.
I decided to try and form a bond with the haxorus after seeing that it is not going on a blind rage anytime soon. I decided to put into practice what Drake taught me about dragons during our journey to Johto, to give dragons the space and respect that they deserve. So, after the haxorus had lay down on the ground to rest with its body curled in a somewhat defensive posture, I gave it a slight bow to the haxorus in greeting from where I was a few metres away, catching its attention.
What followed was a simple one sided conversation on my end. All I did was to ask questions like "Are you feeling better", "Can I come closer", and so on and so forth until the haxorus was comfortable enough to give me permission to approach it. I was even able to get its permission to touch its shiny scales, which is a positive sign of recovery.
"You don't want a nickname?"
The haxorus grunted a negative from where it was curling up on the ground to sunbathe, eyes closed and its sharp huge tusks glinting dangerously under the sunlight. By now, I'd like to think that it actually likes me from how it was showing no intentions to maul me like it had tried to the little girl back at the auction. Vance theorised that the reason why this haxorus was okay with me might be because I reminded it of the little girl at the auction, which I vehemently denied because he was insinuating that I am short.
I'm not short, I'm a healthy growing girl with the potential to grow taller dammit.
"We will be training close by. Let us know if you want to join."
The best and only thing I can do is to be kind and patient to the mentally scarred haxorus, giving it the space that it needs. I may not have planned to have another pokemon joining my team, but now that things have developed into what it is I am not going to kick the haxorus out. It clearly needs a new home and a trainer who is able to rehabilitate it. Even if it never participates in training like most of my pokemon do, it is still a haxorus, and haxorus are plenty dangerous just by the virtue of it being a haxorus.
I saw for myself just what haxorus is capable of when Kratos managed to irritate it enough to spar with him. I knew for a fact that the haxorus species are able to easily cut steel beams with their tusks and that they lick up dirt to take in minerals to keep their best natural weapons in top condition. Hence, I was only mildly surprised that the haxorus was able to leave cuts on Kratos' tough armour with a simple Slash attack.
The way haxorus fights is similar to Kratos, they love to overwhelm their opposition with superior firepower and strength. Haxorus is a bundle of rage whenever it battles, mercilessly crushing through its opponent's defence whenever it could. The only problem with it would be that it is not proficient at fighting its battles from a distance and is very reliant on being able to close that distance to win its fights, but that is a common problem for their species. They are born specialised to be terrifying physical fighters, that is just how it is.
Kratos may have won that fight, but haxorus also managed to earn Kratos' respect after their spar. Haxorus is not a pushover despite being very much a wild pokemon in almost every area. It is obvious that it hadn't undergone any form of systematic training, suggesting that it had no prior trainer before its capture by the hands of poachers. All it has going for it are its instincts and the inherent power that comes from being a powerful dragon type.
I also soon realised that haxorus seemed to be able to get along with the "chiller" members of my team. Flamel, Bigblue, Kel, Rena, Joy, Ness, Hulk, and Archer are able to comfortably be around its side without being chased away. Anyone who tends to annoy him, like Kratos or Fuzzy, would almost always be shooed by the very irritated haxorus.
'He says he would like to be reunited with the girl he met, the one on stage that day.'
Rena was the one who helped convey haxorus' wishes to me. I wish I could say that I definitely would be able to find the girl, but I can't promise that. Trying to search for one single girl that could be hiding anywhere in the region is a near impossible task when we have close to nothing to follow up on.
"I'm on a mission to take down the bad guys who we think took that little girl. I cannot promise that we will definitely be able to find her, but our chances of success will be higher if we carry on with our work as it is."
Haxorus understood my message, and let out a grunt of acknowledgement before walking away. This time, it is taking its own initiative to seek Kratos out, issuing a challenge with a thunderous roar.
"Man, your haxorus has a bit of a temper problem."
"I don't think it's a temper problem, more like it already has a trainer in mind that it wants to follow and that trainer is not me," I replied to Vance's comment as we both spectate the fight between Kratos and haxorus. Haxorus is steadily learning from the defeats it suffered under Kratos' hands, even managing to pick up a move or two in the process. It never stayed down for long no matter how many times it was beaten down to the ground. It is prideful, defiant, unrelenting, and fearsome in ways that only a dragon could display.
"The little girl?"
"If she's anything like the Mad Conqueror, then I don't think it would be a far stretch to say that such a person would be the only trainer haxorus will be willing to take orders from. The Mad Conqueror was supposedly able to easily get wild dragons to help fight his battles."
"Like how you did for your ghosts?"
"Not exactly…" I trailed off while giving a little more thought to this issue. "There is a form of equivalent exchange with my ghosts. They help me and don't create trouble for me, and in return I can show and teach them ways to get stronger. The girl doesn't have anything to offer to haxorus, haxorus just wants to follow her on its own accord. There is no exchange in that relationship."
Vance crossed his arms while stroking his chin with a hand, looking to be in deep thought.
"Maybe her ability has some sort of brainwashing effect on dragons?"
"That…" My first reaction was to rebuke, but I held my tongue when I realised that Vance may have a point and that it may be too early to write off his idea entirely. There's still a lot that we don't know about Ability Holders and even as an Ability Holder myself, there is still a lot I don't know about what I can possibly do with my ability. People like us are a mystery to even ourselves.
But if the girl's ability really does have a brainwashing effect on dragons, then what about people like me?
"Plasma activities on the southeastern side have significantly decreased. We are still investigating why that is the case but preliminary investigations suggest that there are other anti-Plasma forces at work here."
Everyone present listened attentively to Looker's briefing. When the interpol was assigned to Unova, Looker had assigned everyone their individual assignments shortly after we arrived. Today's meeting is a consolidation of everyone's work in order to plan our next step ahead.
"Anti-Plasma forces?"
"I guess you could classify them as vigilantes. There have been an increasing number of people who are fed up with Unova's inefficiency in solving the Plasma problem and have decided to take matters into their own hands. Some of these even belong to other underground groups, like the local gangs or mafioso of the area, who were upset about the disruption of the underworld's power balance that Team Plasma's sudden uprising had brought about."
"So it's a turf war, just on a larger scale."
"That's one way to look at it," Looker did not disagree with Skye's statement. "Unova's stance on this matter is that they do not wish to involve themselves with such groups, but my opinion is, at this point, beggars can't be choosers. The Unova League is clearly lacking effective methods to deal with the Plasmas and there is a severe lack of useful information about them. Only the families from the Five Weapons seem to be competent enough to be able to provide us the information we need and currently, these anti-Plasma groups are also another potential source of information that may turn out to be crucial to our work."
Frowns appeared on everyone's faces in varying degrees. By now we had come to realise what the crux of the Plasma problem is, which is how ineffective the Unova League is in their approach to wipe them out. There's no way the Unova League is really that inept, the fact that various ragtag anti-Plasma groups were able to deal with the Plasma factions residing in their own territories are proof that Team Plasma is not as infallible as they paint themselves to be. That means that there must be another reason why the Unova League were unable to do their job properly.
"Have the Plasmas infiltrated the League?"
Nova verbalised the thought that is currently on everyone's minds. For the Unova League to be hindered in their investigations at every turn hinted heavily at the notion that there were people high up in their ranks, or people who hold huge societal influences obstructing their work. The Thirteen Pillars may be powerful, but ultimately they are just thirteen people. They still need to rely on the people working under them to be able to conduct any meaningful investigations. If any of those people are working for the Plasmas…
"We will have to work with that assumption in mind," Looker nodded, the expression on his face somewhat grim. "I guess we can still rely on Unova's Pillars at the very least, but currently there are no ways to guarantee if the people working under them are Plasma agents. Personally, I am of the opinion that the Plasmas have found a very powerful supporter in terms of influence, such that he or her can easily sway the opinions of the Unova League."
The screen flickered as Looker skipped to the next slide.
"Right now, our priority is information gathering so that we are able to plan our next step. The Dandolos family have provided us with a reliable piece of evidence regarding the exact location of a hidden Plasma base that they found which looks to be important. We will be going to raid it. The Dandolos family will help arrange for any additional manpower that we may need as per Unova League's instructions but we will be the ones planning and executing the raid. This is the first operation that we will be working together as a team, so let's do our best. Akamu."
"Yeah?"
"You will act as the second-in-command. In the event that I'm not available or am unable to give commands, everyone will defer to you for their next orders."
"Right, the same old."
"The same old," Looker agreed with a nod before looking at the rest of us. "Meanwhile, you guys try to get used to working and fighting alongside each other. At the very least, don't create an accident where you get in each other's way."
The briefing ended without much fanfare. Akamu, being the responsible second-in-command that he is, suggested that we have joint training in order to familiarise ourselves with each other's battle styles. Our individual responsibilities often meant that we usually work solo for each of our individual tasks, but like Looker had pointed out, we do need to be able to work with each other seamlessly in the event that we have to work together.
Akamu managed to borrow a training area from Unova's military through Looker's connections (still unsure how Looker and Akamu did that, to be honest). Better still, he managed to get military personnel to train with us. The area we were using was an area where military personnel train for urban ops. Akamu had mentioned that if we were to participate in missions where we have to raid hideouts, chances are, we will have to fight in enclosed spaces and thus, it would be better to get used to it earlier than later.
Unexpectedly, I managed to shine in this area thanks to my newfound ability to communicate with ghosts. Their ability to scout ahead without being detected, combined with my new ability to accurately decipher what they convey to me, allowed us to be able to consistently bring back valuable information.
"Three hostiles in the room down that corridor, five pokemon. Explosives sighted."
"I can handle the hostiles and their pokemon," Skye suggested.
"I will let my ghosts bring the explosives away," I agreed, knowing that the risks will be reduced to the minimum if my ghosts are able to bring the explosives away while Skye keeps the "hostiles" busy. Said hostiles are the military personnel that are currently doing us a favour and are helping out with our training through this mock operation. In this mock operation, we are to apprehend the hostiles and prevent them from destroying the hideout.
"If things go south, just hide behind my golem. Mine can easily shield us from an explosion, no problems," Nova spoke up. As most of her pokemon tend to be huge in size, there are only a handful on her team that she can use if we are to fight in enclosed spaces. Thus, she has been relegated to a supportive role. While the "explosives" are simply dummies for simulation purposes, we were told to treat them as the real thing to keep this training as realistic as possible. Thus, the need for a backup plan should the "explosives" suddenly explode. Nova's golem is our backup plan.
Nova's marowak perked its head up and suddenly hurled its bone towards a dark corner, pushing back a ferrothorn that was trying to sneak up onto us.
Seems that the "hostiles" had acted before we did.
More pokemon started to surround us and I know we have to act before we are trapped here. If the "hostiles" managed to complete their objective, which is to hold out for fifteen minutes where the hypothetical bomb goes boom and self-detonate, then time is of the essence. We have to be able to take the lead instead of letting them lead us by our noses. We have already managed to locate them within the building, so now there's no reason to not act.
"There's no time! I will stay and deal with them! You guys go ahead!"
Nova and Skye shared a look, and decided to go ahead with my suggestion because none of us could think of a better idea at the moment.
"Alright, be careful!"
My ghosts warped them away with Shadow Sneak, leaving me behind to deal with the small group of pokemon that were about to initiate the assault. Rena had immediately erected her psychic barriers, giving me just enough time to call out Lily, one of my best defensive battlers. Lily effortlessly withstood the combined assault and her regenerative prowess allowed her to recover from her injuries almost instantaneously. I could actually see the growing despair in those pokemon's eyes when they realised Lily could recover faster than they could damage her.
"Fuzzy, Thunder Wave."
Fuzzy's training with Thunder Wave finally bore fruit, as could be seen when he managed to swiftly paralyse and incapicitate most of the opposing pokemon with a single burst. Lily's tentacles ensnared the remaining ones and they soon fell limp when Lily sucked their energies dry with Giga Drain.
There, done and dusted.
This mock operation soon ended with us clinching victory. Including the latest simulation, we ran five different simulations in total. We won some and lost some, bringing us a score of three wins and two losses.
"I can see the improvements. Definitely could have been better, but I'm going to be lenient seeing that it's your first time working together," Akamu, who had been overseeing this mock operation from the sidelines the entire time, began to point out what we had done right and wrong.
On the bright side, our two losses were the first two simulations we had run where we were still fumbling around. Expectedly, I was the one who made the most mistakes as I had close to no experience in this field and had the least experience as a trainer under my belt. We did manage to perform steadily better after that though and won the next three simulations, so that is something.
"Still, the operatives training with us are all rookies who just earned their rank and none of them had earned eight badges, so let's not get too ahead of ourselves just yet," Akamu ended the after-action-review with that one sentence, reminding us that we are still far from perfect as like us, our training partners for the day are also relatively green. "What you guys are better at is your individual abilities as a trainer, with everyone having earned the full eight badges. Being a better trainer doesn't automatically translate to you being a better operative out on the field because out there, there are no rules in place. Just keep that in mind."
"So will we have more of such simulations in the future?"
"Depends. By the PWL's standards, theoretically, an eight-badge trainer would be more than capable of leading an operation on their own out on the field, which would mean that any of us here would technically be qualified to lead any operation Looker sent us on," Akamu explained. "But as you can see from your first two losses, having better battling skills may not always mean being able to lead a successful operation. After all, leading your personal team of pokemon is very different from leading a team of trainers. My guess is that Looker wants to groom all of you to be able to handle any operation alone as a representative of the interpol so right now, what we need is for each of you to gain the necessary experience before we can each lead any operation we are sent on individually. This coming operation is just that, to get you guys used to working on such operations in a much safer and controlled setting before we embark on the more dangerous ones."
"Hard to find any other more dangerous ones after the shit that happened at Olivine."
Jokes aside, Skye's got a point, and I know that I'm not the only one hoping that what we've been through at Olivine would be the most dangerous thing we had ever been through in our lives.
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
18) Haxorus, male
Vance Vera, Age: 20, Male, Heir to the Vera Family
Pokemon on hand:
1) Gengar (Macky), male
2) Sceptile
3) Salamence
4) Metagross
5) Gallade
6) Walrein
7) Electivire
8) Weavile
9) Magmortar
Name: ?
Age:?
Codename: Looker
Director of International Police
Pokemon team:
1) Sableye (Sparkles)
2) Mismagius (Missy)
3) Cofagrigus
4) Gengar
5) Golurk
6) Toxicroak
7) Chandelure
8) Mr Mime