Things slowed down a little after attending the fundraising event that the Aguirre family had hosted.
For one, my family is now officially at odds with the Carrillos. Our actions to prevent them from making any progress in their Hoenn investments were not subtle and they were brutal. I could see traces of Vance's handiwork in it and I'm sure my father was involved in some of the more sadistic business methods that we used to block their entrance into the Hoenn market.
They were really furious when I called and told them what Callum spoke to me that day, especially about the part when he wanted to make me his "girlfriend". Apparently, Dad had agreed that Vance was really not kidding when he told me that in high society, it's not uncommon for people like Callum to view "girlfriends" and "playthings" as one and the same thing, and there's no way my father would allow anyone to view his precious little girl as anybody's "plaything".
The Dandolos and the Aguirres, on the other hand, were more than happy to provide us their support the moment they learnt about the conflict we had with the Carrillos, because they are not on good terms with them as well. I also gave my father and Vance the contact information which I gathered from the people I had gotten to know from that event. These are people I felt might be useful for our own benefit, so it's up to them to decide just who we would want to work with.
As for the Interpol, I also managed to get us a few supporters who were willing to aid us in removing Team Plasma from the picture. They helped to provide certain information or things that we wouldn't be able to easily obtain in Unova otherwise, and Looker was satisfied with the results thus far.
Case in point, the interpol had been a lot more active and successful in locating and raiding Team Plasma's hideouts ever since we were acquainted with these people.
"This is like, what? The fifth hideout we raided this month?"
"Sixth," Nova replied to Skye's remark as she dusted her hands. We were finally done with our work for today.
"Woah, we raided that many? That's an average of one hideout about every five days."
"Blame Vel. She gave us sooo much work to do."
"Not my fault. Blame Looker, blame the Plasmas, don't blame me."
"I know, I was just kidding," Nova grinned. "Still, it's been a long time since I regularly worked out like this. Isn't that right, Jaws?"
The absolutely huge and terrifying tyrantrum strolling right behind us voiced its agreement with a low rumble of its throat, creating minor tremors with every step. A freaking tyrantrum, Nova has a freaking tyrantrum and I saw for myself the kind of devastation it could bring about in our raid earlier. I saw for myself earlier how its jaws actually tore through an aggron's armour with ease and that was a very scary thing to witness. I had seen many things that pokemon with similar physiques to a tyrantrum could do with their jaws. Even so, the jaw strength of Nova's tyrantrum was truly off the charts and beyond anything which I had previously witnessed.
I can really see why researchers referred to this species of pokemon as the ancestor of all modern day Dragon type pokemon. Solid defences, extreme physical power, unyielding tenacity; under the right hands, its power is truly terrifying and devastating and a mighty sight to behold.
"Everything fine, ladies?" Akamu called out when he finally rejoined us. I would never expect that his strongest fighter would be the unassuming ditto sitting innocently on the top of his head. The Plasma grunts who we fought just now had nearly shitted their pants when the ditto transformed into an Ultra Beast right in front of their eyes in a split second. It really is a very scary thing to be on the receiving end of. Even after that display, unbelievably, Akamu had confided with us that ditto is still not capable of replicating an Ultra Beast's full strength. It really makes us wonder just how powerful these creatures are and at the same time, thankful that they could not be found in other parts of the world.
Imagine if these creatures were to freely roam across Hoenn as they do in Alola. It will really be a disaster, walking disasters.
"Someone's eager to knock off early," Skye teased, eliciting laughter from everyone. Akamu shrugged and took it all with grace.
"You will understand when you finally get married and settle down."
"Silver is starting on his first words, right?"
"He can say Pa and Ma now, so that's something," Akamu grinned as we walked out of the ruined hideout that we had a part in raiding earlier. As usual, we will leave it to the local Unova forces to deal with the cleanup.
The little baby Silver that the couple adopted was the same one we remembered to be as the antagonist in the original games, Akamu had admitted and revealed that much to us in secret during our stay here. I'm still not too sure how Silver ended up in Akamu's and Mary's care because Akamu did not go too deep in his explanation, but that is no longer important. A child should never be judged for their parents' crimes, that is a belief that we all shared.
"Looker better give us a damn break after today. He made us work overtime for two months. Can you believe it? Two goddamn months," Skye raised two fingers up to further emphasise her point, making her displeasure known very clearly.
"I warned you guys," Akamu reminded us and even then we all could not help but sigh.
"I can now see why you called him a slavedriver."
"A slavedriver? He's the slavedriver. He's a sadistic bastard. Trust me, I worked with him for years."
"Excuse me, I'm just right here."
"Oh, hi Looker!" Skye acted as if we hadn't just talked about Looker behind his back, waving enthusiastically at our direct superior who had magically made his appearance from seemingly nowhere. "How are you going to slave us out this time?"
"Believe it or not, I was originally going to give you guys a one week break, but since you asked…"
"Oh hell no, I'm outta here. See ya in a week!" Skye immediately backed away and whistled for her pidgeot to immediately swoop down and in an impressive display of acrobatics, Skye did a high jump, somersaulted in the air, and landed just nicely on pidgeot as it flew past her right at that very moment for her to land on its back. They quickly became a small black dot in the skies overhead in the span of a few seconds.
That was so cool.
"Show off," Nova huffed with her arms crossed.
"I can never do that," I stated plain and clear, still trying to figure out how Skye did that without an accident happening or breaking a bone or two. How long did she practise to be able to do that?
"She's just showing off," Nova insisted.
"I prefer the safer option of teleporting. Anybody else hitching a ride?" Akamu offered as he released his alakazam out of its pokeball and it was an offer that Nova and I immediately accepted.
"Nuh uh, Looker, we reached the passenger limit here," Akamu declared when Looker attempted to hitch a ride back with us.
"Oh I'm so hurt," Looker replied dryly. "What happened to the good old times we shared?"
"Old times, yes, but I'm not too sure about the good part," Akamu replied wittingly and Nova and I laughed. We do have many complaints about Looker and his slavedriver tendencies when it comes to work, but ultimately we are still on very good terms with each other. The fact that we feel comfortable enough to joke with Looker like this was an indication that we have a good relationship with each other.
"Oh fine, I know when I'm not welcomed," Looker lamented exaggeratedly as he joined in our little game. "But before you go, Vel, I need you to be around tomorrow at approximately nine in the morning."
"Wait, everyone else got their break except for me? How can you?" I gasped, maybe a little too dramatically, but it's also kind of true that this news was a real downer after hearing that Looker had planned to give everyone a one week break.
"Don't be dramatic, I only need you for the morning. We will be meeting someone important that I think you would want to meet. I will fill you in about the details tomorrow. For now, enjoy your time off."
"Quick, let's go, let's go! Who knows if he would decide to change his mind and get us to stay back tomorrow too," Nova quickly urged Akamu and this time I didn't bother to hold back my laughter.
"Excuse me-"
Whatever complaints Looker had, we never knew. Akamu's alakazam teleported us out of there just right at that very moment.
"You… gotta be kidding me."
"I'm afraid not."
The next day came quicker than I expected it to be. I came to find Looker before nine and he led me to the meeting room on the third floor of our residence where he said we will be meeting whoever we would be meeting today.
We will be meeting Elesa. No surprises there, we had been working closely with her this entire time as this is her city that we are staying at and she is one of our main points of contact in liaising with the Unova League.
However, today's meeting is a little special than the usual ones because she's bringing along a guest today.
Guess what? That VIP is Jayce Dandolos. Yes, that same guy who is also one of us, one of those "Seven Sages", the same guy who I helped rescue from Five Island, and the same one who nearly killed me and gave me nightmares for quite a while when I went undercover in that underground auction.
As you can tell, I'm not really in the best of moods after learning that piece of news.
"So… The Dandolos finally found him?"
"They did. I think they found him about two days ago."
"Wonder if it was a tear jerking reunion," I cannot help but remark, still feeling a little irritable at the thought of meeting Jayce after what he subjected me to. To be fair, our encounter was probably a result of a series of coincidental misunderstandings. I would admit that trying to rob him of the little girl was probably not the best way to introduce myself to him and he had the right to retaliate. It's also a fact that he never took my life when he clearly could, and the Dandolos were being very sincere with their apology when Mikhail approached me that day.
Still… Oh well, whatever.
"Wait, what about the girl he bought from the auction?"
"She's under the protection of the Dandolos now. From what I gathered Jayce had been hiding her from the Plasmas the entire time. That would mean that back there at the underground auction, both of you were bidding for the same cause, and that is to not let the girl fall into Team Plasma's hands."
"So we need not have fought at all if we knew of each other's intentions from the start."
"Technically, yes."
"Great."
"At least all that goes well ends well?"
"It will only end well after I have my revenge. Seriously, those nightmares…" My body involuntarily shivered at those memories and I could still feel some phantom tingling around my neck where I remembered his dagger had lightly slid across my skin to cut me. I decided to not dwell on that topic any longer. Either way, I just don't feel satisfied if I don't get my payback in some shape or form.
I could feel the anger of the ghosts residing in my shadows as well, and the emotions I felt were very intense. Like me, they hold a grudge too, but somehow I just instinctively knew that their grudge is not something that can be easily appeased and I am starting to doubt if I can control them when Jayce eventually makes his appearance. Like Agatha once taught me, nobody can claim to control ghosts, even for Ghost Masters. This is one such time that I would not be able to control them because they are really mad.
Sucks to be Jayce right now.
The perfect timing just had to be the time when I was lost in my thoughts and wasn't paying attention to my surroundings. The door to the meeting room opened just a crack and right after, the shadows around me burst forth before I could do or say anything.
Elesa and Jayce must have arrived.
I knew that my ghosts' attempt to kill Jayce in murderous fury must have failed when their frustrated howlings continued to grow in volume. I managed to spot a bisharp and ninetales blocking their advances through the inky shadowy mass between us just as my ghosts bombarded them with Shadow Balls and other forms of ghost type techniques.
That still didn't work, and I had no time to ponder over just how they managed to defend themselves from an ambush of such scale because I found myself being held hostage a split second later.
"Checkmate."
I seriously had no idea how he did it. One moment he was there at the other end of the room where the door was, the next moment he was behind me and had held me in a chokehold with his right arm. I knew he meant no harm because I did not feel choked at all, but his other hand was holding that blasted dagger against Looker's neck, who was observing the scene beside me the entire time.
I knew my life was not in danger because if he really wanted to kill me he would have done so the first time we met that night, and he also had the opportunity to do so just now. I knew he would not kill me because Elesa had brought him here herself and that Looker was beside me the entire time. Jayce may be dangerous, but I doubt Looker is any less skilled than he is. It's obvious that Looker let himself get caught on purpose.
Seriously, this guy, the last of us seven, is truly a dangerous individual. No matter how I racked my brain for an answer I still could not figure out how he suddenly closed the distance and reappeared behind us in the blink of an eye. Just what kind of trick did he pull?
"Now, are you guys calm enough to listen, or do we have to scatter you into wisps of smoke?"
I finally heard his voice for the first time. His voice was surprisingly nice to listen to, a cool smooth baritone and weirdly, the first thought that came to my mind after hearing his voice was that probably he would have made a very good voice actor or a documentary narrator if he ever chose to pursue that path. His question was directed to my army of ghosts who were fully in view, hovering in the air and their numbers filling the space of the entire room while glaring daggers at him. They dared not move because they understood that any rash decisions on their end might spell danger for me. This was probably what Jayce was aiming for when he decided to take me hostage to quickly deescalate the situation.
"Not bad," Looker broke the awkward atmosphere with a low whistle, and I could tell that he's truly appreciating the skills that Jayce just displayed in that brief exchange. From the point when my ghosts started their assault to when I was taken hostage probably only lasted somewhere between five to seven seconds, and even then we spotted enough to know that the skills Jayce displayed in that brief moment of time were nothing to scoff at.
I do not know what other words I could use to describe him other than saying that he's a dangerous man.
"Rocket's Exterminator indeed. After our previous encounter I can understand why Skye said running into you just once is able to give her nightmares for months," I spoke up as well, and I will admit that even in my current position I'm still a little pissed for what he had done to me. I'm pretty sure he picked that up from the tone of my voice.
"Anything I say now would only seem like an excuse, but I do apologise," oh, now we are finally talking. "I had thought that you were Plasmas or people along that vein. In my defence, I do have the right to do what is needed to prevent myself from being robbed of something I spent more than a hundred million on."
That's… true. Vance and I were the aggressors who tried to rob him of the little girl who he spent more than a hundred million on. If I were in his shoes, I might have reacted similarly too.
I'm still pissed though.
"Fair enough, it's partly my fault too," I admitted. "I had also thought that you were one of those people. Now, are you going to continue holding me hostage, or are you going to let me go?"
"Are they planning to allow us to talk like civilised people?"
Our attention was brought back to my little army of ghosts who were still hissing threats at Jayce. Truthfully, they looked to be far too angry to listen to anything that even I might say, but I guess I will have to try.
"Dolly, Wacky, thanks for the concern, but please head back to the shadows. He's not going to hurt me."
The response I received was a huge negative. Dolly clearly didn't trust Jayce enough to leave me alone with Jayce and so do the other ghosts. I'm really touched by their protectiveness over me but their actions were also making it hard for us to talk things out with this seasoned killer like civilised people, if I were to borrow Jayce's words.
"You have no pokeballs to recall them into?"
"Only for a few. Most of them are wild, they aren't mine," I explained when Jayce asked, then decided to just throw the blame to him because technically, this is his fault too. "They are usually rather protective of me and what you did to us last time had made them very mad and you know just how ghosts are, they are vindictive. Even I cannot control them when they are like this."
I wasn't lying. I truly have no way to control my ghosts when they are this infuriated right now. If even Dolly is not going to listen to me, then no other ghosts would. I cannot do anything right now but to let them vent all their pent up rage out of their system. This is the only way left.
I think I might have heard the man give a very soft yet frustrated sigh, but I believed he had come to the same conclusion I did as well. The words he said next proved it.
"Let's do this the stupid way. I saw a training ground located right behind this building when I arrived so let's settle our score there. Five seconds, I will give them five seconds to give all they got in trying to kill me. If they succeed, they will have their revenge. If they fail, then let bygones be bygones and we finally get on with what we are here for this morning. Deal?"
This time, my ghosts screamed vengeance, and I knew that the talks were not going to proceed until one party experienced a thorough defeat.
Can my ghosts really take on the Rocket's Exterminator? I honestly doubt it, because this was the man who managed to go up against Giovanni on his lonesome without backup. Yes, he might have lost, but I was told that even Giovanni paid quite a costly price for his victory. As a pokemon trainer, skills wise, Jayce has to be on the level of a Pillar.
Nevertheless, this is an army of ghosts he will be facing, and they have grown substantially stronger as compared to the first day when they decided to follow me. Ghosts are troublesome foes to face due to the nature of their skill sets and the recklessness that they can afford to show due to their immortality.
Furthermore, there's no reason for me to stop this battle. After all, I can learn a thing or two from this as well.
Jayce is a Dark Specialist and maybe this time, I can see for myself once more just what a bona fide Dark Specialist is really capable of.
"Not planning to stop them?"
"It's not that we don't want to, but rather, we can't," Looker informed Elesa as they watched the fight that was about to unfold from where they were in the meeting room on the third floor of the building. Jayce and Velda had both disappeared and subsequently reappeared on the training ground outside in their own respective usage of Shadow Sneak.
He knows that Velda might be pissed at what Jayce did to her, but she's not foolish. She won't participate in a battle that she cannot win but at the same time, there's no backing out of this battle. Her ghosts won't allow her to and as a Ghost Specialist, he understands that better than anyone else would.
"You can't?"
"Ghosts are creatures who are well-known for holding grudges, and the grudge that they held against Jayce this time is not something that can be peacefully settled until one side goes down. Velda clearly understands this as well," Looker explained as Velda's ghosts began their assault, their attacks dotting the skies and space around them in a miasma of ghostly dark purple. They could barely see through it to properly witness the battle. All they could tell was that Jayce and his team had somehow managed to properly defend themselves. That's rather impressive considering that he wasn't given much time to prepare.
Five seconds were almost up, and even Looker thought that this was how this score was to be settled until he spotted Jayce's counterattack.
"That madman."
Those words left his mouth even before Looker realised it, and by the time he did so a heavy artillery bombardment of Draco Meteor rained down on the entirety of the training ground outside. The attack was wild yet surgically precise, as the only area affected by the damage of the Draco Meteor was the training ground and nothing else. The earth in their vicinity violently trembled and this had Looker very worried. That area where Draco Meteor had fallen included everyone there: Jayce, Velda's ghosts, and Velda. It's a very self-destructive method of counterattack and just one misstep would end up in somebody being killed. Jayce must be very confident in his pokemon's abilities to defend themselves even from the extremely powerful Draco Meteor fired by Jayce's hydreigon.
He knows that Velda is entirely capable of protecting herself and that Jayce probably wouldn't commit outright murder in broad daylight, but he still cannot help but worry. He was about to send Sparkles down to check on the situation outside when he realised that there wasn't a need to. It seemed that Velda had also released several other pokemon out before the Draco Meteor could fall on them, and Rena was protecting her with a powerful psychic barrier with a huge scowl on the feline's face.
The most noticeable fact would be that there were no longer traces of Velda's ghosts. Their physical bodies must have been dispersed and destroyed from hydreigon's attack earlier because there's no other explanation for their mass disappearance. In that agreed five seconds, Jayce had not only managed to survive the ghosts' onslaught, but defeated all of her ghosts with just one move. It's a brutal but admittedly wise move, because this way the ghosts would definitely be dissuaded from trying to hold a grudge against someone that clearly surpassed them by far in terms of both power and skill.
Jayce probably wanted to strike fear into Velda's ghosts to warn them not to harass him any further and he did a really brilliant job at it. He conveyed his message to them loud and clear in the one universal language that all pokemon could understand: power.
"That idiot," Elesa facepalmed, her exasperation for the Dandolos plain to see. Looker continued watching as Jayce walked up to Velda and had what he imagined to be a passive aggressive conversation between them both. Velda definitely wasn't thrilled to be on the receiving end of a Draco Meteor that fell from out of nowhere. Looker's skills at lip reading confirmed this fact when he vaguely made out the contents of their conversation that he was reading from afar.
He was in for a brief surprise when Jayce and his pokemon momentarily froze for a split second, and his surprise peaked when Velda slapped Jayce's face -hard- before quickly stepping away. Dolly reappeared beside its trainer, bruised and injured, but otherwise gleeful that their vindictive revenge had been had.
Ah, Dolly had used Phantom Force to hide itself before it could be taken out by that Draco Meteor, Looker deduced with an appreciative glance. Jayce's freezing up was probably a very crude application of Imprison on Dolly's part. The true nature of Imprison is not a move to restrict movements of your foes but when used in certain manners, could achieve this effect for a very short moment to provide a very brief opening, and it was an opening that Velda seized to have her revenge by slapping the Dandolos' face.
"She's got spunk alright," Elesa let out a laugh at the sight. Velda had obviously put a lot of force in that slap, seeing that Jayce actually spit out a bit of blood although he didn't look too bothered by it. In fact, judging from what he could observe, Looker would actually daresay that Jayce's opinion of Velda had risen a few notches after that little vindictive act of hers. Velda had succeeded in making him drop his guard before she struck back. As a true Dark Specialist, Velda's cunning was definitely something Jayce acknowledged and respected.
"I think the grudge between them is buried," Looker stated when the descendents of two powerful families shared a handshake. Based on his understanding of the girl, Velda might have held a grudge, but that grudge disappeared the moment she slapped him in payback.
"He got slapped, I'm not going to let him live this one down," Elesa grinned mischievously.
"They should be back anytime now. Let's get to work, shall we?"
"Fine by me."
Character and pokemon list:
Velda Vera, Age: 14, 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