Pokemon: Bounty Hunter Alex

Alex made his way to the territory of the man who killed him yesterday. He didn’t know any specifics about the man other than the fact that he belonged to one of the local gangs in the area.

These gangs trafficked sex workers, drugs, and illegal Pokémon trades with significant backing from certain powerful families or corporations.

As threatening as that sounded, they were the bottom rung of that web of connections. Nobody would care if their entire operation got caught by the police. Their supporters would just toss their spare change to other gangs or groups.

Alex quickly passed by a certain alleyway where drug trades usually happened while looking as pathetic as he possibly could. He took a quick peek inside and managed to spot the man in question. He was with two other men, similarly dressed in black leather, looking like some wannabe biker gang.

The man, recognizing Alex, showed a sinister smile as he stood up and started walking over while waving his cohorts aside.

Alex hurriedly made his way back to his old, run-down house and grabbed some random debris while waiting behind the door for an ambush.

"You still alive, you little rat?"

The man shouted as he kicked the door in, knocking it off its hinges. He slowly made his way inside, right under Alex, who was standing on a table by the doorway.

With a loud thunk, Alex bashed him in the head with a chair leg that he had randomly found. The man crumpled like a sack of potatoes on the floor. Alex quickly jumped down to bash him in the head again for good measure but was taken by surprise when the man grabbed him by the leg and tossed him across the room.

Alex rolled across the floor as the man weakly grabbed for the Pokéball at his waist, releasing the same Rattata that had bitten the original Alex to death yesterday.

The Rattata eyed Alex and charged in without the need for instructions. It recognized the weak boy it had fought yesterday and knew what it had to do now.

Alex, in a panic, made a blind swing that managed to luckily knock the charging Rattata to the side. The distance between him and the man was just enough that he had space to react to the oncoming Tackle.

In a daze, Alex charged right at the man, who groggily got up while trying to shake off the initial hit to the head. He made another blind swing with the chair leg at the man’s side, only for it to be caught by the man’s hand.

Suddenly, Alex heightened his focus and dug deep into his mixed martial arts experience from his past life. He was never aiming to use the chair leg as a weapon—it was only a distraction.

He let go of the chair leg, then, with the same momentum as his swing, quickly punched the man in the balls, which were well within reach at his height. Even with the strength of a frail, injured child, it debilitated the man.

He followed up with a liver shot just as the man bent over from the pain in his groin. If the man wasn’t distracted by the pain in his groin, he would definitely be distracted by the piercing pain in his liver.

Alex grabbed the man’s collar, now within reach, and shoulder-tossed him flat onto his back. Finally, he locked his legs around the man’s neck and squeezed until the man lost consciousness.

While he waited for the man to faint, he eyed the Rattata that had been knocked to the side earlier, only to be surprised to find that the rat was looking intently at the fight between its trainer and its enemy.

The look in its eyes suggested that it was pleased with the ongoing fight while simultaneously impressed by Alex’s strength in taking down its trainer.

’I guess it didn’t have a good relationship with its trainer if it’s just going to watch me knock this guy out.’

The man struggled for a while, arms flailing as he attempted to unhook Alex from his neck, but it was a futile effort. Between the pain in his groin, liver, and head, he wasn’t coherent enough to unhook himself. Finally, he passed out, to Alex’s relief.

The fight was quite close, but experience ultimately won out in the end.

Alex disentangled himself from the man and quietly observed the inquisitive rat—a tiny, buck-toothed, purple rat with a curly tail.

He had played Pokémon as a kid but never really got too into it. His knowledge of Pokémon was only up until Generation 3, with the FireRed and LeafGreen remakes. He only vaguely remembered the original 151.

He did watch the anime as a kid growing up, but by now, most of those memories had been lost to time. Not that it would have made a difference in any case, considering the knowledge he had about this world from the original Alex.

This was clearly not the animated version of the Pokémon world. This world was much more brutal. The Pokémon here were wild animals until they bonded with a human. They reveled in fights and judged based on strength.

This was the primary reason why getting a Pokémon was a catch-22. In order to catch a Pokémon, trainers had to beat them in a fight, but without a Pokémon, trainers could only fight them with their own body—which, as evidenced by the original Alex’s death, was suicide.

The realistic option was to buy Pokémon, but they were expensive. Even a Rattata cost upwards of 10,000 Pokédollars, and they were the most common ones around. This was because wild Pokémon needed training before being given to new trainers. Trainers couldn’t just catch a wild Pokémon and start using it in battles. They needed proper training to ensure they wouldn’t maul their trainers at the first opportunity.

The Pokéballs cost around 200 each, which was affordable, but without a Pokémon that obeyed a trainer’s orders, they were useless. Food here was about 10 for a full meal, which consisted of cheap Pokémon meat.

Only the wealthy ate ’normal’ food, considering how difficult it was to raise farm animals with carnivorous Pokémon around. As a matter of fact, the original Alex had always wanted to eat chicken; his parents had raved about how delicious it was when they went to a fancy restaurant.

Based on the memory of the former Alex, the current Alex found Pokémon meat to generally taste better. Then again, he hadn’t had animal meat here, so it might really be that godly in flavor and texture.

As for nutrition, Pokémon meat was hands down more nutritious. A single meal kept a person full for the day, so most people only ate a single meal per day to keep their energy up. The people here were stronger and lived longer as well.

They were easily between two to five times stronger on average when they regularly ate Pokémon meat. A rather intriguing notion.

"Ratta! Tata!"

Distracted by his sudden recollection of the body’s memories, Alex refocused on the Rattata in front of him. Considering what he knew about Pokémon here, this might be his big chance.

"I’m guessing this old trainer of yours didn’t treat you too well?"

"Ratta!" Rattata nodded in affirmation.

"How about working for me instead?"

"Ratta!" Rattata nodded in affirmation again.

"Sweet. It will take a while for you to officially be my Pokémon, so for now, do you know where this guy lives?"

"Ratta!"

"Does he live alone?"

"Ratta!"

"Where he keeps his cash?"

"Ratta!"

"Excellent! I think we will be the best of friends, Rattata."

"Rattata!"

Having confirmed Rattata’s cooperation, Alex started rummaging through the man’s pockets. He snatched the Pokéball, some cash, and, lastly, a key.

With Rattata leading the way, they managed to find the man’s apartment, and with the key, they managed to get inside, where Alex, for the first time in what felt like months, had a shower.

Afterward, he picked out some of the man’s smaller-sized clothes to replace his own so he didn’t look like roadkill.

He also managed to cook himself and Rattata a proper meal, which nearly induced a food coma in both of them. Through sheer force of will, he forced himself to continue despite the need for sleep. He had a plan to execute.

Then, Rattata led him around the apartment to pick out where the man hid his stuff, which included drugs, contacts, cash, etc.

Finally, he took a baggie of drugs and all the cash but left the contacts booklet and the rest of the drugs in plain sight.

Then, he went to find a Jenny for help.

In this particular case, an Officer Jenny was absolutely necessary.

Jennys and Joys are the only constant good in this world. They are rich, powerful, and incorruptible. Their families have been thriving for millennia, and no one messes with them, considering their monopoly on the Pokécenter and the police force.

Even the Pokémon League can’t touch them.

In Alex’s current case, among the names of contacts in the man’s booklet were a few corrupt cops, so the only way to see a good ending in this scenario was if a Jenny was in charge of the case and no one else. So the first order of business was to find a Jenny to personally handle the case.

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