Pokemon: Bounty Hunter Alex

Alex made his way to the girls, who were waiting in the lobby of the courthouse. Once he joined them, they teleported back to the farm.

"Who was that, Alex?" Vera asked.

"That’s Ace Monique," Nyx answered. "He’s the leader of the Kanto Branch of Team Umbraline, the man who fought Gravik years ago and lost. What did he want?"

"He came to apologize for how the Johto branch was subtly threatening me, Vera, and the baby."

"That’s good, right?" Vera asked.

"Yes. The Kanto branch of Team Umbraline has never given their opinions on any matter. They only assign me missions but never urge me in any way. They’re a pretty good source of income, as long as I pick my missions carefully. They also gave me this phone," Alex said, taking the device out of his pocket.

"Neat," Nyx said, immediately grabbing it.

She headed for a small cabinet in the lobby they had just teleported to and retrieved a black box. She opened it and placed the new phone inside, right next to the phone Alex had received in Johto, before closing the box.

"All right, we can talk now," Nyx said once she had placed the box back in the cabinet.

"What do you mean?" Vera asked. "We’ve been talking for a while now."

"That was for the phone to hear," Nyx replied. "Now that it’s in this box, they won’t be able to hear anything."

"Alex, what’s going on?" Vera asked.

"Like I said, he came to apologize. It seems we no longer have to be afraid of being blackmailed."

"You’re just going to believe him?" Nyx asked, skeptical.

"He was genuine. Never even threatened me once. It’s not that I trust his words at face value. It’s more that I understand he wants a more cordial relationship rather than the semi-hostile one we have now."

"It still seems pretty sketchy."

"You can call it instinct or an understanding of your opponent. The bottom line is that we are no longer being blackmailed, so I can comfortably refuse their requests."

"So... I can have a proper wedding?" Vera asked, her excitement budding.

"Yes, you can have a proper wedding if you want. We won’t have to fear a sudden assassination, as long as Ace holds up his end of the deal. That, however, wouldn’t apply if any of you girls leave Kanto."

As the girls started discussing a proper wedding for Vera, Alex found himself thinking about Ace and his comment about appreciating the gift.

Alex could roughly assume that Umbraline knew about his current dire need for money and credits, which didn’t particularly bother him. If anything, he was already planning on taking missions to earn more cash for the base.

He was more impressed by the fact that Ace had not only managed to reach Champion rank but was also smart enough to repair their relationship. He wasn’t prideful enough to look down on Alex for being weaker, nor so humble as to send a text, call, or email.

He applied just the right amount of threat by attending his wedding and just the right amount of magnanimity by personally apologizing without begging.

Ultimately, Alex feared men like Ace the most, those able to handle people with precision. Even now, he couldn’t justify taking revenge on Umbraline because of Ace and his gesture.

This puts Ace in the perfect position to influence others. By maintaining a cordial relationship and understanding their needs, he can exert just the right amount of pressure without unnecessarily implicating himself or his organization.

"What a terrifying man," Alex muttered.

"What was that, Alex?" Vera asked.

"Nothing. So, about that wedding you wanted..."

-----

Alex returned to his routine of meditation, training, and playing with the baby until a few months later, when Nyx contacted him about an alert she had received from their territory.

"It’s happening, Alex," Nyx said over the phone. "There’s a flood passing through Clearstone Valley."

"Got it."

Alex hung up, assembled his team, and immediately teleported to the ridge overlooking the valley, where he was stunned by the sight. A living wave surged through Clearstone Valley as millions of Pokémon poured south from the northern forests like a tidal surge.

The sheer density of the mass was overwhelming, stretching across the full two kilometers of valley width and flowing down its 10-kilometer length in an unbroken current. Dust and debris kicked up in their wake, and the thunderous sound of pounding feet, beating wings, and guttural cries echoed like rolling thunder.

Local Pokémon scattered in panic, adding to the density of the wave. Territory lines were abandoned as nests, dens, and burrows were overrun. Even the Elites made no attempt to fight, as the numbers were too overwhelming.

The first thing Alex noticed was the lack of Pokémon attempting to scale the valley’s mountain flanks. They only tried to climb when trapped and if they had the physical ability to do so. This meant he needed to increase the steepness of the slopes on either side of the valley so that most of the flood would be unable to climb over them.

So long as Alex constructed a dividing wall near the northern end, where the flood originated, the mountains would act as natural barriers and force the surge of Pokémon to split and flow into the surrounding wilderness, bypassing the valley entirely. In that case, the only real threats left were the Experts and Elites capable of bypassing the defenses, either by climbing or leaping over the standard 10-meter wall.

Based on a rough head count, Alex could spot about ten thousand Experts and a thousand Elites running around. The majority of the flood consisted of Novice to Adept ranks, which the wall shouldn’t have a problem diverting. It would only be a problem if all the Experts and Elites willfully ran through the wall, but he had ten Elite ranked Pokémon with powerful enough auras to scare the majority of them away. At the very least, it would make them think twice before deciding to jump over the wall.

The next thing Alex noticed was the number of Pokémon that climbed for safety. The majority of those who simply kept running were the ones with poor climbing ability, like those with only four legs. This meant leaving the forest untouched would likely reduce the number of Pokémon that flooded, as those that could would simply climb up trees once they were far enough away from the source of the danger.

True to Celise’s claim, there were barely any Ground types that actively ran with the flood. They simply escaped underground. This would be a problem if the source of danger was nearby, as the Pokémon underground could dig through his buildings’ foundations. Fortunately, the base seemed to be quite far from the source of the danger, so they didn’t have to worry about it.

Finally, the Flying types ignored everything as they flew. This meant Alex wouldn’t have to waste ammunition preventing them from flying over the base. He would only have to inform Metagross to lower the aerial kill zone to avoid corpses raining over the property.

Alex was quite satisfied with his discoveries. They proved that the plans they had drawn up were viable for this location. So long as his Pokémon could defend their provided territory, he would have nothing to worry about.

Worst case scenario, a Champion would plow their way through, but even then his Pokémon were trained well enough to handle that. Even if the Champion rushed to his base, they would encounter Rhea’s defenses. If all of that failed, the Champion would likely just continue running through rather than actively destroy their base, assuming they weren’t trained, of course.

"Since we’re already here, we might as well make the most of it. Gardevoir."

"Gar," she replied after popping out of her ball.

"Grab as many elites for me as you can."

"Gardevoir."

At Gardevoir’s request, Rotom released the flying team, which consisted of the Crobat couple, Ditto who had transformed into a Crobat, Altaria, Frosmoth, Hydreigon, and Togekiss.

They flew off from the ridge they were scouting from and dived down into the perilous flood, avoiding the panicked Flying types.

They targeted the smaller Elites with wide-area attacks that cleared out the surroundings. Then, they used disabling moves such as Hypnosis, Sing, or Thunder Wave. After that, they picked their target up and dropped them at Alex’s location, where the rest of the team was waiting to subjugate them for Alex to capture.

It was like shooting fish in a barrel, since most Elites were too preoccupied with running to be wary of an ambush.

This efficiency allowed Alex and his team to harvest a sizable number of Elites, all marked for transport through Nyx’s channels.

They were working toward a goal of reaching 65 million credits. That meant capturing somewhere between 150 to 300 Elites, depending on how the market priced each one.

Higher-tier species or those with rare abilities could fetch a premium, while more common ones would drive the average down. Either way, it averaged out to the equivalent of about three nests’ worth.

Given how dense the flood had been so far, they might only need a nest or two more after this. At this rate, they were on their way to reaching their goal in no time.

-----

An R-18 Chapter on Vera’s wedding is available on Patreon.

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