Pokemon: Bounty Hunter Alex

"It’s started," an operator reported in the command center just outside the portal to the Distortion World. "Portals have opened in IR-4, 17, 29, 36, 42, 58, 89, and 91."

"89," Volkner said, standing beside Cynthia, who sat in the commander’s chair. "Isn’t that where your recruits went? Are you sure they can handle it?"

"Alex is a very successful bounty hunter with a powerful team. He can handle a portal by himself. The others with him aren’t pushovers either."

"What if a Master ranked one pops out like last time? We lost an entire section thanks to that."

"They should have at least two Pokémon with Protect trained for Effect Up +2, right? I mean, what other proficiency upgrades could they possibly have?"

"You didn’t ask!?" Volkner exclaimed.

"I’m sure they’ll be fine. They have so many Pokémon. The bigger problem is if they accidentally destroy their platform. Did you tell them to make sure it doesn’t get destabilized?"

"Yeah, I gave them the rundown when we got there."

"Good."

"A portal opened in RR-3, and there are reports of a Master rank showing up," another operator reported.

Cynthia started to stand, but Volkner put a firm hand on her shoulder and pushed her back down. "I’ll take this one."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Your Arceus still needs time to integrate with the new Plate. Don’t worry about it."

"Thanks."

Volkner dashed to the balcony and released his Champion ranked Luxray before leaping onto its back. Like a bolt of lightning, they shot toward the portal and vanished inside.

Cynthia remained in her seat, watching the hologram of the Distortion World map like a hawk. Multiple points flared across the sphere, showing portals popping up everywhere before Pokémon came surging toward the main gateway leading into their world.

She couldn’t help but lament the situation as her thoughts drifted back to how it had all begun. It had started a few years after Cyrus disappeared. At first, she had been elated and threw herself into her duties as Champion. But a few years later, Pokémon began pouring through the portal, flooding Sendoff Spring and wreaking havoc across Route 214, Veilstone City, and Sunyshore City.

These Pokémon, however, were different from the enraged or panicked floods they were used to contending with. They exuded a purple aura that could corrupt wild Pokémon, turning them into similarly enraged creatures.

Though more powerful, they were easier to take down, but had to be purified before they could be consumed. Whether they were a benefit or a problem remained a topic of debate until the floods began occurring with increasing frequency.

Once the chaos was contained and the source identified, this facility was established specifically to combat the newly named Shadow Pokémon, which periodically spilled into the dimension through multiple portals.

Since then, Cynthia had taken on an additional responsibility of ensuring none of them ever crossed into their world. Attempts to close the portals permanently were studied, but every method ended in failure. As for Giratina, the supposed guardian and ruler of the Distortion World, there had been no sightings since.

It wasn’t all problems, though. Researching portals and the Distortion World brought plenty of benefits. Most significant of these was the device that redirected all portals opening in the Alola Region into a single location for easier containment of the Ultra Beasts. Not to mention the many Legendary and Mythical Pokémon still being studied and raised to this day.

Still, the threat had been growing, and based on projections, it would eventually require more than just the Champions to defend the gateway. Master ranked trainers would need to take action as well.

Hopefully, a method to permanently resolve the problem would be found soon. Otherwise, once even the Master ranked trainers proved insufficient, the world could be overrun, leaving only the Shadow Pokémon in its wake.

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"This isn’t so bad," Lyra said, relaxing in a comfortable chair with Mika and Sable.

There wasn’t much for them to do once their Pokémon were engaged in a long defensive battle. Stressing over it didn’t help, and neither did micromanaging, so they returned to their camp and relaxed.

About thirty of their Pokémon fought in a defensive formation around them, while the others ate and rested.

"It was just a bit of a close call at the start, but now it’s kinda boring," Mika added.

The initial rush had caught them off guard as a swarm quickly built up. But once a few Surfs, Earthquakes, and Dazzling Gleams were unleashed, they regained the advantage and bombarded the portal before any Shadow Pokémon could even emerge.

"Just a bit of a close call?" Sable exclaimed. "It was way too close, especially considering how eager you all were to throw out those Earthquakes. We almost destroyed the ground we were standing on."

Heeding Sable’s warning that the land was starting to crack, they stopped using Earthquake and switched to Surf. That, however, also proved wasteful, sending the Shadow Pokémon tumbling off the edge of the platform and throwing away perfectly good corpses.

Eventually, they settled on non-material special attacks like Heat Wave, Snarl, and Dazzling Gleam, killing the swarm where they stood while Raticate and other fast Pokémon retrieved the corpses. Then, they would use Surf to wash the battlefield of debris and repeat.

By this point, they had already secured 10 Elite ranked Pokémon, and the venture was quickly becoming profitable. They just had to maintain this pace for anywhere from a week to a month.

Alex, however, still hadn’t relaxed, standing with the battling Pokémon and keeping Stormline at the ready. There was a reason this job was limited to Champion ranked trainers. They just hadn’t discovered it yet.

Suddenly, a Champion ranked Ursaring charged out of the portal, its eyes glowing red and exuding a purple aura.

ROAR!

It barreled forward with wild abandon, heading straight for the center of the formation while shrugging off all the area-of-effect attacks bombarding it. Once it reached the front, it swiped its gleaming claws with Slash.

Before the attack could land, Raticate intercepted it with Protect, and Arcanine rushed in with Extreme Speed, launching Ursaring back. The bombardment continued, but like an enraged beast, it ignored the accumulating damage and pressed on relentlessly. The cycle repeated over and over until it finally collapsed right in front of the formation.

Alex stepped forward and stored the corpse himself, noting how easily it had been taken down. These Shadow Pokémon seemed far easier to defeat than he had expected.

"I guess that’s why this job is for Champion rank only," Lyra said.

"We could have taken that thing down by ourselves," Mika said. "It would’ve just taken a bit of time, that’s all."

"Time you don’t have," Lyra remarked. "Imagine more of them suddenly coming out in droves. Would you still be confident then?"

"I could, um... push them off the edge?"

"So they’d just become the other Elites’ problem?"

"Okay, yeah, good point."

As time went on, it became increasingly clear that this flood was indeed a marathon. Opponents kept coming relentlessly, occasionally sending a Champion just to see if the defending trainers were still alert. Meanwhile, the group’s spoils continued to pile up, promising a substantial income once the flood finally ended.

A week later, not only had the flood not abated, but it had increased in difficulty. The same number of Pokémon rushed out of the portal, but the quality had increased by a rank. Now they encountered a Champion twice a day, while the number of Elites tripled.

Fortunately, the Pokémon were already used to the constant battles and had gotten into a good rhythm. On the other hand, they were getting exhausted as fatigue from the poor living conditions piled up. It made them miss their comfy beds and carefully prepared meals at the base. They couldn’t wait to go home.

This applied to Alex and the girls as well, who needed to stay up on shifts in case of emergencies. In addition, it wasn’t easy to get any sleep when roars, explosions, and tremors kept them up. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

"How much longer is this going to last?" Mika complained, dark bags under her eyes.

"A week at the minimum," Lyra replied.

"It’s been a week."

"Which means we’ve only fulfilled the minimum requirements. From this point on, the probability of this flood ending increases with each day that passes."

"I don’t know if I can take another week of this," Mika exclaimed.

"Would you rather be a Pokémon in the defensive formation instead?"

"Yes!" Mika shouted. "At least they can use Rest to immediately regain stamina and get some sleep. I’ve barely had four hours a day in small naps when my brain couldn’t take it anymore."

Sable at the side nodded along with the sentiment. Rest might not give Pokémon the deep sleep they needed, but it did allow them to sleep through the noise far longer than their trainers could.

They had discussed using Hypnosis, Sing, or Sleep Powder to knock themselves out, but ultimately decided against it. If an emergency happened, they would need to be awake to quickly store their Pokémon; restrictive rest wasn’t allowed.

Suddenly, an enormous figure, easily 4 meters tall, darted out of the portal, heading straight for the center of their formation.

It was a Master ranked Snorlax, and it used Giga Impact.

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