Alex released a heavy sigh once Captain Blackwake was taken down. He had been an impossible opponent to defeat using normal methods and Alex had to resort to trickery just to get by. As they say, all is fair in love and war.
He looked around to assess the situation and found it heavily in his favor. Sable was with Espeon and Zoroark, being guarded. They must have recovered from the earlier Roar and followed Gardevoir's command to secure her and his gear.
The defense team had largely neutralized the Gyarados swarm, while the pirates were barely holding on. They were slowly pushing for more ground as the pirates were backed up against the water.
The attack team had managed to take out Wailord, Kingdra, Sharpedo, and Honchkrow. They had now moved on to surround the remaining Champion ranked Gyarados.
The mansion and the houses were completely destroyed from the surrounding battles, while the cavern was one attack away from collapse. Alex needed to start preparing an exit strategy.
Suddenly, a Hydro Pump shot out from the Champion ranked Gyarados, which had gone wild once the captain was taken down. It no longer cared about catching the insipid rat and canine. Instead, it unleashed a Hydro Pump aimed at the cavern ceiling, intending to bury its trainer, itself, and their enemies together.
Releasing such a move left Gyarados undefended, so it didn't take more than a few hits to finally bring the monster down. It was a combined attack from the attack team, so it had no chance to survive after that.
The blast of water was the final push the cavern needed to collapse. Rocks and boulders tumbled from the ceiling as cracks spidered across the walls, and a gaping hole above let torrents of water pour in, filling the chamber. The cavern quaked violently as the torrent grew stronger, accelerating its destruction.
The pirates immediately scattered upon noticing the cavern's collapse. They had believed their boss would ultimately emerge victorious, so they never prepared a backup plan. In desperation, they dove into the water with their Pokémon to escape.
Unfortunately for them, the majority were consumed by the continuous attacks of the defense team, leaving only a few who managed to slip away. Whether they could survive the journey to the surface and make it to land was an entirely different matter altogether.
Alex remained calm as the water level began to rise. He estimated it would take a few minutes before everything came crashing down, giving them plenty of time to escape. And if the rubble did bury them, digging their way out wouldn't be much trouble.
"Gardevoir," Alex called. "Emergency clean up. You have 1 minute."
An emergency cleanup, different from a regular one, added a priority list for the resources that needed to be retrieved. At the top of the list were space bags of any kind, since there was no telling what might be inside. Next came ammunition, since it was their reason for heading to Hoenn. Finally, there were the corpses, collected from the highest rank to the lowest.
After that, it was whatever the Pokémon could grab on their way to Alex, who usually carried the space bag. In this case, it was Sable.
Alex tapped his watch, Ditto, who immediately transformed into the Deep Suit. It was a replacement prepared for surviving underwater, since he had given his original suit to Sable. That was why Ditto had never been allowed to join the battle. If Ditto fainted, he could drown.
He made his way to Sable while his Pokémon scattered, searching for anything they could collect. They focused on the corpses first before picking through the mansion's debris.
In less than a minute, they dashed back to Alex, who was ready to leave. He stored them as they arrived along with whatever they brought. Finally, when the last of the water team returned, Alex signaled for Gardevoir to activate the teleportation. Good thing, too, since they were already submerged within that minute.
Before they knew it, they were at the surface of the open sea, riding on Gyarados. They quickly took potions to ward off the bends before setting out.
"Take us to Pacifidlog City," Alex commanded.
Gardevoir obliged, teleporting the group east. Rather than her usual long-range teleportations, these were short-ranged jumps that let her travel without a fixed destination, relying on her senses instead. The downside, however, was that Gardevoir grew tired after a hundred or so teleportations, at which point Arcanine took over for her.
They continued in this manner before reaching the city.
It resembled Kanto's Cinnabar City in spirit, though it sat on a far more precarious foundation. The settlement rested on wooden floats, lashed together with thick rope and reinforced with steel. The planks creaked underfoot, and the city shifted slightly with the rise and fall of the waves. From a distance, the cluster of floats looked fragile, but the shops, homes, and small docks showed a community that had endured the sea's temper for generations.
On the northern and southern landmasses, skyscrapers and urban sprawl had started to rise to accommodate the growing population. The floating settlement was kept intact as a reminder of their past.
Alex deposited the rather traumatized Sable in a luxury hotel, then headed to the police headquarters to submit his bounty. There, he dropped Captain Blackwake's corpse, followed the procedures, then received his pay. He was about to call Janet to arrange the exchange with Devon Corp when her call came through first.
"Hey, Janet. I'm guessing you received the report regarding Blackwake? I'll be expecting my ammunition teleported to Kanto."
It was a significant sum of 12.5 million credits after all. That was roughly 1 million bullets.
In total, Alex had already collected 1 million bullets from Lucien's bounty plus whatever he managed to salvage. With Blackwake's bounty added, he still needed 3 million more before he was satisfied.
Sure, that was barely enough for a minute of continuous fire with all 1 thousand turrets, but nothing could force them to fire that long at the same time. Realistically, 5 million was more than enough for the foreseeable future, even less once his Pokémon finally reached Champion rank.
"Yes, which is why I'm calling. When you took out Blackwake, did you happen to find a space bag in the form of a backpack? It was filled with our latest tech, and we would pay handsomely to retrieve it."
"How handsomely?" Alex asked.
He wouldn't mind keeping it for Rhea and simply reporting it missing. Devon Corp's latest tech was likely the stuff of dreams.
"A million bullets," she replied.
"I may have a clue as to where to find it," Alex immediately admitted.
A million bullets would go a long way, and he had no desire to anger Devon Corp. Greedy and cold-blooded as he was, Alex still wanted to live.
"So long as it's found and delivered to Mossdeep City, you'll get your pay."
"I'll see what I can do. I'm not making any promises, though, since I only have a clue. If my search fails, I'll tell you where to find Blackwake's hideout to try to dig it out of his collapsed base."
"Very well."
Once the conversation ended, Alex checked his phone and opened up his maps. On it, he found three dots on Hoenn, two in Meteor Falls side by side and another in the open sea. Judging by the third dot's location, they were heading for Pacifidlog City, exactly where he currently was.
"It'll take them a few days to get here, but I can intercept them tomorrow," Alex muttered.
The third dot was the tracker he had left in the Leviathan's Maw when they boarded. He wasn't about to allow Blackwake to escape, so he placed a tracker on it just in case. Who knew it would come in handy now that he was meant to locate some stolen goods.
The next day, Alex teleported to the location of the tracker and found the Leviathan's Maw sailing east. He released his Pokémon and launched an immediate, surprise attack.
They raided the ship, killing anyone who resisted, mirroring exactly how Blackwake had struck his own targets. Alex then gathered the people inside and seized all the loot, before noticing something unusual.
"Where's Blackwake's family," Alex asked one of the survivors.
"There was a mutiny," one of the men said, his voice trembling.
"The captain's top men were supposed to leave with the ship, but the ones who were most loyal… they wanted to fight with him. They split up and left before the ship set sail. That left just a handful of his closest men, and they were killed in their sleep.
"The Pokémon fought back, but without their trainers, they were eventually taken out. And… and those who took charge afterward… they killed the missus and the children."
Alex raised a brow at that piece of news. He was, in fact, planning on setting something decent up for Blackwake's family. He may have told him that he wouldn't, but that was to give him something to regret in his last moments. Blackwake's legacy, it seemed, wouldn't survive him.
Alex called the police at Pacifidlog City and scheduled a pick-up for the ship, the pirates, and the prostitutes.
As for the loot, Alex would have to surrender it to the police in exchange for credits from the League. There might be precious items whose original owners had filed reports. They typically ended up never being found, but in Alex's case, there were too many witnesses.
Hence, the most he could do was pick out any ammunition they had on hand. Those belonged to Team Dominion and weren't subject to investigation.
While he waited for the police to arrive, Alex went through the loot and found plenty of ammunition. It was a lot compared to how much he usually found, but it couldn't compare to Devon Corp's payout. Still, it made a dent, at least.
After looking through everything, he eventually found the backpack Devon Corp was searching for. He took a peek and found plenty of weapons and ammunition. There were automatic rifles, sniper rifles, autocannons, upgraded pistol designs, and a variety of ammunition sizes.
One particular bullet, however, caught his attention.
It was 6 inches in diameter, or 155 mm, with intricate circuits etched inside, resembling an artillery shell. But what made Alex freeze was the unmistakable pulse of Champion ranked energy radiating from it, something this world had never seen before.
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