Alex made his way back to the camp, now nothing more than ruins. There was nothing left to salvage, so he left it as it was.
Instead, he set up the cameras again, this time covering all four directions around the camp while establishing a rest area for himself and his Pokémon in the center.
With the camp gone, Alex now faced a new problem—he might encounter teams without bounties, criminal records, or any evidence of wrongdoing in the month-long video recordings. If the cameras captured such individuals, he wouldn't be able to arrest or even detain them.
In those cases, he would have no choice but to let them go, which meant the higher-ups would inevitably be alerted, forcing him to abandon his stakeout.
On the bright side, Rotom had logged every person who had visited the camp and engaged in illegal activities for an entire month, making it unlikely that many innocents would show up.
Fortunately, they didn't encounter such groups, as human trafficking was apparently quite lucrative.
Over the next three days, Alex and his team successfully captured five groups, totaling fifteen people and fifty Pokémon. Some had hostages, some had active bounties, and others had been caught on camera committing crimes over the past month.
It was a clean sweep for Alex, securing guaranteed income rather than relying on the League's generosity.
Unfortunately, on the third day, reinforcements arrived without alerting their teams to stay away.
They had lost contact with the camp three days ago and had come to investigate.
Alex considered leaving but was confident in his ability to escape if necessary. Instead, he chose to stay and see what kind of reinforcements a criminal syndicate would send. If they were anything like Don's men, then he had nothing to worry about.
If they were all Elite-ranked, then he had fucked up horribly and deserved to die anyway.
A team of ten people riding on their flying Pokémon came crashing down on the camp as Alex prepared to welcome them with his max-stacked Pokémon.
"You there, what happened to the camp? Where is everybody?" the man in the lead demanded, his expression twisted in anger.
They were going to lose out on their income this month because of the camp going down. They had invested too much manpower to be dealing with this kind of problem now, of all times.
"They left. I made this place my camp in the meantime. Why? Are you setting up the camp again?"
"Grab him for interrogation," the man ordered, not even bothering to hear Alex out.
He was clearly the type who demanded everyone follow his pace. The kind of psychopathic control freak who lost his mind if people so much as breathed the wrong way.
The team of ten released their Pokémon—six each. All top-end Expert-ranked.
Alex felt a headache coming on. These were clearly high-level trainers.
As soon as the battle began, Alex sent his Pokémon in to cause chaos, but the enemy responded with a level of coordination he hadn't anticipated.
All sixty Pokémon split into pairs, with the smaller ones jumping onto their partners' heads, backs, or arms.
Imagine Raticates on top of Golems, Vulpix on top of Rapidash, Farfetch'd on top of Dodrios. Sixty individual Pokémon turned into thirty synchronized pairs before launching coordinated attacks.
The ones on the bottom alternated between using expanded Protect and special moves, while the ones on top cycled through stat boosts and attacks.
It was the next level of a coordinated firing squad with long-term potential.
Not only that, but they had also started enclosing Alex and his team in a tight formation, cutting off his escape routes.
Alex was losing badly, and there was nothing he could do about it. No matter what attacks he used, they were blocked. He had no Pokémon with Feint or Phantom Force to break through their defenses, no weather effects to wear them down over time—no way to create chaos.
'Right! There was that,' Alex thought and immediately followed up on it.
"Hydreigon, use Roar!" Alex commanded.
Hydreigon took a deep breath, shielded from intercepting attacks, before unleashing a devastating Roar. The sheer force of the sound scattered most of the enemy Pokémon—except for those with Soundproof or Suction Cups, which, thankfully, weren't many.
A few Electrodes and Mr. Mimes remained, but everyone else had scattered at random.
With the enemy formation broken, Alex's max-stacked Pokémon finally started causing chaos.
AoE moves wiped out swathes of Pokémon. Targeted attacks took them down one panicked opponent at a time.
Finally, the enemy leader had had enough. He pulled out his communicator and called for backup.
"Boss, we have a problem. Some kid came along and crushed our camp, and now he's tearing us apart. We need support," the man reported—only for the call to suddenly cut out.
He assumed that meant help was on the way. Otherwise, they were screwed.
Meanwhile, Alex was running into new problems. Some of the scattered Pokémon were Ghost-types with Phantom Force, which bypassed Rotom's Protect. Thankfully, Aegislash was there with a well-timed Night Slash, but the pressure was mounting.
These trainers were clearly professionals—personal lackeys of the upper management. They had the Pokemon, the resources to build them up, and the tactics to use them well.
Luckily, he still had the upper hand.
That was, until their Pokémon started using Roar against him.
Metagross tried to intercept those attempting to use Roar, but there were simply too many enemies.
And just like that, Alex's own Pokémon scattered at random—except for Hydreigon, who resisted the move purely due to her high level, and himself, thanks to their bond.
It wasn't that Alex's Pokémon were weaker—the problem was the sheer number of opponents using Roar simultaneously. Statistically speaking, with ten of them ready to unleash it, all it took was for one to land.
Alex could recall his Pokémon and release them again to remove the effects, but that would mean losing their max-stacked advantage. So, he finally decided to join the fight himself.
He drew his guns, dropped the current magazines, and reloaded with the ones he had sworn to use only in emergencies. This situation somewhat counted as one.
With both guns drawn, he began firing into the crowd of panicking Pokémon. From his left pistol, he shot single-target Special Attacks, while his right pistol fired bullets containing single-target Physical Attacks.
Dark Pulse, Throat Chop, Tera Blast, Zen Headbutt, Flash Cannon, Body Slam, Dragon Pulse, Take Down, Earth Power.
Shot after shot, Alex took down Pokémon one at a time. By the time both magazines were empty, both sides had recovered from their panic and reorganized into another formation.
Only this time, their numbers were significantly reduced. What was once a 10 vs. 60 battle had now become 10 vs. 20—much more manageable.
That was until reinforcements arrived.
An Elite-ranked Salamence came soaring in, landing amidst the chaos with a man in a black suit with silver highlights riding on its back. He was flanked by a Dragonite and a Hydreigon, both flying in formation.
Alex's instincts screamed at him even before Salamence came into view. Without hesitation, he commanded Metagross to start packing up while withdrawing his Pokémon into their Poké Balls, leaving only Arcanine and Raticate to alternate Protect.
By the time Salamence touched down, Alex was already mounted on Arcanine with Raticate on his back. His other Pokémon were safely stored, and his backpack was filled with bullets, magazines, and the Poké Balls of various trainers who had fainted—or died—in the panic and shootout.
"Kill him," the suited man ordered.
Hydreigon began preparing an attack while Dragonite used Extreme Speed, but Arcanine was simply faster. With maxed-out Speed from using Agility boosting his movement, he shot forward like a lightning bolt, dashing east—far from Saffron City and the cave.
Unfortunately, Dragonite's Extreme Speed was at Expert rank with two damage stacks, totaling +100% power and doubling its range. It was closing in fast.
By the third Extreme Speed, they would be caught. And they would die.
"It's all up to you now, buddy," Alex muttered under his breath, bracing against the sheer force of the wind.
As Dragonite was about to ram into them with its third Extreme Speed, Raticate suddenly leaped off Alex's back and activated Protect at the exact moment Arcanine made a sharp turn to the right, heading south.
Protect nullified the impact, consuming Dragonite's Extreme Speed in the process. Raticate, meanwhile, was launched far into the thicket.
Dragonite, displeased, at least wanted to bring the rat back. But when it checked the bushes—Raticate was gone. No tracks, no scent, no lingering energy. It had simply vanished.
Furious, Dragonite unleashed an Earthquake, devastating an entire city block's worth of forest before giving up and returning to its trainer. He would have less food tonight.
Meanwhile, Alex made it back to the cave, where Forretress, Frosmoth, and Togekiss stood guard over forty criminals.
Wasting no time, he tied them up and prepared to airlift them to Saffron City for submission.
He was confident he had bought himself enough time.
Every time before leaving, he ensured that the cave showed no visible tracks leading in or out. By flying just above the canopy, he ensured that any scents would be carried above the trees and masked rather than settling on the ground.
He always escorted his prisoners and rescued victims via aerial transport, using ropes to keep them secure.
He ensured their little cave was safe.
After tying everyone up, Alex made his way south toward Saffron City, carefully navigating the entire stretch between the east gate and the south gate. He ensured to stay below the canopy, keeping out of sight.
Three dragons could cover plenty of ground, especially when their prey was easy to spot.
Alex safely arrived at the south gate, where he submitted his prisoners, their belongings, and all the gathered evidence. As the gates closed behind him, he felt a brief moment of relief, knowing the city's security would handle the rest.
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