Pokemon: Bounty Hunter Alex

“Are you sure about this, Boss?” Jonah Rooke, the executive member of Team Bones that met with Alex, asked. “Once you head out there, there’s no turning back.”

“I’m sure,” a man wearing a black formal suit and red tie answered as he rose from behind his desk and made his way out of his office. “It’s time we clean up the family for good and leave our destructive past behind.”

“I’m with you all the way, Boss,” Jonah said as he opened the door and followed him out.

The pair moved down a long corridor lined with portraits chronicling Team Bones’ lineage, former bosses standing beside their signature Pokémon. Among them was a striking photograph of Guzma shaking hands with Lusamine that signified their dark origin.

Their footsteps echoed as they approached the assembly chamber doors. When they reached them, Jonah released his Champion ranked Alolan Raichu, which hovered just behind him, while the boss released his Master ranked Alolan Persian, which took position at his side with a disciplined posture and a sharp gaze.

Jonah pushed the doors open and was met with a long, heavy wooden table dominating the chamber, its dark polished timber stretching the full length of the room. Seats were arranged according to rank, with two dozen Elites toward the far end and half a dozen Champions closest to the head. Behind each seated member stood their strongest Pokémon with discipline.

The room was rowdy and jovial with conversation when they entered but slowly quieted as the boss made his way to the head of the table. By the time he reached the head seat and sat down, the chamber fell silent out of respect and deference.

“I’m glad to see every single one of you still shows respect to this family and organization,” the boss said. “You’ve even brought all of your children as requested.”

“When the boss says to gather, we gather,” one of the Champions off to the side said. “What is this meeting about, Boss?”

He spoke with a boastful, arrogant confidence, backed by a sizable portion of the Elites in the room. The same was true of the other Champions, though they were far less confrontational and preferred to keep to themselves. Still, the same question lingered in everyone’s mind. Why had they been called here in the first place, and why were all their families included, men, women, and children alike?

“I’ve gathered you all here today from all across Alola to discuss an upcoming threat. Sometime today, a Champion ranked bounty hunter by the name of Alex Wattson will come and either kill us all or judge us for our worth.”

“What the fuck? Who does he think he is?”

“We’re fighting back, right, boss?”

“What does he want?”

“I’ve heard about him,” one of the Elites said with dread, catching everyone’s attention. “He’s been running around Alola bringing down criminal networks, but he does it so fast no one can catch him or fight back. It only takes him a single night to wipe out an entire city’s worth of criminals before he moves on to the next.”

“I heard he reshaped the Underworld in Hau’oli City,” another chimed in. “All that’s left are neutral organizations that keep a low profile.”

“So what? With all of us here, we can take him!”

“I’ve done my due diligence,” the boss said, silencing the room. “I’ve paid billions of Pokédollars for his information, and found out he’s the leader of a worldwide bounty hunting organization called the Silver Network. He himself is just a Champion, but under his list of submitted bounties are thousands of Expert ranked trainers and below, hundreds of Elites, dozens of Champions, and a handful of Master ranked trainers. Even I haven’t been able to fight one and win, so you can all understand my hesitation in this matter.”

“Are you saying we’re just going to roll over and die?” the same Champion who had been complaining since earlier said.

“I’ve brought you all here to vote,” the boss continued. “We can either fight to the last man,” he said, staring at the combative Champion who was known to engage in criminal activity. “Or we can negotiate with him, surrender all of our criminal members, and lead a new criminal-free organization.”

“Bullshit!” the Champion shouted as he stood. “You’re going to backstab all of us in the name of fucking family? Is that what this meeting is about?”

“All in favor of fighting back?” the boss asked, and immediately over a third of the room raised their hands.

“All in favor of submitting ourselves to judgment?” he asked again, but this time more than half raised their hands, while the rest abstained.

“Wait, hold on a minute!”

“It’s been decided,” the boss continued as an unknown gas seeped into the room from the vents.

The criminal’s Pokémon all panicked and began fighting back, but they were outnumbered and taken down in no time. As for their trainers, they were all knocked out, while those who had voted for judgment held gas masks to their faces.

“Bring all of them outside,” the boss said as he stood and led the way, with Jonah following beside him.

They made their way to the other side of the assembly room and exited into the foyer of the mansion filled with fainted bodies of men, women, children, and Pokémon, all family members of those in the meeting room. Men moved among the unconscious bodies, carrying them outside with their Pokémon and lining them up on the ground under the Alolan sun, waiting for their judgment.

“I know it’s a bit too late to ask given the circumstances,” another Champion belonging to the peaceful families of Poni Island asked. “But are you sure we can’t take down this bounty hunter? He might have an organization backing him and an impressive track record, but we have home ground and all of our power concentrated within these walls. If there was any time to fight back, it would be now.”

“I liked his offer, Jiro,” the boss said honestly as all the Champions around him listened. “He’s offering us a chance to remove the filth from our families with the least complication. I don’t know how he plans to pull it off, but I am hoping he can do it with as little pain as possible. The alternative is a war with our own family that will lead to far more bloodshed than I can stomach.”

“I… I see your point,” Jiro said with deep sadness. “It was never about the threat.”

“No… it was about the family.”

The Champions and Elites stood beneath the Alolan sun alongside more than a thousand gathered family members, the entire courtyard held in a tense, uneasy silence. Many of those present had already been knocked unconscious earlier and now lay scattered across the ground, left there through the morning as the sun climbed toward noon.

A passing shadow suddenly crossed over them, offering relief from the overbearing heat. Heads lifted in unison, and the gathered crowd reacted with gasps as a gigantic airship descended from overhead, the kind spoken of only in rumors on the internet.

Before it could fully settle into position above them, its portholes opened and thousands upon thousands of drones poured out. Each one pulsed with Elite ranked energy, forming a wide aerial perimeter around the entire Po Town compound. They held formation like a net of weapons, all of them primed to fire. A coordinated strike from that many sources would wipe out the assembly before most Pokémon could even react.

Even so, fear didn’t immediately break those in command. Within the courtyard stood half a dozen Champions and a Master ranked trainer, a force strong enough to make resistance seem possible.

That confidence lasted only until a Titan Mantine emerged from the docking bay, carrying a Champion ranked trainer on its back. Behind him, over a dozen Champion ranked Pokémon and several dozen Elite ranked Pokémon in formation.

What had seemed like a defensible position became a guaranteed massacre if a fight broke out. The Champions on the ground could still resist, but it was clear they would lose the vast majority of their families in the process, leaving only a few high-ranked trainers and perhaps the boss standing afterward.

A battle here was still possible, but it would come at a cost that none of them could justify. Instead, it was far better to rely on the promise that their criminal members would be forcibly rehabilitated rather than tolerated. The boss had been right all along.

The airship finished its descent, looming over the courtyard, while the Titan Mantine landed and released its rider along with the rest of his Pokémon. The trainer immediately began walking toward the boss.

The Champions noticed his disappointed expression right away. Their surrender seemed to frustrate him more than intimidate him, as if he had been expecting a real fight. That reaction alone made it clear that even at their best, he was fully confident he could win, and worse, he seemed eager to prove it.

“I see you have chosen wisely,” Alex said, hiding his disappointment.

“What do you plan to do with them?” the boss asked, his tone threatening, ignoring small talk.

“A number of things,” Alex said as he turned around and watched Gardevoir get to work, reading the memories of each individual in the courtyard while commanding his Pokémon to ensure obedience as the unconscious bodies were moved. “Those who have committed too many crimes and those who lack empathy or guilt will be killed along with their Pokémon and submitted to the police. There shouldn’t be too many of them though.”

The Champions and Elites clenched their fists and gritted their teeth at Alex’s nonchalance, but he simply continued.

“Those who only did as they were told, who wanted to fit in with the group, and who were terrified of their leaders and peers will be left for you to properly educate away from criminal life. I don’t think they would benefit from the training program I have in mind.”

They nodded, accepting this particular judgment. It was absurd to believe that every single person under the banner of their family’s criminal side deserved punishment.

“The rest will receive a psychic implant in their minds that will amplify their empathy and guilt. They will then be assigned to a bounty hunter as an assistant and made to watch all the horrible consequences of criminal activity. The hope is that they feel regret for their actions and choose to avoid criminal life in the future. If that doesn’t work, nothing else will, so we will likely kill them after a final psychic evaluation.”

“That… is more humane than I expected,” the boss said.

“Last I checked, we were the good guys and you were the ones covering for criminals,” Alex said with a shrug. “Anyway, they should be sent back in bulk after a few months. What you do with them afterward is up to you.”

Gardevoir inspected every single person in the courtyard, regardless of age or gender, and selected those who met the criteria, whether they were conscious or not. By the end, less than a fifth had been taken, totaling over 200 people aboard the airship, while everyone else was left behind.

Essentially, only those with criminal ambition were taken, while those who remained had simply followed along because they didn’t know any better.

Once Gardevoir finished, Alex, all of his Pokémon, and the drones returned to the airship, which then departed for their base in Kanto on another week-long voyage.

“I’m resigning as the head of Team Bones,” the boss said as he and the remaining Champions and Elites watched the airship take off.

“What!?”

“Boss, you can’t!”

“Not now, when we need you to lead us through this.”

“Now is precisely the perfect time for new leadership,” the boss said, dismissing the complaints. “Let all the blame fall on me while Jonah takes over my position.”

“What… what are you planning to do, Boss?” Jonah asked.

“I’m heading to Lumiose City.”

Gasps rippled through the leadership, eyes widening at his declaration.

“Boss, not many Masters ever return from there.”

“I know. But I can either bring more resources to our new, clean organization, or I can die trying. Now is precisely the best time to take my chance.”

“I’ll… make sure the place is still standing when you come back, Boss,” Jonah said.

“I’m sure you will,” the boss said, patting Jonah on the shoulder as he turned and left, leaving everything behind for Jonah to clean up.