Pokemon: Bounty Hunter Alex

Immense heat immediately slapped Alex, Lyra, Mika, and Rhea in the face as they arrived at Team Dominion’s island crater base, or at least what was left of it. The grounds and the entire interior of the crater were covered in molten slag, making it look like a metal volcano from the group’s perspective. Heavy steam, billowing black smoke, and noxious fumes filled the air around them, along with hot spots where the metal remained liquid from the bombardment. It was an environment Fire, Poison, and Steel type Pokémon would no doubt enjoy.

“Wow…” Rhea said as she looked around. “It’s beautiful. My babies are so powerful, but the fact that I needed to use three of them means I still have my work cut out for me. It would be better if all this devastation could be achieved with a single use.”

“It’s fine the way it is,” Alex said. “Make the bomb any bigger, and you might not be allowed to detonate it on the planet.”

The B.O.M.B.s caused devastation roughly comparable to early nuclear detonations, at least from Alex’s perspective. They were powerful enough to erase an entire city, but not quite strong enough to flatten everything in their path. One had been used to bring down the energy shield, another to level the surface, and the last to excavate the site while crushing the underground facility beneath it, ending with the current scenery they were witnessing.

Compared to nuclear weapons, however, they were far cleaner, as evidenced by the absence of any nuclear contamination following the blast. More importantly, Master ranked Pokémon were more than capable of producing this level of devastation through sustained bombardment, meaning the destruction itself wasn’t unprecedented in the Pokémon world’s history. Hoenn, Kalos, and Galar had all seen far worse in their pasts.

“Hm…” Rhea hummed. “I can see the League making a fuss about that. You have a good point, Alex.”

“Of course the League would make a fuss,” Lyra said. “We basically have the ability to destroy any location in the world from the comfort of our homes with only a few seconds’ notice. Nobody would let us keep that kind of power unless we could permanently defend ourselves from everyone else or provide ironclad guarantees that we’d never use it for anything they wouldn’t agree with.”

“Which is why we’re going to say we teleported here and bombarded them on-site,” Rhea said. “They’ll be worried about the bombs, but not about the fact that we can strike anywhere in the world at a moment’s notice. Don’t worry. More than anyone, I know how people react when they feel threatened. They won’t stop until they’ve regained their meager sense of security and comfort.”

“I don’t see anywhere we can begin our infiltration,” Mika said. “Everything looks blocked from the surface, given how deep the bombardment managed to reach.”

“Alright. Lyra, Mika, you girls start breaking ground and piling it up, while Guzzlord works on eating up all this scrap metal,” Alex said as he released Guzzlord, and the girls followed suit, sending out their Pokémon.

Guzzlord, however, had other ideas, refusing to wait for anyone before it began to feed. It slammed the ground with Stomping Tantrum and Earthquake, ripping the surface apart before shoveling the broken chunks straight into its gaping maw. It didn’t matter if it was metal, leaking power cells, or dirt, it consumed everything without distinction.

Lyra and Mika, meanwhile, kept their Pokémon close, working on the same section of terrain. They needed to infiltrate what was left of the base, which meant digging through heavily compacted metal and debris.

Rhea released Magnezone, which immediately began directing over a hundred androids to scour the area for anything valuable. It would be a waste to simply feed Master ranked materials that had survived the blasts to Guzzlord.

Alex, meanwhile, released all of his Pokémon and had Gardevoir coordinate a search along the island’s perimeter for any possible escape routes. The ports likely would have survived the bombardment, given that they were outside the main blast zone and shielded by the crater. There might even be intact access points leading deeper into the underground facility.

For the next hour, Rhea scavenged but found little of interest. Lyra and Mika dug through a respectable amount of debris, while Guzzlord had already eaten a quarter of the crater’s surface, leaving only rocks and loose dirt behind.

Alex’s Pokémon, however, still found plenty of remnants from the bombardment. Some defensive buildings were still partially active, with turrets, long-range cannons, and machine guns still online, so they had to be destroyed. At the ports, buildings and ships were riddled with holes from falling debris. They also found surviving operatives that needed to be captured or, if necessary, killed. Forest fires had broken out from the heat of the blast, requiring containment and extinguishing. They also dug through bunkers to check for hidden entrances.

Even with all that work, they still didn’t find any way into the underground base. Every entrance they came across had already collapsed and would require extensive excavation to clear, with no guarantee they would even reach an intact section of the base.

“Alex, I think we’re close to reaching an unaffected portion of the underground base,” Lyra reported over the radio.

“I’ll be right over,” Alex replied as he wrapped up the cleanup along the perimeter of the island.

Once he arrived, he saw a respectably deep hole at the very center of the crater that had been dug out or, more accurately, pried open, since they had worked through compacted metal. Along the sides, a makeshift staircase spiraled up the wall, allowing easy movement in and out as well as transport of debris. Notably, there was no pile of debris from the digging, as Guzzlord wasted no time swallowing it all as it was unearthed.

“I don’t see an entrance,” Alex noted as he examined the very bottom of the pit.

“Not yet,” Lyra replied. “But we’ve already found multiple rooms that weren’t completely crushed, which means it’s only a matter of time before we reach an access point. Since this is the deepest section of the crater, the sides are likely already uncompromised with access points as well. This means we’ll be able to start scouring the entire base once we find a way inside.”

“Alright, I’ll keep my Pokémon on standby. Once we’re in, we’ll scatter and start mapping out the place.”

“Tell me again why we aren’t detonating another bomb deep inside the pit?” Mika asked.

“Because we’ve already won and don’t need to keep fighting,” Alex replied. “From this point on, they won’t be able to mount a proper defense against us, so everything they have left will be up for grabs.”

“It still feels like we could use one more to really drive the point home. I mean, we’re already pretty deep and it just keeps going. We might take a week to clear this entire place top to bottom.”

“It’s a good thing the airship will take a week to arrive to pick us up then.”

Suddenly, threatening growls reverberated from deep within the pit, signaling a standoff. Without hesitation, Alex jumped down into the darkness, landing in the middle of Lyra and Mika’s Pokémon. There were Mika’s Nidoking, Nidoqueen, and Flygon, as well as Lyra’s Haxorus and Mightyena pair, all staring down a group of surrendering soldiers.

Without a word, Gardevoir scanned their memories and confirmed they were genuinely surrendering, unwilling to risk a fight under the circumstances. They were completely trapped down there, so it was better for them to get into the sunlight at least before any further conflict could be considered.

As for the base layout, Gardevoir uncovered that as well. The base had collapsed inward so thoroughly that only the deepest sections remained intact. Everything above had been crushed beyond accessibility, including the command center, storage rooms, foundries, assembly lines, engineering bays, training facilities, recreation areas, barracks, medical wing, and the mess hall. Only the deepest core remained untouched, consisting of the top-secret laboratory, the sleeping quarters, and the boss’s private quarters.

“Alright, head up single file, and don’t be surprised if I randomly kill some of you. I have a Psychic Pokémon ensuring none of you get any bright ideas,” Alex said with an easy smile.

Immediately, Gardevoir reported a significant drop in hostile intent. Most of them still wanted to fight, but the mention of a Psychic Pokémon effectively shut down any thoughts of subterfuge or ambush.

Quietly, the survivors made their way upward one after another while Gardevoir conducted continuous surface scans of their intent. So far, none of them were willing to even consider resistance after Alex’s announcement was relayed inside to the others.

Meanwhile, at the top of the pit, Lyra and Mika began arresting them as they arrived. Each was bound, disarmed of their Pokémon and any hidden weapons, then knocked out and laid out alongside Alex’s prisoners from the perimeter of the island.

It was a good thing Guzzlord continued consuming the surface layer of the crater; otherwise, they wouldn’t have been able to survive the intense heat and poisonous atmosphere. The majority of the prisoners were ordinary humans after all.

They continued moving upward in a steady line, their numbers ballooning to well over a thousand before the last of them finally made it out without requiring Alex to make a single move. They knew they were finished the moment they saw Gardevoir watching them with hungry eyes, waiting for even the smallest sign of rebellion as justification to tear through their minds and end them without hesitation.

“That’s the last of them,” Lyra said as she, Mika, and Rhea dropped down into the pit with Alex to begin their final sweep.

Based on Gardevoir’s memories, there were still people trapped in certain rooms, as well as storage areas that might not have been fully compromised, worth checking. They needed to work their way through what remained of the facility.

As for Alex, he still had Alaric Graves to confront. None of the men they had captured knew whether Graves had an escape route, or what waited inside the top-secret laboratory.

There was only one way to find out.