Chapter 1
The operation concept was simple. I had lived undercover in the Galar region, going to university classes and leading a normal life. From time to time, I would go on arbitrary “vacations” where I would carry out undercover work for KSO. Usually, it was low risk stuff, but still, there was nothing low risk about being a spy in a hostile nation. This time, I was watching over a package of intelligence for the night before passing it on to the next link in KSO’s chain of spies. Kanto must have been strapped for agents if they had me go all the way to Kalos for a one night job. That was above my pay grade though. I just had to follow through.
The operation plan was simple. I was to travel from Galar to Unova, disembarking at Castelia city. I would walk by foot to an agreed upon location where I would pick up a package. I would then carry that package to a safehouse and spend the night. In the morning, I would move the package along the chain, meeting someone from Kanto Special Operations who would then deliver it to the Kantonian embassy. I would then go back to Galar until KSO called on me again.
Even the operation execution was simple. I disembarked the ferry in Castelia city and had a cab drive me to a large park in the center of the city, of course paying in cash and hiding my face from him, typical spy precautions. I had scooped up the intelligence, which took the form of a nondescript backpack that I picked up from under a bench. After that, I hoofed it through the city and out of the metropolitan area.
The slums of Castelia city were much less majestic than the downtown skyscrapers. The setting sun cast an orange glow over small, dilapidated houses and boarded up storefronts. The street smelled like urine. A Furfrou with a matted coat that looked like it hadn’t been washed in months barked at me from behind a chain link fence. I moved along the cracked sidewalk at a pace that didn’t give off fear or weakness, but was still above walking speed. Street lowlifes watched me, trying to decide if I was a good target to bum drug money off. With my trench coat, backpack, and business-like demeanor, none of them tried.
That was until I turned onto the corner onto a street called Great Ball Lane. I heard the sound of a knife click open behind me.
“Ya wanna hand over your money?” I turned around and saw a short man in a white tank top behind me. In one hand, he held a black and silver switchblade. In the other, he held the leash of a mean looking Houndour. The pokemon growled at me, bearing its fangs as it strained on its leash.
“What are you talking about?” I played dumb, stalling for time. In the meantime, I was looking all around for anyone who could see what was going on. There was nobody in sight.
“Hand over your wallet.” The man restated.
“I don’t have my wallet on me.” I lied.
“Bullshit. You pretty boys are always comin’ down here, trying to buy drugs or somethin’ Now hand it over or I’ll sic Houndour on ya.”
I did not have time for this. The longer it took me to reach the safehouse, the easier it would be for me to be identified. I had to get out of the public view as quickly as possible. I slowly reached into my coat.
“Okay. Alright. Alright. Here you go.”
In a flash, I snatched a pokeball from inside my jacket. Before the man could react, Clair, my Golisopod appeared. She swung her foot, tripping the man and caught him in one of her enormous claws, lifting him up in the air by his tank top. The man’s Houndour sprung towards me. Clair stomped in his leash, cutting off the dog’s lunge inches away from my face. I didn’t even flinch.
“Well done Clair. That’s exactly what I had in mind.” I complimented my Golisopod.
Clair smiled. Seeing a Golisopod smile is something that you have to get used to as such a grotesque facial expression almost never was something that conveyed joy.
I stepped up to the man. He wriggled in Clair’s grip.
“You decided to choose a place to mug me where nobody could see. Unfortunately for you, that works both ways.”
“I’m sorry! Please don’t kill me. I didn’t mean…”
“You accidently mugged me? That doesn't exactly make a lot of sense.”
“Please let me go.” He begged.
I was faced with a dilemma. This man knew what I looked like. If someone was able to get a description of me from him, it could start a forensic avalanche which could end with me being executed in a Galarian prison as a spy. I didn’t fancy the prospect of killing him either. His death felt so unnecessary. I didn’t want to needlessly take life if I could help it. I would have to go with the third option.
I stepped close to the man and my Golisopod.
“If I let you go, you never saw my face. I was never here. Do you understand?”
“Y-yes. I understand.” He stuttered.
My hands shot forward and grabbed the front of his tank top, pulling him towards me.
“If I hear you told anyone about this, I will personally see to it that the police have you arrested on drug charges and you never see the light of day again. Do you understand?”
“Yes! I’m sorry!”
Without another word, I shoved the former mugger away from me. Understanding what I wanted, Clair let go of the man. He fell to the sidewalk with a grunt. Seeing how easily I had subdued his master, the Houndour backed away from me and my six foot tall Golisopod.
I turned and continued down the street as if nothing had happened, returning Clair to her ball.
The rest of my walk was uninterrupted. I reached the safehouse right as the sun began to dip below the horizon. The safehouse wasn’t a house, rather, an apartment block. Any sensible person would have stayed away from this building as it radiated sketchiness. No doubt the proceeds from these apartments went to some influential crime syndicate.
I pushed open the faded double doors and walked inside. Many of the fluorescent light panels in the reception area were out, leaving the room in a shadowy half light. I knew my room was on the second floor and headed for the staircase which smelled like cigarette smoke.
The floor with the apartment rooms wasn’t much better. The whole place stank. Leaky pipes dripped water on the mildew green carpet. More than a few rooms had visible damage done to them, doors ripped off their hinges, gashes in the plaster wall, and even what looked like a few bullet holes. As I walked past the rooms that were functional, I could tell by the sounds inside whether they were being used for drug deals, prostitution or both.
I reached the designated door and drew out a key for the lock from one of my coat pockets. As I was inserting it into the locked door, something felt off. Maybe my subconscious noticed something, maybe I caught something out of the corner of my eye, or maybe it was pure intuition from experience.
No matter what it was, I was instantly on alert. I reached into my coat and drew out a pokeball. This one contained Rico, my Gengar. I looked all around me. There was nobody in the hallway aside from me. Maybe I was imagining things. I tossed the pokeball onto the ground and my Gengar emerged. Rico could sense things that were intangible to the human eye.
“Rico, do you notice anything odd about this hallway?” I asked, quietly.
Rico cocked his head to the side, quizzically, as if to say
Aside from this place being the lowest representation of humanity? He then looked around the room. His eyes began to glow as he took in things from the intangible world around us. He turned a full 360 degrees, as if he were some sort of surveillance camera.
Suddenly, he whirled around towards me and gestured frantically towards the hallway. Before I could react. A dark pulse of energy shot from the far end of the hallway. The supersonic beam of energy cleaved Rico in two at the midsection. His form dissipated for a moment before solidifying back to his body. He collapsed to the floor.
I registered this in an instant; then, the black pulse smashed into me. I blacked out for a moment as I was blasted through the door. The attack was so powerful that my body smashed it off its (admittedly rickety) hinges. I regained consciousness laying on the floor in the entryway of the apartment room. Purely out of instinct, I rolled to the side as a blast of purple energy smashed where I had been laying moments before. I snatched a pokeball and heaved it out into the hallway. Clair roared as she came up against a pokemon in the hallway.
My head was swimming from the dark pulse. Everything sounded like it was underwater. My back was painfully sore from being smashed through 4+ inches of wood. Clair was fighting something in the hallway and by the sound of it, she was losing.
I scrambled to my feet, almost falling back to the ground from dizziness. I heard the sound of an attack smashing through a wall and the subsequent scream of surprise from the apartment’s tenants. I didn’t know who my attacker was, if it was only one person, but I knew if I didn’t act, I’d get overrun.
I quickly surveyed for options. The lone window behind me was boarded up. Now I could smash through the wood no problem, but I didn’t fancy falling down two floors and then having to run for Arceus knows how long to evade my attackers. No. I had to defeat my foe.
“Liquidation!” I yelled to Clair in the hallway. An instant later, I heard a splashing sound as she attacked my still invisible foe.
I knew that the attacker had come from the far end of the floor, leaving the exit unblocked. That was, if there weren’t more than one attacker. I would just have to take that risk. I lowered my head and charged out of the doorway.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Clair grappling with a pokemon. I turned and rushed down the hallway. I was about two thirds of the way to the staircase when the hairs on the back of my neck began to rise. I hit the deck and rolled for all I was worth. The crack of a thunderbolt shot over my head and pulverized the wall in front of me. I drew my empty pokeball out of my coat and returned Clair. Before my attacker could fire off another attack. I ducked into the stairway and out of sight.
I pounded down the stairs as fast as I could, reaching the bottom and dashing out of the building. The door slammed behind me as I raced out into the street. All of a sudden, I heard the sound of an explosion above me. Shattered wood blasted from a second floor window and rained down in the street. I saw a figure leap out of the window and heard a rhythmic buzzing sound. The figure landed heavily on the street in front of me, cracking the pavement and sending up a cloud of dust.
The dust began to clear and I could see my attacker for the first time. It was a woman. She looked to be about my age, maybe slightly older with long, wavy black hair. The woman was clad in a short, tight fitting red dress that went to about her mid knee. The dress was synched tightly to her waist by a thick black belt with a large buckle. Three ultra balls rested on the left side of her belt. Below that, she had black leggings and high heels. Her skin was tanned perfectly a few shades darker. She sat perched on a large pokemon, a Vikavolt that hovered in the air a foot or two off the ground. She sat on her pokemon for a moment, looking at me, analyzing me. She had green eyes that seemed to pierce through me, pulling all the information she could glean.
The woman hopped off her Vikavolt, landing on her high heels, an impressive feat in itself. Her red lips moved as she spoke.
“I need that backpack.” She said.
My mind was reeling. Whenever I had been in a battle, it had always been against some hairy thug or remorseless police officer. I always built an image in my head of my enemy, and it wasn’t ever a good one. This time appeared to be completely different. Why had UR sent such a sexy woman to apprehend me? They must really want what was in the bag.
“If it's so important to you, come and get it.” A brave response. Part of my brain was wondering why I was refusing this woman. Another part of it was wondering why I was being so insolent when I was completely out of position. She had a pokemon ready to vaporize me with an electric move. I had yet to draw my pokeball. By the time I could draw and release a pokemon, I would be blasted.
The woman started slowly walking towards me. She was in no hurry. I was right where she wanted me to be.
“That intel must be really important if Kanto sent you all the way from Galar to come watch over it.” She said, sweetly.
Shit. She knew. How had she known? That didn’t matter right now. What mattered is keeping my life and protecting this oh so important bag.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I said, coolly.
The woman laughed, brushing off my lie.
“I’m sure that you don’t. That’s why you traveled here, walked past a spot where you scooped up this backpack and are now hiding out in a run down part of this city.” She reached me, stepping close. Too close. Her peach scented perfume wafted around me, making it hard to think about anything except for her. A small part of my brain knew that she was doing this on purpose, but the rest was still occupied taking in the sights and scents.
“Now, if you give me that backpack, I don’t have to kill you.” She said.
“No.” I heard myself say.
“Okay then. We’re going to do this the hard way.” The woman reached into one of my pants pockets.
My reaction was somewhere between completely folding, giving this woman everything she wanted, and disgust at her being so close, invading my personal space. Still, I didn’t dare resist lest her massive stag beetle attack me.
“Ah. Here it is.” She said, drawing out a wallet. Like everything I had, the wallet was connected to the identity of Mason Heartwell, a college student from Honnen who is studying abroad in Galar.
The woman stepped back and started to look through the wallet. The way she flicked through the different cards and items with her slender fingers reminded me of a cat. She was interested in each new item only for an instant before tossing it aside for a new thing that piqued her interest.
“200 Galarian Poki in cash, ice cream parlor punch card, flier for a tournament in Hammerlock.” She smirked. “Someone’s washed up.”
There was still no chance of escaping this woman. She played her confidence to the max, but I had no doubt that she could back it up with her skill. It wasn’t every day that Rico was one shot by a dark pulse.
“I will ask you again. What is your name?”
I just shook my head.
“Okay then. You really want to do this the hard way.”
She stepped menacingly close to me. What was I supposed to do? The woman brought her hand up and pressed two fingers to a pressure point on my neck. I gasped as a searing pain shot through my neck. It was just the opportunity I had been waiting for.
Through the pain, I snatched the woman’s arm. She fell to the side and landed awkwardly on her heels. I heard an electrical whine and tasted ozone. Purely out of instinct, I rolled to the side just as the woman’s Vikavolt blasted a beam of electricity right where I had been standing moments before. I hit the ground and rolled, drawing one of my pokeballs, throwing it as soon as I was right side up. Clair appeared.
Before she could move towards the woman, I heard the crack of a thunderbolt out of nowhere. Clair teetered for a moment and then fell to the ground. Behind her stood the woman. She held her arm where she had just drawn on me. A few feet in front of her stood a Gardevoir, its eyes glowing purple with psychic power. The Gardevoir wheeled on me and extended its hand. My eyes crossed as a blast of psychic energy caught me right between the eyes.
I honestly expected that to be the last thing I saw. Instead, the blast of energy didn’t hurt me. It collided with me, flipping me over backwards. I crashed to the ground.
I groaned as I was smacked into a very hard object from the force of a pokemon against my will for the second time in the last 15 minutes. When I opened my eyes, the woman and her Gardevoir loomed over me.
“In case you were wondering, you aren’t faster than me.” She said, sweetly.
What had just happened? I had always been the quickest at drawing my pokeball. From when I just had started battling, all the way through school and into field deployments. This mysterious woman had feigned foolishness to get me to try and draw against her. Then, she clobbered me.
The woman was typing on a large, wrist mounted poketch. Her Gardevoir still stood threateningly above me. I didn’t dare move a muscle.
Why hadn’t she killed me yet? I had very little use to UR in the way of information. Kalos wouldn’t go to all this trouble just to haul me back to Lumiose and have me publicly executed.
Finally, the woman looked away from her poketch and back at me.
She tutted her tongue.
“You’re lucky. It seems my superiors want to talk to you.” She extended her hand down to me. I cautiously accepted and she hauled me to my feet.
“One more thing.” She asked. “What is your name?”
“Not this again.” I grumbled.
“I would say it's a fair trade considering that I’m not going to kill you.”
I sighed. She was certainly persistent.
“How about an exchange? You tell me your name and I’ll tell you mine.”
The corners of her red lips rose in a smile.
“That works. I’m Athena.”
“I’m Andrew. Andrew Ross.”
“Nice to meet you, Andrew. Now we need to get out of here.” As she spoke, I could hear the sound of police sirens getting closer.
We made our way back from where I had come. As the sun went down, there were fewer lowlifes hanging around. That or the police sirens scared them away. The sirens were getting closer as Athena guided me down the sidewalk. She seemed to know where she was going. We passed the place where I had been almost mugged and kept going. Athena turned us onto a new street.
Just then, we both heard it. A car coming closer. There was no siren but it was still ominous.
Athena grabbed my arm. I winced as I felt her fingernails dig into my skin. She dragged me to a doorway of a boarded up storefront.
“It's just a car.” I complained.
“A car full of pokemon trainers that will overwhelm us, and drag us to the darkest prison in Unova.” She countered.
Suddenly, my heart began to hammer in my chest. She was right. I looked over her shoulder. Sure enough, there was a black government car with the Unova government seal on the side door.
“They’re coming this way.” I cautioned.
“Kiss me.” Athena said.
I didn’t hesitate. We both knew that kissing was a good way to keep eyes off us. People were subconsciously disgusted with it and tended to avert their eyes, even if they didn’t mean to. It also hid our faces.
We locked lips. She was a good kisser. I could feel her soft lips on mine, her hand holding the back of my head. I could smell her peach scented perfume wafting around us.
We kissed for a good 15 seconds as the car passed us. It didn’t stop. No agents jumped out and arrested us.
Finally, we broke apart, both of us out of breath.
“Come on.” Athena said, as soon as her breathing returned to normal.
As she led me away, I could swear she was blushing.
We walked for a long time. I had no idea where Athena was leading me but I really didn’t have a choice but to follow her. The sun had set and the only light was the occasional intact streetlight that cast a dull orange pool of light around it. There was no doubt that we were still in the slums. Dilapidated houses behind cracked walkways lined the street.
Athena and I reached a crossroads. She led me diagonally across the dark intersection.
“Hold it right there.”
I heard a voice speak from the darkness.
Athena and I turned towards the sound, both of us suddenly on alert.
Out of the shadows emerged a man. He looked to be a little under six feet tall with sharp, angry features. He was dressed in a charcoal two piece suit with a red tie. WIth his long nose and prideful expression, he looked like a sketchy Mauville stock broker, someone who scammed people for a living. Behind him was an enormous pokemon, a Coalossal. The nine foot tall cart of coal began to glow an ember orange, illuminating it and its trainer in a hellish light.
As one, Athena turned to run the other way, but out of the shadows came another figure. It was a man. He was slimmer than the man in the suit and much less formally dressed. He wore a pair of black jeans and a gray hoodie. The man was nothing special to look at, but there was something about him that was off. It took me a second to realize what it was; I couldn’t see his face. Even in the light given off by the other man’s Coalossal, his face was obscured in shadow behind his hood.
The shadowy man made a quick motion to his belt and a Crobat appeared by his side. With how quickly he drew his pokemon, I no longer had any doubt that he was a good pokemon trainer.
Athena and I were trapped. Neither of us could draw without being dropped by a pokemon attack. There was no cover in the middle of an intersection.
“Drop your pokeballs now.” The man in the suit commanded.
“What do you want?” I leveled the question at the shadowy man.
“We’re here to bring you in on charges of treason for you-” The man in the suit replied, pointing at me. “-And terrorism for you.” He gestured at Athena.
“On what grounds? We’re just citizens of this region. It’s unlawful.” Athena deflected.
It was a good attempt, but it wasn’t going to work against this man. Something told me that he took a sadistic pleasure in beating up and arresting secret agents, condemning them to a pathetic existence of interrogation and torture until they had served their usefulness and were executed. In other words, he was the person that deep cover agents like myself had come to fear; counter surveillance agents that worked to thwart our every move.
The man in the suit laughed, bellowing might be a better way to describe it.
“We have strong evidence connecting you two, the explosions a few blocks from here and that bag.” He pointed at the backpack which was still slung over my shoulder.
“What’s wrong with my backpack?” I asked.
“There is information that belongs to the Unified Regions of Kalos in it. Now set your pokeballs down. I won’t ask again.”
I didn’t see that we had any other option. Slowly, I drew my three pokeballs and set them down on the ground, out of reach, but not out of the distance of a swift kick.
I looked up to see if Athena was doing the same thing. She wasn’t. She was standing there, staring at a point above the man in the suit’s head. Her pokeballs were gone from her belt. Where did they go?
“Good. Now stay where you are.” The man in the suit said in an almost gloating tone.
I heard the sound of a pokeball opening behind me. The shadowy man had drawn a new pokemon. It was a slithery purple crustation with a blue shell. Two flaps opened on its front to reveal a small organism inside with evil yellow eyes.
“Don’t hurt them too badly. Just enough to incapacitate them and a little bit more.” The man in the suit told his partner.
The Toxapex inched closer. I had to suppress a shiver of fear over the prospect of being poisoned by the spiky little bastard. I had heard accounts about how much it hurt for days afterward.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Athena slowly raising her hand into the air. She was looking intently at me, trying to tell me something without words. Her eyes flicked towards the shadowy man over and over. She wanted to coordinate an attack.
Well, it was a better bet than being stabbed by a Toxapex.
The Toxapex was almost upon us. It was now or never.
Athena’s hand dropped.
Immediately, I lunged forward and sent a sharp kick right into the button of one of my pokeballs. At the same moment, I heard Athena shout,
“Fling!”
Out of the corner of my eye I saw a figure appear out of seemingly nowhere. Instantly, the pokemon threw something into the air. I had just enough time to hit the deck and avert my eyes before I heard a
Pop like a flashbang grenade going off.
The man in the suit roared with rage. A blast of heat singed my arm hairs as the Coalossal missed its attack.
“Psychic!” I called, still with my eyes closed.
Lucio, my Lucario barked.
I opened my eyes and saw him with his paws held open against each other. There was a brilliant ball of purple energy held in his paws. He shoved his arms forward and sent a beam of energy at the enemy Toxapex.
As I stumbled to my feet, I tasted ozone as Athena ordered a thunderbolt from her Gardevoir on the enemy Crobat.
“Come on!” She shouted, pointing towards an empty outcrop of buildings nearby.
Before I could do anything, I felt something latch onto my leg. I looked down in horror and saw the shadowy man’s Toxapex stabbing into my leg. I tried to cry out in fear but couldn't. A stream of blood ran from the puncture wounds. The vicious Toxapex stuck out its tongue and greedily lapped it up. I started to feel my whole torso go numb as the poisons began to take effect. Lucio couldn’t level an attack at the wicked crustation without blasting me with it as well. So instead, I jerked my thumb behind me.
“Get him.” I rasped.
Lucio understood immediately. In an instant, he lunged forwards. Lucario shot past me and my new crustacean friend and towards the Toxapex’s trainer. The shadowy man tried to draw a new pokemon but Lucio was too fast. He cut the distance between the two of them and hit him with a ferocious one two combination that floored the shadowy man.
I began to feel dizzy and my vision swam. Desperately, I tried to grab the two sides of the Toxapex and pull it off my leg. The pokemon wouldn’t budge. I began to black out. Athena shouted something to me but she was far away. There was one voice that I did hear clearly.
“Eruption.” The man in the suit’s voice cut through the mental fog just fine.
I had just enough time for my addled brain to realize what was about to happen before an enormous, searingly hot stone rocketed into the ground next to me. A wave of asphalt cascaded from the impact and launched me into the air. I went weightless for a moment before crumpling to the ground.
***
The next thing I knew, I was laying in a bed. It was much softer than the concrete where I had landed prior, and much comfier than the bed in a prison cell would be. Everything around me was simultaneously foggy and too bright. The first thing I registered was that it felt as if someone had split my skull open with an ax. It hurt to think. Slowly, I began to open my eyes.
Athena was standing over me. She was wearing the same outfit as before, but she was a mess. Her hair was blown to one side with mud, sticks, and bits of leaves in it. Her dress was torn on the side and it looked as if she had bandaged up cuts there. Her makeup was smeared across her face and she had a nasty purple bruise on her shoulder.
“Y-you don’t look so good.” I tried to speak, but my mouth was as dry as a desert so it came out as a hoarse whisper.
“I wasn’t the one who was hit by an eruption from a Coalossal. Look at yourself.”
I carefully pulled back the covers and she was right. My trench coat was in tatters, my pants had two massive holes where the Toxapex had bit me and my shoes were gone, probably melted. It was just then that I realized that I couldn’t feel my legs. Gingerly, I tried to move one of them. I breathed a deep sigh of relief when I was able to lift it up. I hadn’t been paralyzed by the Toxapex. If my memory served me right, the poison would eventually be carried away by my bloodstream and my legs could go back to functioning normally.
“Wow I guess so.” I croaked. “My backpack with the oh so important information?”
Athena shook her head sadly.
“Burnt up by the Coalossal.”
I scowled. That was bad. If I had the energy, I would have stood up and cursed out the shadowy man and his friend. Whatever I had been tasked with carrying was gone. It must have been extremely important for UR to mobilize all those assets to get out of my hands. I would have to worry about that later. Right now I needed a few answers.
“What happened? Am I a prisoner now?” My voice was getting clearer as I kept talking.
Athena smirked.
“No you’re not. After the Coalossal’s eruption. I was in a one versus one with the man in the suit. I was able to beat him but he got to your body and forced me to trade you for his shadowy colleague.”
“You negotiated for my life? Didn’t you want to kill me like an hour before?”
“That was all a farce Andrew. It was a test.”
“A test from who?” my voice was gaining its strength.
“I can’t tell you that.”
“Why?”
“Because you can’t be trusted with that information”
“Can you at least tell me which side who or whatever is testing me is on?” Now I was a little angry. Athena had gone all this way to first “test” and then save me but she couldn’t tell me why.
She shook her head.
Frustrated, I tried to stand up but my legs were still partially paralyzed. My legs bowed out from underneath me and I sunk back down to the bed.
“Andrew, you need to calm down.”
Suddenly, as if brought on by her words, a rush of tiredness came over me.
“Can you-can you tell me where we are? Or is that need to know as well?” I said, weakly.
“I got us out of Castelia. We’re in a safehouse in the Pinwheel forest. Now you need to sleep.”
“Is the safehouse actually safe?” I mumbled sarcastically but before I got an answer, exhaustion took hold of me and I was drifting off to sleep.
