Having been told to essentially "chill out" by the Champion of the region, Alex teleported back to Nacrene City to visit Rhea and see how she was doing. He stepped out of the fading light of teleportation into Marcy's secret underground lair and found the two of them passed out with happy smiles on their faces in front of a sharply dressed mannequin.
To the untrained eye, it appeared to be an understated charcoal gray three-piece suit. The silhouette was clean and conservative, tailored to avoid drawing attention. The fabric, however, was anything but ordinary.
The coat carried more weight than a typical formal jacket, with the drape slightly stiffer along the shoulders and torso. A subtle density to it suggested ballistic resistance, likely capable of stopping most Elite ranked rounds without visible deformation. The inner vest was more overtly tactical beneath its refined exterior, reinforced with what he suspected was a Champion ranked version of the alloy from his old armor, only forged thinner and layered for flexibility rather than brute rigidity.
The dress shirt looked conventional at a glance, but the interior lining told a different story. Ariados silk had been woven into it, the material impossibly smooth against his fingers, reducing friction and serving pure comfort. The trousers matched the coat's protective weave, though slightly thicker through the thighs and shins where impacts were more likely during movement. Even the shoes concealed specialized soles engineered for shock absorption and traction, allowing sustained sprinting without sacrificing the suit's dignified appearance.
"Did I just upgrade from a gritty bounty hunter into a British double-O agent?" Alex muttered. "I should change the design of my guns from Desert Eagles to Walther PPKs. I barely use my pistols as it is anyway, ever since I reached Champion rank, so replacing my loadout with one purely for aesthetics isn't a bad idea."
He decided to keep one purely for debilitation, such as Hypnosis and Thunder Wave, while tossing out the healing and damaging ones he always carried. For offense, all he needed was Stormline, and he had stopped relying on healing moves such as Heal Pulse, preferring to use Max Revives and Full Restores instead.
Rather than rousing the pair from sleep, he left a note for Rhea about the loadout change, along with a request to alter the design of his gun from something threatening to something more subtle. He included schematics of the PPK to match his new aesthetic and asked for a custom holster to go along with it.
Once he was finished, he left and teleported back to the base in Kanto to recruit some much-needed backup. There was no way he would drop the matter simply because the Champion of the region had asked him to. He was doing this for Rhea, after all.
That didn't mean he would ignore Iris's warning. If anything, he took it more seriously. He would keep his promise and minimize mass casualties as much as possible. To do that, he needed more people to handle the stronger trainers, since he already had a solution for the henchmen.
After arriving, he called over Lily and Emma, Lyra and Mika's direct apprentices and subordinates who had been at Elite rank for a few years now. He also called over Dale and Morgan, who were more than happy to accept his 5 million credits as payment for the quick job. Lastly, he included Sable and even Clarissa, who was eager to see the fruits of her years of training put to use. A live test fire, if you will.
Sable was in the middle of a digging expedition in Johto's Dark Cave, which had recently seen an influx of miners following the elimination of the Underworld elements that had been hiding there. Alex had to make a quick trip to pick her up despite her insistence that she was a miner, not a fighter. He eventually convinced her with a credit incentive, the same offer he had prepared for the bounty hunters.
This brought Alex's little army to 9 in total, including himself, Clarissa, Sable, Lyra, Mika, Morgan, Dale, Lily, and Emma. Altogether, they fielded 3 Champions and 6 Elites. The operation cost roughly 25 million credits, since Clarissa, Lyra, and Mika didn't see the point in accepting Alex's money.
His targets were 27 of the 30 remaining Team Dominion bases in the Unova region, with about 6 Champions to deal with and the rest all Elites. The estimated thousand gunmen at each base would have normally proved a significant challenge for them, but Alex had a plan that guaranteed they wouldn't be a problem during the battle.
Once everyone was gathered, he called a meeting with Lyra and Mika to discuss the plan. Each of them would teleport to a base, create chaos, eliminate the leader, and then move on to the next base with Iris's support. Alex would handle the greatest threats while Clarissa and Sable focused on the other Champions. The rest would target the bases with weaker leaders, ones they could take down alone as long as they didn't have to deal with the armies at each location.
"Our timeline is half an hour to bring all the bases down. That's 10 minutes for three locations each, totaling 27," Alex said, displaying a map of Unova with each base highlighted and assigned to them. "It's more than enough time for them to cause a massacre, but it shouldn't come close to the devastation they managed in Hoenn."
"Are you sure this device will handle all the gunmen?" Dale asked, staring at a small handheld device in his hand. "I understand the principle, but I don't think it's powerful enough."
"It's not powerful enough," Alex replied. "But it doesn't have to be. All it needs to do is destroy the base. As long as the gunmen are inside, they will be too disorganized to mount a resistance while you fight and finish off the leaders who may survive the initial attack. Once you take out the leader, you move on to the next location while leaving the survivors to the League."
"Won't they start a massacre if we just leave after taking their boss down?" Lyra asked. "They might want to go around killing people for revenge."
"They're only threatening if they move as an organized group of a thousand gunmen led by an Elite or a Champion to tank for them. Otherwise, they're easy pickings for any random armed trainer, which Unova is filled with. I'd actually like to see them try," Alex said with a chuckle.
In Alex's experience, Unova was the most well-armed region in the world. Every trainer carried a gun of some kind, each capable of firing ammunition ranked from Adept to Elite. That was more than enough to take down a gunman who lacked the power granted by Pokémon ranks, leaving them little more than normal humans with guns.
It was part of Team Dominion's strategy to reduce public dependence on Pokémon, and in Unova the policy had taken root. As wild habitats were cleared and urbanized, Pokémon populations declined, constricting supply and inflating market prices. Ownership became a luxury reserved for the wealthy or institutionally backed trainers.
By contrast, an Elite ranked firearm required a single upfront purchase and routine maintenance, making it far more accessible. Firearms effectively replaced Pokémon as the average citizen's means of force projection, even if the region's relative peace meant they were seldom drawn.
The result was a relatively powerful region, one capable of defending itself from mass casualties that lacked terrorist level planning. Of course, it left them vulnerable to large scale Pokémon floods and powerful Champion ranked trainers, but there was little wilderness left to spark a flood. Their Gym Leaders were also more than enough of a deterrent against most Champions, so overall they remained relatively secure.
A week later, Alex returned to Nacrene City to meet up with Rhea and Marcy for the final time. His suit was finally ready, and Iris was finishing up the last location before the operation could begin that evening.
"May we present your suit," Marcy said with flair as he removed the cover from the mannequin Alex had seen before. "It's weaker than Rhea's Champion ranked full body armor, but it can completely resist Elite ranked damage that hasn't been fully stacked. It also comes in navy blue and charcoal grey for business, with black and deep burgundy reserved for formal, evening, or festive events."
"I also managed to recast your guns, although the magazine capacity was lowered from 40 to only a dozen," Rhea said as she handed Alex a holster with one of the guns in it. "It's only loaded with debilitating moves like Thunder Wave, Hypnosis, Glare, and similar effects."
"Thanks," Alex said as he tried on the charcoal gray suit and fastened the holster at his hip. "It's a perfect fit."
"Of course it is, darling, and may I say you look absolutely ravishing."
"Thanks," Alex replied before turning to Rhea. "What about you, Rhea? Are you ready to finally get your revenge?"
"Yeah. I read over the information we got from the Grimefold and can only say that it's the perfect time to go get some payback."
"Good, because Iris will be ready by tonight as well, so we can finish up everything in Unova by tomorrow morning."
With Iris having scouted the entirety of Unova, backup recruited and ready, Alex equipped with his new outfit, Rhea armed with all the information she could want, and the timing better than they could have asked for, they were ready to bring Team Dominion in Unova down.
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