"What!?" Alaric Graves exclaimed when he heard the results of the battle between the Iron Dominion Fleet and the bounty hunter's base. "What do you mean they were all wiped out? Was he hiding Master ranked Pokémon this entire time?"
"N-no, sir," his secretary stammered at his rage. "The first airship was brought down by a wild Master ranked Pokémon when the fleet began its descent over Cerulean Cave."
"What Pokémon was it?"
"A Snorlax, sir. It was resting on the summit of the mountain when it noticed the airships' descent and decided to attack. We believe it may have sensed the large quantities of food we had stored for the soldiers and wanted them for itself. It brought an airship down with a single Giga Impact."
Alaric almost shrugged. It made sense that a powerful Master ranked physical attack like Giga Impact could bring down an airship in one hit. Its defenses were only rated for Champion rank after all and could just barely withstand Master ranked Special Attacks at best with the help of the energy shield.
"Continue."
"The second airship was brought down by a salvo of missiles escorted by a Champion ranked Roaring Moon with a Champion ranked Iron Valiant on its back."
Alaric almost shrugged again. Roaring Moon and Iron Valiant were clearly a cut above the rest, Paradox Pokémon equal in power to Legendaries. This time, however, he noticed her mentioning missiles.
"Missiles?"
"Yes. They were loaded with move crystals filled with Explosion energy, ready to detonate at the slightest crack. Once the hull was breached, the engine room was devastated, cutting power and bringing the ship down. Our latest reports suggest the crew is still alive, fighting for their lives deep in the danger zone. Should we send an extraction team?"
"Don't bother," Alaric said, waving dismissively. "The League will have that place swarming before we can send any help. Continue with the report."
"The third airship was brought down by Alex Wattson's team of a dozen Champion ranked Pokémon. They approached from the flank, fought off our drones, drowned out our gun ports, and reached the energy shield. His Pokémon then infiltrated the ship, tore through the hallways, and made a direct beeline for the engine room. They destroyed the anti-gravity engine, causing critical damage that set off an explosion, leaving nothing to salvage."
"As for the final two," she continued, "they were infiltrated again but managed to deliver the Pokémon swarm, android, and drone army before being cleaned out. The result of the battle was a complete loss. The enemy had far more quadcopter drones and the interior of the base was filled with turrets of equal power."
"Why aren't we using those again?" Alaric asked. "I'm sure we have a strong enough AI to command thousands of quadcopters and turrets in the same manner."
"The identification system was having problems. There was a 0.0001% chance it would mistakenly kill our own Dominion Restrained Pokémon or soldiers in certain lighting conditions. We've already lost a dozen of our best due to accidents during live testing. If we fixed it with an identification badge, it would be vulnerable to hacking by Rotom, so we opted for a human-controlled system instead. It was far more reliable during tests, but it was less accurate and aimed slower overall."
"So you're telling me this bounty hunting organization has better artificial intelligence than our own?"
"No, sir. If I had to guess, he likely has a Metagross like yours doing the bulk of the controlling and calculations."
"Hm. Interesting. What is the League's response?"
"Our spies will try to make them pay for their transgression, but with his relationship to the Blackthorns, I believe it's a waste of time."
"Very well. Place a bounty on his head. Let the price be an airship or equivalent. That should be enough to entice some of those idle Master ranked trainers."
"Yes, sir. What do you want to do with the footage?"
"Scrap it," Alaric said, shaking his head. "We need to improve the airships before moving forward with the plan. If a Champion isn't even threatened by our Iron Dominion Fleet, there's no point in continuing."
"Yes, sir."
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"Are you serious?" Alex asked darkly as he took in the participants in the hologram.
The Champions and Elite Four of both Kanto and Johto were displayed in front of him, flanked on each side by 8 gym leaders from each region. At the edges of the projection hovered a few smug-looking politicians, likely the ones driving the questions.
"Do we look like we aren't?" Lance shot back, his tone far less professional, tinged with growing irritation.
Alex could immediately tell Lance's irritation wasn't directed at him, which meant it was likely aimed at the politicians at the edge of the call, watching as their complaint was carried out. It seemed Team Dominion was doing its best to put Alex in hot water with the League, and the Champions had to play along unless they wanted to suddenly face internal turmoil in the government.
Understanding the atmosphere, Alex answered carefully, ensuring the meeting proceeded in the way the Champions needed.
"Firstly, no communication was sent by the five airships, so I defaulted their designation to hostile. Secondly, I only attacked when their flight paths indicated they were heading straight for my base, not before but after their corrections were made. Thirdly, once they landed, they began their attack with three forces from each airship without hesitation. So yes, I attacked because they had shown hostile intent."
As Lance opened his mouth to question Alex's account, the politicians at the edges interrupted.
"It's clear you weren't listening to their communications," one of them said. "Otherwise you would have received their distress signal. They were conducting an emergency landing due to the attack by that Master ranked Pokémon. Since you began hostilities, you left them no choice but to retaliate."
Alex raised an eyebrow before turning to Lance's hologram. Lance was furious at being interrupted by a no-name pencil pusher who fancied himself the leader among these powerful individuals.
"Answer the accusation," Lance said after a brief pause, glaring at the politician who had spoken up.
"They were attacked by the nests in the Cerulean Cave danger zone precisely because their destination was my base," Alex said. "Anyone can see that their flight path went directly over the danger zone, though at too high an altitude and speed to be a problem. It was only when they began their descent toward my base that they entered the danger zone and were attacked for it. After that, they continued to proceed toward my base without clarifying their intent, so I attacked as well. As for your concern about our monitoring, all our channels were open, and we received no messages from them. I can prove it with my Rotom."
"Lies!" the politician shouted. "You're a Champion ranked trainer now, so your Rotom is compromised. Any evidence you submit can be easily made up. It's obvious that these merchant vessels were coming to you for a deal, and you attacked them, so their self-defense was justified. I demand that your organization be stripped of its League title and that you undergo psychic evaluation to prove your innocence."
"How about you tell me your address and I show you exactly what kind of deal they were planning," Alex said with a smirk.
"Are you threatening me?" he shouted back.
"So you admit that they had hostile intent!"
"What? That's not what I—"
"Alex," Lorelei cut in. "Submit your evidence of their intent to the League, and we will evaluate its authenticity."
"You're just going to let him—" the politician started.
"If you say one more word," Lorelei threatened, turning to him with a glare that promised an icy death, "I'll be tempted to allow Mr. Wattson to demonstrate how that 'merchant vessel' was planning to sell its goods to you. Take note. I know your address."
The man paled in fright and backed down.
"Humph. Fine, have it your way," he muttered before cutting the call, followed by the other officials ending their communications as well.
Lance fumed, looking like he would burn the League down, before taking a deep breath to calm his aura. No doubt anyone close to him would have fainted from the pressure.
"Sorry about that," Lorelei said with a kind smile. "He managed to gather enough support in the League to push for this inquisition, so our hands were tied unless we wanted to start another bloodbath. Thank you for putting up with it. Although, you'll need to submit more than recordings of your open channels if you want to prove their intent."
"I'll include the schematics and analysis of their technology, as well as a copy of their software. You should be able to find their flight plan and orders there. Unfortunately, they erased their origin before taking that flight plan toward my base, so there's no way to track down Team Dominion's headquarters."
"That's more than enough," Lorelei said before turning to the Elite Four and the Gym Leaders. "You will all be provided a copy of the submitted evidence as well, so you can prepare for a similar threat in the future. This meeting is dismissed."
They nodded, accepting Lorelei's ruling before cutting their communications, leaving Alex alone with Lance and Lorelei.
"So… how's it going with Clarissa?" Lorelei asked, sounding like any curious mother. "She won't tell me how your relationship is going. Should I be expecting any grandchildren soon? Or a wedding? I don't really care which one comes first."
Lance coughed heavily, as if trying to spit out blood. He turned to Lorelei as though to complain before looking back at Alex and throwing him a death glare. He looked furious, far more than he had when that politician interrupted earlier. It seemed he didn't like the idea that his precious angel of a daughter had a man.
"I've left that decision completely up to Clarissa," Alex answered. "For now, we've been keeping it safe."
"Pity… that girl is so confused about what she wants that she doesn't have the initiative to take anything for herself. You should try to push for more children."
"Only when she's comfortable with the idea."
"Ugh," Lorelei sighed, rolling her eyes. "Another one who won't take the initiative. You'll both end up with children who take after Lance."
Lance's eyes widened in insult before his expression turned thoughtful, briefly entertaining the idea. A moment later, he shook his head, unwilling to accept it. His daughter was far too naive to have a child of her own.
"Good job handling Team Dominion, Alex, but be careful. I don't think they're finished with you yet."
"I'll be ready for anything they throw at me," he replied with full confidence.
"Good. And take care of Clarissa. She has improved over the years, but she can still be quite naive," Lorelei said before cutting the call, leaving Alex with Lance.
"I have my eyes on you," Lance warned simply before ending the call as well.
Alex shook his head. Lance was quite the character whenever the topic involved his daughter. Still, he was just thankful it wasn't another death threat like when he was a child. It seemed Lorelei had managed to tame him well.
Alex ended the conference call and instructed Nyx to send Rhea's analysis of the airships to the League. Then, they returned to cleaning up the damage to the base, with promising plans already taking shape for what to do with the airships.
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