Alex, all the girls, and their three children stepped out of the light of teleportation and into the lobby of the new base in Johto. It was located east of Route 45, southeast of Blackthorn City, and directly west of Mt. Silver, bordering a Champion ranked danger zone to the east. The elevation was considerable, as the base sat along the rising slopes of a mountain range, but it met Alex's requirements perfectly.
Celise had tried to secure a better location to the northwest of Johto, along the forests north of Route 38, but Moomoo Farm had already purchased all the surrounding land, including much of the adjacent danger zone that extended further inland to the northwest. That left this site near Mt. Silver as their best option. From here, they could earn free meat from the frequent wild Pokémon floods, build goodwill with the League by stabilizing the area, and potentially develop a trainer-focused city that would profit from expeditions into the wilderness.
"Are we home?" Lila asked innocently, unable to tell the difference between the lobby of the Kanto base and the one here in Johto.
"No, sweetie," Lyra replied, bending down to her level. "We're in Johto now, so behave, okay?"
"Hmmm… okay!" she said, already losing interest in her surroundings since they looked much the same as what she was used to.
Alex, though, could immediately tell the difference. There were significantly more women in the building. Where the base in Kanto had been a family-friendly location, with an even gender balance and couples walking hand in hand with their children to enjoy the amenities, this base was dominated by women of all shapes and sizes. The majority were either quite butch and muscular with an intimidating stature, tall and slim with an air of elegance, or short and cute with intentionally perky steps. Their outfits ranged from armor and dresses to casual wear, or, in some cases, barely anything at all. It was a feast for the eyes of any man.
"We'll take a tour of the farms," Kaia said, dragging her son Kai along, with Vera and Iris in tow.
"We'll check out their facilities," Talia added, leading Lina and Mira behind her.
"And we'll see the training grounds," Lyra said, bringing Lila, Mika, and her son Mica with her, leaving Alex with Celise, Maris, Nyx, and Rhea.
"We'd better head up to the command center," Alex said as the five of them took the elevator to the top floor.
They stepped into a hallway that led to the base leader's personal accommodations, the family's rooms, and the command center, where the base's entire operations could be managed. Making their way to the command center with familiar steps, they entered a room already occupied by six women and four men, all seated around a large rectangular holotable identical in design to Alex's own.
At the head of the table sat Morgan, radiating authority, with five scowling women beside her. On the far side were Dale and three men of imposing stature, who immediately smiled as Alex entered.
"Alex!" Dale greeted, standing as the other men followed, while Morgan and her group remained seated. "You finally decided to join us."
"I wanted to give you the space you needed to get used to the place," Alex replied, taking a seat opposite Morgan as the girls gathered around him, claiming any nearby chairs. "I won't be the one calling the shots here, after all."
Alex turned to Morgan sitting opposite him, her lips curved in a calm, seductive smile. "That would be you, Morgan."
In the race to reach Champion rank, Morgan had won, her Nidoqueen taking the undisputed lead, while Dale's Poliwrath followed a month later. Of course, neither could surpass Lyra and Mika, who had reached Champion rank with their Corviknight and Pidgeot three months before even Morgan. After all, they had also been able to consistently feed their Pokémon Champion ranked meat, thanks to the 5% of the rewards they received, which equaled 50 million credits. The same applied to Nyx, Emma, and Lily, though they were still a year or two away from reaching the rank themselves.
"Now, for the reason of my visit," Alex said, his aura flaring slightly, instantly shifting the dynamics in the room and redefining who held the head seat. "How are operations going?"
Dale and his men smiled before turning to Morgan's girls, whose scowls quickly vanished, replaced with meek expressions. Morgan, however, kept her smile, stood, and activated a hologram of the base in the center of the table. It looked almost identical to Alex's own base, except there was no manmade lake at the center, and the overall boundaries were about a square mile smaller.
"As you can see, the entire base was completed without any problems despite the troubles we had at the start."
"Troubles?" Alex asked.
"Yes, there were quite a few dissatisfied parties that kept interrupting construction, which required additional funds as a result of the battles, but we were ultimately able to drive them away."
"Let me guess," Alex said, placing his elbow on the table and resting his head on his hand. "Team Dominion?"
"Yes," Morgan replied with a serious nod. "They've been persistent in trying to disrupt our operations and were among those who caused the most damage."
Team Dominion was now fully aware of Alex and, by extension, the Silver Network as a threat, so they had been trying to make life difficult for them throughout Kanto and Johto, the same way they targeted Team Umbraline in almost every region they moved into. They harassed Maris's supply depot, hunted Silver Network bounty hunters, and in this particular case tried to drive up the expenditure of the Johto base.
Fortunately, Alex had an extra piggy bank in Team Vortex, who got what they wanted in the end in exchange for covering any additional expenditure the base required, all while footing the bill for Highridge City, named after the mountain range where it was built. They even accepted placing the head of the base as a founder with 10% shares of the city, similar to Alex's own arrangement.
The fact that they didn't complain in the slightest indicated that there was real money being made in Clearstone City from the harvesting operations. It was something Alex chose to ignore simply because it wasn't his forte, and the girls were busy enough as it was.
"The rest of the problems stemmed from the local underworld organizations whose businesses involve human trafficking, human experimentation, and drug dealing, which are the prime targets for most of our bounty hunters."
"Do you need help?" Alex asked simply.
"We," Morgan said, flashing a glare at Dale, "have everything under control. We're just having disagreements on where to start."
Alex turned to Dale with a slightly apologetic expression. "Sorry, Dale, but you lost this round, so Morgan gets to decide how to move forward. Take this as a learning opportunity for when we collect enough funds to move into Hoenn and you get your own operation going."
"Got it, boss," Dale said with a serious nod.
"Now, tell me about the base," Alex continued.
Morgan dove into the specifics of their version of the base that differed from the one in Kanto. To start, the nests that were convinced to help defend it came from multiple Elite ranked groups that quickly reached Champion rank upon evolution. These nests included Ursaring, Poliwhirl, Tangela, Sneasel, Donphan, and, surprisingly, Xatu.
The leaders were convinced when they were promised the chance to evolve further. Specifically, Ursaring was given a Peat Block and evolved into Ursaluna, Poliwhirl into Poliwrath with a Water Stone, Tangela into Tangrowth when taught Ancient Power, and Sneasel into Weavile when given Razor Claws. As for the expenditures and procurement of such rare evolutionary items, it was all thanks to Team Vortex, who provided them through their extensive distribution network for free as part of their contribution.
As for the Donphan and Xatu lines, the Donphan nest was the closest nest to the base and was convinced to join or suffer death, while the Xatu nest was Morgan's long-term plan finally coming to fruition. She had wanted a teleporter of her own ever since she lost Iris to Alex a long time ago.
One of her girls, Althea, who was currently in the room looking away as Alex glanced at her, had a talent for Flying types and slowly raised a Xatu nest from scratch while teaching them Teleport. They still didn't have the numbers, though, so it was up to Iris's Butterfree to pick up the slack while Althea did her best to increase them.
The base also had the same defenses as the one in Kanto due to Rhea having an extra stockpile of turrets. They were the old versions, though, not the new ones Rhea had developed using the resources collected after the battle. The same went for the quadcopter drones, with the base stockpiling over 5 thousand of them for Morgan's Rotom to control, giving it all the defenses it needed to fend off Champion ranked assaults.
Everything else was largely the same, including the hydroponics farm, the berry trees in the backyard, the forest for the Pokémon to live in, the battlegrounds for the Champions, the main hub, the telecom tower, the factory/laboratory, and the bounty hunter training grounds. This ensured that the base was complete and able to match Alex's own in building up the bounty hunters in the region.
Once Morgan finished explaining, Alex gave a satisfied nod, happy with the results of their endeavor after an entire year of effort. They finally had a second location that would bring in more money to bolster the finances at the Kanto base. Not that it was truly necessary, it was just nice to have back up when needed considering how close both bases were to each other.
They continued discussing logistics and the new recruits from Johto until evening, when Lina served a celebratory dinner, overflowing with Champion ranked meat for everyone. The base rang with laughter and clinking glasses well into the night.
Unbeknownst to them, Team Dominion was already scheming, preparing an attack to crash their celebration.
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