"What your daughter did—" Lorelie started to say before Alex interrupted her.
"Technically wasn't illegal," he finished. "She was just as much a victim of the circumstances since she was only defending herself, making this an unfortunate accident."
Alex had access to Alvera's vambrace logs, which Rotom had summarized for him, while Lorelei had access to the League's satellites, which her own Rotom had summarized for her, so they both knew exactly what had happened here prior to the incident.
"Still, she disturbed a Legendary and almost caused a catastrophe."
"Which didn't happen, other than a few lightning strikes that likely didn't hurt anyone. Send me the bill for any damages the lightning strikes caused."
"Fine, but she still needs an official punishment. Otherwise the same excuses would be used to disturb them."
"That's fine. What did you have in mind?"
"20 million credits to pay for all the Champions that were called in and a year of house arrest."
"Sure," Alex said, accepting easily, considering it well worth the price.
The money was barely worth mentioning given his current savings, while the house arrest was good for Vera, who would love to have her daughter back. Alvera could also use some rest to digest everything she had learned throughout her year of travel.
As for those who might want to do the same thing she had done, 20 million credits was considerable for most Elites. It was a sum that would bankrupt many of them and leave them working it off for the next century. It achieved both of their tolerable objectives.
Lorelie nodded and tapped on her phone a few times. She took one final look at the wary Zapdos and confirmed her orders, sending out a cancellation of the emergency call and compensating those who had been summoned for the minimum amount of effort. A million credits each was more than enough.
"You were lucky, young lady," Lorelie said, directly addressing Alvera. "Although you didn't seem lucky enough."
"Huh?" Alvera asked. "What do you mean?"
"What Mom's trying to say is that you officially offered yourself to become Zapdos's trainer. It took an interest in you because of your Electric affinity, but you were rejected in the end," Clarissa explained.
"The hell does that mean?"
"We don't know. It's never had a trainer before, so we don't know its preferences in humans. Although many have tried to convince it, most of them died with a simple tap of its beak."
Alvera paled, realizing she was indeed just lucky. Had the same thing happened with Moltres or Articuno, her other options, she might have been burned alive or frozen into a statue.
"Aha... ahaha. Yeah. Lucky."
"Anyway," Clarissa said, taking a lighter tone, "was it worth it?"
Alvera grinned with a bright, excited smile before presenting the images she had taken on her camera.
"You tell me."
"Wow! These look great! I especially like this one where it's about to pounce."
"Same! Same! I was thinking of increasing the contrast to bring out the lightning around it, making it look even more menacing."
While the two daughters talked, Alex continued his conversation with Lorelie.
"Any news on Team Dominion?"
"Not after the ruckus you caused in Johto. It seems they've focused their efforts on the other regions."
"Oh? Which one are they targeting now?"
"We think it's the Galar or Kalos region. Of the regions that haven't been cleaned out yet, Sinnoh is too much of a hot zone for them. There are the powerful Underworld organizations in the Great Underground and Cynthia's exceptional personal power. They can't afford to do anything there other than mine."
"Kalos is somewhat the same as Unova but has a strong trainer presence, so at most they will only target weaker cities without causing a mess. They won't touch Alola because of the Tapus' presence, so another option is Galar with far greater prospects. If you're hunting for them, that's the best place to start."
Alex had been planning to continue with his own adventures after his short stint in Unova and was considering his options. Ultimately, he chose the Galar region for multiple reasons.
One reason was that Kalos was, similar to Sinnoh, a hotbed for powerful trainers because of the presence of Lumiose City. It was the only public location where many Master ranked trainers could be found openly gathering, giving the world the impression that this was where all Masters went to retire. The truth, however, remained obscured by the information block imposed on Champions and below.
Another, more important reason for picking Galar was the Isle of Armor, considered the mecca of martial arts under a man named Mustard. It was a place that had been on Alex's mind for decades, but he could never go before. Either he was still too weak, hadn't received an invitation, or was busy building up the base.
"I think I'll check out Galar next, but not anytime soon. Not after my little fight with Team Dominion."
"Whatever you decide, try to keep your daughter under control. She's just as much of a troublemaker as you, with a penchant for chasing the next high no matter the cost to her life."
Alex smiled, more proud than concerned.
"I'll be sure to educate her better."
"Somehow I highly doubt that. Goodbye, Alex," Lorelie said before teleporting out with Clarissa in tow, likely leaving to continue training.
"Dad," Alvera called out, feeling guilty about the entire situation.
"Was it worth it?" Alex asked simply, his tone far more serious than when Clarissa asked.
"I..." she hesitated.
"Really think about it before answering me, Alvera."
"Yes," she answered, more certain now that Alex was serious rather than angry.
This was her job, her purpose, her passion. It was the career she chose upon reaching adulthood, and on top of that, it gave her life meaning. She would argue it was the same level of passion Alex, her own father, had for fighting, which among her mothers he was best known for.
"Then you did a good job," Alex said with a smile. "I'm proud of you."
Alvera smiled brightly, even more than when she had been looking over her photos with Clarissa.
"Thanks, Dad," she said, hugging him tightly as the light of teleportation took them home.
-----
"Alvera Madison Wattson! How dare you do something so reckless that you would endanger the entire region! It's bad enough that I keep getting reports of you picking fights with random Elite ranked nests and spending tens of thousands on ammunition when you're supposed to be a photographer. But to think you would cause so much trouble. You are grounded, young lady. Do you hear me? Now go to your room!"
Vera shouted up a storm once Alex answered all her questions, leaving both father and daughter drained.
Once Alvera made it back to her room, she didn't waste any time. She immediately sifted through all the photos she had of Zapdos and began selecting the best ones, editing them, and writing the details of her close encounter without identifying her methods to prevent copycats.
There were easily a hundred photos of her entire journey, which started with her climb up the Rock Tunnel mountain range. She added scenic photos of the landscape with views of the mountains and the surroundings, shots of Pokémon going about their business or attacking her, shots of the abandoned power plant and the Pokémon inside, and she topped it off with images of Zapdos.
There were shots of it sleeping, shots of it preparing to attack with an emphasis on the lightning it emitted, shots of it staring her down up close, its curious expressions, and finally the selfie she had with it at the end.
All of them had a small paragraph about her adventure, accompanied by fitting titles. They were all added to a collection she uploaded to her blog.
Before she could even close her blog window, notifications flooded in as her blog's traffic exploded with comments, messages, emails, likes, dislikes, and every other kind of interaction. It wasn't just the usual members of her family, simps, or true fans either, but reporters, internet celebrities, and random people, all coming in droves to check out her photos.
There were even offers of employment, requests for certain shots, and invitations for expeditions. All good things that every budding photographer needed to place herself among the professionals.
"Hehe... hehe..." she chuckled to herself, excited for achieving her ultimate goal from two months ago. "Hahaha, I'm famous. This is it. This is what I was waiting for. Now my photography career is finally going to take off."
Suddenly, her door swung open and Vera walked in, her expression still clearly furious.
"I was so angry with you that I forgot to mention your punishment. No camera, phone, internet, or technology for a year."
"WHAT!?" Alvera exclaimed, her ultimate plan slowly swirling down the drain.
What use was all this fame if she couldn't ride it for over a year? By the time she got access to her gear again and started updating her blog, she would be right back where she started.
"Metagross," Vera called out, "cut off Alvera from the internet and shut off all her tech."
"Mom! No! Wait! You don't understand."
"Now!" Vera shouted just as Alvera's internet connection was cut off.
"Nooo..." Alvera cried in anguish as she slumped to the floor like a dead fish.
Vera, satisfied with the emotional damage she had dealt, nodded resolutely before shutting the door, leaving Alvera a mess on the floor.
-----
Support me on Patreon
pātreon/babywrath