The problem the girls had been dealing with since Alex left was that the neighbors wanted access to the northern wilderness. This meant building a pathway through their territory for public use, as well as adding gates to both sets of walls that had been built so far. Unfortunately, the neighbors were demanding, not asking, which was why the girls were worried they might pick a fight while Alex was away. In the end, nothing happened until today.
Alex immediately called out his away team before teleporting to the base. After a few jumps, he arrived at the site of a battle already underway between three Elite ranked trainers and the home team, and the home team was losing.
Absol, Morpeko, Houndoom, Mightyena, Liepard, Honchkrow, Sharpedo, Mandibuzz, and Shiftry were being cornered by the trainers' Pokémon, outnumbered 2 to 1. Thankfully, none had fainted yet as they maintained a coordinated Protect rotation while surrounded. The opposing trainers kept switching out their Pokémon to preserve stamina. At this rate, the attackers would eventually win if they kept up the assault.
Alex immediately went into action and released all his Pokémon. Gardevoir sent out orders and chose a simple strategy. Since they outnumbered the enemy team, she had all the Pokémon pick out favorable opponents before ordering a simple 2-on-1 battle. Those that remained were sent after the most destructive or most threatening Pokémon in the enemy group.
Since they were already scattered and slightly weakened, it didn't take much time to individually isolate them and start a one-sided battle. This led to a few Pokémon fainting right off the bat.
The trainers, suddenly finding themselves at a disadvantage, retrieved their Pokémon and released them in formation around them, ready to deploy another Protect rotation if needed.
Unfortunately for them, Alex didn't give them the chance. He ran for them immediately upon arrival, covered in Dark type energy, and managed to capture one of them before the others had a chance to react.
He locked his target's Poké Balls and knocked the trainer out before retreating while they were regrouping.
Now, they were left with two incomplete teams numbering only 10 Pokémon in total.
They hadn't begun attacking yet, so Alex took this time to ask.
"Before I kill you for trespassing, attempted murder, and a bunch of other claims that equally justify killing you for self-defense on my land, mind telling me what the objective of this little exercise was?"
"Your Pokémon attacked first!" one of the trainers shouted angrily.
"Nice try, but they're trained for defense only. They only attack when they sense hostile intent. A quick psychic evaluation on them would show that. Care to try again?"
"I'll answer your questions," came a voice near the construction site.
Alex turned and was met with a man wearing a hard hat and a reflective vest. He was a foreman, judging by the clipboard in his hand and the way the other workers paused when he approached. His face was lined from years under the sun, and his expression carried the weight of someone who had seen enough chaos for one day.
"They came up and started asking questions about the plans for the construction. Then, they started making demands like changing it to include pathways and gates. When I refused for obvious reasons, they started getting violent. Broke a few prefabs we had sitting around and some raw materials that needed to stay whole. I don't know how you plan to handle this but we need to talk about adding more money to the budget. As you know, any interference with our work no matter the source will be the responsibility of the client."
"That's fine," Alex answered. "There were some changes we wanted to request anyway so we might as well take this opportunity to add more to the pile."
"As long as you pay us, we'll be more than happy to add anything you want."
"That still doesn't answer the question of why they have the balls to try this stunt."
"It's because of the exact stipulation I mentioned earlier. If they managed to destroy enough materials, we would have to shift the responsibility onto our clients, who would end up bankrupt from all the additional fees. And it's not just the cost of replacing materials; the contract also includes compensation for any medical or psychological damages our workers might suffer."
"I've been in enough construction sites to know it's a stipulation that your enemies can take advantage of. We've had more than enough clients go bankrupt from overbudgeting because of problems like these, and there's just no fix for it."
"You have to understand, it's the client's responsibility to ensure our safety wherever they decide to build. Out here in the wilderness, surrounded by hostile nests, there's no way we can justify working under these conditions without that clause in place."
"So, it's just a threat then, do what we say or we'll bankrupt you," Alex muttered before turning to the trainers, who looked like children caught red-handed. "You do know that if I decide to leave this territory, you'll have to contend with the yearly flood by yourselves, right? Why would you try to get rid of the only thing keeping you safe from it? Wouldn't it be better to build your access points through the mountains or over them?"
"Hah! As if we need your protection to build up this valley. You were just lucky to think of that disposable wall to thin out the flood. We could've survived here if we'd thought of that first."
"Shut the fuck up, you idiot!" the other trainer snapped.
Alex, meanwhile, realized why his position didn't matter anymore. It was true that his wall idea was the reason he could hold off a flood despite being just an Elite ranked trainer. Why did he have to be the protector when other trainers could do the same? All they had to do was build a disposable wall. It wasn't even expensive.
There were plenty of Elites to pick as guards, and the valley was rich in natural resources. It was the perfect place to establish a city owned by a group of Elites.
The only problem with that plan was him, the guy who thought of it first. If they could get rid of Alex or turn him into a subordinate, whoever led this rabble would be in the best position to rake in the most profits from the valley.
"Alright, I get it. Now comes the fun part," Alex said before turning to the foreman. "Thank you for clearing that up for me. My manager will contact you with additional details for a few expansions and additions. Don't worry, I won't be going bankrupt anytime soon. As a matter of fact, add some psychological damages to the bill, on me."
"Oh… alright. What about them?" the foreman asked, pointing to the two remaining trainers.
"They'll be the reason for the psychological damages."
"Ah, right. Well, have a good day, sir. We'll… go take a break now that the trouble's been sorted."
"You go do that."
Basically, it was hush money for what Alex planned to do next. Even if they were used as witnesses, Alex had some confidence when it came to Sabrina serving as judge, jury, and executioner. He was sure she wouldn't mind overlooking these minor details.
Once the construction crew took a break on the other side of the construction site, Alex turned back to his captive and remaining invaders.
"Now, you are what I like to call, lackeys or sacrificial pawns. Your death would mean nothing to me or whoever owns you. Even if there is some complicated scheme that would trigger as a result of my killing you, I really don't give a shit at this point. You came here to cause trouble on my land, that's grounds for a death sentence as far as I'm concerned. Still, that doesn't mean I'm entirely heartless. So, give me one good reason why I should let you live and we'll go from there."
"You don't know who you're messing with!" the angrier of the two trainers shouted.
"All the more reason why I don't give a fuck. I mean, if I knew, I would be terrified, but I don't know, so I really don't mind killing you."
He opened his mouth to reply, but no words came out. He sported a confused look on his face as if finally realizing the logic behind Alex's reply. Why would he be terrified if he knew nothing of his opponent?
"We're—" he started before he was smacked on the back of the head by the other trainer.
"He's baiting you, you dumbass. From this point on, just don't open your fucking mouth, you got that?"
He seethed before eventually relenting.
"Look," the other trainer said. "You don't want to mess with us. You have no idea what we're capable of. If you knew, that'd only get you into more trouble. So, why don't you just follow our instructions and leave it at that?"
"Bad idiot, good idiot? Sorry, but my logic still stands. I have no idea who I'm messing with. Even if it's a Master ranked trainer, I still know my rights as an Elite. You're on my land, destroying my property, and fighting off my defenders. That's grounds for self-defense no matter how fast or slow. So long as you're standing on my property, the League won't be able to do jack shit."
"We're from the Underworld! Have you heard about that?" the other trainer asked rather proudly.
It seemed they had absolutely no idea who they were messing with. All they likely knew of him was that he was a young trainer who made money informing on criminals as a bounty hunter. Those records were relatively private and only accessible to those in the League, which meant Alex was dealing with criminals who weren't even that high up the hierarchy.
With a sigh, Alex washed his hands of the issue; he still had one more captive to interrogate, so he decided to leave these two idiots to his Pokémon.
"Get rid of them."
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