“—if you’ve just tuned in, Indigo is in ashes!” bellowed the tv host as pictures of an inferno were displayed behind him.
“Former Elite Four member turned Gym Leader of Cinnabar Island, turned villain of Indigo, Blaine has struck out from the shadows and burned the centre of government! Minor attacks also occurred upon their comm towers and pokenet servers!”
The man twisted, and the camera angle changed so the viewer was staring down at him as he peered up at them. “Is this the supposed fellow nations that the League espoused? How will this stall out negotiations and integration?”
The view changed to a wide shot as the host smiled widely. “Joining me is Battle Duke Lysandre, along with Elite Four member and Duchess Malva to discuss the recent development!”
He leaned towards the two trainers. “Would you say that the recent development of the digital attacks will cause us to rethink linking up our systems?”
“Absolutely!” barked Lysandre while Malva shook her head.
“It wasn’t like we were going to give them open access,” she cut in.
“Oh? What countermeasures were going to be taken then?” asked the host, directing a critical gaze towards Malva.
“Breakers were going to be put in place. The pokenet would have been thoroughly scoured before anything filtered into the national pokenet system, much like it does for Unova and Sinnoh currently.”
“Yet more government regulation is your answer?” mused Lysandre. “They do so love controlling every aspect of our lives.”
Malva shot the man a glare. “You want protection, but then decry us when we do just that?”
“It doesn’t have to be the government that takes on the role. There are several other businesses and tech companies that would handle this.”
“Hmmm, and I’m sure they wouldn’t bungle it,” sneered Malva.
“You mean like the government fumbled the Mélancolie path flooding? How much did they spend on that again, only to make the situation worse for travellers and locals?”
“That is being handled!” snapped Malva hotly.
The host hummed. "Well, I can see things are getting heated between you two, pardon the pun Duchess Malva!” tittered the man, only for Malva to scoff.
“Nothing I haven’t heard a hundred times before.”
“Indeed, now, as a Fire-type specialist, how would you deal with a fellow Fire-type user? It seems the Indigo league might need an expert to weigh in, no?”
Malva hummed, leaning back like she was pleased by the question. “It’s all about intensity and heat. You need not just water trainers but skilled ground and rock type trainers when the fire gets really going.”
“They had Gym Leader Brock on hand according to official reports,” the host murmured. “But they don’t seem to have a Ground type specialist anymore?”
“He was a criminal,” declared Lysandre. And as the host gasp he smirked. “Seems to be a lot of that going on within the Indigo league, no?”
“That was something they determined last year and have been handling. Blaine was exposed during that event but unlike Giovanni, he escaped,” Malva explained. “Champion Lance even released a public declaration regarding the various criminal elements.”
“Which were prolific, no? Cinnabar, Viridian, Goldenrod…” Lysandre made an expansive gesture. “Need I go on?” he asked.
“It’s in the past,” Malva defended.
Lysandre chuckled, and his laughter rumbled out like thunder. “Hohoho, isn’t it Champion Cynthia’s favourite phrase that ‘the future often rhymes with the past’, no?”
Malva opened her mouth to dispute this, only for the host to cut her off. “What of the cultural exchange that was being proposed? Will this impact it? Elite Four Drasna wishes to go to Indigo along with Elite Four Marshal from Unova once more while Sinnoh has yet to propose one of their own? Will Bertha go perhaps?”
“She might at that,” suggested Malva. “But about your point regarding what Champion Cynt—”
Music began to play out and the host glanced up only to shake his head and sigh.
“And that’s all we have time for tonight, I’m afraid! I’m Lukas Lucky Lad! And you’ve been watching the late show!” he winked curtly, and the lights flashed a few times before he relaxed as one of the cameramen signalled they were off the air.
"Great show, guys! I think the viewers will really eat up the drama! Good luck resolving everything!” he remarked as he checked his makeup before giving them both a quick bow of his head and sashaying out of the studio.
Malva sighed and moved to a nearby hallway where she dialled a number on her transceiver.
Diantha answered with her usual stern expression only to soften at Malva’s exhausted look. “It went that bad?”
“It was an ambush like you thought it would be. Next time can you just do the tv circuit?” Malva whined.
“I’ll consider it, sadly, I did have a prior engagement that I couldn’t escape,” Diantha explained.
“Yeah, Will Lukas was well and truly lapping up anything Lysandre said. If he could have, I think he would have sat in Lysandre’s lap during the interview!”
Diantha shook her head. “That’s an image I didn’t need,” she muttered. “Thank you for your efforts, regardless. I will remember this, no matter the outcome,” she said before signing off.
Malva took a moment for the call to disconnect only to grin to herself.
A moment later, a shadow slipped into the hallway beside her.
“Fortunate timing, no?” Lysandre began as he slipped up and rubbed a thumb along her cheek.
Malva smiled proudly up at the board-shouldered man.
He nodded, continuing to stroke her face. “You did well. Diantha will think you did good despite the poor situation, while the population that tuned in will have seen an ineffective government employee hampered by her restrictions, while I looked good.”
“And you said some nice things too,” whispered Malva as she closed the distance, eyes fluttering as she stared up at him. She bit her lip before licking it seductively. “You doing anything…or anyone later?”
“Not tonight. I have more business to attend to,” Lysandre declared as he disengaged Malva from his body to adjust his tie. “I need to strike while the iron is hot. I have other talk shows to attend.”
He released a male Meowstic that smirked at Malva only to vanish into a Teleport.
Malva clicked her tongue. “Wow, way to work a girl up and leave her with no dance partner…like freaking usual.”
Sighing, Malva kicked off the wall and made her way back to her apartment alone.
She sank into her bed and stared at the ceiling. “Feeling the love, Lyandre, really feeling the respect,” she muttered to herself before she rolled over and tried to ignore the growing sense of annoyance at being used by the rich man.
“One of these days,” she muttered to herself while ignoring how she’d said the same many times before.
__________________
Daisy Oak shivered as she walked into her Grandfather’s den.
It wasn’t that she wasn’t allowed in here. Gramp’s had been adamant that he hid nothing from his family.
When they’d been children Daisy and Gary had thought it a pretty interesting place, but kind of boring. They couldn’t play with anything here, and while there were interesting pieces, like the bright banners of fallen legions and pieces of armour that spoke of knights, there were also other oddly dull displays.
Like the photos of various groups with a much younger Samuel Oak smiling out from the crowd with a huge grin on his face.
There were also cabinets of reports stacked along the wall that she and Gary had found extremely boring.
Various burnt books and toys with simple labels on them that listed off locations and dates and nothing more. Those displays had always bothered her for some reason. She wasn’t sure why… until today.
With older, wiser eyes, Daisy understood a bit more of what this room was actually filled with.
The banners, once bright and proud, had belonged to a troop of men, women and pokemon that had raided various settlements.
They weren’t around anymore.
Like dust in the wind their names were gone from people’s thoughts. If any thought of them, they did so in dark places and didn’t voice the names.
All because Grandfather had destroyed them.
“Grandfather? Are you in here? I got off the phone with Gary, and he was still a bit shaken up but he wanted to say thank you for your help against those pokemon thieves.”
When no response came, Daisy grimaced, moving deeper into the room, passing by the second torn banner.
By the fifth such banner, Daisy decided it best to turn her eyes away from them and instead inspect the other memorabilia that littered the room.
The armour was that of enemies or fallen allies. One of the cases was more slag than armour but there was a rather interesting shield that might just have a symbol of a rock? Or was it gemstones?
Shaking her head, Daisy continued to walk, eyes flicking to the pictures of the various groups that gramps had served with during the war.
There were a lot of them. Nowadays, she wondered how many of those people were still alive.
He never had anyone his own age over that wasn’t an intellectual debating some point of pokemon evolution… only for them to depart in defeat as they were shown supporting evidence after supporting evidence for her Gramps’ theories.
The cabinets full of reports were the various missions that he’d taken part in with mission briefings, and after action reports, along with what appeared to be multiple infractions and reprimands from ‘high command’ only for even more commendations to follow.
It told an interesting story of her gramps being not one to follow rules or orders but still do good and great things.
Daisy found her Gramps… no… He was Grandfather right now.
“Grandfather?” she asked, noting the way his muscles were coiled and his gaze was locked onto the display of various burned items.
On top of the display cases were three more burnt items that looked…fresh and there was a smell to them that told Daisy that these had been from the recent attack on the Plateau.
Was that a melted pokedex?
“Who’s pokedex was that?” she whispered, worried about breaking the quiet contemplation of a man that… Wasn’t like her gramps at all right now.
“...his name was Nathan… He had a rather tumultuous Journey but he and his Squirtle were lively characters. He identified quickly with water type pokemon and became something of an expert before signing on with the Rangers. He did good work.”
Grandfather stared at the pokedex. “He never won any tournaments, I don’t think he even reached a quarter-final in any that he took part in.”
Daisy waited, knowing what was to come but hoping that if she remained quiet, it wouldn’t come true.
“His funeral is next week.”
“Oh, I’ll make sure to iron your suit and have your schedule cleared for it. Do you need to take anything?”
Grandfather blinked, and his stance softened as he looked up. Old but sharp eyes searched her face for a moment only for him to chuckle quietly.
He gave Daisy a thankful nod. “No, no I…” he murmured. “My goodness, but you reminded me of Eliza just now. I always knew my son had chosen well when he married her.”
Daisy giggled. “Hmmm makes sense with me being their kid!”
“Yes, yes indeed,” Gramps replied, only to turn his gaze back down to the burnt items.
Daisy’s eyes darted between them, suspecting that they were items from other people that Gramps knew personally and had perished.
Which meant…
The other burnt items already in the display cases…
How many items were there in them? Forty, fifty?
“Can I ask how they…” She found her voice suddenly leaving her.
“It is good to speak of them. Don’t feel like it is wrong to ask how our loved ones left us,” he replied easily.
Daisy gave him a weak smile, mind sliding back to all those years ago when Gramps had walked into the house looking tired and lost in a way she’d never seen her gramps.
She remembered asking where Mum and Dad had been and Gramps crying as he explained what had happened as kindly as he could.
He pointed at the items on top of the cases and began listing off how various people had heroically thrown themselves into situations that had turned for the worst, or in Nathan’s case, had thrown himself into a literal inferno to drag three people out, only to collapse afterwards despite first responders' best efforts.
It was tragic, but there was an undercurrent of something else that Daisy couldn’t help but ask.
“All these attacks, the fires, the pokenet going down and even what happened here and Cinnabar… why?”
“Because Blaine wanted to try and make us afraid," Gramps stated. “But people aren’t afraid. He’s missed the mark despite all his success. People aren’t afraid, they are angry.”
His fist clenched. “They are also more motivated than they have been for quite some time.”
“What are you going to do?” Daisy asked.
“I’m going to assemble some old friends and we’re going to remind Blaine why he kept his head down with us when we ran the League,” Samuel Oak, former Champion of Indigo declared.
Daisy nodded, feeling a surge of pride in her heart. “I’ll hold down the fort here for you, and make sure you have a warm meal ready for when you come home.”
He beamed at her. “So like your mother.”
“Hmmmm, but I was named after Nanna,” she teased.
He chuckled. “You know she expected me to cook most of the time?” he joked only to insist when Daisy shook her head. “No! I’m serious! She hated cooking! Thought it too traditional!”
That got a laugh from Daisy but she didn’t let it bother her as Nanna Daisy might not have liked her having such traditional views.
She did enough other things around here to feel sure of her place, and with Gramps busy, she’d pretty much be calling the shots for a while and making sure the other researchers didn’t get too lost in their studies.
They didn’t need any more fires breaking out after all.
________________
Pryce snorted, and a puff of frost escaped him despite the warm day. “I know you’re here Agatha,” he announced, not moving an inch from his bench in Mahogany town.
“Your daughter did well,” Agatha declared as she shimmered into being on the path leading past the former Champion. “And it seems that your communication towers did well.”
“Bah! Overengineered! Overly complicated and expensive things!”
Agatha shot him an annoyed look. “I was complimenting you, you idiot!”
“Well, do it in some other manner! You know how much those things vexed me during my tenure as Champion! We could have used the funding in other ways!” Prcye scowled at her. “You should have warned me about what I was signing off on!”
“Me?!” hooted Agatha. “Me?!” she jabbed her cane at Pryce. “I was having to keep my damned head down! You wanted Blaine and I gone and once you got rid of Blaine you were looking for any excuse! Much like Lance was with your daughter!”
“I had cause, you were siphoning funds!”
“You never caught anything! Or else you’d have dragged me through the muck! She crowed.
Prcye shot to his feet. “That! Statements like that are exactly what I’m talking about! You’re practically confessing!”
“I did no such thing!” Agatha replied with a smirk.
Prcye clenched his fists only to exhale and send a wave of cold air out from him. “Vexing as ever!” he declared.
“She can be that way,” agreed Koga from the bench seat next to Pryce.
Pryce shot to his feet and inhaled sharply as he clutched at his chest. “Don’t do that!” he roared.
Koga blinked blandly. “You have nothing to fear from me. You know that.”
“Says the ninja,” muttered Pryce as he tugged his scarf into position and sat back down, slightly away from Koga’s position, only to rethink it a moment later when Agatha bracketed him.
“Damn you Oak,” he muttered as Agatha smirked at him.
A powerful wind blew through the park.
Rather than shield themselves from it the trio of elderly, yet powerful pokemon trainers looked up to find a large Dragonite descending in front of them.
A moment later it landed and the rider atop its back dismounted easily.
“You’re all here,” Samuel Oak remarked with his usual good-natured smile.
Pryce was about to scoff when Oak bowed deeply from the waist.
“Thank you for listening and coming. I want to make things right by correcting an error you all warned me about for years.”
For a long moment, none of them spoke.
Prcye considered asking Oak to lift his head as there was no animosity between them.
But as usual, Agatha was quick to kick a man when he was down.
“Oh? What’s this? You admitting to it finally? About Giratina damned time!” she snapped as Pryce, Koga and even Oak flinched.
“Agatha you should invoke its name so casu—” Oka tried to say only for Agatha to launch out of her seat and get right into Oak’s face.
“I say it so you know just how serious I am!” she growled. “I will have its eyes upon me and will invoke the pokemon of nightmares and death! That will make you listen, no?”
“Don’t do that,” Oak murmured, eying her worriedly. “Don’t hold yourself hostage like that. There are too many people that care for you—”
“Oh, that’s rich coming from you! During the war how often did you throw yourself into the front lines without a care for the heart attacks you gave us?” Agatha growled.
“Weeeeell that was that and this is—”
Oak didn’t see the cane coming, and it stabbed him in the foot, only to then smack him in the jaw as he leaned down to grab his foot.
“Ow ow! Alright, alright! You were right, and I was wrong!” he declared, hopping backwards.
Koga snorted. “As amusing as your usual comedy routine is, you had something you wished to discuss with us, no Samuel?” he prodded.
Pryce nodded, glad that the poison specialist was here to keep them on track. If it was just him, Agatha, and Oak here, he might drive himself crazy… Prcye blinked suddenly as he realised that elevating Koga to the Elite Four was something he should have done years ago. It would have solved so many issues.
Urgh, hindsight truly was twenty-twenty.
“He’s right,” Prcye grizzled. “What do you need us here for, Samuel?”
“I want to hunt Blaine down,” Oak said calmly as he stopped hopping around and stood tall like he hadn’t just been smacked around by a ghost user. That had to have hurt him on a soul level…
Pryce shook his head, discarding it as irrelevant for now but worth later consideration. If there was a way to negate or limit the damage Agatha could do when she struck, it would be worth learning.
“Well, as you know Blaine is one of the smartest men alive,” Oak began. “This means that the typical first point of call, which is to investigate old decommissioned bases will be something he thought of, while he might have also trapped them to catch us or others out.”
“It’s still going to be a vital step to take,” Prcye pointed out.
“Indeed. Which is why specialists are taking care of it.”
“Who knows how to disarm or deal with traps from the war?” Pryce pressed.
“Oh… I know someone,” Oak replied with a smile.
______________
Lt. Surge grinned as he snapped his hand forward at the half-hidden base entrance. His hair was standing on edge and the air itself buzzed with ozone as electrical pokemon built up a gigantic charge.
“FIRE!” he roared and his pokemon unleashed a lightning bolt that would stop even a Zapdos in its tracks.
The door, bent, warped, melted and exploded in various parts as the electrical energy continued to slam into it.
“Knock knock, motherfuckers. If you’re in here, come on out!” chuckled Lt. Surge as he stalked into the base with a confidence that some might call arrogance.
He just called it style.
___________________
“I have someone making sure they’re taken care of. Let’s just leave it at that. If he encounters Blaine he knows to retreat or call it in if he can’t,” Oak demurred.
Koga narrowed his eyes at Oak for a long moment, only to sigh. “I’m not sure how you learned about operative Black, but I suppose he will work in this instance.”
Agatha coughed. “He might have some competition for most bases inspected.”
Pryce frowned only to groan. “Not Bruno!”
____________________
Bruno tore through the metal door with his pokemon following his charge. They came in hard and fierce, leaving destruction in their path. When they faced no resistance, Bruno marched back out with a scoff.
He drew out a piece of paper and drew a line through a list.
He then held it out to an exhausted-looking psychic trainer. “Sir, please, can we just rest for a li—”
“No Teleport ponyta! We move now!” barked Bruno firmly as he grabbed the other man and lightly shook him
"Ponyta can't teleport though?" whined the psychic only to get another light shake that saw his head bouncing off his chest.
They teleported away a moment later.
__________________
Oak pursed his lips and raised his transceiver. “Best we let them know about each other… I wouldn’t want them getting into a fight over the same objective.”
“Like that would stop them,” muttered Agatha. “If we’re lucky Bruno will get zapped so hard he might start thinking for once.”
“That is highly inappropriate, Agatha,” chided Koga.
Pryce eyed the man, thoroughly lamenting that he’d never thought to add him onto the roster of Elite Four. He truly was perfect for the role.
Damn him for being so stealth and not drawing attention like other Gym Leaders had!
Pushing the missed opportunity of the past to the back of his mind Pryce sniffed. “What are you planning if you’re not going to be attacking the bases?” he asked.
“Oh, well I had a think about it, and I decided to do something a little different. I looked over everywhere they attacked, and then what they didn’t attack in the Porygon Plague. It was very distracting and while there were several points that stood out, there was also an unusual addition to the list that I think bears mentioning as this particular researcher requires precise tools to test his theory.”
“Blaine stole a researcher?” Koga pressed suddenly. “Who?”
“Most people just know him as Bill… the creator of the pokemon transfer system, the pokeball teleport system, and finally, is testing the artificial box system for long term storage of pokemon.”
“He’d be able to cripple Indigo fully if he were able to hijack that system!”
“Indeed,” Oak replied. “Bill has typically been monitored due to his demands to push forward with the pokemon storage system, but his security detail was lifted with the emergency.”
“Precisely as Blaine knew it would be for specific assets of Indigo,” murmured Pryce. “Do you have a trail to follow?”
Oak grinned. “I do indeed!” he announced only for each of their transceivers to chirp with the emergency broadcast tone.
“A broadcast?” Agatha hissed. “Has something else happened?” she growled as she activated the link.
Lance appeared, and he looked tired, but stoic. He looked like a man about to speak hard truths, but there was also a glint of satisfaction dancing about his features.
“He’s got a trick up his sleeve,” Agatha murmured, wondering what it could be.
She didn’t have to wait long.
She cackled as Lance’s declaration finished, knowing that Lance had made a wonderful counterplay.
“I think we’re going to have to move now,” Oak declared firmly, with the others falling into line with him as they vanished in a Teleport from Oak’s Alakazam.
____________________
Blaine strutted down the hallway of the TR holdings. Around him peons and technicians scurried while lesser scientists bowed their heads towards him.
Blaine felt his moustache twitch upwards in satisfaction. So many objectives had been achieved!
In one fell swoop he’d stabbed into Indigo’s brain and torn out all the knowledge that had been denied to him in the past. Now he had the specifications for a great deal of tools, scientific journals and information that had once been withheld from him.
Oak liked to pretend that Blaine was the monster but with the evidence before him, Blaine could see that while he’d been drawing Oak’s attention, others had been performing the very acts Oak was vigilant of Blaine for.
Just as Blaine had expected.
He’d known the greed of mankind would see them chasing leads that he couldn’t. For all Oak’s attempts to quash lines of pursuit, others would still seek them out. Blaine could admit that he might have nudged things along with an innocuous comment here and there during quiet moments with various CEOs or Heads of Research, all while Oak, and then Pryce had watched him like a Pidgeot.
He’d had to wait years to get these results!
It was galling that he’d had to resort to such tactics, but it was better than facing prison, or a battle he wasn’t sure he could win.
Blaine reached his personal lab and smirked as he began to peruse the various articles and records he had access to thanks to the ‘Porygon plague’ as the plebs of Indigo were calling it.
He sniffed after a few minutes; even with him nudging them along their methodology was lacking.
There were a myriad of ways they could have extended the trials, pushed the package and gotten results, only for some of the corporations to grow squeamish.
Not Devon or Silph Co though. They’d certainly delved deeper than others.
The silph scope alone was a perfect example of an item that could only be created by breaching the boundaries of life and death with ghost Pokémon. Blaine had to admit, being able to see a ghost pokemon coming, even when it wasn’t phased with this plane of existence, was certainly an achievement.
It took twenty minutes for him to create a specialised lens for himself and then create a lesser set of goggles for the various grunts to begin wearing going forward.
Turning to other projects that would assist him going forwards Blaine began to work only to find himself interrupted a few hours later.
“Blaine here, what is the issue? Is Bill being fractious still?”
“He is, yes,” replied the sylvette tones of Madam Bossue. “But I thought it best for you to tune in and see Lance’s official response to our raid.”
“Feh! I would say it is not worth my time, but it will be amusing to watch him gnashing his teeth!” he declared with a smirk, twisting in his chair to activate a nearby television.
Young Lance appeared looking tired, but there was a glint of something in his eyes.
“People of Indigo, I come to you once again as your Champion, the defender of our way of life and peace to apologise for my inability to stop the threat before it could impact our way of life.”
Lance bowed his head lightly, and Blaine scoffed. The boy had gone soft if he thought the people would care for such gestures. He expected they’d be howling for his resignation within the week if that was all he had to say.
Perhaps Karen would be taking over as champion soon enough? Brock and Sabrina seemed too simplistic in their mindset to seek out power to make true change.
“—the attack came from an angle that we had never considered, and for that we were caught unprepared. Nevertheless we have taken emergency actions to rectify the pokenet, and the various damaged infrastructure. I do not yet have a figure on the cost of this action but know that it will be high.”
Lance nodded. “We will recover, and come out stronger.”
He laced his fingers. “To the perpetrators of this attack I have only this to say.”
Blaine smirked.
This ought to be good.
“You will not be able to escape us,” Lance began, his words rumbling out as the spark began to grow with each word.
“We will seek you out and destroy you. You have attacked us and shattered our security in a way we all wish to reject as good and proper. You have stolen much with your raids, and there will be a reckoning for this.”
Lance stood and he glowered down at the camera. “For that reason, I am using my powers as Champion to establish a bounty.”
Blaine blinked in surprise. Bounty?
“Blaine, formerly of Cinnabar island, former Elite Four Member and Gym Leader of Cinnabar. You were stripped of your titles but now you are to be stripped of your rest. I am establishing a ten million pokedollar bounty, payable to anyone who delivers information that leads to your capture.
Lance stared straight at Blaine through the television, knowing that he had Blaine’s attention. “Knowing the type of people that you have no doubt surrounded yourself with, I will further extend options for indemnity for specific actions that will need to be tolerated. I will draw the line at murderers, rapists, or other sickening crimes, but if theft is all you have performed, and you want the easiest payout of your life, then I suggest you seek out, call, or draw attention to yourself with Rangers, Police, or other relevant authorities.” Lance smirked. “Blaine… for every day that you go free, I will sweeten the pot. I don’t care if I have to perform more advertising to pay for this, or hawk goods I’d never feed my pokemon. I might ruin my image, but I am more than willing to have you dragged to justice. So scurry deep into your hole Blaine, it won’t stop me from finding you!”
The connection then cut out, only to switch back to the regular program of this time.
“Samurai Furret! You dare?! I will burn you from—”
Blaine switched the television off calmly, ignoring the children’s program.
His eyes darted towards the door leading to his labs.
There were lots of people out there with inferior minds and spirits… plenty that would be tempted by this bounty and what it offered.
It was practically a golden ticket.
Blaine’s eyes slid towards Madam Bossue’s figure on their call.
She notably hadn’t said a word.
Ten Million pokedollars…was not an insignificant pay out.
Blaine leaned back in his chair. “I’ve created more wealth than that from my research,” he stated calmly.
Madam Bossue inclined her head. “Indeed, you have… see that this continues… but for now we are going to have to shift you away from our manned operations… too many people know your current location, and I don’t trust them to stay loyal,” she sighed, knowing that it was practically guaranteed.
Blaine sniffed, annoyed that Lance had actually forced his hand. “I have a location that I can go dark in.”
Madam Bossue raised an eyebrow at that but Blaine simply smiled, knowing it would infuriate her that she’d missed such a facility. Heh, everyone had missed this facility in truth.
He gave the lab another look over, annoyed and impressed despite himself.
Glancing towards a whiteboard that featured a timeline of events with a picture of Brock of Pewter on it Blaine smirked. He’d need to make another up for Lance. The lad had surprised him.
It seemed the younger generation wasn’t without some bite.
He stood with a dark chuckle, his heart pulsing as he felt old instincts stir. He’d need to stay on the move now.
He couldn’t linger too long, and he’d need to continue to contribute to Madam Bossue’s TR holdings, lest he stop being the Golden Farfetch’d that laid eggs of gold.
Heh! The tension would merely make him sharper.
He’d been denied a few times now by the youngsters of today. He couldn’t wait to face them again.
It would make it all the better when he crushed them.
_________________
A.N. Thanks go to my patreons for your continued support.
It also goes to Twmmy for proofreading this chapter.
It also goes to Ron Howard’s movie Ransom, starring Mel Gibson. When I initially wrote the bounty into the story, I wondered how someone like Lance would respond to it, then I recalled Mel Gibson’s monologue on the movie and was like… yeah… that’ll work.