Nemona went on a warpath as she and her Pokémon rampaged across the lowest level of Area Zero. The armed soldiers proved to be pushovers once their formations broke apart, leaving them scattered, disorganized, and panicked.
Sure, she took the occasional bullet, but as a Champion ranked trainer wearing armor rated against Elite ranked attacks, she could afford to ignore most of it. Her Pokémon fared just as well, shrugging off damage as long as they weren't caught under sustained, concentrated fire. With that advantage, sweeping aside the small army was only a matter of time.
As the fighting began to die down and victory became inevitable, Nemona scanned the battlefield and spotted the blonde haired man sprinting toward the Zero Lab, with Arven and Penny chasing after him. The sight reminded her why they had been drawn away in the first place, leaving this rabble free to start trouble.
"Was he part of this group all along?" she muttered, the possibility sinking in. "He might have been the distraction that let them get to the Professor."
If that was the case, then the mysterious, powerful man was heading inside to rendezvous with his allies, and kidnap Professor Briar.
"Oh, no. I have to stop them!"
She recalled her Pokémon and rushed into the lab, making her way straight for the time machine chamber. When she burst inside, she was greeted by the sight of Arven and Penny confronting the blond-haired man, Professor Briar clutched in his arms, a gun pressed firmly to her head.
"Stop right there!" Nemona shouted as she forced her way past the clustered Pokémon. "Release the Professor now, or you'll regret it."
She released her team with a single swipe, every Pokémon locking onto the man and watching his every move.
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Alex stared at Nemona in confusion before glancing down at his own compromising position. He was holding the Professor with one arm while the gun he had taken from the silver-haired man was still pressed to her head, his finger resting behind the trigger.
He opened his mouth to explain, but judging by the equally confused looks on the two trainers beside Nemona, the situation would sort itself out soon enough.
"Mmfh…" the Professor moaned as she stirred, shaking off the lingering effects of the psychic probing. When her eyes opened, the first thing she saw was a handsome man looking down at her as he held her in his arms.
"Well, hello there, handsome," she said, before her awareness caught up with her. A slow, amused smile curved her lips. "Are you kidnapping me?"
She tilted her head slightly, the smile turning openly suggestive. "You know, all you had to do was ask."
Alex had to admit, this Professor was pretty hot. She had all the right curves and an energetic smile that would light up a room.
"Professor! This isn't the time for that!" Nemona shouted.
"No, I suppose not," she said with a sigh. "What are your demands? The same as the others?"
"No," Alex replied, maintaining his position to keep Nemona from attacking. "I came to claim my Paradox Pokémon recruitment when this whole fiasco broke out. This lady here seems to have misunderstood the situation, so I'm holding steady until her head clears."
"Nemona," Arven called out. "He snuck inside during the chaos and took down the ones who were holding the Professor hostage."
"Before that, they were probing her mind with a Beheeyem," Penny added.
"Waaah!?" Nemona exclaimed.
She realized she might have made a mistake and quickly recalled her Pokémon, finally giving the chamber some breathing room.
"Alex Wattson?" the Professor asked.
"Bounty hunter at your service," Alex said with a smile, lowering the gun.
"Alright," the Professor said as she stood, while Alex unloaded the gun and tossed it aside. He had better ones.
"What exactly did they demand?" Alex asked. "I've had my fair share of run-ins with Team Dominion, so I might be able to help."
"They wanted the artificial intelligence developed by Professor Sada and Professor Turo," she replied. "Unfortunately, they were destroyed when their secrets were revealed, and no notes survived detailing their creation. As for the time machine, we were able to repair it using the notes from the Scarlet and Violet Books. Since then, we've been offering Paradox Pokémon recruitment as a way to fund our research on Terastallization."
"Do you know anything about their movements in the region?"
"No, although you could probably ask him," she replied, pointing to the silver-haired man, who was unconscious.
Alex released Gardevoir to begin the interrogation, adding, "Don't kill him."
Gardevoir nodded, knowing to avoid deep probes that might trigger any psychic implants.
"You said you were here for a Paradox Pokémon?" the Professor asked.
"Yes," Alex replied.
"Wait a minute!" Nemona called out. "He already got one from here, Tempest."
The Professor, Arven, and Penny all stared at Alex in shock. Tempest was notorious for being temperamental and difficult to approach, let alone capture and tame. It had a reputation for being violent, even hunting other Champions in nests or other Paradox Pokémon to feed itself.
"That's impressive," the Professor said. "Technically, you've already fulfilled your quota, so off you go."
"Hold on," Alex said. "I have proof that Grim or Tempest was my Pokémon before it got here. That means my quota hasn't been used."
In truth, Alex didn't really need another Paradox Pokémon. He just wanted to make the most of the money he had already spent. A hundred million credits and 100 thousand contribution points were no small sum. If he could secure another Paradox Pokémon for free, it would make that spending feel all the more worthwhile.
Professor Briar, on the other hand, stopped in her tracks. Did this young man just claim he had captured this Pokémon before the time machine was invented? That would mean he had somehow been in the same time period as the Paradox Pokémon, likely the past, since Tempest was an ancient variant of Salamence.
In an instant, she turned and ran up to Alex, eyes sparkling, examining him like a rare specimen.
"You went to the past? How far did you go? What was it like? Were there people there? What kinds of Pokémon did you encounter?" she asked, firing off questions one after another.
Alex suddenly realized he might have made a mistake by mentioning his past to a professional. He didn't mind sharing with the girls, who hardly cared, but this was a Professor, someone who would want to uncover every detail.
Sighing and giving in for the sake of a free Paradox Pokémon, Alex recounted his journey to the past, including all the intricate details of his discovery.
"Fascinating," the Professor said. "To think they came with Arceus through a series of portals, likely from another dimension or reality. That explains why they can't breed and are genderless. The futuristic ones can't because they're more machine than Pokémon, with the requisite Infinity Energy, but ancient Pokémon were often regarded as ancestors. Does this mean Mew later created the common variants from the same genetic pool? I need to start writing this down."
She took out a holopad and began writing notes, already lost in her own world.
"Does this mean I get another Paradox Pokémon?" Alex asked, glancing at the wide-eyed Nemona, Arven, and Penny.
"Yeah, sure, whatever," the Professor replied.
Getting the green light, Alex turned to Nemona with a wide smile. Two for the price of one was always a nice bargain.
Nemona sighed, already done with the complicated business, before making her way out of the chamber. She still needed to organize a cleanup, begin making arrests, and deal with the inevitable mountain of paperwork.
"Come on. I'll lead you through the process," Penny said, stepping forward. "I'm Penny, by the way. That's Arven, and you've already met Nemona."
The lab and the time machine were largely intact, so there wasn't much for her to oversee. That left her as the only one free to show Alex around and get him out of everyone else's hair. As for Arven, the resident cook, he would likely be busy preparing a feast.
"Nice to meet you, Penny, but can you hold on?" Alex asked, pointing toward the silver-haired man lying unconscious under Gardevoir's control. "I need to finish up with this guy first. I want the bounties, if they have any. You don't mind, do you? I was the one who took down three of their top fighters, after all."
"Sure."
Alex waited for Gardevoir to finish, but it didn't take long before she stood and shook her head at him. The psychic probe on this man was too strong to be broken by her alone.
Alex paused for a moment, then had an idea. He reached for the man's Poké Balls and found the one containing the Beheeyem before releasing it into the room.
The Beheeyem immediately realized its predicament and tried to grab its trainer and activate Teleport, but a sudden flood of Dark type energy around itself and its trainer stopped it from completing the move.
"Here's the deal," Alex said. "Tell me everything you know about your operations, and I'll make sure your trainer lives. Refuse, and I won't hesitate to submit a corpse for his bounty."
The Beheeyem didn't even try to negotiate. It shared everything it knew about their operations through telepathy, dating back to when its trainer was first recruited into Team Dominion. As it turned out, they hadn't exactly been careful with Pokémon when locking their trainers' memories, giving Alex a sudden goldmine of information on them.
Once Alex processed the memories, a faint smile tugged at his lips as he murmured, "Unova, huh. Interesting."
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