Houndoom had been a wild Pokémon with a mean streak similar to Hydreigon's. She'd try to burn anyone who got too close, and if subdued, she'd poison the air with fumes from her mouth.
She was a menace—difficult to control—and was passed around from trainer to trainer until she met Alex. What happened next mirrored Absol's story.
She, too, was cowed by Hydreigon, but surprisingly chose to challenge Absol for a higher spot in the hierarchy—and lost to a single, critical Stone Edge.
Since then, she's been training harder to surpass Absol.
Over the past three months, Alex continued training his three new Pokémon, teaching them all the dos and don'ts while in the presence of Hydreigon to reinforce the hierarchy.
For the most part, it worked. They would ignore everyone else—except for one particularly hunky Arcanine for Absol and Houndoom and Raticate for Morpeko, that is.
As for Morpeko, as long as there was food, there were no problems. In full belly mode, she was the sweetest Pokémon around. But when she changed form, the girls would scramble away after tossing her some Pokémon meat as an offering.
They still adored her, though. Her cuteness factor was simply too high to resist.
When Alex told the trio they were responsible for defending his territory, property, and nest while he was away, they were initially disheartened—until Hydreigon snorted and straightened them out. She would not tolerate being replaced by anyone here.
With their acceptance of their role as guards, Alex was finally free to go out on bounties again. He was down to his last five million—barely enough to last until the first harvest.
So, he met with Nyx, who had some good news.
"Hey, beautiful. How's it going?"
"I need money—I mean, bounties," Alex fumbled, prompting Nyx to chuckle.
The girls had been teasing Alex lately because of their unusual situation. Eight beautiful women employed by a young man—six of whom were sleeping with him. All of them acted like his wives, and he, in turn, behaved like the perfect husband. Yet none of them were officially together.
As a result, they'd been flirting with him more than usual, as if trying to nudge him into finally asking them to be his girlfriends. So far, Maris was winning by a landslide with her strict-yet-sexy assistant persona. Vera was second, sweet and nurturing, the very image of a perfect wife.
Nyx, on the other hand, leaned into her role as the bold, flirty biker chick who knew exactly what she wanted—hence the overbearing flirting.
"You're in luck," she said, glancing at her personal laptop. "I've got a ten for you, with a few ones scattered around him. Apparently, he's been using guns to kill Pokémon in front of their trainers. The target is wanted alive—I think the League wants to know who produced those weapons."
She couldn't use Alex's high-end server because of the Rotoms, who were trained to obey League regulations while online. So instead, Alex had secretly set up a private network for her in her house—completely isolated from the Pokémon. She used it to hack into the dark web, tapping into a supposedly hidden network separate from the League's systems.
Though between the two of them, they both highly doubted that was actually true.
"They already know who. It's Argent Solutions. They probably just want to pinpoint the actual illegal manufacturing site," Alex added.
"They're holed up in a warehouse in the slums. There's a meeting scheduled in two hours. You could probably crash in while their pants are down," Nyx said, projecting blueprints onto the wall. "They supposedly hate Pokémon or something, so security should be nonexistent."
Alex studied the layout carefully. Multiple entry points. Locations of load-bearing pillars that could survive Earthquakes. He also scanned the headcount and recognized a few faces from the profiles.
"I think I've met that idiot before," he muttered. "I remember him flashing a gun back then too. He had two goons with him."
"Well, he's your target," Nyx said with a smirk. "He's got quite the Pokémon kill count—bonded ones, of course, not wild. I don't think he's ever left the city in his entire life."
"Still the same dumbass, then." Alex turned to leave. "At least I'm getting paid to take him down. Wish me luck."
Before he could step out, Nyx grabbed him by the collar, pulled him into a deep kiss, then shoved him back toward the hallway.
"Good luck," she purred, licking her lips.
Alex smirked as he made his way to his room to suit up.
He really was a fool when it came to women. He couldn't make sense of all the teasing and flirting. In his past life, he'd dated and slept with plenty of women—but never like this. These women were predators, as far as he was concerned. Gorgeous, unhinged predators.
Or maybe he was just overthinking it. Maybe he should stop fighting it, start a harem, and marry them all.
One thing he was certain of: he didn't love any of them. Love was a powerful word to Alex—too powerful to be used lightly. To him, love was the only thing that could ever make him stop fighting. And that's exactly how he knew he didn't love any of them.
He cared about them deeply. He would kill for them, die for them, even live for them.
But love? No.
If he truly loved one of them, he would stop fighting, confess his feelings, marry her, and start a family. No hesitation.
'Maybe that's what they're teasing me about?' he wondered. 'Maybe I'm supposed to choose one? Or maybe… I'm supposed to choose all of them?'
Shaking the thoughts away, Alex refocused on the mission ahead. He'd need his full team in case this turned into an ambush. Too many familiar faces gathered in one place—it screamed setup. Someone was pulling strings.
He soon reached the front doors of his mansion.
The mansion stood on the easternmost edge of the lot, its main entrance facing west—toward the two rows of five houses where the girls lived. There were side entrances as well for the Pokemon.
The left-side entrances led to the quarters of the Pokémon who accompanied Alex on missions leading to the training grounds. The right led to the farm-bound Pokémon who stayed behind to help. Each group had their own wing and personal space.
At the mansion's center along a hallway sat the personal offices, workshops, parlors, and kitchen for the staff. The top floor's center housed Alex's personal quarters—a master suite flanked by over ten guest rooms. His bedroom's west-facing window opened to a third-floor balcony overlooking the girls' homes.
From his balcony, Alex could see the fruit trees to the left, the battlegrounds to the right, the hydroponic farms on the far end, and the sprawling farmland just past the five-meter-tall wall that bordered the estate.
He loved this view—it was the sight of his vision taking shape, becoming real.
Shaking off the swell of pride, he returned to his room and suited up—thick bodysuit first, guns holstered and locked, his heavy long coat shrugged on, and worn-in combat boots laced tight.
Then, he gathered his Pokémon and briefed them on the mission. They responded with eager excitement—it had been a while since their last hunt.
With a nod, Alex recalled them into their Poké Balls and climbed onto Hydreigon's back, soaring off toward the city.
An hour later, they arrived at the location. Preliminary scouting showed cameras positioned everywhere. A few guards patrolled the perimeter and entrances—more to keep curious passersby out than to act as serious security.
They didn't seem worried about being raided, which suggested they had significant backing. The fact that they had firearms confirmed it—someone was supplying them.
"Rotom, start recording and hack into their cameras. Cover our trail," Alex commanded.
"Hacking is illegal," Rotom's AI voice replied.
"High-value target inside, along with a few others. This is an official bounty hunter raid."
"Understood."
Alex had to go through this every time he asked Rotom to hack anything. It was tedious, and he risked a lawsuit if he was wrong about the target.
Still, he trusted Nyx's intel—so he accepted the risk.
Rotom zipped into a nearby camera and vanished. Through the internal wiring, it could access their system, wipe any footage of Alex's actions, and keep an eye on the situation. If the system was internet-connected, Rotom could sync with Alex's phone and provide full overwatch.
Next, he deployed his fliers alongside a commander: Altaria, Frosmoth, Hydreigon, Togekiss, two Crobats, and Metagross. He didn't need to give explicit instructions—Metagross knew exactly what to do.
His smaller Pokémon gathered around him: Raticate, Forretress, and Alcremie. The larger ones—Arcanine, Clawitzer, and Kommo-o—took position at the rear to cover their retreat. In the shadows, Dusknoir, Ceruledge, and Aegislash stood ready to intercept any incoming threat.
He approached a locked emergency exit and had Raticate dig through the wall. Once inside, they moved casually through the emergency stairwell, ascending floor by floor.
At the top, Alex prepared his team, stacking buffs to their maximum. Alcremie used Decorate, Kommo-o followed with Coaching, and the rest used whatever support moves they had to power up.
Then, they entered the floor.
There didn't seem to be any guards around. Maybe the meeting wasn't as important as Alex had assumed—or maybe it was a trap.
He advanced to the doors of the meeting room, unholstered his pistols, flipped off the safety, did one final check, and kicked the doors open with all his strength.
Bang! Crash!
"Surprise, motherfuckers!"
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