Once dinner was finished, Captain Blackwake wanted to discuss more details with Sable, so the three of them, including Alex, went to the captain's office.
The room was quite large and included a private bar, along with a desk, shelves of books, and plenty of pictures of his children. A Toxicroak stood in the corner of the room, guarding with a nonchalant attitude. It was clear that it was the captain's personal bodyguard.
The captain ignored the desk and went behind the bar instead, pouring himself a drink and offering Sable and Alex a seat.
"Now that we're in private," the captain said as he poured them all a glass. "Who are you?"
"I thought we've already established that I'm the miner hired by the company," Sable replied nervously.
She didn't like where this conversation was going, especially since she was standing right next to these two lunatics.
"I'm not talking about you, lass," he said, turning to Alex, who was still pretending to be meek. "I'm talking about you."
Alex smiled, removed his glasses, and pulled his hair back, revealing a confident grin.
"What gave me away?" he asked, taking a sip of his drink.
"You've got shifty eyes for someone who's supposed to be just hired help. Now, answer my question," the captain said seriously.
The Toxicroak in the corner of the room stood at attention and approached the pair, but a shadow extended from Alex, revealing an Aegislash that stood between them.
"Bounty hunter, here to collect," Alex replied.
"What makes you think you can?" the captain asked, his tone threatening.
"Your family," Alex replied as he released the hold he had over his energy.
The captain narrowed his eyes at Alex, properly judging him now that he wasn't hiding his demeanor. He had pegged Alex as a non-threat when he first saw him, but now that he had a better look, he could feel a threatening aura radiating off him. He was clearly an Elite rank and quite powerful at that. He had no idea he had invited a snake into his home.
It was a minor trick Alex had learned through years of meditation to control his aura. It allowed him to hide it beneath the surface of his skin, preventing others from determining his rank. This application of aura had been an accidental discovery while practicing to reduce his presence, and it had paid off splendidly.
"Sable, why don't you go back to our room and wait for me," Alex said. "The captain and I seem to have some personal business to discuss."
Sable looked at the captain, who didn't take his eyes off Alex before receiving a nod. With a sigh of relief, Sable left the office and headed back to their room. Whatever these idiots were about to do was no longer her concern.
"So, you can fight," the captain said. "Doesn't mean I'll allow you anywhere near my family."
"You have a nice place, but it's a bit cramped, don't you think? I highly doubt it can survive a Champion ranked battle."
"I can feel the threat from you, boy, but I ain't feeling a Champion ranked threat."
"You're right, I'm close, but I'm not there yet. But, you are," Alex said. "You're strong enough to bring this entire place to the ground and destroy everything. All I have to do is make you do it. As for what happens to the men, women, and children here when we fight, I'm sure you can imagine."
"You're threatening to drown my family in my own home!?" the captain shouted in rage.
"It isn't a threat," Alex corrected. "It's an inevitability, a repercussion of your actions if you choose violence. A threat would be if I said I would go kill your children right now if you didn't calm down."
"You're not a family man, are you?" the captain asked. "Otherwise, you'd know what happens when you threaten a man's family in his own home."
"I am, actually," Alex replied. "I have a wife, a daughter, and a few women on the side. So I know exactly how I would react if someone did the same to me."
"Yet you do it anyway?" the captain said incredulously.
"Because I know my family will always be safe. Only a threat beyond me could threaten them, and I'm quite sure I haven't pissed off anyone who can."
"You don't think my backers are strong enough?"
"I do, but they aren't willing to put in the effort. You're a minor character in the game they're playing, and so am I. What happens here won't affect them much. Even if they fail in their plans for the region, they have bigger problems than their failure in Hoenn."
Alex had known how massive an organization Team Dominion was ever since he read about their leader when he took down Gravik Drayne. Alaric Graves was a brilliant scientist who had managed to amass a mountain of resources from his research, enough to pay off not only Elite ranked trainers but Champion ranked ones as well.
Their influence reached into Kanto, Johto, and Hoenn, which begged the question of where else it extended. Alex wasn't sure, but he could guess it was strong enough to challenge the International Police. They were just biding their time, spreading their ideology peacefully until they decided it was time to reveal their fangs.
Even the issue between them and Hoenn was considered a local problem, since it concerned resources rather than posing a direct threat to the people. It wasn't something the big players in the League cared about yet, given that bounties were still being used to quell it rather than the League's personal forces or the International Police.
It was a delicate situation, balanced between threat, reason, and ideology, which is why Alex could still make a difference. Once the powder keg exploded, however, they might throw caution to the wind and start the greatest war the world had ever seen.
"Why did you join them, by the way?" Alex asked. "You're not buying into their ideology, and you don't seem to need their support when you have a thriving pirating business."
The captain sighed, took a seat, and sipped his drink.
"Pirating makes you a lot of money, but you have a hard time trading it for anything you need," he explained. "We used to trade with Team Aqua until they played around with forces they knew nothing about and got sunk for it. We've been able to make do with what we have over the decades, but it wasn't enough. So when Team Dominion reached out, I took their offer without much trouble."
"Why not partner with Team Umbraline?" Alex asked. "They have a thriving procurement business."
"Umbraline is like the devil. You always pay more than what you bargained for. If it isn't goods, then it's your information, and I like my privacy. I wouldn't have been able to survive so long otherwise."
Alex nodded in agreement. Team Umbraline had that scummy side where they always managed to win in any negotiation one way or another. If he hadn't needed information to succeed as a bounty hunter, Alex doubted he would have dealt with them at all. He was still creeped out by how professional Ace was when they met.
"So, what'd it take for you to leave us be?" the captain asked. "I'm stronger than you, but you have me by the balls, so out with it. What're your demands?"
"It's simple," Alex replied. "All I want are the resources for the guns Team Dominion provided you and anyone with bounties on their heads, including you. If you give me that, I'll not only back off, I'll even set your family up somewhere peaceful to wait for your exoneration."
"Hahaha," the captain laughed. "That's generous of you. I'd be willing to accept it if my men are spared."
"I've already compromised by only taking those who have bounties on their heads."
"Those are my most loyal men. I'll need them to take care of my family."
"They won't take care of anything so long as those bounties are on them. Besides, can't you leave your family to whoever would be left?"
"Bah, I can't trust the weak ones. They've been too pushed around to care about my family. They'd probably kill them with their own hands."
"Doesn't sound like you're running a tight ship."
"It's exactly because I run a tight ship that I have men who'd want to kill me."
"I don't know how you do it," Alex said with a sigh. "How do you allow men who'd betray you so close to your family?"
"Because they know they wouldn't be able to survive. Besides, I don't push them past the breaking point. I make sure to give both the carrot and the stick."
"What kind of carrots do you even have around here?"
"The women sitting across from you earlier were my prized commodities."
Alex paused as realization dawned on him. The women at the captain's table weren't his wives, but prostitutes to give to his men, likely taken from any passenger ship they attacked. Perhaps the only woman who belonged to the captain was the missus.
"I guess that means negotiations have broken down," Alex said.
"Aye, seems that way," the captain said with a nasty grin. "We'll have to fight it out like men."
"I guess you never really cared about your family."
"I do, but I think they'll be fine."
Suddenly, Alex received a call, which Rotom answered automatically, and Sable's voice came through on the other line.
"Alex! They're escaping! They're boarding the ship, and they're about to get away!"
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