Pokemon: Bounty Hunter Alex

Alex immediately sat up, fully aware of the implications of Sabrina’s claim. In order to find the location of Team Dominion, she would first have to remove the psychic implants placed in a Champion ranked trainer’s head, something that required the expertise of a Master ranked Pokémon. This meant Sabrina had managed to reach Master rank with a Psychic Pokémon that specialized in mind manipulation and psychic evaluations.

“Can you remove all of Team Dominion’s psychic implants?” Alex asked.

“I should be able to,” Sabrina replied from the other end of the line.

This meant she could remove the psychic implants from Celise and Talia, which had been a guillotine hanging over their heads since they were hired.

“Anyway,” she continued. “I promised you’d be the first to know about this, so here I am letting you know. Come to my gym if you want the location.”

“Do you mind if I bring a few people in to have their implants removed?”

“Sure, that shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Thanks, I’ll be right over,” Alex replied before ending the call. As he got out of bed, he turned to Nyx. “Nyx, would you mind getting Celise and Talia ready while I go gather my Pokémon?”

“You think she can remove their implants?” Nyx asked as she hopped out of bed as well, making her way out.

“If she can remove something that was stuck in a Champion ranked trainer’s head, then yeah. She should be able to.”

“What about this Team Dominion thing?”

“Hmm... you’re right. Wake Rhea up for me as well and give her a heads-up.”

“What about the bounty hunters?”

“No, this isn’t going to be a bloody infiltration. Team Dominion is powerful enough to deserve my respect.”

“Got it,” Nyx said as she headed off while Alex got dressed.

He then made his way down to the Pokémons’ rooms and pressed the assembly button, alerting them that they were to move out. They scrambled out of bed and hopped into their Poké Balls without a fuss before Alex headed for the dining hall to meet the others.

“Alex? Is it true we can finally have these implants removed?” Celise asked, hope in her eyes.

“Yeah, Sabrina confirmed it. Are you both ready?”

“Yes,” Celise and Talia replied.

“Gardevoir, teleport us to Saffron City’s Psychic Gym.”

With a flash, they teleported to Saffron City, arriving just outside the Psychic Gym’s entrance, and made their way inside, where the receptionist had already been informed of their arrival.

“You can head straight to the 4th floor where Sabrina is waiting,” she said with a yawn.

“Thanks.”

They walked past the training grounds for students, the 2nd floor for gym trainers, and the 3rd floor for gym challengers before finally reaching the 4th floor, where the Pokémon holding areas were located, awaiting either training or distribution.

“Alex, long time no see,” Sabrina said, her gaze running over him with an appraising look. “I see you’ve grown into quite the powerful young man.”

“I wouldn’t consider myself young by any stretch of the imagination.”

“Are you calling me old?” Sabrina shot back with a glare.

“No need to be so touchy. Can’t you read my mind?”

“I can, and I’m impressed with what you’ve done with it. It’s a very interesting application of psychic implants.”

“I learned from the best.”

“Mesprit, huh. That would explain it.”

“Before we begin our business, do you mind if you remove these girl’s psychic implants first?” Alex said waving to Celise and Talia.

“Alakazam,” Sabrina called out.

From behind her floated an Alakazam that was distinctly Master rank, its aura radiating in dangerous waves of psychic energy. It was still far from the level Celebi had reached, where its energy was fully concealed; then again, this Pokémon had only recently broken past that bottleneck and would likely require more time to fully take control of its overwhelming power.

It floated over to Celise and Talia and, with a wave of its spoons, knocked them out cold. They crumpled to the floor before being levitated and laid aside.

“Was it supposed to do that?” Alex asked, his eyes narrowing, his tone turning noticeably colder.

“The implants have been removed, but it would be better for them to remain unconscious while our discussion continues,” Sabrina said, with a wave of her hand locking all of Alex’s Pokémon inside his backpack.

That included Ditto on his wrist and Aegislash in his shadow, leaving him completely at her mercy. With a casual flick of psychic energy, she had taken control of the pack itself, bypassing its biometrics and forcibly shutting down Rotom.

Alex could tell this was the League’s method of subduing Rotom. Even if they had lost its loyalty after it reached Champion rank, they could still suppress it through classical conditioning. His Rotom had likely been triggered, forcing it into fainting and leaving it unable to assist him.

Alex didn’t like where this was going, but fighting back would be plain stupid, so he forced himself to stay calm and accept the situation. He remembered when he was younger and Sabrina had cornered him in the hospital, demanding to read his memories. This felt disturbingly similar, only this time, she was far more forceful, and he had a good idea why.

“After all this time, you’re still obsessed with my memories,” Alex said with a sigh.

“I can come up with a number of reasons to justify my suspicions. You’re a mole, you work for Team Umbraline, you have a powerful hidden psychic implant covered in an equally powerful shell of Dark type energy. But for you, dear Alex, I’ll be honest,” she said as she approached with a sultry look and placed her fingers on his temples. “I’m just curious, and this curiosity has been bothering me for nearly 40 years.”

“And you think it was a good idea to force me into this situation and get so close to me?” Alex said as he reached up and grabbed Sabrina by the throat with one hand and wrapped his other arm around her waist, pulling her closer as he radiated Dark type energy. “I have Dark type energy, you know. From this distance, your Psychic energy is useless even if you’re a rank higher.”

“Don’t threaten me with a good time,” Sabrina said with a confident smile. “Besides, you would be attacking a Gym Leader who has reasonable suspicion against you and is merely conducting her duties. You’d be throwing everything away just to protect your dirty little secret.”

The air between them tightened, the pressure of their energy terrifying all the Pokémon on the floor as they maintained their standoff. Sabrina watched him with confidence, reading his next move, while Alex held her gaze with cold, calculated stillness, neither yielding nor escalating, both fully aware that a single twitch would set off a violent battle that would dictate his standing with the League in the future. The fact that Clarissa was in seclusion didn’t help his case, nor did Lance’s one-sided hatred for him.

“You’re right. I wouldn’t do something so stupid,” Alex said as he relaxed his grip and retracted his energy. “It’s not like this was that big of a secret or anything. Besides, I’m just as curious as you are to find out what’s buried in that lump of memories.”

“Good, because I don’t think I had it in me to pry it open while fighting your energy simultaneously,” Sabrina said with a mischievous smile. “Now, if you’ll excuse me.”

The sound of glass shattering rang in Alex’s ears as his vision was pulled inward. He floated as a transparent ghost beside Sabrina while the pair drifted in darkness before landing in a hospital, watching as Alex cried out for the first time as he was born.

“Waaa~”

“Ugh, children,” Sabrina spat with distaste before waving her hand, forcing the scenery to fast-forward.

Alex was given an intimate view of his memories from his past life, where he grew up as a normal child.

“This… isn’t the Pokémon world, is it?” Sabrina asked as realization slowly dawned on her.

“Nope. Where I came from, Pokémon was an incredibly popular series of games and anime.”

Sure enough, Sabrina witnessed Alex playing with a Game Boy as he ran around Kanto as Red, fighting Pokémon, gaining levels, and winning Gym battles. This continued with TV shows of Ash’s adventures, compounded with more versions of the games, before he eventually grew out of them in high school.

“Fascinating, but your world is far behind in terms of technology.”

“We didn’t have any supernatural energy like Infinity Energy, Type Energy, Aura, or, well, Pokémon to fight with, so yes, this is the height of our technology at the time.”

Alex grew violent in high school, always getting into trouble until he was shown how to properly harness it through martial arts, where he specialized in MMA by the time he graduated. Rather than go to college afterward, he fought in rookie matches until finally making it to the big leagues, where he dominated for a time before taking a rather nasty kick to his knee that obliterated the joint and ended his career from that point on.

“No medicine could heal you?” Sabrina asked in shock.

“There probably was, but it was reserved for the rich and powerful, not someone like me whose career was just getting started. I hadn’t even been able to make much money before it just ended out of nowhere.”

He retired early, opened a gym, and started his career as an instructor, having sex with plenty of women along the way. Unfortunately, he was always distant, uncaring, lacking connection, devotion, or love, and it showed. The women would grow tired of his lack of commitment and eventually end it, leaving him to rot alone for the rest of his short life.

“That explains the psychic implants,” Sabrina commented.

“Which has been working wonders, if I’m being honest.”

Then, one fateful day, Alex was on his way out of a convenience store when a truck, avoiding a little girl running into the street, smashed right into him, pinning him against the convenience store’s wall and tearing him to shreds. He died as a bloodied corpse buried in rubble.

“That must have hurt.”

“I don’t remember it, actually, and nothing new is surfacing in my thoughts now that I’m seeing it for the first time.”

They followed a white wisp as it flew off into the sun at a speed faster than light could travel. They continued following this wisp, as fast as Sabrina could fast-forward the memory, until it eventually reached a black hole and was swallowed inside, past the event horizon.

The next thing they saw was beyond comprehension, beyond what even a Master ranked Psychic could piece together, and beyond what Alex’s own meager mind could understand.

Meanwhile, outside on the 4th floor of the Psychic Gym, Sabrina’s psychic energy began rampaging as she screamed, while Alex floated with black eyes, every trace of life force gone.