I never thought that being an ACE trainer would be boring.

After having placed in the top sixty-four in my last appearance at the Indigo Conference, and having reached the top thirty-two the year before, I decided to stop fooling myself and get a real job. I already had gotten an offer from the government from the year before so I went ahead and applied to become an ACE trainer.

An employee of the Indigo Region, an ACE trainer, would surely have exciting things to do and to learn, I imagined.

The problem was that I was placed in Olivine, at the headquarters of the Defense Department, the second safest place in the entirety of Indigo behind just the Indigo Plateau. I wasted years and years, two to be exact, patrolling the halls of the large concrete building and its lush green surroundings while bored out of my mind.

The only saving grace was the training that I got from the senior staff of the HQ, occasionally the masters of Indigo, and sometimes the League Officers who passed by. And of course, my particular training time to not let my personal skills rust.

I would never hear the end of it from my clan if I returned weaker than I left.

Oh, and I guess the beaches were nice.

I sighed.

Right now, I was resting, not really, but sort of. I was slouched about on one of the two nice seats near the back wall of meeting room six.

Meeting room six was a lovely meeting room, way more spacious than any of the others. The illumination was also really nice, very spooky. The giant oval boardroom table made of black timber was stunningly beautiful, only surpassed by the seats around it, I didn’t even know how to describe those chairs.

Even my chair was comfortable, in truth, I was making an effort not to fall asleep. This chair is just so comfortable.

I had been stationed—at the last minute—to secure the people who would be having a meeting here, very exciting work indeed.

I frowned at the time on my watch, the meeting was about to start and my partner, Vincent, was still missing, and even ignoring my messages.

I would kick his butt if he made the Captain yell at me again.

The beautiful mahogany wood doors opened and Captain Grace entered. The forty years old man looked around the room and then began to make his way towards me

Eyes wide, I quickly fixed my posture, got up, and saluted him. The forty-year-old man looked around the room as he got closer, I thought he was going to give me a grueling lecture, something about always standing straight, but he walked past me, and sat on the chair next to mine.

He also didn't say anything. A first.

I sat back on my chair. “Are you going to yell at me?”

“No.”

“Strange,” I whispered.

“If you must know,” he sighed, “it's because now is the only time when you can actually relax in your duties.”

The door opened before I could speak and a short elderly man dressed in a black suit entered the room. He had pale skin and sharp eyes with dark circles under them, I had heard about him.

Under Secretary Avery of the Internal Security Division stood there, holding the door open.

Which meant…

The sound of a cane hitting the floor made my body freeze.

An elderly woman with greying blond hair entered the room through the open door that Avery held for her. She wore a purple dress that bellowed as she moved to the center of the big room, unhindered by her cane. Her harsh face decided to settle between a smile and a sneer as her eyes inspected all the corners of the meeting room.

Then her eyes landed on them.

It was Agatha, the Fourth Elite and Secretary of Defense of the Indigo Region.

I was slightly later than Grace to stand up and salute.

Now I knew why he said that I could relax. I glanced down at Agatha’s shadow, where her troupe of Gengar no doubt were, waiting for someone to attack its trainer so they could have the excuse of self-defense.

“Elite Four Agatha, Under Secretary Avery.” Saluted Captain Grace. “A pleasure to see you both, sirs.”

Agatha reached the middle of the room. Avery, after closing the door and accompanying her, pulled a chair—the chair in the middle of the table—for her to sit on, and then sat at the chair to her right.

“Grace, my dear.” Agatha nodded, and then her crazed eyes landed on me. “And who is that young lady?”

“ACE trainer Aria Hanzo of Mahogany, ma’am,” Grace said. “She is the only cleared ACE trainer that we could pull on short notice. The others were sent to hold Mt. Silver since General Pelton is coming to the meeting.”

My head snapped to Grace —Pelton “The Sky Scar” would be coming here. The war hero, the elder dragon?—I was raised with stories of his feats and this would be the first time I would see, in person, the mysterious and legendary figure that these days dutifully secured the whole eastern part of Mt. Silver. Alone.

Elite Four Agatha nodded. “Are you a poison trainer, little ninja?”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said.

“The Defense Department could use a cleared poison ninja.” I didn’t see and was also certain that even if I looked there would be nothing on his face, but I felt displeasure oozing from Grace. “Age?”

“Seventeen, ma’am.”

“Almost then.” She grinned like a Sharpedo. “Next year I will send you a transference letter.”

“Thank you, ma’am.” I smiled.

That was an incredible and dangerous opportunity. That could be my coffin or it could be my route to progress past my limits, to leave this stagnation. Other people would say no but I always have bet on myself and my team.

The door opened again and more people entered.

They began to arrive over the next five minutes, almost fifty in total. Most were dressed in military uniform, some more casually in shirts and jeans as if they were going to buy groceries, others were dressed like trainers, and a couple wore pokemon professors' lab coats. The military people were the only ones I recognized since I saw those same people walking around the headquarters.

I began to notice, as they arrived and took their seats, that the only thing in common between all those people was that they were all elderly. There was not a single one that I would say is less than sixty years old.

As they sat down they began to make small talk with each other or in small groups, asking about family, friends, teammates, and how they were doing individually. What I mostly heard from where I was sitting in the back was, as it was common for the elderly, about their health problems. Their backs hurt, they had to begin to eat more healthily because some doctor told them to, and someone even talked about their diabetes.

This “reunion” reminded me of the only time I had been allowed to participate, silently, in the meeting of the elders of the clan. I had just finished the ACE training camp and was about to leave my village to take post in Olivine when my grandmother invited me to the meeting.

I was fascinated.

It was both strange and captivating seeing my sweet grandmother discuss issues that ranged from whom to send to deal with the questionable missions that the government issued to us, to the building of a park in the newest part of the village. In one breath they talked about their old games on the weekend and the next about an ambush they needed to sprung on a crazy master in the Frontier.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

I was half-convinced that they only allowed me to participate to show what would happen if I went crazy myself.

The door opened again and this time the person who entered was well-known, Pokemon Professor Oak, or as the Indigo Government called him when he was in official Region business, Champion Oak. The charming professor walked to his seat, which was in front of Agatha, while amicably greeting the other people in the room. He sat down and Agatha glared at him for a second before glancing at the empty chair.

“Who are we missing?” She asked loudly, silencing all the other conversations, and immediately rolled her eyes. “Pelton, of course.”

The people used the delay to talk to Professor Oak, who began talking back to everyone. Every one of the forty-nine members seemed to want to talk with the Professor about something or another, but when he found the time, the professor turned to Captain Grace and me.

“Good day for you two.”

“Champion Oak.” Captain Grace responded.

“Pro—Champion Oak.”

The grandfatherly figure smiled and ignored her slip-up, he then returned to his conversation with the other two pokemon professors.

Minutes later the door opened again, everyone expected to see the Sky Scar, no doubt, but a lanky and handsome dude wearing black clothes and a belt full of Ulltra balls was the one who entered the room. He looked around the room and didn’t like what he saw by the sourness of his face.

My body tensed as I made a sign for my Beedrill that was hidden on the ceiling to attack him if he made any reckless movement.

He took a step to the side and held the door, and then Sky Scar entered.

Pelton looked exactly how he appeared on the television and in the history book pictures, just way older. He was a small, and seemingly frail old man, who wore purple robes, the usual attire donned by the elders of the four dragon clans of Blackthorn. His head was bald and he sported a big grey beard that went to his chest. His black eyes, I knew, didn’t see much anymore.

He looked just like a normal old man, far from the image that I had in my head. The recognizable scar that ran from his forehead to his chin and through his right eye was still there though.

I also knew that Pelton could beat my entire team, all eight of them, with his weakest one, even if that pokemon couldn’t use any dragon moves. Fuck that, even if that pokemon didn’t use any moves I would lose.

The elder dragon.

“Sorry for my lateness, I had to stop to help young Brian here.” He gestured with his head to the tall, lanky man to his side. “I also brought him here for him to give us first-hand testimony on a sensitive mission that he took that may be of interest to us.”

Pelton took his seat near Champion Oak and the other people in the room focused on the young man.

“Master Brian, report.” Commanded Agatha.

The man gave a short salute. “Esteemed elders, I was directed by the Territorial Department to handle a situation in Grey Lake, south of Goldenrod. Ice-type pokemon were being lured to that location and captured by the hundreds by what seemed to be a big trafficking operation, so my mission was to destroy the operation, arrest key personnel who might have information about the hows and whys, and release the ice-type pokemon back in the environment.”

“What was the outcome?” One of the people in the room asked.

“The personnel were captured and the base was destroyed. I, together with Pelton, was able to release two hundred pokemon but we were unable to find the other four hundred that were supposed to be there by the accounts of the people who worked in the base, they also didn’t know where these pokemon were sent to, but we do know they were paid for.”

“What was the approach?” Champion Oak asked.

The other elders looked at each other, confused at the question, which meant that the master, was, of course, a trusted person who didn't need to be asked the question.

I knew the question, of course.

The Government and the League had a common directive. It wasn’t enough to solve a problem, how you solved it was as important, and sometimes more important than the solution in the eyes of both organizations. The instructors at the ACE training camp hammered that lesson in our heads as they told us that it was a lesson that humanity learned many times over in the course of the thousands of years of our history.

How do your superiors stop asking about your approach to a problem? Prove time and again that you understand its importance and they would trust you to do the right thing. It was even one of the requisites to being able to claim a master’s title in the eyes of Indigo and League.

The pokemon master, however, didn't seem surprised or offended at the question as some other masters might be.

“According to the ranger reports, direct confrontation would not work as every time someone approached the lake the operation stopped and the people behind it hid, probably a master-level pokemon scout. So I enlisted the help of a sixteen-year-old, first-year trainer named Scott Wood to stay in the area and wait for the people running the operation to appear and expulse him.”

“Scott Wood?” said Under Secretary Avery. “He is your new sponsored trainer, no? Champion Oak.”

“Indeed,” said the smiling professor, “born and raised in Azalea, I was surprised when I learned that he met young Brian here, thankfully he could be of help.”

Brian nodded. “Scott Wood stayed there for five days and on the sixth, he was approached by two thugs that asked him to leave, my Corviknight flew to the location and knocked them out, then, what I assume is the leader of the operation showed up, Basil Miller. I was able to capture him and with the help of Pelton I transported him and his team here…”

Someone struck the table, hard. An elder dressed in clan clothes close to my side of the room smashed his fist into the black-painted wood table. All the other people in the room turned to him.

His face was red and his eyes narrowed as he glared daggers at Agatha.

I felt a cold chill run up my body.

“The Hyōnosen request for the prisoner to be given to us after interrogation and verdict.”

“I will forward your petition to Lance,” said Agatha, “I can't promise however that I will speak favorably of it.”

“Agatha...”

“Enough.” Agatha's face darkened and the shadows that hid in the room moved as their trainer spoke. The man, by his ashen face, seemed to remember with whom he was speaking. He leaned back into his chair and crossed his arms. “Continue, Master Brian.”

“As I was saying, I fought against Basil and was able to knock him unconscious, however, he still had his fail-safe, R036, a Nidoqueen.”

I studied this Brian, Basil Miller was one of the sixteen Rockets Executives after all, one of the weakest if not the weakest, but even then, to capture him is no easy feat especially if he had Giovanni’s pokemon with him.

He briefly caught me looking at him and I dodged his eyes.

“I presume that Sky Scar was an okay help at least.” Said a large pokemon professor.

Most of the elders in the room at least cracked a smile at the comment, some even laughed.

“Pelton, is the pokemon rehabilitable?”

“Yes, but Brock will not be able to handle it.”

“Bruno then.” Agatha nodded. “Pokemon Master Brian Brin, good work, you’re free to continue your hunt.”

Under Secretary Avery finally spoke. “You think that your target will try his luck passing through the mountains to get to Kanto?”

“I don’t think so sir, all the clues that I was able to gather show that he is planning something in Johto.”

“Are you sure you can defeat him?” A woman in uniform and with lots of medals over her chest leaned forward. “He is not like Basil, more in the middle of the pack that one.”

“If he had his fail-safe with him I would say it’s impossible but, as of right now, I can beat him.”

The woman hummed.

“Does anyone have any more questions?” Agatha said and waited for a beat. “You are dismissed, Master Brian, you can speak with the treasurer for Basil’s reward.”

Brian nodded, saluted, and left, not before stealing a glance at me. I coughed on a fist to hide my embarrassment at being caught checking him out. As soon as he left a discussion began again.

“Why would Team Rocket try to capture ice types?”

“Are we even sure it’s the Rockets? Maybe this Basil is doing this alone.”

“They were disbanded.”

“I read the reports, an operation of this size must have backers.”

“Are the assets secured?”

“We check them regularly, and they are fine.”

“Should we send someone after those?”

The conversation extended for ten minutes and I was impressed.

No one in the room spoke in direct and concrete terms. Every sentence seemed to be constructed in a way that no one could get meaning without some more complete context, an elusive conversation meant to confuse or blur understanding. Looks like not even the Headquarters is a safe place to speak plainly for this lot.

After the discussion about the topic of Basil and the ice-type operation ended, they moved to another topic.

The next subject was about the Salamence that entered into the Region through the Frontier. They were certain that these dragons followed someone who invaded the Region, and apparently, the main culprit was Brian’s target if I understood correctly what they were speaking. They discussed where he could be and left some instructions to deal with the rock master in case they were seen.

People began to leave as soon as the topic ended, mostly military.

Then it began to become boring, with problems concerning a lot more the two professors, excluding Professor Oak who decided to just listen, they talked science language which I didn’t understand. The two professors spoke the most out of everyone, but it was also so coded that it seemed like the words and phrases that went back and forth just slid off my brain.

After that talk, another wave of people left, and also both professors.

The next topic was the economy, which was so boring I didn’t pay any attention at all. I just came back from my daydream when some more people rose to leave, mostly the civilians. There were now just twelve people in the room, including Captain Grace and I.

The last topic was security.

They talked about the Frontier, Mt. Silver, and the Unknown World, the masters that were there, and what the problems were, something about funds—Dammit­—If I wasn’t so tired of just standing still in a chair for three hours I would have probably paid more attention, even if it was all coded, maybe it would have something interesting, maybe.

This last chat was extended for another hour.

I was looking at an empty space on the floor of the nice meeting room when a nudge on my arm almost made me jump.

I looked to the side and Captain Grace was frowning at me, shit. He gestured with his hand that it was time for us to leave. First, six people that were seated left, and then Captain Rogers and I walked out of the room after them.

The last thing I saw of the fancy meeting room, as Captain Grace was closing the door, were Avery, Agatha, Pelton, and Champion Oak still sitting on the four chairs in the middle of the big and empty meeting room, and talking.

I was still impressed that four of the ten strongest trainers in all of Indigo were inside that room, four people with teams who could collapse the entire Region by themselves.

Then I imagined what I would feel if I had the power that those four people wielded.

I couldn’t wait to get that letter.