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Chapter 10 — Against All Odds

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“That does it,” Annie said to her reflection in the mirror and her recently done hair. She left the bathroom, went to the main bedroom, and frowned when she saw a plate with untouched food at its bedside table. “Are you going to have dinner at all? You haven’t left that computer the whole day,” she asked, crossing her arms while leaning against the doorframe. “I’m long done with mine.”

Oakley squinted her eyes at her laptop screen with a thoughtful expression. “I will once I’m done. Time is important. I need to ensure Giovanni and the lab coats have another report that is as accurate as possible and ready for tomorrow morning. Our lives depend on it.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, Latios and Latias are dangerous… We have to take them seriously… I know. But skipping dinner today won’t change the outcome of a fight a week or two ahead.” Annie frowned at the silence that greeted her in reply and sat on the bed. She peeked at the laptop screen and noted the document displayed went into double-digit numbers in page count. “You’ve been busy. Alright, I’m serious now. What am I looking at?”

“Good.” Oakley scoffed and tapped the side of her laptop impatiently. “I wish we got information on Latios as well, but we’ll have to make do with what we have so far,” she commented in an aggravated tone. “Thankfully, being essentially the same species, we can assume their skills overlap extensively. They’re the same Pokémon.”

“Makes sense. So, what do we have so far?” Annie asked. “I’ll be impressed if you got much from that brief scuffle.”

“Well, as we expected given our initial conclusions from the race… They’re powerful.” Oakley sighed. “Looks like I was right in approaching Alto Mare with the masses of tourists. Based on the swiftness of her interception, it’s clear Latias saw the poachers’ submarine coming from miles away. Had we approached Alto Mare in our jet car and stood out like they did… We’d be toast already.”

Annie laughed nervously and found the immense respect she already had for her sister growing further. “That’s why you call the shots, Oakley.”

Oakley impatiently tapped the laptop’s edge again, this time with her well-trimmed nails. “I’d love to know how she detected them, though. Did she see them? Did she hear them? Or was it just psychic detection?”

“It’s a big city,” Annie pointed out. “I know you’re concerned about the acuteness of her senses, but that’s far too complex. It’s probably psychic detection in some way. She most likely keeps track of unusual things moving in and out of Alto Mare. That’s a huge detection range to keep up, but if we go by what you measured at the race…”

“It’s not out of their capabilities.” Oakley nodded grimly. “Not fun. It all points to the fact that their psychic powers are massive and dangerous, far beyond the realm of regular Pokémon. When fighting them, we need effective anti-psychic defenses if we don’t want to meet a swift end. Thankfully, that’s something Team Rocket is well-versed in, so we’re not doomed yet.”

“Well-versed? How so?” Annie blinked. “Does Team Rocket have prior experience with them?”

“Not against Latios and Latias, but against a superior Psychic.” Oakley stared at her sister. “This is why reading relevant reports of other squads is handy. Even if we dislike them for one reason or another.”

“Oh great, it’s Domino.” Annie rolled her eyes. “Please, enlighten me.”

“A few years ago, Giovanni lost something called Mewtwo, an artificial Pokémon he dubs the strongest in the world, a title achieved exclusively through its psychic powers. No Team Rocket member remembers it, but our network documents its existence. And he wants it back.” Oakley shifted her gaze to the laptop screen and focused on Latias, who, in the shown video, stared at the Pokémon Poacher Brothers with an unimpressed expression. “Professor Sebastian is one of the nerds in charge of its recapture. He’s also in charge of supplying our mission.”

“Sounds like the Latis are a trial run for this Mewtwo thing, as he’s already experienced dealing with powerful psychics,” Annie realized. “That’s a relief. Now you just have to give him a good report so he can gauge them accurately and prepare appropriate weaponry.”

“Though…” Oakley rubbed her temples. “There wasn’t much of a fight today that we could’ve used to gauge them accurately.”

“Are you talking about that kid’s interruption?” Annie asked. “It’s quite annoying he got in the middle of your test.”

“No, not that.” Oakley waved a hand dismissively. “Honestly, that kid’s interruption is largely irrelevant. Even before he showed up, Latias didn’t care about the poachers.”

“Until she went down, Latias didn’t even need to fight them to deal with them. Which is… scary, to say the least, but hey, if they got her, so can we,” Annie said.

“Until she went down?” Oakley hit her face with her palm. “Seriously, Annie? You think they got her?”

Annie waved her arms defensively. “But I saw her going down!”

Oakley groaned. “Oh, please. She faked it. Every bit of it. Only an idiot would buy acting that bad.” She gave her sister a pointed look. “For someone so deep into entertainment and fashion, you’re surprisingly bad at detecting terrible acting. You take it too much at face value.”

“Excuse me, take that back.” Annie glared and crossed her arms.

“Anyway.” Oakley pursed her lips. “Latias… essentially toyed with them. From start to finish. Down to the point she was comfortable faking a defeat just to entertain the kid’s interruption.”

Annie winced. “I’d hate to be on the receiving end of that. I doubt Espeon can do much.”

“Same,” Oakley replied flatly. “That tells me she’s extremely confident in her abilities. At no point did her face or body language show any signs of stress or worry. I’m no behavioral expert, but if anything, her mannerisms displayed… boredom. Exasperation, even.”

“It’s not like their machine was that impressive, either,” Annie pointed out. “Though it should be enough to poach the above-average wild Pokémon.”

“I don’t think so. It’s a good machine, I respect it.” Oakley pressed several keys on her laptop and cycled through several screenshots. “What’s important here is that Latias didn’t finish the confrontation instantly, despite ambushing them and having the power to do so. She could’ve done so from the start if she wanted to, but didn’t.”

“Are you suggesting Latias possibly let it play out to entertain herself?” Annie asked. “Or to gauge them?”

“Perhaps. Or just because she doesn’t kill or injure unless warranted.” Oakley hummed in thought. “At the very least, it tells us lethality isn’t her first option when dealing with threats. She has a thought process she follows before deciding to end it. That gives us wiggle room.”

“Maybe we can find an opening there?” Annie suggested. “If they’re prone to show off or extend confrontations for amusement’s sake, that is. Overconfidence is a dangerous sin. After all, the poacher got her with the rifle because she showed off, even if it was an act by her.”

“Yet it did nothing. If the audio is correct, they shot her with an extreme overdose of Carfentanyl, which she shrugged off with no effort. This is useful knowledge to us,” Oakley said. “We can guess most drugs won’t work on them, and we can’t test if there’s anything specific that might.”

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“It’d be unfortunate if we relied on poisons or sedatives as our main strike on her only to find out they don’t work in the heat of the moment,” Annie mumbled in agreement. “So, going back to the overconfidence thing…”

“I doubt it. It won’t work.” Oakley opened one of the video player tabs and rolled the footage back a few minutes. She pressed another key and replayed it. “Even though she considered herself to be in no danger, it’s evident she took no unnecessary risks. For example, before she allowed the tranquilizer darts to hit her just to prove their futility, she examined them to confirm what they had, most likely to make sure she could do it in the first place.” Oakley’s eyes narrowed. “Look at this other bit.” She sped up the footage until Team Rocket’s Meowth-shaped balloon showed up.

“Oh, those three stooges. I’ve heard they’re Giovanni’s least favorite buffoons,” Annie commented. “What’s special about their interruption?”

“This. Pay attention to Latias.” Oakley paused the footage and played it at normal speed. “Notice the brief serious expression on her and the preemptive deployment of psychic powers when they aim their cannon at her, and how quickly it all fades once she sees what they attack her with.”

“I see…” Annie said with a slight nod. “I get it now. She took them and their guns seriously until she realized they’re just idiots.”

“That means, even if the guardians are prone to showing off when in control, they’re not careless or stupid. Both times Latias faced an unknown variable in her confrontation, the bitch took it seriously until she confirmed it posed no danger to her or removed it. Only then did she take the situation lightly again,” Oakley explained. “Which means…”

“They won’t give us an opening through overconfidence,” Annie finished.

Oakley nodded. “Unless we can fool them into thinking they have complete control while they don’t, they’ll take everything seriously and swiftly eliminate any variables that may threaten them. Only then will they fool around again.” She scoffed. “As much as I hate to admit it, they’re smart.”

Annie hummed. “If we can’t bait them into overconfidence, what about an ambush? If we correct the poacher’s mistakes, can we ambush and defeat them before they can fight back?”

Oakley shook her head. “I don’t think so. No matter how fast we are and how effective our ambush is… They’re guaranteed to react to it and fight back. Any surprise we prepare must take into account their countermeasures.”

“How are you so certain?” Annie questioned with a frown. “We’ve caught and beaten Pokémon before so fast they don’t even react until it’s too late.”

“As little threat as the poachers posed to Latias, you’d be surprised at how much information I can dig out of it by careful analysis.” Oakley reached for the keyboard and rolled back the footage to about the start of the confrontation. “Look here.”

Annie tilted her body and looked at the screen. “So, what am I supposed to look at?”

“Focus on Latias.” Oakley hit the play key and the footage played out, displaying Latias’ brief confrontation against the poacher brothers’ submarine. Then Latias stopped, looked to the side, and disappeared. “And she’s gone.”

“If I recall, that’s when she goes off to deal with the poacher leader whose name I can’t be bothered to remember,” Annie said.

“This specific drone couldn’t film it, but I had another one filming the lead poacher from afar.” Oakley opened a second video. She played it up to the part where Latias abruptly showed up in front of Braggo and his rifle. “There she is. If I synchronize both videos, look at this.” She rolled them back and played both in tandem to the millisecond, showing Latias departing the submarine and appearing on the other video almost instantly. “I measured it. It took Latias exactly four frames to move between both spots.”

“And how fast is that, exactly?” Annie asked. “I’m a fighter, not a computer nerd, sorry.”

“I ran a quick calculation earlier based on how many milliseconds each video frame takes and the distance she covered between both points. It comes out to about Mach two point seven. That’s about as fast as the best jet planes that exist.” Oakley scoffed. “Only she did it in a closed street, without affecting her surroundings, and from a standstill position. Not only that, but she accurately stopped in front of him and didn’t run him over. Her reaction speed is relative to her movement speed. If she’s that quick with her mind and body, then no matter how much element of surprise we get in any ambush we try, and how fast we execute it, they’ll react to it and fight back.”

Annie remained silent for a few seconds and carefully thought of her sister’s words. “Is it that bad? We’ve trained hard for years and are close to peak human physique. If we get appropriate—”

“We’re still human in the end, and no amount of athletics or martial arts will change that. The speed at which she moved and reacted is far beyond the upper limit of human biology.” Oakley looked at the video with a concerned expression.

Annie ran her tongue over her dried lips. “I don’t like how that sounds.”

“I don’t either,” Oakley murmured. “This means the moment we decide to fight; we must be protected by weaponry that can target and engage threats at supersonic speeds. Or else, if she’s serious about it, Latias can close in and kill us faster than our eyes and brains can even process her actions at a biological level.”

“And said weaponry needs to be capable of not being fooled by their illusions,” Annie said.

Oakley froze and rapidly skimmed her report. “Good catch,” she grumbled as she wrote an addendum.

“So, if poisons won’t work… If ambushes won’t work… If their overconfidence won’t work…” Annie frowned. “What do we have to work with, then?”

“Not much,” Oakley admitted, a slight tremble betraying her overwise icy exterior. “They’ll be tough to crack. At least I got a lot of valuable data today. I need more, though.”

Annie rolled her eyes. “Are you going to hire more lowlifes to throw at them?”

“Perhaps. Either that or just observing their day-to-day lives.” Oakley’s eyes lit up. “Or, I’m thinking of staging something big, something that’ll truly put them to the test. At least, more than these stooges did,” she added. “But I need time to think and prepare for that.” She remained silent, reflecting on all she wrote in her report while taking deep breaths. “Other than that, the more I write in the report, the scarier they appear.”

Annie listened to her sister with a humorless look and eyed the lengthy report on the screen. She quietly rested a hand on Oakley’s shoulder and squeezed it. “If you’re so concerned about your findings, how about we call the operation off? If they’re that dangerous and it’s that risky, let’s make something up and report it as unfeasible.”

Oakley scowled and harshly slapped Annie’s hand away. “No way in hell I’m doing that!” Her hands tightened into fists. “Just looking at them, how casually they carry themselves, how carefree they live, how worshiped they are by all the idiots here… It makes my blood boil.”

Annie shook her head grimly and rubbed her sore hand. “Here we go again…”

“It’s like their very existence is a challenge to us, you know? Call it the sunk cost fallacy or not, but the more I invest myself into finding a way to bring them down, the more I want to do it. I want to prove there isn’t something I can’t beat.” Oakley’s eyes narrowed. “That there isn’t something I can’t control. I refuse to accept there’s an opponent we can’t defeat.”

“Same old Oakley…” Annie crossed her arms over her chest.

“I refuse to back off in fear. I refuse to live knowing I ran from a Pokémon with my tail tucked between my legs.” Oakley closed the report and uploaded it to the Team Rocket network. She grabbed the laptop’s upper half and harshly closed it with a loud click. “I won’t back down from that sack of pretty feathers.”

“Okay, I get it. It won’t be easy. Just keep that in mind,” Annie said cautiously. “Let’s take it one step at a time and with the least risk to us, okay?” She paused to let that sink in. “So, what’s next now?”

“I’ll stay here and comb through the footage frame by frame again. I want to make sure I didn’t miss anything,” Oakley answered. “As for you, go to the city’s museum and see what you find there. Going out and along with crowds fits your talents better.”

Annie grinned eagerly. “I wouldn’t want to stay in this gloomy and boring apartment. I’ll record it with my glasses and see what they have in there.”

“The museum is said to contain information from Alto Mare’s history, intertwined intimately with Latios and Latias. There could be something useful for us there,” Oakley explained. “Besides, you’re way better off going out to the public where Latios or Latias could be.”

Annie stared at her. “So that, in case we’re discovered, I’m the one that gets jumped?”

Oakley shook her head. “No. This isn’t confirmed, but most Pokédex entries mention they can sense human emotions. I’m… not very good at keeping my anger and disdain for this place contained. If I’m too close to them, I could stand out should it be true.” She smirked and elbowed her sister. “You, on the other hand, blend perfectly as a clueless, carefree, easily impressionable tourist.”

Annie laughed and fell back into the bed. “You got me there.” She shrugged exaggeratedly. “What can I say? I like the good life. I’ll go to the museum and see what I can find.”

“Good. I hope it’s something good, or I’ll draw blanks.” Oakley stood up, walked to the apartment’s window, and looked out to the lively city with a troubled expression. “We’re against all odds here, Annie.”

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Chapter End

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