#plot important

“You’re lucky that I chose this punishment rather than giving you to my new friends~ I think shocking is a bit more fitting, seeing as you’ve practically been raised by my disobedient pet! Don’t you agree”

PT glares, nearly attempting to speak before another shock is sent through their system. The figure glares, but remains smiling.

“I didn’t give you permission to speak. I’m your father, and you need to learn to listen to what I say, alright? Unless…. You want me to kill your beloved ‘friends’ instead? How about that one?”

PT just remains on their knees, fans going more than a mile a minute… they refuse to meet Bill’s eye.

“….”

Bill hums, grin softening in an almost caring manner as he moves down to one knee. He gently uses his pointer figure to force PT to look up at him.

“I’m doing this for your betterment, kid. Trust me. That thing you thought of as a parent messed you up good, and I have no doubt they held the secrets I know about from you…. Even some of your friends knew, and they didn’t say a word. Are you sure you want to protect mortals like that?”

“…..”

“Alright, if you’re sure. I’ll do you one more favor…. IF you make one last deal with me- just one more… I promise I’ll never lay a hurt or lay a hand on your loved ones… all I ask is that you let the chip take full control, and to stop fighting back! I’ll even make it easier and throw in something to help you settle into your mindscape. Like… being able to see your real sister again?~”

PT’s eye widen, nearly going to speak before quickly shutting their mouth…. To them, this seems too good to be true. He surely can’t bring back the real Amber…. Could he?

“Yes, I can bring her back. Unlike that ghost boy, I at least know what I’m doing. I’m a god, much like those stars, so I know all about how to bring back a loved one. The real version of them. Wouldn’t you like to hug her again?”

PT nods shakily, parts of their body still spasming from lingering shocks. There’s nothing else they can do except survive, and hope that their friends will stop Bill if he does anything wrong… They wouldn’t leave them to die…. Right…?

Bill grins ear-to-war again, and snaps his fingers to release the chains. PT would have fallen face first into the ground, had it not been for Bill’s gentle hand helping catching them. Bill then holds out his other hand towards PT.

“Shake on it?~”

PT reaches a hand out, and-

—————————————————————————

Ah yes, an elgyem. Apolly was used to seeing, and sometimes working with, the species directly in their many jobs. This species was always interesting to talk to. Between the variants, the number that go to earth and how well traveled they are, this species was always a pleasure to speak with.

This one quickly proved to be one worth the jirachi's time.

"Third Asura Banya... They are my superior who gives me orders for my tasks, though they were not the first."

How much Apolly disclosed needed to be treaded lightly, but at least Third Asura Banya's origins could be discussed if kept vague enough.

"As the name implies, they are the third mon to hold the title Asura. Each leader's name is determined based off three factors; Their number associated with their time holding the postion, the title itself and their original name. Hence, they are the third person to hold the position of Asura. Banya is just their real name."

It did not surprise the jirachi one bit that this one was not familiar to them. Apolly was usually away on very specific tasks. Despite how small the multiverse is on a grand scale, the few planets out there were vast.

Then the topic of Apolly's weapon of choice was asked. Going quiet for a moment, the jirachi levitated her sword in the air.

"I choose to use this weapon because, despite my occupation," the charm like meteor connected to the blade turned cobalt blue. Flinging it with their energy, the meteor dragged the blade before maneuvering it in such a way that the blade sliced the air.

The trail of the strike caused a number of meteors to form before exploding in a burst of that same cobalt blue energy of the 'charm'.

"I do enjoy to fight if the opportunity presents itself. If I am allowed to. If I have to."

Enough time passed where Dela felt confident with asking the questions she had about the universe. It was her unlife’s work and this was something she could not miss out on. While the likelihood of it ever being published was nill, this would be something just for herself.

It was but a humble question.

“Apolly. How can you tell if someone was affected by a paradox?”

Apolly, chewing on a Rindo Berry, quickly swallowed. Pit in all. 

“Well! That is a very good question. You are a woman of science and I respect your interest in my job! That is-”

Luck was on the steel types side. Two more pokemon coming to ask them questions. On a topic that Apolly actually cared about.

“You two have amazing timing. I was about to explain to this wise scientist about paradoxes. You both are ideal for this.”

How were they both ideal? Dela hypothesized that they themselves were affected by anomalies. They did not seem to stand out in anyway.

Instructing the two mons to come over and sit so they could listen to the wise jirachi talk, Apolly changed their face to the usual resting bitch face.

“…yes. I was a former human scientist who was working on dimensional tests studying the distortion world. Something went horrifically wrong…”

These data readings are out of range. If we push this it can lead to a black hole. Please think on this Ms. Xing!

Despite not saying anything out loud, it was clear the dusknoir was lost in the traumatic reaches of her mind.

You have tried numerous times to open the portal with your weaker power sources and it has yielded nothing. We need you to try these tests with live sources. It is the only way you will be allocated funds. Run them. Or you are done.

"Ironically, it was a pokemon that caused this happen, but not a pokemon of myth. It was a mere pangoro and beheeyem," it dawned on the dusknoir. This was a child, she should not try to scare him further. He already looked scared to make any sudden moves.

"Sorry. I have a feeling you are like me on this front. If you want to talk on any of that. I'll be an open ear. I'm used to this by now and I have learned a lot."

Well this was a pleasant surprise! It was that Mew from the water park. It had been a while since the hawlucha saw them. While it was only once, they did leave a good enough impression.

"Oh hello there! The relationship has been great, thank you for asking!"

While it was well, Lenox could not shake this feeling of arrested development. They had just been dating for multiple years, being stuck in the same cycle of being love pidoves, but Lenox was not taking that next step. Something had to change.

"I have been...struggling to take our relationship further. I want to propose to her, get married, settle down. I'm just horrified of doing so and then something happens to me on a job. If I die and do not come back."

Fidgeting her claws, Lenox always was concerned of her own past haunting her. Someone killing her or Brittany terrified her and was a common nightmare for her. It had grounding in reality too, seeing first hand how ruthless Haines could be.

"Part of me wants to do it so I can show her that I can move forward. However, just this conflict with Haines, I should be smart and wait for it to be over. I just feel uneasy. Haines has many contacts, and she is going to use them. We have worked with her for years, and she knows all of our weakness. I think I could die this time."

Piko was taken aback by the mew's question.

"I was a child that was 'found' by my former 'headmaster'; Arcadie DuBois."

Arcadie. A name that had never crossed her mind in years. It felt like she moved long past that point in her life. The memory also had more catharsis to recall, so there was no trauma for her.

"Arcadie was a former fixer for Haines' father. She handled and trained the assassins of Arcadium's Six Saints, which is Arcadium's long disbanded illuminati. I only ever encountered one other member and that was my first job Haines asked of me, but I digress."

"As a weavile like myself, she had a specialty in training she 'asked' to train," the word ask was emphasized, hoping the dark type would not have to explain to the demigod euphemisms. "She was a nasty piece of work, but honestly in hindsight, she was the living testament to not doing well under panic."

By this point Piko had moved past her time with Arcadie and could point out how she was in her last week of life. How pitiful she was when it was her time to be eliminated.

"After Haines' father was killed, the other five saints began to panic, seeing the writing on the wall they began ramping up their respective fields. She became more active in kidnapping kids. The only thing that got worse were the beatings for the small ones that would not get in line."

While Piko was telling a grim story, a small smile crept on her face.

"I remember her last day, which is when I met Haines."

This is code red. Come on, most of you have already trained for...

Haines gave a short icy glare towards the smaller psychic type. This clown could not even begin to speak on how Freddy was a mon, especially about his business and personal savvy. Sometimes that even worked on her a few times. If this had happened when she was out for blood, Haines would have roughed up the other psychic for this statement. Yet despite how easy should could, she figured she could use this opportunity to throw more dirt at Freddy.

“I will give you this girl, you are right on three things. You are out of line, what Freddy has done is incalculably bad and he did not just do it for money” her gaze maintained for a good nine seconds, but a weary smile crept on her face. “But I can forgive you for not knowing about him. He’s good at keeping his dark secrets hidden and presenting an affable face to the public.”

Seeing she was out of cigars. Haines made a note she would have to pick up more later. Without anything to smoke, she may get a bit antsy. “He did it for lust.”

The topic was going to  swing towards Mariah, again. The don remembered when Freddy went to Mariah for some extra missions and favors from her. Haines warned him that doing so would just open him up to being manipulated by her again. “One extra bit of context is that Freddy sold his venoshock to OPP at his ex-wife’s behest, whom is the daughter of the company’s founder. You should have seen them at the time, he was head over heels for her, not that I could blame him. She had a seductive and mysterious air to her, plus she got him to rub elbows with powerful figures. Plus she knew how to play to his...romantic needs.”

Schadenfreude was beginning to build inside her as she wanted to reveal the ‘big gun’ or what caused Freddy and Mariah to divorce. Freddy’s other big ugly secret. “They even had a child. Which at the time stunned me when he first told me. Until Freddy told me why.”

A smile crept on her face. Despite how horrible this was to recount and how much of a pivot the story went, it gave her a rush. Like she was getting a rise out of stirring the pot. Sharing information she held always was a way to get her in a good mood.

"Yes."

There was no obfuscation. No playing up the question or even lying. She would rather be honest and acknowledge the one person she ever genuinely feared, even as an adult.

"There was one mon I feared throughout my life and that is Roberto Roa Argento." The delphox said the mons' name with an air of contempt, emphasizing the 'ge' sound of Argento.

"Roberto Roa Argento was a member of the Six Saints of Arcadium, which puts him in the circle of my father as a compatriot. Anyone who is part of that group were all contemptible bastards, but Roberto was the only one I feared."

Haines took a cigar from her coat, fidgeting it in her hands for a moment. "Due to my father's escapades, Roberto tended to play the roll of an uncle and secondary guardian when my father could not be bothered to be a father. This meant he basically had to intimidate me into not talking about anything."

This brought to mind a moment from Haines' childhood when she was staying in a boarding school at her father's orders. This was less to give her a proper education, but more as a means of grooming her into someone he could marry or sell off to if he needed to make some kind of move in the criminal underworld.

"When I was staying at boarding school and after I had gotten into an argument with my father that turned violent I told my homeroom teacher Ms. Ganyu what had happened," the grip on the cigar got increasingly tight. "She actually listened and showed concern for me. It was a moment that gave me hope. I thought maybe I could get away from my father and his cabal."

Turning her gaze downward, an expression of sadness conveyed on her face. "Eventually this reached my father. But he knew if he showed up I would have tried to argue. So he sent Roberto. He made me walk with him by the woods that were outside the school grounds.

Haines. I know you are bright girl and that we all have lapses of judgement. You just recently had one in fact. You are going to jeopardize our...your father's work. So I feel I should show you the results of this judgement.

"In a clearing I saw her, Ms. Ganyu, lying on her back, her work shirt torn from the visible bite marks on her neck, shoulder and her right arm. Flies and rot were already beginning to set in. The right arm in particular looked like it was picked clean, like an animal had mauled her. One did. And it was right next to me.”

See. This is what happens if you let family matters slip out. You are too important to kill, but we all agree this is for the best; you act out, the punishment shall be inflicted on someone else. Do you understand?

Despite the many crimes she has witnessed and perpetuated on others, this still haunted her to this day. The rotting corpse of someone she trusted, her killer and his unnerving face. His jagged teeth that seemed crudely inserted in a snorlax’s mouth and eyes that were bright red as if they were gateways to hell.

A small snap could be heard as Haines had bent the cigar in reflecting on this moment. Noticing what she did, the boss straightened out the cigar in order to try and salvage it. “He indulged in child cannibalism, which at the time I thought was a lie my father made up as a means of scaring me into behaving as a child. This proved there was truth to what he said. And then this whole episode went away and the school staff became wary of talking to me.”

Forming a flame on her pointer finger she lit the malformed cigar. Taking a puff she was not able to get much out of it. Still she could not waste a Cianwood Cigar.

“Years passed and I did build up the resources to eliminate the Saints, him included. Except he was the one where things did not go the way I wanted.”

Haines took a pathetic puff from the ruined cigar. Seeing it as a futile effort, she put it out and into the ashtray on her desk. A waste of a perfectly good Cianwood. “I had intended to invite him to dinner on the pretense of forming an alliance, as this was before I went on my first tour. I brought Freddy along with the intention of poisoning his and his guard’s food. My thought at the time was that since he had an appetite to eating child pokemon raw and alive that his ability would have been gluttony.”

“I had miscalculated. His ability was immunity. Not gluttony. And we both faced the brunt for my error.”

All these years later. After offing all of the others. Even joining the military could not fix you from being a fucking fool.