Taking care of business
The three gunmen who thought they were hidden nearby caught the old woman's distress and fired their guns but to their astonishment the bullets struck a thin layer of energy and shattered. I rolled my shoulders to remove the stiffness in them "They are quite well trained aiming for the center mass like that. Unless you are sure to hit it's always a good choice to aim for the torso as it's a bigger target." I said with a mocking grin at the old woman. "Aura master!" she spat the words like they were the most vile things in the world.-
I patted my pocket "Go wrap those three up would you?" I asked casually and black smoke billowed out of my pocket as dozens of red eyes and jagged mouths appeared with malicious intent cackling madly. The old woman wasn't spared a baleful glare either as she broke into a cold sweat in front of me. "Hades won't touch a hair on your head without my say so but that doesn't mean it doesn't REALLY want to. You shot at me after all and it has a bit of a mean streak when stuff like that is concerned."-
"You are likely well informed and know exactly what I mean right?" I asked with a wide smirk. The old woman and her associates that tried to kill me gave up without much of a fight after that. Though one of the gunmen did try to run and paid for it with a leg that Hades decided he was better without. The depots themselves were just three warehouses guarded and filled with illicitly gotten goods waiting for transport to their next destination or sale. I found more than a few trafficked pokemon amongst that stuff and personally gave each and every one a check up as I let them know that it would all be okay from now on.-
Some were scared of me and I took it nice and slow in those cases to not aggravate their traumas more than necessary. It was rather funny that when the league finally got some people there to go over everything they found me and the smaller members of my team quite literally surrounded by a vast variety of pokemon that were seeking comfort with our presences. The younger pokemon that were lonely or frightened tended to be found with either Vulcan or myself while the older ones merely huddled together for safety despite being of different types and species.-
The scene ended up getting captured in a few pictures and hit the news and internet with a whole bunch of positive feedback. I was a highly controversial topic on the internet that people debated for quite some time now due to my actions and the impact I had had on the region. I wasn't sure exactly how it happened but somehow the news that I had been the one who sent Rayquaza to settle the recent disaster got out with actual evidence to back it up.-
Birch, Steven, Watson and I all had a serious conversation on that as besides us no one beyond the elite four, champion and leaders knew about that as we had the records about it locked up tight. What we came up with was that someone was using my involvement in that matter to stir the pot for some reason but we couldn't figure out why. All throwing that information into the net accomplished was increasing the controversy to an entirely new level. There were even some people that seemed to believe I was some divine warrior sent to cleanse the world and that even legendries had to bow before my will.-
That was bullshit and all of us knew it. I was different than anyone else in the world but not to such a degree that I should be thought of as some sort of divine force. Anyway after the illegal goods and trafficked pokemon were settled I took my team and left Mossdeep on a Lapras that was deemed fit to be released from the island. The thing had insisted on paying me back for rescuing it and refused to leave without doing so.-
Helplessly I could only allow it to ferry me to my next destination, Sootopolis city. An interesting fact about the Lapras species was that they were considered the darlings of the sea as nothing attacked them without very good reason. This made my trip to Sootopolis smooth and relaxed and I was even able to get some nice sleep as the Lapras sang for me while we traveled. It was a soft but beautiful sound that I honestly don't think I could ever forget. Even Hades that was normally erratic and grim seemed to enjoy it and mellowed out a bit while listening.-
Unlike what the games would have you believe there were in fact ways to enter the cities area without diving or flying. One such method was via one of the many wide cracks that sea water flowed to and from and had long been expanded into shipping lanes. Not wide enough to ruin the isolation of the inside but enough that medium to small ships could come and go if they were careful. I rode in on the Lapras through one of these lanes much to the disbelief of many in the city who regularly watched the comings and going of these water ways.-
Lapras were extremely rare pokemon due to many years of poaching and low reproductive rates having left their populations over time near the civilized lands very low. Add on that they were more or less a nomadic species that never settled in one place for very long and you can imagine what seeing a man with a savage appearance casually ride into the bay on one of them might do. Those that recognized me were even more conflicted as Lapras were well known for their gentleness and empathy and I was known for the exact opposite.
My approach to the shore of the city was slow enough that by the time I finally arrived the whole city knew about it and there was a man wearing a Blue and white cuffed coat and had a white fluffy throat cloth thing with a pair of dark purple shorts over a black bodysuit and odd looking shoes. He was an older gentleman with black and white hair that he had styled with a white tuff stand up at the front. He also had a thin sharp mustache and sharp spanish features.-
"Leader Juan I take it?" I asked as I stepped of the Lapras's shell onto the rocky shore. "Indeed I am and I know you as well , Alexander drake or do you prefer the savage saint these days?" Juan said sternly. "I go by Alex actually and as for that title I wasn't the one to choose it. But why the hostility? Last I checked your body count is quite a bit higher than my own or has the "Glacier" gone soft on criminals?" I sent back making the man grimace. As a result of his city being in a prime location for shipping within this region Juan regularly had to capture and execute criminals that try to operate out of this place and earned the nickname Glacier due to his fondness of ice types and habit of freezing the criminals solid to kill them.