Alex teleported back to the inn at Cherrygrove City to drop off Marcus, along with the man's Pokémon. He also left behind his defensive team to guard them during his absence.
Once everything was secured, he changed into his usual armored attire and teleported to Route 31. From there, he headed west toward Violet City.
The path was similar to Route 30, with dense forests pressing in on both sides. Small clearings broke up the thick woodland, and the occasional lake appeared along the way. The journey took the entire day, and by nightfall, Alex reached Violet City.
Violet City was surrounded by tall stone walls that had stood for generations. They served both as protection and as a symbol of the city's struggles against Pokémon in the past. Moss and vines clung to the stone, showing the city's age and its long-standing bond with the surrounding wilderness.
Inside the walls, most of the buildings were traditional in design. They were made from wood and stone, built with sloped tiled roofs. The streets were narrow, with stone paths leading between the buildings. Lanterns were common, along with wooden signs hanging from shops and homes.
At the center of the city stood Sprout Tower. It was a tall wooden pagoda supported by a large central pillar designed to sway with the wind. The tower itself was built on an island in the middle of a lake, with wooden bridges connecting it to the rest of the city. The area around the lake was lined with gardens and old trees.
Monks maintained the tower, focusing on meditation and training Grass type Pokémon. They also held public viewings, allowing visitors to see the tower's architecture up close. In addition, the monks offered classes focused on improving the bond between people and Pokémon, teaching how to live alongside them in harmony with nature.
Nearby was the Violet City Gym, which specialized in Flying types. The city also had two other gyms, one for Grass types and one for Bug types. All three followed the standard design used across the region, built with reinforced materials to withstand the damage from battles. Though they didn't follow traditional architecture, their presence was accepted since battles could become too destructive to safely hold outdoors.
There were a few other buildings that broke the mold, such as multi-story stores and office buildings that handled logistics, but they were few and far between. They existed more out of necessity for progress than as signs of any real change.
Johto as a whole leaned toward tradition, maintaining its old customs rather than following the rapid technological growth seen elsewhere. Places like New Bark Town and Cherrygrove City followed the same approach, giving the region a consistent, almost timeless atmosphere rooted in the past.
Violet City, in particular, remained focused on self-sufficiency and preserved its way of life with little change over the years. Its people valued simplicity and tradition, living at a slower, more deliberate pace than those in more modern regions.
This in turn greatly slowed down the human supremacists' efforts to spread their ideology. It was well known that Violet City stood united in their belief of living in harmony with nature and Pokémon.
Still, they tried their best, catering to victims of Pokémon attacks, though incidents were far less common here compared to the cities of Kanto, where deaths occurred regularly. It was clear they would not be making much progress in this city.
They operated out of an office building, but there was no hidden base to train new recruits. According to Umbraline's intelligence, the few recruits from Violet City had been sent to the underwater base Alex had destroyed three months ago. In other words, his work here was already finished.
Even so, there was still the office building that needed to be dealt with, and Alex was more than willing to handle it on the side. It was already the middle of the night, so he decided to take care of it first before looking for a place to sleep.
He flew straight to the building on Hydreigon and hovered around the top floor. From there, he located the Elite ranked trainer in charge of Violet City, fast asleep in her room.
Raticate worked on the glass wall, creating an opening for Alex to slip inside. He quickly located her Poké Balls and locked them to prevent her team from interfering.
Then he pulled out a syringe filled with a fast-acting sedative. Pressing his hand firmly over her mouth, he locked her head in place and prevented her from screaming before he injected the sedative into her arm. She struggled for a moment, panicking, before going still as the drug took effect.
"This is much better than last time," Alex muttered with a satisfied nod.
The last time he had done this, his target had woken up, ready to scream, and he had been forced to knock her out with a punch to the chin. This time, he had learned his lesson and carried out the injection smoothly without any trouble.
Gardevoir watched the missed opportunity with clear disappointment. She could have simply used Dream Eater instead.
"Sorry, girl, but this one has a Psychic implant. You probably wouldn't enjoy the meal anyway," Alex said.
"Gar…" she muttered, sulking.
She had been growing restless from not having killed anyone in a while.
"Tell you what. There are some grunts on the lower floors you can play with. Just make sure you don't cause a mess. Alright?"
"Gardevoir!" she replied cheerfully.
She giggled like a schoolgirl before rushing downstairs. Unlike last time, most of the grunts were already asleep, making it easy for her to go on a rampage on her own.
Just like Alex, she slipped quietly into their rooms, locked their Poké Balls to prevent interference, and began her feast without interruption. One by one, she used Dream Eater on her victims, savoring the taste of their corrupted minds.
Once she was finished, Gardevoir let out a satisfied sigh before returning to Alex's side, now in better spirits. Alex then ordered his Pokémon to clean up the office building.
After everything was settled, Alex located Umbraline's designated corpse disposal site and submitted the bodies he had collected, along with the Elite he had captured. He also sold them any non-Elite ranked Pokémon and exchanged the Elite ones for meat through their services, avoiding the higher costs of dealing with regular butchers.
"Excellent work as always, Mr. Wattson," the young man managing the facility said with a polite nod. "Your total comes to 10 million Pokédollars."
"Deliver these supplies to my farm as well," Alex instructed, handing over the small stash of ammunition he had recovered from the office. "Also, find me an Indeedee trained for office work and send it along with this Chingling. Make sure the Indeedee is fully legal. Understood?"
Alex didn't forget about the Chingling that Marcus had captured first, nor did he overlook Celise's Indeedee. Umbraline truly was the best kind of evil in this world, offering these services at a discount to those who worked for them.
"Understood, sir. Do you already have accommodations arranged?"
"No. I'll need one for the night."
"Understood, sir."
Instead of the usual hotel room or inn, Alex was taken to a luxurious house with full amenities and a yard large enough to accommodate all his Pokémon. It was the perfect base of operations for the Johto Region, given Violet City's reach and its position as the city closest to the region's center.
Alex quickly teleported back to his inn at Cherrygrove City, gathered his spoils, belongings, and Pokémon, checked out, and then teleported back to Violet City to settle in for the night.
As for his captive, he fed him some cheap Pokémon meat before locking him in a basement room. He still planned to leave his defensive team to guard the prisoner, so it was fine.
Early the next morning, Alex rode Arcanine south through Route 30 and arrived at a new port town called Seawatch Town. Like Fallsend Town, it was newly constructed, though it followed Johto's traditional wooden style similar to New Bark Town instead of Fallsend's more modern infrastructure.
Seawatch Town served as the halfway point to another settlement further south, known as Stoneharbor Town, which was located just outside Union Cave and closer to the sea to the east.
Alex spent another full day traveling south from Seawatch Town, following the main route toward Stoneharbor Town. The path remained consistent, passing through stretches of forest and open fields, with the sea occasionally visible to the east. By the time he reached Stoneharbor Town, the sun was already starting to set.
On the third day of his trip along Route 32, Alex continued his journey. Rather than stopping at Union Cave like most travelers, he followed a less-traveled path heading south along the coastline. The terrain gradually shifted, with fewer forests and more rocky cliffs overlooking the sea. The path eventually wrapped around the base of the mountain, curving west along the shore.
Eventually, he reached a private seaside residence, fully enclosed by a massive wall that covered several square kilometers of land. The estate had its own pier along the coast, while the rest of the property remained completely walled off from the outside.
It was finally time for Alex to cash out the bounty that had taken him this far south.
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