Pokemon Umbral: Renny's Sidequest Part 2

[Menarker]

Renny smiled as Impact relayed the plan.

"That sounds like a great idea, Impact. I pretty much agree. In the meantime, we've also been capturing pokemons that belonged to our enemies. Legendaries and otherwise. Aside from being a good deed in itself, not only can we possibly distribute them to our friends as needed be, but we can perhaps run Faynoc low on resources to make new legendary pokebrid forces, since they need the genetic materials to do so... But there is one thing I think you might need to think over... you mention that the Honmyr military might be able to deal with the Ruin pokemon once we scattered their forces and put them in disorder. The Kimonos and Rayleen said they are part of the problem. The military have been attacking the Kimonos at the ruins. Also Vladier Burkmont, Supreme General of the Honmyr Prideguard is not our ally from what Rayleen said. She also said that if things escalates, especially at the ruins the Kimonos are defending, the Gabriel Force might get involved as well. So we should probably assume that the military is not on our side."


Then Renny stopped to think for a moment as if he forgot something...

"Oh. One thing more. Remember when I made that hypothesis on the notion that the bank heist may have been planned to occur from the start? Excuse me for bringing up again, since you thought I was blowing things out of proportions, but I talked with Shannon about it, or rather about their clients and motives when they did the deed. Back when Darcen and everyone under his leadership of the "Evil Eevee Eight" robbed the bank, they were promised riches to deliver it to someone else. A different gang with large red Rs on their black or white shirts. Team Rocket, a pokemon gang that had operated in many other locations, including a few I traveled in the past during my pokemon trainer journey. She said they looked like retarded cosplayers, but I digress. Anyhow, I think now that maybe this gang was used as a middle-man between the real interested party and the Evil Eevee Eight? The Evil Eevee Eight supposably was to recover the Gendom, turns it over to Team Rocket, and they in turn give it to the real people pulling the strings. The costumed gang would probably then be eliminated to keep the secrecy. If I'm right and that's how it was done, then whoever the real enemies are, they knew how to cover their tracks really good. It's entirely possible that whomever was the actual client of the egg actually knew about the Gendom, but used Darcen and Team Rocket to hide their identity while transfering it to either a more secure location or as a gift to an ally, whomever they are. For all we know, it's Faynoc or Burkmont for the Prideguard. The worst situation would be if they were actually working together... but then again, I'm just pointing out possible issues from what we know.

Hopefully that might give us a lead for where to look for information."

[DanteFalcon]

Matthias had stayed away from the crowd and enjoyed sleeping outside at the end of the party. The evening was relaxing for him and with a distinct lack of alchohol. Though it probably left him with the most boring evening, he was extremely comfortable under the open sky. Probably the Venomoth genes.


He returned with the rest to headquarters and to his surprise found himself agreeing with Charlotte's assessment. Shortly after the fight broke out he half considered stepping in. However it seemed Renny beat him to it which was probably for the best. Matthias would actually have to attack one of them to end the fight given he wasn't a very threatening figure. Renny had a full line-up of pokemon to threaten with.

Finally came Impact's long winded if not necessary speech. As per his usual tactic he elected not to speak at this point, letting others speak first and interjecting if he believed it was necessary.

[Astral Harmony]

Cecilia, Mirror, and Wilhelmina Joined the Party!

It was approaching noon when Rayleen was done talking to Moon and Shannon.
"We're going with Plan A," Rayleen said out loud just before entering the room where everyone was at. "We've got some time off to get set up for our future operations, so I'd like to begin by settling the unimportant issues right now if I can."
Shannon and Moon stood near the doorway. Rayleen stopped near Cecilia, Mirror, and Wilhemina. "Miss Veldyne. Miss Brisholm. Miss Rustfield. I'd appreciate it if you three came with me. Dormond, please empty that. Everybody else is on standby. Take it easy, today. Dismissed."
Rayleen indicated the trash can that Charlotte puked into as she left with the three new girls in tow. Dormond showed no hesitation in picking up the can and exiting the room.
"I wonder if she'll be able to convince them to go away?" Shannon asked Moon.
"Just don't be surprised when they end up on the roster," Moon said. "Ugh. This really sucks. They'll try to join no matter what Rayleen tells them. We've got the Ruin Generals trying to take over the world. We've got this Faynoc bastard trying to take over the world. It seems like General Burkmont wants to take over the world. What next? We turn a corner and now guys like Impact and Pierce want to take over the world?"

Impact and Pierce didn't trust themselves to retort to that.

Two hours later, all four women returned and went straight into Rayleen's office. Both Moon and Shannon knocked on the door almost right after the door was closed. Rayleen bid them enter, though she hadn't summoned them.
Moon and Shannon observed that Rayleen's methods of solving the problem had left them all looking rather beat up.
"Good lord, what happened to all of you?"
"Pra-...practical exam," Mirror said, still panting from what must have been a great deal of exertion.
"I fought them one to three," Rayleen said. "Moon, I apologize to you in advance for this, but-"
Rayleen then pushed three pieces of paper across the desk. "Sign these and I'll begin the paperwork and security background checks immediately."
Before Moon and Shannon's stunned faces Cecilia, Mirror, and Wilhelmina signed themselves up to join PATCA.

Rayleen stood up and shook hands with each new member. "Welcome to the Pokemon Advanced Tactics and Counterterrorism Agency, or PATCA. Remember everything I said before and don't be afraid to tell me if you change your minds. You may go, now."
The three woman started to exit, but stopped when they got near Shannon.
"We're not going to lose to you!" Cecilia and Mirror both declared before leaving.
The door had barely just shut before Shannon began. "Chief, what just happened?"
Rayleen put on a pair of glasses, opened some applications and began typing on the keyboard will simultaneously booting up the fax machine. "Why, I do believe that Miss Veldyne, Miss Brisholm, and Miss Rustfield just joined the Pokemon Advanced Tactics and Counterterrorism Agency."
"I kinda wanted a different answer than what was blatantly obvious."
"Right," Rayleen sighed, still typing. "I've talked to them just like I've talked to you. I told them pretty much everything I could at an unclassified level to dissuade them from this. I called their parents. I indicated Moon's crimnal record. I told them about what Moon wanted to do. Despite all of this, those men are clearly as crazy as they are wealthy and both have agreed that polygamy is still the best course. Having failed at all of those, I then put them to a real test."

Rayleen shrugged and leaned back. "I'm out of options for now. Plan B, it is, then."
"Plan B?" Moon asked.
"Real world testing," Rayleen said, working again. "Nothing's stopping them from joining PATCA, that much is certain. Now all we can do is hope that an actual mission will give them second thoughts."
"And if it doesn't?"
Rayleen smiled. "Enjoy your three wives, I guess."
"Chief!"
"Please, Moon. I have a headache and a lot of paperwork. And honestly, is this really something to complain about? They're really cute. If I was you and was in a position to have three beautiful wives and own three businesses, two of them making tens of millions of dollars in profit each year, I'd probably be looking mighty suspicious from all the giggling I'd be doing all the time."

Moon and Shannon looked at each other. Rayleen sighed again and leaned on her desk. "Relax. Just focus on PATCA and take everything else as it comes. You may think I'm stupid for thinking the way I do, but I've often believed that things tend to work themselves out."
Moon and Shannon could only stare at each other. Then Moon broke his gaze and resigned himself to his bizarre fate. "I hope so."
"Talk to those two girls later, Moon. I've talked to them. Probably everyone else has. And I highly doubt that they'd listen to their rival for your affections. That leaves you."

-----

And the Next Day...

General quarters was called. Rayleen patiently waited while everyone was seated back in the briefing room which they were more familiar with. There was a large number of pretty girls at the front of the room, waiting to be introduced, although three of them already were pretty well known.

"Here's what's going down," Rayleen began. "The Watchmen will now head the forefront in the Ruin Pokemon investigation. All information Ruin Pokemon-wise comes directly to us as fast as it possibly can and we're increasing our numbers greatly to meet the demands of this clandestine operation."

"Our objectives are as such: Neutralize the threat of all Ruin Pokemon, including the Ruin Generals. Destroy the Ruin Pokemon Progenitors. That is all."

Wait, just two objectives?

"Accomplishing these two objectives is the primary focus of the Watchmen. They are fairly large objectives, so we can expect this to take some time and a great deal of manpower. We'll have a large amount of authority and assistance from both the police and the Prideguard, but we may have to actually expect trouble from the Prideguard instead of help. Investigations have already begun in the possibility of two suspected Progenitor guardians. The first one is Reynold Faynoc, leader of the Pokebrid cultists called the Harbingers of Ascension. Their main base of operations is Millenium House, a hidden underground facility where inethical experimentation is being conducted on willing humans and unwilling Pokemon. The second suspect in Progenitor safeguarding is General Vladier Burkmont of the Honmyr Prideguard. The Honmyran President himself has demanded an investigation into Burkmont, so hopefully we can know where the Progenitor is and deal with it in relatively short order. General Burkmont's Headquarters is located in the southern portion of the northern area of this region called The Great Galdeus Desert. As information comes in, we'll designate missions to deal with targets of opportunity, such as reports of strange occurances that could lead to a Ruin General, or the possibility of tracking down Faynoc and Burkmont and finding out if and where they're storing Progenitors."

Rayleen then indicated the rank of girls next to her. "Now let us move on to introductions. You already know Cecilia Veldyne, Mirror Brisholm, and Wilhelmina Rustfield, yes? They seem to be hellbent on staying by Moon's side regardless of the Watchmen's extraordinary situation. You can talk to them later if you so choose, but I'll provide useful data on them that Impact will use in deciding the best mission parties during future sorties. From now on, we're going to be altering our usual tactics and taking more direct control of how we conduct sorties. We needed to transfer over some potential specialists from other units. We actually have a good number of specialists ourselves, but there's only so much fine-tuning one can do with only one specialist."

They got a better look at the group before them. Cecilia Veldyne actually didn't look much different than her non-biological older brother Moon. She was a refined beauty with long shiny black hair and deep blue eyes with a slim figure. Cecilia was an obvious fan of the color blue and her clothes indicated as such. Her frame was packed with lean muscle and one could see the ends of a long staff attached at the back.
Mirror Brisholm was more or less than same except with shoulder-length red-brown hair, pale green eyes, and nicer curves. She wore the suit of an engineer and her hair was put up to keep from getting anything loose in her mechanical creations. She also wore square-rimmed glasses which made her look intelligent. Hopefully that was the case.
Wilhelmina was a flawless beauty. Her beautiful silver hair shined like a river of pure water, she wore her maid outfit well, and the portable weapons rack next to her indicated that she was no slouch in protecting her mistress. A sniper rifle, a rapier, a shotgun, and two magnums? Bitch was packin'.

After those three, Rayleen stopped next to another Sniper. She was a cool beauty, with a tall, limber body and bangs that covered her right eye. She wore a long dark blue trenchcoat over a reinforced bodysuit. "This is Calisto Bellmond, a Slayer from the main PATCA building. According to records, she's one of the most successful snipers PATCA has and this experience stems from her years of service in the Prideguard."
"Fortunately, I'm not a Prideguard lackey anymore," Calisto chuckled. Her cute voice was surprising compared to her cold beauty. "Otherwise, it'd be you guys that would have the misfortune of being in my crosshair."
Somehow, that didn't instill comfort in anyone.

Next up was a woman with blond hair in a ponytail and blue eyes. She had a great body as well, but damn, she was really stacked in the muscle department, even more than Impact. She was also taller than Calisto. She wore a white cap with blue overalls and a white bellyshirt. She also wore leather gloves and steeltoe boots.
"This is Heidi Knoman. She's a Machoke Pokebrid who also has that DNA of Heracross and Infernape, and is also a master Engineer. Actually, before today, Moon Travorian was the only one who could make for an effective Engineer. Now we have Mirror and Heidi, which will give you some versatility in that speciality."
"You can count on me," Heidi said with a powerful voice. "I've done engineering work even on active battlefields, so I won't buckle under pressure."

The next girl's signature blue hair bonnet practically screamed "raised on the countryside". Her brown hair was also in a ponytail. She wore strong armor and used a sword that was only a third the size of Kirie's, but that was still quite big. It didn't take a sharp eye to tell that the sword is technologically advanced, even more so that Rayleen's gunblade.
"This is-"
"I'm Misha Mathers!" the girl interrupted excitedly. "Easy name t'member, ain't it? Darn pleased to meet'cha! I sure do hope we kin get along real good!"
"She's an Enforcer, which means that she doesn't have a specialty like the Snipers or Engineers. But she's still a very effective soldier and can help out when your formation is all split up by this or that circumstance. Her swordsmanship style is self taught, and augmented by the devices in her sword, she could reasonably stand toe-to-toe with Impact and live to talk about it."
"Aw shucks, Chief lady, yer makin' me blush!"

"Next up, we have Aster Lloyd."
Aster was a really cute girl. She looked rather androgynous, but her obvious skin care and her style of clothes was definitely indicative of her being a girl.
"Surprisingly, Aster is a man."
Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat!?
"Aster is another Enforcer. He's a Lumineon Pokebrid with the DNA of Lucario and Gastrodon. He's also a powerful psychic, despite his lack of Psychic Pokemon DNA. He's been reassigned here in the hopes that we might detect problems and be prepared to deal with them before they become an issue. His actual battle experience is particularly limited, but I'm certain he won't let you down if you need his assistance."
"I am Aster Lloyd."
Good God, even his voice sounds like a girl.
"I shall do all in my power to assist you. As of right now, I cannot predict any troubles in the near future."

"Which means you'll have plenty of time to get well acquainted," Rayleen said. "Last but not least is Kurika Jungo."
Kuriko was definitely built for lethal combat. Her forearms, hands, forelegs and feet were all strapped up in white. Her body was muscular and foreboding. She wore a tight fitting dark green kickboxing uniform. Her hair was dark violet and flowed down to the waist.
"She's a Muy Thai kickboxing champion who has aspirations of being a hero. And with her martial arts skills, she is very likely to accomplish just that."
Kurika delivered two fast, powerful kicks into the air. "I believe like all people should that martial arts are meant to protect oneself and the defenseless."
She lowered her leg and placed her hands upon her chest as though trying to convey her feelings by ripping out her own heart and showing them to everyone. "I love using my martial arts for sport, but when my nation demands it, I will not run from the call to use my skills to their full and lethal potential. Now my skills shall be used to protect the world I love. Plus, I really do want to see how far using my full power will take me."

"That should take care of introductions," Rayleen said. "There's still some downtime before the investigations turn up any results, so take the time to recover from the previous fight should you still need to and get to know each other. This is a great time to build comraderie. Incidentally, there will be a somewhat large welcoming party for everyone who has joined us since the very first mission tonight. A good chance to mingle and get to know who you'll be entrusting your lives to. Dismissed."

And that was it. Six girls and one girly guy had just joined the Watchmen. The estrogen level was over nine-thousand by this point. Still, no harm if these girls could fight as good as they looked. Well, maybe no harm.

[Dracorion]

"Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow." Every step he took as he arrived late to the meeting was like a nail in Pierce's head.

"Ow. Ow. Ow." He took his seat and buried his head in his hands, praying to God to make Rayleen stop yelling. He barely payed attention as the newcomers introduced themselves. Then he realized he was sitting next to Charlotte. He thought about waiting until the welcoming party to apologize, but there was going to be alcohol there. Charlotte might fail to realize that she couldn't try to kill him in the middle of a crowded room if he waited until the party.

Pierce leaned over to her and whispered slowly "Look, Charlotte. I'm sorry for the very, very stupid things I said and did yesterday." Then he hesitated. "Err... if there's anything, within reason, that I can do..."

[Menarker]

"We're going with Plan A," Rayleen said out loud just before entering the room where everyone was at. "We've got some time off to get set up for our future operations, so I'd like to begin by settling the unimportant issues right now if I can."
Shannon and Moon stood near the doorway. Rayleen stopped near Cecilia, Mirror, and Wilhemina. "Miss Veldyne. Miss Brisholm. Miss Rustfield. I'd appreciate it if you three came with me. Dormond, please empty that. Everybody else is on standby. Take it easy, today. Dismissed."

Renny nodded to Rayleen.

"Alright, I'll leave those three in your care, Rayleen. I'll see you all tomorrow."

With this time off, Renny decided to pay a visit to Jeanette over at Ricewood's Masterworks. Once Renny reached PATCA's parking lot, he summoned Togekiss, hugging it warmly before mounting it and taking flight.

Shortly, he arrived at the building, and he entered enthuastically as he approached the receptionist desk.

"Hello there. I'm Renny Tresserhorn. I was here several days ago. Is Mrs. Ricewood presently busy? I have a few things to present to her if she could spare a few minutes of her time? It shouldn't take fairly long."

If he could get sent up, he would like to present the bottle of Mollesk Wine that he made as a present since she couldn't make it to the party, as well as present Mollesk himself. Renny still wanted to check up on his health and wellbeing, although his mood regarding him was no longer as dark and worried as before. Plus, she'd probably be interested in examining a previously unseen pokemon.

------------------------

*The next day*

Renny was shocked at the three ladies who had all returned the next day, but this time as employees of PATCA. In all honesty, he didn't care for how any of them had behaved, whether it was Wilhemia's spying and tresspassing, or the other two who used their fathers as a sort of cohersive leverage for Moon's affection.

Renny listened, however, to Rayleen's bringing everyone up to speed, noticing that she indeed also brought up the point of the Prideguard potentially being a hinderance. Then she introduced several other members one by one. Renny felt a shiver down his spine as Calisto joked openly about her having them in her sights. He smiled as Heidi was introduced in more details. She seemed downright reliable and responsible. He smirked as Misha introduced herself boldly, although he felt right at home with her personality. Aster's gender revelation practically made his head hurt, but his ability sounded downright useful, if not a little omnious. As for Kurika... he had mixed reactions. He really admired her spirit and she clearly looked dedicated and driven to make the world a better place, but he worried about her actual success and wellbeing. The ruin types were superiorly built to withstand mundane combat, and the foes they'll be fighting had abilities that more or less run on magic and perhaps high technology if Rayleen's thoughts on the Prideguard be correct...

[Bard The 5th LW]

Charlotte simply rolled her eyes at all the new recruits. Sure, more cannon fodder, but it was also more names to remember, and that was terrible. And freaking Joseph Smith A.K.A Moon also had his two new wives hanging around with him. Perhaps it would do him good to have several, one or two of them were bound to get chopped in half by an Omnisroth sooner or later. They also had girly man, manly-girl, and pride-guard person. This team was soon going to be made of people Charlotte didn't give a fuck about.

Speaking of people Charlotte didn't give a fuck about, Pierce had stumbled into the room and taken a seat next to her. Annoyance flashed in her eyes. They better get a good mission soon, her patience was running out.

"Look, Charlotte. I'm sorry for the very, very stupid things I said and did yesterday."

"I threw up shortly afterward," she stated blandly. Unfortunately, Rayleen was in the room, and she was the responsible authority figure, so Charlotte couldn't do to much damage to Pierce at the moment.

"Err... if there's anything, within reason, that I can do..."

"That's a pretty restricted offer," she replied to him. "I suppose you can just keep future harassment away from me, and get some mouth wash." Without another word, Charlotte returned focus to the briefing.

'Personal Note to self: find a way to hurt Pierce covertly.'

List of Bitches Charlotte shouldn't kill but might anyways
Pierce

[Dracorion]

"That was the wine, I swear." Pierce whispered in response to Charlotte's comment on his breath. And he probably still had some Nagarai in his mouth. "But yeah, no more getting drunk and harrassing you." Then he too turned his attention back to the briefing. Or rather, buried his face in his hands again, trying to stamp out the pain in his head.

All in all, could've been worse. He was right to pick now to apologize, since Charlotte couldn't do anything to him with Rayleen in the room. Though he was sure that she was already thinking about how to get back at him.

[Geminex]

Impact's eyes gleamed as he surveyed the ranks of the new recruits. This was... interesting. Humans, many humans, but a few pokebrids as well... Gain one group's trust, exclude the other. He could use this... His mind wandered back to the night of the party... He had sat on the side, uninvolved. He disliked social events, alcohol, mindless interaction.
...
Ok, the alcohol was pretty good. He had sipped at some wine as he watched them from the shadows, out of earshot, but not out of sight. And he had... considered. What did he know about them? What could he learn? How... could he fight them? It was the Slayer's mantra, learn what you could, apply your mind, destroy your foes. It was... simple. But the more he sat and brooded, the more he drank. And the more he drank, the more he... reconsidered. His... intention so far had been just as simple as the mantra. Fight with the good guys, gain rank, gain power. Prepare to fight his former allies, because he'd have to fight eventually.
...
But did he? That morning -god, it seemed so far off- that morning he'd thought of power... but not of the power of the individual, but of control. Control over mind and control over will. Why fight? Why not... manipulate? Those arrayed before him... Charlotte, Pierce, Renny, even Matt! The Kimonos, Rayleen, every single fighter... They could be foes. And they could be destroyed. But why not make them allies? Control them, make their power your own, make their will your own.

He had seen the potential, back then. Not just the potential inherent in himself, but in those around him. He had decided then, fuelled by alcohol and adrenaline and bitterness and the cold aura of the scythetip... he would control them. He would lead them, to their doom and his glory. And here, before him? This was the first wave. The first rank of his army.
Potential...

He stood, a smile playing across his face. "Excuse those two, they have... history. Welcome to PATCA. Our method of operation is... unorthodox, as Rayleen will probably have mentioned, but we are... effective. You've been briefed, I hope, you know what's been going on. We've faced some strange problems and powerful enemies, but we've succeeded, so far. With your assistance, we'll hopefull keep succeeding. I'm known as Impact, here. I talk a lot and give many orders, but I am... more than competent in combat as well. I hope one makes up for the other."

[DanteFalcon]

Matthias nodded to the group of newcomers.
Matthias Sona. Most call me Matt. If your really into codenames I go by Oberon.

With that he was done for the moment. Impact was going off on a speech, with little doubt that both Renny and Pierce would interject. Charlotte would probably pipe up if they were taking too long, the bloodthirsty bitch. Which left all the newcomers as unknowns. However he had one more thing he needed to say. Just not yet. It was time to draw his hand after all and enter this game of intrigue. He may not have the base of allies that others were undoubtedly building but he didn't want allies. He wanted people who would do exactly what he needed them to, when he told them to. And for that he needed his method of choice.

Some lead by charisma. Some lead by manipulating people's emotions and fooling them. These methods were foolish and always ended the same way.

Information Control was always a far safer business with much better results if one was careful.

[Menarker]

Renny likewise followed suit in his introduction toward all new recruits.

"It is a pleasure to have your all your support. I'm Renny Tresserhorn, a pokemon trainer. If you need any advice or questions, feel free to ask me or one of us. I might look quite young for this job, but I'm one of the earliest members of this group, so I should be able to assist you if you feel the need."