Alvera was hyped up for some action, the lingering arousal from her recent "dance" with the twins still humming across her sensitive skin. She stretched, loosening her muscles as she prepared herself for battle while tracking the movement of the man's aura above her.
There were about a dozen goons moving across the second floor, converging on the stairwell at the corner of the building. Each was Expert ranked, carrying roughly three to six Pokémon, which would be a challenge even for her out in the open. That was why she headed straight for the stairwell to intercept them, choosing a location that would limit how many could engage her at once.
When she reached the bottom of the stairs, she arrived just in time to catch them as they rushed down. She cut them off on the first floor, where the man in the lead immediately pointed at her.
"You bitch!" he shouted as Alvera took her time stepping forward. "Do you have any idea who you're fucking with? Once my men beat the shit out of you, I'm going to enjoy shoving my—"
He didn't get to finish. Alvera slid forward in a blur with a phantom step and drove an uppercut into his chin, sending him flying up toward the third floor. She followed immediately with a jumping knee strike, driving her knee into the groin of the man just behind him.
As he crumpled to the floor, Alvera flicked her hand and locked all of the man's Poké Balls before moving on to the next. She drove an open palm into another man's throat, cutting off his airway as she took a punch to the jaw and answered with a sharp elbow to her assailant's face. As they both went down, she swept her hands across their belts, locking their Pokémon as well, then continued up the stairs.
From their elevated position, the men saw everything and understood they were outmatched. She was strong enough to drop them with a single hit while shrugging off their blows, so they began releasing whatever Pokémon could fit in the tight stairwell.
With the space so limited, all they managed to send out were Gumshoos, Drifblim, Ribombee, and Masquerain before they ran out of room. Even at Expert rank, they struggled to maneuver in the cramped stairwell. A few single-target, concentrated attacks still slipped through, but Alvera evaded them with ease. They couldn't risk using their more powerful moves in such close quarters, not without endangering their own trainers.
Rather than waste time and energy bringing down the Pokémon, Alvera targeted their trainers. She closed the distance, striking the groin, solar plexus, throat, or head before retrieving their Pokémon, locking their Poké Balls, and moving on to the next. She controlled the immediate space with overwhelming force, shrugging off incoming attacks while answering with one-hit knockouts, steadily advancing up the stairwell as she dismantled the goons one by one.
Realizing they were too crowded, someone among the goons shouted, "Pile onto her and restrain her."
Immediately, they all jumped down with arms wide, charging with their full strength.
Alvera, in response, smiled wildly as sparks of electricity arced from her eyes, giving them a bright yellow glow. She took a step back and braced, then caught the falling goons, absorbing their momentum and powering through it. Once she stabilized, she released the electricity building up in her body, knocking out all the remaining goons in one shot.
She had worked hard to develop her talent for Electric type energy, meditating with a focus on her spine ever since she reached Elite rank, and she had finally found a way to make proper use of it. The breakthrough came from her experience with Zapdos, when she realized she hadn't been fully tapping into her abilities. Now, she was like a walking stun gun, capable of taking down Expert ranked trainers with a single touch.
She finished her assault by locking up all the Poké Balls and moving forward in pursuit of the man, who was the only one left.
As for those who managed to recover behind her, they found themselves frozen in fear under the watch of a deadly blade and shield. It was an Elite ranked Aegislash, poised to deliver instant death the moment any of them so much as twitched. They kept their heads down and their hands away from their belts, unwilling to risk provoking the powerful Pokémon.
Meanwhile, the Aegislash calmly took the time to collect their Poké Ball belts, slashing them free and hanging them from its hilt. It ensured each trainer was properly disarmed, preventing any chance of them releasing Pokémon to regroup behind Alvera.
Once Alvera reached the second floor with groaning goons behind her, she arrived just in time to see the man's eyes widen in fear before he continued retreating up the stairs. It was clear he didn't believe he and his Pokémon could do anything to stop her.
She followed him all the way to the third floor, where private rooms lined the corridor behind locked doors, and watched him slip into one at the far end. It seemed she was about to meet the source of the gang's confidence, as she could feel the unmistakable aura of an Elite ranked trainer inside, along with a few Expert ranked bodyguards.
The man let out a sigh of relief as he finally reached his boss's room. He didn't know how some Expert ranked chick could be so powerful, but it was clear she was no longer his problem. Now that he was here, his boss would deal with her, and maybe, once his boss was done with her, he might even get a turn.
"Boss! You have to help me! There's this crazy chick outside that beat us up. She looks like an Expert ranked trainer but she's clearly an Elite. You have to help me," the man said desperately, before noticing the eerie silence in the pitch-black room.
Usually, his boss would have cut him off and berated him, but instead there was only silence coming from the shadows behind the desk. He took a cautious step forward, only to notice something off to the side that pulled his attention. His boss hung suspended in the air, twitching and completely immobilized, his eyes rolled back white.
Looking around, he saw the guards in similar states around the room, all held in place and occasionally twitching as if caught in intermittent waves of pain.
"Ahhh!" he shouted and stumbled back, only to hit his back against the door before feeling a tight psychic hold grab him, followed by an eerily calm voice commanding.
"Read his memories. Let's see what he has for me, since he's a leader among the Expert rank," the dark voice said.
Suddenly, the door burst open with a powerful kick as Alvera made her entrance. She looked around the room, taking in the surroundings, only to be shocked by what she saw. Behind the desk, between a Gardevoir and a Gothitelle, sat a man with an Espeon purring on his lap.
"Dad!? What are you doing here?" she exclaimed.
"Hey, sweetie. I see you've been having some fun," Alex replied as he sat comfortably behind the desk in the dark room.
Alvera blushed from pure embarrassment, unsure whether her dad was referring to her recent battle or her "dance" with the twins. It was one thing to discuss sexual topics with her other mothers, but an entirely different matter to talk about it with her dad, no matter how experienced he was.
"You didn't answer my question!" Alvera insisted. "Are you 'protecting' us? We're already adults, you know."
"Marlo was worried about his kids being manipulated by Team Bones, and I thought I'd get a decent lead if I kept track of them," Alex answered.
"Team Bones? So this was Underworld business?"
"It's a bit more complicated than that, but in essence, yes," Alex said as he stood and walked over to the Elite ranked trainer whose mind was being read by Gardevoir. "The twins and their little group are being groomed into becoming Team Bones's minions. It starts with harassment from peers, kept secret through threats against their parents, and over time evolves into a violent culture that teaches them to obey their superiors. Eventually, they're ordered to commit crimes, and punished if they resist. This ensures a constant supply of recruits in an ongoing chain of coercion and escalation."
"Funnily enough, this applies to those of higher ranks as well. If they don't obey, someone will come to eliminate them. It continues up the ladder until it reaches the strongest individual in the entire Alolan Underworld. If that figure is removed, it doesn't take much for the gangs beneath them to move up and continue the name and legacy of Team Bones. It's, frankly, a very interesting decentralized command structure that can easily survive raids and beheading tactics."
"What if the guys at the very top decide to turn this from a criminal structure into a more constructive one?" Alvera asked.
"That's pretty much how they've managed to survive. Past leaders at the top were people who didn't want to propagate criminal activity, and yet it only takes criminals in the structure to paint a bad image. Like this guy, for example," Alex said as he lightly tapped the Elite's cheek. "He's been using his area as a drug distribution operation in partnership with overseas drug lords. Those at the top don't know, while those at the bottom have no choice but to obey. Like I said, it's decentralized, so there's very little oversight."
"What about the current leader?" Alvera asked.
"I don't know. They're stationed on Ula'ula Island, and even this guy doesn't know. All he knows is that he's managed to keep his activities hidden from the Champions of Akala Island. I'd have to dig around to eventually find out and do something about it."
"What are you going to do with these guys then?" Alvera asked, more out of curiosity than concern.
She grew up with bounty hunters and understood the necessity of killing when it came to certain criminals. It was the gray area of bounty hunting that they often learned to live with once they encountered cases where simply killing the criminal was better for the world.
Alex, rather than answering her question directly, instead listed off the crimes they had committed.
"Extortion, blackmail, bribery, theft, fraud, forgery, drug distribution, human trafficking, assault, rape, and murder," Alex said. "They've also got connections in city hall, so they'd probably just get a slap on the wrist if I handed them over. They don't even have any bounties, since they've managed to keep their operation under the table."
"Can we still arrest them and tie them to their connection in city hall?" Alvera asked.
"Nope. Their connections are based on family ties, so their cousin isn't necessarily guilty of any crimes. This guy and some of the gangs under him are just bad eggs."
"Alright," Alvera said with a shrug, already understanding that only death awaited them, before turning to leave. "I'll let the twins know about this."
"That's fine, but don't tell them about me or their dad. It's better for them to come clean on their own. Otherwise, they'll continue to feel rebellious and lose trust in their parents."
Alvera nodded, then turned and left the room, where she encountered Aegislash, who had been waiting outside carrying over a dozen Poké Ball belts on his hilt.
"Hey there, buddy. Thanks for cleaning up for me," Alvera said sweetly as she rubbed his shield while shouldering the belts.
She returned downstairs to the VIP section and dropped the belts onto the table.
"Problem solved!" she declared proudly as she took her seat.
"You took them all down!?" everyone exclaimed.
"Are the Elites coming after us?" Malia asked worriedly.
"Don't worry about that. I took them down as well. You no longer have to be a gang to survive in your own neighborhood."
Understandably, the twins and their friends asked for more details while Alvera explained the situation as promised. It shed new light on their circumstances as they realized they were just kids being manipulated.
"Anyway!" Alvera said, brightening the gloomy mood. "Since this is over and done with, why don't we celebrate?"
She raised her glass into the air. "Cheers!"
Everyone around the table smiled, raised their drinks, and shouted, "Cheers!"
They enjoyed the rest of the night, celebrating their newfound freedom with drinks and dancing.
Meanwhile, Alex moved through Royal Avenue as he cleaned up all the criminal operations in the city. There were drug dens, violent gangs, distribution sites, and all manner of places he would have to clear out to ensure the place became safer for Marlo and his family.
And he was only just getting started, as Alola still had more in store for him.