Chapter 6 — Observation

  The attentive staff of a luxurious restaurant on Alto Mare’s central canal, dressed in tailored uniforms, professionally served each patron’s needs while walking on a plush red carpet that cushioned each step to keep ambient silence. “Madam,” one of the waiters said while extending a silver tray in front of him. He grabbed the two drinks on it and placed them on the white linen-draped mahogany table. At the lack of a verbal reply, the waiter bowed and left to attend to other tables.

  Annie took a sip from her Amaretto and hummed in delight at the alcoholic taste. “Oh, excellent! This place has a terrible fashion, but I can’t complain about the drinks.” She glanced at the ornate stained-glass windows on the second gallery that alternated in red and blue designs featuring Latios and Latias, as well as the hand-painted murals of Alto Mare’s history that adorned the high ceiling. “Decoration isn’t so hot, either.”

  “We’re not here to judge Alto Mare’s fashion, decorations, or drinks,” Oakley commented drily. “You’re doing a terrific job at that, I’ll admit. I’m sure Giovanni will find that report most fascinating.”

  “Fine.” Annie pulled on the rim of her sunglasses to get a better look outside. Large, arched windows framed the pristine canal outside the first floor, making the shimmering waters part of the decoration. The restaurant’s panoramic view offered her a direct line of sight to Alto Mare’s central plaza, where the Tour de Alto Mare had concluded recently.

  The siblings had changed out of their spy gear into regular clothes to mix in with the restaurant’s patrons. Annie donned an off-the-shoulder orange and green top along with skin-tight black jeans. A pair of sleek pure-silver bracelets adorned her wrists, and a thick silver necklace plated with a few jewels hung from her neck. Her sharp orange eyes never left the pair of dragons, who levitated above the crowds in the central plaza.

  Oakley observed the pair almost without blinking, with several scanners and cameras in her high-tech sunglasses recording and analyzing the guardians’ interaction with the city folk after the just-concluded awards ceremony. Unlike her sister, she wore a conservative dark red top and casual black jeans, with her gold bracelets and necklace mirroring Annie’s in design.

  “I think you’re right,” Annie acknowledged with a nod. “They’re pretty strong. It’ll be difficult to—”

  Oakley slapped Annie’s hand from across the table, prompting her to yelp and jerk it back. Oakley glared at her oblivious sister and put a single finger on her mouth as a gesture of silence.

  Annie rubbed her hand and stared at her with a confused expression. She looked at the central plaza of Alto Mare and scoffed. “Whatever.”

  “Good.” Oakley observed the movements of the crowds, though the bulk of her attention focused on the now-alone red and white dragoness leisurely levitating at the top of the museum’s predominant spire. She watched with bated breath as Latias glided down to street level, turned around, and flew into one of the many canals that fed the plaza. She sighed in relief and threw her sister a pointed look. “Don’t speak of anything suspicious while within possible earshot of either Latios or Latias.”

  Annie blinked and looked between Oakley and the plaza repeatedly. She threw her sister an exasperated glare. “Oakley, we’re at least three blocks away and on the opposite end of a crowded area.”

  “I know, but Latios and Latias are a Pokémon species that humanity has little knowledge of,” Oakley rebutted. She tapped the table impatiently as if pondering her choice of words. “We don’t know how sensitive their hearing is, nor how good they are at filtering out unimportant chatter and pinpointing delicate conversations, even from afar. Plus, they’re Psychic.”

  “I think you’re a little too paranoid.” Annie shook her head and crossed her arms over her chest. “They’re just Pokémon at the end of the day. Strong ones, yes, but no different from all the others we’ve caught before.”

  “Maybe they are,” Oakley admitted. “But maybe they’re not. The cost of paranoia is a mild annoyance for us. The cost of carelessness is ending six feet under. I think it’s a fair trade.”

  Annie sipped from her drink and whirled the ice cubes with her straw. “True, I guess.”

  “We’re not the first to take them on. I doubt we’re the first to try to take them by surprise, either. Yet, they’re there, unharmed, flying around without care. That means they’ve survived every ambush they’ve suffered so far without fail,” Oakley elaborated. “If they haven’t lost, there is a reason for it.”

  Annie leaned back into her cushioned mahogany chair. “I’ll keep that in mind.” She patiently waited for a few people who walked down the corridor to pass them and walk out of earshot. “We saw what we needed to see.”

  “Right. Let’s go, or I swear I’ll be sick if I see those dragons on another window decoration today.” Oakley swiftly packed her belongings, left their tab’s cost at the table plus a generous tip, and walked down the restaurant’s aisle.

  Annie looked at her sister and then glanced back at their table. She rolled her eyes, grabbed the money that Oakley had left as a tip, and pocketed it. “So, what’s on your mind?” she asked once she caught up to her.

  “A lot,” Oakley confessed. She smiled politely at the restaurant’s receptionist. “Thank you, wonderful food. My compliments to the chef.”

  The receptionist handed her a gift card with an equally polite smile and a respectful bow. “I will pass them on. We hope you return soon.”

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  Oakley walked through the restaurant’s grand entrance and down the main stairway. She boarded the modern-looking boat they had rented for their trip. “Let’s start. The city adores them, as we saw. They’ll have no shortage of allies or resources here. They’re also very confident, given the way they speak and the way they handle themselves.”

  “I figured that,” Annie responded as she boarded the speedboat. “They looked like they had the tour and ceremony completely under control from start to finish. The way they speak is a bit mesmerizing, I’ll admit. They were so far away from us, yet we heard them as clearly as if they spoke at our side.”

  “That’s one of the things on my mind.” Oakley sat down at the steering wheel and pursed her lips. “Sometimes, it’s the tiny displays of finesse that are truly terrifying, not the big flashy Draco Meteors in the sky. How do they do that? What’s the secret?”

  “Beats me. They look like they’re full of surprises,” Annie commented. A grimace twisted her features as she swallowed hard, a lump forming in her throat. “I doubt we want to discover an extra surprise the day we confront them. It’d be our end.”

  “They’re… powerful.” Oakley grabbed a sophisticated computer from a bag at her side and placed it on the boat’s dashboard. “Come look at this.”

  “How powerful?” Annie asked as she sat on the passenger’s seat and leaned in to look closer. “Powerful can mean many things and be a wide spectrum.”

  “I have a couple of drones spread over the city, disguised among civilian drones here and there over the allowed areas.” Oakley pointed to two blinking dots on her computer’s display. “These two are the important ones. They’re equipped with many sensors for measuring all kinds of radiation. Look at this.” She inputted several commands into the computer.

  The computer’s screen rolled back and showed a replay of the Tour de Alto Mare race, with several graphs and numbers going haywire at its sides. “The amount of energy they release whenever they exert their power is nuts. This is almost identical to the highest-recorded energy emanating from a champion-level battle.”

  Annie hummed in thought. “I doubt they’re flinging full power attacks while messing around for a dumb race. This must be child’s play for them.”

  “I agree. I don’t think we’ve seen anything close to their full power yet.” Oakley tapped one number on her screen. “This one, specifically, measures a Pokémon’s psychic power output. Those two smashed the readings from every known top-tier psychic-type trainer with their illusions.” She dragged her fingers across the screen to another one. “This one measures the explosive power of attacks based on the generated shockwave. That Draco Meteor at the start put nearly everything seen in Pokémon battles to shame.”

  “That’s terrifying.” Annie fiddled with one of her overgrown buns of hair. “I wouldn’t want to be on the other end of that if they’re serious. However, as long as they’re within the city, they’ll be forced to use restraint even when fighting a real battle.”

  “I think so as well. We need to engage them in an area where they can’t fight at full strength.” Oakley rested her chin on her hands. “But this puts into perspective the power level we can expect when we fight them.”

  “Well, that means we better pack some serious heat when we try to catch them,” Annie concluded. “We can’t just go in with our standard issue gadgets and two Pokémon.”

  “Oh, there’s no way I’m standing in Latias’ presence with just my Ariados,” Oakley said with a shudder. “Anyway. Something I wasn’t aware of was their ability to project illusions. It’s good to learn that now.” She tapped several commands on her laptop’s keyboard and replayed some of the footage on its screen. “Their illusions appeared crisp and detailed despite covering a vast area. That means we need equipment that can bypass visual targeting when we confront them. We cannot trust anything we see with our eyes unless verified by appropriate equipment.”

  Annie looked at the beautiful blue sky and recalled Latios’ illusion. “That also implies how capable their minds are. To process and output an image of that size for an entire city takes some serious focus. We can probably correlate their illusion powers to their psychic powers.”

  “In some manner, yes. We need to be fully protected against any kind of targeted psychokinetic attack when confronting them, or we’ll be killed instantly.” Oakley tapped the computer’s edges while deep in thought. “We’ve gained some good data today, I’d say. However, I’m still concerned because they’re so highly dangerous.”

  Annie sighed and stared at the laptop. “Well, if they’re as impressive as the sensors say, there’s no way Giovanni will call this mission off. He’ll want those two under his control ASAP.”

  “He will,” Oakley acknowledged. “For that, he ordered the lab coats to build powerful weaponry for us while maintaining the mission feasible. Our first task is to scout and feed them the best intel possible so they can build the appropriate capabilities and countermeasures into our equipment.”

  “Who’s in charge of this?” Annie asked. She pursed her lips. “Please, it better not be Zager. That dude’s an idiot.”

  “Professor Sebastian. That’s a relief because he’s one of the few I trust,” Oakley replied. “He’s the most competent.”

  “Didn’t he almost catch a Raikou and caught a juvenile Rayquaza recently with his gadgets?” Annie asked. “Very impressive, if true. I don’t recall the details. I just skimmed those reports.”

  “He did.” Oakley nodded. “But we won’t challenge them based on preliminary sensor data alone. I want a practical test of their powers and skills before doing so.”

  “Practical test? Go and fight them, then,” Annie said, finishing her sentence with a sarcastic laugh.

  Oakley gave her sister an exasperated look. “Annie.”

  “Well, you said it yourself. How do we test them without, you know, dying in the process?” Annie asked while giving her sister a pointed look. “I don’t think my Espeon would want to fight that.”

  “We won’t do the testing ourselves, dumbass.” Oakley rolled her eyes. “It was expensive, but I posed as a rich businesswoman and hired some goons from Johto to attack them. Based on the agreement, they should attack today or tomorrow.”

  “…You hired a bunch of low-level poachers to attack them?” Annie’s jaw dropped slightly. “Are you out of your mind? If Latios and Latias are as strong as you claim them to be, what will some random idiots accomplish?”

  “Nothing,” Oakley answered with a casual shrug. “They’ll most likely hopelessly lose. The idea of this is to gather intel. I want to see how Latios and Latias react to a direct attack on them. I want to see their response and measure it.”

  “Better them than us, I guess,” Annie relented. “What are they called again?”

  “Pokémon Poacher Brothers. They operate in Johto and recently got out of jail for operating in a protected reserve around Mt. Silver. They were so desperate for a large hit that they accepted this job without any questions.” Oakley chuckled. “The fools.”

  “All we have to do is sit back and enjoy the show?” Annie leaned back in her chair and placed her feet on the dashboard. “I can get behind that.”

  Oakley leaned back and crossed her arms behind her head. “Let’s wait for them to show up. Once the fight starts, I’ll try to get the boat parked at the far end of a nearby canal to see the battle. If not, we’ll have to make do with our drone footage.”

  Annie sneered. “This will be fun.”

  Oakley nodded. “It will be.”

  Chapter End

  Author Notes: If anything is off, remember I am a Mexican trying to write the culture of a fantasy version of Venice. I took some artistic liberty. Anyway, don’t forget to leave a Review or Comment with your thoughts! I’d love to hear them!

  End of Arc: This chapter ends the ‘Introduction and Tour de Alto Mare’ arc. If you’re binging and looking for a place to pause your reading, this is it. The next chapter opens a new arc.