-The Dragon King-

  -Shock and Awe: Ch 6-

  Let’s say hypothetically- and it was purely hypothetical because this went against every rule of good scientific research, or even just plain common sense!

  Let’s say hypothetically, just for the sake of the question, there was someone- err, something that knew things it wasn’t supposed to, and things that were statistically impossible for it to ever guess.

  Despite not ever having any sensory input to learn this information, it still knew about it with enough detail to recount it verbatim.

  For the sake of the hypothetical scenario, and to not underestimate what she could hypothetically be up against, she would assume a default maximalist extent of these powers, even though they could not realistically exist to such an extent.

  This being could know everything that had happened in history, despite not existing then. It could know everything happening currently, even when not nearby to witness. And it could know everything that will happen in the future, despite it not having happened yet.

  Again, the powers could not be to such an extent without the creature being a deity of some kind, and he was very obviously not that, but she had no baseline and it was better to overestimate and overplan than fail because she underestimated what she was up against.

  Now let's say that you wanted to both confirm that this being knew more than it should, measure to what extent it did, and do it without them finding out.

  So how would you trick this person- Thing! The hypothetical was a thing, not a real person she knew!

  How would you trick a thing that could hypothetically know you were trying to trick it, into revealing more than it wanted to?

  “Ugh, this is hurting my head.”

  Dawn groaned as she rubbed her temple and put down her pen.

  Her notepad was filled with lines upon lines of theories and plausible explanations, scribbled in tiny handwriting, with a few sketches of basic diagrams of how Psychics worked. On her phone was an incredibly dry research paper about the interactions between Psychic TE and Dragon TE.

  This wasn’t working. If you assumed a worst-case scenario then there was no way you could trick an all-knowing entity into revealing what they didn’t want to. They would know about it ahead of time, and would obviously just avoid it, or worse, turn it around on you somehow.

  …Unless they didn’t want to avoid it.

  Dawn smiled as a workable idea finally came to mind.

  “Piplup, get ready to head out!” She said as she stood up from her desk and pocketed her phone. “We’re going shopping!”

  A sad penguin groan echoed from the hotel bathroom, where steam from a bathtub full of hot water was lazily floating out the door.

  -The Dragon King-

  Reporter Kinsey sighed as she ran a manicured hand through her dull green hair.

  Hers was a hard life. It was the duty of a reporter to always be on the move, and looking out for the next big story. That one interview, or live report that would give you the weight needed to get your face on the TV during prime time hours.

  She had a really good catch a week or so back, when Maylene came to town, and got into a fist fight with that crazy dude. Sinnoh’s back to back martial arts champion getting beaten black and blue by a random one badge nobody was golden for clicks, but the whole thing had been too graphic for the agency to air in full.

  THE story of the month, and even though she captured it, she was relegated to her name being in the credits of the article. Pathetic.

  “Alright, we’re ready to roll whenever.” Daryll, her cameraman said as he finished doing whatever it was that needed to be done to the sluggish machine before it could capture her beautiful face.

  “It took you long enough, my makeup is going to get ruined by how hot it is out here.” She sneered

  “Yeah, yeah, don’t get your panties in a twist.” Daryll held up his fingers and gave a wordless countdown from five.

  “Hello, and good afternoon Sinnoh, this is Kinsey Lockwood coming to you live from Route 207 with a breaking story.” Kinsey sang into the microphone with a picture perfect smile and a cheery voice that was a complete 180 from what she sounded like just seconds before.

  “Due to record breaking rainfall, and a wet season that’s lasted longer than usual, a significant section of the caves at the base of Mt Coronet have flooded. This has caused a mass migration of Pokemon looking for new caves to call home. Of particular note is a colony of Larvitar that has been forced to the surface.

  “Larvitar are naturally born deep underground, and only found rarely around routes 207 and 206. The majority of their evolutionary line has been safely relocated out of Sinnoh’s borders over the decades, by Pokemon Rangers, due to how dangerous Tryanitar can be, but a small healthy population still live in the caves at the base of Mt Coronet.

  “Sinnoh’s Rangers are on site to help the swarm relocate safely, and joining me today are representatives from the Aether Foundation, and the Galactic Corporation, both of which are contributing resources to make sure this goes smoothly.”

  Kinsey gestured to her side, and the camera panned over to bring two new individuals into frame.

  The first was a dark haired woman that was very tan from spending so much time outside. She had a pure white outfit, with gold trimmings, that was very tight on her curves despite how many layers it had.

  The other was a tall man in a crisp gray suit. He had blue hair cleanly combed to the side, and a pin on his suit’s breast of a sharp yellow G.

  The woman was fidgeting, and seemed incredibly nervous to be on camera. The man, on the other hand, was calm and seemed almost bored.

  “Would you mind giving us a quick word?” Kinsey asked as she practically shoved her microphone into the woman’s mouth.

  “Oh! Uhm, h-hello! Yes. My name is Becky, and as you said I’m a representative of the Aether Foundation. We’re an Alolan group that is dedicated to the protection of Pokemon and their habitats. We’re especially concerned with the preservation of endangered species.”

  “And can you tell our listeners why a group from a Gym-less region like Alola is operating in Sinnoh? Shouldn’t we be the ones sending groups to help your region.”

  “Just because a place doesn’t have gyms, o-or isn’t a part of the international Pokemon League, doesn’t mean it’s untamed wilderness, haha.” Becky laughed weakly. “We have running water in Alola too, you know?”

  “...” The reporter just stared at her expectantly.

  “W-Well, as you may know, the Goomy line that populates Kalos was actually originally native to Sinnoh’s marshes, but was driven to extinction in this region a long time ago because of industrial pollution. The Sinnoh League eventually cracked down on this, and established the Great Marsh nature pressure, but by then it was too late. Due to their semipermeable skin, Goomy are incredibly sensitive to pollutants. They naturally let water flow through them like a sponge, to absorb minerals, but this means that any toxins get absorbed straight into their system." Becky leaned forward, with a serious look on her face. “We’re working with the Sinnoh League to reintroduce them back into the marshlands of Sinnoh, without disrupting the ecosystem that’s developed after their extinction.”

  “That sounds like a very noble goal, and you seem very passionate about it. Can I assume that you’re here with the Larvitars because you saw pokemon that were hurt and couldn’t stop yourself from dropping everything to come running to help?”

  “I mean, uh, yeah kinda.” The Aether member blushed and rubbed the back of her neck.

  “Kind words, and noble intentions from these strange foreigners.” Kinsey sighed in a fake dreamy way. “What a wonderful example of international cooperation.”

  She then turned to the man who was glaring at the Aether member with a sneer on his face, like she was a smudge of dirt that had been trekked inside.

  “Would Galactic be willing to give a statement?” She asked, holding out the mic with much more respect.

  “Of course, ma’am.” He nodded politely, and responded with a smooth voice. “My name is Kuiper, I am the department leader for Public Relations at the Galactic Corporation.”

  “And why has Galactic decided to spend money and manpower on this?”

  “These Larvitar are part of a rare and powerful evolutionary line that is kept quarantined in a small area away from any major settlement. This is a rare opportunity to study the way they behave in groups, outside of their natural underground environment. It is also the Galactic Corporation's duty, as a proud pillar of Sinnoh’s culture and society, to ensure that none of the Larvitar settle in a place that could later endanger any civilians if they ever fully evolve.”

  “What a brilliant, eloquent, and caring response from one of Sinnoh’s oldest institutions.” Kinsey swooned. “But I would expect nothing less from someone that’s walking in the same shoes as the historic Galaxy Expedition Team.”

  The camera pivoted again, moving the two Team members out of frame, and focusing on Kinsey and the Larvitar visible in the background.

  The two were waved away by the cameraman, telling them the interview was over.

  Becky sighed as she stepped away. Who knew being on camera was so nerve wracking? Maaann, why did she have to do interviews? She wanted to help Pokemon :(

  But before she had any time to recompose herself, Kuiper grabbed her shoulder, and leaned down to her ear.

  “You’re not worth my time, so I’ll keep this short.” He whispered. “Galactic is well aware of your primitive research, and what you really are. Sinnoh is ours. We founded this region. We are a part of its culture, we control its cities, we hold up its economy, and our fingerprints are on the drafting pages that established the government. If you step out of line here, we will not hesitate to crush you like bugs.”

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  And then he let go of her shoulder and kept walking, like he had never broken stride in the first place, leaving Becky to gawk at his back.

  Crush them like bugs? What? Why!? They were a preservation group!

  And what “research” was he talking about? The Aether Foundation was a nonprofit group focused on environmental sustainability! That’s “what they really are”! They didn’t even have a research branch!

  …

  Right?

  -The Dragon King-

  “Staravia is unable to battle! Noibat is the victor!” The old man volunteering as a referee announced.

  “That’s what I’m talking about baby!” Mark laughed as Noibat swooped down and perched on his arm. With his free hand he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small ball of an expensive bougie chocolate brand in a silver wrap and gave it to Noibat.

  Rewarding Shelgon was simple, you just gave him a big cut of good meat for dinner, but Mark’s bat had inherited her old owner’s "refined" (read as needlessly expensive) tastes.

  “Thank you for the fight, I didn’t expect your Noibat to be able to turn so sharply.” The bird trainer lady said as she walked over and handed Mark a lump of pocket change.

  “Yeah, this purple brat here is getting pretty damn good at battling, if I do say so myself.” Mark grinned and ruffled his Pokemon’s head.

  “Better than mine, at least.” The lady sighed. “Man, what am I going to do? If I can’t beat Gardenia soon, I’m going to run out of money.”

  “Run out of money?”

  “The Gym rewards.” She explained. “Without a sponsor the only big inflows of cash for trainers are gym battles and tournament winnings- and the big ones with real money on the line, you can only compete in if you have enough badges to qualify. Small trainer bets are good to keep you cruising for awhile, but if you can’t win gyms you’ll eventually run out of funds.” She sighed. “I wish there was some kind of program for the League to subsidise trainers.”

  “Sounds like Commie bullshit, and thats what the Gym rewards already are- the League giving you money and a pat on the back for doing what you're supposed to.” Mark scoffed. “Have you tried getting a job and actually working for what you want?”

  “Drop back into the civilian economy, lose all my time to train, and let my team wither away competitively?” The woman smiled weakly. “I should have taken her on as my first or second Gym, not my third. I just assumed that because I have a flying type I could beat her easier than Wake for my third badge.” She let out a sad sob and put her face in her hands. “I barely have enough cash to bet on battles anymore, what am I going to do?”

  …

  She peaked out of her fingers, waiting to see if she had convinced Mark to take mercy and give her money back.

  “You could come work for me.” He grunted instead, tossing one of the chocolates into his mouth to Noibat’s dismay. “You can get paid while still being a trainer, and strengthen your team while you’re at it.”

  “Really?”

  “Yup.” He handed her a small card with IRONCLAD SOLUTIONS pressed into it. “Just don’t throw a fit if you don’t have the stomach for it.”

  “Thank you so much!” She beamed as she took the little slip of cardboard-paper-thing. “I’ll definitely look into it!”

  Mark watched her run off with a smug smirk on his face.

  “Another money generator for the mines.”

  His phone buzzed, and he pulled it out to see a blank notification. He unlocked it, then had to open and close several apps as a second password to get to the Rocket phone’s paranoid second home screen, before he was able to read the message.

  Mustermann: [Something interesting showed up on the news. I have a job for you, and your group, if you're interested. You’ll need to wait a few days for the attention to die down.]

  Mark raised an eyebrow.

  DragonKing: [Money?]

  Mustermann: [Your biggest payout so far, depending on your performance, of course. You know I wouldn’t contact you directly unless it was good.]

  Mark’s other eyebrow rose to join his first.

  DragonKing: [Count me in. Send the details so I can get started]

  Mustermann: [I’ll have the information given to your secretary, when my men stop by your camp for another pickup. Digital trails are a liability in this kind of business, no matter how encrypted.]

  DragonKing: [Hellena’s not my secretary, but now that you’ve put that in my head I’m putting in an order for a hot sexy secretary costume because her tits would look great in one. The less chest support the better, I wanna see em fucking wobble!]

  Mustermann: [...]

  DragonKing: [What? You’re a dude too, you have to admit she has really nice and fat tits!]

  Mustermann: [You continue to be more interesting than my normal clients. I’ll put it on your tab.]

  DragonKing: [Totally gnarbuckle. God i love not having to pay taxes on this shit]

  “Mark!”

  Marcus jumped in surprise, and turned around to see Dawn running up to him.

  “Fuck! Stop doing that! If you keep sneaking up on me, I’m going to reactively punch you in the face one day, and I’m going to feel bad for breaking a kid’s nose.”

  “Again, not a kid. I have a trainer ID.” Dawn said with a strained fake smile.

  “Again, under 18, you really are.” Mark parroted.

  Dawn’s eyebrow twitched and she really wanted nothing more than to point out how she had three times as many badges as him, and challenge him to a battle to see who was the “little kid” between the two of them.

  But no. She was on a scientific mission today.

  “You’re right, I am just a wittle girl." Dawn said through her teeth, dying a little inside. “Which is why I really shouldn’t have these.” She held up a small stack of lottery tickets. “I got them for free, but felt they would be much better suited for a big strong~ man like yourself.”

  “You’re absolutely right.” Mark grinned as he swiped them. “Little girls shouldn’t be involved with gambling, leave that to us grizzled old men who can afford to lose a little money.”

  “Ageist, misogynistic, asshole, I could trounce his entire team so fast it’s not even funny-”

  “What’re you muttering about?”

  “Nothing!” Dawn beamed with an expression that was all sunshine and rainbows. “Now come on, we’re wasting daylight, let’s get you to fill those out and turn them in!”

  “Oi! Hey, I had more battles lined up. OW! I have an old scar on that part of my back, stop pushing!”

  “Nope~ You’re helping me now.” Dawn couldn't help but let her fake smile turn a bit evil, as she forced him forward.

  Those tickets worked differently to a normal lottery pulling. You filled them out with numbers of your choosing, and the more of your string that matched the mystery number of the house, the bigger your prize.

  If he really did have a way of psychically knowing things that he shouldn’t then he should be able to win easily, or at least score high, on some of the tickets, and his pride wouldn’t let him back down.

  -The Dragon King-

  “One more go! One more go! C’mon this is the big one, I can feel it!”

  “This was such a waste of money…” Dawn groaned into her hands.

  “This is it, this is the big one! 99% of gamblers quit right before they win big! Warren Buffet wouldn’t have made any money if he didn’t invest!” Mark barked at the lady behind the counter as he filled out the 20th ticket that Dawn had gifted him over the last half hour.

  So far he’d won about 40 dollars, two Pokeballs, a Duskball, and a potion.

  “Seven! Eight! Nine! Four- No, TWO! Yes, TWO is speaking to me today baby! Seven! Seven! Five! Boom! Hit me!” The veteran proclaimed as he pushed his ticket to the lady in a purple suit across the counter.

  “Congratualtions. You’re a big winner.” She said with a kind of hollow dead voice only possible from a minimum wage employee. “You won a freeze heal. Here is your prize.”

  “HELL YEAH!” Mark pumped his fist. “Let’s fucking go!”

  He was well aware that gambling was bad, and that he wasn’t actually winning anything of major value, but gambling was also fun and he wasn’t spending his own money.

  “Aw shucks, sorry but that looks like it was the last one. You didn’t win the jackpot even after twenty tries.”

  “You couldn’t have won it after twenty either.” Mark snarked. “I spent the first dozen guesses trying to use my God given gifts to figure it out, but I’m just rolling for fun now.” He finger gunned at her.

  “Your gift?” Dawn perked up. Could this be-

  “Yeah, my brain. I was trying to triangulate what the mystery number I was matching against actually was, but all I did was confirm that they have to be changing it digitally every few minutes or so.”

  -no, of course it wasn’t.

  “What was I even thinking?” She sighed in defeat. “You’re just a normal, completely average, everyday, dumbass. You don’t know anything because all you think about is women, battling, and booze.”

  “Hey, I take offense to that.” Mark objected as he cracked open a soda and took a big swing. “I know *Buuurp* a lot of things.”

  “You couldn’t guess my team if I offered you a thousand dollars.” Dawn rolled her eyes and turned to walk away.

  “Oh I’ll take that bet.” Mark said with an evil grin, walking after her. “Wanna shake on it?”

  “I’m not going to waste time on something that’s impossible.” Dawn scoffed, beating herself up over buying into such a wild and stupid conspiracy theory, even for a second.

  “You have a Piplup, a Buneary, a Pachirisu, a Togekiss, a Mamoswine, a Quilava, aaaaand either a Buisel or an Aipom that you traded it away for.” He lazily listed off.

  Dawn froze mid step, and turned around with wide, terrified, eyes.

  Mark winked at her and took another sip of his soda.

  “So how about that thousand?”

  “You-You-You- No. No! You’re wrong, that’s not my team!” She practically shouted at him as she took a shaky step back.

  “What? No, that should be it.” He sounded genuinely confused as stroked the stubble on his chin and muttered. “Unless it’s taking after Platinum here, but she's such a sassy brat that I could have sworn she was the anime version.”

  “The only version I am is me! A-And you’re wrong, my team’s not even full yet, and I-I’ve never thought about getting any of those!”

  Yes, this was all a bad coincidence. A lucky guess. Sure he had gotten four of her Pokemon right, but he had gotten just as many wrong! And the ones he had gotten wrong were so outrageously out there that it wasn’t even funny.

  Where would she even get some of those!? A Togekiss would be amazing for contests, but they were super rare, and Quilava was a Johto starter!

  But even putting that aside, a Momoswine?

  A Mamoswine!? Why in the world would she ever want a big, fat, pig nosed, hairy, smelly pokemon like a Mamoswine? There’s no way such a big lug would ever win a contest!

  The only way she could possibly even attempt to make that work would be if she somehow played into the gentle giant trope. The ice typing could help with that, with a lot of the moves emphasising grace over brute force. Oh, and with so much hair she could totally test out all sorts of shampoo and conditioner! She could make that big pokemon all glossy and clean, and if the hair was long enough she could even braid it or-

  No! Stop! You’re feeding into the delusion! She slapped her cheeks to recenter herself.

  Onto the most ridiculous part of his claims. She would never trade away any of her pokemon. They were all her darlings, and her best friends. She would have to trust the other trainer implicitly to ever even consider it.

  Even if Buisel and her had occasional rough spots, a-and he much preferred battling over shows, and really only put up with contests for her sake, and wasn’t a fan of any of the more girly team bonding activities that she did. S-So if there ever was a Pokemon of hers that would ask to be traded away, it would be-

  Dawn shook her head to forcibly dispel that train of thought.

  BZZT BZZT

  “Hold on, I’ve got to take this.” Mark said, leaving Dawn to her mini-mental breakdown while he answered his phone.

  “Hey Terra, my gorgeous third in command that takes care of my problems, what’s up.”

  …

  “Not an Admin, but go ahead.”

  …

  “Yeah?”

  …

  “They did WHAT?!” He shouted. “Tell them that every penny they cost me is coming out of their paycheck! ... Yes, penny. No, PENNY! Penny, not Phanpy, why does everyone- you know what, forget it, I’m on my way.”

  Mark groaned in barely contained annoyance as he shoved his phone into his pocket.

  “Hey, thanks for the tickets Dawn, it was a blast, but I really got to go now. Uh, good luck on your contests, beat up Berry, and don’t do drugs!”

  He gave her a thumbs up and ran away in a mad dash, leaving Dawn with even more questions than answers.

  “...I never showed him my team. I never told him about Berry. I don’t even think I told him I competed in contests.” She croaked as she gripped the front of her skirt. “How does he confidently know so much…” Dawn’s eyes slid left, towards the counter and the pile of failed lottery tickets. “Without being able to see other things at all?”

  -End Chapter-