Chapter 217. The Prizes

Alex woke to the sight of an old man examining him and monitoring his vitals through various machines. At his side stood a Marowak in a lab coat, an Audino in a nurse’s cap, and a Medicham looking over some paperwork. It was a surreal sight in the first few seconds it took him to orient himself.

Before he could start asking questions, he received a comforting telepathic message from Gardevoir, checking if he was okay. Memories flooded back, and he remembered undergoing surgery to repair his internal organs and realign his bones.

“How did it go?” he asked groggily.

“Splendid,” the doctor replied, eyeing Alex closely. “You have an exceptional body built for physical combat, one of my more interesting specimens, I might add.”

“Then why do I still feel like shit?”

“Because I went above and beyond, boy. You should recover fully by tomorrow.”

“Can you tell me the specifics?”

The doctor looked at Alex, then at his chart, and shrugged before beginning his explanation.

“First things first, we had to correct the damage from your last fight. You were suffering from internal bleeding, so we patched the affected areas and stabilized your organs. Several bones had begun knitting together improperly, so we re-broke and realigned them before reinforcing the structure with a regenerative lattice. That alone will improve your mobility.”

“Now, you will notice you’re a little taller,” the doctor continued.

Alex immediately started feeling around but found nothing wrong with his body in general, aside from weakened muscles. When he checked his legs, he noticed something felt off for some reason.

“We lengthened your tibias and femurs by just over an inch. We used an expandable osteo-rod seeded with nanocalcium. It stimulates bone growth and fills the gap as we slowly extend the shaft. No plates, no scars, and your marrow adapts naturally,” the doctor explained.

“Why make me taller?” Alex asked.

It wasn’t that he was complaining. He actually wanted to be a bit taller, but he didn’t see the point.

“Your arm span indicates a positive Ape Index, so I lengthened your legs to give you a ratio of 1. This should allow you to punch harder at a downward angle and improve your reach. Nothing miraculous, but you are certainly taller now.”

“Next, your spine. We decompressed your lumbar discs and corrected your posture by adjusting the thoracic curve. Most people slouch forward 2 to 3 degrees without realizing it. We fixed that, which gave you another half inch of apparent height and a more balanced center of gravity. That’s how we brought you from 5’10” (1.78 m) to 6 foot even (1.83 m).”

“We also optimized your musculature. Your fast-twitch fibers were reinforced with myostatin suppression and stem cell seeded grafts. Don’t worry, it’s subtle. You’ll build strength faster, but you won’t bulk unnaturally. Think explosive speed with better recovery.”

“Finally, nutrition. We altered your metabolism to increase creatine storage in muscle tissue and improve glycogen efficiency. With the right diet, you’ll recover from exertion at roughly double the normal human rate.”

“To summarize, straighter spine, lengthened bones, corrected posture, reinforced joints, and optimized muscle fibers. What you’ve got now is the skeletal and muscular frame of a fighter who’s been fine-tuned for peak performance, not just patched up,” the doctor concluded.

Alex was quite familiar with the terminology being tossed around, given his previous occupation. He simply found it a bit over the top. With Pokémon meat, he could already achieve better results without having to resort to these measures.

“I know that look in your eyes. It tells me that my procedure was ultimately useless, correct? Well, you’ll be glad to know that I have done these procedures on Champions, and they have improved significantly. You see, the improvement of a trainer’s rank relative to their physique is only a ceiling. It doesn’t mean people actually reach it. In your case, you’re at the top, but you could still benefit from a bit of extra effort. Your height, for example, will give you an increase in punching power by about 8%.”

“Why not just make my bones denser? Height does nothing for power. It’s the extra mass that does the heavy lifting,” Alex countered.

“What am I? A miracle worker? If you want denser bones, just reach Champion rank and be done with it. Or, you can have your bones infused with Champion ranked metal fragments to increase their density and tensile strength, but you would probably want an engineer, not a doctor. I can realign, repair, and optimize your body, but I can’t rewrite the limits of raw material. That’s where chemistry and materials science come in,” the doctor explained.

Alex shrugged at the response. How was he supposed to know that increasing bone density was still considered a miracle? He was familiar with the terms from his old life, but he wasn’t as well-informed in the Pokémon world. He simply had other priorities that kept him busy.

The doctor continued Alex’s checkup and deemed the operation a success. He packed up his machines, recalled his Pokémon, and bid farewell.

Alex, meanwhile, was on bedrest until the next day, so he had Gardevoir list out his gains in exchange for having been beaten up so badly.

First of all, he had received Devon Corp’s confirmation of his bounty, so that was more ammunition in the bag for Rhea.

They also generously tossed in any bounties attached to Lucien’s men, whose Pokémon his team had ended up massacring. Their Pokémon were either sent to be butchered or stored in his bag to sell later.

There was also Lucien’s own Pokémon that had survived Alex’s team’s wrath. They were mostly Psychic types, so they would certainly sell for a pretty penny, especially Malamar, which was very desirable among most Champion ranked trainers.

Lucien’s personal stash was equally lucrative. There were plenty of guns, ammunition, and other “toys” sent by Team Dominion to their new lackey. Thanks to Rotom for finding it and Gardevoir for storing it, Alex was able to raid their storage.

As for Lucien’s accounts, that went straight to the League since Rotom was the one who found them. Alex would receive his portion in credits, as deemed by the League, as a thank-you for bringing him down. It was a similar case to when Alex took down Don. He would get a cut for his efforts, but certainly not all of it, as was usual for bounty hunters.

The payout was just too significant, including Lucien’s businesses and locations that housed his human trafficking ring, which the police took credit for. It wasn’t like Alex had gone around freeing the victims himself. He was simply rewarded for being the one who contributed the crucial information.

At the same time, the compensation wouldn’t be small, especially considering the League’s current turbulent situation. They would likely pay out more than usual to encourage Alex to continue hunting. He simply didn’t know how significant it would be for now, as the police still needed to investigate while the League tallied the total.

“I guess that about sums it up,” Alex said, while thinking of other things to check when he suddenly remembered the bait he had set.

He checked his phone and saw that the trackers were still in Meteor Falls, roughly at the same location as before. It seemed Sable had yet to check up on her Pokémon. Either that, or the tracker was found and removed.

“I should just keep hunting,” Alex decided. “There are plenty of fish in the sea, and chasing a slippery one isn’t worth the effort for such a meager reward.”

Sable’s bounty was on the lower side for some reason, so the payout wasn’t great. The only reason he had targeted her in the first place was to get his hands on some raw Move crystals. Now that he had them, the appeal of hunting her down had dropped significantly.

Instead, he was much more interested in bigger fish such as Captain Blackwake.

Target: Captain Dorian “Blackwake” Mistral

Rank: Champion

Contract ID: #6712-HS

Payout: 12.5M credits

Order: Dead or Alive

Known Pokémon Team: Gyarados(Champion), Wailord, Sharpedo, Kingdra, Honchkrow, Toxicroak

Captain Dorian Mistral, male, 72, 6'4" (1.93 m), with weathered tan skin, long storm-gray hair tied with bone clasps, and a scar across his left cheek. His eyes are sea-green. He wears a salt-stained captain’s coat embroidered with gold thread, reinforced boots, and a wide-brimmed hat. His attire shows heavy wear from years at sea.

Blackwake commands the Leviathan’s Maw, a modified frigate outfitted with scavenged technology and Pokémon-driven artillery. Gyarados and Wailord serve as primary assault assets, used to disable or sink ships outright. Sharpedo units strike hulls below the waterline. Kingdra provides ranged support, Honchkrow handles reconnaissance and extraction, and Toxicroak specializes in boarding actions using its toxic physiology to incapacitate targets.

He controls key trade corridors between Slateport and Lilycove through extortion, blockades, and raids. His banner, a Gyarados coiled around a sinking ship, is enough to deter unescorted merchants. His crew is bound by spoils and cruelty, creating strong internal cohesion resistant to infiltration.

Blackwake regularly escapes pursuit by using storm cover and shifting tides. Honchkrow provides aerial extraction when necessary, while Wailord and Gyarados act as deterrents to naval encirclement. Engagement requires coordinated naval and aerial superiority, counter-Water-type specialists, and anti-boarding measures.

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