Pokémon Dev Chapter 208: [209] : The Watchers and the Alliance's Pursuer

Kairos took the tal plate and studied the crude coordinates etched into its surface. Not bad, he could make sense of it.

"Thanks."

He stood, ready to leave.

"Hold on."

The old smoker called him back, tapping his pipe in Kairos's direction.

"Almost forgot the most important part.

I'm giving you this address so you can find them, but if you want to know exactly where in the Old Data Port the fragnt's hidden, this won't be enough.

You'll need to et face-to-face with their leader. Everyone calls her 'Elara.' You'll have to get her approval."

"That's the deal. I'm just the middleman. Only she and a few core mbers know the exact location."

"Got it."

Kairos nodded, motioning to Axuan, who'd been waiting quietly beside him. "Let's go."

He pushed open the heavy tal door, and the bar's noise ca flooding back.

When Kairos erged, the three thugs who'd been so cocky earlier practically tripped over themselves bowing and scraping, rushing over to ask if he needed anything. Kairos waved them off and left with Axuan in tow.

Following the coordinates, Kairos headed deeper into the lower district.

The farther they walked, the more run-down everything beca.

Finally, tucked behind what looked like a massive valve, Kairos found a hidden door camouflaged as part of the pipe wall.

He knocked a few tis in the rhythm the old smoker had ntioned, and a small window imdiately slid open.

A pair of eyes peered through the darkness, lingering on Kairos's relatively clean clothes with obvious suspicion.

"Who are you?"

"The old smoker sent ," Kairos said evenly. "I need to see your leader."

Silence. The person seed to be confirming sothing.

Then the door let out a heavy grinding sound and creaked open just wide enough for one person to slip through.

Kairos pulled Axuan along and squeezed through sideways.

Beyond the door lay a narrow downward passage. Old pipes clung to the walls, and a tal grated staircase descended below.

The person from before was a young man in patched work clothes, grease sared on his face.

As he led the way, he spoke without looking back. "Na's Anvil. The old smoker sent you? He told you the rules, right? What's your business?"

"I need to et your leader. Got sothing to discuss."

Kairos replied.

Anvil's steps faltered. "Look, you picked a really bad ti. The leader probably won't have ti to see you right now."

"Why's that?"

Kairos asked.

"You don't know?" Anvil glanced back at him in surprise before continuing forward.

"There's been this huge thing recently.

A ga showed up out of nowhere, and apparently the information and content in it matches exactly with legends from before the Great Catastrophe—even more detailed!"

"I'm telling you, when word got back, the old scholars in our organization who study ancient texts nearly lost their minds.

They went absolutely crazy. The whole Watcher organization's been in an uproar.

The leader's spent the last few days stuck in etings, discussing everything, verifying intel.

She's probably going insane. She's got no ti for outsiders. So yeah, you picked a really bad ti."

Hearing this, Kairos raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, that ga."

"Pokémon Dark Phantom. I made it."

Anvil stopped dead in his tracks. He spun around and stared at him, eyes wide as dinner plates.

His mouth opened and closed, but no sound ca out. He looked like he'd been struck by lightning.

He looked Kairos up and down.

"What did you just say? You made it? That's impossible! The stuff in that ga—the sky, the ocean, the forests, and those Pokémon I've never even seen..."

Kairos cut him off:

"The ga follows a trainer with the Champion title who falls into a coma.

Two professors use mory regression to send the player back to the day this trainer started their journey."

He roughly described the ga's opening, then ntioned so later plot developnts—things that hadn't even happened in the story yet.

"There. Need to keep going?"

The doubt on Anvil's face instantly transford into shock.

The way he looked at Kairos completely changed—from distant suspicion to frenzied excitent and disbelief.

"Holy... seriously... you actually made that ga?!"

"Where the hell did you get that content? And those things, those Pokémon—they really existed in history, right?"

"Wait... co with ! Quick! I have to take you to Elara right now!"

Without another word, he grabbed Kairos and started rushing downward, nearly tripping on the stairs.

A few monts later, the passage opened up dramatically. A massive underground space spread out before Kairos's eyes.

The place looked like a base converted from an abandoned factory workshop.

Large high-powered mining lamps hung from the ceiling, providing most of the light.

Maintenance tools, parts boxes, and old engineering machinery were scattered around.

Quite a few plainly dressed people were busy working throughout the space.

Kairos quickly scanned the Watchers' operation.

So were training against sandbags in a corner, drenched in sweat.

Others huddled together, carefully maintaining crude homade weapons.

A few were training Pokémon—mostly low-level ones like Geodude, Machop, and Cubone.

But in this world, even Pokémon with these abilities were clearly extrely rare.

Kairos also noticed they had relatively few modification marks, or none at all.

They were running basic physical fitness drills or skill control training—nothing technological.

A few people were gathered around an old terminal, heatedly discussing sothing, anxiety written across their faces.

Anvil led Kairos through the busy crowd, heading straight for an office converted from a shipping container deep in the workshop.

He didn't even knock—just pushed the door open and burst in, shouting:

"Elara! We've got a situation! A big one! Look who I brought!"

Inside the office, a woman who looked to be in her fifties with graying hair and a faint scar on her face sat behind a worktable piled with blueprints and parts.

She looked up, her gaze sharp. First she frowned slightly, clearly displeased with Anvil's behavior.

Then her eyes landed on Axuan and the backpack he was holding, pausing for a mont as if sensing sothing. A flash of surprise crossed her face.

Finally, her gaze settled on Kairos and lingered.

This person's presence was unusual.

"What's going on? Explain."

Her voice was low when she finally spoke.

"Elara, this is Kairos," Anvil's voice still shook with excitent. "He... he says he made 'Dark Phantom'! He made that ga!"

The leader called Elara's pupils contracted sharply. She shot to her feet, hands pressed on the table, body leaning forward, staring intently at Kairos.

"You're sure? How are you going to prove that?"

Kairos had to repeat everything he'd said before.

"I made this ga based on... certain materials I have access to." Kairos spoke frankly.

He couldn't explain the system's origin, but this explanation wasn't exactly a lie. After all, Dark Phantom was sothing he'd copied over.

Then he briefly ntioned details about the Pokémon League structure and type advantages in the ga.

These would further prove his identity.

As Elara listened, her expression gradually shifted from shock to sothing far more complex.

She slowly sat down, gesturing for Kairos and Axuan to sit as well.

She waved her hand, telling Anvil—still practically vibrating with excitent—to go outside and guard the door.

Though Anvil looked reluctant, he obeyed.

After the door closed, she stared intently at Kairos, took a deep breath and said, "Young man, what you've brought... it's incredible.

You actually know things that aren't even in our organization's generations of secret records!"

Although Kairos had just made the ga based on Dark Phantom's content, in Elara's eyes right now, he was practically a living archive.

Her tone grew heavy.

"You've seen the situation here. The Alliance maintains its rule through absolute control of limited underground resources and total information lockdown."

"The upper district gets most of the energy, food, and the best living conditions, while we in the lower district are treated like a forgotten dumping ground.

At least half the people here can't even get enough to eat each day, barely surviving..."

"Countless people are trapped here, unable to escape, all because of their greed!"

She clenched her fists, anger flashing in her eyes.

"Our organization's goal is to uncover the buried truth and show everyone that we shouldn't be cowering in this place where we never see the sun!"

"We should long for the real world under blue skies and white clouds—and return to it!

We even suspect that after five hundred years, the surface world may have recovered enough for people to survive. So much ti has passed, after all."

Since the conversation had reached this point, Kairos went ahead and asked, "So what exactly happened during the great catastrophe five hundred years ago? What caused all of this?"

But Elara shook her head, helplessness showing on her face. "The specifics? The Alliance destroyed almost all records. What we have are just fragnts.

The truth is nearly impossible to piece together. But the one thing that might contain relatively complete information about that disaster is probably the remnant pages of the 'Survivor's Diary.'"

As she spoke, she took out a fingernail-sized chip that flickered with a faint light from a drawer and handed it to Kairos.

"This is the key to sensing the remnant pages. If you get within a certain range, it'll give you a signal. The pages are hidden deep in the Old Data Port..."

Before she could finish, a piercing alarm suddenly sounded from outside the base, followed by the explosive sounds of Pokémon moves colliding and people shouting.

What now?

Kairos raised an eyebrow slightly.

"Damn it! Alliance forces! How did they find this place?!" Elara's expression changed.

She shot to her feet. "Quick! Use the ergency passage in back! Anvil, organize resistance!"

Outside, chaos had already erupted.

Several Alliance guard team mbers wearing uniform gray armor and full-coverage helts charged in.

Beside them were Magnemite and Magneton that had undergone standardized chanical modifications.

Dense electric shocks and ultrasonic waves surged toward the Watchers.

The Watchers sent out tankier Pokémon like Snorlax and Golem, using the terrain with their trainers to counterattack, but they were clearly outmatched.

The Alliance's firepower was more concentrated, their Pokémon coordination was tighter, and their strength was obviously superior.

But Kairos wasn't in a hurry to leave. He stood at the container office doorway, observing for a while.

The strength of these Alliance guard mbers was actually weaker than he'd expected.

Their Pokémon's attacks looked impressive, but the energy output was diocre, and the commands seed pretty basic.

Plus, these Pokémon probably weren't even at Gym Leader level—at most Ace Trainer level, maybe even lower.

Right then, seeing a powerful electric shock about to hit a young Watcher, Kairos let out a light sigh and gave his shadow a aningful look.

"Gengar, you're up."

The next mont, a chilling aura instantly spread. Kairos's shadow surged like boiling water, and a purple figure with a massive grin erged silently. It was Gengar!

Gengar was in high spirits.

After staying in the shadow for so long, Gramps finally gets to co out and play!

Hehe-haha!

It waved both hands, and an invisible wave of psychic force spread out like a tide.

The electric shocks and sonic waves in the air seed to hit an invisible wall and instantly dissipated!

Imdiately after, that psychic force precisely enveloped all the Alliance mbers' Pokémon.

BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!

They had no chance to resist. They didn't even have ti to cry out.

All the Magnemite and Magneton were like toys grabbed by an invisible giant hand, then violently slamd into the ground or nearby walls.

Under the massive impact, the chanical parts on their bodies shattered with crackling sounds.

After flickering with a few sparks, they completely shut down and collapsed.

The entire base instantly fell into dead silence.

Whether it was the Alliance guard mbers or the Watchers who'd been fighting desperately, everyone froze in place, staring in disbelief at the Pokémon floating in midair that still looked sowhat unsatisfied.

They'd never seen a Pokémon like this, and were even more terrified by its incomprehensibly devastating power.

"What... what is that?"

"Am I seeing things?"

The Alliance guard mbers stared at their instantly decimated team, scared senseless. They didn't care about anything anymore.

With that monster here, the mission was over.

They let out terrified shouts, hastily recalled their Pokémon, and vanished within monts.

Elara and the surrounding Watcher mbers watched as Gengar slowly shrank back into Kairos's shadow, then looked at Kairos, who stood there calmly as if nothing had happened. Everyone was completely stunned.

Clearly, Gengar's power was way beyond anything they'd ever seen.

Kairos walked through the silence and countless stares to stand before Elara.

"There. That should take care of things."

He glanced at Axuan, who'd been frightened by the earlier scene and was gripping his clothes tightly.

He wouldn't bring the kid along for what ca next.

Acting alone would be much more convenient anyway.