CH119 (483), Covert Mission (1)

On Arcday morning, I was a bit startled when my phone began to ring while I was fully focused on preparing my breakfast, so I flinched when the ringtone suddenly came from my pocket. I offhandedly pulled out my phone and I could not help but be a bit surprised when I saw that the person calling me was Mr. Cameron.

It had been some time since I last talked with him, and I could not help but wonder why he would call me. There was obviously no way I was not going to accept that call, so I turned off the stove and moved the pan to avoid burning my food, before pressing the green icon.

"Hello, Mr. Cameron. What a pleasant surprise, how can I help you?" I honestly could not help my curiosity, so I politely asked straight for the reason for his call, and I heard him chuckle at my directness.

"What? No, how are you, or how is it going?" Mr. Cameron jokingly asked/chided and I recognized as well as accepted my small faux pas. "Sorry, you're right," I admitted.

"Good morning Mr. Cameron," I began to rectify my greeting. "How are you this wonderful morning?" I heard him release a short and amused laugh. "Much better," I could practically feel the nod when he said that.

"Thank you for asking, I'm fine. How are you?" Mr. Cameron continued the morning exchange. "That's great, I'm doing good as well," I followed suit and finished the traditional greeting/dialogue in a pretty standard manner. Still, now that we had gone through the usual back and forth, I chose to repeat my initial question. "So, how can I help you?"

"That's something we have to discuss face to face. Are you available, right now?" He replied and I was curious about what he wanted to say that could not be said over the phone, which was why I said, "Yeah, I've got nothing going on right now."

"Excellent," Mr. Cameron returned. "Are you home?" he inquired and I directly nodded before actually verbalizing my answer, "Yeah, I'm home." "Good, good. I'll be there in a moment. See you then," he said before he hung up on me, causing me to blankly look at my phone's screen.

"What happened to dialogue etiquette?" I joked to myself before the doorbell rang, and interrupted my fake protest. I could not help but think 'That was fast' while walking to the door. Unsurprisingly, it was Mr. Cameron along with his Alakzam, who was floating at his side.

I invited them in and we moved to the living room. "Do you want something to drink?" I asked out of politeness and both declined, so I decided to get to the heart of the matter.

"So, what do you want to tell me that couldn't be shared over the phone," I asked and I saw Mr. Cameron look at his Alakazam who simply returned a nod, which made Mr. Cameron smile. He then turned back to me and began to clarify the reason for his call/visit.

"I'm here because you fit the criteria for a mission the order has issued. Now, let me be upfront about this, the mission is a covert one that you'd have to start working on immediately.

Moreover, it is a solo one. Aside from some intelligence, you would get at the start of the mission, you have to rely on yourself, so before I even bother going into details, I have to ask if you are even willing to consider going on such a mission," he asked without giving away any details besides the mission being a covert solo operation.

Mr. Cameron looked at me, waiting for my answer, so I began considering his question. I did not really mind doing a covert mission or a solo one, or a covert solo mission, so that was not a problem. Honestly, this whole thing felt like it was straight out of some special agent fantasy, and it stirred some "bondesque" feelings in me.

I was sure everyone, or at least every male since I could not really speak for the opposite gender, had at least once imagined himself becoming a special agent after watching an agent spy flick, so I did not mind living out some agent fantasy of mine. Especially since I was confident in my chances to survive nearly everything that could happen.

I mean I doubted the order would consider me for a mission if I had no chance of survival, so I seriously doubted any (high) platinum, much less palladium stage individuals were involved. Still, instead of guessing like this, I decided to simply ask Mr. Cameron.

"I'd like to know how dangerous this supposed mission is rated as. Do I have to worry about any platinum-stage Pokemon or people?" I inquired, showing that I was not against accepting, at least for now.

Mr. Cameron smiled at me before he shook his head in denial. "No, the worst we are expecting you to face is some gold-stage Pokemon," he elaborated. I mentally summarized that as, even if they totally screwed up, the worst I should face was some dark gold stage Pokemon.

I could deal with such a worst-case scenario, so the danger level was not a problem. Still, from the way he phrased his question, it seemed that the mission was a pretty urgent one, so I probably could not postpone it until after the new year.

I currently had a bit less than 2 weeks before my parents came back home for the new year, and I had to be home for that, so I had to know how long the mission would take and whether there was a chance to do it after the new year. "Can I start after the new year celebrations and how long is the mission going to take?"

"You can't," he denied, "the earlier you start the better. As for the mission duration, that actually depends on your performance. It could take a few days or it could take a few weeks, but I don't think it should take you more than 10 days."

Well, that answered that. If Mr. Cameron said 10 days at most, I should have no problems finishing the mission before I had to be back home for the new year celebration period.

"I'm interested," I admitted, causing Mr. Cameron to smile. "Let's hear what this mysterious mission is about and let's see if I believe I can handle it". There was no doubt he understood that I would not accept the mission if I did not think I could complete it.

"Our order has recently done a pretty big covert operation on the eastern continent, busting up a giant smuggling ring. We took the ring down along with all higher-ups, the backer, and a majority of the grunts.

Still, the smuggling ring had some people here in Kanto as well, and while we cleaned up most of them, a few grunts and their team leaders slipped through. Those people still have contact with other criminals and there is no doubt that they'll resume their activity after lying low for a while.

Your mission would be tracking down the team leaders along with as many escapees that are still in contact with each other as possible. We found the location of two grunts that we know are still in contact with the rest, and should you choose to accept, you can start with them.

You should have no problem getting the information from their minds without arousing any suspicion. It is important that no one suspects anything until you know where all escaped team leaders are. Otherwise, they'll completely go off the grid until they feel safe again, and we don't want that," Mr. Cameron elaborated and the last bit explained why he came to me. It was due to my psychic abilities.

"How much can I do without getting into trouble?" I asked since some psychic shenanigans were rather questionable. "No restrictions," Mr. Cameron said with a knowing smile.

"You can do whatever you feel is necessary to complete the mission. These people were working with some of the worst criminals we have seen in a long time, so don't expect them to be nice people.

Your psychic abilities will allow you to get the information you need and the many rather common Pokemon you have in reserve will allow you to blend in without standing out. Just make sure to look unrecognizable," he clarified before adding in a final advice.

Well, I did have quite a few Pokemon that criminals usually had such as Beedrill, Raticate, Ekans, Arbok, and Fearow, so I could use some of the bronze stage ones and a silver one to pose as some random mook/criminal. Without any psychic type, they would not worry about anyone reading their minds or anything along those lines.

No matter how I looked at it, I was perfect for the job. It seemed I had the tools of a perfect agent/spy. Well, that, or those of a criminal, but spy definitely sounded better.

"I'll do it," I informed Mr. C, and he did not look even a smidgen surprised at my acceptance. He just smiled and passed me a folder, before standing up.

"This contains the locations of the criminals we have located, along with the photos of the leaders we have identified. That should give you the lead you need. I know you can do this, so all I'll say is be careful but don't forget to have fun," Mr. Cameron gave pat me on my shoulder while he said that. He then left along with his Alakazam, who had said nothing aside from a "take care" before they teleported away.

Once the two were gone, I went back to the living room, took the folder on the table, and began to look through it so that I could begin planning how I would go about completing the mission.

The first thing I saw was the profile of one of the two grunts they had located. The picture was of a young woman with medium-length orange colored hair, and green eyes called Melissa. Aside from her looks, the other important bit about her was that she had four known Pokemon, with the strongest one being a (high) bronze-stage Nidorina.

The three other Pokemon were a Beedrill, a Gloom, and a Golbat. If it was not obvious, Melissa seemed to have a liking for poison types, and the reason the order managed to find her this easily was that she had attempted to go to the black market two days ago to find herself another poison-type Pokemon.

According to the report, she failed to find one that she liked, so I could probably use that to approach her. Oh, and she was laying low in one of the poorer districts of Viridian City.

The second file had a picture of a pudgy green-haired man with blue eyes. Bob had three Pokemon, and his strongest Pokemon was a (high) bronze-stage Muk. The other two Pokemon were a Raticate and a Koffing. According to this, Bob was discovered because he made a scene at a fast food joint after someone accidentally got pushed by him while he was trying to pass by and the person called him human Snorlax.

I guess for him I could wait until he ordered something to eat and then take the place of the delivery guy. Hmm, that seemed like it would work, but I could think about a more concrete plan after I finished going through the rest of the folder. I still had to look at the photos of the criminal team leaders I was trying to capture after all.

After checking the folder, I saw that there were 3 team leaders, two men, and a woman. It was not hard to see why they could act as team leaders, seeing how each one had at least one gold-stage Pokemon, even if it was only a (low) one.

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