Chapter 12

Murphy's Law: if something can go wrong, it will go wrong, no matter how unlikely.

The moment Emerson saw Wilson's men approaching, his heart completely sank.

One look at their faces told him everything he needed to know—this hadn't gone according to plan at all.

You can't fake that particular expression. There was no satisfaction of a job well done in their eyes, no pride in completing their mission successfully. Instead, there was only raw anger and barely controlled fear.

Emerson wasn't worried about most complications that could arise during an operation, but he was absolutely terrified that someone else had somehow learned about the Blood Orchid and was already moving to claim it.

He wasn't afraid of a fight—hell, he'd welcome one under normal circumstances. What he was afraid of was missing the Blood Orchid's critical blooming window because he got distracted dealing with bullshit.

"Anna, keep an eye on Felicia. I need to see what went wrong," Emerson said tersely.

His tone was so deadly serious before getting out of the car that Anna actually felt a chill run down her spine.

He needed to assess the situation immediately and hopefully kill any problems before they had a chance to grow into something worse.

Emerson was radiating pure, undiluted menace.

That was Anna's only coherent thought as she watched him, and it made her even more curious about what this mission actually involved.

For a simple intelligence-gathering failure to trigger that kind of murderous reaction from Emerson showed just how critically important this operation was to him.

"Anna, what's wrong?" Felicia asked nervously, also sensing the dramatic shift in atmosphere around them.

"It's fine. Just stay in the car for now," Anna said curtly, not bothering to explain further while keeping her eyes fixed on Emerson as he exited the vehicle.

"Tell me exactly what happened," Emerson demanded as he approached the group of men.

No pleasantries, no small talk, no wasted time. He went straight to the heart of the matter.

There were ten men assigned to protect Felicia, all of them big, tough-looking professionals who'd seen their share of action.

The moment Emerson spoke in that tone, nine of them immediately turned their attention to their squad leader.

Emerson's cold gaze followed theirs and locked onto the man like a targeting laser.

When the leader realized everyone was staring at him expectantly, he internally cursed his rotten luck, but he absolutely didn't dare remain silent.

They all knew exactly who Emerson was—you simply didn't mess around with the boss's brother, especially when he was in this kind of mood.

The instant their eyes met, the big man's legs nearly gave out completely.

He would have sworn on his mother's grave that he'd never seen such a terrifying stare in his entire life.

From those dark, unforgiving eyes, he could practically see mountains of corpses piling up and rivers of blood flowing like water.

Cold sweat immediately began beading on the squad leader's forehead, but he couldn't bear to meet Emerson's gaze directly, instead finding himself staring desperately at the ground.

"We were in the middle of gathering intelligence when someone shut us down hard," he managed to stammer out.

"Who?" Emerson's voice was absolutely frigid.

Anyone who dared to forcibly interfere with Wilson's carefully planned operations was basically begging for a world of pain.

"Tony Stark," the big man said.

The instant those two words left his mouth, the crushing, invisible pressure that had been weighing down on him immediately lifted, and he collapsed straight to the ground like his strings had been cut.

"Why the hell is he here, and why was he blocking your operation?" Emerson asked, his tone shifting slightly.

Hearing that particular name, he realized this situation wasn't what he'd initially assumed, so he consciously dialed back his intimidation factor.

More importantly, he was now genuinely worried for entirely different reasons.

Emerson knew very well that there were certain people in this world he absolutely could not afford to touch or antagonize.

If at all possible, he would avoid any contact with them until his master plan was fully operational and he had the power to back up his actions.

He hadn't forgotten for a second that this world's main players and protagonists were constantly being monitored and watched by forces beyond his current ability to handle.

Until Arceus could successfully project his power into this reality, Emerson simply couldn't deal with the real heavy hitters.

"It's actually about the young miss, sir," one of the other men said hesitantly, seeing their squad leader collapsed on the ground and clearly unable to provide coherent answers.

"Felicia?" Emerson's eye twitched involuntarily. What the absolute hell kind of mess was this turning into?

"Yes, sir," the man nodded rapidly, like a bobblehead doll.

Without waiting for Emerson to apply pressure or ask follow-up questions, he immediately launched into a detailed account of exactly what had transpired.

After hearing the complete story from beginning to end, Emerson had to grudgingly admit that this was probably exactly what had happened.

Tony Stark, the world-famous Iron Man—of course he knew who that was. Everyone on the planet knew who that was.

A certified genius wrapped in a suit of advanced armor, as close to a living god as any mortal human could possibly get.

Before Emerson had been fortunate enough to encounter Arceus and forge their partnership, he'd even seriously considered trying to approach and ally himself with Iron Man.

But he'd ultimately abandoned that idea because he knew Tony Stark's absolutely impossible personality all too well.

Very few genuinely normal people could successfully deal with that guy for any extended period. Emerson knew he was just regular folk who completely lacked whatever special quality or talent was required for that kind of high-maintenance relationship.

He'd never in his wildest dreams expected to run into Tony Stark here, of all places.

Wilson really knew how to complicate things in the most spectacular way possible!

Emerson was missing Wilson very badly right now—he wanted to track him down and give him a very special "thank you" beating that he'd remember for the rest of his natural life.

"Arceus, can you project any of your power into this location?" Emerson asked silently, establishing contact with Arceus through their mystical link.

"Negative," came the immediate and disappointing reply—definitely not what he'd been hoping to hear.

Emerson's heart sank as he realized he'd just entered a major player's radar, and there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it right now.

If he couldn't count on Arceus for backup, he was potentially in very serious trouble.

"Don't panic yet. Once your bonded Pokémon completes its evolution, I'll be able to channel my power directly through him," Arceus continued, not completely abandoning Emerson to his fate—after all, Arceus desperately needed Emerson's cooperation to make their entire scheme work.

Emerson fell silent for a long moment, processing that information.

Hearing Arceus's reminder, he suddenly remembered the details—yeah, this had always been the plan. Arceus had carefully explained this exact scenario to him before.

The fundamental reason Arceus couldn't take direct action was because he was an outsider to this reality. If the wrong people discovered his presence, their entire carefully orchestrated operation would be completely blown and ruined.

But once Emerson's Magikarp successfully evolved into its final form, the Pokémon world would establish a permanent connection to this reality, allowing Arceus to safely channel his immense power through Pokémon intermediaries.

The critical advantage of this approach was completely avoiding detection by the powers that monitored this universe.

It was essentially the difference between trying to break down the heavily fortified front door versus having a trusted accomplice unlock it quietly from the inside.

One approach virtually guaranteed discovery and retaliation, while the other could succeed completely undetected if they were careful and smart about it.

"Understood completely. Then we need to accelerate our timeline and move much faster than originally planned," Emerson said decisively, cutting off the mystical connection.

Their communication system wasn't a constant open channel—it functioned more like making telephone calls that required deliberately establishing a connection each time they wanted to talk.

At that exact moment, floating in the cosmic void outside the Marvel Universe's dimensional barriers, an incomparably massive creature wore an extremely complicated expression on its divine features.

The cosmic beast was Arceus himself. He actually desperately wanted to tell Emerson the complete truth—that even without any divine assistance whatsoever, Emerson would be perfectly safe from any threat in this universe.

The mysterious presence that resided deep within Emerson's soul was an entity so overwhelmingly powerful that even Arceus himself couldn't afford to cross or offend it.

But after careful consideration of all the potential consequences, Arceus ultimately decided to say absolutely nothing about this cosmic secret.

That incomprehensibly powerful entity had chosen not to reveal its existence to Emerson for reasons of its own, so Arceus absolutely didn't dare mention it without explicit permission.

Whether you were human, divine, or something else entirely, you had to understand the current political situation and read the room carefully.

Thinking about these cosmic complexities, Arceus slowly shook his massive head and began to settle in for a period of rest in the endless void of space.

His consciousness immediately focused on connecting with his avatar that resided in the Pokémon world, but the very instant he established that connection, he sensed that something was terribly wrong.

The entire Pokémon world was shaking violently and uncontrollably, as if experiencing a catastrophic planet-wide earthquake that was tearing the very foundations of reality apart.

Arceus was absolutely mortified as the horrible realization hit him. He'd just physically shaken his head a moment ago while floating in space.

His consciousness, which had just successfully arrived in the Pokémon world, immediately fled in complete embarrassment and shame.

Only one desperate phrase remained behind, floating lonely in the empty sky:

"Damn it all to hell, I forgot again—I've still got an entire world balanced on top of my head!"

300 powerstones for extra chapter.