A middle-aged man was pacing up and down in the room. The room was almost empty with only a table and a couple of chairs. He looked to be sweating a bit and he looked very nervous.
Suddenly, he received a call.
Tring.. Tring.. Tring.. Tring...
The man didn't want to receive the call but he had no choice. He had already made a deal with the devil.
Katchak!!
"Hello."
"WHERE ARE THEY?", shouted a man from the phone.
"They already left. They only stayed here for some hours."
"They were in your city but you cannot do anything? How can you call yourself a gym leader?", asked the man on the phone.
"Hey, he had a powerful team with him and Blue was also with him. I am not an idiot to kidnap the kid when the former champion is guarding him."
"Ok. I will take care of it.", said the man.
"How are you going to do it? He is always heavily guarded."
"That is for me to think. You don't have to worry about it. But remember, I will be charging extra for it.", said the man and cut off the phone.
"FUck OFFF!!", shouted the middle-aged man as he threw the phone. He was a respected gym leader and now he had to talk to people like this with respect.
Finally, he calmed down taking deep breaths. "I will get you and you will suffer 10 times more than me."
###
After talking with Kate, Axel went to meet with Gordon. He read the contract and then made some changes. After making those changes, Gordon agreed and they signed the contract.
"By the way, how many restaurants do you really have?"
"As of right now, I have 5 restaurants. 3 in the city that I live and 2 in other 2 cities near my home city.", said Axel.
"That is a lot. I wish I had the money to open so many branches.", sighed Gordon.
"Don't worry, you will. I will be going to my home to make further plans for the restaurants. I will be living there for a few weeks. I hope that you come there after a week. We need to make plans.", said Axel.
After talking and signing the contract with Gordon, Axel booked a ticket to finally go to his home. It had been a couple of months since he left his home but he was already missing them.
He would also have to take Squirtle and Magnemite on the journey. All 4 of them were already 3 months old now and now it was time for them to start their own journey.
###
"Mom, when is brother coming?", asked Agnes to her mother.
"He would be here after a couple of hours. Don't worry."
Agnes was very excited to meet her brother after 3 months. She wanted to show her progress to her brother. In these 3 months, she had trained a lot and gotten a lot stronger.
She was now going to be 9 years old and she was already so strong. She already had a Dragonite who was a rare rank and now she was also lightly training her Squirtle.
As Agnes was excited to meet her brother, Squirtle and 3 Magnemite were not so thrilled. These 4 Pokemons were of Axel and since they were baby Pokemons, Axel had left them there.
These 4 Pokemons had become accustomed to luxury life in these 3 months. They knew that when they met Axel, they would have to train hard and they didn't want to do it.
The Blaze family had done a good job and told them stories about Axel. So, they felt that they were already very close to Axel. Still, they didn't want to train hard under Axel.
###
Pokemon POV starts (1 month ago),
2 Squirtles and 3 Magnemites were having a serious meeting. They were planning on how to stay together.
"So, what are we going to do?", asked Squirtle 1 (Agnes's Squirtle. Let's call it Squirtle 1 for now.)
"The hell would I know? You were the one that called the secret meeting. Now come up with a good plan so that I can sleep peacefully.", said Squirtle (Axel's Squirtle)
"Boys, I don't think that we can stay here for so long.", said one of the Magemite.
"Then what should we do?"
After thinking for some time, Squirtle 1 came up with a plan.
"Why don't all of us train and get stronger.", said Squirtle 1.
"What? How does that help me get more sleep?", asked Squirtle.
Squirtle was the laziest of them all. After being showered by lots of love from the Blaze family, it had decided its dream goal. Its dream goal was to sleep and it was very serious about it.
But it knew that when Axel came, it would not be able to enjoy the blissful feeling of sleep for so long. So, it had been making plans to switch itself with Squirtle 1. However, that plan was a major flop as Agnes could already tell her Squirtle from it.
Magnemites and Squirtle 1 just didn't want to separate as they had become close friends.
"Let me tell you my plan. Axel basically wants you guys to train cause all of you are so weak.", said Squirtle 1.
"Oh, and you are strong?"
"I am stronger than all of you."
Squirtle grumbled after hearing it. It was correct that Squirtle 1 was the most powerful of them all as it was diligent in its practice and training.
"Squirtle, what is the plan?", asked Magnemite.
"Yes, since he wants to see how strong you are, why don't all of us train and get stronger in this 1 month? When he comes, we can show them our progress and tell him to come home often. Then we can meet.", said Squirtle 1.
"That is a great plan. Let's do it. Let us start to train from today.", said one of the Magnemites.
Pokemon POV End
###
When he first reached the airport of Hakone City, he was greeted by Agnes and his mother. He hugged them and greeted them.
A car was booked and now they were going home. Axel was seeing the scene of the city from the car. He could see that a lot of things had changed. The league had officially left and there were no more Pokemon Center and Pokemon Mart. All the facilities of the league including the league soldiers had also left. The new Pokemon house had also left.
All of them were replaced with different things. There were a lot of businessmen that had set up their shops instead of Pokemon Mart. Most of them were from Hakone City.
There were also multiple Pokemon hospitals that were open instead of Pokemon center and with the connection of Axel with many influential people, they had setup a new Pokemon building.
The functions of this Pokemon building were very limited as the building could not guarantee all the Pokemons from the whole world like the league but there was a variety of Pokemons from different regions.
The most interesting thing about the new Pokemon building was the availability of starter Pokemons. The starter Pokemons from the Kanto region were available in Hakone City. This was a huge deal as even the league could not provide starter Pokemons.
The price of the starter Pokemons was exceedingly high and there were different conditions attached to each of the starter Pokemons. As for Bulbasaur, the trainer must have a rare rank Pokemon and must unlock his/her psychic or aura.
Among all the starter Pokemons, the conditions for Bulbasaur were the harshest but the potential of each Bulbasaur was also purple rank or above.
The city was progressing at a rapid pace and finally, the city was out of league's influence. However, the city was also facing a lot of problems due to this issue. Axel would know about it after some time.
###
Finally, they reached home. As Axel entered the gate, 5 small Pokemons came running towards them and hugged Axel. These were 2 Squirtles and 3 Magemites.
This was a plan that Agnes's Squirtle had devised. Axel was also happy to see his Pokemons. He didn't want to leave it at home as the bond between a Pokemon and trainer was essential and this was a crucial time but it looked like the bond between them had only strengthened.
After playing with his Pokemons for some time, Axel entered his home. All of the family members were there. Even Noah was there. He had taken a leave today since Axel was coming home.
They had a big feast with a barbecue in the garden. Axel felt relieved after coming home. As if, a load had been taken off his shoulders.
After talking about Axel's adventures, Axel finally asked the question.
"Uncle, how is the city right now? Is everything going well?", asked Axel.
"It is going well. The league has completely left the city and we were able to hold it in but there are also some problems.", said Noah.
"What kind of problems?"
"Even though the league has left the city, it is interfering with our economy. The city could not sustain itself. It would need to have trade with other cities. However, the league had made a rule that the other cities would have to pay extra tax when dealing with us, and all of our exports would also be charged an additional fee."
"But that is so unfair!!"
"That is how life is Axel. Since we told them to get out, they are taking revenge on us.", said Noah.
"So, do we have any countermeasures to deal with them?", asked Axel.
"As of right now, we don't. The league is providing the neighboring cities with a lot of perks to charge additional fees to us. There are some traders that have been dealing with us for quite a long time and are very loyal to us. So, they are still dealing with us.
However, most of them have already left us or are trying to leave us. The league is just giving them too many benefits to not trade with us."
"So, how much time do we have?", asked Axel.
"We have around a year or two and then we will start to face a lot of problems.", said Noah with a sigh.
Noah then started to tell Axel about any solutions that they had come up with but the league was very influential and now they were facing a huge problem. Hakone City imports a lot of things. From Pokeballs, foods, Pokemons vitamins and recipes, and many things.
All of them are needed for the city to function but now the league was restricting them in a lot of things.
Axel had a way to deal with them but that would take some time and he would have to be patient about it.
"Uncle, just hold on for some time and I will solve this problem."
"OK but be careful. We cannot directly fight with the league."
"I know. Don't worry about it."
Noah didn't ask what Axel was planning to do but he had full trust in Axel.