Roughe Cafe, South of Vermilion City, Kanto region
This was a common cafe that one could find. But Bruno knew what this was. This was the base of Pride. He walked inside the cafe's reception.
"Hello sir, welcome to Roughe cafe. Would you be dining alone or be waiting for someone?", asked the cute receptionist.
Bruno handed over a card to the girl. Seeing the card, the smile of the girl froze for a second but it returned back as if nothing had happened.
"This way sir.", she said guiding Bruno to what seemed to be a secret door.
The hidden building was not as huge as the Venu family's estate. There was no forest but it was big nonetheless. Burno seemed to have come at the right time. Because today was a recruitment day for new rookies of Pride. Of course, this was not a coincidence as Althea had already informed Burno of the time and date.
There were many guards wearing black uniforms with a purple stripes. They were guiding newcomers to a big hall. Since Pride was an illegal and secretive organization, Bruno had expected the recruitment to have fewer people. But there were at least 50 young trainers by his rough counting.
Bruno waited in the hall for about 30 minutes before Althea came onto the stage. There was a lot of chattering among the possible recruits which stopped as they saw Althea. Some of them wanted to have a friendly conversation with Bruno but he didn't respond to any of them and just acted like he was deaf. Bruno came here to gain power not to make friends.
Althea clapped her hand multiple times to stop the chattering that was starting again.
"Ok, all of you listen to me now. Most of you have come here for different reasons. Some of you were outcasted by the world. Some of you didn't have enough money to get your first Pokemon. And some of you are here, cause you always wanted to be a member of Pride. Though the last reason is highly unlikely.
Pride may be an illegal organization, but it is not an evil organization as you may have thought. Of course, the definition of evil may be different for me and you. We don't smuggle Pokemons and rape innocent girls. We are an organization that only cares about one thing. And that is power. Pride, its name is its motive itself. We want our members to be prideful and powerful.
If you have any second doubts, you are free to go now. Because after this, you would be a member of Pride for at least 3 years. "
The young trainers started to look at each other but none of them moved. Seeing this scene, Althea gave a soft smile and continued.
"Ok then, raise your hands if you already have a Pokemon." Including Bruno, 4 other people raised their hands. The group started to stare at those 5 people.
"You are still not a member of Pride. To be a member of Pride you would have to pass a small test."
5 guards brought a tray with 20 Pokeballs each and Althea continued, "Your test would be to subdue one of the Pokemon in these Pokeballs. You would be given 2 days to do so. The first 3 would be given points and some rewards. Now choose your Pokemon."
Points are like money here in Pride. You could get evolution stones, Pokemons, potions, antidotes, and many more from points.
There were many Pokemons that Burno could see. There were Scyther, Horsea, Slakoth, Slowpoke, Combee, Goldeen, Kraby, Bounsweet, and even a rare Honedge.
What Burno noticed was, all the Pokemons except for Bounsweet, Honedge and Scyther had king or queen in their final evolution name. Kingdra from Horsea, Slaking from Slakoth, Slowking from Slowpoke, Vespiquen from Combee, Seaking from Goldeen and Kingler from Kraby.
This showed how much the organization cared about its motive, pride. The Pokemon who had 'king' or 'queen' in their names were naturally prideful. Scyther had a warrior pride, Tsareena had a nature of high-class nobility and Aegislash was a Royal sword Pokemon. It could detect the natural qualities of leadership, recognizing a true King.
But now Bruno was in a pickle. Which Pokemon to choose? Not Scyther obviously, cause he already had one. He canceled Combee, Horsea, Seaking, Bounsweet, and Kingler. Cause those were not his type. Water Pokemons like Seaking which need water to survive were his least option. 3 Pokemons, came to his mind. Slakoth, Slowpoke, and Honedge.
He crossed Slowpoke in his mind cause it was hard to evolve. But after thinking for some time, he chose Slakoth. He played safe. Make no mistake, Aegislash was a very powerful, royalty Pokemon.
But one of the conditions to get it was, it would have to choose its trainer, not the other way around. And it was very selective. It recognized who was destined to become king or a person with high leadership skills. If Honedge didn't accept him, then he would fail the test.
And he didn't want it. Training Slaking could be very hard, but it could be a god-tier Pokemon if trained and timed well.
What Bruno realized was that Pokemons from all over the region were present here. Bounsweet, Honedge, and Combee are not found in the Kanto region. This proved that Pride had many branches across other regions too and it was an influential organization.
Deciding it he went towards Althea and said, "I would want a Slakoth".
"Hmm.. Ok then, if you want my advice, pick the Slakoth from the 2nd row in the tray of the third guard."
Bruno did exactly that. He knew Althea had a good impression of him. Maybe it was one with good potential.
After all the people have selected their Pokeball, Althea concluded the meeting by saying "You have 2 days to make your Pokemon submit to you. You could use the training ground or your own room if you want. But I would suggest a training ground if you don't want your room messed up."