Chapter 577. The Captain’s Headache

“Drop the bag, raise your hands, and don’t move!” the nearest security guard shouted, his weapon trained on Alex.

The other guards quickly followed suit, raising their weapons and switching off their safeties. Energy hummed through the weapons as a dozen guards converged on the scene, all of them visibly tense. One wrong move could turn Alex into a sieve.

For now, Alex saw no reason to resist. He triggered an alarm, after all, and if the guards had a way to resolve the situation without making things worse, he was willing to cooperate.

He slowly removed his backpack and placed it on the ground before raising both hands.

Nobody moved.

The standoff remained tense until a group emerged from a nearby building. Half a dozen technicians in white bodysuits approached, accompanied by a security guard wearing a different insignia on his chest. Judging by the way the other guards immediately gave him space, Alex guessed he was the head of security for the settlement.

“Captain Reyes, care to explain?” the security captain asked as he approached.

“Captain Holt, I’d be happy to, provided your men put down their weapons first. I’d rather this misunderstanding not lead to any unnecessary accidents.”

“Oh? Who the hell gave you the balls to talk to me like that?”

“That guy.” Captain Reyes jerked a thumb toward Alex behind him. “Really, I’m doing this for your own sake. And since I know what an asshole you are, I’ll even be nice enough to suggest you check his life-sign readings first. That way, you can adjust your attitude accordingly.”

While the two captains argued, the technicians approached Alex and scanned him with a handheld device. The readings showed nothing unusual, and they quickly moved on to his backpack. The moment they scanned it, however, the device reacted.

“We’ve detected virus fragments inside this device,” one of the technicians announced.

Another technician immediately stepped forward and took hold of Alex’s backpack, apparently intending to confiscate it and carry it back to the building for further inspection.

Alex’s expression hardened.

He didn’t trust this settlement or the people in it, and more importantly, his Pokémon were inside. Whatever happened, he would never allow himself to be separated from them. He would rather massacre everyone here than risk anything happening to them. Of course, that didn’t mean he would immediately escalate the situation, so he lowered his hands and followed the technicians.

“Don’t move! Put your hands up! Comply with the inspection!” the security guards shouted, but Alex continued to ignore them.

At almost the exact same moment, Captain Holt’s eyes widened in shock as he finally saw Alex’s immense life force. It was like staring at a god among men, only to realize that his own men were seconds away from opening fire on said god and pissing him off.

“Hold your fire!” Captain Holt shouted, but the situation had become too tense for such a loud command.

One of the guards heard the word “fire” and, without hesitation, pulled the trigger.

ZAP!

The rest of the guards reacted instinctively, and the air erupted with the sharp crackle of laser fire. Panic quickly spread through the group as the others followed suit, unloading their weapons at Alex until their batteries were empty.

ZAP! ZAP! ZAP! ZAP! ZAP! ZAP!

Screams erupted as people scattered for cover. Lasers fired in short, rapid bursts, illuminating the dimming sunset as their red beams swept across the area and bathed Alex in light. Eyes widened when they realized Alex was completely unscathed. Neither his clothes nor his hair had suffered a light burn.

The weapons were peak Expert rank at best, bordering on Elite rank. They were powerful enough to take down Experts and damage Elites, but that was the extent of their threat. Against Master ranked humans or materials, they were incapable of inflicting any meaningful damage. Their reliance on light and heat-based attacks further reduced their effectiveness, making them even less of a threat to anything at the even Champion rank.

Alex moved toward the technician carrying his backpack, who had dropped to the ground in panic, his expression as uncaring as before.

“Hold your fire! Hold your fire, damn it!” Captain Holt shouted repeatedly until he finally regained control of the situation.

The security guards stared in shock and fear at Alex who was completely unscathed before finally turning their attention to their captain who was shouting at them in a rage.

“You idiots! Did I order you to fire?!” Captain Holt roared, his voice echoing through the settlement. “Do you think you can just ignore my commands?! What the fuck is wrong with all of you?! Are you trying to get us killed?! You’re all fucking incompetent! I give you one goddamn order, and you can’t even follow it!”

He continued berating his men, his anger exploding in full bloom.

Alex, meanwhile, took his backpack and unloaded Nyx’s server before grabbing the scanner the technicians had been using. He scanned his backpack again and noticed that there was no reaction this time. It was clear that the contamination was limited to the database.

“Rotom, check this out and see if you can improve your scanning function,” Alex commanded.

Rotom zipped toward the scanner before moving over to the database as it started up. A moment later, a small storage device popped out. It seemed Rotom had managed to isolate the remaining virus fragments and transfer them onto it.

Alex scanned the database again and found nothing wrong with it. He then scanned the storage device and immediately received a warning. It seemed Rotom had succeeded in both isolating the virus and improving its own antivirus capabilities.

Finally, Alex stored the clean database and handed the scanner back to the technician along with the contaminated storage device. He then turned to Captain Reyes and spoke through holographic text.

“This should clear me. Can I start trading now, or do you still need something from me?”

Before Captain Reyes could answer, Captain Holt dismissed his men, assigning punishments before turning his anger toward Alex.

“And you! What the fuck is wrong with you? Why the fuck would you carry around virus fragments like a retard? Do you want to die? No, do you want all of us to die? Do you think a Rotom would be enough to fight off the virus by itself? Do you think you’re the only genius who thought a Rotom or a Metagross would be enough to fight the virus? What do you think we are, incompetent idiots? I don’t give a fuck if you’re a god or whatever, but I won’t allow you to continue messing around in my settlement. Is that clear?”

“Understood,” Alex replied, unwilling to argue.

He had fucked up, after all.

“Good. Now, both of you, get in my office. We’re going to discuss this bullshit,” Captain Holt shouted before storming toward his office.

Alex and Captain Reyes stared at each other for a moment before shrugging and following him. They ignored the stunned expressions of the people around them as they entered the building and made their way to Captain Holt’s office.

“Now, let’s start with you,” Captain Holt said, turning toward Captain Reyes as they took their seats around his desk. “Where the fuck did you pick this guy up?”

Captain Reyes explained everything while Captain Holt listened, his budding headache growing worse with every detail. In essence, Alex was a high-priority person of interest who had been placed under their supervision while they waited for instructions from headquarters on how to handle him.

Deciding to expedite the process, Captain Holt turned toward Alex.

“Who are you? Where did you come from? What do you want, and how the fuck are you so strong?”

“I’m a dimensional explorer from another version of the Pokémon world. I collect valuable materials and information to bring back and sell. I followed this man because he said I could trade for what I needed. As for my strength, the food in my world is a bit special. It allows me to grow stronger.”

Both captains stared at Alex in shock. It would have sounded like a load of bullshit coming from anyone else, but the fact that he had survived a firing squad made his explanation considerably harder to dismiss. No human in their settlement could have survived that.

“Alright, whatever,” Captain Holt said, having recovered from his shock. “What do you want, and what do you have to offer in exchange?”

“I don’t know,” Alex replied with a shrug. “I haven’t had a chance to see what you have available for trade. What I need are high-ranked resources, advanced technology, and general information. In exchange, I have pieces of technology I scavenged from the city.”

“Then neither of us has anything to offer the other,” Captain Holt said. “If all you have is scavenged junk, you’re better off taking it outside and trading with the other scavengers. We aren’t going to give up our high-ranked resources, advanced technology, or valuable information for things we can scavenge ourselves for far less.”

“However,” Captain Holt continued, “you said your food makes you stronger? Perhaps we can make some concessions if you’re willing to trade it.”

Alex frowned at the offer. His food was made from Master ranked meat, after all. It was far too valuable to trade for ordinary Master ranked resources.

“You’d better offer something equally valuable,” Alex replied.

“Sure. What do you want?”

“For starters, how about that cannon you have mounted on top of the walls?” Alex asked with a sneer.