The moon hung high over the hills surrounding Oldale Town when Zev teleported into the area with his Xatu. The man and the Pokémon remained silent as the former put the latter back into a Pokéball. And then he was alone. In the distance, a chorus of dogs bayed, a pack sniffing out cornered prey.

Zev picked his way carefully through the dark, moving as silently as possible, following the direction of the howls. Every one of his senses was on high alert. With steady hands, he drew the gun from its shoulder holster beneath his suit jacket, followed by the silencer he screwed onto the pistol's muzzle.

Closer. He could hear men shouting as they surrounded a remote house nestled atop the next hill. Though no lights were on, the moonlight was enough to see by. The barking of dogs was incessant, unceasing. They must have been the Hounds Martín del Mar had mentioned in his briefing — them and their ill-trained Mightyena.

Adrenaline flooded Zev, putting him near the edge of his composure. Yet he maintained his self-control. His hands moved through the steps that prepared him for murder. Safety off. Rack the slide. Cock the hammer. Three seconds and he was ready.

Closer. His heart pounded in his chest, fit to burst. Someone shouted to check in the crawl space under the foundation. The beam of a flashlight zigzagged along the bottom edge of the house.

Zev raised his gun and fired.

The shouts and the barking hid the hiss of compressed air as the first bullet flew clean through its intended target. The man with the flashlight fell right along the side of the house. The other Hounds' calls turned into cries of outrage. The dogs went mad at the smell of blood.

Zev strafed to the right, picked a new target, and fired again.

Isaac Merlo

NOTES
+ Mission: The Hounds of Oldale

Eight men and twelve Mightyena total. Zev dropped three humans before they could orient themselves and attack back. Only two of the remaining Hounds had guns, and only handguns at that. With no automatic rifles to worry about, Zev ducked behind a shed on the property and picked off the gunmen. Five bullets and three humans remained.

The Mightyena that no longer had handlers milled about, barking, unsure if they should attack Zev or continue hunting down their prey. The remaining Hounds shouted orders, and two of the dogs raced toward Zev's location. Lightning fast, he released two Pokémon from his own belt. A Lycanroc and a Nidoking.

"Chase off the dogs," he ordered before dashing in the opposite direction. They leaped into the fray, roaring and howling.

Zev ran to cover around a corner of the house, shooting one Hound coming around the back side of the building. The final two, finding themselves somehow horribly outgunned and outmatched, dropped the leashes of their Pokémon and started to flee.

Zev aimed.

Breathed.

Pulled the trigger.

Four shots, two corpses.

Seeing that all of their humans had died, the Mightyena scattered. Zev's Lycanroc and Nidoking let them go, licking what few wounds they had. Silence fell upon the property — that is, until scrambling from underneath the house's foundation preceded the emergence of one Isaac Merlo. Zev casually reloaded his gun as he watched the young man rise to his feet.

"So you're alive after all," the hitman commented, his voice devoid of emotion — no mockery, no relief, no joy. Just cold indifference.

Isaac Merlo

NOTES
+ Mission: The Hounds of Oldale

Jumpy kid, that one. Zev shook his head at the general state of Rocket's recruits as he unscrewed the silencer from his pistol and tucked it back into a pocket. Then he holstered his gun, certain there would no longer be need of it. His Lycanroc trotted over to his side, the Nidoking following at a slower, more lumbering pace. Zev patted them both in silent praise before gesturing with a hand. The two Pokémon disappeared back into their Pokéballs in a flash of light.

"Right now, yeah," the hitman replied as he swept their surroundings for any possible backup from the Hounds, but the hills were silent. His own heartbeat was slowing back down to normal, incrementally, though the high of bloodlust still coursed through his veins. He moved with restless energy. "My Pokémon chased off the Mightyena, but who knows if they will disappear into the wilds or go back home to fetch more masters. We shouldn't linger here, but we should search the bodies first for anything your bosses might find useful."

There was something familiar about the blonde man he'd saved that Zev couldn't quite put a finger on. It was too dark to pick out any discernable features even if the boy hadn't been wearing a mask. Zev pondered this as he fished in his pocket for his cigarettes and nonchalantly lit one. The first hit of nicotine brought an immediate wave of calm to his agitated nerves.

Before putting the carton away, Zev paused, then held it out for the boy. He smelled like vomit and fear. "Want one? Seems like you could use it."

Isaac Merlo

NOTES
+ Mission: The Hounds of Oldale

Seeing the Dhelmise's none-too-delicate antics, Zev made a beeline for the corpses of the gunmen and found their weapons not far from their bodies. He recognized the models of the pistols and removed the magazines of ammunition for his own use. The Hounds' actual pockets held nothing of interest, not for him, anyway. Perhaps his blonde companion — or the Dhelmise — would find something more useful and relevant.

"Why should I kill them?" Zev asked back. "Pokémon merely obey the commands of their masters. It's the difference between us and them, you know. A man will act on his own, but a dog will listen. In most cases, it's pointless to kill the Pokémon."

There was no sympathy in his voice, though, no indication that he cared for the Pokémon he'd scared away more than the people he'd just killed. There was only a callous pragmatism, as if Pokémon were merely tools and not living beings.

Zev walked a few feet down the hill and peered into the night, straining to hear anything that might signal approaching danger. More silence, thankfully, but the longer they remained at the scene of the murders, the less likely they would remain safe.

Isaac Merlo

NOTES
+ Mission: The Hounds of Oldale

Zev felt the other man's scrutiny even with his back turned. He returned the open stare with a hard one of his own, looking past the mask that hid most of the young Rocket's features.

And then, suddenly, it clicked. He remembered where he'd seen the blonde man before. A bonfire, beers raised in toast, hot s'mores dripping with melted chocolate. Zev almost laughed. The kid he remembered from that evening had seemed like all the others gathered on that beach: ignorant and naïve. Perhaps that was not actually true for Isaac Merlo, but he was as green as they came. His unfamiliarity with dead bodies was painfully obvious, from the way he skittered around corpses and retched yet again over something on the ground.

Zev frowned as he walked over to Isaac. Looking down, ignoring the blood and the vomit, he saw the face-up photograph of the Hound he'd killed with what were clearly family members. Ah. Of course.

"He knew the consequences," Zev said harshly, coldly. "And if he didn't, he was a fool." Then, in a tone that was fractionally less sharp, he said to Isaac, "We need to leave. Did you find something?" He eyed the crumpled paper clutched in the boy's hand.

Isaac Merlo

NOTES
+ Mission: The Hounds of Oldale

Ignoring Isaac's questions for the moment, Zev examined the coordinates on the paper. He committed them to memory, just in case, but would need a map to determine where, exactly, they led. Satisfied that Isaac's mission — and, therefore, Zev's detour to save him — had not gone to waste, he returned the paper to Isaac's possession. Let the kid hand it in and get the glory.

With escape in mind, Zev started down the hill toward a wooded area that could cover their retreat. "Come on. We'll walk a distance and then teleport out of here."

As they walked, Zev turned Isaac's questions over in his mind. These were, he knew, perfectly normal questions that the uninitiated often asked. Philosophical questions around killing and right and wrong. He'd heard it enough times in the military, from the recruits he'd gone through boot camp with and the soldiers he later had to lead. The core of the questions, when distilled to their essence, was always the same: "Do I really have to kill someone?"

The answer was always the same, too.

"Of course there were other ways," Zev said at length, after taking a long drag of his cigarette. "But every situation has an ideal resolution, and every action has a consequence. Even when you kill someone, how you do it, where, when — every small detail matters. A clean kill is better than a sloppy one. If it's better to do that with a gun than a knife, or vice versa, then you need to be ready to do it the right way. "

He paused for another hit of nicotine.

"You have to know your enemy. Everything about them. The Hounds would not have backed off with a scolding or run away, not with strength in numbers, not with a pack of Mightyena trained to kill. With the odds tonight, I had to sow confusion and eliminate the source of command as quickly as possible. Any misstep and you might not be alive right now. Instead, we've left behind a powerful message with the corpses."

Don't mess with Rocket.

"As for their families, well," Zev continued as they picked their way through the woods. The moonlight barely passed through the trees there, so he reached into one of his pockets for a compact flashlight. The beam illuminated a small circle of ground ahead of them, enough for them to move through the underbrush without tripping on roots or loose stones. "Family is everything, of course. The Hounds knew they were putting their loved ones on the line when they took up this line of work. If they didn't want harm to come to them, they either should have been stronger and smarter, or they should have quit while they were ahead. Is it fair? Of course, it's not. Don't trick yourself into thinking you can be ignorant like our friends at the bonfire, Isaac."

It was the first indication he'd given that he recognized the other man. And the way he said 'friends' sounded hollow, too. Detached.

Isaac Merlo

NOTES
+ Mission: The Hounds of Oldale

Zev said nothing as Isaac mused aloud, clearly lost in thought now that the adrenaline and terror had waned somewhat. Not that Zev cared to know Isaac's thoughts. They mattered not at all to him.

Instead, he said, "It takes practice. It's one thing to come up with a plan and another to put it into action. To come up with backups that you can rely on, and to even know what your backups are." He chuckled then, a rare, wry smile curling his lips in the dim light of the flashlight. It was a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "I have my fair share of scars. You will, too, if you live long enough."

They reached a clearing in the woods, and once again, moonlight bathed them in its eerie silver glow. Zev clicked off his flashlight and put it away, back into one of his many pockets. He looked back at Isaac's shocked expression and couldn't help the way his smile turned into a smirk.

"I do have a family, just like most people," the hitman admitted. It was not a lie. Not that time. "Friends, though… That's debatable. You were there on the beach. You saw how many people called me their friend."

Zev's smile was as empty and unfeeling as a corpse.

"It's easier to get work done when you let people believe what they want to believe."

Isaac Merlo

NOTES
+ Mission: The Hounds of Oldale