Disclaimer: I own nothing, save this bag of candy corn.
The rating of this story may change as I get farther into it. I guess we'll see. Anyway, reviews would be greatly appreciated!
People always thought that working for the International Police would be a terribly exciting job. And most of the time, Looker would have gladly agreed. Most of the time. Just not right now.
Currently, the detective was sitting in his office, leaning back in his chair with his feet propped up on the desk. Under normal circumstances, this would have been impossible, as any contact with the desk could cause the many piles of paperwork to collapse in a massive landslide. But after three weeks without any interesting cases, suddenly even paperwork had looked appealing.
That extraordinary change of heart had happened two weeks ago. During the intervening time, he'd also organized his files, caught up on his e-mail, and vaguely considered dusting. Now he'd finally run out of ideas. Well, constructive ideas, anyway. Looker idly fished another Poffin from the pocket of his trenchcoat and expertly flipped it towards the Croagunk crouched on the corner of the desk. The frog-like Pokemon immediately jumped, powerful hind legs propelling him directly up in the air, and caught the Poffin neatly in his mouth. "Well done, Loki," Looker complimented his partner. "That would be, what…thirty-two in a row now?"
"Gunk!" Loki shook his head and held up three fingers.
"Ah, thirty-three. My apologies."
"Gunk." The Croagunk nodded in acceptance, then, being quite full from all the treats, settled down in a comfortable position and closed his eyes for a mid-afternoon nap. Looker considered trying to catch the Poffins in his own mouth, but quickly dismissed it as a terrible idea. Instead, he leaned back in his chair and attempted to catch a little sleep of his own. His rest lasted only a few seconds, however, before the shrill ringing of the phone cut in, nearly startling him out of his chair.
Years of training allowed him to recover quickly, and he just managed to avoid falling. Casting a glare towards the snickering Loki, Looker grabbed the phone and snapped, "Looker speaking,"
"Hello, Looker," The voice was deep, gruff, and only slightly frightening. Looker recognized it immediately.
"Chief! Nice to hear from you." Loki immediately stopped laughing at his partner's misfortune and moved closer, leaning in until his face was nearly touching Looker's in an attempt to listen in. Looker motioned him back in irritation and pointed towards the receiver. Loki looked at it blankly for a second, then realized what Looker meant and pressed the speakerphone button. Looker set the receiver down quietly and held a finger to his lips with a pointed look at the Croagunk.
"We have a new case for you. You'll be receiving the file shortly." Looker glanced at his computer, which was indeed receiving a file. He'd always thought that was a silly way to do things; he would only have to print it out later, and he had to buy his own ink. All it did was minimize his face-to-face time with his employers. Sometimes their desire for mystery irked him.
"After all this time, Chief? I was beginning to think you'd forgotten about me." Loki puffed up his cheek sacs and hissed loudly at the phone in emphasis. Looker rolled his eyes. So much for being quiet.
There was a sigh on the other end. "Are you letting that creature of yours listen in on this, Looker?"
"Now, now, Chief," Looker drawled, grinning. "Without Loki, we never would have caught those Pokemon thieves in Hearthome, would we?" Loki answered the question for him with a loud croak. There was no reply, and Looker could see the Chief sitting at his desk, pinching the bridge of his nose in exasperation. The man had never much liked Pokemon to begin with, and Loki hadn't helped matters along. Privately, Looker thought that the Chief had deserved that Mud Slap, but apparently you couldn't come between that one and his suits.
The computer let out a cheery ding to announce that the file had finished loading, and Looker opened it and began to scroll through the contents. "We'll be sending you overseas this time, to Kanto," the Chief explained in the background. "A prominent young Trainer has disappeared from Cinnabar Island, and we'd like you to find her, if possible."
"A disappearance?" Looker asked, puzzled. "Couldn't the local police handle that? Not that I'm not perfectly willing to accept the job," he added as Loki angrily jabbed him in the shoulder.
"Normally, yes. However, they still have no leads, and the girl's family has requested that we assist in the matter." The Chief paused for a second, causing Looker and his partner to look at the phone apprehensively, both expecting to hear about some horrible danger awaiting them on the island. "You'll also be going undercover on this one. All the documents you need for your fake identity are in the file."
Looker let out a sigh of relief. That wasn't so bad; he was one of the IP's best undercover agents. Still, it seemed an odd precaution to take for what sounded to be a relatively straightforward kidnapping. "Is there any particular reason for this, sir?" he ventured.
"We have reason to believe that the residents of Cinnabar will not cooperate with any outside agents. Now, Looker, your ship leaves at eight o'clock tomorrow morning. Good luck." And before Looker could ask any of the questions swirling in his mind, the Chief hung up.
Looker sighed and raised an eyebrow at Loki. "That was, once again, unnecessarily mysterious of him. Do we have to worry about getting attacked by random townspeople now?" Loki shrugged, and Looker noticed with a sinking feeling in his stomach that the Croagunk's body was shaking slightly. He had learned to trust his partner's instincts, and shaking like that was never a good sign. Perhaps there was more to this case than met the eye.
Still, there was nothing he could do about it at the moment. The detective sighed and stood up, leaning down slightly to allow Loki to jump onto his shoulder. "I suppose we'll find out when we get there. Let's just go get packed."