Jim yawned as he lent back on his chair. He hadn't been able to sleep during the day, a problem he often had when he was on late shifts at the museum, and was now struggling to keep his eyes on the security monitors.
As he rubbed his raw feeling eyes he decided that he needed yet another cup of coffee. Getting up he tickled his Growlithe, Sandy, behind the ears and headed over to the coffee machine. Lazily he shifted some mugs around until he found a clean one and poured himself a cup.
As he turned his foot hit something, almost sending him crashing to the floor. Looking down he saw his other pokemon, Secard the Shinx, looking up at him hurt. Apologizing under his breath Jim patted the Shinx on the head and settled down to his monitors again.
**********
Sometime later Jim awoke with a start, glancing around trying to remember his bearings. He cursed when he realized he had fallen asleep at work, an offense that had already seen him get one warning from the museums manager, and could well see him being dismissed if he was caught again.
Whilst Jim still considered himself young, 23 was no longer an age where unemployment looked attractive – he needed the job for his rent and modest lifestyle. Being a security guard at a museum was hardly glamorous, but it did allow him the finances to live a happy life.
He checked all the cameras, nothing was amiss and he had missed no alarms, for which he was thankful. But he also started to worry. Again he went over all the cameras but could see no problem,
'So what' he thought to himself 'has caused me to awaken so suddenly?'
Deciding that action was the best way to put his mind at ease he got to his feet and whistled. Instantly both his Pokemon were awaken from their own slumbers and came running over to stand expectantly in front of him.
'Come on then guys' Jim said to them 'time to do some rounds'. Arming himself with a flashlight Jim set off to do a round of the museum to make sure that there were no issues.
**************
Most of his rounds had been completed and Jim was starting to feel better.
'Must have been my imagination' he thought to himself 'no-one ever breaks in here'.
But then Sandy, the Growlithe, stopped in its tracks and started sniffing the air. A couple of seconds later Secard the Shinx did the same – and then started prowling over to the door that Jim was just about to walk past – the door to the library.
The library was one of the least visited attractions in the museum, containing a large selection of ancient books – mostly on dark subjects such as magics and sacrifice. With it attracting such little attention the museums limited security budget had never stretched in fitting the room with security cameras.
The nagging feeling that something was wrong came back to Jim in a heartbeat. Nervously he approached the door, his large torch held firmly in his hand, ready to be used as a weapon if needs be. Secard and Sandy crept on either side of him, neither making any noise.
Tentatively Jim tried the door handle, which should have been locked. But it swung open at his slight touch, evidence that it had been tampered with – Jim himself had locked it at the start of his night shift.
Swallowing loudly, Jim shone his torch into the room. Not seeing anything amiss he edged inside, Sandy and Secard in tow. As he crept in he heard a fluttering noise of air being disturbed, followed by a very human curse.
'Who goes there' Jim called out in what he hoped was an authoritative tone, but feared was feeble and scared sounding.
Rounding the corner of one of the bookshelves Jim saw two figures dressed in black, but with their faces uncovered, turn and look at him. Instantly Jim brought himself up to his full height, an impressive 6ft 4 – which with his muscular frame was one of the reasons he was hired as a security guard in the first place.
He had hoped seeing him at full size would scare the thieves off. But the closest of the two, very obviously a woman, with very full looking curves even in her loose fitting black clothing, instantly barked out an order
'Xexus – wing attack' and seemingly from nowhere an ink black shape shot out of the darkness of the room and sped towards Jim. Thankfully before he even had time to think Secard leapt in front of him, body sparkling with raw electric energy. The leap powered into the oncoming shape, which closer to the light of the torch was revealed to be a Murkrow.
Secards attack sent the black crow pokemon spinning to earth, whilst Secard landed on all fours in front of Jim, growling. Sandy, who had previously been under strict orders never to use any fire within the library, for fear of setting alight to the old, bone dry books, started giving off a large amount of heat, getting ready to attack if needed.
The woman in black put her hand out and a right light shot out, hitting her Murkrow and returning it to the pokeball.
'Leave it' said the figure behind her, the voice sounding like that of an older male. We have what we came for, let us leave. Golsun, Haze'
Jim realized that even when Murkrow hit the floor the beating of the air hadn't stopped. Looking up he could just make out the outline of a Golbat before it covered the entire room in a dark fog, which even with the light from his two pokemon, and his torch, Jim was unable to see through.
When the fog finally lifted the two figures had gone, presumably through the window as Jim had never moved enough away from the doorway to be sneaked passed.
Jim could see that a number of books had also gone. Ancient books from the dark magics section of the library. What they were wanted for he didn't know, nor did he care. Jim was more worried about what this theft meant to his job than he was about what books were missing.