Somewhere within one of Castelia city's massive buildings, a young woman with short black hair stood proudly in front of a mirror, admiring herself in her long brown coat and fedora: the spitting image of a cool and heroic detective as she saw it. This is it, she thought to herself. I'm on my way to becoming one of the greatest detectives ever! She placed her hands on her hips and raised her chin, grinning widely. "Are you ready, Zangoose? Today we're going to try cracking the biggest case since since Team Plasma's downfall! Why, we'll be almost as famous as Looker if we can solve this!"
The Pokemon in question was curled up on the bed and gave a low growl in response, clearly not sharing his trainer's enthusiasm. It wasn't that he hated her, but getting woken up at two in the morning was not the cat ferret's idea of a good time.
"Come on, cheer up!" She whirled around and lifted the grumpy Zangoose in her arms, only for the Pokemon to wriggle free and flex his claws menacingly. "I know you're not a morning Pokemon—"
He interrupted with a hiss. As far as the Zangoose was concerned, two AM could not be considered morning.
"—but Smith wants to meet before people start to wake up, just in case someone overhears. This isn't the kind of information that can be taken lightly."
"Smith" was the budding detective's acquaintance and primary information dealer. He was usually the one who brought her cases and often helped her solve them, although up until now they hadn't accomplished anything particularly impressive together. However, he sent her a note the other day mentioning the recent rumors that Team Rocket and Team Plasma had reunited and were both in the Unova region as partners. At first she thought the rumors were just that, but apparently Smith knew of someone that had witnessed the evil groups' activities firsthand. According to him, this witness was extremely uncooperative when it came to interrogations, but he figured she could give it a try. Seeing as she immediately pounced on the case, he arranged for them to meet at Cafe Sonata early in the morning to get more information on this witness' whereabouts.
Zangoose grunted and sheathed his claws, grudgingly forgiving the young detective for interrupting a peaceful night's sleep. However, a scowl returned to the Pokemon's face when the woman opened the window and pulled out a Pokeball.
"Now let's head off! Staraptor, go!" A beam of light appeared, releasing the large bird Pokemon just outside the building. Not caring that the room was on the tenth floor, she grabbed her Zangoose and leaped out the window, landing softly on Staraptor's back. "Let's see, it should be in that alleyway. Onward!" The bird nodded and flew them in the direction she had pointed, seemingly apathetic to the fact she was called out so suddenly.
Zangoose sighed. Did his trainer always have to do things in such a flashy way?
A young boy that appeared to be only ten or twelve years old looked up at the figure flying overhead as he leaned against a wall in the alleyway. Although he wasn't masked, the hooded jacket he wore was enough to hide most of his features in the early morning darkness. "Nice to see you again, Amy," he said when the Staraptor landed a few meters away with a trainer on its back, kicking up dirt and trash with its wings as it landed.
The young woman patted her Staraptor's head before calling it back into its Pokeball, then turned to the boy indignantly. "That's Detective Amethyst to you, Smith!" The Zangoose standing beside her crossed his arms and nodded in agreement.
Although Amethyst wasn't her real name, that was the alias she had chosen before moving to Unova to get her detective career going. After all, didn't all of the best heroes have secret identities? To her, it was a name that represented her bright and shining future. To coworkers(and nearly everyone else), it was something to laugh at behind her back(and to her face). The complete lack of seriousness with which others took her because of the name eventually led her to shorten it to "Amy", but the damage was done and, whether out of defiance or some lingering pride in the alias that took all but fifteen minutes for her to choose those three years ago, she insisted on being called by her full alias every so often.
"Of course, Miss Amethyst," Smith answered with mock respect and held open the door. "Come on, let's go inside."
"Yeah, yeah," Amy answered, taking the boy up on his offer to let her in first. As soon as Zangoose had followed after her, Smith walked inside the cafe and closed the door.
The cafe owner looked at the pair in confusion, still in the midst of drying some recently-washed cups. "Any reason a couple of kids are out so early?"
"I'm not a kid! I'm nineteen, a full-fledged adult woman!" Amy was quick to protest. "I don't know about this kid, though..." She pointed to Smith. The boy looked pretty young, but she doubted he could be this involved in the law at such a young age(although the police force wasn't exactly known for being picky ever since the Pokemon League became the highest authority). Still, he insisted on keeping his age a secret even after their time working together.
"And I don't intend to tell you anytime soon. Sir, we were just hoping to speak with one another about something." The confused cafe owner simply nodded and went about organizing the shelves while the pair took their seats. "Now, shall we begin?"
Detective Amethyst gave an apologetic glance to the cafe owner, knowing what was next. "Yeah," she answered uneasily.
"Good. Musharna," he took out a Pokeball and released the pink creature. "Hypnosis." Before the cafe owner could wonder what was up, he fell to the ground unconscious from the Pokemon's attack. Zangoose was quick to catch the man and break his fall, so he didn't suffer any injuries. Smith glanced up at Amy after calling his Pokemon back. "Don't look at me like that. You know he's better off not knowing this."
"Yeah, but..." She sighed. "Sometimes I question your way of doing things." Even so, Smith had always been a reliable ally despite his less-than-noble methods. After a brief moment of shaking her head, the detective went back to the matter at hand. "So, what do you know about this witness?" Zangoose had finished tending to the cafe owner and was now at his trainer's side.
Smith pulled out a folder and flipped through it, tossing a photograph towards the detective. "She seems to be a trainer, although she works as a Pokemon nurse. Her first name's Annette, and she's somewhere between fifteen and seventeen. As the picture implies, she's never seen without her Delcatty."
"If she's a nurse, can't I just go to the Pokemon Center she works at?" Amy caught the photo and studied it carefully. It showed a young girl with long blonde hair and copper eyes, holding a Delcatty in her arms just like Smith said. She might have looked like a normal teen, but there were dark rings under her eyes and several signs of stress and lack of sleep. The photograph was probably taken incognito, since the girl in the picture seemed oblivious to the presence of a camera.
"It's not that simple. See, her ordeal with Team Rocket and Plasma left her extremely paranoid, so she's always on the move. The other nurses allow her to come and go as she pleases as a favor for helping them out with healing, and they usually help her stay hidden. Even when someone manages to track her down and get the nurses to let them see her, Annette herself usually turns them away and leaves town. Nobody's managed to get her to talk about what happened."
Amy frowned. "Sheesh. Whatever it was she saw, it must have left her pretty spooked. Any idea where she might be now?"
"Actually, that's why I called you here." Smith seemed proud of himself for acquiring this information. "She's here, in Castelia city. Based on her normal patterns, I assume she's staying at the Pokemon Center. According to my sources, she just arrived yesterday."
"Really? That makes things easy. I knew I could count on you, Smith!" Amy reached out and shook the boy's hand. "So, about your payment..."
"In this case, I'll take my payment after you talk with her. It would be a waste if she ran away and made the information you paid for useless. Consider it a favor for a friend."
"Good point..." Amy looked down at the photograph and scratched the back of her head. "Well, I'll manage somehow." She stood up and headed for the door, an eager grin plastered on her face. "Thanks so much! I'll expose those criminals in no time!"
"I'm sure you will, Miss Amethyst," Smith answered, waving to the young woman as she and her Zangoose ran out the door. He grinned as soon as they were gone. "Yes, I'm sure you will, my naïve little detective."
Turning to the cafe owner, the boy sent out his Musharna again. "Use Dream Eater, and make sure he remembers nothing of our arrival," he instructed.
"Muuuun..." The round pink Pokemon did as it was told, releasing a cloud of pink smoke that enveloped the unconscious man. When it was finished, the smoke dissipated and Musharna returned to its Pokeball.
Smith pulled out his X-transceiver and spoke quietly into it after dialing a number. "Everything's going as planned so far, boss. Now we just need to see if our target takes the bait."
"That was really nice of Smith, don't you think?" Amy asked as she strolled along the street with her Zangoose, who just shrugged. "I mean, he may not seem like a great person, but in the end he's really a fellow upholder of justice. Team Plasma and Rocket had better watch out!"
"Zan!" Her Pokemon agreed, unsheathing his claws.
"As soon as the sun's up, we're going to the Pokemon Center," she announced as she came to a stop. The detective stood proudly and looked up at the early morning sky, determined to make something of herself.
Author's Note: Well, here's my latest attempt at a story. Not much else to say, except I hope you enjoy it!
Edit: (My, these first chapters are so short!)I may or may not have revised this chapter a bit. Nothing too big, just minor details and wording since, if I tried to change any more, I'd just end up rewriting the whole thing and cheating the readers who've already read this. I can say that the writing improves a little, I think, as you get further. If not, I'm always open to advice!