Rick grinned as his opponent, a burly Machoke, went down like a ton of bricks. After collecting his earnings he headed back to the surface as quickly as he could. Not that he usually stuck around for long, but that morning he had a special reason for leaving promptly. He had been unable to check up on Samuel due to the match he'd just won, so he wanted to get going as soon as possible in hopes of catching the Xatu before he left for those 'errands'.

During the fight, Rick had plenty of time to reflect on the events of the previous day and how they simply didn't add up to anything approaching a logical conclusion. There was definitely something strange about Samuel yesterday, and Rick was determined to find out what.

Rick snagged the morning's winnings on his way out the door and headed straight for Samuel's house. If there was no one there, Rick would look around the market district for him; or, more importantly, for Jake and Lucy. His younger siblings had taken off as soon as they were allowed that morning, hoping to catch Samuel before he could leave. If even they had missed him, then something troubling was going on.

Rick ran through town at a fair clip. He was used to moving quickly from one end of the city to the other, and he knew plenty of shortcuts. As such it only took him a few minutes to reach Samuel's neighborhood. As he rounded a corner and Samuel's house came into view, he was stopped dead in his tracks by what he saw.

There were Pokémon everywhere, mostly Herdier and a few assorted Fighting-types. They were milling about in front of Samuel's house, and the whole area was cordoned off with yellow tape.

Rick walked up to the nearest Herdier and asked, "What's going on?"

"Keep back sonny," the Herdier replied, turning to him. "We're conducting a murder investigation."

Rick's eyes got wide. "A murder…"

The Herdier nodded. "Aye. Did you happen to know the victims?"

Rick didn't respond, he pushed passed the Herdier, his eyes set on the house. He ducked under the yellow tape and pushed past more Pokémon as they attempted to stop him.

Rick stepped through the damaged door, a sinking feeling burying itself in his stomach. He looked into the front room, it looked just as it had the last time Rick had seen it. Then he walked into the next room; the kitchen.

It was ravaged. Blood was splashed across the walls, the table was turned over, utensils were thrown everywhere even sticking out of cabinets and walls. Rick followed the path of destruction into the one bedroom in the whole house.

There was a heavy dark green blanket on the ground, with three lumps underneath it. One was larger than the other two.

Rick slowly walked to the blanket and fell to his knees. He reached for the hem of the blanket and stopped.

"Do I… do I need to see this?" Rick thought numbly, then he set his jaw as the feeling in his gut worsened. "Yes, I need to make sure…"

Rick grabbed the blanket and lifted it up.

It was a strange feeling Rick went through as he stared at the battered and bloodied faces of Samuel, and his two younger siblings. It was as though his heart had dropped into his stomach and risen into his throat all at once. For two agonising seconds he didn't breath, his heart forgot to beat, and he was unable to tear his eyes away from that horrific sight.

The edge of the police blanket dropped from his paw which he suddenly lacked the strength to keep raised. His siblings' faces once again obscured by the impersonal features of the thick blanket, Rick finally started breathing again. If he closed his eyes, he could almost imagine that this was all just a bad dream. Almost, but not quite. He could smell the harsh, metallic scent of blood. It was a smell he was well familiar with, but this was the first time in a long time that it had nauseated him this much.

Rick didn't know what to do. Should he be afraid? Should he be horrified? Sad? Should he be crying? It was like a scene from a nightmare where time seemed to slow down. He knew he should do something, but his body wouldn't move.

Rick felt a paw on his shoulder, pulling him out of his trance, and he looked up. A Zoroark with a sympathetic look in his eyes was looking down at him.

"I'm sorry," the Zoroark said, "but I'm afraid you have to go for now. This is a crime scene after all."

Rick nodded slowly and looked back at the blanket.

The Zoroark left and Rick stared for a few more moments, then he rose to his feet and turned away from the scene. After leaving the house he stood on the front porch for a moment, dazed. Then he set his jaw and headed for his house.

On the way many people noticed him and tried to greet him, but he ignored them; not even glancing their way.

He paused on his front steps and looked at the entrance to the now empty house. Rick opened the door and stepped inside. The late morning sun was shining through the thin holes in the ceiling. It was quiet, the only sound was the faint breeze in the background.

He walked over to the kitchen table and sat down in one of the three old, rickety chairs. After sitting there in the quiet for a while, he stood up.

"I can't just sit here," he growled to himself, gritting his teeth. "I need to find the one who did this."

He walked from his house and headed toward the main part of town. He entered the market through an alleyway and glanced up and down the square. The place was teeming with people, including a couple of young-looking Mienfoo who seemed to be looking for someone. Rick didn't pay much attention to them, his objective was through the crowd; not in it.

He kept walking until he spotted the small building that was used as the police station. He made his way over there, adeptly pushing his way through the crowd. He arrived at the front door and stepped in.


Rick scowled as he left the police station. They hadn't told him anything, they hadn't even told him whether they had anything they could tell him. As far as he knew, they could have solved the entire case and just decided to keep it from him. He supposed this was one time when his elite status in the U.L. didn't help matters. They probably suspected him of being involved somehow.

"Alright then," he muttered to himself, "I'll find the bastard myself if I have to. There's got to be something I can do…."

Nevertheless, he couldn't think of anything. He couldn't remember anything helpful from the crime scene, and he doubted that he'd be allowed to go back for another look. His scowl grew as he walked back toward his house. He refused to let himself give up. He would get revenge, somehow.

Rick walked through the market square, not even caring about the crowd around him. Most of them, when they saw his expression, made sure to give him plenty of space. Leaving the market he entered the slums. The empty streets had never felt so dark and foreboding before.

As he neared his house, Rick became aware of a faint noise. It sounded like yelling, but that wasn't too surprising. Fights were hardly uncommon here, so he didn't pay much attention. He had his own problems, so whoever it was could deal with theirs. Then a louder sound cut through his brooding like a hot knife through butter. It was the scream of a child.

Without a second thought, Rick was off like a bullet from a gun towards the source of the commotion. He knew these streets like the back of his paw, and with his sharp ears it wasn't hard to find where the noise was coming from.

He rounded a corner to see something that caused his blood to boil. A surly-looking Sableye had one claw wrapped none too gently around the arm of a young Pokémon, probably the one who screamed, and the other claw was raised to strike. The young Pokémon, which Rick recognised as a Mienfoo, was cowering in abject terror and had several deep scratches along its other arm. Obviously the Sableye wasn't making idle threats.

"Give it back!" the Sableye, who Rick then recognised as a particularly stingy merchant from market square, shouted at the Mienfoo.

"Give what back?" Rick half growled, stepping into view.

The Sableye started when he saw Rick, but he didn't release his grip on the young Pokémon's arm and his expression quickly hardened again.

"It's none of your business, Reaper." The Sableye spat out the title like an insult.

Rick's eyes narrowed. "You're attacking a child, so I'm making it my business. Now talk, unless you want to find out firsthand how I got that nickname."

The Sableye scowled at Rick, but he didn't look too intimidated by the Lucario's threat.

"If you have to know," the Sableye replied, "this brat and her accomplice stole a bun from my stall."

Rick's eye twitched as he processed the information. "A bun…"

The Sableye flinched slightly at the intensity of the Lucario's tone.

"You physically assaulted a child in an alley," Rick growled, his voice rising with each word, "FOR A BUN?!"

The Sableye involuntarily backed up half a step. "It was an big bun…"

The spikes on the back of Rick's paws glowed a sinister black and melted into two sets of translucent claws, each one about a foot long and wreathed in black flames that seemed to absorb light rather than emit it. It was one of the techniques that had earned him the title of Reaper; Shadow Claw.

Seeing an actual move performed in front of his eyes shattered what was left of the Sableye's nerve. He stumbled backwards slightly, allowing the Mienfoo to yank her arm out of his grip. The young Pokémon then quickly high-tailed it down the alley and disappeared around a corner.

Sableye watched Rick like a cornered mouse watching a cat close in on it. Rick slowly stepped closer and closer, until we he right in the sableye's face. He brought his right arm up, and put the end of his Shadow Claw right up to his throat.

"I'm only going to say this once," Rick growled. "If I ever see you hurting anyone over a bun again, I will personally hunt you down and cut you into ribbons. Do you understand?"

Sableye whimpered slightly and nodded. Rick took a step back, and Sableye didn't waste any time in turning tail and running as fast as he could down the alley. Rick soon lost sight of him around a corner, so the Lucario turned back the other way and spotted two small faces peeking out from behind another corner in the alley. One of them was the Mienfoo he'd rescued, but below hers was the face of an even younger-looking Mienfoo. Probably the 'accomplice' that Sableye mentioned. As soon as they saw him looking, both of them ducked back behind the wall.

"It's alright," Rick said, allowing his Shadow Claws to fade. "I won't hurt you."

Slowly, cautiously, the two faces appeared followed by two bodies to match. Now that they were standing out in the open, Rick could tell that they were brother and sister and that the girl was the older of the two. Rick snorted slightly when he noticed the boy timidly trying to hide a bun behind his back. True to the Sableye's words, it really was a rather large bun.

"Thanks for saving us, mister," the girl said.

"Rick," he said, crouching down to meet them at eye level. "My name's Rick. What's yours?"

"I'm Susan," she replied, "and this is my brother, Christopher."

"But everyone just calls me Chris," Chris chimed in.

Rick nodded. "Alright then Susan, why were you and your brother stealing food?"

Susan stared at the ground uncomfortably and shuffled her feet. "We were hungry…"

Rick sighed. "Yeah, I guess so judging by the size of that bun. You can stop hiding it by the way."

Chris sheepishly pulled the bun out from behind his back. It was about the size of his head, and covered with crispy cheese. Still, it didn't look too nutritious. And from the look of the two of them they needed all the nutrients they could get. Their fur was matted and dirty, and didn't do much to hide the fact that both of them were unhealthily thin.

"You two came through the jungle, didn't you," Rick commented.

Susan nodded.

"Do you have anyone to look after you?" Rick asked, although he already knew the answer.

Susan shook her head sadly.

Rick sighed. "Fine then. Follow me."

Rick started walking, and the two young Mienfoo looked at each other for a second and then took off after him.

"Where are we going?" Chris asked as the two of them ran to catch up with Rick.

"To get you two some real food," Rick called over his shoulder.

Rick led them into the market square, but rather than visiting one of the merchants he instead made a beeline for a low, somewhat decrepit looking pub; the Drunken Gladiator. Despite its disreputable appearance, it actually had a fairly pleasant atmosphere and good food. The main reason Rick chose to visit the Drunken Gladiator though was that it also served as the entrance to the Underground League.

He entered the pub as inconspicuously as possible, with Chris and Susan in tow. There was barely anyone in the small, dingy front area and most people never saw more of it than that. When the bartender saw rick however, he grinned and nodded a greeting to him.

"How goes it Rick?" the barkeep, a middle-aged Sawk, said as he cleaned out a glass. "And what's with the kids?"

"Just let me in," Rick said tersely, not really in the mood for conversation.

"I see, it's been one of those days has it?" the barkeep replied. "Alright, go on in. I'll be there in a minute."

Rick nodded gratefully and walked over to a door to the left of the counter, where people sitting in the front area couldn't easily see it. It was unmarked and boarded up, but Rick knew the boards were just for show.

Motioning for Chris and Susan to follow him, Rick walked through the door as if he owned the place. They emerged into a much larger room, also filled with tables. This room was obviously meticulously well taken care of and it was filled with about a dozen Pokémon, very few of whom would've been mistaken for poor or homeless, or even particularly drunk.

All around him the other patrons of the pub shouted their greetings, and congratulations, as they recognised him. He was a familiar face in the Gladiator, and he knew almost everyone there personally. Still, he didn't really feel like socializing too much what with the events of the day still weighing heavily on his mind.

He looked behind him at the two young Mienfoo, who looked decidedly uneasy at being surrounded by so many big, noisy, and in some cases slightly drunk Pokémon. Despite appearances however, the Drunken Gladiator was one of the safest places Rick knew. Which was why he had decided to come here.

This back room was for VIP's which meant members of the Underground League, and only reasonably successful ones at that. Rick was, of course, included in that number. He steered the two young Pokémon toward an unoccupied table near the counter, which was a newer, cleaner, solid oak version of the one in the front room. There was a small door behind the counter, through which the bartender could cross back and forth between the two rooms without arousing suspicion from anyone in the front.

It only took few seconds for the bartender to appear, still cleaning his glass. Rick then went over to place his order.

"So," the bartender said, putting down his glass and leaning on the counter. "What'll it be? The usual?"

Rick shook his head humorlessly. "No, I need something a little stronger. Give me a stiff shot of whisky, on the rocks. Top shelf, if you don't mind."

If the bartender had possessed eyebrows, he would've raised them.

"You really have had a rough day, haven't you," he commented as he expertly prepared Rick's drink.

As a rule, Rick tried to stay away from alcohol for the most part. Whenever he ordered something stronger, it was because he needed to forget something. If even just for a short while.

"Thank you Jacob," Rick said as the Sawk handed him his drink. It was small, just a single shot, but Gladiator Whisky packed a punch no matter how much you took.

"So," Jacob replied quizzically, nodding towards Rick's table where Susan and Chris were sitting and watching them intently. "What's with the kids, if you don't mind me asking?"

Rick downed his whisky, recoiling slightly at the strength of it, then rattled the ice cubes around in the glass a little.

"I picked them up in the slums," he said. "One of the merchants caught 'em stealing a bun, and decided it was worth attacking them to get it back."

Jacob snorted in derision. "And I assume you told him off pretty good for that."

"You should've seen the look on his face when I pulled out my claws," Rick replied with a slightly giddy grin. "He looked like he almost wet himself."

"So, what," Jacob continued, "are you taking care of them now? Don't they have any relatives?"

Rick shook his head. "Not according to them. They say they came through the jungle, alone."

Jacob's eyebrows would've had a real workout that day, if he'd had any. "Through the jungle? All by themselves?"

"That's what they said," Rick affirmed, propping his head up with his paw.

"So what are you going to do about them?" Jacob asked.

"I'm buying them one meal," Rick replied, "because they don't look like they'd last much longer without one. After that, I'm dropping them off at the orphanage."

"What?" Jacob exclaimed incredulously. "Why? Rick, you know full well that an orphanage isn't a nice place to grow up. You can't condemn them to that, especially not after they went through the jungle to get here."

"What would you have me do then?" Rick asked.

"Why, take them in of course," Jacob replied. "I know you're having trouble making ends meet as it is, but I could talk to some of the big-shots in the league. They might be willing to give you a bigger cut of the battle fund, considering the situation. I'm sure little Jake and Lucy would love to have another couple other kids around to play with…"

"Jake and Lucy are dead."

Jacob stopped cold, and a look of horror slowly started to spread across his face. "What?" he asked, not wanting to believe his ears.

"They were murdered this morning, along with Samuel," Rick said in barely more than a whisper.

Jacob didn't say anything, there was nothing he could say. He'd known Rick a long time, even before Rick had joined the U.L. In fact, Jacob was the one who told Rick about it. Besides, anyone who knew Rick also knew, and loved, Jake and Lucy.

Without a word, Jacob got out another shot glass and filled it and Rick's with whisky.

"To Jake and Lucy," Jacob said, his expression somber.

Rick nodded, and the two touched their glasses together in a toast and then downed the contents. They both knew no amount of whisky would bring Jake and Lucy back but, for one brief moment, it at least dulled the pain.

Rick and Jacob sat for a while, not saying anything, just being there for each other. Eventually though, Jacob got up and put a hand on Rick's shoulder.

"I'll get you something to eat," he said. "And something for those two over there as well."

"I can't take them in," Rick said. "It feels wrong, like I'm trying to replace Jake and Lucy."

"No one could ever replace them, they brought light into so many lives around here just by being innocent, playful, over-enthusiastic kids," Jacob sighed. "And I'm sorry to have to do this to you, I really am, but what would they want you to do?"