When we first published Case Closed, we didn't know we'd finish it on the editor's birthday. She said that "less stress" would be her present to herself. Since she finished the last scene just before midnight the night before, I'd want a break, too.
And, because we've grown too attached to our fanfic universe, we still have more Pokedex Adventures planned out. Actual adventures. One villain song is already on its second draft.
Calem and Serena did not return to the Looker Bureau until they'd heard that the detective had left the hospital because the doctor allowed it, instead of tying up a doctor to steal his uniform and escape, as he had told them he'd done to chase them down and catch Xerosic.
Emma had called them with the Holo Caster that Looker had given her, but had refused to tell them anything specific out of fear that they would be overheard. A wise decision, Calem knew, especially with the fact that Lysandre had used his invention to spy on people. He wasn't sure if Emma knew that, but he wasn't going to tell her.
When they arrived, Emma was standing on Looker's chair, attempting to hang a banner that she'd made from a bed sheet. She looked at the door just long enough to recognize them before returning to her task. "Hi! Can you give me a hand?"
Serena immediately released Juliet, and gave the Delphox orders to assist with the banner while she and Calem got to watch. "Why couldn't Mimi help?" she asked.
"Mimi went to get Looker and help him walk," Emma explained. "She's really starting to respect him now."
"Of course she is." Calem shrugged. "He got her human back, didn't he?"
"You technically got me back," Emma said, dropping her voice a little. She'd decided to allow Xerosic to stay in her life, since he had paid her enough to afford a Pokeball for her Espurr, but still had trouble completely forgiving him. "You defeated Essentia. He just showed up to yell at my boss."
The conversation was interrupted by Mimi herself, who immediately ran right up to Emma and handed her a paper. She took it, took a little longer than she should to read it, and then let her face slip into confusion.
"I don't understand."
"What happened?"
Emma turned the letter around so they could read it for themselves.
"My dearest friends," the letter said, "I am afraid I have deceived you all. I am not a detective at all, but a member of the International Police! I am sure you must be shocked." Calem was not. A real detective would have given them a longer training period. He only wondered why Looker thought detectives wouldn't be part of the International Police. "I'm sure you must be wondering about my hospital stay. The truth is, I have lied to you all. It was for your own protection, of course. But there is another reason I leave this letter to you."
"Cop business?" Serena asked.
Emma rolled her eyes. "Keep going, Serena."
Serena returned her eyes to the paper.
"My mission is completed, and my time in Kalos is done." Serena barely restrained herself from whispering 'I knew it.' "I must leave behind this region, and my friends. To Calem and Serena, you have been excellent partners. I would like you to know that if you are ever in need of assistance, for as long as I am with the International Police, you will have our support whenever you need it. And as for Emma, I leave you and Mimi the office and my position as detective. I have purchased the whole building, so you will not need to worry about rent. You will be taking on a big responsibility, but it is one that pays, so you do not need to go looking for any more jobs from mad scientists. Keep an eye on any suspicious activity throughout the region, and keep the new Champion informed at all times. I'm sure he will appreciate the help. Won't you, Calem?"
Since he had not paused in the middle of reading it, Calem spoke first. "So he's ditching us?"
"Don't say it like that!" Emma whined, and Serena saw a few tears in her eyes. "He's going to come back, right? He has to, to see how well I'm doing as a detective and if I can keep the Champion updated…"
"I'm sure he will," Serena promised. Then she looked over at Calem. "But I'm sure the Champion isn't going to need your updates for a while. Right, Calem?"
"Right," he agreed. "I'm sure I'll need your help someday, but I think for now I'm just going to go home and rethink…everything."
Emma immediately rounded on him. "And why didn't you tell me you were going to actually be at the League before?"
"I was sworn not to."
Emma's shoulders slumped. It made sense. "Take the banner down, Mimi," she instructed, and Mimi followed the order, ignoring Juliet's whine about how she just got it up. "Then we're going to go look for him."
Serena wondered if she should stop her, but Calem held her back. "She'll get over it."
"And if not?"
"We'll burn that bridge when we get to it."
They couldn't catch Emma. They weren't surprised, she knew the alleys of Lumiose City better than they did. But when they didn't find her or Looker in the museum, they were a little worried for her. What if someone recognized that she had the same height and body type as Essentia?
Luckily, as soon as they were out of the museum, she managed to call them.
"Calem? Serena?" She was clearly still inexperienced with using a Holo Caster. "I got a message from Xerosic. He's with Looker at Lysandre Café! I'm going to take Mimi there, so maybe you could join us?"
And she turned it off.
One short trip to Lysandre Café later, and the two found Looker and Xerosic standing by the bar, with no sign of Emma or Mimi anywhere.
"I have returned all of the Pokeballs that Essentia stole," Xerosic was saying. "Now, if you will give me a minute…"
"You have no minutes left," Looker pointed out. "You must come with me at once! Our train is about to depart!"
Xerosic glanced to the door, looking slightly worried, but when he saw Calem and Serena, he relaxed. "Ah. There they are."
Looker whirled around, preparing to find a swarm of Flare grunts who wanted their boss back, but instead found his partners. "What are you doing here?"
"Emma must have invited them." Xerosic sounded like he'd planned this all out.
"Emma?"
Right as the name left Looker's mouth, Emma's head appeared in the doorway. "Yes, Mr. Looker?"
"What are you doing here?"
"I'm saying goodbye, you idiot!" Emma smacked him on the shoulder. "You lied to all of us, put me in a position I'm not ready to have, and now you're leaving without a goodbye? I don't think so!"
"I'm sorry, Emma," Looker said, slightly defensive, "but my letter explains everything. You are ready to graduate from being my assistant, as you now know what to look for in a criminal." He gave Xerosic a pointed stare. "And you have Mimi to interfere if you ever find yourself working for another one as part of a mission."
"But can I really be a detective, if you were never a real one to begin with?"
"Ask Professor Sycamore for a Pokedex," Calem suggested. "You're 16, right? That's still young enough. You can use Mimi to battle and catch more Pokémon, and maybe even take the Gym challenge. I'm sure I can get Di…uh. Use my Champion authority to get fake cases set up for you to solve, so you feel ready when you come back to work."
"But what if there are more crimes in Lumiose while I'm gone?"
"We can get the professor to pay closer attention." Serena rolled her eyes. "Trust me, if anyone knows what to look for, it's him. He's probably still beating himself up over Lysandre."
Xerosic suddenly laughed, startling all of them. "Detective," he scoffed. "Pokémon trainer. All of that is certainly…interesting. But why settle for the normal life, when you can be a superhero?"
Despite her frustration and sadness, Emma lightened up a little at the thought. "A superhero?"
"Take the Expansion Suit," Xerosic told her. "I removed the remote-control functions, so I won't get any use out of it now. Use it to confront the criminals of the city. Consider this the origin story of Essentia X."
"I'll have to pick a different name," Emma said, no hesitation, getting even Looker to smile a little. "But I like the idea. Using an evil suit to do good for the city..."
"Go, go, Power Ranger," Calem sang under his breath.
"Calem!" Serena, Looker, and Emma all snapped at once.
Xerosic did not yell at Calem, and reached into his pocket to give Emma a few Pokeballs. "And I suppose Mimi will need some new friends. You can keep these while I am…unavailable. When I am released, I will return for them. Though, of course, I will trade for them, so you will never have to rely on only Mimi again."
"You're letting me hold on to your Pokémon?" Emma finally started to cry. "Dr. Xerosic…"
Looker cleared his throat. "If you don't mind, I need to take Dr. Xerosic away, now. I'll allow him to call you, Emma."
"And I'll take good care of his Pokémon and the suit," Emma promised.
They left the café in pairs – Looker and Xerosic, Calem and Serena, Emma and Mimi. And all of them promised it wouldn't be the last time they met.
Professor Sycamore's lab was unusually crowded when Calem arrived for his double-Champion match with Rosa. Rosa's personal cheerleading squad was there, of course, with Nate sitting between Hugh and Colress with a look on his face that made it clear he'd be interfering whenever one of them lost Good Boy Points. But, with the pair's permission, the professor had brought along a few guests of his own. Diantha, Dexio, Sina…Calem even got Trevor to show up, just so he could record it for Tierno and Shauna.
They'd chosen to do it out in the Pokémon play yard, because Calem planned to use Yveltal to be one of the Pokémon used in the battle. Rosa had agreed almost too enthusiastically. That sounded like something interesting.
But first, Serena had to interrogate Colress.
"Calem thought you were involved in the Pokémon robberies." He didn't even blink. "You don't know a Dr. Xerosic, do you?"
He thought hard. "I might have seen him in a science convention," he admitted. "But I can assure you, I have nothing to hide. I didn't do it."
"But is there a chance that you could have helped? Left notes or something?"
"In another universe, yes, I'm sure I was involved with Xerosic. However, I'm also sure that, somewhere in the multiverse, there is a Colress who never had his conscience unlocked by a pair of annoying children." He gestured to Nate. "If he and Rosa had minded their own business, I would be in Team Plasma's Unova, plotting the downfall of Ghetsis myself."
Serena ignored that last part to focus on the first. "You believe in the multiverse theory?"
"Why deny the evidence?"
Serena looked at him as if he'd short-circuited her brain. He seemed to enjoy that, as his own mood lightened considerably even before the two Champions stood in proper battle position.
"I hope Rosa knows what she's up against," Serena said quietly.
"I'm sure she does." It was Diantha's voice that answered, not one of the scientists. "Augustine reassured her that she wouldn't be cheating if she brought out her rarest Pokémon to face Calem's."
It took Serena a few seconds to process. "Rosa has a legendary?"
Diantha held a finger to her lips and pointed at the battlefield. Calem had started with Pyroar, while Rosa had chosen an Azumarill. A female Azumarill, since opening with Attract before switching to Aqua Tail won Rosa the round, but Calem retaliated by using Trevenant and hitting with Energy Ball before she could process what was happening.
Azumarill made it through the attack, but seeing her get hurt was enough to convince Rosa to use a Zoroark for it, and it managed to convince Calem that it was an Altaria. Scizor came out to deal with that problem, and Calem triggering Mega Evolution caused Rosa to choose her Altaria do the same, apparently not used to her bird becoming a Fairy-type and opening it up for Steel attacks. The Ampharos was next to fall, but Azumarill managed to win that battle despite her own Fairy typing. To fight Eddie, Rosa used a pig with a beard that his Pokedex called Emboar but she called Greg.
Then, when both were down to only one Pokémon, it came down to the secret weapons.
On Calem's side, there was Yveltal. A Pokémon worshiped in ancient times as the bringer of death and destruction, currently taking orders from a boy with too much time on his hands. But on Rosa's side, there was a beast of horror that Calem could place more from its broken features than a picture or statue he'd seen.
"You have a man-eating Pokémon on your team?" he whined, and Rosa shrugged.
"You have a literal sky demon," she pointed out. "What's your point?"
Kyurem itself watched Yveltal, obviously curious. Here was a legendary it hadn't seen in a long time.
Yveltal noticed, and immediately tried to be intimidating. "Maaw-haaw!"
Kyurem said nothing. Rosa decided to call the first move.
"Kyurem, Glaciate!"
It was only as the icicles were moving closer that Calem realized exactly what the problem with this situation was. He didn't think that Yveltal would be facing a type disadvantage.
"Oblivion Wing!" he called out in desperation.
And that was the move that, through repeated use, ended up saving Calem from the dreaded 'loss' status.
Rosa wasn't disappointed. "And here I thought you were going to be just like any other strong trainer. I should have expected you to have a legendary."
"Pokedex carriers tend to draw them in, don't we?" He gestured to the Master Ball holding Kyurem as he said it.
"I guess we do." She looked over at Nate. "How many did we meet on our journey, again?"
Nate thought it over. "Kyurem, obviously…Zekrom…all four Musketeers…"
"I just found Keldeo on my Pokedex journey," Hugh complained. "And then it kicked me and ran away instead of letting me catch it."
"Then you should have come with us instead of letting me handle things on my own." Rosa stuck her tongue out at him.
"Does Cresselia count?" Nate asked, not seeming to have heard the conversation. "I only encountered her after you became Champion, and you only met her when I brought her home…"
Diantha and all of the scientists barely managed to suppress laughter at Calem's horrified expression as he realized he could only remember meeting two legendaries. "It looks like you have a lot to talk about," she suggested. "Rosa, do you and your friends have to leave right away?"
"We don't have to," Rosa said, "but we probably should before Colress gets recognized. We're lucky the Mega Evolution Guru didn't shoot him."
"He did use both of the Gym Leader's Lucario friends to keep him out of the Tower," Nate filled in.
"So we'll have another battle in Unova someday." The suggestion was quick, but Calem hadn't studied these people enough. They could still be up to something entirely different. "Professor Juniper's lab. Serena against one of your sidekicks."
"I volunteer," Hugh called before Nate could speak.
"Why would you be coming to Unova?" Nate asked, pretending Hugh hadn't spoken.
"One of our friends went to do Musicals," Serena said, trying to sound like it wasn't a big deal. "And another friend is there just for fun. We can stop by Juniper's lab for a battle on our way to visit."
"Have the professor call me when you get in, then," Rosa said with a big smile, almost like Emma's. Then she pulled Nate along, Hugh and Colress already halfway gone, before shouting her goodbyes and closing the door behind her.
Sycamore leaned against a tree, not noticing that Serena immediately noticed how pretty he was when doing so. "Aurea has her hands full with them, doesn't she?"
Diantha didn't seem quite as concerned. "They seem to be doing all right. I don't see a problem." Like she was playing a clingy girlfriend, she wrapped both her arms around one of his and gave him the most overdone puppy eyes he'd ever seen. "Unless you're thinking about her more than you're thinking about me."
The professor faked innocence. "Careful, Diantha. Someone might report to the magazines that you're desperate to hold on to a drifting love's heart, and those are always the most difficult rumors to clear up."
"Our friends won't report it," she protested, even as she dropped the puppy eyes.
"I might," Serena muttered under her breath.
Calem immediately decided to distract her. "It's been over a week since Sylveon had an accident," he pointed out. "We can get pizza and party with Trevor and Emma. Just the four of us and our Pokémon."
Serena deliberately looked away from Sycamore. "That's a wonderful idea."
It was the best simple party Calem had ever been to. It was the first pizza that Emma had ever had. And it was entirely undeserved, as Sylveon attempted to eat the pizza box once the food inside was gone.
But they were all together, and they were all happy. Someday, the world would need saving again. But they had Emma as backup now, and the three of them would be more than happy to become the Defenders of Kalos whenever they were needed.
As long as they actually got better disguises than just masks and scarves.
