A/N: Greetings all, it's ya boy. 13th chapter, unlucky for some?

So last chapter concluded with the wonderfully insane move from Looker of throwing himself off the top of a forty story skyscraper in pursuit of a member of the Shadow Triad. I do hope he has a plan, don't you? It would be one hell of a surprising end to the fic if he didn't, let's be honest.

Enjoy!

Castelia City had been still and quiet in the morning, a peaceful city, slumbering in the red light of the sunrise. Besides those with an early start to the working day, the people had had no urgent need to do anything, to get up and out into the city centre, and neither had the weather. The water around the piers had been utterly, and not a leaf had stirred on the roads and sidewalks of the tranquil metropolis. Yet now the city was starting to come alive, a steady flow of Castelia denizens along the streets, the hustle and bustle of city life slowly restoring itself, and the weather was picking up too, gusts of wind starting to swirl between the skyscrapers, as high above the city a maze of updrafts and blasts of wind in all directions started to form...

Looker reflected on this in a moment. That morning, he hadn't paid much attention to the weather, but he had recognised the unearthly stillness that had enveloped Castelia, and now the changes were obvious. A light breeze had arrived and was slowly but steadily building up in speed and strength, gaining power by the minute, buffeting him harder and harder. Well, obviously some of the hard wind was his air resistance as he fell, and the wind wasn't really that strong, but it was strong enough to start to affect the direction in which he fell at least.

Commuting citizens had looked up in wonder and slight worry when the Shadow started to swing between buildings by using Looker's grappling hook. After all, on a normal trip around the city where they lived, they never normally looked up to see an agile ninja flying from rooftop to rooftop by swinging off of one of the tallest skyscrapers. Now though, they saw something else instead- now, they saw Looker, throwing himself off the top of the building in a reckless, thoughtless gesture, a futile attempt to pursuit. People screamed as they looked up, backing away from his path as he fell feet-first, trying to clear out of the area which he would inevitably land in with a horrible splat. As far as they saw it, his jump was suicide.

Looker's coat billowed behind him as he plunged towards the earth in a pencil dive, slowing his rapid descent just a little by acting as a makeshift parachute. It wasn't enough though- he was still falling towards the ground without a way to stop himself. Or so the people on the ground thought. But Looker had a plan…

Slowly, his fist unclenched to reveal the black device with the little red button in the palm of his hand, and as he began to twist the dial on the device, the bottom of the backpack he was wearing began to spit fire, somehow managing to not set his coat alight as the thrust it provided slowly began to arrest his momentum and prevent him slamming into the nearing ground. He looked up towards where he'd last seen the Shadow and spotted the ninja in the distance, whose swinging had brought himself up to the tallest crane in the city, trying to flee.

"Not on my watch," Looker muttered to himself above the howling gusts, ready to act, spurred into action not just by that sight but by the sight of the rapidly-approaching ground. "Now!"

As Looker slammed the red button in with a finger, the International Police's finest gadget, the jetpack-hidden-in-a-backpack, began to fire full thrust, completely stopping Looker's downward momentum in a second before beginning to kick in and bear him upwards on a pillar of flame. Looker had missed the jetpack- he hadn't used any Police gadgets since the whole affair with Team Galactic- and now he remembered what he'd been missing, what fun he'd had. No rudders, no brakes, just one button to ignite the burners, and twisting your whole body to steer, flying on your instinct. This was what he signed up for!

He tilted himself one way, then the other, flying through the cityscape, swooping around skyscrapers with grace. He twisted a pirouette as he reached the apex of a particularly strong updraft and feathered the controls, hanging for a moment, completely still except for his fluttering coat, high atop the world. Castelia stretched beneath him like a sprawling hive of human activity, and with the clear sky he could see right across the city to each horizon, into the bay that stretched beneath Castelia and around towards Driftveil. And now he acted against the Shadow.

Standing in the actual structure of the crane's boom, Team Plasma's pet ninja had retrieved the grappling hook he'd stolen from Looker, and was setting the wire up to swing off of the crane and onto a large banking tower when he heard the faint whine of a machine, something that he shouldn't have been able to hear at this height. Without turning, the ninja's hands flew to his belt on instinct, and two razor-sharp shuriken whizzed through the air, and the ninja turned to see what he had hit...

To see Looker bearing down on him, the sky ablaze behind him. As the shuriken flew with deadly intentions towards him, Looker twisted himself into a barrel roll to the right, avoiding the spinning blades, before cutting out the burners on the jetpack to fall the short distance onto the crane, dropping through into the boom to kick the Shadow in the chest. The ninja didn't seem that affected by the kick, sent reeling a little, but even as he stumbled he was able to regain his balance, and he was straight back up to face down Looker.

Looker stumbled a little on impact, having not used the jetpack like that in a while, but he recovered and shook his head, exasperated, as he moved forward. The crane's boom was made of interlocking metal girders, with huge sections of empty space, yet even when losing his balance the agile ninja didn't plummet through a gap to his death, instead finding a beam to balance on. "You Team Plasma lot just don't ever give up, do you?"

The Shadow grinned manically. "Ah-ha! Neither do you, Looker! I must say, I wasn't counting on you finding your wings. I thought you were a goner..."

"Good old International Police inventions," Looker said, still advancing. "They work when you need them the most." Then he looked. "However, they do appear to have let Team Plasma down..."

The ninja turned and noticed what Looker had seen- when Looker had kicked the ninja, the handle of the grappling hook had been thrown off the side of the crane, and was now dangling in the air carelessly. The Shadow's swing plan was now out of the window. "Oh, damn you Looker!"

Looker was about to reply with something witty, but instead he had to frantically duck as the Shadow launched into a midair roundhouse kick, and he avoided the kick by a millimetre. As he stumbled back though, trying to regain his footing on the slightly slippery bars, the Shadow lunged forward, keeping balance perfectly as fists span and kicks shot out, attempting to knock Looker from the crane. Looker noted how the ninja fought, like a machine, with patterns and rhythms- obviously Team Plasma trained him well with all the old, predictable moves- and he managed to combat most of them. One surprise kick caught him in the stomach though, and the winded Looker staggered backwards in pain, his foot completely missing the bar as he fell through...

The Shadow walked over to where Looker had fallen through, and peered down into the gap. "That was close, wasn't it Looker?" he asked, almost cheerfully.

Looker grimaced in pain as he held onto the girder above him for dear life, clutching on fiercely with one hand. His legs dangled freely though below him, the hustle and bustle of the city a long, long way down. "I don't suppose a hand up would be alright?"

The Shadow laughed, as Looker's one hand on the crane began to slip a little. "I think not Looker!" He pulled his short sword- a wicked looking thing similar to a machete- from his belt and raised it, as Looker's fingers started to scrabble vainly at the girder, as he started to lose his grip. "Goodbye Looker!"

Looker hissed though, and as the sword started to come down he let go...

And pressed the button on the controller grasped in his other hand. The burners of the jetpack instantly ignited, and rather than falling Looker shot up like a champagne cork, through the gap in the crane. Taking the Shadow by surprise, he took the advantage and wrenched the sword from the ninja's grasp, before landing on the very top of the crane's boom. "Nice try."

The Shadow pulled himself up onto the top too to face off with Looker, his face suddenly unhappy. "It's not nice to steal."

"It's not nice to try to throw me off a crane," Looker reasoned.

"Touché," the Shadow replied, but suddenly he was ignoring Looker; suddenly he twisted and, from a standing start, launched into a front flip that brought two legs kicking up into the air, slamming into Looker's chin. The sword was wrenched from Looker's grasp, fortunately falling over the side of the crane and out of the Shadow's reach, but Looker hit the deck hard, the back of his head crunching against the metal of the crane as he fell backwards.

The Shadow smiled as he leaped over Looker, and wordlessly sprinted along the entire length of the crane's boom. Looker thought he was being reckless, but in actual fact the Shadow had given himself enough momentum to soar through the air and land on another, shorter crane, rolling a little as he impacted against the boom's roof.

"How does he do that?" Looker asked himself, groaning in pain and marvelling at the ninja's strength and lack of injury, but he didn't stay still for long. The jetpack's rockets kicked in again as Looker rose into the air, slowly this time, hovering for a little bit before gradually moving towards the other crane, setting himself down gently on the top. But that grace didn't last for long...

Looker whirled as the ninja appeared behind him suddenly, and swung blows at him with his elbows, his knees and anything else he could use. Looker knew the predictable moves, from experience, and he knew the Shadow would too, so by being unpredictable he would hold out well against his enemy.

He allowed himself a little smirk as a headbutt struck the ninja in the mouth, a tooth flying off into the sky, but the Shadow got a grip. He quickly dodged Looker's next moves and started smoothly somersaulting backwards along the boom, his hands sliding towards his belt. Looker saw this, saw the shuriken on the belt, and reached for his own pockets rapidly...

As the Shadow entered mid-jump, Looker raised yet another invention of the Police to his mouth, and blew quickly on the panpipe gun. The one shot it offered hit the young man in the shoulder, but he couldn't prevent the shuriken in the left hand from wheeling dangerously through the air and finding its mark...

The Shadow smiled as the fuel pipe on Looker's jetpack was severed, the liquid that gave Looker the power of flight sprayed across the boom. "Well, there go your flight plans, Detective. Whereas I am on the next departure..." He massaged his shoulder very briefly, seeming completely unscathed by the tiny bullet of the gadget Looker had fired at him, and threw himself off the side of the boom into empty space. "Cheerio!"

Looker knew he was on borrowed time with the jetpack. It was running on half a tank, as he hadn't refuelled it at all in weeks, having not used it since Galactic, but it made him angry that he couldn't fly. As he looked over the side though he realised that the Shadow could- what he'd mistaken for tattered fabric hanging from the black jumpsuit actually formed part of the wings of an Emolga suit. He'd only heard of them a week ago from Reece, but they used fabric as wings, and basically turned the wearer into a flying squirrel, able to glide effortlessly for short periods of time. Unless he did something, the Shadow would use the Emolga suit to fly away to freedom...

He sighed to himself, and leapt off the crane into the void in pursuit.

This time, as the wind whipped past Looker, as he plunged towards Earth slowed only by the air resistance of his coat, he felt quite worried, almost afraid. This time, he wasn't as high up, but he didn't have anything to launch himself back in the air and save his life. This time he really was going to go splat on the sidewalks of Castelia, unless he thought of something quickly...

As luck would have it, Looker's billowing coat itself was providing him with a semi-useful solution to his problem. By grabbing the corners of it and lifting them up under his arms, he could give himself half-wings of fabric, able to control the direction of his rapid descent. It wasn't an Emolga suit, but, as Looker rolled to avoid a wild Swanna flying past, he realised it was better than death. And so, using the wind, his coat and his already high speed, Looker somewhat unsteadily began to exercise the bare minimum of control over his fall as he soared through the concrete and glass jungle in pursuit of the Shadow. The inhabitants of Castelia looked up in wonder from the streets as the two flying men streaked past overhead, weaving a pathway between towers and around block corners.

The one thing Looker didn't want was a dogfight, as in his position holding onto his coat corners he couldn't access any weapons, and couldn't dodge as well as the Shadow. Unfortunately for him though as the Shadow rolled gracefully in midair, speeding around a corner on a fresh burst of wind, he spotted Looker, and his expression hardened, angered at the revelation that Looker had come up with a way to give chase. Twisting onto his back, not looking where he was flying or what obstacles would appear, the ninja managed to fire off two shuriken at Looker.

"Where does he get all of those from?" Looker muttered, doing a barrel roll to avoid the spinning blades, but suddenly his vision was blurred with a cloud of thick black fog. Choking, he powered through the smoke from the smoke bomb the Shadow had set off, and fell into the trap- while the Shadow had dived down, Looker was out of control, and about to plough headfirst into the windows of a skyscraper. Barely any time to react, Looker stretched his arms out and closed his eyes, preparing for impact…

To his surprise, two sets of claws suddenly slammed into him, fortunately not piercing the skin as powerful wings above him beat their heart out to compensate for catching Looker mid-flight. He looked up from the clutch of the talons, stunned, before he realised what it was that had caught him. "Braviary?!"

"Croa gunk!"

Looker smiled as he looked up the back of Hilda's Braviary to see his reliable companion and partner Croagunk, perched precariously on the head of the Valiant Pokemon, piloting him through the blocks of Castelia. The Police had obviously seen Looker's jetpack flames, and had sprung into action- while Braviary and Croagunk had been sent to rescue him as his jetpack and makeshift wings failed, a Police helicopter buzzed above the city, and Looker could spot Tash at its helm, looking worried. As he looked up, there was an almighty roar, and something shot past on a pillar of billowing flame- Looker could just about make out Hilda, face determined, holding onto Reshiram for dear life.

"Great work buddy," he said softly, as Braviary flapped over to a smaller building nearby and set the Detective down on its roof. Slightly giddy, his legs nearly gave out, but as Braviary landed Looker pulled himself up onto its back alongside Croagunk.

Croagunk actually smiled, and saluted, handing Looker a radio which he'd somehow stored in the feathers of Hilda's Pokemon. Looker, not questioning it, looked up, assessed the scene, and planned. He knew what to do NOW.

"All Police units, this is Detective Looker," he announced, as Braviary lifted off again. "I am alive and well, but I'm not going to be happy if that Shadow gets away. He's headed into the centre of the city; all ground units, track him over your heads, and follow him. I'm going in!"

Looker switched off the radio before he looked down. Down below him, in the exact centre of the metropolis, was a stark contrast to the maze of metal, glass and concrete- a large garden/park, with plenty of greenery and trees. It was a pleasant area, built at the intersection of every road in the city, and down those roads Looker could spot Policemen approaching the park, led by Alder and apparently, the new detective Danny. With a large flowing fountain in the middle and lush green grass all around, the park was acclaimed as the most beautiful spot in the city. This was Central Plaza. And this was where the Shadow would make his last stand...

The ninja was already on the ground as Braviary dived, lining up for a final approach- he appeared to be fiddling with something. He was bent over, handing something over, and as Braviary landed with a thump he started to turn, a Pidove revealed from behind him, something attached to its leg. The Pidove flew off as the Shadow looked up at the magnificent Braviary, but his faint smile turned into a snarl as Looker leapt off. "You!"

"I just don't die, do I?" Looker said happily, aware his voice was a little ragged. "Good idea, but Braviary and Croagunk came to back me up."

"This is beyond a joke now, Looker," the Shadow seethed. "How can you survive and have so much luck?"

"Because we're the good guys," Alder said, walking up to stand beside Looker with a nod. "The good guys will always win. No matter how naïve that may sound, we always overcome."

As the Shadow shook his head and started to form a reply, Looker interrupted, as he stepped forward. "That was a messenger Pidove, I take it?"

"Indeed," the Shadow nodded, walking backwards as Looker approached. "Getting the one vital thing to the person who wants it."

"One of your Sages, I assume? My guess is Giallo, or Rood. Not that it matters. I'm still arresting you here and now."

"Ha!" The ninja laughed, some of his confidence returning as he drew a thin, curved sword from behind his back. Looker hadn't noticed that before. "You'll never take me alive! Come on! Fight me!" And as Looker opened his mouth to reply, the ninja yelled something unintelligible, before charging at him, the sword raised in mid-air...

There was a blur from one of the bushes, and a black shadow sneaked across in front of the sprinting Shadow, a trailing leg stuck out to trip him up. The ninja's momentum carried him over the leg, stumbling forward, before the figure span on the spot to ram home a knee to the stomach of the ninja...

As the ninja hissed in pain, his assailant stood back, and walked casually to stand by Alder's side. The man looked almost vampiric, with very pale skin and upper-class clothes, but there was a hint of shabbiness about them. There was nothing shabby about his long black fringe, or the twin peaks of black hair sticking up into the air like devil horns, but there was a tiredness and a sense of boredom in those deep eyes...

Grimsley of the Elite Four flicked his scarf back over his shoulder, dusting himself off. "I don't think you'll be hurting anyone with that sword," he drawled, a lazy, arrogant voice, as he twirled a Pokeball between his fingers. "Will he Caitlin?"

"No he won't," a low female voice said, sounding almost hollow. A sleepy-looking young girl with very long blonde hair, trailing like a carpet, had emerged from behind a tree, dressed all in pink, her eyes glowing blue as blue Psychic energy crackled around the sword the Shadow held, wrenching it from his grasp and sending it spinning into the trees.

As Caitlin emerged from behind a tree, another woman emerged behind the fountain, an array of impressive Ghost-type Pokemon flanking her and cutting off the Shadow's exits behind. Dressed in a short purple dress and tights, clutching a book, she didn't appear at first to be battle-ready, but beneath the purple hair, brown eyes stared intently at the ninja from behind thin glasses, watching his every move, checking him out as an opponent. Shauntal wouldn't let him get away…

And neither would the final arrival. As the Shadow overcame Caitlin's Psychic push and struggled to his feet, two strong, big, muscly arms lifted the ninja into the air and threw him across the Plaza into the side of the fountain. The orange and black hair of the newcomer contrasted with his brown skin, hardened by many a fight, and muscles rippled along his body, while his baggy pants billowed in the breeze. His eyes were surprisingly deep and determined, and he had massive paw-like fists, bigger than Bastian's, a black belt around his waist also indicating that he was a brute of a man.

Marshal laughed at the ninja, whose defined muscles looked small and pathetic besides the Elite Four Trainer, as the Shadow pulled himself upright against the fountain, the Elite Four, Alder and Looker all closing in on him as the Police cut off his avenues of escape. "Wow," he said in a deep voice, "you're pretty screwed here, boy."

The Shadow spat defiantly on the floor. "Boy?" he sneered, any sense of joviality gone; there was only anger and arrogance, the obviousness that he had lost his cool. "You cannot defeat me! All of you, standing together, will not defeat the might of Team Plasma!"

"Sounds a bit like desperation to me," Grimsley muttered.

Looker nodded. "Now, as I see it, Shadow, you have only three options. You can't run, because there's no exit. You could surrender, right here, right now, and end this. Or you could make it difficult, but we would destroy you in a Pokemon battle, with the five..." he paused as Hilda and Reshiram landed with a bump behind him, "make that six, strongest Trainers in Unova. And I wouldn't count on you winning a fight either..."

"Oh really?" the Shadow said, laughing suddenly. "I'll take you all on!" His hand went to his belt and paused. "Wait..."

"Looking for these?" Caitlin asked, voice low, as her Psychic powers levitated the Pokeballs she'd stolen from the Shadow in the air in front of her.

"Not bad," said Grimsley. "You're almost as sly as me sometimes, Caitlin."

"Don't go that far, Grimsley," Shauntal warned, not looking away from the Shadow.

The Shadow growled. "Then I have no choice..." He screwed up his eyes, and disappeared from existence...

To reappear in the water of the fountain a foot behind him, screaming in pain from the many bleeding cuts on his body.

"What's up with him?" Alder asked. "Did he just try to teleport?"

Looker nodded. "He did. But he can't teleport. The Triad need all three members in a triangle to successfully teleport- without them, he takes up the strain of ripping reality apart all by himself. And he can't do that. It's ripping him apart."

The Shadow snarled again, pulling himself up to the top of the ornamental fountain by willpower alone, the water flowing red, stained by his blood. "What is this pain?!"

"This is why you don't run from us," Looker said, matter-of-factly, walking up to the edge of the fountain. "It never ends well. And that's why you don't try and teleport- we put your brothers in a coma. They won't wake up for a while..."

The Shadow wiped something away from the corner of his eye, and wrenched his last two shuriken from his belt, spinning them in his hands. "No! I will not be beaten! I will succeed, for Lord Ghetsis!"

"No you won't."

The Shadow turned behind him and threw the two shuriken at the speaker. "YES. I. WILL!"

Reece jumped to the floor and rolled out of the shuriken's flight path, before standing up and dusting himself off, an open Pokeball in his hand. "No you won't. Because you're about to find out what we did to your brothers."

Too late, the weary Shadow, exhausted and battered and bruised and torn from the fight, realised that something was wrong. Too late did he realise that a shadow was falling across him, that he couldn't dodge it. Finally, after a lengthy and drawn-out pursuit and fight, the ninja would be taken down, the same way the other two had fallen in the Relic Castle; Reece's Metagross, levitating unseen above the fountain, cut its levitation to drop from on high and catch a blow to the side of the Shadow's head, the force of the five-hundred-pound falling Metagross enough to severely concuss him and knock him out, if not put him in a coma.

As Metagross landed with a thump and a splash in the fountain, Looker reached down into the spray and the water and fished out the body of the ninja, sodden and bedraggled, bloody cuts covering his skin. He slapped a pair of handcuffs to the Shadow's wrists, not taking any chances, and hauled the unconscious prisoner to his feet, wordlessly hauling him off in the direction of Police HQ as Croagunk hopped onto Looker's shoulder. Alder and co followed him, walking behind, asking why he wouldn't let them take care of it, but Looker was determined to deliver the Shadow to Aurelius himself. He had fought for it, he had nearly died for it, but he had beaten the Shadow. And now he would be the one to drag him in, to bring him in...

A/N: Well, there we are. I hope you enjoyed. We all knew Looker wasn't going to die, didn't we? At least, I hope you didn't think I'd kill him off like that. I couldn't do that to one of my favourites.

Next chapter- time to take to the streets to clean up this mess!

Thanks for reading! A review is always appreciated, whether constructive or glowing with praise (just no flames, yo). And I always love a favourite or follow, whether of myself or my work.

Until next time, ya boy, out.