Before reading, please note I have done some retconning: the date of the prologue is officially 2008 now, and Arthur Reynolds has not fully retired as stated in Interlude One. Enjoy

Interlude Four: Two Sides of the Same Coin

Wreckage lay all around, and Buzz Bolton was not impressed.

He stared at the ruined pieces of the Golem Bot, from the large metal chunks that made up the segmented body to an arm that still appeared to be sizzling slightly. Several men were gathering the pieces onto trolleys and burning them, and would then take the ashes back to Silph Co. with them and store them away at the very back of their storage facilities, preferably inside something else so they would never be found. If the two robots were linked back to Buzz, than the show would be ruined and the plan he had been forming for the past five years would go up in smoke.

Buzz was walking in silence, a calm expression on his face even though his hands were balled up by his sides. Only a few feet away stood Amanda Anderson, who was almost shaking in nervousness. She appeared to be trying to keep her cool, with her hair tied back and nicely dressed as always, but her thin lips were quivering slightly and her eyes were constantly twitching. Anyone watching this scene would think she was overreacting, as Buzz appeared calm and relaxed, no visible signs of violence.

"Cro Cro Cro," a sudden screech sounded, and Buzz paused and looked calmly up as a purple Crobat came flying down from the darkness. Portable lamps were lighting the clean up mission, and Crobat was soon perfectly visible, all four wings flapping furiously to keep him afloat.

"Yes?" Buzz asked pleasantly, and Amanda began to shake more, getting more nervous. The Crobat shook his head, and Buzz nodded. "Very well then," he said and turned towards Amanda. His demeanour changed as if a flip had been switched: his face twisted in rage and he marched forwards on the unstable ground and slapped the producer on the cheek, causing her to scream and collapse to the ground. "HOW COULD YOU HAVE BEEN SO FOOLISH?" He hissed, no longer keeping his rage under control as no one else was around. Amanda was sobbing pathetically, clutching her face and trying to avoid his glare.

"I am sorry… I didn't expect that happen, none of us did!" She cried, but Buzz angrily lashed out again, kicking small stones and dust towards her.

"Not good enough, and don't try and drag me down with you!" He hissed. "We were meant to be tracking her, she should never had gone into that tunnel. And you were the one who thought the Moon Stone Challenge would be a good idea!" Amanda continued to sob, and Buzz looked away in disgust. The men clearing away Golem had been watching in shock but quickly made out to be working busily. Buzz did not usually get angry, but lately he was being pushed to his limits, unable to control his rage as his perfectly laid out plan began to be crushed.

"What do our stars think of what happened?" He asked, and Amanda managed to control her sobbing, wiping away tears but remained on the floor.

"They were shocked at first, but they are easily distracted. Lachlan captured a Geodude and Chloe a Clefairy, and then we did another challenge we was easy enough to take their minds off things," Amanda said in her usual brisk manner, but than she paused for too long and Buzz turned back around, giving her a quizzical glare. "Well… Chloe and Lachlan seem to have forgotten, but I am not sure about Damian…"

"DAMNIT! Just what we need!" Buzz hissed, kicking out at some rocks. "I knew he was too smart and intuitive when we selected him. When couldn't we have gotten three bimbos and stuck them together?"

"The test audiences didn't respond to the idea – they said there are already enough morons on our channel to deal with," Amanda replied, sounding as if she had a cold. Buzz looked down at her, their eyes meeting for several moments, and than they both began to laugh. Their laughter slowly increased, echoing around the cave and startling the cleaning men. Their laughter was not full of joy though: Amanda's sounded almost robotic, while Buzz's was deep and cruel. He collapsed down next to her and clutched her hands in his tightly, still laughing though his eyes stayed blank.

"Ah… we have certainly produced a lot of crap over these past few years, haven't we?" He said with a sigh, and Amanda nodded, the violence moments before fading from memory. "But it was all worth it, wasn't it? We wouldn't be here today if we hadn't made all those shows, and we wouldn't be one step closer to getting revenge." Amanda simply nodded along, her eyes still showing her nervousness, fearful that Buzz might erupt again at any moment. But the fit, tanned man leaned forwards and kissed her on her lips, both wearing an expression that seemed to resemble someone doing something entirely unpleasant, little passion coming from them.

"Make sure there are no more stuff ups," Buzz growled as he backed away, and Amanda nodded obediently.

"I don't think she will be coming back near us, she seemed very revolted by the Clefairy's deaths," she said, and Buzz nodded as he got to his feet.

"Stay here and watch over the men, then return to the stars and get them to Cerulean City," he commanded without looking at her. "I will burn the tapes with Alaska in them. Whatever views she posts on that blog will be made redundant due to lack of any actual evidence. And if that bitch comes near you in Cerulean, than tie cement blocks to her feet and throw her in the lake. I don't want to hear her name ever again." Amanda nodded and got back to her feet, putting the slap behind her. Buzz walked slowly away with Crobat fluttering above him, not saying goodbye to Amanda or the cleaning men. He would return to Saffron City, he would wait for the stars to venture further onwards, and nothing else would interrupt their plans for this.

In a few weeks, the reality stars would arrive at the Indigo League, one of them will get Buzz and Amanda to the Champion's Stadium, and than they will kill Red and get their revenge five years in the making.

The only thing that could stop them now was Alaska.

Senior Inspector Arthur Reynolds was not in the mood.

It was the eve of his retirement, the end of thirty six years of service. A big party was being planned in his honour, and he heard rumours of a special gift coming his way. Arthur was not one for parties, and was simply looking forward to his career ending. He was done with seeing dead bodies and weeping family members, tired of going to court and recount the grizzly details of the many crimes he had seen. Arthur just wanted to go home with his loyal Arcanine, who was getting on his last legs since he had gotten him as a Growlithe twenty eight years ago, and read for the rest of his days and put the bad memories aside.

Unfortunately, one last grizzly crime had come up.

Arthur had been back to the Chrono Island area since that faithful day in 2008, but he had never experienced a crime as large as the one on September 7th: the explosion that had caused a forest fire and cleared an entire area. Arthur Reynolds had temporarily retired due to his frustration over the case, but he had returned afterwards to find the case had been closed. They had never worked out who or what had caused the explosion, and the area had been turned into new housing to help with the number of people arriving at Sevii. It still annoyed Arthur that it had never been solved, and to return here was just a punch in the guts so near the end of his career.

There were no blazes here today. A serial killer seemed to be striking the area, using powerful blasts of energy to leave many people from the housing estates, ranging from two six year old boys to a woman in her late seventies, found dead amongst her groceries. A Pokemon was suspected of the attacks, but Arthur had learnt one thing about Pokemon during his time as an officer: though some could be savage, they never harmed humans as severely as this. And Arthur had reviewed some of the autopsy photos on the boat ride here, and the amount of energy used would have had to be have been specially built up, the Pokemon trained to murder.

The latest woman was a father, the right side of his chest found two metres away from his body. As Arthur stepped unwillingly towards the crime scene, he could see a trio of young, handsome cops were keeping the curious and scared residents away from the scene. Givethemafewyearstheywon'tlooksoprettythen, Arthur thought grouchily as the yellow tape was lifted and he moved forwards.

"What seems to be the case – same as the others?" Arthur called out to the group around the body. Two detectives in their mid forties and the head photographer were there, and looked stunned to see Arthur.

"Who was the fool that sent you here on your last night?" The photographer, Toby, said, and Arthur merely shrugged.

"I don't mind: I'll be dumping this case to whoever is the last person standing by the door on my way out tomorrow," he replied, and the three laughed. "I might as well put some of my experience to good use to get this going. Not going to be too useful when I'm at home watching the soaps."

"You could always write a novel," one of the officers, Jack, said, and Arthur chuckled as he moved forwards. Seeing dead bodies was not a highlight of the job, but Arthur would miss his friends and the bonding experience that being a cop was. Arthur reflected on this as the cameras bulb flashed, illuminating the grizzly remains of the body. These murders were senseless and unnecessary, and Arthur was once again pleased to be leaving all the unnecessary deaths behind.

"So, ready to sprinkle some knowledge on this scene?" The other cop, Nathan, asked with a slight sense of joke in his voice. Arthur nodded and began to walk around, sliding gloves on to not incriminate anything and keeping his eyes peeled for anything. There were footsteps around and he made sure not to step on them in case they were connected to the killer. There were no visible signs of anything that could be connected to it, and the body did not appear to have been involved in a struggle from the surprised look on his face. Whoever had ordered the blast was fast and knew what they were doing, and had killed an innocent man for no apparent reason. Arthur was getting annoyed, déjà vu washing over him, staring around a serious crime scene but nothing to give him any hints…

That was when it struck him.

"This was where that building explosion was, wasn't it?" Arthur called out, and turned to see Jack and Nathan nodding. Arthur felt satisfied but at the same time harbouring dark emotions about what had happened here. He could recognise the sea view he had seen all the times he had come back here, hoping to find new evidence. These two cases must be connected somehow… it was unlikely, but Arthur had a feeling.

"The serial killer may be connected to the explosion," Arthur said, turning back towards his colleagues. "The warehouse was right around where I am currently standing. This could be some sort of revenge possibly…" He paused as he saw the looks his fellow cops exchanged, and Arthur's brows narrowed. "What is that look for?" Jack and Nathan seemed nervous and didn't want to come forwards, but Toby suddenly got to his feet and stepped forwards.

"Arthur, we all know you're retiring with a near perfect record," the photographer began, "and we know that not solving that explosion case was a real pain to you. But you can't just try and solve it now when you're finishing in less than twenty four hours!" Arthur was angry, and he suddenly swung a fist that narrowly missed. Jack and Nathan run forwards as Toby stepped backwards, none of them ever seeing Arthur look this mad.

"HOW DARE YOU!" He roared, his fists clenched up as the scene fell silent, all eyes turning towards them. Arthur had not been this angry for years, and knew leaving on a sour note would not look good, but he didn't care. The explosion had ruined an otherwise spotless career and nearly destroyed his life as he tried to find clues out of nowhere, tried endlessly to find answers from ash and rubble. But he had never tried to rashly connect that case to another, simply to calm his own mind.

"ANSWER ME! HOW DARE YOU ACCUSE ME OF SOMETHING SO AWFUL!" Arthur shouted, stamping his foot against the ground. "I AM A GOOD COP! I KNOW WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT! I AM NOT SOME OLD MAN TRYING TO MAKE MYSELF LOOK GOOD! IF YOU JUST LISTENED TO ME, THAN –,"

"Arthur," Jack said.

"SHUT IT!" Arthur roared back and stomped his foot again, not wishing to be interrupted. But as he stomped it a third time, the aging detective heard what was causing everyone to stare at the ground: a hollow thud, the kind you got when you knocked your hand against a wall with nothing behind it. Arthur stomped thrice more, and the echo occurred thrice more. He had surveyed this ground for years and had never found any traces of anything being underneath.

"Men, grab your guns!" Arthur commanded, putting his temper aside. The young officers ran forwards with powerful assault weapons, and Arthur pulled his own hand gun out. Jack and Nathan were in charge and moved around, leading the others as they kept stamping lightly, trying to find any clues. It didn't take long to see the ground shaking slightly in one area, and the men quickly advanced. Arthur could see on closer inspection that there was a slight gap around a square of earth, the grass on it looking different to that around. One of the officers grabbed the grass and heaved, pulling away to reveal a metal door in the ground.

"On my count," Jack whispered. In Arthur's day they would plan for hours how to do things properly and would storm a place with half the amount of weapons the men had today. But as Nathan quickly called for back up, Arthur could see that if they left now, whoever was in whatever was beneath could get away, and Arthur was looking forward to catching the criminal to outsmart him the longest.

"One… two… three… GO!" Jack shouted, and the trap door was heaved upwards. Guns were pointed down, but nobody appeared to be there. "POLICE, COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP!" Jack roared. Arthur leant in closer to have a look, and they all got excited when they saw a figure move.

Finallyafteralltheseyears, Arthur thought, leaning in as the figure came closer, guns pointed towards it … finallyIcancatchthisbastard!The figure began ascending, the moon hidden behind clouds and the person remained in darkness. They were all pointing their weapons at him, ready to take him in, but no one expected what happened next.

The figure froze halfway up the stairs, and suddenly a silver ball rose up into the air. Everyone froze, staring at this device as if it had just fallen from space. But as they stared at it, rainbow lights flashed around it, and Arthur knew it wasn't good.

"RUN!" He cried and leapt backwards, just as the ball exploded. A white wave poured out of the device, stretching out across the field, the body, the entire crime scene including those watching. Arthur could feel it over him, touching his body, and shivered as it soaked silently over him. The detective had never seen anything like this before, and wondered if he could even retire after this…

"So, you're the famous Arthur Reynolds, aren't you?"

The voice sent disgust through Arthur's body, but he couldn't help but turn to face who had said it. A man was standing over him, with black hair and a tatty white coat that had not been cleaned in years. This man had a foul look on his face, and was staring down at Arthur as if he was the last man he wanted to see.

"Who are you?" Arthur asked as he frantically stared around. All the men seemed to be disorientated, and looking back at the crowds they all seemed to be stumbling around a bit as well. The man didn't respond, simply raising a black PokeBall up and pointing it towards Arthur.

"You've ruined things for me, just like how you nearly ruined them with your investigation," he hissed, and Arthur tried to back away but the scientist stepped down onto his bad right knee, making Arthur scream. "You are not going to hide from me. In fact, your not leaving this position ever again."

"Are you going to kill me?" Arthur asked weakly, feeling all his courage from years as a police officer disappearing.

"Yes, I am going to kill you, and I am going to kill every officer here," the man said. "All the people over there will remember is the cop who got angry shooting the others with a powerful rifle before blowing his own head off. What a pitiful way to end such a glorious career." The man smiled, laughter rising up. Arthur began to scream for help, fear consuming his body, and could only watch as the PokeBall opened up. A Pokemon unfamiliar to him appeared, and Arthur screamed at its sickening demented body as it absorbed energy together.

The last thing Arthur thought was the irony of being killed now, before the Hyper Beam was released and all he could see was white.

Look out for the next Interlude where what has happened in this one will be explained more. However, next time we begin the Cerulean City Arc.