POKÉMON: CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS
#29: Kaine Confrontation, Part 1
The smoke rose higher and higher into the sky in an ominous pillar of black. The Rogue was struck beyond words, beyond feeling; his plan of stealing the main loudspeaker microphone and amplifying the Plateau's PA system was rendered useless instantly. It had finally happened. In the past, with his confrontations with Verdus, the scale of what was at stake was so small and insignificant compared to this. Now, at a time when he was needed the most, when the stakes were at their absolute highest, when so many had depended on him, the greatest detective in Kanto had failed.
Who knows how many people and Pokémon had been in that Coliseum . . . . . . ?
The old man used his free hand to wipe away the disguise makeup and plastic prosthetics on his face. When that was done, he unzipped the front of his uniform, stepping out of it and revealing a thick, black leather vest and two ammunition magazines strapped across his torso (instead of bullets, they were loaded with PokéBalls that were painted over with explosive warning markings). Without the makeup and posture that went with the disguise, he was tall, bald and muscular, with a devilishly handsome face and a well-trimmed, intricately shaved goatee. His smile looked almost exactly the way the Rogue pictured it would—not arrogant, not superior, not even particularly confident. Instead, it was malevolent, sadistic, as if he had achieved arousal at the hundreds of lives that had been lost at the touch of a button.
"Well, then," Kaine said with his cold, yet deadly voice as he lowered the arm holding the remote, "Now that I have your attention, I'd like to express my utmost gratitude that you've arrived. I've been waiting for this moment for quite a while, Detective, and I daresay, you did not disappoint."
The Rogue stood back up and stared back at his finally-revealed adversary, his Golbat growling with vicious contempt next to him. The detective fought his speechlessness and asked the only question that would sum up his feelings, his rage, and his incredulous fright, ". . . . . Who are you . . . . ?"
Kaine simply grinned, "Why, I am your better, of course!" He then took a PokéBall, the only normal-looking one of the set, from one of the straps on his shoulders with his free hand, "And I intend to prove it today. You and I shall battle, here and now, and after I win, I will watch you burn."
The Rogue felt his rage push forward exponentially, leaving his fright and awe behind, "Why?! Why are you doing this?! Why do you want to defeat me so badly?! Why are you threatening so many innocent lives just to get to me!?"
"Ah-ah-ahhh! Watch that temper, Detective!" Kaine continued his psychotic grin and held up the remote once again, "Wouldn't want another two-hundred some-odd people and Pokémon to pay for your mistakes. Again!"
Golbat hissed beside the Rogue, but did not move. "Well, I'm here," the Rogue said defiantly, "You've finally gotten me right where you want me. You forced me into becoming a Trainer again, and you've pushed me into the finals of this tournament. I am at your mercy. But if you wanted to battle me, you could've challenged me at any time. And if you really wanted to kill me, you would've done it easily a month ago. If you're gonna do one or the other, then do it, but there's no need to hold innocent lives in the balance any further."
Kaine laughed, his laughter surprisingly (and disturbingly) high-pitched for a man of his size and vocal pitch. "You fool!" he chuckled, "All this time, and you haven't figured it out yet! Surely you must realize by now that two things will happen before this day is over. One: you and hundreds of living beings will die. Two: before your demise, good Detective, you will lose to me in battle! Before you burn down to nothing, you will have the privilege of knowing you were outwitted, outmaneuvered, and outmatched in every way, in the grandest way! It will, indeed, make your death that much more gratifying!" He laughed again, the pitch of it sending ripples of fear across the Rogue's skin.
"You bastard!" the Rogue bellowed, "You sick, depraved, freak! If you were strong enough to beat me, you wouldn't be holding an entire building complex hostage like the slimy coward you are! If you're really man enough, you either battle me fair and square or kill me where I stand! Either way, you don't need leverage! Now let them go!"
Kaine did not answer with words. Rather, he held out the remote and pushed another button. At once, the area to the Rogue's right, outside the stadium, went up in a fiery explosion just like the Western Coliseum. The noise and lights were much closer, and this time, bits of brick showered down into the battlefield. The Rogue saw the explosion, and his heart froze once again; he'd lost control, and now another two-hundred beings had paid the price.
"You forget your place, Detective," Kaine growled, his sadistically aroused grin now reshaped by the arrogance and superiority missing from it before, "You seem to be forgetting who is in control here. There will be no more questions. There will be no more stalling. There will be no more probing for my motives. You will battle me, now, and you will lose, now. If you continue to defy me, I will destroy the Plateau's main building, where even more people and Pokémon are residing, not to mention your little . . . ." he paused for a more fearsome effect, 'client'."
The Rogue's eyes widened—he had kidnapped Stacy after all. Slowly taking a PokéBall from his belt, the Rogue leaned slightly to his side so he could whisper to Golbat, "Get to the main building and get everyone out—"
"Golbat stays!" Kaine suddenly barked, and both the Rogue and Golbat froze where they stood. "If your flying rat makes one move for that building," Kaine continued, his arrogance not detracting from his madness in the least, "I will destroy it all. The main building, the Southern Coliseum, and the one we're in now."
"What!?" the Rogue screamed back, dumbstruck, "You'd blow up the building you're in?! How do you expect to get out?!"
"Like I said, Detective," Kaine answered by enlarging the PokéBall still in his hand, "I've been waiting for this for a very long time." The sound of a PANG signaled the escape of Kaine's Pokémon, and the Rogue's awe continued to spread and rise. It was an Aerodactyl, a Pokémon the Rogue had only ever seen in books. Like Kabutops and Omastar, Aerodactyl was an ancient Pokémon, only obtainable from its DNA residing in the exceedingly rare archaeological object, the Old Amber. It resembled the prehistoric flying reptiles of old, taking many of its cues from Archeopteryx, Pterodactyl and other Pterosaurs, as well as the mythical wyvern. It was a chalky purple in color and had three-clawed arms from which its purple wing membranes extended, two-toed talons on each leg, and a long tail tipped with a pointed arrow shape. Its gleaming white teeth and the two crests on its head were dangerously sharp, and its eyes were maniacal, its pupils shrunken and making its eyes almost completely white. It roared a piercing roar that echoed across the battlefield, and it waved its wings and tail in the raging, unstable motions of insanity.
The Rogue was about to begin with Seadra, but paused for a moment before he began the battle. Something didn't seem right all of the sudden. The Rogue was sure there would be a cacophony of panic pelting the area, and was almost counting on the rush of spectators from their seats in the Eastern Coliseum. So far, there weren't too many screams of terror, and the rumble of footsteps was decidedly weak. This meant that, either the crowd wasn't as eager to leave as the Rogue thought (which would have been just plain ridiculous), or the crowd that was leaving barely made an impression as they did so, as if there weren't as many people in the Coliseum as there should have been. But this is where the final battle was to be held, the detective thought to himself as he glanced around, trying to figure out this problem, why isn't there a bigger crowd? How can so many people be absent for the finals of this tournament? And where are they all?
Kaine growled almost as loudly as his Aerodactyl, his impatience on full display. "I grow weary of your stalling, Detective," he said with an ominously low tone as he held up the dreaded remote detonator again, "Perhaps this will be a deterrent to further defiance!" Kaine then pushed the button for the third time.
Nothing happened.
Kaine's sharp eyes finally widened at the stall of the explosion. He pressed the button again, but still no other bombs went off. Staring at the remote with ever-widening eyes, he repeatedly punched the button again and again, harder and harder; despite his efforts, not a single event occurred in response to it. "What is this?!" Kaine growled, now squeezing the button down with all his might, almost breaking the remote, "Why is nothing happening!?"
The Rogue was amazed, but kept it to himself, "Well . . . performance issues are not uncommon . . ."
"Enough of your cheek, Detective!" Kaine commanded, "Don't think for a moment that this means you've bested me! You haven't, nor will you ever! My accomplice lurks beneath the Plateau as we speak, and in moments, this glitch will be resolved! I will finish you today, Detective, and the proof of it is in my hand now!" As he held up the remote, he suddenly screamed and quickly withdrew his hand; an exceptionally large, sharpened projectile had shot the remote out of Kaine's large hand (slashing his hand heavily in the process) and stuck to the ground, pinning the remote to the ground and shattering it right through the middle, rendering it a wrecked, smoking and useless hunk of metal.
"Yayee-yayee!" came a deep-throated call from the second row of the bleachers, "Nice shot, Omastar!"
The Rogue and Kaine looked up to see Dontae waving down at them, his Charmander cheering on one side, his Omastar still as a brick next to him on the other. The young Trainer quickly climbed down the bleachers and leaped into the arena, his two Pokémon following him. Dontae then turned to the mad terrorist and sized him up, "Hmm . . . . so you're Kaine, huh . . . . . you're fatter than I expected."
Kaine's face twitched with what looked to be an almost agonizing fury. "Insolent brat . . ." he quietly growled, his voice infinitely more frightening than if he had said it with rage. He then turned slowly to his Aerodactyl, "Kill him."
The Rogue made his move to intervene, "Golbat, after it!" Golbat screeched and flew off to attack, covering the distance between it and its foe in a split-second. Before Aerodactyl was halfway to reaching Dontae, Golbat had sunk its noxious fangs into the Fossil Pokémon, making it roar in agony and rear up into the air. Both Flying-types flapped their wings furiously, sending them both into the air in a twisted, fast-paced continuation of their battle.
Dontae rushed toward the Rogue, his Charmander and Omastar following closely, and smiled as the two reunited, "Now, you owe me another one! Shall I take your slave-for-life paperwork now?"
"But . . ." the Rogue was as at a loss for words as he was for an explanation, "How did you . . . ?"
Dontae stopped him, "I met up with your dad last night. He said he had a hunch, but didn't want to explain it. Told me he thought he knew what was going on, and that I needed to lock the doors of all the rooms and suites in the main building. I figured I knew what he was up to, but I guess that didn't stop some people from showing up. Ahh, speak of the devil!" He pointed up to the bleachers, and the Rogue turned to see Tanshin in the farthest row, his Dragonite wearing a fierce expression next to him.
"It's over, Kaine!" Tanshin yelled out, "No one will die today because of you! I located the bombs under the main building and disarmed them! Nearly all the people and Pokémon here have been locked in their rooms since last night, and that means that the Coliseums are empty! You blew them up for nothing!"
Kaine's eyes widened again, but there was something about his eyes that seemed shocked, perhaps even horrified. "Tanshin?!" he exclaimed, "No . . . no! This has nothing to do with you!"
"Wrong!" Tanshin yelled back, "When you challenged my son to this little game, it had everything to do with me! This madness ends now!" He then quickly hopped onto his Dragonite, and the Dragon-type flew him out of the bleachers and down into the arena, where Trainer and Pokémon steeled themselves for combat.
Kaine stood frozen in place for a moment; his face showed horrified revelation, as if he'd snapped out of a hallucination of nirvana and awakened in dystopia. He covered it up quickly though, and his sadistic rage returned; he quickly gave a two-finger whistle (eerily similar to the Rogue's method for calling on his Golbat), and in seconds, Aerodactyl pried itself off of Golbat and dove to the middle of the arena. Kaine jumped onto the back of the still-moving Aerodactyl, and both of them took off toward the air. "I won't let you destroy my plans, Tanshin!" he called out to them as he flew, "I've come too far to let you ruin my life again!"
Golbat had arrived back in the Coliseum as well, and the Rogue almost grabbed onto it to ride after him, but was stopped by Tanshin's hand on his shoulder. "I'll go after him," he assured, "You make sure everyone at the Plateau gets out!"
The Rogue would have quickly complied, had the obvious question not been burning in his mind, "But . . . how do you know him—"
"There's no time!" Tanshin bellowed, "Just go!" With that, Tanshin grabbed his son's arm with one hand and thrust two PokéBalls—Raichu and Scyther's PokéBalls—into his hand with the other. He then jumped back on top of Dragonite and took off like lightning, closing the gap between him and Kaine and his Aerodactyl quickly.
The Rogue shook off the shock and produced Charizard's PokéBall. In a flash, Charizard appeared, and the Rogue gave it quick commands, "Give Dontae a lift! We need to get these people out of the Plateau!"
Dontae returned his Omastar and nodded, "Hero time, baby!" He then jumped onto Charizard's back, Charmander accompanying him by clinging to the larger Fire-type's neck, and the three took to the sky. Golbat offered a leg for the Rogue to grab, and the duo sailed up after them, both parties aiming for the Plateau main building.
"Everyone remain calm! You must exit the building immediately! This is not a drill! Exit immediately!"
Back in his usual duster, the Rogue repeated this command in every possible way as he unlocked doors in the main building and ushered people out. There was a mad rush in the corridors on the tenth and topmost floor of the building, but the Rogue powered through it and kept releasing people who had been trapped in their rooms (and thus, were safe from the explosions of the Western and Northern Coliseums). The Rogue led groups to the elevator, filling it up to its maximum capacity before sending it down, and leading others to the staircase, where the Rogue's Sandslash, Seadra, Kabutops and Jolteon waited on various levels below to escort them to the ground floor and out the door.
The Rogue hurried one last group to an elevator, then turned to see Raichu running up to him. "Are all the rooms empty on this floor?" he asked the Electric-type.
"Rai! Rai-chu, rai-chu!" Raichu nodded in the affirmative.
"Good," the Rogue nodded, "That's all of them. Come on, we need to gather the others and make sure these people leave the Plateau grounds." The Rogue motioned for Raichu to follow, and she kept up a rapid pace next to him as the two raced down the stairs, heading for the exit.
"Just stay calm!" Dontae mimicked the Rogue's earlier commands as more and more people and Pokémon gathered at the Plateau-side entrance to Victory Road, "Everyone, chill out! The Rogue will be right here soon! Those of you who have Flying-types, start flapping home! If you have cave-dwelling Pokémon, take Victory Road back to Viridian! If you have no Pokémon, the Rogue and I will lend you ours to get out! Just everyone stay calm!"
Charmander, Blastoise, Ninetales, Flareon, Omastar and Poliwrath had set up a perimeter around the crowds, and no one wandered too far away from the others. More and more people and Pokémon gathered in front of the cave, making the group swell to the hundreds before more could exit the premises. Children cried, Pokémon squealed, cawed and roared, and men shouted at one another, making demands to be enlightened to the current situation.
Where the hell is he!? Dontae thought with uncontained frustration as he witnessed two men engage in a brutal fistfight, their wives attempting to stop them. A young girl comforted her younger brother, who sat on the ground sobbing, and a small purple radish-like Oddish hopped on its two small feet between them, babbling, shaking the leaves on its head and attempting to garner attention. Off to one side, two Trainers tried to break up a fight between their own Pokémon; whether out of anxiety or boredom, one Trainer's Farfetch'd (a small brown duck-like bird carrying an onion sprig) had decided to play a game of Whack-a-Mole with the other Trainer's Diglett (the smaller, single-bodied pre-evolution of Dugtrio).
Finally, the Rogue was seen racing toward the cave entrance, his entire Pokémon team (sans Scyther) surrounding him. Dontae found himself sighing, and Charmander, now approaching him from its herding duties, sighed with him. "Way to show up tardy to the party, bro!" he called out in disgruntled restraint.
Immediately, the Rogue began shouting out orders, "Okay, everyone! Three at a time on Golbat and Charizard! Women and children first! Sandslash and Kabutops will take groups of five through the tunnels! If you have Flying-type or cave-dwelling Pokémon, use them to help other people! Double time! Move it!"
People rushed to escape exactly as the Rogue had commanded, and the detective pushed through the crowd to find Dontae. "Anyone hurt?" the Rogue asked, speaking up over the noise of the crowds.
"Nope, no damage report," Dontae shook his head, "Did you find Stacy?"
The Rogue shook his head as well, "I think Kaine is holding her somewhere else, maybe even somewhere underground. If we're going to find her, we have to catch him and make him talk!"
The crowd was already beginning to thin, and Dontae's voice went down accordingly, "Well, we'd better hope your dad is a master tracker as well as a master Trainer!"
The Rogue held back a growl—he had a bone to pick with that man once this was all over—and added, "In the meantime, we can't slow down here. Dad said he disarmed the bombs, but that doesn't mean Kaine doesn't have some kind of back-up plan. And the fewer people here for the fallout, the better."
"How do you expect to get Kaine to tell us where Stacy is?" Dontae asked, "He wouldn't even tell us why he's pulling this stunt! Why do you think he'll tell us where he's keeping her?"
The Rogue pulled out the one still-full PokéBall left in his duster. "Scyther might need to stretch its wings later," he muttered, gripping the Ball tightly in his shaking hand.
Dontae saw the Rogue's shaking fist and backed up a step. "You know," he said uneasily, "You scare me when you do that."
Landing in the middle of the ruins of the Western Coliseum, Kaine dismounted from his Aerodactyl, returned the beast to its Ball, found a crevice of rubble to slip into, and pulled out his cell phone. He could hardly contain his rage; the plan had gone perfectly up until a half hour ago. Even with the Rogue's feeble attempt to one-up him by alerting the entire Plateau via the PA system was in vain. It was all owed to Tanshin; that infernal cretin had ruined his life for the last time. He would not be allowed to get away with this. At first, just the Rogue's violent demise was enough once the plan was complete, but now it meant nothing. Even if Kaine had the Rogue's head in his hands by the end of this day, it would not have made any kind of difference for him. It was obvious by now. The Rogue's death wasn't enough.
Once he finished the detective, Tanshin would be begging for the mercy he'd never be granted.
But first thing was first. The plan was derailed, and thus the fail-safe was needed. Hammering in the number and waiting for the ring, Kaine's breathing was heavy with exasperation and impatience. Finally, the answer: "Yes?"
"The situation has changed," Kaine informed the informant, "I need her. Now!"
The voice's response was quick, "Consider it done." The click was the end of it.
Kaine put away the phone. Now, very soon, the Rogue would have no choice but to submit. His untimely demise was now officially assured. Now, it was only a matter of time and patience.
And with the method which he'd use to make it happen, it would all be worth it.
Sandslash rolled out of the entrance to Victory Road, having finally delivered its group to safety. At the same time, Golbat and Charizard touched down from their rescue missions, successful. The Rogue and Dontae then returned all of their returnable Pokémon (the Rogue kept Charizard out), and surveyed the area. "That looks like the last of them," the Rogue sighed, relieved that no one had been injured.
"Now," said Dontae, taking deep breaths in exhaustion, "next on the agenda: find Kaine, and give him the 'good-cop-bad-cop' treatment!"
The Rogue eyed Dontae with an almost menacing determination, "I won't need 'good cop'."
Dontae's eyes widened at this. He could make jokes about the Rogue's temper any other time, but this time, his well came up dry. This time, there was no joke to be had; lives were on the line, and Stacy's hung in the balance at that very moment.
This time, it was personal.
There was a rush of air above their heads, and the Rogue, Donate and their Pokémon looked up to see Tanshin, hovering above them on his Dragonite. "I couldn't get to him!" he called down to them, "But I saw him fly down into the ruins of the Western Coliseum! If you hurry, you can capture him now!"
The Rogue nodded and grabbed Golbat's leg, prompting the Bat Pokémon to take off. At the same time, Dontae and Charmander jumped onto Charizard and became airborne as well. "Get underground and double-check on those bombs!" the Rogue ordered Tanshin, "If you can really disarm them, better make sure you find them all. So far, no one was hurt in the explosions, so I want you to make sure it stays that way!"
"No way!" Tanshin retorted, "You're going to need my help with him—"
"Don't push me, old man!" the Rogue snarled, "You already have enough to make up for today! Get down there and make sure every explosive device you see is non-functional!"
"But Ryogu—"
"DO IT!"
For just a split-second, Tanshin's face showed horror at his son's fierceness, but it passed, and he nodded in agreement and sped off on his Dragonite, aiming for the main building. The Rogue and Dontae lifted up higher and sped through the air, destined for the crumbling ruins of the Western Coliseum. The Rogue saw the smoldering building and seethed; he still couldn't believe he had allowed this atrocity to happen. All this time, weeks of training, battling, preparation, matching his wits with Kaine's, and he had failed. True, no one had been injured, and the Plateau had been emptied in record time, but it still happened. Kaine was a better challenger than he could ever have prepared for, and he felt he would've struggled against him even if he'd had a year to plan. At every turn, he'd been beaten, and this madman was very obviously out for blood. At this point, failure was not an option—it was not even a reality. This psychopath had to be taken down by any means necessary, no matter what the cost. It was no longer a question of which one could beat the other.
There was no longer a question about it at all.
Golbat and Charizard landed in the middle of a small patch of cleared ground in the wreck, Charizard was returned to its Ball, and the Rogue, Dontae, Golbat and Charmander quickly spread out and covered the area. Smoking hunks of concrete were piled up high in many places, and structures that had remained standing were still crumbling to pieces. The smell of blackened earth and burnt metal tainted the air, and Charmander, lowest to the ground, choked and coughed several times in reaction to the asphyxiating smoke.
After a few minutes of search, the Rogue's last bit of patience had worn away, and his furious voice pierced the air, "KAAAAAAAAAINE! COME OUT HERE AND FACE ME! YOU HAVE NOWHERE TO HIDE! YOUR PLAN HAS FAILED! YOU'VE LOST! SHOW YOURSELF NOW AND PAY FOR WHAT YOU'VE DONE!"
"We're not giving up, Kaine!" Dontae added forcefully, "We know you're keeping Stacy hidden from us! You'd better tell us where she is, and if you so much as touch a hair on her head, you're a dead man! You hear me?!"
Golbat screeched its agreement to the air, and Charmander bellowed out alongside it, "Mander!"
All four of them scanned the area for sights or sounds out of the ordinary; nothing presented itself. This grated on the Rogue's patience-deprived nerves, and he was about to deploy his entire team once again to conduct a proper search. Just as his hand touched Kabutop's Ball in his duster, the PANG of an opening PokéBall sounded off behind him, and when he spun around to greet it, he was met with an accompanying phrase:
"Check, Detective."
On the edge of the smoking rubble stood Kaine, his demented smile returned and wider than ever. Off to one side was his Aerodactyl, its jaws wide open and saliva dripping from its shining teeth. Between them both, arm gripped in Kaine's powerful hand and cowering under the towering Fossil Pokémon's menacing form, was Stacy.
Dontae gasped, and the Rogue's eyes widened. She was covered in grime, her white blouse and pink skirt were streaked with black and brown, and her tears had driven clean trenches through the dirt on her face. Her eyes were wide with unremitting fear, and she sobbed and shuddered as she stood, her stance shaky and close to collapse. "H- . . . h-help me . . ." she whimpered, her buckling knees underneath her shaking her voice even more, "Rogue . . . . help me . . . . .please . . . ."
The stunned silence was broken by Dontae, "What did you do to her, you bastard!?"
Kaine's grin did not falter, "Name-calling, Dontae? For shame. I might just have my Aerodactyl do something particularly nasty to her for that." He shoved Stacy closer to Aerodactyl, and she squealed in fright as the prehistoric beast growled hungrily.
Dontae made to rush at him, but the Rogue quickly grabbed his shoulders to stop him. Dontae struggled at first, but the Rogue held him back firmly. Charmander tried the same thing, a burning flame forming it its mouth, but was blocked by Golbat's wing. Recklessness was not a rewarding tactic here; Kaine held prisoner a person they all cared for deeply, and one false step meant her death.
"As I said, Detective," Kaine smirked, "I have placed you in check, and I am currently threatening your queen. And unless you surrender your pawns, I'm afraid the game is over for her." Aerodactyl qualified its master's statement by blasting the air with a vicious roar.
Stacy screamed even louder and collapsed to her knees, sobbing with almost seizure-like shaking, "ROGUE! PLEASE HELP ME! DON'T LET HIM KILL ME! PLEASE! PLEASE HELP ME!"
The Rogue scowled; this was beyond contempt. It made him wonder, deep down, just what pit in Hell this man crawled from; threatening the lives of thousands of people, holding them on the brink of destruction, and aiming to exterminate them all without conscience just to get his nemesis to obey, and now threatening a person he'd stalked, kidnapped and most likely even brutalized in the worst ways, was far too much evil to possibly be contained within a single entity.
"Stalling again, Detective?" Kaine asked, his tone shaking as well, but with crazed glee, "Let this be a lesson to you." He then turned to his Aerodactyl, and mimicked his Pokémon's serrated grin while commanding it: "Hyper Beam."
Aerodactyl's mouth suddenly glowed white with a pulsating power, and it aimed its attack downward, directly at Stacy. She could do nothing but stay where she sat and cry, begging for her life, "NOOO! PLEASE, NOOOOOOO!"
"STOP!" the Rogue blurted out. Kaine ceased his Aerodatyl's attack with a simple hand gesture, and the Rock/Flying hybrid's mouth stopped glowing. Still staring daggers at the odious madman, the Rogue slowly pulled his arms out of his duster.
"What are you doing?" Dontae placed a hand on the Rogue's shoulder, "He'll kill her no matter what we do! We have to come up with a plan!"
"We have no choice," the Rogue growled back, "This is our only option." He slipped his duster off and folded it in his hand, then gestured to Dontae, "You too."
"No!" Dontae barked, his voice up in volume, "We have to find another way!"
"Tut-tut, gentlemen," Kaine's voice was quiet, and his demented smile cut wider across his face, "She won't wait forever . . ." Taking its cue, Aerodactyl opened its mouth again, prepared to charge up its Hyper Beam again if ordered to.
Dontae scowled as well, now, but complied, taking off his PokéBall belt and holding it up; all five of Dontae's Pokémon were still inside, about to be cast off in this despicable compromise.
Feeling a pang in his heart that was a mix of rage and despair, the Rogue threw his duster off to one side, and it collapsed to the scorched ground with a soft FLUMP. Dontae's face showed pure anger, and he took the last word for himself, "You'll be sorry, freak." He then tossed his belt to the side, and it landed on top of the Rogue's duster.
And Kaine let go.
At first, Stacy retracted her arm and stared at Kaine as if he had mutated into some disturbing creature. This lasted only a few seconds, and in a flash, Stacy was on her feet and running, racing to the Rogue and embracing him with every last ounce of her remaining strength. The Rogue embraced her back, not keeping his feelings hidden anymore. It was true; he was worried about her, but more than just one person's concern over the life of another. It ran far deeper than that, inciting emotions he'd always promised himself he'd never have in the presence of a client. But somehow, with all they'd been through together, it seemed obvious by now. They had bonded in a bizarre way, one that two people hardly ever could or should. It was only subtle at first, because the Rogue had suppressed these feelings and kept himself detached. But he couldn't lie to himself anymore.
He loved her.
"Wait a minute," Dontae suddenly said, and something about his voice was deeply ominous, "That was way too easy. What are you playing at, Kaine?"
Kaine's psychotic grin didn't move an inch, as if he were some sinister department store mannequin. "No tricks from me, gentlemen," he replied, "You can have her. Do you want her?"
Stacy was now looking up into the Rogue's eyes, and the detective looked back. That same look of fragile innocence was there, but something was off about it somehow. Was it that she was exhausted? She was certainly still on edge about being Kaine's bargaining tool. But that look in her eyes was somehow desensitized, almost void, as if nothing about this situation had gone unpredicted. But how was that possible? She couldn't possibly know she'd be given up as easily as that—
The Rogue felt his heart drop, and he gasped and released Stacy, backing up several steps. Suddenly, shockingly, everything made sense. It all fit together in the manner of a disturbing jigsaw puzzle, and the answer that followed spelled certain doom. The Rogue found himself believing—if one's words are true about all things being clear in one's dying hours—that he was now very close to death.
"No . . ." the Rogue murmured helplessly, "no . . . please, no . . . please tell me it's not true . . . please . . ."
Stacy's wide, innocent eyes remained shiny and blank as she, too, took a few steps back. She batted her pretty eyelashes almost confusedly as she reached her hand up under the side of her skirt. Her hand fumbled around a bit with something on her hip for a second, then she lowered her skirt, pulled her hand out, and held it out in front of her. Her facial expression remained soft and vulnerable, but it did not distract the Rogue, Dontae, Golbat and Charmander from seeing the object clasped in Stacy's hand.
It was a PokéBall.
Stacy spoke as she enlarged it, her voice suddenly incongruous while paired with her sensitive expression:
"Checkmate, detective. You lose."
PANG!
