Chapter 11: Past and Future

By the end of the night, Raskin felt like he, Lyco and Sid deserved an award for managing everything they did.

Aeris' psychic barriers on the basement door worked a treat. Raskin could barely hear a thing when he was upstairs, even with the basement full of pokémon. Unfortunately, though there were a few other 'mon who could create a similar barrier to Aeris, none were as powerful. The espurr wasn't willing to offer her services for free, either, nor was she willing to work more than two nights a week.

So they compromised. On the two nights Aeris worked, up to thirty pokémon were allowed downstairs, making as much noise as they liked. On every other night, starting from six o'clock now rather than nine, the maximum capacity would be twenty, and pokémon had to stay quiet while fights were happening. This would make life easier for whoever was creating the barrier.

When they raised this idea to the basement, most seemed fine with it, to Raskin's surprise. He guessed that they came here for the fighting more than the atmosphere. The promise of a bigger and better Fight Den in just a few weeks probably helped, too.

With the new, much more frequent opening hours, Steela was concerned of there being unintended crossover between her regular customers and those there just for Fight Den. To solve the issue, they agreed to hire another 'mon to sit guard next to the basement steps, acting as if it led to a private, invite-only room. The guard would be given a list of trusted Fight Den 'members' to let inside, and anyone else would require the approval of Raskin, Sid or Lyco.

Finally, a helioptile helped them rig up a couple of alarms: one that could be activated from behind Steela's counter, and one within reach of the bouncer above the basement. They would bring drinks and cushions downstairs so that if anyone ignored the bouncer and came downstairs anyway, the alarms would give them enough time to stop fighting and look like nothing suspicious was happening. The sewer tunnel was also hidden behind a particularly thick, dense crate.

All of this meant that Sid's wall murals had to be painted over again too. The quilava accepted that it was necessary, even if he watched the paintings disappear like they were his children.

"I'll meet you tomorrow morning, then," Lyco said to Tyler. The nidoran was the last customer yet to leave the basement.

"Sure," Tyler said with a grin. "Think yous a' gonna like the place I got. Even if it's a bit rough on the edges."

Lyco watched him go, looking satisfied. "Right, fools, ready to clear up?" she said. "I don't think there'll be so much today, given we..."

She trailed off upon turning around. Raskin and Sid stood in the centre of the basement, the latter's arms folded and the former doing the sternest sitting pose he could.

Lyco squinted at them. "Can I help you?"

"You said earlier that you'd tell us what went on between you and this police officer," Raskin said. "I'm not letting you wriggle your way out of explaining things again. We have to know. Now."

Lyco visibly deflated. She looked exhausted, and no wonder—all night she had been barking orders and discussing security plans. Raskin felt a bit sorry for her. Just a bit, though.

"Alright, fine." Lyco sat down on the stairs. "Shadow. As I said, we know each other because we were both trainee police officers, assigned to the same unit. That's how the training system works—you have your unit, and they're the 'mon you train with, eat with, sleep with."

"That's um..." Sid exchanged an uncertain look with Raskin. "Okay, but before all of that. How did you ever join the police? You hate them!"

"Well, people change," Lyco said with a shrug. "Back when I left school, all I wanted to do was be part of the police. You know how they pitch it to you: saying how strong all the training will make you; the amazing friendships you'll form; the chance of being honoured by the president... at the time that really appealed to me."

Raskin remembered the assemblies at school where his year was given that exact presentation. They had gazed at the gallade towering over them with wonder and longing. It was no surprise a number of his classmates had been interested in the police too after that day.

The main thing that put Raskin off was the requirement that, once you joined the force, you had to stay there until you retired. Sure, there were different roles within the police and numerous districts you could rotate in. But the lack of choice the career presented had terrified Raskin. Fortunately, the qualification exams were notoriously selective, so even if he'd wanted to join, he doubted that he would have made it.

"So, what's it really like?" Sid asked eagerly. "Being on the inside."

Lyco sighed. "Not what I had hoped for. The training they put us through was gruelling; every day my joints ached. I didn't get on with the rest of my unit like I'd hoped. Especially Shadow. He was awful—so arrogant, cruel and self-centred. But the worst thing was that I started questioning the very way the police was run. The fact that we were allowed to fight in our training. In fact, we had to, because that's what makes officers Shift faster, and makes them stronger than regular civilians. But why should fighting be illegal to everyone, except the people whose job it is to make sure it's illegal? I didn't like it."

Raskin wasn't sure what to say. He had never thought about the dichotomy between the police and the rest of the city before, but it did seem strange.

"Was it in the police where you discovered your condition?" Sid asked suddenly.

For a moment, Lyco's eyes seemed to light up in surprise. But they quickly relaxed again. "That's right. One day I woke up incredibly breathless, even more sore than usual. I could hardly move. They took me to the medics and that's how I got diagnosed. It basically ended any hope I had of doing practical police work."

"Did you get kicked out?" Sid asked, sounding horrified.

Lyco shook her head. "They can't do that, unless you do something seriously bad. No, all they could offer me in practical terms was a role in a non-physical police department. Probably filing paperwork or something. They did give me some sort of honour for bravery as a sweetener, but I couldn't give less of a shit about that."

"So that's why you left," Sid said.

"Well, it certainly strengthened my resolve to."

"What happened when you left?" Raskin asked. "How did the police respond?"

"Well, they were furious with me, obviously. They threatened legal action. So in return, I threatened to spill the beans in court about my experiences in training—how I was bullied by my instructors and fellow trainees, and that's why I was desperate to get out. They didn't like that much. Eventually we settled on a deal. I would be left alone by the authorities, but if I ever went back to the police for help, they were free to bring up all my previous offenses again."

"Mew," Raskin muttered. "That's horrible."

"Well, you wondered why I hated them so much," Lyco said with a shrug. She got up wearily and started towards the long brooms in the corner of the room that they cleaned with.

"Hang on though," Raskin said. "This Shadow. Why is he so dangerous, again? Because he knows how you feel about fighting?"

"That's right," Lyco said, turning her head. "Not just that, though. He…"

She suddenly broke off into a volley of furious curses.

"W-what is it?" Raskin asked, bemused.

"I forgot!" Lyco said. "It's not just that Shadow has one of the most senior military positions in Deepden. But him, personally. It's no wonder he climbed the ranks so fast—he's a zoroark!"

Raskin and Sid looked at her blankly.

"He can make illusions!"

Raskin still didn't understand. But Sid murmured, "I thought that was a myth…"

"They probably tell you that," Lyco said. "But it's very real. He can make himself look like anyone he knows the appearance of. Do I need to spell out how dangerous that is? Anyone, anyone we know could be Shadow in disguise!"

Suddenly, the panic in her words did hit Raskin. "What are we supposed to do, then?" he spluttered.

Lyco shook her mane. "I know he can't keep up illusions while in a fight. Something to do with it not working with physical contact. But no one fights here until they're already inside, so…"

The three of them pondered for a moment. Raskin scratched his ear; Sid rubbed his paws together.

"Why don't we just tackle everyone when they arrive?" Raskin asked.

Lyco shot him a look. "How is that going to work?"

"Uh… make it a kind of greeting?"

Sid brightened. "We could say it's a way of proving your commitment to the Den! Don't wanna get tackled? Then Fight Den ain't for you."

Lyco frowned. "I'm not sure everyone will want to get tackled immediately. I know that espurr won't.

"Maybe not a tackle," Raskin agreed. "A mutual headbutt? That might go down better."

Lyco considered for a moment. "It would probably be effective," she admitted. "Even so, we'll have to be vigilant. Make sure—"

There came a sudden rumbling from upstairs, and Steela's angry eyes appeared in the hatch above them.

"Just because you're allowed to keep your fighting club down here doesn't mean you can have a sleepover too," she barked. "It's almost midnight already! Clean up and get out."

She slammed the hatch shut. Lyco gave them another tired look and moved towards the brooms. "We'll discuss this further tomorrow," she said.

Raskin had no reason to argue—the night had exhausted him. As he started sweeping fur, pieces of scales and other debris into the middle of the arena, though, he couldn't help dwelling on what Lyco had said. Why had she been so reluctant to tell them about her past before now? None of it seemed particularly bad in his eyes. It wasn't like she had murdered someone or burnt down the President's offices.

Perhaps she felt they wouldn't trust her if they had known she was formerly of the police. But Raskin had no doubt that whatever feelings she had had in the past were gone now. If she was undercover with the police, they would have been arrested long ago. She would also be an astounding actor.

He suddenly remembered something she had told him when they had first started training. She had learnt to fight from her parents, she said, who took her to Oldden to do it in secret. He had assumed that her parents had also taught Lyco the anti-police values she was bound so strongly to now.

But that didn't match up with her story, where she had initially been infatuated with the thought of police work. Could she have gone against her parents' wishes? It seemed unlikely.

"Lyco," he began, "I wondered—"

But the lycanroc had already left, leaving a hurriedly swept pile of dust behind for them.

Shadow took his usual seat at the far end of the meeting room table. He liked that it let him see all the other police commanders at once—he felt more in control of matters. There was also the fact that none of the commanders would want to sit next to him, but he didn't care about that.

The commanders met biweekly in this room to discuss supposedly important matters. It was usually a snooze-fest of new procedures or upcoming meetings, but this time Shadow had an agenda.

"It's been two weeks since the President briefed us," he began, immediately drawing looks from the 'mon around him. "Have any of you been able to uncover more about secret fighting organisations?"

The commanders exchanged looks, a few of them appearing to hide smiles. Shadow gritted his teeth. Pompous brats.

"I certainly haven't," Nidoking said at last. "None of my increased patrols have come back with anything out of the ordinary."

"Okay," Shadow said. "What about those workplace accidents Flygon told us about? Has there been a further increase?"

"Nope," said Arcanine, performing a huge stretch against her padded chair. "They seem to have disappeared as quickly as they began. Either that, or no one's been reporting them."

"Well, have you checked up on it?" Shadow pressed.

"Tell me, Shadow," Nidoking said. "How's that lead of yours going? That lycanroc you met in… what was it, high school?"

A ripple of laughter spread through the table. Shadow clenched his fists underneath the table. "We met in police training. And she's proving difficult to pin down. Since she left the police, she seems to have wiped herself from every record we have."

"That, or she just never existed," Espeon muttered. "Perhaps you illusioned her in front of a mirror?"

"I would have thought he does that enough with Flygon," Nidoking added.

"Enough!" Shadow slammed his fist on the table, baring his teeth. That made them jump, and their laughter cease. He hid a smile of satisfaction.

"Why are none of you taking this seriously? Flygon told us this news in the strictest confidentiality—she thought it was that important. Think of what we could gain from uncovering the truth!"

The commanders exchanged looks again. "The problem, my dear," Espeon said, his eyes narrowing, "is that we have a feeling Flygon was getting all worked up over nothing. The evidence she gave us two weeks ago has dried up faster than a 'saur in the heat. No pokémon appearing out of breath in the streets. No workplace accidents. No unusual activity. What are we supposed to do about a case that doesn't exist?"

Shadow decided not to challenge them further. His frustration was partly down to his own investigations in the past fortnight. He had had just as little luck as the other commanders. He'd hoped this meeting would give them all something fresh to go on.

But is it any wonder we found nothing, he thought, as Nidoking started jabbering about something else unimportant, given the orders Flygon gave us? 'Be cautious.' 'Don't let the public start asking questions.' Why don't we just go in hard and sort out these wannabe rebels properly?

He did feel some grudging respect for the pokémon caught up in this, if Flygon's premonitions were true. It was bold, reckless even, opposing the police on a matter so hard-line as fighting.

He felt a kind of pity for them, too. Only police officers could fight; that was how it was, and how it had to be. Deepden would be chaos otherwise. These pokémon surely knew that. So why even try? Perhaps they were budding police officers who had failed the entrance exam, and just wanted to feel like they could still be who they wanted to.

He stewed on the little information he had. By the time the meeting had been adjourned, he had devised a new plan of action. Investigate those workplace accidents again. Question the pokémon involved—properly this time, not just to tick some regulatory boxes. Find answers, or failing that, at least some kind of lead.

But more than anything, he thought, stepping out into the hallway of the commanders' floor, I need to press Sergio to find out where that stupid—

"Commander Shadow?"

Shadow spun around. As if by magic, there was Sergio Ambipom, a wad of papers held in one of the computer scientist's tails.

"I think we've made a breakthrough, sir," Sergio said, smiling nervously. "We think your lycanroc has started living under a different name. That's why she had almost vanished from the records."

Shadow smiled. That made sense. "Do you have an address?"

"Yes, sir." Sergio nodded vigorously. "Perhaps if you come with me, we'll fill you in…"

Raskin stood tensed, watching Lyco intently. The lycanroc crouched low, a small quarry of rocks surrounding her.

A small crowd of pokémon watched them spar. It was quiet enough in the early evenings at the Entei for them to train here now, which made life easier.

Raskin detected a slight ripple in the rock circle, which told him what was about to happen. It was invisible to the untrained eye—and might still be invisible had Lyco not let him know the secret—but when he was in combat and focusing his Energy, it sharpened his senses ever so slightly.

He dove to the side as the rocks flew forwards. A couple punched his side, but there was no time to wince. As Lyco ran at him, he brought up a paw covered with a murky, fog-like darkness. He swung it at Lyco, the dark Energy slicing her chest, and she grunted in pain.

She brought her fist down and slammed it into his head, shoving him backwards. It was denser than a limb had any right to be—she must have used some of her own rock Energy. Raskin grunted, kicking his legs upwards as Lyco tried to jump on him. They tussled on the ground for a few moments, Raskin fighting to manoeuvre his head far enough away from her. When at last Lyco hesitated, Raskin opened his mouth, needing a moment to prepare, then bit down on her thigh.

This time Lyco let out a yelp. She shoved him away with significantly less force than her punch, though it was still firm.

"That's… that's enough," she said, panting. "We'll call it a draw."

She offered a paw to him, the accepted etiquette for ending a fight. He took it, and the pokémon around them gave a smattering of applause. Given they weren't allowed to make much noise even if they had wanted to, Raskin checked the 'mon's faces too. They looked pleased, and a few even impressed. It gave him a warm glow in his chest.

He and Lyco stepped out of the arena together—even at this hour, there was no shortage of pokémon wanting a fight—and sat down on their usual crate at the back. A couple of 'mon had expressed their displeasure at only Fight Den's organisers having something chair-like to sit on, despite the cushions dotted around the edges of the room. Lyco had just shrugged. Any more would take up space and be a possible hazard.

"Raskin," Lyco said to him, a formal tint to her voice. "I think our training might be finished. There's not much more I can do for you."

Raskin could hardly believe his ears. "R-really?" he said.

Lyco snorted. "Don't sound so surprised. I can hardly manage one spar with you before needing a rest. I was always going to be limited by my condition."

Raskin's smile faded. "Oh. But… you could still help me out, couldn't you? I feel like…" He fiddled with his paws, unsure what to say. "I've enjoyed our training. I feel like I've learned so much."

"I think you have," Lyco said. She considered for a moment. "I can tell you if you've majorly fucked something up. But from what I can see, you're an Energy specialist more than a physical attacker like me. And I don't know much about dark-type attacks—no more than you, anyway. The best thing you can do now is just keep fighting."

Raskin nodded. Even though he was back 'in' amongst the pokémon of Fight Den, he didn't take such an active role as Sid. Perhaps he should change that.

"Actually, there is one other thing," Lyco said. "About your tail."

Raskin looked down at his tail, curled slightly around his leg. The black hairs at the end were longer than usual. "Huh. I forgot to shave it."

"So you do shave it," Lyco said, disapproval dripping from her voice.

Raskin looked up at her, bemused. "Yes? What's wrong with that?"

"Stop doing it."

"…What? Why?"

Lyco threw her arms up in exasperation. "Do you want to be intimidating?"

"I guess… yes? Yes."

"Then don't wilfully shorten parts of yourself that are designed to be!" She looked down at the tail, narrowing her eyes. "It must grow pretty long, right, if you're shaving it just to keep it above your feet?"

"Yes, it does," Raskin said grumpily. "It gets covered in dust and is a ballache to clean."

"Nonsense," Lyco scoffed. "Just grow it out. Why does it exist at all if you keep cutting it off?"

Raskin wanted to argue further—Lyco just didn't understand his troubles, with that speck of fluff on her back that she called a tail—but then he spotted Tyler at the bottom of the stairs, meeting his gaze. Tyler had agreed to take him and Sid to the building site of the 'new' Fight Den. It was two weeks into construction now, and Tyler was one of the only 'mon that knew where the place was—he had originally told them about it.

"I'll see you later," he said to Lyco, hurrying off to the nidoran before she could say, 'where do you think you're going?'

Tyler greeted him with a large grin. "Evenin', Wussky."

Wonderful, Raskin thought. A new nickname. "Remember that we're the ones paying you," he remarked. "Have you got cover for upstairs?"

"Ya, the shiny zangoose guy is on it," Tyler said. "You ready to go? Smoky's waiting."

"Let's do it."

They climbed the steps and knocked on the door of the hatch. Luis opened it up, smiled at them, then sat back on the single chair in the little hallway.

The 'shiny zangoose guy', Raskin thought in amusement. Despite Tyler working for them now and earning money, through the same job as Luis, he still liked to think of himself as the dirtiest, scruffiest 'mon in the room. At least his old scent was significantly more bearable since he had gotten access to clean water.

"We should be back in no longer than an hour," Raskin explained to Luis. "Thanks for helping us out."

Luis gave him a casual salute. "Anytime, brother."

Once they found Sid, who was fiddling impatiently at the nearest table to the door, Tyler led them out of the White Entei.

There was much to talk about, but these days they barely spoke a word if they weren't inside their apartment or the Entei. So Raskin and Sid walked behind Tyler in silence, following the nidoran through several tight alleyways and sparsely populated streets until he stopped suddenly.

"This is it," Tyler said, looking at the ground beneath his feet.

Raskin eyed it suspiciously. "A… hidden manhole cover?" he said. It looked like the ones he saw scattered throughout the city, only this plate seemed deliberately camouflaged, the same grey shade of concrete as the path surrounding. If it wasn't for the faint circular marks around the edges, he would have missed it for certain.

"Sure's what it looks like, huh?" Tyler said with a grin. "But here."

He had a quick look around them, then bent down and jammed one set of claws into the tiny gap around the plate. With a rusty squeak, the plate moved a few inches, just enough for their bodies to slip into. Tyler gestured for the two of them to go. "It ain't too deep," he reassured.

It was still deeper than what Raskin expected. He let out an involuntary 'yip' as he landed on a cold, hard surface.

He sniffed instinctively, then wrinkled his muzzle; it reminded him of the White Entei's hidden passage. Tyler had muttered something about this being part of a discontinued sewage plant. Raskin was glad it was only discontinued.

He scooted forwards so Sid could follow him down, then looked out ahead. It was pitch black.

Or… was it? Raskin squinted. There were definitely no lights in the distance. Yet something in his gut told him otherwise. Or… maybe…

Suddenly getting an idea, Raskin focused his Energy, imagining Lyco was standing opposite him in this tunnel, claws raised. The darkness dissolved into a sort of greyed out picture, like the ones that appeared in newspapers. It wasn't like seeing in daylight, but it was still… seeing.

A thump sounded behind him. Sid scrambled to his feet, rubbing the back of his head. Then his head and rear flame spots burst into life, almost blinding Raskin with the sudden light. He winced, looking away.

It was remarkable how quickly Sid's control of his flame spots had progressed. Before Fight Den, he had never been able to light them up intentionally—it only happened for a brief second when he was startled, or excited, or another sudden emotion. Now, he could turn them on and off like a lamp.

"That's better," Sid said breezily, looking around. His gaze froze on Raskin. "Whoa, dude! Your pupils have gotten huge! What's going on?"

Raskin assumed that something in his appearance would have changed. He found it faintly amusing that this new ability only worked in places where he couldn't look back at himself. "I think I can see in the dark now," he said.

"You… can?" Sid's face screwed up. "Since when?"

"I'm guessing it's related to the Energy I've been learning to channel. Maybe it's a dark-type thing?" Raskin paused, then nearly smacked his face with a paw. "Dark-type. Of course we can see in the dark."

"Huh. Awesome," Sid said, as Tyler landed rather more respectably on four legs, while simultaneously managing to squeeze the slate shut above him. "Makes you wonder why we pay so much for lighting, eh? I can just do it myself, and you don't even need it at all."

Tyler seemed a little disgruntled that both of the 'mon he was guiding could see better than him. He ended up sticking as closely to Sid as possible without risking his front horn getting singed.

"How did you ever discover this place?" Raskin asked after a while. They had trudged down several long, narrow corridors. There was occasionally a turning where two tunnels met, but Tyler chose their path without hesitation. Otherwise, the route was featureless.

Tyler laughed harshly. "Accidently. Shopkeeper was chasin' me down the street one time. Can't remember why. I saw one o' these suspicious looking covers and thought, hey, I ain't gonna outrun this dude anyhow. Got lucky that it actually opened."

"And you just… stumbled around in the dark?" Raskin frowned.

"I can see a little bit," Tyler grumbled. "So yeah, I kept exploring. Not like I had anything better to be doing. Found tons of different manholes leading to different parts of the city. And they all led to this place."

The tunnel suddenly turned sharply downhill, then it opened out at the bottom. And there, Raskin could hardly believe his eyes.

It wasn't a room but a cavern. A huge one. Greater than he could have wished for in his wildest dreams. He could see at least three arenas fitting in here, as well as everything else they had talked about wistfully—lounge areas, training areas, medical areas. Sure, there were big chunks of metal littering the ground, and the smell was still undesirable, but once it had all been cleaned, then… Raskin couldn't stop himself grinning.

Sid whistled. "Wow! Looks a lot better than two weeks ago. Smells a lot better, too."

Raskin turned to Tyler. "You told us about this location, didn't you?"

"Yeah." Tyler narrowed his eyes. "What, ya don't like it? Bit late for that, mate."

Raskin almost laughed. "Tyler, I love it! This will be perfect. And you say there are multiple tunnels to enter from?"

"Tha's right," the nidoran replied. He pointed behind them. "There's a crossroads a little way up where it all meets. Haven't explored most of the tunnels in a long time, though."

"That's okay," Raskin said. "Maybe we could create a map of access points. That should make it easily accessible."

They moved towards the side of the room. The timburr and machop builders, who were joined by a riolu and combusken, were busy filling in a long dip in the ground.

"Who are these guys?" Raskin asked Sid as they neared.

"Beck wasn't too happy with the amount of work that needed doing here," Sid explained, pointing to the timburr. "Said unless they had a couple more hands, there was no chance of it getting finished in four weeks."

Four weeks was Lyco's ambitious timeline. They had two to go.

As he saw more of the cavern, Raskin could see what Beck had meant. As well as the metal, the ground was sharply uneven in places and piled high with rubble at others.

He frowned at Sid. "Do we have the money to pay two extra sets of wages?"

"Sure, we'll find it," Sid said with a wave of a paw, then raised it to the builders. "Evenin' fellas! How's the work going?"

The timburr, Beck, wiped his brow and grimaced. "I've never done anything like this before. It's a challenge."

"But a worthy challenge, right?" Sid said.

"Oh, totally," the machop replied with a grin. "Fight Den is gonna be off the charts once it moves here. I can't wait."

Beck nodded, a little less eagerly. "We'll get it done," he said firmly.

Sid gave Raskin a look which said, "See? There's nothing to worry about, Rasky."

"Hey, Sid, do your flame trick for us?" the riolu said, in a high-pitched voice.

Sid smiled, scratching his chin. "I suppose I could…"

Raskin frowned at him. "Flame trick?"

"Just something I've been working on," Sid said, with a mischievous smile. "I ain't used it in battle yet. Still figuring it out."

Sid walked a few metres away from their group, turned side-on to them, then lit his flame sacs as bright as they could go. He took a few steps before suddenly breaking into a sprint, flames dancing wildly on his back. Then, he began breathing fire out of his mouth, and almost in the same motion leaped forwards into a somersault. The multiple flames engulfed him entirely, moving so fast that he became a red-and-white blur.

Sid landed a moment later. For a moment there was a track of fire left in the air behind him, before it sizzled and vanished. He looked back at the group, his flame sacs still lit, wearing a smile that was wide even by his standards.

When he asked Raskin what he thought, at first the nickit could only gape at him.

"You're a marvel, Sid," Raskin said. "How do you learn this stuff?"

Sid shrugged. "Doesn't feel like learning. I just do what feels right."

Raskin shook his head in amazement. "Well then, just… keep being right, won't you?"

They had only been back at the Entei for a matter of minutes before a pokémon crashed clumsily down the basement stairs, throwing open the door. It was a growlithe—Raskin knew him as Finn, one of Luis's friends. The growlithe immediately looked to the back crates, where he and Lyco were sat, and scrambled through the throng of bodies around the arena, where a ralts and sneasel fought, until reaching the crates.

"The police came to my apartment," he said, breathless.

Raskin's ears shot up, and Lyco suddenly lurched forwards. "They did?" she hissed. "What did they want?"

"It was… about here!" Finn spluttered. "I think they wanted me because of what happened at work a few weeks ago, but that was such a minor thing and no one seemed to care at the time and it's not like they could ever prove anything since no one actually saw—"

"Slow down, Finn," Raskin said, detecting a glare from Lyco even as he said it. He ignored her. "We'll listen to you. Firstly, what happened at work?"

The growlithe nodded, taking a few deep breaths. "A few days after you first opened up, I had an accident there. I had only just started practising breathing fire. Something made me jump, then a jet of it just came out, and… kinda set a load of boxes alight. Luckily there was an extinguisher close by so nothing was seriously damaged."

"That's what the police asked you about?"

Finn nodded. "It was so sudden. This officer, once he checked who I was, immediately started asking 'have you been engaging in any fights recently?' I told him no, of course, but then he asked if I knew of anyone who was doing these fights, or any place where they were happening, and… obviously I said no as well, but…!"

Raskin exchanged looks with Lyco. This is bad, her eyes said.

"Did anything happen after that?" Raskin said.

Finn dragged his paws anxiously. "No… though the officer said they'll be monitoring me for a little while. I don't know exactly what that means, but—"

"Why would you come here, then?!" Lyco exploded. "How brain-dead are you!"

The room suddenly quietened. Even the ralts and sneasel in the arena stopped wrestling with each other to look at the crates. Lyco glared back at them. "What?" she snapped. "Carry on!"

The ralts and sneasel looked back at each other. They both hesitated a moment, then the sneasel lunged a paw forwards and the fight resumed.

Finn looked up at Lyco. The poor 'mon was practically quivering. "I thought you needed to know," he murmured.

"You were right," Raskin said, putting a reassuring paw on Finn's shoulder. He gave Lyco a glare, but her expression remained stony. "This information might be very important, Finn. Thanks for telling us. But for now, you should stay away from here. Maybe even go to other pubs. If the police track you and it leads them here, it could be game over for us. You understand that?"

Finn nodded obediently.

"Did you tell Steela about this?" Lyco said.

Finn shook his head. Raskin was relieved, but not surprised; they would already know about it if Steela did.

As the growlithe shuffled away, Raskin turned to Lyco, who was now looking irritably over the room. At least everyone had stopped looking at them.

"Why did you have to shout at him?" Raskin said.

Lyco blinked. "Excuse me?"

"Finn, Lyco. The poor guy was petrified of you."

"Oh…" Lyco shrugged. "Like I said, it was foolish to come straight here."

Raskin bristled at her nonchalance. "That's not good enough," he insisted. "You're always doing things like this. Can't you ever be nice to people? Or at least a bit more understanding? What is there to lose?"

He fully expected Lyco to snap back at him in typical style. So, it was to his immense surprise that her face softened as she turned to him, and she sighed.

"I'm nervous, Raskin. Incredibly nervous. Everything we've worked for still feels like it's balancing on a knife edge. Politeness is not at the front of my mind."

Raskin smiled. She was right about that. "If it helps, I'm virtually always nervous," he said.

"Oh, I know that," Lyco said with a smirk. "I've been trying to knock it out of you for weeks already."

"Well then, maybe I should help with your nervousness, too," he suggested.

Lyco looked dubiously at him. "If you have any ideas, I'm welcome to hearing them."

Raskin spotted a spearow perched on someone's shoulders in the crowd. It was Willow, a delivery 'mon at a nearby post office. She had volunteered to deliver letters for them directly, and even though she charged a small commission, it was well-worth it to avoid going through the government-owned postal service.

"We need to inform everyone about what happened to Finn," he said. "What should we tell them?"

"Well, we should assume that the police will be thorough," Lyco answered. "I don't know if there's been similar accidents to the one Finn mentioned, but if there are others, those people will get questioned too."

Raskin nodded. "So just tell anyone involved in an accident to stay away from here? Even if they haven't been questioned yet?"

"Yeah." Lyco scratched her mane. "However, if everyone just tells the officers that they have no idea about Fight Den, like Finn did, the police might get even more suspicious of them. Maybe we could create some false rumours."

"Direct the police somewhere else, you mean? Isn't that a bit risky?"

"Everything we do is risky," Lyco said. "It should buy us more time, at the very least. More time to get Fight Den 2.0 finished." She paused to glance at the arena, smiling thinly. "If we can reach that point… then things will really get started."