"So...Cold...hahaaaahhh…"

"I… feel.. Ya… See a …anywhere… to stay...yet?"

"N-no… I don't… haaah-AGH!"

"Ay! Lilly! You ok?"

"K-kinda… pain's becoming… too much.."

"...Damn...it's gotten worse."

"Y-yeah."

I hadn't noticed this much before now, but the snow's really REALLY cold. So.. very… cold. I see Rekker look around for a bit before his eye catches something.

"Hey! I see something! It's not far…"

I'm too exhausted to spend any energy talking. I just stand up, and lean on Rekker. He half-walks me to a secluded cave surrounded by a bunch of rocks and dead bushes. It's not much, but better than

⁰nothing. We both stagger into the very end of the cave, and then collapse. None of us can talk anymore. The gash has stopped bleeding as much, but… that's not saying much. As I look behind us, I can see the huge trail of blood we left behind. But, well, what could we do about it? Nothing but just hope for the best.

It's a long time before one of us breaks the silence. This time, it's me that breaks it.

"...O-out of e-everthing… t-this is… u-ugh.."

Despite my best efforts to sound nice, my voice comes out in this sort of raspy, terrible tone.

Rekker nods his head, "Hey, at least I'm with ya right? We're gonna make it out just fine, ok? Just me and ya. We'll be fine." He says, dragging one of his paws across the ice floor for me to hold.

I do hold his paw, but not much else. I wish I could share in Rekker's enthusiasm, but I just can't. I don't even have the energy to think anymore. It's just… that desperate.

We're sitting ducks, waiting for whatever awaits us.

I close my eyes for just a few seconds. And when I open them again, there's two pokemon, a Weavile and a Gogoat.

It's too dark to actually see it happen; but I can tell that both of them are grinning.

We don't have the time, nor the energy to do anything before they rush in for the kill. The

The Weavile fury-swipes me, creating quite a large amount of flesh-deep scratches all over my body and tail. It hurts, bad.

Rekker doesn't fare any better. He was skewered by the Gogoat. And… oh… dear… I could see the rivers of blood coming from where he was stabbed. Oh dear arceus… how… what kind of wound could… produce that amount of blood.

I hopelessly flail my arms around in hopes of scaring off our attackers. It doesn't work, the fury swipes kept on coming.

Even with the pain. I feel… tired. I just want to close my eyes and rest. I need to stay awake, but I just can't.

And so, my eyes close for what just might be the last time.

….

….

….

Lilly stood up with her eyes closed

Rekker did the same

both of them weakly pushed back their attackers

the weavile rushed in for another attack.

the last thing it did

the gogoat tried the same

and it never breathed again

one became ice

and the other became ash

outside…

everything that could became buried under a grave of ash and snow

Thump Thump Thump

"Hey Marin! You good in there? I brought food!"

There's no response. I repeat the previous action with still no acknowledgement. After another 2 rounds, I finally hear a shout for me to "just come in". And so I did.

The house… didn't look good. There are food crumbs everywhere on the floor. Some patches of wall have no dust while still being surrounded by it… There's even some patches of completely broken walls.

Hasn't even been a couple of days and Marin's really let this place go. Don't blame her for that either. . .

She's crying in her bedroom, surrounded by an uncountable number of photographs. All of them are of… what used to be her family. The earliest photos show Rekker, Marin, and Mr. Marley. A few years later, Lilly entered the pictures at around the same time that Mr. Marley died of cancer; and… right around the same time Lilly's family issues started. As I look at the room more clearly, I notice that Marin's holding an unburnt piece of Rekker's shirt.

"Hey." I say, "Sorry about your loss, but… are you going to keep crying or do you want to come eat with me."

...That came out wrong, but I ho she's able to get the gist of what I'm saying.

"...f-f-food…" Marin says in response.

I walk over and sit down on the bed next to her; taking out a few cupcakes from the bag I brought with me. "I know you don't want to hear about the station anymore… But everyone there's been worried about you ever since you left your post. So they made you these cakes. Not much, but it's what they made."

Marin takes all of the cupcakes without a word, and goes on to stare at the ceiling like before.

There's nothing else I could, or want to say so I just leave Marin's house, mentally preparing myself for the investigation.

"So I… should… be near where… the… fire… and ice pillar appeared… last night…This is… ah…"

A lone glaceon looked around the area cautiously. Her ears looking for the slightest sound of any potential enemy. Her eyes looked that way too, being more focused on what might happen than what was directly in front of her.

"Ah.. I'm …safe… now…. At least." Glaceon searched the horizon once again; still no signs of anybody but herself. With one less distraction, she finally descended the rock face, landing deep in the soft snow. After struggling to pull herself up, the Glaceon was treated to what may have been a prop in a horror attraction; or something from any poor dragon's worst nightmare; a Weavile, perfectly encased in ice, icicles penetrating deep into their flesh. Some icicles perfectly aligned themselves with the Weavile, as if their purpose was to expose the true internal of whomever it struck. Others, however, completely crushed parts of the body, leaving pallets of gore in their wake.

Glaceon flinched, jumping a good few meters backwards. Instead of landing on a pile of snow this time around, it was ash. So much ash. Glaceon rapidly pulled herself out of all the ash, backing herself into a cave.

She kept backing up until she felt something… wet. Keeping her eyes half-fixed on the outside, Glaceon lifted her paw up to look at what she had just stepped on.

Blood. It was a stream of blood.

In what was a split second decision, Glaceon took a peak to her back. And what she saw was a bloodied mess of two pokemon; A flareon, and… one of those hybrid species… things?

Hybrid's weren't terribly uncommon, nor were they just about anywhere. So what was one doing out here? Or… so thought Glaceon. Moving closer, she could now see the bone-deep wounds, as well as all the dried blood on their fur.

"I… yo..u.. need… a-any heeeelp?" Glaceon asked the s...bodies with obviously no response. She walked up to the two and put a paw on the Flareon's neck.

… It was still warm.

Glaceon slowly reached into her bag, and pulled out her team badge. Holding it up, the two bodies on the floor warped away. She then exited the cave.

"Hello.. It is currently September 13. I'm Niel, and I'll be handling the investigation into…"

I freeze. The tape recorder keeps on going without me. I know what I have to say here; that I'm investigating Lilly and Rekker's murder and all. But….

Click

The tape immediately stops. I go to pull up some text-to-speech program somewhere off the internet. They don't care who's doing the tape, the higher-ups just want a recording of the whole investigative process or whatever they call it these days.

And why am I using some tape recorder instead of audio software anyway? It's just making stuff harder for myself.

…

Eh, I'll keep using this. Just as a matter of principle.

I rewind the tape and hit record again.

"Today is September 13. My name is Niel ■■■■. I am the lead investigator into-" I freeze, then push out the next phrase, "the murder of Lily Nesari and Rekker Marley."

At least that's over with.

I continue on. "As of today, we have no current suspects, but we do have… two people that say they know something, December Noestram, and Bradley Edward I'll be visiting them tomorrow. But for now, all the information I have will be shared here."

Or at least what the pencil pushers up above will allow me to say...

"The two kids went missing sometime in the middle of the night. It's likely they ran away from home with a few partner pokemon. They fled on foot towards the center of town. There, they were attacked and killed. Their bodies were burnt; likely to destroy evidence."

…

…

…

Click

I wanted to mention the absolute mess that was the house, but the bureaucrats wouldn't let me for no reason… If there is one, it's probably not a legitimate one…

Was bin Ich mich herein bekomme?

Keine zeit denken. Ich habe meine arbeit machen.

One of the benefits of living in a somewhat small town is that there's almost no traffic on most days. Today is not one of them. Some kind of marching band performed on the city streets and messed everything up. If I had known that it was going to be this way, I would've just rode Zebstrika. But I didn't know, so I had to sit in traffic for a long while. It's already midday by the time I finally arrive at the scene again.

Now, if this was some random mystery detective flick, there'd be magnifying glasses and psychics, and all that. But no. This is reality.

The scene itself isn't really interesting. Just a bunch of police tape, an oil drum, and burnt up fragments of jeans, shirts, and pokeballs. Rekker's and Lilly's backpacks were left behind, but those were completely cleaned out. There's that smell of napalm, shampoo….

...Shampoo? That's… not typical. Normally, runaways don't pack stuff like bathing products. Takes up too much space, and doesn't have a use in the middle of a forest. It also looks just weird. Not like any sort of brand name is on there. AND WHY WOULD YOU TAKE IT OUTSIDE?

Well, I guess this is just interesting enough, I'll take this to the station.

I take out a plastic bag to put the bottle in, but just when I close it, I feel something sharp brush up against my neck.

In one quick motion, I take out Haxorus and pull my gun… but the feeling disappears as soon as I do so; leaving me very confused.

It isn't just me thats feeling this way. Haxorus does too.

"Hawx?" She vocalizes, looking around for any fight to pick. Once she realizes there is none, haxorus looks back at me. To that, I pat her on the head.

"Thank you." I say, as I put her back in the ball.

I then get in my car, and quickly leave. I know I was supposed to stay longer and actually look for stuff; but… this place gives me the creeps.

"We've sent two. You know who those two are?"

"Yes. Shiny flareon, And Dewott Wartortle?"

"Correct. I want you to find them, and simply observe for the time being. That will do."

"Noted. I will not bring Team Inferno with me immediately, as that would be extremely moticible to local residents. Like you said, operate in the shadows, ans stay out of the light as much as possible… Anything else… Smapla?"

"No. That is all… Emboar Saphim."