Scandal

Ripley tossed off the Arcanine when it jumped on her back by getting on all fours and spinning. The dog flew off just as the Infernape jumped on. Ripley wasn't able to easily shake this one as he held on with hands and feet. The Charizard struck over her shoulder and snatched the monkey by his arm and tossed him away. The Arcanine tackled the dragon from the side upon instruction of his trainer. Katy watched the blonde young man shout commands and acting out his own strikes—Katy noticed with flashes of fire from his knuckles. He was a Deviant, too, a fire Deviant like William. That explained the two Fire types. She could bet he had more with him. And at the moment, Ripley was doing a wonderful job holding her own against the both of them. She doused them both with flames to keep them out of close range, she swatted away the monkey when he swung off the street lamps for an aerial attack, she whacked the dog with her sledgehammer of a tail. They bit at her wings, they punched and kicked at her chest and flanks. But they really weren't trying to inflict damage, she noticed. She'd seen some rough battles before. She'd had her own Pokémon in such battles, where their opponents would do their very best to draw blood. Katy didn't care for such battles. But if she ever had entered a battle like that, she let her team fight back the same way.

Another thing she noticed was that William called out no attack commands. In fact, she wasn't sure she heard him make a sound. He'd stuffed his hands in his pockets and begun to pace around the battle arena and staying out of the way of the cars that drove by slowly to watch. Ralts rode around on his shoulder and surveyed the battle, too. It certainly took away from William's hardcore, edgy aura, but Ralts was enjoying herself immensely. And William didn't seem to mind.

After Ripley smashed the Infernape into the concrete for the fifth time or so, the blonde hollered and waved his hands. "All right, all right! Enough! Caesar! Brutus! Come back."

The monkey coughed and peeled itself off the ground and the Arcanine bounded back to his trainer faithfully. Katy noticed no one's brace made a sound. They'd battled, technically, but it wasn't recorded by their braces. That meant no battle reward. She wasn't entirely sure what the current situation was or what it consisted of, but she still thoroughly impressed with the battle.

"DAMN it!" the blonde snapped his fingers, "Bested me again, you did. One of these days, Will! Me and my boys are gonna pull one out of the hat. You and Rip won't know what hit ya." He approached William on the stoop, sticking out his hand with a big, white grin.

William obliged for a handshake, but didn't waste time stepping around him to continue on his way.

"That was a great battle," said Katy, still hugging Eevee to her chest. "How do you two know each other?"

"Me and Will? Aw, we go way back!" The taller guy did a double take before his green eyes focused and he swept up next to her. "And who might you be? Angel from heaven?"

Katy laughed so suddenly she snorted and clapped a hand over her mouth. She cleared her throat and spoke. "Haha, um—no, nobody. I'm Katy."

"Christian Andrews, madam." He took her hand and gave it a surprisingly professional shake. "Lovely to make your acquaintance. Please don't tell me you're Will's woman; you'll break my heart."

Katy laughed again, this time so loud and high-pitched, passersby on the sidewalk looked at her with concern. "No, no, I'm just—we're friends—"

"We're not friends," William corrected as he walked on down the street with Ripley zapping back into her Ball at his hip.

The young woman blinked. "We're not friends. Apparently. We're just trying to sort some stuff out together. I-it's nice to meet you." Katy stepped around Christian to follow William.

The blonde turned and followed both of them. "Sort some stuff out? Like what? Did you two just come from the police station?"

"Yes," Katy replied.

"No," William corrected again. Ralts gave a tiny, irritated sigh on his shoulder.

"What gives, what's happening?" Christian skipped up to intercept William at his path and his Infernape did the same, swinging around a lamppost to appear beside his trainer. "You all in some kind of trouble?"

"I will literally pay you to leave me the fuck alone," the other man said dully. Katy stopped just a few paces behind him and looked to the Arcanine that appeared by her side, panting happily.

"Come on, man, maybe I can help!" Christian grinned, "You need another partner?"

"No!" William shouted. "I don't need ANY of you and I want you ALL to just LEAVE me the fuck ALONE!"

Katy resented being spoken to in such a way, so she took her stand. "Excuse you. You wouldn't know ANYTHING about ANY of this stuff with Advancement if it wasn't for me. To say you don't need me is a pretty bold claim, considering I'm the one who pointed you in the direction of Taron's whereabouts." She hugged William's Eevee defiantly.

William sighed loudly in response and Christian spoke up again. "You mean Taron McCallister?"

Katy and the other man both looked to him simultaneously.

Christian loosened his stance. "Was he missing?"

William stepped closer. "You knew Taron?"

The blonde blinked. "Knew?"

The other flinched. "Know? You know Taron?"

"Yeah," he said, "We were buddies in high school. Not so much after that; he went to college, I became a trainer… What's going on?"

William took a breath and ran his fingers through his dark hair. Even he seemed to be solemn now. Katy looked to Christian and spoke quietly. "We—… He died. We found him in his apartment yesterday… I'm so sorry."

Since the first time Katy had met this young man, he was utterly subdued. His smile was gone like it had never been there to begin with. Like it might never be there again. Even his Infernape's flames shrunk to a pitiful blaze. "What happened," he said in half his previous voice.

Katy looked to William. He pursed his lips and put his hands on his hips. "Someone killed him," he admitted quietly. "We found him in his bathtub. Someone had broken in and murdered him."

Suddenly the Ralts on William's shoulder squeaked in the actuation of a sob. At first Katy thought the Pokémon was mourning her lost trainer, but she realized it might actually be that the Ralts was feeling the strongest emotion among the three trainers. And at the moment, that was Christian's sadness. The Arcanine chuffed and looked to his trainer and the Infernape moved closer to Christian with soft "ooh ooh's." It was another moment before the blonde spoke. "You found him in his apartment, just up the street here?" He pointed down the sidewalk. When the other two nodded soberly, Christian immediately began marching away toward the apartment building.

"He's not there anymore," William said, following, "The police have already moved him." But the blonde didn't reply. He just kept marching on, Brutus and Caesar flanking him faithfully. Katy kept Eevee against her chest and followed, too. Sure enough, Christian went into the apartment building, as it was open due to recent investigation, and straight up to the floor William and Katy had been on just a day prior. The door was closed, but it wasn't locked, so he really did just walk right in. Katy found this odd, but then she remembered—there was no investigation anymore. The police had declared it suicide. It wasn't a crime scene, therefore, it wasn't well monitored.

William and Katy stood near the door as they watched Christian move through the apartment to Taron's desk. His computer was still plugged in and turned on. But Christian wasn't trying to access it; he was looking through the drawers—rifling, more like. He pulled them open and shuffled things around until finally he turned around to them. "There's supposed to be a flash drive, a-an extra hard drive. He—a long time ago he showed me some stuff on it, some stuff they were making. I don't remember what it was, it was like some kind of machine that was supposed to help you test the safety of your airbag in your vehicle or something. It wasn't important, but there was… other stuff on that flash drive. I saw the files. Like—I didn't see them, but I saw the folders. And he wouldn't tell me what they were. I know some of them were video files, but he wouldn't show me." Christian shrugged in defeat. "I know this is where he kept it. He hid it behind these things." He pushed some hanging file folders back and shifted a small box. "But it's not here."

"They took it," said William simply. He looked to both of them. "I'd bet my last breath the police confiscated it. And likely destroyed it and its contents."

Christian barely nodded. "They killed him for what was on that flash drive."

Katy blinked. "… Are we sure the police took it? Maybe he… found another hiding place for it."

"Even if he did, they found it," said William, "Why do you think they made us leave that day? They'd already decided they were declaring it suicide, but they wanted us out so they could hunt for the flash drive to get rid of it."

Katy's eyes drifted down. Son of a bitch. This really was a scandal. "… That can't be the only place he had it though. He had to have a copy of whatever was on that flash drive that was so important to him that he had to hide it."

"Like another flash drive?" said Christian. He began looking through the drawers again.

"Well, maybe. What if it's at his workplace?"

"That'd be stupid. It was Advancement that killed him, why would he keep that shit right under their noses?" said William.

"Because that's where it happened!" Katy argued. "What happens in Vegas concept?" The men became silent. "If there's a copy of whatever was on that flash drive, it's at his place of work."

"But not necessarily at his work station," said Christian.

"No, but this is obviously what it's about. Something's going on there, just like you said, William," Katy looked to him, "and Taron got killed for taking it home with him."

The Ralts on William's shoulder had become quiet and still, soaking up all of their contemplation.

Christian shrugged again. "So? What can be done about that? Advancement… has got a dirty little secret. How the hell are we ever going to know?"

Katy rubbed her lips together. "… William."

He look to her and so did Ralts.

"You still have your security pass from when you worked there?"