Helluva Perk

"Whoa, whoa, break in?" Christian said incredulously.

"It's not breaking in if you have a keycard," Katy explained. William must have thought this to be an amusing statement because he huffed. Katy suddenly felt very proud of herself.

"Like, you mean, go in at night and snoop around?"

Katy shrugged. "See what we can see."

"That sounds…" Christian shook his head and ran his fingers through his curls.

"Like a job for a Pokémon," said William before he turned his attention fully to Katy. "How good is your Zoroark at copying appearances?"

"Oh! He's really good."

"Like… we talking Ditto-face good orrr—"

"No, no! Like, really good. As long as he doesn't have to talk."

"You guys are serious?" Christian started to laugh nervously, "Y'all, this is Advancement Inc. They find out we're spying on them—"

"How do we get him to tell us what he sees," said William.

"We'd have to rig him with a camera or something. Which means we'd have to have a way for him to hear us," Katy replied.

"Guys?" Christian waved his arms.

"Hell, if we are getting him in there disguised as somebody, might as well do it during business hours," William shrugged.

Katy gasped. "Yeah, then we're more likely to see something."

"HelLO?" Christian snapped his fingers. "Yo, are you crazy? This is nuts, stop talking about it!"

Katy turned to the blonde. "These people probably killed your friend, Christian. Don't you want them brought to justice?"

"Well—yeah, but by the police! That's their job!"

"The police are covering for Advancement," William said strongly and pointed in the direction of the station. "Go on and talk to them and see for yourself. See if you can get them to say anything besides suicide."

"It's true," Katy agreed, "They refused to even question his family or co-workers. Completely against protocol, to my knowledge."

Christian looked between them. Katy could tell he believed what they'd told him, but he was having difficulty processing it all. To be honest, she couldn't blame him. It was a lot. In fact, her skin began crawling with the realization, too. They weren't safe. No one was really safe. At least not in Bourbonville. She refocused when Christian shook his head. "This is insane. Just call someone else, bring in another police department—"

"It's this district, it will have to go through this police department at some point, Christian. And if they're doing what they did to us today, they'll cover it up. If we can get some evidence against them, then we can take this over their heads. That's all we want to do. We want someone to know what's going on, someone who is going to do something about it."

"Ah, shit," said William, "I forgot. They totally would have toasted my pass after I quit. There's no way it would get us in."

"Then we really would have to kind of break in," Katy added, "Or borrow someone else's. Without their permission."

Christian chuckled. "Reminds me of when Caesar went through his pick-pocketing phase." The other two looked at him. His grin faded. "I—I mean, no! That's impossible! Who on Earth could you get to do that without getting caught!" When they kept staring him down, he caved. "I—was just making an observation, don't—don't you drag me into this!"

William tilted his head. "You wouldn't get dragged into shit if you kept your fucking mouth shut. What did I tell you was gonna happen?" He pointed at him.

Katy now looked between the men. She was actually very curious of their history.

"I'm NOT helping you spy on them! Call the damn F-B-I for that! Leave me and my team out of it!" Christian walked between them to the door.

William stayed facing the empty room and bowed his head. "Advancement killed my Houndoom."

Christian stopped in his tracks. He and Katy both turned to look at William, but the man kept his back turned to them.

He pulled his hands up to his hips with a careful motion. "They knew why I quit. And they didn't say anything when I left. But two days later, they came by my place and shot him in the middle of the night. They wanted to make sure I knew to not tell anyone about the shit I saw. Like that was supposed to scare me into silence." He huffed and shook his head, looking up to the ceiling now, his back still turned. Katy felt an awful tug in her chest. And the Ralts started softly weeping, wiping her little eyes. But when he turned around, his eyes were clear and sharp. "They killed Victor because they thought I might say something. Whoever runs this show thinks they're the fucking Hitler of the country. And I don't know how far it goes up. Branch manager is definitely a bastard, District manager maybe, who knows: maybe it goes all the way up to the goddamn C-E-O. But they're monsters," he said with a slight growl, "And they deserve to come crashing down."

Christian watched him sadly.

"And… I hate to bring it up. But you owe me." He tilted his head again, eyeing the blonde.

"Oh my God, no. No, you can't play that card now."

"I'm playing that card now. You owe me. And this is what I want from you to make us even. You said anything."

"I didn't think I would have to make the stipulation of anything legal, Will—"

"Please."

Everyone went silent again. William's eyes had since softened and drained Christian's resistance. The dark-headed man even put his hands together in beseeching. Eevee had laid his ears back, still snuggled to Katy's chest. And finally Christian sighed. He turned a circle and pulled his own hair down over his eyes, then let the curls spring back up again. "… So, what are we gonna do with the employee whose keycard we take."

William's stance loosened a little and he lifted his chin. "I'll think about it." Now he took his turn walking to the door. He stepped out and went down the hall. Christian dropped his head backwards and stared at the ceiling, muttering curses to himself before he followed the man. And Katy filed out behind him.

Now they both trailed after William into the streets again. The sun was setting and Katy's stomach was growling so loud she was sure passersby could hear. She hoped William was leading them to a lunch spot. Luckily, it seemed Ralts was on the same wavelength. She tapped William's shoulder and lightly tugged on a lock of his hair to get his attention. When he mumbled at her, she pointed to a hotdog stand. "That's what you want?" he said to the Pokémon beside his head. She squeaked something in reply and nodded. "All right then." Katy smiled and stood in line behind William while he tried to order a hot dog according to what the Ralts was pointing at and attempting to interpret her wants.

"When did he get a Ralts?" asked Christian.

"She was in Taron's apartment," Katy said, "She's been attached to him ever since. I think she likes him a lot," she giggled.

"She ought to. He's got a Special Ability." Christian pulled out his wallet to see how much money he had.

Katy blinked. "He does?"

"Yeah, he does. One helluva perk, too. Not that it does him a whole lot of good outside of fighting."

"What is it?" Katy turned to him while Ralts waved her little white hands in protest when William offered her relish.

"It's almost like two things: he can feel when he's about to be attacked. And he can dodge it. And he can copy physical attacks. Pretty cool, huh?"

Katy looked to the man, amazed someone so extraordinary was standing in front of her ordering a hotdog. "That's incredible." That's when she recalled what she'd been thinking about before. "How do you and he know each other?"

"Oh! I ran into him for a battle a few years ago, crossed him at a Pokémon Center and challenged him. His Charizard was so strong and so cool and I just had to battle him again. And again. And again. My guys haven't been able to beat his dragon yet!" He smiled a big, happy grin. "But one day! One day, I'll get him. Him and Ripley."

"I noticed you didn't record the battle or transfer a reward," said Katy.

"Yeah, I don't much battle for Points—not against him anyway. I just do it for fun."

"So, that's it? You just met him in a battle one day and you… follow him?"

Christian gave a belly laugh. "Hahaha! I don't mean to! You wouldn't believe how often we happen across each other though! It's kinda spooky! Like our paths are intertwined or something." He wiggled his fingers in a paranormal gesture.

Katy giggled. "What happened that you owe him?"

The blonde clammed up quick. "Er—haha. That's a bit of a long story. Probably best saved for being told over hotdogs!" He stepped up next in line and rubbed his hands together eagerly.

She watched Christian fight with himself to decide what he wanted on his hotdog then looked to William who was holding two hotdogs, one for himself, and one he held in front of the Ralts on his shoulder. The Pokémon reached forth and carefully held the bun before she leaned forward and opened her mouth as wide as it would go (which wasn't wide at all) and took a bite directly out of the middle, smearing mustard all over her face. Katy smirked and looked down to the Eevee still nestled in her hug. "What do you say: are you ready for a hotdog?"

"Irrooh!"