A Perfect Candidate

Katy felt mildly uncomfortable in a seedy bar such as this one. This seemed like the place she could expect to get hit on by old, drunk men. But thankfully she had two strapping men here to rescue her were such a thing to occur. At least she hoped so. Christian she could see getting defensive, but William may be oblivious.

She was in no hurry to "write back home" about her recent adventures. The last thing she needed her mom and dad to worry about was her hanging out in a bar with two dudes who she had just met but had spent several nights with already. And while she hadn't spent the nights with them like that, Christian was becoming cuter and kinder to her every passing day. Even now he was happy and jolly, in the face of utmost danger of being caught stealing. How did he manage such a demeanor? Oh right. What they had talked about a couple nights ago: his self-esteem issues. Honestly, Katy wasn't sure where his self-esteem issues derived from because he was so well kept and seemingly confident and content with life. Perhaps something in his past had caused him to feel as if he needed to overcompensate. If she found out as much about William's past as she already knew, then she was sure she would eventually learn of Christian's too.

A Toxicroak behind the bar was dipping its spike on the back of its hand into six shot glasses for six different customers who were apparently challenging each other. They looked like college kids and they were by far the youngest in the bar. Everyone else was older. A loud woman sat in the corner, working on her fifth beer. The more empty bottles that sat before her, the louder she got. There were two older men sitting at a booth together with a shady Accelgor standing watch with its arms crossed. When Katy was caught staring at it, it shifted its sharp eyes to her, making her look away.

"Some place you picked here, Boss," said Christian, taking a sip of his beer. "I've never seen such a mix before."

"It's the place he knows best," William replied, his fingers lightly turning a glass of whiskey on the counter.

Katy didn't know much about drinks, nor what she liked, so she took a swig of her hard cider and leaned into William's view. "What's his name."

"Doug." He looked at Christian. "How good is your gorilla at this part?"

"He's a monkey and he's really good. Slight of hand type of stuff. He's a big jokester, right? He gets you goin', makes you laugh. Then before you know it, you're wallet's gone."

"Who taught Caesar how to do that?" Katy said.

"Nobody! He must have seen it on TV or something. He doesn't even do anything with the wallets, he just collects them."

"Well, not that this guy is particularly stupid, he just gets sloppy when he's drunk. So wait until he's a few drinks in." William set down his second glass and ordered another.

Katy watched him. "What about you?"

Christian pointed a thumb at the man beside him. "The guy knows no such thing. I've never seen a dude hold his liquor like he can. It's insane."

"Thanks." William rubbed the scruff on his jaw, making a sandpapery sound.

The bell above the door dinged as it opened. An older man with a head full of fluffy, white hair came forward with a wide grin aimed in William's direction. "Billy Billy! What do ya say, my boy?!" He walked behind Katy and Christian and gave William a sharp slap on the back, loud enough to make the nearby Espurr whirl around with constricted pupils.

"How are ya, Doug." William didn't turn around, he simply waited for him to have a seat. "Got your first drink ordered."

"Knob Creek I hope!" He sat down on the stool on the other side of William.

"You bet." William inhaled. "Doug, these are my friends. Christian and Katy."

Oh, so now she was his friend. When it was convenient for her to be so. Katy leaned with Christian and they both waved with a polite smile to the older man.

"They're youngsters! Barely out of high school, you look like!"

"A little older than that," Christian raised his beer.

"Hahaha! What you doin' hangin' out with kids, Billy?" Doug thanked the Toxicroak who brought his drink.

"We happened to be running the same trainer challenge. They won their battles so I offered to buy them drinks."

Katy leaned back again and picked up her drink. What an impressive lie to come up with on the spot like that.

"Ah, so they're trainers! Not Deviants?"

"Christian is. I'm not." Katy said with a bit of a jealous undertone. When she realized it was audible, she cleared her throat and leaned forward again. "Are you a trainer or a Deviant, Doug?"

"Oh, I'm a Deviant! Was a trainer, once upon a time. Now I just have Lucky." He patted his hip where a single ordinary Poké Ball was hung. From here he began talking about his trainer days and the competitions he used to partake in with his trusty Crawdaunt. He pulled out his wallet. From here Katy couldn't see what all was in his wallet, but William was right beside him and wasn't looking. He must have been serious about waiting until the guy was liquored up first. But so far, he seemed like someone Katy didn't want to put in the line of fire. The old man showed all kinds of photos of swimming competitions he entered in in his youth, the Deviant challenges he'd partaken in. He'd switched from showing physical photos to images on his cell phone, passing it down to Christian and Katy repeatedly. He talked a lot, which was par for the course for men his age usually; they had a lot to say. But when he started addressing William is when Katy started to realize he wasn't such an innocent soul after all.

"Ol Billy here is such a trainer at heart! He never did any of those Deviant competitions and challenges, even though he could have rocked out on every single one of them! He is a Level Ten after all!"

So, he was, in fact, a Level Ten. That was the highest Level a Deviant could achieve. Katy wasn't sure how rare it was, but something told her it was quite special.

"Always more about that Charizard and that Houndoom than anything else. Say, how is that big lizard and that pup of yours anyhow?"

"Ripley's doing just fine. And you know how Victor is."

"I do?"

"Dead, Doug. Victor's dead."

"What?! When did that happen?" He didn't sound very surprised, as he took another drink.

"After I quit."

"Hm. That's a cryin' shame, my boy. I'm sorry about that. You haven't replaced him?"

"No." William kept his eyes forward.

"Not even another Houndour?"

"Nope."

Katy found this rather rude of Doug, to expect William to have replaced Victor. Then his next comment made the previous look like decent manners.

"Hmhm. Should have been an Ability oriented Deviant instead of a trainer then, eh? Haha! I'm just teasing, of course."

"Of course."

A few drinks later, Doug was leaning and slouching, slurring and sputtering all over the place. Much of the bar had dispersed by now, including that shady Accelgor that didn't care for Katy's gaze. Thank God. That thing was creepy. And then she and Christian received "the signal" from William.

"Katy, Christian, you should show your prized Pokémon to Doug. Let him have a look."

"Mm," Katy dug out Houdini's Poké Ball and released him into the bar. While she would never describe any of her Pokémon as a single "prized Pokémon", Houdini needed to get a good look at Doug in order to copy his appearance and get into Advancement.

The Zoroark sniffed the thick air and laid his silvery blue eyes on the old man. He stared for a long time, remaining entirely motionless. He did that when he was studying. And he did that a lot.

"Look at this! I bet this one cost you a pretty penny!"

"How do you know I didn't catch him, Doug?" Katy smiled.

"Because Zorua and Zoroark are rare around these parts."

Katy laughed. "Yes, he cost me my college tuition."

"You mean you didn't go to college? Not a smart move for a smart girl such as yourself, Katy!" Doug shook his head, slurring quite a bit on the "smart move" and "smart girl."

"Well, maybe I'm not as smart as you think I am, Doug." Katy finished her second drink. She was beginning to feel it.

"How about my guy?" Christian released Caesar into the bar next. "This guy will knock your socks off!"

"Ah, I've never been much for Fire types but he seems really cool!" Doug rubbed up his own face and into his white hair.

"Yeah, but you've never met a Fire type like him before." Christian flicked his chin up at his monkey. "Caesar; show 'em a good time."

Caesar first looked to Doug then smiled a white fanged smile. Then he flipped his upper and lower lip back to reveal his pink, shiny gums.

"Haha! Look at this guy!"

"Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh!" Caesar pointed to his shirt. When Doug looked down, the monkey flipped his nose up with his finger.

"Aaahaha! Oh, he got me!"

William smirked and watched on while Katy sat back and giggled. Christian flipped the Infernape a coin.

He caught it in one hand. "Ooh, ooh, aah!" The Pokémon rubbed his hands together and then opened them, palms out, showing that the coin was gone. Before the intoxicated Doug could tell that it was gone, Caesar was pulling the coin out from behind his ear. "Aah aah!"

"Hahahaoh my! He's really good! You should be in show business!" He leaned on his elbow against the counter. Caesar copied him, then took his drink and drank from it. The monkey coughed and sputtered, writhing about. "HAHAHA!"

"All right, all right, that's enough Caesar." Christian called the Infernape back to his Ball. Katy looked at Houdini. He had been staring at Caesar for a while now, so she decided to put him back in his Ball as well.

After this it wasn't long before William excused himself with Katy and Christian. Doug insisted on paying for everyone's drinks, but William didn't let him; He had paid in advance.

"Billy, I godda say. It was good to see you again." He leaned against the man and hugged him tight, slapping his back as he did."

William barely patted him back. "Good to see you too, Doug. Wait for a taxi, okay? Don't walk."

"You got it, bruh. Let's do this again sometime!"

"Good idea. See you around." William waved and walked away after Christian and Katy bid the old man goodbye.

Katy watched Doug climb into a taxi over her shoulder then she looked to Christian. "Did he get it?"

"You know he did." Christian smirked and threw the Ball out.

Caesar appeared from a beam of light under the stars. He held out a brown leather wallet with a big, cheesy grin.

Katy's eyes went wide. "He took the whole wallet."

"Oh shit." Christian looked to William.

"Well, he's not getting far in that taxi." The older man sighed. He took the wallet and opened it, looking through the cards therein. "I'll get it back to him. But for now…" He held up an ID pass with Doug's picture on it. "We'll be borrowing this."

Katy felt the knot in her stomach give way a little. "Wait. Guys, how are we going to make sure he doesn't show up to work the same day Houdini is in there?"

"Because he works remotely," said William. "He never actually goes into work. I'm telling you, this guy was perfect."

"Yeah, and kind of an asshole, too." Said Christian.

"Again, a perfect candidate." William slid the card into his pocket and walked on. The other two followed at a normal pace. They couldn't believe this was happening! Maybe by this time tomorrow, they would have the information in their hands, the information that got Taron McCallister murdered!