CHAPTER 7

Reyes glanced up as a shape eclipsed the streetlight above the small parking lot. "Right on time," the detective said, feeding the Noctowl on his shoulder another piece of the poppy seed bagel he was picking apart in his hand. Hawlucha Man landed with a grunt and jogged over to where the police cruiser was parked.

"You got the stuff?" Hawlucha Man asked. Reyes picked up a small brown paper bag from the hood of the car and shook it.

"Same as usual. Maple frosted donut for you, sesame seed bagel for your partner."

"Sweet." Hawlucha Man rummaged around in the bag and held out the toasted bagel to Hierro. The flying type snatched it and began to nibble away. Hawlucha Man took a bite of his donut. "Sergeant Matsuri not here yet?"

Reyes gestured at the all-night donut shop with his chin. "She had to pee." He scratched his Noctowl's feathers. "Man, I can't believe it's collection night again. Seems like it just happened."

Every month in Avenbrooke, the Baron sent his men around to collect tribute from the local business and landlords. The police had done everything in their power to shut down the extortion, but the Baron was savvy enough to have his accountants and lawyers set the whole enterprise up in a way that was entirely legal and, to the surprise of many, entirely tax deductible. The Baron's men would go and obtain a "voluntary donation" to the Avenbrooke Community Fund, the charity and shell company that the Baron had established to take the "donations". The Fund acted as a perverse sort of insurance that the Baron would dip into to reimburse any business or residence that had been damaged in an operation by one of the other organized crime factions in Clarus City. Though the people of Avenbrooke hated the Baron shaking them down every month, they also weren't fond of the idea of one of Wrath's firebombs going out of control and taking a whole neighborhood with it, so they mostly paid up.

And because every carrot needed a good stick, those that didn't pay tended to wake up one morning and find their home or place of business had been struck by some sort of terrible accident. Holdouts on collection night generally didn't hold out for very long.

Nearly a decade ago, when the Baron had first started collecting, the police had tried to crack down on the Baron's enterprise and stop the whole thing. The Baron had fielded his entire private army of thugs and enforcers against the police force in one of the most infamous nights of violence in Clarus City's history, second only to Sloth's vicious and bloody coup several years later. When the members of the Eleventh who were not comatose or worse arrived at the precinct the next morning, bruised and bleeding, they were greeted in the foyer by Bruce Giordano and Carlo Pirozzi, the latter of whom cheerfully informed them that what he was doing was entirely within the letter of the law and that he had the documentation to prove it.

When they had tried to arrest him for his role in the previous night's riots, it came to light that the rioters had taken their orders from a byzantine array of lieutenants and section bosses, and financed through an equally thorny tangle of shell companies, that there was no way to conclusively tie them back to the Baron, or even substantial evidence to prove that the Baron had been involved in the riots at all. Of course, none of the men they brought in would testify against him.

And so they had been forced to let the Baron walk free.

Now the Avenbrooke police deployed en masse on collection night, but only to step in if things got out of hand. An uneasy and unspoken truce had been established over the years that should one of the Baron's men become too overzealous in extracting tribute, the police could apprehend him and the Baron would disavow any association. It usually meant for a quick trip across the harbor to Redstone Prison, and the looming threat of abandonment by their patron and summary incarceration was enough to keep most of the enforcers in line. But the Eleventh knew better than to take that on faith.

Sergeant Matsuri walked out of the donut shop, her Raichu bounding along after her. "All right boys, up and at 'em." She glanced at Hawlucha Man. "You saving that frosting for later or something?" Hawlucha Man grinned sheepishly and wiped at the corners of his mouth. "Anything on the radio?" Matsuri asked Reyes.

"Nope, but it's early." Reyes watched a few feral ghost types pass in front of the moon and sucked at his teeth. "Seems like there's a lot of new Unovan immigrants around this month. I'm sure they've been warned what's coming, but they aren't gonna like it.

Matsuri nodded and folded her arms. "The whole city feels like a powder keg ready to blow. One little spark is all it's going to take to send the whole thing up in flames."

A crackle came over the police radios. The three pokemon all perked up at the sound, and an instant later, Alex caught the garbled voice of a dispatcher. Reyes glanced over at Alex. "Call for backup at Third and Cedar. It's a bit of a winding route in the car…"

"But as the Murkrow flies, piece of cake," Alex said, finishing the thought. "I'll head over."

"We'll be right behind you," Matsuri said, swinging into the driver's side and firing up the sirens.

Reyes muttered something to the Noctowl on his shoulder, and the bird took off on soundless wings, spiraling up into the night air. "I'm sending Bella with you," the detective said. "From what we got over the radio, sounds like there are shots fired. If you get there before us, be careful."

"Got it."

"I'd say don't be a hero, kid…"

"But that's kind of the job description, yeah." Alex was already sprinting to one of the four fire escapes he had identified around the donut shop. Hierro kicked off the walls of the alley to climb progressively higher while Alex scrambled up the iron steps, the metal clanging under his footfalls. He and his partner sprinted across the rooftop and spread their wings, soaring out over the street. Reyes and Matsuri's cruiser screamed around a corner, and Reyes's Noctowl swooped down to fly alongside them. Alex hit the next rooftop running, and in seconds he was airborne again. Hierro caught his eye as they glided, and he saw the Hawlucha's irises shining in the streetlights flashing along below.

The rapid report of gunfire greeted them as they touched down on a tenement rooftop on Cedar Avenue. Two pairs of police officers were crouching behind their cars, trading gunfire with a group of the Baron's enforcers taking cover behind a car of their own in front of a storefront with shattered windows. Alex could see an older couple huddling near the store counter trying to make themselves as small as possible to avoid stray bullets. "You go left," he said to Hierro. "I'll go right. Ready?"

Hierro bobbed up and down in a full-body nod. They stepped back a few paces to get a proper running start before jumping. Alex counted three enforcers, a Machoke, a Tyrunt, and a Magneton. He knew that the advantage of a surprise attack would only last for a second, and he needed to make that second count. Humans and most pokemon that weren't small prey animals didn't usually bother to account for an attack coming from above, and that was an advantage Alex and Hierro had continued to press.

"Listen up assholes!" Alex shouted as his foot connected with one of the enforcers' noses. The man fell to his knees, clutching his face as blood poured between his fingers. Hierro slammed into the Machoke before executing a backflip and driving his taloned foot into the sternum of the second enforcer. "I'm guessing the cops already gave you a chance to drop your weapons, so I'm skipping right to the part where we kick your asses." Alex spun his batons and clubbed the Tyrunt across its snout. The rock type gave a stunned yelp while Alex turned and drove the heel of his foot between its eyes. He snapped his leg back and threw out a kick behind him, catching the third enforcer in the groin. When the man bent over with a low moan of pain, Alex whirled around with a roundhouse kick and dropped him.

Hierro swept the Machoke off its feet before bounding off one of the bullet-riddled cars to deliver a punishing jump kick to finish the hulking fighting type off. Before Hierro could recover, the Magneton began to hum as electricity sparked along its magnetic poles. Alex knew his fists couldn't deter the steel type, and he had been unable to find a non-conducive metal to make his batons. Anything he did to try to stop the Magneton would have been not only fruitless, but also very likely to seriously injure himself as well. And unlike Hierro, Alex's body lacked the rapid metabolism that allowed pokemon to recover from severe attacks quickly.

Just as Alex had braced himself for what was to come, Bella dropped out of the sky with a rush of wind. The gale spun the Magneton around, and the steel type's eyes rolled as it struggled to reorient itself and charge up again. Before it managed to do so, Hierro had slammed his foot into the center of the cluster before hurling it to the ground. The Magneton buzzed faintly before it went offline. Bella landed on Alex's shoulder as the Tyrunt struggled back to its feet. The Noctowl's eyes briefly flashed red, and the rock type fell in heap, knocked unconscious by the Noctowl's psychic powers.

Reyes stepped out of the cruiser and held out his arm for Bella. The flying type flapped over to him, and the detective raised an eyebrow. "Matsuri and I got here a minute ago, but you seemed like you had things under control. You earned that donut tonight."

Alex reached out to smooth down Hierro's ruffled feathers and grinned. "All in a night's work."

Matsuri and the other officers were helping the shopkeeper and his wife out of the wreckage of their storefront and calling for a paramedic team for what looked like a possible concussion for the man. One of the officers handcuffed the three enforcers and put in a call for the PPS to take care of their downed pokemon. He nodded to Alex. "Nice work, Hawlucha Man. Who knows what they could have done if you hadn't shown up?"

The police radio crackled again, and this time Alex was close enough to hear it for himself. "Requesting backup from all available units. Code three-five-nine at Seventh and Whitechapel. Repeat, code three-five-nine at Seventh and Whitechapel."

Alex caught Reyes's eye and nodded, already running for the nearest fire escape. Whitechapel was only a few streets over, and Alex could be there in minutes if he hurried. Three-five-nine meant an esper was involved, and when espers were involved, things tended to get messy.

As Alex hauled himself up an iron ladder, he shook his head. "I've got to get myself a grappling hook or something." He and Hierro took off over the blocks of the apartment buildings, angling towards Whitechapel. The wind was in their favor, and they quickly made their way over the three city blocks. They ran parallel to the street across the rooftops towards the flashing police sirens.

Two of the Baron's men stood before the arched doorway of a rundown brownstone apartment building, glowering at the police. "No one's getting roughed up here!" one of the enforcers shouted. "Mr. Pirozzi is just conducting some business. No need for this to get ugly."

"Yeah!" the second man added. "We don't want to waste the CCPD's time, now. I'm sure you got better things to do than harass a local businessman doing some community outreach." A third floor window shattered outward, and a man fell screaming to the sidewalk. There was a sickening crunch as his body hit the pavement, and the second enforcer grimaced as some of the third man's blood splashed across his face.

Alex glanced at his partner. "Looks like we've got a way in. I'll take point." They soared out over the street, and Alex adjusted his body so that he fell through the broken window feet-first. He rolled across the uneven wooden floor to cushion the impact and came up with his batons in hand. Hierro dropped in behind him, landing nimbly on his feet. Alex heard the click of a gun being cocked, and raised his eyes to see Bruce Giordano pointing a pistol between his eyes.

"Bad move, Hawlucha Man."

Alex signaled for Hierro to stand down, and the Hawlucha complied, though his feathers remained puffed up. Carlo Pirozzi turned around and rolled his eyes. "You really do have the worst timing, don't you?" He smoothed a crease in his suit jacket. "It would be troublesome to kill you at the moment, but I really can't have you interfering. Mr. Espalier, if you would be so kind?"

Something shifted in the shadows behind the Baron, and an instant later Alex found himself trapped in an invisible box. "No," he gasped, realizing why the Baron was here. What he had come for. And then, louder, "No! Pierre, whatever he's told you, do not listen to him!" He hammered his fists against the invisible walls that contained him, and though the walls felt solid beneath his hands, they made no sound. Pierre slunk out of the shadows and spread his hands in an apologetic shrug.

"I'm sorry, Hawlucha Man. But every time I listen to you, Mimsy and I get hurt." He tugged at his tattered stripped shirt. "But Mr. Pirozzi promised to give me a job. I can keep Mimsy safe."

"He's going to exploit you. He wants to use your powers to do bad things!"

Pierre sighed and turned his head in a slow circle before settling his half-vacant stare back on Hawlucha Man. "I didn't ask for my powers. I don't want them in my brain. I just want to have friends, but I can't because of my stupid powers."

"The Baron is not your friend."

"I know. But at least he's honest with me." A smile tugged at the side of Pierre's mouth. "I'm going to go with Mr. Pirozzi. Something bad is coming, Hawlucha Man. The whispers in my head have been telling me that for a long time now. I just want to make sure that Mimsy is safe." Pierre turned to the Baron. "Please don't hurt him. I know we're on different sides now, but Hawlucha Man is the closest thing I have to a friend."

The Baron and Giordano shared a look. The bodyguard shrugged and cracked his knuckles. "I won't hurt him if he compromises. That's all I can promise."

"Okay." Pierre's melancholy disappeared, replaced by an effervescent bubbliness. "Bye, Hawlucha Man!" Two of the Baron's men hustled him down the darkened back stair of the apartment. The Baron strode over to where Alex was trapped, the heels of his expensive shoes clicking on the scuffed, uneven wood floor of the apartment.

"Mr. Espalier, addled though he may be, does have a point, Hawlucha Man." Carlo Pirozzi adjusted the sleeve of his silk shirt underneath the cuff of his tailored suit jacket. "A storm is coming to Clarus City. When the dust settles, we'll see the strong separated from the weak. You ought to take care to batten down your hatches." The Baron shrugged. "Consider this a warning, in the interest of fair play."

"Whatever you're trying to do, I'll stop you!"

Pirozzi chuckled. "My boy, I have no intention of doing anything. I am merely heeding my own advice and consolidating my resources. The various other factions at play in the city are more than welcome to tear each other to shreds. I shall wait on the sidelines. Scavenging among the scraps is not glamorous work, though it is profitable." He turned on his heel and walked over to the darkened doorway Pierre had disappeared through. "When everything hits the fan, as they say in the common parlance, do remember: I did warn you." He cleared his throat. "Mr. Giordano, wrap things up here and report back to me at your earliest convenience. You'll have to excuse me, but I have a contract to draft up for Mr. Espalier."

The sounds of his footfalls vanished down the stairs, and Bruce consulted his expensive wristwatch. "That box is gonna disappear in a minute. The esper is a weird one, but I kinda like him, and the boss didn't exactly tell me what to do. So I'll give you a choice. You want to do this the easy way, or the hard way?"

Alex felt the invisible wall start to give way underneath his hands. It didn't shatter or crumble, it just began to feel less solid, until finally the sensation of pressing up against something simply faded as though it was never there. Alex's hands twitched down to the batons on his belt and he saw Hierro bracing himself in his peripheral vision. But before Alex could respond one way or the other, the door to the apartment flew open.

"Freeze!" Detective Reyes shouted, leading in a team of armored and helmeted response units. A Drapion squeezed its way through the doorframe and clacked its mandibles, awaiting the orders of its trainer within the squadron. Reyes turned his gun on Giordano. "What's going on here?"

Giordano held his hands up. "Easy, officers. No need to raise our voices. Hawlucha Man and I were just having a civil discussion. I assume that's still legal?"

Reyes flicked his gaze over to Hawlucha Man. "Is that all?"

Alex nodded. "They weren't doing anything illegal. Nothing we can pin them with, at least."

"The esper?"

"Pierre Espalier. He's gone, and the Baron is too."

Giordano smiled, pressing his lips together in a thin line. "Now that our fine feathered friend has vouched for my conduct, am I free to go? Or am I being detained?"

Reyes stepped aside. "Go."

Giordano's smile widened a nearly imperceptible amount as he sauntered past the riot squad and made his way down the creaking front steps. Once he had reached the street level, Reyes dismissed the armored police as well. When they were gone, he holstered his sidearm and turned back to Alex. "What happened?"

"The Baron made some kind of offer to Pierre—"

"Pierre's the motor mouth mime that keeps breaking out of St. Ambrosius, right?"

"Yeah. Anyway, he makes him and offer and Pierre took it. I don't know the specifics. I tried to talk him out of it, but…"

Reyes laid a hand on Alex's shoulder. "You did everything you could. You can't win every fight, and you can't save everyone."

"I know, it's just…" Alex sighed. "This one was personal. I let him down. Pierre went with the Baron because I failed him."

"You'll have another chance. He's still out there. In the meantime," Reyes clapped Alex on the back, "you saved a few damn good police officers tonight. You ought to be proud yourself." The detective grinned. "I'm thinking you might have even earned a second donut. I'll even throw in a cup of coffee."

"Well, aren't you in a giving mood."

Reyes laughed and led Alex and Hierro down the stairs of the apartment. Before they walked out into the street, Reyes caught his arm. "All joking aside, you do good work. The Eleventh is lucky to have you."

Alex nodded. "Reyes, before the Baron left, he said that a storm was coming to Clarus City. Do the police know anything I don't?"

"Ah, hell," Reyes replied with a shake of his head. "When isn't this city teetering on the brink? Whatever's coming, we'll ride it out, same as we always do."