Chapter 4

With a loud bang the flying taxi came down. The Corviknight on top of it nestled itself down calmly as if nothing has happened, a sentiment echoed by the pilot who cheerfully jumped down from his bench. With a broad smile he opened up the door of the carriage and yelled: 'We've landed, you can exit safely now mister!'

Unlike the pilot and the Corviknight, Looker was not happy at all. His face was pale, his eyes widened, and his entire body was trembling. His footing was unsteady, much more so than when he stood on the ship the day before, and his head felt like it was spinning in circles. He was pretty sure that he was about to throw up.

Half walking, half falling, he exited the carriage, thanking every imaginable power that he was standing on solid ground again. 'Never again,' he mumbled as he clung to the side of the carriage until his body could find its bearing. 'Never again. Never again. Never, ever, again.'

Annoyingly, the Toxel seemed to have no issues whatsoever. With a happy trod he crawled out of the carriage, looking curiously at the place where they had landed. He tilted his head slightly as he looked at Looker, as if he was trying to figure out what was wrong. A faint hint of a smile was on his face though.

'Yeah, laugh it up,' Looker grumbled annoyed. But Toxel instead walked over to his new owner and stretched up against his leg, trying to reach Looker's hand with his little tongue. Looker bent down a little to let the little Toxel "help" in his own way, and then scratched his new friend under his chin and in his neck. 'Oh who am I kidding, I could never stay mad at that little face of yours.'

He picked Toxel up in his arms, drew his wallet and paid the pilot. 'Will that be enough?'

'Very much so sir. Do you want me to stay here for your return flight?'

'No! Ahem, I mean, no, that won't be necessary.' I rather walk home than step foot in that death-trap ever again, Looker thought to himself.

'Very well then. Welcome to Turffield, mister Looker!'

Turffield was even smaller than Looker had imagined it to be. A handful of houses, a small stadium for the gym challenge, and a Pokémon Center. Most of the people he saw appeared to be tourists who came in to town as their first stop on a trip through the rest of Galar. In fact, Looker was fairly certain that this town was home to more Wooloo than people. In just the field closest to the town were already a few dozen of them rolling around, enjoying the brisk air and pleasant sun that fit the early days of autumn.

Toxel seemed to be interesting by everything he saw. His little head turned from side to side as he tried to look at every single one of the monoliths that were scattered through Turffield. Looker couldn't help but smile at the soft and happy noises that the small Pokémon in his arms was making. He pressed Toxel a little tighter against his chest in a quick hug.

'You know, one of these days I'm gonna have to think of a name for you,' he said. 'Any ideas?' The Toxel looked up at him with a puzzled look on his face, as if he was trying to think of a proper name as well but couldn't come up with anything. 'Yeah, I figured as much.'

Sonia had told him beforehand that the biggest tourist attraction in the town was the geoglyph in the mountainside outside of Turffield, and that before he moved on he just had to have seen it. Since Looker wasn't on that strict a schedule, he figured he might as well go have a look. Sonia had explained that it presumably displayed something from the Darkest Day, and who knows, maybe this would help him understand Rose and the whole situation in Galar a little bit better.

The viewing platform was absolutely packed with tourists, all trying to get a glimpse of the geoglyph. Children were running around playing with the monoliths or taking pictures of themselves in the Stonjourner cut-out, and food cart vendors were doing spectacular business. Looker wasn't a small man, but even he was struggling to see the geoglyph properly over the large amount of people.

'Excuse me, sir?' a voice said to his side. Looker turned around and saw a family, all dressed in Turffield-branded shirts and caps. The father had spoken to him and held out his phone. 'Could you maybe take a picture of us? Right here between these two stones, and if possible with that large glyph in the background.'

'Eh… sure.' Looker put Toxel down on the ground and clumsily took over the Rotom-phone. He wasn't familiar with this model – and definitely not with the sentient being inside of it – and almost dropped it in an attempt to find the camera button. He stumbled forward trying to catch it, and thereby bumped into one of the other people standing around. The camera clicked and a bright flash completely blinded Looker.

'Watch it!' the other person grumbled. Looker couldn't see anything from the figure other than an olive green blur from his clothes. He blinked a few times, trying to get his eyesight back.

'Sorry sir, I…' he frowned. He still couldn't see all that clearly, but enough to know that whoever he had bumped into had already disappeared. He looked at the Rotom-phone. Maybe…

'Hey, how do I check the last picture?' he asked the owner of the phone.

'Uh, you just tap here, and then here.' The man showed him. Just as Looker had suspected, the last picture had a partial shot of the other man. The olive green blur that Looker had seen turned out to be a suit, the fancy type they sold in Wyndon and Circhester. The man was build slenderly and appeared to be walking with a slight hunch, as if he had been carrying a heavy weight for a long time. The man's head was outside of the picture so Looker couldn't see his face, but he did see a glimpse of very light blonde hair, almost grey.

'Do you mind if I send this to myself?' he asked the perplexed father. Without waiting for an answer he took out his own phone and started the file transfer.

'What kind of model is that?' the man asked curiously. 'I have never seen anything like it.'

'It's a foreign model,' Looker said. The full answer would be too complex right now. The phone wasn't as fancy as the Rotom-phone with an actual Pokémon inside it, but Looker's phone had much more computing power and could easily reach any region he needed to reach. When Lysandre Labs wasn't funding a terrorist operation, they actually made some pretty decent gadgets.

After the image was sent to his own phone, Looker took the picture of the family and left the town square with Toxel. Sonia was right that the glyph was interesting, but that was not why Looker had come to Turffield. He would have to study the shot of the man in the olive suit a bit more later on; he wasn't sure why, but something about the stranger didn't sit right with him. And his intuition had never failed him before. But that was later. Right now, he had a mine to get to.

The creatively named Galar Mine 1 was the first mine that Rose's company had started work in. It formed the basis for his entire enterprise, his wealth and his power. It was almost poetic that the thing that started his journey would also be where it ended, Looker thought with a smile. He took the Poké Ball from his pocket and for the first time since arriving in Galar let the Pokémon out.

The Corvisquire was a little bit smaller than most of its species, but in this case that was actually an advantage. Looker grabbed a poffin from his pocket and threw it up in the air, where the Corvisquire snatched it up instantly. Looker gestured with his head toward the large open mine.

'Go up ahead. You're my eyes in the sky, so to speak. If there's anything you don't trust, you come right to me.'

The Corvisquire let out an affirmative caw and dashed away into the darkness of the mine. Looker picked up Toxel and scratched him behind his head.

'Ready for this, little buddy?' Before he could go in however, he was stopped by a shout from inside.

'Oi, you there! Did you just send in that Corvisquire?'

'I most certainly did. Who's asking?'

'I could ask you the same thing mate!' the voice shouted. A large, muscular man covered in dust and dirt walked out of the darkness of the mine. 'I'm the foreman here, so I'm the one in charge. What's the deal with the bird?'

Looker pulled his badge out of his pocket. 'International police, here on an official investigation.'

The man didn't seem impressed. 'Still doesn't explain the Corvisquire, mate.'

Looker shrugged. 'Well, you know, a bird in a coalmine to check if everything is safe and alright… it just felt fitting.'

'Oh you must think yourself terribly clever don't ya?'

'A little bit, yeah.' Looker shook his head. People never appreciated his sense of humor. 'Look sir, I have no desire to upset you. I'm only here for one specific person, that's all. Neither me nor my Pokémon will be in your way.'

The man scoffed with a hint of a smile. 'Let me guess: blondie.'

'What? No,' Looker frowned. 'Chairman Rose.'

The foreman now let out a roaring laugh. 'Well then you're a few decades too late there mate. Rose hasn't been here since he started wearing them fancy suits.'

'I was told Rose was working here now, as part of his sentence.'

'Well if he is, he's darn good at hiding. I haven't seen him at all, only that blonde woman that was like his secretary or something. She's in there right now, so feel free to talk to her. It's not like she's doing anything useful anyway. We have her seeking out locations where there's rocks in the ground.'

Looker frowned. 'Isn't this a mountain? Meaning there's rocks… well, everywhere?'

The foreman smiled. 'My point exactly.'

Looker chuckled and shook his head. 'Alright, much appreciated sir. You're doing your region and the entire world a big service by…'

'Yeah yeah yeah, whatever. Just don't get in our way.'

The mine was easily navigated, and with the help of a few miners Looker had found Oleana within minutes. Not that she was hard to distinguish from the rest of the people: she was the only person not wearing a hardhat or miner's clothes, and instead of a pickaxe or shovel she was carrying a clipboard.

'Miss Oleana, I presume. My name is Looker, I'm-'

'One moment mister Looker. I am currently preoccupied with a very important task.'

'So I've heard,' Looker said with a smile. 'I'm afraid this can't wait miss Oleana. I'm with the International Police and I have some questions for you.'

Oleana turned around, her eyebrows arched in a curious but critical way, as if she tried to judge whether or not Looker was worth her time. 'And what questions might those be?' There was a hint of annoyance in her voice.

'Well, let's start with the big one: where is chairman Rose?'

She snorted, and her look became one of almost boredom. 'Your guess is as good as mine. I have not seen him since we decided to work here as part of our sentencing.'

'You were his second in command, and you expect me to believe that you don't know anything about his whereabouts?'

'Are you questioning my honestly, mister Looker?'

'Well, frankly, yes. You are a convicted criminal after all, and so far you haven't given me much reason to trust your word. What are you hiding from me?'

Her face turned furious in the blink of an eye. Her eyes widened to the size of saucers, her nostrils flared up, and Looker could swear that her hair started dancing around her. It was a look he had gotten all too familiar with from another powerful businesswoman in Alola.

'I don't have to take this insult! I am important, I am powerful, and, most importantly: I am now extremely peeved with you mister! When I say something, I mean it! So I say to you-'

Her tirade got interrupted by Toxel letting out a brief shout. Looker and Oleana both turned to look at it, trying to understand what he meant by it.

'Excuse me, but I was in the middle of something!' Oleana shouted.

'What is it, little buddy?' Looker asked. Toxel only looked upwards to the ceiling. Just as Looker turned his eyes up as well, Corvisquire appeared in the hallway, crowing a warning shout. Looker immediately knew enough; he threw Toxel up in the air where Corvisquire caught him and flew towards the exit right away. Then Looker dashed towards Oleana, grabbed her by her waist and threw her over his shoulder.

'What do you think you're doing!? Put me down right now! I will have your badge for this! Do you know who I am? I am…'

Before she could finish her sentence, the entire hallway of the cave collapsed and came crushing down right where Looker and Oleana had been standing just a few seconds before. A moment later came the far too late warning from one of the miners: 'Watch it down below!'

Looker put Oleana down again, dusted himself off and coughed twice to get the dust out of his lungs. He could barely see from the dustclouds that had now filled the cave, but he didn't need to see to know one thing very certain. 'This was no accident.'