Prologue, Just Another Morning
The police sirens wailed into the night, red and blue lights brighten the streets.
People and media gathered in front of the now shut down Poke-Star studio as a police officer wrapped a crime scene tape around the area setting up the boundaries.
One police officer was pushing a cart-tray of pokeballs with tags on them down the basement hallway and out the door.
A police truck was parked on the rear left side of the building with its back door wide open awaiting three policemen who were dragging out three men in handcuffs. Two thugs and their boss into the truck, all of them glaring down in defeat. Their boss was furious with himself and especially with his men.
"Unbelievable!" the boss thought to himself. "To have lost to a couple of teenagers and their puny pokemon!"
An ambulance was also parked at the back right side of the building right next to the police truck and sitting in it was none other than Novias Detectives, The Thompsons Twins. Tomson and Thompson sat across their first victim a young boy with ginger color quiff style hair. As the Thompsons talked on and on, trying to get the story out of one of their first victims the boy was wrapped in a blanket with a worried look on his face as they waited for the paramedics to bring their second victim.
"I must say you did a find job holding your own against these criminals lad." Tomson said
"To be precise well done exposing these smugglers, Tintin" Thompson retorted.
"Perhaps we misjudged you son." Tomson said
"Yes, glad to see you grown up and living like an honest citizen Tintin." Thompson said with pride
Tintin just sighed, still worried about his friend in there and wondering, what's taking the meds so long?
As the Thompsons continued, Tintin looked at his shiny eevee Snowy, battered from that battle. Snowy was sleeping peacefully on his lap, recuperating.
And to think this all started on a perfectly normal day.
A Few Days Before
Beep, Beep, Beep, the alarm blared, it was six in the morning. Snowy was sleeping on the foot of Tintin's bed when he woke up to the sound of the alarm and noticed his partner was still sound asleep underneath the covers.
Still drowsy, Snowy climbed up from the foot to the head and pulled down the blankets just enough to reveal his partners ginger-head. He opened his turquoise green eyes, groaned and yawned he was still tired, but it was time to get up.
Thus, the morning routine begins; First a nice hot shower, then brushing and grooming his short hair a little tuff puffed up in the very front after it dried a little. Next, he brushed, flossed and mouth-washed his teeth.
Now it was time to prepare for breakfast. For him two fried eggs, toast, an apple, and a cup of coffee and for his eevee a bowl of pokemon food mix with oran berries.
Tintin who was still in his bathrobe and slippers sat back in his kitchen table and pulled out the morning newspaper, he was reading through the articles when he came across an article that made his stomach churn and his heart sink.
Soon after breakfast was done and dishes were cleaned, it was time to prepare for work. First, he got dress in his usual brown work suit and black tie and gray flat cap. Then, he gathered what he needed for the day his lunch, his laptop, the stories he needed to finish, and finally his keys.
"Snowy, come on!" Tintin called. "Eevee!" Snowy squeaked back as he got up and dashed to Tintins side out the door.
Mrs. Finch the landlady of the area had just come out to sweep when she saw one of her tenants Tintin and his pokemon Snowy come out of his apartment. She watched him climbed down the stairs, head straight to the storage closet underneath the stairs, and pull out one of his keys. He then opened the door and pulled out his bike, his helmet and goggles dangling from his handlebars.
After that, he closed and locked the door again, he carries his bike outside when he was coming towards her, she said "good morning Mr. Tintin" in a neighborly way. But when he was right in front of her, she could tell from the look on his face that something was wrong.
he put his bike down on the street, smiled, and said "good morning" back before putting on his helmet and goggles. Snowy hopped into his little basket seat Tintin had set up for him and they rode off to work.
Tintin worked at one of the Novia regions most popular publishing companies The Poke-Media Magazine Company. A magazine company that primarily focused on pokemon, pokemon trainers and celebrities, news, and events from the recent past and near future, they even did advertising.
Snowy would mostly sleep underneath Tintin desk or run errands for Tintin every once and a while such as picking up packages and delivering notes.
Tintin was busy typing away his mind still on that article when he heard a Bing, Bing. The P.A. system sounded the manager, Mr. Willems was about to make an announcement. "Attention May I have your attention please?" but the workers carried on like they didn't hear anything. "May we have a moment of silence for one of journalist Jeffery Faux has passed away last night." The room seemed to go but Tintin didn't react he just had a dark look on his face. "Thank you that is a oh, and Mr. Tintin please come to my office" Mr. Willems called.
Tintin sighed to himself as he got up from his desk and head straight to the managers office.
Mr. Willems was working on some documents when he heard a Knock, Knock, someone was at the door. "Come in!" he called out, the door opened, it was Tintin.
"Ah, there you are!" he exclaimed as Tintin walked inside "now you just sit right there" he pointed at a seat in front of his desk "and I'll be right with you in a minute."
Tintin settled himself onto the seat while Mr. Willems finished his work. Tintin looked down and notice the same newspaper article on Mr. Willems desk.
"JOURNALIST FOUND DEAD IN THE MIDDLE OF COULDRON ROAD, ALTHOUGHT THE CAUSE OF DEATH MAY BE A RESULT OF HIT AND RUN, POLICE SUSPECT NO FOWL PLAY."
The reason the news was so disturbing to Tintin was because he knew the journalist well, his name was Jeffery Faux.
Tintin was Jeffery's main writer and editor, they often talked and laugh in the lounge and Jeffery always picked up the most interesting stories. Tintin sighed to himself sadden by his friends sudden death.
As soon as Mr. Willems was done, he positioned himself, his arms out, his hands locked together, he sat up straight, looking ready for a serious heart to heart.
Mr. Willem sighed and took a deep breath "right, so as you heard over the announcements, you already know what happened to jeff?"
"Yes sir…" Tintin replied in a sad tone
Mr. Willems just sighed to himself, He saw the sad look on his face and couldn't help but feel bad, he knew how close they were. He wasn't sure if he should ask Tintin of this but Jeff only entrusted Tintin with his stories.
Mr. Willems continued "well… if you could? I need you to finish the last of his stories before next publishing." He turned to his filing cabinet and pulled out three files thinking it was only two and presented them to Tintin.
Mr. Willems then got distracted by a phone call and turned away from Tintin to talk on the phone.
Tintin took the files and looked through them and when he had reached the third, he noticed it was much lighter than the others. This peeked Tintins curiosity he opened it and soon realized it was the last story jeff was working on before he died.
Date: April 10
"I think I may be on the verge of yet another story. For the past few months there have been a rash of disappearances of pokemon. the strangest thing is so far it seems to be happening everywhere else except in this city. in nearby farms, pokemon reservation area, and even in other nearby cities reports of pokemon being snatched on the streets so the question of the year is why."
Date April 20
"Sigh, so far, no luck I've been pestering the police for days and they still haven't found a clue to the disappearances of the pokemon. they assigned their top detectives the Thompsons twins on the case but if you ask me, they aren't exactly bright and they wear the goofiest of disguise you should have seen the outfit they were wearing this morning. Large hat with rabbit ears and red nose (facepalm himself). Yeah, I think I'm better off looking for the answer to my question on the other side of the street."
Date May 1 (yesterday)
"Finally! I Think I managed to get a lead on what I'm looking for. One of my informants has just told me of a rumor that some people were selling pokeballs at the pier during the night. so, I decided to do a little stakeout of my own and sure enough the results were rewarding. I stumbled upon a meeting of two men one of them with a suitcase the other well-dressed. The first one opened the suitcase and even though it was dark with only one broken blinking light I think I saw well enough, pokeballs. The well-dressed man seemed pleased and handed the man a large wad of cash before taking the suitcase and leaving. I followed the first man hoping he will lead me to where he got those pokeballs but unfortunately, he must at spotted me. because after a while he caught and cornered me. I had to talk my way out of this. It took some persuading, but I convinced him that I was interested in his business, and he gave me a card and arranged for meeting at the Sleeping Snorlax Bar on the west side of town."
And that was it
Tintin saw the card attached to a paperclip on the back right corner of the folder, the card had a phone number but that was it, no name no address of place or business not even email address.
Mr. Willems who was done with his phone call turned and realized too late, that he gave the folder he never intended to Tintin. This scared him, Tintin was one of his best writers and he had already lost one of his employees the last thing he needed was another death, especially on such short notice. "Ah-hem!" he cleared his throat loudly startling Tintin getting his attention.
Mr. Willems held out his hand and said, "I'll take that one back, thank you!" Tintin carefully and quietly pulled out the card from the paperclip and slipped it into his sleeve before handing the folder back to Mr. Willems. Tintin gathered his things and was about to leave. But Mr. Willems was still uncomfortable he still saw that curious look in Tintins eyes and feared Tintin might be getting ideas.
Before he left Mr. Willems called out to him "Listen Tintin, how old are you? Sixteen?" Tintin nodded his head in agreement "Exactly, your still young and you still have your whole life ahead of you. The last thing you need to do is go digging around in places you shouldn't be in, only to never climb out of that hole again. so please, just leave it to the police, alright?" Tintin sighed and groaned "yes sir…" before leaving the manager's office.
As soon as Tintin returned to his desk he began to think, "his whole life huh?" But was this the life he wanted? here he was in an ordinary nine to five desk job typing, editing, filing, cleaning, organizing and yet there's so much to see in the world, so much to do. What happened to his dreams? what changed?
His mind soon plunged into a deep thought.
Everything around him seemed to be going backwards, even the sun and moon and the hands on the clocks seemed to be turning back time to the very beginning.