Disclaimer: Welcome to the wonderful world that is Pokémon. Of course everything related to Pokémon is owned and licensed by Nintendo, and I'm sure the author of this story will do his best to treat Nintendo and Pokémon with as much respect as possible. Now, the characters in this story are all original except for professor Oak, Ash, Gary, Misty, Brock, several Jenny's and Joy's and some other weirdo's that wander around in the game and/or series and of course, the Pokémon.
I
Chapter 7 – Revelations
I
"Good morning."
I startled nurse Joy and she let the tray she was holding fall.
"Tony?" she asked, a bit at ease, "what are you doing here, sneaking up on people like that?"
"Sneaking up on people," I simply replied and closed the door, "what's the deal with Larry?"
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"That red Gyarados?" I helped reminding her, "the one that belonged to Franklin? Who does it really belong to?"
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"I tried to capture it…"
"You promised you wouldn't!"
"Do you wanna know why Franklin was killed? Well then. Anyway, I tried to capture it and it broke free because it was already captured, so who is it?"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
I could see in her eyes that indeed she didn't know what I was talking about.
"Crap," I sighed, "you were my only lead."
I sat on the desk in her office and thought for a while.
"So," she asked when I didn't say anything, "what are you going to do now?"
"I don't know," I replied, "if it's owned, it's nearly impossible to obtain any data on it's owner. Well, for me it is. But I'll figure something out. Don't worry, I'll get to the bottom of this."
She nodded and I left her office, making sure I wasn't seen. The plot thickened and I didn't like it.
I
"Any news?" Tom asked while he gave me a Tauros sandwich.
"No luck. She didn't know anything about it. Guess we have to do it the old fashioned way."
"Which is?" David asked.
"Try to get the information needed from the league. I mean, I know it's hard but it's a red Gyarados for crying out loud. It's not like they're so hard to find."
"I don't know," Tom shook his head, "they may be rare, but when you're going through the league files, you'll find out there are more than you thought."
"Well, it's either this or sit at the lake again."
Tom and David looked at each other and seemed to reach the same conclusion.
"Let's do this."
I
"You're shitting me!"
"Fraid not, Tony," Tom sighed as we watched the list unravel on the screen, "these are all owners of red Gyaradosses."
"That many? Can't you narrow the search a bit?"
"I'll try all resident in Mahogany."
"Fuck! Still that much?"
We both sighed. There were too many to go through. And if that new owner wasn't a resident of Mahogany, then we'd be fucked even more! Huh? What was…
"Go back up! Go back up! There!"
Tom looked at the name I indicated and cursed.
"Guess that's Franklin," he sighed.
"They didn't update their logs? What kind of fucking losers don't update their logs after somebody died? Or wait! Maybe he's not dead!"
"Oh he's dead alright. Now you're just desperate for a clue."
He was right. I was desperate. I was running out of ideas.
"Come on!" I said to myself, "you can do this. Just keep you're cool and only panic when you're supposed to… If Franklin is still in that list, we'll use that. Ask his personal info."
Tom hit some keys and the screen changed.
"This is much better," he nodded, "Franklin Masterson, date of birth, date of death, ah, here they update. Pokémon… none?"
"What do you mean, none?" I asked.
"It says here," he showed me, "owned pokémon, none. Let me see if I can find some kind of history. Ah, here it is, Previous pokémon, Gyarados, traded for a Magikarp… Magikarp, released. What's…"
Tom shook his head in disbelief.
"What's the use? Why would he trade his Gyarados for a Magikarp and then release the Magikarp?"
"It's a fraud trick," I told him, "I use it quite often. You can't just sell pokémon, but you can trade pokémon. Somebody gives me a lot of money, not pay, because he doesn't get anything in return, then I trade whatever pokémon I had to catch for him for some common pokémon, usually a Rattatta, Magikarp or even a Hoppip. Then I release his pokémon, I'm a whole lot richer and everything went by the book of trading."
I thought about this for a second and added, "well, not a whole lot richer, but a bit. Well, I have more money in the end."
"So he gave the Gyarados to someone else just before he died. Why?"
"So no one could catch it in case he died," I said, "who did he give it to?"
"Let me see… Jennifer McKenzie."
"Now all we have to do is find this Jennifer McKenzie and we're one again one step closer to solving this."
I
The next day I arrived at Jennifer's house just outside of Mahogany. An elder woman opened.
"Miss McKenzie?" I asked.
"Yes? How may I help you? Oh dear, what happened to your arm?"
"Oh, nothing that won't heal," I reassured her, "my name is Tony Hunter, I would like to talk to you about Franklin Masterson."
"Oh," she seemed startled, "please come in."
"Thank you, ma'am."
I
"Yes, I remember Franklin," she told me while she was staring out the window, "I've seen him a few days before he died. He had given me his pokémon, that dragon one? He told me to take good care of it. I of course was too old to take care of a pokémon like that, and I've never done so, I mean, I wouldn't know how to take care of such a large thing, so I set it free. A couple of days later, Franklin was found dead."
She remained quiet for a little while as I processed these new facts. She had been given Larry by Franklin shortly before he died. She had set Larry free, but then again, she had admitted she didn't know anything about pokémon, so maybe there still was a chance.
"Did Franklin tell you anything else before he gave you Larry?" I asked.
She seemed to return to the living room she was in and shook her head lightly.
"I'm sorry, it's just… all these memories… But why do you ask about Franklin anyway?"
"I'm… sort of a private investigator," I told her, "I was asked to look into his death."
"You're a P.I.?" Ash's face brightened, "cool!""I explained to you the concept of lying, didn't I?" Tony scolded him.
Ash fell quiet again.
"Oh… no," she shook her head, "no he didn't say anything, just to take care of Larry. It's good to see somebody wants to clarify his death. I never believed he'd drown like that."
"From what I've heard, neither can I," I confided her, "but don't worry, I'll get to the bottom of this."
"Sorry I couldn't be some more helpful," she sighed, "I must have wasted your time."
"Oh, we're not done yet, miss McKenzie. You told me you released Larry. Could you please tell me how?"
I
Fifteen minutes later we were driving back to Lake Rage with Jennifer. It was a hunch I had, but it was all we had, so we went straight to the northern part of the lake.
"So, what are we doing again?" David asked, "remember, layman here."
"You can't just release a pokémon," I explained, "otherwise they would run away each time you let them out of their pokéball. You have to use the computers you find in pokecentres to change their information concerning their ownership. Only then is a pokémon free again."
"But she didn't go to a pokécentre," David nodded, "she just went to the lake and let it out."
"Exactly. She never had pokémon, so she didn't know how the procedures went. And this means, that she still owns the Gyarados and she can call it back."
"Then what?" Tom asked, "because I've heard traded pokémon can give you a hassle if you don't have the right badges."
"We'll improvise." I sighed.
Jennifer stood on the shore and held the pokéball straight before her. She took a deep breath and pushed the call button. Nothing happened.
"Are you sure it's the right one?" Tom asked me.
"She said that she kept the pokéball as a reminder to Franklin after he died. Besides, it's the only one she has."
She looked over to me for instructions, and I urged her to try again. She took another deep breath and pushed the call button again, longer this time. Nothing happened. She let down her arm and sighed.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Hunter, I tried, but…"
The rest of her sentence was drowned out by the deafening roar of the red Gyarados as he emerged from the calm water, demonstrating what Lake Rage actually stood for. I should have seen this coming, I mean, they always give this false sense of security in the movies!