Officer Jenny clutched the side of her chest. Each of her movements was sluggish, fatigued. Injury from her previous battle still affected her. She followed the receptionist down an exquisite hall. Framed mirrors, white flowers, and gold-encrusted lamps decorated the walls. The velvety red with golden patterns squished softly against the soles of her worn boots.
Maybe I shouldn't be so reckless. Officer Jenny thought. The whole situation seemed like a set-up. It would only take a moment for her to get jumped and taken out for good. But there's no way they would try something that reckless. Besides, as long as she had her body cam on she'd be fine… right?
The receptionist came to a stop in front of a room. The label read, Suit 2B. It wasn't the master penthouse, but Officer Jenny had heard that suits in Ionia could cost upwards of 10 million Pokédollars. The receptionist slowly creaked the door open. Officer Jenny tapped her collar bone, making sure her body cam was working.
"Melony?"
A tall woman draped in white clothing stood at the doorway. "Jenny it's been awhile! Receptionist told me you were in the area and I was wondering if we could catch up."
"Sure… I'd love to, but," Officer Jenny rubbed the back of her head. "I'm kinda in the middle of a case right now. How about afterward?"
"Well, I might be able to help you. We're doing productions at different hotels across Galar, I have some connections with the staff, so if you need something I can ask." The actor said. After letting her son Gordie take over the Circhester gym, Melony followed her dreams of becoming an actor. Although she started in the business fairly old, she already starred in a few smash hits and even ran a tv program of her own. Drama was her specialty.
An incest-like clicking noise fizzed from behind her.
"Frosmoth, don't sneak up on visitors like that." Melony chastised half-seriously.
Officer Jenny turned around and embraced the chilly fuzzy moth. A sharp icy jolt stung her collarbone for a moment.
Officer Jenny let out a high-pitched squeal, "What was that for?" Her cheeks reddened a bit.
The Frostmoth let out playful clicking noises before flying around Officer Jenny and to Melony's side. Each beat of its thin wings produced a bit of glittery snow that swirled to the floor like mist.
"I'm sorry about that. She's just a bit excited, one of the scenes earlier today turned out quite beautiful." the corners of her mouth curled into a grin. "We're about to shoot another one."
"Oh, I should probably make it quick then." Officer Jenny looked down at her Rotom Phone. That's odd. The signal was right in front of her. "Is there another room behind this one?"
Melony reached out towards a hazel wooden door. "You can take that door to the neighbor's room."
"Still as over-dramatic as always." Officer Jenny crept around a glass table with velvet chairs and put a hand on the doorknob. It's unlocked? She turned the handle slowly, not particularly worried since knowing Melony's skills. If they worked together they could take on almost anyone.
Creaking the door open, she peeked inside. It was a dark room with nothing in it, besides a large screen that stood at the end. Sickly blue light pulsed throughout the room. She stepped in noticing that no one was inside.
That's odd, is this the only entrance? Officer Jenny thought.
Insect like fizzing noise clicked behind her.
Hop felt directionless. Officer Jenny had taken the rest of the day off for him, despite no longer being his supervisor. It's only a small burn. He thought while looking at the large prickly burn mark that encompassed his palm- no doubt it would scar.
Screw that. He'd already traveled all the way to Hammerlock. He might as well work anyway. He walked through the sliding glass doors of the police station.
Katherina, the red-headed receptionist looked up and adjusted her glasses. "You're off right now, go home."
"Oh." Hop was crestfallen for a moment. "Wait, I left something in my office." It wasn't technically a lie. The ballpoint pen he left, definitely warranted him coming back to the building during his off time.
"Fine. Go to the office, you workaholic."
"Thanks!" He waved before running off towards his office.
Hop busted open the door to the office for the second time that day. He sighed while plopping down on his desk. His muscles relaxed and his eyes drooped. The mountain of papers on his desk was oddly comforting.
"Ow." Picking up a sheet of paper hurt more than he expected. Maybe I really need to rest. What am I thinking? He scolded himself. Every second he left the case unsolved, was another second someone could be hurt.
Hop yawned, he leaned down, letting his head rest on the desk. Heavy eyes scanned through pages of text regarding Dynamax technology. At some point his mind wandered, thinking of the fields of Wooloo he used to watch when he was younger. His eyes eventually shut close, inviting sleep into his tired body.
Where is Officer Jenny? Was the first thing Hop thought when his eyes fluttered open. It was 6:30 pm, Hop's shift would normally have ended 30 minutes ago. Hop sighed, it was probably nothing. It was more likely that she already left for home, rather than stay at the office.
How can I make Lee talk? Hop paced around the room. He'd already talked to Leon twice, and he still wasn't any closer to the truth than the first time. "Ah." He came to a stop, biting his fingernails. Would that be blackmailing? His fist tightened, at this point, it didn't matter anymore. If Lee was going to keep dancing around his questions he'd have no other choice. He quickly told his Rotom to call Lee, without breaking thought.
His foot tapped impatiently. "Bwwzzt the person didn't pick up."
"Continue calling him until he picks up." He sat down at his desk, blankly looking through papers pretending to be focused on something other than the ringing of his phone.
With the unsoothing noises Rotom was making in the background, Hop opened his computer and looked through the news. First The Darkest Thorn wanted to know about Galar Particles, and now they were already causing Dynamax outside of Dynamax spots.
Hop frowned. It was already resembling what was happening before the events of Darkest Day, but more controlled. Were they really trying to reenact the events of Darkest Day? No that's impossible, Eternatus has been under Gloria's control for 6 years. Even if they did somehow succeed, he and Gloria would just put a stop to it, with Zaician and Zamazenta.
He scrolled through various articles before one caught his eye. "Chairman Leon leads a new research team on Galar Particles." He squinted, the research team was interested in the use of Dynamax outside of hotspot and commercial use of Dynamx in things like construction. He did a quick Google search on the topic. One of the researchers opened up a forum asking people for any ideas or suggestions.
Interesting, he thought while scrolling down at some of the replies. He scoffed. They should at least do their research before suggesting something that might harm the Pokémon. His eyes frolicked around the page, forgetting why he was there in the first place.
"Bwwwzzzt, it's been 30 minutes and he hazzzn't picked up. Maybe he blocked youzzz?"
"Two can play at that game." Hop looked up from his computer "call again, but change the caller ID."
"But-bwwwzzt! I can't do that!"
"Its for a very important investigation," Hop widened his eyes and gave the best puppy dog eyes he could. "I'm sure you could make an exception right? It would be bad if more people got hurt because of us."
"I- bwwwzzzt guess I can make an ex-zzz-ception…" It paused for a moment, then started vibrating again.
It probably won't work. Hop thought. As a chairman, Leon probably got many spam calls from companies or organizations that he didn't want.
"Hello, who's this?" Leon's voice came out of his phone.
Did he just pick up? Why… wait what should I say? Unintelligible noises came out of Hop's mouth.
"I'm sorry I didn't quite catch that, could you repeat that?"
"Oh right, um Lee-"
Click.
Hop glared at the screen. "Again. Call him again."
Frantically, Rotom started ringing again, shaken up by Hop's demeanor. "Bwzzzt I think he declined the call."
"Change the caller ID and then call again."
Bwwwwzzzt I- I could get in trouble for thizzzwwt"
"So you don't care about everyone affected by this?" Hop asked innocently.
"Bwwwzzzt fine, I'll call as many times as you want…"
This time a sigh came out of the phone, "Hello. Who is this?" Leon sounded slightly irked.
"Lee if you hang up I'm calling the police. Wait, I'm the- nevermind just listen to me Lee."
"Say something worth my time and I'll think about it."
"I'll start a public investigation about the abuse of your power as chairman."
Leon was silent for a moment. "Please think about what you're doing. The media's going to have a field day with that."
"I know." Hop was smugger than he needed to be. "Now that I have your attention, why don't you tell me now as brothers before I have to force the answer out of you as a detective?"
"Body cams. As the chairman, they were available. There, does that make you happy?"
"Lee, I can tell by listening to your voice, you're lying." Hop lied.
"I- no I'm not, lying. Hop, you don't understand I'm prepared to go to court about looking at your police cams, but you can't claim I'm lying. Not without real evidence."
"Last time we spoke, you said my hand was burned, even though I was wearing a glove. My body cam was turned off when it was burned." Hop lied.
Leon was silent for a moment. "The hospital reports. Access to those too."
"I didn't go to the hospital."
"What are you talking about? You went to the hospital."
So, he was telling the truth about the hospital, but not about the body cams? Looking at hospital reports was a much less serious crime than looking through unreleased police cams. Why would he cover up knowing about hospital reports with that lie? He's lying about both? He knew about the hospital, so the truth must be somehow related to that.
"Have you heard of an organization called The Darkest Thorn?" Hop asked.
Silence answered his question.
"Leon."
"No. Where would one even find such rumors?"
"Rumors? I never said anything about rumors." Hop said flatly. "Choose your next words carefully."
"Let's just talk about this." Even through the granny speakers of the Rotom Phone, it was clear how shaky Leon's voice was.
"Then talk."
"Look, I might have known a few things, but it was just me trying to distance myself from rumors like that. You know, my brand as chairman and everything. It'd be bad for the press to know that because one of our experiments fell into their hands the Sandaconda incident happened."
He's giving me so many details. Is he still hiding something?
"I thought we were talking about this as brothers? This is your last chance Leon."
"Can we talk in private?"
Private? Is he worried about the phone call being recorded?
"Fine."
"Great," a sliver of confidence returned to Leon's voice. "How about in two days at-"
"Where are you right now?"
"I'm in" Leon paused for a moment. "Wyndon."
"Great I'll be there in an hour." Click. This time Hop was the one to hang up.
Hop let out a breath of relief. Talking to Leon was taking out more energy than he liked to admit. He changed into his casual jacket, enjoying the relaxing feeling of the soft fabric against his tan skin. Picking up his detective outfit, he grabbed something at the collar and slid it into his pocket.
"Can you open a train schedule?" He told Rotom while fastening his Poké Ball belt to his jeans.
The next train to Wyndon would be at 7:40. His stomach grumbled. He hadn't eaten anything in almost 12 hours. Taking a quick stop at the Battle Café didn't seem like a bad idea.
Handcuffs locked her arms behind her back. Beads of sweat dripped down her body, and her head felt dizzy. Officer Jenny's eyes snapped open. She analyzed the dark room she was trapped in. Based on the crates and the rumbling of the ground, she was on a plane.
Her Poké Ball belt was gone. Where are they? Officer Jenny needed to find them before she escaped. Standing up, she crept around the room. There was a staircase in the back, but more importantly, there were no sharp objects lying around. She could always twist the handcuffs open, but that would create a giant gash in her arm, and an easy to follow blood trail.
A door in the distance creaked open, and she quickly ragdolled and shut her eyes. Footsteps drew closer until they stopped right in front of her.
"No need to act so cold Jenny, I know you're awake."
Melony. Officer Jenny remained still.
"Sweetie, I have cameras installed."
Opening her eyes, and standing up, Officer Jenny stared directly into Melony's eyes with a fiery gaze. "If you let me go now, your sentence won't be as severe."
"I'll let you go," a cruel smile formed on Melony's face. "By dropping you off of the plane."
"Wow, those acting lessons sure paid off." Officer Jenny rolled her eyes.
She has her Pokémon, so I can't beat the shit out of her.
"Care for a cup of tea?" Melony asked.
"I don't care for your poisoned tea."
"And I'm known for being the ice-cold professional, but here you are."
"Where are we?"
"My private jet."
Officer Jenny took a step forward, "Tell me where we're going."
Meeting Officer Jenny's fiery expression with a stone-cold one, Melony refused to give even an inch of space. "Where's the fun in spoiling the surprise?"
Officer Jenny shoved her handcuffs at Melony's collar bone. "Unlock these."
"Chill out."
Suddenly an icy breath ran down her spine. Spinning around, she was met face to face with the sinister smile of a floating Froslass. The temperature around her dropped sharply, breaths of air now coming out as swirling mist. When did Froslass get behind her?
Officer Jenny felt a firm grip on her shoulder. "Tell me everything you know."
If I tell her everything that she knows I know, can I get her to trust me?
"You're involved with the Rotom guns right? You were watching us at the factory, and then it blew up."
"What else?"
What else did Officer Jenny know? She thought for a moment and then answered, "There's probably a black market where you sell them. Maybe it has something to do with your fame as an actor?"
Melony sighed, "I mean, what else do you know about The Darkest Thorn."
"What? Darkest Day?"
"No, thorn. As in the thorns on a rose."
Officer Jenny stared with a blank expression on her face. "Are you talking about that one conspiracy theory about chairman Rose being Eternatus' son?"
"No, I'm-" Melony took a few steps back, startled. "Don't play dumb with me. I know that Hop knows. You do too- right?"
"I don't know what you're saying." What was Melony talking about? How had Hop gotten himself caught up in this? "Is that the name of something?"
"It appears we misjudged Hop."
We? Who else was working with her?
Melony pulled out a white Rotom Phone from the sleeves of her coat. It was much larger, clunkier, and had arms extended out of the base. It was an Alolan model, those were custom made, and didn't have to follow the restrictions set by Silph Co.
The Rotom Phone rang a few times, before stopping, a voice came out that was too quiet and far away to hear.
"Don't worry, It's me, Melony." She paused for a moment, letting the other side talk for a moment.
"Yes I know you told me that, but Jenny doesn't know, which means Hop never told her."
Muffled noises came out of the phone again. If only I could hear what they were saying.
"Honestly, I think the kid is being honest with you, he really wants to just chat. This is your last chance with him, use it to get him off our tail." Click.
"Now," Melony turned, looking towards Officer Jenny with a dark complexion on her face. "Why don't you tell me a few more things that I want to know."
