Chapter Five: Tim
Tim watched the legendary Pokémon go, and then sighed in relief and exhaustion. He'd never met anyone like Mewtwo before, that was for sure. Mewtwo was short-tempered, uncooperative, and even aggressive. Tim flinched at the memory and reached back to massage his neck. Mewtwo hadn't done any realdamage, but it had still hurt.
If I had wanted to harm you, you would be harmed.
Threatening words, but in a roundabout way, comforting, too. Mewtwo didn'twant to harm him. Maybe not harm other people either.
But—Mewtwo had refused to answer if he cared that people and Pokémon got hurt, which didn't bode well. Mewtwo was the strongest Pokémon in the world; he could easily steamroll over anyone and anything to get what he wanted. Which was why Tim had continued to insist that they work together. If Mewtwo stayed where Tim could keep an eye on him, perhaps he could warn people of the Pokémon's wrath, and stop him from doing damage…if such things occurred.
Tim's shoulders drooped as he realized he would have to return to his Dad empty-handed. While Tim could take some satisfaction that Mewtwo had taken the R out of criminal hands, in order to keep Mewtwo a secret, he would have to tell his Dad that the Aipom had escaped. His Dad would think that R was still out there. Tim hated having to lie to his father, but Mewtwo had been clear and the last thing he wanted to do was violate the Pokémon's trust.
And violate your father's instead?his mind whispered.
Tim shook his head. He wouldtell his father, eventually. Sometime after Mewtwo left town and would never know. He promised himself that.
Speaking of his Dad, Tim needed to find him. He took out his phone and called up his father, who answered almost immediately.
"Tim!"Harry's excited, happy voice was filled with energy. "I was just about to call you! Pikachu and I caught our Aipom, and it didhave R! Did you manage to catch up with yours?"
Tim flinched and was grateful that his Dad couldn't tell over the phone. "No…sorry, Dad. It got away." The Aipom had, but the R hadn't.
"Ah, Tim, don't worry. We have one, that's a lead."His Dad didn't sound disappointed, but Tim still felt ashamed. "Let's meet back up at the car."
OOO
"Pika-pi!"Pikachu was standing on the hood of Harry's car, and was the first to notice Tim's approach. His Dad looked up and smiled.
"Tim!" His Dad called. He lifted up the vial. "Look familiar?"
"Horribly so," Tim stared at the purple fumes condensed into the glass, like a miniature storm. In that were the cells of Mewtwo, cells the Pokemon was so determined to get back. It was also the material that had sent hundreds of Pokémon on rampages, and had helped Howard Clifford—by controlling Mewtwo—force humans into the bodies of their partners.
"Yeah." Harry lifted the vial to his face to look at it closer. "You deeeefinitely don't want a whiff of this."
"So, there was more of it outside of Clifford Enterprises," Tim distracted himself with business. "But where is it coming from? The lab is destroyed, and Mewtwo is gone—" those words tripped a bit over Tim's tongue "—so they can't be making more. And Roger Clifford handed over everything that was left of it."
"They were testing it out on illegal Pokémon battles," Harry said thoughtfully. "Maybe a few trainers kept some for themselves. We have to find it all."
Tim slumped. "Dad, I—"
Harry waved his hand dismissively. "No, no, stop apologizing, Tim. Look, I technically didn't even catch mine—Pikachu did."
"Pika-CHU,"the yellow Pokémon agreed, sounding quite smug. He stuck his nose up with an air of 'YEAH I did.'
But it wasn't that. It was because Tim was lying to his father. Certainly, his Dad deserved to know. He had caught, and eventually rescued, Mewtwo in the first place, so shouldn't he be told if Mewtwo was still around? But Tim sighed and pushed away his guilt. He wouldn't get anything done if he dwelled on it.
But then a new wonder bloomed into Tim's mind; if he had a Pokémon partner like his Dad, then would he have caught the Aipom without Mewtwo?
"Come on," Harry said, bringing Tim out of his thoughts. "We have to make a run to the station to check this vial out." He opened the car's door and slid into the driver's seat, Tim going around and getting in the passenger's. Pikachu hopped onto his lap and looked at Tim pointedly until Tim began petting him. Then Pikachu purred contently and settled down.
As Harry began to drive out of the docks, Tim watched the rooftops and wondered where Mewtwo was.
OOO
The Snubbull was glaring at him. Again.
The pink Pokémon's glowering eyes stared at Tim unblinkingly, and the two sharp teeth that poked through its underbite seemed to flash like gleaming Scyther's scythes. The moment Tim walked in, Snubull was staring at him. It was almost like the Pokémon had known he was there and had been watching him through the walls. Snubull did not move its gaze from Tim in the slightest even as Tim walked across the office to take a seat next to his father. Tim, his Dad, and Pikachu, sat there in uncomfortable silence as Snubull threateningly stared them down.
"Why is it doing that?" Tim asked softly to his Dad. He knew the Snubbull was right there, and could hear his whisper perfectly well, but its terrifying glare made Tim afraid to speak any louder.
Apparently, Harry felt the same. "I don't know," he whispered back. "It's done this to me for years."
It was a small eternity until Detective Hideo Yoshida finally came in. "Harry, Tim, Pikachu," the lieutenant greeted, nodding to each of them. He sat down at his desk and threw some papers in a pile in the corner. "Getting involved in the illegal stadiums again, are you?"
"You know I only go there for information, Hideo," Harry's voice sounded overly cheeky, and a bit toolaid back. He folded his fingers together on his lap and crossed his legs.
"Of course," Detective Yoshida gave a kind smile and leaned back into his seat. "And the fact that your Pikachu is champion of the ring has everything to do with getting information."
"Itdoes,"Harry nodded eagerly. "You said it, not me."
Detective Yoshida crossed his arms. Beside him, Snubbull growled at them. Both Tim and Harry leaned back from the menacing pink Pokémon warily. Pikachu, apparently fed up with it, hopped up on the desk before Snubbul. At once, Snubbul turned away from the two humans to direct its glower onto Pikachu, who scowled right back.
Ignoring the showdown between Pikachu and Snubbull, Detective Yoshida sighed and gave in. "What did you find?"
Tim's Dad beamed before fishing out the vial from his jacket. He set it on the lieutenant's desk. "Two Aipom fled from the scene. We caught one, which had this. We can only assume that means the other Aipom had more. Which means there's still R out there."
Detective Yoshida picked up the vial and looked at it closely. After a moment, he slowly lowered it back on the desk and looked at Harry. "Harry…I'm not denying this is important, but you know what our priorities are right now."
"What?!" Harry put both of his hands on Detective Yoshida's desk. "This is proof that we didn't get all the R! Retrieving the rest of it should be our number-one priority."
"I know it should," Detective Yoshida lifted a hand to silence him. "But we're spread too thin already."
"What do you mean?" Tim asked, trying to ignore how Pikachu's cheeks were starting to spark.
"It's all the trainers coming to Ryme City, looking for Mewtwo," the lieutenant said exasperatingly. He scowled at the papers on his desk as if they offended him. "They're all battle-eager adventurers who can't respect Ryme City's way of life. In this city, Pokémon aren't caught in Pokéballs. But the newcomer trainers are doing just that, and battling all over the place. They're upsetting the people and Pokémon who actually live here. I need every officer I've got to keep them in line. These trainers are disturbing our citizens."
"R will disturb our citizens, too," Harry pointed out.
Detective Yoshida gave him a flat look. Harry pressed on. "This vial came from somewhere. At least let me look into that."
They stared at each other for a minute, not unlike Pikachu and Snubbull's current glaring contest. Finally, Detective Yoshida gave a sigh of defeat. "Fine. You can look into that. But I need you right now, Harry. You're one of the best of us."
"Thank you, sir," Harry grinned gratefully. "I'll be as quick as possible."
"You better," the lieutenant grumbled.
With that, Harry scooped up Pikachu off the desk and hurried out the door. Tim floundered after them.
Tim followed his Dad all the way to the car. By the time Tim got in, Harry was excitedly tapping his fingers on the steering wheel. He lifted the vial again. "Right, so, we just need to find out where this came from, and we'll find our source of R."
"How do we do that?" Tim asked skeptically.
"Hey," Tim's Dad playfully shoved his shoulder. "Don't look so doubtful. We're world-class detectives."
OOO
"You've gotten Moomoo Milk everywhere."
"That's impossible," Tim's Dad denied. Despite the evidence of milk all over the counter, the detective stubbornly rebutted the accusation. "I only poured one cup of Moomoo Milk, and I spilled that.So it can't have gotten everywhere."
"I beg to differ," Tim sang, taking out a towel and beginning to mop it up. Pikachu bounced onto the counter and began to lap up some of the milk.
"Pikachu," Tim sighed disappointedly. "No licking things off the counter. We'll feed you later; clean it with a towel." Tim held a washcloth out to Pikachu, who grumbled but obediently took it and began to scrub the milk up. Between the two of them, they cleaned it up in no time. Tim threw the soaked cloths into the sink and turned back to cooking dinner.
"Now…" his Dad said, lifting a hand to his chin as he peered into the fridge. "Is it the Wiki Berry or the Watmel Berry we put in?"
"Pikachu,"the Electric Mouse Pokémon said with exasperation.
"It's the WepearBerry, Dad," Tim corrected. "And we have to slice it up first. I'll do that while you stir the sauce." Tim took out a knife and cutting board and began to get to work. "How could you have lived alone for so long and still have no idea how to cook?"
Harry shrugged. "Take out," he answered. "And microwave food. Before you came, I hadn't had a home-cooked meal in ages. Your mother was the chef in our relationship."
They both got unexpectedly quiet at that. There was only the chopping sound of Tim cutting the Berry and the pop popof the sauce on the stove.
Harry sighed. "I miss her meals. She was a Pokémon Master in the kitchen."
"Yeah. I remember." Tim slid aside the slices of Wepear Berry and picked out a new one. "I miss her, too."
"Pika, Pikachu," Pikachu said sympathetically.
Tim glanced over his shoulder to see his Dad scratching Pikachu under the chin. Well, he'd have to wash his hands again. Then Tim noticed— "Dad…Dad! The sauce is burning!"
Harry jumped in alarm and reached for the bubbling sauce, only to wrench his hand back as a bit splattered out. Pikachu quickly leapt away to avoid getting scalded, and the sauce sprayed all over the counter Tim and Pikachu had just cleaned. Tim quickly reached over and turned off the stove, and the sauce's bubbling lessened as it cooled down.
They both peered into the pot, with its sauce now darkened at the edges. "You think it's still good?" Harry asked.
"We'll find out," Tim said as he slid his Wepear slices off the cutting board and into the sauce. "Stir that for a minute, I'll prepare the noodles. But wash your hands first!" Tim added as his Dad reached for the spoon.
His Dad frowned. "What, are you saying Pikachu's dirty?"
"Pikachu!" Pikachu looked offended.
"No, I'm saying Pikachu is fuzzy,"Tim said pointedly. "And I'd rather not have fuzzin my food."
"Hmph," his father grumbled, but relented and began to wash his hands.
When the sauce was ready, Tim poured it over the two plates of noodles, and a little over Pikachu's food, too, to give it flavor. Then they all sat down at the table and tried it out.
After the first bite, Tim began his critique. "It's pretty good. I mean, it's obvious you overcooked the sauce, but I think we did a good job."
Harry narrowed his eyes. "'It's obvious I overcooked the sauce'?"he paraphrased. "Well Ithink I taste too much Weplar Berry."
"Wepear,"Tim said with a playful smile. "I also taste a little too much Moomoo Milk, since you spilled in your measurements."
"At least there's no Pikachu fur in it," his Dad shot back.
Then they both burst out laughing, Pikachu chuckling on the side. When they could speak again, Harry said between giggles, "With all these flaws, perhaps our dinner isn't quiteso good after all."
"No way," Tim said, twirling his fork in the noodles. "It's perfect. We should cook it like this every time."
"Pikachu!" Pikachu agreed, nibbling on a pellet.
"Oh, well, if Pikachu likes it, then that's that," his Dad said with all seriousness.
The chuckled and continued to eat, before a new question sprung into Tim's mind. "Hey, Dad…how did you and Pikachu meet?" Since watching Pikachu battle valiantly in the arena, Tim couldn't help but wonder where his Dad had found the remarkable little Pokémon.
His Dad paused, a Very Big bite of noodles halfway to his mouth. He set it back down and looked thoughtfully at Pikachu, who tilted his head back.
"I found Pikachu as a little runt Pichu, in a box in an alley," his Dad answered.
Tim blinked, not expecting that answer. Pikachu always acted with such confidence, he couldn't imagine it being left alone, helpless, and abandoned.
Harry continued. "He didn't quite like me at first. I got shocked a lot. Despite being in the city, he was wild and didn't trust easily. It took time for us to bond. But we've been through so much, I know we're in this together."
That was saying something. Pikachu was so loyal to his partner that he had given up his body so that Harry could live. Without hesitation, Pikachu agreed to let Mewtwo move Harry's soul into his skin. Together, they solved mysteries and fought crime. Harry had trained Pikachu to be strong enough to take down a Charizard easily.
Again, Tim's dream came to mind. If he didhave a partner…what would it be? Would they get as close as Harry was with Pikachu?
"Wow…" Tim whispered.
Harry reached over to scratch Pikachu's ears. Pikachu nuzzled his palm affectionately, and then they finished up dinner.
Once they had put the dishes away, Harry went straight for his laptop. "So. The case."
Right, the case. When Tim and his father had gotten home, they'd been too hungry to actually do work. But Harry was confident that they could somehow use that vial to find the rest of the R.
"We're fairly certain that at least onemore vial of R is out there, as that other Aipom likely had one," his Dad began. Tim bit his tongue to keep from blurting that Mewtwo had stolen the R from the other Aipom. The legendary Pokémon had said that he would visit Tim tonight—but how? Especially considering that he didn't want Tim's Dad to know anything.
"But I don't think this vial is from three weeks ago," Harry went on. He took it out and set it down by his laptop while Tim pulled up a chair beside him. "I can feel it in my jellies."
"You're still going on about your jellies," Tim mumbled.
"Have they been wrong yet? No, no they haven't, so stop criticizing my jellies," Harry said with attitude. "Ifthis vial isn't from when that creepy Ms. Norman was spreading it around, then that means it's being distributed from somewhere or someone else. Now, if we can just find out what kind of vial this is…"
"It's a vial, Dad," Tim argued. "How's it any different from every other vial?"
"Au contraire, junior detective," Harry said with a sly smile. "There are little differences in just about everything if you look closely enough, including vials. The color of the lid, how long it is, how thick…I can, with complete confidence, tell you that thisvial is different from all the other vials I've found R in."
"Really?" Tim said skeptically.
Harry narrowed his eyes at Tim and then pointedly opened his drawer and took out an empty vial. Tim recognized it immediately; the vial of R that he had accidentally released on a group of Aipom when he had first come to Ryme City. Harry held it up to the new vial…and they looked completely different. The new one was longer and narrower, with a white cap instead of a black one.
Tim grumbled but consented. "Point."
Smugly, Harry typed 'laboratory vials'into his laptop, and searched through common shopping websites, checking their photos and comparing their vials to his. Tim put his head in his hand and leaned over the table, impatiently waiting for his Dad to give up on this ridiculous idea. Pikachu, however, leaned over the laptop and watched closely.
"Found it!"
"Wait, what?" Tim's head shot up.
"Pi, Pikachu!" Pikachu cried in triumph.
Tim leaned over the laptop and, sure enough, his Dad had found an advertisement for the exact vials. Harry gave Tim a satisfied smile. "These vials are manufactured in the Hoenn region. Fancy."He opened up another tab. "Now we just look up labs near Ryme City."
"Labs?" Tim asked. "Like Dr. Laurent's lab? There are more?"
"Oh yeah, scads and scads of labs, they're everywhere, Tim." His Dad waved a hand. "Pokémon labs are all over the place. I mean, where do you think all that medical research in Pokémon Centers came from? We learn new things about Pokémonevery single day,of course there are labs. And Ryme City being, well, a city,has even morelabs."
Tim looked at the map, and saw that many of the labs were a fair distance from the city. "How come they're so far away?"
"For safety," his Dad answered, clicking on a few and reading through their websites. "It can be dangerous to work with Pokémon, especially if you're testing the limits like that."
Tim thought of the superpowered Greninja and overgrown Torterra garden at Dr. Laurent's lab and couldn't help but agree. "Why didn't we just head straight to these places?"
"Well, for one thing, we didn't know for sure that there was anymore R out there." His Dad opened up another tab and brought up a different lab's website. "And also, I'd like to narrow it down so we know what to pay attention to. Ah. Here we go."
Tim leaned over and looked at the screen. "'Ryme City Grass-Type Laboratory.'You think that's it?"
"That's our lead," Harry said with a smirk of satisfaction. "We'll check it out in the morning." He slapped his laptop closed. "But it's still too early to turn in. Want to watch a detective movie?"
OOO
An hour and a half later, Tim headed back to his room. He, his Dad, and Pikachu had curled up on the couch, eating great big bowls of Casteliacone ice cream and watching a cheesy old detective movie. In the middle of it, they had gotten into an argument over who the culprit was, and Harry had turned out to be right. Now, Tim was fairly beat. An illegal stadium, an Aipom chase, an encounter with Mewtwo, a dressing-down from Detective Yoshida, a disastrous cooking adventure with his Dad…all a regular day in the city.
Tim pushed open his bedroom door, and saw Mewtwo staring at him through the darkness, perched on his open window like a statue on a cathedral, waiting for him.