A/N: Hey guys, DrPhill26 here better late than never right?
Tyler: Didn't you say that you were going to be writing more frequently in the notes of the last chapter?
DrPhill26: I am aware that that is a thing that I said.
Wendy: So what happened this time.
DrPhill26: Oh you know, the usual. Increased workload, personal shenanigans, a freak snowstorm dumping literally two and a half feet of snow in front of my house in freaking April.
Pulse: General ineptitude?
DrPhill26: ...Maybe a little bit of that and some hard planning for future content as well. But hey, as we said up there at the top, and as you can all see down below, new chapters are still new chapters. Progress is still progress so let's you go have some fun reader and enjoy!
A trio of videophones were being used by other people as Tyler made his way into a room lined with dozens of them across the walls. Fortunately, none of the ones along the back walls were being used, so Tyler made his way towards them. As much as he didn't think anyone in the room would be rude enough to listen to his conversation, he didn't want to take any chances with the subject matter at hand. The attack on the daycare, Team Eclipse, Shadow Pokémon, any one of these things could be juicy pieces of gossip to any eavesdroppers in the room. The less attention Tyler drew to himself, the better.
Having picked an empty kiosk in the back corner of the room, Tyler looked around the room for a clock. 4:52 pm… Damn. One of the few annoying things about being in Sinnoh was the massive 16-hour time difference between it and Orre back home. That meant that if Tyler were to call home right now, it'd be nearly 1 am. Sure, dad worked plenty of late nights as a police officer, but he also worked plenty of early mornings too. Why couldn't it just be Sunday instead of Friday; dad always got Sunday off. Tyler shook his head free of his hesitation. If he were just calling home to check in and say hi, he could wait. But this was too important of a conversation to put off; he needed advice and needed it now.
Tyler picked up the phone and the touch screen in front of him lit up with all of its options. He navigated the various menus for a moment before finally reaching the screen to enter a phone number. Tyler dialed the number and waited. The screen flashed with a "call connecting" screen, as Tyler heard the dial tone in his ear. A smaller screen that showed Tyler appeared in the bottom right corner, while the bigger screen started to loop through an animation of a Starly flying from one phone to another where a second Starly was waiting for it. It made Tyler chuckle the first time. But waiting through ten more repetitions of the same animation made it lose what little charm had earned. It didn't take nearly this much time to call home last time, did it?
"God! Don't you know what time it is?! It's 1 o'clock in the morning! What the hell could you possibly want?!" The shrill voice of a screaming harpy attacked Tyler's eardrum, forcing him to recoil from the phone at his head. After mumbling a curse, he turned his attention back to the screen, seeing an angry pair of hazel eyes glaring back at him with an equally disgusted scowl. The scowl's owner had her hair tied back in a ponytail held in place with a bright green scrunchie, and at the bottom of the screen Tyler could see the top of a loose-fitting t-shirt. If it weren't for the attitude, he could imagine himself talking to a much younger looking version of his mother Miranda. But instead…
"Hello Brittney." Tyler winced, still hearing a slight ringing in his ear from his younger sister's scream.
"What the? Tyler? What the hell are you doing calling this late at night?" Brittney frowned and Tyler couldn't help but do the same.
"And what the hell are you doing screaming in someone's ear just because they call late at night, let alone your own brother?"
"If that's the attitude you're going to take the first time you call home, then I'm just gonna-"
"Second time, but-" Tyler tried to cut Brittney off…
"SECOND time?!" But it seemed to only make things worse as Brittney screamed in his ear again. "You mean to tell me that you've already called home and you didn't even bother to say so much as a word to me?"
"You weren't here last time I called!" Tyler yelled back as his right eye twitched with anger. There were a number of things about home he missed since arriving in Sinnoh. But all the pointless arguing with his sister was definitely not one of them. "Mom and dad said that you were over at a friend's house last time I called."
"That is so typical of you, you Ty-tanic IDIOT!" Tyler rolled his eyes at Brittney's trademark insult of him. "You go off on some globetrotting grand adventure, and you can't even be bothered to tell your own sister what you've been up to since you left."
"How was I supposed to know you weren't home the last time I called?! And since when did you give a damn what happened to me? I thought you'd be glad I was out of the house!"
"I am glad you're out of the house since now I don't have to put up with your stupid face all the time!"
"For the love of-" Tyler let out a heavy groan into the palm of his hand before looking back at his annoying little sister. "Look, I literally don't have time to put up with whatever Bug Pokémon decided to crawl up your ass tonight. I need to talk to dad, is he her-"
"Suuuuuurrrrrrrree…" Brittney rolled her eyes again, firing off a condescending glare at her brother. "You want to talk to dad, you want to talk to mom too I bet. Well tough luck, you're stuck with me tonight because neither of them is home."
"What do you mean neither of them is home?"
"Ughhh, did you hit your head and forget how to listen to people or something?" Brittney scoffed at Tyler's response. "Here, I'll say it nice and slow for you since you clearly have some sort of brain damage. Nei-ther – of – them – are – home!"
"So where are they then?"
"They – are – not-"
"I KNOW THEY AREN'T HOME!" Tyler snapped at his sister. "You don't need to hammer me over the head with it, I've suffered enough brain damage in the accident; you yelling at me is just adding on to it."
"Wait, accident?" Suddenly, Brittney did a complete one-eighty, Tyler detecting a note of genuine concern in her voice as she looked a bit more closely at Tyler in the video screen. "Are you in a hospital right now?"
"Yes… Well, I mean no, I mean, well, actually yeah – but it's not for me. I got released like two weeks ago. I'm not hurt anymore."
"You actually were in the hospital?!" Brittney gasped. "What the hell?! Why didn't mom and dad tell me?"
"It wasn't anything serious. I just crashed my hovercraft in the snow and got a concussion, but I'm fine now."
"You actually have brain damage?!" Brittney gasped again though this time Tyler narrowed his eyes and frowned.
"It was a minor concussion, nothing serious Brittney. I'm fine."
"Still though, now I feel like an ass."
"How's that any different than normal?" Tyler couldn't suppress the jab at his sister's bratty attitude.
"I'm going to let that one slide and say we're even now." Brittney now frowned back at her big brother and sighed. "So, what do you need to talk to dad about?"
"It's…" Tyler paused as he was unsure how to respond. Should Tyler tell her the unfiltered truth? That Shadow Pokémon, the signature terror of the Orre region had resurfaced in Sinnoh? That he'd seen a nightmarish fiend fight off three Mega Evolved Pokémon and hospitalized all three of their owners? That he'd almost had one of his own Pokémon stolen by the sinister Team Eclipse that wielded them?
"I just need some fatherly advice, you know? I've had a rough couple of days and could use one of dad's pep talks." Tyler decided to give Brittney a half-truth instead.
"Pep talk already?" Brittney gave a smug smirk back to Tyler. "You were so confident when you left home two months ago."
"Shut up." Brittney laughed a bit as Tyler's cheeks lit up with a slight embarrassment.
"Well, I won't keep you any longer if you're that desperate to talk to dad. Do you remember his extension number at work?"
"Uh-huh."
"Okay. Sorry for yelling. You caught me just as I was going to bed just now."
"Oh, my bad. Time difference here between here and home is stupid." Tyler apologized as well. "I'll uh, I'll try to call home a bit more often, and at a more reasonable time next time."
"Whatever makes you sleep better." Brittney threw one last weak jab but Tyler didn't care.
"Later sis."
"Later." And Tyler hung up the phone with that. Even if they didn't have the greatest relationship between the two of them, it still felt nice to talk to his sister. Absence tends to make the heart grow fonder or so they say. Apparently, that phrase also applies to siblings as much as it does lovers among other things. Tyler gave the room a quick scan and saw there were even fewer people in the room than before. Good. Not only was he a bit more composed having talked with his sister for a bit, but now there were even fewer people in the room to potentially eavesdrop on this sensitive conversation with his dad.
So, Tyler picked up the phone a second time and once more navigated the menus on the touchpad to find interregional calls, the Orre region, and then get prompted to enter a phone number. This time he put in the number for the Phenac City police department's main branch and waited… and waited… and waited. The Starly animation cycled over and over on the screen, now exponentially testing his patience with each flap of the pixilated bird's wings. Sure, the Orre region was likely the region farthest from Sinnoh, except maybe the Unova region. But if Pokémon could be transferred around the world almost instantaneously, how come a simple phone call took so much time to connect? It didn't make sense! After a short eternity, Tyler finally heard an automated response of the Phenac City Police Department. Of course, now he had to wait a while longer while the clearly recorded voice listed off options for call forwarding. Another eyeroll from Tyler as he had to wait for the machine to list out all of his options. Finally, he heard the magic words he was waiting for.
"If you are trying to reach the desk of a specific officer and know their extension number, you may dial it now." About time! Tyler entered the four-digit extension for his father's desk and waited… and waited… and wait-
"Police Sergeant James Lawson, Phenac City police department speaking, how can I assist?" Tyler may not have been able to see his dad's face on the screen, but just hearing his voice was enough to put a smile on his face.
"Hey dad, it's Tyler." Tyler heard the sound of some sort of liquid being spat out of his dad's mouth, probably coffee given the time in Orre.
"Tyler?!" Dad finally sputtered out with a cough. "Wha – what are you doing calling me at work?"
"You're not busy right now, are you?" Tyler asked immediately. Even if he had to have this conversation, Tyler still felt a bit guilty calling dad while he was at work.
"No, not really." Dad replied over the sound of papers being shuffled around. "You just caught me off guard is all. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised though since you're in Sinnoh and all. What time even is it over there?"
"Uh… like five o'clock in the evening." Tyler glanced at a nearby clock on the wall. "I think Sinnoh is like sixteen hours ahead of Orre."
"Damn that's harsh… hey, since you're over there living in the future, can you hook me up with lottery numbers?"
"I don't think that's how time travel works dad…" Tyler rolled his eyes while dad chuckled on the other end of the line.
"Alright, dumb jokes aside, what's up Tynamite? Just calling home and wanted to talk to your old man for a bit?"
"Yeah, something like that." Tyler eased into the conversation.
"So, how are things going over there in Sinnoh? Busy kicking ass and taking names, huh champ."
"You could say that. I've actually been in a double battle tournament over the past week. Made it to the round-of-sixteen."
"That's my boy!" Tyler blushed with pride from his dad's praise. "All that training at the Pre Gym's been paying off I see."
"I also won a Gym badge in Eterna City."
"A real Gym badge?!"
"Uh-huh, the Forrest badge." Tyler looked down at the badge pinned to his trainer's belt, seeing a flash of light glint off it.
"Ah damn! I wish I could have seen it." Dad's voice groaned through the telephone.
"It was way tougher than I was expecting, but Magnus toughed out the win for us in the end."
"Nice… Hey Rick-o, my boy won a Gym badge!" Tyler's face lit up a bit brighter while his dad bragged about his recent accomplishments. "Ha-ha. That's awesome Tynamite, you'll be champ in no time at this rate."
*Pfft* "Yeah, I got a loooong way to go before I could even try to fight the champion. She's way out of my league."
"The champion's a woman there huh?" Dad's voice hung on that last word with intrigue. "Hey speaking of women out of your league, whatever happened to that cute brunette girl with those highlights you were with back in Snowpoint City? She still keeping you company?"
"Hey, Wendy is not out of my league!" Tyler actually looked at the phone in his hand with a frown. "And yes dad, she is still keeping me company."
"Hey relax kiddo, I'm just giving you a hard time." Dad chuckled through the phone. "Besides, us Lawson men have a history of punching above our weight when it comes to the fairer sex."
"Uh-huh…" Tyler rolled his eyes anyway.
"I'm rooting for you Tynamite." Dad added on an endorsement of sorts. It was hard to tell considering what he said about punching above his weight.
"Right… look dad, can we just get to the reason I called you?"
"Sure thing champ. What's up?"
"Well…" Now that Tyler had the green light on the conversation, he actually wasn't sure where to start again. It made the most sense to start from the beginning, didn't it? "Okay, so last night I was in Solaceon Town with Wen-"
"That's not where you got hospitalized is it?" Dad interrupted.
"No, no that was in Snowpoint City." Tyler replied and continued. "So, me and Wendy are in Solaceon Town and… well, her parents own this daycare in Solaceon Town, so we're staying there for the tournament."
"Wow Tyler, you've already met Wendy's parents?"
"Huh? I mean, yeah, I did. They're both really nice." Tyler was suddenly caught off guard.
"Damn kiddo, you're moving quick in this relationship."
"Dad!" Tyler groaned.
"Right, serious talk. Okay so you're at the daycare for the tournament, right?"
"Yeah, but that's not the only reason we're there. We're also there to try and – wait, that's not important." Tyler shook his head after balking on a minor detail. He needed to stay on topic. "So last night I'm in bed with… wait, no that was later. I was in my room first getting ready for bed when… no, that's not it either."
"You okay there Tynamite?" Dad's voice sounded concerned.
"Yeah dad, I'm fine. I'm just… not sure how to get the right words out of my mouth." Tyler admitted with a sigh.
"Well take your time, I'm not going anywhere."
"Okay… So last night, I was getting ready for bed and me and Wendy were – I mean, we were up late in her room and… like we were just hanging out and talking about stuff when we… ah jeez. This is harder to talk about than I thought." Tyler frowned again.
"Ohhhhh, I think I know what you're trying to get at."
"You – you do?" Tyler's head snapped back, looking at the phone in his hand in shock. Dad was usually pretty perceptive about things, especially with his background in police work. But this was absurd even by his standards. Tyler hadn't even gotten to the first thing that happened last night, but dad knew what he was talking about?
"Yeah, I know what's going on. And trust me Tynamite, you got nothing to be ashamed of. It happens to every guy once in a while." Dad spoke matter-of-factly, which only made the look on Tyler's face more puzzled.
"Wait, huh? What are-"
"It's even happened to me a few times too." Dad continued anyway. "Everything's going nice and smooth, just the way you want it. There's a spark in the air, she's feeling good, you're feeling nice and confident."
"I don't-"
"And when the time's right, you step up to the plate looking to knock one out of the park. And instead you strike out. That's just how it is sometimes."
"Dad, what the hell are you talking about?" Tyler finally got the question out of his mouth, now greatly confused.
"It's okay Tyler. Like I said, it happens to every guy once in a while, I understand." Dad doubled down without answering the question. "You're still young so it probably came as quite the shock when it happened. Plus, you know, that Wendy girl is very pretty from what I remember of her. I felt the same way about your mom back in the day, and I struggled to perform for her sometimes too."
"Dad!" Tyler lashed out, frustrated with the flow of conversation.
"I know, I know. Nobody wants to think about their parents having sex, but how else would you come to exist if we didn't?" Tyler facepalmed hard enough that he may have just given himself a bruise. Dad couldn't have missed the mark any further if he tried!
"Oh my Gh – DAD I DIDN'T-"
"I just hope that you're being smart and using my 'present' that I gave you last time we had this talk back in Snow-"
"I DIDN'T CALL HOME TO ASK YOU FOR ADVICE ON SEX, DAD!"
"Well you could have fooled me the way you were stumbling over your words just now Tynamite." Dad chuckled, only further frustrating Tyler. "If you can't even talk about it with your old man, I'd hate to see hear how you -"
"DAD SHADOW POKÉMON ARE BACK!"
"actually perform in the…." Dad's voice trailed off after Tyler's frustrated scream. His only response back was multiple clunks and an exceptionally loud silence on the phone held to his ear. Even if they were half a world apart, Tyler could feel the gravity of what he'd just said pressing down hard on his father's shoulders and literally force the phone to drop from his hands. It was weighing back down on him as well, Tyler propping himself up against the wall to stay upright.
"Did… did you say Shadow Pokémon?" Tyler heard his dad's voice quake as he finally asked his question, and it was easy to understand why he sounded so shook up. Phenac City was a big target for Cipher during the Shadow Uprisings, with the town being taken over and overrun by Cipher admins during both instances. Memories of the second uprising in particular were flooding back to Tyler, making the hair on the back of his neck stand. With the Shadow Pokémon at their disposal, Cipher ran through nearly everyone who opposed them, capturing both Pokémon and their trainers, and imprisoning them in the basement of the Pre Gym's training field. Night after night, Tyler and his family lost sleep from worrying about whether or not dad would make it home safely whenever he went out on patrols. And now the unprepared Sinnoh region was about to face these same nightmares themselves. It was enough to worry anyone who knew what these beasts were capable of.
"Y-yeah…" Tyler replied meekly.
"Are… are you okay? Are your Pokémon okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm okay, my Pokémon are safe too… but I can't say the same about my friends.
"What happened!" Dad blurted out. "They didn't get their Pokémon stolen, did they?"
"N-no, none of their Pokémon were stolen. But three of my friends are in the hospital that I'm calling you from. Two of them are doing okay, but my one friend and her Houndoom were hurt really badly by one of the Shadow Pokémon"
"Oh my God…" Dad's voice was just a stunned whisper.
"I also almost lost Yuki to them too, the guys who were using the Shadow Pokémon." Tyler's body shivered as he remembered that electrified capture net being thrown at him and Yuki.
"But before we leave, we're taking one last thing with us!" It was a moment Tyler knew would be forever etched in the back of his mind. That towering sense of fear as that black and blue admin raised his arm. That almost gleeful cackle as he made his proclamation. If it weren't for Will's dad and his Gallade… Tyler didn't want to think about what would have happened next.
"I got saved at the last second but… nevermind." Both dad and Tyler together let out a staggered sob of a sigh.
"How… how do you know they were using Shadow Pokémon?" Dad asked, surprised at Tyler's revelation. "Unless you have the gift to see Aura like that girl from the first uprising, you'd need an Aura Reader to know they were Shadow Pokémon."
"Wendy has a Pokémon called a Lucario." Tyler answered. "I don't, really know the specifics, but the Lucario species have a natural connection to Aura that lets them sense and manipulate it. Her Lucario sensed something was wrong with the Pokémon these bad guys were using. And the things he was describing, like a cloud of black hate surrounding the Pokémon, I put two and two together and knew it was a Shadow Pokémon."
"Wait. How did you know that the Pokémon knew something was off?" Dad asked again.
"Wendy's Lucario can communicate telepathically with people." Tyler explained further. "It's got something to do with that Aura manipulation I just mentioned. She could tell you more if she was here, but she went to check on our other friends. Anyway, the Lucario projected his thoughts to us and like I told you, it just sounded like a Shadow Pokémon to me. Unfortunately, the bad guys confirmed I was right shortly after." Dad blew another frustrated sigh into the speaker of the phone, while Tyler fidgeted in place.
"Dad… what should I do? What can we do about this?" Tyler pleaded with his father, expecting him to know the answers.
"I don't know Tyler…" But dad didn't have an answer. "There's still so much I don't know, I…"
"We can't let another uprising occur dad. Especially in a region that's never experienced one before!"
"I know Tyler, I know. I want to help but I don't know how, especially when I don't even know what happened."
"Okay, well last night-"
"Tyler, wait!" Dad cut Tyler off.
"O…kay?"
"If what you're saying is true, and I have no reason to doubt you. But if what you're saying is true, this isn't a matter you need to tell just me. So, here's what you're going to do… You're going to hang up the phone. You're going to wait five minutes, and then you're going to call the department back. But instead of me, you're going to dial the extension for Chief Sieger's office, okay? 4-1-4-2. Got it?"
"Okay, got it."
"You're going to tell us everything, from the beginning. Don't spare any details, that's why I'm giving you the five minutes to pull it all together."
"Alright, I can do that."
"Good… And Tyler?"
"Yeah?" There was a pause.
"I'm glad you're okay."
"…Thanks dad." Tyler replied after another brief moment before hanging up the phone. Tyler let out another sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose. Take three. Tyler picked up the phone again and started to navigate the menus once more while reliving the events of the night in his head.
Starting with the barn exploding, Tyler remembered next running into the barn to save Yuki's egg. After he rescued the wrong egg, Pulse used his Aura abilities to track down the Eclipse grunts in white that took Yuki's egg. Wendy and he tracked the grunts down, fought them, beat them, and rescued their egg.
In all likelihood, Tyler didn't need to spend much time explaining this part as there weren't any Shadow Pokémon present. He'd need to be detailed for this second encounter with the ringleaders in black. They arrived and their Darmanitan immediately defeated Mr. Riding's Feraligatr before fighting Maddie and Jason's Mega Pokémon along with the Weavile. Pulse recognized the Shadow aura and then Will joined the battle to eventually overwhelm the two Shadow Pokémon. But that's when Type: Shadow arrived and held its own until that weird mask cracked on its head. Then it went into a berserker rage and injured Maddie's Houndoom and her. Even after, Will and Jay struggled to fight it before it finally knocked everyone out with that explosion attack it had. Thank God Commander Weiland got there when he did to save the day. Just how strong was his Gallade though if it could knock back Type: Shadow when three Mega Pokémon struggled to fight it?
Tyler heard the dial tone click in his head and the automated response asked for an extension number again. 4-1-4-2, Tyler punched in the numbers and saw the light atop the display of his videophone turn on. Reflexively, Tyler tried to smooth his hair a bit as the picture began to load.
Eventually two men were looking back at him. Dad was standing on the right side of a desk in the center of the room; and seeing him in that full navy-blue uniform put Tyler a little more at ease, in spite of his worried expression. Sitting behind the desk however was the more stoic and composed chief of police, Gordon Seiger. The chief sat at his desk with a furrowed brow and his hands tented and folded as they propped up his chin.
"Mr. Lawson," The chief spoke and Tyler couldn't stop himself from flinching a bit. Dad often painted Chief Seiger as a hardass, the kind of guy who was all business even on his days off. He had to be, given the history of the city he was now responsible for. "Your father tells me that you have some rather… unsettling news that needs to be brought to my attention."
"Uh, y-yes sir." Tyler nodded nervously. "Last night, I crossed paths with a criminal group in the Sinnoh region that was using Shadow Pokémon." Tyler's eyes flittered between the two officers and dad still seemed a bit disturbed by Tyler's revelation. Chief Seiger however simply closed his eyes, took a deep breath and simply said
"Tell me what happened." So, Tyler did, and over the course of the next several minutes he recounted each and every moment from after the barn exploded in Solaceon Town, with not a single detail spared. Dad tried his best to keep his emotions in check and remain Officer Lawson as Tyler recounted his story. But when Tyler mentioned the parts where he himself came close to or actually did get hurt, the edges of dad's lips trembled a bit. Chief Seiger on the other hand was asking question after question of Tyler, at times making the redhead feel lie he was being interrogated. But Tyler took his time, answered every question, and after what felt like an eternity finally made it to the end of his tale.
"We just visited Madison in her room before I called here. She was still asleep with a mask over her face to help her breathe, and probably pumped full of painkillers given her internal injuries."
"And her Houndoom? How's he doing?" Chief Seiger asked with the same calm intensity he'd asked all of his questions.
"From what I understand, he's been in some sort of healing chamber."
"Hmph…" The chief sat back in his chair, arms folded now behind his head as he looked at the ceiling in thought.
"Chief Seiger, I think it goes without saying that these Pokémon that Tyler ran into were without a doubt Shadow Pokémon." Officer Lawson spoke to his boss. "And if that's the case, then this Team Eclipse group he mentioned has to have some sort of connection with the former Team Snagem, and even Cipher."
"Yes, there's little doubt in my mind as well as much as it pains me to admit." A bitter frown curled the chief's lips, the first bit of emotion he'd shown in this entire conversation.
"If nothing else, we need to contact Professor Krane immediately and notify him about the resurgence of Shadow Pokémon." Officer Lawson continued. "I can do that as soon as we're done here. The professor and I have known each other for a while and he's a good friend of my family."
"Well that's at least a start." The Chief's frown stayed put. "Still, I'm left with questions that I know your son can't answer for us. The two most important of course being where and how did they acquire the technology to create new Shadow Pokémon."
"Weren't all of the bases that Team Snagem and Cipher used during the uprisings destroyed?" Tyler asked the two officers. "I remember watching it on the news, Michael went around after capturing all the Shadow Pokémon and helped destroy all the bases."
"No, you're right about that Tyler." Dad replied. "Most of their structures have been reconverted into things more beneficial to the Orre region. "Cipher's former Key Lair on the back end of Eclo canyon is now a climatology center for the entire region."
"And they should be pretty close to finishing turning their former base at Citadark Island into an airfield." Chief Sieger added on.
"Um, isn't Citadark Island still near an active volcano? Like literally right next to it?" Tyler expressed concern.
"Nah, the volcano's been taken care of." The chief shook his head. "Cipher was responsible for creating all the activity at that volcano, using it to power their Shadow Pokémon machines and those artificial currents that had made it nearly impossible to get to in the first place. Once Michael and the Gateon police shut down the labs there and cut off their geothermal vents to tap into the magma chamber, the volcano has been quiet."
"So, if the bases have been shut down and reconverted into other facilities, how could Team Eclipse have access to Shadow Pokémon tech?" Tyler asked again.
"Odds are, a former agent of Cipher brought the tech from Orre to the Sinnoh region." The chief sighed again.
"Aren't they all in prison?" Tyler frowned himself. "I mean, I know realistically that some of the peons and grunts managed to evade police capture, but all the admins were booked right? Master Greevil's trial was huge news four years ago when it finally happened."
"They didn't capture every Cipher Admin Tyler." Dad answered with a sullen expression. "Yes, Master Greevil was put on trial, along with his son Eldes and their chief admins Lovrina and Snattle. But Cipher's second, Greevil's other son Ardos managed to escape capture and fled the Orre region."
"The last anyone has ever heard of Ardos was a note left in Citadark island's labs aimed mostly at Michael; but was also an ominous warning to the entire Orre region, and I suppose now the entire world." The chief tented his hands and sat forward in his chair.
"Darkness is the only constant in this universe. Even after the sun rises, its presence is only temporary before nightfall comes once more. Michael, you are currently that light. Your influence is bright, and Orre feels safe with your presence watching over them like their guardian protector. But every light must fade eventually. There will be a time when your influence is diminished, your name loses the weight it once carried, and your accomplishments will be forgotten to the public's eye. And when that time comes, my darkness will return, and you will feel the weight of my Shadow firsthand. - Ardos"
"I just wish we had more than five years before he tried to pull this shit a third time. And in a region ill-prepared for its dangers no less." Dad clenched his fist so tightly his entire arm shook in anger.
"So… what are we going to do about this?" Tyler asked the question again. "We can't let Shadow Pokémon run wild in the Sinnoh region."
"There isn't much of anything that we can do right now Tyler." Chief Sieger answered sternly. "Understand our position here. It may be very well true that Shadow Pokémon are back and in another region. But we have no way of calculating their strengths beyond your firsthand reports that you are just now giving us. Professor Krane still needs to be notified, Michael still needs to be notified, the two of them would need to re-establish their purification labs if not rebuild them entirely."
"But what about the Sinnoh region?!" Tyler interrupted. "Getting everyone on the same page isn't going to stop Eclipse from attacking more places like the daycare or stealing from random trainers off the city streets! They need help now!"
"Tyler, I get your frustrated, I feel it too." Dad stepped forward towards the camera, showing his own burning anger more clearly on his face. "But the chief is right. We might know everything about Shadow Pokémon, but we know nothing about their operations in Sinnoh. We don't know where they're localized, where they're getting their tech from, their funding, the Pokémon they're converting into Shadow Pokémon from, we know none of that. We don't even know if these Eclipse guys have upgraded their Shadow technology to a level beyond XD-001. We have to take all of that into consideration before we can act."
"The best thing that we can do for the time being, is getting in contact with someone who has a lot of influence in the Sinnoh region and give them a proper briefing." Chief Sieger continued. "If we could get in touch with someone like an Elite Four member perhaps, or if we're lucky their Champion, then we could very quickly get everyone in the Sinnoh region on the same page and start fighting back… Lawson, do you think Krane might know anyone who has that kind of influence?"
"Possibly." Officer Lawson answered his boss' question. "It's my understanding that each of the major regions like Sinnoh has a chief research professor like Samuel Oak in Kanto."
"Ah yes, I've heard of him. The inventor of the Pokédex right?"
"Yeah, that's the guy. Well, Sinnoh should have someone who is at least on par with the great Professor Oak as far as being one of these regional research professors. But for the life of me I can't remember the man's name."
"You wouldn't happen to have heard of this famous Sinnohan professor have you Tyler?" Both officers looked at the redhead curiously.
"I uh… I don't think I have."
"Perhaps I can be of some help Tyler." Tyler flinches at the voice that sounded so unexpectedly close to him. He turns towards it and sees Will's father, Mr. Weiland walking towards him slowly with his cane propping him up on his right side with a plastic bag also being held in that same hand.
"Jeez! You scared the crap out of me Mr. Weiland." Tyler breathed a sigh of relief and took another breath to recompose himself.
"Sorry my boy, I couldn't help but overhear your conversation just now." Mr. Weiland chuckled with a weak smile.
"You okay there Tynamite?" Dad asked Tyler through the videophone.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Tyler turned back to him. "The dad of that guy Will I told you about just snuck up on me is all."
"Is this your father?" Mr. Weiland stepped into view of the camera and offered the same weak smile.
"The one on the right is." Tyler points at his father, who offers a composed smile in response.
"Officer James Lawson, Phenac City Police Department. Pleased to meet you."
"Gordon Seiger, Phenac City Chief of Police." The Chief introduces himself.
"Thomas Weiland. Commander of the Sinnohan Ranger corps. It's nice to meet the both of you." Dad's eyes bugged out of his head for a moment at Mr. Weiland's introduction. Even the usually emotionless Chief Seiger showed a slight reaction of surprise himself.
"C-commander? Of the Sinnohan Rangers?" Dad asked in disbelief. "As in you're the highest-ranking Ranger in the entire Sinnoh region?!"
"That is correct." The Commander smiled again. smile hardened from the pleasant introduction to business-mode in an instant.
"So, it would be safe to assume that you are aware of the incident that Tyler here was telling us about last night." The Commander's smile quickly hardened into a more serious scowl.
"I am indeed aware of the incursion at the Solaceon Daycare that took place last night and am personally leading the investigation into the events. Any and all information you could provide would be greatly appreciated."
"Lawson, I do believe we've found exactly the man we're looking for." The Chief cracked a smirk, another rare flash of emotion from him.
"I would have to agree Chief. This is quite the fortunate turn of events." Dad agreed.
"Still, I am curious as to what the Commander here already knows about Shadow Pokémon." And the chief's smirk faded just as quickly as the Commander's had. "If I recall from Tyler's story, you were there last night and had first-hand accounts of your own that you could share with us."
"Papa Tom?" Tyler looked down the hallway and saw Wendy and Rose looking at him and Mr. Weiland, each of them holding their own plastic bags like Mr. Weiland was. "Is this gonna take a while? Will and Jay are probably starving as it is, we shouldn't keep them waiting too long."
"Ah yes, very true. Tyler my boy, why don't you just leave me with my share here and take the rest with the girls back to Will and Jay's room." Mr. Weiland gestured to the plastic bag in his hand that he now set on the floor. "Mine's the one on the top."
"Okay." Tyler removed the Commander's food from the bag and was immediately assaulted with the scent of fried pickles and freshly baked bread. Sure enough, as he looked at the label on the Styrofoam box, the name "Okeer's" was embedded on the packaging.
"Well, I guess I'll see you around dad." Tyler stood up with the bag in his hand. "I'll try to call home at a more appropriate time next time."
"Bah, don't worry about that. Anytime you call home is an appropriate time to talk." Dad dismissed Tyler with a wave of his hand.
"Alright, love you dad."
"Love you Tyler." Tyler turned to walk down the hallway but took only three steps before he turned back.
"You better not tell Mr. Weiland any embarrassing stories from my childhood dad."
"Okay sport, I won't tell him about the time Magnus almost burned down the house because you forgot to feed him… oops."
"DAD!"
"Kidding, kidding. That didn't actually happen." Dad laughed as Tyler's cheeks lit up with a mix of anger and shame.
"Whatever. I'll talk to you later."
"Take care champ!" Dad gave one last goodbye as Tyler this time did walk down the hall without going back to make a fool of himself.
"Your dad seems pretty cool." Rose commented as the three of them made their way to the elevators.
"Yeah, he's alright. But looks can be deceiving. Beneath that uniform, he's just as doofy as any other dad out there." Tyler smiled fondly.
"That's true. My dad is exactly the same." Wendy adds as she chomps down on a fried pickle spear, which made Tyler frown slightly.
"I do hope you saved some of those for me Wendy."
"Don't worry Tyler. We bought extra because we all know that Wendy can't control herself when it comes to fried pickles." Rose threw a teasing jab at her girlfriend.
"But they're so good though!" Wendy protested with a mouthful of pickle.
"That doesn't mean you should start eating them before we're even out of Okeer's Wendy!"
"Yeah, seriously." Tyler reached out and stopped Wendy from grabbing another out of her bag. "Can you wait like five minutes? Just five measly minutes and then you can gorge yourself if you want to so bad. I just don't want you choking accidentally in the middle of the hallway.
"Okay… I'll try." Wendy frowned while Tyler and Rose both shook their heads together, walking down the hallway towards the elevators to the main lobby.
A/N: So that's a wrap friends. 52 Chapters now in the book. Honestly, I don't have much to really add down here beyond an apology again for the longer than usual wait on an update. Some of it came from figuring out how I wanted to work this chapter's content, whether or not I wanted to extend or add on to it, just a lot of boring mechanical stuff that you're probably not all that interested in anyway... And seriously, I kid you not about the goddamn snowstorm interfering with writing. I wanted this up last week and we were on pace for that only to get 25 inches dumped in my goddamn front yard that demanded constant attention. Fortunately, that blizzard has melted and now there should be very few shenanigans getting in my way for getting back to the pace I should be at. Until then, this is DrPhill26 signing out and I'll see you guys next time... hopefully in a more timely manner :)