(Important: If you are reading on FFN, you are reading an edited version, with slightly different content but identical plot. You may go to AO3 for the unedited version.)
Christine
At 0200 hours, International Police agents, led by senior agents LOOKER and CHRISTINE, entered the front entrance of the PokéPalace.
At 0202 hours, International Police agents entered the room where Mrs. Sandra MACINTOSH [Defendant #6] and a SYLVEON [Victim #4] were present.
At 0202 hours, International Police agent LOOKER shot the suspect in question, with a standard-issue rapid-fire semi-automatic rifle. Mrs. MACINTOSH was shot twenty [20] times within three [3] seconds. Blood spattered in all directions, including in agent LOOKER's eye [his wounds were treated on the scene], agent CHRISTINE's chest, which was obscured by a bulletproof vest, and on the SYLVEON's fur.
At 0205 hours, International Police agents noted Mrs. MACINTOSH as a confirmed kill.
The SYLVEON approached the body of Mrs. MACINTOSH. It cried for approximately 2 hours. International Police agents did not leave the room. They stared at the SYLVEON, in a non-aware trance state [the SYLVEON had forced the agents into a trance]. Pink sparkling lights filled the room during this time.
At 0401 hours, International Police agents reported being suddenly freed from the trance state. Agents prepared to take the SYLVEON into custody for its own safety. Before this could happen, the SYLVEON mysteriously collapsed to the floor, as if hit by an invisible gunshot. Its entire body was picked up off the floor and hit the wall with very high force.
The SYVLEON began vomiting blood. Its eyes slowly turned from light blue to a jet black. This occurred approximately between 0403 hours and 0416 hours. International Police agents will testify that they did not harm or handle the pokémon in any way whatsoever.
The SYLVEON's last words:
"EEEE…!" It was likely in severe pain. More blood flowed out of its mouth.
"EEEE…!" Its blood began to stain the hardwood floor.
"EEEEEEEE…!" His crimson blood began to reach our shoes. His blood would stain our footsteps forever.
"EEEEEEEE…!"
"EEEEEEEE…!"
"EEEEEEEE…!"
"EEEEEEEE…!"
I woke up to a cold sweat. When your life revolves so much around your career, it is only natural that your dreams take the shape of case reports.
This was the dream I had about three nights before the raid was to be conducted. In retrospect, I can say that the details of my dream do not match with the actual circumstances of the raid as it occurred. Guns were not used in the raid, and no suspects or pokémon were killed.
I have never really believed in the magical, the mythical. The Hau'oli Weather Observatory did not report any strange objects in the sky during the night I had this disturbing dream.
Although the details do not literally match, after that dream I now believe that our dreams do somewhat foreshadow our future.
Sandra
I have never been one to believe in the magical. My whole life had led me to lose faith in such fanciful notions. But the sylveon, of course, was a fairy type. And it was him that made me believe in magic again. The times I had known him before…were just the beginning.
The magic began with a harsh reality. Shortly after the sylveon had most ungraciously ripped through my clothes, we heard shouting outside the door.
Without my clothes on, I opened a crack in the door to see what was happening. The sylveon did not bother to join me.
Then there was a shot. With my ear close to the metal doorknob, I felt the shockwave as the sound travelled through the framework.
Suddenly the sylveon scurried to me. He did not scream, just cried under his breath. Haa…haaa… The brashness he had displayed tearing at my clothes had vanished. I felt his soft fur covered in a coat of clammy sweat. We both fell to the ground in shock, holding each other.
The ceiling was caving in on us as the splintery wooden floor beckoned us to sink deeper. My eyes were tricking me, I'm sure of it. Yet the moment never felt so real. Reality felt so much like hell.
Sylveon
Did you see other humans at the brothel, other than your clients and Master?
Yes. There were two men downstairs one night. They weren't customers, no. They just talked with Master. That was the night the lady broke me out of the building.
Sandra did?
Yes. We had already fucked two times when there was this really loud commotion in the lobby. It must've been really loud, because we were on the third floor and the lobby is on the ground floor.
What did you hear?
I heard voices. Arguing voices. There was a man. Some men. I heard the word "Rocket". "Rocket". "Rocket". That's all I could hear.
The lady opened a crack in the door. She peeked outside to take a look. The lady forgot to put her clothes on.
There were two men talking to the Master. The Master said, "No, Mr. Giovanni. Of course not."
The one man said, "Now, I wanna know why that receipt was found on that Team Skull member. I blame it on you."
Then Master said, "No! No, Mr. Giovanni, with all due respect I—"
There was a gunshot. The lady quickly shut the door. It was loud. Really loud. My ears are really big, so they're very sensitive. The lady shielded them with her arms. It was nice. Her body felt warm.
What happened next?
She looked at me. She was shaking. She was really afraid. I thought, what could scare the lady so much? How can a human be scared by a fellow human?
"C'mon, we…we have to leave here," the lady told me.
She took me one of my ribbons. I screamed: "EEEEE…!" It hurt really bad.
"Shut up! They're gonna hear us!" She scolded me. She looked mad.
She climbed out of the window. She carried me like a baby with one arm, but that wasn't necessary. I should have protected the lady instead of her protecting me.
Then she started running. Fast. There was a field of grass lit by stars and the moonlight. She ran towards the moonlight. She was panting a lot. Like she usually is when we have sex.
She didn't seem mad at me anymore. She smiled a little."I did it…I did it…" she was murmuring under her breath. She didn't look scared anymore.
Christine
"Here is the report, Agent Christine," Looker handed me an unsealed sheet of paper. "Voice expert confirms it is a male sylveon in the brothel, probably originating from Kalos, but he's not sure."
I quickly dropped the memo I was drafting, and stood up from my desk. "Can he piece out what the sylveon is saying in the pokémon language?" I asked.
"He says it's mostly exclamations, with no particular meaning."
"Hmm, I see. Could we get the expert to stay in Hau'oli for a couple more days? I may want him to help interpret the pokespeech once we conduct the raid."
"In a couple days?" Looker was skeptical. "And you're sure you've got everything ready?"
"Yes, in fact I'm just writing out the protocol we should follow. I'm starting from scratch here. I don't think International Police has ever attempted a raid on a pokémon brothels."
"Nah, of course we've tried to take down the brothels. Just no one's been brave enough to follow through," he smiled, perhaps with a tinge of envy. "You're a remarkable woman, Christine, you're sure to go a long long way," he added, continuing to smile at me.
Without warning, he reached to gently touch my hand. I quickly pulled away, chuckling a little at his embarrassing mistake.
"Whoa, whoa there, Looker, don't get me wrong, you're a good friend but…" I tried to hold my laughter. "You're not my type. You're really not my type. I'm not…like that. I'm…like that."
"You don't mean…?"
I nodded, still laughing at him.
His face quickly softened. "Oooh…gotcha." He wiped his hand on his pants. "Errr…sorry 'bout that." He chuckled nervously, trying not to look at me.
"Hey, listen," I said, "I'm heading a meeting with all the International Police agents in Hau'oli to prepare for the raid. I'd appreciate it if you would sit in." Looker was obviously more experienced, and could help me with tweaking my from-scratch protocol.
"Ok. Sure thing."
Sandra
I did not want to see how dirty my feet were as I ran, naked, clinging on to the bits of fabric that were my clothes. It was a whole another world in Alola; nothing like Johto. The heat was stifling, even late at night. Bug pokémon were crawling around the muddy ground. If they had the chance they would bite me, their fangs delivering an excruciating poison.
So I had to run. Run, run, run, wherever the clearest path was. Nothing grew perfectly in the real world. It moved up, down, curving in many directions. And so the path we took had many twists and turns, like a maze: the destination never clear.
Reality was never clear.
Eventually we ran into the jungle, me still cradling the sylveon in my arms. The sweat made it harder and harder for me to hold onto him, and he accidentally slipped from my arms. I dove forward to try to prevent him from falling onto the mud and tainting his crystal-white fur. I tripped over a thick tree root on the trail and fell face first.
I squinted my eyes as my skin became decorated with red spots and cuts, mixed in with salty sweat. The mud was too sticky and my body stinging too much to be able to get up from the ground. I still managed to catch the sylveon, though. I was proud of that. There he was, still resting in my outstretched arms. His eyes closed, still fast asleep.
I looked one way, I looked the other way. I was one an unmarked trail in the jungle, surrounded by dense undergrowth. There were only two choices: down the hill, up the hill. The choice was simple. And yet I did not have the courage to make a move. This was reality, after all. In the real world, I had to always keep moving.
How foolish of me to stay put.
I found a freshly killed oddish on the trail floor, within arm's reach. I had not realized how long it had been since I had eaten, and the running had made me hungry. I grabbed the pokémon corpse in my hand. But before I could even take a bite, I felt a sharp sting in my belly.
"RRRR!"
It was a bug pokémon—an araidos—who snarled at me for stealing his dinner. I felt threads upon threads of spider silk trapping my body to the ground. My arms still cradled the sylveon as my torso was restrained. His eyes remained closed, without expression.
"Wake up…wake up…help me…help me…" I tried to plead to the sylveon. But his eyes remained hopelessly closed.
I screamed as I felt the poison slowly seeped into me, causing my muscles to spasm uncontrollably. My voice echoed in the night: Arceus' way of laughing at me for my utter stupidity. My knees oozed with blood. And yet, in all my pain, I did not know what was my next step. I was lost: lost in the sinuous path carved in the deep jungle.
"Help me…help me…" my voice grew more raspy as the poison constricted my throat. My eyes twirled in the homogenous dark. I could not even see the trail anymore. I was beginning to hallucinate from the lack of air, faint points of white light dotting the dark night like stars.
But then I saw a single faint point of pink light, around where the sylveon was sleeping. The moon suddenly glowed with greater intensity. Then in the muddled darkness a bright pink orb of light formed—for a moment as bright as the afternoon sun. The pink orb hit the ariados. The ariados being so close to me, I felt the same light hit me. Nestled in the warm glow, the spasms from the poison began to fade.
I felt the pink light would burn my flesh, yet somehow I did not die. Nor did I suffer. I was just burning, burning, engulfed by a bright pink, never-ending flame. It burned the strongest in my heart. I heard the sylveon's cries echoing in my head: "EEEEE! EEEEEE!" The light exuded his warm spirit.
When the light faded, I realized that the sylveon had attacked the ariados. The bug-type had the power of the jungle, though. And the earth was always so much more powerful than the moon. The sylveon, however, had substantially weakened the ariados. He spoke with the ariados for a few minutes, in their own language. Then the bug pokémon calmly left us, as if by magic.
Sylveon
Why did you save the lady from the ariados?
The lady was in pain. She said "help me". So I helped her. That's what a friend does. So I used my moonblast to whup that ariados. And then the lady didn't cry anymore. I was glad. I wanted to save the lady.
Even though she hurt you? Pulled at your ribbons?
I dunno. I guess that's bad. But there're a lot of not-bad things about her. She carried me the whole time when we ran out of the building. When she dropped me, she dove forward to try and stop me from falling to the mud.
You were awake?
Yeah, I was. I could hear everything that was going on. But I closed my eyes because it made the lady happier. She likes it when I sleep. When she caught my fall, she whispered to me, "There now, there now. Everything's okay. Sleep now. Sleep now." I don't think anyone's ever said that to me before.
Why were you able to shoo away the ariados?
You mean besides my attack? [giggles] Well, I told the ariados not to hurt the lady.
"She is my friend," I told him. "A very very special friend."
"You mean she is your mate?" The araidos asked me. I never heard of this word before, "mate". But it sounded good to me, the lady being my "mate". So I said, "Yes, she is my mate."
"Ah, I see. Then I will leave you. I am so sorry to bother your family."
I wanted to ask him what the word "family" means, but he went away before I could say anything.
Christine
"Something to remember," I said at the meeting. "Alola is very hot. Even at night, it might be above 30 Celsius. We're gonna be wearing full bulletproof vests and headgear, so it's important to stay hydrated. We want to be in top shape so we get in there and out of there as soon as possible. Any questions?"
One junior agent, who flew in from Unova, raised his hand. "Could you go over the protocol as to shooting suspects inside the building?"
"Yes." I had planned a speech to answer this question. "We have reason to believe the manager and other human staff at the brothel are armed with guns. However, do not, I repeat, do NOT shoot them."
I saw several raised eyebrows among the agents.
"I realize this goes against protocol that persons that are a serious threat to public safety should be shot. But do whatever you can to make sure they are not killed. It is important that they fully atone for their crimes, not just become a martyr to the criminal cause.
"We will have trained raichu on duty. Special agents who will come with us will supervise the pokémon as they electrocute the suspects without killing them. It is more effective than a gun."
I saw Looker, who sat quietly in the back of the room, smirk a little. Pokémon were used by International Police, but generally as friendly companions or to fight against enemy pokémon, not humans. Perhaps it took a more inexperienced, naïve Agent like me to come up with such an out of the box plan.
"Do you not think it is immoral to face a pokémon against a gun, though?" The Unova agent said skeptically.
"It is a risk we have to make. We are fighting for the welfare of pokémon who have been sexually exploited. It is only right that pokémon should be fighting for their fellow pokémon. As their equals, we humans cannot deny pokémon this right."
Looker's eyes widened. Perhaps my time at Alola had really changed my views of pokémon and humans coexisting.
A female agent from Sinnoh, who had been quiet for much of the meeting, raised her hand. "Erm…this is rather a strange question…but…what if the pokémon at the brothel tries to fight back, against you? What if they don't want to leave? What if they became sympathetic to their captors?"
"I find that unlikely," I said.
"But say it did happen…?"
I did not plan for this. "Then…the raichu will electrocute the pokémon, and they will be apprehended. Just like a human enemy. No difference."
It was my gut response.
(To be continued. Sorry I've been a bit sluggish with updates...it's been a busy summer! Hope you liked it, and your feedback is appreciated!)