Chapter Seven
Bruno loved the smells of donut shops. Beneath the harsh, acrid cloud of coffee that clung to the breath of every patron within the establishment was the sweet scent of sugar. This establishment, however, didn't use conventional sugar. Rather, every sweetener, used to take the edge off of coffee, glaze the donuts, or sweeten the crepes, came from honey. The resulting blend of odors from this unconventional sweetener and the cuisine tailored to its peculiar flavor left Bruno's mouth watering. The moment his order arrived, with two glazed chocolate donuts and a cup of coffee, heavily diluted with cream and turned yellow with honey, Bruno wolfed down the donuts and chugged the coffee, slathering glaze all over his furry blue paws.
The tall, burly man, named Peter, sitting across from him laughed. He picked up one of his donuts, which seemed tiny in his massive, callused hands, and took a dainty bite, chewing slowly and savoring the flavor. Then he took a sip of his black, bitter coffee.
"Hey now, take it easy Bruno," Peter said. "Wouldn't want you getting sick on the first day on the job!"
Bruno nodded, swallowed, and smiled. Then he took a napkin and cleaned off his paws. The paper snagged on one of the bony points jutting from the top of his hand, and he tore a hole through the middle.
Both the man and the lucario wore blue officer's uniforms, each tailored to their physiology but identical in trim and ornamentation. They bore badges over their hearts, caps atop their brows, and boots on their feet. The sole difference in their uniforms was what they kept by their side. The burly man had a .44 caliber pistol with a silencer affixed to its barrel. Bruno had a notepad and a pen. The notepad looked fresh off of the shelf, and yet only a few pieces of paper remained on the threadbare cardboard backing.
A waitress walked over and smiled at the officers. "Wouldn't you rather give your lucario something suited for pokemon?" she asked the officer. "We have an excellent variety of poffins, made to suit the nutritional needs of pokemon."
Peter chuckled. "He's my partner. We do things together."
The waitress shrugged and said, "Suit yourself." She left the bill on the table and darted off to serve another customer. The officer set a twenty under an unused glass, stood up, and gave the lucario a huge smile.
"Alright Bruno, I think we've patrolled the donut shop enough. Ready to head out?"
Bruno took out the pen and paper. He wrote swiftly and dexterously, tore the paper off, and handed it to Peter. It said, "Can we get some to go?"
Peter folded up the paper and tucked it into his right pocket. It bulged outward, and a few corners of white paper poked out. "Budget's a bit tight," he mused. Then he laughed. "We'll come back when we catch a criminal. How does that sound?" Then he winked and added, "Double the donuts for catching Rocket scum."
The two officers nodded farewell to the waitress and walked out the door. They strolled through the streets, smiling at passing civilians and giving friendly waves wherever they went. Throughout the stroll, Bruno kept his ears perked, listening to the shuffle of feet and every whisper on the wind.
Towards the end of the day, Bruno caught the first sign of trouble. In an alley, he heard someone back into a wall, along with a muffled, whispered demand for money. He yanked Peter's hand and barked in the direction of the alley. Peter drew his pistol, and they ran into the alley. Bruno led the way down a series of twists and turns, far from the clamor of the streets, until they finally came to the source of the ominous sounds.
A woman was backed against a wall, holding her purse out in front of her face like a shield. Three thugs, shoddily dressed in wrinkled shirts and torn jeans, surrounded her with leering smiles on their faces. Two carried knives, and the third pointed a gun at the woman's leg.
"Just hand over the purse, and you'll get to walk home with both of your legs," the pistol-wielding thug said. "That's all we want." Then he grinned and laughed, a feral, maniacal laugh that made the woman sink to her knees. "Although, we'll let you go without any scratches if you give us a good show, if you get my meaning."
The thug's two cohorts chuckled and reached towards the woman's shirt. At this, however, Peter cleared his throat. The three thugs jumped and pointed their weapons at him.
"Whoa, just relax, guys," he said, holstering his pistol and holding up his hands.
"You're – you're with the police!" a thug shouted.
"Yes. Just turn yourselves over, and I'll treat this as just an attempted robbery and let you off easy."
"Screw that! Come on guys, let's split!"
At the order from the lead thug, all the criminals split up, each darting down a different alley. Peter went to the woman's side and helped her onto her feet.
"I'll get her out of here," Peter said to Bruno. "You go after them and cuff them, alright?"
Bruno barked in response and bounded off. He caught the first thug before he had the chance to round a corner. The thug slashed at him, but he ducked beneath the blade and shoved a paw into the man's midsection. He fell to the ground, gasping for air. Bruno helped him up into a sitting position, cuffed his hands and feet, and dashed off towards the next target. Using his keen senses, he honed in on the ragged breathing and uneven, frantic pace of the other knife-brandishing criminal. This one threw out a pokeball, releasing a mightyena. Its face was scarred up, and patches of its fur were burned away.
"Now, bite it Chopper!" the man shouted.
The mightyena leapt forward, sinking its teeth into Bruno's forearm, but he smacked it off with his free paw. The man dashed towards him, blade extended, and rammed the tip into Bruno's chest. The blade snapped cleanly off at the hilt, spraying shards of steel onto the pavement.
The man stared dumbly at his broken blade as Bruno wound his arm back. Then the lucario threw a mighty punch, catching the man in the fork of his legs. He doubled over, screaming in pain and frantically reaching for a second pokeball. Bruno kicked his belt off, cuffed him, and leapt up a fire escape. From the rooftop, he scanned the alleys below, hunting for the gun-wielding thug. He took off in the direction he remembered that man taking, off to the north away from everyone else, but those alleys were completely silent. Sullen and thinking his quarry slipped away, Bruno rushed back towards Peter. However, as he came within earshot of his fellow officer and the woman he escorted, he heard a third pair of footsteps, slinking in pursuit. Bruno heard a pistol being cocked and rushed forward, leaping down in between the final criminal and Peter.
The gun fired, and a bullet caught Bruno in the shoulder. The metal tore through his tough outer skin and tore out a small chunk of flesh. Blood gushed from the wound, and Bruno clapped a paw over it to staunch the bleeding.
Peter drew his own pistol, stepped aside his comrade, and fired two shots. The first shot went wide, tearing a hole in a dumpster, but the second caught the thug square in the throat. He fell, clutching at his throat with one hand and propping himself up on his knees with the other. Blood streamed out between his fingers, and each cough from the man coated the concrete with red specks. After half a minute, the man's arm buckled, and he collapsed to the ground with a gurgle.
"Damn it, I killed him," Peter muttered as he gently set the shocked woman against a wall. He rushed over to Bruno and gingerly parted the fur around the wound.
"Don't worry, Bruno," Peter said, unrolling gauze from a miniature first-aid kit in his pocket, "I'll get that taken care of." He tightened the gauze, slowly and gently, stopping when Bruno barked with pain.
"Now, can you tell me where you left the others? I'll go get them."
Bruno sketched out the alleyways on his last piece of paper and marked two X's where the captured criminals were. Peter took the paper, told Bruno to keep an eye on the woman, and darted off. Bruno got on his feet, walked over to the woman, and sat down next to her, closing his eyes and listening closely to the alleyways. He heard Peter approach each man, check their cuffs, take all their weapons, and lug them over his shoulder.
Ten minutes later, Peter returned hauling a cuffed man over each shoulder. He lowered them to the ground and checked Bruno's shoulder.
"Good, looks like the healing stopped. I called backup. They'll be here any minute now."
Just as he said this, Bruno's ears caught the wail of police sirens, wafting through the wind. Within a minute, a squad of officers threw the two live criminals in the back of a police car, photographed every inch of the scene, collected the gun and knives, and wrapped the corpse in a body bag. During this commotion, Peter left, letting Bruno lean on his arm as they walked back to police headquarters. There, a doctor checked Bruno's shoulder, gave him a few stitches, and sent them off.
"How's it feel?" Peter asked as Bruno rubbed his shoulder. Bruno reached for his side, but he had no paper.
"Oh right, you're out. Let's go get some more on the way home."
Bruno gave him a pleading look. Peter laughed and said, "Alright, we'll stop for donuts too."
Bruno intensified his stare. Peter raised his head and stroked his stubby chin. "Those guys weren't Rockets, that's for sure." Bruno's head sank. Peter clapped him on the back and said, "Ah, what the heck. You earned double donuts. Come on, let's go!"
Ignoring the stabs of pain from his shoulder, Bruno ran towards the donut shop, with Peter chasing after him. His laughter echoed up and down the alleyways and as it gave smiles to the faces of every civilian they passed, it also sent chills up the spine of a Rocket member watching from the shadows.
Changelog: 8/19/18 - tidied up the prose and added a bit more aura stuff to the chase scene