Updated 28/02/2023

"He is… well... Me and him are different. Sometimes he goes silent and… Actually, since starting this whole mission thing, I haven't heard a peep. It's gotten to the point where I'm just about prepared for him to launch some sort of sneak attack on me.

"Am I thankful he helped me pull us out of the hell hole that was the Deity Lab? Yes, very much so. That doesn't mean I was happy with what he did, or at least started to do, for our way of escape.

"I will never let that happen again."

Positive visualization. Every which way Matthew had turned to for advice in high school it was always positive visualization. His teachers, parents, even some brainy acquaintances at times. That is what Matthew had tried to apply to the situation that laid before him. Sure, it wasn't as if this was right before a test or exam, but he felt that if he concentrated hard enough, maybe he would trick himself into thinking it was true.

A piece of meat laid on the ground. And he so desperately wanted it to fit his vision of perfection. His eyes closed and he hoped for the best. Perhaps a nice brown top with a light pink in the center, medium rare was always his favorite. It was a good chunk, covering almost the entire plate. Maybe even a light pool of gravy gathering on top of it, waiting to be engulfed in a single bite. Hell, why stop there? Just add a mound of mashed potatoes and some carrots and boom! You got yourself a mighty good dinner.

He opened his eyes and knew this was far from what he wanted. On top of not having the aforementioned side dishes nor the gravy, it was far from a good chunk and probably wouldn't even cover a quarter of the plate. The only thing he seemed to get right was that it was, in fact, rare. The problem being, it was so rare that it was raw.

The mind that had held the positive visualization started to backpedal, beginning to see all the negatives. Starting off with the fact that he had absolutely no idea what pokemon the meat came from. This was far from his comfort zone as he always had synthetic meat. It was good, clean, didn't affect pokemon, and it tasted good too.

This piece was coated in dirt, was discolored in areas and might even be diseased. It also came to his attention that it appeared to be mostly gristle, as white fatty parts dominated the overall meat chunk.

In a last-ditch effort, his mind uttered timidly, It is food, though. And to that he agreed. That didn't mean he had to eat it, however. If he ate something and ended up with a sickness, especially when he couldn't heal, then it would all be over. It also wouldn't be the end of the world if he didn't eat today or tomorrow; he had eaten a good amount during his brief time in Goldenrod city. There was no rush… yet. And that was the part that made him so uneasy.

"You better eat that, you probably won't get any tomorrow," said Shali, still having her back turned to his slouched, sitting figure. She had essentially vacuumed her ration into her mouth without a second thought when they were first handed out. At that moment, there was a twang of envy that surged its way through Matthew when he witnessed it.

"Yeah, fat chance of that happening," he replied, finger combing his hair. Tiny pellets of snow still fell out even after hours of sitting a decent distance away from a campfire. The flames' height had diminished over time and the effect was beginning to be felt.

"I guess you're happy being hungry then," she said, keeping her perfectly balanced stance. It amazed Matthew how dedicated this lucario was, even after such a long amount of time, she still held strong. Not even the tiniest shift of her spear was seen. "Hey."

"Hmm?" he said, turning his head up to see a pair of solid eyes staring back.

"Are you cold?" she asked.

This question was taken as a surprise to him, he even thought her voice had a touch of compassion as though she really wanted to know if he was alright. Careful to not blow his chance, he said, "Well, the fire got a little smaller, so I'd be lying if I said I was comfortable right now," he ended with a lighthearted grin.

She returned the expression, "Okay then," she said. Her head turned back towards the fire and… nothing.

Matthew was confused, "Uhh… were you gonna do something?" he said.

"No, just making sure you weren't dying," she uttered a small laugh and left him at that.

He gritted his teeth and sighed. In his view, he saw the little structure the fire collapse in on itself, leaving little more than burning red embers and stray bits of flame. The heat was nearly forgotten in his body and his fingers were already turning white. He put his hands together and rubbed to savor the tiny heat from friction. His fingers were briefly red with life but rapidly turned back to white. It became clear that the night would be very unforgiving.

"Shali?" someone said, and they both turned their heads up to the voice. A lucario, smaller in height to Shali but with several scars on their chest and head.

"Yes, Kaya, what's the trouble?"

Kaya's eyes went over to Matthew who stared down at the ground. "The elder wants you to know that you're free to push the shift to someone else for the night, if you would like to."

Shali shook her head, "Tell him I'm fine right now. But honestly, who could really replace me? My family is the only one that carries the ability to control movement through aura."

Kaya looked uncertain for a second and then said quietly, "Azen probably could."

Shali scoffed and her grip on the spear tightened. "Azen can shove that ego of his up his own. I doubt he could hold on to this one," a glance was cast at the human, to where he refused to reciprocate. "Those two auras are almost fighting with one another. Just now one of them seems to be really unstable."

Unstable? What? Oh Arceus, please don't tell me he's going to take over me when I'm in this state, that cannot happen, Matthew thought.

Kaya nodded lightly and went off, "Well, if anything happens, you're free to do as you please to the human," she said in a reminding tone. In acknowledgment, Shali raised her spear and shot a quick, driving blow of the blunt end into his side. He let out a breath of pain and shut his mouth, not letting them get any pleasure out of his suffering.

"Don't worry, I'm well aware," she gave a grin and Kaya disappeared from sight.

The ache was set back in his mind as thoughts began to form. So, you're fighting with my aura, huh? I can't seem to see it. Are you going to come out or not? Stop being a pussy and show yourself! You can't fool me; we both know that. Well? Come on, I've had just about enough of your silence so start talking!

And yet, as the hours went on and the night began to set in, there were no replies to his words. Matthew waited for anything else to happen, yet soon lost the battle with his closing eyes. It amazed him that he found a way to sleep, though it was far from what he would prefer. The tree's frozen bark was about as soft as a wooden floor that a bed would be on. The fire was long gone, reduced to a weak, red, glowing base that was fading. He didn't know why he hadn't frozen yet but had a suspicion lurking in the deep parts of his mind.

Shali, while still going strong, was feeling the entrancing sense of slumber. Her eyes began to be closed longer than usual, her grip on the spear slowly sliding down as it was being used more and more as a crutch rather than a weapon. In hindsight, it may have been a better idea for someone else to watch the human when he was asleep and couldn't do harm, she mused to herself.

The only thing keeping her going was her determination but as much as she didn't want to admit it, even that was wearing down. It didn't help that her aura bind was consuming so much of her energy. Maybe if she just toned it down a bit she could keep going? It wouldn't be that bad, and this human wouldn't go anywhere soon.

She sighed, feeling herself slide a few inches down her spear. There was no going around it. If she wanted to keep her shift all night and manage to stay awake, she'd have to lower her aura use.

She began easing her aura output down. The result was nearly instantaneous. Her body felt completely solid again, and she adjusted herself so that she was no longer using her weapon of choice as a means to stand up. The grip she had on the human was still tight nonetheless, there was no way he'd be getting out of here still.

"...thew… atthew," a voice said in a husky whisper, not quite shaking Matthew from sleep. It hadn't occurred to him yet, but this voice was not from the outside world.

"...Matthew," it said, louder. In response, Matthew gave a light grunt and tried to go back to his sleep properly. The voice was not having it.

"Matthew. Wake up. You wanted to talk, I'm here, let's make things happen."

This got his attention, the voice was no longer empty, it had force behind it. And he knew who it was.

Very slowly, he opened his eyes, feeling the curse of the sandman lift from his body. There was no one in his sight as of yet, but he knew it was only a matter of time. The only sights in his vision were that of a sad string of smoke timidly rising from the old fire and several trees behind it. The lucarios had gone off to wherever they slept, leaving him and Shali relatively isolated.

"Matthew."

He heard the voice in his head and found himself staring at his twin, just behind the dead campfire. His face resembled that of his perfectly, his white hair the same to every last point, and his figure the exact same. The twin wore a black shirt and black pants which, unlike Matthew's, were clean and untorn. And instead of Matthew's green eyes, they were a shimmering magenta.

Neo, it's been some time, huh? he thought, knowing full well Neo could hear him just fine.

Neo's smile shrunk and he stepped closer. His legs fazed through the charcoal wood pile without any black scuffing onto the pants, as though he were a ghost. It made sense, Neo wasn't actually there, only in Matthew's head. "Why am I here, Matthew?" he asked, rather dryly.

Matthew looked to Shali, who appeared to not have noticed anything yet, and said, We need to talk about the future.

"Sure, what aspect of it?" he asked, walking forward. Matthew had a throb in his head, another migraine, which was normal whenever Neo was present. "The fact that you're not gonna have one if you don't fix things in three days?" a smirk formed, "Or perhaps it's the possibility of me taking over?"

Matthew gave him an even stare, trying to cut him down to his level but did little to aid him. Listen. This is for both of our sakes, Neo. And-

"No, you need to listen, Matthew," he said, losing the smirk and allowing a serious tone to flow through his voice. "You need to know that this is what happened when you decided to associate us with Team Saber again."

This was never-

"It was. You decided to fake the suicide to get cops in the room to get the tape. Then lure all possibility of Team Saber following you to an empty street corner, promptly get yourself electrified and land in the middle of fucking nowhere!" Neo's steps slowed, he was only a few feet away from where Matthew was, even though in reality, he hadn't moved the slightest distance. This was only a show of intimidation which, much to Matthew's dismay, was beginning to work its way through.

Well, if you let me finish than I'll-

"Then we end up here. Right fucking here. We're tied up by a pokemon tribe that'll kill us in three days. Maybe not us. Definitely you but I'm stronger, I could break free and-" It was Matthew's turn to play the cutoff game now.

And what if you're not? Maybe I bit off more of you than you know. You could just as easily go away without a trace of your existence. So, we need to help-

"What? And I'm just going to help you out? No, no, no, I get it. I've practically been your slave for nearly ten years. It makes sense you'd want to get all the mileage out of-"

Just-! Shut it for now. Please. Matthew felt his mind growl at Neo. There was an uncomfortable silence between them. Neo had yet to move forward and neither spoke to the other. Matthew noticed his twin took glances at Shali with a displeased expression. Shali had yet to notice the banter between them. She could read aura, not thoughts.

"So she's the one who's locking us in place?" asked Neo, facing Matthew again. He had his arms folded over his chest, as though disapproving of Shali.

Yeah, she's the one. And if you're thinking about it, no, we can't convince her to let us go.

"I figured, but I can't keep us warm forever," he said.

Matthew felt a sudden dip in his core temperature before feeling it rise up again. So you're keeping us warm. I didn't think you had power left after she bound us.

Neo gave a huff, displeased. "Fortunately for you, I still do and just enough at that. You're just lucky I need you alive in order to live, otherwise I wouldn't have bothered." Neo was now nearly face to face with Matthew, bearing an almost sick smile. Matthew knew he was practically begging to get a reaction.

Honestly could you just drop it and focus on what's happening right now? We're never gonna get anywhere if we keep doing this.

Neo's expression changed slightly, a bit of creepiness had subsided and replaced with something wily and unpredictable. "I want what you want, Matthew."

What did I just say, Matthew thought angrily, starting to feel words appear in his throat but he swallowed them before they could be free.

"Time to face the music, you'll have to let me take over. It might not be today nor tomorrow, but it will happen. You can count on that."

Neo, you have to-

"And I don't care if it's Team Saber or the Aperta tribe. When I finally take over, we'll be finished with both. So-

"Shut your fucking mouth, Neo…" Matthew thought aloud. While only a whisper, it made him realize that he wasn't the only one that heard it.

Slowly, he turned his head up and saw Shali looking down at him, tired but still holding an intrigued look. Her spear had dug into the frozen ground at least an inch from it being a support tool for her weight. While brief, Matthew saw her aura sensors up for a moment.

"What?" she said, holding the spear tighter.

Damn it, Neo! You planned this didn't you? Matthew looked around for Neo but he was nowhere to be found, he had vanished.

"What did you say? And who's Neo?" Shali moved closer to Matthew, starting to gain touches of intrigue.

"He's no one," he said quickly, easily hearing the common pitches of lying in his speech.

"I bet you'd like to think that," said a smiling Neo, reappearing before puffing out of existence.

Shut up!

"I don't believe you, human."

Thirteen years. It had been thirteen years since Neo came into his life and since that moment, no one had ever heard or seen him. Now, someone had sensed it and he wasn't sure what to do.

"It's your second aura, right? This Neo?" asked Shali, kneeling down to his level.

Matthew, still somewhat lost in thought, looked up at her in surprise and then sighed. "Well…" he started, looking at Neo, who was leaning against a nearby tree as though he were corporeal, and felt a twinge of annoyance, "I'd say he's more asshole than aura but… yeah."

"And does… it… talk to you often?" was the next question she asked.

"He prefers to be called 'he', and sometimes he talks too often, in my opinion," Matthew chuckled a little at the end. Shali didn't share the sentiment.

"So you fight with one another usually?"

"Huh? What do you-" Matthew noticed her aura sensors floating behind her head. "We do, sometimes, but a lot of the time he's quiet."

Shali nodded and turned away from him. There wasn't a particular expression on her face that she left him with, but her eyes turned to the dead fire. It was a nice change of pace to not get the point or butt end of the spear after a conversation with her now. His ribcage thanked Shali lightly.

"I have to admit, she's not exactly bad," said Neo, coming back into Matthew's sight. He appeared relaxed and that made Matthew weary of what he might say next.

What are you doing, Neo?

"Relax, would you? I'm not doing anything. You're the one with an interesting idea brewing," he simpered.

Matthew felt a stone drop in his gut. There had been an idea that was initially thought of when he was captured; a spur-of-the-moment plan that did fine on paper but maybe not in the field. In short, he had abandoned it. Though, in the little back and forth Shali and him had shared, it grew a bit stronger. And the more he thought about it, the more approachable it became. The idea of becoming comfortable with whoever was containing him, a sort of false Stockholm syndrome, and acting with the slack he was given.

But the reason its abandonment was so immediate was because it was so inherently wrong to him. Trust was important, and he didn't want anyone's trust broken that didn't need to be. However, in all things considered, he didn't have any other feasible ideas. There were plenty of good ones, just not any possible ones.

Other than that one.

"Well, it seems you have errands to attend to, I'll get out of your hair," Neo said before disappearing.

A simple head turn came from Shali, giving an almost invading glare as though trying to read his mind. She gave a slight half-smile after a couple of awkward seconds and turned back to whatever she was looking at.

"Wait, wait, hold on. What was that about?" he said a bit jokingly, with only a hint of seriousness.

"Your second aura calmed down somewhat, that makes me feel better about it," she answered, allowing a little sigh to be heard at the end.

"Yeah, he left, I hope he's not back for a while. He can be a real pain if you can believe it."

"I suppose that makes sense." She shifted in her position and briefly appeared to be moving her spear. Matthew tensed on instinct, but it never came. Instead, all he heard was, "Are you scared of it?"

The question was, in whole, off putting. He knew Neo could never do any actual damage to him as long as he made sure to keep the opening closed in his mind. It wasn't hard and would have been harder had Neo kept more of his powers when Matthew had made his move so long ago. That didn't exactly keep his nerves from running haywire anytime Neo decided to give him a scare.

But in the end, it was always just a scare, and holding the opening closed in his mind was not a stress-inducing task. Just a few thoughts focusing on that one area every once in a while would satisfy all needs for a decent amount of time.

Shali spoke up. "I am. The way it's always attacking your aura so aggressively, it's hard to not be scared," she said softly.

As though slapped in the face, Matthew found an epiphany: This was a different person than he had been interacting with the afternoon before. Without showing too much expression that he had the realization, he said, "Yeah, he can be scary, but I keep an eye on him and he tends to not be too bad." That was the truth.

Her aura sensors lifted and lowered quickly, "Your aura tells me you're lying."

"Huh? That's crazy, it's not like I'm not scared of him."

"No, you're just terrified of it," another smile came from her and a surprising laugh made itself present as well.

Matthew found himself starting to enjoy the small talk they were having, and while he didn't want to mention why she was being so open with him now to avoid the possibility of the plan coming down, there could be a chance of furthering a trust between himself and her. But not now, it was much too early for risks. "Quit laughing, at least you don't have to deal with him," he said lightly, giving a smirk.

The laughter carried on for a decent bit before Shali made herself known again. "I'm going to do something, and when I do, I'm going to let go of your aura for some time so don't get any ideas." Her voice had shifted from an apparent friendliness back to the one he remembered from hours ago.

"What?"

"If you move, I'll use my spear again," she said sternly, kneeling down. Matthew tried to move away though the ropes held him in place.

Her hand was almost in reaching distance of him before he blurted, "Wait!", and she halted. "What are you doing?" he tried to ask calmly.

"It's about your aura," she said, beginning to approach again.

"Care to elaborate?" he replied, a bit stronger in tone, though it didn't stop Shali from continuing her advance.

Her paw made contact with his shoulder, a soft furry feeling was felt and almost put him at ease from the current situation. "Your aura has been damaged, scarred even," her voice, returning to a gentler feel, said. "I'm going to heal it."

There was a sensation of heat suddenly applied to his shoulder. Shocked, he jerked his body to the side and sent her hand off. "What do you even mean by that? I feel fine. I doubt my aura is that bad," he said.

"The body and the aura have very different ways of showing stress. You don't have to worry, it won't hurt."

"That's not the point, I want to-" He was cut off by her paw pushing on his shoulder and heat flowing into it. The heat struck something inside that he never thought was aching but immediately caused relief. It was as though a deep fire was burning away all the points that were plaguing him.

"With your second aura present, it isn't going to be a full healing, but I believe you will feel that it was needed," she said. The heat increased, and when Matthew sucked in a breath of air with a revitalized strength. It was one of the most amazing feelings he had experienced in a while, like finally taking a breath after being underwater for a long time.

The heat suddenly vanished and instinctively he thought, What the fuck did she just do to me.

"Yeah, I could ask the same thing," said Neo, popping into sight, appearing surprised but relatively the same level of indifference.

I thought you said you were getting out of my hair, Matthew thought, directing it at Neo.

"That was before I was given a fucking massage out of nowhere. It kind of gets you wondering what the hell happened," he said. Neo's eyes moved over to Shali.

Matthew realized that he wasn't the thing that was holding her gaze anymore.

Her glare was far from amiable, but Neo held his grin. He opened his mouth to say something but then stopped and turned back to Matthew. "I'm interested in how this'll work out," he whispered and disappeared.

"Did you-" Matthew started.

"Yes. He looks exactly like you," she replied shortly. She took her hand off of his shoulder and backed away. "It's a good thing you have him under your control. I don't want to imagine a world where he is let loose freely."

"You and me both," he nodded. "What did you do to me, exactly?"

"I mended your aura. To an extent, as I said. The hurt it had sustained along with your… friend… made it so it wasn't exactly perfect," she said, almost in an apologetic sense.

He didn't really want to believe how she was saying it. Not what, but how. It was beginning to seem unnatural and made him apprehensive of if he wanted to further his plan. He inhaled, "Why did you heal my aura? I mean, you've been kind of friendly to me this past little bit. It seems weird that you'd do that to a human you're going to execute in three days."

Shali looked up into the sky and said, "Your aura doesn't show ill intent, and yet it has been beaten over and over to this state. One could say you are a pushover, but your aura doesn't show that either, you seem quite determined." She made eye contact with him, "In short, you aren't bad and I'm comfortable with talking to you. Your aura shows that much. Just because you're a human doesn't mean you are immediately considered bad, at least that's what I think."

"I guess that thought process doesn't tend to run with the rest of your tribe," Matthew said, looking up in the sky with her. Clouds and canopy covered most of the view, but he could make out a half-moon shape and tiny twinkling dots. There was a pang of guilt that he could feel striking him.

"Well, I'm sure there are plenty of humans you could say are bad. It can be hard to define where the line is for us."

"Yeah, society has a few too many assholes to fling around in my opinion." Matthew was becoming increasingly uncomfortable with how she was so open to him. His voice had wavered at the end of the sentence.

Her eyes met his and there was seriousness held in the atmosphere again. "I'm not going to the one who's going to be watching you tomorrow."

"And?" he asked, somewhat confused.

"Don't try talking to them, I have a feeling they'll do more than give you the end of a spear," she warned, giving him a solid nod which he returned cautiously.

"Noted, thanks for the tip," he smiled weakly, the guilt spiking his conscience. Shali was not bad, and taking advantage of her acceptance of him was rapidly becoming a harder and harder task to accomplish due to his moral compass being sent all over the place. "Does that end our discussion for the night?"

"Yes, I think so. We may have overstepped our boundaries, we shouldn't risk being heard anymore," she walked back over to her position that she was stationed at. Her spear dug itself firmly in the ground and Matthew felt a sudden lock on all his body movements. Aura, he thought.

There wasn't any more he could do today, he was certain of that much. But there was progress, something that he may not have wanted to gain but needed to be nevertheless.

He shut his eyes, trying to go off to sleep and saw Neo in the corner. "Just know that there is always another option open for you," he said. His smile reached him right before Matthew met with slumber.

12 hours earlier

Derek Brolin made his way back from the break room of Goldenrod's 28th precinct, one coffee in each hand. While high noon had already passed for the day, he and his partner needed the caffeine all the same. Putting in overtime and drinking late made the middle of the day seem like dawn. But fatigue could not stop them from their jobs. They were detectives, and thought of themselves as rather good ones.

There was a call made to them about an apparent suicide, and he knew him and his partner needed as much energy as possible. That was what the coffees were for.

The desk portion of the job was never active or exciting, which was shown quite visually as he walked towards his partner's desk. People wrote down criminal information, talked to some concerned civilians, occasionally searching things up on the internet for confirmation, or for mere boredom. And while some officers had appearances of care and interest, there were many that had the opposite. Derek and his partner found themselves in the grey area, while leaning perhaps a little further towards the latter, at least until they were working a case. Which, granted, happened frequently enough that the spark never quite left for Derek.

His partner, Brian Elliott, lost the spark quite a while ago. It was almost like a switch. One day he was fine, the next he looked about as down as half the cops in there. But he endured through it, maybe even gained a bit of spark back, and had been a good solid law enforcer ever since.

"Hey, Brian, you look like you could use one of these," said Derek with an outstretched hand to the sleepy man in front of him.

His oak hair was messy but kept relatively in check and he wore a sleek black blazer to work every day with a standard button-up white shirt underneath. It was quite easy to tell he didn't feel the most comfortable in his attire. He looked up from his computer monitor to his partner, his tired but still kind face held a five o'clock shadow. "Thanks for the refuel, Derek," he said somewhat groggily.

He reached over with his left hand and plucked the cup from Derek's hands, nodding thankfully to his partner. They both took sips from their coffee, not exactly feeling the near scalding temperature of the water used to make it. After, Derek said, "We're heading out."

"Where to?" replied Brian taking another quick sip.

"It's at your old bud's place, the… Silverline? Yeah, that's it. Apparently, there was a suicide."

Brian gritted his teeth, "Alright, so are there any other details?"

"Nothing else. You wanna drive?"

"Nah, I think I'm still a little hungover. I'm pretty sure my fucked-up face delivers that message well enough." Brian smiled, reaching down to his own little partner.

The growlithe, sleeping in his own little blanketed cardboard box, stretched his legs out at the feeling of fingers petting his mane. His eyes remained shut and he let out a pleased sigh.

"C'mon, Pele, you've been sleeping on the job more than me lately," Brian said to his companion.

"I thought your mother told you it was rude to lie," said Derek, flashing a quick grin.

Brian ignored him, "Hey, buddy," he whispered near Pele, making his orange ears flick. "I hear there's plenty of belly rubs for a certain growlithe who helps me out," a sing-song voice slowly starting to become present in his own.

There was still little reaction from Pele except for a bit more stretching and a mumbled phrase that sounded like, "Growww… Growlithe…" to Brian and Derek.

Brian shook his head chuckling and got up from his chair. He leaned down near the fiery canine's ears and said, "If you come with us… you'll get treats," then quickly backed away as Pele jumped up barking excitedly at the prospect of treats. The growlithe reared up and put his front legs on Brian's.

Brian scratched the top of Pele's head, "... After we've finished our survey of the scene. Can't give you something for nothing."

Pele whined with annoyance and put his legs back onto the floor. He started making his way back to his makeshift bed but Brian was prepared and reached into his pocket. He pulled out a beige biscuit shaped like a star. The growlithe immediately turned around and attempted to jump up and bite the treat out of Brian's hands who held it just out of reach.

"This is for when you manage to get into the car with Derek and I," said Brian, raising his hand as Pele nearly took hold of the treat.

Pele changed tactics; he stopped jumping and sat down. He looked at Brian with a tilted head and wide eyes and whined slightly morosely.

Brian rolled his eyes and sighed, breaking off a point of the star. He lowered his hand down to the pokemon who quickly lapped it up, breaking his sad act.

"So are we heading out or what?" said Derek, grabbing his winter coat from the desk across from Brian's.

"We are, assuming Pele's not going to try to get any more unearned treats," he replied, also taking a heavy jacket from the back of his chair.

As though on cue, Pele rolled over onto his back and stared as cute as he could at Brian.

"Adorable, bud. Alright, Derek, let's head out," he began walking towards the elevator with Derek closely following behind. Pele grumbled but got back up on all fours and ran after them, eventually finding a comfortable spot walking beside Brian.

Brian rode in the passenger seat with Pele in his lap who was getting in as much sleep as he could. He stroked the pokemon's fur and looked out his window, seeing Goldenrod city go by. It looked fine now with street vendors, restaurants, and relatively light traffic but as they neared the Silverline, things took a bit of a negative turn.

People dressed in faded old clothing, shoddy buildings that looked on the brink of collapse. In whole, it was not a pretty sight but at least he knew they would be at the Silverline sooner than later.

There wasn't much interest in his mind for whatever happened there. He always figured that eventually he'd find a case to give him that certain energy he had when he first joined the squad. But it seemed that wasn't happening anytime soon. The whole reason he had for joining the police was for one specific case and when that investigation went cold less than a year in, he was left with nearly nothing that captivated him.

Derek talked him out of quitting, which he was thankful for. There were still some interesting things to do in detective work. Granted, he knew that same energy would never return to him. The case he joined for was a special one to him. He doubted the possibility of another one would ever come up.

Suddenly, he saw something out of place: Someone wearing a very good-looking parka walking about in the streets. There was no way a person who could afford a parka would be down here unless it was stolen. Then there was the hair, completely white and spiking up everywhere. Was he an old guy who got lost? Definitely possible but-

Then he saw his face, a young face with a bit of blood around his ears, but he knew that face. At the sight of it his breath hitched, and his heart nearly stopped. His mind went completely blank and a solitary name was left in big foreboding letters.

Matthew.

The cruiser sped past the figure who had not even glanced at it. Brian's breathing didn't return to a steady rhythm and eventually he let out a coughing fit.

"You alright, Brian?" Derek asked concerningly, slowing the car down so he could look over at his partner.

There were a few more coughs that Brian let loose before answering, "Uh… yeah, must be a cold or something." He looked down and saw Pele also looking worried. Brian gave a small grin and rubbed the growlithe's fur and felt his breath returning to a normal rate. Pele licked his hand and nuzzled against it, going back to sleep.

"I wouldn't be surprised if it's a cold, Chris from forensics picked up the bug not too long ago." He looked over, "Holy shit, you're as white as the snow, are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, yeah… just caught me off guard."

Derek didn't look like he believed that at all but dropped the subject.

In truth, Brian was not okay. That was Matthew. That was his best friend. But… it couldn't have been. Matthew had been missing for thirteen years and then all of a sudden, he appeared on a random street? That was unlikely at best and yet that was him… right? He doubted it could be a hallucination. If it was, then why now of all times?

No, he thought, Now is not the time. Derek and I have been called to investigate and that's exactly what we'll do. Whoever it was back there doesn't matter, the investigation matters.

He put a hand to his forehead which was getting quite warm, then the face appeared again. I should call in sick tomorrow, thought Brian.

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Peace!

-Minusbomb