Thank you all for bearing with me as I got the inspiration to continue this tale. Although this chapter was short, posting it was a bit of a hassle, since FFN kept eating my formatting. But here it is - I hope all of you like it. Please tell me what you think, and don't forget to favorite and/or follow as well. Every little bit of support helps. Trust me.
Current music: The FBI Raided! - Founders Sing
Three weeks before the election.
For most of the Unovan people, this meant the leaves had changed color, and would start falling off the trees pretty soon. Summer had finally abdicated its throne, to be replaced by the crispness of autumn. It was the middle of October; in fact, Ash would never forget the date: October 15, 2024.
After an exhausting day of communicating by phone with the field organizers for the various provinces of Unova, Ash and Serena had returned to the apartment they shared in Crown City. Neither of them had the energy to cook, so they ordered pizza and elected to watch the news while they ate.
"Vulpix News it is, I guess," Serena said as she put her legs up and reclined into the couch. "I hope there's nothing too noteworthy on the news tonight. If nothing changes, you'll win, Ash."
"I know," her fiancé responded, staring at the TV as Vulpix News came on. They were doing a fluff piece about a philanthropist who'd donated twenty percent of his life savings to build a new Pokémon hospital for wounds that could not be fixed by just a few minutes in a Healing Machine. It was important news, but not the sort of attention-grabbing headline that would envelop Unova and refuse to let them go.
"Senator Rowan wants something drastic to happen. You just want stability in the race."
"Again, Serena, I know," Ash told her curtly. They could get on one another's nerves often, and their engagement wouldn't change that. Fortunately, they made up almost as quickly.
One of the Vulpix News hosts, a woman who looked rather similar to Brittany Harpoon, cleared her throat. "We interrupt this broadcast to bring you breaking news."
Did we just jinx it? Ash wondered frantically.
"This news comes from Nimbasa City, and it's important. I invite all of you to look at the screen as you see a mansion."
Indeed, amidst the dark sky on the TV, there was probably the most extravagant manor Ash had ever seen. And he'd been to some pretty opulent homes. But this property was probably gargantuan enough to contain a nine-hole golf course, and then some. It just oozed the aura of the rich and famous.
"You're looking at the home of Grings Kodai, the owner of the Kodai Network Group and runner-up in the Democratic primary for this year's presidential election. It is located on the outskirts of Nimbasa City."
Ash and Serena held hands; in the midst of this coverage, they heard the doorbell ring, but neither of them dared stand up. The news tonight was like a major car wreck; it was horrible, yes, but you just couldn't look away!
"All day, the Unova Bureau of Investigation, the UBI, has been searching Kodai's manor. Precisely what they are looking for is unclear, though we here at Vulpix News will give you an update on the case as soon as we can."
Ash turned to face his fianceé, whose skin, normally somewhat tan from the time she spent in the sun, had turned bone white. She gripped his left hand in her right, and Ash could feel Serena's nails cutting into his skin. But he hardly cared about that.
The real cause of concern was the scene playing out on the TV, where the previous caption had been replaced with BREAKING: UBI RAIDS GRINGS KODAI'S HOME, WARRANT ISSUED FOR FORMER CANDIDATE'S ARREST.
Ash gulped, and amidst another ring of the doorbell, he and Serena continued staring at one another.
"As soon as Grings Kodai returns home from his latest business trip, we've learned that he will be arrested and taken into custody."
Ash banged his fist on the couch. "He'll learn that too, dumbasses! He's going to stay away from the manor indefinitely!"
"Have a little more faith, Ash," Serena instructed her partner. She too, however, didn't sound optimistic.
As it turned out, though, Ash shouldn't have been too worried about that. A helicopter materialized above the manor, and about a minute later, amidst the news anchor's continued monologue, touched down on a nearby helipad.
"I've just received notice that Grings Kodai has arrived back at his Nimbasa Province manor and will be apprehended right away."
Ash could barely watch. Yes, he'd known all along some of the horrible things his defeated primary rival had done. The Kodai Files had been a sight for sore eyes. But to see the man arrested, even if it was what he ultimately deserved, was quite something.
Pikachu came into the room and sat on the couch. The doorbell rang yet again. Neither of those events cut through Ash's reverie as he kept his eyes glued to the TV set.
It was like one of those crime shows where the police trick a would-be criminal into heading to a certain place, then arrest that person when they don't expect it, as in Grings Kodai - To Catch a Fraudster.
The police worked together to tackle Kodai's tall frame to the ground, then fixed handcuffs around the businessman's wrists. And Ash froze right there; Kodai might have many, many faults, but the Democratic nominee still didn't relish Kodai's squeals of fear.
Maybe I should, though. Maybe I'm just too nice.
Anyway, amidst another ring of the doorbell in the background, the TV showed Kodai hauled back to his feet and led across his lawn towards a nearby police cruiser. He might have been a big man, but he was no match for the combined power of six cops to subdue him.
"Pika pi? (Where's he going now?)"
"Jail, probably" Ash muttered. "Of course, he can afford the best lawyers in all of Unova. They'll see to it that he never spends a minute behind bars."
"So could we, though," Serena pointed out. "We could sue him to within an inch of his life if we wanted to, as a civil suit maybe."
She was grasping at straws, though, and Ash knew it. It wasn't until a few moments later, as Grings Kodai was shoved into the back of the cop car on the news, that Ash realized why this story unnerved him so much.
"This could swing the election," he said aloud with a slight gasp.
"How could it, though?" Serena asked him. "If this is an October surprise, it's a pretty lame one."
Both of them knew, however, that an October surprise didn't have to be deliberately engineered. Sometimes they just happened, and nothing could be done to prevent them. A candidate needed to be able to adapt to the 24-hour news cycle, or it would chew them up and spit them out.
"It's not that," Ash said curtly. "What if… what if they think I'm guilty by association with Kodai?"
"Why would they?" his fianceé replied incredulously. "Ash, you beat Kodai. You were his opponent. You ran against him. Why would this arrest affect your chances?"
Ash shrugged. "Maybe I'm just overthinking it. That must be what's going on."
"Indeed. You need to relax more."
The candidate slumped backward on the couch, staring once more at the Vulpix News anchor. She'd moved on to discussing the latest polling for the presidential race; Ash was still comfortably ahead, but, the anchor speculated, the UBI raid on Kodai's manor might move things in Senator Rowan's direction.
"What an asshat," the Democratic nominee grumbled. "Just by putting the idea out there, she'll make it more likely Rowan wins."
"Ash, the press isn't biased towards one party or the other. They only have one goal, and that's getting more people to tune in. A comfortable victory for you won't drive as many clicks - that's why they have to push the narrative that Rowan might catch up."
Ash nodded. Serena was right, of course; there was no denying that the news media served itself and nobody else. As he put his feet up on the coffee table, Ash heard the doorbell ring out once more; this time, it remained on for several seconds.
"Okay, I'll get it," he sighed, rising to his feet and moving towards the door. After he swung it open, Ash was greeted by a very annoyed-looking pizza delivery man.
"Sorry about that. I was a bit preoccupied," Ash said, hoping his white lie worked.
The delivery man nodded, though his scowl remained etched firmly on his face. After Ash had signed the receipt, he was handed the pizza boxes and wished well. And then the door was shut, and the transaction was complete.
"He wasn't too mad, was he?" Serena enquired.
"Nah, it's fine. Even if he was, I'll never see him again."
"I guess you're right. But if he spreads the word out to his friends, he might turn some of them against you."
Ash rolled his eyes. "Unless it's literally hundreds of votes, it won't have an impact."
Serena shrugged. "You never know. Considering how close elections are in Unova, it's far from impossible."
"Pika pi! (Shut up, I wanna eat!)"
Ash forced a smile. "I guess Pikachu's hungry. We can discuss this after dinner."
A few minutes later, when the couple were eating in front of the TV using paper towels as plates, the anchor on Vulpix News was still discussing the Kodai case. Ash had been hungry before, but before long, he was no longer hungry. (And usually, he had quite the appetite, so this was not like him.)
So what was responsible for his sudden loss of appetite?
Well, what would it be but the anchor moving onto the next chyron, which read BREAKING: ASH KETCHUM SUBPOENAED TO TESTIFY IN COURT ON KODAI CASE.
"You've got to be kidding me!" Serena exclaimed. "What could you possibly know?"
Ash, on the other hand, had spat out his current bite of pepperoni and cheese. He could not fathom the idea of eating another bite, not when his stomach felt as though it were being rapidly filled with ice. He was going to drown in the frigid air. The dread was all-consuming.
They're going to make me testify. I'll have to head to court and tell them everything - granted, I don't know much about it.
"I don't get it," Serena continued. "Why would they summon you? Why not literally anyone else?"
Ash gulped. "I don't know, but if the Crown City District wants to interview me, I've got no choice but to sit for a deposition. Defying a subpoena is a bad look."
"Senator Rowan needed something to shift the race," Serena said softly, "and this could be it."
Her fianceé glared at her. "You're not helping, Serena."
"What am I supposed to say, Ash? That everything's going to be alright and there's nothing to worry about? I thought we agreed not to lie to one another!"
"I guess we did, all those years ago. Still, it's hard to understand any of this."
The Vulpix News anchor, however, seemed to understand it perfectly. "Ash Ketchum, the Democratic nominee for President of Unova, is scheduled to testify in front of a grand jury on Wednesday at 10 AM as prosecutors decide whether to indict Grings Kodai."
Tomorrow. I'm going in there tomorrow, and they'll coax everything they can out of me.
I have nothing to fear. I'm not accused of any wrongdoing, nor did I cover up any of Kodai's misdeeds. In fact, my own opposition researchers found the Kodai Files. So I'll tell them all I know, which is next to nothing.
Still, he was nervous. You can't walk into a courtroom and not be nervous; that's why polygraph tests were problematic. It's only natural for one's heart to beat faster, and their blood pressure to rise, when confronted with a system intended to break them.
Serena, however, gripped the edges of the couch, her knuckles turning white from the force applied. In fact, all the blood in her body might well have been drained and replaced with milk - that's how frightened she appeared.
"You can't show up," she told her fiancé. "You just can't."
Ash sighed. "It doesn't work that way, honey. If they summon me, I can't say no. I have to go to the courtroom and tell them everything I know. It's not much, anyway."
Serena sounded about a thousand years old as she finally responded.
"They'll do whatever it takes to break you. If you sit in that chair, they will coax whatever they want out of you, even if it's not true. You cannot take the stand."
"What choice do I have, Serena?" the candidate muttered. "If I don't take the stand, I'm going to look like I have something to hide. If I show up, but keep pleading the fifth, or whatever amendment it is, then I'll look even more suspicious. After all, only guilty people plead the fifth."
His fianceé sighed once again. "I guess you have a point, Ash. I just wish it didn't have to be this way."
Ash rolled his eyes. "Yep. But that's what happens when you run for President. Who would've thought?"
The candidate turned off the TV a few seconds later. He just couldn't stand those talking heads on the news, the ones who always spoke about the news in such casual, detached terms. They didn't care that there were real people involved in each story, people whose lives were turned upside down by the stories they covered.
"I'm going to bed," Ash declared. "I just can't watch this anymore."
"What about the rest of the pizza?" Serena enquired. "Isn't it one of your favorite foods?"
"Not tonight," the candidate muttered. "I'm just fixated on what's going to happen tomorrow."
Serena grabbed Ash's wrist gently, then stared right into her fiancé's eyes.
"Listen to me, Ash. You can do this. Whatever route you decide to take, I still love you, no matter what."
The candidate smiled weakly, though it wasn't a very happy smile. "I needed that. Thanks."
"No problem. Are you still heading to bed, though?"
Ash nodded. "I'll need every bit of rest I can get for tomorrow."
"I understand," Serena told him. "Good night, Ash."
"Good night, Serena."
Pikachu had fallen silent; he was now staring blankly at the empty TV, as though willing it to turn back on. Of course, this would accomplish nothing other than to increase his anxiety.
Indeed, Ash had a hard time drifting off, even after a hot shower and having donned his pajamas. He tossed and turned almost violently; by the end of the night, it would no doubt look like he'd been in a wrestling match with his blanket.
They'll make me testify. And I'll tell them whatever they want to hear. And that's because I have nothing to hide. Nothing.
Eventually, sweating bullets and with his stomach full of Butterfree (though not in a pleasurable way), Ash fell asleep.