Pokemon (Detective Pikachu)

A Legendary Search

5. Nothing Up My Sleeve

"Inspector Holiday, you said yourself that they have a Butterfree. They used it to help you catch Mightyena, right? Well, they used it to catch the Poochyena, too. They waited until all three Pokemon were in the same area. If they've been watching them for any amount of time, they would know it's not hard to do- Mightyena puts the two Poochyena down for a nap this time of day. Once they were all together, they got their Butterfree to use Sleep Powder to knock all of them out, and put the two babies in a cage to carry them off." Tim pulled the small jar of powder he'd collected out of his pocket. "Here's proof of that. This powder is all over the grass where the Poochyena sleep. I think you'll find that Sleep Powder from a Pokemon move is exactly what it is.

"The one thing they didn't count on was an Aipom in the tree across the sidewalk in the park making a fuss. From what I've been able to tell, it used the move Uproar and woke up Mightyena, who came charging after them." Tim gestured to the two men. "It wouldn't be too hard to carry two baby Poochyena, so by the time Mightyena caught up, her babies were in the back of their truck."

"Oh, come on." The shorter of the two men said. "That's all just conjecture. Even if that powder is Sleep Powder, how would you know it came from our Butterfree? If could have been any Pokemon. We're just a convenient target, that's all."

"I have several reasons why I know it's you. One of them being that none of the Pokemon in this park learn the move Sleep Powder. But if you say it's not you, open the back of your truck. If you're innocent, you shouldn't have any problem with that."

The bigger of the two men looked at the other, and Tim was fairly certain he signaled the other man for something; it was hard to see from this angle, but his eyebrows rose in a meaningful way and his eyes opened a little wider. Tim abruptly had a feeling that they had a backup plan for their backup plan; they would open the door, but once he revealed their trick, he was pretty sure they were going to try something else.

"Pikachu, be ready- ready for anything." He breathed, trying to move his lips as little as possible.

"I know- I'm always ready. I've been at this longer then you, remember."

The larger man walked toward Tim and stopped when he was in front of him, glaring down at him. He was easily a foot and a half taller then Tim, maybe even two feet, and twice as wide.

"Don't back down, Tim!"

Even without this hiss from his partner, Tim knew backing away would give the men the impression that he could be pushed around. If the man had wanted to knock Tim aside, it wouldn't have been hard for him, but Tim didn't want to make it easier by seeming afraid, so he clenched his jaw and stared back up at him.

After a moment, the man gave an amused scoff.

"Alright, then, why not? We already helped my brother move his stuff, so the truck is empty. Might as well show you."

The big man moved. With him no longer in Tim's line of sight, Tim could see that the other man had moved up closer to the front of the truck.

They were definitely up to something, but right now, Tim had to put his focus on the man near him and the truck he was about to open. They were going to try to make him look like a fool, but he was ready. He knew exactly what they were doing, at least for now.

The man opened the back of the truck and stepped away with a flourish, making and exaggerated sweep of his arms.

"Voila. The truck is empty."

There was indeed nothing visible in the truck. Glancing at Pikachu out of the corner of his eye, Tim saw him sneak behind the man and jump up into the truck.

"Well, well. So it is. Looks like you were completely off the mark this time." Brad drawled from behind him.

"No, I'm not wrong at all. And I can prove that. Emilia, Meiko, you guys said that their Butterfree was hiding in the truck, isn't that right?" Tim asked them, turning to see them; everyone had gathered behind the truck when Tim had asked the men to open it.

The two women looked startled he'd called them, both of them having been looking at the empty truck in worry, but Meiko called back, "That's right. That's what they told us."

Emilia nodded. Tim turned back to the man near his truck. Pikachu, inside, held up a paw to what seemed like nothing about two-thirds of the way in and nodded at Tim.

"So where's your Butterfree, then? It seems like it's not here. Unless, of course, it is here."

"I'm starting to wonder if that boy hit his head." Brad muttered, not too quietly. Pikachu scowled from where he stood, but stayed silent. Anger bubbled inside Tim from the comment- he thought he'd earned more respect from Brad then that during the R incident at the carnival, but apparently, he was wrong- and Tim pushed it away. Now wasn't the time for it.

"Funny story, you know- I bumped into an artist yesterday who told me about an interesting job he was hired for. You may recognize him. His name is Mike."

Tim turned again to gesture Mike forward. Mike had hung back, out of the way, behind everyone else. Until Tim had called their attention to him, no one had actually noticed him, and a few people were visibly startled. Mike walked forward a few steps.

"That's definitely them, Tim. Those are the two men who hired me to do that painting for them. They said it was for a prank, but… it looks like the prank was on me, wasn't it?" his voice grew angry.

Tim looked back at the man, who looked a lot more worried now.

"Here's what you did. Once you put the Poochyena into your truck, you took the painting that you commissioned from Mike, here, and pulled it in front of them. A life-size painting, made to look exactly like the inside of this truck when it was empty… the truth is, that truck isn't empty at all. It only looks that way. Those Poochyena are in there, and so is your Butterfree."

"That's… that's absurd! You have some imagination! A painting like an empty truck… that man is lying! Or he's mistaken, perhaps, I don't know what all people would hire him for, but we certainly didn't do anything of the sort!"

"Are you sure about that?" Tim said, taking a step forward, making sure his voice rang out deadly serious. "Pikachu! Open it up!"

The man whirled around in a sudden panic, looking into the truck to see Pikachu leap up as high as he could and grab at what seemed to be the air. His small paws seizing something, he pulled, and there was a noisy tearing sound as paper ripped, then continued ripping as Pikachu's weight pulled him and the shredding paper he was holding back down. As the hole tore wider, those behind the truck could see through it; a cage with two small, dark shapes, powder drifting through the hole, and though he couldn't see it through the hole that was created, Tim had no doubt that Butterfree was back there as well.

Mightyena began screeching in the cage again, an unearthly shriek. The man swore and suddenly knocked into Tim, sending him sprawling. He leapt on to the truck, shouting, "Now! Go, go, go! Butterfree, to me!"

Tires squealed; while everyone else was looking at the back of the truck, Tim realized, the other man had gotten into the driver's seat. Getting to his feet, Tim raced the couple of steps he needed to catch up before the truck picked up speed and leapt into the back of it before the man could close the metal door. The Butterfree came through the painting, ripping the hole wider still, and scattered powder everywhere. Tim immediately held his breath. Pikachu was not so lucky; Butterfree plowed into him as it came out, knocking the breath out of him, and when Pikachu drew another breath by instinct, he wobbled, clearly very off balance, and slumped to the ground.

Behind him, Tim could hear the sound of a Pokeball being released and Inspector Holiday shouting, "Barbaracle! Stop that truck!"

He had no time to think about it though, because the big man, clearly also holding his breath, barreled toward him. Tim wasn't sure if the man planned to shove him out of the truck or knock him out, but either option wasn't good. Tim rapidly ducked over to the side, the man franticly trying to stop before he himself fell out of the truck. Tim hoped for a moment that his momentum would be too much, but unfortunately, he managed to stop in time, turn, and came back toward Tim.

Tim's lungs began to burn, but he certainly couldn't breathe in now; there was so much powder in the air he could barely see what was in the truck, and he was sure no one outside the truck could see them at this point. But, Tim realized, he could make that work to his advantage, if only he could get the other man to breathe in.

Tim ducked low as the man approached and, bracing himself both in stance and in holding his breath as hard as he could, drove his shoulder as hard as he could just below the big man's ribs when he hit. The man's strength and momentum slammed Tim into the wall of the truck rather painfully, but that momentum worked against the big man, too, giving more force to Tim's shoulder. The breath slammed out of the man; lungs empty, he automatically breathed in.

Immediately he stumbled, wobbling, and crashed to the ground. Tim's lungs burned more than ever; he knew he didn't have much time left, himself. He'd been expecting and braced against the impact, so that he hadn't lost his own breath, but he couldn't hold it forever.

The Butterfree flew towards him. Tim felt a little bad doing it, but slammed it against the side of the truck using his arm. It wasn't known as a particularly strong Pokemon; the force Tim used was enough to knock it out.

Tim was about to start over to the hole in the painting when the entire truck jolted. Tim was jarred enough to fall through the hole rather then get down and crawl through it, as he had intended, and as he landed, he grunted, most of the air leaving his lungs in a rush.

Tim grit his teeth and stopped himself from breathing in, though his chest promptly began to hurt at the lack of any air at all. Now, he knew, he had only seconds left.

Luck was with him, though; the cage holding the Poochyena was bolted, not locked. He yanked the bolt aside and pulled them both out, then picked them up. Crawling out of the hole, he shifted his grip so he could pick up Pikachu as well, then stumbled toward the open door of the truck. Leaping out, he lurched to the side of the truck, out of all the powder that was spilling out of the back, and finally took in new air.

He began hacking and coughing; he couldn't help it. The lack of air had started to make him dizzy, and he was close enough still to the truck and the powder that had been billowing from it that it was made worse. Dimly, he hoped he would cough out the powder for clear air, though that would only happen once the powder settled.

"Tim!" cried a familiar voice- Emilia. But he couldn't respond; he still couldn't stop coughing, his head spinning.

"Careful! Don't get into it!" Another voice warned- that one sounded like Meiko.

Tim felt someone tug his shoulder, gently at first, then a little harder. Then there were two sets of hands, one on each shoulder, pulling on him. Trying to force his body into action, Tim lurched up and stumbled a couple steps away from the truck, into cleaner air.

His vision started to clear a little and he saw Emilia next to him. "Are you alright?"

He looked at her. "Fine." He gasped. "We're all fine." He looked back at the three Pokemon he had carried out of the truck, seeing that Meiko had pulled one of the Poochyena away from the dust and was going back for the other one. "I think." He started towards the truck again, but stopped when Meiko came back carrying both the other Poochyena and Pikachu. The dust, thankfully, was starting to settle.

However, it took him several more moments until finally, he seemed to have stopped coughing. Tim took Pikachu from Meiko. Both Emilia and Meiko looked worried; Emelia moved as though to put a hand on his shoulder. "I'm alright." Tim assured them. "But I think farther away from the truck is better."

Both of them nodded and moved away; Emilia picked up the Poochyena not held by Meiko. The three of them carefully skirted the powder that had drifted from the truck and headed towards where Mightyena still shrieked for her babies.

The truck, he realized, was not moving now. "What happened?" he asked his friends, who kept pace with him.

"We should be asking you that." Meiko said, voice a little amused.

"Inspector Holiday sent out his partner, Barbaracle. It leapt in front of the truck and stopped it in its tracks. When the other man tried to get out to run, it caught up to him with no trouble at all. What happened to the bigger man who was in with you? He didn't hurt you, did he?"

Tim shook his head, though his back still ached painfully where he had been slammed into the truck. "No. He got his breath knocked out of him, though, and ended up breathing in his Butterfree's powder."

"You got him to breathe in his own Butterfree's powder?" Meiko started laughing. "Nice going!"

"No… I didn't do anything…" Tim mumbled, though that wasn't entirely true. Still, he didn't want attention for it.

Reaching Mightyena at last, they put all three Pokemon down next to her. She ignored Pikachu, but put her face as close to the Poohyena as she could get and began whining.

"Oh, look." Emilia murmured sadly, crouching down next to the cage. Tim looked around. Inspector Holiday was still busy, his Barbaracle pulling the smaller man toward him while he directed some other policemen to drag the large man out of the truck, careful not to stir up and of the powder that had settled. Brad, however, was still nearby.

"Excuse me, Brad?" Tim called. When the man turned and looked at Tim, he looked somehow both a little subdued, and a little defiant; it seemed to Tim that showing Brad again that he had been fooled had him feeling less full of himself, but he also seemed like he expected Tim to gloat.

Tim saw no reason to gloat, even if he didn't like Brad much. Pikachu would have, perhaps, as pompous as he was, but it didn't serve any purpose to Tim. Why deliberately annoy people?

"Is the cage really still necessary?" He asked. "All Mightyena wants is her babies. Can you let her out so she can get to them?"

Brad's eyes widened just a little as he seemed startled, but he gave a stiff nod.

"Yes… now that we have the truth behind the incident, you… you're right. There's no reason to keep her in there." Brad waved over another officer and had them unlock the cage. The Mightyena sprang out, knocking over the officer and causing him to yelp. Brad gave an affronted cry and took a step forward, but was blocked by his own partner, Manectric.

Reaching her babies at last, Mightyena crouched down and began licking them both frantically.

Tim had not been surprised when she had knocked over the man in her haste to get out. Brad relaxed quickly, realizing what Tim had known already- she wasn't going to let anything stay between her and her pups now that they had been returned. That, and not aggression, had been the reason for her rush.

Brad then did something that surprised Tim, in the same way learning he had taken the Crawdaunt from Cappucci Island with him to return it home had. He slowly approached the three unconscious Pokemon, pulling some sort of spray bottle from his pocket. Mightyena growled at him when he got near, but when Brad spoke, it was with a gentleness Tim hadn't known the man could possess.

"It's alright. I'm going to help- this will get rid of the effects of all that powder your puppies breathed in."

Making sure he didn't get too close, Brad sprayed the contents of the bottle on the Poochyena, who began to rouse. Tim realized at that point that it must be an Awakening.

Once the two Poochyena were stirring, Brad hesitated a moment, then sprayed Pikachu as well.

"Oh… thank you. Thank you very much." Tim told him, completely sincere.

Brad glanced at Tim, but said nothing. Instead, he got up and left. Manectric looked at Tim as well, and barked something before it too departed, but since Pikachu was still waking up, Tim had no idea what it had said.

The Mightyena yipped, and Tim looked back to see that both of its babies were awake and fairly alert, though still a little groggy-looking. Pikachu groaned, and Tim looked down at him as he rose to his feet, a little unbalanced.

"What happened?"

Tim smiled. "I'll explain everything later."

"Oh, she's so happy." Emilia sighed, her eyes still on Mightyena as she thoroughly nosed and licked both puppies.

"Look at that, Tim! They have you to thank for that. You're the best detective there is." Meiko proclaimed, and Tim sighed. He was relieved she had her camera pointed at the reunited family and not him, but he wished she'd left him out of it altogether.

"No, I'm not all that…"

Mightyena looked up then, and whined at Tim. Getting up, she took a couple reluctant steps away from her babies to look first at Pikachu, then at Tim. She barked a couple of times, and Pikachu said,

"Oh, you're welcome. No trouble at all. No one should be going around, stealing a Pokemon's babies like that. We're just glad they're back where they belong."

Mightyena barked again. "Don't worry. If we ever do need a favour, we'll let you know, but just know that seeing you happy is what makes us happy."

Mightyena cocked her head, looking at Pikachu, then bent her head down and gave his cheek a lick.

"Woah!"

Having almost knocked Pikachu over with her force, she looked at Tim next, and his eyes widened as he realized what was coming.

"Uh-oh!"

Tim put a hand up in front of his face as Mighyena lurched in to lick him as well. Meiko and Emilia both began laughing, joined quickly by Pikachu after the yellow mouse had wiped the saliva off his face. Tim couldn't help but chuckle too, and when Mightyena backed away a little, he lowered the hand he'd used to defend himself from her tongue and put it on top of her head. Mightyena seemed to almost smile at him.

"Why can't we? Having this against the law don't make any sense, anyway, not when it's legal to catch, train, and carry 'em around everywhere else!"

The shorter of the two men, angry once read his rights, had begun shouting. Migtyena growled and backed up to stand over her babies. Tim stood, the happy, gentle feeling he'd just had dissipating as he glared at the poacher that was still conscious. Leaving the little family, he walked over to where Holiday had put handcuffs on them.

"Sure it does. This city is protected; that means you leave the Pokemon in it alone! And, even on top of that… it's one thing to beat a Pokemon in a fair battle to catch them, and it's quite another to do something like this. The next time you have the urge to capture a Pokemon… do it where it's legal, and do it the right way!"

The incident at the park passed without any more disasters. Mightyena took the Poochyena back to their area of the park. Emilia and Meiko wrapped up their reporting, keeping Tim there a little longer answering their questions. He found that it was less uncomfortable when just the two of them were doing the job; it had been worse, much worse, at the interview after the carnival incident he'd prevented, with Mr. Graham and other GNN employees there. Still, they gave him far more credit then he'd wanted.

The police left, taking the two men and their Butterfree with them. They cordoned off that area before leaving, and let people know that that area was off limits until a crew came in to clean up the powder. Tim worried about the powder still in the Mightyena's area, but Inspector Holiday and Brad both assured him they would instruct the crew to clean that area as well.

"Wow, Brad may have more arrogance than hair and more hair than brains, but it looks like he does still have his heart in the right place." Pikachu commented. Tim agreed, at least about the last part.

When they finally got to their apartment, Tim was relieved. It was only the middle of the afternoon, but he felt like he'd been at the park for a week.

And there was something he needed to check. Leaving Pikachu in the living room with the promise of figuring out lunch for them both when he came out, Tim went into the bathroom and stripped off his hoodie and the T-shirt he wore underneath, turning his back to the mirror on the wall and craning his neck to look at it.

He winced. Starting just under his left shoulder- where he'd taken the brunt of the impact against the truck- was a bruise twice the size of a football. He was going to have to be careful about how he lay down or what way he leaned against things for the next few days.

There wasn't much he could have done about it, though. At least in the end, the Poochyena were safe and back with their mother.

Tim sighed and shook his head, trying to force his thoughts away from families being reunited. It wasn't going to help find his father if he got discouraged.

Pulling his shirt and hoodie back on, he left the bathroom to see about what he could make for himself and Pikachu for lunch.

Somewhere else, someone sat in an office with unusually thick walls and the door locked. They listened to what another person was telling them over a phone.

"It is hard to believe what he has managed to pull off. This incident at the park- just another example. Linking an apparently random painter to the incident without any apparent prompt to solve the case… how does he manage to see such solutions?"

They listened some more.

"Impossible. He must have a source. He cannot pull information out of thin air. Where is he getting it?"

More listening.

"He talks to his Pikachu, you say? Then you have nothing. Only very specific Pokemon can talk to humans, and Pikachu are not one of them. It would indeed explain it if he could talk to Pokemon, but that is nonsense." The person sighed. "All my many connections, and they have all failed me. I can find out nearly anything I wish to know in this city. Anything, it seems, except how this boy keeps learning exactly what people don't want him to know. He ruined my first plan; I cannot let him interfere again. I want everything set in motion, as soon as possible, and I want to make sure that boy can't get in the way again."

They waited again as the person on the other line spoke.

"No. I have a better idea. Listen, use one of those- you know, one of the many that do not work correctly. Yes, I know what it does to the Pokemon that use the incomplete ones. Save the two that work right, we can't afford to risk them as we can't make any more. But do this. Make sure you are not seen. When you are close, use it on an already strong Pokemon, one to be feared. I will keep watch on the situation. Once the job is done, I will clean up. We know the boy's habits already; all we need to do is act. Make sure it cannot be tied back to me."

The person in the office listed to the person on the other end of the phone one more time.

"Yes. That is all."