Pokemon (Detective Pikachu)

A Legendary Search

9. Old Friends, Familiar Situations.

As it turned out, the ferry to the island left in a few hours. Tim and Pikachu finished their coffee at the café, Tim paid as he put his phone away, and they headed out of the park. As they left, Tim heard a familiar voice calling.

"Oh! Hey, Tim!"

He turned towards Meiko as she ran up to him. Reaching him, she gave him a once over, then an amused smile. "I've got to say, the green sweater looks strange after always seeing you in the red one."

"Hey. Yeah, well, can't wear the usual one with the rip that was in it. Not with Emilia today?" He replied.

"That's true. No, not yet. I'm actually on my way to GNN now, I think Emilia's already there. Because we kind of left the job yesterday to give our statements and get either Pokemon or certain people to get looked at for injuries." Meiko raised her eyebrows at Tim. He shook his head.

"That was an old bruise, Meiko. I wasn't hurt yesterday."

"Wow, is that right? Emilia's right about how reckless you are. You off to somewhere else today?"

Tim opened his mouth to reply, but before he could, a Plusle's head appeared over Meiko's shoulder.

"Pla?"

"Oh, hello there. You must be the one from yesterday. You doing alright? How's your friend?" Pikachu said.

"Oh- the Plusle from yesterday?" Tim asked.

The Plusle climbed higher, revealing the now mostly-healed injures it had sustained the day before, and began chattering to Pikachu. To Tim, Meiko said,

"Yeah. The Pokemon Center wanted to keep Minun for today, but Plusle was free to go. I'm not sure Plusle really knows what to do by itself, though, so I'm taking it with me. We'll go back to the Pokemon center tomorrow and pick Minun up, then I'll take them both back to the area near the Hi-Hat Café, so they can get back to… well, whatever it was they did before they got disrupted by this."

Tim smiled. "That's really nice of you. Plusle might not be able to talk, but I bet it's really grateful. Minun, too. And yeah, I'm going to go to Capucci Island to talk to someone I know there."

Meiko's eyes lit with excitement. "Oh, another case?"

"No. Well, I don't think so, anyway. I just have something I need to ask them."

"Oh, I see. That's too bad. Might have given me an excuse to go and follow you." Meiko winked. "But, I guess Plusle and I will get over to GNN. I'll tell Emilia you said hi."

"That would be great, thanks. Good luck with your work."

"You too!"

Pikachu waved. "Well, it was great talking to you, Plusle. I'm glad Meiko's been looking after you. But it looks like we need to go our separate ways, now. Tim and I, we have things to do, and Meiko has work as well. Try not to cause trouble for her, now. There's a lot going on where she works, so make sure to stay out of the way or you could get stepped on."

"Pla, pla. Pla."

"That's good!"

Meiko walked away, Plusle still clinging to her shoulder.

Curious, Tim asked, "What did Plusle say to you?"

"Said that Meiko's been looking after it really well. Got it both lunch and dinner that it really enjoyed and slept in her room last night. Plusle said that today it would stay near Meiko and make sure it doesn't interrupt anything. It's interested in watching her work. It likes her."

"Oh, I see."

"I'm kind of surprised we ran into Meiko, though. Normally, it's Emilia that we find around every corner."

Tim had to laugh at that one.

The ferry ride there was slow, but uneventful. Tim preferred this to the last trip to the island; it took longer, perhaps, but at no point did he feel sick. During the trip, Pikachu commented loudly on the matter more than once. The first couple times, Tim told him to knock it off; after that clearly wasn't working, Tim just sighed.

Getting off the ferry onto the island, the Timbur transport's chief recognized him. Tim spent a few minutes talking to him before heading towards the house belonging to Dr. Waals.

Tim knocked on the door and waited just a little over a minute for Waals to open it.

Waals looked surprised to see him, but not unhappy. He gave Tim a small smile. "Well, if it isn't Tim. I must say, I wasn't really expecting a visitor. Come on in; what brings you here?"

Tim followed him into the house. "Well… I wanted to ask you a little bit more about the cells you used when you accidentally made R. Mewtwo's cells."

The older man nodded. "Yes…"

"I was wondering how you got those cells in the first place. It seems like it would have been a difficult thing to get ahold of, even if you were trying to get cells from a different Pokemon at the time. So how did you manage to get them?"

Waals looked at him, his eyes narrowing, though in a way that was more confusion and perhaps concern than suspicion.

"If you don't mind my asking, why are you asking about it?"

"Well… it's a little difficult to explain. But… I have reason to believe that Mewtwo knows something about the disappearance of my father, and I want to ask it what it knows. I was thinking that if you were able to get cells from Mewtwo, then someone must have been able to get close to it at some point. I thought maybe if we knew how, then we could get close to it."

"I see… I can't imagine why you would think Mewtwo was involved with a person going missing, but you've shown before that you look at things the way they are, not the way you want them to be. That's good enough for me to know that you wouldn't be doing this without reason. So, when we were trying to get Mew's cells for our cure-all medicine-"

Waals was cut off by someone shrieking outside. The high-pitched voice, definitely a woman's, was impossible to make out, as were the words of the voice that cried out after her, but the second voice was one Tim recognized.

"That sounded like Milo." Waals said slowly, recognizing it as well. He slowly rose. "Sorry, Tim, but…"

"Yeah." Tim rose more quickly than Waals. "Looks like we need to find out what's going on out there."

Tim felt some irritation bubble up- why did something always have to happen everywhere he went?- but pushed it down and rushed to the door as the voices continued to shout outside, Milo's getting more and more panicked. Waals was right behind Tim as he opened the door. Once Tim had it open, he was able to clearly hear what the voices were saying, though he still couldn't see either Milo or the woman.

"I'm telling you, I don't know! It wasn't me and I didn't see anything!"

"Don't you lie! You were the only one near my house when it went missing! It didn't just get up and leave by itself. Either you took it, or you saw who did- you must have! Tell me what you know!"

"I just did! I was looking after a Poliwag that was injured near your house, yes, but I didn't take anything, and I didn't see anyone come near it. I wouldn't even know what you had near the window, now would I?"

Milo's voice sounded more and more distressed. Tim picked up his pace as he hurried down the walk, Pikachu and Dr. Waals right behind him, until he was able to see the friend that he had made the last time he was here.

"Milo!" He called.

Milo turned around, and his face lit up in relief. "Tim!"

When Tim got to Milo and the furious woman, Milo asked, "When did you get here?"

In reply, Tim told him, "Never mind that now. What's going on?"

Milo's expression darkened. "This woman is accusing me of stealing. I keep telling her she's got it wrong, but she's not listening."

"Stealing?" Waals had caught up, Pikachu with him.

"Well, someone took it!" The woman cut in. "I had my necklace- diamond necklace, mind you, real jewels!- on a stand in front of my window. I was only leaving the house to notify the chief of Timbur Transport that I was expecting a package next week, so I left the window open. When I returned, the necklace was gone. This boy was out front; I'm sure he either took it, or he knows who did!"

"There must be a mistake somewhere." Dr. Waals told her calmly before Tim could even say anything. "Milo would never steal anything from anyone. And if he saw anything, he'd be telling you."

The woman scoffed. Taking a good look at her, Tim was pretty sure he hadn't met her during his last trip here. With short black hair and high cheekbones, she wore a pale purple dress and wore earrings and rings that sparkled.

"Well, I'll have you know that that necklace is worth a lot of money. And I'm going to call the police, right now. They'll get here and get to the bottom of this. And I'm sure they'll find that this boy had something to do with it. And you better not think of running off before they get here, boy! I'm keeping my eye on you." Scowling, the woman pulled out her cell phone and dialed, then brought the phone to her face and waited for them to answer.

Milo turned to Tim. "I really didn't take anything or see anything." He whispered, his expression indignant but his eyes wide with what looked more like fear.

"I know." Tim told him. "I'll get to the bottom of this, I promise. I'll find out what happened."

Relief lit Milo's face. "You will? Then you'll find out what really happened! I know you will, Tim."

Tim nodded and pulled out his notebook. "First, I need you to tell me exactly what happened. I know you didn't see anything, but if you just go through everything that did happen that you can remember- every detail you can- then it will help me find out what's going on."

Milo nodded. "Of course. I was doing my rounds on the island. Pokemon Rangers do a lot of patrolling, you know, so I go out on patrol too, so I'm used to doing it once I get to become one. I went on my usual route to cover the island, and made sure to go through the secret path thoroughly. I've been finding a lot of injured Pokemon there lately without any cause that I can find, but there weren't any hurt there today. Nothing strange or out of place anywhere. Then I got to the main street of the housing here, and it sounded like Pokemon were fighting. I could hear screeching and another Pokemon crying out. So, I picked up my pace to find out what was happening. When I got in front of this house, there was an injured Poliwag here. It was unconscious and covered in scratches. That lady was here, too. When I asked what happened, she just said that she was coming out of the house when she heard the noise to find them like that. I bent down to treat the Poliwag with a Potion, and she left, going down the path towards the port.

"After I treated its injuries, I stayed with the Poliwag until it woke up. Before it was awake, that woman passed by again, going back into her house. After it was awake, that lady came out yelling about a necklace going missing. She scared Poliwag away, and started blaming me for her necklace going missing. She said I must have taken it, and when I told her I didn't she asked who did. She seems positive that it was either me, or that I know who did. But I swear, I've got no idea. I didn't take it, and I didn't see any people between the time she left and the time she came back."

"I believe you. Can you tell me about this lady? I don't recognize her from the last time I was here." Tim asked, writing down all of the notes Milo had already told him.

Milo nodded. "That's because she wasn't here last time you were here. Her name is Thelma, and she moved here about two weeks ago. She seems to be… well, kind of conceited. Seems that she's pretty rich, and she's pretty stuck-up about it. I haven't had a lot of conversations with her, but it seems like she kind of expects everyone to think her opinion is right. And the one time I did have a conversation with her, right after she got here, I told her I was training to become a Pokemon Ranger and she laughed at me. Told me I'd be better off looking at something else."

"Well, now that's rude." Pikachu grumbled.

"I see. And… you said there have been more injured Pokemon around the secret path? You mean the one to the lake? Could you tell me about that?"

"Yes. I guess it was… about a week and a half ago? Maybe a little more than that? I started finding some injured Pokemon on the secret path to the lake. At first it was just one, maybe two. But in the last couple of days I've seen several of them, all injured in the same way that the Poliwag I was treating today was. Not always unconscious, but covered with scratches. I've gone through a lot of Potions treating them; Dr. Waals has made me about a dozen or so in the last week. I sent a report about it to the police, but I haven't seen or heard anything from them yet." Milo's eyes narrowed in worry.

"That is strange. One more question; did you see any Pokemon between Thelma leaving and her coming back?"

"Other than the Poliwag, only Thelma's own Pokemon partner, Purrloin."

Milo gestured towards the house, and Tim looked over to see a purple, catlike Pokemon grooming itself on the porch of Thelma's house.

"I see. Thank you." Tim finished writing the last of his notes just as the woman stalked back over.

"The police are getting a boat ready to head over now." She snipped. "And you, boy, are going to stay right where I can see you. Don't you even think of running off before they get here."

Milo's face twisted in anger. "I would never! You've got this whole thing wrong, anyway!"

Tim put a hand on Milo's shoulder.

"It's alright, Milo. I'll figure this out."

Milo stood for a moment, angry and defiant, before he let out a hard breath and nodded, forcing himself to relax.

"Alright. Thanks, Tim. When you figure it out, I'll be here. Looks like I'm not going anywhere else."

Tim nodded.

"Now that we've got that situation calmed down, let's hear the woman's side of things." Pikachu suggested. "Maybe we'll get more of an idea on what actually happened."

Tim took a couple steps closer to the angry woman.

"If you don't mind, ma'am, could you tell me your side of things? What exactly happened?"

The woman glared at him. "And who are you supposed to be?"

"My name is Tim Goodman. I'm a detective. I'll help figure out what's going on with your missing necklace. Could you tell me what happened today?"

She glared at him for a long moment, then gave a shrug that seemed to be both angry and dubious.

"Don't see a point in telling you, but I guess there's no reason not to, either. I was only leaving my house for a few minutes, to let the Chief of Timbur Transport know that I was expecting a package, so I left the window open and didn't engage my security alarm. I'd had my diamond necklace out on a stand so I could get a good look at it. I was considering wearing it to the next company gala I was going to attend, so I was in a room just around the side of the house, where I'd been keeping it stored away. That was when I remembered about the package and left to let Timbur Transport know. As I left the house, I could hear a whole bunch of noise, and when I looked up, I saw something running away while that Poliwag was still out front. I got over to it, and then I must admit I just kind of looked at it for a moment. I don't know how to look after hurt Pokemon, after all. Then I saw that boy run up and start taking care of it. When I saw that he was doing something, I figured it wouldn't have to be my business, so I left to go let the man know about my package like I'd planned. When I got to the port, though, I didn't see the Timbur Transport Chief anywhere, so I just came back here. The boy was still in front, looking after the Poliwag. I figured that would make sense, since it had only been a few minutes since I'd left, but I did hope he wouldn't be loitering in front of my house too long."

The woman shot Milo a distrustful glare.

"Anyway, I came inside and went back to look over my necklace again, but when I entered the room it wasn't on its stand. I thought maybe my Purrloin had knocked it to the ground at first; she's such a dear, but once in a while she will knock something off a shelf or table by accident. So I checked the floor, but it wasn't down there. Then I saw the window I'd left open- the necklace stand was right in front of it. Someone came up along the side of my house while I was gone, reached through the window, and stole it. I'm certain of it. Which meant they came near my house. So, that boy was either the one who did it, or he saw who did. He was out front the whole time, so he has to have known something. But he's refusing to tell me what really happened. So, I've gotten the police on their way. They'll find out where he's stashed my necklace, or who he's protecting."

The woman sighed. "And here I thought this was going to be my perfect vacation house. Seems the place is full or thieves, instead. Good thing I had my necklace insured, if the police aren't able to figure out what he's done with it. That child is friends with so many Pokemon, he could easily get one of them to hide my necklace until the police have finished with their search. It's worth millions. He'd better get what's coming to him. It was a gift from my late grandmother."

Tim heard Milo bristling again behind him.

"Easy, now." Waals voice said. Tim relaxed a little, knowing that Dr. Waals would keep Milo calm.

"I'm sure there's another explanation for what happened. I'll find out what's behind this incident." Tim told the woman.

She scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Yeah, sure." She said, without conviction. It was clear she did not believe at all that Tim would be able to find out what had happened to the necklace.

Pikachu scoffed back at her. "Oh, please, don't voice so much confidence in us. You're making us blush."

"Pikachu…" Tim said warningly.

"Yeah, yeah. Doing cases for people who are ungrateful is the worst." The yellow mouse grumbled. Tim walked several paces away, Pikachu following, until Tim knelt down to hiss to his partner,

"Well, we aren't doing it for her, are we? We're doing it for Milo."

Pikachu looked at him. "Well… yeah, I guess that's true. Alright, let's clear Milo's name. We're both sure he wouldn't have anything to do with this; let's do a little more investigating until we find evidence to prove his innocence. Let's see, we spoke to both Milo and that Thelma lady, so let's see if there are any other witnesses, and let's also check out the side of the house where that window is supposed to be open. We might be able to get some clues by checking out where the necklace went missing."

"Right." Tim nodded and stood. "Since we're here, maybe you could talk to Purrloin and see if it knows anything?"

"Yeah, that's as good a place to start as any. Alright, leave it to me." Pikachu headed over to the Purrloin.

"Hey, Purrloin, have you got a moment? It seems like your partner has lost something, and we're trying to help her find it. I'd like to ask you some questions and see if we might be able to find out what happened."

The Purrloin stopped grooming herself and looked at Pikachu. "Purl?"

"Thank you. So, your owner left the house a little bit ago and went down that path, then came back a few minutes later. Is that correct?"

"Purr."

"Ok. So when she had left the house, what were you doing? Were you near here?"

"Purr. Purrloin, purr. Purrloin."

"Oh, so you've been playing games with your partner today? You're playing all the games she taught you?"

"Purrloin, purr."

"And when she left the house, you stayed behind for a moment, then you were called to play another game? What kind of game?"

"Purrloin."

"A game that makes your owner happy, huh? Can you tell us any details? Where did you go, what did you do… maybe what you saw?"

"Purr, purrloin. Purl. Purr."

"So first you played one game in a different place than usual, then you were playing the other game, and you ended up in the place you usually play the first game. Your partner was very happy to see you there, and promised you fish for dinner?"

"Purr!"

"Well, I'm glad you're happy. Did you see anyone or anything around the house before you left? Other than the boy treating the Poliwag, I mean."

"Purr, purr."

"Ok, so no one around the house, but when you were leaving to play your game, you saw the girl who's been teaching you the games to play with your partner? Ok, is there anything else you can think of to add?"

"Purr."

"Alright, well, thanks anyway, then." Pikachu sighed. He looked back at Tim, who had been taking notes on what he could of the conversation. Tim wished, not for the first time, that he could understand more than just Pikachu when it came to Pokemon.

"I'm not really sure I understand quite what Purrloin was trying to tell me, but it sounds like Purrloin didn't see anyone else near the house." Pikachu said to Tim.

"Alright. So, we might as well check that window next, then see who else we can talk to." Tim mused.

"Yeah. We could try finding the Poliwag Milo was treating and see if it noticed anything when it woke up, as well as others around the area."

Tim glanced back at the woman, who was currently talking to Dr. Waals while casting frequent glances at Milo, who stood there glaring at her, his arms crossed. Tim gave a small smile- Waals would keep the situation under control while he investigated- and turned towards the house. One side of it would be a little more difficult to get to, Tim saw; it was bordered by a tree with low branches that was large enough to fill the gap between her house and the neighbour's fence. Anyone going around that way would have to push their way through it first.

The other side, then, was a much better bet on which side of the house the open window she meant was on. Pikachu right behind him, Tim went around the left side of the house and began searching for the open window.

The only window open was the furthest one from the street. Reaching it, Tim glanced around, feeling almost like he was doing something wrong, then shook it off. He was trying to help.

Inside, he could see a desk just under the window, and a stand for a necklace directly in front of the window.

"Huh. Well, it looks like she sure did make it easy for someone to come up and take the necklace through the window, didn't she?" Pikachu said. He hopped inside the house.

"Pikachu, what are you doing? We don't have permission to be in there." Tim hissed. "She'd be mad enough if she saw us looking through her window!"

"Yeah, so just tell her that your Pikachu ran back here and jumped through the window when you weren't looking if she sees us. I might be brilliant, but most Pokemon don't think the way humans do, you know. A detective's Pokemon partner is important and can help in a lot of ways, Tim. Lots of people will easily forgive you for going inside their house if your partner runs off in there before you can stop them. Look at every option, in every situation, every time. Huh, now what's this?" Pikachu muttered, and jumped down onto the floor out of Tim's sight.

Tim sighed. He supposed Pikachu had a point. He still wasn't comfortable essentially breaking into someone's house, but it would be something he figured he would have to get used to occasionally doing if he wanted to keep solving incidents like this.

If the client was more co-operative, though, he would be asking first next time.

Pikachu jumped back up onto the desk, holding something in his paw.

"Take a look at this, Tim."

Tim leaned forward. "Is that… a sticker?"

"Yeah, it seems to be."

Pikachu held a small green dot a couple shades lighter than the sweater Tim was wearing. He leaned forward. "It doesn't seem like anything special, I guess… except…" His nose wrinkled. "It has very unique smell. I don't think I like it much."

"It smells? The sticker?" Tim held out his hand, and Pikachu dropped the green sticker into it. Tim brought it to his nose to find that Pikachu was correct; it had a smell that Tim couldn't really describe. Tim wasn't sure it was as bad as Pikachu seemed to think it was, but it wasn't a scent he would advertise, either.

"Let's hang onto it for now. It seems odd to me that it would just have been on the floor down there."

"Sure. Anything else in there?"

Pikachu carefully scanned the entire room. "Nothing that seems out of the ordinary. Some books on shelves. Cases displaying other jewelry. Maybe draw the room's layout, just in case?"

"Right." Tim carefully drew the room in his notebook, marking where the window was and where the necklace had been sitting. Pikachu waited until he was done, then hopped back outside.

"Alright, now let's check with everyone we can find around town to see if they noticed anything."

"Yeah, and we'll see if we can find that Poliwag, too."

A/N: Last time, Dr. Waals was being accused of a crime. Now, Milo is in trouble. Tim just runs into cases everywhere he goes, it seems.

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