Time seemed to stop as Riven's blood froze, his thought processes came to a crashing halt, and a lump the size of a small fist formed in his throat. He clutched the holo caster with a grip hard enough to snap the device, face hard and vicious. "Who. Are. You?" He snarled.

The distorted voice came through again, this time jokingly rueful. "Now now, no need to get so aggressive. You don't have to shoot daggers with your words there. Tone it down, will ya?"

"Oh, sure. I shouldn't get worked up over a complete stranger calling me by the name everyone and their mom is looking for right? And I'm just going to take a totally random stab in the dark here and guess that you want something," Riven said, voice drier than the Mauville desert during the summer. "If it's money, I'm just going to tell you now before you get your hopes up- buying a soda could put me into debt."

The voice snickered at that for a moment. "Money? Psh. I mean, money is bloody awesome but no, I don't want anything of that nature."

"Then what in the blazes do you want with me if you don't give a rattata's ass about the bounty? I doubt it's because you have a sense of justice. And how did you even get this number in the first place?"

"Phone numbers aren't hard to come by these days," the voice mused snidely. "All it requires is a little… digging."

"What's that familiar smell?" Riven said, closing his eyes and sniffing the air. "Oh, right. Bullshit. Even if you did find it that way, you'd have to have been looking for me specifically to do that. And there's no way you'd be able to connect my name with Gray unless you somehow knew I was involved in the Petalburg incident. That means you've been keeping tabs on me for a while, or something must have piqued your interest lately. I'm betting on the latter, seeing as how you could have done something before-hand if you could, there were plenty of opportunities to do so. Do me a favor and stop feeding me your shit, tell me what you want or fuck off."

A distorted whistle came through. "Wow. And here I thought you were a thorough dumbass! You sure don't look intelligent. I'm impressed."

I knew it, he can see me, Riven noted, eyes scanning rooftops and any other places someone watchful may be, despite however futile it was.

As a scout, he knew a thing or two about surveillance and the importance of position. You have the high ground, you have the advantage. Very basic, but very important. On a mountain range, or in the wilds however, spotting a person wasn't terribly difficult if they hadn't taken the time to disguise themselves well.

But in a place like LaRousse- with its extremely urban landscape and abundance of people- this guy could be anyone, and be anywhere. That could mean inside a building, on top of a building, in an alleyway, maybe even closer, a park or an apartment window. The fact he and the others were in an open space that could be observed from every direction meant that there were too many potential areas and vantage points to efficiently narrow down his observer's position. Add in that nearly everyone had a phone or some kind of device out at the same time made it just about fucking impossible to identify any suspicious behavior.

Be one with the environment, they always said. Crafty son of a bitch.

"Anyway… I personally don't want anything to do with you," the voice continued, sounding very bored all of a sudden.

"Then who does?" Riven asked. He's just a lackey then. Or maybe he wants me to think that. Still, there isn't much I can do here. He can see me, and I can't see him. All these angles and viewpoints... I couldn't get away if I tried, and I have nothing over him.

"Nice try, but I'm afraid that's a question you'll get an answer to very shortly. As in a couple of hours if everything goes according to plan. Or a few years if you decide to be a difficult little shit."

"Plan?" Riven asked again. Ulterior motives. That complicated things, but the better question was what that plan entailed regarding him, he honestly didn't give a damn if they planned to blow up a building as long as it didn't fall over and turn him into human mush. Judging by the sounds of things, and the uncomfortable feeling in his gut, whatever this plan was, it involved something highly unpleasant for him. He briefly entertained the thought of where he'd land on the FUCKED scale after this.

Presumably on… very thoroughly.

"Yes. Plan. P-L-A-N. Plan. The plan whose primary step involves the LaRoussian police department." It sounded as if the person behind the voice was smiling, even through the distortion. Riven's stomach seemed to wither away and die. "In the next four minutes, a call will be made to the LaRousse city police department- one about the sighting of the regional fugitive named Gray, whose actual name is Riven Cerul! Guess what'll happen next? Uh-oh."

Riven's eyes widened, and he turned around to face Gale, Will, and Lucia, a look of silent, grim realization on his face. They stared at him in worry, completely in the dark about what was happening. "You fucking wouldn't," he snarled, eyeing a police robot floating some distance away.

"Oh, I absolutely fucking would," the voice shot back, infuriatingly smug. "See, and here's the unfair thing. If they catch you, your pokemon are going to be separated and taken away, sent to foster care or some other shitty hellhole they send criminal pokemon to. And you wouldn't want that now would you? After all, trainers care."

Riven exhaled slowly, nostrils flaring.

"Oh please, don't give me all the credit yet, I'm not the one that thought this shit up. Well, most of it. Fuck-okay, maybe I did. Whatever. It's entirely necessary. You'll see. Oh, and just so you know, you have three minutes to say goodbye to the two cute girls you got there, as well as that kid, if you care about them. Then the whole damn city will recognize your face! We don't want any unnecessary people getting caught up in this too. It doesn't concern them, and we'd like for it to remain that way. Got it? Now make it snappy."

"Wait-"

"Time starts… now. Make it count. Oh! Speaking of which, my noodles are done!"

"Wait, wait, wait!" Riven shouted into the phone.

"Have fuuuunnnn!"

"Don't hang up on me you-" The line clicked. "FUCK!"

Gale came up to him, a mix of worry and confusion evident in her features. That brief phone call had turned Riven from neutral to completely hostile in the span of about fifty seconds. Whatever the caller told him on the phone, it was serious. "Riven, who called? You're as white as a sheet! What did he tell you?"

"God dammit. God dammit," Riven repeated, moving away from Gale while running nervous hands through his hair. He felt like he was drowning, with no way to escape. Forcing himself to breathe, he grabbed Gale by the arms, glaring holes into her skull with his eyes, now deadly and utterly serious."Gale, listen to me."

"Okay I'm-"

"Listen to me closely," he warned as his grip tightened, forcing out a yelp from the startled girl. "I-I… I want you to take all of my pokemon indefinitely, and get the hell out of LaRousse as fast as possible. Do you hear me? Which goes for the two of you too," he said, glancing at Will and Lucia. "Take them and get out."

"What?" Gale blurted out, completely caught off-guard by the comment. Then confusion turned into anger. "Are you freaking insane?"

"Gale has a point, you're not making any damn sense," Lucia added carefully.

"Yeah, what the fuck?" Will piped up.

Riven ignored them the two siblings, checking the clock. Two minutes thirty seconds. "God dammit Gale. Please- just listen to me," he pleaded, shaking her slightly. "Can you do that?"

She relaxed, signaling him to continue with a breath. "O-okay, I'm listening. But you damn well better have a good reason. Why do you want us to leave?" It was all too sudden, and it really didn't seem like he was doing it out of spite, or anger. In fact, he looked pained.

"The caller," Riven muttered, then paused for a few seconds. "He… he's going to call the police on me. If they catch me, and take my fingerprint, they'll know it's me. Apparently, the prick doesn't care about money. Whatever the hell this is about, he doesn't want you three getting involved. He gave me three minutes to say goodbye, then the whole police force will know I'm in Larousse."

"B-but how do you know what he's saying is the truth?" Gale sputtered.

"Because I wouldn't put it past the police to jump to the call, considering the amount of paranoia that Sinnoh kicked up. I'm not going to take any chances, I'm going to assume he's not bluffing. I don't know what the fuck he wants, but what I do know is, if they catch me- Baron, Aine, Haona, and Boagrius are going to get separated. I can't let that happen." Lifting up his shirt, Riven undid his trainer belt, holding it up to Gale, who swallowed grimly. "I can't risk any of you getting caught up in this either. The police will think you're working with me, and you'd get thrown in jail or under heavy suspicion too. And that- would suck."

"Okay… I get it." She grabbed the belt shakily, looking between the pokeballs and him with uneasiness. "You want me to take them, then?"

"Yes."

She didn't know if she could. She didn't know how caring for four pokemon that weren't hers would affect her life. Or how his pokemon would react to getting dumped into her care. Trained pokemon weren't too receptive to getting abandoned like that. There were too many ifs. "But why me? I'm not a trainer- I can't-"

Riven grabbed her face with both hands."Calm down, Gale. I don't want to do this to you, but I know where you live. I don't know where Lucia or Will live, or else I'd ask them. But right now, you're my only option. You wanted my trust, well here it is." He nudged her gently as she faltered and stumbled over her words. "They don't deserve this, Gale. It's a shitty thing to do but there's no other option right now. I'm sorry. I can understand if you don't want to do this for me- but will you do this for them, at least?"

She stared at the belt for a few seconds, then up at him, before nodding. She also took his bag and holo caster, leaving Riven with literally nothing but the clothes he had on. Riven gave her a reassuring, but sad smile, then stood up, heading over to Will.

"What the hell's happening?" Will asked, innocent red eyes wide and concerned.

Riven pulled his hat down, giving the boy a bittersweet smile. Reaching into his pant pocket, Riven took out a sheathed knife, Yanine's knife. He grabbed the boy's hands, enclosing them over the weapon.

Will's eyes widened, gawking. "But that's your-"

"Yeah, and I'm loaning this to you. Take care of it. Seriously, I mean it. That thing is special to me. If you lose it, I will throw you off a cliff," Riven chuckled, trying to joke around with a lightheartedness he definitely didn't feel.

Lucia remained quiet, sensing the urgency of the situation, based on what he said to Gale. Whatever it was, Riven wasn't going to be back in a long while. Especially not with the size of the bounty on Riven's head. Life in jail or rehabilitation. Neither would be fit for someone like Riven. Not a chance in hell. He'd go nuts. More than he already was anyway.

"Why are you giving it to me? I don't know how to use a knife!" Will stammered, unsure if he should pocket the thing or shove it back into Riven's hands. Besides, he'd never killed anyone before, he didn't know if he'd ever use it. And he didn't know how to clean and maintain a knife either!

Riven hmphed. "Stupid kid. You'll never know if you'll need it. Hopefully, you won't have to. But things happen, and you can't rely on your team all the time. Especially out there," he said, gesturing outwards at the sea, to the world. "Take it, just in case. Keep it with you at all times. And say hello to the other gym leaders for me, will you?"

"You're not… coming back anytime soon, are you?" Will asked, finally getting the picture. This was out of character for Riven, he was never this nice. He only ever talked like this when something bad was about to happen… like when they had run out of water in the desert.

"Heh. You're a sharp kid, Will."

The boy nodded dimly, pocketing the knife and holding back tears. "W-why does trouble always follow you? Why can't it ever fuck off for once?" He was slamming his fists against Riven's chest, careful not to spit sparks. But god damn it he wanted to. "It's not fair," Will whispered.

"Life's never fair. Hey- look at me," Riven said. "Will."

The younger boy looked up at him, red eyes on the verge of tears.

Riven smiled down at him, then pulled his hat downwards on his head. "Don't you cry now. I'll be back. Promise?"

Will rubbed his face with a sleeve, glaring at Riven with fierce, but puffy eyes. "You better, asshole!"

Riven laughed, leaving the boy to his own thoughts. He turned around to face Lucia, dropping the smile and all pretense of joy.

Lucia eyed him carefully as she approached, coming in close in what seemed like a half hug, but instead whispered in his ear. "Don't give them false hope," she said calmly. "I hope you fulfill your promise, for Will's sake. Don't let him down. He spoke highly of you… That said, don't do anything too insane. Gale told me you can get carried away with your crazy plans."

"It's like you don't even know me," he snorted.

This time she snorted, and turned around. "Isn't that the truth?"

Riven gave her a sly grin, which fell completely as two arms wrapped around his body from behind, followed by warmth and a very soft feeling on his back. Glancing behind, he saw Gale attempting to pull him into a hug. He tensed for a moment, before visibly relaxing in her hold. That was the first time he'd let her hug him like that. It felt… nice. "I'm not gone yet, Gale."

"You didn't push me off."

"Don't get used to it now," Riven teased.

Gale squeezed a little harder around his stomach, causing him to groan a little."What're you going to do? Run? They're going to catch you, you know." Her breath was hot against his back, but he paid it no mind, mentally counting down time instead.

"Yeah. I seriously doubt I'll be able to outrun them for very long." A blue eye full of amusement looked down at her, his lips pulled into a wry, mischievous little smirk. "That doesn't mean I have to make it easy for them though, right?"

Gale remained silent, resting her head against his back. She broke the embrace and stepped backwards. "Good luck, Rivy. I had fun traveling with you." She glanced at the belt in Riven's trainer bag. "Don't make them wait too long, okay?"

"Yeah... Goodbye, Gale. Having you around wasn't half bad." He gestured for them to go with a quick flick of the eyes. "Now go on and get out of here, time's almost up."

He didn't think watching them go would hurt. It did.

It didn't take too long after the others left that the sidewalks stopped moving and the police robots went berserk. Riven had taken advantage of the confusion of the people at the announcement of the citywide lockdown, blending his way in a crowd and into a secluded area. He originally thought of following the crowd back to a hotel and see if he could make his way inside without being noticed, but he needed a LaRousse passport to get past the lobby in the first place, which was in the bag Gale had taken from him. That skewered that idea. Well, then again, using the card would probably just alert every robot in the city to his position, like a damn beacon.

So he took a second option. Hide like a rat and hope they don't find you.

At the current moment, Riven was huddled in a dark corner of an alleyway between two residential buildings, using a dumpster as cover. The police bots were zooming by, desperately looking for him, blue scanners washing over the faces of person after person, all the while displaying his picture on their blocky fronts, in big red letters saying : Dangerous Fugitive Wanted, Gray.

Only now did he realize how big of a gigantic kick to the metaphorical balls he had received.

He was stuck on an island, with no form of I.D., and now every policeman and robot knew his face and was actively looking for him. Fuckstorm wouldn't do this situation justice. He had to give credit to whoever that asshole on the phone was though. He'd fucked him over far more than he'd expected, and there was absolutely nothing Riven could do in terms of damage control. He'd been lead right into that fucker's hand, and god was it frustrating.

He was just about to wonder if things could get any shittier when a robot came into the alleyway and stopped behind him. Riven froze, crouched like a Sawsbuck caught in the headlights as the robot's blue scanners traced his body up and down.

"Shut the fuck up, shut the fuck up, go away…" Riven mumbled under his breath, sweating bullets.

"FUGITIVE DETECTED! NON-LETHAL SUBJUGATION AUTHORIZED! YOU ARE UNDER ARREST!" it microphoned, sounding an alarm.

"Well, shit."

Riven had a split second to react as a panel opened up from the robot's blocky body, revealing a shock taser. Electricity spewed forth from it, hitting the dumpster as Riven narrowly rolled away, yanking a loose pipe out of the wall and bringing it down on the robot. He continued to wail on the robot, smashing its screens and making numerous dents in it, even snapping off the taser it had. The police bot slowed down as the damage took its toll, and Riven stabbed the pipe into the robot's circuitry as a coup de grace, frying it completely.

He would have made a small note of mental triumph, accompanied with an indignant "take that". Key word, would- because as soon as Riven had destroyed that damn thing, fifty more appeared overhead and he quickly decided he should be elsewhere.

The robots were quick little bastards though, and instantly started forming walls ahead of him to block his passage. The good thing was that- for all their programming- the robots weren't very smart. He jumped at the steadily climbing wall of robots, grabbing hold of the top and lifting himself up and over, rolling safely onto the ground before taking off again.

Dodging the tasers was easy enough, and climbing his way past the robots proved to be fairly effortless. After twenty minutes of frantic running, using the urban landscape to escape, Riven found himself grinning like an idiot. It was actually pretty fun to run from the police, despite finally starting to feel the strain he was putting on his body. He would have opted to fight the robots, if he could, but he only had a knife, and last time he checked, those were awful shit at hurting bigger metal things. And there weren't convenient metal pipes laying around everywhere. That was a one time only deal, and even then it would take too long to beat the hell out of all of them anyway.

After evading the robots and essentially laughing like a mad man all the while doing it, the police apparently believed they had enough of Riven's shit for the day. And so, they decided to come out and personally put his ass in chains. And see, Riven would have zero problems with that if it was just humans.

Except they had Manectrics, Mightyenas, and Growlithes at their disposal.

Riven was pretty fast. But not that fast. Even if he was fast enough to outrun them, it wouldn't matter since a lucky paralyze wave hit him in the calf and effectively turned that leg into what seemed like gelatin. No longer able to move his foot (and dammit inertia could be a serious asshole), he fell face first onto concrete, where he was pinned by nearly ninety pounds of electric dog. For extra security, the damn canine shocked his other leg, and then his arms. Riven's entire body felt like a wet noodle, limp and useless.

Face down on the concrete, he watched the officers approach and couldn't help but smirk widely as the adrenaline and mood of the chase had yet to die down. He wondered how bad he could throw them off.

That's when the maniacal laughter started.

"Why's he laughing?" Browning asked, watching Riven laugh silently in the interrogation room. "He's been doing that for a whole hour. Maybe he is nuts."

"Could be an act," Waver replied. "He pretends to act insane, skips jail time and lands in the comfort of a lunatic home. Not a bad prospect."

"Honestly, I don't know what the hell he's playing at. One second he's unreadable, and the next he's laughing like a maniac. Look at him, he's having a blast." Browning sighed, kneading his temples. "Officials say anything yet? Don't you think it's weird that they're letting local law enforcement handle this, you know, based on the severity of the situation and all?"

"Don't know, don't care. We're not high enough on the payroll for that. If they want to hand over the case to us, hell, I'd be happy to oblige."

"You're right… we might get promotions for this. Did you get the police report from Petalburg yet?"

"Maller's on it. Ah, here she is."

Shoes knocked against the floor as a sharply dressed woman entered the room, black bags under her eyes from a combination of sleep deprivation and far too much paperwork. She slammed the brown folder down on the table, startling the two men.

"Rough day?" Waver asked, slowly reaching out to the(extremely thin) file, careful not to set the exhausted lady off.

Maller blew out a breath, cracking her neck and back. "I had to handle a mountain of paperwork and then all of a sudden we get a phone call reporting the sighting of a regional fugitive- who proceeds to make our job much more stressful than it already is, and forces us to come out to personally apprehend him. So yeah, you could say my day's been rough. Doesn't matter though, did you search him yet?"

Browning nodded, rolling his eyes as he looked at Riven again. "Only thing we found on him was a switchblade."

"That's it?"

"That's it."

The detective appeared bewildered, trying to make sense of the situation. "No I.D. forms? Nothing?"

"Not a thing. This guy is supposed to be the infamous Gray, right? The report mentioned him having pokemon, yet he doesn't have any pokeballs or training supplies with him."

Waver finished going through the file, setting it down on the table, crossing his arms. He shrugged his shoulders, coming to the easiest logical conclusion."Simple, he got rid of them. Could have handed them off to someone, or hid them somewhere. By the way, the file doesn't have shit in it. I've seen newspaper articles with more useful information than that."

Maller nodded. "Yeah, which is what makes this so stupidly bizarre."

"Explain?" Waver asked nicely, brain too overworked to think critically.

"The prints match those in the system, this is definitely our guy-no doubt about that. But the thing that stumps me is the fact he has no prior documentation in the slightest before Petalburg," she said. "And, to make things even more confusing, his behavior is… erratic." Turned to Browning. "Can you check if the name Riven Cerul matches any of our databases?"

The detective brought up a computer and typed his name in, as well as using facial recognition for any matches. The screen only showed the LaRoussian I.D. card, and… battle tower records? "Look, he registered for a battle at the tower. One battle only. Singles."

Waver and Maller rushed over. "Do they have a recording of the match? Who was his opponent?"

"Here it is."

The computer brought up the recording, playing through the entire match, as well as capturing the faces of the two trainers, one being their captive, the other being an older female trainer.

"Gotta say, that was an impressive match," Waver said.

The others looked at him.

"Sorry. I like pokemon battles. Erm, please continue."

Maller pointed at the girl in the image. "Who is that? Can you get an I.D. on her?"

"Lucia Ethne, hometown listed as Slateport city. Has two brothers, Connor Ethne, and William Ethne. Records indicate she lived in Slate until she was eleven, where she became a trainer. She made it through the Victory Road when she was fifteen. I think it's safe to say she's clean. Battle tower fights are random, but sometimes people match each other up when they're in line."

"You think they know each other?"

"Maybe, probably not. They could have met in line and decided to battle, or travel together. You know, trainer rivalries and friendships. They travel with people they hardly even know. Quite a bit too. Makes you wonder who taught them about strangers."

Maller sat down, holding her chin in her hands. "Check the trainer database. Run the name Riven Cerul through. According to the video, he said his hometown was listed as Littleroot. That's where professor Birch lives, right? If he signed up there-"

"Then it's official," Waver finished for her. "Birch might know him."

"Shit," Browning cursed. "You're going to have to scratch that thought, Waver."

"What? Why?"

Browning sighed, turning the computer screen around towards the other two.

"It's… blank," Waver stated, now more confused than ever. "But he registered in Birch's lab. He should be in there!"

Browning shook his head. "This is directly from the League databases. They don't lie. Ever. No Riven Cerul exists as a trainer here. There's nothing here. Which means…"

"False trainer I.D.," Maller muttered. "The only way you could sign up for the league is through having a trainer license, and you need one for battle tower fights. If he doesn't appear on the databases, then that means that he must have gotten his hands on some of the best forgeries on the market if it was good enough to fool the system. Fake trainer I.D.s are serious work, something only professionals or organized crime can manage. Check his bank records, look for any major transactions."

"Already did. Won't help." Browning announced. "There's nothing in here. Only the bare minimum amount to have the account open. And trainers don't have official earnings, remember? Everything is all cash, and we didn't so much as find a single cent on his person. As far as we know, he's completely broke."

"What."

"That's what I said."

"If he's broke, and wanted, why would he come to one of the most technologically advanced cities in the region, and register for a public spectacle for the whole city to see?" Waver scratched his chin, completely baffled.

The female detective stared at Riven through the interrogation room window. "Why don't we ask him?"

Interrogation rooms were uncomfortable, and not because of the feeling of being watched. That was everywhere for Riven, such was the fate of a paranoiac.

Funny thing was, police were just as paranoid as he was, if not worse. At least he knew the world was out to personally make his life miserable. So when three detectives came in with that accusatory look in their eyes, Riven was prepared to serve them the biggest pile of steaming bullshit he could muster, just out of spite. If he was going to spend the rest of his life in a cell, he was at least going to have some class-A entertainment before they threw him behind bars.

The detectives kept their distance, naturally, flanked by two Machamps and a living shock taser behind them. God damn Manectrics, they all reminded Riven of Grumpy, which, by very definition, pissed him off. He leered at the dog, who looked nonplussed. The paralysis only just wore off a little while ago, his arms still felt bit tingly though.

"Are you aware of the size of the bounty on your head? Gray?" The woman asked, sitting down on the chair in front of him.

"Considering the price has about five zeroes after it, and there's posters and announcements with the message of my capture on them, and in just about every corner of any city?" Riven gave her look, practically saying, no-shit. "Yeah, I'm well aware."

"Then what were you doing in LaRousse? This would be the perfect trap for someone like you."

"Apparently, it is," Riven said evenly, despite wanting to curse his lungs out and shout out as many damnable phrases he could come up with.

The detective held up a picture of his mug shot from Petalburg. "Although, I'm sure you would have been just fine, given how different you look now. Here it says your right eye is a deep, blood red, not dark blue. And your hair was entirely black, and much shorter. So you painted your hair, let it grow out, and got a cheap contact but didn't decide to hide your heterochromia? Well, I guess not looking like an assault victim helped too. You're almost unrecognizable when compared to this photo. You hid by appearing even more noticeable, that's new, as well as creative. So again, why in the hell would you come here, of all places? You could have gone anywhere and no one would have batted an eyelash."

Riven couldn't help but smile, playing the lunatic a bit more. As long as he seemed like an unstable, irrational person, he could continue being a dick. His tone became light and sardonic,"I saw the city in a catalogue once, on a cruise. Seemed nice and it said such romantic things about this beautiful city, so I just had to check it out, figured I'd see something impressive before I got arrested or murdered. A last perish song, if you will."

"That… is the biggest pile of crap I've ever heard in my life. A five year old could come up with a better story than that. You're lying to my face?"

Riven pretended to look surprised. "Yeah, I believe that's what they call it. You know, when someone deliberately tells you the not truth for the sake of hiding something? I'm surprised you're not aware of such a delightful aspect of human nature."

" You're digging yourself deeper every single time you open your mouth, do you know that?"

He hesitated for a moment. Then nodded vigorously.

" Are you insane?"

"I like to live dangerously."

She ignored him, continuing despite the climbing annoyance she was feeling. "Our caller said that you went by the name Riven Cerul, only that isn't your name, is it? When you signed up at the battle tower-we know that, by the way- you listed your hometown as Littleroot. Only there is no Riven Cerul in the League databases. You're no trainer. Who are you really? And what are you doing in Hoenn?"

Riven remained perfectly calm, not showing any signs of surprise, even though he was pretty damn surprised. If I signed up in Birch's lab, my record should be there. Why aren't I there?

Equally as lost as the detective, Riven quickly got the idea of using this to his advantage, after all, he had absolutely nothing to lose, and he had no idea what the hell was going on.

He smirked mentally. They were cooking up a story about him, connecting things that probably weren't even connected in the slightest. That's what detectives did, according to Will. Oh, this was going to be fantastic. The best thing about being a paranoid? You knew how other paranoids thought. How they thought, what they thought, what kinds of things could make them think a certain way. They had a tell, it was just about looking for the right things.

If you said nothing, or gave them a smug grin, or any sort of tell-tale sign of confidence or lack of it- a simple… slip, they'd essentially lie to themselves by believing their own paranoid assumptions as truth. If Gale wasn't the person she was, he'd have thought she was trying to sell him out or blackmail him a long time ago. That kind of thinking was outright unhealthy. And in this case… it could work to his benefit.

So he did just that.

He shrugged and gave the most wry grin he'd ever given, with an extra dosage of smugness for added dickery. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

The other two detectives exchanged glances, exhaling through the nostrils, but they looked like they had just won. The paranoid test worked. Whatever they thought he was involved in, was now truth. Only they had to prove it, and that was going to be far more difficult. That was the fun part.

Riven sneered at them before his attention returned to the female detective in front of him, who appeared unfazed.

"You had pokemon. And a fake license to boot. And yet, we found you with nothing. The I.D.s, the pokeballs. Your things? You don't even have a belt on. Did you hide them, pass them off to someone? Where are they?"

"In a place."

"Where is this place?"

"Somewhere."

"You're not helping your case at all, Gray. Keep this up and you're facing jail for a very long time. Cooperating might save you some years. Might." She stared at him straight in the eyes, blue eyes as fierce as the sea. "I'm going to ask again. Where. Are. They?"

Riven went serious, edging closer.

"Not here," he deadpanned, before erupting in laughter. Genuine laughter. If this was how being an utter asshole felt like, then he wondered why he hadn't tried it sooner. The look on the detective's face was priceless.

She stood up and left, gesturing for the other two to follow her to the back room.

"You think he's lying?" Waver asked Browning.

The other man turned around to look at him. "He confessed about lying. Of course he is."

"But what if he's lying… about lying?"

"What?"

"Well, I mean, it's a possibility."

"What would be the point of lying about lying? That means he would be telling the truth."

"No, now you're thinking in double negatives, Brown. I just said that he might be lying about lying. Not that he's telling the truth."

"I think you watch too much movies about dashing rogues and pirates."

Waver blinked, and shut his mouth in acceptance.

"Well, at least his personality certainly matches the Petalburg report," Maller said, gripping the bridge of her nose with two fingers. The detective who filed it described him as, egotistical, arrogant, selfish, irritating, and a fuckstick with his own cranium forcibly jammed up his sphincter. Maller wasn't sure if that was entirely appropriate to include in a police report but it drew a small laugh from her. That detective Williams sure did hate this guy.

"You mean complete dick?" Waver suggested.

She nodded."Complete dick. He's not going to tell us anything, bastard's practically toying with us. Who confesses to lying? No one ever does that. Except stark raving lunatics hell bent on making our lives difficult." She breathed in deep, willing away irritation. "The guy knows he's not going anywhere, not matter how much he cooperates. Even if he can fight-which he can- he can't fight a whole police building by himself. Mad but not stupid." So why is he so calm if he's screwed either way?

Browning shrugged. "True, but now I want to find out what his motives are, just because he wants to be a difficult little punk."

An idea clicked in Maller's brain, and all of a sudden everything fell into place. "He's working for someone," she stated suddenly. "He's not a lone wolf."

"What makes you say that?"

"Look at the facts, they don't add up, not in a way that traditionally makes sense. He's a regional fugitive, with the entire police force in every single major city after him. Yet he shows up at LaRousse? He knows the risks and still does it anyway? Only a complete idiot would make that mistake- only he isn't, is he? There's serious bounty hunters looking for him, who have been searching, by the way. And they are much less forgiving than the police; the Black Garchomps, X-zers, Rekla, even Five-seven put him on their list."

"Holy shit, Five-seven too?"

"Yes." She paced around the room. "Let's see... No records, no birthday, no schooling, no hometown, no history. The only time his face shows up is during and after Petalburg. No time before. He used the alias of Gray, presumably for personal and minor interactions, and Riven Cerul, for any sort of official documentation or database, no doubt made by a professional. I don't think him being at the Petalburg incident was an accident. Far from it. Whoever he's working for used him to get something they wanted, but the other party wasn't happy with that. Hence the fight and the political sandstorm it kicked up. Unfortunate conflict with a rival underground crime ring turned into a massive misunderstanding. Ironic. I'm guessing it was supposed to be low profile."

"Okay… but May kept the jewel after…" Waver clapped a hand on his forehead. "Norman reported a break-in a couple weeks later, only it wasn't a break-in. It was like they got in and out, with no one noticing. Like a ghost. Oh, oh man. Gray was just the fall-guy, the perfect fall-guy. You couldn't trace him back to anyone if you fucking tried. God damn professionals."

"Now you're getting it. So, he comes to LaRousse, picks a fight, gets his name out there, probably to contact his employer. They see it, and being such a high-profile suspect, they decide to anonymously notify the police. The caller was using a disposable, untraceable phone."

"Wait." Browning held up a hand. "Why would they call us on their own guy?"

The three detectives paused, not even daring to move. They all turned to see Riven, who was absent-mindedly picking his nails, looking like he didn't have a care in the world.

Maller's eyes widened, and it felt like someone had flipped her stomach upside down."Blackmail… If we have him, he's in a tight spot either way. Either he complies with what they want, or he stays in jail. They don't trust him, which means he may just cooperate with us, depending on what we offer him. If it's an illegal operation, they really don't want us to find them. We need to go back there and find out who he's working for. Now."

"Why now?" Browning asked, dreading the answer.

She swallowed, enlarging a pokeball.

"Because they're coming to get him."