Pokemon (Detective Pikachu)

A Legendary Search

24. The Search Ends

Even with Mewtwo's barrier up, Lugia was large enough that the others could see its head from where they were trapped. They couldn't see everything that was happening, but when Tim leapt onto the top of Lugia's head, they saw that. Exclamations of fear came from everyone when Lugia tried to shake him off, and when his figure finally fell from its head, Emilia screamed.

She realized then that the barrier had dropped, and began to sprint in his direction, but stopped short when Lugia closed its jaws around him.

"No…" the word came out in a whisper as tears sprang to her eyes. She was frozen all of a sudden, unable to look away, certain she was about to lose him forever. "Tim…"

Lugia's head rose back up from where it had caught Tim, and its wings spread. No longer contained in the barrier, it took off, rising into the air, and turned, flying back towards the group. Emilia's heart pounded; was it going to eat Tim, then come for the rest of them? She found herself looking at Mewtwo.

Mewtwo backed away, lowering its arm, and landed inside the area that his barrier had kept clear of rubble.

"Why aren't you stopping it?" Meiko's voice was a little louder than normal and wobbled with fear. Mewtwo looked at her.

"There is no need."

"What?" The speaker this time was Brad.

Then there was no more time to talk; Lugia was in front of them all, placing its feet carefully on the ground. Tim was still visible in its mouth as it lowered its head, bending over.

When it reached the ground, Lugia opened its mouth and gently deposited Tim on the ground. Understanding jolted through Emilia like lightning and she raced forward.

"Tim!"

As she ran, Lugia straightened up, and took off. By the time she was dropping to her knees next to him, Lugia was flying away.

Feeling frantic, Emilia reached out, putting one hand on Tim's shoulder and another on his back, trying to see if he was hurt. "Tim, are you alright? Please, Tim!"

Pain kept Tim immobile, his wrist burning in agony. He did not want to know what it looked like. He lay there hoping he would pass out and be free from the anguish.

He did not lose consciousness, but all of a sudden, the pain stopped. He opened his eyes and blinked twice, not understanding.

"Tim! Tim, answer me!"

He became aware, then, of Emilia next to him, hands on his back and shoulder, fear in her voice. He lifted his head with a small groan; he still had no idea why he wasn't in pain, but everything felt stiff.

"Tim!"

That voice was Meiko, he realized, not Emilia. It was, however, the latter who then said,

"Oh, thank goodness."

"How… what…" Tim shook his head, pushing himself off the ground with his good arm. He dreaded what he would see, but looked down at where he'd tucked the injured one against his chest.

He couldn't see it. It was surrounded by a purple bubble that looked a lot like the barrier Mewtwo had put up, except this one wasn't see through.

"What?"

"That will help for a time."

Tim looked at Mewtwo. "You're doing this?"

"Yes."

Tim looked back at his arm, where he could see blood soaked into his sweater around it, but nothing inside the purple, then back at Mewtwo.

"Are you… stopping the pain, too?"

"Yes."

Tim looked at him for a moment, lost for words. The first one to finally float to him mind was, why? He pushed that aside, though, afraid it would seem ungrateful, and instead said, "Thank you."

"Tim… you need to get to a hospital." Emilia whispered, having looked at where Tim's gaze had gone and also noticing the blood.

Tim lurched to his feet, Emilia rapidly standing up as well, keeping her hands on him in case he needed her for balance. A part of the back of Tim's mind appreciated it, but with most of his attention on Mewtwo, he mostly ignored her. He ignored Meiko as well, who said something he didn't really hear. Mewtwo was in front of him at last; he couldn't let this chance go.

"You will need me to do that for now. There is another thing you must do before you can stop today."

This time, Meiko's voice did filter into Tim's ears. "What do you mean, he has something else to do? He's done enough! He's hurt!"

"Mewtwo." Tim said. Mewtwo simply blinked at him, having been unaffected by Meiko's outburst.

"Where is he? I know that you know where he is."

"I do."

"Then tell me!" a frantic feeling rose in Tim's chest. He couldn't name it, only say that it was screaming at him to get the answer, now.

"It is not me you should be asking, however. The answer to your question… now lies with Pikachu."

"What?" Tim shook his head in disbelief. "He doesn't-"

"He will. Find him, and he will find the answer you want. I will leave you for now, but we will meet again, very soon, and at that meeting, all of your questions will be answered. For now, however, the one you must speak to is Pikachu. And remember, I did tell you you would find him if you did not give up. That still holds true. Continue now, here, and you will have your answer before the day's end."

Mewtwo rose into the air.

"You have persevered this far. Do not give up now. Search, and you will find."

Mewtwo poured on speed and flew off.

"Tim?" Meiko asked softly. She, unlike Emilia, had not immediately raced to his side, though she had come within an acceptable speaking distance. She approached now. "What was that? Do… do you know Mewtwo? How? And what was he talking about?"

Emilia had very different concerns in mind.

"Oh, Tim. How badly are you hurt? We need to get you to the hospital before that wears off!" she indicated the odd barrier around his arm.

That, however, jarred him into action enough to back away from her.

"No, not… not right now! Not when I'm this close. He said… he said to ask Pikachu. He must have found something. Where is he?"

Emilia looked at him, more concern in her features then even the time he'd gone over the cliff- was that just a few days ago?- which he didn't think was possible.

"Tim, you're not making any sense. I don't understand what you're talking about… whatever it is, it can wait until after a doctor has looked at you."

At the same time, Meiko looked around. "Uh, yeah, where is Pikachu? Now that I think of it, I haven't seen him since Mewtwo let Tim through his barrier…"

Emilia closed the distance between him and herself again, reaching out to tug gently on his uninjured arm. "Tim, come on, no matter what it is, you're more important… look at all that blood, you're really hurt."

Tim pulled away again, feeling like his brain was on a particularly frantic overdrive. "No, I need-"

"Sol!"

A large white pokemon interrupted and bounded down in front of him. At the same time, Mr. Graham, Brad McMasters, and Inspector Holiday reached them. Tim hadn't even registered they were still nearby.

It was Absol he looked at, however, as the Pokemon turned slightly and gestured in a direction with his paw, more off to the left of Tim.

He looked at Absol. "That way? Pikachu is over there?"

Absol nodded, then crouched. Tim took the hint and immediately swung his leg over his back, pulling his arm out of Emilia's gentle hold.

"Tim, wait! What, where are you going?"

In any other circumstance, Tim would have listened to Emilia, would have assured her he was fine and would have hated making her worry in any way. But he couldn't think about that right now. Mewtwo had told him, just now, that if he kept looking, he would find his father before the day was over. And there wasn't much of that day left, not anymore.

Absol took off. Tim heard shouts behind him, and a sound he would later realize was the release of Pokeballs.

He noticed nothing other than the movements of Absol beneath him until they reached a car whose front end was crushed by a large chunk of what had once been the GNN building. Most of the car was intact past that; Pikachu stood on top of the roof, and there was a man inside.

"Oh, Tim! Good timing- and good work, by the way, I have to admit that was pretty incredible! But take a look inside the car, here- I think we've got our man. And what happened to your arm?"

"Later." Tim muttered, his head buzzing with questions. He looked inside the car.

The man inside was unconscious, but didn't have any injuries that Tim could see. Pikachu swung himself inside the car through the broken window on the other side of it.

"This is the remote for controlling Lugia, I'm sure of it. Or at least it would be if the stone hadn't been a dud." Pikachu picked up a flat device with a screen, something that reminded Tim of a smartphone but much bigger. The glass of the screen was cracked and the screen itself kept shorting out to display nothing but fuzzy grey snow, but when it did display what it was supposed to, it looked like there were selectable commands.

Noise behind him made Tim realize that Brad's Manectric and Holiday's Barbaracle had followed close behind him.

"This is the person who set Lugia here on a rampage." He told them, then looked back into the car. Pikachu had set the control down onto the seat next to the man and was rifling through other things.

"Not much else in here." Pikachu called. Then, "Oh, wait a minute."

Pikachu seized something green in colour and pulled.

It took him a couple of minutes, but eventually he pulled it out far enough for Tim to reach out his good arm and grab it. As Tim pulled, Pikachu held on, so that Tim ended up pulling Pikachu out of the car. Once he was out, Pikachu let go and dropped neatly to the ground.

"Thanks for that."

Tim ignored Pikachu, but knelt next to him to spread out what he had found.

The green colour was a shirt, specifically one of the medical shirts called scrubs. There was a manila folder wrapped inside, as well; Tim looked at the shirt first. A gold nametag was pinned to it, declaring the owner of the scrub shirt was "Dr. Hurdelts."

"A doctor?" Tim muttered. "Don't tell me this is his, and a doctor caused all this…"

"It seems so, Tim. Here, look." Pikachu held out the man's wallet. Tim raised an eyebrow.

"Where did you get that?"

"I pulled it out of his pocket before you got to the car. Wanted to take a look at it. His driver's license matches the name on the tag."

Tim opened the wallet. The man's driver's license was the first this he spotted, visible in a clear pocket. The name was clear, and the picture displayed was definitely the man in the car.

"Oh, look at this." Tim glanced up to see Pikachu pull the man's phone out of a scrub shirt pocket. "Oh, and look at this. Not even locked… no password to get in or anything." Pikachu's voice was disapproving when he turned on the phone. Tim rolled his eyes, setting the wallet back down.

"Last conversation… looks like a work related one." Pikachu muttered. "Look, asking someone to look after his patients. Huh… oh, and he took someone's file, says he's going to do a case study on him and how they can't figure out why he won't wake up."

"That's probably what that folder is, then." Tim muttered, looking at said folder that had been wrapped inside the scrub shirt.

"Probably." Pikachu put the phone down and waddled towards the folder.

"Pikachu, those are someone's medical records. You can't just go flipping through them." Tim admonished, but couldn't say anything else; all of the people he'd left behind had given chase, it seemed, and all of them had caught up now. Tim stood and looked at Holiday.

"Inspector Holiday, this is the man who set up Lugia here, I think. He's got some sort of controller in his car."

Holiday's eyebrows rose, and he went to start to look through the car himself. Brad joined him.

Emilia started saying something then, Tim was pretty sure, but it went right past him when Pikachu, in a tone of voice Tim had never heard from him before, called him over.

"T-tim… Tim! Look, Tim!" Tim scrambled over.

Pikachu had opened the folder. At the top, the name of the hospital – Stanza City Hospital- was printed, as well as several other things. But Tim didn't notice that. The first thing he saw was the picture of the patient the file was for, and he thought his heart had stopped.

He knew the man in the picture. He knew that man very, very well.

"Tim… Tim!" Pikachu cried, clearing his throat after the first call as Tim's name had come out rather high pitched. "It has the room number, there! That's him… that's where he is!"

Tim looked. It did indeed have the hospital room number, printed alongside other information, on the front page. Tim shut it with a snap, his breath suddenly coming in heavy, ragged pants. It was him. It was really him. And now, Tim knew where.

Emilia knelt beside him, a hand on his back, her voice frantic. "Tim? Tim, are you alright? Take it easy, Tim. Listen, we need to get you to a hospital now…"

Tim almost laughed- almost. Yes, he did need to get to a hospital, but not for the reason Emilia was thinking.

"Tim! He'll take us!" Cried Pikachu. Tim looked up to see Pikachu already perched on Absol's back. Absol stood looking at him.

Once again, Tim pulled away from Emilia, ignoring her cries that he stop, and hauled himself on top of Absol, who took off again. Gripping Absol's fur with his fingers, the folder still tucked under his good arm, Tim willed the Disaster Pokemon to go faster. How he knew where to go, Tim wasn't sure, but he did feel sure that when they arrived, his search would, at long last, be over.

"Stop! Tim, stop, come back!" Emilia cried, but Absol quickly carried him out of sight.

"Where is he going now?" Inspector Holiday asked, baffled, as he turned to watch Absol bound away.

"Manectric, follow them!" Brad ordered. "When they stop, you make sure we can find them!"

Manectric took off.

Holiday shook his head. "Alright, we need to get officers here to take this man into custody, and we need to get a car to follow Tim in. I've got no idea what he's up to, but he's been right about everything else today, and I don't like that he's off on his own while he's hurt.

The land disappeared under Absol. The wind that rushed by Tim was cold, and he eventually began to shiver, but he barely noticed it, really. His mind raced even faster than Absol; he couldn't get his thoughts to settle, and they weren't going fast enough, not for him. He wished Alakazam had been around to teleport them again.

It was far too long, in his opinion, before they finally reached the city. Stanza city, bustling and undamaged, was a bit of a shock to see after all that had happened in Rhyme City, but Tim didn't have much time to worry about it as Absol jumped up onto rooftops and began to make his way around the city. Tim searched, as best as he could, for any building that would look like a hospital.

It was Absol who found it first, however, calling out to get his attention. They crossed rooftops until they ran out of them, and then Absol carefully aimed to land on the side of the road instead of an area with cars. To get around to the right area, though, Absol had no choice but to move into the stream of traffic, keeping up with it easily despite a couple of honking horns when he landed into the middle of the flow of it, before he was able to leap out of it towards the door.

Tim slid off his back and went in through the door. He was surprised when Absol kept up with him, also entering.

He didn't know the layout of the hospital, but could see an elevator in plain view, not far from the entrance inside. He took it to the floor he would need, leaning against the wall of the elevator, muttering impatiently under his breath. He half expected Pikachu to tell him to calm down, but the yellow mouse said nothing. One glance told Tim that Pikachu was as intent as he was.

It was the longest elevator ride of Tim's life. When it reached the right floor and the doors opened at last, Tim bolted out, just missing knocking a couple of people over. He called an apology behind him, but kept going.

The walls were labeled with what direction which numbers would be in. Tim followed the right arrows until he came to the room he wanted, and burst in.

It was a private room, empty except its occupant, who lay unconscious in the bed. Tim, still panting from the run, approached, his emotions roiling. Just as the notes in the man's car had said, he was here.

Tim had found his father at last.

A/N: Surprise! An extra update! It's my birthday, today, so I figured I would give all of you a reason to celebrate too, that reason being... Tim has finally found his father!

\(o.o)/

But how did he get here, and why? What happened? Well... you'll have to wait for the regular Sunday schedule for that. Next chapter, some of those questions haunting Tim will finally get their answers... some of them. Not all of them. Tim may have found his father, but this story is actually still far from over.

Also, I've decided I like having quotations around Mewtwo's words after all. I didn't put them last chapter, but I've been experimenting and adjusting a bit, and I think I prefer it that way.