I sat thoughtfully propped up against a wall outside the Pewter City Gym. Chee probably would have stood a chance fighting back against the bouncers who had thrown us outside, but there wasn't any point trying to talk to Brock about it when he'd thrown us out as a response.

"...It doesn't add up." I mused. "He acts like he has to make money at all costs, but the way he behaves means that almost nobody actually falls for the tricks he's set up... What's the deal?"

The upside-down head of my female black-haired friend bent over to meet me with a furrowed gaze. ...Shouldn't you get up before asking that?

Okay so technically I was the one who was upside-down, I'd been sent for a bit of a spin when the bouncer who'd grabbed me had thrown me outside, and the weight of my body was currently rested on my shoulders. With a grunt, I pushed off the ground with my arms and rotated myself upright. The act was easier than I'd expected-a lingering aftereffect of boosting my strength using the system earlier.

So, what now? Chee's eyes prodded at me.

"Well..." I began, enjoying her undivided attention. "I think it's pretty clear there's something fishy going on, so we need to find a way to figure out what it is."

The girl tilted her head helplessly at me, hoping for advice. I found it mildly reassuring that despite her intelligence, she still needed my help when it came to a problem like this. I still had uses.

The first idea that came to my mind was to try and wiretap Brock's phone and bug his house, so that we could listen for any telltale conversations. Unfortunately, doing something like that was not only highly illegal, it was also technology that neither Chee nor I had any means of obtaining.

It was probably still worth trying to sneak around a bit, but there was something I wanted to check first. To that end, we'd have to leave the Gym. But I also wanted to keep an eye on Brock, which would require stealth and agility...

I stared up at a smallish air vent visible from outside the Gym. We may not have any fancy technology, but we were still small and light children.

I glanced at my agile mute black-haired friend. She stared back at me curiously.

"...Do you think you can try following Brock, without me?" I held up my PokeDex, pointing at the air vent. "And text me anything you overhear."

She was quiet and contemplative for a moment, but she nodded gently. I can do that, but what are you going to do?

"I've got a few more questions I need to go ask."

...

The PokeCenter wasn't particularly active in the middle of the day like this, most trainers were either out on the road travelling to or from here, or they were out in the back using the fields like Chee and I had done yesterday.

At the desk a young nurse with brown hair was filling out and sorting paperwork with a furrowed brow, every few seconds she would stop and consult a sheet by her side before continuing.

"Having trouble?" I asked to open the conversation.

"Kyah!?" The nurse jolted back with a start, scattering a few pages of paperwork onto the floor. "Ah..."

She answered me only once she'd gathered the scatters pages back together and placed them back on the table, letting out a deep sigh as she did so. "Yes, sorry... I'm covering for one of the other nurses, but I'm not very used to working here... I'm only doing the morning shift, so if you wait until the afternoon a more experienced staff member can help you. Otherwise... Well, is there anything I can do to help?"

I raised an eyebrow at her. "Covering for another nurse? Is she sick or something?"

She scratched her forehead in frustration. "We're not really sure, there's been no word from her for a while so they called me over to replace her."

Interesting, but not related to what I came here to ask about.

"Well, I suppose that's fine. Are you still familiar with the city and such?" I checked.

"Yes, I've lived in Pewter City since I was a child! Feel free to ask me anything." She smiled at me, seemingly relieved at the fact I wanted to ask a question she'd be able to help with.

"Well I just came from Brock's Gym, and-"

I was cut off by a groan from the young nurse, who raised a hand to stop me in my tracks. "If you're here to raise a complaint, I'll have to let you know we're already well aware. We've raised the issue with the league commission, but we haven't heard anything back so far..."

I shook my head. "I'm not here to complain, I wanted information."

The girl sighed, and lowered her hand. "...Fine, what do you want to know."

"According to the rules of his Gym membership, if you pay to use his equipment, you can't take the Gym Challenge... But he advertises it as free to use, was it once free for anyone to use?"

The brunette nodded quietly at me. "Yeah, until about two months ago the Gym Equipment was free to use. It's been that way since I was a child, everyone was pretty surprised when it became a condition that you had to be a member to train. The Gym Challenge is largely funded by taxpayers after all and-Ah, I'm sorry... I'm rambling about politics to a child..." She started to get heated, but calmed and admonished herself towards the end.

"...So the upkeep for the Gym should at least be free to Challengers, right?" I finished for her. She looked at me with a hint of surprise in her eyes.

"...Well, that's how it used to be at least." She answered.

I rubbed my chin in thought. That makes sense. The entire Gym Challenge is designed to promote Trainer growth, it's odd for so many dirty tactics to be planted without meaning-Especially if they're going to be so obvious.

"...Alright, next question." I let my focus return to the informant in front of me, whose inclination to ramble was useful for gathering information. "Does Brock ever seem dumb, to you?"

The girl's face puffed up in annoyance at that remark. "Listen, just because he focusses on muscle training doesn't mean he's dumb! It's thanks to him that Pewter City is even on the map, you know?"

My ears perked up at this, and I turned away with a dismissive tone of voice. "Nope, never heard of that before."

"Pewter used to be a dying mining town-Digging the Mt. Moon mines. As the population and services started to dwindle, the young Brock devised a plan to get us back on the map! Using a team of entirely rock-type Pokemon like the ones found in mines, he made a name for himself as a powerful trainer and offered himself up as the first Gym Leader on the Challenge-Then he used his status as a Gym Leader to help bolster and rebuild Pewter City! He's a local legend!" She rambled at me like a mother scolding her child-Not totally inaccurate to the current situation.

She folded her arms in a huff. "Just because he failed you for not being strong enough doesn't mean he's an idiot!"

"Ah, no. I passed just fine actually." I countered, digging into my bag and withdrawing the Pewter City Gym Badge. I held it out for her to see.

Her eyes widened in surprise as her gaze slipped back and forth between me and the badge I held. "But... Then why are you asking me all this?"

I stuffed the badge back into my bag as I thought on that for a moment. My gaze drifted to the PokeDex at my side, which I'd muted and was now flashing to show that I'd received messages. "Well, I don't know for sure yet. Hopefully there will be a good reason."

The nurse looked at me like I was an idiot but I ignored her, leaving to read the messages Chee had sent to my device. Most of them were quotes of completely meaningless things like 'Don't forget to clean the balance bar!' and 'No you're mixing the protein wrong!', but after a while the texts started to contain statements from Chee herself.

'He left the Gym and is heading home.'

'I'm still following him, but he stopped in a park for some reason.'

'...He's just standing there. It's been 10 minutes.'

'Oh! Somebody showed up. Hard to see though, he's wearing way too much black.'

I reached down and slowly typed a response of my own. 'Stay quiet, don't get caught.'

After that I closed down the PokeDex and checked a map of the area, looking for parks close to the Pewter City Gym. Once I'd located one that I thought was likely to be the park in question, I started walking towards the location-But I noticed that my PokeDex was flashing again. I opened it and...

'Sorry, I got caught. -_-'

...

The sun was now beginning to set as I sneakily hid around the corner, eying the park from a relatively safe location. I didn't know exactly what trouble Chee had gotten herself into, but I had a feeling we were in over our heads already.

I made do with shallow breaths to conceal my presence as I listened closely. The park was almost empty, but I could still hear the running water of the central water fountain, street lights that had just been turned on were casting circles of light onto the ground all around the street, but it wasn't yet dark enough that it was hard to see without them-Which just made sneaking about harder.

To be honest it was impressive Chee had gone without being caught for as long as she did, given her usual choice of attire and the continued daylight.

I tucked myself away behind a pedestal, barely peaking my eyes out from behind the cover to glance into the park. Finally I spotted a familiar figure.

I saw Brock standing in the shade at the edge of the park, next to some trees and bushes. A few feet from him was a man completely dressed in black, a black hoodie pulled down to obscure his face, black sunglasses, a black face mask, black jeans, even black gloves pulled over his sleeves. Making out the person behind the details would be practically impossible, but I could tell that he was an adult.

And sitting on her bum between the two of them was a young girl with short black hair, who had been gagged-Not that it made a difference, since she was mute to begin with- and tied up with a thick looking rope. The two men seemed to be having a heated argument, but I couldn't hear them from this distance and I couldn't risk carelessly getting closer in this daylight.

If only I could hear what they're saying... I thought with frustration. I had no way of knowing whether I had to charge in and try to rescue her or not. Yeller was still worn out from the battle with Brock earlier, it might be too dangerous to try. Maybe I should try and contact Oak and...

For a moment I thought I made eye contact with Chee, but there was no way that would be possible from this distance, right...? She seemed to be wriggling in response, but that must just be my imagination.

A moment later my PokeDex buzzed silently, and I drew it in confusion. A message from Chee appeared.

'They're talking about me.'

'"...We got lucky, the girl is mute. She can't report us even if she wants to."'

I blinked in surprise, realising the message had appeared in our chat history the moment Brock had stopped speaking. The man in black shook his head slightly.

'"I'm not taking that risk. We're taking her, and the price goes up."'

Brock stomped his foot on the ground, gesturing at the man frustratedly.

'"That wasn't the deal."'

'"The deal didn't include snooping brats"'

Brock turned away in a huff.

'"You won't get away with this."'

The man calmly looked at the Gym Leader. '"We both know you're not going to report me. You can't."'

With a heave, the man lifted Chee over his shoulder and stopped a few paces away from Brock as he walked away. He paused for a moment, then continued walking.

'"If you ever want to see her again, you'll have 150 thousand Poke ready by the weekend. We won't wait any longer."'

Brock recoiled in shock.

'"You wanted a percentage cut, now you want me to get 150k!? Where am I supposed to get that kind of money?!"'

'"Not my problem. It should be easy for you anyway. You're a celebrity here, right?"'

Without any more texts from Chee, the man walked away. A few moments later, Brock collapsed onto a bench under the lights as the sunlight began to recede. He ran his hands through his hair and then rested his face in his hands.

Chee's words rang in my mind.

He's a good person. He must have a reason.

...I scratched my head hesitantly, but when I saw the sight in front of me, I couldn't help but agree. He didn't look so imposing, he looked... Broken.

Hesitantly I wandered over to the bench, sitting down beside him. I wasn't sure he noticed me at first, but eventually he spoke up.

"...What do you want, kid?"

I chewed on my thoughts for a moment. I was partially acting on Chee's thoughts here, but I couldn't just cast away my own suspicions about Brock's character. So I decided to lead with a statement that would tug at his conscience.

"Just waiting for my friend." I lied as innocently as I could muster. "We agreed to meet here."

I paused a moment to let him stew on it, before continuing. "It's odd, she usually arrives before me."

I felt like I saw Brock visibly tighten, and he fixed an unreadable gaze on me. He opened his mouth for a few seconds, but he shook his head and turned away from me. "...I... She was here."

I looked around in a fake act of surprise. "Oh, did I miss her? Did you see where she went?"

Brock shook his head. "No, she was... Ugh..." He seemed to be having a difficult internal battle with whether to speak up or not. Finally he straightened up, seemingly having made a decision. "...Don't worry, I'll find her and bring her back."

I was slightly surprised by this response, but when I looked up and met his gaze, I saw something in his eyes. A quiet and powerful determination, like a sturdy Onix withstanding as many powerful super-effective moves as it needed to in order to protect the baby Pokemon hiding behind it.

Brock stood to his feet, drawing a Pokeball from his pocket as he started to walk away. "Just wait here."

"Are you going after the man in black?" I cut him short. Brock stopped walking suddenly, and he shot me with an appraising glance. "...How did you...?"

"I saw what just happened." I answered bluntly. "Somebody just waltzed off with my friend, and you just sat there and let it happen. I want to know why."

"You were testing me huh..." Brock turned his head away again. "...They have my wife."

I felt myself instinctively wince in response to that. I'd seen many men compromised emotionally when their family or even close friends were injured or captured by the enemy. One of my few redeeming qualities as a soldier had been that I had no family left to hold over me, so nobody had that sort of leverage over me.

"...And you're still going to defy them?" I asked, getting off the bench. "Even if they might hurt your wife?"

"I don't trust them, and I can't just sit back and let an innocent kid get hurt because of me. If they only wanted money, I could put up with it, but a kid like that..." Brock's tone grew darker towards the end of the sentence, and for the first time since we'd met, I felt that I was hearing the absolute truth from him. "I'll make them pay for what they've done!"

As he finished speaking, a pair of system windows opened up in front of me as if Brock himself had ordered the system to accomodate him. I glanced over the windows, but they only reinforced the decision I was already planning.

[OPTIONAL QUEST: Brock's Rescue

Help Brock to rescue his wife and alter history.

Rescue Hostages: 0/1

Reward: Bond (Brock)]

[Tutorial 4: Optional Quests

Throughout the world you will encounter passing events that you can choose to help with or ignore. If you help, extra rewards will be given, usually in the form of bonds.

Clear Optional Quests: 0/1

Reward: Bonds System]

"Do you know where they are?" I asked cautiously.

Brock shook his head. "I'll just have to track down that man in black and beat him up until he tells me."

I shook my own head at him. "I don't think so, that's an easy path to getting your wife hurt, don't you think?"

"...At least your friend will be safe."

"Hey Brock. Let me help." I offered. "I think I have an idea for how we can save both my friend and your wife."

Brock was silent for a moment, but finally he nodded. "Alright, I'll hear you out. What do you have in mind?"

I showed him the PokeDex with the chat log from Chee's texts. "Whoever this guy is, he doesn't seem to have realised that Chee is still able to text me, and vice versa. If they take her to the same place they keep your wife, we'll have someone on the inside!" I grinned. "She'll be able to help us break your wife out safely!"

Brock looked skeptical, but another text arrived from Chee before he could speak up.

'Got thrown into some weird basement. Saw a sign outside that said "museum".'

I turned my attention to Brock, who stood alert immediately. "The Pewter Museum of Science. It's an old facility with all sorts of fossils and space exhibits inside, but it shut down a while ago. It's been waiting for a reopening for a while now, but it never happens... You don't think...?"

I nodded. "Let's go to the museum!"