Pokemon (Detective Pikachu)

A Legendary Search

45. Reckless

Tim sighed, tapping his fingers against his knee. He was alone in the room, which didn't really sit well with him, especially not considering what everyone else was doing. All running around and getting everything ready… for him, while he sat in Mr. Graham's temporary office, locked for the moment to prevent anyone else from getting in and finding him accidentally. He knew that he couldn't be out there, helping, because he was still being hunted, but that didn't make it any easier to sit here.

Especially with what Emilia was doing. Right now, the most dangerous task was hers; everyone had agreed it would only make sense if it was her. Absol was with her, Tim knew, but she still had the task of going down to City Hall, and delivering the note Tim had written to the mayor. Delivering the note would be easy enough. If stopped by anyone who wanted to know what she was delivering, she would tell them her name and that she worked at GNN, and that she had a message to deliver from a mutual friend that the mayor wanted to speak to. That should give Mayor Helding enough to go by to realize who it was from.

It was coming back that Tim was worried about. Gengar, too, had consented to go along with them, hiding unseen in the shadows, to make sure they weren't attacked by anyone on the way back, but Tim still worried.

He knew what the note said, of course, considering that he'd written it himself. A demand to come to GNN at nine that night. The construction workers went home by that time, the station working on a skeleton staff until seven the next morning. Tim had outlined a route into a room still under heavy construction that Mr. Graham assured him no staff would use; the route and room too close to the construction to be considered safe. The door they needed would be propped open slightly with a rock. The note requested that the mayor come alone, or Tim would disappear again… and reveal everything that the mayor was planning in a few days.

That, of course, was a bluff. Tim had no idea what the mayor was planning, which made him feel slightly sick. He didn't like it… not knowing what could happen. Not being able to stop it if lives would be in danger. But Tim hoped that the implication that he'd figured out what the mayor was up to would be enough to panic him into coming.

At last, a familiar voice whispered from the other side of the door.

"Tim, it's us!"

Three knocks and a scrape sounded as well; Tim got up and hurried to let Absol and Emilia in. After he unlocked it, he stepped behind it to remain hidden to anyone else that might be in the hallway. After this long, now was not the time to get caught.

After a couple moments, giving Tim time to step out of sight, the door opened to admit the two he was waiting for. Emilia shut the door, locked it, and smiled at Tim.

"It went fine. Nothing tried to come after us on the way back. You can stop worrying."

Tim gave her a sheepish smile.

"So he'll meet us? Did he say?"

Emilia hesitated, then said, "He said… tell him I'll be there… on two conditions."

Tim's heart sank.

"I don't like it." Absol said grumpily.

"First… when he goes it, he needs to see Absol outside. Not in the building."

Tim sighed. "Well… on his end, I guess that makes sense."

"It won't be hard to fix." Emilia hurriedly assured. "We can have someone let Absol in after the mayor goes in. Maybe your friend Milo? He was very upset that the only thing he got to do while everything was going on was wait in the control room. He might be happier if we gave him the task of letting Absol in before he goes there."

Tim smiled, remembering the argument. It had taken over twenty minutes to convince the boy that he and Dr. Waals needed to stay in the control room in case things went badly and the rest of them were found out… that they needed people who knew the truth to be able to escape unscathed, as well as someone who would be able to make sure everything was being recorded. Dr. Waals was the one being shown the general idea on how all the cameras worked and how to broadcast the video, so Emilia was probably right… Milo would be happier with this extra role, rather than being forced to just watch.

"You're probably right there. What was the other condition?"

Emilia's face twisted, and Tim felt a sinking feeling again. He wasn't going to like this… he just knew it.

"He, um… he demanded that I be there as well."

"What? No! no, no way!"

"Tim, I already agreed."

Tim stared at her, aghast. "No, I can't let you do this!"

"Tim, you promised. You agreed to keep me involved. We're doing this together. It'll be fine. And he's not going to do it any other way, so we don't have a choice anyway. I told him I would be there."

Tim sighed. He was right… he didn't like this at all.

Emilia put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed. "It's going to be fine.

The rest of them met in the office for a late lunch at three. When Tim and Emilia explained the adjustments they had to make to the situation, there were more than a couple people who were less than happy about putting an additional person in potential danger… but Milo, on the other hand, was delighted to have an additional role, as Emilia had predicted.

After lunch was finished, Meiko had Plusle and Minun stay to keep Tim company (and perhaps to keep the two Cheering Pokemon out of the way) while the others went to finish setting everything up. Emilia went with Milo and Absol to work out their end of the plan; Absol would need to be seen outside by Mayor Helding, which meant that when the man arrived the best place for Absol to be would be outside the door that the mayor was supposed to use. After the mayor went inside, Absol was going to have to make a dash for a different door… another one that wouldn't have people seeing someone coming and going. Milo would have to be there to open that door. Then, Milo would need to make his way to the control room without being seen, while Absol made his way to his position without being seen.

It felt like the entire thing was going to have to be like a perfectly choreographed production… which, Tim supposed, made GNN staff uniquely qualified for the entire thing.

Tim, for his part, continually went over what to say in his mind. He was interrupted now and then by Plusle and Minun's chatter, but he didn't actually mind… it felt like the interruptions kept him from getting too anxious. But when he could, he remembered what his father and Inspector Holiday had told him.

"Now remember, Tim… there are four main ways to get a confession. The first is to make the other person feel that they have no other choice… that they're already caught and that their confession might help them in the situation. Now, that scenario won't work here, the reason being that we have no evidence that we could present to a court that would actually get him convicted, and I'd imagine that he knows this.

"The second is… well, to simply ask. You see that in kid's cartoons. If the evil mastermind is overconfident enough, they'll simply tell you what they did and how they did it, because they think they've already won. Now, I'd say our mayor is way too smart for that, but, you can give it a try. Sometimes people will surprise you by doing something really stupid. And the worst that he can do in response to your asking is laugh, so there's nothing really to lose.

"The third way is to trick them into admitting something they didn't mean to. Now, this is more likely to work. Get him to accidently admit even a small thing… if that happens, people tend to get flustered and might say more. Try to angle the conversation into small details. Even if the first thing he accidentally admits is harmless, it will throw him off balance, and you can use that to keep pushing.

"Finally, the fourth way is to make him angry. Angry people don't think and act stupidly. If you can provoke him enough, he may admit things just to see if he can use it to hurt you. However, this is the most dangerous option as well. We have no idea what resources he might bring with him, even if we've told him to come alone. Provoking him might just put you in danger, so use this as a last resort."

"It seems like this might have the best chance at working, though?"

"It probably does. Mayor Helding seems like he's on edge enough with worry over you ruining his plans that it probably wouldn't be hard to provoke him. But he could be a dangerous man, Tim. None of us wants you back in the hospital, or worse. Use it as a last resort. Try getting him to go into details… try pointing out something that's wrong, or better yet, get him to find something wrong. Then, exploit that, and get him to explain. Just be careful about how you go about it, sometimes if someone is on edge enough that catching them off- balance can be what pushes them into anger. Options three and four can sometimes have a very fine line between them."

"And Tim, remember… the more you get, the better. At minimum, we need him to admit that he arranged the explosion. That's minimum. That gets him locked up where he can't cause harm anymore. But we need more than that to nail him on R."

"Right. I got it."

Tim exhaled slowly. Getting just the minimum was not an option. He needed to clear his name for good, yes, and he needed the man locked away if he wanted to stop worrying about the lives of himself and those he cared for. But if he couldn't reveal the man as the one behind each and every R debacle… he had hurt so many people… and was planning more! He had to pay for it, and they had to stop whatever was coming next.

Now, though, the meeting was going to have significantly higher stakes. He would have to be careful now that Tim wasn't the only one that would be in the direct line of fire.

The wait had been agonizing. But at last, Tim was in the half-constructed room, standing in an area where several creates created a sort of loose half-circle around him and Emilia, gaps between the boxes where Tim could, if he needed, push Emilia behind him so that anything coming at them would have to go through him first. And of course, hidden in spots all over the room… cameras. Lots of them. Tim knew that Mr. Graham would eventually want to edit together all the best angles and run it properly, but right now, they were all rolling. Dr. Waals was in the control room as the one in charge to make sure that for this event, which would cut onto all GNN channels as a live emergency broadcast, all the best camera angles could be used spur-of-the-moment, at least to the best of all the ability that his emergency crash- course throughout the day had given him.

And also in the room, of course… were his father. Meiko. Inspector Holiday. Mr. Graham. Mr. Baker. Hidden in carefully chosen places. Meiko and his father were both the closest, Tim knew, both pretty much right behind them. Tim's father had insisted on waiting with Meiko… Tim had a feeling it was so she didn't either panic or get too excited and spoil things before they had everything they needed.

Tim didn't like this. If anything went wrong, anything at all, then not only did it put him and Emilia in danger, but the mistake would be broadcast live on every channel GNN owned. A lot of people would see it. Making a mistake… couldn't be an option.

It wasn't only the people in the room counting on them, either. Milo, of course, would let Absol back inside, and the Pokemon partners of the other people hidden with them would intervene if it came down to needing it. Amanda and her Fletchling, as well as Meiko's Plusle and Minun whom the team had decided would be better off not being in the room, were all outside GNN, watching from inconspicuous places. Ready to warn them if Helding brought any help with him.

The screeching of a door, brought Tim out of his thoughts, and he stiffened. Emilia put a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm ready. It will be fine." She whispered, and Tim nodded.

"Let's go."

At his words, Emilia raised her voice.

"Hello?"

"I came like you asked." The mayor's voice sounded. "Where is he?"

Another voice called "He's alone!" and the mayor cursed.

"I'm here!" Tim called, now that Pikachu had verified that only the mayor had come. "Pikachu will show you where I am. Don't worry, he'll leave after."

Pikachu then ran into view, and sat upright, waiting. Tim had no idea if they had started the live broadcasting already, or if they were waiting for the mayor to get over to him. That hadn't been discussed. Either way, Tim figured he should assume he was already being watched all over the city. And he'd better do this as quickly as they could. Everyone there knew that police would mobilize once they realized where, exactly, Tim was.

Mayor Helding stomped his way into view. Pikachu jumped up and bolted, vanishing through the gaps in the boxes, and Tim stepped forward. He didn't like this any more than he had at his school, but nonetheless, it was time to put on a show.

"So good of you to come." Tim remarked, and the mayor glared at him.

"So what are you planning? You and your girlfriend there? Going to blow up another building? Me in it this time?" he sneered.

"You and I both know that that explosion wasn't me." Tim said calmly. "I brought you here to ask why you set it up."

Helding snorted. "Me? That's some wild tale. A wild tale no one will believe, boy. That building blew up because of you."

"Because of me… maybe, if it was me you were trying to get rid of. But why would you endanger so many others? You could easily have chosen somewhere that would have been empty. Emilia told me that thirteen people died when that building came down, and almost a dozen more were injured. Why would you do something like that?"

"I did nothing, boy. The only story the public will ever know is that you caused that explosion. For attention, it seems. Too bad your fame-seeking comes to a stop right here. It's a shame you involved her." Helding gestured at Emilia.

"I didn't involve her in anything. You did, when you had someone send Pokemon to attack her in the middle of the day. She didn't know anything until that incident went down. That, was all on you."

"Oh? And what makes you think that?"

Tim looked back at Emilia and held out his hand. She put his recorder into it, hooked up to a speaker, and Tim hit play, the recorder already sitting ready at the spot they needed.

"-we need to draw him out. Take out his friends, already!"

"Well do something that will work this time! Send a bunch of powerful Pokemon after them, that damn Absol won't be able to stop all of them. Just make it look like a bunch of strong Pokemon started fighting and they got in the middle, or something. I don't care. Just get rid of the redhead, at least. That will get him moving. I can't afford to wait anymore, we're on a deadline here. Seven days, Martin. Seven days! I want him gone, so I can make sure he can't mess this up. I don't care who else gets hurt, just make it happen!"

Tim hit stop and looked at Helding. Asking him hadn't worked, not that he'd expected it to. Which left tricking him and making him angry. Tim had no idea how to trick him into telling him anything, to be honest… so he had to see if the recording would get him anything he could use. The risk of angering the man was high, but he wasn't going to get any better opportunity to bring it up.

"That's you, on video. Threatening my friends. This was right before you sent a Scizor, a Flygon, and a Grimmsnarl to attack Emilia and Meiko right outside GNN."

Tim hoped the recording would throw him off. Hopefully, he would ask Tim how he'd gotten that recording.

Tim's hopes were shattered when the mayor kept composure save for a twitch in his eye.

"I think you'll find that technology these days makes it easy to fake a recording." The man said smoothly. "I said no such thing, and I certainly did not send any Pokemon after your friends."

"No, you had someone named Martin do it." Tim tried. "Isn't he one of your aides? I've seen him bring you things before."

Tim knew it was risky to reveal that he'd been watching the mayor- or rather, having Pokemon do it and report back- but he felt like he was running out of options. If this got him nothing, then Tim was going to have to try to make the man angry.

"You've been watching me." Helding said slowly. "How?"

"From somewhere safe." Tim said simply.

"Somewhere safe." The man scoffed. "You're a coward, then."

Tim took a deep breath as anger bubbled, and pushed it down. Helding, perhaps, wanted to try doing the same thing Tim was doing… perhaps wanted Tim to say something that would "incriminate" someone else for Helding to take out.

"I'm no coward. I hid for four weeks after you tried to kill me, not to protect myself, but to keep anyone I was with from becoming a target. When those people that I care about became a target anyway, I came out, just like you wanted. Here I am, standing in front of you. Facing the person after me. When you felt threatened by me, and the work I was doing to stop disasters from happening, you sent others to do your work for you and staged accidents. That stops now. I'm not letting you do it anymore."

Mayor Helding began to walk towards Tim, and Tim shifted to make sure he was in front of Emilia, pushing her back a little.

"You think I feel threatened by you, boy?" The man sneered. "You think I'm afraid of you? You're the one who should be afraid."

Tim shoved Emilia back further as Helding came right up to him.

"I've had people watching you the moment I knew you were up to something. I know what you like to eat for breakfast. I know all the places you've gone, what you've done… I know everything about you, boy. I know things you tried to hide from everyone else."

Helding's arm shot out and grabbed Tim by the right wrist, yanking it up and pulling the sweater sleeve down so that the brace was visible as Tim gave a small cry of shock.

"I know that when you stopped Lugia, Lugia nearly tore your hand right off your arm… and I know it never healed properly. I know it still has nerve damage… my people have reported to me the things you've tried to hide. The tremors it has… the times you've behaved like your fingers are numb… and of course, the times that it's given you… pain."

Helding tightened his grip, twisting Tim's wrist hard, and his wrist flared with agony at being strained and twisted in a way it shouldn't be. Tim couldn't stop the yell that tore from his throat, and couldn't stop his knees from hitting the floor as they gave. Dimly, he could hear Emilia shrieking his name, could hear roaring in his ears… and he knew, as well, that no one could stop anything yet. They hadn't gotten anything they could use.

Helding released his wrist as Tim felt Emilia's hands on his back.

"Tim… Tim!"

Tim gasped, forcing himself back up to his feet. He had to see this through. This was it.

"If you know so much… if you knew about that, all along… then why did your associates botch the explosion frame-up by using a bomb I couldn't possibly have made?" He choked out.

"What?"

Tim forced himself to make eye contact. "You just said yourself, you know my hand is damaged. It has tremors, or numbness, or it feels like needles. So why did the bomb that your people planted… why was it one that you need two steady hands to make? I saw the police report. If I tried to make that bomb, and my hand shook even once in the process, I'd be more likely to hurt myself! It's unstable until it's set. I couldn't possibly have made that explosive without blowing myself up, trying. So if you were planning on blaming me, why did they use a bomb I couldn't possibly have made? Explain that one!"

The mayor stood there a moment, and Tim watched his face to see it change colour. For a moment, it went a little pale… then, it went red.

"Those idiots!" He seethed. "I told them to make sure we could use that story as a backup in case you escaped the blast! How could those imbeciles have bungled it that badly?"

"So now you're admitting you arranged the blast?" Emilia spoke up, her fingers tightening on Tim's shoulder. "How could you? So many people were hurt!"

"Quiet, girl!" the mayor roared. "Sometimes collateral damage happens! And you… you!"

Helding seized the front of Tim's sweater. Tim shoved Emilia, trying to get her to back away from the danger, but she didn't move.

"You kept getting in my way. I had to get rid of you somehow… why didn't you just stay gone?!"

Finally… they pretty much had him on the building. Tim was certain he wouldn't be able to get the best lawyer in the world to talk his way out of that.

But they still didn't have him on R.

"Because you hurt not just my friends, but so many other people. People didn't just die in Melmetal Manufacturing. People could have died at the carnival, if I hadn't stopped R there. People did die at GNN, when Lugia brought the building down because you tried to use it for your plan and failed… failed in part because your people messed that up too, and made Lugia crazy with agony! I'm not going to just let something like that happen if I can stop it! The only thing I don't understand is why? Why did you want R created in the first place? Why did you create so much chaos with it? Why have you hurt so many people? That's why I'm still here- I'm trying to stop you, and I'm trying to find out why!"

"For this city, boy!" Helding roared. "I've got plans you can't begin to fathom! I would have been the most famous mayor of the most famous city in the world if you hadn't meddled! In five days, I would have faced the most televised coming disaster ever known and stopped it single handedly with the legendary Lugia as my partner, and Rhyme City would become the most famous ever known, with its mayor having a legendary for a partner, and being capable of legendary feats! That, boy… that is why I needed R."

Tim blinked.

That was it. He'd said it.

"And… Cut!" his father's voice ran through the room and the man himself stepped out from the carefully constructed prop made to look like part of the wall they were near. "Thank you, very much. I think we all heard exactly what we needed to."

Meiko followed Harry Goodman out from behind the prop, walked past him, and stepped right up to the mayor to hold a microphone toward him even as he still held Tim's sweater in his grip, though his expression was completely shocked.

"Mr. Mayor, do you have any more comments to make on being the mastermind behind R? We are live!"

A/N: Got him.