Pokemon (Detective Pikachu)

A Legendary Search

7. Failure

Now that Tim took the time to look around, it was chaos. It was a mess, too. Several other people had been hurt. Paramedics were getting those people loaded into ambulances; police were preparing to talk to the people around who weren't injured.

"What happened?" Mr. Baker's voice was right behind him, and Tim turned to face him. He and Amanda were both looking at him, as was Inspector Holiday, who Tim could see walking towards him.

Tim could also see Meiko behind them, yanking a camera out of her car. Tim resisted the urge to roll his eyes; he supposed the eagerness to film everything came with her job. With her enthusiasm for it, GNN would never need to worry about finding someone to film events ever again.

Pikachu, still next to him, held the strap-and-stone headgear up to him. Tim bent down and took it, then began to explain what had happened, at least finding it easier than last time in certain ways- he didn't have to try to explain knowledge he could have only gotten from talking to Pokemon, after all. Meiko joined them as fast she could get her camera running, filming Tim's explanation of the incident. He had a feeling that as soon as more GNN staff got there, they would be filming the wrecked area live.

When he got to the part where he (or rather Pikachu, but he couldn't tell them that) had noticed the strap around Feraligatr's forehead, he held it up.

"This stone here, it didn't just seem out of place, it reminded me of something." Tim hesitated, not sure what he should really reveal since he was being filmed, but decided he had better just be honest and hope that either they could convince GNN not to run the film until they had more answers for the public, or that there wouldn't be mass panic at his words.

"The way that it keeps changing from green to orange… it reminded me of the first time I saw a vial of the chemical R. That was in these same two colours… I don't know if it has anything to do with it, of course, but the only thing I could think of was to try to get it off." Continuing his explanation, Tim quickly glossed over how he'd managed to stun the Feraligatr enough to pull off the strap.

"Oh, good thinking!" Amanda told him.

Emilia nodded. "I guess… if it weren't for Tim's quick thinking, we might not have made it out of there…"

"Indeed!"

The new voice was completely unfamiliar. Everyone in the group looked to where it had come from, and Tim saw a man he'd never met before.

The man was very well dressed in a brown suit, with brown eyes and black hair. He had somewhat sharp facial features and was clean-shaven and looked friendly. He also looked very shocked and worried.

"I beg your pardon." He said. "I hate to eavesdrop, but when I saw something had happened here, I needed to find exactly what. You're all lucky to have escaped with your lives! And you, young man… I'd say it was because of your actions that you all did. Tell me, are you not Tim Goodman? I've seen you in interviews on GNN…"

"Um, yes, that's me." Tim nodded.

"Ah, I thought so! I meant to come by after you stopped that R incident at the Pokemon Carnival- could never thank you enough for that, by the way- but somehow other things just kept getting in the way."

"That's all right…" Tim said, still trying to figure out who this strange man was. Thankfully, he was saved from having to ask by Inspector Holiday.

"Mayor Helding, I'm not surprised to see you here already. You've always been one to rush to the scene to see if there was anything you could do to help." Holiday said, and Tim's heart skipped for a moment- the mayor of Rhyme City?

"Of course. You can't tell what kind of help will be needed until you're there, helping. It's my job to keep this city safe… and when I fail at that, I need to take responsibility. And even more than keeping it safe, I have to run everything else, too. This sort of thing hurts everyone. I need to do my job and do what's best for this city. And today, I failed at that."

"No, sir, you didn't fail at all." Tim said, holding up the strap. "If this is the cause of Feraligatr going berserk, like I think it is, then someone planned this."

"But, even then, it seems that the plan couldn't be stopped, at least not in time. Which means that as mayor, I still need to take responsibility for it- if law enforcement were better prepared, better equipped, perhaps they could stop it from ever happening."

"I really don't think anyone could blame you, Mr. Mayor. I don't think anyone could ever say something bad against you. You've always done your best for this city, and we've all been better off because of it!" Meiko chimed in from behind her camera.

"I agree." Mr. Baker said, nodding. "Don't be so hard on yourself. Even as the mayor, you can't stop everything. Especially something that happens so fast; this incident began and ended within a few minutes. We were down the street and heard the commotion; by the time we got here, everything was already over. There's no way anyone could have done better in that time frame; I think we should just be glad that Tim was able to stop the problem quickly, before even worse happened."

Holiday just nodded, then looked back at Tim. "Can I take that strap, there, Tim? I'll get it to forensics and we'll see what they can make of it."

Tim reached out to Holiday, handing him the straps. "Will you tell me what you find out?"

"Of course, Tim. I might as well share any information you need with you; somehow, you manage to get involved in everything, anyway."

Tim chuckled, a little nervously. "You know, I was just thinking something like that. I wasn't trying to get involved in this one, though."

Amanda laughed. "Oh, we believe you. But if you're anything like your father, anything you don't go after will just come to you. Things were always like that."

Mr. Baker and Inspector Holiday joined in her laughter, and Tim smiled.

"You know, I believe you're right there, Amanda." Mr. Baker said when the laughter had died down. "But still, Tim… you need to stop being so reckless. I know you were somewhat backed into a corner, here, but you do things like this far too often."

Tim shifted uncomfortably, his smile disappearing. "I'm sorry…"

"Hey, that's not fair." Meiko interrupted. "If Tim didn't take the chances he has, a lot more people would have gotten hurt, not just today but a lot of other times as well. Like at the Pokemon Carnival. If he hadn't stopped R from being released there, there would have been mass casualties, you can count on it."

"Please stop…" Tim muttered. He appreciated her defense, but not her implications that he was some sort of hero. He really wished that GNN would stop trying to cast him as one.

"There would have been, yes…" sighed Mayor Helding. "Just one more thing that shows I need to improve…"

"R wasn't your fault, sir. What we need to do now is move forward. I'll get this to forensics right away. We'll see what we can get from it and move on from there. I'd like to ask each of you to come down to the station this afternoon, so we can take the official statements on what happened from all of you. For right now, I'll let all the other officers know you're permitted to leave the scene." With that, Holiday left, getting into his police cruiser.

Pikachu, surprisingly silent through the entire exchange, finally spoke up. Somehow, Tim had almost forgotten about him. "I hope we get some answers soon. You're right, Tim… that thing is way too similar to R for my liking. Mewtwo took the last of his cells to destroy them, and I thought we had everything solved… but maybe some R was still left over, and they were able to figure out a way to make a new form of it? A solid form like that stone?"

"I've got no idea." Tim murmured, softly enough that only Pikachu would hear.

"You know," Meiko spoke up, unaware of the conversation between Tim and Pikachu, "They were really right about one thing, weren't they? Everything's exciting around you, Tim! But…" she trailed off for a moment, seeming to consider something, then gave Tim a small smile. "I'm starting to think that maybe you were right when you said that there is such a thing as too much excitement."

"You're definitely right. And they were right about you being way too reckless, Tim. You could get hurt one day!"

Tim, his adrenaline wearing off, could feel his back throbbing, and just gave her a small smile. "I'm sorry. Really. I'll try to be more careful."

Pikachu sniggered. "You sound like you're dating already. Why not just ask her somewhere?"

Tim shot a glare at Pikachu, but before he could open his mouth, Meiko turned.

"Wait, do you hear that?"

Tim glanced the way she was facing and stayed silent, trying to listen for what she might be hearing. Emilia, too, went quiet and listened.

There were several noises going on, considering police and paramedics were still checking things over with those who had gotten out of the damaged building. Pikachu's ears twitched.

"Oh, yeah, I hear it!" the yellow mouse cried. "Someone's calling for help- a Pokemon, I think. It's over this way." Pikachu was off, heading for the alley beside the ruined café.

"That way." Tim told the two girls, and followed his partner immediately. Emilia and Meiko were both right behind him, leaving the mayor, Amanda, and Mr. Baker a little confused, but choosing to stay to survey the damage.

When they got there, among the bricks and other debris that were somewhat dusty from the crumbling said bricks had done was a splash of colour- a Plusle pulled at a section of wall- not very big, but far too large for the tiny Pokemon to move- and cried out desperately. A Minun, unconscious, was trapped underneath, lucky enough that its head was sticking out from underneath the brick but otherwise covered by it.

"It's stuck." Tim said, moving around to the other side of the brick. Pikachu followed him.

"Oh, no! And they're both hurt!" Emilia noted, horrified, and Tim saw that she was right; the Plusle was covered in scratches, some still bleeding, though none of them serious.

"Come on, help me move this." Tim said, looking up. Meiko was already putting down her camera in a spot where it would film the rescue.

"Of course!"

All four of them got around the section of fallen wall and reached underneath. "On my mark." Tim said, and both girls nodded. "One… two… three."

All of them heaved when Tim said three, though it got lifted out of Pikachu's reach fairly quickly.

"Towards me." Tim grunted, and all of them moved the section of brick in Tim's direction. Once it was away from the Minun, Meiko said,

"Put it down," and they all lowered it carefully to the ground.

That done, they took a look. The Plusle was now at the Minun's side, trying to wake it with shaking and frantic calls. Pikachu walked over.

"Hey, calm down. I know you're worried about your friend, but you need to stop that, ok? Let us take a look, we'll see if we can help."

"Pla, pla…" the Plusle said sadly, but let them near.

Tim gently rolled the Minun over, mindful of the injuries he could see on it, and checked its front. Both sides of it were littered with scrapes, and there was a gash on its head and right arm.

He carefully looked at both gashes and felt the arm.

"I think… it's mostly ok. The injury on its head is a little worrying, so maybe that should get checked out at a Pokemon Center, but… I think otherwise, it will just need some time to heal. I'm not really an expert, though." He added.

"I'll take it, then." Meiko said, surprising him a little. He'd have thought she'd want to keep filming the scene.

"Huh?"

"My car escaped the damage, thankfully, and I can get it there. Mr. Graham won't be angry if I leave to do that, not now- more GNN reporters were arriving as we were heading back here." Meiko told him.

Tim glanced back. Sure enough, more reporters from GNN were getting out of their cars with cameras and microphones. He hadn't noticed the GNN crews pull up at all.

"And Tim, uh… well, I, uh, think you should get your back looked at. I think you really got some damage done to it." Meiko added.

Tim looked at her, shocked. How did she know?

"Yeah… I'd kind of forgotten for a moment when we got here and saw these two, but… Tim, the back of your sweater and your shirt underneath is ripped wide open, and there's a huge bruise on your back. We saw it when we started heading over here. You did get hurt in that fight." Worry rang in Emilia's voice, and Tim gave a mental sigh- exactly who he didn't want to worry over him had found out about the bruise.

"Right. So, I'll take these two to get looked after, and you take Tim to do the same- 'cause knowing him, he won't go on his own." Meiko teased, then turned back to the two little Pokemon. "Come on, Plusle- how about you come with me? I'll get you somewhere where your scratches can be looked at and where Minun can be taken care of, and I bet that it'll be awake soon that way!"

"Pla pla?" The Plusle said.

"Yeah, you go with Meiko, Plusle. She's a good person, she'll make sure that both you and your friend get looked after properly." Pikachu told it.

Meiko reached out and carefully picked up the Minun. Plusle promptly climbed up to get onto her shoulder, where it could get a ride and watch Minun at the same time. Pikachu laughed.

"That's right- perfect! See you later, Plusle! You and your friend get well soon!"

As Meiko stood and left, Pikachu turned to Tim. "And you, you'll need to do the same. Get it looked at. Not seeking treatment could make it take longer to heal, and that could spell trouble for a detective."

Beside him Emilia stood, pulling on his arm. "Come on, Tim. The paramedics are still here, they can take a look and see if it's serious."

Tim sighed. "I'm fine." He said, standing. "It's an older bruise. I got it at the park, during the incident with Mightyena a week ago."

Emilia's eyes widened. So did Pikachu's.

"What? You never said anything!"

"I didn't really need to tell anyone. It's a bruise- I got thrown against the inside of the truck. It's healing on its own." Tim sighed. "Wish my sweater would. Guess I'll have to get a new one, now."

Emilia pulled harder on his arm. "That's not funny, Tim! You can't be so reckless and go and get yourself hurt! What if it's worse than you think? Come on, we'll get it checked. You said it yourself; you're not an expert. You need to be more careful."

Tim wished he knew what to say to tell her not to worry so much, but there was nothing he could think of that wouldn't make him feel embarrassed. Silently, he let her pull him out of the alley towards the ambulance.

Despite that his back still throbbed, and rather painfully, too, he was more annoyed about his ripped sweater. The table leg must have been sharp after snapping off. If his sweater hadn't torn, he'd still have his favourite sweater, and Emilia and Meiko- the former in particular- wouldn't be so panicked over the injury. It was painful, but it was only a bruise, and he didn't want them to worry so much about him.

Tim had to wait nearly an hour before the paramedic finally finished fussing with him. Unfortunately, the man had recognized who he was, having seen him on GNN and apparently being a fan, and insisted on going over everything. The only good part about it was that it took place inside the ambulance, while Emilia waited outside; having her witness any of the man's fuss would have been horribly embarrassing.

He ended up being told it was possible the impact had bruised some ribs. "If the pain is hard to manage, you can take some paracetamol. Icing the area may help as well. What you should do is make sure you restrict your activity- having another day like today is out of the question." The man had told Tim with a smile.

Tim had given him a small smile back, but his ribs didn't hurt that badly, and he told him so.

"Then you may have been lucky and just got a plain bruise there." The man had told him. "But if the pain isn't going away after a couple weeks or it gets hard to breathe, get yourself to a doctor right away."

Tim had promised he would and thanked him.

Now, Tim had offered to drive Emilia now that Meiko had gone with the car they had driven here. Emilia had agreed and pointed out that they may as well go down to the police station now and give their statements.

Tim thought it was a good idea, so he waited as Emilia called her boss on her cell phone to let her know what was going on. He watched as she grimaced slightly once or twice during the conversation, then said goodbye and joined him, getting into the passenger's seat. Pikachu had graciously climbed into the back without being asked or even saying a word, for which Tim was both surprised and thankful.

"You know, I've forgotten to ask- how is your new boss?" Tim asked as he started up the car.

"Oh, Mrs. Gourda? Well… she's stricter than… than Mr. Clifford was. But she is nice enough. Mr. Graham wanted to make sure he got the right person for the job, so he went looking for the best producer he could get, with a good reputation. He looked into everything he could to make sure we didn't get… well, another Roger Clifford. And even if she is stricter, she's still a good boss."

Tim smiled. "That's good. Jobs are better if your boss is good."

Leaving it at that, Tim said nothing about Roger Clifford. Once or twice before, he had come up in conversations, and he knew it upset Emilia. He wasn't sure if she had told Roger what Tim was doing in the clocktower of her own volition before finding out that Roger was the one who set it up, or if he had forced it out of her once he saw she was hurrying away from it, and Tim had no plans to ask. He figured it was most likely the latter, though… she had known that it was someone from GNN, and she'd known not to trust even her coworkers. He just knew that it upset her, what Roger had been willing to do to achieve the power he wanted, and how he had used her and others at GNN to do it. How he had deceived them while they trusted him.

It wasn't her fault, of course, never her fault nor anyone else at GNN, but she was upset just the same about all the incidents that could have been prevented had Roger never gotten to where he was.

Giving their statements at the station seemed to take forever; it had been a couple hours' wait to just get to speak with them. Once they finally had, Tim dropped Emilia off at the GNN headquarters.

"Thanks, Tim." She said as she got out of the car. "You know, you should come when GNN is hosting the debate next week. It's an election year, you know, so the mayor and all of the other candidates will be holding a debate on how they will handle the city's issues for the next term. Mr. Graham is planning to have a party of sorts after the interview, and I'm sure he'd be happy to see you there."

"Really? That sounds interesting. I'd love to go, if you're sure I'd be welcome there."

"Of course! It's next Wednesday night. It starts at six. I'll let Mr. Graham know that you'll be coming, I'm sure he'll be thrilled."

"Yeah, he'll probably look for a way to turn it into another scoop." Pikachu commented, sarcasm dripping from his voice.

Tim ignored him. "Will you be there, too?"

Emilia nodded. "Yeah, everyone will be. Wouldn't miss it for anything."

"Then I'll look forward to it. Good luck with Mrs. Gourda."

Emilia gave a small laugh that was more resigned then amused; her boss had told her that since she was taking time off to give her statement, she would need to make up that time.

"Thanks. Well, I'll see you around. And thanks again for the ride, too."

"Anytime." Tim told her, and she nodded, smiling, and left to enter the TV station.

"Well, well, trying to impress?" Pikachu teased him from the back seat. Tim sighed.

"That's enough, Pikachu."

Pikachu only sniggered while Tim put the car back into gear and drove back to his apartment, needing to change both his shirt and his sweater- they were still ripped, after all. His favourite red hoodie ripped and now ruined, he grabbed a green one that he had brought with him and pulled that over his head instead, annoyed at the whole thing.

That done, he and Pikachu got back into the car and headed towards what remained of the Hi-Hat Café, hoping he might be able to find either Amanda or Mr. Baker to tell him what they were going to be doing for the time being. If they were getting another place to work out of, after all, Tim would need to know where to go.

Hopefully, he would be able to find Pablo, too, and see how he was holding up. It really was terrible that his café was gone, and Tim hoped he could see if there was some way that he might somehow be of help to him.

The only ones at the site other than police and crews working on blocking off and inspecting the damaged building were Pablo and Ludicolo, staring sadly at the destroyed building. When Tim asked if there was anything he could do, Pablo waved him off.

"I've got insurance, so I'll just have to take an unexpected holiday from work while it's rebuilt." He laughed, though the mirth wasn't quite real. "It stings right now, yeah, but once it's rebuilt, it'll be back to life as normal!"

Tim had to wonder privately when life would start to feel normal for him. Amanda had been right; it seemed that everything he didn't go looking for came to him.

The people that he wished right now would come to him- Amanda and Mr. Baker- were nowhere in sight. Tim didn't really want to bother Pablo by asking if he knew where they were, but he didn't see another choice.

"Well, I hope that's really soon for you, then. And, do you know what would become of the agency above you for now? I'm trying to figure out where Mr. Baker and Amanda might have gone."

"Oh, them? For now, I think they've gone to give their statement at the police station. The police prefer most important ones to be made there, where it can be easily recorded, but they took some pity on me, I think, and took mine here. But as for the detective agency, Baker has a lot of friends in town. I'm sure there will be someone willing to let them work from their place for now. At least they are in luck, it looks like pretty much all the damage happened on the first floor and in the street. They can't go up to the office until the walls are strong enough that they can hold everything, but other than papers that might have been shaken out of place, the office should be fine…" Pablo trailed off and sighed.

"I… I'm sorry…" Tim said softly.

Pablo shook his head. "Not your doing. This is the fault of whoever set that Feraligatr outside my shop with that band around its head. Once I know who's responsible, you better believe they'll get what's coming."

"I wish I knew who it was, and why." Tim said. "Is there nothing that can be done in the meantime for your café? Maybe you could see if any other cafés in the area would let you work out of one for the time being."

Pablo's eyes brightened a little. "Hey, yeah, I could ask! They might let me do it for just a little bit. And it would just be temporary. I mean, Mayor Helding told me he's going to put having my café rebuilt as a priority."

"Oh, really? That's so nice of him."

"Oh, yeah." Pablo said, giving a real smile for the first time since Tim had gotten back. "He's a really nice guy. Good mayor, too. I think the polls showed that he's the most popular mayor Rhyme City's had in thirty-six years."

"Oh, wow, that really is impressive. Well, if there is anything I can do for you, let me know. I'd be glad to help."

"Yeah… well, you know, Tim, there is one thing you might be able to do for me." Pablo's smile slid off his face as he became very serious.

"What?"

"Make sure that the person who sent that Feraligatr wandering like that is caught. I don't want him to get away."

"Of course!" Tim's voice was filled with the conviction he felt. "I was planning on doing that, anyway. This whole incident… I don't like it. I think there's something bigger behind it. I think the only lead right now is that strap, so I don't know that we'll get any further information until the results come back. But I'll definitely start investigating as soon as I can."

"Thank you, Tim." Pablo's normally jovial voice was subdued, but filled with gratitude.

"Hey, there's something we can do right now; look around the scene." Pikachu pointed out. "We won't be allowed in there, of course, but if we look around, we might still find clues or someone who may have seen a person with a Feraligatr. I mean, you're probably right about not getting anything until we know about that strap, but that's no reason not to go looking for any other clues we might turn up. After all, if Mr. Baker wants you for anything, he can call you, right?"

He could. Tim had a cell phone, of course, and had made sure to give his number to Mr. Baker and Amanda, as well as program theirs into it. He had Emilia and Meiko's numbers in there, too.

"Right. Taking a look around now won't hurt anything."

The person was in their office again. The same locked office, behind the same desk, on the same phone.

"You failed." Their voice was very harsh.

They listened to the person on the other line for only a moment before cutting them off.

"Don't give me your excuses. I don't want excuses, I want results. That boy is a threat to our work. He shut it down once. He could still do it again. I only have a few days before the next big event I've got planned, and I want him gone before it comes."

They fell silent as the other person talked. When they spoke again, it was in a more thoughtful tone.

"No, not yet. We'll leave that as a last resort. I have a better idea to try first. How quickly can you get resources together to help someone escape from prison?"

They listened to the other person again.

"They'll be out by Sunday? The day after tomorrow, then… good. There's someone in there who I think would want revenge, and if we give him a little incentive… I think that Tim Goodman will no longer be a problem."

A/N: Can you even picture Tim in a different colour sweater? I know I have trouble. XD

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