Pokemon (Detective Pikachu)
A Legendary Search
38. Character Witness
The Pokemon nurse arrived then, escorted to the office and knocking on the door. Holiday excused himself to make some phone calls, and Meiko looked at Mr. Graham.
"Okay, how do we start?"
Their boss looked at them. "You two start by going home for the day. You covered the explosion all night, you're done right now."
Meiko and Emelia both began protesting.
"No way are we gonna-"
"You can't be-"
Graham raised a hand. "I am very serious, and I am going to send you home. Look, I know how you feel, but we can't jump into it yet anyway. The others I have at the scene of the explosion will cover the search and rescue efforts. Then when the information we discussed is officially allowed to be made public, I will make an announcement about it on camera myself and inform the public that we ae going to chase this story until we get some answers. Then, we can start, and it will go better for you if you get enough rest before then."
Emilia sighed, knowing there was no way to argue. He was right; until the video aired, they had to seem like they knew nothing, lest they cast suspicion on themselves. It was still hard to accept, though.
Emilia turned and looked at Absol, lying perfectly still for the nurses' work.
"What about him? He can come home with me..."
In truth, Emilia wanted Absol to come with her... something, anything connected to Tim. Absol had said he was alright. Emilia wanted him to stay nearby.
"My apartment has room!" Meiko volunteered, and Emilia bit back an angry retort... she wasn't really angry. She was afraid.
"It's alright." Tim's father spoke up. "Tim might not be at my apartment, but Absol's bed still is. He can come home."
At that, Absol snarled, glaring at Tim's father. Emilia's fingers tightened in his fur as her heart sank even further. He made sense, but Emilia badly wanted Absol nearby.
The nurse looked up. "It would actually be best if he came to the Pokemon Center..."
Absol's snarling got louder, and he stood up, stepping away from the woman to the other side of Emilia. The nurse flinched.
"What I mean is, Pokemon have some fantastic healing abilities, and this guy will be good as new in a couple of days, but if he spent the day at the Center and had a little time in our machines, he'd be fully healed by the evening."
Absol shook his head and stepped further away.
Tim's father sighed. "Don't think he's up for it.
"Very well, I just have to give my recommendations."
"I understand. Thank you for your help."
The nurse left, and Harry gestured towards Absol.
"Well, come on. Let's get home, and... start investigating."
Absol, however, shook his head again and walked away from Tim's father, instead sitting next to Emilia and giving her a very pointed look. The icy grip on Emilia's chest loosened slightly as she looked at him.
"You'll… come with me?"
Absol nodded.
Tim's father looked bewildered, but then the moment passed. "Alright, if that's what you both want. I'll talk to you later, then. Try and get some sleep, for now. If I get any news, I'll contact you right away. And I'll send over a list of all the people I know that Tim has helped, I'm sure they will be the best place for you to start."
"Thank you, sir." Emilia said softly.
The man left, followed by Amanda and Mr. Baker, and Inspector Holiday came back in.
"I contacted my superiors. They are sending a team here to run tests on Absol, but I was able to get them to agree that Absol does not need to be detained unless something is found that argues otherwise. The team will be here shortly; it sounded like they weren't too far away."
"Thanks for letting us know." Meiko told him, and he nodded.
"It's no problem. I need to get going now, they want me to investigate what they think might have been some sort of Pokemon fight right on top of City Hall… there's scorch marks on the roof that look like from a Fire- type, or at least some sort of Fire- type attack. Since I can't officially be involved in the investigation into Tim, they've given me a different assignment." Inspector Holiday sighed, his gaze falling to the ground before he looked back up. "Good luck. I hope you and Harry and Mike are all able to prove what I'm not allowed to get involved in."
"Thank you, sir." Emilia found her voice coming out in a whisper. Inspector Holiday nodded again, and left.
Both girls waited in the room until the investigative team showed up. Absol cooperated with them taking samples of his singed fur, swabbing under his claws, and whatever else they wanted until they were finally finished and, seeming disappointed at not finding anything incriminating right away, exited the room, leaving Meiko and Emilia alone in the room except for Absol and Meiko's two partners.
Meiko picked up her broken camera and set it gently on the desk, then turned to Emilia. "Well… let's do as they said and go home. I hate to say it, but they're right. We can't do much right now, and we need to be ready when there is something we can do."
"Right." Emilia whispered. She felt numb and cold, empty, but went with Meiko to the parking lot. Emilia took Meiko to her apartment with the car, despite her protests that she could walk, then drove back to her own apartment, Absol sitting in the backseat silently.
When they entered her apartment, she was met with the broken glass from earlier, and the cold cup she'd placed on the low table in front of the TV. It felt like a lifetime ago.
She hurried to clean up the glass, lest Absol-or herself- step on it, and dumped the mug of drink down the sink. She didn't feel like heating it up again and drinking it. Didn't think it could possibly make her feel warm inside now.
Not bothering to change, she lay on her bed. Her tears came again. Now what? What could she possibly do?
Weight next to her made her look over; Absol climbed onto the bed next to her, settling down carefully so that she could feel his warm, solid presence, but wasn't crushed by his weight. He looked at her, solemn. Sad.
"Do you miss him too?" Emilia asked softly. It seemed a bizarre question given that really, she had seen Tim less than twenty-four hours ago, but with everything that had happened, with not knowing what had happened to him, she missed him horribly, her chest aching. She wanted nothing in her life more than she wanted to see him right now.
Absol nodded. Then the Disaster Pokemon lay his head down on her shoulder, and she brought her hand up to thread her fingers into the fur on his head.
Both of them lay there in silence, Emilia weeping. She didn't know when, exactly, but she eventually did doze, drifting in and out. Even as poorly as she slept, she had no idea if Absol slept at all.
Several hours later, Emilia felt worse than she had before, but couldn't stay in bed anymore. Moving into her kitchen, she didn't really feel hungry, but made dinner anyway, for her and for Absol. When she started eating it, it was then that her body seemed to remember that she'd had very little to eat all day, and Emilia finished everything she'd made, as did Absol.
After, she hesitated, staring at Absol who stared back.
"What now?" She whispered.
Absol got up, sat next to the couch, and stared at the blank television.
"Um… alright." Emilia turned on the TV and sat on the side next to Absol. Her TV was normally set on the news channel, and that was what came on. She didn't really absorb most of what they said; the explosion, of course, was the main topic, but other pieces of news were presented in between. She sort of just sat there, numb, eventually leaning her head on Absol's once the Disaster Pokemon put his head on the arm of the couch, and eventually dozed off again.
She woke when Absol pulled his head out from under hers, though he did so gently, and rubbed at her eyes; her mind felt thick as mud, and she watched with confusion as Absol headed over to the window. When he reached it, she realized that there was a small Pokemon- a Fletchling- sitting just outside it, on the sill.
Delicately, Absol used a claw to unlatch the window, then pushed the glass pane upwards with a paw. Emilia blinked, watching in confusion as the Fletchling fluttered away from the screen, but stayed in sight; Absol put a paw on the edge of the screen, and began to push on it. Emilia stumbled to her feet, feeling clumsier than usual, and staggered her way over to the window; before she got there, the screen broke with a snapping sound, and Absol pulled it right out of the window before squeezing himself through and jumping down.
Emilia bolted the rest of the way to the window, sticking her head out of it.
"Wait! Where…"
She trailed off, her mouth falling open. Absol landed gently on the ground, and faced a huge number of Pokemon.
The Fletchling flew back down to land on the horns of a Stantler; the Mightyena from Tahnti Park was nearby, the two Poochyena sitting by her paws. A few Aipom and a Slurpuff were there as well, and a Meowth, as well as Harry Goodman's Pikachu and Meiko's Plusle and Minun. There was a Herdier, several Starly, some Pidove, a Skarmory that looked to have several babies on its back, a Gengar, a Shuckle, a Fenniken, a Kricketune- was that Carina's Kricketune?- a Phantump, a Trevenant -that Trevenant looked familiar, too- and a Garbodor. There was a Ludicolo that she was sure was the one from the Hi- Hat Café, and a Sneasel was just arriving, and that looked like Olga's Purugly, and there were more Pokemon coming, too, so many more heading this way. A Glalie. Several Drifloon. An Accelgor. A Barbaracle and a Manectric arrived together. A Sentret and a Wimpod nervously trembled at the edge of the crowd. The hulking form of a Feraligatr stood on the opposite side. An Elekid pushed its way forward while several Yanma hovered over the crowd. A Hoothoot was there as well, and Emilia was pretty sure she recognized the Yanma and the Hoothoot from GNN.
And there were more, too. So many more.
Absol began talking. Emilia had no what to know what he was saying, but she stood there, struck dumb, as the crowd of Pokemon grew and grew. Absol kept speaking, giving deep, rumbling cries, and several of the Pokemon near the front, particularly ones she recognized, began nodding and giving cries of their own.
Finally, Absol fell silent. There were other cries, other calls; it looked to Emilia like some sort of huge debate was going on, as they all discussed something. Several Pokemon left during the conversation. But several others stayed, and eventually, they all seemed to reach a conclusion. Finally, the entire group began to disperse, and it was probably good that they were; the sun was beginning to rise. Absol watched from the ground as all of them left, returning to wherever it was that they had come from, and then, when they had all gone, he turned around. Realizing his intent, Emilia backed away from the window, and he jumped back inside, then turned around, pulled it shut, and closed the latch just as delicately as he had opened it.
Emilia stared at him the entire time, and when done, he stared back at her. Both stood in silence, and though Emilia wanted to ask what it had been about, she stayed silent. For one, even though she knew he would understand her, she knew he would not be able to answer her well enough, and for two… she couldn't help thinking that perhaps this was something that just needed to be… forgotten.
She needed to pretend she had never seen it.
Absol suddenly turned and gave a nod towards the TV, which was now playing the morning news, and Emilia's attention snapped to it. Her boss was on the screen.
"-are very concerned about the young man depicted in the video. He is well known not just around the city but at GNN in particular, and we intend to fully investigate not only the explosion, but every incident we know of that involved the young man to see if he would truly be capable of something like this as the rumors are claiming, or if something else might be happening. I intend to put one of my best teams on this right away, so you can rely on us here at GNN to keep you informed as the situation evolves with every new piece of information we know, and we also ask any members of the public who have any information to contact the police. Thank you."
Emilia was frozen for a moment, until her phone started ringing and she lurched into action. Racing to the phone, she grabbed it, seeing her friend's name on the display.
"Yes!"
"It's a go! Come on, I've got some ideas already, and we can grab breakfast at our first stop!"
"The café!"
"You got it. Come on!"
The phone went dead, and Emilia shoved it, her keys, and her wallet into her bag. Racing to the door, she stopped and looked at Absol. "Are you going to come?"
Absol stared at her silently, and lifted a paw, pointing a claw at the TV, still flickering and showing the news.
"Oh, of course." She hurried over, turned it off, and then both Emilia and Absol fled out the door.
"Yeah, of course I'll go on camera and talk about Tim." Pablo told them, setting two mugs of coffee, a bowl of caramel hot chocolate, one plate of eggs and bacon, one plate of pancakes, and one plate of sausages in front of them himself, rather than having Ludicolo serve them. Absol promptly took a sausage off his plate and tossed his head a little to get the entire thing into his mouth, chewing, while Plusle and Minun reached out their hands. Once the other plates were on the counter, Pablo dutifully reached out a plate with two pancakes on it, and once the two had each taken one, took the plate back.
Emilia tugged her pancakes closer to make room for the new camera Meiko set on the table.
"Hey, eat first." Pablo told them sternly. "If you're going to run around investigating to clear our friend's name, you'll need your strength to do it. Breakfast is on the house today. Just get to the bottom of it so Tim can come back in here."
"We won't stop until we do!" Meiko declared, but took the man's suggestion and dug into her food. Emilia started eating too, eager to finish fast and get started.
"So," Meiko said, voice muffled by food, "I was thinking. We'll start with Pablo here. Makes sense since it's well known that Tim's in here all the time. After that, we need to start right from the beginning. Graham said we're investigating all his cases. We need to start with his first one that we know of, and see if we can follow the same path he did, sort of, and talk to all the people there. You first met him at Tahnti station, right? Everything we know that he did from there, we follow in the order he did it."
"Right… try to put together his story by walking down the same path and speaking to the people there. Have people… have people give testimony about what kind of person Tim is while we wait for other information." Emilia smiled a little, then took another bite; she'd swallowed her food before speaking. Meiko nodded.
"We can try to do that with each one of his cases. Once his father sends that list of the people he knows of that Tim has gotten into cases with, we can hopefully retrace his tracks. Man. I feel like by the end of this, I'm going to have a totally new appreciation for the work that Tim does."
Emilia normally would have been amused at the comment, but today was only able to drag up another smile.
Once they finally finished breakfast, they stepped over to the side of the café where it would be a little more out of the way, and Meiko lifted the camera. Plusle and Minun hopped off Meiko's shoulders so she could heft the camera onto one.
She fiddled with it as Emilia waited, and then gave a nod. Emilia started speaking. "We're here with Pablo Millan, the owner of the Hi Hat Café, where Tim Goodman is known to frequent. Pablo, can you tell us about Mr. Goodman?"
"Sure can." Pablo grinned. "He doesn't just "frequent" my shop, he's here every day with his partner. Right from the first time he came in, he was polite. Always a pleasure to talk to. Really likes his coffee, too."
"I see. And what do you think of his suspected involvement in the explosion at the central office of Melmetal Manufacturing?"
"Involvement? The only involvement that guy might have had would have been trying to track down the guy who set up that explosion. He's a hell of a detective, so if you tell me he was doing an investigation or tracking down someone and found himself in there, I'd believe that. He's an honest guy who'd do anything for anyone. You know this Café was destroyed in an incident a couple months back? Tim was the one who found out who was responsible. He promised me he would, and he delivered on that promise. I just… hope he's okay. No one's saying what happened to him after the video that was shown on the news… I hope he wasn't hurt and that he'll be back in my Café soon, ordering his coffee and going over the notes of his next case."
"Perfect." Meiko gave a thumb's up and shut off her camera. "Now that we've got footage that we can start things off with, we'll take it to GNN so they can start working with it while we start tracing all of Tim's steps."
"Great. You need anything else, let me know. I'll be glad to help." Pablo nodded.
"Of course." Emilia told him as Meiko packed up her camera. Both girls headed for the door, calling over their shoulders.
"Plus-Mi! Time to go!"
"Absol, come on!"
The drive to GNN was not over fast enough. Absol lay in the back seat, his size taking up the entire thing, while Plusle and Minun took their usual spot on Meiko's lap. Something seemed off, too, though Emilia couldn't really place it.
At GNN, they raced into the lobby and stopped short. Not only was Mr. Graham in the lobby, but so was Tim's father, speaking with each other. Approaching them, Emilia immediately asked,
"Is there any news?"
The two men looked over. Mr. Graham shook his head. "I'm afraid not. I asked Tim's father here today to interview. I'm going to have a small interview of mine aired as well. People will get suspicious if we don't interview his father right away."
"Oh, I see…"
"We've got an interview recorded as well." Meiko held up her camera. "We spoke with the owner of the café we go to. Add this to the footage you're airing?"
"Of course, well done. Keep at it, there's probably a lot of people out there we can talk to."
Mr. Graham took the camera. "I'll be back with this in a moment. I'll download the footage and return it. Then I'll come back and we can start your interview, if that's alright, Harry?"
"Sounds good." Tim's father told him, and as Mr. Graham left, he looked at Emilia and Meiko. "How are you two holding up?"
"Great!" Meiko cut in. "We know just what our plan is; we're going to start right from when Tim first arrived in Rhyme city, and try to recreate his tracks and talk to everyone he helped. That's sure to be a lot of people."
Harry Goodman smiled. "Good. I brought that list I promised you, of who he helped on his cases. Included everything I could think of- er, that Tim told me, that is. So you can try doing just that with every case. But what I meant was, how are you two holding up? I know I had a hard time sleeping last night."
Meiko's demeanor changed. "I… I had a hard time getting there." She admitted. "I mean, I tossed and turned a bit… I think I fell asleep around five pm, maybe? Since we'd been up all the night before. Once I fell asleep, though, I stayed asleep a good, long time. Woke at six am."
Emilia looked away. "I slept badly too… in and out all night."
Tim's father sighed. "Wish I could tell you that things will be over soon, but… I don't know." He was quiet for a moment, then snorted and shook his head.
"Sir?" Emilia asked uncertainly.
Harry Goodman looked up. "Oh, don't call me sir, please. You can just call me Harry if you want. And sorry about that, it's just… the things your mind comes up with."
"What do you mean?" Meiko asked him.
Harry shook his head. "It's not important. Just the things that pop into your head… I was just remembering, when Tim was younger. Whenever he had trouble sleeping, my wife- his mother- would sit on the bed next to him and run her hands through his hair. Five, ten minutes and he'd be out like a light every time."
Emilia suddenly recalled Tim telling her to stop running her own hand through his hair if she wanted him to stay awake after his car had gone off the cliff, and huffed a small laugh that didn't really have any humor in it.
"Alright, here's your camera back, Meiko." Mr. Graham returned then, holding out the aforementioned camera. Meiko took it. "Harry, if you're ready…"
"Of course, let's go."
The two men disappeared, and Emilia and Meiko turned back to each other.
"We should go too. Tim's first case after getting here, except for that Aipom incident, was technically with us, so… I guess, after that… um… oh! After that we met Tim at the PCL, right?"
"Yes! So that's where we'll be going next. The people there will hopefully be willing to talk to us…" Nervousness rose in Emilia's chest. She couldn't imagine anyone having anything bad to say about Tim, but finding that someone there did have something bad to say was a possibility that scared her.
As they both headed out the door, though, they did encounter someone that Emilia knew would have something bad to say… even if it was misguided.
Tyler was walking towards the doors, a Sandshrew scampering after him. He had a scowl, but when he saw them, his look turned to surprise.
"Tyler? What are you doing here?" Emilia asked.
"I wanted to talk to Mr. Graham to ask if it was true." The boy told them, stopping. Emilia and Meiko had stopped as well.
Sandshrew scampered over to Absol and began chattering. Absol looked down, and the two began talking.
"If what was true? And I think Mr. Graham is watching an interview right now." Emilia told him.
"That's fine, I can wait. I wanna know if that wannabe detective really did go off the deep end."
Emilia and Meiko both stiffened; anger bubbled in her chest, hot and seething. Part of her welcomed the change after feeling like her heart had been encased in ice; the other part of her was frightened by it.
"What?" Meiko's tone was dangerous.
Tyler, however, didn't seem to notice.
"That Tim Goodman. I want to know if it's true. I mean, I figure it's just like him to cause an incident to solve so he could look impressive, but this really-"
Meiko shot forward and grabbed him by the shoulder, hand fisting in his shirt.
"First of all, Tim is not a wannabe detective, he is one, and a good one at that! A great one! And second, no it's not true, because Tim would never cause an incident. He helps people! All he has ever done is help people! And he would never, ever hurt anyone, ever! I'm sorry your father wasn't able to get away from Lugia in time, but that was not Tim's fault! As soon as Tim realized Lugia was even there, he came as fast as he could to warn us and start us evacuating! And when Lugia started rampaging and the only way to calm it down was to remove the false R stone from its head, Tim risked his own life and ran right at it, climbed on top of Lugia, to stop its fury, and Lugia almost tore his hand right off! I saw it, saw his hand being held on his arm by a splinter of bone and a couple tendons, and I saw how much pain he was in! if it weren't for Tim, Emilia, myself, and Mr. Graham would all be dead! And so would a lot of other people! Tim saved lives and nearly lost his own, nearly lost his hand. His father had to convince the doctors not to amputate what was left and try to fix it instead! I'm sorry that one of the lives he saved wasn't your father's, but your anger should be at the person who caused that disaster in the first place, not at the person who stopped it from being a hundred thousand times worse!"
"Meiko…" Emilia put a hand on her shoulder. She felt the same way, but forced her anger down. This wasn't going to help anyone. Besides, Tyler looked shocked and maybe even a little frightened.
Meiko seemed to realize this as well and let go. After the three stood there, Meiko breathing a little heavily, for a moment or two before Emilia tugged on Meiko's arm.
"Come on, let's… let's go."
Meiko stood for another moment before nodded. "Right… yeah." She stumbled a couple steps back, and the two turned to leave. They made it about five steps before Tyler called after them.
"Is that why his hand shakes?"
Both of them turned back to look at Tyler in confusion. "What?" Meiko asked.
Tyler shifted nervously. "His… his hand. His right hand… it shakes sometimes. I've seen it. Like this." Tyler lifted his own right hand and trembled it as if he had palsy.
"It… it does?" Emilia asked, and Tyler nodded.
"Yeah… he tries to hide it, keeps putting his hand in his pocket, but I've seen it shake real bad. Is… is the injury why?"
"I… maybe." Emilia said. She looked at Meiko. "But he told us his hand was fine… he said it healed and didn't do that anymore…"
"Yeah…" Meiko murmured. "But… the doctor did say that full recovery for the hand was very unlikely. I looked some things up when it first happened… trembling can be a sign of nerve damage. And if his hand still does it, then… well, it would have healed by now if it was going to. But… why didn't he tell us?"
Emilia sighed. "Because… Tim wouldn't want us to worry, would he? Thank you." She added to Tyler, who looked confused. "We didn't know his hand was still doing that. But yes, it's from the injury he got from Lugia."
Pulling Meiko's arm again, the two continued in silence. They had people to interview… and a lot to think about.
A/N: And so the work begins. People to interview. Clues to look for. A missing boy to find. Questions to answer.
Emilia worries, Absol rallies the troops, and Meiko puts Tyler in his place. What does it all mean? What will the outcome be? Well, we'll find that out as we close in on the climax.