Pokemon (Detective Pikachu)
A Legendary Search
40. Explosive
"What did you find?" was the first question out of Meiko's mouth as soon as they found not just Mr. Graham, Tim's father, and Inspector Holiday but also Mr. Baker and Amanda as well.
Before anyone answered, Mr. Graham waved them all into the new office they had been using. Construction on GNN was going well, but given how large it was, there were still floors under construction. However, now that more of the tower was available for use, things had been shuffled around a little, and the wait time between going from the lobby to the new office several floors up was entirely too long for Emilia.
"We were given more information about the explosion that brought down the Melmetal Manufacturing's office building." Inspector Holiday said once they were in the room. "I don't think we have anything we can use yet, but I did promise to keep you updated, so here it is. It looks like the device that blew was inside a car, judging by the debris and blast pattern. The car was in the middle of the parking lot next to a support beam, and the explosive power was exactly enough to bring down the building, no more and no less. Someone calculated this to bring down that office and cause as little damage to anything outside of it as possible.
"The explosive used is a type our team have seen before. It looks like there was both a timer and remote detonation triggers. The design is one that's easy in theory to put together, but one does have to be very careful. If anything is put in the wrong place during construction, or even slips, it could go off in the maker's face. It's extremely unstable until finished. But it's doable. It is possible to learn how to put it together online, if you get to the right sites, so there's nothing that can be used for Tim's defense." Holiday sighed.
"That's not good." Mr. Graham mused. "I've had people calling me, as well… they're trying to push us into covering Tim as a suspect like they've got all the other TV stations doing. We need something to clear his name."
Tim's father sighed. "I wish we could talk to Tim. See what he knows."
Absol suddenly slapped a paw down on the table, noisily. Everyone jumped.
"What?" Harry asked, baffled. Beside him, Pikachu relaxed; it had shot into a battle-ready position.
Absol raced around the table to tap on the papers that Inspector Holiday had spread out while talking; sifting through them, Absol tapped on the paper about the bomb.
"You have something to say about the bomb?"
Absol nodded, then held his front right paw over the table, shaking it.
The room was silent for a moment, waiting for Absol to do more, but he didn't.
"Okay… what's that supposed to mean?" Harry asked, and Absol glared at him. Again, he tapped the report on the bomb, and shook his paw over it.
"I knew I should have practiced more charades." Meiko muttered.
"Absol, I'm sorry, but you've got to give us a little more here. We're lost." Mr. Baker said helplessly. Absol sighed and looked at Pikachu.
"Sol? Sol, sol. Absol. Ab…sol. Absol."
"Pikachu? Pika pi." Pikachu hopped up onto the table and headed over to Absol. Reaching him, he gave a couple more squeaks.
"Absol."
Pikachu squeaked again, gave a nod, then turned to face the table. Then took his right front paw, tucked it behind his back, brought it back out to pretend to write on it with its left paw, then tucked it behind his back again. Absol reached out his front right paw again and shook it.
Emilia stared. Something about Pikachu's actions were familiar…
"Pikachu, do that again." She ordered, and Pikachu repeated the motion. "That's… that's what Phantump was doing, only writing on the other hand because… because Tim writes with his left hand now since Lugia… because… because his hand shakes!" Emilia gasped. "That's what Absol's trying to say! Tim's right hand gets tremors sometimes, bad ones! It didn't fully heal after Lugia damaged it… Inspector Holiday, would someone whose dominant hand was injured a couple months before and suffered permanent nerve damage causing occasional tremors have been able to make that explosive?"
Inspector Holiday straightened. "Well, no. If someone had nerve damage in one of their hands, dominant or otherwise, putting together a bomb like this one would not just be risky and dangerous, it would be near suicide. Straining the hand to do it would be more likely to start it tremoring, and the moment their hand started shaking the bomb integrity could be compromised and it could go off right then. There's no way someone without two steady hands could set it up."
"Then that's the proof we need!" Emilia burst out. "Meiko, you remember, right? Tyler told us that he's seen Tim's hand shake! Lugia left him with nerve damage, he couldn't have made that bomb if he tried! It's not Tim!"
Faces lit up all around the table as Absol sat back, expression seeming to look rather triumphant.
"I'll get in touch with the team doing the investigating and let them know. If they can get a warrant for Tim's medical records from the hospital and his physiotherapist, then that will tell them all they need to know." Tim's father grinned.
"This is good." Holiday nodded, smiling. "This is what we need as proof. But I am worried it may still not be enough."
"What do you mean? If he couldn't set up the bomb, they can't convict Tim. This proves his innocence, as well as the note that lured him out there in the first place!" Meiko argued.
"Yes, it does." Holiday agreed. "However, there's still this to consider: Tim will still need to be detained, once he's found, and questioned. He's still connected to the bombing, so he would still need to spend time in the station, and potentially in holding. If the interrogation was able to be done and all of the evidence presented, I'm sure he'd be fine and eventually released once everything is out on the table, so to speak, but it's the detaining part that has me worried. We already know that the person who's after him, this "H," has reach inside prison. If they were able to break Keith Norman out of prison to come after Tim, what can they arrange to have happen to Tim while he's in holding?"
The table fell silent as an icy fear took hold.
"So… Tim's not going to be safe until we find out who H is and expose them." Harry Goodman murmured.
"I'm afraid it looks that way." Holiday nodded. "We just don't have enough information… I wish we could talk to Tim. He might know something…"
"I… I just wish we at least knew if he was okay…" Emilia said softly. No one had an answer for her.
Three days passed since the discussion about the explosive. Emilia and Meiko took to having hushed conversation about Tim's last actions, and about Absol turning up, trying to figure out what Tim's next move would have been. They had Absol take them along the route that he and Tim had gone on, only becoming more confused by it; Absol took them from the office building to a parking lot several blocks away, close to the wealthier part of the city. Then he took them to just outside of City Hall, at the side of the building, before finally taking them to the edge of Rhyme City, where Absol indicated that they had separated.
During the time at City Hall, though, next to the side of the building, Absol had reached up and clawed at the vent on the outside of the building.
"Is there something important about that vent?" Meiko had asked, and Absol nodded.
"Is there something inside it?" Emilia asked starting to reach up, hope rising in her chest. She stopped, however, when Absol shook his head, no.
"Umm… maybe… did Tim go in there?" Meiko asked then, and Absol hesitated, then shook his head and nodded.
"What? Did he go in there or not?"
"Meiko, of course not. He wouldn't fit in there." Emilia pointed out; the vent was much too small for a human to go through.
"Oh, you're right! That was silly of me. But… why did you nod?"
Absol seemed to sigh. Emilia did too. "Don't think he can answer that one so easily, Meiko. But… there was something to do with the vents after the explosion, right?"
Absol nodded.
"Nothing is in there now… was something in there at the time?"
Absol nodded again.
"Did Tim take something out of it?"
Absol shook his head.
"Um…" Emilia fiddled with her hair.
"Did he… see someone else take something out of it?"
Absol hesitated, then tilted his head from side to side. It was neither a nod nor a no.
"Ah, man, this is nuts." Meiko muttered. "If only you could talk."
Emilia sighed. "This has something to do with it. It has to. But the only one who could answer that… is Tim, since we can't understand Absol. But… this has something to do with it."
"No doubt. Maybe the best thing to do now is leave before we're seen?"
"That's true… let's go."
When Emilia and Meiko reported their findings to the group, Tim's father, Inspector Holiday, and Mr. Baker all echoed the same warning to them:
"If someone at City Hall is the one behind this, then this is very serious, and dangerous. Those are some of the most powerful people in the city. Watch your backs."
Meiko and Emilia no longer had any lingering doubts at all that the accidents Absol had saved them from were not accidents.
The next day, Emilia parked the car in the lot they were using and she, Meiko, and Absol went around to the front of GNN. Absol abruptly froze, while Plusle and Minum broke their abnormal silence to start shrieking.
Suddenly, a high-pitched whine sounded in Emilia's ears, immediately giving her a headache, and she couldn't help but collapse on the ground, covering her ears with her hands with a cry of pain. Next to her, Meiko did the same thing, and Absol grunted, also lowering himself to the ground as if in a bow. The very air around her felt like it was exerting terrible pressure.
A crash made her look up, even as her headache intensified; a massive Pokemon stood in front of her, one that she couldn't put a name to, although she had seen pictures of it before in a documentary of Pokemon native to the region of Galar. It gave her a menacing smile.
"Grimm…"
Raising its arm, it made to strike… however, Absol barreled into it, knocking it down. Absol, too, stumbled, barely able to stay on his paws, and Emilia realized that whatever what happening, this wasn't an accident either. They were in trouble.
The huge Pokemon swatted Absol away easily, and turned back to her. He breath came in a frightened gasp, and then…
The whine stopped. She could move again, and with a sudden roar, flames shot down from the sky, engulfing the Pokemon. Absol got to his feet from where he'd been thrown.
"Sol? Absol!"
"Char!... rrrraaagh!"
The flames disappeared and a Charizard flew down, landing on the ground with a crash, and swinging its tail at the Pokemon that had been attacking Emilia, knocking it away. "Rrrraaaaagh!"
"So- sol!" Absol suddenly made a leap over Charizard, spitting out flames of his own halfway through the leap, and another screech split the air; a Scizor stumbled out of Absol's flames, franticly waving its arms to put out the fire, and looking angrily at Absol.
"Sciz… orrrr…"
"Sol…." Absol growled right back.
Meiko shrieked, and Emilia whirled around to see a Gengar pulling her into a shadow. She disappeared.
"Meiko!" Emilia cried.
Another crash took her attention then; she looked up to see an Alakazam thrown into the side of GNN, a Flygon screeching angrily before it glowed purple a moment, and then was thrown away itself.
Alakazam floated down next to them and looked at Absol. "Kazamm… ala… Kazam!"
"Sol, Absol!"
"Char! Chari!"
"Ge-geng!"
The Gengar was back, appearing next to Emilia. She cried out in shock and fear, not knowing what it did to Meiko or what it was going to do to her, but it gave her no notice, instead stepping up to take on the huge, strange Pokemon that had just gotten back up.
"Geng! Geng!"
"Grrrrimmmmsnarlllll…"
Absol shot another round of flames at the Scizor and it leapt away, and he took that chance to leap back over to Emilia's side.
"Sol, Absol!"
Charizard landed on Emilia's other side and lowered his head. "Char!"
Absol shoved Emilia hard, grabbing her coat in his mouth and hauling her forward. Terrified, not knowing what was happening, Emilia cried out again as Absol yanked her over. She found herself being hauled on top of the Charizard's back, and Charizard took off, surging into the air. Emilia screamed and locked her arms around its neck.
Air rushed by her face, and a screech made her look to her right; Flygon was after them. Charizard banked hard left, and something Emilia couldn't see shot by them and took a corner right off the top of a building, chunks of concrete raining down. Emilia heard a few people below screaming.
"Fly!" Emilia looked back at the Flygon, terror rising, only to find that it had stopped; its cries now seemed to be of pain. The Alakazam floated nearby it, it and Flygon both glowing purple.
Charizard abruptly banked hard right, and Emilia looked to her left just in time to see a large red pincer swipe at them and miss. Scizor was after them too, following them by leaping from rooftop to rooftop.
That is, until more flames surrounded it. Absol, breathing fire, seemed to soar over the Scizor, keeping the fire on it until he wasn't able to turn his neck far enough. At that point he stopped, landing in front of the Scizor, couched into a battle stance and Scizor screeched and tried to wave the flames away.
"Sol, Absol."
"Absol!" Emilia cried, but Charizard flew higher, carrying her away. The air got colder and colder as they rose, and Charizard kept flying upward until they were swallowed by cloud, and Emilia couldn't see the city anymore.
Still Charizard kept flying, going as fast as it could as far as Emilia could tell. "Where are you taking me?" she cried in desperation, but Charizard ignored her.
Then, its angle changed, and Charizard flew down. Once they broke through the clouds, Emilia could see odd structures on the ground below, but it wasn't until they got closer that she was able to identify some of them; a Ferris Wheel, a Teacup ride, and others, all in bad disrepair.
She was looking at Fine Park.
The ground rushed up to meet them and Emilia gave a squeak of fear, but Charizard landed gently and crouched down, waiting patiently for her to get off. It took a few minutes to remember how to work her frozen, terrified limbs, but once she did, she climbed off the Charizard, shaking. Emilia looked up at it to try to ask it what it was doing, but before she could get the words out, it lowered its head and began pushing, gently, backing her up a few steps, then changed the angle of its head and the spot it was pushing on to get her to turn around. Once Emilia did, Charizard kept pushing on her back, still gentle, but firm enough that she had no choice but to keep walking. Charizard pushed her over to one of the rundown buildings, this one with a door that hung slightly open.
When Emilia got close to it, she could see that inside door there was flickering light; it looked like there was a fire going inside. Someone was here… had had her brought here. Emilia trembled, and not from cold.
But, she steeled herself. Clearly Charizard wasn't going to let her just walk home, and given the attack that had just happened… maybe she would finally get some answers. Find out what was happening. Hopefully at least find out where Meiko had been taken.
Meiko. Emilia's hand suddenly darted to her pocket, intending to grab her phone and call her friend, only to find no phone in her pocket, and indeed, no pocket on her pants. Somehow, something had ripped the pocket right off. When had that happened?
She dropped her hand, given that she couldn't call Meiko now. Who knew where her phone even was at this point… the only thing she could do was go inside, and find out who was behind the Pokemon battle in front of GNN. Taking a deep breath, Emilia straightened her shoulders, and pushed the door open, walking inside.
It was dark inside except for the fire that was burning and the dim light that it cast, so it took Emilia's eyes a moment to adjust, but once they did, she easily found the fire, and shocked, familiar boy that crouched next to it.
"Tim… Tim!"
A/N: I know nothing about bombs. I do not want to know anything about bombs. Therefore, any detail as to the kind of explosive is given the best glossed- over explanation I could manage. XD
With that out of the way... who knew nerve damage in one's hand could ever be a good thing. A whole bunch of Pokemon throw down in the middle of Rhyme City. And... Tim has been found.