Pokemon (Detective Pikachu)

A Legendary Search

22. Out Of Time

When the ground returned underneath Tim, he rolled to his feet and looked around. Alakazam had teleported them into the forest outside the facility. They were sheltered from view for now, but if they decided to send people out in an attempt to widen the search for them, they wouldn't be able to stay hidden long.

"Alakazam, thank you!" Pikachu puffed. "I wish I could take a moment to tell you just how much you saved us, but I don't have time for that- we need another favour! We have to get back to the GNN TV station in Rhyme City, right now, or something terrible might just happen! We have to go and make sure it doesn't or a lot of people will get hurt! We need you to take us there!"

"Kazammmm…"

"Uh…" Pikachu looked at Tim. "Tim, he doesn't know where GNN is. What do I tell him?"

Tim thought fast; not only did they need Alakazam's speed, but the time the flying taxi would have been waiting for them would have long since passed, and he was certain they would no longer be waiting. "Alakazam, can you teleport us to the top of a tall building in the city? We could probably point out where GNN is from there, it can be seen from almost anywhere in the city as long as you're not being blocked by another building."

"Oh, good idea! That would be perfect! Can you do that?" Pikachu asked, finally getting some of his breath back.

Alakazam's answer was to Teleport them all again.


Tim couldn't tell where, exactly, they landed in Rhyme City, but that didn't matter; the important thing was that from the rooftop he stood on, he could see the massive GNN building in the distance. Tim pointed to it.

"That one, Alakazam! We need to be at the base of that building!"

"Kazamm…"

Once again, that weightless feeling came, and to his relief, the next thing Tim could see was the GNN building from where he stood right next to it.

Unfortunately, he stood on the wrong side. He was next to the parking garage, on the opposite side from the debate.

Tim groaned, but wasted no time and started running. Pikachu followed, once again waddling on two legs.

It looked as though the entire city had come to the debate. Fear of what could happen rose in Tim's chest. He hated being rude, but he had no time to be polite about it; he pushed his way through the crowd towards the podium, knowing the people he needed to speak to would be there.

He ignored the indignant noises people made as he shoved his way through; at his feet, Pikachu followed closely behind him, huffing out encouragements.

It felt like it took him forever, but at last he shoved the last couple of people aside and saw who he wanted to speak with- it looked like most of the staff from GNN was next to the stage, Mr. Graham in front of them, and off to the side in another group were Mayor Helding and a few other people, most of whom he recognized from the ads on TV that ran their campaign pitches. Tim vaulted over the railing that had been set up to keep the crowds back, dodging past a guard who looked more startled then anything (was that the guard he knew from the PCL and previous visits to GNN?) and sprinted over, barely registering Pikachu puffing after him.

When he got near, Graham looked over, his attention diverted by the noise and movement. He looked rather shocked himself, but made some sort of gesture at him. At the same time, Tim felt someone snag the arm of his sweater, then abruptly let go. Tim pulled his arm away and kept running until he stopped in front of the GNN president.

"Tim, what's going on?" he asked. "Is something wrong?"

A few other voices called his name as well. Two of the other callers, he recognized easily.

"Mr. Graham." He panted. "You have to get everyone out of here. You're all in danger."

"What?"

"Tim!" Emilia and Meiko had pushed through their own crowd to join him, Plusle and Minun visible on Meiko's shoulders. "Tim… What happened to you?"

At Emilia's question, Tim reflexively looked down at himself, realizing then that crawling through air vents that hadn't been inspected or cleaned in years had left him filthier than he could ever have imagined.

But there was no time to feel self-conscious about that.

"Listen to me. Everyone here has to evacuate. I don't have time to explain it, but there's going to be… an attack." Tim said in a rush, using the first word he could think of to describe what was going to happen.

Mr. Graham's eyes narrowed, his brows furrowing. "What?"

"What are you talking about, Tim?"

Tim ignored Meiko's question, his focus staying on Graham until a third voice he recognized spoke up.

"Is there something wrong, Ethan? We're supposed to be going up to the podium by now. I'd like to get things started." Mayor Helding walked over, looking rather impatient.

"You can't." Tim told him. "If you don't all get out of here, it will be a disaster. Worse than the parade would have been if R was released, maybe. Everyone has to evacuate, now."

"Tim, if they're supposed to be going up onto that stage right now, then we don't have much time left!" Pikachu warned. "I don't think whoever's behind this would time this to start too long after the debate itself."

"Preposterous." The Mayor said. "I mean, look, Tim. I know you've done some incredible things for this city. You deserve to be commended, perhaps even awarded a medal. But you can't just interrupt an event this important and demand we all leave with no explanation or evidence as to why. This is too important. We're supposed to be taking our places now; your arrival here stopped us from going up the stairs. We need to get up there, and whatever you're doing needs to stop."

Tim glared at him, and looked back at Ethan Graham. "Look, when we were on the SS Prime Treasure and I told you I'd found the thief, you told me you knew you could count on me. And even when I made the thief out as one of your friends, you believed me. If you believed in me then, believe me now. This place needs to be evacuated, or it's going to turn into a massacre."

He heard Emilia gasp. He kept his eyes on Mr. Graham's, though, who looked at him for a moment, then nodded.

"Yes. I know you well enough, Tim, that I know you wouldn't do this without reason."

"You can't be serious!" Mayor Helding interrupted. "This has been planned for months! We can't just stop it now and send everyone home! I'm the Mayor, and I say this goes forward."

"I am sorry, Mayor Helding," Graham said, turning to face him. At his feet, Tim heard Pikachu mutter something about acting like a stuck-up prat today. "But I am the president of GNN, and as such, this can't go forward on this property without my consent. I know you were excited about this debate, but it's going to have to be done on a different date. Hiro, a microphone, please?" he added, looking at his crowd of staff. Despite the phrasing, it was not a request. Tim glanced over and realized that Hiro had made his way through it as well, and was behind Emilia and Meiko, who looked at him in confusion. Hiro pushed past both of them to hand Mr. Graham a microphone.

"Tim, what's going on?"

He looked at Emilia. "I can't explain it now, there's no time. When exactly was the debate supposed to begin?"

"Well, Mr. Graham was going to introduce all of them first, and a few photos were going to be taken, so the debate itself was going to start at 6:10."

Tim checked his watch. "That leaves… six minutes that I can be sure of. Look, you need to get out of here too, now. Everyone here has to get far away, as fast as they can."

"Excuse me, everyone! I'm terribly sorry, but I've just been informed that this event must be cancelled immediately and all of you here need to evacuate. I ask you to do so quickly and calmly and I do apologize. I promise all of you will find out exactly what is going on as soon as this issue has been resolved. Right now I need everyone to leave the premises. And that means everyone." Mr. Graham's voice rang through the speakers, and on the last sentence he looked over towards his staff and Tim and nodded.

Tim sighed in relief when he saw people grumbling, looking confused and angry, but turning to leave. He looked back at Meiko and Emilia.

Meiko had a stubborn set about her posture. "We aren't going anywhere until we see you coming."

"I'm coming now." he told her. At his words, Emilia looked relieved.

He had only taken two steps, however, when Pikachu called out, "Tim, trouble!"

Tim turned to see Mayor Helding grabbing Mr. Graham by the shoulder.

"No! Why in your right mind would you take the word of a child on a matter such as this? This took more planning than you know! And you want to just, just-"

"Mayor Helding, Tim is very trustworthy. He would never do something like this unless there was real danger. I know you don't know him like I do, but after all you must have heard about him, you surely can't think he's lying?"

Tim ran back to where the two men argued.

"Sir, I'm sorry I interrupted your debate. But people are in danger here, I'm sure of it, and their safety is the most important, right?"

Mayor Helding hesitated for a moment, then nodded, looking ashamed. "I… yes, yes, of course you're right. I forgot myself. I'm terribly sorry, Tim. Where do we need to go, where will be safest? What sort of danger are we facing, here?"

"There isn't time to explain. There's no particular place we'll be safer- just the further away from here, the better."

"But how do we know we aren't going straight into where the danger is coming from? People could be heading into it right now!" the Mayor insisted. Tim grit his teeth.

"Because the danger is here. Any direction is fine, you just have to get away, now!"

Anger had crept into Tim's voice; this seemed to convince the Mayor.

"Very well. I'll make sure the other mayoral candidates get far from here. They were off in that direction, I think… hmm? What's this now?"

Mayor Helding glanced towards where the crowd had been dispersing. Tim, fighting down the panic rising with every passing second, looked as well.

One of the people in the crowd, a woman, was pushing towards them.

"Oh, my, uh, niece." The Mayor muttered. "I'll talk to her."

"You don't have time to stand here and talk!" Tim cried. "We've got-" he checked his watch, and his heart sank. "Two minutes!"

How had that much time passed already? Tim had no doubt that the disaster would begin within moments of the start of the debate; that's when it would have the biggest effect, he was sure.

"Y-yes, I'll tell her we need to get away right now. We'll be going, don't you worry." The Mayor stuttered.

Tim sighed in relief and looked at Mr. Graham. "You have to go too, now." he told the GNN president. "There's not much time left."

"Then let's go all together. They're waiting for you." Graham turned and began to hurry away, and when Tim followed, he saw that not only Emilia and Meiko were waiting where he had left them, but Inspector Holiday and Lieutenant Brad McMasters were both there, too.

Tim was shocked, but didn't stop to wonder about it. Instead, he raced back over, Ethan Graham right behind him.

"This had better be good, Tim." Brad sneered.

"It is. If we get far enough away, we might just live to tell about it." Tim snapped back. They didn't have time for this.

"That's enough. Everyone, let's get moving." Holiday ordered calmly. As they started moving away, he added to Tim, "I wish you'd come to us about what you found first. We, and others from the police department, were ordered here as security. We haven't seen any threats. But I'll trust you, Tim."

"There wasn't time for me to tell anyone specific." Tim panted. "As soon as I got here, I went to find Mr. Graham. And I didn't even know you were here. But you won't have seen it, it was hidden here before the people got here. I'm not sure how to stop it, but the closer we are, the more-"

Tim was interrupted by a crunching sound. A crack followed it.

"Oh, no, Tim! We're too late- the stage!" Pikachu cried. Tim stopped and turned, unable to help himself.

The others stopped when he did, looking in the direction of the noise. The overlarge stage came crashing apart as massive, silvery-white wings burst through them, a head attached to a long neck breaking through the top.

Lugia's mouth opened to give an enraged, somewhat musical-sounding screech. It gave itself a hard shake, once, freeing itself from the ruins of the ridiculous podium set-up. It screamed again.

Other people, having not yet gotten far enough away, screamed in response.

Tim shook free of his shock. "RUN!" he yelled. "All of you, just run!"

Lugia's head swiveled at all of the noise, as if unsure where to attack. Tim turned to start running again, grabbing Emilia by the arm and giving Meiko's shoulder a push. "Run!"

They began running again, Graham, Holiday, and Brad snapping out of it and joining them, with Pikachu on Tim's heels as always.

Another screech from Lugia sounded behind them. Then, an earsplitting sound Tim couldn't really describe tore through the air, and a massive explosion and crashing sound followed. When Tim looked towards it, he saw a huge funnel of energy tearing into the GNN building, making quick work of its bottom couple of floors… and once those were weakened, he knew, the many, many top ones would come crashing down. Lugia would probably fly out unscathed, but they would not.

The only thing Tim could think of was to try to stop Lugia before the bottom floors were too weak to hold up the rest of the building. He stopped, picked up a stone, and threw it. He knew he was probably too far away from Lugia now to actually hit it, but he hoped it would either come close enough or make enough noise to distract it.

Plusle and Minun, still on Meiko's shoulders and having been uncharacteristically quiet up until this point, both began shrieking.

However, when Lugia stopped, it didn't seem to be either Tim's stone or the shrieks of the Cheering Pokemon that distracted it. Instead, it screeched in outrage, and its head shot downward, striking out at something at one of its feet.

Tim wasn't sure what it was, but he used it.

"Get away from GNN!" he shouted, turning back to the others. "I don't know how long it will stay standing! We have to get out of here, now!"

All of them began running in the direction that would take them away from both the rampaging legendary and the damaged building. As they ran, Holiday yelled, "Tim, what is Lugia even doing here? What's going on?"

"It was brought here with one of those stones strapped to it- one of those stones like that Feraligatr had, that was almost like R!" Tim yelled to him. "Listen! I heard two of the people who were making those stones say that two of the stones were a success! Lugia was supposed to be fitted with one of those and hidden here to cause a scene, but someone messed up and one of the failed stones was used instead! It's just like the one on Feraligatr… there was someone here who was supposed to control it, but because it got the wrong stone, there's nothing now that will stop it!"

"Oh, no!" Tim heard Emilia pant. He had let go of her arm some time ago, but she was still just a step or two ahead of him, on his right.

A howl sounded from behind him, and a huge blast. They ignored those, but couldn't ignore the massive crashing and cracking.

Looking, Tim realized another attack Lugia had unleashed had smashed another part of GNN; too unstable now, the building was coming down.

Chunks of the wall began crashing to the ground near them. The girls both screamed; so did Pikachu, and Tim yelped as one nearly hit his side.

Graham took a Pokeball off his waist- Tim didn't even know the man had a Pokemon- and sent out a Metagross.

"Keep those off of us!" he ordered, and Metagross sent up a psychic barrier.

"That won't hold for long, not for a building as large as GNN- keep running!" Tim cried.

Tim didn't know how long it took. All he knew is that they ran for all they were worth, until Metagross' barrier failed. When the rocks began falling around them again, Graham recalled Metagross, but as larger chunks fell and more of the building toppled towards them, Tim realized there wouldn't be an escape for them. They hadn't had enough time to get away from a collapsing building as large as GNN; they were going to be crushed underneath it.

When ever-larger chunks of the building blocked the path immediately in front of them, the others seemed to realize it too. They stopped, turning, to watch as the enormous structure crashed towards them, seemingly unable to do anything else.

All Tim could think of was that he was going to lose almost everyone, all at once. He hadn't been able to stop it. He'd failed, again.

"Tim…" Emilia's voice shook. Looking at her, he could see both her and Meiko looking at him in fear.

He stepped toward them; Meiko grabbed his arm, and he wrapped it around her, reaching for Emilia with the other. She stepped into it, and he pulled her as close as he could. He could feel Pikachu all but sitting on his feet, and Pluse and Minun squirming on Meiko's shoulders, and a pain different from the one caused by his ribs ripped through his chest at the fact that he couldn't protect any of them, nor anyone else. He was going to lose them all.

He felt Emilia's hands grasp the front of his sweater and heard her breath come in fearful, ragged pants- or was that his breath? It didn't matter. He shut his eyes and held her and Meiko both tightly, feeling the others nearby also press in around them, waiting for the impact he knew was coming, expecting every breath he took to be his last.

The noise was terrible. The crashing seemed to go on forever, and Tim was surprised his eardrums didn't rupture from the volume. But the real surprise was that nothing ever struck him. He stayed where he was, frozen, to terrified to move lest he find out that he had simply just died so quickly he didn't know what hit him, but when the cacophony finally died down, and it seemed so quiet that it was like the world itself had stopped breathing, he slowly opened his eyes and looked up.

Around him, he could see the others he had been with doing the same. Emilia kept her grip on his sweater, but opened her eyes as well and looked around, as did Meiko.

Around all of them shimmered a purple, almost pearlescent barrier that seemed to swirl and move. Something- some sort of Pokemon, it had to be- had saved them.

But how had any Pokemon been strong enough to hold a barrier against the collapse of an entire building?

Tim let go of Emilia and turned away, looking around. When he saw the barrier's maker, his breath caught in his throat. Around him, he heard gasps as the others, too, looked and saw their savior.

After all of Tim's searching had turned up nothing that would lead him to it, the Pokemon had come to him.

It was Mewtwo.