Pokemon (Detective Pikachu)
A Legendary Search
A/N: Realized after I posted the last chapter that I never thanked the guest reviewer for leaving their review. So I would like to do it here: Thank you, Guest! I'm glad you liked it.
I'll be doing my best to get back to everyone who leaves a review- if you're signed in, I'll try to shoot you a message, if you're not, I'll be making a note in the next chapter a I post... or at the very least, I will be trying to. my life is less organized than I would currently like at the moment, plus fanfiction seems to have some bugs right now as they sent me an email about one review, but not the other, and not about the favourite/follow either... so hopefully fanfiction and I will both get more organized soon, to provide a better story experience. And speaking of story, I'll let you get on with it.
3. A Pokemon Rampaging
They walked around a sizable portion of the city, passing the Sunny's diner they had found Meowth at before while Tim was wondering how, even in a sizable city like this one, his father hadn't been sighted even once. Tim wondered if the police had contacted nearby towns and cities to be on the lookout when Pikachu interrupted his thoughts.
"I wonder what that guy's so pleased about."
Tim looked up and saw that the man Pikachu was indicating, a dark-skinned young man with brown hair cut at his earlobes, did indeed seem quite pleased with himself as he packed up what looked like art equipment, mainly ones for painting.
"Is he a painter?" Tim asked softly. He hadn't seen the man when he was here earlier, but then, it was possible he could have missed him. Perhaps he had been inside? Thinking back, Tim realized there had been a blank easel in front of one of the windows of the diner, so maybe he had been.
"One way to find out." Pikachu said, and off he went, charging towards the man.
"Hey! There's no need to bother him!" Tim hissed, but Pikachu was already gone. Tim sighed.
Pikachu climbed onto the trunk of the car the man was loading his stuff into after waiting for him to turn around for the last of his things. When the man turned again, it was to see Pikachu standing in his car, inspecting his things.
"What…?"
Tim hurried up. "I'm so sorry! Pikachu, knock it off! Get out of there, what are you doing?"
Pikachu held up a rather large brush that looked as though it had been rinsed off, but still held traces of coloured paint on the bristles at the edges. "Definitely a painter, Tim! And by the looks of the paintings in here, he's pretty good!"
The man blinked in surprise at Tim, then grinned and looked back at Pikachu. "Interested in my painting supplies, are you? Never heard of a Pikachu painter before. Smeargle, definitely, and I saw a Mawile painting on TV once, but never a Pikachu."
Tim pried the brush out of Pikachu's hand. "Seriously, Pikachu?" he hissed under his breath so that only the yellow mouse Pokemon could hear him. "I know you're a detective, but that doesn't mean you need to be in everyone's business!"
"Yes, Tim, it does!" Pikachu said indignantly. "As a detective, you're supposed to get into everything! You never know when the most useless-seeming information might prove to be exactly what you need! You won't find out nearly as much if you don't go looking for any information you can find on everything you can!"
Tim ignored him and lifted him out of the trunk, setting him on the ground. He turned to face the painter, still holding the man's brush, as the painter put the things he was holding into the space Pikachu was no longer occupying.
"I'm really sorry about that. Pikachu likes to get into everything."
The man laughed. "No worries, friend! It's always kind of fun when even the Pokemon get interested in my work. The name's Mike. Good to meet you."
"It's nice to meet you too. My name is Tim. You're a painter, then?"
Mike nodded. "I am. You could also kind of call me a street artist. I make my living by setting up outside shops that let me do so and selling my work. This place kindly lets me stand out front here on Thursdays. I'm at a different location each day of the week."
"Oh, I see… you're here Thursdays, at a different spot for Fridays, another spot for Saturdays, and so on like that?"
"Yep. It keeps things interesting. Some people are surprised to see me, and some have my schedule figured out!" Mike chuckled, and Tim smiled.
"Sounds like fun. You must really like your work, you seem really pleased."
"Oh, I do. Not a lifestyle for the faint of heart, but I do. But I had really good business today, with the strangest request I've ever received. It was pretty funny, really. Seems I've helped with a couple men playing a joke one someone."
"A joke?"
Mike grinned. "I do commissions as well as sell paintings I've done at my own leisure. A couple of men brought me over to a truck a few hours ago and had me paint a perfect replica of the inside of it that they could set up in the truck to make the back of the inside look closer than it was, making it so that they could hide things behind it. They told me they were going to play a joke on the younger brother of the big man with the beard; take things into the truck and have them disappear, I think. Or maybe they were planning to hide behind it themselves and jump out to scare the guy when he went looking for them. I thought it was funny, too. Too bad I won't be there to watch. The only part that will be a shame is when they rip the paper to reveal the trick, it took me hours to paint it."
Tim chuckled. "That will be some joke, alright."
"Oh, it will. I was surprised, too, at how much they were willing to pay. They wanted to make sure it looked perfect and there was no way it could be figured out beforehand… they were willing to offer me a pretty hefty sum. But then, I suppose some people really enjoy getting one over on their siblings, huh."
Tim thought back to his own sibling- they had gotten along pretty well, but sometimes they had had some impressive disagreements. "Maybe. Depends on what his brother might have done, too. Maybe he wants to get back at him for a fight. But either way, I bet it will be an impressive prank."
"Oh, it should be." Mike laughed.
"Well, good luck on your painting! I hope everything goes well for you tomorrow, too!"
"Thanks. You have a good day as well!" Mike took his brush back from Tim, and put it into his car. Tim turned to leave, Pikachu following, as Mike went to the front of it to get in.
"See! You get lots of information when you poke around! And the best way to do it is what we just did- get a Pokemon to get into things, and the human can start up a conversation! It's a perfect way to work!"
"You're right on it being easy to start a conversation, Pikachu, but I can't see how the things we learned about Mike and his work today are going to be useful someday."
"Well, maybe they won't be. And maybe they will! You never know unless you look into things, isn't that right?"
Tim sighed and decided at that point just to humor him. "Right, Pikachu. Of course."
The walk wasted what was left of the day fairly well, with the planned stop at the Hi Hat Café- Pikachu wouldn't have allowed them to skip it. Pablo found it amusing to see them twice in one day, but Tim simply told him the truth- it was Pikachu's idea.
Pablo just kept laughing. "Well, it's always good to see you, Tim. Hey, did you notice the Café's newest, ah, "wall decoration?" The mayor of Rhyme city has been working lately on new programs aimed at counteracting emergencies. Sounds like he started working on it after that huge R incident- the one where you stopped it being released in the middle of the carnival and had to deal with that Noivern busting up the clock tower. He's trying to put more funds into the police department to stop things like that before they get that far, and he's also trying to prepare for if something like that- or any other incident, big or small, happen, so he got the city to put money into sending emergency kits out to places around the city. I signed up for one- why not make a reputation as a place prepared for anything- and hung it up over there, where it's out of the way but in plain sight!"
Tim looked at the wall across from the bar of the café where Pablo was indicating and saw a large red kit that with a big white plus sign in the middle of it, a pretty universal sign for first aid.
"Oh, wow! It's pretty big- there must be a lot of stuff in there."
"The mayor wanted to be prepared for any possibility. 'It's a city full of Pokemon,' he pointed out, 'And accidents happen all the time. Mostly small ones, to be sure, but a big accident could be a big disaster even if there's no crazy chemical involved.' The people who signed up for the package got pretty much everything, even one of those big paddle defibrillators, though I hope that never needs to be used."
"Shouldn't only trained professionals use those?" Tim was startled at the very idea of someone thinking one of those might need to be used in a Café. Being prepared for an accident was one thing, but wasn't that a little much?
"Maybe, but sometimes having one in the area is better than paramedics having to worry about grabbing one if the situation is difficult. Besides, I've actually seen someone- on TV, of course- use one to recharge an electric Pokemon. I could certainly do that if, say, your Pikachu ever needs a boost!" Pablo winked at Tim, who chuckled nervously. Pikachu crossed his arms.
"Uh, no thanks. Let's leave the use of those things to the professionals."
"We'll, uh, keep that in mind," Tim told Pablo, "But I think we'll probably pass."
Pablo laughed again.
After getting another coffee for Pikachu and a snack for Tim- he lay awake in bed enough as it was and didn't want another dose of caffeine before trying to sleep- they returned to the apartment to call it a day. Part of Tim was looking forward to when his university courses finally started- they would keep him occupied and hopefully distracted from his missing father. The other part of him dreaded when they started; if they found their lead at that time, Tim would probably end up having to choose between following it and his classes. He was pretty sure he already knew which one he would pick, but he didn't want it to come to that. The sooner his father was found, the better- for his whole family. His mother, he knew, still worried herself sick, and his younger brother wasn't much better off. Last time he had spoken to them, they both had visibly deflated when Tim had no new answers. As they had every time he'd spoken with them.
He desperately hoped that Pikachu was right about at least one thing, and that they would find a lead to follow soon. Tim wasn't sure how much longer he could take the waiting, and couldn't stand the not knowing.
Morning usually came either too slowly, or too soon for Tim. This time it came too soon; he had finally managed to fall asleep sometime around three in the morning, and wished he could have slept longer. Still, he got up, went through his morning routines, and went to the Café with Pikachu as he always did. After that, he normally checked with Mr. Baker to see if there was anything the man wanted Tim to do, but this particular morning, there was a break in their routine when a Pidove, injured, fluttered by them, shrieking. It looked like it might have kept going, but its flying was off, and it ended up hitting a signpost and falling to the ground. Tim raced over and picked it up.
"What is it? What got you, is something happening? You seemed in a panic." Pikachu asked it, voice urgent.
"Pi, pi.. pidove! Dove, pidove!"
"What? Something's happened at Tahnti Park? There's a Pokemon on a rampage?" Pikachu looked up at Tim. "Tim, we better get there right away!"
"Right- I'll give this Pidove to Amanda and Mr. Baker first, they'll be able to help it."
"Good idea, but Tim- hurry!"
Tim nodded and raced up the stairs. Upon reaching the agency, he rapidly explained that the Pidove had fallen in front of him and he thought he recognized it as one of the Pokemon from Tahnti Park and wanted to check and see if anything was going on there- the only explanation he could think of that didn't include Pidove talking. Amanda immediately took charge of the Pidove, given that she had some experience looking after bird Pokemon with Fletchling, while Mr. Baker nodded.
"Alright, but if there is anything dangerous going on, send word back right away. I'll check with Inspector Holiday to see if anything from that area was reported to the police."
"Thank you. I'll let you know if there is something." So saying, Tim rushed back out the door to the car the agency was letting him use, where Pikachu was waiting. If there was a Pokemon going on a rampage, Tim hoped they could calm it down before any other Pokemon or people were hurt, and get to the bottom of the incident. He was fairly certain that all the R should be gone, but the case was still fresh in his mind, despite being a month ago. It was the kind of thing that was hard to forget.
When Tim pulled into the parking lot for the park, he could see flashing police lights straight across on the other side of it. Whatever had happened had been serious, and someone had already called the police. In fact, as Tim got out of his own car, he could see more flashing lights pull into the other area as another police car joined the ones parked by the side of the road at the other end of the park.
"Woah, looks like it's big! Let's get over there!" Pikachu said.
"Right." Tim said, only half listening. He had every intention of getting over there anyway. Leaving at a run, Pikachu struggling to keep up behind him, Tim raced for the flashing lights.
Long before he got there, he heard hysterical Pokemon shrieks, yips, and howls. The voice was slightly familiar, but Tim had a hard time placing it until he got close enough to see that the police had caught a fair-sized black and grey Pokemon in a cage only just big enough for it. Then the memory resurfaced; Tahnti Park was home to a Mightyena that he and Pikachu had spoken to the day Tim had come to Rhyme City. Mightyena was the one making the fuss now.
One of the policemen on the scene turned as he approached, and Tim realized it was Inspector Holiday.
"Ah, Tim." The man said when Tim got close enough. "I just got off the phone with Mr. Baker who told me you were heading here and figured I would come here myself to check things out. It seems this Mightyena here went wild and attacked those two men." Inspector Holiday gestured towards a truck parked near the police cars that had two men leaning against it. "They sheltered inside their truck while they called for help. It's sturdy enough that they were safe, but the Mightyena rampaged the entire time until police got here. The men sent out their Butterfree once police arrived with a cage and paralyzed the Mightyena so we could get it in there. Once the effects wore off, my colleagues had been thinking to see if they could release it, thinking that something just got it angry and this might help get it under control, but once it could move again it became clear that letting it go was not an option. It's still trying to attack."
"Huh? Why is it attacking?" Tim asked, worried. When he'd met Mightyena before, she had been pretty reasonable, at least from what he could tell.
"We have no idea. From what we can tell, it looks like it just went wild. It seems like we're going to have to take it with us. At best, we might need to relocate it where there aren't any people. At worst, we might need to keep it contained. I can tell you for certain that this particular rampaging Pokemon case had no connection to R- it looks like that stuff is completely gone- but without an apparent reason, we can't just let it roam freely where it might hurt others." Holiday told him.
"No way… that Mightyena is a good Pokemon…" Tim said, aghast. What had happened? If R wasn't involved, something must have caused Mightyena to be so upset. Even now, she was throwing herself at the cage, trying desperately to break out. Howling, seizing the bars of the cage in her rather fearsome teeth, she did look frightening, but Tim was more worried for her then for anyone else. A Pokemon like Mightyena didn't just go crazy.
Huffing and puffing alerted Time to Pikachu catching up at last. He turned around and crouched down.
"Pikachu, what's happened? Why's Mightyena so upset? She tried to attack some people- you need to ask her why she did it!"
Pikachu glared at him. "What, no mention of how you left me behind? Some partner!"
Tim heard the sound of more cars pulling up and looked to see Emilia and Meiko getting out of a car with Meiko's seemingly ever-present camera and other equipment they might need to film the scene. Surprise took over Tim for a moment- how was it that he always managed to bump into them?
Pushing that aside, he looked back at Pikachu. "Alright, sorry about that, but really, Pikachu! Not the time- something's happened here that the police don't understand yet, I just know it, and we have to find out what before Mightyena is taken away!"
Pikachu, turning back towards Tim after staring in shock at the arrival of their friends, looked at Tim with what Tim could only call respect. "Ah! Now you're thinking like a detective! Alright, let's get to the bottom of this mess. I'll see if I can calm Mightyena down enough to tell me what happened. You go ahead and enjoy how Emilia manages to keep turning up wherever you are."
"What? What do you mean by that? That has nothing to do with anything, Pikachu!" Embarrassment prickled hotly in Tim's stomach. Why did Pikachu have to be that way? They were friends, nothing more. Pikachu was just as bad as his father would have been…
No. No, terrible time to start thinking about his father. Tim had to focus on the situation at hand.
Pikachu, unaware of the direction Tim's thoughts had almost turned, just laughed as he walked towards Mightyena.
"Oh, look! Tim, hello! What a coincidence seeing you here!" Meiko's voice rang out clearly across the park even over Mightyena's howling. Tim straightened up and, seeing her and Emilia coming toward him, went to meet them in the middle, giving the cage with Mightyena a wide berth- the looks from the police officers was clearly telling him that they wouldn't let him near her anyway, though so far Pikachu had managed to stay unnoticed.
"Funny how we keep running into incidents together, isn't it?" Meiko said when they got near each other. "Were you here when this happened? Do you know what the cause is?"
"Yeah, it is kind of funny, isn't it? I just got here myself. I know that Mightyena was apparently attacking someone, but I don't know why yet." Tim told her.
"Mightyena was attacking someone? That's strange… I've visited this park a few times, Mightyena never seemed aggressive at all. I wonder what happened to it?" Emilia mused, then her eyes went wide. "You don't think that there still might be-"
Tim looked at her and shook his head, knowing what she was going to say. "No. That was my first thought too, but Inspector Holiday says there's no chance of it being R."
Emilia looked relieved. "Oh, thank goodness. But then, I wonder why it did get so angry?"
Tim opened his mouth and was about to say he was going to investigate it when Pikachu yelled from where he was talking to Mightyena somewhere on Tim's left. It occurred to Tim then that it had become a good bit quieter; the Bite Pokemon was silent.
"Tim! Tim, you were right! Mightyena needs out help, and fast- her babies were stolen! She says all three of them fell asleep, and the last thing she saw was those men with the truck. When she woke, her pups were gone. We have to get on the case and find them, now!" Tim turned abruptly to see Pikachu hurrying towards him, Mightyena looking at him with a desperate stare. "Those Poochyena were poached!"
Her babies. That would explain everything. If someone had indeed stolen her babies, then it was no wonder she was attacking everyone in sight in fury.
But were they stolen? Mightyena had said she fell asleep with them- perhaps they had woken up first and run off to play?
No, Tim realized. If they had, they would have heard the racket Mightyena was making long ago and come running back. If they were still missing, then something had happened.
Pikachu reached him. "We need to do something before they take Mightyena away! We need some time, Tim!"
Time. They didn't have that right now. Mightyena would be taken away any minute. Unless he could convince Inspector Holiday to give the time that he needed.
"Her babies." Tim said aloud.
"What?" Emilia asked. Tim looked back at her and thought rapidly.
"Mightyenas' babies. She had two of them. I don't see either of them anywhere… sorry, I need to talk to Inspector Holiday." Turning, Tim raced back to Holiday.
"Alright, well, let's pick up that cage and get that Mightyena to-"
Panic rose inside Tim as he got near enough to hear what Inspector Holiday was saying and he yelled, "Wait!"
Startled, Holiday turned to him, and so did the man he was talking to. To Tim's dismay, he realized it was Brad McMaster. He wasn't going to make it easy for Tim to prove anything had happened if he had his mind made up already, but hopefully Tim could at least point out that the Poochyena were missing.
Pikachu growled as he rushed after Tim, spotting both Brad and Manectric. Tim ignored him.
"Inspector Holiday, wait! Don't take her anywhere yet! I think she's miss-"
"Don't take away such a dangerous Pokemon? How ridiculous. Just let us do our job." Brad said scornfully. Holiday held up a hand.
"Now, now. Tim might have found something we didn't. Let's hear what he has to say."
"Thank you." Tim felt considerably relieved. "Inspector Holiday, that Mightyena has two babies. I don't see either one of them anywhere. I would have thought that they would have come running with all the fuss their mother was making, but they aren't here. If something happened to her babies, I think that would explain why she went on a rampage. I don't know it for sure, of course, but I think it's worth looking into."
Holiday put a hand to his chin and his eyebrows came together as he thought. Then he nodded. "You're right. I'll have a couple men search the park, just in case. We'll still have to take her with us if we don't find them, but you're right, it's worth looking into. Any Pokemon would go wild if their offspring was in trouble."
"Thank you." Tim managed not to sigh in relief. "I'm going to look too."
Holiday nodded. Brad, on the other hand, drawled, "What if a trainer came by and befriended them? If they decided to leave their mother and go with a Trainer, that's easily a possibility, you know. Pokemon in the park take a liking to frequent visitors all the time."
To Tim's surprise, it was Holiday who replied with, "And if we find out that's the case, then we will take Mightyena away and give it some time to calm down. But we need to look into the possibility that they're hurt or something, just to be thorough. I trust Tim's judgement, Brad; if he thinks something happened, it's worth looking into. Or did you forget? I was told by the others how you were so certain that Dr. Waals was guilty on Cappucci Island that Tim had to uncover the real truth because you made any evidence you found fit what you wanted. You're a good lieutenant, Brad, but you need to remember to do the work with an open mind. Not everything is going to be what you expect or have an easy answer."
Pikachu laughed. "Oh, man, do you hear them go? Best. Moment. Ever."
"Pikachu, that's not what we need to focus on now. We only have time while the park is searched. We have to find out what happened before then." Tim hissed.
"I know that! But come on, stop and enjoy this just for a moment! It may never happen again, you know!"
Tim rolled his eyes.
"So, what's going on now?"
The new voice pulled Tim's attention away from Pikachu, and he realized that Emilia and Meiko had made their way over to them.
"Oh, the police are going to search the park for Mightyena's babies to see if anything happened to them. I'm going to look, too."
"Oh, good." Emilia was the one who spoke this time. "I hope they're found soon. Maybe we could help- we could ask the people around the park what happened or if they've seen them. We can let you know what we find."
"Hey, yeah! We can help with this case too!" Meiko winked from behind her camera.
"So if they talk to the people around here, we can check with Mightyena again and see if we can trace back what happened." Pikachu mused. Keeping his gaze on Emilia and Meiko, Tim nodded.
"That would be great, thank you!"
"Hey, it's only something we need to do anyway!"
Emilia smiled. "Meiko's right. Good luck, Tim!"
Tim returned the smiled and nodded. "You too."
"Well, isn't that helpful? Still, interviewing the Pokemon will be something only we can do. I'd like to talk to Mightyena again; still, if you said you were going to look for the Poochyena, it might seem odd if you just hang around here while I talk to her. Maybe what you could try doing is head to the area that Mightyena usually hang around in, while I talk to her here. You remember where that is, right?"
"Of course I do. It's near where the Aipom stay… I hope they don't give me any trouble." Tim sighed. Pikachu laughed.
"Well, Tim, then I'll join you there when I'm done. Let's see what we can find out!"
"Right."