Pokemon (Detective Pikachu)

A Legendary Search

A/N: Quick thank you to the guest review last chapter! I can't send you a private message as I do for those who have logged in, but I'm glad you enjoyed it! Eventually the answers will be found, but it will take some time to get there.

21. What The Plan Is

The two frantically mapped out the building as fast as they could, searching for something, anything, that they could use as evidence incriminating enough to shut the operations here down. But not until nearly another hour passed, Tim's heart in his throat the entire time, when they had mapped what must have been nearly the entire building, did they finally come across a room filled with boxes. An open one was filled with the same headband device Tim had managed to remove from the Feraligatr.

Tim immediately removed the vent cover as quietly as he could and snapped a couple pictures of the room and the open box. Pikachu, after looking around carefully, hopped out of the vent and stole over to the box when Tim was done.

Just as Pikachu grabbed one of the headbands, Tim heard a rattling sound and Pikachu looked up in horror. For a moment, Tim thought he was looking at him, but then he realized Pikachu was looking at something underneath him. No sooner did Tim realize that than Pikachu waddled back over to the vent, slow as ever on his hind legs.

"Come on, Pikachu!" Tim hissed. "Sooner or later, you have to break down and just run on all fours when it's important!"

Pikachu threw the headband up at Tim. "No, that's so undignified." He complained. Tim caught it and retracted his hand just as the door opened to reveal Pikachu standing there.

"What? How did a Pikachu get in here?" an annoyed voice asked.

"Well, how do the Rattata get around? I've told you that I've seen them." The voice that answered was exasperated.

"Great. So we need to fix the vents, then. Just screwing in the grate in that old storage room obviously wasn't enough. We can't have Pokemon getting into things they shouldn't… wait. Wait just a moment. That Pikachu is wearing a hat."

Tim froze.

"And I'd say that's a very familiar hat, too. Doesn't it belong to that detective boy that H wants out of his way so badly?"

"Tim, go! Get out of sight, now!" Pikachu yelled, knowing the scientists wouldn't understand him. "Head for the area we haven't seen yet- we might as well finish mapping if we can, then bolt! And if not, at least we'll know as much layout as we can if we end up being chased through the building! Go, go!"

Tim was moving before Pikachu was halfway through his urging, pulling himself along the vent; he did not want to be visible when the researchers checked it.

In the room outside the vent, he heard one of the researchers curse and tell the other, "Go after it! Do not let it escape! If that detective boy is here, H is going to kill us! He spent years grooming this idea into place, all to make it look like someone else engineered it to begin with! Even if the only thing that boy knows is that someone else is behind the scenes that not even the people who committed the crimes know about, then we're ruined!"

Tim continued crawling down the vent, with the fleeting thought that this person in charge of all the research was rather stupid- he'd just hollered something he didn't want a potential intruder to know down the hall while knowing there was probably an intruder. Even if he thought Tim already knew it, he would have been far better off to keep his mouth shut.

Pushing that thought aside, he concentrated on crawling down the vent as fast as he could, planning to glance through vents that he passed and try to memorize what was through them so he could draw it later. Behind him, as he worked his way around a corner, he heard a voice echo through the vent.

"Hey! Stop! I see you!"

Tim bit back a curse of his own. One of the men had stuck his head in the vent and seen him; he hadn't turned fast enough. Now his only advantage was that they had no way to see what way he was going, other than the direction he had just gone in. He would have to turn again as soon as he could.

He had crawled down a couple of turns when he realized he'd lost track of his mapping and had no idea where he was. The only thing he could do now was keep moving and see if he could recognize something.

Tim froze as he heard voices nearby. He didn't want to alert them he was near with noise from his movements, but when he heard them talking, he wished he'd still kept going.

"Get everyone with Pokemon small enough to send them into the vents. We have to flush that boy out of there. Anyone who catches him, or that Pikachu of his, will get a bonus, I'm sure H will give us one. He wants that boy out of his way."

Tim got moving again, trying to remain silent. He supposed hearing it was a stroke of good luck, but he had no idea what to do from here. If he didn't get out of the vents soon, then he could at any moment come face to face with a Pokemon much better equipped to move around in there then he was, and then he'd probably be finished.

Tim crawled as far as he could, listening hard for either people outside or Pokemon racing within the vents. Most of the time, he held his breath until he couldn't.

He knew it wasn't really the best strategy, but given that he had nowhere to run, fear made it hard to breathe.

His luck ran out; ahead of him, just around the corner, he heard the scraping and rattling of a Pokemon in the vent. Part of him prayed that it was a Rattata searching for food, but the other part knew that wasn't likely.

Then he realized there was another vent opening just ahead of him, and he realized he had two options. Be caught for certain by the Pokemon when it turned the corner in mere moments, or take a chance outside the vent. Neither one was good, but Tim had to choose fast, and he didn't want to get caught. He hauled himself forward and shoved out the vent, then grabbed the edges and pulled with all his might to force his shoulders through the opening. His heart raced so fast he thought he might be sick, terrified that he was going to escape the Pokemon in the vent only to land right in front of the people who searched for him, but he shut his eyes and fell out of the wall.

The moment he hit the ground, his body started hurting in all of the half-healed places as well as a few new ones, but he opened his eyes and rolled to his feet, ready to face people if he had to.

The room, however, was empty. It was an odd room, cold and full of strange machinery, but he couldn't focus on that now; he grabbed the vent cover and jammed it back in place, then tucked himself underneath it where he couldn't be seen by the Pokemon in it.

He heard it over his head, scuffling around. He even heard it sniffing as though trying to pick up his scent; did it have its nose against the vent cover? Did it know he was in here?

His heart pounding in his ears, Tim held his breath yet again and waited, frozen. The Pokemon above him scuffled around, sniffing, making some sort of snorting noise he couldn't quite place.

Then it left.

When the noise it made faded, Tim couldn't help himself. He groaned and slid down the wall to sit on the floor, knees giving out in his relief and the rest of his body aching. Somehow, he had gotten away.

For now.

Tim forced himself to stand again. He had gotten away for now, yes, but he certainly couldn't hide in this room for long. Stepping cautiously out into the middle of it, Tim looked around. This room only had one exit; if someone came through it, Tim would be trapped.

Still, he took a minute to look around. At one end of the room were what looked like several large airtight chambers with large metal tubes coming out of the tops of them. There was some sort of computer hooked up next to each one. The rest of the room was fairly empty, not just cold in temperature but cold-looking as well, the floor and walls all tiled. Glancing at the door again, Tim realized that it, too, had a rubber seal around it to make it airtight.

Tim swallowed, looking back up at the vent. The vent, he saw now, had a plate of metal hovering over it on sliders, rubber sealing around both the vent opening and the metal plate. Clearly, this room was designed to seal completely if needed to trap anything and everything inside. Not even air would be able to escape. Tim began worrying again; if they found him in here, they could seal him in here, with no way out.

Tim headed for the door, relieved to find that it was not locked. He opened it very slowly, carefully watching through the crack as it widened and listening hard.

No one was outside. He was at the end of a hall, with one door directly across from him, a wall to his left, and the hall on his right, which was perhaps ten to fifteen feet in length before it made a sharp turn to the right.

Tim was about to step outside when he heard hurried footsteps, far away but coming closer. Before he could shut the door, though, a yellow Pokemon raced around the corner.

Pikachu looked up and saw him. "Oh, Tim! Let me in there!"

Tim held the door open while Pikachu raced towards him, for once on all fours. Skittering through it, Tim shut it and looked at him.

"I decided you were right about running on all fours." Pikachu panted. "My dignity is worth a lot, but not quite as much as my life. I heard the one man ordering the others not to let us leave, by any means necessary. Definitely no joke- he means to make sure we don't get out of here alive."

"Yeah, I got that." Tim's voice came out it what was almost a sigh. "The vents aren't safe, Pikachu. They've got their own Pokemon in them. We have to find another way out."

"Alright, well let's see your map." Pikachu said, panting a little less heavily.

"Sure, but I'm afraid I managed to get lost. I lost track and have no idea where we are."

"Ah, well luckily, I do. In fact, pretty sure I can help with finishing that map for you now. I'll describe, you draw."

Tim opened his notebook to the page they needed and, under Pikachu's direction, filled in rooms and hallways until they had the map more-or-less finished, except for any rooms that might be connected to other rooms.

Once he was finished, Tim went over the map. As long as they could get out of the hallway they were at the end of and get past two hallway forks that led to dead ends, Tim could see two possible routes back to the storage room where Alakazam waited for them, and three to the exit of the building that the scientists used, though Tim would prefer not to use that if at all possible- if Alakazam teleported them out, the researchers wouldn't know where to start looking for the two of them, whereas leaving through the door might turn into a chase. Plus, Tim was pretty sure that the only way they could get back to Rhyme City in time to warn anyone of an impending disaster was if Alakazam teleported them right there, especially since he had no idea what it was or where it could be taking place.

Tim looked up, about to say this to Pikachu, before realizing that Pikachu was no longer paying attention to him or the map. Instead, the yellow mouse Pokemon had wandered over to examine the chambers Tim had noticed earlier.

"What on earth did they do in this room?" Pikachu muttered.

"I don't know. But Pikachu, look- there's airtight sealing everywhere. If they find us in here, they can seal it, and we're done. We can't stay here." Tim pointed out the door and vent. "And weren't they just chasing you? They might figure it out."

"Nah, they were a couple turns behind. You saw on the map we drew that this area has forks and turns everywhere, right? They've no idea which ones I went down, they were too far behind. I do see your point about being trapped though. But let's take a couple pictures of these before we bail out of here, I've got the feeling these aren't anything good."

"Oh- alright. Good idea." Tim joined him and used his father's locket to snap a couple pictures of the chambers, then used a page on his notebook to scribble down a few rapid sentences on what he'd heard and seen since his last notes. Looking at the chambers more closely when he finished, Tim muttered, "Were they trying to keep something in these?"

"Tim, look! Look at this!" Pikachu reached into a chamber that was slightly open.

Tim glanced over in time to see Pikachu pull out a large, perfect, shining silver feather.

Tim took the feather when Pikachu offered it to him to examine. The feather was the most amazing one Tim had ever seen; it literally sparkled, and was coated with a thin film of oil that came away on his fingers just a little when he ran his fingers along the edge.

Tim rubbed his fingers together. "If it's oily, does that mean it's from a bird-like Pokemon that also goes underwater?" he murmured.

"Could be. Take a picture."

Tim held the feather up and pushed the door of the chamber a little further open, to catch the inside of it in the picture. He saw a couple more of the feathers inside.

Once he had the picture, a wave of an odd, somewhat unpleasant smell washed over him, and he gave a small cough. Pikachu backed away with a grunt of disgust.

"What is that? Smells a little bit like… like the powder in that truck that I smelled before it knocked me out, but it's also not that. Way more putrid."

"What do you mean, the powder in the truck? What truck?" Tim asked, confused.

"You know, the Poochyena poaching case, with the truck." Pikachu elaborated.

"Oh, you mean Butterfree's Sleep Powder? You smell that? Wait a minute…" Tim thought hard, remembering. "That notebook detailing the experiment, it had an entry about using a gas to keep the legendary Pokemon asleep in containment. They said it was using Koffing, Weezing, and Butterfree, I think. If you smell Butterfree's Sleep Powder in here, but more than that, then that means… this is…"

Pikachu's eyes widened. "This is where they were keeping them! Given that the smell didn't knock us out, it must have dissipated quite a bit, but the fact that we can still smell it means it can't have been all that long ago- probably a day, at most, in a room like this one."

"So they took Mew and Lugia out of the chambers for something…"

Tim thought back to the conversation from earlier.

"And I bet one of them is for that event they were talking about! I bet one of either Mew or Lugia was the one fit with a faulty headband and sent to whatever event they were planning to cause a disaster at."

"And that means we need to go, now. We have the evidence we need, and now we know what we're up against. If a Legendary Pokemon goes crazy like that Feraligatr did, Tim, there's going to be nothing left of Rhyme City! We have to figure out exactly where it is, and get there, right now! Before it's too late!"

Pikachu darted towards the door, then stopped. "But where would they be? Rhyme City is big. Lots of things go on all the time. How do we start looking?"

Tim's notebook dropped from his hand. "I don't think we need to worry about looking, Pikachu." He said. He could barely get the words out of a mouth that had run dry.

"What? What do you mean?"

"A big event… with lots of important people… lots of other people… more coverage then we could imagine… I'm pretty sure I know exactly where they are." Tim said hoarsely. Now that he remembered it, Tim checked his watch.

"And it starts in… ten minutes."

Pikachu's eyes widened in horror. "The debate in front of GNN! If that goes ahead and the legendary isn't stopped, deaths could be in the thousands!"

"And among them…" Tim's voice cracked as he imagined the people he knew lying among the wreckage. He couldn't lose anyone else. He couldn't.

Especially not her, Tim thought as red hair drifted into his mind's eye. His real eyes watered.

"But wait. Who are we talking, then? Must be Mew, right? Lugia would be really hard to hide there." Pikachu mused. "If it's Mew, we might be able to come up behind it to get the headband off, if it comes to it. We might have to tag-team it from different directions, though, since it's a Psychic type.

"I'm not so sure it will be Mew, Pikachu." Tim said, grabbing his notebook and shoving it into a pocket.

"But how would they hide Lugia? It's over an entire story tall. You can't sneak something like that into an event while lots of people are watching."

"They don't need to sneak it in during the event. It's already there. They brought it in under everyone's nose, inside an oversized, gaudy, ridiculously tall…"

"Stage!" Pikachu shouted. "They stuck Lugia inside the stage? If that's true, Lugia's size alone will make the disaster much worse. Not to mention that the most important people there will be standing on it- they will be taken out right away! Tim!"

Tim was already striding towards the door. "Pikachu, you'll be harder for them to see- when we get out of this room, you have to scout around each corner. We have to take the shortest route to the storage room. If Alakazam can teleport us right to GNN, we might stand a chance of stopping it before it happens. Move, now!"

Opening the door slowly after saying that annoyed Tim, but he firmly reminded himself that if he was caught here, he wouldn't be able to save anyone.

The hallway was empty. Pikachu ran out to scout the corners, as Tim had asked. They got nearly halfway there before once again, their luck ran out.

"Hey! I see them! Both of them!"

Tim did not stop to glance behind him and see the shouter. Bolting immediately, he yelled, "Run Pikachu!"

Pikachu kept pace. "Right with you, Tim!"

Tim's hopes of using the shortest route were dashed when ahead, a couple of researchers blocked it off. Tim made a sharp turn. "This way!"

Tim was thankful he had memorized it. Following the hallways, he kept track of them this way, until he knew he was just two left turns and one right away from the storage room.

That's when their pursuers caught up. One ran out of a hall in front of them, yelling for them to stop. Behind them, Tim heard others catching up as well.

"Tim?" Pikachu's call was a frantic question.

The thought of losing his friends- of losing Emilia- drifted into his mind again.

Not again. Not if he could stop it.

He wasn't losing anyone else.

"Straight ahead, Pikachu!" Tim ordered, pouring on speed from a reserve he didn't know he had.

The man in front of him looked shocked as he kept coming, and flinched as Tim barreled at him.

Tim used that to his advantage, ploughing into him as hard as he could. The man, used to hours of research and not physical labour, was not difficult to knock down. With a crash and a yell, the man was on the ground.

Once again, Tim didn't stop to look. He hoped the man was stunned and wouldn't be able to get up and give chase again, but he had no time to verify that.

"Nice one, Tim!" Pikachu panted.

Tim and Pikachu made their last few turns and arrived at last at the door Tim knew was the storage where Alakazam waited. He grabbed to knob, only to find it locked.

"We gotta break it down Tim- now!"

Tim rammed his shoulder into it, but got nothing but an ache in it for his trouble. The door, he knew, couldn't be all that strong, as neglected as the room and general maintenance had been, but if it was strong enough to hold up against Tim himself, that was the only thing that was going to matter here.

He heard the shouts of their pursuers close in.

"Tim!"

Tim backed up and braced himself against the opposite wall. He couldn't let this door stop him from saving the people who mattered to him.

Pushing hard, he launched himself off the wall towards the door with all his strength, giving a yell as he rammed into it full force.

With a crash, the door snapped off both hinges and flew into the room, off to the side. Pain lanced down Tim's body, including a fiery line of it down his left cheek and branches of it down his not- fully- healed ribs, but he ignored it- he had gotten very good at that lately. Rattata scattered in all directions; Alakazam looked for a moment like he would attack, before realizing who it was.

"Alakazam!" Pikachu wheezed, running in. "You have to get us out of here- right now! Right now!"

"Zam!"

Tim felt that odd, weightless feeling that he had felt during their last teleportation, and the storage room vanished in a flash of light.

A/N: Tim is a little sensitive about losing people. He already can't find his father, whom he looked up to... he has a thing about not losing anyone else. He can't stand the thought of it.

They were able to get out... but can Tim stop his worst fear from happening? They've already been there far longer than they had intended to be and are running out of time...