Chapter 8

"Corpse of a Pokemon"

It would take an hour just to get to Okinawa, but it was the longest one hour of my life. My one big concern was for the safety of Lucy and Psyduck, knowing that they could be hurt or worse. Right away, my one big hunch was that the same guy who attempted to bomb the World Trade Center nearly two years ago is the same guy that attempted to bomb this airliner that my girlfriend of over seven years.

"Tim?" I heard my dad say as he walked up to my seat on the small learjet. "Uh, how are you holding up?"

Both he and Detective Pikachu gave me worried glances as they waited for an answer from me.

"It's gotta be him, dad," I muttered to myself. "It's got to be the same guy that bombed the trade center. I just know it."

"Well, we can't jump to any conclusions until we get to Okinawa. We heard from Lucy and that's all that really matters."

Naturally, that was easier said than done.

"Dad, it makes absolute sense to me. The writing is on the wall. All the information we got, all the intelligence we got, it makes sense to me. He's like all the other goons from Team Rocket…they kill with Pokemon. Now, they are going after my girlfriend."

Both my dad and Detective Pikachu looked at me with worried glances, seeing that the events in Okinawa were taking a deep impact on me. This was personal now, entirely personal.

"Well, we're nearing Okinawa shortly," my dad sighed as he placed his hand on my shoulder. "And we'll get answers soon, Tim."

…

A short time later, we neared the island of Okinawa and as soon as we touched the ground, there stood Philippine Airlines Flight 434, with a huge hole sticking out from the middle of the plane, a tell tale sign of an explosion. The local airport police and investigators from the International Police were already on the scene combing for evidence.

Again, my biggest concern was for the safety of Lucy and Psyduck. I gotta tell ya, it took me forever to get off the small learjet. But, we did and immediately made our way towards the 747. Suddenly, there at the corner of my eye was Lucy and Psyduck standing and staring at the enormous hole.

"Lucy!" I called. "Psyduck!"

Psyduck turned and the sound of my voice quickly caught up to Lucy, who immediately ran into my arms.

"Lucy, thank God!" I cried as I hugged my girlfriend tightly. "You okay?"

"Yeah," she whispered. "I'm fine."

"Lucy," said my dad as he ran over. "Glad you and Psyduck are okay."

"Thanks, Tim."

Breaking away, Lucy and I looked up at the enormous 747 with the gapping hole in the side. Then, I looked closely and saw what appeared to be a blue blanket covering something.

"What is that?" I asked. "Something's covered up."

My instincts kicking in, I darted towards the port side of the plane and raced up the stairs. The cabin of Flight 434 looked for the most part normal, except for the fact that there was personal belongings lying in the carpeted aisle, along with deployed oxygen masks and activated emergency exit doors. Catching up to me, dad, Lucy and our Pokemon also took in the devastation.

"It's down here," Lucy said, leading us towards the spot where the blanket was located. Looking down, I saw what appeared to be blood on one of the armrest and on a huge part of the overhead bins. Finally, we got closer and closer to the blanket and sticking out from under it, was a human foot.

"Damn," I whispered, doing a sign of the cross. "He's gotta be dead, Luce."

"Killed by the explosion, Tim," Lucy replied. "I was sitting in 33A, a couple of rows back."

Walking back towards the spot where Lucy was sitting, I could see that the oxygen masks were indeed deployed and that from a scientific perspective, the force of the explosion had impacted from a northwestern direction.

"Were there any injuries, Lucy?" I asked.

"They're saying about 10 people, mostly within the blast area."

Then, Detective Pikachu made a discovery that sent shockwaves throughout our bodies.

"PIKA! PIKA! PIKA!" he cried.

"Pik, what is it?" my dad asked, racing over to him and lo and behold, there was a foot and it wasn't a human foot. It was the foot of a Pokemon.

"My god, what the hell?"

"We'd better get a hazmat crew in here now."

Until that moment, all we could do was just stand there in sympathy for the Pokemon that died in the explosion. What was clear to me was the Pokemon could have been one of two approaches: either an innocent Pokemon or a Pokemon that could explode was used to try and bring down the plane?

The foot was wide and there were silver toenails sticking out of the foot. Once the hazmat team came on board, we left them to do their work.

Now, our attention would then be turned towards the pilots of Flight 434 and wondering if they knew of any Pokemon related terror threats against them.

…

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