Chapter 8: Decisions & Discussions
After looking for Echo, the two of them went to get lunch, Hibiki told her the encounter. As they sat down to eat, Echo just sighed and looked at Hibiki. "Do I even need to tell you how risky that was?" Echo questioned after Hibiki.
"Ok look… it wasn't my best idea ever, but what did you want me to do?" Hibiki responded, giggling a bit out of embarrassment.
"I don't know, how about coming to me so we could both speak to him?" Echo said as she pinched her forehead. Hibiki remained silent as she sipped her drink and made sure not to make eye contact.
"On a similar note though, what did you think of him?" Hibiki questioned. Echo thought about that for a few moments as she recalled what she could feel through Hibiki.
"Well, I agree with Melody in that he at least didn't seem to have any ill intentions. He did seem to be rather eccentric and I swear I've seen him somewhere before." Echo explained. Hibiki nodded, thinking that she recognised him as well. "Another thing that I personally noticed is that he seemed… relatively calm all things considered." Echo commented.
"Yeah… and that's the main thing that's making me so cautious. Why does he seem so calm and really friendly?" Hibiki said.
"I honestly have no clue, but what I'm more curious about is this group he mentioned. Whether he's a part of it or not, he did seem genuine when he told us about it." Echo commented.
"I honestly have no clue where to start with dissecting that other than the hint he gave us. Look to remote regions as that's where they started. What does that tell us?" Hibiki said. Echo closed her eyes and thought about it for a moment as their food arrived.
"When I hear about remote regions, I think of any region in the world that doesn't have a lot of reasons to travel there. The main one that comes to mind is one that I've only really heard about is a region called Orre." Echo commented.
"Hmm… That's probably a good starting point. Either way, I would say that it's a good idea to head over to the IPP." Hibiki said. Echo was going to say something but was interrupted by a small beep coming from her backpack which caused her to smile a little. "Echo… what did you buy/win?" Hibiki asked curiously, squinting a bit at her sister.
"I have no idea what you're talking about." Echo said with a snicker.
"Echo… we both know we aren't going back to our previous conversation now that I've brought it up. You aren't talking yourself out of this." Hibiki said with a smile. Echo looked around for a chance to not talk about what she had when she heard the sound of a zipper opening behind her. She turned and saw an aura around her zipper that was slowly opening it.
"Melody!" Echo screamed mentally, as she quickly zipped it back up. A small giggle came from Melody as she floated back to Hibiki. Echo then gave a quick sigh before she muttered something and unzipped the bag and grabbed something out of it. "Just promise you won't get mad at me for getting this." Echo said with a sigh.
"I promise. " Hibiki said with a smile and her arms crossed. Echo then took a deep breath before turning around and showing her a small tablet with a holographic person on it. The person was a 16 year old girl with yellow hair, white skin and blue eyes wearing a white Japanese schoolgirl outfit with black sleeves and legging.
"Hello there Echo-sama, is this your sister?" the hologram said.
"Nee-san…" Hibiki said as she looked down and shook slightly.
"Um… you said you wouldn't get mad." Echo said, a bit of fear in her voice.
"I'm not mad, just very jealous. What even is she if I may ask, a holocompanion or a straight up AI?" Hibiki said as she put a hand to her head. Echo opened her mouth to speak but went quiet when the hologram spoke up.
"Allow me, my name is Rin and I am an Artificial Intelligence that was given as a prize for winning a rhythm game tournament." Rin introduced giving a little bow.
"I wonder what game it was?" Hibiki sarcastically said.
"To be fair, I did only happen to just happen to join it because they needed a player. I also don't want to hear anything about luck from you sis." Echo said. Hibiki was going to say something but nodded as she glanced to where Melody was.
"Fair point on that part. Anyway, think we should go to the IPP Headquarters?" Hibiki asked.
"Yep, also I did take the time to at least inform Rin about everything so far. That shouldn't be an issue right?" Echo responded.
"It shouldn't be, just be careful about where you leave her." Hibiki said.
"Considering the information that I learned, yeah that's probably for the best." Rin said before Echo put her away.
"Is she going to stay in that holder for long?" Hibiki questioned.
"No, just need some time to move her to my goggles." Echo said. Melody then began to move away when Hibiki got out her Music Ball.
"Because I don't know what they have in their HQ and the fact that I don't want to become a criminal, I would prefer if you are in your ball till we get to the meeting." Hibiki told Melody.
"... Fair enough. You are really cautious, you know that?" Melody said as Hibiki recalled her.
"Yes I do." Hibiki said aloud. Echo simply smiled before the duo then left the restaurant and headed to the IPP Headquarters.
After a bit of searching and reflecting, Echo and Hibiki arrived in front of the IPP Headquarters. As they arrived, they saw Anabell standing out front and waving towards them. "There you two are. I was wondering when you would show up." Anabel said with a smile.
"Yeah, we were just taking care of some personal matters." Hibiki responded in a cheerful tone.
"Pardon me for asking a relevant question, but who are we going to meet?" Echo asked curiously.
"Detective Looker, head of the IPP Alarian Division and personal friend of mine. We'll talk about the finer details inside, come." Anabel said before she turned around. The three of them entered the building and both of the newbie trainers were impressed by how many people were walking around as well as the size. The interior of the building, when compared to other buildings in the area, was definitely more rural, with not nearly as many electronics everywhere. Just in the lobby, there were various detectives in suits, a few Pokemon Rangers that were stationed there, and several people asking for help.
"Well this seems busy, is it always like this?" Hibiki asked Anabel.
"Not usually this busy, but since the league season has started off we take some precautions." Anabel said as they walked through the security gate. The guards by the gate simply nodded as Anabel showed her badge and allowed the three in the main section of the building.
"You know I also don't think that I ever asked, what position are you in the IPP if you're allowed to reveal it?" Hibiki questioned.
"Basically the second in command for the Alarian Division, Looker trusts me with a lot and I don't let him down." Anabel responded, a small frown appearing on her face that the twins didn't see.
"So this whole thing is fairly important regarding Melody." Echo commented.
"Exactly." Anabel said as they stopped outside of a door. The door said 'Detective Looker' on it and as Anabell went to knock on the door, it opened and a man walking out stopped as he saw Anabel. The man was around 20 years, with white skin, blue hair with black highlights, and red eyes wearing an black IPP jacket, a blue shirt underneath that, black pants and red shoes.
"Oh, Ms. Anabel. What do I have the pleasure of seeing you here today?" the man asked in a suave voice.
"Agent Allegro, I am just guiding these two here to meet with Looker. You remember them from our meeting right?" Anabel stated, a hint of annoyance in her voice. Immediately, Allegro's face turned into one of indifference.
"Oh those two, what is so special about them anyway aside from the Meloetta? They're just some bratty kids." Allegro questioned.
"Hey!" Echo said as she stepped forward, Hibiki putting her arm to stop her.
"See what I mean? Whatever, I'm not concerning myself with them. I've got a job to do." Allegro said as he walked past the group down the hall. As he rounded the corner out of sight, Echo made a frustrated series of motions in his directions
"He's charming." Hibiki said sarcastically.
"Trust me, I know the feeling." Anabel said, pinching the bridge of her nose. She then sighed before opening the door to Looker's office. "Come on." Anabel told the two. Hibiki and Echo nodded before they entered the office. As they entered the office, they saw a man in a brown trenchcoat sitting at a desk.
"Ah, you two must be the sisters Anabel told me about. Come and sit, we have a bit to talk about." Looker said in a jovial tone.
"We appreciate the meeting, but what exactly did you want to talk about." Echo asked curiously.
"Well, let's get the basics out of the way. Anabel, if you would please." Looker said as he motioned to a screen on the wall. Anabel nodded before pressing a button on her wrist, which turned on the screen. On said screen was a series of photos of Melody in the wilderness of Alaria as well as three people in suits that Hibiki recognized. "Recently, an anonymous sender sent us these pictures. While we don't know who sent them and their origin, we know that they are accurate to various reports we have received over the past two months." Looker explained as various pictures changed focus.
"So wait, you're known about Melody for two months but haven't done anything to protect her?" Hibiki questioned.
"It's not that we haven't tried, it's more the fact that Mythical Pokemon are very elusive and that her pursuers have done a lot to hide their tracks." Looker said, bringing up a file and handing it to Echo. Echo took it and after looking through it for a moment, looked at Hibiki with a concerned look.
"He's not kidding, from what these files say, the three main people that they're following have no info on them despite them using various lodgings at various cities in the region." Echo said as she handed the file to her sister. Hibiki took the file and took a look through, seeing several payments across various hotels that all came from an unlisted card.
"What do you know about them in that case?" Hibiki asked.
"Well, we have a few guesses, but first, I would appreciate it if you brought out Melody. Don't want to do anything malicious, just want to talk with her as well as ask you two a question." Looker said. Hibiki nodded as she handed the file back to Echo and got out Melody's Music Ball to let her out. When she did, Melody looked around and glanced at Hibiki, who simply nodded to her, before bowing in front of Looker. "Fascinating." Looker said out of amazement.
"So, I take it that this is Looker?" Melody asked as she noticed the screen.
"Now then, before we continue, I want to lay some groundwork of trust. To do that, I want to offer you both an unofficial position on the IPP." Looker said. Hibiki and Echo both looked up at Looker with surprise and noted that Anabel was doing the same.
"What?!" Anabel exclaimed.
"As much as this might come as a surprise to you, the IPP does always ask promising young if they do want to be a part of the force, if only for a little while. It's usually very rare that this happens, but considering the current situation, I think it's for the best." Looker explained, a serious look never leaving his face. Hibiki and Echo looked at each other as Melody looked back at Hibiki.
"Do you think we could talk outside while Melody gets up to speed?" Hibiki questioned, a bit nervously.
"Of course… take all the time that you need." Looker said with a sigh. Hibiki stood up and bowed before she walked out of the room with Echo following suit and closing the door behind her. As soon as they left Looker just let his head fall on the desk as he put his hands on his head and let out a tired sigh. "Do you think I was too straightforward with them?" Looker asked. Anabel sighed as she put a hand on her partner's shoulder.
"No, honestly I don't think there was any way to comfortably transition to that topic. While I do wish you would have told me about this before the meeting, I understand why you need to." Anabel said with a smile. Melody glanced at the two detectives and gave a small smile before she turned her gaze back to the screen and the pictures on it.
"I know you two will pick the best choice for yourselves." Melody thought as she looked over the pictures and thought back to the past few months. Meanwhile outside Looker's office, Hibiki was pacing up and down as she thought about the offer while Echo was leaning against the door.
"You know this is a crazy offer right?" Echo asked her sister.
"Yep, but that's exactly why I am thinking about taking it." Hibiki said as she kept pacing.
"Look I'm not going to stop you from accepting it, but why are you so on board with this?" Echo questioned. Hibiki stopped pacing and turned to look at Echo with a coy smile on her face.
"I suppose I could ask you the same question, Miss 'Great Detective' Echo." Hibiki said, a bit of a giggle at the end. Echo immediately looked away and blushed at that response.
"We don't talk about that incident." Echo said, recalling the memory in question with a bit of embarrassment. There was a brief moment of silence before Echo spoke again. "If I did have to answer that though, it would definitely have to be at least the chance to work with people who know a lot about tech and a chance to at least make a good change for the world." Echo responded. Hibiki smiled as she heard those words, expecting them from her sister.
"Well then my reasons are the same as yours, except for one key difference." Hibiki said. Echo tilted her head out of curiosity, unsure about what Hibiki said. "I'm going to look into our grandmother's death." Hibiki said, a serious tone in her voice.
"Oh for the love of- seriously still on this?" Echo responded.
"Yeah, yeah, I've heard the spiel before from both you and mom. We know that her death was an accident, the case was closed because there wasn't enough evidence, and if there was any now, the chances of finding it are slim. I get all of that, but for the love god, listen to what I have to say." Hibiki ranted in a clear tone of annoyance. Echo stayed silent with a shocked look on her face, not used to Hibiki's outbursts. "Sorry, you know how I get when it's about grandma." Hibiki said, her head tilting down as a frown formed on her face.
"No no, I'm sorry. I know how much of a touchy subject it is for you and I didn't have any right to say that. I guess…. I just moved on mentally and don't really think about what I say." Echo said as she thought back to her fond memories with their grandmother. The two stood in silence before Hibiki sighed and rubbed the back of her head.
"It's just… this might be the one chance that I have to look into this personally. I know the IPP have handled it and come up with nothing, but there's just this nagging feeling I have that something is missing. Maybe this is just me not accepting what I know is true, maybe this is my coping mechanism for this, frankly I don't care the reason why. All I know is I just want some personal closure whether or not my gut feeling is right." Hibiki exposited. Echo stayed silent for a moment before she simply smiled and laughed a little.
"That definitely sounds like the sister that I know." Echo said happily. Hibiki simply smiled and walked up to hug her sister, who returned the hug in kind. As they were hugging, they heard a knock on the office door from inside of the room.
"Uh, sorry to interrupt, but could you come back inside? Melody seems to have something to say." Anabel said. The two looked at each other before nodding, their minds seemingly made up, and heading back into the office. As they entered, the saw a device on the desk that
"Ah, I was wondering when you two would join us. Before we talk about what Melody has to say, I suppose I should apologise for springing the question on you two so suddenly. Even though it seems like you've figured out an answer, I'm sorry for asking you that out of the blue before we had a chance to talk. I don't really know what else to say other than that." Looker said sheepishly.
"It's fine Mr. Looker, just maybe ease us in a bit if you ever decide to do something like that." Hibiki asked with a smile.
"Right now then Melody does have some things to tell us but before we get to that, I should explain to you the device we're using." Looker said as he gestured to the device on the table. The device looked fairly simple being a white square box made of metal with two antennas and a mic on the top and a screen on the front of it. "This is a piece of tech that we've been developing for a while, the Pokemon Language Translator, or the PLT for short." Looker said.
"Translator?" Echo said with a hint of curiosity.
"It's still very much a work in progress, but as you imagine by the name, this translates a pokemon's cries into actual understandable language." Looker said. Hibiki nodded as she mentally made a note that this will be useful as she can really only talk to Psychic Pokemon at the moment.
"So how exactly does this work?" Hibiki questioned. As if on cue, Looker turned the device on and gestured for Melody to speak. She nodded and proceeded to talk into the device for a few seconds. After a moment passed, the screen on the device had text on it.
"Meloetta: From what Detective Looker said, this should at least disply something."
"That's amazing." Echo said as she was at the text being displayed.
"Like Looker said, it's still a work in progress, so there will be some misspellings and errors. To keep it simple, we're also only using the species name of the Pokemon speaking and letters if many of the same type of Pokemon are speaking." Anabel explained.
"You know, I'm actually kind of impressed that it's able to differentiate words from just the tone of cry and similar factors. At least, I'm assuming that's how it works." Hibiki said, earning an impressed look from Looker.
"Not a bad assumption as that is correct. Now then, on to the information Melody was talking about." Looker responded. Melody nodded and proceeded to talk into the PLT for about a minute, after which the machine whired and the translated text popped up on screen.
"Meloetta: Ok, so to continue what I was exlaining to Looker and Anabel, I do remembere the time that was shown in these pictures. To give a bit of explanation, I come form a small village of Meloetta deep in the wildernes to the south of Alaria proper. It normally isn't like Meloetta to form a community, but our villge is an exception to that rule. I am seen as a leader of that village, buit we mostly keep to ourselves. That is until a few weks ago, when those three came to the village. They seemed to only want me though, so I purpseflly went with them to keep the village safe. I did eventually manage to get away, but they chaced me til I managed to slip away thanks to Hibiki."
"That is a lot of information." Hibiki said.
"It is, and actually gives us a hint to an approximate time frame to when they were here. Given that they seem to be fairly well hidden in the region, it's probably safe to assume that they have been here for a few months at least." Looker commented.
"Yeah, that would explain how they've been able to avoid you for so long." Echo replied.
"Before I get ahead of myself though, I want to ask about what your decision was for my earlier question. A bit of a weird time to ask, but this is IPP business, so we do need to know for sure if you're joining or not." Looker told the two. The twins looked at each other before Echo nodded at Hibiki, who simply smiled.
"We're willing to join." Hibiki said, earning a smile from Anabel.
"OK then, we'll work on getting you set up while talking about what you know, if anything." Looker said casually. As the group began talking, Hibiki began to recount their journey so far. Little did they know, there was someone else listening in via a small receiver in Hibiki's bag.
In a Hotel in Symphonic City…
Wind was sitting on the bed with his headphones on, pinching his nose a bit as he heard the conversation over the receiver. "Well, at least this is going the direction I guessed it would." Wind said to himself.
"Still listening to that girl Wind?" a voice said from behind him. Wind jumped a bit before turning and seeing Wolf sitting on the bed behind him.
"Jesus Wolf, at least let a man know before you give them a damn heart attack. I thought you had left to go check some things out in the area and see where the drone ended up." Wind said as he calmed his heart down.
"Just got back and from what I can tell, the drone isn't here." Wolf explained.
"God damn it, I thought for sure it would have been at the gym." Wind said as he gripped his headphones out of frustration.
"I mean, you know that they probably took it. They don't have any reason not to and if the trainer didn't pick it up, then the Meloetta surely would have." Wolf commented, a hint of annoyance in his voice. Wind simply nodded, not wanting to push his superior's ire any longer. "Krystal should be back soon, said she had to take care of some stuff." Wolf said.
"... You still have your card right?" Wind asked suddenly. Wolf, realizing the implications of that, checked his wallet and sighed as he found his card wasn't there. "She's slippery as always." Wind commented as he noted a few things down.
"So to deviate from that topic, what exactly have you been able to listen to and figure out from that girl?" Wolf retorted, wanting to get off the topic fast.
"Well, I only came back to check on them now and they're both in the IPP, becoming agents right now." Wind responded. Wolf then immediately sighed again and put his head in his hands.
"This just became so much harder." Wolf commenced with a heavy sigh.
"Yep, what makes it more awkward is that she probably knows that I'm part of this because, like you said before, coming out of the forest without my armor was not the best move on my part." Wind told Wolf.
"It wasn't, but I have this strange feeling that she would have found out anyway if she recognized your voice." Wolf remarked. Wind simply nodded as he thought about something.
"What if this isn't a bad thing for us?" Wind suggested.
"...In what way is the trainer holding our target joining the IPP a good thing?" Wolf retorted in a sarcastic tone.
"We have a bug in their room and are currently listening to their conversation. What they know about us, we know and can plan around. I also might be able to get into their system with some finagling on my end." Wind told his superior, silently hoping for a proud response from him. Wolf took a moment to think about that and turned to Wind.
"That… actually is a good thing. Still sucks that they're with the IPP, but at least it does give us some knowledge." Wolf said. The two stayed silent for a moment before Wind thought about something.
"Hey… if they go north, do you think that they'll be going to our employer's base?" Wind asked.
"Probably not, she would have to be an idiot or really brave to go there." Wolf said.
"$5000 says that you're jinxing it." Wind said.
"$5000 says I'm right." Wolf said as he extended a hand. Wind shook on the bet silently as Krystal walked in the room holding a few bags. This sight caused Wolf to flop onto the bed and scream into the pillow, earning a stifled giggle from Wind.
"What are you so grouchy about?" Krystal asked.
"Why did you take my card?" Wolf said, muffled by the pillow. Krystal brought out the card in question and tossed it on the bed.
"It was Wind's." Krystal responded with a smirk. Wind quickly picked up the card and saw that it was indeed his, causing Wolf to quickly laugh.
"Ok… I'll give you that one." Wind said, used to these pranks by now.
"Anyway, what were you two just talking about?" Krystal asked as she sat on a chair nearby.
"We were just debating if the newest IPP recruit is going to our employer's base near the Fairy Tale Grove. Made a bet both ways between us." Wolf explained casually.
"See I would bet, but I have this strange feeling that I would call it perfectly." Krystal said with a small smirk.
"What are you talking about?" Wind questioned.
"Might just be my video game habits, but I'm going to guess that she's going to go in there and cause complete chaos." Krystal said. Wind and Wolf both just stared at her in silence with a look of shock on their faces. "Again, might just be my imagination running wild." Krystal said.
"OK so all joking aside, how exactly are we going to handle this? I know that we all don't agree with what our employer's doing and planning, but it's not exactly like we can exactly say no with how much we're getting paid for this." Wind told his teammates. At that point Wolf stood up and simply cracked his neck.
"We do what we have to do, you know that." Wolf replied. Wind simply looked at Wolf before sighing and nodding in agreement. "Look, it's not like I don't get it, but for now, we stick to the plan." Wolf said, a hint of sympathy in his voice.
"Yeah...so we go with what we discussed." Wind said as he stood up.
"Allright, we go to our locations then." Krystal said.
"Exactly, remember your orders and if shit hits the fan, get out fast if you can." Wolf told his two comrades. They both nodded and proceeded to talk more about their current plan as they thought about various things about their immediate future.