Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

S.1204 - Late January

It’s early in the morning when Chief Sergei calls them all into his office, before they can begin their morning requests. “I’ve got a special request for the four of you.” He says once they’re all in the office, “You’re off to the main department building, to the vice commissioner's office.”

“We ain’t gonna get chewed out by vice commissioner Thievul-face again?” Randy asks, his tone more tired than annoyed.

“Nah, I think you’ll find the commissioner will be pretty docile when you get to him.” Sergei says, cigarette loosely hanging from his mouth.

“I do not think I want you to elaborate on that, chief.” Tio says, her tone deadpan.

“How about we just go.” Lloyd sighs, “I don’t like how ominous he’s being, but we can’t exactly say no.”

“I suppose.” Elie sighs. 

“Have fun.” The chief says, as if he’s a parent sending his kids off on a play-date and not their boss.

But that’s just how the chief rolls, and Lloyd’s begun to grow used to his casual demeanour. 

“Guess we gotta hit the road.” Randy says as the four of them leave the chief’s office. 

“Agreed.” Tio says, “We should not keep the vice commissioner waiting, unless we want another tongue lashing from him.” Tio adds with a sigh and a barely suppressed yawn.

“Well, nothing left to do.” Lloyd shrugs before leading the rest of the SSS out of the annex and onto the streets.

+

“Oh you've gotta be kiddin’ me?!” Randy can't stop the words that clumsily fall out his mouth. Deputy commander Bealz is a good enough lady, but if anyone had the ability to knock down the fragile house of cards he'd built over the past three weeks it was her.

“Orlando.” She smiles, one hand on her glasses and the other folded under her chest, “Would you care to explain the meaning of your outburst?”

“N-no, ma'am.” Randy sighs, and is interrupted by the loud, obnoxious clearing of vice commissioner Thievul-face's throat. “If we could please get down to business.” He rasps out, “This is Lieutenant Colonel Sonya Bealz, deputy commander of the Guardian Force.”

“Well met, SSS. Now I'd like to get right down to business. I have a request for you on behalf of the Guardian Force.” She states.

“A request for us?” Lloyd repeats.

“Indeed. Over the past week, attacks have been occurring all over the state, whether or not they're the work of Monsters, or of Pokémon, is unknown. Needless to say, the CGF has hit a road block in our attempts to stop the attacks, and we'd like your input.” She explains.

“I see.” Lloyd nods, “You'd like a different perspective on what's been going on.”

Sonya nods, “That's right. I take it you’ll do it?”

“Yes ma’am.” Lloyd nods.

“Excellent.” She turns to the young looking guardswomen beside her, “Sargent Major, give them the file.” 

“Of course!” The younger guardswoman says before handing an envelope over to Lloyd.

She must be Deputy Commander Sonya’s aide that Randy’d heard about back at Belgaurd Gate.

“Make sure to contact me at Tangram Gate once you’ve concluded your investigation, SSS. I hope to hear good news.” Sonya turns to leave, but she stops in front of Randy, eyeing him and making his whole body go rigid. 

“It’s barely been a month but…” She adjusts her glasses and smirks, “I see all the effort I put into having you transferred was well worth it. Good day, Randy.” She says before leaving with her aide.

“Maaan, I can finally unclench…” He sighs.

“She cut quite the imposing figure.” Elie says, “I suppose that’s to be expected of the deputy commander of the CGF.”

“Imposing doesn’t do her justice.” Randy huffs, “Woman’s strict as they come, and Aidios forbid you piss her off.” A pissed off Sonya Baelz could give Baldur Orlando a run for his mira.
“She did appear to be rather intimidating.” Tio agrees, “Is something wrong Lloyd?” she asks, perhaps noticing Lloyd’s narrowed eyes and contemplative expression.

“Ah, it’s just… That guardswoman who was with Deputy Commander Baelz looked kinda familiar, I feel like I’ve seen her before.”

“Well you looked to be about the same age.” Elie says, “Maybe you went to Sunday School toget-”

“AHEM!” The vice commissioner loudly clears his throat, “Please keep in mind you are still in my office.” He says.

“S-sorry.” Lloyd says, “Let’s go back to the annex and look over the file.”

+

Lloyd sets the case file down on the SSS’s conference table. Three attacks on locations outside of the city, one in Armorica Village three weeks ago, one at St Ursula Hospital a week ago, and the final one in Mainz Village. The attack in the Armorica targeted the village’s farming supplies and fields, while the attacks at St Ursula and Mainz ended in one person being hurt. There were the distinct paw prints and claw marks that indicated the monsters or Pokémon were canine or feline-like. No one witnessed the attack in Armorica, while the only witnesses in Mainz and St Ursula were the victims themselves. 

“Not a lot to go on.” Randy says.

“I think we should go to investigate these locations ourselves.” Lloyd tells them, “We won’t be able to get proper feel for the case unless we go there ourselves.” 

“Agreed.” Tio nods, “In what order should we visit the locations?”

“The easiest thing to do would be to go in the same order as the attacks occurred.” Lloyd decides, “We start with Armorica, then we can go to St Ursula, then Mainz.”

“We shouldn’t neglect our regular requests either.” Elie adds.

“Of course.” Lloyd nods, collecting up the files again and putting them back into the envelope before going to the terminal.

There’s three requests waiting for them on the terminal: One from uncle Miles on behalf of the Library, one from the IBC, and one from Oscar. “Alright, it’s still pretty early, so let’s do these requests before we head out.”

“Considerin’ it’s mostly farmin’ out in Armorica, the villagers are probably workin’ the fields right now anyway.” Randy adds. 

“I suppose they would not be able to help us out much while they are working.” Tio adds, “Delaying our arrival would be prudent.”

“Well then, shall we get to work?” Elie asks.

“Of course. Morges is close by. So let’s start there.” Lloyd says before everyone climbs the stairs and leaves out the back entrance.

“Yo! Lloyd, you here for my request?” He asks as soon as they enter the bakery.

“Yeah, something about finding rare ingredients?”

“That's right. I’ll keep this brief, I want you to grab me some Monster Eggs and Fish Fillets.”

“You want us to bring you monster parts?” Tio asks.

“That’s right.” Oscar nods.

“Are they safe to consume?” Elie asks.

“Most ain’t.” Randy says, “But you get some that are safe eatin’. Though they ain’t that tasty on their own and the texture ain’t great either. Pretty filling though, so y’know, sometimes food’s food.” He shrugs, “Eccentrics like ‘em too, some rich weirdo’s will pay top mira to hunt some dangerous monster for them to devour.”

“I had to eat some during the police academy’s survival training.” Lloyd nods, shuddering at the memory, “I wouldn’t call them pleasant. Why do you want some, Oscar?”

“To experiment.” Oscar says, “I think if I can figure out the proper way to prepare them, I can use them in some of our recipes.”

“I suppose if the only people who eat them are desperate or eccentric, the exact nuances of preparing them would go unexamined.” Elie says.

“What is more, if they are as filling as Randy says, they could constitute a good part of a person’s diet.” Tio adds, “I believe this is a worthwhile request.”

“Great!” Oscar exclaims, “The eggs can be found on monsters on the highway going out east, and fillets can be found on monsters just off the Ursula Byroad, don’t think you gotta rush, it’s nothing urgent, just do it when you get the chance.”

“Well, we’ll be going in both those directions today anyway. It shouldn’t be too much trouble.” Lloyd says.

“Oh seriously?! Your work takes you outside the city?”

“Well, this current job is a bit of an exception.” Lloyd laughs, “Still, it won’t be much of an inconvenience.”

“Cool! I knew I could count on you buddy!”

“I’ll do my best.” Lloyd says before leaving the bakery, and walking with the rest of the SSS to the Library.

“Uncle Miles.” Lloyd calls out as they all approach the librarian’s desk.

“Ah, Lloyd, my boy!” Miles says from behind the counter, “How’ve you been settling in? Well I hope?”

“Yeah, I’ve been settling in well.” Lloyd tells him, “But, you put in a request for us to collect some overdue books?”

“Right I did.” He says opening a drawer and pulling out a sheet of paper, “Here’s the list, not too many so I don’t think it’ll take too long.”

“We’ll get it done as quickly as we can.” Lloyd promises before taking the list off of his uncle’s desk.

He skims it over, seeing three overdue books on the list. One taken out by Clarise, a resident of east street, one by Wendy’s father, and one taken out by Detective Raymond. “Honestly, detective Raymond should know better.” Elie huffs.

“It is no wonder people do not trust the Police, if one of our own cannot so much as turn in a library book on time.” Tio mumbles.

“Well, man’s probably at the department.” Randy states, “We wanna start with him?”

“Sure, we can start there.” Lloyd nods.

“If we go to East Street afterwards, we can go by the harbour district and stop at the IBC on our way.” Elie adds. 

“Good idea.”

The four of them return to the Police Department building and find Detective Raymond  standing with his Aron in front of the vending machines by the elevator. “Excuse me, Detective Raymond?” Lloyd announces.

“Yo! Lloyd, and the rest of the SSS too! You need something?” He asks.

“Yeah, actually, you have an overdue library book?” Lloyd asks.

“Oh, right, I forgot to give it back!” He exclaims, “Hang on, it should still be in my desk. I’ll be right back!” He says before running into the elevator, returning a few minutes later with a book in his hand.

“Here you go!” He says, passing a history book titled ‘Women in History’.

“I didn’t think you liked history, Raymond.” Lloyd says as he takes the book from his fellow detective.

“Ah haha, no I don’t really. This wasn’t exactly the kinda book I was after.” He says.

Lloyd tilts his head, “What else would it be?”

“W-well, ah, it ah, didn’t really have the illustrations I was after…” He says, eyes darting all over the room, Lloyd still doesn’t get it.

“Raymond, buddy, what the hell are you doin’ searchin’ a library for that kinda book?” Randy asks.

“G-get off my back Randy.” Raymond sighs.

“R-right, well, we’ve got other books to grab. We’ll see you around, Raymond.” Lloyd says - still confused - before the four of them leave the Police department.

They all walk through the streets of the Administrative District, before going out into the Harbour District and walking up into the IBC building. Walking up to the counter they’re greeted by a blond receptionist wearing a distinct pair of red glasses. “Pardon us, Lanfei.” Elie calls out as they all walk up to the counter.

“Ah, Ms. MacDowell.” The receptionist smiles, “Are you here for Ms. Crois?” She asks, and she’s totally lost Lloyd.

“No.” Elie shakes her head, “Not this time afraid. I was actually here about the request you put in for the SSS.”

“Ah, yes of course.” The receptionist adjusts her glasses, “The IBC plans to roll out a perk for its members in the coming weeks. Everything’s been set up, we just need to conduct a live test.” She says.

“What kind of perk?” Elie asks.

“Simply put, the IBC will be offering to exchange sepith at a greater rate than normal shops.” She says.

“I see…” Elie nods.

“Why’d the IBC wanna do that?” Randy asks, “Ain’t that cuttin’ into your profits?” 

“Not quite.” Elie says, “By law, all Crossbell businesses are required to offer an exchange service, however, most smaller businesses find this requirement rather burdensome. Especially as most don't have a purpose for the Sepith they buy. I assume the IBC aims to incentivise business development by offering an alternative and a way for businesses to make a profit from the service. Which, overall, would lead to greater profits for them.”

“Quite right, Ms MacDowell.” Lanfei says.

“I don't think I got all that.” Lloyd laughs, “But you just want us to test the service, right?”

“That's correct.” She nods, “All you need to do is exchange 20 of each kind of Sepith.”

“Right…” Lloyd pulls the sepith pouch out from his pocket, “We should have enough.” He says before giving them to Lanfei.

“Perfect!” She exclaims before counting the Sepith and taking it off the counter and over to a terminal where she drops it into a shoot. There's a short delay before the terminal dispenses some mira into Lanfei's hand. She counts the mira before checking the screen, a satisfied look on her face.

“I take it it worked?”

“That it did.” She says, passing the exchanged mira to Lloyd, “this service will likely be ready for a full roll out in the coming weeks.” She reports, “thank you for your assistance, SSS.”  

“Not a problem.” Lloyd says as he tucks the mira away into the SSS’s wallet.

“Alright, we’re off to East Street.” Lloyd says before turning around and seeing Tio looking at the book they’d gotten from Raymond.

“Oh, Tio, were you interested in History?” Lloyd asks.

“Not especially.” She says, “I was simply curious about the illustrations, since Detective Raymond mentioned them. I do not know what he was dissatisfied by, these illustrations are quite pleasing. “ She says, flipping the book around and showing an illustration showing a woman clad in heavy armour, a large, vaguely humanoid Pokémon that Lloyd had never seen before drawn at her side, the caption at the bottom of it reading ‘A depiction of Lady Lianne Sandlot from the Arseid Estate, with the Pokémon once known as Melmetal at her side. This Pokémon is believed to have since gone extinct.’

“It is a nice illustration.” Lloyd notes, only to hear Randy and Elie both stifling a giggle, “Is something funny.”

“N-nothing at all.” Elie says.

“Yeah, don’t worry about it.” Randy adds.

“A-alright…?” Lloyd raises an eyebrow, “A-anyway. Let's keep going.”

+

Their group can only watch in resignation as the bus to Armorica drives away as they leave Crossbell city’s East Exit. “How inconvenient.” Tio sighs as she approaches the bus stop, “According to the sign, the next bus leaves in two hours time.” She says.

“We just gonna wait?” Randy asks.

“We could always go to St Ursula instead.” Elie suggests.

“According to the database, it should only take an hour and a half to walk to Armorica. What is more, we need to obtain the monster eggs for Oscar, would it not be prudent for us to walk to Armorica?” She asks.

Lloyd pauses, it wasn’t a bad idea, but the road out to Armorica wasn’t the easiest to walk, especially after the fork that splits the road from the highway leading to Calvard. By both of their admissions, neither Elie nor Tio were particularly athletic, add to it fighting monsters on the road, which would take them off the easy to tread paved road. “Are you sure?” Lloyd asks, “it’s not exactly an easy walk.”

“We’ve kept up with the two of you so far.” Elie says, “I’m sure we’ll be fine.”

“You needn’t look down on us because we are city dwellers.” Tio adds, “Walking around a city as large as Crossbell can be just as strenuous as walking down the highway.”

“I-it’s really not…” Lloyd mumbles as he feels Randy’s hand drop onto his shoulder.

“I don’t think you’re gonna convince them now.” He whispers, “Let’s just keep an eye on them.”

“R-right…” He sighs, “Alright, let’s walk to Armorica.”

+

The road to Armorica village is a little easier than Lloyd remembers it, though perhaps that’s just the result of Lloyd getting stronger since he walked here with Guy when he was fourteen. Still they all end up sitting on the benches in the small rest area outside of the village, Randy and Espurr grabbing them all drinks from the vending machines. “I’m surprised they have those out here.” Lloyd says, they certainly weren’t out here when he came here with Guy and Cecile.

Randy passes Lloyd a bottle of water and a can of coffee before sitting down next to him. Lloyd opens the water bottle and pours some into his hand, offering it to Cyndaquil who drinks from it before pouring more into his hand and offering it to Pawmi, who drinks more than Cyndaquil. 

“They are becoming more common place in resting spots for hikers.” Tio says after taking a sip of the coffee Randy had given her.

“I didn’t know… But I guess that makes sense.” Lloyd says before looking over the rest of their group. 

Elie was watering her Eevee in the same way Lloyd had for his Pokémon, Tio had apparently been carrying a dish in one of her pockets and was giving Shinx water with that, while Espurr was levitating a bubble of water that she then proceeds to shove her head into. The shrinking water bubble tells Lloyd that she was successfully drinking from it, even if she’s also getting saturated, much to Randy’s clear amusement.

As Lloyd finishes his can of coffee he hears the rumble of the engine coming from down the road. He turns his head to see the bus leaving the village, rumbling past them as Tio and Elie watch it go with wistful looks on their faces. “Haha, regretin’ your choice?” Randy teases.

“Not at all.” Elie states.

“I will not deny the urge to chase the bus down exists within me.” Tio admits, “But we have come this far, we will not give up now.” She says with a determined expression not matching her flat and slightly weary tone.

“Should we keep going?” Lloyd asks.

“Yes, I’m feeling refreshed enough.” Elie says.

“Great!” Lloyd exclaims, getting back to his feet and allowing Cyndaquil to climb back up onto his shoulder while Pawmi jumps down onto the ground. Everyone else gets up, Eevee and Shinx jump off the bench onto the ground while Espurr shoves herself against Randy’s shirt to dry herself off. He seems amused by it, scratching the back of her head and smiling softly.

Lloyd manages to tear his eyes away from the sight before Randy can notice him staring.

It doesn’t take much more walking for them to reach Armorica Village. A quick pass over from the entrance doesn’t yield much, there’s an old Reinford model truck as well as a newer looking Verne model outside the entrance to the village. No sign of any canine induced damage. He supposes all the damage was repaired quickly.

“We ought to start by talking with the village chief.” Elie says.

“Agreed.” Lloyd nods, walking past the village gate and to a large white house that the group are pointed to by a local.

Lloyd lifts his hand to knock on the door, only to find the door in front of him opening and his hand whiffing entirely. The man at the door is a tall man in a long coat, with violet hair and amber eyes, a Pikachu on his shoulder and an Orbeetle behind him, levitating a large box with its psychic abilities.

“Ah, pardon me.” The man says, eyes gentle, “Are you four here to see the village chief?” He asks.

“Ah, yes that’s correct. Is he here?” Lloyd asks.

“Yes, Tolta’s here. I just finished my meeting with him, so your timing is rather excellent.” He says, “I’ll leave you four to it. Have a nice day.” The man says before leaving.

The four of them enter the village chief’s home, there’s an elderly man standing in front of a large rustic table, looking through some kind of paper ledger. 

“Excuse me.” Lloyd calls out, getting the attention of the old man, “We’re with the Crossbell Police: Special Support Section.” He says, pulling out his detective notebook, “We were here in regards to the attacks that occurred a couple weeks ago.” 

“Ah.” The man turns around, “The Guardian Force told me you’d be coming. Come over, sit down.” He beckons them to the table, waiting for them all to take a seat before continuing, “Now, now, you want to know about the attack on our village?”

“That’s right.” Lloyd nods, “First, I’d like to confirm the facts with you. According to the report we were given by the CGF, your village was attacked late at night, and there were no witnesses to the crime.”

“That’s right.” The village chief confirms, “All the villagers were in bed when the attack occurred. We rise early to tend our fields, and we also retire early.” He adds.

“I see, and, could you tell us the extent of the damage that was caused?”

“Well, some of our fields were torn up, and some of our farming equipment was damaged, all up, I’d say it was about 100,000 mira worth of damage.”

Lloyd is staggered by the number, not an amount a village as small as Armorica would be able to scrounge up on such short notice.

“That is not as bad as I was expecting it to be.” Tio says.

“R-really?” Elie questions, and Lloyd has to agree with her.

“Yeah, I gotta side with Tio-tot on this one.” Randy adds, “Sure, 100,000 ain’t a small number, but from the sounds of it, none of the really expensive shit got ripped up. Like that truck we saw up front looked like it got passed over. That gettin’ destroyed would end up 100,000 mira in damages alone, maybe more.” He explains, “After you split the damages across the whole village, the number becomes a whole lot more manageable.” He explains, “Plus, there weren’t any casualties, person’s life ain’t something you can replace.” He adds, in a matter that’s oddly sombre for Randy, and Lloyd misses the way Espurr nuzzles into her trainer’s gloved hand.

“Indeed.” The village chief agrees, “What’s more, we just closed a very favourable deal with Harold Hayworth. We’ve almost completely recovered our losses already. Good timing too, those Revache fellows tried to short change us.” He adds with a huff.

“Harold Hayworth?” Lloyd repeats, “Was that the man who we ran into on our way in here?”
“Yes, that was him.” The chief confirms.

“Right.” Lloyd nods, “So, has any kind of attack like this happened before? Even if it was on a smaller scale?” He asks.

The village chief shakes his head, “Not in my lifetime I can promise you that.” He says, “Though, with the tracks that were left behind, I was reminded of a story I heard when I was a boy.” 

“Was the village attacked in the distant past?” Elie asks.

“No, nothing like that.” The chief clears his throat, “There’s an old legend, about the Pokémon who watch over Crossbell. As the story goes, in the distant past, Aidios herself blessed a white wolf Pokémon with great power, and the charge of watching over the land. It is said that, that Pokémon continued to watch over the land, throughout the ages and protected the people in times of conflict. However, in its appearance before times of conflict, the people of Crossbell began to blame it for the land’s many woes, and because of that, they began to curse the name of the Pokémon that protected them. And, as if to respect the wishes of the people, the Pokémon stopped appearing. Leaving the people to toil on their own.” He says. 

“I… I see…” Lloyd nods, “So, do you think this Pokémon is the one responsible for the attack?” Lloyd asks, no matter how farfetched the idea is.

“Perhaps it was a warning.” The old man says, “We’ve begun to forget our past, and the old guardians wished to punish us.” Lloyd’s not quite sure how serious the village chief’s being, but he supposes one pretty out there suspect is better than none at all.

“Thank you, sir.” Lloyd says, “Now, if it’s alright with you, I’d like to question the villagers about that night.”

“Of course.” The village chief nods, “Feel free to ask anyone anything you need to.” He says before the four of them leave the village chief’s house. 

+

Just as the report had said, none of the villagers had anything new for them. So instead they find themselves sitting around a table eating the Ash Tree Inn’s specialty omelette. It’s good, and filling enough after they’ve spent the entire morning investigating outside of the city. Elie and Tio at least look like they’ve finally regained all their lost energy. 

“Alright, do you think we’re ready to go back to the city?” Lloyd asks.

“Can’t imagine we’re gettin’ anything more outta the village, unless the two of you have any ideas?”

Both Elie and Tio shake their heads, so Lloyd decides to leave the Inn. They all gather around the bus stop sign, Tio telling them the bus was only 20 minutes away. 

“Hm…” Tio starts looking around.

“Is something wrong?” Lloyd asks, hoping that the girl had noticed something they had missed previously.

“I simply thought I heard something… But it was faint and far away.” Tio shakes her head, “It must’ve been a far away Pokémon. I apologize for getting your hopes up.” She says.

“That’s fine, Tio.” Lloyd assures, “It’s always good to stay observant.” he tells her.

As the four of them all gather around the sign the purple haired merchant exits out from the village as well. The kindly man approaches the four of them, a pleasant smile across his face. “Pardon me.” He begins, “Aren’t you four the Special Support Section?” He asks.

“Ah…” Lloyd pauses, “Yeah, that’s right.” 

The man nods, “I see. My name is Harold Hayworth, I’m glad to meet you.” he laughs slightly before continuing, “So, are you investigating the attacks that took place here?” He asks. 

“That’s right.” Lloyd confirms.

“Hm, if that’s the case, could I offer you a ride back to the city? I have plenty of space in my vehicle.” 

“Are you sure?” Lloyd looks at him sceptically.

“Of course.” He nods, “The people of Armorica have been especially good business partners of mine. I would be remiss not to do what I can to help this incident be resolved.” He says, “Offering you a ride is the least I could do.” 

“I see.” Lloyd nods, “Then we’d gladly take you up on that offer Mr. Hayworth.” Lloyd bows his head in thanks, before following Mr. Hayworth into his vehicle.

The merchant is cordial enough, explaining his business to them and telling them about his young family. He drops them off in Central Square and even gives them a spare map of the city he had. 

“He seemed rather kind.” Elie says, “Especially for a merchant in a market as cut-throat Crossbell.”

“Really, seemed pretty shrewd to me.” Randy says.

“I do not believe that being shrewd and being nice are mutually exclusive traits.” Tio says, "Either way we shou-” Tio’s cut off by the beeping of her Enigma, “One moment.” She says while taking out her orbment, “Hello… Yes… I see… I will consider it.” She huffs before hanging up.

“Who was that?” Lloyd asks.

“My boss.” Tio grumbles, “He requested that I visit a shop in the Downtown District.”

“Well, we saved a bit of time because of Mr. Hayworth.” Lloyd says, “Plus, the bus to St Ursula runs every 20 minutes, so even if we miss the next bus, we won’t lose too much time.” He assures.

“Alright. Then we should go. But be warned, I do not know how long it will take.” She says before marching off toward East Street, everyone else following behind her.

+

Randy leans on the wall of Guillaume Factory as Tio speaks with the owner. The place seems shady as hell, but the owner seemed to be old friends with Tio’s boss, and Lloyd mentioned Wendy having studied under the guy, so he’s probably only down here because the rent’s dirt cheap. Tio-tot talks with the old guy for a while before turning to their group, “It appears this request will take a while. I will not be requiring your assistance, feel free to leave and do something else, I will call you when I am done.” She says, expression as flat as ever.

“Are you sure, Tio?” Lloyd asks.

“I am sure.” She confirms, sounding slightly annoyed in Randy’s opinion.  

“A-alright then.” Lloyd stammers.

“Perhaps we should go check the terminal for any requests that have popped up.” Elie suggests.

“Ah.” Lloyd nods, “Good idea.” He agrees before leaving, Randy and Elie following along with their leader as they return to the streets of the Downtown District. 

As they’re walking past Trinity Lloyd stops in front of the store next to the Billiard Lounge and Bar. “Was this open the last time we were down here?” He asks.

“I don’t think so…” Elie says, “Neinvalli Exchange.” She reads the sign above the door, “It seems to be a regular business.”

“Then I suppose it couldn’t hurt to take a look inside.” Lloyd says before opening the door and leading them all inside. 

Entering the shop, Randy immediately knows what kind of shops he’s in. The sharp scent of gunpowder and steel pervades the air, and Randy can see well-refined quartz on display and even a barrel of the liquid fuel the CGF uses in their armoured cars. A shady store in the shadiest district of Crossbell. This place reeks ‘Black Market Outfit’ in Randy’s unfortunately expert opinion. The stuff they’ve got out on display is probably only a fraction of the goods this place peddles.

There’s a little girl standing behind the counter and a purple haired woman standing at the back of the store smoking, while out of the corner of his eye Randy can see a Garchomp in a shaded alcove by the stairs, eyes closed but still vigilant.

“Hey Mama!” The little girl calls out, “We got customers!”

“Oh.” The woman turns around, revealing a sharp looking woman, probably in her mid thirties, who stinks of cigarette smoke, “The Special Support Section is it?” She asks, no doubt having seen one of the articles Grace had written in the Crossbell Times.

“Yeah.” Lloyd nods his head, clearly unsure as to the kind of shop they’d just gone into.

“The name’s Ashleigh, and, for your information we don’t take mira.” She says, “We exchange goods for other goods, it’s harder to trace.” She says, and Randy sees Lloyd slightly recoil and Elie stiffen as the woman approaches them.

She leans against a display case and drops her cigarette butt into an ash tray on the opposite shelf and gives them all a look over. 

Randy can see it on the woman’s face when her gaze passes over him, recognition. She knows him, knows Randolph Orlando, the Red Reaper. She recognises the Son of the War God for what he is.

“Red.” She says, voice as sharp as her eyes, “You look like you know your way around a rifle.” She states, both of them knowing the truth of that statement, “You can come here if you ever need something I’ve got.”

Lloyd gives him a surprised look while Elie looks sceptical, fair enough, Randy thinks.

“Can’t say I prefer usin’ a rifle.” Randy says, somehow managing to keep his cool, “But if you’re stockin’ flash bangs, I might swing round sometime. Can’t find ‘em at Gironde’s.” he says, getting a scoff and an eye roll out of the store owner, but seems to placate Elie and Lloyd, they probably wouldn’t ask any questions. If only because they seem too polite - or maybe too naive - to ask the right questions. 

“Well, maybe I’ll see you kids around.” She says before returning to the shelf she was stacking. 

Thankfully they don’t stick around Neinvalli for long, leaving and returning to the annex, where Lloyd checks their terminal. He closes it and turns to himself and Elie, “Nothing.” He reports.

“Oh, that’s a shame.” Elie sighs and Randy just shrugs, he probably couldn’t sneak off to Barca in the time they had.

Before anyone can say anything more, there’s a banging at the annex’s back door. “Wonder who that is?” Randy mumbles as Lloyd dashes off to the upstairs door, Randy and Elie following closely behind him.

Their leader opens the door to see one of the boys they’d pulled out of the Geofront. “Anri? Is something wrong?”

“Um, well…” The boy stammers, “Ryu and I were playing, and we found a hurt looking Skitty.” 

“Oh dear.” Elie sighs, “What did you two do?” She asks.

“U-um… We took it back to Ryu’s place. We gave it some food, but now we don’t really know what to do with it. We think it might belong to someone, since it has a little paper collar.” He mumbles, “C-could you help us?” He requests.

“Of course!” Lloyd nods, “Is it still at Ryu’s place?” Lloyd asks.

“Y-yeah…” Anri answers before leading the three of them to the Belheim Apartment building just down the road from the annex’s back door.

The little boy leads them down the building’s stairs before taking them into the apartment Ryu's family lives in. The apartment's small, but by no means cramped, though Randy does notice a rather large scorch mark on one of the stone walls. Ryu’s standing in front of one of the beds, a very small Skitty sleeping on top of it. “So this is the little guy.” Randy says, approaching the bed, “Looks like the two of you did a pretty good job gettin’ back to health.”

“Anri mentioned it had a paper collar.” Elie continues, “Did it have something written on it?” She asks.

“It said Marie on it, but…” Anri trails off as the Skitty meows, lifting its ears and coming to attention.

“Marie’s the little guy’s name, huh?” Randy notes.

Both Ryu and Anri nod, “It seemed pretty weak when we found it. So I don't think she's too far from home.” Anri says.

“Yeah! Yeah! And that paper collar means it's gotta be a kid who she belongs to!” Ryu adds.

“That's a reasonable assumption, you two.” Lloyd says, and his slightly sombre tone doesn't go unnoticed by Randy. “Alright. Let's find this little guy's trainer.” He says before picking up the small Pokémon and setting it down in his jacket. Holding it in the space between his belt and where his top button opens up. “There, all tucked in.” He says as the Skitty pops it's head up from Lloyd's jacket.  

“You think we should start in the building?” Randy asks, as they all leave the apartment.

“I think we can limit who we question to the children living here.” Elie adds.

“Still, it ain't like we know who here has kids.” Randy points out, but Lloyd shakes his head.

“Other than Ryu's family, no one's moved in here, so the only other kids in the right age range would be Pansy down the hall and the Crawford twins down stairs.” Lloyd says, and then it clicks in Randy's head.

“I get it.” Randy smiles and lifts his hand, as if possessed by something, and ruffles Lloyd's hair, “You used to live in this building, yeah? Same apartment as Ryu's family.”

“Eh?” Lloyd seems to stumble, “What makes you say that?”

“You know the people in this buildin’.” Randy shrugs, “‘Sides, there was a pretty good scorch mark on one of the walls, bet I know who made that.” Ah, he was smirking now, wasn't he.

“C-cut it out Randy.” Lloyd huffs, “It's not a secret I used to live here. And yeah, my brother's Lucario gave Cyndaquil a fright the first time they met and he ended up burning the wall.”

“You have a brother, Lloyd?” Elie questions.

“Huh? Oh…” Lloyd shakes his head, “He passed away, three years ago.” He admits, and the look on Elie’s face tells Randy she regrets saying anything, “S-sorry if it seemed like I was trying to hide it. I-if I’m being honest, solving his murder is why I returned to Crossbell.” He adds, stopping in front of the door at the end of the hall. 

Randy finds himself nodding, “It’s good you’ve got a goal to work toward.” He says, dropping his hand onto Lloyd’s head again. He really can’t stop himself.

“H-hey!” Lloyd stammers before batting Randy’s hand away, “Let’s just find where this little one came from.”

+

“I apologise for taking so long.” Tio says as they all reunite in front of the stairs leading down to the annex’s front door.

“It’s fine.” Lloyd assures, “We only just finished our request, so we’re good to go.” 

“I see.” Tio nods, “The bus stop to St Ursula is just past Station Street. We really have no time to waste.” 

“Right.” Lloyd nods, before finding himself fondly smiling. Even if it was for work, he’d finally found time to see Cecile in person. They’d spoken a few times on the phone since Lloyd’s return to Crossbell, but they’d never found time in their busy schedules to meet in person.

“Hm, what’s with that look, Lloyd?” Randy asks, an almost smug look on his face, “You’re awful happy lookin’, someone lookin’ forward to seein’ cute girls in uniform?” He asks a stupid grin on his face, and Lloyd has no idea if he’s being serious or not.

“Not at all.” Though Lloyd supposes Randy’s not exactly wrong.

“The person who you talk to on the phone works at St Ursula, right?” Tio asks, though it seems more of a statement coming from her.

“Yeah…” Lloyd nods, “Cecile Neues, she’s Uncle Miles’ daughter. We lived next door to their family when I was little, so we were pretty close. She was also…” Lloyd bites his lip, this was probably over sharing, but the others would probably annoy him until they told him. Then they might end up feeling bad for pressing, “She was engaged to my brother before he passed away.” 

“So, that would have made her your sister in-law.” Elie notes.

“Yeah…” Lloyd nods.

“How old is she?” Tio suddenly asks, perhaps to change the subject.

“Ah, well, she was 23 when I moved away, so she’d be 26 now.” Lloyd says.

“She seemed nice when she was on the phone with you. I am looking forward to meeting her.”  Tio states before sitting down on the bus stop bench.  

The rest of them join her, waiting for the bus to arrive. Waiting… And waiting… And waiting… “Tio.” Lloyd eventually speaks up, “How long has it been?”

“Thirty minutes.” She reports, “The bus is about fifteen minutes late.” The younger girl gestures to the growing crowd around the bus stop, “It is soon going to become a problem.” 

Before any of them can say anything more, a uniformed city hall worker comes out of the gate, a worried look on his face. “Oh dear… Lloyd hears him mumble, what am I going to do…”

“Um, excuse me.” Lloyd calls out, reaching into his jacket to pull out his detective notebook, “Detective Bannings, Special Support Section, can I ask what’s going on with the bus?”

“Ah… W-well, that’s what I’d like to know.” He sighs, “I’ve tried calling the bus driver, but there’s been no response. Their engine probably broke down…” He sighs, “The phone and the Orbal Engine use the same power source…” He mumbles, “Sorry, but it’ll take some time to get a repair crew out there.”

“I see.” Lloyd sighs, “Sorry Elie, Tio, we’ll have to walk again.” Lloyd tells them.

“It is fine.” Tio says, “The road from here to St Ursula is shorter, not to mention better maintained than the one out to Armorica.” 

“Yes, we can make do.” Elie nods.

“W-well, if you’re going out there, Special Support Section, could you call City Hall when you find where the bus is stranded?” The worker asks.

“Yeah, we’ll contact City Hall when we pass it.” Lloyd confirms, “Alright everyone, let’s go.” Everyone nods before following Lloyd down the road.

+

“Hey, Lloyd, you’re kinda spacing out there.” Randy says, falling close to their little unit’s leader, “Something bothering you?” He asks.

“No.” Lloyd shakes his head, “I used to walk to the hospital this way with my brother. He always said it was so Cyndaquil and I could exercise, but he and Lucario would always be the ones actually doing all the battling. Then Cecile would scold him for being reckless.”

“Your brother had a Lucario, right? What happened to it?” He asks.

“He disappeared.” Lloyd admits, “My brother’s partner Pokémon disappeared. The case file said that the killer likely trapped him in its ball because it would have been able to identify them, and took it from the scene, along with Guy’s tonfa.” 

“You don’t say…” Randy sighs, “Guess I should’a known. His partner would be with you if it was still around. Not many Pokémon will stick with the person who killed their trainer willingly.” All but one, Randy thinks.

It was raining and Randy had finally been cornered. Five days was all he’d managed outside of the corps, he can’t lift his weapon, he can’t even send out his Pokémon. His whole body feels stiff and heavy. He didn’t want to move. He didn’t deserve to move.

Being crushed, being ended like this, in a ditch in who knows where Erebonia, was what he deserved. Showed all his life was worth. Which turned out to be jack shit. He had his answers.

He could die now.

When the monster's attack should have hit, it doesn’t. It’s held there, then crunched into nothing, leaving nothing but an Espurr, ears lifted, and an actual expression on her face. Just for a moment before she - sopping wet just like him - floats over. She made a whole fuss, trying to shove her Pokéball into his hands. Randy had pushed her away at first, she should go find a trainer who could better keep her safe.

One who didn’t murder her previous trainer.

But she never listened. She kept floating behind him, defeating monsters and other Pokémon on the road. Maybe she just wanted to prove herself. Prove that she could fight with Randy. 

Eventually, she won. For whatever reason, Espurr wanted to stay with him and Randy didn’t have it in her to turn it down. So he let her stick around, she joined the Guardian Force with him, and settled into Crossbell with him. And when they were fired…

“Randy.” Lloyd’s voice knocks Randy back to the present, “Is something wrong?”

Randy shakes his head, “Nah…” He pauses, “Wait.” He can hear it, just around the corner, something heavier than everything else on the road, something’s there.

“Round the corner.” Randy says, keeping his volume low, “Something’s moving. Something big.”

“I can hear it too.” Tio nods.

“Is it a monster?!” Elie asks, frantic.

“Might be.” Randy shrugs, he really can’t tell just from foot steps alone.

“Be on your guard.” Lloyd instructs, leading them around the corner, seeing the bus stopped just off the road, and a large monster slowly encroaching on a panicking driver. 

“Crap!” Randy hears Lloyd shout, almost drowning out the subtle click of Elie’s revolver.

Elie's able to get a few shots in before Randy slams his halburd onto the side of the beast. Randy hears Lloyd shout to the driver to get back as the humming of Tio's staff tells him she’s ready for battle.

Randy readies himself and Espurr as well. The beast they face is strong, Randy can feel its brawn when his halburd strikes. A shame the thing is blunt, being able to rip it apart would be much more effective. Monster hits like a truck too. But they handle it. Getting rid of it before it can attack the bus or the driver.

“Are you alright?” Lloyd asks the moment the battle is over.

“Y-yes!” The driver stammers, “You four, you’re with the Special Support Section, right?” he asks.

“That’s right.” Lloyd confirms, “We were on our way to St Ursula when the bus didn’t come.”

“Ah… S-sorry about that, officers. The engine broke down, I was trying to fix it when that monster attacked me.”

“It’s alright.” Lloyd says, “We can contact City Hall and have them send a repair team to fix the engine.”

“T-thank you…” the driver bows his head.

The driver looks as though he's about to return to the bus as Lloyd pulls his Enigma out from his pocket. But Randy can sense it. More monsters approaching from behind. He spins around to see three more of the overgrown Passimian. Crap. With their current strength they have no way of defeating these monsters. Not without using the bus as bait and… no, he can't do that, not again. Better he get the shit kicked out of him than use civvies like that.

Him, and only him. He can take a few hits from these things before he’s down for the count, Lloyd could maybe take one before going down, but Tio and Elie would crumple to a single hit. 

No matter how Randy looks at this, they have no out. Maybe if he still had Berzerker, if he was capable of pulling his head out of his ass they wouldn’t be in this situation.

There’s a solid impact to his chest, and, well, it sends him staggering, but better he be staggered than Tio get crushed.

He thinks he hears Lloyd call his name, but his ears are ringing and his chest feels heavy. At best he’s been winded, at worst his ribcage has been shattered and his lung’s been punctured. At the very least it doesn’t hurt enough to be the worst case scenario. Yet.

Randy tries to focus himself, tries to regain his bearings, but to no avail. His chest is heavy and his body doesn't want to move the way it needs to. 

By the time Randy’s back on his feet the three monsters are gone and standing in their place are two people, probably about Lloyd and Elie's age, with their partners. 

Damn, how disoriented was he to miss that?

“Alright!” The girl exclaims, a bo staff slung behind her back, “Hey! Hey! Are you four alright?” She bounds up to them, and Randy can spy the flash of a well worn Bracer emblem. 

“Y-yeah.” Lloyd nods, perhaps after little over whelmed by the woman’s cheer.

“Good!” She nods, “Joshua!” She shouts over to the boy who came with her, “do you think you can fix the engine?” She asks.

The boy nods, “I don't think it would be too hard.”

“U-um…” Lloyd stammers.

“Ah!” The girl exclaims, “I forgot to introduce ourselves! Sorry! Sorry!” She yells while bowing her head, “Estelle Bright! Bracer! And these are my partners!” She throws two pokéballs into the air letting out two Pokémon, a Sylveon and a Noivern, that join her Infernape in a line up in front of her.

“Joshua! Your turn!”

“Ah…” he sighs, though his expression is soft, “Of course, Joshua Bright, I'm a Bracer as well. These are my partners.” Joshua as well releases two Pokémon to join his Decudieye, “Weavile and Salamence.”

“Guessin’ you folks ain't from Crossbell.” Randy says, looking at their teams, “Erebonia or Liberl, either way you've been to both.”

“Woah… Hey! Not bad!” Estelle exclaims, “Yup! Yup! Joshua and I are from Liberl, but we were in Erebonia for a little while. How'd you know?”

“All of our teams are made up of Pokémon native to those areas.” Joshua says.

“Oh! Right! Of course!” Estelle exclaims.

“But, I wasn’t aware the police came outside of the city.” Joshua says, “Or is the Special Support Section different he asks, and Randy supposes that means they also read the Crossbell Times. 

“Ah… W-well we were going to a case at St Ursula, but then the bus wasn’t coming. So we ended up walking out here…” Lloyd explains to them.

“Wah! The hospital?! No way! You don’t have time to stick around here!” She exclaims, “Leave finishing the bus to us! You should go get to the hospital!”

“A-are you sure?” Lloyd stammers.

“Yup!” Estelle nods, “We look around the same age, so let’s hang out sometime!” She exclaims before waving as they all continue down the road.

“Bright is certainly a fitting name for her.” Tio says once she’s sure they’re out of ear shot.

“She was certainly bubbly." Randy agrees, “Guy who was with her seemed pretty chill though, much stronger than her too.” He adds, flippantly.

“But, Bright, from Liberl…” Elie mumbles.

“Do you know them, Elie?” Tio asks, though Elie shakes her head.

“No, their surname just sounded kinda familiar.” She says, “I suppose that’s probably nothing.” Elie laughs, “By the way, Randy, are you alright?” She asks.

“Ah, yeah, I’m good.” He replies, ignoring the lingering pain in his chest.

+

St Ursula looks just the same as Lloyd remembers it, white and sterile on the outside, and the same on the inside. Lloyd quickly walks up to the reception, “Excuse me!” He calls out, getting a woman in glasses and a pantsuit to turn around, “Crossbell Police, Special Support Section, we’re here in regards to the incident the other day.”

“Ah, right, the CGF said you’d be coming.” She says, her name badge telling Lloyd the woman’s name is Serra, “One moment, I’ll page someone to show you to the roof.” Before Serra can keep going, Lloyd hears something like claws against the ground before something smacks against his side. 

Lloyd is almost knocked to the floor by weight, but he manages to stay up right, looking down to see the familiar blue of a familiar Pokémon. “Ah… Glaceon!” Lloyd bends down to pet the excited partner of-

“Lloyd?” Cecile’s familiar voice echoes from the stairwell.

“C-Cecile!” His sister staggers down the stairs, her brown hair just as tousled and messy as he remembers it, the same thick braid holding back some of it.

“You didn't tell me you were coming.” She says, tone only a little disappointed sounding.

“S-sorry.” He apologizes, “I'm here for work.” He quickly adds.

“Ah, I see.” Cecile smiles, “Still, it's nice to see you again.”

“Yeah.” He agrees.

“Ah, actually, Cecile. I was just about to page someone to show them to the roof and to Lytton, if you could?”

“Of course. I'd be happy to.” She smiles and nods, “Lytton is in one of the rooms on the second floor, you can speak to him, then I'll take you up to the roof.”

“Thank you, Cecile.” Lloyd smiles and stands back up.

“It’s not an issue at all.” She smiles, holding her arm out Cyndaquil, “And how have you been?” She asks, scratching under his chin.

Cyndaquil squeaks in response and Lloyd feels Pawmi climb up onto his own arm. “Ah.” Cecile smiles and pats Pawmi on his head, “Hello darling, it’s nice to meet you.” 

Lloyd clears his throat, “Ce-Cecile…”

“Hehe, right, I know, I know, come on. I’ll take you to Lytton.” Cecile leads them all up the stairs and into one of the shared rooms on the second floor.

If Lloyd remembers right, the second floor was where the regular patients stayed, the first floor was the surgery ward, the third floor was for long term patients, while the fourth floor and beyond were research wards. 

As they walk into the second floor hallway Lloyd can see Cecile doing something with her hands. “Cecile, is something wrong?” He asks.

“I was just seeing… Hm, have you gotten taller than me?” She asks, and Lloyd supposes she was comparing heights.

“M-maybe.” Lloyd stammers, “I haven’t measured my height in a while. Plus I’m wearing boots right now, so it’s not exactly the best time to be comparing heights.” Lloyd says, knowing full well he is - at best - the same height as Cecile.

“Hm, well, I suppose so.” Cecile says, pushing open the door to one of the second floor rooms where a man with blue-hair and a lab coat is having some kind of banter with one of the patients in the bed.

“Doctor Joachim, you shouldn’t be making jokes here, what if a child heard you?” Cecile scolds, though Lloyd’s not sure how she even heard whatever it is the two of them were saying. 

“Ah, Miss Cecile, are you on your rounds?” The blue-haired doctor asks.

Cecile shakes her head, “No, I was escorting these police officers to speak with Lytton about the incident the other night.”

“Ah, well, don’t let me get in your way.” The doctor says, “If you need anything from me officers feel free to come see me in my office within the research ward. Good bye for now!” He waves, exiting the room at a brisk pace.

“Haaaaaaa… He just wants me back so he can go fishing…” The patient - Lytton, Lloyd assumes - sighs, “Sorry Cecile, you said the officers were here?”

“Yes.” Cecile nods and steps aside, letting Lloyd step forward.

“Sorry to disturb you while you’re recovering.” Lloyd apologises, “Could you please tell us everything you remember about when you were attacked?”

“Of course… Th-though, to be honest, if I wasn’t injured like this… I might have assumed I dreamt the whole thing up.” He sighs.

“Because you were attacked on the roof?” Elie asks.

“Y-yeah…” Lytton nods, “I went out onto the roof from the research ward late in the night to get some fresh air. I was sitting down on one of the benches when I heard something growling. I turned around and saw a few dog-like things with a sleek oily black coat. One of them jumped at me, it knocked me over and that’s when I passed out.” Lytton explains.

“An oily black coat…” Lloyd repeats, it was more information than they’d gotten from Armorica at least, “Assuming it was a Pokémon, it narrows down the pool quite a bit.” Of course if it was a monster, they still have nothing to go off of, “Thank you, Lytton, we’ll get outta your hair.”

Lloyd leaves the room quickly, with everyone following behind him, before Cecile leads them all up to the roof. “I'll have to part with you here.” She says, “If you need anything, I'll be in room 304.”

“Right.” Lloyd nods, “We'll tell you if we turn up anything.” He says before Cecile leaves the roofHe says before beginning to look around the roof. 

What they need to find is how the dogs got up onto the roof. The east side of the building faces Lake Elm, even ignoring the fact that the roof is three stories up they’d need to use a boat of some form to get to that side. And even if they could, the aforementioned three stories up would prevent them from coming up on that side.

Lloyd looks along the outer railing, seeing Tio looking over the railing above where the hospital entrance is. “Tio, did you notice something?” Lloyd asks, approaching her by the edge of the railing.

“I was simply thinking, would it not be possible for any dog-like monster or Pokémon to use the veranda above the entrance like a stair?” She asks, and Lloyd could swear her voice sounded weaker, maybe she was more tired than she was trying to seem. Lloyd will have to keep an eye on her.

“It’s possible but…” Lloyd examines the railing in front of him, “If they came up from here, there’d be scratch marks on the railing.”

“So we should be looking for scratch marks?” Tio asks.

Lloyd nods before continuing to survey the outer edge of the third floor, he can see Randy looking around the back of the building between the third floor exit and the research building while Elie is looking over the railing at the very end of the roof, beyond the washing line where sheets were airing out.

“Did something catch your eye, Elie?” 

“Not my eye, persay…” Elie says, “It’s just… What’s the lower roof down there? Do you know?” She asks, pointing down.

“I think that leads from the staff dormitory.” If Lloyd recalls correctly, Cecile moved in there after he moved to Calvard.

“Should we investigate down there?” Elie asks.

“Seeing as we haven’t found anything up here, I don't think it would hurt.” Lloyd nods, “Hey, Tio, Randy!” Lloyd calls out, “We’re going to look around the roof of the staff quarters!”

“Got it!” Randy shouts back.

“Understood.” Tio nods, “Do you wish for us to join you, or shall we stay here?”

“I think we’ve exhausted every point on the roof, we should all go together.” Lloyd says before the four of them leave the roof and quickly make their way to the staff dormitory roof.

They all look around when something catches Lloyd’s eye, the stack of containers and boxes stacked on one side of the roof. He couldn’t really see it from the top floor but…

“Hey, Randy, can you help me out with something?” The girls probably didn’t have the agility to match the culprits, himself and Randy…

“Yeah? Whaddya need?”

“Could you try climbing up these boxes?”

“Course.” Randy easily jumps up along the boxes, with a practiced grace that Lloyd honestly finds surprising for his build, “You think they used this like a staircase, yeah?” Randy asks, leaning down.

“Yeah.” Lloyd nods before jumping up and joining Randy, looking at the surface of the boxes himself.

“It’s pretty faint but… These are definitely paw prints.” Lloyd says.

“There are a few scratch marks too.” Randy adds. 

“So the culprits got onto the roof from here.” Lloyd says, looking over to the high ground beside them, from there, most likely.

“Then perhaps we ought to contact the hospital, and see if they have some kind of fencing they can put up.” Elie suggests.

“Agreed.” Lloyd nods, “We can probably ask Cecile who we should report this to.”

“So it is back to the main building.” Tio says.

“You boys can go up to the roof’s door, we’ll catch up with you.” Elie says, nodding to the two of them at the top of the crates. 

“Alright, we’ll see you there.” Lloyd says before jumping back up to the third floor.

+

Elie watches as the two boys jump off the crates and go back into the hospital’s main building. “Alright, Tio, let’s go.” Elie says, keeping her voice soft, Tio had looked rather unwell since they first arrived at the hospital and Elie doesn’t want to make her feel worse. Though for a moment Elie thinks she might not have been loud enough, Tio had not moved from her spot overlooking the railing facing the forest.

“Tio.” Elie says, getting closer.

“Ah, Elie…” She mumbles.

“Are you alright, Tio?” Elie asks, making sure she keeps her voice as soft as possible.

“I am fine. Something… Is simply bothering me about the scene.” She says.

“Bothering you?”

Tio nods, “When we were up on the roof, Lloyd said the dogs could not have used the entrance’s veranda as a ladder since there were no scratch marks on the railing, however…” She turns around and points at the railing, “There are no scratch marks on the railing there, nor is there any sign of the dirt on top of these crates having been disturbed the same way the dirt on top of the boxes the dogs used as a stairway.” She points out, “It is possible they could use this route in the future, and there is no doubt that they climbed up on those boxes to reach Lytton on the roof, but…” Tio trails off while looking around the small balcony.

Tio’s Shinx mewls, somehow having wrapped himself over the railing that faces the carpark.

“He has found it.” Tio states before joining her partner, “Look, scratch marks.” Tio says, beckoning Elie to join her.

Sure enough, on the railing were a series of deep scratch marks.

“Well done, Shinx.” Tio says, patting her partner on the head.

“We can report this to the boys when we get back. C’mon, we shouldn’t keep them waiting.” She says before instinctively holding her hand out to the younger girl.

“I do not require an escort.” Tio says before brushing past her and going into the staff dormitory.

Elie sighs before following behind Tio back to the hospital’s main building.

By the time they arrive at the second floor Lloyd and Randy are talking to an older looking nurse, maybe in her mid to late fifties, with wiry grey-black hair kept tightly in a bun.

“Lloyd, Randy.” Elie calls out, and, perhaps it is a little rude to butt into a conversation like this, but she has to interject at some point.

“Ah, Elie, Tio.” Lloyd says, turning around to look at the two of them.

“We’re sorry to interrupt.” Elie says, bowing her head to the nurse.

“Oh you don’t need to apologise.” The nurse says, “We were just discussing fencing up the balcony.”

“Ah, about that…” Elie turns to Tio, who’d lagged behind her a bit, “Tio noticed something after you left.”

“Hm, did something catch your eye, Tio?” Lloyd asks.

Tio nods a little weakly, “The scratch marks from the dogs, they were on the railing facing the car park.” She reports.

“That so?” Randy says, “The fence there’s pretty thick, assuming they’re on the leaner side, probably wasn’t too difficult for them to jump off of that.”

“If there was a car parked there that evening, they could have also used that.” Lloyd adds, though they’d have no way to check if a car was parked there last night.

“We should have enough fencing to put some up over both sides of the railing.” The older nurse adds.

“Perfect.” Lloyd nods, “Thank you, Nurse Martha.” he properly bows his head before turning to the rest of the group, “I think that’s all we’re going to get from here. Though I’d like to say goodbye to Cecile before we leave, do you mind?” he asks. 

“Of course not.” Elie smiles and nods, and she assumes Tio does the same - or she nods at least - because Lloyd smiles before turning to the stairwell.

“One moment, Tio dear, why are you hiding behind your friend there?” The nurse asks, and Elie can hear her softly squeak in response.

“I did not intend to hide myself.” Tio says, “I apologise if it seemed that way.” She adds, stepping forward closer to Martha.

“Oh look at how big you've gotten.” The older woman coos, “Have you been well?” She asks.

“Well enough.” Tio replies, “I have been working for the Epstein Foundation for the past few years. I apologise for not contacting you.”

“Oh, no, no, it's nothing to apologise for.” The nurse tells her, “but, if you wish to make it up to me, we can have tea sometime and you can tell me all about the work you've been getting up to.”

“That sounds nice.” Tio nods, “Now, if you'll excuse us.”

“Of course. Now, off you go, I'll make sure the fencing is put up.” She says before walking into a back room and leaving the four of them alone.

“I didn't know you were acquainted with the head nurse, Tio.” Lloyd says, turning to the younger girl.

“I did not intend to hide it.” She states, “It is just… Some five years ago I fell grievously ill and required an extended stay here at St Ursula. That is all.” 

“Ah, sorry if I brought up some unpleasant memories, Tio.” Lloyd apologises.

“No need, you did not.” She says before pushing him toward the stairs.

Elie’s not sure if he wanted everyone to come with him, but they do anyway, like a group of Duckletts following their mother Swanna to room 304. Lloyd knocks on the door, and is greeted by a happy looking Cecile, who ushers them all inside of the room. Elie’s not sure if it’s polite to be intruding on a patient’s room, but the resident, a girl who couldn’t be older than eight or nine, seems to perk up when they enter, so that assuages Elie’s worries just a little bit.

“So, you’ve finished your investigation?” Cecile asks.

“Yeah.” Lloyd nods his head, “It seems the dogs got up to the roof by jumping up from the carpark and onto the staff dormitory balcony.” He tells her.

“Ah, so that’s why you wanted to ask about fencing.” Cecile laughs, “I’m glad, we can rest a little easier now.”

“Um…” The little girl sitting in the hospital bed speaks up, “You were investigating the night Lytton was attacked, right, Cecile was telling me.” She says.

“Yeah.” Lloyd nods.

“You remember somethin’ about that night, Shizuku?” Randy asks, Elie supposes Lloyd and Randy were introduced to the patient when they came in here the first time. 

“Yes… That night I woke up in the middle of the night, and was struggling to go back to sleep. So I opened the window to get some fresh air, when I heard Lytton scream.” She tells them.

“Ah, that must’ve been quite frightening.” Elie says, trying to sympathise.

“It was really scary.” The girl nods, “B-but I heard something after that I wanted to tell you about.” 

“Somethin’ after Lytton’s scream?” Randy repeats.

Shizuku nods, “it was after the scream, I heard some heavy breathing and I also heard some really faint whistling.”

“Whistling?” Lloyd repeats.

“Yes, it was really faint, but I could hear whistling.” Shizuku confirms, “I thought I had dreamt it, so I never told the CGF officers…” She mumbles, “Um, I’m sorry.” She apologises.

“It’s alright, Shizuku.” Lloyd assures, “Thank you for telling us.” 

“So you’re going back to the city now?” Cecile asks.

“Yeah.” Lloyd nods, “Thank you for all your help, Cecile.”

She shakes her head, “Just doing my job.” She smiles, “Now, I’ll see you off at the gate. Come on.” Cecile takes Lloyd’s hand and drags him out of the room and they all follow along with the two of them, into the elevator and out the door.

+

By the time their whole group steps out of St Ursula the sky had already turned orange with the setting sun. Lloyd can hear Cecile humming contently as they all leave out the front gate of the hospital. “So, Lloyd…” Cecile whispers, leaning in close to his ear, “Did you find a girlfriend while in Calvard?”

Lloyd’s spine goes rigid, “Wha?! N-no, of course not.” Lloyd huffs, “I would’ve told you.” He pouts, surely Cecile understood that much.

“Okay, okay…” Cecile softly hums, “What about the others?” She asks.

“Others?” Lloyd repeats.

Cecile gestures behind her, “One of them.”

“Eh?!” Lloyd can’t stop himself from recoiling back, “Ce-Cecile?!” 

“Tio’s maybe a little young, but Elie seems nice.” She says, in a way so casual that Lloyd’s not sure if she’s joking or not. 

Lloyd takes a look at her, she’s earnest, she’s really asking if Lloyd is interested in his coworkers.

For a few moments, Lloyd can only choke on his own tongue, floundering for anything remotely professional to say. He doesn’t find it, only finding a sudden heavy weight on his shoulder and shadow looming in his peripheral vision. “Hey, hey, wha’cha talkin’ about over here.” Randy’s got a shit eating grin on his face, like he’d heard everything Cecile said and just wanted him to embarrass him. 

“Nothing important.” Lloyd manages to say, ignoring the pressure in his chest or the heat in his face.

“Really, lookin’ pretty flustered for a guy talkin’ about nothin’.” His smug looking smile not doing anything to help Lloyd’s ever increasing embarrassment. 

Lloyd doesn’t catch Cecile looking between the two of them, before she looks down at Glaceon and nods, “Well, I suppose Randy’s not too bad either.” She says, “Just let me know when you make up your mind!”

“Wha- whoa, h-hey, Ce-Cecile, I… I don’t even…” Lloyd finds that whatever vocabulary he’s learned in his eighteen years alive fails him.

“Hey, if it'd make Cecile happy, I don't mind givin’ it a try.”

Lloyd almost chokes on the air, “Well I'd mind!” He manages to yell out, the sheer audacity of Randy's statement managing to dislodge the awkwardness that had blocked his voice.

Cecile laughs, and Lloyd can no longer tell if she was being sincere or if she was joking.

At least she looks like she’s enjoying herself, something he’s not sure if Cecile’s done in a while. So she can have this, even though Lloyd feels hotter than Cyndaquil’s flames.

Cecile looks happy, and that’s what Lloyd has to tell himself.

+

Elie pulls her grandfather’s old coat off the rack in her room before leaving her room. The soft moon light of the light winter night filters through the window. She’s pretty sure everyone’s already retired to their rooms for the night, leaving her free to leave the SSS annex without having to answer any of her friend’s questions…

Friends….

Elie’s hand stops on the annex’s back door knob, they’re her friends…

That’s nice. Elie didn’t notice when she started thinking of them as friends and not as coworkers. But they’re her friends.

Scratching at the door frame breaks Elie out of her thoughts, Eevee impatiently wanting to leave the annex. “Sorry, sorry.” Elie laughs softly to herself before leaving the annex with her partner. 

Elie walks through the late night winter streets of Crossbell, seeing her breath in the street lamps as the smells of East Street’s late night food stalls fill the air around the two of them. He doesn’t stop at any of them, only watching as others do while she walks through to the Harbour District and up to the IBC. This late in the evening the front entrance is already locked, but Elie has the key to the side gate, one that leads to the IBC’s back door and into the private residence of the Crios family. 

“Good evening, Elie.” Bell says the moment Elie’s foot passes the threshold, “It’s been far too long since we’ve gotten to have a chat.”

“Sorry, Bell.” Elie mumbles as her friend wraps her arms around her.

“Oh no there’s nothing to apologise for, darling.” She says, “We’ve both been fantastically busy. I, for one, am glad to see you leaving your room for once.”

“B-Bell… I’ve been studying abroad for two years…” She grumbles. 

“Oh, and how many times did you leave your accommodations to socialise? Take your time, darling, we have all evening.” She teases, and Elie capitulates. She could defend herself by saying she was focused on studying, but Bell would have a retort ready for her, Aidios only knows how many times Bell’s played out this conversation in her head.

“Fine, fine, you’ve made your point.” Elie says, pulling her coat off and placing it on the rack by the door. 

Bell leads her into the elevator and up to her room on the top floor. Entering Bell’s room is the same as it always is,a small table to one side, her canopy bed in the middle of the room, with Umbreon’s bed beside it, and the shelf for displaying her Rosenberg dolls against the back walls. 

Her Umbreon opens one blood red eye, silently stepping from her bed and trotting over to them, accepting a scratch from Elie before picking up her twin Eevee by the scruff of its neck and walking her over to her bed and flopping down, holding Eevee down beneath her and cleaning her.

“Ever the same.” Bell smiles, “I’ll put on some tea.” She says before fishing a Pokéball out from her pocket, “And for that, I have a little helper.” Bell releases the Pokémon inside top of her table. A small brownish-red Pokémon fluffs up its many tails.

“A Vulpix.” Elie says, reaching her hand out to the fire type Pokémon, “Where did you catch it?”

“I found her during my last trip to Erebonia.” Bell says, “In the mountains around Roer. I was being shown around one of their mines by the young lady of House Rogner.” She explains, “An interesting girl, a pity she’s not my type. Though you could learn a thing or two from her forwardness.” She adds, and Elie almost chokes on her spit.       

“B-Bell, please…” She grumbles.

“Hehe, I only tease.” Bell smiles, “Now then, Vulpix, could you be a dear and warm this water.”

Bell sets the pot down and her Vulpix envelops it in her tails, and Elie can feel the warmth radiating off of them. Bell places two scoops of tea leaves into the pot before sitting down with Elie at her table.

“Now, now, tell me, how’s the police been treating you?”

“Well.” Elie nods, “I’m quite fond of the division I was assigned to.” Elie tells her.

“The Special Support Section, Lanfei told me about your division.” Bell says, “You were in the Crossbell times as well, regretfully I haven’t read the story.” She sighs, of course, Bell was out of the State when both of Grace’s articles on them were published.

“So, what are your fellow officers like? Full names, personalities, their partners.” Bell leans against the table and looks at Elie intensely.

“W-well. Tio Plato is a younger girl, she’s part of the Epstein Foundation.”

“Ah…” Bell nods, “I’ve seen that girl around our office before. She’s rather cute, a little young though, no?”

“She is quite young. Fourteen, I believe, I don’t know when she’s turning fifteen. I should ask.” Elie confirms, “She’s rather stoic too. But she pulls her weight as an orbal engineering expert. Her Shinx is just as professional as she is.” She adds.

“Hm, she sounds rather adorable.” Bell nods.

“She’d probably get upset if she heard you say that.” Elie laughs as Bell begins pouring out the tea.

“I see…” Bell nods, “What about the others?”

“W-well…” Elie knows Bell could only react negatively to her living with two boys that are around her age, “Lloyd Bannings is the detective in charge of our unit and he’s, um, I suppose I’d describe him as… Normal.” Elie says, plain and boring weren’t quite the right words, but, normal. The standard Crossbell citizen, at least in Elie’s estimation, “He’s certainly driven, passionate. He’s not boring, just, normal.” Elie says, as if Lloyd were there and possibly insulted by the description, “His Cyndaquil’s rather social while his Pawmi is rather shy.”

“An everyman, hm…” Bell seems thoughtful, “I suppose that’s acceptable.” 

Elie’s not sure she wants to know what would happen if Bell thought any of her friends were unacceptable.

“There’s also Randy Orlando.”

Bell raises an eyebrow, though Eile doesn't think much of it.

“He’s a pretty casual person, but reliable enough, if a tad… frivolous.” Elie tells her, she’s honestly not quite sure what to make of Randy, “I suppose I can add distant to that description. His Espurr’s a little weird, but I suppose most psychic types are like that.”

“Interesting, I’m sure I’ll be able to meet them for myself at some point. I’ll save any extended judgment for then.” Bell says, a devious smirk across her face.

Elie finds herself pouting, “Please don’t scare them off.” 

“I would never think of such a thing.” She smiles, “If they’re intimidated by me, you’ll have bigger berries to braise.”

“They’re all very capable, Bell.”

“Of that I have no doubt. Of their suitability to breathe the same air as you, well, I remain unconvinced.” She says.

Elie puffs out her cheeks, “I don’t need you to pick my friends for me.”

“What a pleasant surprise..” Bell beams, “I suppose you learned something while you were away.” She teases.

Elie grumbles a few incomplete thoughts before sipping her tea and letting Bell have her laughs. It was true enough that Bell had been much more social than her in their youth, and that any other childhood friends Elie could claim to have were just ones who were friends with Mariabell, letting Elie tag along only because she was the mayor’s granddaughter. 

“Well, enough about your work, I want to hear all about your travels dear, letters just don’t quite cut it.” Bells says before pouring her out more tea.

Elie supposes she’ll be up for a while.

+

There’s a horrible dry feeling in Lloyd’s mouth when he opens his eyes and the heavy feeling that he was having a nightmare that he can’t remember. His hand fumbles around the ground beside his bed, finding and lifting his water to feel nothing inside of it. “Shoot.” He mumbles, leaning up and getting out of his bed, careful not to disturb the Pokémon sleeping at the end of his bed before heading down to the kitchen, water bottle in hand. 

Standing by the SSS’s kitchen sink Lloyd can see light seeping out from the men's bathroom, had Randy left the light on? Lloyd supposes the chief could have left it on, but that seemed unlikely to Lloyd that the chief was responsible for such a simple mistake.

Sighing, Lloyd sets his water bottle down on the bench and walks over to the bathroom. In his half asleep haze, he doesn’t notice Espurr sleeping on the table, pushing open the door to the bathroom.

For a few moments, Lloyd freezes in place, before quickly slamming the door closed with a stuttered out apology. He supposes he wasn’t wrong about Randy having left the light on, only that he was - for a reason known only to Aidios - taking a shower at 3 o’clock in the morning. 

There’s a soft purring and tugging at his pant leg, looking down he sees Espurr, big blank eyes looking back up at him. Only then does he realise Randy’s partner had been sleeping on the table. “Sorry.” Lloyd whispers, “Did I wake you up?” he asks before cautiously lifting Randy’s partner up and putting her back onto the table.

She keeps her head in Lloyd’s hand, meowing loudly and in a way that sounds almost sad. “Sorry, sorry…” Lloyd doesn’t know why he’s apologising, only that Espurr sounds really pathetic.

After a few seconds Espurr seems to snap out of it, pulling away from Lloyd and flopping down on the table, falling right back asleep.      

“Maybe she was having a nightmare…” Lloyd whispers, walking back to the sink to finish filling up his water bottle.

As he’s screwing the lid back on he hears the door behind him open up, and his whole body goes rigid. He had really been hoping to finish before Randy was done in the bathroom.

“S-sorry for just barging in…” Lloyd says, not turning around, “I did think there would be anyone in there.”

Randy laughs, “Don’t sweet it.” he says, his hand landing on Lloyd’s shoulder, “It is weird to take a shower at 3 a.m.” He tells him, and Lloyd could swear he felt warmth radiating from Randy’s body.

“Why were you taking a shower at 3?” Lloyd decides to ask, “You didn’t go out.” Randy normally says something before he leaves, if only to invite Lloyd to come with him. 

“I always worked the Graveyard shift at Bellguard, I’ve gotten used to cleaning up late at night. Plus, I like the privacy.” He says.

“It’s not like you have anything to be embarrassed about.” 

Maybe if Lloyd were a little more lucid, he wouldn’t have said that. He wouldn’t have thought much of Randy’s well-built body, but Lloyd can’t help but feel slightly jealous of him. Lloyd’s never had much luck building muscle, and he knows he’s not going to grow much taller either. Though once the words are out of Lloyd’s mouth he wishes he could shove them back in. It’s embarrassing to admit, even implicitly.

Randy just laughs, roughly patting Lloyd’s back, right between his shoulders, jolting Lloyd forward, “Thanks man.”

“You’re… Welcome?” Lloyd’s not sure how he’s supposed to respond to this.

At the very least Randy laughs a little harder, it’s a nice laugh. “Man, you must be wiped. See ya tomorrow.” Randy gently picks up his partner before leaving the kitchen.

Lloyd shakes his head and finishes screwing the cap onto his water bottle before finally drinking it. He'd almost forgotten how thirsty he was in the cloud of humiliation that had just settled on him. Embarrassed, Lloyd finishes his entire bottle before filling it back up and returning to his room.

+

Deputy Commander Sonya is in Chief Sergei's office, and judging from the look on her face, Randy knows nothing good is about to happen.

“SSS, good morning.” She says the moment they all file into the office, “Unfortunately I'll have to keep this brief.” She states, “as of this morning, the CGF will be pulling out of Mainz. Commander's orders.”

“But, it has only been two nights since the last attack.” Tio states, “The CGF provided protection to both Mainz and Armorica for a week after the attacks.” 

“The commander has deemed the protection of Mainz a waste of our resources, so we are pulling out.” She states.

Randy does his best not to sigh, but he’ll be damned if he doesn’t want to sigh, he wants to sigh really fuckin’ loudly. But he holds his professionalism, he can save bitching about the CGF’s shitty commander for when it’s relevant.

“Unfortunately.” Deputy Commander Sonya continues, “We will be unable to provide you with any support from here on out. Of course, you’re still free to finish the request, but you will get no more intel from the CGF.” She tells them.

“I see…” Lloyd nods, “That’ll make things difficult.”

“I apologise, but there’s nothing more we can do.” Sonya sighs, “Of course, if you’re able to track down the perpetrator’s, we may be able to react in an emergency.” She tells them. 

“Of course.” Lloyd nods.

“Apologies SSS, but I leave this in your hands.” She says, “Let’s go, Seeker.”

“Yes ma’am!” Her aide salutes and follows the deputy commander out of the room.

“Well you heard her.” Sergei shrugs, pulling a cigarette out from the pack and lighting it, “You’re free to continue investigating, just know you’ve gotta have something rock solid before you can get the CGF involved. And even when you do, go straight to Sonya, even if Mainz is in Bellguard's jurisdiction you won’t get much calling on them.”

Randy sighs, he’s actually kinda glad not to have to call Bellguard, he doesn’t need to have Mireille chew him out again. Or, worse, she might get possessed by something and apologise for being too harsh. 

“Alright, let’s check our requests then go to Mainz.” Lloyd says, quickly leading them out of Sergei’s office and to the terminal. 

Lloyd clicks around before noting everything down, “A request to assist the imperial inspection office, a request from the antique store owner about her property in the Downtown District, and a wanted monster on Mainz mountain path…” Lloyd sighs, “Sorry Elie, Tio, we’ll have to walk up the mountain path.”

“That is fine.” Tio states, “If I am being honest, we may find clues on the road, I am not opposed to walking.” She says.

Elie nods, “It would almost feel incomplete if we took the bus now.”

“Well, if you’re both up for it.” Lloyd says, “Alright, let’s start at the train station, that one’s closest.” He says before leading them all out of the annex and down to the train station where a crabby imperial soldier is waiting for them.

He barks out some orders for them, just checking boarding passes and tickets. The four of them split up. Randy’s blessed by Aidios by having a mostly empty train car, letting him get the job done quickly. The faster he can get away from admin work the better.

The others don’t have too much trouble, aside from Lloyd, who exits the train car with an unimpressed look on his face and Zorua in his hands. The wild Pokémon​​ doesn’t seem hostile at least, more so annoyed that its illusion had been seen through.

Lloyd frees it at the Ursula Byroad byroad entrance, letting it run off to the deeper part of the forest (hopefully, at least).

Then they go to the antique shop, the cookie old bat who owns the place giving them the key and telling them to exterminate the monsters that had taken up residence in her unoccupied building. It’s clear Lloyd and Elie are judging her for leaving the apartments vacant to the point of infestation, but Randy is silently glad for it. He had posted up in this building before managing to slip his way into the Guardian Force. 

“Achoo!” Tio loudly sneezes as they all enter the building, “The interior of this place is caked with dust.” Her Shinx sneezes as well, “We should finish this quickly.”

And so they get to work. Lucky for all of their noses the monsters in the building are weak, and they haven’t seen any signs that the building was becoming a habitat for ghost types. They just make their way through empty apartment building, all of them careful not to disturb too much of the dust. 

“Alright. I think that’s all of them.” Lloyd says, “Let’s get out of here.”

Everyone gives a round of nods before they all make their back to the foyer of the building. Before any of them can leave the door is loudly opened by one Wald Wales, chain wrapped bat slung over his shoulder, a Scrafty and Lycanroc with him.

“The hell are you bastards doin’ in here?” He sneers.

“We were asked to clean the place out of monsters.” Lloyd tells him, “Wald, just so you know this is private property.” He reminds the delinquent, though Randy doesn’t see the point, obviously Wald doesn't care, this place is unoccupied.

“Shit job you’ve done of it.” Wald says, “This place is still crawlin’ with ‘em.”

“We’ve gone through every room, I don’t see how we could have missed anything.” Elie says, slightly defensive.

“Tch, doesn’t matter.” Wald shrugs before swaggering off down one of the hallways.

“Is it alright to simply let him go?” Tio asks.

“I can’t see Wald doing anything to harm the Downtown District.” Lloyd says, “It might be fine just to leave him-” Whatever Lloyd is about to say is cut off by a loud crash from the direction Wald went in.

“Nevermind.” Lloyd huffs, “Elie, Tio, stay here and make sure nothing gets out of the building. Randy! Let's go after him!”

Lloyd sprints ahead and Randy wastes no time following after him. Down the end of the hall there’s a pile of crates and barrels strewn about. Randy guesses Wald had knocked them over to get past them and into the room that was hidden beyond them.

“You think he's done this before?” Randy can see no other explanation for why Wald knew about this other part of the building.

“The lock on the door wasn't broken.” Lloyd responds as they cautiously make their way into another foyer, “and I don't think Imelda comes here enough to fix it.” He says, “then again… Maybe he came here with Wazy. You could easily make a competition of clearing out monsters.” He reasons.

He really got that much out of a small interaction and a tiny observation.

Before Randy can even think about complimenting Lloyd there's another crash from beyond the stairs and neither of them wastes any time bolting to where it had come from. Lloyd swings the door open and they both rush into the room, seeing Wald and his Pokémon locked in combat with a spindly long bug thing that's not like anything Randy's ever seen and it's accompanied by a bunch of smaller monsters that look like they're gonna a bitch to try hit with their weapons.

Worse for Wald is that he's surrounded by them. Well, Randy does have a way to hit the smaller ones before they can descend on Wald. “Close your eyes!” He shouts, only out of courtesy before pulling the pin on a flash grenade and throwing it into the middle of the pack of monsters.

A few of them burst the moment the grenade goes off. Randy guesses they must have been attacked by Wald already.

“Tch, guess the cops can do their jobs.” Wald says, and it’s probably a good thing the guy’s able to give out smack talk.

Randy levels his halburd and channels the burning energy of the fire type quartz in his orbment. The Craft isn’t as powerful as it is when you channel a real fire type Pokémon, but it has to do. Randy swings his halburd, the canned flames engulfing the monster and the few remaining mooks around it. It recoils back, letting out a high pitched buzzing sound as its cry of pain that rattles the inside of Randy’s head. 

Lloyd follows up, channeling the power of Pawmi’s electric moves into his tonfa before slamming into the monster, turning into dust and sepith.

“Man, think we got ‘em all this time.” Randy asks, deciding right now to ignore Wald, the guy was probably going to bitch about them kill stealing from him. He seems a lot like Shirley that way.

“Yeah.” Lloyd nods, huffing while putting his tonfa back. Even if he has more endurance than either of the girl’s, he’s still a city kid at heart, even with the police academy’s strict training.

“Hmph, don’t act all high and mighty. You didn’t even notice this room.” Wald scoffs.

“Um, sorry, Wald.” Lloyd says, perhaps to be professional or maybe he really does feel bad. 

“Tch, whatever.” The delinquent leader rolls his eyes before leaving the room.

Randy hears Lloyd sigh while wiping the sweat off his brow. “Guess you can’t expect too much thanks from a delinquent, even when we just saved his ass.” Randy sighs as well, “C’mon, the gals are probably gettin’ antsy.”

“Ah, right…” Lloyd trails off, looking down at the ground.

“Somethin’ wrong?”

Lloyd shakes his head, “No, it’s nothing. You’re right, let’s go.”

+

Lloyd’s beginning to think there’s something wrong with him. Since this morning he hasn’t been able to look at Randy without feeling deeply embarrassed. He shouldn’t. Even after the small blunder last night (well, early in the morning, Lloyd supposes), it’s not like Lloyd’s never seen a naked man before, the Police Academy dormitory had shared shower rooms and - even if he was a child - he’d shared a house with Guy his entire life. He’s not a prude either, he’s not exactly scandalised by nudity, especially in a bathroom Randy had every right to be in, even if the hour was weird.

Lloyd didn’t even see anything, nothing he couldn’t have interpreted from just… looking at Randy. Maybe it’s because he didn’t apologise properly that’s making Lloyd feel like his chest is about to explode whenever they’re standing close to each other. 

He really just needs to ignore whatever’s wrong with him. It’s going to cause them problems, Lloyd can properly hash it out after they’ve investigated Mainz.

Once they finish their requests, giving the monster parts they collected the previous day to Oscar, and some eggs to Bennet who also wanted to give making food with monster parts a try. 

“Now then, we have finished all our errands. Let’s go, while we have the momentum.” Tio says as they leave the bakery. 

“Of course.” Elie nods, and Lloyd’s glad the girls seem to be motivated.

Lloyd leads the rest of the group through the residential district before exiting out on the Mainz Mountain path. As soon as they do, Elie takes a long deep breath, “It’s amazing how much crisper the air is out here.” She says.

“I know what you mean.” Lloyd nods.

“Right!” She nods, Elie seemed livelier than usual, Lloyd wonders for a moment if something good happened to her, “It’s so nostalgic.”

“Nostaligic? Is it common for Crossbellan children to play here on the mountain path?” Tio asks.

Elie giggles, “No, no, nothing like that.” She says before pointing up in the direction of the cathedral, “Crossbell Cathedral is just up that path.”

“Ah…” Tio nods her head, “Actually, speaking of, something has been bothering me for a while.”

“Somethin’s up?” Randy raises an eyebrow.

“It is nothing to do with the case, but, ever since we started this unit it has been established that we knew nothing of each other before we met in the conference room, however, Elie and Lloyd are the same age, and you were both raised in Crossbell, did you not attend Sunday School together?” She asks.

“Well, Crossbell’s a pretty big city, so the classes are divided based on where in the city you live.” Lloyd tells her, “We grew up in different areas, so we were in different classes.”

“I see, my town was small, so we were all in one class.” Tio says, in a notably subdued manner, “W-what about you, Randy?” She says, maybe to move the attention away from her, but Randy seems to balk.

“Me? Ah… Well… I… Didn’t go to Sunday School. Wasn’t any chapels around, I got tutored by my folks.” He shrugs.

“I see…” Tio nods, “Apologies for the distraction, let’s keep going. We have a wanted monster to hunt, do we not?” 

“Right, yeah.” Lloyd nods, “Let’s keep going.”

“Hm?” Before they start walking Tio looks around, “Did any of you hear that?”

Lloyd shakes his head, “I didn’t hear anything out of the ordinary.”

“I see… I suppose I must’ve been mistaken.” Tio looks down, the small glimpse of her normally blank face showing just a flicker of shame.

“What did you hear, Tio?” Lloyd asks, Tio didn’t lie, and she was always very precise, he doubts she would say something completely wrong.

“It sounded like howling. However, according to the database, the Lycanroc line lives in this area. I assume it must’ve been them. Our targets only move at night, after all.” She says, “Please, do not let it bother you.” 

+

Randy finds the upper Mainz mountains oddly nostalgic, he and Mireille used to patrol this area a lot. He does wonder if she’s still mad at him. 

“So you’re just rolling over and leaving?!” He’s never heard Mireille sound actually angry, annoyed, sure, plenty, but never angry.

“S’not like I have a choice.” Randy just shrugs.

“You could just pick up the gun!”

“C’mon, you’re smarter than that, you know this ain’t about the rifle. I pick it up and in two weeks time he’s tellin’ me I gotta cut my hair or whatever.” Randy did his best to appear indifferent, “I ain’t bendin’ over backward for him. I’m reading the writing on the wall and gettin’ out while I still can.” He slung the one canvas bag he had, it fit all of his belongings anyway, it’s not like he has much to his name.

“So you’re just letting him win?! You’re not even going to try!?”

“Nope. I know a losing battle when I see one.” It was a lie. Complete and utter bullshit, but he couldn’t admit that to her, he couldn’t admit how difficult picking up a gun would be. 

“Where are you even going to go?!” She snapped back, and that, at least, had given him some pause.

“I’ll figure something out. You can even join me in six months when he gives you the boot too.” Randy almost stumbles, he didn’t know what the hell he was going to do.

She couldn’t have been too mad at him, Randy hoped, she’d taken the issue to Deputy Commander Sonya at very least. Then again, maybe she was more annoyed with the commander than she was mad at him, Randy was just the lesser of two evils in that moment.

Their group reaches the bridge that leads toward the village in the mountains; their group stops Lloyd's gaze on a path that goes up a different part of the mountain. “Do any of you know what’s up that path?” he asks.

That road was never on their patrol routes so, “Nope, I ain’t got a clue.”

“I do not believe there are any details in the database.” Tio adds.

“Oh, I think I’ve heard about it from a friend of mine.” Elie says, “There’s supposed to be the studio of a doll maker living in the mountains. My friend’s a fan of their work.”

“So someone lives up there?” Lloyd asks and Elie nods in response, “Then there may be witnesses the CGF never contacted.” He turns to the girls, “Sorry, um, if it’s alright with you two, I’d like to see if we can question anyone up there. If you don’t think you’re up for it, you can stay down at the bottom of the mountain.”

“I… Do not believe it would be wise to push myself that far.” Tio says, “The path beyond the tunnel is supposed to be a rough uphill. I do not feel comfortable pushing myself that far.” She tells them.

“I’ll stay with Tio.”

“Alright.” Lloyd nods.

“Don’t worry, I ain’t gonna leave you hangin’.” Randy laughs, clapping Lloyd on the back so hard it jolts the poor guy forward.

“Haha, thank you, Randy.” He turns to the girls, “We’ll try to be as quick as possible.” He says before leading walking away with Randy following after him.

Lloyd stays quiet as they begin their assent, but after a few minutes he speaks up, “Hey, about this morning…” He says, turning his head to look at Randy, “Sorry.”

“Huh?” Randy raises an eyebrow, “The hell’re you apologisin’ for?” Randy couldn’t think of anything Lloyd had done to him, but he sees the way Lloyd’s face flush, “What, you embarrassed about seein’ me outta the shower?”

“I should’ve at least knocked.” Lloyd says, “Even if it’s shared, that was still rude.”

“Hey.” Randy shrugs, hoping to lighten the mood, “Better you ran into me than the chief.”

That at least gets Lloyd to laugh, “I guess it could have been worse. Sorry, I guess I was over thinking it. I was worried I might have upset you.”

“Nah, nah, you’re good.” Randy waves his hand, “Hell, you could’ve taken some extra time to oggle me a little more.” He jokes, and the series of incomprehensible sputtering sounds that come out of Lloyd’s mouth are a better reaction than Randy could have hoped for.

“You… I… I wasn’t…”

“Hey, hey, I didn’t accuse you of anythin’.” Randy winks, and watches as Lloyd groans and withers.

“You… You’re incorrigible.” He mumbles.

Randy laughs, smiling as an odd feeling of quiet warmth spreading through his body. Something he hadn’t even felt before, or maybe he did, a really long time ago. “So, detective, you got any ideas about where this case is heading?” He asks, giving Lloyd an out. 

“To be honest, there’s one thing that’s stuck out to me.” He says.

“Oh yeah?” Randy raises an eyebrow, “What’s that?”

“The whistling Shizuku mentioned.”

“The whistling huh…” Randy pauses for a moment.

Wait. 

Crap. 

Was he stupid? 

Shit! That should’a stuck out to him when she’d said it. Randy doesn’t show it on his face but in that moment it all clicks into place for him. War Hounds of some description. Pokémon that had been modified to amplify aggression and power at the cost of their higher thinking functions. They can't use any distinct moves, only infusing their attacks with a vague ``Type`` energy. In all honesty, they’re more like monsters than Pokémon. The Red Constellation used modified Liepard - Bush Cougars, they call them - in their battles. But… Sleek black coats, they could be either Houndoom or Mightyena. Still doesn’t explain the attacks. War Hounds have to be directed, of course, that’s what the whistle is for, but they need to have some purpose to them. And the few that get out tend to stay away from human settlements. There’s nothing similar about the attacks, and direct attacks on civvies would mean dropouts, but dropouts didn’t have the resources to train and use War Hounds.

“Yeah, does seem pretty outta place.” Randy ends up saying, “Still, I doubt anyone else was even able to hear it.” Randy had hated the sound of the Cougar whistle while he could still hear it, Shirley hated it too. It made it feel like your jaw was about to fall off when you were too close, he supposes Shizuku must’ve been pretty far away if she only heard it faintly. Lucky for her.

“I wonder what it means, you don’t normally need a whistle to command a Pokémon…” Lloyd mumbles, and Randy keeps his mouth shut, guilt bubbling in the back of his throat like bile. 

“Who knows.” 

Randy bites his tongue and keeps quiet as they reach the top of the side path. Just as Elie had said, at the top of the path is an old looking house, with a closed gate in front of the door. “You think anyone’s home?” Randy asks.

“It’s hard to say…” Lloyd mumbles approaching the gate, “But there’s probably some kind of door bell…”

“Are you looking for Grandpa Jorge?” A girl's voice calls out from behind them.

Randy whips around, he hadn’t heard her approach, but it’s a girl, maybe about 12 in a frilly white dress with the unmistakable air of ghost type around her.

“Jorge? Um, do you live here with your grandfather?” Lloyd asks.

“I suppose you could say that.” The little girl curtseys, “Good day officers. My name is Renne. Grandpa’s not home at the moment, but you can talk to me.” She says.

“O-oh…” Lloyd clearly fumbles around for a moment, “Well, we were hoping to ask if there were any sightings of black monsters or Pokémon over the past few days?”

“Have I seen anything?” The girl shakes her head, “But I have been hearing some very loud howling for a few nights.”

“Right…” Lloyd nods, it was probably the same howling Shizuku and the resident Lytton had.

“Oh, are you two playing hide and seek with them?” She asks, she’s acting rather childish but Randy doesn’t buy it.

“I… I guess you could put it that way.” Lloyd says, evidently trying to humour the girl.

“Really?! That sounds fun! Can I play with you?” She asks.

“N-no, sorry.” Lloyd says, “Actually, I'd like to ask you to stay inside if at all possible.” He tells her, “There’ve been dangerous monsters around this area lately. At the very least, make sure you’re inside by sundown, and don’t stray too far from your grandfather's house. Alright Renne?”

“Aw…” The little girl pouts, “Well, if the officer says I have to, I can do that!” The little girl beams, but Randy can feel something sinister behind it, that familiar innocent bloodthirst he knew all too well.

She walks toward the gate, it opens up for her - presumably with some kind of orbal mechanism - before closing behind her. Swanky.

“I’m surprised she knew we were police officers.” Lloyd says, and Randy had totally missed that.

“Her Grandpa must get the paper delivered up here.” Randy shrugs, they’d had enough strangers recognise them as the SSS already.

“Still, surprising that she reads it.” Lloyd sighs, “But I guess there’s not much else to do up here. I hope she’s not all that lonely.” Lloyd says.

“I doubt it. Kiddo had at least one Pokémon taggin’ along with her.”

“R-really?!” Lloyd exclaims, evidently he had no clue what a person being trailed by a ghost type felt like.

“Yeah, some kinda ghost type. They’ve got a vibe, real easy to pin down if ya know what you’re lookin’ for. You hang out with enough people with one, and you can just tell.” 

“Oh… I didn't know that.” He says, “I hope it's her partner and not stalking her.”

“With how confident she was actin’ it's probably fine.” Randy shrugs, “Let's get goin’ we don't want the girls to start gettin’ worried about us.”

“Yeah…” Lloyd nods, turning around, “Let’s get back.”

The two of them walk down the mountain, Randy walking just a little bit behind Lloyd. As they reach the girls at the bottom of the path Randy find himself stopping. He could hear it, the howling that Tio had been hearing as well. "You hear that?" He asks, seeing Lloyd also stop in his tracks.

"Yeah." Randy sees Lloyd's head bob, "It was really faint but… It was definitely howling. Let's get back and see if the girls heard it too!"

The two of them hurry their way down the rest of the mountain, join the girls who both appeared to be looking around.

"Elie! Tio!" Lloyd calls out, getting the two girls to quickly rush over to them.

"You heard it too, right?" Elie asks.

"The howling?" Lloyd clarifies, "Yeah."

"It sounded rather close by, within at most 20 selge, perhaps closer." Tio tells them, "And if you do not mind my conjecture, the tone sounded as though it were calling us."

"Then maybe we should just keep going toward Mainz." Lloyd suggests.

"Indeed, we should continue to press on." Tio nods.

"Alrighty then." Randy swings his hands behind his heads, "onward and upwards then."

"Right." Elie nods, "Oh, but, did ou two find anything up the path?"

"Only the dollmaker's granddaughter." Lloyd tells her, "She mentioned hearing howling, but nothing substantial."

"I see…" Elie nods, "Okay! Let's keep going!" She exclaims, clearly trying to hype herself up.

The four of them walk their way through the tunnel, their footstep echoing through out the whole tunnel, the soft footsteps of their small Pokémon . "It's rather eerie." Elie says.

"You ain't even been in a tunnel, Madamois-Elie?" Randy finds that hard to believe, even a sheltered rich girl like her had to have gone through a tunnel before.

"Well, not on foot, and certainly not one this long." She answers.

"That so…" Randy shrugs, only for another howl to echo through the tunnel.

"Was that-?!"

"It came from the end of the tunnel!" Tio exclaims, leading everyone to dash through the rest of the tunnel.

Sitting outside the tunnel is an Absol, one much larger than any Randy had ever seen, the white fur of its chest puffed out, an air of pride not normally seen in simple wild Pokémon radiating from it. The Absol stares them down, and Randy finds his hand creeping over his stun halberd. "Wait." Tio says before approaching the Pokémon, Lloyd tries calling out to her, but she doesn't listen, instead standing in front of the Pokémon, who barely sits at her eye level.

"You have been calling to us." She says, "Do you want to tell us something?"

The Absol growls and barks a few times before standing up. Randy can see Elie reach for her gun out of the corner of his eye, but by the time she pulls it out of it's holster the Pokémon has bounced away.

"Hm…" Tio hums.

"W-what did it have to say?" Lloyd asks.

"All he said was that The final piece lies a head, you are not that far away from the end." Tio relays, and Randy supposes that means she able to understand Pokémon. A rare skill, but one that was completely unheard of.

"And if I may add my own opinion, he seemed miffed, perhaps at him and his brethren being suspected of the attacks." She adds.

"O-oh…" Lloyd stands shocked for a moment, "Well I guess that means he wants us to keep going."

"It's rather odd to be cheered on by a Pokémon." Elie says, "But it's nice to have some encouragement."

"Indeed, though it seemed as though it knows who's responsible." Tio says.

"Would'a been nice if he just told us who we're supposed to be after." Randy sighs, and Espurr meows in agreement.

"W-well, there nothing we can do now." Lloyd sighs, "Let's just get to Mainz."

+

Elie takes a deep breath of the mountain air. There’s the slight tinge of smog to the scent coming from the mines, it’s unlike anything Elie’s ever been around. Rocky, with only a few weeds sticking out of the cracks in the ground, giving the brown-grey dirt only a little bit of colour. By the entrance to the village is a notably new looking Reinford model truck. Elie wonders if it is the mayor's, she couldn't see anyone else in the village being able to afford one. Then again it might be collective village property the same way Armorica had that Verne model ute. Their group walks swiftly past the village entrance and to the house at the back of the main square where one of the local's said the mayor's residence. Standing outside the house is one of the local miners - at least Elie assumes so based on his attire - arms crossed and looking nervous.

"Excuse me." Lloyd calls out, making the miner jump a little, "Is this mayor's residence?"

"H-huh, o-oh yeah." The man nods.

"We're with the Crossbell Police, Special Support Section, we were hoping to speak to the mayor about the attack that happened here two nights ago."

"Oh really, since the CGF pulled out we thought you might not be coming." The miner says, "We're glad you're here, but the mayor's in a meeting right now, so you'll have to wait."

"Are you guarding the meeting?" Tio asks.

"N-nah, actually I had to talk to the mayor as well, walked right in on them mid-meeting." The miner sighs.

"Has something happened?" Lloyd asks.

"Well, I guess. I don't think it has to do with the attacks from the other night."

"You might as well tell us." Elie suggests, "We're both waiting here anyway, and we might be able to help you out."

"Oh yeah, you probably could." He says, and Elie feels a fair bit of satisfaction form getting him to tell them his problems, "It's like this. We were working in one of our mines and when we went to mine in one of the deeper spots, the air got really cold, and the ground got a little slippery." He says, "It's kinda routine. Usually it means an ice-type Pokémon has gotten in the mine, or there's an icy monster down there." He says, "Normally we'd call for the Bracer guild, but if you guys could deal with it…"

"Well, it's better than just standing around here for no reason." Lloyd says, "We can investigate the mine."

"Alright!" The miner exclaims, "I'll take you to the mine."

The miner leads them through the town, taking them to a large iron gate with a heavy pad lock. He pulls a large key ring out of his pocket, opening the door and beckoning the SSS to follow him into the mine. "We started feeling it just down those stairs." He points to the back of the mine, a dark void ahead of them, and Elie will deny she's swallowing hard and her hands are shaking.

"Alright, we'll be back soon." Lloyd assures before leading them down into the mine.

And Elie's not scared. She's not. She's not scared of the dark or of the fact that everything does, in fact, feel so, so, so, very frigid, even at the top of the carved stairs in the mountain. Elie knows at the very least she cover her trembling as shivering, as the four of them reach the lower level of the mine. Ahead of them they can see a far corner of the wide mine shaft where the wall is covered in bright, white, ice. Lloyd's Cyndaquil takes point, the warmth of his flames slightly abating the chill in the air and brightening the dark cave.

As they approach they're able to get a clearer look at the icy corner, and all four of them quickly duck behind some scaffolding to avoid being seen. In the middle of the ice is not a fearsome monster, but a small Pokémon, the same one Bell had caught in Roer. Only this one is a bright white colour and obviously not a fire type. "A Vulpix?" Elie mumbles.

"Aren't those fire types?" Lloyd says.

"Normally." Tio states, "However, there is a rare phenomena of certain Pokémon changing their type in certain environments. Ice-type Vulpix can be found in cold, mountainous areas, like the border between Remiferia, North Ambria, and Erebonia, the peaks of the Eisengard Mountain Range, or north of Arteria." She explains.

"But, what's one doing here?" Lloyd asks.

"Rare Pokémon like that get smuggled as pets for wealthy folks who don't wanna catch 'em themselves. Probably escaped some poachers cage and got lost, might even have Revache to thank." Randy tells them.

"It being in distress would explain the ice on the walls." Tio adds.

Elie looks back at the Pokémon huddling in the corner, staining the white fur of one of its back legs is a small splash of red. "I think it's hurt." Elie says, "Randy, can I borrow your jacket?" She asks.

"Huh? Sure." Randy takes off his jacket and passes it to her.

Elie quickly pulls it on, and it's just as warm as she thought it would be, though, "What in Aidios' name do you have in your pockets?" Elie feels as though she's being pulled down to the ground.

"A bun'cha taurosshit mostly: wire spools, flash bangs, y'know, things like that." Randy shrugs, and as much as Elie wants to ask why exactly he's carrying all that around in his pockets she really doesn't have the time to be unpacking all of that.

"Alright then…" Elie sighs before pulling a tear balm out from her skirt pocket and carefully walking up to the Pokémon.

At the edge of the frozen corner Elie kneels down and puts a small amount of tear balm on her hand. It was a technique she'd learned from a friend while in Arteria, Pokémon can recognise the smell of the main ingredients in the tear balm, since they're so common and most eat them as way to heal their own wounds in the wild. If you hold some out to an injured Pokémon, they'll come up to you of their own volition. Elie holds still, patiently waiting for the Vulpix to approach her. It does, slowly, limping as it approaches, the air getting colder as it gets closer, she was right to borrow Randy's jacket.

By the time the Vulpix's chin reaches her hand Elie's fingers feel numb, she can barely feel the fur against her fingers, and she doubts she could wiggle them if she wanted too. As the Vulpix rests her head in Elie's hand Eevee carefully rings the bell around her neck as Elie takes another glob of tear balm onto her free hand, that she carefully smears onto the Vulpix's back legs. It yips, but it doesn't pull away, letting Elie continue to heal her.

Elie pulls her hand away, the ice around the mine's wall beginning to melt and shatter as the small Pokémon begins to let its guard down. "There, there…" Elie smiles, using her free, not frozen, hand to lightly pet the Pokémon's head before carefully picking it up.

Elie quickly walks back to the rest of the SSS, Eevee at her heals and the Vulpix in her arms and her hand still very numb. "Mission accomplished." Tio says as she returns.

"You good?" Randy asks.

"I'm a little cold…" Elie admits, and Cyndaquil is already pawing at her leg, offering her his flames for warmth, "Hehe, thank you very much."

"Let's get out of here. Hopefully the mayor will be done with his meeting." Lloyd says.

"We're also gonna 'ave to figure out what to do with the little guy." Randy adds.

"Oh yeah, we can't just release him back into the wild like we did with that Zorua on the train." Lloyd adds, "It's pretty far from home."

Vulpix stirs in her arms and makes a sad sounding whimper, the poor thing must be terrified. "How about you stay with me?" Elie offers.

The little one makes her choice known, curling into Elie's arms and making a few happy sounding yips.

"Hehe, welcome to the team." Elie taps a pokéball against her forehead and lets it shake before adding her to her team.

+

Everyone sits around the table in the middle of the inn, Lloyd having laid every he'd managed to figure out so far: The incidences were caused by Revache testing out their War Hounds by siccing them on various people while also trying to reap some benefit as an little extra.

"But there is one thing I do not understand." Tio says, "For what purpose do they need a whistle? If you were to train Pokémon to use pack tactics, would it not be unnecessary to make them respond to the whistle?"

"That's…" Lloyd fumbles, and Randy decides he has to step in.

"War Hounds." He says, "Pokémon that have been modified for combat. The mods mean they ain't able to understand human speak, you've gotta use a whistle to point them at their targets. Because of the ethics involved regular armies don't use them, jaegers like 'em 'cause they're cheeper and easier to transport than heavy artillery." There was a lot more to it then that, but

"How awful…" Elie mumbles.

"But with how far Revache is going to prepare for Heiyue's expansion, not out of character." Lloyd adds.

"But knowing Revache is responsible presents another problem." Tio says, "Just like their actions in the Downtown District we would need to catch them in the act."

"Actually, I think that might be possible." Lloyd says, "After what we heard from the Mayor, I don't think we'll even have to leave the village."

Randy raises an eyebrow, "You think?"

Lloyd nods, "Yeah. What we heard seems like a pretty cut and dry case of racketeering. But since they failed to reap any benefit, and that the CGF pulled out. I think they'll try again tonight."

"I see, unlike Armorica or St Ursula, they've got the momentum to try again." Elie agrees, "What's more, monopolizing Mainz's septium will hold more long term benefits than just selling a some marked up medical equipment or low balling some of Armorica's produce."

"Enough so that they would try again." Tio adds.

"Two of their guys gettin' hurt right after each other makes the message loud and clear." Randy sighs, "So, you got an idea on when and where?"

"Some yeah." Lloyd nods, "Assuming they'll follow the same pattern of striking when there's no witnesses, and that they plan on targeting a person again the only chance they'd have is to attack someone as they're leaving the bar late at night." He reasons.

"So you wanna stake out the bar?" Randy asks.

"That's right." Lloyd nods, "We'll start late, around 10pm is probably late enough to hide without Revache noticing us."

"We'll be up awhile. Might not be a bad idea to grab some Z's while we can." Randy suggests, mostly for Elie and Tio, though Lloyd didn't seem like he could stay up all that long either.

"It does not seem like a bad idea to squeeze in a quick nap." Tio admits, "Though there are only two beds. If I remove my breast plate, Elie and I could fit on one."

"Nah, don't bother Tio-tot." Randy shakes his head, "I could barely fit on one bed myself, let only the two of us." He says while nudging Lloyd, "If I really need to get some shut eye I'll sleep on the floor, Madamois-Elie and Lloyd can scrap for the other bed."

"You can have it, Elie." Lloyd quickly concedes, "I can take the floor if I really need it." He says.

"Ah…" Elie clears her throat, "Thank you Lloyd."

Almost immediately the the girls get up and flop down on the beds, while Lloyd tuns the main light off and the lamp on the table on, taking out his detective notebook and writing something down, presumably everything they've learned so far. With nothing much else to do, Randy just watches Lloyd scribble away, wondering if he even knew about the kind of foe they were about throw themselves at.

Probably not, he didn't even know what War Hounds were. Assuming there were only the two or three that physician had seen they'd probably be fine, but if there were any more than that it probably wouldn't end well.

Would he be willing to go all out in the case they were cornered? He looks away from Lloyd, to the dark corner of the back of the room where the girls were resting, then back to Lloyd. Maybe he would, for a group of kids he'd met three weeks ago, but it already felt like he'd known them for a life time. It's strange, Randy thinks, that someone like him would become so attached to a small group of people so quickly. As if they couldn't die tomorrow. He supposed that was unlikely, given their line of work wasn't exactly the most life threatening. Maybe that's why he'd so quickly latched on to them. There wasn't the threat of dying tomorrow, dying at any moment, they could live. Any maybe it's selfish - not maybe, Randy thinks, it's selfish - but… He's happier like this. There's a strange warmth he feels around these people that he's not sure he's felt before.

Part of Randy wants to know what's wrong with him, but deeper part of him knows this is natural. This is what's supposed to happen. But that doesn't mean it feel right. This feeling is a privilege for people aren't like him.

"Randy," Lloyd whispers just loud enough for Randy to hear, "Is something wrong?"

Randy shakes his head, "Nah." Only thing wrong was Randy being here with them.

"…If you say so." Lloyd sighs, clearly he's not entirely convinced but is polite enough not to pry.

And that's what they were. Polite, considerate, wiling to ignore the obvious red flags that hung around him like a ghost.

"Do you have any ideas how to confront Revache's War Hounds?" He asks.

"Best practise is to stun 'em before you take 'em out. Revache can only be amateurs at controllin' 'em, so a single flash bang ought to do it." Randy says, good thing he ended up picking some up from Ashleigh when he had the chance.

"Got it…" Lloyd nods before closing his notebook, "I'm gonna sleep now, you should get some rest too."

Randy sees Lloyd slump over the table, putting his head in his arms. Not the most comfortable sleeping position, but there were certainly worse ways to sleep, and it's not Randy's neck on the line. He closes his eyes, a couple hours of shut eye could do him some good.

Randy doesn't dream, he doesn't sleep deep enough for that. If you sleep deep enough to dream, you sleep deep enough to get ambushed. He's always aware of every nearby sound and movement while asleep. You have to be aware, that's just how it is.

Once two hours past Randy wakes up, shaking Lloyd awake before getting the girls up too.

"There're a bunch'a blind spots around the Inn's door, pleaty of elevation too, won't be difficult to cover all off our angles." Randy tells them, "Where do want us to hide out?" He asks Lloyd who looks thoughtful for a moment.

"Randy can wait on the upper level above the inn, Elie can take the far end toward the lower levels, Tio can take the south, and I'll take the north behind the stairs, the stairs are closer to the door so it'll be quicker for Randy and I to get into melee range." He orders.

"Sounds good." Randy nods, and he doesn't see the way Lloyd's expression softens, how he seems proud of Randy's approval.

"Interesting." Tio states.

"Tio?" Elie looks at their youngest team member.

"It is nothing to do with the case. I simply thought of something interesting. Do not mind me." She says, and Randy could almost swear the girl was smirking.

+

"Close your eyes!" In a single swift, well practised, motion Randy pulls the pin out from his stun grenade before tossing it down the stairs.

The two War Hounds - enhanced Houndoom - whimper in pain and drop down, paralysed. "Both 'a ya, scram!" Randy shouts out at the two miners that were cornered by the hounds.

Both of them drunkenly and hastily clamber back into the Inn, letting everyone else surround the hounds. "These guys are vicious, don't let your guard down!" Randy calls out before preparing himself, he'll have to lean on his own strength for this fight.

Randy slams his Halberd into one of the hounds while Tio casts a water-type art from her staff. Elie takes a couple of shots from her gun while Lloyd commands Pawmi to use an electric-type move on another of the hounds before they finally stand back up. There's a guttural growl from one of them before it sets it's sights on Randy. It leaps at Randy, mouth open and teeth bared. There's a familiar rush of adrenaline and the sound of Randy's blood rushing through his body fills his ears. He swings his halberd and teeth meets steel, the weak water quartz in his enigma giving him just enough of an upper hand to throw the hound aside as Lloyd, Elie, and Tio beat back the other one.

The two hounds shudder back back before sprinting off, Randy turns his attention to Lloyd who gives the order to pursue them, following as quickly as they can before finally finding the van the Revache goons were operating out of.

"Damn it! The SSS?!" One of them yells as the other throws their hounds some medicine.

"That's right!" Lloyd shouts, "Members of Revache & co. you're under arrest for Assault, Property Damage, and Cruelty to Pokémon, will you be adding resisting arrest to the charges."

"As if you'll be able to bring us it!" The other one of the yells back.

The two hounds get back up and join the Revache goons and their Pokémon, a Masschiff and a Sneasel. They aren't much stronger than the goons they'd faced in the Downtown district, their two War Hounds are exhausted, and it's clear they have no experience commanding them while fighting themselves.

It doesn't take much to bring them both to their knees.

"That's enough, stop resisting arrest and come quietly." Lloyd says.

"Not a chance!" One of the goons shouts before making a break toward the van.

Randy hears something click, before more War Hounds emerge from inside. Ten more, to Randy's count. "You're kiddin' me?!" How the hell'd they have more?! just training two War Hounds in month would be difficult, let alone twelve, and with no experience in training them either. Had they bought already trained ones off the black market?

"This does not look good." Tio says as Randy scans his eyes over the group.

Terrain wise it could be worse, and numbers wise twelve War Hounds, two of which are injured, aren't anything Randy hasn't faced before. Even with just Espurr and a stun halberd he could probably get rid of them, only if he went all out.

Not that Randy has a choice, Randy takes a deep breath and-

"AWOO!!" Before he can throw himself over the edge there's a loud howl from the cliffs above them. Surrounding the upper leaves of the mountain are a variety of the dog-like Pokémon that live in the area Mainz: Lycanroc, Arcanine, Manectric, all lead by the same large Absol they'd seen earlier.

"The hell?!" One of the goons shouts out in surprise as all the War Hounds all shiver in fear.

The pack of canine Pokémon allowing for them to easily arrest the members of Revache, while the mayor of Mainz allows for them to hold them and their hounds in on the their warehouse overnight, letting Lloyd contact Deputy Commander Bealz once morning comes.

The deputy commander is slightly miffed by their reckless actions, but Randy's seen what she looks like when she's truly angry, so he can rest assured even she can accept 'all's well that end's well' as a reason for doing something reckless.

+

Tio yawns as the four of them approach the SSS building, she would like to take a proper shower and have proper nap as soon as possible. Though even as she walks down the stairs, she can smell the horrible scent of the chief's cigarette smoke. He wasn't normally courteous enough to smoke outside, so Tio wonders what could have possessed the chief to do something so thoughtful while they weren't even at the annex. "Huh? Chief?" Lloyd says once they've reached the bottom of the stairs and the chief comes into view.

"Oh, good, you're back." He says, "Sonya already filled me in on the situation. Good job." His lazy tone hiding the small amount of pride Tio can sense in his words.

"Ah, thanks?" Lloyd responds, "Did you come outside just to say that?" Lloyd asks.

"Nah, came outside for a breath of fresh air, then he showed up, so I haven't bothered goin' back in."

"He?"

"Go take a look." He prompts.

The four of them walk toward the front door before seeing "Zeit?!" Tio skips up to the proud Absol before kneeling down.

"You know 'im?" He hears the chief ask.

"He helped us with the case." Lloyd tells him, "But what's he doing here?"

Tio listens to the Pokémon, "He says he wishes to observe us, you have potential, but it is clear you pups are inexperienced and wish to watch your growth, is what he says." Tio tells them.

"Welp, guess I'll have the department register him a sniffer dog." The chief shrugs, "you kids know how to care for Pokémon, this thing's a little bigger than what your used to, but it won't be too difficult for you." The chief says, ending the conversation and the case, finally, Tio can have her shower.