Cobel Timpinia; Trainer Ranking — Unranked.
June 9th. Olivine City.
The flash of red light turned into a bursting cloud of thick, black smoke spreading out and curling about, spilling onto the street and pluming up into the sky. Cobel heard the confused honking of cars on the street, the harsh squealing of brake pads bringing their hunks of metal to sudden stops. Frustration from random passers-by as they tried to flee the smoke. The private detective pushed toward the alley with the sailors, his Galarian Weezing trailing close behind, still facing the now-stopped RKT guards who'd tried to pile onto him; they were stopped in their tracks for but a moment as they picked through the roaring crowd to listen for Cobel's retreating footsteps through the smoke.
A capsule clicking briefly set off a second flash of red light, and the roar of his hot-temped Coalossal rung out through the thick fog as the Rock/Fire-type rose to full height, above the oppressive smokescreen. Behind it and its trainer, the Coal Pokemon dropped a pile of thorny caltrops in place—right on time, as the now-running RKT thugs all yelped out in pain, shouting curses as their feet pressed directly onto the fresh trap laid right in front of their blind eyes. Cobel heard a trio of bodies thumping onto the ground, and the sound of the dangerous spikes digging into even more flesh. He hurried on, recalling Weezing to its PokeBall; they'd rehearsed most of that - and had to pull it off more than a few times over the years - but now the private eye and his team needed to improvise.
Step one, he'd known all along—hit the sailors rushing to cut him off from the alley, before they hit
him. Except with the smokescreen still thick in everybody's eyes, Cobel couldn't quite tell if he'd passed it or not, and he didn't hear the footsteps of charging, pissed-off sailors. No, instead he heard—
First he heard the roar of ocean waves crashing—but instead of crashing into the soft sand of a beach, the water crashed into him and Coalossal, pushing aside the smokescreen smoke as a trio of coordinated Surf attacks pushed into trainer and Pokemon from a close distance. The pair were swept up by the force of the water, thrown across the street entirely by the combined attacks.
Cobel found himself strewn on the ground across the street, his entire body ringing out in pain; he looked beside him and saw Coalossal, unconscious and buried two-thirds of the way through a massive truck with its hulking form; he sighed, shaking his head at himself—he'd been a little slow, judging where the sailors were at and getting Lanturn and Ludicolo both out in time.
Through what little smoke lingered, and the world spinning before him, Cobel saw the four sailors crossing the water-logged street flanked by an Azumarill, a Gastrodon, a Kingler, and a Crawdaunt. Back in front of the hotel, the six RKT guards still seemed hampered enough by the thorn caltrops earlier that they wouldn't be joining the party for a while.
With a groan, the detective pushed himself up off the ground, dragging a left leg that screamed at him in an angry pain as he moved behind the truck poor Big Boy was lodged in like a stray meteor. As quick as he could, Cobel pulled out a trio of PokeBalls and threw them to the ground in front of him. Bruce the Hitmonlee, Ludiculous the Ludicolo, and Turnaround the Lanturn popped out. At the same time, he could hear sloshing footsteps as they spread out around the truck, hoping to catch him from both sides, and cut off further escape—not that Cobel was in the condition to move
quickly.
"Bruce, Hi-Jump Kick—find Crawdaunt and take it out ASAP," Cobel instructed in a hushed whisper, having trouble controlling his loose breathing. "Ludi, I need you to hit Gastrodon with an Energy Ball, too. Turn,
no electricity until everyone is clear of the splash zone, got it? I need you to confuse one of Azu or Kingler, then stop attacks from striking Bruce and Ludi.
Go."
Hitmonlee wasted no time leaping up into the air, using its new vantage point to locate Crawdaunt, who'd been pushing around to Cobel's left side; Ludicolo charged its Energy Ball, taking a stance in front of Cobel as their attackers rushed to overwhelm their position—Gastrodon pushed on Cobel's right. Lanturn did the same, catching sight of the Kingler first as it moved in alongside Gastrodon. Lastly, Cobel took sight of Azumarill, alongside Crawdaunt on his left. Without a sight of any of the sailors sending the Pokemon in to fight, Cobel rushed toward the Aqua Rabbit Pokemon as it raised its hands high in the air.
Crawdaunt stood absolutely no chance as the well-trained Hitmonlee kicked out with its right leg, which extended like a spring at the slower, Water/Dark-type's head, the extended leg then pulling Hitmonlee's body into it with an almost unmatched force, crashing the right foot into the Rogue Pokemon with a horrible crunch. The Water-type went flying further down the street like a baseball slammed off a tee. Without any hesitation, Hitmonlee turned to Cobel.
For their part, Ludi and Turnaround played perfectly—before the slow, Sea-Slug Pokemon had really gotten an eye on Ludicolo, had fired its ball of natural energy into the helpless Water/Ground-type. Turnaround blasted Kingler with its confuse ray in the uproar of the explosion that engulfed Gastrodon and sent it tumbling back into the street, unconscious. Successfully confused, the Kingler's vicious Vicegrip attack went wide of the Lanturn, slashing into the damaged, metal truck behind it with enough force to stick in. Worried, the Kingler tried to hit Ludicolo with a Bubblebeam, but too little damage was done; the Carefree Pokemon gave Kingler a happy smile, let out a hearty laugh, and then vacuumed away what little health the Pincer Pokemon had with a point-blank Giga Drain.
In the time it took for the left flank to be handled, Cobel had rushed forward and grabbed Azumarill by its hands, right before it could slam them into its stomach for a potentially-deadly Belly Drum; the private detective tried to lift the Aqua Rabbit off its feet, but found his hurting body unable to cope with the Water/Fairy's unexpected weight. With an ugly grin, the Azumarill lowed its head and hooked its body into a proper Body Slam, which sent Cobel crashing back into the truck with a brutal thump. As he struggled to push himself up off the ground for a second time even as he heard Hitmonlee and Ludicolo both push in from either side of his aggressor to knock Azumarill out—Hitmonlee with a Poison Jab, Ludicolo with an Energy Ball.
"What the fu—" he heard the sailors take a step back in disbelief; it all unfolded in a matter of seconds, he couldn't blame them for being surprised to see all of their Pokemon pushed back like an adult holding off a child coming to punch them simply with one hand and the length of their arm. But the surprise could only last so long. Soon, their feet started sloshing through the wet street again—and now, he could hear a couple more pushing across the road; likely a few of the RKT thugs he'd wounded earlier recovered enough to continue their pursuit.
Cobel looked at Hitmonlee and pointed high into the sky with an index finger. Bruce nodded and got into place.
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
He cursed himself for not keeping any better-trained Flying-types. Instead, he'd used Hitmonlee like a spring-board, having his trusty kickboxer push him
up into the sky and toward the nearest roof—as Cobel soared up into the air, he reminded himself he'd have to acquire a flier. In the mean time, the private eye used what little time he had airborne to recall three of his four Pokemon (Bruce, Ludi, and the wounded Big Boy from his sadly entrenched position on the other side of the truck.) Turnaround stayed behind, waiting for its cue.
As Cobel arced down toward the roof of the apartment building across from his old hotel, he held out Weezing's PokeBall, once again sending out the Poison Gas Pokemon.
"Protect! Nownownow—"
CRASH.
Weezing had acted in time, but that didn't mean Cobel stopping his own fall with a protective barrier wouldn't hurt like being slammed into by a Duraludon. He slid off the barrier to the floor like a pathetic cartoon character, regretting all of his life decisions.
Turnaround took its cue in stride, producing a powerful Thunderbolt from its shining fin ray attached to its forehead. Carefully, Cobel had waited until the street had cleared itself of chaos—and there, he had them. All four sailors, and three of the six RKT guards from earlier, were caught in the wet street as the lightning struck and dispersed across the layer of water used earlier to attack the detective and Coalossal. From up on the apartment building, he heard bodies sizzling and thumping to the ground in groans of immense pain. He only hoped the street had been clear for real—he didn't want any innocent people getting caught up in this mess.
Carried up by the momentum of unspent adrenaline, Cobel stood, recalling Lanturn and Weezing for Hitmonlee once again. This time, he pointed down, toward the other side of the building, facing an alley adjacent to the street his hotel was on, filtering out into the opposite street. Bruce nodded, understanding as always.
Going down was much easier than going up, he convinced himself—it was like riding an elevator. He simply grabbed a hold of Hitmonlee's legs, and Bruce - always the MVP of his team - lowered him swiftly to the ground. Cobel could feel his own legs begging to collapse onto the ground, though he knew he was far from safe enough to. A red beam brought Bruce back into the detective's grip, and he forced his body to limp off in any direction toward the busy city. Police sirens sounded far off in the distance, inching their way closer to the scene of the battle. A majority of people rushed in the opposite direction, trying to escape the frightening sounds of chaotic destruction, though a brave few pushed toward the scene, as if they might see something incriminating—something they could tell the police, get famous maybe.
He tried to join the throng that moved away. Some offered him strange looks, suspicious looks, the rare sympathetic look, but Cobel figured he could play the role of innocent bystander if needed. But he didn't need it. In fact, he didn't get further than half a block when a familiar, black sedan pulled up alongside him. No doors opened to menace him further. A tinted, rear window rolled down, and the same, intimidatingly beautiful businesswoman stared out at him with all the annoyance money could afford.
"You fought for nothing," she pointed out with a disappointed click of her tongue. Then, her lips curled into a greedy smile. "I bet mother $5,000 you'd fight."
Rarely was Cobel at a loss for words—one such time was now.
"Regardless, you've cost us
well more than that here today with your...antics," instead of waving a hand out in the direction of the recent fight, she pointed up and down at
him—covered in scrapes and cuts, bleeding and bruising, clothes tattered and ripping. "No matter. We'll have this all sorted out in a matter of minutes. Please, Mr. Timpinia, sit and share a ride with me. You could use it."
Unable to resist any further, Cobel practically fell into the car when the green-clad woman opened its door to him. His head crashed into her lap, he could feel the soft cloth of her teal skirt against his bleeding cheek. He bent his legs at the knee, pressing his feet into the roof of the car as she reached over his slumping form to close door tight. Cobel felt practically lifeless, trying to control ragged breathing as the adrenaline coursing through his veins finally ran out. For her part, the woman whose suit he now ruined with blood and muck remained patient, quiet for a time.
All he could hear was the roar of the car engine as it took off, matched with that of others in the busy city street. At first the police sirens got closer to him, and then, he got further away from them. He couldn't explain why, but he felt...safe.
Penny Lepiter; Trainer Ranking — Unranked
June 10th. Route 33.
It all happened so quick that Penny wasn't entirely sure that she'd seen everything that happened.
Like she'd told them, Heracross pushed in to attack Diva the Clefairy, pushing in to jab at the tiny, pink Pokemon with its horn—the young trainer was pretty sure it was Fury Attack. Joltik, in the meantime, scurried beside Heracross keeping its eye on Blue Demon; the little, yellow bug spun its rear-end to face the Hawlucha, and spun an Electroweb to try and capture the Wrestler Pokemon and slow it down.
Before Heracross could strike into Diva, Hawlucha's flurry of feathers enveloped it, throwing it off as the Clefairy shrunk in size; though Theseus lost its target, it found Diva soon enough when the tiny, pink dot glowed...and then—
Boom! the Clefairy kicked up with a tiny, hooved foot and slammed into Heracross's chest, sending the confused Bug flying back with a burning flourish. Theseus crashed into the grass with a loud thump.
"Oh, poffins!" Penny said, almost too worried to curse.
As she rushed forward to check on her Pokemon, Joltik spun toward the tiny Clefairy, its Compound Eyes picking up more accurately on the minimized Normal/Fairy-type. He jumped forward, attempting to bite down onto Diva with his sharp teeth.
Cobel Timpinia; Trainer Ranking — Unranked.
June 9th. Olivine City.
He woke up with an icepack on his head, his ripped overcoat, collared-shirt and tie removed, down to just the undershirt beneath. Cobel found himself in a dimly lit office, lying on the most comfortable couch he'd ever felt; above his head, his eye caught sight of what looked to be
quite expensive art—landscapes, abstract, impressionist. There was enough money in the art alone in this office to pay for four of his lifetimes, Cobel had to note.
The pain seemed to have subsided well enough, and his more overt wounds had been cleaned and treated. But still, he struggled to sit up just enough that he chose to lie back down. For the time being, at least.
"Good to see you're awake," the same woman's voice called out over an intercom. Cobel forced himself up to see a beautiful, ebony-inlaid desk on which - besides other things - an intercom sat. He looked to a corner with good view of the desk and door out of the office and spied the camera watching him.
Cobel stood up and lurched his way over to the desk; besides the intercom, he saw a stack of papers - both ingoing and outgoing - on either side, a very-full calendar, and a whole mess of unfiltered files and folders strewn about over-top. He looked up to the camera, pretended to weigh his options, then started picking through the loose papers. Some expensive bills, a print-out of the past month's payroll—all the unincriminating junk you leave right out in the open to hide the good stuff. He did see the name he was looking for, however: Tasha Lindlour, Jr. She certainly struck him as a
Ms. Tasha.
A pair of high-heels clicked their way down a hard-tiled hallway, turned a corner on a dime like racing Rapidash, and brought into view the green-clad woman. She pulled open the glass door into her office.
"I'd be lying if I said it was a pleasure to meet you," he said. "Ms. Tasha, I presume?"
"No," she shook her head of beautiful, green hair and chuckled at his assumption. "Ms. Tasha is my mother. Everyone around here refers to me as Ms. Lindlour."
The private detective crossed his arms and nodded—he'd swung and missed, but the name Tasha Lindlour didn't ring a bell as a
public face of RKT. Corporation; maybe he just needed to get with the times. Maybe not.
"Anyone ever call you Lindy?" he asked.
"Nobody who wants to keep all their teeth." Tasha said, her eyes turning stone cold serious.
"Well, Ms. Lindlour," he said, shrugging her minor threat off. "It's not much a pleasure to meet you, but I do appreciate your taking care of my injuries. If you've brought me here to talk, it's best we just begin now."
"Of course." she said, nodding and strutting past him to the chair sat at behind her desk. With a hand, she motioned to Cobel to let him know he could sit on the couch again, which he obliged to do.
"Now," Tasha Lindlour, Jr. said once Cobel had settled into his comfortable seat. "I've got a proposition for you, Mr. Timpinia."
"A proposition?" he asked. "Why send a dozen goons after me in the street then, if only for a proposition?"
"Mother didn't appreciate a private detective snooping around the premises posing as an employee would you believe it or not," Tasha said, a hint of disdain on her tongue. Cobel knew his little schtick couldn't go undiscovered for long—he just hadn't expected RKT to be
that quick to find out; even the Olivine HQ itself had hundreds of employees alone. "I told her you wouldn't take too kindly to being apprehended like some...wild west bandito, but she also wasn't going to just let
me go to handle you alone. And - believe it or not - it wasn't either of us who sent the
Ablestar sailors after you."
"Really?" Cobel played along, crossing one leg over the other as he pushed pass the injuries to do his job.
"Once I realized we had one too many guards on shift, I followed up with Wendel Eteli - the guard you
replaced - and he was quite...frightened by the prospect of someone covering for him. And I was looking at security footage, tracking
you down, when the other sailors returned to the
Ablestar. Let's just say, I've seen drunk, angry sailors before—and I'd never seen anything like
this rage from them. While mother and I argued over how to
collect you, I took a quite look at Wendel's attendance."
"And?"
"Wendel Eteli has called in sick every day he's been scheduled to search the
Ablestar," Tasha said with a frustrated sigh. "Even worse, he's gone out of his way to
switch shifts with guards otherwise assigned to the ship."
"Does Wendel have the same partner every time?" Cobel asked.
"Two," Tasha Jr. held up perfectly manicured fingers to accompany her words. "Pavel Otovik, and Manny Terapet."
"What about the people caught up in the attack outside the Steel Stacks?" he decided to change the topic, just long enough to process the new information Tasha threw at him.
"My
sources tell me they're claiming an alcohol-fueled argument spilled out into the street. Our guards are - for the moment - sticking to the story that they were sent to quell the violent sailors from the
Ablestar," Ms. Lindlour Jr. shrugged. "They're being charged with several counts of property damage, but none are willing to press assault charges on any of the others. As far as I'm aware, they're already out on bail, and won't be allowed to leave with the ship in the morning."
"However I play into the whole thing, they don't want to let slip that I was there because then if the police track them down I might tip them off to whatever weird shit's going down on the
Ablestar," Cobel let out a grim sigh, looking Tasha in the eyes. "And as long as your people stick to their story, O.C.P.D won't ever know I was there."
"Well, some good samaritan might point you out as an eyeball witness, but I wouldn't be worried about anyone stepping up," the businesswoman said with a too-cute laugh—overly pleased with herself. "The whole thing went quite quickly and was
very confusing as far as I know."
"You knew I'd fight," he said, calmly. "You knew I'd think the sailors were your people, and that this whole shitshow would drop me right into the palm of your hand. And you've already
implied you've got an ear with five-oh. Quite well played, if I have to say."
"Mother assumed you'd be smarter than that," she grinned like a demon curling up a freshly-signed contract. "But I used to watch you in your heyday, you know—you've always been fight-or-flight, Cobel. It's why you were always
just on the bubble of the best; quick, talented, almost genius...but you're bred to fall just short, aren't you? Oh, don't look at me like that! It's easy to pretend your life as a Pro Trainer is ancient, forgotten history—but it wasn't very long ago I was a smitten teen convinced you could be a Champion some day. Unfortunate, what happened to you. Still, you're far from past your prime."
"I think that's enough," he said, standing suddenly. "Thank you for your evaluation; I'm sure if they ever make a documentary about WCS Coulda-been's and Tragic Ends, someone would record you saying it."
"I wondered how far you'd let me go." she whispered, an almost sad look in her eye as she turned away from him for a second.
"Get on it with, you want me to look into the
Ablestar and your rogue guards." Cobel said, frustrated, looking for his things to storm off with.
"And I promise you, the case you're looking into RKT for will end with them." Tasha said, her voice turning firm.
The private detective turned to look at the woman trying to pull his strings and glared. He had to figure out of she was making a wild assumption, a calculated guess, or knew
way more than she should be privy to know; his rumbling gut told Cobel it was the latter, and he started to wonder just how long the Lindlours had been watching him.
