In my line of work, you gotta be observant, with eyes in the back of your head… Having a big set of jaws back there doesn’t hurt either. Perks of my kind I suppose, if you wanna call it that. They’ve definitely come in handy over the years in this trade. I’m a detective, see, and we tend to meet some unsavory fellas on a regular basis. My name’s Falk, you probably never heard of me, I’m really only a local legend over anything else, and even then, I wouldn’t exactly say I’m held in the highest regard by my fellow citizens. You see, when it comes to handing out justice where I’m from, the more colorful and perky you are, the more revered you get. I ain’t exactly very vibrant myself, and I sure as hell ain’t perky. You want any of that, you go to the rescue teams, all those much-lauded gangs of overly ambitious kids who are too damn rambunctious to even get any real issues dealt with. You want the straight-up results? Well, that’s where you come to me instead, and people come to me in droves, whether they like to admit it or not. A bunch of headstrong children can only get so much done. Sure, they get far more open praise, but people know who to go to when the situation requires a cool head, rational thought and a real grip on reality. Thank Arceus they do too, ‘cause that’s all that’s puttin’ food on the table for me. It’s tough now, but a cakewalk compared to how I was scraping by when I started out, with no reputation, no word of mouth, and no resume. It’s a wonder I was even given a chance to prove myself, but as luck would have it, there came a day when the rescue teams were all occupied and I was the only guy available. From that day on, I’ve been in business as the grumpy old Mawile you pay a visit to when you’ve got no other options. And if there was ever someone that fit the bill for a sap with no other options, it’s the kid that walked into my office one hazy summer afternoon…
He was a fragile looking fella, but then again, most Ralts tend to appear fragile. Still, this one looked pretty damn troubled even with that in mind. Small tear streaks were still on his cheeks, he’d recently been crying it seemed, and as he stopped in front of my desk I could see he was shivering pretty badly. He didn’t say anything, just stood there shaking for a good couple of minutes, and eventually I just decided to start the conversation myself.
“Whaddaya need, kid?” I grumbled as I learned forward to look at the Ralts more directly. Maybe I was a little too harsh toned considering the fella wasn’t in the highest of spirits, but empathy was never my strong suit. When someone wanted a job done from me, they were gonna get what they paid for, the results, and that was it. They weren’t hiring me for small-talk, so I wasn’t gonna give any. The kid took a few deep breaths and I could tell just by looking at him that the gears in his head were turning as he tried to think of the right words to say. “Look, I don’t bite…’least not my potential customers…just tell me why you’re in here,” I said in as gentle a way as I possibly could, definitely not an easy task, but it seemed to do the trick, ‘cause the Ralts finally started talking.
“I…I needed help, and the Pokemon around here all referred to you…They say you’re a…detective or something, is that right?” He timidly asked me. So this was in fact a customer. The chance of a paying job is one of my very few motivations, and immediately I was out of my chair and walking around my desk to get more details out of my client.
“So, all the rescue teams must be busy right now, is that right?” I asked, expecting the affirmative, since that’s how most of my jobs came to be.
“R-rescue teams sir? I’m afraid I’ve never heard of anything like that.” That was something I definitely didn’t expect to ever hear. What rock was this guy under for him to not know what a rescue team was? They were all over the place, in every town, every village, even the smallest communities had at least a single team to represent them; it was practically part of our region’s culture. I was opening my mouth to explain all this to him, but then my common sense started coming back. Why the hell would I inform someone about my competition when they were already asking for my help? Instead, I took the not-so-stupid approach.
“Uh, never mind, they’re not important. So you say you got trouble, what’re we talkin’ about here? Friend get abducted? Someone make off with your stash of pecha berries?”
“No, it’s not any of that…It’s…” He was starting to drift off, almost as if he was in some kind of trance. I clapped my hands together to snap him out of it.
“Listen, pal, I don’t like delays, just spit out what you need to say so I can help you out,”
Once again, my apparent gift of persuasion worked. “R-right, sorry. I’m supposed to be looking for something, but I have no idea where to start,” He explained to me, a vague description, but enough to inform me of what kind of job this was gonna be. A treasure hunt, much like what those exploration teams always went on. That’d definitely be something different from my usual repertoire.
“What’s this thing supposed to be?”
“It’s an orb of some kind, a glowing purple orb. They said I’d find it in this town, but I’m worried I’m going to get lost around here…I’m kinda new to this place.” No kidding…so the kid was off doin’ an errand for someone and got all upset because he didn’t know where to begin. All I had to do was do a little snooping until I found this purple orb of his.
“Alright, kid, I’ll see what I can do. How much Poke you got?” He gave me a puzzled look as I asked him, which, combined with the lack of any sort of satchel or bag on him, was all I needed to see my client was completely bust. Now normally I didn’t do charity work, and I did have half a mind to tell him to scram until he got some cash, but then it came to me…he was working for someone else, someone who potentially did have money on him, especially if he had the influence to send someone else out to do his work. “…You know, I think I’ll just get the payment from your boss once this is all sorted out. He’s the one who wants this orb, right?”
The kid blinked and didn’t say anything for a moment, then suddenly chirped a quick “y-yes, of course!” I probably should’a just called his bluff right there, but something in my gut told me to just believe him and it’d all work out in the end. I still don’t know what the hell my gut was thinkin’…
We turned and headed out of my office, which I probably neglected to mention wasn’t exactly the biggest chunk of real estate out there, just a small, worn down hut I managed to buy for cheap way back when I was starting out. We hardly took our first steps outside when we were greeted by a Drapion helplessly careening right for my place. I hastily pushed the Ralts down before hitting the deck myself as the overgrown scorpion slammed into the wall, causing the entire place to rumble louder than a damn Snorlax’s stomach on hunger strike; in other words, not doing any favors for my house’s condition. I of course felt more than justified then, when I stormed over and gave the guy a good kick in the abdomen.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing! Screwin’ around, bashing into people’s homes!” I shouted, both of my jaws clenching tightly shut afterwards just so I’d refrain from completely cussing him out.
“Agh…Jeez, Falk! It’s not like I was aimin’ for your place!” Drapion growled as he finally got back on his pointy feet. “Those idiots from Team Wallop are bullying everyone around again, I was just trying to put them in their place,” He went on to explain, though he wasn’t building up much of a case from where I stood.
“You were stupid enough to try and take ‘em yourself? What were you thinking?”
“I’ll level with ya…I wasn’t thinking. I let my emotions get the better of me, but they were really getting under my skin! They just do whatever they please and no one has the gall to tell ‘em to stop without the muscle to match.” Drapion complained as I went back to pull the Ralts back up to his feet.
“They’re not the first team to abuse their positions, you know that. Why do you think I never want anything to do with ‘em?” I said, turning back to glare some more at the Poison/Dark type, only to see the hothead’s attention was now diverted to the three scumbags who launched him into my place, steadily approaching with a strut pompous enough to piss off even the happiest Blissey. Team Wallop in all their glory… At the front was Ambipom, their leader, and very likely the most conceited of the trio, but she had the wit and the strength to back up at least a few of her boisterous claims. Beside her were her cronies, Hitmonchan, the obvious brute of the group, with the just as expected brain the size of a Caterpie’s foot, and on his shoulders stood Cinccino, or as they called him, “Duster”, the tactician of the group if you can even call him that. He was also, unsurprisingly, the cleaner, always covering the gang’s tracks when they were done with their…unsavory practices. All the other teams in the area could never seem to get the best of them, and they wanted to make it perfectly clear to the rest of us how much they could get away with.
“Check it out, boys; the fogey came out to play!” Ambipom almost immediately made with the teasing as they caught sight of me. I was a scarred up, crotchety grump with half an extension on my head missing, (by the way, don’t pick a fight with a Krokorok if you can avoid it…) so to their eyes, I could see why I may have appeared to be an easy target.
“If bein’ popular in this town means I have to walk around like a pretentious asshole, Ambi, then I’m all for bein’ called a fogey. Now explain to me why you’re using Drapion here as a battering ram on my property…” I replied as I closed the gap between myself and the notorious leader, not the least bit intimidated by the height difference (when you’re as small as I am, you get used to looking up a lot).
Ambipom crossed her hand-shaped tails together and gave a toothy grin, as her kind is prone to giving. “No reason in particular. Just got a bit annoyed I suppose when he objected to all the fun we were having. Figured he’d liven up a little if we invited him to join us, in a matter of speaking,” she said, chuckling at her own twisted joke. She must’ve thought she was the best comedian she’d ever seen; I wouldn’t put it beneath her…
“You look a bit tense, pretty boy. Maybe you ought’a let us loosen you up too,” Duster chimed in, Hitmonchan merely smirking and slamming his gloved fists together at the mere mention of something else to hit…the stupid brute…
“Got a lot of nerve calling me pretty boy, scarfy. You’d better watch what you say, or else I may suddenly be interested in acquiring all that fur.”
He didn’t seem to like that very much, if the popped vein on his forehead was any indication. “You couldn’t get close enough to even try…” he growled. A skilled strategist perhaps, but it ain’t worth crap if you’re too angry to think straight.
“Wish I could test that out, fellas, but I got a job to do right now. Why don’t you frolic back to that shack of a base of yours and call it a day, hmm?” I said as I turned and went back to where my client was waiting, standing there silently, understandably unnerved by the tense confrontation he was witnessing.
“Mmm…I don’t think we’re quite ready for that, Falk, are we, boys?” Ambipom answered back, just as I figured she would. Hitmonchan decided then to prove her point, darting up from behind me and throwing a single punch, expecting to floor me I suppose…Too bad he was dense enough to forget the extra pair of chompers waiting to catch his hand mid-punch.
See, just ‘cause I ain’t as soft and feminine as the majority of my fellow Mawiles, it doesn’t make me any less of a deceiver Pokemon.
Firmly gripping my attacker’s arm, I spun around and launched the fighting type right back to his chimp of a leader, sending all three of them tumbling to the ground. “Oh, I think you’re ready...” I grumbled as I continued over to the Ralts. “We’d better scram, kid. That’s not enough to keep ‘em down for good, and I’m not exactly lookin’ for a tussle right about now,” I said, the kid looking to be in full agreement as I made sure Drapion went on his way without any more trouble before the two of us went deeper into town, the sound of Team Wallop’s frustrated screams fading behind us. “So, anyways, you got a name besides Ralts, kid?” I figured to ask, since a number of us Pokemon tended to like being addressed by something…not as common; yours truly included.
“…Corey, sir…I go by Corey” he said.
“Well then, Corey, we got a lot of town to cover if we’re gonna find this orb of yours. Best you keep your eyes peeled,”
That was how it started. Knowing how it ended now, it was kind of a tame beginning…I had no way of knowing that things were only going to get more and more complicated from that point on. I knew that Corey kid was hiding a lot from me when he asked for my help, but I must admit, I didn’t expect the journey I ended up getting figuring out what it was…
He was a fragile looking fella, but then again, most Ralts tend to appear fragile. Still, this one looked pretty damn troubled even with that in mind. Small tear streaks were still on his cheeks, he’d recently been crying it seemed, and as he stopped in front of my desk I could see he was shivering pretty badly. He didn’t say anything, just stood there shaking for a good couple of minutes, and eventually I just decided to start the conversation myself.
“Whaddaya need, kid?” I grumbled as I learned forward to look at the Ralts more directly. Maybe I was a little too harsh toned considering the fella wasn’t in the highest of spirits, but empathy was never my strong suit. When someone wanted a job done from me, they were gonna get what they paid for, the results, and that was it. They weren’t hiring me for small-talk, so I wasn’t gonna give any. The kid took a few deep breaths and I could tell just by looking at him that the gears in his head were turning as he tried to think of the right words to say. “Look, I don’t bite…’least not my potential customers…just tell me why you’re in here,” I said in as gentle a way as I possibly could, definitely not an easy task, but it seemed to do the trick, ‘cause the Ralts finally started talking.
“I…I needed help, and the Pokemon around here all referred to you…They say you’re a…detective or something, is that right?” He timidly asked me. So this was in fact a customer. The chance of a paying job is one of my very few motivations, and immediately I was out of my chair and walking around my desk to get more details out of my client.
“So, all the rescue teams must be busy right now, is that right?” I asked, expecting the affirmative, since that’s how most of my jobs came to be.
“R-rescue teams sir? I’m afraid I’ve never heard of anything like that.” That was something I definitely didn’t expect to ever hear. What rock was this guy under for him to not know what a rescue team was? They were all over the place, in every town, every village, even the smallest communities had at least a single team to represent them; it was practically part of our region’s culture. I was opening my mouth to explain all this to him, but then my common sense started coming back. Why the hell would I inform someone about my competition when they were already asking for my help? Instead, I took the not-so-stupid approach.
“Uh, never mind, they’re not important. So you say you got trouble, what’re we talkin’ about here? Friend get abducted? Someone make off with your stash of pecha berries?”
“No, it’s not any of that…It’s…” He was starting to drift off, almost as if he was in some kind of trance. I clapped my hands together to snap him out of it.
“Listen, pal, I don’t like delays, just spit out what you need to say so I can help you out,”
Once again, my apparent gift of persuasion worked. “R-right, sorry. I’m supposed to be looking for something, but I have no idea where to start,” He explained to me, a vague description, but enough to inform me of what kind of job this was gonna be. A treasure hunt, much like what those exploration teams always went on. That’d definitely be something different from my usual repertoire.
“What’s this thing supposed to be?”
“It’s an orb of some kind, a glowing purple orb. They said I’d find it in this town, but I’m worried I’m going to get lost around here…I’m kinda new to this place.” No kidding…so the kid was off doin’ an errand for someone and got all upset because he didn’t know where to begin. All I had to do was do a little snooping until I found this purple orb of his.
“Alright, kid, I’ll see what I can do. How much Poke you got?” He gave me a puzzled look as I asked him, which, combined with the lack of any sort of satchel or bag on him, was all I needed to see my client was completely bust. Now normally I didn’t do charity work, and I did have half a mind to tell him to scram until he got some cash, but then it came to me…he was working for someone else, someone who potentially did have money on him, especially if he had the influence to send someone else out to do his work. “…You know, I think I’ll just get the payment from your boss once this is all sorted out. He’s the one who wants this orb, right?”
The kid blinked and didn’t say anything for a moment, then suddenly chirped a quick “y-yes, of course!” I probably should’a just called his bluff right there, but something in my gut told me to just believe him and it’d all work out in the end. I still don’t know what the hell my gut was thinkin’…
We turned and headed out of my office, which I probably neglected to mention wasn’t exactly the biggest chunk of real estate out there, just a small, worn down hut I managed to buy for cheap way back when I was starting out. We hardly took our first steps outside when we were greeted by a Drapion helplessly careening right for my place. I hastily pushed the Ralts down before hitting the deck myself as the overgrown scorpion slammed into the wall, causing the entire place to rumble louder than a damn Snorlax’s stomach on hunger strike; in other words, not doing any favors for my house’s condition. I of course felt more than justified then, when I stormed over and gave the guy a good kick in the abdomen.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing! Screwin’ around, bashing into people’s homes!” I shouted, both of my jaws clenching tightly shut afterwards just so I’d refrain from completely cussing him out.
“Agh…Jeez, Falk! It’s not like I was aimin’ for your place!” Drapion growled as he finally got back on his pointy feet. “Those idiots from Team Wallop are bullying everyone around again, I was just trying to put them in their place,” He went on to explain, though he wasn’t building up much of a case from where I stood.
“You were stupid enough to try and take ‘em yourself? What were you thinking?”
“I’ll level with ya…I wasn’t thinking. I let my emotions get the better of me, but they were really getting under my skin! They just do whatever they please and no one has the gall to tell ‘em to stop without the muscle to match.” Drapion complained as I went back to pull the Ralts back up to his feet.
“They’re not the first team to abuse their positions, you know that. Why do you think I never want anything to do with ‘em?” I said, turning back to glare some more at the Poison/Dark type, only to see the hothead’s attention was now diverted to the three scumbags who launched him into my place, steadily approaching with a strut pompous enough to piss off even the happiest Blissey. Team Wallop in all their glory… At the front was Ambipom, their leader, and very likely the most conceited of the trio, but she had the wit and the strength to back up at least a few of her boisterous claims. Beside her were her cronies, Hitmonchan, the obvious brute of the group, with the just as expected brain the size of a Caterpie’s foot, and on his shoulders stood Cinccino, or as they called him, “Duster”, the tactician of the group if you can even call him that. He was also, unsurprisingly, the cleaner, always covering the gang’s tracks when they were done with their…unsavory practices. All the other teams in the area could never seem to get the best of them, and they wanted to make it perfectly clear to the rest of us how much they could get away with.
“Check it out, boys; the fogey came out to play!” Ambipom almost immediately made with the teasing as they caught sight of me. I was a scarred up, crotchety grump with half an extension on my head missing, (by the way, don’t pick a fight with a Krokorok if you can avoid it…) so to their eyes, I could see why I may have appeared to be an easy target.
“If bein’ popular in this town means I have to walk around like a pretentious asshole, Ambi, then I’m all for bein’ called a fogey. Now explain to me why you’re using Drapion here as a battering ram on my property…” I replied as I closed the gap between myself and the notorious leader, not the least bit intimidated by the height difference (when you’re as small as I am, you get used to looking up a lot).
Ambipom crossed her hand-shaped tails together and gave a toothy grin, as her kind is prone to giving. “No reason in particular. Just got a bit annoyed I suppose when he objected to all the fun we were having. Figured he’d liven up a little if we invited him to join us, in a matter of speaking,” she said, chuckling at her own twisted joke. She must’ve thought she was the best comedian she’d ever seen; I wouldn’t put it beneath her…
“You look a bit tense, pretty boy. Maybe you ought’a let us loosen you up too,” Duster chimed in, Hitmonchan merely smirking and slamming his gloved fists together at the mere mention of something else to hit…the stupid brute…
“Got a lot of nerve calling me pretty boy, scarfy. You’d better watch what you say, or else I may suddenly be interested in acquiring all that fur.”
He didn’t seem to like that very much, if the popped vein on his forehead was any indication. “You couldn’t get close enough to even try…” he growled. A skilled strategist perhaps, but it ain’t worth crap if you’re too angry to think straight.
“Wish I could test that out, fellas, but I got a job to do right now. Why don’t you frolic back to that shack of a base of yours and call it a day, hmm?” I said as I turned and went back to where my client was waiting, standing there silently, understandably unnerved by the tense confrontation he was witnessing.
“Mmm…I don’t think we’re quite ready for that, Falk, are we, boys?” Ambipom answered back, just as I figured she would. Hitmonchan decided then to prove her point, darting up from behind me and throwing a single punch, expecting to floor me I suppose…Too bad he was dense enough to forget the extra pair of chompers waiting to catch his hand mid-punch.
See, just ‘cause I ain’t as soft and feminine as the majority of my fellow Mawiles, it doesn’t make me any less of a deceiver Pokemon.
Firmly gripping my attacker’s arm, I spun around and launched the fighting type right back to his chimp of a leader, sending all three of them tumbling to the ground. “Oh, I think you’re ready...” I grumbled as I continued over to the Ralts. “We’d better scram, kid. That’s not enough to keep ‘em down for good, and I’m not exactly lookin’ for a tussle right about now,” I said, the kid looking to be in full agreement as I made sure Drapion went on his way without any more trouble before the two of us went deeper into town, the sound of Team Wallop’s frustrated screams fading behind us. “So, anyways, you got a name besides Ralts, kid?” I figured to ask, since a number of us Pokemon tended to like being addressed by something…not as common; yours truly included.
“…Corey, sir…I go by Corey” he said.
“Well then, Corey, we got a lot of town to cover if we’re gonna find this orb of yours. Best you keep your eyes peeled,”
That was how it started. Knowing how it ended now, it was kind of a tame beginning…I had no way of knowing that things were only going to get more and more complicated from that point on. I knew that Corey kid was hiding a lot from me when he asked for my help, but I must admit, I didn’t expect the journey I ended up getting figuring out what it was…