Chapter 33 (Bonus Chapter): The Law That Binds Us

Another day of no leads… typical.

Reino was at his bedroom desk, reviewing the many files and photos of dangerous-looking Pokémon on his desk, illuminated by a lamp in the darkness of his room. It was midnight, the moon standing at its peak in the sky, lighting up the world below it. He decided to cut another night of sleep to advance in the Corrupted Pokémon case, fuelled by caffeine and energetics, maybe a tad bit too much for his species.

While he was reviewing the information he had gathered, one single question flowed through his mind.

How the fuck had he hadn’t got any leads yet?

The Scizor knew that he wasn’t that bad of a detective to not notice minor clues left by suspects. In every case, there is bound to be a slip-up by the group at a particular moment, making their illegal actions easy to track down. However, ever since he got that important lead on the Corrupted Pokémon case, he couldn’t find any other clues so far. The reports of Corrupted Pokémon sightings were still the same as always, no other suspicious Pokémon appeared thus far, and nothing else! It looks like these sightings were just meant to distract him-

… what if those reports were really a distraction?

They were all so random. Sure, might’ve not been fake, but the appearance of the Corrupted Pokémon roaming around was at really spaced-out times. It was like they wanted you to relax before making another one appear. If that was their tactic… then they were smarter than Reino actually thought they were.

“Ugh… but what does knowing that change?” The steel mantis asked himself, annoyance and tiredness present in his voice. He slumped on his chair, looking at the wooden ceiling of his room. “I still have zero fucking clue as to who that organization even is…” 

Reino sighed before supporting his head on the table, his face showing a tired expression even for a Pokémon with a steel carapace. If he had skin, the bags under his eyes would be noticeable. 

The Scizor yawned before looking at a certain picture that was on the desk. It was a photo of him, Raiden, Mark, and the others from the Fire Continent Police Department. Reino stared at the photo before picking it up with his pincer and analyzing it more closely. In the photo, he was still a Scyther. He remembered when this photo was taken. It was taken just a few days after Mark signed up as an officer of the law at the beginning of the cycle. 

“Damn… it’s been ten cycles since he came to this world huh…?” Reino reminisced, a bit in disbelief from the time that had passed. He held the picture close to his chest and looked out the window, seeing the star-filled night sky. “Even with that amount of cycles, I still remember when I found that hardy human walking across the city like a lost infant…”

---

Another one of those patrols… boring.

It was one of those days that the XCCPD sent Reino to one of those patrolling tasks around Xander Cage City. If he was being honest, the Scyther didn’t think that these patrols were actually useful. Sure, some illegal activity can be spotted sometimes, but the majority of the time, they are hidden from view almost every time. It also didn’t help that the badges they wore stuck out like a sore wing.

This time was like the others: no crimes, no suspicious Pokémon, nor any kind of illegal activity spotted. Yep, completely useless as usual. 

That’s why Reino decided to spend the rest of his patrolling time relaxing, goofing around on the streets taking a sip of a honey-made drink with Raiden, who was drinking carbonated water from a bowl. In Xander Cage City, there were public gallons of various liquids littered across the streets, having multiple liquids for Pokémon that didn’t have hands while also having straws. Really useful things, but still a bit pricey in his opinion.

“Another fruitless day, huh?” Raiden, the chrome Miraidon commented as he took a break from scarfing down his drink. Raiden was… a strange Pokémon. His species came out of a certain Mystery Dungeon, saying they came from the future or something like that while also not being wild. Since Mystery Dungeons were so unpredictable, society didn’t rule out the possibility that they could also transcend time if they transcended space. 

Reino, along with many others, doubted that was the case.

He had some theories, but since he couldn’t deny or confirm them without evidence he just decided to go with what the world claimed for now. Unlike many other Scythers, Reino was a different case. He wasn’t that hot-headed and didn’t act rashly. He was calm and rationalized about actions before doing them… well unless he’s in the heat of the moment that is.

“I mean, what did you expect?” Reino asked, crossing his scythe-like arms. “In most cases, this is just a waste of time…” He then took the last sip of his drink before wiping his mouth. “Shall we head back?”

The Miraidon nodded and stood on the dirt road, his tail curling up along with his chest that inflated like a wheel, turning into a yellow and bluish neon color. Even when looked upon at first glance, Miraidon are Pokémon made for riding, their chest and tail turning into wheels so they get more mobility. Not only that, they can fold their hind legs and turn into a futuristic booster for some reason.

Truly, a Pokémon made out of technology so unreachable to this day that’s obvious that he came from a distant future.

Reino buzzed his wings a little, rising off the ground, before landing on Raiden’s back. “We move-” Before the robot lizard could start moving, the scyther noticed at the corner of his eye a certain male Pikachu with a bit more fur than usual walking on the sidewalk, a nervous and confused look on his face. 

The Scyther stared at the electric rodent for a moment before Raiden snapped him out of the trace. “Something wrong?”

Reino flew off from Raiden’s back and looked at the Miraidon. “Hold up, I saw someone who looked a bit off, it’s best to check ‘em out.” He pointed one of his bladed arms to the Pikachu who was slowly walking away.

Raiden looked at the Pikachu before looking back at the Scyther, nodding in agreement. “Understood.”

With that, the duo went towards the suspicious-looking electric mouse, with Reino flying a bit off the ground with his wings and Miraidon just wheeling himself with his wheels. 

The Pikachu’s ears flickered a little bit, making him grab it and look back. He flinched a little once he noticed who was approaching him, seeing the Scyther land on the ground and the Miraidon’s two wheels turn into his chest and tail. Once the duo stopped in front of them, the electric mouse started speaking nervously, Reino noticing that he had sharp teeth. “C-can I help you two…?”

Reino analyzed the Pikachu up and down. He looked to have the muscles of a normal Pikachu, albeit a bit taller. He had a bit more fur than others, even shown on his head by an unbrushed fringe. He really didn’t look like he treated himself much. 

“Yeah…” The Scyther said, feeling a bit sorry for the Pikachu. He didn’t look like a wild ‘mon, so he was probably homeless. “It’s nothing much, just checkin’ around the area. You know, cop work.” He tapped his shield-shaped badge that was plastered on his chest, displaying the emblem of a fiery snake. “We just wanted to-”

“Wait, you… you guys are police officers?” The Pikachu interrupted, taking careful steps closer to the mantis and robot lizard duo.

Raiden tilted his head and confirmed. “Yes, we are. Why do you-”

“Great!” He then looked around while speaking in a lower tone of his voice which was… surprisingly not that high-pitched for a Pikachu. “So, I’ve been searching for a police department around the area because I wanna clear some stuff.”

Reino crossed his blade arms. “And that stuff is?”

The Pikachu suddenly pulled from his fur something that neither Reino nor Raiden was not expecting: a badge. It was not like any badge the duo had seen, it had a silver coloration, being shield-shaped as well with a rather wide bottom part and rough edges at the top part. In the middle, there was a blue circle being covered by a gray star that had its edges poking out of the circle. There were some words written on it in some unknown language that the cop duo didn’t understand or ever heard of. “This badge, does this look familiar to you two? I uh… suddenly woke up with it. But from what I read on it… it seems like it belongs to a police officer or something.”

Reino tilted his head in confusion. “You… read it?”

The electric rodent nodded. “Duh, yeah. Or else how would I’ve gotten the info that this belongs to a cop?”

The shiny Miraidon leaned his head forward and analyzed it, using a scanner function located on his eyes. “Unknown origin…?” He muttered in a low voice before speaking up. “Yeah, we can’t read it and we can’t identify its origins.”

“What? Really?” The Pikachu asked a bit surprised before asking another question. “Don’t you know a place called Utah or Salt Lake City?”

Reino frowned as his antennas leaned forward. “Nope, never heard of any of those places.”

The Pikachu had a surprised look on his face. “Y-you guys don’t know?” He then looked away, muttering to himself. “Dammit, I guess I won’t find my memories that soon…”

Reino tilted his head. “What were you muttering about?”

The yellow mouse looked back at the duo, who were looking at him with a hint of suspicion in their expressions. “Ah, nothing much.” Suddenly, his face lit up a bit, seemingly getting hit by a thought. “Hey uh… would you mind if you took me to the police department of this place? I… I need to confess a few things in… private.”

Reino didn’t know what to think. Just when he was going back to the department, he encountered the strangest Pikachu he had ever seen. Not only did he look a bit off, but the way he acted along with his knowledge of a written language he didn’t understand was uncommon. “Hm…” His antenna flickered to the side. “Sure, let’s go.” The Scyther pointed at Raiden. “Hop on his back, he can take us there faster.”

The Pikachu looked at the shiny Miraidon and grimaced as he took in the robot lizard’s features. He then looked at Reino with a sheepish look. “If… you say so.” He then looked back at Raiden and walked up to him, taking slow steps before managing to jump on his back after a bit of struggling. “Ugh… small legs suck.”

As Reino landed on Raiden’s back, he tilted his head in confusion. “I thought you were used by this point. Why didn’t you just jump?”

The electric rodent froze for a second before stuttering out a response. “U-uh… my bad, just forgot…” He then patted the handles on Raiden’s back. “Sorry for uh… scratching your sides accidentally.”

The shiny Miraidon said while making his wheels expand. “No problem, there was no hull damage done.” He then folded his legs. “Hold still.”

The Pikachu tilted his head as he saw Reino’s blade arms grab on the handles. “Hold still- WOOOOAAAH!!!!???”

Raiden activated his jet boosters on his hind legs and strode forward with an impressive amount of speed and precision, weaving and turning tight corners of the city. The Pikachu was cursing a lot as he tightly hugged the Scyther with a terrified expression. 

Eventually, the trio of Pokémon reached the XCCPD. Raiden turned sideways as he unfolded his legs, sliding to a stop while making a screeching sound on the gravel street. Raiden straightened himself while the electric rodent still kept hugging Reino, still a bit shaken. However, he eventually let out in a low and shaky voice. “W-why di-didn’t you tell me he was a damn bike…?”

Reino looked down at him and tilted his head. “What’s… a bike?”

After calming down from the sudden scare and releasing the green mantis from the hug, the Pikachu answered. “Well, it’s-… it’s…” He then looked away. “Huh… good question. What is a bike…?”

Reino just stared at the electric type mouse for a moment and started thinking if he had drugs or not. Silently, he flew out of Raiden’s back and looked back at the Pikachu. “Come on, I’d like to hear what you have to say.”

The sharp-teeth Pikachu nodded. “Alright.” He then jumped out of the robot lizard’s back and looked at the building in front of him. Among the tall buildings of the city, the department was way smaller compared to the rest, having three floors, weirdly shaped windows, and a ramp on the front leading to a set of double doors. The building had an orange-and-white color to it and to top it all off, there was the face of a Cradily on the top of the building, the tentacles on the side of the face coating a bit of the building like it was protecting it from harm. “Damn…”

Reino noticed the amazement on the Pikachu’s face. He has been in enough interrogations before, so he would know many body expressions from various species of Pokémon. It seemed that this supposedly homeless Pikachu had never seen a building like this before, which made his situation even stranger.

If he lived in the streets of the city, how would he not have seen the badges the officers use or even know the name of the city in the first place?

The Scyther knew the mouse was hiding something. Maybe he could get that secret out of him if he didn’t confess right away.

“Come on, let’s go.” He said before the Pikachu nodded at him. Reino looked at Raiden. “You can stay here, I don’t think this is gonna take long.”

Raiden nodded. The Pikachu stared at him for a moment before looking back at the Scyther, who was already walking towards the building doors. He picked up his pace and followed Reino, walking up the ramp to the wooden doors.

“Say, I never asked, what is your name?”

The Pikachu looked up at the mantis, who was giving him a side-eye which came out a bit menacing to the poor rodent. Nervously, he responded. “M-Mark Wilson…”

“Mark, eh? Nice to meet you. The name’s Reino and that’s all you get from me for now.” Reino then pushed open the doors, using the higher handles to open them. 

The two Pokémon entered the police station and Mark the Pikachu analyzed his surroundings in awe. The same orange and white walls stayed plastered inside the walls and ceiling of the building, however, the orange was painted thematically like a fire. The lounge was a bit open, looking like a waiting room with a desk at the end of the room. Above the desk, large letters were spelling out “XCCPD” in a golden color, and two elevators on each side of the desk. In the room, there were a lot of Pokémon of different species, mostly with the same badge that Reino was wearing but some had a bit more detail on them.

Mark was a bit awestruck at the sight before looking away and muttering to himself. “Why does this feel so… nostalgic to me?”

Reino’s antenna twitched, making him look at Mark. “Did you say something?”

The Pikachu looked back at the mantis and rubbed the back of his head. “N-nothing much… I’ll probably explain once we’re alone…”

The Scyther nodded. “Alright then. Just wait in the lounge, I have to file a report to the chief. I’ll come back for you once I’m done and lead you to a private room.” Mark nodded with an uncertain look on his face and went to sit on one of the benches, away from the other Pokémon near the place. Reino eyed his actions for a moment, noticing the nervous look on his face as he looked at Dragonite sitting next to him. The way he subtly shifted away from the dragon type, made Mark look like he was afraid of dragon types. Although it wasn’t only with dragon types, he looked nervous when he also looked at the Scyther up close…

It’s like he was being cautious with any Pokémon close to him.

‘Does that mean… no, there probably is another reason. Won’t jump to conclusions too soon.’ The Scyther thought before walking to the receptionist’s desk. In front of the desk, there was an Incineroar, the buff feline Pokémon removing their claws from the desk and walking away from it with a sour expression on his face. Whatever he talked about with the receptionist, he couldn’t blame them, especially with a receptionist like Hone, the sassy Mandibuzz always made a fuss over nothing and received a lot of complaints with that attitude of hers. 

However, it was not her he was gonna speak with, thankfully.

Reino entered a room to the side of one of the elevators and closed the door behind him. It left him in a hall that led to some other rooms. He then walked to the first door on his left and entered a cozy room with gray-colored walls, some cabinets, and a single desk at the side of the room. The desk was littered with papers, and unfortunately for the Pokémon behind it, they were gonna get one more paper. The Pokémon in question was a female Maractus with red flowers on the top of her body and wearing glasses. 

She dropped a feathery pen and sighed before looking at the door, spotting the Scyther and raising an invisible eyebrow. “Reino? You came in rather early, don’t you think?”

Reino deadpanned while looking away. “Eh… wasn’t keeping track of the time. Besides, it’s not like there was much happening anyway.”

The Maractus rested her arms on the table, leaning her head on them. “You know that every second something DOES happen around the city, right?”

“I know, Liliam, but unfortunately for us cops, that something hides from us every time. Besides, rescuers do almost everything related to outlaws anyways.” Reino sighed as he walked to the table and crossed his arms. “Anyways, just came here to do the usual patrol report.” He looked away, debating with himself whether he should talk about Mark or not. However, he decided against it, playing off his thoughtful look with a shrug. “As you can probably tell, same as the others.”

Lilliam blinked with a disappointed expression on her face before groaning slightly and grabbing the pen to write, not before adjusting her glasses. “Alright then. You can go now, you have no more tasks for today. Unless you have nothing better to do and you’d like to see me write the report of course.”

Reino snickered and waved it off. “Nah, I have something else to attend to. But thanks for the offer though.” He smirked as he walked out of the room before going back to the lounge. In the room, he looked around, trying to find Mark. However, he was caught a bit off guard when he saw the Pikachu being curled up with his legs close to his chest in the corner of the room, having some Pokémon staring at him.

The Scyther walked to the Pikachu, being slightly grateful that it was almost evening and there weren’t many Pokémon at the department at that hour. After reaching him, he crouched down, making sure that his blades weren’t touching the yellow rodent. “Something wrong?”

After hearing a familiar voice, Mark’s eyes snapped open as he looked back at Reino. Both just stared silently for a moment before the Pikachu just sheepishly grinned at the Scyther. “Um… hi there… I was just… uh…” He looked away before sighing. “Sorry, I was just feeling a bit overwhelmed with everything…” 

“Overwhelmed? Why?”

Mark stayed silent for a moment before getting up from his position. He tilted his head to see the other Pokémon behind had stopped looking at him. After a bit of hesitation, he finally responded as he looked up to meet Reino’s eyes. “Uh… it’s about the thing I gotta talk about. You’re… you’re done with your thing, right?”

The Scyther nodded before motioning a wing to the door he just came out of. “There’s an interrogation room there, we can discuss your case privately there.” Reino turned away and motioned for the Pikachu to follow. 

The two of them entered the hallway again and Reino led the electric type rodent to the room. It was a grey square-shaped room, filled with soundproof walls. The Pikachu looked around while Reino closed the door behind them. He leaned on the door and crossed his blade arms. “So, what is it that you wanted to talk about, and why me specifically?”

Mark rubbed the back of his head as he avoided the mantis’ gaze. “Well… I feel like it’s something kinda big… and… I wanted to tell the right per- I mean, Pokémon this. Especially if the Pokémon was an officer.” He grabbed the badge again and looked at it. “Because I feel like they could help me with this.”

“And this so secret is?” Reino asked, starting to get a bit impatient. Really, what could this Pikachu say to him that would make him use a soundproof interrogation roo-

“I’m a human.”

The room became silent. No sound of buzzing from Reino’s wings, no sound of the talk outside, only the sound of the fan that cooled the room. The Scyther froze at the weight of the words that came out of the Pikachu’s mouth. Human…? The Pikachu? Did he hear that right? Was he not tripping? Did he actually hear that correctly? “What… did you just say?” 

“Uh… that I’m a human…?”

Reino stared at Mark once again as he took a moment to pile his thoughts and not react rashly after this revelation. A human. That was in front of him. What the fuck ? 

He had to calm down, there was no proof that he was a human. He had to find out if the Pikachu was lying. Besides, they were in an interrogation room, so he could ask the questions with no issue.

Reino took a deep breath and relaxed his arms before asking. “Do you have any proof for that claim? Because that’s a huge thing to just be spitting out of nowhere.”

“Look, is that badge that apparently came from nowhere proof enough? I literally have no memories about myself, only some knowledge of a species that I barely remember. I just know that I’m a human and that I was not like…” He then pointed at his own body before shaking his tail which Reino noticed caused some uncomfortable shifts in his expression. “Like this…” His shoulders slumped as he looked down. “And I still haven’t got a single clue on how to just… ya know, get my memories back and turn back into a human.”

Reino just stared at the Pika- no, human-turned-Pikachu for a moment as he tried to process everything that he just heard. It was true, Mark was actually a human. And it made sense with all the other things that he’d seen coming from him. The way he was nervous around Pokémon, how he could read something in an unknown language, and to top it all off, his mysterious badge. 

He had never heard of places like Utah or Salt Lake City before so that only proves his claims that he came from another place entirely… the human world. 

After processing what he just heard, the Scyther looked away and groaned, covering his face with his blade. He already knew what a human meant and that was not a good thing. “Why me…?”

The Pikachu tilted his head in confusion. “Huh?”

Reino looked back at Mark. “Look… I’ll need to tell you some things. Promise me you won’t freak out ‘cause of this, alright?” The Pikachu looked at him with an inquisitive look but nodded anyway. “Alright then, first off, you’re not the only human-turned-Pokémon in this world.”

Mark tilted his head down. “Pokémon…” Then the meaning of Reino’s words caught up to him, making him look up to the mantis again. “Wait, there are other humans like me here too!?”

Reino nodded. “Yes. Although, they are around the world and the chances of running into one are very slim, so don’t get your hopes up on finding one of your kind around the streets. There might be fifties to hundreds, but not thousands.”

Mark’s ears folded while his tail fell as he looked away. “Ah… that’s kinda unfortunate…”

“There’s something else I need to tell you as well…” 

The Pikachu tilted his head to the side. “What is it?”

“So… humans don’t get summoned here out of nowhere and for no reason…” Reino looked away as his wings fluttered. “Well, sometimes, but not all of the time.” He looked back at Mark. “They get summoned to this world to solve some major problems. It could range from helping a small village… to saving the entire world…”

“WHAT!?” Mark shouted a bit loudly, not realizing some electrical sparks coming out of his cheeks. “Y-you for real about this? Like, no shit?”

Reino shook his head slowly. “Nope. Not kidding whatsoever.”

Mark turned around and started mumbling something that the winged mantis couldn’t comprehend. “Saala, main vishvaas nahin kar sakata ki yah sach hai…” 

“What…?” Reino tilted his head in confusion.

The Pikachu realized what he had just spoken and muttered. “What did I just…? Ugh, this no-memory crap and pure instinctual shit is already driving me crazy…” Mark looked back at Reino and asked. “Is there a way to recover my memories? Did the others recover their memories?”

“Well… they have… although from what I heard… it took some time for them. I’m talking like… months.” The Scyther responded, making Mark’s ears drop a little. “Don’t worry, you’ll get them eventually, but for now, I guess… you should just try to find what you want to do for now.”

“What I want to do for now…” The Pikachu muttered out loud.

A knock on the door interrupted their talk. They looked at it and saw the door open, revealing a male Indeedee with curlier horns than usual who was holding a broom. “Pardon me for the interruption, but I am afraid that it is time to close this section of the department. Were you two conversing about something important?”

“Ah, don’t worry, we’re done here.” Mark said while putting his paws up sheepishly.

“Yeah, we were about to leave anyway.” Reino said before he started walking out of the room and motioning a blade arm for the Pikachu. “Come on Mark, let’s go.”

“Okay…!” Mark started following the Scyther up close but not before pausing to stare a bit at the Indeedee, who was taking some glances at him while he began sweeping the room. The Pikachu left the room, closing the door and following behind Reino.

The Indeedee looked at the closed door for a moment before he muttered out loud to himself. “Those emotions coming off the Pikachu… maybe something interesting is finally gonna happen soon.”

---

“You sure you can let me stay at your house?” 

“I mean, it sure beats sleeping on an alley with trashbag pillows, right?”

“Yeah… I guess…”

Reino, Raiden, and Mark had arrived at the Scyther’s home, the Miraidon already walking to his preferred spot on the corner of the room before his eyes suddenly turned into a lot of computer code. 

Reino looked at Mark, seeing him taking in his new surroundings. His home was nothing special, a living room with a single couch and a TV, a kitchenette with a crystal-powered oven and a small refrigerator, a single bedroom that housed his bed, and a bathroom. Overall, a simple small house resided at the edge of the residential district.

The Scyther had invited Mark to live with him for a while. Since being in the task force kinda pays him (and Miraidon since he also works in the department) well, he decided that there could be one more Pokémon living in his home. Sure, they might have to sleep on the couch, but at least Pikachus were not big enough to feel uncomfortable.

Reino walked to a desk, which was a bit dustier than he expected it to be, and put his badge on it. He then looked at Mark and asked. “I’m gonna take a shower. There’s enough room for the both of us to take one together so we can both save time and water.”

“Huh!?” The electric rodent blushed a little as he asked with a tinge of nervousness. “Y-you want us t-to take a shower… t-together…? Isn’t that like… like…”

From the way that the Pikachu was talking, the mantis knew that taking a shower together with another person was clashing with his own culture. From the way he was fiddling with his fingers, stuttering a lot, and looking embarrassed, did that mean that showering with another was a romantic act? If that was the case… “Look, Pokémon don’t really care if someone else is showering with them. And no, in here, it’s not considered a romantical act.” He waved one of his scyther arms. “But if you still feel uncomfortable, you can wait for me to be done then.”

“Um…” Mark looked away. “I guess I…” He stopped, seemingly thinking about his decision. He then sighed and looked back at Reino. “Sure, I guess a bath with another person in this world ain’t that bad.”

Reino nodded and both Pokémon headed towards the bathroom. The bathroom was, for some reason, the second biggest room in the house. He didn’t know why the bathroom was bigger than his own bedroom but he decided to just chalk it up as a construction mistake.

While Mark stared at the mirror for a bit and adjusted some of his fur, Reino entered the shower box first before opening the shower. It was a bit difficult to rotate the small contraption with his arms but he still managed anyway. As the water droplets started falling on his carapace, he looked back at the Pikachu who was still looking at Reino in hesitation, a nervous frown embedded on his face. 

The mantis sighed and crossed his arms as his wings fluttered a little. “Are you just gonna watch or enter? You can still bail out of this if you don’t want to, ya know?” 

Mark grimaced as he looked away. He groaned in annoyance from his conflicting feelings and entered the shower box as well, water falling on his fur as he started to get soaked. “Might as well enter since I’m already here…”

“If you say so.” As usual, Reino fluttered his wings once again and sat down on the floor, crossing his legs while being careful to not crush his abdomen. The Pikachu shot a confused glance at him before looking away from him.

And so, the two of them showered together while in silence, the Pikachu avoiding eye contact with the bug and flying type while he started meditating. Reino liked to meditate in the shower weekly. It helped him get rid of the stress that his job always gives him, even in the calmer parts of it, and the water just made his muscles relax beneath his shell. Even though the smell of wet fur threw him off a bit, the sound of water splashes soothed not only his mind but his very own soul as well.

However, that silence was broken once Mark opened his mouth. “So… what part of the police do you work on? The… taskforce?”

“Mhm.”

“Um… I don’t think I got your full name yet… since I gave yo mine what’s-”

“Reino Hunterclaw.”

“Ah, Reino… and what’s the robot’s name?”

“Raiden.”

The Pikachu rubbed the back of his head, realizing that his questions might’ve been interrupting his silent moment. “Uh… sorry for disturbing your peace…”

This time, Reino finally opened his eyes and looked at Mark. “It’s fine. After all, I did interrogate you so you get a chance to ask your own questions. And this moment seems like the perfect time to ask those questions.”

“Okay then…” Still feeling a bit awkward, Mark went to grab a bar of soap until realizing that there was none on the small holder. “Hey, where’s the soap?”

Reino looked at the holder before responding with a shrug. “Eh, I mostly don’t use it since I don’t get as smelly as other Pokémon, so I don’t feel the need to. After all, the water manages to get all the grime out of my shell anyway.” He then made a thoughtful look to the side. “Although… I should probably get one now since you might be here for a while.”

“Ah…” 

“Anyways, I’ve been meaning to ask you something…” The Pikachu tilted his head a little once the mantis asked. “What are you gonna do now? Is there a job you’re interested in taking?”

“Hm…” Mark put his fingers on his chin as he thought about it. “I haven’t really decided yet. Although…” He took out his badge again (why did he bring it to the shower with him?), looking at it with an analytical look as water started to soak the badge. “I don’t know what it is but, I feel like this badge is the key to solving who I was in the past. I feel like it’s connected to me in some way, maybe a sign or something…”

Reino’s antennas tilted to the side a little along with his head. “You think that police officers might be involved with your past?”

“Maybe…” He then looked at Reino again, gripping the badge a bit harder with his paws. “Maybe if I become one, it might help me figure out who I was…”

The Scyther got up and put a blade arm on his side. “You wanna join the task force?”

Mark hesitated, putting a bit of thought on his expression as he fidgeted with the badge. He put away the badge and answered. “I’ll probably get an answer in the morning. I still need to think about it for a bit…”

“Alright then.” Reino said before he turned off the shower, the last drops running down the drain of the shower box. “I think that’s enough for a shower. At least you don’t smell like a homeless Pokémon anymore.”

“Wait, I did?” 

“Yeah, you did. Have you not realized that once you were on the streets?” The Pikachu shook his head. “Guess you’ve grown used to the smell…” Reino then got out of the shower box, grabbing a towel with the blunt part of his arms. “How long were you on the streets anyways?”

“Uh… two days.”

“Hm, makes sense.” Reino said as the electric rodent exited the showered box. Before Mark could shake the water off his body, Reino offered him a towel instead. Mark snatched the towel and started scrubbing his fur with it. “Come on, let’s have dinner.”

After finishing drying himself, Mark nodded and followed Reino out of the bathroom.

Dinner went as usual, although it felt a little different with the presence of a new resident. Mark was a bit shocked to know that it wasn’t Reino who cooked but Raiden, who entered his battle form just to cook since it made him able to use his foreclaws to grip some utensils. 

After dinner, everyone bid their goodnights and went directly to their beds (even though Mark slept on the couch and Raiden on a mattress on the floor). Reino had no trouble sleeping, no conflicting thoughts that plagued his mind whenever he slept on a day where he meditated. However, this time, a single thought lingered on his mind…

‘Am I just inviting more trouble for myself because I let a human sleep in my house?’ 

The thought lingered in his head as he stared at the ceiling. He knew about the stories of humans saving the world and whatnot. The mantis thought that some of those were stretching a little, but when there were more recent reports of humans saving entire continents either physically or politically… 

He just couldn’t help but believe there was a pinch of truth in them.

The Scyther tilted his body to the side, his wings fluttering as he moved. ‘It’s probably fine. Maybe his case won’t be as big as the others were.’

With that, Reino closed his eyes and let the sweet embrace of dreams take him to its hold.

---

“Are you sure about this little Pikachu? Do you desire to throw yourself into danger so that you protect the lives of many innocent Pokémon and make this city a safer place for them to live?”

“Yes, I’m a hundred percent positive.”

It was already the next day. Reino had groggily woken up from his sleep and was face to face with Mark who was looking at him at the side of his bed. Since he never locked his room, there couldn’t be any issues for the electric rodent to just enter it. 

Immediately, Mark asked Reino if he could be taken to XCCPD to apply to become an officer of law. After some reassurance from the Pikachu that he had thought this over multiple times in his head and revealing that he lost a bit of sleep from the thought, Reino decided to just oblige to Mark’s wishes and take him to the department along with Raiden after breakfast, not before they told the Miraidon about Mark’s origins. The dragon robot took that… surprisingly well after receiving a piece of news like that.

Upon reaching the department, once again the smell of nervous pheromones started surrounding Mark. Since Reino was a bug type Pokémon with antennas, he could smell the pheromones that other Pokémon expelled from their bodies a bit easier, even managing to identify the emotion attached to certain smells. He, again, asked if Mark was sure about this. The Pikachu seemed confident that he was ready, so Reino didn’t question him further.

Which led them to where they are now, in front of the chief of the XCCPD in his office. Chief Tanaman was a kind-hearted Cradily who barely held any grudges against other Pokémon, even the more dangerous criminals that killed a lot of his officers. Even if almost everyone in the department calls him a soft old ‘mon (for being more than hundreds of cycles old) he still is a force to be reckoned with.

No one would like to be in the view of the previous criminal who got caught with his tentacles.

“Well then…” Chief Tanaman said as he grabbed a pen and some papers with his tentacles. “Consider yourself in.” Mark’s ears started to perk up as his face lightened up. “After your training is complete of course.” The Pikachu’s expression dropped along with his ears. “Don’t give me that look. Every Pokémon needs to complete the training that our department provides, no matter how experienced they are with being on the task force. Reino here has already been through the training so he can help you through it.”

Reino lowered a bit to whisper in Mark’s ears. “Spoiler alert: underestimate it and you will fail.”

The electric rodent looked aside and muttered sarcastically. “Just what I needed to hear…”

“Anyways, could I check your license to see if you are a civilian Pokémon?” The Cradily said while sticking out a tentacle forward, waiting for the license to be put on it.

Reino and Mark froze. Inwardly, the mantis cursed himself for forgetting that the license was needed to enter this job. The Pikachu silently looked at Reino, with a look of both confusion and inquisitiveness as if he was saying “The fuck you mean a license was needed to enter?!”

The Scyther sighed and asked Mark. “Should we tell him…?”

The mouse rubbed his temples as Tanaman tilted his head. “Ugh… we don’t have a choice, do we…?” Mark looked back at the Cradily with a grimace. “I’m… I’m sorry chief. I uh… don’t have a license with me because…” He took a small breath. “I’m not really from this world…”

Chief Tanaman blinked, his yellow bioluminescent eyes disappearing for a moment in the darkness of his head before appearing again. “Does that mean… what I think it means…?”

Reino nodded. “Yes, he’s a human.”

The chief of the XCCPD stayed silent for a moment before lunging his tentacles at the Pikachu and grabbing him. Mark yelped as he was taken off the ground and brought closer to Tanaman’s face, the Cradily turning him around and analyzing him from every angle. “Fascinating, I never thought I’d get the chance to meet one of these fabled humans this close. I heard all sorts of things, but to think that they would come in a normal Pokémon body rather than something else.”

“L-look, I know I’m-I’m an interesting s-s-specimen… and all but p-please put me d-down. I’m having difficulty b-breathing!” Mark said between small gasps. He then was released on the ground, panting for breaths as he stayed on all fours for a moment. “Thank… you.”

“Apologies for that, Mark. This old ‘mon sometimes can’t contain himself and gets a bit excited when experiencing new things.” Tanaman said as he helped the Pikachu get back on his feet. However, while helping Mark, the chief saw something on the ground and scooped it up with one of his tentacles. He brought it close to his face and inspected it. It was Mark’s badge. “What’s this…? It looks like some kind of police badge with some runes…”

Mark looked at his badge and said after a cough. “That’s the main reason why I wanted to join the task force in the first place.” He straightened his posture and continued his explanation. “For some reason, this badge was with me when I awoke in this place. I feel as though it is connected to my past in some way. And maybe, if I become an officer, I might be able to discover more about my past.”

Tanaman stared at Mark to process what the Pikachu said. Even if they couldn’t see it, he was making a thinking face. “You know what? You don’t need to show me your license, you have proven enough to me. Your training starts tomorrow. I hope you don’t plan on slacking off!” He said joyfully.

“I won’t, Chief Tanaman-!”

Suddenly, the door to the office slammed open, a Hakama-o with a police badge on his chest seemingly being the one to open it. They spoke in a raspy female voice. “Chief! We have a situation at Xander Cage City Bank! An organized bank robbery is happening right now! We’ve already sent some of our squads there, but it seems we’re gonna need a lot more monpower for us to stop it!”

Reino and Mark tensed a little bit, however, the Cradily stood calm as usual as he proceeded to formulate a plan in his head. “Say Mark, how good are you in combat?”

The Pikachu looked back at Tanaman and responded a bit nervously. “I… I don’t know how to do any magic yet, but, I’ve learned self-defense and I’ve gotten pretty used to this body so far.”

“Alright, should be good enough.” The plant looked at Reino. “Reino, since this is an emergency, I’d like to have a lot of monpower on this. So could you please take Mark to the bank?” He looked at the Pikachu. “I feel as though there is some hidden potential inside of him.”

Reino looked at Mark and thought for a moment. Was the Pikachu truly ready for a battle that he knew that was gonna happen? He was a human that was in a new body for only two days. Would he be genuinely able to go against an ordeal like that? Well… he said that training was tough, so it’s best to count this as part of the training. 

The Scyther looked back at Tanaman. “Roger that sir.” He looked at Mark as he started walking out of the room. “Come on Mark, I’ll tell you the basics of using moves on the way, understood?”

The Pikachu grabbed his badge from the desk and started following Reino, lagging a bit behind since he was using his two feet. “Understood.” He nodded.

“By the way, you walk and run faster when you’re on all fours.” Reino explained, already looking forward.

Mark tilted his head before falling on all fours and trying to walk. However, he misjudged the length of one step and immediately fell on his face. “Oof!”

Reino looked back and went to the electric mouse, scooping him up and putting him on his shoulder. “You’ll get the hang of it eventually.”

And with that, the two of them fully left the office, leaving Chief Tanaman and the Hakama-o looking at the door. The grey dragon looked at the Cradily and asked. “Uh, is it just me, or does that Pikachu-”

“Ohoho, don’t think about it too much.” He waved a tentacle in reassurance. “Sometimes, some Pokémon just have a rather… unique attitude.”

---

Reino and Mark were riding through the streets of Xander Cage City on Raiden’s back, the Scyther gripping the handle-like parts on the Miraidon’s body as the Pikachu gripped his back. While looking straight forward at the road ahead, guiding Raiden to dodge and weave the Varoom and Revavroom powered cars, Reino explained. “Okay Mark, the deal is simple. To unleash a move, you have to use the power of your core, that’s inside you.”

Raiden did a hard turn to the left, kicking some gravel up while some screeching sounds could be heard. “If you don’t know, your core is basically the source of power that all Pokémon have. It allows them to do stuff even beyond what their anatomy allows.” Reino explained a bit more as the Miraidon turned right this time. “Mine allows me to unleash bug-related magic and even manipulate a bit of the air to make my scythes stronger. While yours allow you to unleash electricity.”

“Wait, I could straight up release a motherfuckin’ thunderbolt!?” Mark asked a bit loudly.

“Yes, among other stuff related to electricity. Not only that, you could do other stuff with a minor part of your core. I don’t know what types of moves you could unleash, but there are many possibilities.” 

Raiden suddenly spoke up. “We’re approaching the bank, be ready to be on your positions!”

Reino nodded, however, Mark spoke up. “Wait a second!” The Scyther took a confused glance at the Pikachu while the Miradon tilted his head. “Let’s not appear on the front of the bank. If this is an organized bank robbery, then that means not only they’re with a large group, but that also means they also have an escape plan ready.”

Reino muttered to the side. “Huh… I haven’t thought about that…”

“Besides, we need to account for the fact if they are planning on taking a secret exit or making a hostage situation so they can escape from the crime scene easier.” Mark added. “Raiden, can you take us to the back of the bank while trying not to gather attention? We need to make a sneak attack to catch them off guard.”

Raiden nodded as he began to slow down a little. “Understood.”

Meanwhile, Reino was having another rush of thoughts through his head. From the way that Mark told them what to do, it made him look like he was already experienced with this kind of thing already. Was he…? ‘I wonder… who were you in the past… Mark?’

From a glimpse of a street, the green mantis saw a commotion happening with a lot of shouting. After some seconds, the trio arrived at the back of the bank, going unnoticed by any suspicious Pokémon. The bank was a tall, red, and two-floored building, made to be more like a vault for a lot of Poké. It was made with pure marble, resembling some of the weird ruins from ancient times. To add to the decoration, there were even some vines to match the actual ruins, giving the illusion from a distance that it was part of one of the ruins. 

Mark and Reino hopped off Raiden’s back before the Miraidon started transforming into his battle form, starting to float in the air with his jet boosters. Mark looked at Raiden in wonder momentarily before he focused back on the objective. He looked around for a moment and tilted his head. “Strange, they aren’t guarding the back…” 

Raiden pitched in. “Maybe they thought that no one would be smart enough to sneak up from the back?”

“That’s plausible.” Mark said with a shrug.

“Let’s just get this over with, the sooner we end this, the better.” Reino said as he approached the door. After a few nudges from the handle, he noticed that the door was locked. He sighed and backed away a little bit. He raised one of his blade arms in the air as it started glowing a light blue color. He then swung down his blade and released an Air Slash directly at the door, the wave of pressurized air making a big dent in the door. The Scyther followed it up by flying at the door and kicking it open. “Come on, let’s go!”

Mark grinned and nodded, already getting filled with the thrill of the mission. “Alright, I’m ready!” He said as he ran behind Reino on two legs, although not really catching up.

Raiden then scooped the Pikachu off the ground and held him in his claw. “Until you get a hang of being on four legs, someone should carry you around so you don’t lag behind.” He said.

Mark sighed and crossed his arms, feeling like a baby all over again. “Ugh, this sucks…”

The three Pokémon entered the building and started sneaking around the place. The inside of the bank had a really regal feel. Parts of the walls were covered in gold while the rest was still made out of marble along with the floor and ceiling. It seemed that this place either had a Cofragigus as an architect or the Pokémon just really loved to be fancy. 

“Raiden, any heat signals you can scan close by?” Reino asked, peeking from a corner. “Even if we can’t detect any cold-blooded Pokémon, we can still detect the hot-blooded ones.” 

The Miraidon’s eyes suddenly flashed a blue color as he started to look around. “I can detect seven hot-blooded Pokémon inside the building while the rest is outside. However, four of these Pokémons seem to be civilians while the other three seem to be the criminals we’re looking for. There are two in the front and one in the hallway of the vault.”

“Good, come on let’s get a move on-” As Reino was about to leave his hiding spot and turn a corner, he immediately returned with a startled look on his face.

“What is it-?” Mark asked in a whisper before the Scyther shushed him up with a hiss. The Pikachu then remained silent as he went to peek the corner as well. He saw an Arbok and a Seviper with matching black scarves around their necks inching closer to them. He then crouched beside Reino and immediately shuddered, muttering to himself. “I literally became an electric street rat and my first opponents are morthefuckin’ snakes!?”

Reino took a small glance at Mark before paying close attention to the slithering bodies getting closer. “Don’t worry, we’ll protect you.” He whispered before looking at Raiden, his antenna twitching at each slither from the snakes. Silently motioning with his blade, he held it up in the air for a moment before bringing it down slowly while shouting. “Now!”

The Scyther came out of his hiding spot, wings buzzing as he started flying along with Raiden. The poison types, startled by the sneak attack, didn’t have any time to attack before Reino flew directly to the Arbok and did a crossing attack with X Scissor, slicing some of their scales off with his blades glowing green and launching them to a wall. Meanwhile, Raiden curled up into an electricity-filled wheel and rolled onto the Serviper who had no chance of retaliation, shocking the black snake as he phased through him with the amount of speed he built with the Electro Drift. As he stopped spinning and uncurled himself, he didn’t look back at the sparks and small bolts that lingered in the area before causing a small electrical explosion. The poisonous black snake then fell unconscious, their body twitching a little bit with bruises and burns.

Mark watched from the corner of the hallways, mesmerized by all the cool attacks in action as his eyes sparkled in wonder. “So damn cool…”

Reino landed on the ground as Raiden hovered beside him. The Scyther and Miraidon looked behind and saw the Pikachu approaching them, seeing him sidestep the fainted body of the Serviper. “See? Told ya we would protect you.”

Mark’s tail raised a little as he grinned. “Okay, that was kinda sick.”

The mantis put an arm on his side and smirked. “Oh come on, that’s just the bare minimum I could do in a fight.” 

Raiden then playfully punched Reino in his arms. “Oh come on, just take the compliment, I know you love receiving those.”

Even if he couldn’t blush, Reino gave an expression of embarrassment as he looked away. “Anyways, we need to continue.” He said before continuing to walk through the hallways of the bank.

Raiden gave a small chortle before following the bug and flying type along with Mark.

The trio continued to sneak around the place, trying to make the minimal amount of sound possible to not alert anyone of their presence. On their way, they found a small table where there was a deck of cards on it, presumably the cards the Arbok and the Serviper were playing with. Mark then deduced that they were the Pokémon guarding the back door, however, they were just doing a really bad job at it.

While doing their trek through the bank, they could hear the sounds of some explosions coming from the front of the building, Reino’s face scrunching up whenever he heard a muffled BOOM in the background. He just had to hope that his colleagues were doing fine. 

Eventually, the trio reached the hall that led to the vault. They hid behind each corner of the hallway. They peeked around the corner and saw a massive hatch trapdoor that apparently had no hatch? Not only that, there were two Pokémon in front of the door, an Inteleon with a black scarf around their neck, and a shiny Grumpig who also had the same scarf around their neck. The bipedal chameleon looked at the psychic type Pokémon while crossing her arms and speaking in a female voice. “Are you almost done? The boss doesn’t reward grunts who don’t do their job efficiently.”

“It’d be faster… if you… don’t rush me!” The Grumpig said as his black pearls started to glow a bit more, the pig starting to dance a little to amplify his powers. 

The Inteleon huffed and continued to look at the door, gripping one of the giant sacs around the room with her tail.

Reino looked back at Mark and Raiden and started motioning with his wings, flickering his antennas and buzzing his wings a bit. Raiden nodded and whispered. “Understood.”

Mark then sheepishly made a thumbs up and whispered. “I have no idea what the actual shit you just tried to tell me but I’ll follow along like I understood everything.”

Reino rolled his eyes and just started sneaking towards the two criminals, followed by the Miraidon and Pikachu. The Scyther raised his blades and started building up an Air Slash, gathering the air around his scyther-like arm and compressing it around it. However, before they could get closer and release a sneak attack, the Inteleon spoke. “Well, well, well, seems like someone was really smart enough to use the back door, huh? I knew those two wouldn’t be worth a damn in protecting the back themselves…”

The trio froze as the water chameleon turned around, putting a hand on her waist. She gave an analyzing look at the three of them and huffed. “One of those time-traveling Pokémon is a bit concerning, but I shouldn’t have any problem in defeating the other two.”

The Grumpig gave her a side glance as he continued doing… something with his psychokinesis. “Wh-what’s the matter…?”

“Nothing that you should be concerned of. Just continue to do your work.” The Inteleon said, flicking a tail to the psychic pig before focusing back on the duo of cops and a soon-to-be cop. She raised a finger to her eye level as she got into a stance. “I’ll handle them myself.”

Reino then pointed an arm at the criminal and spoke as Raiden got into a battle stance while Mark tensed a little bit. “You are under arrest! Don’t resist, otherwise, we will use force!”

The Inteleon said nothing else before pointing a finger at them and shooting a bullet of pressurized water at the trio. 

“Dodge!” Mark shouted as the bullet traveled at high speeds towards them. However, instead of dodging, Reino stood in front of the bullet and sliced it in half with his arm, the water projectiles losing power and splashing against the Miraidon’s steel plating and on the floor in front of Mark. “Holy shit…”

“Impressive, but it’s not like you’ll be able to deflect all of them.” The criminal then pointed another finger at the trio.

Reino looked behind before shouting. “Take cover!” 

Quickly, Raiden snatched Mark off the ground and flew to the corner of the wall, hiding behind it as cover. However, Reino stayed in place and retaliated with a few waves of compressed air, launching it directly at the Inteleon. However, she just deflected the Air Slash with her bullets, the projectiles clashing against each other and causing a few bursts of air and water. Reino used these explosions as a distraction to fly behind the wall and use it as cover while also avoiding more water bullets that were going through the explosion. However, one bullet managed to hit him in his torso before he managed to fully hide behind the corner.

The mantis hissed in pain as he felt hemolymph starting to fall from his wound. Thankfully, the projectile was just water and it didn’t hit anything vital, just chipped off a bit of his chitin and some flesh tissues hidden beneath. It still hurt and stung a lot though…

While trying to get his bearings together as he put a scythe arm over his wound, he saw Mark making a weird motion, like he was trying to pull something from a nonexistent pocket. However, he stopped himself as he realized that he didn’t have an item, gripping his head and gritting his teeth as he muttered to himself. “The fuck was I doing…?”

Reino ignored that action for now and tried to formulate a plan in his head. Obviously, if they attempt to get out of cover, the Inteleon will quickly blast them the instant she sees a part of their bodies. So he needed to think of something that’d distract her so he gets a clean shot of Air Slash at her. But how?

“Reino, are you alright? You’re bleeding…”

The Scyther’s head snapped to Mark who looked at him with a concerned expression. He smirked, keeping the tough guy attitude. “I’m alright, not like I’m dying or anything…”

“What should we do Reino?”

The Scyther looked at the Miraidon, who was looking at him expectantly. Reino looked away as he thought for a moment. “I wonder if-”

However, before he could formulate a plan, Mark spoke up. “I could be a bait.”

Reino’s train of thought stopped before looking at the Pikachu in confusion. Did he hear that correctly…? “What…?” 

“I know it may sound bad, but, I noticed something…” Mark got out of Raiden’s grip and held back his ears, peeking at the Inteleon from the corner. He saw her eyes moving around the place with her hands still pointed forward. Once her eyes locked onto Mark’s, she released a single water bullet at the Pikachu. However, he reacted fast enough that the bullet only managed to chip a portion of the wall, giving them the idea of the power that these bullets held. “Geez…” Mark muttered before looking back at his teammates and whispering. “I noticed that she missed most of the bullets when you were scurrying back to the corner of the hall. And this last shot confirms my theory. Her eyes need to be locked in on someone for her to shoot.”

Mark looked back at the chipped wall and analyzed it a bit. “Her shots are thin, and lack a lot of width so she could blast away and almost hit nothing because of how thin it is.” He looked back at his teammates again with a confident smile. “We just need to find a distraction so that she can’t be able to lock eyes with anyone.”

Reino and Raiden stayed silent for a moment, Raiden thinking about the plan for a bit while Reino thought about something else. Tanaman might’ve been onto something… even if the Pikachu doesn’t know any moves, he covers it with his intelligence. Was this the fabled human intelligence that he heard so much about in those stories…?

“That could work.” Raiden said before tilting his head. “Although… how are we gonna use you as bait without her immediately shooting you on sight?”

“Double Team.” The two Pokémon looked back at Reino, the Pikachu tilting his head in confusion. 

“Oh yes, you can do that, can’t you?” Raiden said as he looked at the mantis with a smirk, his expression being noticed even with his robotic face.

Mark finally asked. “Wait, Double Team? What is that?”

“It’s basically a move that lets me create illusory copies of myself to trick Pokémon.” Reino explained before crossing his arms. “I have an idea, and it’s gonna be risky… are you willing to take said risk, Mark?”

The Pikachu looked aside with an uncertain look on his face before looking back at the Scyther and nodding with a determined expression. “Whatever it takes.”

“Alright then.” The mantis put his arms over each of his teammates’ shoulders while being careful not to scratch them. “Here’s the plan…”

Meanwhile, the Inteleon was watching the corners of the hallway, her eyes shifting rapidly from place to place. While keeping an eye, she asked her Grumpig partner. “Are you done yet?”

“I’m almost… done… needs a few more seconds…”

“Do it in ten seconds or else-” She interrupted herself once her eyes caught the movement of not only one but many Scythers bursting out of the corner and walking towards her. She immediately shot one of them and they disappeared with a small flash of white. “So this is how you wanna play, huh? Well then, I’m gonna destroy all of them until I hit the real one!” She started shooting even more pressurized water projectiles at the illusionary Scythers, the clones disappearing one by one.

However, she didn’t notice a yellow blur that came out of some flashes of white, jumping behind from clone to clone. 

After a single clone managed to get almost close to her before being blasted away, she realized that all of the clones had been destroyed without a single sign of the original being hit, not even noticing said yellow blur slipping past her. She tilted her head but still kept her hands pointed in front of her. “Huh? Hoping they bought enough time for reinforcements? Idiots-”

“You’re the idiot here!” Mark said as he jumped up and hugged the Inteleon’s face, not letting her have enough time to turn around to see the Pikachu grabbing her face with his entire body.

“Mmgh!?” The water chameleon let out muffled, whipping her body around and finally letting go of her sniping position to try getting the Pikachu off her face. 

Mark then started nuzzling her head with his cheeks as he quickly muttered. “C’mon, c’mon, c’mon!” 

The Inteleon managed to grab the Pikachu around his waist with her long tail while looking at him with a pissed-off look. She then started pointing her right hand at the Pikachu, preparing a shot. “You little-!”

Reino then jumped out of the corner with his scythe arm raised and building up his Air Slash. “Now!”

The sniper chameleon whipped her head to the side and pointed her finger at the Scyther. However, before she could shoot, she froze a little with some electrical sparks running down her body. “W-what!?”

Reino then brought his blade down, releasing a wave of sharply compressed air at the Inteleon, who could do nothing but get hit by the attack. She grunted in pain and staggered back a little, releasing Mark from her grip. The Pikachu fell to the ground with a grunt but quickly got up and started running back to Reino at a moderate speed. “Raiden, now!”

The Miraidon quickly floated off the corner while curling himself into a spinning electrical wheel, sparks flying off of him as he quickly gained speed. At lightning speeds, he rolled towards the Inteleon and phased through her. Raiden uncurled himself as an electrical explosion occurred behind him.

The Inteleon was launched onto the door of the vault, landing beside the yellow Grumpig who yelped in surprise and lost focus of his Psychic. “Jenas!” He saw the Inteleon slump to the ground, bleeding a bit from her mouth and the wound on her torso. He then looked behind him and saw the trio of cops approaching him slowly, not only that, but apparently the reinforcements were behind them as well. “Eeek!”

Suddenly, Jenas the Inteleon grabbed the psychic pig’s arm and slowly got up. “This isn’t over yet…” With her other arm, she pulled from behind her a mist bomb and threw it on the ground. The small bomb exploded, surrounding the entire hallway area with mist as the Inteleon became cloaked in the vaporized water and dragged her Grumpig partner away.

Mark looked around, trying to spot the criminals. “Where did she-… where are they?” He asked a bit surprised.

“This is a rather thick mist.”  Raiden said as he scanned the mist around him. “Not only they can get away easily with that, with moisturized and vaporized water, but Inteleon can also cloak their entire body once their body is soaked enough.”

Reino gritted his teeth and looked aside in annoyance. “Fuck, we let them get away…” 

“Don’t let that get to you, Reino.” 

The Scyther felt a grip on his shoulder. He turned around and saw the captain of the squad from the Blaze District, Tieran, a Thyphlosion, putting a hand on his shoulder with a smirk. “What matters is that you stopped the robbery from happening, and we’re proud of you.”

“Captain…” Reino stared a little bit at the fire type before smiling. “Thanks, but I wouldn’t have done it without my partners.” He said as he pointed at Raiden and Mark, the Pikachu’s ears perking up.

“Am I really your…” 

Reino interrupted the Pikachu while smirking. “Do you even have to ask? That was one heck of a performance right there.”

Mark stared at the Scyther a bit in disbelief before he managed a smile with a thumbs up. “Thanks!”

---

A few days had passed after the bank robbery attempt. Thankfully, during the operation, none of the civilians in the bank and outside the bank got hurt during the confrontation with the criminal group. Sure, a few officers got hurt during their battle against the bandits in front of the building, but thankfully, none of them were severely wounded. 

Some of the thieves in the group got arrested while the rest managed to escape. However, with no money stolen and all the civilians safe, the cops of the XCCPD took this operation as a success.

In those few days after the operation, Reino, Raiden, and Mark all got congratulated by the other officers, being the team that managed to stop the robbery in time. Even if no official celebrations had occurred, the trio was invited to an unofficial one by some cops of another squad, getting treated with alcoholic drinks and such. It was that night that Mark and Raiden discovered that the Scyther was sensitive to alcohol since he got drunk after two cups of relatively soft champagne.

Not only that, Mark was able to finish his training sooner than expected. During his training, Reino realized that Mark really did have some experience as a cop, even if he couldn’t remember any of it. 

He wondered if human cops operated the same way as Pokémon cops do.

Although, he still needed to develop his moves a bit more, only knowing Nuzzle is not great for combat on the streets.

“Reino, do I really have to wear this badge during the photo? Why can’t I use the ones you guys use? This one doesn’t stick well to my fur and it’s uncomfortable.” Mark said as he adjusted his bronze badge on his chest.

“Well, rules are rules. This badge says that you are only starting it out as an officer and that you follow orders from superior cops, AKA, me since we are in the same squad.” Reino explained as he pointed to himself. “But don’t worry, you can take it out after the photo, and you only have to wear it when you’re on the streets.”

Mark pouted and looked aside, his arms slumping. “At least there’s that then…”

Raiden walked towards Mark and nudged him with his head. “Come on, let’s take the photo already, you’re gonna be a great addition to the gallery!” 

“Alright, I’m going, I’m going.” Mark said before he started walking to the lounge of the building with the others. “So you guys do this every year?”

“I’m not sure what you mean by year, but we do this at the beginning of every cycle.” Reino explained. “It’s basically the tradition we have to go into a new cycle while having memories of the officers we had in case they die in the cycle.” The Scyther looked at how Mark was staring at him with a “Holy shit…” face. “Yeah, it’s dark, I know. But one thing that we were all taught at a young age is that life is unpredictable.”

The Pikachu rubbed the back of his head. “I guess you’re right about that…”

The trio reached the lounge and it seemed that everyone was there, even the chief who was standing behind everyone, only his neck, head, and tentacles being visible. Liliam was in front of everyone, setting the big rectangle with legs and an ocular sight in the front that was the camera, a rather recent invention that was created around when Reino hatched.

The Maractus looked at the trio and called. “You’re the last ones guys, I’m almost finished here! So come on and get to your positions!”

The trio wasted no time to get to their positions. Reino stood beside a Machoke, Raiden stood beside a Manetric and Mark stayed in the middle since he was the smallest Pokémon of the department. The Pikachu shifted the fur that was obstructing his vision to the side, giving him a small fringe.

“Is everyone ready?” Liliam asked as she tilted her head to the side, allowing her to see everyone. The cops, the chief, and secretaries all nodded and Liliam went back to messing with the camera. “Alright… there!” 

The cactus Pokémon then started waddling to the group and got into a position beside Mark, being careful to not poke him with her needles.

The camera then started flashing a small red light and everyone smiled their best to the camera. And with a small “Click” the photo was taken.

---

Reino was then snapped from his trip down memory lane once the phone on his desk vibrated, his antennas twitching from the noise. He looked at it and saw that it had a message from Mark. The notification read: “Remember to sleep ‘till the big day, rest or I’ll shock you to sleep from here, now!”

The Scizor couldn’t help but smile and sigh. “Oh, Mark… always worrying about me and my awful sleep schedules…” He thought back a little more about the past. Sometimes, he asked himself if leaving the department was a good choice or not. “Oh well, not like I’m able to change it.”

The steel mantis looked aside and started to think for a little, about the reason why he was going back to Xander Cage City after so long. He rested his head on his pincer, his arm being supported by the desk as he muttered two words. “Alice Mishima, huh…?”

Ever since Mark presented him evidence that Asuri was doing something shady behind the media, being able to travel to the human world and even taking ownership of a company from that world, it just rubbed Reino the wrong way. What more can this influential company be doing behind everyone’s back? What are their goals instead of just making the Pokémon world a more technology-filled place? 

Could they also be behind the Corrupted Pokémon case?

No, Reino shouldn’t be jumping to conclusions too hastily. From his thought process (and his overall unhealthy sleep schedule), it’d be noticeable that the Scizor was desperate to get to the bottom of this case and close it for good.

He just wanted to ensure the safety of one of his best friends. He would do anything to accomplish his task.

However, one thing the Pikachu was right about (and that he hated to admit) was that he needed to sleep or else his performance during the investigation of Asuri would become sluggish. After all, he wouldn’t let any clue pass by him in any case, no matter the importance. Or else that’d just ruin his reputation.

Reino sighed and pulled himself out of his chair, however, as he stood up, his legs wobbled and he fell to his knee. He stared at his leg for a moment and said out loud. “Perhaps I do need to sleep, even if a little.”

With that, the Scizor threw himself to his bed and shifted positions to lay on his side, not bothering to throw the silk-made covers above him. As he closed his eyes, sleep came quickly, enveloping him in its embrace. In what felt like a long time, even if it was just a few months, Reino looked at peace.