Dungeon 8 – The fox and the hound

Brian was sitting in a chair in the city hospital, thinking. He had received the news that his brother was stable, but that he would need to rest for a while.

I’ll need to do something by myself, sleeping in the hospital is awful. I wonder if the door’s already fixed… Hm, maybe there’s some info around the guild? That kid did post the mission there, after all! Brian pondered, leaving the hospital.

He walked around the streets in silence, planning what to do for the day. First, speak to the guildmaster, maybe they weren’t the first team to find the mission, and he could get some intel about it. Then, go to the police station, Lance mentioned that he made a promise to put that Pikachu in witness protection, but Brian also needed to talk to the detective he heard about.

Got it! This seems like a good plan, nice! Brian smirked, he was at the guild’s door. Taking a deep breath, he entered, going straight to the guildmaster’s office. He stood on two legs, knocking on the door with his paws.

“You can come in!”

---

Brian got inside, prepared to make some questions, he wasn’t sure if he could get any good info during this visit, but felt the need to try anyway.

“Oh, hello, child. What do I owe you the pleasure of this visit? Swalot patted his large belly, chuckling.

“Good morning!” he said, walking in circles. “Right, so, my brother and I got a mission about this Druddigon, you know, they found his body yesterday. We got a tip on a few suspects, so we talked to the mayor and shortly after, an Empoleon attacked us. Then I thought… you’ve been here longer than us, do you know this Pokémon?”

Robert rolled his eyes. “A lot of teams took that mission, but I assure you, it’s not worth the risk, they gave up in the end. I’ll tell you what, would you like to get the reward anyway?”

Brian growled, claws sticking out. “Now listen here, I’m the one that decides if it’s worth it or not! My brother was hurt because of this!

Robert rubbed his mustache. “Well, I understand you’re angry about that, but there’s nothing I can do…”

“Well, FINE! I’ll just do it myself then!”

Brian ran out of the room, thoughts scrambled. So that didn’t work out very well, except that he now knows there were more teams; now he needed to go to the police, but before that, Brian wanted to test something. Focusing all his might, Brian hid himself again, tail included. He just needed to be careful and quick, hiding the tail took too much energy.

Okay, I really hope this won’t be pointless in the end… He tried to bribe me, I’m sure!

Brian entered the room again, thankful that the door was still open, so he waited. Having no idea what time it was made him nervous, but eventually, Robert made a call.

“One of the boys came to ask me for answers!” Robert shouted at the phone. “Of course I tried to make him quit! We can’t let our deal end!”

…Of course he’s involved in this, but what does that have to do with those other teams? Brian wondered, still listening to that phone call.

“What do you mean I need to make a deal? Urgh, fine! I’ll do that once the other kid wakes up,” with that said, the Swalot hang up.

That’s all Brian needed to know, he left the place again, and when he got far enough away, he undid the illusion, panting.

T-This took so much energy, but I don’t have time to waste!

While walking, his mind created some theories. The guildmaster was involved in this whole thing, and having the support of the mayor only made things harder to solve. Brian questioned what authorities he could trust, but for the moment, he wanted to try.

---

What the Zorua first noticed on the interior was the number of desks the place had. The corridor extended for a while and Brian could see a Raichu handcuffed, being taken away by a Rhyperior.

Brian was now in the middle of the room, where some Pokémon were walking around, being the police, they were busy with their jobs. Yet, one of them, a Tyranitar, noticed Brian and walked towards him.

“How can I help you?” the Rock-Type questioned Brian.

“Hi! Uh, I need to talk to this detective, I think his name is Apollo?”

“Of course, Apollo is one of our finest detectives, a little weird, but a nice mon to be around. Follow me,” he turned around, going through a hallway with Brian.

Entering the room, the two of them saw an Arcanine folding through some papers, a large glass containing what appeared to be coffee. The Tyranitar sighed, clearing his throat to catch the Arcanine’s attention.

“Hm? What’s up?” Apollo twitched his ears.

“Well, you have a visitor,” Tyranitar shrugged.

“Oh, yeah, hi!” Brian said, waving with his front paw.

“Hm? ” moving his ears, he looked at the boy who had arrived. “What do you want? I’m kind of busy right now.”

“It’s about the Druddigon,” Tyranitar said.

“Oh, my bad then, sorry, kiddo!” Apollo laughed, watching the Tyranitar leave.

“S-Sure, I guess. Anyway, I’m Brian Williams, member of an exploration team with my brother! I need to ask a couple of things,” he nodded, approaching Apollo.

“Alright, do tell! I’m all ears!” He said, twitching his large, fluffy ears.

“My brother went to see that Druddigon’s manager, and, well, it seems that the victim was panicking a lot before he got killed,” Brian gasped. “O-Oh yeah, that Pikachu! She told us everything, we need to put her in witness protection, right?”

Apollo tilted his head, whining. “Huh, she told you? She didn’t say anything to me. Well, I’ll do that anyway. Anything else?”

“She said that the mayor’s secretary, this Gothitelle, wanted to pay them to stop the campaign. We tried to ask the mayor, but what happened was that he ignored and—”

“Sent someone to attack you both.” Apollo finished Brian’s sentence. “I see… listen, did you go to the guild?”

“I was there before I came here, but it was the same thing that happened with the mayor. He told me to ignore it,” Brian tapped his paws on the ground, snarling.

Apollo barked. “Exactly! You’re pretty clever, kiddo. See, they tend to operate like this, bribing Pokémon, and if they refuse, well… murder. I talked to some teams about this Druddigon case, not only they refused to comment, I checked their bank accounts.”

Brian blinked. “…They took the bribe?! Why?!”

“Beats me. But things seem different now. Are you going to help me with this?”

“What about that Empoleon? He’s a mercenary, right?” Brian took a deep breath, trying to calm down while waiting for an answer.

“Ah, yes, I also searched about him… I have some informants inside, and thanks to them, I got some important intel about the mercenaries,” after talking about it, the Arcanine took some papers, putting them on the table.

“Wait a minute, “mercenaries” as in, there’s more than one?” he said, jumping on the chair to take a better look at the papers.

There were pictures of some Pokémon: an Aggron, a Bisharp, and an Empoleon. Brian then realized that they were dealing with more than one criminal. Thinking, he concluded that the one responsible for the Druddigon’s disappearance was somebody else and the Water-type was a diversion.

“Damn it…” he snarled.

“Yes. From what I was told, the Aggron is called Atlas and he is the team leader. The Bisharp’s name is Flint and the Empoleon’s is Napoleon. The group calls itself Heart of Steel Crew.” he spoke, explaining to the boy.

“Ok! So I have an idea of who I’m facing, but can you tell me the reason for not having arrested the mayor with all this information?”

“Kid, things are not so simple… arresting someone so influential in this city is something that needs as much proof as possible. Things like a confession, you know?”

“If that’s what you need, then that’s what I’m going to deliver…” coming down from the chair, he had a determined look on his face.

“Hey, wait! You’re not thinking of breaking into his office to ask?!”

“Of course I am!” turning around, he growled, irritated with that situation, his tail wagging quickly. “I tried my brother’s way and he’s all hurt now! If I do it my way, it might work!”

The Arcanine then sighed, looking at the Zorua directly, analyzing the boy. He then chuckled, closing his eyes. Brian, without understanding what was happening, slowly walked away.

“Listen, Zorua, your intentions are good, but if you go forward against any situation without any plan, you won’t survive… it’s a tip from me.”

The boy started thinking. Since they left home, he tried to take the reins in the dungeons they went to. First, with Zebstrika, even though the two of them had controlled the situation, they still got hurt. Then with Luxray’s gang, where Lance almost died. Internally, he hated having to admit that the detective was right.

“How to face an enemy protected by all who are the authority here then?! I have to protect Lance!”

“You understand how their mind works…” Apollo opened a drawer, taking an envelope from it.

“I never saw that many Steel-types together, it seems a bit odd for me, it’s not effective since they all have the same weaknesses,” Brian scratched his chin. “They’d have to know each other well for that crew to function properly. Kinda like… a well-oiled machine, you know?”

“Haha, that makes sense, kiddo, I never thought a Zorua would enjoy those things!”

Brian blushed, ears dropping. “U-Uh, well, I do want to take this engineering course I saw the other day. Our team needs a mechanic!”

“Fair enough, now back to our plans. I know where they came from and some things from their past. The question is: kiddo, will you help me?”

Brian shivered, a memory asserting itself on his brain. “I know what it feels like to… to worry about a loved one, thinking that they’re… they’re dead,” Brian said, words escaping him as he did that. “That Tyrunt doesn’t deserve this, and neither does everyone else. Of course, I will help!”

Apollo saw that scene, thinking about what Zorua had gone through to be like that. It wouldn’t be a good idea to ask if he didn’t want to talk, he had to have his reasons. He then opened the envelope with one of his paws.

“Have you ever heard of the city of Oreshard?”

“I… no…” Brian thought for a moment.

“So let me explain to you…”