A Zoroark who lived his life as a human now has to adapt living with ponies.
Xerox is a Zoroark, though probably not your typical Zoroark. For one, for nearly over half of his life he'd been masquerading as a human, living amongst them as if one their own. For a good reason of course, all he wanted to become a detective, solving crimes like his famous hero in the books he love so much. However all that change when he was suddenly transported to a new world full of colorful ponies along with other Pokemon and humans, who are suddenly now Pokemon. Now he has to adapt to this new setting and world while trying to still keep to his old life as much as he can. The question is, do they need of a Pokemon Detective?
The soft sound of a pencil tapping against a wood desk wrapped out as a Zoroark had his arms resting on top of it, one of his hands propping his head up while the other held the pencil between his three clawed hand. His light blue eyes staring down as they skimmed an open book, quickly reading it to refresh his mind.
“-the subject is arrested and put to jail until trial starts. The proper sentence can be years to a life time in jail depending on the charges for Pokephilia,” he read out loud, his voice quiet and soft while doing so. He paused in tapping his pencil as he frowned slightly. He held a morbid thought, knowing that was a bit of a lighter ‘punishment’ than in the recent decades. His body shivered for a moment before shaking his head and he went on reading through his law book.
His door lit up as several knocks rang from the other side, catching him off guard, causing him to jump. “Ah... um, one minute,” he said before quickly transforming to his default disguise. He appeared as a tall human, with an average build and jet black hair reaching around the bottom of his neck. He also appeared to be wearing some khaki pants and a simple black t-shirt.
The disguised Zoroark did one final check of himself, making sure none of his original body was showing before he opened the door slightly. “Um yes, may I help you?” he asked, his voice altering a bit to a more confident tone than before. However, it was unnecessary as his eyes shortly registered who was standing at his door.
“Oh drop the act Xerox, it’s just me,” a red haired woman said with a small chuckle, a single hand on her hip as she awaited entrance. She wore a red jacket over a black shirt and jeans, a small belt holding three Pokeballs on it.
“Oh... Scarlet... it’s just you,” he said with a small relieved sigh, though his eyes glanced over her shoulders and throughout the hallway to make sure.
“Yep, so are you going to let me in?” she asked, gesturing at the apartment door.
“Oh yeah, of course,” he said, nodding his head as he step back and fully pulled open the door.
“Thank you,” Scarlet said with a small polite nod of her head as she walk inside the small apartment.
It was a very simple looking apartment, with basic greyish white carpets with blue/green striped wallpaper covering its walls. It had a living room no bigger than maybe a simple bedroom, with only a large couch, doubling as a sleeping bed,a small T.V. sitting in front of it. A kitchen was set up on the west side of the apartment, equipped with a stove, oven, sink, refrigerator, and a microwave. Which was the only thing that looked new among everything else. There was a single window to the east, but it was blocked with thick black curtains, allowing no light to shine through. Making the lamp stand settled in a corner by the desk the only source of light in the room.
The desk itself was only about three feet by two feet in size with a small set of drawers running down the three feet of height. Above it was a wall bookshelf with four filled slots of books organized by alphabetical order. Most of them mystery novels or regional law books.
“So umm... what are you doing here?” Xerox asked, his voice returning to it’s uneasy and docile tone as he closed the door softly before dropping his illusion.
“I’m just checking up on ya,” Scarlet replied, glancing more closely at the desk to see the small stack of textbooks along with scribbled note pads. “I see you’re studying for your final exams.”
“Yeah... just making sure I got everything straight....” he replied, his claws tapping against each other a bit anxiously. “I want to make sure I’ll be able to pass them and finally be able to graduate,” he said, a small smile forming on his lips before a thought occurred to him. “Ummm... do you want anything to eat? I can probably whip up something real quick if you like” he offered, pointing towards the kitchen.
The woman held up a hand as shook her head. “No thank you, I already ate and I don’t want to make your late for your test,” she said genuinely as her voice softened a bit. “I know you’ve been waiting a long time for this moment, so I came to wish you luck and offer my help once more.” Her posture straightened up just a bit as her arms crossed, her voice carrying a bit of seriousness to it now. “I know you’re probably still iffy on the subject, but I would be honored that after our co-op has ended, you join my team full time.” She pulled out one of her arms and held up a hand.
“I’m not saying I’m going to pull you completely out of your lifestyle or anything. I just want to provide a way for you to use your skills to their fullest,” she explained, lowering her hand back down. “I have lots of favor with the Rangers Corp, I’m sure they won’t find out about your secret or anything. Even if they do... I’ll make sure everything you work hard for won’t be taken away from you.” Her voice dropped back down to the soft and genuine kind voice. “Trust me on that Xerox.”
Xerox’s ears flattened a bit as his claws continued to fiddle with each other. “I understand... I do really. Working with you has definitely helped in more ways than I can imagine. I even trust you will keep true to your words... but it’s just....” he trailed off. I’m too frightened that it might not be enough... he said in his mind before taking a deep breath and letting it out. “I’m not sure if fully joining the Rangers is the right thing for me to pursue for a full time career.” He left a hand to rub the back of his head through his long strain of red mane. “I’m still a bit... indecisive of your offer...” And frightened of the worse possible outcome altogether...
Scarlet frowned slightly, her eyes giving him an inquisitive look, but she closed them and slowly nodded her head. “I understand, and I respect your decision.” She walked up to the Zoroark and placed a hand on his shoulder, smiling lightly. “Good luck with your exams, and if you need any help after you graduate, don’t be afraid to ask me okay?”
“Okay... and thank you,” Xerox said with a smile, his fiddling becoming less fidgety.
“You’re welcome,” the woman said, giving his shoulder a light pat before she removed her hand and headed for the door. “I can let myself out, don’t want to trouble you anymore.” She waved a hand over her shoulder. “See you later.”
“Yeah, you too,” Xerox replied, waving a hand goodbye as Scarlet open the door and left, she made sure to close the door quietly.
The Zoroark let out a held in sigh, feeling the tension in his body vanishing. Scarlet was one of the very few humans out in the world he trusted with his secret life, but even so he gets anxious talking to her. Not that there was anything wrong about her, no, she was an aspiring Ranger, one of the best. She was a person he look up to, right next to Sherlock... granted he’s a fictional character, but it still counted in the Zoroark’s mind. It was just mostly his fears holding him back.
I trust you Scarlet... I do... you helped me gain a bit more confidence in myself and even showed me what it’s like working for a law enforcing group. He took in a deep breath and let it out. But I can’t just shake this feeling that one day you will come knocking on my door... and it won’t be that friendly face I always see... but one of regret as you will have to detain me and... force me to be captured.
Xerox closed his eyes and took in another deep breath to calm his nerves. Worry about that later Xerox, right now I need to get ready for my Criminology Exams, and it’s time to take my role as Steven.
He made his way to the kitchen and open a cabinet, pulling out a glass with a toothbrush and toothpaste stored inside it. He filled the glass with water and dabbed his brush with the paste. He then dipped it in water and began to give his mouth and teeth a good scrubbing, making sure his breath smelled minty and did not smell anything close to that of a Zoroark’s breath. He rinsed his mouth very thoroughly before putting everything back into the glass and putting it back into the cabinet.
Next, Xerox grabbed a can of deodorant, shaking it for a good half a minute before he sprayed it under both his arms and around his chest. Hopefully masking the smell of his fur enough that any human won’t think twice about it. I hope some Pokemon won’t take notice of my scent... he said with a small frown as he capped the spray can and put it back.
Last, to complete his transformation, Xerox closed his eyes and drew upon his illusion ability. The jewel fast around the end of his mane glowed faintly as his body was covered in light and grew back into the human disguise he took a few minutes ago.
Xerox open his eyes and glanced to a mirror hanging over the stove. He no longer saw the Zoroark he was, but now Steven. A good hearted citizen getting a degree in criminology to help fight the crime running wildly on Earth. And only one thing now stood in his way of his goal.
He took in a deep breath and slowly letting it out, before checking on the suit and tie he conjured up for his clothes. After making sure everything was in place he headed over for his desk and bent down to grab his backpack, quickly packing two of his text books, his notepad, and a couple of pencils inside it.
He strapped the pack over his back and let out a short breath. “Well... here goes nothing,”he said to himself.
Xerox walked to his door, opening it and closing it quietly before heading down the hallway to the elevator. However, halfway down the hall, his mind suddenly become foggy and his eyelids grew heavily. He stumbled down to his knees, losing hold of his illusion causing it to drop as he fell flat on his face. The last thing he heard was an ethereal male voice speaking.
“Rest now my children, for when you awake a whole new world shall be your home.”
A flash of light and the rolling rumble of thunder roared in Xerox’s ears, causing him to snap his eyes open as he let out a surprised yelp. His body scrambled to get up from the soaked ground as he stood on all fours, his fur rising in fright. He panted heavily as his eyes darted around, trying to figure out where he was or what happened to him.
The Zoroark found himself standing in an alleyway between two wooden buildings, rain pouring from above as another roll of thunder boomed by. The alleyway itself was only about seven feet wide with an assortment of trash cans and junk lying around. Still, his heart rate jumped a bit from the shock of being out in the open like this. How did I end up here!? Where is here? Where is my backpack? Did anyone see me? Why am I just standing here!? were a few of the questions buzzing through his mind, his eyes darting up to some covered windows.
He quickly stood on his hind legs and went to a small overhanging of the roof, which provided minimal cover from the rain. He then brought his arms up and the jewel around his mane glowed and to the outside world another set of trash cans materialized around him, hiding him from view.
Xerox let out a large sigh of relief as he but his back against the wall and allowed himself to slide into a sitting position. He then winced a bit and rubbed his forehead, now noticing the piercing headache he was having. Ugh... what happened... I remember going to my classes then... He frowned as his mind drew a blank, well a blank only to what happened afterwards, he did however remember one thing.
“Rest now my children, for when you awake a whole new world shall be your home.”
The Zoroark frowned. He had no idea who’s voice spoke to him... it couldn’t be his father, since he knew that voice very well and the implication of children meant more than one. Xerox was an only child... or Zorua. The last thing was what the voice meant by ‘a new world shall your home’?
He pondered the thought for a bit longer before he noticed the rain was letting up and he looked up to the sky. To his amazement, he saw clouds already beginning to part away, and to his shock, see them not doing it by their own will.
To his still foggy mind, what looked like Ponytas with wings were flying in the air, pushing and dragging clouds away, his ear flickered upward to catch someone shouting out orders.
“Get those clouds moving, come on, come on,” a female voice stated. “We got to get this storm moving before it runs out of water, and we do not need to be behind on our water quota! So come you slackers, get a moving!”
Xerox blinked. He then lowered his gaze slowly and then peered out to the side, looking out of the alleyway he was in.
Curtains for window started to be pulled back, and heads of more Ponyta’s like creatures started to poke out from them, glancing up to the sky. Some of them smiled and opened their windows, allowing the fresh, cool, rain smelling air inside while others just left the curtains drawn out.
Xerox blinked once more. Where on Earth am I?! the single question spoke to him loudly. His heart rate began to race inside of him. Did something bad happen to me when I passed out? Did I get captured? Is this some sort of simulation run in PCs? Is this the afterlife!? He was nearly hyperventilating before he covered his eyes and his jewel glowed once more, his Zoroark body fading away to his human.
“Calm down Xerox....” he told himself, taking in deep breaths and slowly letting them out. “A panic mind would lead to rushed and pour actions and thoughts,” he stated, remembering the advice Scarlet gave him during his time with her. His racing heart slowed down as he took in another deep breath. “Right now... I need to find out where I am and what happen to me. I can do this, I’ve done it plenty times before.”
He let out one final deep breath before peering out once more out of the alleyway. He saw more of the Ponytas out of their house, walking about and talking casually to one another. Upon closer inspection now, Xerox could tell these weren’t no where near the Ponytas he knew from Pokedex entries.
For one, none of them had flaming manes or tails, it was all just hair. Not only that but it and their coat were not in the same color pattern, instead they varied from all colors of the spectrum. Most bizarre of all were the little pictures on their flanks, depicting from a set of clouds, to hammers, to even flowers, and basically any everyday object found in life. Last, but certainly not least, where how some had horns on their head, or wings on their back, or none at all. It was all very abnormal to the Zoroark.
Xerox frowned deeply as he leaned away and back to his hiding spot behind his illusionary trash cans. “Okay.... Just think this through. These really aren’t any Pokemon recognized by man, I never saw anything like them in a Pokedex Entries. And that voice... he said something about a new world....” He tapped a finger underneath his chin before his eyes widen. “Oh by the heavens above... I’m on a different world!”
Even as he said it sounded crazy to his mind, but when he really thought about it, it was the only solution. For one, humans have traveled all around the Earth, finding nearly every Pokemon known to existence so it was highly unlikeable they missed these Ponyta like creatures. Another reason was, as he heard more of the talking, he could recognize they clearly weren’t speaking in a Pokemon langue but one more attuned to that of humans. Third was the voice... it said he would wake up in a new world... and well... as Sherlock like to say, ‘Eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth’.
“Oooooh boy....” he said faintly, his human illusion dropping and he began to nibble one of his claws nervously. What to do, what to do, what to do, he rapidly repeated in his mind. I doubt I can just walk out there... what would they think of me? Even worse, what would they do if they capture me?! Xerox swallowed a lump forming in his throat, not wanting to know the answer to his-
“Sweet Celestia what is that thing!?” a female voice screamed out.
Xerox’s body froze completely, his fur standing on it’s end as his head whirled up and around. To his slight relief, there were none of these strange Ponytas standing next to him pointing their hooves in honor. No, instead they were doing it to a large Serperior.
“It’s a giant snake! Run for the hills!” another exclaimed before letting out a scream of fright and the sound of hooves galloping away.
“Somepony alert the sheriff!” a third stated as the sound of a door slamming rang in the air.
The Serperior for the most part did really seem to be phased by all the screaming, instead it look mostly confused and lost. “Hey, I’m not here to harm you. I just need help, and... well just help will work for the first part.”
Xerox’s ears perked up in surprise. For one, he knew that voice. It was Scarlet’s and... he really couldn’t believe it at first, but again his ears rarely lied to him. The other thing was he notice she wasn’t speaking in the human language, but instead like a Pokemon.
The Zoroark’s mind went blanked. He hadn’t the slightest clue how Scarlet was able to be turn into a Serperior and speak like a Pokemon. It was... mind boggling to say the least. Though it didn’t really help the now ex-human. She was just standing in the middle of the rood, her ruby eyes glancing around as a trouble frown crossed her face.
Xerox bit his bottom lip as his claws wrapped against his leg. ...I need to help her, she’s just as lost as me and... well I don’t think she released they don’t understand her. He gulped as he glanced around the alleyway, making sure no one was standing next to him. I just hope she can understand me.... or I’m able to comment to these... Ponytas. I do hope there’s not much difference between human speech and theres.
He took in a deep breath as he drop his illusion and ran up to the Serperior. “Scarlet!” he shouted out, deciding to play it safe at first and speak out in Pokemon. “Zoroark!”
Scarlet’s head perked up before it turned to face the running Zoroark. She frowned at first before her eyes brighten. “Xerox? Is that you?”
Xerox nod his head rapidly as he stop right next to her. “Yeah... and no, I have no idea what’s going on. Expect for... well this might sound crazy but I think we’re on another world.”
The Serperior ruby eyes blink blankly at him, an expressionless face overtaking her composer.
“Yeah... like I said, it’s sounds crazy, but I can explain myself,” Xerox explained, his head turning left and right as he scanned the area for any Ponytas. “However, I think we need to find a spot to hide first... I don’t think these inhabits are not friendly towards-”
“FREEZE!” an authoritative female voice shouted out and before either of them could react a blue dome of energy capsule over them. Xerox let out a yelp of surprise, his body jumping back away from the dome and against Scarlet’s grass feeling body. The Serperior however only turn to the direction of the voice. Standing a few feet away was a light brown Pontya with a horn glowing faintly in the same color of the dome. Two piercing narrow blue eyes glared at them as a silver tail swish behind her. She was wearing a sash with a badge on it, with ‘Deputy’ clearly visible on it.
“You two are under arrest by the authority of New Hope’s Equestrian Guard. If you two do not comply, I am authorized to used any force necessary to bring you in,” she stated, her horn flashing making the dome seem to glow menacing.
Xerox and Scarlet both stared at her, the Zoroark still had his back press against the Superior long upright neck, his forepaws already up in the air. “Scarlet... do we go with her?” he whispered over to her.
The ex-woman stay silent for a moment, her eyes staring inquiring at the mare. “Yes... it’s not a good idea to get in trouble with the law. Especially if we are in some new world or such,” she replied. “Maybe from there we can talk to her boss and straighten things out.” Xerox frowned worryingly a bit, not really liking the idea of just willful being arrested, but he trusted Scarlet’s judgement enough.
He nodded his head slowly as he push himself off her back. I do hope this work... he muttered to himself.
The mare glanced between the two, nodding her head in approval as they didn’t try to resists. “Good... now, follow me,” she said, turning around and walking down the street. As she did so the dome move along with her, causing Scarlet and Xerox to move along with it. The ex-woman seem to have a bit of trouble slithering, still get used to her new body and all, but she was move fast enough to keep the barrier from pushing against her tail.
Xerox walked beside her on his hind legs, occasionally glance out to look at the passing buildings. He saw large two storied houses, along with stores selling food, bakery goods, clothes, and pretty much anything a typical store would sell. He also saw Ponytas peeking out their windows, looking at them with awe of fear and worried before hiding behind the shelter of their curtains.
The Zoroark ears flattened against the side of his head, his claws beginning to tapped anxiously with each other.
I really hope this works out... he stated in his trouble mind.
A soft cord of music sung out from the strings off of a guitar through a radio sitting on top of a mahogany wooden desk. Stacks of papers litter across the surface, some flapping in the wind as a fan spinned around from the ceiling. It brought cooled wave of air upon the desk and the brown coated earth pony sitting next to it. Aging wrinkles folded underneath his dullish black eyes as he read a selective set of papers from on the stacks, frowning a bit in annoyance. Reports of monsters and ghost have suddenly been called in and causing a stir amongst the townponies.
And he only had one response to that.
“Uggh... it had to be my off day for things to go down crazy,” his rough southern voice said with a tired sigh. His right hoof reached out to grab a mug of coffee and he took a long sip of it. Ugh... since when did New Hope become like Ponyville? We’re not supposed have sighting of monster or ghosts, or anything abnormal. He let out a hard sigh as he took another sip and set the mug back down. Then again, I am talking about an impossible reality... I just hope my deputies can handle all these calls we are getting. He rubbed a hoof against his forehead, as he stretched out his stiff neck.
A soft series of knocks rang on his door as a mare’s high pitch voice spoke out. “Um... Sheriff Lone Star? Miss Meadow is back and she has some... occupants waiting to be placed in a cell. Do you want me to try and file them in or-”
“I will handle it Ruby, just keep track of the sightings of these ‘monsters’,” the stallion replied, reaching over to turn off the radio.
“Understood Sheriff, I’ll go inform her,” Ruby said as the faint sound of hooves clip-clop away.
Lone Star slided off his chair and stretch out his body for a short moment before he reach up to grab a cowboy’s hat and place it over his graying tan mane. Let get this started.... I hope we got enough room in our cells to house these ‘monsters’. He headed for his office door before swinging it open, entering the main lobby of his police department.
It was a large room with wooden floors and walls. There was a curved desk sitting out in the middle, were a red unicorn mare, Ruby, sat behind it. She was already in the middle of another call, writing down details on form of paper. Off to the right was a door leading to a hallway full of cells. The cells there were sized to house nearly every race from minotaurs to teen dragons (if they ever migrated this far down). However, Lone Star doubted the builder of this place ever thought those cells were going to hold creatures Deputy Meadow brought in.
The brown unicorn stood out in the large open area of the lobby, her horn glowing as it cast a dome over what seem to be a fox like creature and a large snake. The fox like creature was almost nothing Star ever seen before, standing up right like a minotaur, dark greyish blue fur covering it’s body and a red long mane reaching almost to the floor. Some black tips stuck out of the mane as well what look like a blue turquoise jewel wrap around near the end. It had three red claws coming out from both its hands and feet, though they didn’t look very sharp and almost looked as if they were dulled instead.
The snake on the other hoof was very long, the old pony estimating it to be around ten feet from head to tail and around three feet in diameter around the main center of the body. Its body look like it was cover in a grassy looking substance, evening having leaves growing out from the side of the tail. Its head was a bit more pointed than the average snake snout, making it look bit more fit for a dragon than a snake. Yet it still had some elegant curved to it, making it match the tall, imposing, yet delicate, stance it was taking.
“So... these are some of the ‘monster’ that were reported to us?” he asked Meadow, taking his eyes away and glancing at the mare.
“The snake one, yes... the fox isn’t,” she replied. “As I was approaching the snake, the fox just ran out from an alleyway and up to the snake. It was shouting something... Zoroark I think, but I’m confident they were talking right as I was capturing them.”
“And what were they talking about exactly?” he asked, glancing back at the two under the dome.
“I... couldn’t understand, sir,” she replied, her ears flattening a bit. “The fox keep saying Zoroark, and the snake only said Serperior as it replied back.”
Lone Star frowned. Well this is getting me nowhere... “Well... if they can speak, let see if we can get any answers from them about these reports of monsters. Keep that field up tight Deputy.”
“Yes sir,” Meadow replied with a nod of her head.
The sheriff walked in front of the two, his eyes shifting between the two. “My name is Lone Star, sheriff of this town. You two caused a bit of a stir in my town. I’m wondering if you could prove any answers of why you are here.”
The snake looked at him for a moment before glancing at the fox. “Ser, Serperior,” it said, in a feminine tone the stallion noted. “Perior ser Serperior.
The fox eyes widen a bit. “Zor... Zoroark!” it replied, in a male tone, shaking it head. “Zoroa, ark ark, Zoroark!?”
“Serperior,” the snake restated in a bit of a firmer tone. “Ser serperior, serperior. Serperior, ser.”
The earth pony glanced at the two of them with an inquiring eyebrow. “Can you two even speak Equish?” he asked.
The snake glance back at the fox, gesturing its head at the sheriff. The fox began to fiddle its claws on his hands for a while before taking in a deep breath and slowly let it out.
“Yes... I can at least speak... Equish...” he replied.
“You two caused a bit of a stir in my town. I’m wondering if you could provide any answers of why you are here,” Lone Star asked Scarlet and Xerox after his introduction.
Scarlet turned her head over to looked down at the Zoroark. “Well, go ahead. You’re the only one who can talk normally.”
Xerox’s eyes widen a bit at the thought of being the one solely responsible for communication between them and these Ponytas. What if I mess up... get us both in deeper trouble than we already are? “No... I can’t!” he replied, shaking his head. “What if they can’t understand me, what if the don’t speak our language, what if I offend them!?”
“Xerox,” Scarlet said in a frimer and commanding tone. “We have to at least try, we need to find out what’s going on. So please, talk.”
“Can you two even speak Equish?” they heard the Ponyta asked, catching their attention to see him glancing between them with an inquiring eyebrow.
Scarlet glanced back at the Zoroark, tilting it down slightly to single him to answered. Xerox hands shortly found themselves rubbing against each other nervously. ...she’s counting on me... I can do this. I can. He assured himself before taking a deep breath in and slowly let it out.
“Yes... I can at least speak... Equish...” he replied, deciding to play it a bit safe and not say english instead.
“Well... now we’re getting somewhere,” he heard the sheriff mutter under his breath before his focus shifted onto Xerox. “So, who are you two and what are you doing in New Hope?”
Xerox willed himself not to wilt under the Ponyta’s gaze, not wanting to let his nervousness get to him. “My name is Xerox... and her’s is Scarlet,” he replied, holding a claw up towards the Serperior as he introduces themselves. “And... we really have no idea why were here as a matter of fact.”
An eyebrow perked up on Lone Star’s forehead. “Oh?”
Okay... try not to sound like a raving nutcase, Xerox thought to himself as he took in a deep breath. “Yes... you see... we’re not from around here... or maybe even this world in fact.”
The Ponyta blink simply at them, his expression neutral and blank.
“We’re probably from another world and we have no idea how we got here and... and... you’re not buying this at all are you?” Xerox asked, his claws fidgeting with each other faster as his heart raced inside him.
“Do you blame me for not believing y'all are sort of aliens?” Lone Star asked with an inquiring rase of his right eyebrow.
“No... not really....” Xerox answered, his ears falling flat against his head. Good going there Xerox...
“Yet it is the truth, but what’s the point in proving it right now?” Scarlet spoke up, catching Lone Star’s attention. “Right now I think the main point we should get across is that we are not a danger to your town.”
The sheriff spared a glance at Xerox, awaiting for a translation.
“She said it is the truth...” Xerox started off, picking up on what the ex-human was trying to do. “But proving it now is not important matter. It showing you we mean no harm toward you or any member of this town.”
Lone Star glance back at Scarlet, nodding his head slightly. “Well you got that right... how you’re fixing to prove that miss?”
“By working with you, if possible,” Scarlet replied.
Xerox’s ears perked up with surprised while Lone Star glanced over at him with a raise eyebrow. “What did she say?”
“She said, ‘By working with you’,” he answered. What are you getting at Scarlet?
“Oh?” the sheriff stated, glancing up at the Serperior.
“Yes,” Scarlet replied with a nod of her head. “You see, I heard your assistant writing down reports of more ‘monster’ sightings, and I can help you deal with them. I am a Pokemon Ranger, and it’s part of my job to deal with wild pokemon and keep the law in order. Xerox and I can served as advisors in how to deal with the Pokemon.”
Xerox translated, Lone Star frowning slightly as he ponder her offered. “Well... I have to say that does sound like a fine offer. But that would only open a more can of worms for for me.” He closed his eyes and his right forehoof tapped lightly on the wooden floor. “Deputy Meadow, you can let them go.” The mare nodded her head slowly as the glow from her horn faded away and the dome faded away. “You two, I would like to speak to y’all in private in my office.”
Scarlet nodded her head once while Xerox nod his several times. The sheriff turned around and walk back to his office, Scarlet slithering behind and Xerox taking the final lead.
“Close that door will ya?” Lone Star asked him as he took a set behind his desk. The Zoroark did so, closing it quietly with a soft click. Xerox then walked up to stand next to Scarlet who had coil herself in front of the desk. Lone Star glance between them as he lean onto his desk. “Okay... so you say you will offer to help with these so-called monsters, but first you need to answer some questions of mine.” The Serperior nodded her head. “Alright... first off, what’s a Pokemon?”
Scarlet glanced over at Xerox, figuring he would be best suit to answer such a question. The Zoroark cleared his throat, getting rid of some nervousness building up in his chest. “Well sir... we’re Pokemon,” he answered, gesturing a hand between himself and Scarlet. “Err... she was a human... but I guess she’s a Pokemon now too... I guess.”
“Human?” the sheriff question with a raised eyebrow.
“A race that lived beside us back on our world... to put it lightly,” Xerox replied, his claws rolling over each other, fidgeting with one another.
“Right....” Lone Star said slowly, shaking his head. “Do all Pokemon look like you two, or are there more in variance?”
“More in variance definitely,” Xerox answered with several nods of his head. “Pokemon can be almost any shape, size, object you can think of.”
“...that’s a bit hard to swallow you know,” the sheriff stated.
Xerox shrugged lightly. “I’m just answering your questions... I mean we have a Pokemon that looks kind-of like you, known as a Ponyta... save for your mane and tail not on fire....”
Lone Star blink expersionessly. “Well we don’t have ponies like that around here, I can assure you that,” he stated before shaking his head. “Now what about being a Pokemon Ranger?”
“Well... they’re a group of humans who enforce the laws on humans who’d break them,” Xerox answered. “More specifically... the laws to do with Pokemon Abuse and Pokephilia... but we’re also involved in a lot of other things too...”
“So they’re like Guards but also work with Animal Right too?” Lone Star stated.
Xerox winced a bit, thankful there weren’t any other Pokemon here with him. “Yes... but we are not animals... and I advise you not to say that to other Pokemon either. Many see it as an insult to their intelligence and sometimes act... unpleasant around those who call them such.”
“Duly noted,” Lone Star replied with a simple nod. “So... both of you were part of these, Rangers?”
Xerox shook his head. “No... only Scarlet. I’m... more into a different aspect of the law... I consider myself more of a detective than a Ranger.”
“Well at least that’s one term I do recognised,” the pony muttered. “What kind of crimes have you solved before?”
“Well... none,” Xerox replied, his ears flattening a bit. “I... haven’t really... passed my course to become a detective...”
“But you do have the skill of one,” Scarlet spoke up, mostly at Xerox than the sheriff.
Xerox glanced up at her with an indeterminate look. He knew she meant well... but he wondered if he truly had the skills.
Before the Lone Star could ask for a translation or anything else, a loud bang rang from the door.
“Sheriff Lone Star... you’re needed,” a young male voice spoke out loudly. “We just stumbled upon a murder scene and... I think we apprehended the murderer but... well you need to see for it yourself.”
The earth pony frowned as he slid from his seat and walked up to his office’s door, quickly opening and walking through it. Xerox and Scarlet both glanced at each other as they peered through opened door and looked down to the other side of the room.
Scarlet’s eyes immediately widened in shock. “Lance?!”
Lone Star’s ears perked up from the snake exclamation and glance back to see both her and Xerox were both looking at the prisoner with shock and disbelief.
The sheriff’s eyes shifted back to tall bipedal creature standing next to Deputy Maxim. The white coated unicorn had his horn glowing, casting magical cuffs to bounded the creature two arms with blades sticking out of the side of them. The creature also had what look like a red helmet covering the top of its head, it’s face containing two white eyes and a yellow mask, making it look like it had a permanent ‘I will gut you’ expression. A crescent luna blade painted yellow stuck out from the top from the top of the helmet while two more similar, non-paint blades wrap around its waist, where it separated two red shoulder plates and legges.
“Bisharp?” It said with a confused tone as it two eyes glance over at Scarlet.
“Ser, Serperior!” she replied back with a smile before a thought clicked through her eyes. “Perior, ser ser Serperior!?” she asked out loud.
“Bisharp, bi Bisharp” it replied in a neutral tone.
“I’m taking it you know this fellow?” Lone Star asked, glancing towards Xerox.
The fox slowly nodded his head. “Yes... his name is Lance and he’s one of Scarlet’s... Pokemon,” he replied. Lone Star raised an inquiring eyebrow at that, but Scarlet said something else to the fox and he nodded his head. “Umm... she would like to know why is he arrest, and what murder scene?”
“That’s a good question,” Lone Star stated as he turn his head towards the unicorn. “Deputy?”
The stallion nodded his head. “Well... I was out checking up on one of the call-ins of a monster and went to the resident who reported it. I knocked on the door and no one replied. I knocked a few more times before checking around to see if she was home. I checked through a window in the back and...” he paused as he held a hoof up to his to repress a gag. “That’s when I saw the blood on the floor and a body laying there motionless.”
“I quickly move and bust through the door and found... more than I thought I would seen. The body was... cut up and bucher to put it lightly,” Maxim continued, still doing his best from not vomiting. In the background, Xerox and Scarlet’s eyes widened in shock while the sheriff’s eyes narrowed a bit at the discription.
“Gone on,” the earth pony prompted.
“Well... I quickly locked down the area and searched the house and around the area for clues. And when i looked outside I notice several weird foot prints in the mud and...” the unicorn glanced up at Lance. “I notice... him around. I quickly arrested him and brought him here.”
Lone Star nodded his head. “Well... that does answered our questions I think, doesn’t it?” he said, glancing towards Scarlet and Xerox.
The Serperior frowned at what she heard. “Lance... did you really kill someone when you got here?” she asked her most loyal Pokemon, a serious look on her face.
“I did no such thing,” the Bisharp replied in his calm and monotone voice. “I was only around that house by mere coincidence.”
Scarlet looked closely at the Bisharp’s face for a long moment before smiling to herself. “Good... Xerox tell them this is false arrest. Lance did not commit a murder.”
The Zoroark nod his head slowly as he glanced over at Lone Star. “Look... I know it might look bad, but Lance isn’t a murderer. It’s not even remotely close to his personality. He said he was only near that house by coincidence, nothing more.”
“How do you know he’s telling the truth?” Lone Star asked with a raise eyebrow.
“Because I still read expressions and he’s not lying,” Scarlet replied in a firm tone.
“Because Scarlet can tell he is,” Xerox translated.
“And I can tell if an apple has gone bad by looks alone too,” Lone Star remarked flatly. “I’m going to need to need a bit more solid proof than that.”
Xerox frowned, his ears flattening against the side of his head. This is going down hill fast... come on Xerox, think... A thought flashed in his mind and he abruptly said. “I’ll...I can prove it...” he muttered out.
The sheriff tilted his head a bit to his left as his ears flick towards at the Zoroark. “Say what now?”
Xerox clinched his claws together and his posture stood a bit taller in confidence, the look of uncertainty leaving his face. “I said I can prove it,” his voice audible for everyone. “I was studying to become a detective back home, and I know more about Pokemon than you. I can prove Lance did not kill anyone when he arrived and help you find the true killer.”
Lone Star stared up the Xerox, his eyes studying the Pokemon thoroughly as he pondered the request. “You do know you will be carefully watch by my deputies and all your statement will have to go through me, right?”
The fox slowly nodded his head. “I understand... and will oblige if it will clear Lance’s name.”
The earth pony raised a hoof to rub his chin for a moment before closing his eyes and nodding his head. “Very well... Maxim, put Lance into a holding cell and accompany Xerox to the crime scene. Don’t forget to pick up the camera along the way and the kitt,” he said, turning his head at the white unicorn. Maxim nodded his head and walk off to right to cells.
Lone Star turned his head back at Xerox. “I do hope you do find the true killer, I take murder in my town very seriously. I also hope you don’t do anything foolish in trying to cover Lance if he is the true killer, I don’t take backstabbers very well either. And if you ever do, you’ll be in a cell faster than you can blink.” His voice stayed in a very neutral and casual tone, yet Xerox could hear the underlying tone of him not joking around on his ‘threat’.
Xerox withheld gulping and nodded his head simply. “I understand, and I assured you I will not alter the facts I’ll find. I will seek only for the truth, and nothing more.”
The sheriff kept his eyes glued onto the Zoroark for a bit longer before he nodded his head. “Good to hear... just wait for Deputy Maxim to come back.” He glanced over at Scarlet. “As for you, I really have no idea what to do with.”
“If you don’t mind, I would like to come with you Xerox,” the Serperior said, looking over at the Zoroark. “Lance is my partner and best friend, I would like to help in anyway I can.”
“I have no objects,” the Zoroark replied with a small shake of his head. He caught Lone Star glancing at him. “Umm... she wants to come with me and help if that’s alright with you,” he quickly stated.
The sheriff shrugged a bit. “Sure, save me a bit of the paper work, though now I will have start a new one for the murder.” His left ear flicker to the sound the door leading to the cells creaking open and deputy Maxim stepped out. “Anyways, y’all head with the deputy and I’ll catch up with you later,” he informed Scarlet and Xerox before walking over to the unicorn to grab some information before they head out.
Meanwhile Xerox turned over to face Scarlet and let out a long held in breath. “I sure hope I know what I’m doing...” he whispered over in Pokemon. “That was all just spur of the moment thinking and acting.”
“I’m sure you do,” Scarlet replied with simple nod of her head. “This is what you were studying for all these past years, and now it’s time to put your skills to the test,” she stated with encouragement. “You can do this Xerox, cause I see it in the past. Just don’t let your worried bogged your down alright?”
Xerox nodded his head slowly. “Yeah... you’re right... I can do this,” he said, his spirit rising in confidence.
The clip-clop of hooves echoed in their ears as they turned to see Maxim walking up to them, wearing a saddle over his back. “Alright, if you two would follow me, the crime scene is a few blocks away.” The two nodded their heads and followed him out of the police station.
The lightbulb on the camera flashed, briefly illuminating brightly the dead turquoise mare laying on the floor in a pool of blood. The mare was an earth pony, probably around near her twenties Deputy Maxim noted to himself as he angle the camera for another photo. He never really like this part of the job, taking photos of a crime scene, especially if it was for a murder. He knew it was import to catalog how the room looked and everything, but he always felt it was... disrespectful to take picture of the dead. Especially if they were mulled like she was.
The mare was laying on her side, slashes covering her blood soaked chest. They didn’t seem to run too deep, but that was the least of her wounds. Her two forehooves were... cut off, just around the joint in the knee. He had no idea why anypony would do something this... severe, almost feral of way of killing.
The white unicorn snapped another picture before his aqua eyes glanced over at Xerox, Scarlet opting out from coming inside, not wanting to get in their way with her bulky snake body. Still, the fox was handling better than Maxim had thought he would. He thought the fox would be a bit hesitant of being so close to a dead body with the fresh smell of blood still linger in the air, but Xerox wasn’t showing any signs as he stood at the edge of the pool of the bloody, his teal eyes slowly examining the mare.
Xerox’s head tilted up and his eyes began to scan across the room, one of his claws tapping against the side of his hip. Then something truly bizarre happened, the jewel on his long mane started to glow and his form began to shifted. Before the unicorn's eyes, Xerox completely change from his fox appearance to something the pony had never seen before.
“What in the world!?” Maxim exclaimed as he examined the pinkish skinned bipedal creature.
Xerox’s eyes were snapped out of his train of thought, and he realized what he just did. “Oh... sorry...” he said in a bit bashful, rubbing a five digit hand on the back of his head. “It’s... just an illusion I cast over myself to help me... think.”
“Some illusion...” the unicorn murmured as he gazed over the clothes Xerox was ‘wearing’, how they looked like they were woven out of real cloth.
“Yeah...” Xerox replied in a small voice before shaking his head. “Now... are you sure there wasn’t anyone else here when you found this?” he asked, his head turning away and back in examining the room, walking and looking closely at everything.
The room was in a mess, with some colorful vests were scattered all the floor. Crumpled up pieces of paper litter around a trash can which stood next to a desk, which was covered in blank music sheets and empty cans of soda. Posters of various rock bands were hung along the side of the walls, an unmade bed sitting underneath most of them on the eastern wall. And standing in the middle of all of that was a electric guitar with an amplifier, though both were busted with steam of guitar snapped in half and the speaker also sliced up.
“Yep, else I would had detain them instead,” Maxim answered as he took another photo of the broken equipment.
“So... you just arrested Lance because he was the first person you ran into?” Xerox asked with a small frowned.
“Yes... I mean, not only that but there were the v-shaped footprints outside and... well....” The unicorn gestured a hoof at the body. “Just look at those slash marks... something like him could’ve done it with ease.”
“Or anyone else really,” Xerox pointed out before kneeling down and pointing out a finger at the cuts. “But they are also too low for him to make too.”
“What?” Maxim asked dumbfounded with a confused frown.
“All of the cuts are mostly located on her chest, meaning if Lance was the cause, then he would have to be kneeling down to swing at her,” Xerox explained, his arms swing out slowly demonstrating with a couple of awkward swings. “And I know from experience being with him that for one it would be very hard for him to do so. He would also most likely stabbed into her if he was attacking from this angle or not bother kneeling all together and slash across her back if he was standing over her.”
“I guess when you put it like that... it make sense,” the deputy said with small frown as he tried to picture what was being told to him. “But that’s still a bit hypothetical thinking still.”
Xerox frown as he stood up and place a hand under his chin. “Well... how did he kill her without busting his way in?” he questioned, glancing down at the pony. Maxim raised an eyebrow at him. “Well, you did say you had to bust through the door to get in once you notice there was a dead body in here, right?” The pony nodded his head. “Well, how did Lance get in or out without busting the door down himself, or a window for that matter. I mean... he’s not the best at opening doors to tell you that much.”
Maxim blinked blankly at the such simple state of fact. He raise a hoof and slowly pointed at Xerox. “Good point... I’ll go check the windows... just to be sure we aren’t missing something,” he said before he left the room. Ah pony feathers... my first real case in months and I possible already made a false arrest! he mentally exclaimed with a shameful shake of his head.
Xerox’s eyes followed the deputy head out of the room before glancing back at the mare laying on the floor. I think I just proved Lance’s innocence in all of this... which was easy enough... now to figure out who killed her and why.
The three big things that really stuck out to the Zoroark were that the guitar and the amplifier were broken, the front of her fore hooves were hacked off, and the lack of foot prints. He could only guess that those were done after she was killed, based on how the cuts look. The ones on her chest were clean, showing very little jag marks, but her hooves showed signs several cuts marks stacked on top of each other. Meaning they were obviously being hack off, most likely some cutting knife or the like.
Mental note, do a check of the kitchen for any missing knives, he told himself as he glanced at the amplifier. He spoted small specks of blood hanging from the metal wire covering and how jagged some of the cuts were. Took a bit more work to cut through that... he said to himself as he looked down at the floor. The mare and her pool of blood stood lied between him and the guitar and amplifier. There were no signs of the blood being disturbed, no footprint leading up to the speaker or away from the room.
But there should. It was impossible to cut someone that close, spilling so much blood for it not to get on the bottom of your feet unless you were standing far away. Only that brings up the question of how could you inflict that many cuts, and not get a drop of blood on the bottom of your feet?
Xerox closed his eyes and tapped a finger under his chin lightly, pondering possibilities in his mind.
Hoof steps echoed from the doorway as Maxim stepped back inside. “All the windows are still intact...” he informed the Zoroark, sounding a bit disappointed in the next part. “So... I possibly made a rash judgement and arrested wrongly...” He let out a long sigh, a hoof rubbing down his face.
“Indeed... now, while you were going around the house, how clean did it look?” he asked deputy, opening his eyes and turning to face him.
The deputy blinked in surprise at the question. “How clean it looked?”
The Zoroark nodded his head head. “Yes, it’s a very simple question. Did it look as messy as this room, or at least kept tidy up and organized?”
Maxim continued to frown in confusion at the question. “Tidy and organized I guess... but how is that important to the case?”
Xerox smiled. “Elementary my young deputy, because why should our Jane Doe-” he pointed down at the mare “-keep a whole house clean and organized, but leave her room messy and unkept? Unless, someone else did the work.”
The pony blinked before his eyes light up and widen. “Somepony was also living with her, but isn’t here!” he stated in realization before smiling widely. “Which means-”
“Which means there’s a pony living here but isn’t here at the moment,” Xerox interrupted with a shake of his finger. “We can’t jump to conclusions just yet. For all we know that other pony could be a victim too.”
Maxim closed his mouth and slowly nod his head in agreement. “Right... that’s a good point.”
“So our next logical step is to asked the neighboring ponies some questions about who our Jane Doe is and who else lives in this house,” the human disguised Zoroark stated matter of factly. “Then we need to find out why she was killed,” he said, tapping his chin lightly. The unicorn also frowned slightly as he tapped his hoof in thought against the carpet floor before their ears perked up at a noise outside.
“My word what is that!?” a mare’s voice stated very loudly out in shock.
Maxim and Xerox both exchanged glances at each other before they rushed to the door. Maxim opened the door with his magic and the two exited the house to see another unicorn standing outside looking at Scarlet in bewilderment.
The other unicorn was a mare with a teal coat and blueish green eyes. She was wearing what looked like a yellow raincoat with a matching set of boots, saddle and a hat, though the boots were slightly covered in mud. Her head whirled around to the two of them and her eyes grew. “What the? Who are you and what are you doing in my house!?” she demanded.
Maxim step up in front. “Ma’ma, I’m Deputy Maxim... I regret to inform you that there’s been a murder in your house.”
The mare’s harsh glare quickly turned into surprise and shock. “Oh my goodness... who’s been killed? Was it Cello or Sanitary?” she asked worryingly.
Xerox’s eyebrow rose slightly upon hearing two names, though Maxim just glanced away with hesitant frown. “The victim was an earth pony, tan fur and hazel mane,” he informed, looking back up at the mare.
The mare’s eyes went dull. “...Cello is dead...” she said in ghostly tone, her legs suddenly giving out on her. Maxim rushed to her side and helped her get back up.
“You’re okay ma’ma?” he asked, looking at her a bit concerned.
“Yes I’m.. good... I just... can’t believe someone killed Cello,” the mare replied, gulped a lump in her throat. “I... I need to sit down...” Maxim slowly nodded his head and helped guided the mare back inside.
Xerox got out of the way and stayed outside, Scarlet slithering up to him. “So, status report?” she asked.
“Well... I think I was able to prove Lance couldn’t have committed the crime,” he replied.
“Well that’s good,” the Serperior said with a nod of her head.
“Yeah... now to find the real killer,” he said, placing a hand under his chin and rubbing in a pondering way.
“Got any ideas?” Scarlet asked.
“Well... the door was locked and the windows weren’t busted open. Meaning whoever killed her was able to get in without the aid of force,” he listed. “So either one of the two ponies who lived here... or even someone Cello knew and let in.”
“Both are reasonable possibilities,” Scarlet agreed with another nod of her head.
“Yes... and to find out who I need to start looking at the kitchen,” Xerox stated.
A frown crossed the Serperior’s face as she glanced at him with a raise eyeridge. “The kitchen?”
Xerox nodded his head. “Yes... I have a feeling an important clue is going to be found there.”
“Like?” Scarlet inquired.
The Zoroark smiled confidently. “The murder weapon, and the last person who was inside with the victim.”
Xerox stepped into the black and white tile kitchen floor, glistening black counter tops, stove, oven, refrigerator and pretty much any other kitchen appliances. Someone likes black... he commented before his eyes began to slowly scan the area. He was looking for anything out of place... something that just stands out to him and says, ‘Hey, look at me!’.
He tapped his chin slowly as he walked around room, hearing off in the background Maxim talking to Grace, the mare who informed them of who the victim was. The deputy was asking questions that would hopefully shed some light on who Cello was and try to get some background information about her. Information that Xerox made note to ask about later.
He walked over to the counter, looking at the smooth surface closely, his mind searching for fingerprints. He went on searching for a moment longer before it clicked that the ponies didn’t have any finger to lay prints... only hooves. He let out a small sigh and shook his head lightly. Need to stop going into autopilot, he told himself before he resumed his study of the counter. His eyes were soon drawn to a cutting board along with a knife stand.
The Zoroark strode over there and gazed upon the stand, immediately noticing a knife was indeed missing. And from what he could gather from his years working in a diner and slightly pulling out the remaining knives to glance at them, it was possible a bread knife was missing.
Well... that would explain why it took a while to hack through the metal grating on the amp... he noted with a small frown. Now the question is... where is it... and who was last in this kitchen? he pondered as he straighten his pose and glance around the kitchen once more.
He began to sniff randomly over the knives and over the counter top area. While it might look strange to anyone who might walked to see some human walking about sniffing like he was a dog, Xerox relied on his Zoroark’s senses to help him out as much as he can. And while his nose might not be as strong as a Arcanine or an Absol, it got the job done where he need it.
He smelt several smells... which wasn’t a surprise since he was standing in the middle of a kitchen. However, the one thing he smell well enough was the scent of blood. Hmmm.... so the killer returned here after slicing up Cello, Xerox noted to himself with a small frown. But why...
The Zoroark lifted a finger and rubbed it across his chin as he resumed walking around the kitchen looking for clues. He still felt there was something he was over looking... something he’s not focusing on that could be a key point in figuring out the case. His eyes slowly scanned the area once more, before looking past the table and fell upon a neatly folded apron resting on top of it.
Xerox frowned slightly as he walked over and leaned down to study the apron. It was an ordinary white apron folded into a neat little square... not real out of the ordinary. Yet somehow Xerox’s mind seemed to be very interested in it and few questions began to appear in his mind.
Like, why was it folded at all? Normally someone just hangs it over a chair or on a hook on the wall. Xerox glanced up and quickly gazed the walls, indeed find some hanging racks next to the side of the refrigerator. Well... that is odd... Xerox told himself as he reach to pick up the apron.
“Did you learn not to touch evidence with your bare hands?” Lone Star’s rough southern voice spoke up suddenly from behind.
Xerox’s fur jumped up behind his illusion and he quickly whirled around to see the earth pony standing in the middle of the doorway. “Oh... sorry... old habit,” he said, his illusion of his human self fading away back to his Zoroark’s body. “That and I don’t have any gloves with me...”
The sheriff simply shook his head as he walked in up to the Pokemon. “So, Maxim told me what you ‘discovered’ so far about how Lance couldn’t have committed the crime. And after looking at the body myself, I do agree slightly.”
“Slightly?” Xerox asked with a frown.
“Yes, slightly. There’s still a possibility your friend could’ve done it and I won’t release him until you can fully prove otherwise,” Lone Star explained.
“How can you even say that?” Xerox asked with a dumbfounded expression. “The doors and windows are intact, there’s no way he could have got inside to kill some random stranger.”
“He could’ve been let in,” the sheriff replied simply. Xerox blinked blankly in confusion of the answered, causing the pony to sigh. “Look, I’ve lived long enough to know some ponies will either close their doors shut upon seeing a weird new creature, or opening them up widely to be friendly with it. So the possibility of either happening is in the realm of possibility still.”
“But there’s a complete lack of blood on him or his blades to even put some or any of the blame on him,” Xerox pointed out.
“It was raining heavily for around thirty minutes during the time some of the first calls of Pokemon sightings came rolling in, which is around the murder time too,” Lone Star remarked. “Meaning any blood on him could’ve washed away when he step outside.”
The earth pony’s eyes dart up to the Zororak’s, causing the Pokemon to step back slightly from the hard glint in his dark black eyes. “Yes it is, but it’s my job to be like that. To make sure I don’t let any subjects just walk away from a cases, especially if it’s a murder case. So I will continued to detain Lance until I’m one hundred percent convinced he didn’t do it. Understood?”
Xerox nodded his head quickly. “Crystal...”
Lone Star nodded his head once. “Good... now, did you find anything interesting in here?” he inquired, glancing around the kitchen.
“Well...” Xerox began, his ears perking up at the sound of hoofs walking in the hallway. He turned his eyes to see Meadow and Maxim walking by, their horns glowing as a black body bag floated between them. The Zoroark grimaced slightly as they walked out of view and he continued on speaking. “I notice there’s knife missing in a set... along with the faint smell of blood here.”
“And?” Lone Star asked in an inquiring tone, his left eyebrow arching slightly.
“And.... this apron just seems out of place to me,” Xerox replied hesitantly as he pointed a claw to the folded apron on the table.
The sheriff looked at the Zoroark with a flat, expressionless stare. “Out of place?” he asked slowly.
Xerox fiddle with his claws as he glanced away slightly. “Yeah...”
“Any reason why?” Lone Star asked.
“It... just does,” Xerox replied. “I can’t put my finger on it, but something about it just...doesn’t seem right, or is out of place.”
The pony looked at him skeptically. “Right... and what exactly is ‘out of place’ of it?”
“Well... for one, it’s folded,” Xerox stated. “I mean, I used to work at a diner and... well, the only time I’ve ever seen one folded is when I was handed a brand new one. The rest of the time I had to hang it up. Second... why is it on the table? Why not on the counter where it’s closer to all the cooking equipment? Not only that but....” He walked over to the table and carefully grab onto one of the straps and pulled it up.
The apron unravel and right on the front as clear as day were small spatters of blood stained across it. “I think this was worn by the murderer when they killed Cello...” the Zoroark finished, glancing slightly at the sheriff.
Lone Star stared deeply at the blood stains. “Well... I can see why you thought it was out of place,” he said calmly as Xerox place the apron back down on the table.
“Yeah... especially considering that the missing knife is the murder weapon. Now why would they take that but not the apron?” Xerox mused to himself as he raised one of his hands and let his claws scratch slowly across the bottom of his chin. Once again, the jewel on his mane glowed and he effortlessly took on the guise of his human form. He pondered in his mind for a short moment before the sound of the front door opening caught his attention, and a new voice spoke up.
“Grace? What are the sheriff's deputies doing here?” a mare’s voice inquired, a fidgety tone underlining her voice.
Both Lone Star and Xerox exchanged small glances at each other before they headed out of the kitchen and into the living room. Standing in an open doorway was another unicorn pony, a cream coat contrasting the yellow raincoat she was wearing. Her green eyes widen slightly upon seeing the sheriff and they widen more upon seeing the weird creature standing next to him.
“Sweet Celestia!? What is that thing doing in our house?” she asked out loud, taking a few steps back.
“He’s here to help investigate the murder that took place here, madam,” Lone Star answered in a very casual tone.
The mare’s eyes widen even further. “What?!”
Grace got up from her spot on the chair and walked up to the mare. “Sanitary... Cello’s been... killed,” she said slowly, her voice quivering
Sanitary blinked disbelieving, her mouth opening and closing as words refused to form. Grace nodded her head in agreement as she wipe away tears from her redden eyes. “I know... it’s hard to believe...” the teal unicorn said with several sniffles.
“Who... would do such a thing?” Sanitary asked, her voice finding itself through her heavily shocked mind.
“That’s what we’re here for, miss,” Lone Star stated. He then gestured his head over to Xerox. “This is Xerox, he’s helping in figuring out what happened here. I’m sure he and I would like to ask some questions for the two you,” he informed the two mares. The two of them turned their heads upward to the ‘human’ with a concern frown.
Xerox’s eyes darted between their two faces. He swallowed a lump in his throat and let a look of confidence cross his face. You can do this Xerox... you have the clues and now it’s time to figure out how they all fit together. And to do that... these two will have the answers. He took in a deep breath and let it out. Let’s end this case.
Sheriff Lone Star walked up to the two mares; grace sitting next to Sanitary still giving comfort to the shock mare, her eyes slowly turning red with tears. The earth pony looked between the two. “Miss. Grace and Miss. Sanitary, I need to ask you some questions,” he began. “I know this is hard to do right now, but we need to know what were the two of you doing before the murder, especially why you were outside side.”
Grace’s head snapped towards his direction with a sour glare. “You think we have a part in this!?” she exclaimed harshly.
“It’s just normal procedure ma’am,” the sheriff replied calmly. “Beside, your answers could help us very greatly,” he explained, gesturing over to Xerox who was still standing next to him. “So please, be cooperative about this” he finished, shifting his weight about on his legs to a more comfortable standing position.
Grace turned her head over to the weird bipedal creature standing next to the earth pony. “And who exactly is that?”
“His name is Xerox and he’s being commision by me in helping solving this cases,” Lone Star answered. “So what’s it going to be ladies? We can do it here, or back at the police station.”
The teal mare grimaced, turning her head too look at Sanitary whose eyes were still shock in horror. “We’ll do it here... for now,” Grace answered, turning her head back at the Sheriff.
The brown stallion nodded his head. “Thank ya very kindly... now, would you please describe what you were doing for this morning?”
Grace closed her eyes and frowned. “Well... the morning went by as normal... I made breakfast for the three of us and we discuss some news and I had to go out shopping... since it was my turn to gather the groceries we need.”
“Your turn?” Xerox asked with a small frown.
The mare nodded her head. “Yes... it’s something the three of agreed on, split some of work keeping the house maintain.”
“Speaking of which, why are you three living together? Are you family members or something else?” Lone Star asked with a slight inquiring tilt of his head.
“I’m letting Cello and Sanitary rent rooms from me... it’s just something to help me keep the bills paid and help others have a roof over their head,” Grace answered before a downed frown grew on her face. “I... never thought something like this would happen in my house.”
“Do you have any reasons for why somepony would want to kill Cello?” the Sheriff asked.
Grace slowly shook her head, while Sanitary seemed to fidget ever so slightly. “None,” Sanitary said, shaking her head. “She was a delightful musician.”
Both Xerox and Lone Star raised an eyebrow, though for different reasons.
Delightful musician... for someone who seem to like rock music, the Zoroark noted to himself while the Sheriff continued with his questions.
“I see, so Ms. Sanitary, where were you during the time of the murder?” Lone Star asked as his eyes shift their full attention at the buttercream mare.
“Just a little running sir, I felt fat after having a treat so I wanted to try and work it off,” Sanitary answered with a small shrug.
“So you were in the kitchen?” Xerox asked, his fingers scratching the bottom of his chin.
“Well yes-before this dreadful thing happened of course,” Sanitary answered, fiddling with her hooves. “I had a sweet and then went for a run, leaving her practicing.”
“A run out in the rain?” the Zoroark questioned further, remembering it was pouring when he’d arrived and supposedly when the murder happened too.
“And?” she asked, raising a challenging eyebrow.
Xerox frowned, hoping to catch her off guard but he shrug. “Just a question ma’am.”
“I just wanted to run, is there a problem with it?” Sanitary inquired, her eyebrows narrowing.
“No, no there’s nothing wrong with it,” Xerox said with a small shake of his head. “Running is good for your health. I just found it strange you wanted to do it out during the rain, and while wearing a rain coat, hat, and boots. I mean, that really constricts your range of movement doesn’t it?”
“... I enjoy the challenge,” Sanitary replied, looking at the table and refusing to meet the weird creature’s eyes.
The Sheriff turned his head towards Xerox, seeing the gears turning in the Pokemon’s mind as a frown crossed his face. The pony then shifted his eyes over to Sanitary, who was definitely hiding something. He might be an old work horse, but he wasn’t too stupid to see signs of nervousness of a pony who knew they did wrong but wouldn’t admit it. He would be handling this himself, but he wanted to see what this ‘detective’ could do. He kept his silence as Xerox continued on.
“That’s fine, though how about we switch to a different subject?” the human looking Zoroark asked. “Who exactly was Cello?”
“Well, like Sanitary said she was a musician,” Grace replied. “She was part of a rock band.”
“And who is in this rock band?” Xerox asked.
“Some friends of hers, I don’t really know their names,” Grace answered with a small frown. “Sorry.”
“Cello never really talked about them to you much?” Xerox asked with a small frown.
“No... she did, it’s just that I work as a receptionist and go through dozens of names every day,” Grace replied with a small shake of her head. “If I don’t really put my mind to remembering your name, I tend to just forget it.”
“Sunny Days... Cloudy Mornings... and I want to say Rainy Nights,” Sanitary listed, frowning. “At least, I think that was them. I never really trusted Rainy Nights though... he was always so brooding... I think I remember Cello saying that the two argued a lot.”
Xerox frowned, his eyes shifting to gazed down as his fingers softly rubbed the tip of his chin. That’s a good motive for almost anything really, but it doesn’t feel quite right. Something is just not stacking up properly, but what?
Lone Star spoke up. “What type of ponies are the three?” he asked Sanitary.
“They’re all pegasi,” Sanitary answered, glancing down at the table. “With names like that they’d have to be right?”
The earth pony nodded his head. “True, they do sound typical pegasus names.”
Xerox just nodded unresponsively, his mind trying to find a hole in Sanitary’s logic. His eyes wandered upward and out through the windows, where he spotted deputy Meadow writing in a notepad with a pen, both floating in the air in front of her.
His eyes widened as the light bulb turned on in his head. “Well, while it might be possible Rainy Nights and Cello could have differences between them, I don’t think he was the one who cause this.”
“Why is that?” Grace asked with a confused frown.
“Because the lack of the spread of blood,” Xerox answered. Everyone turned their heads to look at him. A mix of confusion and incredulity crossing their faces. Right, time to explain what I mean. “In Cello’s room, her blood was all laid out in front of her, and it was basically undisturbed. Now, there was several slashes given to her across the chest, and I know blood would have gushed out everywhere from an assault like that. So that should mean the killer must have got covered in it, especially with the hand... hoof, that he or she used to hold the knife to kill Cello. And since you used your hooves to also walk, that means there should've been blood prints leading out of the room, but there weren’t.”
Xerox paused to allow his words to settle in their minds before continuing. “Meaning the killing need to happen at a range. However, how can someone use a knife to attack someone as if they were standing next to them, but were actually far away?” He raised a hand a pointed a finger outside to the deputy unicorn. “Telekinesis.”
Lone Star slowly nodded his head in agreement. “That does make sense, any unicorn can use their magic to grab and hold anything firmly from nearly six feet away from them, as long as it is light in weight.”
Grace frowned as she too nodded her head, but Sanitary froze.
“So... what?” Sanitary asked. “Are you trying to imply something?”
“More like putting together pieces of a puzzle actually,” Xerox replied. “For you see, there’s also another fact that I found while in the kitchen. You see, I found the apron of some interest to me and taking a good gut feeling, I checked on it and found some small spots of blood on it, which I can only assume is Cello’s blood. So my best guess is that whoever killed Cello was also wearing the apron. So now I only have one question left to ask; which one of you likes to fold the apron up into a neat square?”
He glance between the two mares. Grace was slowly blinking, a look of disbelief haunting her face as she slowly turned to Sanitary. Sanitary for her part was frozen in place, eyes wide.
“Sanitary... he can’t be right,” Grace said, a small disbelieving chuckle leaving her as she shook her head, though her eyes were having a hard time to turning away from the mare.
Sanitary just stared at Xerox for a moment before tears began to run down from her eyes and within seconds she was bawling. “I-didn’t-mean-to,” she gasped between shuddering breaths. Grace blinked blankly, her face going blank with shock.
Lone Star straightened his posture and walked over to stand beside of the buttercream unicorn weeping on the couch. “Ma’am, I think you ought to come with me.”
Sanitary continued to weep inconsolably, her body going limp as she cried into the armrest of the couch. The sheriff frowned slightly, but nodded his head slowly as he just stood there and waited, though he turned his head over at Xerox. “I’ll tell one of my deputies to release Lance. As for you, you’re job is done here, but I want to talk to furthur with the whole Pokemon incident.”
Xerox nodded his head and glance at Sanitary wailing into the arm rest. A part of him felt... well proud that he was able to solve his first true case, but the rest just felt sorry for the mare. She really didn’t seem the type to be a murderer, but evidence doesn’t lie. He made his way to the door and headed out of the house, his head hanging down slightly as his illusion of his human self faded away.
“So, what’s the news?” Scarlet asked as she slithered up to the Zoroark.
“Hmmm?” Xerox hummed out before the question fully process through his brain. “Oh... Lance is free, I solved the case,” he replied, though was still heavily distracted by the image of Sanitary crying in his mind.
“You don’t sound too happy for doing so,” the Serperior noticed, a frown on her features.
“...I’m just... trying to get straight that I did the right thing,” Xerox he said slowly. “I mean... someone was killed, and I found out who wrongfully did it. It’s just.....” He grimaced as he closed his eyes and his right three claws clinch together. “I wasn’t expecting her to react like that once I exposed her.”
Scarlet closed her eyes and slowly nodded her head. “Well... things don’t usually turn out exactly what we have in mind sometimes. I know that from experience. Still, you did do the right thing in finding out who was the murderer, and I’m sure Lone Star will set everything right. He seems like the type of law enforcer.”
“Right...” Xerox took in a deep breath and slowly let it out, pushing away the ‘guilt’ nagging him in the back of his mind. “By the way, he wants us to wait for him back at the guard station, talk more about us and Pokemon in general.”
“Alright, though maybe he can also provide something for us to eat too,” Scarlet said before chuckling lightly. “Feeling my stomach growling while it’s on the ground is not a pleasant feeling, heh.”
The Zoroark nodded his head in agreement. It had been a while since he last ate, and he began to notice the slight emptiness of his own stomach. Though a thought occurred to him... did the ponies have meat to serve? Not only that but enough to feed a Serperior? Only time would tell.
The soft scrapping of paws echoed down the alleyway as a Zorua ran down it. He jumped over a stack of boxes and bolted up to a trash can standing near the end of the building. He peered over the wall and down the sidewalk, looking both ways. Humans and Pokemon were strutting their merry way hardly taking any notice to the pair of teal eyes watching from the shadows. The Zorua shifted his gaze upwards to the direction to the front of the building he was standing next to. A small smile grew on his face as he saw the sign standing out in the open.
Virbank City Theater
Today Shows:
The Ditto
Darkrai on 13th Street
Houndooms of Baskervilles
How to Train Your Salamence
Safari Zone of Horror
Zubatman Begins
The Zorua’s eyes glistened as they gazed at the third title. YES! It is showing today! he gleefully thought to himself. Sure, Houndooms of Baskervilles had never been his favorite case out of the Sherlock Holmes Books, but he’d take what he could get. The Zorua glanced back down at the sidewalk, looking back and forth once more to make sure no one was paying close attention to the alleyway. He backed off slowly and closed his eyes, before he jumped into the air and doing a flip in midair.
His body glowed and an illusion formed around it, and when he landed he appeared to look like a ten year old-ish human male child, save for his small tail hanging out from behind. However, he was prepared for that in the appearance of illusional self . He was wearing black pants, and t-shirt with some read around the collar and sleeves. His hair was also black and resting on top of it was a pair of fuzzy Zorua’s ears on a headband. Hopefully his look helped portray he was just a young boy who loved to cosplay as a Zorua.
Of course... he just had to make sure he didn’t say anything. Cause he doubted he would be able to keep up his disguise to others if the only thing he could say was his name at the moment. He also hoped no little kids would sneak up behind him and yank on his tail... that was embarrassing.
Taking in a deep breath and letting it out, the ‘young boy’ walked out to the open and headed for the front entrance of the theater. None of the humans gave him a second glance or thought as he did so, though some of the Pokemon, especially the canine variety, did with small confused looks.
The Zorua tried to not make any eye contact with them as his pace quicken and he approach the door. Thankfully, a pair of humans, male and female, were already making their way through the door. As the man walked ahead and open the door for his girlfriend, the Zorua passed through just as the woman finished walking inside. He flashed an apologetic smile at the two before continuing on, hearing a small, “how rude”, remark from the woman.
The Zorua let out a small sigh as he reached the center of the main lobby of the theater, humans and some Pokemon roaming about as they bought tickets and food. He really didn’t like doing that to people... but he couldn’t help it. While his appearance was a human at the moment... he was still a Zorua with limited strength. He would be just too weak to push open the doors by himself. Not only that but it would totally look out of place for a child having trouble pushing open a simple door.
He glanced up to see the huge board on the wall listing which move was being show in a room, including some of the times. His eyes quickly scanned for Houndooms of Baskervilles and saw it was mostly being show at theater room four. The Zorua then craned his head over the clock hanging next to it and smiled to see he wouldn’t be missing the one o’clock show. Though now... the question is how would he go see it.
He bit his bottom lip. He didn’t bring any money with him...mostly because he’s been unfruitful in finding any in the streets while coming here. He couldn’t just change appearance to something else either, like a box or something, or even turn invisible to sneak past the usher... one because he was out in the open and the other only work if he stood completely still. In all...he really didn’t think this through past the part in his plan of just making it to the theater and getting inside.
The Zorua closed his eyes and let out a sigh of disappointment... it would seem he wouldn’t be seeing the movie after all.
“Hey, something the matter kid?” a male voice asked behind him.
The Zorua’s body tensed from the sudden voice and his head whirl around to see who asked the question.
Standing behind him was a tall blonde haired young adult man, wearing jeans and a white t-shirt. The man’s green eyes widen a bit as he took a step back. “Whoa, sorry dude; I didn’t mean to startle ya,” he stated with an apologetic wave of his hand.
The Zorua let out a slow sigh and shook his head with the expression ‘It’s no problem’ on his face.
The man smiled slightly as he placed his thumbs in the pockets in his jeans and he took a relax stance. “So, what’s a young kid like you doing in a place like this without any parents?” he asked again.
The Zorua frowned for a moment before he hesitantly pointed up at the board with one hand, then held up four fingers at him with the other.
The man frowned slightly in confusion as he glanced up at the board and studied it for a moment. “You’re here to see Houndooms of Baskervilles?”
The Zorua nodded his human head.
A puzzle frowned crossed his face as he glance at the disguised Zorua. “I see... what’s the matter with your voice? Skitty got your tongue or something?”
If the Zorua was still in his original form, his ears would have wilted back. He quickly deployed another tick he learn by moving one of his hand next to his throat and did a crossing motion over it with two of his fingers. Hopefully saying he was mute.
A small ‘oh’ from on the man’s lips and he raised a hand to rubbed the back of his head. “Sorry, didn’t know you were mute.”
The Zorua let out a small relieved sigh and shook his head to say, ‘It was nothing’.
“Well... how about I buy you a ticket for it?” he asked, guesting a thumb to the counter selling the tickets.
The Zorua’s eyes went wide in surprise and he tilted his head skeptically at the man.
“Hey, I was planning on seeing some movie today, and I’m feeling a bit generous to boot,” he explain with a shrug of his shoulders. “So how about it?”
A small thoughtful frown crossed the Zorua’s face for a moment before he smile widely and nodded his head rapidly.
The man smiled and chuckle as he turned around and head for the counter selling the tickets. “I’ll be back in a moment then.”
The Zorua nodded his head with a wide smile. It seem luck was with him today!
It was around three thirty when the Zorua step out of the theater, another wide smile plaster on his face. The movie was AWESOME! Okay, yes he knew what was going to happen through most of the movie, but the way they portrayed Sherlock and his trusty partner Watson the Mightyena, it was all in character.
“Well it seems you liked it,” Andy, the man whom bought the tickets, said as he joined the Zorua outside.
The Zorua nodded his head firmly, his smile couldn’t get any wider. Andy just chuckle with a happy smile of his own.
“Good, I’m glad I could help brighten up your day,” he stated before glancing a watch around his wrist. “Well... I better head off. I got some work that needs to be done,” he said as he place his arm back down. “Maybe we can do this again some other time?” he inquired.
Without really thinking about, the Zorua nodded his head in agreement... it was... nice to hang out with someone.
“Great!” Andy said with a smile as he turned around and head down the sidewalk, giving a goodbye wave. “See you around then.”
The Zorua waved goodbye back before he head the opposite direction towards the alleyway. He walked halfway through it before he reverted back to his Zorua body, letting out a long relaxful sigh. Holding that illusion took a lot of work, but he was thankful he was able to keep it for nearly two and half hours.
“There you are brother!” a happy tone of a girl’s voice cried out, and before he knew it the Zorua was tackle into a somewhat hug by an Eevee.
“GAH!” he yelp out in shock as the back of his fur stood on their ends. He then notice who it was before he let out a relax sigh. “Oh... it’s just you sis...”
The Eevee eyes opened wide before they narrowed and she walked back and gave a slapped across the Zorua’s face. “Is that all you have to say? It’s just me!? You know how worried I am when you just disappeared on me!?”
The Zorua sat on his rump and rubbed a paw over the cheek that’d been slapped. “I’m... sorry... I thought I told you what I was going to do....”
“I thought you were just going to go to the bookstore again to watch some of the clips from the show, not actually go to a movie!” the Eevee exclaimed. “Now we’re both going to get into big trouble with mom and dad for being out so late like this!”
The Zorua winced at the volume of his sister’s voice. “Keep down it will you; do you want to attract attention to ourselves?” he whispered loudly to her.
The Eevee’s eyes narrowed at once more. “That’s beside the point,” she replied, this time keeping her voice down. “I’m not going to be the one taking the full blame for this.”
The Zorua grimaced as his ears wilted back flat against his head but he nodded slowly.
“Good... now come on... we better get a move on,” she said as she turned around and dash down the alleyway.
The Zorua let out a long sigh as he got onto all fours and followed after her. Now comes the part of his plan he was dreading; getting scowled at by his father.
Apparently the guard station did indeed keep a small stock of meat for situations when they housed a gryphon in one of their jail cells. The meat had already been cooked and preserved, it just had to be reheated. So Xerox and Scarlet waited with Lance in the cell he’d been stuck in, though the cell door was left wide open.
“Well... this has been some day, hasn’t it?” the Serperior stated, glancing down her snake like body, still adjust the new look and feel to it.
“You’re telling me,” Lance commented in his low and rough tone, cranking his stiff neck left and right. “What heck happened to us, or more specifically, you?”
“For once I’m clueless....” Scarlet muttered with a frown before slowly shaking her head. “All I remember was hearing a voice before passing out and then I woke up like this.” A small vine slithered out from the base of the her leaf collar and gesture down at herself.
“Same thing for me too,” Xerox added. “Though that just got me thinking of how many more Pokemon... or even humans got sent here too.”
“I’m more interested on who that voice belongs to,” Scarlet stated out though she nodded her head afterwards. “But yeah, that is something to think about too... and if I was turned into Serperior... I wonder if all the humans here are some form of Pokemon.”
“Maybe... though the question is who could’ve done something like that,” Xerox said, a frown crossing his face.
“Heck if I know,” Scarlet said with a shrug before sighing. “I mean, I’m good in knowing the abilities of different Pokemon, but for someone to do something like this-” she gestured a vine at her Serperior body once more. “-I can’t even narrow it down to a list of subjects.”
“Not to mention being able to teleport us to somewhere else,” Lance added.
“Yeah...” Xerox agreed, his voice trailing away as his mind wandered off in thought. My apartment... my books... all of my things are just... gone now. “I hope we’ll be able to head back home....” he muttered under his breath.
Scarlet glanced up at the Zoroark, seeing the rueful expression on his face. “Hopefully,” she assured him, though couldn’t help a distressed sigh leaving her lips. “I mean, hopefully we’ll get some more light shed on what happen to us, and go from there. Now though we got to adapt to the current situation we’ve been thrust in and just stay on the good side of the locals.”
Xerox closed his eyes and took a deep breath in and nodded his head. “Yeah, that’s all about what we can do huh?”
“Mhm,” Scarlet replied with a nod of confirmation. “Solving that murder case helped, and hopefully later today we can talk more about how Lance and I can help with other Pokemon problems.”
“Which ought to be a lot,” Lance commented causally.
“Yeah... a lot,” Scarlet said with a frowned as she pondered the thought. Though it didn’t last long as there was a soft knock on the side of the jail’s metal bars.
“Um... excuse me, I brought you some food,” Ruby, the red unicorn sitting behind the desk who Xerox faintly recalled meeting when they’d first arrived, said as she wheeled a food cart loaded with three dishes of arranged meat, along with some vegetables to them.
Scarlet smiled kindly at the mare and bowed her head. “Thank you kindly,” she told her, which only caused a slightly confused frown to cross Ruby’s face. The mare glanced over at Xerox.
“She says thank you... as do I, thank you kindly,” Xerox quickly said, mimicking the polite bow with his head.
A soft lighthearted chuckle rang out from the mare. “You’re very welcome,” Ruby replied with a small smile. “If y’all need anything else just let me know. You might be staying in a prison cell at the moment, but you’re more of our guests than inmates, heh.”
“Will do,” Xerox replied with nod of his head. Ruby nodded right back before heading out of the jail room, leaving the cart of food behind.
Scarlet slithered up near the door. “Well, while we’ll wait for Lone Star, let’s eat!”
The setting sun’s light shone through the window as Lone Star sat behind his desk with Scarlet and Xerox standing in front of him.
“So, Miss. Sanitary has been taken care of,” the earth pony started off. “Apparently she suffered a mental breakdown when Cello’s carefree and sloppy nature finally reached the last straw with her. I won’t go into the full details, but it seems Sanitary and Cello were having an argument and... Sanitary was holding a knife and took a swing. From there the dam broke.” A frown crossed his face. “She’s going to be transferred to a mental institution in Las Pegasus, but I would like to thank you for the help you gave.”
“It was no problem, Sheriff,” Xerox replied, rubbing a paw behind his head. “I was just doing what a good detective should do...”
“Of course it is,” the pony said with a small agreeing nod. “Now, since I did ‘commision’ you to help in the case, I have to pay you a commission fee though I really can’t since you lack a license or the certifications to be an actual detective,” Lone Star informed them, causing Xerox to frown a bit in disappointment. Not because he wasn’t going to get paid, but more to the thought of having to go through another certification process.
The Zoroark sighed a little as his shoulders slack slightly, but the sheriff continued on. “However, I am not known of rewarding help. After talking to Grace about it for a short while, she has agreed to house you three if you want to, and money you would’ve earned will actually help pay your rent for about a week.”
Xerox’s ears perked up as his head tilted up at the pony while Scarlet smiled gratefully. “Tell him we thank him for kind offer and humbly accept it, Xerox.”
“We accept,” Xerox replied to Lone Star. “Thank you.”
Lone Star waved a hoof through the air. “Don’t mention it, literally. Now, to the true reason why want to speak to you. I remember in our last conversation of you saying something about being able to help deal with Pokemon problems,” he said, turning his head towards Scarlet. The Serperior simply nodded her head in reply. “Well, I’m going to polity ask for your help then. More reports of strange creatures, monsters, and ‘ghost’ have been flooding in throughout the day. If you three would be so kind as to help me and my deputies out, we would be very grateful.”
“Of course we will Sheriff,” Scarlet replied with around nod of her head. “It’s what Rangers do best anyways, heh.”
“I take that as a yes?” the pony stated, an eye glancing over at Xerox.
The Zoroark nodded his head. “Yes... we will help in anyway we can,” he replied, though a bit histent. Xerox might be a Pokemon but he had a feeling there might be some battles ahead... and to be frankly honest with himself he knew he wasn’t the best of fighters. He focused more on moves to avoid attacks and to be able to get away quickly. Even Night Daze, a Zoroark’s signature move was more for flash and show than an actual attack. “Though, I will mostly like just help with the translating.”
“Fine by me, since we’re going to need you for a while,” Lone Star replied. “Meadow remember there could be a translation spell that could help with language barrier between us, but she has to find how to cast it first. So till then, you are our only way of understand Pokemon.”
Xerox nodded his head. “Right... I can handle translating what you need to know.”
“Good, now let’s be off.” The Sheriff pushed the chair he was sitting on back and slided off onto his hooves. He picked his cowboy hat off the desk and place it on his head. “We have some reports of a water serpent in our lake causing a bit of trouble with the ponies.”
Xerox blinked a bit in surprise at the sudden call to action, but Scarlet simply nodded her head. “Water serpent huh... hmm, could be a Gyarados, Milotic, or a Dragonair.”
“Gyarados most likely if it’s causing trouble,” Lance added.
“Could be...” Scarlet said with a pondering frown. “Either way, we should be able to handle it.”
The earth pony glanced between the Bisharp and the Serperior for a moment before at Xerox. “Umm... they’re just discussing strategy,” the Pokemon explained to the Sheriff.
“I see... well, come on along then. I want to reach the lake before Celestia fully sets the sun down,” he said as he headed out of his office. All three of the Pokemon gave him a queer look for a moment before they followed.
“Well... I think we can rule out a Gyarados,” Scarlet said as they reached the lake. It wasn’t very big, probably around fifty yards all around in rough estimate. “If there was one, he or she wouldn’t be very happy to be in such a small lake, and would already be rampaging.”
“Indeed,” Lance agreed as his eyes surveyed the waters. “So that just means it could be either a Milotic or a Dragonair.”
“Yeah... so, feel like diving today?” Scarlet inquired as she glanced at the Bisharp. Lance gave her a flat look. The Serperior shrugged her leaf collar. “Hey, I thought I would ask at least. You would get a good view of everything down there anyways.”
“Hmph,” Lance grunted as he went back to searching for signs of disturbance in the water.
They didn’t have to wait long. With a mighty explosion of water, a long, serpentine form emerged from the lake’s surface. She, at least Xerox assumed it was a she, had cream colored scales that covered every inch of her flowing body except for the red eyes and ‘ears’ along with the blue and red end of her finned tail. The Milotic looked at them with worried but rather angry eyes.
“Finally! Something that isn’t a deformed Ponyta or Rapidash!” she exclaimed, shaking her head angrily.
Scarlet raised an eye ridge at the Milotic. “Hello Miss, my name is Scarlet. I heard you were causing a bit of a... disturbance among the locals living here. I’m here to see what the problem is besides the fact we’re not really on Earth at the moment.”
“I’m looking for my mate!” the Milotic answered, her tone becoming much more worried. “As for a disturbance, these foolish little Ponyta tried throwing a net on me! They’re lucky I didn’t freeze them where they stood for it!”
“I’m sorry to hear that ma’am,” Scarlet replied calmly. “I’m sure they didn’t fully mean it and were just frightened by your sudden appearance in the lake. Not only that but they can’t understand us and... might have confused your words for something else.”
The Milotic simply snorted and let out an irked breath. “I just need to find Tavi,” she said, shaking her head. “Idiot Gyarados will get himself killed without me... or destroy a town looking for me... neither of which are good things.”
Scarlet frowned slightly as Lone Star whispered over to Xerox. “What’s going on?”
“She’s... looking for her mate,” Xerox replied a frowned of his own forming on his face. “A Gyarados apparently.”
“A what?” the pony asked with a large raise of his right eyebrow.
“...a very large water type Pokemon, that looks like a blue serpent the size of a two eighteen wheelers with an always gaping mouth and fangs,” the Zoroark explained slowly. “They mostly live in the ocean or very large lakes, and have the tendency to have short fuses and get into rampages if angered.”
The Sheriff blinked as he looked back over at the Milotic. “I see...” he muttered softly to himself as he tried to visualize the creature Xerox described to him. Though it was hard since he didn’t know what an eighteen wheeler was... still, he didn’t remember any reports citing such a Pokemon near New Hope. “I don’t think she will be able to find her mate around the town,” he point out to Scarlet.
“What is the little thing saying?” the Milotic asked. “Stop whispering and speak to me!”
“He said he doesn’t think you’ll be able to find your mate here around the town,” Scarlet restated while Xerox was translating what the Milotic said to the pony.
The Sheriff picked up his voice. “I don’t remember any reports from the town’s folks saying they saw a creature that matches a description of a Gyarados. Not only that but we don’t have any large bodies of water near here. The nearest one is around fifty miles from here, which is the ocean west from Las Pegasus.”
“What?!” the Milotic shouted. “Tavi is fifty miles away? Maybe more?!”
“Possibly,” Scarlet said calmly, trying not to wince at the loud volume of the Milotic’s voice. “I’m sure the Sheriff will be happy to help find a way to get you there if you corporate,” she said, gesturing down to the pony beside her.
After a quick translation from Xerox, Lone Star nodded his head. “Yes, I can set up an arrangement for you to get on the next train to the city, and call ahead to the guard stationed there so they can help guided you to the ocean.”
“You can do that? That would be amazing! Maybe you deformed Ponyta shouldn’t be frozen solid!” the Milotic exclaimed with a grin.
Xerox blinked for a moment. “She thanks you for the offer and gladly accepts,” he told the sheriff, deciding to not fully translate the sentence.
Lone Star nodded his head. “It’s no problem Miss. I’ll have Xerox-” he lifted a hoof and pointed it at the Zoroark “-and one of my Deputies come fetch you once everything is set.” Xerox’s ears perked up from being called out, but the Milotic simply continued to grin and nodded her head in thanks.
“Wonderful, that would be much appreciated, though I must be kept wet! My scales become horrible if I dry out too much,” the serpent insisted. “That and I smell awful...”
“I’ll keep that noted,” Lone Star replied after Xerox informed him. “I make sure you have a separate cart and buckets of water set aside to dump over you if that will work.”
“A tub would work as well,” she pointed out before glancing at Scarlet. “These deformed Ponyta aren’t very intelligent are they?”
“I really can’t say,” the Serperior replied. “Still thank you for your cooperation... also, how many water type Pokemon are living in the lake? Just to settle a curiosity of mine.”
“Twenty or so I think... I’ve mostly been avoiding them, or they’ve been avoiding me, I’m not really sure,” the Milotic answered. “Oh, and tell them that my name is Kaolin, it is much prefered to being called ‘that random Milotic’.”
Xerox nodded his head as he told the Sheriff about using a tub of water and the Milotic’s name. However Scarlet asked one more question. “Also, have any of the water Pokemon said anything... strange or even acted abnormal?”
“Well, there was one Goldeen who was rambling about being a human or some such, but a Pidgeot grabbed him and I assume he’s been eaten,” Kaolin answered with a frown. “Why?”
Scarlet shrugged her leaf collar once more, doing her best not to break her cool outward demeanor. “Like I said, settling my own curiosity. I mean some other Pokemon I ran into claimed the same about being a human, so I just wanted to know.”
“Very well,” Kaolin stated with a shake of her head. “Call for me when it is time for me to depart.” With that said, she dove back beneath the surface, her tail sending up a wave of water that hit Xerox in the face.
The Zoroark simply blinked as he tried his best to be yelp from shock of the cold water splashing and dripping down his fur. He raised a paw to rubbed the water out of his eyes. “Well... that went... smoothly,” he said as he shook his wet paw off to the side.
“Yes, yes it did,” she said, sounding worried. “Though I’m sure you’re disappointed for no battle coming out of this, huh Lance?” she added, trying to lighten the mood ever so slightly as she glanced up at the Bisharp, who simply crossed his arms and remained silent. Unfortunately, her false cheer didn’t last and in the back of her mind what the Milotic had said about the Goldeen brought up a rather bad set of memories. She shook her head and took a deep breath. “Anyways, I think we should head back to town, Sheriff,” she stated her voice shaking a bit as she glanced over at the Sheriff.
Xerox noticed the small uneasiness in Scarlet’s voice, but he nodded his head in agreement. “Yeah, we’re ready to head back Sheriff,” he informed the earth pony.
Lone Star nodded his head. “Very well, I’ll take you to Grace’s house so ya’ll can get settle in. Tomorrow Deputy Meadow should come and should have that translation spell down to cast on y’all. From there all of you should be able to help in settling down more Pokemon problems in the town.”
“Right, just... lead the way,” Scarlet said, gesturing a vine out, her voice still a bit on the edge but her posture still remained calm. The Sheriff got the jist of what she was saying and turned around to head back towards the path leading into town. Lance was the first to follow and Xerox started to, but he paused when he notice Scarlet was sitting in place.
“Everything okay Scarlet?” he asked of her.
The Serperior remained quiet for a moment before closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, slowly letting it out. “No... not really, but we’ll worry about it later. Right now, I just want to get some sleep,” she replied as she began to slithered forward, moving past the Zoroark.
Xerox frowned a bit in confusion before he picked up his pace and followed shortly behind.
The bright morning rays of the sun snuck through the crack in the curtains and fell upon Xerox’s shut eyelids. The Zoroark’s eyes clenched tighter as his head rolled away from the line of light and on the other side of the pillow, but even there light danced over his face. Xerox frowned as he reluctantly leaned up from the soft pillow and his eyes opened half-lucidly, a yawn escaping from his mouth.
He cracked his neck left and right and raised the back of one of his paws to rub the sand out of his eyes. He glanced to his right at the clock hanging on the wall and his eyes widened slightly to see it was almost ten o’clock.
Arceus... I slept very late; I guess yesterday wore me out more than I thought, he mumbled in his mind. I better get fully awake and make a quick breakfast, I’m sure Scarlet has been up for a long time, he thought as he twisted his hind legs over the side of the bed and pushed himself off of the mattress, a faint impression of his body staying for a moment before the form retook it’s original shape.
He made his way to bathroom to take care of some bodily needs before washing his paws clean and splashing some water over his face to snap himself more awake. After drying off he headed down the hallway and into the kitchen, quickly noticing it wasn’t empty.
Grace was standing next to the side of the kitchen counter, several bowls lined up in a row filled with lettuce, cut olives and cucumbers, and she was in the middle of cutting some carrots to add to them. The teal unicron glanced the side of her head towards Xerox’s direction and a small smile crossed her face. “Ah, you’re finally awake I see,” she said, turning her head back around to focus on cutting the remaining carrots. “In case you were wondering, your two other friends already woke up just around sunrise and left shortly after, though I don’t know where.”
The Zoroark frowned slightly upon what she said, though it didn’t sound totally off. Scarlet was a Ranger, hearing she and Lance waking up in the morning light wasn’t much of a surprise. Admittedly though it was one of the habits he needed to work on himself though he was sure that whatever they were doing, they not going to cause any trouble... hopefully.
He let out a small yawn and stretched out his neck, rubbing a paw on the back of it. “Well, I’m sure I’ll run into them later...,” he said before looking up at the unicorn who seemed to barely acknowledge his statement as she cut the carrots with extreme, yet focused force. Xerox’s claws lightly tapped against each other, feeling a bit awkward. “...I would like to thank you again for letting us stay here... it’s been a while since I actually slept on a full mattress... heh.” He gave a small sheepish smile, trying to lighten the mood of the dark cloud over the mare, though mentally he was slapping himself for making such a joke on the bed topic.
The chopping sound of Grace’s knife slowed to a halt and the mare’s eyes closed for a short moment before she turn her head around, a soft smile on her muzzle. “It’s no problem... I never turned a pony... or any being down in need of a home,” she said, her smile having a hard time keeping it shape as she turned her head away and resumed in cutting the last of her carrot and distributing them roughly evenly in the salad bowls. “Beside... I couldn’t really deny the sheriff's offer...” Grace then glanced to the side of her head over to him. “And really? What did you sleep on most of the time?”
One of Xerox’s paws lifted up to rubbed the back of his head as he glanced away slightly. “...mostly on my couch cushion... some times I got a bit... too tired to unfold the bed out from under it.”
The mare chuckle softly and turned her head back to the rows of bowls, her magic reaching out to get covers for each of them. A thought then suddenly struck her and she shook her head. “How forgetful of me... do you want anything to eat?” she asked, turning her head back around to face him. “I don’t have any meat in store though...”
“That’s okay, I’m an omnivore, so I can eat vegetables and fruits,” Xerox informed her. “And... well, I really don’t think you have any Pecha berries, do you?
Grace frowned and shook her head. “No... but I got some Peaches if that what you meant.”
“Peaches? Umm... sure, I’ll try one,” he replied with a small nod of his head.
Grace nodded her head once and glance over to the fridge, a glow wrapping around the handle and it swung open. A orangish-yellow fruit shortly float out of it and over to Xerox, where he plucked it out of the telekinetic hold. He examined the texture of the fruit and took a few sniffs of it before he took a bite. An odd yet somewhat familiar taste of a Pecha berry rolled in his mouth, just a bit more sweet maybe. A light smile crossed his face as he took another bite.
“Like it?” Grace asked curiously as she continued packing.
Xerox nodded his head. “Mhm,” he hummed out before swallowing. “It tastes a bit like a Pecha berry, just a tad sweeter, though it does lack a bit of the ‘spark’ Pecha berry have.”
“Ah,” she said with a small shrug. “Well, I’m glad you like it.” She frowned for a moment. “So... I have a question or two if you don’t mind me asking.”
The Zoroark glanced up at the mare and nodded his head. “Sure, I’ll try to answer anything to the best of my ability,” he replied before taking another bite of the peach.
“Okay then, why did you change what you looked like when you were in ‘investigation mode’?” she asked. “Does it give you special powers?”
Xerox’s chewing slowed down just a bit before swallowing and shaking his head. “No... it doesn’t. My...species have a unique ability of making it look and feel like we’re taking the form of anything we want. I just transformed into my human form because it helps me think a bit more... clearly, in a matter of speaking. It’s more of a placebo really.”
“I see...” the mare frowned. “I don’t get it.”
Xerox frowned slightly as he tapped a claw on his chin. “It’s... really hard to explain.” He closed his eyes for a moment as he think. “Well it’s like putting on a glove, even though you have no need of it.” Grace gave him another questioning blank look. He took one small glance down and mentally facepalm himself. “Right, you probably don’t wear gloves.”
“No but I’ve seen minotaurs who wear them,” she replied with a small shrug. “Though I still don’t really understand what you’re talking about.”
“What part exactly are you not understanding, if you don’t mind me asking?” Xerox inquired with a small frown, his arms crossing over each other.
“Well, it seems to me that if it doesn’t give you any special powers or make your brain work better then you could be better off in the fur,” she said with a small shrug. “It’s nice fur after all and that other thing you were was kind of creepy... like a hairless ape or something.”
The Zoroark blinked a bit in surprise; he didn’t know what a ape was, but the comment made it sound not a good thing. One of his claws began to tapped lightly against his arm. “That’s... not entirely true. It did have a purpose; it was to help me blend in the city I was in, so I wouldn’t be discover.” He left a paw and rubbed the back of his head. “You see, Pokemon have some rights... but not many, and there’s even fewer for Pokemon like me. You see... Zoroarks have a bad reputation of causing... trouble wherever they roam. I just wanted to be left alone so I could study on becoming a detective, so I created the ‘body’ I was using yesterday.”
“Oh, I see.” She frowned. “That doesn’t sound very fair.”
A short sigh left Xerox’s muzzle. “No it doesn’t, but there are some reasons to the laws. Still, I’ve lived among the humans for nearly eleven years and just transforming into my human body is kinda second hand to me when I’m about to work. Like I said, it just helps me think better and keep my mind focus.”
“Alright then, I was just curious,” she replied with a small shrug. “Still, try and stay in the fur please... the other form is weird.”
“Noted,” Xerox replied with a nod of his head.
“Greetings citizens of Equus, both old and new.”
Xerox’s ears perked up from the sudden voice speaking out of nowhere while Grace’s ear did the same as she suddenly startled.
“I am Lord Arceus, creator of the Pokémon realm.”
Xerox’s mind and heart lagged for a split second and his eyes went wide.
“You have no reason to fear me, I come in peace.” Lord Arceus continued, the Zoroark standing still like a statue while the mare was still looking around for the source of the voice. “I have revealed myself to inform you that I am the one responsible for the Pokémon’s presence in this world, for the citizens of Equus, the Pokémon are the beings who have appeared over the past few days.”
“To my Pokémon, I say this, I brought you, all of you, here so that you could live in peace, do not seek to harm the natives of this world, for I am the one responsible for your displacement. And to the Pokémon who went through changes when I brought you here I say this.”
“You are the ones who proved themselves worthy, those who were fair, kind and good in the old world, consider this your reward. And to all of you, as sapients the laws of Equus, and the varying countries, now apply to you, and only the laws of Equus.”
“That is all for now, but just to be clear, the Pokémon are not to be harmed simply out of spite, if you have a problem with what I’ve done, feel free to contact me, I currently reside in an ancient temple deep in the Everfree Forest, or a pocket dimension outside of the space time continuum, so if any of you wish to face the sheer power of a god, feel free to come by.”
“Goodbye for now, though I doubt this will be the last you hear of me, and peace to you all.”
Grace stared at Xerox for a moment before fainting. Xerox felt he was about to do the same, but after seeing the mare fall to the floor he snapped out of his shocked state. He rushed forward and began fanning a paw over her face. “Hey, are you alright?” he asked, lightly shaking her shoulder. The mare only groaned faintly, still unconscious.
Xerox bit his bottom lip for a moment before glancing over to the door of the kitchen to make sure it was open before glancing back down at the mare. He ceased in fanning her and moved his arms underneath her side and gently lifted her up and slowly made his way to the living room, placing her on the couch that was thankful under a running fan. He stepped back and his claws began to rapidly tap against each other.
Well... that explained a lot of questions, he thought to himself before a trouble frown form on his face. Why do I get the feeling though that more problems will arise now than ever before?
Scarlet was wandering around the city, getting lot of scared looks from the ponies while doing so, when she too received the speech Arceus sent out. The Serperior frowned slightly. “Well, that confirmed a few of our suspicions, doesn't it Lance?” she inquired of the Bisharp that was closely following her.
“Indeed,” Lance replied with a shallow nod of his head. “Though it is a bit of a surprise to hear Arceus is the cause of all of this. I thought he was imprisoned.”
“I guess he must have found a way out,” Scarlet muttered, her frown deepen slightly as recalled something from the Alpha Pokemon’s speech. Those who have proven themselves worthy... so that’s why I’m here and a Pokemon? I hate to think what happen to those who didn’t pass the test...
“Something on your mind?” Lance inquired, seeing the all too familiar pondering expression on her face.
“Yeah... I think we’re stuck here, and I’m going to be a Pokemon for the rest of my life,” she replied, not sounding disappointed, just more stating of a fact. “Unless somehow, someone can change Arceus’s mind, which I doubt. So, we just need to do what he said, start try to get used to our new lifestyle.”
“Like that’s going to be much of problem,” the Bisharp said with a small scoff.
“Don’t be too sure Lance, things are bound to get chaotic. That speech Arceus gave was more of kick to a Beedrill’s nest than anything else,” Scarlet said with a frown. “With means any moment, Lone Star or one of his deputies will probably come get us to ask us some questions.”
“Oh joy,” the Bisharp said in a dull sarcastic tone.
“Oh cheer up,” Scarlet said with a small chuckle. “At least he probably not going to arrest this time,” she teased, causing the Bisharp to give her a flat glare. Scarlet just continued to jestly smile at him before shaking her head. “Beside, it would be the best... we need to work with him to stay on his good side, and of the town’s. Last thing I want is to cause a riot.”
“That’s if the Pokemon or Ponies don’t agitate each other by themselves,” Lance pointed out.
“Then we do our duty as Pokemon Rangers, it’s our job to keep the peace as much as we can,” the Serperior retorted.
The Bisharp gave her another small flat look. “Scarlet, we’re good, but even with the two of us there’s only so much we can do.”
“Six actually, Xerox technically counts as one too, and don’t forget the Sheriff and of his deputies too,” Scarlet reminded him.
“....my point still stands,” Lance stated, keeping up with his flat look at her.
Scarlet let out a small sigh and shake her head. “Okay, it does in some aspects, but remember never to look at a gift Ponyta in the mouth. We need to use what we’ve got and make the most of it. So far, as all we know we are the only two Rangers here, but with what Arceus said about being worthy, I doubt that is truly the case.”
“You think Abby is here?” Lanced inquired.
A small concerned frown crossed over the Serperior’s face. “If she is, she can handle herself; she’s a smart girl... rash sometimes, but smart. Our goal now should be in helping Sheriff with any more Pokemon problems, and even searching for any human who were turned Pokemon around the city edge. I doubt many of them were calm and collected about this.”
“How about you?” Lance asked.
Scarlet remained silent for a short moment. “...I’m over it for the most part, what keeps me from freaking out is how overjoyed my mother would be if she saw me.” Lance gave her a small raise of an eye ridge. “Hey, it’s working.”
“Evergreen!? Evergreen where are you?!” a frantic mare’s voice called from off to the left. Both Scarlet and Lance’s head turn to the direction of the voice as it continued on, getting more frantic by the second. “Evergreen, Evergreen, EVERGREEN! Oh Celestia, has anyone seen my colt?! He was just here! EVERGREEN!!”
The Serperior frowned and glanced at Lance. “Stay here,” she said before slithering her way to the direction of the now screaming mare. She found herself near the edge of what look like a mix of a park and of a playground, a dozen or so filly and colts were playing and around five mares were sitting on benches, save for one azul colored unicorn one.
Said mare took one look at Scarlet and started shouting something new. “The giant snake ate my son! There’s no other place he could be!” The other mares took one look at the Serperior and screamed in fright, rushing over to the now frightened children and taking them away as fast as they could.
Scarlet just stared at her, her face the perfect mix of jaded cynicism and general tiredness to convey one simple emotion. Are you kidding me? Scarlet opened her mouth to say something, but she quickly remember she wouldn’t be understand since she was Pokemon. You think Arceus would have thought of that... she muttered in her mind. She just shook her head at the mare, hoping to say she didn’t do anything to her son.
“Give me my son you monster!” the mare shouted, her horn then lit up and Scarlet got hit across the face with a purse.
Scarlet blinked blankly for a moment... sad to say this wasn’t the first time she got hit like this, but she just rolled with the blow and kept her body upright. Really wish Xerox was here to translate... note to self, work on trying to speak normal again, she thought to herself before she let a vine slipped out and move it down to the soft dirt on the ground to write.
“MONSTER!” the mare shouted again, hitting Scarlet in the face once more. Though as the purse was about to land it hit, another vine whacked it away with a strong crack in the wind.
Scarlet glanced up at the mare with a small sour frown and pointed at what she wrote on the ground before moving back. The mare looked down to see the words ‘I didn’t eat your son’ written on the playground dirt. She narrowed her eyes at the serpent.
“You’re lying! There’s no one else around who could have done it!” the mare screeched and threw herself at Scarlet.
The Serperior simply caught the mare in mid air with her vines, firmly wrapping around her upper and lower chest. Scarlet’s mouth opened and the word ‘really?’ rolled off her tongue, of course, all the mare heard was ‘Serperior?’.
“MONSTER! LET ME DOWN!” the mare shouted angrily, whapping Scarlet with the purse again.
Scarlet barely winced from the heavy whack, but her face still stung a bit. What in world do you cary lady?
“What in Equestria is going on!?” a new, yet familiar voice called out as Deputy Meadow came running up to the two. “Scarlet, put the mare down, now! And Miss, stopped assaulting the snake with your purse,” she ordered.
Scarlet did as she was told, though she was going to do that sooner or later, and the mare started screaming again.
“THIS MONSTER ATE MY SON! THIS MONSTER ATE MY SON!” she roared, hitting Scarlet again with her purse.
“Ma’am, stop,” Meadow said again, her horn lighting up and yanking the purse away from the other unicorn’s control.
“But she ate my baby! I swear it! If we don’t get him out of there quick he’ll get digesteeeed!” the mare shrieked, tears running down her face.
The light brown mare glanced up at the Serperior. “Did you eat her son?” she simply asked, which Scarlet responded with a shake of her head.
“LIAR!” the other mare screamed out.
Meadow glanced at the other mare, understanding her reason for worry, but didn’t like the way she was handling it. She closed her eyes and focused on casting the translation spell she studied over the night, hoping it would actually work on Scarlet. The Serperior’s body glowed for a brief moment before it fade away. “Now, answer it again, but say it. We should be able to understand you now.”
Scarlet gave the deputy a small raise of her eyebrow but said, “I didn’t eat anyone. I was walking with Lance when we heard the mare scream about her son. I told Lance to stay while I can to see if I could help... old habit of being a Ranger and all.”
Meadow slightly smiled, proud to have cast the translation spell correctly before turning over to azul mare. “There, your son hasn’t been eaten.”
“THEN WHAT HAPPENED TO MY SONnnnnn?” the mare wept.
“I don’t know ma’am,” Meadow answered. “But I assured you that I and the rest of the Sheriff's deputies will search for him. Can you tell me what happen the last time you saw him?”
“I-he-he was right at the ed-edge of the play-playground when-when I noticed that he was mi-missing and that-that serpent came over!” the mare gasped out, glaring at Scarlet from behind tear stained eyes. “Sh-she had to have taken him! Even if she didn’t eat him I-I bet she hit his head and then took-took him home for her babies to eat!”
The deputy glanced up at Scarlet, who was letting out a small sigh. “I didn’t do that either,” the Serperior said. “I just heard you scream for help and came rushing to try and help.”
“Did you see anyone while you were making your way here?” Meadow asked.
Scarlet closed her eyes and thought for a moment. “No, I didn’t pass anyone or see someone fleeing the scene.”
Meadow frowned and nodded her head before walking up to the weeping mare some comfort. “I’ll take her back to the station and get Maxim to start searching around the playground. You and Lance should probably come too so no one else can accuse you.”
“Noted, but I would like to help too; tracking is one of my specialties,” Scarlet informed her.
“It is?” Meadow asked with an inquiring eyebrow.
“Yeah... we also might want to bring Xerox too, his nose might come in handy,” Scarlet commented with a small thoughtful frown before noticing the look Meadow was giving her. “Hey, he might not have a good nose like an Arcanine, but he can still pick up different scents with it. It might help in finding her son quicker.”
Meadow slowly nodded her head, understaining Scarlet’s reasoning at least. “Think you can go get him quick?”
Xerox sat down on the edge of a chair he pulled over next to the couch, whom Grace was laying, waving a foldable fan over the mare. He’d heard that it helped people who had fainted, but he didn’t really know if it would work on ponies. A few minutes passed by before the mare finally stirred as a small groan left her lips and her eyes open up in a confused look in them.
“What... just happen?” she asked slowly, her eyes darting back and forth as she got her bearings down.
“You fainted,” the Zoroark replied, still waving the fan in his paw. “I picked you up off the floor and set you on the couch... I hope you don’t mind.” His mind reminded him of something and he put the fan down and reached over to the side table to grab a glass of water he’d prepared earlier. “Here, drink this. It should help,” he said as he offer the glass to the unicorn.
Grace’s horn light up with it soft teal color and the glass was soon enwrapped in the same glow as it was lifted out of the Zoroark’s hold. It hovered over near her mouth where she wrapped her lips around the edge of the glass and took a large sip of water. She let out a long sigh. “Thanks...” she said said before taking another sip.
“You’re welcome,” Xerox said with a small bow of his head. “I know what it feels like to faint... actually I never really faint, but I come close... so I know it’s not a pleasant feeling blacking out, losing control of your body and-”
“Do you talk like this to everypony who’s fainted?” Grace asked, interrupting the rambling he was doing.
Xerox’s eyes widen a bit in embarrassment and he rubbed a paw on the back of his head as he glanced away. “Sorry... I’m not very good at... small talk... as it were. Not really good at being social as it is.” The mare gave him a rather large questioning look as she took another small sip from her glass. “It’s a long story... just, how are you feeling?” he asked, getting back to the topic on hand.
Grace let out another small sigh. “Well... after hearing some sort of ‘creator’ speak in my head out of nowhere and still dealing about the loss of friend who was killed by a pony that I used to consider as a friend too... I’m rather questioning a lot about what’s happening to me right now.” She finished up the last of her water. “So to answer your question... I feel like everything I know is being turn upside down and getting stomped upon.”
The Zoroark’s ears flatten. “Yeah... I kinda know the same feeling.”
She simply gave him a questioning glance before shaking her head. “Still... thank you for taking care of me,” she said quietly, taking another sip.
“It was no problem,” Xerox replied with a small smile. “I just couldn’t just let you lie on the floor... it would have been improper.”
“Not to mention uncomfortable and undignified,” she agreed, shaking her head as she set the glass down on the table and attempted to roll onto her hooves, missing at first before standing. “Well then... what were we discussing before your ‘creator’ announced himself?”
The Zoroark frowned for a moment as he tried to remember, though before he could even recall the conversation they were having knocks sprang from the door. Both the pony and the Pokemon turned to the door and Grace was the first to move towards it, her horn glowing once more as she turn the handle and open it slightly.
“Ah, hello Ms. Grace,” Scarlet said, the front half of her body resting on the small steps beneath the door. “Is Xerox awake yet?”
Grace looked up at the rather large snake and swallowed down some instinctive terror before giving her a smile. “Yes, yes he is, right through the door and on the left,” she said, stepping out of Scarlet’s way.
The Serperior slithered herself in and turned her head left to see the Zoroark standing before her, his ears perked upon hear her voice and his name. “Ah, Xerox, I need your nose.” Xerox blinked blankly upon hearing the bizarre request. “To make a long story short, we got coiled up into a missing child case and it happen just a few minutes ago. If we act quickly you can probably use that nose of yours to sniff where the child has gone.”
Xerox blinked a few more times and he slowly nodded his head. “Okay... I’ll try my best,” he replied.
Scarlet nodded her head. “Good, let’s head to Guard station, I think that’s where the mother was taken and maybe she has something of her son’s that we can get a base scent off of.” She turned her body around and slithered back out the door.
Xerox followed but stopped at the doorway and turned to Grace, waving a paw at her. “I’ll guess we’ll see you later... bye,” he said, reaching to grab the door and shutting it behind him softly.
“Bye then,” Grace said with a small shake of her head. “Poor nervous thing.”
“So you got into trouble of being accused of eating her son?” Xerox said with a small frown after Scarlet had explained what had happened in the park.
“Not really being accused of it, but the mother sure thinks I did, so that’s what we have to disprove,” Scarlet replied as the two made their way down the streets to the guard station. “I’m sure with the two of us working together it shouldn’t be too hard to do. If you can find the scent or some sort of trail with that nose of yours, I can probably track where this kid is.”
“That’s assuming the kid is actually missing... he could have just wandered off and probably went back home after realizing he wasn’t with his mother anymore,” Xerox commented. “I mean, sometimes it happens.”
“That it does, but it’s our job to see if that’s true or not,” Scarlet stated as they reached the front doors of the guard station. Xerox pushed the door open and held it for Scarlet to pass through before entering himself. They headed to the center of the lobby where Ruby was sitting behind her round desk. The red unicorn glanced up at the two of them and pointed a hoof at one of the doors on the side of the wall.
“Meadow is in room 3 with the mother,” she informed them before turning to face Xerox. “I would advise that only you enter, she is still rather... upset with the snake for ‘eating’ her son.”
Scarlet simply closed her eyes, resisting the urge to face palm from the remarks against herself. She opened her eyes and glanced over at Xerox. “Go ahead, just remember your training about this and remember to ask if she has something we can use to track her son’s scent.”
Xerox nodded his head and walked towards the room Ruby pointed out to them. He grabbed the door handle and let out a long exhale. His heart was racing a bit, knowing the mother was going to be in state of dismay of some sort. This would be his first time handling something like this, and he didn’t want to make it worst for the mare. He took in a deep breath and slowly let it out. In a split second decision the jewel on his mane glowed and he transformed to his human appearance before he opened the door and walked through.
Meadow was sitting next to a table, by her side was an azul colored unicorn whose eyes were red from tears and a tissue rubbing. On the table was a large purse and spread open in front of her was a photo album of a green unicorn colt with big curious eyes.
“And t-th-this was when he was four and he was the-the light of m-my life and- and-then the sna-snake ate him and I-I-I don’t know what to do!” the mare wailed. “No-no one believes me!”
“It’s okay Ms. Azalea, we will find out what happened to your son,” Meadow said comfortingly, though Xerox could hear more than a hint of insincerity in her voice. The brown unicorn’s eyes glanced towards the doors and almost did a double take upon seeing Xerox but she motioned her head for him to come closer. “In fact, we have someone who can help in that.”
The mare, Azalea turned and saw Xerox, her eyes widening in fear. “Hairless monkey monster!” she screamed and then her purse hit Xerox in the face. “It must have eaten my baby!”
Meadow’s horn glowed as she yanked the bag out of Azalea’s magical hold. “Ms. Azalea, please, get a hold of yourself,” she said in a firm tone. “He’s... a new recruit of sorts.”
Xerox rubbed his cheek slightly. It stung a bit, but being a Pokemon meant that he could roll with the hits. “Yes... my name is Xerox, I’m a detective. Sorry for frightening you ma’am,” he said as he walked closer but only so he was in front of them instead of behind. “I was asked to help you look for your son and I’d like to ask a few questions if I may.”
“What did you do to my son you abomination of Tartarus!?” the mare exclaimed angrily. “Ever since you beasts showed up things have been utterly awful!”
“Ms. Azalea,” Meadow said, her voice getting a bit stricter. “Xerox was nowhere near the park when your son went missing, he is here to help. Now, if you want to us to find your colt you need to cooperate and stop accusing everyone you see. You hear?”
“But my son is MISSING!” she wailed in reply, the waterworks starting up again.
Meadow let out a long sigh. “In one ear out the other...” she muttered to herself.
Xerox closed his eyes and took in a deep breath and let it out. “We know Ms. Azalea, and that’s why we want to find him. In order to do that, we need to ask you if you had something that your son used or touches a lot. We have... a guard dog who can track him by his scent.”
The mare cried for a moment longer before tearfully looking up at him and her horn glowed, pulling a leash out of her purse. “I use this to keep him close to me-I-I-I thought I’d let him off and play with the other colts but-but-but I shouldn’t have!”
Xerox nodded his head and walked close enough to grab the leash and examined it. It was just an ordinary green leash, the type he see some humans used on small Pokemon to walk around the park. “He is still wearing the harness?” he asked, glancing back at the azul mare.
“YES! He was last time-I-I- I let him go!” she cried, burying her face in Meadow’s shoulder, crying heavily again. “I’m-such-an-awful-mother!”
Meadow patted the back of the mare’s back. “No you’re not ma’am,” she said, her face looking as if she’d had enough of her antics but continued bearing through them anyways.
“One final question, where was the last place you saw your son?” Xerox asked as he was about to put the leash in his coat pocket but stopped himself, remembering it was only an illusion.
“He-he was on the swing-s-swing set pre-pretending to FLY!” the mare wailed. “He-he always wanted t-to-to be a pegasus like-like his father!”
Xerox nodded his head before doing a small bow. “Thank for your time, Ms. Azalea. We’ll let you know on any progress we make on finding your son,” he told her before heading back for the door.
Azalea just went back to weeping. Meadow let out a small sigh as she turned towards Xerox. “I’ll have deputy Maxim sent towards you soon, and I’ll even tried to join, but for now do your best on finding a lead. The sooner we can solve this the better.”
“Understood,” the Zoroark said as he stepped out of the room and closed the door behind him. He let out a sigh and walked back to the center of the lobby, where Scarlet was still waiting in.
“So, any luck in there?” she asked as she straightened herself and uncoil her body a bit.
Xerox lifted up the leashed. “Yeah, I can already smell something on this... let’s head to the park. She said she last saw him near the swings so it’s a place to start.”
The Serperior nodded her head. “Very well, let me show you the way then,” she said as she turned and started to slithered her way out of the station. Xerox followed, still holding onto the leash and staying in his human formed.
Xerox and Scarlet walked and slithered down the street of New Hope. The Zoroark, still wearing his human appearance, was taking small glances from side to side of the ponies looking at them. It was a bit... unsettling to say the least for Xerox. Not for only due to the act of them staring at the pair, but for the whispering he saw a few pass to each other. His mind could only speculate what they were talking about, but a high chance was about the scene in the park about the child getting ‘eaten’.
“Just keep your eyes straight Xerox, don’t stare at them,” Scarlet spoke to him without looking at the Zoroark, keeping her eyes forward as she guided him down the streets.
The Zoroark took in a deep breath of air and slowly let it out, nodding his head as he took the Serperior’s advice. “Right... sorry,” he said as he focused on keeping up with her. As the two continued, something else was beginning to catch his eyes. He was noticing Flying type Pokemon, flying through the air or resting on top of houses, and they too were staring at them, or more importantly him. Many of them looks of confusion.
Xerox couldn’t help but shared some of the confusion behind the looks, not really knowing why he was getting them.
“YOU!” a male voice shouted from his side and before Xerox realize it someone had grabbed his arm and yanked hard on it. Xerox stumbled a bit from the hard pull and found himself staring down at a Lopunny, both of its hands gripping tightly around his arm. “How are you still human! Tell me! Please!”
Xerox’s mouth hung open in a bit of shocked from the question and his words fumbled out of his mouth. “I... I... I’m... I’m not a human.”
The Lopunny gritted his teeth. “Don’t be daft! My eyes don’t lie! So tell me how to-owowowowowo!” A vine wrapped around an arm and was squeezing just enough for him to let go of Xerox’s arm and Scarlet moved into view.
“You heard him right, sir, he’s not a human, but a Zoroark,” she told the Lopunny calmly, letting him go with her vine and letting it retreat back underneath her leaf collar. The Lopunny blinked in befuddlement and glance at Xerox, who was rubbing a hand behind his head before in the blink of an eye suddenly transformed into a Zoroark.
The Lopunny blinked in surprise before it quickly turned into anger. “Well why the bloody hell was he doing that for, huh!? Are you trying to mock us humans that just because we’re freaking Pokemon now that you can just waltz around like a human!”
Xerox winced from the volume and shrunk away from the accusation. Scarlet kept her postured formal and straight. “He has a good reason, sir, but I’m afraid we really don’t have the time to continue this conversation.”
“Tauros shit!” the Lopunny all but snarled, eyes glaring at them. “I’m trapped in the body of a freaking Lopunny of all things, surrounded by weird Ponyta creatures who can’t understand me, and most importantly of all, MY FAMILY IS MISSING!” he roared. “And now here comes your Zoroark mocking every ex-human in town with his disguise!”
“First off, he is not mocking, more of him being who he is,” Scarlet replied, keeping her voice firm and unwavering. “Second, I’m sorry that you were separated from you family, if you go to the guard station down to the end of this road, the ponies there can help you as much as they can. Including with the communication issue. Tell them Scarlet sent you.”
The man turned Lopunny continued to glare at Xerox for a long moment before snarling and storming off, tail twitching irritably against his rear. The Zoroark let out a long held in breath that he didn’t know he was carrying.
.....stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid. He repeated in his mind as he bashed the palm of his paw against his forehead. He should’ve know that looking as a human was going to draw attention, especially from the former humans. And of course, they would be angry at him for doing so, after all it’s not like he should look like a human in the first place.
“Hey, don’t let him get to ya,” Scarlet said softly to Xerox, a vine reaching underneath his chin to push up so they were looking eye to eye. “You are still you, and you have the right to act however you like. It doesn’t matter if you look like a Zoroark or a human, nor does it matter where we are or the circumstances. If people look and point their fingers to complain, just shrug it off. Their words are just that, words.”
Xerox softly nodded his head. “Right... right... just words, that’s all,” he said, letting out a long sigh.
“Good,” Scarlet said with a small smile and nod of her head, her vine retreating. “Now, let’s find this child shall we?”
Xerox took in another deep breath and stood fully upright, his jewel glowing once more as he retook his human appearance. “Right, let’s.”
The two resumed walking down the street, passing by many blocks of houses and stores before it started to opened up to the park next to the small woods. It was empty, with nobody around, which wasn’t much of a surprised. News of a child getting ‘eaten’ would’ve sent the other mothers in the park into a state of frenzied panic to get their young to safety.
“Alright, where did the mother last saw her child?” Scarlet ask, glancing over at Xerox.
“She said by the swing set,” he answered, looking over to see two sets of four seated swing sets off the side. Few of the swings swaying a bit from the wind blowing through the air.
“Right... it’s always by the swing set,” the Serperior muttered as she slithered over there, Xerox following closely behind. “Better get acquitted to that scent now,” she reminded him.
“Oh, right,” he said with a nod, lifting his right hand that held the leash the mare gave him. He held it under his nose and took a few sniffs at it, not even thinking of how it must have looked for a human to be sniffing a leash.
While the average Zoroark aren’t known for having the best sense of smell compared to other dog Pokemon species, but he knew that even his scenting ability was leagues and bounds above the average human. A helpful tool Xerox has used many times when he can during his time spending with the humans and even in classes.
After sniffing a couple of times, Xerox got the minty pine leaves smell off the collar and had it memorized. Once he reached the swingset he knelt down and started to softly sniff the air, closing his eyes to focus on each and every scent he was receiving. Smells of cinnamon, and cotton, along with a few others stuck out to him but he could easily smell the pine scent. He turned his head to the left and got up, taking a few steps in that direction as he followed the scent.
He stopped in front of the second seat of the other swing set and pointed at it. “Here, he was definitely sitting in this one,” he informed her before he walked past the seat and sniffed the air more, frowning. “Other than that... I can’t tell more. The wind is already distorting the scent for me.”
“Where’s Kasai when you need him,” Scarlet muttered to herself as she slithered past him and furthered past the swing set onto the patch of grass. She turned her head down wards and slowly scanned the ground with her red eyes. “Hmm... I do make out a few set of hoof prints,” she said after a while of scanning. “A bit fresh and they’re moving into the forest. Though... I don’t see any other set of prints.”
Xerox frowned slightly. “He ran off by himself?” he noted as he walked up to the Serperior.
“Looks like it,” Scarlet said with a small sigh as she lifted her head up and glanced into the woods. It was dense at the edge but further in the trees were space in enough to giving a good cover of anything that could be hiding. “We should chase after him. With the recent addition of Pokemon to this place, there could be some Pokemon who wouldn’t mind eating something as small as him.” She glanced back down at the ground and started to track the set of hoof prints left behind, moving at a brisk pace.
Xerox could feel some of his fur standing on their ends underneath his illusion. “....right... should I wait here for deputy Maxim and tell him of our progress?”
“Up to you Xerox, I’m not really your teacher anymore,” Scarlet replied, pausing in her searching to look up at him. “I can track him with or without you, and we can always meet up with the deputy later. This is really your call.” She looked back down again and resumed moving as she followed the trail.
The Zoroark bit his lip. On the one hand, she did have a point of her tracking skill. He knew from experience that she was an expert in that, so he could just wait here for either her or Maxim to come here. On the hand... part of his mind was a bit worried about her safety. Sure, she was a Pokemon Ranger who had seen and been in many battles and brawls; however, that was when she was a human and had Lance by her side. With her now being a Pokemon, that all changed, especially since she was now heading into the woods with Arceus know how many kinds of Pokemon could be making it their home. Sure, most Pokemon would rather not pick a fight with a Serperior but...
“I’ll come with you,” he said, picking up his feet and doing a small brisk run up to her side.
Scarlet nodded her head. “Alright, keep your eyes open and that nose and ears of yours on high alert. Speak up if you notice anything off or see a colt just by himself.”
Xerox nodded his head and began to gaze around the woods carefully, doing what he was instructed. As well as keeping his illusionary powers on standby.
“Child I still fail to see how your mother can possibly be out here in the woods,” a deep resonating female voice sounded in Xerox’s ears after twenty minutes of walking. “Though I don’t suppose I really mind watching over you, you’re rather cute.”
Xerox’s ear’s twitched from hearing the voice and his hand reach out to rest on Scarlet’s neck. The Serperior lifted her head up and turned to face him. The Zoroark lifted a finger to rest over his lips and then pointed to where he heard the voice. He then dropped his human form and held his left paw out. His jewel on his mane softly glow, and to Scarlet’s eyes, a sort of slightly dark tented dome formed around them.
“I heard a voice a couple of meters to the west of us. Whoever it is shouldn’t be able to see us know,” he whispered softly as he kept the illusion up around the both of them.
Scarlet nodded her head. “Alright, lead the way.”
Xerox wordless nodded his head and started to head to where he heard the female voice, walking as carefully and softly as he can, his ears turned to pick up anything else that could be overheard.
“Come on, my mother should be here somewhere,” a young boy’s voice spoke out.
“I rather doubt that... but it’s better than letting you walk around here by yourself,” the female voice said. “And while I know that you’re not really understanding me little one, I am glad you’re not running from me.”
“Hehe, you sound funny you know?” the boy said with a small chuckle. “But hey, it’s kinda amusing.”
“I don’t know, I never thought of ‘Goodra’ as being all that amusing,” she replied with a small chuckle of her own. “But you’re young.”
Xerox’s ears perked up slightly. “A Goodra?” he said softly as he picked up his pace. The two moved in between a few trees until they came upon a Goodra with a small dark green unicorn colt walking in front of it, a noticeable red harness strap around his body.
The two were walking aimlessly in the forest and neither even noticed the Zoroark or the Serperior watching them a yards away from their left. Xerox glanced over at Scarlet and whispered. “Well, we found them... now what?”
Scarlet looked at the Goodra and the colt for a moment. “Well, we simply introduce ourselves,” she replied back before she moved forward out of the illusionary dome. “Excuse me,” she called out to the two, slithering towards them at a causally pace.
Both the Goodra and the colt turned their heads to look at the Serperior. The Goodra spook up first giving Scarlet a smile. “Oh, hello there Miss, this little colt has lost his mother and he’s been leading me through these woods looking for her...” she glanced down at the colt. “Or so he claims.”
“Who the heck are you?” the colt simply stated, startled out of his mind of the sudden appearance of a giant snake.
Scarlet softly smiled at the two. “My name is Scarlet Truman, young sir. I was accidentally sent by your mother to search for you. She’s very worried about your well being.”
The colt blinked before grumbling. “I don’t know why you can talk but that sounds like my mom... not willing to go looking for me herself,” he muttered. The Goodra’s eyes seem to perk up on him replying to the Serperior.
“You can speak to him?” the Goodra inquired, blinking twice. “Huh, I’ll have to see if I can’t find some way to do that, these ponies just aren’t as good at the whole ‘interpreting’ thing as humans are.”
“No they’re aren’t... but they have a way to translate what we say,” Scarlet replied to the Goodra before looking down at the colt. “Still, it’s probably best if you come back with me. Your mother is worried that you’re dead and it’s breaking her heart.”
“Oh yeah, I’m sure it is,” the colt replied sourly. “Just like it does when I go for a walk around the block without her and she has a breakdown,” he muttered. “Or when I go to a friend’s house to spend the night and she comes rushing in during the middle of the night thinking something bad happen to me because of a ‘nightmare’ she had.”
The Goodra looked down at the colt with a worried frown before glancing up at Scarlet. “I take it you’re working with the police?”
Scarlet nodded her head, both in response to the Goodra and to the colt. “I see... mothers tend to have that kind of worried nature of their young. I know mine did in some cases.”
“Yeah, but she’s worried about every little thing,” the colt complained. “She watches me like if I get one little cut on my leg then I’m going to end up in the hospital!” He let out a huff through his nostrils and turned his head away. “That’s why I ran away when I got the chance, I’m sick of her and her constant hovering over my shoulder!”
The Goodra blinked and looked down at him. “Little one, I thought you were out ‘wasting time’... I didn’t think you were trying to ‘run away’,” she said in concern, moving a sticky paw down to nudge him at Scarlet. “I’m so sorry, but I can’t help you with that.”
The colt’s feet dug deep into the ground as he resisted being pushed. “Hey! I don’t want to go back! I had enough living with her and I’m going to live here now and going to live off the land!”
Scarlet looked at the colt with a flat stare. “Son... what you say sounds easy, but you have no idea what you’re getting yourself into. Especially now. Pokemon are now part this world and trust me, there are some where you don’t want to mess with by yourself.”
“Pfft, whatever a Pokemon is I’m sure I can handle it. After all, I met her,” he said pointing up to the Goodra. “She’s been friendly to me, friendier than anyone else really, even my own mother.”
“... young one, I’m most certainly not someone who’s capable of truly mothering you... you can’t even speak the same language as me,” the Goodra said with a small sigh. “Besides, if my history has shown me anything then I know that I’m not worthy of having a child.”
Scarlet gave the Goodra a small sideways glance for a moment before turning back at the colt. She opened her mouth before the loud rustling of leaves and snapping of twigs caught her attention. She glanced around see that they were not alone anymore. Surrounding them in a small pack of seven Pokemon, three were Venipede, two were Whirlipede and the last was a Scolipede.
The Scolipede was scowling at them. “You are intruding in our lands,” she hissed at them.
The colt gulped, not liking the hostile tone he could pick up, his legs shaking slightly. Scarlet and the Goodra moved in closer to the colt without a glance towards each other.
“I’m terribly sorry for the intrusion,” the Goodra said, rising up to her full, rather impressive height. “We’ll be going unless you’d prefer to fight us and really... I’m a dragon.” Her eyes narrowed at the Scolipede. “Now it’s true that I’m not a Salamence or a Garchomp but...” she gave them a passive smile. “Would you really like to fight me, especially when I’m defending an innocent colt?” Her voice dropped at the end, becoming much deeper and considerably more threatening as well.
A chorus of angry hisses came from all of the bug Pokemon. “No.... but even you are outmatched, so don’t be making the threats,” the Scolipede remarked. “We can easily poison all of you and wait till you shiveral and die.”
“Yes... but we’re not going to to put up a fight,” Scarlet said calmly, glancing towards the last direction where Xerox was standing. “Especially when we can simply leave and let you be.”
“Buck that!” the colt said, his horn lighting as he pick up a rock and toss it at the Scolipede. “SCRAM!” The rock bounced harmlessly on its forehead and its eyes darken towards them.
“Oh child...”
“Kill them.” the Scolipede hissed angrily.
As the Venipede and the Whirlipede were about to move in, a cry shouted out from nowhere.
Xerox watched Scarlet talk with the Goodra and the missing colt, his ears tuned over to their direction. He stayed under his invisible veil and continued hiding behind a tree, not wanting to interfere with Scarlet at what she did best... well one of the things she did best at. However, he did shrink the veil to just cover him instead of an small area so he didn’t have to strain himself too much in keeping it intact.
He watched the three talk for a few minutes before his ears twitched at the sound of something else approaching. He turned his head slightly over his shoulders and his fur stood on end in fright as a Scolipede passed by him. The Scolipede thankfully didn’t even notice the Zoroark and continued moving, heading right for Scarlet and the Goodra. Even worse, he could see two Whirlipede as well as three Venipede following close to the Scolipede.
The Scolipede moved up to Scarlet and the others, it’s angry hissing easily being picked up by the Zoroark’s ears as well as its threatening words towards Scarlet, the Goodra and the colt. The Whirlipedes and the Venipedes took up formation in an arc in front of them, while Xerox stood completely still behind him.
His heart was racing in his chest, his chest heaving in and out softly as he tried to make little noise. This is bad... this is real bad. He muttered in his mind. Scolipede were very territorial, as well as their previous evolution forms, as well as being relentless in removing other Pokemon from their territory. Either by chasing them off or by poisoning them to death.
One of Xerox’s claws was tapping lightly but very rapidly on the bark of the tree he was standing behind, trying to figure out what to do. Sure, the Goodra was a dragon type and is possibly no slouch in a battle, but the same could be said with the Scolipede. Not only that but the poison would still be a problem, especially to Scarlet now that she was a grass type.
Xerox’s mind went a bit frantic as he tried to figure out what to do to help, but his ears perked up hearing Scarlet say, “Especially when we can simply leave and let you be.” The Zoroark glanced over to her to see the Serperior looking at his direction and the light bulb turn on. Of course, I just need to get in the middle of them and cast the veil over all of them... should be simple enough. He quickly rationalized and headed towards them.
“Buck that!” the colt yelled out as his horn lit up and picked up a rock from the ground. “SCRAM!” he shouted as he tossed the rock at the Scolipede.
Xerox’s fur turned white as the bug poison Pokemon glared at them and hissed. “Kill them.”
The Venipedes and the Whirlipedes all hissed angrily as they advanced towards the trio. In a panic from within the middle of fray the Zoroark dropped his illusion and summoned more of its power and called out, “THUNDERBOLT!” He held his arms, the jewel on his mane glowing brightly and out coming from the sky were streaks of lightning striking down in front of each bug Pokemon.
“What the heck!?” a Venipede yelled out in alarm of the sudden flash of lighting inches in front of him.
“Muddy Water!” The Goodra shouted, throwing back her head and unleashing a blast of water out of her mouth at the ground, turning it to muddy sludge. She then surged forwards atop a small tidal wave of it, the wall of water washing over the bug types before the Goodra herself slammed head first into the Scolipede, smashing it into the ground.
The Scolipede hissed furiously as it quickly got back up. “Toxic!” she cried out before a surge of icky goo spewed out her mouth. Thankfully though, belaying her size, the slick Goodra was faster than the Scolipede and dodged the surge of toxic goo which buried itself against a tree behind her, turning its bark black and causing it to wilt.
“Poison sting!” a Venipede shouted as it attempted to launch a stinger, but a vine wrapped around it’s body and it found itself flying through the air and slamming into a tree.
“Xerox use Flash!” Scarlet order out before retracting her vine and closing her eyes to shield herself.
The Zoroark nodded his head and sprinted into the middle of the battlefield before concentrating for a brief moment and sent out a blinding flash that blinded the eyes of several of the Bug Types. Thankfully for her, the Goodra’s back had been turned, unfortunately for the Scolipede, she was not.
“GAHHH!” she screamed out as the world around her turned bright white and burned her eyes.
“OUTRAGE!” The Goodra roared, charging forwards and grabbing onto the Scolipede’s rear end, hoisting it above her head and bringing the insect slamming into a tree, through a tree in fact. The sound of splitting wood and cracking chitin filled the air as the Dragon brought the Scolipede into another tree, head first, and then into yet another, ichor spraying with every
slam.
After the Goodra finished bashing the Scolipede about, the Bug Pokemon went completely limp, the life leaving it’s body as the Goodra held her trophy aloft. “LEAVE!” she roared at the other bugs before she threw the centipede’s body towards them. The Venipedes and the Whirlipedes didn’t think twice as they turned tail and ran, or rolled, as fast as they could.
“AH! My eyes!” The colt exclaimed, rubbing both of his hooves over his eyes. “What the heck happened! I hear smashing and shouting?”
Xerox was looking at the dead Scolipede and then at the heavily panting Goodra in a mix of fear and respect. Scarlet on the other hand simply let out a small sigh.
“Nothing kid... let’s get out of these woods before we run into any other Pokemon,” she replied, using a vine to turn him pointedly away from the corpse and back in the other direction.
“Indeed child... we should leave these woods,” the Goodra agreed as she walked over to him and gave him a small, encouraging nuzzle, a bit of goo getting on his head.
“Hey I said I didn’t want to leave and-”
“You’re not really in a position to argue kid. Either you come with us willingly, or I’ll drag you,” Scarlet said pointedly. The colt was about to protest again when the Goodra simply picked him up in her slimy arms and held him against her chest.
“Lead the way,” the Goodra said simply, leaning down to give the top of the colt’s head a lick.
The Serperior nodded her head and turned over to Xerox. “You think you cast your invisibility over all of us?” she asked. “I’d rather not have any more interruptions.”
Xerox softly nodded his head. “Yeah... yeah, just stay close,” he said, his mind still distracted from what he’d witnessed, let alone helped in. He walked to stand between Scarlet and the Goodra and held out his arms, the jewel in his mane glowing softly as the shaded dome covered all of them.
“Thanks Xerox,” Scarlet told him with an appreciative bow of her head before she started slithering back from where they’d came from.
The Zoroark simply nodded his head once more as he kept up with her. As he walked he glanced at the Goodra next to him, his heart beating a bit faster from just seeing her, yet he was puzzled by the calm face she had. “....how did you do it?” he asked, speaking in the Pokemon langue.
“Hmm? What is it child?” the Goodra asked, glancing away from the now thoroughly sticky colt who seemed to have accepted his fate.
“How can you have just killed that Scolipede and not be so... phased by it?” he clarified. “I mean.. she was threatening us, but you could have simply dominated her and ordered her and the rest to back down.”
“What is there to be phased by child?” the Goodra asked with a frown. “She was threatening the colt, I did warn her of the consequences and she chose to continue her aggression. There was no other answer.”
“But isn’t there the rule in the wild that winning a battle, your opponent have to follow what you say?” Xerox questioned.
“That is a rule,” she agreed. “There is no rule of whether or not to kill your opponent, especially if they threaten your children.”
“Right... I guess that would make sense...” Xerox said softly. “I must have sounded like an idiot... heh.”
“Not entirely, you’re young, I can tell that much,” the Goodra replied as she looked over at him. “And if it makes you feel any better, I did not intend to kill it... but when I use Outrage it is rather difficult to control my ‘power’.”
Xerox nodded his head. “Yeah... I have read of that happening to other Dragon types before.”
“It is the price I pay for being wild,” she agrees with a nod. “But I have yet to find a trainer worthy of me... or a family to protect as my own, so restraint is not something I have paid a great deal of attention too.”
The Zoroark’s mind drifted off somewhat as what she said struck him. What she’d said was the basic goal for any Pokemon... except for him. Have I really lived in the human world so long that I forget the basic thinking of what it’s like to be a Pokemon? He thought to himself, a small frown forming at the edge of his muzzle.
“AHHHH! THAT MONSTER HAS MY BABY! IT’S GOING TO EAT HIM!” Ms. Azalea yelled out once the group entered the Guard's center. She ran up to the Goodra and her purse went swinging, smacking across the gooey dragon’s face.
The Goodra calmly set the VERY sticky colt down on the ground and then in a single movement her right hand moved and the mare was on her side, a line of goo connecting the back of the Goodra’s hand to the mare’s cheek. “Refrain from hitting me,” the Goodra said calmly.
The colt blinked a small pleased smile on his face. However Ms. Azalea stood up and rubbed a hoof on her cheek. “She struck me! She’s going to kill me help!” she screamed out in panic.
“Ms. Azalea, please calm down!” Meadow shouted out, clearly having enough of her antics. The brown unicorn trotted over, huffing out hot air. “Also... would you refrain yourself from hitting her? She might get on your nerves but I will not tolerate another outburst.”
“She paid me an insult,” the Goodra replied, huffing. “She’s very lucky that I did not send her into the wall.”
Meadow frowned, not being able to understand what was being said before her horn glowed and quickly cast the translation spell. “What was that?” she asked.
“Nothing Deputy Meadow,” Scarlet quickly intervened, giving the Goodra a quick warning glance not to continue on the subject while the Goodra stood there, dripping on the floor. “It’s just a matter of her showing the same kindness Ms. Azalea gave her. However, she’s not going to cause anymore trouble, after all she is the one who kept the colt safe.”
“Fat luck that did, she brought me back to my mom,” the colt put in glaring at his mother before smiling slightly. “Though I did approve of the punch, my mom deserved that... along with a few more,” he added.
“Evergreen! You do not talk to me like that! You’re grounded for the next three months! You’re not even going to ever leave the house!” Ms. Azalea stated in shocked outrage.
“You would punish him in such a manner?” the Goodra asked, her large and ordinarily friendly eyes taking on a rather... dark appearance. “I have searched for a mate and a family for most of my life and here you have at least a child of your own and yet you abuse him!” A low, threatening growl rumbled up from within the goo dragon. “You do not deserve to be his or anyone’s mother! The entire time I was with him this child told me tale upon tale of your failings, of your offenses, of your frail minded attempts to ‘keep him in line’ when in fact it is YOU who deserves to be put in line!”
Ms. Azalea looked absolutely gobsmacked. “I... I... I-” she stuttered before her face burn red with anger. “YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO TALK TO ME! I AM HIS MOTHER! I HAVE THE RIGHT TO-”
“ENOUGH!” a booming voice shouted from the other side of the room, causing the mare to jump. Everyone turned to the voice to see Sheriff Lone Star standing in front of his office’s door, a pissed off expression plastered over his face. “First off, I don’t like yelling in my guard station. Second off, this is not the child protective agency but you Ms. Azalea have just made me write down a note to give them a call. Third, if you assault anyone else I will have you arrested for assault on an officer, disturbing the peace, resisting arrest, and several other small laws you’ve broken! Fourth, bequiet!”
“But-”
“That’s your only warning,” Lone Star cut her off, giving her a frankly terrifying look. Ms. Azalea finally shut her mouth and kept quite.
“... I think I may have just found my trainer...” the Goodra said with a small smile, moving up to Lone Star and giving the Sheriff a small, slightly sticky nuzzle. “If you will have me.”
Lone Star raised one of his eyebrows. “Trainer?” he questioned.
“Yes, she’s basically asking you if you want to be her friend and have her as your companion to help you in life,” Scarlet answered. “If I were you Sheriff, I would accept it. Goodra’s are very loyal, and as dragon type she’s quite strong. She would be a great asset in helping keeping order, especially among the Pokemon.”
“Hmmm....” the old stallion murmured out as he rubbed a hoof across his chin. “Technically she can’t really work for the guards... but I can’t reject if she wants to volunteer.” He closed his eyes for a moment to think. “Sure, I guess I’ll be your ‘trainer’.”
“Thank you!” the Goodra then reached down and pulled the stallion into her arms against her chest and began to wetly nuzzle him. “I will not fail you!”
Lone Star grunted a bit from the pull of the hug and blinked a bit blankly. “Right... we’ll talk more about this later, for now can you please release me?”
“Oh, yes of course, my apologies, where is my dignity?” she asked, gently lowering his now goo soaked form to the floor.
Xerox, who had been standing idly in the background of everything, watched as the Goodra happily stood next to the stallion who for the most part tried to scrape some of the goo off of his chest. She seem so... happy from just having the Sheriff as a trainer now. Though really, not much change... I mean, couldn't she do the same in haning out with other Pokemon? He crossed his arms and frowned slightly. Though I guess that’s more a human thing to do. He shook his head. That or I’m thinking about this too much...
Lone Star cleared his throat. “Deputy Meadow, please escort Ms. Azela and her son to one of the waiting rooms. Somepony from the child protective agency will come and meet with them... and possible get a cleaning towel for the young colt, as well for me.” The brown mare nodded her head and set off to carry out her order. “As for you, Scarlet. More and more reports of Pokemon problems are flooding in as well as more Pokemon who claim to be human. Lance has been helping out a bit, but I was wondering if you and Xerox could help out even more. After that message from that Arceus being, it’s been like someone’s kicked a hornet's nest out there.”
Scarlet nodded her head. “Of course Sheriff Lone Star, we will do our best, right Xerox?”
“Of course,” Xerox nodded his head. “It’s our job after all,” he said, mostly to himself.
“Good, Ruby give them the latest of the reports and you, Ms.” he turned at the Goodra, waiting for her to say her name.
“I’m a Goodra, that’s what I’m typically called unless you want to give me a name,” she replied with a smile. “I wouldn’t mind one, I suppose it would be better than just being ‘the Goodra’.”
The stallion raised an eyebrow. “Okay... come into my office and let’s talk about what you’re going to do... and figure out what to call you,” he said, turning to head back into his office before stopping and turning his head around to say. “And somepony get the mop and clean up the floors? Last thing I need is others commotions to hear from my office,” he said before opening the door and walking into the room. The Goodra followed with a happy bounce to her walk and the door closed with a solid click.
Xerox glanced over at Scarlet, who in turned to look over to him. “Well, let’s get the party started,” she said as she slithered over to the front desk.
“Yeah... lets,” the Zoroark replied as he mentally prepared himself for a long day.
