The Enigma

[Kumori]

Okay, I'm sorry if the quality of this is bad. I can produce good-quality stuff, but the problem is, I have difficulties keeping quality consistent. Also, I'm still young so don't expect the world's best from me :P I just read over a bit and oh hell, it's terrible.

Warnings: Hinted CherenxOC, bad language to come in the next chapters. I'll try to keep it down.

I: The Arcanine

The Arcanine raised its head and sniffed the crisp morning air, searching for a scent that he could not find. Its muscles clenched in irritation and it leaped from its back legs, a great leap that carried it several metres before plunging into the forest’s darkness, scattering a group of Starly and Staravia.

It raced as if there was an opponent, as if this was a sport. It blasted through everything in its path – Stantler and Sawsbuck fled, a Paras barely scuttled away and a Caterpie was sadly run over by the rough of its paws. The Arcanine simply had no time to admire the forest’s beauty.

It emerged onto a sloping hillside, at the bottom of which was a small and unnoticed town that watched the passing legend with awe. It passed landscape after landscape, yet barely noticed a thing in its intense concentration.

The creature only stopped in the heart of a city, where it threw its head back and roared until its voice grew hoarse and it was taken in by Officer Kira.

“Why don’t we just let the damn thing go? Nobody will care!” Betty huffed. She obviously didn’t seem to like the Arcanine, obviously because it had sunk its fangs into her hand and arm several times before she managed to sedate it, and now her ‘beautiful’ arm was wrapped in ‘ugly’ bandages.

“But it belongs to someone! The microchip inside it gave me the trainer code, and I’ve entered it into the computer, but it’ll take a few hours to find the code and the trainer’s information. I don’t know why you’re so desperate to be rid of it!” Kira folded her arms and glared at Betty. “You only love those stupid Pokémon of yours, you don’t respect anyone else’s! I can’t believe they let you on the police force!”

“Excuse me?!” Betty screeched in that dreadfully annoying voice of hers. “Take that back, now!”

“Not unless your crappy Pokémon beat me in a battle! Two on two, single!” Kira yelled back, leaping to her feet. “And it’ll be a rental battle!” She decided with glee. “Show me how much you actually do care!” Betty stormed off to the training room, a large room of three tennis court-sized arenas. There was a PC, and Kira selected it to deposit random Pokémon that belonged to the police force. Two for her, and two for Betty.

Kira checked the information glowing on the back of her Pokéball. She had a female Bouffalant with a ring through her nose, and a Metagross. She wasn’t sure of Betty’s Pokémon, but Kira was sure that with the right amount of love and hope, she could muscle through this battle. All random Pokémon for random battles were usually fully evolved or Pokémon that simply did not seem to evolve, so Kira was in for a bit of a ride.

“I will send first,” she said bravely. “Let’s go, Bouffalant!” Betty laughed at the Bouffalant’s nose ring but that seemed only to aggravate the wild beast.

“You stand no chance with a foolish Pokémon like that! Go, Vaporeon!” Betty shrieked in the way that only she could. “Vaporeon, use Water Gun!” The Bouffalant easily bounded out of the way.

“Use Wild Charge,” Kira said calmly. She was always very calm at the start of a battle, her brain working through her thoughts. Bouffalant charged all the electric energy it could muster before ramming itself into the Vaporeon, who didn’t seem to know to dodge and took amazing damage from the Bouffalant, who seemed to be quite hurt by the force of her attack and staggered backwards. Betty howled something about the Vaporeon being pathetic before recalling it in favour of a Dewgong.

“Use Wild Charge again,” Kira said firmly, and her Bouffalant went for it, but the Dewgong nimbly avoided, watching with glee as the creature slammed into a wall. Betty giggled in a horrible voice and extended her finger,

“Dewgong! Sheer Cold!” The Dewgong blasted the recovering Bouffalant with absolute-zero cold. Bouffalant fainted instantly, and Kira recalled Bouffalant, sending out her Metagross.

“Hyper Beam, Metagross!” Kira yelled, and the beam hit hard. The Dewgong went for an Ice Beam, which didn’t seem to harm Metagross too much. The Dewgong repeated the Ice Beam until the Metagross made its final Hyper Beam, which ended the Dewgong’s battle.

Kira recalled her Metagross and smiled. “Good work, Bouffalant, Metagross. So, Betty, who’s the winner now?” Betty screamed in annoyance and stormed off, her fat form trembling and wobbling. Kira returned to her little office – Kira was in charge of lost Pokémon, and the computer had finally finished searching.

“Oh my God,” she said, as Betty walked in, only a little having recovered from her tantrum. “That Arcanine belongs to Meriel Tenneson, the champion of Helia and the World Champion!”

“No way!” Betty shrieked, running over to the computer. But it was amazingly true; it had a list of Meriel’s eight badges of Helia, proof of her having beaten the Helia Elite Four and a little image of her trophy from the World Championships. “No freakin’ way!”

“It’s true,” Kira said, her mouth stretching into an uncontrollable grin. “Now all we have to do is get this Arcanine to her. The records here say that the last Pokémon Centre she used was in Aspertia City, so... I guess she is in this region, huh?”

“Never mind that!” Betty screeched. “Let’s get going, the ferry to Virbank must be leaving soon!”



Cheren sighed as he sifted through the piles of paper consisting of paragraphs upon paragraphs of information about the people he was pursuing. Did he really have to read it all? He was chasing them, not finding out every member’s personal history. Still, Jazmine had insisted and he was hardly one to say no to her.

He glanced up into the sky and watched the wisps of cloud float gently by. A flock of Spearow were emigrating north, he noticed by the huge arrow of black forms.

The tranquillity of the moment was ruined by a horribly obese lady running up to Cheren, her fat belly trembling and wobbling with each step. Her appearance was repulsive – she had running, horrible pink make-up splashed all over her face and the longest false eyelashes Cheren had ever seen.

“Ex-shqueeze me!” she said in the loudest possible voice. “Have you seen the champion Meriel lately!” It was barely a question, more of a boast.

“Yes, she came to challenge the Gym but it is closed temporarily while I deal with some rather important matters,” Cheren said, his eyes cold and his manner calm. “I believe she went to find some rare Pokémon in Floccesy Ranch, though why are you asking?”

Kira came jogging up after Betty, looking a lot healthier than Betty’s horrible wet sweaty face. “Sorry, Leader! We’re looking for Meriel, because we found her Arcanine wandering stray.” Cheren nodded and opened his Xtransceiver.

“If that’s the case, I’ll call her,” he said, and waited a few moments until Meriel picked up. “Hello, Meriel? I believe a few police officers have found your Arcanine, wandering stray? I see. Meet me inside of the Pokémon Centre, then.” He hung up and addressed Kira, completely ignoring Betty, who was annoyed by his ignorance. “Meriel is thankful that you’ve found her Arcanine, and it was good timing, as she was coming back to heal her Pokémon. So, we’ll meet her in the Pokémon Centre.”

They walked into the building next door and there was a woman inside, her skin dark. She was wearing white jeans and a black top with a crazy crop of navy blue hair and jingling golden bangles around her wrists.

“Ah, Jazmine! Perfect timing, I need to talk to you,” Cheren called. The woman, Jazmine, strolled over. “You see, I thought we could perhaps ask Meriel to join our cause? It would be helpful, would it not?”

“That’s a good idea,” Jazmine acknowledged. “She doesn’t have much better to do, anyway. The Unova League’s not exactly going anywhere... well, that’s a bit of a lie.” Cheren chortled, but the expression in his eyes was still blank and dark. “Hopefully, though...”

“Dammit, stop trying to give me false hope,” he said, folding his arms. “We’re getting nowhere.” He looked irritated and sighed, and the tension between them was saved by Meriel’s entrance. She looked grand, beautifully grand. She had started out as a young, innocent girl who was constantly happy and cheery, but her journey had caused her to grow. She looked a lot older now, the childlike cheer fading into a gentle smile.

“Cheren, how nice it is to see you again so soon,” she said in her formal voice. “Now, you officers, I believe you have my Arcanine?” Kira nodded and handed over the rental Pokéball she had used to contain the mighty beast. Meriel instantly released it before recalling it into her own Pokéball. “My thanks to you both.”

“May I have your autograph?” Kira squeaked excitedly. “I’m such a big fans of yours!”

“So is everyone,” Meriel shrugged, producing a rainbow-coloured pen from her pocket and scribbling down the childlike scrawl that was her ‘signature’. “Make sure to treat your Pokémon with love.” She looked to Cheren and Jazmine. “If you’ll excuse us, officers.”

“I need to check some stuff on my PC,” Kira said to Betty. “I won’t be too long, you just go and browse the shops or something.” Cheren, Jazmine and Meriel all took seats on the comfortable, cushioned benches.

“So, what did you want to talk to me about?” Meriel asked curiously. “If there’s anything I can do for you, do let me know.”

“Have you heard about the disappearing Gym Leaders?” Jazmine asked, and Cheren hissed at her to lower her voice. Jazmine quickly nodded, taking his point. The people thought that the higher-ups of the Leagues were investigating the case, and they were, though their investigation was a pitiful mess. They just had no idea where to start, though Jazmine had quickly set up her own investigative team and dispatched members in every region and she already knew of many shady groups and figures from past experience, and was far more useful, though the Leagues all discredited her information.

“I’ve heard of them, yes. Erika, Chuck and Brock have all disappeared without trace. Is that right?” Meriel asked.

“That is correct. The League are looking into it, however, they are failing pitifully. Therefore, Jazmine and I teamed up to create an investigative team. We have members in many different regions, and have several spies in shady groups keeping an eye on all happenings. We’ve managed to pinpoint a group that have been around for years, but have spent time growing and training and preparing themselves. They call themselves Team Enigma. Once we found out the name, it was easy to get more information, but the problem is they’re intelligent. They don’t all wear stupid uniforms or declaring themselves to be members of the team, so we have no idea who is a member or where they are. No matter how much information we have on paper, unless we can find a member, we have no idea how to find them,” Cheren explained. “We were hoping you could join us, and help the search. From what we’ve gathered, this team don’t just collect Rattata and Zubat. These guys are the real deal: every member has spent a long time training their Pokémon, and all their Pokémon will be strong and not be easy to take down. We figured a Champion like you would be useful, for when we get them, and also, we thought you may have... sources.”

“I don’t have any sources that might be useful to you, though my father may know how to help. I will help you, though. Your cause is, well... better than the League’s. They’re quite useless in investigation, because it’s not what they’re there for,” Meriel said. “If I can help you at all, do tell.”

“Stop!” Kira shrieked, spinning around and pointing a finger. “I heard it all and you’re under arrest for illegal investigation!”