Pokémon: Out of the Woods | A Galar, Unova & Sinnoh Fanfiction

Chapter 107: The Biographer

A cell door creaked at Hammerlocke Prison. Guards and their Pokémon, Machamp and Pangoro, led a handcuffed Jahzeel to a meeting room. He still wore his fluorescent green and yellow uniform. His long hair was cut. None of it stopped him grinning as maniacally as he did at the tower.

Reira waited in the meeting room. It only contained two chairs and a table. The walls were dull grey and the artificial light sallow. There were no windows. The guards tied Jahzeel to the chair as soon as he sat. His ankles were bound. Reira had a feeling it was unnecessary at this point. He wouldn't try to escape. He knew he couldn't achieve anything and felt no shame.

'Good morning.'

'Good morning, Mr. Alnwick. I take it the prison staff have explained that–?'

'Yes. I will tell you everything under one condition – that you return with a biographer.'

The guards exchanged concerned glances. They wondered if this was a ploy to postpone the interview so Jahzeel could escape somehow. Reira knew it wasn't. He was serious. She didn't want to enable his narcissism, but she could hardly pass up on that offer. She returned the following day with Tyler Saunders, the man who wrote many of the biographies that were for sale on Volo's stall, including Giovanni's, Ardos' and Lusamine's. Jahzeel grinned. He knew exactly who that man was. Reira didn't show that she squirmed inside at serving up his wet dream, but he probably knew.

'25 July, 2078. Detective Inspector Reira Mesquite Fayed of the International Police. For the investigation into Team Plasma, I am interviewing its leader, Jahzeel Alnwick.'

Tyler Saunders switched on his own audio recorder. He began to scribble as Reira asked Jahzeel to stand and raise his right hand. The chair he was tied to came with him. He had to raise both hands since he was handcuffed.

'Do you swear that the information you shall give in this recording shall be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you Arceus?'

'I do.'

He seemed sincere about that. He was religious to some extent, after all. Reira wanted to ask why a man like him ever wore monk's robes, but that was irrelevant. She asked how he came to Galar. It was as the International Police suspected: he used Rigel to threaten Abaddon into standing aside, stole some Pokémon, dyed his hair and used a fake ID, produced by Tance, to board a Macro Cosmos Air flight to Hammerlocke. He was indeed the 'Ghetsis lookalike' the immigration officer reported. Tance hacked the alert away.

'Who put you in touch with Mr. Day?'

'My daughter's mother, Primula Moore. Tance was her ex-boyfriend.'

Primula was already jailed for life in Orre, but aiding Jahzeel and Tance would add another 10 years, at least, to her sentence.

'How and when did you find Rigel Harmonia?'

'About three months after I arrived. I already knew my brother, Abaddon, was hiding something. I knew his precious Pokémon disappeared. I had no idea where he hid the boy, but I heard rumours of the "ghost of the woods." Cinderace is not native to Glimwood Tangle. I recognised it as my brother's Cinderace regardless. I knew, as soon as I saw it, that I had found the child.'

'And then you began to build the castle? How?'

'Construction of the castle began as soon as I arrived. I identified the cavern, one Tance earmarked for another station and dormitory. After I submitted several thorough reports on Bede Garris, the Gym Leader I was ordered to spy on, Tance assigned supervision of the station's construction to me. That is how I acquired the building materials and workers. His own employees hated him. There was no need for me to even threaten them into helping me. They simply agreed.'