Linkage

2

Through the air duct system, it was possible to hear everything from the Veilstone PD records room. Murmurs of employees sleeping together, rumors of scandals, and whispers of conspiracy theories all grazed his ears. He knew of everything going on, which was to his advantage. Those that were in his way were taken care of, promptly.  He strained to listen, but ended up hearing the brutal stomping of boots coming down the stairs.

"Wes!"

The blonde haired man turned around and saluted. "Lieutenant!"

"I need you to go deliver this to Byron," said the superior man, shoving the box into Wes's arms. No doubt the Lieutenant was annoyed. The man had not been his boss for long, but his transfer from Hearthome City had brought many issues to his peace of mind.

Wes struggled to balance it properly, having a stack of papers in his hands already. He watched as Lt. Dunnan walked off, looking pretentious as always. He resisted the urge to growl at the man. He was one the many at the police station who reveled in the fact that the "vigilante" was capturing the Team Galactic grunts where they couldn't. If only they knew. Their records keeper had been through military training with the marines in Hoenn and had served with in both Kanto and Johto as an aide to the famous trainer Red. He'd passed the Sinnoh police academy being the summa cum laude. Lt. Dunnan however did not like him so he had to take his job into his own hands.

Tapping his belt with his elbow for Espeon to emerge, he felt the the weight of the box release for a few seconds. Espeon held it in the air as he set the papers down on the sorting table. Taking the box, he began to climb the stairs out of the room, Espeon sauntering behind him. The police station was relatively at peace for the fact Team Galactic grunts were there. He stopped before he went up, dusting the grey off his navy uniform.

He headed to his locker, grabbing the duffel bag with his normal outfit for outside of work. He moved over the blue and black coat and Snag machine to make room for the box of files. On his way out of the building, he stopped by his desk to pick up his scrap sunglasses. Uniform or not, he refused to look anything less than sharp when flying anywhere. Besides, it was company policy that if police members were sent out of city on any business, they got the rest of the day off.

He pulled out his Braviary that screeched, alerting several people in the street. Wes payed no attention to it. He boarded the bird, sun gleaning off of his shades as they took off. He flew fast after that, duffel bag clutched to his stomach which was folded so his arms could reach the neck of his bird. Wind pushed back his hair, which soared in waves. He tucked his chin in towards the nape of the Indian-esque Pokémon's neck, giving him the ability to see better.

They landed in Canalave rather promptly. Byron was out so Wes didn't have to have a discussion with him. For some reason, the gym leader had taken a liking to Wes, hence the constant transportation of files. Their discussions were often. When Wes would visit the discussions would last all day, hence the company policy. Wes was glad though; he was tired after the antics of last night.

Deciding that it would be a good day to go to the beach, Wes changed after he dropped off the file box. He donned his normal blue coat, but as long as he found a private place, he could go swimming in his boxer shorts. Umbreon and Espeon hadn't had a break lately, considering all the activity. He made the decision to go visit the old seaman of the town to find an island that people didn't necessarily visit.

However, when he got to the sailor's place, his boat was gone. The immediate assumption was that Byron was out on one of the few islands off the coast of Canalave. Wes grit his teeth. The idea of the beach was out of the window. He didn't want to go back to Veilstone though. That would mean relinquishing his rights to the rest of the day off, and as much as he knew he needed the position, the thought of facing Lt. Dunnan was unbearable. Besides, he knew the Lieutenant would yell at him one way or another. It would be best to make sure the file reached Byron specifically, to avoid the chance of being yelled at.

All he had to was kill some time in the city, which wouldn't be that hard. Sinnoh lore and books about the history of the region awaited him in the library.

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Cynthia scanned the titles of the books in front her. There was no controlling the growl of anger that left her lips. Not a single book she had consulted had any information about Turnback Spring. Yet there was something amiss there. Despite incidents or not, the nature of the area indicated foul play of some sort by Pokémon. So she began to flip through. There were so many books that she had already read through that it was infuriating. Could she find nothing? Her fingers crawled across the spines until the sound of footsteps stopped her cold.

As if instinctively her right hand reached for her belt. She knew that the library was a free place, but she didn't necessarily trust those who came. Tapping into her senses, Cynthia tried to determine if there was danger present. For once she had no clue. There was nothing clear that she could deduce, so she glanced out of her peripheral vision at the stranger in blue encroaching on her space. His hand slid underneath hers, taking the book that her index finger rested on. She fought back out of pure, natural instinct.

"Hey!" She said, trying to snatch whatever book this stranger was taking.

Her shaded eyes faced the reflection of a pair of metallic sunglasses, letting her see her blonde hair. There was not an emotion to be shown. Just steel.

He chuckled as he took the book. "Champion Cynthia, I highly doubt you are trying to read about ancient engineering techniques. I don't believe that fits your area of expertise, per se."

She said nothing as he snagged the book from her hand. Cynthia watched as he sat down and began to read, complacent with himself. She wondered why he of all people was reading an engineering book. Who was even interested in such a technical thing anyways? To her surprise, he was fully engrossed in the book. Green engineering paper sat to his right as he took notes on what he was reading. For a second she forgot what she was supposed to  be doing until she hit the end of the bookshelf. Grabbing something random, she sat diagonal to him at one of the tables, glancing at the green stack he was writing on.

"It's nice to see that you can read upside down, Mrs. Cynthia. I didn't know you possessed such a talent," he suddenly remarked, while tearing a sheet from his notepad.

She coughed, turning her book around while he pulled out a binder of sorts from the duffel bag he had.

She said, timid, "So...why are you engineering?"

"Just to kill the time, really," he responded, skirting the question.

His hands began to glide across the paper as he picked up Cynthia's book and began using it as a straight edge.  She watched in awe as he began to sketch. A concentration like no other buzzed his features as he drew the coarse lines together to make something. She had no clue what it was, and it appeared that he did not either, as he halted in the middle. The horn of a boat rang in from the outside.

"Why did you-?" She began.

He said, messing with the sandy tufts of his hair, "Did you know that Sinnoh was once the engineering hub of the ancient world? The Pokémon Pinchers of Oblivia got their original idea of Pokémon capturing devices from the ancient inventions traded to that region from here."

"I didn't..." she said, surprised by his knowledge.

He paused, then nodded as if affirming something to himself. "Engineering is something dangerous, Champion Cynthia. Good, but very life-threatening. I just so happen to have some skills in it."

And with a swish of the coat he disappeared. His duffel bag was with him, along with his green paper, but the book was not. Cautious, Cynthia picked up the book he was reading. She noticed that he had left a page open. As she read, her brows raised and she almost dropped the book at the very end of reading what he was looking at.

If he was reading about tampering with the hearts of Pokémon, then what was he sketching?