Finding Truth Amongst The Lies

Chapter 37: Aryan's POV

Waking up to feel my back twinging and my legs burning as if they were on fire was not an uncommon occurrence in my profession. It had been several weeks since I discovered that Pikachu Boy had been in Oreburgh City and ever since then I'd practically lived in the forest surrounding the mining town. It only took me half a day to track down the friends that the jerk who broke his arm had mentioned. I forced them to show me where they had fought against the Aggron but I was beginning to wonder if the idiots had suffered memory loss because I found no sign of Team Galactic.

Shaking myself out of my negative thoughts, I swiftly broke camp and warmed up my body by running through a quick exercise routine Detective Looker had insisted on. My mood turned even darker at the thought of my partner.

Life had seemed to be in a constant downward spiral since the day I found out Detective Looker was missing. I couldn't help but blame myself because for the first time in nearly four years when Detective Looker asked if I wanted to join him on a mission, I declined. A clue about an unsolved case that was the reason I joined the police force had just turned up and I was too headstrong to think about WHY a clue would pop out of nowhere like that. By the time I realized that the tip was a dead end, Detective Looker had disappeared.

It hadn't taken long for me to figure out that the newly reorganized Team Galactic was behind the kidnapping. But finding out who the culprit was and finding WHERE they were hiding were two entirely different beasts.

I'm not giving up now when I finally have a decent lead though, I thought to myself fiercely as I finished up my workout routine. I released Empoleon and clenched my muscles in preparation for the deluge of water that he shot towards my battered body. After my Hydro Pump shower, I dried myself off, changed clothes, and returned my partner with a nod of thanks.

Refreshed and wide awake, I checked my PokeCommunicator to double-check my location and then made my way back to where the boys had thought they fought against Pikachu Boy. I had already combed the surrounding areas and even bumped into the Aggron that I thought might have been the four boy's target, but I hadn't seen anything. My instincts were screaming at me that I  missed something though, and one thing I had learned from my time as a detective was to trust my instincts.

Taking a leap of faith, I set out in the direction that I'd worked out that the jerk must have flown when he was beaten back by Pikachu Boy's Pikachu. I had gotten here too late to really track anything, but there were still some scorch marks on the ground from an electric attack of some kind so I had used that as my guide. As I walked quietly through the forest I tried to look for ANYTHING out of the ordinary. Even though I kept passing by tree after tree I forced myself to carefully inspect for anything that might be out of place.

"Man, how many of these stones do we have to dig up?" My entire body went on high alert at the sound of someone speaking and I swiftly hid behind the nearest tree. My presence seemed to have gone unnoticed and the voices were getting farther away, so I crouched down low and moved stealthily forward, trying to find the source of the voices.

"Seriously, when Proteus said he had a 'very important job' for us... I thought we were going to do something fun! Like kidnapping someone again or blowing up a building or something," the voice grumbled from ahead of me. 

My eyes narrowed at this line of conversation and I fought back the rush of elation that I had actually found some grunts from Team Galactic! But I needed to focus, so I pushed that feeling away and continued following after the men who were now close enough for me to see they were wearing telltale gray jumpsuits.

"Ugh no kidding. I know we're called 'grunts' but I didn't think we'd be actually doing heavy labor!" another voice grumbled loudly and I shook my head.