Pokémon Fool's Gold | Orre & Galar Fanfiction

Chapter 82: Gretchen's Victims

Chobin retrieved his Robo Pokémon. He found himself secretly pleased with their new powers. When he switched the Groudon on, a safe distance from either of Orre's volcanoes, it dried up the remaining water. The Hexagon Brothers took the six Robo Suicune to clear the rivers. It was an arduous process. Emili, Perr and Chobin were repeatedly called out to fix them upon breaking down.

More concerning was the spreading forest fire. The Swords of Justice were still in the Purify Chamber, all at around 60%. Agate residents slipped past Vana to return. They believed the presence of hopeful people and Pokémon would douse the flames and indeed, their spread slowed.

Police worked through the Peons and Commanders in The Under Colosseum. 408 of them, able to prove they resented being duped into joining Cipher, were released. Rosen's trial was scheduled. The International Police suspected Laila wasn't her only victim. Anabel and Looker began with her parents, Dobit and Shorna Manning. Waiting with them at their run-down home on the outskirts of Pyrite was Rosen's sister Trystalyn and her husband Horbit.

'Our baby boy,' Trystalyn blurted out, 'She killed our baby boy!'

Anabel was disgusted, but barely surprised. 'The Lir Kovar case... yes?'

'That very one, ma'am. Sherles closed it 'cause there was no body.'

'Do you mind if we go through the details?'

'Absolutely not. We want justice. No matter what it takes.'

'OK... so... you left Lir with Gretchen while you went to watch Vander's battles at Realgam Tower.'

'Yeah. He's a family friend. Horbit works with him at Mt. Battle.'

'You left her house at 9:16. At 10:52, Trystalyn received a photo of Lir playing with 12 year-old Laila and her best friend, Lyndon.'

'Yeah. And I swear, we were close to Laila and I know Lyndon went... weird... but that was because of Gretchen. They didn't hurt him.'

'Between battles, musicians played, so Trystalyn didn't hear her P★DA ringing until 17:28. She had eight missed calls from Gretchen. There was no response when she attempted to call back. You rushed back to Pyrite Town, but were held up when police stopped Horbit for speeding. He was subsequently detained in Pyrite Police Station for resisting arrest.'

Horbit scowled. 'They cared more about that than my kid getting killed.'

'We will get to the bottom of this, Mr. Kovar... I promise. So... when Trystalyn arrived, around 20:15, she found the house a mess, with furniture upturned and windows smashed. Gretchen began to cry. She claimed she left Lir with Laila and Lyndon while she took out the garbage, but got chatting to a friend, who invited her to see his son's new basketball trophy. In the meantime, Laila and Lyndon took her wallet and wandered out to buy candy. She returned to find the house in that state. Lir was gone.'

'But that was all Tauros shit. They went to Lyndon's place after Gretchen threw them out. But his mom wasn't home – hence why he was with Gretchen – so there was no-one to back them up. No-one at any shop saw them, though.'

'Trystalyn then called the police... they interrogated Laila and Lyndon, who told Officer Johnson that Gretchen threw them out after hitting Lir too hard when he cried, interrupting a phone call. A neighbour who saw the supposed burglar described their uniform as "Cipher-esque." Laila confirmed she'd seen her mom wearing a "weird grey uniform with a yellow scarf." The police searched Gretchen's house for such a uniform and traces of an attack, but found nothing. After three months of unsuccessfully looking for Lir's body, they gave up.'

'We looked, too,' Horbit said, 'Us and all of my colleagues in Area 1. We checked every nook and cranny in Pyrite and Fool's Gold Park. Vander even got us a police Snubbull. Nothing.'

Trystalyn began to look guilty. 'I texted Gretchen, threatening to kill her if she ever came near us again... so she had that to use against us. And in cutting her off... we cut Laila off, too. We weren't there when she needed us.'

'Thank you for being so open with us. She'll be charged with Laila's murder, without a doubt, but I'd like to see justice for everyone she harmed.'

'She was always weird about Laila,' Dobit interjected, 'We only ever saw her with Gretchen. She preferred to leave her home alone than with us. Not to mention how she changed her name before she was born... she said she was scared of the dad, but Gretchen wasn't scared of anyone. Now... it's obvious she just didn't want the dad to find her so she could have total control over Laila.'

'Yes... we'll be interviewing Jamal, Laila's father, soon. She allegedly told him she miscarried. About Gretchen herself... can you tell us about her upbringing?'

'She was born in The Under, like me. We could still go up to the surface then. Cipher – we just knew them as "the organisation" – started infiltrating around the time Trystalyn was born. Gretchen was five. Her teachers complained that she was lazy, but that was all. She was seven when they introduced the first Shadow Pokémon. There wasn't much to do in The Under – everyone went to everything at the colosseum. Gretchen's eyes were glued to this thing. After the show, she waited for hours to meet Venus. It was out of character. She rarely got that excited about anything. Venus praised her "loyalty." We didn't really get any of it, I have to be honest. Soon after that, they stopped all travel to the surface because "the enemy" was out to get us. We just accepted it. There was no reason not to. Everyone thought Cipher was just the new authority. So from then on, kids grew up in this isolated paranoia. They started giving out Shadow Pokémon to winners at the colosseum. Gretchen desperately wanted one. We bought her a regular Poochyena. It was all we could afford. Her teachers still thought she was lazy, but she put in the time to train that little Pokémon. She didn't hestiate to have it attack anyone who bullied her.'

'So... they were the first violent incidents?'

'That we were aware of, yeah. She became kind of cold. We thought it was the whole Cipher business, but even when they were defeated and we moved out into Pyrite, she just got colder. She started hanging out with "bad boys" – and dating them – when she was about 13. Most of them couldn't handle her. She battled a lot and bought more Pokémon. We asked if she wanted to be a professional Trainer, if we could help with that, but she said no. She dropped out of school and went to work at a motel. She had no ambitions. I think now she always wanted to join Cipher.'

He sighed. 'About seven months into her pregnancy, she changed her name and moved into the house she lives in now. She cleaned up her act. Did a lot of voluntary work and started fostering orphaned kids. We were thrilled. We thought she'd found her calling. But we got suspicious when the years dragged on and we'd never once seen Laila or her foster kids without her close by. Then Cole, one of the kids, disappeared. She stopped fostering, saying she was heartbroken.'

'Was that the only disappearance you knew of?'

'Yeah. After she killed Lir, I tried telling the police she had to be a member of Cipher, but Johnson just insisted Cipher was finished. I think, personally, she was trying to raise all those kids to be, like, Cipher fighting machines. I wish I could tell you more... but we never really spoke to her again after Lir died, either. Not that she wanted us herself.'

'That's fine... thank you, Mr. Manning.'

Anabel stood. 'We'll probably return to speak with you again... but for now we'll move on to the next piece of the puzzle.'