Saying Looker seemed tired was an understatement.

Again, the investigator had red shot eyes and a beard was beginning to grow.

His clothes were wrinkled but he still chose to wear his brown long coat. Within his left hand he held a closed black umbrella and in his other hand he held a steel briefcase.

Overall he gave me the 'Sherlock gone rogue' feeling.

"You need my help?" I raised an eyebrow.

Looker nodded, "I wish I could ask someone else but…"

A painful silence followed. His eyes darted between Barry and Chelsea who remained silent, not to be respectful but to eavesdrop.

"Could we have this conversation somewhere else?" Looker asked me.

"Oh, don't be bothered by me." Chelsea said, "Just pretend I'm not there."

"Indeed mister," Barry added, "We are wasting time here we could have spent battling. So I am curious to see what this is about."

Their presence didn't really bother me, they gave me some sense of protection. It is not that I don't trust Looker, I just don't trust authorities.

I was pretty sure that neither Barry nor Chelsea had any friends; whatever Looker had to say, they wouldn't tell anyone.

I had a gut feeling Looker was about to say something that would eventually fuck up my evening, he had to. Fate hadn't pulled my leg for quite some time.

"So…," I asked Looker, "What is it about?"

The wind was getting colder and the sun had probably set behind the dark clouds.

Looker gave the three of us an annoyed look. He muttered something to himself and finally heaved a deep sigh as if finally accepting the situation.

"Are these your friends?" He asked me.

"Yeah, sure," I said, they were fun to be around so I guess they qualify as friends.

Again Looker gave the three of us a long stare.

"Okay," he closed his eyes in resignation, "What I am about to tell you remains unspoken."

"Wait, who are you anyway?" Barry cut him off.

"My name is Looker, I'm from the International Police. I am already familiar with Dust and Chelsea but I haven't met you before."

"My name is Barry Shifter, I'm from Twinleaf town," He proudly said, then he gave me a glance and mouthed: You know the police?

"Yeah," I shrugged, "Crazy shit isn't it?"

"Back to topic," Looker coughed, "Can I trust you three to stay silent?"

He must have been really desperate because he shot Chelsea a pleading look.

"Fine." Chelsea groaned.

"I won't tell either." Barry nodded.

"Sure," not like I had anyone to tell it anyway.

Looker couldn't detect any lies apparently because he started explaining. "There's a laboratory at the Devon Corporation building in this city that is held hostage by an unknown group. The entire floor is unreachable, the elevators have been disabled and all the stairways are barricaded, this entire fiasco has been going on for 2 days."

I blinked, "Call the police."

"They surrounded the building and are already negotiating but they are keeping it silent to prevent panic," Looker said matter of factly.

"You're serious?" Barry asked, "Are you sure?"

Looker nodded, "A few days ago they entered the building disguised as ordinary tourists and without a warning they took hold of the 23rd floor and barricaded it off."

"Cool," I said, not particularly interested. "What does it have to do with me?"

Looker grimaced, "I want your help with infiltrating the building before the police can manage that."

"Why?"

Looker gave us a sigh, "I have strong suspicions that the Sinnoh League has a mole that is potentially leaking information to an unknown benefactor."

I raised an eyebrow, "Say what?"

"Leaks, people and cases that are abandoned without a clear reason, files that go missing and orders that sometimes seem to disappear," Looker rattled on, "Something is being hidden by a few key components of the League and I am here to find out what it is."

"Team Galactic," I said out loud.

"You figured it out too?"

"The first sign something was wrong was during the Team Rocket interrogation," I remarked. "One guy wanted to talk but got killed before he could, really mysterious and all, information got leaked and somehow someone knew who they needed to kill, blah blah blah, Team Galactic is the shared factor."

Again, it was frightening to see how Team Galactic was worse than in the canon plot, they had an actual plan and were competent; a dreadful combination.

I could see how they might actually succeed in reshaping the world, all the puzzle pieces were already in the world, someone just had to place them in the right shape.

Not only was their plan to create a new world extremely short-sighted, but it was also dangerous. Meddling with Legendaries tends to get a lot of people killed, there's no lack of examples in this world's rich history.

Involving the potentially most powerful Pokémon in existence, only to create an Infinity Gauntlet, now that's a recipe for disaster.

Evil has changed and not for the better it seems.

"Yeah, I don't follow you," Barry said.

"Doesn't matter, that's not your case anyway," Looker told him. He turned to me "I only need your assistance."

"And you want us to infiltrate the building?" Chelsea asked, sounding quite excited.

"That's only part of it," Looker answered, "And I might have mentioned this multiple times, but I only need Dust for this."

Yay for being special.

"Why?" I asked.

"Two reasons, one," he pointed at Luna, "Your Ralts knows Teleport which would allow you to get past the police and straight into the building."

I couldn't recall ever telling Looker Luna can Teleport, I had lied to the police when they asked how I took down Crimson, maybe he had read one of those reports full of lies.

He was right though, Luna does know Teleport and if she could see her destination she could teleport to it.

"Second, and this is the main reason I need 'your' help and not someone else's; you have a reputation."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

"You do?" Barry asked, sounding surprised.

"He likes to break bones." Chelsea quipped. "His and others."

Looker ignored the others and stared at me, "You stood up against criminals multiple times and somehow not only survived each encounter but also won every time."

I did the mental math, multiple Team Rocket guys, and Crimson; guess I am doing great seeing how I am still standing and they're not.

Looker continued. "It wouldn't be a stretch if you once again play justice and decide to help the hostages. Officially I'm only in Jubilife City to investigate a missing person so I can't openly start something without warning the mole, but you…"

"You want me to act as a decoy," I deadpanned.

"Yes."

Well, at least he was honest about it.

"Meanwhile I can get in and find out what's going on and foil our invisible enemy's plan before they can do any real damage and before any evidence gets lost. How does that sound, Dust?"

This should have been an easy question,

I should've said no. That would be the wise thing to say.

It's not that I don't care about the people, but if it's not directly related or near to me, I’m pretty good at creating some mental distance.

No point in crying over the fact someone in the world dies because of an awful reason. Especially in this world.

However, there was another side to this.

In the Platinum games, there was a scripted event in which Professor Rowan gets assaulted by Team Galactic who want information.

That scripted event happens in Jubilife City after the player beats Roark.

There were dreadful similarities going on.

Another question was whether I had an actual choice in the matter.

This entire thing smells like Fate playing her games; there's a reasonable chance shit will hit the fan if I say no. End of the world levels of shit.

Doing this would give me access to more information about Team Galactic's whereabouts, or so I told myself.

I knelt down to face my little Ralts.

She seemed to be a bit nervous as well, probably because of me.

"What do you think about this?"

{Yes} Luna gave me an intense gaze that could be called...determined? Ready for battle?

There was one final equation of the dilemma that bothered me.

I felt strangely excited beyond what I should’ve felt, I knew it was just adrenaline but my heart was unaware of it.

The thought of doing something dangerous was somehow really alluring to me.

"One thing," I said as I got up, "I want something in return."

"You're not going to say yes because it's 'right'?" Looker gave me a disappointed look.

"You're the one who is about to send an inexperienced Pokémon trainer into a hostage situation." I countered.

"A Pokémon trainer who hospitalized several individuals and has shown to work well under stress." he corrected me, "But I do agree that a compromise is the least I can do. What do you want, money?"

"No, I have enough of that," I padded the Pokéball in my pocket, "I want to have the six Pokéballs limit removed from my account."

I thought it was a good request to make but everyone gave me a confused look.

"You do know you only have two Pokémon right?" Chelsea pointed out.

"They can do that?!" Barry almost shouted it.

"Yes, during a B level threat or above the Pokéball limit is temporarily suspended. Same for the League special forces and Pokémon Rangers, though they rarely use it."

I turned to Chelsea. "And yes, I only have two Pokémon right now but in the future that will most likely change and I personally prefer to keep all my Pokémon close if possible."

I meant it metaphorically but Luna gave my leg a big, warm, hug and smiled up at me.

"An unusual request," Looker said, "But I guess it can not really hurt, considering I can personally vouch for you. That means you're willing to help?"

"Yup."

"Wait, what about me?" Chelsea intervened, "Am I not invited?"

I blinked. "You are 12."

"13."

"Congratulations, you're 13, still a bad idea."

"I need Dust because of his skill set." Looker told the purple-haired girl, "It's not my habit to involve citizens."

"I am a Pokémon trainer," Chelsea pointed out. "I can help."

Haunter faded into existence in front of the stoic Looker.

"Me too." Bary stepped forward, "I can help."

Personally, I didn't really mind if they would help.

There's strength in numbers and as long as they played ball and side kicked me. Though I was slightly worried about Chelsea, that was only because she was kinda young.

But age doesn't really matter once you have a Pokémon to your disposal.

Looker probably came to the same conclusion because he gave in. "Fine, you two can tag along but keep in mind this is not a theme park ride."

With those cheerful words, he turned around and beckoned us to follow him to the Devon Corp headquarters.

Barry and Chelsea returned their Pokémon back into their Pokéballs and I offered Luna to hop onto my back and she graciously took up that offer.

As Looker led us through the city rain started to fall, a soft almost mist-like rain sprayed down the sky. It was swept around by the wind that had continued to grow fiercer.

We walked in contemplating silence.

It was very quiet in the city.

The black clouds that loomed over the city created an eerie atmosphere which made people focus on getting to their destination and only that. No one was enjoying anything outside.

Looker began explaining about the Devon Corp' building.

Apparently it was their headquarters for Sinnoh. It had multiple floors dedicated to every branch the Devon Corporation was involved with.

Barry offhandedly mentioned that their main building in Hoenn was even bigger, he knew that because he had gotten a tour once.

The official reason for the building being in lockdown was 'a containment breach causing a lethal agent to run wild in the building.'

Why that is supposed to keep people from panicking was beyond me.

After a short walk, we finally managed to reach the building.

It was a big building obviously meant to impress people. It had big lights aimed at the front where the logo was proudly displayed.

The building was sealed off with yellow tape, policemen had surrounded the building with cars and in the air one helicopter circled around the building.

Instead of entering the Devon Corp' building, he led us to the building next to it.

It was less impressive and overall quite boring, being just one block of concrete with glass. The name written on the building implied it was some lawyers firm.

Looker entered the building and we followed him. "I already prepared a perfect position."

He walked past everyone inside as if he was already familiar with the layout. He led us into an elevator and selected the 30th floor.

We exited the elevators and were met with an empty hallway.

Looker guided us through it and opened a door that led to an empty office.

Nothing fancy was going on, just a white desk with a chair and all the office supplies one would expect. But what the room lacked in style it made up for it with a great view of the landscape.

You could see the streets deep below us and in front of the window was the city skyline with the Devon Corporation building right in the middle.

"The 24th floor is right there," Looker pointed out of the window. I followed his line of sight. "You think she can teleport that?"

{Yes.} Luna narrowed her eyes as she took in the distance.

"She can," I told Looker.

"Good this should be a breeze for you three." Looker opened his suitcase and took out 4 weird looking spheres and put them on the desk.

They were the size of a hand grenade and had a redline on the metal surface that ran across it. A big metal button was in the middle of it.

It vaguely resembled a Pokéball.

"Oh," Chelsea grinned, "Hylla had one of those too, aren't they from Kanto?"

"And they are what?" Barry wisely asked.

"Paralyzer gas." Looker answered, "They dispense a gas that temporarily paralyzes the body, quite effective for crowd control. Works quickly and disappears within a minute."

I am definitely gonna keep one of them.

He gave the three of us a serious look. "Again, I want to stress that I am not going to risk your lives. Just teleport these in and wait a minute and it should be zero risk."

"It won't affect the Pokémon," Chelsea said, holding the orb.

"No, it won't, so you might need to battle their Pokémon." He tossed me a bundle of tie wraps.

"Child's play if you ask me, mop up whatever remains standing and save the day, while you three are in the spotlight I'll enter via the stairs and see if I can find out what they are doing."

I doubted it would be that easy but I didn't share my doubts. Instead, I just nodded along.

It was clear that Looker felt very uncomfortable that he needed our help but that he also had no other options. I kind of felt bad for him.

After repeating the instructions a few times, just in case we were stupid, he pulled out his Rotom phone.

"I'll text you when to start, is that clear?"

We nodded.

"Well, good luck kids." And with those heroic words, he left, closing the door behind him.

Barry and Chelsea began to talk in hushed tones while Luna paced in front of the window, subtly glancing in my direction.

I told Chelsea and Barry to keep their Pokémon inside their Pokéballs to make the teleport less draining for Luna.

"Ewww, is that a knife?" Barry asked, his eyes wide and looking at the weapon like he had never seen a blade before.

I nodded. "I expect the worst, better prepare myself."

Again the knife gave me a vague feeling of calmness, was that weird?

Meh, I like to think that this world requires a different mindset. I checked the gun to see if it still had enough charge.

It did.

"Let's do this."