I silently wrapped the blindfold over Butterfree’s eyes and placed the noise canceling headphones over where I assumed her ears would be.

The Double Team Ralts clone impassively waited as I tied the wings together with a piece of rope I brought along. I made sure that the rope wasn’t actually cutting into the wings while she was incapacitated.

I didn’t want to accidentally tear her fragile looking wings apart, that’s why I didn’t use duct tape like I initially planned.

The problem with Butterfree was that she was a teleporting Pokémon that wasn’t limited by line of sight.

The blindfold was only meant to confuse her and prevent her from firing any attack with the idea that friendly fire was off.

The noise canceling headphones should prevent her from hearing Crimson’s commands and hopefully also add to the confusion.

And now, Butterfree couldn’t see, hear and hopefully also not fly.

I could already imagine Butterfree flying outside and some stupid side character getting rid of the blindfold for her, hence I made sure she couldn’t move an inch.

When I was done with all the precautions I took a step back.

Time for part 2, take out Crimson.

Now I was running on a tight schedule, I had no time frame for how long it took for Butterfree to regain consciousness, it could be 3 minutes or the entire night.

If I was correct, Crimson would be somewhere above me.

According to Ralts, he slept directly above Butterfree.

Ralts and I made our way towards the metal stairs, knife in my left hand and pepper spray in my right.

The metal stairs began next to the door and they went to the center of the second floor. There were no handrails to support me or to prevent me from falling down which added to the image of an abandoned warehouse that was falling apart.

The second floor hovered over the ground floor like a large balcony, supported by metal bars and wooden platforms.

I suspected it was originally meant to store containers or something.

Now it was Crimson’s sleeping place.

Although it looked more like a homeless person was sleeping here instead of Sinnoh’s most famous thief.

Surprisingly the second floor was better lit than the ground floor by the moonlight which allowed me to get a look.

At the end of the platform was a mattress laid out on the floor where Crimson was sleeping right now, his figure hidden by a blanket.

Next to his bed stood a plastic camping table that functioned as a nightstand with random stuff on it, though mostly junk food and other trash had been left on the table.

A large metal shelf was placed against the wall, on it were various tools a thief might need, camping equipment and his costume.

His red cape was draped over the entire shelf the way a teenager would throw his clothes over the tv.

There was however one thing missing.

The figure underneath the blanket shot up and I ran towards him, trying to see if I could cross the distance fast enough.

Two shiny guns were pointed in my direction and without even thinking about it I pushed myself against the wall while Ralts beside me dropped to the floor.

Just in time, an almost blinding flash followed and I could almost feel the bullet fly past my head.

I heard two bangs, one from his silver gun and one from his golden gun.

The fact that Crimson slept with both his guns in bed was just utter bullshit.

I really hoped he would have them on a nightstand or in a drawer but it seems that we truly can’t have nice things in life.

Another bullshit thing was that Crimson, the guy who slept through a firecracker in front of his house, for some reason woke up and noticed something was wrong.

Did he have a psychic friendship based connection with his Butterfree? Did I make too much sound or did he have some criminal instincts that warned him?

Okay, so I was spotted, time for plan B.

I leaped towards Crimson before he could fully comprehend what was going on and to see if he missed.

Before he could fire a second shot I was already in his face, my knife was pressing against his throat.

At the same time a silver gun was pushing against my temple and a second gun was aimed at Ralts who stood to my left.

Crimson and I both grimaced at the same time once we realized the stalemate we were in.

I could slice his throat and he could shoot with both his guns.

Now I could see his face, no longer obscured by his mask, I saw he was very young, around 20 or so.

His red hair was all messy and a large hairlock covered one half of his face.

Crimson had dark red almond shaped eyes that had a combination of annoyance and surprise within them.

He wore short pants and a black shirt that revealed his body wasn’t as well trained as I thought.

He was taller than I was but not a lot, which was a small relief if it would come to a serious fight.

“Who the fuck are you and how did you get inside?” Crimson snarled, confused, ignoring the knife I held against his throat.

It was an uneasy stalemate but I could work with it, I hope.

“I am Justice,” I lied, no point in telling him my real name right?

Crimson’s eyes widened, “Wait, it’s you! The blue haired kid with the Ralts.”

I sighed, sometimes I wondered if I should dye my hair for real.

Crimson grinned when he saw my expression, “So it is you? Came to get your revenge?”

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He sounded no longer confused, instead he sounded like his usual old self.

“You stole my stuff, now I want it back.” I said, having actually no idea what to say.

Crimson laughed out loud, his throat almost scraping against my blade in the process. “You truly try to get revenge, don’t you! Oh, this is gold!”

“Ralts!” Ralts cursed, or it sounded like a curse to me.

I narrowed my eyes, “Don’t think I’ll let you walk out like this.”

Crimson had an arrogant smirk on his face, “You and what army?”

He gave both his guns a quick wave, “You brought a knife to a gunfight?”

“I have a Ralts,” I fired back.

Crimson rolled his eyes, “Well aren’t you the smart one, RIGHT SCARLET!?”

We both waited for something to happen but Butterfree didn’t appear.

Crimson’s smile faltered.

“Something wrong?” I smiled.

“SCARLET!?” Crimson cried out, not taking his eyes off me.

When it became clear his Butterfree wouldn’t show up he narrowed his eyes. “What did you do to her?”

“Just some kinky stuff,” I answered, “Now my turn; Who is Rem?”

Crimson blinked, “Wha-”

His stance slightly faltered and I made my move.

I removed my knife from his throat to slap away the gun that was pushed against my temple while at the same time I dropped down, letting my body go limp.

Crimson fired both guns.

He missed, to his own surprise.

One bullet passed over my head while the other hit Ralts right in the face.

However, instead of wounding her, she disappeared.

“What!?” Crimson muttered as he witnessed the bullet pass through the illusion.

Standing to Crimson’s right the real Ralts opened her mouth and screamed.

Crimson slammed against the metal railing and he let out a groan.

He got up but he had lost both his guns in the process,

The golden gun was flung towards the stairs while the other one fell next to Crimson.

I made a dive for the golden gun and aimed it at Crimson the same time Crimson readied his gun to fire at me.

From his position he could now see his Butterfree, his eyes widened and he let out a curse.

Ralts fist glowed white and I saw she readied herself to jump, which would turn the situation into a 50/50.

Either he would try to shoot Ralts out of the air or he would try to shoot me.

To my surprise, Crimson kicked the nightstand towards Ralts.

Immediately after that, he shot at me but his aim was thrown off by a Disarming Voice Ralts used to block the white nightstand.

Crimson dashed towards me and I tried to fire but he again surprised me by grabbing his red cape that hung over the metal shelf.

He tossed it towards me and blocked my sight.

I stepped back, almost tripped and took hold of the blanket that was draped over my head and threw it aside.

Crimson stood in front of me holding a Pokéball and a pair of shoes he had grabbed from the metal storage shelf.

Shit, did he have a second Pokémon or was it Butterfree’s Pokéball?

We hadn’t sensed anyone else inside the warehouse beside Butterfree and Crimson.

Both cases were bad, if it was Butterfree’s Pokéball he could recall her and run away and wait for her to wake up.

If it was a second Pokémon he might try to start a fight, thus distracting Ralts from helping me deal with a gun maniac.

Crimson’s eyes surveyed the area before deciding to jump over the metal railing.

He landed on his feet and let out a groan as he dropped a good 6 meters (10 feet) to the ground floor.

Crimson got up and aimed his gun at me but a purple ray speeding towards him made him move.

I tried to aim at Crimson but I knew that the chance I would actually hit him was very low. I never held a gun in my entire life and all my experience came from shooter games.

But Crimson didn’t know it.

He raised both his hands, still holding his gun and Pokéball.

Without a warning, he pressed the button in the middle of the Pokéball and a red flash shot out of it.

White light, almost blinding, began to form into a Pokémon and I cursed.

A yellow Pokémon solidified in front of Crimson and I fired, trying to aim at his leg but honestly my aim was so bad, I just hit the wall on the other side of the room.

The recoil from the gun surprised me and made me almost lose my footing.

The Pokémon that Crimson had summoned floated in front of him.

Its head vaguely looked like a kitten but even that comparison was a stretch.

“Abra,” it yawned.

“We’re out of here,” Crimson told his Abra, “Grab Scarlet and get us out of here.”

Abra turned towards Butterfree but Ralts had other plans.

She too jumped down from the second floor and launched herself towards Butterfree with a Disarming Voice aimed at the wall, flinging her across the warehouse.

She landed in front of Butterfree and shot a Confusion at Abra.

Abra swiftly moved aside, gliding through the air, and gave Crimson a questioning look.

Crimson cursed and spit on the floor, “Leave her, get us out of here.”

“Abra.”

Both Abra and Crimson glowed white for a second.

Ralts fired a Disarming Voice at the two but before the sound waves reached them they disappeared.

I ran down the stairs, not feeling like jumping.

Fuck, he has a second teleporter.

My back up plan covered him releasing a second Pokémon to fight Ralts but Crimson didn’t fight.

He teleported away, fucking coward.

It had to be his final trick, a second Pokémon with the move Teleport, hidden away until Crimson was cornered.

“Ralts!RaltsRaaaaRaaals!” Ralts cried out as she ran towards me.

I frowned, “What’s wrong?”

Except for the fact that Crimson escaped of course, well, at least we had his Butterfree and all his loot.

She pointed at the map on the wall. Her eyes stressed and I felt she really wanted to share something.

“Can you sense him?” I asked.

She nodded and pointed at the pocket where I kept my Pokédex, gesturing for me to hurry.

I took out my Pokédex and she jumped up to grab it out of my hand, she flipped it open and

scrolled through the menu with such ease I was actually surprised.

She found the map option and zoomed in on our current location.

She tapped at the screen. “Ralts!” she said, determined.

“Wait, he’s there?” I asked.

If that’s true that meant that Crimson was only a city block away.

“Ralts!” She suddenly cried out, she tapped another button and zoomed out. She pointed at a new location.

This time it was further away from us.

“He teleported again?”

Ralts nodded.

I frowned, last time Crimson teleported he was immediately out of Ralts’ range but now it looked like he was moving away from us in smaller steps with intervals.

The realization took me longer than I’d like to admit.

“Abra has a smaller Teleporting distance than Butterfree!” I exclaimed and Ralts nodded.

I stared at the two points on the screen, Crimson had teleported, apparently waited and then teleported again.

Abra was maybe a weaker teleporter than Butterfree, because it was less trained or maybe because Crimson kept Abra inside its Pokéball most of the time.

Maybe Abra’s teleport had a cooldown time, it was possible and it could explain the spacing between the teleports.

“Ralts.” Ralts told me, her eyes narrowed and her fist clenched.

“You want to go after him?” I asked and she nodded, she did have a point.

We made Crimson flee, why leave it at this?

Still, we had the small problem of Crimson still being faster than we could run, especially if he could teleport.

No matter how small the distance was he would stay ahead of us.

I studied the markers on the Pokédex, it looked like Crimson was going West.

How do we catch up with Crimson?

“I think I know something,” I muttered and took the Pokédex in my hand.

Ralts nodded and smiled at me.

I smiled back.

After tapping on the screen and navigating to my contact list I pressed a button.

“Let’s hope she says yes,” I muttered as the text on my Pokédex read:

Calling Hylla