Guys, this is probably the weirdest murder so far. You can start guessing in PRIVATE to me after you read this chapter, though remember that you're running the risk of either killing yourself or ending the story D: There are only ~13 characters left now! Chapter 7 will be a double murder, but before that, you better get ready for a feels trip.
Chapter 6
“What were you doing at the time of Rhydon’s murder?”
“Look, Vappy, I’m sorry,” Umbreon offers. “I have been accused left and right and I just snapped. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings, and I didn’t kill Rhydon.”
“How can I believe you?”
"You'll have to believe me, I wouldn't kill anybody! Not unless they were harming y-” He pauses. “...somebody I cared about. How was he killed, anyway? Certainly not with poison..."
“A microphone pole through the head,” Vaporeon says bluntly.
“A pole through the head?” he asks dumbly. “How am I strong enough--big enough--to do such a thing to a large, armored Pokemon? I’m a quadruped, Vaporeon. I don’t do that kind of stuff.”
“Anyone could,” she snaps.
“Look, Vap, I've been stuck watching tapes the whole time, since right after we parted ways! Follow my scent trail if you feel so inclined, but I can still guarantee you'll find no evidence of me anywhere near that body.”
Vaporeon glances at the floor. “I didn’t mean about the murder. I meant how can I believe you didn’t hurt my feelings? You’re a jerk, you know that? You think you can just humiliate me like that?”
“I’m
sorry!”
“Sorry isn’t good enough, Umbreon. I was hurt before by a stupid Lucario. He dumped me straight off.
Straight off! How can I trust anyone as even a friend? I don’t know what we are, and, right now, I don’t care.” Vaporeon sheds a tear and breaks down in her office.
“Vaporeon, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to,” he sniffs.
“Get out. J-Just get out,” she sobs.
Electrike goes back up to Rhydon’s catwalk to investigate the pen and paper from before.
“I still can’t believe Rhydude is dead,” he sighs.
He finds the same paper material used to write the murderer cards. Is it possibly that he wrote the murder notes? Electrike wipes a tear from his eye and walks down the steps from the catwalk to the ground floor. He decides to return to his station as DJ and bring some music back to the hall. He goes over to see his cord has been sliced from the wall.
“My sound system!” he screeches to the top of his lungs, causing objects to shake and Pokemon to clasp their ears. “What fiend bothered my beautiful sound system?”
Leavanny inches away from the scene.
Lopunny steps out of the bath stall and wrings out her ear’s hair. She had previously taken a nice, warm shower to hydrate her hair and give it more structure. She grabs her forehead and sweeps any loose strands of hair back along her scalp.
She steps right into “Minun’s” space. The mouse Pokemon walks in and sees that steam has conveniently covered the mirrors. Lopunny goes to draw a circle in the mirror and shade it in to provide some reference.
“What do you want, you brain disease?” she asks annoyedly.
Minun kicks her in the shin and grabs a long ear, pulling, and causing Lopunny’s head to lower down to Minun’s height.
“That’s better. Now, stay outta my face before I rip yours off, has-been,” Minun smiles, letting go over her ear and causing Lopunny to recoil back and slam her head against the mirror. Minun goes into one of the bathroom stalls and Lopunny hops out of the bathroom.
Umbreon walks down the hallway with an upsetting stride. He sniffs every few seconds and blinks hard to keep from going into tears. After all the suspecting, the skepticism, he thought Vaporeon didn’t like him at all--how was he supposed to know?
He passes Sylveon in the hall and sees her shrink into a blush. He smiles, she smiles. They make eye contact. Umbreon then sees Vaporeon staring in his peripheral view. He stops walking and turns around to speak to Sylveon.
“Hey, Sylveon,” he says sheepishly.
“Hi,” she whispers.
“How’ve you been?” he asks.
“Okay, I guess.”
“Cool.”
“Uh, yeah.”
Umbreon looks to see Vaporeon red in the face. The Water-type walks off in a rage and he sighs at the action. She was supposed to admit her wrongs to him and give him some sort of credit. He tells Sylveon goodbye and goes over to keep an eye on everyone.
Umbreon sees Honchkrow and mouths the words, “can we meet?”
Honchkrow shakes his head. “Tomorrow.”
Carracosta picks at a stone between his toes. He likes the stone upon getting it out, and he holds it between his thumb and pointer finger. He sniffs the stone until Chandelure comes around.
“Hey, candlestick,” he jests.
“Now now. I need to know something: is the contest going to continue? There are five contestants.”
Carracosta shakes his head. “No, actually. Vaporeon said she wouldn’t allow it until everyone is safe and the murderer is caught.”
“She’s so bossy. I’m sick of her interfering with everything in this Arceus-forsaken contest!”
“Hey, calm down. I bet if one more contestant dies, the rest would be in the final four automatically.”
Chandelure’s candles flare a little and appear brighter. “That makes me a little hopeful. I’ve worked so hard to get here, and I can’t back down. I can’t.”
“You’re an idiot, Lopunny,” Pidgeot announces in the Mega Evolution Meeting room.
“Ha,” she chuckles in a rather uncaring manner.
“I don’t need help to lead Mega Evolution into dominance, you know,” the bird says.
“You should at least delay it until the murdering stops and it isn’t in the news. If you come out now or if someone hears you, we’ll both be pinned for these murders. I’m not risking my reputation for you anymore. This is morally wrong.”
“You always were the weakest.”
“You’re being dangerous and stupid,” Lopunny warns.
“You can’t tell me what I am!” she says.
Pidgeot flies out of the room and charges for the stage. She goes to the backstage area, zips by Aipom, and reaches her destination. She knocks Chandelure and Electrike off the stage and talks about an announcement to make. Lopunny joins in and walks down the stage steps to the side wall, where she props herself up and crosses her arms. Lopunny has a smirk stretched on her face and a set of eyebrows raised very high.
“The competition is over,” Pidgeot squawks. “Mega Evolutions will take over the Contest Hall and run it accordingly. If you have any questions or concerns, speak to Pidgeot, the Mega Evolution Leader!”
The whole crowd is silent. Lopunny can be heard giggling. Leavanny, Umbreon, and Sylveon get on the stage to listen to Pidgeot continue.
“Please accept me as your leader or I will mega evolve and threaten you all!”
Honchkrow flies down from the stands and lands beside the stage for the first time ever. The Pokemon blankly stares at the spectacle before him.
“Popcorn! Get your popcorn while the bird squawks!” Aipom screams with bags of popcorn in each hand.
“I’ll take one!” Stunfisk yelps.
Electrike, now on the ground floor, looks off in the distance to see another rectangle-shaped note. He feels a twist in his stomach and goes over to see what it is. To his horror, it looks like the same card from the back. He flips the card around and breathes a sigh of relief.
“One free large popcorn at Aipom’s stand. Good until the end of the contest!” he reads from it.
Electrike slows his breathing to regular levels and decides to head back to his DJ area, at least for now. He walks over to see Vaporeon snooping around at the equipment. He begins to trot over there as he hears Pidgeot talk more and more about megas.
Carracosta stomps the floor, grabs a resultant rock, and slams it at Pidgeot’s head, causing her to fall to the ground. Everyone cheers as the Pokemon gets knocked out.
Leavanny sits on the stage and lets his legs dangle. He kicks back and forth, and then he sees Umbreon sitting alone.
“What’s wrong, Umbreon?”
“Vaporeon accused me of murdering Rhydon and I got upset, so I told her I don’t trust her anymore and now she hates me. I tried to get her to be jealous or something when I talked to Sylveon, but it only made things worse,” he explains.
“You poor, poor idiot,” Leavanny laughs. “Everything’ll work out, you just wait.”
The two exchange encouraging smiles and watch as Carracosta dances around on stage.
“We have a connection, Aipom. I know we do,” Sylveon says to her friend.
“Well then you need to let Umbreon know. Does he?”
“Probably not,” she admits.
“Show off to Umbreon and appeal to him. Vaporeon sure isn’t right now,” Aipom explains.
“You know, you’re right. Thanks!”
Aipom cheerfully hugs her and hides his fiercely determined eyes.
Vivillon sits in the stands and begins to contemplate her life’s meaning. She has seen a judge die, several contestants die, and electrician…! Life is turning terrible for her, and she wonders if she has a place in it anymore. She looks nearby and suddenly spots a knife in the chair beside her. She picks up the knife and looks at her reflection through its blade, and then pokes her finger with the very tip of it.
“Don’t do it,” a voice says from behind her.
Lopunny walks over and grabs a seat beside the Pokemon Contest judge. “You’ll regret it. Most do. What’s troubling you?”
Vivillon looks at the ground. “I can’t say too much, it’s dangerous.”
“Really?” Lopunny, puzzled, asks in surprise. “Well, anyway, look at it this way: you’re alive here and now, and that’s all that matters. Can I please have the knife?”
Vivillon hands Lopunny the weapon.
“Thanks,” Lopunny says, and she stores it away.
In the background, a Camouflaged Stunfisk watches as his knife, which he planted for Vivillon, is now in Lopunny’s possession. He tiptoes / gently flops away and hits a waiting Honchkrow’s belly.
“We need to talk about something,” the bird scowls.
Stunfisk gulps.
Leavanny goes about trimming Minun’s hair again, though this time while facing away from the mirror.
“Not sure why you’d want to ditch such a lovely face, but I guess everyone’s a critic,” he smiles.
“I just don’t like mirrors,” Minun offers as an explanation.
“You seem ill,” he says with a snip at the back of the head.
Minun winces. “Well you seem nosy,” she counters.
Leavanny quits his snipping and looks at her in the eyes. “Minun, that isn’t you, is it?” he asks slowly.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Of course I’m Minun.”
Umbreon goes up to Vaporeon to finally face his imminent fate. He nudges her head with his and they interlock, but Vaporeon surprisingly doesn’t destroy him.
“I’m sorry about hurting your feelings. We never really talked about Lucario or Gothorita,” he explains. “It won’t happen again.”
Vaporeon nods and the two hug again.
“I need you to know that I have feelings for you, Vaporeon. Maybe we can get dinner and a movie sometime after this is all over?” he suggests.
Vaporeon smiles and nods again.
Sylveon peeks around a corner to see the two of them conversing. She quickly zips her head back out of view and runs off to cry on Aipom’s shoulder. Vaporeon has done it again.
“Umbreon, did you know I can blend in with water? I can use my Acid Armor attack and fuse my cells with water molecules, thus making me go in water!”
“Cool!” Umbreon says happily.
“I have an idea,” she says. “You’re going to tell Pidgeot that this water is really good, and then you’re going to give it to her. I will be in that bottle. Pidgeot will feel obligated to take that water, and she won’t drink it--must don’t. Or, if she does, I’ll just come out of there and call her as a witness for something. I need to know what she’s doing behind those doors.”
Umbreon looks at her in disbelief. “You’re insane. It’s too risky!”
“It’s
creative and unexpected,” she says.
“I won’t have a part in it.”
Vaporeon looks at him with Baby-Doll Eyes. Umbreon forces a smile and changes his mind. “Maybe it’ll work,” he whispers. “But be careful. Vaporeon, I...I lo-” he begins.
“Don’t worry,” she smiles. “I know.”
And so the conversation between him and the bird took place. The bird took the water bottle and thanked him, but she soon slung the bottle in the trash and unintentionally knocked Vaporeon out. An hour goes by and nothing happens.
Umbreon waits patiently backstage, near the curtains. He stares down the hallway and sees nothing. He lies down and dozes off while waiting. He wakes up to find that several hours have gone by.
He jumps up, shocked. He looks around--no sign of her. He goes into the room where the recordings are--no sign of her. He walks into Pidgeot’s private room and beats the door down with his back legs. He hops in to find, again, no sign of her. He goes into Leavanny’s room, into the competitors’ rooms, into the bathroom areas, back to the backstage area, and all around the stage and audience location.
There is absolutely no sign of Vaporeon anywhere. Umbreon tosses the water bottle in the trash can and tries to think rationally. If she was poured down the sink, or flushed down the toilet, she could just move in the water to come back up, right? If she was kept somewhere private, she could have busted herself out.
He goes over to Electrike’s sound system and asks if he can make an announcement over the intercom. Electrike, groggy from sleeping, agrees. As Umbreon walks over to sit down, he finds an open bottle of water with a live wire inside it. He goes to pull the wire out and shocks himself, knocking him back. He looks in horror as the water bottle remains still. He manages to get up and move the water bottle to the top of the station.
“Oh, nice! A drink!” Electrike cheers and drinks the whole bottle in one gulp.
Umbreon stands and watches the display. His head thrusts forehead and he holds his mouth shut.
Don’t vomit. Don’t vomit. He runs to a nearby trash can and empties his stomach of any undigested food. He gets up, wipes his mouth, and tastes the acids that had come up through the regurgitation.
“Did...did Electrike just drink my girlfriend?” Umbreon looks back, sees Electrike let out a sigh of satisfaction, and runs to the trash can.
Dead: Vaporeon
Accused: Electrike (Celever)
(((