Chapter 7
“Vaporeon’s dead, so can we get on with the contest?” a rather inconsiderate Chandelure begs. “I’ve come all the way from Unova to be in this set of contests, and you’re going to stop at the
quarterfinals? Even for you, Pidgeot, that’s pathetic.”
“Vaporeon is dead, that’s true. Hmm….no,” Pidgeot shrugs.
“Why not? You can’t just say ‘no’ without asking anyone else about their feelings toward it!”
“I understand your concern, but I don’t make the rules. I just formulate, emphasize, and contradict them. Oooh, wait, I do make the rules….No!”
Chandelure glares at the bird as she flies out of her room. The Ghost-type looks around the room and admires the Mega Stones kept in display cases, the feather collection over on the table, and the beautiful carpet. Chandelure walks out the door and pretends to hit the side of it, causing an ember from one of its candles to set a rug ablaze. He shrugs as the whole room begins to burn apart from the inside.
Leavanny screeches as he smells the burning. He runs past Chandelure and goes to pick up the rug, which was sewn from his bare hands and String Shot, and stomps on it to put the fire out. However, being a Grass/Bug type, he catches on fire and runs around until he makes it to the bathroom. Chandelure slowly moves away.
“I heard you were trying to frame me for the murder,” Honchkrow says with fixed eyebrows.
“No, sir, I ju’t told ‘em I found yer feather ‘nd a knife in Leavanny’s room.”
“So you tried to frame both me and that bug thing? You disgust me.”
“But you said--”
“I know what I said, but I’m not telling you. You’re too stupid to understand it. You can just go frame some other idiot because I don’t want some ignorant flounder trying to get my nose dirty. I’ve stayed out of this murdering dilemma the whole time until you’ve started gossiping to your little fishy friends,” Honchkrow screeches.
“Feebas died,” Stunfisk says with a sigh. “We’re fri’nds, bit not now.”
“I ought to slit your stupid little Ground-type throat for all the pain you’ve caused.”
“We don’t
know if she’s dead, bro,” Electrike insists.
“Shut up.”
“Dude, I had no clue dat water was yo bae. I was jus’ thirsty from all da rockin’, ya hear? I seen Pidgeot throw dat same bottle into da trash earlier, though. Why did he take it out again and give it to me? He must've known Vappy was in there!" The Electric-type then makes a face that sort of looks like an “
” or something.
Umbreon’s face softens to a puzzle. “I don’t know what you’re saying, but you killed her! Arceus knows you drank her straight up. But why?”
“I’m tellin’ you, the rockin’ gets to me, dude. I can’t stop the vibes~”
Umbreon facepalms and rubs his eyes. His face turns dull and he tells Electrike to go on. Perhaps he’s right. Maybe she isn’t dead. He walks out of the equipment room and goes onto the stage to look over the crowd. Everyone’s there but Leavanny, and Umbreon already knew the Pokemon was hurt and in the bathroom or something.
“It has come to my attention that Vaporeon is no longer among us,” he says with a slight pause in between the final words. “As such, I will do my best to lead this investigation. Once it gets to an amount of people we can handle, I will give the police permission to interrogate us all.”
Several people speak up and Umbreon feels bombarded with questions, but these Pokemon are not the press.
“Do you have an idea of who the murderer might be?” asks a nervous Vivillon.
“Not yet,” he says sheepishly.
“Do you have an idea of who the murderer is not?”
“Me?” he suggests, but no one replies. “Any more questions?”
“I have one,” says a voice from the back. A black-tinted Leavanny walks up with his leaves tattered and ruined. “Why is Chandelure still walking among us? He set Pidgeot’s entire room on fire.”
“
Whaaat?” Umbreon screeches.
“My feathers! My mega stones!” Pidgeot flies out into the backstage area, screeches at the sight of a spreading fire, and flies back to report.
Umbreon runs back as well. He sees as the bird changes her course and he then decides to block the whole area off completely.
“Does anyone have any moves that can help with the rocks?”
Everyone looks at Carracosta, who feels overwhelmed. “I can use Rollout, or, uh, Whirlpool?”
“How about you use that last move to extinguish the fires. After you’re done, I want you to slam yourself into the wall and stack the rocks up as a barrier.”
“I can use Earth Power,” Stunfisk suggests. “I can use it ‘nd make the hallway cave in. Then we’d only be in dis ‘ere room.”
“I guess it’s our only shot,” Umbreon shrugs.
“I have a question,” Honchkrow says aloud. “Why did you not make the proposition to restrict everyone into this room in the first place? If you had, several of us might still be here.”
“I wasn’t in charge, Vaporeon was.”
“She was sweet on you and you know it,” says an angry Aipom.
“Aipom, calm down, it’s okay,” Sylveon coaxes him, but he pushes her off.
“Several of us have died and all you’d have to do it ask her to shut the facility down. You crooked Pokemon probably planned this all from the start.”
“Don’t be a conspiracy theorist, Aipom,” Umbreon says.
“There isn’t any conspiracy about what’s going on,” Lopunny says as she stands up on the stage. “There is a murderer in this room and a fire behind us. We can either have Carracosta clean the fire up and Stunfisk destroy the rest of the building or we can die here right here, right now.”
Everyone seems surprised at Lopunny’s leadership speech. She blushes and prepares to step down, but Stunfisk starts gulping out loud. The others begin to clap.
Lopunny smiles. “Alright then, Umbreon, tell us what we need to do.”
“Okay,” Umbreon says nervously, “Carracosta, you whip up some water to stop the fire from spreading. Once he comes back, Stunfisk, I want you to destroy the hallway and have the wall cave in.”
“Okee,” Stunfisk flops.
“One question,” Chandelure asks really quick.
“What?”
“Can we start the contest back up? It might calm the killer down.”
Umbreon stares at him with narrowed eyes, but he nods slowly. “Yeah, sure.”
“Um,” Leavanny says quietly in the back. “If that’s the case, I need to go to my room and grab the costumes. I can use Helping Hand to improve his Whirlpool, too.”
Umbreon drops his head between his legs and bobs up and down in a nod. “Fine, Leavanny, go get your clothes.”
The turtle and insect run into the fiery hallway and start working together. He begins creating spirals of water and Leavanny begins clapping to increase his abilities. Soon however, everyone else focuses their attention back on Umbreon.
“What next?” Minun asks.
“Well,” he says.
“Well!” screeches Pidgeot. “I say we get the cameras rolling and redo the appeals round! Start practicing, you five! Only four of you can make it to the semifinals!”
Chandelure, Sylveon, and Lopunny squeal in excite. Minun smiles smugly and Umbreon nods in satisfaction.
“I’ll take over from here,” Pidgeot decides.
Carracosta slams one last bit of water onto the fire as Leavanny comes back with makeup kits and cloth and vests and mittens and scarves and dyes. He runs with the materials as Carracosta trails from behind him, and the turtle picks up whatever falls from his friend’s arms.
As the two of them make it into the backstage area, Stunfisk glows yellow and creates a crack in the ground, and the crack goes to the sides of the hallway, into the walls, and to the ceiling. The materials of the hall implode and it turns into an avalanche of wood and stone. Carracosta, Leavanny, and Stunfisk jog away as the last of the rubble falls into place. The result is a doorway of rocks that replaces the emptiness of the hall. Carracosta nods and the three of them return to the main contest platform.
Electrike gets a small copper wire and twists it around the broken wire of his sound system. He then ties it to the other broken piece hanging at the wall. Whoever did this will have to pay, of course. DJing isn’t cheap, and neither is ruining equipment. It would be such a shame for the evil-doer to get pummeled.
Nearby, Leavanny moves clothing around on the seats of the audience and organizes them by person. He starts calling names for people to get clothing.
“Lopunny!” he says.
The rabbit struts over and picks out her fancy brown-leather vest and slips her Mega Stone in it. She thanks Leavanny and continues walking in a rather attention-grabbing way.
“Umbreon,” he continues.
Umbreon walks over and greets Leavanny. He’s then told his clothes burned up in the fire, and so Leavanny doesn’t exactly have his on hand.
“So I don’t have anything for the appeals round?”
“Unfortunately, you don’t,” Leavanny frowns.
“Gee, thanks,” he sighs.
Leavanny watches him leave and then glares through his very soul. How dare the Pokemon not take the fire into account?
Next comes Sylveon, and she’s given a sparkly blue dress. After her, Minun comes to find a renewed purple vest with softer fabric and a looser structure, perfect for battling in.
“Thanks!” she says to the Pokemon as she leaves.
Finally, Chandelure. He walks right past Leavanny and goes over to speak with Pidgeot. Leavanny’s jaw drops. He rips up Chandelure’s clothes and tosses them.
Behind Leavanny, a Stunfisk creepily dances in Umbreon’s black jacket. He sniffs the fabric and his eyes grow wide. He’s in love.
“What are you planning?” Sylveon asks Lopunny as the Pokemon styles her hair in the reflection of a window.
“My performance for the appeals round. Problem?”
“You better watch it. If you even touch Umbreon…”
“Aw, getting defensive of your man even though his girlfriend just died?”
“Don’t talk about it like that. It isn’t funny,” Sylveon asserts.
“Bite, bite, bite,” Lopunny whispers word after word.
Sylveon’s face turns bright red. She coughs and looks around to make sure no one heard Lopunny say anything.
“You better know who you’re messing with before you get trashed. I’m trying to keep a clean slate for now.”
“‘For now’ meaning?”
“Meaning leave me alone. I’ve done nothing wrong and I won’t until I need to, so please go get ready to lose.”
Sylveon walks away and joins Aipom as they stroll to some random location, whatever is away from Lopunny. She explains what happened and Aipom clenches its tailed fist.
“I’ll rough her up. Just give me the green light,” he says.
“Thanks, Aipom. I need to go talk to Umbreon for now.”
Aipom and Sylveon part ways, and Aipom goes to sell some popcorn to Honchkrow.
“Hey, Aipom,” the Head Honcho whispers.
“What do you want?”
“I want one large popcorn,” he says loudly, but he then leans in closer, “and a few words in private.”
Aipom looks nervously at the bird, blinks, and nods. The two of them walk away from the activity and head to the staircase near the stage.
“You better watch out for Sylveon,” he says. “I know you’re sweet on her.”
“Butt out, Honchkrow,” Aipom sighs.
“No, you don’t understand. I heard that Chandelure was going to find a way to cheat to beat her. After all, I heard that he set Pidgeot’s room on fire just so he could get what he wants. Now he wants to win. What do you think he’d do for that?”
“Okay, well, what do I do?” Aipom asks.
“Well,” the crow remarks, “I wouldn’t mind having someone watch my back in exchange for me watching his.”
“What does that mean?”
“That means I need a partner in taking down this murderer and getting all the fame. In exchange for your detective work, I’ll help protect Sylveon and give you all the Rare Candies you want.”
Aipom remains silent for a minute. “I’ll do it,” he finally says, “but forget about the Rare Candies. That’s behind me.”
Electrike sits at his table and starts the music. Immediately, he sees a few Pokemon jamming in the back--one being Leavanny. He feels great. He puts on his headphones and listens to the beat.
“Welcome back to the Pokemon Contest Spectacular Quarterfinals, sort of!” Pidgeot announces as Aipom attempts to handle Rhydon’s old job at handling the cameras.
“Aipom, I’m over here...yeah...in the middle of the stage. Am I on? Alright. Welcome back to the--oh, they’ve gotten all of this so far? Oh, okay, thanks for telling me too late...yeah...Okay! We have five contestants that are going to start the appeals round, and the first Pokemon is Chandelure! ... Chandelure!” Pidgeot looks at the stage and grumbles.
“Where is Chandelure?” She glances back at the camera, smiles weakly, and says, “Sorry for the interruption, but it’s time for a commercial break.”
She rushes backstage and looks for the Pokemon. She finds Chandelure talking to Vivillon against the hallway wall. Pidgeot glides over and sets beside the two Pokemon. “What do you think you’re doing here?”
Vivillon rolls her eyes. “I was trying to tell Chandelure that I’m not going to “fix the votes” just because I like his fire! Now, Chandelure,
you’re up!”
“You guys have some sort of bias against me, I know it!”
Tnnng!
Pidgeot squawks. “Did you hear that?”
“Hear what?” Chandelure demands.
Tnnng!
“That!”
“No, I didn’t,” the Fire-type insists.
“
Krrrg!
Pidgeot sees the stones from the ceiling falling, and she pushes Vivillon straight out of the way. The moth slams against the floor and slides a ways, hitting one of the side walls, as a heavy amount of rocks slam down on Pidgeot and Chandelure. Dirt rises up into the air and blinds a portion of the room. Vivillon screams for Pidgeot, screams for the rocks to stop, and then gets picked up by a worried Umbreon.
“What just happened?” he asks as the smoke begins to clear. Umbreon sees the rocks and a cracked mega stone lying nearby. His eyes grow wide. Umbreon looks up at the smoke and sees a figure fly overtop the catwalk. Could it be…?
“Pidgeot and Chandelure were crushed by those falling boulders,” Vivillon says weakly.
“What happened?” Carracosta asks as he trudges toward them from somewhere nearby.
“Pidgeot and Chandelure are…”
“Are they?” he asks.
He removes one of the boulders and sees blood soaking underneath. Sylveon blasts another boulder off Chandelure and finds every candle cracked, even the one supporting his face. He’s dead.
Sylveon screams out and falls to the floor in surprise. Umbreon runs and catches her, much to her enjoyment, and then he sets her down on the ground.
“Did anyone see what happened?”
“They came from the ceiling,” Vivillon explained. “I don’t know who did it.”
“I bet I do,” Umbreon, agitated, says.
He runs across the stage, the rolling cameras, and jumps into the stands. Aipom moves the spotlights to Umbreon, and it shows him holding Honchkrow by the feathers of his chest.
“What were you doing up there flying around?” he asks angrily.
Honchkrow smiles. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I saw you fly off from the smoke!”
“Oh, that. I was visiting Aipom up in the catwalk. Go ask him.”
Umbreon, forced to accept it as truth for now, leaves the Pokemon alone and runs back to the base of the floor, and then up the stairs of the catwalk. He runs over to Aipom and looks at the Pokemon.
“Did Honchkrow just come to visit you, or did he just fly away from the smoke?”
Aipom, sweating, looks around to see no escape. He looks at Umbreon a moment until something shines in his eye.
“Honchkrow was not here at all,” he says.
“For Arceus’s sake, I need the truth!”
Minun and Lopunny stand beside each other and look at the wreckage.
“I never liked her,” Lopunny says quietly.
“Neither did I. That stupid bird was an attention hog,” Minun mutters.
“I’ll say.”
Electrike runs back to his DJ station. He pants and drinks two bottles of water afterward. He smiles at the victory and looks over at the stones. His smile soon fades as he sees several Pokemon hurt.
“Where were
you?” Sylveon asks as he runs over.
“I was running around the inside perimeter to keep my heartbeat up, why?”
“No reason,” Sylveon says.
Leavanny and Stunfisk walk around at the base of the stage and cross paths.
“You know what happened?” the Grass-type asks.
“Not really,” Stunfisk shakes his head.
“I wonder how long this has to go on until the murderer is happy,” Leavanny says.
“A while,” Stunfisk says.
Dead: Pidgeot, Chandelure
Accused: No one?!
(Just means I won't need a PM this time)
