Chapter 4
“I don’t know, Umbreon, it’s just a hair bow. Anyone could have swiped it,” Vaporeon shrugs with a slow shake of the head.
“I know, but are we going to just let Leavanny get out of this? "
"Truly, you must be desperate if you believe that the presence of one of my bows on the poor victim points to
me.” Leavanny urges. “Those carefully crafted accessories are intended for fashion, not as some cheap murder instrument!”
He pauses for a moment and looks at the leaves of his tail, of his legs, and of his head. “That being so, the culprit must take you all for
simpletons if she thinks she'll be able to pull the wool over your eyes with such a simple ruse. I don't suppose that anyone decided to check the actual contestant who wore those bows, hmm?”
Umbreon and Vaporeon glance at each other nervously, and Vaporeon opens her mouth to speak. Leavanny cuts her off with further diatribe about the accusations.
“Lopunny has proven herself devious enough to attempt something like that, and look! You can tell just by glancing at her that she's missing one of her bows now!"
The two Eeveelutions flip around to look at Lopunny, though both bows are out of her ears now. She tilts her head and smiles as her presence is acknowledged.
“Why, hello!” she says with a smile. “I’m terribly sorry about Noivern.”
“I bet,” Umbreon mutters.
Lopunny conceals the other ribbon behind her back in desperation. As a result, she creates a Shadow Ball that dissolves the ribbon into nothingness and she brings her arms back up to view, and she stretches to further prove she’s hiding nothing.
“Perhaps we should find a cell of some sort to keep suspects,” Umbreon offers.
“No,” Vaporeon remarks.
“Okay.”
Lopunny shuts the door and twists the locked knob, this time taping a piece of cloth over the keyhole. She goes up to Pidgeot and Gallade and wipes a bead of sweat from her forehead.
“Sorry I’m late,” she says with a quick smile. “Got caught up in some suspect issues.”
“I’m sure you did,” Gallade bitterly whispers.
“Now that everyone is in attendance,” Pidgeot says with a nod, “let us begin our Mega Evolution Supremacist group, shall we? Now, Gallade, you have to battle Sylveon today, correct?”
“That’s right,” Gallade says as he keeps a sharp eye on Lopunny.
“I suppose Lopunny is automatically moved to round two, correct?”
“Not sure,” she shrugs. “They never said.”
“Well if Chandelure, Minun, and Umbreon are moving on, and you, too, then what about the last pairing?” Pidgeot asks, her wings fluttering in anxiety.
“Heard rumors the four of them may have to battle someone else,” Gallade says with a smirk at Lopunny. “Sometimes murder isn’t the answer.”
“Funny you say that. You threatened to kill me just a little while ago,” Lopunny says.
“I did, yep. And I meant every word. You’re weak. You want to quit this group to ‘protect’ yourself, when in reality you want to expose us of our shady acts to get me disqualified from the competition. I wouldn’t mind if you croaked, to be honest. Would save me the trouble.”
“Shut up, the both of you!” Pidgeot demands.
“I figured you wouldn’t see any meaning in my case. People are dying all around us, yet all you care about is self-promotion--you don’t even care about who dies and how,” Lopunny spits.
“And all of those thing are true,” Pidgeot nods. “But we need to think about this self-promotion before the killer runs out of people to kill, if you know what I mean.”
“We are talking about the same killer, right?”
“I’m assuming so,” Pidgeot says with an eyebrow raise.
“Hm?” Lopunny hears a force up against the door. The muscles in her mouth pull up a microscopic smirk and she remains quiet about the intrusion.
Behind the door, a curious Aipom has an ear as far against it as the little monkey can go. He figures that maybe he can see if one of them is the killer, but he isn’t sure.
“Perhaps you wouldn’t be in this mess, Gallade, if you didn’t let silly Gothorita get into your head. You never were as good as she was, anyways. You claim you’re strong, but maybe we should have had Gothorita in this Mega Evolution meeting instead of you. She was definitely a stronger person.”
Aipom’s eyes grow wider. Mega Evolution meeting?
Gallade shoves Lopunny up against the wall and throws a blade right beside her face, landing in one of the cement blocks. “I have worked my whole
life to get where I am now, and you won’t stop me. Next time I’ll chop off your head, not your fur.”
Aipom backs away from the door and starts running from the meeting room. Lopunny flings her head back to expose an ear to the doorway, and she smiles when she hears the scurrying.
“You’ll never stop me,” he repeats.
“I don’t know, someone might.”
Stunfisk looks around in Leavanny’s private room. There are pieces of art everywhere, small leaf hats to the ceiling, and different dresses, vests, and shoes that litter the floors and walls. He opens drawers, goes through shelves, and looks around the floor, but finds nothing of Gothorita’s.
“Sigh,” he says out loud. “That makes me sad.”
Stunfisk opens one of the drawers of Leavanny’s desk and finds a small, sharp knife. Beside it is a long feather, most likely one of those that you put in hats. Stunfisk takes the knife and decides to leave the room.
He sneaks out the door and closes it, and he turns around to see Feebas right in front of him. He hides the knife behind his back, but his fins are pathetically short.
“What are you hiding, Stunfisk?”
“Nuh’ing,” he stammers.
“Tell me, Stunfisk. What are you hiding?”
Stunfisk drops the knife behind him and goes to pick it up, and Feebas hops away to Vaporeon upon seeing the concealed weapon. Stunfisk panics and follows her in extreme desperation. Leavanny walks down the hallway and sees Feebas coming back with tears streaming down her face. He jogs down to his room to see Stunfisk running with a knife. Leavanny begins sprinting back toward Feebas, passing her, and then goes to Vaporeon in fear for his life.
“Oh yeah, this is my jam,” Carracosta says with a head bang and air guitar solo. Sylveon pretends to choke upon seeing such an embarrassing display, though he laughs and continues on. Carracosta moves a foot and finds something sticking to it--a note. He grabs the note from the floor and reads it aloud:
From the murderer: My next victim isn’t a real player in this game, though she is drawn like a moth to a flame.
Carracosta thinks “moth” and immediately whispers about Vivillon’s safety. He leaves Electrike’s DJ station, causing Electrike to frown and put his headphones back on. Carracosta runs over to see Vivillon talking to Chandelure--the real killer. He smashes a fist against the wall and throws the rocks at the chandelier. Chandelure is again knocked out.
Vivillon squeals and turns around to see the killer. She strengthens her wings and dives down to smack Carracosta with an Aerial Ace, causing him to be unsteady. She then grows teeth and enlarges them to protrude from her mouth in order to use Bug Bite on his hard shell, and he whimpers in fright. He falls back and Vivillon gets on top of him in triumph.
“What do you think you’re doing, Carracosta? Were you trying to murder someone in broad daylight this time?”
Umbreon hears the fighting and rushes to the scene in order to break things up. He tells Vaporeon to drag Chandelure away from the argument and he begins to talk things out with the two judges. As she does so, he coaxes Vivillon off of Carracosta.
“What’s going on?” he asks.
“I’ve caught the murderer,” Vivillon cheers.
“No, no! You got it all wrong. I was trying to protect you, Vivillon,” Carracosta mutters.
“By killing one of the competitors?”
“No, by saving you from burning up! I read this note from on the floor,” he explains and gives the note to Umbreon.
Umbreon reads the note and senses the illegitimacy of it. However, he decides to let them all play with the game a little bit longer to see where it leads.
“It must’ve fallen from the sky,” Carracosta mutters.
Umbreon looks up to see a curious Rhydon glancing downward, and then sees the Rhydon waving nervously.
“Read the note out to everyone,” Sylveon insists.
“It just talks about a moth being drawn to a flame,” Umbreon shakes his head.
“I hate fire, it’s bad for me, but I love it,” Feebas whispers.
Everyone but Minun, Pidgeot, Gallade, and Lopunny are in the area. Honchkrow is far in the stands and Aipom is down at concessions, but everyone else is accounted for. Stunfisk walks up to Honchkrow’s location. Leavanny, though, goes to Vaporeon.
“Vaporeon, I found Stunfisk wielding a knife at Feebas near where my room is. I have no idea how he got it or why he used it, but I saw him.”
Vaporeon frowns and decides maybe she should do some more police work. She thanks him for his complaint and then hears the same thing from Feebas, though she disregards what the annoying fan says.
“Gothorita would listen to me!” it cries.
“Gothorita’s dead,” Vaporeon coughs.
“And I will be, too,” Feebas cries.
“You found a knife?” Honchkrow dramatically responds to Stunfisk’s finding.
“Yes! Feebas thinks I was trying to kill her,” Stunfisk frowns.
“Of course she was. Did you find anything else?”
“A navy-ish feather, but that looked like one o’ them hat things, you know?”
A feather? I left a feather in that room? I need to get back in that room and remove the feather before they learn that I planted the knife in there in the first place! Honchkrow thinks.
“Hey, gimme that key back.”
“No! I need to go back and look for Gothorita stuff!”
Honchkrow thinks for a moment.
If I had Stunfisk get caught with the feather, it will look like he planted both the knife and
the feather! Genius, he smiles to himself.
“Okay, but go get that feather for me. It used to belong to Gothorita,” Honchkrow lies, and this causes Stunfisk to run off quickly. “Too easy.”
“What? You’re telling me Stunfisk has a knife?” Umbreon shockingly learns from Leavanny. “Yes!”
“It’s true,” says Honchkrow, who decides to fly in and join the party. “Stunfisk wielded the knife at me and told me that he will kill me, and frame the murders on me as well! He plucked a feather from my wing and is going to take it in Leavanny’s room!”
“
My room?!” Leavanny squeals.
Umbreon, Leavanny, and Honchkrow run off to the private rooms, but Vaporeon is too busy talking to Aipom.
“You’re telling me Gallade is threatening to kill Lopunny...and Pidgeot doesn’t care?”
“That’s what I heard!”
“How can I trust you? You were trying to load up on Rare Candies not too long ago!”
“You
have to trust me, Vaporeon. Lopunny’s life might be in danger.”
Rhydon and Electrike jam out with a disco ball lighting up the dance floor while the others find themselves busy. Sylveon joins and revolves her head around her shoulders in some sort of dance. Feebas joins her and dances on the side of the stage. Rhydon messes with the stage lights and Electrike turns up the music. Sylveon and Feebas dance and dance.
Suddenly, a noise comes from below the stage. Rhydon moves a dial on his panel, moving the lights. Suddenly, a large flame meant for special effects is sparked and burns Feebas up. She jiggles in the fire for a second, mesmerized by its dancing flames, and dies after an explosion in the flames severely shrivels up her body. Rhydon tries to stop the flames in with his control panel and activates the fire alarm system. The fires are doused and the stage is blackened with soot, and the system deactivates. Everyone looks at Feebas’s dead body and frowns a little.
Umbreon hears the fire alarm blaring momentarily and runs to find Vaporeon. The two of them run to the backstage area and find nothing wrong, but they see the body on the stage before them.
“Have you seen Minun recently?”
“Barely…”
They both drag Feebas’s body over to one of the side rooms, those random workrooms that aren’t really needed, and set it with the others. Vaporeon bites her lip and sheds a tear, and Umbreon lets her lean on him and the two leave the room.
“I hope we’re never put in there,” Vaporeon sobs.
“We can only hope,” Umbreon sighs and looks up at Rhydon.
He leaves Vaporeon and starts up the catwalk. Rhydon sees him and starts panicking, flicking different switches to make it look like he’s been doing something.
“I know you killed her,” Umbreon shouts.
“It wasn’t me, it was a malfunction of some sort. The flamethrowers are down under the stage’s base. You’ll have to look there for your answer.
“Okay, I’ll look...Also, have you seen Minun?”
“Can’t say I have,” Rhydon says with a shake of the head. “Can’t say I have.”
Sylveon practices her Moon Blast + Draining Kiss combo on Aipom, and the two begin to bond. He slaps a Moon Blast right back at her, and she Bites into it as a result. He claps.
“Aren’t you worried about dying?” she asks him.
“Weird question, but of course. Just gotta let nature take its course,” he smiles.
“That’s true,” she guesses, “but I’m worried that I’ll be the next target. I haven’t done much to set myself out from the others.”
“And that’s exactly what you should do. You see, a lonely concessions salesman like me, especially one with a not-so-impressive past, isn’t looked at for much. Now Honchkrow, he’s the head of a mob. Pidgeot has some sort of secret Mega Evolution group going on, and even Chandelure faints too much. They all have qualities to make them look like killers. Me, I’m just a popcorn seller that likes Rare Candy products.”
“That’s a good point,” Sylveon nods. “I just hope that if I do die, people just, you know, shrug it off. I want to be important. I want to be famous...and I can’t be famous if I die.”
“We’ll just have to see how luck plays out, I guess,” he puts a hand on her shoulder. “Now why don’t you show me your Last Resort move?”
Sylveon smiles and readies herself to hit Aipom hard.
Pidgeot comes out on stage and talks to Vivillon and Carracosta. They’re all going to have to redo the whole competition. If there are only six competitors left, then how are they going to have four winners?
“The lowest two should be dropped,” she suggests.
“No, that’s not fair. I think we should just have it the regular way and then have the three losers battle it out to determine a fourth winner,” Vivillon reasons.
“I think we should just pick our favorites at this point. We’ve had two of them die, a judge, and now an innocent fan. In fact, maybe we should just cancel the whole thing altogether. This is terrifying,” Carracosta rebuttals.
“All valid points, but think of the ratings we’ll get! Vivillon, you’ll never need your fake wings again when you get all this money!”
“Hey, my wings aren’t fa-”
“Not now! Let’s think of some ideas.”
Lopunny lies down on one of the lounging couches in a lone room. She thinks about the terrible time she’s had so far. First, her previous apprentice was killed. Then a judge was sliced to pieces. Now a bat dropped from the sky and there’s freshly-fried seafood still sizzling. She huffs and massages the cotton tufts that dangle from her ears. She hears a slicing of the wind and jumps up from the couch, landing on the arm rest, and then flips back and lands on the ground. She grabs the pendant that contains her mega stone and touches it firmly.
The pink sphere hardens around her and then disintegrates, leaving her with a more muscular body. She sees Mega Gallade removing his arm from the cushion and looking straight at her. Lopunny High Jump Kicks him down on the ground, but his chest plate stabs her foot on the crash down. She then limps to the door, deactivates her mega stone, and gets to a more crowded area. Leavanny had just exited his room, and Pidgeot came out of her meeting room, and the two of them agreed to take Lopunny to the clinic area.
“I tripped and stabbed my toe on a broken piece of wood,” she explains.
Gallade loses his Mega status and stands there, hopeless.
The Next Morning
Umbreon wakes up lumped between two seats back in the audience area, and as he gets up, his back pops six times. He twists it around and rubs it the best he can, but it’s too awkward to scratch.
He goes up the side stairs of the stage and walks up. He sees, on the stage, Gallade lying down. Umbreon groggily goes over to wake him up and sees blood on the stage. He backs up. He rubs his eyes and looks at Gallade.
The corpse is separated into two parts: the body and the head. Umbreon looks at the head and sees that, somehow, it appears that the markings of the severing are from Gallade’s own blades. The blades went right through the neck and left a small pattern on the base of the head. Umbreon vomits on stage and screams for everyone to get up. Once the majority of the suspects came to the scene of the crime, all except Minun, Lopunny sees the carcass and grabs at her stomach. She closes her eyes and wails. She falls to her knees and cries. Pidgeot wipes a tear from her duct and goes back to doing whatever.
“Is...is this a suicide?”
Umbreon looks at the body and shakes his head. “I don’t think so..but I think I’d rather hope so.”
Aipom gasps and tells Umbreon that there is a small letter beside the body, under the palm of Gallade’s hand.
Umbreon gets the card and reads it aloud:
From the Murderer: accuse who you want, that’s fine by me, but be smart and look into Lopunny
Umbreon looks up from the card and straight at Lopunny. He gulps. “I’m sorry, Lopunny, but I’m charging you for the murder of five Pokemon within the past few days. Are you aware of your rights?”
“I have the right to plead my own case, and that’s all I need,” she mutters in between sobs.
Electrike takes off his headphones. “Dude, this really, really stinks.”
Dead: Feebas, Gallade
Accused: Lopunny (King Xerneas)
