Alex Meets With HSS and HPIS at an Oil Rig

>>55417922
Across a dimly lit steel grey hallway a tall figure loomed. The stately pace at which it moved would suggest otherwise to the anger inside of it. There was not another soul in the long corridor. It pushed the door open to a room of six men clad in black uniforms.
"So, what have we got here today?", it said.
"No dice. All we know is that it was a PokeNav which extracted the information. Unfortunately, it's an older model, meaning-"
"We're going to have to do this the old fashioned way. Richter, I recall you were the one who was in pursuit of the man. What happened?"
The man looked down at the table for a moment, slightly ashamed. He then croaked, “Well… he got away. I had him, and then he disappeared into the crowd in a market in Driftveil City. But, I did acquire your Poketech.”
“Where did you find it?”
“In a basket. A wicker basket. An old man was running the stand, I snatched it when he wasn’t looking. His Krokorok may have noticed, but I was in disguise, so it’s not like it would remember me anyway. Fucker’s probably had a heart attack from losing it.”
Richter then turned up to face the boy, still standing. At a snail’s pace, he took out the watch from his pocket and gave it to him. The boy was not impressed.
“Well, what good is it now-“, the watch was snatched from Richter’s hand, “-it’s got nothing on it anymore. I haven’t even used the thing for about a year now.”
The boy looked down at his gold-plated X-Transceiver.
"Why is it so big?", Richter queried.
Alex slowly turned his head 90 degrees to his left. He crossed his right arm over his chest and muttered the word "Burn." under his breath. Suddenly, out of the left side a flamethrower shot out and incinerated a fake plant in the left corner of the room. It retracted after a few seconds. The men were visibly startled.
"I was originally going to implement a taser, but I thought, where's the fun in that?"
A moment of silence passed.
"Shock".
The caller screen shot out of the right side. Underneath it was a taser. The two bolts that were fired fired narrowly missed Richter, vibrated while having nothing to dig into, and then retracted automatically after half a minute.
"And then I thought, why not have both?"
A moment of silence passed.
"Don't they train you guys to not be fazed easily? You're supposed to be the best of the best. Now, where were we?"
A low, aged, monotone voice answered, another investigator this time, asking, "We were discussing the thief?"
"Right." Alex turned his head towards Richter, and inquired to him, with slight frustration in his voice, "Richter, do you recall his eye color?"
A moment of silence passed.
"Green."
"Long blonde hair, right?"
"Yes."
"Age estimate?"
"Young-looking. Can't be over twenty-five years old."
Alex moved his eyes to a bearded man and flatly ordered, "Make a sketch". He then turned to face forward, and asked the room, "What are we thinking? Environmental activist? Ex-Plasma? Macro Cosmos, perhaps?"
Richter belted out, “Oh, I know! He might have ties to that terrorist in the red jacket!”
“No, she works alone-”, Alex responded, “-all alone. She’s a crazy bitch.” Richter slightly ducked his head in embarrassment. "Middleman", the bearded man said quietly, while sketching.
"Hm?" Alex looked at the source of the monotone voice, intrigued.
Raising his voice, the man continued speaking at a sluggish pace, using most of how power on the sketch. "Poka-tech coulda been sold for a lot more in a different place. He wanted to get rid of it. He's not after the gold, he's after the information. Don't think he has ties to anything. Prob'ly just a small time freelancer. But whoever's after that inf-oh, is probably paying much more than any black market collector. Like ya said, we'll have to do this the old fashioned way. We won't find any inf-oh on any databases. He's not on anyone's radar."
Alex looked at the bearded man. He was further frustrated and simultaneously satisfied by the answer. He stared blankly at him, then turned his face directly forward to address all of the men in the room.
"This type of scoundrel, he travels light. Certainly can't have more than three Pokeballs. Might even only have a single one. Does anyone have a Cramorant?"
The men muttered to each other. The conclusion was a resounding "No".
"Okay, well, one of you go find a poacher who has one. Shiny if possible. He may name his price for it. In the meantime, that plan is dead in the water."
A skinnier, younger guard piped up, "But aren't Cramorant some of the stupidest Pokemon out there?"
Alex turned to him and stated, with some cunning in his eyes, "Sure, but their basal feeding instincts can come in handy for capturing small Pokemon. Especially those belonging to thieves. A cruel irony it is for the takers to become the taken from. Our target likely owns some slightly trained shitmons that can fight off inexperienced trainers that get in the way. Volbeat, Dustox, Morpeko, Squawkabilly, and the like. Easy prey that a Cramorant can pick off and bring to us. Then, not only would the mutt come to us, but he'd come to us unarmed, in fear of having his little friend swallowed. You'd be surprised to see the stupid shit that criminals will do for their shitmons. It's a sight to behold. You'd think they would see Pokemon with the greatest clarity for what they are, as simply aides to humanity, yet they insist on considering them their partners in crime, when in fact they are simply a means to nab a quarry or fend off security guards." He gave a light chuckle, and then sadistically stated that, "It's so funny."
A moment of silence passed.
"So! Since we haven't yet identified the target, we're going to do some more surveillance. He can't have gotten far. Survey Nimbasa, Driftveil, Mistralton, and Icirrus. He's got to be in one of those."
The young guard chimed in again, "Sir, aren't we a bit short staffed?"
The boy slowly turned his head towards him, unamused. A moment of silence passed.
"What suggest you then?"
"M-Maybe, maybe we could outsource the work?"
"No." The response was unusually quick. There was another moment of silence, and Alex realized what he had done. His haste may have hinted that there's something that he may not want another private detective agency to uncover. HPIS wouldn't dare to question him, but those not under the Heriot conglomerate certainly would. He searched his head for a method to remedy the situation. One moment of silence became two. Richter and the bearded man muttered to each other about what else they could do, since the boy declined to bring other private investigators into the mix. A sigh was heard.
"We're fine. We're just hunting down another petty criminal. Hook, line, sinker, deliver the catch to the police."
The bearded man finished drawing. Without a word, he stretched his arm out to give Alex the sketch. He did not dare to get up. Alex moved towards him steadily and took the paper, looked at it briefly, and then folded it and put it into his suit pocket. Mysteriously, it looked exactly like the target, though nobody in the room knew that. The boy sighed, and, somewhat vexed, softly announced to the room, "We're done here."
"Oh, and you-", he pointed at the young guard, "-find me that Cramorant."
The boy left the room at the same stately pace at which he entered, as if nothing had just taken place. A moment of silence passed within the room. Those seven men were all shaken by him, though all of them would die before admitting so. Alex walked out of the meeting room and out to a cloudy black sky. A light drizzle felt good against his face. Moving forward, a patrolling Dragalge passed behind him. He took his time reaching the helicopter, thinking about whether or not his Dragapult may be of use. He stopped and took out its Pokeball and tapped its button. A stream of light came out, and there was the Dragapult. It stared at him blankly with its slit eyes. It blinked. He tapped the button again, and Dragapult went back in. "No, it can't understand such a complex command-", he said quietly. "It's only good for battling."
Alex carried on to the helicopter. He didn't say a word as he boarded, and neither did the pilot. The helicopter took off, onward to the helipad at Mistralton City.