area51novel Chapter 159 Even the detective couldn't have foreseen this
Chapter 159 Even the detective couldn't have foreseen this
Chapter 169 Even the detective couldn't have foreseen this
Just as chaos was breaking out in front of William's apartment, and reporters were stunned as they watched the strangers emerge from the room, the Liyong City Police Station was also in complete disarray.
Officer Jenny had just restored communication with her subordinates when she received the regrettable news—
The elderly man who infiltrated the police station to cause trouble was met by his accomplices. Despite the efforts of the little fire monkey and the later police officers in the chase, the man still managed to escape.
"I'm not surprised at all by the failure of the arrest operation. If the old man disguised as a police officer was a member of Team Plasma, it would be perfectly normal for someone to be there to meet him. Although we didn't catch the mastermind, the presence of the person who was there to meet him can still provide useful clues. What was he dressed like?"
At the detective in the white coat's prompting, Officer Jenny impatiently waved her hand to shut Hugo up, as this was standard procedure during a police search.
Sure enough, before Sergeant Officer Jenny could give any orders, a report came through the radio, with the officers involved in the manhunt quickly providing the physical characteristics of the enemy's accomplices.
The accomplice's clothing, physique, and the Pokémon Agility Bug he used to escape all matched the ninja involved in the Saitama City Museum sabotage incident.
In the Shippo City incident, the ninjas dressed in the same outfits clearly appeared as the leaders of Team Plasma's operation, so it can be almost directly concluded that this secret infiltration is inseparable from Team Plasma—however, Hugo is a little curious about what kind of self-righteousness led those guys to insist on wearing eye-catching ninja outfits and swaggering around the streets...
However, what truly threw the police into chaos was what happened next.
The officers recovered six Poké Balls from the corridor where the chaos had occurred. Inside were the handheld Pokémon that Smurf had stolen and discarded by Chimchar and the others.
These Pokémon seem to have inherited the meticulous thinking of their owner, Smurf. Surrounded by the police, they all chose to remain cautious and observe, never daring to jump out of the ball, as if they had given up on escaping.
This almost surrender-like approach is actually the safest course of action. Although the police station has devices that can prevent Poké Balls from opening, the police do not have the authority to deploy these Pokémon restraining devices until the identity of the Smurf intruder is confirmed.
Therefore, as long as these Pokémon do not actively jump out of their Poké Balls, they can stay inside and wait for the best opportunity to break out.
However, just as the officers escorting them were taking them to Officer Jenny's office, things took an unexpected turn.
The police officer with the Poké Ball was about to report the new discovery to Officer Jenny, but as he passed the detective in the white coat, the Pokémon that Smurf had left behind suddenly started to move.
One of the Poké Balls containing Gliscor activated on its own, and a giant Gliscor with black wings leaped out of thin air, suddenly charging into the officers' encirclement despite having no advantage in the situation!
This jump triggered a chain reaction. The other Pokémon, who were already on edge, also leaped out of the ball and joined up with the leader, Scorpion King. In their view, Scorpion King would not make a meaningless move, and this proactive attack must be well-founded.
Officer Jenny and the officers, thinking the Pokémon were about to retaliate, quickly pulled out their Poké Balls. However, the Gliscor that emerged was completely stunned. The five Pokémon that followed it out of the ball looked at their leader in confusion, and seeing that he made no move, they looked at the menacing police officers, staring at each other for several seconds.
"Kanto's Weezing, Hoenn's Pompompurin, Sinnoh's Mismagius and Gliscor, Unova's Mystique and Chandelure... their resumes basically match Smurf's. It seems that the old fox has really taken action in person this time."
Hugo nodded to himself, calmly crossing his arms and deducing the trainer's identity from the Pokémon he was holding, as if the events unfolding on the scene had nothing to do with him.
"As expected of one of the seven sages of Team Plasma, one can glean his rich experience just from the types of Pokémon he holds... But this old guy seems to really like Pokémon with a purplish hue, is it just a simple case of obsessive-compulsive disorder?"
Regardless of Detective Hugo, who couldn't be considered a combatant, Officer Jenny was the first to recover from the awkward standoff. Before the other party could lash out, she immediately gave orders to her partner who was present at the scene—
"Miss Goth, activate 'Trick Space'!"
Miss Goth, dressed as a waitress in a black dress, bowed and nodded, her eyes emitting a white light. In an instant, the walls of the office were covered with translucent, pixelated glass-like cubes.
Smura's purple team didn't have any particularly slow Pokémon. As soon as she stopped, her speed dropped drastically, and the window that seemed so close suddenly became incredibly far away!
This is the effect of "Trick Space"—creating a bizarre space that alters the rules of speed over a period of time, causing the concepts of "fast" and "slow" to be reversed within the space it covers.
This tactical skill, commonly used in battles among trainers, has now become a shackle restricting these Pokémon from breaking through.
At the critical moment when its speed was restricted, Smurf's Pokémon displayed amazing organizational skills—Weezing deliberately spewed out a thick "smoke," and Gliscor used the "Sandstorm" move indoors, completely disrupting everyone's vision in the office.
Meanwhile, the belatedly aware police officers finally dispatched their own sprites in an attempt to suppress these uncoordinated opponents.
The air in the office had become unbearably stuffy, and the officers were coughing incessantly, barely able to open their eyes, which naturally greatly reduced their ability to command the operation.
However, the police had the advantage of numbers over the weak, and the speed limitation imposed by the "Trick Room" prevented the six rampaging Pokémon from breaking through.
If their trainers were present, they could surely devise a strategy to have Pooppo and Mismagius use Trick Room again to restore their speed to normal. However, Smurf was far away, under the protection of the Dark Trio, and about to face the King's punishment, so it was impossible for them to give commands remotely.
With Hugo thoughtfully withdrawing from the office that had become a battlefield, the officers were finally able to subdue the six Pokémon.
Officer Jenny, unable to bear witnessing the chaotic scene in her office, came out into the hallway after the dust had settled. Seeing the detective stroking his chin, seemingly lost in thought, she couldn't help but complain—
"Although we captured the enemy's Pokémon, we still can't prove the connection between Team Plasma and the explosion. The evidence that the old man used to frame the League was also burned by your Pokémon. Now we have to treat the explosion as an accident as originally stated."
As she brushed the dust off herself, Officer Jenny said to Hugo with some apology.
"That's not necessarily true," the detective said nonchalantly. "In any case, Team Plasma's final plot has failed miserably. I believe it won't be long before the cult itself claims responsibility for the conspiracy. As for that old man..."
Hugo pulled out a piece of paper with writing on it from somewhere.
“The little fire monkey wouldn’t burn evidence so easily. Before burning the file folder, the documents inside had already been transferred to Piplup. It has a layer of blue, cape-like fur on the back of its neck, and folded pieces of paper can be hidden inside it. I just examined this document, and putting aside the veiled content, there seem to be many clear fingerprints on the paper, which are very likely left by the other party carelessly.”
Officer Jenny's eyes lit up: "If we can collect the fingerprints of the person you mentioned, we can formally file a lawsuit against the mastermind for conspiracy and sedition!"
“That makes sense,” the detective nodded.
However, watching the busy police officers coming and going in front of him, Hugo once again fell into deep thought.
He felt that the case should have reached the point of being closed, but there were still many inconsistencies in the incident, and the layout of the plasma clusters alone could not fully explain the strangeness of the matter.
Suddenly, Hugo thought of a question and froze.
"What's wrong, Detective? You don't look well. Are you too tired?" Officer Jenny asked with concern.
It was already quite late, so she naturally assumed that the detective needed to rest.
However, Hugo's expression was more serious than ever before, and he frowned as he asked, "Officer Officer Jenny, can I confirm with you again what the police saw when they arrived at the explosion site?"
"Didn't I already say that?" The sheriff, though puzzled, answered Hugo's question anyway.
"When we arrived at the scene, we saw the corpses of seventy-one Electric-type Pokémon. They were charred black and showed no signs of life, scattered haphazardly around the crater. The scene was a complete mess from the explosion. Fortunately, although the explosion later caused a violent secondary explosion, it did not cause a fire in the bio-powered area, perhaps because there was no fuel or power generation equipment stored in that area..."
Officer Jenny shook her head and said self-deprecatingly, "Now, looking at the evidence suggesting William uses Pokémon self-destruction to generate electricity, there's just so much of it. I really don't understand why we haven't noticed this simple fact before..."
The detective interrupted the other person's reflections and continued to press, "Are there any other circumstances at the scene? I need to reconstruct the most realistic scene in my mind. Use your five senses and memory, and don't omit any details."
"Well... it rained immediately after the explosion, so the search and firefighting operations went relatively smoothly. The fire brigade that accompanied us also rescued a lot of equipment from the factory. On one side was the residual heat of the fire, and on the other side was the refreshing rain. To be honest, exploring the scene was quite a strange feeling."
"Is there anything else?" Hugo asked impatiently.
"And also..." Officer Jenny hesitated for a moment, then shared Douzi's initial impressions when he first arrived at the crater—
"I also think I can smell a foul odor."
Upon hearing these words, Detective Hugo was struck dumb.