DANGANPOKE

INTERMISSION 1

A WORLD OF CRIME

Memento Park

The Heart of Orune University

And the sight of a gruesome murder

A Mighteyenna walks through the long, winding paths of the campus on a dark, windy night. Wearing a thick black coat and the strap of a camera around his neck, hanging down, he makes his way through campus until coming to the center of Memento Park.

Walking closer, he sees the devastating scene on the opposite side of 'Police - Do Not Cross' yellow tape. He huffs out of his nose, shaking his head as he walks closer.

A Beartic on the other side of the tape, wearing a blue police hat and a badge, sees the mon and walks over, stepping over the tape and shaking his head.

"Devin Yates, right?"

"That's Ultimate Detective Devin Yates to you, Ray," The Mighteyenna replies back, rolling his eyes, "Though using me more often the past few months, you should know that about me by now."

"We wouldn't need to call on you if it wasn't for Officer Ishtar's disappearance."

"And the rise in crime," Rolling his eyes, the mon walks over, ducking under the police tape. Once on the other side, the Beartic steps over and follows beside, "What's the situation?"

"An Ultimate was killed sometime earlier tonight, we're under the current assumption it wasn't longer than three hours ago."

"Cause of death?"

"Blood loss. The victim was shot at least three times, though we haven't been able to find any sort of firearm nearby."

"So you called me out here purely because of a firearm-related homicide? Damn you cops are losing your shit."

As Devin steps closer, Ray explains further, "No, that's not the only reason."

Devin pauses, turning back and looking to Ray, "Then what's the other reason?"

"Just see for yourself."

Devin lets out an annoyed sigh. He turns and steps closer, past the large crowd of officers.

The closer he steps to the center, the more evident the scent of blood becomes. Devin shakes it off, stepping past the remaining guards and coming across a site like no other, one he likely never expected to lay his eyes on.

In the center of Memento Park, on a circular pathway, lied a dead leafeon, though she was unlike any other. Her skin was slightly brighter, and her leaves were bright pink rather than the usual green. She also had a few pink flowers around her neck. She had three gunshot wounds, one to each of her hind legs, and one to the side of her head. Blood was crusted over the scars, though some still managed to leak out. No doubt the body was still semi-fresh.

What caught his attention wasn't the leafeon, though. Surrounding the leafeon and along the circular path, which divided into four separate areas of the college, was a large, cult-like circle of salt, bathed in blood red. At each independent pathway leading away was a large red crystal, branching off from the salt paths. The Leafeon's body was in the center of all of this.

The mon was easily recognizable. Her appearance is usually found on billboards or television commercials, as well as the big screen. This was Eliza Wellner, the Ultimate Actress.

An officer, a Grovyle, held a body bag and was walking over towards the body, wearing gloves, of course.

Devin took a few minutes to assess the situation, shaking his head, before stepping forward. He walked up to the Grovyle, "This is... This is a fucking mess."

"No kidding there," The Grovyle shook his head, "It's... It's fucking cruel. She was the victim of some sort of cult ritual. But here? In the middle of Memento Park?"

"Pokemon are fucking crazy like that, officer."

"Yeah..."

"Anyways," Devin starts, "What sort of DNA evidence have you been able to pick up?"

As Devin reaches for his camera and starts taking pictures of the scene, the Grovyle shrugs, "None from what I've heard. We couldn't get anything from those crystals or the jar of salt we found nearby."

"Peculiar, but not uncommon," Devin snaps a picture of the leafeon, "This cult wanted to cover all its bases. Make sure none of them would be caught. Even if one tiny bit of evidence were left revealed, it'd be their asses."

As Devin gets closer to the body, he notices something peculiar... The Grovyle watches confused as Devin lets go of his camera, falling until the slack of the straps was no more, causing it to dangle some side to side. He reached into his trench-coat and pulled out some gloves.

After putting the gloves on, he grabbed a Ziploc bag and small nose-pliers. Opening the bag up, he reaches onto the leafeon's body with the pliers, pulling up some hair. The color didn't match anything of the leafeon.

"Black," Devin states, "The victim has some black fur on her body. Something very uncharacteristic of a Leafeon, especially of this coloring."

"So, you think-"

"This has to be fur from one of the cult members. There's no doubt in my mind about that," He drops the fur into the Ziploc bag, sealing it shut, before returning his tools.

He takes a few additional minutes to examine the crime scene, such as the crystals and the salt but didn't find anything extra of note.

After upwards of ten minutes, he shakes his head, "Not much else to the case. Looks like I'm done he-"

Just as Devin was about to finish, a loud feminine gasp for air came from the center of memento park. His head turned quickly, ears picking up many gasps and surprised noises from the officers.

As the Leafeon in the middle was being set into the body bag, her body had sprung up to life. Sitting part on her back, she looks around quickly, in a panicked look. Her paws clutch at the bullet wound to her head, looking down to her hind legs... And she lets out a blood-curdling scream.

Devin is quick to rush over and slide beside her, a paw reaching and clutching at her head, "Shh shh shh, Eliza it's going to be alright... You're fine. Just let me ask you a few questions."

Though Eliza tried to push away from Devin, continuing to scream, "H-H-HELP! SOMEBODY H-H-H-HELP! I-I-I DON'T W-W-WANNA DIE! PL-PLEASE!"

Four Audino rush into aid, one pushing Devin off to the side as they lay her down and attempt to calm her. Assuring her everything is alright, two of them are sent off to bring the stretcher.

After being knocked away, Devin stood and watched as Eliza was taken away. Devin sighed.

Ray stomped over to Devin, wearing an annoyed and angered look on his face, "What the hell do you think you were doing? Trying to question someone who thought she was dead!"

"I do things my way, you do things your way. Is there anything truly wrong with that?"

"Yes, it damn well is! She needs treatment before you can question her, you have to make sure she's alright!"

"Heh," Devin rolled his eyes, turning away from Ray and starting to walk off, "Your way of doing things takes way too long. It's probably why I'm so much closer to figuring everything out than you fucks. All the disappearances."

"That's withholding information from the law Devin! That's a punishable offense!"

"Once I know everything I'll share what I've learned. Not like I'm going to be keeping it forever. Wouldn't wanna misdirect the tepig's of Orune, would we? Now, if you excuse me, this little interruption seems to have been more helpful to my case then originally meets the eye."

With that, Devin walks out. With his new photo's taken from the scene, he walks down the long, winding paths of the universities campus, back to his car, to drive back to his office.

"Fifteen mons reported missing, unknowing of their whereabouts or statuses, and a shit ton more of them reported dead, all ultimates," Devin pauses once in his car, shaking his head, "Whoever's done this, this sick, disgusting individual... Will be brought to justice."

"And seeing as we now have our first survivor of anything even remotely related to him... Whoever this black-furred mon is... And whatever cult he has following them... They..."

"... Are going to pay."