Endless

Part 3 - Dark Alleys

Information. It's an expensive commodity now. I had paid the keep to give me information but I knew that every word would be born of rumours and mistruths. The trick was to make him believe that he was in control. Ask the right questions. If I had asked him outright, "What have you heard about the masterball?" I would have heard drunks-tales and lies. Rumours that I had heard a thousand ways from a hundred mouths. The secret to stories and rumours is that somewhere, buried deep beneath exaggeration and egos, there are truths to be found. "What have you heard about the old capital?" I had asked. After a long and awkward stare, he went into the version of the story that he believed.

It had been brief and painstaking. I left with him believing he'd made the easiest trade in his miserable lifetime but he had told me something. A piece of the puzzle that was missing from the rumours I'd heard. "People say the old capital still stands out west. There are bunkers there deep under the ground where riches from the old world still exist, protected from all of this. 'Posed to be crawling with Mut's though."

Bunkers. People generally talked about riches in the old capital and that it was crawling with Mut's. "Bunker's" was new but it made a lot of sense.

"What about Keygen?"

"Keygen? The old research place outside the capital? That place was picked clean years ago. Nasty Mut's over there now. Not worth the risk to find a few fancy pokeballs that probably got fried by the bombs."

If the risk was too high to find functioning pokeballs, one of the most expensive luxuries around, then the Mut's must be really bad. I'm not after a few fancy pokeballs, but unfortunately, I agree with him. Keygen is too obvious.

I quickly put distance between me and the Store, a few sprays lighter but with enough provisions to get me to the next town. There are more questions. I'm getting closer though, I can feel it. I need to get out of this city fast. I've attracted too much attention. The biggest dealers will know I've brought spray by now and the bravest ones will know I've got three Pokemon on my belt. The target on my back is lit up like a neon sign on a moonless night. I take a different route to the way I came in; it's an obvious move but this city is on the large side and I have to take my chances. I step into an alley obscured in deep shadow. The kind of alley that screams trouble. That no outsider would step down if they had any sense about them. The kind of alley they shouldn't be watching.

I adopt my city walk, hunching down again and moving with haste. The conversation stops as I pass. An urchin takes off ahead of me and disappears into the hazy sunlight. Not a good sign. Two shadows form from the light before me. Big shadows. A quick backward glance shows me another. I can see him a little clearer, I recognise his patchy stubble and have no doubt that his hulking accomplice waits at the other end with another friend. I stop in my tracks and stand tall,

"This won't end well for you," I state loud and clear.

"You fink so, mate?" says patchy at my back with a thick rasp. His friends saunter forward into the shadow. "Well we fink that a man who is willing to drop some spray for a story has a lot more 'an he needs."

As well as being infuriating, he has that stink of a man deeply familiar with spray. I step forward meeting his muscle-bound friend and a lanky, raven-haired woman. Muscle's glances to the side, so that's where I direct my attention. She looks dangerous. Her eyes are clear and her skin is clean.

"Walk. Away."

She manages to turn her snarl into a smirk, my confidence having the desired effect. Lighting a tiny spark of uncertainty in her. There are two ways this can play out now.

"Kill him."

Damn.

I hop to the side as Muscles dives, putting a wall to my back and flaring my duster aside. No point in holding back now. I slap all three of my pokeballs, engaging their releases. My family springs free in a burst of light, Scyther, Charmeleon and Golduck landing on the ground before me. The leader throws two pokeballs of her own while patchy reaches down into his trousers. Stupid, those precious seconds while her balls fly and he fishes for his own come at great cost. Her balls flare releasing a fierce looking Machop and Beedrill. Not bad. Not Enough.