From: "William Rendfeld" <WARendfeld@aol.com> Subject: [PW!] Inquisitions Date: Wednesday, October 27, 2004 5:45 PM Inquisitions What have I done? I've killed someone, that's what I've done. I killed a man who wanted me dead, who would have gone to great lengths to see me and anyone like me wiped from existence. I killed someone who had already threatened numerous innocent lives, and would continue to threaten them, just to get to me. I also killed a man who was a father. A son. A husband. It wasn't in cold blood. I had several good reasons to do what I did. He was far from innocent. But it doesn't excuse the facts that I have blood on my hands. "Alex?" Alexandria Masters lightly shook her head, snapping herself out of her reverie. "Sorry?" "This just came for you," her elder half-sister, Cassandra Gale, explained as she handed her sibling a small note. Alex took the note and quickly read through it. With a low sigh, she noted, "Looks like I'm expected." It had been two days since the Search Party for Smasher had arrived in Mauville City. Two days since Alex had taken the life of Jackson Canmore, a man who had attempted to kill her as an infant and who had sent four bounty hunters to follow her not long ago. Not long after taking Canmore's life, Alex had turned in the weapon which had killed him, her sword, to the Mauville City Police, and had been asked to wait until the local authorities could be properly contacted and assess the situation. Now, she had been called back. Cass lightly placed a hand on her sister's shoulder, and asked, "Want me to come with you guys?" "Please," Alex replied. - In his years as a prosecuting attorney, Donovan Drake thought that he'd seen it all. But a man chasing after a girl for close to two decades, just because he thought she was some sort of alien? That seemed hard to believe. "Mr. Drake? The girl's here to see you." "Let her in," Drake requested. He looked up briefly as the young woman entered her office. She wasn't bad-looking for a girl of seventeen years; long brown hair, deep brown eyes, a physique that suggested more elegance than sex appeal, wearing normal street clothes. Six Poké Balls lightly rested on her belt, along with a strange looking cylinder about a quarter-foot long locked in like a cell phone. Looked too big to be a lipstick case. "Miss Alexandria Masters," Drake noted, quickly looking through his notes. "Please, sit down young lady." Alex did as she was requested as Drake continued, "Do you realize what you've ended up doing, young lady? This must be the most unusual of cases to ever go through my office in years. A man who tried to kill a young child, whose son was at one time suspected of being connected to Team Aqua, found dead at the hands of the same kid that he tried to kill." He looked directly at the young woman and, as he removed his glasses and lightly rubbed the bridge of his nose, Drake asked, "What would you call that?" "The biggest mistake of my life, no matter what my reasons," Alex replied. Drake lightly raised an eyebrow at that, then said, "Well, in a court of law, circumstances would call it self-defense. Any jury would find in favor of you, no matter what the crazy dead man says." _If ye only knew..._ Alex noted. "Add to the fact that insanity appears to be the only motive at this point for Canmore to attack you in the first place, and the case still stacks in favor of you," Drake continued, leafing through his notes once more. "The press would either turn you into a Jackie Ripper or a damsel who refused to be distressed. Either way, it doesn't help you." _Good points there,_ Alex noted. _Wait a second...Canmore..._ Unaware of Alex's thoughts, Drake finished, "Suffice it to say, the law is clearly in your favor. Any problems you have now are between you and whatever deity you worship. Assuming you worship one, anyway. No charges will be brought against you." He looked at Alex and asked, "Miss Masters?" Alex snapped out of her reverie and said, "I'm sorry, my mind was wandering a bit. But I caught what you said. And thank you." "Don't thank me yet," Drake noted as the door to his office opened once more, Officer Jenny bringing in the largest bit of evidence in the whole affair; Alex's sword. "Not unless you have a legal reason for having that sword, at any rate." The guilt at having taken Canmore's life being put aside for the moment, Alex readily answered, "That sword belonged to my great-grandfather. He gave it to me the night before he died." "Unusual inheritance," Drake noted. "Granddad had his quirks," Alex explained with a chuckle. - Outside, a familiar redhead, Blaziken, and Murkrow sat waiting on a small bench outside Mauville Police Headquarters. "Blaze blazi blaze ken," Surtur noted. "It's gonna take a while for them to make a decision concerning Alex, you know that," ShadowWarrior replied. "Ken, blaze blazi blaze ken," Surtur continued. "Blazi, blaze ken ken blaziken-ken blaze ken blaze zi ken." "Yeah, but it's upwind of us," ShadowWarrior noted. "If someone really foul smelling were to come after us, they wouldn't make sure we could smell them coming." "Blazi ken blaze blazi," Surtur countered. "True," ShadowWarrior admitted. Noticing the redhead giving them the hairy eyeball, he asked, "Something wrong, Cass?" "Just wondering how Alex tolerates you two," Cass noted. "With a lot of patience," came the familiar reply. The three immediately turned to find Alex calmly walking out of the building, clipping the scabbard of her sword back onto her belt. They rose up, almost as one, as Cass asked, "So, how'd it go?" "I'm off the hook, at least in the eyes of the law," Alex replied. "They called it self defense." Cass breathed a sigh of relief as ShadowWarrior returned to Alex's shoulder. "So, what now?" "I try to live with what I've done," Alex replied. "'Sides, I have other problems." "Oh yeah," Cass noted. "The search, Ben, the stuff with Aerie." "Not to mention sorting everything out from the fight with Canmore," ShadowWarrior noted. "And Nori," Alex noted. Amidst surprise stares from both, she asked, "What? She's having a tough time right now. ‘Sides, I went through something similar, as two of you may recall." "Yeah, but I somehow get the feeling she may not want your help," Cass noted. "I mean, not even considering the recent chaos, she's barely treated you with any kind of shoulder, much less a cold one." "Cass, no one knows entirely what they want," Alex replied. "Besides, right now I'm more concerned about giving her what she needs, and she needs support from someone. And I can't think of anyone else who can sincerely give it to her." "<Not to mention the possibility of spiting me once again,>" Surtur noted. "Yeah, there's that too," Alex noted with a half-smile. It quickly faded, however, as she continued, "But there's something else here." "That being?" Cass asked. "Canmore went after me because I had alien DNA," Alex explained. "How did he know about me? And if he knew, who else outside of the family has knowledge of it from that far back? Also, is there anyone else left to pick up the slack?" "Meaning, ‘is there another Canmore out there capable of exacting revenge', you mean?" ShadowWarrior posed. "Yeah," Alex admitted. "The connection between Canmore and my family I can probably find out from my grandmother, maybe Mom, but that second one's the bigger question. Based on what I found out by scanning Canmore, his son was the one who killed Dad." "His son killed Lyle?" Cass asked. "Yeah," Alex replied. "And the son may or may not be dead himself. I got a letter from an Aqua Admin stating that the agent that killed my father died sometime afterwards." "So Canmore's son is dead too," ShadowWarrior reasoned. "Assuming both Canmore and Leif weren't lying." "I doubt Leif would lie like that," Alex replied. "Otherwise, he probably wouldn't have prepared the letter, claimed responsibility for the death on what was presumably his mission. People with senses of honor don't lie unless they've got a damn good reason, and Leif wouldn't have had a good enough reason, at least not to himself. And Canmore was so caught up in anger and rage that he probably wouldn't have even bothered to hide his thoughts, or change them." "So he's dead," ShadowWarrior reasoned. "No outstanding grudges." "Assuming Canmore wasn't lying," Alex replied. "Or that he only had one son, or that Leif had all the facts available." Turning towards a nearby clump of bushes, she yelled, "Which is why I need the two of you to come with us." Much to Cass's surprise, Sven and Peabody suddenly popped out of the foliage. "Not bad," Peabody noted with awe. "I was beginning to think you wouldn't notice us." "Between their uncanny senses of smell and my telepathy?" Alex asked rhetorically. "And before you explain anything, I know who you are and why you're here. Leif wants me guarded, right?" "Yeah," Peabody noted as he stepped forward. "Well, that only helps to improve my opinion of him," Alex replied. "Listen, does Aqua have some sort of database logging in its activities?" Before Peabody could answer, Sven jumped in and exclaimed, "Hold it. We shouldn't tell her anything!" "Considering you two are here to keep me from getting killed, I think you may as well," Alex reminded him. "Besides, it'll save all of us a lot of difficulty in the long run." "She has a point," Peabody noted. "Besides, it doesn't have to be in the open or anything." Sven looked first at his partner, then at Alex. With a sigh, he finally said, "Fine. Just keep the Rhydon in his ball, okay?" "Easily done," Peabody replied. "Lead on, Miss Masters." TBC? [NS: Been a while, hasn't it?]