FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

I sat behind the counter at the Gas n' Gulp with my head down next to the register. While normally I'm wide awake looking for shoplifters, I could not for the life of me keep my eyes open. I've seemed to have developed a case of insomnia over the weekend now that I was now sharing my bed.

It wasn't the fact that I had to share it, so much as the fact that I had to share it with Rori. Nothing against her, in fact, we've been getting along quite well these past few days...you know...when she's not crying her eyes out.

That, in fact, is the reason I'm not sleeping well. The minute I fall asleep, she starts sobbing or has a nightmare or something else that requires me to awkwardly comfort her. Then, as if that wasn't enough, whenever I actually do fall asleep I start having these really weird dreams. Seriously, I don't know if it's something I've been eating or just the sleep deprivation causing my brain to go haywire, but I've been having this one recurring dream.

In the dream, I'm sitting on a couch with-

"Hey Jace."

-in my lap, and all of the sudden she starts-

"Jace?"

-my-

"JAAAaaace?"

-And before I know it, we're-

"Jace!" I hear a woman scream as she slams her fist down next to my head. Despite her outburst, I still only barely lift my head to greet a green haired officer carrying a vulpix.

"Oh, hey Jen, what's up?" I ask indifferently. Not to be rude, but I was really just waiting for her to go away so I could get back to sleep.

"Taking Vixie here to a breeding center. It's her mating season. But I think I should be the one asking you that. You look like hell, what happened to you?"

I groaned. I looked out the window "A six foot ten ball of fur that should be severely dehydrated with all the crying she's been doing."

She quirked an eyebrow. "That bad?"

I shook my head. "Don't get me wrong. Rori is possibly the sweetest girl I've ever met in my life, but when her mind starts to wander she starts thinking about Allen."

"I'm sorry." She said, being completely sincere. "I wish I could bring better news, but the case is still ongoing."

I finally sat up straight. "What's the big hold up? I thought forensics confirmed it was the houndoom."

"Well, they did. What we're trying to figure out is whether it was a murder or a pokémon attack."

I crossed my arms as I pondered the situation. I knew the houndoom was never found, which just made this entire thing more complicated. Tame pokémon don't just randomly attack people. Either they're ordered to by their partner or they go insane and go on a bloody rampage. If they go crazy, they normally head for the wild. Houndoom usually live deep in the forest so the chances that he made it from the daycare to the nearest woods without meeting anyone else are slim to none. Still, a good lawyer will be able to convince a jury otherwise and since people are innocent until proven guilty, the owner can make up any lie he wants to weasel his way out of conviction.

"So," I stated without thinking about what I was saying, "we either need to find the houndoom and prove that it isn't crazy, or find a motive for why the owner would want his nephew dead."

"We? What do you mean we?" Jen asked with a grin.

Oh God, I've stumbled into a trap, backpedal as soon as possible!

"It was a slip of the tongue Jen, nothing more."

"Oh, come on."

"No. I've told you a hundred times, I have no interest in becoming a police officer." I told her. As I've said before, I've solved quite a few cases for the department before. All indirectly of course. Occasionally I get someone asking me to look into something that the police are already looking into, and more often than not, I solve it faster than them. What can I say, I kind of like pissing off cops, especially ones who don't do their job right. However, ever since then. Jen has been determined to have me join the force.

She crossed her arms and huffed. "You know, you really are a stubborn bastard. It's better than being an unofficial P.I. and I know that a cop salary isn't the best, but it's gotta be better than working at this dump."

"You _do _realize Raul is right back there, right?"

As soon as I said that, my manger popped out from behind an aisle. "Doesn't matter, dude. I know this place is a dump.

"...thanks, Raul. No really, that seriously helps."

"Hey, I may be your boss, but I'm your friend first. And while I work here because I have nowhere else to go, you work here by choice, which is pathetic. You should take the damn job and-"

"Don't you have some paperwork to do or something?" I interrupted, really not in the mood for being hammered like this.

"Nah," he shook his head as began heading to his office in the back. "In fact, we're closing up early today. I'm gonna go play some whack-fuck."

I snorted at that despite the previous course of conversation, and Jen just looked at him like he was crazy. "What the hell is whack-fuck?"

"He means 'golf'." I explained as I hopped out from behind the counter.

"Why does he call 'golf', 'whack-fuck'?"

Instead of answering, I hunched over as if I was holding a golf club and swung it like I was hitting a golf ball. "Whack." I proceeded my charade by looking for where the imaginary golf ball went. "FUCK!" I screamed stomping on the ground.

"Hey," Raul said, coming out of his office, "that's my line."

He tossed me the keys. "Lock up, would you? I'm already running late."

I nodded and went to the back entrance to lock it. Jenny was persistent, though. "Look, can you at least think about it. Jenkins would have closed that case without a second thought if you hadn't come along when you did. We could use you."

I shook my head as I motioned for her to leave the shop with me. "I'll think it over, but no promises. I just don't like cops...present company excluded, of course." I added as I saw her frown at my comment.

"Why?"

I blinked. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me." She continued, not giving up, "that's what you always say, and frankly, I can't see why. You know, seeing as how you end up helping us a lot."

I smirked. "Oh please, I'm not helping them, I just like showing them up at their own job."

She stared at me for a few seconds before sighing. "I swear, I will never understand you."

"Good," I said with a grin as I locked the door. "It keeps you on your toes and in your profession it's a good thing."

"Ugh...you know what, I have to get going, but please just think about it." She said, before lifting her vulpix up to her shoulder and walking away.

"No promises." I called after her.

I locked the door behind me and started looking around for Rori. I've kind of just been letting her run around outside of the gas station these past few days. She can defend herself if she gets into any trouble and I know she's smart enough to not start anything herself. Plus...people really just love pokémon for some reason. I honestly don't get what the big deal is, but people, granted mostly small children, have been coming up to me non-stop and asking if they can play with my pokémon.

Of course, if it keeps her happy, I'm all for it. She really does love people, another trait of hers I don't really understand. Not to be rude, but frankly, most people are idiots. Then again, that's probably just me talking. People tell me I can be a bit of an asshole sometimes...of course, what do they know...they're idiots.

I quickly spotted her sitting next to an older man at a bus stop, which I didn't think much of until I got closer. They were...talking. And I don't mean like he was talking and she was just nodding or shaking her head. I mean they were having a full on conversation.

"Nine arcanine."

"I see...well...have you actually told him yet?"

"Arc arcanine arc."

"Well how do you know if you don't ask?"

This time she gave a whimper and the man responded by patting her on the head. "Don't worry little lady, I'm sure it'll all work out."

I cleared my throat, letting them know I was listening and the man peered over his shoulder with a smile. "Ah, you must be Jason." He stood up and I finally got a good look at him. He had short gray hair and a bushy mustache that matched, but it wasn't like your regular, white, old man hair. Instead it was shiny silver, leading me to believe he was in his late fifties, early sixties instead of eighties and nineties. His posture was perfect, yet he still carried a cane, an inconsistency that honestly, baffled me to no end. Why would you carry a cane if you had no real use for it? In fact, he seemed to be in very good shape for an older man. All of that topped off with a pair of piercing grey eyes made for a rather intimidating figure...that is, he would be if he wasn't grinning like an idiot.

"Actually, I go by Jace." I said absentmindedly. "I'm sorry, but were you just...talking to her."

"But of course." He said with a smile.

"And you...understood her?"

He frowned at that. "I don't see what's so difficult to understand about this, we were just having a normal conversation. I figured someone with your views would be perfectly able to accept this."

I crossed my arms and quirked an eyebrow. "Really? And just how much would you know about my beliefs?"

"Enough to know that you treat Rori here with the same respect as you would give any human being. In fact, I'm surprised you haven't had a conversation with her yourself."

"Right...well...nice talking to you. Rori, let's go." I say, trying to get away from him before this conversation got any weirder, but he grabbed my shoulder as I passed by.

"You think I'm a senile old man, don't you boy."

I nodded. "Very perceptive."

He chuckled. "Understandable, however, this senile old man has a job for you."

I raised an eyebrow at that. "What kind of job?"

"Oh, just your normal type of odd job. I'm new in town and I hear you're the one who can get things done."

I crossed my arms over my chest. "I have a certain set of skills, yes."

He nodded and began stroking his chin as if he had a beard. "Indeed, and I understand that you don't mind interfering with police business."

Granted, a little red flag should have immediately gone up then and there, but you know what, I'd be a hypocrite if I told him otherwise. "It depends on whether or not it gets me arrested."

He chuckled a bit. "Ah yes, you wouldn't want to spend another two hours in an interrogation room, now would you?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Ok, you've asked me a bunch of questions, now it's my turn. How the hell do you know so much about me? Are you a stalker or something?"

He gave a hardy laugh as if he was amused by the question. "Hardly, my boy, I just like to do my research before trusting someone with such an important job."

"Oh yeah, and what did you find out about me?"

"Well, you grew up with your mother and father right here in violet city. Your father passed away when you were eight, which supposedly led to your rebellious teenager years during which you did countless acts of pointless vandalism, but were only caught twice. Although you're very smart you hated school, so you ended up repeating both tenth and eleventh grade. You never went to college and began working at a gas station due to lack of motivation."

I nodded, taking that all in. "Ok...big deal, I had a blog back in high school, all you have to do to figure all that out is look through the archives."

"Oh, my dear boy, I'm in no way finished. I am aware of your little website, and I must say it was most informative, however, my job requires me to be much more thorough than that. Such as, you were raised by your mother to treat everyone equally, no matter what species. You are often very discourteous to many people, except for a ser few, but even though you're not exactly a pleasant person, you still always try to do the right thing. The man most people believe to be your father is actually your step-father and you never found this out until you were twelve. You dated that young green haired friend of yours for a short time before she broke up with you and you've never quite gotten over your feelings for her. To top it all off, when you were 17, you're mother was arrested for-

"Enough!" I yelled, starting to get irritated by him spewing out my personal life to every random passerby. "How the hell do you know all of this stuff?"

"It's very simple. I, like you, am good at noticing things that other people don't, and I've been keeping an eye on you for quite some time now."

"...what was that about not being a stalker?" I asked accusingly.

"Stalking implies that I'm following you due to some sick fetish. This is strictly business and after much deliberation, I've determined you're just the man for the job."

I clenched my fists in irritation. I've only known this guy for five minutes and already he's on my shit list. Yet, at the exact same time, I couldn't just walk away. My curiosity was getting the better of me. Why would this guy go through so much trouble if he didn't have something important for me to do? So against my better judgment, I continued the conversation.

"Alright, fine. What did you have in mind?"

"Well, here's the catch." he explained. "My employers, who shall remain nameless, are requiring me to test you first. Just to see if they can trust you. I know you are familiar with the murder case involving the daycare, yes?"

The man's question elicited a small whimper from Rori and I began stroking her back to keep her calm. "Yeah, what about it?"

"I understand that the houndoom from the case has yet to be found. I also assume you know by now that it is completely in innocent in the matter, however, the police department doesn't much care about whether or not it was this pokemon's fault. Whether it truly has gone crazy or it was forced to kill this man by his owner, it's heading straight for the clinic and they will put it to death." At this time, the man took something out of his pocket. "I want you to catch it before the police, and bring it to me."

He tossed what I now saw was a pokeball towards me, and I caught it with both hands. My eyes widened as I saw the design on it, though. This wasn't just a pokeball.

"How the hell did you get your hands on a masterball?"

He smirked. "I've shared the schematics for it with a friend of mine down in Azalea he built it for me free of charge."

I stared at it for a few seconds, still not believing that I was holding something that was probably worth more than my house. This guy meant serious business.

"...and, what exactly are you paying me?" I asked. That may not have been the most important thing here, but what can I say? A guy's gotta eat.

He walked forward with a large smile, placing what looked like an earpiece in my hand. Although, it was slightly bigger and looked a bit more like a hearing aid.

I quirked an eyebrow. "You're paying me...with a Bluetooth? I don't even own a phone at the moment."

The man scoffed. "That happens to be twice as expensive as the masterball I just gave you."

"Wait, what? For a stupid earpiece? How can it possibly be worth that much?"

"Just put it in, you'll figure it out. I have to get going now, but I'll find you when the task is done." With that, he started walking down the street. I reluctantly put it in my right ear and hit the power button.

...big...fucking...mistake.

All of the sudden, it sent some sort of electric shock through my body and clamped down on my ear like a vice grip.

"FUCKING SHIT!" I screamed as I clutched my ear and jerked in surprise. I lost my footing in the confusion and ended up leaning against the bench.

"Jace! Are you alright!" I heard a voice say. It was one I was unfamiliar with, but it sounded somewhat like a teenage girl.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I said, turning around expecting to see someone, but there was no one there but Rori.

"uh...ok...where are you?" I asked looking around.

"Wait did you just-" I heard, the sound coming directly from...

"JESUS CHRIST!" I yelled in surprise as I jumped about a foot in the air.

Rori just...talked? What the hell is going on? I reached a hand up to the earpiece which was now latched on like a vice grip. I turned around in every direction, looking for the old man, but found absolutely nothing.

Ok...don't freak out...