24 Hours
Author’s Note: This story contains spoilers from The Coming Dawn since this story shares the same characters and relationships with The Coming Dawn. If you don’t mind, continue reading, else wait until I finish The Coming Dawn to the point where the spoilers won’t matter.
“So class, as you can see the burn marks vary in intensity along his body.” I said, pointing to an image on the projection screen. “What does this tell us?” A few hands flew up in the small class of soon-to-be forensic investigators. I smiled and looked around deciding on whom to pick when I noticed my top student Alexis waving her hand a bit.
“Yes Alexis?” I said calling on her. She smiled a bit and looked up at the screen.
“Well, the way the burns are, it could’ve been a fire spin like attack from a medium level Pokémon due to the varying intensity. It goes too high for a low level and with the varying intensity, suggests sub-par control of the fire.” I smiled and nodded.
“There you have it folks.” I said. “This was an actual photo taken by myself when I was doing investigations into Team Rocket many years ago. It was concluded a Rocket Scientist attacked this man with a Vulpix, level 26.” Another hand shot up, this time another favorite student named Genesis.
“Yes Genesis?”
“Well, I was wondering how you managed to come to that conclusion. I mean, matching burn marks to a Pokémon is like trying to find a needle in a haystack, right?” I ran my hand through my hair and smiled a little bit.
“Well, you see, it’s just like a bullet from a gun. There’s small variations in the way each individual fire Pokémon handles their flame, call it a personal twist.” I hesitated a bit before continuing. “It also helped that the man was caught and his Vulpix did the same move that hit the guy with the flame marks matching the burns on the victim.” The class laughed a bit as the bell rang. As they stood up to go I knocked on the desk to get their attention.
“Homework class!” Everyone groaned and sat back down pulling out their notebooks. Turning back to the board I flicked to the next slide.
“OK, read pages 205 through 215 about flame variations, how to tell the differences, and how to match two samples together!” I said. There was the shuffling of papers as they completed writing down their assignment and started walking off. I was getting ready to shut down the projection machine when someone poked me in the back. I looked back over my shoulder and noticed Alexis standing behind me.
“Ah, Alexis, what can I do for you?” I asked.
“Did you guys really catch that Rocket Scientist responsible for that persons’ death professor?” She said pointing to the monitor. I nodded.
“Yep, we cornered him. The real piece of evidence that put a nail in the coffin was the fact that the Vulpix left hair on the victims’ body. We were able to match the hairs to his Vulpix and after that happened he confessed to killing our victim.” She nodded and walked around the table.
“I knew there was something you weren’t telling us.” She said with a mischievous smile.
“Oh? You can read me that well now huh?” I said laughing. She giggled and nodded.
“Yep! It’s not that hard anymore after having your class now for nearly three years.” I shrugged.
“You’ll be the first class that might actually pass for the first time in three years.” She laughed and walked towards the door.
“Well, I’ll see you tomorrow Professor Alex.” She said waving. After she left the room I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, concentrating a bit on the barriers surrounding my mind, gently pushing them down. Without them surrounding my mind, I extended my conscious out to its limits, trying to take in all that I could sense. I found Alexis’ mind rather fast with her just walking outside of my room. She was deep in thought about todays’ lesson which made me proud. After turning my attention off of her, I noticed the person I was looking for, and she wasn’t alone either.
“[Taliya!]” I shouted mentally.
“[Good afternoon Alex!]” She replied happily. “[I’ll be arriving in the classroom shortly, so wait until then.]”
“[Can’t wait, I believe you brought little Ester too, right?]” The only response I got was a feeling of warmth from Taliya. With nothing better to do, I quickly cleaned up the classroom, shutting down the projector, activating the screen’s motor to pull it back up, and turning off my laptop. There was a small knock at the door.
“[We’re here.]” She said through our link. I quickly jumped up and dashed to the door, barely containing my excitement. I pulled open the door and my Gardevoir, Taliya, stood there holding our baby Ralts in her hand.
“Hello there Ester!” I said picking up the infant. She giggled happily in my arms as I pulled her into my chest and ran my fingers through her hair. I briefly touched her mind and felt a sense of happiness and calmness about her. Satisfied, I turned to Taliya who was waiting patiently with a smile.
“And hello princess.” I said, putting my arm around her waist and pulling her in for a kiss.
“[Doing fine, been a good day so far!]” she said. I held up a finger.
“Are you practicing speaking?” I asked her. She sighed and nodded a little.
“…Et…eis fahair…” She struggled to get out. I held up my hand and smiled.
“You’re working on it still, good!” I hugged her and brought her into the class room, shutting the door behind her.
“[What have you been working on?]” She said walking around.
“Recall the past here and see for yourself.” I said, focusing myself using my powers to gather debris from the floor that the class left. I was surprised to find several coffee cups and even a bag of…chips, yes chips! Messy people, I’ll figure out who had them later I suppose.
“[No need to.]” Taliya said, walking over to me. “[A kid named Marcus and another named Joseph left them.]” I smiled and set down Ester and pulled Taliya over to me.
“Well thank you.” I said before kissing her and running my fingers through her blue hair. She giggled a bit and we wrapped our arms around each other and held each other for a few moments before Ester started poking at my leg grabbing my attention. I looked down and she was looking back up me holding her arms up at me.
“Ralts!” she said. I smiled, letting go of Taliya and picked Ester back up.
“Heaven forbid I forget about you!” I said tickling her stomach causing her to giggle uncontrollably which caused Taliya to laugh as well. There was another knock at the door startling all three of us. I pushed my conscious at the door and checked who was at the door. It was Alexis again, and I couldn’t find any particular question from her mind.
“Should I freak her out and open the door from here?” I said smiling mischievously. Taliya swatted my arm but didn’t object, so I carefully opened the door and Alexis walked in and stopped mid-stride.
“Oh…I’m sorry…am I interrupting something professor?” I laughed a bit and waved my hand which closed the door.
“No, you’re alright.” I said, handing Ester off to Taliya and walked down to the front of the room. “What’s on your mind?” She looked at Taliya for a bit before continuing to the front of the room.
“I just have a question on the homework assignment.” She got close to my ear and whispered, “Who’s that?”
“That’s my wife and child.” I whispered back. She looked at me as if not really sure to believe me or not. I simply shrugged and pulled out the textbook.
“So what’s the problem?” She shook her head a bit and pulled her own book out.
“Yeah, the book seems to vaguely describe the ways to differentiate between the fire patterns.” Alexis said, opening the book and pointing to a paragraph.
“Page…209?” She nodded and I opened my book and found the same paragraph. I read over it for a bit before realizing she was right.
“Wow…this is awful…” I said. She hummed in agreement. “OK, I’ll go over it in class tomorrow instead.” She smiled and started to flip over two pages.
“[Go head home Taliya, this might be some time.]” I said. “[When she has questions, she has them by the dozens. I’ll let you know when I leave.]” Taliya smiled and waved goodbye before departing from the room. I kind of zoned out as I watched her walk away before Alexis got my attention.
“Uhm…professor?” She said waving her hand. I blinked a few times and shook my head before returning my attention to Alexis.
“Sorry, you were saying?” She laughed a bit before returning to the book.
“You really are married to her aren’t you?” I nodded a bit and laughed.
“Yeah, I am. We love each other.” Alexis smiled and looked back at the book.
“Also, this paragraph here talks about acid burns. I thought we weren’t covering those until next week.” I looked over at her book and shrugged.
“Well, looks like I’m upping the payload before the end of term.” She groaned and closed the book. I laughed and walked towards the stairs that led up to the door.
“How long you gonna be asking me questions tonight Alexis?” I said. “I do have a life you know.” She laughed.
“Right, a professor with a life? Please, don’t kid with me. I’m not exactly gullible.” I turned around and looked at her for a second.
“Witty, very cute Alexis.” I said sticking my tongue out at her.
“Right, that was mature!” she scoffed at me before laughing and setting her bag down on the ground. I got to the door and activated the lock to prevent people from entering the room. I didn’t need any more students wandering in and keeping me here longer. I turned around to walk back downstairs when my phone rang.
“Hello, Professor Alex, Forensic Investigator. What can I do for you?” There was some static over the phone before a garbled voice replied.
“Good afternoon Professor Alex.” The voice was not recognizable or even remotely human sounding.
“Who is this?” I asked. There was more static before another response.
“Have you ever felt that your life was…in danger?” A chill ran down my spine.
“No…who is this and how did you get my number?” By this point I could sense that Alexis was getting curious as to where I had gone.
“How would you think you would feel if you knew there was a set time before you would die?” I nearly dropped my phone.
“Is this some kind of prank call? I’ll find out who this is you realize.” I was starting to get a mix of fear and anger at whoever was doing this.
“Professor?” Alexis called out. “What’s taking so long?” I ignored her for the time being.
“Tick tock runs the clock.” The voice said before the line went dead.
“So class, as you can see the burn marks vary in intensity along his body.” I said, pointing to an image on the projection screen. “What does this tell us?” A few hands flew up in the small class of soon-to-be forensic investigators. I smiled and looked around deciding on whom to pick when I noticed my top student Alexis waving her hand a bit.
“Yes Alexis?” I said calling on her. She smiled a bit and looked up at the screen.
“Well, the way the burns are, it could’ve been a fire spin like attack from a medium level Pokémon due to the varying intensity. It goes too high for a low level and with the varying intensity, suggests sub-par control of the fire.” I smiled and nodded.
“There you have it folks.” I said. “This was an actual photo taken by myself when I was doing investigations into Team Rocket many years ago. It was concluded a Rocket Scientist attacked this man with a Vulpix, level 26.” Another hand shot up, this time another favorite student named Genesis.
“Yes Genesis?”
“Well, I was wondering how you managed to come to that conclusion. I mean, matching burn marks to a Pokémon is like trying to find a needle in a haystack, right?” I ran my hand through my hair and smiled a little bit.
“Well, you see, it’s just like a bullet from a gun. There’s small variations in the way each individual fire Pokémon handles their flame, call it a personal twist.” I hesitated a bit before continuing. “It also helped that the man was caught and his Vulpix did the same move that hit the guy with the flame marks matching the burns on the victim.” The class laughed a bit as the bell rang. As they stood up to go I knocked on the desk to get their attention.
“Homework class!” Everyone groaned and sat back down pulling out their notebooks. Turning back to the board I flicked to the next slide.
“OK, read pages 205 through 215 about flame variations, how to tell the differences, and how to match two samples together!” I said. There was the shuffling of papers as they completed writing down their assignment and started walking off. I was getting ready to shut down the projection machine when someone poked me in the back. I looked back over my shoulder and noticed Alexis standing behind me.
“Ah, Alexis, what can I do for you?” I asked.
“Did you guys really catch that Rocket Scientist responsible for that persons’ death professor?” She said pointing to the monitor. I nodded.
“Yep, we cornered him. The real piece of evidence that put a nail in the coffin was the fact that the Vulpix left hair on the victims’ body. We were able to match the hairs to his Vulpix and after that happened he confessed to killing our victim.” She nodded and walked around the table.
“I knew there was something you weren’t telling us.” She said with a mischievous smile.
“Oh? You can read me that well now huh?” I said laughing. She giggled and nodded.
“Yep! It’s not that hard anymore after having your class now for nearly three years.” I shrugged.
“You’ll be the first class that might actually pass for the first time in three years.” She laughed and walked towards the door.
“Well, I’ll see you tomorrow Professor Alex.” She said waving. After she left the room I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, concentrating a bit on the barriers surrounding my mind, gently pushing them down. Without them surrounding my mind, I extended my conscious out to its limits, trying to take in all that I could sense. I found Alexis’ mind rather fast with her just walking outside of my room. She was deep in thought about todays’ lesson which made me proud. After turning my attention off of her, I noticed the person I was looking for, and she wasn’t alone either.
“[Taliya!]” I shouted mentally.
“[Good afternoon Alex!]” She replied happily. “[I’ll be arriving in the classroom shortly, so wait until then.]”
“[Can’t wait, I believe you brought little Ester too, right?]” The only response I got was a feeling of warmth from Taliya. With nothing better to do, I quickly cleaned up the classroom, shutting down the projector, activating the screen’s motor to pull it back up, and turning off my laptop. There was a small knock at the door.
“[We’re here.]” She said through our link. I quickly jumped up and dashed to the door, barely containing my excitement. I pulled open the door and my Gardevoir, Taliya, stood there holding our baby Ralts in her hand.
“Hello there Ester!” I said picking up the infant. She giggled happily in my arms as I pulled her into my chest and ran my fingers through her hair. I briefly touched her mind and felt a sense of happiness and calmness about her. Satisfied, I turned to Taliya who was waiting patiently with a smile.
“And hello princess.” I said, putting my arm around her waist and pulling her in for a kiss.
“[Doing fine, been a good day so far!]” she said. I held up a finger.
“Are you practicing speaking?” I asked her. She sighed and nodded a little.
“…Et…eis fahair…” She struggled to get out. I held up my hand and smiled.
“You’re working on it still, good!” I hugged her and brought her into the class room, shutting the door behind her.
“[What have you been working on?]” She said walking around.
“Recall the past here and see for yourself.” I said, focusing myself using my powers to gather debris from the floor that the class left. I was surprised to find several coffee cups and even a bag of…chips, yes chips! Messy people, I’ll figure out who had them later I suppose.
“[No need to.]” Taliya said, walking over to me. “[A kid named Marcus and another named Joseph left them.]” I smiled and set down Ester and pulled Taliya over to me.
“Well thank you.” I said before kissing her and running my fingers through her blue hair. She giggled a bit and we wrapped our arms around each other and held each other for a few moments before Ester started poking at my leg grabbing my attention. I looked down and she was looking back up me holding her arms up at me.
“Ralts!” she said. I smiled, letting go of Taliya and picked Ester back up.
“Heaven forbid I forget about you!” I said tickling her stomach causing her to giggle uncontrollably which caused Taliya to laugh as well. There was another knock at the door startling all three of us. I pushed my conscious at the door and checked who was at the door. It was Alexis again, and I couldn’t find any particular question from her mind.
“Should I freak her out and open the door from here?” I said smiling mischievously. Taliya swatted my arm but didn’t object, so I carefully opened the door and Alexis walked in and stopped mid-stride.
“Oh…I’m sorry…am I interrupting something professor?” I laughed a bit and waved my hand which closed the door.
“No, you’re alright.” I said, handing Ester off to Taliya and walked down to the front of the room. “What’s on your mind?” She looked at Taliya for a bit before continuing to the front of the room.
“I just have a question on the homework assignment.” She got close to my ear and whispered, “Who’s that?”
“That’s my wife and child.” I whispered back. She looked at me as if not really sure to believe me or not. I simply shrugged and pulled out the textbook.
“So what’s the problem?” She shook her head a bit and pulled her own book out.
“Yeah, the book seems to vaguely describe the ways to differentiate between the fire patterns.” Alexis said, opening the book and pointing to a paragraph.
“Page…209?” She nodded and I opened my book and found the same paragraph. I read over it for a bit before realizing she was right.
“Wow…this is awful…” I said. She hummed in agreement. “OK, I’ll go over it in class tomorrow instead.” She smiled and started to flip over two pages.
“[Go head home Taliya, this might be some time.]” I said. “[When she has questions, she has them by the dozens. I’ll let you know when I leave.]” Taliya smiled and waved goodbye before departing from the room. I kind of zoned out as I watched her walk away before Alexis got my attention.
“Uhm…professor?” She said waving her hand. I blinked a few times and shook my head before returning my attention to Alexis.
“Sorry, you were saying?” She laughed a bit before returning to the book.
“You really are married to her aren’t you?” I nodded a bit and laughed.
“Yeah, I am. We love each other.” Alexis smiled and looked back at the book.
“Also, this paragraph here talks about acid burns. I thought we weren’t covering those until next week.” I looked over at her book and shrugged.
“Well, looks like I’m upping the payload before the end of term.” She groaned and closed the book. I laughed and walked towards the stairs that led up to the door.
“How long you gonna be asking me questions tonight Alexis?” I said. “I do have a life you know.” She laughed.
“Right, a professor with a life? Please, don’t kid with me. I’m not exactly gullible.” I turned around and looked at her for a second.
“Witty, very cute Alexis.” I said sticking my tongue out at her.
“Right, that was mature!” she scoffed at me before laughing and setting her bag down on the ground. I got to the door and activated the lock to prevent people from entering the room. I didn’t need any more students wandering in and keeping me here longer. I turned around to walk back downstairs when my phone rang.
“Hello, Professor Alex, Forensic Investigator. What can I do for you?” There was some static over the phone before a garbled voice replied.
“Good afternoon Professor Alex.” The voice was not recognizable or even remotely human sounding.
“Who is this?” I asked. There was more static before another response.
“Have you ever felt that your life was…in danger?” A chill ran down my spine.
“No…who is this and how did you get my number?” By this point I could sense that Alexis was getting curious as to where I had gone.
“How would you think you would feel if you knew there was a set time before you would die?” I nearly dropped my phone.
“Is this some kind of prank call? I’ll find out who this is you realize.” I was starting to get a mix of fear and anger at whoever was doing this.
“Professor?” Alexis called out. “What’s taking so long?” I ignored her for the time being.
“Tick tock runs the clock.” The voice said before the line went dead.