8. Green and crimson

It was late into the night and the farm was dark with most of the residents fast asleep. There were a few of the farmhands with torches and their partnered Tauros beside them patrolling the farm. Normally just one person and his Pokémon were enough but lately Dennis had insisted that at least three groups do the patrols at night. The workers were confused but didn't think much of it and just went along with it without complaint. It was easy work to just wander around the farm at night and they were paid extra to do it, why argue with that.

Trying his best to hide in the shadows, but doing a rather clumsy job of it, was Robert. This was not something he was well practised at but he wasn't too worried, even if he did get spotted he was confident he could bluff his way past, best to try to avoid that though.

After almost an hour of clumsy sneaking about and even getting caught once, he finely managed to make it to Kurt's cabin. Trying to get in through an open window with absolutely no grace, and then falling onto the floor once inside. Naturally, Kurt was woken up. Kurt had been making sure to sleep as lightly as possible this last week, so Robert's poor attempt at being stealthy woke him up right away. He went into high alert, Pokeball in hand ready to go. When he saw who it was though, and how he awkwardly fell from the window. Kurt didn't know how else to react other than to laugh. Robert froze when he heard the laugh but quickly shrugged off his embarrassment, he stood up and softly called out "sorry about waking you up Kurt. I just really wanted to have one more look at the shiny Miltank and I knew if I came during the day mum or dad would have stopped me, so I…"

"so you decided to try and sneak over in the middle of the night, I must say young Robert you're stealth could use a little work" Kurt smilingly replied. He soon sighed afterwards and said, "I at least have to admire your effort, I guess I can let you have a quick look, but then I'm getting one of the patrols to take you back to the boss's house. Now come over here and have a look". Kurt then walked over to the light switch to see better, Truth be told Robert had already completed his goal in coming here. While he seemed to be able to see better in the dark, maybe as another side effect of his soul. It was not much different from most people, but his skill to see talent could be done in complete darkness, it made no difference. While he and Kurt were talking, he already homed in on the Miltank with the help of his skill and seen its talent. It seems he was right!

The moment he saw its talent he was sure that shiny Pokémon indeed have a high talent. While one shiny couldn't confirm it and this could be an unusually talented Miltank, he was pretty sure he was right. Other Miltank on the farm are an even mix of light grey and grey, with the occasional dark grey mixed in. This shiny Miltank however was dark silver! This was a huge boost. A silver phase talent shouldn't be underestimated. Although Robert didn't know what they were he knew there were better talent grades than silver, a silver talent capped at lv70 after all. it was still incredibly rare. Most trainers didn't even have one. Those few who did slowly raised it with special rare and expansive items. As for finding a natural silver talent, even a light silver one, was unlikely at best.

As Robert was swooning over the talent of this Miltank, debating if he wanted a Miltank as his Pokémon. Kurt flicked on the lights, then Robert saw a flash of green. After the flash of green, his entire vision was occupied by a bright, crimson red. Robert's mind went blank. That bright crimson red seemed to occupy all his thoughts and he couldn't process anything else. He felt like a century went past in that one moment, he suddenly heard some soft footsteps coming from a corner of the room behind him.

Still in a muddled state Robert blankly looked over. There he saw a man slowly walk over from next to the window he first entered through. He wasn't tall, at only about 160cm and a thin build. He had a long face with sharp, cold and piercing eyes. He was in all block clothes completely covering himself. Only in the centre of his shirt was there a big crimson R.

Still unable to fully process what was happening around him Robert looked back at where Kurt stood, only now there stood a proud but cold looking Scyther. He subconsciously looked at its talent and it was a light gold! Robert didn't take that in at all though, as one of the Scythers' scythes was currently dripping with a crimson, bloody colour. As he looked down at the Scyther's feet, there he saw Kurt. Kurt was lying on the floor and his head been separated from his body, with a pool of blood forming between them. After seeing this Robert finely seemed to slowly come back to himself, it was also then that the man finely spoke. "good job Scyther, clean and precise as usual." His voice was cold and raspy, a little grating on the ears. As the man slowly walked over to his Scyther, Robert who had finely come back to himself, slowly backed up the other way. Attempting to get both the man and his Scyther in his view while slowly backing away. He couldn't help but constantly glance back at Kurt's body and as he did the paler he got, and the more he trembled.

The man seemed to completely ignore Robert, as well as the dead Kurt on the ground and walked straight toward the shiny Miltank still seeping in a corner of the room. After reaching it he simply threw a Pokeball at it and after shaking a couple of times it went still, the shiny Miltank had been caught. after collecting the Pokeball with his prize, the man finally looked over at Robert now. Now that he got what he come for, the young boy was only now worth paying attention to. "I must say boy, I have you to thank for making my job so easy this time". Robert looked up at the man in absolute horror and shock when he heard that. "wh, what, what do you mean by that". The man seemingly taking glee in the young boys fear let a smirk play on his lips. "well you see boy, I got information that this dump of a place somehow managed to breed out a shiny Miltank. This is my second night here but I actually couldn't find a trace of it anywhere. Then I saw you". Robert shuddered when he heard that, had he led this guy here. The man seemed to relish in torturing the poor young boy, so his smirk deepened when he saw the guilt and self-blame in his eyes. "that's right, it's just like you think. I couldn't help but think why the boss's son was sneaking around in the night, so I decided to follow you. I'd say that worked out quite well for me, wouldn't you".

All Robert could do at this point was stare at Kurt's lifeless body, with each word from the man like the whispers of the devil. The more he heard the deeper he sank into his guilt. Eventually, he sank to his knees and silently let out a stream of tears. The man seeing this result. Let a devilish smile crawl onto his face.