Interrogation

Cerulean Forest

At this time, twenty figures can be seen in white Karate uniforms walking through the Cerulean Forest. Following behind the members of the Dojo are Folker, Farlan, Chelsea, and Lucario.

"Hmmm... I'm not buying this" Folker said as he rubbed his chin while walking.

"What is it?" Chelsea asked as he looked at Folker.

"At that time, in Viridian Forest, just Tyranitar alone was enough to cause a Pokemon Tide. This time, it's Zapdos and the surrounding pokemon looked rather calm" Folker said as he looked at the nearby Pidgeys and Caterpies.

"You're right. It's either Zapdos wasn't actually here.. or something bad happened to it" Farlan guessed as he rubbed his belly.

The further they went deep into the forest, the more Folker doubted the veracity of the news about Zapdos.

'Just what happened here in the forest?'

Folker looked around in confusion as they followed the Dojo members.

His mind wandered while thinking about the Karate Master and the Black Belters. Corin's figure suddenly flashed in his mind. He had an urge to ask Corin about this but he figured that even if he knew, he wouldn't speak about it.

They continued walking deeper in the forest until they found a few trainers who appeared to be running away from something.

"Hey, wait! What happened here?" one of the Dojo members asked.

One of the trainers stopped and turned his gaze towards the Dojo members. He then heaved a sigh of relief. Seeing that one of them stopped, the others stopped as well.

"It's Team Rocket! We just came here for news about Zapdos but instead of Zapdos, we found Team Rocket members instead and they're trying to capture us!" one of the trainers said.

"Team Rocket? Have you come across the Karate Master of the Fighting Dojo of Saffron City?"

"Hmmm.. I don't think so. But I heard they captured a few trainers and imprisoned them"

"Is that so? Thank you for the information. We came from this direction, it should be safe here" one of the Dojo members said with a bow as he pointed his right hand from behind.

The trainers nodded and ran away as they headed back to the city.

"The Karate Master and the Black Belters must have been imprisoned by Team Rocket"

"But they're too strong to be captured just like that!"

"Yeah but if Team Rocket had the numbers advantage, it's not impossible"

"Just what is Team Rocket planning this time?"

The Dojo members conversed among themselves with their own opinions and guesses about the Karate Master and the others.

They then continued walking in the direction the trainers they met earlier came from. The Dojo members speculated that the trainers were being pursued by Team Rocket so they followed their trail, hoping to come across their pursuers so they can capture them for information.

It didn't take long before Lucario detected one approaching figure with ill-intent and warned the others about it.

The Dojo members then ambushed one of the pursuers and captured him as they tied him with a rope.

"Speak. Where is the Karate Master?" one of the Dojo members said as he tried to intimidate the Team Rocket grunt.

"Tch, as if I'd tell you!" said with a grin as he spat out his saliva on the ground.

"That's not an answer!" the dojo member said as he raised his fist.

"Wait, let me handle this" Farlan hurriedly said as he approached the captured Team Rocket member.

The dojo member looked at Farlan for a moment before he stepped backward and let him handle the interrogation. He knew that he came with Folker so he decided to trust him, at least for the interrogation.

Farlan then shoved something into the grunt's mouth. The grunt was caught off-guard and couldn't help but swallow it.

"Just what did you put in my mouth!?" the grunt said as he frowned.

"Hmmmmm.. That was poison" Farlan said with a smirk as he looked at the grunt in the eye.

He then grabbed a bottle with a red liquid inside of it and showed it to the grunt.

"This one is the antidote" Farlan added as he held the chin of the grunt.

His eyes flashed with ruthlessness, one that the grunt was familiar with. As a Team Rocket grunt, he witnessed those eyes quite a lot inside the organization.

The corners of his eyes widened in terror when he heard Farlan's words. Earlier, he didn't find Farlan's smile terrifying. But now, it was still the same smile but for some reason, beads of sweat flowed on his face.

"I'm sure you know what to do. You only have one life but Team Rocket has plenty of lives inside it" Farlan gently said.

The grunt gulped his saliva in terror as he looked away from Farlan's eyes.

"How do I know that what you shoved into my mouth is actually poison? And how do I know that what's inside that bottle is exactly the antidote as you said?" the grunt said with hesitation.

"Oh, no. You don't know" Farlan said with a chuckle. He didn't bother to insist that he was telling the truth and just left the grunt to his imagination.

"E-even if you let me go.. Team Rocket will still hunt me down for betraying them" the grunt replied with a stutter.

"Oh, I'm sure they will. That is, if they know. Right now, we're the only ones here. As long as no one finds out, what does it matter?" Farlan replied with a smile.

The grunt hesitated for a while before he sighed and said "Alright. I'll spill it out"

Folker and Chelsea were dumbfounded as they looked at Farlan's figure in shock. They didn't know that he was this good at interrogation.

"Now, that's more like it" Farlan said with a smile as he stepped backwards. He then turned his gaze towards Lucario and said "Luca, can you monitor his heartbeat to see if he's lying?"

Lucario thought about it for a moment before it nodded.

"Hey, hey, what was what?" Folker asked with a low voice as he looked at Farlan.

"Oh, that? That was just some low level method of interrogation. Team Rocket grunts aren't usually aren't that smart so that kind of method usually works. It wouldn't work on the higher ranking members though" Farlan replied with a shrug.

"How do you even know that?" Chelsea said as the corners of her eyes narrowed when she looked at Farlan.

"Well, let's just say that I have an uncle who works for the international police and he gave me a few tips" Farlan said as he rubbed his belly.

...

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Something came up and I'll be busy for 3-4 days so I published this in advance. I'll be back by next week.