Secured, Contained, and "Protected"

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It's been a while since it happened. His claws were healed, but the pain is still fresh in his mind. His body was different than it used to be, but he's pressed against the back of the cell that contains him in attempt to be as small as he can. He doesn't understand what happened...and neither did they. He was cooperative once he was snapped out of whatever rage he was sent into. He did not fight them when they apprehended them. He told them what he knew. He gave them the stone.

He didn't want to give them the stone, but he knew that he should. They would have taken it otherwise, but in the moment he wanted nothing to do with it. He no longer remembers why he gave them the stone. He no longer remembers why he wants the stone. He just knows that he needs it...but he does knows that he should stay here.

The story of the devastation he caused had to be relayed to him multiple times before it stuck in his head. He was dangerous, they said. He agreed.

Two guards stood outside the cell. A kabutops and a carracosta-hard counters for his type that could take him out in the blink of an eye if he grew violent again. It was alright though, he understood. He wanted to be here just as much as he wanted that stone. His thoughts conflicted with one another, which left him in a sort of daze at the back of the cell. He was in his own little section of the prison, seeing as the sickness that affected him was entirely contagious. There were more cells, but all were empty.

His wings folded over him as he kept himself nice and warm despite the cold. He had no idea how long he would be here for, but part of him hoped it would be for eternity.

"Whaaat," Osiris exclaimed... more like whined, honestly. "How am I gonna sneak a weapon inside of a poffin? Ugh, fine."

"Well, I mean, I brought a book too. It's the one you looked at before, I figured maybe you could check it out. If you're curious about what you look like now, there's some stuff about charizard in there!" the dratini went on, tugging his satchel closer to him but not opening it yet. "They already searched it and stuff before they let me back here, so... I dunno, I guess I'd have to show it to him from over here, huh?" he said to the carracosta again.

The kabutops only seemed to become increasingly annoyed with the small child that acted so friendly towards an attempted murderer. The carracosta on the other hand gave a nervous laugh in response to the dratini's complaint, "You'd be surprised kid-but, yeah, you have to show him from here. We don't know the specifics of what's affecting and I actually agree with Harrison on this. It's bad enough that you're even back here to begin with."

Garnet steadied his gaze on the cover of the book. It felt familiar, but again, he couldn't quite place his talon on what it was about it that spoke to him. The grounded flying type looked up to the carracosta almost questioningly. Fortunately, the water and rock type knew what he was about to ask.

"You're going to have to take it with you back out, can't risk keeping it here just in case."

The charizard was a little disappointed, but his gaze steadily moved back to the little serpent to see what his plan would be. Would he open the book? Leave? Garnet could remember that the dragon type had something to do, but already he forgot what. His seemed so spacey and empty yet difficult to navigate, it honestly frustrated him.

The dratini blew a raspberry at no one in general, fed up with all of the rules and restrictions placed on the visit. Sit so far away from the cell, get supervised by a pair of big grumps, have them chime in every other second, no food or anything, and he couldn't even bring Zircon anything to enjoy in his cell. It was kind of messed up, but a book would be perfect for him in his state. Every time he read a book, it would be the first time he read it! It'd never get old.

"Okay, well, if you want, I can show some stuff to you. Read for you too, if you need that kinda thing." Anything you need me to help with, he almost said, but he wanted to avoid sounding too pushy. There was a fine line between like, a really helpful friend and a brown-noser, and Iris didn't want to come off that way. "I'm gonna pull it out of the bag now, so please don't, like, beat me up or anything." he said to the officers, opening the flap of his satchel with his snout.

He made sure his movements were slow, so nobody freaked out or anything. He bit down gently on the corner of the thick book and drug it out slowly, pulling it up and facing it so that Zircon could see the cover of it. It was long-since faded, but the faint imprint of some text was readable. It seemed to be some kind of encyclopedia on dragon-type pokemon and those similar to them.

Garnet was interested in the book. He never was a bookworm, but being told he had an apparent interest in the book made him curious as to what he liked about it so much. He did not object to the Dratini's apparent will to stay, but he did notice the looks the two authorities exchanged. It did not surprise him when the kabutops would decide to open his mouth, "Look kid, this is a prison. Not story time in kindergarten. If you're just going to sit here and make a friend out of a convicted felon like an idiot then you should really get going before he gets violent again."

Speaking of doing a violence. A flare of anger sparked up from the kabutops's remark. His expression twisted into a disapproving glare, but the kabutops only seemed to enjoy it. The urge to hit that thing so hard it was sent back a thousand years or so was difficult to resist, but he managed it. The only thing that escaped from him was a low growl that rumbled in his throat.

While the carrocosta also gave the kabutops a dirty look of his own, the growl from the charizard would only prove to accentuate the kabutops' point. The turtle became uncertain, but eventually caved, "What he means is that you shouldn't stay here longer than you need to, kid."

"He's already my friend. He was, before he got in here. But fine, I get it. Jerk..." Osiris mumbled that last word under his breath, ducking his head in embarrassment as he was essentially criticized by both prison guards. So he wasn't allowed to visit for long - that was fine. That just meant he had to come more often, maybe once a day or something like that. Iris had that time.

The dratini exhaled again, staring at the ground sullenly as he flipped the book open regardless, thumbing through pages absently with his tail. "Look, I'll just show you the one thing and then I guess I'm supposed to get out of here," he said, now searching for a specific page. He flipped it open to the same one he'd shown Zircon before, with pictures of his whole evolutionary line. "This is you now Zircon, a charizard. You look a little different cos of your scars and the markings you got, but for the most part it's how you look. In case you forgot." he said, tremulously holding the book up with the majority of his serpentine body.

He wanted to hit the kabutops. He wanted to hit the kabutops so much. The shame in his actions earlier vanished as his gaze focused on the form of the rock and water type. He wondered just how strong these chains that bound him down were. How strong were those bars? How fast he could break the two plus the Kabutops' shell?

His attention drawn away from the kabutops and back to the little snake that felt it necessary to show him a page. His interest remained still of the contents of the book as he gazed upon how he appeared now. He never did get to see himself after his evolution even with the memory loss. His eyes focused on the page before they shifted over to the two branching evolution accompanied with a picture of the stone.

"I found the stone for the dragon..." he unknowingly repeated with a growl to his tone. He wanted it. It was taken him. It was for the best that it was kept from him, he would even agree, but in the moment he wanted it more than anything.

"They took it this time," he told the dratini in reference to the police guards. The dratini said he would help him find the stone...right?

"They're not allowed to do anything with it!" Osiris claimed immediately. He knew he couldn't get it back for Zircon, but he could try to assuage his worries. "I know they're mean and crabby to you, but they work for the police and police aren't allowed to steal things, they're supposed to catch the pokemon who do. I bet they just hold onto it. Whenever you get better, you know, start remembering things... I'm sure they'll give it back."

In truth, Iris had no idea. Maybe they decided it was too dangerous for Zircon to have no matter what his mental state was like. Maybe they hid the stone, or threw it away, or hid it someplace that no one would ever find it. If the explosion that happened in time square was because of the extra power the stone gave him, then he could see something like that happening. If that was the case, they'd just have to get Zircon another one.

He reluctantly closed the book he was showing to Zircon, stuffing it back into his satchel. He'd bring it the next time he visited, so Zircon wouldn't forget how cool charizards were - how cool he was.

The two officers did not comment on what the policy was. Garnet did not exactly look for confirmation either. The problem with this situation was that he wanted it now. He almost wanted to snap at Osiris, demand that he bring him the orb now. Once again, he would stop himself. Guilt took back the reigns as he struggled between the two. It was difficult to figure out what he wanted from himself. He would go one direction and then suddenly something would yank him into the complete opposite.

The charizard nodded, "Yeah...I think..." he lied. He would not doubt it if they just kept it, even if he was better again. They would probably give it to some other charizard. One that wasn't worthy of such strength. Although, was he even worthy of it?

"I-I'm sorry I don't uh...remember," he struggled to speak once again. It was clear that he was uncertain of himself. He really wished he could remember one damn thing for once. There wasn't much he could do besides speak from inside the jail cell. Instead he would withdraw away from the bars and closer to the center of the cell. He thought he needed distance, but some small part of him wished some one or something would just give him a hug right about now.

The way that Zircon seemed so hazy and vulnerable made Iris dislike the kabutops guard so much more. Even the other one too, a little bit. It was just so unfair that he was locked up in here, and the only company he was constantly going to have were a couple of pokemon who thought he was just some criminal.

Osiris shot the kabutops a dirty look and stuck his tongue out at him.

"Your name is Garnet Zircon," Iris reminded him. "I'm Osiris, and we're kind of friends. I'm gonna visit you in here whenever they let me. If you can remember one thing, remember that you're not gonna forget forever. You'll get reminded, okay?" he said, almost surprising himself with the commitment he was making. Almost. He genuinely wanted to help the charizard inside the cell, but he just didn't want to come off as too weird or make Zircon uncomfortable in the process.

Garnet Zircon. That was his name. That felt right. Osiris proceeded to assure him that they were "kind of" friends. He didn't quite understand what the difference between a regular friend and a kind of friend was, but as far as he knew this kid was his only friend. He certainly didn't have anyone visiting him as far as he knew. The only consistent knowledge that came through his mind was familiarity with certain things and the crippling reminder that he couldn't remember what he was doing ten minutes ago.

"...Okay," He responded, "Uh...thanks." He did not know whether or not he was even going to remember this kid, but in the moment it felt...nice. It was nice to have someone on his side-because he certainly wasn't half the time.

The kabutops was shocked by the audacity of the little pest to give him any remote amount of sass. He thought he was perfectly patient with the kid up until this point. This was where he was going to draw the line. "Alright, that's it. C'mon, kid. Visiting timer's up if you're just going to sit here and be like that." The kabutop's moved a claw closer to the dratini in a careful attempt to shoo him along.

"Okay, alright, fine." Osiris muttered up at the kabutops, shying away from the claw. Obviously, the big ugly rock bug thing let him do it, and if he really wanted to he could have just punted Iris down the hallway, but he still didn't want the guy touching him. It was on principle, really. If you were rude to his friends, he was gonna be rude to you, and when the power disparity was this big he just had to be annoying.

"I'm gonna do that stuff! I'll talk to the vaporeon and tell her she's strong, and I'll check on everyone else to make sure they're okay and tell them you said sorry, alright? I'll even ask the police in the office about your stone. Don't let these guys get you down!" he said last-minute to the charizard, suddenly desperate to squeeze as much as he could out of the visit before he had to go. "You're better than this, Zircon! I'll be back soon to let you know how everything went."

He didn't quite turn down the hallway and leave, but he did slither backwards a few paces as he said his goodbyes. It was apparent that unless one of the two guards began to bodily walk him out, he was going to take his time leaving.

Garnet watched the child leave from behind the bars. He had no idea what he could have possibly done to deserve this kid's favor, but it was appreciated. He smiled at the kid and waved in farewell. It was reassuring in the moment to know that the kid was going to get on top of things...because he sure as hell couldn't even if he wanted to. He watched the Kabutops give an irritated huff as he began to follow Osiris to usher him out.

"C'mon kid, go! It's not hard." The rock type muttered. The carracosta, on the other hand, seemed to be almost sad. There was no way Garnet was going to be able to remember any of that stuff. Hell, Garnet couldn't even remember that he was sick even though it was re-established just moments ago. His brain was a scrambled irritated mess and there was nothing he could do to help it.

"Alright, jeez! Gosh, who hurt your feelings?" Osiris grumbled, moving a bit faster now that he was being pressured. Still, he had to make time to say farewell properly. The dratini turned on a dime one last time, shooting the charizard one last smile. "Okay, goodbye Zircon! I'll see you later!"

With that, he reluctantly turned and began to make his way back to the main office of the police station, away from the guards and quite possibly the coolest pokemon he'd met ever. It was a lot harder to do than he thought, but he stayed optimistic with the thought that he could help Zircon on the outside.

Just before he went out of sight, he couldn't resist one last call before disappearing around the corner. "Don't be mean to him while I'm gone. He really doesn't deserve it!"

Garnet watched the little guy go. It was cute how the kid could remain so optimistic. He waved the dratini goodbye before his wings wrapped around himself a little once more. He was alone again...well...save for the Carracosta. The water and rock type returned to their usual post as the kabutops ensured that the dragon type wouldn't come sneaking back.

He stared at the ground in front of him for a few heartbeats before he looked up at the Carracosta again. "Uhh..." he spoke up. The carracosta glanced back at him with a questioning look. "Who was that?"

"..." The carracosta sighed, "Osiris. He's your friend apparently."

"Oh..."

Meanwhile, the Kabutops seemed to take offense to what the dratini shouted. The strange fossil pokemon snorted, "I'm sorry, what do you take us for exactly? There's a crime system for a reason kid, trust it, and buzz off already!"

"I don't trust you as far as I could throw you, Harry!" Osiris' fading voice yelled back. "I think you should be more like the other guy!" He was out of sight and around the corner, and thus he was that much more confident now that he wasn't face-to-face with the kabutops.

And with that said, he took off at a frantic slither back to the main office of the police station. The dratini had quite the list to go through now; There was a vaporeon to talk to, everyone involved in the fight to apologize to on behalf of Zircon, the stone to check up on, and whatever else he could think of. Maybe the owners of any property that got damaged in the charizard's explosion. It was a shame that he couldn't pass anything through Zircon's cell or even visit for very long. It was going to make his job much, much harder.

But this was the sort of challenge Osiris could get behind.