Hakuba Saguru had been out of the country for the better part of a month attending some high priority meetings and parties with his mother. He didn't dislike the parties but he certainly didn't like them either. He'd been standing next to his mother as they talked to some wealthy business man when his phone erupted, ringing loudly and forcing him to have to excuse himself to take the call. His mother would explain that he's a famous detective and that should cover for his bad manners well enough-you never know when you'll be called away to a case.
"Hello, Saguru speaking." He answered in English.
"Hakuba-kun!" The familiar voice of Nakamori Aoko sounded frantic and forced him to have to keep from getting frantic as well. Aoko hardly ever called him on this phone due to international rates-instead she preferred to text which alerted him that there must be some kind of emergency.
"Aoko-kun, are you alright?" He switched quickly to Japanese, trying to hear anything and everything going on in the background.
"I'm fine." She assured him, her voice slightly hesitant. "But Kaito's missing-I haven't seen him in nearly two days now." She confessed. Saguru paused for a moment. Two days-according to the news Kaitou Kid had had a heist on that day but never showed. Had something happened to Kuroba?
"Don't worry Aoko-kun, I'll be on the next flight to Japan." He assured her before cutting the call short. International charges weren't a problem for him but they might be for Inspector Nakamori. He stored his phone in his pocket and found his mother before explaining that something had come up and excused himself from the party. He hadn't even hailed a cab yet before his phone sprang to life once more only this time he didn't recognize the number.
"Hakuba speaking." He answered.
"Oi. Do ya have any idea how hard it was t' get yer housekeeper t' give me this number?" Someone's very annoyed voice came through the line. Saguru would recognise that accent anywhere. Saguru resisted the urge to sigh.
"Yes, I don't want just anyone in possession of my phone number. Seems I'll have to change it again." He changed his tone slightly, recognizing that this had to another emergency situation. "Well Hattori-kun, to what do I owe the… pleasure of your call?"
"I'm investigatin' a case yer thief is involved in. Ya heard on the news he didn't turn up at his heist, haven't ya?" Hattori demanded.
"Yes, I might have heard something about it. Why?"
"Kudo-I mean Conan-kun's missin' too. He's been gone fer two days and Neechan's beside herself with worry. Since ya follow the Kid case I thought ya might've known somethin'." Thankfully Hattori got right to the point. It did give the half british detective another moment of pause though- Kuroba and Conan were both missing. Considering he suspected Kuroba of being the infamous Kaitou Kid and Conan was well known for foiling his plans it made sense that they were together when they went missing. They must have gotten into some kind of trouble.
"I don't have much at present but I'll be in Japan soon. I'll call you when I do have something." He disconnected the line and was finally able to hail a cab to the airport.
oooOOOooo
"Man, I'm so ready to get going!" Ash stated as he stretched his arms and reached for the bright morning sky, Pikachu mirroring his exercises. "We've been here almost three days now and I'm ready for my next gym battle, how about you Pikachu?"
"Pika!" Pikachu agreed. Ash smiled down at his partner and then looked back that Pokemon center entrance, waiting on his friends and their new travel companions but no one was coming. Ash knew that he, Dawn, and Brock had been up for a good hour now so the delay must have been with Shinichi and Conan.
"C'mon Pikachu, let's go see where everyone is." Ash trudged back into the center and saw Brock was talking to Nurse Joy with Crogunk at the ready incase he tried anything. Dawn was seated by the window and there was no sign of the other two. They could still be sleeping, could they?
He slipped passed Nurse Joy and Brock and moved over to the room he knew the others were staying in and knocked lightly. "Hello?" He called. It didn't take Shinichi long to answer the door-his hair was extremely disheveled and he had a toothbrush in hand but at least he was awake.
"Hey Shinichi, what's up?" He asked. The detective sighed and opened the door for Ash to step inside. When he did he noticed Conan was still fast asleep-sprawled all over the bed, having kicked all his blankets off.
"Conan-kun's still asleep. I know we agreed we'd leave by nine but he had a rough night so I'm going to let him sleep a little longer." Shinichi explained. Ash looked back at the sleeping kid and wondered just how rough his night could have been sleeping on a comfortable bed in the pokemon center-but then he did still have an injured shoulder so maybe he'd had a hard time getting to sleep.
"That's okay. The Pastoria Gym will still be there." He offered, feeling his impatience gnawing at him. But it wasn't like it was Conan's fault. He'd force himself to be patient. "...Is he okay?" He chanced asking. Shinichi sighed and just shook his head.
"Knowing him, he'll insist that he is." Ash would never understand why Shinichi and Conan were always so cryptic. He was about to try and press the matter when the whole building shook.
"What was that?" He glanced towards the window and got up to investigate, Pikachu following him.
"An earthquake?" Shinichi suggested.
"No way. Earthquakes are pretty rare here-A few pokemon can learn it as an attack so it could be-." Ash started just as a large metal hose like thing crashed into to the and Shinichi had barely dived out of the way as glass showered the floor. The metal hand clamped down on something and quickly retreated from the room.
"What was that?" Shinichi asked, getting quickly back to his feet and offering Ash a hand up. "You okay?"
"It's Team Rocket." He groaned.
"Prepare for Trouble!" The unmistakable voice of Jessie sounded followed sharply by another familiar voice.
"And make it double." James said his line.
"Who's Team Rocket?" Shinichi asked, not really paying too much attention to the motto.
"They're really bad guys who steal other people's pokemon!" Ash explained. Shinichi just stared at him as though trying to comprehend what he'd just said.
"That's a thing?"
"To protect the world from devastation-"
"Waaah!" Another voice interrupted.
"Meowth! Don't interrupt us while we're-"
"I hate ta cut da motto so short but we gotta a problem. Da machine didn't grab Pikachu." He pointed out. Ash and Shinichi both looked to see what they were talking about. Pikachu was still seated on Ash's shoulder so the robot had to have grabbed-
"Aw shit. Conan!" Shinichi cried out. If nurse Joy had been there she'd probably have told him off for that language.
"What the hell is this?" Conan demanded, unable to do anything but squirm against the giant robot's vice grip.
"Dis is da Mecha Meowth tirtyfive. It was meant ta capture pikachu but yous got in the way!" Meowth stated.
"Great. Since I wasn't the intended the intended catch of the day-can you put me down?" Conan asked sardonically. Too bad Ash knew Team Rocket wouldn't be that agreeable.
"I don't think so little boy." Jessie started. "You may not have been the intended target but don't think we'll just let you go."
"Yeah. Because now yous got an ultimatum-Da kid or Pikachu." Meowth stated. Conan sighed despondently.
"I don't know what an ultimatum is-" Ash stated, pulling out a pokeball. "But you won't get away with this! Staravia, use aerial ace on the mech's arm!" He shouted. The bird pokemon got ready to do just as its trainer had instructed.
"WAIT!" Shinichi cried out, throwing an arm in front of Ash. "If it breaks the arm Conan could fall-at this height that could kill him!"
"Wha-!? Kill him? Staravia! Hold up on that Aerial Ace!" Ash called out. Staravia halted mid-flight and flew back, awaiting further instruction. "What do we do?" She asked Shinichi.
"Conan's safety is top priority. So until we have a way to get him down then our hands are tied."
"But-"
"Oi!" Conan called out. "can someone just get me down?"
"So what's it going to be?" James asked. "We'll give you two hours to decide." That said, the hopped into the control center of their robot and turned about face before it stomped off into the forest.
"Shinichi, what are we going to do. There's no way I'm going to hand pikachu over to them." Ash declared.
"I wouldn't ask you to." Shinichi said flatly.
"Pika?" Pikachu asked. Shinichi just smirked and waved out the window.
"If you want him so bad, take him! But you'll be paying us to take him back, trust me!"
"What!?" Ash exclaimed. "You're letting them take him?" Shinichi shrugged and patted Pikachu on the head.
"Don't worry so much. That kid's been through a lot worse than those three." He stated vaguely, leaving Ash even more confused.
"Chaaa" Pikachu responded to the pats.
"Still. Staravia, I think you should follow." Ash said to the flying type.
"Star!" it responded before flying off.