Chapter 9

23 Furry Little Felines

"Be careful going in search of adventure- it's ridiculously easy to find."

-William Least Heat-Moon

Little Bart wants to be a policeman when he grows up.

The CSS is known for a 99% success rate and a maximum security prison. I'm sure I've mentioned that before.

They are among the most effective policing organizations on the planet. Some people think that the guardians are actually trained CSS Pokémon. In case you aren't following along, we are not.

Any individual agent has extensive skill in Pokémon training- recruits are actually sent to the mainland to take the gym challenge with a team of their choice before they're admitted. Any one agent carries at least two Pokémon with them, and in case of dire emergency, a handgun.

Weapon-wise, they are trained in pistols, as I've said, shotguns, and submachine guns or assault rifles. A few are trained in sharpshooting. They're the guys that you might see wearing that beret that says "P. I. G." on the front. The point is, the police can use Pokémon and weaponry.

They train for months in hand to hand combat, as well as running.

I think I've told you about commandos, or what we referred to as the Marine Corps back at home. The CSS is, essentially, both.

Having said all that, you'd think the first thing Bianca would say might have something to do with what they were doing, in all their power, to find me, right?

Wrong.

"Look, before we even start, let me just say this: Refrain from using my last name. It makes me sound like an old hag."

Agent Bly didn't smile or nod. He sat down across the table from her and set a folder down between them.

"What can you tell me about Latios' disappearance?"

She slumped.

"Probably not much more than you can tell me."

"I know that Latios was attempting to stop a mugging in progress when he was attacked by a woman about your age. She injected him with some kind of sedative and escaped our efforts with the help of a smoke screen."

He plopped a laminated photocopy of a trainer's license onto the table for her to look at.

"This is the mugging victim. He's supposed to come in later today to talk us through what the girl looked like, as our first responder couldn't give a good description beyond how she looked young. Now, you can save us all some grief if there's something to add that we aren't aware of yet."

Bianca stared at the license copy for a while. Agent Bly must've thought that she was just fishing for anything of use, but she was really memorizing the guy's face, listed address, and name.

"Bianca, we know you have connections with Latios and Latias. I'm not here to ask anything personal. I just want to know something that might help us help you."

Finally, she looked back up at the man. "You want my help? Unplug the camera in the corner, and take off the microphone."

Bly said nothing, but stood up and unplugged the camera that was eyeing them both. He returned to the table and shrugged.

"I don't know what microphone you're talking about."

Now, I can't stress enough that I was not there for this part, so I don't know how accurate what happened next is. Bianca swore by it, though.

Apparently she took a glass of water that had been waiting for her since she got into the room and soaked Bly's dress shirt with it. Instantly the wire he was wearing was on the table, dripping wet.

I think it's more likely that she refused to say anything to help until he took the stupid thing off, or maybe it didn't even exist in the first place, but if I'm going to believe Bianca's account (and I owe her that much, at least), then the long arm of the law lost an arm wrestling match to the longer arm of Bianca.

After he threw the wire onto the table, he took a breath through his nose.

"Guess I forgot about that one," he said. She smiled and nodded.

"Yes, I guess you did."

He sat back down and stared at her expectantly.

"Latios saved a girl from drowning in one of our canals around a week ago. They started meeting up every now and again."

Bly was scribbling away on a pad.

"Are you familiar with dragon nip?" asked Bianca.

"Herb that grows wild on the mainland. My buddy's wife makes a great penne alla vodka with it."

"Do you know what it does to dragon types?"

"Already writing it down. You're saying she nipped a legendary guardian."

Bianca nodded. "She used it to get close, and then she betrayed him."

"What's her name?"

"She said it was Sue something. I'm sorry, I don't recall her last name."

Bly didn't say anything in return. Instead, he just stared at her.

"Look, I never met this girl. I only know about her through..."

He said nothing else, and instead scribbled a number on a business card.

"As soon as you remember anything else, you call me at either of these numbers. I don't care if it's day or night. If you can't reach me at the business number, the one I just wrote down is my personal phone."

Bianca took the card and turned it around a few times in her hand.

"You can go. I need a change of shirt."

She smiled sheepishly.

Bianca's parents are nice enough folks, but I would still call them neglectful. Work takes priority over family for them. Her mother is a musician, as you know. She does a lot of travelling. Her father is a scientist, and he spends most of his time working, as well. To this day, I have no idea how those two workaholics managed to scrounge up enough down time to date, marry, and mate.

Coincidentally, that's the name of one of her mother's most successful albums: Date, Marry, and Mate. It went triple aluminum.

The point is, they understood that a child needs a constant family, and if Bianca lived with them, she wouldn't have had a very happy childhood. Her mother would be gone constantly if she lived with her father, and her father would be too preoccupied with work to properly raise her. If she lived with her mother, she'd be uprooted too often. She wouldn't be able to maintain friendships or spread roots. Therefore, the best bet was leaving her in the care of her Grandfather and two legendary dragons, where she was guaranteed a wonderful upbringing.

Latias helped raise her, you know. She and Latios babysat her when Mario had to work. One would go on patrol, and the other would stay with her at his house, or she'd stay with them at the garden. Latios and Latias were the closest things to stable guardians that she had, and she didn't have a problem admitting that. Likewise, sometime during my first few weeks here, Latias told me that she loved Bianca like a daughter. That's one of the reasons we call her the Latias that was born a human.

Now, the connection resulting from that kind of love gave Bianca the equivalent of an innate ability to locate the dragoness when she was cloaked. Years of playing hide and seek actually paid off. She knew where Latias was when she left the police station, which turned out to be right next to the door.

"1313 Prospect Street," whispered Bianca.

What's that, Sly's location?

Bianca looked around to make sure nobody heard her.

"No, the location of the person he was trying to help. If we ask him a few questions..."

We might get some good news.

Bianca shook her head. "You mean I might get some good news. You should go on your patrol. I'll let you know what I find out."

Are you sure you don't want someone to back you up?

Bianca smiled in Latias' direction. "I'll be fine, don't worry."

It was a good idea. The last thing the town needed was for both guardians to be out of commission, so Latias did as Bianca suggested and went for her patrol. Meanwhile, Bianca paid the would-be mugging victim a visit.

He felt grateful for my attempted intervention, and guilty that he didn't do anything to help me. This is kind of embarrassing, but I can't for the life of me remember what Bianca said that guy's name was. For the sake of the story, I'm just going to call him Muffy, because I thought he looked like a carpet sample.

She knocked on the door to his house and claims to have almost been blasted backwards by the sounds of many Meowths. When Muffy opened the door, the smell almost made her gag. She says he must've had 23 furry little felines.

We had a name for that where I was from: Crazy Cat Person.

"Oh, wow... Um, hi!"

Now, Bianca is a gifted human being. She's smart, she's got a great personality, she is super nice to everyone until they aren't to her anymore, and she's also very pretty.

Apparently Muffy looked like it was his first time ever seeing a member of the opposite sex. Except for a few of his Meowths.

"Hi, my name is Bianca. I'm a private investigator. I've been looking into Latios' kidnapping, and I understand you were there when it occurred."

Muffy's odd grin fell. Suddenly, he was all business.

"Yes. I feel awful about the whole thing. Latios was there to help me. Some guy was trying to steal my wallet."

"What can you tell me about the occurance?" she asked. Muffy opened the door a little wider.

"Do you want to come in? It looks like it's about to start raining."

She was shaking her head instantly.

"No, thank you. I have a dreadful allergy to Meowths."

Muffy stared at her for a few moments, and for good measure, she faked a sneeze. Why did she fake it? Bianca's not really allergic to Meowths.

"Oh, that's terrible. I can't imagine being allergic to these guys!"

Muffy took an inhaler out of his pocket and put it to his lips. He took a wheezy breath and shook his head.

"Nope, can't imagine it."

"Let's stay focused. What can you tell me about Latios' kidnapping?"

"Right, sorry. Like I said, Latios showed up and intervened as I was being robbed. The guy trying to steal from me had a battle with him. He was using an Umbreon, and even then... Latios looked like he was going to win."

Bianca nodded, and faked a cough.

"Out of nowhere, this girl shows up, and she starts helping him out with a Cyndaquil. Together they beat the guy, and Latios let her get close. It was like he knew her. I saw her with the syringe, but I thought it was some kind of medication, because he did get bit... but instead of helping him regain his energy, the injection knocked him out."

Bianca cringed. "And at that point she used a Poké Ball on him, right?"

"Right. She called him Sly before he lost consciousness, too... but who would name a Pokémon Sly? Who would name anyone that?"

A drunk, sad and angry person would, but that's neither here nor there.

"Do you remember what she looked like?" she asked.

"She had blonde hair, brown eyes, and she was about your size. She was pretty, too. She threatened to hurt me if I did anything to stop her, and the smoke screen prevented me from seeing where she ran off to."

If I were the one investigating, I'd have hit the dead end right there. Like I said, though. Bianca is very smart.

"What about the Poké Ball?" she asked. Muffy was confused.

"What about it?"

"Do you remember what model it was? Was it new or old?"

He seemed to perk up a little bit. "Yeah, yeah! I remember. It was one of the newest models. You know, the ones with the air conditioning and the heaters built in?"

Bianca smiled. "That's great. You've been a big help."

Why was that a big help? There are many stores that sell Poké Balls in Altomare, but only two sell the newest ones when they first come out. If Bianca could find out which was the store Sue purchased the ball from, she might be able to narrow down my location unless it was paid for in cash.

So, Bianca thanked Muffy one final time and headed for the Museum. It was time to get Super Mario involved, because if one thing is for sure, it's this:

Mario just doesn't save kidnap victims enough.

End of Chapter

2,215 words.

I don't know if I mentioned this yet, but my basement flooded in June. Insurance covered that. My basement flooded again last week. Insurance didn't cover that.

I spent the better part of Friday downstairs with a wet-dry vac whislt using the kind of foul language that would make a sailor blush. But enough about sport.

I'm working tomorrow, I got nominated to pour ice on my head or something, which I don't really understand because I live under a rock, school starts in a few weeks, and I'm planning on filming one more thing this coming week.

Next chapter covers Bianca and Mario checking those two stores to see if Sue bought the ball she used on Sly locally, and then Mario jumps on a turtle shell. It shouldn't be a very long chapter.

Oh, and I'm leaning towards using Bianca as the heroine here, not Ash. That should be interesting.