Michelle.

In the Pokemon Center Lobby.

"Max...Maaax...please pick up. It's me, Mitchie! Pick uuuup!"

While Nurse Joy healed up Astro and Nurse Wilkerson took a look at the Bronzor Jupiter had abandoned, I tried calling Max on the public phone. Neither him or Barry were answering any calls, and usually they would at least send a nasty text to Dee or Aaron if they called.

I sighed, pouting as I listened to the dial tone. Were their Pokegears dead? Both of them?

"Mitchie!"

I hung up the phone at Dee's voice, and hopped off the stool. She was heading towards me, carrying a wood basket with a cardboard box on top.

"Dee-Dee!" I headed towards her, meeting her in a happy hug. Finally, something good was happening today!

Dee laughed, hugging me back. "I knew you must've been in town," She beamed. "Have you met the boys yet?"

I nodded. "Uh-huh! Astro got in a fight, though, so I brought him to get patched up." Dee didn't need to hear about that Team Galactic nonsense. "Everyone else is at the gym, even Maggie."

"Oh? Who's Maggie?" Dee brushed my bangs out of my face. "Make a new friend?"

"Yup! That surfer girl from the Jubilife Contest, she's going with us!" Apparently she was gonna "teach me what real contests are made of", in her own words. "What's in the basket?"

"Oh...just some birthday stuff for Amber." Dee shrugged. "It's only a few weeks away. I bought her that tea the two of you like."

"Ooh, really? Maybe she'll make me some when I come home with some ribbons!"

"Aw, you know Amber would brew you some tea no matter what!"

We talked for a little while, until Nurse Joy brought a pouty looking Astro over to us.

"Michelle, he should be feeling better than ever," She promised, handing me Astro's pokeball. "Although, he still won't go in his pokeball..."

"That's fine, Nurse Joy! Thank you so much!" Astro's never liked his pokeball.

Astro may have felt better, but he looked awful. He was frowning harder than usual, eyebrows furrowed and his big, red eyes unfocused as he stared at the floor.

"...Don't talk to me." Astro crossed his arms over his chest, sighing. "I know what you're gonna say."

He was obviously talking to Dee. She laughed, a loud, mean laugh. "What, you pouting because you got your ass kicked in a fight? Tragic. Maybe you should stop getting in fights."

"Piss off, you self-righteous dyke!" Almost being beaten by Jupiter must have really hurt his pride. Everything hurts Astro's pride, it seems. "You should have been there yourself, you should see the other pokemon-!"

"I think it's time to go out for lunch," Dee continued, not listening to him. "I guess I can try and find you somewhere with milkshakes while you're licking your wounds, Azzy. Mitchie, what do you want to eat?"

Astro perked up a little, thinking of getting a milkshake, and Dee led me and him out the door by hand.

"Well...you know the town better than me, Dee, so you pick someplace I'll like!"

Natalie.

That Evening, at Oak's House

"Grandpa Sam, I think you should know-"

"Shut up!" Carlisle nearly shoved his fork in Katie's throat.

She laughed, dodging. "Your grandson sucks, Grandpa! Both Houndour and Sableye wiped out, with one Turtwig!"

"S-Shut it!" Carlisle huffed, shoving food in his mouth. "It was a tough Turtwig..."

We all ate dinner at Grampa's vacation house that night, sitting around the living room coffee table; Katie, Carlisle, Dan, and Maggie sat on the floor around the coffee table, while Grampa sat in the big armchair and me, Drew, and Tracey were all bunched on the couch. Tracey had cooked up meatloaf and mashed potatoes(my favoritr meal!),and Carlisle was scarfing down plenty after his big loss at the gym.

It felt almost like any night back at home, or at the lab. Like I had never argued with Grampa.

"It doesn't matter what happened today, if I can try again tomorrow," Carlisle insisted. "Quit dogging me!"

Maggie, sitting on his other side, nearly coughed up meatloaf laughing. "She's just trying to get a reaction outta you, kid."

"Yeah, well, it's annoying." Carlisle was all flustered and red in embarrassment; even Dan was smiling, watching him. "Nattie, what'd you and Jumbo do today?"

"Watch it," Drew growled, glaring over his plate, "Jumbo just might sit on you."

I tapped his arm, shaking my head. "Be nice," I warned him in a whisper. Turning back to Carlisle, I answered, "We went walking around the city. Drew wants to battle the gym leader, right?"

Drew nodded. "Yeah...although maybe tomorrow, me and my pokemon'll go out to the forest," He muttered. "Train some. Don't want my head handed to me, too."

"Hey-! Will all of you quit dogging me?" Carlisle was really burned up from his gym battle.

Drew snickered at Carlisle, until Grampa finally said, "Okay, that's enough of all that, kids." He sounded a little annoyed, but he couldn't shake off the big smile on his face, watching all of us bicker.

Maggie looked at Grampa immediately when he spoke, and she hesitated a second before asking, "Hey, professor...how's Daisy these days?"

The chatter around the coffee table stopped. Maggie went back to picking at her food, with Grampa looking at her like she was crazy.

Daisy? Maggie hadn't met my family before...why would she ask about my sister?

"Mark's been really worried about her...her and Nattie, really," Maggie continued. "You remember me, right, sir?"

"Do you know her, Professor?" Tracey asked. I didn't, or at least I didn't recognize her.

It took a moment, but you could see realization spark in Grampa's eyes. "Oh-Maggie! What a surprise, I didn't even recognize you!" When had Maggie ever met Grampa?! "Daisy's doing just fine, what's Mark up to these days?"

"Oh, uh, not much. He's still hanging in, so to speak..." Maggie paused to sigh, and muttered, "or, at least trying."

"Grampa, who's Mark?" I finally asked. "How do you know Maggie...?"

Maggie laughed, shrugging. "I haven't been around in years..." She was playing with the skull ring on her left hand, like it reminded her of something. "I didn't think you'd remember me, Nattie."

"Her brother Mark is one of Daisy's best friends," Grampa told me. "He used to bring her to the lab all the time when you were children, and you'd play together. Don't you remember?"

"No?" The only girl I knew with green eyes and orangey hair was Misty, from Cerulean City. "The only kids I remember ever playing with at the lab...that's the twins."

"Like I said, it's been years," Maggie insisted. "I was only, like, eight years old the last time Mark brought me...then I started up with contests. Did you know Mikey's in Sinnoh, too, Professor?"

"Michael Higgins?" Grampa was shocked, at whoever this was. "I didn't! How's he been?"

"Cheerful as ever. Staying at their grandparents' house, but he wasn't in Floaroma when I stopped by..."

Tracey got up to bring dirty plates to the kitchen, and both me and Drew passed him ours. I leaned against Drew's arm, listening to Grampa and Maggie talk about all these people I should have known.

"Nattie, don't you remember Mikey and Maggie? You three used to play together..."

I closed my eyes, nestling against Drew's arm, ready to take a nap. His muscles tensed up, but he didn't shake me off, so I made myself comfy.

I didn't remember all these "friends" Grampa said I had, and I wasn't about to.

Col.

At the Pokemon Center.

By seven that night, Kent had been all washed up and finally had all the blood washed off his arm and stomach, so he looked a little less like a tragedy victim.

He was sitting in bed in a clean t-shirt and sweatpants, typing away on his laptop like always, when I came back to check on him after buying medicine and food for the road. He had a headset with a mic plugged in, apparently working on something while on a video call.

"No...non, essayez encore, s'il te plaît..." I couldn't catch what he was muttering into his headset, but he was slipping into French, and he sounded irritated, his brows furrowed. A lot of people in Kalos speak French as well as English, but Kent wasn't a native of Kalos and he hardly needed French outside of Lumiose City, so something about his work must have been stressing him.

I cleared my throat. "Kent?" Pikachu, who'd tagged along with me, scampered over to his bed to check on him. "Do you ever take a break?"

Kent jolted when Pikachu jumped on the bed, gasping. "God. It's Col." He unplugged the headset from his laptop, and announced, "Watch what you say, Ryan, Col's right here."

"Col! My man, what's up?" I had never spoken to Ryan before in my life. "Did you stock up well?"

"As well as Kent told me to." I threw him his wallet. "Potions, antidotes, parlyz heals...even a few bottles of Full Heals." I had already deposited everything in the room me and Pluto rented upstairs. "Ryan, did you know my boss is an idiot?"

"We already discussed today, at length," Kent assured me, gritting his teeth.

"We hire you to keep Kent out of trouble, and he actively tries to get himself hurt." There was something...wistful, I guess, in Ryan's voice? "What an idiot."

"Quit talking about me like I'm not in the room." There was that unhinged emotion again, like he would snap at a moment's notice. "Ryan...look into that picture, would you? As well as those lists. I want you to double check everything this time."

"On it," Ryan promised. "God, you work me harder than the professor. How come you don't pay me?"

"That's because you're willing to work for me. Au revior?"

"G'night, Kent. Go to sleep." There was a swooshing sound effect as the chat was exited, and Kent slowly closed his laptop, but I could still see the gears turning at full-speed in his mind.

After waiting a moment to give him time to gather his thoughts, I grunted, "You wanna tell me what it is we're doing tonight?"

"We're meeting with Aaron-and possibly Miss Oak-after midnight, and hightailing it to the southeast, to Hearthome City. He's in...a little legal trouble." Kent pushed his laptop on the bed, and folded his hands over his stomach. "My IV drip was finished almost an hour ago. There should be no worries."

Kent was anemic and dehydrated, according to both Mrs. Wilkerson and Nurse Joy. He had an awful habit of skipping meals, especially when he was working away at whatever is kept on that laptop. That was a big part of what'd made him so weak, was just plain not taking care of himself.

I fished a bottle of supplements I'd grabbed at the store out of my pocket, and tossed it to him. "You've got a bunch of vitamins to take. Start on it."

"Excuse me?" Kent glared at me like I'd thrown him a live grenade. "Is this a joke?"

"I dunno, is it a joke that your blood's more like red colored water?" No smart-ass comeback from the king. "Just do it."

Kent finally shut up and did what he was asked to. He quietly unscrewed the bottle and popped one of the big pills dry, not even hesitating to swallow.

"What'd you do with Pluto?" I asked, looking around. Aside from a mass of cut teal-dyed hair in the garbage can, there was no sign of him.

Kent swallowed again, to get the vitamin down, and croaked, "In the room you rented. I cut what hair Aaron didn't get to, and sent him off to bed to get rest." A shudder interrupted his report. "Christ, man, this is bitter as hell."

"Well, it's perfect for you. Were you talking to Ryan about Pluto?"

"You know it." Kent handed me the bottle of vitamins, and I pocketed it again. "I had the picture we took of Pluto last night, Ryan's going to play with some image-editing software and see if we can get an idea of what he used to look like."

"And...the lists?" Kent had mentioned lists, right before rushing out of his video chat.

Kent grew even paler than he was, when I mentioned the lists. "Oh...you heard that?" He sounded like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar. "The lists..."

"Something personal?" There had been a mistake with "the lists", and Kent had fussed at Ryan.

"Oh, no, nothing as dreadful as that." Kent's lips were drawn tight. "Both me and Ryan spent hours last night, looking for and pouring over missing persons reports for the Sinnoh region, but we're having a little trouble consolidating what we've found."

"Oh." Are missing persons reports even public information? "...Why?"

"There's a girl here in the Sinnoh region, she was reported missing years ago and declared dead," Kent explained, "but Ryan claims he's found some evidence she's still traipsing around the northern path of the region. Would you like to see?" Kent was already opening his laptop again, pulling up documents.

"Um...sure." I wasn't so interested that I'd want to see a bunch of reports, but Kent was already pulling everything up.

Kent handed me his laptop, open to a document with dozens of missing persons reports and profiles he'd gathered, complete with pictures from before each person was missing.

"Only the one highlighted matters," He instructed. "This is most of every person reported in the past ten years. There's only about twenty or thirty, which can be considered good."

I nodded, and looked through the profile.

Name: Tesserae Marie Thompson

Age Missing: 16

Hair Color: Dark brown

Eye Color: Dark brown

Height: 5'04

Weight: 120 lbs

Pokemon Reported On Hand: Sneasel(male), Smoochum, Snorunt(female)

Last Place Seen: Route 116

"It's the weirdest thing, she seems so normal, just a routine report, so why would there be any issue? Honestly..."

I ignored Kent as he rattled off, looking at the picture attached to her. It was her in the middle of a battle, wearing a red sweater and faded skinny jeans. She had long brown hair and brown eyes, like reported, and her height and weight seemed right, but...

Something wasn't right. She had familiar pale white skin, with high cheek bones and a dainty pointed nose, but was scowling in battle, looking angry, like she was losing. She looked just like...

"Dee Thompson." I shut the laptop, and handed it to Kent. He raised an eyebrow in concern, and I added, "Aaron's friend. That helped us in battle, with her ice pokemon. This is her."

"No way." Kent looked at the picture on his laptop again, in disbelief. "You think so?"

"Don't you?" I pointed at the picture. "It's been about five years, but it's definitely her. You and I both saw this girl in battle."

Kent nodded, thinking it over. "Huh...I guess you can see a similarity. I suppose we should find that Dee." He closed his laptop, handing both it and his headset to me. "That's all of that I'll be doing tonight." His arms shook from holding up the laptop.

He had some color back to him, but still winced hard if he leaned too far on his side. Kent had practically been falling apart when we had battled Team Galactic, having to hold onto me just for support.

"Are you sure you'll be able to leave tonight?" I highly doubted it. "The nurses won't be happy, and you've been acting so weird today."

"Today's been a weird day." Kent heaved a heavy sigh. "I'll be fine. Between the Beedrill attack and that Blizzard attack-"

"What was that? You completely shut down once things got a little chilly."

That faraway look was in his eye again; it was something painful, and I shouldn't have asked.

"I guess...you should know I'm afraid of the cold." Afraid? "I have been, since I was a kid. Frigaphobia...anyway, Aaron's going to give me a new coat to wear, since my jacket got trashed. But, please try to watch out, if I get like...that, again."

Kent kept his eyes in his lap as he spoke, almost like he was uncomfortable asking for my help. I had run errands for him and all, but it seemed almost out of character for him to ask for help like that.

I nodded. "Yeah. I will." I checked the clock on the wall; it was a little after eight. "What time should I be up?"

"We're leaving at one in the morning. Pack everything up, and set your alarm for when you think you and Pluto need to be awake. I talked with the kid, and he decided he would feel safer with me for now."

Hopefully he'll actually get some sleep. If Pluto woke me up with another nightmare, I was going to make him sleep in the bathtub.

"G'night, see you in a few hours." With Kent's laptop and his headset, I shut the light off and shut the door behind me as I headed out.

It was going to be a long night.