"After a horrendous experience in the Galar Mine No. 2, Victor and Gloria help out a couple and their young daughter. Now they are returning to Motostoke for Victor to face the powerful Gym Leader, Kabu. Just one problem..."
"The Case of the Missing Pokémon"
"You gotta be kidding me…" Victor says, with a sweatdrop, as he and Gloria stand in front of the Motostoke Gym, which has a note on the door that reads: "The Gym is Closed until repairs to the arena are done."
Victor lowers his head, "So much for signing up for a match for first thing in the morning…"
"Couldn't be helped," Gloria says, with a hand on her hip, before she sighs. "We better head on over to the inn."
Victor stands back straight, "Right…"
Victor and Gloria are walking through the street, before Gloria notices a poster on a nearby wall.
"Hey, Victor, look," Gloria says, before they see the poster is showing a picture of a Minccino, with the words "MISSING" above it.
"A missing Pokémon?" Victor realizes. "How awful."
"Aweful is really a succinct response to the situation."
Victor and Gloria look at each other, before they turn around to see a strange man wearing an Inverness cape with a deerling-stalker cap. Victor and Gloria jump back slightly, surprised.
"Who're you?" Gloria asks.
"Right now, just a traveler, very much like you," the man says.
"Excuse me?" Gloria asks.
"Wear worn shoes, typical of traveling long distances" the man starts, causing Gloria to look down at her feet. "Small stress marks at the corner of the eyes suggest you be up all day. And slight muscle tones on your right hand, not only show you're right handed, but you also regularly throw a Poké Ball, which adds to the conclusion that you're a Pokémon Trainer traveling."
The man then looked at Victor, "As for you, you possess all of that, but deeper stress marks suggest you not only be up all day but also be involved in more stressful battles, not to mention being doing more training. Also, I saw you walking, and there's a small clunking sound coming from your backpack."
Victor looks slightly at his backpack.
"That, adding to all my previous observations, brings me to one single conclusion, you're a Gym Challenger on a travel journey," the man continues. "Also, I watched the opening ceremony and I saw you. You were pretty nervous."
"Hum, yeah…" Victor blushes.
"Wow, you're very observant," Gloria comments.
"And that is a very good observation," the man nods his head slightly, before turning away, leaving Victor and Gloria to watch him.
Victor and Gloria enter the Budew Drop Inn, as a bellhop walks over to them.
"Ah, you two must be the Gym Challengers staying for the night," the bellhop says.
"Actually, I'm not a Gym Challenger, but I did call ahead for two rooms," Gloria says.
"And they're ready," the bellhop says, before motioning his hand toward the back of the lobby. "Right this way."
The bellhop leads Victor and Gloria through the lobby, as the two young Trainers notice two kids, a boy and girl, with a Bunnelby, as they stand in front of the hotel manager.
"I'm sorry, but Pokémon aren't allowed out of their Poké Balls in the lobby," the manager tells the kids.
Victor and Gloria look at each other, as they both imagine confronting Jean and Paul in the lobby, before they start blushing and resume walking with the bellhop.
As the three enter the elevator, the boy says, "But, sir, we don't have a Poké Ball for Bunnelby."
"Bunn, by," Bunnelby adds, as the elevator doors close.
The bellhop leads Victor and Gloria down a hallway, before coming to a stop in front of one door.
"This is your room, ma'am," the bellhop starts, before pointing to another door further down the hall. "And that is yours, sir."
"Thank you, but sir and ma'am aren't necessary," Victor says.
"I actually like it," Gloria says, causing the two to smile with a small laugh.
"You better hurry up!"
Victor and Gloria turn to look back down the hall to see a woman holding a Galarian Meowth, as another bellhop is kneeling in front of a door, pressing a keycard against the door's panel.
"This is unbelievable that my room's electronic key keeps on not working," the woman complains. "And this is supposed to be a topnotch hotel."
"Meowt."
"Sorry about the hassle, ma'am, but I'll have the lock reset in a moment," the bellhop tries to reassure her.
Victor and Gloria look at each other, shrugging their shoulders.
Victor is standing in the arena of a stadium, before he sees Scorbunny knocked back, "Scorbunny!"
Victor looks up to see a giant Kabu standing behind a giant Centiskorch.
"Do you really think you can beat us?" Kabu says.
"Centi! Skorc!"
Centiskorch lunges forward as Victor holds up his arms, and a loud scream is heard.
Victor nearly jumps out of bed, when he hears another scream, and he starts to get out of bed.
Victor and Gloria exit their hotel rooms into the hall.
"What's going on?" Gloria asks.
Before a door next to Victor's opens, and the girl leaves the room, "Help! Bunnelby is missing!"
"Your Bunnelby is gone?" Gloria asks.
The boy leaves the room, "I look everywhere. Bunnelby is nowhere!"
"A missing Pokémon…" Victor says to himself.
Shortly later, Victor, Gloria, the two kids, the woman, the manager, and two bellhops are in the lobby.
The manager sighs, "It would seem that young Bobby and Cindy had their Pokémon gone missing, so to make sure no one else is missing, I must ask that everyone let out their Pokémon."
"Here we go," Gloria throws three Poké Balls.
"Sobbl."
"Dot-er."
"Sir, fetch!"
"Alright, let's go," Victor throws four Poké Balls.
"Scor."
"Dee."
"Pika."
"Toxe!"
"Wait, that Scorbunny!" the woman suddenly yells.
"Scor?" Scorbunny looks up to her.
"I knew you look familiar," the woman says to Victor. "You're two are the troublemakers from the train!"
"What?!" Victor responds.
"What in the…?!" the woman pulls her bag out, as Victor turns around, with Scorbunny's tail sticking out of the bag.
"Scorbunny?!" Victor grabs and pulls Scorbunny out of the bag.
"What's your Scorbunny doing in my bag?!" the woman angrily asks the young Trainer.
"Meowt!"
"Well, you see…" Victor nervously responds.
"Blip…"
Victor, Scorbunny, the woman, and her Meowth look down at the bag, before the Blipbug suddenly jumps out the bag, with the woman screams and falls backward, as her Meowth watches her.
"It was you, when Blipbup stopped the train…" Victor realizes.
"Dot-er…" Dottler turns away, blushing.
"Ms. Claudia, please, your Pokémon," the manager says to the woman.
"Mmhm, my Meowth is sleeping peacefully in my bag," Claudia opens her handbag to find it empty. "What?! My precious Meowth is gone!"
Claudia then looks angrily to the side and pushes the manager out of the way, approaching Victor and Gloria, "It must be you two!"
"What?!" Gloria responds.
"You two are Pokémon Trainers, are you not? So of course you would want new Pokémon," Claudia starts. "Besides, you are the only ones not missing any Pokémon!"
"We will never take someone else's Pokémon," Victor says.
"Of course not," Gloria adds.
At that moment, the lobby's front door opens, "Perhaps I can help solve this problem."
Everyone looks ahead to see the man in the deerling-stalker cap walking toward the group.
"And who're you supposed to be?" Claudia asks.
"Oh, I'm so glad you came," the manager says, before he turns to the others. "I called him to help out. He's a famous detective."
"Herlock Sholmes, at your duty."
"He's a detective…?" Victor asks.
"I never heard of him…" Gloria adds.
Herlock clears his throat, "Now, let me begin by saying that I have been investigating the missing Pokémon over the past couple days, and that no one is beyond suspicious. Even the hotel manager who called me here."
"Not even me?" the manager points at himself.
"Although, to be fair," Herlock holds a hand to his chin. "Victor and Gloria might not be responsible since I did saw them entering the city tonight. But still, not completely."
"At least that something," Gloria sweat drops.
Claudia looks away from the two Trainers, "Mmhm, ridiculous."
"With that said, I want to know what every was doing during the estimated time of the disappearances," Herlock says.
"Well, I was making my rounds," one of the bellhop rubs the back of his head. "Making sure all of the empty rooms are secure. But then I heard mumbling from Victor's room."
"Oh, hum," Victor starts, as everyone looks at him and he starts blushing. "Well, I was up late thinking about my next Gym Battle."
"More likely, you were plotting your next Pokémon-napping," Claudia says, as Gloria scrowls at her.
"This random blaming is getting us nowhere, instead, I want to see the rooms where the Pokémon went missing," Herlock starts to turn toward the elevator. "And I want everyone coming along."
"Everyone, why?" Gloria asks.
Herlock grins, "If the guilty party is here, then their reactions to the crime scenes could be quite revealing."
Everyone stands inside the kids' room, including Victor and Gloria's Pokémon.
Herlock knees down to a couple sets of dirty footprints entering the room, "Mmhm, the mud residue on these footprints seem to match the yard outside the hotel."
"Yeah, that's our," Bobby rubs the back of his head, sheepish. "We snuck out with Bunnelby and played before sneaking back inside."
"Although we had trouble coming back, our keycard wasn't working…" Cindy explains as she looks up with a finger on her chin.
"Claudia had the same problem earlier," Gloria remembers, as Claudia scroffs.
"I see, interesting…" Herlock takes a look at the room's electronic lock, rubbing a finger against a black smudge on the panel. "Where was everyone coming from?"
"We are traveling with our parents," Bobby answers.
"But they have to see to some business, so we are spending the night on our own, like big kids," Cindy adds.
"Mmhm, I'm on vacation, I just came from the Meetup Spot, and I was planning on staying at the hotel for the night," Claudia says.
The group are now in Claudia's room, with Herlock looking around.
"This is a waste of time, since if these two aren't responsible, which I found very hard to believe," Claudia says, as Gloria glares at her. "Then it must be the hotel staff, since they have access to every room."
Herlock looks up at a vent, "That is one possibility."
"Scor!" Scorbunny jumps onto the bed.
"Get off there this instant!" Claudia yells.
"C'mon, Scorbunny," Victor picks his Pokémon off the bed.
Claudia crosses her arms, "No Pokémon are allowed on the same bed I use, except for my Meowth."
Herlock turns and looks back at the bed, with Dottler looking up at the vent.
"Dot-er…"
Back in the lobby, Bobby and Cindy are standing close to each other.
"We will never see Bunnelby again, will we?" Cindy asks, tearing up.
"There's nothing to worry about, I have already solved the case," Herlock says.
"You have?!" everyone says together, with even the Pokémon looking surprised.
"Then, who did it?" the manager asks.
"First, we have to start at the beginning..." Herlock starts.
"Claudia arrived, first, with her Meowth..."
Claudia enters the lobby with her Meowth in her arms.
"Followed by Bobby, Cindy, and Bunnelby…"
The manager walks over to Bobby, Cindy, and Bunnelby.
"And then Victor and Gloria…"
The bellhop leads Victor and Gloria through the lobby, passing by the manager talking with Bobby, Cindy, and Bunnelby.
"Then the electronic locks start to malfunction…"
The bellhop is resetting an electronic lock as Claudia and Meowth stand behind him.
"We all already know that," Claudia interrupts.
"But what I recently deduced was the locks weren't random malfunctioning, they were instead sabotaged," Herlock continues.
Herlock rubs his finger on a black smudge on an electronic lock.
"While examining the locks, I noticed small scorch marks, typical of Thunderbolt."
"Then that's proof it was that one's Pikachu," Claudia points at Victor.
"But my Pikachu doesn't know Thunderbolt," Victor says.
"Pika! Pi!" Pikachu angrily adds.
"Besides, the locks malfunctioned before we got here," Gloria adds.
"Also, the bellhop heard Victor mumbling in the middle of the night, giving him an alibi," Herlock says.
"Still, it doesn't explain why neither of their Pokémon wasn't stolen," Claudia says.
"Actually, it does," Herlock starts.
"Because Victor was up in the middle of the night, the thief couldn't take his Pokémon from their hiding spot…"
Victor sits on his bed, with four Poké Ball in front of him, mumbling to himself, unaware that a pair of eyes gleam from the vent.
"Inside the vents."
"The vents?!" everyone responded, with the Pokémon also looking surprised.
"You see, I realize early on that the rooms are connected by vents, which would allow a thief to move unseen, from one room to the next," Herlock starts. "And they sabotage the locks, so they can enter the first room in the chain."
"That makes no sense, no one can fit into a vent," Claudia says.
"Also, why would two locks be sabotaged and not just one?" Gloria asks.
"The obvious conclusion would be to throw off suspicion by making all of the locks malfunction," Herlock starts. "But something went wrong before they could follow through with that plan."
"But what could've gone wrong?" the manager asks.
Victor looks at the kids, before he quickly looks back to Herlock, "Bobby and Cindy don't have Bunnelby's Poké Ball."
Herlock smiles, "That's correct. So the thief couldn't just take the Poké Ball and move on."
"You haven't explained how a person could have snuck through the vents undetected," Claudia says.
Gloria then notices Dottler is staring at a nearby vent, when she remembers Dottler was staring at the vents in Claudia's room.
"Ah! It's because the thief was a Pokémon," Gloria realizes. "Dottler!"
Dottler's body glows brightly, before small orbs shoot from it and hits the vent, when suddenly the vent's cover shoots off and flies out of the vent was Meowth, holding a large bag.
"Meowt!" Meowth slams hard on the ground, before coming tumble out of the bag was Bunnelby, tied up with a gag in its mouth.
"Bunnelby!" Bobby and Cindy call out.
"Just like I've deduced, the thief was Claudia!" Herlock announces.
"You what?!" Claudia responds.
"I became suspicious when you mentioned you left from Meetup Spot weeks ago," Herlock starts. "I remembered the International Police caught a group of poachers at the same time, with them believing they have a partner who wasn't caught."
"So, then Claudia was the partner," Victor realizes.
"I was trying to make a clear getaway on the train, but I admittedly got worried when a pesky Blipbug stopped the train," Claudia explains.
"Dot-er! Dot-er!"
"Let me guess, you evolved from that Blipbug," Claudia realizes.
"Dot-er!"
"Well, you're not stopping me this time," Claudia says. "Meowth, Thunderbolt!"
"Meowt!" Meowth jumps into the air and shoots off a large bolt of electricity.
"Pikachu, Thunder Shock! Toxel, Nuzzle!" Victor calls out.
"Pika! Pi!" Pikachu shoots electricity from its cheeks.
"Toxe!" Toxel rubs its cheeks and shoots electricity from its body.
Pikachu and Toxel's attacks collide with Meowth, struggling with it, before all three attacks dissipate.
"Scorbunny, Double Kick!" Victor instructs.
"Scor!" Scorbunny jumps up, spins around, and launches a kick, with it going past Meowth and slams into the wall. "Scor…"
"Dottler, Struggle Bug!" Gloria calls out.
"Dot-er!"
Dottler jumps up, with its body glowing green, and collides with Meowth, who is knocked back and slams into the wall, landing next to Scorbunny.
"Scor…"
"Let go!" Claudia calls out, as Herlock holds her wrist behind her back, when suddenly a hidden pouch in her bag is released and several Poké Balls fall out.
"Look like your poaching and stealing days are over," Herlock says, as Claudia scroffs.
Later, Victor, Gloria, and Herlock are in the lobby, as the police officers are leading Claudia out, with one carrying a carrier, with Meowth inside it.
"I don't believe how late it is," Gloria says, before looking over to Victor. "Will you be okay battling Kabu tomorrow?"
"Honestly, I could have slept all night, and I don't know if I will do well," Victor says.
"You'll be fine," Gloria tries to reassure him.
"If I may," Herlock approaches the pair. "I was watching Scorbunny earlier, and if you want to teach it Double Kick, you must first strengthen its leg muscles."
"Strengthen its leg muscles…" Victor holds a hand to his chin, starting to think.
"An eventful night brought a Pokémon thief to light. But now our heroes must get a good night rest, because tomorrow Victor must face Kabu, who could be his greatest Gym Challenger yet. Can Victor claim his third victory?"
"Find out, as the journey continues…"