The sun was barely up, and Chiluly and Pharaoh were already arguing.
"What are you talking about?" Chiluly scoffed, crossing her arms. They'd reached the edge of Nimbasa, and she wanted to stop and look around. Unsurprisingly, Pharaoh did not. "You were totally fine with us spending hours traipsing around Driftveil a couple days ago!"
"Because we were there for a purpose!" Pharaoh snapped, simmering with anger. Dark, ghostly tendrils were already leaking up through the ground. "We were getting medicine for Chevali, and we were performing interrogation. And before you say it," he added, raising a hand to silence her before she could interrupt, "no, we cannot pass Nimbasa off as more time for questioning. This is a human city in broad daylight."
Chiluly huffed and rolled her eyes. "You are such a buzzkill. If-"
"Do you not remember why we are here?!" he thundered, so suddenly that Hawthorne and Burnout jumped. "This is not some luxury tour of Unova. We are here, together, to apprehend a murderer. Perhaps you needed to be reminded of the dire notion of this situation."
That made Chiluly shrink a little. "I- well-"
Pharaoh turned away from her before she could attempt to retaliate. "We will make our way through Nimbasa, stick close together, and if we are approached by humans, act as… domestic as possible." The word curled off his tongue with an air of disgust.
Hawthorne and Burnout nodded, looking like they were too afraid to question the angry spirit, but Chevali watched Chiluly's shoulders slump with disappointment. She'd chattered on and on about Nimbasa all the way there, how great it was, and how much fun they could have going through it, only to have her eagerness denied.
Personally, he saw this as a perfect time to get on Pharaoh's nerves. "Why can't we spend some time here? I mean, think about it. The murderer doesn't necessarily know we're after them, do they? Maybe they've settled down into a hiding spot for now."
As he'd expected, the Cofagrigus fixed him with a murderous glare. It was somewhat satisfying, even if it sometimes felt like a life-or-death situation.
"And everyone could use some relaxation. The market was a bit stressful, I assume."
The others seemed enthused by his words. Hawthorne's ears perked, and Burnout's flames flared a little brighter. Pharaoh still looked like he was ready to tear at least one of them in half.
"We'll be out by noon!" Chiluly blurted. Chevali glanced upwards. It was still early in the morning, and the sun was barely peeking out above the trees. That gave them at least a couple hours.
"That- um, that sounds good! Right?" Hawthorne tried, looking expectantly at Pharaoh. The ghost stared back blankly, his gaze boring into the messenger's. To his credit, Hawthorne didn't look away.
"Noon," he finally growled, and Chiluly hooted in triumph and pumped her fists. "Great! C'mon, Chevali! Let's go!" She grabbed his arm, but he paused.
"And... what about everyone else?"
She shrugged, still nearly bouncing with excitement. "They can come if they want, but I have somewhere I need to be."
"I'll come!" Burnout said, eager to be out of the possible wrathful clutches of Pharaoh. He bounced over to be near them, and Chiluly pulled Chevali by the arm out of the trees and into the city below.
As they moved away, he heard Hawthorne assuring Pharaoh that he'd stay behind and keep him company.
"Wow," Chevali said, looking out over the already-gathering throng of humans hurrying in and out of neon-lit buildings.
"You don't sound impressed," Chiluly huffed, pushing his shoulder. "It's Nimbasa! It's amazing!"
"I think it looks nice! I like all the lights," Burnout added, turning in circles to get a good look at everything.
"At least one of you has their head on right," Chiluly snorted, crossing her arms. "Take notes, Chevali. Okay, where to first?"
"You're the tour guide," the knight told her. She stuck out her tongue at him.
"The waterfront looks pretty," Burnout interjected, trying to get the ball rolling.
"It is!" the Maractus told them. "Come on!"
The other two hurried after her and she weaved through the crowd effortlessly. The humans barely batted an eye as they ran through, only seeming mildly annoyed when they bumped into somebody's legs.
Eventually, they found Chiluly with her arms hooked over the railing, staring at the water. It sparkled as the sun rose above it. Her hyperactive energy has dispersed, and she seemed almost… relaxed, for once.
"What happened? Did your heart stop beating?" Chevali asked.
She turned her head to look at him in that affectionately annoyed way he'd grown used to in the passing weeks. "Does anything you say ever make sense? I'm just looking, ya know."
He shrugged and leaned over the railing next to her, staring into the lake. It was completely smooth and quiet, nothing lurking below its depths. As honest as its surface. "I've just never seen you hold still for this long."
"It's because I like it here!" she snorted indignantly, sliding down from the railing. "I told you, this place is the best." She came up behind him and tried to push him off of the pier into the water below, but caught himself easily and gave her a raised-eyebrow look. "Was that enthusiastic enough for you?"
"I never said there was anything wrong with being calm. Or energetic, for that matter," he informed her, letting the smirk crawl across his face.
She sneered and tossed her cape over her shoulders. "Suuure."
A couple of human children walking with their parents shouted and waved at them from the street. Chevali tensed, but Chiluly gave a theatrical wave and bow, much to their delight.
"So much for blending in," he muttered.
The Maractus snorted. "Oh, trust me. Everybody in Nimbasa is a theater major."
"A- what?"
At that moment, the previously dim neon sign on a nearby building blinked to life. The sign was made up of stars and music notes and something in the human language that he couldn't read.
Chiluly squealed in excitement and grabbed his arm for the thousandth time. Chevali had been rather opposed to physical contact before the start of their journey, but when he let it happen he found he didn't mind it as much as he thought he would. "Omigosh YES! It's finally open! Let's go let's go LET'S GO!"
They both turned back to Burnout, who was still looking out over the water, apparently entranced.
"BURNOUT!" she yelled, making him jump. "We're going! C'mon!"
Before they could make sure he was following, she hurried off, towing Chevali through the steadily-thickening throng of humans.
"Where… are we, again?" Chevali asked as Chiluly screeched to a stop outside of the brightly decorated building.
"The concert hall! It's literally my favoritest place in the whole world! It's where I got this!" She reached around her back and grabbed the cape, shoving it unnecessarily close to his face.
"Yes, I see it, thank you," he grunted, pushing her away as she cackled. "You said concert hall. Is that… performance?"
"Yeah! But they have a prop room that's just full of awesome stuff, and I know how to get us in." Without waiting to hear his response, she hopped up the open doors.
At that moment, Chevali realized they were alone. "Chiluly, where's Burnout?" he sighed.
She shrugged. "He'll be fine. He'll find his way over here or run into the others."
"...Right." There wasn't much he could say to that. Burnout would be able to manage on his own… for now.
"C'mere!" Chiluly beckoned to him from the doorway, leaving him no choice but to follow as she slipped inside.
The interior of the building was prestigious, to say the least, in its presentation. The walls were supported by grand white pillars, and the floor and stairs were covered with fine red carpet with golden tassels. It reminded him a bit of the Magistrate castle.
"Amazing, right?" Chiluly said, puffing out her chest.
"Yeah. Pretty nice," he said calmly, just because he knew it would annoy her.
On cue, she let out an exasperated huff and threw her arms in the air. "Does anything impress you?! Okay, whatever. This way."
He followed her across the lobby floor to a more discreet side door with a sign shaped like a star on it. There were a few humans idling on the floor, but most paid no attention to them.
One person waved to Chiluly, and she waved back. "Trust me, we go waaay back," she muttered to Chevali, making him snort to conceal a short laugh.
Her eyes gleamed with mischievous triumph. "Ha! I made you laugh! I win."
"You did not!"
"Yes, I did!"
They continued to bicker as they slipped through the door, though Chevali had to force the corners of his mouth not to turn up. The room on the other side of the door was much smaller than the main lobby, boasting only an out-of-reach counter, a mirror with lightbulbs around the frame, and a chest of… things? that was so full it couldn't close. Chiluly hopped right up to the case, pushed it all the way open and began to dig through it.
"Um… remind me what we're doing?" Chevali said as he came to stand next to her.
"Having fun?" she answered without looking up.
"Ah. Sure," he replied, leaning over the side of the box out of curiosity. It was just so much stuff. A rose-colored parasol here, a pair of white rimmed glasses there… There seemed to be no definite theme, but that wasn't stopping Chiluly.
"Here! You would look great in this," Chiluly said to him, leaning towards him with a bright pink bow covered in glitter in hand.
"No, thank you," he said firmly, pushing her hand away but still smiling. "You can hold on to that."
She grinned back deviously and returned to her digging. They were quiet for a moment before she said, "I like hanging out with you."
It was simple and not out of character but still enough to surprise Chevali. He wasn't sure what to say in response.
Luckily, Chiluly kept talking, sparing him from an awkward 'thanks.' "You pretend you're all stoic, but I think you're funny underneath all that armor. Um, literally and figuratively." She hadn't looked up from the prop chest, which he was thankful for. He couldn't quite rearrange the expression of surprise on his face.
"And I think you care," she continued. "Which doesn't sound like a lot, but if you're really doing all this for 'honor,' then there must be some serious goodness inside of you." She cocked her head to look up at him and gave him a sincere smile.
It made something unfamiliar in him twinge. "I…" But the Maractus had already turned back towards the box, and he found himself at an usual loss for words.
Chevali had never really had friends. His mentor, Shao, had been just barely older than him, and though they spent much of their time in each other's presence, he'd never thought of her as a friend. She valued him for his patience and strength, not his personality. It was strange. Nobody had ever said anything to him about his empathy, or his sense of humor. He hadn't even known he had those. Were those things integral to friendship? Was Chiluly… a friend?
Suddenly, the Maractus let out a long, dramatic gasp, making him jump, and pulled something out of the depths of the chest. It was a wooden sword; good length and shape, Chevali thought, but obviously just a toy. It had a polished shine that most of the other items in the box lacked.
"Oh. My gosh. I need this," Chiluly whispered in awe, running a claw down its side. "It's never been here before- it must be new!" She held it out for him to observe.
For her sake, he pretended to be mildly impressed. "It looks… well made."
"Mine!" she crowed cheerfully, clutching it to her chest. "Are you sure you don't want anything?"
"Yes? Uhm- are you sure you can just take things like that? I feel as if the humans won't take kindly to having missing items."
Chiluly pshawed at him and flipped the sword over her back. "I mean, yeah, they probably won't be happy, but they're not gonna know it was me. Hundreds of people come through here every day!"
"...Whatever you say." He felt like he'd said that at least a thousand times today.
Chiluly hopped over to glance out of the door and winced. "Shoot! I have no idea what time it is. Also, Burnout still isn't here. We should probably go looking for him."
"Ya think?" Chevali asked with a snort.
In return, she wrapped her wooden sword in the folds of her cape and gave him a devilish grin. "First one to find him wins."
"Wins what?"
But she was already rushing across the shining tile floors, leaving Chevali to chase after her.
Despite himself, Pharaoh found that Nimbasa was not as painfully, awfully, downright terrible as his conscience had made it out to be. Mostly because he was only traveling with Hawthorne and not the other three, who were arguably more childish than their youngest member.
So far, he and the Sawsbuck had skirted around the busy streets and meandered through the boardwalk fair, but the sun was dipping back towards the horizon, which meant it was time to go. Thank the stars. Just because Nimbasa wasn't painfully awfully downright terrible didn't mean it wasn't awfully downright terrible.
At least Hawthorne had enjoyed it. He fit right in amongst the bustling humans- he was able to melt right into the flow of traffic, and while humans regarded Pharaoh with suspicion and nervousness, they treated Hawthorne like an old family pet. Once already, they'd been stopped by a little girl begging to pat him on the nose. The Cofagrigus wasn't jealous, but he certainly found it strange how trusting humans were of random, wild creatures waltzing into their cities. This place had been a walk in the park so far compared to the awkward social interactions of Driftveil.
Eventually they'd found themselves along the boardwalk, which was filled with flashing colors and overwhelming scents and human contraptions that looked like they were meant for torture, but instead evoked only screams of happiness and excitement. He would never understand it.
Pharaoh had nabbed some type of sweet roll from a nearby vendor (only because Hawthorne looked hungry), but it smelled like something artificial and judging from the look on the stag's face, it tasted just as good.
After that, they had headed deeper into the fairground, found there wasn't anything particularly exciting to see, and then started to move back towards the main streets of the city. The sun was slowly nodding towards the horizon again, which meant it was almost time to leave. Though, knowing the rest of their group, it was highly unlikely they would leave on time.
Pharaoh could tell that Hawthorne wanted to talk, but he wasn't sure what about. Well, to be fair, Hawthorne could make a conversation about anything, but he wasn't very good at reciprocating the topics thrown his way.
It's nice out today? Well, yes. That's just a fact.
Had he ever been to Nimbasa? No. What else could he say to that?
He didn't want to upset the young buck (only because it would cause more trouble than it was worth), but his conversational skills were severely lacking, apparently. Thankfully, Hawthorne didn't throw a big, childish fit and instead seemed content to follow him around dutifully, even if it was in silence.
It was rather nice, actually. Peaceful. It was the most relaxed he'd felt in months, despite being surrounded by humans.
Of course, there was no good reason for that to last for long.
Pharaoh knew the troubles were starting when they saw Burnout wandering in their direction, alone. When he spotted them, he gave them a frantic wave and hurried up to them, looking relieved.
"Oh, thank goodness! I couldn't find anybody anywhere. This place is huge!"
"Where are the other two?" Pharaoh growled, resisting the urge to grab him and shake him. Hawthorne angled his ears backwards at his harsh tone.
Burnout shrugged hopelessly. "I don't know! They left me behind! One minute we were walking together, and the next they were just- gone!"
The Cofagrigus let out a long sigh and turned in the other direction. "Well, we're leaving. That's their problem."
"What? No!" Hawthorne pleaded. "We can't just leave without them!"
"That's what they did to Burnout," he argued, narrowing his eyes.
"Okay, I feel like we're taking this a little too personal now-" Burnout tried to interrupt, but something a few blocks away roared and a group of humans shouted and scattered into the streets.
"What's that?" Hawthorne asked, tensing.
"I wonder," Pharaoh said dryly, waiting for two familiar figures to emerge from the now smoking street corner. His intuition was correct- Chiluly and Chevali appeared mere seconds later, barreling towards them with a group of humans and their Pokemon uncomfortably hot on their trail.
"Cover blown! Cover blown!" Chiluly squawked, waving her arms at them. He would have rolled his eyes if not for the sudden dire situation.
Without waiting, he and Hawthorne turned to run the other way- only to find more humans approaching from behind. Not very many, and all young, but many carrying rather formidable partners.
The two dolts finally caught up to them, successfully locking their small group in a ring of danger. "So I got in a fight with a human's Pokemon, and bragged about being wild and not being a loser, and now every human-loving bastard in a mile radius is after us," Chiluly panted. He noticed she was brandishing a new stupid toy- some kind of wooden sword. Unimportant at the moment.
"I couldn't tell," he snapped dryly, looking back up at the ring of Pokemon.
An Emboar with massive tusks took a step forward and sneered at them. "What are you forest rats doing in a city like this?" he snarled. "Don't answer that, actually," he continued when Chiluly opened her mouth. "I don't care. But I do think you'll make nice throwaway playthings for our friends here."
A couple of young humans holding capture devices looked at them eagerly, their eyes sparkling as they landed on Chevali, Burnout and Pharaoh.
"I thought human-lovers were supposed to be- soft and squishy, or something!" Chiluly snorted, baring her claws. "I'd like to see you try, you-"
"When I say run, do so," Pharaoh said over her, tucking the staffs close to his body. She was going to get them all killed. Or worse- captured to do bidding for humans until the end of time.
"Wait, what? Where?" Burnout started to ask, but before he could finish, Pharaoh had plunged his claws into the ground and the air around them exploded with shadow, covering the entire area in a nightmarish fog.
Immediately, sounds of skirmish followed. Somebody shouted, "RUN!" but he was already heading for the gates of the city, towards the desert and whatever lay beyond. Noise behind him signified the others were near- or they were being tailed.
After a hard couple minutes, the ground below them dissolved into grass and the howls of Pokemon dissipated into the distance, leaving them all gasping for breath but unharmed.
"Well," Chiluly wheezed. "That was fun."
"Shut up," Pharaoh sighed, too upset and exasperated to say anything in a level, uninterested tone.
"Ohh, dear," Burnout whimpered, making him grip the staff in an effort not to explode at whatever else was about to go wrong.
"What." He turned around to see that only Chiluly and Burnout were still standing with him.
"I think we lost Hawthorne and Chevali."