Chapter 4: New City New Problems
Slate had fallen asleep. Lillia had no idea how, but the guy who was having a panic attack the whole flight and who used Lillia's body as emotional support and comfort had fallen asleep. Now, she had been downgraded from emotional support toy to pillow as Slate's chin was resting on her head. She was also just about ready to smack the damn Tropius that was throwing smug looks at her every second he got.
Once Haronfield was in sight, the cat began nudging her sleeping partner a few times to get him to wake up. He eventually did and, much to her annoyance, began panicking the rest of the time. Haronfield was about twelve times larger than Drizzle, a fact that always threw her through a loop when coming from the small village. By now, the Tropius Airline they were set to dock at was in view and instead of a single building with a field for the Tropius to land in, it was a multi-storied building with multiple floors housing a landing pad just begging to be landed on. The specific one they were aiming for was at the very top on the roof of the building. The grass type had touched down on the pad nice and softly and was quick to lower his wings for the passengers to climb down. Slate had rushed down them with a sort of vigor never really seen from him. Once on the ground, he collapsed onto the hard flood and let out one long, drawn out, and exasperated sigh.
"Finally! The g-ground. I'm never f-flying again!"
"Sorry bud. We still have multiple flights of stairs to walk down before we actually get to the ground." She gently nudged him with her foot which resulted in a pitiful groan escaping the fighting type as he was forced back onto his shaky feet.
"What did I tell you? Best flier this side of the ocean." The Tropius bombastically declared. "I hope you two enjoyed your flight." He shot the Espurr another smirk and flicked his brows up and down at her one last time. "I sure know one of you did. BWAHAHAHA!" She was getting really tired of that laugh.
"Yeah whatever. Let's go Slate." She whipped her body around to the exit, forcing her partner to jog to catch up, briefly giving him time to give his thanks to the flier beforehand. Slate was instantly overwhelmed by the bustling crowd that was inside. Apparently each floor that housed a landing pad was also used as the room to hold on to the future passengers. He was barely able to spot Lillia already making her way downstairs and was able to chase her after some successful zig zagging through the crowd. Multiple floors and several instances where he had lost Lillia later, the two had successfully made it out the front doors.
Haronfield was a completely different beast compared to Drizzle. Fancy looking buildings towered over them, much different than the old timey wooden and straw houses that made up all of Drizzle's buildings, small shops and merchants were scattered all along the city streets, street performers caused large groups of crowds to gather up and make traversing the place even harder while putting on a funky show, and even some rather gross looking Pokémon were begging others for some spare change. The last of which was showing up too much, a fact that made Slate uncomfortable.
Lillia didn't give the fighting type much of a chance to take in all the sights and sounds since she only glanced around before choosing a direction to walk in. Slate continued to have a hard time keeping up with her as she ducked, dodged, and weaved her way through the nonstop stream of Pokémon on the move. Once he managed to actually get close to her, the Mienfoo prodded her on the shoulder.
"W-Where are we g-going?"
"A place to plan our next move and grab something to snack on. I'm kind of thirsty." She didn't stop while explaining her plan. Eventually, spotting a café to be the place of interest.
It took a little bit longer than expected to get there since the flow of Pokémon had increased dramatically as they trekked along, but they managed to make it within a few minutes. The café was a breath of fresh air compared to the open streets of Haronfield. A smooth cream color was all over the walls and potted plants were strewn about everywhere. It was still pretty busy, though not nearly as bad as the living hell that was outside. They were greeted by a Sunflora and led to a table to wait at. Once it came time to place their orders, Lillia got a coffee and Slate requested a hot chocolate.
"Cold?" The psychic asked. Slate only nodded in response. "Fall is going to be here soon. We might want to get you situated with a jacket or something if you need it."
"I'll th-think about it."
"Cool. First, we need to think on how we're going to approach this. We need to find out if you have any sort of whereabouts or presence in Haronfield. Do you have any ideas?" Slate shrugged. "Figured. How about we try splitting up and asking around. It would be faster than us sticking together and we could probably knock this place out in a day or two." She put a paw up to her chin. "I'll probably have to reserve us a room at a hotel."
They tried to brainstorm a couple of other ideas for a few minutes, but none of them seemed to stick. Their drinks came shortly after and they took a break from wracking their heads for ideas and enjoying the warmness that the cups entailed. As Lillia blew on her drink to get it to a more comfortable sipping range, the bell hanging on the door let out its small chime, signaling a new customer. Lillia normally wouldn't care about such a minuscule thing, but what had walked in quickly drew her attention. A group of five scraggly, old looking Pokémon had walked in and requested a seat in the back. They consisted of a Trevenant, Golduck, Dusclops, Jynx, and Trubbish. Each one of them wore a weird silver bracelet that had some sort of marking on it. The Golduck glanced towards their table, prompting Lillia to sharply look away.
Deciding to distract herself with something else, she turned her purple eyes towards her partner. He was busy struggling with his cup and wincing every time he tried to take a sip. Lillia laughed at him.
"Sh-Shut up."
"Just blow on it dude."
"...I knew that." The fighting type gave the hot beverage a few weak puffs before attempting to drink it again. It still wasn't ready. "AH! H-Hot!" Lillia began laughing again.
"Come on, man. You got to blow on it harder than that." He didn't respond and chose to silently attempt to cool down the drink. Lillia took a few more sips of her own before deciding to glance around some more. Her gaze inevitably brought her to the corner of the building, where those add Pokémon had walked in from. As she brought her eyes to their table, she quickly ripped her eyes away from them as fast as she could and sat erect in her seat.
The Trevenant was staring at them.
He wasn't even being subtle about it too. For that one second she had looked at them, his single red eye had stared right through her soul. Like it had gained the knowledge of everything that had happened to her throughout her life with that single glare. It sent a chill up her spine. Slate had obviously noticed her rapid movement and had given her a confused look.
"Hurry up."
"Wh-What?"
"Finish your drink!"
"A-Alright. Alright." He did as he was told and chugged down the still semi hot drink and let out a massive sigh once finished. Lillia put some cash on the table and grabbed Slate's arm to dash out the door. They ran a good distance away before Lillia came to a halt to catch her breath. "What's th-the r-rush?" Lillia crossed her arms.
"Those weird Pokémon who came in a little bit ago were giving me the creeps. Let's not worry about that anymore, we have other matters to take care of."
"R-Right." The psychic glanced up at the sun. Almost midday, plenty of time.
"So, we split up and ask whoever and whatever we can on if they've seen or know someone who looks like you since you can't just go around and ask "Have you seen me before?" That's our plan, right?" Slate nodded in confirmation. "Cool. Here, take this." Lillia took off her satchel and handed it to him. The tiny thing barely fit around him.
"W-Won't you n-need th-this?" She waved a paw.
"Nah. I wanna be moving fast and that slows me down a little, it'll be easier for you to carry. Besides, there should be a little map from the last time I was here, that should help you from getting lost."
"G-Got it. Wh-When a-and where sh-should w-we m-meet up?"
"I already had a place in mind." Lillia looked around for a very specific building and Slate turned around to face where she was pointing. It was probably the tallest and most recognizable building in the city from the winged symbol proudly sitting near the top of it. "That's this city's guild. I'd rather choose some other place, but it's probably our best bet to meet up if you lose the map or something and get lost. We'll meet up there at around three fourths"
"A-Alright." Lillia gave him a soft look and put a paw onto his shoulder, or at least as close to his shoulder as she could manage since he still stood about a foot and a half above her.
"Are you doing okay?" His head tilted to the side. "You seem a little nervous to be splitting up."
"I-Is it th-that o-obvious?"
"You're stuttering more than usual."
"...O-Oh."
"Hey, you'll be fine." She pulled him down to be a little more at eye level. "I know this place is big, but we'll be back together in a few hours. Besides, you're more capable at this stuff than you think you are."
"Y-You think s-so?"
"Definitely. You got to take this city by the tail and yank it however you please!" He let out a small chuckle. "There's a smile. You ready for this, soldier!"
"Y-Yes ma'am!"
"Great! Now go out there, and ask questions!" She shoved him in the opposite direction, prompting him to put his legs into gear as she did the same. She then walked in the opposite direction to begin her own little search.
Traffic in the streets seemingly began to gain traction, giving our poor little fighting type a harder time to move around than what he had gotten used to. After getting shoved around left and right, some of which were by Pokémon that scared the living crap out of him, he finally landed in front of a small stand selling some apparent exotic berries and began prodding the owner, a Gulpin, the questions he had planned. He repeated this for about two hours, walking up to random store owners and hoping they had answers to what he was looking for. Each conversation went the same way.
"E-Excuse me. I'm l-looking for a M-Mienfoo th-that looks s-similar to m-me. Have y-you seen th-them anywhere?"
"Nope."
It got old real fast.
It hadn't even been that long since the fighting type started, but he was already getting fed up with making, quite literally, zero progress to his predicament. He had already begun asking random pedestrians on the streets the same thing, but each of them played out no differently to the ones prior. He had tried using the map to help him get around easier and avoid walking in circles, but it wasn't of much help.
In fact, it was pretty useless.
Maybe it had been made with smaller Pokémon in mind, but Slate couldn't read or make out a single location or landmark on the damn thing. At least the guild headquarters was easy to spot so he wouldn't have to rely on the map on making his way back there. It was only a whopping four hours into his little Haronfield adventure that he had made any sort of actual progress.
"E-Excuse me!" The Unfezant who he had called out to heard and spotted the Mienfoo. He looked a tad annoyed, but it was erased as his talons landed on the ground. He carried a satchel much like Lillia's; only his was filled to the brim with letters most likely making him a mail bird.
"Can I help you?"
"Y-Yes. Sorry t-to bother you, b-but I was w-wondering i-if y-you've seen a M-Mienfoo that s-somewhat r-resembles me before?"
"A Mienfoo that resembles you?" He repeated and put a wing up to his chin to think. "Oh! I believe there's one that lives in the same apartment as me. They live on the floor directly above mine."
"R-Really? Where d-do you live?" The Unfezant extended a wing to his right.
"Go down this street and to the left. It should be the second building on the right."
"Th-Thank you so much!"
"No problem. I hope you find who you're looking for." The Unfezant quickly took off, clearly in a hurry and left Slate on his lonesome once more. Well, as lonesome as you could get in the packed city streets. He was definitely a refreshing fellow though. Most of the time everyone he had talked and bumped into had some aura of sass or snark to them. A friendly face once every blue moon sure put Slate's mood into higher spirits.
He took the route the bird had directed him in and found the apartment building in no time. It was a simple three story building that had a sort of dark pale crimson color to it. He assumed that the room in question would be somewhere on the second and third floor, considering you can't exactly live above someone in the same building and be on floor one. Once at the first door, he raised a paw to knock, but hesitated.
What was his plan exactly? How would he know if a room belonged to him? Would he just get no response? That could also mean someone was just out of their home for a bit. He couldn't just barge in. After a quick round of "what the hell do I now?" Slate decided to see if any Mienfoo lived here and if no one answered, he would come back to them later tonight and maybe tomorrow morning to check and see if they were still vacant and if they were, he would barge right in and pray. Not the best plan, but it was the only one he had.
The first floor he searched through certainly was an experience. Multiple instances of no one answering, which annoyed him slightly, but there was also his fair share of interesting encounters. The first of which was some very oddly dressed Skarmory that had tried, way too hard in his opinion, to get him to come inside and "be pleasured." He made sure to shut down that conversation as quickly as possible and get to the next room. Another consisted of some old Piloswine that insisted that he was his long lost wife. That encounter certainly had him questioning quite a few things. Thankfully, the third floor quickly put an end to whatever the hell he just went through on floor two. Only three doors in, after he had knocked, a very country accent had responded to him.
"I'll be with ya in one moment!" From the sound of it, he assumed for them to be a female. Surely enough, as the door opened, not only was it a girl, but a Mienfoo on top of that. At least that debunked any sort of nightly investigations or break ins he was planning on doing later that night. "Oh! Hey there!" I wasn't expectin' t'see any other Mienfoos around here today. What can I do for ya?"
"W-Well...I...u-uh..."
What exactly was he supposed to say there? "Sorry, I was looking for myself, but I found you instead."
"What's the matter? Skitty got yer tongue?"
"N-No! I w-was just e-expecting s-someone else. I-I might b-be in the w-wrong building th-though."
"I see." She scanned him for a moment. "Why don't you come on in. You look mighty tired." He hadn't even realized it until now, but he was breathing a little heavier than he thought and worked up a sweat. He didn't, however, want to stop moving.
"N-No, it's o-okay. I-I d-don't want t-to intrude or a-anything." She quickly waved a paw in response.
"Nonsense. I could use the company and you look like you could use the rest. I won't take no fer an answer." She quickly ushered him inside and closed the door.
He could have worded that better, but social anxiety be damned.
To her credit, her apartment was surprisingly pretty. With all the weird ass neighbors around, he was expecting everyone here to be some sort of drugged up weirdo. She seemed to look like an actual smart Pokémon with an actual normal life. A smooth white color was spread throughout her walls with a good amount of plants that all looked to be well taken care of and in high spirits.
She offered him a spot on her couch and he graciously accepted it, letting out a comforted sigh once he was fully sunken into the piece of furniture. She wandered off to the nearby kitchen and finished preparing some drinks, tea from the looks of it. Afterwards, she walked over with two cups and handed one to him.
"Thank y-you."
"No problem, sweetheart." She took a seat next to him. "So, you said you were lookin' fer someone? Are they a friend or relative?" Slate thought for a moment.
"I'm n-not too sure m-myself. I'm n-not e-even certain the o-one I'm l-looking for e-even lives in H-Haronfield." She gave him a confused look as she blew on her tea.
"They just give ya some cryptic clue saying "come find me" or somethin?' Hehe."
"...In a w-way, k-kind of." He chuckled along with her and began slowly working his own drink down. "B-By the w-way, th-they are another M-Mienfoo."
"Oh really? At least I sorta fill that role." The two shared another small round of laughs before going back to their drinks for a few more seconds. "I don't think we exchanged names yet. I'm Mia." She offered her paw to him.
"Slate." He took it and she gave him a firm shake.
"Nice to meet ya." She flashed him another smile and it was at this point he had to admit that her energy was pretty infectious. His mood was already getting higher. That or it was how low this building's standards were. "I'm assumin' that means you haven't been in Haronfield for very long?" Slate shook his head in response. "I'm the same. I've only moved in here a few months ago." She began chuckling. "It certainly ain't what it was advertised isn't it? Lots of Pokémon shovin' and kickin' each other t'get to the store, weirdos lurkin' in the allies, and some funky industrial smell clouding up the streets." The male Mienfoo nodded along with everything she was saying.
"W-Walking around today w-was awful. I-I'm surprised I'm not bruised up from h-how many t-times I was knocked over."
"I know, right? We're all in line to get some damned Oran Berries calm down!" Another fit of laughter overtook the two. From there on, they took to silently sipping their tea. Slate looked around the well kept house some more. It was a really nice place, the plants definitely helped make the place look more lively. There were also some calming pictures on the wall. As they finished, Mia took their cups and placed them back in the kitchen to be cleaned later. "Well, I supposed I've kept ya here for long enough. I'll be seein' you out, I guess." Slate nodded and offered her his thanks, but when he stepped foot out the door, she grabbed his paw. "W-Wait! Hold on a sec." He watched her rush back into her abode and dig around before coming back out with a paper and pen, scribbling furiously onto it. "Here, it's my address. You know, in case you would like to come by again." He nodded with a smile and took it.
"I'd love t-to."
"Great! It was nice meeting you, Slate."
"You too."
The two exchanged nods before Mia closed the door and Slate began exiting the building. That was certainly leagues ahead of the other residents here in terms of enjoyment. Who would have thought that such a nice lassie would be living in the weirdo filled apartment. Slate placed the slip of paper in Lillia's bag and prayed he wouldn't forget to take it out so she doesn't question it later. It was probably an inevitability that she'd find out about it, but he kind of wanted it to just be between him and Mia. His thoughts were invaded by weird conversations that would take place once Lillia found the paper in her bag. In fact, he was too absorbed in those thoughts to not watch where he was going and walked face first into someone.
"Hey! Watch it!"
"S-S-Sorry!" Slate regained his composure and looked at the stranger, a Trevenant.
"Hmph." The tree began walking away, but Slate stopped him.
"W-Wait. Sorry to b-bother you, m-bister, but do you know a M-Mienfoo that lives here? They k-kind of look l-like me."
"What? No! I don't know of any...actually, I have one that comes to mind."
"Really? D-Do you know wh-where they l-live?"
"Eh...I don't remember the name of the street. Follow me, it shouldn't be too far." The tree didn't wait for the fighting type to respond and began walking away. Slate hurried and followed the quick moving ghost around a few corners. They walked for a good few minutes before the Trevenant looked around and took a sudden right turn into an alley. Slate hesitated for a moment, but followed him anyway.
"...A-Are you sure they l-live h-here?"
"Positive." He answered quickly, seemingly expecting him to get a little confused.
The alleyway itself was debatably the grossest one in the city. Mysterious liquids were seeping onto the ground, making Slate's footsteps all mushy, some Pokémon were leaning up against the wall, Slate hoped they were drugged up and not dead, and the stench the invaded the Mienfoo's nostrils smelled like a combination of rotten cheese and burnt cigarettes. Safe to say, Slate wasn't having a fun time following the Trevenant.
The ghost suddenly came to a stop about halfway into the alley instead of continuing to the opposite side where an exit was. Instead, he faced a red door and gave a seemingly random sequence of knocks. It went silent for a moment afterwards. The ghost glanced at the Mienfoo. Slate realized all too late what was happening.
"I-I think I should g-go. I-I appreciate the h-help, b-but I should f-find my f-friend." The Trevenant's eerie red eye seemingly stared through him as Slate slowly turned himself around. Unfortunately, a pair of silhouettes had blocked off his last exit to the outside world. Not having any other options, Slate took a deep breath.
"HE-
The Trevenant's massive claw had clasped over Slate's mouth, making any sound he tried to make into a mumbled, inaudible mess. He flew a few limbs around to try to break himself free, but the tree had wrapped his other arm around Slate's torso. The ghost's strength far outweighed his, making him completely unable to move. He watched in horror as the other two silhouettes closed in on their locations, revealing themselves to be a Golduck and Dusclops who gave him an equally silent glare. The red door suddenly flew open, startling the Pokémon in captivity. Though, no one came out. At least, not in the normal way.
"Well, well, well. What have we here?" A Gengar had sprung up through the ground below Slate, startling the poor Mienfoo. He would have jumped and let out a yelp, but his current predicament prevented any of that. "Quite the skittish one, ain't ya?" The ghost sank back into the ground and reappeared on the rear side of him. "That's a nice bag you got here. Do you mind if I just..." The ghost slipped it off of him and began dunking the contents of it out on the floor. As a now teary eyed Mienfoo watched it all drop, the Gengar continued. "Bah! Not that much Poké to spare? You sure are a greedy one, aren't you?" Slate could only stare at the Gengar who was now way too close to him for comfort. "This one for later tonight?" The Gengar didn't remove eye contact from the Mienfoo, but the Trevenant responded.
"Yep. Bumped into him on the streets. Said he was looking for someone."
"Here I am!" The Gengar shook his hands. Slate didn't respond. "What's the matter? You don't look all too excited to see me. Come oooon. You don't remember your old pal, Gengar? No?" A few seconds of staring went by before the Gengar continued. "You did good. He seems like a perfect specimen." The Trevenant only nodded as a response. The word "specimen" didn't sit well with Slate and he tried to flail around again, but was completely restricted. The grip the Trevenant had on him was bone crushingly powerful. "We can't have you doing that all the time, you know? I actually need you to do something for me. I just want you to..." Slate watched in terror as the Gengar's unnaturally long and foul tongue escaped his mouth and began to slowly and painfully slide up against Slate's entire body. For it only being a lick, the pain it sent through him felt like a million Joltiks had climbed all over him and discharged all at once. He let out the loudest, bloodcurdling scream he could muster, but to everyone else it seemed like nothing more than a quiet mumble. "...stay still. Just like that! Perfect! Oh, you're a natural at this!" Then, the Gengar's voice quickly became unnaturally emotionless, unlike how he had been the entire time since Slate had encountered him. "Take him to Yetta then scout for the next ones. Once that's done, come to Gloomy woods by sunset. Don't be late, this is an important night."
"Yes sir."
"Good." He snapped at the other two, watching everything unfold. "Come with me, we have a few more things to take care of."
The three walked back into the door he had come out of and was slammed shut. By now, the parlaying saliva that was coursing through Slate's fur was beginning to climax and becoming too unbearable to take. The Joltik that were all over him had evolved into Galvantula and were now biting through his flesh while still sending static through his veins. He tried again, in vain, to scream as loud as possible in the small hope that some passerby would at least hear his plea for help, but it was all for naught. The Trevenant's painful grip remained firm and his energy was being sapped away every with every agonizing second he remained alive. Eventually, after several more minutes of excruciating torment, he passed out and was carelessly dropped onto the sticky ground below.
Lillia groaned as she was, once again, told that whatever Pokémon she was talking to had never seen a Mienfoo before in their lives. Throughout the day, she had caught a few leads, but all of them usually lead to dead ends or awkwardly meeting some other Mienfoo. Those conversations were always fun.
"Hello? How are you?"
"Bad. You're not who I'm looking for. Goodbye."
"...What?"
She didn't bother sticking around and listening to whatever they had to say, it would waste her much too valuable time. The psychic glanced up at the sky after another unsuccessful result. Almost three fourths. Deciding to cut her losses, she grunted and began making her way to their rendezvous point. The building in question came into view shortly after and she found a nice enough bunch near the entrance to sit on.
The minutes went by and Lillia spent most of her time watching the Pokémon walk in and out of the building. Most of them returning from some grand adventure. Lillia was able to make out bits and pieces of what they were saying. Usually something on how excited they were and things of a similar nature.
She wished they had a different meeting place.
The sun soon disappeared over the buildings, casting most of the city into dim lighting. Needless to say, she was quickly getting worried over the fact that her partner had not shown up yet. She gave it a few more minutes, but no sign of her Mienfoo bud anywhere. Hopping off the bench, she once again began asking around for a Mienfoo. This time, it was actually Slate she was looking for.
Not a single shop, street, or plaza was holding the fighting type in question. She might as well have been transported back in time as she was asking whoever she could about her missing friend. They all ended up negative. Thankfully, after a grueling several minutes of no results, Lillia would finally get some useful information.
"Hey! Can you come down here?!" Lillia signaled to an Unfezant. He spotted her and landed.
"You're the second Pokémon to stop me today, you know?"
"Whatever. Look, I need to know if you've seen a Mienfoo anywhere. He should be carrying a satchel."
"...Does he stutter a lot." Lillia's eyes lit up.
"Yes, that's him! Where is he?"
"Last I saw him, I sent him to my apartment building. He said he was looking for a Mienfoo."
"Can you bring me there?!" The cat was basically bouncing up and down.
"Yeah, hop on." She wasted no time getting onto the masked bird's back as he lowered. A short flight later and they arrived at the building. "They should be on the third floor. It's unlikely that they're still here, but maybe the one he needed to see knows where he went."
"Got it. Thank you!"
"No problem." Lillia raced up the stairs until she arrived at the desired floor and after a few annoying encounters with weird ass Pokémon later, she found who she was looking for. A few swift knocks on her door later, Mia answered. Lillia sighed.
"You're not him."
"Him?"
"Did a Mienfoo stop by your place today?" Mia's ears perked up.
"The shy fella?"
"Exactly! Do you know where he went?"
"No, I can't say I do." She gasped and put a paw up to her mouth. "Is he okay?"
"Gah! I don't know! I can't find him anywhere! Thanks anyway, I got to go." She was about to rush off, but Mia stopped her.
"Hold up! I want to come with ya!"
"What? Why?"
"He was such a kind fella, I don't want anythin' bad to happen to him. So, I'll join ya. Two heads is better than one, innit?"
"..."
"Please, I want to help." Lillia continued to stare at the country Mienfoo. She didn't wear the most pleasant expression on her face, but she caved in anyway.
"Ugh. Fine. You better not slow me down."
"I won't. I don't mean to brag, but I'm quite the able fighter, if I do say so myself. I just...uh...need to grab some things real quick." Lillia deadpanned as Mia ran into her apartment and came out a minute later with a strap on sunhat that was adorned with a flower and a small backpack. The psychic raised a brow. "What?"
"It's almost sunset. Why the hat?"
"This could take longer than tonight. Don't wanna waste time by stopping here again, do we?"
"Sure, whatever. Let's just go already." Mia nodded and trailed behind Lillia as they dashed out the building. The plan was to, once again, ask whoever and whatever they could to get any sort of information. They had as much luck as a Sawk trying to learn Future Sight. The more time went by, the more worried Lillia would get. Where the heck did he go? Something clearly wasn't right. They had even checked by the guild again to see if he had arrived super late. He wasn't. Once they chose their next destination to search, Mia questioned Lillia.
"Why not just ask the guild? I'm sure they can get more work done than the two of us."
No. I don't need their help. End of discussion." Mia rolled her eyes at the psychic.
"You do you, but if this takes too long, I'm telling them myself." Lillia didn't respond and instead chose to keep walking.
Sunset was well underway by now. It was beginning to become harder to see. Some lights had been turned on the streets, but those didn't help much in the way of searching out of the way areas. The seconds ticked away, then minutes, then the hours.
Nothing.
Not a shred of evidence pointing to where Slate had disappeared to. He was just...nowhere. Vanished into thin air. By now, the ladies had resulted to scouring the surfaces of the alleyways. It was there, after several hours of tedious searching, they had finally found it.
"Over there, isn't that his bag?" Mia pointed to the pile of scraps on the ground. Lillia gasped.
They dashed over to the scene. Lillia's bag was on the floor with all of her belongings inside, apart from the Poké. Still no Slate.
"Those bastards! Someone brought him back here, robbed him, then took him somewhere! That's what happened to him!" As Lillia began thrashing about, Mia tried to sniff out anything. It resulted in a couple of gags, but she persisted. Unfortunately, she came up short. Lillia wasn't all too impressed.
"I can't pick up anythin.' Oh, the poor guy must be horrified. We have to keep searching!"
"Great job detective dimwit! I was just gonna drop our investigation here and call it a day. After all, I got my bag back." Mia shot an angry look towards the psychic.
"Now listen here, missy. This is a clear case of kidnappin!' We have no idea where he had been takin' to. The guild is sittin' right there, waitin' for us. The Pokémon in there can help us! We can just go there, and Slate will be saved faster than either of us can look for him."
"I already told you, I don't need their damn help! We have all the clues needed right here." Lillia pointed to the door. Surely he's in there!"
"Yeah and maybe twenty Pokémon gettin' ready to mug us fer how loud your bein!'"
"Oh, shut up! Just shut up!" The psychic didn't have anything else to say, so she just turned and looked away from the Mienfoo. Eventually, she sat down and pulled her legs up to her chest. "...I'm just so worried about him." Mia sighed and walked up to the Espurr.
"I'm worried too, hun. We just need to-
"You ladies need help?"
"AAAHH!" Both of the girls jumped up and turned to the pokemon that had snuck up behind them. It was an Igglybuff and he reeked of alcohol.
"Uh...yeah. You wouldn't happen t'have seen a Mienfoo getting kidnapped here, would ya?" Mia asked
"What a strangely specific thing to have been bearing witness to. It just so happens that I was chilling nearby when it happened." Both of them had given the drunk their full attention. "It scared the crap out of me, if I'm being honest. Here I am, about to have the time of my life, then this creepy ass ghost man brings his terrified self down here. I pretended to be passed out so as to not draw attention to myself. There's tons of others who come here anyway. They snatched his bag, subdued him, then flew off with him." He chuckled. "They had him gagged or something. He was screaming a lot, but it just kind of came out as "mmmm! Mmmmmm!" Hehe." Lillia had knocked him over and climbed on top of him.
"Where the hell is he?!"
"Right, right." He seemed completely unfazed. "I think they said Gloomy Woods."
"...And you didn't tell anyone?" Mia added.
"Nope."
"Wow. Thanks."
That was enough information for Lillia. She dashed over to her bag and gathered her things before taking off. Mia stopped her and caught her by the bag.
"Hey! Let me go!"
"No! We know exactly where he is now. We are goin' to the guild and asking them to handle this!"
"Fuck off! I don't want their help!" Without warning, Lillia psychically forced Mia to release her grip and raised her up into the air.
"H-Hey! What are you doin' to me?" Lillia didn't answer.
Instead choosing to glare at the now terrified Mienfoo with the anger of a Zangoose staring down a Seviper. After giving her a moment to realize how much trouble she was about to be in, Lillia threw the fighting type into the solid brick wall where she was knocked out in an instant. Without wasting any more time, Lillia scurried off into the darkness, content on dealing with the monsters that had kidnapped her friend all on her own.
