Chapter 32
Mark and Maple didn't hold hands on their way back to the hotel. Mark already felt like an idiot and he was afraid that saying something would make it worse.
But it was the silence that made Maple start to think and start to worry. What had she done? They were having a good time, weren't they?
But neither one had much time to think it over.
For once, Mark noticed them first. Huddled around a bench outside of the hotel were a human Absol and Ninjask with their trainer. Mark recognized Silver and Lily, the nervous Absol and the young girl that had approached them on the morning of the first day. The Ninjask he didn't know, but must've been another member of their group.
As they got closer, he noticed something strange. Sitting on the bench, Lily had started crying.
"No, no, it's okay," panicking, Silver knelt down in front of her, "we'll find her. I promise." He hated it when he saw her like this. Lily cried in short, little, squeaking sobs. She did it so little he often forgot how much it hurt to watch her do it.
"Mistress, the fault is mine for not being strong enough to find her," Shinobi apologized from his standard crouching position, "please, I will accept any punishment that you wish to inflict."
Lily cried harder.
"You're not helping!" Silver snapped at Shinobi. He meant well, but the human Ninjask had no idea how to talk to Lily.
With Aroma gone, Silver had suddenly become the linchpin of the group. Despite his reluctance to take the role he did it anyway. There was no other option. Lily had been a wreck ever since the night they had lost Aroma and Shinobi was more of a follower than a leader. That left Silver in the role he never wanted.
The truth of it was that he hated that Aroma was gone. She wasn't supposed to be the one that disappeared, it should've been him. He was left alone with these idiots and expected to pick up the pieces. Why did she have to leave him like this?
But he was angry for no reason, and he knew it. Aroma would never just abandon them, she wasn't like that. Something terrible had happened to her. She must have been kidnapped. Maybe it was wrong for Silver to assume that somebody had kidnapped her, but he liked the alternative even less.
On the bright side, Lily still had Aroma's Pokéball. Moving her without anyone noticing would be difficult. There was a very real chance that she was still somewhere on the island. If he could just find her, then everything would go back to normal.
"Umm…what's wrong?" Mark asked, hesitant to stick his nose where it didn't belong.
"It's all my fault!" Lily wailed, "Aroma's gone and it's all my fault!" She broke into a fresh round of sobs.
"Hey, hey, hey, cut that out!" Silver sounded even more desperate than the last time Mark and Maple had seen him, "I'm telling you, there's still a chance that she's here! We can still find her!"
"Who's Aroma?" Maple asked. She knelt down next to Silver, trying to get Lily to look her in the eyes.
"M-my Meganium," Lily managed to say between sobs, "s-she was w-with me on the first n-night of the tournament. I was only g-gone for a second…" She trailed off and started crying, again.
Dammit, this isn't your fault, Silver thought, furious with himself, it's mine. I shouldn't have been out like that. Because of me…
"Wait, what happened?" Mark asked.
"Aroma was kidnapped that night," Silver explained, leaving out…certain details, "we don't know how or why, but she's gone."
"Isn't there anybody to report this to?" Mark asked. It seemed like an obvious question, but he got an unexpected response.
"Not exactly," Silver shook his head, "there's tournament security, hired by Silph, but they're just crowd control. They don't have the capability of a regular police force. And Himitsu's own police have no way to counter something a human Pokémon might do. We're pretty much on our own."
"Wait, what?" Mark couldn't believe it, "they're putting on a tournament without any way to stop any crime? That's insane!"
"Yeah, well, welcome to the world of human Pokémon," Silver grumbled, "there's too few of us to be recognized and protected. And even if they did that much, we're too powerful for anybody else to stop us. That leaves everything up to the human Pokémon and their trainers to make the decisions."
"So, if a human Pokémon or a trainer felt like destroying a building…"
"Then another human Pokémon or trainer would have to stop him," Silver supplied the answer, "that's the world we live in."
"Then I'm going to help you," Mark declared without hesitation, "there's no way you should have to do this alone."
Silver stood up and turned to Mark, leaving Maple to console Lily, "you serious?" He looked Mark up and down and glanced at Maple.
"We're tougher than we look," Mark did his best to sound convincing. He didn't think it worked, but after a few seconds, Silver smirked.
"I appreciate that," the human Absol nodded, "but what we need right now is information. We need to know who did this and, more importantly, where to find them. We need leads, and right now we don't have any."
"Right…" Mark sighed. His statement of bravery began to quickly lose its feeling of importance.
"Look, I don't want to drag you kids into this," Silver started, "but if you hear anything, let us know. Even if it's just rumors or hunches, we'll take anything."
"Alright," Mark nodded, "we'll ask around. See if we can come up with anything." He peered around Silver to look at Maple and Lily. Lily had stopped openly sobbing and was just sniffing back tears.
"Come on, Maple," he called, "somebody has to know something." Maple was slow to leave Lily.
"Thank you," Lily forced a smile through her tear-streaked face. The sadness in her eyes made Mark furious at whoever had done this to her.
One night, just one night, Lionel's thoughts were frantic as he made his way through the facility and back to the surface.
It was nowhere near enough time. He had been set-up to fail, he knew it. What the hell were they going to do to him? The secrecy of Team Deus was of the utmost importance, if they just let him go, he could ruin everything for them. Did they have something worse planned?
No, he pushed that from his mind. He had to stay focused on the job. That's all it was, just a job. If he did this, it would be over. He could go back to his old life.
That was what he told himself. But, like he just said, they weren't going to let him leave. He was here for life, whether he liked it or not.
Last time, he had gotten lucky when Mark and Maple had that fight. They had been separated for no more than a precious few hours, but it was a window he could've used. If only he hadn't…no, it was over. Those mistakes were behind him. He couldn't make them again.
He needed a plan. He needed a solid, well-built, intelligent plan. But with one night, he'd need almost as much luck as the last time. What could he slap together that would separate the two of them for those few minutes he needed?
Unfortunately, the best he could come up with was to steal their room key. If he had that, he could sneak in at night. Just tiptoe inside and slip the collar around Maple's neck while she slept…
But that was a long shot. They'd know if a room key suddenly went missing, especially if they only had one, which they probably did. The plan would blow up in his face before it even got off the ground. And that was IF he succeeded in getting close enough to snatch it off of Mark.
No, that was stupid. As sad as it was; the best he could do was go and follow them. There would be no other option but to grab Maple the first instant they were apart. It would be risky as hell, but he was desperate now.
One night.
I can do this, Lionel thought, I have to. There's no other way. Lost in thought, he walked right past Silver, Shinobi, and the sobbing Lily.
"So, what do we do?" Maple asked Mark as they waited for the elevator.
"Just start asking, I guess," Mark shrugged, "we should probably split up, though. It'll be faster."
"Okay," Maple agreed.
Mark would be lying to himself if he didn't admit he was a little relieved. This gave him the perfect chance to be alone for a little bit. More importantly, he could ask Kim for advice under the guise of asking about the kidnappings.
"You go up to Eric's room and ask them," he suggested, "I'll go talk to Kim and we'll meet back up outside of the room." That would be a good start.
After that, they could try Alex, but they had no idea where to find him. Flurry and Eric might know something, but again, they had no way to contact them. Lionel might just appear and it would be easier to wait than look. Aurum, of course, would be the best one to ask, but Mark doubted if he had seen anything or whether or not he'd be willing to help. Still, they weren't alone and that was reassuring.
"Alright," Maple nodded. She was distracted, thinking about Lily and Silver. Silver had shown such a different attitude from before. Last time he had practically begged for their aid in hiding him from Lily. Now he was spear-heading the operation to rescue Aroma and piece the group back together as if he had been the leader the entire time. And what about Aroma? Where did she fit into the group?
But it didn't matter. Aroma needed their help.
The elevator arrived and the two entered. Mark pressed the buttons corresponding to the appropriate floors. Mark's stop on their floor, and Kim's, came first and he stepped off, waving goodbye to Maple.
Watching him go, Maple felt uneasy, but the doors closed and she had to remind herself of her mission. They both trusted Eric, Tsunami and Fernelia. Nothing could go wrong just by talking to them. Still, it felt strange to be doing this sort of thing without Mark's help. It still felt strange to be doing anything without Mark beside her.
When the elevator arrived at the right floor, Maple was slow to get off as she peered around the empty hallway. As a result, the elevator door started to close and nearly clamped down on her tail. Jumping back and spinning in mid-air she barely stopped herself from retaliating against the door with a Leaf Blade. That would be a stupid way to start her mission.
Shaking her head and coming back to her senses, she reminded herself what room number Eric had told Mark. Chanting it to herself, she started walking down the hallway, checking each door as she went. She made it to the fifth door before she realized that she must have gone the wrong way. Doubling back, she found 1502 right next to the elevator.
She took a few deep breaths to steady herself and then knocked lightly.
Nothing happened.
Confused, Maple re-thought her approach. She had seen Mark do this before outside of Kim's room. It didn't seem complicated and he didn't have any trouble getting results. What had he done differently?
She could hear voices on the other side of the door. Tsunami's gruff, yet friendly tone and Eric's unusually mature one took turns as they conversed with each other.
"She was really good," Eric's muffled voice came through the door. Maple took a moment to sort out what they were talking about.
"Yeah, that Ninjask was fast as hell…" Tsunami responded. They were talking about a match they had seen.
"You think Mark can take them?"
"I really don't know," Tsunami paused, "he's not bad, but I don't see him winning against somebody like that."
Maple tried knocking again, a bit harder this time. Maybe they just didn't hear her the first time.
"Was that the door?" Eric asked.
"I think so," Tsunami added. Neither one sounded any closer than they were before.
"Oh, I'll get it," Fernelia's agitated voice joined in and Maple brightened.
The door opened and Fernelia smiled as she recognized her guest.
"Maple! How are you, sweetheart?" she greeted with her usual maternal kindness.
"Hello," Maple smiled back and began waving her tail, "I just wanted to ask you a few questions." It was surprising how easily that came out.
"Of course, of course," Fernelia stepped to the side to allow Maple to pass, "come in, come in." Beaming now, Maple trotted in to see Tsunami sprawled on the far bed and Eric sitting at the edge of the nearest one. Seeing Maple, Tsunami sat bolt upright in an effort to compose himself for their guest.
"Hello," Maple chirped.
"Go ahead and sit, sweetheart," Fernelia patted the bed next to Maple as she pulled up a chair for herself. She waited for Maple to sit down before continuing, "what brings you here?"
"Yeah," Eric raised an eyebrow, "and where's Mark? Last time we saw you two was your match."
"Oh, you were there?" Maple brightened even further at this information, "itwassocool! We had planned all along to use Dig to…" she stopped herself, "oh, that's actually not why I'm here."
"…Okay," Eric rolled his eyes, "what are you here for?"
"Well, you see," Maple fumbled for the right words, "there's this trainer that we met. Her name's Lily."
"Oh, yeah, we've seen her," Tsunami spoke up, "she's good. Already won her first match. She's gonna be-"
"Dear, please," Fernelia interrupted, "go on, Maple."
"Well, the thing is…" Maple looked at the floor, why was it so hard to say this? "The thing is, her Aroma. Her human Meganium, I mean. Her name's Aroma. Umm…she got…kidnapped two days ago. And…they can't find her."
"And you wanted our help?" Eric helped Maple finish.
"Well," Maple shrugged, "I really just wanted to know if you had seen or heard anything…weird, I guess."
"Sorry…" Eric shook his head, "nothing like that…" he trailed off and started to stare at the floor. That had to be hard, losing a human Pokémon like that. They weren't just Pokémon, they were family. Eric himself had already lost one set of parents. He didn't want to think about what would happen if he lost another.
"Oh, okay," Maple nodded, but her voice was laced with disappointment. So much for her mission. She hoped that Mark wouldn't be too disappointed in her.
"We'll let you know if we hear anything," Tsunami reassured her, "you and Mark."
"Thank you," Maple smiled at him, despite her disappointment. She got up to leave.
"Umm…say," Fernelia began, "how are things with you and Mark?" Even after watching their victory and their open affection for each other afterwards, Fernelia still felt uneasy. The image of Maple running passed them with tears in her eyes, and her dress stained red, lingered on in Fernelia's mind.
"How are things with me and Mark?" Maple was asking herself as much as she was asking Fernelia, "we're fine. Everything's good."
She didn't like lying, but she did it anyway.
AN: I'm sure you guys don't remember Lily, Silver and Shinobi very well. It's been quite a while since they've been around. Good news is that the minor characters are going to get some more attention, very soon. Eric and Lily in particular, since we don't know them very well.
Guess that's all I wanted to say, this week.
Thanks for reading!