"Hey...it's alright. I won't hurt you."
I don't believe you, human. Sandile growled at the man's outstretched hand, still slightly groggy after that Delcatty's Sing attack. Today it was just humans, humans, and more humans. The last few were dangerous, so surely this one was bad news.
The stranger held up his hands. "Here. I'm not holding any weapons or Pokeballs in my hands right now. Can you tell me what happened here?"
The Pokemon tilted its head at this. The human wouldn't ask something like that if he couldn't understand the answer, right? I still don't trust you, it growled again, backing away a few steps. But...I don't think telling you will make anything bad happen. There were a lot of humans earlier. They all looked the same as each other, even more than other humans do, and they attacked and captured a lot of us. We saw more humans, too, and they made us sleep.
"I'm sorry to hear that. Thank you for telling me, though. Would you like help treating the wounded?"
No! The Sandile roared, taking a defensive stance. We don't want humans here right now! You seem like a good human, but too many bad humans are around. If you want to help us, leave us.
The man smiled sadly before standing up and adjusting his hat. "Alright, then. But I hope you can learn to forgive humans soon. We aren't all bad." With that, he began to walk away towards Route 4.
"This can't be good," he muttered quietly to himself. "I thought they were finished, but could they have somehow...no, it couldn't be. Even so...I should look into this a little more."
When Amy woke up, she was expecting a face-full of sand and a pesky Sandile nibbling her arm, so imagine her confusion when neither of those were present. She was relatively sand-free, somewhere indoors, and in a bed, from what she could tell with her eyes closed. "Mmn, must'a been a dream..." The detective mumbled, not even opening her eyes before trying to go back to sleep.
"Hey, seriously?" A voice interrupted that attempt.
"Hn? Annette, why do you sound like a man now?"
"Because I am a man, you dolt!"
The shout seemed to work, as the woman sleepily sat up to look around. Upon seeing the voice's owner, Amy recognized the uniform. "Oh. Plasma." After about two seconds, her eyes widened and she leaped off the bed to her feet. "Plasma?"
The grunt raised an eyebrow. "Yeah. Didn't you know that already?" Not waiting for an answer, he put a hand to his earpiece. "Hey, she's up."
Well, this was more than a little humiliating. To think she was here to catch Team Plasma, yet the opposite happened. Cool detectives didn't make mess-ups like this! Still, maybe she could still save some of her dignity... She glanced about the room, noting its greyish walls, lack of windows, and general tidiness and eventually reaching the conclusion that this was one of their bases. "Ha! You've brought me right to your base, where I can stop your plans here and now!" Amy proclaimed, pointing a finger at the grunt.
"Great. You know, this isn't the base."
Her finger shook a little, mirroring her uncertainty. "I...knew that."
"Sure."
"Which is why I'll capture you and interrogate you! This isn't a base, so you won't have as much help waiting for you!"
"Uh-huh. By the way, I lied. This really is a base."
"W-wha...? Stop it! Stop your mind games right this instant, villain!" She sputtered.
The grunt couldn't suppress an amused grin. "Well, aren't you intimidating." His grin faded quickly, however. "You've fallen into a bad situation, kid. You shouldn't have gotten involved in this."
"I am not a kid!"
"Yeah, okay."
Amy silently fumed for a moment longer before the reality of her situation struck her. She was in the enemy base, didn't have Zangoose with her, and Annette was nowhere to be seen. Hey, that can't be right...we didn't really lose, right? Of course things were still okay. The bad guys were never supposed to win. Trainers even younger than herself had managed to single-handedly take down plenty of evil groups. The detective clenched her fists. "And what happened to the others?"
He narrowed his eyes. "Finally realized who you're dealing with, eh? Your Pokemon are fine."
Knowing her Zangoose was alright would have made her relax, but Amy knew this was a blatant confession that Annette wasn't fine. "And...?" She demanded uncertainly.
"And your little friend had a change in ownership. As of today, this is her home."
"I must say I'm impressed. Your last operation was...how long ago, exactly?" a scientist asked, holding a pen to her clipboard.
"Six months," Annette answered sullenly. The moment she woke up surrounded by those chemical scents and bright lights, the girl knew it was over. Freedom was nice while it lasted, but she was never fully convinced it would last forever anyhow. Now it was time to stay put, answer questions, and endure whatever needed to be endured, just like before.
The woman began to scribble on the clipboard. "That sounds about right, since you ran off five months ago. As I was saying, it's been six months since your last operation, yet the solution is still in your system. It used to wear off after a week if everything in your file is true." She paused, half-expecting the child to say something defiant or plead to be let go, but was met with silence. For an escapee, she's being awfully quiet about this.
Aside from the humming and occasional beeping of machines in the hospital-like room, everything was silent for a while. The scientist sighed and turned to rummage through a shelf while Annette stared down at her hospital gown with dull eyes. It wasn't until a minute or so passed that the teen finally spoke up. "...And the detective? What did you do about her?"
"Oh? Are you sure you're not more worried about yourself?"
Annette looked up and stared blankly before lowering her head. Don't pretend I have a chance at getting away again. She knew the grunts weren't going to make the same mistake twice, and she knew exactly what was going to happen to her.
"Alright, then." The scientist gave a slight shake of her head. "Her Pokemon have been sent to the training room along with yours." She looked up sharply. "And your Delcatty's Pokeball has been marked to let the handlers know they'll need to be especially careful with him. He won't be sneaking out again."
Annette gripped the bedsheets, her blank expression replaced with one of worry. I didn't expect him to this time.
"Now as for your detective friend, we'll be looking into her real identity to make sure she isn't anyone important first. If it turns out she isn't, well...we'll find a way to make her useful. She's not going to live a normal life from now on, if that's what you're asking."
"I see..." I got her into this. I should have just stayed in the Pokemon Center, then we'd both be safe from these people.
"But that's not what I'm here for," she added, pulling a chair to sit by the teen's bedside. "You escaped in the Sinnoh region while the grunts were busy preparing for your transfer to Kanto. There were no records of any flights or ferries with you on them, you have no flying Pokemon, and your Audino certainly cannot swim you across an ocean. Had it not been for an intercepted phone call from one of the nurse Joys, we would have thought you were still in Sinnoh, yet somehow you ended up all the way here in Unova."
This time Annette hesitated to answer, making the scientist wonder just what she was hiding. The teen looked away. "A-are you sure you didn't find any ferry records?"
"None. Of course, that's because you didn't take a ferry, did you?"
"I was a stowaway," she quickly stammered.
"Then why would you think there would be records, I wonder? Your story's falling apart rather quickly," the scientist answered, not letting a single detail escape her. "Answer me. How did you get to Unova?"
Still not meeting her in the eye, the blonde shuffled nervously without saying any more.
"I'm waiting," she demanded harshly. This girl wouldn't go to this much trouble unless something was worth hiding. "Of course, we can always perform that long overdue operation and see if you're more talkative afterward."
"It was a trainer!" Annette squeaked. It seemed the masked threat had worked. "A trainer helped fly me here. Hil...I mean the trainer...wasn't anyone special, just a normal trainer."
"Is that so. Well!" The scientist stood up and clapped a hand on the teen's shoulder, causing her to jump. "This little interrogation is over for now." She heard a sigh of relief from the girl. "But someone else may come to continue it later. Until then, rest well." With that, the woman made her way out of the room, closing the door behind her with a short click from the lock.
"So, how'd it go?" One of the guards asked, having been leaning against the wall outside the room with his colleagues the whole time.
"She was cooperative enough, and I don't think she'll try to escape," the scientist began. "But she's definitely hiding something about the trainer that brought her to Unova. I'm going to see if someone can get an answer out of her, just in case."
"Huh, maybe this is something serious after all. How do you think Alfred's faring?"
"Not as well, I assume, if this detective takes her job even the slightest bit seriously."
Meanwhile, Alfred still stood between the detective and the exit.
"What do you mean by that?" Amy demanded with the fiercest glare she could manage, which, to be fair, could have stood to be a bit more menacing.
"I shouldn't have to spell it out for you, should I? She's a guinea pig. Originally, Team Galactic's guinea pig, and now ours since nobody else feels like dealing with someone troublesome enough to escape," the grunt explained with a scowl.
"That's..." The detective's eyes widened in shock, but she quickly regained herself. "How could you people do that to another human being?"
"Look, orders are orders. If you're gonna preach, save it for someone else."
She clenched her fists. "Fine, but what exactly has Team Galactic done to her?"
"You know, you're really not in a position where you can interrogate us, and I don't think I've got the authority to answer that." He pulled out a gun, but kept it pointed at the floor for now. "You don't have any Pokemon or weapons; I suggest you sit down."
With just about every disadvantage here, even Amy knew when to swallow her pride. Glaring indignantly, she sat back down.
"There you go. Now, want to save our info team the trouble and tell us your real name?"
"Hmph! I'm not in a position to answer that." Having resorted to pouting, the detective turned away.
Alfred's eyebrow twitched slightly in annoyance. Arceus, this detective's a brat... "Alright then, they'll have to find out on their own." He walked over to the door, sparing a glance to make sure she wasn't going to tackle him and run out if he opened it or, if she actually did try that, wouldn't make it to the door on time. With a deep sigh to calm himself, the grunt quickly left the room.
And the moment he closed the door, a loud "thump" could be heard on the other side. Don't tell me she actually tried to run out at the last second... He opened the door only slightly to peek inside, where he saw the detective sitting on the ground and rubbing her nose.
"Ow..."
She's...a complete idiot. He finally decided, closing the door again to lock it. Boss, hurry up and get here so I can be done with this.
Authors' Note: So this update took even longer because of...school, I assume. Hopefully the next chapter won't take as long!
These protagonists sure aren't doing a good job at being protagonists. Hurry up and pull out your main character powers, Amy and Annette! All main characters have them, right? Right?