"Wasn't that fun?" The boy asked, glancing back at the now-petrified blonde sitting behind him on Archeops's back.
It took some time for the girl to pry her own fingers out of the fossil Pokemon's feathers, having been gripping on for her dear life mere seconds ago. Even her Skitty was rattled beyond belief; the kitten had fainted with his claws still lodged into the boy's shoulder. "That..." she began shakily, "That was NOT fun! Absolutely not fun!"
"But at least you don't have that dead look on your face anymore, eh?" The boy replied, grinning. "That's a good thing, if you ask me."
"No it isn't! Do you even know what they'll do to you if they catch—MMMPH!" The girl's frantic protest was quickly muffled by the boy's hand.
"Shh! C'mon, quit saying silly stuff and take a look around." Pulling his hand away, the brunette chuckled. "You weren't this talkative before."
Frowning, the blonde stayed quiet for a moment and reluctantly took his advice, if only for the sake of not looking at him. She figured she had every right to be anxious in this kind of situation, having just been carried off by a speeding Archeops with very little warning. It certainly didn't help that some of Team Galactic's Pokemon were firing at them for the first few minutes of the flight. She could've sworn she heard gunshots, too. Distracted by all of the trouble they were in, it took her a moment to register where they were: a colorful field of flowers, exactly like the ones in Floaroma Town, except this particular field was surrounded by water and there wasn't a tree in sight. There wasn't a place like this on the map, was there? "Where...?"
"A little place called Seabreak Path. Pretty cool, huh? There aren't many people who know how to get here so there's no need to worry about those guys anytime soon."
At the very least, the answer got her to stop screaming that they were both doomed. "I thought that was just some place from a fairy tale," she puzzled before reaching out to pry her Skitty from the boy's shoulder.
He quickly held out a hand to stop her, knowing that what she was about to do was going to hurt. "Here, let me handle it." Not giving her any time to answer, the boy started petting the cat Pokemon to try waking him up. Sure enough, Skitty's narrow eyes opened and the small cat slowly sheathed his claws while the boy flinched. "Gah, ow...this is gonna sting for a while..."
The girl carefully took her Skitty back and hugged it close. "Sorry," she murmured, although a part of her blamed him since he was the one who scared the living daylights out of the poor kitten in the first place.
"Eh, it'll heal." Letting go of the small wound, the boy hopped off his Pokemon's back and onto the flowery ground below. "Come on; I'm sure you're not in a hurry for Archeops to fly you around again."
Hearing that, she immediately vacated the fossil Pokemon's back in favor of standing in the perfectly safe field. A second later and Archeops had vanished into its Pokeball. "What were you even doing in there? That base, I mean."
"I went over to mess 'em up a bit, is all. Another trainer told me that Team Galactic had been seen corresponding with Team Magma, so I came over to check things out." His smile faltered as his eyebrows knotted slightly in worry. "But when I got there, I found out that they're up to something a little bigger than a bit of co-op with Magma. And now that it looks like they're taking people away for whatever reason..."
The girl looked away at this, not caring to explain why they had people locked up. "But why? You're just a trainer." A powerful trainer, sure, if his Archeops was any indication, but a single person nonetheless. It didn't make any sense to try and singlehandedly take on Team Galactic just like that.
"Because I just can't keep my nose out of anyone's business! Say, can I ask you a favor?"
"What?"
"Well, I'd appreciate it if you let me bring you over to Unova. You don't need to do anything right away when you get there, but if you ever come across trouble and see a green-haired man with a ponytail, tell him his friend says hi and ask him to take care of whatever might be going on. And try not to get yourself back in that situation." He almost seemed to expect something to happen to Unova in the near-future, but it didn't seem he would say what it was.
She looked at him skeptically. "I probably wouldn't even run into him."
"I wouldn't be so sure. So, what do you say?" He beamed and offered a hand.
Although she doubted sending her off to Unova would help the brunette in any way, she knew that moving as far away from Sinnoh as possible was her best chance at escaping for good. Sure, she'd miss her family, but it wasn't as though she'd ever see them as long as she stayed with Team Galactic anyway. The girl considered it stupidly optimistic on her part, but it really seemed like she could be rid of those people after so long. Hesitating for only a moment, she looked him in the eye. "I'll go. But will you still be okay with the fact that I might never see your friend or even recognize him?"
"I'm sure you'll run into him sooner or later. But first, let me show you some useful things about those big baddies' bases," he offered, already pulling out a Pokeball. "I'd say we've had enough rest. By the way, does your Skitty have a Pokeball?"
She shook her head. "No. He's barely even fought in his life aside from the Starly near my old home."
"Huh. Well, we can deal with that later. Can you keep him still while we fly?" Tossing up the Pokeball, he called Archeops out again, who lowered itself and stretched its wings.
"So we're leaving for Unova now?" The blonde asked, carefully climbing onto Archeops' back with her Skitty in tow.
"Not quite yet," the boy answered, climbing on behind her. "Like I said, we're gonna check out some bases first and mess them up a little. We'll even whip that Skitty into shape, at least enough for him to help out a tiny bit!"
"What?! Why would you go back there? Are you mad?" Before the girl could leap off the fossil Pokemon's back, it had taken flight and was already soaring over the vast ocean that surrounded the field.
"I am a little ticked at them, I'll admit," he said nonchalantly, purposely misinterpreting her use of the word "mad". "C'mon, I'm sure this'll help you out in the long run!"
She sat quietly for a moment, feeling an odd mix of bewilderment, utter confusion, ad horror. And yet, at the same time, she felt just the slightest bit reassured. Once a piece of land was finally in view, she quietly asked, "What's your name?"
"Hilbert! I wouldn't go spreading the name around, though. It could cause a little trouble for you and us both," the brunette answered with that same big grin as the girl's eyes widened in recognition. Few, if any, people in Sinnoh would recognize most other regions' champions at a glance—Unova's, especially—but most of them could recognize the names just fine. That, along with his clearly Unovan Pokemon and that article a few years ago stating that Unova's champion went missing from his reigon were enough for even her to put the pieces together.
Suddenly, this trainer's unexplained involvement with these dangerous criminals made a lot more sense. And that made her feel a bit more relieved.
Of course, that relief was quickly snuffed out when Archeops initiated yet another abrupt and speedy takeoff, making her and her Skitty cling to its feathers once more.
For a moment, Smith's smile broke and revealed utter surprise as he stared at the flashing images displayed in Musharna's dream smoke. However, he quickly replaced that grin. "Well, this is an interesting find."
Evidently, having Musharna poke around the sleeping girls' memories(But not before letting it feed off of the nightmares emitting from Darkrai's power, much to the Pokemon's joy) had been a good idea. While Amy's dream was of little use to him—simply his and her first meeting, just a year before Team Plasma recovered from their first defeat—Annette's had given him a valuable card to play in this little game. So the champion is busy in Sinnoh. Team Galactic probably hasn't even noticed him yet, either.
Musharna was beginning to tire, as it seemed even Annette's subconscious mind was trying to keep the memory a secret. Of course these attempts to stop the psychic Pokemon's prodding were futile in the end, but they were still strong enough to cause a mild headache. Noticing this, Smith lightly waved as if to say he'd seen enough of the blonde's memories for now. Relieved, Musharna maneuvered the dream smoke over to an empty jar its trainer had pulled out so he could store it. After all, it would no doubt be useful later with the memories it now held.
However, he hadn't yet called off the display of Amy's memories. With a light sigh, he watched the images flicker through the remaining dream smoke and shook his head lightly. "You never were very cautious, friend."
"Thanks, kiddo, you really helped me out there!" Amy grinned and held out a hand, battered and covered in mud.
Smith, holding back a frown of distaste for this clearly incompetent cop, fought to remain somewhat polite and returned the handshake. "I was just passing by."
As it turned out, he had been heading for the Weather Institute in Hoenn when a yelp and many growls erupted from the grassy area down south. When, out of either curiosity or actual concern, he checked it out, he found a teenage girl in a police uniform sprawled out in the mud, having slipped down one of the slopes—just on top of a nest of angry Linoone. A small scuffle between the Linoone and his Musharna later, he was pulling the girl back up.
He knew Hoenn was notorious for having one of the weakest police forces out of every region—despite the fact that its crime rate was lower than Kanto's—but he didn't think their standards were low enough to let this girl in, even for training. "What were you doing out there, anyways?"
"Chasing a missing pet! Someone's Slakoth ran off, so I was sent to find it and it ran away."
"A Slakoth," he repeated skeptically. "You were running after a Slakoth, and you couldn't catch up to it." Of all things, a Pokemon that did nothing but sleep all day had caused her trouble?
"Hey, don't give me that half-pitying, half-disgusted look!" Frowning slightly, she pulled out a Pokeball and sent out a fainted Trapinch. "See, the Slakoth was fighting back, so I thought this little guy could try beating it, and..."
"And it beat your Trapinch, evolved into a Vigoroth, and ran off before you could do anything else," Smith finished.
"Yep!" The complete lack of shame in her answer astounded him. Oblivious to this, she called back the Pokemon and called out a healthy Zangoose in its place. "Zangoose here could've beat it in no time at all, but I haven't been training my other Pokemon much."
"And you thought a mission was a good time to start training? Just how seriously do you even take your job?"
Oddly enough, the girl's face was indeed capable of displaying a non-silly expression, as her eyes were now resolute. "Of course," she answered sincerely. "I want to stop anyone who dares to be a villain in this peaceful world!"
To him it sounded like she just had a hero complex which, as he later discovered, she did in fact have. Still, with that childish interest was also a genuine desire to keep her world as strife-free as possible. "Well, you certainly won't get anywhere with this region's police force," he finally replied. The most heroic deeds left to commit in this crime-free region were things like what the girl was doing right now; finding lost pets, cleaning up litter, other odd jobs.
The girl's shoulder's slumped. "Yeah, I know Hoenn's not a good place to be in this line of work, but the other regions don't give officers as much freedom."
"If that's your only issue, I know Unova has been issuing licenses to independent detectives." He wasn't even sure why he'd suggested it, knowing full well he could have simply allowed this bumbling idiot to mess things up in a region where nothing was at stake.
"Really? I'll go over there now, then!" The girl pulled out a Pokeball and held it to the sky and, after a few moments of silence, the Zangoose at her side grumbled.
"You don't have a flying type, do you?" He asked, his disgust giving way to amusement. Perhaps the fact that her presence was a nice breath of fresh air compared to his stoic coworkers was the reason for their association. "They'll issue you one when you sign up, but do you want me to take you there when I finish my business here?"
"That'd be great!" Beaming, she put away the Pokeball. Odd. Normally someone wouldn't be so quick to trust a stranger, even if this stranger wore the guise of a twelve-year-old."But you know..."
"Hmm?"
"How old are you? You don't sound like a kid."
Eventually Smith called off Musharna's memory search, this time only collecting a small amount of the dream smoke before storing both containers away. While he had formed an acquaintanceship, perhaps even a friendship, with this easygoing detective, the man knew not to let it interfere. He had a job to do, and he wasn't going to treat this one any differently.
"I'm going to sleep. Musharna, do not eat my nightmares tonight; I wish to see what exactly the power of Darkrai's 'offspring' is capable of."
The Pokemon cooed lightly in concern, but refrained from trying to keep the nightmares away from its trainer and instead focused on keeping the two girls nightmare-free as instructed. Before long, Smith's image reverted back to that of his twelve-year-old guise as he drifted to an unpleasant sleep.
While most of Unova slumbered, a massive figure flew through the sky towards Victory Road.
Kyurem made its way to the meeting spot quietly, no longer needing instructions from Rosa after having flown there so many times. The legendary dragon had mellowed out considerably after its previous ordeal two years ago. It once would have been outraged at the thought of being controlled by a human, but this particular human had defeated its captors and set it free. She had even bested it in battle and captured it in a Pokeball, leaving it unable to fight the machine's taming effects in its weakened state. Soon, perhaps, it thought. Soon I will have the strength to free myself.
Of course, the ice dragon was beginning to grow accustomed to its mundane life. Perhaps it wouldn't want to escape when the chance arose? I will worry about that when the time comes, the dragon decided.
"Hey, Kyurem, what're you thinking about?" Rosa asked, noticing the dragon's far-off stare. It merely gave a low rumble in response to let her know it was nothing before spotting a decrepit castle.
They landed on the castle ruins' floor heavily, causing the ground to shake and scatter dust. Hopping lightly off of Kyurem, Rosa called out. "Hey, N!"
No answer. Grumbling, Kyurem tucked in its wings and lay on its stomach to wait while Rosa sighed and sat down to lean against the dragon. "This is why he needs an Xtransceiver or a phone or something," she repeated in exasperation. No matter how often the girl pestered him to get one, the man either dodged the question or found something he saw as more important to offer his attention to. She was beginning to think he just didn't know how to use anything more than the most basic technology. "Well, I guess we'll have to wait here until he gets back. It seemed serious, so he'll probably be here sooner than usual."
Seconds passed, then minutes. Rosa must have dozed off somewhere along the way, as when she next looked up, light from the sunrise had found its way through the cracks in the castle's walls and Kyurem had curled up elsewhere to keep its trainer from freezing overnight. With sore muscles from sleeping on the hard floor, she stood up and stretched.
"What in Unova is keeping him so long?"
"Man, I feel great! Have you been training your Musharna or something?" Amy asked between bites of the breakfast she'd just returned from retrieving.
Smith rubbed his forehead with a rather uncharacteristic scowl and narrowed eyes. In wanting to test that power of Annette's, he had managed to wake up at least ten times in a cold sweat, and eventually it took too much effort to stop his Musharna from helping out, so he had finally gotten a full two hours of solid sleep. "Not especially," he answered groggily, making a mental note to never brave those horrors again if he could help it. "Creating dreams from scratch is nearly impossible, but even a newborn Munna can eat them just fine."
"Say, are you not a morning person?" The detective tried—and failed—to keep Zangoose away from her food as she spoke. As far as she could remember, she'd never seen Smith tired before, and scowls like that were a rare sight for that boy.
"I'll be fine in a minute or two," he said, already standing up. "I'm going to the Pokemon Center to make sure your Pokemon are really with Team Plasma. If they escaped somehow or if Ghetsis was lying, then that's where they would go, after all."
"Oh, good idea! But honestly, I still want to go to Lentimas even if the Pokemon aren't being held hostage. There's no way I'm letting them off the hook, especially after that humiliation!" Amy declared, pumping a fist. Zangoose had finished off her breakfast, so she got up and flicked him on the forehead, earning a quiet hiss, and made her way to the window. "Do you have a flying type? This whole trip will be a lot faster with one."
"I do, but it won't be able to carry three people." Amy sighed at this answer before he continued, "You can take the opportunity to train until we reach Mistralton to take a plane. I highly doubt Team Plasma is expecting you to be there quickly if you've lost your travel Pokemon, so they shouldn't get impatient. Also..."
He nodded towards the still-sleeping Annette and Delcatty, both of whom were curled up and peaceful as could be with Musharna hovering over them. "Be sure to wake her up before I return so I can call my Pokemon back."
"Sure," Amy answered, just now realizing that the teen was actually smiling a little. Whatever she was dreaming about, she must've been enjoying it.
"Then I'll be back. See you in a moment," Smith said on his way out. When the door shut behind him, it occurred to the woman that Annette hadn't smiled before, at least not for the short while that she knew her.
"Looks like she's warming up to us, at least!" Amy sat on the edge of the bed and smiled apologetically down at Annette. "I promise not to make a stupid mistake and let them get to you again, kiddo." Not understanding that Zangoose had just grumbled something along the lines of their ages probably not being that far apart, she moved to pat the sleeping girl's forehead.
However, the blonde's sound slumber didn't seem to stop her eyes from snapping open upon contact. Yelping, the awakened girl hurriedly scrambled to sit up while glancing around frantically for some kind of danger. Finding none, she took a deep breath to calm herself.
Amy had pulled away and jumped to her feet in surprise at Annette's reaction, but recovered quickly enough. "Good morning!" she greeted with a smile and a wave. "Did you sleep well?"
Still blinking her wide eyes to shake off any lingering sleepiness, Annette couldn't help but glance briefly up at the Musharna floating above her head. "Y-yeah, actually." It almost seemed too good to be true, that it only took a single dream-eating Pokemon to keep the effects of Darkrai's nightmares away. It doesn't feel right, though. If it was that easy, then wouldn't—
"Great!" Amy unintentionally interrupted the girl's train of thought. "So when Smith gets back, are you up to heading out?"
"Yeah, I suppose." Annette watched Musharna float off towards the corner of the room, its job apparently done. "But where did he go?"
"Just to go see if our Pokemon aren't actually at the Pokemon Center. There's no way we'd go someplace on just the word of some lying criminals without any proof!" Of course, Amy decided not to mention that she would have done exactly that if Smith hadn't brought it up.
"Oh." They both remained silent for a while. "So that was really Ghetsis, wasn't it? I always assumed someone else took over Team Plasma," the teen finally spoke up.
"It's still pretty hard to believe. I mean, Champion Rosa herself announced that he went insane not long after that Kyurem incident two years ago," Amy answered, shaking her head. "But he looked perfectly sane...well, sane enough to be a threat and command that group."
"He knew it was us, but he still let us go." Annette's voice shook. "Why? What does he plan on doing?"
"Hey, it'll be alright! Whatever he's up to, letting us go was his dumb mistake, and we're gonna make him regret it when we get our Pokemon back!"
"Do you think so?" she asked, looking up.
"Of course!" Amy answered with a grin.
After discovering that the girls' Pokemon weren't at the Pokemon Center after all, Smith had the nurse check for their trainer IDs in the database only to find that some Pokemon with their IDs had been healed yesterday at a Center in Lentimas Town. They hadn't looked too closely at the one who brought them, but this was some pretty good evidence to prove that Team Plasma had them.
After leaving, he lifted his wrist to look at his Xtransceiver and began to dial a number, but paused and shook his head. "There's no harm in waiting to tell them." Information regarding the missing ex-Champion was a little too important to go recklessly spilling to someone, he reasoned, even if he happened to work for that someone.
But he also knew Amy and Annette would lose any chance, however slim, that they already had against Team Plasma if his employer managed to get their hands on Hilbert and the Reshiram he no doubt still carried with him. If he waited until after they got their Pokemon back and, by some miracle, actually evaded the traps that were undoubtedly set for them, then at least his detective acquaintance had a chance of slipping away from Team Plasma's interest.
I shouldn't care about that, Smith thought, rubbing his now-aching head. It must be Darkrai's nightmares getting to me. I'll tell my employers about the ex-Champion tomorrow.
Author's Note: Hello again! See? I'm still working on this story, slowly but surely. Not much to say about this chapter except that we finally have some answers about Smith and a bit more of Amy and Annette's pasts, among other things. It's not quite as thoroughly proofread as I'd like it to be, but hopefully any mistakes that slipped past aren't too glaringly obvious or distracting.
As always, enjoy and thanks for reading!