Route 4
As soon as Judy's Braviary was out of sight, a disguise-free Smith stepped out from behind a building with a pained expression, a hand rubbing the back of his head. "You'd think Ghetsis would be better at keeping his grunts in check," he hissed under his breath.
Zoroark stepped out after him and gave an apologetic whimper for letting the illusion fade, only for him to wave it off. "Neither of us expected her to suddenly give her Pokemon a command like that. Still, I don't doubt Annette saw something." It was only for a moment, but the flash of confusion in her eyes for the split second she'd seen him was enough for the man to know his cover had been compromised.
This only prompted another whimper from the Illusion Pokemon. "She may very well mistake it for a panic-induced trick of the eyes, and Amy won't believe her if she tries to tell her about it," he assured, pulling out his X-transceiver. Besides, she won't have much longer to tell Amy much of anything. Bringing the device's speaker close, he dialed a number and spoke quietly. "One of your grunts has attacked us and kidnapped the targets, sir. Their destination is still the same, but I would like to speak with you about something in person."
The person on the other end gave no verbal answer to that first statement, aside from a sigh of suppressed irritation. "Meet me in Reversal Mountain, then. You have the means to bring yourself there quickly, yes?"
"Now that I'm alone, yes." Already he was pulling out a Pokeball to send out his third and final Pokemon, Skarmory. "I will be there as soon as possible, sir." Once the X-transceiver was turned off and Skarmory was out, Zoroark tiredly made to climb on the Steel-type's back when, to its surprise, Smith also pulled out its own Pokeball.
"You'll need to be recovered before we see those two again, so you'll be resting until then. It won't hurt to bring you to a Pokemon Center on the way, either." Relief and gratitude crossed Zoroark's face as it was called back into its Pokeball. Skarmory seemed content to have one less passenger as well, as it eagerly flexed its wings in preparation to take Smith wherever he needed to go.
Once he was safely on his Pokemon's back, Smith shook his head. "This would have been so much simpler if that girl had just run away from Amy that first day like I thought she would..."
Despite the fact that flying was much faster than walking, the sun was already beginning to set by the time Braviary hovered over Lentimas Town, and even Amy had quieted down. The bird Pokemon made a face at the mild sandstorm he would have to fly down into, but began to lower himself nonetheless.
"Hey, it's safe to let go now," Judy informed, eager for the blonde to stop squeezing her abdomen for dear life.
"Oh, it is? Okay, then, I'll..." Annette had begun to loosen her grip and hesitantly opened her eyes, but snapped them shut right away and held on tighter than before upon seeing that they were still twice her own height above ground, although they were gradually descending. "N-no it's not!"
"Urk..." Flinching from the bear-hug, the Plasma Grunt looked down. "Look, it's fine! Braviary, drop that other girl and show her it's safe."
Amy, who had been hanging there limply with a malcontent frown on her face, glared up. "Hey! Don't just tell it to drop me like tha—!" Upon feeling Braviary's talons loosen, she immediately closed her lips tight in favor of focusing on a safe landing instead. Rolling once to soften the impact, the detective landed safely on her feet and brushed herself off before holding her arms up to catch Annette, who she was almost certain the criminal would simply shove off of the Pokemon's back.
"I'll give you a nine for the landing. I thought for sure you'd fall on your face!" When Braviary's feet were on the ground and his wings were folded, Judy glanced back. "We're on the ground now. Can't get much safer than that."
Amy crossed her arms. "What's with the difference in treatment?"
"Well, she's not the one that put me in a hold and interrogated me," Judy replied, sticking her tongue out. Too shaky from the flight to worry about Amy and the Plasma Grunt's exchange, Annette wordlessly climbed down and breathed a sigh of relief when her feet were safely on the ground. Of course, she quickly sucked in a breath of air upon realizing what kind of situation they were in. We're about to walk into a trap! This is no time to be relieved!
"Hey, so you promise that thing you find will cure Alfred?" Judy asked, having taken to ignoring Amy.
"Yes, and Team Plasma shouldn't have any trouble getting it. I only need to use it once, so I plan on leaving it behind afterward," Annette answered, glancing briefly to her detective companion as if to say she'd explain what exactly "it" was later.
"I'm going to have to take your word for it. You'd better not be lying!" With that, Judy patted Braviary's back and had him fly her away.
"I can't believe we just made a deal with the likes of them," Amy commented, rubbing her bruised stomach now that the one who caused the small injury wasn't there to receive the satisfaction of knowing it still hurt. "Are you alright, though? We should probably rest at a Pokemon Center tonight."
Having half-expected the detective to want to go straight to their destination, Annette secretly thanked her lucky stars that Amy learned something from their last failed excursion. With a nod, she answered, "I think I'll be okay after we get treated. Nothing's broken, at least."
"Haaah, thank goodness!" Resting her head against one of the town's clay buildings, Amy slumped her shoulders. "I shouldn't have put it past them to attack at a time like that."
"It doesn't seem like she was supposed to do that, though. It was more like she was just acting in the spur of the moment," the teen said, thinking back to how the Plasma Grunt seemed to care more about curing her coworker than capturing her and Amy on the spot.
"Yeah. Even so, they won't take us by surprise again!" With effortlessly-renewed determination, the woman pulled out her Town Map and began searching for the Pokemon Center when Annette walked a few paces ahead.
"I know the way by heart," she explained, glancing back. "After all, I've been to all of the Pokemon Centers in Unova at least once by now."
"What, all of them?! Just how often did you leave town?"
Annette thought about it for a moment, mostly just remembering that time as a blur of hiding in the spare rooms, helping out the nurses on busy days, and getting discreetly smuggled from town to town with their help. "It really depended on how uneasy I felt at the time, but...I think the longest I stayed anywhere in Unova at a time was...almost two weeks. I would've left sooner, but I didn't think Team Plasma knew about me at the time." She spoke in a hushed voice, just in case there were any passerby.
"Sounds like you really kept them on their toes, then." Even while doing odd jobs, Amy tended to stay in each city for at least a month, and there were always some rooms available at the Unova Police Force's HQ for employees, so she always technically had a place to call home despite being so far from Hoenn.
"It wasn't the best way of living, but it was better than getting caught," she replied as they reached the Pokemon Center.
When the nurse at the counter's pleasant smile shifted to an accusatory glare at Amy upon seeing Annette's scrapes and bruises, the detective knew then and there that she wasn't making friends with her companion's former caretakers. "Hello, ma'am. Could we maybe stay the night?"
A few seconds of silence later, Annette spoke up. "I-I know what it looks like, but these weren't her fault! We just had some trouble with some wild Pokemon."
"I'll take your word for it," the nurse finally answered, rummaging through a desk before pulling out a key and handing it to the girl. "Are you sure you'll be alright with..." She glanced briefly to Amy with disapproval. "...that person taking care of you?"
Do all of these nurses know about me guarding Annette now? Amy crossed her arms. It's like they think I can't keep her safe from... Trailing off in her thoughts upon remembering who let things go wrong in the first place, her crossed arms tightened and she lowered her eyes. Maybe they're right, too.
Once she was finished speaking with the woman, it didn't take long for Annette to notice Amy's uncharacteristic lack of confidence. "She said we can get our injuries checked as soon as we're settled into the room," the blonde offered, trying to see if getting the detective's mind off whatever it was she was thinking about would help at all.
"Oh, sure." Shaking her head as if to clear it, Amy followed the girl to their room and was surprised to see that it looked more like a bedroom(albeit a very simple one) than a hospital room like the kind trainers and Pokemon got to stay in.
"I normally use a room like this," Annette explained, walking inside and taking a seat on the bed. "They're supposed to be for workers that have to stay late, but most Centers have extra rooms and even when they don't, I would just work overnight and sleep in the daytime when nobody uses them."
That seemed to break Amy out of her slight bit of gloom, as she now gave her a baffled look. "You mean you would just become nocturnal at the drop of a hat?"
"My sleeping patterns aren't very reliable...and what about you? No matter what kind of situation we've been in, you've never seemed to have any trouble waking up at ungodly hours," she pointed out.
"Because it's impossible to be tired when you have enough passion!" Amy proclaimed proudly.
Annette sweatdropped, still failing to understand how the detective was able to say things like that so matter-of-factly and with a straight face. "Oh! But are you going to be alright without Smith? You know, with that license restriction." She knew there was something else she was forgetting to mention, but couldn't for the life of her remember exactly what it was.
The young woman paled a bit. "Oh, that...It'll be fine! I just need to, er, avoid my colleagues—"
"—you mean hide from the police—"
"—until he catches up. In the end, it's all for the greater good! Besides, we'll be in disguise tomorrow anyways."
Opting not to comment on Amy's justification, Annette let Delcatty out and got up to grab a Potion from one of the desks. "Speaking of tomorrow, do you have a plan?"
"Of course! We'll just get our Pokemon and leave." Amy called out her uninjured Zangoose and took a seat on the bed.
"I really don't think it'll work that way..." she said, spraying the Potion on Delcatty's wounds until it was empty before petting him.
"Then...how about we sneak around the place, then knock out and frisk any grunts we see before they notice us?"
"Better, but I don't think that will work so well if they're expecting us."
"Huh. Well, that grunt mentioned something about them waiting for a signal when we find whatever it was we were supposed to find. Maybe we could time it really well and...what are we even supposed to be looking for?"
Annette paused in her petting and looked down. "That's...well, you know Ghetsis mentioned Cresselia."
"Yeah, but I don't know much about legendary Pokemon stories outside of Hoenn and Unova."
"Well, what he told us to find is a Lunar Wing: one of her feathers. Cresselia is a Pokemon known for putting troubled minds at ease and...curing nightmares that Darkrai caused. In theory, just holding one of her feathers close for long enough can cure a person completely, and keeping it around even wards off ordinary nightmares."
"Oh...oh! So that's why you seemed so interested," Amy reasoned.
Giving a slight nod, Annette continued. "If I can use it to undo what Team Galactic did to me, then Team Plasma might lose interest with enough effort. Rather than trying to repeat all those operations on me, they would rather start from scratch on someone who's less likely to run off. Not to mention I could finally risk letting my guard down while I sleep without risking my mental well-being..."
I wonder why they'd send us to find something that could make her less helpful to them, the detective thought to herself. She thought of voicing it out loud, but a knock on the door interrupted.
"If you're both ready, I can check your injuries," the nurse's voice from before sounded.
"Oh, okay! Thank you." Annette got up and let her in.
After a quick check on both girls, the nurse gave a sigh. "Luckily it's nothing serious. You both have scrapes and bruises, but those should heal in a few days. But you know," she began, casting a skeptical glance at Amy. "For someone's who's used to working with Pokemon, Annette seems to have taken a lot more of a beating from those 'wild Pokemon' than you. It's a miracle her shoulder wasn't dislocated, considering the force it appears to have been hit with."
"P-Penelope!" Annette interjected.
"Pardon me, I was just thinking aloud." The nurse headed for the door and glanced back one last time at the blonde. "But if there's anything you need from us, you should know we're always willing to listen."
"I know. Thank you for that, but I'm really alright," the girl responded, watching the nurse leave. When she saw that Amy was once again starting to get a guilty look on her face, she spoke up. "Sorry about that. It may not seem like it most of the time, but a lot of nurses can be intimidating when they want to be. She doesn't have any grudges against you or anything."
Amy quickly replaced her expression with a wry smile. "You're right about that 'intimidating' part. Say...are you sure you don't want to stay here instead of running around with me? You're a lot safer in the Pokemon Center, and I promise I'll get your Pokemon and the Lunar Wing."
"No!" Annette responded, a bit louder than intended. "No. It was terrifying...you know? Being alone, not knowing when I'd ever be able to go outside safely, not being able to do anything about it...in a way, I wasn't even free. So...please don't tell me to go back to that."
Zangoose and Amy shared a glance. They hadn't really paid attention until now, but the blonde was starting to act less skittish. She even talked more often. Maybe I'm really not just making things worse, the detective thought, her expression softening. "Alright."
The following silence was quickly broken by Amy again. "Well, it's getting late! We should probably get some sleep."
"About that..."
"Oh, right, the nightmares!" After giving it a moment of thought, Amy glanced up. "You seem alright, though, and one night can't do that much harm."
"That's because I know how to handle them! Mostly..." She shook her head. "But it won't be the same for you."
"Then why not take turns? You sleep first while I try to make a plan for tomorrow and maybe even train a little, then I'll just sleep later while you help the nurses out. That works, right?"
The lack of an immediate rejection told Amy that Annette was considering the idea, and sure enough, the teen nodded after a bit of thought. "That should be fine. It gives us a little more time to get ready, too."
"There we go, then!" Amy lifted Zangoose off the bed, eliciting a snarl from the Pokemon who had been more than ready to doze off sooner rather than later. "Are you going to call your Delcatty back?"
"I gave up trying to do that a while ago. Loki always insists on staying out as often as he can no matter what," Annette said with a glance at the cat Pokemon.
"Because I'm loyal enough to share my trainer's pain," he meowed, lifting his head proudly while Zangoose just rolled his eyes and gave a quiet hiss.
Once Annette had tucked herself in, she said a quick "good night" before closing her eyes, her Delcatty following shortly afterward.
"So," Amy began, keeping her voice as low as possible while she spoke to Zangoose. "How ready do you feel for this?"
The cat-ferret wore a confident grin and unsheathed his claws in response, seemingly unperturbed by that near-loss in his last fight wit the Sandiles. In his mind, that was still Delcatty's fault anyhow.
"That's what I like to hear," the detective replied, flashing her fluffy partner a peace sign. But that doesn't mean we can't take this seriously, she reminded herself. Last time was just dumb luck. If things go wrong tomorrow, that might be the end of it.
With a light sigh, Amy made her way over to the desk and slumped down in the chair, letting her head fall back to look at the ceiling. We won't make it without a plan, she mused. But how are we supposed to plan when we still don't know what they'll do? She continued to ponder the situation, her thoughts drifting more and more often as moments passed while Zangoose looked onward in confusion and slight concern at his normally happy-go-lucky trainer's demeanor.
Neither she nor Zangoose noticed that the room gradually became darker, and the air heavier.
Author's Note: This wasn't necessarily meant to be a cliffhanger at first, but this was the best point to split up what would've been a very long and messy chapter 11. A bit of calm before the storm, if this counts as calm and if another run-in with the baddies is enough to be considered a storm. That, and trying to make a 7-9k chapter would have taken far too long. When it's in smaller chunks, it's a bit easier to work on faster.
As always, thank you for reading!