Chapter 2
Things had always been hard for Hombre. But what could he do? Just steal to stay alive. He gazed up at the moonlit warehouse window wondering what things could've been like. That was an odd lapse in his normal thoughts. He usually had to concentrate on the present, because that's what was important. Now, make no mistake; Hombre had become quite the skilled, thieving umbreon. It was just that he barely ever had any good luck. But now that his mind had gone into a pondering, thinking frenzy, he realized one bit of luck. He lived in that warehouse for a long time, with a pile of scraggly blankets spread out for a bed. His makeshift living quarters had the bed positioned directly under the window where the most moonlight could shine through. At midnight on every full moon, he was completely healed of any bodily afflictions.
Hombre felt the hunger that was always looming in his stomach during a late night like this vanish and be replaced with the feeling that he just eaten a very filling meal. The long gash along his back that was left as a parting gift from Regalia sealed itself almost immediately as the moonlight touched it. Hombre felt renewed, but at the same time, he was tired. He'd been out and about all day, and he needed sleep.
Like a birthday, where you are excited when the day is finally here, but sad to know that it won't happen again for a long time, Hombre knew that it would be a while before his next healing session. This one would have to count for a while. But there was no need for worrying like that now. He curled into a ball in the scraggly bed, and drifted off into sleep.
Regalia however, was living with amazing comfort. After a bit of careful planning earlier that day, she knew that nobody was staying in the penthouse suite of the Goldenrod Luxury Comfort Hotel, and that the chansey maid had already cleaned, so wouldn't be in for a while. Then it was a simple matter of acting like a normal guest, slipping away into the bathroom and sneaking into the air vent system. According to her, the vent access was poorly placed. But they couldn't have kept her out anyway, she thought to herself. She had locked the door and for some extra protection used and ice beam attack to freeze it shut from the inside. It was thoroughly sealed and she kept the air conditioning up really high to make sure her barricade didn't melt. She expected to be living here for quite a while, or at least until she got bored or the security lightened up around the Millennium Key. (Author's Notes: I just realized that name is used in the yugioh anime. Sorry to anyone who thought that I was a stupid, blatant, name copier. I just thought it was a cool name... But I don't believe in changing any part of the story after it's already been read or published. So I'm keeping the name. I'm sorry if got anyone angry that I didn't give yugioh credit for the name. And so no, it isn't the Millennium Key from yugioh. It's a mysterious skeleton key.)
Both fugitives woke up the next morning thoroughly rested, and they were ready to start about their usual exploits. Regalia would lounge around whichever hotel room she seemed to be breaking into at the time and formulate plans and theories, facts and figures. Though her career of choice didn't like to show it, she was a very clever sneasel. She was currently was working on something a bit less into thievery, but more into mystery. She was researching the long-gone species known as humans. You could say it was a hobby of hers.
According to her research, humans had been fairly vicious in nature. Generally they weren't very able-bodied, and but they remedied this by inventing various contraptions known as, from what Regalia's research showed, audeemobiles. They even made inventions that allowed them to fly without wings (Regalia couldn't find much on human anatomy, but she was quite sure they didn't have wings). These ingenious creations were called airplanes.
But there was something particularly vicious about humans. They made inventions that were designed to capture pokemon. This was by far the fact that made Regalia glad that they were gone. But why were they gone? Nobody knew for sure. Some thought that it was a comet. Some thought that it was a cease in their primary food source (which was still unknown). Even though there was much speculation, Regalia knew exactly why. Very few pokemon knew why, but she was one of those few. There was no doubt that humans had become extinct because--
"Who's in there? We can hear a television, we know somebody's in there!" The voice of the sweaty ursaring receptionist broke Regalia's train of thought. It looked like her intended lengthy stay wasn't going to work out. She would just escape out of the window and slide down the side of the building.
There was a huge smashing noise. They were trying to break through the icy barrier. Regalia knew they wouldn't be able to. But to her surprise, there was another bang on the door and a few flecks of cold water hit her face. They must have blaziken security guards. One factor she cursed herself for not thinking of. The barrier was weakening, and with a resounding smash, the remaining ice shards flew off the door as it came crashing to the floor.
The ursaring was standing across the hall watching from behind two blazikens. One of the blazikens stepped into the room and approached Regalia.
"Ma'am, I'm afraid you're going to have to come with us." The blaziken who had stepped forward took out a pair of handcuffs. Regalia just stared at the ground for a moment. The blaziken was watching her with a curious expression. But then the sneasel slowly raised her head. Her eyes and claws were glowing a soft blue. The security guards stared at her, dumbstruck.
Suddenly, she lashed out sending icy beams from her claws and freezing the nearest blaziken's legs to the ground. With a squeal of surprise, the ursaring ran down the hallway and out of sight. "Who's next?" Regalia said, trying to sound as menacing as possible. The other blaziken that was still standing in the hall ran into the room and, after throwing a quick glance at his frozen friend, threw a fireball from his open hand. Regalia up and over the fireball as it exploded on the expensive chintz carpet.
Regalia nimbly landed on the attacking blaziken's head, then pushed off and out into the hall. She ran down the hall, taking the odd twist and turn until she found the elevator. She was easily able to outrun the blazikens. But she had to hope that security wasn't able to catch up while she was waiting for the elevator. She pushed the button to call the elevator. She waited impatiently for the elevator, tapping her foot on the floor. Soon she heard footsteps from up the hall. They were accompanied by voices.
"I've called in for backup. You sure you can still run right? That ice looks like it left you awful numb." Apparently, the trapped security guard had managed to melt the ice that fused him to the ground.
"Yeah, I'll be okay. I can't wait to arrest that slippery little criminal..." The other blaziken replied to his friend's concern. "Maybe she's just trying to use the elevator. Come on, this way!" Regalia was beginning to get even more impatient. Suddenly with a "ding" of relief, the doors opened. Inside the elevator were a nidoqueen and her nidoran son. Regalia ran in and skidded to a halt. She watched as the blazikens rounded the corner only to get a glimpse of her as the elevator doors closed.
"Excuse me," Regalia said casually to the nidoqueen. "Are you going up or down?" The nidoqueen looked at her with a look of surprise.
"Of course we're going down." She said. "The penthouses are on the very top floor."
"Not fast enough..." Regalia muttered. The nidoqueen looked at her and opened her mouth as if she was about to speak, but Regalia quashed any hope of her being able to get out any words.
She put her head down to brace herself, then leaped up and burst out of the emergency roof exit on the elevator. She was now on the top of the elevator car, and true to her judgement, it wasn't going very fast. She jumped off the side of the car and spread eagle against the wall so she could slip past the elevator.
After she was past the car, she pushed off of the wall with great effort and grabbed onto the pulley cords. She used those to slide down the elevator shaft much quicker than if she were in the actual elevator itself.
Regalia stopped herself at the lobby and jumped to the doors. They were shut now, but she dug her claws into them and low and behold, they opened to reveal the lobby in all its splendor. She leaped out into the middle of the lobby. Several people gasped, others simply looked up from their continental breakfasts with mild interest. Soon they'd be interested. By this time tomorrow, her face would be all over the news.
She flung herself at the revolving doors, spinning them around twice as fast as they were meant to go, and launched herself out into the street. A car stopped suddenly to keep from running her over. Unfortunately, it was a police car. Its lone occupant, a machop policeman, opened up the door with his gun drawn.
"Excuse me, ma'am," The machop said, using his open door for cover. "You wouldn't happen to be a sneasel by the name of Rega--" He didn't finish his sentence for, in a fit of desperation, Regalia suddenly sprung forward through the car windshield, and drove away down the bright morning street.