Chapter 2: A New Signal
Team Plasma were like the patrat in Burgh's attic; they refused to stay away long enough for him to gain his sanity back.
Almost two years ago, Burgh had taken a sabbatical to fight Team Plasma in place of the useless law enforcement. Burgh's sphere of justice as a gym leader was limited to large conflicts involving Pokémon. Rampaging Haxorus, a disturbed tomb full of cofagrigus, pidove with hangnails; the pile of work was endless. Law enforcement, on the other hand, was meant for human crime, organization, and good ole' tax evasion, among other things. While Burgh had authority here too, he shouldn't have to pick up so much slack in their place.
Unfortunately, officials neglected to handle the crimes committed by Plasma due to them calling themselves a 'political group' and hiding enough of their abuse to evade a court appearance. Whenever Burgh heard a news anchor refer to the court system as a 'justice' system, he took a shot from his finest whiskey to make the pain go away.
And now they were back, according to word of mouth and the disappearance of a few beloved house Pokémon in the area.
It all started when an old woman came to Burgh over her missing Yamper. Normally, Burgh would've pointed her to something built for petty crime, but a few details caught his attention. The Yamper was an import from Galar; not at all native to Unova and rather expensive to bring over due to it being a designer pre-evolution to the even more expensive boltund, a racing dog. The leash she brought was also cut, not chewed. Now, petty thieves were the most plausible explanation for Yamper's disappearance, but there was one more detail that unnerved Burgh. The chip installed in his neck last logged its signal from Castelia's sewers, an old hideout of Team Plasma's.
It didn't mean that they were back, but it sure kept him from sleeping well the next few nights. He cut his losses on the third night and attempted to track the signal around 1:00 am but had little success. He wasn't tech savvy. All he could glean was that around the same location, something else was sending up another signal, a machine of sorts.
On day four, he contacted authorities and tried to have them take up the case. Bureaucracy being bureaucracy told him they'd be able to start in about two years.
Day five, Burgh turned to a few local dive bars and bugged their patrons for information until one name came up: Homura Nakamura. According to the young man, she was skilled with data analysis of signals and systems and helped track down quite a few missing Pokémon herself. Not to mention, she was away from authorities.
On day six, he found himself wandering down a grubby alley in the low-income district of Castelia, looking for apartment 307B. Apparently Ms. Nakamura was running a 'business' out of it like a black-market IT department. Burgh realized he was taking a huge risk employing a shady IT girl for his dirty work, but he wasn't afraid to color outside of the legal box on special occasions.
He wasn't a fan of the alley, however. A pungent odor of wet garbage, rattata droppings, pidove feathers, and the faint smell of carrion threatened to faint Burgh in the first few seconds. The alley was uncomfortably narrow, and the stacks of garbage bags didn't help. That said, a few residents enjoyed themselves here. Burgh's presence scared off a stray poochyena that was violently shaking a trubbish and sent a grimer back to the sewer via oozing through a manhole cover. The doors slowly counted up to 307B and Burgh prayed its residents did something about the smell because his vision was starting to swim.
His heart leapt when he found it. Right across from a sleeping munchlax was the pidove poop-covered doorstep of a tiny ground floor apartment tucked away in the low-income parts of Castelia. He raised his fist and knocked on the metal door.
After a moment of silence, the crooked knob turned.
If Burgh weren't standing on this girl's doorstep, he would've thought she was homeless. Sweats, a flannel, and a faded t-shirt all years past their expiration date, coupled with the same listless expression he often saw in alcoholics during a wellness check made Homura Nakamura the living embodiment of depression. Her black hair hung in her eyes, obscuring the deep bags. However, behind all that grunge were two sharp eyes alive with cold intelligence. Homeless or not, he felt he should tread carefully.
"Yeah?" She asked in a flat tone. She leaned on the door frame with her hands in her pockets.
"Are you Homura Nakamura?" Burgh asked.
"Sadly. What are you doing around here, leader Burgh?" She asked, gesturing to his loud, pinstripe suit. Maybe a casual look would've been more appropriate here, he wondered.
Burgh cleared his throat. "I'm a freelance detective in my free time. I'm doing a private investigation and a local mentioned you're skilled with signal tracking?" He watched her eyes shift slightly at the word 'detective'. Her posture remained collected, but her eyes showed a little more thought.
"I'm skilled with a lot of things." She said.
Burgh awkwardly waited for her to continue but she just left him in painful silence. Finally, Burgh filled it. "Would you assist me in tracking a lost Yamper? I'm afraid the chip was destroyed days ago and the area it last appeared in has some…interference."
"You want me to find your lost puppy?" She teased.
"When you put it like that-" Burgh started.
Homura turned around and waved him inside.
Burgh stepped inside but moved no further; not for any personal reasons, it was literally impossible.
Every surface was infested with paper or the guts of some long-forgotten tech project. The only clear areas were the space in front of the couch (no doubt a fold-out) and just enough counter space for one to unwrap a convenience store donut. The apartment was already barely big enough for human life, it did not need clutter on top of that.
Homura had no issue navigating. She slipped between the precarious stacks of paper and plastic cases without looking and jumped into an office chair at the far end. Burgh tried, and immediately elbowed a pile of papers over.
"Careful with those long limbs of yours, bud, there's some important garbage in those stacks. Maybe." Burgh didn't notice a second girl draped over the couch. She had a mass of brown hair barely tamed by a hair tie and a thin, elfish face that reminded Burgh of a ninetails. A lump of jagged black and white fur rested on her chest while she rested her phone on it. She hadn't even looked up at him to make that comment and just scrolled away on her phone.
"Sorry, but don't you think it's a bit crowded in here?" Burgh said.
The girl pointed at Homura, who was already immersed in one of three monitors. "Ask that one, my belongings are here only." She gestured to the whole couch.
Burgh felt his foot go through a mountain of crunchy paper. It appeared he stepped in a wastebin he never noticed under the pile of crap. He tried to shake it off, but whatever was inside had a death grip on his boot. He hopped on one leg, then crashed into a stack of old tech, sending the tower to floor in an obnoxious avalanche.
"How do you two function in here? It's pure chaos!" He whined.
Homura spun in her office chair and looked around. "We have a system. That's the dirty laundry pile and that's the clean one." She said, pointing at two peaks in the pile of clothes in the corner.
"Wait, I thought that was the dirty one." Couch girl said pointing to the other.
"I think it's all dirty." Burgh said. The wastebasket came loose and bounced off the floor, spilling its contents.
"I was wondering where that garbage can went." Homura mused. She turned back around to the computer.
Burgh finally completed his journey across the room. The whole corner looked like the lair of a spy with a three-monitor set-up, several PCs below the desk that heated the room, another laptop off to the side, and then shelves upon shelves of odd devices all threatening to blow-out the daisy-chained power strips supporting them all. It was all very utilitarian with no posters or desk ornaments to give it a personal touch. Burgh got the feeling this girl had no appreciation for aesthetics, based on her house and clothes.
Burgh produced a flash drive from his pocket. "Now, this flash drive contains the original signal of a chip for a yamper, and all the data I-" Homura plucked the drive out of his hand and plugged it into the laptop. Burgh frowned. "I wasn't finished."
"I think you were; the rest of these files look like the product of a vigoroth and a type-writer." She opened all of them, glanced at each of them, and then closed all her windows. "Good news is, you somehow managed to avoid any viruses, so we can get started a lot sooner. You'd be surprised how many laptops I go through because someone tried to put a porygon on a flash drive and steal my account and routing numbers."
"People can do that?" Burgh asked.
"An idiot can do a lot with one computer. You certainly did, though most of it was useless." Homura said. She picked a toothpick off the desk and put it in her mouth.
"The backhanded comments aren't appreciated." Burgh said.
"They weren't meant to be." Homura transferred the flash drive to one of the PCs and started opening a few complicated-looking programs. The PC sounded like a jet trying to take off now and the room temperature rose a few degrees.
After a minute, she pulled up a map of Castelia, which had a little red marker right over the sewers.
"That's where Yamper's chip last gave off a signal. Unfortunately, I'm familiar with that place." Burgh groused.
"A sewer? I'm not surprised." Homura said.
"Yes, I was there a few years ago for- wait hey!"
The corner of Homura's mouth lifted for a second. "Continue."
Burgh sighed. "Anyways, it used to be a hideout for the infamous Team Plasma, assuming you were old enough to remember them." Burgh shot back.
Homura's hands froze on the keyboard. Then, she ejected the drive and handed it back to Burgh. "Find yourself another idiot."
Burgh refused the drive. "I'm as worried about them as you are, I wasted months busting their labs, but if they're coming back someone needs to be there to stop them. And if my instincts are correct, there are already Pokémon in danger."
"I'm not a hero, I'm one girl with a few nice computers, I want no part in your war." She pressed the drive into Burgh's palm.
"I'm not asking you to participate in it, I just want to confirm my suspicions…it's been keeping me up for days at this point."
"No, you don't." Homura spat. She left her chair and made her way to the door with Burgh following. Couch girl dropped her phone and watched them approach.
"Please, this is important, I'll pay two months' rent if that's what it takes." Burgh begged. "Three?"
Homura ignored him. The other got up and intercepted her with a hand on Homura's shoulder. The little black and white Pokémon scuttled off into the wastebasket.
"Hold up, if Plasma's involved, you might not have a choice, Homura." Couch girl said between her teeth. She stared Homura down. Homura kept her eyes on the floor. Eventually, she brushed the girl's hand off and they had a silent exchange. Whatever it was, Burgh knew better than to pry.
"Fine." Homura said. "You get what you want." She sneered at Burgh. Homura walked back to her computer and Burgh looked to the girl for an explanation, but she only shook her head and gestured with her hands don't.
They looked around the room for an awkward moment while Burgh gave the grouchy computer girl some space. Finally, the girl cleared her throat. "I'm Kiki, Homura's, uh, roommate."
"Pet." Homura corrected.
Kiki shot her a withering look. "Yeah."
Burgh held out a hand. "I'm-"
"We know." Kiki walked over to Homura, leaving Burgh hanging.
Kiki set her hands on the back of Homura's chair, and everyone trained their eyes on the largest monitor, which displayed the map of Castelia again, except this time, she had multiple markers on the same location.
"It's a live map of the same location, I have a lot of these 'detectors' around the city. If I roll back the history on my closest device," She dragged a progress bar backwards, "there's hell of a lot of stolen Pokémon here."
The whole section was crowded with angry red dots, appearing and reappearing as the time lapse rolled forward again. Burgh's mouth felt dry.
"Could be some bug out for petty thieves, I can always ask a few questions before we jump to conclusions." Kiki chimed in.
"Maybe, but I've never met petty thieves this prolific." Homura gestured at the screen and let her hand flop back into her lap. She looked up at Burgh. "Unfortunately, this looks organized."
Burgh watched the dots slide into the location before being snuffed out. Given that the chips are directly implanted, Burgh decided not to dwell on how they shut the signal down. "I'll head down there, there's more than enough reason to investigate at this point." Burgh stood to his full height.
"Not so fast, there's more info here then pet signals, look." Homura pulled up another window, this time displaying a wavey line against a plot. "This sine wave is incredibly unique, it doesn't match any frequency given off by certain types of Pokémon, but it's definitely coming from one. I wouldn't go there without your best team. Even then…" She trailed off. Homura slid a hand on the back of her neck. "Just be careful."
"Are you suggesting Plasma has man-made Pokémon?" Burgh questioned.
Homura stood up, closed the programs, and ejected the flash drive before pocketing it. "That's what the data suggests. It's not from the porygon line either."
"Terrifying." Kiki remarked with a much more casual tone. Burgh hadn't noticed she was entertaining herself with a piece of lint and the little Pokémon at her feet. It looked like a zigzagoon, but black and white with pink eyes. It rolled around, chasing the fuzz Kiki dragged around with her toe.
"It is terrifying." Burgh muttered. When he busted Plasma's labs, he remembered a few possessing fossils and re-awakening equipment retrofitted with all kinds of tech he didn't recognize. Nothing ever came of it, but if Plasma had a few years to tinker unnoticed, Burgh shuddered to think of what they cooked up.
"Kiki, let Nathans know were heading over with a signal for him to process. I wanna rule-out any other Pokémon or signal sources before we get ourselves worked up. If it is what I think it is, then maybe we can get a little intel before you go charging in." Homura said.
"Am I included in this trip?" Burgh asked.
"It's your project, not mine. Go right ahead." Homura sauntered off to the front door. Kiki scooped up the zigzagoon and set him on her shoulder. Its tongue flopped out like a boltund's, and it watched Burgh from Kiki's shoulder as he followed behind.
Homura was way ahead of them by the time Burgh and Kiki exited. Kiki had stopped to grab a tan jacket since night had fallen and the city cooled off a fair amount since Burgh visited earlier that evening. She locked the door on the way out and Burgh attempted some small talk.
"So, who's this?" He asked, reaching a finger towards to the zigzagoon. It snapped at his finger, catching the tip and drawing blood.
Kiki laughed. "That's my partner, Oslo. I picked him up on a stint in Galar, these things are everywhere there, including in my bag." She scratched under his chin, and he leaned into it.
"And under my skin." Burgh wiped the blood off with a spare tissue. "Seems like your well-travelled, visiting Galar and all."
They started down the alley. Kiki shrugged. "Born in Saffron, done work in Galar, Johto, and Sinnoh. Work took me a lot of places. I didn't settle in Unova until I met that bastard." She jutted her chin at Homura, who was a few yards ahead at this point.
"I'm surprised you're friends with such an acidic girl." Burgh remarked. He watched a few rattata skitter into a trash bag. Then the trash bag got up and walked.
Kiki smiled. "I'm more of a stray purrloin she keeps feeding. And yeah, she's an asshole alright but I've never met a bigger try-hard. Once she decides she wants something, she'll move a continent aside if it's sitting on it. I respect that."
"How did you meet?" Burgh pressed. He couldn't suppress his curiosity about these two girls that happen to deal with advance technology in a shoddy apartment.
Kiki's smile dropped. "Same as everyone else knows her; a business deal."
"Are you close?" He asked.
"Geez, so many personal questions, are you a therapist or some shit?" Kiki groused.
Burgh shrugged. "I've never met you two until today and now I've spent a fair amount of time in your home. I deserve a few basic facts about my wonderful hosts."
"Nice sarcasm bean-pole." Kiki teased. "I wouldn't say were close. We live together and I've admittedly seen her naked, but she lets nothing slip. Her lips are tighter than a virgin's pussy, I can't tell you where she's from, who her family is, or what goes through her head at any given time. I can't even read that girl's face."
"A bit of a vulgar comparison." Burgh remarked. He looked ahead at Homura, who hadn't slowed down for them at all. He supposed she liked her solitude, which Burgh understood completely, being a firm introvert himself. Still, he had his confidants and still functioned like a human in public. Homura just didn't. There wasn't a single new expression the whole time they talked. Not one. Between that and her vague comments regarding Plasma, Burgh was curious what went on in her inner universe. He doubted he would ever find those answers of course. Once he got his information, that would probably be the end of their interactions. They were younger than him by almost a decade and a 36-year-old man hanging out with a couple of 20 somethings was bound to get him a few glances.
"How about you? You're the Castelia gym leader, I doubt your life is all that dull." Kiki asked.
"I'm glad you asked. Well, I've been through Kalos, Hoenn, and the whole Kanto-Johto conglomerate myself to study foreign bug Pokémon. They're wonderful sources of inspiration." He said.
"Yeah, I'm familiar with your stuff, tons of bug Pokémon. I'll give you one thing, you make 'em look a lot cuter than they are in real-life." Kiki said. Oslo shuddered on her shoulder.
"I just paint what I see and to me, they're adorable. And beautiful, and generally a joy to be around." Burgh explained. He'd been obsessed with bugs ever since he was a kid, spending long days outside with a net near Pinwheel Forest and trying his best to draw them. They were terrible drawings, but Burgh still kept a few around in boxes for a hint of nostalgia every once in a while.
"Well, keep 'em away from me, I hate the way those bastards move. I like my dark-types and they don't like bugs either." Kiki said. Oslo turned to Burgh and blew him a raspberry, something he didn't know zigzagoon were even capable of. Maybe regional variants were special.
"Rude." Burgh said. "A dark-type specialist?"
"Always have been. Homura is a beast with steel and electric. I've never understood that either, but I guess that's the whole idea behind specializing. Different strokes for different blokes." Kiki said.
The two continued talking for a bit, discussing their respective specialties. Eventually, Kiki reached an arm across Burgh and stopped him in his tracks. They had left the alley a while ago and travelled a few blocks before finding themselves at the stone steps of another apartment complex. Homura waited for them to catch up.
"I gather this is your friend's place?" Burgh said. The complex was no fancier than Kiki and Homura's shoebox in the alley with water-stained brick, a rusted fire escape, and more surfaces dyed white by pidove. Outside, a few rattata played tug-of-war with a trubbish over a coveted banana peel. Burgh hoped he could get a shower after milling around this place for so long; trash bags out numbered trash cans 3 to 1 in this area.
"Acquaintance." Homura corrected. She walked in the front door and Burgh and Kiki followed. They zipped past an empty front desk, acknowledged the 'out of order' sign on the elevator, and made their way through several flights of narrow staircases. Finally, they stopped at a unit whose plate had fallen off long ago.
Homura knocked aggressively. They waited a few moments. There was no response, so Homura tried a phone call. No response again. Homura ended the call with a growl.
"He's got his headphones in, let me try my way." Kiki said with a smile. She rolled down her sleeves over her knuckles and shoved them over the knob. Burgh heard something metallic click in the lock and soon enough, a solid thunk told him she managed to unlock it. "You saw nothing." Kiki said before opening the door.
Burgh groaned the minute he stepped inside. This was Homura's apartment on steroids.
Towers of VCR players, old gaming systems, and other odd devices lines the walls, interspersed with stacks of CDs and movies with Kanto and Johto labels. The lanes he could travel through were even more narrow. If there were a fire in here, they'd all die.
Burgh saved a DVD tower from falling as he walked past. "Is everyone in this district a hoarder?"
"Everyone here has a small apartment, not a nice big suburban box." Kiki said flatly. Burgh kept his comments to himself after that.
The whole place was stuffy, and he was started to sweat through his suit. Finally, they reached the end after a slow, careful pace.
The rest of the apartment was a corner converted into a bedroom. A twin bed sat in the corner, piled high with stuffed Pokémon dolls and the walls were papered with posters of various anime franchises from Kanto and cutesy fast-food style Pokémon art pieces Burgh loathed. He never cared for 'anime' art when he knew half the time, the 'artist' was painting with one hand.
The most notable creature here was not any of the dolls, however. In an equally massive PC set-up sat a large boy. His too-small red shirt and pale skin made him look like a Pokeball. He had the body of a soft-serve ice cream cone and an ill-fitted haircut of straight blond hair that came down to his chin. Well, his first chin.
The PC screen displayed a girl and a text box that the boy clicked through rapidly until Homura turned his monitor off.
He blinked a for a second to process what just happened, took off his headphones, then finally looked around the room at his three new guests. His face reminded Burgh of an egg with a tiny pair of black eyes shrunken by his thick glasses.
He gazed around at them with an open mouth. "Uh, sorry I lost track of time, Homura. What's-" His eyes fell on Burgh. "Leader Burgh!" He exclaimed.
"Yeah, he's been following me around all evening." Homura said. "He's looking for his lost puppy, think you can look into a weird signal for me?" She jutted the flash drive at him. Nathans hadn't noticed it yet.
"I'm sorry my place isn't the greatest, I didn't know I'd have Castelia's gym leader here." He stammered out, frantically looking around at the mess. Homura rolled her eyes.
"It's quite fine." Burgh said with a smile. "All that matters is if you can help me or not in my investigation."
"I'll see what I can do." He finally noticed the flash drive in Homura's hand and plucked it gingerly, then plugged it into a PC with a purrloin warming itself on top.
Oslo jumped off Kiki's shoulder and made his way to the floor from stack to stack all to bother the purrloin. He used its back as a springboard, blew a raspberry at it, and ran away with the hissing purrloin on his tail.
What a little terror.
Burgh made his way to the PC set-up and bent down for a good look. Nathans had pulled up an editor window and all the same windows as Homura had when she was looking at the flash drive.
Homura tapped the window containing the sine wave. "That right there. I don't have the time to analyze it so if you could import that data and plot it, that would be super helpful. Use polyfit to find a function and report back whether or not it matches what's given off by a porygon or whatever. I don't think it does, but we've got to rule out everything else before we start dipping into the realm of sci-fi. If you don't recognize it, can you develop a program to take-down these things?"
Nathans started rapidly typing in the editor window, though the only commands Burgh recognized were 'load' and 'plot'. "Easy enough, you're really that busy?" He asked.
Homura pursed her lips, then looked to Burgh. "Potentially, I may be getting back into field work real soon."
Burgh felt a chill run-up his spine. If Homura was implying she'd need to back-up a gym leader, Burgh didn't want to know what Plasma could possibly have in store. She knew something he didn't. The image of those fossils flashed through Burgh's mind. They were particularly notable since they looked like bugs with wide, flat heads, and large eye sockets in their thick exoskeletons, built for battle more than most prehistoric bug Pokémon usually were. He was never a fan of bugs like scizor and vikavolt for that reason; too aggressive and man-made for him.
"I don't know if I can give you a program without an actual specimen." Nathans said. He started chewing his nails. "Make yourselves at home, this'll be about thirty minutes."
Homura folded her arms and sighed, clearly not happy she was stuck waiting, but Kiki took right to it and flicked on a crappy TV in the corner. The picture took a moment to gain color and a Castelia exhibition match came into focus. Burgh actually recognized the trainers on screen; Brawly, a fellow leader from the Hoenn region and Case Cattral, one of Burgh's least favorite Castelia athletes. Her barbaric behavior turned Burgh away after she picked a fist-fight with an opponent one year after her debut and her fighting style was completely reliant on recoil damage and all-out offense.
Kiki apparently thought differently. She whistled. "I'm glad they put the cameras behind her." She joked, watching the screen with a stupid grin as Cattral's Infernape landed a right-hook into Hariyama. Cattral herself had her hands on her knees while barking orders and her rear was pointed at the back-cam.
Homura looked pale. "You're gross. Cattral is a corporate sellout for Vesper, and they only keep her around because she picks fights for their tabloids. It's not even limited to tournaments, she's been tossed out of bars, locker rooms, and other arenas for fighting, not exactly a sweet and loving person. Not to mention, she's proof that trainers look like their Pokémon." Homura snapped.
Burgh nodded at Homura's words, but Kiki argued back. "Yeah, yeah, she's a sellout, but I don't give a shit, she's butch, I like that!"
"And an asshole." Homura spat.
"So are you." Kiki said. "And shut up, you lean that way too."
Homura pantomimed zipping her mouth shut.
Burgh cut in, "I'm afraid I have to side with Ms. Nakamura on this matter, Cattral puts sportsmanship to shame; no gym trainer of mine would ever be allowed to act that way." he smirked at Kiki. "And she does look like her Infernape, but I guess simian body-types are just your taste." He jabbed. Cattral had a muscular build with a long torso, long arms, and short legs like her Pokémon, as well as a face reminiscent of a predatory bird-Pokémon. The undercut with a top knot for her black hair was just the cherry on top.
"C'mon guys, this is just sports." Nathans whined.
Kiki smirked back "What's wrong with lookin' like your Pokémon? You pull it off pretty well buddy."
"Excuse me, I train bug Pokémon!" Burgh was offended. Kiki certainly had a pair of balls, considering she just openly insulted a gym leader and admitted to her homosexual leanings. Burgh didn't personally object to such predilections; he had a few himself, but the public wasn't so forgiving unfortunately and he's kept quiet just to keep his job. Somewhere in a better world, it wouldn't be dangerous to admit.
Kiki jabbed his arm. "Dude, I can see your elbow joints, you've got no meat! Also, you literally dress in leaf green suits, how can you not look like Leavanny?"
Burgh looked down at himself. He was about 6'5", but only 150 lbs and did design his suit after Leavanny. "Touché, mademoiselle." He said. "I suppose you own a rattata or perhaps a skuntank?" Burgh gestured to Kiki's hair.
"Guys?" Nathans asked.
Homura snorted. "Accurate."
Kiki felt her bushy hair and raised an eyebrow. "I do own a skuntank and he's lovely and his name is Roadkill. But that's not my inspiration."
"Guys?" Nathans said a little louder.
"You could've fooled me." Burgh retorted.
"It's not very hard."
"I HAVE THE DATA READY." Nathans yelled with a voice crack.
Burgh and Kiki called a silent truce and the three turned to the computer.
"Look," He pointed to a plot with an equation sitting in the corner. "This is nothing like a porygon. There is something man-made there giving off a passive signal, but it doesn't match anything in the dex."
Homura audibly swallowed. "Burgh, I will be accompanying you on this mission. What time works best? The sooner the better."
Burgh made a time-out sign with his hands. "Hold-on, I can't just take you on a mission with me, you aren't certified to handle Pokémon related crimes."
Homura swiped a hand through her hair. "Then you tell them a very brave girl heard your cries for help and came down in a hurry, assuming we find ourselves in a battle."
"I'm not a damsel." Burgh whined.
"You are if it keeps me out of jail." Homura said. Burgh looked to Kiki for help, the only person he'd ever seen Homura listen to.
Kiki just shrugged. "I told you, she's made-up her mind." She held up her palms in surrender.
Burgh groaned. This stolen Yamper was getting a lot more complicated than he ever intended. Not to mention, all signs pointed to Plasma rising again, something Burgh feared for almost two years.