Into the Unown CH 91 and 92

Author's note:

Hohoho! Merry Christmas!

Santa is here bearing gifts!

Shhh... We all know it's just Ali in disguise. But keep it quiet and just let the guy have his fun.

Thank you all so much for reading my little story. Especially those of you here in Patreon who liked my work enough to show your support in such a tangible way.

My gratitude towards you is boundless, and I will strive to meet your expectations going forwards.

In the meantime, please enjoy these two surprise chapters I have for you today.

Merry Christmas, and happy holidays to those who don't celebrate it.

Chapter 91

Nina pulled up her hoodie and put on her sunglasses. She looked shady as hell but what can a girl do? The entirety of the past week had just been her being jerked around one way or another. 

When she wasn’t practicing for Beverly’s performance or working on her vocals, she’d be under the whims of one of the Cerulean Sisters, modeling for various products or attending different social events.

She desperately needed a break but couldn’t exactly stay at home where they could easily find her. So Beverly suggested going incognito and roaming around outside, except…

“Nins, look! Those earrings are so cuuute. Let’s go check them out!”

The older girl had the subtlety of a Gyarados, loudly calling out to her and dragging her to every single stall that caught her fancy. Luckily, they hadn’t been recognized just yet, which was good.

Nina sighed, thinking that she should’ve just gone to the library today instead.

“Slow down, Bev. I don’t have the energy to keep up today. And please stop yelling out my name.” Nina said, for what felt like the umpteenth time today.

“Oh relax~” assured the energetic girl. “You don’t have that ugly jacket with you today. Aside from Espy on your shoulder, you look just like any other girl.”

Nina groaned. “Yeah, but you’re not. You still look like Beverly Mizuhana, the ‘Ice is just frozen Water innit?’ girl.” In fact, Beverly just wore her regular outfit and slapped on a pair of gaudy star shaped sunglasses.

“Urgh… Don’t remind me. Why is it that everyone thinks you’re like a super cute mascot but treats me like I’m some insane meme queen?” Beverly whined.

“Being a mascot is NOT fun.” Nina hates being fawned on by middle aged ladies in all those stupid social events that the sisters kept dragging her to, saying that it’s all important networking and stuff. But networking for what?! They run a Gym, not some political fundraiser.

Beverly pouted. “Better to have kids come up to you with Growlithe eyes asking for signatures than to have them point and laugh at you.”

Nina pulled her friend in for a hug while gently caressing the girl’s hair in assurance. “It’ll be fine. The Pokenet has a short memory, once you become more accomplished as a Gym Trainer, people’ll look at you differently. You recently started a Pokegram account right?”

Beverly nodded. “Yeap, Daphne is guiding me through it. I barely have one tenth of her followers but it’s going up…” Then, her eyes lit up as if she had a bright idea. “I should start posting shorts of our practice! Steal some of your clout!” Beverly let out a sinister laugh, like she was some sort of supervillain with an ingenious plan.

Nina sighed. Beverly had already been posting pictures of them together on occasion anyway, what’s a bit more. In fact, Nina was flabbergasted that Beverly didn’t figure this out sooner since any posts the wannabe Pokegram model made with Nina in it were sure to get an uptick in likes and engagement.

“Eevee, vee ee!” 

Nina looked towards where Espy was pointing and saw a little girl around five or six years of age crying by the side of the street, likely having lost sight of her parents. But just as Nina was about to approach and check on her, a city council volunteer in a blue vest bent down and began consoling the girl.

The man in the vest looked normal enough, if not for the fact that Espy was pawing Nina in distress at the sight of him.

Nina frowned and dragged Beverly to the side of a stall where they could observe without being seen.

“What’s going on?” Beverly asked, bewildered, only for Nina to place a finger on her lips to shush her.

“Keep it down, that guy in the vest might be a Team Rocket member.” Nina explained.

Beverly was about to burst out in confusion, but Nina covered the girl’s mouth to muffle her voice.

Seeing that the man held onto the lost girl’s hand to lead her somewhere, Nina took out her Pokedex and set it to automatically ping her location. The signal will go towards all her loved ones, so that they would know where to find her if something were to happen.

“Come on, let’s go and follow them.” Nina was desperately hoping that the volunteer would just take the girl to a lost and found shelter to keep up appearances, but based on Espy’s response, she doubted that would be the case. It is likely that the empathic Eevee picked up negative emotions from the guy.

Based on one of Sabrina’s books that Nina read, Dark Types can shield a mind from being read and detected. But emotions show up on a person like colored auras, something that most lesser criminals are not usually aware of. Which was why skilled interrogators can extract information just by asking the right questions and judging their subject’s emotional response like a lie detector.

Only full Psychics can completely mask a person. But then again, those were highly regulated and not the sort of Pokemon that two bit thugs can easily acquire. Facial expressions and body language were also viable tells, so no real method of obfuscation was full proof.

They casually followed along, pretending like tourists that just happened to be going the same way. Eventually reaching an unassuming alleyway where the suspected Rocket goon pounced, restraining the child and knocking her out with some unknown gas.

Nina had to hold Beverly back from rushing in to save her. “What are you doing, Nins! That girl is in trouble!” The older girl whispered aggressively. 

But Nina just shook her head and asked her impulsive friend to calm down. “These guys have been here for a while, which means she isn’t the first victim, and they probably have a base somewhere. If we go in now, we risk startling the Ekans. Best we play it safe and follow along for just a bit longer.”

“What about the girl?!” Beverly exclaimed, unconvinced.

“We’ll make sure to rescue her. I promise you,” assured Nina as she sent a text message out to her Uncle Ali about everything they saw. “... I’m going to tail them to find out where the kidnapper is going. Please don’t barge in until I give the okay or if I don’t update you in fifteen minutes.” She hit the send button and peeked back out into the alleyway.

“Alright Bev, let’s go.” Nina continued, when they saw that the kidnapping thug had turned a corner.

***

“So what now?”

The two girls followed the thug until he entered into a dilapidated building of sorts that was left half way abandoned in its development, quite a rare sight in Cerulean City where real estate gets snatched up fairly quickly.

Nina checked her Pokenet connectivity. “Good, there’s no jammers in place.” On second thought, it made no sense for them to have jammers in a busy city like this. A massive blackspot showing up in the network was sure to draw attention.

The girl sent a message to her Uncle Ali with their coordinates. “Please come in quietly from a distance to avoid startling the bad guys.” She wrote.

“Now, we wait for backup…” Nina replied, after she was done with all her set up.

After about twenty minutes or so, an Officer Jenny came up to them from behind the corner they were hiding in. “You two must be Miss Jones and Miss Mizuhana?” She asked.

“Yeap, is my uncle not able to make it?” Asked Nina in return.

The officer, who introduced herself as Lieutenant Seiigi Jenny, shook her head. “Unfortunately, Interpol has no jurisdiction, so we’ll be taking over the case. Can you tell me what you've seen so far.”

Nina told her story, starting from Espy’s detection of the suspicious people in vests during their return home, to their latest encounter with the kidnapper. “Unfortunately we’re a little too far for Espy to pick up anything of detail, but she is getting bad vibes from the place, so it’s probably filled with a fair number of Dark Types.” She added in the end.

Lieutenant Jenny nodded in approval. “Very good, it’s rare to find Pokemon Trainers with any semblance of patience these days. Usually they’d have jumped the bastard and scared away the rest by now.”

“But what about the girl?!” Beverly exclaimed.

The Jenny sighed. “Case in point. The girl won’t be harmed, otherwise they wouldn’t go through so much trouble to kidnap her. Your friend is right, there’s a chance that there might be other victims, would you be willing to sacrifice the rest just to satisfy your passing hero complex?”

Beverly looked down dejectedly at the admonishment and Nina pulled her in for a hug to assuage her. “You’re not wrong in wanting to help, Bev. Just gotta have a bit of patience like Lieutenant Jenny said.” She then turned towards the gruff police officer. “So what now? Are you guys going to storm the place?”

The blue haired woman shook her head in frustration. “Unfortunately, no. The building is listed as private property. We can’t go in without a warrant. And since we don’t know if the owner is complicit, we can’t exactly reach out to them either.”

Nina frowned at the inane bureaucracy. “There might be lives at risk! The two of us are active Gym Trainers, surely our statements must have some weight right?”

“It does,” echoed Lieutenant Jenny. “However, we’ll still need to wait on a warrant. Which will take a couple of hours at least. But no worries…” The police officer gave the two girls a hard look. “We do have a plan, but it’ll require both your cooperation. And frankly, neither I nor Inspector Jones are particularly enthusiastic about endangering the safety of two children, Gym Trainer or not.”

“We’ll do it. Whatever it takes!” Beverly blurted, with zero hesitation. But Nina held her by the shoulder and caressed the girl’s back to calm her down.

“Before we agree to anything, I’d like to know the specifics of this ‘plan’ you mentioned.” Nina chimed.

The Jenny nodded in approval. “It’s quite simple actually. We need a just cause to barge in without permission, so if two rogue trainers were to ‘break in’ and ‘assault’ the occupants. We’d be justified in entering to ‘arrest’ the offenders. Naturally, if we ‘coincidentally’ find evidence of wrongdoing inside the building, then we’d have no choice but to arrest everyone for an investigation.”

Nina’s frown deepened. “Wouldn’t this look bad on our record? You’re basically using us as sacrificial Mareeps for the sake of expediency.”

Lieutenant Jenny chuckled and waved at Nina’s concerns. “On the contrary, if we manage to bust a kidnapping ring, potentially being run by the terrorist organization known as Team Rocket, we’ll not only waive your charges, but even reward you for the heroic act. 

“How else did you think Red busted the Rocket Game Center by himself all those years ago? He caused the commotion and took out most of the executives, but the police were the ones who had to go in and mop things up at the end.”

Nina nodded in understanding. “Bev, which of your Pokemon did you bring with you today?”

The older girl grinned. “All of them. My full conference team.” And naturally, Nina had Nairy and Espy with her.

“Alright, here’s the plan. I want you to fly up to the rooftop of that building with Sora while I charge in from the front. Do not bring Ryu out for this. We don’t want to risk bringing the whole place down and harming the hostages.”

Beverly responded with a grave but hesitant nod. “Are you sure? I don’t mind lending Sora to you and charging the front instead.” She offered, but Nina shook her head in denial.

“No, knowing these villain types, their toughest executives are probably at the top of the building looking down on everyone. I doubt I have the firepower to stall them from escaping, let alone take them down.”

Surprisingly, Lieutenant Jenny nodded in agreement. “Yeah, Miss Jones is right. These lowlives can be very cliche a lot of the time.”

“Which is why I’ll take the front where all the grunts are at. Nairy should be more than enough to take on their abused and malnourished Pokemon.” Nina continued. “How long will it take for backup to arrive?” She asked the Jenny.

“I’ll personally jump in right away after you guys enter the premises. The rest of the squad have already surrounded the area, but it might still take another five to ten minutes to close the net.” The woman replied.

“Good. Bev, send me a message once you’re in position. And I’ll start us off with a bang.”

And after some last minute preparations, the two vigilantes moved out to commence the operation.

Chapter 92

“How should I go about doing this? Cute innocent girl looking for her sister, or just go in Dragon blazing.”

Nina wanted aggression on the bad guy’s side. Because innocent bystanders will cower in fear when attacked, while most bad guys tend to fight back. Not to mention if she caused chaos, the police will have justification to arrest everyone for illegal Pokemon battling. Since they wouldn’t have known who the primary aggressor was, just that they received reports of a commotion.

“Going in Dragon blazing it is.” The girl smirked as she pushed open the rusty metal door. Inside, she could see three goons in blue vests hanging around what was supposed to be a reception desk.

“Hello, I’m looking for an asshole who kidnapped a lost girl just now. You three stooges wouldn’t happen to know where he is, right?” Nina tilted her head at one of the goons. “Actually now that I had a better look at your ugly mug, I’m pretty sure you’re the asshole.” She pointed at one of the goons who was now frowning at her.

The man in question scowled before schooling his face to be that of an amicable city employee. “Hi there, little girl, I think you might have made a mistake. This building is still under construction and it's dangerous to be here…” The creep reached out a hand in an attempt to assuage Nina. But naturally, the girl was having none of it.

“Sic’ em, Nairy.” With a flash of light, the Pokeball hanging around Nina’s neck opened to release an angry looking serpentine Dragon, glaring down at the creepy kidnapper who tried to touch his girl.

One of the ‘volunteers’ at the back, a woman, was quick to respond, expanding her Pokeball to let out a Poochyena. But unfortunately for her, the unconscious body of her colleague was soon sent tumbling back towards them via a vicious Dragon Tail from Nairy. 

Another Water Pulse for good measure, and soon, the final goon was being suffocated inside Nairy’s wrap. The guy was too slow to react and didn’t put up much resistance at all.

“Now then, if you don’t want my partner here to burn you alive in Dragon fire, I suggest you tell me where the kidnapped children are?” Nina threatened, while Nairy singed the guy’s hair with a mild Dragon Breath to prove her point. 

At the same time, the entire building shook. Indicating that Beverly had also begun the assault on her end.

The man in Nairy’s grasp shook in fear and nodded fearfully at Nina, who signaled her Dragonair to loosen his grip for the man to talk. “D-downstairs… In t-the b-basement.” He stuttered. 

Nina would have liked to ask for more details, but by that point, Lieutenant Jenny had arrived at the scene to ‘arrest’ her. “Basement!” She yelled out simply, before running off to the emergency stairwell with her Pokemon in tow, leaving the woman to deal with the defeated goons.

Nina made it her personal objective to secure the hostages before backup arrived. Not out of pride or ego, but to avoid a prolonged hostage negotiation that would just end up causing complications.

On the way down the stairwell, she encountered a stream of Rocket goons that were rushing up to see what the commotion was about. And these were unmistakably Team Rocket goons, with their dark uniforms and gaudy red R.

“Jackpot!” Nina grinned and Nairy air swimmed around his partner to crash into the terrorists with a Dragon Rush, sending them flying limp across the air like screaming bowling pins.

With a massive 4.5 meter Dragon serpent bulldozing her a way through, Nina made it down to the basement floor in no time.

Unfortunately, Nairy didn’t manage to get all the goons, and some of them had retreated and were waiting with their Pokemons at the exit. While Nairy was engaged in battle, Nina squinted and took in her dim surroundings.

The space was dimly lit, with a good portion of the light bulbs flickering in and out in an annoying manner. She could see the presence of numerous cages lined up by the side of the basement. Some were filled with crying children, while others had listless looking lost Pokemon.

Nina scowled in anger. “How in Arceus did the police not find this place sooner?!” Lost Pokemon aside, this many missing children must have raised some sort of alarm right?

“No mercy, Nairy! Burn them all!”

The Dragonair howled in rage and engulfed all the perpetrators in purple Draconic flames, eliciting cries of agony to permeate the space. Only a few Houndours were capable of enduring the Dragon Breath and attempted to fight back with their own Fire. But those were quickly extinguished with a sweeping Aqua Tail from Nairy.

Seeing an opening to push through, Nina left Nairy to it and rushed towards the cages with Espy on her shoulder. She had faith that her partner was more than capable of holding their assailants back.

The first cage she reached was the one containing the girl that she and Beverly witnessed getting kidnapped earlier. By now the girl had woken up from her forced stupor and was sobbing uncontrollably. Nina threw her hood back and took off her sunglasses. “Hey there… it’s gonna be alright, big sis is here to rescue you.”

The girl momentarily held back her sobs and looked up at Nina with starry, hope filled eyes. “A-Aquarium Girl…?”

Nina let out a warm smile to assure the girl. “Yeap, that’s me! Say, you wouldn’t happen to see where those baddies kept the keys did you? Kind of hard to break you out of these cages without them.”

“I know!” A defiant boy cried out in a nearby cage. “It’s at the back where they keep all our Pokeballs!”

Nina flashed the boy a winning smile and a thumbs up. “Thanks kid, I’ll get you out soon. Keep up your spirit and hang tight!”

Nina ran towards the direction indicated by the boy, only to suddenly stop in her tracks when Espy cried out in alarm. The girl barely stopped in time for the Eevee to launch off her shoulder and rushed towards a corner with Quick Attack, unveiling a Houndoom who leaped out of the shadows and into Nina’s path to dodge.

“Well, well, well… What do we have here?” A masculine voice drawled, with a distinctly New York accent. “Bad day to be playing hero, kid. Tell ya what, if you back off and surrender now, I might be kind enough to just lock you up and sell you off to a nice, rich daddio, whaddya say?”

From behind the Houdoom, a sleazy looking man with tasteless golden grills lining his teeth stepped out of the shadows and leered at Nina lecherously from top to bottom, like the girl was some slab of meat whose quality he was assessing.

“Vee!” Espy cried, as she jumped in front of Nina to glare at the Houndoom and its trainer defiantly.

Nina held back a frown, trying to keep her face as impassive as possible. “This is bad, Espy isn’t a match for a Houndoom, poorly trained or otherwise.” So she unclipped a whistle she kept on her belt and blew into it forcefully.

The sudden high pitched noise must have irritated the Houndoom because he whinnied and Lashed Out at Espy who handily dodged to the side with her Calm Mind.

The Rocket goon snorted. “Hmph! What a pity, s’not always we get such high quality goods. Houndoom, roast ‘em. Lessee if this one’s pipes sound as good as she looks.”

“Espy, Protect!” Nina called, fully anticipating what was coming. And just as she feared, a wide area Flamethrower was released from the Houndoom’s maw. The searing hot flames splitted in the middle as it impacted Espy’s Protect barrier.

“Eeeee!!!” Espy cried out in distress while she struggled to maintain the defensive move. To the sides, Nina could also hear the cries of Pokemon and children as the dark red flames began heating up the metal exterior of the surrounding cages. Thankfully, Espy had enough presence of mind to extend her barrier at an angle to prevent the flames from actually reaching the victims, so it was only the scorching heat they had to contend with. Unfortunately, the larger barrier also imposed a lot of unnecessary strain on the Eevee.

Nina yelped and stepped closer to Espy and her Protect barrier. The oppressive flames converged on the girl’s back to cut off her retreat. “Dammit! This guy’s a lunatic and Espy can’t hold Protect for too long.” It hadn’t been too long since Espy learned Protect from the TM that Nina bought. And she was still tweaking the strenuous move to better suit her.

“Hang in there for a little bit longer, Espy! Nairy’s almost here!” Nina called out to her Pokemon encouragingly and blew into her whistle once more in desperation.

“EEEEEE!” 

But despite Espy’s determined cry, Nina could already see the cracks forming on the translucent barrier as the Eevee shrunk the Protect to maintain its integrity for as long as possible. 

Nina inched closer to Espy as the flames closed in, before finally deciding to raise her hood and throw her body over Espy to shield her from the flames. Her hoodie was one made with special material that could contend with the summer heat, so she was hoping that it’d give the Eevee some reprieve from the roasting flames to better concentrate.

“You’re doing great, Espy. Just have to keep it up for a while longer…” Nina whispered hoarsely in a feeble attempt to encourage her princess. “Just a bit longer…”

But despite her bravado, she could already feel her hoodie giving out as heat began to sear into her delicate skin. Causing her to wince in pain in spite of herself. This was one time where she wished she had her signature yellow windbreaker with her. The miracle material and its temperature regulating properties would have been extremely useful right now.

Seeing her human’s face twist into a pained expression made the fragile little Eevee wish she could be stronger; as strong as her father, or Nairy. Or at the very least, strong enough to contend with the Houndoom who was causing harm to her human.

She cursed herself for being weak, tears streaming down in frustration, her heated emotions burning hotter than the flames that she was resisting as they fed into the Protect barrier to infuse it with a purplish Psychic glow. 

The empowered Protect barrier expanded, even curving to shield the cages in their periphery to spare the kidnapped victims from the harsh heat, completely isolating the Houndoom and its trainer.

At the same time, Espy began glowing, her luscious fur shedding and body shifting to take on a more feline form. Her previously fluffy tail that Nina always enjoyed huffing, twisted and elongated before finally splitting into two near the base.

Nina reeled back from the blinding glow, mouth agape at the awe inspiring scene that was taking place before her, then broke out into tears of her own as her emotions synchronized and became one with Espy’s. “Thank you, Espy…” The girl sobbed. “Thank you for evolving to protect me!”

“Es! Espeonnnn!!!” As Espy cried out in triumph, and the Light of Evolution began to dissipate, an angry roar could be heard from behind the two as Nairy finally arrived in a surge of furious Draconic energy, his body full of scratches and scales chipped in places to indicate the fierce resistance he had to fight through. 

And indeed, when Nina looked behind her, she could see a swarm of Zubats and Spearows, led by a Golbat, chasing after the Dragon. The Rocket goons must have changed tactics at some point.

“Nairy! I’m leaving the creep and his Houndoom to you. Espy will take care of the tagalongs.”

“DRAA!!!!”

“ESSSS!!!”

With that, Espy lowered her barrier to allow Nairy to decimate the Houndoom with a devastating Double Pulse attack. Meanwhile, all the Flying Pokemon that were chasing after Nairy were held in place, mid-air, by an overbearing Psychic aura that suddenly engulfed them.

Nina’s companions let out another cry and lashed out without mercy; Nairy slammed a Double Tail onto the lecherous Rocket goon, crumpling the guy’s body into a bloody heap with a sickening crunch. Meanwhile, Espy narrowed her eyes, and her Psychic aura crushed her captives, folding their wings and bodies at unnatural angles before dropping them onto the floor.

Nina winced at her Pokemon’s brutality. She was pretty sure that the Rocket goon was dead, and it’d be a miracle if any of those Flying Pokemon didn’t become lifelong cripples after this. “I’m gonna have to endure a lot of pointed questions for this. Oh well… Better them than us.” 

After seeing the dreary condition of the cages and nearly getting roasted alive, Nina had very little sympathy to give to these scumbags. She still scrunched up her nose at the visceral scene though and made a mental note to have a talk with her Pokemon.

Having witnessed the sorry state of their Pokemon, the pursuing Rocket goons that Nairy did not manage to take out in time faltered, allowing Espy to grab hold of their legs with her Psychic ability and snap them like twigs to immobilize them.

Nina ignored the moans of pain from the incapacitated Team Rocket members and continued on her search for the keys before steadily going through each cage and releasing their captives, either to cries of gratitude or listless and glassy stares.

Midway through her efforts, aided by some of the more energetic kids who offered to help, a bunch of police officers in blue uniforms and black boots stormed into the basement and began apprehending the criminals, looking absolutely shell shocked at their pitiful state.

“Did you do all this…?” The nervous looking Lieutenant Jenny asked Nina, when she caught sight of her in a corner.

Nina scratched her head apologetically. “Technically, my Pokemon did. We didn’t have a choice, their leader would have killed me if my Eevee didn’t evolve in time. He had no reservations against harming the hostages either. I’m sure some of the kids can testify on my behalf.” 

Everything that Nina said was technically true, if a bit contrived. And she was sure that the kids would be too traumatized to give any accurate statements. All they’ll remember is the miserable darkness and the scary flames that nearly burnt them, all of which will only serve to further incriminate Team Rocket.

“Anyways, what took you guys so long? And is Beverly okay?” The girl continued, in an attempt to divert the blame and change the subject.

Lieutenant Jenny cleared her throat. “It uh… took us a bit to clear the stairs. In hindsight, I  probably should have sent an advanced party, but we only had so many officers and we didn’t want to risk getting surprised from behind.”

Nina nodded in understanding. It made sense, and trying to navigate all the fallen bodies was probably quite difficult for full grown adults. Nina only managed because of her small frame and lithe figure.

“And Miss Mizuhana is safe. We’ve sent our best battlers to assist her on the top floor. She struggled in trying to hold back the two executives of this particular splinter group, but she held out long enough for help to arrive.” The Lieutenant continued, eliciting a sigh of relief from Nina.

“That’s good to know…” She muttered as she leaned against a nearby wall and slid down in exhaustion, with both the newly evolved Espy and Nairy nuzzling up against her in comfort.

“You did it, Espy. You finally managed to evolve into a proper Espeon…” Nina whispered to her princess affectionately while gently caressing her velvety lilac fur, which was now much shorter than before. A blessing in disguise for Nina, since it made grooming easier.

“Es~” The Espeon nuzzled her head against Nina’s face and tickled her with licks.

“Hehe… We should find some time to visit the Sea Cottage and show off to Bill and your dad. I’m sure Umber’s gonna be really proud of you.”

“Espy es!”