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Remram
Xaltwind
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SkyeOfStars
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Crusader Lord
chokesonphlegm
JJ Doe
Unfortunately for the detective, Nils didn't slow down until the mysterious hole in the wall was within view. It was as he left it; no Rau or Clarissa climbing back out of it or waiting outside, but also still open, no blockages to speak of. It looked like he was going to have to go in, but before that he took a moment to take a breath and answer the question Dudley asked earlier about what he'd meant.
"We heard a crying sound coming from in there," Nils explained. "Been hearing it for a while now, way farther away than makes sense, unless the acoustics down here are just that good. So we followed it... my friend already went ahead, but I guess you already saw that if you were spying on us."
He didn't sound disturbed by the last bit, just stating a fact now that he knew Dudley was just a down on his luck detective. It was more the first part that Nils emphasized, since he hadn't thought anything strange about it until hearing Dudley's story. "You get it, right, detective? I mean if we followed this sound, how many other kids might have followed it down here too?"
As Nils mentioned before, he could be wrong about this. He sort of hoped he was, although that would mean the mystery of the missing kids would remain with no leads, ultimately a bad thing for both the people missing and his new acquaintance. Either way, Nils guessed he was going to find out soon enough. He moved to pulling himself into the hole in the wall when Dudley briefly stopped him to hand him an item. Nils glanced at the little purple ball, noting the cloud-like designs before tucking it away. He could probably guess its use pretty easily.
"Thanks," he said, flashing the detective a small grin. "Don't worry, I'll make sure we don't get added to that missing persons list. Keep watch for us here, detective!"
Then Nils vanished into the dark tunnel.
Further in, having already cleared the abnormally long hole and crossed through a few of the rocky tunnels at the bottom led by his nose, Rau had made it to his destination. The Rattata did not immediately approach Clarissa, instead it sniffed the ground around her and her two pokemon (already too used to the smell of trash for the Trubbish's passive stench to bother it, though its active one would be a different matter). The Rattata's hackles were raised as it clearly smelled the lingering metallic scent of some massive creature... but since the danger seemed to have passed, Rau calmed a little, especially after Clarissa pet his head.
Rau chittered at her, not quite happily, more like it was trying to tell her something. But, yes, Clarissa had guessed right, his new trainer was indeed looking for her. Rau had been in his pokeball or otherwise separated from Nils when the bulk of the explanation as to why was happening, but the Rattata was intelligent enough to be able to pick up on the subtle worry his trainer had been giving off when he'd sent Rau on this little mission.
He could also pick up the lingering fear signals the Roggenrola was putting out, so Rau eyed it critically. Had the rock-type been too scared to protect what was now his, the trainer girl, from whatever beast had just been through here? For shame. The Trubbish must be the second-in-command since that rabbit was out of commission. So Rau turned to the Trubbish and told it in their own pokemon language that he would be right back with my trainer boy and to make sure everyone stays put and safe.
Rau glanced at Clarissa once more, his whiskers twitching, before he set off the way he'd come from.
He would eventually find Nils not too far from where the small tunnel connected with the cavern. The boy was momentarily stunned at discovering all this beneath the sewers. Just how far down did this all extend?! The caverns didn't feature any pipes, walkways, or lights, making it seem undiscovered by humans, and yet there was a glow to the place somehow... The contrasting colors of the mysterious light and the rocks around him made the otherwise fairly featureless caverns sort of pretty.
Whoa... So a pokemon burrowed up from this place into the city's sewers...? Nils thought to himself, wandering forward to take in the area properly. In edition to the ethereal glow the cavern had, Nils' rotom dex floated up once more to add additional light... as well as to try and make a call now that Nils saw it might not be that easy to find Clarissa. He could see there were several directions he could take as many other tunnels branched out from the one he was in. Unfortunately, there wasn't much luck in the phone service down here. Nils looked around at the pokemon and gently laid a hand on the red stone wall as he considered which path to follow.
LIIIIIIIIIX!
Oookay, maybe not that way then. It was hard to tell where exactly the roar came from, but he could tell its general direction at least. If they were in a forest or something Nils was pretty sure he'd be able to track Clarissa, but as of now he just had to pick a direction and listen for either his fellow trainer or the cries they'd been after.
"Raa!" Before Nils went the wrong way, his pokemon returned to him. Nils dropped to one knee to scratch behind Rau's ear in greeting. "Hey! Did you find her?"
Rau stood on his hind legs and jerked his head down one of the other tunnels (the same direction that roar had come from, Nils noticed) before running a circle around his trainer. He intended to lead Nils the right way, and without wasting much more time the two set off. They did keep Clarissa and her party waiting for a little bit (she had a head start on them after all), but eventually the form of his fellow trainer parked on a boulder came into view.
Nils appeared more casual than Rau had tried to imply, but only because he didn't want to spook Clarissa and make her think there was an emergency happening. There was definitely something weird, suspicious, and potentially dangerous afoot, but at the moment it looked like the both of them were unharmed, so any worry Nils had faded. Now that they were together, the two of them could probably fend off anything that needed fending off once Clarissa had all the information he did.
...and if they couldn't, there was always that smokeball that Detective Dudley had given him.
"Glad to see you're alright," Nils said to her. "I met a guy up there that made me think you might have gotten spirited away."
And to be fair, being spirited away was a very real concern back home in the mountains too.
"But uh, long story short..."
Nils proceeded to fill Clarissa in on what had gone on back in the sewers, starting with the static message he'd gotten from her, then what he'd heard from the detective (minus the man's life story), and his own theory too. At the end of it, Nils did not suggest retreating. Just the opposite, he seemed like he wanted to get to the bottom of his mystery even more now.