Lucas can't give verbal orders, and Barry can't focus on the right things sometimes-- but they leave Twinleaf, get a Pokedex, and try becoming trainers anyways.
"...are you guys teaching Chimchar sign language?"
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※ Current Progress: Veilstone City...
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I need to find her.
Luce's breaths couldn't come quickly enough. Psyduck was gone— where could she have wandered off to? Underground? Or perhaps, did Saturn take her when he retrieved his Bronzong? There's no reason for him to. She wandered out into the wild in her state?
Why didn't she just stay where she was?
Why didn't he just give Barry her Poke Ball, to begin with?
Why, why, why.
"Luce, just— just calm down a little," Barry holds him by the shoulders. He's also frazzled. Luce knows what must be going through his mind. He must be blaming himself for leaving her behind in this place. "We'll find her soon."
If it was that easy, they'd have found her already.
The entire mansion was in disarray, anyone able was out in the surrounding areas, trying to find the Psyduck. Roark even sent a group of Geodude into the Underground to help him look, but it was impossible to locate which way it went.
"Doozy wouldn't run away from me," Luce insists. "Someone must have taken her."
But there was no reason for Saturn to take her. He'd have taken a Clefairy instead. It didn't make sense. Then, why?
If only Luce didn't suggest this stupid hero plan.
If only.
-
They spend the night in the Pokemon Mansion, but Luce can't relax at all.
Monferno seems to feel the same. Also awake, the chimp Pokemon was by his bedside, fiddling with Luce's palms, squishing it testingly in a way Luce hasn't seen him do since he was a Chimchar. It calms him, in a way. Monferno was stronger now, so it almost felt like a hand massage.
In the corner of the room, Ponyta slumps against Munchlax, with Togepi between them. Luxio and Cleffa slept together, curled lazily into each other. Prinplup was awake, staring sternly at the ground with a similarly crestfallen look as Luce. Buneary was asleep in her own corner, beside Staravia and Turtwig, who were silent.
Psyduck is missing. Psyduck is missing....?
Ah... that's right. There's an event regarding Psyduck at around this point of the game. It even had a subplot in the manga, didn't it? Something about a hypnotic wave that affects Psyducks specifically, because of their unique psychic-headache trait.
If so, then there's only one place a Psyduck can be. He gets up, reaching for his bag.
"Where do you think you're going?"
Dawn is awake, and her voice is low and furious.
Barry is awake too, on the bed further away, and they're both, even in the dim lighting, very pointedly glaring at him.
