{RP} The S.S. Wishmaker - Tides of Witchcraft

[Neo Emolga]

The Diamond Ladies
Central Park
Affected RPers: @Desolate Divine (And possibly others around the Park)

Cassandra had decided to move on to go do some shopping, as Jimmy’s Pikachu wasn’t at all what she might have suspected, but spending the extra few minutes to make sure nothing odd was unfolding still seemed to be worth the time.

Something still didn’t settle right with her, however.

As she approached the Windjammer Marketplace, she had overheard the happy cry of an Alolan Vulpix, looking cheerful as her trainer, Alyssa, had been likely scratching her behind the ears. Out of the corner of her eye, Cassandra could see Alyssa was shooting odd glances at her, which seemed unusual, as if to imply Alyssa was more interested in her than the Vulpix.

It seemed off to her, but she figured maybe it was due to her fame. Cassandra just decided to dismiss it, thinking maybe it was just from recognition. She had to expect that considering the kind of names the three of them made for themselves.

But then, she felt it. A sudden tingling sensation that only she felt. It had occurred right when she was only a few feet away from Alyssa and the Alolan Vulpix. And while the arctic fox Pokémon had initially caught her eye, Cassandra suddenly slowed down in her walking and then stopped, surprising Jarena and Violet a bit. They completely stopped behind her, wondering what was going on.

“You’ve got to be kidding me…” Cassandra growled under her breath.

She knew what the tingle meant. Someone had triggered the trap on the pillow. It meant someone was in their room again, trying to go through her belongings, and came into contact with it and were likely now a Pokémon. She knew housekeeping wouldn’t have bothered to check under the beds, so it ruled out that possibly.

“…Again?” Jarena asked, thinking she figured it out.

“…Yeah,” Cassandra muttered, glancing back toward their room. “I can’t believe it, what the hell’s going on? We’d better go back to the room.”

“This shouldn’t have happened again already,” Violet remarked. “That’s twice in less than 24 hours.”

“Come on, let’s go,” Cassandra told the other two.

She decided to turn around, heading back to the room with Jarena and Violet closely behind. She decided to walk a little faster, briskly walking to get there quickly, but not suddenly dash into a run that would look out of place here.

As soon as they were back in the hallway where the guest rooms were, Cassandra decided to pick up the pace now that there were fewer people. Jarena couldn’t help but speak up as they made haste to get back to see what was going on.

“Ladies, I think they’re onto us,” Jarena told the other two, feeling a bit anxious while still trying to keep her cool. “We’ve never had two incidents like this happen so close together, so we’d better start coming up with a plan to either bail off this tub or… I dunno, something.”

“Are you kidding, I still have a tournament to win!” Cassandra countered, surprised Jarena would even consider that. “If I don’t show up tonight, I forfeit the entire match to Avery Miller, which there’s no way I’m going to let happen. Also, we’re out in the middle of the ocean right now, there’s nowhere to run to!”

“I was afraid of this,” Violet replied. “But Jarena’s right, we need to do something.”

“We’ll figure that out later, let’s just get back to the room first to see what’s going on,” Cassandra told them.

After lightly running down a few more hallways, they soon approached their guest room. And unlike the many other rooms, they saw the door was wide open though Cassandra distinctly remembered shutting the door, which also meant to get in, they would have needed the keycard as well, which Cassandra thought only the three of them had. She gave the signal to keep quiet as she slowly approached the open door and looked inside.

The inside of the room was a mess with drawers pulled out, bedsheets thrown around, and their suitcases dumped out with all of their clothing scattered about on the floor. It was clear this time around, they were foregoing being subtle and now aggressively trying to uncover evidence. Last night’s incident with them being stopped by the operatives after dinner was one thing, but now this was something a whole level higher.

Jarena’s jaw dropped in shock at the sight of all of her things thrown around, but she didn’t make a sound. They knew whoever raided their room like this had been waiting and watching for the moment they left to head in, turn the place upside down to find something, and now, they sure did. And it was likely they were now a Pokémon… and still inside the room somewhere.

“Get ready to sedate them,” Cassandra whispered, “…whatever they are now…”

Both Jarena and Violet nodded as they slowly and carefully made their way into the room, keeping a very close watch on everything in the room and looking for any traces of movement, although the piles of blankets and clothes made it tricky. If there really was a formerly human now Pokémon in this room, it was going to be difficult to pinpoint exactly where they were with so many places to hide and things to cover themselves.

And it was then where they heard a voice.

“Nathan?” the voice from the radio buried under some blankets asked. “Nathan, are you there? What happened, did you find anything? Nathan, can you read me? Come in!”

“This was a freaking raid…” Jarena muttered. “Someone is deliberately trying to set us up.”

Cassandra and Violet didn’t respond, simply trying to hunt down the intruder. All of a sudden, they saw a dark shape try to make a mad dash for the door, and it used the blankets on the floor to conceal their movement. Cassandra tried to target it, suddenly realizing said figure was in fact a Zorua, the dark fox Pokémon. Although new to this form, Nathan didn’t have too much trouble adjusting to running on all fours now, as he was able to slip past the three ladies and run out into the hall quickly before they had any opportunity to target him with a sedation spell. By the time Cassandra was able to get out the door and saw what direction he had run in, she saw the Zorua was already well past down the hall and would have been hard to target. Not to mention there were a few people in the hallway who would have been witnesses and would have seen the Zorua go from full sprint to fast asleep in an instant, which would look very odd and suspicious.

“YOU GET BACK HERE, YOU!” Cassandra shouted at the Zorua before Violet stopped her, realizing it was too late to stop him as the dark fox made a fast dash down the hall.

“Leave him,” Violet stopped her, just before Cassandra was about to give chase. “Best to not make a scene.”

It made Cassandra a bit unhinged to know that there were now not one, not two, but three Pokémon running around the ship that used to be humans and their room had been raided twice now.

And then they heard something come from the radio that made their hearts sink.

“Nathan, hold on, we’re sending someone over…”