Pokémon Phantom Black: Journey through Johu

Chapter 12: Meeting

After arriving to Ashbourne in the middle of the night, Brandon had Charlie find a hotel while he called Sofie and found out where she was. Upon arrival at the address, he noted it seemed like a small shady warehoues. Fitting for small shady meetings. He went in and saw Sofie with a bunch of folks in Razor uniforms, playing some card game.

"Hey, what're you playing?"

"Garbage. Heard of it?" A tall man responded, looking about as friendly as could be expected.

"Not really, I'll just keep watching."

"In that case just wait until this match is over and we'll talk." Now Sofie was the one who spoke.

Soon she won the game. "Hah, bunch of idiots, can't even beat a small girl." She boasted.

"Well then, how about you introduce me to your friends?"

"Sure, Brandon, these are, from left to right, Lloyd, Harry, Moe, Larry and Curly."

"Hey there." First spoke Lloyd, the same tall man who'd spoken before. Next to him sat a Golbat. 

"Hi." Next was Harry, a short fat one. His partner seemed to be Popplio.

"Howdy." Moe was thin, so much so that he almost looked sick. On his lap was a Bonsly.

"Hello." Larry seemed strong, but also looked like he had back issues, from the way he sat. Brandon'd noticed him taking some pain medicine during the game. His pokémon was an Oranguru. 

"Good day." Lastly, Curly was an elderly man, and his partner a Drampa. 

After introductions, they started to talk about what they'd do. Sofie had already filled them in about Marla and Kyle's Sandshrew.

"Well, if we want to get back the little one, we first need to find out where he is." said Curly.

"If it was stolen by Marla it must be going towards the boss's big project." noted Lloyd.

"Wait, what project?" Sofie asked.

"You weren't informed? The boss had us go around stealing as many pokémon as possible, no matter which ones, for a special future mission." Everyone else seemed aware of the subject. 

"Well, you not knowing is your fault for leaving. Why'd you do that anyways? We all agreed the best way to combat the team is from the inside." Harry inquired, and the others seemed just as curious. 

"I got tired and decided it wasn't worth it."

"Anyways, that means it'd be hard to take the Sandshrew back, as it's one of the top priority assignments, right?" Brandon finally took part in the discussion, changing the subject.

"Nope, there're already 1000 pokémon and the boss still claims it's nowhere near enough. They wouldn't account for a single missing one as long as they don't see us taking it."

"And how hard would that be?"

"Less than you'd think. For starters, all the pokémon have to go out for checkups, walks and training every day in order to be more fit for the plan, whatever that's supposed to mean. So the assigned members can just take them out at any time."

"In other words, if one of you guys were assigned to it, that'd be a piece of cake."

"Are you an idiot? Not only are the chances of that minuscule, that'd make it easy to find us out. But we can, however, find a way to frame someone else for it."

"How?"

"That's where you, lad, come in." 

The plan was for Brandon to take a disguise while the others distracted the right person. Then he'd simply take the Sandshrew.

"Wouldn't it be easy to recognize me as a fake?"

"All they check is keycards. Most of the members don't know each other, so there would only be trouble if you had bad luck."

"I only set out on a journey to beat the gyms and suddenly I have to rob the mafia. Does that sound lucky to you?"

"...you'll be fine... probably." 

Then Charlie called from the hotel. Brandon and Sofie quickly decided to execute the plan in 2 days, then left.

"By the way, Sofie, where've you been staying?" Brandon asked on the way. 

"In the warehouse's couch. It's free and only us use it."

"Fair enough."

Meanwhile, Kyle still fought at Mt. Pina.