Adventure Thread - Group A

Kaeda cuts straight to the point. "Lia's gone. I'm positive she was taken away by whoever did this to you, and Sasha. Tell me everything you know so we can save her before something horrible happens."

Celestyna's expression quickly turns serious. "What about your other friend? The one who got that internship at Saffron Genetics? They're in a much better position to find out if Lia is there or not. I highly doubt that she is, mind you, as the colleagues that I know would never kidnap anyone, which is what I'm assuming happened to Lia if you can't reach her." She sighs. "I'll reach out to some of my old colleagues anonymously just in case, but I don't want to get your hopes up. It's unlikely that I'll get anything useful out of this. All I need is a computer."

Once she receives the computer in question, Celestyna quickly begins typing away, claiming that she is creating a new account to log into a public forum that her former coworkers use all the time to discreetly discuss work programs and reach out to potential recruits like Eve. Meanwhile, she presumes that either Floyd or Kaeda are contacting Eve.

Thankfully, it doesn't take long for Eve to get back to them. She is appropriately mortified at the thought of Lia having gone missing and possibly having been kidnapped. She promises to inquire about anybody "new" that might have recently entered the company. Sure, she's just an intern, but she's shadowing some mid-level scientist concerning things she can't talk about.

Celestyna has a little more luck, as it turns out there have been a rash of mysterious disappearances lately. Problem is: they're spread out all over the Kanto region, making it nearly impossible to find a pattern. The only things that these incidents have in common are that they seem to most frequently occur in remote or isolated areas, there are no witnesses, and it seems as though the victim in question has vanished off the face of the earth. Not exactly helpful, but good to know. Trouble is, Lia was last seen by her friends at the Ranch, ostensibly heading straight for Saffron, considering that Aleisandra hadn't seen her. Cerulean City, Route 5, and Saffron City are not exactly 'remote and isolated areas'. The only explanation Celestyna can come up with is that she was ambushed mid-air somehow. Mid-air combat is not exactly the easiest thing, and a pitched battle would have been noticed on the ground. Thus, the only possible solution to this 'problem' is that Lia was attacked mid-air by an unknown party, pushed into the cloud layer to avoid easy detection, and then somehow snatched away without anyone being the wiser.

Celestyna sighs after relaying this information to Kaeda and Floyd a couple days later. "I'm sorry I wasn't able to get more helpful information. One thing I can say for sure is: if Lia was kidnapped by the same people who abducted and transformed Sasha and I, as seems to be the case, then she is definitely alive. They would never kill a potential test subject. No self-respecting scientist would do that if they had any other option. Point being: I only wish I could do more to help."

Eve is eventually able to inform Floyd and Kaeda that Lia is, in fact, not held at Saffron Genetics as far as she can tell. It's not like she has unlimited access to their files, but she managed to find another chatty intern and got them to snoop around for her. Somehow. She is fairly certain this other intern would have gone snooping all on their own, even without Eve hinting at it. What this snoop did find though, was the location of a few old labs that the folks at Saffron Genetics used to use before they made it big and got their grant money. These places are supposed to be sealed and generally off-limits to anyone who doesn't have the proper clearance codes. However, the snoop discovered that someone has been looking at these files before them. Recently too. No way of telling who, but that means there is a mole inside Saffron Genetics. Or something. The snoop proceeded to get off-track by going on and on about how cool it was and how it was 'just like a spy film!' or something. Eve didn't really get what the hype was, since spy films don't involve Eevees.

"I think we should start with the lab near Seafoam Islands or the ones near Cinnabar. We can traverse the water easily enough, but I'm not certain how you'll do with mountain climbing."

Floyd says, looking at what they know.

Floyd nervously climbs on to Salamence.

Alright then. Lead the way.

He says, quieter than normal.

Sneak-sneak-sneak!

Floyd releases Calyx and frowns.

"Sand. Wonderful."

He mutters, memories of Pewter gym suddenly running through his mind.

Kaeda spins towards the sudden appearance of the girl, and tossed out Orpheus. Trainer, and Gardevoir glared down the mysterious girl as well as her Serperior. "I knew it..." Kaeda growled. "So you decided to come after us before we raided the labs. Tell us where Lia is, and I promise your hospital stay won't be as long!"

Floyd stares at the strange girl and the Serperior for the moment, suppressing a sigh when Kaeda releases Orpheus.

"We haven't kidnapped anyone and are trying to rescue our friend." He says to the stranger before turning to Kaeda. "Lia described the criminals as sand ninjas. Does this girl look like a sand ninja to you?"

'We haven't kidnapped anyone' - that's exactly what a kidnapper would say! And why else would they be skulking around there? There of course being the weirdly normal place where all her friends had disappeared. But she tried not to think about that unpleasantness! No she had to focus on getting them back.

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"So you just 'happened' to be sneaking around here? That's a bit hard to believe!" Jane called out, but she wasn't quite as sure of herself anymore.