PK had it in her mind to let them hear her anyway, but decided against it. Let them have their dumb tricks. The audience was roaring with applause at however he’d concluded the trick anyway, so no one would have heard her regardless. She... she did fall through a trapdoor, right? It was too dark to tell. Why would Hugh pick someone to help him out if they would just find out his secrets? Couldn’t the chosen Pokemon just rat Hugh out? PK wondered these questions (rather half-heartedly, admittedly, for she didn’t really care for magic shows to begin with) before realizing that the unknown who had been carrying her was on the move. What the hell.

If there was one thing that was absolutely frightening no matter her life circumstances, it was running into things in the dark. And here someone was, carrying her through a whole room full of somethings in the dark. Maybe she’d bump her head, maybe she’d get a concussion, what did it matter? Not much, apparently! Maybe this guy, girl, whatever, would trip and drop her and she’d fall into some pit. She couldn’t see anything to know otherwise! Wait. No, it was a guy, definitely a guy. Fluffy? Like on the poster? Oh.. wait, there’d been a Lopunny on the poster! But... it was a girl on the poster, it seemed. This voice had been a guy. Was she mistaken? It sounded familiar though. But how could it be? Ahh, it wasn’t that farfetched. She had lived out in the Bay for most of her life, it was possible...

Eh. But what did it matter, anyway? PK mostly cared about where they ended up. Flying through the darkness was terrifying--okay, well, it wasn’t flying so much as... taking giant strides. It wasn’t on purpose, but she found herself clinging to the--shirt?--of whatever this fluffy guy was wearing. If she was sleepy before, she was definitely alert now. She might have squeaked and gasped a bit in her utter panic, though she really couldn’t be sure with the way her heart thumping completely filled her ears. Blood rushing, that’s all she could hear. She only guessed that she had accidentally made her terror known when the unknown fellow asked if she was all right somewhere along the lines. Snorting her (untrue) assent, they continued up, down, across, wherever the hell they were going.

And then she felt his weight shift and a door opened (it seems the fellow had kicked it open, judging from the sudden jolt she experienced), blinding her momentarily with the onslaught of crazy lightworks that only the casino was known for. Immediately she had to squint. What a stupid amount of lights, she thought. Slowly, her eyes adjusted, and she was lowered down to the ground by her ride. She huddled over the floor, doing her best to shade her eyes with her tiny claws. Whatever feelings she’d gone through in the past few minutes were all replaced by a sense of vertigo and then that of nausea.

That same voice of the Pokemon who’d bounded over here, well, it seemed to recognize her. “PK? You’re...”

“What?” she asked. No time for games. She didn’t even turn around, the dizziness was filling her gut, threatening to pull her to the ground.

Perhaps her tone had set him off, or maybe she was just out of it and unable to really converse today and this stranger had sensed it, but he didn’t respond. She turned slightly to catch his gaze, but instead found an uneasy gape. It figured.

“You’re Dee?” she asked. “From the poster?”

“Erm... sort of. I mean, no, but yes, I’m filling in for her, and--” clearly this stranger felt awkward about this arrangement for whatever reason, fumbling on his words. He gave a sort of sheepish half grin in the middle of what he was saying. Something was shining in those green eyes that he didn’t dare mention. This was kind of infuriating. Or, well, it was until nausea won out again. PK had no energy to be annoyed. Though...

“Wait a sec, are you- you’re from the village then?” PK asked, not really needing to hear the answer. The answer was yes. A Lopunny... masculine build... green eyes... familiar voice, apparently recognized her... Ah! Aha!

“You’re... you’re a Rogue, aren’t you? I’ve seen you around.” PK looked up. The dainty vest looked out of place on his build, there was no question about it. He looked back. His silence was all the affirmation she needed. “You don’t make a very convincing girl up close,” she concluded.

He snorted a laugh, and then added, “No, but it gets the job done. And we get paid, y’know.” We? Definitely a team. Not one of her own, had to be a Rogue for sure.

Having completed his duty to deliver one (1) Kecleon to safety, the magician’s assistant swiveled about foot and scurried back into the darkness, off to perform more specific (and, in PK’s book, no doubt inane) deeds for Hugh.

Slowly the sense of falling and needing to vomit passed. Now, where was she, exactly? She wasn’t too familiar with the casino, a place that had been built shortly after she left. Her sister’s doings, of course. The big metal door from which she’d come closed resolutely and then it dawned on her that she’d accidentally lost track of her date by having participated in the little show. It wasn’t a big deal, and no one seemed to notice or care that she was there, but the casino felt way too cramped and crowded. It was hard to think, the buzzing of the lights, the occasional ding of the strange box machines (followed by the clatter of Poke that she’d recognize anywhere), the constant chatter all around her of excited and annoyed and happy Pokemon... it all combined into a very invasive sort of cacophony echoing around her head. The drowsiness set back in, and she was once again slumped over, lost in muddled thoughts, the location this time being in the middle of the brightly lit inner chamber of the casino instead of the atmospheric darkness of the theater’s gallery.

-----

Part 4 of "The Dates"
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