Bonnie was still looking around, checking if there were any magical facilities here, like that thing that had allowed them to travel thousands of miles in an instant to this unfamiliar town.
"I knew you guys would like it here!" Abigail said, remembering Caroline's words from earlier, and extended an invitation to the two.
Seeing them agree, Abigail accompanied them as they continued strolling around Pelican Town.
After looking around some more, Bonnie finally lowered her voice and asked in a whisper, "Abigail, isn't there any place here that's... a bit more magical?"
"Magical place?"
For Abigail, who was used to living here, there really wasn't anywhere that counted as magical.
Thinking for a moment, she suddenly remembered the mine in the mountains.
So she whispered, "If I have to name one, there actually is."
Bonnie immediately showed an "I knew it" expression. She then leaned in close to Abigail, looking like she was all ears.
"Then let me take you for a tour." Saying this, she turned her head to glance at Indeedee and Meowth, thought for a moment, and sent out her Gengar, Amber, and then also took out the Frog Egg trinket.
Although she and Amber had previously been invincible in that mine, since she was bringing Serena and Bonnie, who were unfamiliar with the place, after some thought, she decided to make ample preparations just in case of any accidents.
Meanwhile, on the other side, in Kalos.
Giovanni looked at the trembling Team Rocket executive on the other end of the phone and couldn't help but scold loudly: "How did you mess this up?! They were tied up and you still let them escape?!"
"We kept a close eye on them—" one executive said guiltily. "But they suddenly vanished right in front of us, and we couldn't find them anywhere nearby."
"Couldn't find them? How is that possible?"
"Maybe they used Teleport?" the executive said, giving up and voicing his guess.
Theoretically, the chances were slim, but he really couldn't think of any other possibility. He only knew that after a flash of light, the four of them collectively disappeared right before his eyes.
And because they had tied them up in time, he hadn't given them the chance to take out their Poké Balls or other items.
Which meant they didn't rely on Pokémon to escape.
Moreover, according to his investigation of the girls, none of the Pokémon they possessed knew the move Teleport—
Hearing this, Giovanni was about to continue berating him, but thinking about the bizarre items those girls carried, he couldn't help but ponder the possibility that they really had teleported.
"Then where would they have teleported to?" the secretary beside him spoke up. "A Pokémon's Teleport can only move them nearby at most; any further is impossible. Have you searched the vicinity?"
"We searched." The executive spoke in a ghostly tone: "The entire town is under our organization's control... we searched inside and out, and they're nowhere to be found."
Giovanni thought for a moment, then waved his hand at the secretary beside him.
"I remember two of them are Pokémon Coordinators, right?" Giovanni continued. "Keep an eye on the upcoming Pokémon Contests; we'll know when they show up at a venue."
"Understood, I'll arrange it immediately."
Giovanni looked at the information he had gathered, ultimately fixing his gaze on that mysterious name—Pelican Town.
On the other side, Abigail had now brought Serena and Bonnie to the entrance of the mines.
Looking at the pitch-black mine that occasionally echoed with eerie screeches, Serena paused and reached out to grab Abigail's clothes.
"Don't be scared." Abigail patted Serena's shoulder, then grabbed the back of Bonnie's collar just as she was about to dash inside.
"No running off. The Mines are still very dangerous."
"Is that so?" Bonnie struggled in disappointment, choosing to obediently follow behind Abigail.
"What's that cave entrance over there for?" Serena asked, pointing at the Dwarf's cave not far away.
Hearing this, Abigail looked over. She hadn't really been there much, and didn't even remember there being a cave entrance there. Just as she was about to shake her head, a group of Dwarves walked out of the entrance, holding Moomoo Milk.
Since they couldn't understand the Dwarven language, the three of them could only hear them chattering away unintelligibly.
"Are these Pelican Town's Pokémon?!" Bonnie pointed at the Dwarves excitedly. "They look so cute!"
Hearing this, Serena took out her Pokédex and scanned the Dwarves.
"Ah, just as I thought, they're not in the Pokédex."
"——Probably not." Abigail hadn't seen these things much either, but Pelican Town shouldn't have any native Pokémon.
Just then, the arguing Dwarves finally noticed the three girls' presence.
The leading Dwarf let out a yelp and turned right around, running back inside the house.
"They seem to be Dwarves." Abigail suddenly remembered that she seemed to have read about their existence in some book. "Anyway, they're not Pokémon."
"I see." Bonnie retracted the Poké Ball she had taken out with a disappointed look.
"..."
Abigail stared at the Poké Ball in Bonnie's hand, and after a long while said: "It's best if you... don't throw Poké Balls at the things we see later either."
Logically speaking, they couldn't be caught anyway.
"Those things living in the mines, they count as a kind of—monster? unique to Pelican Town." Abigail chose her words carefully. "They're different from Pokémon; they're very hostile to humans and impossible to communicate with."
"So there are creatures like that in the world." Bonnie quickly shook Abigail's arm. "Hurry, let's go see!"
Serena, on the other hand, nervously sent out her Delphox and held onto its paw.
"Let's go."
Delphox held its wand high, the flickering firelight illuminating the dim mine.
"It does feel a bit more like an adventure this way," Abigail said, putting away the Glow Ring she had originally planned to take out.
Just to be safe, Indeedee also followed behind the three.
But to be honest, Indeedee couldn't help much. Although working on the farm had improved its abilities quite a bit, its experience points were still what they were, and since it had no desire to fight anyway.
It had Ron put all its stat points into Defense.
When necessary, at most it could just act as a meat shield for everyone.
Thinking this, Indeedee edged a little closer to the Gengar.
"Gengar?"
"Indeedee, indeed." (I'm relying on you too.)
"Me too, me too, meow." Meowth walked beside Amber, rubbing its paws together somewhat sycophantically. "I'll be relying on you to protect me too, meow."
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