Nova decided to tease the little eavesdropper.
He crept quietly toward the dining table and let out a sharp "Wah!" right beside Purrloin's small ears, which had been swiveling back and forth as it strained to listen in on the conversation.
The startled Purrloin instantly puffed up, its fur bristling and its back arching high as it hissed in alarm. When it spotted Nova lying casually on the dining table with a wide grin on his face, the offended Pokémon turned its head away in anger and jabbed its fluffy tail straight toward Nova's mouth.
Nova quickly dodged out of the way.
He remembered clearly that when Purrloin had interrogated Robbin, it had used its tail to tickle the soles of her feet. There was absolutely no way he was letting that thing end up in his mouth.
The irritated Purrloin decided it was done with Nova entirely.
But Nova kept grinning. He reached over and gently rubbed Purrloin's incredibly soft head.
"Alright, don't be angry," he said warmly. "We're going to live together from now on."
Purrloin's body went stiff. It slowly turned its head and stared at Nova with its large, beautiful eyes, as if it had misheard something and needed to make sure.
"That's right," Nova said. "You never have to go back to that place again. This is your home now."
A moment passed. Then Nova watched several emotions flicker across Purrloin's small face in quick succession. First came shock, wide-eyed and still. Then the corners of its mouth curled upward with joy. And then, without warning, Purrloin scrunched its little face and burst into tears with a loud wail.
It threw itself into Nova's arms. Teardrops fell onto him one after another as Purrloin buried itself against his chest, using its small sharp teeth to gently Bite down on the fabric of his shirt, crying and nuzzling into his scent all at once.
Nova wrapped his arms around Purrloin and held it close, stroking its silky fur slowly back and forth with his palm, quietly soothing the overwhelmed little Pokémon.
Meanwhile, from the corner of the living room, his other Pokémon was watching.
Sprigatito had curled itself into a tight ball in the corner, its eyes narrowed with unmistakable jealousy as it stared at Purrloin. Even so, despite the clear envy in its gaze, it made no move to jump over and compete for Nova's attention.
Over the past week, the two of them had been going back and forth against each other. Sprigatito had started out as a naive, sweet-natured Pokémon that Purrloin could run circles around with its clever antics. But little by little, it had grown sharper, more aware, and far less easy to fool. It had learned the rules of the game.
And right now, it understood that this moment belonged to Purrloin.
Even if it tried, no amount of pushing or squeezing in would win Nova's attention back. So it sat quietly, watching with sharp eyes.
Nya, Sprigatito thought with great dignity. Fine. I'll lend Nova to you for five minutes. You better appreciate it.
Lune Town, now reduced to rubble and ash, had finally grown quiet as the Security Officers finished pulling out one by one.
The Forest City team had split into two groups. Officer Jenny, summoned directly by headquarters, had taken two officers with Arcanine partners and departed first. Because her team had suffered no losses during the entire operation, Pat volunteered to handle rear guard duty, making the Forest City unit the last to leave Lune Town.
There was another reason Pat had chosen to stay behind. Beyond the standard evacuation, they also needed to quietly escort Robbin back to Forest City without drawing attention.
Based on what Jenny and Nova had worked out together, headquarters had been so thoroughly compromised that handing Robbin over through official channels the way they had with Taylor would be far too risky. If someone had been able to arrange Taylor's death, they could do the same to Robbin, and every lead would go cold along with her.
One night had been enough for Pat to pull a great deal of information about Team Origin from Robbin. But everything she had given them was her word alone, and its accuracy still needed to be checked. Until they reached Forest City and could dig deeper, Jenny had decided to keep Robbin's capture a secret entirely.
The Forest City officers rode their mount Pokémon to a temporary camp roughly twenty kilometers east of Lune Town. A fleet of police assault vehicles had been stationed there for the operation, since not every officer had a mount Pokémon available. About a dozen officers boarded three vehicles. Pat drove the lead vehicle himself, while another officer named Leon rode in the back to keep watch over Robbin.
"Hey, hey," Robbin said, squirming her thin frame toward Sandra with a playful lilt in her voice. "I need to use the bathroom. You're not going to stop me from getting out, are you?"
Leon only noticed how bony she was. He felt no particular sympathy.
"Don't try anything funny," he said flatly.
"Oh, you're so serious," Robbin replied, blinking at him. "But I really do need to go. If you keep saying no, I might just have an accident right here in the vehicle." She tilted her head. "Unless... that's what you're hoping to see?"
Leon pinched the bridge of his nose and reached for the walkie-talkie.
"The prisoner says she needs to use the bathroom," he reported to Pat. "What do we do?"
Pat slowed the vehicle to a stop and thought for a moment.
"We can't really leave her with no choice," he said finally. "You keep a close eye on her."
Leon opened his mouth to point out the obvious problem with a male officer supervising a female prisoner in that situation, but with no female officers present, he had no better option. He accepted the task with a quiet sigh, reminding himself that this would have been much simpler if Officer Jenny were still with them.
He reached over to unlock one of Robbin's handcuffs, intending to cuff the loose end to his own wrist so she would have one free hand without any chance of escape.
But just before the second cuff clicked shut, he caught a glimpse of Robbin's face as she turned away.
She was smiling.
It was a small, sharp smile. The smile of someone whose plan had just gone exactly right.
"Got you," she whispered.
With her freed right hand, Robbin reached into the lining of her jacket and pulled out something small that had been hidden there the entire time. Before Leon or Pat could react, she flung the object into the space between them.
It was a small, spiky sphere. Its barbs had been carefully coated in clear wax so it could be hidden without discomfort. Sandra barely had time to register that it had eyes and a nose before he realized what it was: a Qwilfish that had been using Minimize, compressing itself down to a tiny size and lying still just long enough.
"Self-Destruct!" Robbin commanded.
The explosion was immediate and massive. The assault vehicle erupted into a ball of fire, and the two vehicles behind it came to a screeching halt as their drivers scrambled to understand what had happened.
Out of the flames walked Robbin.
A green barrier had wrapped itself around her at the last second, shielding her from the blast. Her equipment belt was back in her hands. She stepped through the still-burning wreckage with a wide grin on her face, laughing freely as the fire roared around her.
She looked like something that had just walked straight out of a nightmare.