Chapter Text
You were always telling Looker not to rush into situations without backup. It really was a shame you didn't listen to that advice either. A call from a young gym challenger mentioning a weird machine with the symbol of the group you and Looker were investigating was too important to leave unattended. The kid got away from trouble at least but you… You feel a lot smaller. You were able to get away under a cafe table where a stray napkin disguised you from a glancing look but it wasn't a lasting solution.
You collect yourself for a second taking a deep breath. The group you were investigating is noisily a few streets away so it’d be easy to evade them. Looker wasn't due to be back from his errands for a few hours now so the office would be defenseless and an obvious place to look. Less people knew about your boyfriends however so that just leaves the journey to gear station. Checking the surroundings again including looking up- you had a feeling you were a bug and flying types were trouble- you moved making sure to only pause under cover and out of sight.
Your steps felt too small too slow, a couple pokemon like vulpix gave you a questioning look but didn’t pause from following their trainer. Passing the door of a shop it opened bumping into your face you rubbed your nose for a second to ease the pain. You saw a bit of pinkish red out of the corner of your eye which made you look back to the glass on the door.
You paused. wurmple. Inching closer to your reflection you ended up tapping it with your horn. Was it a comfort to know what you are? It is a pokemon you know at least but… not exactly a strong one. Shaking off the consideration you can process this when you’re in some sense of safety, and especially not in danger of getting hit by the same door twice. With more urgency in your pace you continued. Gear station should be just around the corner so one last burst and you can find some help.
The station entrance was intimidating as a very crushable wurmple but it was getting to the evening rush and you didn't want to wurmple alone tonight. Trying to stay close to the railing you finally made it away from the outdoors and to something familiar. First order of business would be finding a clock. If you knew the time you could guess something close to the schedule. Your walking slows for a moment to glance around but a shadow darkens over you and you duck as a foot passes without any sort of pause. Scrambling away you use the nearest trash can as cover. At least people don’t walk there. Bearings. Right. There’s clocks mounted everywhere to help commuters so it’s no trouble to find when you aren’t about to be stepped on.
Its too late to find Ingo or Emmet on their lunch breaks, but they might be switching battle subway shifts soon and if you could just catch them–
“Are you lost little wurmple?” You flinch and take a few steps back when you look up there's a gear station employee
“Oh don’t be nervous!” he fishes a pokemon treat out of his pocket, you know Emmet’s Joltik like the same kind of treat so maybe it's for bug types.
“Look we’ll get you back to your trainer, it's busy out here you could get hurt” You let him pick you up. There isn’t a trainer to find but they wouldn’t have a chance to release you till after the stations closed so you hope you’re able to find Ingo or Emmet by then. He tries offering you treats again but you refuse. You really hope you don’t have to eat pokemon food.
He keeps chattering while carrying you towards the main info desk which would be close to Ingo and Emmet’s office. Perfect. You start considering how you’ll get their attention. You never noticed how they dealt with lost pokemon before so it wouldn’t be easy to plan around without– The walking stopped and you look up from thinking.
Ingo!
“ple!” Ingo looked at your noise and gave you a pat
“I’m glad to see you in high spirits! We’ll do our best to safely reunite you with your trainer right on schedule!”
How to make him tell who you are
You aren’t just a wurmple!!
“I’m on the same track towards the office so I can take wurmple to their stop while you put an announcement out for the lost pokemon.”
“On it!” The employee walked off towards the nearest intercom
Something was comforting about Ingo carrying you
“It can be dangerous to get uncoupled from your trainer, you should be more careful in busy places like this. Don’t be worried however we’ll ensure you get back on track!”
But you had no time to enjoy the ride! This was your chance to get him to notice you.
You look down at the pokeballs on his belt. Maybe one of them could figure it out? There wasn’t any reason for Ingo to look at a wurmple and consider yes that's my beloved right there but the pokeballs would be a long jump and wurmple weren't known for jumping but they miiiight... You look into the big shape of Ingo’s jacket cuffs.
It’d be a bit of a squeeze higher up the arm but worth a shot. You dash in hearing Ingo give the cutest yelp in surprise. But the path is immediately blocked from his hand clamping over his sleeve blocking your path. Too tight a fit for a lil bug like you
Damn
“wurm…”
“I understand you may be cold but that sleeve doesn’t have the proper safety regulations to travel in. It would be best for you to remain where I can safely escort you to your destination.”
You back out of his sleeve and back to his open palm since you weren’t getting any deeper anyways. Ingo covers you with his other hand.
“There isn’t much track remaining but I hope this makes your travels more comfortable.“
you nuzzle into his hand for a moment
The comfort is short. You wouldn’t get left like this right? There has to be something you can do for him to recognize you. Looking at the hand covering you you see his xtranciever! Maybe you could get him a message that way. Rolling onto your back you climb over the back of his other hand.
“Careful-” He holds his other hand ready to catch if you get unsteady from the back of his wrist.
you start poking at his xtranciever getting to your number poking rapidly at the profile picture to get his attention.
it starts a call and he stops walking to try and cancel it
“Ah- Y/N’s busy at work we shouldn’t disturb them.” you bat away his attempts to hang up and he relents
“Well I suppose they wouldn’t want to miss out on something cute like…” The call isn’t answered and you try tapping at it more but Ingo picks you up with his other hand to look closer.
“That’s odd. Y/N said they’d just be in the office today…” Ingo considers for a moment while you wiggle in his grip.
“When they call back I’ll explain.” He walks a bit faster for the last leg of the journey
“If you haven’t departed at that time I’ll bring you on call for them to see the culprit who tried to disturb them” Ingo smiles for a second but he also looks a bit concerned and you flop in his grip
“ple….”
Ingo opens the last door.
“This is your stop, now we must continue down different tracks. You’ve been an excellent passenger and I’m sure we’ll find your trainer soon”
He passes you over the counter to the desk clerk and they put you into a pokemon carrier. You circle the area for a moment, it was made for pokemon bigger than wurmple probably around the size of a zigzagoon could fit comfortably. The pinching type lock could prove troublesome. You tapped your front legs a little bit. Not much muscles in those but you’d have to figure out something.
Hearing the office door closed you’d need a new approach to get them to figure you out before who knows what’ll happen. As a pokemon you have a couple attacks right? You try to shoot string and it works! You have some wurmple webbing. Not very useful currently aside from making a mess, you use it to stand at the top of the cage anyways, maybe a different perspective will help. Now looking upside down you will definitely be capable of climbing the door where the latch is but if you can operate it would be a whole other challenge that you don’t want to start currently since being in view of the desk clerk would put you at risk of being found out. If they don’t know you plan to escape then it’ll be easier to catch them off guard. There’s a seam in the middle of the walls for the plastic carrier being kept together which maybe force could do something but that would be loud.
You poke at the roof with a little scraping noise from the tip of your leg, if you knew the weak point a well placed tackle could work but that's more of a break out than a sneak out still. You had a few hours. Maybe something would change and you could get extra help. You stretch back down to the pillow in the bottom of the carrier. Just to make sure you lift the edges to peek at what the bottom of the carrier looks like.
It looks a lot like the top so the main place it clips together is that middle seam. Stretching up to have a closer look at the seam you tried poking into it, it lifted a little from the tip of your leg but not nearly enough. and there wasn't any way to tell which end the hinge would be on versus the clasp. With a huff you sit back down to rest.
Maybe just making a mad dash when they opened your carrier would be a good idea.
Might feel up to testing if you have any buggy poison if it came to that.
“Are the subway masters in the office currently?” You look up at the familiar voice startled. It’s Looker talking to the clerk!
“Yes, do you have a meeting scheduled?”
“No I’m searching for their partner, we were supposed to meet up so I’m checking if they stopped in here.” You fight the urge to start bashing around the cage, if you draw suspicion now you can’t escape but
“WURM WURMPLE!!” Shouting was an option still they might not understand you but dammit Looker we’re investigating disappearing people being turned into pokemon
“wurm wurm wurm” The clerk looks back at your racket but doesn’t regard you and finishes talking to Looker
“They should both be in there so you can go right in.” and Looker thanks them and goes off not giving you a glance you huff and lay back down as the clerk turns their attention to you
“are you hungry lil guy? We haven’t heard from your owner yet but I can see if we have something…”
“wurm…” You weren’t hungry but if they left then you could have more options to get out
“Right, I'll see about getting us some snacks just hang tight.” They put a sign on the desk then left to grab food.
You had a limited time to act. If you could get out of this cage before Looker leaves the office you could beat him up until he recognizes you.
Now you properly try that lock your claws barely reach the pegs. You could move ONE but that’s hardly going to help unless. You look at the top.
If you can move it then use webbing to get it stuck and not relatch then you could fix the other one. You hold the latch down and shoot webbing over that half of the mechanism. It slows down but its not stopped so you tackle the door quick.
There's a thunk and the whole carrier jostles from the force but the latch didn't make it in the hole so it’s successfully wedged open. You grab the lower peg and push and the door scrapes open.
Huffing from the exertion you climb over the desk and onto the floor. Opting to hide by the public trash can so you don’t get spotted before you can get Looker’s attention.
Being that Ingo and Emmet haven’t seen you he wasn’t due for a long conversation in there. Hopefully he doesn’t get them too worried though you were right here after all.
Well you’re still a wurmple so maybe a little worried.
You hear the door click open
“I still have other leads to follow- so I wouldn’t call them missing yet but I’ll keep you guys updated. Let me know if they stop by here.” Looker shuts the door behind him releasing a sigh
“Right next-” He starts to walk right by you and you skuttle out and get his ankles with a string shot and he hits the ground with a grunt. He looks back at you with a little bit of annoyance and you scuttle up and start incessantly poking at his face.
“agh what are you-” he sits up and you climb up his coat to continue poking until he pulls you off and holds you in a tight fist
“Would you stop for a minute wheres your train-” he makes eye contact with you.
You can see gears turning
You wiggle a little in his grip and he opens up his hand to hold you gently instead of half crushing you
“Y/N….?” you give a little wurmple nod
“what the-” He starts investigating you closer
“Are you alright? Your note didn’t mention much for detail let alone you SAID you’d be going back to the office and this isn’t our-” He stops himself taking a breath
“I’m glad you’re- debatably- alright. However you can’t go back to work like this” He stands up off the floor.
“wuuuurm”
“I’ll go find out if there’s a way to get you back to normal. If not that at the very least a way to communicate again. But until then you should lie low until we can figure out if this was deliberate.” Looker goes back into Ingo and Emmet’s office while talking to you.
Emmet is standing in the middle of the room and Ingo looks up from paperwork at his intrusion. Looker pauses mid step holding you still and looks at them.
“Right there’s a bit to explain but Y/N is this wurmple.”