Itch eyed her surroundings warily. Those gijinka hunters had been pretty zealous lately, but as she had for so long, the Ariados continued to avoid capture. As she glanced at the alleyways between the towering buildings of steel and concrete in case of an ambush, only one thought not related to capture passed through her mind.
I'm hungry.As she continued onward, there were plenty of fast food joints, convenience stores, or cheap diners, but there was one critical problem with eating at such a place. Itch had no money. She'd stolen a wallet from some chump in Striaton City once, but somewhere between there and here, she'd lost it and couldn't go back to find it, what with gijinka-hunting agents on the prowl trying to catch her for whatever sinister purpose they had in mind. It was quite the conundrum that left her penniless and relying on the kindness of strangers. Sadly, there weren't many people willing to hand out a meal to a gijinka, much less a bug-type like her. Itch had almost considered trying a disguise then turning in a kidnapped victim disguised as her to reap the big bounty, but part of her figured her pursuers were smarter than that. The rest of her just couldn't be bothered to find someone who looked enough like her for the job.
As Itch tried to think up other ways to get her hands on some cash to last her a while - none of which were exactly the textbook definition of what an upstanding citizen would do - she heard a pair of voices, and some frantic footsteps.
"There she is!"
"After here!"
Itch turned to face the voices, and...
Give me a break already! More of those gijinka-chasers. And they had hazmat suits this time too! She couldn't just disable them with poison like normal, and although she was quick on the web-spinning front, they were too close for her to get one up in time! This had to be some sort of joke. There was really no helping it. Itch turned her attention to the building just behind her, took off her boots, and hung them up over the feelers on her back. It was pretty uncomfortable, but she'd live. Hands and feet now bare, she put her extremities against the wall, and started crawling upward. Up the gijinka descended, glancing below her only briefly as she turned and started to move around the building. The hazmat goons were still tailing her.
"Go away dammit," she muttered. The goons were already moving to meet her on the other side. She could make this work. Glancing around, she saw a story or two above her, a balcony! And the door was open, with the resident human standing outside. She seemed oblivious to what was going on. She'd do perfectly. Or rather, her open door would. Itch creeped her way along the wall, not turning to close in on the door until she was above the doorway and its human. She froze for a moment when the human - a woman - turned to face where Itch had been, thinking she'd been caught. But it seemed she'd just slipped this lady's radar.
Snickering in her head at her own genius, Itch crawled in through the open door and...promptly froze. Not one, not two, but
three Pokémon.
Crap. I hadn't thought about if they had these. Looking at the four-legged residents (and the no-legged one as well) of the apartment, Itch put a finger over her mouth to indicate that she'd really appreciate it if they kept quiet. However, that would not be necessary, as Itch was plenty capable of making the noise needed to rat herself out. As her boots slipped off her back, Itch tried to reach out and catch them, but the sudden weight shift and loss of a limb holding her up on the ceiling was enough for the other three to no longer cut it. Itch fell to the floor with a resounding thud, and would probably have a bruise on her forehead to remember the accident by before the day was out.