"You sound like someone who'd be good to have around on an adventure," she said, sincerely. Saying it turned her smile into a real grin.
"Oh, I sure hope so," Lyra said, reciprocating the grin. "I never say no to an adventure, whether it is exploring some place or, y'know, spending an afternoon at the shopping mall~!"
Which didn't sound like a bad idea, actually! Did the Old Wild West have shopping malls or something equivalent to that? Oh! It'd be neat to plan a lovely girls' night out someday, and—
"It's not the yakuza, more like a shady corporation, but I think they're abducting pokémon for experiments, or something. And I think they've got my purrloin. Salem. I want to get her back."
—and that train of thought and everything it carried onboard immediately departed the mental station because
oh goodness gracious!!
Lyra stared wide-eyed at Laura, shocked by the news. "What?! An organization that kidnapped your—But that's awful!!" she cried out, paws flying to her mouth. That definitely was a
very valid reason for wanting to find some dirt about a Pokémon-snatching organization of mad scientists and whatnot. (Not like such a goal demanded personal stakes, anyway — kidnapping Pokémon was simply
wrong!)
Heart brimming with sympathy, Lyra shared a sad glance with the other girl. "Oh my! I... I hope you'll find your Salem soon enough, and that she's okay..." she murmured as she lowered her paws, then shook her head. "I... I know I'd be so inconsolable if some shady syndicate like Team Rocket or something kidnapped Lapis, my Marill, to do who-knows-what to her..."
"You ever have, uh... Bad times, doing your crimefighting stuff? Sounds dangerous."
Lyra managed a tiny smile, a flicker of bitter amusement radiating from her eyes and twitchy ears. "Define 'bad times'. It's a quite broad statement, hehe..."
The Buneary sighed and leaned back against her seat, rubbing one of her ears in front of herself. A contemplative aura entered her gaze as she dove into her memories, including the not-so-pleasant ones.
"Well, um, truthfully, I've been involved in plenty of dangerous situations. Very dangerous and, especially,
veeeery scary situations. But well," she chuckled nervously, "that's an expected risk when you're dealing with criminals and people with no morality, I'd say. I mean, it's not like they're gonna give up their illegal ways of life just because some kids tell them to stop because 'pretty please', no?" She looked away and began whispering to herself.
"Things would've been much simpler if they would, though..."
Lyra looked again at Laura and tilted her head. "Still, bad times. Um... I guess there have been moments where my friends and I had to...
cope with a few things we found out about the criminal world, and that by meddling with those awful people we'd painted targets on ourselves, our Pokémon... and our families."
She winced and rubbed her paws together, still feeling uncomfortable at the thought of what some people were willing to do to bend others to their will.
"That was... not something we wished nor were ready to handle, but... but we
had to! Our home was in danger, slowly invaded by a powerful organization, and we couldn't just be complacent and ignore everything that was happening! Besides," her smile regained its cheer, "we weren't alone. We had a lot of allies who helped us, including some legends. And at the end, we did it. We saved our region. Our home."
Feeling heartened by her trip down memory lane, Lyra focused again on the other girl. "Though I suppose you've had similar bad moments, too? If that organization in your world is involved with illegal experiments and stuff," she narrowed her eyes, "then I bet there is plenty of dark money involved. A
lot of dark money that can pull strings in places, buy silence, and run stuff aground if needed? Because multiple disappearances of Pokémon, especially tame or domesticated ones, would be a pretty big deal otherwise, no?"
