Flaky Accusations

         Mosswood felt deserted. The few Pokemon that were out and about tried not to linger too long. No one wanted to risk exposing themselves to any of the unusual threats Mosswood was facing. The place looked like a ghost town. Maybe it just felt that way when compared to Tabira. Tabira was the only city either member of Team Strike had spent a significant amount of time in. As Tabira's population was rather large, pretty much anywhere would have felt desolate in comparison.
         Unsettling first impressions aside, they had a couple of jobs to do. With any luck, one would help with the other. While tending to sick Pokemon, Team Strike could ask questions and find out more about the recent thefts. For that reason, Cath and Lyla began with healing the sick. They were ready to help out in any way they could. Unfortunately, that meant doing absolutely nothing because Zigzagoon and Sandshrew don't have any healing abilities, so they couldn't do much of anything by themselves. They had to stop by Cris's temporary residence to get some supplies, which presented them with another setback in their plan.
         "She's not here," Cath said. "Of course she isn't here. It was stupid of me to think she would be. This is basically a house call to an entire city. Of course she's going out to them."
         "It shouldn't be hard to track her down. We just need to ask around a bit."
         "That might take too long. Time is important here. The sick Pokemon come first, of course, but the longer we wait to prove Leite stole the books, the more chances she has to flee town. Let's just look around here, find whatever we need, and get started."
         The cabin didn't have much furniture. A table was sitting in the center of the cabin. That table was tall enough that Lyla could just barely see the nursing tools and papers scattered about its surface. Cath couldn't even do that, so she had to climb up onto the table. Once there, she began looking through the papers.
         "Wow, it's cluttered up here," Cath remarked
         "We're supposed to prove Leite innocent, not guilty," Lyla pointed out.
         "We're supposed to find the truth, whatever it is. Leite is more suspicious than anyone else I can think of. If she was innocent. Addy would have proof of it already. If a great reporter and a friend of Leite's granddaughter doesn't have proof, there probably isn't any because Leite isn't innocent."
         "The Keepers are some of the most trusted Pokemon in the world. You know that. None of them would steal anything."
         "Leite isn't a Keeper, is she? Take a look at this." Cath passed a sheet of paper down to Lyla. "There are a lot of big words here, and I'm not even sure all of these are real words."
         "I recognize some of these. Few of these. One is an herb used for curing coughs. Another is part of a cure for nausea. This looks like ingredient lists."
         "Maybe for this?" There was a stack of first aid kits on the table. Cath carefully picked one up and handed it down to Lyla. Lyla took a few moments to look through its contents, mostly vials, and compared it to the list she was holding.
         "It could be. It's hard to tell what went into any of these."
         "Hey!" Cris had returned, and she wasn't pleased to have unannounced newcomers. "Get off of there! And get out of here!"
         Cath quickly jumped off of the table and walked over next to Lyla. "Sorry. It's just, we're here to help out with the sick Pokemon, but we can't do anything for them by ourselves."
         "You should have waited. I wasn't gone that long. Still, it's great to see more people willing to help out. Have you familiarized yourselves with everything yet?"
         "Uh, no. We tried, but we actually have no idea what any of this is."
         "Oh. Well, don't worry about it too much. Just know that everything you have in there," one of her feelers pointed to the medkit, "is experimental. We've tried it on a few people, and it shows promise, but we don't think any of these are a total cure just yet. They haven't shown any serious side effects in anyone who has tried it so far."
         "Great." Cath began walking out the door, then stopped and turned around. "Where are the sick Pokemon?"
         "Clinic. I was about to head back there. I can show you the way."
         "Not them. They already have you and a bunch of other medics looking after them. I want to help the others."
         "Oh. Ok. We did have to turn away a lot of people because the clinic filled up too quickly. Let me think... there's a sick Drifloon not too far from here. Start with her. Turn left just outside of here, then right at the second road, and it's the fourth house on the left."
         "Alright, we'll start there. C'mon, Lyla." Lyla, who had been too scared to move since Cris's angry arrival, grabbed the medkit and quickly scurried out.

         "Let's knock and wait for a response this time," Lyla suggested. Cath nodded. Three knocks and five seconds later, a Drifloon greeted them.
         "Hello. Are you lost?"
         Lyla responded. "No. Hello. We are here on Cris's behalf to help out anyone who has the illness going around. We heard someone here has it."
         "Yes, that's me. You two can help? Please, come in." They did. Cath wandered around the room while Lyla focused on the patient. "I've been getting better. I haven't coughed anything up for a day now. Still, I don't know how bad this thing is going to get. If you can get rid of it, I'd appreciate it."
         "We don't know how effective this is. Cris thinks this should work, but we don't for sure."
         "Cris? She knows what she's doing. I'll take anything she worked on." Lyla handed over one of the vials. Drifloon quickly drank its contents.
         "Besides coughing, what symptoms have you had?"
         "None except coughing and dizziness, but that may have been because of the rain. I was outside when it started, and it hit hard."
         Lyla paused for a moment. "I should write this down. Do you have paper anywhere?"
         "Right here," Cath replied as she tore off a blank sheet from a notepad, grabbed a pencil, and handed them to Lyla. After realizing what she just did and who was watching, she turned to face Drifloon.  "Um, you don't mind, do you?"
         "No."
         While Lyla was writing, Cath asked a question. "Did you hear about the missing books?"
         "Yes, I do," Drifloon answered. "The Clefairy did it."
         This had Team Strike's undivided attention. "Clefairy?" Cath asked. "What Clefairy? Did you actually see them take anything?"
         "No, I didn't, but who else would've done it? I'm telling you, they're looking for another planet to control. They're trying to find out more about us to find out if they can take us out or not. And they can! Our magic isn't nearly as strong as theirs. Once they realize it, they'll be taking over. That thing," he pointed at Cath's helmet, "isn't going to stop them once they start using their mind control magic. You need something like this." From a nearby shelf, Drifloon had grabbed a tin foil hat and put it on. Although it was light, Drifloon was even lighter and began sinking a little bit under its weight. Lyla held out a hand to hold up the hat. Cath took off her helmet to examine. As she had noticed hundreds of times before, it indeed didn't contain any metal.
         "Right. I'll get this replaced sometime. Maybe once we're done here. Are we done here?"
         "I suppose we are. Get some rest and let Cris know if you develop any side effects." She held up the slip of paper. "I will pass this along to Cris."
         After they left, Cath made a suggestion. "You should let Cris know that medicine causes craziness."
         "What?"
         "I mean, no one actually believes that Clefairy are from the moon, right?"
         "I am uncertain, but now is not the time for this."

         At their next stop, they were greeted by a Vaporeon. After introductions, she led them into a back room where a sick Jolteon was sitting at a table and folding paper. As the trio arrived, he waved.
         "What are you doing here?" Cath asked as she looked at the dozens of paper birds littering the tabletop.
         "Folding paper cranes," Vaporeon answered. "Cranes are very powerful mythical birds that are said to have healing powers that far exceed Blissey's. Anyone who has a thousand of them will have exceptionally good health. He certainly needs it."
         "How does a piece of paper become that?"
         "It's not too hard. I can show you." Vaporeon handed Cath a piece of paper. She picked up another and slowly folded it, making sure Cath was able to see what she was doing. Cath made the same fold. They repeated for a few folds, and eventually, they both held paper cranes.
         "That's cool," Cath said excitedly after she finished. "Are there other things you can do with this?"
         "Yes, there are plenty, but for now, we need to keep working on paper cranes." Jolteon coughed into a strategically placed bucket then held up a sheet of paper with something written on it. Go ahead. Cath checked the bucket's contents. The flakes had congealed into some sludge-like substance that was moving a little.
         "Don't get too close," Vaporeon snapped. "He doesn't want to spread this to anyone."
         "Right." Cath backed away, grabbed another piece of paper, and sat next to Vaporeon. "So, what  else can you do with this?" Vaporeon picked up a piece of paper and, once again, slowly made a series of folds that Cath could easily follow. They went through a few easy shapes.
         Lyla took out a vial of medicine. "We don't know for sure how effective these will be. Cris has confidence that this will help, but we don't know if this will cure you outright." Jolteon seemed upset after hearing that but nodded and held his paw out.
         "You want it anyway?" Jolteon nodded. Lyla uncorked a medicine vial and handed it over. Jolteon tried to drink it, but coughed up more flakes instead. This happened twice more before Jolteon stopped trying.
         Lyla carefully grabbed the bottom of the still full vial. Jolteon let go. "Here's what I want you to do: Cough up as much as you can, then lie down, face up, mouth open. Can you do that?"
         Jolteon nodded, took a few deep breaths, then coughed continuously into the bucket. Eventually, his coughing evolved into wheezing. Flakes stopped coming out. Once his breathing had calmed a bit, Lyla handed the vial back and Jolteon quickly drank its contents.
         After waiting a few moments, Lyla asked, "Are you feeling any better?" Jolteon shook his head. "Do you feel different at all?" Jolteon shook his head again. "This is experimental. If anything happens, let Cris know. That's all we can do here, so we'll leave now. Get some rest. Come, Cath."
         "I should leave with you," Vaporeon added.  "He doesn't want me to spend too long here, just in case this spreads." Jolteon nodded vigorously.

         As the trio exited through the front door, a thought occurred to Cath. "Wait, we didn't ask about the thefts. You haven't mysteriously lost anything, have you?"
         "No. No one I know has had anything stolen from them lately."
         "Hmm. Maybe random sick Pokemon aren't going to help with that. Maybe I need a more direct approach. Lyla, can you take care of the sick Pokemon yourself? I'm not really helping out anyway."
         "I suppose I could."
         "If you have nowhere else to be, can you take a trip to the other end of the neighborhood? I have a sick friend over there."
         Lyla nervously glanced from Vaporeon to Cath a few times. "Of course."
         "Great. We have a plan. I think I know where to start looking."

         Cath was expecting Leite to be at a library, either trying to steal more books or just generally acting librarianish. Instead, she found Leite sitting in a gazebo.
         "Leite? What are you doing here?"
         "I can't leave town. They think I've been stealing everything."
         That wasn't what Cath meant, but she just rolled with it. "I'm sure we'll find the truth sooner or later. Why didn't you just tell them where you were?"
         "I did. They didn't listen."
         "Tell them again. If you have proof that you weren't here you... sorry, there's a smudge on your poncho and it's really bothering me. Let me get it off." With that, Cath began rubbing a spot on back of Leite's poncho to no effect. "Stubborn little thing." Cath kept trying, but nothing happened. "Sorry, this is really bothering me. Let me take that," she said as she yanked it off of Leite.
         "Hey!"
         "I'll bring this back right after I've cleaned it." Cath then ran off to a nearby water supply. Leite didn't have the energy she needed to give chase.
         In truth, the poncho was totally fine. It wasn't dirty and didn't show any signs of wear. Cath just needed an excuse to get it off and examine it carefully. She noticed it was too light to be hiding any books, but that didn't mean much. Some of the items that had been stolen didn't just disappear. In some cases, any item that was placed where the old item was would disappear as well. Cath wanted to test that, so she laid the poncho out as flat as she could and placed some of her origami art in various places on it. After a few moments of uneventful waiting, nothing happened. Staring at the poncho did give Cath an idea though. First, she gathered up all of her things, splashed a bit of water on the back of the poncho to make it looks like Cath actually did something, then returned to Leite.
         Cath held up the back of the poncho so Leite could see it. "Got it!"
         "Yeah, sure," Leite replied. "It wasn't that important."
         "Maybe not, but it was bugging me." Cath then tossed it into Leite's hands. "Anyway, you have to have something. A witness or you know who did it or... something."
         "I told you, I did. They didn't listen."
         "Well, if you can't find anything, I will!" With that, Cath ran off.
         "Where are you going?" Leite pointed. "Tabira is that way." Cath ignored her. "Really, how do miss the Great Tree?"

         Off-the-rack clothes shopping was nearly impossible in Tabira. Pokemon body sizes and shapes simply varied too much. As the customers vary wildly, the orders a tailor got varied wildly as well. A simple 'medium' or 'large' would barely even begin to describe what the end product needed to look like. To get any item to fit just right, tailors had to take many measurements and notes.
         It was those notes that Cath was after. Leite's poncho was new, after all. Leite's need for a poncho was just as sudden as the rainstorm that prompted it. Someone had to custom design a poncho for a Mawile traveling through rain. Someone had to take careful notes of what that poncho should and should not have. If there were any secret book pockets or book stealing enchantments on Leite's poncho, designer notes would mention them.
         Fortunately, the designer of that poncho had also signed it underneath the care instructions. Despite being totally unfamiliar with Fableton, she was able to ask around a bit to find out where she needed to be. The shop she was looking for appeared to be made out of pink yarn. Even better, its back door was open, giving Cath an easy way to sneak in.
         Once inside, she immediately found herself face-to-face with a Rhyhorn. It refused to move and kept staring at Cath with eyes that were suspiciously the same color as the rest of it. Upon closer inspection, Rhyhorn was just a sculpture. There were also sculptures of a Marill wearing a coat and a Blitzle wearing a fancy hat. The walls were lined with all kinds of different materials and measuring tools, some of which Cath took as samples. The back wall contained a desk and a lot of cabinets. The desk contained a binder with a lot of notes secured inside, which Cath took a close look at.
         It was hard to tell they were notes. With the amount of detail they had, they were almost blueprints. There were a lot of different sketches from different angles, each one with detailed notes about shape, weight, material, and other things. They were sorted by purchase time with the more recent purchases being near the front. Leite's poncho didn't take long to find. There was no mention of large pockets or any enchantments  The only info Cath could find that could have anything to do with the thefts was a date and time. The poncho was purchased and paid for on the day the books were stolen roughly one hour after the books were first known to be missing. Stealing books, traveling through a rainstorm, purchasing an item to protect books from rain, traveling back through town, then getting caught traveling back through town again would have made no sense. Rather than find proof that Leite had done it, Cath had actually found proof that Leite hadn't done it. That was the sort of thing she needed to find, so she took them and ran off.

         One noble citizen noticed Cath returning to Mosswood. The speed at which she approached was suspicious.  There was nothing worth rushing to Mosswood for, yet she was running. It was also odd how she chose one of the less populated entrances to town and how she came alone. That citizen had a feeling that she didn't have anything to do with the thefts, but he wasn't just looking for thieves. He was looking for anyone who looked suspicious that he could place blame on. If he had to wrongly accuse someone of taking the books in the same way he had been wrongly accused, he would have preferred it to be one of the scoundrels who beat him up last week anyway, so this worked out incredibly well.
         "Stop," Xavier ordered. "I need to have a word with you."
         Cath ignored him completely and kept going. This irritated Xavier. "Look at me when I'm talking to you." He sent a Shock Wave at Cath to get her attention. Taking her purse with his Magician ability was a nice bonus too.
         "Hey!" That worked. "Give that back! Do you really want to start a fight while you still look half dead?"
         "I only wanted to chat." As he said that, he began rummaging through her purse. Cath was trying to take it back, but Xavier had little difficulty keeping it out of her reach. "You heard about the thefts that have taken place here, yes? Judging by all this junk you have, I would say it could have been you."
         "I didn't steal any of that. I found it lying around."
         "Most people won't believe that. However, this junk isn't what anyone's looking for." He dropped a swatch of silk and a paper crown as he saw no harm in doing so. "I can help you clear you name if you, in turn, help me clear mine. You won't get off scot-free, of course, but you can avoid the worst of your punishment by... hmmm." His attention was on a certain receipt in his hand, and he knew the significance of it. "I see no reason to let anyone see this." With that, he grabbed the stick out of his tail and pointed it at the papers.
         "NO!" Cath leaped up and snatched the papers back moments before the ignited stick hit them.
         "I'm doing you a favor here. Unless you run a clothing store, this is only evidence that you've been stealing from someone who does." With a wave of his wand, flames erupted out of the ground right in front of him. They singed Cath and didn't damage her much, but the hit was enough for his Magician ability to get the papers back. For good measure, he also jumped back a bit to put some distance between himself and Cath before trying to burn the papers again. It worked. In the time it took for Cath to reclaim the papers, they had already caught flame.
         Cath put out the flames to the best of her ability by lying down on them. They were certainly worse off than before, but the fire was out and the date was still visible. Cath needed to keep the papers out of Xavier's possession, but since he could easily take them from her, she needed the papers to be out of her possession as well. Fire Pledge could easily hit them if she just left them lying around. She could only think of one way to maybe keep them out of reach, so she tried it: She folded the stack of papers into a paper glider then threw them straight up.
         With those hopefully out of Xavier's reach for a while, Cath could stop worrying about them and focus on taking out Xavier. Cath started by lunging towards Xavier and confiscating his stick. Unfortunately for Cath, Xavier didn't actually need it to attack, which he demonstrated by snapping his fingers, lighting the stick ablaze, burning Cath and causing the stick to disappear and rematerialize in his hand. With it, he prepared to finally destroy the papers, but as he aimed upwards, he realized they had already flown out of sight. Xavier was going to offer a truce, but Cath struck him with Rollout before he had the chance. Xavier and Cath each planned to end the battle with their next hit, Xavier with a Flame Charge, and Cath with Rollout, but a Golem got between them and shoved them each away from the other, ending it for them. Somehow, he had retrieved all of the papers.
         "Break it up, both of you. You," he said while looking at Xavier, "you're supposed to be helping the city, not harassing it. You," he said while looking at Cath, "Who are you?"
         "I'm from Tabira. I'm just here to deliver these papers your holding." As Cath said that, she very gently tried to tug them out of Golem's grasp.
         Golem let go of them. "What's so special about a bunch of sketches?"
         "They're not sketches. Well, they're not just sketches. This is a receipt. Most of these are about the product itself, but one of these pages," she had to flip through them all to find it since they were all out of order now, "shows the date and time the purchase happened. It's... right here. This happened shortly after the books were discovered missing."
         "So... she went shopping," Golem observed. "What does that prove?"
         "No, that's not the point. She was shopping in Fableton. She was in Fableton when the books were stolen. She wasn't here."
         "That makes sense."
         "This was my idea," Xavier added. "She had to act on my behalf because I'm not allowed to leave the city. When she wouldn't hand them over, I had to take them back by force and accidentally burned them a bit."
         "You did not," Cath replied. "You had nothing to do with anything. I didn't--"
         "Stop it, both of you," Golem yelled. In a far calmer tone,  "Give me those papers. I'll get these to the mayor and we'll clear Leite's name. In the meantime, you two stay away from each other."
         "Gladly, as soon as Xavier returns my purse." She very gently placed the receipt back in Golem's hand then tried to lunge at Xavier again, but Golem quickly blocked her. Much to Cath's surprise, Xavier simply handed the purse over.
         "Take it. I'll even help you pack." With one shot, Xavier spawned flames all around Cath's stuff, causing it to disappear without a trace. "It isn't worth anything anyway. The next time you run an errand for someone, be more cooperative and this won't happen again." Cath wanted to respond to that, but she had a feeling Golem would interrupt her again, so she just took her purse back, checked to make sure everything was actually there, and left.