It had been a pretty normal day for Vanilla, with the young apprentice of Thomas spending the day out having enjoying the mid morning day while they spent it napping between two large trees near one of the Route roads when her phone began to vibrate. It let out the sound of swords clashing against one another, signaling that Thomas had sent her a text. She had remained mostly asleep though, letting out a soft noise as she moved her hand to readjust herself as she propped herself against the tree. All was quiet for just a few more seconds until some more messages were sent in a series of noises and changes. She groaned while Proxii popped out of her coat pocket.

"Hey, Vanilla?" The Rotom said while poking her cheek. "Wake up! Hey, wakey wake!"
"Wuh?" The trainer asked her companion, her eyes halfway opened while she let out a soft yawn to try and fully wake herself up. "Whazzup?"
"Thomas is, uh...You should read these."
"It's probably just a training reminder." Vanilla grabbed the Rotomphone's body and opened her messages to check the text chain. But her eyes opened at what lied within. "We have to go."

Cauli soared through the skies above Hoenn, the Altaria flapping her wings while Vanilla rode on the back of the larger avian. She had sent Thomas a text that was brief but very reassuring: "I'm coming over." Once the group had spotted the familiar ranch of Thomas, the Altaria began the slow descent all the way down until touching base just before the entrance. The teen jumped off and then began the hurried sprint over towards the front door.

"Thomas!" Vanilla yelled, rolling up to the front door and knocking on it. "Thomas, are you alright?"

Thomas Benoit

The door opened to reveal one of his Audinos, Bunni, who had opened the door for the visitor. Vanilla smiled at the familiar face of one of the many Audinos wandering around the ranch where Thomas resided. A wave was made to the smaller, pink Pokémon while she was led inside. "Bunni! It's nice to see you again!" she gave the girl a hug of her own before slowly walking down the hall leading to Thomas' kitchen. She had only really seen what was inside of the house here a handful of times. It reminded her of one of those cool countryside ranches where one might catch a glimpse of some racing Rapidash or a Mudsdale in training.

"Do you think he's doing alright?" Proxii whispered to Vanilla as they walked slowly in the hall.
"I don't know, but the messages made me think he could use us right now." Vanilla replied.
"I wonder what's going on. It must be pretty bad if he's the one panicking."
"We'll find out later, but right now, we need to show him our support."

Upon reaching the kitchen, Vanilla sat down on the table, with Proxii hovering to rest just above the surface of the counter top. Not a minute after being seated did she recognize a familiar pair of heavy footsteps, though rushing headfirst into the kitchen area. She turned her head just in time to catch sight of the silhouette of Thomas speed walking out of the hallway and smiling at the two of them. At meeting his gaze, the younger trainer sat up and quickly made herself known to the older man. "Thomas!" SHe was picked up and thrown into a hug, which she matched with just as much enthusiasm as ever. It felt nice, as she had really missed that sense of feeling another's arms around her, ensuring she could feel safe once more. Thomas could see that Vanilla had returned to her natural skin color, though her hair had its pink roots on display as her dyed hair was starting to grow out. Maybe she was even a little bit taller!

"I got your message and flew over as fast as I could." Cauli poked her head inside of the home, the Altaria ruffling its plumage free of any residue and such when out flying to his home. Vanilla looked up at him, her expression match his concerned glance. Proxii flew over to fly beside his trainer's head. "Are you alright? Your message sounded pretty bad. I've never seen Vanilla sprint so fast to get us up in the air." The young girl nodded, her bright eyes filled with a muted, frantic concern for Thomas. "We'll help you do whatever, but we need you to calm down. What's going on?"

Thomas Benoit

A small laugh jumped out of Vanilla's mouth as she hugged Thomas tightly, grinning ear to ear while the child had enjoyed meeting up again with her mentor and all around teacher of everything. They had been through a lot together in the short time they met one another, and she had owed her success as a trainer thus far to him and his help. SO to return the favor by letting him know everything was going to be fine was some small way of paying it back. "I have?" she asked at his comment about getting bigger. She hadn't stopped to measure herself, but she was certainly slowly getting used to being a teenager, even if she was still a kid to most adults. "I don't want to grow up so fast again. Is being an adult so...boring? I mean, I ran a bakery for a while, but even the business said was just wake up, work, eat, and then sleep. I even looked weird older too." Her sibling no doubt had his own mixed feelings about growing up to being an adult and then being thrust back into a teenager's body, much like her. But the two of them did have some rather eye opening experiences and revelations, in their own ways.

Vanilla sat back down after a while and listened to Thomas explain about the current situation. Proxii was nearby, formulating his own opinion about what was going on as Thomas did his best to remain calm given the circumstances. Vanilla looked rather surprised at something happening to most of the people that she had either known or heard of thanks to these people. "Wh-What?! They all just straight up disappeared?" She looked out to Cauli, who was enjoying the brief rest after rocketing out here before then furrowing her brows. "We have to do find them! I can call the rangers! I know some, and they can help!" Before she could protest more, Proxii chirped up and would flash his screen to both of the humans. "Hold up! According to some of the postings online, this isn't just some centralized thing!" Proxii flittered over to Thomas as his phone screen showed the Hoenn bulletin board for the public, then swapped to one for Rangers. Topic after topic were reported missing persons cases that had been as recent as a few hours ago.

"There's numerous reports of people just vanishing. Nobody knows why either." Vanilla peeked her head over to check out the screen as well, with the Rotomphone hovering lower to face both of them. "Something's definitely up. If there's been this many cases in such a short time, this can't be a coincidence. But at the same time, we have no clues or leads." His trainer appeared most upset by the news, more so than it was people she had known that vanished from her life again. Her expression soured while looking to her Rotom with a huff.

"We can't just sit here and hope that they turn up again soon! Somebody needs to do something!" Vanilla protested, crossing her arms.
Proxii hesitated to respond, but did so after a moment. "Where are we going to look? They could be anywhere in this world, or even someplace else."
Vanilla huffed, getting worked up as she hissed in frustration. "I don't know! But it's better than just expecting they're doing alright! What if they're in danger or something?!"

Thomas Benoit

"Don't remind me.” Vanilla said, rolling her eyes. She really tried to make it work, but the stress of running everything, even retiring from the rangers after the injury. "I can't believe I thought braids would be a good look for me. You looked all cool though. I bet you're going to be the coolest Dad on the block once you're old enough.” She smirked, though looked at the earring that had belonged to her personal assistant back in Not Galar all those fake years ago. It hung around her neck but still felt heavier the more she wore it. "I miss it in some ways though. I went on dates, I fell in love, I did everything normal people do. But here, I just feel…I dunno. I talked to Navy about it before, but it's hard to talk to people my age now. Everything they talk about just doesn't seem as important anymore. But I'm too young to do what the Rangers do too. It's like I'm-”

Proxii went off again, another report of a mass missing persons notification. It was a nice segway to get away from the topic that Vanilla had always found hard to really talk about. Thomas mentioned he had messaged a few of the higher ups, who hadn't responded yet. There were telltale signs that they could have been taken as well, but she tried to keep a positive outlook. "Maybe they're busy investigating this? Ollie definitely wouldn't be one to be taken easy. I'm sure he's okay!”

The topic of “who was responsible” was definitely one that nobody could make any solid picks about as of now. Proxii could really only shrug as best as a Rotom possessed phone could. It's possible. But why would they kidnap so many people indiscriminately like this? That doesn't sound like something they could do without a reason.” Vanilla thought back on it, putting on her thinking face as she leaned back in her chair. Thomas did bring up a good point about the Toxic Chains from before, though she couldn't really give much of an answer. "Do you think it could do with the Megapolans again? They maybe could have sided with Rocket for some type of plan or something.”

She did perk up at seeing Thomas share her sentiment of not standing by while people were likely missing. Things could be done to help them, somehow! "Yeah! There's gotta be something that can lead us to those missing people! I'll help however I can.” Proxii seemed a little more hesitant, but nodded in agreement. "That's the best we can do, for now anyway. I'll keep us updated in case there's any new leads posted on the Ranger Net or online.”

Vanilla looked across at the audinos and other fluffy Pokémon that Thomas had on his ranch. "In the meantime, I'll help out on the ranch here. It's been a while since I've seen everyone. Maybe I should bring some of my Pokémon here some time so they have a place to roam around.”

Thomas Benoit