smash_logs | Snooping as usual I see

Entry tags:

Snooping as usual I see

Who: Mona and YOU! Anyone is welcome.
What: Interrogating FDC citizens about the earthquake.
Where: Various locations within Final Destination City, starting at the cafe onwards.
When: Entire day of July 23rd.
Warnings: Probably none.

Earthquakes weren't exactly a big to do back where Mona came from. Forces of nature seemed mundane in terms of the bizarre and strange happenings that popped up around Diamond City. Visitors from outer space, ninjas battling thousand year old demons, Satan shopping for fresh basil at the grocery store...no wait, that last one was a pretty normal by Diamond City standards too.

Nothing of the earthquake screamed unique to Mona to catch her attention other than it stealing the thunder from her photo booth back on prom. However reports she overheard of the strange happenings around the academy were a bit of music to her ears. The sweet music that had 'news scoop' written all over it in bold lettering. So what was a photojournalist such as Mona to do about a potential scoop? Investigate of course! The red head wasn't going to sit idly by and let her fellow students take all the glory in their adventures. She'd snag the juicy details right from under their noses when they weren't looking.

Well, a few of their noses. Final Destination was a huge city, nearly as big as Diamond, and she was but a mere lone woman with a Vespa. There was no possible way she could successfully canvas an entire city and interrogate passerby on the streets by herself. Okay, maybe it would be possible, but that's stretching the truth a little. For one, she lacked the proper resources for such a large scale project and two, it would take months investigate every nook, cranny, and person. By that time, the trail would likely be stale news, leaving Mona with hardly any leads. The job needed to be done proper, professionally, and on the pronto. Therefore around the academy flyers were hung from hallways detailing the requirement for a few hardy people with a keen eye and sharp hearing to help with such a grand endeavor.

Which brought Mona to her present state of leaning against her red Mona Cycle with notebook in hand outside one of the cafes. The portly owner of the cafe stood near her with gesticulating arm movements as he described events from his point of view. Mona, nodding every now and again kept pace by scribbling down furiously his story, interjecting the owner only to throw in a question or two to elaborate a particular point of interest. The two had been in deep conversation for nearly twenty minutes.

"That so?" she murmured. Mona closed her notebook and tucked it under her arm, beaming the man a smile of thanks as she passed him her calling card. "You've been a great help sir. Please let me know if you notice something out of the ordinary or anything weird in general." With a tip of her hat the interview came to an end.

Just in the nick of time too, she noticed. Pulling her cellphone out of her pocket revealed noon was right on the dot. The indicated time her other investigators would be clambering into the area for their meetup to swap notes and chow down on pizza (brought on specialty by Mona. Can't let her team go hungry now can she!) before heading back out on the streets for the afternoon run.

"Wonder how the others are faring?" she said to no one in particular, looking once more on the avenue square for any sign of life. And they called her tardy! She hoped they would hurry up soon, the pizzas she carried on her motorbike wouldn't stay warm for much longer and she eager to rack up the morning reports.

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Knuckles sucked at investigating by asking real live people things.People weren't his forte. Battling lake monsters? That was a thing he could do.Digging in the ground? He could do that too. Asking people about their experiences during the Earthquake? That was....an issue.

So, when he showed up, he waved to Mona, a notebook in his hand that had a few things written in it.

Lake monster!? Who would know about it?
-pool guys
-scuba guys
-frogs.

None of which he'd been able to find.

"Hey, Mona." he said, nose twitching gently. "One of 'em is veggie, right?"

"Like I'd be crazy enough to forget you don't do the carnivore thing. Second container from the top is vegetarian. Extra pineapple, red pepper, onion, mushroom." Each ingredient she knew by heart for which pizza, ticking off the list of toppings with a finger. Made especially for her Echidna friend in mind. There was no way on this excursion she'd forget to bring Knuckles his own personal vegetarian pizza. The picky eaters of the group on the other hand, not so much. They'd have to settle for what she deemed would be popular eats amongst them.

"I call it the Knuckles Veggie Supreme. Knock yourself out!" she motioned for him to help himself to the pizzas located in the large sack attached to the back of her newly fixed wheels. As she pushed thought of digging into food just yet, Mona took the moment to compare notes between notebooks. Scanning the page, she lifted an eyebrow. How...odd? Confused, she turned to Knuckles for clarification.

"Hey, so what's this about a lake monster?" she asked, tapping the indicated header on the page. "The people I've asked so far have failed to mention any creature of the sort." Rather the majority of the people she'd interviewed so far little to no leads for her to work off of. Most described feeling the rumbling sensations and pictures being knocked off the wall, while others such as the cafe owner had fessed up some feasible answers. Animals being jittery before and after the quake for one, and continuing to do so thereafter for days. The cafe owner's hunting dog being one of them.

But this about a lake monster? Now, this was some prime gold material to get the trail started if it turned out to be legit!

"The Knuckles veggie supreme? Woah... I've never had any food named after me before." Knuckles admitted, lifting out his box and popping it open. Man - the smell of this thing was outstanding!

"You're a pal, Mona!" he said, picking up a slice, folding it, and wolfing it down pretty quickly - hey, he was a growing boy!

"Oh. The lake monster? Yeah, there was one. I was there. I wanted to know if anyone heard anything about it in town - like, it was pretty big. You gotta figure if it came through here, someone'd have seen it right? I just... uh... haven't found the right folks to ask."

At that moment Mona felt extremely bummed out and a bit jealous that she never got to see the lake monster with her own two eyes, let alone capture the creature on film. Some people had all the luck! Despite the despair of missing out on an incredible story of a lifetime, Mona's enthusiasm perked the moment she realized the info Knuckles was feeding her wasn't such a dead end to the story. He was right in the assumption that a creature would have to pass through the city onto it's way to the lake. What other explanation could there be? Water based monsters couldn't fly as far as she knew.

"You know, this is probably the best lead of news I've had all day" she brightened, in a better mood now that a lead was brought to her attention. "At least now we have one direction to follow instead of shooting blindly in the dark for a needle in a haystack, heh." Mona motioned her arms upwards to the buildings of Final Destination that surrounded them, indicating the city was their proverbial haystack and their evidence the needle.

From the back of her notebook, Mona removed a folded map of the city, unfolding it onto the ground to display the layout. Mona took a seat down in front of Knuckles, her finger tracing their position to the dock area on the map.

"If a lake monster made it's way through the city, the most possible place for it to come from would be out of another body of water, correct?" she then continued, tapping the area of the docks. "So...closest place to ask questions might be this area here? There seems to be water and the right folk to be interview. I think if we try here, we might be able to shed some further light on the subject."

Mona tilted her head to look at Knuckles over her shoulder "What do you think?

"I think this pizza is really good." Knuckles replied. Hey, being too shy to ask people things was enough to make a guy hungry, OK?

"...uh, but, yeah. I mean, that makes a lot of sense. And the docks aren't real far away. We could get down there real quick if we wanted to ask around."

"This isn't the time to be thinking about the pizza" she chuckled, swiping a friendly but gentle punch to his forearm. No time to be distracted by the luscious taste of pizza, this job required one's full attention. "Though I am glad you enjoyed my little creation. Thanks!" she added, folding the map back up and tucking it safely in between the pages of her notebook.

"What do you say? Wanna wait for the slow pokes to show up, or should you and I totally blow this popsicle stand?" she consulted the Echidna with a smirk. Mona certainly didn't want to hang around waiting for a bunch of tardy folks the entire live, long. She was eager to get down to the docks to pursue this hopeful lead before the sun set and marked the end to a day.

Besides, the pizza was going to get cold, and cold pizza sucked major balls!

"Well, I don't wanna leave behind anyone who really wants to come and is just runnin' late." Knuckles said around a mouthful of pizza. "Should we leave 'em a note or a message or something?"

"Good idea!" Mona agreed. Flipping to an empty page in her notebook the woman wrote out a brief, to the point note. Ripping out the paper, Mona tacked it to a pole, and if one were to view it, it would read as followed:

Ciao!
Gone with Knuckles down to the docks to chase a lead.
Feel free to meet up there instead if you're inclined.
Be back later.
- Mona

Of course the last part after her name included a small heart, her usual symbol to denote her handwriting.

"Hop on! It'll be way quicker taking this baby than opposed to walking to the docks." With the note written for the rest of the investigation team to find, Mona hopped onto her Mona Cycle, patting the area of the seat behind her.

"Alright!"

Huh. Now here was a thing - how was he supposed to sit up there without falling off? He could always wrap his arms around Mona but...

"...I could also run. I mean, like I told you - I'm real fast." he offered.

"If you insist, be my guest!" Mona simply shrugged her shoulders in resignation. Didn't matter to her if Knuckles hopped a ride with her or not, so long as he could keep up the pace without bogging her down. Part of her however was pure interest in seeing if his bragging rights could keep up with her Mona Cycle. The only one so far who matched her bike's speed at the academy had been Daisy.

"Don't come bellyaching to me later that you had to eat my dust!" she said with a laugh. Revving up the Vespa's engine, Mona beeped the horn twice before shooting off like a rocket. Half way down the street, she pulled the weight of the Mona Cycle back, popping a wheelie to not only show off, but to rub it in the Echidna's face at what he was missing out on.

Hey, she liked a challenge to. Why not make it a fun race to boot? Legs vs. Mona Cycle. Who'd get to the docks the fastest?

Hey, Mona? Don't get TOO cocky, now! Here was a dude who was used to racing Sonic the Hedgehog on foot. The fastest being in their world and Knuckles had even beaten him in a few races!

The Echidna pulled up right alongside her as she popped that wheelie and shot her a grin.

"Uh-huh. Hey, I got a recipe for ya! It's called the Knuckles Duster! It's basically a heapin' helpin' of my dust while you follow in my wake!"

His red and yellow shoes moved in a circular blur as he sprinted ahead. He was only kidding around, of course - Trash talk had always been a part of his racing experience and it was all meant in good fun.

Now, when Knuckles had said he could run fast, Mona assumed fast in the normal sense of a person fast. An professional athletic runner even. But this?! Impossible. How could such a small guy keep a steady pace with her Vespa? That didn't seem...well, physically possible.

No matter how hard she pinched her arm, she could not deny she wasn't trapped in a feverish dream imagining what her two eyes revealed. And she even gave them a good rub in case she was dreaming, just to make sure. But no, Knuckles was still there. Stunned by the display, the Mona Cycle reverted itself back onto it's front wheels as the red headed Mona blankly looked with her jaw dropped open. Impressed? Oh boy, you bet!

"How...?" she gaped, shaking her head to clear all logical thoughts. There simply wasn't any logic at all to explain this, not one bit. Closing her mouth, she puffed her cheeks and hunkered down to take advantage of wind force blowing by as she sped. So Knuckles wanted to play at her game did he? She could egg him on!

"Ha! Good one. I'd like to see you match the Mona Cycle. She's faster than you're giving her credit for, Speedy." she returned the taunt in fun. Gripping the handles, she pushed the Mona Cycle to a faster click, catching up nicely so that she was still behind him, but a little close for comfort.

"And hey? If your legs get tired from all that running my offer still stands" she added in a shout. Let him stew on that comment for a moment to rile him up.

"Hah! Hey, I never get tired!" he replied. "Trust me - your Vespa'll run outta gas before I do!"

They came to a hill where the street started to wind its way downward towards the shore. The docks weren't far now. Knuckles rolled into a ball, using his speed and momentum combined with the downhill slant of the street to spur him on to even greater speeds. The only thing better would have been some boost pads or maybe a loop-de-loop to run through!

"What a big show off..." though a hint of amusement filled her voice. She watched Knuckles roll away at his top speed, smiling a little that she'd been bested in a race by some punk Echidna. Still, if she put the pedal to the metal she could conquer the odds in an attempt to catch up, or at least manage a tie. At this point she was glad she never put out a wager, otherwise she'd have been screwed over from the start.

Although what was it with these animal guys having such ludicrous speeds? She couldn't remember Joe back home possess such inhuman speed, or any of her other animal friends. It was...odd. Knuckles must come from a place where speedy creatures were the norm.

She took her eyesight off his red blur momentarily to check her surroundings. According to the map, the docks were up ahead after the winding stretch. Not too far now then, maybe she could beat him. If she cheated just slightly.

Too bad there were no ramps to fly off of, but there were ample alley ways to take a shortcut. If her memorization of the map was correct, a small alley led to the next street over and a road that eventually led down to the shore. Yeah. She could cut him off and show up in time to meet him down at the bottom.

Without even so much as a whisper, Mona veered off on her turn and disappeared out of sight. No need to let him know where she was going. It was a secret and a surprise all in one! The look on his face would be priceless when she won!

Knuckles was hardly used to having such a clear advantage - racing against Sonic had left him with a perhaps unrealistic expectation as to how fast he ought to be running in a situation like this.

So, when he came out of the roll and started running again over level ground and he looked over his shoulder and couldn't see Mona? He was kind of surprised - had he really blown her away that badly? Huh...

...well now he just felt bad.

He slowed down his pace to give her a chance to catch up. Not noticing that she'd actually just taken the lead!

Mona hummed a little ditty to herself, content and confident she'd win this race for sure. Though as she flew out of the alley into the other street at top speed, her heart sank to her stomach, eyes wide as her bike nearly came fender to fender with a parked police car.

"Ooooh sh-" she cut herself off mid curse, gripping the handles of her breaks so that her wheels made skid marks on the pavement's surface. She sat on her running bike like a deer caught into the headlights, staring back at the cop who equally was surprised at the sudden Vespa speeding out from the alley. Like a tableau caught in time, the two seemed to be stopped in time, two cowboys facing each other down for a gun fight. Not a muscle moved on either one of them until Mona regained her senses and pivoted a 180 back the way she'd come as fast as the Mona Cycle could take her. Like a dog with it's tail between it's legs, Mona chicken out and made a run for it.

Blasting back through the alley, Mona returned once again back onto the street where the race with Knuckles has started. Only this time, the racing spirits had fled from Mona's body to be replaced with pure panic, her heart thumping loudly against her chest. Careening down the hill at top speeds, the loud sirens of a police car filled the air with it's piecing cry, eager to follow and catch it's pray.

Spotting Knuckles, Mona's voice peeled over the din of noise to a feverish pitch, panic clearly laced on her voice. Didn't matter who won the race, all Mona wanted to do now was avoid being caught for speeding. An arm left the handle bar of the cycle to furiously wave at her companion to make a beeline for the intended shores.

"RUN ~~FORREST~~ KNUCKLES, RUUUUUUUN!

So far not what she had planned in today's agenda.

"Wait, what? Why?" Knuckles asked, the trifecta of 'Wh' questions barely audible over the approaching noise of police sirens.

Oh. Right. Speed limits. They'd... kind of forgotten about those, huh?

"OK! I'm comin'!"

He started to run, pulling up alongside her and staring at her, wide eyed.

"If we go to jail? I'm never gonna let you forget it!"

Don't worry, Knuckles. The speed limit probably only applies to vehicles, not overly quick sprinters.

Speed limits? What are speed limits? There is no such concept as a speed limit in Mona's vocabulary.

"Oh, like it's my fault the cops were sitting right smack dab on the other side of the alley. Yeah, great. Put the blame on me why don't you!" she hissed. What was Knuckles damage anyway? She wasn't a psychic or mind reader, how was she to know the cops were leisurely loitering around the bakery while scarfing down the odd donut or two. She happened to be driving in the wrong place at the wrong time. But no, the Echidna had to put the blame on her shoulders for something out of her control.

"And for one, we're NOT going to jail, you hear me? I have yet to be caught by these jokers. Wouldn't look good on my resumes either..." she added, yelling over the noise at him. If only she'd had her three pets with her, those cops would be sorry they ever decided to hunt her down. As it was, Mona left her miniature friends back in Diamond City under the watchful eyes of Joe. There would be no banana peels to slow them down, or the odd soccer balls to cause distractions. Mona had nothing on board her cycle but the pizzas...

Oh.

Mona's thumb clicked with the switch on the right hand handle of her vessel, triggering the secret trap under the pizzas to activate and fling her load outwards. The boxes flew true, sending an assault directly into the path of the oncoming cruiser. Cheese, pepperoni, peppers, a giant mess of gooey deliciousness exploded on impact, creating chaos and havoc for the police. A whoop of exclamation burst from Mona as she turned and waved the authorities a simple goodbye.

Such waste of perfectly good pizza. For a good cause however.

The diversion would buy them some time to lay low for a bit then continue on as normal. Noticing the ever increasing view of the shoreline coming into fruition, Mona guided her bike towards the line of docks and warehouses along the strip. And as she drove, she noticed how obvious the tide and water lines were at an odd height.

She pointed to an area where they could conceal themselves. Mona jumped off her bike and hid it behind a stack of crates, covering it further with a tarp. With that task done, she held out her hand to Knuckles, motioning her head to the edge by the water.

"Under the wharf and into the water. Go! We can lose them!"

"But... The Knuckles veggie supreme...!" Knuckles exclaimed in dismay as he watched it fly backwards and splat against the windshield of the police car. He'd only had a few pieces...

"Thank you, friend. I'll remember your sacrifice forever." he intoned sagely as he continued to sprint. Your pizza-death will not be in vain.

After Mona had stashed her bike, he grabbed her hand and ran with her towards the retaining wall between ocean and shore.

"OK, on three! One... two...!"

"Three!"

Her body connected with the water with a tremendous splash, the rolling noise of the waves along with the ever growing sound of the siren mingling together. Upon entry Mona's head went below the water shocking her body with a chill. Man, the water was so cold! She burst back up to the surface to breathe, clearing drops away from her eyes.

"Knuckles?" she called out as she tread water. She wanted to make sure her companion made it into the water safely since in their rush to hide from the long arms of the law, she'd forgotten to...ask if Knuckles knew how to swim.

"Knuckles?!"

"I'm here."

The voice came from a pillar of wood holding the dock in place. Instead of landing in the water, Knuckles had slammed his fists into it and stuck there like a fly on the wall.

"I'm still out of sight and there's no sense in both of us gettin' wet, right?"

"Nice to know you have my back. Thanks." she said with sarcasm. He got to stay nice, cozy and dry while she took the plunge. Could this day get any worse?

Wanting to further berate the Echidna, Mona held herself back when the sound of the sirens pulled close to the shore. Mona ducked her head down into the water, leaving only her eyes above the surface to watch as the cop climbed out of his vehicle to check his surroundings. From what Mona could see, the cop sure looked peeved as heck. Who wouldn't be ticked off when good pizza was smeared all over your windshield.

He began a walking decent to their hiding area, giving Mona a brief moment of panic as she slipped under the docks to avoid detection. She closed her eyes tightly, stilling her breathe in order not to make a sound as the cop's footsteps stopped right above her hiding place. She hoped he couldn't see Knuckles...

"Dammit!" the cop muttered, his boots clattering on the boardwalk as he hastily made his journey back to his vehicle. Mona only opened her eyes again once she heard the cruiser pull away from the shores and back out of sight. Counting a minuet out just to be extra sure, Mona frantically left her spot. pulling herself back up to dry land like a fish out of water.

"My gosh, too close for comfort!" she exhaled. She wouldn't admit to Knuckles that while the ordeal had been a nerve wrecker, she had found a bit of thrilling excitement and fun in the entire thing.

Edited 2015-07-29 14:38 (UTC)

"Let me just go and make sure he's properly gone." Knuckles replied, leaping from pillar to post to shore and looking around.

"Don't spot his car - here, come to the wall and I'll lift ya out of the water, OK? You gotta be soaked to the skin, huh?"

Poor Mona! He DID feel bad, but after punching dragons underwater the other day he was less than enthused about getting wet again.

"Gimme your hands."

What a day so far and it had not reached the halfway afternoon marker yet! Could things get much worse as the day progressed? However a pang of guilty pleasure throbbed inside Mona's core, compelling her to be conflicted with the outcomes so far. The frantic cop chase had been a bit of fun, more so excitement than Mona had seen since arriving at the academy. The plunge into the water was the tip of the iceberg as they sought to escape the long arms of the law. There was a thrill burning inside her, a craving to relive that heart pounding excitement again.

Like a shot of adrenaline flowing in her system, Mona contented herself back to the reality at hand. This wasn't the time to be provoking the cops for a flight of fun, nor to play the key part in a frantic game of hide and seek. Her and Knuckles had come down to the shores to do a job, and by gosh, they were going to seize what was left of this messy day and get the scoop before it disappeared into elusive territory.

Though she did want to admit, she was having a blast of a time with Knuckles during the whole stint. The Echidna seemed to be a good sport about everything that had happened so far too. For one, he didn't ditch her to fend for herself. Did that mean he enjoyed these little adventurous mishaps too?

No time to dwell on that. Mona aligned herself with the wall, offering her outstretched arms to him. The red head remained silent as a butterfly with not so much as her usual blathering peep. She just wanted to get out of the water and back on track without another unfortunate hitch.

Knuckles took her hands and was gentle but firm about lifting her out of the water - he didn't want to drop her on accident, of course! He got her out and on to the wooden pier easily enough.

"Whew - Now, we got to figure out a way to get you dry. Those clothes CAN'T Be comfortable, all wet like that."

Knuckles, here is the thing. Humans may be similar to animal people, but there are grave differences that set them apart from being alike. Namely for example, humans have a lack of fur on their bodies. No fur in fact. They are much like those cats who do not possess a single piece of hair on their bodies.

Note of point, a human such as Mona cannot easily remove her wet clothes without becoming exposed to the elements at hand. Because, as pointed above, the whole lack of fur. Animal people can do it, the Pokemon can do it, but for humans it suck to be fur less.

"I-I'm fine!" she stuttered. Regaining her voice Mona took her hands away and proceeded to jump around to shake as much water off her body. In turn making her look like a huge, orange dog in the process.

"We've wasted valuable time enough with the authorities. We need to get our butts in gear if we want to solve the mystery of your lake monster. No more playing around at the beach. We can, uh, we can play later when we've settled this business down." She pivoted on a heel, turning to head off where she'd ditched her bike in the wild chase, a trail of wet footprints in her wake. Mona wanted nothing more than to get her edgy hands on her notebook and hit up bodies roaming the docks with her a million in one questions.

"I can put up with staying socked for a while longer, it's not a problem. The day is warm. I'm like, not going to catch a cold in this weather!" she added in determination. Nothing was going to stop her from achieving her goal today, not even the possibility of a lousy sore throat or a bad case of the sniffles.

"Huh... if you're sure. You can try shakin' out your hair at least. Watch this - it's easy."

He leaned over and shook his dreadlocks, making the quills rattle together as though he was sending out fountain's of seawater. Which he wasn't, considering he was bone dry.

Because that was surely something a Human Person would do right?

"Or I can just run around down and try to find you a towel. Those're handy."

Despite delays and a crappy turn of events the investigation had taken, Mona found it within herself to ease into a smile along with a slight laugh. The demonstration Knuckles had preformed was a cute gesture, allowing herself to beam back to her usual cheerful self. Least Knuckles was taking the misadventures in stride.

"Not sure if my hair makes the same sound, but here goes!" she exclaimed. Throwing off her hat, Mona followed the lead by leaning over and shaking her hair out furiously in a similar manner to the dreadlocks. The difference being hers sent out a fountain of water to splash down on the planks of the dock and whatever poor soul happened to be walking by her vicinity as she shook. There certainly wasn't a clattering sound to accompany it either.

"A towel wouldn't be a bad idea either...I'm sure there must be a few laying around. I mean, it's the docks, people have towels when they take a dip. We can borrow one for awhile and return it later." she added sheepishly through the damp orange tendrils of hair plastered damply to her face upon up righting herself.

"There you go!" Knuckles replied, jumping backwards to avoid the spray. "See? Easy. Been drying off that way since I was a puggle."

It's a real word! Look it up!

"C'mon, let's go see if we can find you a towel and then figure this whole mystery out." he said, starting back towards the docks on foot. "You wanna find a safe place to park the Mona Cycle?"

One longing glance at her bike was enough to seal the difficult decision. With a slight nod, Mona replaced the tarp back over her vehicle as a safety device to protect it from the watery elements of the nearby dock. From a standpoint, the camouflage made her wheels appear part of the rough and tumble scenery the shore had to offer.

"Honestly I do think she'll be quite snug and safe hidden under the tarp. She's out of the view of wandering eyes, specifically of the long arm of the law kind" she said in completely confidence. With having retrieved her notebook and a few other small items for their investigation, Mona caught up with Knuckles and stayed a steady pace by his side.

"Out of sight, out of min-Oh! Yeah, I wanted to ask you something really, really important." A sudden thought flooded her mind with an earlier conversation from her encounter with the store keeper. "How good are your animal senses? Like, whatever you folks can pick up that we cannot. Does it apply for animal people like you?"

"Oh, you mean like... smell and stuff?" he asked. "Uh. I smell pretty well. I pick up stuff a lot of Humans don't, especially when it comes to being underground. I can navigate my way through a cave so dark, I can't see even an inch in front of me, and I do that by smell. My hearin' ain't that great though and my eyes are pretty much the same as yours."

He shrugged.

"I'm not like.... crazy sensitive. Like the Martial Arts teacher. I think he can hear a complaint two miles away and smell a dirty look."

"Close to the answer I wanted. I think?" she shrugged her shoulders, laughing a bit on the fact about their Martial Arts teacher. Maybe he'd have been a better partner to take up on the investigation considering he could hear every sort of whisper. Or so Knuckles had claimed. Mona could even imagine how helpful John's abilities might be in one of her stakeouts back home. Overhearing the criminal's conversations, homing in on suspects...

Mona suddenly shook her head to rid the thought. Now wasn't the proper time to be daydreaming possible scenarios to make her life on the job easier. There were bigger fish to be fried. Of the lake monster fish variety.

Fried fish didn't sound like a bad idea for a meal either! A seafood dinner to end the day sounded just about right.

"So, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that's a big fat no on the whole 'my Echidna senses are tingling!' possibility?" the enthusiasm seemed to be slipping from her voice. "Not even picking up anything odd about the shores here? Other than the obvious fact the water is higher than should be, I mean." Mona motioned her hand out to the body of water. When she'd taken her dunk in the drink, she found it unnerving her feet had not touched the bottom. Being close to shore meant the sandy bottom to be shallower than the deeper one trekked out to the ocean. The farther one went, the deeper it went.

"It's way deeper than I expected. My feet didn't feel a bottom when it should have. Could have sworn if I'd gone deeper to find the bottom I'd be covered in twice my body length over my head!"

"Nope. No tingling here." Knuckles replied with a sigh. "I DO Have an additional sense I can use - I can sense Chaos Energy. From Chaos emeralds or shards of the Master Emerald. But I don't feel anything like that at all. At least I know this rising water level has nothing to do with Chaos, the God of Destruction. I saw him flood a city, one time..."

Now THERE was an awful memory. They'd won in the end of course, but still.

"Uh, anyhow, I don't see much that's different. Less boats on the water than I've seen before but that could mean anything."

"Neither do I. Yet everyone back at the school was freaking out over the high water levels. Making molehills out of mountains..." she sighed. What a waste of time this had been. A great photojournalist like herself would be arriving back at the academy empty handed on the story front while everyone else around her were reveling in stories of their investigations. It wasn't fair!

A pair of voices suddenly caught the attention of her ears, body pivoting to trace the sound. Mona reached out and grabbed Knuckles by the shoulder, spinning him in turn to her outstretched hand pointing to a pair of figures.

"Hold the phone, our luck might have changed for the better." she voice bouncing back to her cheerful nature full of life. "Fisherman dead ahead! Should anyone know of lake monsters and the ways of water it will be those guys!" Without so much as another word, Mona patted the Echidna's shoulder before taking off at a break neck run, waving her arms wildly at the pair of anglers.

"Ciao! Boy, are you two a sight for sore eye. Do you mind taking a minute to help answer a few question my assistant and I might ask?"

"...and then the Halibut says 'I haven't seen your Tiger, kid, but I sure Sea Lion!' Haha, Geddit?"

Both Fishermen erupted in laughter before they noticed Mona and Knuckles approaching. It appeared to be lunch time and the pair were enjoying a couple of sandwiches and some bottled water in between rounds of hole in the wall comedy club level joking around. The day had come over kind of hot by now and the pair looked sweaty and a little grimy from the morning's work.

"What can we do ya for, little lady?" asked one.

"Your dog's an odd lookin' wee fella." said the other in a manner that was genuinely good natured. "He friendly? Here boy, here you go! C'mon!"

Knuckles stared indignantly as a corner of a sandwich was torn off and offered in his direction. It had meat in it. The Echidna's nose wrinkled.

"...you better do the talking, Mona." he said through gritted teeth. "I don't wanna wind up spoilin' the story by socking a dude into the ocean."

"Easy there Fido," Mona teased, placing herself between Knuckles and the two men. Last thing she needed was for the Echinda to do something stupid and end up with the cops hot on her tail again. What she needed was for these two lovely gentlemen to spill the beans on the lake monster.

"See you two good sirs are working as hard as ever. Good, good!" she cheered. Butter them up with pleasantries to make an impression before she got down and dirty with her question period. Make the situation comfortable for all parties involved, as if talking among old friends.

"Name's Mona! Photojournalist for the Diamond City times. And this here is Knuckles. We're canvassing the area on the behalf of a lead we've received and we're hoping with your co-operation you could help us out."

She continued on her tirade, notebook at the ready for a moment's notice to scribble. "Have either of you noticed any suspicious activity as of late? Bizarre happenings? Maybe even, oh I don't know, sea monsters by chance?" she hinted, giving Knuckles a sly wink. As if to say 'See? this is how you people properly!'

"F... fido?"

Knuckles was raging on the inside, about ready to burst a seam. He wasn't a DOG! Not even close! His species laid EGGS!

EGGS!

"Sea Monsters?" replied one of the Fishermen, shrugging and swigging from his bottle of water. "See 'em every day, darlin'. I'm a good fisherman, y'see. Yellowtail, Marlin, Relicanth, Gyarados. You name a leviathan and I bet I've caught one."

"Miss, I'd like to report some suspicious activity - this guy's Fish Tales and the fact that they're all made up. He hasn't caught so much as a Magikarp or Mudskipper in days. I know, because I haven't caught squat either and If -I- can't fish these waters, there's no way -HE- can!" said his sprat scented co-hort.

"Now, if you want to hear a lie, that would be it." the first guy replied, turning away and scowling. "....well, actually, no. He's right. Water level's gone up a few meters, and my catch bucket is as empty as my heart on those long, lonesome nights at sea..."

Knuckles' teeth ground together so hard, it was audible over the sound of the water sloshing against the pier. Rising water levels and fish scared away from shore? THAT had to be bad news.

Much as Mona enjoyed hearing a tall fish tale, one without any credible source but fabricated lies that could possibly be used as a rumored filler for a gossip magazine, she felt as if these men weren't taking her seriously. On the other hand, their claim of empty hauls of precious sea jewels of the edible variety did sound like a push for more information.

"No fish? Not even a mackerel nor a dolphin?" she pondered, eyeing Knuckles with a raised eyebrow. High water levels usually brought a plethora of sea life near the shores to feed.

"About roughly when did you first start noticing the lack of fish life in around the waters?" she questioned, all ears for an answer.

Could a lack of fish as food had brought the lake monster to land, or had Knuckles fabricated his own fishy story to send her on a wild goose chase?

"Few weeks back." muttered one, sounding a might bit depressed.

"It's like they all went on vacation or somethin'." the other replied. "I keep saying we should set sail for Delfino Isle or the Sevii Islands. See if we can find anything worth finding there."

"Aye, well, if you want to sail for warmer shores, you're welcome to it. Me? I'll stick to Final Destination City."

"Suit yourself. Does that answer all your questions, Little Lady? Our lunch hour is almost up."

Knuckles, still bristling at being thought of as a dog left the responding up to Mona. He, more than anything, wanted to reply by punching a hole in each of their boats.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Snooping as usual I see

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