Chapter 41:

The Missing Egg

Location: Nuvema Town

"It's so good to be home," Cheren said as the three of us walked through my tiny hometown. "It's been over a month since we were last here and look how far we've come! Seven Badges, evolved Starters and a big duty on our hands."

Usually I would respond with delight, but of course I was way too deep in thought. The Unova region had its eyes on me to save Team Plasma's liberation plot, and this was some time after I had promised to leave them alone.

"Don't think about it!" Bianca said. "Remember? Today is our break! Let's do something fun!"

Now of course there wasn't much to do in Nuvema Town aside from meet the Professor, but she was out trying to find a possible solution to awaken Zekrom. Today she was visiting Elesa, to see if Electric power would help revive it from the Dark Stone.

"I know!" Cheren said. "How about we check out the abandoned Laboratory on Route 17? The P2 Laboratory!"

Bianca clapped her hands together. "Great idea! It will give us some Surf experience! I just need to teach the HM to Frillish."

Then it was settled. We were going to the P2 Laboratory!


Location: Route 1

"To get to the Lab, we cross the sea of Route 1. Then it's Route 17, where the Lab is located. Be careful of the currents as well."

I sent out Samurott, Bianca sent out Frillish and Cheren sent out Simipour. We hopped on our respective Pokémon.

"Use Surf!" we all shouted as we started riding along the waves. Suddenly, all my worries were stripped. Well, not all. I was still scared I was going to fall into the water.


That was only a small strip of water before we reached a patch of land with some dark grass.

"That was a good test run," Cheren said.

I smiled, and Bianca was the first to notice. "Hey, that's the first time we've seen that expression today! Keep that up, worry about you know what tomorrow!"

Cheren walked into the tall grass. The Pokémon he encountered was orange with a large brown plate on its back.


Crustle (イワパレス)

064

Bug/Rock Type

Stone Home Pokémon

4'07" (1.4 m)

440.9 lbs (200 kg)

Competing for territory, Crustle fight viciously. The one whose boulder is broken is the loser of the battle.

Dwebble -Lv 34- Crustle


"Fraxure, go!" Cheren shouted. His Axew was now bigger, darker and had longer tusks and a red tipped tail.


Fraxure (オノンド)

117

Dragon Type

Axe Jaw Pokémon

3'03" (1 m)

79.4 lbs (36 kg)

Their tusks can shatter rocks. Territory battles between Fraxure can be intensely violent.

Axew -Lv 38- Fraxure


"Dragon Dance!" Fraxure started dancing on the spot. Its Attack and Speed were raised. Crustle came back with a Slash. "Now use Dragon Claw!" Fraxure swiped Crustle, taking its health down by half. Crustle then made rocks fall onto Fraxure with Rock Slide. "Another Dragon Claw!" Fraxure swiped at Crustle one more time, knocking it out.

"Look at you go!" Bianca yelled as Cheren patted Fraxure on the head.

"Come on guys!" I said. "P2 Laboratory isn't going anywhere but I'd like to be back by sundown."


Location: Route 17

"That's it over there!" Cheren shouted, pointing to a large building. "The P2 Laboratory!" He looked at the water. As he warned, currents were gushing violently. "Hmm. It's too strong to go the easy way. We're going to have to go the long way; go around. That means going along Route 18. Nothing wrong with that though!"

We got on our Pokémon again and used Surf. Going along the currents gave us a massive burst of speed.

"Last one there's a Bad Egg!" Bianca shouted as she and Frillish darted ahead of us.

"I don't think so Bianca. Go for it Simipour!" Simipour started spinning its tail in the water like a propeller, and they zoomed away.

I couldn't not join in. "Give it all you got Samurott!" Samurott swam with all its might. We were all neck and neck along the currents.

"Yahoo!" Bianca yelled. "This is the life!"

Perhaps we were having a bit too much fun though. Because we didn't notice the island in front of us.

"Might want to stop!" I said.

But the Pokémon were too into it. They kept going onto land, and we all flew off. We landed in a pile.


Location: Route 18

"That was fun!" Bianca said. "Let's do that again!"

"Bianca, get off!" I said. "You're on my Archen wound!"

Bianca apologized and leapt off me and onto the sand. She recalled Frillish, then looked up at the hill. I did to.

"Look, a house!" I said, pointing to a stone house on said hill. "Who would be living this isolated from the Unova region?"

I looked in the distance to see the skyline of Castelia City. "Route 18 was once part of Route 4," Cheren said. "That's why we can see the skyline."

Still though, was anyone living there? The P2 Laboratory was desolate, so there was no reason to stay here.

We all got to the house and knocked on the door.

"Maybe no one's home," Bianca said. As she said this, a Backpacker opened the door.

"Nothing to see here! I'm not do-" He saw who he was in the presence of. "Oh. It's you guys. Come on in. We have much to talk about."


The Backpacker's name was Lorcan, and yes, he was isolated from the rest of Unova. He only lived with his Pokémon, Throh.

"I heard about what's going on," he said. "Team Plasma like to spread propaganda in every nook and cranny of the Unova region, even in middle of nowhere islets like this place."

"It must get lonely," I said.

Lorcan put his arm around Throh. "Not with Throh it doesn't! Plus, here's the thing. I'm an explorer. I like to find places in the Unova region that people have barely touched, and that includes the Relic Castle!"

I notified Lorcan of what went down during my visit. "What's at the bottom?" I asked. "Treasure?"

"No treasure, but a Pokémon. Not a Legendary though, but a mother." He went over to a small box and opened it, revealing an Egg. "I found this being stolen by some poachers named Skinny and Fatty at the Relic Castle. I believe it may just belong to the mother; Volcarona."

I then asked why he didn't return it.

"Well, here's the thing. Volcarona are known to be very angry when their Egg is stolen, so it was far too dangerous to confront it. So, I took the Egg back here with me to take care of until the time is right. It's been here for a week. If only someone would take it though…"

I raised my hand. "If you have a PC, I'll free a space in my PC and do it."

Lorcan smiled. "Thanks! Yeah, I have a PC. Just next to the fridge!"

Wondering why a PC was next to the fridge but also realising it was none of my business, I put Druddigon and Scrafty in the PC, but took out Litwick. That's because Litwick's Ability is Flame Body, which incubates Eggs when in the Party as well as potentially inflict a burn when a Pokémon makes direct contact with it.

"Okay, here you go!" Lorcan said, giving me the Egg. "I've walked with it a bit, so with Flame Body, it should hatch in no time."

As he said this, I noticed the Egg was moving occasionally.

"Thanks!" I said. "Okay, let's hit the road. To the P2 Laboratory!"


Location: Route 17

One more current race later (with another very rocky landing), we were in front of the abandoned structure. I took things a little slower as I didn't want scrambled Egg that afternoon.

"So, we going in or what?" I asked.

"You bet!" Bianca said. Having learned nothing from Striaton School, she flung open the doors. "Anyone hoooome?!"


Location: P2 Laboratory

Me and Cheren walked passed Bianca into the messy Lab.

"What experiments were they conducting?" Cheren asked.

I had a look at the machines. "That's weird. This one's still on." It's true. One of the machines was whirring.

Cheren and Bianca came over. I traced the whirring over to a screen with a document on it. It depicted two Pokémon. One was purple with large red eyes. The other was the same but had a cannon on its back.

"What's this?" I asked. There was a safe next to the machine, so I opened it. It was filled with files detailing the Pokémon.

"Project Genesect.

An ancient Pokémon but not revived from a Fossil. We, Team Plasma, have not only revived it, but modified it to have a cannon on its back.

Project manager:

Colress."

"We need to show these to Alder," I said. "Come on!"


Location: Route 17

As we walked out, we saw a Scientist. It was almost like he was waiting for us.

"What did you find in there? Don't say nothing because I see the documents."

"Nothing!" Bianca said.

"Cough it up," he said. "Cough up the files about Genesect."

"How do you know?!" I said. "Are you this Colress that's on here?"

"I do not want to be compared to those Team Plasma bandits. Give them to me."

"I won't!" I said. "How do I know you're not lying?! I'd rather no one have these than Team Plasma!" I threw the papers across the water.

"Pansear!" the Scientist shouted, sending out the Fire Type. "Flamethrower!" Pansear shot flames at the paper, burning them. "You are absolutely right about what you said. This was a plan that… I worked on. But never do I want to see those documents again. I should get going."

With that, he walked away, sent out a Frillish (this one was blue rather than pink, indicating it was male) and he used Surf to get away.

"What was that?" Bianca asked.

After that, we decided to call it a day.


Location: Nuvema Town

It was four in the afternoon when we got back home.

"What a day," Cheren said. "Wasn't this supposed to be our break?"

I told everyone to stay quiet, as I took out a file about Genesect that I had hidden. "I'll tell the police when I can. I'm not sure what this Genesect is, but it could be deadly. Oh?" I felt my Egg tossing and turning about.

"It's hatching time!" Bianca said. I put the Egg on the ground as it jumped about. Pieces of shell flew off it. When it hatched, it revealed a Pokémon that had white fur and five horns around it that made it look sort of like the sun.


Larvesta (メラルバ)

142

Bug/Fire Type

Torch Pokémon

3'07" (1.1 m)

63.5 lbs (28.8 kg)

The base of volcanoes is where they make their homes. They shoot fire from their five horns to repel attacking enemies.


"Cute!" Bianca said.

"Yes, but it's not mine to keep. I'll return it to Volcarona tomorrow."

"No," Cheren said. "Tomorrow you should focus on your journey and getting ready to battle N, as well as finding out more about the Dark Stone. Larvesta can wait a bit."

Cheren was right. Taking one day off was a risk. Anymore distractions would be detrimental to the Unova region.

"An early night will help though!" Bianca said.

She was right.


Tomorrow, it begins.