By luck, the only people Young Ash and Tobianna ran into on their way out was a rather confused worker, who just watched as they ran by and headed out of the door. Down the slope they ran, but it was here that Tobianna's foot slipped and she fell over.
Young Ash stooped and helped her to her feet as she got back up hoping she hadn't damaged her ankle. She hadn't, but it was at that point that an incensed Lovrina appeared in the doorway, took one look at them and started running down behind them, her long pink pigtails streaming out behind her. Young Ash and Tobianna didn't waste any time watching, but turned and ran ahead of Lovrina.
They even took the two big guys at the door by surprise, who were more used to the idea of people trying to get in, not out. They watched Young Ash and Tobianna's flight, blinking, until Lovrina also ran between them shouting "Well don't just stand there, get after them and help me catch them!" They needed no further instruction, following Lovrina down the slope.
Tobianna and Young Ash were no slouches, and both had the advantage of their youth, but Lovrina had the advantage of longer legs and was fuelled by anger, and gradually she gained on them. Tobianna was aware that Young Ash could run faster as his legs too were long, but neither of Tobianna's parents were particularly tall, and he was holding back so she could keep up. He did put on a slight spurt, pulling Tobianna behind him, who stumbled just once and flung her arm out behind her just for a moment to catch her balance, as they got to the edge of the circular dais that stood before the ramp of the Key Lair.
A pair of hands grabbed her backflung arm and pulled, and Tobianna realised that Lovrina had caught them up. "Run! Leave me!" she cried to Young Ash, pulling her other hand from his.
"No!" Young Ash yelled back.
"How touching!" sneered Lovrina. "How about you both come back with me?"
"Never!" growled Tobianna. She knew she had to act fast, because the two doormen would be on them within a minute or so. She used her free hand to deal Lovrina a stinging backhand across her face, hoping this would make her let go.
It didn't although she did loosen her grip, and Tobianna changed tactics, pushing and then pulling against Lovrina, twisting her arm and body in an attempt to pull free. Tobianna, although shorter than Lovrina was also stockier, which did give her an advantage.
What finally got her free was a last strong twist of her body as she shoved Lovrina, at the same time as Young Ash gave her a shove. Lovrina lurched back, one foot leaving the ground, overbalancing, and throwing her arms out, frantically windmilling them to try and stay upright. However, she had tipped over too far and gravity exerted it's effect, and she lost her battle.
It was just Lovrina's bad luck that she was standing by the edge of the dais at the time, and fell off the edge-straight into the polluted purple slurry that was the by-product of the Key Lair's work. With a scream followed by a slightly sticky plop, she disappeared into the muck, surfacing about two seconds later, clinging to the side of the dais. Tobianna and Young Ash did see this, but decided not to tarry any longer, and fled across the path that led out to the desert.
The two doormen paused, wondering whether to stop to pick Lovrina out of the goop, or follow her previous instructions to catch Young Ash and Tobianna. Two things decided it for them-two other peons who had obviously also been send out to help get them, and Lovrina's cry of "Well don't just stand there, get me out of here!" One of the doormen pointed the two other peons in the direction Tobianna and Young Ash had taken while the other one took a coil of rope from his belt, tied a loop in it, and began paying it down to Lovrina.
Ten minutes later a smelly, sticky and cold Lovrina was being led back to her office to clean up and change. As she showered and washed her hair, she kept herself happy with thoughts of just what she'd do to that bitch Tobianna, her companion Ash, and Tobianna's mother when Young Ash and Tobianna were brought back to her, and she'd tricked Rachel into thinking she'd accepted her offer.
Young Ash and Tobianna set out onto the desert, after Young Ash checked his PDA to look for the nearest settlement.
"Well, Phenac is the nearest settlement, but I'd like to get food and water sooner than that." Young Ash told Tobianna. "There is a stopping place known as the Outskirt Stand where we can take a breather and eat and drink which is closer, so I suggest we head for that."
"You didn't leave anything vital in the sleeping room, did you?" Tobianna asked him. "We did leave in rather a hurry."
"The only irreplaceable stuff I brought with me was my Pokémon" Young Ash told her "and I did have Charizard in my rucksack, but I slipped it among the poké balls on my belt this morning." He assured her. "I figured no-one would notice I had five instead of four."
"Good!" she breathed in relief. "I didn't fancy risking sneaking back in to retrieve anything, especially seeing as we left our helmets behind. As soon as we showed our faces, we'd be grabbed." He nodded, and they walked on in silence for a while, holding hands and both thinking their own thoughts.
It was Young Ash who noticed the pursuit as he turned his head to look back behind him. He reached a hand out to stop Tobianna.
"We have company, and I don't think we can lose them." he told her.
She turned to see two people in similar outfits to theirs coming after them, but these two were wearing their helmets. It was a man and a woman, and as Young Ash had pointed out, they were so close they could not run and hide from them. She turned to face them, and took a poke ball off her belt.
"It looks like we're going to have to fight." She said. Ash nodded, taking a poké ball off his belt. They grinned at each other as the two peons approached. They had battled as a pair before, in practice against not just Alan and amber, but against some unsuspecting Shamouti Island trainer tourists. They made a great team, and had never yet lost a double battle they had participated in yet. Tobianna nervously reflected that there was always a first time.
"You're coming back to the Key Lair with us!" the male peon stated. "You've upset Lovrina bigtime, and she's not a pretty sight when she's mad. I'm not going to face her wrath by returning empty-handed."
"To take us, you'll have to beat us in a Pokémon battle." Young Ash said. Tell you what, if we win, you go back the way you came and say we lost you. If we lose, we come back with you. Agreed?"
"Ash, is that such a good idea?" said Tobianna to him. "What if we lose?"
"If we lose, they'll end up taking us anyway." he said. "But we're not going to lose, Tobianna, are we?"
"Not with these stakes!" she said.
"You're on!" the male peon declared, and he and his female companion threw out two poké balls. Out came a Vulpix and a Nuzleaf.
Tobianna and Young Ash threw their poké balls, each releasing their Pokémon-Tobianna's Vaporeon, which she'd had from a Level 5 Eevee, and Young Ash's Charizard, which he had also had for years from a Level 5.
The female peon tried to get her Nuzleaf to Giga Drain Tobianna's Vaporeon, but Male Ash's Charizard was quicker to deploy it's Flamethrower attack on it when Young Ash commanded it to. Nuzleaf went straight down, to be replaced with a Seviper. The Vulpix didn't last any longer, not once Tobianna commanded her Vapoeron to Surf, which also hurt the Seviper. The male peon replaced his Vulpix with a Graveler.
The Seviper used Poison Tail on Vaporeon, and Graveler used Rock Throw on Charizard, but both were able to stay up. Charizard used another Flamethrower to help toast the Seviper, which somehow managed to stay up, but once Vaporeon used Surf again, both the Graveler and the Seviper went down.
The two peons sent out what Ash and Tobianna thought must be their last Pokemon-a Kirlia and an Electrike. Tobianna gasped on seeing them.
"Ash, they're Shadow!" she told him.
"How do you know?" Young Ash asked.
"I can see a purple-black aura around them. I've seen it several times in my time here-that's how I knew the people recruiting me were from Cipher before they said so-and in every case the Pokémon with it have been Shadow Pokémon. Mum and Dad say they both have something called Shadow-Sight, which means they can tell Shadow Pokémon from non-Shadow ones. They say they see a purple-black cloud around the Shadow Pokémon, so I guessed they've passed that ability on to me."
"That's right, missy." The male peon said. "These are our Shadow Pokémon and they are going to stomp you flat!"
"You could make it easier on yourself and come back with us now, kid." The female peon said. "Maybe Lovrina will have calmed down by the time we get you back."
"What, and be her experimental subject?" snorted Tobianna. "If you're so enamoured of the idea, maybe you can volunteer to take my place when we send you packing!"
The female peon's response was to instruct her Kirlia to attack Tobianna's Vaporeon with a move she called Shadow Wave. A Shadowy energy came from the Kirlia and struck both. Already weakened by the Seviper's Poison Tail attack, her Vaporeon fainted, but Charizard stayed up. Tobianna recalled her Vaporeon, and sent out her Shadow Houndour, while Young Ash threw his Charizard a Hyper Potion, which it caught in it's teeth and drank before turning its attention back to its opponents.
The Electrike used a move called Shadow Rush on Houndour, as the Kirlia used Shadow Wave again. The Shadow Rush barely hurt the Houndour, but Shadow Wave struck both their Pokémon. As it struck Charizard it did more damage. Young Ash instructed it to Flamethrower the Kirlia, and Tobianna threw it a Moo-Moo Milk to keep it going.
"It's the Shadow moves, Ash." she told him. "They're very effective against non-Shadow Pokémon, but hardly do anything to other Shadow Pokémon. You get Charizard to attack, and while Houndour holds the fort, I'll heal." Young Ash nodded, watching as the Kirlia was felled by Charizard's fire attack. The female peon drooped miserably as she realised all her Pokémon had been beaten.
It was much the same process for the Electrike, although its trainer instructed it to attack Charizard rather than Houndour, It did no good, for on every turn, Tobianna threw it a Lemonade or Moo-Moo milk, and Young Ash instructed it to keep using it's Flamethrower attack. The Electrike soon dropped, and the male peon and his female companion ran away back towards the Key Lair.
Young Ash and Tobianna immediately turned their attention back to their Pokémon. Young Ash gave Charizard a Lemonade, while Tobianna revived and Hyper Potioned her Vaporeon and healed up what little damage had been done to her Houndour with one Potion that she had in her pack.
"I'm thirsty." Young Ash said. Between the heat of the desert, and that thrown off by Charizard's Flamethrowers, it was rather warm and both of them were sweating.
"No problem!" said Tobianna, putting her hands out before her Vaporeon and instructing Ash to do the same. Her Vaporeon was happy to use Water Gun and fill their cupped hands with fresh, clean and clear water to drink. After she and Ash had had a drink, Tobianna repeated the process until all the Pokémon that wanted a drink had had one.
"I think we'd better reassure your parents that we're okay." Young Ash said, flipping open his PDA. Handing it to Tobianna, he let her call her parents. Alex answered, and told her to call on their PDA, for Cyril and Rachel were on his machine and heading to Orré. So Tobianna called her mother's PDA, and she was very relieved to hear that they were okay, and had escaped from Lovrina.
"Here I was, expecting the worst and trying to prepare myself to go back to Lovrina and her experiments." She said. "Alex told me you'd get away, I guess I should have trusted him more. We're heading for the Pokémon HQ lab, and I'll sleep easier knowing you two are away from that woman."
Tobianna told her mum that the Key Lair was back in action and turning out Shadow Pokémon again, and her father Cyril came to the screen when he heard that.
"I'll let Officer Sherles know. It's something he can put on them. Making Shadow Pokémon is an offence in Orré." He said. "Now you get yourselves to Phenac City, I have a friend there who will be keeping an eye out for you. Once we know you're there, we'll send John in the small helicopter to pick you up. You should get home in time for the Legend Festival." He said. Then he signed off.
"That depends on how long it takes us to get to Phenac." groaned Young Ash.
"Have you been to anywhere except Pyrite before with your Charizard?" Tobianna asked.
"Yes." Said Young Ash. "The Key Lair, the wrecked ship Libra-though I imagine that's now been cleared up- and the Pokémon HQ Lab. Not Phenac. Well, I was there when I was very small, briefly, but I didn't have Charizard on me. Why?" he asked.
"Because if your Charizard can fly, it could take us to the Pokémon HQ Lab, and we could hook up with my parents there." She said.
"Tobianna, you're a genius!" Young Ash said. He got his Charizard out, and they both managed to climb on its back. "Charizard, fly us to the Pokémon HQ Lab!" Young Ash said.
Charizard roared happily, spread its wings, and complied.