"Granbull, return"
Granbull was surrounded by a glowing red light that then evaporated him into his pokeball.
"Are you alright Professor Bridges?" Eric said as he turned to Una.
"Yes, I'm fine thank you".
"Your Granbull is quite strong Mr. Vaughn"
"Well I've had him since he was a tiny Snubbull"
"You can tell, he knocked out that Nidorina with one ice fang"
"He's a great Pokémon"
"Indeed"
"So what are we going to do about this mess?"
"There's only one thing we can do"
"and what's that?"
"We have to follow the road until the end"
"No I just want to give up the map and leave" Eric said sternly.
"You're in too deep Mr. Vaughn, these people won't stop following you until they get what they want and without my help you won't be able to find it".
Eric let out an exasperated sigh and nodded. With frustrated futility, he sunk into the armchair next to the bay window.
"So what do we do now" Eric spoke up after a period of silence.
"Just give me a little while to work out where were going, what we'll need etc."
Una left Eric in her parlor for a short moment and analyzed the map as she strolled around aimlessly through her office. After Una had lain down all plans in her head she found herself at the back door. The glass in the door was smashed from the outside and the doorknob had been tampered with. Una cleaned up the glass and returned to the parlor.
"There's a bunch of caves in woods not far from here, I think the entrance is located somewhere out there, we'll need supplies and hiking gear".
For the next hour Una took Eric back to her apartment and scuttled around preparing dry foods and water; Hiking boots for her and Eric, Pokémon food and medicine. It was all packed into a large green duffle bag, which Una slung over her shoulder with determined strength. Una came back out into her living room to find Eric pale.
"What's wrong Mr. Vaughn?"
"I just looked at my email's they all say beware"
"They're just trying to scare you, rise above it Mr. Vaughn"
"I'm only here because you talked me into it, what am I doing here!"
"Fine, if you don't want to do this Mr. Vaughn then thank you and goodbye" Una said shortly.
Eric stood with an undignified look; he straightened his tie and left Una's apartment. Una threw her duffle bag onto the lounge sweet and let Blinky out of his Pokeball.
Una didn't return to work for the remainder of the day and later did indeed decide go to the market; she put on her most comfortable clothes; loose fitting jeans with a baggy sweat shirt.
Una walked out onto the street. It was a beautiful dusk; shades of peach and amber shot across the sky and cut through the water like diamonds. Una strolled down all the way to the market place with Blinky running around her in rapid circles. Blinky had such a quirky sense of humor.
Una reached the market and browsed the various meats and vegetables, all with fresh aromas that filled the nostrils with an exhilarating zing. As Una was inspecting a rather juicy looking apple she heard a small but audible struggle; it seemed to be coming from behind all of the stalls, she slipped in between two smaller stalls and stayed in the shadows as she saw Eric Vaughn standing with the man from earlier today and a second unidentifiable woman who was wearing a long trench coat and a hat pulled over her face.
They were all engaged in an intense Pokémon battle. Nidorina and the mystery woman's Nidorino against Eric's Granbull and Umbreon; After several minutes Eric managed to subdue the attacker's Pokémon with a combination of Hyper Beam and Shadow Ball. The attackers fled in defeat. There was something different about Eric's posture suddenly, his face, and his breathing pattern. Something had changed within Eric too. Eric pivoted around to exactly where Una was standing and looked her directly in the eye and spoke.
"How soon can we leave?"
Eric and Una decided to wait until the dead of night to leave. Eric left and returned with supplies and hiking wears. The two then drove out of the city by the back roads and made their way out towards the forest.
Una rounded a corner and started up a dirt road that would eventually take them to the main hiking path.
Una had been driving for almost half an hour when she turned to Eric, who had his head rested against the window and his eyes almost completely shut and said,
"Mr. Vaughn, wake up, the dirt road will end soon, and we'll have to walk from then on".
No sooner did she say this then a large iron bar appeared, painted red and white like a giant candy can, separating the dirt road and the hiking trail. Una and Eric exited to car collected all their gear and started to head up into the forest.
It was a steep climb most of the way and they were surrounded by dark, brooding trees, distant cries and whispers of Pokémon in the foliage and a deep sense of insecurity.
Eventually, Una led them off the main track and into the scrub, pushing through the thicket; the leaves and thorns scratching at their hands seemingly try to deter them. They had been walking sometime when they came to a small clearing with a formation of rocks wedged into the side of the hill. The hole was miniscule; a small child wouldn't have fit.
"This is it" Una pointed.
"Are you sure?"
"Positive" Una confirmed.
"Well we better start dieting now because there is no way we are slim enough to go through that entrance"
"It's a problem alright".
After pondering for five minutes, Una took out Blinky's Pokeball and released him.
"I have an idea"
Una kneeled down and scratched Blinky under the chin, he nuzzled her with his cheek in appreciation.
"Blinky can you do me a big favour, can you use dig to widen the passage for us?" Una smiled.
"Furret, fur!" Blinky chimed heartily.
Blinky then leapt into the air and dove head first into the soil, vanishing in a cloud of dust and dirt. Blinky dug with comfortable ease and widened the passage enough so that Eric and Una could crawl through.
They both entered the tunnel, it was damp, confining and suffocating. The climb was pretty much a vertical descent, Una placing her footing carefully as to not encourage any unnecessary terrain movement. After what seemed like hours they reached a small cavern.
The cavern's ceilings weren't high enough that they could stand but tall enough that they could crouch. However the cavern was extremely long and wide, you could see directly to the other side of the cavern except for one feature that obscured the horizon. In the middle of the cavern was a risen platform of rock and as they approached they saw that the inside was hollowed out and was filled with water, a single drip penetrated the surface every few seconds from the roof.
Una look directly down into the pool and saw a small Pokémon egg. It was a dull ivory with no markings.
"It's definitely a Pokémon egg, but what Pokémon is inside?"
"I'm not sure, I'm going to take a sample of this water as well, seems the prudent thing to do".
Una removed a clean test tube from her backpack and filled it with water, placed a cork in the top of the tube and replaced it in her bag. Una then dipped her hands into the pool of water. The water seemed clean, too clean almost pure. Una took note of this as she removed the egg and gave it to Eric who wrapped it in a blanket.
With great difficulty the two made their way back up through the passage almost slipping several times before finally emerging. Una shut her eyes as she emerged and took a long, satisfied breath of fresh air.
As Una was enjoying being out in the open again she heard Eric instruct her to open her eyes and pay attention. Una did so and took note of the situation.
They were completely surrounded with no chance of escape. They were in the middle of a circle of tempestuous Raichus and behind them was the attackers from earlier, along with a large group of black clad thugs with expressionless faces.
Eric shoved his hand in his pocket.
"Don't even try it," said a mysterious voice from the shadows.
The voice belonged to a lanky, pole bean of man with spidery features and little to no hair.
"My name Is Devon McCloud and you are getting in my way".
The next thing Una knew all she could see and feel was a searing hot yellow and her body crippling beneath her. Everything then went to black.