"Egging on the Enemy"
At first, the only thing Una could focus on was the loud thudding in her ears. Her heart was pounding and she was gasping for air, her arms wanted to thrash about but something was restraining them. After some time, Una was able to open her eyes and digest her surroundings. She was tied back to back with Eric Vaughn on a stiff, wooden chair. They were in the middle of a large, empty room with a low ceiling. On the far off wall was a mirror and below it, a small, iron table with a pitcher of water with a glass.
"Relax Professor..." cooed a distant voice, cool and unemotional.
"Eric..." Una whispered, her mouth dry and unresponsive.
Eric was still out cold when there was a loud bang at the opposite side of the room. It was the tall, towering man from when they were ambushed. He wore an expensive, tailored suit, navy blue with a crisp white shirt and gold tie.
"Ah, Professor Bridges, such an honour to have your company". He bowed.
Una tried to speak but her mouth was a desert.
"Where are my manners" he spun on his heels and retrieved the water glass and filled it and lifted it to Una's face, she drank about half the glass when he returned it to the table.
"Who are you, why have you taken us captive" Una said slowly, her power of speech gradually returning.
"Oh, do you really want the evil villain speech?" The man quipped.
" My name is Devon McCloud and I run PokeFront. A collection of scientists, researchers and...well, lets just say enthusiasts who want to unlock the true power of Pokemon. We believe Pokemon hold the answer to the greatest mysteries that surround us, and we will stop at nothing to get what we require".
"Like immortality?" Una interjected.
"Yes, that is one of the secrets we have come across and are pursuing. Incidentally that is why you are here. We can't very well have you two getting there first and spoiling everything now can we. We will let you go once we've got what we're after".
"You won't get away with this". Una blurted out.
"Yes we will, once we let you go I'll have my Slowking erase your memory of that you were ever here".
Suddenly there was a loud ringing sound from inside Devon's suit, he pulled out a sleek black phone and answered it. He gave a few muffled responses before turning to Una and saying:
"Oh I do apologise Professor, I must cut our little conversation short. Business awaits, oh and one more thing before I leave you. We analysed that sample of water you took from the cavern. It was pure H20, that Egg you found may have been preserved for hundreds, maybe thousands of years. Thank you kindly.
With that, Devon turned around and let himself out with a loud clang behind him.
"Eric, Eric!" Una flailed about trying to rouse him.
"Please wake up!".
Una started rocking the chair back and forth in the most violent fashion.
"Wha...wh...what? where am I?" Eric muttered.
"Oh thank heavens. Eric wake up, we've been captured by some insane scientist and we have to get out of here. Is there anyway you can free either yourself or me".
Eric fumbled around for a few minutes before letting out an exasperated sigh "No, nothing". Una flexed and heaved as much as her tired body would allow but there was no getting around it.
"Wait!" cried Eric
"I think Granbull's pokeball is still in my pocket. They must of only seen your pokemon and not bothered to check me. If i can only get it out, Una if we can tip ourselves over I should be able to work the pokeball out of my pocket".
Una agreed and with a few terrifying rocking motions they came crashing to the ground and the pokeball rolled out of Eric's pocket and right up to his face.
"Granbull come out and help us!"
With a flash of light, Granbull was peering over them with a confused expression, he helped the two out of the rope and up to their feet.
"Thanks so much buddy, you've really saved us" Eric said as he put her arms around Granbull's neck.
"Thanks Granbull" Una smilled as she dusted herself off.
"What's the plan professor?" Eric enquired.
"Well, they've taken Blinky and I am not leaving without him. Also we can't let them have that egg. We need to get it back somehow. The problem is, we don't know how big this place is, or where they've taken both Blinky and the egg".
"If we can get out of this room, maybe we can find a disguise and have a look around".
"Yes" Una agreed.
"Put Granbull back into his ball and lets go, i'm pretty sure that door isn't locked as Devon came in without a key"
The two approached the door and opened it softly, before slipping outside and into a long, dimly lit corridor. They started forward and followed the passage for a couple of minute before they had to duck into a small closet to avoid being seen. Here they found long, white overcoats they quickly put on and continued along their way, checking the odd door without much success.
"There's no windows?" Eric whispered to Una.
"I know, we might be underground".
Eventually they came to the end of the hallway with one passage leading to the left and one to the right.
"I don't think we should split up, how will we be able to find each other?" Una said breathlessly.
"How will we find Blinky and the egg if we don't?" Eric responded.
"Let's just go left, we're not splitting up Eric".
Down the long, dark corridor the sound of distant footsteps.
"Someone's coming, Una, we don't have time. I'll take the right you take left".
Eric didn't give Una a chance to respond as he ran off into the shadows. Una's heart was racing as she took off down the hallway. Making sure not to run, as that would look suspicious but her pace quickened every now and again stopping to put her head inside a room.
Una eventually got to the end of the corridor which had large doors, which lots of natural sunlight pouring in, Una forced the doors open and climbed a nearly vertical staircase and pushed open a heavy door above her head. She came out in the middle of the lush green wilderness. The trapdoor she had come through had been heavily camouflaged with bushes and sticks.
Una started to panic. She had managed to find her way out but without finding either Blinky or the egg. She started to wonder if she should go back in and try to find them both when a familiar voice startled her.
"Took your time" It was Eric sitting upon a large boulder several metres behind Una, with him was Blinky and the egg.
Blinky came bounding up to her and wrapped himself around her chest, his fur tickling Una's chest.
"How did you ever!" Una asked, amazed.
"I had to sneak into one of their labs but it wasn't hard. After I retrieved Blinky and the egg I had Granbull bust up two of their labs"
"What! Not only are they now looking for us, but now they're looking for us, with a vengeance! why did you do that Eric?" Una moaned.
"To slow down their research, this whole egg thing is bigger than us".
"Look" Eric added. "We have to get their before they do, it's as simple as that. Now, I couldn't find the map, but managed to swipe some of their data on it. Statistics and such I think. From What i can see they haven't pieced it together".
Una analysed the data for several minutes before concluding "I know where we have to go, it's so obvious, come on we need to find our way back to the entrance of the cavern, so we can get my car. It'll take us about another hour, it's just off route 35".
The two began to hike as speedily as possible down the through the thicket and scrub, they eventually came to a large sprawling road. "This is the main road we came in on. If we had down a ways we should come to the car at some stage".
Una and Eric eventually found the car after about twenty minutes, but to their horror the tires had been slashed by a pair of nasty Ariados, that were now inside the car feeding on apple cores.
"Furret use Brick Break now!"
Furret exploded from his pokeball with a start. He lunged courageous at the Ariados squaring a direct his against the larger of the two Ariados. The two bug pokemon became startled and scuttled off into the forest.
"Now what are we going to do, we can't drive this!" Eric exclaimed.
"We will just have to walk back, I don't know how long it..." Una was stopped mid-sentence by the realisation that the egg Eric held in his arms was beginning to hatch.
A long, piercing crack shot down the middle, and the pale ivory shell split in two...