Chapter 24: The Egg
Isaac stared up in disbelief, an angry Onix looked down at them, an Onix that was a minute ago sleeping soundly in the darkness of the cavern.
"Jennifer... Why? Why, why, why, why, WHY!?"
"Oh, come on Isaac, this is much more fun then just sneaking around! Learn to live a little!"
The Onix came right for Jennifer, who had her back turned so she could talk to Isaac. Isaac pointed at it as is charged.
"Jennifer look out!"
She didn't even turn around, instead she jumped straight into the air, so high she reached the high up ceiling. Isaac was amazed by how high she could leap into the air, despite hearing about the Bunearys and their incredible jumping ability. When she reached the ceiling she turned herself around mid-air, her feet touching the ceiling, and she pushed hard off the ceiling, coming down fast. The Onix looked up, Jennifer's hand glowed white, she was using Mega Punch. When she got close to the Onix she punched it right in the face, the speed of the fall making it exceptionally powerful.
Jennifer landed gracefully in front of Isaac, a second later the Onix toppled over, unconscious like it had been before they came. Isaac stared at her, his eyes as wide as saucers.
"That... Was... AMAZING!"
Jennifer laughed. "Haha, thanks."
"No, seriously! That was absolutely spectacular! I thought this was your first time in a mystery dungeon!"
"It is."
"... Your... Your serious?"
"Yup."
"Wow, you must have been born for this, your... I love you Jennifer!"
There was an awkward silence, Isaac covered his beak with both of his wings.
Way to go Isaac. Way, to, go!
"You... Love me?"
He didn't say anything, he just kept covering his beak, not wanting to make things worse for himself.
Another awkward silence, it felt like days passed to Isaac. He finally broke the silence after a few moments passed.
"Yes, yes I do. I've loved you ever since seeing you in the mail room a few days ago. I just couldn't work up the courage to tell you how I feel... Didn't really intend to tell you here of all places..."
"Oh Isaac... I..."
She jumped right at him, knocking him over. She stood on his chest much like Rita did when they first met Kane.
"I love you too! You're the first person who's ever been this nice to me! Everyone thinks I'm as crazy as I am in the mail room when I'm working so everyone avoids me like I'm some kind of hermit living in the headquarters or something!"
Isaac couldn't respond, Jennifer was heavier then she looked and she was standing right on his chest, he couldn't even breath. Isaac waved his wings around trying to signal to her that she crushing him, but she just stared at him, confused.
"Umm... What are you doing?"
"... Can't... Bre... Ahh!"
Jennifer realized she was crushing him, so she quickly got off of him. Isaac sat up coughing, trying to catch his breath.
"Oh, I'm so sorry Isaac! I just got a little excited is all..."
Isaac breathed deeply, then finally got the chance to speak.
"Don't worry about... Whew... Glad we got everything out in the open now." He stood up. "I think you broke a rib or something..."
"Oh really?"
She hit him in the chest.
"Hey!"
"See? Your fine!" She ran off, towards the dungeons exit, giggling the whole way.
Great job Isaac, you finally told her how you feel and she didn't freak out on you. Now you can finally stop thinking to yourself in the third person like a crazy person.
"Hey, wait up!" He chased after Jennifer, glad the weight of his secret crush was finally off his chest and out in the open.
---
It was morning, Isaac hadn't realized how long they had been in there.
The mountain air was cold, but Isaac was used to it from living in Pipton his entire life. But he saw that Jennifer, who'd probably never been anywhere other then the hot wasteland, was shivering like crazy.
"Wait one second, I have something in my bag that should warm you up."
Isaac rummaged around and pulled out a big scarf, one of the same ones he gave to Lloyd. He draped it around Jennifer's neck. A few moments later she stopped shivering.
"Thanks a lot... Wow this is a nice scarf, where'd you get it?"
"It was in the house my dad and me moved into, I have no idea where they came from. All I know is they're really warm."
"Why aren't you wearing one? Your just wearing that little red bandana."
Isaac forgot he was wearing it still. "Oh this thing?" He pulled it off and looked at it. "Apparently this belonged to my dad."
"What do you mean?"
"Well..."
As they walked down the mountain path towards the house where they were supposed to go, Isaac told Jennifer the story of how he was adopted after his fathers real son was taken away, and how his real son Maverick thought he had been replaced. He told her that he saved Lloyd and Rita from a huge blizzard, then went with Lloyd to fix the machine that baited the entire villages food supply. Finally, he told her about how Maverick had poisoned the berry juice they used as bait, effectively killing the entire village, then escaped, later sending him the bandana to taunt him.
"Oh my..." Said Jennifer. "That's awful!"
"Yeah..."
Jennifer went over to him and put her arm around him to comfort him. "But at least some good came out of everything right? You met new friends, and I can't imagine life being very exciting for you there."
"Yeah, your right, but I still will never forgive Maverick for what he did, he's a horrible pokemon and I'll make sure he gets what he deserves."
"Don't worry, when the time comes, you wont be fighting him alone. I'll be their with you."
"Thanks Jennifer, I appreciate that."
"But..."
"But?"
"In exchange, you gotta help me beat up my sisters."
"Haha, sounds like a plan."
When they finally got to the house, they both knocked on the door. A moment later a Geodude opened the door.
"Oh." He said. "Hello, you must be the Brotherhood guys!"
"Yes we are, were here to pick up the egg."
"Wait here and I'll go get it." The Geodude went back inside, but he didn't close the door. A moment later he came back holding a large yellow and black egg. "Here you go."
"Where'd you find this egg anyways?" Asked Isaac.
"Well, I was walking around my house when I saw a small rock poking out of the side of the mountain wall. I pulled it out and the whole wall collapsed, the fell over and the egg was right there. It must have been buried or something."
"Wait a sec." Said Jennifer. "How could a buried egg still be alive?"
"Oh I know why, my dad told me." Explained Isaac. "All pokemon eggs contain a large amount of this paste like stuff that the baby inside can eat, even a small amount of it can feed it for days. Supposedly an unhatched pokemon can survive in its egg for over five thousand years. The egg itself is really strong, its nearly impossible to crack it open from the outside, so its quite possible this egg got buried in a landslide thousands of years ago."
"So the things been in there waiting all these years for it to be found? Poor thing."
"Don't worry, as soon as it hatches it'll forget everything that happened inside the egg. So even if it went crazy from the loneliness, it will be fine as soon as its out."
"You certainly know what your doing." Said the Geodude. "It looks like I was right to contact you guys."
"Don't worry sir, I'll personally make sure this egg is taken care of."
"That's good to here, if you guys are wanting to get down the mountain, here's an escape orb. Just go back into the mountain and activate it and you'll be back on the ground in no time."
Isaac took the orb and put it in his bag. "Thanks, have a nice day!"
"You too!" Isaac and Jennifer left with the egg, heading back towards the cave entrance so they could leave as quickly as possible.
"Thanks for taking me Isaac, this was really fun."
"You know... You could always join Team Valiant instead of going back to your old job."
"But I can't, I need someone to replace me!"
"Get Rina to replace you."
"Well... I guess she could, she doesn't even have a job yet and mom keeps bugging her about it."
"Good! Then its settled, as soon as we get back we'll talk to Rina again in the mail room and have you officially signed up."
Once they got inside the cave, Isaac grabbed Jennifer's hand and activated the orb, sending them back to the foot of the mountain.
Isaac tried to let go of her hand, but Jennifer held on tight. Isaac looked at her and saw her smiling. He knew what she wanted, she wanted to hold hands with him.
"So..." He said. "You ready to go?"
"Definitely."
They walked, hand in hand, not taking a break the entire way back to the Brotherhood HQ.
---
Lloyd, Rita and Regal all got off the boat from Oasis Island. As a special favour from the Queen, the boat took them to a shore not a hour away from Havok City, instead of its usual destination at the harbor.
"Oh dear, this sand feels so weird on my feet, and its so hot! This place is horrible..."
"Oh quiet Regal." Said Rita. "Its your fault for not leaving the castle when Noah took over."
"Where was I supposed to go? Live out in the forest with the rest of the people who left? You know how many wild bird pokemon there are who would gladly come down to eat me for lunch?"
"Well... Tough."
Regal did nothing except complain the entire trip, Lloyd actually had to stop Rita from throwing him overboard because he wouldn't shut up about the boat rocking too much.
They all walked to Havok City, Regal carried Rita's bag the entire way.
---
It was the middle of the afternoon when Isaac and Jennifer got back to the HQ, they still held hands, happy as could be.
"Lets go to the mail room, once I get Rina to replace me, I'm all yours."
"Great!"
On the way they got spotted by Ewan, who ran up to them.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! What's going on?"
"What do you mean Ewan?" Asked Isaac.
"You two, holding hands, are you... A couple?"
"Pretty much." Said Jennifer, pulling Isaac closer. "Why?"
"Oh... Nothing, nothing at all! Ah, go ahead I guess then."
Ewan left, going outside the HQ.
"What was that about?" Asked Isaac.
"Oh, everyone thinks I'm crazy because the only time they see me is in the mail room, and I'm usually going a hundred miles an hour in there."
"Well, good thing your quitting huh?"
"Definitely."
They got to the mail room and Isaac saw a familiar scene, a Buneary running all over trying to her work done. She saw them both come in and dropped the stack of papers she had in her arms, spilling them across the floor.
"Finally! This job sucks, I'm out of here."
"Oh no your not Rina, I've been invited to join Team Valiant, so your gonna replace me here."
"Yeah, then Growlithe and Meowth are gonna rain from the sky right? Ain't gonna happen Fuzzball."
Jennifer went over to Rina and pushed her to the floor, then put her foot on her chest to prevent her from getting back up.
"Listen here, first of all, call me that again and I'll beat you to a pulp, secondly, your taking this job or I'm telling mom your still seeing Torch."
"No, you can't!"
"I will if you don't take the job."
"God I hate you so much Fuzz... Jennifer. Fine, but don't you dare ever ask me to do you any favours in the future."
"Great, how go get the application forms for new members."
Rina stormed off into the back room and brought back a blue form, it already had three signatures belonging to Lloyd, Rita and Isaac. Jennifer signed her name right below theirs.
"Now get lost!" Yelled Rina. "I have work to do!"
"And you always will, have fun Fuzzball!"
"Hey, don't you use that name for me!" but Jennifer wasn't listening.
"Come on Isaac, show me to our room."
Isaac was speechless, Jennifer was becoming more and more attractive to him every day. He knew there was no other girl for him.
"Wow... yeah... follow me its this way." As he led the way, he asked Jennifer a question. "Who's Torch?"
"Rina's boyfriend, mom doesn't want her seeing him because he's part of some gang or something, I can't remember exactly."
---
Isaac and Jennifer sat in Isaacs bed,relaxing after all their hard work.
"So, how do you think we're gonna do with this egg?" Asked Jennifer.
Isaac held the egg in front of him, he took the scarf he gave to Jennifer and wrapped the egg with it, fashioning a kind of next.
"Keep it, and when it hatches we get the daycare to raise it."
"Do you know anything about taking care of an egg?"
"Yeah, my dad taught me everything, one of his jobs was to take care of peoples eggs while they went fishing, and he told me everything."
"So what do we do?"
"First we keep it warm, and we gotta wash it too, its all dusty. Then we just sit and wait."
"Why don't you take it to the pool, there's a hot tub there that you could wash it with and keep it warm at the same time. I'll go with you, it'll be fun!"
"I guess so, I could use a nice dip in some hot water myself."
They walked towards the door, Isaac was about to open it, but it started opening before he could touch the knob. The door opened and there was Lloyd and Rita.
"Oh, hey guys!" Said Isaac, excited about seeing them again.
"Hey Isaac, how was the mission?"
"Oh, great, great, how was Oasis Island?"
"You wouldn't believe it Isaac." Said Rita. "I'll tell you everything tonight!"
"Oh, by the way, this is Jennifer." He stood aside so they could see her.
"Hello." She said.
"I invited her to join our team, I hope that's alright."
"I don't have any problems with it." Said Lloyd
"Me neither, we need more members anyways, welcome to the team Jennifer!"
"Thanks guys." She made Isaac hold her hand again. "Come, lets go before the egg gets cold."
"Ahh, right, see you guys tonight."
Isaac and Jennifer left the room, closing the door behind them.
"Did you see that Lloyd?" Asked Rita.
"What?"
"Isaac and Jennifer, they were holding hands just now."
"So?"
"Do you think... They might be boyfriend and girlfriend?"
"I don't know, and I really don't wanna think about it right now, I'm exhausted." Lloyd climbed into bed and covered himself with the blankets, but Rita pulled them right off.
"Lloyd, don't go to bed now! Remember what we were supposed to do after we got back?"
"Not at all..." Said Lloyd, yawning.
"The Captains back today, we gotta go ask him what this rock we found is."
"Why now? Can't I take a short nap first?"
"No, now come on!"
Rita dragged him out of bed and pulled him out of the room.
"Ow, Rita, slow down!"
The door closed, leaving Regal all alone in the room.
"I'll just stay here then... Why did this have to happen to me?!" Regal sobbed quietly to himself.