CHAPTER 75 – ESCAPE

In the previous chapter we see how Lira is sincere with our hero, it turns out that she had had an unrequited love for years, which she thought she had forgotten completely, however, it was not until she cried expressing all her pain, that she realized that she had not yet managed to overcome it 100%, thanks to our protagonist, She was able to overcome this and make their feelings for him grow, on the other hand, Courtney explains to them the ambitions of her boss, making everyone surprised by his madness, but everything went even more crazy when they saw that the unborn egg of Phione that Team Magma kept in a laboratory emitted a light that would drive an impossible evolution.

...

In an unknown place.

A young man in his 30s with short black hair and dressed in a lab coat, was running quickly through a hallway.

The man gasped with exhaustion, but still kept running, apparently whatever was going on was so important that he didn't want to waste a second.

After a couple of minutes running, he opened the door only to find another kind of laboratory where dozens of scientists were working, but specifically there was one observing all that, someone we know, his name is Colress.

"Sir, I bring urgent news!" – said the man.

"Mmm, don't you see that I'm busy? I hope it's really important" - Colress said somewhat seriously.

"Of course it is, sir, one of the experiments of the Evolution Plan has been a success, we have achieved it!" – said the man cheerfully.

"Is it serious, one of the subjects managed to evolve into Manaphy? Alright, this brings us closer to our goal, take me before it, I want to see it!" – Colress said cheerfully.

But the man didn't seem as cheerful as he was, which Colress noticed immediately.

"What's wrong? You don't look as cheerful as you should, you've been working on this project for years, I think your expression should be more cheerful" - Colress said.

"It is sir, but there is a little problem" – said the man.

"What kind of problem?" - asked Colress, frowning.

"The problem is that the evolution comes from one of the subjects that we thought failed and that were returned to the sea" - the man replied.

"Let's see if I understood correctly, are you telling me that our only successful subject is one that we thought failed and and which is now at sea?" – asked Colress somewhat angrily.

"Yes, but at least we managed to narrow down to the area where it is!" – said the man.

"Well, that's better, where?" – Colress said somewhat more relieved.

"The subject was released in the Kanto region, specifically in the south, so he should be in that area" - he replied.

"Alright, perfect, you have reduced the area to half of a region, can you tell me how we will find such a small Pokémon that can camouflage itself in the sea in such a large area? I await your answer" - Colress said.

"The only thing we can do is search, we have no way to locate it, sorry sir, I was wrong in the calculations, I did not think it was able to evolve" – said the man.

"Maybe releasing it into the wild was what he needed to stimulate its development, anyway, send men to look for any clue, ask people or look for it all over the sea, but I want it back, it's extremely important" - Colress said.

"Of course sir, I will send people to investigate right now" - the man nodded.

Then he quickly left.

"Kanto? I don't know why I get the impression that I'll have to go there in the end..." – Colress said as he went back to his work trying not to think about his hunch.

...

With Ash.

"It's impossible, Phione can't evolve!" – Courtney exclaimed in surprise.

But I couldn't explain the situation either.

Little by little the light dissipated until I saw a small Manaphy in my arms.

"Manaphy's data has been recorded in the Pokédex!" – that was the Rotom Dex.

"Mana" – said Manaphy.

"My precious one, does something hurt you?" – I asked immediately.

"Mana!" - she denied.

"Uff... Whatever happened, at least you're okay, I'm delighted" - I said as I sighed with relief.

I was still holding Manaphy in my arms, I didn't want to return her to her Pokéball yet.

"Will the egg have made it evolve? I mean, Phione is the breeding of manaphy but there has never been a case where a Phione evolved into Manaphy" - Koharu wondered.

"We have bigger problems now, look at the egg" - Courtney said.

We all looked and watched in amazement as the egg gradually turned gray until it finally melted into ashes.

"The egg... it can't be..." – Courtney said.

"I-I'm sorry" – I apologized.

"You don't understand, it's not because of the egg itself, it's that this egg provided energy to a large part of the base, that's why they still had it, and now that it's gone..." – Courtney said.

"They will come to see what happened to the egg" – Lira finished.

"That's right... you have to leave here right away!" – he exclaimed.

But it was too late, suddenly, numerous guards entered the door, while behind them were two people, one quite fat and one skinny, their names were Tabitha and Maxie.

"Wow, Who was going to say that this day would come?" - Tabitha said with a smile.

"Courtney would like to know what happened to the egg, where it is and what these recruits do here when they shouldn't be here" - Maxie said.

"It's not what it seems, I just wanted to show the facilities to the new Semi High Rank recruits, they are very promising and seemed worthy of knowing some secrets" – Courtney said.

"It's not up to you to decide that, tell me the truth Courtney, I'm not an idiot and I know what you're trying to, bbut I would like to hear it from you" - Maxie said.

"Okay... boss, what you're doing is not right, you don't know what will cause you to wake Groudon from his slumber, the consequences will be catastrophic" - Courtney said.

This got ugly, who would say this would happen.

"It's not up to you to decide what the boss should do or not, you just had to follow orders!" – said Tabitha.

"You don't seem to understand Courtney and since you were not satisfied with my ambitions you decided to betray me instead of talking about your concerns" - Maxie said.

"I tried to warn yoy, many times, but you didn't react!" - said Courtney.

"Don't listen to her, boss, let's stop her with her friends and make her talk!" – said Tabitha.

"Alright, I also don't know how you got Manaphy's egg to hatch, but I'll also take it, with it, I'll finally get the Blue Sphere" - Maxie said as she took out two Pokéball.

Tabitha also took out two Pokéballs and her guards took out one each, for a total of 8.

"This doesn't look good, what should we do?" - asked Koharu.

"Don't worry, I have a plan, but for it to work, I need you to create a distraction" - I said.

"I hope the plan works because otherwise we'll be screwed" - Courtney said.

"Perfect, because the plan involves leaving through another door other than the main one that is blocked" - I said.

"There is no other door, why should there be another?" - said Courtney.

"II feared it, now the only thing we can do is make our way through other means" - I said, pointing to the ceiling.

Everyone understood my intentions.

"I don't know what you're whispering, but that's as far as your adventure goes, Crobat, Gliscor it's time to fight and arrest these palurdos!" – said Tabitha.

"Krookodile, Flygon I choose you" – said Maxie.

Damn, they're strong Pokémon, it's going to be hard to create a distraction.

"Camerupt, Gastrodon I choose you!" said Courtney.

"Umbreon, Vaporeon I need your help!" – said Koharu.

"Meganium, Magmortar I choose you!" - said Lyra.

It's my turn.

"Pikachu, Manaphy, Latias I choose you!" – I said.

I know it's not a good idea to show Latias, but we're not in a good situation either, so we have to use everything we have at our disposal.

"The Legendary Pokémon Latias? Great, we'll carch her too" – Maxie smiled.

"In your dreams!" – I said angrily.

"Listen Ash, Koharu, Courtney, distract them, I'll have Meganium use Solar Beam against the roof, that will create a smoke screen, take out your flying Pokémon and we'll leave, but I need 1 minute" – Lira said.

We all agreed to this plan because it is the only thing I had.

The soldiers' Pokémon were all Poochyena, so there was no need to worry about them.

"If you think you are going to escape from here, then you are dumber than I thought, Crobat use Air Slash, Gliscor uses Poison Jab!"

"¡Krookodile use Crunch, Flygon use Dragon Pulse!"

"Poochyena use Dark Pulse!" - Those were the guards.

"Camerupt use Protect, Gastrodon you too, protect us from incoming attacks!"

"¡Vaporeon use Aurora Beam, Umbreon use Dark Pulse!"

"Meganium prepares the Solar Beam, Magmortar helps Camerupt and Gastrodon with Protect!"

"¡Pikachu use Thunderbolt, Manaphy use Signal Beam, Latias use Dragon Pulse!"

Numerous attacks collided with each other constantly, maybe we could weaken them, but we couldn't afford to distract the Lyra Meganium, so we were in a defensive position constantly.

"Stop defending and attacking cowards!"

I was going to answer but suddenly I heard Lira's words.

"It's ready, return your Pokémon to your Pokéball, now!" – said Lira.

"¡Camerupt, Gastrodon return!" – said Courtney.

"Umbreon, Vaporeon it's time to rest!" – that was Koharu.

"Manaphy come back you've done well, Pikachu on my shoulder, Charizard I choose you, it's time to fly, Latias let's go!" – I said.

"Magmortar return, Meganium use Solar Beam at full power, wipe out everything!"

A very powerful Solar Beam shot upwards through the ceiling, well not only of this floor, but of all, what power has that Meganium.

"Koharu, with me, Courtney and Lira, get on Charizard, we're getting out of here!" – I said quickly.

"Meganium return, you have done greatly!"

Quickly me and Koharu got on Latias and Courtney and Lira in Charizard and flew out at a high speed from the place.

...

Already in the Pokémon Center.

"So you're telling me that you've had to run away from the place? And in only one day" - Looker exclaimed.

"Hahaha, I'm sorry, but we had no choice we had been discovered by an oversight" – I said trying to soften the situation.

"Besides, we are not to blame, the egg did it by itself, we didn't even touch it" - she nodded.

"Exactly, as soon as Ash approached... radiated a light that crashed into Ash's Pokéball making Phione evolve" – Lira explained.

"Wait, you didn't explain about the egg, please start from the beginning" - Looker said, putting a hand on his head.

"True, we do not tell you everything, because since we are we will tell everything from the beginning" – I said beginning to explain.

A long explanation later.

"And so it all happened" – I finished.

"I see... you have not lasted long, however, your information is valuable, very valuable, and how curious, its objective is identical to that of Team Aqua, the girls also said something very similar, but instead of Groudon, Kyogre "– said Looker thoughtfully.

"Wait a minute... the girls, have they already returned?" – I asked curiously.

"True, with so much fuss I forgot, come, let's go to the living room" – said Looker.

We were currently at a table in the Pokémon Center, which was empty.

After entering the same room as yesterday, we discovered that both Nancy and Verity were already present in the place, which greeted us with joy.

"Girls, what happened, why are you back so soon?" – I asked confused.

"Many things happened and we were discovered, luckily we could hear a conversation from his boss and after that we were able to escape in time from that place" - Nancy explained.

"Basically the same thing happened to you, only that you met a deserter" - Looker said, looking at Courtney.

"Right, I didn't show up, my name is Courtney and I was the deputy leader of Team Magma, a pleasure" - Courtney said.

"Courtney I'll cut to the chase, look at your background and you're clean, but to have belonged to such a criminal organization ... you already committed a crime with just by that, luckily, you left before things got more serious and you also provided us with vital information for the police, so I will do everything I can to reduce your sentence as much as possible" - said Looker.

"I think it's fair, anyway, I had already foreseen this situation, I have enough to help me reduce the sentence" – Courtney agreed.