"Apparently there's an Eevee somewhere around the mall," Melinda said, not quite entirely absorbed in her phone. Mostly, though. She was at least keeping track of the people around them and their location, though, because she was just a little paranoid.

Ithica was watching the screen of her phone as well.

"It's not too far," she said, nodding. "Two footprints. That's good, I need more of them to get more candies." She glanced around as they walked, making sure they weren't in the way or about to run into anything.

"Well, let's go see if we can find it." Mel grinned and kept walking. More Eevee was always a good thing. They ended up near a quiet corner of the mall, attempting to catch the Eevee.

Ithica nodded, and pretty soon they managed to find the Eevee off in a corner. It wasn't trapped, per se, but they were definitely the only two in the immediate area.

"Come on," she murmured, flicking pokeballs at it on her phone screen.

"Oh not again," Mel groaned when her screen froze. "For the love of--" She paused when the screen actually faded out to white, and then started glowing.

"Oh come on," Ithica said when hers froze as well. When it turned white and started to glow, though, she stopped. "What...?" It flashed brightly, blinding her, and that was all she remembered.

Melinda groaned quietly when she came too, bright light in her eyes again, artificial light. She blinked rapidly to try and clear her vision, muttering curses under her breath.

Ithica groaned as well, rolling onto her side and sitting up.

"What the actual fuck?" she muttered, rubbing her eyes and then shading them from the harsh lights.

"This... is not the mall," Melinda muttered, eyes wide as her vision finally cleared enough for her to see they were in a kind of storage room. "Definitely not the mall." She stood carefully, looking around warily.

"What's going on?" Ithica asked, looking around. She got to her feet, bracing herself on a nearby box. The box tipped, and a couple of small spheres fell out, clattering to the floor and shining a bit in the light. Ithica looked at them and blinked, taking in the red and white design. "What...?"

"No way," Melinda muttered, bending to scoop one up. "The hell? I've never seen actual balls before, not like these." She turned it over, examining it. It even looked like it might open; there was a slight seam, although she couldn't find a hinge.

Ithica picked one up as well. It was small, and surprisingly heavy, and before she could stop herself, she pushed the button on the front. The ball expanded in her hand from the size of a walnut to the size of a softball. She yelped and dropped it.

"What is going on." Melinda sounded rather freaked out by this point, her eyes wide as she looked at the ball sitting on the floor. "What even."

"Okay," Ithica said, her voice shaking. "Okay. There has to be a way to explain... all of this... somehow." She pointed to the little spheres. "Tell me those look like pokeballs and I'm not crazy. They're pokeballs."

"It would appear that they are," Melinda agreed. "Especially considering, y'know, they shrink and grow on command." She picked up a different one cautiously, examining it.

"Okay, so we know they're pokeballs, and we know they at least sort of work like in the show," Ithica said. She was quiet for a moment. "That still doesn't tell us much about what's going on or where we are." She bit her lip slightly. "Maybe we should see what's outside."

"...I'm kind of scared to," Melinda admitted. "I mean, there are pokeballs that seem to function the same as in the show. If we extend that logic, what are we going to find outside and are we going to survive the experience?"

"I know," Ithica said, nodding a bit. She wrung her hands a bit. "But at the same time, we can't stay in here forever, and maybe we might be able to handle whatever is out there?" It came out as an uncertain question.

Melinda groaned. "Dammit. Okay." She took a deep breath. "Okay. We can do this. We can totally handle this." She kept hold of the pokeball though. Just in case.

Ithica bent down and picked up the pokeball she dropped, turning it over in her hands. It certainly looked real, at least. She glanced at Melinda and then went over to try the door.

Melinda nodded and poked her head out once the door was open. There was a hallway outside the door, just a normal-looking hallway.

"Shall we try it?" she muttered.

"Before we lose our nerve and turn into babbling messes," Ithica murmured back. She hesitated for a moment, and then stepped into the hallway.

Melinda moved cautiously down the hallway, looking around. "So far decently normal," she muttered, glancing down at the ball in her hand once more to confirm that this was not a strange hallucination.

"So far," Ithica agreed, nodding a little. She was fidgeting with the pokeball in her hands, fingers running along the divide between the red and the white and over the center button. She peeked around the next corner cautiously.

Their luck didn't last much longer than that. They'd just gone around the corner when a group of three people moved into the hallway, spotted them, and stopped.

"Hey you! What are you doing here?" One of them yelled.

"They have Pokémon!" another yelped.