"Okay." Aleron tried to focus on just breathing for a minute. "Okay. Um. We need to get out, somehow." She looked over at the door. "And then we can find them and figure out what's going on."

Taking off her bag, Margaret started to sift through it.

"We've got to have something that can help us get out," she said. "Anything."

Aleron started rifling through her own bag. The Eevee egg was gone, and that made her really mad. She started moving things around, digging through her bag trying to find something to help.

"I have a pocket knife and some paper clips. But not much else that would be useful."

"I have a pocket knife too," Margaret replied, pulling it out. "And a pack of safety pins, and some spare batteries." She shook her head. "Nothing really useful here, either."

"Unfortunately." Aleron made a face. "Okay. Well, someone has to open the door eventually, right? Maybe we can just kinda tackle them when they do? Or something."

"I think that may be the best chance we have," Margaret replied cautiously. She didn't like it, but she had no other ideas at the moment.

Aleron nodded. "Okay. We'll count on that, then, for the moment. Unless we come up with something better in the meantime." WHich she didn't think was likely to happen, but she could always keep thinking.

A while later, a scientist came and opened the door.

"You," he said, pointing to Aleron, "You're with me."

Aleron's eyes narrowed and she stayed where she was. "Why?" she asked suspiciously. She wasn't going to move until she got a reason. And hopefully when she did move it would be to tackle the jerk.

"We know what you can do," The scientist replied. "Your skills are required." And that was all he would say on the matter. Chances were too high she would refuse if she knew she had to talk down a newly-hatched Ho-oh.

"Nope. Too bad." Aleron glowered at him, crossing her arms over her chest. "And I don't know what skills you're referring to."

The scientist gave her a look.

"Your choice in pokemon tells a different story, young lady," he replied. "You have an affinity for fire, disregarding your stray electric-type, and your skills are required at the moment."

"What for? Lots of people have fire-types. And really they're not that unruly. I'm sure you have other pawns you can throw at it to let it vent some."

"It is not your pokemon your skills are required for," the scientist replied. His hand strayed towards the pokeball hanging around his neck. "And I will be forced to have you dragged along if you do not come willingly, and I would rather not have to resort to such tactics."

Aleron eyed the pokeball around his neck cautiously. Okay, now his hand was too close to it, and he wasn't far enough into the room to tackle without alerting other people. Slowly getting to her feet, she scowled at him.

"How about you start explaining why we're here and I'll let you know if I can help?" But she started over towards the scientist slowly none the less.

Margaret got up as well, but the scientist pointed to her and shook his head.

"You stay here," he said to her. "Your skills are not needed." He looked back at Aleron. "There has been a slight... complication with one of our tests," he said. "The subject in question is quite upset, and we require one with a fire affinity to calm it."

That intrigued Aleron. One of their tests? The subject in question? She glanced back at Margaret, wondering if her friend was thinking the same thing; if these people had been stealing the eggs, maybe one of them had hatched unexpectedly.

"Alright. I'll see what I can do. But don't expect miracles." She shrugged and started after the scientist.

The scientist nodded, but made sure to lock Margaret in the cell again once Aleron was out.

"This way," he said. He made sure to walk next to her, so that she wouldn't be able to run off. As they went down the hall, the temperature started to rise, until he stopped at one door in particular. "Here."

Aleron grimaced and managed to open the door without burning herself, and then gasped. The little Ho-oh was clearly unhappy, throwing a tantrum and turning to face them with an angry, albeit baby-sounding, shriek.

"Hey now, that's not necessary," she said, moving closer slowly. "Really. I'm not going to hurt you, little one. See? I'm not bad." The Ho-oh puffed up as much as it could to make itself look bigger. "Yeah, I know. This isn't right, and this isn't where you belong. But doing all this won't help any, either." She managed to get close enough to crouch down next to the Ho-oh, starting to speak quietly to it. Because now she had an idea.

The scientists watched her from behind a blast shield, quietly marveling at how quickly she was able to talk down the angry Ho-oh.

Aleron kept talking quietly to the fire bird, getting it calmed down and telling it her plan. Because now that her suspicions had been confirmed, she had a pretty good idea that they could raise quite a bit of trouble with the help from a Legendary, even a baby Legendary.

She stood to leave again and blinked when the little Ho-oh fluttered over to land on her shoulder. "Really, little one. You'll be fine here." The Ho-oh fluffed up again, clearly threatening to throw another temper tantrum. "Okay, okay. No need to get all poofy on me." The Ho-oh settled down again, curling one wing around her head. Because clearly Aleron was now his human.

One of the scientists opened her mouth, clearly about to tell her she couldn't take the pokemon, but the one from earlier put a hand on her shoulder, shaking his head.

"This could be interesting," he said quietly. "We should observe." The woman nodded reluctantly and let Aleron go. The man left the shielded area and went to Aleron.

"Your services are clearly no longer required here," he said. "Time to return."

"Sure thing, long as you don't try to take him." Aleron managed to get the Ho-oh to shift a bit so she was more comfortable and so his little claws weren't digging into her shoulder.

"We have decided to observe for the moment," the scientist replied. He gestured for her to go back to the cell. "It--he--seems calm enough for the time being."

"Damn straight he does." Aleron started walking again, absently petting the Ho-oh. He preened a little under the attention. "Where are our pokemon?"