Four men in black suits with the letters OCIB emblazoned on the backs in red burst into the room. All were armed with guns - and all had them pointed directly at Richard Gregg as they shouted out orders through the mouthpieces on their headsets, clearly intent on making sure that this time they got what they had come for.
"Where are the hybrids?" barked one of them, pressing the barrel of his gun against Gregg's back as he spoke.
"What do I look like, a baker?" Gregg countered, stalling for time. He glanced at his computer screen, grateful that the screen saver had popped up while the OCIB agents were pouring in; if they saw that he had files on the Chimera Children, there was no telling what they would do. With nothing except the need to capture and kill two illegal hybrids on their minds, there would be no reasoning with them - they wanted Bjorn and Ursula and they weren't going to leave until they had them.
"Don't play dumb with me, Gregg!" retorted a second OCIB agent. "Where - are - Bjorn - and - Ursula - Olsson?" He said the last six words slowly, as if he was speaking to someone who was profoundly deaf.
"I don't know what you're talking about - and I certainly don't know Bjorn and Ursula Olsson!"
Gregg's words were tinged with fear; he was all but convinced that, at any moment, Bjorn and Ursula would be found and hauled away for "disposal". He moved towards his phone, hoping he still had that line of defence at least.
"Get out - or I'll call the police!" he ordered, hoping desperately that his bluff was not too obvious to the agents, who were clearly finding his lack of co-operation increasingly frustrating.
"I don't think so!" retorted the first agent. With a look of triumph on his face, he brandished the severed phone cable. "Arrest him!" he added, speaking to the two agents who had so far remained silent. "We can clear this up at Headquarters . . ."
------------------------------------------
"This whole place is swarming with OCIB agents."
Bjorn was standing at the window of what had become the children's quarters, watching as Gregg was hauled away, thrust forcinly into the back of a van. It was obvious what they had come for - their voices were clearly audible even at this distance, each word further emphasising the Chimera Children's predicament, the danger their lives were in.
"Any sign yet?"
"No - I'll check upstairs. Those hybrid brats can't be far . . ."
"Fine - just . . . take them alive if you can."
"Alive, Agent Hope?"
Agent Hope, a young man barely out of his teens and one of the OCIB's newest recruits, fingered his gun. "Let's just say I have . . . connections with them," he said in a disturbingly casual tone of voice. "And I'd like the chance to speak with them before . . ."
-------------------------------------
Bjorn chose not to hear the rest. Slamming the window shut, he turned to Ursula and Natasha - on seeing the look on his face, both girls knew that this time they were in serious trouble. They had to escape - but how? The OCIB must have every exit covered; the Chimera Children had evaded capture for so long that bringing them to Headquarters would almost certainly lead to a fat reward for those concerned. And, when money was involved, the ruthless became even more ruthless. That was what Bjorn and Ursula were up against.
"There's only one thing for it," Natasha said with grim determination. "I'll have to smuggle you out."
"We won't stand a chance!" Ursula cried as she heard several agents tramping along the corridor. Visions of what those agents would do to herself and to Bjorn flashed through her brain. She knew they were going to be killed sooner or later - the question was how the OCIB would do it. Shooting? Lethal injection? Like a trapped animal who knows the only thing to look forward to is death, Ursula broke down.
"No!" she sobbed, banging on the door in her anguish. "Why are they doing this?! Why won't they leave us alone?!"
"Sula, they'll hear you!" Bjorn warned as he tried to calm his hysterical sister down.
But Ursula was too distraught to listen. She screamed and cried until Natasha was left with no alternative but to do what she had long hoped would not be necessary. Wasting no time, she grabbed one of her spare Poke Balls and cast it at Ursula.
---------------------------------------
There was a flash of light and Ursula felt herself shrink rapidly to near microscopic size as she entered a world no other Pokemon trainer had experienced directly - the inside of a Poke Ball. As the ball pinged shut and she was plunged into darkness, she just had time to register how remote Bjorn and Natasha sounded ("Is this what it's like for Vulpix and Espeon?" she wondered) before she entered the state of near suspended animation that Pokemon enter while inside their Balls.
Bjorn looked on as his sister was drawn into the Poke Ball, wondering how Natasha knew the plan she clearly had would work. However, he did not have time to reflect on what this meant in terms of his and Ursula's relative humanity before Natasha pointed another empty Poke Ball in his direction and pressed the button to activate it.
"I've got to do this - no time to explain," she said, her heart pounding as she thought of the risk she was about to take in order to get the Chimera Children to safety.
-----------------------------------
In the aquarium where Gregg kept his genetically engineered Magikarp, Natasha released Bjorn and Ursula from the Poke Balls. Both blinked and held their heads as they waited for the feeling of disorientation to pass - how a Pokemon endured being in its Ball for hours at a time and always emerged fresh for battle was something they would never figure out.
"What was that all about?" Bjorn demanded the second he found his voice.
"Sorry," Natasha said, smiling sheepishly. "I forgot you probably don't know about the Poke Gene . . ."
Seeing the blank looks on her friends' faces, she explained. "It's - it's kind of hard to explain," she told them. "But the Poke Gene is a gene all Pokemon have - and it basically allows their bodies to be miniaturised . . ."
"So that's how Poke Balls work," Ursula remarked, speaking partly to herself and partly to Bjorn and Natasha.
"Exactly - and, since you both have Pokemon DNA, I figured you might have the Poke Gene as well. Only, I . . . Get down!"
Natasha and the Chimera Children ducked behind some empty fishtanks as three OCIB agents burst in. Seeing the intruders and sensing that they meant harm, the nearest Magikarp - which carried Squirtle DNA - leapt out of the water and soaked the agents with a Hydro Pump Attack. It proved to be a fatal error.
-----------------------------------
As soon as the agents recovered from the initial shock, they knew these were not ordinary Magikarp, which would never have been able to use an Attack like Hydro Pump - everyone knew Magikarp were only able to learn three Attacks and that Hydro Pump was not among them. Moving as one, they tipped over the nearest tank, sending a deluge of water cascading across the floor and leaving a dozen Magikarp helpless on the wet lino.
"Magikarp karp karp!" they gasped, their eyes bulging. None of them seemed to have the slightest idea that death was only moments away, that the OCIB agents cared little for the life of anything that resulted from a genetics experiment.
"Destroy them!" one of the agents ordered without the slightest trace of emotion in his voice.
Ursula gasped and closed her eyes as she realised what was about to happen. But there was no shutting out the sounds which followed - the crack of a gunshot as one of the agents proceeded to shoot one of the Magikarp in the head at close range. Tears pricked Ursula's eyes as the sound of slaughter assaulted her ears again and again; she dared not look at what was happening, but her terrified imagination conjured up images of Magikarp thrashing about in their final desperate moments . . .
---------------------------------------
Bjorn was equally revolted, but he found himself unable to take his eyes off the macabre scene. Finally, however, even he could no longer stand remaining inactive while innocent creatures were slaughtered right in front of them. Handing Dewgong, Phanpy and Yanma's Poke Balls to Natasha, he whispered his instructions.
"You and Ursula take my Pokemon and run - I'll take care of these jerks!"
Ursula looked up with a start on hearing his words. "Bjorn, you're crazy!" she protested, realising the danger he was about to put himself in. "You - you won't stand a chance against them . . ."
"It's the only way, Bjorn told her, keeping his voice as level as he could and trying not to think of what he was about to do. "Please, don't argue - just get out of here!"
-----------------------------
Steeling himself, he stepped out from behind the tanks he and the girls had hidden behind, emerging right in front of the three OCIB agents. All had their guns out, trained on the Magikarp Bjorn and his Dewgong had battled only a few days earlier.
The agents cocked their guns and, at the same instant, something seemed to snap in Bjorn. Heedless of everything except the Magikarp on the floor, he leapt forward.
"No! Stop!" he yelled, falling to the floor as a bullet from one of the agents' guns caught him in the shoulder. The last thing he saw before blacking out was his enemies standing over him, gloating at the fallen Chimera.
"Young fool!" one said in a tone of contempt. "Is he dead?"
"No - he's still alive," another replied from where he was examining the bullet wound in Bjorn's shoulder. The bullet had penetrated straight through to the other side, but it had missed vital organs so he wasn't in too much danger. "Shall we finish him off?"
"Better not - we've still got to get the girl. Bring him to Headquarters . . ."
---------------------------------------
Fleeing the aquarium with Natasha, Ursula heard only the sound of a gun being fired, followed swiftly by a cry of pain from her brother.
"Bjorn!" she yelled, realising this could mean only one thing. But Natasha held her back as she tried to run back inside; there was every possibility that the OCIB would use Bjorn - assuming he had survived this - to get Ursula. And Natasha was not about to let another of the Chimera Children be taken by the organisation that meant to kill them.
"There's nothing we can do now," she said solemnly. "Quick - we must save ourselves . . ."