Act 2: Chapter 17

Act 2: Chapter 17

Lee gives the taller man a hard stare. "Maxie You're under arrest for suspected terrorist activities. Come quietly."

Maxie sighs. "Pity."

In a flash of movement, a pokeball is launched from his hand. The ball snaps open midair, and the air becomes sweltering.

As the light clears from around Maxie's pokemon, Lee feels his shoulders drop in disbelief. "Fuck me"

Standing before Maxie is a Camerupt, and it's an absolute Goliath of a pokemon. It must be seven, nearly eight feet tall from its hooves to the peak of its craggily volcano-like back humps. His dark red coat is crisscrossed by the occasional scar, with a deep, healed over gash across his brown muzzle being the most apparent. The miniature volcanoes upon his back are already belching black smoke and embers, making the air almost unbearably hot. The worst of all, though, is his eyes.

The camel pokemon's eyes are feral, focusing upon them all with a horrid, animalistic desire for violence within them. The bloodshot orbs lack that spark of clarity, of intelligence. It is as if the Fire and Ground-type isn't even there.

'He may not be' Ninetales sends a glance towards Maxie's Claydol, and Lee can feel her stomach churn. When Lee connects the dots himself, he takes a deep breath to prevent himself from being sick.

"Shit" Zinnia whispers, her voice wavering in a rare moment of fright. Lee follows her wide, red eyes and tries not to curse himself.

Almost hidden against Camerupt's fur is a red, armored chest piece hanging around his neck. Within the crimson-colored metal, a fist-sized stone with the appearance of a marble is set with clasps. The crystalline orb shines with its own internal light, one that hurts to look at.

'A mega-stone' Lee looks up, seeing the Keystone set within the frame of Maxie's glasses just as he expected. 'That was the one thing I was hoping wasn't accurate. I thought Courtney's Camerupt was a monster, but this thing changed the definition. God only knows how strong this behemoth must be after mega-evolving'

Ninetales tenses up. Beside her, Shelgon growls and locks his yellow eyes with Camerupt's blood-shot browns.

Without any warning, Camerupt bellows with such volume and force that he blows away all the dust around his feet, then charges forward, moving far faster than something the size of an armored car should. It feels as if every one of his footfalls shakes the entirety of the volcano, because they certainly rattle both Lee and Ninetales to the bone.

'Move!'

"Move!" Zinnia calls, mirroring Lee's telepathic command.

Ninetales and Shelgon split, jumping away from the mammoth Camerupt, who passes through where they were standing a mere second later. Without so much as a word from Maxie, Camerupt turns and faces Shelgon, opening his mouth as he does so. At the same time, rings of light manifest around the camel Pokmon's massive body. With another ear splitting bellow, Camerupt's maw glows a brilliant silver, then a ball composed of compacted light is shot toward Shelgon like a tank shell.

At the same time, the rings of light around Camerupts body coalesce into knife-like stones. The stones violently vibrate in place before shooting towards Ninetales with a vengeance, homing in on her despite Camerupt's attention being elsewhere. The stones move with such swiftness that each one screams hideously through the air.

Ninetales' eyes bug out, and a frantic, mental urge from Lee forces her to wreath herself in Quick Attack and dive to the side. The barrage of stones is so quick, however, one stone still slices into Ninetales's leg and opens a gash on her thigh.

Lee winces, his own leg tingling in phantom pain.

"Shelgon, Protect!" Zinnia's hands are already clenched anxiously.

A mighty barrier of green surrounds the wide-eyed Shelgon in the nick of time. Camerupt's attack slams into Protect with a sound like a cannonball striking a gong, the impact sending a rumble to the ground. The ball of light deflects off and flies far into the sky, becoming a dot against the blue expanse above. Shelgon drops Protect a second later, and Lee is dismayed to see the Dragon already looks woozy from guarding against a single strike.

'What the hell was that?! Stone Edge? And Flash Cannon? Is Camerupt acting on his own? How did he fire off two differing moves in two different directions at the same time?'

Lee isn't given any time to ponder further as Camerupt, once again without an order, charges towards Shelgon like a runaway train. The gargantuan camel crosses the distance in less than a second, and with every step, a positively blinding cloak of spiraling energy builds around him. Lee's hearing is drowned out by the snapping and crackling of Camerupt's attack, but he still vaguely hears Zinnia shout something to Shelgon.

'Is that Giga Impact he's using?! Ninetales! Extrasensory!' Lee sends frantically. 'Slow him down!'

The vixen's eyes shine with fury, and bubbles of permeable psychic energy bloom to life in Camerupt's path. With any luck, the damage will throw him off-

Maxie's monstrous pokemon blows through the attack as if it isn't even there. All of the overpressure and under pressure from the rapidly expanding and contracting bubbles barely cause so much as a bruise on Camerupt's hide.

All Shelgon can do is screw his eyes shut and raise Protect once more.

Camerupt strikes the green shield and shatters it like glass.

CRACK!

Shelgon is thrown end over end, trailing blood through the air from a deep crack in his shell. When the orb-like Dragon finally rolls to a stop after several bounces, he's left prone upon the rocky ground, gasping for breath. His shell is littered with cracks, and is missing a few pieces. A piece of his shell even shattered near his face, pushing a shard into his cheek, which bleeds profusely.

Despite Shelgon laying prone upon the ground, Camerupt decides that his opponent isn't yet disabled. The camel pokemon snorts black, sooty smoke, and charges forward.

Lee watches the entire scene play out for him, as if it's moving in slow motion.

Camerupt moves with the speed of a truck with the gas floored.

Zinnia's face morphs into horror. Her hand moves towards her belt, towards Shelgon's ball, but it's too slow.

Shelgon can only close his eyes and brace himself.

'Nine!'

With a yowl, Ninetales darts forward with Quick Attack and slams her whole body into Camerupt's side. Through her, Lee can feel the bone rattling sensation of smashing into a brick wall. Not even Ty was this tough!

Camerupt veers off course ever so slightly, giving Shelgon just barely enough time to push himself the rest of the way to safety with his remaining good legs. Camerupt, meanwhile, slams into a vacant snack stand, one branded to the cable car company. The stand explodes into splinters and twisted metal framework on impact, making Camerupt dig his hooves into the ground and skid to a stop. The camel turns his animalistic visage towards Ninetales and the still wounded Shelgon.

'Nine, are you okay?' Lee asks, feeling his entire right side ache in a dull manner. Camerupt doesn't look like he took any damage from Nine's Quick Attack. If anything, Ninetales got the worse end of the exchange.

'I'm fine' Ninetales' reply is terse.

"Goodness, how rude of me." Maxie finally speaks up once more. The bastard has the gall to smirk as he pushes his glasses further up his nose. "That was rather unsporting. Perhaps you would like to change pokemon before we continue our bout?"

At his words, Camerupt goes still as a statue, staring forward vacantly.

Lee's self-directed disgust towards the idea of Ninetales slaying Maxie lessens considerably as he looks at the man's face. The scarred trainer looks at Claydol once more and purses his lips. "Is this some kind of game to you?"

Maxie's smirk rises just a bit.

"Shelgon, return!" Zinnia calls, thrusting the pokeball in her white-knuckled grip forward.

In a flash of red, Shelgon is sucked back into his ball, but not before he can snarl in protest.

Placing the ball back on her belt, Zinnia looks behind her. Following her eyes, Lee looks as well.

Tyrunt's challenging sneer is gone, replaced with bewilderment, as if he didn't believe what he just saw. Perched upon his head, Swablu's beak is dropped open in a human-like expression of surprise. Goomy

The little slug-dragon is openly quaking, staring at Camerupt with terror.

Lee turns to Grovyle and Octillery.

Both the Grass-type and the Water-type wear grim expressions. Grovyle chews on his stick irritably, while Octillery's eyes are narrowed down into slits.

Shifting his twig in his mouth once more, Grovyle sighs and steps forward, a warble directed towards Ninetales leaving his mouth.

"Grovyle?" Lee asks, watching the gecko pokemon raise his arms, his wrist leaves shining and hardening into blades. He glances back at Lee with his yellow, slitted eyes.

'He wishes to take my place, to act as a buffer so I may rest and be reserved for last' Ninetales provides. 'He intends to act as fodder and wear-down Camerupt so mine and Octillery's chances of a victory can rise.' Lee can feel the kitsune's mind whirl as she thinks over all the different possibilities, and how she might deny her teammate, but in the end, Grovyle's simple yet sound reasoning is hard to find flaw with.

"Grovyle" Lee curses inwardly over and over and grits his teeth. The thought of using Grovyle as a sacrificial pawn makes his conscience scream in protest, but the steel in Grovyle's eyes tells him it's already a lost battle on this front. "Fine."

As Ninetales backs out of the impromptu battlefield, never taking her eyes off Maxie or Camerupt, Zinnia hisses through her teeth. "Swablu" She grounds out reluctantly. "You're up."

The little blue bird leaves Tyrunt's head and flits into the field, landing next to Grovyle without any of her signature musical trills.

'We just need to hold out until Corvi gets back with help,' Lee tells himself, hoping and praying to whoever would listen that his crow would return soon. 'We just need to hold out until Corvi gets back.'

"Quite ready?" Maxie asks, an eyebrow raised. "Then let the melee continue."

Camerupt roars.

Brendan feels as if he is going to be sick.

Leaning against the "TE Extractor" device that Magma is so worried about, He looks around himself.

The perimeter around the lip of the volcano is surrounded by low level magma members, most with one or two pokemon at their feet. Some of them, namely the ones that he, Lee, and Zinnia battled and defeated, turn to look at him bitterly.

Tabitha steadfastly refuses to meet Brendan's eyes. The large man won't even look in his direction.

Turning to Courtney, Brendan finds her standing at attention and scanning the horizon for anything incoming. She notices him staring, and gives him a thin smile.

Brendan's stomach twists. It twists because of the girl at his side, it twists because of the disappointment radiating from his team, and most of all, it twists because of the words on his tongue, ready to fly as speedily as a Taillow.

'Marshtomp! Use Water Gun on the energy extractor! Blow it to pieces!'

The Birch heir hisses under his breath.

Just a few moments ago, his desire to please the girl who makes him feel so strange but good and his loyalty to his friends did battle one final time. It was a match where the winner takes all to settle the days-long conflict within him.

It was a battle won by razor-thin margins and with only seconds to spare.

His hurt at being considered childish and untrustworthy by Lee and Zinnia may yet sting, the reluctance of his pokemon drags him even further down, and Courtney still only needs to smile to make him feel lighter than air, but the events of the last few months flashed before his eyes over and over.

Meeting Lee and Vulpix.

His smiling dad giving him Mudkip's ball.

Meeting the annoying Dragon Tamer named Zinnia.

Learning new things under Lee.

Growing to look at Zinnia like the sister he never had.

Speaking to his dad on the phone and regaling the man with his adventures thus far.

Seeing new places, fighting in thrilling battles, watching his pokemon grow before his very eyes.

Just Enjoying being together.

The realization of what he was going to turn his back on made him hesitate.

Then Lee's words turned that hesitation into dread.

"They intend to awaken Groudon and try to leash it like a rabid dog."

There was a terrible, undeniable consequence to the older trainer uttering those words. It sounded like utter insanity, summoning a Legendary pokemon, but Lee said every word without a hint of deceit or uncertainty. Brendan even watched Ninetales for her reaction.

He's not sure if either Lee or Ninetales knows, but the pair have tiny, nearly indiscernible tells when they communicate. Ninetales has a habit of firming up her stance whenever Lee speaks a lie or half-truth, as if trying to reassure him.

She did no such thing this time.

His heart ached, and even now, he's not sure he will recover, but he would have to fight Courtney.

The older girl creates such a confused mess within the boy. She's pretty, kind, understanding, willing to sit and listen and hear anything he has to say, and she asked for so little in return.

Still, the heartbroken boy hardened himself, and in his mind, a plot was born. He would 'side' with Magma, and when the inevitable fight began, he would slink away, his pokemon in tow, and see about shutting off the TE machine that is supposedly pulling energy from the volcano. Once all was said and done, he would pull Courtney aside and ask her to explain everything, even throwing his pride away and using his father's name with the police if it meant keeping her out of trouble.

The more he thought about what Lee said The more Magma's claims do seem to be too good to be true. How do they intend to control Groudon? What's the timeframe for the completion of the project? What sort of safeguards are in place to prevent lives from being lost? Once the land is rearranged, who gets to decide who goes where?

Deep in his heart, Brendan hopes Courtney can explain.

It was a moment after Lee spoke the name of the legendary Pokmon, that Brendan noticed Maxie the interloper from the corner of his eye. He dared not turn his head and give away that he saw a man in red hovering above the rest of them.

All of a sudden, his gambit to falsely side with Magma became so much more complicated.

A number of things keyed Brendan into what he might be dealing with in Maxie, and he liked none of what he saw. First, was Maxie's Claydol.

The seldom-seen pokemon made a great show of giving Maxie a psychic platform to stand upon, one perfectly square and without a single imperfection. His father's Ace, Medicham, can do such a thing with only the barest hint of concentration, but it's what Brendan didn't see that was all the more damning.

Being high above the walls and buildings, Maxie should have been subject to the wind. Yet, his voice carried perfectly fine and his hair and clothes remained unruffled at all without any apparent reason as to their perfection.

Brendan's mind raced, and he was glad he was already feeling ill, for his pale face wasn't out of place.

Claydol, as best as he can deduce, is likely arresting the airflow around the locale, or maybe even the entire volcano with a barrier of some sort. Such monstrous power and control is Something he's only ever seen dad's Medicham accomplish.

'No wonder Maxie wasn't upset about Corvisquire trying to run for help' Brendan gulps and hopes Lee's pokemon is okay.nove(l)bi(n.)com

As much as he hated it, as much as he wanted to do more, Brendan was left with only one real choice; go quietly with Courtney and Tabitha, turning a hopeless 3-on-3 fight into a hopefully more manageable 2-on-1. He knows that neither Lee nor Zinnia would agree to any sort of terms Maxie would set, and conflict would to break out.

Sure enough, bellows and the sound of crunching rock creates a great cacophony near the volcano visitor center, around the bend and just out of sight. Brendan clenches his eyes shut and grits his teeth, mustering the nerve to do what he must.

"So those idiots decided to fight?" Tabitha harrumphs and crosses his large arms. "They have no hope of defeating Leader Maxie, they're marching straight into their own deaths."

Alarm surges within Brendan. He turns and levels Tabitha with an uncomfortable stare. "Death? What do you mean by that? Maxie said that he would let them go!"

The large man sneers in reply. "Maybe they would have been sent off on their merry way if they had complied with the boss's conditions. Your scarred pal knows a lot of things that he shouldn't, and that's bad for Magma. He should've just kept his mouth shut if he wanted to leave without needing a bribe."

Somehow, Brendan doubts that the offer Lee and Zinnia received was a bribe.

The boy trainer turns and looks at Courtney, his eyes pleading. "Courtney?"

The smaller of the two magma admins draws in a deep breath and plants a smile on her face. "Don't worry, Brendan. Everything will be fine."

For the first time, her words do nothing to reassure him.

As the sounds of combat grow more frenzied, more violent, the Magma grunts around the group shift nervously. The handful of combat ready pokmon are all jitters, seemingly ready to jump out of their skins. Beams of light, gouts of fire, and shards of rock fly through the sky as if an all-out war is taking place between Maxie, Lee, and Zinnia.

'Maxie's Pokmon can't possibly be strong enough to take on Lee and Zinnia's at once, right? Lee beat Mister Moore, after all' Brendan silently growls, once again reworking his plans. 'Maxie said that Aqua was on their way. Do I wait for those jokers to show up and then make my move? Do we go now? I don't know what to do'

"Brendan?" Courtney looks at him with a frown. She slides one of her gloves off and presses the back of her hand to his forehead. "You're pale. Are you okay?"

The smooth hand against his forehead makes Brendan's insides turn to mush, but it's immediately soured when he sees Marshtomp's grimace, Mawile's teary eyes, and Breloom's resignation from the corner of his eyes.

"I'm fine" Brendan murmurs, gently pulling her hand away from his head. He slides his backpack off his shoulders into the ground, unzipping it so he can reach inside, not all missing how Tabitha and several of the Magma grunts tense up. His hand wraps around the bottle of anti nausea pills he bought in Dewford. When he pulls his hand back out, revealing nothing but a pill bottle, the Magma members ease up.

The distant din of combat rings all the louder in Brendan's ears, reminding him of what is at stake. He turns to Marshtomp, who stares back with disappointed eyes. "Marshtomp?"

The pokemon grumbles, but pays attention.

'None of the Magma guys are acting jumpy. They probably think I'm going to ask Marshtomp for some water.' He steels his nerves one final time and looks back at the machine.

The boxy metal thing stands high, and is covered with lights and gauges that hold no meaning to Brendan. From its side, a terminal screen and a keyboard jut out, seemingly a last-minute addition. In the middle of the machine is a compartment covered by a glass door. Within, a curious gray stone sits upon a forked pedestal, glowing with a faint, rainbow light. The stone must be the centerpiece of the machine, though Brendan can scarcely puzzle out what it's supposed to do.

"Marshtomp" Brendan takes a deep breath. "Water Gun. Destroy the TE machine."

His words are gentle, conversational, even, and that is probably why no one other than Marshtomp reacts right away. The mudfish's eyes suddenly regain their life, and without wasting a moment, he turns and opens his maw, blasting a violent stream of water at the energy extractor.

The blue rail of water hits home without any opposition, shattering the glass door and the rock behind it in a hail of shards. The Water Gun punches a hole clean through the back as well, making the contraption wail with warning alarms and viciously spark.

Brendan raises his arms to protect his face, wincing to himself when he feels a speeding piece of glass open a small cut along his bicep before bouncing off of his shirt. Scooping up his bag and zipping it closed amid cries of shock and dismay from the Magma agents around him, he hurries and sprints outside of the circle of red clad gangsters around him. His pokmon need no order and follow right along. The young Birch spares Breloom and Mawile a glance.

Breloom's usually dour face sports a tiny smirk.

Mawile, meanwhile, looks at him with a beaming smile and open admiration, a total shift from her depressive state a mere handful of seconds ago. The whiplash of a Fairy's ever-changing emotions is still a surprise to see. Mawile's smile then turns into something vicious and vindictive. As the little Pokmon is passing Courtney, Brendan's heart leaps into his throat when Mawile's second set of jaws lash out towards the magenta haired woman, gaping and ready to bite.

Courtney gasps, her hands rising in a futile effort to halt Mawile's attack.

'Mawile, no!'

Only for the strike to be a feint. Mawile's jaws change course at the last second, instead chomping down on the pokeballs clipped to Courtney's belt. Mawile growls as she tears the balls free, and all three of the capsules shake in her grip, the pokemon unable to release themselves with Mawile holding the balls shut. Mawile then leaps to Brendan's side, looking up at him with her innocent smile back in place.

Brendan swears to himself that he nearly had a heart attack. 'Geez, Mawile. A little warning, next time?' The boy is well aware of how hypocritical such a thing sounds, even if he's simply saying it to himself, but he can't help but complain.

"Brendan?" Courtney asks, appearing totally lost. For the first time since they've met, Brendan hears her voice wavering. "What What are you doing?" Her hand gropes the torn belt where her pokeballs used to hang, as if on instinct. The Magma admin seemingly shrinks on herself, and Brendan can feel his heart wrenching in his chest.

"You punk!" Tabitha is decidedly more upset, his face twisting into a rictus of loathing. "I knew this whole thing was a bad idea! Look at what you fucking did! This whole operation is a bust!" He takes a ball from his own belt and throws it into the air in one motion. "Kid or not, you're not leaving this volcano alive after that!"

Tabitha's pokeball opens, and Brendan recoils at the pokmon that comes out. In a flash of light, a Weezing rises and hovers at chest height.

The pokemon resembles a pair of purple, rocky meteorites fused together like conjoined twins, with one being larger than the other. Each body sports a pair of narrow eyes, fang filled mouths, and a number of protruding, overly large pores that acrid, yellow gas hisses out from. The pokemon groans, both mouths opening in duel tones.

Brendan blinks and swallows, but that does little to stop the sudden watering of his eyes or the itch within his throat, courtesy of Weezing's rotten, chemical stench. Often considered ugly, unpleasant, and requiring much more care and enrichment than a normal pokemon, Weezing are a rare sight outside of the teams of Poison specialists. When they are fielded, though

"Weezing!" Tabitha growls. "Sludge Bomb!"

They're a menace to deal with.

"Marshtomp!" Brendan is quick to counter, eyes locking on Weezing. "Water Gun! Dilute it!"

The surrounding Magma grunts finally come to their senses and quickly back away with exclamations of fright as the first attacks are called.

Weezing swells like a smog-filled balloon, then with a disgusting sound akin to retching, it spits a globe of dark purple ooze, which smokes as it arcs through the air.

Marshtomp responds in kind. He opens his mouth and fires a torrent of water, meeting Sludge Bomb halfway.

Water Gun and Sludge Bomb deflect off of each other initially, proving just how dense the orb of toxins is, and then Water Gun bites into the glob of poison, mixing with the sludge and turning into a watery mess.

The sludgy water drops to the ground, hissing. Even so diluted, the poison smokes as it eats into the stone of the volcano.

'Definitely don't want to get hit by that' Brendan eyes the disgusting puddle in the middle of the makeshift battlefield with a frown.

"Weezing, Smokescreen!" Tabitha rapidly switches tactics after their opening attack fails.

Weezing draws in a deep breath, then from all of its open pores, dense black smoke pours out, forming a cloud and obscuring its form.

Brendan narrows his eyes. "Marshtomp! Foresight!"

"Taunt!" Tabitha orders hardly a second after Brendan.

'Damn it!' Brendan's eyes widen. "Marshtomp, don't fall for it!"

Marshtomp is already halfway through processing the first order when deep, raspy laughter booms from within the cloud of smoke. No one needs to know anything about pokmon speech to practically feel the concentrated mocking within each laugh.

The glow of Foresight fades from Marshtomp's eyes as the already hot-blooded mudfish is visibly overcome with seething anger. With a bellow that draws flinches from all the bystanders, Marshtomp charges headfirst at the smoke.

"Stop!"Brendan orders at the top of his lungs, but it's little use much to his dismay. Taunt has already worked its fingers into Marshtomp's brain.

Weezing bursts from the smoke with a nasty smirk on both of its faces, its head aimed low to smash skull-to-skull with Marshtomp. Its smirk is wiped right off its face when Marshtomp's clenched fist shoots out and crashes into its chin with bone-shattering force.

Rocking back, Weezing shudders from the titanic blow.

Brendan spares a moment to look at Tabitha, who seems totally unperturbed from his pokemon taking such a hit. If anything, the large man seems to have expected it.

Then without warning, another Weezing bursts from the slowly dissipating smoke, spinning rapidly like a top and coated in a dark aura Brendan has seen more than once on Lee's Ninetales.

'Payback?! But why would?!' Brendan looks at the first Weezing and freezes. 'That's not another pokemon, that's Substitute! Can Payback even work when it's a clone that was hit?'

Substitute is a move Brendan wasn't expecting to encounter until deep into the gym circuit. The ability to create a clone, no matter how costly the energy requirement, is a complete game changer in a fight. The steep stamina requirement in the difficulty of mastering the move makes Substitute wholly unviable for anyone who isn't a cut above the rest.

The Weezing Marshtomp struck groans before losing cohesion, dissipating into multicolored balls of light and vanishing before everyone's eyes.

At the same time, the real Weezing smashes into Marshtomp with Payback on full-blast, folding the Water and Ground-type around its spherical body like a living cannonball. The wind is knocked from Marshtomp's lungs in a harsh gasp, and the mud fish is thrown end over end.

"Sludge Bomb!" Tabitha presses his advantage, his narrow eyes shining cruelly.

'May be scummy to launch a surprise attack like this, but we've gotta win!' Brendan turns to Marshtomp. "Okay, bud. I really wanted to save our new move to surprise Lee with a win over Ninetales, but I think we need to bust it out now."

Both Mawile and Breloom look at him in alarm.

Marshtomp blinks, then he grins, an eager croak building in his throat.

"Camerupt has a double weakness to Water, and this one is made to hit hard and fast, so lets do it!" Brendan smirks. "Marshtomp, Water Cutter!"

Marshtomp exhales, then clamping his mouth shut he breathed in sharply through his nose. Brendan hears water churning within Marshtomp's stomach, which then travels up his throat, causing his chest and neck to bulge far beyond what should be natural. Clenching his fists, Marshtomp lets his mouth balloon with water, pushing his cheeks out. The water pressure within the amphibian Pokmon continues to build, and just when it seems like he's about to explode, Marshtomp puckers his lips and throws his head forward.

A thin stream of water, no thicker than Brendan's pinky, lances out of Marshtomp's mouth like a laser beam. The sheer pressure behind the attack throws Marshtomp's aim off course, and the aptly named Water Cutter slices through a distant outcropping of rock the size of a man. The volcanic rock gives way as if it were butter meeting a hot knife, crashing to the ground and shattering.

The clatter of the falling stone produces a half-second lull in the fight between Camerupt and Ninetales, and that's all the time that Marshtomp needs.

Forcing his head down, Brendan's ace drags the beam down onto Camerupt, drawing the water diagonally from Camerupt's rear flank all the way to his front leg.

Blood bursts from the sudden, savage wound, painting Camerupt's side an even deeper red, and for the first time in the fight, Camerupt stumbles, but does not cry out.

Marshtomp cuts off his attack and coughs up the remainder of the water in his mouth, clutching his chest as he does so. With a groan, he wipes his now-raw lips tenderly.

Maxie turns on a dime, glaring down at Brendan from behind his rectangular glasses. "Having second thoughts are we? Or perhaps you were a Rattata from the very beginning?"

"Brendan?" Lee asks, staring at him with uncertainty. Behind him, Zinnia appears just as shocked.

Brendan grunts. "Give up!" He exclaims, pointing an accusing finger at Maxie. "We beat both of your admins and destroyed your machine! Whatever it is you were doing up here, it's failed!"

Maxie's face darkens. "I see," he grounds out, sounding as if he's mauling each word like a Houndour might a Mareep. "Well then, with no extractor to charge the meteorite, then I suppose I haven't anything to wait around for."

Charging a meteorite? What would that have accomplished?

Maxie's hand rises to his glasses, rubbing a curious rainbow stone set into the frame. "What a pain you've all been, but no longer. Perhaps it was foolish of me to indulge myself with you." The stone set within Maxie's glasses begins to glow.

"Shit!" Lee's voice carries over the entire volcano. His wild eyes meet Ninetales' for a split second. "Brendan, Zinnia, run!" He screams.

Just as Brendan begins to ask what exactly he's running from, Maxie's Camerupt is engulfed in the same rainbow colored aura as Maxie's glasses. The camel grunts and shudders, twisting and convulsing on his hooves as the glow becomes brighter and brighter. Just before the light becomes blinding, Camerupt throws his head back and roars in agony. The sound rattles Brendan all the way down to his bones, making him feel sick.

The light seemingly hardens into a shell around Camerupt, who is still making a terrible, pained racket. The roar begins to lower in pitch, and changes from agony into incoherent rage.

A crack forms on the glowing shell. And then another. And then the entire structure spiderwebs.

In an explosion that rips at Brendan's clothes and hurts his ears, the shell is blasted to pieces, and once he lowers the arm shielding his face, Brendan has to blink his eyes to confirm he's seeing everything correctly.

Standing there, where Camerupt was, is not a pokemon he's ever seen before.

Occupying the place where Camerupt was, is another camel-like pokemon. The mystery pokemon has the same light red coat of a Camerupt, the same head and face, and the same four hooved legs, but when it comes to stature, this is a completely different beast. Gone are the pair of volcano-like humps on its back, instead replaced with a single, taller hump that is actively leaking lava. Molten rock bubbles out of the rocky protrusion, slowly oozing down and catching on a number of dark, stone-like outcroppings on either side of the camel pokemon's torso. The beast is also far larger than what it replaced, as it has to be at least ten or more feet tall and weighing several tons.

The pokemon throws its head back, roaring again with such volume that the entire volcano rumbles, as if answering in turn. The noise strikes somewhere deep and primal in the young Birch, and he shivers without knowing why.

Then the heat hits, and Brendan recoils.

The entirety of the air around them feels as if it's drying up, and the boy has to blink his eyes to keep them from drying out. The back of his throat itches, as if parched, and every breath is unpleasant and gag-inducing from the sudden, oppressive heat and the overwhelming smell of sulfur. All of it emanates from the Camerupt-thing, whose hump is still dripping lava like a leaky faucet.

"No" Brendan can barely hear Zinnia's dismay, but it's as plain as can be on her face.

"What-" Brendan stops and gulps, but his mouth remains like cotton. "What did you do?"

Maxie's smirk returns. "There is no use explaining Mega Evolution to the dead."

'To the dead?' Brendan feels his stomach turn cold.

"The setbacks suffered here today have necessitated a more aggressive approach going forward, I believe." Maxie muses, as if he didn't just casually speak of murder. "As such, I'm confident in ending our time together today in a permanent manner. Camerupt?"

The beast turns and stares at Maxie, its eyes devoid of any semblance of sentience.

"All of them must go. Have fun."

A rolling growl builds in Camerupt's throat, starting slowly then rising into a roar that he throws his head back for. Once more, the volcano underneath them rumbles in turn.

'Was he faking everyone out the whole time?'

Any questions along the lines of what in the world is Brendan doing are firmly shelved for now in Lee's mind, because after watching an Arceus-honest Mega Evolution before his eyes, merely living to see tomorrow takes precedence.

Mega Evolution is Pokemon's answer to things like Bleach's Bankai, or perhaps more famously, Dragon Ball Z's Super Saiyan, that being a temporary transformation to drastically increase one's power. The increase wasn't much in the games, enough to turn the tide of an uneven fight, perhaps. In the anime, it was inconsistent, but undoubtedly made the user stronger.

After watching Camerupt Mega Evolve, it's easy to see why it's not something just any old trainer is running around using. Although he can't feel it, Ninetales can.

WrongUnnaturalTooStrongRunAwayMoveMoveMove!

Ninetales, his brave fox and the other half of his soul

Is openly quaking on her paws.

Her red eyes are wide, her tails are frazzled, and her body is racked by shakes. She looks like little more than a feral animal backed into a corner.

Merely looking at Camerupt batters Ninetales's psyche, and by extension Lee's, with a deep, instinctual terror by way of utter wrongness. Something like Camerupt should not exist, cannot exist.

If, in terms of TE, Ninetales is a firestorm in the shape of a fox, then the mega pokemon across the makeshift battlefield is the living embodiment of a volcanic eruption. The Fire and Ground energy Camerupt wantonly discharges into the air is so thick that one can practically taste it, coating the mouth with the taste of ash. Were Ninetales to attempt to match the energy Camerupt leaks seemingly without knowing, then she would be drained dry in the span of a minute. Hell, the entire volcano is reacting to it!

The natural Fire and Ground energy within Mount Chimney must be reacting to Camerupt, as the previously sleeply volcano is spewing smoke and embers up into the air. As the seconds pass, the mountaintop begins to grow darker and darker, illuminated with a fell, orange light as the sun, even empowered by Ninetales' Drought, struggles to pierce the soot.

'Love, it's okay! Focus on me, not him!' Lee clumsily tries to wrap his mind around Ninetales' own like a buffer, attempting to deaden the awful aura that pushes down on everyone with heavy, searing hands. 'We can do this! Just keep it together.'

Ninetales' shaking slows, though only just enough to be noticeable. She draws in a shaking breath. Wordless thoughts run through her head, the most prominent being her biting his shirt, slinging him over her back, and fleeing as fast as her paws could carry her.

'Love, what about Zinnia and Brendan?'

The vixen has no answer.

"All of them must go. Have fun."

Lee realizes he missed the exchange between Brendan and Maxie sans the final line, and returns his attention outward, just in time for Camerupt to rear his head back and roar, shaking Mount Chimney all the way down to its foundation.

Camerupt turns his baleful eyes to Marshtomp, who is frozen in place, barely able to even draw breath. Brendan's ace, usually so fearless and confident, stares at Camerupt like a child faced with the bogeyman.

Unlike before, Camerupt can't accelerate instantly. His first step towards Marshtomp is lumbering, with the next one only a little bit faster , but each step Camerupt takes shatters the ground beneath him. In a handful of strides, the behemoth is bearing down upon Marshtomp.

Marshtomp can't even raise his arms to brace himself, and when Camerupt reaches him, the camel throws his head up, catching Marshtomp in the stomach with a medley of sickening cracks. The Water-type is thrown into the air, his eyes bulging. Then like a discarded toy, he comes back down, smashing to the ground with a single bounce. The mud fish gasps and wheezes, spitting an entire mouthful of blood.

"Marshtomp!" Brendan screams, his young face etched in horror.

Camerupt turns bloodshot eyes to the boy, violence glittering within, only to be distracted when Brendan's Breloom rushes him, striking him across the muzzle with an ineffective punch.

Behind Brendan, Mawile throws away a trio of pokeballs she was holding in her rear jaws, which remain inert when they bounce along the ground. Then she uses her now free teeth to bite down on Brendan's backpack and yank him away from Maxie's berserk pokemon. Brendan stumbles, but keeps enough wits about him to raise Marshtomp's ball and recall his disabled ace back to safety.

Breloom's lax expression is gone as he distracts Camerupt, replaced with a deep grimace. The mushroom pokemon throws paralytic spores from his cap-like head, strikes Camerupt with lightning fast punches wherever he can, and circles as best he can, keeping away from Camerupt's head. It's all for naught, however. His spores burn up into blackened powder the instant he casts them, and Lee can see the Grass-type wilting and burning just being near the camel.

Camerupt grunts. All of the lava dripping down his body glows a blinding yellow, then explodes outward in a burning wave of molten stone. When the lava hits the ground, it instantly begins to melt the surrounding rock, and if it's even possible, the air dries out even further.

Breloom tries to twist around the lava, but it's simply too much, too fast. A melted glob strikes him in the stomach, hitting with the force of a burning battering ram. All of the breath is driven from Breloom's lungs, and his face screws up in agony as the edges of the wound instantly catch fire. The fire begins to spread, and it's all Breloom can do to push the lava off of him, charring his two-fingered hands and pulling off the ruined skin of the impact site in the process.

"No no no!" Brendan's hand shoots out, Breloom's ball in hand. The boy's eyes are prickling with tears, but they simply can't fall in the oppressive heat. "Return! Return!"

In a flash, Breloom is returned to the relative safety of his ball.

Camerupt roars and stomps his hooves in fury, his anger palpable at the loss of yet another target. He turns to the now-petrified Brendan once more, only to bellow when Mawile rushes him down, her second set of fangs bared. Her crocodile-like teeth sink into Camerupt's neck, and in the midst of sobbing in mindless fright, Mawile tries to wrench Camerupt's head from his shoulders with her bite to no effect.

Her crying is silenced instantly when Camerupt raises a hoof and carelessly stomps upon her.

With all of the pokemon in his way removed, the camel stares down Brendan, who falls to his rear and tries to scramble away, his eyes wide and alight with panic, with the realization of his own mortality.

"Brendan!" Zinnia shrilly screams, reaching an arm out

'Nine!' Lee mentally screams right along with Zinnia.

Fast as can be, a nameless bolt of fire shoots from Ninetales' mouth, curving through the air and squarely striking Camerupt in the eye in a puff of embers.

The camel whirls around in fury, Brendan apparently forgotten. The camel begins his slow lumber, accelerating to full speed like a locomotive.

Ninetales tenses, shaking so minutely that only Lee notices. Then with all the speed she can muster, she moves, caring none for conserving her stamina or bothering with any trickery. She rushes across the field with frantic energy, her entire body glowing with how hard she pushes her powers.

Where Extrasensory caused bruises previously, Camerupt doesn't so much as blink now.

Hex finds no wounds to ravage, for the gouge Marshtomp inflicted on Camerupt's side healed over upon Mega-Evolving.

If Confuse Ray does anything, then it's not apparent.

Meanwhile, Camerupt's attacks are even more potent than they were previously. His Stone Edge flies with such velocity, that even the shockwave caused by a near miss is enough to batter Ninetales down to her core.

But everything Ninetales throws, Maxie's monster simply takes without a flinch. The sheer difference between the pair of pokemon leaves Lee's head spinning. He thought Ninetales was already beginning to reach into the upper echelons of the world.

How wrong he was.

If there is any upside to the fight, it's that Camerupt's speed suffered for his radically increased power. Ninetales is free to dart in and out, moving out of the way before the camel can mount a proper retaliation. The beast's patience is visibly waning, and Lee can only hope it means that he'll screw up in a way they can exploit, somehow. In the melee, Brendan recalled his brutalized Mawile and snuck his way around the perimeter of the field, returning to Lee and Zinnia's side. Whatever misgivings Zinnia held for the boy before are forgotten for now, as she clutches the shellshocked Birch to her side, shielding him from the madness with her body.

"Camerupt," Maxie begins, voice carrying over the chaos with ease.

Lee feels his blood run cold.

Maxie smiles, his expression devoid of humanity as Claydol hovers closer, a translucent psychic shield forming around them. "Use Eruption."

Camerupt groans. Within his body, something audibly churns and bubbles, then with a pained cry, he halts and falls to his knees. The miniature volcano upon his back rumbles.

Then it explodes.

The top of Camerupt's volcano erupts like a fire hydrant with its top unscrewed, spewing a simply unbelievable amount of ash, lava, and rocks into the air, forming a hellish cloud high above. As if that were not bad enough, the burning cloud halts, then coalesces into countless ashy stones with sizzling, molten veins within them, each one the size of a man's head.

'There must be hundreds of them' Lee looks up at the looming attack, whatever hope he was holding onto washed away in a tide of cold realization.

They lost. All of them are going to die here.

There isn't anywhere to run to. What could they do? Run away and be shot in the back? Try to use the cable car? Even if they could get that far, there is nothing stopping Maxie from cutting the cable, leaving them to tumble to their deaths.

Trying to solve all of this on their own was such a mistake. How could they underestimate literal terrorists to such a degree?

Lee turns to Zinnia and Brendan.

Zinnia's face is just as ashen as his, and Brendan's last dregs of bravery have drained away, leaving him looking so small and fragile.

Whatever force was holding onto Eruption lets go, and the stones begin to fall, screaming like falling bombs.

For the first time in weeks, that day replays in Lee's mind.

'History really does repeat itself.' He looks over to Ninetales, who is just as frozen as he is. 'Nine I love you. I'm sorry.'

Ninetales raises her head and screams as the thought crosses Lee's mind. The shrill sound is ugly, wounded, and so startling to hear from her from her 'No! No! No!' The wild mantra repeats over and over, breaking Lee away from the cold thoughts of demise. Ninetales points her maw skyward, a ball of fire coalescing and compacting itself within. The fire goes from red, to orange, to blue, finally to a bright white. 'You don't get to die here! You're not allowed! They're not allowed to take you away!' Screaming once more, she throws her neck, a gout of fire shooting from her mouth and up into the sky to meet Eruption.

Ninetales' Flamethrower is thin and beam-like, slicing through the air like a hot wire, and each falling orb of lava that meets it explodes into smoke, practically vaporized. The Flamethrower greedily sucks down Ninetales' already flagging stamina, but she doesn't seem to notice at all, instead shooting down everything as fast as she can. The single-minded fervor leaves Lee awed and just a bit frightened.

Try as she might though, Ninetales is but one pokemon facing down hundreds of falling projectiles. She destroys a hundred, then another hundred, cutting their numbers by nearly two-thirds, but by then, the remainders are just too close.

One slips by, and Lee, so overloaded, doesn't realize it's bearing down on him until the flaming meteor is only fifty feet away. He looks up, his eyes wide.

A gold blur slams into his chest, throwing him away, but he scrambles to his feet a second later. That could only be-!

The meteor strikes his savior, exploding into a cloud of sharp, superheated stones and choking ash, but the explosion does nothing to drown out the tortured cry that follows.

Lee's entire body lights up in horrid phantom pain. His vision flashes and his legs give out, forcing him to his knees. He chokes, swearing he feels blood welling within his throat. When his vision clears and the waterfall in his ears finally begins to quiet after what feels like hours, he forces his neck to turn and take in the limp, bloodied form just a few yards away.

His own scream is all that follows.

Consciousness returns to Corvisquire like a bolt of lightning to the head. With a jolt, he spreads his wings and flaps, freeing himself from his awkward position laying wedged between a rock and

He blinks as he rises into the air and settles on a rocky outcropping on the side of Mt Chimney. "What in the world?" He asks himself, looking around. "What happened? What was I lodged between?"

The corvid looks down at the rock he was lying against. There is nothing beyond it, so he should've tumbled down the mountain. With a frown, he reaches a wing out and pauses when he feels his feathers bend against thin air, as if there is an invisible wall.

Frown deepening, he draws his head back and stabs at the invisible barrier with his beak, only to wince when the wall holds strong and jolts his neck. He shakes his head. The last thing he remembers was speeding away on Lee's orders, moving as fast as he could before he collided with something headfirst.

'Did I hit this wall so hard I knocked myself senseless?' He grits his beak in annoyance, only pushing it back as he remembers the mission given to him. 'Damn it! What sort of devilry is this? The work of a psychic?'

He hops along the unseen border, continually testing it with taps of his beak, only to find no exits or weak points. With a sneer he holds out a wing, and in the shadow of his dark plumage, a single Pursuer takes form. Whipping his wing forward, he sends the little orb straight into the invisible wall.

The ball of caustic darkness splashes across the invisible barrier, doing Absolutely nothing.

'That's' He stops himself from saying 'impossible'. Nothing is truly impossible, not with enough strength. 'Improbable. What sort of psychic has enough might to do such a thing? None that I've ever met. Even Queen Furball's telekinetic hold falters in the face of Dark.'

It's just then that Corvisquire notices just how dark it is outside. Looking up, he blinks, mystified at the dark clouds covering the landscape. "That's From the volcano? No, surely it hasn't become active"

Then, over the rocky cliffs and walls, a scream pierces the silence, and it's a sound that cuts Corvisquire down to his core.

That was Lee's voice, and the anguish within was unmistakable.

Without a single further thought, Corvisquire spreads his wings and shoots up into the air, flying up over the mountain and homing back in on the place where he left his comrades behind. He's forced to fly low and breath shallow, as the dust in the air prickles at both his eyes and his throat.

Flying back over the cable car building, he stops, hovering.

Below him is absolute hell.

The terrain is torn asunder, the natural walls forming the way to the mouth of the volcano reduced to rubble. Blots of cooling lava dot the landscape, with one red hot glob setting fire to the roof of the visitor center. None of that is what has Corvisquire's attention, however.

No, it's his comrades below.

The Dragon Woman's bravado is dead and gone, replaced with an unnatural paleness as she shields the Birch boy behind her. The boy himself, usually so unflappable, clutches the woman like a lifeline. Neither of them have any of their pokemon called forth.

Looking a talonful of yards to their side, Corvisquire feels as if he was dunked into ice water.

Lee is kneeled upon the ground, his face contorted in shock. The man's expression stirs a terrible familiarity within Corvisquire, for he's certain that his own expression was the same when When the Young Master fell for the final time.

Corvisquire gulps, following Lee's outreached hands, hands reaching for a form lying prone upon the ground.

A form of gold fur dyed red.

Ninetales lays upon the rock floor, broken. Blood leaks from her mouth, her nose, her ears, and from countless wounds scouring her body, some with razor shards of stone still digging into her flesh. A leg and more than one tail are twisted in the wrong direction. She struggles to draw breath, and Corvisquire's eyes lock on to the reason.

A stone shard, larger than the others, lays lodged deep within her chest. The edges of the wound are burned, cauterized shut, but there's no telling what sort of internal suffering she's endured. Without treatment, she'll

Corvisquire tears his eyes away from the sight. Ninetales, one of the mightiest pokemon he's ever met He can't even bring himself to say that she has been brought low. The terrible cold grows utterly frigid within his breast.

Did this Did this happen because he failed the assignment given to him by Lee?

A hoofstep echos off of what remains of the walls, drawing the corvid's eyes.

WrongWrongWrongShouldNotBeRealCannotBeReal!

A monster stands across from Lee and Ninetales, one coated in red fur and carrying upon its back an entire volcano. Every step it takes shakes the ground with such force that even the air vibrates. Try as he might, a shiver runs down the raven's spine, his nerve fleeing him and leaving him a small Rookiedee once more. Then Corvisquire notices just whom the abomination is lumbering towards.

It walks towards Corvisquire's fallen comrade and trainer, and in its eyes is murder. The monster opens its maw, and light begins to build within its throat.

Lee looks up at the Camerupt, his arms falling to his sides. The shock fades, replaced with weary resignation. He falls forward, hugging Ninetales to his body for comf-

No. Not to comfort himself. The man shields the fox with his own body, no matter how ineffective it will be.

The feeling of ice leaves Corvisquire's body, replaced with something much more intense and countless times more familiar.

Hate.

Hate.

HATE.

Hate at Wally and Kirlia for opening his eyes and making him vulnerable.

Hate at Lee for taking a coward like him back.

Hate at Magma for causing this mess in the first place.

Hate at Camerupt and Maxie for daring to harm the man who forgave him, for daring to harm the pokemon who understands.

Hate at himself for being too damn weak to stop any of-

'No! No more!' Corvisquire grits his beak, pushing away the tears that threaten to fall. 'I will not lose another trainer! I will not suffer that pain again! I'm not weak! No one I love will die! Nevermore!'

He dives.

'Nevermore!'

The heat of his fury rages through his core into his limbs. Euphoric strength and the certainty of steel overtakes him along with a cloak of grand, white light, That furious, raging heat begins to reforge all it touches.

His wings grow, each feather hardening and lengthening into midnight-hued blades.

Molten steel drips from his pores, turning feathers into peerless armor.

His beak and talons coat themselves in glimmering, razor-edged metal, forming keen weapons.

His body, so small and weak, practically explodes with wire-like muscle and bones as unyielding as bars of the finest steel. His form doubles, then triples in size.

Within his head, now clad in a helm of obsidian metal, comes the greatest change.

Gone is the raging, uncontrollable wrath that would warm him beneath his feathers. The undirected frenzy is quenched in cold focus, hardening into a weapon far sharper than any blade, and more unbreakable than any set of armor. With it comes beautiful clarity, and assured purpose.

Red eyes snap open under the shadows of a corvid-shaped helm.

"Corvisquire, foolish and hotheaded, is no more," the raven, now sized to dwarf a man, rumbles. "From his twisted remains, I am born."

Corviknight, newly evolved, pulls his wings even closer to his sides, his armor whistling sharply through the air as he dives like a missile.

"Let us see how you fare with a fresh opponent, cur," he narrows his eyes, targeting the Camerupt below and cruelly seeking out where his foe might be most vulnerable.

None of his will die.

Nevermore.