Thank you for reading. Hopefully you enjoy. If you REALLY like it, I have a P-a-t-r-e-o-n, under the same name, where you can read 5 chapters ahead.
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I'd met several extraordinarily powerful Pokémon throughout the years: Slowking, the Leviathan of Cerulean, Lance's Dragonite, the absolute monster at Bill's lighthouse. I'd trained with Bruno, seen his troupe of freaks pulverize stone and smash mountains.
Yet it wasn't until I exited the staircase and emerged at the summit of Mt. Ember that I understood how little that meant. How much Bruno had held back.
The peak of the volcano was huge, a half circle of solidified magmatic rock larger than any arena I'd ever been in – bigger than even the Indigo Stadium, I imagined – suspended over half of the enormous bowl. Over the edge, deep, deep below, fiery magma rolled and churned, slag forming on the surface before being dragged down into the viscous substance to melt and start the whole process over again.
Or at least, that was my best estimate of what it looked like. It was hard to tell, since the whole thing was engulfed in ragnarok.
A monstrous blizzard and blazing wildfire swallowed the platform as they ground away at each other in a battle for dominance, a blanket of hissing steam obscuring the meeting point. Above, black thunderclouds fought with the brightest sun I'd ever seen, hail the size of my fist melting to pinpricks of water by the time they hit the elemental storms.
Below, crystal-clear ice creaked and cracked as it was born, a spire growing to a wall and then a towering glacier, fifty feet high, in a second, moving faster than an avalanche. The superheated rock beneath it splintered and popped from the cold as the small mountain of frigid energy barreled towards the far side of the volcano where a billowing inferno swallowed the world, a solid mass of fire hiding everything from view.
Except a tiny ember rapidly glowing brighter as the flames around it grew dimmer.
THOOOOOOOOOOMMM!
A blinding flash of white and blue and the sound of a jet engine igniting filled the air; a hole big enough for Betty to walk through comfortably appeared in the middle of the glacier as a laser beam of compacted flames roared through it, burning so hot that not even steam survived. Another good 10 feet of ice instantly turned to vapor despite not being in contact with the beam, and yet another 15 melted into steaming water. Yet, as the laser screamed through the wall of ice, it almost seemed to… warp. Diminish. Faster than it should, despite how easily it plowed through Pryce's technique, it grew slimmer and slimmer as it reached the end, the hue dimming from blue to white, and then further. By the time a red spot appeared on the back of the ice wall and the condensed fire howled out to burn through the raised stone near the edges of the bowl, it was barely wider than my torso.
Still, the glacier collapsed, fracturing as it fell to pieces, still carried forward by momentum. And it kept moving as Mamoswine's massive, charred figure thundered out of the blizzard I imagined contained Pryce, deep burns having stripped the fire-resistant fur and exposed blackened muscle in several places. The mammoth-rhino thing bellowed deep in its chest, the ice and ground beneath it surging forth at its command in a rising avalanche that swirled around the huge Pokémon, rock reshaping itself into spears as an even larger silhouette with a long neck and tail followed within the technique. Mamoswine reared up and stomped, the wave bulging as the whole mountain shook and lurched.
But the inferno wasn't idle. Like the ocean, it undulated and wavered, consolidating in front of the landslide as it grew so bright that white began appearing at the edges and spread throughout. In seconds, the hundred–foot–wide– or more – blaze was no larger than twenty feet and so hot it started turning a startling blue.
As it retreated, bones were revealed where the flames had licked. Blackened and falling apart from the insane temperatures, little more remained of the interlocked skeletons than long, razor-sharp claws on lanky fingers, and something quadrupedal with multiple tails.
CRRAASSHHH-HIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSSS!
Another explosion of steam as the avalanche met the nearly solid wall of flames. At the last second, the massive, long-necked dinosaur Pokémon lurking in the blizzard sparked with electricity, two sails on either side of the head lighting up yellow before an enormous blast of lightning and wind joined the power struggle as ice and even rock melted. The additional move broke the hotter, outer shell of Blaine's defensive move and exposed the more vulnerable – if still white-hot – interior. The stone spikes, mostly turned to slag, did their best to reform their points as they launched into the fire, a pained yip and agonized roar sounding from within.
"PRYYYYYYYCEEEEE!" Despite the chaos, the voice was clear, venom dripping from the screamed name.
A large shape emerged, lumbering to meet Mamoswine's charge that followed the Ice-Rock-Electricity attack, standing as tall as Sol on two stubby grey legs. The brownish-gray Pokémon with orange, armor-like plates slammed its heavy, clubbed tail into the ground, sending another tremor through the battlefield as it braced itself, its nose horn and a smaller one above it spinning like drills. Heat radiated from the Rhyperior, its rocky hide glowing cherry-red, yet it remained undaunted as it received Mamoswine with open arms and a bellow like colliding, uncaring for the intense coat of Normal-Type energy that surrounded it right before impact.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
A monstrous explosion engulfed the middle of the platform, the shockwave blowing back the elemental covers. The stone beneath the giants shattered, cracks running damn near all the way back to where I was standing, gaping like an idiot.
My heart dropped as the center – where Rhyperior was screaming while it was forced backward with cracks spreading through the rapidly cooled armor – started dipping, the sides of the enormous crater detaching from the rest of the platform and starting to fall towards the magma below. However, nearly in sync, the two part Ground-Types exerted their control over it while still shoving at each other, and wrenched the tons and tons of rock back into place, the newly lowered edges molding together with the rest. Spikes and spears formed and unformed faster than I could spot them, mud solidifying before it liquefied as Rhyperior tried to use its greater geokinesis to make up for the damage the Giga Impact had caused it.
For a brief moment, I saw Pryce, hands folded over his cane and face as cold as the Type he'd mastered. A thin layer of frost covered him, glittering as the sun overcame the clouds for a second, yet there were no signs that he noticed, not as much as a wisp of vapor escaping from his mouth.
At his feet, a blue-white cat-fox flicked its long ears at suddenly being revealed. In front, acting both as guards and range support, a large Dewgong and another, even bigger, blue walrus Pokémon, with white mutton chops and large tusks, clapped their fins together with a wet slap! sound, the blizzard wrestled back under control, their thick blubber red and agitated even that deep inside their cover. Up front, there was a sorrowful, keening cry as the Aurorus flared its yellow-white sails again and made them glow with the hues of the northern lights as the eight-foot-tall – at the shoulder – and more than 25-foot-long sauropod stomped after Mamoswine, the lower third of its tail gone as its own blizzard whipped to life around it.
On the opposite side, Blaine stood with his back towards the edge of the platform, mere feet away from dropping into the volcano. Much like Pryce, he embodied his chosen Type well. Literal smoke shot from his nostrils in two long tendrils that clung to his mustache for a moment before even that was burnt away. He'd discarded his shirt to reveal a surprisingly muscular upper body for a man his age – with some unavoidable saggy skin – which was littered with scars and old burn marks, which must've been truly old, as despite the immediate area around him being free from fire, the occasional tongue of flame would reach out to lick his skin in a brief caress that he didn't seem to notice, nor did it singe him.
He paced between two hulking, vaguely humanoid Pokémon. Red and yellow stripes covered their egg-shaped bodies, with prominent pink lips standing out on their dark faces, shadowed by the large yellow flame on their heads, as well as red flames on their shoulders and stubby tails. Their legs were small in proportion to their body, with pink thighs, red feet, and black shackles around their ankles. Most noticeable, however, were the bulbous, tubular arms with a black ring around the tricep area and three small claws on the black part of each hand. As I watched, one of the Magmortars – a brute of a Pokémon with a gaping hole in its shoulder and a big gash across its stomach, standing head and shoulders taller than either Blaine or the smaller Fire-Type, who were around the same size – lifted its good hand, claws retracting into the limb as the hollow cannon opened up. Like a vacuum, the fire around it wavered as it was sucked into the cannon, the arm lighting up as Blaine glared across the volcano at Pryce, spit evaporating before it even left his mouth as he roared with hate.
"PRRRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYCEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! MURDEREEEEER!"
THOOOOOOOOOOMMM!
Magmortar was forced back several feet by the laser technique's pushback, the sound barrier shattering. It was too fast for me to track; I only saw it when it struck that same massive glacier Aurorus threw up in defense. I didn't get to see the result as the two storms smashed back into each other and hid everything from view; my last sight was the second, more heavily scarred Magmortar spewing new flames to replace the lost ones, its second cannon-arm pointed backward as wavering air rushed up over the ledge.
It was siphoning the heat from the volcano to reinforce their fire cover, which the rest of the team was using to reinforce their techniques. As I realized it, a ball of fire moving nearly as fast as the fire-laser slammed into Mamoswine's side and detonated like a meteoric impact, the event little more than a shadow puppet play in the swirling mess. The mammoth Pokémon roared as it was forced sideways and away from Rhyperior, the last of its thick coat of fur singed away to show charred flesh, but it wasn't without cost.
A distinctly familiar howl of displeasure and pain rang out as the Dewgong, Walrein, and Aurorus laid into the hidden Pokémon with high-pressure jets of water and pointed rocks. An Arcanine, large but not Sol-large, limped out of the hole, its back leg clearly broken and a couple of sizable stones embedded along its flank. Rhyperior covered its teammate as they slunk back into the flames to recover, both sides resetting as the opportunity became lost.
By the staircase, I stood frozen by indecision and – I was brave enough to admit – a healthy dose of fear.
What the fuck was I doing there!? 'Help Pryce'!? Who was going to help me!?
Also, I noted, I wasn't even sure it was necessary, regardless of what Brad had said. Despite the battlefield and Typing favoring Blaine, I found myself thinking that Pryce's side looked better.
Little by little, the blizzard ground away at the inferno. The curtain of constantly heating and chilling vapor slowly pushed towards Blaine's side, even as the cyclone of winter hissed and sputtered on contact with the flames. But more resolidified than dissipated. Something about Pryce's ice resisted-no, not just resisted; it weakened the fire, pulling the heat straight from the conflagration and stilling it.
Just as the Magmortar siphoned from the lava below to empower their protection and defense, Pryce stole the heat from them even faster. From so far away, I had a good enough overall view to see the top of the firestorm bulge upwards as something flew out above the clashing forces. Smoke and embers clung to the orange hide as it spread large, batlike wings – filled with so many rifts and holes that it was in complete denial of physics that it remained aloft – to halt itself, draconic snout opening wide to show rows of sharp fangs as it tried to hide itself against the blinding sun that, unlike the conflict below, seemed to be overwhelming the ice for some reason. Steaming blood poured from a leg that had been turned into deli-meat, the bipedal dragon's left arm ending in a frostbitten stump. Behind it, a white-hot bonfire flared and engulfed half of the Charizard's tail, eyes blood-red as it lost itself in the adrenaline-fueled, life-saving ability Blaze that burned within it.
The wings flapped, a hurricane of shimmering air launching down toward Pryce's position as a blue-tinted cone of fire left its maw and quickly caught up. The Heat Wave and Blast Burn mixed, becoming an ocean of fire nearly as large as the one that shielded Blaine, and actually forced the blizzard back.
The tattered wings kept beating, Heat Wave after Heat Wave enhancing the constant stream of flames pouring from its mouth, and melting the snow enough to expose Mamoswine and Aurorus again. At the same time, the ground rumbled as Rhyperior emerged right under the huge mammoth with a glowing uppercut to the chin, actually lifting Mamoswine off its feet and throwing it backward, while there was a brief glimpse of an orange streak before Aurorus cried out as it was hurled sideways by an impact, followed by a massive explosion. The Brachiosaurus-looking Pokémon made the ground tremble as it fell, only to be hit again and again by the nearly untraceable meteor, circling the battlefield before the Ice/Rock-Type could react. Streams of water emerged from what remained of the blizzard when the ball of fire came back for another hit, but they were easily avoided even as they swerved to try and catch it off guard. For a second, the all-consuming energy around the Pokémon slipped enough for me to see the completely healed Arcanine sprint away, Extreme Speed letting it build so much speed that it left a shockwave behind as it pushed past Mach 1, then came back to strike the Fossil Pokémon once more.
Instinctively, I moved down from Doublade's plaque, where I'd still been sitting, certain the moment had come despite my reservations. Pryce had pushed too deep, leaving himself open to a counterattack. My options to help were limited, but maybe, I thought, hand reaching down to my belt, Sol would be fast enough to at least get the Arcanine off-
The Charizard roared as its wings were suddenly engulfed in a pair of ice blocks; the continuous Blast Burn and repeated Heat Waves cut off as it plummeted like a stone. From behind it, emerging from a shadow that should've been all the way on the ground if not for the nearly solid surface the two elemental domains had made, an almost transparent figure, hiding its mouth behind a long sleeve as a ghostly giggle carried far farther than it should.
Meanwhile, the Arcanine came back for another hit, which it got off, but as soon as the massive explosion of Fire- and Normal-Type energy engulfed the downed Aurorus, part of the blizzard that it had been pushing the huge, extinct Pokémon towards unwillingly billowed out and encircled it as rocky spires grew from the ground and froze over, trapping the canine within an icy miniature mountain range.
Oh. That's why I hadn't seen Frosslas. It wasn't Pryce overextending and getting caught. It was a bluff to make Blaine commit and come out of his diminishing cover.
Charizard snarled and spat, engulfing itself in a conflagration as it descended like a falling star. It did nothing to discourage Frosslas, though. Even as the flames deformed and melted the armored carapace binding the ghost to the material world, it extinguished them in return. Frosslas slithered around Charizard's front, leaving black, hissing handprints in her wake as she reached its head. A monstrous Flamethrower greeted her, scything through the sky for over 150 feet and ending more than 50 feet wide. Yet she laughed as she burned, the sound distorting and warbling in time with her physical form as she grabbed the flying lizard by the jaws, wrenched Charizard's mouth open wide, and stuck her head inside.
And then deeper. And deeper. Charizard gagged as the half-disintegrated specter slipped down its throat, the stream of fire abruptly cutting off. It seized mid-air, thrashing around as it belched out blasts of flame that quickly turned to smoke, coughing and hacking as it fell. The fire disappeared, replaced entirely by smoke that started to twinkle in the light, and then steam. Dark veins stood out starkly whilst condensation gathered on its paling skin, freezing alongside the muscles and bones beneath as the steam grew foggy; ice crystals crept down the tail toward the flagging fire as it whitered, the flickering yellow spark little more than candlelight before it was snuffed out completely.
The pseudo-dragon gave one last defiant, silent roar that sent out a blast of cold that would've given Aurora's Icy Wind a run for its money before the ice moved up and over its face, the violent struggles fading as the ice statue plummeted, descending through the clashing storms as nothing more than a shadow, then hitting the ground.
CRAAAASSSSSH-CLINK-CLINK-CLINK-CLInk-clink-clink!
The Charizard statue shattered into a thousand tiny pieces on impact that showered the platform in twinkling shards, each so small and fractured that the ones that melted in Blaine's wildfire turned into nothing but a tiny red dot. I couldn't see Frosslas rising from the broken corpse that had once been a Charizard trained by a Fire Master, but I wasn't too worried either. Frosslas had more in common with ghosts like Gengar and Misdreavus than Ho-Duoblade. Even though its icy armor had broken, I knew the more immaterial ghosts didn't necessarily care as much. If Doublade's blade – Or both blades? Were they two separate individuals? – broke, it would be nearly impossible to repair-
Something cold seemed to blow on the back of my neck, yet when I snapped around to look, there was nothing other than a few stray pieces of snow that had escaped Pryce's team's control.
For Frosslas? Not as much, it would seem. Didn't she have better things to do than fuck around with me?
"ARRRF!"
BOOOOOOOOOOM-CR-CRAA-CRAAAAASSHHH!
"AAAAARRRRRRRRFFFF!
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM-CRRR-CRAA-CRAAAAAAASSHHH!
Like helping with that?
Back with the trapped Arcanine, the flaming dog Pokémon was getting desperate, hurling itself at the frozen-over stone entrapment it was stuck inside over and over again. I couldn't see the Pokémon itself, but I could see the enormous explosions that shattered the ice and even most of the rock, the power behind whatever Flare Blitz offshoot Blaine had developed – Giga Impact, as well? Extreme Speed, Flare Blitz, and Giga Impact? Something to think about – was truly awe-inspiring and a demonstration of how far Sol still had to go, something the Alpha Arcanine seemed to agree with, given that he'd popped out of his ball to watch alongside me as Blaine's Arcanine fought against Aurorus, Dewgong, and Walrein's control over rock and ice and nearly came out on top. Ice melted, and rock shattered under its wrath nearly as fast as the three could rebuild it.
But only nearly. I still couldn't see, but the blasts became smaller and smaller, Aurorus stomping closer as the circle closed in. Rhyperior had noticed the predicament from where it had been trying to push its advantage against Mamoswine and tried to disengage, but its own eagerness worked against it – a common theme with Blaine, I was starting to notice – and Mamoswine easily kept it not only engaged but put it on the defensive as it stopped sandbacking now that the trap had closed. A deep THOOOOM! announced another Fire Hyper Beam, or whatever laser Blaine was throwing out, with another on its heels, but they never arrived. Glaceon's graceful, slender form came running around the rim, stopping right where Blaine would be despite not being able to see him, and closed its eyes. Contrary to my expectations, the blizzard didn't pick up or intensify.
Instead, it sat and stilled.
Every snowflake blown within 20 feet of Glaceon stopped like it'd hit a wall, all momentum gone in an instant as it gently descended toward the ground, completely ignoring the howling storm around it. When the lasers came, I finally got to see the blue, arm-thick bolts of fire as they slowed and grew thinner the closer they got to Glaceon. I'd seen the same technique break the sound barrier and devastate Aurorus' glacier – with enough power left over to burn through 60-70 feet of rock – yet by the time it reached the completely still Glaceon, it was little more than a spark that died on contact.
That wasn't just a heat sink or whatever. If I didn't know better…
If I didn't know better, I'd say Glaceon was freezing the movements of the molecules themselves. On a molecular level, movement equaled heat. If you froze that movement, creating an entropy zone…
Well, no fire would be getting through to save the day.
Arcanine seemed to know it too. The next time I saw it, it was as a flash of fire that landed on Aurorus' throat, flaming fangs digging deep into the thick fat as it kicked and clawed at the long neck despite the stone spear sticking straight through its side and emerging on the other side. The dino fell and dragged the flaming dog with it, the Fire-Type wrenching its head side to side, ignoring the pressurized spray of water drops that blew through it like bullets in bloody sprays, determined to bring at least one down with it.
I didn't get to see how it ended, but I did see the red flash of a PokéBall – or Acorn Ball – before the icy mountains crumbled to dust, so I hoped Aurorus at least survived long enough for Pryce to recall it.
Despite that uncertainty, and technically going two for two, the exchange was still in Pryce's favor. Not only did he already have the number advantage, but other than seemingly Arcanine – and perhaps the Rhyperior, who was desperately throwing up barricades to halt Mamoswine so it could Dig back to safety, armor shattered and fully gone in places – his Pokémon appeared stronger one-on-one as well. Pryce was just better; screw what conventional Trainer logic would say. Glaceon alone seemed to have shut down Blaine's primary tactic, which begged the question…
How was the battle not just over? Why was Blaine still hanging back so much? The battle had clearly been turning against him even before I arrived, and it was only getting worse, yet he didn't try to change things up to regain the advantage, nor was he making preparations to escape.
A final stand? One last showdown with his hated enemy, win or loss?
"CHILD KILLER! COWARD! ASSASSIN, THIEF, BUTCHER! PRYYYYCEEEE!"
He certainly seemed angry enough for it.
Pryce appeared to agree with my assessment. Like the curtain at a theater, the blizzard parted as, for the first time since I got there, the Mahogany Gym Leader moved, winter gathering to drape over his shoulders like a cape. Dewgong, Walrein, and Glaceon joined his march – Mamoswine, tusks little more than stumps and skin more burns than anything else, trumpeting in displeasure as he was recalled, his job done.
The Colosseum-esque trap crumpled away as he passed it, rock disintegrating as easily as the ice to reveal the vaguely recognizable lump of ice that used to be Arcanine. There was no hurry to him; Pryce's pace was as inexorable as the entropy his element represented whilst he approached Blaine, face blank and cane tapping lightly against the ground.
Tap! Tap! Tap!
Blaine was much less composed.
"YOU THINK THIS IS OVER!?" Again, the inferno surrounding the scientist was sucked up, revealing that his dual Magmortars had stepped further in front of him, flanking the devastated Rhyperior with raised, glowing cannons. But they didn't fire, holding steady as their Trainer raved and ranted behind them, Blaine's eyes wide and crazed as his defeat became obvious, his heels hanging over the edge down to the magma chamber beneath. "NO! NO, IT'S NOT, I WON'T LET IT BE! I'LL SEND YOU TO YOUR WHORE WIFE AND LET MY CHILDREN REST, EVEN IF I HAVE TO GO WITH YOU!" His hand flew to his belt, and for a second I thought he was grabbing one of the Acorn Balls to release a Pokémon he'd kept in reserve, but instead he reached into a hip pouch and pulled out a red-tinted glass sphere the size of an enlarged PokéBall. Inside the translucent ball, wires ran from machinery and what looked like a pair of vials into the center, where they connected to-
Was that a Fire Stone?
A vague memory came back to me at the sight, from when I'd been researching League regulations.
Something about unauthorized, non-League personal usage of something called a 'Pyro Grenade' carrying a 20-25 year jail sentence, or something like that?
I hadn't known what that was at the time or why it was so harshly punished, but I had an unfortunate feeling that I was about to find out through suicide bombing.
"COME ON THEN, COWARD!" Rather than remaining on the verge of falling into the volcano, Blaine inexplicably started moving forward, past his Magmortar bodyguards. The smaller Blast Pokémon looked at him and reached out with its uncharged hand to make him stay back, its pink lips turning downward into a frown, but Blaine slapped it away, holding the Pyro Grenade high as he screamed. "MONSTER! FIEND! THERE'S NO ONE TO SACRIFICE NOW, NO SOFT TARGET TO DIVERT TO! JUST YOU AND ME, AS YOU'VE ALWAYS FEARED!" Pryce remained undaunted and emotionless, each step as unhurried and unflinching as the last. His Glaceon jumped onto Walrein's head as the two large sea-mammal Pokémon flopped ahead a little, the Ice-Type Eeveelution going still again.
From the sidelines, I didn't blame Pryce. Surely the grenade wasn't as strong as that laser technique, and Glaceon had blocked three of those in a row.
I truly would've thought it was over as Pryce crossed the halfway point, and then the two-thirds mark.
At least, if not for the sudden smug, victorious, and more-than-a-little-maniacal grin that spread across Blaine's face.
"NOW!" Everybody tensed and froze at those words. Yet, nothing happened other than Blaine's grin being replaced with a scowl as he continued to talk to seemingly no one. He didn't even have a PokéNav or a radio anywhere I could see on his shirtless body. "I DON'T CARE WHAT HE SAYS OR WANTS! I AM YOUR CREATOR! IF WE KILL HIM HERE, THIS CAN ALL STILL BE SALVAGED!"
Creator? No-
There was a strange sensation as space itself whined, a heaviness that pressed down on us and turned every head upwards. Above, the last thunderclouds trembled alongside the fabric of reality as it twisted weirdly, like an invisible hand had grabbed hold of it and pulled. The tension built and built with the ear-splitting screech, coming to a crescendo-
CRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACKKK!
-and in a flashbang that lit up the sky and put the bright sun to shame, the heavens exploded, my eardrums feeling like they burst from the deafening crack! of displaced air. Aurora, Newt, and Espeon whimpered, their sensitive hearing taking it even harder, but I couldn't soothe them, forcing myself to look back up as the flash from the universe-shattering Teleport started to dim, and a figure ripped its way through existence itself-
-For a brief moment, I swore the spiderweb of lightning flashed behind a figure floating in the sky, yet when I blinked the water out of my eyes, it was gone-
A humanoid Pokémon hung over Mt. Ember, effortlessly held aloft by psychic power despite no obvious signs of energy. Greyish-black, shiny, futuristic armor covered its hands and the tops of its long, almost feline feet, leaving its stick-thin arms and thick, lavender-grey thighs exposed, along with a long tail that started wide and thinned to a bulbous tip. A tapered codpiece with an orb in the middle hung low between its legs and connected to a breastplate that extended up to a pair of tall shoulderplates. I couldn't see what I knew to be an incredibly thin neck nor the odd, second spine thing that attached to the base of its skull, but I knew the helmet hid them, blank visor keeping the head from view, other than two bony antennae poking out of a pair of holes at the top.
Shivers ran down my spine, and my heart lurched as the nightmare I'd been having regularly since I first started taking the fight to Team Rocket manifested itself. I'd always low-key expected to run into a Legendary or two – and I technically had, back in the early days after leaving Pallet when I saw and recorded Ho-Oh. It was an exciting prospect.
Just not with that one.
Mewtwo, Team Rocket's lab-grown Legendary 'clone' of Mew.
A mental presence washed over us to replace the odd sensation of reality struggling, a heavy pressure growing behind my eyes merely from Mewtwo flexing his power, never mind as his attention turned to us properly. I saw Pryce and his team flinch nearly as one, my own team doing the same before they were halfway through their reactions, Espeon's jewel shining like a star as the two Psychics made contact and her faint presence that always lay so close disappeared as she retreated into herself in fear and panic. Even Doublade clenched his eyes shut as his mind was plundered, and there was no time to brace myself before it was my turn.
Jynx's telepathy had been like a knife, piercing through the resistance my partly Ghost-Type Aura granted me and opening every memory up for inspection, dragging my mind along with her. That wasn't what Mewtwo did. Instead, it felt like a giant rubber hand, filled to the absolute bursting point with power barely restrained by its shell, punched straight through the veil. It filled me, paralyzed me as it took a cursory glance through my head and thoughts before starting to move on, what felt like an assault even beyond what a Master-level Psychic could do to me, nothing more than how Mewtwo greeted everyone to it.
And then it doubled back, an almost overwhelming feeling of curiosity radiating as it pushed deeper towards what interested it, casually dismissing the resistance that had pushed Jynx so hard and grabbed hold-
-Colors swirled around him in an endless kaleidoscope, each one distinct and yet perfectly blended into the next. Hues that humans had never known teased the edge of his sanity as they flashed in a random pattern-
"BEHOLD!" Blaine's exclamation interrupted the memory and made Mewtwo pull back to focus on the situation at hand. A faint tremble ran through the platform, but I paid it no mind given that I was pretty preoccupied by our imminent deaths. "MY CROWNING ACHIEVEMENT! THE CULMINATION OF DECADES OF RESEARCH AND BILLIONS UPON BILLIONS! THE VERY PINNACLE OF SCIENCE ITSELF! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" The arrival of his savior hadn't done Blaine's sanity any favors; the bald man threw his head back and howled with sadistic delight. "THEY ALL LAUGHED AT ME, YOOOUUUU LAUGHED AT ME, BUT WHO'S LAUGHING NOW, PRYCE! WITNESS YOUR DOOM! BORN FROM THE DNA OF MEW ITSELF, CREATED, BUILT, TO BE THE ULTIMATE POKÉMON! MEWTWO!"
An icy blue energy covered Mewtwo as he extended his arm towards Pryce and his team, the same color surrounding each of them instantaneously. Dewgong and Walrein bellowed and thrashed their powerful bodies in defiance, yet aside from the energy intensifying, there were no signs the hold was weakening. Not, at least, until Pryce's shadow darkened into a pitch-black void that rose and engulfed him. Three beams of red struck his captured team, returning them as shadow-Pryce sank back into a two-dimensional shade on the ground and rapidly slithered my way, stopping not far from me and releasing his team again. Despite his back being to me, I could see the sweat gathering on the back of his neck and the slight tremble in his hand that he tried to hide by clenching his cane.
Fear or the Shadow Sneak? I wouldn't blame him if it was the former, since I was shitting my pants.
-umble!
Another fairly weak, but definitely stronger vibration ran through the mountain, tiny, loose rocks rolling down from the edges.
Despite Pryce getting out of telekinesis, Blaine didn't seem to mind. Hell, if anything, his crazed grin stretched wider.
"GOOOOOOOOD, PRYCE! STRUGGLE! TRY TO SURVIVE, HAHAHAHAHA! YOU MIGHT EVEN THINK YOU HAVE A CHANCE! THAT YOUR EARLIER LUCK," the amount of venom he put into that one word was impressive, "IN MAHOGANY WILL CONTINUE! MAYBE, YOU THINK YOU CAN HOLD OUT UNTIL YOUR BAND OF CRIMINALS COME TO SAVE YOU AGAIN, HAHAHAHA!"
Somehow, despite the entire situation having turned to absolute shit, I still somehow felt my stomach drop when Blaine spun around, arms spread, to face the edge of the drop into Mt. Ember, burning embers rising from below in increasing numbers.
RUMble!
"TOO BAD YOU WON'T GET THAT CHANCE, YOU NINCOMPOOP! MEWTWO!" Rather than try to recapture Pryce, Mewtwo instead extended his hand towards Blaine and the Magmortars – who had relaxed their techniques, venting much of the excess heat through their skin – only, none of them showed any sign of Psychic power.
RRRUUUUMMMBLLLEEEE!
No, I realized with a dawning sense of horror. Not towards Blaine and the Magmortars.
Towards the magma below.
"YES! YEEEEEESSSSSS! IT'S ALL COMING TOGETHER! I KNEW YOU WOULD ANSWER MY CALL!" Pebbles bounced on the ground as the whole mountain shook. Pieces of the platform, weakened by the titanic clash, broke off and plummeted, melting before they even hit the lava. "I ALWAYS KNEW! THE LOCALS KNOW NOTHING! THE LEAGUE KNOWS NOTHING! ONLY I UNDERSTAND! ONLY I AM WORTHY!"
RRRRRUUUUUUMMMBBBBLLLLLEEEEEE-KAAAA-BLAMMMMMMPH!
The open side of the semi-circle covering the top disappeared under an all-consuming blanket of magma exploding upwards from deep within Mt. Ember, a curtain of hazy red-orange-yellow, a churning mixture that was nearly unwatchable through the shimmer of the air. The heat that had taken hold since Mewtwo tipped the scales firmly in Blaine's direction grew stifling, the arid air burning my throat with every breath.
The volcano erupting while we were on top of it was bad enough, but if only it was so mundane. It rose higher and higher: 20 feet, 50 feet, 100. More than enough to cover the whole platform and kill us all.
But no one moved; every gaze locked on the black silhouette that rose with the lava, something bigger than any of our Pokémon except perhaps Aurorus.
The black shape resolved as it crested the lip of magma, and for one shattering heartbeat I thought Blaine had somehow summoned the mountain itself into a body.
Then wings unfurled, fifty feet from tip to tip and the magma parted with the motion and fell back down as it was dismissed by its master. My lips cracked, my eyeballs drying out as Pryce's winter mantle vanished, dissipating in an instant before the blast of scorching air.
The pinions blazed, sheets of flame in all hues of yellow, orange, red, and white, and the sound that came from the arm-long, obsidian-black beak wasn't a screech so much as the volcano itself groaning in protest, a keening cry of superheated air shoved outward twenty feet, fifty, a hundred in a single heartbeat. Feathers of pure fire trailed sparks, guttering into embers that spiraled up instead of down, snared in thermals violent enough to argue with gravity and win. A thin frame of orange was nearly hidden under the blazing fire, the very skin shimmering – not just the air around it, but the actual skin itself like solid fire, molten rock sloughing off muscular thighs and grasping talons that ignited the air with their mere presence. Above its head, the sky was distorted, a trailing flame so hot it wasn't even visible, covering the top of the avian's head like a crown.
Moltres.
The sun brightened.
As Moltres rose to its full height and spread the enormous flaming wings, the last stubborn scraps of thundercloud simply stopped existing. They burned, curling to nothing the way paper does over a candle, and what remained was a sun that I could feel on my skin, like being just a little too close to a campfire. It was like a weight settled on my chest, as if the air itself had decided it no longer wanted to be breathed, every molecule agitated past discomfort and straight into pain. Sweat that had been rolling down my spine for the whole battle when it wasn't frozen simply stopped forming, my body immediately too dehydrated to bother.
Mewtwo's mind had felt like a fist forcing its way past my defenses, but Moltres wasn't a Psychic-Type. Instead, its presence was purely physical, like gravity. My knees buckled, and I was too far out of it to stop myself from falling to one knee, and across the platform, amid the wreck of Blaine's grand unveiling, Mewtwo's blank visor turned away from Pryce, away from Blaine, away from all of us. The two Legendaries' eyes met, Moltres' cry like a summer breeze as the Lord of Mt. Ember protested the intrusion into their domain.
Mewtwo's presence – that vast, curious, terrible weight that had been palpable even when he wasn't focusing on me – simply vanished. Gone, all at once, as something much, much more important demanded its full attention.
—-
Moltres was obvious, but I wonder if anyone saw the second Legendary coming. Nobody panic, though: Blaine is a very rational, sane person who's definitely got this under control. This is his moment; he's got this.
Peri was quite correct in that I do have Pryce as stronger than Blaine, despite Typing. While an advantage like that should never be underestimated, at Master level, it's also far from an automatic win, especially not with someone like Pryce, who's put in real effort to shut down his biggest threats, Fire-Types and physical combat like Fighting-Types. Pryce is no fun to fight; he just wants the win with zero concern for how much you enjoy yourself.
Also the highest-level battle we've had so far (until next chapter), and I'm okay with how it ended up. Pryce and Blaine are very much products of their time, but mostly, the product of fighting each other so much. The area control they both display is basically made to counter each other, and their fighting styles are from before PokéBalls became what they are.
I thought about having Peri be more involved in the fight, but it felt forced, and at the end of the day, it's Pryce's and Blaine's fight, more than 40 years in the making. Peri was just there to watch for the beginning. Now, it's definitely an all-hands-on-deck situation, though.
Not that anything's wrong, since Blaine's 100% got this, trust.
Thank you for reading. Hopefully you enjoyed. If you REALLY liked it, I have a P-a-t-r-e-o-n, under the same name, where you can read 5 chapters ahead.