Authoress' Note: Silly title is silly~
Anyway! My little head-cannon of how this scene really went. Because if they are teaching kids to throw themselves into active volcanoes, then at least it has to be meaningful…
I'm kidding. Kids, please don't throw yourselves into the mouth of any volcano...
A Legendary Rescue Op
Ash took a deep breath, hoping to keep his racing heart from going any faster. After Team Rocket's blunt attempt to capture Moltres —something the firebird didn't take kindly, and acted accordingly, —the trio's self-imposed mission ended up in failure, resulting in their usual blast off. Their fast and unintentional retreat left Ash and his friends behind to clean their mess, and now they had a very angry Legendary to deal with.
That was definitely not how Ash expected their encounter with Moltres would go. Their attempts at reassuring the bird how they weren't in fact associated with the criminals, just kept falling to deaf ears, and the phoenix had now started breathing fire at them in retaliation to the previous aggression.
Despite it all, Ash wasn't really hoping to beat the Legendary that was currently attacking them. Not really. He just wanted it to calm down enough so it would be willing to hear them out. But not being the first time dealing with one of its kind, he was painfully aware of how stubborn Moltres could be. So their only option was to fight back and hope to get it tired enough so it would be willing to listen, or at least give them time so they could retreat from the volcano.
But it had been easier said than done. There had been too many close calls for it to be comfortable, and it wasn't until Fletchinder had evolved into Talonflame that things started to look positive. Not only had Ash's first flying type caught in the Kalos Region became faster, her attacks were considerably more powerful.
He encouraged Talonflame to go for another Brave Bird attack and the faithful pokémon complied, zooming through the length of the volcano's mouth zigzagging and looping around as she dodged one fire attack after another. She reached her target in record time; hitting Moltres square on the chest and causing it to stagger back painfully quite a few meters.
And just like that, everything went horribly wrong. The fire breathing legendary retaliated faster than they anticipated, and Talonflame got a direct hit so powerful that not even her typing was enough to protect her. Ash watched in dread as the attack ended, and time slowed down through his eyes when the prideful bird fell out of the sky towards the lava below, completely beaten.
Instincts kicking in, Ash took Talonflame's Poké Ball out, ready to recall her. He expanded it in his hand and —with a screech from above as the only warning, —jumped out of the way of a second fire attack that was directed at the group. He fell to the ground hard, —the Poké Ball rolling out of his grasp, —and watched in horror as Talonflame went out of sight, right into the volcano.
"No!" Ash pushed himself to his feet with gritted teeth, hastily grabbing the Poké Ball as he went, and ran forward.
"A-Ash?" he barely spared Trevor a glance; just slowing down enough to lend him three small objects in his hands.
"Wait, Ash! What are you doing?!" Clemont shouted from his position on the ground a little ways away from them.
While he watched in confusion as his friend ran towards the volcano's edge, everyone else finally regained their senses from barely avoiding the terrifying attack.
"Pikapi?" the electric pokémon shook off debris from its fur and looked around in worry.
"S-Sorry! I couldn't stop him!" Trevor cried out, gaining their attention.
The younger trainer had been closest to Ash when they all took cover, but Clemont didn't understand why he was looking so guilty. That is, until he noticed three very familiar shrunken Poké Balls cupped on Trevor's trembling hands. Clemont's heart skipped a beat at the implication, and as he turned back to where Ash was supposed to be, his breath stopped all together at finding empty space.
It was like a light bulb had turned on inside both Pikachu's and Frogadier's heads and they jumped up with a cry of concern, sprinting to the edge of the volcano. This action shook Clemont out of his shock and he stood up, running after them.
"W-What's going on?!" Serena asked in clear confusion as Clemont rushed past her.
"Brother, wait up!"
With the rest of his team relatively safe, Ash found he could concentrate better in saving Talonflame. He was sliding down the steep rocky wall of the volcano he had just jumped into; with his eyes entirely focus on his falling pokémon. And as he reached a particularly big ledge, he flexed his legs and sprang forward as far as he could.
He extended his arms towards his pokémon and managed to catch her mid-air, readjusting his hold so he could raise the Poké Ball in front of her.
"Don't worry, Talonflame. I got you," he reassured her, smiling kindly.
The flying type only managed to send an incredulous look full of panic towards her trainer before the red beam of the Poké Ball hit her and made her vanish from view.
That done, Ash's frown in concentration while looking upwards towards the edge and threw the Poké Ball with all his might to its direction.
Back over safe ground, Serena stop on her track yelling in surprise as a lone Poké Ball fell into her hands. "W-What?"
As this was happening, both Frogadier and Pikachu had jumped over the edge themselves; already activating their moves in a desperate attempt to save their reckless trainer.
Trusting Frogadier's frubbles chain to hit the intended mark, Pikachu hold onto the frog-like Pokémon with all his might before trusting his ironized tail into the volcano's wall to work as an anchor. The chain of frubbles strained and Pikachu had to put an extra effort in his hold with the added weight, but they had done it. They had stopped Ash a couple of meters away from falling into the burning substance.
Moltres was left speechless. That human child had just jumped into the lava to save his Pokémon with no regards for his own safety. Moltres didn't know what impressed it more, the child's selfless act or the fact that he had succeeded. It flew idly for a few more seconds, watching as the Frogadier and the Pikachu cried out in effort, doing everything in their power to pull their trainer back to safety while putting themselves at risk; the rest of the human children crying out their names as they tried to reach them from the edge of the volcano's mouth with no avail.
There was a panic moment where the Pikachu's tail slid through the rock wall a few centimeters due to the obvious pressure on the already crushed structure. But they had yet to let go.
That's when Moltres thought it had seen enough and took a dive. As it got near, it took a glance towards the kid's drowsy face, — his reddish skin serving as proof of the heat already affecting him due to the lava's proximity. With no more time to waste Moltres aimed and dashed forward, grabbing its target with its claws and ascending at incredible speed.
The Frogadier and the Pikachu cried in astonishment below them, having being pulled off the wall as Moltres' ascending strained the chain towards the opposite direction. They were sent flying over the edge before falling on safe ground beside the rest of the kids.
The rushing wind was enough to snap Ash out of his drowsiness and he looked over his shoulder, stunted to find Moltres as his rescuer. Then without warning, the Legendary dived down again causing him to yell in surprise. Before he knew it, he was back on the ground surrounded by his friends; the dawning realization that he was actually still alive rendering him speechless as he concentrated in controlling his breathing.
"Pikapi!"
Soon enough, he was tackled by two worried pokémon at each side, shaking him out of his shock.
"Ash! Are you okay?!" Serena approached next; Talonflame's Poké Ball cupped safely in her hands.
"I- yeah," he couldn't help laughing in relief. "Sorry I got you all worried."
"You better be!" Serena reproached, stuck between laughing along and crying in relief. "Ugh! Don't you dare doing something like that ever again!"
As the others continued to admonish him for his reckless actions, Bonnie noticed Moltres turning back; its attention in a very familiar item that had started to descend back into the lava. Her quiet gasp made the Legendary glance at her for just a second before taking another dive in. With sudden understanding, Bonnie smiled and giggled at Moltres actions, deciding to get the group's attention as it started to fly back to them.
"Hey! Moltre's back!"
Ash looked up at Bonnie's statement only to have his vision obscured by the red fabric of his cap. That's when he finally noticed it had been missing until then. Pulling it up, he saw the Legendary bird hovering over them with an appraising expression. He didn't quite get it, but it seemed they had somehow managed to calm it down.
"Thanks, Moltres!" Ash said smiling broadly.
Receiving agreeing statements from the rest of the kids, Moltres nodded before taking off into the distance.