It was mid-afternoon by the time Marcia and Growlithe arrived at Mount Battle. Growlithe could feel the heat, even though Mount Battle was situated in an area of grassy plains instead of a desert. Ahead loomed a huge volcano. At it's summit, a structure could be seen, poking out of the crater. Set in the rock at the bottom of the volcano, in between two rocky outcroppings, was a building, small in comparison to the volcano, which was the entrance into the colosseum. In front of the building, a large crowd had gathered of many trainers, planning to take on Cipher.
As Marcia got closer, she heard the shouts of anger from the crowd. In front of them was a blockade of Cipher peons. One trainer ran towards the barrier in an attempt to get past, however he stopped quickly as one of the peons pulled out a gun and aimed it at him. "I wouldn't come any closer if I were you," the peon laughed, "you might just end up dead."
Marcia groaned. "There's no way we're getting through that alive," she said to Growlithe, "perhaps we should try climbing Mount Battle."
Growlithe was about to reply, stating that climbing Mount Battle would be foolhardy and had as much chance of death as charging at the peons, however, he was interrupted by a large uproar behind him. They turned to see a gathering of bald men in brown uniforms lead by a muscular man with a jagged moustache and a Skarmory on his shoulder. "Everybody make way for team Snagem!" the man said.
The crowd took one look at the newcomers, noticed that they were armed as heavily as the peons were and parted, looking slightly fearful. The Snagem grunts strolled up to the blockade, hands by their weapons. "Well, well, well," one peon, who was dressed in black instead of the typical white peon outfit (a sign of a higher rank), said, "if it isn't Gonzap and team 'sag-em'." The peon laughed. "Come to be annihilated by the might that is team Cipher?"
"Not at all," Gonzap retorted, "in fact, we will be the ones doing the annihilating." Both of them grabbed their pistols, but Gonzap was faster and managed to shoot before the peon even brought the gun all the way up. She collapsed in a heap, blood oozing from her skull.
There was a lot of confusion as Cipher and Snagem fired at each other. Some trainers in the crowd screamed with fear of being hit by shots while others just watched in horror as Cipher peons and Snagem grunts fell. Marcia saw an opportunity to get past the two raging factions. She looked down at the Growlithe and said something (which Growlithe could not hear over the noise) pointing at the side of the blockade, which had been abandoned since the Snagem grunts were at the center of the it. Marcia ran towards it. Growlithe sighed as he followed. He started to wonder if he would survive long enough to meet the pokemon he was meant to rendezvous with.
Inside the Mount Battle entrance, Marcia found herself in a large square room with a mostly white and pale pink colour scheme. At the opposite end of the hallway, the entry desk stood. It had a pair of large doors behind it, leading into the volcano. In front of the desk, a woman with a suit on knelt in front of an unconscious Abra. Marcia ran towards her shouting, "are you okay?"
The woman turned to her. "Don't come any closer," she warned, "he's in here somewhere." Marcia stopped running and started to look around, confused.
As if on cue, a Cipher peon in blue dropped down from the ceiling, landing right in front of Marcia, holding a sharp knife. "Hey baby," he said in an aroused voice, "perhaps you and I could have a bit of fun, if you know what I mean."
"Not if you were the last man alive," Marcia retorted with a disgusted look on her face.
The peon gave a creepy smile. "I wasn't asking for your permission." He moved the knife towards her. She stepped back a couple of paces. Growlithe, unsure quite what to make of all this, shot an ember towards the man's knife. He screeched in pain, as the knife heated up and recoiled his hand, dropping the knife. Marcia ducked down and picked it up. She pointed the knife towards the cursing peon.
The peon looked in surprise. He could see that Marcia now had the upper hand in combat, so he turned to a different strategy. "I doubt your pokemon could beat mine," he grunted. How about we have a pokemon battle? If you win, I'll let you past to get beaten by some other peon, but if I win, you will have to give in to my demands."
Growlithe looked at Marcia uneasily. She could quite easily just force the peon out of the way with the knife. Instead, she said; "Of course. Who am I to turn down a battle?" Growlithe face-palmed (or face-pawed).
"Then let's get started," the peon roared. "Graveler, you have a type advantage here, GO!" He sent out Graveler, a huge rock with arms and legs. It thumped it's arms against it's round body, causing a loud noise.
"I don't think that Graveler has much of a type advantage," Marcia said, pulling a pokeball from her belt. "Go, Lombre!" Lombre appeared in a flash of light, looking up at the much bigger pokemon.
"Graveler, crush that frog with a rollout!" the peon commanded. Graveler curled up into a ball and rolled straight towards Lombre. Lombre chuckled. He waited until the Graveler was right next to him, then he jumped up, landed on Graveler and jumped again. While in the air, Lombre twisted so he was facing Graveler and spat a water pulse at it.
Graveler felt the water sink through the cracks in it's rock shell. It pulled out it's arms and sunk them into the floor to stop itself. It shivered as the water trickled through it's body. It turned to see Lombre dashing towards it with a zen headbutt. It raised an arm and brought it down diagonally, sweeping Lombre into the air.
Lombre landed on his feet, getting carpet burn on them as he skidded to a halt. He then prepared a mega drain. His body started to glow with a green aura which reached out in an attempt to engulf Graveler. However, Graveler was not going to allow that. It grabbed two spiky rocks from it's back, pulled them off and tossed them at Lombre. The rocks regrew quickly on Graveler's back so that it could reuse them again.
Seeing the oncoming projectiles, Lombre chose to break his concentration. The green aura dissipated inches from Graveler, who gave a sigh of relief. Lombre jumped to avoid the rocks. When he landed, he grabbed the rocks and threw them back towards Graveler. They harmlessly bounced off the boulder's skin.
Lombre began to charge towards Graveler with another zen headbutt. This time, Graveler punched the ground creating an earthquake attack. A large crevice appeared in the floor where Graveler punched it. The crevice began to extend in length, moving, like a snake, at an alarming speed towards Lombre who narrowly avoided it by jumping. Graveler removed it's fist from the ground causing the crevice to stop increasing in size.
Graveler charged towards Lombre and shot it's arms out towards him. Lombre put his own arms out, grabbing hold of Graveler's arms. However, Graveler started pushing Lombre with all it's might. Lombre looked over his shoulder and gasped, seeing that the crevice was right behind him and that Graveler was pushing him into it. The crevice surrounded him on three sides, Graveler taking up the fourth. Lombre attempted to push back, but to no avail.
Lombre had one idea. Just as he was about to reach the edge, he let go of Graveler's arms and did a backflip over the crevice. The momentum carried Graveler straight into the it. It let out a roar as it plummeted. Lombre looked over into the crevice which suddenly sealed itself up leaving nothing more than the tear in the carpet as proof of it's existence.
Brushing his hands together, Lombre turned towards the peon with a cheeky grin on his face. The peon looked very angry. Suddenly, the floor started to shake. "What now?" Lombre asked. Then the floor beneath him opened up as Graveler burst out, looking very injured from being crushed. It grabbed Lombre with both it's arms.
The hole in the floor sealed itself, just as the crevice did, just as Graveler touched the floor. It looked at the Lombre and said in a gruff, but vaguely feminine voice, "You have forced me to take extreme measures." The Graveler started to shake very violently. Lombre looked around with alarm for some way of escape. He fired a water pulse at Graveler's face, but it did not react at all. The peon just stood laughing.
Graveler exploded. Lombre was propelled into the wall on the other side of the room. He collapsed on the floor. Marcia cried out, "Lombre!" and ran towards him. Lombre got up shakily, badly burnt and stumbled towards her. She returned him to the pokeball.
Meanwhile, the peon just looked at the husk of his Graveler, bits of rock missing in various places and said in a sinister tone, "You failed to knock him out. You sicken me." He returned Graveler.
Turning to Marcia, he said, "Okay, so you got lucky. Let's see how you do against my next pokemon. Mandibuzz! Fight!" A vulture like pokemon materialised in the air. It had mostly brown feathers with a cream ruff around it's neck. It's head and neck displayed naked, pink skin. On it's head, a tuft of feathers grew with a bone interwoven into it. Around it's lower body, a ring of spikes stuck out.
Marcia sent out her next pokemon, Bagon. "For once I'm not concerned if you seriously injure the opponent," Marcia said to the small dragon. "Use double edge!" Bagon charged towards the bird at great speed. She jumped into the air in an attempt to collide with it. Mandibuzz rolled out of the way and Bagon collided with a wall. Mandibuzz laughed.
But Bagon was not out by any stretch. She got up and shrugged off her collision with the wall as if she had just walked into a pillow. The Mandibuzz glared at Bagon. Then, she dived towards Bagon demonstrating her 'brave bird' attack. Bagon waited until Mandibuzz was about to hit her and jumped out of the way. Mandibuzz collided with the floor with such a force that she tore the carpet and found her head trapped under it.
Bagon seized this opportunity to attack the Mandibuzz. She jumped up onto her back and unleashed a wave of headbutts. Mandibuzz flinched with pain every time Bagon slammed her head into her, however, Bagon showed no signs of tiring. Mandibuzz shook her body violently causing Bagon to lose grip on her feathers and fall off.
Mandibuzz managed, with difficulty, to remove her head from the carpet. She beat her wings and flew up into the air. She laughed and looked down at the ground. "Oh poor little Bagon," she said with mock sympathy, "don't you wish you'd evolved so you could reach me. Instead, you're rooted to the ground like a little Bellsprout."
Bagon just stared at her and retorted, "I don't need to be able to fly to be able to hit you" (although in her head she did really want to be able to fly). She opened her small mouth as wide as possible. The inside of her mouth glowed with an orange light. Mandibuzz squawked as she saw what was about to happen, but she did not have time to move out of the way. The dragonbreath shot out from Bagon at an incredible speed. It engulfed Mandibuzz, burning her feathers.
As the dragonbreath receded, Mandibuzz fell to the ground. Burnt feathers fluttered around the room and Mandibuzz looked almost like a roast turkey, only with some feathers. Bagon gave a little cheeky smile to Marcia who, despite saying she did not mind the enemy pokemon getting badly injured, frowned. Bagon did not mind though since she was used to it. She turned back to Mandibuzz who groaned, "So I was beaten by a little runt. Well, I shall train to ensure that next time I will definitely be able to get my revenge."
"I look forward to it," Bagon chuckled "Hopefully by then, I'll be able fly so we can have a proper battle, where you don't get all the advantages." The two battlers returned their pokemon.
"Grr," the peon growled, "okay, so maybe you are more than just a bit lucky. However, my last pokemon will be capable of sweeping your entire team. I don't think you'll even be able to hit it." He sent out his final pokemon, Girafarig, a yellow and black giraffe like pokemon with a strange, ball shaped tail with a face on it.
Marcia looked at the Girafarig. To her, it didn't look that strong, however, she knew better than to underestimate foes. Particularly after her fail at Pyrite colosseum. "You seem awfully confident," she said, "Why would that be?"
"Oh," he replied, "you expect me to tell me before you've even chosen a pokemon. You're naive. Don't worry though, you'll find out soon enough."
"Well," Marcia said, "it was worth a try." She looked at Growlithe. "Growlithe, that thing is psychic, you have bite and Bagon is (probably) tired, so you're up." Growlithe stepped forward and looked up at the large giraffe. It's body must have been twice his height (not counting neck and head).
Growlithe charged towards Girafarig his fangs bared in preparation for a bite attack. The Girafarig sat there with it's eyes shut. If Growlithe had been able to see Girafarig's tail, he would have seen it's eyes glowing blue as it used agility. As Growlithe got closer, Girafarig dodged out of the way. Growlithe kept running towards the Girafarig only for the gap between them to grow.
The peon laughed, seeing that Girafarig was too fast for Growlithe to hit him. "Now, Girafarig," he commanded, "use bounce!" Girafarig stopped moving. Growlithe, seeing this, doubled his pace, baring his fangs. He jumped towards the second head, but before he could reach it, Girafarig bent his legs and jumped high into the air. Sadly, Growlithe's jump had brought him right above Girafarig, so he got smashed out of the way by him, landing on his back on the carpet.
Growlithe righted himself only to notice that the Girafarig was right above him, using his telekinesis to prevent himself from falling. Girafarig started to fall at great speed, straight towards Growlithe, whose mouth was agape. Growlithe barely managed to roll out of the way as the Girafarig collided with the ground, legs buckling.
Girafarig looked around with his two heads, attempting to find out where the Growlithe was. Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain in his second head. The first head turned around finding the Growlithe on his back, teeth clamped over his second head. Girafarig howled in pain, then regained composure. He attempted to use psychic to dislodge the Growlithe from his head, however, said head was required to use psychic moves and was currently suffering from a splitting headache.
Instead, the Girafarig shook itself violently, causing Growlithe to be flung into a wall. He recovered quickly and charged towards Girafarig, only to find himself unable to run...and floating into the air. Girafarig was levitating him with his mind, just as he had done to himself earlier. Realising that any attempt to directly attack him would be futile, Growlithe fired a heatwave towards Girafarig.
Girafarig, only capable of using his psychic powers on one thing at a time, aimed his psychic powers at the heatwave, consequently dropping Growlithe in the process. Growlithe used this oppertunity to charge at Girafarig with a take down. However, Girafarig was not going to let Growlithe hit him that easily. Using his psychic powers, he shot the heatwave straight towards the charging Growlithe. It hit directly and did...
Absolutely nothing due to Growlithe's ability, flash fire. As the ability took effect, Growlithe's body gave off the illusion that it was on fire. Growlithe was now charging significantly faster towards Girafarig who tried to dodge out of the way, but to no avail. The effects of his agility had worn off, making him slower than the fire-charged Growlithe who at that point collided, head first with him.
Girafarig cringed with pain. The peon, seeing that attacking was not doing well decided to switch up his strategy. "Girafarig," he called out, "use agility and run around until that Growlithe is too tired to fight!" Girafarig's second set of eyes started to glow and his body became a yellow and black blur as it sprinted around the room.
Growlithe knew that chasing him would be completely useless, so instead, he stood still and began firing heat waves in the hope that he would get a lucky shot. One well-aimed heat wave collided with the Girafarig as he ran past. However, Girafarig had raised a light screen which caused the heat wave to bounce off it and shoot up into the ceiling.
In an attempt to weaken the light screen, Growlithe continued firing heat waves at Girafarig. As Girafarig ran past his trainer, a heat wave rebounded off his backside...and straight into the peon's face. To say that the peon yelled out in agony would be an understatement. His mask melted and the small amount of his face that was exposed was burnt terribly.
The peon cursed and screamed as he ran out of the building, his face still on fire. The Girafarig briskly walked towards the door. He stopped beside Growlithe. "You should be ashamed of yourself for resorting to cheating like that," Girafarig said, blissfully unaware that it was his light screen that caused the heat wave to hit his trainer, "I shall get my revenge. When I do, you'll be praying to Arceus that I kill you."
"But...but...but-" Growlithe began, but Girafarig was not listening. Instead, he was running out of the door, to catch up with his master.
Gonzap was pleased with how the battle had gone. All of the cipher peons were dead or were being tied up since they surrendered. Snagem had suffered very few casualties and still had a powerful force, of which they would use to storm Mount Battle. He had planned to cut out the long walk up to the top of the volcano and just fly up to the colosseum in the crater, where the majority of the peons would, undoubtedly, be. He had asked all of his grunts to bring a flying type, but unsurprisingly, some had forgotten.
His grunts gathered around him, waiting for him to give them their next orders. "Now," he began, "we shall make our way up to the top of Mount Battle. Those of you with flying types and levitating pokemon, raise your hand." Just over half of the squad raised their hands. "Not including doduos and dodrios, since they can't fly (despite having the ability to learn fly)." A couple of grunts lowered their hands. "Okay then, those of you without flying pokemon, stay here, guard the prisoners and ensure no back-up arrives."
Those grunts groaned. "As for the rest of you," Gonzap continued, "we shall begin flying up as soon as..." He trailed off as he saw a Cipher peon running from the entrance building to Mount Battle, followed by a Girafarig. Something about his mask did not look right to Gonzap, but he did not think much of Cipher's fashion sense anyway. Gonzap did nothing, but stare at the peon as he ran out into the plains of Orre.
"Sir," one of the grunts said, "do you want us to go after him?"
Gonzap brought himself back to reality, briefly glancing back at the strange pair. "Huh. No. Don't bother. It'd only waste time." He turned his gaze towards the entrance building. "Hmm...Something is going on in there." He turned back to his grunts. "Wait here," he ordered, "I'm going to check on this. I'll call for you if I need any help. Gonzap ran towards the building, Skarmory flying beside him.
Inside the building, Gonzap found a smartly dressed woman, a younger woman and a Growlithe looking down at an unconscious Abra. The younger woman was holding an empty potion bottle and said, "I'm sorry I can't help you, but I'm completely out of potions. Not a drop left."
The other woman turned to her and said, "It's not your fault. If only those Cipher grunts hadn't smashed up the healing machine." She pointed towards a ruined machine behind a desk where a nurse would normally be.
Feeling generous (and suspecting that one of these people chased off the peon therefore, making them allies), Gonzap pulled a selection of various herbs out of his pocket. He used herbs because they are much cheaper than modern medicine. He walked up to the group. The two looked up at him. The younger woman seemed to be looking at him as if she was trying to recall his name. "Here," he said, "this should help." He drop a large looking leaf into the Abra's mouth.
The Abra's body shook and it shot up suddenly, violently puking up. The Abra turned towards Gonzap and scowled (keeping it's eyes closed). Gonzap apologised. "Well, that's the downside of herbs; they're incredibly bitter."
The well dressed woman smiled at him. "Thank you," she said, "you don't know how much you've helped us."
"Well," Gonzap replied, "I was just trying to help anyone who is against Cipher." He turned towards the younger woman. "Your Growlithe looks tired. Why don't you give him an energy root?" He held out a small root towards her.
She graciously accepted it and gave it to Growlithe. Growlithe found the root very bitter and understood why Abra had thrown up. "Sorry to trouble you," the woman said, "but could you spare a couple more? I have two other injured pokemon."
"Why of course," Gonzap replied handing two more energy roots to her, "I have plenty."
"Thank you very much," she said, sending out Lombre, who looked like he could collapse at any moment, and Bagon, who had no more than a couple of bruises and scratches. She handed the two roots to the pokemon. Lombre chewed the root into tiny pieces and then had to force it down his throat to ensure he ate it. On the other hand, Bagon, pretty much, swallowed it whole. She licked her lips.
"Gonzap!" Marcia suddenly exclaimed, "the head of team Snagem. Sorry," she said as she saw the incredulous looks everyone was giving her, "I just remembered where I recognised you from. I'm Marcia, a news reporter for ONBS."
"Ah," Gonzap said thoughtfully, "that explains where you got your knowledge of me from. I assume you're here to report what is going on."
"Do you see any camera equipment?" Marcia asked rhetorically, "I actually decided that I would attempt to take on Cipher."
"That's a hefty goal for one to do by themselves," Gonzap commented, "however, you and I have a common goal. Also, I have my entire team here and they really want to get back at Cipher for what they did to us five years ago."
"What they did to you five years ago?" Marcia questioned. "Shouldn't you be more angry at that guy who blew up your base?"
"Meh," Gonzap replied, "we settled our differences a long time ago..." He stood for a few seconds, staring at the floor, saying nothing. "But anyway, we were going to fly up to the top of Mount Battle. Will you be joining us?"
"Nah," Marcia said, "I'm gonna use Abra to teleport to the top."
The other woman turned to her. "Just so you know," she said, "Abra can only carry one at a time. And since the trip is all the way to the top of Mount Battle, once she gets back, she'll need to sleep for about eighteen hours before the next trip. So you'll have to return your pokemon to their balls."
Marcia stared at her. "Seriously. How do you run Mount Battle?"
"Well," she explained, "we normally have a whole load of Abras, but Cipher 'pokenapped' most of them.
"That's unsurprising," Marcia said, rolling her eyes, "sadly, I don't have a ball for Growlithe."
At that moment, Gonzap returned to the conversation. "If you have a flying type, He could fly up with us."
"It's a good thing I have Tropius then," Marcia said, sending Tropius out. She looked around, attempted to stretch her neck and ended up hitting it on the ceiling. Marcia turned to Growlithe. "You can fly up on Tropius."
Upon hearing this, Bagon-who was nibbling at the carpet-ran over to Marcia and jumped up and down. "Did somebody say fly!" she said mentally to Marcia. "Can I go? I've always wanted to fly!"
"No," Marcia said flatly, "I need as much defence as I can get if I'm going to fight Cipher."
"Aww," Bagon moaned. She changed her expression to give herself puppy-dog eyes. "Pleasepleasepleaseplease-" She continued repeating this.
"Okay fine," Marcia said, caving in, "but you'd better get to the top as quick as you can or I swear I'll-" She stopped herself quickly.
"We'll be fine," Bagon reassured her, "just leave some peons for us to beat up." Tropius did not look as confident. Growlithe did not feel confident either.
Behind Gonzap, Growlithe, Bagon and Tropius walked towards the door as Marcia returned Lombre to his pokeball. As they reached the door, They turned around to see Marcia place her hand on Abra's shoulder, then, without any noise or flashes of light, they were gone.
An Altaria flew towards Mount Battle. She was meant to be going to Agate village, however, when she heard, in a town she had briefly stopped in, that Cipher was attacking Mount Battle, she knew where her priorities lay.
"'She' would not mind," she thought as she was flying. If she did not try to stop Cipher, they could utilise the volcano to gain full control of Orre. She knew exactly what they could do with a volcano. "I have to stop them. 'She' knows that it is what is most important."
But she still had a long way to go. She could only hope that she would get there in time...