If only I could write battles like this back in Something to this Day.


Chapter 9: Intarsia

"Heatran." Dawn murmured.

She drew closer to the magma pillar, carefully easing out of potential spills at every step. She lightly grabbed her pokemon bells. Usually, even if Heatran was a legendary pokemon, her empoleon should be able to make short work of it. However, due to the large amount of effort it had made trying to calm down the fire, that battle would now be ill-fitted. It would take everything Pipi had left to just bust open a clearing within that intense swirling tornado. With that in mind, neither Azelf nor her togekiss would be a fair match for the flaming steel beast. Even then, she had very little choice in the matter. She knew very well that Heatran was controlled by whoever in possession of the Magma Stone, and that person cannot be far, and cannot be within that column of flames either. Her plan was to find whoever it was and bring the fight directly to him.

Pipi was released once again. The metal penguin was already barely holding itself up, almost entirely exhausted from its water expense. Dawn rubbed its belly, and kissed it as a sign of encouragement. Focusing, the pokemon unleash the last gush of dowsing liquid it could muster, drenching an entire line straight from where they were towards the lake. It was the only path Dawn could take, and so she did. Discarding her backpack and recalling her pokemon, she ran straight towards the body of water, and jumped straight in. As she guessed, not a few moments after she was beginning to swim down did rays of fire followed and engulfed where she just was. If she had stayed on land it would have been disastrous. The good news was, she knew whoever was watching had to be standing from an angle where he could see her previous position, which practically limited his position to be somewhere on the upper west level of the square, perhaps somewhere close to the entrance of one of her ruins.

Emerging from the water after a period of concealment, Dawn released Toto to carry her into the air. With the burning atmosphere surrounding the city, it was impossible for them to leave, but hovering four metres atop the ground was enough to give manoeuvrability over the constant scorching attacks. The pokemon flew straight toward the array of hardened dirt mounds on the elevated grounds north of the square, curiously untouched. Dawn decided that it was about time to take the offensive. Releasing Azelf, she ordered it to unleash an array of psychic attacks. Dawn had yet to discover who this villainous force was, but she had a rather good idea. These battle would hopefully confirm her suspicion, depending on how these attacks turned out. The purple waves assaulted the mounds high and low, but no visible reactions could be seen.

Presently, the earth moved. It was not a tremor than ran through the earth, but the ground itself, at least those beneath the amity square ruins, physically lifted itself up. In a slow and bothered manner, a form of a gigantic golem could be observed rising up from the mud, crushing everything in its wake. The beast's colossal size almost eclipsed the fire ring itself, standing immensely tall over even Dawn and her flying togekiss. Its ancient, foliage grown body covering shrugged themselves on their way up, dislodging a great amount of broken trees and rocks. The pokemon stretched itself, body with six eye-like gems vertically aligned, staring blankly. Momentarily, these began to flash red. Dawn hurriedly recalled Azelf, but a moment too late. The giant, with its wrists gripped in golden bands, unleashed a massive blow at the fairy pokemon, which was less a tenth the size of that huge fist alone. Azelf was completely recalled before the being smashed into the ground, but Dawn could see it suffered great injury.

The giant was then slackened greatly, struggling to keep up, and telepathed its next attacks obviously. Dawn used this halt to skilfully dodge out of the way, but the monster was not letting up. Curiously enough, though it was in direct contact with the flames from the magma storm, it appeared unharmed, even completely unaffected by the heat. Dawn knew she could not fight against a monster of this size, but it appeared to be fairly cumbersome in its movement. If she could somehow stop the outer rim of the city from burning, help from outside could arrive and aid the situation. Knowing that, she order Toto to dash off back to Hearthome's inner city. This did not escape the notice of the giant, however, as the pokemon began charging a white beam from the sloping section in its chest. Dawn was not prepare for the size of that ray, and was almost hit by its area of effect. Though she managed to escape damage, the sheer pressure force knocked her and Toto off. They only few from a two metre height, but the velocity made it a lot more brutal.

"Dawn!" Hearthome's gym leader, Fantina, was running toward the teenage girl as she fell, with the entire posse right behind. It was a sight to see the woman in anything but contest clothes and ridiculous hair bundles, but that was the least of Dawn's worries. She was barely standing up, and Toto was no longer in any position to fight. "Are you alright? Do you know what's going on, who's causing this fire?"

"A moment." Dawn gasped for air as she fell into the arms of the moment, unable to stand up straight otherwise. Almost her entire team was wiped out, and with the looks of things no one else in this city at this hour could possibly do anything either. "There's a Heatran in there. It's what covering the city in fire."

"How does it get here?" Fantina was looking ready to battle. At this point, it's hard to think anyone would be able to go up against that giant, which only Dawn knew of, and the Heatran at the same time. The girl had a plan, but she needed help. "Are you alright?"

"Never mind me, tell someone to-." She had to take a pause to groan in pain. "Get me a washing appliance of some kind."

"Why?"

"No time, just do it." Fantina obliged, and gave the order. Soon enough, an entire fire truck arrived at their location. However, it was naturally already out of water. Everyone was waiting for her to continue. "I need someone to drive that truck straight to the amity square lake."

That shocked everyone. They looked about, the dozens of them, waiting for each other to volunteer. Even Fantina did not speak, out of cowardice or shock Dawn did not know. The only thing she knew for sure was that there was no way she could do this by herself.

"You people!" Attention quickly diverted toward that booming voice. Bebe, in her blonde, sleeveless glory, was already inside the truck. "Dawn, come on!" Dawn, smiling, was helped over and inside the truck.

"Don't follow us." She said. It wasn't out of spite, but of serious consideration.

The car's engine primed, and the two started accelerating towards the burning square. Crushing the broken gate beneath the rolling wheels, Bebe turned to the girl.

"I hope you know what you're doing."

"I don't, but it's always nice to have someone going down with me."

They both smiled at each other, ear-to-ear. The Heatran concentrated its attack towards the vehicle, catching it on fire. Regardless, they pressed on at absurdly high speed. From the distance, the giant pokemon from before was priming another beam attack.

"Your plan?" Bebe bellowed, one hand shielding herself from the heat.

"Jump out when we're underwater."

With a big splash, the two tonne vehicle was completely submerged. Dawn, with the help of the athletic Bebe, was barely able to escape the wreckage before it dragged her down. Once both of them were on land, she had her chance. From the belt, she took out the pokeball Christopher had handed her. Pressing the button in the middle, her rotom was released. In its primal form, it looked like a small bolt of electricity, orange at its cores, and eyes wildly turning.

"Go, Rotti!" The pokemon zapped into pure energy, before diving straight down to the lake. Under the clear water, they could see it fusing itself with the fire truck, taking over its structural compartments. With a metallic roar, the rotom, now completely integrated into the vehicle, burst from the banks, filled to the brim with water. "Hydro Pump!"

The fire truck's hose, now outfitted as a giant water cannon, let loose a ten metre wide cone of water straight at the burning storm housing the Heatran. The steel fire pokemon writhed in pain, as its molten spots and tornado got snuffed out. It fell to the ground, immobile. The water pillar was so high and powerful it covered almost the entire west gate, extinguishing all hindrance of movement between the inner city and the outer square. The giant, however, was no affected. It had finished priming, and steered another giant beam of light toward the two. They braced for impact, but did not expect to be untouched after it all. Opening their eyes, Fantina was now standing right beside them, using her entire array of ghost pokemon as an ethereal to sponge that beam right off. From the distance, a loud clicking noise could be heard. Promptly, both Heatran and the giant pokemon was recalled, signifying the perpetrator's escape attempt.

"Don't let him get away." Dawn breathed harshly, and passed out.