After the minute's break, Hope turned to his partner.

"Chelsey, are you ready?"

"Yes."

"Which way should we go?"

"Mt. Blaze." she answered, then added. "We must keep going. No dilly-dallying around here. They might come back."

"OK! Let's go! It sounds very rough, but let's try our best!"

Indeed it was. The place was crawling with Fire-types, Chelsey's weakness. She relied quite heavily on Hope to protect her while they ran through Mt Blaze, trying their hardest to avoid Slugma and Torkoal and Shuckle among others. At the 12th floor, they stopped. They were almost to the peak, but this too, would be difficult to reach. Left and right they were attacked by angry Fearow and Arcanine. But with some luck, they managed to get by without much of a skirmish. After two floors of this, they set foot on the peak.

"Is this it? Is this Mt. Blaze's summit?"

Hope looked around, seemingly overwhelmed.

"Wow. This is incredible. I know it's a volcano, but the lava flow is much higher than normal. This might also have a link to the natural calamities..."

The lava bubbled and came up in torrents, and the Pokemon began to sweat.

"Oogh! It's like a furnace! I'm getting roasted!"

The Torchic quickly turned to his Chikorita partner, who was probably feeling hotter than him.

"I don't want to spend any time in a place this dangerous. Let's get through this quick."

But as the two started to leave, a voice yelled from above.

"Halt!"

As the twosome turned to search for the voice's source, the sky went dark.

"Huh, What?! It suddenly turned dark!"

Above them, the voice continued.

"I can hear the mountain's screams... It is shrieking in pain... Someone is causing Mt. Blaze to writhe in agony! Is it you?!"

"Huh?! That's wrong! We're innocent! We were just passing though! Who are you, anyway? Show yourself!"

Hope got his wish. The sky became light again, there were several flashes, and more torrents of lava rose up.

"The mountain's rage is my rage!"

As more lava rose, the figure dropped down. The Pokemon looked like a large fire bird.

"I am Moltres! The warrior of fire am I! There is no forgiving those who befoul the mountain! En garde!"

The two already knew they had a battle on their hands, thus they instantly prepared. Chelsey moved first by throwing a Gravelrock. She followed up with PosionPowder when Moltres got closer. Several Blast Seeds and Reviver Seeds were also used. Moltres in turned countered with Agility, Fire Spin, and Wing Attack. Eventually, the battle was won by Chelsey's team, though judging by how exhausted they were, they probably came very close to losing. Moltres strained to get back up.

"Urggggh! I'm not done! I'm not finished yet!"

As the Fire bird forced itself back up, readying itself for another round, Hope panicked.

"Wait! Please listen! We're not here to cause any trouble. We were chased to this mountain... And you should know, this mountain isn't the only place that is suffering. Natural calamities are happening in all sorts of places. We can't do anything because we're fugitives now. But we want to help Pokemon in these times of natural disasters."

As Chelsey marvaled at her partner's way with words, Moltres listened.

"... Do you say that sincerely?" it asked finally.

"It's true! Please believe me! If you think I'm lying... Please, look at my eyes!"

Moltres stared into the bold Torchic's eyes, and Hope stared back, unblinking. Finally, Moltres, with a sheirk and spreading of wings, spoke again. But not before both Hope and Chelsey leapt in fear.

"Aiyiyiyi!"

"... Fine. I trust that you aren't lying."

It folded his wings again, and both its guests sweatdropped.

"Whew... My gosh... I thought my knees turned to jelly."

"You may pass." Moltres continued. "Get through Mt. Blaze. And... Promise me this. Promise me that you will find the cause of the calamities that wrack our world... And stop the disasters from sowing more destruction and suffering."

"OK. I promise... Of course, that's not possible right now, but..."

"Gyaaaaah!"

"Aiyiyi! We will! We will do it right away! We're being chased, so we can't get on it right away... But we're a rescue team. We'll get to the bottom of what's causing the natural calamities. I promise."

Moltres folded its wings once again, looking down on the two brave Pokemon.

"I will hold you to that promise. You've made me believe that you will honor that promise. If you do not forget... the courage you showed in facing me."

With another scream, it spread its wings again, scaring the twosome.

"Waaaah! Is... is there anything else?"

"No. I was only preparing to take off."

"Oh..." (Does it need to do that?")

"Farewell!"

With one last cry, it alighted into the sky and vanished from view.

"Whew... Ewwwwwww, that was scary! But it's really great that Moltres understood us. ANyway... We should get off Mt. Blaze, too."

They headed off, and about an hour and a half later, they stopped for another well-deserved rest. Hope sat down on the rocky, warm ground, panting.

"We walked a lot, didn't we? I'm tired. Let's get a little rest."

He got up only to walk to the edge of the ledge they currently stood upon.

"Mmm... The view's fantastic. Oh, look! Chelsey, look over there! See how small Mt. Blaze looks from here? We've come a really long way, haven't we?... Um, Chelsey? Wasn't it hard getting over Mt. Blaze? I doubt that many Pokemon will be able to get through it. And it wasn't easy coming this far after that mountain. Do you want to know what I think? Do you think, maybe, that no Pokemon will be able to get to us here?"

"No. There are others."

"Oh? There's someone else? Well, who do you mean?"

"Alakazam and his team. They aren't Gold Rank for nothing."

"... Oh, I get it. There's Alakazam. You're right. Alakazam's team should be able to get here."

He paused, glancing back at the erupting volcano, before turning back to his partner.

"Yup! We don't have a choice. We have to keep going. I think we need to go somewhere no one else can get to. Let's be positive and keep moving."

He started to walk off, but Chelsey remained where she was, watching him worriedly. Realizing that she wasn't following, Hope turned to her.

"Oh? What's wrong? Aren't we going, Chelsey?"

"Aren't you tired, Hope?"

"... Pardon? Am I tired? They're trying to catch us. We don't have time to rest. And... Remember what I said? I said I would go with you, Chelsey."

Still, she looked worried.

"...Oh, please don't look like that. Honest, I'm fine. Let's go, Chelsey! I'll always stick with you!"

As they started again, Chelsey smiled.

"You're the best friend I ever had."

And so, Chelsey's harrowing journey continued. Seeking refuge in even harsher places... They fled north. They crossed row upon row of mountains... Forded fetid swamps... Scaled frozen cliffs... Till finally, Chelsey's tiny team arrived in a world of snow... A frigid wasteland of driving blizzards.

They walked through the snow. Hope finally stopped with a shudder.

"...Brr... It's cold!"

He sneezed violently, causing his partner to turn her worried gaze upon him. He sniffed sadly.

"Yuck... My nose is running, and it's freezing."

They contined on, Chelsey throwing worried glances at him several times.

"... Isn't this one lonely place?" Hope asked finally. "See how deep the snow is. I haven't seen any other Pokemon for a while, either. Maybe we're all alone here."

"Don't bet on it." Chelsey answered, freezing beside him.

"Oh? What's the matter?"

Something stood before them, covered in white fur, but it was hard to see from the distance the two small Pokemon were at.

"Wh-what's that?!"

They couldn't find out, because whatever it was turned and fled. Hope looked confused.

"... What was that? It looked like a Pokemon, but... Did I imagine that? No, I don't think so. I'm sure there was somebody there. I wonder what they were doing in this lonely place? I guess thinking about it won't help us. We should keep moving."

To which they did for a while longer, until...

"Oh! Chelsey! Look! See that? Those trees are frozen!"

Indeed they were, and snow drifted gently to the ground from the sky.

"Wow! The snow is like frozen powder! It looks pretty, but... It must be harsh there..."

They headed towards the trees, where they stopped to plan.

"OK. We don't have a choice, we have to get through this place. It will be horribly cold. I'd rather no go if I didn't have to... But hiding out in this area isn't the answer either... We can only go foreward. We'll just have to keep our spirits up and keep going, Chelsey!"

But Chelsey took pause to check their supplies. Once she saw they had everything they could need, she turned to Hope.

"Chelsey, are you ready?"

"Yes."

"Which way should we go?"

"Frosty Forest."

OK! Let's go! It's going to be freezing cold, but let's try our best!"

And off they went.

To be continued...

Another chapter done. Bet you can guess who's gonna have to be fought next. Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Another one should be up soon.

Mini-Marianne