If this chapter isn't longer than Chp. 16, it's pretty dang close.

Disclaimer: Pokemon belongs to Satoshi Taijiri and Game Freak. The main character is my OC.
_

First of all, Blaziken had decided that he would take half of his and Glaceon's faction to take North Mt. Chimney. Glaceon, obviously, wasn't going to have any of that.

"Blaziken, you can't leave me alone!" Glaceon called.

"Don't think of it as leaving you; I'm being strategic." Blaziken began. "Swellow already has the South side; that leaves the North side and the East side. If I know Pikachu, he and Frosslass will try to go straight for Groudon." I didn't know whether or not I should feel offended by that comment.

"Yeah? So?"

"So, if you're going to take the East side, then that leaves the North side completely open. We cannot leave any side of the mountain free for Groudon to control." Blaziken continued, with Glaceon seeming like she was finally getting the point. "Traditionally, the North side of anything is the more dangerous side; it has been established that I'm the stronger of the two of us, so I'm going to take the North side, while you take the East."

After a brief minute of mild glaring and awkward silence, Glaceon pulled Blaziken in for a surprise kiss, and I swear I could see small bits of steam emitting from the couple. This continued for three minutes before the two broke apart.

"Promise me you'll come back to me safely." Glaceon begged. Blaziken smiled at her, then kissed her on the forehead.

"I love you too much to die on you." With that, Blaziken and his half of their faction left for North Mt. Chimney.
_

Soon, the scene shifted briefly to a shot of Swellow dive-bombing several Cacturn, with Marshtomp taking down the Camerupt and Metang with ease. Eventually, however, their main enemy arrived, and I could see the sheer hatred in Swellow's eyes when Gallade came into his view.

"OH, GOODY! AN OLD FRIEND HAS COME TO PLAY!" Gallade screamed in excitement. Almost immediately, Swellow tried to dive-bomb Gallade, but Gallade struck Swellow with an extremely powerful Psycho Cut.

Marshtomp wanted to contribute to this fight, so he tried to disorient Gallade with Muddy Water, which although obviously blinded Gallade, only proved to make the situation even worse.

"I MAY NOT BE ABLE TO SEE YOU, BUT YOU FORGET I HAVE PSYCHIC POWERS!" Unfortunately, this is what made Gallade dangerous; he quite obviously does not have the most stable of minds, and he's also a Psychic-Type. This enough is terrifying, but the fact that Gallade is visibly insane, but knows exactly what he's doing is scary on a whole other level.

Marshtomp ignored Gallade's threat—ultimately this was not the smart thing for him to do—and attacked Gallade again with Muddy Water. Gallade stopped Marshtomp in his tracks with Psychic, then pummeled him with Close Combat. As if he hadn't caused enough harm already, Gallade continued to pound Marshtomp into the ground with Close Combat. When Gallade finally stopped, Marshtomp was unconscious, and I feared the worst.

"Let this be a lesson to those who oppose General Groudon!" Gallade shouted, admittedly quieter than his normal hysterical screaming.
_

The scene shifted again to show Blaziken's faction arriving on the North side of the mountain; that took a lot quicker than I thought it would. Strangely enough, they met no opposition, which Blaziken obviously took as a sign that something was very wrong.

"Alright!" Blaziken shouted at nothing. "I know you have someone waiting for us, Groudon! A gifted tactician like you would never let the North side of Mt. Chimney unoccupied!"

Of course, as soon as he said this, his opponent had finally revealed itself.

"You are supposed to be Rayquaza's last line of defense?" Metagross asked. "I will admit, I'm disappointed."

"Of all of Groudon's brutes he could've used against me, he had to send in the least intelligent of the bunch," Blaziken retorted, angering Metagross. "I must admit, I'm disappointed."

Metagross, in its rage, charged at Blaziken with Bullet Punch, but Blaziken easily dodged out of the way, and Blaze-Kicked Metagross in its side. Surprisingly enough, this was pretty much all it took to bring Metagross down; talk about anticlimactic.

"This was a lot easier than I thought it'd be." Blaziken commented. As if on cue, just before he could place his flag, Blaziken was kicked in the head by one of Metagross's legs. Blaziken turned around to see that Metagross was still not quite dead.

Metagross leaped surprisingly high into the air, clung to the side of the volcano, and then attempted to body slam Blaziken. The fighting chicken dodged it, but was still pummeled by Metagross's Bullet Punch. Was I worried, not really; Blaziken was obviously much tougher than most other Pokemon I've ever met.

"Why won't you just die?" Metagross exclaimed in frustration.

"You could say that I've got a date." Blaziken said, just before the fighting chicken Blaze-Kicked Metagross again. This time, the force of the kick was so great that Metagross actually tipped over on its back.

As Metagross attempted to get back on its feet again, Blaziken took this as an opportunity to finish his opponent off for good. Blaziken gathered all of his energy, and ultimately breathed a practical eruption onto the metal spider. The Flamethrower definitely did its job; Metagross's pink eyes faded into black, and whatever magnetic force keeping its body together died completely. Blaziken placed his flag on the very spot where he watched Metagross die, and declared the North side taken.
_

Glaceon and the rest of her faction continued to the East side of the mountain. Like Blaziken, they were strangely met with little opposition; with the little exception of Groudon's final and most powerful colonel.

"So, the little lady has decided to take on Groudon's most trusted subordinate," Scizor began to gloat. "Personally, I would've preferred if the Blaziken had come to challenge me; at least our battle would've been more honorable." That last comment was what enraged Glaceon.

"What do you mean my 'more honorable'?" Glaceon asked bitterly. "Are you saying that you're 'dishonored' by fighting a female?" Glaceon's faction apparently caught on to the situation and backed away slowly upon their realization.

"No, little lady, I am saying that a mere Ice-Type stands no chance against me. It has nothing to do with your gender." The more Scizor spoke, the more he seemed to realize that he was offending Glaceon more and more. Soon, he decide to try to end her quickly with Bullet Punch.

Glaceon dodged the attack, and retaliated with Tackle; the move was weak, the attack was ineffective, and apparently Scizor was starting to think that he couldn't be beaten this time. Scizor attacked with Metal Claw, which grazed Glaceon's crystal ears. Glaceon attacked furiously with Ice Shard, which Scizor dodged most of them; one small sliver managed to barely scratch Scizor's exoskeleton.

"You must do better than this if you plan on defeating me!" Scizor said as he struck Glaceon's side with X-Scizor.
_

Gallade continued to massacre Swellow and Marshtomp's faction without a single shred of remorse. Quickly, Swellow and Marshtomp realized that they were severely overpowered. Then, Swellow's face lit up like he had an idea.

"Marshtomp, I'll distract Gallade, while you try to use your Ground powers to use the surrounding terrain against him." Swellow suggested.

Marshtomp looked at Swellow with worry in his eyes. "But, what would happen to you?" Marshtomp asked. Swellow's silence gave him a grim answer. "No! I won't let you get yourself killed just to stop him!"

"Marshtomp, you must understand: I am an old bird, I lack much power, and my time may very well be upon me, whether I survive this battle or not. At least by sacrificing myself to destroy this monster I will die honorably," Swellow said, nearly reducing Marshtomp and even myself to tears. "Besides, Gallade must pay for murdering my brethren."

Eventually, Marshtomp complied, and took off to hide behind a nearby spire. Swellow slowly got to his talons before weakly flying toward Gallade, noticeably slower than normal. Swellow flew as fast as he possibly could, and crashed head first into Gallade, knocking him straight into the side of the mountain.

Gallade got to his feet, and dashed toward Swellow at blinding speed, striking him again with Psycho Cut, brutally injuring the old bird.

"Perhaps I didn't make it clear before; I! DON'T! TOLERATE! OPPOSITION!" Gallade said as he extended his arm blades, and ran Swellow through directly into the mountain.

Marshtomp watched all of this in horror. Eventually, it looked like he found his courage and decided to conjure up his own personal tidal wave; once he decided to release the tidal wave, Gallade's remaining army was completely washed away to sea.

"DO YOU THINK YOU CAN BEAT ME WITH JUST A LITTLE WATER?" Gallade asked loudly. Marshtomp looked at Gallade with a completely deadpan, emotionless look; I, however, saw anger and contempt behind those lifeless eyes.

"You have killed at lot of Pokemon, and ruined a lot of others' lives," Marshtomp muttered through his "teeth". "I may be in the middle of my evolutionary line, and I may not be as powerful as Pikachu or Blaziken, but I swear to Arceus I WILL DEFEAT YOU!" With that, Marshtomp Tackled Gallade; it wasn't powerful, but Gallade apparently thought it was enough to grasp his gut.

Gallade sped toward Marshtomp, but the normally slow axolotl dodged out of the way, causing Gallade to crash into a rock spire. Marshtomp tried blinding Gallade with Muddy Water again, which just infuriated Gallade even more. Gallade swiped at the air furiously, while Marshtomp took this opportunity to use his own body mass to cause a miniature Earthquake, creating a large crevice which very nearly engulfed the mentally unstable warrior.

"You are about as predictable as they get, my amphibious friend!" Gallade said with a psychotic smile.

At that point however, Marshtomp darted over to Gallade, taking one great leap into the air, and then delivered the final blow: out of nowhere, he pulled back his fist, and slammed an absurdly powerful Mega Punch into Gallade's face, knocking him into the giant crevice, and watched as the mentally unstable warrior fell to his inevitable demise.

Marshtomp, however, paid more attention to his fallen comrade. The axolotl rushed to Swellow's side, but was extremely saddened to find Swellow on his last few breaths.

"Marshtomp…you did well…" Swellow said, coughing violently.

"Swellow, save your energy. I need to get you help." Marshtomp said, but deep down I knew that he knew it was hopeless for his fallen friend.

As if reading Marshtomp's mind, Swellow weakly shook his head. "I told you before…I'm an old bird…I only wanted to avenge my fallen Warriors of the Sky…" Swellow coughed again. "I…failed…But you, you have proven yourself…a true warrior…"

Marshtomp's eyes began to tear up. "I'm no warrior. I can barely even defend myself without someone getting hurt." Almost immediately, I thought I was looking into a mirror when I watched Marshtomp.

"No…you are a warrior…Only a warrior could've defeated Gallade…" Swellow said as he let out another cough. I could tell he only had a minute or two left. "Now that we have been avenged…I may now join my fellow Warriors…in the afterlife."

At this point, Marshtomp was in tears. "If you see Glalie up there, tell him that his wife still fights for him."

If birds could smile, Swellow probably was at that moment. "I'm sure…he'd be happy to hear that…Goodbye…Marshtomp." With one last cough, Swellow's corpse laid limp in Marshtomp's arms.
_

Both Glaceon and Scizor seemed out of it. Glaceon was covered in scratches, and Scizor's exoskeleton had been apparently breached several times.

"Ya know, I hear that an insect losing its exoskeleton is rather agonizing," Glaceon said, panting slightly. "I can only imagine the kind of pain you're going through now."

Scizor stood there in silence for a good thirty seconds. "How kind of you for your concern," Scizor finally said. "But you seem to forget: I am no ordinary insect." Scizor said that last word with a fair amount of contempt.

Scizor once again attempted to strike Glaceon with Metal Claw, but Glaceon dodged the attack, and I began to notice that Scizor was nowhere near as fast as I last saw him; it was at this point that I began to wonder what got him slowing down so much.

Then I remembered the sliver that scratched Scizor earlier. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that Scizor wasn't just scratched: his exoskeleton was actually breached, and Scizor may have actually been wounded in the process.

Scizor turned around and attacked with Metal Claw yet again, but once again, Glaceon avoided the attack; in return, Glaceon shot an Ice Beam at the weak points in Scizor's exoskeleton. This cycle continued for another thirty minutes, until it got to the point where Scizor apparently couldn't move anymore.

"What?" Scizor asked in disbelief. "Why is it that I can't move?"

Glaceon gazed at Scizor with pity in her eyes. "It's because you were too focused on facing your supposed 'worthy opponent' that you neglected your own weaknesses," Glaceon explained. "In fact, I bet you didn't even care about any weakness you might have; you were more concerned with destruction."

Scizor, despite his exoskeleton being severely damaged and being unable to move, still managed to give Glaceon a glare as deadly as Toxic.

"You…you…" Scizor never finished, because once a gust full of volcanic ash picked up, Scizor fell flat on his back, paralyzed and extremely vulnerable.

Glaceon slowly walked over to her fallen opponent, and pitied him. "You disappointed me, Scizor. You could easily beat my best friends, my boyfriend, and countless others; how could you lose to the weakest of my group."

Scizor lay there in silence, until finally he said something. "Glaceon, I never truly joined Deoxys and Groudon for evil purposes. I joined them in hopes of finding someone who could defeat me." Scizor explained. "Though, in hindsight, I probably could've found a more noble way of doing so.

"The point being, it took me this long, but I have finally found the one who would defeat me in battle, albeit in a most unconventional individual."

Glaceon processed all of this, and ultimately decided to simply walk away, leaving Scizor at the base of a volcano and unable to move. Before she got too far, she stopped. "Scizor," she said. "I'm glad I could be you're rival in the end." And with that, Glaceon began to ascend the mountain.
_

"Pikachu?" Frosslass asked, breaking me from my trance. "I assume we go for Groudon now?"

After a few minutes of fatigue, I finally came to my senses, and gave her my answer. "Y-yeah." I began, quickly regaining my serious composure. "We're ending this today."

With that, all four sides of the mountain had been taken, and all five of our groups began our trek to the summit of Mt. Chimney, where General Groudon himself waited for us.
_

The final approaches.

Remember to review, and I'll see you guys later.