Pokémon: Agent of Entei

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Pokémon is not mine, don't sue

I bathed in the heat for a moment and suddenly all my worries seemed silly. I entered the cave system. Fiery path was a long, mostly straight path, and it lived up to its name. The rocks around me glowed with heat, and I could hear my shoe's hissing as the heat fought my fire resistance to melt my soles. I could not tell if this was one of the ores being mined or if the rocks were truly that hot, but the walls themselves gave off enough light to see by. The air reminded me of a blast furnace. The floors occasionally caught fire and extinguished themselves, as there was nothing to burn.

"It's not supposed to be this hot. The tunneling must have caused this. Your resistance will hold, but I want you to put the dex on sleep mode to keep it cool. Use it only if you have need of it." Entei told me through the dex. I nodded and changed the setting in my dex to turn it off before putting the Dex back in my pocket. I travelled along the path slowly. I didn't want to be caught by the Syndicate, as Uxie had neglected to mention what might happen if I was. I made sure to poke a mirror around every corner and observe for a good long while as I hid behind rocks. Despite the fact he path was mostly straight, large boulders had fallen from the ceiling due to the mining and cover was plentiful. I refused to be ambushed.

The tunnel only got hotter the farther I went in. About halfway through Fiery Path I came across an elevator door. I knew calling the elevator was a bad idea, but I had no idea as to what else I could do to follow the Man and his guards. I pried open the elevator doors and looked into the shaft. Cables for the elevator stretched from the bottom upwards in the dark shaft. No light permeated from the darkness above. I could just barely make out a crude ladder of staples sticking out of the wall. I could climb that if I could find no better solution. As I was staring up the shaft I felt something brush up against my leg.

I leapt forward into the shaft and spun. I landed and dropped my hands to my pokeballs before I realized it was unnecessary. I took out my Dex and examined the Pokémon. "Torkoal. The coal furnace Pokémon. Torkoal can live to be thousands of years old. Torkoal is an internal fire type Pokémon, but has holes in its shell where the internal fire is fed air, giving it its furnace label. Torkoal can store coal in its body as food and fuel, and are extremely efficient in its use, able to live ten years off of just coal dust. If attacked Torkoal will use black smoke or white smoke to escape instead of fight. This Torkoals ability is Shell Armor, preventing critical hits. This Torkoal is…. That can't be right. This Torkoal is confirmed as wild. Ah, It would seem this Torkoal outlived its previous owner. This Torkoal is level Forty-Five, and it at least five hundred years old. It seems to be named Bruce. I do not think you have the power to capture this Pokémon, but perhaps you can ask it to help you?" Dex explained.

Bruce stood in the entrance to the elevator, peering in at me curiously. "Uh… hey?" I asked Bruce. He nodded slowly and blew a little smoke out of his back. I climbed out of the shaft to look at him better. Perhaps it was only because of his high level, but he did not appear afraid of me, slowly turning his body to try and keep me in sight as I walked around him. He was only about a four feet tall at the top of his shell, his neck a little higher than that. He was as wide as manhole grate though, and must've weighed two hundred pounds. He seemed healthy and his shell was in good shape instead of scarred and ragged. And to top it off he was level 45, and knew moves his previous owner must've taught him. Bruce squinted at me through his heavily armored eyes, trying to examine me as well.

"What are you doing here Bruce?" "Tor." He told me and I studied him for hints. On a whim I glanced into his furnace body and saw he was well packed with coal. Torkoal blew a little smoke at me, so I backed off. It would seem he had recently restocked on coal in his body, as he was packed to the brim. Surely as efficient as his body was, he did not actually need that much coal unless he wanted to hibernate for five thousand years. If he gained energy from burning coal, what could he possibly need all that energy for?

The elevator doors snapped shut suddenly and let off a pleasant "ding!" before sliding open again. I recoiled in shock and so did the six Syndicate goons in the elevator before we both dived for our pokeballs. I was outmatched here. Each trainer had six Pokémon on their belts, and as they were all trainers themselves before becoming muscles for hire they were sure to have diverse Pokémon spreads instead of specialized types like Champions did. I had ten Pokémon, and four of them were a little young to be battling in a brawl, and since I didn't actually have Jackal with me, I really only had four Pokémon at my disposal.

And then Bruce rammed into the six trainers with a high speed Body Slam, propelled off the ground by launching a Flame Thrower out of his tail hole. He bowled the six trainers over and left a sizeable dent in the back of the elevator. The six now unconscious trainers groaned and cried in pain on the floor, burned and crushed. I stared in shock. This was the power of a Pokémon near level fifty? Bruce slid his two fore legs out of his shell and popped himself out of the wall before falling onto the bottom of the lift. He then got himself up and gave me a look that clearly said, 'you comin' or what?'

I got in the lift. The six trainers groaned on the ground and I collected their wallets and spare pokeballs. Then I took all of their Pokémon off of them and sent them to my PC through my Experimental tech, using the numbers on their trainer cards to give me the permission to house them. When everything was said and done I'd give all the taken Pokémon to Flannery the gym leader and make them her problem. Then I gave each grunt a light spraying of potion. The whole time Bruce watched me in interest. "So, you gathered all that coal up for the purpose of war?" I asked Bruce. "Tor," Bruce told me again as he expelled smoke cheerfully.

A five minute long lift ride ended with a pleasant 'Ding!' and two grunts standing before the elevator. Both were very surprised when Bruce hit them with his flying Body Slam attack. They were both thrown several feet and did not get up. "I'm only letting you do this because you're wild and thus not getting me in any trouble." I told Bruce and he shot smoke at me before trudging off down the hall slowly. I stole the two grunts wallets, cards, and Pokémon and went after Bruce. The elevator had arrived in a sky bridge that over looked a lake of lava. The glass and metal walls of the bridge were scorched and covered in ash, as if they had held up against several geysers of magma. The door on the opposite side of the hallway was metal and a camera above the door faced our direction. There was no way to conceal our presence from the camera, not that Bruce tried anyways. I followed behind him slowly, not sure if I really should even be trying to help Bruce. Bruce totally ignored the camera, likely not knowing what it was anyway. I gazed at it for a couple seconds before running up the wall and ripping it down. Bruce didn't even bother looking behind him as I dropped the broken shell of the camera down below the sky bridge onto the glass.

Bruce didn't bother attempting to open the door, or even asking me to do it for him with my opposable thumbs. Instead he just flying Body Slam'd it down and it flew into the opposite wall. Eight Syndicate grunts stood before us in a line, their mixed crews of Pokémon out. It was to my great relief I spotted only two water Pokémon, a Wingull and a Krabby. Each grunt must've had only three Pokémon if there were eight of them, because only twenty-four Pokémon stood between Bruce and I and the other end of the large mess hall we were in. The alarm was not going, but these guards had not been caught off guard. A monitor TV hooked into the wall in the corner showed static, and I imagine they must've seen me and Bruce walk along the bridge.

"So, called for the guard yet?" I asked as I took in their Pokémon. One Wingull, Krabby, Shroomish, two Golbat, a Gloom, Machop, Sandslash, Arbok, a Grimer, three Rattata, two Mightyena, one Sableye, a Beedrill, a Parasect, a Ninjask, a Duskull, a Nosepass, two Geodude, and one Graveler, and the final twenty-fourth Pokémon was a Drowzee. I unleashed my nine Pokémon and they all charged straight into combat. Voltage took on the two water types and they were done faster than the foe's recognized an electric type among my numbers of fire. Bruce slowly trudged into the center of the battle and unleashed Eruption, his back spewing huge globs of fire upwards into the air to attack all foes. The lava spout in the middle of the room raised the temperature of the air, giving birth to the weather effect, Sunny Day, that powered u all fire type moves and all grass type moves, but weakened all water type moves. And both water foes were knocked out anyways and the grass had all been the next to go.

Our enemies didn't stand a chance, quality beating out numbers.

When Bruce stopped launching fire skywards and started trudging along again, I took the time to get to looting and stealing Pokémon. Nobody should sign their trainer skills up to be mercenaries. By the time Bruce had reached the other door I had swiped everything and stood waiting for the furnace tortoise. He readied himself to bash the door in before I opened it and passed through. He shot me an irritated smoke cloud before slowly walking into the next room. This one was empty except for a couple black bandanna clad guys sitting around a beer cooler. They were oblivious to our presence. My Pokémon slipped into the room and watched the unaware drunks carefully. The rest of the concrete bunker room was filled with mining supplies. Stairs led downwards into what I assumed was the mines. A time table of the walls provided me with accurate schedules of our enemies movements, so I made sure to write them down. I could give these to Flannery. Stairs beside the mine shaft entrance led upwards, so we took these and proceeded up to the next level.

The next room was mostly glass as well, and showed we were now in the very center of the volcano, held above the molten lake in the basin. Massive chains held the structure up from the top of the volcano rim. Sky bridges led from this center base to large holes in the sides of the volcano rim, each a mine shaft. The main base of the miners must've been up on the rim, as this building was too small to house more than twenty people. But if they were all up on the rim, then how would I get past them without getting caught? I searched for a mineshaft in the hopes that it might lead me to the town. I checked the map and in-program compass. I spotted a bridge up near the top of the base that looked like it could lead to the town. Maybe they had a way out of the shaft into the town? Uxie had told me that they were digging trenches for if the volcano blew. I imagined they would probably just come back and start mining again once the eruption stopped, even if it took them years. The Men in black had no concern for time it appeared. Or perhaps they were draining lava from the basin, hoping to get at ores? Several of the basin walls showed obvious rock build ups, like lava had settled on that level for some time. Had this been going on long enough to drain much magma?

I turned to look at my Pokémon, to check up on them. They were all turned away from me, watching as Bruce sat among the drunken goons and guzzled beers. His internal fire was blazing out of his shell like a trashcan fire. The goons were laughing and pouring more booze into him. Surely this wasn't healthy for him. "Erm, Bruce? We going or what?" "Torrrrkoal." He told me. The goons laughed and went back to drinking heartily. I briefly wondered what was in the drinks they had if they were so drunk they could ignore us before I dragged Torkoal along with me by his shell. After I rigged a harness up to him and tied it to my dogs and Ignacia we pulled him along the bridge into the mines.

The entrance to the tunnel had been boarded off with wooden planks, but we had just ripped those out of the wall. After taking the planks off I had found a map of the shaft on the wall, and had yanked that off to read as I ran. We set off down the tunnel, abandoning stealth. At least we knew no-one was in this shaft, and I had to wonder why. A few hundred meters down the shaft and I saw why. A deep pool of magma had welled up in a steep drop of the shaft. I examined the map of the shaft that I had stolen. It showed how it dropped down and then an overhead shaft mined along the top. From the map I could see that the overhead shaft had most likely drilled into a pool of magma, and collapsed both shafts. But at the end of this shaft was the exit close to town. If I could get through or past the searing hot liquid then I could get into town.

Or I could test my resistance to magma, like Entei had told me I had. I did not like that option. There were no other shafts that led close to town, and the one that had collapsed above my tunnel was following a vein of some sort of high density metal ore, but that had stated from a bridge to the north. I needed to go west, down the tunnel in was in. If I couldn't take the surface route and this route didn't work, then I was stuck. I examined the pool of magma at my feet. Sune, Ripper, and Bones sniffed warily and then jumped back whenever the Magma bubbled or released a hiss of gas. Ignacia stood in the hallway, her ears low, and her body tensed to run. Xiuh and Frash seemed to be daring each other to go over and submerge a claw in the magma. They were sure to break out into fighting or one of them would foolishly dip a claw in the substance soon. Brcue did not seem to enjoy the lava, but tolerated its presence. I had put Volt and Flare away, as the heat was rapidly becoming too much for my non-fire Pokémon. Tanner reacted the best, dipping an arm into it curiously and cooing when it stuck to his arm.

I knelt closer to the Magma and the pack barked and came a little closer. "It will work." I told myself, getting ready to test my resistance's upper limit. Rebellious thoughts flowed through my head at rapid pace, my brain trying to tell me to not be an idiot. 'What if Entei was just saying that, and never thought I might actually have to try to swim in Lava?' 'What if it was a joke?' 'How did Entei have so much power to give to me, if he was only one legendary, and the others needed multiple on their side to have decent powers? Jesse couldn't do anything really useful, and only Suicune sponsored her. Shouldn't that mean Entei didn't have that sort of power to give away?' 'This is insane, something Harold would try' 'And if you touch that, you will experience pain unlike any other.'

I sucked in my breath and plunged my right pinkie finger into the lava. I withdrew it too fast to actually experience anything, my brain working slower, as if it couldn't believe I had actually done that. I examined my finger. It was red, like I had put it in boiling water, and I couldn't feel anything from it. I touched and poked the appendage, but felt nothing. Curious now, and knowing that I would not lose anything, I plunged my whole arm in, up to my elbow. When I withdrew it, my sleeve had burned at the ends, but remained intact. My skin had become the same red as my pinkie, and no feeling was transmitting. I nodded. It would have to do.

I withdrew my pack, Frash, Xiuh, Tanner, and Ignacia. I glanced at Bruce. "What will you do? Can you follow me?" I asked him. "Tor." He told me as he examined my arm. He nudged it and glanced up into my eyes. Then he poked at my belt with his head. I lifted my shirt a little, and tried to see what he had poked. A bright flash filled the cave and Tanner appeared again. "Tor." Bruce told Tanner. "Mah?" Tanner asked, his baby voice filled with confusion. The two Pokémon talked for a minute or two, and I merely watched on, lost. Tanner suddenly turned and accessed my I.S., drawing out a Pokeball. Bruce nodded at him, and before I could do anything, (Not that I knew what to do) Tanner had pegged Bruce's side with the Pokeball.

The ding of the pokeball broke me from my stunned trance. I gazed down at the pokeball in my hand. Had Bruce just given himself to me? Or had Tanner actually caught him? Tanner turned to me and tucked Bruce into a spare slot on my second Pokémon belt. (I had taken to wearing two for easier access to my nine Pokémon) Tanner put Bruce into the tenth slot and then turned to view the magma pool. "Magby!" He called excitedly before jumping straight into the pool. Reacting instinctively I dived straight in after him, hoping to rescue him from danger. It was only a second before I hit the magma that I remembered the Magby Pokémon family virtually lived in this stuff, and there was no danger.

And then I dived headfirst into a liquid 2400 degrees Fahrenheit. It didn't feel like anything, like I hadn't left the bank. You don't feel anything when you stand still, because air doesn't have a texture. You can tell the difference when you're in water, because that has cold wet attributes. This was like swimming, but in air. I felt nothing. It was not enjoyable, but it wasn't unpleasant. Tanner surfaced next to me, looking at me curiously. I checked my clothes over and my Pokémon belts, but everything was fine. To gauge how long my resistance would last, I watched my sleeve. It was burning up before my eyes, the strands slowly curling in on themselves and burning away. The map had said the tunnel had arched up again to exit the mountain side. I had to go under the rock and swim twenty feet or so before coming back up. I could do that. Just thirty or forty seconds under lava, right? The longer I held off, the harder it would get. I took in a deep breath and submerged with my eyes open.

I discovered almost immediately I was going to have to close my eyes. They burned like I had sprayed chili peppers in them. I had a half surfaced memory of that actually happening once in my old dimension. I clamped my eyes shut and surfaced again before trading breath. Tanner watched me with curiosity, having none of my issues. "How I envy you at the moment." I muttered to Tanner, and he squealed, "Mag!" happily.

The feeling of nothing was changing, quickly. Before where there was no feeling at all was transforming into an uncomfortable full body pins and needle felling, like I was falling asleep with something laying on me. I dove again and got under the rocks top. I pulled myself along the pitted volcanic rock surface, my questing fingers cutting themselves mercilessly on the jagged rocks. I ignored this and pulled myself along. Below me I could feel the current from Tanner, swimming along below me, likely confused as to what was going on, as always.

Halfway there. Only a quarter to go. Just an eight left. Just a couple of feet. Nothing. My fingers felt along the rise and I opened my eyes as I pulled my head up. Just a little pocket of volcanic gasses. Why? This had to be where the tunnel ended! It was the right distance! Had it been plugged? I pounded on the rock, cutting my hands to all hell, but I didn't care. I quick glance at my arm showed my shirt was gone. The resistance was failing. I was out of breath. Air! I needed air! My lungs were burning, and my body was uncomfortably hot. Where was the air! Where was the exit? Why? Everything had been going to plan!

I desperately dropped my hands to my belts. But nobody could help me now. Tanner didn't know. Air! Oxygen! I needed to breathe! I opened my mouth, a reflexive instinct to the burning in my throat. My breathe slipped away, and I took in deep lungfuls of magma. Was I going to drown before I burned, or was I going to combust into flames and be gone in an instant? There was no escape. Air! It was getting darker. My body was truly on fire now, as if I were rolling in acid. I needed out! My vision was dark, there was nothing left. I started to sink. Tanner watched curiously. The last thought ran through my mind. 'What will happen to my Pokémon?'

…

Line Break

…

"Jack, you absolute, goddamn idiot!" Entei roared in my face. I hazily examined his astral body. It was in my mind, a blank white world where we were the only subject, and the shadows at our feet were perfect reflections of us. "You fool! I told you, you had resistance, not immunity! Where'd did you get the idea of swimming in lava!" "From a map on the cave wall. I wasn't strong enough to fight my way through and the other three were too exhausted. I didn't have time; I had to warn the town." I told Entei in my defense. "Champions travel together! They don't leave when it suites them! You should have waited and rested yourself! I'm sure the four of you were tough enough to take on the Syndicate! You are a fool for even thinking that you weren't good enough to be a champion! Your teenager's stupid angst got you into this mess, and I let it because I thought you were above it with your apathy!" "This had nothing to do with feelings! I needed to warn the ton! A full blown war on the mountain would have brought in the innocent towns people! And I needed to find and recruit Flannery!" "There're just uninvolved humans! What would you have cared if they lived or died!" "And here I thought you cared about humans!" "I do! More would be saved by preventing the mining without stopping then by warning the town and losing valuable time! If the mountain blew because you were to busy saving one little town I would have destroyed you! Annihilated you! Gone to your dimension and wiped out your other too! And I'll do it now if you fail too! At least the other three champions are blameless! The other legendaries with fire element entrusted me to the entire type by myself because they were lending me their powers over their fire without question! Now they think they need to split up everything again and make their own fire champion and Arceus told me I had to use you! It'd set us back by months to grow another fire champion to your age and skill!"

I gazed at the irate legendary before me in barely suppressed terror. He turned back to me. "But we'll do this your way, because I trust you at least that much. Do whatever it was you were going to do. To brief you, you died in the tunnel, but some quick acting on my part with all the powers of fire between the all us fire type legendaries and a little surprise help by Victini has recreated your body and bound your soul to it. You are now the champion of both me and Victini. Arceus never did say we had to work on our champions solo, which is why Moltres and Ho-oh gave me their combines fire energies to use in your makeup. Now since Victini is helping sponsor me the Moltres and Ho-oh have withdrawn their generous help."

Your powers are greatly weakened in your new body. Your fire resistance is now better than it used to be, but you can never go lava swimming again. You sun healing is shut down and now works only on heat. Your rise with the sun and set with the sun sleep schedule is not less efficient. You'll need slightly more sleep now to make up for lost time." Entei sighed angrily, and it came out as a low roar.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." I told Entei truthfully. He roared in my face, fire basking my form. "When Jack was given to me I made contact with him and claimed him as a fire champion. Normally I sign up with the other two dogs and we have an animalistic champion with no real specialty. Fire is normally covered by Ho-oh and Heatran. Moltres, Zapdos, and Articuno sponsor the Flying champion. But this time Arceus told each of the trio dogs we were to make champions for our respective elements. Suicune turned down an offer of help from Keldeo, because he was really needed to make sure the champion of the trio bulls lived long enough to join group five. As such, Jesse has only powers from Suicune, and doesn't really do anything special. Since Suicune made contact with Jesse before I made contact with Jack, I was able to learn from his mistakes. I asked for help from Ho-oh, since this generations fire was done by me. I thought maybe he could help me with Fire. But Ho-oh had other plans. Because He normally works with Heatran, whom joined with Groudon for Clay of group two, Ho-oh was going to help Moltres, Articuno, and Zapdos with the flying champion. I don't know how Lugia started helping them either. But seeing how much diversity was present in the five legendary flyers, Ho-oh and Moltres gave me all their fire to use in your makeup. That's why you're so powerful. Now that you've gone and destroyed that body, all that power was returned to them, and they see no reason to give it back if you threw it away. My own fire power alone will give you the sleep schedule and some fire resistance, but since Victini is now helping me, it greatly ups your fire resistance again, but that's it. But since Lava swimming was Ho-oh's thing for the old generations of Fire, you don't have that anymore. You have been weakened greatly by your death."

"Death. I'm dead." I asked Entei incredulously. "Well… Victini had something he was holding over both Giratina and Darkrai. I never would have guessed he had something on everything. He blackmailed them into not collecting you. All that had to be done was Re-creat you from your ashes in the lava. To be honest, I used some of Moltres's power as it left you for that, since he does that. Congrats, you are now officially a phoenix. If you ever mess up this badly again, I'll destroy you. And before you worry, Tanner grabbed your I.S. and other Pokémon. I'm surprised you found Bruce. He used to belong to the champion of fire from five hundred years ago. He wasn't very well used, but even then it seems he's gone and gotten a lot weaker due to his inactivity. He never was under my control, due to Fire champions being from Ho-oh and Heatran, so I can't boss him into becoming your Pokémon, so you'll have to either capture him or make him not want to leave. I suggest offering him booze. He seems to like burning it. Must feel good. You'll find your stuff on you when you wake. Flannery is coming. You are now at your original age. I'll need to recover for at least a century to come back to full power, so don't you dare go and need any more favors, Demi-legendary." Entei threatened me.

I nodded. "So, if I'm dead-" "Oh stop. You're not dead. You just died. Big difference. Being dead is a state. Death is an action. See?" "Yeah because that really helps make me feel better. What I was going to ask is if I'm dead-" "You're not dead. You just-" "Died! I know! If I'm dead or was dead, how do I wake up!" I yelled at Entei, irritated. "I'll have to turn you on." Entei told me before fading away. I stared around my white world, confused by what he meant.

'Thump. Thump. *pause* Thump, Thump. *pause* Thump, Thump.'

What was that obnoxious noise? It started off weak and then got louder and faster, like a motor starting up.

"That's your heart, Genius." Entei muttered in my mind. "I knew that!" I yelled into the white space.

I yawned and opened my eyes. I lay on a hard rocky mountain side. Most defiantly Mt. Chimney. Magma poured out of the sides like great seeping sores. Looking at it made my chest squirm uncomfortably, like I needed to fix it. It was probably because I was bound to fire like I was. The sun was high in the sky. A large grey ash cloud floated above the mountain. It vaguely reminded me of a mountain in some great video game I had played once. It had something to do with three golden triangles and a princess. Suddenly it occurred to me something light was sitting on my chest. I brought my head up to gaze at my chest.

The creature on my chest was small. If I had to summarize it in one word, it would be Fluffy. It had pale tan fur. Its enormous bat ears were bright red. Massive Blue orbs took up most of its overly large head. It had two fairy like tails behind it. "What the fuck are you?" I asked it. The small Pokémon on my chest slapped me. "That's Victini. He's your new second sponsor. Be nice." Entei told me. "Thanks for the warning." I muttered lowly. Victini stared at me, as if he might be able to see my soul with his great blue eyes. "So, uhhh. Hello, Boss?" I asked the small tan rabbit. "%4*7^!" Victini swore at me. I smacked my ears with my hands, attempting to get them to work. "%^&$ %#^*^ $^%&$&!" Victini told me in rapid fire gibberish. I nodded slowly, as if I understood him. He smiled happily and leapt off my chest. He floated in mid air, his two wing like tails fluttering at hummingbird speed, keeping him aloft. I gazed at the impossibility and shrugged, figuring I had honesty seen weirder things by now.

I briefly tried to imagine Entei standing by Victini. The image I conjured up made me keel over laughing. Entei, in all his proud glory, had been ridden by Victini, whom was holding reins in Entei's mouth and pointing to something off in the distance, like Entei was his horse or something. Victini laughed along with me, seemingly totally fine with my insane breakdown. "So, what are you going to do?" I asked Victini as I wiped tears from my eyes. "%^#%&*!" He told me proudly, and then nodded his head with his eyes closed. "So, does anyone understand you? Because I've got no idea what you're trying to say." I admitted to the flying fire psychic type. He opened his mouth and hissed at me. His two small teeth slid downward and revealed twin hollow fangs, like he was going to bite me and suck my blood.

"I'm kidding! I swear! Everything is fine!" I quickly screamed in terror, my voice coming out like a little girls. Victini shrugged and closed his mouth. "Where are my Pokémon, and my I.S.?" I asked Victini. He spun his left arm in a circle and my stuff magically appeared in the air. I caught my Dex, I.S., two Pokémon belts, and re-equipped myself. To my surprise I found three extra pokeballs on my belt. Two pokeballs, and one bright purple one with two pink dots on it. "Hey. Isn't this the Master Ball?" I asked Victini. He nodded, and then stole it out of my hands, before putting it away magically. "And these two?" I asked as I held up the two pokeballs. He took them and threw them on the ground. They both opened to reveal a Slugma and a Numel.

I dex'd them. "Numel. The volcano camel Pokémon. This Numel is female, level twenty five and her ability is Oblivious, meaning she cannot become infatuated. She is a gift from Victini and knows, Growl, Tackle, Ember, Magnitude, Focus Energy, Flame Burst, Take Down, Sunny Day, and Sandstorm. She has low stats for everything but special attack. What would you like to name her?" "Emma will do." I told Dex before pointing Dex at the Slugma.

"Slugma, the living lava Pokémon. Slugma is Male, level 27. His ability is Magma Armor. This gives immunity to all ice or fire attacks. No other effects. The story behind this is that you actually caught this in the lava, punching in the face as you were swimming. It was then attacked by Tanner, as he would for any other wild Pokémon. But neither were actually able to do anything to the other. So Tanner stole one of your pokeballs off of your belt and caught it. That means Tanner caught two Pokémon in one day, while you've never caught more than one in a day." "Not true! I got Ignacia, Tanner, and Xiuhcoatl in one day!" "Tanner and Xiuh hatched. You did not catch them. You were given the pack, and Frash. Volt was given to you. Emma was given to you, and Tanner caught Bruce, a level forty five Pokémon, and Slugma in one day, almost within three hours of each other. Tanner is clearly the superior trainer." "What the?"

"Entei, get out of my Dex and let it do its job!" I yelled at the device. "Slugma is level 27. He knows Yawn, Smog, Ember, Rock Throw, Harden, Recover, Flame Burst, Heat Wave, and Earth Power. He also does not seem to like you, but this does not give him the same unreasonable strength it gives Frash and Xiuh." Dex told me. Slugma latched onto my foot, likely expecting it to melt. I kicked him off me, and he looked at me in what seemed to be surprise. It has hard to tell with how unexpressive his face was. "You can't burn me. Give up trying." I told him confidently. Victini poked my foot and I looked down. My shoe had become blackened and begun melting. I could not feel it. "So, it doesn't affect magma anymore, which is what Slugma is made of. Oh. It's a good thing I'm a lot faster than him then." "What would you like to name your Slugma?" "Holdin will do."

I released all of my Pokémon and took a quick count. I was now carrying twelve Pokémon with me. I let them all get acquainted. I was now carrying two belts worth of Pokémon, and I needed to stop putting spares into places my Pokémon could get them. I refused to catch any more. That would just be ridiculous. Emma was inducted into my group quickly, but they might have thought she was a statue or something anyways. Holdin angrily hissed at any of my Pokémon, and Xiuh and Frash quickly taught him respect. Then Ripper and Bones peed on the still angry fire slug. I did not react to any of the strangeness going on behind me, though Victini laughed from my shoulder as he watched my Pokémon interact.

"Hey You!" I heard some girl yell at me from the above me on the volcano side. I turned around and saw Flannery the gym leader riding on a Rapidash straight towards me. She pulled up beside me suddenly and surrounded me with her Arcanine, Magcargo, Houndoom, Camerupt, and her own Torkoal, boxing in the final corner of her offensive with her Rapidash. The two dogs were about to charge my Pokémon when she suddenly called out, "Wait!" They stopped and sat, growling at me and my Pokémon, who all growled or hissed back. "Hello!" Flannery told me cheerfully. Victini hissed at her from my shoulder, and climbed up on top of my head. "Ignore him. He doesn't mean any harm, I'm sure." I told Flannery. "Who are you?" She asked me suspiciously. "I'm Jack Sheldrake." I told her evenly. She nodded like she had been expecting this. "Nathan told me I might find you, and he described the Pokémon you would have with you. Come with me." She told me, her mood suddenly happy. I took a few tentative steps, getting used to my new/old body. It felt good to be sixteen again.

"Come on. I need to take you to town, and then we've got to work on getting Nathan and the other two up here." Flannery told me. "You know about the full threat? Syndicate, Men in Black, the volcanic eruption?" I asked her. "You'll have to explain the bit about Men in Black. I knew the Syndicate was working under someone, since they're only hired muscle, but I didn't know that it was the men in black. This complicates things." She told me as we walked. "You didn't attack?" I asked her. "You didn't have a headband. I would have hit you from range, but you didn't have one on, and I was searching for you. That's pretty much the only reason you're not a smear on the ground." She told me. I laughed under my breath at her plan to fire range me, and we continued into town. Victini sat on my head the whole way. Flannery must have not known who he was. That was good. Or maybe Victini had disguised himself. That was also good.

We came over the ridge and were met with the sight of the smoldering sight of the town. "It's okay; I evacuated everyone but me and Leonie, my gym trainer, to a safe cave to the North West." Flannery told me as we descended into the burned and ruined town.