Pokemon: Radiant Ruby and Shining Sapphire / Separation

Chapter 3

The Battle for Mt. Chimney

Ruby and his team rushed into the fray immediately. They were immediately greeted by three members of Team Aqua with a Golbat, a Carvanaha (The red, yellow, and blue piranha pokemon that Ruby had encountered at the Contest Hall) and a new purple ball that was expelling gas out of pores with a skull and cross under its face. He commanded, "Combusken, Flamethrower!" His partner did exactly that and incinerated the Golbat near instantaneously. He then said to Lombre, "Mega drain on the Carvanha." Lobre shoot a needle out of its mouth which pierced the fish and started to drain its energy. While this happened the remaining member of team aqua called out to the unknown ball pokemon, "Koffing, poison gas on the Lombre!" The purple ball inflated before expelling out a purple gas that was moving towards Lombre. Ruby rushed up to his pokemon and tackled it to the ground, narrowly dodging the gas. Linoone, without command ran around and headbutted the member of team aqua commanding the Koffing, hurling him towards Ruby. The boy then got up and thrust his knife into the man's chest and pulled upwards, easily securing the kill. He then reached around to the man's belt and pulled off a pokeball from it and hit the center button, returning the Koffing to it's capsule.

He then looked at back at the other two defeated trainers and saw that they were rushing him. He thought, "Combusken, handle them."

Combusken did as commanded, dashing in and piercing one of the through with his hand and quickly roundhouse kicked the other into the ground below, with a resounding shattering sound. As he pulled the corpse from his arm he asked, "Where to Ruby?"

The boy looked across the battlefield. Team Magma was clearly winning in terms of raw numbers, but Team Aqua, having the element of surprise was already approaching the center of the volcano, walking out on the glass strip over the lava. On it, he saw Archie, walking with what appeared to be a female with a machine of sorts. Ruby explained, "We have to stop Archie! Let's break through."

The party then start plowing through the crowds, while avoiding conflict. Most of Team Aqua was occupied with their own battles anyway so it wasn't incredibly hard to do so. About halfway there, Ruby heard a familiar male voice, "Ruby! Behind you!"

The boy turned to see that he was being charged by a woman who was about two feet away from him with her knife out. Ruby reacted promptly by ducking down and watching the woman be engulfed in flames which pushed her into the volcanic crater. He then turned to see Maxie standing next to his Camerupt, who said, "Watch your back. There is an 80% chance they'll notice that you and I are leaders and drop what they're doing to take us out! Now get going, I've got your six!"

Ruby nodded and started off again towards his destination. Right before the glass walkway, he saw the dark skinned woman that was with Arichie at the Contest Hall a year back. When she saw that he was dashing towards the walkway she slowly positioned herself in the center and folded her arms across her chest, "Sorry, but I can't let you interrupt our little operation."

Ruby had half the mind to just ignore her and go for Archie, but the woman then started to laugh, "No WAY, you're the little brat from the Contest Hall, aren't you? So you survived after all, huh?"

To this Ruby stopped and stared her down and said, "That's right. The name's Ruby. Seeing how you know that I can go toe to toe with your boss, I'd suggest you move!"

"Now just one second. Who do you think I am, boy?" The woman reached around behind her and pulled what appeared to be a trigger from the back of her belt. She explained, "The name's Shelly. Archie had a feeling you might be the one to make it here, but I don't think anyone would've guessed that you had gone and joined up with Team Magma."

Ruby scoffed, "What's it to you? What the hell is that?"

The woman laughed before proclaiming, "Oh this little thing? It's just a remote trigger to activate the ballistic collar of your little girlfriend." She gave a menacing smile and put her hand on the trigger saying, "So don't mess with me kid."

Ruby slowly backed away a little and asked, "Who are you? And why is Team Aqua trying to cause Mt. Chimney to erupt? Doesn't that go against your whole belief system?"

Shelly seemed a little surprised, "Cause it to erupt? No no no. We aren't doing anything as drastic as that? Right now, we're just here to find something. That's all."

Ruby looked at her confused, "Find something? What is it your trying to find?" As he asked this he thought to Combusken, "Find an opening and get that trigger away from her."

Shelly laughed and said, "Oh, like what we're doing here has ANYTHING to do with you kid. Just be a good little boy and sit still otherwise your little girlfriend goes boom."

Combusken thought, "She's guarding it pretty tight, there isn't an opening. What do we do?"

The boy responded, "Alright, I'll figure it out. Wait for my signal." Ruby closed his eyes and took in his surroundings by sound. He could hear the chaos behind him, the two people setting up the machine over the lava but it wasn't enough. He couldn't pick up on Shelly's breathing because it was just too loud. He opened his eyes and started to panic. He thought, "Damn it, there's too much noise. I need quiet, I need…"

As this thought finished he looked up at Shelly's hand that was holding the trigger, and saw something pierce the trigger, snapping it in half, as well as taking off Shelly's thumb on her left hand. She screamed in pain, but quickly managed to react by throwing a pokeball which released an Abra. It then put out its hands and the two of them were teleported away. Ruby looked around, wondering where the projectile came from, to see that clinging onto a faraway rock formation, was Groovyle. The green lizard Pokemon then leapt off the rock and ran down the side of the mountain. Ruby smiled and thought, "Thanks Emerald, I owe you."

Without further hesitation, Ruby ran out onto the glass walkway and approached Archie and the other Team Aqua individual. He noticed that she too was wearing an altered uniform. She was wearing ripped jeans, and an open navy blue jacket with the team aqua symbol embroidered on the back of it. Under the jacket she was wearing a black t-shirt. And finally she was wearing a blue team aqua headband and a black mask covering everything on her face except her eyes, which were a deep brown. She turned and faced the boy before saying, "Archie, we have company."

The leader of Team Aqua begrudgingly turned to see Ruby standing there in front of him. He exclaimed, "SCAMP! How long has it been?! Nearly a year now, yeah? How are the burns?"

Ruby was about to step forward, but then started to feel the walkway moving in an unstable manner. He stopped and Archie said, "I'd stay where you are if you don't want to die. I have my trusty Alakazam to get me outta here if need be, but if this walkway shatters, let's just say that I don't think you're fireproof."

Ruby then returned Lombre and Linoone back to their respective Pokeballs and asked, "What the hell are you doing here? Shelly spilled the beans about you not activating the volcano, so what then?"

Archie laughed and said, "A great question, but I'll explain AND show ya at the same time." He walked over to the machine, which lowered what appeared to be a metal crain into the lava below. The man said, "Simply put, there's a powersource in this volcano that we need. Originally, the best way to find it would've been to set the whole mountain off, but one of our best scientists came up with this machine instead. Less damage to the environment and all that, you know?"

Ruby asked, "What the hell kind of powersource is inside a volcano?"

Archie laughed and said, "The very source that made the opening in the first place, a meteor that fell to this planet three hundred years ago."

Ruby was about to ask another question, but was stopped by Archie saying, "Welp, I think this conversation has gone on long enough, don't you think scamp? Lass, take him off the ramp and deal with him. I'll be watching, so keep that in mind. Don't you dare start getting sentimental on me."

The girl nodded and motioned Ruby to back up. She said, "If you don't want our battle to kill us all, I suggest we get off this walkway and back to solid ground."

Ruby looked through the glass to the lava below and sighed as he realized there really wasn't any other choice. He thought to Combusken, "We have a better chance on solid ground anyway. Let's hurry it up so we can stop Archie ASAP."

The girl across from him laughed and asked, "So are you about ready to get started?"

Ruby tuned to face his opponent and gave a brief chuckle before saying, "Well that's quite the confidence you're showing. Think you could back it up? I'm probably on par with your boss by now. I recommend backing down if…"

The girl then started to remove her mask to reveal a familiar face. The one face that Ruby had been trying to find for a little over a year now, "Sapphire?"

Sapphire Birch shook her head and said, "Now isn't the time for a reunion Ruby. I can't blow my cover just yet, so that means that I've got to stop you with everything I have right here and now." She reached town to her belt and threw out a pokeball to reveal her partner, Marshtomp. She explained, "If you really want to get to Archie, you'll have to give it your all to get through me first."

Ruby was still too shocked about the situation to even react. "What the hell is going on anymore? The first thing I have to do after finally finding Sapphire again, is to fight her? What the hell?"

Combusken responded, "Look, the situation probably has multiple more layers to it than what we can understand right now. For tight now, we have to stop Archie and Team Aqua. And to do that, we have to get through her."

Ruby blinked twice before shaking his head to slightly get ahold of himself. He thought, "Right... Yeah…"

Sapphire didn't wait any longer for him to pull his thoughts together as she clearly used her aura bond with Marshtomp to tell her to go on the offensive. Marshtomp stomped on the ground and stirred up some mud, which she then proceeded to fling at Combusken. The chick pokemon barely dodged the attack in a sidestem and thought, "Look, if you're not gona pay attention, we are going to lose this. Get your shit together Ruby!"

The boy then thought, "Alright, ALRIGHT. Let's just get this over with! Combusken, rush in immediately after you dodge the next attack with a Double Kick at the ready."

It wasn't long before Marshtomp shot out a ring of water towards Combusken that slowly got bigger as it approached him. The chick pokemon was at a blank, there was no way to dodge the attack from his position. Ruby however, evaluated the attack and grabbed Combusken's empty pokeball from his belt and returned him, before throwing him back out onto the battlefield, dodging the attack completely. Combusken, upon realizing what just happened, rushed in to deliver a Double Kick, but Marshtomp easily deflected both attacks and slightly retreated after successfully parrying the assault.

Sapphire laughed, "That was cheating, don't you think Ruby?"

Ruby responded to her, "Oh please! There's no such thing as rules when fighting against terrorists. Keep in mind that you're technically fighting against one as well!"

Sapphire smiled and replied, "Is that so? Well then, I guess I won't play by the rules EITHER!" She put out her hand, clearly to signal Marshtomp to attack, but instead of throwing the next patch of mud at Combusken, she threw it directly at Ruby. The boy brought his arms up to protect his face, but he was still knocked to the ground from the force of the attack.

Combusken retreated and helped Ruby back to his feat. He thought to his trainer, "Damn it, she's really serious about this! Doesn't she understand that we're trying to stop a terrorist attack here?"

Ruby, brushing some mud off his uniform explained. "Oh I know she does, but I think I'm finally starting to get it. Before this battle she said that she couldn't blow her cover just yet. That means that she's going all out because she thinks that this is only the beginning of Team Aqua's plans. However, that means that we have to go all out too, soooo…" Ruby inconspicuously tossed something to Combusken and said, "It's about time we started to get serious too."

Combusken looked down at the pokeball in his claws and nodded before turning to face their opponents once again. He then stood there as a red aura started to surround him as he began to Bulk Up.

Sapphire noticed this and said allowed, "Going for a Bulk Up Baton Pass huh? Sorry but I read up on that little tactic when I was rising up the ranks of Team Aqua. That trick won't work if Marshtomp just ends it in one hit, so… Marshtomp, use Water Pulse."

Unphased Comusken decided to sit there and tank the hit of the water ring this time. Even though it was a direct his, the chick remained standing. Sapphire then said, "Resilient, but there's no way you can tank two Water Pulses. Marshtomp, end it!" Her partner fired a second shot, but this time Ruby thought, "Do it now!" Instead of Baton Passing to the pokeball, Combusken threw out the ball and released Lombre, who easily tanked the attack that It had incredible resistance against.

Sapphire saw this and complained, "You dirty cheater!"

Ruby smiled and said, "Like I said, I'm a terrorist. Rules aren't something we usually play by. Combusken, NOW!" Ruby's partner dashed forward with incredible speed that it had built up with Speed Boost and delivered a Double Kick that was three times as powerful as the last one, sending Marshtomp flying back into Sapphire, knocking the pokemon unconscious. Sapphire returned her partner and just laid down on the ground and yelled, "Damn It! What the hell was that Ruby?"

Ruby wasted no more time and ran past the girl that he so desperately just wanted to talk to, but for right now he had something more urgent to attend to. He ran out onto the glass walkway once again and started to run out towards Archie. With the speed boost still active, Ruby commanded Combusken, "Quick, break that machine!" Comusken then sprinted ahead of Ruby and delivered a kick that went clean through the crane machine. Combusken then turned around and rushed Archie, but before reaching him, he was deflected by the Sharpedo that Team Aqua's leader had sent out in defense. Combusken then retreated back to Ruby's side and stood guard.

Archie turned to face the two and put his hands on his hips before saying, "Well I'll be damned. The girl really did give it her all against you, didn't she. That just shows how fantastic of a trainer you are for being able to plow right through her and to keep up with me at your age."

Ruby scoffed, "Cut the shit Archie, you're finished here. It's about time we settle this! It's been a year and I've been itching for my rematch."

The man started to laugh and pulled out what appeared to be a rock of some sorts. He then explained, "You're right about one thing scamp, I am done here. The meteorite is mine and it's about time I took my leave. I just wanted to see how the missy did in battle, the machine recovered the meteor right before your squable even started. He then throughout a Pokeball which released a new yellow Pokemon with brown features, a mustache, and it was carrying a spoon in each hand. Archie pulled up his radio and said into it, "Aight boys, it's time we took leave." After saying this, Archie returned his Sharpedo and the new Pokemon placed its hand on the man and the two vanishished into the air.

Ruby cursed as they left, "Damn it! Get back here!" He lunged towards the nothingness where Archie was standing, but Combusken grabbed his shoulder and thought, "Calm down. We're not standing on the most stable ground right now. It's too late to stop him."

The boy took a few breaths to calm himself before turning around to look back where he had left Sapphire moments ago, to see that she too was gone. He sighed and just fell to the ground and ridiculed himself, "Damn it! Why did I let this happen? They got away…"

He just laid there one the glass walkway over the volcanic crater. He finally noticed just how hot the air surrounding him was, not realizing it before due to adrenaline. So he just laid there in defeat, not sure whether he was just unwilling to move, or the fact that he was physically incapable of doing so because of how exhausted he felt. Combusken sat down next to his trainer and they just waited for the world to move them.

This didn't take very long though, because they were immediately treated with Maxie's voice saying, "Ruby, a moment please."

The boy sat up to see Team Magma's Leader making his way down the glass walkway towards him. The man looked like he was carrying a letter of some sorts.

Sapphire_Moments Before This

Sapphire Birch picked herself off the ground slowly, feeling the pain impact of her partner being tossed into her still. She groaned as she got to her feet and thought, "My guess is the call to retreat will be coming at any moment now. I've got to make this quick." She pulled a letter out of her jacket and smiled while whispering to herself, "I don't think I can give it to Ruby directly, but if he's working for Team Magma, that makes this a hell of a lot easier."

Despite the pain, she took off running towards the fighting. She grabbed a pokeball from her belt and threw it out to reveal that her Silcoon had evolved into a Beautifly. She then said to her pokemon, "Come on, we've got to hurry!" She ran into the frey but to her luck the first person she saw was a familiar face. It was Maxie, who she had been tasked with helping defend the fleeing people of the Contest Hall with. He was fighting two of her own team members. She ordered, "Beautifly, use Sleep Powder!" Her butterfly pokemon did as commanded and sprinkled a green dust over the Team Aqua members and their Pokemon, knocking all four of them out almost immediately.

She then called out, "Long time no see, huh Maxie?"

Maxie turned to see the girl in a shock and said out of surprise, "It's you? I calculated that you'd be dead by now. But why are you here with Team Aqua?"

Sapphire shook her head and said, "There's no time to explain Maxie, I don't think this fight will last much longer. Archie has probably got what he came for by now?"

Maxie took the logical route and asked, "And what exactly WAS he after?"

Just as he asked this, Sapphire's prediction came true and through her radio came the evacuation order from Archie. She returned her Beautifly and threw out another pokeball to reveal an Abra. But before giving it the command to teleport her away, she held up the letter she had and said, "Listen, I'm assuming you have the means to deliver this to Ruby. Please give it to him when you get the chance."

She tossed it to the ground and then commanded, "Abra, Teleport!"

The yellow and brown psychic Pokemon heard her and warped them away from the volcano in an instant. She appeared among a crowd of Team Aqua grunts in front of their base in Lilycove. She then sighed before recollecting herself and acting her role as a member of Team Aqua and broke through the crowd. Once inside the base he took a warp panel to where the other undercover 'spy' for Team Skystorm always stayed. But the room was empty and dark. Shoe thought, "Was she done in? This is where we meet after every mission…"

Sapphire turned on the lights and just waited. She waited, and waited. Until she finally came to the conclusion that her only other companion in her self appointed operation to shut Team Aqua down from the inside, wasn't coming. She slumped down on the open couch and thought, "Well, it looks like I'm on my own now…"

Just then, she heard the sound of a warp panel activate. She sat up to here confusion to see a black girl wearing the standard Team Aqua uniform walk out of the portal. The girl looked close to her own age. She had long straight hair with a few steaks being a light blue. Her blue eyes captivated Sapphire for a moment, but then the girl stuttered, "Oh Arceus, I'm so sorry. I always forget which portal leads where."

Sapphire shook her head and said, "No, it's no problem. Where are you looking to go?"

The girl answered, "Well, I'm looking for the infirmary. I heard some news that my sister was hurt in the last battle, so I wanted to check to see if she was alright."

Sapphire put on a fake concerned face and responded, "Oh no! Look, the infirmary is down the hall a bit more once you go back. It should be your first right, then the second pad should take you right there."

The girl sprang to life saying, "Oh, thank you so much! I'm sorry to bother you… um have we met?"

Sapphire shook her head and said, "No I don't think we have. My name is Sapphire."

The girl nodded and said, "Sapphire, got it. My name is Nessa. It was nice meeting you!" The girl then walked back through the portal, leaving Sapphire alone yet again.

Sapphire thought, "What an interesting girl." She stood up and stretched out before walking over to the warp pad herself and thinking, "Well today was pretty eventful. It's probably time I got my rest. Arceus knows my team needs it."

She took warp pad after pad until she finally arrived at her own quarters. She undressed and got in bed. The moment she hit her sheets she realized just how exhausting the day had been for her. She groaned and said aloud, "What a day, huh?"

From her pokeball, the consciousness of her partner rang out, "Indeed it has been. Who knew Ruby would be so strong."

Sapphire briefly laughed and said, "Finally back with me? And not at all, he cheated. I'll have to give him shit about it when I see him again."

Marshtomp responded, "And that will be in two days, correct?"

Sapphire nodded saying, "That's what the letter said. It's up to me now to sneak out and see him."

Marshtomp logically stated, "That shouldn't be too hard. After today I don't think there'll be that many missions for a while. This was the perfect mission to finally deliver the letter."

Sapphire yawned and agreed, "Yeah, lucky break for us, but tomorrow I'm gona figure out why Archie went through all that trouble just to get a meteor." She then curled up in her covers and said, "Oh well, those are projects for tomorrow. For right now, let's just get some rest. Goodnight Marshtomp."

Her partner responded promptly, "Goodnight Sapphire." The two then almost immediately blacked out from their long day at work.