Charizard's Story
Chapter 6
Charizard couldn't find what it'd seen anywhere. It had been flying for a long time, and there was still no sign of it. Where could it have gone?
Charizard yawned. Its wings were getting sore. It would have to take a rest soon. But not until it found what it was looking for. It knew that things like that weren't very easy to find. If it had stayed with Ash, that annoying little trainer, it would have lost it for sure. Not that it was doing a very good job right now, but at least its chances were higher.
It looked down at the ground below it. There were plenty of inviting places to nap, but Charizard had a mission, and it was going to stick to it. It changed its focus to the sky.
Where could it have gone? It couldn't have gotten that far ahead of it. Oh well. Charizard was bound to catch up with it sooner or later…Hopefully sooner…
Wait a sec, what is that!?
Charizard stared hard at a very unusual mountain…Hadn't it passed that already?
Oh no! It was flying in circles! That's why it couldn't find what it was looking for!
That made Charizard angry. Charizard didn't like being angry. When it was angry, it usually got the incredible urge to fight. Charizard didn't like fighting. When it fought, it usually had to fight for Ash. Ash was stupid boy who didn't know anything about proper Pokémon training. Charizard knew it would never do anything for Ash alone. There would have to be some personal benefit. Otherwise, what was the point? Even if Charizard battled, Ash would take all the credit, and what was Charizard left with? Zip. Nada. Nothing. It simply wasn't worth its time.
But…now that Charizard thought about it, it was free. Ash would never find it up here. Humans can't fly. It would never have to listen to its pathetic pleas again.
That made Charizard happy. Charizard liked being happy. That meant it wouldn't have to fight after all. Just for the fun of it, Charizard flew in a quick loop.
…Did it just see what it thought it saw?
…Impossible…
Since when did mountains breathe fire?
Charizard's Story
Chapter 7
"Eh heh heh…Nice Charizard…Good Charizard……" Ash said nervously.
"Pikachu…" Pikachu added.
"Heh heh……Hope you're not hungry……Uh……I have some Pokémon food in my backpack…You can eat that if you want…"
"Chu. Pika," said Pikachu.
"I dunno, Pikachu," Ash whispered, "Do you think it's listening to us?"
"Pikachu," Pikachu shook its head.
"…I didn't think so…So now what do we do?"
"Chu…" Pikachu thought out loud, "Pika?"
"Run? No way! We can't do that. How are we going to find Charizard?"
"Pika…Pika?"
"Pikachu!" Ash said.
"Pi, chu…" Pikachu apologized.
"…Er…um…Excuse me," Ash said to the Charizard, "Maybe you've seen another Charizard around here…? …Maybe?"
"Chaaarrrrrrrrrrr!!!!" it roared, and spat fire at both of them.
"Or…maybe you haven't…"
"Pika…"
Pikachu shook the burnt fur off of itself.
"Pikachu?"
"No. I'm completely out of ideas."
"Arr?" Charizard said suddenly, perking its head up. It looked at the mountain.
"…What's it doing, Pikachu?" Ash asked quietly.
"Pikachu…" Pikachu answered.
"Zaaarrd!" it roared loudly. Then it flapped its wings and flew away. "Chaaarrrr!!"
"Hey! Where are you going!?" Ash called after it, "Wait?"
"Chu…?" Pikachu said. Then it also perked up. "Pi? Kaa??"
"What's the matter?" asked Ash.
"Pika!! Pikapi!! Pika!! Chu!!!" Pikachu babbled in a frightened voice.
"Something the matter?"
"Pii!!!"
"Whoa!!" Ash yelled as the ground beneath him shook. He clung to the wall for support. "What's going on!!?" he yelled to be heard over the rumbling.
"Pikaaa!!!!" Pikachu screamed.
That's when the summit above them started belching up lava.
"CHUU!!!"
"Aahh!! I didn't know this was a VOLCANO!!!" Ash yelled.
"PIKAAA!!!!"
"You know, in this case, that's actually a good idea! Let's get out of here!!"
So they took off down the path, hoping to make it down with minimal catastrophes. But the lava was starting to flow, and the shaking mountain made for rough terrain. Flying and flaming rocks became abundant. Smoke started to fill the air. Ash only hoped that he wouldn't end up living up to his name.
Charizard's Story
Chapter 8
Charizard flew in closer to the strange mountain. It seemed as if it had stopped breathing fire.
As Charizard got even closer, it could hear a strange growling noise coming from inside the mountain. What kind of landform was this?
Charizard was just about to alight on the side of the mountain, when a huge burst of lava exploded from the peak of the mountain. In surprise, Charizard slipped and fell down a few feet, but wasn't seriously hurt. As it watched, the lava started to slowly make its way down the slope of the mountainside. Charizard stared in wonder. It had to find out more about this amazing occurrence.
It cautiously climbed up the side, when it heard a different sound coming from below. It glanced down, and to its complete shock, saw none other than its former trainer and his Pikachu. They were desperately trying to outrun the volcano.
Charizard switched its attention back to the mountaintop as another eruption ensued. This one was more vicious, and the lava it unleashed flowed much faster than its predecessor.
To its right, a few boulders were loosened from the mountain, and began their perilous trip downward. Charizard slowly realized that they were heading straight for Ash and Pikachu. Its first initiative was to save them, but then it thought back on what little it owed them. It kept climbing.
"Pikaa!!"
Charizard looked down again.
They had stopped just before the boulders had hit the path ahead of them. In their wake, the boulders had completely destroyed the trail.
"What will we do now?" Charizard heard Ash ask.
It growled and tried to put them out of its mind. They didn't matter to it. It was their fault they were up here anyway. Charizard just wanted to find the source of the fire.
"Pika, pikachu," Pikachu hurriedly jabbered to Ash.
"Right," he replied. He jumped over the hole in the road and kept running.
"Char!" Charizard gasped as a stream of lava suddenly appeared in front of its face. It pushed itself off of the mountainside and hovered over the lava. It then searched for a safer path up.
There weren't very many at all. The entire lip of the volcano was overflowing with intensely burning rock. Many flamed stones were shooting out randomly, and the smoke was making it very hard to see. Charizard could still breathe easily, it was a fire Pokémon after all, but it found the limited visibility annoying.
"Zarrd…" it growled at the smoke.
Meanwhile, Ash and Pikachu were still running for their lives. The going was quickly getting rougher and rougher, not to mention hotter. Lava was almost completely surrounding them, and unfortunately for them, they weren't fire Pokémon. They wouldn't be able to stand the heat for much longer…
Charizard's Story
Chapter 9
"Hurry up, Brock! We have to get him down from there!" Misty shouted.
"I'm running as fast as I can!" Brock shouted back.
They were both very quickly running up the mountain trail. They knew that it was an active volcano; they just didn't know how active.
"He'd better get down here really fast," Misty said, "because I AM getting a new bike!"
"Misty!" said Brock, "Maybe I should send Zubat out ahead of us. It'll be a lot faster, flying."
"Yeah, good idea."
Brock stopped running.
"Go! Zubat!"
"Zu-Bat!!"
"Zubat, fly up the mountain and find Ash. Tell him that he's on a volcano and he needs to get down here right away!" ordered Brock.
"Zuuu!!"
Zubat took off up the mountain, easily leaving Misty and Brock behind.
Misty slowed down.
"You know, with Zubat carrying the message up there, we don't really need to hurry, do we?"
"I guess not…" said Brock.
There was a loud explosion and they both looked up.
"Uh-oh," said Misty.
"That's for sure," said Brock.
Charizard's Story
Chapter 10
"Piikaa!!! Pika piii!!"
"Ah!"
Ash ducked as a huge rock flew over his head.
"That was close," he commented.
"Piika!!" Pikachu shouted.
"Huh?"
In front of them, another large rock tumbled down the slope. Then another one followed it…then another, and another…
"No! We already have a volcanic eruption! We don't need an avalanche to go with it!!"
"Chuuu!!!!!!"
Ash looked up as a whole load of very big rocks rolled their way towards him. Some were a unique shade of orange…
Ash decided that the best thing to do would be to run. So he did. He ran straight down the hill. He slipped a lot of times, but to his relief, he slipped down, rather that stopping.
"Piikaa!!" Pikachu screamed. The rocks were catching up with them.
"I'm going as fast as I- Aahhh!!"
Ash slid to a stop. A large pool of lava was in front of them.
"Chuuu!!!!"
Pikachu jumped off his head and blasted the advancing rocks with its Thunderbolt attack. All that was left of them were a multitude of very large pebbles. They all missed Pikachu, but Ash got a little beaten up.
"Ughh…" he groaned, "Thanks, Pikachu…"
"Pika…" Pikachu replied.
"How are we gonna get outta here?" he asked, "The lava's everywhere, and avalanches are all over the place too!"
"Pika…Pika…" Pikachu answered in defeat.
Ash picked it up.
"No, Pikachu," he said, "We're not gonna just give up. We're gonna get outta here or……or…"
"Pi?"
"Or my name isn't Ash Ketchum!"
"…Chu…"
"What do you mean my name isn't Ash Ketchum? It is!"
"Pika pi."
"Oh, shut up," he said.
Charizard's Story
Chapter 11
Ash carefully climbed down the erupting volcano. He'd lost the path a long time ago, so he had to be extra careful. The heat was really intense, and by now, the smoke had started to drift downwards and finally catch up with them.
"Almost…there, Pikachu," he said, "Hang on…We're gonna make it…"
"Chu…"
Pikachu watched as a flaming rock smashed into the mountainside less than ten feet to their left. It was really starting to doubt that they would ever make it off alive.
"Almost there," Ash said, "We're almost there…"
Pikachu had also started to worry about Ash. He had been saying that over and over again for the past five minutes. Maybe the heat was affecting his brain…Anyway, as long as they were still moving downwards, Pikachu couldn't be too pessimistic.
"Pika!" it shouted suddenly.
"Huh?"
Ash stopped less than a yard from a crossing lava flow.
"Pika! Pikapi!" Pikachu yapped angrily.
"What are you talking about?" asked Ash, "I wasn't going to walk straight into that!"
"Pika…Pikachu!"
"No, I'm not losing my mind! I'm fine! And we are going to get down from here!"
"Chu…Pika, chu," Pikachu said, still not believing him.
"Fine, think what you like. But you'll see. You'll be thanking me when we reach the bottom."
'Pika."