Chapter 3

Fire in Viridian Forest?

Ash, you're so close. You're only a town away after we get out of this forest. I can't wait to see you and Pikachu again. Buneary will be so happy and so will I. We'll go on a journey together once more and then… Dawn dreamed until her dream was cut short with a burning scent filling the air.

"Dawn! Get up!" Mikee called out to her waking her from her dream. She coughed the instant she tried to breathe. It was early morning as a fire raged on near-by. Luckily, she wasn't near the blaze, but it was huge. Mikee was on the top of a tree in the foliage, looking at the flames.

""Mikee, *cough* what's going on?" She asked him.

"Get your camping gear packed and get as far away from here as you can!" Mikee warned her. His expression was worried, but rage seemed to fill his emotions. His fists were clenched at this disaster.

"What about you?" Dawn asked.

"Just get going!" Mikee yelled and leapt from the trees towards the flames. Everything was happening very quickly, and she hurried to pack up her camping supplies. Piplup ran around, dousing any fire that got close. She quickly got dressed and looked towards the fire where Mikee dashed off to.

Her instinct told her to listen and run away from the fire. She could go get Ash to help, but she would have to hurry. There wasn't much time before the fire became a huge raging one.

"Piplup, let's hurry to Viridian City! We can get help there!" She told Piplup. The Penguin Pokemon agreed and jumped onto his Trainer's arms. She nodded and ran through the forest, trying to hold her breath. The smoke was almost unbearable to even breathe as she ran. Just as she started running, Pokemon scurried past her in fear. The heat was almost unbearable, and the more she ran, the more she inhaled the kept coughing as she saw some trees beginning to collapse. More Pokemon scurried to get out of the forest. She followed them only to have an explosion knock down more trees. These ones were falling just above Dawn as she screamed loudly, clutching onto Piplup.

There was a whoosh as Mikee slammed the trees out of the way with brute force, snapping them into pieces. He landed almost perfectly as Dawn saw him turn around with worry.

"Dawn, can you get up?" Mikee asked.

"It's *cough, cough* hard." She said. There was a different look in his eyes this time. Instead of his attitude before, it was completely opposite of that. There was care and concern. He offered his hand to assist her.

"Here, I'll get you out, and then I'll deal with Maya. She's the one causing all of this destruction." Mikee told her. Piplup looked at her and she nodded. He knelt down to carry her almost bridal style, only Piplup lied next to Dawn's face. He lifted her up with ease as he swiftly got going. She shook her head to see a clearing already. It was outside the forest, and she closed her eyes to finally rest easy. Mikee noticed it and turned a bit red, remembering what he was doing and seeing her rest like that.

"Hey, stop right there!" Someone yelled to Mikee and Dawn. It was Officer Jenny as she drove to them, seeing Dawn resting in his arms.

"Excuse me; you need to get her to a hospital right away! She's inhaled too much smoke! Also, keep everyone at least two miles away from the forest!" Mikee told her. She looked pretty angry and surprised at the boy.

"Wait, what's going on here? Are you the one who caused this fire?" She asked. Just as she asked that, a fiery blast rose from the sky and disintegrated into Maya, as her whole body was covered in flames again.

"That's the cause. I need you to take Dawn to a hospital! I hate repeating myself!" Mikee told her. The name seemed familiar to Jenny. Before she could ask more, Maya saw the three of them.

"Ah, there you are!" She yelled and fired a huge blast of fire. Mikee quickly put Dawn on the ground and stood his ground.

"No, get out of the way!" Jenny yelled to him. His fist glowed in a white light as Mikee yelled and slammed the fire blast into the sky. Cinders from the contact flew around.

"Dawn, I remember her now!" Jenny said.

"Yeah, that's great and all but get her out of here, please. I need you to keep people out of the forest. There's going to be a huge fight." He told her and dashed into the woods, where two trees fell to block Officer Jenny from giving pursuit. She looked at Dawn, remembering the museum incident back in Eterna City.

As for Mikee, the flames did not seem to affect him as he ran. He wanted the Power Orb of Water to douse the blaze, but unfortunately, all he had was only Light. His rage was getting to him. He hated that he couldn't do a thing to help at the moment, but his only concern was to take Maya out before she hurt more innocent souls. He stopped at a clearing, which was nothing but burned remains of trees. Maya floated above the flames as they receded when she floated back down.

"So, you finally came out of hiding. Good, I wouldn't want you to die by a basic flame attack." She told Mikee. He made a stance and clenched his fists.

"You're going down." Mikee growled as Maya lifted her eyebrow in interest.

"I won't let you get away with ruining the peace of this world too!" Mikee yelled and focused all his energy in his right foot to launch himself straight at her, his right fist ready to slug her. She grinned as he swung and hit her arm that guarded her face. Mikee spun around and kicked her side with his foot. She grabbed his foot and threw him into the ground onto his back. She dived straight down and tried to drive her fist into the warrior, but he rolled out of the way and jumped up with his hands behind his side. Energy gathered in between his palms.

"Shine Beam!" Mikee yelled as he thrusted his palms forward. The energy he collected was now unleashed in a big plasma blast. It hit her head-on as the blast tore along the ground and snapped the trees. At the end, the energy detonated and blew away some trees, causing a crater. He exhaled and looked onto the damage. A huge explosion of flame erupted from the smoke as a huge stream of fire hit Mikee and engulfed him in the flames. She elbowed him in the gut and continued to slam him with different combinations of punches and kicks. After her combo, she grabbed his arm, swung him around several times and tossed him into the ground before stomping onto his stomach, making him yell out in pain.

Dawn woke up after hearing that yell and she got back up. She felt dizzy when getting up, but she wasn't coughing anymore. She saw the flames die off as Mikee was in the ground. He swung at Maya, but she jumped back up and fired out more flames to burn him. He jumped up and slammed her in the face hard. Mikee proceeded to kick her in the sky and hammer-fisted her back into the ground. Maya rushed back up and slammed on his guard. Both were fighting at high speeds.

"Whoa, I can't even see their attacks when they're fighting like that. I never thought Mikee could be this strong as a person." Dawn said in surprise. Maya succeeded in punching Mikee's face, but he returned the favor by kneeing her in the gut. Both of them slammed each other back and peppered each other with blasts of light from Mikee and fireballs from Maya. Each blast canceled the other out. After several unsuccessful blasts, both charged in again, but Maya was fast enough to slam him and fire her Fire Stream again, hitting him head-on. After he crashed, the warrior lost sight of her.

"Mikee! Are you all right?" Dawn asked as she ran to him, unaware of the danger she just walked in.

"No! Dawn! Get out of here!" Mikee snapped as a rush of flames shot towards the sky, revealing Maya holding a very large fireball. The evil warrior threw it at Dawn. Before she could move, Mikee shoved her out of the way and stood his ground, grabbing the fireball. He stopped for a second as it pushed him out of the forest. It was heading for the city as Mikee tried to slow it down before his back slammed into a slope. With a loud yell, he punched the fireball into the sky, away from harm.

Aaaug, hot! HOT! HOT!" Mikee yelled out as he shook his red hands around. Holding a fireball was not the most comfortable thing in the world as he blew on his hands. He made a stance and lunged for Maya once more, but this time, he stopped in front of Dawn, shielding her from the fire user.

"Well, you're stronger than I expected. I may not be able to finish you off by myself, but I can still try!" Maya yelled and charged at Mikee once again.

"BREAKING NEWS! A fire has broken out in Viridian Forest, but the flames seemed to have died down, but that's not the worst part of it. Recent reports have stated that two people are fighting within the ashes and one of them is shooting fire from her body while the other one seems to know Hyper Beam! We're coming to you live with our helicopter as we get closer to the scene." The newscasters reported. In Pewter City, Brock was watching this with a concerned look on his face.

I knew it. This kid really was trouble from the start. I better go find and help Dawn right now before things get even worse! Brock thought and clenched his fist.

"Chan-sii?" His Pokemon asked, sounding pretty worried.

"Come on Chansey! Let's go find Dawn!" He told his trusted friend. The Happiness Pokemon chirped with confidence as he returned the Pokemon and left his office to close.

In another house, the same news report was going on; only the helicopter's cameraman zoomed in on Dawn from a distance.

"It looks like a Trainer is caught in the middle of this mess too!" The reporter exclaimed as the fire woman saw them and blew a fireball in their direction. The boy jumped in front and knocked it into the sky. He fired another Hyper Beam sort of attack from his palms, but it missed and struck some dead trees. Dawn held her ground and so did Piplup. The fire girl rushed in and slammed the boy aside and engulfed him in flames.

"Pika! Pikachu!" A Pokemon yelled out. The Electric Mouse Pokemon pointed to the TV screen for its Trainer to see.

"What is it?" A Trainer asked as he saw the female Coordinator on the screen.

"Is that Dawn? She's in trouble! Come on Pikachu!" The Trainer ordered as Pikachu jumped on a shoulder as he ran out the door.

Back in the forest, Mikee burst out of the flames and rushed at Maya, slamming her across the face. He followed up with a hammer-fist towards the ground. She yelled out and rebounded, connecting a powerful uppercut. He crashed into more burnt trees. He grunted and fell to his knee. Mikee was exhausted by this battle already.

"You do put up a good fight, but you won't win this time, Mikee." She told Mikee and floated down to him. She slammed her foot in Mikee's face and onto his chest, making him yell out.

"I don't give a damn if Indigo told me not to kill you. I'm going to finish you off right here and now." Maya threatened as she held a fireball in her palm. Mikee looked back at her with a glare, but deep inside, he did feel helpless.

"Togekiss, use Aura Sphere! Piplup, Hydro Pump!" Dawn commanded. Togekiss fired the Aura Sphere attack, knocking the woman onto the ground while Hydro Pump made her yell out a bit with a ton of steam being released. This took Mikee's notice as he rose back up and saw the Coordinator with her Piplup and her other Pokemon.

"That was a cheap shot…" Maya grunted and looked pretty mad about that attack. Mikee went in Maya's path to guard Dawn. His energy was still fading a bit, but he wasn't going to give up.

"You think I'm done? I'm not through with you yet!" Mikee yelled at Maya, who rose back up.

"Buneary, use Ice Beam, go!" Dawn commanded. From behind Maya, a bunny-like Pokemon jumped out and fired a jagged beam of ice-blue as it hit Maya on the back, making her yell out as ice crawled on her back. Mikee now looked more surprised than ever as she stumbled forward, grunting at the ice on her back. It's been a long time since she was hurt like this.

"Mamoswine, finish it up with Take-Down!" Dawn commanded as a huge mammoth-like Pokemon dashed out at a fast speed, ramming the Fire Warrior across the sky. She was far from the site now as Dawn's Pokemon all went to her in victory.

Incredible. These Pokemon have enough strength to give Maya a run for her money. I'm impressed so far. Mikee thought as he looked to the Trainer, hugging her Pokemon, congratulating them for what they've done.

"Hey, Dawn was it?" Mikee asked as he looked pretty sincere.

"Yes?" She asked, expecting what he was going to say next. He cleared his throat and looked in the direction that Maya was sent flying in.

"Thanks." He said and smiled slightly.

"Well, you did need help and I wasn't going to sit around and watch you get hurt." She replied, which got a slight reaction out of Mikee. His embarrassment turned to sadness for a moment before he shook it off.

"Well, let's get going. We still have to find your friend and that direction has a Power Orb waiting for me to collect." He told her. She smiled and nodded, returning all her Pokemon except her Piplup, who seemed really proud of itself. Mikee walked forward until a fast green Pokemon dashed out and slashed Mikee with a glowing green leaf. Luckily, Mikee leaned away from it, causing minimal damage.

"SCEPTILE!" The Pokemon cried out and continued to try and slash Mikee, but he was dodging better this time.

"A Sceptile?" Dawn gasped. In the instant she said that, an Infernape came out with a glowing fist and this attack connected with Mikee's face, sending the warrior sprawling on the floor and into a tree. It snapped in two with the impact. Finally, a Staraptor dove in from the sky, dropping off a diving Pikachu who shone in an electric energy, slamming into Mikee once more, causing a decent-sized explosion.

"Wait, Sceptile, Infernape and Pikachu?" Dawn said to herself as things slowly added up in her mind. She looked in the direction of the city, where she saw a Trainer run to the scene.

A very familiar Trainer, as her heart skipped a beat.

"Hey Dawn, long time no see." He greeted.

She stood there for a moment before muttering…

"Ash…"

Yep, finally, Ash arrives in the story and attacks Mikee out of nowhere! Can Mikee stand up to the brute strength of his Pokemon team? You'll soon find out next chapter!

~PerfectPhoenix~