Chapter 14 – Volcano
The sun was brilliant as Arthur made his way towards Blaine's new gym. Because the fire type trainer's original gym was within the volcano on Cinnabar, he'd been forced to relocate thanks to the eruption. The scientist had made his way to a cave in the Seafoam islands which were not far at all. They were so close in fact that many people who lived on the island would swim to the surrounding smaller islands on a frequent basis. Arthur normally would have done the same, but because he was planning on battling Blaine today, he decided to give his Pokemon a rest and rented a boat to take him to Blaine's island.
People were milling around the sandy spits of land as Arthur made his way through the channels to the correct landing. The dock there was only about half full, and the champion could see many families out enjoying the weather. Arthur killed the engine and drifted in to the dock. Jumping off, he tied up the rental speed boat and surveyed his surroundings. The path up from the dock lead in two directions. Taking the right hand route would lead down to the beach and around the rocky island jutting up from the sea.
The left hand route lead to a cave which according to local myths was home to a legend. Arthur knew that it was in this area that Red had found Articuno if certain stories could be believed. Not that he was willing to discount it, but he also wasn't so sure that the legendary bird was still roosting here. The champion still followed the path up to the cave. Inside he found that the cave was more than just a simple cave. The dripping of water showed that there was actually a subterranean cavern if the young champion decided to follow the path deeper. Or he could listen to the sign and follow the ladder leading up to a man-made hollowed out area above. Arthur elected to climb the ladder.
The heat from the chamber was intense. Fighting, rock and fire type Pokemon were all over the place moving stones and other objects out of the way. Completely refitting the area for the new gym by the looks of things. Arthur was impressed at the progress thus far.
"Sorry sir but this area is off limits currently" a younger man said to Arthur. He seemed to be completely distracted by whatever he was doing on his tablet in his hands, not even making eye contacted with Arthur.
"I was actually looking for Blaine." A man wearing a khaki's, and red shirt and white vest and sporting a cane raised his head and looked over.
"So the champion has come in person. Inspecting the damage done to my beautiful island?" Blaine asked walking up to the champion. The older leader was just a hair shorter than Arthur and completely bald. His mustache was impressive however, and completely bone white.
"I did come to help, but I was also hoping I could battle you" Arthur replied. Blaine smiled.
"You're in luck then. While my actual gym is now buried beneath the volcanic rock, I am able to hold my battles here. Clear the floor boys!" Everyone who had been working looked up and cleared the way. In the middle was a clearing, uneven in its rocky appearance, but free of any major boulders. Arthur walked forward with the fire type gym leader. Each trainer took their place at opposite ends of the field.
"Entrancing and dancing, seething and breathing, what am I?" Blaine asked. Arthur paused at the riddle. The old man was smiling as he looked across, both hands folded across his cane.
"Fire" Arthur finally said after a second's contemplation.
"Correct! Now witness if you will, its devastating power!" And quicker than Arthur thought he would be able to move, Blaine released his first Pokemon, a Magcargo. Arthur smiled at the dual typed Pokemon. Delphin would love this.
The Vaporeon entered the battle and was ready to finish this in one strike. Delphin could feel the humidity in the air, the water in the form of steam all over the cavern. He would be able to pull it all in to create a powerful wave. Which was exactly what he did.
The surf attack was certainly powerful, but what neither Delphin nor Arthur were ready for was the use of rockslide to avoid the attack. The tumbling rocks created a shield in front of the lava Pokemon upon which the wave crashed, not even coming close to touching the rock type. Arthur frowned.
"You didn't really think you could simply come in here to my gym with a water type and expect to win no problem did you?" Blaine called out.
"I figured you would have some type of strategy, however, I've never seen a rock slide completely cut off Delphin's surf like that before" Arthur replied. Blaine laughed as he ordered Magcargo to use sunny day. Flames shot out of the lava Pokemon's body and up into the air where it seemed like another sun had burst into being. The heat rose noticeably and quickly, causing Blaine's brow to become sheened in sweat and Arthur frown. The heat would decrease Delphin's power significantly, and increase Magcargo's. Arthur would have to step up this attacking thing, and quick.
Delphin was feeling more fatigued as the sun's rays beat down on the water type. The moisture in the air was quickly disappearing. This made the bubble jet Pokemon hate the fire type across from it more than he could put into words. Arthur was calling out commands though, and Delphin had complete trust in his trainer. Thus, the switch from using water type moves to ice, while not a strategy Delphin could immediately understand, he followed suit anyways. Aurora beams were fired at the Magcargo quickly and frequently as Delphin moved around using quick attack.
Arthur knew that Blaine was setting up for one powerful fire type attack, he just didn't know which one. Delphin was using quick attack and aurora beam perfectly. The flashing lights of the beams were making direct hits, though underpowered thanks to the increasing heat in the cavern. What he was waiting for though was an opening. Magcargo wasn't fast, but it had positioned itself so that the water type couldn't quite get a clear shot from a flanking attempt.
Blaine was almost ready to attack Arthur could see. But so was Delphin. The champion ordered another surf attack. The wave of water struck the snail-like Pokemon with less power than usual, but it was still enough. The fire type fell.
Blaine replaced his Magcargo with his token partner, Magmar. The spitfire Pokemon exuded even more heat, causing everyone in the cavern to have trouble breathing in the superheated furnace. Arthur smiled as he decided to add to it. Blaze shivered as he was brought out onto the battlefield. His fire was bright was he prepared for the fight.
"Now this is more like it!" He yelled. The Magmar stared at the opposing fire type, trying to gage Blaze. The Typhlosion returned the regard.
"This is Blaine's mascot Pokemon. He's bound to be powerful" Arthur said in a lower voice so only Blaze would be able to hear him. The fire type nodded.
"Fire versus fire. Now this should be an interesting battle!" Blaine called out. His Pokemon spit out embers to emphasize that it was ready. Blaze roared his challenge and began the attacking.
"Flamethrower!" Arthur called out. Blaze inhaled and let loose a stream of fire with completely incinerated everything in front of it. The attack hit the Magmar square and knocked it back a few steps. Arthur didn't let up on the attack either. Pushing the attack, he followed up with swift. This time however, Magmar fought back.
"Use overheat!" Blaine yelled. Blaze sent out the speeding star-like attack, and Magmar blew them all away. The intensity of the attack was more than Arthur was ready for. The sun powered fire attack had the same effect Blaze's flamethrower did, only amplified. Blaze weathered the attack, but the champion could see his Pokemon certainly felt the strike. The next thing both Blaze and Arthur saw was the spitfire Pokemon eat what looked like a bleached white root.
"A white herb…" Arthur said in an undertone. His partner looked back questioningly. "Careful Blaze that last overheat attack had no effect on Magmar's stats."
"What do you mean?" Blaze asked.
"Overheat should drop the user's special attack, but white herbs prevent stat lose after it happens. Meaning that Magmar's overheat the next time will be just as powerful as the one it just used."
"Well fuck, why haven't you given us any of those?" Blaze said annoyed.
"Because you don't have any attacks that do that!" Arthur countered.
"Yeah cause that makes me feel way better about this…" Blaze said as he watched his opponent once more. The other fire type was heating itself up once more.
"Use thunderpunch!" Blaine called out instead. Arthur grinned.
"Why don't we make it hard for him to walk" Arthur commented to Blaze. The Typhlosion smiled stamping hard on the ground with all four feet. The ground bucked and began trembling from an earthquake summoned forth by Blaze. The Magmar which had built up static electricity around its fist had moved forward but stumbled and fell to the rolling ground. Rocks fell around the field and one dropped on the spitfire Pokemon's leg, causing it to cry out in pain. Blaine watched helplessly as his Pokemon was subjected to the ground type attack and its effectiveness against his fire type.
By the time the earth ceased its shaking, Magmar was left unconscious. Blaze stood back up on two feet and waited. Arthur wasn't sure who would be next, but with sunny day still working its effects, his more powerful Pokemon against Blaine were left weakened. Blaze was the only one who could still do some serious damage. Blaine brought out his final Pokemon, a Rapidash. The fiery horse stamped the ground and stared right into Blaze's eyes. Arthur did some quick thinking, leaving his fire type out on the field for the time being.
"You're going to leave fire against fire once more? Even though you've given away your trump card? Your Typhlosion may know earthquake, but that won't be enough to take down my Rapidash and its blazing speed" Blaine commented.
"Are you sure Blaine? The ground here isn't really conducive to running around anymore wouldn't you say?" The gym leader laughed.
"Who said anything about running?" Blaine countered as his Pokemon leaped high into the air.
"Oh shit" Arthur said. The sentiment was echoed by Blaze who was helpless to do anything. Or so he thought. "Blaze at the last second roll out of the way and fire a swift back!" Arthur said. The fire type nodded that he had heard as he watched the horse descend with its diamond hard hooves coming straight for Blaze.
At the last possible second, Blaze rolled out of the way. The Rapidash missed by less than a hair having fallen faster than Blaze had anticipated. The swift attack however, was not evaded and crashed into the horse hard staggering it. Straightening, Blaze bounded forward closing the distance so that Rapidash wouldn't be able to use bounce again.
The dance between the two fire types lasted just long enough for sunny days effects to end. The abrupt dimness of the cavern became readily apparent and the glow from the flickering flames on the two Pokemon was practically the only way anyone could see where they were. Arthur changed the battle as quick as he could however; returning Blaze, who was quickly tiring, to his Pokeball, Arthur replaced his Typhlosion with Delphin once more.
The Vaporeon was ready. As was Rapidash however. Its glow was becoming brighter and brighter, indicating it was preparing for the overpowered fire type attack once more.
"Delphin create that water shield!" Arthur cried out and the Rapidash let out a high pitched neigh and loosed a torrent of flame. The burning stream streaked across the field straight for the water type. Delphin was ready however, creating a cocoon of water around himself. Steam billowed out in clouds, obscuring the field, but not stopping Delphin's counter of surf. The wave of water plowed into the fire type, taking out its feet. Arthur didn't wait to capitalize.
"Quick attack!" He yelled, and Delphin jumped forward into the attack. The bubble jet Pokemon speed across the field, slamming into the horse, knocking it out cold. Delphin stood over his victory heaving breaths. Arthur too was boiling, but he let out a sigh of relief that his Pokemon had pulled through, despite the superheated environment.
"Well I'm impressed champion. Not many people would be able to withstand my fire types. As a reward for that battle I'll gift you this volcano badge" Blaine said as he reached Arthur at the centre of the battlefield.
"My thanks Blaine. However, I was wondering, could we perhaps go somewhere somewhat more private to talk?" The older gym leader raised an eyebrow and pointed back toward the entrance to the cavern. Nodding, Arthur headed out.
Arthur released his team at the private spot on the island that Blaine led him too. Delphin quickly headed into the cool waters of the ocean, while the others either laid in the sand and sun or immediately started wandering around to explore. Blaine watched the six Pokemon for a minute with Arthur before asking what the champion was after.
"I was wondering what you know about three years ago. You were here when that mansion exploded correct?" Blaine frowned and looked out at the rolling waves.
"I was yes." The statement was small and spoke volumes about what Arthur was looking for.
"You were aware of what they were doing weren't you?" The gym leader sighed.
"I was not aware they were doing the science here on the island."
"Were they pursuing Dr. Fuji's research?" Arthur asked.
"One vein of it yes. He had summarized that it may be possible to clone a Pokemon from the DNA of another Pokemon that had been recently discovered. The two of us had worked together for some time on the possibility before Team Rocket came along and took our science to the next level."
"So what happened then?"
"I backed out after a time. The doctor was much smarter than I and realized what they were intending far before I did. They were looking to subvert our science and create something more powerful than anything else. Alas, the results were catastrophic."
"Were they successful?"
"Hard to say. There have been rumours that they were, which is why they're rise to power three years ago happened."
"If you both knew then, why didn't you stop them?"
"We weren't honestly sure something like that could happen. And Mr. Fuji went off to study another phenomenon, whilst I sat aside questioning what it was to be a scientist. It wasn't until I witnessed another young trainer close to your age step before the syndicate and stand up for what was right that I realized the devastating impact my research had."
"So Team Rocket created something more powerful than the legends of this region?" Arthur inquired further.
"If they were successful, then yes it is possible. But I doubt that something could have survived that explosion. The blast leveled the hilltop that the mansion was located on." Arthur frowned thinking hard. Could there be another legend out there which was more powerful than the legends of Johto and Kanto? Was this the myth that could upset the balance of nature?
"What are you searching for champion?" Blaine asked.
"Balance."