Chapter Fifteen: Fly Cinnibar Island was the last stronghold of the Sunder Force, and they were worried because there still weren't many soldiers guarding it. However, Fire Strike were alone this time. In the chopper, Leah had told them that they used Water and Ground types here. The wide open streets of Cinnibar allowed plenty of room for battling. There was enough room for each of the 14 trainers to line up single file and face the enemy. Sunder Force was gathering ahead of them. About fifty trainers in all were grouped there, and the first wave of mostly Ground types attacked. "Blastoise, go!" "Starmie, attack!" "Kabutops, I choose you!" "Kingler, attack!" "Dragonair, go!" In an instant, Fire Strike's first line of defence was out. Blastoise charged at the enemy with it's Geyser attack- with hydro cannons at full power, Blastoise slammed into an enemy Sandslash, finishing it off. Starmie used it's Point Razor attack, spraying water from each of it's points over the enemy. Kingler sidled up to a nearby Marowak and grabbed it with Crabhammer, clutching it with one claw and beating it senseless with the other. While the others attacked head on, Kabutops used Hydro Pump and Dragonair used Bubblebeam. The enemy's best tactic was to attack with other Water Pokémon. A Vaporeon leapt up and Quick Attacked Starmie while a Wartortle team attacked Dragonair with their Bite and Skull Bash attacks. Fire Strike called back their Water types and sent out their Electric and Grass Pokémon. Matt's Venusaur and Victreebel lashed out with Razor Leaf while Vileplume fired bolts of Mega Drain. A Rhyhorn with an attitute appeared out of nowhere and used Earthquake, damaging the Grass-Poison types. When they turned to blast it, it dug back underground, and the Water Pokémon got in a free hit before being blown into orbit. Matt's Tangela and Nick's Squirtle jumped down the hole created by Rhyhorn, intent on catching it. Jessica's Electabuzz appeared and began Thunderpunching anything arrogant enough to come near it. Just when it seemed they were about to win the battle, however, Eric got their attention. Coming out of the water behind them was a gigantic Mr. Mime. "It figures," Uiru sighed. "Well, we havn't fought one of these in ages," Allison stated. Mr. Mime sent waves of Psychic energy blasting down the street. Although this Mr. Mime was full-sized, they were kinda short to begin with. However, that didn't stop it from causing all Pokémon that had Poison in them from fainting instantly. "Venusaur, Victreebel, Vileplume, return!" Matt cursed. "Bug attacks work on Psychic types," Patrick declared. "So let's send some of them!" Four Scyther and two Pincir appeared, ready for war. The six savage Bug Pokémon used Swords Dance before charging Mr. Mime like a wrecking crew. Allison considered sending Primeape, but decided against it. "Magneton, attack! Thunder Wave!" Unfortunately, Magneton was quickly swatted out of the way by Mr. Mime. Then it took to swatting at the many Bug Pokémon assailing it. "Butterfree, go!" Uiru shouted. "Use Nature's Pin!" Butterfree charged Mr. Mime and slammed it with the only attack that was truly effective on the beast. As Mr. Mime swung at Butterfree, the Scyther and Pincir team continued to hack away at it's degrading armor. "Porygon, go!" Eric shouted. "Conversion, Harden, and Sharpen!" Again, Porygon let off a light show, and when it was over it was ready for battle. "Pidgeotto!" Robert shouted. "Drop Porygon on Mr. Mime's head!" Pidgeotto carefully picked up Porygon and flew straight at Mr. Mime's face. Releasing Porygon, it struck the thing right in the forehead, where it Tri Attacked with a savage fury. At this time, however, Mr. Mime unleashed a Psychic blast that sent everything attacking it flying away. The Pincirs crashed to the ground but the Scyther caught themselves in midair and charged again. Patrick and Eric summoned their Butterfree and had them attack with Nature's Pin as well. Mr. Mime raised it's arms, then spread them wide. The Pokémon attacking it were frozen in place. It brought it's arms together, sweeping all the pesky Bug types into one place. Then it started slamming them with Psychic! "Jigglypuff, Light Screen!" Heidi sent her musical Pokémon to shield the bugs, but even it couldn't block Mr. Mime's power. Alakazam and two Kadabra appeared and backed it up. Mr. Mime began pounding on the invisible wall formed by the Psychic defenders. "All right, Pincir! Scyther! Butterfree!" Patrick shouted. "Prepare to blast this thing! Forest Spirit!" Dragging themselves to their feet, the army of Bug types began to let their power flow into one another. The light green sparkling of their energies caused Mr. Mime to panic, and it brought up Barriers and Light Screens to protect itself. No good. The Scyther suddenly jumped straight up in the air and dove at Mr. Mime while the Butterfree flew straight at it. On the ground, the two Pincir charged it like a train. Still glowing, the eight Bug Pokémon went straight through Mr. Mime, causing a giant explosion of sparkling green energy. When it disappated, Mr. Mime had vanished. "All right!" Patrick shouted. The Bug types cheered. They were worn out, however. At that moment, a cloud of purple smoke fell over the Pokémon! "What the hell? Return!" Uiru recalled his Butterfree. The others were recalled as well, but some of them were poisoned. It was Sunder, with his Venusaur. "That's it, Uiru," he growled. "I'm taking this whole place out. Come and get me, if you dare..." His Hypno appeared from behind Venusaur, and the three disappeared. "What does he mean?" Eric asked. Leah gasped. "The volcano. He's going to blow up the volcano!" "Oh, shit!" Pittman cursed. "What's the quickest way up there?" Uiru demanded. "The air!" Robert declared. "Pidgeotto, Fearow, Farfetch'd!" "I get it," Geoff declared. "Gyarados, I choose you!" The large flying dragon Pokémon could carry anyone who couldn't fly up themselves. Eric grabbed Staryu and Jessica jumped on Starmie. Farfetch'd latched on to Heidi's backpack with it's talons. Robert grabbed Pidgeotto's talons while Fearow clung to Leah. "If you don't mind..." Thomas called out his Dodrio. "I'd rather hoof it." The trainers filed on Gyarados. Pittman was the last to get on. "It looks overloaded," he stated. "Can I borrow your Dodrio Robert?" Robert called out Dodrio and the trainers flew towards the volcano at the center of Cinnibar Island. Sunder looked around, and realized that his base was perfectly visible from the air. "Ah, damn," he swore. Things were not going his way at all. All his subordinates were in jail. Fire Strike had singlehandedly cleared his forces out of every city they had worked so hard to obtain. And on the other side of Mt. Moon, his forces were taking a severe beating. He had lost, and he knew it. And now, those damn teenage trainers were on their way to capture him as well. Knowing full well how unstable the Power Stones were, he pulled out the Bug and the Flying stones. "I was gonna make a Scyther with an attitude out of these," he muttered to himself. "Oh well. At least they'll be able to pop the volcano for me. I'll do some damage before they catch me." In the air, he saw the incoming Gyarados and pals. "Shit," he cursed. He ran into the cave that led straight to the interior of the crater. He soon realized he didn't have a light. Only the light from outside and the faint glow of the Power Stones kept him from falling into a crevise. He still couldn't see very far, though, and it took him a little while before he found the ledge overlooking the volcano's lava pit. "All right," he declared. The ledge was rather large, but was tilted slightly down towards the lava. It was a good 200 feet down, however. "Sunder!" Leah shouted. He turned. Fire Strike and the others were standing there. "You're too late," Sunder declared. "When I drop these stones into the volcano, the resulting imbalance will cause one hell of an eruption." "You'll destroy Cinnibar!" Eric declared. "We won't let you do it." A small earthquake shook the inside of the volcano. Sunder dropped the Bug Power Stone! It bounced towards the edge! "Oops," Sunder said. Jigglypuff ran down the slope and grabbed the Power Stone! It cried out in alarm, however, when the weight of the Stone pulled it over! "Jigglypuff!!" Heidi shouted. "Pidgeotto, Fearow! After them!" Robert declared. Since Jigglypuff was extremely light, Fearow had no problem catching it and bringing it back up to Heidi. Pidgeotto, however, had to dive into the increasing heat to catch the heavy rock. It had a simple solution for that problem, though. It evolved. Pidgeotto evolved into Pidgeot! The Bug Power Stone was almost in the lava when Pidgeot swooped down and caught it in it's talons. It didn't have a very good grip, but it was fast. The next instant, it was delivering the Bug Power Stone to Robert. "Damn! Give it back! Venusaur, I choose you!" Sunder sent Venusaur to grab the Rock back. "You fool! It's way too hot in here for Venusaur!" Matt shouted. "It'll fry!" Matt was right. Venusaur was in pain and couldn't battle properly. "Return." "Don't try to call out Pincir, either," Patrick reminded. "Why are you giving him tips?" Thomas asked. "His Pokémon don't deserve to fry," Matt stated. "Just because he's an idiot doesn't mean his Pokémon should suffer." Sunder raised the Flying Power Stone. "One stone'll have to do!" He hurled it down the slope! One of Nick's Poké Balls opened, and a small blue figure leapt out of it. Bouncing down the slope, it managed to block the Stone! "Horsea!" Nick shouted. "Come back, it's way too hot for you too!" "Cubone, go!" Leah shouted. "Get the Stone!" Cubone slid down the slope and literally golfed the Power Stone back up to Leah. Then it grabbed Horsea and brought it up. Nick hugged the little sea horse then returned it. "You're out of options, Sunder," Uiru declared. "You'll never defeat all of us, especially with four Pokémon." "And there's nowhere to run," Jessica informed him. Sunder looked around, then looked up. "No..." he breathed. "I'm not going to be taken in again. I'm not going to be disgraced like that again." He pulled his six Poké Balls off his belt. Sunder rolled them towards Uiru. "Release them outside. And tell that son of a bitch Booster that I'll see him in hell." "Wait a second..." Pittman said. "Sunder, don't!" Uiru shouted. He did. Sunder ran down the slope and jumped. "Pidgeot, Fearow, go!" Robert shouted. The two Flying types tried to catch him but Sunder swatted them away. "Well, look on the bright side," Eric stated as they walked down the mountain. "He's probably happier where he is now then here. Evil despots bent on global domination usually aren't the happiest of people." "And we don't have to deal with him anymore," Nick declared. "We won!" Uiru shook his head. "I dunno... Booster's not going to like this." He had Sunder's six in his pocket. "I'll release them when we get back to the mainland." "Good. Now will you lighten up?" Jessica asked. "We didn't push him, he jumped. It's not our fault. Now, we can either sit around and mope about it or go celebrate." Nick slapped him on the back. "You know what that means," he laughed. Uiru laughed, then hit him. "Will you give it up?" "Yeah. I meant all of us," Jessica replied. "No, wait a second- Oh, never mind." Nick looked at Leah. "All of us, eh...?" "What?! No way!" she shouted. "Besides, she's Pittman's woman," Thomas informed them. "Hey, shut up!" Pittman barked at him. Leah kicked him. Nick turned to Patrick. "This is two stories now, and we still don't have girlfriends." "Tough life," Patrick nodded. "Hey Heidi, what did you make your Eevees after?" Allison asked. "I havn't evolved them yet," she admitted. "I don't think I will either. They're just too cute right now!" "Speaking of cute," Uiru stated. "How's Horsea, Nick?" "I think it's got heat stroke or something. I think it'll be okay when we get it to the Center. I gave it a Hyper Potion and a Burn Heal." "Horsea was really brave!" Matt declared. "It saved the whole island." "And Pidgeot and Fearow were brave too," Jessica stated. "They had to fly in the heat. If you thought it was hot up where we were, imagine what they went through." "And don't forget Jigglypuff," Robert declared. "Little puffball caught the first stone." "So, what are you guys going to do now?" Eric asked. "Go home, most likely," Uiru stated. "I like this country, but you can't beat your own place." "Yeah, did we tell you about our base?" Geoff asked. "It's on a mountain and you can see for miles," Jessica stated. "When people pass by, we heal their Pokémon for them," Patrick stated. "And we're about to open a Gym there too." "Cool. Maybe we'll come visit some day," Leah declared. "How do you get there?" Heidi asked. "Just go to Magenta Park and tell them you wanna go to Charteruse," Allison stated. "They'll be able to tell you how to get there." By this time, they had gotten off the mountain. The group headed for the Pokémon Center. Finally, it was time to go. Heidi ran up and hugged Uiru. "Goodbye Uiru!" she said, a slight waver in her voice. "Goodbye everyone!" Jigglypuff waved. "Later, Robert," Patrick stated. "Guys, we really appreciated all your help," Uiru said to the others. "You can consider yourselves part of Fire Strike." "Cool!" Leah declared. "Here, better give you this." She gave Uiru the PLM credit card. "Oh, thanks," Uiru stated. "Time to go!" Nick shouted from the cockpit. Fire Strike boarded the helicopter and waved, then it lifted into the air. Pittman watched it fly away. "Well, that was wierd," he stated. "That was a blast," Eric stated. "My Kadabra evolved... Hey, maybe I should trade it like Uiru did so it'll evolve." "Yeah, I've got a Haunter," Thomas stated. "We'll trade them and then trade back." They went back into the Pokémon Center to evolve their Pokémon. The nurse ran up to them. "There's a giant Lapras attacking Vermillion City!" she told them. "Have Fire Strike left yet?" "Yeah," Pittman said. He turned to the others. "Hey! Do you think we can deal with this ourselves?" "I think we can!" Eric declared. "Let's go!"