Logan looked down at Green, who was practically hanging onto him like a child clinging to its mother. With no choice, he tried pushing her away with his hand—only for Green to clutch tighter, wrapping around him like a koala. Her grip was so tight that Logan actually felt pain.
"P-Please… just let me hold you… just for a while…"
Her voice was as faint as a fevered dream, barely audible beneath the roar of fire splitting the skies. If Logan hadn't leaned his ear close to hers, he wouldn't have caught her words at all.
Her face was pale, her body frail, her strength utterly drained. She leaned heavily against Logan, her breathing quick and shallow, sweat beading on her brow. Just speaking one complete sentence seemed to use up every ounce of energy she had left.
The fragrance of her hair, light as orchids, drifted into his nose. But Logan had no time to think about that. Shaking her weak body, he urged sharply:
"…Pull yourself together! This is the moment your Blastoise is needed the most!"
"I… I can't… I really can't…"
Green buried her face into his chest, trembling all over. Covering her ears with both hands, she shook her head desperately, as if even the cry of the Moltres above was enough to drive her to madness.
Logan let out a heavy sigh. He could already guess her crippling fear of bird Pokémon came from childhood trauma, but he had never imagined it was this severe. The Moltres hadn't even attacked her—just a single cry had shattered her composure completely.
Even if Sigmund Freud himself descended here, he wouldn't be able to heal that childhood shadow in an instant.
"Please… please take my Blastoise… I beg you… I can't do anything right now…"
Green lifted her delicate face, her eyes trembling with tears, her words choked with fear and desperation.
"What nonsense are you talking about? I'm not forcing you to fight… this battle isn't yours to begin with."
Logan picked up her Pokéball, staring at the Blastoise inside. Yes, it had the type advantage, and it seemed powerful—but it wasn't his Pokémon. He didn't know its moveset, which techniques it had mastered, which it missed most often, how it liked to fight. If he could even bring out half of its true potential, that would already be a miracle.
If it were Erika's grass-types, he'd be confident—months of training and battling side by side had made him intimately familiar with their every strength and weakness. But with Green's Blastoise? He knew nothing.
"Forget it. We'll rely on ourselves. Eevee, evolve into Vaporeon!"
Logan had hoped Green would overcome her fear, but that was wishful thinking. Still, he never truly relied on anyone else—only himself.
"Vee!"
Eevee shimmered in pale light, its body reshaping into a sleek, aquatic Vaporeon. Yet the searing heat near Cinnabar Island's volcano made even the water-type uncomfortable.
"Dragonair—Rain Dance!"
Seeing Blaine and Sabrina preoccupied, Logan acted swiftly. His Dragonair twisted its body, summoning heavy clouds into the fiery skies. Lightning cracked, and raindrops began to fall… but before they could reach the ground, they evaporated in the suffocating heat of lava and endless fire. Steam flooded the battlefield, cloaking the volcano in a ghostly haze.
"As I thought… useless. These volcanoes are like a natural 'Desolate Land' ability. A normal Rain Dance can't change anything here. Unless… unless I had Primal Kyogre and its Origin Sea…"
Logan frowned. He had studied enough legendary lore at Professor Oak's lab to know the truth: only Primal Kyogre's sea could drown this island of flames. Asking Dragonair to achieve that was impossible.
"Vaporeon—switch! Become Flareon!"
Obeying, Eevee shifted forms again, light shimmering until the fiery Flareon took its place. In this twisted environment, even a water-type's natural advantage became a handicap. Better to harness the environment's own boost instead.
This island truly was unique—a place where type matchups could be turned on their head. Even Green's Blastoise would have been near useless here.
But Logan's attempt to alter the battlefield had not gone unnoticed. Blaine and Sabrina both turned sharply. Their eyes scanned the terrain, narrowing as they spotted him standing boldly at the edge of a magma river.
"Logan!"
Blaine's face lit up with relief. To him, Logan was the ultimate reinforcement. Not even the fire-god Moltres, empowered by this volcanic domain, could stand against Logan's Mewtwo. With Blaine's fire-types strengthened by the environment as well, victory felt within reach.
Sabrina's eyes, however, told a different story. Shock flickered for a moment, then gave way to a joy so faint it almost vanished in an instant. And then—rage. Arms folded, standing upon the burning back of Moltres, she glared down. Her gaze slid past Logan—down to the beautiful girl trembling in his arms.
In that instant, a surge of malice overwhelmed her chest, freezing her breath.
"…Moltres. Burn them to ash! Burn Up!!"
Her cold voice cracked with fury. Moltres shrieked to the skies, its flames surging violently. Its fiery body doubled in size, a colossal bird made of pure inferno, every ember of its essence unleashed at once.
This was its ultimate move—sacrificing even its own flame to release one cataclysmic attack.
Blaine went pale. He thought Sabrina was trying to use the moment to strike him down. After all, Burn Up at this range would annihilate anything caught in it.
"Charizard, dodge!!"
As a fire-type master, Blaine knew well how devastating Burn Up could be. Here, in this cursed land of flame, it was nothing less than the wrath of a fire god itself.
But then he realized… she wasn't aiming at him at all.
No—she was aiming at Logan.
Blaine's mind reeled. Had she lost her sanity? Logan had Mewtwo. Not even Arceus itself could hope to erase Mewtwo in one blow. And yet… she was trying.
The fiery skies split open as Moltres unleashed its wrath. The blazing bird of fire grew vast as a mountain, blotting out the heavens as it dove from above. The air chilled—not from cold, but from the impossible heat, every scrap of warmth being drawn into its burning wings.
"AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!"
Green screamed in horror as their world turned to fire. The searing light alone was enough to burn them to cinders. The earth shook violently, geysers of magma tearing open the ground and hurling molten rock into the sky.
BOOOOOOM!
The world exploded.
The land cracked and split apart.
Black smoke erupted into the air.
Pillars of lava soared a hundred meters high.
Firelight drenched the heavens and the earth.
Even the volcano itself began to quake, threatening to bury the island in apocalyptic magma.
But there was no triumph in Blaine's eyes. Even Sabrina's fury froze into disbelief.
Because Logan had not sent out Mewtwo.
No—he had thrown forward his Gabite.
"That's suicide! Are you insane?!"
Sabrina's scream cut through the roar, her voice sharper than the bird's own cry.
But in the very next heartbeat, all sound stopped.
From within the apocalyptic inferno, a shadow tore free—a massive dragon, its scales glinting with power.
Not a Gabite.
But a full-fledged Garchomp.
--------------------
T/N:
Check out my Patreon
[email protected]/FictionalRealms784 - (Replace '@' with 'a')
for 5 Advanced Chapters absolutely FREE—or unlock 35 Advanced Chapters
--------------------