illeana reyes 's scientific breakthroughs and Eva Morales 's uncanny ability to locate Mega Stones came in handy again, this time their search for Houndoominite yielding a hit deep within the northern hills of Route 113. Thanks to a recent mini-eruption, the sky was covered in ash, making approach by air difficult. Even in her Sygna Suit, riding her Flygon in this kind of weather would hurt. That ash would weigh her wings down more than her sitting on them directly would, the sheer power output needed to keep airborne as the wet, sludge-like pulverized rock coated the wing causing her entire body to throb. As much as she loved the thrill of being on a Pokémon like that, even she and her suit had their limits.

Instead, she stuck to land Pokémon, her Houndoom skidding across the gooey surface. She, too, caught the same false front that june sleigh did, skidding down the hill and experiencing a frightening near-miss with the courier and her Pyroar. "Are you okay?" were the first words out of the Captain's mouth.

June scratched her head, nearly oblivious to the sounds of another poor soul that found her bad trail. What to do… what to do…

“Hey, Mane, think that Knight–”

June looked up the hill, drawn by the sound of sliding. Her eyes turned into saucers as she realized it was not only a person coming the slope, but a person coming directly towards her. She scrambled back, quickly jumping out of the way as the woman careened past. All the delivery girl got was a splash of green hair as she came down.

“Holy shit,” she gasped. “Not am I okay, are you okay?!”

“Wait, the fossil!”

She quickly returned to the fossil… which was thankfully out of the way of the stranger. “Phew. Thank Arceus.”

The Pyroar rumbled its deep chest. She looked at the large cat, which bobbed its head further down the hill. Right, right, should probably help whoever that was. So, June did just that. Careful not to fall further down as she navigated the slick slope. This proved harder than necessary, given the little amount of sleep she had. At least her cast, still stuck on her arm, proved to be an effective “Hey, you slide right off too? Real nasty weather around here.”

---

Shalin Nariya

The young woman and her Pyroar looked like they were in good spirits, at least. There was no real harm done, either; both appeared to have survived their falls with minimal, if zero, injury. "I did," the Captain replied. "Weather's nasty. Captain Shalin Nariya of Rustboro," the young lady introduced herself, Grimmie's tail floating back and forth after she got to her feet. She looked around for a way back up. It was too cramped for a flying Pokémon to take to the air, and until this ashfall stopped and the sun dried the landscape out, it would be too slick to climb out. "What a predicament this is. If only that ridge weren't above us, I could fly us out of here on one of my Pokémon."

She examined her surroundings for another way out, the only point of interest a tunnel. "There's a complex network of caves beneath Mount Chimney, and they're pretty well-documented. Let me cross-reference it with the RangerNet database, and we should be able to find our way out." While she was waiting for her search to finish, she suggested, "Want to have a look around? There are all kinds of rare fire Pokémon within the caves, and it's not like we can climb out until the weather clears."

Provided June thought it was a good idea, Shalin would lead the way, vaulting aboard her Houndoom mount once the tunnel got tall and wide enough to accommodate them. As they advanced, the temperature would slowly rise. To compensate, the humidity would drop, but it didn't make their surroundings any less uncomfortable.

The tunnel would give way to a deep, volcanic cave, the ambiance of bubbling magma echoing from beneath. Several Charmander were at play ahead, happily whipping their burning tails about. Just as she was about to remark on them, her search had finished. It returned zero results with their GPS coordinates.

June and Shalin had stumbled upon an undiscovered cave.

Tunnels? “No no nononononono, a cave? Fat chance in hell. You’re on your–”

June tried to backtrack up the hill, but no luck. Her feet flew out from underneath her, and she slapped against the ground with a wet thud. The process to get back on her feet proved almost as difficult, with a few attempts needed to accomplish the task. Round two proved to be much of the same effort, except she looked a lot dirtier when she got back off the soot and snow covered dirt.

“Fuck, fuck…” she trailed off. So close, and yet so far. If Knight wasn’t absolutely pissed at her, she could’ve probably gotten up there without much trouble. Mane looked at her with a face that looked like it was constipated. It was only the sound that would best be described as ‘Pyroar choking’ that she realized it was, in fact, laughing at her. A red face lit up the myriad of grays, browns, and whites that soaked her jacket.

“Fuck you!” She pulled out a Poke Ball and retreated the large cat in a huff. Damn it all. Tunnels were the fastest route, weren’t they? June bit her lip while she stared down at the opening. “Fine.”

June followed right behind Shalin, eyes firmly shut. She held onto the walls with white hands as she tried not to consider the numerous possibilities of this ending. Cave in, collapsed tunnels on top of them, and tons of dirt that pressed on her lungs and made it impossible to breathe, soil that broke into her mouth and into her lungs and choked her until–

“Fuck, are you sure you know what you’re doing?” Her voice strained. Even as the air grew warmer, and the pathway larger, the feeling didn’t go away. When they entered a massive room, filled to the brim with sulfur and brimstone, June could only see expansions of her fears. Great: she could be melted alive in a pool of magma OR stabbed from above by the many pointy rocks that dangled off the ceiling.

“So, where’s the way out?” June pointed at one of the few directions to go. “That way? Or that way? Which way is faster?”

The delivery girl walked straight ahead. “This way? I think I hear the way out this way.”

Desperation drove June forward, past the alternate pathway. Sooner she got out of here, the better.

---

Shalin Nariya
Going straight up I guess

Was june sleigh claustrophobic? Was she afraid of the unknown? She was cursing more than a sailor on the high seas. It could have been a combination of both; they were in a completely uncharted cave. As the two advanced, the temperature rose; it was clear that they were in a volcanic cave. "I've been inside Mount Chimney's crater before," Shalin answered, trying to reassure June. She would have shared the story of her journey with Cillian Quinn , whom she knew as Finn, but it may have spooked her more. That she made it out of perhaps the hottest inferno in Hoenn alive was a small miracle. And what for? To give Rocket an incredible resource of hatching Ultra Beast eggs en masse and potentially weaponizing them?

Opening the Pandora's Box that was the Halls of Origin turned out to be the biggest mistake she had ever made in her life.

She couldn't think about that now. All she could think about was finding the way out. June was right in following the light at the end of the tunnel they were in. Except that light was red, not white.

The cavern, while not unbearable, was certainly uncomfortable, making Shalin sweat as she walked up to the volcanic cliff's edge and peered down. Roughly three levels beneath them was a stone spire at the very center of the buried crater. Fire Stone was embedded in the cavern's walls; anyone with a pick could mine high-quality, natural evolution stone that could be used many, many times, unlike synthetic ones that were only good foe one evolution.

"Keep your eyes out for fire Pokémon," Shalin cautioned June. "We'll find a way out of here. Even if the way we came is the only way in, it won't be as slick coming out after the weather passes. If you ever wanted a fire-type, you can probably find some really rare ones here." She wondered if a legendary fire-type made its home at the bottom of the crater. Perhaps she was too far away, but she felt no such Infinity Energy signature. Her experience with her Sygna Suit gave her an idea what to look for, though she guessed legendary Pokémon who didn't want to be detected had plenty of ways to mask that signature.

As she headed toward the narrow cliff to her left, Shalin asked June, "Do you have a water or ice Pokémon with you? Keeping cool is going to be really important."

“Great! Just great. It's good to know my income is knee-capped WHILE I have a ton of rock burying me alive. Just fucking great…” June grumbled. If she ignored the fact that Shalin basically said that she didn’t know the way out, she was fucked even if they did go back the way they came. She was better off sitting outside next to that one fossil than being in here. At least if the cave collapsed, she wouldn’t be underneath it all.

Arceus, why her, and why now?

“And I don’t,” she quickly said as they skirted around the edge of the cliff. She tugged at her jacket’s collar and then decided to pull the whole thing off. Rather difficult, given her cast, but it peeled off her sweaty skin once that hurdle was cleared. “Not on me, anyway.”

That Vaporean sat comfortably in her PC at the moment. Lucky bastard. All she had were a bunch of birds and a really aggressive, fucked up dragon. She didn’t need fire types, either. There were already two fire types on her belt, and they were both doing just fine. Fine as they could be, with a sprained paw and a broken wing.

“Why are you asking this now? Might’ve been something to consider before we came in here,” June said. The miscellaneous fire types looked to be quite fine in the environment, from the Slugma that crawled along the lower walls to the Sizzilpedes which basked in the ambient heat of the cavern.

However, a flash of light disrupted her chain of complaints. The one Pokémon she had that wasn’t a bird or a fire type, yet arguably less helpful in the current circumstances, popped out and waddled right behind Shalin. Gible, as clueless and stupid as an actual rock, now ran ahead of June and even past Shalin.

“You, get back there!” June picked up the pace, now a fast walk, to her Pokémon. “I don’t need any more problems down here, you little bastard!”

Their journey continued down the left path. At least her past worries about the cave were forgotten, even if only for a moment.

---

Shalin Nariya
To the left we go!

june sleigh 's pessimism was beginning to get on Shalin's nerves. When on tilt, the mind was more apt to make mistakes, and even a single mistake in such a hostile environment could result in them turning into piles of ash and molten bones. "I've got a few on me. I've got your back--" she cut herself off. "Oh, I don't think I ever got your name!"

Regardless of whether June would introduce herself, Shalin would click the switch of one of her Poké Balls, a saddle-wearing Greninja adept at moving on all fours like a frog rather than standing upright. "Hey, Keimi, mind cooling things off with your WATER SPORT?" she asked, withdrawing Grimmie and landing on her feet. With a nod, the obedient dark-type tilted his head to the ceiling and sprayed a fountain of temperate water that felt like stepping into an air conditioned room by comparison. The water quickly evaporated in the dry, hot conditions, but it was still a great form of temporary relief.

Once the Gible took off down the west passage, which substantially narrowed as it wound around the crater, Keimi trailer for as long as he could, though he stopped when the ledge became narrow. "This is... too narrow to even think about riding a Pokémon across," Shalin said with a frown, seeing how far the Gible had gone ahead. "Think you can get close enough to withdraw your Gible?" Shalin asked June. "Otherwise, we're gonna have to try to sidle across the cliff. And you better have a flying Pokémon ready if it gives way." There was also a cave mouth, and a much wider one at that, just before the cliff narrowed. It would likely take them farther away from the Gible, but it at least looked safer from the outside.

“No no no! Don’t go… that way,” June trailed off. Her short run stopped plenty before the path became more like a tightrope of stone. Unfortunately, the Gible did not consider this. It charged straight ahead, oblivious to the peril if it took even one step to the right. No, for such a creature, the prospect of a really exciting place, alongside this really large pebble that it grasped in both hands, was worth the attention.

Not a potential swim into magma.

“I can try,” June pulled at her collar. The Water Sport felt like a spray bottle to a house fire, but anything was better than nothing she supposed. Perhaps not as she inched closer to the edge, which only got hotter as she exposed herself more and more to the open heat of the molten rock below.

After a few more careful footsteps, she had to back off. It was too hot, and she could feel the soles of her shoes sticking to the ground. “No can do. Way too hot. Fuck. Uh… okay, I have an idea.”

Another Pokémon was unleashed from her belt. A Noivern, large yet thin all the same. It craned its head and let out several chits into the cave. June instead pointed to the Gible, who looked none the wiser but all the happier with its quarry, “No need. Just… get me to that dumbass. Please.”

If it could physically sigh, then it looked like it did as June climbed aboard. With several flaps of the wings, it went airborne and slowly towards the idiot creature. Thankfully, it did not take a surprise dive off the cliff as June reached over, grabbed the thing carefully, and returned to Shalin.

The Noivern returned to the ball, but the Gible did not. Despite the very casual, almost deliberate suicide attempt, it looked too happy. How could June deny the creature that now gnawed on its prize experimentally? She couldn’t, despite the incredibly strong urge. However, her Jacket did get wrapped around its sides like a swaddle. Its skin was way too rough to keep in her arms otherwise.

“Alright, idiot captured. Let’s just… fuck,” she looked around the cavern. It was either go back to the other path, or go down into the new tunnel. After several long moments, June motioned towards the path that skirted the pit of death. “I guess… we go… into the tunnel… again…”

Ugh. More exploring. Yay.

"How the hell do you do this for a living?"

---

Shalin Nariya

Path on the left, not around the very big pit

Her bug-type flying mounts would not save her in a volcanic cave. Even if they could catch her, the heat would singe their wings. With the power of her Sygna Suit, they were sturdy enough to buzz Shalin about, but they were not strong enough to avoid catching fire. She had to be especially careful around the edges of cliffs. The Noivern was more suitable for flying above the glowing, bubbling goop, but even then, it wasn't a Pokémon to be wholly reliant upon.

After June withdrew her Gible, Shalin led the way to the cooler tunnel leading away from the magma. At the end of the tunnel was a Pyroar den, its inhabitants appearing to be out and about... with exception of one female. The normal-type snarled at Shalin, its expression and body language a telltale sign that she was trespassing. "I've got the Pokémon perfect for this," she smiled, tossing a Poké Ball containing a Kommo-o toward the lioness. The dragon-type, too, wore a saddle, which Shalin was quick to take a seat on. With a sharp tug on the reins to induce a rear, the Pokémon stood up on only its hind legs, the girl's hair standing on end as the dragon's fists began to hum and vibrate. The jungle queen, knowing when to back down, turned tail at the flourish of power the Kommo-o exhibited. Shalin's skin tingled from the feedback, but she was otherwise okay.

Illuminated by several Fire Stones embedded in the wall was an intricate pattern of scratches resembling a complex network of forks and tunnels. Was this a map, left by there by ancient, forgotten Hoennians that once harvested Fire Stone many eons ago? For now, it did not matter; they had a map of the cave system. Its accuracy was unknown, but it was certainly better than nothing. It took Shalin a few tries to snap a steady enough photo to reference on her phone. "Might be prudent of you to commit this to memory, whether it be mental or digital," she half-teased June. "Either way, it should really help in finding us another way out."

You got the MAP! You can use it to see your current position and the rest of this dungeon.

Ok, Shalin was probably some level of insane. Not only does she willingly fight a Pyroar in its den, she does so when there are plenty of other ones around. Willing and able to fight. At least she had a cracked-as-hell beast to take it on, but seriously? June only stepped forward when the threat was neutralized, and it looked like no one wanted a round two.

“Okay, cool, sweet, yea, alright,” she rocked the Gible gently in her arms. Not for the draconic basket ball’s sake– he looked to be having an absolute blast, excited and waving its stubby little arms over the place. It was for the trainer, who looked at the wall with dulled senses. “This is…”

Wait, hold on, this was a map! “Fuck yes! We can find… a way… out…”

While Shalin snapped pictures, June stared blankly at the wall of stone. So that lead there… and that goes there… that’s an effective dead end… but then that was… hold on…

“There’s no second way out, is there?!”

Each stairway accounted for, and none looked the same as the entrance did. Even worse, it looked like things got much simpler the further they went down. All of it led to a final pit of death and despair. Her heart sank even further, deeper than this cave system could ever hope to go.

“Fuck me, these people were looking to die or something! No wonder they’re all gone,” she concluded as she took a few shakey steps away from the wall. The Gible stared off into space, its tiny brain fried from the information. It didn’t make sense though. There had to be a second exit. No way in hell the people here just wanted the single place to get out and expect to last a single year.

“There’s… gotta be a faster way out. But it’s probably further… down…”

Arceus be damned. That bastard was testing her surely. Why else would the options be ‘sit in the cold and hope conditions improved at any reasonable pace’ or ‘go into a cave and hope it didn’t fall in on the pair’.

“I guess we gotta… gotta, gotta go d-d-down. Then. And the fastest way is… all the way next to the entrance if you don’t want to explore. And if you do… then the next way down is around the pit of lava,” she took one last look before she put it behind her back. Was it just her, or did that awful sulfur smell only get stronger?

Must be the realization.

“I’d like to get out of here as fast as possible, but you look to be good at that whole Pokémon fighting thing so… lead the way. I guess,” she said. They walked out of the cave entrance, June once again in tow as Shalin lead them… wherever she wanted to go.

---

Shalin Nariya

June's despair was met with confident reassurance from the dragon's rider, Treble gently shaking his tail scales in a soothing jingle. "We don't know how accurate it is, but it seems accurate so far," Shalin said, comparing the photograph with her notes. "And we have Treble." Without her Sygna Suit on, she wouldn't be able to stay mounted during battle, lest the dragon's scales vibrate her into paste. She didn't need to, though. "If we can't find a way out, Treble will make us a way out. Let's see if we can get to the westernmost side of the cave. That's gotta be close enough to Fallarbor. If the map is to be believed, our best bet will be on the third level down."

Turning around, Shalin led the way out of the somewhat cooler den and back into the heated elements. She withdrew her Kommo-o, sidling across the narrow ledge to the cave's north end. Peering down, she saw what appeared to be the remnants of an ancient temple of some kind. Was this buried after an eruption in ancient Hoenn's past? She wouldn't bring it up until both her and June were across safely. "Hoenn really is full of surprises, isn't it? I wonder what's down there," she pointed.

Turning toward the yellow mark on the map, June seemed to be right. It was a tunnel that appeared to descend to a lower level. Not far from it was a strangely-colored, hard-looking stone. "Hey, Treble, can you take a look at that and see if you can get it out?" With a nod, the Kommo-o raised his fist and covered the surrounding soft rock with it. The vibration afterward was loud and grating, the two perhaps able to feel the violently disrupted air.

Walking back to Shalin, the dragon-type opened his closed fist, revealing a piece of marble-like, red-and-black stone. "Can you feel the Infinity Energy radiating from this?" Shalin asked June. "I think... it's a shard of a Mega Stone!"

You got a HOUNDOOMINITE FRAGMENT! This is your 1st one!

June shimmied across the pit of lava relatively fine, even with a boisterous Gible in her arms. Her gaze was locked at the various pointy rock spears of death instead of the molten lava. After all, she rode far above the ground every day of her life. Falls and heights with extreme turbulence, real fears– absent in the face of the imaginary danger presented by those earthen bolts.

“Great, a scavenger hunt,” she muttered. Her angry thoughts quickly disappeared as the Kommo-o vibrated like a machine. Except it was a living being, she didn’t have any control on it, her teeth danced in her mouth, and she saw wayward bits of rock rattle on the floor. A glance above eased any immediate fears, but did little for her thunderous heartbeat.

“I could feel my skull rattling,” she said. The delivery girl's path brought her to the downward tunnel instead. “Not your ‘Infinity Energy’. But also, maybe be careful? I don’t want to get skewered because your dragon there gets too excited.”

With one last glance towards the distant ceiling, she pushed onwards and downwards. “I guess a shard of a Mega Stone is pretty surprising, though. I hear those go for a pretty penny.”

June doubted the girl would part with the shiny rock, though. Maybe she’d fine her own, something infinitely more valuable than some stupid fossil. Hell, howard slayte might even buy it off her hands? Who knew. There wasn’t any more visible stones at the immediate exit of the slanted, dark tunnel though. Just a wild group of Sizzlipede, which scattered as she ventured forward.

June took several deep breaths, each one more unsatisfying than the last. “Okay, alright, it’ll be… okay… uh, got three paths. Straight one was… a dead end. I think. Left one just looks like another tunnel. Don’t think it lead anywhere crazy. And that… looks to be a bigger room.”

She pointed towards the right, indirectly at a few Boldores that plodded along the edge of the room. “I say that way. But if you REALLY want to check out that straight path first, then… I’ll wait for you. To look around. Just don’t expect me to follow you in there, or anything.”

Just a look down that way put an invisible pressure on her chest.

---

Shalin Nariya

While Shalin was examining the fragment of a Mega Stone, Treble had apparently been too excited for june sleigh 's tastes, the Kommo-o sending pieces of rock whizzing a little close for comfort. "I'm sorry - I'll give you some warning going forward! I get the feeling he'll be doing this a lot." That Treble wore a saddle and did that showed how crazy Shalin was. Who wanted to be rattled around like that?

"They do," Shalin answered, "but depending on what Pokémon it's for, I might want to use it instead." She would, of course, have to find all the Mega Stone's pieces before she could do so. If there was one person who could search every nook and cranny of such a small space, though, it was Shalin!

Shalin noted June's apprehension, both to the Boldore and to going further along. It seemed like she wanted to leave the baking cave as soon as possible. Who would blame her? This place, which she would later name Chimney Chasm, was dangerous. A haven for rare and powerful fire-type Pokémon, but dangerous. And why was there a shattered Mega Stone here? So many mysteries to solve, and a scared-stiff partner to do it with. Coming alone would be a real challenge, and she needed to bring Merton with her. The Talonflame was the only flying-type she had that could take the heat.

The part straight ahead led to an overlook of the crater. "Looks like we'll be able to see farther down," Shalin observed aloud as she and Treble walked toward the natural catwalk's edge. It was narrower than she'd have liked; how did such a rock formation survive so many eruptions? Yet another mystery to be solved another time.

Embedded within a topped stalagmite was another Mega Stone fragment. Though in plain sight, this one would be trickier to obtain. She needed a way to stop the fragment from going flying once Treble extracted it. He also couldn't use too much force, or the overhang might crack along with it, sending them tumbling into the goop below. Goop that would make Shalin and her Pokémon no more than ash and molten bones. She didn't like her solution, but it was the best she had. "Mia, get out there and use BARRIER!" Shalin cheered for the Glaceon, who immediately began sweating profusely. The ice-type was in pain from being exposed to such inhospitable conditions. Wanting to leave her in as little danger as possible, the Captain also ordered Treble to get started. He started out slow, but ramped up the vibration as quickly as Shalin felt safe. The fragment ricocheted off the Glaceon's melting BARRIER several times before coming to a stop at Shalin's feet.

You got a HOUNDOOMINITE FRAGMENT! This is your 2nd one!

No sooner than she had it in her hand did she recall both of her Pokémon and head back. Agreeing with june sleigh 's assessment, Shalin hopped back onto her dragon. "Treble's a fighting-type, too. I'm sure the Boldore will think twice about messing with him. Let's head that way."