"hey," his voice calls from a distance.

a vaporeon comes bounding towards adam's lucario, tapping the dual-type with its tail. the process transfers an aqua ring onto it, successfully baton passing the rings of water that surrounded the vaporeon earlier.

the water-type skips back to kyle, who approaches adam with a hastened pace on his walk from a direction away from the center of the city. it runs circles around kyle's feet, which the trainer doesn't even bother to take mind of. instead, his focus was on the ongoing fires and how to deal with it.

"gimme the deets please."

he arrived late, as usual, but at least he was prepared. all he needed right now was the specifics of the situation.

his hand releases another pokemon from a pokeball it held while kyle waits for an answer. the jellicent starts the rain dance, bringing little respite against the raging flames that plague the city. it did little, but it was something.

Adam was glad the other two were here. More hands on deck meant they’d be able to better handle this crisis. Soul gave the Vaporeon a slight bow, the Lucario’s way of saying thanks. ”I’m glad to see you two.” Though Mateo looked like he needed his own help. ”Alright here’s the situation. Big ass fire starts near the town’s Pokémon Center. Then more fires started springing up everywhere and no matter how hard we try shit’s not dying.” He explained.

”We’ve evacuated everyone and the local firefighters are doing their best but seeing how the fires keep springing up I’ve got an idea.” Adam would point in the direction of the Pokémon center.

”I’m going to where this whole situation started to check something out. Something’s not right about the fire over there.” He released his Gyarados, the Pokémon was going to be needed for this. ”Shit looks like someone built a big ass fence around the center made out of the fire, definitely ain’t natural.” Adam said, giving his reason for his suspicion.

”I think the locals can take care of the other flames while we look into this. Might be able to put an end to this faster than this never-ending on and off game.”

"so, just go straight to the pokemon center and improvise from there, right?"

he recalls the jellicent after it starts the rain. if they'll be moving around, it'll just lag behind them. the vaporeon, however, remains out of its ball. it's not like they'll need firepower if there's three of them.

"got it."

the layout of fortree was familiar to him. he wastes no time heading straight to the direction of where the pokemon center is, whistling for his vaporeon to follow him. another aqua ring surrounds the water-type as cold air from icy wind normalizes the temperatures from the fires en route to their destination.

”Well this was easier than I thought it was going to be.” Adam remarked, Gyarados taking out a large flame in their path with a blast of water. It was suspicious that they didn’t run into any sort of complications getting to the center.

Sure the flames looked to be organized a certain way but there was nothing maintaining them in the event that they died down, so was it really man-made? Shit was getting more bizarre the deeper they got into this mess. Or Adam was thinking way too hard about all of this which was entirely possible.

He was taken out of his thoughts when he spotted a part of the ground in front of them shifting and breaking apart. What popped out was a bit of a surprise, a Gabite. ”Well, that’ll explain why we haven’t found the culprit who’s been starting these flames.” But the dragon wasn’t alone, not only did more Gabites appear in different spots but other Pokémon appeared as well and they were all fire types.

”The whole gang is here huh? Now, where’s the boss pulling the strings?” The group of Pokémon spotted the trio, and of course, this meant a fight.

”Okay boys here’s the update to the plan. Pretty obvious whoever’s pulling the strings is hiding out in the center but we’ve got to get through these goons first.” Adam cracked his knuckles.

”Let’s make this quick.” The Gyarados at his side fired off another Hydro Pump, this time keeping the blast going as it moved the attack to the side to catch more targets. ”Either once they took them all out or had an opening they’d make a break for the center.

"take the lead adam. i'll back you up."

translated without the niceties, kyle only meant for them to take initiative so he doesn't have to think of the course of action to take. taking a more supportive role in this mission was less work when both of the people he was with were competent enough. does having all three of them working on the same objective even a good allocation of resources?

kyle focuses on his job instead of thinking, cause thinking was too much work. he takes a glance at his vaporeon, and then to the gabite. the heat meant that ice-type moves would probably be weakened. he switches to his most effective gabite-killer within his current team.

"baton pass." kyle holds the vaporeon's ball up high, to which the water-type goes back to. another one takes its place as the milotic forces herself out, wearing an aqua ring generated by the vaporeon. "disarming voice," he orders.

the sound from the milotic causes the gabite to weaken and flinch, before they all retreat back to their holes. "got 'em."

With Kyle and Mateo taking care of the enemies outside Adam beelined it straight for the center. Once inside he was greeted to by a blast of flames, barely managing to dive out of the way. He had only barely caught a glimpse of the Pokémon that attacked him, a Magmortar.

Despite this being the epicenter of the entire incident the interior of the center wasn’t in complete shambles. And with the way that whoever was in here had things set up like barricades and cover they could be here for a while. Another blast of flames was flung toward the silver-haired male, this time he ducked behind cover.

And to make matters even better the Magmortar wasn’t alone but was in fact joined by its lower stage, Magmar. ”Hydro Pump!” Gyarados was most certainly too big to fit in here but the Pokémon was able to aim a blast of water through the entrance, dousing the Magmortar.

As for the Magmar, well Adam released his Garchomp who swiftly took out the other fire Pokémon. With that problem dealt with the man stepped completely out of his cover, now it was time to find the mastermind.

”The entrance and lobby are all clear! It’s good to come in!” Adam would call out to the others. Adam would then have Soul search the center for life signs, and pinpoint the one belonging to a human out of the group.

”Soul’s got a lock on the target. Follow him and we’ll be able to bag our guy.” And of course it wasn’t going to be that simple; one step into the next hallway and another blast of flames came straight for them, compliments from a Camerupt.

”I’m getting really tired of this shit. I think we can get around if we use that doorway. Someone want to distract the big lug while the others go around?” He asked. Their target would be hunkered down in a room just right past the Camerupt preventing their advance.

kyle cracks his knuckles as he steps forward. "i've always wanted an excuse to thrash a pokemon center."

the milotic is recalled back to its ball. kyle's hands move towards his belt, taking another one from his holster, and then tossing one out to replace the water-type's place. the jellicent faces the camerupt, its appearance seemingly comical in comparison with the situation.

"water spout."

the command comes without a warning from kyle. the next thing that the jellicent does is to release huge amounts of water gushing forth towards the camerupt. it easily knocks it out, but at the expense of flooding the entire floor. the torrent brings about a current that pushes every furniture away, with kyle clinging onto a pillar of the structure.

"there's your distraction!"

”Well damn.” Adam laughed. When Kyle brought a distraction the boy did brought his A-game. Though maybe he did too well of a job considering now everything was flooded. With that taken care of Adam took the long way to get around the Camerupt, having to swim a bit to get through. The room beyond was dimly lit, the only real light source being a serious of screens that surrounded who Adam figured was the culprit.

A small portly looking fellow with a headset on was sitting at these screens, around him where holes which were probably the result of the Gabites digging about. ”Well, well, well.” Adam walked towards him, cracking his knuckles as he did so.

The headset man didn’t realize Adam was there at first until he was towering over him. ”Looks like we’ve found our puppeteer boys.” The death stare Adam was giving the smaller male sent chills down his spine.

Before he could even say anything Adam and his Pokémon got to work dishing out a punishment to teach him a “lesson”, the only sounds that could be heard coming from the room were that of the man screaming.

”Alright we’re done here.” Adam would say to Kyle and Mateo, the culprit being dragged along by Adam’s Garchomp.

”This piece of shit is our guy. While I Was teaching him the valuable lessons of friendship and harmony he called off his Pokémon, there won’t be any more fires.” Kanē would hand what was left of the man over to the authorities that popped up.

”Thanks for the assist guys, always nice having you two watch my back.” Adam said with a smile, patting the two on the shoulder. ”How about for the help I treat you guys to some food? Whatever you want, ya? Just ya know don’t go overboard, I ain’t made of money.”

he claps his hands slowly as if to celebrate, though the tone of his voice and the expression of his face doesn't portray anything genuine.

"yay. big brother adam gonna treat us to a fancy steakhouse," he cheered weakly.

he recalls his pokemon before he comes over to where mateo was. he takes out his phone and turns on his yelp app, opening up a list of the top rated steakhouses in the region. he holds his phone out in a way that two of them can look at the list.

"which one do you think costs the most sounds the best," he asks him.