AtraAtra was out in the wilds around the city by himself when the sun was suddenly blotted out above him. Looking up, Atra realized it was the outline of a familiar Salamence, and quickly scrambled out of the way as she landed.
"Young Master Eclipse! I've been looking for you." The Salamence boomed in a strong but gentle voice. Atra hated having to look up to speak with her, but he tried his best to ignore it. Since she was a Salamence after all.
"What do you need Mrs. Victor?""Have you seen Sherman anywhere?"Atra shook his head.
"No, haven't seen him since I joined the guild. Why?" The Victor family serves Pluto as guards, and Sherman was their only son. He was also Atra's best friend as well as exploration buddy.
"Oh dear, we haven't seen him or Melanie since yesterday."Melanie Azalea the Chikorita was a part of Atra and Sherman's tight-knit group. Before the eevee left for the Guild they had done everything together.
---
As Mrs. Victor landed in front of the Eclipse manor (Pluto's, not the main castle), a crowd was gathered on the drawbridge. Atra hopped off her back and ran forward, shoving his way through the curious crowd of servants towards the hulking form of another Salamence. When they realized who he was, they parted for him.
Atra skidded to a stop at Mr. Victor's feet, staring at an unconscious Bagon on the ground. He was scratched and covered with burns, and even as he arrived several servants were already putting him on a stretcher to bring into the castle.
"What happened to Sherman?" Atra demanded, staring up at Mr. Victor's head.
"And where's Molly?" Molly was what Melanie preferred to be called. The Salamence looked down, positively looming over the tiny little Eevee, but his posture was submissive.
"Sir, while sweeping the Northern lands I happened to come across my son's body on the side of the Volcano. There was a small cave opening pouring smoke out into the air. I suspect he must have gone into the volcano and barely escaped through the opening. We have had found no signs of Miss Azalea, but we do suspect-"The Salamence stopped his report when he realized a look of shock come over Atra's face.
"Is something wrong Young Master Eclipse?" Mr. Victor asked, trying not to sound anxious. He wanted to be dismissed so he could go watch over his son. Atra shook his head and turned around, catching sight of a hysterical Bayleaf wailing in the crowd. Molly's mother.
"Molly's in the Volcano. I'm going to get her out."---
Mr. Victor agreed to fly Atra back to the spot he had found his son, and Atra groaned inwardly the moment he spotted it. It was noticeable from miles away; a smoking vent at the edge of the mountainside. They landed roughly, and Atra examined the opening.
"Can you please wait for me here? If I'm not back by nightfall, the search party would have already been organized." The young Eevee was being uncharacteristically grim and formal.
The Salamence fidgeted.
"Sir, is it really safe to let you go alone? I do not think your father would approve-""Screw my father. Molly needs me."Atra approached the opening, coughing as the acrid smoke entered his nose and lungs. He summoned his psychic abilities, pushing the smoke particles protectively away from himself, forming a globe of clear air around him. Behind him Mr. Victor watched on nervously, but he was much too big to enter the little opening to accompany him.
For Atra it was the perfect size, and he carefully picked his way through the rocky tunnel. The walls and floor were wrinkled and black, rough to the pads on Atra's paws. It sloped steeply downwards, and the temperature began to climb dramatically. The air was so hot that eventually every breath stun his lungs painfully. He did his best to disperse the heat with his ice magic, fearing for Molly's life.
This tunnel. He, Sherman and Molly had found it while exploring the mountains ages ago. While most explorers knew of the crevice at the base of the mountain that entered the tunnel systems within the semi-active volcano, the kids had found this alternate entrance. They had often dared each other to enter, and had only ever gotten as far as the end of the tunnel before turning tail and scurrying back.
Because the end of the tunnel simply opened up into a crack in the wall of a huge chamber. The crack was far above any sort of solid ground, the wall sloping steeply downwards, and below them ran a maze of solid rock frozen in odd shapes and pools, even rivers of magma.
It was at this point Atra was forced to stop again, nearly overwhelmed by the heat which hit him like a wall. It wasn't the humid heat of the jungle or the dry heat of the desert; it was the baking acrid heat of something burning in a oven. It wasn't pleasant and no one except fire Pokemon would ever truly be able to get used to it.
Atra felt the reassuring weight of the Earth Plate strapped to his back. It emanated power, ancient power, and he knew he could call upon Arceus himself to aid him. He could do this, what could go wrong?
He could fall into a pool of lava.
Pushing unpleasant images out of his mind, the Eevee looked at the rough uneven walls of the room that sharply sloped down into the rock-and-lava below. He made his way carefully, grabbing onto one handhold and then another, testing each before putting his weight on it. He was panting hard -Eevees couldn't sweat to release heat- and was doing everything he could to keep his core temperature down.
He slipped at one point and went tumbling downwards, flailing violently and desperately. He finally came to a stop against a large crest in the rock, tail in the air and head against the ground. If he had continued to head in that direction, he would have rolled right into one of the rivers of lava.
After a long long time of carefully navigating the slope, he finally found himself the rough, wrinkly rock that was relatively flat at the bottom of the chamber. It was folded over itself many times, and Atra knew it was hardened lava- magma. It was excruciatingly hot to walk on, and the Eevee soon found himself using up enormous amounts of energy simply draining his magic to keep himself cool. It took a tremendous amount of willpower for him to lower the use of ice magic to the bare minimum he needs to function.
He looked around, seeing that he had landed in a relatively large area of solid rock. The entire chamber stretched out far enough that the haze produced by the heat distorting the air made it look as if it went on forever.
To his left was a large lake of lava. In the middle of it was a large column of rock, as if a wave of lava had rose, formed a crest before attempting to crash down, and was suddenly hardened. Atra stared at it, and more specifically the speck of green at its tip.
Looking up, he could see that the column was pretty much a straight path down from the crack; had she slipped and fallen down, miraculously landing safely (relatively) on the column? The wall formed a sheer cliff just before the column. That speck of green there was probably...
"Molly!" Atra yelled, but the Chikorita did not respond. He couldn't tell if it was because she was unconscious, which was likely seeing the conditions, or she simply couldn't hear him above the bubbling of the lava and the sound of the hot wind currents swooshing around the large chamber.
Atra made his way back up to the wall, manoeuvring over to the cliff. There, in front of him, lying on the rock, was Molly. The solid rock was a simply three-feet jump from Atra's position, but he couldn't bring himself to jump over the lava below. He was terrified. He reasoned that it was because he wouldn't be able to simply carry Molly back around anyways, so he had to stop and think about it. In truth, Atra rarely thinks that far ahead, so he was just making excuses.
"Hey 'choo, what 'choo doing here?" A voice asked behind him. Atra nearly jumped, but was terrified of going over the edge into the swirling lava below. He turned around to face three humanoid Pokemon, each one bigger than the other.
There was one about Atra's size, with a stupid-looking poofy head. The second one was much bigger, had a flaming tail and had red and yellow flame patterns on it. The last one was slightly bigger than the second, a lot more bulky, and had a cannon as a right arm. Atra recognized them as Magby, Magmar, and Magmortar. Ah this was not good.
"None of your business." He shot back.
"Just leave me alone." He didn't want to deal with these idiots at the moment. Especially since he
couldn't deal with them at the moment.
"We saw 'choo comin' down from dey roof. This here our land y'see, we don't take no strangers on our land here." The Magmar started talking, and Atra could barely understand the heavy accent.
"Well just give me a damn second. I'm getting my friend here and we'll be right off OK?" Atra snapped, gesturing over to the unconscious Chikorita on the solid column. He was getting more than a bit impatient and was downright nervous. He didn't want to be in this place any longer than he had to.
The three wild idiots didn't seem to understand though.
"What 'choo say? 'choo and 'chure friend 'aint no gonna stay here! This here land is ours!" The Magmortar roared and the little Magby shook its head vigorously in agreement. Atra shook his head in exasperation, and gathered himself for a fight before he ran head-on into a rather big problem.
There was no water in the air here. It was too hot, all of it had escaped the chamber long long ago. Atra couldn't create his own water for his attacks; he had lost his only advantage against these things. Damn. If only he had thought to grab a Rainy Orb before he came...
His thought process was interrupted as the Magmortar swung its canon-arm at Atra, and with the yelp the eevee dived to the side. The blow missed and the stupid thing allowed its momentum to carry it all the way around in an unbalanced spin. Atra took advantage of this and leapt up at his opponent, biting down on his throat.
Or at least, that was the plan. The moment he touched the Magmortar's body his felt the heat coming off of it immediately right through his fur. With a yelp he let go and tumbled backwards, clawing at the sloped ground to avoid slipping down into the molten rock below. His fur was singed where he made contact with the Magmortar, and with despair he knew the other two were similarly protected. These were Pokemon made of fire. How could he attack them?
He quickly tried to fire off a spell, gathering a dark ball of energy to hurl at them. The Magmar simply breathed a thick stream of fire at him. The shadow ball dispersed but soaked up the brunt of the attack, leaving Atra unharmed. Atra stared at the three of them, their smiles cocky and stupid, and he didn't know how he was going to survive this.
This really ticked him off. He didn't like feeling beat, especially when it was to some idiots of wild Pokemon.
The Magby leaped at him, fire surrounding his body in a large flaming circle, and Atra didn't dare backpedal fast enough to get out of the way lest he lost his footing.
The baby fire type latched onto Atra back, and though the stronger eevee threw him off with relative ease, it left parts of his fur on fire. Gritting his teeth through a painful whimper, Atra once again tried to form a Shadow Ball. The Magmar simply tackled him, and pinned him to the ground.
"We has food to-night!" The Magby cheered, and through the haze of pain, Atra froze with fear.
"We has two food to-night!" The Magmar on top of Atra corrected with glee, and Atra knew they meant Molly. He struggled feebly, but the weight of the Magmar was too much, and it hurt to move. Sharp rocks jabbed into his side, and the Magmar's hands burned through his fur and skin. At least his back was protected by the Plate, and an odd lump in his bag shielded him further from the sharp rocks.
That lumped seemed to be getting bigger- no, nearer. It was pressing into him. As if it was phasing through the bag. The pressure was then suddenly gone, as if the lump had disappeared. A bright light flashed, blinding Atra and he felt fire leap up and around him. But the fires did not burn; in fact, they were pleasantly warm and the hands of the Magmar no longer hurt where they made contact. He felt the rocks around him give way as his limb grew longer, his body grew larger, and he grasped for the power that that surging through him.
He was evolving. The Firestone he carried had sensed his danger and reacted. Even as part of him fought it -no! Not this, no damn it! He was going to be a Glaceon, not a Flareon!- the other side of him desperately embraced it. He barely heard the startled gasps of the fire Pokemon before him.
The Magmar had let go, stepping back cautiously as the light finally faded into the dim brightness of the lava-illuminated cave. Atra staggered to his feet, feeling power and life within him as he has never felt before. Looking down he saw his brown fur and silver neck ruff, and for a moment he wondered if he had simply just imagined things. He didn't seem to look any different...
Looking back up, Atra saw the cautious Magmortar and Magmar and realized they weren't as big as before...or maybe...
He then looked down to the ground beside him, and saw several broken straps of leather, singed, but obviously snapped off. They were his explorer's bag and the harness he used to keep the Earth tablet on his back.
He had become bigger, too big for his equipment. He had evolved. He was a Flareon. He stared at the Earth plate now lying on the ground, a few straps still wound around it. Atra swiped those off with his claws and stared back up the two of them, nothing but anger in his eyes.
"I'll make you regret that. I...Damn it. It wasn't suppose to be like this. I haven't chosen yet!" He yelled at them, his rage building up and he could feel the new fires within him roar to life.
"I wanted to be a Glaceon!"It wasn't fair! And it was these stupid wild Pokemon's fault!
He felt a weight on his back, and he turned to see the little Magby grabbing onto his tail, fire blazing in an attempt to hurt him. The little thing knew it had worked before, and was unaware of the fact the newly evolved Flareon was only absorbing his fire, becoming stronger.
The tail began to glow, and Atra spun around, throwing the baby fire type at the Magmar and Magmortar. The latter caught the little one out of mid-air, eyes narrowed to slits. It raised its canon-hand, a glow forming within the barrel, gathering energy.
Atra raised a paw and brought it down on the earth Plate, and for the first time, tapped its power. He was so angry he didn't care what the consequences were.
Magical Light exploded within Atra's vision, power surging from the plate, a direct conduit to Arceus himself. All that power travelled up through Atra's paw, through the Flareon's magical conduits, forcing its way out into the world.
Atra was screaming; the pain was overwhelming. There was so much power, too much power for his body to safely channel. He could feel his conduits bulge and begin to tear.
The solid rock before him began to bubble like hot mud and shift, roiling around in a large circle centred around Atra, who's paw seemed to be stuck to the Earth Plate. The Magby evolutions were terrified now; all three turned to run, the Magmortar abandoning his attack, but to no avail.
A wave of liquid rock came surging up and crested above them, and finally came crashing back down, splashing and foaming like water, engulfing the family and encasing them. The rock continued to violently churn around him, some flowing off the cliff like a waterfall and hissing as it hit the lava below.
Atra's screaming trailing off to a whimpering pant as he slowly closed himself off to Arceus's power. Just before he cut it off completely, he tiredly flicked a stream of liquid rock at the pillar Molly laid upon. Once he took his paw off the glowing plate, everything hardened once more.
The Magby evolutions were now three statues, the frozen droplets of some of the rock still suspended, making it look like they had just come out of the water and was dripping wet. The wave-like patterns the liquid rock had taken was frozen on an angle on the steeply sloped wall, which didn't seem as steep anymore. A small circle around Atra was untouched, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.
Looking over at the pillar, he saw that the liquid rock he had thrown there had also turned into solid smooth rock, forming a bridge. He looked down at the plate, dully realizing he had used the power of Arceus himself, not for healing as he has always been able to do, but to shape the very world around him.
Judgment...that was one of the reasons the Eclipse family was so respected. Atra hadn't appreciated how powerful it was until now. And he was scared of it too. So much power, it had nearly killed him! And though he had been strong enough to withstand it -thank Arceus for all the magical training he had taken- it was so painful he could barely withstand just holding onto the spell.
In the future, he has to consider calling upon the power of the plates well. That...that was not something he would ever lightly use, ever again.
Picking up the tablet in his mouth, he stuffed it the best he could into his explorer's bag, and walked across to retrieve Molly. After tying the unconscious Chikorita as well as his bag to his back with the remains of the plate's harness, the Flareon made his way slowly back up the wall towards the crack.
He didn't even care enough to notice that the heat and smoke no longer bothered him in the slightest. Atra couldn't help but think about how he had been cheated of his birthright as an Eevee; the choice of evolution.
When Atra finally made his way outside, the sun was almost set and Mr. Victor was nearly ready to fly back to the mansion to report that Pluto's son was missing. He stared when Atra finally stumbled out and collapsed.
"Fly us to...Molly's mother."
