Outside the research outpost, a fleet of armored vehicles prepares to get all non-combatants away from the danger.
Lazarus moves past the panicking researchers scrambling to get inside the armored rovers.
He walks over to the spot where Seth and the rest of his team are gathered, which also happens to be the place where they had their dinner just hours ago.
Seth stops talking to Jacob and David, instead turning his gaze towards Lazarus and saying, "What do you think you are doing here? Why are you not inside one of the rovers?"
Lazarus raises his palms before saying, "I know I know, but my Covisquire was patrolling with your Staraptor and I can't just leave without him."
Seth frowns, "You know you can't stay here. Don't you? This is not the best place to wait around."
"I am worried about him, I can't just leave my pokémon. You know I can't." Lazarus argues back.
Seth massages his forehead before saying with a tone of finality, "If he does not arrive in ten minutes, you leave either way."
Lazarus reluctantly nods his head as he looks around and sees all of their pokémon out, preparing for battle.
The pokemon are divided into few groups according to their typeage, Fire and Water type pokemon are in the majority, they have the biggest groups.
"Chief, are communications back by any chance?" Jacob asks, "It will be a lot convenient if we could let the League know."
Seth turns to Lazarus.
Lazarus shakes his head, "No, last time something like this happened, it took around seventeen hours before the ash cloud subsided."
David sighs, "So we have no idea if the backup is coming or not. Not gonna lie, our situation is not looking good. We are up against a fucking dragon that outclasses all our pokémon. And on top of that it's night time. We are fucked."
James stops what he is doing and turn to look at David, "Dude, shut up. We don't need that right now. It's bad for morale."
"I know. I know. I'm just saying it would be better if we knew backup was on it's way." David says.
"I might be able to do something about our communications," Lazarus says.
They all turn to look at him.
Seth asks with a frown, "How exactly do you plan to do that? And make it quirk."
Lazarus shrugs, "I did some calculations. I looked at the scatter of our signals over the last two months, every time an ash cloud forms here, and managed to figure out the area it covers. Luckily, all our rovers are fitted with communication relays. Which have enough of a range that I should be able to program them to send an emergency signal to Battle Tower."
"And what exactly is the range of this ash cloud?" Seth asks.
"We will be outside the ash cloud if we can have someone drive the rover ten kilometers in that direction," Lazarus points towards the direction the Salamence's nest is located. "As long as we do that, we should be able to establish communications again."
Seth thinks for a few seconds before replying, "Forget it, we can't send anyone there. Let's just hope the League arrives in time."
"What do you mean you can't send anyone." Lazarus says. "I can do it."
Seth shakes his head, "Don't even think about it. I won't send you there."
Lazarus shakes his head, "You know it has to be me. We can't send any of the researchers to do this. And you guys need to command your pokémon if we are to stand even a little chance of winning. It has to be me."
Seth gives him an annoyed expression, "In case you didn't notice, that is exactly where Salamence is."
Lazarus shrugs, "It's going to come here soon enough. You guys said so. So you distract it, and I will take the rover there, establish communication, and ask for reinforcements. You can't expect me to not do anything."
Jacob interjects into the conversation, "Why don't you use the drones to do it? And aren't the rovers automatic? Why does it even need a driver?"
Lazarus replies, "The relay is built into the rover. It's part of its internal circuitry, and even if we could remove it, the relay is too big for a drone to carry. And the relay needs someone to manually adjust the frequency, otherwise it would just send the signal randomly. And we need be precise."
Seth says, "Even if you do manage to make the call, reinforcements will take time to arrive here. By the time they get here, everything will be over anyway, so it's kind of pointless. I would rather not risk you doing this when there is nothing to gain from all this."
Lazarus says, "Yes, but we don't have a choice right now. If you guys manage to kill it, then good. But if you can't, then we need the League to help us, and they can't help us if they don't even know what is going on."
"I don't like thi–" Seth's words are interrupted by a familiar screech. They look up to see Staraptor flying towards them, followed by a Corvisquire.
Lazarus sighs in relief, seeing his Corvisquire alive and well.
Staraptor dives down, arriving before Seth, and performs small aerial maneuvers, followed by making screeches of different pitch and volume to communicate nonverbally with its trainer.
Seth turn to Lazarus, who is "Alright, you have your pokemon back. Now leave with the other researchers."
Lazarus shakes his head, "No. I don't need your permission to defend the people who work for me. You guy are doing your party by risking your life to defend us. And I will do my part as well."
Seth glares at him, "How about you just leave, go home, become a pokemon trainer and then you can risk your life. Right now you don't have any obligation to put yourself in danger. Your father hired us to protect you. Not the other way around."
Lazarus just stares at him, refusing to budge.
Seth massages his forehead in frustration, and then says in defeat, "Alright, fine, but you only move when I give the order. Understood?"
"Yeah, I understand." Lazarus says before turning to leave.
"Hey wait." James shouts, "Don't leave without saying goodbye."
James approaches Lazarus and offers him fistbump, David and Seth do the same.
When all their fists meet, Seth says, "If anything happens to us. Know that I am glad I work for you."
David and James nod in agreement.
"I love learning about pokemon from you guys, so please don't die. There are so many more things I want to ask you three about. Good luck, I'll see you in a bit." Lazarus says before running towards one of the rovers and his flying pokémon follows him.
He reaches a six-wheeled metallic beast of a vehicle. Protected by heavy matte black composite armor.
He gets inside the rover, unclips the remaining pokéballs, and releases his Kirlia and Snover onto the two passenger seats behind the driver's cabin.
"Rook set up the psychic link," He says to his Kirlia.
He sits in the driver's seat, eyes on the semi-transparent heads-up display projected on the windshield.
He navigates the control panel and starts tinkering with the rover's relay program.
—
"So, do we just wait for it to spot us and come here, or try to catch its attention?" David asks surrounded by tens of pokémon.
"Let's not tempt fate. The longer it is away from us, the more time the researchers have to get to safety," Seth replies while looking at tens of armored rovers carrying everyone away from the outpost.
"You sure we can win this, Chief?" David asks, "It is going to be difficult even with your Gengar."
Seth tries to put on a brave front for his team, "Never said it was going to be easy. I have never fought a dragon before, but yes, I think we have a solid chance here."
Seth's Gengar laughs at David, teasing him with its tongue out.
"Jacob, do you see any movement from it," Seth asks, turning to Jacob, who is busy looking through the camera footage from his Swoobat and Seth's Staraptor flying in the sky, keeping an eye on Sunfyre.
"It's not doing anything, jus–," Jacob panics looking at the monitor playing the footage of Sunfyre taking off into the sky with its large red wings, "Shit, I have lost visual on it, it's in the sky."
Seth nods, "Prepare yourself."
They wait for a couple of minutes before they hear an earth shattering roar. They all look up to see Sunfyre tearing through the clouds at an insane speed.
"Lazarus, drive now," Seth says into his comm.
The engine of the rover comes to life as Lazarus drives away from the outpost, heading towards the mountain that Sunfyre just flew away from.
The rover traverses through the rocky terrain without any lights on, trying very hard not to attract Sunfyre's attention.
"I think it noticed the outpost, it's heading straight towards us," Jacob says with a worried tone.
—
Sunfyre spots the outpost. The multi-storied research complex sticks out like a sore thumb in this barren wasteland.
It flies directly above it and charges a Hyper Beam within its maws.
Seconds later, it unleashes the destructive beam of condensed energy at the building.
The Hyper Beam lights up the surrounding area, making everything within half a kilometer visible.
As the beam engulfs the building, it melts the reinforced concrete and steel beams that the building was made of.
The building collapses in on itself. Half of the building becomes molten lava, while the other half straight up vaporizes.
Seth and the others watch this with wide, horrified eyes as a huge cloud of dust and residual heat from the Hyper Beam rises and spreads towards them from the impact site.
They, along with all their pokémon, tense up at the intimidating display of power shown by Sunfyre.
Jacob, with a terrified expression, says, "Chief.. I think we are dealing with a… Calamity here."
David has the same look in his eyes, "I knew we should have run away when we had the chance."
"Regardless, we have to fight," Seth grimly says. "We don't have any other choice."
"It won't matter, we won't win," David says, but still commands his Simipour, a blue simian water pokémon, with tufts of fur on its head resembling dreadlocks, to spray a mist of water to counter the heat from the Hyper Beam.
"Yes, we won't," Seth grits his teeth, "But at least we will give everyone a chance to run away. It has been an honor working with you two. We will proceed with our plan. If we must die, then we die fighting."
They all take a deep breath as they prepare themselves and their pokémon for the calamity that is about to befall them.