Lavaridge was very hot.

This Kevin could say with absolute certainty, and it wasn't as if he was just the sort of person who preferred arctic chills. The temperature probably had something to do with the volcano nearby, and once again he had to question why he had thought it would be a good idea to move here, of all the places he could have ended up in Hoenn.

Fortunately for him, he had Hunter, his Mankey, to help out in unpacking the truck that had his stuff. It rested outside of his single story home, a small yet comfortable dwelling here in Lavaridge Town that he had purchased for a low price. And now he could see why. With the ash clouds from the volcano and such, property values couldn't be that high, even with the hot springs around to balance it out.

Still, it wasn't as though he had a choice. There was nothing to go back to in Kanto, much less Johto, and he had no desire to be arrested. He wanted to turn over a new leaf, and hopefully this would be the place for him to do it. Nobody cared about Team Rocket here, and that meant he could get a job, build a new life.

With a box of papers and books in hand, he turned and began to walk for the door. Yeah, things were finally starting to turn around. And hopefully they would stay that way.

Before the gym had been built, Lavaridge had been a small, struggling town. It was too hot and too hard to get to unless you could fly, and the hot springs hadn't been a strong enough incentive for most to brave Mount Chimney. The population was made up primarily of old families, too rooted down to leave after generations, and the elderly who made one final trip to settle down and retire in the quiet town and soak away years of aches and pains. But as more and more children grew up and moved away to the cities, the population steadily shrank. The gym had been a last ditch effort to save the town.

And amazingly, it'd worked. Trainers, young and old, were required to make the trek if they wanted a shot at the Pokemon League. Scaling Mount Chimney became a challenge people eagerly took on, the promise of a gym badge and the hot springs as reward pushing them forward. The cable car was built. The path down the mountain was better maintained and safer. The steady stream of new faces brought a fresh life to the town, and what once was seen as an isolated hamlet too bothersome to get to became a quaint, challenging oasis, steeped in tradition.

Terra had been born in Lavaridge. Her family had moved to Rustboro for work when she was still young. When the gym spot opened up three months ago, it'd just seemed… right. Somehow she'd landed the job, and now she found herself in the odd position of getting to know her home town again. Part of that was meeting everyone who lived there at least once.

Which was why she found herself walking through the quiet streets, a small paper with an address and name scribbled on it. The realtor had sent it to her as per her request (demand). Terra made her way, chin held high and eyes straight ahead. The few other people on the street cast glances at her, as though afraid they'd get in trouble if they were caught looking. Terra just ignored it. They were slowly growing used to her presence, but people were typically slow to warm up to her. Or the other way around.

After a few minutes she stood in front of the house – it was pretty obvious, what with the moving van parked in front of it, boxes in various states of being unloaded. Terra came to a stop a few feet away from a man and a Mankey carrying boxes in the house. She took her time looking him up and down. Glasses. Bookish. Clean, if a little sweaty from the work. Or the heat. An evolved pokemon meant he had enough experience with them, if he wasn't a trainer. Shifting her weight to the side, she slipped the paper in her back pocket and rested her hand on her hip.

"Kevin Reynolds," she called, her voice cutting through the air.

Kevin was relatively unsuspecting that he had a visitor, up until the point that he was addressed. Which in all fairness, was more because he had a lot on his mind than any real failure in observational or cognizant skills on his part. With what he had done before, he could be plenty observant when need be. It was just that this box was heavy, it was hot, and the like. So he could be forgiven for not noticing the visitor until she had spoken to him.

"Oh, hello," he said after a moment, putting the box down on the nearest available flat surface that he could find before walking up to the dark haired woman. "Yes, that's me." He expected that it was just a courtesy call, but one could never be too sure. As such, he offered a hand to shake, if she so chose to.

Meanwhile, Mankey would continue unpacking the boxes from the truck. Someone had to keep doing it, lest they be here all day.

Terra glanced down at the offered hand, then back up at Kevin. After a moment, she reached out and shook his hand.

"Terra Dang," she introduced in a flat voice. She withdrew her hand and placed it back on her hip. "Lavaridge's gym leader." Looking him up and down again, she raised an eyebrow. "Heard we had someone new." Terra looked around at the various boxes, the Mankey, how there was still a long way to go before he was fully moved in. She probably should've waited until tomorrow to do this. Oh well, she supposed she was already there. With a small sigh, she she shook her head to herself and then looked back at Kevin.

"Do you want a break, or my help?" Her tone made it clear that those were the only two options.

Well then, that was interesting, and unpleasant. Kevin had been hoping to escape notice, yet even without trying he had already caught the eye of a Gym Leader. Though he supposed that she might just be acting the part of a good neighbor, so he wouldn't unnecessarily worry as of yet. It could just be nothing, and he was overreacting to it.

Glancing around, he hummed in thought for a moment as she posed her question to him at the same time. There was a lot of stuff, and another hand couldn't hurt. Then again, giving someone the chance to look through all his stuff before he had gotten organized risked them finding things that he would rather not be found. So, in the end it was a pretty wise decision.

"I think I'll take a break," he admitted with a slight chuckle, wiping his forehead at the same time. "A break would be good. it's hotter than I'm used to here." Hunter could handle things for the moment, since he seemed to be putting up with the heat better than Kevin was himself.

Terra gave a short nod and turned on her heel. She glanced over her shoulder once and gestured with her chin for Kevin to follow her, and then began making her way back down the street. Without checking to see if he was following, she walked over to a small cafe a block away. Terra sat herself down at one of the outside tables, leaning back and stretching her legs out underneath. She waited for him before speaking.

"So, where you're from and why you moved here," she said, waving a waitress over as she did so. The girl, a pretty young thing, eyed the gym leader cautiously. Terra just ignored the reaction and said, "Iced tea. Please." She brought her attention back to Kevin, looking at him expectantly.

Leaving Hunter to have some common sense and not overwork himself, Kevin left what he was doing behind and followed after Terra, as she led him through the streets of Lavaridge. He figured that she knew the best places to relax in this place, so he was willing to follow her, at least for the moment.

Soon enough they arrived at a small cafe, Terra taking a seat at one of the outdoor tables and gesturing for him to do the same. Kevin did feel a momentary pang of longing for air conditioning or something similar, but he wouldn't voice such complaints to his host. A nice cold drink would work just as well.

"I'll just have some ice water," he told the waitress once she had come over, before turning to address Terra's question. "I'm from Saffron City, in Kanto," he told her matter of factly. "As for why, I wanted to go somewhere with greater individual opportunity." It was true enough, though he would leave the important parts unsaid for the moment. She didn't need to know about that, and hopefully she wouldn't suspect a thing.

Terra raised an eyebrow at the non-answer but was otherwise silent as she sipped her tea. If he didn't want to share then that was his business. She was silent for a few moments as she sat. A breeze rustled past and Terra closed her eyes at the brief respite from the heat, leaning back a bit more. When it was gone, she opened her eyes again to look at the man across from her.

"You got a job yet?" she asked. "The springs keep losing attendants, so they're probably hiring, the mountain needs a new ranger for upkeep," she listed off on her fingers. Terra paused then, before continuing, "Gym's always accepting new trainers if you're any good. Specialty's ground types, but not a deal breaker if you don't have any." She looked at him for a moment in thought, before righting herself in her chair. Reaching into her pocket, she dropped a few bills on the table and pushed herself up.

"Anyway, if you don't yet, it shouldn't be hard to find one." Terra straightened up and ran a hand through her hair. "Welcome to –" she was cut off by a series of thunderous booms that shook the ground. The few people milling about screamed in shock as the buildings rattled and glasses shattered on the floor. She was quick to right herself, to get her bearings again. People were shaken. A few were cut up. But no one seemed badly hurt. What on earth had that been? Lavaridge was a sleepy town, where over half of the population was over sixty years old. Earth-shaking explosions didn't happen here. Her eyes scanned the scene until they landed on a cloud of black smoke drifting up from behind a few buildings.

"Son of a bitch!" she muttered with more emotion than she'd shown all day. Without sparing a glance at Kevin, Terra took off, sprinting down the road towards the source.

"Not yet," Kevin replied, taking a sip of water at the same time. He'd looked a bit, but wanted to get a better idea of the place that he was moving to before he settled on something in particular. Fortunately it seemed that Terra was more than willing to provide suggestions, though he had a feeling that he would be staying away from the Gym. Not out of disrespect to her, but it would be easier to avoid drawing attention to himself that way.

"I'll keep it in mind," he told her thankfully, truly meaning it. He wasn't about to go offending the first person he had really met here after all. That would just be silly. And it had been some good advice that he could use, so he was grateful for it.

Before he could go on though there was a series of thunderous explosions which had him wincing and looking around nervously, and he wasn't the only one to be doing such a thing. While one might have assumed that it was just construction work, the way that Terra took off indicated that it was far from the case. And here he had thought that being in Lavaridge would be boring. Still, if someone was in jeopardy he couldn't just stick around here,at least if he wanted to build a good reputation.

Arriving at the scene, it definitely wasn't what he had expected. It seemed that the explosions had been shifts in the surface, lava from the volcano now sent arcing into the sky in plumes of red, from several large and bubbling cracks. They would have to be dealt with before they could threaten the town. That much Kevin could tell, and he looked to Terra to see what she would do, and for instructions.

Terra couldn't help the moment she took to just stand there in fearful disbelief before the chaos. But then reality slammed back into her with another rumble, and she clenched her fists at her sides. Her mind spun into overdrive as she looked back at the townspeople – the people she was responsible for. Mount Chimney, while still classified as an active volcano, hadn't gone off in over a century. The eventuality had always been at the back of people's minds, but the safe, easygoing life style had lulled people into thinking that calamities were a thing of more danger-prone cities. Faced with this very real scene, the people had begun to descend into frenzied panic.

Her jaw tightened as she thought. There was nothing they could do to stop the eruption, and the lava flow was threatening the only real way out of town, across from the volcano. Trying to seal up the cracks in the earth wouldn't work – it would only cause more pressure to build until another violent eruption happened. The only thing they could do was divert the lava as best they could and try to keep the town from falling into total chaos.

Reaching to her belt, Terra called out her three Pokemon, who were quick to take in the disorienting scene.

"Beck," she called, "watch the debris!" The Claydol looked up to see what she was referring to – smoking embers and chunks of rock shooting up out of the volcano and arcing over the town. They flew up, some rocks being halted by a blue glow and then flung back to collide with others in the air, while embers met an iridescent forcefield, summoned before they could land. It wasn't long before more red flashes lit up the sky, and other Pokemon were following the Claydol's lead. Terra could've laughed in relief, and she glanced from an Altaria soaring through the sky down to her trainer, a young man who'd challenged her several times over the past week. Confident the skies were managed, Terra looked back to the lava.

Divert the lava, protect the people, minimize damage, divert the lava, protect the people, minimize damage, repeated in her mind over and over.

"I need a wall and a trench," she shouted. Her two remaining Pokemon, her Vibrava and Sandslash, nodded in response and took off. As Quinn started digging and Lyla blew a gust of ice air along the side, Terra looked back to the people around her. Her eyes found Kevin looking to her for instructions. "Get people as far away as you can – west, away from here. We can't evacuate town with the lava coming this way, but if this works the damage shouldn't go too far into town." She turned then to the frantic crowd behind her. "If you've got Pokemon that can help, we need to divert the lava flow! If you can't, head to the west edge of town!"

This situation was bad, even Kevin could tell that much. Sure, he had no experience with volcanoes, but generally a steadily growing river of lava was not what one would call a healthy benefit, much less something that would do wonders for the property values in Lavaridge. The town probably didn't need or want to literally be emulating its name, if they had a say in the matter.

"Right," he agreed as Terra turned to him, issuing instructions in rapid order. At least she knew what she was doing, ensuring that this wouldn't turn into some massive disaster. Given that he was the newcomer here, he had no problem in listening, that was for sure.

He took a few steps away before halting, reaching into his pocket and producing a Pokeball. A press of a button returned it to normal size, and then another released the Pokemon inside, a Dugtrio appearing on the ground. "Trick," he said, looking down at his Pokemon. "Go stop the lava. Do whatever she says." He gestured back to Terra, making sure that Dugtrio got the point.

"Dug dug!" Dugtrio nodded and burrowed his way over, ready to help out as needed. Meanwhile Kevin headed back into town to spread the word. Time to get to work.

Terra tried to swallow around her heart pounding in her throat, struggling to take in every part of the scene. She itched to turn around and try and take care of the townspeople directly, but knew she couldn't leave the volcano. She'd just have to trust Kevin – a stranger – to spread the word, and believe in the citizens as best she could. Red flashes illuminated the air as a few more Pokemon were called forth to help. Along with her Claydol and the Altaria, there was a Golbat, a Wingull, and a Togekiss fending off the flying debris. Her Vibrava and Sandslash were joined by Kevin's Dugtrio, a Krabby, a Blastoise, a Kadabra, and a Hariyama. Honestly, it was more than she'd expected.

Things were going according to her sloppy, thrown together plan – a wall of boulders and ice separated her from the fast approaching lava, while a trench, wide and deep, was dug around it, leading down away from the town. And then the earth gave another rumble. Suddenly the ground split again and the crack stretched farther. Lava and molten bits of rock burst forth, arcing high across the sky. The Pokemon scrambled to deal with this new development. The ones on the ground abandoned their goal and scrambled to get out of the lava's path, while ones in the air bolted down to try and get them to safety. Just as the last Pokemon got out of the way, the lava met the trench. It sloshed and scorched the land. The wall was not high enough.

Lava crested up over the wall, heading straight for Terra. All she could do was stare with wide eyes before instinct forced her turn her back to it and curl up for protection – though of course it would be useless against lava. The heat seared her skin and burned the air in her lungs. But the lava met an iridescent shield instead. Beck had summoned a dome of protection just in time, though Terra could see tiny cracks already forming. Soon enough the dome was completely covered in crimson and fiery orange. But then it started turning black, hardening into a solid shell. The Pokemon must've been cooling it somehow.

Terra could only stare as finally Beck's shield shattered. She flinched away, covering her face from the shards, though they dissipated immediately. Then the lava rock began cracking in spiderweb patterns. Eyes widening, Terra ducked her head just in time for the shell to explode in. Heavy chunks of rock came at her, knocking her to the floor. Her consciousness drifted in and out as she lay among the rubble, her Vibrava darting down towards her.

---

Without any Pokemon guarding the skies, the fiery debris were free to arc over the town, finally colliding with the various buildings. People screamed around Kevin, scrambling in a blind panic. The ground shook with another rumble and people stumbled and fell over themselves. Some were being trampled. Others were frozen in place, a look of horror etched across their features. An herbal shop to Kevin's left began to collapse in on itself, bits of lava puncturing gaping wounds in its roof and walls, while the quakes shattered the foundation.

Dugtrio did all that he could and all that he knew how to do. Specifically, digging. He went back and forth as directed, carving out tunnels and canals in order to channel the lava away just as he was told to do. Even as it rose and became all the more damaging and flowing, he continued on. It was what his trainer would expect of him, and he couldn't let their new home get destroyed by lava.

"Dug, dug!" So he plowed along, doing his best to create channels and canals, to funnel it away, even if it was a losing effort in the process. That was before he saw what happened with Terra, earning a cry of alarm from the Pokemon as she was nearly consumed, only to be saved at the last second, before that salvation knocked her unconscious.

He worked quick, cutting off the flow of lava that he was working on before tunneling over to her. "Dugtrio," he called, popping out of the ground as he presented the tunnel, widening it as best he could before diving beneath once more. He would lead Beck to the city if the Vibrava was willing to follow, and if not he would simply return to what he had been doing. He had made the offer, and whether it was taken advantage of was not up to him.

---

"Ah hell," Kevin groaned to himself as he witnessed the chaos and the devastation, the rocks that came slamming down and the people running in panic. He had done his job, but it had all descended into chaos when this place started going up. There was even property being destroyed! So much for moving here, it seemed. "I just have the worst luck."

Still, it was obvious that someone had to do something, and the police weren't being very effective at that. He was loathe to stand out, but he couldn't just stand by and let people get trampled and killed, now could he? It wouldn't exactly help that resolve to start a new life that he had set for himself, now would it?

So he marshaled his will and courage. "Alright, everyone calm down and proceed in an orderly fashion that way!" He gestured away from the volcanic eruption even as he elevated himself. "If anyone has ground or fire type pokemon, send them to go help with the lava. IF you have flying or psychic types, we need them to take care of the rocks. Lets go!" Whether they listened though, that was another story.