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Somewhere over the Kalos region.
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"Boss, you sure this is the right spot!?" A man shouted over the whirring of helicopter blades. He was dressed head to toe in midnight black camo gear, a black mask with a large red R on the front was visible around his neck as he spoke to his commander.

He and nine other people dressed in the same apparel, were all flying towards a hidden valley in the Kalos region, following another lead to the clue Suecra had given them. This was in fact the third lead they'd had on the rather elusive beast of burning water and they were starting to doubt its existence.

Their first lead had taken them to an island in the Sinnoh region, known for its abundance of iron type Pokémon. The thinking behind that lead had been a result of the skin that's harder than steel part of Suecra's riddle. But that lead had been a disappointing dud, leaving them with nothing to show for their efforts.

The next clue they followed was to a cave in the Hoenn region, apparently inhabited by the mythical Pokémon Heatran. Heatran was a fire steel type though and even though he fit the steel skin and the burning portion of the riddle, as quite a few grunts learned, he did not fit the water portion of the riddle. Resulting in another failure.

The lead they were currently following up on was for another mythical Pokémon that had been supposedly lost to time during a war a millennia ago. Only recently had three operatives stumbled across its location and had given them the coordinates to the remote Kalosian valley, albeit after a substantial reward was posted for any information relating to the riddle.

The person who the man had been addressing repeated the part about the origins of the intel back to him, attempting to deter any doubts he had about their assignment. His doubts along with the other eight people were not eased but rather became more strenuous.

"Ariana, you don't mean to tell us our Intel is from those three clowns, do you?" A woman asked nervously from the back of the chopper.

Ariana tensed, not wanting to lie to her men but also not wanting them to know that they were trusting the trio known for their screw ups with their lives. Lucky she was saved by the pilot who told them they were nearing the drop point and to get prepared.

All ten people slipped on a thin but sturdy mesh like fabric and a backpack, two of the beefier people in back grabbed two large cylindrical tubes from off an overhead wrack and clipped them onto their backs. The choppers doors opened allowing a strong gust of crisp moonlight wind to blow in, nearly knocking the people off their feet. They quickly regained a firm footing on the choppers metal flooring and patiently waited to receive the drop signal. The closest to the doors looked out over the edge into the darkness below, knowing but not entirely believing that there was any ground down there.

He looked roughly around thirty years old, yet still as fit as a teenager. He had deep brown eyes full of compassion but seemed to be hiding something beneath the surface. His hair, black as the darkness below, was cut short across his entire head making him look like a military man. The grit of his hair however looked like it was made to be in longer unruly tufts and ruined his otherwise handsome appearance.

"Nervous, Marian?" Ariana shouted to the grunt who had been looking out over the edge.

Marian smiled sheepishly beneath his mask, absolutely terrified of jumping out but not wanting his boss to know it. "No, Ma'm. I'm just excited to jump!" He lied, a little too convincingly.

Ariana smiled in response to his enthusiasm and a second later they received the green GO light. She then stepped back and gestured for him to go first. "Anyone that excited should be privileged with jumping first!"

Marian's stomach pitted as he realized what his lie had gotten him into. Unable to back down from his earlier statement he stood up stepped onto the ledge and did the worst possible thing for a person in his position; he looked down. His knees tensed and then melted into jelly, causing him to fall rather than jump, out of the helicopter. As he departed from his perch on the metallic bird he realized a few things.

For starters, falling out of a helicopter has a rather different affect than jumping out of one. When jumping out of a helicopter you can normally clear the metal skis on its underside, however when falling out of a chopper it is fairly easy to knock your noggin against said skis; a feat which he unfortunately achieved. Secondly he realized that he was not wearing a helmet and that metal is very painful when you head butt it. Lastly he noticed a dark shadow leaping after him as he descended into the inky blackness of unconsciousness.
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Marian felt, saw, and heard nothing, Then his body slowly began to restart itself, turning on his hearing first which allowed him to overhear the group of people whispering over him. Their voices sounded familiar but still somewhat foreign to his quasi functioning brain. Despite his brains operating difficulties he was still able to make out what the people above him were saying.

"We shouldn't leave him," A woman said regretfully. Marian couldn't quite figure out who the voice belonged to, but liked her notion of not leaving him. Until she finished her sentence. "But the mission comes first. Any ideas with what we should do with the body?"

"We can put him under a bush for now; we come back to give him a proper burial later." A deep voiced man said in a saddened tone.

Marian recognized the man as Seraph. He was a rather muscular man bulky and brooding at times but normally was a kind hearted giant. He and Marian had become rather close friends during Team Rockets training camp, both of them being something of outcasts from the majority of their peers. The thought that his closest friend was suggesting they leave him behind stung Marian rather deeply. What hurt even worse was the fact that his best friend thought he was dead. Marian wanted to shout, move, or do anything that would assure his friend he was still among the living, but he could do nothing save listen to the people around him deciding his fate.

Marian her the woman sigh in discontent and reluctantly ordered for him to be disposed of as Seraph had suggested. He then felt two pairs of sturdy arms wrap around his midsection and drag him into something wet and leafy, presumably the bush they'd been speaking off. With him stowed safely away the group left and headed out to find their intended target.

Marian didn't know how long they'd been gone but in their absence he'd been trying to regain function of his normal abilities. So far he'd managed to open his eyes, operate his mouth, and move his left arm up and down. Other than that he was still very much incapable of moving and continued to lay in the bush, which he noticed was packed full of nutritious berries of which he gladly helped himself to.

Some more time passed before he regained communication with both his legs as well as his sense of smell. With the illustrious power of his nose returned to him, Marian smelt something fragrant, metallic and very out of place with his surroundings. Curious, he struggled to his newly reacquainted feet and began shuffling towards the odd sent. As he drew closer to the foreign aroma he spotted a girl picking flowers in an extensive field of wildflowers.

He continued on his path towards the girl and waved hello when she turned towards him. Then an odd thing happened. As soon as she noticed his arrival the girl dropped her flowers and turned into a large grayish pink sphere. It was only after her sudden transformation that Marian realized she was not a girl but rather a Pokémon.

Fascinated by this creature he moved in even closer and made an astonishing discovery. The Pokémon was made entirely of machinery. Every inch of her body was comprised of circuits, gears, and other mechanized parts.He was so enchanted by this marvel of machine and Pokémon that he reached out to touch it, only to find it trembling in fear of him.

Ever the good man he was, he instantly retracted his hand and promptly apologized to the Pokémon. "I'm very sorry if I frightened you, it's just, you're so amazing! I couldn't help but take an interest in you."

The Pokémon slowly unfolded itself from its sphere forum and looked at the human standing before it. It looked him up and down, made a few wiring and clicking sounds before smiling at the man and offering him its hands.

Marian smiled a childish grin of joy, equivalent to that of a kindergartner who just made a new friend. Glad to be in good company with the mechanical marvel, he introduced himself. The mechanized Pokémon smiled and curtsied in greetings, before she began to write her name with the flowers around them.

"M-A-G-E-A-R-N-A, Magearna?" Marian asked after spelling out what she had written.

Magearna smiled at the sound of her name and made several happy clicking noises as she nodded her head.

"Alright then, Magearna. Could you help me with a problem I'm having?" The machine turned her head a bit, intrigued as to what her new friend needed from her. "You see I landed here with a group of my friends, but I got separated. Do you think you could help me look for them? We're supposed to meet up at a rock shaped like a Bergmite." He then tried to air doodle the shape of the icicle Pokémon.

Magearna looked at him thoughtfully for a moment before nodding enthusiastically to his request. She then started briskly walking in the direction of a distant mountain, indicating that she knew the way. Marian quickly thanked her and started jogging after her only to wind up slowing down to a sluggish walking pace, solely so he wouldn't pass his guide.

Their walked lasted for five and a half hours, and in that time Marian questioned Magearna on every little thing about her. At first he could only ask yes and no questions, but quickly developed an (incomplete) understanding of her clicking, whirring, and movements of her various parts which enabled the two to basically speak the same language and carry out complex conversations.

"I suppose you could argue that point, but I'd rather not use berries in such a manner." Marian conceded.

Magearna in return made a few clicks and a disgruntled whirring, saying that she would prefer not to do so either. The two shared a hearty laugh at the unconventional use of berries. Magearna then stopped laughing and looked around worriedly. She then made a series of noises and gestures, which Marian interrupted as her trying to warn him of an approaching danger.

Trusting in her instincts he followed her behind a grove of berry bushes where they lay in wait for whatever threat was headed their way. A moment later there was a loud commotion as a massive red and yellow quadruped rushed out from behind a large rock formation. The creature had a rugged cat shaped head, marked by two angular blue eyes filled to the brim with anger and resentment. His body was shaped like a tear drop that had sprouted four legs, a head, and a large red ring on its base. The ring was generically red but was marked with a sequence of blue dots leading to six horizontal yellow diamonds.

Magearna nearly jumped out of the bushes and rushed over to the large creature, but stopped as a group of ten masked humans came running into view. She quickly shrunk deeper into the foliage, frightened by the people chasing after the red beast. Marian thought it odd for her to be more afraid of the humans than the monstrous red bane that appeared to be tromping around like a savage beast. He promptly dismissed his inquiry into her actions and returned his attention to eleven life forms gathered before them.

He watched as the concealed people surrounded the red Pokémon and targeted him with nets and two cylindrical devices. The cylinders were designed to be mounted on two shoulders each with a third person aiming and operating the firing mechanism.

After the people had formed a semi circle around the Pokémon, a high pitched man gave the order to attack. Four nets were thrown at the Pokémon's feet, an attempt to entangled them and prevent his escape. Next the cylinders opened fire, releasing a dozen silver spheres that went whizzing at the its tear shaped torso, flattening against its hard surface upon impact.

The Pokémon grinned at the feeble attempts of capturing him, then he roared in agony as the silver stuck to his chest began to sizzle and burn his skin. Both Marian and Magearna felt a need to rush out to help the distressed Pokémon but restrained themselves as they saw the red monster separate his ring into two arm like appendages he then used to tear off the silver substance and toss it back at the people who had attacked him.

It then did something that separated it from any other Pokémon Marian had ever seen. It opened two valves on its arms and sprayed steaming hot water at the first two people holding his legs in place. It then turned to the remaining two and blasted them with an intense jet of fire from its mouth. Marian stared in awe of this beast of fire and water, until he felt Magearna tugging at his arm.

The mechanized Pokémon looked at him with concern and made a few clicks telling him to follow her away from there. He was about to ask her why when he saw the red Pokémon raise its arms towards the sky and generate a blue sphere of rapidly spinning energy between them. Heading Magearna's request the two made a mad dash away from the area, escaping just as the Pokémon released the energy in a sweltering explosion of water and steam. The two didn't quite escape all of the explosion, for they each got hit with a shockwave of hot humid air, causing Marian's clothes to become somewhat sodden and Magearna to be slightly tickled off.

As the vapor began to disperse the damage caused by the explosion was more extensive than the wetness and mild annoyance Marian and Magearna were experiencing. The area that the Pokémon and humans had been standing on, for the most part, had been flat. Now there was a large divot, three feet deep and twenty feet across, in place of the red goliath.

Marian and Magearna edged closer to the crater, looking for any signs of the people's, or Pokémon's, existence. They found no trace of the humans and presumed they'd all been blown away. Magearna continued to look frantically for the explosive Pokémon, an obvious concern and deep relationship with the red behemoth evident in her demeanor.

They watched and waited for another four grueling seconds before they heard a CLANG followed by a labored grunt. The densest part of the steam was finally cleared enough for the epicenter of the explosion to be seen. In the very heart of the newly formed crater the crimson creature was struggling to move. His entire body was resting heavily on the smooth ground and he was taking deep labored breaths.

Marian didn't hesitate to rush to the Pokémon's aid, a move that nearly proved fatal. The Pokémon lifted its head as Marian approached and narrowed its eyes hatefully. It then opened its mouth and did something that is seldom Pokémon are able to do, it spoke in human tongue.

"I'm sick and tired of all you humans!" The Pokémon shouted furiously as it struggled to raise an arm to attack Marian, who'd stopped in the face of imminent danger. The only reason he wasn't blasted away on the spot was because of his recently acquired friend putting herself between him and the aggressive Pokémon. Magearna made a flurry of whirring, clicking, and beeping sounds at the titanic Pokémon, who slowly lowered his arm. Marian could only catch a few phrases from what she had said but he managed to hear her addressed the Pokémon as Volcanion and decided to henceforth call him that.

Volcanion, no longer holding death over Marian's head, struggled to return to his feet; during the process of which he gripped and complained more than a high school student studying for the SAT. The red giant was mumbling his complaints to himself, making it hard to hear, but Marian heard him say "I can't believe I have to trust another human," and "Why does my chest feel like a freaking volcano!?".

The trio soon found the answer to his question, for when he did manage to make it to his feet they all saw a small hole surrounded by a webbing of cracks that were oozing a ice blue liquid. Magearna and Marian took note that the hole was in the exact same location that the silver substance had latched onto Volcanion, making it the most probable cause for his injury. They might have figured out what had caused his injuries but fixing them would prove to be a much more trying task, especially with Volcanion insisting he was fine and that he didn't need any help.

Marian and Magearna weren't buying his tough guy act and refused to let him go until he was all patched up. Volcanion sighed unhappily, his prideful nature refused to allow him to accept help from others, even if he really needed it, but he had to concede nonetheless; for he knew there was little use in trying to convince Magearna of anything when she was set on doing something.

"Fine, if you want to help go get me some water from the lake." Volcanion said reluctantly.

"Water?" Marian said cynically, "What's water going to do for a gaping hole in your chest!?"

Volcanion sighed an exasperated and overly accented sigh, holding Marian's lack of understanding, which by no means was his fault, against him. "I can use water to regenerate my energy and heal my body." Volcanion explained, an air of impertinence resting in his speech.

Marian nodded in understanding, while still being clueless, and set off the fetch some lake water. He came back ten minutes later carrying a hollowed out log, filled with about twelve cups of lake water. When he presented it to Volcanion the Pokémon scoffed at him, saying he'd need a lot more water than what some human could get him. Marian hid his annoyance towards Volcanion's pompous attitude with a forced smile and said he'd be back in a bit promising to bring much more water. He then left Magearna with a rag to dab at Volcanion's wound while he went to procure a lot more water.

Magearna spent the next few hours alone with Volcanion. She was performing a tedious process of soaking the rag and applying it to Volcanion's wounds and then soaking it again when his body absorbed all the liquid. Her actions were commendable but yielded poor results. No matter how quickly she reapplied the wet rag Volcanion's wound would not close. On the plus side though her actions were also the only thing preventing the cracks from spreading.

On her eight time plunging her rag back into the water, she noticed that there was barely anything left. She did some quick guesstimating and assumed she had roughly three to five more soaks before she ran out. She tried to slow down her process, hoping to buy Marian some extra time, but only succeeded in allowing the cracks to continue their advance resulting in a small chunk of Volcanion's armor to detach from his body.

Volcanion had, for the most part, been silent while Magearna worked only speaking to complain about Marian taking a long time. When Magearna had inadvertently caused a pice of him to fall off though, he began talking more than a teenager texts. He was more interrogating Magearna than talking to her and let loose a machine gun magazine of questions; among which were: "what had happened?", "where was that useless human?", and "where'd that draft come from?". All of which Magearna dismissed by hiding his missing part and commenting about how impressive he was when he blasted away those humans.

Volcanion quickly forgot his earlier concern as his ego took the reigns. He tried to stand up straighter and more pristine, to demonstrate his heroic and superior physique, but wound up a bit lopsided and looking like he was constipated. Magearna stifled a laugh at her friends ridiculous attempt to look tough for her, and continued to apply the water to his wound.

Less than two hours later she heard an odd scratching noise, similar to the sound dirt makes when it's being moved. She pressed the rag against Volcanion's chest once more, giving him the last of the water, as she stared up in the direction of the peculiar scratching sound. She watched the area for a good thirty seconds before they saw a dirt covered blob pop out from the rim of the crater. The blob smiled an exhausted grin of victory and waved down to the two metal Pokémon below. Magearna felt her spirits rise as she saw through all the dirt and recognized the face of Marian.

Magearna lit up with joy and waved back to her human friend who promptly shouted something down to her. She was confused by his request but obeyed nonetheless and left Volcanion alone in the crater. As soon as she was clear, Marian ran back to where he'd been working and proceeded to finish his grand creation.

Magearna and Volcanion waited nervously for two grueling minutes that felt more like two hours. Then they heard a slushing noise, quite at first but rapidly gaining volume. By the time Marian had returned the noise had become similar to that of a small stream, and yet they could see no water. Magearna turned to her friend with a look of disappointment, believing he'd failed them. Marian in turn smiled, looked at the crater wall farthest from them, and began counting down from five.

As soon as he reached zero the section of wall he'd been staring at ruptured, allowing a torrent of water and mud to come blasting through. The water then cascaded into the crater and pooled around Volcanion, within a few minutes he was completely submerged.

Sixty seconds later the water began to boil and Volcanion emerged from the water, any evidence of injury having been completely eradicated from his body. He then slogged over to Marian, looked him dead in the eyes and mumbled a thanks.

Magearna huffed at her friend, scolding him for being so rude to the person who had just saved his life. Volcanion groaned and said, "You did very well, for a human that is; so t-h-a-n-k y-o-u.". He had a great deal of difficulty saying those two simple words, acting as if speaking them caused him physical pain. Magearna was unsatisfied by his gratitude but made no attempt to reprimand him due to Marian accepting the feeble thanks with a simple "no problem".

Volcanion grinned, liking Marian's general disregard for his lack of etiquette. However his liking of the human was fleeting, as he realized he had no idea why Marian was here.

"Before we get all chummy, I want to know what you're doing here." Volcanion said in a low and cautious voice.

Magearna answered in Marians stead, telling Volcanion of Marian's quest to reunite with his lost friends. To which Volcanion became even suspicious of Marian. However he felt he owed the man a life debt and only grumbled about dealing with more humans as he volunteered to help Marian find the rest of his friends.

Magearna chirped happily and proceeded to rise her arms up, insinuating that she wanted to be carried. Volcanion simply broke apart his ring and used the two arms to gently place her on his back. His tenderness was not contributed towards Marian as the dual type Pokémon simply picked him up by his head and dropped him on his back like a sack of potatoes. Marian landed, mostly, unharmed and got situated behind Magearna on a divot in Volcanion's armor shaped similarly to that of a saddle.

Marian had no time to ask about Volcanion's saddles for the steam Pokémon pointed his arms to the ground and blasted the earth with steam at such a high pressure they were able to repel from the surface of the earth. Marian stiffened up the instant the ground had abandoned them and could only move in ridge gear like motions, as they scoured the skies for his friends.

It didn't take very long, perhaps an hour or two, before they stumbled upon a trio of helicopters surrounded by around twenty nine people. Volcanion growled at the mass assembly of humans and landed on a hill top a short ways away, completely undetected by the people below

Once safely back on the ground Marian and Magearna dismounted Volcanion. The three then moved closer to the edge of the hill and stared down at the encampment of people, allowing Marian to confirm that they were the ones he was looking for.

"Alright, this is as far as we're going to take you." Volcanion said gruffly and began walking off.

"Thanks, Volcanion," Marian said plainly,"I know we didn't get off on the right foot but I'm glad you could look past that to help me out."

Volcanion stopped walking. "Listen, Marian; I don't trust many humans, only five or six have ever earned my trust. Those humans you've brought with you I don't trust, and practically every other human on the planet I don't trust."

Marian and Magearna weren't quite sure where he was going with this but let him continue nonetheless.

"You, however, are one of the exceptions. You helped me in my time of need and asked for nothing in return. You've earned my trust and my respect a feat only one other person has been able to do."

Neither of them had expected that from the petulant Pokémon and were left speechless for a few moments. Volcanion quickly became agitated with their silence and turned back to them saying, "I only wanted to say that before I finally got rid of you!", before walking off.

Marian grinned and nodded, understanding the hidden, take care of yourself, in Volcanion's farewell remark. He then felt a tugging at his pants leg and looked down to see Magearna smiling up at him. She then chirped and whirred her goodbye to him and gave him the piece of Volcanion's armor that had chipped off, saying it was so he had something to remember them by. Marian felt his heart warm at the simple gesture of friendship and left his friend with a parting hug.

He walked towards the encampment of humans and was greeted by his big lug of a friend Seraph, who promptly dragged him off to their commander who was in the middle of addressing four grunts.

"How do you lose a body!?" She furiously asked the four fearful grunts. They had no answer and were about to receive a vigorous verbal lashing only to be spared by Seraph entering the chopper with Marian flailing behind him. One of the more foolish grunts points to Marian and said, "I found him!", which ticked off Ariana even more.

She dismissed the four grunts, mentality noting down to reprimand the grunt who had aggravated her, and ushered Marian and Seraph into the chopper. She was glad to see Marian alive and well, but was mad at him for not reporting to her sooner.

"Sorry ma'm, I've only just got back just now."

"Would you care to explain what you've been doing for the past," she glanced at her watch and did some mental math to gauge the time gap, "Seven and a half hours!"

Marian felt she was being a little hard on him but recalled every moment after he had jumped out of the chopper. At the end of his tale Ariana asked him for the metal Magearna had gifted him. He hesitantly compiled and passed the red metal to her. She grinned and left the chopper, telling him and Seraph to strap in and wait for her return.

They did as she said and buckled in. In fifteen minutes seven of their colleagues boarded the chopper and strapped themselves in as well. Another six minutes and Ariana boarded. Once she was on board the chopper stared up and began its takeoff sequence. Marian heard the same noise coming from the outside of the chopper, presumably the other two starting up as well.

All three choppers were soaring over the Kalosian skies within a matter of minutes. Once they were flying fast and free, Ariana walked up to the front of the cabin and explained why they'd up and left the valley so suddenly.

"As it would happen our friend Marian here," she pointed out Marian to the crowd, prompting them all to look at him judgingly, "found the Pokémon we'd been looking for."

Marian's peers judgment quickly turned into grateful approval of his actions, which then transformed into a joyous round of applause after Ariana's next words. "Marian not only managed to track down this elusive beast, but also acquire some of its essence. In the form of a chunk of his armor!" She held of a piece of the metal Marian had given her it looked a lot smaller than he remembered but he withheld that tidbit of info to himself, and instead basked in the jeering of the people around him.

Amidst the praise he was receiving from his colleagues, Ariana walked over and sat down next to him.

"What you told me of how you got that metal remains between you, me, and Seraph. No one else can know what really happened understand?"

Marian nodded slowly, not really knowing why but going along with her anyways.

"Good, and here, you can have this back."

She then slipped him a red metal plate similar to the one she'd shown off moments ago.

"It's the other half of the metal you gave me. I thought you might like to keep it as a small memorabilia of the friends you made." She whispered discreetly as she checked her buckles and clamps.

Marian smiled fondly at the metal before tucking it into one of his coat pockets. He whispered his thanks to Ariana before being called into a discussion about his encounter with Volcanion, where he was forced to tell tales of his savagery all throughout the remainder of their flight.

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