The Chronicles of Black.

Why am I such a fucking sap?'

With arms pumping, hearts pounding, and pokeballs held in iron-like grips, both Lee and Brendan round the final corner to the Pokemon Center.

Hell greets them.

The large center, several stories high and taking up the entire left side of the street, is engulfed in a raging inferno on the entirety of the left side of the first story where it slowly spreads. Rolling flames pour from the long since shattered windows, producing a thick, black smoke so dense it looks as if it could be cut with a knife. Embers burn away from the building and rise up into the air like literal fireflies, flying away to burn out high in the evening sky.

A small team of human firefighters armed with a loaded fire truck and a police officer with an Azumarill stand before the building, trying valiantly to battle the fire. They blast water into the flaming entrance of the center with the Azumarill doing the bulk of the work, but the fire refuses to die down. Just behind them stands a small crowd of people and pokemon being looked over by an entirely too small team of medics and a frantic Nurse Joy.

The sight of the uncontrolled flames makes Lee's stomach drop and fill with ice. His scars flare in phantom pain and he breathes slowly through his nose as if using his mouth would invite the fire to rush inside him. Brendan releases in a flash of light Mudkip and turns to say something to him, but the boy's words are lost through the dull roar of the fire.

In his hand, Vulpix's ball shakes violently before bursting open. The sudden noise and jerk of his handshakes Lee from his spiraling thoughts as Vulpix presses herself to his legs. Nary a second later, the vixen reaches out with her telepathy and gently wraps her mind around her trainer's, coaxing him back to reality.

Lee lets out a short gasp as his surroundings come back into sharp focus and clenches his hand around the now empty ball in his hand. He looks down at Vulpix, who returns his gaze with a cool expression, an expression betrayed only by the soothing warmth that flows from her mind to his.

The man takes a deep, shuddering breath. 'Love, I know I'd be lost without you.' Vulpix just presses herself a little more to him.

"Lee!"

Lee turns to Brendan, who glares up at the man with a surprising amount of venom. "Are we going to help or what?"

Lee quashes his sudden irritation and nods with a sigh. "Yes. Let's go."

The pair of trainers rush to the front of the group, passing a few firefighters and coming to a stop behind the female police officer. "Hey! Officer!"

The woman looks over her shoulder, revealing herself to be none other than Officer Jenny. She regards the trainers with her eyebrows furrowed. "What are you two doing here?! Get back! It's dangerous!" she yells, voice barely audible over the din of the fire.

"We're professor Birch's trainers!" Brendan yells back, flashing his ID just long enough for Jenny's eyes to scan over it. "We're here to help!"

The woman's shoulders lose the slightest bit of tension. "Thank goodness! Do either of you have a water pokemon? We have a rescue team inside trying to get the stragglers and Azumarill and I need to go in and help, but a fire this size will spread without someone outside to help with containment. I hate to lay this burden and you two, but can you help?"

"Of course!" Brendan says, his serious face cracking for a small grin. At his side, Mudkip lets out a cry of agreement.

Lee and Vulpix both simply nod. 'Ready, love?' Lee asks her, only to stumble a little when Vulpix widens the channel between them. The scarred man takes a breath and looks back to the burning building. The flames seem so much sharper now, and the heat pushes against a phantom sense he never had. Jenny turns and says something to Azumarill, but it's lost in the roar of the flame. The pair rush away and boldly dart into the burning building, leaving Brendan and Mudkip to take their place.

"Hey, Brendan!" Lee yells, making Brendan glance back at him. "Vulpix and I are going to contain the flames as best we can. Take your time, Mudkip's stamina has to last this entire crisis!"

"Hear that pal?!" the boy asks his Mudkip, who nods seriously back. Brendan points and Mudkip unleashes a torrent of water into a burning window.

'Alrighty, lets do this.'

Lee looks up to the burning pokemon center, accurately able to feel where Vulpix is looking. His eyes shoot to a burning part of the center's siding, and instantly Vulpix's focus shifts to where he's looking. The fire is slowly creeping across the building.

'Now...' Lee hesitates, suddenly unsure how to move forward. 'Starve the flames. Deprive them of oxygen.'

Vulpix's focus sharpens, and Lee tries to aid her by visualizing the flames shrinking or pulling away, but nothing happens. The pyrokinesis keeps slipping, like a hand trying to grip a fist-sized ball of marble slick with oil. Vulpix growls in frustration and Lee can feel it over the widened psychic channel. A splash of water from Mudkip puts put the on-fire section they were working on and knocks Lee and Vulpix out of sync.

'Easy love. Just take a calming breath and focus,' Lee sends to her, including a clumsy feeling of reassurance. The vixen huffs and pulls on his mind with hers again. The pair move their focus to a blown-out window throwing flames and embers all over.

'We can't starve the flames by trying to pull away oxygen. That must be out of the realm of your pyrokinesis. At least for now, it tried to respond earlier,'Lee thinks, biting his lip. 'What if you just... I dunno, pulled the flames away from the building and let them go? Without something to burn, would it just go out?'

Vulpix closes her eyes and reaches out to the flames again, this time firmly finding purchase with her pyrokinesis. The fire roaring from the window grows magnificently as onlookers scream, almost throwing the combined focus of Lee and Vulpix out of whack. The fire wavers then grows again as the pair pull the section of fire outside of the building. A great ball of flame floats away from the now unburning window before Vulpix lets go. The great conflagration dies without even a whimper, and the onlookers gasp. Even Brendan whips his head around to stare at them.

'Yes! Just like that!' Lee can't help but grin at the sheer elation he feels from the normally cool vixen. 'I can't believe that worked! C'mon girl, next one! We've got a Pokemon Center to save!'

"Vul!" Vulpix verbally cries in agreement.

"Brendan!" Lee calls to the still stunned boy. "Have Mudkip soak the spots Vulpix pulls the flames from so they can't reignite!"

He nods absently, still looking at Vulpix "Yeah, sure."

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