[Silver]

Her large ears subtly twitched with every sound, no matter how faint. Her bright green eyes were narrowed, scanning the landscape for anything out of place. It was of utmost importance to be alert and aware of her surroundings. It was a dangerous world out there, and she really hated surprises.

Six was perched on a large bolder, giving her an advantaged view of the area. The volcano loomed in the foreground, growing ever closer. Leading up to it, the path became craggy and barren. Pools of lava glowed in the distance, and occasionally a jet of steam shot up from the ground. All of this confirmed her desire to proceed with caution. Not that heat and fire ever did her any harm.

[Silver]

Six swiftly hopped down form her perch, bright red tails flowing elegantly behind her. With a mental map of the area firmly in place, she was confident she could navigate to the next stop without any trouble. If things went as expected, they would even be ahead of schedule.

"Oh, don't tell me, the whole path is filled with monsters. We're going to have to fight our way through, fang and claw!" Gamble said with a laugh as Six strutted away. As he was now learning to expect, she didn't dignify him with a response.

"Tell me again what I did to get stuck with this," he grumbled to himself.

[Silver]

"We're the only ones who can bear the heat of the volcano," Six responded dryly.

"Oh good! You do talk. I was starting to worry!" She rolled her eyes at him and declined to respond. He let out a disappointed sigh. Banter worked a lot better when it went two ways. Her stoic silence was really just the worst. He almost wished she would yell at him instead. At least that would be interesting.

Gamble shrugged and followed along quietly for a while. He still thought he should be the team leader. He was the biggest, after all. It only made sense that the biggest, strongest one should be the leader. They already had that argument, though, and she thoroughly won. Didn't mean he couldn't still be a little grumpy about it.

[Silver]

"What's that?" Gamble asked excitedly, pointing with his paw.

"What?" Six snapped her head in the direction he was pointing. It didn't look like there was anything there. Her face quickly turned sour. "Don't screw around," she scolded. This wouldn't be the first time he played such a prank.

"No, really, there's something over there," he insisted. "Maybe you can't see it because you're so short."

"I am not..." she growled. For a moment he thought he had actually gotten to her, but she quickly regained composure. Certain that his claim was just an excuse to make a joke about her size, she turned back and continued on the path she had set.

[Silver]

He only looked away for a second, but when he looked back, whatever he had spotted before was no longer there. That was strange. He was positive that he had seen something, whether or not Six was willing to believe him. Well, maybe it was just a mirage. That kind of stuff happened all the time in this heat, right?

Walking past a large rock, Gamble caught a glimpse of yellow and green. It looked quite out of place against all of the brown and orange. "Six, six," he leaned down to whisper.

"Stop it."

"Really, seriously, you gotta look!"

"No thank you." She wasn't about to fall for another one of his stupid tricks.

[Silver]

"Will you listen to me for once?" he roared, jumping in front of her to force her to stop. There was a serious look in his fiery orange eyes.

Six gave Gamble a piercing look, but she did finally look over at the rock. It seemed that all the commotion had caught the yellow thing's attention. It was a small Numel, which was slowly blinking at them. "It doesn't look like a threat," she said, sounding unimpressed.

"How was I supposed to know that? It could have been a dangerous enemy!"

She hated to admit it, but he was right for once. Just because it turned out not to be a serious threat didn't mean it was safe to let their guard down. Though she'd never give him the satisfaction of hearing her say as much.

[Silver]

"Keep your voice down," she cautioned.

"Why?" he almost reflexively disagreed. It wasn't like there was anyone around to hear them. Other than the Numel of course, but they had already decided he wasn't a problem.

"RRRR-UUUUPT!" A mighty roar froze both of them in their tracks.

"That's why!" Six hissed. She whipped around in a flash of red fur and found herself face to face with a huge Camerupt. "Of course," she muttered. The Numel was probably a juvenile, and this was an angry parent.

"Hey buddy," Gamble said, putting his most charming grin. "We don't mean you any harm, okay? We're just gonna go now, far away from your territory."

[Silver]

There was a brief pause as the Camerupt seemed to be contemplating his offer. Just as Gamble was sure they could walk away without a fight, a huge stone came hurtling toward him. "I take it that's a no," he said as he tumbled out of the way.

"Camerupt are slow but powerful. Watch yourself," Six instructed. Ideally, she would like to distract her long enough to get away without seriously hurting her, but she was prepared for the worst.

"Right," he nodded. Just as he opened his mouth to let out a caustic smog, he caught a glimpse of the little Numel again. Not wanting to risk hurting the little one, he snapped his jaws shut, letting out only a single puff of smoke. "Your aim better be good," he warned.

[Silver]

Six almost found his warning insulting, but she didn't say as much. Instead, she just turned to the Camerupt and looked her dead in the eyes. Her bright green eyes began to glow with a mix of pink and purple. She was very still and intensely focused.

The Camerupt looked confused, shaking it's head, trying to avoid looking at her. With rage in her eyes, she summoned a huge blast of fire and aimed it right at the Vulpix. Gamble swiftly dove in front of her to take the hit. The brightness of the fire temporarily blinded him, but it uselessly dissipated off of his sleek black fur.

Six briefly broke concentration to give Gamble a look of thankful surprise. Even though neither of them could be damaged by fire, she found the act noble.

[Silver]

Before she totally lost her ability to concentrate, Six snapped back to where she was. Again her eyes began to glow pink and a twirl of purple mist emanated from them. The Camerupt was entranced by her gaze at first. Then it cried out in pain and flinched away from her.

"Now's our chance, run!" she demanded. Gamble didn't have to be told twice, he was already ahead of her. Thank goodness for his long legs.

"So what the hell was that?" he asked when they finally gained enough ground to slow down a bit.

"It was a psychic attack," she explained.

"That's awesome! I didn't know you could do that."

"There is a lot you don't know."