The Cinnabar Gym

Declan walked up next to his sister idly stretching on arm over his head. The other was latched onto his elbow and he gives out an explosive yawn. Despite the intense heat radiating inside the volcano neither of the siblings seemed overly bothered. He comes up next to his sister and drops the key to the gym in her lap. He had moved to the Kanto region a little over a year ago. After more than ten years of being a wandering trainer he had acquiesced to the leagues request to join it as a gym leader. The money was good and they provided housing so it seemed like a sweet gig. He had proved a bit too effective at his job as gym leader, he had defeated the majority of challengers that came to his gym and eventually he got a promotion. Elite Four member paid even more and he only had to show up when someone came for the challenge. Of course that meant someone had to take over his gym, which wound up being his baby sis.

"Well it's all yours. Have fun with it Dakota."

Declan punches his sister lightly in the arm and gives her a grin.

"Hey your better than you think you are. Plus I will still visit to train you. Don't worry Dakota you will take to this like a fire to paper."

It was fairly obvious Declan had no idea what was actually bothering Dakota. The young man had a streak of wanderlust a mile long, it had been a surprise to every when he settled to run a gym. That he couldn't see the same thing in his sister wasn't surprising though. Declan had many strengths, but insight into others wasn't one of them. He honestly thought her reluctance was due to her not thinking she was good enough. He however was positive that his own love of battle was shared by her and she would rise to the challenge. In short Dakota's brother was an idiot, a battle maniac idiot.

Declan returns the huh and say's with a laugh.

"I'll miss ya to Lil sis. Try not to burn the volcano down while I'm gone. Also don't close the gym too often. I know the league let's you set your own hours, but you shouldn't abuse it."

It was true the league was stupidly lax with gym hours. Trainers had been known to have to go on elaborate treasure hunts to track down Gym Leaders on occasion. Releasing his sister he releases Inferno
Climbing on the Charizards back he takes off into the wild blue yonder, ready to turn it red with fire.

Dakota led Arcanine and Iris into the gym interior. Once inside, she pressed a rock embedded into the wall, and the torches and lanterns that lit up the gym sputtered to life, in addition with the magma below, giving the whole gym a rather warm interior.

"Look, do you see that hole there? I felt the shaking last night, something big has taken up residence here. And we are gonna find it."

She pointed to a large hole, several feet in diameter that was on the interior of the volcano, numerous rocks were on the ground beneath it, and several more had cracks in the vicinity of the hole.

"Well, we have two options...hang on, Arcanine, can you smell the Pokemon and do you know which it is?"

Arcanine nodded its head and barked. Dakota grinned before asking a follow-up.

"Do you think you can take it?"

An enthusiastic bark followed by a short burst of flame was Arcanine's response. Dakota's grin got wider as she turned back towards her friend, pulling out two flashlights and handing Iris one of them.

"Okay, so we go climb through the hole until we find whatever Pokemon dug it out, then we battle it and one of us will catch it! Sounds like fun right?"

Dakota grinned and slapped her friend on the back.

"That's the spirit! Come on, I don't expect you to do much fighting, just have Sylveon enhance Arcanine like we practiced. Whatever did this is probably a rock or ground type, which puts Arcanine at a disadvantage. Lets go!"

Dakota led the way into the tunnel, which fortunately started out with only a slight incline, her flashlight illuminating the circular passage.