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Faleen watched Nikki, blinking a couple of times but saying nothing back.
Cheeks flushing a little bit when she saw the Agent returning one of the fainted Torkoals... that wasn't good.

She couldn't dwell on it right now though, they did have to get moving.
Returning her own furious Sharpedo. She made her way with the group, eying the large dark Charizard for a moment before they moved past...
she probably won't be looking at Charizards the same way since Azrael.

Umbreon drew up next to his master, hurrying with her. though he stopped when he realized her hesitating.
blinking and looking back at her he saw her looking down at one of the fainted Pokemon.
Faleen was frowning down at one of the Growlithe, looking thoughtful for a moment.
but before long, she was drawing out a Dusk Ball, and much to Umbreon's surprise, she used it to suck up the downed fire dog.

Hearing the Charmeleon nearby, Yuushi turned her attention toward it and gave it a fierce snarl with fangs beared. The dark dragon letting the Charmeleon know that she was top dog here, or reptile or something. She then lashed her tail and continued to follow after Nikki in a huff.

It took some time, but eventually the tunnel started to open up and a glow could be seen ahead of them once more. But this time, there was no stampede of Pokemon.

The tunnel soon opened up into the belly of the volcano. A monstrous crater with churning lava below and steep walls that rose hundreds of feet up to the top where the smoke and steam was escaping. Here there heat was intense and Nikki was pulling off her gloves and tying up her hair to be cooler. While her Charizard basked in the heat.

But something soon caught the agent's attention. "Look! Over there!" The shout was one that was almost gleeful. For Nikki was pointing at the other side of the crater, several feet down. There on a ledge, was a nest, with what looked to be a large egg inside of it and surrounded by orange and gold feathers.

Revenant, Aila had decided, was the best choice in defending against the onslaught of fire-types; though the Mismagius wasn't quite as powerful as Fleur, she possessed none of the Venusaur's weakness to fire and was a much better size to fit into the cramped environment. Using her Pidgeotto as some kind of hovering flotsam, she just barely managed to stay on her feet when the Surf tore through the path, though she was now quite thoroughly soaked. It was uncomfortable, but she assumed the warmth of the place would dry her out before too long. At any rate, there were more important things at hand than wet clothes. She withdrew Gui back into his pokeball in favor of the stronger Revenant in case they were to encounter more frenzied pokemon, refocused, and proceeded ahead with the group.

Aila stared down into the belly of the crater as they entered the cavern, eyes wide and lips slightly parted in response to the spectacular scenery. It was hot, incredibly hot, possibly even hotter than the desert had been in the summer, but it was absolutely breath-taking. The girl retrospectively berated herself for considering even for a minute turning down the offer to join Team Rocket from so long ago. How many beautiful sights had she had the opportunity to witness since that evening?

Nikki's exclamation redirected her attention to something of even greater interest, though: a nested egg in a bed of unmistakable feathers. "Wow." All other emotions but sheer amazement seemed to have been momentarily drained from her thoughts.

The feel of the the tense mountain air of heat made Len gladly thankful they were outside the cave for a change. The wetness she endured made her glad for the hot weather, but not so much for Max. The Pikachu began to shiver uncontrollably, his phobia of water just irking him s'more. Len wasn't in the mood to deal with the blue-eyed rodent and withdrew him. She released Nunnally instead, who carelessly sat where her owner let her out with a "Vay".

Looking up when the item was spotted, Len had to remove her glasses due to the steamed lenses to see exactly what was there. Though somewhat blurry, her eyes adjusted well enough to see what caused her to marvel: a Ho-oh egg. Her heart thumped deeply and some shackle of control caused her not to hop onto that other Charizard and fly up there to obtain it.

"I agree. There must be a parent somewhere close, yes?" Len asked, pulling herself away from the sheer onslaught of "Zomg, fire legendary egg!" clouding her mind.

Damon obediently followed the Agents deeper into the volcano, Badru tagging closely to his side as they made their way through the now-wet floors of the cavern. It seemed to be infinitely harder to get his footing with wet boots, but he managed to stay on two feet - a small miracle he was glad to have. He didn't really like the idea of falling and getting cut up any more than he already was.

The heat was only making him more uncomfortable the further they trudged into the volcano. While his clothes were beginning to dry, the moisture that begun to cling to his skin was quickly replaced as he began to sweat. His hair was clinging to the sides of his neck, but he didn't really feel like stopping to rearrange it. He could have worn it another way if he'd really wanted, but he chose to wear it like this and if he was going to suffer for it, he'd suffer.

But as the group entered the crater, he couldn't hide the awe on his face. Somewhere in the back of it mind, it had yet to register that he was actually inside a volcano. That portion had abruptly realized this fact as he peered down at the churning lava below him. The heat was insane this deep into the volcano, and for a brief moment he was almost grateful his shirt had been torn in the fall.

Soon enough his attention was drawn to the egg one of the Agents, and he almost felt his heart leap into his throat and lodge there. He was actually in the presence of a Ho-Oh egg. He was about to possibly help steal said Ho-Oh egg. He wasn't sure whether to be thrilled or terrified at the prospect. It was only a nudge from Badru that finally broke him out of his trance.

The Umbreon looked distinctly uncomfortable in the heat, and he quickly withdrew him back into the Pokeball. He'd done well enough in lighting there way and surviving that Surf attack. The least Damon could do was to give him a good rest. It was because of this brief pause that he even heard the discussion regarding a potential mother to the egg. And before he could bite back his tongue, he spoke up.

"There wouldn't be a mother, there'd be a parent or guardian. Ho-Oh are genderless, like most legendaries are," Damon corrected absently, before biting his lip nervously. The first time he'd spoken in the mission, and he just had to correct someone. So much for blending into the background and remaining unnoticed.

Nikki looked up in surprise at Damon's comment. That was impressive that he knew that much about legendary Pokemon. Huh. "He's right... but there should still be a Ho-oh around here somewhere. We'll have to be careful when grabbing that egg."

Yes, they were going to grab it. They had to get something if the Ho-oh didn't come back.

"Anyone that has flying Pokemon can use them to get to the nest. There are ropes and other supplies you can use to get over in your packs, for those that don't. We can worry about how to transport the egg when we get there."

When Nikki gave the instructions for rockets with non flying Pokemon to use robes, Faleen slipped the pack off of her back, crouching down and opening it up to grab the heavy duty rope and spikes from it, Pushing herself up to find a sturdy rock to tie it off on.
"Your suit, Agent Nyx, is sounding more and more like a good idea" She noted, The heat of this decent was going to be incredibly uncomfortable.

Glancing down to Umbreon once she had tugged at the rope firmly to make sure it was secure,
"You stay here," she instructed him, not returning him to his pokeball, quite the opposite, she reached down to pull the other pokeball from her leg, releasing her Absol next to Umbreon.

... and he thought the Desert was hot, ugh.

Now that she was ready and held the rope in her hands, glancing around at the others.

Flying pokemon? Yes. Flying pokemon that could be used for transportation? Not so much. But she did have something that could be of use, and so Aila plucked Pitre's pokeball from her belt, releasing the Metang. The steel-type protested the heat with a narrowing of its red eyes, and its human answered with a pat on its side. "You'll have to endure it for now," she said, recalling Revenant; the ghost could easily hover at her side, but the less she had to keep track of, the better. Pitre blinked in slight confusion when Aila seated herself on its broad back, adjusting her posture to find the most secure position. A Metagross would have been preferable in terms of size, but her small stature made the feat doable. "Magnet Rise," she said.

The Metang responded in kind, the altitude at which it hovered above the ground increasing slightly to show that it was ready to move at her word. She gestured to the egg, explaining, "Our destination. Do move carefully." There was an awful lot of lava down there, and she scarcely fancied a dip. On its trainer's command, Pitre began a slow procession towards the designated goal.