Gary rested overnight at the Pokémon Center in the Survival Area.
The next day.
Gary didn't rush to Stark Mountain. Instead, he went out and supervised his Pokémon's training—mainly focusing on his Sinnoh region Pokémon.
After lunch, Gary decided not to go to Stark Mountain that afternoon either. Looking for Heatran was a major undertaking. Without any leads, finding Heatran in a short time was basically impossible.
Because of its ability to climb walls, Heatran had an enormous range of activity. The entirety of Stark Mountain was essentially Heatran's territory.
Just like that, time slipped by, and before he knew it, a week had passed.
However... Gary still hadn't found Heatran.
Gary had already mapped out the internal structure of Stark Mountain and had even tried digging tunnels through the rock inside.
However, the rock within Stark Mountain was extremely hard. Even Rhyperior couldn't dig through the mountain walls quickly.
Because Gary had been so active inside Stark Mountain, he attracted hostility from many of the cave's wild Pokémon. He even encountered a Quasi-Elite-level Camerupt with Champion potential.
Unfortunately, Gary didn't like Camerupt's appearance. Even though Camerupt had a Mega Evolution, he had no interest in catching it. He sent Blastoise out to drive it off, then moved on to search elsewhere.
"Is Heatran really here?"
Gary looked at the mountain ahead and felt a headache coming on. He'd been searching for a week and still had nothing to show for it. It seemed his only option now was to look near the entrance of the volcano itself.
So far, Gary had only searched the outer areas of Stark Mountain and around the mountainside, but hadn't found Heatran. His only remaining option was to search near the volcano's entrance. However, the temperature near the opening was extremely high. Even with Arcanine by his side, Gary still felt the intense heat, and he couldn't stay there for long.
Gary left the Survival Area and took Moltres to land near the volcano entrance. After landing, he released Arcanine.
"Arcanine, let's search around the volcano entrance and see if there are any caves nearby," Gary said.
Wild Pokémon were crafty. After digging caves, they would use rocks to block the entrances, preventing other Pokémon from discovering them.
"Woof!!"
Arcanine nodded. But the very next moment, Arcanine suddenly barked at a large rock—more than a meter tall and over a meter wide.
Gary immediately understood that something was behind that rock.
Under normal circumstances, wild Pokémon would be intimidated by Arcanine and wouldn't dare approach. Yet whatever was behind that rock hadn't run away. Instead, it chose to hide. That alone told Gary the Pokémon hiding there wasn't ordinary.
However, even after hearing Arcanine bark, whatever was behind the rock showed no intention of coming out. The two sides were at a standstill.
"Hey! Whoever's hiding behind that rock—if you don't come out, I'm going to attack," Gary called out.
"No! No! I'll come out right away!"
Hearing the threat of an attack, a voice came from behind the rock.
"A person?!"
Gary was also taken aback. He hadn't expected someone to be staying out here.
After a moment, a teenager in red walked out from behind the rock.
The boy looked about the same age as Gary. He wore a red short-sleeved shirt and cropped pants. He had red hair, and because it was so long, he had tied it up.
"Buck!" Gary blurted out in surprise.
He recognized this boy.
Buck was the younger brother of Flint, one of Sinnoh's Elite Four.
In the game storyline, before you could encounter Heatran, there was a sequence where you had to stop Team Galactic's Charon, and that was when you met Buck.
Heatran would only appear after Buck removed the Magma Stone. But that was just the game's plot.
The Heatran that had been imprisoned by the Magma Stone was extremely powerful, and there had to be other Heatran living in Stark Mountain as well.
The Heatran captured by Team Galactic was definitely somewhere inside Stark Mountain. Gary just hadn't found it yet.
"Hello, my name is Buck. I didn't mean to hide. I have no bad intentions," Buck hurriedly explained.
"Really?"
Gary believed Buck meant no harm, but hiding behind a rock like that was still suspicious. Could it be that Buck hadn't hidden deliberately, but had stumbled onto something good?
"Of course. I just saw Moltres and thought it was a wild Moltres coming here to rest. I was afraid of disturbing it, so I hid. I didn't realize Moltres was actually your Pokémon," Buck continued to explain.
Gary thought about it. After all, Buck looked like a new Trainer. Being startled by a Legendary Pokémon was perfectly normal. So Gary believed him.
"Since that's the case, go ahead and do your thing," Gary said.
"Um... you're not going to send me away, are you? Could I take a photo with Moltres?" Buck asked.
Gary: "..."
"Don't worry—I won't ask for the photo for free. I'm really familiar with Stark Mountain. If there's anything you need help with, I'll definitely help," Buck said.
Gary suddenly felt a spark of interest.
Buck had grown up in the Survival Area since childhood, so he had to be intimately familiar with this place. Maybe he really did know something useful.
"Do you know of any caves near the volcano entrance?" Gary asked.
"I do, but the caves near the volcano entrance are all filled with magma inside, and the sulfur smell is horrible. Staying inside for too long will make you feel dizzy and nauseous," Buck said.
"You've been inside?"
Buck said awkwardly, "I went in once when I was a kid and passed out almost immediately. If my grandfather hadn't come to rescue me, I'd still be in that cave."
Gary had to admire the kid's guts. Going into a volcano cave alone as a child took some real courage.
Gary felt that he might have been looking in the wrong direction from the start. He shouldn't have been searching around the outside of Stark Mountain—he should have gone directly to the volcano entrance.
"Alright, show me where the caves near the volcano entrance are. I'll let you take a photo with Moltres and even give you one of Moltres's feathers," Gary said.
"Really?!"
Buck was immediately delighted. Getting a Moltres feather was beyond anything he could have hoped for.
Moltres's feathers burned with eternal flames. The fire wouldn't burn anything it touched. Although the feathers had no practical use, they were extremely valuable collectibles and fetched high prices on the market.
"Of course."
Buck paused for a moment, then asked, "What are you looking for in those caves?"
"I want to capture Heatran. I heard it lives in Stark Mountain, so I came here to find it," Gary said.
"Heatran?!"
Buck was shocked. Having grown up in the Survival Area, he naturally knew about Heatran. He had been listening to stories about it since childhood.