Pokemon: Radical Redux-Chapter 532: Frontier Brains Vs Guile

The sun was already beginning to dip toward the mountains by the time everyone finished relaxing in the hot springs.

Ash had gotten out first. Just like before, he went off to a private bath, but unfortunately it seemed like May and Max were starting to wonder if there was more to the reason why than he was saying. Brock tried to get everyone not to think about it, insisting it was just a thing Ash did.

He got out first and put on a yukata. While everyone else was still relaxing in the hot springs, he was now sitting on a wooden chair near the hot sand bath area, and Vee and Pikachu were napping on a nearby chair, enjoying the heat coming from the sand.

The warm sand shifted as Vibrava happily burrowed and popped back out again. Yeah, since his boy had done a lot today, he let him out to play in the hot sand. Unfortunately Donphan was too big, otherwise Ash would have totally let him out to play in there too.

Ash barely looked up from the laptop balanced on his knee as he reviewed information he had from D.

He knew that Team Aqua and Team Magma were making moves right now, and as much as he would like to handle both things, Ash couldn’t make another clone, not while he already had D.

As for the plans, Ash had to figure out which one would take priority. He didn’t know if Team Aqua and Magma already had the orbs like in the anime, or if this situation was more like the manga. He knew from some leaks that Team Magma had an operation at Mt. Pyre, which he would have loved to send D to deal with.

But at the same time, Team Aqua was moving. The place didn’t matter, what did matter was the fact that they were leaving their main base, the one where Professor Cozmo was being held. Ash needed Professor Cozmo for something he had planned, not to mention that the plan to take on Sird was coming up.

Yeah, he made sure to tell Taka, as D, not to reveal all the information yet. He needed the timing to be at a point where Sird couldn’t find out her lifeline wasn’t going to work. If he did it now or too early, Sird would lie low or find another way. Taka was more than fine with that since it meant he could be lazy longer.

So Ash had to figure out which one to send D to, ether check out Mt. Pyre, where there might not be anything, or go to the base and get Professor Cozmo. He really wished he could make another clone, but he couldn’t,

He was so focused on this that right now was one of the moments he turned off his Aura sense. I mean, he couldn’t keep it activated 24/7, he would lose way too much Aura if he did that. So right now he let his guard down.

Which was exactly why he didn’t notice someone creeping up behind him. Or the quiet footsteps approaching across the wooden deck.

"BOO!"

Ash nearly jumped a full foot out of his chair as he slammed the laptop shut instantly and turned around.

Flannery stood there with a huge grin on her face, also out of her usual clothes and wearing a yukata, hands on her hips like she had just accomplished something extremely important, "Ahahaha! Got you!"

Ash quickly slid the computer behind his back on the chair, trying to look casual, "...You trying to give people heart attacks now?" he said, raising an eyebrow.

Flannery leaned forward suspiciously, "Hmmm."

Her eyes narrowed, "What was that?"

Ash blinked innocently, "What was what?"

Flannery pointed directly behind him, "The thing you just hid!"

Ash shrugged, "Nothing important."

Flannery crossed her arms immediately, "That was definitely something important."

Meanwhile, Vibrava popped out of the sand beside them with a cheerful chirp, completely unconcerned with the situation.

"No, it’s just what route I think we should take," Ash said, making up his prepared excuse, "I mean, we got so sidetracked waiting for the stuff. I wanted to see if there were any contests on the path, or if we should just go to the next Gym."

"Ah, I see," Flannery said as she walked over and took another chair. She looked at the sand, remembered something, and threw out her main Torkoal.

The Fire-type immediately began burying her head in the sand.

Flannery laughed, "For her, this is basically paradise."

Ash watched quietly for a moment.

Flannery glanced over at him again, "...Hey."

Ash blinked.

"You don’t look so great," she said, "Or am I just imagining things?"

Ash waved a hand dismissively, "I’m fine."

Flannery studied him for a moment, "...Okay then, I guess."

Ash looked away slightly, rubbing the back of his neck, "...Maybe I don’t feel so hot."

Flannery immediately perked up, "I knew it!"

She leaned forward excitedly, "Don’t worry, I know just the thing!"

Ash raised an eyebrow.

"When I’m not feeling so great, I try to relax my body and let out all my steam," she said, stretching back in her chair, "That’s something Torkoal taught me."

Ash glanced at the Fire-type Pokémon happily digging into the sand, "Oh really?" 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

Flannery nodded, "Whenever I see a volcano now, it makes me think about how I used to be."

Ash tilted his head, "What happened?"

Flannery rubbed the back of her head, "Well...my grandfather was one of the Elite Four," she admitted, "And I felt pressured to live up to that ever since I was little," she said with an almost sad smile, remembering the past.

"I tried to get stronger as fast as I could...but I was just running in circles." She gestured toward Torkoal, "Around that time, seeing Torkoal spouting smoke all the time like she always does got me thinking."

"How very Torkoal-like she was, never trying to impress anyone. Torkoal just does her own thing. But there’s more to it than that." Flannery pointed, "See how she’s digging a hole? She’s searching for coal."

"She burns that coal up as she digs out a little cave. The smoke she spouts is how you know she’s converting that coal into energy."

"We might not notice it, but Torkoal is working hard little by little to dig her caves."

Then Flannery looked up into the sky, "That’s when I realized something. I was trying too hard."

"I needed to do things in my own natural way, be myself instead of trying to be someone I’m not."

Ash listened quietly.

Flannery smiled faintly, "I figured...if I could do that, maybe I could become the person I actually wanted to be. It didn’t matter that my grandfather was one of the Elite Four."

"Whenever I started feeling the pressure again, Torkoal was always there, just doing her own thing like she always does. The caves she digs...or in my case, the paths I choose to walk down..."

She looked toward the mountains where the sun was setting, "...Those are up to me. If I stay true to myself, when I finally reach the end of that dark, narrow cave..."

"I’m sure there’ll be an awesome, bright-red, world-shaking volcano waiting for me."

She stretched her arms again and laughed, "Although I still feel pressure sometimes. I guess that part is inevitable!"

Then she glanced at Ash, "You know...I know I already said it, but thanks again for saving me, and for saving Mt. Chimney. It means more to me and to the people in Lavaridge than you think."

Ash smiled a little, "...That was actually good to hear."

Flannery brightened, "I’m glad!"

"After all," she said, looking slightly down, "it might be embarrassing, but you’re someone I look up to. Sometimes I wish I could be more like you." She remembered how Ash did everything to help her when she couldn’t do anything.

Ash snorted slightly.

"Yeah, you probably don’t want that." Flannery laughed, "I’m still going to keep doing things my way from now on."

Ash leaned back in his chair, watching Torkoal happily digging. Flannery’s words made him realize he had a third choice, but he wasn’t going to admit that, so he did what he did best.

"...You’re surprisingly philosophical for someone whose 199-win streak I just broke."

Flannery froze, "...You did NOT just bring that up again."

Ash grinned and stuck his tongue out, "I think I just did, lava girl~. Whatcha gonna do about it?"

Flannery scoffed, "Alright then, you wanna play like that? Round two, let’s go!" Flannery stood up and whistled over to her Torkoal.

"Ha, fine by me. I’ll beat you any day of the week," Ash said as he picked up Pikachu by the scruff of his neck and held him out. Pikachu sleepily opened his eyes and yawned.

About then Brock, May, and Max walked out from the room wearing yukatas, seeing Ash and Flannery mid-scuffle.

"I guess we’re going for round two," May muttered, while Max was already getting excited.

Brock blinked and turned around, "I’m going back in for another twenty minutes."

—

{With Ashtwo}

D was preparing a lot for what was coming. No matter what, this situation would take a lot of effort, especially since the last time the second round of Rockets came to join them, along with more of the financial department, Wendy, and another ten billion from Giovanni.

So Matori had calmed down a lot, now that she wasn’t balancing everything by herself. Of course, it wasn’t anywhere near enough to even consider forgiving Carr, but it was a start.

Of course, even after he told everyone he was fine, people still seemed to walk on glass around him, especially Matori. She had yet to ever raise her voice at him, which made sense. Again, look at D from their perspective.

Anyway, surprisingly, the main people helping to set up bases in Hoenn were Jessie, James, and Meowth. The ones sent to Team Aqua and Magma bases consisted mostly of admins like Sayoko, led by Proton or Archer.

And the one infiltrating both was obviously Petrel. He was a master of disguise, feeding them intel on where to go and what plans they had.

And that’s how D found out that Team Aqua was going to be leaving their main base to deal with another attack on a Team Magma base, but also about Magma heading to Mt. Pyre.

D had to choose what to do quickly. He could make a plan, but he would need to work fast, especially since he wasn’t ready to take on Sird. Well...he was. He was confident he could fight her one-on-one, but he didn’t have enough evidence against her yet, and the fact that Carr was almost always with her complicated things.

But this was a golden opportunity.

So D stood up and walked directly to Matori’s office. He knocked twice on the door before entering.

"Come in."

Her voice was sharp as always, but when the door opened and she saw him, she looked ready to yell at whoever had walked through that door. When she realized it was him, she let out an almost defeated sigh.

D stepped inside without a word. His lower face was hidden behind the familiar black mask, the eyepatch covering his left eye. He stood straight, keeping up the act of a so-called ’emotionless’ person, even if he himself kind of cringed at having to act like this.

Matori watched him carefully, "Is something wrong?"

D shook his head once, "No," he said softly and too smoothly, "I have a request."

Matori leaned back slightly in her chair, "...Go on," she said. If it had been anyone else, she would have thrown a form at them and told them to wait, but this was D.

D placed a thin folder on her desk. Inside were Petrel’s reports. Matori didn’t even bother asking where he got them as she read them over.

"Team Aqua’s main base will be temporarily exposed within the next forty-eight hours."

She closed the folder slowly, "You want to raid the base."

"Yes." D’s tone didn’t change, "I will handle the mission."

Matori stared at him, "Absolutely not." The answer came instantly.

D didn’t react.

"You are not cleared for high-risk operations yet," she continued, "Your condition—"

"I am operational," he said, like he was comparing himself to a machine.

"You nearly died when everything happened!" Matori shot back.

"I survived."

The flat response made her jaw tighten. She bit her lip. She hated this, thinking about what had happened, and that D just kept going as if he had nothing left to live for. He was a teenager, for Arceus’ sake.

"You’re not going alone," she said firmly.

"I didn’t ask for a squad."

"You’re getting one anyway." Matori crossed her arms.

D was quiet for a moment, "...Then I’ll take my old squad."

Matori raised an eyebrow, "Enid, Jay, Domino, and Helena," she said, mostly because D had never referred to them as his squad before.

Outside the office door, four people immediately stiffened.

They had been listening.

Matori glanced toward the door. Of course they were there.

She pinched the bridge of her nose, "You think I didn’t notice the four shadows outside my office?"

The door slowly opened, and the group awkwardly stepped in.

Domino gave an unashamed shrug. Jay looked like he had been caught stealing something. Helena tried to look professional and failed. Enid simply crossed her arms and leaned against the wall.

Matori pinched the bridge of her nose again, "Wonderful."

D didn’t even glance at them, "They can help," he said calmly.

"I’m aware," Matori replied, "That doesn’t change the fact that this is an assault on a major base."

She looked back down at the folder. The timing was perfect, too perfect. Every executive was already deployed elsewhere.

If they missed this window, they might never get another clean shot at Aqua’s infrastructure.

Matori exhaled slowly, "...Fine." The word sounded like it physically hurt her to say.

But she wasn’t done.

"But you’re not going with just the five of you. I’m assigning two more people and Admin Orm to go with you, and no, you can’t argue." Matori crossed her arms and looked at D with a stern face.

D picked up the document, "Understood."

Matori studied him again, "...D." She paused for a moment, then looked up at him, "Just stay safe...and don’t die out there."

D looked back at her with his one good eye, "I won’t," he said simply as he turned and walked to the door.

As he got there, he turned to the group and simply said, "Get ready. We’ll leave in a day."

Then he left.

They blinked, looked at Matori, then at D’s back, and quickly decided it would be better to leave now. So they ran after him.

Inside the office, Matori stared at the closed door for several seconds before muttering quietly to herself.

"...Damn it."

She cursed herself. Why couldn’t she have just said no and left it at that?

She made up her mind. After he got back, she was going to force D to take another vacation.

—

Meanwhile, outside as the group followed D, it was hard to act like things were normal. I mean, sure, they were getting better, and D told them he didn’t hate them and that they could still be friends...but it’s kind of hard when your friend talks like a robot half the time.

They all looked like they wanted to run up and tell D something, but they hesitated.

Until Helena took a breath and ran up to bite the bullet.

"Hey...D, you wanna, um...come hang out? We were all thinking about training, if you want to join us?" Helena offered.

D turned to Helena, and she immediately saw the eyepatch covering what they all thought was his ruined eye. She felt like she wanted to crawl into a hole.

"Sorry, it was a dumb—"

"Sure. I don’t mind," D answered in his quiet tone.

"A-Ah, really?" Jay said, blinking, "I mean, it’s only if you want to, bro. We get it if you don’t want to go."

"It’s fine," D added, "We can go. Besides, you guys need to get stronger. You’re all still too weak."

They could have sworn they heard D’s old teasing tone in that, and that was because D was letting his real personality slip when he was supposed to be acting like a so-called "emotionless" emo kid.

But Enid took that and huffed.

"We’ll see who’s weak. Remember, I’m still going to surpass you," she said, putting her hands on her waist and pointing at D, "But you better not stop training either, got it? I don’t want a weak rival."

Again she felt embarrassed she let that out. She was trying to stop doing that around D. She did get better, before she would call herself the main character, but still, that was bad.

But instead, D nodded, "Good, I appreciate that," and that made Enid stop like she had frozen.

"Well, looks like you broke her," Domino said, snapping her finger in front of Enid’s eyes. Then she looked over at D, "But, D, I’m glad you’re back."

D nodded. Since his entire mouth was covered with the mask, that was the best he could do, "I’m glad to be back."

—

{Back at Artisan Cave}

The cave was now in chaos. Since Pokémon could see outside their Poké Balls, all the Pokémon knew what had happened and that they had been kidnapped. So as soon as they got out, they started running to try and escape.

In the process, it created a stampede that forced the Frontier Brains to grab onto something so they wouldn’t get run over by the swarm of Pokémon running through the cave. It was chaos.

And what made it worse was that Guile Hideout was running toward Jirachi.

Anabel looked through the stampede and locked her eyes on Jirachi before turning back to the others.

"I think I see a way. If we can get through, we can get Jirachi, then we can get out of here."

But while she was giving the smartest solution she could see, one that would have a 99% success rate as long as they all worked together, the rest weren’t thinking like that.

"What are you talking about?!" Greta demanded, "Run? There’s no way we’re doing that!"

She held up the ball and shoved it in Anabel’s face, "Look! This is the Poké Ball that the armored man was using! It has the Battle Factory logo on it! And those are the rental Pokémon Noland was taking care of!" Then she pointed at Guile, "That guy is the one who attacked Noland!"

"We all worked so hard together to create a successful Battle Frontier! Noland still hasn’t regained consciousness! And the person who hurt him is standing right in front of us!"

Greta clenched her fist, "That is far more important...than this Mythical Pokémon to us!"

Anabel opened her mouth and closed it again. She wanted to tell them that the logical thing to do would be to get Jirachi, but she knew she couldn’t argue. She may have only known these people for a short time, but they all knew each other and were like family.

So she couldn’t stop them, as much as she wanted to.

"Alright...I’ll try to get Jirachi," Anabel said.

"Fine by me," Greta huffed as she jumped over the rock they were hiding behind, "I’m going to fight, and I’m gonna defeat that guy and avenge Noland!"

Tucker, Lucy, Spenser, and Brandon all nodded and moved around with Greta, jumping into position and surrounding Guile.

"Yeah, that’s right!" Tucker said enthusiastically, "Behold the tactics of the Frontier Brain!"

Brandon nodded, getting into stance, "We are the brave trainers of the Battle Frontier..."

Spenser continued, "...And with a righteous spirit we shall—"

"...Tear that creepy armor off of you! Let’s see if you’re lucky enough to escape our wrath!" Lucy finished.

"Seviper, [Sludge Bomb]!"

"Crobat, [Air Cutter]!"

"Salamence, [Fire Blast]!"

"Dusclops, [Shadow Ball]!"

All the Pokémon charged their attacks and blasted Guile from all sides. They assumed that since they had only seen Guile use his sword to block attacks, only his sword was made of that special material. So if they attacked him from every direction, he wouldn’t be able to block all their attacks.

And they were right.

Guile couldn’t block all of them.

But what they weren’t expecting was that Guile was still standing there in the center, looking completely unfazed.

Then he raised his sword, and before anyone could stop him, he made a single swing. The shockwave that came from it sent everything flying back. Both the Pokémon and the trainers were thrown across the cave and slammed against the walls.

It seemed like all the attacks that hit the armor had also been transferred to the sword.

"Guys!" Greta cried out as she narrowed her eyes and pointed forward with her Umbreon, "Go!"

Umbreon used a variation of [Double Team] that actually worked more like shadow clones. It was her specialty, so they were all technically real, just that one was more real than the others. Then all of the Umbreon rushed toward Guile. He had already used the shockwave.

But Guile simply raised his arm and pointed forward.

Some of the Pokémon he had released suddenly tensed and stopped running with the herd. Then they turned and ran toward the Umbreon, getting in the way and starting to fight them.

They didn’t know how, but the eyes of those Pokémon were slightly glowing, like Guile had some way to control them and force them to fight.

Right now, Anabel was making her move.

A part of her wanted to go in and help them, but she couldn’t pass up this opportunity. Jirachi was right there.

So she ran around the chaos and pulled out a Poké Ball.

"Jirachi, you’re mine!" Anabel called out as she threw the ball.

Jirachi was still slightly disoriented after waking up, so it couldn’t react in time. The ball hit it right in the stomach, and Jirachi started getting pulled inside.

It wasn’t until now that Guile saw what was happening.

"NOOO!" he shouted in anger.

From the side, the others were struggling to stand up, heavily injured, but they all thought the same thing. She did it.

But just as the Poké Ball looked like it was about to close, it didn’t shake.

And it didn’t make the ding sound of a successful capture.

That’s when everyone looked back at Guile.

Guile had one last card to play, the one Pokémon that was actually his. A Surskit.

The little bug Pokémon was using [Psybeam] to hold the Poké Ball open. At Guile’s command, Surskit forced it open even further, cracking the Poké Ball and immediately releasing Jirachi.

"I’ve had enough of your interference!" Guile shouted angrily as he raised his sword.

Anabel realized what was about to happen, so she tried to run out of the way. But there was a strange liquid covering the ground, and her feet were stuck to it.

Brandon, who was behind her, saw what was happening.

"It’s from that Surskit again! Surskit’s sugary syrup is mixed in, and that makes it sticky!"

But even if they knew that, they couldn’t stop what was coming.

Guile released every ounce of stored energy from his sword, "Disappear! Beat it! Perish! This is where you meet your end, you pitiful fools!" Then he swung down.

The slash was so powerful that the ceiling of the cave collapsed. Everyone was sent flying and slammed against the stone walls.

As the cave began collapsing around them, Jirachi finally realized what was happening. It looked around...and saw Guile.

Jirachi got scared and started trying to fly away.

But this time Guile pulled out a Poké Ball, "Now you’re mine, Jirachi!" he shouted as he threw the ball, and it went streaking toward Jirachi.

But then the ball stopped midair.

Everyone watched it in surprise until they heard a soft grunt. Looking over at the rubble, Anabel was raising her hands, her palms glowing. She was using her Psychic powers to stop the ball, even as injured as she was.

"I won’t let you..." Anabel said weakly as her arm shook.

But the time that Anabel bought was enough. Jirachi finally disappeared, leaving everyone there.

"Damn it!" Guile said angrily, "I was so close...how maddening."

But Guile lowered his arm and looked at the Frontier Brains.

"No matter. I have time, and I know you lot are no match for me. Farewell, fools. The next time we meet..." He raised his sword and pointed it at the ground, "I, Guile Hideout, will be the Ruler of the World!"

He pushed his sword down into the stone and it released a bright glow. In the next moment, Guile was gone, leaving the Frontier Brains there.

They...lost.