Pokemon: Radical Redux

Chapter 564: Attacking the Tower

{Meanwhile, a few hours ago}

Charizard flew directly at the King Charizard. Today, they were fighting again. Since the last time, Charizard had been getting better after every fight. He went from barely being able to hurt the king to leaving him bruised.

And every day, he would get up to fight again, and that’s what led to today. Charizard’s claws glowed purple as the King’s claws glowed green, and they flew down toward each other.

Everyone in the Valley was watching. This had become a sort of event that the other Charizard watched, and today they all held their breaths because, in this battle, the King and Charizard were almost evenly matched, and this last hit would decide it.

As they got close, the King slashed his claw down, but Charizard, after learning his attack patterns, twisted his body and barely dodged, leaving only a scratch on his cheek. But most importantly, the King whiffed the hit, leaving his stomach vulnerable.

So, with every ounce of strength, Charizard clenched his fist and uppercut directly into the King’s stomach, causing the king to cough out in pain, and for a second, he almost got knocked out. But he forced himself awake and brought his hands together, hitting Charizard in the back like a sledgehammer.

But Charizard refused to fall. Instead, he grabbed the king around the waist and spun around, finally using a [Seismic Toss] as he dragged the king into the sky, flying as high as he could, all while the king kept punching him in the back.

But once they were high enough, Charizard flipped and sent them both down toward the mountain. The king tried to break free, but Charizard was holding his wings.

The king tried one more time, but when he saw the mountain getting closer, he smiled, "[Heh...not bad, kid.]" Then they landed and went through the mountain, shattering the stone.

As all the Charizard saw the scene, they noticed neither of the two had flown out yet, so Charla glared at them all to get them to stop and get over here. So they all flew closer and used their wings to blow the dust away.

Then there, in the crater where the small mountain used to be, were Charizard and the king lying there together.

Then the king started laughing.

Charizard blinked in surprise as the massive Charizard beneath him opened one eye and grinned, "[You idiot...]" the King rasped while coughing smoke, "[You actually did it.]"

The older Charizard slowly pushed himself upward. His body shook from exhaustion, but he still stood, helping Charizard stand up too.

But then Charla flew over and hit them both over the head with her fists, "[You’re both idiots!]" she huffed, crossing her arms, but her face softened slightly when she looked over at Charizard, "[But congratulations...you did it.]"

Charizard gave a proud huff, and as all the Charizard cheered after the battle and talked about how they should celebrate, Charizard felt a familiar message appear in his head. It wasn’t the first time Ash had used Aura to send him a message.

And all he needed to know was that Ash needed him again.

And he was ready this time.

But as he had that look on his face, Charla noticed it, and her tail fell slightly.

"[You’re...gonna go again?]" she asked.

Charizard was shaken out of his thoughts as he looked back and saw Charla’s slightly sad face, "[Yeah...I have to.]"

"[Even if...you could stay? No one would blame you, you know.]"

Charizard looked at her, then looked down slightly, "[You know I can’t do that.]"

"[I know,]" Charla said softly as she rubbed her shoulder, "[But...will you remember us...will you remember me?]"

Charizard scratched the back of his head, but he took a breath and reached out, holding her hand, "[I will always remember you, and I’ll be back one day. Will you wait for me?]"

Charla wiped her eye, "[Always...]"

As they looked at each other and slowly got closer, the mood was cut off when they heard giggles. When they looked over, they saw fangirls watching and giggling, seeing that their favorite ship was sailing.

Even the king was behind them watching the show and whisper-screamed, "[Just get married already and make me some grandkids!]"

Now that the mood was ruined, Charizard and Charla pulled away from each other and both blushed. Charla cleared her throat, "[Um...y-you should go.]"

"[Um, yep. See you,]" Charizard said as he extended his wings and started flying away, earning disappointed groans from all the Charizard wanting the ship to sail.

But Charla ignored them and watched Charizard fly off with a small smile on her face, "[I’ll be waiting.]"

—

Malde and Guile continued their fight, clashing against each other. In this fight, Guile had the advantage in strength and pure AP, since any attack Malde threw at him, he could block and redirect with twice the force.

Not to mention, again, the armor did give the user a strength enhancement. By how much? Oh, about x50. So with all that, and the fact that the armor was, you know, armor, he had that advantage.

However, in survivability, Malde had him beat, because Guile could blow off half of his body, but as long as that was the part that had the mutation, Malde could regenerate almost instantly.

And plus, if Guile had all his armor, then Malde would just never be able to beat him. But unfortunately, again, he lost the armor on his left arm, so he had a weak spot. Oh, and as for how he was flying, it was because he had his Surskit continuously use [Psybeam], letting him float.

So even as Malde flew down and swung his tentacle arm, Guile quickly held the sword up and blocked it. Then he grabbed the hilt of the sword and twisted it before slashing directly at Malde, sending him flying back and crashing into one of the empty boats at the dock and splashing into the water.

Guile landed on top of the roof and took a sigh to catch his breath, because even though the armor was a living piece of armor that used the body inside it as a puppet to move around, the person inside the armor was still human and had human limits.

But just as he landed, he noticed Surskit scuttle out of the armor and look at him before pointing with one of its little needle-hand things back inside. Guile followed where Surskit pointed, and he saw that one of the terminals had turned on, showing Ash and Brandon running into the tower.

"Grr...those troublemakers..." he grumbled as he looked back at the water and at Jirachi’s Poké Ball, "I need more time."

He turned his head to Surskit and nodded, "Do it."

Surskit saluted, then its eyes began glowing purple as it started Plan A.

Meanwhile, as it did that, Malde shot out of the water like a cannon and flew directly at Guile. But Guile again raised his sword and caught Malde. As they clashed, Malde only smiled.

"[What’s wrong? You’re getting slower.]" he said mockingly.

Guile narrowed his eyes dangerously, "For a walking corpse, you talk a lot," he said as, again, he spun the sword, and Malde was launched into the air, getting ripped in half. But his tendrils grabbed on and pulled him back together, then he looked down and smiled, ready to keep fighting.

Meanwhile, Guile knew all he needed to do was wait a little longer, then he could win. But that was easier said than done when your opponent was more annoying than a cockroach.

But still, he wouldn’t surrender Jirachi to anyone.

Ash and Brandon pushed through the door of the tower and looked around. Brandon did the sensible thing and went to the elevator and pressed the button to call it a few times, but it didn’t come.

"Dang, the elevator won’t move, so we have to climb our way up," Brandon said, pointing toward the stairs.

Ash and Brandon started running up, and when they got to the next floor, the lights automatically turned on, making them get into a stance ready to fight.

But then another virtual trainer appeared and released a rental Pokémon, letting out a Hitmonchan that shook its fists, ready to fight.

Brandon stared in disbelief, "...Are you kidding me?"

"CHALLENGE ACCEPTED," the system announced.

Ash pointed accusingly upward at the mechanical voice, "THIS IS NOT THE TIME!"

But before either of them could move, Brandon suddenly froze when he saw a figure by the stairs.

"...Anabel?"

Ash blinked and turned. At the doorway leading toward the next staircase, Anabel stood there silently. Her expression was completely blank, no reaction, just empty eyes.

"Anabel?" Brandon repeated more carefully.

She didn’t answer. Instead, she slowly turned around and began walking up the next staircase without a word.

Brandon’s eyes widened slightly, "Wait!" he called as he started moving toward her.

The system instantly interpreted the movement as battle engagement.

"BATTLE COMMENCING."

The Virtual Trainer immediately pointed forward, "Hitmonchan, [Sky Uppercut]!"

Hitmonchan lunged forward with a glowing fist aimed directly at Brandon. But before it could connect, Ash threw a Poké Ball out that opened between them, letting out Milotic.

As Milotic appeared, her tail shot out and blocked the punch easily right before it hit Brandon. Then Milotic twisted smoothly and slammed her tail with an [Aqua Tail], sending Hitmonchan flying and crashing against the wall, getting knocked out in one hit.

"Thanks." Brandon took a breath as he looked over to where Anabel was, but she had already gone up the stairs. And while the first virtual trainer was down, five more appeared around them, all sending out Pokémon.

"You’re kidding me..." Ash muttered as he went to his belt and threw a Poké Ball toward Brandon. Brandon caught it without looking and threw it out, letting out Metang.

"What’s Anabel doing here?! And she seems so...out of it..." Brandon muttered as he still focused on where Anabel had gone up.

"Hey, can I get some support here?" Ash called out as he held off the five trainers while Metang was just waiting on an order from Brandon.

"Oh, my bad, my bad. Yeah, we have to focus on this," Brandon said as he pointed forward, "[Bullet Punch]!"

—

In the Factory, Gary had just finished taking on another group of virtual trainers, finally getting them to the end of the challenge. As the last trainer disappeared, the metal doors of the factory opened.

Gary finally took a long breath, calming down, "I needed that," he muttered as his Kangaskhan patted him on the back.

Noland moved over to the terminal quickly as Brendan looked out the door to see how things were going.

Smoke rose into the night sky from multiple facilities. Emergency lights flashed in the distance. Several damaged Rental Pokémon were still wandering around, though it seemed like there weren’t any people out there, at least as far as they could see.

"...Okay, wow," Brendan muttered, "It somehow got worse."

"We need to go and meet up with Ash," Gary said, returning Kangaskhan to her Poké Ball since she was tired.

"Before that," Noland said as he pressed a button and the conveyor belt moved, and four Poké Balls came out, "Dang...so that’s all we have left..."

"What’s that?" Brendan asked.

"The rest of the Rental Pokémon we have," Noland said as he grabbed them and tossed two over to Gary and Brendan each, "Here, you can borrow these. It’s better if you save your main Pokémon for the final battle."

Gary nodded and snapped the two onto his belt while Brendan looked at his own rentals nervously, "Please don’t be Magikarp..."

"We don’t have the luxury to be picky," Gary said, already walking toward the Tower, "Let’s move."

The three of them took off running through the damaged Frontier pathways. Emergency sirens echoed in the distance while smoke rose into the sky.

As they rounded a corner near one of the collapsed plazas, they suddenly spotted two familiar figures helping a group of civilians toward a safer area.

Green looked up first, "Gary?"

"Green, and Greta too," Gary noted before pointing at the tower, "Did Ash already call you?"

Green nodded, "Yeah. We were heading there now."

Greta cracked her knuckles excitedly, "Hopefully there’s something strong left to break."

"There definitely is," Brendan muttered.

Noland quickly looked over the group, "Any injuries?"

"Nothing serious," Green answered, "What about you guys?"

Gary smirked slightly, "We won."

But Green looked him up and down and narrowed her eyes, "Ash made you get angry again, didn’t he?"

"...No comment."

Before anyone else could respond, a massive shadow suddenly passed overhead. Everyone looked up. Salamence roared as it descended from the sky.

"TUCKER?!" Greta yelled.

Salamence swooped low over the plaza before skidding across the ground hard enough to crack the pavement.

Tucker pointed dramatically toward the Tower while wind whipped around him, "THE FINAL BATTLE AWAITS!"

Wally looked incredibly dizzy behind him, "I think I’m gonna throw up..."

Before anyone could say anything else, Tucker grabbed Wally under the arm and literally dropped him next to the others.

"Wait, what—"

Wally stumbled directly into Brendan, who barely caught him.

Green blinked, "Uh...aren’t you staying with us?"

Tucker’s expression darkened slightly as he looked upward toward the top of the Tower, where flashes of light from Guile and Malde’s battle still exploded in the sky.

"...No," Tucker said quietly as he narrowed his eyes and clenched his fist, "I’m settling this myself."

"Tucker, wait—!" Wally reached out.

But Salamence already roared. Then Tucker shot upward into the sky at full speed. Everyone watched him rocket straight toward the upper levels of the Tower.

"That idiot," Greta muttered, rubbing her forehead, "We need to get up there now. Do any of you guys have any Flying Pokémon?"

Everyone shook their heads. If they did, they didn’t have that Pokémon on them at the moment.

And sure, Green could’ve gotten her Wigglytuff to blow up like a balloon and fly them up, but she could only take herself and one other person, and that was dangerous. She didn’t want to do that. She’d rather go with everyone.

Then Noland looked at the tower, "Then we need to climb fast," he said as he started running in, and everyone followed behind him.

But as they got through the first floor, they noticed there were Pokémon knocked out along the way, and when they got to the second floor, they saw why.

Ash and Brandon were fighting ten virtual trainers at once and winning, and presumably, because of the pile over in the corner, they had taken out even more before they got there.

Ash ducked under a flying [Thunder Punch] while Metang shot past his head like a missile and slammed directly into an Aggron.

"[Meteor Mash]!" Brandon shouted.

Aggron got launched backward through one of the hologram projectors, causing the entire floor to flicker violently.

Meanwhile, Milotic coiled around two charging Pokémon at once before whipping them into the ceiling hard enough to leave cracks.

"This is getting ridiculous!" Ash yelled while dodging another attack.

"YOU’RE the one who keeps triggering the battle system!" Brandon shot back.

"I WALKED FORWARD!"

"THAT COUNTS!"

Another Virtual Trainer pointed dramatically, "INITIATING BONUS ROUND."

Ash stared, "WHY IS THERE A BONUS ROUND?!"

"Uhh...is this a bad time?" Brendan scratched his cheek, looking at the scene.

"NO!" Ash and Brandon shouted in unison. They would greet them, but they were kinda in the middle of getting attacked.

"Right!" Brendan said as he ran in, and he threw out one of the random Pokémon. Gary did the same, and they got a Zangoose and a Mantine respectively.

And of course, everyone else threw out their Pokémon, with Noland using a Mawile, Green using her Granbull, Greta using her Shedinja, and Wally using his Magneton.

With all of them together, they took out all the virtual trainers that were left on the floor, letting them get a breather and finally allowing them to greet each other.

Gary crossed his arms immediately, "You look terrible."

"You look like you fought a lawnmower," Ash shot back instantly.

"...Fair."

"Anything else we should know?" Green asked.

Brandon remembered something and then looked seriously at Noland and Greta, "We saw Anabel here."

"What, really?! Where is she?" Greta asked.

"We don’t really know. We saw her, but she seemed out of it. She didn’t even talk to us," Brandon said.

"But actually, this raises a question I’ve had," Noland spoke up, rubbing his chin, "The virtual trainers...the only people with authority to start them are one of the Frontier Brains or Scott. But we know none of us did it, but..."

Just as he said that, suddenly one of the screens lit up, and an armored face showed up.

It was Guile.

"Haha!"

"Guile!" Noland said, "What have you done to Anabel?!"

But Guile seemed to ignore Noland and spoke in a mocking tone, "I’ve taken over the Battle Frontier, and you won’t get to me in time. And before you start asking me questions, you should know this is a recorded message. But I know what you’re asking. You want to know what I did to Anabel? Well, hahaha, remember the last time you saw her."

Noland’s eyes widened as he remembered. The last time they saw her was when she and Scott left. This time, he grabbed his communicator and called Scott’s phone, and this time Scott finally answered.

His panicked voice came through, "Hello?! Noland?! Thank goodness! What’s going on?!"

"Scott," Noland cut in quickly, "where were you during the Battle Dome? What happened to Anabel?"

"What?" Scott asked as they heard panicked sounds on the other side and the sounds of Pokémon, "Uh, during the Battle Dome, I had my hands full with the press and spectators, and right now I’m being chased by a bunch of Rental Pokémon! And Anabel...I haven’t seen her all day-NOOO!"

They heard his voice get quieter before it suddenly stopped, presumably because he dropped his phone and it broke on the ground.

Guile, on the video, laughed again, "Hahah! By now you’ve probably realized it. The Scott you saw was an illusion made by me. It’s over. I’ve won. While you’re all in here, I have an infinite army of all your Rental Pokémon! Hahaha!"

"...Son of a bitch," Green muttered.

And yes, that was the first time she cursed out loud anyway.

"THAT CHEATING COWARD!" Greta yelled.

Gary just dragged a hand down his face, "I hate this guy."

Noland quickly stepped between them before the situation somehow devolved further, "Focus."

The Frontier Brain adjusted his glasses and looked around seriously.

"We now know the full situation." His expression hardened, "Guile has control of the Tower systems, the Virtual Trainers, and the Rental Pokémon network."

"Say it as it is," Greta muttered, "If we want to get to the top, we need to fight our way up. That’s like, what, seventy trainers?"

"With at least three Pokémon each," Brandon added.

"It’s dangerous for us to separate, but we don’t have time to fight all these battles together," Noland shook his head, "One of us will have to battle while the rest push up to the next floor. As soon as you win, you catch up with those fighting on the floor above, and so on."

"I may not like that, but we don’t have a choice if we want to get to the top as fast as we can," Ash sighed, "Okay, how is everyone doing on Pokémon?"

"I’m good, just Eevee is too tired to keep going," Green answered.

"Same here. Blastoise needs a bit more rest, but he’ll be good in a bit. But I have this, and an extra if anyone needs it," Gary said, holding the extra Rental Pokémon, since he got two but only needed one.

"Same. I’ve got one too. The rest of my Pokémon are fine, though," Brendan added.

"I’ll take that if you don’t mind," Brandon said, since the only things he had left were his Regis, and he’d rather not use Ash’s Pokémon if he could help it.

"Sure, all yours." Gary handed him the extra Poké Ball he had.

"I-I’m okay too," Wally said, but he quickly checked his inhaler and looked worried, seeing he only had about five puffs left in this one. And his bag with his extra inhalers wasn’t with him, but he didn’t say anything so he wouldn’t worry anyone.

"Okay then, let’s do this. We wasted enough time talking. We’re all ready!" Greta said.

Ash let out one big sigh and slapped his cheeks, "Okay, let’s do this," he said as he checked something through his Aura connection and knew he still needed more time, so hopefully once they got to the top, ’he’ would be here.

So together, they began running up to take on every trainer in this tower before Guile or Malde won that confrontation and made a wish