Salance roared as they blasted upward past the final floors of the tower. The rooftop finally ca into view as both Salance and Tucker got high enough to look down on it, and there they saw it.
Right in the center, Guile stood with his sword raised while Malde skidded backward across the rooftop, one entire arm missing before the red and blue flesh regenerated quickly.
Then Guile noticed Tucker, and he muttered, "Another one."
Tucker jumped off Salance before it even fully landed. He hit the rooftop hard, then stood up and pointed directly at Guile.
"Guile," Tucker said quietly.
Malde blinked mid-regeneration and looked over, "…Huh?"
"This ti you won't get away. I'm going to take you down once and for all," Tucker said confidently.
There was a brief silence between Malde and Guile where they spent a good five seconds not fighting or moving.
Then Malde slowly looked at Guile, "…You know this guy?"
"Unfortunately," Guile muttered.
Then Tucker's eyes snapped toward Malde. He narrowed his eyes, but he ca here for one thing, "You, I don't know who you are, but I don't care. Looks like you're fighting him too, so I guess we can help each other out. Just don't get in my way!"
Malde stared at Tucker for another second before shrugging one shoulder, "…Fine by ."
Guile, however, looked significantly less thrilled about this developnt. He fixed his stance and was about to say sothing, but Tucker spoke imdiately.
"[Dragon Breath]!"
Salance imdiately shot out purple flas that covered the area. Even Malde almost got caught, though he at least could move fast enough to avoid it.
"Hey, watch it. I thought you said we were allies," Malde said, looking annoyed.
"I said I would help you. What you do isn't my problem," Tucker said, too mad to care.
Guile anwhile quickly blocked the fire with his sword, absorbing it, and again Tucker imdiately commanded, "[Dragon Rush]!" he yelled out, not wanting to give Guile a second to recover.
Sure, he had gotten stronger, but Tucker's main plan was simple: don't give Guile any chance to reflect the attacks back.
So before the purple fire even finished, Salance shot through the flas and caught Guile, slamming the armored man hard into the building's roof, though most of it was absorbed by the armor again.
Guile crashed through part of the rooftop as Salance drove him down with full force. Cracks spread across the tal and concrete beneath him before the armored man suddenly twisted his sword upward and reflected the attack back into Salance.
Salance was blown backward with a roar as Guile kicked himself free from the crater and landed smoothly several feet away.
Tucker didn't even wait, "Again! [Dragon Claw]!"
Salance lunged forward imdiately, claws glowing bright green as it slashed downward repeatedly. Guile raised his sword and blocked one hit after another.
anwhile, Malde ca from the side, and his tentacle arm whipped forward toward Guile's exposed left side.
Guile noticed too late. The tendril pierced directly into his exposed arm, causing blood to spurt out.
Malde grinned, "There it is."
But then he noticed that Guile didn't seem like he was in pain, or at least not visibly. Malde looked confused for a second, but he put it down to him just being stoic.
Before he could capitalize and attack again, Tucker pointed forward instantly, "[Hyper Beam]!"
Malde's eye widened, "Wait, wha—"
The golden beam slamd toward both of them.
Guile barely managed to bring up his sword to protect himself from the blast, while Malde got hit dead-on and blasted clean through a rooftop structure, vanishing into an explosion of debris.
Malde flew back, and half his body got blown off, but he was already starting to regenerate. He looked even angrier than before, glaring toward Tucker. It looked like after they took care of Guile, Tucker was next on that list.
Salance let out a roar, but it was starting to breathe heavily. Since the start of this entire thing, Tucker had been using nothing but his Salance. Unlike everyone else, who paced themselves, Tucker was just going all in.
Sure, he had other Pokémon, but none as strong as Salance since he had spent most of his ti training Salance alone.
But as this happened, Malde finally recovered enough and flew back in. This ti, Surskit was done with whatever it had been doing, so it used [Psybeam] again, letting Guile start flying once more, but Malde imdiately grabbed him.
Guile clicked his tongue and cut off Malde's arm again, but this ti Salance crashed into him from behind imdiately after.
But as he fell, Guile spun in the air quickly and slashed his sword with all the accumulated Dragon energy he had stored inside it. Yeah, in case you think they could overload the sword with energy and make it explode, no, the sword technically had infinite storage for energy.
So as he slashed downward, a sword beam shot out, and Salance was too tired to dodge. It hit directly, causing a massive explosion that nearly knocked Tucker off the building.
But when the smoke cleared, Tucker looked up and saw in shock that Salance was falling out of the sky. It slamd onto the ground with a heavy thud.
Guile raised his sword again to finish Salance off, but Tucker snapped out of his trance and quickly returned Salance to its Poké Ball before Guile could chop its head off.
Now Tucker clenched his teeth and fists angrily as he glared at Guile.
"Pest…" Guile said, only making Tucker even angrier as he grabbed his next Poké Ball.
And Malde watched with a sigh as he looked at this, then out toward the facilities, and an evil smile spread across his face. Looks like his plan was going well, and once he took Jirachi from Guile, the whole world would be cured.
—
{anwhile}
Nora was still battling Damian, but she was holding back since she didn't want to hurt him. However, she was starting to think maybe she needed to give it her all, because Mutated Damian was beating her Pokémon pretty badly.
She had already used Leavanny and Girafarig, but they got hit too hard and were knocked out by Damian. She had even tried using so of Damian's Pokémon that he gave her to snap him out of it, like his Luxio.
But it all seed useless. Maybe he'd get a flicker of recognition, but that was it, and then he'd go back to attacking her or the people she was trying to protect.
She gritted her teeth as her last good Pokémon, a Darmanitan, blocked another hit from Damian, while Luxio tried to paralyze Damian, but it was no use. And she didn't want to use her Celebi because, one, it was too young. There was no way that this young version of Celebi could go back in ti far enough to stop any of this.
And also, since this was a young version of Celebi, she couldn't risk Celebi getting hurt because, rember, all versions of Celebi are technically the sa Celebi. So if this Celebi got hurt now, then in the future it might not be able to stop whatever happens.
"Damian, co on, snap out of it! You need to fight it!" Nora tried again, to no avail.
As she bit her lip, she heard a scream from the people she was trying to protect. She quickly looked back and saw there was soone new in the crowd, soone that had the sa mutation as Damian.
You need to understand that the mutation Damian is infected with is technically a virus, aning he can pass it on. That's the real reason Malde sent him away: to infect everyone on this island and heal them of their burden. That burden, as he called it, was their humanity.
And plus, you don't really think this is the first place Damian went to, do you? He had found a different group of people, and they were now approaching this area. One of them ca in from behind and was now going to infect more people, and the first person that just so happened to be targeted was Max and the other kids.
"No!" Nora shouted as she tried to get there to knock the infected person away, but she was too far away, and Damian was blocking her path.
Not to ntion around them, the trees shook as more infected people started approaching.
Max stood there in fear, his legs refusing to respond as the infected person got close. But just as the infected person was about to grab Max, suddenly soone from the crowd tackled them away, and the adults pushed Max and the kids back, blocking with their own bodies because they wanted to protect them.
Nora gritted her teeth and called out, "Darmanitan," she said sadly.
Darmanitan understood and backhanded Damian, sending him flying into a tree, as Nora ran toward the kids and the few people who weren't helping hold down the infected person.
Nora ran up and pulled Max and the other kids close. Then she heard a voice from over at the pile.
"Go keep them safe," the first person who tackled the infected person to the ground called out. Even as the tentacles wrapped around him, he wanted Nora to at least get away with the children.
And the other adults nodded, pushing the kids closer to her, and basically anyone younger than fifteen.
Nora looked at them all and gulped, "Okay, but don't worry. Everything will be alright. I just know it will," she said as she grabbed a Poké Ball on her belt and whispered into it, "Celebi, send us sowhere safe."
Then before she opened it, she looked back at Damian sadly as her lips trembled, "I'm sorry I can't be the one to save you," she muttered, then she opened the ball.
Damian tried flying toward her, but a bright light stopped him, and Nora and all the kids were gone.
Damian looked down for a mont, almost like he was rembering sothing, as the light in his eyes flickered, then disappeared again. He turned and started floating off to continue the work Malde left for him as the sounds of the adults squirming echoed behind him. They would be assimilated soon enough anyway.
For now, however, he looked up and saw the tower where Malde was fighting, and he tried flying toward it, but for so reason sothing in his brain stopped him from doing so. He didn't understand why, so instead he moved on. Malde would call him if he was needed.
—
{In the Tower}
Everyone was fighting as hard as they could. With 10 levels, that ant they could split the work together, but with so many battles, even they were starting to get tired, since the virtual trainers weren't just attacking their Pokémon, they were attacking the trainers too.
So they had to dodge continuously, aning they were getting tired as well. Well, except for Wally. He couldn't dodge much, but his Pokémon were used to protecting him specifically.
And if you wonder how, when they were all definitely stronger than these rental Pokémon, let answer you like this: how many children do you think you could beat in a fight? One, two, ten, fifty? Eventually you're gonna get tired, and that was the problem. The enemy had pure numbers on their side.
But eventually, with everyone helping each other, they made it to the top, literally dragging themselves upward.
Ash was breathing heavily now as he leaned one hand against the railing while Pikachu pulled a bottle of water out of his bag and passed it to him, and Vee fanned him with his tail.
Even Brandon looked worn down. He had actually needed to use one of his Regis since the Pokémon he borrowed got knocked out, so he chose Regice, debatably the weakest one of the trio.
Behind them, the others were in various states of exhaustion. Gary's jacket was ripped, Green had lost her hat, and her jacket was now covered in dirt and dust from the Pokémon battles.
Even Greta was getting tired of fighting, while Brendan was lying face-first on the stairs for dramatic effect. And Wally was breathing hard while gripping the railing with one hand and his inhaler in the other, taking another puff. That was his third one since they started climbing this tower.
Noland looked around at everyone, "…This is it," he said quietly.
"How are we doing on Pokémon?" Ash asked.
Gary raised his hand, "Kangaskhan, Golem, and my Houndoom are out."
"Sa here. My Eevee, Granbull, and Nidoqueen are out." Green said as she leaned against the wall
"I'm down to just my Umbreon and Heracross," Greta said.
"You already know my trio, but I think Regice might not have much left in it," Brandon revealed.
Noland checked his Poké Balls, "I'm down to just a Golem and a Pinsir."
"Um…" Brendan said while looking at his Poké Balls, "Only two of mine can't fight anymore, so I'm good."
Wally stood up after taking another puff from his inhaler, "I still have my Gallade and Grovyle."
Ash nodded, "I'm good, don't worry about . If you need so, you can borrow so of mine," he offered, even though he knew they probably weren't going to accept it.
Noland nodded but walked between them, "Just one more floor and we get to the roof, and there shouldn't be any virtual trainers there, but…" he said, leaving it hanging since they knew Anabel was still being controlled, so there was a chance they would need to fight her to break her out of the mind control.
"We don't have ti to think about this," Brandon cut in. Then he pointed over at Ash, Green, Gary, Brendan, and Wally, "If we see her, the rest of us will move on to go after Guile and help Tucker. You all save Anabel, then get up to us as soon as you do."
"Wait, why? That's dumb," Green said, crossing her arms, "For your information, just because we're young doesn't an we're weak, you know. We used to—" Green was about to tell them the whole story about how the Indigo League went and how they got all three spots, but Ash spoke up.
"I don't like it either," he said, "But do we really have the luxury to argue about it? Look, how about whoever wants to go, goes, but I'll take care of the Anabel situation. Anyone who wants to stay with stays, then we'll head up to help everyone else."
Gary opened his mouth, but sighed, "Fine, whatever. If there's more of us helping, we can get it done faster. I'll stay too. Let's just go."
Together they started running and got to the final room, and when they arrived, they saw Anabel standing right in the center. She still looked completely blank, like a doll.
Wally stepped forward first, "Miss Anabel…"
No response.
Then the systems around the room activated.
"FINAL CHALLENGE DETECTED."
Everyone collectively groaned, "You have got to be kidding ," Brendan cried dramatically.
"ELITE FRONTIER BATTLE COMNCING."
Panels opened around the room as six Virtual Trainers erged at once.
Green pointed accusingly upward, "What kind of place is this?!"
Anabel raised her hand and dropped a Poké Ball onto the ground. As it opened, a tagross ca out, stomping onto the floor and glaring at the group.
Following that, the virtual trainers all threw out Pokémon. The random roll gave them a Zangoose, Delibird, Dunsparce, Misdreavus, Sneasel, and Seviper respectively.
"Great, looks like we have our work cut out for us," Brendan muttered, already reaching for his Poké Ball belt.
"We'll try and finish things here as fast as we can," Gary said, picking up Electivire's Poké Ball, "Get up to the roof."
But then they heard the sounds of slashing, and one of the windows shattered. A familiar voice spoke out.
"Looks like you all could use so help."
They looked back toward the source, and outside the broken window was Spenser being carried by his Crobat, and behind him was Brock, with Lucy holding onto him, and May, all riding Brock's Aerodactyl as they quickly ca inside.
"Spenser, Lucy! You're here!" Greta said happily.
Brock jumped off Aerodactyl, followed by Lucy, who, despite pretending to be fine, spoke up, "Wouldn't miss it. Now, do we wanna get filled in, or…?"
Just then, the tagross flew forward toward Ash, getting ready to punch him, but Ash quickly threw a Poké Ball, and from the light ca his tang, who crossed its arms and managed to block the punch.
"Yeah, we don't have ti. Choose a team, stay here or go up, and move!" Ash called out.
Everyone nodded, and on Ash's squad were Green, Gary, Wally, Brendan, Brock, and May for obvious reasons, while Spenser went to join the other Frontier Brains heading to the roof.
The only one that hesitated was Lucy, who looked back and forth, but Brock gave her a thumbs up, "We've got this. I'll see you up on the roof soon."
Lucy kept her neutral expression and nodded, "Very well." But on the inside, she wanted to grab his arm and refuse to let go, saying she was going to stay right here. But her nerves got the best of her, so she went with the others.
Ash took a breath, and while tang struggled against tagross, Ash pulled out another ball, "Guess it's ti to get serious."
"You can say that again," Gary said, as he finally used one of his heavy hitters with Electivire.
"Have any of you seen Max?" May finally asked as she moved to take on one of the virtual trainers with her Swablu.
"No, but maybe he's with Nora," Ash responded, making May feel even more worried, but then she lightly slapped her cheeks and focused.
"Okay, we'll find him after we win!" she said confidently.
"Don't know what happened, but I like this more confident you," Green said, giving her a thumbs up approvingly, making May grow a little sheepish, but that could wait until later. Right now, they had this battle to win.
—
{At the Roof}
Tucker hit the ground hard and skidded across the rooftop, one arm hanging at the wrong angle at his side. His coat was ripped apart, blood ran down the side of his face, and his breathing ca out ragged and uneven.
Across from him, Guile stood mostly unhard. That "mostly" was mainly because his arm was still bleeding, but he didn't seem to care.
Tucker gritted his teeth and forced himself onto one knee while clutching his broken arm. All his Pokémon had been knocked out, and he himself had been hit pretty hard. Even the little wings on his suit were torn off, so if he fell off the building, he couldn't glide safely anymore.
Guile slowly raised his sword toward Tucker's throat.
"You fought well," Guile admitted coldly, "for an annoyance."
Tucker glared upward hatefully, even now refusing to back down, "Go to hell."
Guile's grip tightened on the sword slightly. But before the blade could co down, a voice rang out, "[Psychic]."
A stone from the rubble of the roof was lifted up and slamd directly into Guile's side, sending him sliding back into one of the ruined ventilation structures and crumpling the tal.
Tucker blinked in shock and looked over toward the source.
First was Spenser, who had given the command to his Claydol, his robe fluttering in the wind. Then Tucker saw the rest of them: Lucy, Greta, Noland, and Brandon, all with their Pokémon already out.
Tucker stared at them for a second before letting out a breathy laugh, "…Took you long enough."
Greta looked at him and pointed accusingly, "You're the idiot that ca up here alone!"
"Sorry, I thought I could win," Tucker said sincerely, still clutching his arm.
anwhile, Malde floated nearby while slowly regenerating the last of the damage from Tucker's attacks. He glanced toward the new arrivals, and unlike before, he looked completely uninterested in cooperating after what Tucker had done.
Then Guile stepped back out of the wreckage.
"More insects," Guile muttered.
Spenser's eyes narrowed calmly, "Surrender, Guile. This ends now."
Guile laughed softly beneath the helt, "No," he answered simply.
Then he raised the sword again, "I'll take your heads, then have my wish granted."
As everyone got ready with all their Pokémon, and Malde considered the best ti to stab Guile in the back before getting rid of the rest of these people, everyone suddenly felt a presence.
But no one felt it more than Malde, because he recognized that presence from before.
Everyone, including Guile, looked up, and floating down from the sky was Deoxys. Of course, none of them knew its na, but they could tell this thing was strong, very strong.
Everyone tensed up. Even Guile got his sword ready.
But Deoxys looked over all of them and seed uninterested. Then its eyes locked onto Malde again, and its eyes narrowed while its core glowed red this ti.
Now a new challenger had joined the battle, and this one was debatably the strongest of them all.
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