Pokemon: Radical Redux

Chapter 570 570: Mossdeep city

The gang sailed across the sea. They'd been on the water for a few days now, and the ship was basically a small cruise ship with rooms and everything since Scott spared no expense.

On the upper deck, the gang lounged around a cluster of chairs near the railing. Max leaned against the side of the ship, staring out at the endless ocean.

"I gotta admit," he said, stretching his arms behind his head, "I thought I'd be bored out of my mind after the first day."

"You were bored out of your mind after the first day," May pointed out.

"Okay, yeah, but then I found the arcade room."

Brendan laughed, "You practically moved in there."

"Can you blame me?" Max asked as his baby Kangaskhan just lay on the floor vibing on his own.

"No, I really can't, especially not after what happened to us."

"Yeah, but hey, games are games," Ash said as he leaned back against the railing while replying to Brock's messages, "And since I have to suffer, you all have to too. Brock and Lucy are doing the heart thing with their hands now."

Brendan looked like he wanted to jump off the ship, "I'm begging you. Please. I can only process so much secondhand embarrassment per day."

"And there go all my thoughts that that gesture was ever romantic..." May muttered.

Max took note and crossed something off in his notebook, but quickly put it away before anyone asked too many questions.

"Yeah, yeah, well if I have to suffer, you do too," Ash said, putting his phone down. To be honest, he was happy for Brock that he finally had a girlfriend, but well...it's Brock, and he has his whole obsession with certain things.

Also, Ash kinda wished they weren't all mushy in front of them, since nobody wanted to see their friend, who they basically saw as a brother, sucking face with someone. I mean seriously, if you think he's exaggerating, Ash genuinely thought he'd seen them kissing more than he'd seen them breathing.

But meh, it was also probably because Ash had never had a girlfriend himself, or any experience with dating. Now again, he said dating. He knew full well that if he wanted a girlfriend, he could get one fast.

But here's the thing, 1. Even though Ash did think the girls he hung around with were cute, he'd admit that, remember, even though Ash was physically 12, he was mentally in his 20s, so he wasn't into his friends who were the same age as him. Even if he knew when someone had a crush on him, he wasn't dense. And 2. The grind stopped for no one, and he was doing it for the love of the game.

Anyway, this all might change when he and his friends got old enough. Then maybe he could think about stuff like that. But again, he didn't even wanna think about it for now.

As Ash was thinking, he got snapped out of it by Wally's voice, "Ash, are you okay?"

Ash blinked and waved his hand, "Oh, it's fine, just trying to wash the image out of my head."

"Hey, you can say that again," Brendan muttered, leaning back on the railing. But when he opened his eyes, he saw an island approaching off in the distance. He flipped around and laid his head on the railing.

"Oh, looks like it's land ho!" Brendan said excitedly, since he'd wanted to say that for a while.

Wally pulled out a small booklet he had and started flipping through the pages quickly until he got to one that looked like the approaching island.

"Mossdeep City…"

"Oh really? That's so cool! I hear that it has a super cool space station," Max said excitedly as he quickly turned to Ash and tugged on his sleeve, "Big bro Ash, can we please go check it out?"

Ash ruffled Max's hair, "Sure, we can, but we have to do one thing first," Ash said as he gave a quick check to his phone, where he'd gotten another message from Brock that he did not open, "Nope, you know what? Brock can get a few more hours with Lucy, I don't care. Let's go to the space station."

"Yeah!" Max and Brendan pumped their fists, then high-fived each other. Sure, Brendan had already been here in Mossdeep and already got his badge, it was one of the badges he got last year, but when he came here, it was mostly on business to deliver stuff for his dad, so he didn't get to check out the space station.

"We sure leaving Brock is the best thing to do?" Wally asked.

"Nah, don't worry about it. It's Brock, he's probably having the time of his life now that he finally has someone," May sighed, "Honestly, maybe it's a good thing so he doesn't try flirting with every girl we see."

"Oh yeah...now that I think about it, I should try to call Misty and Yellow to tell them…" Ash rubbed his chin as he muttered under his breath, "Although they probably won't believe me…"

"Oh, now that I think about it," Brendan said, clapping as he remembered something he wanted to ask, "what was that thing you did when we were at the Battle Frontier? I think your friends said something about you having a superpower."

"Oh right, you and Wally don't know," Ash said with a sigh, "Okay, long story short, it's Aura. Basically, think of what a Lucario can do, that blue stuff, yada yada, you get the point."

Wally nodded along, "Okay...that does answer some things, but…" He tilted his head, "What about the black thing you did at the Battle Tower?"

Now that got May's attention since, in the heat of the moment, she just thought it was more Aura BS. But now that she really thought about it, after the incident back in Rota and with what Sir Lucario told them, she was worried Ash might be getting his Aura corrupted.

"Oh right, I never did explain," Ash said, rubbing the back of his head, "I don't really know everything about it honestly. I mean, I know it's like some kind of darkness manipulation, butttt...not much else. It just kinda showed up."

That last part was a lie, and he could hear the manchild he stole them from trying to scream in his head. Too bad Ash gagged him.

"Okay, but Ash, are you sure you're okay? Like, nothing is wrong?" May asked, concern clear in her eyes.

Ash opened his mouth to answer casually, probably with another joke, but May beat him to it.

"No, seriously," she said, stepping closer and grabbing his wrist before he could wave it off again, "You keep saying 'it's fine' every time something weird happens to you, but that black energy thing didn't look normal at all."

"May" Ash tried, but she pointed at him and kept going.

"You already scared all of us after what happened. You got stabbed through the chest, we all thought we lost you," May said, pointing to his chest but not poking it, that just seemed insensitive, "We're here to help you too, so don't go 'I'm fine-ing' everything. What if that darkness thing actually hurts you? What if it gets worse? What if-"

"May," Ash interrupted, trying not to laugh.

"What?"

"You're fussing."

"I am not!"

"You kinda are," Brendan snickered.

May immediately crossed her arms, "I'm being reasonable, and apparently I'm the only one thinking ahead. We already heard what might happen if...'that' happens."

Ash opened his mouth, closed it, then gave her a lopsided smile, "May, I can promise you that this is something different, and right now it's not hurting me. I can't promise you nothing's gonna happen because I don't know, but I can tell you that I'll be careful and I'll try to talk to you guys more."

May narrowed her eyes, "…Fine," she muttered after a second, "But if something weird happens again, you're telling us immediately."

Ash smiled a little softer at that, "Got it, it's a promise."

Meanwhile, in the background, Max was basically rubbing his hands together like an evil villain as he pulled out his notebook again, flipped to another page, and checked something off.

Beside him, Brendan slowly leaned over, "…What are you writing?"

Max slammed the notebook shut at lightning speed, "Classified information."

Brendan squinted suspiciously, but before he could press further, the ship's horn suddenly sounded loudly across the ocean.

Mossdeep City was now fully visible ahead of them, and there in the distance they could see the Mossdeep Space Center.

Max immediately forgot everything else, "SPACE CENTER!" he yelled, acting his age again.

He grabbed Ash's arm and started trying to drag him despite Ash being way bigger and heavier, "Woah okay, okay, calm down!"

"We're going right now!" Max announced happily even before the ship docked, making Ash laugh as he stopped and picked Max up, putting him on his shoulders.

"There, is that better? Now are you gonna stop trying to run off?" Ash asked.

"Yes!" Max pumped his fists and raised his arms, "Let's go!"

"Are we sure we shouldn't look for a place to stay?" Wally asked nervously, looking at the big town.

Brendan slapped him on the back, making him jump, "Don't worry about it, I've been here before. I can make a call to reserve a room for us in the same place I stayed last time, no biggie!" Brendan said with a smile and a thumbs up.

Wally laughed helplessly but decided to trust the process.

–

{Meanwhile in the Mossdeep Space Station}

Inside one of the Mossdeep Space Center's specialized training chambers, the artificial gravity had been completely turned off. Various floating metal rings and targets drifted through the air, slowly rotating in different directions.

And in the middle of the room, Tate and Liza were training together again, harder than ever.

"Lunatone, left side! Use [Psychic]!" Liza called out.

"Solrock, dodge and counter with [Rock Slide]!" Tate shouted immediately after.

The two twins floated through the chamber alongside their Pokémon, and it wasn't just their Pokémon they were trying to train, they were training their own Psychic powers too. Since they were in zero gravity, the only way for them to change directions was to use their powers to steer themselves.

Now there were a few...accidents, but they eventually got good enough that they could move around pretty freely while their Pokémon battled at the same time.

Speaking of which, as Solrock threw chunks of rock through the zero-gravity room, Lunatone immediately caught them with Psychic power and redirected them right back at Solrock.

"Eheheh! Nice!" Tate grinned.

Liza pointed upward, her hair floating around her face in zero gravity, "Now, Lunatone! Spin!"

Lunatone rotated rapidly, the floating rocks orbiting around it before firing downward toward Solrock.

"Solrock, move!" Tate laughed.

Solrock barely dodged as the rocks smashed into one of the floating targets instead.

BEEEEEP.

The target lit up green.

Liza pumped her fist happily, "Direct hit!"

"Hehehe...you're getting faster," Tate admitted while flipping himself around in midair.

"Well duh, we train every day," Liza said while floating upside down as she crossed her arms.

After what happened at Mt. Pyre, they had been training almost nonstop whenever they weren't helping around the Space Center or handling Gym duties.

Now granted, Tate still sometimes worried too much about Liza and made sure she wasn't pushing herself too hard, but again, who could blame him? His sister almost died, and she went missing for like a month. He was allowed to be a bit protective.

Meanwhile, things had been kinda weird for Liza. Every now and then she got a vision of someplace she didn't know, and her powers would go haywire. Like there was one time they were having breakfast and she accidentally made Tate and all of their Pokémon start floating.

Now the reason why was that she was slowly getting some of her memories back from when she was sucked into Ultra Space as her powers got stronger. Since again, she was a Faller now, and that gave her Psychic powers a massive boost. Too bad she couldn't control them.

But neither twin seemed discouraged from continuing to train daily, especially since they were waiting to see Ash again.

And as they thought about him again, Tate flew up to Liza, "Alright, let's go another round! We gotta get stronger before Ash comes back!"

Liza immediately brightened, "Yeah!" she nodded quickly, "We can't lose after talking that big!"

Tate grinned, "Heheheh! Imagine if he comes back and beats us super easily."

Liza gasped dramatically, "No way! That'd be embarrassing!"

"Right?!"

Solrock and Lunatone cried out together as if agreeing. Then, as they floated back into position to call out another command, they heard a knock at the window. The twins both blinked and looked over, and what they saw shocked them both.

Out in the lobby, where someone could watch what was happening in the zero-gravity room, Ash was looking at them with a smirk while Pikachu sat on his shoulder, pressing his paws against the glass, and Vee contemplated whether the glass looked lickable.

"Sppff-" Liza sputtered, "Ash?!"

"He actually came back already?!" Tate blurted.

Liza immediately panicked a little and accidentally pushed herself backward too hard with her psychic powers. When she did, she started spinning uncontrollably through the air and yelled out, "Tate!" hoping he would stop her.

Tate, being a good brother, decided to laugh first and help after, "Heheheh" But then his smile fell when he noticed Liza flying toward the rings,"Wait, Liza, WATCH OUT!" he shouted, starting to try and grab her, but it was too late.

Liza lightly smacked face-first into one of the floating rings, "…Ow."

Outside the glass, Ash covered his mouth, totally not hiding a laugh. Meanwhile, in the background, the rest of the gang were looking at the other exhibits, so they didn't witness Liza's embarrassing stunt.

Inside the zero-gravity chamber, Tate finally managed to grab Liza by the ankle before she could spin into another floating ring.

"Gotcha!" he said, grunting as both of them slowly drifted in circles, "Heheheh...You looked super funny."

"Owww…" Liza rubbed her forehead dramatically, "Meanie…"

But they didn't think about it anymore as they both landed and rushed to the door, yelling out in unison, "Ash!"

And that made Ash remember something, "Oh crap."

The automatic doors hissed open a moment later, and both twins came flying out into the hallway directly at him, "Ash, we-"

Before either of them could tackle him, Ash quickly started making frantic gestures. First he pointed at himself, then at the rest of the gang down the hallway. Then he made a giant X motion with his arms.

The twins both skidded to a stop mid-run, "…Huh?" Tate blinked.

Ash mouthed silently while pointing behind him again, and that's when they realized what he was saying, that his friends didn't know the twins already knew him.

"Oooooohhh," Tate whispered.

Unfortunately, when they yelled out Ash's name, that caught the gang's attention as they looked back. Even worse, Brendan already recognized them.

"Oh wait, that's Tate and Liza, the Gym Leaders."

"Wait…" May said, immediately looking over at Ash and narrowing her eyes. This was not helping with the allegations that Ash was friends with pretty much every person they came across, and it raised some questions, "How do they know each other?"

Liza immediately panicked. Then, with the worst acting Ash had ever seen in his entire life, she dramatically placed two fingers against her forehead and squinted her eyes.

"Hmmm…" she hummed loudly.

Tate stared at her for half a second before immediately catching on.

"Huh?!" he gasped theatrically, "Liza! Are your powers telling you something?!"

"Yes!" Liza declared.

She pointed directly at Ash while stumbling over her words, "My psychic powers are telling me that your name is...A-Ash! Am I right?!"

Ash had to physically bite the inside of his cheek to stop himself from laughing.

Pikachu and Vee failed, but they immediately dropped a [Substitute] and ran away to go laugh in a corner.

"Wait, psychic…" Wally muttered as he looked over at Brendan, "Are they like Ms. Anabel?"

Brendan shrugged, "I dunno, I'm not some expert in this stuff. I just battled them one time before."

Liza heard them and spoke just a little louder, "Indeed, both Tate and I have psychic powers."

Tate quickly jumped in, "Yep! Liza gets visions sometimes!" he explained rapidly, "And earlier we had a premonition somebody would come visit the Space Center today!"

"Yup!" Liza nodded way too hard, "A very strong premonition!"

May slowly blinked, "…You know what," she sighed, "considering all the weird stuff around Ash lately, I'm not even questioning it anymore."

"Honestly, fair," Brendan admitted.

Ash gave the twins a subtle thumbs up while the others weren't looking, and the twins put their hands on their hips proudly, thinking they nailed it.

So now that they had their totally believable excuse, they dropped the act, and Liza grabbed Ash's hand.

"Come on!" she said excitedly, "We wanna show you around!"

Tate grabbed his other arm immediately after, "We trained super hard since last time!" he added, "You gotta see the zero-gravity room! Heheheh!"

Before Ash could even respond, the twins started dragging him down the hallway together, "Woah, woah hey, slow down!"

"Nope!" Liza declared happily.

"We have LOTS to show you!" Tate added.

"Oh yeah, and we have to battle. Me and Tate got way stronger than last time," Liza whispered.

"Okay, okay, just slow down," Ash laughed a little.

Meanwhile behind them, Brendan crossed his arms, "Of course Ash gets a personal tour of the Space Center. Why didn't I get that too?" he muttered.

But then Liza looked back at the group, "Are you guys coming?"

Tate added, "Yeah, you're free to join too! It's more fun like that."

And then Brendan and Max immediately stopped sulking, gasped excitedly, and ran after them, leaving May and Wally to walk like normal people.

—

A while later, after the big tour of the facilities, the group found one of the lounges with couches where Brendan basically threw himself onto one of them, sinking into it.

"This is great…" Brendan said through the couch pillow.

"Well at least you look relaxed," Wally said as he sat stiffly next to him.

"Come on, you gotta try it too, Wally," Brendan's muffled voice came from the pillow.

"I'll pass, thank you."

"Well, like I said before, it's really nice meeting you all," Liza said as she floated a water bottle from the mini fridge to her hand, "Can I get anyone something?"

"We're good," May politely declined, but Max nudged her slightly, making her sigh, "Well, do you have any juice?"

"Plenty," Tate said, floating a juice box over to Max, and Max happily took it.

"So, anything else your vision showed you guys?" Brendan asked as he flipped around to face upward.

"Wha-" Tate said for a moment before remembering, oh yeah, they were going with that lie, "O-oh, um, well of cou-" he started, but he saw Liza shaking her head and crossing her arms into an X, "-ourse not," he finished.

"Um, yeah, we only saw that Ash and his friends, you all, would come and we would all hang out, then maybe have a battle," Liza said, and thank Mew that that explanation was just stupid enough to be believable.

"Aw, boo," Brendan huffed, "Why didn't I get a cool premonition when I came here last year?"

"I mean, in our defense, we really weren't that good at using our powers last time, sorry," Liza said sheepishly.

"Yeah, we only recently started training our powers after some...stuff happened," Tate said, scratching his cheek.

"Okay, well, I'm still kinda confused, so are you guys like co-Gym Leaders, or do you take turns? Like, how does having two Gym Leaders work?" Max asked.

"Well, we work together. That's about the best way we can say it," Tate said, looking over at Liza, "I've got her back and she's got mine, and that's how we do things here. It's the same reason why we only do double battles."

"Wait, so it's a two-on-one? That doesn't seem very fair," May muttered.

"Heh, we get that a lot. That's why we have to use some...special rules that are different. Um, you'll see if we do it," Liza explained.

"I still don't know. It just doesn't seem fair if Ash has to battle both of you," May said.

"Well, there's an easy way to fix that, isn't there?" Ash said with a slow smirk. Then he turned and put a hand around Wally's shoulder, "Hey, Wally, you still need a badge from here too, right?"

"Um...yeah, why?" Wally said quietly.

Ash turned and kept his arm resting on Wally's shoulder, "Then we'll battle you together. That makes it a two-on-two. Fair is fair, right?"

Wally jumped in surprise, "Wha! I-I'm not sure about this. Won't I just hold you back?"

"Nah, don't worry about it, Wally. I've got you. We've got this," Ash said with a smirk.

"Well, I've got no problem with it," Tate nodded.

"Me neither, so we can go battle now!" Liza said excitedly.

"Man, I'm so jealous. I wanted to battle too," Brendan sighed, "Oh well, I'll just have to cheer you on!"

"But wait, aren't we forgetting something?" May muttered.

"If you forgot it, it probably wasn't important," Max said as he pushed May along.

"Eh, you're probably right," May shrugged. Then she pumped her fists, "Let's go see a battle!"