Chapter 560: Team Flare Annihilation

The harsh light dimmed.

In the ruins of the collapsed building, the giant boulder Zygarde was on the verge of disintegration.

In the original plot, this thing couldn't even withstand the attacks of Perfect Zygarde, let alone the current Mythical Pokémon rampage.

Even if it could block them, it wouldn't be a big problem.

All Baimu had made it this far on only three things — being ruthless enough! Being loyal enough! Having plenty of "brothers"!

If three aren't enough, bring in a few more! Keep going until there are enough!

But facts proved that Mega Rayquaza, Unbound Hoopa, and Perfect Zygarde alone were enough to crush the fake thing Fradry had fused together from his own body and Zygarde cells.

"Move! Move, now!"

Before the crowd could approach the ruins, Fradry's roar came from within the shattered giant boulder Zygarde.

"Why! Why are you stopping me!"

"Humans aren't worth your sacrifice! Zygarde!"

"Look at this world! As a guardian of order, can you remain indifferent!?"

The roar was nearly twisted.

Unfortunately.

Those words couldn't resonate with Zygarde. Even Z2, who was hostile and distrustful toward humans, showed no reaction whatsoever to Fradry's nonsense.

Z1 did have the intention to respond, but upon seeing Hoopa and Rayquaza silently charging up for the next round of attacks, the thought instantly faded.

Fradry kept trying to restore the giant boulder Zygarde, only to be met with three beams of destructive light symbolizing his complete defeat!

Boom—!

Amid the deafening explosion, the rolling shockwave and billowing dust forced All Baimu to squint. The ground beneath his feet trembled at high frequency, as if it could crack open at any moment.

"So this is the legendary Pokémon..."

The disaster-like scene deeply shocked everyone's hearts.

Half a minute later.

The building's remains had completely settled. The wildly dancing blood-colored vines and eerie stone statues slowly dissipated along with the acrid smoke, vanishing without a trace. All that remained was a massive crater that seemed bottomless.

Occasionally a flash of colored light caught the eye, but it flickered extremely slowly and wasn't very bright.

"Fradry!"

Pachira cried out and ran toward the crater, standing at the edge and peering down into the darkness, shouting hysterically: "Fradry!"

Only echoes answered.

"I-I'll go down and check!"

Alain clenched both fists tightly, his eyes filled with emotions such as confusion, dejection, and regret.

All Baimu and Master Liu Ge's group had acted too fast, too sudden — nothing like the original plot that gave him time to agonize and let him personally take part in the fight against Fradry.

As things stood, Alain had only battled Ash once and confirmed from Fradry's actions that he had been used all along.

Speaking reasonably, he really hadn't accepted it that easily.

He summoned his Charizard, preparing to go down to the bottom of the deep pit.

"Hold on."

All Baimu reached out to stop him, then turned to the Unbound Hoopa that had drawn near: "Hu Pa! Help us open a door so we can get to the very bottom and check!"

"Hu Pa's here~~ Open Sesame!"

Unbound Hoopa flew behind the group, and one of its left arms shot out a bright golden ring, opening a portal.

Pachira rushed in first, followed by Alain and Charizard.

"Alain! Don't act rashly!"

Champion Dawu, worried Fradry wasn't finished yet, furrowed his brow and hurried after them along with the impatient Ash.

Miss Xijiana showed little interest in this, merely looking up at the Mega Shiny Rayquaza circling overhead and said softly: "I really didn't expect you to gain its aid."

"Actually, I'm quite surprised too."

All Baimu smiled.

Based on his understanding of the Shiny Rayquaza, their relationship so far wasn't actually that close. The latter most likely regarded him as a friend who could bring some fun.

And the communication process through the Heart of God had satisfied the Shiny Rayquaza's curiosity about humans.

As for when this fellow would grow tired of him...

Unknown.

"If you still need my aid, call me again." Miss Xijiana withdrew her gaze. As she spoke, a flash of pain suddenly crossed her face.

All Baimu followed the motion of her clutching her arm and immediately saw a blood-soaked patch of red.

"That's a serious wound!"

"Just a flesh wound, I'll have the medical team bandage it up." Miss Xijiana waved her hand, refusing his attempt to support her. "Go in quickly, they might need you down there."

"... Alright, thank you very much this time."

All Baimu said softly.

Miss Xijiana had come to Kalos to stay for a full month precisely because of his one-sided request.

"Watching over the legendary giant boulder is the responsibility of us People of the Meteors. Even if you hadn't said anything, I would have come. I only hope it doesn't fall into the hands of conspirators again..."

The black-haired girl left those words and turned to leave with her Salamence.

"..."

All Baimu's steps paused briefly before he walked into the golden ring.

Darkness before his eyes, then a faint light.

Charizard's tail flame drove away the surrounding darkness, and along with Pachira's calls, drew his attention.

He was astonished to see, amid a pile of rubble, at the center where several people were gathered, what appeared to be Fladraly's body half-exposed, the other half buried in the stone pile.

All Baimu stepped forward quickly and discovered that Fladraly's eyes were still open, only without a trace of light, and his chest was rising and falling with an amplitude nearly invisible to the naked eye.

The surrounding Champion Dawu and others wore varied expressions.

He didn't die from this? What a tough life!

He clicked his tongue inwardly, turned his head, and on the other side saw the Legendary Titan with dimmed radiance.

In the original plot, this thing vanished directly along with the massive explosion, and because it had been the Titan Zygarde for too long, it affected the leylines, forcing Greninja to stay behind and cut the roots.

Unexpectedly, now that it was besieged by three, it didn't disappear because of it...

Was it because they moved faster?

"Call the medical team over. Shouting definitely won't wake him."

All Baimu said to Pachira, who was weeping in silence. If Fladraly had simply died, it would naturally be cause for celebration, but who would have thought this guy's life was so tough? He couldn't just rush up and finish him off with a blade.

Champion Dawu-san definitely couldn't accept it, and Ash would probably come to stop him too.

But looking at Fladraly's state—more breath going in than coming out—whether he could pull through the subsequent rounds of emergency treatment was still a question.

Pachira said nothing, just nodding through her tears.

It's over.

The royal descendant of the Kalos region, a star of high society, an outstanding tech company president—Fladraly.

His glorious life came to a full stop here.

All Baimu raised his head, gazing at the dawn sky after the dark clouds had dispersed above, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly.

And on the cliff far from Fladraly's laboratory.

Team Rocket's trio secretly observed everything, first eyeing those three powerful Pokémon with greedy longing, then recalling All Baimu's smile when he threatened them.

A bone-chilling smile.

"Let's forget about it."

"Isn't that guy a famous Coordinator? He should go back to Hoenn for the Grand Festival!"

"Let's not provoke him casually, meow."

The two humans and one cat were remarkably of one mind.

No choice.

It was simply that someone's words had struck each of their respective sore spots.

Jessie feared his fiancée chasing after him, James hoped his classmate Chansey could continue peacefully working as a nurse, and Meowzie worried that Madonna would be captured by All Baimu and suffer.

"But the weather is really nice, meow~"

"The wind is gentle too~"

"What a beautiful feeling~"

——

The subsequent cleanup matters.

Basically had nothing to do with All Baimu, a non-International Police member.

And thanks to Hu Pa's presence in this operation, Master Liu Ge and the others smoothly captured the entire Dafan Sect from top to bottom, not even letting the cleaners go.

The casualties on their side were therefore very few.

It could be called a complete victory.

The funny thing was, Master Liu Ge didn't submit this plan to the Kalos League until the operation had already begun.

By the time the Kalos League Chairman and Champion Korrina realized things had gotten serious and rushed over at top speed, Master Liu Ge's side had already started clearing the wreckage.

Leaving only a few people disheveled in the wind.

Unquestionably, this behavior drew protests from the Kalos League.

Master Liu Ge was therefore issued a reprimand within the International Police, but was also commended for having preemptively predicted the Dafan Sect's conspiracy led by Fladraly and limiting the damage to a minimum.

Frobe laughed wildly and told All Baimu that right now the International Police's bulletin board had two photos hanging on it.

On the left—a reprimand: Master Liu Ge.

On the right—a special commendation: Master Liu Ge.

The overly comedic scene drove many who should have been jealous of his great achievement into fits of laughter.

Master Liu Ge's mood these days also fell somewhere between good and not good.

Additionally.

After a joint consultation by multiple medical professors, Fladraly, excavated from the rubble, was confirmed to be brain-dead. It was said that when the Legendary Titan disintegrated, an excess of life energy had impacted his brain.

But precisely because of that, his body was still alive for now.

Simply put—

"A vegetable."

The once-ambitious Dafan Sect leader reduced to a vegetable—as the "culprit," All Baimu couldn't help feeling a sense of lament.

Pachira, just like in the original plot, chose to turn herself in.

And although Alain had Pachira, Champion Dawu, Ash, Mairin, Professor Sycamore, and others testifying that he had merely been one-sidedly deceived by Fladraly, he was still taken away for investigation.

With detailed evidence chains later proving he was among the deceived and hadn't caused too much damage, he should be able to be released?

With so many people vouching for him, it should work.

By the way.

Mairin's Chespin successfully awakened under the joint "rescue" of Z1 and Z2, and the remaining energy was taken back by the Zygarde Cores, so naturally there was no problem.

In any case, they definitely wouldn't make it to the Lumiose Conference.

This situation caught All Baimu off guard; he had previously been wondering whether Alain, with all his buffs gone after the incident ended, could recreate the decisive battle scene at the Lumiose Conference.

So in the end he can't take part?

Then if the Beast Man hadn't shown up, wouldn't Ash have a hundred percent chance of winning the Lumiose Conference, and gone on to challenge the Elite Four and Diantha at the Kalos Champion League!

Which means… uh, one of the Elite Four seems to have been captured too?

If new Elite Four members can't be added before the Lumiose Conference, the Champion League presumably can't be held normally either.

All Baimu decided to keep an eye on Ash's future progress.

He'll probably go to the Alola region.

Probably.

After the destruction plot of Team Flare, among the Mythical and Legendary Pokémon that came to help, the earliest to leave was undoubtedly the shiny Rayquaza — it didn't originally belong to this region, having been summoned over by Hu Pa.

Before departing, All Baimu had a Heart Communion with it; the latter said in the mind-space that it would come watch his travel memories after a while.

Be sure to live happily and splendidly.

He could only reply with two words: "I'll try."

The second to leave was Z2.

Rescued by humans, yet also hurt because of humans, it decided, as in the past, to continue silently observing humanity; it had wanted to bring Z1 along, but Z1 decided to stay and watch Ash's performance challenging the Lumiose Conference before leaving.

This made Yurika, who had been on the verge of tears, exceptionally happy.

The third was Hu Pa's turn.

It actually hadn't left at first — as the biggest contributor to the operation, it won the affection of almost everyone.

The result of that affection was that it ate over a hundred donuts in a short time!

That's right.

A hundred!

After this person fed it, that person fed it; after that person fed it, yet another person came to feed it.

Before Mei Mei Yali and Balza could even react, Hu Pa had gotten fat by two whole sizes, its waist even turning into a swimming ring, forcing it to leave.

It went back to Desert City to keep running construction sites and hauling cement to lose weight.

All Baimu was quite astonished by this.

Can Mythical Pokémon get fat too? And they get fat so fast!

As expected of Pokémon.

——

He stayed in Kalos for over a week.

When Ash and the others headed to Lumiose City to take part in the Lumiose Conference, All Baimu formally said goodbye to the four of them.

Although the time spent together wasn't long, he left quite a deep impression on Ash and the others.

Whether it was the Volcanion incident or the raid on Team Flare and so on, his dependable image made Citron admire him endlessly.

This genius inventor also said he wanted to design an invention related to Porygon2, and would send it to All Baimu for him and Porygon2 to try out and evaluate.

—He's sending a bomb!

All Baimu very much wanted to refuse, but curiosity overcame the slight sense of danger — mainly because he wanted to know whether Citron was planning to make a Porygon Pokédex.

Before departure.

He quietly asked Ash about the result of his earlier battle with Alain at the Team Flare base; the answer, as he had imagined, was that the Bond Phenomenon Greninja had won.

In a real-person fight, however, it fell a little short.

The Friendship Breaking Fist that All Baimu taught Ash had just been thrown when Alain caught it — the latter's physical strength was actually no less than that of a Pallet Town person!

Terrifying!

Later Ash wanted to throw two more punches, but Pacchira came up to stop him and told Alain the truth about being used.

After Alain fell into self-doubt, how could Ash bear to throw him another punch.

He could only let it go.

"What a shame…"

"Huh?"

"Nothing. Ash, I'll be watching you all along — you absolutely have to win the Lumiose Conference!"

All Baimu patted Ash's shoulder with heartfelt gravity.

Your biggest enemy Alain is gone; if you can't win it, I'll have to rush over and give Pikachu a good trouncing!

"I will!"

Ash nodded firmly.

"Pika! Pi…ka?"

Pikachu had originally wanted to nod along too, but a sudden chill made it shudder.

All Baimu, meanwhile, watched this yellow-skinned rat with a beaming smile.

After waving goodbye to the four.

He used Hu Pa's power to return to Éclat City.

There were still about ten days until the Gloire Festival, and he had to prepare properly.