In the afternoon, Axel and Iono got off the train at Castelia City.
Not far from them, an enormous bridge stretched endlessly outside the city, looking as if it rose straight into the clouds.
This was one of the Unova region's famous landmarks, the Skyarrow Bridge, connecting Pinwheel Forest and Castelia City.
Once off the train, Iono waved her wide sleeves and smiled brightly at the phone camera, "Hello, viewers in the livestream! Today we've come to one of the Unova region's famous spots, the Skyarrow Bridge!"
"This is a very important structure in the Unova region. According to what the tour guide just told us, before the Skyarrow Bridge was completed..."
As she introduced the bridge, Iono walked toward the front.
Behind her, her Magnemite expertly held the phone, filming her from various angles.
Axel, along with Gardevoir and Pheromosa, followed not far behind, each holding a Castelia ice cream in hand.
Gardevoir stepped forward a few paces, a flash of red light appearing in her eyes.
Then she gently frowned and tugged at Axel's sleeve.
["Master... there's someone familiar up there. It looks like they're about to fight. How about we go somewhere else instead?"]
'Someone familiar?'
Axel froze for a moment, then quickly understood.
Since coming to the Unova region, they hadn't run into many acquaintances. Aside from people from Blueberry Academy, the only possible ones were Iris and N.
And if it was someone Gardevoir didn't want to meet, it should be N.
"Then let's not go up on the bridge today. We can just wander around below."
["Okay,"] Gardevoir gave a sweet smile, hooked her arm around Axel's, and headed forward.
Just then, a sharp whistling sound suddenly came from above, followed by the heavy thud of flesh hitting metal.
Looking up, a green figure was falling from the sky.
A Zoroark dashed along the bridge, swiftly moving down toward that green figure.
And the spot it was falling toward, was right in front of Iono.
Without thinking, Axel used psychic power to catch N in midair and slam him safely down onto the ground.
"Cough! Cough!", Landing, N coughed painfully, a trace of blood appearing at the corner of his mouth.
He looked badly injured, his clothes in disarray, exposed skin covered with scrapes.
Seeing Axel, N collapsed to the ground in pain, "Thank you... you've saved me once again..."
"What happened to you?", Axel took out a healing spray and gave him a few bursts, puzzled.
He couldn't figure out why N would be injured.
If Ghetsis were still alive, and N went to confront him, with their personalities, a fight was possible.
But Ghetsis was already dead, so why was N this badly hurt?
"After running into you that day, I went to find them," Forcing himself upright, N gave Axel a grateful look.
"I wanted to tell them about you and your ideals."
"But I didn't find Father, I only ran into his researcher, Colress."
"He said Father was captured while spreading his ideals and has been missing ever since."
"I wanted the Plasma members to stop spreading the ideals and search for Father first, so I could confront him."
"But...", At this point, N painfully pulled at his own hair, "They wouldn't stop. They even said I'd been brainwashed!"
Hearing the key words, Iono, still livestreaming, immediately turned around and nodded hard.
'Yes, Axel can brainwash people!'
Axel: "..."
'Girl, can you just mind your own business?'
'Don't make it sound like I'm using some kind of hypnosis trigger!'
'Also, daring to livestream N's affairs? Aren't you afraid the moderators will ban you?'
"N, ignore her. Keep talking."
"What's there to say?", A cold, sinister voice came from behind Axel.
"You secretly manipulated our Plasma King, trying to destroy our salvation of the Unova region. You deserve to die."
Hearing this, N staggered to his feet and, together with his Zoroark, stepped in front of Axel.
"Axel, go. I know you're strong, but the person who came is Plasma's researcher, Colress."
"This whole time, he's been stealing Plasma's resources and has grown terrifyingly powerful."
"I'm already injured, there's no escaping for me today. But you're different!"
N's gaze was firm, radiating a willingness to sacrifice himself.
"As long as you leave, and spread your ideals to more people, I believe the trainers of Unova will never fall into ruin!"
Axel shook his head, unmoving, fixing his eyes on the newcomer.
The man wore a lab coat and strange-shaped glasses.
Flying beside him were three Pokémon: Metagross, Beheeyem, and Klinklang.
The moment he appeared, Iono's livestream equipment instantly went dead.
Axel frowned slightly, but soon relaxed, even looking a little pleased.
Because he noticed that the man who broke Iono's phone had a research-type trait.
[Research King (Gold): Research results boost Pokémon's abilities by 50%, with a chance of creating something effective even against legendary Pokémon.]
"So you're the Plasma researcher?", Axel remembered clearly, this man had originally joined Plasma just to research Genesect.
But over time, his desires grew. In Black 2, he even became the real villain.
Now, with Ghetsis dead, it seemed his ambitions had surfaced early.
Colress didn't take Axel seriously, nodding calmly.
"Yes. So what?", During Plasma's period in hiding, he had already raised all his main Pokémon to the Four Heavenly King level.
Metagross even had Champion-level strength.
Even N, once Plasma's top combat power, had been easily subdued by him.
With such strength, why would he be afraid of people knowing his name?
Seeing Colress acting smug, Axel shook his head privately.
'What a pity, Glastrier and Mewtwo are still at home in punishment.'
This time... he should have brought Glastrier along.
But without it, it didn't matter much. He'd brought Oh-Ho today, a mere Steel-type Champion-level Pokémon wasn't unbeatable.
Besides... who can't act smug?
Axel took a few steps forward and patted Colress heavily on the shoulder.
"Little brother, I don't care if you seized power. But breaking Iono's phone, that's crossing the line."
"Here's your last chance: go to the shop over there, buy a Rotom phone, and I'll let you walk away. How about it?"
Colress froze.
'I broke an ordinary phone, and you want me to replace it with a Rotom phone?'
'Are you insane?'
'Also, I wasn't planning on letting you walk away, why are you talking like you'd be doing me a favor?'
From Colress's look, Axel could tell the man was now thinking about how to attack him.
So he quickly turned to N, "N, I'll teach you another truth today."
"For people like this, who are full of malice, you can't confront them with words."
"Then what do you use?", N asked doubtfully.
Axel grinned, then, with zero wind-up, smashed his fist into Colress's chest.
Crack!
Several crisp cracks rang out, and Colress's body flew back more than ten meters.
Axel brushed his nose lightly, arms folded.
"When you reason with someone, you use your fists!"
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