Chapter 483: Catching the Froslass Queen!

BOOOOM!

The Froslass Queen slammed into the ice wall hard enough to crack the frozen surface behind her. When she finally slid to the floor, her icy-blue eyes had already turned into spirals.

The battle was over.

From the moment Greninja began tearing through her Double Team copies to the instant the Rasengan struck her real body, less than half a second had passed. She had not even been given the chance to use her Ominous Wind.

That was the lesson Frog Boss had just driven home.

Raw power meant very little if your opponent moved faster than you could think.

By the time you realized what had happened, the fight was already over.

As the Froslass Queen lost consciousness, the snow generated by Ice Queen gradually disappeared as well. The blizzard died away, leaving the entire castle in an almost unnatural silence.

The expedition members simply stared.

Then someone swallowed audibly.

"Is that frog even legal?"

Another soldier still had his mouth hanging open. "That had to be faster than I jerk off."

Several heads slowly turned toward him.

"What?"

"No, seriously. Did anyone actually see the last four hits?"

Nobody answered, because none of them had.

They had all assumed Charizard was Aaron's strongest Pokémon after seeing what it did to the mutated Avalugg. Now they were no longer so sure. Charizard possessed terrifying destructive power, but against an opponent who could teleport around the battlefield and attack before most Pokémon could even react, sheer firepower suddenly did not seem like enough.

One of the technicians stared at Greninja with open admiration. "That speed is fucking ridiculous."

"If something like that came after you for real, you wouldn't even know what killed you."

"Grant was right. Not a single Pokémon on Aaron's team is normal."

"Forget Charizard for a second. This guy's a black ninja frog that teleports and throws blue spheral."

Someone raised a fist.

"Frog Boss is fucking awesome!"

That broke the silence.

"Frog Boss!"

"Black Frog Boss!"

"Holy shit, that was sick!"

The expedition erupted into cheers, and Greninja stood in the middle of it all with exactly the same bored expression he had worn before the battle began.

Grant and Ryan exchanged a look.

Neither needed to say anything.

Aaron was ridiculous.

His Pokémon were worse.

...

Aaron, meanwhile, had already walked over to the unconscious Froslass Queen.

He took out a fresh Poké Ball and tossed it toward her.

The ball struck gently, opened, and pulled her inside in a flash of red light. It landed on the frozen floor and rocked.

Once.

Twice.

Three times.

Click.

Caught.

The Froslass Queen had officially become Aaron's ninth Pokémon.

He picked up the Poké Ball, and for one dangerous second, the urge to strike one of Ash's dramatic post-catch victory poses nearly overwhelmed him.

Aaron stopped himself.

No.

He still had some dignity left.

Probably.

Instead, he calmly returned to the others and released the Froslass Queen again. After some treatment and a short rest, she recovered enough to float on her own.

Aaron smiled at her.

"Welcome to the family, Froslass Queen. We'll be counting on you from now on."

"Fros..."

She looked at him for a moment before giving a soft smile of her own.

The surrounding Froslass were considerably less cheerful.

"Fros... Frosslass..."

More than a few had tears gathering in their eyes now that it had finally sunk in that their queen really was leaving with this human.

Aaron wisely gave them space.

There was no reason to rush the farewell.

...

Outside the castle, Grant walked up beside him and punched him lightly on the shoulder.

"That Greninja of yours is still as terrifying as ever."

Aaron glanced at him.

Grant had seen Frog Boss fight before. During the incident at Sealine City Base, Greninja had been the one to turn the situation around by instantly taking out a member of the Symbiosis Society with a surprise attack.

Grant still remembered it vividly.

Without Greninja, there was no telling how many students might have died that day.

Aaron grinned and rested a hand on Greninja's shoulder.

"Of course he's strong. He's Frog Boss."

He looked over.

"Right, Frog Boss?"

"Grenin."

Greninja gave Aaron one long, deadpan look, then turned his head away and completely ignored him.

Aaron's smile froze.

The others immediately burst out laughing.

"What a touching partnership."

"Truly inseparable."

"Shut the hell up."

That only made them laugh harder.

By now, the atmosphere among the expedition had become casual enough that nobody particularly cared about titles when they were joking around. After everything they had gone through together, they sounded more like friends than people who had entered the secret zone as strangers.

About half an hour later, the Froslass Queen finally emerged from the castle with the rest of her people behind her.

"Fros..."

She floated over to Aaron and gave him a small nod.

The farewells were finished.

Aaron nodded back, then turned toward Grant and Ryan. "All right. Let's keep moving. We still have a secret zone to finish exploring."

Grant looked toward the mountain trail ahead.

"Agreed. The sooner we finish mapping the rest of this place, the sooner everyone gets to go home."

The expedition packed up and continued deeper into the unexplored region.

...

The following days were far less dramatic for Aaron than the first few.

For everyone else, that was mostly because Frog Boss refused to let anything become dramatic.

Whenever the expedition encountered a Class Champion-level Pokémon blocking their route, Greninja handled it.

Again.

And again.

And again.

By that point, even the soldiers who had originally mocked the skinny black frog had become devoted fans.

Someone eventually started calling him the Black Flash, and the nickname spread through the expedition almost immediately. It fit too well. In battle, most opponents saw little more than a streak of black before Greninja appeared somewhere else and the fight ended.

Before long, the way the soldiers looked at Frog Boss had changed completely.

Doubt had become respect.

Respect had become admiration.

And admiration was rapidly approaching worship.

On the seventh day after the expedition entered the secret zone, the final unexplored section was mapped.

The survey was complete.

After seven days of avalanches, hostile Pokémon, an Ice Stone vein, a mutated Avalugg, an entire castle full of Froslass, and one newly caught queen, the secret zone had finally been fully explored.

...