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A New Frontier

Mia Blaze

I'mma gonna Deku in the face, Kacchan
Summary: Scott has brought the Sinnoh Battle Frontier from his brother's hands but has no idea of what is in store for him, especially since he's dealing with a bunch of trainers that can stand toe to toe with Champions. Will the Sinnoh branch be restored to its former glory, or will it sink back into the depths like before?

So, this idea popped into my mind randomly and I just had to go with it. I've noticed a lack of stories around the Sinnoh Frontier Brains, which is slightly to do with the fact that they haven't been a major part of any game or the anime. In fact, this is anime verse with major game hints and changing of character backstories. Enjoy.

Disbanded and Reformed

“What the hell do you mean you’re shutting us down?!” A woman with hair as black as the clear night’s sky cried angrily, her teeth gritting together into a scowl. The yellow marigold spheres in her hair matched in colour wise to her vertically striped blouse that had a frilly white collar and her strappy high heels. Her long sleeved blouse with white ruffles showed her naval, piercing and all, off proudly, her blue jean like trousers held up with a white belt that had a familiar symbol stickered all over it. Cerulean orbs alight with a flickering flame that could not be extinguished. “You can’t do that!”

A man with mahogany hair shook his head. “Yes I can Dahlia, and I am,” His eyes hidden behind large sunglasses, his back turned to the six humans standing behind his desk. “I’m sorry.”

“Like hell you are.” A dark green coated man, of which had six giant yellow buttons running down both sides, three per side, answered back haughtily. His dirty blonde hair spiked out in all directions, sideburns the only part of it that actually looked normal. Underneath his coat was a white turtleneck jumper and long, brown trousers that had a black belt with a golden clasp looped through the small brown pieces of fabric stitched to them. His hands were covered in black gloves, feet hidden under shiny black shoes. “Just because you aren’t getting as much as that brother of yours, you’re gonna throw in the towel?! That is not like you Francis!”

“Look…” Francis began, only to get interrupted once again.

“No, you look!” The other female in the room, whose Dawn Stone like earrings showed clearly from under her short dark violet hair. A black gloved hand adjusted the sunglasses that rested atop of their head. Her maroon irises matched her jacket and knee lengthed shorts to a t, whilst her purple tights vanished into black boots with silver high heels. She put her hands on her cream, high necked, top to make a point. “These are our jobs! We are Frontier Brains for a living! We need these jobs, or else!”

“Palmer, Argenta… please calm down…” Francis tried to speak up but the remaining three males decided this was their time to get their thoughts in.

“Now, now Francis. I am sure there is another way around this,” His indigo eyes closed behind his square framed spectacles as he smiled, the light above shone on his slicked back black hair with a golden streak down the middle. A black, long tailed jacket with indigo insides was worn over a waistcoat and shirt, both of which were pure white and the shirt’s collar folded over a black bowtie. His right hand, much like his left which was covered in a white glove, held a golden pocket watch, which he occasionally glanced at; his purple trousers barely covering the tops of his smart black shoes. “No need to make the children upset.”

“CHILD?!” A fifteen year old boy pouted, his white shirt covered arms folding over his black, sleeveless sweater, just missing his turquoise scarf that had been fashioned into a shape of a tie. “I am no such thing!” As he spoke, he reached for a blue electronic device that was stored in the holder that was a part of his belt with a silver clasp that was on top of a dirty green pair of baggy trousers with turquoise hems that finished halfway between his knees and his ankles. The long white socks he wore were partially obscured by the large greeny blue tongues of his dark trainers. His sea blue eyes glinted dangerously as his free hand subconsciously went up to his black and green hair, mainly green with two black curls that crossed over at the middle of his forehead, to scratch at it.

“Come on Thorton, Darach was trying to help us,” The last person, a nine year old sighed gently. His amber orbs held a slight sadness, as a finger twirled around a lock of his raven, outward spiked hair. He wore a dark blue, short sleeved jacket that was unzipped with two chords that could be pulled to made the hood tighter around the face if put up. Underneath was a strapped yellow top with a red stencil of the legendary Pokémon Ho-Oh right in the bottom left hand corner for all to see. The bottom of the top rubbed against a blue sash that was wrapped around his waist multiple times and tied into a bow at the side, his black trousers tucked into a pair of blue and yellow high top trainers. Another sash, this time yellow, was tied around his neck like a scarf, a strange stone hung from it as a charm of sorts. “Please, Francis! Everyone will be taken away from me without this, I can’t lose my friends!”

The boss man was about to say something, when the deadly, hunger filled glare of the aggressive Luxray standing beside him told im to reconsider the way he phrased his next sentence. “I am sure that the League Officials will understand…”

“Oh, really?” Dahlia snorted at him before her angry scowl returned full force. “We aren’t the League, Francis. We are the Sinnoh Battle Frontier, the original Battle Frontier, and the one that’s going downhill now that your goody-two shoes brother copied us over in Kanto! Nixie over there started this job at six, if you think it will be easy for him then think again! He will be banned from battling for life!”

“Like hell I’d let that happen!” Although no one except its trainer could understand it, the Luxray decided it was his time to add his opinions on the matter. “I’ll bite their faces off if they would even dare to take him away from me!”

“Jet…” The nicknamed ‘Nixie’ couldn’t help but smile proudly at his starter’s loyalty and vicious plans of mauling that would occur if the League got involved in Francis’ mess up. “I promise nothing will happen, okay? I’ll probably just go into hiding or something. Mum always said I was a good actor…” The other Frontier Brains watched as a plan immediately formed in the youngest and the strongest member’s mind. “A stupid new trainer who can’t win at anything, that would be a good role to play... and it'll keep me going until I get enough money to bring us back together, unless we can convince Francis otherwise.” All eyes were on the man in the middle, who sighed and shook his head.

“I’m sorry Nixie, but no, we can’t,” Francis hated the way his Frontier Brains were glaring at him, but he really did have no choice. “For now, the Sinnoh Battle Frontier… the original Battle Frontier,” He added much to the disapproving glares of both Argenta and Darach, two of the original five Frontier Brains from twelve years ago. “Will have to be disbanded until any further notice.”

This caused an uproar from the six humans and one Pokémon, which they were entirely entitled to. How dare those copycats ruin them out of a job? If word was to be believed, then these Kanto members were far weaker than they were. There was a reason why they only used a fraction of their power in the Silver Slip Challenge and why there were certain requirements to be met if someone wanted to obtain a Golden Slip. The only people who could rival them in strength were the Champions, making beating a Sinnoh Frontier Brain near on impossible for normal trainers.

“I’ve had enough!” Dahlia announced suddenly, making the others quiet down for a moment. “Come on everybody, we’re leaving.” The Frontier Brains left one by one with the Arcade Star lingering behind for a moment as she spat in the plant pot beside her at the doorway. “I hope you’re happy with yourself, Francis.” And with that, she swept out of the office, slamming the door harshly behind her.

Francis was left alone in the darkness of his room, wondering if he had made the right choice. He slowly shook the doubt from his mind. Maybe, in the future, he would have the guts to ask his older brother for help but as he stood now, he was way too proud for his own good. A part of him was telling him that the Sinnoh Frontier would make its return someday soon, how soon he couldn’t predict.

He sighed to himself as he stared at the flat pack box sat beside him, all of his desktop items neatly packed and arranged in an nice, orderly fashion. Francis never had thought it would come to it; people loved challenging his Frontier Brains and the unusual styles in which they held. At least his facilities were unique and individual; his brother had copied some of them with his own in Kanto which had annoyed Francis no end. Those facilities weren’t fun or challenging, they were just glorified gyms with no sense of excitement for what may happen next.

Francis stood up slowly, grabbed his box and went to leave, turning back one last time to soak up the nostalgia the office had for him as he left it for the last time in his life.


“Please make sure they continue training,” Nixie instructed his co-workers on the dock of Canalave City, his eyes darting from each of them in turn before landing on Jet, his faithful Luxray. “And Jet… please act as a leader for the others. Keep them going until I come back, okay?”

“You can count on me.” Jet replied, still looking sadly at his trainer as he spoke.

“We will make sure they continue to be of the high standard you raised them to,” Darach answered with one of his rare smiles reserved to the family that was the Sinnoh Battle Frontier Brains. “There will be no need to worry in that regard.”

“Hey, you stole my line!” Dahlia scolded jokingly, shaking her head with her hands on her hips. She turned to the youngest Brain with a large grin. “Nixie, promise me you will be as dumb as possible in this new life of yours. I really wanna see the looks on people’s faces when they find out the true you, it’ll be hilarious!”

“I’ll do my best!” The nine year old promised happily, already trying to get used to the new role the Frontier Brains and his mother had made up over the passing weeks after Francis’ announcement that the Frontier was closing, even though the Brains would still be getting paid somehow.

“Nix,” Thorton stepped forwards next, however he turned the situation tense with a long, sodden silence that was followed by streams of tears and brawling. “Just don’t forget us whilst you’re out there being a child!” He sniffled before the brawling continued. “And don’t get killed out there, please?!”

“Thor…” Nixie laughed as he agreed with his fellow youth’s statements. “I won’t try to; it’ll just happen with this role! But I won’t die, I promise. After all, when the Frontier is back together, so will we be and what good am I to anyone six feet underground?”

“That’s the spirit!” Palmer barked with laughter, his hefty shoulders shaking with every second until he had finished his expression of happiness. “Good luck out there kid, we will get in contact as soon as the word is let out that our wonderful establishment is back up and running.” He stepped backwards to let another person make her way forward to the nine year old.

“Nixie, you have always been my favourite here…” Argenta began to say as a certain green haired teenager interrupted her by throwing a mini tantrum.

“You’re not supposed to have favourites!” Thorton yelled with a red face, he quickly huffed and folded his arms in front of his chest. “And I thought I was your favourite.”

“No, little boy…” Palmer struck a heroic pose, a pose that radiated overbearing cockiness to those who were staring at him with embarrassed expressions. “I’m her favourite, I’m everybody’s favourite.” The Hall Matron simply wacked him one around the back of the head and sighed as if the action was etched into her memory for eternity, which it was after constantly keeping Palmer in check.

“Firstly, you’re married and have a kid,” She scolded the Tower Tycoon as if he was a child, as if he was around Nixie’s age. “Secondly, I can choose whoever I want to be to become my favourite.” She turned to the currently fuming Arcade Star and chuckled. “Anyone who isn’t Nixie, I take it, Dals?”

“What? What are you talking about?!” Dahlia huffed, acting as if she didn’t care which everyone knew she actually did.

“Whatever, Dals… I was only kidding about favourites, you should now that.” Argenta chuckled at the reaction Dahlia had made, in fact any reaction by Dahlia was something to behold as they could be quite humorous at times. “Anyway, what was I saying? Oh yeah!” She grasped Nixie’s shoulders with both of her hands, their eyes locked as she gave him her last words of wisdom. “Knock ‘em dead, kid. And by knock ‘em dead… you know what I really mean.”

“Lightly punch them until it annoys them greatly?” The nine year old answered with a short chuckle. “Yeah, I know what you mean.” A loud noise, a horn of some kind, came from the ship, telling the group that it would be setting sail fairly shortly. “I’d better get going… I promise I’ll be back one day… I… I…” Streams of tears began falling down Nixie’s face; sad to be forced into saying goodbye to the people he had grown to see as his second family. Without words, all of them hugged fiercely, not wanting to let go at all during the short show of affection. It lasted all of ten seconds before the horn sounded once more and they were forced to release each other.

Nixie rushed up the boarding platform, disappearing for a short while before reappearing on the deck, his mother standing beside him. And as the boat left the dock, he waved with all of his might, still crying softly as the wind made his tears fly with them through the air. He waved until he could no longer see the other Frontier Brains, their goodbye already over. Nixie sighed, but smiled as a fresh, salty breeze whipped through his hair and he turned to look to the new world he was about to enter.

It shouldn’t be long until they could be reunited once again, right?

~ 4 Years Later ~

Being the head of an organisation such as the Battle Frontier meant many things for Scott Fitzgerald. Those things were work, paperwork and being able to duct pay from his employees for not doing their paperwork. Ah, the joys of form filling. He looked up from his current form, one about the renovations of Anabel’s tower, and groaned at the cramp that was forming in his right hand. He’d been at this for a good three hours now, what he needed was a slight break from all of the writing these forms were forcing him to do.

Fortunately that break arrived in the form of a telephone call.

“Hello, you’ve reached the office of Scott, owner of the Battle Frontier. How may I help you?” Scott cheerily repeated the standard phone call introduction which he had memorised off by heart. After a few moments of silence, a familiar voice spoke up.

“Hey, Scott. It’s me.”

“Francis?” After four years of not hearing from him, the boss of the Battle Frontier was shocked to find his little brother on the end of the line. “What’s up little bro, long time no see… or hear in this case.”

“Cut the small talk Scott,” Francis’ words were harsh and punctual; he seemed to be growing increasingly angry by the minute. “I… I need your help.”

“My help?” Scott raised an eyebrow, slightly worried about the unmentioned reasons for his brother’s calling. What kind of trouble had he gotten himself into? “What do you need help with?”

“I want you to… oh God I can’t believe I’m saying this…” The younger brother took a deep breath before sighing it out. “I want you to buy the Battle Frontier.”

Scott began laughing, realising that this was simply a prank calling from his brother. “Silly, I already own it.” He was surprised to be cut off.

“No you idiot! I’m talking about my Frontier, the Original Battle Frontier you copied and ran into the ground with your weaker Kanto mockery!” Francis yelled, voice dripping with uncontrollable rage. “The one over here in Sinnoh!”

“The Sinnoh branch?” Scott began twirling a finger around the cord of the phone, still wondering why he had one of these old things in the first place. “Never heard of it.”

“Of course you have, you *******!” Francis shouted, still getting angry with every word his brother spoke. “Because of you and your posse of Gym Leader wannabes, a bunch of people lost their jobs and one has even gone into hiding to protect themselves from the League! The Sinnoh Frontier Brains were Champion level with the Gold Slip Challenge, even the Silver one was hard to beat, and they were actually a challenge!” He had managed to calm down slightly as he continued. “Listen, all I want is for you to take over, work your magic and get them back. All the facilities are built, everything is fully paid for and all I need to do is get in contact with the missing Brain to get them back over here and they could start tomorrow. I’ve been working up the courage for four years to ask you this. Just take it.”

“I dunno,” Scott replied finally after a few moments of thought. “Wouldn’t it cost a lot?”

“I ran that place for twelve years, and even after you came into the fray and made me lose money, it still ran for another four until I had to close it down.” The younger brother answered sternly, throwing his brother’s question out of the window. “Plus, you’re a billionaire, that place will make more money than it takes. With all of the added features in the facilities, I mean.”

The older brother thought hard for a few moments, realising this could be as successful as the Kanto branch, if the publicity went well. Plus, he could always tell those who defeated the Kanto Frontier to take on the Sinnoh challenge. “Alright then, I’ll take it off of your hands.” He heard the sigh of relief through the phone as he reached for his trusty pen and chequebook. “How much?”

“For you, a quarter of a million. That should cover everything, facilities and all,” Scott merely shrugged at the price; it was measly for what he may be getting but, I guess mate’s rates apply to brothers as well. “So, congrats, I guess. What are you going to do now?”

“I wanna see this Frontier for myself, I’m sure the Kanto Brains will want to meet their new co-workers,” Scott replied, having finished writing out the cheque, he teared it out of the book and placed it inside the envelope. “So as soon as, I’m heading over to Sinnoh.”

“Right. And whilst you do that, I’ll see if anyone of us can get in contact with Nixie,” Francis seemed more calm and collected now, but the upbringing of a new name made Scott confused. “He’ll be over the moon when he finds out he’s back in business.”

“Is this ‘Nixie’ the Frontier Brain you were talking about earlier?” He inquired.

“The very same, and our strongest. He’s a challenge alright, they all are...” The younger man trailed off, only to cough a few moments later to return the attention of the call to the deal. “Anyway, good luck with running the place. Hopefully you’ll do better than I did.” With that, Francis hung up; still upset that, as always, his brother had triumphantly taken over the one thing he loved more than anything else. But, at least this way, the family could be reunited. Now all he had to do was announce the news of the Sinnoh Battle Frontier’s return to six very important people.

Scott simply sighed and put his phone back on its stand. For a moment, he did nothing but, after that moment, he cheered and spun around in his seat. If this Frontier was anything like his brother had said it was, people would be queuing up to have a go, after a bit of publicity of course. Now all he needed to do was call up a few people, mainly his Frontier Brains. Maybe he could try that number, if he wasn’t travelling. After all, if anyone could give these new members a run for their money, it could possibly be Ash Ketchum. He jotted down a memo of his thoughts, now all he had to do was follow them through.


A loud ring of the phone was what made one unlucky thirteen year old stir from his slumber sometime in the early morning. It was still quite dark outside, not even the sky had started to lighten up, possibly due to the fact it was now 2:57 AM. He slowly rose from his bed, cursing under his breath as he realised the other members of the household were still out cold like logs. That or they were just refusing to get out of bed to answer the damn thing, which meant only he could silence the horrible early alarm. He plodded out of his room, going down the stairs until he reached the phone and picked it up, pressing the call button and held it up to his ear.

“Hello, Ketchum residence,” He tried to compress a yawn but failed miserably. “Ash speaking, who is this?”

“It’s been a while hasn’t it?” The familiar voice jolted the boy out of his sluggish sleepy state, making him fully alert as he replied.

“Dals? But… why, how?” Ash tried to calm himself down but the welling feeling of excitement was rising faster than a Pokémon using Extreme Speed. “Did… did you?”

“Calm down, Nixie. I come bearing good news,” Dahlia began chuckling at the other end as other voices, muffled and unintelligible ones at that, began talking as well. “We heard the news just now; the Sinnoh Battle Frontier is back, baby!”

“That means…”

“That means you can stop playing the loser card and join us winners again instead,” Argenta had taken control of the phone now, much to the annoyance of Dahlia in the background. “It took longer than expected but someone has brought the Frontier from Francis and is planning big things for us. Francis thought it would be nicer for us to tell you that you have your job back. Oh, and Jet can’t wait to see you. He and the others have been training ferociously for you whilst you’ve been gone.”

“I bet he can’t. I miss him.” Memories of the black and blue furred beast he called his first ever Pokémon came flooding back, causing tears of joy to prickle his eyes. “So, when is this whole thing starting up again?”

“As soon as you get back here!” The phone had been taken once again, this time Palmer held the power. “Come on man, we’re waiting.”

Whilst Palmer was on the line, Ash decided to get a form of payback for a year or so ago. “Maybe I should take my time, after all… you almost revealed my identity at the Twinleaf Festival! If I didn’t have the team I had at the time or the noticeable amount of people around us, I would have thrashed your butt without lifting a finger!”

“Yep, still the same old Nixie,” Even though he couldn’t see his face, the thirteen year old could hear the fear in Palmer’s voice. “Anyway, I will hand you over to Thorton so, bye…”

“Palmer you coward!!!” Ash sighed before grinning as he knew he was talking to his best friend from the Frontier days. “Hey Thor, have you made sure Palms can’t get out?”

“Of course, the doors are all locked,” The nineteen year old on the other end chuckled. “Nothing’s changed has it? Great to hear from you again Nix. Darach sends his regards for a safe journey as he is currently dealing with Palmer’s escape attempt.”

“Thank him for me, ‘Kay?” Thorton saluted, only realising that his friend would never see that.

“Sure, I will do. Look, we have to go now, considering it is early in the morning for you,” He replied, only to sweat drop as he turned to face Dahlia. “You do know that Kanto has a different time zone to ours and it’s like three AM over there?” Her nervous laughter told everyone everything they needed to know. “Anyway, our new boss is coming over in a week, so you have that much time to move back into Sunyshore and join us here at the main base in Veilstone, got it?”

“Uh…”

“Great! See you soon Nixie!” And with that, the line was cut. Ash put down the phone, took a deep breath and smiled. Finally, he had been waiting four years for that phone call, the one thing that would bring him out of the depressing act he had to play for so long. The creaking of the stairs made him turn around to see his mother rubbing her eyes in her fluffy pink dressing gown with Pikachu hung over her shoulder whilst yawning.

“What was that all about?” She asked, contracting the yawn off of the small electric type.

“It was them,” Immediately, like her son had when he had heard Dahlia’s voice on the other end of the phone, her awareness sky rocketed and she no longer felt tired. “The place has been brought by some rich guy, they want me back in Sinnoh as soon as.”

“We’re moving back? Wow, I can’t believe it!” Delia began smiling fondly at the memory of their home city in the colder region in the north. “Well then, we don’t have a minute to waste! We need to get packing, move in the dead of night and get to Sinnoh with plenty of time to spare before your new boss arrives.”

“Mum, seriously? It’s three in the morning and I’m tired.” Ash rolled his eyes slightly, even though he was glad his mother was happy with the news that they had to go back home. “Can we please wait until at least seven before we attempt this, Pikachu is still asleep and waking him up will be the worse decision we have ever made.”

“You’re right…” Delia remembered the time she had tried that some time ago, which resulted in Ash being nice and crispy for the rest of that morning. “I guess we don’t need that fake surname anymore either.”

“Right, we can go back to being the Russel’s now,” The thirteen year old looked out of the window into the dark morning. “I missed being myself, and I missed not having them there.”

“I know you did. I know how hard this was for you,” Delia hugged her son with both of her arms. “And I’m proud of you for it. Now everything can go back to normal, can’t it?”

“As normal as we can be…” The two began laughing quietly for a moment before heading back upstairs to bed. And, as he fell asleep, Ash smiled at the thought of seeing everyone again.
 
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