A cold wind ripped across Lacunosa Town, shaking the last stubborn leaves from the trees in Doris Jaboca's yard. Doris held tighter to the monkey bars with her gloved left hand and swung a large stick, her sword, at imaginary pirates with her right.
"Now, Aqua!" Doris called to her equally imaginary simipour to strike the pirates with a blast of water. It must have worked, as the six-year-old smiled in triumph and awkwardly clambered to sit atop the bars without dropping her sword. She gazed at the darkening gray sky and began singing some song she'd picked up in school.
"Dory!" A voice rang out from the house.
Doris pouted but tossed her stick aside and climbed down. It was late fall and the days were getting shorter, leaving less time each afternoon for outdoor play. The sun, light glowing through the overcast sky, was already sinking below Lacunosa's walls. As she ran for the back door, Doris wondered how long it would be until the first snowfall of the season.
She was surprised to find the television still on as she pulled off her gloves and stuffed them into her coat pocket. A quick sniff of the air told her dinner was likely minutes from the table. She slipped out of her coat and hung it on a peg before walking to the dining room.
Neither of her parents were waiting near the half-set table. Instead, her mother was paused halfway between the dining and living rooms, eyes fixed on the TV. Her father sat in his chair in the living room, remote control in hand. Even Night the liepard seemed distracted by whatever was on. Doris's gaze shifted to the screen. A pokémon battle was taking place.
"What's up?" asked Doris. Pokémon competitions were entertaining and all, but she'd never seen her parents take a televised match so seriously. Not getting an answer from the adults she read the words "Pokémon League" on the lower portion of the screen. Well, a battle for Unova's Championship was a bit more understandable than just some average match, she supposed, but something about her parents' expressions seemed too tense.
The camera zoomed in on a beam of red light retracting a defeated pokémon into its poké ball before shifting to the ball's holder. Doris recognized the flaming hair of Champion Alder, who gritted his teeth and bowed his head. The image on the screen zoomed out to show the victorious pokémon and Doris began to understand what was so captivating about this particular battle.
Crackling electricity danced across the tall creature's scales. Doris blinked and compared the sight before her to what she had learned about once in school. A bipedal, black dragon with a cone-shaped tail which charged brilliant, blue lightning stood in the middle of the battlefield. It stomped, spread its wings, and roared. The camera focused on the dragon's face and its narrow, red eyes. A creature Doris knew from stories and fairy tales was standing, breathing, and growling in the middle of the champion's room.
"Zekrom." The voice belonged to the person standing near the legendary dragon. He was a teenager with long, green hair. He placed a hand on Zekrom's leg. Zekrom's trainer? The teenager nodded at Zekrom and stepped forward to address the defeated Champion.
"It's over, Alder." The teen's speech was quick but clear. "Thanks to my friend, Zekrom, I have shown that I far outmatch even you, the Champion. Your title wasn't enough to stop me or my ideals."
"N," said Alder.
"We both put our beliefs on the line in that match, and by the rules of this world that uses pokémon as tools to decide disputes I emerged victorious. Do not say anything more."
"N!" another voice shouted. The shadow of another person fell within the camera's view from the direction of the room's dooway.
"I've been waiting for you." The teenager, "N" apparently, was addressing the newcomer. "Zekrom can sense the Light Stone in your possession. So the decision will come down to the two heroes as I envisioned. This is an unsuitable battlefield for our destined duel. Please, wait a moment." N walked to the center of the room and raised his voice. "From the ground, rise up! Castle of Team Plasma!"
Rumbling and crashing drowned out the young man's next words. The scene on the screen shook and went fuzzy as the camera's signal was interrupted.
Beep beep beep beep!
"Ah, the food!" Doris looked up from the static-covered screen as though broken from a trance by her mother leaving to stop the timer and retrieve the food from the oven.
"Zekrom... Is that really Zekrom?" asked Doris. She looked between her parents and waited for an answer. Zekrom. One of the two dragons used by Unova's twin founders. It and its own twin, Reshiram, had split apart from a singular dragon when the founders disagreed about the future of Unova. According to the stories, it had once returned to fight alongside one founder's descendant in battle against Reshiram, which had sided with another decedent during a civil war which had nearly destroyed the region.
It was also supposed to appear again. According to legend, Zekrom would appear before a hero deemed worthy of it in order to decide the future of Unova once more in a time of crisis.
Was there a crisis? Some dispute the legendary dragon itself needed to return to settle? Did that mean N was its chosen hero who it deemed worthy of choosing Unova's path forward?
Was that why her parents remained silent with their lips pressed tight and eyebrows furrowed?
Doris's mother spoke first, the here and now having interrupted the television's spell.
"Yes. At least it looked like how Zekrom has always been painted." She placed a steaming casserole dish on the table. The scent of hot chicken and broccoli would normally have whetted Doris's appetite but she remained distracted by the strain in her mother's voice.
"Then... that..." Doris ordered her thoughts. "What's wrong? And if there's Zekrom, where's Resh –"
"We're coming to you live from the air above the Pokémon League Headquarters atop Victory Road." The sudden return of the broadcast caused all four members of the Jaboca household to turn their heads back toward the screen. "In the last few minutes this... giant... structure appeared out of the ground and surrounded the league building," said a breathless reporter.
The camera zoomed out. Giant was an understatement. A building, a castle, had appeared apparently out of the ground like a plant and towered over the league building on three sides. Moreover, it stretched far to the east and west of the central structure beyond the view on the screen. The impossible castle was crafted of gray stone and enormous black ramps that struck outwards and downwards from the building's sides into the crumbling outer walls of the Pokémon League.
"The challenger... no, the new champion is going up one of the ramps," continued the reporter as the camera focused in on N's tiny figure on top of a large black dragon, his white jacket and pants standing out in stark contrast even through the dust still settling around the scene. A massive doorway opened and the dragon which stood at the top of the ramp strode through, its trainer on its shoulder. Moments later another figure with brown hair came into view, racing across the ramp to follow N.
"Well, they're certainly... flashy," said Doris's mother.
"It'll work, though," said her father despondently. "They've already gotten a lot of support. Even folks who really should know better."
"They?" asked Doris.
Doris's mother smiled and sighed. "Team Plasma. I don't know if you've heard much about them. We were hoping they wouldn't get this far, so we decided not to worry you." Doris pouted at being left out of important things. She was six! Over halfway to being old enough to train pokémon and journey through Unova.
"Team Plasma... says they want to make humans and pokémon be separated." Doris turned her head so one ear nearly touched her shoulder as she contemplated what that meant.
"Wait, what?" she finally asked.
"They don't want humans to train pokémon or live with them in their homes. The idea is that the cities and towns will be for people and pokémon will all live in the wild," said her mother.
"But why? That's silly." Doris felt her cheeks turning red with frustration. What about her own journey in four years?
"They claim it's for the good of the pokémon," said Doris's father. "You see, some of them have been convinced by that Ghetsis fellow and this kid they've been calling their king that pokémon and humans are bad for each other and that everyone needs to release their pokémon."
Night growled.
"What? They can't do that, right? We don't have to give up Night!" They weren't bad for Night and Night wasn't bad for them.
"Of course they can't," said Doris's mother quickly, shooting a warning glance in her husband's direction. "They're just a particularly loud group. They can't force anyone to do anything they don't want to."
"Cause if they just asked a psychic pokémon they could find out pokémon and humans are good for each other," Doris insisted. Psychic pokémon had no trouble communicating their feelings to humans or passing along those of other pokémon. "Or what about the more animal-like ones? If they've been with humans for so long, they might not do well in the wild."
"On their own, this Team Plasma bunch can't force anything at all to happen," said Doris's mother.
"Of course, now their king is using an honest to Zekrom, well, Zekrom," said her father.
King. Again with the mention of a king. It sounded so fantastic, a king like hadn't been around since old, old times. Not in Unova, anyway. Their king was using Zekrom.
"Wait..." said Doris. That meant the teenager with Zekrom was a king? A king who was also a part of this Plasma group? Why would Zekrom bless someone who wanted to make her family lose Night and prevent her from ever being a trainer?
"That will certainly turn a lot of heads that had been undecided," said her mother, "but it still can't force anything." She walked between Doris and Night in order to pet Night on the head. The liepard purred and nuzzled into the welcoming hand.
That was right. The dragons weren't always right. That's why there were two of them in the first place, after all. They split apart from one dragon to fight for the ideals and truths of the disagreeing founders. If Team Plasma's and N's feelings had awakened Zekrom to join their cause, that was still only one of the two dragons and one of the two heroes who thought this scenario made any sense. And even then, if the dragons did take up different sides and fight, a pokémon battle was just a pokémon battle. It was a contest of the pokémon and trainers' skill, not a deciding factor of whose opinions were right. Her parents had taught her that.
"The problem is Zekrom is a powerful rallying symbol and a lot of people are falling for the idea that the time has come for a new chosen one to reshape Unova," said Doris's father. "We're doomed."
"Doomed is a bit strong, dear," said Doris's mother in a don't-unnecessarily-upset-our-daughter tone. "It's too early to despair." She paused. "Early enough to worry, but too early to despair." Doris's lip quivered. She pointedly sat down next to night and petted her shoulders. The liepard purred softly and switched her tail from side to side.
The television feed crackled with static once more and Doris barely made out her mother's whispered next words.
"It's always too early until it's too late."
"It... ooks ..ike we're getting visuals from inside the castle. There's no sound, but the challen... Champion is standing in a... Is that a throne room?" The announcer's voice sounded stunned.
N stood before an ornate chair. He seemed to have just stood up and he was smiling broadly. The other teenager, the brown-haired one, ran into the camera's view. N's smile widened and his mouth moved quickly.
What was he saying?
Intense light filled the screen a second later. The announcer stumbled over observations and let loose a word Doris had never heard before and that her mother likely wouldn't want her to repeat.
The glow faded and a second dragon, tall, white, and covered in feathers now stood between the two teenagers.
"Reshiram."
Doris didn't know whether it was the announcer or someone in her own house that said the dragon's name.
N's lips moved.
Within a second a streak of black collided with the white wyvern. Zekrom hurled its body against its twin, sparkling with blue lightning. Reshiram snarled and a fireball formed in the front of its mouth before erupting into a stream of flame aimed at Zekrom.
"Viewers of Unova, a battle of heroes takes place before you," said a voice from the TV, although it was not the voice of the announcer.
Night bristled.
"All now viewing, you are witness to the pivotal moment of our time. Our king now faces his rival. On the side of the worn and time-tested truths we have come to grovel before unthinkingly, Reshiram's chosen one intends to leave our region stagnant."
The television's feed swiveled away from the dragons to show the brown-haired trainer, face locked into a determined frown as it was lit up by the red and blue energy from the battle.
"On the other, chosen by Zekrom for his idealism and great vision of the future, our King N, destined to restore Unova to greatness. To wipe away the mistakes of the League. To create a new Unova where people and pokémon will reach their full potential, independent of each other!"
"Humans. Humans and pokémon," corrected Doris automatically as the camera swung back to the young king. She hated when people would casually use the word to mean exclusively humans.
"I, Ghetsis Harmonia, am honored to speak to you all at this historic moment."
Draconic energies flashed across the screen. Sudden roars and booms and clashes and thuds overrode Ghetsis's voice as the noise from the battlefield sounded through the speakers. Night jumped at the sudden noise, her claws flashing. She left a puncture in the cushion with her left forepaw when she landed, then settled back into her place as though she had never been startled. Doris reached over to pet her between her shoulders.
It was over in a few seconds. The dragons stared at each other for a brief moment and Reshiram crumpled to the floor. Zekrom roared in triumph as it had done against Alder.
The screen went blank.
Silence filled the room until the screen buzzed back to a shot of the castle exterior.
"It looks like our feed was taken over for a bit there, folks," came the announcer's shaky voice. "That... was... something. Wasn't it?"
"Oh for the love of –" Doris's mother began.
"They can't take Night away, right?" asked Doris, alarmed.
Her mother smiled reassuringly.
"No. They can't. Come on. Supper's been getting cold."
Doris breathed a deep sigh in an effort to expel her concerns. She was hungry. That was true right now. It was also true that N had won a battle. A pokémon battle. Just a contest of skill and strength, not something that determined who was right. At any rate, there wasn't anything she could do about things and Night was fine.
Her father clicked the power button on the remote control and the castle faded from the screen. He stood and made his way into the dining room to join the rest of his family. Food now, worry later. It was too early to despair.
Soon enough conversation at the dinner table returned to normal. Doris excitedly explained what she had learned that day in school. Her father shared some new jokes he'd heard. Her mom laughed along and added her own humor to the mix. Night licked up the remaining chicken broth added to her kibble after the meal and purred. Nothing drastic had changed.
. . .
That night Doris couldn't sleep so she crept out of her bedroom. She heard the sound of the television on so she tiptoed down the hall to see what her parents were watching.
In place of the ten o'clock news, no, not "in place of" Doris realized when she saw the news logo at the corner of the screen, was the green-haired king standing in front of the cracked Pokémon League building before a shiny, gold podium. Seven older men stood around and behind him wearing fancy robes like Doris was used to seeing in movies set in fantasy countries or long ago ages.
"...time for the League to fall. We have already had many, many volunteers come forward to do what is right and release their pokémon from confinement within the PC storage system!" N said.
On his final word a swarm of pokémon burst forth from the broken doors behind the eight figures. Birds, bugs, ghosts, and other sorts of flight-capable pokémon soared as a group into the air, taking their leave in all directions. N laughed with joy in the center of the noisy leave-taking. The green-haired man behind him who wore a red eye-patch over one eye smiled.
Doris felt a chill down her spine that had nothing to do with the cold autumn weather.