Author's Note: Been sick and writing papers for college classes. And after this chapter the battles will tone down a little and add character development and some more validation for Ash's behavior (references to how he reacted to some past canon events due to being older when they occurred). We just sort of started out in the thick of things. The reasoning for the utter curb stomping of Tobias's legends is two-fold and will be explained at the end to not spoil the surprise.

Ash, knowing the power of Darkrai and Latios from his past encounters with such Pokemon, had formed a plan for once. He'd completely switched up his team just to account for them. He knew it would be quite the battle.

Standing on the grand battlefield where the finals were being held his breath was quick and excited as the crowd murmured during the announcer's introduction. He saw Cynthia standing in the VIP box with Mr. Goodshow.

If he won, he'd get a chance to challenge her. He gritted his teeth, he wasn't going to lose to someone as unsporting as Tobias. Using legendary Pokemon to sweep the early rounds. That was low; the final round would have been fine. That was supposed to be using your best of your best Pokemon.

But using Legendary Pokemon to sweep the preliminaries, the quarter, and even the semi-finals? It just felt like a cheap win to Ash. And that was why the soon to be sixteen year old had a statement to make.

Before the referee started the match he had a speech to make. He had arranged a few hours earlier, the tournament officials had not been too keen on Tobias's choice of Pokemon either so they had allowed it.

Using a microphone he began speaking, his voice was strong and sure, it carried a great distance thanks to the technology, "Just one moment, Tobias." The cheers and chatter of the crowd slowed until it came to a complete stop.

"I can't abide by what you've been doing in this conference? Using Legendary Pokemon for something any less than the final round? You've been disgustingly excessive, unfair, and unsporting! And there is nothing I hate more than someone being unfair." He turned around and pointed to his back so the cameras could see that he'd had Brock help him stitch the words Fair Play onto the back of his jacket the night before.

"And I'm going to even the odds!" He spun back around and at the cue he'd given the announcer started the match. Tobias, an angry look on his face, predictably sent out Darkrai. However, instead of taking out a pokeball, Ash took out a strange looking ocarina and began to play a tune.

A deep tune floated over the field and the haunting, reverberating song that answered it from the nearby ocean filled the crowd with a strange feeling.

That feeling was quickly replaced by awe when a sleek white pokemon of massive size with purple fins on its back burst forth from the sea and flew over to hover in front of Ash. The sponsors and announcers were still awed, yet not as much as the audience for they had been warned. Cynthia simply smirked. Tobias was floored. He'd never had to face another Legendary Pokemon with his. And the fact that it seemed this Lugia, protector of the Orange and Sevii Islands, was fighting for Ash purely of its own accord and not because he'd captured it intimidated him slightly.

With a smirk Ash called out across the field, "Well Tobias, now that I've evened the odds why don't we begin?"

Tobias growled in response and called out his attack, "Dark Void! Put that thing to sleep Darkrai!"

A crimson orb formed in the air above the being of darkness and hurtled forward towards Lugia only to be stopped by shimmering air after Ash casually gave a command for Lugia to throw up a Safeguard.

The attack splashed uselessly against the shield. "Now…fire back with Aeroblast."

Not needing to be told twice the Lugia reared back its head charging up a blistering vortex of gale force winds in its maw before throwing his head forward to let loose the beam of what could be considered a condensed hurricane.

Blanching Tobias quickly commanded his Darkrai to dodge, with the legend quickly floating out of the range of the bulk of the attack. However, the release of winds when the attack hit the ground under where it had previously floated knocked it sideways a few extra yards.

Ash nodded to himself, confirming Darkrai's speed, "Three element spread. Thunderbolt, Ice Beam, Hydro Pump."

Lugia sent a Thunderbolt slightly to the left, forcing Darkrai to dodge right, then the Ice Beam went to where the dark legend had dodged and it dodged left again, just in time to take a Hydro Pump to the face. Thousands of kiloliters of pressurized water pummeled it in the face and sent it flying back into the psychic barriers protecting the audience.

Ash clucked his tongue in annoyance as the finisher, a powerful Aeroblast, was intercepted by a Dark Pulse from the quickly recovering Darkrai.

"Ice Beam it now Darkrai!" Tobias's command elicited a shake of Ash's head and the thought, "Trying to take advantage of a super effective attack. This is a battle of legends. That won't work."

With a grin Ash made his own counter command, "Toss it right back with a Psychic, Lugia!" It was as if the creature's large beak like maw could smirk as its eyes lit up with psychic power and the Ice Beam glowed blue before promptly u-turning back around to smack Darkrai in the face.

Tobias gasped and decided he needed a way to overpower the Lugia, "Darkrai use Nasty Plot!" The legend glowed a dark purple and beckoned at Lugia with an evil talon. "Now Hyper Beam!"

A blazing orange beam of energy lanced out quickly towards Lugia and its partner quickly thought up a counter, "Light Screen to slow it down then spin out of the way and fire off an Aeroblast!"

A bright golden wall of energy jumped up in front of Lugia and as the Hyper Beam hit it slowly buckled before shattering, however that was all the time needed for the Guardian of the Seas to barrel roll out of the way and fire off a powerful Aeroblast right at the recovering Darkrai.

Due to having just fired off a Hyper Beam the Darkrai could not defend and took a direct, critical hit. Being blasted into the psychic barriers a second time spelt its doom. For the first time in the Lily of the Valley Conference, Darkrai fainted.

"R-return Darkrai!" Tobias spoke as he held up the pokeball and it returned. With an angry glare at Lugia he sent out his next pokemon, "Finish it Latios!"

Raising a hand Ash motioned Lugia over. "You did good my friend. Go rest. I can finish the rest of this battle." With an elated song Lugia flew out of the arena and back to the ocean.

Now Tobias was angry, "Why did you send it away? Are you not taking me seriously Ketchum?"

Ash smirked, "You haven't kept up with the other leagues much have you? I knew I couldn't take on two legends, especially one like Darkrai, because I just wouldn't be able to deal with the leftovers once I beat them. But one legend?" He grinned and enlarged a pokeball as he said this, "One legend I've more than dealt with before. Meet the conqueror of Articuno. The fiery tyrant of the skies. Charizard!" He tossed his pokeball and, using the seals from performing in contests, a burst of blue flames scattered outward as Charizard materialized with an earsplitting roar that shook the stadium. Never let it be said that Ash didn't learn how to work a crowd when he was working with May and Dawn to improve their contest abilities.

Ash's Charizard had been a beast when it defeated Articuno almost a year previously during his stint defeating the Battle Frontier. Now it was a specimen of the species that would impress even Lance, the Champion of the Johto and head of the Kanto Elite Four.

Ash's relationship with Charizard had changed a lot over time. Now the fire dragon fully trusted his trainer, his master, his partner, his friend. So when Ash nodded at him and said, "Go crazy buddy. I'll let you know if you need to change anything up." The evil draconic grin that split the pokemon's face sent a chill down both Tobias and Latios's spines.

The broiling green flame of a Dragonbreath rocketed right at Latios. It quickly recovered from the roar however and tossed up a shimmering green shield of Protect.

Charizard however hadn't expected the Dragonbreath to do much and when the flames cleared and the Protect dropped Latios ended up with a brutal Dragon Rush slamming into its body. With a shriek Latios powered up a Dragon Claw and tried to beat Charizard back with the glowing appendages.

Charizard was having none of that, he responded with his own super-effective Dragon Claws and after a particularly nasty bash to the side of Latios's head spun around and knocked it into the psychic barriers with a Dragon Tail.

"That's a pretty young Latios isn't it Tobias? It's not even as experienced as the one I befriended in Alto mare!" Ash taunted his opponent to try and keep him from giving levelheaded orders to his legend.

"You…you shut up Ketchum!" Tobias was losing his cool, "Luster Purge!"

A bolt of psychic energy shot out from Latios at Charizard intending to weaken his defenses for later assaults.

Ash knew he couldn't allow Charizard's defenses to be lowered so he called out his first commands, "Fire Spin to trim it down then deflect it with Steel Wing before going in for a counterattack!"

Charizard sent a blazing fast Fire Spin back at Latios, which served the dual purpose of slowing down the attack and trapping Latios for the time being. When the slowed attack eventually reached Charizard he met it with a charge, his glowing wings deflecting the attack away as the great lizard barreled through the center of his own Fire Spin at the Eon pokemon.

"Psy-psychic!" Tobias screamed and even as Latios's eyes glowed blue the powerful Charizard was only slowly as it slammed into the other dragon.

"Grab it and Flare Toss!" Ash grinned; his Charizard was right back where he prevailed, up close and dirty. Matching his trainer's grin the fire dragon latched its arms around the Latios and shot into the sky before flipping around and plummeting to Earth…only on the way down the air around them seemed to catch fire. Latios screamed as the flames covered his body, a scream that was silenced by its release and subsequent rendezvous with the ground.

When the smoke finally cleared the great orange beast stood proudly and triumphantly with one clawed foot resting atop the unconscious Latios's neck.

Ash smirked as Tobias shakily recalled his Latios and Ash did the same with Charizard.

"Now," Ash called out across the stadium through his microphone, "We get to see your true worth as a trainer Tobias. No more crutches for you. Let's see how much you've put into training your real pokemon since you started relying on the Legendary ones."

Final note: Okay I felt like I owed you all what I had done. I got sick for like a month and now it's finals. Yikes. Anywho Charizard fought super-Entei for a prolonged battle, has held off multiple legendaries, and outright defeated Articuno in the Battle Frontier a season before this fight occurs. Of course he can curbstomp a young inexperienced Latios. And Lugia is going to be a centerpoint of these story later on, you'll see.