Ash's Just Reward Chapter 4
"Entire sentence." = Normal talking.
"Entire sentence." = Psychic talking.
"Entire sentence." = Powerful being talking.
'Entire sentence.' = Person's thoughts.
Tapu Koko was currently pacing as he awaited the other Tapus in the Ruins of Conflict.
After heading to each Island and telling each Tapu to head to the Ruins for an emergency meeting, Tapu Koko had been gathering what information he could. From what he could gather, things were not looking good for his home region.
Suddenly, a bright pink light from above began shining through the cracks of the shattered castle, accompanied by a soft melody which echoed through the empty halls, signalling the arrival of Tapu Lele.
As she entered the space of which Tapu Koko had made his home, the water which formed a rudimentary moat began to ripple and distort, before erupting upwards, before falling back down while leaving a distinct shape still floating there, which was Tapu Fini.
And while this was happening, a loud and powerful roar occurred, drawing the attention of the already gathered Tapus and drowning out the soft singing of Tapu Lele, causing her eye to twitch violently. Almost as soon as the battle cry was over, the east wall suddenly exploded, and barrelling through the dust came Tapu Bulu.
"BULU! What have I said about tearing down walls every time you come here?" Tapu Koko yelled, annoyed about how he had to deal with another busted wall.
Bulu had the decency to feel embarrassed, rubbing the back of its neck while looking down.
"Sorry Koko, you just had me all pumped up when you said we had a Legendary problem. I've always wanted to fight one of the greater Legendaries."
Rolling her eyes, Tapu Lele floated over to Tapu Bulu.
"Please, we all know that it would take all four of us fighting together to stand a chance against one of them, what were you planning on doing by yourself?"
Muttering to himself, Tapu Bulu simply sulked as Tapu Lele simply smirked at him. Deciding to be the one to focus them back on the problem at hand, Tapu Fini turned to Tapu Koko.
"So what did you mean when you said we had a Legendary problem? What kind of problem?" She questioned, still very much in the dark on the whole situation.
Taking a moment to reflect on the situation they were in, Tapu Koko turned back to his fellow Tapus.
"The problem is we're going to have potentially over three dozen Legendaries of various power coming to Alola." He stated calmly, probably more calmly than he felt.
This caused all the Tapus to do a double take, as they could not have expected something of this scale.
"What do you mean we're gonna have three dozen Legendaries in Alola? How is that even possible? What could possibly motivate them to come here?" Tapu Lele questioned in hysteria, dropping her regal attitude due to her shock.
Tapu Bulu took it even worse, not even getting any intelligent words out and simply started smashing several pillars in an attempt to calm himself down.
Tapu Fini was the only one who managed to remain rational, not exactly calm, but rational enough to try and figure out what to do.
"Do we know why they're coming here? Maybe they're not here to cause trouble?" Fini asked with a somewhat optimistic tone. If she was right, then maybe it wasn't as bad as they first thought.
Tapu Koko nodded, since Hoopa had been considerate enough to inform him why they were coming to Alola.
"So far as I know, these Legends that are heading to Alola all share one common feature, they have interacted with the human known as Ash Ketchum." He informed, which caught the attention of Tapu Lele, who was the only other Tapu to have interacted with Ash.
But the other Tapus weren't as fortunate, and had only heard about this human from Tapu Koko's reports.
"You mean that human you've taken interest in? Is this a fact, or speculation? Because I'm not in the mood for speculation Koko." Tapu Bulu interrogated, having calmed down from his rampage enough to take part of the conversation again.
"This is a fact, the information from which I gained from Hoopa, the first of the Legendaries to reach our Island."
At the mention of the Legendary fabled for causing trouble, all the Tapus groaned.
"According to him, Ash has been helping Legendaries for years, and now they have deemed it necessary to reward him. Which is the reason why they will be coming to Alola."
This seemed to placate the Tapus as they realised that the Legendaries weren't looking to cause any trouble with the Tapus. But then a new question began to circulate in their minds.
"Wait, then why are you so concerned?" Tapu Fini questioned, not quite sure what the big deal was.
"The main issue I have, is actually to do with Ash Ketchum himself. As it would turn out, my hunch was right, Ash is no normal human. He is the Chosen One of Legend." Tapu Koko informed, worried by the implications of the situation.
This was the final straw, causing the other Tapus to lose their cause and go on a rampage in the abandoned temple.
All Tapu Koko could do was sigh, as he had expected this. This was part of the reason why he enjoyed living in a ruin, it was so much easier to clean up the mess they made. But this didn't help his situation much.
'I think it's time I paid Ash Ketchum another visit. I need to verify whether or not he is the 'Chosen One'.'
The first thing that Ash saw when he came-to was all his friends from Alola crowding around him, as well as Pikachu and Latias (in her human form he noticed). He was also no longer outside, but on his couch that he normally slept on. He couldn't help but notice that several of his Pokémon were swarming behind them in a panic as they worried about his well-being.
Still somewhat groggy from passing out, Ash struggled to pull himself up, but soon found that he was being helped up by his concerned friends who were all wondering what the hell happened to him.
Kiawe was the first to ask the question on everyone's mind.
"Ash, just what the hell happened? Why did you pass out?"
Ash went to answer, but stopped himself before he said anything, as he was drawing a blank as to what happened.
"You know, I can't remember. One minute we were dealing with Team Rocket, the next I was talking to Latias, and then…"
And that was when he remembered.
Which caused him to practically launch himself off the couch into the wall, smacking his head and almost knocking himself out again.
This caused the others to panic, as they lunged forward to inspect Ash's injury.
"Are you alright Ash? I can call my butler if you need first aid."
"What the hell caused you to do that you loon?"
"I'm gonna hazard a guess and say that he remembered what happened."
And when that was thrown out, everyone stopped, realising that there was some truth in that statement, so they stopped so that Ash could talk.
After a moment of rubbing his head, Ash simply looked at Latias, who was looking very worried and unsure of what to do. Pikachu was sat on her shoulder, and was currently shaking his head violently, trying to tell Ash not to even attempt to explain what happened.
In a total panic, Ash said the first thing that popped into his mind.
"Oh, nothing happened. I just tripped on my feet and when I remembered I got really embarrassed, hehehe." Ash stammered, barely managing to get it out in a legible manner.
This caused everyone to sweat-drop, as they struggled to believe the story that Ash was telling them.
While everyone was standing there in shock, Latias stood forward and tapped Lillie on the shoulder, getting her attention. As soon as she did, she began miming a drinking gesture, trying to indicate that she was thirsty. And while this was happening, Pikachu was again freaking out over the contact between Latias and Lillie.
"Oh, you want a drink? Sure, I can get you one."
Satisfied that she had been understood, Latias nodded happily and then followed her to the kitchen.
As this happened, Kiawe was looking over the exchange with interest, trying to figure out this 'Latias' that Ash knew. Now, he was no expert, but he was sure that he had heard about a Pokémon called Latias before. Something about them being Guardian Pokémon, not unlike the Tapus of Alola. He decided to question Ash a bit more about it.
"Hey Ash, why doesn't your friend talk? And why did she keep nuzzling you? That's something only Pokémon do in my experience."
This made Ash begin to sweat intensely, as he was now in a tricky situation. He then began looking around to check what everyone was doing. Sophocles had gotten bored and was now looking at some of Ash's cooler Pokémon, marvelling at how they seemed to radiate power.
Professor Kukui was currently outside with Ash's Totodile, trying to figure out how the small Pokémon had managed to learn Hydro Pump without evolving, something that had apparently never happened before. Rotom Dex was with him documenting the entire thing, shouting something along the lines of 'ground-breaking' research material.
Mallow and Lana had followed Lillie and Latias to the kitchen, both to quench their thirst and to talk to Ash's friend a bit more to find out more about her. They were now all conversing in the kitchen, out of earshot of Ash.
Sighing, Ash looked up at Kiawe. Kiawe was the only other person he knew who was around his age who had been entrusted with a Z-Ring, and he was a pretty-trustworthy person. Ash decided there and then that he could trust Kiawe with the secret. He would tell the others based on how Kiawe reacted.
"Ok, here's the deal, you can't tell anyone what I'm about to tell you. I'm still deciding whether to tell the others. Right?"
Kiawe drew his head back, not expecting that as an answer. However, he did want to know so he nodded his agreement.
Satisfied with this, Ash took a deep breath.
"Right. Well, you see when I said that Latias wasn't a Pokémon name? Yeah… I was kinda lying about that. It is the name of a Pokémon, and Latias is a Pokémon. She's capable of disguising herself as a human which was actually part of how I met her."
Kiawe didn't react at first, simply nodding along. But after a moment, he finally blinked.
"WHAT!?"
That drew the attention of everyone in the house, causing them to come running to where they were talking to one another. Mallow was the first one there.
"Kiawe, what's wrong? Did something happen?" She asked in a concerned manner, since Kiawe did just scream bloody murder.
Kiawe was just standing there in shock, looking between Ash and Latias rapidly, not really sure how to react to the information he had just gotten. He then ran over to Latias and then began observing her, much to everyone's confusion.
Latias seemed really confused by this, while Pikachu was glaring daggers at his trainer. He takes his eyes off of him for two seconds and the dense idiot goes and tells the person most likely to blurt it out in surprise.
'Way to go you idiot.' Pikachu chastised mentally.
Kiawe kept looking Latias over until eventually he just burst out in a panic.
"Damn it! I can't find anything that gives you away! Your disguise is too perfect!"
Everyone just looked at him weirdly, wondering what the hell he was going on about, while Latias simply glared at Ash, now thinking similarly to Pikachu.
"Ash, what is Kiawe going on about, is there something about Latias you're not telling us?" Professor Kukui questioned.
Realising that he had no choice, Ash decided to simply tell them the truth.
"Just for the record, I would have told you lot about this eventually. Latias, could you please show them?"
Before they could comprehend what Ash was talking about, Latias let out a slightly annoyed huff, before she began to glow. After a few seconds of blinding light filling the room, in her place was her actual form, now looking nervously from person to person.
The resulting chaos was something that the group wouldn't forget for the rest of their lives.
Sophocles began screaming, not for any real reason, just because he wasn't sure what else to do. Someone that he thought was a perfectly normal human had turned out to be a Pokémon, and a dragon type from the looks of it. So, he simply began screaming.
Lana was also in shock, but she contained it better. The main thing she was doing was assessing Latias' ability to swim, since she looked so streamlined and had a perfect body to be a quick swimmer. She also seemed to be coated in a thin layer of feathers that had a thin layer of oil on them, which suggested she was somewhat waterproof.
Mallow was now trying to understand how the hell she had managed to hide her draconic features in a human form. Was it an actual transformation? Was it an illusion? If it was an illusion, shouldn't her large wings have smacked into something or someone? There must have been more to it.
Professor Kukui was speechless, because he was now in the presence of an actual Legendary! Being a Pokémon Professor meant that he had to be at least somewhat familiar with the Legendaries of the world, and this was the one of the few Legendaries who possessed a unique move to their species, something he took extra interest in. Though how did Ash know this Legendary?
Lillie was confused. She didn't have a single issue with touching Latias when she was in her human form, but now that she knew she was a Pokémon, Lillie's brain didn't know how to process it. Did she treat her like a Pokémon, or like a person? And then she realised that she was never actually a human, and was simply hiding her true form, and her brain made the connection to every time she touched Latias. This then led to Lillie having a minor freak out.
The one who was having the biggest freak out was Rotom Dex, who was in complete shock. The chances of Ash even seeing a Legendary were slim, even with Rotom Dex factoring in the fascination that Tapu Koko seemed to have in Ash (but he had no idea how wrong that estimate was). Yet not only was there one here, but the Legend seemed to be genuinely interested in Ash as a friend, something which shouldn't have been possible! Rotom Dex's figures state that Ash is a rather plain individual and is only capable of making friends under special circumstances like at school, so he should be the last person to befriend a Legend.
And Ash was now regretting telling them anything, especially since Pikachu was now slapping him around the head with his tail.
The rest of Ash's Pokémon were now just observing keenly, having gotten over the fact that Ash had caught Latias and were now simply curious to see how his human friends would react.
Latias was hovering there with a strong blush on her cheeks. After spending most of her life hidden away from large crowds, to be the centre of attention was something she wasn't used to, and now she was squirming under the various gazes.
"Hey Ash, next time, please warn me before you do something like this. I'm not use to being spontaneous like you." Latias asked quietly, too embarrassed to raise her voice any higher.
As it turns out, even speaking was a mistake, as it gave everyone another reason to freak out.
"SHE CAN TALK!?"
And this caused another round of various degrees of freaking out, much to the embarrassment of Ash and Latias, and to the amusement of all of Ash's Pokémon. It was actually funny watching people freak out over a Legend when it wasn't them freaking out.
But before the questioning could continue, the sky outside turned dark, despite it still being incredibly early in the morning, and thunder rumbled, heralding the coming of a storm.
While everyone was wondering what was with the sudden storm appearance, especially since they hadn't had a heavy storm in Alola in years, Latias was now slightly worried.
"Zekrom…"
This pulled Ash and Pikachu from their thoughts on the storm, as they were now incredibly concerned, Pikachu being especially concerned. He still hadn't gotten over their first meeting when he lost all of his electrical abilities and had been practically reset by the powerful electric dragon. It was so embarrassing for someone of his experience to be beaten by a rookie Snivy that had never been in battle before, and despite having regained most of his strength since then, he had never felt 100% since then. And although Zekrom did help Ash save Victini, Pikachu had never fully trusted the Legendary after that first experience.
He did not want to go through that again.
However, it looked like he had no choice, since it seemed that Zekrom had other plans for his poor trainer.
With the potential threat fast approaching, Ash and Latias then rushed outside, followed shortly after by the Alolan crew and Ash's horde of Pokémon. As they got outside, they all noticed the unnatural nature of the storm.
It was clearly a powerful storm, but it was moving too quickly for it to be natural, and only seemed to be a few miles wide: clearly something that wasn't created naturally. And the fact that it seemed to have a focal point in the middle, spinning around a globe of pure energy.
As they observed this globe, it suddenly split from the storm, dive bombing towards the ground towards them. Within the span of a few seconds, it had crashed into the ground just in front of them, causing a large dust crowd to brush over them.
After a few seconds of coughing and spluttering, the dust cloud had cleared, and in the crater stood Zekrom, and the Alolan crew were in complete shock.
If the appearance of Latias had sent them into shock, Zekrom's appearance could have sent them into a coma. Zekrom towered over them, standing at over twenty feet tall and with a wingspan of several meters in each direction. Its tail was still humming with power, the bright blue glow it had being the only indication that it had any power stored up and ready for use. And its eyes were a piercing red, almost as if it were capable of judging each of their souls. But for some reason, it was focused on Pikachu.
Which was making the small mouse very nervous.
Zekrom remembered this Pikachu well, and the memories he had made him feel guilty. He had stripped the small yellow mouse of its electrical abilities when he had attacked Zekrom, which he considered an insult. However, upon reflection, it was clear that the Pikachu was simply protecting his trainer, the Chosen One no less. And he had stripped him of his power.
And while he could tell that the Pikachu had regained most of its strength, it clearly was nothing compared to what it should have been.
So, in order to repay the Pikachu for this misdeed, and as a reward for the Chosen One, he had decided to give this Pikachu considerable power. He was going to not only return his power to its natural level, he was going to up it to levels way beyond even the most powerful of Electric types, with the only Pokémon being able to outpower this new level of electrical power being the Legendaries themselves.
At first, Zekrom had thought that this would be overkill for a single Pokémon, especially since this was the only Pokémon of the Chosen One that Zekrom was capable of giving such abilities to. However, considering the next part of his reward, Zekrom had decided that this kind of power was necessary if he didn't want to kill the Pikachu. Afterall, he was going to teach him Fusion Bolt.
Yes, Zekrom was going to go through with it. This would be the first Pokémon that wasn't a Legendary to perform the ancient move, and Zekrom couldn't think of a better Pokémon to use it. With all the times when the Chosen One has been the one that various Legendary Pokémon has relied on for survival, the idea of his main partner having the power to obliterate his opponents could be a huge help. But this move had some serious power requirements, even from a Legendary such as himself, so he had to up the Pikachu's power in order to keep him alive.
Looking down at the Pikachu, Zekrom simply nodded a greeting, before charging up his power. But this caused all the humans and Pokémon present to either panic or prepare for combat. Zekrom couldn't help but notice that Latias had already appeared. Chances were she had already allowed herself to be caught by the Chosen One. He couldn't help but smile internally at this, the Chosen One certainly deserved it.
After a brief moment of charging up, Zekrom raised his claw-like appendage to Pikachu, and then allowed the energy to pass through.
Pikachu was terrified at this point.
Not only had Zekrom been starring intently at him for the past few minutes, but now he had charged up and seemed to be targeting him.
He noticed that several of his teammates had powered up attacks, waiting for the signal to attack, not wanting their teammate to be incinerated by the powerful dragon. Even Latias was poised for battle, not entirely sure what Zekrom was planning.
However, when the energy simply passed into Pikachu harmlessly, they all relaxed somewhat, but not completely letting their guard down just yet.
But Pikachu didn't care about that, he couldn't seem to focus on everything other than this pure, unadulterated power!
It was so intense! It felt weird, but at the same time, Pikachu felt like he had something which he had been missing for so long returned to him, and now he felt whole again. And then some, as he felt stronger than ever. In fact, he felt like he could challenge Zekrom himself and stand a decent chance of winning, something he wouldn't have said just five minutes again.
And for some reason, he had a term rattling around in his mind, like it was important: Fusion Bolt. Yes, it was some kind of move, but he wondered what it was and what it did.
As Pikachu began focusing back onto the present, he managed to look up just in time to catch Zekrom looking down at him with a pleased look. It then beckoned towards the empty beach, giving a wordless challenge to the Pikachu. Not wanting to anger the large Legend, Pikachu followed it to the beach.
Ash had no idea what was happening, since a lot of it was going over his head. But then he remembered that he had someone who could translate for him, so he turned to Latias looking for an explanation.
Noticing his look, Latias began explaining what she had realised was going on.
"It would seem that Zekrom has blessed Pikachu with the power of Fusion Bolt, and is now teaching him on how to use it."
"Wait, does that mean a battle?"
When Latias nodded, a large smile broke out on Ash's face, and then he broke out into a sprint to catch up with Pikachu, not wanting to miss the opportunity for a battle.
When he caught up with them, he took up position behind Pikachu, which Zekrom approved of. When Ash had caught his breath, he took his basic battle stance.
"Ok Pikachu, lets do this! Start off with a Thunderbolt!" Ash commanded, with Pikachu responding with great fervour.
However, when Pikachu let loose his signature Thunderbolt, it caused the very ground beneath it to heave and buckle under the sheer power of the move. And when it hit Zekrom, the resulting explosion caused the ground to shake and knocked everyone backwards.
When the dust settled, Zekrom was obviously still standing, but had actually been somewhat damaged by the attack, which seemed to cause the Legend of Ideals to smirk (or the Dragon equivalent of a smirk at least). But Ash and Pikachu were standing there in shock. They both had done great things together, and Pikachu had given out huge power before in desperate situations, but nothing like that. That level of power was unreal, and he had put in just over two-thirds of his power.
Imagine if he had gone all out from the start, he might have actually hurt Zekrom.
Satisfied with this, Zekrom then spoke for the first time since arriving.
"Now, make use of the ancient technique. Fusion Bolt!"
Figuring that this was some kind of move, Ash did simply what he felt was natural.
"Ok Pikachu, lets see what this Fusion Bolt is. Let's go all out: Fusion Bolt!"
And Pikachu certainly did go all out, as he pooled a lot of his power into this attack. While he didn't let his full power loose in this attack, he certainly put enough for it to be considered a finishing move. In fact, this was of a similar level as to what he unleashed against Giovanni when he destroyed the Abyssal Ruins. He was sure this would be enough to impress the powerful dragon.
As he charged up this powerful attack, the black stripes on his back began glowing blue, not unlike how Zekrom's tail was glowing not five minutes ago. And a large globe of electrical plasma energy was building up in front of Pikachu, already larger than his own body. The power that was radiating from this sphere dwarfed even that of the Electric Z-Move.
And then Pikachu unleashed it, with the simple act of letting it loose almost knocking him backwards.
And when it hit Zekrom, it was the equivalent of a miniature nuke, sending everyone flying back several meters, Pikachu included. Even Zekrom was blasted off of his feet, being blasted into the ocean. While not majorly hurt, Zekrom had certainly felt that one.
After a few minutes of everyone getting back on their feet, Zekrom nodded his approval, before flying off. His role was done.
Ash and Pikachu simply stood there in shock. They had just knocked back a God-tier Legendary with a single attack. And Pikachu was only slightly winded.
The others were also in a state of shock, with even Ash's Pokémon being amazed at what they just witnessed. Kiawe was the first to break the silence.
"Wow, imagine that power behind a Z-Move."
And in response, Ash and Pikachu could only grin manically. Maybe today wouldn't be so bad after all.
