The Journey Never Ends
Chapter 52: Trial of the Champion
The Story So Far: While finally enjoying an opportunity to relax at a spring near Cerulean City, Allie and friends were stunned to see Ash arrested by a mysterious Pokémon League official claiming that the champion had betrayed Kanto to Rocket Nation and must now be brought to justice.
The door slammed outside Ash Ketchum's grim prison cell. He ignored it, assuming it was merely a guard coming to hand him a pan of slop to eat. It had been a rough week. They hadn't exactly beaten him, but they were all a bit rougher on him than they needed to be, especially considering that he wasn't guilty of anything.
The newcomer appeared in front of the cell, then, taking a key ring from her pocket, she opened the steel door and pushed her way inside.
"Allie?" he mumbled weakly. It had been several hours since they had brought him any food or water. At first, he thought he was just hallucinating. Then she knelt down beside him and put a hand on his head. Feeling the warmth of her palm, he suddenly knew she must be real. "How the hell did you get here? They said they weren't letting any visitors in to see me."
"Ash, you've got a temperature," the girl told him anxiously, ignoring his surprised expression.
"It's nothing," he insisted. "The sanitary conditions aren't great down here, that's all." He pointed to a bucket that was apparently the only place he had to go to the bathroom. The smell in the room was overpowering, but Allie was just relieved to see Ash alive. "This is my karma for having you arrested on the Ubume. If I had known we still had prisons this bad, I would have closed them down years ago. Where are we, anyway?" He had been blindfolded and handcuffed while being escorted to this cell several days ago, and he had not been taken from it since.
"It's called Viridian Corrections Center, but actually it's located closer to the Indigo Plateau," Allie explained. "The building was condemned years ago, according to Janine. We couldn't believe that they were keeping you here."
"Typical," Ash muttered. He shouldn't have been surprised that the board would have held him in such a location. They had nothing but contempt for him and wanted him out of their way as soon as possible. "Janine is with you?"
"Yes," Allie told him. "She helped me get in. The others stayed behind in Cerulean to help rebuild. But I couldn't just wait there for the results of your trial. And now that Sam and Lucian are dating, Janine felt it would be better to let them travel alone for a while, so she came with me."
If he wasn't dehydrated and starving, he would have found the news vaguely interesting. Right now, though, he just ignored it. "And Misty?"
"She stayed behind in Cerulean to start cleaning up after Rocket Nation. But she said she would be on her way as soon as she could get away from the city."
Ash nodded, understanding she had other priorities right now. "How's Pikachu?"
"He's fine," Allie reassured the concerned trainer. Even while he was rotting in this dingy cell, the champion was worried about his lifelong partner. "He misses you a lot though. More importantly, how are you? Your trial is a couple of days. Are you ready for it?"
"They aren't even allowing me to consult with a lawyer," Ash grimaced. "I have to represent myself."
"But that's insane. You have a right to an attorney."
"The league maintains that allowing me to speak with anyone privately will afford me a chance to corrupt them. That's why they're not letting anyone visit me, including an attorney. It's a grave violation of civil rights." He sighed, burying his face in his hands. "But then again, so is this whole kangaroo court situation. The board of directors just wants me gone."
"Your supporters are never going to let this happen," Allie tried to reassure him. "Janine and I are organizing a protest in the square of the Indigo Plateau. You've helped a lot of people over the years; now we're going to help you. They can't possibly prosecute you if public opinion is against them."
"Of course they can," Ash growled. "They can do whatever the hell they want. Anyway, I'm still the Absent Champion in the eyes of most people. Only the Resistance knows of my role in the defense of Saffron and Cerulean. Everyone else thinks I should have stopped Rocket Nation from capturing the cities in the first place. They might be right. But even if the Resistance decided to take a stand to protect me, what would that get us? Civil war. No, Allie. That cannot be allowed to happen. The board knows that, and they know I know it, and that's why their plan is so ingenious. This is a foolproof attempt to get me out of the way, and there's nothing that either of us can do to stop it."
"They could still find you innocent," the girl suggested hopefully.
"The Pokémon League is doing everything in its power to disown and dispose of me. They won't allow me to just slip away so easily."
The champion felt Allie staring at him. Her kind, gentle face was a blessing to see. He just wished that she was smiling her pretty smile instead of worrying over him. He swallowed hard, trying to shake the thoughts from his head, attributing them solely to his isolation and starvation.
"I'll be fine. Just work on getting your last gym badge. You'll need time to train for the league too. I just wish I would be there to see it."
Allie's eyebrows drew together in surprise. It wasn't like him to sound so defeated. She gave him a defiant look. "Ash, I promise we'll get you out of here."
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Allie looked up suddenly as both trainers recognized the sound of footsteps approaching.
"Janine was supposed to keep the guard preoccupied while I was down here, but I guess she could only delay him for so long."
"Get out of here," Ash ordered her. "Stay safe. We'll meet again. Everything's going to be okay." He just wished he felt as confident as he sounded.
She put his hand in hers. "It will be," she promised him. "You're innocent. You're a hero. Never forget that."
And then she was gone. And then he was alone.
The day of Ash's trial, Allie and Janine had awoken early to attend the event. Although the general public was not being admitted to the trial, a certain number of tickets were given away to various benefactors of the league who were interested in seeing the historic trial. Allie was suspicious that they had been sold in exchange for large donations, but corrupt patronage hardly seemed like the league's worst crime right now. Janine had lifted a set of tickets from the back pocket of a wealthy man from Sinnoh. Considering that the league was using Ash's unjust persecution to make money, Allie did not feel at all remorseful for the theft.
Pikachu, who had remained with Allie when Ash was first taken away, had decided to stay in their rented room to avoid drawing attention to them. Even the most oblivious league official would recognize a Pikachu that refused to go into a Pokéball. They were staying at the massive Pokémon Center located just a few hundred feet away from Moltres Stadium. As the Indigo Conference wasn't for another month, the structure was relatively empty. The trial was being held in one of the large meeting rooms beneath the stadium grandstands, which had been set up to resemble a courtroom.
The usher who took the girls' tickets looked suspiciously at them, as if he didn't believe that two teenagers could have afforded to attend such an event. But both of the girls had been prepared for that, dressed as they were in long skirts and formal blouses they had purchased at the reopened Celadon Department Store on their way to the plateau, and which they hoped would make them appear more mature. They treated the usher with an air of haughtiness that they hoped would assure him that they were upper-class enough to be able to afford the tickets. Eventually, he shrugged and allowed them in, apparently deciding that it was above his pay rate to care who they were or where they got their tickets.
"Look," Janine whispered to Allie once they had taken their seats. She was pointing to a group of gentlemen and ladies at the front of the room, whose expressions ranged from anxious to eager. "The board members."
Janine had expounded upon Allie's knowledge of the Pokémon League on their way to the plateau. She explained that the organization was properly called the International Pokémon League, and that it was a worldwide organization. The directors were appointed by their fellow board members to lifelong terms, unless they were to retire. In addition to the directors, a president was elected by the registered adult trainers of each country to run the day-to-day operations of the national branch of the Pokémon League. However, each presidential candidate had to be approved by the international board. This was why a new president had not been chosen after the death of Charles Goodshow, and was how the board had been able to abuse its power so much in the last three years.
Each region of the country had its own conference where the strongest trainers battled it out to become the very best. However, because of an administrative error made years ago, the Kanto Pokémon League administered both the Silver and Indigo Conferences of Johto and Kanto. Only the Indigo champion held any power, and it was he or she who was responsible for the operations of the regional leagues and the safety of the people from Kanto and Johto. This was the position held by Ash Ketchum for the past three years.
Allie had been trying to picture the board members since Ash first told her about their corruption. For months, she had imagined them as faceless men, cloaked in the shadows and secretly working against Ash. But there was nothing subtle about their new tactic, nor were they faceless and forgettable bureaucrats. Her attention was immediately drawn to a specific group of the directors, a set of three directors who stood out from the others.
"They're the Glorious Three," Janine muttered to Allie when she saw where her friend was staring. The ninja girl had explained these individuals to Allie as well.
The Glorious Three were the most influential members of the board, and it was their influence that was responsible for the tyrannical agenda of the Pokémon League.
Lieu Ming, called the Ursaring, was a large foreign national from the massive continent to the west. Unlike most of his people, he was gruff, broad-shouldered, and mean-looking. He was also renowned for his inclination toward silence. In fact, there were many rumors that he was mute, as no one could remember the last time he spoke during any of the Pokémon League board meetings.
Caron Evans, called the Ekans, was the only woman of the three. Representing the old west which had conquered most of the world in the name of imperialism, she was the most beautiful and dangerous of the three. Her long flowing brown hair was perfectly done, and she wore a long black dress that made it clear that she meant business, and yet revealed enough to help her always get her way.
The final member was John Lee, called the Shiftry. He came from the region of Unova, in the superpower nation across the ocean, and was the chairman of the board. He led the Glorious Three and exercised a huge amount of power across the entire world. As his cronies held the majority on the board, he was free to do most whatever he wanted. He had piercing eyes of blue that locked onto whomever he was speaking to. Between his bewitching charisma and his political influence, John Lee was one of the most powerful men in the world.
Allie suddenly felt like she was being watched, then her eyes met those of Caron Evans. The woman stared intensely at her through narrow yellow slits, and Allie had a strange mental image of the woman sticking her tongue out and hissing. Surprised and disturbed, Allie looked away and pretended that it was an accident that their eyes had met.
The room fell instantly silent as a door near the back of the room was opened and Ash was brought forward to the defendant's table where no attorney waited for him. They had cleaned him up for the trial, Allie noted with bitterness. Apparently they decided it would have been in bad form to have him covered in filth and rags during such a widely-publicized trial. All the same, he was still restrained by an unnecessary amount of shackles, as if they were afraid of him escaping their villainous clutches.
As soon as he sat down, the dark-skinned female bailiff announced the arrival of the judge to the gathered crowd. The trial had begun.
"The honorable Judge Beckwith will proceed over the following hearing. He will act as judge and jury in the name of expediency, and a decision will be made today for the sake of ending this sordid affair as quickly as possible."
Expediency? Sordid affair? Allie shook her head, disgusted by the lack of respect for Ash's civil rights. They simply wanted it over and done with, before anyone with common sense had a chance to come forward and point out the corruption inherent in their plot.
"Any sentence decided by the court will be carried out by the International Pokémon League," the bailiff concluded, before moving Ash to the witness stand to make his claim.
Allie understood Ash's contempt and hatred for the board members, and she was finding herself more in agreement with him each minute. The board was more than happy to have one of their pawns pass judgment on Ash to avoid accusations of overreach, but they wanted to be the ones to deliver the punishment. They're sadistic, Allie thought. They just want to punish him for standing up to them.
"Ash Ketchum stands accused of betraying the region he swore to defend. The charges against him are as follows. He aligned himself with Rocket Nation while the organization was still in the shadows. He failed to prevent the rise of Rocket Nation. He promised parole to the worst criminal who has ever plagued Kanto. And finally, he failed to arrest the leader of Rocket Nation during the assault on their base in Cerulean Cave."
The judge, who had a deep and slow voice "How does the defense respond to these accusations? Champion Ketchum, how do you plead?"
Ash looked up, his brown eyes unflinchingly staring at the judge. "Everything you say is true. I am guilty of every single one of those charges."
Allie felt her heart skip a beat. Janine had to reach over and steady the shaking girl. Of course there was truth to the accusations, but that didn't mean Ash should simply accept the charges and give up. Even if this was a corrupt court that would find him guilty regardless of the truth, he still shouldn't give up trying to prove his case.
"Well then," Judge Beckwith said with a haughty and arrogant air. "If that's so, we will begin to sentence the accused based on his admission of guilt. What sentence does the prosecution recommend?"
"Wait," Ash interrupted him. The bailiff ordered him to be silent, but the champion ignored her and continued speaking. "I said that I was guilty of those charges. But on my honor as a Pokémon trainer, I am totally innocent of betraying Kanto. I would never side with Rocket Nation against them."
"You contradict yourself. Explain how you can be both innocent and guilty," probed the prosecutor, a tall woman with orange hair. She sat confidently down at the prosecution table, knowing that she had an easy job to do. The trial was already over in her mind. Ash lost, she just had to make sure of it.
Ash narrowed his eyes as he recognized the attorney. "Cassidy?" he bit his lip. So not only was he being accused of being loyal to Rocket Nation, but he was being accused by an agent of the original Team Rocket. He wondered if the board knew about Cassidy's history when they hired her to prosecute him.
The woman shook her head. "That is indeed my name. However, I fail to see how it is relevant to this case. Please, champion, allow us to focus on your own claim of guilty innocence. Or is it innocent guilt?" Several of the league officials sneered at Cassidy's mocking of Ash.
"I did all of the things you accused me of. But I did them all for the sake of Kanto. There was no other way."
"Did you or did you not work for Rocket Nation?" demanded Cassidy, leaping to her feet and brandishing a finger at him.
"I did." His response drew gasps from the audience.
"And what rank did you hold within the organization?"
"I was a commander," Ash conceded. "But that's-"
"Champion Ketchum, you will speak only when spoken to and answer only the questions you were asked. Do you understand?" the bailiff demanded.
Ash bitterly nodded his head. Elated by her power over him, Cassidy continued pressing him with unfair, one-sided questions.
"Were you loyal to the Pokémon League while working for Rocket Nation?"
"I was."
"Then how were you so ill informed of their plans to invade Kanto and occupy several major cities?"
"I was allowed to assist with their operations, a privilege which helped me gain valuable insight about the organization," Ash explained calmly. "However, they knew that I was not truly as loyal as I claimed, and so they never trusted me with tactical secrets and plans."
"How could you have been a commander without any knowledge of their plans?"
"They used me as a figurehead, a role I exploited to gain information about their plans. It was a trade-off, but as we emerged victorious from our conflict with them, I believe it was worthwhile."
"But did you join them for the sake of Kanto, or did you do it for your friend?"
The question caught Ash unprepared. "What?" he gaped, surprised that they knew about May. "I did it for the good of Kanto, of course." She was in Kanto when she was abducted; she was therefore as much his responsibility to protect as any resident of Kanto, he reasoned. But he hadn't just done it to protect her; he truly believed that it was his best opportunity to get answers about the forces moving in the shadows.
"I think differently," Cassidy replied in an acidic tone, turning back to look at her audience. They all gazed at her with rapt attention. "I think you really were working to undermine Kanto. I think you betrayed your region for a girl!"
Allie shook her head sadly. She knew Ash too well to believe that he would put anyone before his duty to the greater good, which wasn't always a virtue. She had learned that the hard way, when he was interrogating her on the airship.
"That's not true," Ash denied it. "I did what I had to in order to learn more about Rocket Nation."
"Interesting. But Champion Ketchum, we have a witness who insists that you were totally devoted to their cause once you realized that their plan was to bring down the Pokémon League."
"No, I swear. That's a lie."
"We'll just ask the witness himself. Bailiff, please escort him in." The woman nodded to the guards, who threw open a side door and escorted the surprise witness into the court.
Allie stifled a gasp as a familiar face appeared. The incompetent man whom had served under Ash on the airship walked past her, a smug grin plastered across his rat-face. How did they get him to testify? He glared wickedly at Ash as he took the champion's spot on the witness stand.
"Your honor, this man, Frederick Hayward, was a lieutenant in Rocket Nation during the Rocket Uprising. In exchange for clemency in his own trial, he has agreed to testify against his former commander."
Clemency? Allie thought, taken aback. She had thought that all of the Rockets who surrendered after the Cerulean Offensive were already pardoned. Was the league revoking the Resistance's promise of mercy to those who repented and abandoned Rocket Nation?
"Hayward captained the airship called the Ubume, which landed in the ocean surrounding the Orange Islands several months ago. Before we got to it, it had been recovered by the enemy. But now, we can know exactly what happened before it crashed. Lieutenant Hayward?"
Frederick smirked as he began to tell how Ash Ketchum had been interrogating a prisoner when engine trouble had started aboard the Ubume and the mighty airship fell. Frederick claimed that Ash fled the ship, destroyed Pallet Town in anger, then realized that Rocket Nation would fall and joined up with the Resistance. The story made no sense, and yet everyone in the room apart from Allie, Janine, and Ash seemed to buy into it, or at least they pretended they believed it.
"If I was fighting for Rocket Nation, then why did I aid the Resistance?" Ash demanded, again ignoring the bailiff's warning.
"Perhaps, your honor," Frederick suggested mischievously to the judge, "he's a coward who wanted to protect himself once he realized the Pokémon League is too powerful to fall. He simply wanted to be on the winning side once his chosen side had lost."
"That's not true!" Allie shouted, interrupting the proceedings.
The whole courtroom turned to face her. Allie could see Ash grimacing. He must not have realized we were here, Allie thought uncomfortably. Now that she had drawn attention to herself, she knew she would have to explain her way out of it. Janine shifted away from her to avoid getting caught up in the drama.
"And who might you be?" Cassidy challenged her.
"She's Ketchum's little slut," Frederick cackled, recognizing her from the Ubume and the Magnet Train Station. "Allie Geary." He had never actually heard her real name.
The judge stared at Allie with a look of fascination. "Please, Lieutenant, choose your words with some discretion. We are in a courtroom, after all."
Yes, Allie thought sarcastically. That's the reason that he shouldn't be allowed to call someone such an awful name. At least Beckwith runs his courtroom with discretion, if not ethics.
"With the judge's approval, I would like to interrogate this new witness. Perhaps we will be able to uncover some of the champion's other sins," Cassidy suggested. The woman looked pleased to have someone new to torture.
Beckwith nodded.
"State your name," Cassidy said meanly, as if she meant to bully Allie.
Allie complied, though not without a tone that left no doubt that she was participating in this trial of her own accord, and was not being forced by the former Rocket agent. "Allie Dogwood."
"That isn't what Lieutenant Hayward said," frowned Cassidy.
"With all due respect, Frederick is a moron. My last name is Dogwood."
The judge banged his gavel. "Miss Dogwood, please be respectful of the other witnesses. I will not have such language in my court."
Unbelievable, thought Allie. The judge had reacted more severely toward her than Frederick, even though his insult was harsher and much less called for. The girl took a deep breathe to calm herself. This whole situation with Ash and the Pokémon League was stressing her out, and she was overreacting to a lot of things. The best was to proceed was calmly and boldly, Allie knew.
Ash had his eyes closed where he sat alone at the defendant's table, unwilling to believe the gross abuse of power that was now directed at his protégé.
The bailiff looked to Cassidy, and Cassidy nodded. "Allie Dogwood, please come to the podium." Allie stood up defiantly at this command but obeyed.
"Miss Dogwood, if you were traveling for so long, he must have confided in you at some point. Did you ever talk about his work with the Pokémon League and his plans to defeat Rocket Nation?"
"Sometimes," Allie said truthfully.
"Did he share the specifics with his plans with you?"
"No," Allie admitted. "But I know he was working for the Pokémon League. In the end, he always did what was best for Kanto. Even when he was a Rocket commander on the Ubume, he was working to gather intelligence about Rocket Nation. As soon as Kanto was threatened by the airship, he destroyed it. He put his life at risk to save everyone, and probably would have died if not for Mew."
Allie bit her lip, immediately knowing she had made a mistake. Most of the court sneered or chortled at her. Mew was a legendary Pokémon, one that supposedly had died out generations ago. Of course no one believed that it had saved Ash. Now the trainer just sounded crazy and she knew it.
Cassidy hid her contempt quicker than the others, and she continued interrogating Allie. Knowing that she was successfully intimidating Allie, she increased her aggression. "Your story seems to contradict Lieutenant Hayward's. Can you tell me without a doubt that he was working on behalf of the Pokémon League the entire time? Or did he hide secrets from you and covertly work alongside Rocket Nation? Was the destruction of the Ubume merely a diversion from the growing Rocket threat? Perhaps the airship's destruction was part of their plans; it certainly didn't diminish the force of their assault on northern Kanto. Or, were you a willing conspirator in his plot to overthrow the board of directors and to help Rocket Nation conquer Kanto?"
Allie stared blankly at the prosecutor, unsure of what to say. If she admitted that she hadn't been privy to Ash's thoughts, then nothing she said would matter. They would assume that she was just an innocent and oblivious girl Ash had taken around with him while secretly working against the league. But if she lied and said that he had confided in her, then she might be falsely prosecuted alongside him.
She trusted Ash completely. She knew he would never betray Kanto. But how could she convince the court of that?
Cassidy smiled at her like a Carvanha waiting for a swimmer to jump in the water. She knew she had trapped her prey, and she was ready for the feast.
Author's Note:
Huh! How was that? Hopefully you paid a close bit of attention to the information in the beginning about the Pokémon League Board of Directors. Remembering that information will help during these next few chapters. This is the first chapter of the "Tribulations of the Champion" Arc, and the conclusion I'm writing right now is absolutely crazy. Talk about a titanic scale. Oops, wouldn't want to spoil anything.
Thanks for the reviews, as always. I really appreciate them, along with all my followers, favorite-ers, and regular readers. Please take a few minutes to send in a review (even a short one) if you're enjoying the story so I can get some feedback new political side of the story. It might get a little confusing along the way, but the end will tie everything together.
Next week: The trial concludes in Chapter 53: A Betrayal of Justice. To what extent will Allie go to prove Ash's innocence? Find out next time!
