The next day, the final battle between Iris and Max finally came. Max sent out his Pikachu, while Iris chose Excadrill. Iris started off the battle with Drill Run, which Max cleverly dodged with a Quick Attack. However, Iris's Excadrill grabbed Pikachu's tail between his claws and threw Pikachu across the arena, and then slammed him using Metal Claw. Pikachu still managed to flip around and get back on his feet.
That's what you would expect from a pokemon trained by Ash's famous starter. Poor Pikachu, Max's I mean, his training must have been a trip to the Distortion World.
Max's Pikachu countered with Iron Tail, while Excadrill used another Metal Claw. The two dived towards each other but Pikachu dodged the attack on the last second and slammed Excadrill to the ground.
That speed was incredible for a pokemon under a 10 years-old-boy! I thought impressed.
Iris followed up with Focus Blast, while Pikachu charged up an Electro Ball. The two attacks collided into an electric light explosion. Iris's pokemon drilled into the ground and attacked Pikachu. Max told Pikachu to keep spinning and use the momentum to land a powerful Iron Tail into Excadrill's face. However, Pikachu improvised at the last moment and added an Electro Ball to the Iron Tail. That was enough to take down Excadrill and crown Max as the winner of the tournament, to Ash's excited commentary. The crowd cheered for Max as he is gifted a display case of wings. He stood on the winner's podium with the three pokemon he had used on the tournament, by his side.
I quietly sneaked into Ash's backstage room. While no one noticed me, I knew for sure that Ash had sensed my presence the moment I stepped into the stadium. "It's good to see you again Lieutenant Utau! Or should I say Elite Four Utau?" He teased me with a smile, and greeted me with a hug.
"Then should I call you Champion Ketchum?" I teased him back.
"Please don't remind me!" He moaned. I laughed as he complained, anyone would kill to be in his shoes, but Ash didn't like the attention he got. He does this for his passion and love of battling, that's what makes him Ash. The reason why I admire him and follow him. We all do. "So, did you find it?" He turned to me completely serious.
I stood up in attention and gave him my report. "I did captain. As you said, around the area where the Kingdom of the Vale used to be, we found Damon and... Zekrom," I still could not believe that I am mentioning a Legendary as if it was just another day. What has my life become? "Damon was in the process of convincing Zekrom of aiding him to hunt down the Victini and move back the Sword of the Vale to where it used to be. To accomplish his goal, he had contacted Glacine of the tundra village, the desert village's leader Ravine, and Mannes, the Eindoak Town mayor, bringing together the tribes that once made up the People of the Vale. However... for some reason Zekrom was refusing... no, he looked contradicted."
"I see..." Ash mussed with a serious expression.
"Do you know why?" I inquired curiously. "Zekrom was talking calmly with Damon, but he then suddenly flew away... just after seeing us come in," I told him suspiciously. "Right now, Rose and Rodrick are overseeing the situation at the Kingdom of the Vale. Making sure that no one leaves, not that they'll be able to keep that up for a long time. They have not commited any crime yet."
"Then let's get going," Ash told me with a smirk. "The rest of my group will be celebrating for the rest of the day and tomorrow they'll be heading for the Battle Subway."
"Captain!" I called out as he rapidly used his Slowbro to teleport away. "Dammit!" I cursed and used a borrowed Alakazam to teleport back to the Kingdom of the Vale, where Ash was already there and... yes, that's Zekrom who he is cuddling against. Because of course Ash is one to cuddle with Legendaries! "What in the Distortion World is going on?"
"Lieutenant!" Both Rose and Rodrick rushed to my side, with matching stunned expressions.
"Y-you! H-how is the possible that Zekrom has accepted a foreigner?!" Damon exclaimed, shakingly pointing at Ash, who had Zekrom growling behind him and Pikachu with sparkling cheeks on his shoulder. "He is the guardian of Unova!"
"He is also an Electric-type pokemon that bonded with me through my aura and his thunder," Ash shrugged unaffected.
Oh, right that did happen, I realized internally.
"What does the Captain mean?" Rose turned to me confused.
"On his first day in Unova he got in contact with Zekrom," I informed them. "More than got in contact, Zekrom tried to toarch both Pikachu and Ash with his thunder. But got blocked by Ash's aura shield."
"Ash is also an Empath, which means he must have absorbed some of Zekrom's thunder and created a bond," Rodrick theorized. "Legendaries are literaly are anthropomorphic embodiments of various natural forces and emotions. So, Zekrom's thunder is part of him, as such they were able to create an aura bond."
"Wow..." Rose was as stunned as me.
"W-what does that mean?!" Damon's face was now red with anger.
"It doesn't matter," Ash shook his head and stepped away from Zekrom, to face him with a dissapointed expression. We all winced, he was about to get The Ketchum Lecture. Yes, capital letters are needed. They are that bad. "Before the king that used to rule this Vale passed away, he tasked Victini to guard the Sword of the Vale and never move it again. Because should the Sword of the Vale be moved again, it will unleash the rage of the Dragon Force. The same rage that the twin princes had unleashed with their fighting. This!" He pointed to the vale surrounding them. "Would have been lost! Completely destroyed by the corrupted Dragon Force!"
"I... I just wanted to help my people," Damon flinched away from Ash's glare.
"The road to the Distortion World is paved with good intentions Damon of the People of the Vale!" Ash snapped at him, unmerciful. "I know what it means to have ideal and believe strongly in them, to work hard to make them a reality. Lugia! I bonded with Zekrom of all pokemon! I've had Legendaries flock around me from day one of my journey and I've only bonded with one other Legendary. But that does not mean that you should ignore the truth and move forward in a blind path. Truth and Idealism are two sides of the same coin! Not understanding that is what unleashed the rage of the Dragon Force in the first place! You say that you want to make the People of the Vale back to prosperity, yet you do not learn of the mistakes of your ancestors!"
"I... I am sorry, you are right," Damon stuttered in desesparation. "What chaos did I almost unleash?"
"I've contacted the Unova Pokemon League and Champion Alder, they'll be coming down here to aid you and your people," Ash sighed, finally taking pity on the guy. "This land is rich in history and culture, Gym Leader Lenora will be overseeing the whole opperation. You can trust her to do the best."
"Thank you," Damon whispered with gratefulness, as he turned to return to his people.
"Let's get out of here," Ash murmured as he returned to us. "There was no crime committed here."
"Are you ok Captain?" Rose asked him softly.
"I am... I'm just angry that people keep on getting involved with Legendaries and that never ends up well," Ash growled in frustration. Zekrom whined behind him, which had Ash turned around and smile gently at him. "I did not mean it like that, and you know that! Thank you for contacting me and stalling Damon's plan until we got here."
"So... is he like your pokemon now?" Rodrick finally asked the question we've all been wondering.
"No, as Damon had said, Zekrom is the guardian of Unova, I will not be taking that from a region... even if I would not travel with him," Ash turned back to us with a soft smile. "The same reason I never caught... our friend in Alto Mare."
"So, what are we going to do now that we know Team Plasma is going to involve this region's Legendaries into their plans?" I asked him.
"Was there any doubt before?" Ash replied with amusement. "But we'll do the same we did in Sinnoh. The orbs were already returned to the Sinnoh Pokemon League and they are in charge of guarding them. I've asked Champion Alder for the same permision as we were given in Sinnoh, and he has already given me the ok."
"Great!" Rodrick exclaimed in excitement, before deflating. "Where will we find them?"
"Rick, I am bonded with Zekrom," Ash pointed out in amusement. "We can always ask him."
"Right!" Rodrick facepalmed at his stupidity, making us all laugh.
I am so glad we took control of this situation before it got out of control, and that we are finally moving forward with the situation with Team Plasma.
They will never know what hit them!