Let's just get on with the second part.
Chapter 47: S&M Q&A (part 2)
"I think it's our turn to ask questions." Black says when we get back inside.
"Sure."
It's not like I had any other questions.
"How come you have the Elite Four and a Champion but you don't have any gyms?" He asks.
I shrug.
"Our League only just opened up. We still haven't finished. We have the space, we're just looking for the Gym Leaders. You see, in Alola, everyone is happy with just the trials as a sign of growing up. In places like Kanto and Sinnoh, you challenge the League when you start to become of age. In Alola, you do the trials. Since they're there, we didn't really have a reason to build a League and no one is actually very interested in the thought of being a Gym Leader. On top of that, it doesn't make much sense for these superstitious Kahunas to abandon their important roles and become Gym Leaders, does it?"
Black nods.
"Right."
"What about the Battle Tree?" Hilda asks.
"Do you have plans for anything more? I'm just saying, fighting a bunch of regular dudes to fight someone famous about 1/10 times doesn't sound that fun. Besides, there's a limit to the amount of Pokémon you can use. That sucks. Why not something bigger? If all those Legends and experienced battlers are there, why aren't they put together so you can fight them instead of the regular trainers?"
This time Moon answers.
"The Battle Tree is an independent facility run by someone I don't know. You know how it's into hardcore Pokémon battling? That's why it's all the way on the northeast side of Poni Island. Very few people are fans of competitive battling, so very few people are interested in going. Something so undesired is left off to the side of the Island Challenge. Still, they manage to attract customers by luring them with the idea of fighting Battle Legends and pit them against lower-level trainers to boost their confidence. If they were to immediately fight the Legends, they'd get immediately disinterested. If they keep losing to trainers of their level, they'll keep coming back."
Hilda nods in agreement.
"Smart. A technique like that wouldn't work anywhere but Alola."
Silence ensues for a moment. We don't have many questions.
"What about your evil team?" Nate speaks up.
"What about it?"
"Well, what's it like? Were they hard to beat? What did they wanna do that was so bad?"
I pause to think for a moment.
"Well, we didn't actually have single evil team, if you think about it."
Moon nods in agreement. She knows what I'm talking about.
"So like Magma and Aqua?" May asks.
I shake my head.
"When we first got to Alola there were two organizations: The Aether Foundation and Team Skull, a group comprised of people who failed their island challenge. Team Skull were the most clearly 'bad', as they stole Pokémon and generally acted like thugs. They never did any real harm, though. I actually kinda like them. I got a Skull tank just 'cause of that."
Moon smiles and continues.
"Then we met the Aether Foundation. They stood for peace and the protection of Pokémon, but also indulged in many different scientific researches to better understand them. Well, at least that's what they said. We later learned that Lusamine, the head of the organization, had been opening portals to the Ultra Space and conducting inhumane experiments on Pokémon, even freezing them to preserve their 'beauty'. Of course, we confronted them and found out that Guzma, the leader of Team Skull, had been working with Lusamine the whole time. The two organizations were working together the whole time. Skulll stole Pokémon and Aether conducted experiments on them. The whole time, they could deny this fact by lying and saying that they were protecting them from Team Skull. In the end, it was Guzma who got Lusamine Cosmog and let her go through the portal."
Guzma redeemed himself in the end too. It was really humbling for him to leave Team Skull and train with Hala. I met him back in the Battle Tree and it was as if he was a new man. We had fun together for the first time.
"What about the Guardian Deities?" It was Dawn's turn to ask.
"Won't something bad happen to the islands without them?"
I shake my head.
"They're not gone. I just keep them. If ever there's trouble, they'll warn me and I'll release them to do whatever they have to do. Afterwards, they come back. Don't you do the same with your Legendaries?"
Diamond's hat wobbles when he shakes his head.
"They don't protect anything though. They just create or manage things. Plus, Arceus has 'copies' of every Legendary from multiple different dimensions. We just have the ones from our region or the ones that were saved from the meteor in the dimension that got destroyed."
This is where I start asking questions.
"Wait, what? Meteor? Dimension that got destroyed?" What are you talking about?"
Diamond moves his head up like he just remembered something.
"Oh, right. I forgot we didn't explain it. As you know, there's tons of different parallel universes with different things happening in them. Most of the Legend pairs come from two very similar but different dimensions, like you and Moon. For example, I encountered Dialga in mine and Dawn found Dialga in hers. The reason the world doesn't get destroyed every time someone catches a Legendary is because Arceus replaces it every time one is caught. He grabs another one from a dimension where it can't be caught or hasn't been caught yet, and places it in the dimension where you caught yours. The most common dimensions to grab from are the ones that are subject to disaster. The best example is the universe where a gigantic meteor fell and destroyed the world. Ruby and May found out about this and stopped the same meteor with the help of Mega Rayquaza. Arceus then put another Rayquaza to replace the one Ruby and May caught."
Interesting. Now I'm glad we carefully chose where we went instead of just pointing a direction and going there.
After some more silence, Ruby speaks up.
"Alright then, if things are too broad, let's narrow the questions. one question per Legend pair. Red and Leaf first."
Questions for Red or Leaf? Let's see...
"How come you don't show up as often? You used to be super popular. People looked up to you like you were a Legend. Now, it's like your a myth. Nobody mentions you anymore."
Red sighs.
"I'm...retired. I never liked being in the spotlight, which is why the House was created in the first place. After all that time without being seen again, I guess the stories faded into legend. Alola was just vacation, and we did that secretly."
That's true, I always wondered how I went through my Island Challenge and never saw Red until the Battle Tree.
Johto time, I guess.
"I heard you fought Red after beating the Kanto champ." Moon talks first.
"Is that true?"
Gold nods, smiling.
"Right, that's a long story."
Moon raises an eyebrow.
"So? Long story short?"
Gold sighs and shrugs in response.
"Long story short, Red let me win with a Quick Attack from my Typhlosion. It was to keep me from getting better and neglecting my friends."
That bastard. He kicked my ass when I went to the Battle Tree and he just lets Gold go? How's that fair? I guess he didn't think I'd go hardcore. I mean, I didn't.
The Hoenn pair is next, but the stuff with the parallel universes and riding on Mega Rayquaza sated my curiosity.
Sinnoh?
No, we got the Legendary talk and showed them the UBs.
The first Unovan guys.
Nope, we talked about the Battle Tree and the World Tournament.
Second Unovans. Nah, we talked about the evil teams.
Kalos. Finally. No-wait, we talked about the Pager with them.
"I guess that's it."
Calem looks like he got a huge weight off his shoulders.
"Phew. Alright. We're starting the Qualification Tournament tomorrow then."
Hey! Sorry for not updating sooner, but I was pretty busy. It's also the reason the chapter isn't as long as the first two.
On second thought, I think I'll continue updating for this fanfic until it gets to 50 chapters, so I leave with a clean 50 chapters. I don't know why, but leaving something with an odd number of chapters bothers me. 50 just sounds nice.
Thanks for reading, and goodbye!