Chapter 14

One Champion, Two Legends

Alfa walked out the door of his house, slightly put off. He had searched for Xerneas for six months since he had quit the union, yet he still hadn't found it. He flashed back to the day he quit the Ranger Union.

Alfa walked into the union through the main doors, not in uniform, carrying a bag on his shoulder. He walked straight up to the third floor where the official de-briefing of the capture of Groudon was happening. On the third floor, Professor Hastings had just finishing when Alfa walked in. He assumed that Alfa had overslept out of grief and had grabbed his uniform in a bag and come to the Union. Alfa walked into the line of rangers taking out a document from his bag and waiting for the professor to finish. The minute he did, the professor noticed the document in Alfa's hand and decided to ask him what it was.

"Alfa, do you have something to give to me?" asked the professor, puzzled as to what Alfa was carrying.

"Just this." He replied, walking forward and handing him the document as the ranger filed out one by one.

"A letter of resignation? But why?!" cried the professor, causing everybody who was still in the room to stop in their tracks.

"If the type of rangers we enlist are the type who would draw back, risking the wellbeing of their companions for their own safety, I want no part in this. A ranger's duty is to stand by his fellow rangers, and take the risk if it has even the benefit of seeing someone smile. So you can have these back too." Alfa replied as he handed the professor his bag. Professor Hastings unzipped it, to find a ranger uniform and a fine styler as well as two capture discs inside.

"Farewell Professor." Said Alfa as he took one last look at the union before leaving, taking his Pokémon with him on his way out.

Alfa walked into the forest directly behind the house, hoping the fresh, crisp cooling air would make him feel better. He walked around through the forest aimlessly, not following any distinct path, nor keeping track of where he was going. He knew that if he got lost, all he had to do was check the compass in his watch. He forged on through a thicket of trees, analyzing his life. His parents and his brother were dead and his sister was living with the couple who adopted them when their parents had passed away. He was living in Snowbelle city alone, wandering all over Kalos looking for a mythical Pokémon that had only been seen three times in seven centuries. Pointless. But he hadn't given up yet. If he couldn't find Xerneas, there was no point in Ionix. He hadn't wasted all that time designing and debugging it just for display.

He wasn't looking where he was going and all of a sudden, he bumped into a tree. He looked up. It was in the center of a clearing surrounded by thicket, in what he guessed was the deepest most unfindable part of the forest. He examined the tree itself. It looked kind of like a greyish oak, or an acacia tree, with a somewhat jagged X carved in the center. Some kid must have carved it there though Alfa, but all of a sudden, he stopped in his tracks.

He had been about to leave the clearing, when he had remembered that the first ever time Xerneas had been sighted, it had gone into a deep slumber, assuming the form of a grey oak with an X marking in its trunk. The man had awakened it, although Alfa couldn't remember how. He turned around, and the tree was gone. In its place was a blue deer like Pokémon. It had enormous horns of an icy blue color, branching in every direction. Its legs were black in the lower halves, and it was standing with the front two crossed at the tips, looking pointedly at Alfa, its blue snout making it look more like a deer than ever.

Alfa couldn't believe it. He had gone searching for it all over the Kalos region, when all this time, it had been asleep behind his house. All of a sudden, Alfa froze as a voice spoke in his head.

'You truly grieve the loss of your brother, to miss what you were looking for.' Alfa realized that it was Xerneas who was speaking to him. He remembered a lesson taught in ranger school. All legendary Pokémon had the ability to communicate via telepathy regardless of type. The psychic type legends had the ability to establish mental links between other Pokémon, or as Latios had done, between humans and Pokémon.

'You are true to your intentions, you never give up, and you protect those you care about whenever you can. You have no bad intentions in your heart which I can sense, and you seek my aid for a good reason. The last time I saw a human with Pokémon, I wondered how Pokémon would fit inside those capsules and what they were like from the inside. Now, to find out that at least one human doesn't like the idea of that as well, that is enough for me. You truly are worthy enough to awaken me.' Xerneas continued, its horns slowly filling with light of every color and hue.

Xerneas walked up to Alfa and touched its horns against the gem in his heart, stepping back after a second or two. Alfa glanced down at his chest. The spot where the diamond was glowing through his shirt. Slowly the glow faded, and Alfa understood what Xerneas had done. It had linked the diamond in his heart to his heart, and the diamonds he touched could convey his feelings, or rather, calm a Pokémon by letting it see his true intentions. Alfa removed an Ion disc from his belt and looked at Xerneas. It nodded in reply, so Alfa pressed the disc into the pad on the Ionix, and watched it dissolve through the mark, before the mark started glowing and span, fading away before the disc was fired at Xerneas. It enclosed Xerneas in light before falling to the ground, a different, multicolored hue running through the streaks of diamond.

He picked up the disc, examining it. Carved into the side, as though by magic, was 'Xerneas'. Alfa stared at the disc for a good minute, before stowing it away and touching every other disc he had, enabling it to be used.

'We should set off if we want to reach your manor before the sun sets.' Xerneas pointed out.

'You're right.'' Thought Alfa in response, 'but which way is it?' as he pulled back his sleeve to try and check using his watch. Xerneas nudged him with its nose and pointed in a certain direction.

"Whatever you say." Alfa said out loud. He set off in that direction, Xerneas close behind. A few minutes later, Alfa found himself back on the beaten path.

'There's no point trying to remember where we came from.' Xerneas began. 'The clearing shifts location once it's been found by someone, and the person leaves.' Alfa nodded, as they reached the back side of the Manor. They entered through the back door, passing through the courtyard on their way to the enormous room Alfa had dedicated to all of his Pokémon. The minute they arrived, Alfa pressed an empty disc into the floor, before firing Ion discs at each of his Pokémon. They didn't try to dodge the discs. A minute later, once they were all captured, Latios spoke up.

'I could read your feelings and intentions through that disc. How?' Latios asked.

'Guys, meet Xerneas.' Alfa replied, leaving Xerneas to get associated with his other Pokémon and explain. 'I'm going to visit Calem. If I need any of you, I have Ionix.' With that Alfa left the house, heading across Kalos's roads to Santalune city, heading through Aquacorde town on his way to Vaniville town. When Alfa had moved to Kalos, he had met a boy his age, Calem Walker, who had been visiting Snowbelle city. Calem and Alfa were friends before they knew it, and soon they were visiting each other across cities. Calem was working part time in his father's investment group to make enough extra money to go on a journey across Kalos to become the champions with his Greninja.

His parents were well off, but he had decided when he was twelve to make the journey using his own money, so when an internship had opened at Walker Investments, he had asked his father if he could apply, and his father, delighted that his son wanted to try being an investment banker, had eagerly offered him an internship at his company. Alfa had found out about this, and when Calem had been assigned to look for an investor for fifty grand, Alfa had seen that as a business opportunity, and had invested.

Alfa knocked on the door. He heard a set of rushing footsteps and Calem came to open the door, wearing his clothes from the work day, his tie hanging loosely around his neck, his shirt untucked and a grin on his face.

"Hey, Alfa! How are you?" he asked as he stepped back out of the doorway so that Alfa could enter.

"I'm great, how was your day?" Alfa asked as the two boys headed up to Calem's room.

"Work was fine, your investment allowed dad to win over on some stock bid, and you'll get your reward for investing in a successful venture is around five times what you invested. Any progress on Ionix?" he replied. Instead of answering, Alfa unclipped the Ion disc container and tossed it to Calem. Calem opened the container and took out an Ion disc, examining the difference from when it hadn't been used. He read the name on the side and his eyes widened.

"You found it?!" he exclaimed. "Why didn't you tell me?!"

"Loosen up man. I just found Xerneas today. I came over here as soon as I set up the teleport system. I was wondering if you could come spend the night at my place. You have the weekend off don't you?" Alfa replied, amused at Calem's response.

"Yeah sure, I'll just go tell my mother." Replied Calem as he raced down the stairs and went to his mother to inform her. He came back up the stairs at the same pace, Greninja in tow. He and Alfa shared the same opinion on keeping Pokémon in open spaces, so from the moment he had captured Greninja as a Froakie by the river bank in Aquacorde town, he had kept it outside of its poke ball. It slept in Calem's room, in a large basket with a small mattress squeezed into it.

"Oh yeah, I just remembered. I brought something for you in my car." Said Alfa as Calem came back. "I made you a couple of teleport chips and a replicator. What you do is, you open the poke ball and you fix one chip on the inside, and you fix one chip anywhere in your house. The replicator is so that I don't have to make more chips. You put an empty poke ball with a chip in one slot, and an empty poke ball with a chip comes out the other end so you have two. When you return the Pokémon to the poke ball, it gets teleported here, and when you open the poke ball, it gets teleported through the ball to wherever you are."

"That's brilliant! Thanks!" Calem replied. "Let's set it up and go." So the boys set the system up and headed out to Alfa's car. He still had the same car, but he had had it painted emerald green. They set off for the manor, Greninja waiting patiently to be teleported there. Around an hour later, the boy were in the manor, and Calem tested the system out. He threw Greninja's poke ball out and as it opened, instead of red light, bright white light came out, and focused on a spot on the floor, where Greninja appeared. The boys spent the night celebrating and having fun. That was the last they saw of each other for a year.

One year and a month later…..

Alfa walked out of his house and picked up the paper from in front of the door. In the one year that had passed, he had travelled through Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova and Kalos, winning each of their Pokémon league tournaments. He had ended up at the Kalos Pokémon League Castle. He had earned the right to battle his native champion and elite four for one of their positions. He had defeated the other five champions and their elite fours as well, but couldn't claim their titles. It just so happened, that Diantha, the Kalos champion, had been looking to retire completely to acting, and had decided to step down to anyone who beat her in the one month she announced her retirement. The only roadblock for Alfa had been the other person who had earned the right to battle her.

Calem. It had come down to a battle between the two of them, a battle fought with every last bit of energy the boys and their Pokémon had had. It had come down to their last Pokémon. Calem's Greninja and Alfa's Latios. Calem had put up an amazing fight, holding the type advantage, but in the end, it had been Alfa who had one, by one bare second. The two Pokémon had been circling each other, tired to the point of collapsing. And they both collapsed. Later, from the recording made by the league cameras, it was found out that Greninja had collapsed half a second before Latios, and Alfa had been crowned champion. Calem had chosen not to bump one of the elite four on the promise that he was next in line for champion, unless somebody beat Alfa, which nobody of that time could do. Alfa had beaten every gym trainer he had faced, every gym leader in six regions, their respective Elite Fours and their champions, defeating them all by a greater margin than he had defeated Calem by.

Calem had moved to Snowbelle city as well, loving the weather and the atmosphere there. Alfa focused on the paper, particularly an article about the Snowbelle Sounders. There was a notice that tryouts for the team were beginning for the listed positions. Two forwards, a right back defender, and to midfielders. Alfa smiled to himself as he looked up. He saw Serena walking through the city looking for some place. He had met Serena at Calem's house. She was one of the two girls from Vaniville town who had gone on a journey at the same time as Calem. The trio were good friends, and as Alfa knew, she and Calem were building up a relationship which had started when they had seen fireworks together at the Parfum Palace.

Alfa guessed that she was looking for Calem's new house so he walked up to her.

"Hi Serena. How have you been doing? I haven't run into you in a long time." He greeted her.

"Oh hi Alfa! I'm doing great, I just can't seem to find Calem's new house though. Do you know where it is?" she asked.

"Follow me." He said. He led her to the front terrace entrance of his house.

"But this is your house, isn't it?" she pointed out.

"I'm not finished yet. Yes this is my house. Calem is my neighbor on the left." Said Alfa, pointing to the manor next to his.

"Oh thanks! I'm just going to go meet him. Is there anything you want me to tell him?" she said.

"Why don't you two meet me for lunch at Casa Italia? Lunch is on me. Say around, two. See you then." Alfa replied as the two parted ways, Alfa heading into his own house, Serena heading for Calem's.

A few hours later, the three friends were sharing lunch at Casa Italia. They had had a lot of fun catching up with each other, laughing at the fact that the newspapers still hadn't printed the fact that there was a new champion. Alfa had told Calem about the openings in the Snowbelle Sounders, and the dup had agreed to go after lunch to try out. Calem was a good enough player to have been the captain of Wyvern, but he wasn't a gym leader. He was good anywhere on the field but he was best in the forward position.

Three hours later, at the Sounders Stadium…..

Alfa and Calem sat down on the bench, out of breath. The coach had put the ten people who had tried out through a rigorous training schedule. They had all been assigned numbers and the coach would tell them which numbers would stay at the end of the tryouts. Alfa had seventeen and Calem had eighteen. They had been given random numbered vest from the storage room.

"Okay, I'm going to say your number and either tell you to get out, or get in line with the rest of the team." He began.

"Forty two, get out! Fourteen, get in line, you're right back! Eighteen, get….. In line! Seventeen, you two. Twenty two, get lost! Twenty one, get in line. Thirty, you can get out of here as well! Seven. Get… IN LINE! The rest of you can leave now." He finished as five disdained people left the stadium.

"NAMES! AND POSITION!" barked the coach, turning to the remaining five with his clipboard in hand.

"Right back, Daniel Winters."

"Right Forward, Calem Walker."

"Left Forward, Alfa Snowbelle."

"Center Middle, Tony Barinas."

"Center Middle, Denver Marcus."

"Good." Replied the coach. "I'm going to assign you to two old team members in two and three. You can pick your partners. I'll assign your senior partners. You'd better like them, because I expect you to be as thick as thieves with them. Now split up." Immediately, Calem and Alfa moved over to one side.

"Okay, Lahm, Dempsey, you're with those two." He said, pointing to Calem and Alfa. Two boys walked over, around eighteen and nineteen, roughly the same age as Calem and Alfa. One had bronze hair and brown eyes, and the other had brown hair and brown eyes. "Broker, Welters, you're with the other three."

"Hey, I'm Derek Dempsey." Said the one with brown hair.

"And I'm Philip Lahm. One second, don't you live at 13 and 14 Frost Avenue?" he asked Alfa.

"Yes, why?" replied Calem.

"Seriously? I live in 15 Frost Avenue with my three sisters." Lucas replied. "Derek has 17. Come on, let's go to my house." The boys set off through Snowbelle city. All of a sudden, something swooped down from above and hit the snow in front of Philip's house hard enough to send it flying. Yveltal. Philip, Derek and Calem stared at it in awe. Alfa didn't waste time that. Instead he fired an Ion disc straight at Yveltal. The light cloaked it, and stayed over Yveltal for so long that Alfa began to worry. All of a sudden, the light vanished and the disc fell, bearing a black and red hue.

"Did you just...?" exclaimed Philip.

"You just captured…..!" exclaimed Derek.

"Two legends, one champion." Said Calem with a smile.