Chapter 4

June 7th, 2006

Drew stepped inside the building; well it wasn't much of a building so far. All around them were just pillars and pillars and more pillars, no walls. A tall statue stood bravely in the middle of the wide expanse of the entrance as well and four different stairways all leading to different directions. All at once, the four doors at the top of these stairways slammed open, around them a blue light flashed. A circle of light appeared around the dragon and began to pulse steadily with light. The four people walked down the stairways, two women and two men.

He could see that Iris tried hard not to fix her posture again, but straightened out unnecessarily nonetheless. The four people stood before her and each gave her a nod in acknowledgement. "Welcome back Iris." The blonde woman said with a sleepy smile.

"Thank you Caitlin." She responded. "As you know I went to Kalos for a bit, then to Johto for reasons which I assume you were told by Diantha?"

A burly man with short orange hair shook his head. "Diantha didn't say much to us, just that you were off doing business in Johto." His Unovian accent was thick. The blonde woman as well as Iris and Cilan had less prominent ones.

Iris nodded. "Right... okay. I'll tell you all in my office then. Is Alder there?" She queried.

The other man shrugged, he had dark hair and was quite lanky and tall. His outfit just emphasised his appearance tenfold by being both tight on the legs and loose on the body. "He should be, but really there's no tracking him."

"There is a way to track him." The purple haired woman said and she adjusted her glassed, giving a pointed look to the blonde woman.

Caitlin blinked at her. "Oh...!" She said in realisation. "You're asking me to look." Her voice was light and faint, as if she was captured in a dream. "I'll peek in then." She closed her eyes and opened them after a few dragging moments. "He's sleeping with Boufflant on the floor." She deadpanned.

The burly man grunted. "Of course he is." He spat. "He's been such a help since you were gone."

Iris smiled. "I can understand that you've been frustrated Marshall."

The darker man dramatically swept his hand through his hair. "You may be young and unconfident in your skills yet Iris, but you are already a far better champion than that man is."

The woman next to him shoved him. "Don't be rude Grimsley, he was our former boss and we should still show him continuous respect."

"Shauntel," he sighed, "You were the one who disliked him the most." Grimsley rebuked.

Iris held up her hands to try and stop the adults from arguing any further. "Alright, let's just go and wake him up and we can all discuss what is going on." She then turned to the G-Men, "I'll have one of the guards down here escort you to the main G-Men workplace and you may work there until I place you all somewhere permanently for as long as you are to be staying here." The one who gave her any sort of acknowledgement was the presumed leader, or at least in Drew's eyes.

Iris nodded, "Right then; let's go downstairs." She stood before the giant statue in the center of the room. The blue flashing ring around it froze and shone a constant glow. She gestured for everybody to step in the glowing circle next to the dragon statue. Drew stepped on, cramped between Clemont and Ash. The statue jerked and light flashed up around them, disappearing into the air like the residue of a flame. Slowly, the statue descended downwards.

Drew watched as the sunlight became scarcer the further they went down. They were surrounded by concrete and each other. Suddenly, when it seemed as if the light from above was practically gone, light tickled on the toes of their shoes and following that was the reveal of a golden tiles floor, and yet another staircase.

Iris stepped off and her boyfriend and the other elite flanked her on all sides except for front. "Alder is sleeping on a couch he brought down here." Caitlin said. "Though Boufflant is on it as well as he is..."

"Iris!" Ash shouted, startling Serena who was next to him, Clemont had gravitated to them as well. He had also jumped from his friend's sudden outburst and his cheeks were stained red like cheri berries. Iris turned towards him, tilting her head to the side ever so slightly like a poochyena. "Can I see you chamber?" He asked giddily, almost vibrating with excitement. "It's so cool that you get your own place! Did you redesign it for yourself? Because I know that most leagues let that happen for the new champions!"

Iris smiled at him, it looked gentle. She shook her head with a small sigh. "My chamber is right up here Ash, it's where Alder is resting. I did make a layout plan for it, though I'm unsure if it's been completed let alone started."

"It's done." Shauntel confirmed. "I made sure that it would be finished in time for your return, whenever you were planning on coming home. I just gave them a week timeframe." She shrugged.

Iris grinned and turned back to Ash, "Well there's your answer!"

"Cool!" He sprinted up to Cilan and began to quickly start up a conversation with him. Pikachu leaped off of his shoulder and scurried over to Iris who happily picked him up. She scratched his chin.

"I have even more pokémon that you don't know about Pikachu! Are you excited to meet them?" She asked.

"Pika!"

"More pokémon?" Ash perked up. "I gotta see them too!"

Drew sighed and rubbed his forehead, a headache was coming on. "He's basically a pokémon himself isn't he?"

"He is," Misty agreed and walked back to him. "My boyfriend is a pokémon, how lovely right?" She winked at him. "Just means I can train him." Drew made a face at her and Misty laughed heartily. "I'm kidding!" She defended herself.

The group continued on, halfway up the stairs, Drew could see a large, moving mural on the back wall depicting the solar system. There was another tone statue of a dragon with wide wings and a curling tail. Then there before it was a sleeping heap of hair. Drew wrinkled his nose.

"Alder!" Marshall's voice boomed loudly around them in the high ceiling. At once Alder jumped up with his Boufflant right beside him. He had one arm extended outright and pointed directly to the group.

Alder blinked, once, twice, three times before finally realizing who it was and lowered his arm with a dramatic sigh and slumped forward. "You gave me a heart attack Marshall!" In an instant his demeanour changed and he stood upright with a wide closed eyed smile. "At my age a heart attack is very threatening to my health!"

"Then I suppose that it's a good thing that Iris is the new champion." Shauntel muttered.

"I thought we were supposed to be respectful?" Grimsley said smugly. "You're not exactly following your own words."

"Shut up you idiot!" She hissed to him.

Drew grumbled. "What is wrong with this league?" He could see Caitlin look back at him slightly with a neutral expression. He hardly cared. "My question is a very valid one." He said in the same tone.

Caitlin turned fully towards Iris and smiled cheerily. "Iris, how about we visit your pokémon?"

Shauntel sighed again. "Caitlin this is hardly the moment to be asking that, we have to know the detail of what Iris and her group were up to."

"Oh, I already know what transpired with all of them."

Shauntel narrowed her eyes. "And you didn't say anything? At all?"

Caitlin shrugged. "I was never asked to tell."

Shauntel threw her head back and groaned loudly. "We really need to sort out our relationships with each other!" She yelled. "We have been working together for years and this is just not working for any of us!" She rubbed at her face furiously. "Honestly, as much as I don't want to, I think that this is a completely new era for Unova and the four of us Heavenly Kings should find new successors. We've been working together for over a decade and the miscommunication is utterly ridiculous and I know that none of us really like each other properly other than maybe Caitlin and Marshall."

Iris' expression seemed panicked; actually, it was very panicked. "W-what?" She stuttered out. "You can't just retire at a crucial moment like this? Unova is in a proxy war! We need to solve this before we can even consider that option!"

"Thing cannot be solved without teamwork and the whole past league is a mess. The generation where we ran the region should be forgotten. If we worked together then the proxy war could've been avoided completely but look at where it has gotten us now!" Shauntel rebuked. "I have had enough of all this stress that just how terrible the region is being run and many, many citizens agree with me! Have you not seen the reviews and comments the media has made of us? None of it is false!"

The whole room was quiet, nobody dared to speak. Iris seemed so small compared to everyone, young and small. Her fists were shanking by her side and she stared down every one of her elite four. "Shauntel, that outburst was unnecessary. I don't care how damn hard this teamwork is, you have to do it! Unova is going through hell and we have not asked for any help, none at all! For Arceus' sake, you are acting like a spoiled child and I should know exactly what a spoiled child is, I can see quite a few in this room right now! I don't care that you are dissatisfied but this is how things are right now! Grow up! We have millions of lives counting on us to solve this shit that we've all trapped ourselves in!" She gestured to her group of friends. "If you really want to know who we are and where we were I'll tell you right now!"

Iris paused and glared. "This group of us has been through more hell that you have ever had in your life. Four were caught in the bombing in Hoenn, two were dealing with the rabid pokémon in Kanto, one was tortured for years, years!" She shouted. "Half of this group has been through so much, I don't doubt a bunt of us have PTSD and are keeping it quiet. We have seen people be murdered! We have had a friend murdered! One of us can't be here because she is suffering so much!" She made a wide gesture to her friends. "All of us are protectors of legendary pokémon! Every single one. We have so much on our shoulders right now, I don't want to even hear you whisper about how hard it is here for you when all you have to deal with right now is working together! We all know that regardless of your positions, I am the one who will ultimately solve this whole damned problem and probably these people who weren't born in this country and do not have to deal with any of this!" She stepped towards her elite four, she looked like an enraged dragon, it was what she really was. "I want all of you, including Alder, to go and figure things out between another and I do not want to hear a single complaint from you unless is it acutally important to the situation at hand!" She pointed to the dragon statue at the bottom of the stairs. "Go."

"Iris—" Marshall attempted, his voice was gentle.

"Go!" She repeated herself. The Four Heavenly Kings all glanced between each other then turned and complied with their Champion's orders. Iris didn't move an inch, nobody did until they were moving back upstairs.

Everyone was still silent. After a few more seconds, Iris growled, actually growled. "Now that those idiots are solved. I want all of us to go up to my office, yes Ash I'll show you all my pokémon there, and I'll get my head G-Men agent to tell me what happened. She has just as much seniority as the Heavenly Kings do so she'll know everything." She nodded once. "Good, perfect then." She rubbed her face and a flash of red came from her pocket and there stood Axew. He smiled at Iris and jumped into her hair, cuddling up to her face. It was at that moment, Drew realised that Axew had an everstone on it, tied onto a small bracelet. Axew jumped back down onto the ground and stared up at her.

"Axew!" He said. "Yew ax yew yew." He slipped off the bracelet.

Iris' eyes widened at the action, "Axew? You want to? You won't be able to climb in my hair anymore..." Her dragon-type nodded once and suddenly, a white light enveloped him. His silhouette grew and grew, bigger and bigger, too big. The new silhouette towered over Iris and the light dispersed and sparkled around the newly evolved partner of the Unovian Champion.

"Haxorus!" The pokémon shouted and Drew could feel the very floor shake beneath him. It wasn't hard to feel the strength radiating off of Haxorus.

Tears sparkled in Iris' eyes and she threw herself at her beloved pokémon. "You're so brave!" She said, her voice flowed with pride like a mother would to her child. "You don't know just how much I love you Haxorus, you're such a wonderful thing! You're so handsome and just so brave and strong!" Haxorus curled his body around her and hugged her. Quiet sobs were heard from the cuddling pokémon and trainer.

Drew smiled, his heart warmed instantly. This is exactly what was needed for the group right now, a show of love between two living creatures that was just so genuine. He felt a body press up to him and he pulled an arm around them to pull them closer into their own embrace. "Iris is exactly what Unova needs; she will be the champion who will be remembered for the rest of time, for as long as humans live."

"You're definitely not wrong about that." He agreed.

Iris sniffles calmed down after a few minutes and she furiously rubbed at her eyes. "You're so perfect." She said to her pokémon running her hand along his scales. She looked around her giant pokémon to the rest of the group and smiled at them, adding in a glee fuelled laugh. "Come on guys! Let'sget us moving!" Haxorus turned to face the rest of the group and Cilan and Ash quickly approached him, giving him hugs as well as Iris. More and more people gravitated towards the building group hug. Dawn was next and quickly pulled along Paul who really didn't look like he minded. Misty hurried forward and tightly joined in, May looked up at him and together they joined in. Laughter erupted throughout the group like a pleasant disease.

"Nous sommes amis buts!" Serena said quite loudly and Clemont laughed heartily.

"Vous ne l'avez jamais été plus correct Serena! " He added on.

"Could somebody maybe translate that for us?" Gary asked with a laugh.

Clemont and Serena looked at each other with grins. "We are friend goals!" She laughed. "It's a Kalosian saying." She explained.

"You have never been more right Serena!" Spoke Clemont.

Suprise! A mid-week update! I'm leaving in three weeks so I want to try and write and publish as fast as I can! Tell me what you think about this chapter! Comment all your favourite parts!

What do you think of the Unovian Four Heavenly Kings?

Do you think there should be new hirings?

Who do you think can take the roles as new elite four members for Unova?

Have a lovely week everybody!