The beginning of a new road {Path of the Aura Ranger: Book II}

I Utau's P.O.V

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?"