Chapter Text
A voice could be heard from the videophone within the communal area of the building. “I know this has been a long call, so I’ll sum it up again just to end it off. All your regions have closed their borders to contain any outbreaks, and only certified people are allowed in or out. While all of you would technically be allowed back into your regions, the league has decided that it’s easier if you remain on the island, seeing as it has facilities tailored to each of you for long stays,” they said, gaining a tone of finality before they continued speaking. “Food will be delivered as and when you request it, and each of you has been given special permission to have your Pokémon transferred to and from your home regions. All eight of you have fun now!” the voice, belonging to Chairman Goodshow of the Pokémon League finished. He then ended the call before any of the eight regional champions could get a word in.
The eight people present (and a gathered group of their Pokémon) looked at one another, their faces expressionless. After a few moments, they erupted in unison with an almost deafening cry of, “WHAT!?”
The first to regain composure was Diantha, the champion of the Kalos Region. “Well, it would appear that the movie I was shooting will have to wait, won’t it? It is a shame, but that’s life I suppose.”
“How are you so calm about this, Diantha? We’re stuck on this island for the foreseeable future, just the eight of us! Not exactly what I’d call a Champion Time!” replied Leon, Galar’s champion.
“Actually, considering just who is here, that’s exactly what it is!” Alder, the champion of Unova, laughed. “And besides, we aren’t completely alone. We have all our amazing Pokémon here with us.”
“Considering the rate at which you exasperate us, darling, you might benefit the most from actually having Pokémon friends!” shot back Wallace, the only one in the room that didn’t currently hold a champion title. However, due to the frequency with which he and Steven traded places for the Hoenn title, Wallace had also been invited to the summit they had been attending regardless of that fact.
Just as Alder was about to protest, he got cut off by Sinnoh’s champion, Cynthia. “Let’s be honest here, Alder. Is what Wallace said in any way wrong?” she asked, with Alder merely shrugging his shoulders in response to Cynthia shooting him down.
The combined champion of Kanto and Johto, Lance, ignored the conversation that the previous five had now broken off into, in favour of thinking out loud. “I hope the G-Men will be able to handle things in my absence, I’ll have to ask Clair to check in on them.”
Hoenn’s actual champion, Steven, was quick to voice his thoughts on that, quipping, “The G-Men couldn’t handle things even with you there, so there’s probably no hope for them. I’m sure our friend here would agree,” Steven said, inviting the youngest of the champions to join the conversation, at the expense of Lance’s dignity.
Said person was Ash Ketchum, champion of the Alola region, the most recent region to join the Pokémon League. Taking Steven’s cue, he said, “Yep! You’re great, Lance, and so is Clair. But I’d rather call Looker and the International Police before ever considering getting the G-Men for anything!” he stated, the comment accompanied by a noise of agreement from the Pikachu on his shoulder.
The group of eight of the most powerful trainers in the world talked amongst themselves for a few minutes more, trying to get used to the idea of their new situation. After realising that it was going nowhere, Cynthia decided to get the attention of all the others, to make planning easier. The method she used to do that was… less than conventional. After calling over her loyal starter, she requested with a smirk, “Garchomp? Would you mind roaring as loud as you can? I don’t think anyone here will really listen otherwise.”
Garchomp gave a toothy grin to her trainer before doing just that. All humans in the room other than Cynthia immediately turned to the source of the noise, hands reaching towards the Pokéballs at their belt. However, they were merely greeted by the still smirking Sinnoh champion and her partner. Their faces shifted into ones of annoyance as their hands moved back to a more neutral position.
Cynthia took the opportunity to talk over the grumbling of the other seven at how their ears were ringing. With the tone of someone that knew exactly what they had just done, she announced, “Wonderful! Now that we’re all quiet, maybe we can actually do some proper planning! First off, we need to sort out who we all have to call to organise our regions in person while we’re stuck here.”
“Professor Kukui already does a lot of the in-region work while I work with Goh and Professor Cerise,” Ash said. “I’ll just need to let him know that it’ll have to be for longer than we originally planned,” he continued, before turning to the Pikachu on his shoulder. “Sorry buddy, it looks like it’ll be a while before you can train with Cinderace and Raichu.”
Diantha was quick to follow. “It’ll be a similar situation here. I merely need to let Drasna know that I’ll be away for a longer period than normal, so people that need to make more urgent arrangements can do that first.”
Cynthia gave an affirmative nod. “Well, it’s nice to see that some of us have their leagues in order,” she commented, glancing at all the others.
“Cynthia, you act as if my Elite Four haven’t already been running things for me for years!” Alder chuckled.
Wallace shook his head in exasperation. “Alder, please, don’t act like that’s a good thing. Anyway, since Steven is currently in the champion seat for Hoenn, I’ll leave things back there to him.”
“Yeah, that’s up to me. I don’t have anything in place right now, but I’ll hopefully arrange things with Glacia and Drake fairly quickly. Honestly, I’d be willing to argue that they’re both gifts from Arceus himself, they’re both so helpful,” Steven confirmed.
“On that, we are of the same mind,” Wallace agreed.
Unheard by anyone else, Ash muttered, “Trust me, if they were a gift from Arceus you’d probably want to return them before long,” under his breath.
Lance looked contemplative for a second, before appearing to reach a decision and speaking up. “Admittedly, I probably have the most here to do out of anyone, having to watch over two regions. I’ll have Koga and Bruno watch over Kanto, while Karen and Will can handle Johto, in addition to help from the Clair and the Blackthorn Clan.”
Cynthia herself took the initiative to speak again, this time about her own plans for Sinnoh. “So most of us are in a good position, at least. While I personally don’t have anything set up at the moment, there are systems in place for when I go on expeditions. While it’s not exactly the same situation, I’m sure my Elite Four can handle it. But what about you, Leon? Galar has no Elite Four to help.”
The champion in question merely shrugged. “Well, it’s not like I’m the only one without a true Elite Four. Last I checked, Alola was still setting theirs up,” Leon commented, taking a glance at Ash.
“True, but Professor Kukui and I have pretty much finished all the paperwork necessary to get the Kahunas set up with official titles. And they already did everything on their own before Alola even had a league,” Ash answered.
Grinning, Leon said, “Well, you’ve got me there! But in all seriousness, Galar will be fine. Our major circuit Gym Leaders are more involved in governing the region than most other places. Plus we’ve got Professor Magnolia in place as a temporary Chairwoman.”
As Cynthia nodded at Leon’s answer, Alder put his hands together in a loud clap. “Well then, now that we’ve got that sorted, who wants to make the first calls?”
In response, Ash and Leon simply pulled their RotomPhones out of their pockets, the electric types inside also letting out a small sound in greeting. “Ash and I obviously don’t have much to sort, so we’ll leave the vidphones to the rest of you muppets that refuse to get one of these.”
Ash followed up Leon’s statement by saying, “Yep! The calls to both Kanto and Alola should be fairly short, so Rotom will do just fine for me! Plus if RotomDex is visiting Kukui then they can have a chat as well.”
“In that case, would anyone mind if I went first and used the phone in here? I… have a lot to do,” Lance sheepishly asked. He at least had the decency to look embarrassed, though.
Diantha gave a smile at that comment. While to most it would have appeared completely serene, the champions knew otherwise as they recognised the mirth in it. They all winced at whatever comment was about to head in Lance’s direction. “Well, it would appear that we have finally found a flaw within the great Dragon Master! You know, besides the fact that his organisation can’t seem to stop even the most minor Team Rocket plot and half his team aren’t even dragons.”
“Hey, that was uncalled for! Charizard and Gyarados are dragons in spirit…” Lance whined. He turned to Ash and Leon for support. “Please say something, you two? You both have Charizard team members as well!”
Ash and Pikachu simply snickered, while Leon shot back with, “Hey, don’t drag us into this. You’re the one that claimed to be a type master but wasn’t consistent about it. I mean, Wallace and Steven use typed teams as well, but they don’t go around claiming to be ‘masters’!”
As Lance lowered his head in defeat, Cynthia tried to get the conversation back on topic. “Ok, so Ash and Leon have their RotomPhones, and Lance is using the phone in here first. Who wants to use the conference room phone first.”
“As much as it pains me to admit, Wallace and I are in a similar situation to Lance. Would it be possible if I took that one first?” Steven requested.
“I don’t see why not,” Alder answered. “My league are used to functioning without me, and most of Unova are just waking up anyway, so I need to wait regardless. As for the two lovely ladies, they seem to be much more organised than some of us, so I imagine they wouldn’t mind waiting either!”
Cynthia grimaced, but nodded. “As much as I dislike Alder’s choice of vocabulary… he’s actually right for once. Go ahead and get yourself sorted. Wallace, I assume you’ll be accompanying him?” she said, turning towards the Top Coordinator as she spoke to him.
“Indeed I shall! I can’t leave this one on his own now, can I, dear?” Wallace responded, addressing Steven directly with the end of his statement.
Steven’s cheeks lit up slightly at the comment, although he showed no outward change beyond that. “Well then, let’s go get this done,” he said, turning to leave with Wallace. As he walked away, he could be heard saying, “I really hope Glacia and Drake are free. Sydney and Phoebe are amazing battlers, but the less said about their organisational skills…” was all that could be heard as the door shut behind him, cutting off the rest of his sentence.
As they had been discussing the arrangements for the Hoenn league, Lance had already begun the first of many calls that he would have to make for Kanto and Johto. Taking this as a sign that the official group meeting was over, Ash called out to the others. “I’m gonna go and start organising what little I actually need to do. The quicker I finish, the sooner I can train, after all!” he continued, before stopping and contemplating something for a second. “Actually… Leon, you don’t have much to do to get things sorted, either, right?”
Leon looked confused for a second, but gave an affirmative answer. “Yeah, it should only take ten minutes, why?”
Ash grinned at Leon’s answer, saying, “Well then, meet me on the training field in thirty minutes. Pikachu has a score to settle with your Charizard, unless you’re too much of a Torchic to risk losing your ‘undefeated’ title!”
“Oi, hold on a minute!” Leon cried out in protest, but it went ignored by Ash as he charged out the room followed by his Pikachu companion, already searching up the number for Professor Kukui on the RotomPhone. Galar’s champion merely sighed for a second, before getting a determined face. “Well, if the bloody toddler wants to lose again, who am I to deny him. Alder, Diantha, Cynthia? I’ll see you all later. I’ve got a professor to speak to and a kid to beat.”
Diantha was the first of the three to answer. “Well, if you insist. But I wouldn’t be so confident if I were you. Arceus knows that Pikachu is far stronger than it has any right to be. You Galarians always were good at underestimating your opponents.”
“Well, at least we have a positive victory record. Can’t particularly say the same about Kalos,” Leon retorted.
“Oh stop, you two. Leon doesn’t surprise me, but I didn’t realise you of all people would be involved in those Kalos vs Galar debates, Diantha!” Alder said.
Ignoring the Kalosian and Unovan champions, Cynthia merely said to Leon, “While Diantha may have been joking, Arceus literally does know about how powerful that Pikachu is. I’m still not entirely convinced that it isn’t a divine blessing.”
“Well, whatever. I’m sure it’ll be a Champion Time regardless,” Leon said, smirking as he addressed no-one in particular while jogging out the main room.
Cynthia and Alder shouted out after him as he did so. “Of course it will be! WE’RE ALL CHAMPIONS!”
Diantha glanced at her colleagues as she turned to walk away, making her own mental plans and muttering to herself as she did so. “Oh dear. These will certainly be an interesting few months…”