//------------------------------//
// 7. Entry of the Gladiators 
// Story: Alola to a New World! 
// by Tapu Meme 
//------------------------------//

 Gerson's current full title was former Captain of the Royal Guard, Hammer of Justice, appointed Blacklist Hunter to the most honored Tapu Lele. But he was an old, retired shiny turtonator whose title didn't garner so much attention nowadays.

He sat near some other pokemon on a flat, plateauing slope of Mauna Loa, an active volcano that reminded Gerson of the highest peaks of Wela Volcano park. On instinct alone, he had migrated to the strongest source of volcanic activity he could sense (along with probably every other fire type on the island) and settled down as far as he could from the tourist trails and the feistier pokemon that frequented them. 

It wasn't so bad here, Gerson thought to himself, running his claws over his old Z-crystal for the thousandth time that day. At least, he hoped so.
Most of the fire types he had managed to get some passing conversation out of were either blase or unaware of just how far away they were from the alolan volcano their ancentors had spent their whole lives on. 

So now he sat, waiting for another message from Tapu Lele after the first one he had gotten this morning. She had mentioned that she needed help from whatever hunters she had available, but she had made no attempts to clear up what she planned to do about that. Not over the Z-Channel where Gerson and his posse could hear it, anyway. 

Gerson was surrounded by drowsy salandit, who were all settling down to sleep and sunbathe through the sweltering heat of noon. In particular, they clustered around a tough-looking Garchomp that crouched on her haunches and shaded her head with one wing, and a wizened old salazzle that let her youngest children climb on her back and play Got Your Tail. They were as noisy as a flock of chatot, complete with pinching and play fighting and shreiking right into their grandmother's ears, but she snoozed through everything with a serene smile. They left Gerson alone, since all he wanted to talk about was boring old person stuff. 

"So," Avior finally grumbled, carefully scooting away from the tiny first stage pokemon littering the ground. "I guess I owe you and that old salazzle a thank you for pulling me out of that lava vent I was trapped in.

"Yer most welcome." Gerson replied. 

"Ah, okay." Avior grunted as she sat on the floor with a thump. She looked towards the piles of salandit. "One apology down, about a hundred left to go."

"Those little lizards really got you out of a tight bind, didn't they?" Gerson chuckled, holding up his Z-crystal against the sunlight. "If it weren't for them, you might not have been found in time for us to pull you out."

"Yeah," she breathed, leaning back against her tail. 

The two sat in silence after that, staring out over Hawhinny. The only noise for awhile was the play-fighting of the baby salandit, and the distant sound of two pokemon rapidly climbing the mountain. 

"Hey...are those more marowak?" Avior asked, squinting at the distant dust clouds. 

Hearing this, a sentry salandit scurried over and perched on Avior's knee to get a better look. 

"Too fast for Marowak." He proclaimed after a moment, and jumped off to go tell the grandma salazzle. 

The two dragons looked back at the approaching...whatever they were, pondering. 

The messenger salandit came back, but this time he perched on Gerson's head.

"Hmmm..." he mused. 

"Hm?" Gerson wondered aloud. 

"HMMMMMM..." The salandit mused harder. 

"Hm?" Gerson repeated, unsure of what exactly was happening. 

The salandit suddenly leaned down, said simply, "Hunters, no doubt" and slithered off Gerson's head shell and went back to his post.  

"Hunters?" Avior snorted. "Is one of them prey and the other predator?"

“No, no." Gerson chuckled, tucking his now glowing Z-crystal into a notch in his shell. "They're both hunters. Hunting me under orders of the esteemed Tapu Lele, if I'm lucky."

"They're here."

"What? Wh--Whoa there!” Gerson fell over as a riolu skidded to a stop and a rolling graveler zipped past.

“Gerson, right?” The riolu brightly inquired, standing squarely in front of Avior. The graveler trundled back to where his companion had stopped on a dime, noticing the elderly turtonator strewn on the ground when Gon had passed him by. 

“Euh…” Gerson looked between the curious faces of the two new arrivals, then caught Avior's amused eye. 

"Gerson? These kids know you from somewhere?"

Gon followed Avior's gaze, finally noticing the old fire turtle the graveler was helping up. Gerson sat up with a grunt, easing back on to the flat rock he was sitting on before.  

"Gon, you mutt!" The graveler scolded, giving Gerson some space. "You could've KILLED this old guy!"

"What?! Oh no," Gon ran over to Gerson. "I'm so sorry, mister. I should've been looking where I was going!"

"S'fine. Still kickin, aren't I?" Gerson stood up to regard the speedy first stager and the grumpy second stage. 

"GROUND TYPE!" Everyone jumped as the call went out across the salandit sentries. "GROUND TYPE! GROUND TYPE!"

The salandit and governing salazzle all lept into action, strongest pokemon closer to danger, weaker in the back. A writhing wall of towering salazzle began to form with piles of salandit filling the cracks between their feet and widened the wall's reach as best they could. The graveler cried out in shock as a pile of lizards began to advance, hissing and spitting fire and venom. 

Avior sighed in a way that was just too nonchalant for what was happening, then reached out to pluck the graveler up from the ground and plunk him on her head. 

The lizard wall reeled in confusion for a few moments. Staring at the graveler clinging fearfully to Aviors head and whispering among themselves. 

Finally, the grandma salazzle pushed her way to the front of the formation. She walked with a slight limp, claws behind her back as she silently regarded the situation. 

"Avi," she finally said in a creaky voice. "if this is a freind of yours, I will allow thier stay. Provided there are no incidents, of course."

"Of course, Grandma Sala." Avior nodded, almost knocking the graveler loose. "I'll be the first on to chuck him off the mountain if he causes any trouble."

"Thank you, dear. False alarm!" The elder salazzle proclaimed, her call echoed by the sentries. 

"False alarm!"

"False alarm!"

"Back to sleep everyone, chop chop!"

And the lizards all spread out across the hardened lava floes of Mauna Loa, leaving Gon, Gerson and most of all the graveler in a state of slight shock. 

"Anyway," Avior said cheerfully. "what brings the two of you to our humble encampment? I assume you hunter guys had some buisiness with Gerson over there."

"Y-yeah, " the graveler stuttered, still slightly dazed. "Gon and I came to find you, Gerson sir. We--Gon?"

"Got your tail!" A salandit shreiked, yanking Gon to the ground. Gon yelped as the salandit scattered away from the new tail-puller. Gon stood up, brushed himself off, and cast a cheeky eye over his new playmates.  

"I'm comin to get you!" Gon laughed, lunging at the quickest salandit of the bunch, who was taken completely by surprise, and almost got caught. They laughed as Gon chased down his quarry with all the seriousness of a playful puppy. 

"Oh, he's run off." Avior observed. 

"D'aw, let 'im have his fun." Gerson chuckled. "You're only young once, yanno?"

"I'm the exception!" Gon yelled back, laughing as he caught his prey. "Got your tail!"

None of the older pokemon could descern what that meant, so they left him be. 

"To get back on topic," the graveler slowly continued. "We came with news and instructions from Tapu Lele."

“Whose-” Avior started just as Gerson exclaimed “Finally! Well don't leave me hanging, what is it?”

Gon continued to play with the baby salandit, leaving the graveler to give a report to the dragons.  He thought about the flare, meditating on its contents until the message moved the graveler’s mouth all on its own.

“Tapu Lele is currently acting as the sole mediator of pokemon and pony relations. Her main job, as of now, is to quell rampages and reign in pokemon that would be dangerous to ponies or the environment.”

“Seems like her.” Gerson mused, not looking at all perturbed by the drastically different voice that had just come out of the graveler’s mouth. “She was always more keen on thinking an talkin her way through her problems. A bit of an oddball among the Tapus, if ya ask me. Not that that’s a bad thing.”

“Right,” the graveler muttered, searching through the flare. “Uh, she said that she met a minotaur in the police force that could prove useful later, called Under Chief Nurzak. But she has no idea where the other Tapus are, so she sent me and Gon out to find more allies for her. She's very overworked at the moment."

"Again," Gerson sighed. "that sounds just like her."

"None of this makes any sense to me so far." Avoir reminded them. 

"Oh, of course." Gerson bapped the side of his own head with his hand. "Lemme lay it out for ya. The four Tapus are the guardian dieties of Alola, and they keep the pokemon and humans of Alola at peace. They have kahunas overseeing trial captians and trail-goers to keep in touch with humans, and three star hunters to keep track of two star, one star and zero star hunters for pokemon."

"So in this case, hunters are part of a hunters association?"

"Exactly!" Gerson exclaimed, accidentally waking up some nearby salandit. "The pokemon have hunters, and the humans have the Island trials."

"So, can just any pokemon be a hunter...?"

"No, no, there are plenty of prerequisites." Gerson began to count on his claws. "Be at least level 30, pass the hunters exam, not be a trainers pokemon--you can get yer license revoked if yer ever captured by a trainer--and a buncha other rules that I can't remember right now. Ask me later and it'll return to me."

"Or just dig up a glowing rock buired near a bunch of bones, I guess." The graveler murmured to himself.

"Okay, let me try and figure this out." Avior pressed her claws to the sides of her head. "You two and that riolu over there are part of a formal organization under the jurisdiction of your patron legendary, and you call yourself hunters. So, right now, you both are on a mission for that same legendary...Tupui? I forget."

"Tapu Lele--"

"Yeah, that's the one. Anyway, you, graveler, are here to report about this Tapu's whereabouts and about the new allies she has gathered amongst the ponies, as well as the job of pokemon-pony relations that she has been assigned under the pony government. Am I on the right track?"

"I think you've just about hit the nail on the head." Gerson beamed.

"So, graveler, what do you want this old turtle to do about all this?" Avior closed her rant. "You said that Tapu Lele needed allies, but what does she need them for?"

"I..." The gravler searched though the flare once more. "It says...I mean she said, that we would need to gather up allies to search for Arceus."

A silence hung in the air after that proclamation. The graveler shrank, believing he had said something wrong. Gerson looked at Avior, trying to catch her eye. Her gaze was fixed at the ground, gears turning in her head.

"So..." Avior said slowly. "she thinks that a legendary from Sinnoh--that hasn't been seen or believed in for centuries--has risen and caused all of this pony ruckus?"

The gralever nodded.

"Well, this Island aint so big." Gerson replied cheerfully. "We could sweep the whole thing in about a week or two."

"Do you really think this is just about one island?" Avior asked quietly.

All three were dead silent after that. They watched the game of the first stagers, as a smaller and slower salandit clawed at her playmates tails, nearly crying in frustration when they all scampered away from her. Gon was panting in the heat of high noon, and sat down to rest in Grandma Sala's shade. He nonchalantly stuck out his tail, pretending not to notice as the sniffling salandit snuck up and yanked it with all her strength. He yelped and jumped up, inspiring the salandit to let out a peal of laughter through her jagged sobs. He caught sight of her over his shoulder, and she scurried away as fast as she could to join her friends. He looked around and picked his next target to chase, and paced around on all fours to pretend like he wasn't planning a coordinated attack. 

Suddenly, he pounced towards the largest clump of salandit, catching three (one in each paw and one in his mouth) and called "Goh Ouh Taih!"

"That's cheating!" one shrieked as Gon lept backwards.

"Wait, which one of us is the tail-puller?" another pondered.

"You!" the last one screamed, grabbing his tail and yanking as hard as he could. "Got your tail!"

And so, the game dissolved into chaos. Random salandit grabbed each others tails and yanked each other to the ground, play-fighting for the sake of roughhousing. Gon snuck away from the chaos and hid himself in Avior's shade, panting. He looked dazed with heat.

"How you doin, bud?" Avior curled her tail around her legs to better hide him from the wild salandit. Gon said nothing, as all he could do was pant with his toungue lolling out try to keep himself from overheating.

"So, would ye say we've covered everything in the flare, graveler?" Gerson looked back up at the precariously balanced pokemon on Avior's head. 

"Just about, yeah." He said. "She--Tapu Lele explained the rest without any flare, so if you need any details about the hunt for Arceus I can fill you in."

"The Hunt for Arceus." Grandma Sala mused from beneah her pile of screaming grandchildren. "That does have a nice ring to it."

The hunters and the ground types watched warily as the ancient salazzle propped her head onto her elbows and shooed her offspring away with a few quiet commands. The salandit scurried off, shouting and pulling tails the whole way. 

Grandma Sala remained sunbathing on the ground. The other pokemon gave her quizzical looks, until the graveler asked, "Well, what's it to you?"

Avior almost chucked him off the volcano right then and there, but Grandma Sala took it in good humor. She barked a hearty laugh and slapped at the ground with one wrinkled claw, which helped Avior relax considerably. 

"What's it to me?" Grandma Sala asked much more seriously, and Avior tensed again. "Those words that you spoke are orders from my Tapu, you overgrown roggenrola. Tapu Lele is the mind of the islands overflowing with life, alongside the body, Bulu, the blood, Fini, and the heart, Koko. And I was a totem of Akala, totem to the trial of Wela Volcano like Alain before me, and Kaizuk before her. And in all my years of serving that position, never once has something so great and so jarring happened to scare my stupid little children as much as they have been by all of this ponyland nonsense. That's what a hunt for Arceus means to me. Now," she fixed the graveler with a hard stare. "What's in it for all of you?"

"...We might get to go home." Gon said, just out of Grandma Sala's sight. 

Sala blinked and stated at Avior's tail as Gon poked his head over the long, battle scarred fins at the end. He stared back at Sala with apprehensive determination. 

"Well, that's my reason, anyway. Going home to my island. I left all my stuff there..." He said, sinking back down. "...I just thought your reason sounded the same..."

Grandma Sala looked to be deep in thought for a moment, then sat up. She crossed her legs and her back arched involuntarily, but she was up. 

"Indeed it does, strange little rockruff." She said. "Very much the same."

The graveler let out a releived breath as Gerson asked "Does this mean you're joining the hunt?"

"Nope!" She beamed. "I'm volunteering Avi."

"Wh--hey!" Avior stood up so suddenly that the graveler actually did lose his grip. He fell onto her back, his long arms still clutching Avior's torpedo-like head crests.  "Don't I get a say in this?!" She cried. 

"I dunno, do you have anything better to do?" Sala asked with a cheeky smile. 

"Yes!" Avior said with an exasperated yell. "I could look for my trainer Cynthia." 

"Then you'd have better luck finding her if you had three licenced hunters on your side, wouldn't you say?"

"I..." Avior looked around at Gon and Gerson, then back to Sala, then back around at the graveler. 

"Okay, all of you, look," She hissed. "If Sala is volunteering me, you don't get to refuse my services. We can look for Acreus, but only if I get somemon's help looking for my trainer." 

Seeing the look Avior was giving Gon, he quickly suggested "Like Dharak?"

All at once Gon wished he hadn't said that. Avior locked him with a glare so feirce that he ran away to hide behind Grandma Sala. The old salazzle chuckled and bowed her head to Avior with her eyes cast to the ground, which meant peace in draconic body language. 

Gon looked up at what Grandma Sala was doing, and seemed to understand. He sat down and tried to mimic exactly what she was doing. 

Avior continued to glare for a moment, but slowly relaxed and bowed her own head in apology. 

"Dharak?" The graveler asked, perhaps against his better judgement. "You mean that loud Salamence that we were talking to with the Z-crystals?"

"That would be the one." Gerson confirmed. "You two weren't thinkin of 'recruiting' him or anything, right?"

"Maybe," the graveler hoisted himself up and settled back into a comfortable position on Avior's head, with his feet on her shoulders. "we'd have to meet him first. Why?"

Gerson looked at Avior, who kept her head bowed to Gon and  Grandma Sala. 

"You can ask him yourself." Avior said suddenly, a bit of edge in her voice. "It'd be nice to get him back for one of my older scars."

"Oh, yeah!" Gon perked up. "We can talk right now with the Z-crystals!"

"Wh--right now?" Avior asked uneasily as Gon held up his crystal and closed his eyes to concentrate on it. 

"You offered." Grandma Sala shrugged. 

"Y'know," Gerson said suddenly. "I haven't heard much from that guy. I mean, Gon was using the crystals a lot earlier, but I haven't heard much from anyone since. Tapu Lele, Gon's family, all dead quiet."

"You think they're too busy?" Grandma Sala offered. 

"No," Gerson replied. "I think someone's jammin the signal."

"Guys!" Gon yelled suddenly, spooking everyone. "Listen with your crystals!"

"Oh, what's happening now?" The graveler complained as he pressed his crystal to the top of Avior's head and Gon shared his crystal with Grandma Sala. 

They all went silent to the sound of a dragon's wingbeats, far away from Mauna Loa, towards a familiar police station. 



A dragons roar, loud enough to make the cubicle walls rattle, startled unicorn Deputy Contest Steer and his hippogriff superior Paige out of their heated debate.

Of course, out of the two, (indeed, out of everypony in the building) Contest was mildly sure that he was the only pony who recognised the sound. Perhaps he was being harsh, but he highly doubted that anyone else from this sheltered tropical paradise had ever heard a dragon’s roar. 

“What was that?” Paige asked with a lilt of worry carrying through her voice, and it was so familiar that Contest had to keep himself from cracking a smile. 

They heard a chair creak. The entire office turned to watch as Ruben determinedly stood up and trotted out the door without a word as to where he intended to go. 

Contest and Paige exchanged a glance and returned to their case file. Before they had been interrupted, Paige had been arguing that she needed a unicorn to handle the tracking portion of the missing pony case. 

“Listen, Sarge. ” Contest hissed as the white noise of the office started up again, slowly, quietly. “I mean no disrespect when I say this, but assigning me only search and rescue cases one after another...it's counterproductive! My specialty lies with disguise and espionage, not tracking and spell-slinging.”

“It helps to work outside of your comfort zone every once in awhile, Deputy. That’s how you get promotions instead of a pink slip.”

“Saying that is easy, doing it is a whole other mess!” Contest raised his voice as the conversations of other officers returned to their normal levels. Paige’s annoyed attitude was beginning to seep into her own mood. He already knew he couldn't fully win here, but he had other things to worry about besides locating whatever random belongings that some airhead tourist lost at the beach that they should have left at home.  

Paige opened her beak to deliver a sick burn to her lazy underling at the exact moment that Ruben screamed from the office entrance:

“There’s a dragon on the front lawn!”

Contest died a little. A dragon. On the front lawn of this exact police station. Paige craned her head over the cubicle wall to search Ruben’s face for an explanation, then looked to Contest’s lock-jawed expression with confusion and disbelief.

After a hesitant moment, the office began to ruffle with a doubt, until the first officer got up to follow Ruben to his dragon. Then another, then yet another, until the trickle of curious ponies devolved into a stampede around Paige’s cubicle.

Contest was out first, slipping into the crowd before Paige could call his name. 

He darted between ponies and was soon squeezing through the front door and following the crowd of ponies spilling out of the front entrances. He pushed his way forward to get a better look at the scene.

A bright blue and red four legged dragon, too big to be an adolescent but not big enough to be fully grown, stood motionlessly in front of Chief Barodius, and behind him Doctor Cassarina cowered as she maintained the shield spell she had cast over it.

What is it? What happ...ened...  Tapu Lele flew over the crowd but ground to a halt when she saw what was happening.

“Miss Lele,” the Chief casually called her over. “I believe I have found our second official police pokemon!”

Your what? Tapu Lele looked over to the salamence trapped in the magic shield. He glowered back at her and lashed his tail against the barrier, letting out a roar muffled by the restricting magic. 

Dharak? Why are you here? She asked as she examined the force feild. 

Dharak didn't respond. In fact, he didn't seem to notice Tapu Lele at all. He paced around a bit, then suddenly Dragon Rushed at the walls for a few minutes until he tired himself out. 

"Oooh, feisty." The Cheif chuckled. "I like that."

Tapu Lele put a hand on the sheild, which sparked and gave off a small Thundershock. Dharak was getting rather badly electrocuted as well. 

What is the meaning of this?! Tapu Lele asked, nearly shrill. Why are you keeping him in such a state? Doctor Cassarina is using too much power to keep thishorrid thing activated! Doctor, please, she turned to the strained unicorn. 

"That'snot her call to make, Lele." Cheif Barodius said with hint of annoyance. "You may go back inside now, you still have lots of papers to look over."

Tapu Lele froze. That was the rudest anyone had ever been to her! Not refering to her as Tapu, dissmissing her like that. She floated down to address the Chief to his face.

Mr. Strident-- 

“That’s Chief to you, Miss Lele.” Barodius snapped.

Then it's Tapu to you, Mr. Strident. Lele calmly retorted.

A flicker of tension hung in the air as Contest looked from pokemon to pony. He didn't realize that Paige was standing next to him until he heard her whisper.

“Gyo.”

Contest nearly jumped out of his skin and nearly smacked into the pony next to him. 

“Oh, hey there.” Paige smiled. “I must've scared you, huh?”

“Not one bit.” Contest wheezed. “And, go? Go where?” 

“Nowhere.” Paige turned back to the standoff between Chief and Legend. “I wasn't talking to you.”

...was just going to be for a side mission on my own time. Lele was gesturing towards the dragon now. Besides, I made sure to tell you that I was planning on having Dharak come over and assist me.

They had missed a bit of the Tapu and the Chiefs argument, but it looked like with the choice of topic he had backed her into a corner.

“So, if I have this straight,” Barodius brushed her explanation aside. “You have been planning to send out a scouting expedition to find some ~legendary~ pokemon that you don't know the location or appearance of based on a theory--a theory! Of why your pokemon are on my islands, rather than focusing on their immediate troubles?”

It wasn't time taken from my duties-- 

Barodius interrupted her. “It is an endeavor that you have been putting horsepower behind. You have been delegating complacent, working pokemon that could be helping my forces--”

They are NOT complacent! Lele exploded, the Chief darkening his glare. They are independent beings that have their own goals, and I am not the one who orders then around like you do for your...police...army!

“But they take your commands, and since you are under my command--”

Dharak is NOT under my command! He has every right to refuse my request if I ask him, but you are keeping him in a pokeball and FORCING HIM TO TAKE ORDERS! And I will not assist nor condone this! So order your soldiers to go back into the building so that they will not be harmed when you LET HIM GO.

Cassarina made a noise and tried to whisper something in Barodius’s ear, but he brushed her off just as easily as he did Tapu Lele.

“I am afraid not, Miss Tapu.” he sighed. “Because for now, it is a matter of subjugating one pokemon so that many other creatures--pony and pokemon alike--may live.”

You… Tapu Lele began, her tone full of hatred. She stopped herself before she could say anything out of anger, but it was hard to cool down as she felt the eyes of the gathered ponies boring into her. Although she couldn’t read Barodius or Cassarina’s thoughts, the thoughts of the police pones were terrifyingly agreeable. Yes, why not? Maybe Barodius is right about that ‘good of all’ thing. Just keep this one dangerous dragon in captivity as a big red button in case of danger. It might go around eating ponies if it was allowed to roam free. It would be safer, it just makes sense. Why is that pink pokemon so defensive? Why was her hunt more important than ponies lives--

Tapu Lele glowed suddenly, with the light of a Calm Mind and the spread of a misty Psychic Terrain. She cooled her thoughts and steeled her determination. 

Chief Strident. She began slowly, confidently, as the ponies around her flinched and wondered if she was going to attack. I can see why you would want this dragon on your side, under a watchful eye that will protect him from situations that may provoke him to violence. But I can not allow you to set an example of pokemon subjugation for all of your officers to see. 

“Meaning?”  Chief Barodius was either on the verge of winning or about to be defeated in front of all of his forces.

Meaning that the only way you will have a pokemon under your command is with their consent. The only way that this salamence Dharak can work as a police pokemon is if he graduated from an academy or passed an exam to earn a badge of a Private Officer of the law. He is sentient, and hopelessly untrained, you understand.  

Lele scanned the minds of the ponies again. All of thier previous thoughts were replaced with mullings of the logic in recruiting a technically sentient dragon into a small-town police force. Wouldn't he need training? What would he do on the force? Who would care for him?

Others among them now thought of her a bit too clever for her own good, but there was also a changeling hiding amongst the crowd that was starting to consider allying herself with someone who could so easily think up and exploit bureaucratic loopholes, which cheered Lele up considerably. 

So, until the Salamence Dharak consents to formal policemon training, your Doctor Cassarina will have to set him free. I would advise that all personnel go into the police building as I have previously requested while we speak to him. 

A pregnant pause followed this declaration. The prying eyes of all of the police ponies flitted from pokemon legendary to defiant Chief and back again, watching and waiting for a verdict with bated breath. 

“Tapu Lele,” the voice of Barodius’s hatred was in no way hidden, but it was no vicious snarl or spat curse. His anger was spoken in the lofty, disappointed monotone of a school principal talking to a rowdy foal, an immovable wall that dealt consequences while taking none, unaffected by reason of any sort. “I am afraid that you are in no way authorized to give those orders.”

But...you have no right to force Dharak to your bidding. Lele was growing more and more uneasy by the thoughts of the crowd, especially that of the cowering changeling. You have no more right to force Dharak into your forces than you do with any tourist--

“I think that you will find, Miss Lele,” He looked Tapu Lele in the eye as he said this. “that there is no law preventing me from doing so.”

What? So you can just take random ponies off of the street here?

“No, but there is no law preventing me from drafting a willing volunteer into active service. Cassarina, if you will.”

The shaking unicorn let her shield and her body fall. The police ponies gasped and shrieked as the magical light flickered out. Dharak tentatively stepped out of the boundaries of the trampled grass, scanning the scenery around him as his eyes adjusted to the light outside of the force field.

STOP! Tapu Lele forced herself out of shock to command the Psychic Terrain around her to surround the salamence, whipping it into a miniature pink tornado that obscured him from the ponies now stampeding back into the building or scattering to the streets.

Lele was having a hard time keeping Dharak from lifting off and snacking on the fleeing ponies, but she was having a harder time keeping herself from slapping Barodius upside the head. Are you insane?! You could have killed all of these ponies! You could have killed yourself!

"Really now?” Barodius smiled.

Dharak flapped his wings, Defogging Tapu Lele’s Psychic Terrain just long enough to roar “SALAAAAA!”

A flash of confusion crossed Lele’s face. She turned her head from Barodius’s smug expression to the enraged salamence she was holding down.

“What is he saying, Miss Lele?”

Lele didn’t answer.  She stared at the tornado mist and the shifting silhouette of the dragon inside.

Barodius was chuckling now. Did he have this planned all along? “Come on now, Miss Lele. If you weren’t going to translate, I’ll simply have my darling Cassarina do it.”

Lele still said nothing, but slowly, reluctantly, she waited for Psychic Terrain to dissipate. The tornado blew out into a swirling gale, then a strong current, then a mild breeze, until Dharak could ignore it entirely. He triumphantly threw his head back and approached the Chief with his head held high.

Barodius didn’t flinch as the dragon drew closer and closer, smiled as he stopped close enough for Dharak to reach and bite him in half. 

But Dharak reached his claw into a crook in his wing, where he held a scratched, pink, glowing crystal. He set it down at Barodius’s hooves, watching Lele out of the corner of his eye. 

Barodius only noticed the crystal, and he snatched it up and tossed it to Cassarina, who was still virtually passed out on the ground and made no attempt to catch it.

He...

“Hm?” Barodius finally looked at Lele.

Dharak. Lele looked perturbed, yet defiant. You said ‘He’s my master.’

“Mence.” Dharak bared his fangs and snarled at Lele. “Sal Sala!”

‘I am trained, and bow only to a trainer.’ Lele translated slowly. The speech patterns of wild dragons were often highly simplistic and their meanings context-derived.

“Well, at least somemon around here has good taste.” Barodius chuckled.

Well, if you bow only to a trainer, Lele continued. Then, you are in no way a hunter.

Tapu Lele held up her hand and summoned the Z-crystal where it lay on the grass near Cassarina. It zipped into Lele’s grasp, and just before she crushed it to dust she sent a huge flare to all of the pokemon listening on the other side of the Z-channel. 

She watched the depowered sand crumble through over her palm, the crystal’s power seeping back into her reserves. She could already feel a fresh wave of the Chief’s anger, and Dharak’s resentment bore no better. She paid them no mind for now.

This new flare had been the most detailed yet, and might last longer in the minds of the hunters, but she needed them to know what she was thinking. Even though her ‘plans’ at this point were going to be mainly her bureaucratically grasping at straws and stalling for time, but at the moment she couldn’t bring herself to care about anything else but the hunters she had left on Mauna Loa. 

She hoped they could find Arceus, but more importantly she hoped she could keep them away from Barodius Strident.



On the flat slopes of Mauna Loa, all of the pokemon listening through the Z-crystals were on the ground, clutching their heads and groaning.

Gon was the first to recover. His vision still swam but the ringing in his ears had stopped and the pins and needles pricking every inch of his flesh were starting to subside. He sat up and squinted around at the other pokemon still immobile on the ground. 

“Is--cough--is everyone okay?” 

No one answered him, but the pokemon strewn around Gon all seemed to be breathing, so he let himself fall back to the ground to quiet the growing headache forming just above his brow. He noticed the fuzzy shapes of salandit crowding around Grandma Sala. 

“Gon?” She shakily called out.

“...Hhhhm...?” he strained to listen through the ringing in his ears. 

“Please...do me a favor…”

“...Yeah…?”

“If I ever meet Tapu Lele again in my lifetime...hold me back."