Ash Ketchum, pt one

With J dealt with I pulled a black flip cell phone that had begun to ring from my chest rigging. The number on the screen was Samuel's so pressing the accept button I put the phone to an ear. While I answered his call I was handed a mission report and a lab contract. Looking at the lab contract I crossed things out and added my own clauses. Fuck the League if they think I'm just handing our personnels children and grandchildren over without showing fangs.

"Dakota? I hope this is not a bad time to call but I was wondering if you're free for tomorrow?"

"Depends Sam, what are you needing a monster like me for?"

"You are not a total monster Dakota, a monster is beyond being salvaged, you have salvaged and proven much. As for what I would like you to stop by the lab for it is in regards to the new trainers. As you have some historical sway and popularity I would like to invite you over. Give the children a goal to aspire for."

"I'm not a good goal, I'm a lethal goal we know this. So state the hidden reason Samuel Oak, or this call is over."

"Haaa… Given your peculiarities I want you to drill the dangers lurking about into the children's minds."

"Oh, scare them? Fuckin gladly! I'll be over in a few minutes, got a champion coming to harass me for the League."

"Heh be gentle now please? Champions are a regions first and last line of defense."

"Already killed over sixty modern ones, in the ancient era there were over five hundred that were snuffed. They play nice then we play nice, they start something they go six feet under."

"I hate you…"

"Love you bud, see you soon to make some kids faint in bodily fluids!"

Hanging up the phone call I chuckle before closing my phone and storing it away. Magnolia who was still around heard it all while reading the lab contract I modified. She looked up at me while smiling wryly as she scratched her neck a bit.

"Please be gentle with those children lord Cartson, they don't need ptsd. As for these altered clauses I accept them but the League will shit a brick of rage. As you know how they are about new and powerful things, they want a paranoid death grip on them."

"Be gentle? What do you both think I would hurt them THAT much? Geez no faith in the Executioner to be gentle? Ye have a lot of little to no faith in me. League wise? I'll grab that brick and beat one of the League's regional president's skulls with it all over their office."

"Sort of your job too, some of them are corrupt and could use your tender touch. Hm? Seems like your predicted guest has arrived, it's Leon and his little brother Hops."

"Oh a young child? What an odd choice of company to bring along. Anyways Magnolia don't you have your granddaughter to pick up from middle school? I believe she's in the seventh grade, yes?"

"Oh my… You're right it's already five thirty in the afternoon. She must be getting antsy and fussy by now due to me being delayed."

"Sorry for delaying you Magnolia, I'll have one of the field scouts take you to pick her up."

"Thank you for the offer. I appreciate it given what may happen."

Waving Magnolia off as a blue jeep with a middle aged pokemon ranger drove up. The ranger opened the passenger door and let Magnolia board the jeep. Giving the ranger a three fingered signal with my right hand, they drove off. That was when a Charizard landed letting the newest champion off its back with a child. Seeing the two I don't really think much as the youngest champion I've ever seen was eight years old.

That kid was a massive prick and because he thought he was special, he got purged by a black hole. This young champion was frankly very relaxed and happy go lucky from the psychic and emotional reading of him. The child at his side was happy go lucky and admired his older sibling quite a bit.

"Yo! Names Leon, Galar's new champion, this is Hops, my little brother that started elementary school. You must be Dakota Cartson and the most dangerous legend."

"Yo kids, so what does the big temperamental toddler known as the League have to say? Because I doubt they're happy with my renditions and actions, again."

"President Rose said to just ignore that stuff, you've helped everyone out for centuries. So president Rose doesn't want to argue with you sir, just doing this to put up some sort of front. The queen even said don't try and she's practically Galar's greatest elder, so if she says don't we trust her experience."

"Smart choice… Speaking of the queen, how is Elizabeth and her two newest Yampers?"

"Oh! She was just doing wonderful when I last saw her! She was playing fetch in her courtyard with her pups happily and even running with them a bit!"

"Hahaha! Good on her she's almost two hundred years old yet she's still energetic! Reminds of the time I pretended to be one of her royal guards, and watched her beat a terrorist with her purse!"

Leon hearing me chuckled picturing the queen of Galar being so spirited to beat a terrorist. He had met her a few times and she was very much a kind yet great ruler. She could be cold during national terrorist incidents, but afterwards she'd wear her aged heart on her sleeve. The legend before him was much the same but his heart was armored and sickly.

Leon could tell the man before him was broken mentally and emotionally yet still sane enough. He was seemingly open like a book, but the words between the lines were the true book. From what Leon knows from independent studies, Dakota Cartson was married to rather jovial pokemon and had two biological children. Yet he has been seen through history to shelter and protect a select few, each of those occasions he mentioned family.

Leon wasn't a history buff, he was a football player and a pokemon champion. Being a champion meant knowing the dangers of the world so he studied, and committed important details to memory. The man before him was something he couldn't skimp details on. If he moved, Leon would have to abandon possibly millions to protect everyone else. There was no one hit and make sure the ball kept rolling, only one hit and death was swift.

Scratching his cheek Leon was about to say something else when fog appeared. The surroundings were slowly coated in it as two large canine figures lumbered from somewhere. Two of the regional protectors had appeared and these two weren't young like the future ones. They were aged and standing over six feet in height as their massive frames lumbered over to the three.

"Brother Zamazenta and Sister Zacian, what can I do for you both?"

Leon and Hops heard him clearly and realized two historical protectors had appeared. They both weren't in their hero forms but crown forms, they were regal yet dangerous. Leon's eyes dilated a bit as he focused on the three legends before him, two know heroes and a mass murderer. Zamazenta rumbled out a growl while looking down at his younger brother. Zacian was smiling softly as she slowly laid down on the ground.

"It's almost time for us to pass our crowns down to the youth. So I hope you can help us ensure the ceremony goes smoothly. Once the crowns are passed we become ghosts in the annals of time, but the new queen of the shield and the king of sword will be inexperienced."

"So you want me to be of assistance if they need it? That's perfectly fine and arrangeable Zamazenta, tell me the date of the ceremony. I'll make sure I'm there to grant peace and final words between you."

"It will be in six days from now, our bodies are already nearing their limits. So we must do this while we still draw breath or they'll lose this chance."

"Got it… I'll miss you both but I'll bare the fangs of Silence if need be. Silence is the guillotine tower shield defending against attacks and executing threats."

Leon couldn't truly understand the conversation between the two males. He just knew something would be happening to the protectors, and it sounded like it was an important ceremony. After their talk had finished Hops had suddenly appeared by Zacian and hugged her while petting her head.

"Thank you for protecting us Zacian, you're the best."

Zacian looked at Hops while eyeing her sibling with a sideways glance. Getting the message Dakota chuckled while walking over and putting a finger to her head. That was when a very aged motherly voice sounded in the surroundings, startling the champion and child.

"Young one, I'm from the best there is. I have made mistakes, let unsung heroes die due to choices, my blade is not spotless of sins. I'm even leaving future matters to the unready… I'm very much far from great as both a protector and mother. I even join the ghost leaving behind one who can not rest, he must trudge onwards as the oldest of us fade. Thank you for your words, they make me happy at heart but also saddened to leave things as is."

Leon, hearing the sword protector of Galar was stumped, his brain slowing down as he listened. Her words were tired and weary as she spoke to his younger brother. The meaning behind her words was partly clear yet unclear at the same time, to him he did not know what all she meant. However, hearing that she will join the ghost and leave one behind was something he could understand. They were passing the torch on, and only one legend can never do so.

Leon's heart ached when he looked at the one she meant, it made him realize why most of the legends seemed so young.

The old were passing on the torches leaving behind their youngest sibling, who was to forever walk. Leon was a very caring person that could become friends with most in a matter of minutes. So hearing this talk between legends, made his heart ache as he tried to imagine what it's like. What's it like to watch your siblings die off, and be left to watch rash young children? Leon had stopped thinking for a bit as he subconsciously asked a question out loud.

"Why are you the Executioner? It seems like a lonely path to walk. So why?"

The legends and his brother heard him, Zacian turning her attention to the young champion. She spoke in a self mocking tone.

"He chose this knowing he'd watch us die slowly, he couldn't trust a bunch of children to do it."

"Sis, stop… I'll explain my own origins."

The legend known for mass slaughter turned and looked him in the eyes. The self loathing smile on his face as he spoke made Leon want to hit him. How could someone like him loath himself so much when he's doing something selfless?

"Don't think it's been recorded in history records Leon but I originally wasn't from this universe. My clothes you see mark what I was once and still am. My universe had entered a third bloody fuckin war and everyone was a soldier. There were no actual pokemon but there were books and games about pokemon. How I got to this place and position was simply because, betrayal. Betrayed for being a bit too effective at my job that I was erased by my own superiors.

I died instantly and quietly unlike my friends, death granted me a meeting that led to meeting Arceus. She gave me the choice to be a normal human, live a new life. But hearing her ask someone, something like me to be a bloody protector? I thought about it and accepted as the children of balance honestly couldn't do the bloody part. Arceus asked a soul of a soldier from another fuckin world to help! That was a red flag but I grasped it and ripped it up, to spare another soul the fate.

I'm no saint, I have ptsd and shit load of other problems but my choice was correct. While my older siblings pass the torch, I remain to help the inexperienced children. While I do have children, they can never take my role, there's only one eternal Executioner. No child will have it, it'd crush them the moment they even touched the guillotine, unprepared in every way, they'd die not even a day in."

With those final words Leon watched as the legend vanished with a wisp of cyan blue green flames. The two protectors also took their leave as their brother had left suddenly. Hops looked unsure of what had happened that he looked towards his brother. Only to find his brother unfocused, the young champion taking a deep breath.

"Hops we're going home. I need to do something and it'll take me a very long while."

The young Galar champion four days later met with the other world wide champions. Sharing a compiled book of research notes and the words he heard that day. The other champions but another new champion called Cynthia looked at the book called "Executioners Fable" weirdly. They didn't get why they were given this but Cynthia who loved to understand legends. She and Leon found these events and words to paint the picture of a legend.

A legend in human skin that willingly paid a price, earned a dark reputation, yet has a reason that they can understand as people. Simply to keep the blood on the younger generation to a minimum no matter how lonesome.

『Sometime later at Oak Lab』

Upon arriving in Pallet town through teleporting I stretched my arms into the air. Popping my joints before I walked into the small quiet town to the lab. The streets were quiet as older people and the rare young adult wandered about. Happily talking with and helping their neighbors if needed was a rare but pleasant scene. As I walked to the lab I let my team enjoy the scenery, Rascal though was disappointed at no stealing opportunities.