The ketchum conference

Movie 14

Lance: "Hopefully Alder's calmed down now."
Alder: "Yep. Went out and beat up a Gyarados, now I feel much better."
Marshal: "Boss..."
Alder: "What? Anyway, uh... who was it? Caitlin, Shauntal, which of you two was first."
Caitlin: "That's it. We have the same incident..."
Shauntal: "But we have different events."
Grimsley: "...oh, you're kidding. More of this time stuff?"
Cynthia: "Given the number of times the world was nearly destroyed when Ash was in Sinnoh, if you got away with merely something slightly inconsistent about a single event you got off lightly. Okay, let's hear it."

Shauntal: "First, I should mention that Ash encountered Zekrom - the Dragon of Ideals - on his first days in Unova. That much is not in dispute."
Lorelei: "Makes sense."
Shauntal: "His Pikachu got in an argument with it... anyway, the events of the incident itself. There was a man called Damon, who had either Zekrom or Reshiram, and befriended some... villagers?"
Caitlin: "I had townspeople."
Bruno: "I'm confused already."
Caitlin: "Try being the ones trying to get a single consistent narrative out of this before you realized it was self-contradictory. Damon will be important later. Right... Ash was in Eindoak town near the Kingdom of the Vale. The Kingdom is an important location to the people of Unova - it's... well, one of... the locations associated with the creators of the land."
Alder: "This time I can appreciate the legends, I know them!"
Shauntal: "There was something called the Dragon Force, which the People of the Vale used to cultivate their land. There was a civil war in this Vale, pitting Zekrom against Reshiram, and that made the Dragon Force run wild."

Lance: "So, what, loud music?"
*blank faces*
Lance: "No culture, these people. Sorry. Continue."
Caitlin: "The king's supposed to have moved the Sword of the Vale-"
Sidney: "Vale, Vale, Vale. Did these people define everything by the fact they lived in a valley?"
Marshal: "Apparently."
Caitlin: "He moved the Sword of the Vale to plug the Dragon Force off until it could be coped with, using the power of Victini, and expired soon after - unfortunately, trapping Victini within the area of the Sword."
Alder: "Oh, and just in case you were wondering, the Sword's a castle..."
Cynthia: "Because of course it is."
Flint: "Makes as much sense as that Baccer game."

Lance: "So, Ash was around Eindoak?"
Shauntal: "Right. He ran into two Deerling, and tried to save them. We do actually have a bit of film of this."
*clip starts to play*
Cynthia: "That reckless-"
Steven: "Pause that, please."
Steven: "Thank you. Now - what the heck?"
Karen: "I have to admit, it looks a bit... how much do Deerling weigh?"
Grimsley: "Twenty kilos. Each."
Caitlin: "This is the important bit."
*clip resumes*

Several: "Whoa!"
Lance: "That was a... huge jump."
Shauntal: "He'd been empowered by touching Victini - you couldn't have seen it, it was invisible. It basically gave him the power of Victory."
Alder: "Huh. So that's where that Victini went."
Bruno: "That's a huge increase in strength - well, even considering his strength we've just seen."
Caitlin: "Ash met up with his friends again - and Damon - and got into a tournament, during which Victini boosted a couple of his Pokemon - which people did notice. He then lured it out with food and tried to befriend it."
Marshal: "I understand he's pretty good at befriending Legendaries with food."
*muffled giggling*

Lance: "What was that?"
Marshal: "Don't worry, I know, it's nothing important."
Lance: "Right..."
Glacia: "Caitlin? You were saying?"
Caitlin: "Ash got the story of the Vale - the one we'd already mentioned - and - well, Damon's plan was basically to bring the people of Eindoak, who were the People of the Vale, back to the Kingdom of the Vale."
Shauntal: "And it's that which led to him gaining the allegiance of one of the Tao Dragons."
Lance: "And each of you has a different record of which."
Caitlin: "That's right. Okay, you'll never guess how he was going to move the Sword back to the Vale..."
Drake: "Get his Reshikrom or Zekram to tow it?"
Caitlin: "Thousands of Solosis and Duosion, powered by Victini."
Will: *sigh*
Shauntal: "The activation of the mechanism drew Victini in to act as a power source, and the castle flew skywards - releasing the Dragon Force."
Lance: "On a cold winter morning?"
Caitlin: "No, it was a warm summer afternoon."
Lance: "You people need to listen to better music."
Shauntal: "This is what it looked like."
*clip plays*

Glacia: "Impressive."
Steven: "Indeed. I'd assume Ash tried to stop this?"
Caitlin: "Of course he did, Victini was being hurt. He failed, but Damon's mother told him that the only thing which could stop Damon was the other dragon - Reshiram."
Shauntal: "Or Zekrom, of course... anyway, he found it, and won its allegiance. He - sorry, Alder-"
Alder: "Nah, I'd guessed this one."
Shauntal: "He rode it up to the courtyard, and then jumped off and the two dragons went to war in the sky while Ash fought his way to the mechanism."

Caitlin: "Eventually, the dragon battle dropped below the clouds, and both saw the damage being wrought by the Dragon Force. Thus convinced, Damon's dragon changed sides, and they blew the clouds away together - which convinced Damon, too."
Grimsley: "Is this one of those times where convincing the guy who started it don't finish it?"
Shauntal: "You're absolutely correct. There was chaos on that thing. Ash refused to leave without Victini, Victini couldn't leave until the pillars were destroyed, and the castle ended up in the stratosphere before one of the Legendaries could destroy the shield and finally redirect all that energy into space."

Cynthia: "I wish we had a clip for that one."
Shauntal: "Given what happened, I think any camera would have been wrecked. The Sword was eventually landed back where it was supposed to be, and fortunately Victini turned out to have survived."
Lucian: "Good news indeed."
Caitlin: "He's one of the people we interviewed for this, actually."

Alder: "...wait. So, this kid's one of the chosen of the twin dragons? I didn't hear of him with it - or Victini..."
Aaron: "Which dragon would you look for?"
Caitlin: "He's not been accompanied by Giratina, Arceus, Lugia, Suicune or any of the others, either. He just doesn't seem inclined to have them travel with him.... maybe none of them asked."
*Muffled sounds from outside*
Marshal: "Like I said, I know what that was... just give it a minute."
Cynthia: "So, no Ash?"
Shauntal: "Well, most likely the whole of the Vale gets destroyed by the undirected Dragon Force. Damon lands his castle to find only a few people left alive in the whole region, and is devastated. Also possibly Victini dies."
Cynthia: "Ouch."

Marshal: "Okay, my turn. This happened in and around Roshan City, and I've got the best interview subject for this one."
Lance: "Who'd you speak to?"
Marshal: *gets up* "That's it. I've not actually interviewed him yet."
*door opens, gasps*
Lance: "...is that a Legendary-"
Diantha: "He is adorable." *blinks* "Uh, sorry! That was just-"
Keldeo: "No, I'm kind of used to it by now..."

(I couldn't resist.)