Previously on Galarian Days...
While Zander and Wufu settle into their positions on the seats of Wyndon Stadium, Gym Leaders Annie and Parcel start the first battle of the Champion's Cup finals. But when Annie ends up defying expectations by defeating Parcel, it upsets Chairperson Elle to where she summons the last Dynamiasma, confirming Zander's suspicions...
-
Zander and Wufu kept rushing down the steps to the ledge of the bleachers until they made their jumps over the ledge and combat-rolled onto the pitch, ready to face the final Dynamiasma, windy wings and all.
"Well, well, well!" Zander called out to the giand bird. "Looks like we'll be having some extra-large portions of chicken for lunch!" As expected, the Dynamiasma reacted by flapping its wings at the two anthros, kicking up a tornado that blew Zander back further than Wufu!
While the bear kept a firm hold on the ground due to his higher body mass, the poor wolf's footpaws ended up losing their purchase on the terrain, causing Zander to go flying backwards! "Whoa! No no no no no NOOOOOOOO!!!"
"Zander!" Wufu called out before summoning his watery aura and blasting splashes at the Dynamiasma, but all it did was spray water onto the grass.
Some of the bystanders caught some of the spray as well, making one of them even say, "Oh, that's just great, I didn't know it was gonna rain!"
Meanwhile, Zander was still flying backwards and up because of the wind! Man, how am I gonna get close enough to bust that bird with all this wind going on, he thought. "Wait... That's it!" he said out loud before raising his shield above his head.
What happened next was that his shield caught some of the gust and made him shoot straight up into the air, then he put his shield under his feet to ride and cut through the wind towards the Dynamiasma, using his sword as a rudder to help change his trajectory.
"Look! The colorful wolf!" one of the spectators shouted in amazement at what Zander was doing. "It flies!?"
"Because he knows how!" another said.
As soon as he was close enough, though, Zander extended his sword and swung it at the Dynamiasma, hitting it with a bunch of slashes and causing it to screech in agony until it exploded in a cloud of sky-blue dust!
"Alright! We did it! We destroyed all the Dynamiasmas!" Zander shouted. "Nothing can stop us now!" But in his excitement, Zander forgot that once the Dynamiasma was gone, his weapons were gone with it until... "...Oh, poop."
With no way to stay afloat, Zander started plummeting back down towards earth... but luckily, Wufu was still down on solid ground and tried to catch him. "I got you, Zander! I got you!" he said while keeping under Zander's shadow as they got closer and closer to each other. "I gotcha I gotcha I gotcha I gotcha I gotcha I-"
Finally, the wolf landed smack-dab into the bear's arms, but the impact knocked Wufu off his feet and sent both anthros slipping and sliding on the soaked grass, but otherwise unharmed! As soon as they stopped, they got back up and said, "We're okay!"
All this did not go unnoticed, for the crowd broke out in thunderous applause and cheering! As they rushed back to the starting point where the Dynamiasma was summoned, Zander said, "Good thinking lubing up the grass so we wouldn't end up with turf rash, Wufu!"
"Actually, the original plan was to get the Dynamiasma's wings too wet for it to fly," Wufu confessed, "but this is one way to put a positive spin on a setback!"
"Whatever works!" Zander said before they met back up with Chairperson Elle and Turner in their front-row seats. "Well, well, well. Chairperson Elle of Macro Cosmos and the Pokemon League, and her assistant and concierge Turner. Fancy seeing you here, mingling with the undesirables!"
"Zander!" Elle exclaimed in mock surprise. "And... some yellow bear who we have no idea about. Look, it's not what it looks like. Okr-"
"Stow it with the trap talk!" Zander barked. "You thought no one would ever figure out your little plan, but I pieced it all together! You're the woman in white causing the opposite crisis!"
"And Turner's the man in black!" Wufu added.
"Pardon my interruption," Turner interjected, "but what confounded tripe in the world are you two on about!? And again, who is the bear?"
"The name's Wufu, the Ursine Retainer of Galar!"
"And we've been chosen to stop a crisis opposite of the Darkest Day," Zander said, "caused by you!"
(Flashback)
"Back when I had first entered Motostoke to register for the Gym Challenge," Zander narrated, "my wolf muzzle picked up a peculiar scent right by the cafe. The kind of scent that only comes from... an unneccesarily extravagant perfume. Beforehand, though, I had just felled a Dynamiasma back on the Isle of Armor, which meant its airborne residue hadn't fully dissipated just yet."
(Scene skip)
"But before that, while I was attempting to collect Pokemon to train for said Gym Challenge, I noticed all the Pokemon Dens in the Wild Area were inactive, unlit. Which meant that the Dynamax energy there was drained to make the first two Dynamiasmas there!"
(Scene skip)
"However, subsequent visits to the Wild Area showed me more Dynamiasma appearences there, which struck me as odd. How could there be more Dynamiasmas in the Wild Area if the Dynamax energy there had already been drained? Then it hit me; Galar's a pretty big region, which meant the energy could've come from somewhere else, say... The Isle of Armor's Power Spot in the Master Dojo's Battle Court!?"
(Scene skip)
"But, of course, that had already burnt out two large sources of Galar particles, so then you had to resort to the next best thing: the Power Spots in the Gym Stadiums! But you couldn't risk anyone knowing about your plan, so you sent a lackey to do your work for you. Someone who knew the stadiums inside and out, someone with clearence, but can't draw suspicion from passersby. Someone who was under your silk-gloved thumb, who couldn't risk lacking a livelihood, so they had no choice but to do whatever you ordered... None other than Dan the Gym Guide!"
(Scene skip)
"But what I couldn't put my finger on was why you were doing all this, until I remembered the note you gave me along with your League Cards. The Bible verse you told me to look up? It basically told me that you deem Dynamax energy as a sin when Chairman Rose increased it to an overabundance by causing the Darkest Day last year, so you decided to go the opposite direction: decreasing it to an absence so the Darkest Day would never happen again."
(End of flashback montage)
"Which would be an easy feat since you told me that you were one of the researchers Rose hired to look into Dynamax power, but instead of focusing on what you were hired for, you were so annoyed with Oleana checking in on you and giving you a hard time, that you put together a few personal projects of your own, namely that perfume and key that lets you make the Dynamiasmas, the last of which you made only put the final nail in your coffin." Zander then pointed at Elle and wrapped up his speech with, "By which I mean Chairperson Elle Sweetgum is the opposite crisis-causer! Oh, and, uh, Turner was there, too, I guess..."
Elle waited patiently for Zander to finish, then her lips turned up in a pleased smile and clapped her hands in slow applause. "Bravo, Zander! Absolutely fantastic! Every last thing you said just now is entirely true!"
"Wait, what?" Wufu said, puzzled. "Why are you applauding him? He just spilled your grand crime in front of all these people! Why aren't they putting two and two together enough to call the authorities about this!?"
"Simple," Elle said as she stopped clapping. "Everything Zander said is true, but it doesn't cover... all the details."
"For example," Turner said, putting himself back into the conversation, "the 'undesirables' Zander said miss Elle was mingling with? They are actually Macro Cosmos employees that are off-duty, here to watch the Cup finals with her as a treat!"
"Huh?" Zander took a closer look at the crowd of people behind Elle and Turner, and sure enough, everyone there was an employee of Macro Cosmos, dressed in casual clothing instead of their imposing uniforms! "Wow. Do NOT know how I missed that."
"Well, to be fair," Wufu reasoned, "when people are only recognized wearing one set of clothing, it can throw you for a loop seeing them in a different outfit. Plus, Elle is a boss, and they are known for treating their employees to sporting events on occasion."
"Well, there's that," Zander said, "but this 'alibi' doesn't hide the fact that she summoned the Dynamiasma!"
"All right, I confess," Elle explained. "Did I summon the Dynamiasma here and the others before it? Yes. Was I sucking up Galar particles to do it? Yuh-huh. Was I using devices of my own design for these acts? Obvi. Did I make said devices for personal reasons? You know it, fuzzies! But draining the whole Galar region of Dynamax energy right down to the very last drop? Puh-lee-uhse! No, I only needed just enough of the cerise stuff to put together no more than 18 Dynamiasmas."
"For what!?" both anthros demanded.
Anticipating Elle's next request, Turner gave the chairperson her tablet again. "Thank you, Turner," she said before tapping a few times and responding with, "For... this!"
On the screen was an image of a small, man-made island miles off the western coast of Galar. "All those Dynamiasmas you fought and destroyed? They were supposed to be destroyed! And right now, as we speak, the remains of the last one are on their way to another personal project of my own design: Eternal Island!"
"Constructed by Poke Job hires," Turner explained, "Eternal Island is something of a holding bay for Dynamiasma remains until all 18 of them are defeated."
Elle swiped the touchscreen of her tablet, showing images of the island and what it had: giant circular energy capsules with different-colored dust... namely, the remains of the other Dynamiasmas! "Exactly, Turner! And once the last cloud makes its way to the island," she said as she swiped to an image of an empty space where a missing capsule would supposedly go, "we can proceed to phase 2 of 'Operation: Lil' Helpers, a working title!'"
"What!?" Zander exclaimed in befuddlement at the new information. "You were using me... for a business presentation!?"
"Hey!" Wufu said.
"Sorry, Wufu," Zander said, then corrected himself with, "You were using US for a business presentation!?"
"So sorry you had to find out this way, Zander," Turner said, "but you know how progress works. Once it's released upon the world, it grows out of control forever, and there's nothing anybody can do to stop it."
"Correct, Turner," Elle said as she gave her tablet back to her assistant, "but we can always take actions to speed progress up. But don't feel too backstabbed, wolfy-pup, because I have a plan to put all the Power Spots back in commission again!"
"You do?" both anthros asked.
"But it'll have to wait until after the finals are over, sad to say," Elle said, "so please vacate the pitch." And with a snap of her fingers, Hank and Heather (apparently having been on standby and overheard the whole conversation) escorted Wufu and Zander, respectively, back off the pitch.
"This isn't over!" Wufu called out before they were out of earshot. "The good-looking people in high positions of power always have something up their sleeves, and we will find out what it is!"
"Ooh, did you hear that, Turner?" Elle said. "The bear called us good-looking!"
"Flattering, miss Elle," Turner said.
"MY NAME IS WUFU!!!" the bear shouted, but he and the wolf were already past the exit...
-
