pokemon the animation : scarlet and violet

Chapter 15: Teamwork makes Something?

Cover Story 6: Iris and the Shadow Triad 1: The ninjas of Unova

Iris was one of Ash's companions during his journey to Unova and despite treating Ash like a kid, she regards him as a great friend but after he left, she decided to travel around for a while catching various Dragon types and even catching a non-Dragon type Cramorant who stole her food once. She was invited to participate in a championship tournament with Alder wanting to retire and pass on the title and something she never expected was her winning the tournament and becoming a Unova Champion.

She heard about Ash's victory in Alola and got motivated to start training so that she can battle Ash and participate in the Masters 8 which happened and although she was defeated by Cynthia, she was still happy when Ash won the tournament and became the World Champion and decided to spend her time in Opelucid City training younger trainers. One day however, she received a letter from an organization named SHA-TRI with crossed-out photos of Ash and Cilan, her companions in Unova which caused her to get worried and asked Drayden if he could investigate.

A couple days later, Drayden came back to her and confirmed with his associates that Cilan and Ash was safe as Cilan was back at his gym and Ash was at Naranja academy which made her relieved but concerned about how they would know about that. Drayden explained that he had an analyst investigate and reveal it was from the Shadow Triad, a group in Unova who have been said to have associated with Team Plasma before being let go during the Plasma's awakening the Legendaries. Drayden assumes that the Shadow Triad were keeping Plasma up to date on Ash, Cilan and Iris when they got involved stopping TP and the pictures of Iris's crossed out companions was just to scare her.

It didn't matter as Iris was rightfully pissed for the Shadow Triad threatening her friends and she decides to search for them, but Drayden stops her, Iris asks why when she claims she's strong enough to take on multiple bad guys, but Drayden isn't trying to undermine her but rather out of safety. Drayden mentions having lost two students and a little girl to the Shadow Triad and he's not going to make the same mistake again by having Iris go out there despite her status... At least, not alone.

Drayden asks 3 people to come out and reveals to Iris that they'll be her bodyguards those people being, Hugh, a stubborn but well-meaning 14-year-old from Aspertia City searching for the Shadow Triad for his sister's missing Purrloin, Marie, a cold yet regretful former member of the Shadow Triad who left and knows some intel on their whereabouts and Grimsley, a calm yet suffering former member of the Unova Elite Four who left due to his gambling addiction. Drayden tells Iris to make it back safe as he doesn't want to lose anyone again and Iris promises him that she'll make it back alright and dressed in her original outfit from her journey with Ash and Cilan head off to Anville Town where Marie knows of some Triad living there.

END

(One Shot) Cover Story 7: Appeasing the gods.

Mallow was the cute cook of Ash's class and works at her father's restaurant making some delicious meals, she was sort of motherly and yet outgoing member of Ash's Alolan group.

She was the least battle ready of the group however as she only had her Tsareena and wasn't very experienced in battling at times, but it wouldn't let that stop her from helping Ash on his journey. Her goal in life is to create a restaurant that can appeal to both people and Pokemon and so during her free days, she trains under Oranguru (a Pokemon that trained Mallow's father) to perfect her skills and make sure the food was edible for both people and Pokemon.

One day however at Oranguru's bar, something unexpected happened and it's not the Pinap juice where a Tamato berry was used in its placed but rather, Tapu Koko, Tapu Bulu, Tapu Lele and Tapu Fini all showed up causing the Pokemon and people there to be surprised and confused and Mallow to be horrified that she might've did something wrong until she remembered Tapu Koko visiting at one point and thought that they might want a 'Alolan burger' as she calls it which Koko nods to but also shows that the other Tapus have other tastes when it comes to the burger so Mallow and Tsareena have to strategize.