In the Shadow of Zekrom!

*(This episode has a different page name since the total amount of episodes in the entire series is clearly undecided.)*

## Staff

### Artist

CheerfulSteekip

**In the Shadow of Zekrom!** (イッシュ地方へ！ゼクロムの影！！, *To the Isshu Region! Zekrom's Shadow!!*?) is the 1st episode of Season 8 and the (TBA) episode of the *Guardians of Harmony* series overall.

## Summary

*Nanette excitedly welcomes her non-native friends, Ash's mom Delia, and Professor Samuel Oak to the Unova region. Meanwhile, Team Rocket's boss, Giovanni, has given them an important assignment in the Unova region. As Jessie, James, and Meowth prepare for their new assignment, Professor Oak introduces Ash and his non-Unovian friends to Professor Aurea Juniper, one of the top researchers in Unova and a Guardian of Harmony.*

*Suddenly, a dark storm cloud appears, and Thunders is hit with a massive amount of electricity! Aurea does a quick examination of Pikachu, but she doesn't seem to find anything wrong. Later on, however, when Ash battles a budding new Trainer named Trip and his first Pokémon Chive the Snivy, Thunders can't use any Electric-type moves!*

*Back at Aurea's lab, we learn that Thunders is still suffering the effects of the lightning strike during the thunderstorm. Just as Aurea reaches her conclusion, the same dark cloud appears as suddenly as before! The Professor then recounts the story of the Legendary Pokémon Zekrom, and everyone wonders if it could be responsible for the mysterious disappearance of Thunders' Electric-type powers. Will Thunders ever be able to use those powers again?*

## Plot

Ash runs into his bedroom, grabs his backpack, and hurriedly runs out. As he returns to retrieve his hat, he expresses his excitement to Thunders about their upcoming vacation. Delia then walks into the room, informing him that Samuel has arrived to pick them up, whilst proceeding to adjust his hat with a smile. Seeing the Professor's Pinap Berry shirt, Ash questions Samuel on his style of clothing, but he explains that he is headed on vacation after all. Delia then enquirers about Professor Oak having to work in Unova, but he tells her that he has quite a bit of free time when he is not attending seminars. Ash and his mom then join him in the car.

Meanwhile, within one of Team Rocket's bases, Giovanni questions Jessie, James, and Meowth about Team Rocket's goals: to obtain strong and rare Pokémon, and to form a formidable army of Pokémon to take over the world. He then tells the trio that the Unova region will be strong foothold for their world domination plans, and has given them the important mission of infiltrating the region alone, for now. The trio accepts the mission. After the reception is cut, Giovanni leans back in his chair and tends to his Persian. His secretary appears by his side and informs him about the operations of a mysterious organization in Unova, but Giovanni does not flinch. He is, after all, confident that Jessie, James and Meowth will force this organization in question to reveal their identities and operations, allowing them to strike at the opportune moment. He just leans back and takes a drink, smiling.

Ash, together with Delia, Samuel and the other main non-Unovians are now on board a plane heading to Unova. Unbeknownst to them, Jessie, James and Meowth are on board the same plane. Dressed in dark coats and speaking in hushed voices, Team Rocket spot Ash and Thunders and decide, on the spot, to capture Thunders as their first objective once they land as they got distracted. Meanwhile, Ash is reading a brochure on the Unova region. Professor Oak tells him that the Pokémon native to Unova cannot be found in any of the other regions, namely Kanto, Johto, Hoenn and Sinnoh, and Ash becomes extremely excited. Meanwhile, Nanette happily runs to a pier alongside her big sister.

Emerging from the clouds, the plane finally arrives at the Unova region. It makes a gradual turn, slowly descends into the sea and docks near the pier. Ash expresses relief after landing and together with his mother and Professor Oak. As they make their way out of the pier, Nanette runs up to Ash and happily welcomes him and his friends to Unova. Thunders suddenly detects something, stops, and turns to face the sea. He runs forward with his attention now focused on the dark spiraling cloud looming overhead. Ash, witnessing this odd behavior, turns back, but becomes distracted by an Alomomola leaping out of the water. Ash reaches the end of the pier and searches for the Alomomola, but it seems to have disappeared. He then notices the same ominous black cloud that Thunders had spotted, surging with erratic bolts of electricity and moving even closer. Marina, on the other hand, has been notably quiet the whole time.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a metallic frame traps Thunders. Ash instantly grabs the cage and tries to pry it open. He then catches sight of Thunders' captors: three figures dressed in black coats topped with dark hats and sunglasses. Upon asking who the three of them were because of their disguises, they replied with two lines that would signal the start of their motto, and reveal themselves as Team Rocket.

Ash tells Thunders to use Thunderbolt, but it fails to shock the trio as they open a shield to deflect the attack. At the same time, the swirling black cloud draws even closer, threatening to engulf the sky in darkness. Suddenly, a large bolt of blue lightning descends, sending Team Rocket flying and freeing Thunders from the cage. The Guardians and Thunders are also sent spiraling towards to the ground. Amidst the shining flecks of blue and white light surrounding him, Ash gets up and spots Thunders being zapped by a bolt of blue lightning. Curious, he looks up at the blue core, and notices it shining even brighter than before, radiating both light and electricity. While Team Rocket backs off slowly, Thunders aims some electricity at the central blue core. However, the electricity dissipates away entirely. With glowing red eyes, a Zekrom descends, summoning forth more lightning, causing the core to glow an exceedingly intense blue.

Amidst the broad daylight, a girl and her Axew pop out from a tree and notice the dark swirling clouds at a distance. Curious, she leaps from the tree and grabs a vine, swinging her way towards the disturbance. At the same time, Delia became concerned about her son, and heads off with Samuel to see if he and the others are all right. Zekrom musters it strength and summons a gigantic bolt of blue lightning with its tail, shocking the Thunders and all of the Guardians before disappearing. Immediately, the dark clouds clear to make way for the bright blue sky above, and electronic equipment in the area mysteriously regains power. Ash wakes up to find Thunders and his fellow Guardians exhausted from the ordeal. Joined by Delia and Professor Oak, he assures them that he is all right, but suddenly notices Thunders' cheeks spontaneously emitting sparks. Thunders, however, assures Ash that he's fine and climbs onto his shoulder. Delia then starts talking about the thunderstorm. Even though Ash tells them that he and his friends saw a Pokémon's shadow from within the clouds, they cannot confirm nor argue otherwise; from their point of view, they only saw a large black thundercloud.

Professor Aurea Juniper soon arrives, apologizing for being late. Samuel introduces her as a young, but very important Pokémon Researcher in Unova. Aurea, after briefly panicking over seeing Nanette blinded, then drives the group back to her laboratory in a red SUV. On the way, Ash expresses his sheer excitement as he spots a herd of Deerling, a flock of Pidove and a scurry of Patrat. All of a sudden, Thunders' cheeks start emitting sparks, and Aurea suggests giving Thunders a check-up at her lab, and Ash agrees. At that moment, cheeky Aurea becomes curious about Pokémon in the Kanto region, and requests Samuel to tell her more later. Ash interrupts her conversation and asks if Pikachu are rare in Unova, and she replies that they have never been encountered in the wild. The SUV makes a gradual turn to the right near a lake, and Ash watches a flock of Swanna fly across the water.

Eventually, the group arrives in Nuvema Town, and soon Professor Juniper's lab. Over there, the condition of Nanette and Thunders are both being monitored, and Aurea admits the numerical data doesn't show any discrepancies, but further tests will be required. A lab assistant enters the room, announcing the arrival of six new Trainers, one who is due to receive their starter Pokémon. Professor Juniper greets the new Trainers (Trip, Madison, Nevaeh, Sarah, Sandra and Gina). Ash interrupts the conversation, talking about how excited he was the night before he became a Pokémon Trainer. Professor Juniper then introduces him and his friends to Trip and the girls. Upon learning that Ash comes from Pallet Town, Trip smirks and passes it off as some mediocre country town, which Ash takes offense. Nanette even says a *swear word* at him and all of the Trainers begin to fight. After Aurea manages to calm the Trainers down, she sends out the three starter Pokémon, first starting with the Fire-type Tepig followed by the Water-type Oshawott and the Grass-type Snivy. After a moment of deliberation, Trip takes out his camera, snaps a quick picture of the three, and then announces that he would choose Snivy. The Grass Snake Pokémon smirks, leaving Tepig slightly annoyed and Oshawott extremely shocked. As is standard for beginning Trainers, the six new Trainers are also given a Pokédex which Trip uses to check the data of his new partner. They are also given five Poké Balls along with the Poké Balls of the starters. After recalling Chive into his Poké Ball, Trip thanks Aurea and takes his leave. The young Professor then scolds the remaining Trainers for slightly injuring Nanette, leaving Marina walking off out of fury.

While Trip walks away from the lab, Ash catches up to him and questions him about Gym matches in Unova. Similar to Kanto, a Pokémon Trainer in Unova has to collect eight Gym Badges before they can compete in the Unova League. At that moment, the now-recovered Thunders runs out from the lab and re-joins Ash. Completely shocked by the Pikachu's appearance, Trip checks his Pokédex and starts snapping pictures. Trip then realizes that Thunders is Ash's partner and decides to test the Electric Mouse's strength by challenging Ash to a Pokémon battle.

Making their way to clearing near the lab, Trip sends out Chive and starts taking pictures to document his journey and his first ever Pokémon battle. Meanwhile, Oshawott and a blind and slightly scratched Nanette peek at the two Trainers from behind a nearby tree, the Sea Otter being curious. Thunders begins the match with a Quick Attack, which hits Chive squarely on his body. Chive quickly recovers on his feet, brimming with determination. Quickly, Trip calls for a Tackle, but Thunders dodges it skillfully. With another leap, he then dodges another Tackle attack from the opposite direction. Ash then tells Thunders to use Thunderbolt, but Chive's Tackle lands first and knocks Thunders to the ground. For a second time, the Electric Mouse charges up a Thunderbolt, but the move fails once again. Trip then taunts Ash, much to Nanette's annoyance. Taking the bait, he asks Thunders to use Volt Tackle and Thunders runs towards Chive attempting to charge himself up, but once again nothing happens; he loses momentum and stops in the middle of the field, panting. Ash panics for a moment, to which Trip taunts him even further. He then realizes that Thunders is unable to use Electric-based attacks, so Ash calls for an Iron Tail. Thunders' tail hardens into a gleaming slate of metal and slams earthward, but Chive nevertheless dodges once again. With a bout of confidence, Trip tells Chive to use Leaf Tornado, which traps Thunders in a cyclone of grass and leaves. Pivoting its body, Chive slams his tail to the ground, whipping up a large cloud of dust. As the dust settles, Thunders lies sprawled in a hole, completely unconscious. Ash quickly runs to Thunders' side and picks him up, while Trip compliments Chive and recalls him into his Poké Ball. Trip suggests Ash go over the Trainer basics again, but Ash ignores the comment and rushes back to Aurea's lab to have Thunders treated, with Nanette following along.

Aurea, after another analysis, tells Ash that Thunders became 'overloaded' and unable to perform Electric attacks after receiving a massive amount of electrical energy during their ordeal under the mysterious black cloud. Ash worries that Thunders might never use Electric attacks ever again. At that moment, the lab's electronics start receiving a lot of interference, and the black cloud that was spotted previously at the pier is now moving over the Juniper Laboratory. The equipment Thunders is hooked up to begins discharging, shocking the Electric Mouse Pokémon. Meanwhile, the girl and her Axew from earlier stand quietly within the leafy branches of a tree, observing the black cloud forming above Nuvema Town.

A bolt of lightning suddenly strikes the lightning rod at the top of the lab, and the facility blacks out. Excessive current from the lightning bolt channels to Pikachu through the electronic device, causing the streaks of electricity to discharge from his body. Aurea, unaware that her eyes (and all the other Guardians' eyes as well) are glowing, asks an assistant to restore the power, and he runs out of the room, forcing the automatic door open in his wake. Meanwhile, gazing at the black cloud through the window, Aurea realizes the Legendary Pokémon Zekrom is behind the lightning show. She explains that Zekrom is a guardian that is said to protect both people and Pokémon in the area. Within the dark clouds, Zekrom's eyes gleam through the surrounding darkness in bright red, as lightning strikes all around Nuvema Town.

## Major Events

* Ash and his non-Unovian friends travel with Delia and Professor Samuel Oak to the Unova region, where Samuel is attending a conference.
* Ash learns that all of the Pokémon that live in the Unova region cannot be found in Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, or Sinnoh.
* Team Rocket arrives in the Unova region, having being assigned there by Giovanni.
* Madison Dansa, Iris Scaleheart, Neveah Riverton, Sarah Weber, Sandra West and Gina Silverstein are introduced, though only Iris's introduction isn't exactly official since she didn't meet the girls and everyone else yet.
* Thunders becomes temporarily unable to use Electric-type attacks while Nanette is temporarily blinded and Jim is suddenly shut down (both for the same reason), and everyone is unable to fix what initially appears to be the sange after they got hit by lightning caused by a Zekrom.
* Ash and his non-Unovian friends meet Professor Aurea Juniper and travels to her laboratory in Nuvema Town.
* The Guardians meet a photographer and beginning Trainer by the name of Trip McCoy, who is also a Guardian of Harmony.
* Trip obtains a Snivy from Aurea as his starter Pokémon.
* One of Aurea's Oshawott starts to follow Ash.
* Ash has his first battle against Trip and loses.
* Aurea begins to become extremely concerned about Nanette's safety.

## Characters

### Main Guardians

* Nanette Daisy
* Marina Daisy
* Julia Dreamwalker
* Mikey Evoli
* Jim Porter
* Glorysia Melody
* Elizabeth Storybook
* Nina Aarden
* Ash Kecthum
* Will Brennan
* Emily
* Madoka Kamane
* Sayaka Miki
* Mami Tomoe
* Homura Akemi
* Kyoko Sakura
* Nagisa Momoe
* Natasha Flowerton
* Maya Aquaheart
* Hilary Lightfield
* Alison Garfield
* Madison Dansa
* Iris Scaleheart
* Nevaeh Riverton
* Sarah Weber
* Sandra West
* Gina Silverstein

### Pokemon

* Pikachu (Ash's; Thunders)
* Meowth (Team Rocket)
* Axew (Iris's; Axi; debut)
* Persian (Giovanni's)
* Snivy (Trip's; Chive; new; debut) (Sandra's; Phyllis; new)
* Minccino (child's) (Aurea's; Cina)
* Tepig (starter Pokémon) (Nanette's; Gigi) (Nevaeh's; Scarlet; new) (Gina's; Rubina; new)
* Oshawott (starter Pokémon) (Madison's; Cerulean; new) (Sarah's; Sweetshore; new)
* Zekrom
* Reshiram (introduction only)
* Alomomola (debut)
* Deerling (Spring form; multiple; debut)
* Pidove (multiple; debut)
* Patrat (multiple; debut) (Aurea's; Pam; new; debut)
* Swanna (multiple; debut)

### Villains

* Jessie
* James
* Giovanni
* Matori

### Secondary Characters

* Professor Samuel Oak
* Delia Ketchum
* Professor Aurea Juniper
* Trip McCoy
* Aurea's assistants
* Airport employees
* Citizens

## Scripts

* English Script
* Japanese Script

## Trivia

* The **Harmony Color** announced before the opening (played as the ending for this episode) is **Daisy Purple**.
* For the first time since Season 4, Jessie, James, and Giovanni are given costume changes, and the Team Rocket logo is also modified, now showing as a stylized "R". However, the logo on the uniforms of Jessie and James remain the same.
* This is the second time Ash and friends have arrived in a new region and Thunders has had problems with his electricity, the first time being in Hoenn during *Get the Show on the Road!*.
* This is the first episode to use music from *Arceus and the Jewel of Life*, after Trip defeats Ash.
* In early previews of this episode shown at the end of *Memories are Made of Bliss!*, some changes were seen in relation to the episode aired. The scene from first battle between Ash and Trip initially went to a location within the city and not in a forest around the lab. However, the result of the battle is still the same.
* Team Rocket doesn't recite the motto making it the first time not to do so in the Unova region.
* This is the only episode after *A Farfetch'd Tale* where Jessie does not have a Psychic-type on hand.
* The shirt that Professor Oak is seen wearing at the beginning of the episode (with the pineapple pattern) is extremely similar to the one he wore in *Beauty and the Beach*, the only difference being that the shirt was yellow in that episode while it is green in this one.
* It should be noted that Sarah, Sandra and Gina got their partner Pokémon one day before the events of this episode, and Madison and Neveah got their Oshawott and Tepig respectfully two hours before Trip even arrived at the lab. This was to make sure Aurea wouldn't cheat, especially since she knows better.
	+ The Professor also caught a Patrat offscreen, implying that the catching tutorial from the games was actually done in the anime.
* The villainous quartet does not appear in this episode.
* Nanette breaks the 4th wall by saying that a year has passed since the previous season ended.

### Errors

* In one scene, Thunders' left ear is missing the black stripe on the tip.

### Dub Edits

* In the control tower scene, the controller clears the plane to land in the dub, while in the original version, he merely announces that the flight will be arriving soon.
* In the original, a passenger on the plane can be seen drinking a can of beer. In the dub, it is changed to a can of soda instead.
* In the English dub, Giovanni tells Team Rocket that they will be sent undercover to the Unova region and that they'll be by themselves at first. In the Japanese version, he adds that it's another step to conquering the world.
* In the Japanese version, Aurea says that Zekrom's thunderclouds are known as the "eyes of the Divinity" and that its thunderbolts are "judgements from the Divinity". In the English dub, she says that Zekrom watches over people and Pokémon and that the thunderclouds are the pillars that hold up the skies. Regardless of the dub, she then suddenly realizes that the Divinity is dead, although her thoughts about it aren't heard in the English dub to avoid religious controversy.

### Easter Eggs

* The first scene of this episode of Ash getting ready in his bedroom is a callback to the first scene of the canon Pokémon episode *Pokémon - I Choose You!*, in which he was seen doing the same thing.
* Several of the items in Ash's bedroom at the beginning of the episode are those he received during his travels through Sinnoh. These are:
	+ The Soothe Bells he received after winning the Hearthome City Tag Battle Competition in *Smells Like Team Spirit!*.
	+ The Focus Band he was given at the end of *Bibarel Gnaws Best!*.
	+ The wooden model of a Teddiursa he was given as a gift from May in *A Full Course Tag Battle!*.
	+ The diploma he received for attending the Pokémon Summer Academy in *One Team, Two Team, Red Team, Blue Team!*.
	+ The certificate he received for winning the Squallville PokéRinger competition in *Pursuing a Lofty Goal!*.
	+ The trophy he was awarded by Palmer for winning the Festival Battle Challenge in *Challenging a Towering Figure!*.

* The flight number of the plane the non-Unovians took from Kanto to Unova was "Flight 151", most likely to reflect the original 151 Pokémon.
	+ This is also one of the rare times where the Guardians of Harmony don't use a teleportation spell at all.
* While on the plane to Unova, Sugar gleefully sings a modified cover of "Morning in Ponyville."
* Madison/Maddie can be seen holding a plushie of Loop-de-La (a *My Little Pony* character from the third generation) when Aurea greets the group of beginning Trainers. This is a nod to her Harmony Mark being based off of Loop-de-La's.
* When Aurea introduces Ash to the new Trainers, Ash mispronounces Trip's name as "Trip McCormick" instead of "Trip McCoy" before he corrects him, referencing the spice company McCormick.
* When receiving her Tepig (who she names Scarlet), Nevaeh jokingly remarks "And the Divinity said, let there be Tepig, and then there were Tepig, because one's for me!", only for Nanette to slap her to avoid religious controversy.