Author notes: This chapter, the "pilot chapter", will be around about double the length of the following chapters, however some may be longer than that, expect a new chapter every 3 or 4 days, maybe more frequently. By the time you see this 4 chapters will have been written which will be coming out in the next few weeks and I will continue to write during this time, so that I am always at least 2 chapters ahead.
It was a sunny day. The sky was beautiful, the best day in ages, it was a wonderful day, most people were relaxing and spending the day in the sun. But not Ash Ketchum. He was in a rush, accidentally running into people before calling out a sorry and resuming his sprint. "We gotta make it, this is our chance to get to challenge our first gym leader," Ash said enthusiastically, getting a little faster as he did.
"Pika" his faithful friend replied, as enthusiastic as his owner. They were in such a rush they didn't even stop to look around, their destination was in view. A huge stadium stood in front of them, it was huge, and colourful, on the billboards were 7 different regions and the current amount of spaces remaining. Two caught his eye Kanto: 1 and Triynia: 0, rushing inside Ash found himself at the front desk, quickly filling out the form for the last Kanto slot. "There we go. Done," Ash said as he passed the sheet over the counter.
"Thank you, now, I will quickly brief you on the rules of the tournament." Said the familiar nurse Joy. "The tournament is split into 7 groups be region, and a round robin occurs to find the best trainers from each region, two from each of: Kanto, Johto, Hoeen, Sinnoh, Unova and Kalos. With a further four from here, Triynia. This makes for a total of 16 into a single elimination tournament. Each match is a 1v1 match. Meaning each trainer uses one pokemon. A game is lost upon a judges discretion, if either trainer forfeits, or their Pokemon can no longer continue. Any questions?" She asked.
"Yeah, one, where can I see my next matchup?" Ash questioned, in response he was pointed towards a room with a sign saying competitors only. He walked in and looked around, he saw no familiar faces so went to check his first opponent. Surely enough it was someone he had never heard of however a little icon next to their name peeked his interest. It was a half wing half water drop, he assumed this meant typing, looked next to his name and saw a lightning both and assumed so. This meant his first match-up used a water flying type. He heard a small sigh from his side before turning to see a male, he saw Ash looking and said, "You get a good first matchup or you unlucky like me?" Obviously oblivious to the fact that Ash was his matchup.
"I think I got a pretty good one," Ash replied happily. As he said that the speaker beeped getting everyone attention, saying "Could all combatants in match one for their region please go to their respective court now."
"Guess that's goodbye for now," Ash said, going to his side of the Kanto stage. The doors opened to reveal a small room where Ash had to sign in his appearance before the door behind him shut and he started to rise. He had not had time to look around at all and had barely noticed that his opponents Pokemon was displayed on a screen on the wall. It showed an icon of a Wingull, which quickly faded to black and the doors ahead of Ash opened, releasing him to the open-air once again, the sun still shined just as hard and Ash could feel the cool spring breeze. It may have been the best possible weather for a battle. But Ash didn't have time to admire the weather, taking a quick look around Ash saw all the thousands of people watching, "Alright buddy, lets win this whole thing and beat the gym leader."
"Pika-pi" he replied, looking determined.
"The battle between Ash and Sandy will now begin, trainers reveal your Pokemon," both trainers called out their Pokemon, Ash with his Pikachu and his opponent, the boy he had just then been talking to, with his Wingull. "Ready... Begin."
"Pikachu, thunderbolt." Ash yelled, ready for his first battle in the Triynia region.
Wingull easily dodged the thunderbolt and began charging in "If we're going all in on the first turn, Wingull brave bird," he yelled as Wingull began to rise, he rose through the clouds, and then began his descent. Just before hitting the ground Wingull pulled up and began flying towards Pikachu with extreme amounts of speed.
"Dodge that with quick attack," Ash said, hoping to dodge the attack by moving faster, but it wasn't enough, Pikachu barely heard Ash's call before he was hit, spiraling backwards into the wall behind. "Pikachu, you ok buddy?" Ash questioned.
Pikachu got up, and bounced back towards the center of the stadium, he may have failed to dodge, but he was only hit with the edge of the wing it seemed, so it didn't seem to bother him much. "Pika pi," he said enthusiastically, ready to go again.
"Wingull, lets finish this now, nice and easy, brave bird and aerial ace, oh, throw a hydro pump in too all at the same time," Ash had never heard of this sort of combination, and it did sound threatening, he had to think fast or it could be over. Many thoughts were traveling through his head, this attack can't miss, it's giving hard recoil though, and hydro pump might be enough to soften the blow if Pikachu is in it before Wingull hits.
"Alright, Pikachu, we're trying a combination too, quick attack and volt tackle," Ash said, nervous that this wouldn't work and Pikachu would be taking too much damage from the recoil and all in. Wingull flew up into the clouds, and Ash had a quick idea, "Actually, thunderbolt on the cloud, try to make Wingull miss his mark," Ash said, forgetting that aerial ace would hit.
Wingull began his descent, hit by the thunderbolt, but still flying down fast, he began to spark, paralyzed, if this didn't finish Pikachu he wins.
WIngull managed to bounce from the ground, rather than hitting it, he fired hydro pump and Pikachu began his dash, beginning to spark, before becoming a full bolt, ready to strike, he made it to the hydro pump at what looked like the same exact time Wingull hit, both collided and the recoil was huge, an explosion occurred, no one could see the outcome but Ash had a gut feeling Pikachu was still standing.
The smoke began to clear.
Pikachu and Wingull could be seen.
Pikachu was standing.
Wingull was fainted.
Ash had won, after a huge dual, Pikachu had stood strong. The referee had seen the battle, the outcome and lifted his flag hand, "Wingull is no longer able to battle, Pikachu is the victor, thus the match goes to Ash."
"Well done," Sandy said, "No one has ever managed to counter that attack, especially not by doing such a rash thing as making a combo on the spot."
"Thanks, but Wingull was great too," Ash said, he knew it was true, no way he could deny that. "It was a close battle, just unlucky for you to get matched against me, I've been through 6 regions before this one and Pikachu has been my friend through all 6,"
"Oh wow, so that means you've seen lots of different Pokemon then? That's so cool." Sandy said, remembering how his dream was to travel and see many things.
"Hundreds, even mythical Pokemon," Ash said, recalling in specific Darkrai, Arceus and Shaymin.
The announcer then spoke up, gathering everyone's attention towards the screens before saying "Second rounds will be beginning soon, please check your match up and go to specified field."
Everyone began to move to their next battles, Ash and Sandy said goodbye for now and both proceeded to their next battles.
Ash's match up was against a Ratticate, so he decided to begin the battle the same way as the last, thunderbolt, then proceeded to quick attack when thunderbolt landed.
"Come on Ratticate, stay standing and use fire fang," Ratticate's trainer called out, hoping to manage to pull something out of the losing fight.
Pikachu dodged the fire fang easily with a quick attack then proceeded to attack back with the same thunderbolt quick attack combo again. Continuing this for a few more rotations before Ratticate was no longer able to battle.
"Ratticate is no longer able to continue, thus the match goes over to Pikachu, the winner of this match is Ash."
Ash ran out and picked up Pikachu, "Good job buddy, two games up in our group without a loss, let's keep up the good work."
The next two battles for the day were the same, simple repetitive battles of Pikachu dodging then landing thunderbolt then quick attacking before dodging again. Ash hoped some of the other regions had some better battlers.
It was already dark by the time Ash finished his last battle of the day, he considered going out to find another Pokemon so he could switch things up for day two, but eventually decided against it because he was just too tired. Instead he opted for going out for a meal with Sandy to discuss some strategies and get a meal, upon Sandy's request.
"Come on Ash, I know a really good place just around the corner that serves some really good food and allows for Pokemon too." Sandy said, walking around the corner, Ash was about to follow but just before he could he saw a girl who looked familiar, she looked to have a short skirt on and was wearing a hat, but what interested Ash the most was her dark blue hair, it looked so familiar. But he couldn't quite put his finger on it. "Ash, you coming?" Sandy asked before walking into the restaurant.
"Oh yeah, sorry," Ash said as he followed his brown haired friend into the restaurant. "Just though I saw someone I knew," Ash confessed, "Could have been her," Ash mumbled off to himself.
"Hello, table for two," Sandy said to the waiter at the door.
"Right this way," he replied as he lead Ash and Sandy to their tables, "Any drinks for you today young sirs?"
"Water'll do, thanks," Ash replied, he didn't want much really, he just came because Sandy asked him too.
"Same here," Sandy said, he felt something different about Ash's attitude now, knowing that Ash must have really liked whoever it was he thought he saw. "Hey Ash, what was the name of the person you saw and which region were they from? I'll see if they entered into the tournament." He said, hoping to help Ash in any way possible.
"I can't remember and it's bugging me, I know I should remember, I feel like I traveled with them before." Ash admitted that he had forgotten who she was.
"Oh, ok then, well, anyway, no point keep thinking about it right now, your priority right now should be maintaining your lead into the next section of the tournament, because the better you do overall the higher the chance you'll be placed against tougher opponents first, allowing you an easy finale if you make it that far." Sandy said, knowing loads about how the tournament works.
"Yeah, I'll keep this winning streak up and we wont lose until the finals are over." Ash said confidently.
"Wait, you can't be serious about entering Pikachu two days in a row can you? Especially as the top player, that's basically asking to get counter picked by at least three of your four opponents tomorrow." Sandy said, very surprised but also amazed at Ash's idea of entering the same Pokemon two days in a row.
"I don't really have much choice, Pikachu's the only Pokemon I have with me here, and I can't transfer any others over because I don't have a storage system yet." Ash said, seeing the problem with having no second Pokemon.
"Wait really, you're planning on winning every round with just that Pikachu? I mean I know he's strong but wont he get destroyed by rock types?" Sandy said, somehow knowing Ash had a counter to them.
"Well, a rock type wouldn't really be that bad for Pikachu because he knows iron tail just for that reason." Ash said confidently as he began looking through the menu, quickly deciding on the tower burger.
"Here are your drinks, are you both ready to order?" The waiter said as he placed both drinks on the table.
Ash looked to Sandy for confirmation and when he got it he answered, "I think so, I'll have the tower burger."
"I'll have one too please," Sandy said, He hadn't even looked up the menu at all, he just decided to go with the same as Ash.
The waiter took both menu's "Very well, I'll bring them as soon as they are ready, if you need anything else just say."
"So Ash, how come you're brand new here, you have one Pokemon and yet you're already winning every game?" Sandy questioned. "Surely it can't just be luck, no one wins on luck alone, except the gym leader on Mull Island. He's said to win every battle on low accuracy moves and lucky hits alone. Same strategy as him is it?"
"Not at all, me and Pikachu just have a really deep understanding of what we both need to do to win, and I'd say the opponents we were against were either quite weak or good match ups for us, didn't you end the day two wins for two losses?" Ash said determined to make sure Sandy won. "Surely if you practice a little today you can win all four matches tomorrow. Especially if all of the match ups bring rocks or ground types to counter my Pikachu."
"They wont all do it, just the ones you're against, they can check it online and in the stadium, and I'd like to practice with you a bit later if that's ok." He asked, hoping to learn more about Ash's strategy and improve his score tomorrow, he has to come in the top two if he wants to make it into the single elimination half of the tournament, he's already accepted he's not coming first overall, and at best third after Ash and the finalist on the other side of the tournament, but he's still ready to win. "I don't plan on going down easy, I plan on coming above you, beating you if I can."
"Then I hope to see you in the finals, good luck, and yeah, I'll join for some practice later." Ash replied.
Their burgers appeared soon after, with sides of chips and salad, both boys looked and knew they wouldn't be able to finish theirs, "Here are your meals and meals for both of your Pokemon will be brought shortly, how many Pokemon do you have between the two of you?"
Sandy spoke up, knowing he was the only of the two who knew the answer. "We have three Pokemon between us."
"Ok, I will return soon with the meals for your Pokemon and enjoy, any sauces with that?" Both boys remained silent so the waiter spoke up again "Very well young sirs, any problems just call me over." And with that he walked away.
"Hey Sandy, who is your second Pokemon anyway?" Ash said realizing Sandy never had told him.
"This," Sandy said as he revealed his second Pokemon from it's Pokeball with a flash of white before a fade to a dark body with large claws, "Sneasel. I caught her quite recently though so I'm not sure how confident I am in her battling strength."
"Never doubt your Pokemon," Ash said, "Doubting them will make them doubt them self, if you believe a Pokemon can win they will win a lot more often," Ash said, his tone reminding him of his old friend Brock.
"Really? Well then I guess I've just got to believe in her to win. Believe in us. I know we can win tomorrow." Sandy said, forming a grin as he said that.
"That's the spirit," Ash said enthusiastically. "If you want to win, you can." Ash knew he wasn't the best to give this advice, considering his championships record.
"Thanks Ash, I'm ready to win tomorrow, what about you Sneasel?" Sandy said happily.
"Snea-sel," she said enthusiastically.
"Good, then we'll have to work hard before tomorrow." Sandy said, "Then, we will beat you Ash."
"I look forward to it," Ash said as he took a bite out of his huge burger. Both the boys started eating after that comment and there wasn't a single word until they had finished their meals.
"Come on Ash, we gotta go quickly so you can teach me some tricks, come on," Sandy said practically sprinting ahead of Ash, expecting him to keep up. Ash was feeling like a mature adult because of how childish Sandy was being in comparison.
"Alright, lets go faster then." Ash said, running faster than Sandy. Both boys reached the edge of the large pond, surrounded by trees at about the same time, and Sandy quickly let out his Sneasel. Ash let Pikachu off his shoulders.
"Pikachu, start off simple, quick attack." Ash said, ready to get straight into training with Sandy.
"Ice shard," Sandy said calmly. Shards formed around Sneasel and she launched them towards Pikachu, who easily dodged them. "Sucker punch," Sandy said, knowing Sneasel would beat these sorts of attacks, Sneasel waited for Pikachu to be centimeters away before launching him away with an uppercut.
"Sandy, your ice shards have to move faster, they need to block Pikachu, or they're not worth having." Ash said, knowing what it's like to have a useless move. "Pikachu, quick attack once more."
"Ice shard, faster," Sneasel began to charge the ice shards before seeing Pikachu beginning to dodge, she launched several ice shards in Pikachu's direction, before quickly targeting where Pikachu moved too. Still however, none of the ice shards hit, and Pikachu was sucker punched back.
"Alright, maybe we should try something else and see if they can block it, Pikachu, electro ball." Ash said, knowing ice shards should block it. Pikachu quickly began charging his electro ball, flipping with it still attached to his tail, before pushing it off as he landed. The electric orb flew towards Sneasel, who quickly launched a couple of ice shards, ripping the orb apart. The shards were definitely getting faster, but it wasn't fast enough.
This went on for quite a bit longer, Pikachu firing electro balls, Sneasel blocking them with ice shards. But eventually Sandy spoke up again, "Hey Ash, go for a quick attack again, I think I can block it now."
"You sure? The ice shards are faster, but I don't think it's enough." Ash said honestly, Sandy nodding in reply, "Well, if you say so, Pikachu, quick attack."
"Ok, Sneasel, ice shard, but this time spin like Pikachu to give it more speed," Sandy said, sure that the ice shard would hit this time. The shards began flying towards Pikachu, much faster than Pikachu could have reacted, and hit Pikachu head on, knocking him back to Ash's feet.
"Well done, that's the way you land an ice shard, and copying a technique to out power the opponent, a good strategy."
"Yeah well, I learned it from you when you copied my combo idea earlier," Sandy said, recalling Ash's use of volt tackle and quick attack to get a huge power boost. "Ash is Pikachu ok?" He said, seeing Pikachu on the ground.
"I don't think so, do you know where the nearest Pokemon center is?" Ash said concerned.
"Yeah, follow, quickly," Sandy said with urgency as he began to run back past the restaurant they ate at earlier, rushing straight past the girl Ash saw earlier, as Ash ran past her he was certain that he knew her, she was one of his traveling companions, but which one, he couldn't remember. He didn't have time to stop now however, so he would just have to find her later. Right now his top priority was getting Pikachu to the Pokemon center, he sped up when it came into sight, like a runner in the final sprint, he sped up to maximum speed, almost running into the door because he hadn't slowed down enough. He just barely managed to stop before the desk because of his speed.
"Hello, can you please make sure my Pikachu is ok? He got hit pretty hard earlier." Ash said, and when he said pretty hard, he meant Pikachu was knocked back about twenty meters hard, by three separate shards.
"Of course, please head into the waiting room for now and we will call you through when Pikachu is feeling a bit better." The familiar nurse said in a calm tone.
"Hey Ash, wait up," Sandy called, just getting into the center now, out of breath. "Man you can be fast when you try. Like, really fast, I think you ran faster than Pikachu during his quick attacks." Sandy said, before catching his breath and saying, "Also, really sorry about earlier, I didn't think it would hit that hard, I guess 20 or so sucker punches first didn't help either."
"Don't worry about it, these things happen, at least Sneasel has learned how it can be faster now." Ash said, knowing that accidents happen from time to time, willing to accept that because it made someone else stronger. "Also, it's not me you've gotta apologize to, it's Pikachu, he's the one who got hit."
"Yeah, of course, well anyway, thanks for helping me practice, I think I can win my games tomorrow." Sandy said with a smile, "I just hope Pikachu is ok."
"He will be, he's a tough Pokemon, he's been through similar many times before." Ash said, remembering the flock of Spearow, Mewtwo, Unova and many other incidents. "But I fear one of these times he'll be hurt more than usual."
"Lets hope not, and maybe you'll be able to get another clean sweep tomorrow, wait, will you even be able to compete?" Sandy said.
Ash hadn't thought about it. He didn't know whether he'd be able to compete or if Pikachu would still be recovering. "I hope so, if not then it may be a bit difficult to catch back up after four loses." He saw Nurse Joy and quickly called her over "Nurse, do you know if Pikachu will by some miracle be able to compete tomorrow?" As he said this the blue haired girl walked through the door, nobody noticing her.
"I should think not, it'll be at least a days rest before he can even think of going back out to battles." Nurse Joy said with a voice filled with sorrow.
"That's too bad, looks like I won't be getting any wins tomorrow," Ash said, he was going to continue but he was interrupted by a familiar Piplup.
"Pip-piplup," It announced, showing that it would take Pikachu's place. Before quickly looking to it's trainer for permission.
Piplups trainer started talking, Ash immediately recognized the voice, it was Dawn. "That's fine by me, my matches are in two days anyway." She said, acknowledging Ash. "Hey Ash, fancy seeing you here."
"Yeah, I didn't expect to see you." Ash said, both happy to see a familiar face and surprised to hear Dawn say she was going to compete.
Author Notes: Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed as much as I did writing this, their is more to come, I've written nearly 10,000 words so far, so chapters 1 through 4 are done and coming out soon and more are going to be in the works as of tomorrow. I would really appreciate some reviews even just a quick note saying you finished the chapter and some initial thoughts would be great. If you want to see any other members from Ash's other travels re-appear put that in the reviews and I'll try and get them in around chapter 6 or 7 if they haven't already showed up. Obviously this is in a completely new region, so I think the next chapter is going to try and explain what the region is like and why it got it's name, along side Ash and Sandy's day 2 battles. Sorry for so much dialogue in the restaurant, I plan on cutting this down for the next time.