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A Pokemon tournament written hopefully to be more realistic (such as taking it in turns to use moves, taking distances into account and the dangers that can hurt the trainers as well.)

This is just a prologue introducing some characters and the main battling begins in the next chapter.

*/

Erin sat by her laptop, eagerly waiting for what was about to come up on the screen. Her partner sat next to her with her eyes on the rest of people.

"Who do you think is toughest?" she asked with a slight tone of impatience. Erin barely looked up at the rows of seats that were peppered with other contestants. A few weeks ago the room was completely packed with all of them fighting for the prize. Now only eight teams were left and they were one of them- somehow.

"All of them. I'm not even sure how we got this far." They had some tough scrapes in the past few rounds but somehow lady luck showed them the way. "Though most of us managed to get through so it should be fun." The 'us' she was referring to was their group of friends, one of which was approaching now.

"Hey Eddie," Sienna greeted and received a hug in reply. "You and Alastair nervous?"

"Just bored of waiting." Erin spaced out of their conversation and thought about the remaining contestants properly.

Eddie and Ali were a great combo together. Vincent sat alone by his own laptop thinking (or playing some computer game) and that was their little group. The other contestants she knew less of. Before she could begin evaluating though there was a ding noise and a TV in the corner sprung to life.

"Welcome to the Driftveil under eighteen's grand tournament," began the announcement showing an aerial view of the arena that they would be competing in. "Our contestants have fought hard to get a place in the tournament and they can be proud to have made it this far. However, there is still more to come as there can only be one winner to challenge the champion!" The camera zoomed in on the cheering crowd. "The champion will be selected at random at the end of the tournament so our challengers won't know who they will be facing at the end. But, that battle is for another day and today's first battle can finally be revealed. Look to the screen now for the tournament match up list!" As the enthusiastic announcer signed herself off, the standard tournament tree appeared showing who was facing whom.

"Looks like we're up first," said Sienna as Eddie left to converse with his partner. "Who are we up against?" They didn't recognise the names of their opponents.

Suddenly, a man sprang up with a flourish of green and yellow and strolled towards them.

"So you two are our first opponents?" the man asked in a heavy but easily false Mexican accent. Behind him was a girl in a white dress that seemed almost naked compared to the guy's overly large hat and boots. "Ha, this will be easy. Let's go Daniela," and he waltzed off. The two girls didn't have any time to respond. "Don't make us wait." He hadn't noticed Daniela had stayed behind to apologise.

"I'm really sorry about the way he's behaving. He's an actor and we're trying to bond with the Pokémon."

Erin and Sienna looked at each other. "Why are you in the tournament then?"

"I'm his acting partner. To be honest, we weren't even supposed to make it past the first round." She chuckled to herself. "We might just go all the way." With that, she walked off to the entrance.

"That was weird," said Eddie appearing again, this time with Alastair.

"So they're Ivan and Daniela," he added. "Good luck."

"Thanks," Sienna replied. "Who are you up against first?"

"Hey, you've got a battle waiting for you outside. Battle first, talk later."

Erin walked on first, waving behind as she and Sienna were ushered towards the door. As soon as they were out of sight, Vincent got up and walked to them. Alastair grinned like the Cheshire cat would. "Looking forward to our fight?"

Vincent smiled in return. "I guess so." There was a hint of sarcasm.