As soon as the boat docked on land Ash was racing down the gangplank and off to the pokemon center to register for the tournament. This soon proved to be a difficult task, as all of Driftveil city was crowded with news reporters, pokemon fans, trainers, breeders, connoisseurs and pokemon league officials. However through the hustle and bustle, Ash heard a voice from out of the crowd.

"Hey Ash, over here!" Ash could not hear the voice very clearly through the crowd but the owner of the voice soon revealed himself from amongst the people. "Hey Ash, haven't seen you in a long time. This is great, I may finally get the chance to battle with you!"

The trainer was a small boy, he had brown eyes with teal hair. He was wearing a green T-shirt with brown cargo shorts along with a yellow backpack and glasses.

"Max!" yelled Ash through the crowd. He walked over to the young boy who had accompanied him through the Hoenn league. On the way he bumped into someone in the shoulder who seemed to be in a rush. "Oh, sorry" he said as he continued to make his way the the Hoenn native.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

"Training, sightseeing, AND there is a tournament going on, WHAT DO YOU THINK I'M DOING HERE!" shouted Max.

Ash quickly recognised his friend's sarcasm, but decided to let it slide. "I'm surprized on how you qualified to enter considering you've only been a trainer for a short time." He said.

"I'm not the only one." He replied. "May is here too, and I just saw Brock over at the pokemon centre. I also saw a few others that said they knew you, I think their names were Iris and Misty."

Ash looked more excited as he heard the names of his former traveling companions. "Wow, so their all here to, are any of them entering?" he asked.

"Yeah, they all are," he said informingly. "This is a big tournament so there are many people we know that are competing to."

"Alright so what do you say we go see them all!" Ash said as he booked it to the pokemon centre. Once he entered the doors he saw a large amount of trainers hanging around in the lobby. Ash looked around as this was the competition he would have to overcome in order to win the tournament.

"But we better register before we do anything." He said to himself. He walked over to the counter to register for the tournament when he heard a familiar voice he had heard earlier.

"Name?"

"Tyler."

"Region?"

"Johto."

"Home town?"

"Blackthorn City."

"Professor?"

"Professor Elm."

"Alright, thank you for your participation and best of luck in the tournament."

"Thank you nurse Joy," said the young man. Ash now recognised him as the same guy he had bumped into at the port. He was about 5 ft. 8 inches tall. He had dark brown hair and wore a casual light blue T-shirt and white cargo shorts as well as a pair of sunglasses hanging from the collar of his shirt. Ash walked over to see to see his new competitor in the tournament.

"Hey, sorry about bumping into you before. It was my bad."

"Hm" he said as he looked up. "Oh hey, I remember you. Don't worry about it. I'm Tyler." He said as he offered a handshake, witch Ash gladly took. "Are you competing to?" he asked.

"Yeah." Ash replied. "I just got registered and I'm on my way to meet a few friends of mine."

"Ash over here!" he heard a voice from behind him. Standing there with Max was a group of people who Ash was happy to see again. There was May, Misty, Iris and Brock. Ash ran over to meet his old friends. After a few pleasantries, he introduced Tyler to the group.

"Everyone, this is Tyler. I just met him on the port today. Tyler, let me introduce you to everyone. First this is my best friend Brock. He was the Pewter city gym leader and is currently studying to be a pokemon doctor."

"A gym leader and pokemon doctor, that's impressive." Said Tyler

"Thanks, but it isn't easy. I've been studding really hard, but I still have a lot to learn." replied brock.

"Next is Misty, the Cerulean city gym leader." He said gesturing to the water type specialist.

"Hi, nice to meet you." She said. "Sorry about Ash being such a klutz" she added.

"Uuuggghhhh." Ash groaned.

"Hi, I'm Iris" said the purpled haired unovan girl. "And I want to become a dragon master." She added.

"Really?" he asked. "That is exactly what I'm on my journey to become."

"Really?" She asked. "what kind of dragon types do you have?"

"Well, I've got a Flygon, Salamence and a Zweilous. What dragon types do you have?" he asked back.

"uuuhhhh." She stuttered. "I've got an Axew", she answered slightly embarrassed. "But I recently caught a really strong Dragonite."

"Hi I'm Max and this is my sister May" interjected Max. "Our dad is the Petalburg city gym leader", he said proudly.

"Nice to meet you all", Tyler said. "Are all of you competing in the tournament?", he asked.

"YEAH!", everyone said as a group. "Well.", Said Tyler. "I guess we should get ready for the opening ceremony."

"Right, everything will be getting started in 30 min, so we should all head for the main stadium." Announced Brock.