Paul's eyes had widened when he saw Ash's face on the big screen. Such a revelation had been completely unexpected. It had been well over three years since he saw his old self proclaimed rival from his Sinnoh journey. The same one who knocked him out of the Kalos league, and made him wonder around Unova for a couple of years. Contemplating. In the last year, he had somewhat returned to formula, although his methods were still harsh, his treatment had eased up. He pushed his Pokemon the the limit, and when they had reached their limit, he pushed them some more. Some Pokemon collapsed during an average session with Paul, but they were stronger for it. He never referred to his Pokemon as 'pathetic' anymore. He also praised his Pokemon when they deserved it, another one of Ash's influences. An easier way of saying it was 'Tough, but fair.'
Paul simply let out a small grunt and made his way to the Pokemon centre that had been installed just for the yearly event, additionally serving as a resort for trainers on the road. Fully functioning with a medical bay, video calls, a training field, and bedding. Paul made his way to the front desk, when he hit the service bell twice, and waited calmly and patiently to be served. At such a busy time, the service was slow. Nurse Joy eventually made her way towards him, acting calmly and sophisticatedly despite having been frantically running all over the place a few moments ago. "Sorry for the wait, how can I help you?"
"I need to use one of your video phones." Paul stated simply.
"Certainly. If i can just take your name?" The nurse quickly grabbed a pen and a sheet of paper, looking up at Paul as she spoke.
"Paul."
"And the nature of this call?"
"Transference of Pokemon."
The Nurse scribbled onto the paper in neat penmanship before looking at the Sinnoh native. "Okay, thats all fine. Use terminal six please." She pointed out the terminal for Paul to use as she spoke, indicating to a green terminal with two trainers either side of it.
Paul bowed lightly. "Great. Thanks." He said in gratitude before making his way to the terminal. He punched in the dials of the terminal absent minded. He had done it so many times before, it was basically done on automatic now. He hit the call button and stepped into the view of the camera, waiting for the call to be picked up.
"Hello?" The call stuttered for a second, before focusing. "Ah, hey Paul!"
"Reggie." Paul acknowledged his older brother on screen with a nod, still as irritatingly upbeat as every. That opinion of his older brother hadn't changed. That didn't change the fact he cared about Reggie. But he did find himself wanting to tell Reggie to shut up and punch him in the stomach a lot. Instead it manifested itself as passive aggression.
"I saw you on the TV. Torerra really did a number on that Salamance, huh?" Reggie said, complimenting his brothers powerful Pokemon.
"It was a waste of time." Paul closed his eyes, and said simply. "Torterra won't get stronger beating up Pokemon that weak."
Reggie folded his arm and raised an eyebrow. "Sounds like you're still taking your loses at the Battle Pyramid hard, huh?"
Paul grunted. "The advice Brandon gave me there was valid. So I'm acting on it. I don't have the Sinnoh league to worry about getting in the way this time."
"You know, you never did tell me what Brandon said to you." Reggie noted, tilting his head. "Mind filling me in?"
Paul simply nodded. "He used an analogy. He said if I could lift a weight without difficulty, then my strength never improves. If I only use those weights to train, my fitness doesn't improve."
Reggie then nodded in agreement. "Words to the wise. So he meant that you needed to get stronger by fighting stronger Pokemon than yours. And that you need to fight a variety of opponents to get better." Reggie tilted his head. "I thought you did that anyway? Unless he meant Pokemon that are tougher still..."
"Thats what I took away." Paul confirmed. "Which is why I'm calling. Torterra isn't going to improve from this tournament, so him competing would be a waste of potential. Im sending him back. I want you to send over Ninjask."
Reggie held up his Ninjask's Pokeball. "Gotcha, Paul." Paul grabbed his Toterra's Pokeball and put it in the transfer, and hit a few buttons. A few seconds later, a glow stole away his Pokeball, beginning the transfer between the two brothers.
"You'll never guess who else I saw on the TV either, Paul." Reggie said with a smirk. He was attempting to make casual conversation while the transfer completed. Paul knew who he was referring to.
"I think I do." Paul said, dismissively, shaking his head lightly.
"So you saw him too?" Reggie grinned again. "Seems like Ash has caught himself some new Pokemon since we saw him last, huh?"
"Its been over three years." Paul reminded his older brother, deadpanned. "I'd be surprised if he hadn't."
"It doesn't feel like three years." Reggie said amused, with a dumber grin on his face. "Time flies, huh?"
Paul sighed lightly. He'd heard this talk before. Life is too short speeches were getting old on him. Reggie wanted him to relax, loosen up some, and stop being so serious and deadpan. "Don't give me the talk, Reggie."
Reggie smirked again. "One of these days, you'll have to bring a girl home to meet me, you know that, right?"
"I'll let you know when that happens." Paul said, with sarcasm thick in his voice. "Until then, this conversation is over." He firmly established that the small talk was over. The final transfer had been made in that moment anyway. Paul picked up his Pokeball and held it in front of the camera for Reggie to see. "Transfer completed."
Reggie reached off camera and grabbed Torterra's Pokeball, and held it up for Paul to see. "All clear on this end too, Paul. Good luck out there."
"Thanks." Paul simply stated.
"And if you run into Ash, tell him I said hi!"
"Im sure he'll appreciate it." Paul muttered with sarcasm.
"Okay Paul, take care." Reggie said, raising his hand as a goodbye motion. Paul cut the call with that, hitting the end call button. He hated that conversation with his brother. Every time they talked, Reggie had started giving him the, as he liked to call it, 'The bigger picture' talk, which Paul liked to call, 'The annoying topic changer'. It entailed Reggie trying to convince Paul to get a girlfriend and to take his battling less seriously. According to Reggie, he'd be happier for it. And that would open up the 'Bigger picture.' Paul simply wasn't interested. Reggie's idea of a bigger picture was a family. Paul didn't want that. But his brother kept pushing it. Paul didn't care. His goal was to become strong enough to beat Brandon at the Battle Pyramid. He was focused on his battling career. Getting stronger. Becoming powerful. Thats what he worked towards right now.
"Paul!"
The purple haired trainer heard that familiar voice that has sounded shrill three heats ago, and now, was one he respected. He turned about 85 degreed to his left and saw him. Ash.
"Its you." Paul acknowledged. "I saw you on the big screen."
"I had no idea you'd be here!" Ash said, a grin in his face, and he held a hand out for Paul to shake. Paul accepted it. Ash was strong, but his methods were completely different to Pauls. Though it took him a long time, almost a year and a half, Paul had developed respect for the Kantoean.
Flanking Ash, there were two girls. One of them had honey blonde hair, and the other... "I had no idea you would be here." Paul said to the blue haired girl. He paused for a second. "Miette, right?"
The blue haired girl nodded. "Thats right. I didn't think you'd come to Revolution Castle."
Paul have a shrug. "Its good for training."
"You must have been doing a lot! Torterra was amazing!" Ash said, as ever, full of compliments towards his opponents Pokemon. Like that made a difference.
"Torterra just went home."
"What? Why?" The blonde girl spoke this time, looking clearly shocked at Pauls choice. "Ive never seen a Pokemon that strong! You could defeat the entire competition with it!"
"And Torterra wouldn't get any stronger." Paul deadpanned the blonde girl.
"Make sense." Miette commented. "Serena, your performances require practice over and over and over and over again with the same Pokemon. So do mine. But trainers like Ash and Paul need to make all of their Pokemon are all tough." Ash nodded in agreement.
"You get it." Paul simply said, with a nod. He then turned on his heels and started walking away, into the crowd, the way Ash and his group came in.
"Hey, where're you going?" The blonde girls voice, Serena's, pitched in again. Paul glanced back and saw both her and Ash stood close to one another. He then glanced at Miette. He suddenly understood what the issue was she was dealing with a few days ago.
"Times too short. I can't waste time talking all day." Paul replied simply.
"Rude." Serena commented with a huff.
"Pretty polite for Paul, actually." Ash muttered. "Alright, see you soon!" He called, waving lightly as Paul disappeared into the crowd. He was gone as soon as he joined them. Swallowed in the rush.
"What a jerk." Serena commented, her arms folded. She could feel her veins pulse in her forehead. "Couldn't he at least just say 'Excuse me' ?"
"Ah, you get used to it." Ash commented, amused. Paul hadn't changed too much, although he definitely had more patience and tolerance for people, particularly for those who held opposing views on his training methods. But Ash could tell he wasn't nearly as harsh anymore. Though he had to wonder, what had caused him to change like that? Whatever had happened, he seemed friendlier. Or as friendly as Paul was ever destined to get.
"He's... Not a people person, huh?" Miette wondered aloud.
"Not even close to a people person." Ash commended, folding his arms as he spoke. "Believe me when I say he seems friendlier than when I last saw him. And that strength that his Torterra had? It doesn't surprise me at all. He'll be planning to implement that power to all of his Pokemon."
"That seems... Unreasonable." Serena commented. "I mean, that kind of training must've been brutal. And a Torterra has lots of sheer strength to start with."
Ash shrugged. "He does it somehow."
Their conversation eventually devolved from Paul onto other topics as they went about their business in the Pokemon centre. All of them had their Pokemon healed after their battled, all three of them passing into the next round. Serena's had been particularly close, and she really put the victory to pure luck. Pancham had gotten a bit too cocky, so its ability to recover from that situation had been nothing short of a miracle. It sort of embarrassed Serena to even remember it. Ash made a few transfers with Professor Oaks lab in Kanto, along with a reminder to watch him on the TV in the upcoming matches.
"I won't let you say that kind of thing about Salamance!"
A loud shout echoed throughout the entire centre, filled with ferocity and anger. Everyones heads turned to the source. It was Pierre, from Paul's battle earlier on that day. And he was shaking in sheer rage, glaring at two people, one smirking smugly.
"Its not like we're saying anything wrong." One of them states, void of actual emotion, more like they were robotic, stating mere facts. Ash couldn't see that one.
A different one wore glasses, and had long, curly brown hair, as well as a darker skin tone. She also had a slender figure. She wore a silver jacket and black jeans. Her posture indicated a sense of smug arrogance, like she was happy to have ticked off Pierre. "Salamance was beaten because it was weak. Thats all. But not because Salamance is a weak Pokemon. Its because it has a terrible trainer."
Pierre twitched.
"Running around, acting like a hot shot. Filled with bravado and arrogance, like you own the whole world. But thats an act, isn't it?" Pierre flinched. The girl smirked. "Thought so. You're aware how weak you actually are. So you act cocky to hide that from others. Like you actually have a clue what you're doing. With a trainer like that, Salamance is sure to follow." The girls eyes narrowed, and her lips formed a cruel smile. "What a waste of a perfectly useful Pokemon."
Pierre snapped, and instead of yelling, he simply attempted to throw a punch. Moving quickly, and purely on instinct, Ash managed to throw his hands underneath Pierre's and pull him back. This apparent Kalos native was, in a word, furious. He looked ready to slaughter the two trainers in front of him. He was livid. He aggressively attempted to escape Ash's hold, throwing his arms left and right, attempting to wriggle free. "Get off me!"
"Calm down!" Ash yelled straight into Pierre's ear, before glaring at the two trainers who had managed to piss off the trainer in his lock. "What's this guy done to you, huh? What do you get from just angering him like that?"
The woman folded her arms and grinned. "Aside from our entertainment for the night?"
"Sierra." The male stated, stepping forward. His was the original voice. The one void of emotion. "Our role here is not to antagonise." This man had pale skin, and shaved hair. He didn't look too much older than Ash, but he had a year or two on him. He wore a similar outfit to the woman. He wasn't very expressive either. His face almost looked locked into a neutral expression. Despite this, he looked physically capable. His eyes were lifeless.
"Give it a rest, Beta." The girl, Sierra, dismissed.
The male, Beta, looked at Ash. His expression was neutral. Strongly neutral. It was very clear - he couldn't care leas about this conflict. "Your companion there approached us. He then questioned us. He requested to see our Pokemon. He wanted to battle. We attempted to politely decline. We then attempted to request him to leave. More aggressive attitudes and methods were taken."
"Yeah, aggressive means such as insulting my damn Pokemon!" Pierre spat back at Beta. Ash had to hold the Kalosian back. He seemed immensely petty, especially seeing as this was, in a way, his own fault.
Beta simply blinked. "I do not share my partners views. Those opinions belong to her. However, I hold no ill will to either side. I shall apologise for mine and my companions attitude. We request forgiveness." Beta bowed in union with the word 'forgiveness'. A much more traditional action - from Kanto. Ash was taken slightly aback by this. Beta was a Kanto native, like him.
"Youre kidding, right? I refuse to apologise to this clown." Sierra argued with ferocity.
Beta simply looked at her. This seemed to unnerve Sierra, who took a step back. Her fiery attitude seemed to be extinguished simply by a look from her companion. He seemed to calm her down. But this seemed more out of fear than it did reassurance.
Beta spoke again. "We request forgiveness." There was not a single change in his tone, pitch, or timing. Like he had gone back in time, and replayed an audio clip from a few seconds go.
Ash looked between the two. They could not be more different. To put it bluntly, the two seemed like two different kinds of complete maniacs. He was concerned, however. Beta at least seemed reasonable, but clearly there was something intimidating about him. He doubted he wanted to see him angry.
"Fine." Pierre said, his voice bitter and thick with anger. "I forgive you. Just get out of here." This surprised Ash. Pierre seemed like a proud and hotheaded sort of person. He had expected to have to fight him to keep him in place. Then again, it was possible Pierre had noticed that these two were dangerous too.
Beta bowed again. "We are grateful." He turned to Sierra and walked past her, making no hand gestured, or any eye contact. He walked past her like she didn't exist. And yet, she still turned to follow him.
The two walked away. And then silence fell. Eventually the crowds dispersed, and went back to their own business. Ash was able to finally let go of Pierre. "Well that was... Unsettling. You okay?"
"Im angry." Was Pierre's only response. He then let out a heavy sigh. "Thanks. For stopping me." He said, before walking away, opposite to the direction Beta and Sierra had gone.
Ash himself felt the adrenalin leave his system, and his hand shook, due to the rapid depletion of chemicals. He let out a loud sigh and stumbled back a couple of steps. He felt a hand on the back of his shoulder, stopping him. He glanced over and saw Serena, smiling. "Headstrong as ever."
Miette had her arms folded, still looking in the direction Beta and Sierra had gone. "That was... Unsettling, to say the least."
"Are you okay Ash?" Serena asked, her face softening.
Ash nodded. "Yeah. Im fine." He found his footing and stood upright. He didn't remove Serena's hand though.
That evening, the announcements were made, with every trainer whom had made it past their preliminary match stood right back outside in the stadium again. The teams were to be announced. The tag team matches.
The set ups were said to be completely random, like drawing names out of a hat random, only done by computers. The trainers were tense, glancing at pretty much everyone in their field of vision. Anyone there could be the trainer they had to fight next to. Some had taken notes on the trainers they'd be happy to be partners with, and ones they'd hate to be partnered with.
Ash, Serena and Miette all stood on the edges of the crowd, glancing between one another. The odds of two of them being on a team were slim. 2 trainers, and 12 teams, 6 on either side of a bracket. Combining all the combinations of trainers that could go together, those being roughly 24 combinations for 1 trainer, the odds were easily well over 1 in 400.
"No holding back once we face each other, right?" Miette asked.
"Never." Ash grinned, his arms folding as he said so. "No holding back, no hard feelings."
"Fair enough." Miette nodded. "Theres always a chance one of us will be partnered with another of us."
"I don't think I'm going to put too much money on those odds." Serena commented with a small smile.
"Fate likes messing with us." Miette commented with a larger smile. "You never know."
"You sound confident." Ash commented. He grinned again and jokingly commented, "You didn't rig the system, did you?"
Before Miette could made her sarcastic reply, the board in the stadium lit up. While there would be no commentary from the announcer, he was there, doing a live reaction to the pairings right now. That part would be added in during tomorrows broadcast before the battles would begin. The names of the pairings, plus their pictures, would appear on screen, and then transition ti the next pair, and this would go on for a while, until every group had been announced, and the two had met their tag team partner. According to Miette, it never took more than an hour. Afterwards, the two partners would usually go and get to know one another, discuss strategy, etc, before the next day.
"Attention : Please pay close attention to the pairings. Attention : Please pay close attention to the pairings." A loud, synthesised female voice declared. This was it.
On the screen, an animation of cards being shuffled began playing. Each card had a persons face on it. Whoever had their cards linked together, those were the pairings. Everyone watched intently. This was very easily where the competition was either won or lost.
For a brief moment, the board went black. There was a second of silence. Was this part of what was supposed to happen? After about ten seconds, it was obvious that there was something wrong. This caused quite a bit of disruption in the crowds, with trainers asking questions amongst themselves.
"Whats going on?"
"Did someone unplug a wrong freaking cable or something?"
"This sure wont look good for the broadcast."
"This is... Awkward."
After a few seconds, the screen lit up again. "The board is now back online, we apologise. We have discovered an error in our programming." The announcer stated via the loudspeakers. The one voice that hadn't been expected to be used today. "We have rectified this error. Pairings are in screen now. Please pay close attention. Anyone without a pairing tomorrow will be automatically disqualified."
The first few pairings went by. Them and the trainers names, along with their faces, showed up on the screen. April and Justin. Weiss and Lucy. Flora and Qal'zan.
Miette and Paul.
The groups eyes widened when they saw this one. Miette's especially. "Wait, what?" Was her only response.
"You and Paul?" Ash repeated the words on screen, almost with a grin. "Well thats gonna be interesting, thats for sure."
"I agree."
The group heard Pauls voice behind them. He had his hands stuffed into his pockets, and looked sort of annoyed. He then looked at Miette who nearly flinched. His expression softened however, becoming just nearly friendly. He extended a hand to her. "Looks like the universe is determined for us to get to know each other better. Looking forward to it."
Miette relaxed. Something about his gesture made her smile. She extended her own hand, and accepted his handshake. "As am I."
"Try not to terrify her too much, Paul." Ash commented with a grin. He had his arms folded, trying to look professional, but he simply wasn't gonna pull that look off. He was amused, and very interested to see how Miette and Paul would interact.
Paul looked at Ash, and then at the board. "You might want to turn around."
Ash raised an eyebrow, but quickly realised that his name was on the boars. He turned 180 degrees in less than a second. He then checked his name and partner. His eyes nearly shot out of his skull.
Ash and Serena.
The group in silence for a few seconds. "Laws of probability be damned." Paul muttered.
Miette stood there and blushed. "I swear to God, I did not rig this."
Well then guys, so end this chapter of Loyalty, named Surprise! This might have been predictable, and one of you guys did message me with a very accurate prediction. But i think i might still have a few tricks up my sleeves that you guys don't know about. I Plan each chapter roughly five weeks in advance, and write each chapter in the week its due. For example, i had this chapter planned five weeks ago, and i finished writing this about two or three hours before i uploaded it. This gives me a lot of time to come up with plans, plot lines, and the entire story has been briefly planned out. I do have a lot of plans for this one, and its likely the one that I am the most ambitious about. I care about this story doing well.
So it means a lot to me that we've hit over 100 followers and nearly 100 favourites. Its nowhere near a fraction of One Day Off's success, but it means the world to me that you love this story so much, so thank you.
Also, in others news, i am trying my damned hardest to try and get you guys the occasional extra chapter out in a week. So, be on the lookout in case i manage it.
Thanks for the read, and i hope you enjoyed. Lets hear what you all think about this chapter. I love hearing your reviews. They always make me smile. Follow and favourite for more, and i shall deliver. See you guys!
