Axelpro: Yeah, it's been a while since I updated this story. Enjoy, I do appreciate comments.

"Hey Taillow, you mind bringing me that can of seeds?" Ray's mom pointed to a can on the far side of the counter as she was obviously going to use it for her cooking. Taillow chirped and grabbed the can with his beak and flew it over to her. She took it, smiled, and opened it, "These treats I'm making should be tasty enough for Pokemon and Humans to eat. I wanted to do something nice for Ray's Pokemon, they seemed so confined lately. It's not good to be so restless, so I figure some extra energy might help." Taillow wasn't really paying attention to any logic that was trying to be used, all he was doing was getting a good whiff of the delicious smelling concoction Ray's mom was brewing. Ray's mom finally put the dough into neat shapes on a pan and put the pan into the oven she already had piping hot. She then pulled out a tray of treats that were finished baking. "Always better fresh, right Taillow?" Taillow chirped as she start putting the treats into a bowl.

A familiar face popped his head into the room, "So how are those treats coming along Susan?" It was professor Oak, who was looking at the contents of the bowl with great interest. He quickly straightened himself out when he realized he was drooling a bit.

"Yes, the first batch is ready Professor, these are going to go to you, Tracy, then to all of Ray's Pokemon. Sorry, but I have to give preferential treatment towards my son."

"Ah, of course," Oak wasn't really listening to what Ray's mom was saying rather he was letting himself become intoxicated with the delicious aroma coming from the treats in the bowl. Ray's mom handed Oak something and he looked at it with a smile, the item in his hand was a cookie that was big enough to just barely fit in both of his hands shaped like a beach ball, granted it didn't have any frosting to increase the beach ball image, but Oak didn't care. The Professor was quick to take a bite as Ray's mom disappeared into the back of Oak's facility.

She looked around the open fields and saw all of the Pokemon. It was rather easy to pick out Ray's Pokemon because they seemed to be the only ones that weren't relaxed in the least. It was as if something or someone was constantly telling them that Ray was going to come in tomorrow and say that he needed their help. It had been like this since Marowak was sent back, just for some reason Ray's Pokemon didn't know what rest was. Arcanine and Charizard were going at it, shooting flamethrower attacks at each other then coming to grips in a test of strength. Marowak was going toe to toe with Starmie at the nearby pond, Starmie shot out of the pond and fired numerous water gun attacks which Marowak narrowly evaded before he launched both of his clubs in her direction. Starmie turned in mid air in a way that let the clubs glide by her before she descended into the water. Fearow was circling Nidoking dodging the occasional jumping poison sting before coming down and making use of his mirror move. Hitmonchan was improving Poochyena's abilities with a series of comet punch attacks forcing Poochyena to evade if he didn't want to suffer real damage, each punch was enough to leave a dent in the grass.

"Hey guys, I got some treats!" That call seemed to break the Pokemon from their training frenzy and they turned to Ray's mom with smiles on their faces. The eight Pokemon made their way over as Taillow landed neatly on Susan's shoulder. She went to a knee and pulled out treats for each one of them. The Pokemon happily took them and decided it would be a break from their training. "Here Taillow," she took one cookie and split it in two, "You can share with me." Taillow seemed to pout a little to which Ray's mom laughed a little. Taillow went at his own treat with glee nevertheless.

"Heh, you were able to get these guys to stop beating each other, even after I tried so many things, in the end it's food." Oak came out of his house laughing, with Tracey at his side.

"Yeah, you wouldn't believe what the Professor tried to get those guys to calm down." Ray's mom got to her feet and handed Tracey a cookie. "For me?" She nodded, "Thanks!" He joined with the Pokemon in enjoying the treat.

Oak finished his cookie and cleared his throat, "I'm really impressed at how well Ray has inspired these guys. When I look at everyone's Pokemon I watch over I see a couple things. My son's Pokemon stood out as the most disciplined while he was still a trainer, then Ash's were the ones who showed the most trust in each other an in their trainer, it was love, if you will, but Ray...his Pokemon are by far the most inspired. It is as if he is a great general and his Pokemon will follow him to the ends of the Earth. All he did was send Marowak back and Marowak spoke to his Pokemon briefly, and they haven't stopped improving themselves since. He has the least Pokemon in number, but he captures his Pokemon very carefully, as if he can see their potential already, then he molds them in his team for a while before he feels he can move them as he sees fit. It is a very unique style of training, and I'm surprised he hasn't already become a Pokemon Champion somewhere."

"Yeah, he got that ability from his father, for some reason his father, after an incident inside the Pokemon tower, was always able to see into people, through them would be a better word. I don't know why he left, but I'm guessing he saw into something and realized there was something to do. I try not to worry about it too much, both of my children have fond memories of him, so that's enough."

Something about Susan's last comment caught Oak as peculiar, but before he spoke again he wiped his mouth from the crumbs that were still on his face. "I always thought Ray was your only child, I never saw another."

"Oh, Calvin's not my son by birth, but since he is my husband's child that makes him my son too, at least that's how I see it."

Tracey looked up from his cookie, "Oh really, where is Calvin?"

"Oh, I think he is...last time I heard from him he was a big executive in Team Rocket."

Tracey spit out whatever mushed cookie was in his mouth all over Arcanine, who in turn growled and bared his sharp teeth in his direction. Tracey smiled and back away a little before turning back to Ray's mom, "But team Rocket is the villainous team that steals people's Pokemon!"

"If my husband nor Ray have gone to set Calvin straight then I believe Calvin is all right." To that Oak could only muse at this little bit of knowledge.

"Are you up yet!?" The loud banging on the hotel room door was getting on Ray's nerves. He was busy brushing his teeth and Ash, the heavy sleeper that he is, was still sprawled out on his mattress snoring, snot bubble and all. It was the third time Misty called into the room, and three times was enough for Ray to go and answer the door. Ray swung the door open and was almost hit with Misty's fist as she was about to start banging again. "Finally, the quarterfinals are going to..." She trailed off as she looked up, then her face reddened when she realized what she was looking at. "P-p-put some freakin clothes on!!" Sure enough she was staring at a naked Ray, save for a pair of striped boxers of course. She quickly turned her reddening face away from Ray.

"Well then stop banging on the door so I can think and get myself ready, but if you want you can wake him up." Ray turned to the side so Misty could see into the room, and see a sleeping Ash. "Ash..." He volume gradually rose as she went from blushing to anger again. The red haired trainer stomped over to Ash and grabbed him by the collar, unlike Ray, Ash was wearing a shirt and boxers, so Misty had no qualms. It wasn't too long into the throttling that Ash's eyes sprung open in alarm. "You blockhead! Get ready, we have to be at the stadium in 20 minutes." She threw Ash back on the bed and left. Ray couldn't help but laugh, just enough that his toothbrush slipped from his mouth"Guess I'm done brushing, the sink's yours." Ray took a bottle of water from the mini hotel fridge and took a sip, rinsed and shot the result out of the window. Ray slipped on his green hoody and put on his blue jeans and black shoes. Ray proceeded to scoop up his poke balls and put them on the notches in his belt. Finally Ray left Ash closing the door behind him and going down the stairs towards the lobby.

As soon as he could see the lobby he spotted everyone just waiting for the last two people to complete them, "Where's Ash?"

"Well you were just about to kill him less than three minutes ago, and I wouldn't even want him to be down here if he just got up three minutes ago."

"We're not waiting for him then, let's go."

"Too bad so sad!"

"That's not nice to say at all sis." Nevertheless the group started making their way out of the lobby.

"Well I just hope Ash learns from his mistake." Max was the one who made the comment, he was unfortunate to have been using the bathroom when Ray was assigning rooms so when push came to shove he managed to find lodgings with Vincent. Strangely enough he found Vincent to be cool and immediately admired him.

The group approached the large stadium that had banners stating that it was the quarterfinals hanging everywhere. People were flooding into the stadium, most of them were now just fans, looking to see the intense battles. It was nice to see that even more fans were coming to see the quarterfinals, and it was naturally because the first two rounds were only to weed out any people who managed on luck. It was nothing but skill at this stage of the tournament. Fortunately everyone in the group had made it to the quarterfinals and so far nobody was facing each other, so it turned out that everything would be decided in the semi-finals.

"Hey it looks like Charlie is going to fight first." Misty was pointing at the bracket that was filled with names that had lines through them, signifying that the person had been defeated in the tournament so far. There on the screen Charles Gourdo and Brock, and they were versing Felix Driver and Courtney. Charles grimaced when he saw that it would be Felix that he was to face.

Brock seemed to be the only one to notice Charles' change in demeanor, "You all right Charlie?"

Charles realized his seriousness was very visible so he masked it under a smile like he did anytime he every saw Felix from a distance. "Oh, I'm just remembering how tough they were from watching them in their battles."

Brock returned Charles' smile with one of his own, "Relax, we're going to be fine. I doubt these guys could stop us." Charles nodded as they made their way into the stadium.

"Good luck big brother!" Lou waved until Charles was out of sight then she turned to Ray, "I'll go get my seat, I don't want to miss a single part of this." Ray nodded and Lou skipped out of the room and Max decided to follow leaving just the tournament competitors in the room to watch the screen.

Felix and Courtney were already waiting for Brock and Charles as they came through the entrance to the stadium. "It looks like our Quarter finalists are all here. This intense battle will get underway in just a little bit folks. Who will push past the other and move onto the semi-finals!?" As the announcer was hyping the match mere moments before it got underway the referee uttered something into his watch and the special poke cameras appeared.

"Trainers ready?" All four trainers nodded reaffirming their resolve to win in doing so. The referee brought his flag down, "Start!"

"Before we send out our Pokemon how about we make this a little interesting Charles?"

"You don't look like you've changed much Felix,"

Brock gave Charles a startled look, "Wait you know this guy?"

Charles nodded, "He was my mentor, kind of like a brother, he taught me the ways of the world while I was imprisoned in the underground terrorist organization that he's a part of." Felix managed to catch a couple words of Charles' exchange with Brock and grinned at what he heard.

Brock swallowed hard, "No wonder you looked like that when you saw his name on the board."

"Hey, why aren't you trainers throwing Pokemon out on the field?"

Not paying mind to the announcer's question Felix took a pokeball from his pocket and tapped it forcing the device to enlarge. "So here's my wager, you win and I will leave and no longer bother while you stay in Hoenn, but if I win you come with me and we go back to the facility." Charles grimaced when he heard Felix's deal.

"There's no way he'd take you up on that kind of a deal. It's not-"

"You got a deal."

"What?"

"Brock you don't understand, he is part of a terrorist organization, what he'll most likely do is end up taking the people close to me in order to get me to surrender. If I beat him here he'll leave here for good and all my relatives will be safe."

"Hm, makes sense," Brock mused. "All right, I'll try not to slow you down!" Brock pulled out a poke ball and tossed it out onto the field. "Let's go Forretress!" The steel shelled Pokemon made his grand appearance as the first Pokemon to be released in the match.

"You better be up to par Courtney!" Felix made the comment just as he tossed his pokeball out onto the field. The pokeball cracked open releasing red energy the formed a a small steel Pokemon. "You too Stone, we're here to win, so no slowing down!" Aron gave out its reply and Felix smirked, "I need to bring Charles back so Cyrus can let me leave that hellhole."

"Heh, I should be saying that to you, not the other way around!" Not hearing that last bit Courtney threw her pokeball out onto the field. The pokeball released her Slugma.

"Then I'll just choose," Charles threw out his own pokeball, the pokeball split open releasing a Psyduck. "All right Dew, the objective is to win." Psyduck nodded and put his hands on his beak. Immediately Psyduck began glowing preparing for an attack.

Just before Charles could give Psyduck the command to attack Felix butt in, "Heh, I thought you would have developed your skills a bit more than this. It's common knowledge that Psychic attacks aren't effective on Steel Pokemon. You're wasting your time!" Charles looked shocked by the way Felix seemed to read his mind.

"Oh wow folks, it looks like Felix has just called Charles' attack and explained the effectiveness of Psychic attacks on Steel Pokemon. How will Charles cope!?"

"Heh, you called it," Charles looked defeated, but only for an instant before a devious smirk appeared. "You called one of the many attacks in my repertoire! Dew, Water Pulse!" Psyduck nodded shooting a blast of water aided with psychic power. The water slammed into Aron sending him tumbling backwards. "You keep acting like you still know all my attacks even after seven years and this is going to be a quick match."

"Heh, you're right I guess, but now I'll go on the offensive. Courtney, cover fire!"

"Right, use mass ember Slugma!" Rather than the typical one target ember Slugma fired a large barrage of small fireballs that all came speeding towards Forretress and Psyduck.

"Protect Forretress!" Forretress moved in front of Psyduck and put up a barrier shielding both of them from the incoming fiery assault.

When the barrier went down Charles noticed immediately that Aron was gone, "Damn, where could he have gone?" Forretress and Psyduck started looking about for the small steel Pokemon.

"If you would Courtney."

"My pleasure, Smog Slugma!" Slugma obliged by spraying the purple mist all around Psyduck and Forretress.

"Oh boy, it looks like Courtney is putting Brock and Charles in tight spot after tight spot.

"Argh, she got us!" Brock made the obvious statement as he looked into the smog, trying to find out the condition of his Pokemon.

"Up and down Stone, you know the drill!"

"Psy!" Psyduck was sent flying out of the smog and landed in another section of the battlefield.

"Watch out Brock, he's using dig!"

"Keep that stupid shell busy Courtney, I'm going after the prize!" Courtney and Slugma both nodded and Slugma began its barrage of ember again.

"We don't have a choice here Forretress, protect!" Forretress put up a barrier once more, but this one was much weaker than the first. After the first few fireballs were deflected the barrage broke through and beat down on Brock's Forretress.

Meanwhile Aron was already underground again leaving Psyduck looking at the ground for any movements. "I can take you by myself, Stone, up!"

"Dew, jump now!" Psyduck jumped into the air, but it was nothing compared to the speed that Aron had coming out of the ground after Psyduck.

"Useless!"

"Not yet, Dew disable, like we practiced!" It seemed that Charles had practiced disable with Psyduck before because the disable attack was pulled off with barely any concentration on Psyduck's part. Aron's small body contorted slightly, but still sped towards Psyduck. For some reason Charles seemed a bit frantic, "Not too much time, Water Pulse on Slugma!" Psyduck complied firing off a pulse of water at an unsuspecting Slugma. The attack smashed into the fire Pokemon and knocked him silly. Charles let out a sigh as he saw the attack work.

"Amazing, Charles' Psyduck managed to pull off a disable and a subsequent water pulse with great ease and finesse. Great power!"

Felix was grinning when he heard the sigh. "What Cyrus said came true hasn't it?"

"Focus on the battle Felix!" Courtney watched as Aron slammed into Psyduck redirecting the water Pokemon. The disabled Aron fell back to the ground with a thud, Psyduck fell out of bounds due to the extra push given by Aron.

"Ouch, it appears Psyduck has fallen out of bounds. "Who will Charles send out next?" As the announcer said this Slugma made its way to Aron in his state of confusion.

"What are you doing Slugma?"

"Now's your chance Brock!"

Brock gave Charles a quizzical look, "Huh?" As Brock tired to think of an attack to capitalize on the situation it was as if something was pressed into his mind. "Forretress, Self Destruct!" Forretress rolled towards Slugma and Aron while starting to glow brightly. Just as Forretress reached the two his explosive power sent both of them flying in different direction. As the smoke cleared Slugma and Aron were both knocked out and Forretress was down and out from his own attack.

"All the Pokemon are unable to continue!"

"Whoa! This is the first time this announcer has seen a three way knock out instigated by the fourth Pokemon's moves! This is a really intense match, would you say so!?" His question was met by a roar from the crowd.

"You saw it all didn't you Charles? Cyrus knew this would happen, moving steps ahead of your opponent as if it were chess. That style of battle won't always work, and influencing your partner like you did won't work either, at least not with this next bout." At Felix's deduction Charles looked away as to try and deny it. Felix pulled out two pokeballs and opened both. One served to turn his battered Aron into energy and pull it back while the other released energy that formed into a Ninetales.

Courtney returned Slugma, "What the hell are you babbling about? Remember we are here to win this championship, not indulge in your stupid games!" Courtney threw her second pokeball onto the field revealing Mightyena as her second Pokemon.

"You did good Forretress, but now it's your turn Mudkip!" As Brock said he switched out Forretress for his Mudkip as Charles returned his Psyduck.

"Here, let's go Cinder!" Charles threw out a pokeball which let loose his Chimchar named Cinder. This particular Chimchar was wearing a necklace with a stone pendant around his neck.

"Here we go with round two, Chimchar and Mudkip versus Mightyena and Ninetales!" The announcer was getting into the fight well as the crowd.

"Your mind is already going over the best possibility to win and..."

"Brock, you and Courtney go one on one and I'll take Felix. It's the best strategy in this case, try your best to survive until I get there!"

"Exactly as I knew you'd see it. You think my Ninetales is too strong for Mudkip despite the type difference." Now Charles truly grimaced as Felix read his intentions. "Well far be it from me, I'll just knock you off first and seal your fate. Ninetales, quick attack!" On command Ninetales rushed in full speed.

"I don't care what you think you know, you aren't winning this one! Cinder, let's try-" Ninetales was already slamming into Chimchar sending him reeling backwards.

"What was that?" Felix chuckled a bit.

"Come on big brother, don't let him beat you!" Max just watched Lou cheer her brother on. He was struck silent by that, by his terms, four way knock out. It was such an intense series of commands, but the most striking was that Brock was willing to tell Forretress to self destruct. The fact was that it wasn't something Max believed Brock would put his Pokemon through. It was strange, but nothing compared to the result of his attack.

"My oh my, those youngsters sure are battling with fire aren't they?" Max nodded not really knowing who he was speaking to. When he realized that it was an old man's voice he was nodding to he turned. He immediately recognized the face as the gym leader of Mauville, Wattson."Stay focused on the battle, you might miss something incredible." Max heeded his advice because not too long ago there was one of the most incredible events that could happen in a Pokemon match.

"Come on, you aren't amounting to much." Mightyena charged in, like it had a number of times before. The Mudkip put up a barrier that deflected the charge. "You're really pissing me off you!" Brock simply gritted his teeth as he waited for Mightyena's next attack. "Show him your swagger Mightyena!" Mightyena nodded and started taunting Mudkip, trying to bait the small water Pokemon into battle. Something clicked inside Mudkip, and Brock could sense it. The typically docile Mudkip flew into a rage and started charging Mightyena.

"No Mudkip, it's a trap!" Mudkip wasn't listening to Mudkip as he launched short water gun bursts.

"Dodge Mightyena!" Mightyena jumped out of the way of each and every burst of water, but Mudkip jumped over Mightyena entirely spun around and shot water at the ground in front of Mightyena as he turned around. The water force mud to shoot up into Mightyena's eyes. "What the!?"

"From the looks of it Mightyena has used Swagger to goad Mudkip into attack, but the plan backfired as Mudkip seemed land his attack on Mightyena!"

The crowd started up, "MUDKIP, MUDKIP, MUDKIP, MUDKIP!"

Meanwhile Ninetales fired a flamethrower attack only to be matched by Chimchar's own flamethrower attack. "Come on Ninetales, overpower that runt!"

"Don't let him underestimate you Cinder!" The two flames continued evenly for a couple of seconds before dying out. "Go, Fury Swipes!" Chimchar rushed forward and was upon Ninetales, immediately he went to work swinging his claws. Ninetales did his best to avoid the series of attacks, occasionally Chimchar would catch some of his fur. Ninetales finally jumped back to put some distance between the two.

"Sunny Day!" Ninetales let out a howl and the light that invaded the stadium intensified.

"Why bother with that? It helps both our Pokemon equally?"

"Heh, you could find out if you really wanted to, focus your mind." Felix was grinning, "And its not only because Mudkip's attack are now weakened." Felix waited for a moment, "Don't feel like searching for the answer? Oh well, Ninetales use fire spin!" Ninetales obeyed and launched fire that encircled Chimchar. Charles simply watched as Chimchar was surrounded by so much fire his body could no longer be made out. "See, I told you that it would be useless. That gift won't work here, you need to get it developed before anything of use will come of it." Suddenly something burst out of the fire spin attack.

"It's a wheel of fire!"

At the announcer's words the crowd erupted, "CHIMCHAR HORRAH!" Sure enough it was Chimchar that came barreling towards Ninetales. After the collision Ninetales laid on the ground charred and unconscious while Chimchar stood over him panting heavily.

Unfortunately like Felix said Mudkip's attacks were losing power as it fired a water gun attack, but while the water hurt Mightyena it also washed away the mud in his eyes. "Mightyena, stop fooling around and end this, Bite!" Mightyena clamped down on Mudkip's single head fin and swung Mudkip away. Mudkip hit the ground hard just next to Chimchar.

"Come on, you can do it Mudkip!" Mudkip rose slowly to his feet and was panting heavily like Chimchar. "Just a little more Mudkip."

"It looks like at the very end of it all it will be a battered Chimchar and Mudkip against a seemingly fresh Mightyena, how will it turn out!?"

"Charge them!" Mightyena complied going full speed at the duo.

"Water Gun!" Mudkip launched a stream of water from his mouth.

"Flamethrower!" Chimchar let loose a fiery blast.

The water gun hit first and slowed Mightyena down a little, but wasn't strong enough to break anything visible in Mightyena's stride. "He's through the water gun!" The announcer said it in a rising tone to heighten the suspense of what could be the end of the battle. The flamethrower hit next and was so powerful that it exploded on impact creating a cloud of smoke right in front of Mudkip and Chimchar. "It looks like heightened flamethrower has stopped Mightyena finally. It looks like-" Just as the announcer was going declare the winner Mightyena burst through the smoke and slammed into both Mudkip and Chimchar with his body. "What the hell!? Another three way knock out!?" It was as the announcer said all three Pokemon involved in the altercation were sprawled out on the ground. Each one of them looked spent and unable to move.

"Come on Cinder," Charles attempted to coach Chimchar into getting up, "Move, move, move, move." Each time he said it Charles went slow so the words would reach the tired Chimchar. Chimchar's eyes finally opened and he looked over to Mudkip who was looking back at him. Chimchar clawed his way over to Mudkip who nodded to him once he arrive. Chimchar then, with Mudkip's permission put his hand on Mudkip and pushed himself to hiss feet then before his legs gave out he pulled Mudkip to his feet.

"Mightyena is unable to continue, Chimchar and Mudkip are the winners." The referee said this as he looked at Chimchar who was leaning on Mudkip who seemed to be struggling to stay up as well. The crowd erupted in cheers for the two Pokemon and their trainers.

"Congratulations on the battle hard fought, you two make it to the semi-finals!"

Felix smirked, "I am a man of my word, but I bet Cyrus would be interested in how far his "project" has come." Felix then turned to Courtney, "Looks like it's plan B." Courtney simply sighed and nodded then looked out into the crowd.

Axelpro: More double battles on the way, look forward to the next chapter.