The following morning, we found hundreds of trainers from all over the world all gathered at the Lumiose city ballroom, all dressed up in dresses and suits. There was a pre-tournament ball being held for all of the trainers to get to know each other before the tournament began.
"WELCOME TRAINERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD! MY NAME IS ALEXA AND A FRIEND OF MINES ASKED ME TO HOST THIS TOURNAMENT AND I GOTTA SAY I'M HAPPY TO BE HERE!" Alexa announced to the crowd of trainers.
Dawn surveyed the area as she was searching for something, then she paused for a moment then became confused, but didn't go unnoticed by Kenny. "What's the matter Dawn?"
"I was just wondering why Ash's not here, I mean he's in the tournament right? Look, May, Bonnie, Serena and Zoey are over there." Dawn pointed to the group of girls standing in the front of the crowd.
"I don't see why you care, he probably wasn't good enough to make the cut. After all he's just a kid." Iris said.
"Iris is probably right Dawn, I mean I battled him in Unova and I gotta say I wasn't impressed." Trip added
"But even though Ash isn't a good trainer, it's still strange." Max started
"What is Max?" Cilan asked.
"That my Sister is here but not Ash."
"And why would that be strange?" Misty Asked.
"Because Ketchum was the one who taught May about Pokemon, and I may not like him but even I got to admit he's a better battler than her." Drew answered.
"Maybe we gave him too much credit." Kenny added, causing everyone but Dawn and Gary to laugh.
'It's strange,' Gary thought and turned his head to May and her group. 'From what I'm seeing May, Zoey, Serena and Bonnie are the only ones here and if I recall no one in that group could beat Ash in a battle.' Gary eyes widen 'Come to think of it they couldn't beat Paul, Korrina, Clemont or Anabel. Why wouldn't the strongest of the group be at a battle tournament? I know Ash and Paul and they wouldn't turn down a battle or a chance to meet a champion and their elite four.' Gary paused for a moment and looked at the door the elite four were supposed to appear from. 'Come to think of it, except for Korrina, we don't even know who the other members of the elite four nor who the champion is.' Gary then closed his eyes processing everything then his eyes shot open and turned back to May's group and started counting. "One..two..three..four." Gary started to shake a bit.
"What's wrong Gary?" Misty asked, putting a hand on his shoulder.
"N-No, it can't be, it's impossible…" Gary said while shaking and sweat running down his face.
"What isn't?" Drew asked as Gary turned back to his companions as quickly as possible.
"PLEASE TELL ME THAT ONE OF YOU KNOW WHO THE ELITE FOUR AND CHAMPION ARE!" Gary asked with fear.
"N-No why?" Max asked as confused as the rest of the group. Just then Cilan's eyes shot wide open with shock.
"I think I know who they are." Gary responded to Max's question. "But it shouldn't be possible."
"Who gary?" Iris asked, unable to understand what Gary was implying.
"I think it's…" Then before Gary could finish his statement, the lights in the ballroom shutoff.
"NOW LADIES AND GENTLEMAN, FOR THE MOMENT YOU'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR, HERE'S OUR ELITE FOUR!" as the announcement was placed the floor of the began to open up, then an arena rose up in the center of the room. "FIRST UP THE MAD INVENTOR HIMSELF, CLEMONT!" Gary and his group were shocked at the announcement.
"Wait, Clemont?" Iris thought out loud, shocked. As she was done speaking, a blonde trainer with a lab coat riding a mega-evolution Manetric came out of one of the doors. What surprised everyone even more was Manectric was using wild charge while Clemont was on top of it. Then they did a flip in the air and when the pokemon landed, it released an electric torrain. Clemont then stepped off his pokemon, petting it and bowing to the crowd. "I can't believe he's an elite four member like me!" Iris stated.
"I was right." Gary said, clenching his fist.
"NEXT UP, YOU KNOW HER, YOU LOVE HER, THE AURA BRAWLER HERSELF KORRINA!" Alexa announced over the microphone. The Next door flew open and a blonde hair girl with a pony-tail wearing white skater gear with a mega-evolution Lucario doing backflips came out, then Lucario tossed the trainer in the air and launched three aura spheres at the girl. Korrina punched one in the air and grabbed the other two and threw them towards the first one. When they collided, it blew up in sparks while Korrina was free falling. The crowd was gasping in shock thinking she was going to hit the ground but right before she came close Lucario swept her into his arms and posed with his trainer in his arms.
"Of course we knew she was an elite four member as well." Kenny said in anger remembering the defeat he was given by the female blonde.
"NOW, THE PSYCHIC MAIDEN HERSELF ANABEL!" Just then a man walked up to Alexa handing her some small note. "UH, EVERYONE. WE HAVE JUST RECEIVED WORD THAT THE LAST THREE WILL ENTER AT ONCE, SO NOW LADIES AND GENTLEMEN PUT YOUR HANDS TOGETHER FOR THE PSYCHIC MAIDEN ANABEL! THE POWER HOUSE PAUL! AND LAST BUT DEFINITELY NOT LEAST, THE KALOS CHAMPION, THE AURA MASTER HIMSELF, ASH KETCHUM!" Alexa finished with thundering cheers and applause around the entire ballroom.
Just then the ceiling opened up as the stage lights focused on three positions, the right corner in the back of the ballroom, the left corner in the back, and the opening in the ceiling. Anabel flew into the room from the ceiling entrance riding on her Mega Metagross "Get ready for the show, now Metagross…" Before Anabel gave her command a shadow flew over the crowd as everyone looked up to see Paul riding his Mega Salamence.
"Salamence get ready…." the crowd then turned to see a black and blue dragon like pokemon also flying towards the center of the room with Ash riding on it's back.
"Charizard…." Ash readied his command. "OVERHEAT!" Ash's mega Charizard x fired a red fire beam towards the air.
"HYPER BEAM" Paul commanded, his blue and red dragon responded by firing a purple and black beam which made contact under Charizard's overheat.
"FLASH CANNON" Anabel told her pokemon. Metagross then fired a white laser making contact with the bottom of Salamence's hyper beam. All of the attacks made contact at the same time in the center of the sky causing a large spark like explosion with the form of a pokeball. The screams got louder as the crowd cheered for the three elite trainers as they landed to the ground next to the two other elites, all five of them standing side by side with their pokemon standing behind them.
Ash then asked Alexa for the mic which she complied. "I want to welcome all trainers to the master tournament. I am Ash Ketchum, also known as the Kalos champion and Today we have a banquet to celebrate the start of the tournament tomorrow but while you party we will explain the rules about the tournament." Ash then passed the mic to Clemont.
"All right everyone here's the breakdown for the tournament, there will be 3 rounds, 1 round per day: Round 1) Will be a test of survival, every competitor will be spread out in a forest in route 16 and Lumiose city where each trainer will battle whoever they encounter. You will gain ten points for each pokemon that's defeated, every competitor will be ranked from 1st to last based on their number of points. After each round is complete then the next round will be explained, if there are any questions feel free to forward them to me and I will answer them to the best of my ability." The blonde with glasses then handed the microphone back to Alexa.
"NOW EVERYONE PLEASE RELAX AND ENJOY THE PRE-TOURNAMENT BALL!" Alexa concluded as everyone began to talk amongst each other and a few trainers spoke with Clemont.
Drew gritted his teeth, Iris was clenching her fist tightly, and Max was looking towards the ground. All three of them tried to wake themselves up from believing that this was a bad dream. None of them wanted to accept this reality, that the trainer that they all pushed away had achieved the very thing that they said he wouldn't. "I knew it, I was hoping that I was wrong but I freaking knew it." Gary said breaking the silence amongst the group."
Max looked up at Gary. "I knew he had gotten stronger but there's no way that ASH of all people would be the champion here."
"Maybe all of those rumors about Kalos being the strongest region were nothing but myths, the last champion must've been a push over for Ash to have beaten them." Drew said, still trying to deny Ash's strength even though the group knew all too well that it was true.
Misty was also lost for words but stuck in her own thoughts. 'Wow, Ash actually did it. Why am I surprised, he always found a way to get through his challenges in the end, didn't he? However, even though he was determined to do well he still wasn't very good as a trainer compared to most of the people I know, but he couldn't go from nothing and become the champion of the strongest region, could he? I won't believe it until I see it with my own eyes, even though I want the best for him it's still hard to believe.' Misty thought to herself while going back and forth in her own thoughts debating with herself.
'How the heck did he become champion!? He's just a kid who always had that stupid smile on his face, never taking anything seriously. Even when we tried to look out for him by letting him know that this is a waste of time, he still didn't listen to us. Yeah we were just looking out for him right? He just didn't wanna listen. Champion or not once a kid, always a kid and I'm gonna prove it by beating him.' Iris thought to herself while getting frustrated trying to deny the fact that she was wrong.
Cilan just looked towards the ground with his hand up to his chin. 'May our theory have really been wrong, I swear that with the pattern that all of us have seen in the past that it was obvious that being a pokemon master just wasn't meant for Ash. Yet here he is, champion of the strongest known region. Were we wrong to doubt him, no that can't be, we were just looking out for him. Either way, the objective remains the same. Winning this tournament.' the green teen concluded his thoughts.
"Woah, so he actually managed to become champion huh? Good for him, but now I actually feel kinda bad for doubting him all these years." Trip said making everyone jump since the majority of them thought the same thing. Dawn however looked at Ash with tears slowly flowing into her eyes with both hands covering her mouth.
'He did it, Ash actually achieved his dream. I'm so happy for him, but I didn't tell him that I believed in him. I let the pressure in numbers get to me that way, maybe if I was honest that day then I may have been on his side now. But May gave me a chance to fix things, I can't mess up again. I'll enjoy the ball today, and then go talk to Ash tomorrow once the tournament starts.' Dawn thought to herself while feeling happy and sad all at the same time. She then dried her tears then walked away disappearing into the crowd. Alexa then took the mic from Anabel to proceed with her announcement. "Now if I may have your attention again, we're going to start off this ball with a dance performance starring our Kalos champion and Kalos queen! So Ash would you please proceed to the dressing room, and Serena will you please do the same." Ash was about to protest when his arms were grabbed by Paul and Clemont.
"Come on Ash, time to get ready for your dance with the queen, after all she is looking forward to this and you don't want to disappoint, do you?" Ash turned to Serena and saw she was blushing. "And you already have everyone's expectations on this dance." Clemont explained to the Champion.
*sigh* "I guess that's true. Wait a minute, did you all have this planned." Ash asked his two brothers.
"No time for obvious questions, just get out there and put on a show" Paul stated as he and clemont pushed Ash past the crowd and towards the center of the dance floor where Serena was waiting for him. As Ash approached her, the blush on both of their faces refused to settle. From the crowd six pokemon emerged, three from behind Ash and three from behind Serena. Ash took a bow with his right arm across his stomach and his left behind his back.
"May I have this dance my queen?" the champion asked, attempting to sound as proper as possible. Ash's attempt only humored Serena, making her let out a small giggle. She then proceeded to lightly grab the lower sides of her dress and just barely lift it off the ground and gave a curtsy to the champion.
"It would be my honor, my King." Alexa then hit play on the radio in the backroom. As Serena and Ash bowed to one another the song "Call You Mine" by the Chainsmokers (I recommended listening to the song as you read this scene). The couple took hold of each other and started off slow, swaying from side to side with a few spins and dips. As Ash threw Serena into the air a light rainbow like aura surrounded the two. Ash flew into the air and caught the honey blonde. Both Delphox and Greninja did a triple backflip underneath their trainers, Greninja used an ice beam with Delphox's psychic to make a large snowflake underneath each of Ash and Serena's steps, making them dance in the air. Glaceon and Silveon did the same but with each other so they could dance while circling their trainers. As the song slowed down Ash and Serena bowed to each other once more, as they bowed Lucario and Gardevoir jumped into the air as high as they could and fired several aura spheres and moonblasts around the ballroom. Causing several fireworks of various colors.
As the crowd was mesmerized by the pokemon performance, Ash and Serena were in their own world under the moon, hypnotized by each other's eyes. Ash was staring warmly at Serena giving her a loving smile, making the Kalos queen blush. Soon they slowly started to move their head towards each other, while the audience, mostly girls, cheered the two on and as their lips touched, Serena wrapped her arms around Ash's neck to deepen the kiss, while Ash held onto her waist. The female portion of the crowd squeal in awe at the performance. Ash and Serena slowly started to float down, ending the performance making the audience cheer louder.
"LADIES AND GENTLEMAN, PUT YOUR HANDS TOGETHER FOR YOUR KING AND QUEEN OF KALOS!" the loud cheers turned into a thunderous applause. As Ash and Serena made their way back into the crowd they were surrounded by their friends.
"That was amazing you two." Clemont complemented.
"Yeah, are you sure you won't try coordinating Ash?" May asked.
-An hour later-
The party continued with many dances, many laughs and smiles, much joy to be spread around. As the night came to a close, Ash stepped into the center of the room with a microphone. "EVERYONE, I HOPE YOU'RE ALL ENJOYING YOURSELVES." the room roared with claps and cheers. "GREAT, AND TO END THE NIGHT WITH A BANG, WE WILL HAVE AN EXHIBITION MATCH BETWEEN THE ELITE FOUR'S PSYCHIC MAIDEN ANABEL V.S. SINNOH'S CHAMPION, CYNTHIA!" the roar of the crowd erupted louder, making the walls feel as if they were vibrating.
"EVERYONE MAKE YOUR WAY TO THE ARENA, THEY BATTLE WILL COMMENCE IN 1 HOUR!