Joseph woke up a few months later, totally excited. His training with his grandpa had come to an end, as he was on his way to the Indigo Plateau.
"Good morning, sunshine!" SmartRotom said, excitedly. "I've downloaded the ruleset of the Indigo Plateau Tournament! Do you want to hear them?"
"Yes" Joseph smiled.
"Alright! Ejem: The first 1000 participants will rank thanks to a Battle Royale with only one Pokémon where they'll get to eliminate their competition or else be eliminated. The 16 who remain will fill in the brackets for the eliminatories, where they'll battle on Individual battles. The first battle will be a 2v2, the second one will be a 3v3, the semifinals will be 4v4 and the finals will be a 6v6. Objects will be allowed to use, as well as power-ups. You'll have to inscribe your Team pre-battle and you can't change to a Pokémon you didn't inscribe. You can evolve your Pokémon mid-battle.
Joseph listened to the rules. They sounded logical and all. He nodded.
"Alright, so... the most difficult thing shall be the Battle Royale" Joseph said. "1000 Trainers... and only 16 can remain"
"Who will you choose for the Battle Royale?" SmartRotom asked.
"Are you crazy? Obviously Dragonite! With his Super State and Dragonfang, he's obviously unstoppable!" Joseph said, excited.
"I hope that's true" SmartRotom said.
Joseph put some clothes on himself: His purple sweatshirt, his blue pants and his dark shoes. He equipped himself his Keystone and his Zygarde Box. The last one was one of his trump cards, as each Zygarde that could be built from it was extraordinarily powerful. But Joseph wanted to use that power sparingly, lest to be too easy to win. He liked challenges and proving himself.
They arrived to the Indigo Plateau, and Joseph inscribed himself in the Tournament, with a sheet with all the teams he was going to use for all of the brackets, hoping to achieve the finals. The receptionist surely thought of him as overly positive, but what was in Joseph was confidence.
Confidence on his ability to win.
So, Joseph arrived at the stadium, together with Dragonite, where the 1000 Trainers were standing. Dragonite had in a necklace the Dragon Fang, and stood behind Joseph. A countdown had started, to signal the beggining of their scuffle.
"Three! Two! One! GO!" A RotomDrone shouted.
"Dragonite! Use Dragon Pulse!" Joseph shouted.
"DRAGOOOO!!!" Dragonite shot towards the ground, knocking out different Pokémon.
Everyone began fighting against each other, the number of Pokémon in the ground dwindling really fast. Joseph and Dragonite stood out as one of the few who were keeping up. Then, they found Piter and Jynx. They looked at each other. Measured each other.
"It would be a huge shame that we didn't get our great battle in the Tournament" Piter smiled, turning around.
Yeah, such a huge shame, Joseph nodded, understanding.
They both went around. Falkner was also in the Tournament, showing off a kind of power that surprised Joseph.
"He might be strong after all" Joseph said, grinning to himself.
16 people were left. Joseph was one of them. He and Dragonite came to the Pokémon Center for some assistance, Dragonite was tired from flying around and attacking other Pokémon.
"Hi there! Congratulations on being ranked in the first 16!" Nurse Joy smiled. "We are going to take good care of Dragonite!"
"Thanks!" Joseph smiled.
"Ey, Joseph!" A familiar voice said. Joseph turned around to see Lance. "How are you doing?"
"I'm fine!" But there was another person besides Lance. "Huh? Who are you?"
"You don't recognize me, boy? Name's Raihan! I'm Galar's most famous Gym Leader!" The dark-skinned man smiled.
"HUH?! RAIHAN?! Wow! It's... incredible! What are you doing here?" Joseph smiled.
"Well, Lance told me there was a Dragon Tamer participating in this Tournament. Wanted to check your ability, that's all" Raihan said.
"Selfie with Raihan!" Joseph's SmartRotom surprised Joseph, while Raihan stroke a pose.
"Please, tag me! I'll follow you on social media, dude" Raihan smiled.
"Will do!" Joseph's SmartRotom shouted. "Ahhh... if it wasn't for me, Joseph would be utterly unknown!"
"Well, I would rather that!" Joseph shouted, annoyed. "Having a fanclub is annoying!"
"Ahhh... please don't grow up, kiddo" Raihan smiled.
"What was that?" Joseph asked.
"Nothing!" Raihan smiled. "But anyhow, Lance and I were going to have some lunch. Wanna come along?"
"No! Thanks, but I'd rather wait for Dragonite to be healed" Joseph smiled.
"Alright, see you!" Lance smiled, nicely.
Joseph sat down, looking with his another phone the social media so SmartRotom could rest a little bit.
"Why are you using your other phone?!" SmartRotom asked, jealous.
"Because you're overheating" Joseph said. "Rest a little bit, okay?"
"Okay... you're the best, bzzzt!" SmartRotom went to Joseph's bag to rest.
Joseph then found on the bag his old console. Yeah, he played Pokémon... Gold? Stadium? It was everything so far away... He remembered the lazy nights he spent playing instead of training and sighed in shame.
"Well, better go outside rather than wallow in self-shame" Joseph said.
He went to the Pokémon Center's yard, and took out the rest of his Pokémon. His fanclub spotted them and ran towards them.
"You were so cool, Joseph!" One of them said.
"I'm writing a blog about you!" A girl said, catching up Joseph's attention. "Could you tell me about that Zygarde?"
"Of course! It's a Toy Day gift!" Joseph said, smiling. They're made by ten units of Zygarde Cells, and I have a box of 100 units"
"Interesting! And they're capable of rejoining with the rest of their cell units, correct?" The girl said, writing all down.
"Yep! But I prefer them on this form because they're supercute as they are, right, buddy?" Joseph said, petting Zygarde.
"Zygarde!" He confirmed.
"Yes, you are! Supercute!" Joseph said, poking Zygarde's nuzzle.
"By the way, are you confident you're going to win the League Tournament?" The girl asked.
Joseph looked at her for a split second, and then nodded, confident.
"Yep!" He said, excited.
And he would stand by those confident words, as the Pokémon League continues!
To be continued