DISCLAIMER: Don't own Pokemon, do own this story.

It's now time for the second round of the Pokemon World Cup. Will Ash progress through to thequarter-finals. Read on to find out!

Chapter 5: Round Two! Fight!

The first day of Round 2 came and Ash went to the reception desk to decide his next opponent. He ended up choosing Paul, who came from New Zealand. The match started at 4pm that afternoon.

'Welcome to Stadium C for the first of today's 2nd round matches, held between Ash Ketchum, who beat Tai Kitano in Round 1 to progress to this stage, and Paul, the New Zealand national champion. This is going to be a fantastic clash between these two. The winner of today's match will be the first person to go through to the quarter-finals, so it's gonna be tense. And here come the players now. Ash, as usual, is opting to play on the green end whilst Paul goes for the red.

The ref came up to explain the rules. 'OK, this match is a best of 5, first to 3 victories wins the match.They both shook hands. 'They go to their ends and the ref signals for them to choose their Pokemon. Ash is going for Kingler whilst Paul plays Growlithe. The ref blows the whistle, and we're away! Kingler straight onto the attack with his hyper beam. Ooh...that's gonna do some damage to Growlithe in this early stage of the game. Growlithe fights back with an ember attack and Kingler's hard shell protects it from injury. Kingler appears to be the stronger out of these two but Growlithe is putting up quite a fight. Anyway, here come Kingler with a tackle attack and...OH MY GOODNESS, knocks Growlithe up in the air and down to the floor. Will he get up again? The ref comes over...and holds up the green flag, signalling a first-battle victory for Ash.'

'Yes!' said Ash. 'That was interesting...' said Brock. 'Paul chooses his next Pokemon, a Pikachu? This is bad for Kingler. Pikachu does the first attack...a thundershock, which, fact fans, is the attack that won Ash's first round match with his own Pikachu. Here it comes and...WOW! Kingler, straight onto the floor. If the red flag goes up this will be the shortest battle in Pokemon World Cup history. And yes...there it is, Paul wins the second match just about a minute after he started it. Kingler must have been weakened by his previous battle. 1-1 now. Can Ash bring himself back up from this?'

Ash chose Muk for his next Pokemon and he won that battle.

'2-1 now to Ash. If he wins this next match he will go through to the quarter-finals. If Paul wins, we continue. Ash chooses...Pikachu! This is it folks, Pikachu vs Pikachu. Both equal in strength. This one is just down to who is the better Pokemon. Ash starts with a electric shock and Paul fights back with thunderbolt.'

10 minutes later they were still battling. 'I don't know which way this game is gonna go folks. I've never seen a match quite as tense as this. Both Pokemon don't want to lose this one but unfortunately, one has to. But which one? Ash's Pikachu or Paul's. Anyway, here comes Ash's Pikachu...and does an amazing thundershock. What's this...Paul's Pikachu badly damaged by that attack. Can he get up again...?

The ref came up... 'Pikachu is no longer able to battle. Ash wins the battle, and the match 3-1. The crowd roared. Ash had won the second round. 'This is a brilliant player. Ash Ketchum, from Pallet, has won his second round battle against Paul from New Zealand, taking him through to the final 8!'

Misty and Brock came up to celebrate with Ash. Paul came up and congratulated Ash on his victory. 'I hope we'll meet up again someday' he said. 'I'm sure we will' said Ash.

'And so, Ash Ketchum becomes the first of our quarter-finalists. We'll need to decide on 7 more over the next few days, so stay tuned...'

There ya have it!Round 2 complete.

NEXT TIME ON THE POKEMON WORLD CUP

Coming up in chapter 6, something threatens to put the entire tournament into jeopardy. What happens next.Find outin chapter 6!

R and R