Hey there, bet you didn't expect me to update this slow, huh? Sorry about that, but strap yourselves in for this chapter! Let's begin!

"So, Ash, how do you think the tournament will be?" Paul asked, his mouth full of bagel, reaching for another one as he finished his question, effectively stuffing his face.

Ash wasn't much better, however, stuffing his mouth with donuts, wolfing them down. "Man, Paul, I wish I knew! I'm hoping some competition will turn up, we've got all the Champions and Gym Leaders in the world coming after all!"

Bonnie, Dawn, and Serena could only sweatdrop as they looked on at the two friends, Pikachu and Electivire handling their appetites in a similar way, like their respective trainers. The group of friends were currently here because Dawn had gone to Ash's house this morning to invite him for breakfast with some of their friends. Serena had done the same with Paul, and had grabbed Bonnie along the way.

The five were now seated at 'Malie's Finest', a restaurant that Ash had grown quite fond of during his journey across Alola. Some good memories were made there, the most memorable one being Ash's acquisition of his Pikashunium-Z, so Dawn thought it fitting to have one last moment of peace before the tournament would begin.

Unfortunately for her and the other girls, Ash's and Paul's appetites could be called anything but peaceful, considering that Ash and Paul were effectively being living garbage disposals, practically inhaling their meals.

"Where do you guys even put all that food?" Dawn wondered aloud, the bluenette taking a bite of her blackberry muffin, although not with the same gusto and speed Ash and Paul were going at. "Honestly Ash, how are you not fat already?"

"Hey!" Ash said in between mouthfuls, pointing a finger at Paul, shoving more donuts into his mouth. Gulping them down, he gave a rather childish pout in Dawn's direction. "Paul's eating the exact same way that I am, why don't you talk to him about it?"

"Yeah," Paul said, taking a huge swallow as he leaned back in his chair, his eyes moving from Ash to Dawn. "But Dawn doesn't care about me as much as she does for you, her champion, now does she?"

Bonnie burst out laughing, playfully eyeing Ash and Dawn, while Serena simply rolled her eyes at Paul's antics, a small smile on her face. Dawn's face was blushing a deep tomato red, looking anywhere but Ash for the moment, a smile still on her face.

"I-I mean, I care for Ash a lot! Of course, I'd be concerned for his health!" She said, pointing her fork at Paul, causing the purple-haired trainer to simply shrug his shoulders and smirk.

"Um, thanks, Dawn..." Ash said, a small blush growing on his face as he put yet another donut into his mouth, quickly swallowing it. Over the years, during his travels through Alola, he had definitely matured, although parts of his childish self still remained, especially when he interacted with his Pokémon. He was no stranger to Dawn's growing feelings for him over those years, he had long since grown out of his romantic density, however, he had no idea how to reciprocate those feelings, especially since more among his friends showed similar feelings...

Ash shrugged those thoughts off for now as he made a move to take away Pikachu's 5-gallon bottle of ketchup, the electric mouse quickly guzzling down the red condiment.

"Hey!" Pikachu cried out in a betrayed tone, as Ash took the bottle away. "Come on, Ash, be a pal and give it back!"

Ash shook his head, giving his partner a sheepish smile. "Sorry Pikachu, but you know you have a limit. Remember what happened when we left you alone with that hot dog stand the day I became the Alolan Champion?"

"Heck yeah, I do!" Pikachu said, licking his lips as he stared off dreamily, recalling the day vividly in his mind. "That was the absolute best day of my life..."

"And remember that same night you spent at Professor Kukui's lab with an upset stomach, begging for a swift and speedy death?" Ash told his partner, snapping him out of his daydream.

"Oh yeah..." Pikachu murmured, a frown on his face as if he was recalling an unpleasant memory, then continued his attempts at trying to grab the ketchup. "Worst night of my life... Now gimme the ketchup!"

"What?! You just remembered what happens when I let you have this much, and you're STILL trying take the bottle?" Ash said incredulously, holding the bottle high out of Pikachu's reach, leaning back in his seat as he did so.

"The means justify the ends, Ash!" Pikachu cried out, beginning to jump to try and reach the ketchup, Ash raising the bottle higher every time he leapt. "Now give me ketchup or give me your death!"

"You don't even know what you're saying!" Ash cried, leaping out of his seat, as Pikachu's attempts became more desperate. Their friends simply looked on and laughed, Paul getting up to help his friend out, as two others walked up to their table.

"So, Pikachu's at it again, huh?" Gladion asked, announcing his presence as he came up behind Lillie, the two of them taking their seats at the table, Gladion taking a seat on Serena's left, and Lillie taking a seat on her right, sitting next to Ash. Gladion's Sivally followed close behind, simply laying down under the table, banged up a bit. "Doesn't he ever learn?"

"Maybe when you learn that being fashionably late doesn't work for you," Serena said playfully, poking Gladion's shoulder, causing him to turn away and huff. "Seriously, I called you guys ahead of time, what happened?"

"I was busy with some stuff," Gladion said, not giving Serena much else to go on, much to her annoyance. The honey blonde turned to her breakfast instead, teasing Gladion about his lack of food by slowly eating her fresh toast. Meanwhile, Ash had finally calmed Pikachu down with the promise of eating out at Paniola's Pancakes later that day and sat down, giving Lillie a questioning look, while Gladion narrowed his eyes at a Serena stuffing her mouth.

"What Gladion means to say," Lillie said, giving Ash an apologetic smile as she continued. "Is that he made us late by getting caught up in a Pokémon battle."

"Really, now?" Paul asked, sitting down in his own seat, intrigued. Gladion's skills, while quite rusty as of late, were nothing to joke around about. "Gladion actually fought in a battle? It's been a while since you've battled, hasn't it?"

"Yeah!" Bonnie agreed, eyeing the current president of the Aether foundation, playing with Dedenne in her bag, feeding the Electric/Fairy-type some of her scrambled eggs. "I thought you said that you weren't going to battle until your matches in the tournament? Who'd you fight?"

"Max Maple," Gladion said in his usual tone, moving his head to pet Silvally, feeding it some Sitrus Berries, the chimera Pokémon letting out sounds of content. However, the mood of the table dropped severely, as everyone's faces turned to looks of sadness, disgust, or anger.

"That brat?" Paul asked, spitting out the word brat, busying his hands by rubbing Electivire's fur, his food the last thing on his mind now. "Should've known he'd be one of the first to challenge us."'

"How'd you do against him?" Serena asked with concern, trailing her hand down Gladion's arm, her eyes filled with worry as she began to take notice of Silvally's worn-down state.

"We won," Gladion said, turning to Serena, a minor look of frustration on his face, his hands still running over Silvally's body. "Although it came too close for my liking in the end."

"Is he really that strong?" Dawn asked as a small frown formed on her face, thinking Ash and Paul may have gotten their competition after all. "I don't remember Max and the others being such good trainers..."

"Well, Gladion might've done better if he hadn't sent Sivally in its Dark typing to fight a Gallade," Lille said dismissively, waving for one of the waitresses as she did so, sending a childish glare at her brother. "Using Bug or Flying typing would've helped a lot."

Gladion simply huffed, looking anywhere but in his sister's direction, instead choosing to focus on his menu. "Fact is, he's not much of a pushover, but his battle strategy is atrocious. Repeated moves are probably just the tip of the iceberg for him."

Dawn was about to reply, when she noticed Ash being strangely quiet, his chin in his right hand as he looked down onto the table, visibly upset. Lillie noticed this as well, wrapping her arms around his, looking at his face with worried eyes.

"Gladion, were the rest of them there?" Ash said after what seemed like an eternity of silence, turning to look at his blonde rival. "Misty, May, and the others?"

Gladion simply gave a short nod, although Serena picked up on a hint of concern, most likely for Ash, as the blonde made his order. "Yeah, the whole bunch of them. Misty, Gary, Professor Oak, Tracy, May, Max, Drew, Trip, Iris, and Cilan."

"No one else?" Bonnie asked silently, pursing her lips as she looked hopefully at Gladion, hugging Dedenne to her chest.

Gladion sighed as the waitress moved on to Lillie, giving Bonnie a sympathetic look, as he knew how hard it was to deal with familial problems firsthand. "Your brother, Clemont, is also here."

A resentful look appeared on Bonnie's face as she heard the news. "He's not my brother... not anymore." She paused, giving her friends a small smile before continuing. "You guys are my family now, and I wouldn't change that for the world!"

Ash gave her a huge smile back, standing up from his seat, finished with his meal, Pikachu leaping onto his partner's shoulder. "I wouldn't have it any other way either, Bonnie." He said, ruffling her hair in a brotherly fashion.

"So Ash, you ready to get this tournament started?" Paul asked, a smirk on his face as he thought about the traitors he'd crush, getting up from his seat.

"Am I ever!" Ash replied, pumping his fist, Pikachu doing the same, a smile on his face. "Come on everybody, let's go!"

"Haven't eaten yet," Gladion said, to Ash's dismay, as the blonde began to tuck into his newly received waffles, sharing some with Silvally, putting a complete stop to Ash's excitement.

"N-Neither have I..." Lillie said sheepishly, an embarrassed look on her face as she received her eggs and bacon from the waitress, nervously fiddling with her hair.

"But... but the tournament starts in 15 minutes!"

"Man, I still can't believe you battled the President of the Aether Foundation!" Clemont was saying to Max, a shine in his eyes as he leaned in particularly close to Max's face. "Do you even know how cool that is?"

"And I still can't believe you keep talking about it!" Max whined, falling backward into his bed. The traitors had rented a room at the Pokémon Center after Max's battle with Gladion, deciding to wait there until the Tournament of the Stars was ready to commence. Needless to say, Clemont had been beside himself with excitement ever since learning Gladion's true identity.

"Yeah, Clemont, what's the big deal?" Iris asked, disregarding Max's whining, letting Axew crawl through her large hair. "Why are you so crazy about that guy anyway?"

"You would be too if you understood what he's done!" Clemont said in a giddy tone, turning in Iris's direction, his eyes shining even brighter. "He's singlehandedly led experiments on all kinds of Pokémon, and his company has invented tons of machines to assist in those purposes! He's discovered all kinds of new Pokémon, and the Aether Foundation are the leading experts in researching them!"

"Really, now?" Professor Oak said, his mind wandering to all the valuable discoveries the Aether Foundation had contributed to Pokémon research across the world, due to the results of many experiments. "That must be quite the list of accomplishments..."

"Too bad your machines aren't that good, Clemont..." May said, bored out of her mind as she lay her head on Drew's lap, Drew looking down at her mischievously, May sending a sexual look back at him. "They always end up blowing up or something like that, don't they?"

"Enough about that guy, already!" Max said, getting up off of the bed before Clemont could defend himself against May's accusations, a frustrated look in his eyes. "If he's not even part of this region's Elite 4 and I lost, how am I going to win this tournament? I'm not just going to sit here and let my butt get handed to me!"

The traitors all looked at him, before Oak spoke up. "You know Max, perhaps if you began to train your Pokemon during the time you have between battles, you may strengthen your own Pokémon and hold your own past the preliminaries."

"Train?" Max asked, frowning, folding his arms across his chest in a childish manner. "But it's been so long since I've had to do that!"

"Stop acting like such a little kid!" Iris said, fingering her Pokéballs as she looked at Max, Axew popping out of her hair to chime in. "Just because you won the Unova League doesn't mean that you won't ever have to train again!"

"Iris is right, Max." Cilan began, preparing to launch into yet another of his annoying speeches. "Your lack of training with your Pokémon is like a well-prepared dish going cold without-"

"Alright, I get it, already!" Max said, covering his ears as he got his stuff together, wrapping his Pokéballs around his waist, getting ready to head out to the tournament. "I'll do it after the tournament begins, alright?"

"Speaking of the tournament, isn't it starting soon?" Gary said, looking smugly through a research journal while sitting on a sofa, gloating inwardly at the number of findings he had put in there, disinterested with what was going on.

"Oh yeah, it's happening in like 15 minutes or so, isn't it?" Misty asked, leaning on Gary, her hand wandering toward his crotch area.

"15 minutes?!" Max said, surprised as he began to slip on his shoes and socks, obviously in a hurry. "Come on, we gotta get going!"

"Whoa, hold on Max, you're kinda acting like Ash there!" Tracey blurted out, having been furiously drawing until that moment, Trip having looked on over his shoulder.

A silence came over the room at the mention of their former companion, many emotions coming to surface. Max and May particularly glared at Tracey, their looks sharp enough to cut him open right then and there.

"Don't you ever compare me to that weakling!" Max said, indignant at the fact that he could resemble Ash for even an instant.

"Yeah, Max is nothing like Ash, you understand?!" May said, taking her head off of Drew's lap, much to his disappointment.

"Y-Yeah..." Tracey said, quite a bit intimidated as he began to go back to his drawing, giving a nervous laugh. "I'll be sure not to do it again, alright?"

An awkward pause rested over the room until Trip spoke up, his mind not really concerned about the minor conflict that had just unfolded. "Hey, does anyone here have any clue who the Alolan Champion could be?"

"Nah, but who cares! No matter who it is, he's probably gonna be cool, prepared, and the very picture of what a Champion should be!" The spectacled kid paused for a bit, as he began to move out of the door. "I just can't wait to crush him!"

Ash let out a large sneeze as he continued running down the streets at a rapid pace, Pikachu barely holding onto his shoulder, and his friends following at similar speeds not too far behind him. "Gah, I better not be catching a cold on top of all this!"

"Wait, Ash, you're catching a cold?" Dawn said, interrupting Ash's current train of thought as she caught up to him, running beside him.

"What, no!" Ash replied, before frowning a bit, pondering the possibility of him actually having a cold. "At least, I don't think so..."

"Ash is catching a cold?" Lillie asked through a mouthful of bacon as she caught up to the two, her blonde hair flying behind her. "How bad is it? Will you be able to battle?"

"No, I'm fine!" Ash insisted, adjusting his shoulder to Pikachu to hold on. "Really, it was just one sneeze!"

"Famous last words before you die of hypothermia." Paul joked, a smirk on his face as he looked back at Ash, running ahead of the raven-haired trainer, Electivire stashed away in its Pokéball for now. "The mighty Champion of Alola, taken out by one sneeze, is that it?"

"Wait, Ash is sick?" Bonnie asked, struggling to keep at the pace the others were running at, Dedenne snug in her little bag. "I have tissues if you want!"

"Ash better not be sick," Gladion said dismissively, his Silvally right beside him as he ran next to Bonnie. "I trained all month for the chance to fight him, and I'm not settling for Paul."

"Hey, what's wrong with me?" Paul said indignantly, glaring over at Gladion rather comically. "Ash is the one that got himself sick after hyping us all up for this tournament!"

"I'M NOT SICK, OKAY?!" Ash let out in a yell, just as the group reached the arena Ash had his Elite 4 set up in Maile City. It was a spectacularly large arena, one that rivaled the size of the ones the Pokémon League would set up. Its field had many settings, many inspired from the Pokémon League tournaments Ash had taken part in over the years, but still had a few that Ash had thought of himself. Purple and orange were its main colors, inspired by the region's guardians, Solgaleo and Lunala.

Ash stopped right in front of the entrance to the arena, most of the people were inside already. He took a deep breath, bracing himself for what was about to come, his friends lingering behind him. Pikachu, still on his shoulder after all that, looked over at his trainer, a concerned look on his face. "Ash, are you ready? Professor Oak and the others... they'll be in there, you know?"

"Yeah..." Ash said, adjusting his tried and true hat, a determined smile growing on his face. "But it doesn't matter what they say or do. I've got you right by my side, don't I?"

"Heh, you bet!" Pikachu replied, giving his trainer a thumbs up. "Now, if you could prove our friendship with, just saying, a 5-gallon ketchup bottle that's rightfully mine...?"

"Nah," Ash said, playfully rubbing his partner's head, before hoisting his Mega Z-Ring, right on his wrist, for Pikachu to see. "I think this is a better way to show it, don't you?"

Pikachu paused for a second, then nodded, smiling at his trainer. "Yeah, I think so too, Ash."

"Hey, are we going in, or not?" Paul called, growing impatient with this, Electivire already out of its Pokéball and right beside him. "Cause this is taking an awful lot of my time..."

"Never mind him, Ash," Dawn cut in, playfully shoving Paul, much to the purple-haired trainer's chagrin. A hint of red appeared on her cheeks as Ash turned to look at her, the bluenette continuing to reassure him. "No matter what happens, we're right behind you, okay?"

"Yeah, I know," Ash said softly as he smiled, turning to look at his friends. "You guys have always been there for me, haven't you? Don't worry, I'm ready for this."

Gladion sighed, growing uncomfortable with the situation, accidentally walking closer to Serena. The Pokémon performer smirked at this, however, spreading her arms wide in preparation for a large hug, Gladion only growing more uncomfortable at the sight. "Come on, don't make this all touchy-feely, you know I don't do that..."

Ash laughed at his friends' antics, rubbing the back of his head. "Alright, we'll skip the group hug this time, let's just head on in, okay?"

"Sounds good to me!" Serena said, playfully hugging Gladion, much to his dismay.

"Hey, Ash said no group hugs, what the hell?!" Gladion exclaimed, attempting to push the honey blonde off of him.

"But this isn't a group hug, now is it?" Serena said, giving him a playful grin before hugging him tighter, causing him to struggle even harder.

Ash could only laugh once as he began to head inside, certain his friends would have his back, no matter what.

And that's it for now! Thanks for reading, and feel free to leave a review below! I've taken some of your pairings into mind, and I'm pretty sure how it'll end up for Ash, but you're still free to comment who you'd like Ash to end up with below! Or maybe comment on what you liked, since I'd like to get this story right!