Chapter 34: Prelude to the Ash Cup
The Gummi Ship warps back to the Pokemon World. The Gummi Ship arrives at the Ever Grande Conference. This time, Sora brought Goku's group with them. Suddenly, they saw their fans coming towards them. Plucky went forward again to greet them, but got ran over again. The fans surrounded Sora and Dizzy again, but they've managed to escape and picked up Plucky. They went to the stadium where Ash, May, and their Pokemon greets them.
May: Sora, Plucky, Dizzy, it's great to see you again!
Sora: Hi, Ash and May! We've come to see what the next tournament is.
Ash: The next tournament is the Ash Cup. That means the winner is gonna face me.
Pikachu: Pikachu!
Plucky: Could you speak English?
Pikachu: Pika? Pika, Pika, Pikachu!
Plucky: That's it!
Plucky grabs Pikachu and starts squeezing him.
Plucky: Come on! Enough of this Pika, Pika!
Sora: Umm, Plucky. I really don't think you should be doing that.
In fact, Pikachu was building up electricity so much that he released it all which shocks Plucky. Pikachu then stops and Plucky was all covered in ashes. He coughs up some smoke and fell over. Sora uses Cura to recover Plucky back to full health. Plucky got up and was ready to chase Pikachu again until Sora and Dizzy both held him back.
Plucky: That little...I swear I'm going to get a giant mousetrap and-
Sora: Cool it!
Sora then turns to Ash, May, and Pikachu.
Sora: Umm, sorry about Plucky. He can get cranky sometimes.
Ash: Don't worry about it. Pikachu is used to that all the time.
Sora: Anyway, who else is participating in the tournament?
May: I heard that Team Kirby, Team Megaman, and Team Cloud are participating.
Sora: Teams Kirby, Megaman, and Cloud?
Ash: You know them?
Sora: Of course I do. I helped them save their worlds.
Ash and May then looks at Goku's group.
May: Who are those people?
Sora: They're Goku and his friends. They've come to participate in the tournament.
Ash and May walks over to Goku.
Ash: Hello, Goku. I'm Ash Ketchum. It's nice to meet you.
May: And my name is May.
Goku: Hello, Ash and May. It's nice to meet you too.
Goku shakes hands with Ash. After everybody introduced themselves, they went into the stadium. Goku's group went up to register while Sora, Ash, and the rest of the gang went to the lobby. Meanwhile, back at the front of the stadium where there are mini-stores, James was walking around when he heard a voice.
?: Hey, boy! Come over here!
James looks to his left and saw a man with brown hair and wears a white-collared shirt and headband.
James: Are you addressing me?
Man: Yes, you come here!
James: You look very familiar.
Man: I want you to look at this Pokemon.
James looks down to see a giant golden scaly fish.
James: Isn't that a Magikarp?
Man: Yes, but this isn't any normal Magikarp. It's a shiny Magikarp.
James: A shiny Magikarp?
Man: See how healthy it is?
The man pulls the Magikarp out of the water and gives it to James. It starts moving around. The man leans forward to James and whispers to him.
Man: Just between you and me, this shiny Magikarp is like a Pokemon gold mine.
James: Gold mine?
Man: Yes, a shiny Magikarp lays one thousand shiny eggs at a time. Each one of those thousand shiny Magikarp lays another thousand. One thousand times one thousand is one million shiny Magikarp. Every one of those million shiny Magikarp lays a thousand more. That's a billion shiny Magikarp.
James: A billion shiny Magikarp?
Man: You can sell one shiny Magikarp for one hundred dollars. In three generations, you'll have tons of money. Billions and billions.
James: Billions?
James fantasizes about having tons of money while drinking his wine and petting a Persian.
Man: You'll be so rich, you'll be on a Pokemon jumping spree.
James: I could buy anything I want! I'll be richer than the guy who invented the internet! Rich! Rich! Rich!
Man: Normally I would charge a hundred dollars. But for you, I will throw in an egg-laying set, childcare set, and an education set for only three hundred dollars. How about it?
James: I'll take it!
Man: I can tell. You're going to be a very rich man. A very rich man.
James pays for the Magikarp and sets and ran off gleefully. The man laughs.
Man: What a sucker. I can't believe he fell for the same trick again.
Back inside the stadium, Sora, Ash, and the rest of the gang went to the lobby where they saw Prof. Oak, Brock, Max, and the Ham-Hams.
Sora: Hey look, there's Prof. Oak and the Ham-Hams.
Sora's gang ran up to see them.
Hamtaro: Hey look, there's Sora, Sweetie, and Sneezer again.
Bijou: Bonjour. It's good to see you again.
Sora: It's good to see you too. How are you all doing?
Boss: We're fine. We've made a new home at Traverse Town.
Sora: Really? You did?
Oxnard: Yes, Leon helped use find a new home.
Pepper: He and his friends helped us.
Howdy: And he wasn't lying. Get it? Because his name is Leon and his name is close to lion.
He laughs while everybody sweatdrops again.
Dexter: I think it's better to lie than to listen to Howdy's jokes.
Oak: Well, anyway, you do understand that the next tournament starts tomorrow, right?
Sora: It is?
Brock: You should rest up for tomorrow's tournament. A lot of tough opponents will enter.
Max: While we wait, why don't we head to the food court?
Dizzy: Sound great! Me hungry!
The gang was walking towards the food court. Along the way, they saw Team Kirby, Team Megaman, Cloud, Leon, Yuffie, and Aerith. Sora first walks over to Cloud's group.
Sora: Hey, Cloud. It's good to see you.
Cloud: Hey, kid. Long time no see.
Sora: S, are those your friends?
Cloud: Yes, they all came to cheer for me.
Leon: In case you're wondering, Team Cloud is Cloud himself.
Plucky: So his team is himself? Is he a loner?
Aerith: He can be a bit lonely.
Sora: Anyway, Cloud. We promised a rematch. And you promised that no dark powers will be involved.
Cloud: I'll try not to use them.
Sora: Well, it's great talking to you guys.
Sora then walks over to Kirby and Megaman's groups. Kirby's group consisted of Kirby, Tiff, Tuff, Rick, Meta-Knight, King Dedede, and Escargoon. Megaman's group consisted of Megaman, Roll, Protoman, Bass, and their animal partners Rush, Tango, Eddie, Beat, and Treble.
Sora: Hi, Kirby, Tiff, Tuff, Rick, and Meta Knight.
He then turns to see Dedede and Escargoon.
Sora: Dedede and Escargoon are with you too?
Tiff: Relax, Sora. They have changed a lot. Dedede and Escargoon are no longer enemies.
Tuff: After they were betrayed by Ganondorf, they have become a lot nicer.
Dedede and Escargoon walks up to Sora and shakes his hand.
Dedede: Nice to see you, kid.
Sora: Wow. You weren't kidding when you said he's changed.
Dizzy walks up to Kirby and shakes his hand. Suddenly, Yoshi came out of Sora's Dino Egg and ran up to Kirby and Dizzy.
Dizzy: Dizzy miss Kirby.
Yoshi: Yoshi miss Kirby.
Kirby: Kirby...miss...Dizzy...and Yoshi.
Rick: It looks like Kirby made some new friends.
Sora: So who will consist of Team Kirby?
Meta-Knight: The team will consist of me, Kirby, and Dedede. I won't hold back this time.
Dedede: And this time, I'll give you a fair fight. No more cheatin.
Sora: Sounds good to me.
Sora then turns to Megaman's group.
Sora: Hey, Megaman!
Megaman: Hey, Sora! It's good to see you.
Sora: So what will your team consist of?
Protoman: Our team will consist of me, Megaman, and Bass.
Sora: Bass is here? Where's Quickman and Shadowman?
Bass: They are back in our world training.
Sora: Well, it should be fun, challenging you three.
Roll: Megaman, Protoman, and Bass have many different abilities.
Sora: I'll be very careful fighting them.
Megaman: You better be. I won't go easy on you.
Sora: Me neither. See you in the tournament.
Everybody went to the food court to order food, including Team Goku. Sora was having an XXL chili cheese dog with fries, Plucky was having some Pad Thai, and Dizzy was having deluxe pizza. Dizzy, Yoshi, and Kirby were having an eating contest to see who's gonna eat the most food. May's Munchlax even tried to steal Plucky's food again, but He caught her this time. Everyone was looking at Piccolo and Dende, wondering why they aren't eating.
Ash: Why aren't Piccolo and Dende eating?
Piccolo: We only need to drink water.
May: So, are there any female Namekians.
Dende: We're a unisexual species.
Plucky: Well, that's a boring species.
Sora: Plucky!
Plucky: Sorry.
Meanwhile, back with Team Rocket, Jessie and Meowth are very angry with James.
Jessie: YOU IDIOT! CAN'T YOU SEE THAT YOU WERE TRICKED?
Meowth: WHAT A DOPE!
James: But you don't understand. This is no ordinary Magikarp, this is a shiny Magikarp. It's a gold mine Pokemon. Even it's Pokeball is solid gold.
Meowth: IT'S JUST GOLD PLATED!
Meowth scratches the golden Pokeball, leaving scratch marks on it which made James scream.
Jessie: Shiny or not, Magikarp is still a no talent Pokemon that can't do anything but flop around. How can you expect to sell it?
James: I was tricked.
Jessie: How did you get the money for it?
James: Well, the advances on my salary didn't quite make it, so I-
Jessie: So you did what?
James: I used the advances on your salary.
Jessie then stomps on James repeatedly.
Jessie: YOU GO AND TAKE THAT FISH BACK AND GIMME MY MONEY BACK RIGHT NOW!
Meanwhile, back to our heroes, they went to their hotel rooms that night and went straight to bed. They've got a big day ahead tomorrow.
That's it for chapter 34. Sorry we couldn't get any action in this chapter, but next time, Sora and his gang will participate in the Ash Cup.