Heavy battle based chapters coming up. If you don't like them... I don't blame you at all. I can barely stand reading battle scenes myself. This is also the first chapter I've ever written with autocorrect turned off, so if there are more or less errors, thats why. For those of you who don't know, i write all of my work on an iPad, as opposed to a PC. Anyway, Let me know. Ill decide weather to keep it on or off depending on the answers. At least my screw ups are somewhat salvageable.


Finally having packed everything into his backpack again, Ash scanned the area, with only one eye half open, taking stock on if anything was missing. He was extraordinarily tired. The night he had had hadn't exactly been what you could call comfortable. Warm, but not comfortable. Seeing as it was his own fault, he couldn't really complain.

"Feeling okay, Ash?" Serena asked him, seeing his pained expression, and how he was exhausted beyond all belief.

"I'll be fine." Ash said, just before yawning loudly. It had been a very long time since he had slept properly in a tent. He looked at Serena, embarrassed. "Sorry."

Serena smiled. "It's been a long time since I saw you look so tired."

Ash gave her a drowsy smile. "I've been in this on this trip region for collectively two days, and it's my first camping out in two years." He chuckled, and spoke on with thick sarcasm. "You really have to get used to the lack of warm beds and hot meals."

Serena placed a hand in her hip and returned the smile at the Kantoean. "My tent was warm when you slept in it."

Miette had to physically hold her hand over her mouth to stop her own remarks.

"Again, sorry, about that..." Ash apologised a second time. "Didn't mean to. I planned to get out to my own tent but..."

"Its fine, Ash. I'd rather that you stayed warm than go back to your tent. It would have been freezing." Serena accepted his apology, not really seeing why he apologised. She didn't mind it even slightly. It was preferable. She wanted him to stay in her tent every night... But the mere idea of suggesting that was embarrassing.

"Still." Ash said with a sigh. He then looked over his shoulder and chuckled. "Looks like we pitched my tent for nothing."

Miette had finished her stifled laughter and was now browsing Serena's tablet device, bringing up the map route for them all to re-examine. They could reach Revolution Castle within a couple of hours if they moved quickly. And moved quickly the group did. Serena in particular seemed in a hurry to get there as soon as possible, much to Miette's chagrin and Ash's curiosity. Ash knew a lot changed in two years, but he wondered, was this really Serena's personality change? It didn't seem it. She seemed excited, but it felt like a different kind of excited. Like she was excited for someone else, and not herself. Like she was about to show the group something. She mentioned that she had visited the area as a kid. Perhaps it was a nostalgia trip for her. Whatever it was, it made Ash smile.


Ash looked around the area, taking in the entire area. He grinned, and turned around towards Serena. "You knew about this, didn't you?" He then tilted his head slightly, so Miette was in his field of view as well. "Both of you did, didn't you?"

Revolution Castle as it turned out, was now hosting a large battling tournament. Because Revolution Castle was a jousting area in the olden days, the battling here was seen as a return to tradition of sorts, albeit with much less physical harm to the people and the Pokemon.

The fields of grass surrounding the castle were absolutely packed with people and Pokemon from all different regions and backgrounds. People who had come solo, or people, like Ash's group, had arrived in small packs of friends, regardless, had all come with the same intentions. To give it their all at this competition. Ash could see it in the trainers surrounding him. Clenched fists, burrowed eyebrows, confident smiles, and a fire in their eyes. Many of them were in their late teens, with a few mid teens and early 20's adding age variety to the mix of trainers. They reminded him of the Kalos league. They reminded Ash of himself as well.

Miette threw her arms from the elbow down into the air in a mock surrender. "This one had nothing to do with me. This was all Serena's idea. I just... Didn't mention it to you, thats all."

Serena smiled at Ash. "I had a feeling you might like this."

Ash grinned. He looked back at the surrounding area. A beautiful landscape, dotted with competent battlers, in a highly competitive environment, surrounding Pokemon battling. He hadn't had a fully competent Pokemon battle in a very long time, but he knew the last one was against Tracey, and he knew for a fact that that was only because Tracey could see Ash was losing his mind with no opponents to battle. He had run mock battles between his own Pokemon, but that lacked the impact needed when actually battling.

Ash slammed his right fist into his empty open hand. "Damn right I do." His trademark grin spread across his face, a look he hadn't managed to achieve in the last two years. In a moment, the adrenaline started running into his veins at speed, which made him itch for a battle.

"Good to see you're so pumped, Ash." Miette said, her smirk now changing. Miette seemed to have have a few different smirks that you could recognise if you knew her well enough, and Serena saw the smirk that she had now. Competitive. "I think i might enter too."

"You, Miette?" Serena asked, rather surprised. "I didn't think tournaments were your thing. Well, battling tournaments, anyway."

"I took you on in a tournament the first time we met. Why wouldn't a tournament be my sort of thing?" Miette asked the blonde Kalosian with her grin.

"Well, technically that was a competition... And it wasn't battling focused either." Serena reminded her blue haired friend, but it seemed to fall on deaf ears. Serena sighed. She considered for a moment. "Oh, what the hell. Ill try out too."

"Seriously?" Ash asked, turning around to face Serena. He was clearly surprised. The reality of why Serena wanted to enter wasn't too complicated. She wanted to see if she and her Pokemon had grown stronger. But also better at performing. She figured that her performing style would help confuse opponents who fought with brute strength.

"I'm gonna be really bored if I don't." Serena reasoned. "I might as well try it. And besides... I remember something you said." She smiled. "Nothing i do with my Pokemon is a waste of time."

"Fair enough." Ash nodded, accepting her choice quickly, smiling at her explanation. He turned back to the castle. He felt his teeth grit against one another, his anxiety to begin his battling taking ahold of him. He was looking forward to the battling. It had been a long time since he had had a worthwhile fight.


Sign up had been incredibly simple. A signature on a dotted line on a forum, and they were in. Additional things like images for reference were computerised and taken from their online trainer profiles that were set up whenever a trainer registered for a regional league, or the showcases, contests, or whatever else there was. One thing that the group had unexpectedly learned was that this was a tag battle tournament. Serena seemed to look like she regretted her choice to sign up for a moment, but she signed along anyway, with encouragement from Ash. The rules were basic. There would be a single battle match, winners moving into the tag battles. This worked as both quality control and a thinning out process. This ensured that competent battlers were given their place, and lowered the numbers to an amount the organisers could work with, Tag battle partners were chosen completely at random. Whichever team won eight matches in a row would be the winner of the whole tournament. That meant seven matches per bracket. Ash had grinned at this. Lots of battles. Plenty of action. The tournament would last a couple of days, so they had plenty of time to act just as tourists as well.

Ash's first battle was later on in the day. Serena and Miette also had battles later in the day, so, with a few hours to kill, the group made their way into the stands, intent on watching the battles for a while. Ash was easily the most excited to get a look at the competition. Serena was interested in seeing if there was anything she could learn from the trainers. She had learned in the last two years that inspiration could be found absolutely anywhere she looked. For example, one of her most successful combinations had been a Stone Edge and Dark Pulse combination that she had adapted from watching it during the Kalos league. Miette had much less interest, but she would happily admit, she found just watching battles to be entertaining in its own way.

"Welcome, one and all!" The announcers voice suddenly boomed from the stadium, held in the castles main courtyard. The space was analogous to that of a league battlefield, and with an equal amount of watchers."We are very happy to welcome you all to our third annual Revolution Castle Tag Team battle tournament!"

The crowd exploded in cheers and clapping, with people screaming their support of the event. Pikachu had to quickly cover its ears to protect its eardrums from such a loud and sudden uproar.

"These people are really into this event, huh?!" Ash asked, yelling to be heard.

"It's a huge event for the area!" Miette told Ash, clapping her own hands. "People use this to unwind! Its anticipated for the entire year!"

"Without further ado, we would hate to keep you all waiting, so, we shall begin with the preliminary knock out solo battles immediately!" The announcers voice exploded around the field, incentivising another explosive round of applause and screams and "Yeah!" And "Woo-hoo!"'s from all the audience, Ash, Miette, and even Serena included.

"Our first match, first contestant is a three time annual visitor to the Revelation tournament, we ask you to please welcome Pierre Ciro!"

The late teenager that appeared on the battlefield looked confident, arrogant, and, acted, above everything else, like a huge show off. He was aware of his reputation, and he relished in the show and spectacle. His grey hair flowed past his brow, and cut off right above his eyebrows. His pure white jacket and jeans gave him a sense of cleanliness, like he intended to complete this entire tournament in a clean sweep. He approached his battle station, waving both arms towards the crowd, even blowing kisses randomly throughout the cheering masses.

"He's confident." Ash muttered. Pikachu nodded in his agreement with his trainer.

"He's been comfortably in the fourth up from winning all three years of the event. He came fourth int he first year, and second in the last two!" Miette explained. "He must be confident that he can win the whole thing this time around."

"Funny." Serena smirked. "I recall you acting a lot like him when we met you."

"Watch it." Miette warned, but with humour evident in her voice. She then looked back at the boy down in the battlefield. He was loudly declaring something about how he'd sweep the entire contest. "Well, if he's anything like me, he's about to suffer a very rude awakening."

"And now, welcoming our second trainer from the Sinnoh region, we have Paul!"

In that exact moment, Ash and Miette's minds were in perfect sync. They had the same thought, at the same time. 'No way.'

But it was.

Stepping out onto the battlefield, in his usual, calm, cool confident manner, there he was. His purple and black hoodie, and grey jeans he always wore. His purple hair was longer than Ash remembered. There didn't seem to be a single unneeded emotion in his entire body. No arrogance. No nervousness. Just a simple combination of confidence, and anticipation.

"Paul?!" Ash and Miette both gasped in pure shock simultaneously, and then immediately looked at each other.

"You know him?" Ash asked, his jaw nearly dropping.

"Wait, you know him?!" Miette echoed the same thoughts as Ash

Serena just kept looking between the two as they traded sentences, her head starting to spin. "Im so confused..."

"I - I met him in that store the other day. He's that person I ended up talking to for a while." Miette quickly explained, her gaze now returning to Paul on the battlefield. "He mentioned something about a rival he had once... Wait, that was you?!"

"Yeah." Ash nodded, also turning his gaze back to the rival he hadn't seen in years. It was close to three, four years he had last seen Paul. It was absolutely bizarre. What the hell was he doing in Kalos?

"The rules are simple. This will be a one on one battle, only one Pokemon per side" The announcer made a dramatic pause. "You may begin!"

Pierre made the first move, clicking on his Pokeball and tossing it into the air, making a show out of that as well. He tossed it as high into the air as it would go. "Salamance, showtime!"

The Pokeball clicked again, before opening and releasing a ball of light that bellowed towards the battlefield. Quickly taking the form of the dragon type behemoth, the Pokemon materialised just a few inches from the ground. One the monster had materialised, gravity did the rest, and the heavy dragon fell onto the ground with a heavy crash. It arched its head back and let out a mighty roar, spreading its wings wide. Another show off. Like trainer, like Pokemon.

Paul had none of that extravagance when calling on his Pokemon. He simply threw the Pokeball with a backhand throw, allowing the Pokeball to click before calling out. "Torterra, Standby!"

A similar light erupted from Pauls Pokeball, forming the shape of Paul's oldest and one of his strongest Pokemon, his Torterra. Once the light shimmered away, Ash noticed how much more rugged Torterra looked. It had battled many, many, many times since he last saw it, and it had clearly been putting its own unique battling style to good use. The result of that seemed to be many scars from previous battles, but just by looking at Torterra, a simple signal was clear - Do not cross this Pokemon.

Pierre called the first move, after doing a flurry of overly dramatic hand motions, " Salamance, win this in one hit, and show everyone here how we're going to own this contest! Use Fire Fang!"

His Salamance roared with sheer ferocity, and began to move with speed towards the stationary grass/ground type. Ash knew Torterra. It could take the hit, no problem, but it would still cause a lot of damage, it could take hits all day, but all it would take was one really good, or really lucky hit from this Salamance, and that wouldn't matter.

Paul spoke calmly. "Frenzy Plant."

Salamance was now barely a few inched away from making contact with Torterra, and its pure, fierce nature was amplified. It proved just how brutal this Salamance was. This Salamance wanted blood. It wanted victory.

In a split second, that was taken away.

Giant, thorny vines emerged from the ground, and slammed into the dragon. For a second, it loomed like nothing happened. Then, the impact set in, and a shockwave was felt around the entire audience. The vines had impacted straight into Salamance's belly, the weakest point, with deadly accuracy. Such a strike was guaranteed to cause excessive damage. The impact was of such magnitude, Salamance was then sent flying into a wall, leaving a impact crater where it hit.

"Salamance!" Pierre called out to his dragon Pokemon, rushing out to it, the concern was evident in his eyes. His Pokemon was out cold, after just one hit. A hit that Salamance should have been four times resistant to. It had been completely defeated.

Pierre knelt by his Salamances head. His Pokemon had only one eye open and seemed to mutter some sort of apology to his trainer.

"Nah, buddy, you did great." Pierre reassured his defeated Pokemon. "Thanks for trying. Everyone saw how completely powerful you are." He held up his defeated dragons Pokeball up. "Alright Sal, get some rest." A red light enveloped his Pokemon, as his Salamance shrunk, and returned to its capsule home.

"With a single hit, Torterra and Paul are the victors!" The announcer declared to a chorus of cheering and applause. Paul didn't react. He didn't wave, and he barely acknowledged the cheers and praise. He looked up once at the crowd, and that was that. He returned Torterra without a word and made his exit back the way he had entered.

Miette and Serena both had their eyes as wide open as they possibly could. Their pupils shrunk, and both seemed to be shivering. The sheer force of power that had just been displayed was nothing short of terrifying. Miette wasn't sure weather she had just fallen in love, or was beyond terrified of the trainer she had just observed. Such strength seemed abnormal. Inhumane. Serena was just intimidated. She could already feel herself praying to never have to fight him.

Ash meanwhile, grinned the widest grin he had all day, and clapped his hands together once. "I didn't expect a thing less."

"Thats normal for him?!" Miette asked, nearly shouting. Her eyes seemed to indicate a line between admiration and petrification.

Ash grinned again, and looked up at Pauls picture, now on the bug screen, with the word "Winner!" underneath it, in bold, bright golden Ariel Black font. He remembered the Sinnoh league, and the fights he had seen Paul in then.

They didn't even begin to compare to his newfound strength.

"Oh yeah." Ash replied. His hands made themselves into tight fists.


When Ash's battle came up, he was more than ready. His Pokemon had been selected, and he was more than eager to begin the contest. Once his name had been called up, he had slammed his clenched fists together, looking forward to such a fight. It had been far too long.

"Welcoming to the battlefield, our 23rd trainer of the day, to start the 12th battle, we have Ash!"

His cue. Ash made his way into the view of the roused public, whom had been enthralled with battle after battle, and eager for more. Ash looked around the audience, looking for his group. He saw them after a few scans, once Pikachu had ran atop Serena's head so he was easy to notice. Ash sent over a small wave to them alone, which the entire crowd seemed to assume was for them all, because they roared even louder. Ash stood at his position, ready to start the battle.

His opponent was then called out. An early 20's man who went by the name of Logan. He seemed to be some sort of goth - biker - punk hybrid, with a skull tattoo on his right arm, a black leather jacket, and long, black hair that covered his left eye. There seemed to be some permanent damage that had been done to his eye, as there was a scar down the horizontal of his eye, which he tried to keep hidden with his hair. Physically, he seemed toned, with over refined muscles.

"The 12th match of the day, Logan VS Ash - Begin!"

Logan ripped a Pokeball from his jacket and tossed it into the centre of the battlefield with force, like he had just picked up a live grenade. "Electrode, Move out!" His Pokeball erupted with light, letting out its Pokeball appearing inhabitant, that rolled back a meter or two into its now half of the field.

Ash grinned. He had been given a huge advantage thanks to this Logan characters hotheadedness. He had planned to lead off with Staraptor or Torkoal, but this was a blessing in disguise. He now had the type advantage. He reached foe his Pokeball of choice. "Electric type eh? Alright then!" Ash got ready to throw his choice. "Krookidile, I choose yo-"

Ash was suddenly cut off by a beam of light escaping his person and appearing onto the battlefield. Once that light dispersed, Ash realised he had been left with arguably the worst Pokemon he had on his team for the job had just volunteered itself to fight a battle it was not up for, once again. Oshawott stood proudly on the battlefield, its own confidence apparent.

"The Pokemon have been decided, Logan has chosen Electrode, while Ash has chosen Oshawott!"

"I did not select Oshawott!" Ash yelled at the announcer, knowing full well he would not be heard. He looked at the big screen, and he sighed. Oshawott had been declared his Pokemon of choice. He couldn't exchange his 'choice' after it had been selected. He then sighed once again. "Ah, the hell with it." He called out to his Sea Otter Pokemon, whom was waving its scallop around proudly. It nearly dropped it when it heard its trainers voice. "Hey Oshawott. Not my choice, but i guess I'm stuck with you, so lets show them how tough you are!"

Placing its scallop back onto its belly where it fixed itself, his Pokemon hit the scallop, analogous to a warrior beating his chest, and let out a smile and grunt of determination and confidence.

That was until, it saw its opponent. At that point, Ash could have sworn he heard Oshawott sigh, like it had just cursed itself for volunteering for this work. All Ash could think, with a bemused smile, was that Oshawott should wait to be called up if it didn't like its odds against the opponents it always seemed to pick.

"Electrode, Charge Beam!" Logan ordered, and his Pokemon complied, quickly charging atoms around it and building up the electricity it generated via the static it formed, and launched it at Oshawott, aiming for the weaker water type.

"Oshawott, Razor Shell!"

Oshawott reequipped its scallop and channeled the innate water manipulation it had, forming a blade around its trademark item. Raising its scallop high, once the Charge Beam was in range, Oshawott quickly dropped the bladed shell, cutting the attack perfectly in two. The scallop had defended Oshawott from the electrical attack. It was Oshawott's defence against electrical attacks that always stunned its electrical opponents. This Electrode was no exception.

"Quick Oshawott!" Ash commanded. "Aqua Jet!"

A fountain surrounded Oshawott suddenly, and forced him to the tip of a rushing geyser of water, making it resemble a bullet being fired from a rifle, where it lead the water to strike against its thrown off opponent.

"Electrode, use Discharge, now!" Logan firmly ordered. His Electrode regained its composure, and released a random bolt of lightning in every direction. Oshawott, however, had an advantage. He could control where the Aqua Jet went, and he was able to dodge and weave, avoiding hit after hit. But this was also a double edged sword, as Electroduce let loose so much electricity, Oshawott couldn't get close enough to land the hit. Oshawott avoided these hits for as long as possible, but was eventually hit directly by a charge of electricity for massive amounts of damage. Oshawott ended up crashing hard into the battlefield, skidding along the ground for additional damage.

"Oshawott!" Ash called out to his damaged Pokemon. Oshawott staggered to its feet, whereupon it could be heard laughing darkly and quietly to itself, before it puffed out its chest, indicating its willingness to continue the battle. The hit had done damage, but had not damaged Oshawott's pride.

"Rollout, Electrode!" Logan called out to his Pokemon. For a second, it sounded like a sergeant giving an order to a soldier under him command, as well as a battle call out, and for an Electrode, it was amazingly fast. It had picked up speed and was already moving out rapidly towards Oshawott, rolling at Oshawott with power. Oshawott barely managed to skim to the side, avoiding the initial attack. Electrode ended up hitting the wall, before bouncing back and targeting Oshawott again, before the process repeated itself, making it an amazingly dangerous game of dodgeball for the Sea Otter Pokemon, franticly jumping out of the way as quickly as it could. The rolling ball of devastation almost seemed to be locking onto Oshawott, as it required no time to aim, it simply just hit the wall, bounced off, and was charging at Oshawott like a ballistic missile.

"Oshawott, hold your ground and use Razor Shell!" Ash commanded.

His water type Pokemon followed its order without question or complaint, quick-drawing its scallop and bracing itself for the next impact with the moving target. sending power into its scallop, Oshawott held it like a shield, and dug its heels into the ground for support. Upon impact, Oshawott was forced back a few meters, but still held on, the determination refusing to leave the Sea Otters system. Despite Its carefree nature, when the battles came this intense, Oshawott knew when to utilise its talents.

Letting out a loud cry, Oshawott slowly began slashing back at Electrode. Holding its ground, it slowly, and shakily, began using its scallop to push back against the rolling ball of pain, keeping it at arms length. Maintaining such a position against a spinning Rollout attack required willpower are well as physical power, both of which Oshawott had.

"Do it, Oshawott!"

Oshawott, with a final roar, pushed Electrode away from it. It barely moved a centimetre backwards, but it was enough space to work. With the rolling ball away, Oshawott turned its scallop into a water enveloped weapon, and slashed right at Electrode as it came back, like a perfectly timed swing from a baseball racket, breaking its rollout, and sending it back, a good seven meters away from the jokester water type, who was catching its breath.

"Use Spark!" Logan commanded.

Electrode immediately complied, and began rolling for Oshawott.

"Hydro Pump!" Ash commanded.

Oshawott charged up its water attack for a second, before blasting the Electrode with the highest pressure of water it could manage to fire. It made impact, definitely causing damage, but the Electrode kept going, fighting the current. Oshawott kept it going for as long as it could, but it showed signs of struggling as Electrode neared.

Ash looked for a way out, thinking as he saw the water part once it hit Electrode, sending the water flying left and right. He then had an idea that he hadn't used in quite a while. "Oshawott, use Ice Beam on your Hydro Pump!"

Oshawott's Ice Beam attacked targets by launching the attack from Oshawott's mouth, which meant it could continue the Hydro Pump simultaneously. And thats what it did. With one final push, Oshawott let loose its new technique, freezing the water type attack around the electric type kamikaze charging ball. The effect had worked. Electrode had been frozen inside the geyser, unable to move, and therefore, unable to continue the match.

"And we have our victor, Ash!"

Ash punched the sky in celebration of his first victory in a long time. His Oshawott attempted to copy its trainer, but was so tired it could barely manage to stand up after the fight. Ash knelt down next to his Pokemon and patted it on the head lightly. "You did a great job, Oshawott." He complimented his worn out Pokemon, who looked up at him and gave a cute smile. "Good to see that you finally got the hang of Ice Beam. Im proud of you." His Oshawott smiled again at this praise. "Alright buddy, take a good rest." Ash told his friend, holding up its Pokeball and returning it in a red light.

Looking at the battlefield, he saw Logan. He had thawed out his Electrode, and was reassuring the electric type. "You did me proud, Electrode. You did your absolute best. Get some rest, thats an order." He told his Pokemon, returning it to its own Pokeball. He then looked at the Kantoean, and gave a small grin. "Good match. You're tough, kid. I won't accept losing to anyone but the winner of this whole thing though, so you'd better knock some heads together and win this thing, or I'll have to find you have another battle with you, and completely obliterate you."

Ash laughed and grinned back at his opponent. He gave a mock salute to Logan. "I'll take you on any day. Good fight. Make sure you root for me."

"Will do, kid." Logan replied, returning said mock salute.

The audience roared with cheers and applause as the two trainers exchanged their words.


So ends the chapter of Anticipation. I apologise of the battle scenes were... Well, crap. I feel that my strength in writing is the conversations and the set pieces, whereas battling... I always have a clear idea of what i want in my mind, but conveying that to writing is always difficult. Ive yet to write a battle in anything I've ever done in which I've been happy with the end result, but i guess ill just have to get better at it.

Ao, in other news, on my Youtube channel, link in my profile description i have begun a lets play on Pokemon Ethereal Gates, a fan made game which includes over 200+ fan made uniquely animated Pokemon. If you feel like seeing just what the hell my thought process is when I play Pokemon, come join in on our grand adventure over there. Ill be working to upload as much Pokemon content as i can until the release of Sun and Moon, so if you want to join us, come on down.

At any rate, I do hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and id like to say, the support on this series has been nothing short of amazing. So thank you all for the support, and i hope i can count on you all to keep supporting the work i do. See ya!