An hour later just about every trainer on board was lined up around a battle field, they saw that there was a table set up with three people sitting behind it while they got set to watch the tournament about to unfold, though less than a third of them had chosen to enter it, most seeing it as 'too minor' to bother, so the management had decided to make it a knockout tournament instead of the one battle each style that they had originally been intending on using.
When the time for the battles to start came around, one of the people at the desk reached forward and pulled a microphone towards him. He said, "Alllright people. Now that you're all here, I'll tell you the rules of this tournament. We didn't get enough people entering this time to hold this as a series of one on one battles like we had planned, so we'll be running this as a knockout tournament and the winner will receive a full set of Apricorn Balls. The ship's Nurse Joy has set up a first aid station in the towel room behind this desk. Between rounds, victorious trainers can get their pokémon treated. I would ask for the participants that fail to advance to get their pokémon checked at the ship's onboard pokécentre on the third deck."
"Now, without further ado," the man continued, "I'll call out the first two competitors. Let's see now…" he said, reaching into a hat. But, instead of pulling out a piece of paper with a name on it, like everyone was expecting. The massive screen that was attached to the outer wall of the ship turned on, revealing the images of both combatants as well as their name underneath. The images were outlined in red or green.
The images on there were Ash's and a woman with red hair tied in a ponytail that was wearing a mechanic's uniform, though not one of the ship's. The name under the girls image told Ash that it was someone named Jezebel. When they were both there, Ash said, "So, Jezebel, let's give this our all," wishing his opponent a good match.
"Can it, twerp," the woman said. "Let's just get this over and done with. Go, Ekans!" the woman announced, throwing her pokéball with an uncontrolled swing.
Ash said, "Riolu, I choose…you?" Ash said, not needing to release Riolu from its pokéball as it still wouldn't go inside it. He was confused as to why Riolu was acting angrily toward the Ekans though. He asked, "Riolu, what's wrong?"
Riolu said, "Ri Ri Riol Ri."
"You say that that Ekans attacked you?"
"Ri," Riolu nodded.
"That's not possible. The ones that attacked you were members of Team Rocket, and we left them back in the Kanto Region.
"Riol Ri!"
As the two were conversing, Jessie thought, 'So, Ash's going with Riolu. I suppose it's the logical choice for a competition such as this, but even so, this will still be his first time working with a fighting type.'
"Okay. Okay. I believe yo…watch out!" Ash called, seeing Ekans race at Riolu. Riolu backflipped where it was, letting Ekans slither under it. Ash sighed in relief, but it was short lived as Ekans tried to wrap its tail around Riolu. Ash said, "Riolu, do that again, but to the left." Riolu did that, making it to the outside of Ekans' attack. But it didn't have time to rest as Ekans quickly turned around and started stabbing its head at Riolu, its fangs glowing purple. Ash called out, "Riolu, calm down," as Riolu started to jump back and to the side, before having to do the same again and again, Ekans not letting it get any rest.
Ash thought, 'Okay, this is getting me nowhere…wait.' Ash glanced at the announcer. 'That guy said that you could get your pokémon treated after the rounds, which means that I could do 'that', but I'll only do that after I've exhausted everything else.' He said, "Riolu, use Feint to get behind it."
Jezebel thought, 'What's the twerp doing now? Doesn't he remember that that doesn't work?'
Riolu disappeared from the sight of all those there, before almost instantly reappearing at the back of Ekans' tail. "Great Riolu. Now use Blaze Kick!" Ash said when Ekans had turned itself around. Riolu brought its flaming foot up in a roundhouse kick, knocking into the side of Ekans' head and sending it flying. "Now, use Feint to get in front of it and use Power-Up Punch." Riolu disappeared again and reappeared in front of Ekans with its fist glowing with a red-orange aura and it brought it up into Ekans' head with an Uppercut. It raised Riolu's attack power, but it wasn't needed. Ekans was out cold. "Alri-ight!" Ash cried, "We did it Riolu!" and rushed over to Riolu and high-fived it. He grinned and said, "See, I told you it was easy," as he walked away, leaving a grumbling opponent berating her Ekans.
Jessie thought, 'Well, it looks like I was worried for nothing. But still…that doesn't leave me any more confident than I was before. What was I thinking, I'm a coordinator, not a trainer! I know that there's a battle round in the contests in Hoenn, but I don't think that Charmander is really ready and Caterpie…well…that really needs training before I can even think of using it in a contest, let alone enter it into a battle.' Then her name was called, the last match lasting only a second as a trainer's Charizard used Inferno on a Bellsprout.
Jessie made her way onto the battlefield and saw that her opponent was someone that had clearly been around for a while. In a condescending tone, the man said, "I'm sure that the result of this match is going to be a foregone conclusion, but try your best anyway."
Jessie was unsure if she should be concerned by the man's confidence, or just plain pissed off. She chose the latter. She demanded, "What the hell's your problem old man? Sure, you may have more experience than me, but that alone doesn't decide a battle!" Her words were greeted with uproarious cheers from the active trainers, most of whom couldn't stand people like Jessie's opponent, Mike, having come across , and defeated, many of his ilk.
Mike ignored the crowd's attitude as he said, "I choose you, Sunflora," flicking his pokéball onto the field.
Jessie thought, 'Well well well. It would appear that Charmander was the right choice after all.' She said, "Blaze on, Charmander!" tossing the pokéball containing Charmander over the field. The pokéball burst into a mass of flame before Charmander burst out of it.
Ash covered his eyes with his right hand as he shook his head, quietly saying to himself, "Not a performance Jessie."
Opposite Jessie Mike said, "So, you're a coordinator then?" his voice laden with disgust.
"Yeah. so what if I am?" Jessie demanded, irritated by Mike's blasé attitude form towards her chosen path.
"You should quit," Mike said. "There is no purpose in making your pokémon look good. They should coexist with people in such a way that their talents and natures are not hindered by human desires."
Jessie said, "If you believe that then why are you participating in this tournament?"
"Sunflora enjoys battling, so we go around competing in minor battle competitions like this one. Conversely, my Meditite is wholly uninterested in them."
"Maybe it is interested, but it just hasn't found a reason to yet. If you ask me, it's you that is holding your meditate back."
Mike grunted and said, "Sunflora, use Petal Blizzard!"
A storm of pink flower petals rushed at Charmander. Jessie knew that it probably wouldn't do too much damage, but didn't want to test the theory. She said, "Charmander, use Metal Claw!" Charmander's claws glowed silver as they extended about twenty-five centimetres from its hands and materialised into a silver metal. Charmander's hands were a blur as it cut through the petals, letting them fall to the ground as it advanced. Charmander felt something grab its ankle before it was flung towards Jessie. Jessie exclaimed, "What the heck was that?!"
Mike said, "That, my dear, was Grass Knot. It deals variable damage based on the target's weight. Charmander is only eight and a half kilos, so it only inflicted twenty points of damage."
Jessie thought, 'It inflicts variable damage? Even so, it'll be a pretty nifty move in a contest. I'll have to catch me a pokémon that can use it. Even so, I can't imagine that it's anything but a grass type move. So against Charmander…' She said, "You might be right, under normal circumstances."
"What does that mean?"
"It's simple really. Charmander is a fire type and I can't help but think that that Grass Knot move is a grass type move, which means that the damage is halved."
Mike grunted, thinking, 'Damn, she's right. A well, Charmander still doesn't have too many life points. So a little more and it'll be fine.'
Jessie wasn't inclined to give him that chance. She said, "Charmander, use Incinerate!"
'Oh no!' Mike thought, then said, "Sunflora, use Bide!" planning to use its stored power to finish Charmander off after its attack had finished.
It was pointless in the end as Charmander's attack was targeted such that it would contact the petals layered about the ground, increasing the attacks power further. It had no problems knocking Sunflora out. Jessie said, "Charmander, return," pointing its pokéball at it. The crowd cheered for Jessie's victory over the antagonistic trainer as she whispered, "Well done Charmander," to the pokéball before stowing it in her satchel. With that done she took her Charmander over to the first aid station as, despite what she had said to her opponent, she was concerned about the damage from that grass knot attack.
The next ten battles went by without anything too remarkable happening. That was when the announcer said, "Next up is Avery Leverton and he'll be going up against Niles!"
Meanwhile Ash looked at Jessie and said, "Well, that old guy wasn't wrong."
"No," Jessie agreed, referring to the fact that Avery had bright, metallic green, hair, that he had clearly dyed that way, judging by the black roots, that he had gelled to spike up in every direction. He was wearing a sleeveless leather jacket that had fur trim and black jeans that had been cut in multiple places. He topped it off with a pair of knee-high leather boots. Standing in front of him though, was a Gallade who looked nothing like its trainer, exuded 'I'm tough'.
Opposing Avery, was Niles who had his Exeggutor out in front of him. Niles said, "Exeggutor, use Seed Bomb!" Exeggutor's fronds glowed green before lobbing glowing green seeds at Gallade, which exploded when they came into contact with the ground after Gallade dodged every one of them as he got closer. After the last one had been shot Avery said, "Now Gallade, use Leaf Blade!" Gallade's arm blades glowed green and grew bigger, morphing into the shape of a leaf. A second later it brought it around and into Exeggutor's body and swung through, forcing it backwards a bit, but not doing much else. Avery gasped, "No way!" expecting it to do a lot more damage after all the time that they had spent building it up.
Niles, far more experienced than Avery, was well aware of the reason, but didn't see any reason to explain it. Instead he said, "Use Wood Hammer Exeggutor!" Exeggutor crossed the short distance between them much faster than Avery or Gallade thought was possible. Exeggutor's fist was surrounded by a green aura that took on the shape of a stump and slammed it into Gallade's face.
It didn't do too much damage, but it did send it tumbling backwards head over heels towards Avery, who grunted in annoyance as the two similar attacks had very different effects. Avery angrily shouted, "Use Close Combat!" still unaware that it would have little effect against Exeggutor.
As Gallade closed on Exeggutor, Niles sighed and said, "Exeggutor, use Hypnosis," exasperated at the one-sided battle that Avery was giving him. Exeggutor's eyes glowed blue as it started jumping from one leg to the other. Barely a second later Gallade was standing there asleep. Niles said, "Now, use Egg Bom…"
But before Niles could finish giving his command, Avery shouted over him, saying, "Use Sleep Talk!" Gallade's arm blades glowed blood red, crossing the distance between the two faster than it had moved before and started laying into Exeggutor. When it was done with its final slash, Exeggutor went flying, crashing into the ground at Niles's feet, unconscious, winning Avery the match, in no small part to luck.
After Avery and Niles had left the field the announcer picked up his microphone and walked out onto the field. He said, "Okay everyone. With that battle, the first round is finished. Moving on to the next round is Ash Ketchum, Jessie vell…I'm sorry, I can't pronounce that. Moving on, Theodore Tell also got through, as did Blake Breakspear, Fred Forsythe, James Jameson, Jeb Ferdinand, Buzz Quirke, Avery Leverton, Celia and Adelia Adler as well as John, Jane, James and Jill Smith. We also have Natalia Gineuva moving through to the second round." The announcer paused between all of the names, letting the crowd cheer for each of the competitors, though some contenders, like Celia and Natalia, gained more applause than other relative unknowns, like Jessie and Avery. Ash himself got more than he, and any other trainer, was expecting him to get.
Ash started getting deathstares from Jessie as she muttered, "Just because he didn't get an easy match he gets more applause than me? Hmph! Who needs it anyway?" as she blew a loose strand of hair out of her face.
"Now," the announcer said, "Without any further ado, on to round two!" eliciting many groans and slumped shoulders from the crowd. The announcer cleared his throat and said, "Anyway, the first ones up will be Ash Ketchum and John Smith!"