*DISCLAIMER* I DO NOT OWN POKEMON
Let the battle be joined
Ash and his group make it to the Tili Bay Poke Center.
"Wow," Ash starts. "We made here much faster than I thought."
"It's because the city was so close," Lucian tells him. "We still have a couple days or so before the actual tournament starts."
"A couple days huh?" Ash ponders. "I guess we'll use the time to get some training in! Right Pikachu?"
"Pikachu!"
"You can't train all the time," the Elite Four tells him. "Why don't you explore the city sometime? I'm sure you can use the time off to relax while we wait for the tournament to start. If any of the other participants are here already, you can also take time to get to know each other."
"He's right Ash," Brock agrees. "Relaxing can be a part of training too."
"If you say so," Ash calms down a bit. "I guess I'll explore the city then. You ready Pikachu?"
"Pika!"
"Let me come with you!" Anabel hurries after him. "I'm sure we can find something fun to do."
"I'll practice some contest combinations for now," Dawn walks to the back of the Center.
"I better stock up on supplies," Brock leaves to search for a store.
"Then I guess I'll look for Winona and wait for Bugsy," Lucian tells himself. "Winona should be here already and Bugsy will be arriving soon." A shadow flies over him quickly. He turns his head up to see a giant bird Pokemon. "Speak of the devil." Lucian gives chase after it.
"That's it Glameow, just like that!"
Dawn hears a familiar voice from behind the Poke Center. "Zoey!"
"Dawn!" Zoey calls back to her, she and Glameow walk over.
"You made it!" Candice follows.
"Candice, you're here too?"
"Of course!" Candice makes a fist. "I'm going to strengthen my keyai! With me and Zo-zo, we'll win the tournament!"
"You're entering it too right?" Zoey asks Dawn.
"Of course!" Dawn proudly announces. "I can't wait to battle you for real."
"Haha!" Zoey laughs. "Well good luck to you."
"Same to you!"
Brock walks out of the store-
*POW*
"Hey what's the big idea? I'm going to fine you!"
"Huh? Barry?" Brock gets up while picking up the fallen supplies.
"It's you! One of Ash's friends right, Brock?"
"Y-yeah..." Brock can't believe Barry had to recall his name.
"That means Ash is here too!" Barry gets excited. "I knew it, he's going to be in the tournament! Now it's payback time!" Barry rushes off.
Brock just watches, stunned and confused.
Winona finally senses someone chasing after her and turns around. She sees Lucian on the ground following her. "Lucian!" Winona pats her Skarmory, signalling it to land.
Lucian rushes over to where they landed, "Enjoying the Sinnoh air, cousin?"
"It's nice and cool compared to Hoenn's," Winona tells him, feeling whatever breeze the ground level has. "Has my little bro arrived yet?"
"His ship should be here in a couple hours," Lucian tells her. "I hear he brought a couple friends to join in too."
"That's great!" Winona exclaimed. "The more the merrier!"
"My thoughts exactly," Lucian smiles. "Shall we head to the docks and meet them?"
"Why not? We have so much to catch up on."
"Well, what do you think Volkner?" Flint enthusiastically asks his friend. "This is where we'll be having our tournament, we're going to heat things up!"
"Can we cut down on the fire and electric puns, Flint?"
"Sorry, my bad."
"It's been too long since I really battled, let's hope everyone else gives us a good fight."
"I hear ya."
"Hurry up Lucas!"
The duo hears the yelling of an excited boy. They see one dressed mostly in black and red with a green bandanna and another mostly in blue and white with a red hat and scarf.
"Wait up Brendan!" the blue boy yells to his friend.
"So this is where it's going to be," Brendan informs his friend. "I can't wait to battle!"
"Before we do," Lucas calmly starts. "We should train with the time we have left, we have to get stronger to compete against an Elite Four."
"Haha!" Flint bursts out, startling the boys. "That's the spirit you two!" Flint raises an arm. "We'll see you both in the tournament!"
Flint and Volkner walk away from the building.
"Ah...!" Brendan was in awe. "That's it Lucas!" He grabs his friend's head with his arm. "We're going to train so we can beat an Elite Four!"
"You're... choking... me..."
"This is a wonderful park," Anabel walked alongside Ash as they explored.
"It is," Ash agrees. "I never thought there'd be one this big in a city like this."
The two of them climbed up a small hill in the middle of the park, a gentle breeze breathed through them.
Anabel's face flushed slightly and closes her eyes, "Can you hear it Ash? It's a wonderful song."
"Hear what?"
"The song of the wind."
"The what?"
The breeze and wind encircles Anabel,
"Open your eyes, you will see the land
Open your ears, you will understand
Listen to the wind, hear what's in your heart
Listen to your heart, it's only just the start"
The wind dies down gently as Anabel opens her eyes, her face is still flustered.
"That was a nice song," Ash complimented.
"T-thank you," Anabel blushed even more. "I-I made that up as a kid. I almost completely forgot about it until now."
"Really?" Ash looked puzzled. "Looks like you have the wind to thank for reminding you."
Pikachu face-palmed again.
No, Ash. It wasn't the wind that reminded me. It was... Anabel placed a hand on her heart.
A big bolt of electricity flew through the sky, all three of them took notice of it.
"What was that?" Anabel yells out.
"That looked like a Thunderbolt!" Ash replies.
Pikachu's ears twitched, "Pika!" Pikachu jumped down from Ash's shoulder, the small Pokemon points to where the Thunderbolt came from. "Piipikachu!"
"He's saying there's an old friend over there," Anabel translates.
"Really?" Ash sounded puzzled. "Lead the way Pikachu!"
"Pika!" Pikachu runs off ahead of Anabel and Ash.
"Keep it up Sparky!" Ritchie cheered on his Pokemon. Several bystanders that happened to be around have decided to watch the battle.
"CHUUU! CHUUU! CHUUU!" Sparky fired off its Thunderbolt as the various Venomoths above it, each one disappearing after getting hit by the electric attack.
That Sludge Bomb poisoned Sparky, Ritchie starts to think. And this Double Team she's using now, it's just to let the poison take its toll.
Sparky stopped firing his electricity, the little mouse dropped to one knee, panting hard.
"Is that all?" Janine cape blows in the wind. "Venomoth! Signal Beam!"
Venomoth gathers rainbow colored energy in its eyes and fires it at the weakened Pikachu.
"Sparky!"
Ritchie's Pikachu flew briefly before landing, revealing swirled eyes.
"Sparky are you alright?" Ritchie rushes over to his knocked out friend.
Sparky's eyes return to normal and answers its trainer happily.
"That was a great battle," Janine compliments Ritchie. "I hope we can meet again in the tournament."
"Thanks," Ritchie replies. "I hope so too."
"Pika?" Sparky's ears twitched and the little Pokemon rushed over to the edge of the field.
"Sparky?"
"Pika!" another Pikachu jumped out of the bushes and greeted Sparky.
"Piipiipikachu!" Sparky hurries over to the other Pikachu they begin to dance with each other.
"Wait up Pikachu!" a familiar voice calls through the greenery.
"Ash!" Ritchie runs up to where the voice came from and is greeted by Ash and another boy.
"Ash?" A spectator runs over to where Ritchie was running to.
"Ritchie?" Ash runs up to him with his friend right behind him. "Ritchie! Is that really you?"
"It's good to see you again Ash," Ritchie sounded especially happy. "You got a new friend too! Hi there! My name's Ritchie."
"Hi," Anabel replies friendlily. "I'm Anabel."
"Are you here for the tournament too Ash?"
"Of course!" Ash tells him while making a fist. "I'm going to win it!"
"You'll have to get past me," a female voice startles Ash. Janine was hanging upside down from a tree branch with her head right next to Ash's. She jumps down and extends a hand to him. "My name's Janine, it's nice to meet you."
"I'm Ash," Ash introduces himself. "And this is Anabel."
"Hello," Anabel waves.
"The two of us are-Marley?" Ash finally sees a familiar girl dressed in black.
"Marley?" the other three turned to where Ash was looking.
"Hello Ash," Marley waves to him. "I've come here to enter the tournament too. I knew I'd see you again."
This girl...Anabel thought to herself.
"That's good to hear," Janine starts. "That makes all of us rivals!"
"That is," Ritchie giggles. "Unless we end up partners with each other."
"What do say we all go back to the Poke Center?" Anabel suggests to the group. "I'm sure we'll be able to find even more people that'll be in the tournament."
"That's a good idea," Richie agrees. "My Pokemon could use a rest too."
"Hey, Flint," Volkner stops walking suddenly. "Do you hear that?"
"What is it?" Flint puts a hand on his ear. "Sounds like a flute."
"Where's it coming from?" Volkner rushes away, following the sound.
"Volkner!" Flint chases
Volkner heads to where the sound was coming from, at a path near the ocean sat two girls. One seemed to be painting the scenery in front of her while the other played what appeared to be a shell. Volkner feels a tap on his shoulder, he turns to see the painter behind him.
"What?" Volkner looks back and finds the painter and the flute player still where they were. The one in front of him begins to dance around him.
"Hey Volkner!" Flint catches up. "Who is this?"
"I have no idea," Volkner confesses. "She just, appeared behind me."
"There you are!" the flute player walks up to the 'painter'. "I'm sorry if she bothered you."
"It's no problem at all," Volkner tells her. "That melody you played, what is it?"
"Oh," the flute player holds out the shell. "It's a ritual song from where I come from, I was the selected maiden at one time so I had to practice this. I grew fond of it after a while and I play whenever I can."
"Where you come from?" Flint asks. "You two aren't from around here?"
"Nope," she answers quickly. "We're not even from the same place. I'm from the Orange Islands and both of them are from Alto Mare. Let me introduce you!"
Flint and Volkner follow the girls to their painting friend. The painter notices them and gets up to meet them.
"You have to stop wondering off and bothering people like that," she tells 'herself'.
"Its fine," Flint calms her. "We came here following the song. My name is Flint, I'm one of the Elite Four in this region. This is Volkner, he's a Gym Leader."
"Very nice to meet you two," Volkner tells them.
"My name is Melody," the flute player introduces herself. "And her name is Bianca."
"It's a pleasure," Bianca bows.
"And who is she?" Flint mentions the other Bianca.
"Oh-her?" Melody stutters. "W-well her name is-"
"Lati," Bianca answers quickly. "Her name is Lati."
"She doesn't talk?" Volkner questions as Lati dances around him again.
"She can't," Bianca tells them.
"That's alright," Flint smiles. "Looks like she likes you Volkner!"
"W-what are you talking about?"
"So, why are you girls here?" Flint asks the trio.
"We came to Sinnoh to do some sightseeing," Melody answers them. "We actually met on the boat ride here, when Lati heard my song. The three of us have been travelling around for the past few weeks now. You should see Bianca's artworks, she already drew Mt. Coronet, Lake Valor and Lake Acuity, Eterna Forest and the Marshlands."
"The reason was, we both saw the Wallace Cup on TV," Bianca tells them. "The two of us saw a small glimpse of Sinnoh through it and we wanted to see more."
"Nothing more than a coincidence really," Melody jokes.
"We were on our way to Sunyshore," Bianca starts. "I wanted to paint the Sunyshore Tower, I heard it's beautiful in the sunset."
"Trust me," Flint smiles. "It is, that's cause Volkner here helped out with it."
"Really?"
"Umm, yeah."
"Hey, you three want to see Volkner and me in battle? There's a tournament that's going to be held soon over there," Flint points to the coliseum. "Since you're on your way to Sunyshore, why not stop and enjoy watching its Gym Leader in action?"
"That sounds like a great idea!" Melody jumps. "What do you think Bianca?"
"I have no problems with it," Bianca smiles. "What about you, Lati?"
Lati nods in excitement.
"Great!" Flint grasps the air. "We'll see you later then. Come on Volkner. Yeesh, and you say my hair is red, look at your face."
Lucian and Winona wait at the docks for Bugsy to get off the ship, behind him were two young females.
"Bugsy!" Winona gasps. "I can't believe you! Since when have you 'grown up'?"
"S-sis!" Bugsy defends himself. "This is Jasmine, she's a Gym Leader in Johto like me, and this is one of her challengers, Lyra."
"It's nice to meet you both," Jasmine bowed.
"Oh?" Lucian takes a closer look at Lyra. "You're one of the people that worked on the Johto Festival, right?"
"Haha!" Lyra laughed. "Yep! That was me!"
"I see," Lucian thought. "So you're challenging the Johto Gyms. How are you fairing?"
"She just recently challenged me before we came here," Jasmine informed them.
"Yeah, but I lost," Lyra says so embarrassingly. "Jasmine said she was going to join in on a tournament, so I thought I'd come along and get stronger!"
"I like your spirit," Winona compliments. "But it's going to take a lot more than that to win this tournament."
"Winona?" the Gym Leader's ear hears a familiar voice.
Winona looks to where the voice came from and sees a face she knows, "May? What are you doing here?"
"I overheard Bugsy and Jasmine talking about the tournament in Olivine City," she explains. "I thought it would be a good idea to come back here."
"Oh," Jasmine finally recognizes her. "You're May, the runner up in the Wallace Cup."
"Ah," Lucian recalls. "I remember that, you were barely defeated by Dawn. I wonder what she'll say when she sees you."
"You know Dawn?" Lyra and May questioned together.
"You know Dawn?" the two then questioned each other.
"Of course! She's waiting in the Poke Center as we speak."
"Well then! Let's go!" Lyra cheered and went ahead.
"Hey!" May follows. "Wait for me!"
"Hey! If it isn't Dawn!" Flint called out from the Poke Center.
"Flint! Volkner!" Dawn calls back.
"Where's Ash?" Volkner asks.
"He went out to explore the city a little," Dawn tells him. "Lucian suggested it."
"Wait, Lucian?" Candice interrupts. "Lucian's here too?"
"Of course," Flint smiles. "He's going to join the tournament."
"A Gym Leader and an Elite Four together really does sound disheartening, doesn't it?" Volkner shakes his head.
"Ooooh I can't wait!" Candice almost dances. "Such strong opponents."
"Miss Senior, you're embarrassing me..."
"Say, aren't you Candice?" Flint asks the Ice Gym Leader. "The Gym Leader of Snowpoint City?"
"Yep! That's me!" Candice proudly brags. "I'm going to enter the tournament and show you how strong my keyai is!"
"I can't wait to see it," Volkner smiles.
"Hey Dawn," Flint walks over to the coordinator. "Who's your friend?"
"Oh, this is Zoey," Dawn introduces her to them. "She's a coordinator like me."
"Then I guess you're going to head to the Grand Festival after this too, right?"
"That's right," Zoey nods. "This is also a good place to try out some combinations with Miss Senior."
"I can't wait to see them!" Dawn is definitely excited.
"Daaaaawn! I'm baaaaaack!" Ash calls out.
"Ash, you sound like you're married." Ritchie jokes.
"M-married? Me?" Ash jumps. Pikachu face-palmed.
All the girls except for Janine and Candice blushed slightly.
"A-anyway," Dawn rushes over to Ash. "Who are these two?"
"This is Ritchie," Ash starts the introductions. "He's an old friend of mine from Kanto, and this is Janine. She's here on some sort of training."
"My father wants me to take over the Gym someday, so I went away to do some self training. I choose this region."
"Your father?" Ash asks.
"Koga of the Fuchsia City Gym."
"Awa-?"
"Come to think of it," Ritchie ponders. "You had the Soul Badge back in Kanto, right?"
"The Soul Badge?"Janine questions. "That means you must've defeated my father." Janine smiles. "Then I hope we meet in the tournament."
"Yeah, same here."
"Hey Ash?" Dawn trots over. "What's Marley doing here?"
"She also came here to join the tournament," the boy replies.
"Are you sure about that?" Anabel asks, looking over at Marley.
"T-that's all it is," Marley bursts out.
"ASH! DAWN!" Ash and Dawn her some familiar voices. It was Lyra and May!
"Lyra! May!" the two cried in unison.
"What are you guys doing here?"
"We heard there was going to be a tournament from Jasmine," Lyra starts.
"So we followed her here!" May finishes.
"Jasmine's here too?" Ash can't believe it, so many familiar faces.
"I can't have my official Gym Battle until she comes back," Lyra explains. "So I decided to tag along!"
"And I just wanted another excuse to see you guys again!" May tells them.
"Ash?" three more familiar voices greeted the boy.
"Bugsy, Jasmine and Winona!" Ash runs over to them. "It's good to see you all again!"
"It's good to see you too," Winona smiles. "Don't expect us to lose this time."
"I can't wait," Ash replies.
"Oh, Anabel," Bugsy reaches into his bag. "I have a few Stones with me, are they what you were looking for?"
"Huh?" Anabel walks over to the Bug Leader. "How did you get so many Stones?"
"There's a Pokeathlon in Johto," the boy explains. "I was training my Pokemon there, and I won some Stones too. Here."
Bugsy showed her a variety of Stones; Fire, Water, Dawn, Shiny and Sun.
"A Dawn Stone!" Anabel awes. "That's what I've been looking for!"
"Here you are cousin," Bugsy hands her the stone. "You can have it."
"Really?" Anabel takes the Stone. "Thank you Bugsy!"
"Alright!" Flint yells out. "Since we're all friends here, I suppose I'll tell you something about the tournament."
Silence fills the Center as everyone listens in.
"Since this is a tag team tournament, you have to join with a partner. If you don't have a partner before the tournament starts, you will be randomly paired up with someone else who joined the tournament, and its first come first serve. We only have room for 32 teams. So if you guys want to have the best advantage, you better find your partner before registering."
"Well that's easy!" Candice jumps. "Me and Zo-zo are teaming up, and we'll show you our keyai!"
"Miss Senior..." Zoey sounded embarrassed.
"What do say little bro?" Winona asks Bugsy. "Want to battle together?"
"Sure do sis!"
"Hey Ash," Anabel walks up to the boy before anyone else could. "Have you decided on who you're going to team with yet?"
"I don't know," the boy crosses his arms. "I have too many friends to choose from."
"Well," Lucian interrupts his thoughts. "What about Anabel?"
"HUH?" almost the whole room said in unison.
"It's only fair, since she asked you first."
"B-brother..." Anabel puffed. "I-I guess we could team up. What do you think?"
"Sure thing Anabel! We'll be the best team in the tournament!"
"Well," Ritchie sighed. "I guess I'll test my luck with the random thing."
"What about you Dawn?" May asks her fellow coordinator.
"I was actually going to ask her to be my partner," Lucian answers for Dawn.
"Wow..." Dawn awes. "Really?"
"Of course," Lucian smiles. "My original choice was Anabel, but right now she seems to be infatuated with Ash."
"BROTHER!" Anabel's face reddened.
"WHAAAAAT?!" most of the females cried.
"Hello everyone!" Brock arrived. "WHOA!" He notices all of the familiar faces in the-. "Achjak-kik-ki" Croagunk drags him off before he could do anything.
"There you are Ash!" Barry runs in.
"Barry?"
"You're entering the tournament too right? Well I've got news for you! I'm going to win it!"
"We'll see about that."
"HAHAHAHAHA!" Flint's loud laughter caused all the ruckus to die down. "Well, that's enough excitement for today, eh? What do you all say? Let's get some sleep, we're all going to need it tomorrow."
Author: Man, this fic is crowded. Guess I put in a little too many characters. Oh well, that only means more exciting battles. But be wary though, I'll end up shifting focus between characters waaay to quickly. Now where'd Team Rocket go?
And apologies for Anabel's Pocahontas moment, I was doing some cleaning and I found an old Pocahontas cup I got from Disneyland way waay waaay back. Until next time!
