Later that day the other 3rd round battles were roaring to life. Dawn was in a battle vs. Benga, a trainer who swept his match 3 – 0 in the 1st round. A little research into the guy and Gary informed them that the kid happened to be the grandson of Unova champion Alder and quite the powerful trainer himself. He did a repeat of the round 1 as he defeated Dawn's Mamoswine, Piplup and Ambipom only using a Latios, eliminating Dawn from the competition.

After that another accomplished trainer from Unova, the Unova elite 4 Shauntal, was in a battle with Ash's greatest rival from Sinnoh, Paul.

Chandelure fire blast

Chandelure fired a 5 point blast of flames at a crow with what looked like a hat on its head, giving it a burn effect.

Honchcrow night slash

Honchcrow responded immediately by flying past Chandelure, swiping a dark wing across its body across the way.

"Ah, quite a plot twist." Said Shauntal. Use shadow ball

Chandelure quickly fired a close range ball of darkness and hit Honchcrow right in the face. Honchcrow had taken enough and fell out of the sky.

"Honchcrow is unable to battle, Chandelure is the winner."

Paul returned his pokemon back into its ball, surprisingly without making an insulting remark about losing in the process, and threw another ball onto the field.

"Gastrodon stand by for battle"

Gastrodon stood proudly on the field ready for battle.

Use psychic

Chandelure's eyes glew pink and lifted Gastrodon into the air.

Water pulse

Gastrodon fired back with a effective water type move on the fire/ghost type.

Use inferno

Chandelure released a large amount of fire that enveloped Gastrodon.

Use stone edge.

Gastrodon's eyes glew as well and sharp stones started to form around it. Once they were materialized they spun around Gastrodon and blocked of the flames, afterwards launched themselves at the Chandelier witch knocked it to the ground.

"Chandelier is unable to battle, Gastrodon is the winner and victory goes to Paul of Veilstone city!"

And like that Paul joined Ash in round 4. He returned Gastrodon and walked off without a word. After the match the group decided to train in the park. Tyler and Ash were having some practice battles while the rest of them were sitting in the grass and decided to talk about the battles they had seen.

"So Ash has moved on to the next round, good for him." Said May.

"And it looks like Paul is as strong as ever." Noted Dawn.

"Yep. Beat Gary and now an elite 4." Added Tracey.

"Hey Dawn, it really is a shame that you lost." Brock said to the coordinator.

"That's okay, I don't think I really had a chance to win anyways. Not with people like Tobias and Paul in there." She responded.

"At least you lasted a lot longer than I did." May said sheepishly.

"Hey I'm fine. I'll just go back to cheering the Ash, Tyler and Brock in the tournament."

"After seeing how many of us are left, it makes me wonder who is going to win the whole thing." Said Gary

"That's true. We started with 10 of us in our group and only 3 of us are still in." Mentioned May.

"I know. I get really excited whenever I think about who the winner will be!" Max yelled excitedly.

"Me to. And as a pokemon watcher I will enjoy every moment of every battle between now and the moment the winner is crowned." Said Tracey.

"That's okay, there's plenty of time. The tournaments been going on for almost a month now and it's not even close to being finished." Gary said.

"Yeah. I can't believe that it has been that long already." Said the squinted eyed breeder.

"Well when it's all over it'll be disappointing. This is a big event and I've had a lot of fun with you guys so far." Said Dawn.

"Me to! I've had a blast since coming here. It'll be a shame when it's over." Added Iris.

"Anyway, I can't wait until Steven wins the whole thing." Said Max.

"Yeah I - Wait a minute!" Said Tracey. At first he was dreaming of the crowning moment of the ultimate winner until he clued in to what Max actually said. "What makes you think Steven is going to win?" He asked.

"Well who can beat Steven? He is a really cool trainer and the Hoenn region champion! He's invincible!"

"No way Max. The winner is going to be Alder. The Unova region champion is too powerful to defeat." Argued Dawn.

"You're wrong Dawn. The winner will obviously be Cynthia! She is so pretty and an amazing dragon trainer! She has to win it!" Said Iris.

"You want to talk dragons? Well then you know that champion Lance will be the inevitable winner! He's a champion who reigns over 2 regional leagues. No one can hold a candle to him!" Tracey said getting his 2 cents in.

"Have you guys forgotten about Tobias? You know, the guy who has dominated any tournament he has competed in! how can you rule out that kind of power?!" Said Gary.

The 6 teenagers then got into a heated argument over who they thought who was going to win the tournament. During the fight May just smiled awkwardly to herself thinking that she would just root for whoever she liked and Brock who just decided to stay out of it. Across the park were 3 hotdog venders who were keeping a close eye on the group. 1 of them had ridiculously long red hair while another one of them was really short.

"You know maybe we should just go into retail for a living. I feel satisfied for completing simple tasks."

"Enough of the 'honest' work talk Meowth! We have pokemon to steal."

"But Jesse I'm getting tired and the only thing I was hoping to catch is a battle or two later in the tournament." Whined James.

"No. we are going to catch some pokemon now!" She stated.

"But Jess, I thought yous was gunna get that Jamie punk first. Why are we spying on the twerps?" Asked the cat.

"Because that new twerp is with them. If we follow them long enough it will lead them to his brother twerp." Jesse explained.

"Whatever. Just wake me up when it's a go." Said James tiredly. He then laid down behind the hotdog stand and tried to go to sleep.

"Lazy lug." Said Meowth as he and Jesse looked on back to the twerps.

By now the sun had started to go down and the sky began to take on a beautiful orange backdrop as the group of teens were still arguing in the grass.

"I'm telling you Max you can't get any better when it comes to Lance, the guy is unstoppable!" Argued Tracey.

"But Lance is nowhere near as cool as Steven!" Max shot back.

"I just think that Alder is going to win. I can't imagine anyone actually beating him." Said Dawn.

Well Cynthia is a champion too and her team is not limited to one type! She is versatile in that way!" Iris exclaimed.

"Yeah, but Alder has more than one type to." Pointed out Dawn.

"Well it doesn't matter because Cynthia is going to win anyway!" Yelled Iris.

"Nope the winner is going to be me!" Said Ash creeping up on the group and made everyone jump.

"Ash don't startle us like that." Said Dawn a bit scarred.

"Sorry, but I couldn't help but over hear you guys talking about winners." Said Ash proudly.

"Okay you caught us, we were talking about Tyler." Misty said slyly. Ash then fell anime style. Tyler just walked up to them now and only saw Ash falling over.

"Ugh are you okay?" He asked Ash.

"Hehe, nothing hurt but my pride." Said Ash while still on the ground.

"Oh please… I'm far more likely to win this than the two of you." Said Jamie walking up to the group.

"Bingo." Said the hotdog venders.

"Oh yeah?! What makes you so sure!" Ash yelled getting hot headed.

"Cause you suck." He chuckled as if it were the obvious answer.

"Well I've already one my 3rd round battle. I don't see your name in the top 32 yet." Ash directed at Jamie.

"Just a matter of time." Jamie said dismissively.

"It's getting late. Why don't we go back to the pokemon centre." Suggested Brock.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHH! THERE YOU GUYS ARE!" Screamed a white and orange blur as it ran into the entire group.

"Hey why don't you watch where you're…! Barry?!" Said Ash. The orange blur that turned out to be the 'in a rush' fanatic stood up and addressed the group.

"You guys are not going to turn in yet! Not until you see my dad, tower tycoon Palmer, in action!" He stated.

"Okay Barry okay!" Said Ash clearly frustrated with Barry's methods of interactions.

"He can't stop in time to see a dozen people standing around before he runs into them. What a little kid." Said Iris to herself while her dragon type partner agreed with her.

Author's Note:

I've just now realized a mistake that I've made, at the beginning of the tournament I said that the tournament was comprised of 128 trainers, but I actually started with 256 trainers. Sorry about that.

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