Asher's Team:

Lago - Rhydon
Crust - Golem
Sebastian - Nidoking
Selena - Nidoqueen
Seraph - Clefable
Barret - Dugtrio
Sonic - Sandslash
Death - Marowak
Colossus - Steelix

Being a pokemon trainer is like being a professional athlete in this world. The Indigo Conference was a massive deal to both Kanto and Johto. More or less the entire region is tuning into this event when it goes live. It's like the Olympics in my old world. The pokemon league rakes in lots of money due to advertisement and ticket sales, whilst trainers get to build up their reputation by scoring highly in the tournament and getting offers from rich sponsors who want to be represented by said trainers.

As someone so young, hardly being in my teens, simply making it to the top 16 is a massive deal, I'll probably be getting dozens of sponsorship deals with offers for things like: large amounts of money, ranches willing to keep a ton of pokemon on their land and care for them properly, or even rare and exotic pokemon which are hard to come by in this world.

But, none of that really matters to me. I'm not a pokemon trainer for the money, what I'm really interested in is being able to mark my name in history as one of the greatest trainers of all time, to become one of the best of the best. I'm not exactly sure how I'd go about doing that though, I could always go the cliché route and aim for the title of Champion, I'd be like the official head honcho of Indigo then, I'd be known as the strongest man in this region.

If being a pokemon trainer is like being a professional athlete, then being the Champion of a region is like winning the Olympics or something, the only real catch is that your Champion is supposed to be the defender of their region, if something goes wrong then they're the ones who are meant to help their region get their shit together. I really don't know how I'd act under that kind of pressure.

Besides... I'm really not strong enough to be a pokemon Champion. At least not yet.

A pokemon Champion is the absolute peak of what a trainer can hope to be, what every single trainer aims for and strives to be, sure I might be strong to the point where I could storm my way through the Conference with little to no issues, but Lance? I'd honestly be lucky to take down three of his pokemon tops. That's just how much better he is than me. I need more experience, more pokemon and more power if I want to even think of challenging Lance yet.

But still, I am young- or at least this body is- and I have plenty of time to prepare to challenge the Champion. Right now I just need to focus on the trainer in front of me.

Quite literally actually.

"Alright folks, today we have a battle between two trainers to advance to the top 4 of the Indigo Conference! This battle is between Charlotte Silvio the fire-type mistress of Cinnabar Island, and Asher Blight, The All Mighty ground-type Overlord of Viridian City and apprentice of Giovanni himself!" Wait wha-

The crowd seemed to run wild at his words, but I just did my best not to facepalm at this announcer just making up shit as he went along to hype up the battle. I most certainly am not Giovanni's pupil or whatever, I don't even know where the hell he got that idea from. I just happen to like ground-types and Giovanni just happens to be a ground-type Gym Leader, nothing more and nothing less.

Also what the hell kind of nickname is 'The All Mighty ground-type Overlord'? A really fucking stupid one in my humble opinion.

I turned my eye onto my opponent and did my best to try and get a feel for them. She was a tall blonde girl who actually might have been a little taller than me, she had long blonde hair and nice blue eyes that seemed to reflect exactly what she was feeling in that moment. Nervousness. She did a good job of hiding it, but I could tell that she was positively pissing herself at the idea of battling me.

And, honestly I don't really blame her. For a starter I have a big type advantage over her, and lets not forget that I made quite the impression in my last two rounds. In all honesty I'm probably going to win this purely from the numerous advantages that I have over her.

I've seen her previous rounds and I can say that I'm impressed. A bit meek looking though she may be she definitely isn't a pushover. She's got some good pokemon like: Magmar, Houndoom and even a goddamn Ninetales.

In Kanto a Ninetales is almost like a sign of status, not just because of how rare their evolution line are, but also for their power, a Ninetales is definitely as strong as a Charizard if we're talking purely about the firepower that they can bring. Maybe even stronger. So when I say she isn't a pushover I really mean it.

But, just the Ninetales alone won't be enough. Neither will her other pokemon on top of that, because I'm going to win, it's nothing personal against her, it's just business.

"Challengers pick your pokemon!"

"Go Sonic!"

"Go Arcanine!"

We both threw our pokeballs onto the battlefield with great strength as the blood in my veins began to boil and in a flash of light our two pokemon appeared onto the battlefield.

First there was Sonic, my Sandslash landed on the battlefield with his quills and claws both glistening brightly under the sunlight, he grunted out his name as he hopped on the spot as seemed to be daring his opponent to take a crack at him. Hyper as usual I see.

Then there's his opponent. Arcanine is called the 'Legendary pokemon' for a reason, even if it isn't an actual legendary it used to be thought of as one, the secret of how to evolve a Growlithe wasn't actually made public until quite recently, some like Blaine hated this fact since his Arcanine was a powerhouse that used to be unique to him, but now just about anyone can have an Arcanine if they have enough money.

Sucks to be him.

Anyway, Arcanine used to be worshipped as legendary pokemon for a reason, they truly are the embodiment of what a fire-type should be, ridiculous speed, immense firepower, and unyielding tenacity. Too bad I've got to put it down.

The giant of a dog seemed to glare daggers at Sonic, who was currently in a boxing stance and throwing mock punches his enemies way.

At the sight of the two powerful pokemon who were about to throw down the crowd stirred and cheered as the announcer once again commentated on what pokemon we chose.

"There we have it folks! Asher has called upon his Sandslash, Sonic! Whilst Charlotte has chosen an Arcanine as her pokemon! Will the Legendary pokemon pull through and take down the common desert rodent or will Sonic surprise us and bring down this mighty beast!"

Sonic seemed to fall down in a comically gloomy manner at those words whilst Arcanine seemed to bask in the adoration of the crowd at the expense of their opponent.

I however, internally seethed at the complete dismissal of a member of my team purely because they aren't 'rare' or hard to come by. Whilst Sonic might not be a powerhouse in the same sense of the word as Sebastian or Colossus he's still a powerful pokemon in his own right, where the hell do they get off underestimating him?

Seeing my teammate looking down in the dumps I yelled out to him from my position behind him on the battlefield." Sonic, don't let them get you down-" he turned to face his trainer at my words."- these idiots don't know what they're talking about, that overgrown canine ain't got shit on you. Go show them who's the real weakling here!"

Charlotte seemed shrink into herself at my words but, it was more than enough to get Sonic out of his slump as he seemed to bounce with energy.

"Sandslash, Sand!"

The crowd however started to boo me at my words of calling them idiots and Arcanine's gaze seemed to darken at being called a weakling before they barked loudly and in anger at us. Looks like we're in for a fight.

The referee saw that we were ready so he brought down his hand and yelled." Begin!"

Charlotte heard this and spoke quickly but rather timidly." Use Extreme Speed to ram into them. Then follow up with Flamethrower to set them alight."

Arcanine heard this and followed through immediately as they disappeared in a blur of speed and I spoke purely on instinct and fear.

"Parry it with Crush-"

Before I could finish those words Sonic was almost instantly slammed head first into Sonic's stomach. Sonic cried out in pain as he was sent flying backwards from the impact.

However, he wasn't given any time to recover as white and orange flames ignited in the fire dogs mouth, after hardly a moment they gushed outwards in a stream of fire that would be a massive problem for Sonic if that ranged attack should land.

I have to stop that attack!

"Quick Sonic, snap out of it and use Stone Edge to block it!"

This is a little strategy I came up with that can be applied to basically any pokemon that can learn Stone Edge, instead of raising rocks from the ground with the intention of harming your opponent you use those very same rocks to form a barrier between you and a ranged attack that comes your way, almost like a wall of stone.

I used this in Sebastian's battle with Charizard but it ultimately ended up failing, this is because the attack launched by Barry's pokemon was just too strong to be blocked by a simple stone wall. But this Arcanine isn't being pushed to it's very brink to activate Blaze like Charizard was, this attack shouldn't be enough to pierce a Stone Edge from Sonic.

Hearing my command Sonic almost instantly ignored the pain he was in as he flipped and controlled his momentum to land on and touch the ground before the stream of fire made contact with him. After he made contact with the ground it well... erupted with stones that formed a wall between him and the attack fired by Arcanine.

The fire melted some of the stone and I could actually feel the heat from where I stood, yet... the wall held strong. Perfect.

In a pokemon battle you won't win by going purely on the defensive, whilst having a solid defence is important what's even more important is how you plan on counter attacking and pushing the offense. In other words how you strike back at your enemy. I've crafted a little set of strategies for each of my pokemon when it comes to dealing with this issue. Let me show you what Sonic can do.

"Sonic, we're doing it. Use Sandstorm!"

Charlotte's expression seemed to contort in confusion at those words. She was obviously confused as to why I'd pull such a move when I could easily just give Sonic a moment to catch his breath or send an attack her way, why set up a move that most deem weak?

Well in this world they have a very straightforward way of thinking. Big and flashy good, small and plain bad. They even go as far as to label moves like Stealth Rocks and Spikes as weak. I'll try not to rant on the idiocy of the general population and just summarise it as this: I have a completely different mindset on pokemon moves to these people so it's easy to outsmart them.

Sonic suddenly spun in place as sand started to pick up from around him like a tornado of brown. The tornado grew until it suddenly dispersed and sand was flying everywhere.

Charlotte and Arcanine looked annoyed by this but not overly concerned, I did my best not to scoff at that. Why is it that the trainers of this world are so negligent of enhancement moves? I get that you need to attack if you want to win, but where's the strategy? It's like they don't even have a plan on how to win, or something to fall back on if things go south.

This is what a strategy can do for you.

"Now Sonic use Crush Claw!"

Sonic followed my orders with a nod as he held up his claw. The sharp appendages then began to glow in a mixture of both white and red, they grew longer and sharper as Sonic rushed in and-

Charlotte gained a confused look as Sonic seemed to fade away with the sand only to reappear a moment later in the blind spot of her partner. Seeing this her eyes immediately widened in shock as she yelled in distress for her pokemon in a vain attempt to warn them.

"Arcanine, quick dodge-"

Her words were left unfinished as Sonic brought his claw forward with a mighty cry, the attack slashed forward into the fire-types side causing the Legendary pokemon to cry out in pain from the unexpected strike.

"Oh what is this?! How on earth did that Sandslash move so fast?! What the heck is Asher feeding his pokemon?!"

The announcer's words caused me to smirk in victory at how clueless the world really was about pokemon right now.

Sand Rush. A hidden ability of the Sandshrew line which I learned Sonic had totally by accident, the ability doubles the pokemon who has it's speed whilst Sandstorm is up, I was completely psyched when I learned that he had this ability. Pokemon abilities aren't a thing that people are clueless about, but they are recently discovered and people don't really take them into consideration, with perhaps a few exceptions like with what Barry pulled with his Charizard, so his ability is like his secret weapon since most don't even think about what he might do.

How lucky for me.

Arcanine fell to the ground with a pained groan that incited Charlotte to shout in distress for her beloved partner." Arcanine are you okay?!"

Her partner grunted in reassurance to her, whilst that attack hurt a lot that on it's own wouldn't be enough to put this beast down for good. I better nip that in the bud.

My eyes hardened at the enemy as I ordered my pokemon." Use Defence Curl, then follow up with Rollout and don't give them any room to rest."

Another big thing in this world is sportsmanship, whilst it isn't specified in the rules it is kind of expected that you give your opponent a decent chance to respond and counter whatever you do to them, so me acting like a total dick is like blasphemy to a lot of the trainer community. The thing is though... I just don't really care. This is a pokemon battle, not a fucking birthday party! If they want magical creatures to beat the shit out of each other then I'll give them exactly that, but I'll be doing it my way.

Sonic sprung into action as he curled up like we trained and in just a moments notice he was already using Rollout that was boosted by Defence Curl.

In this world they aren't aware of a few tiny pieces of pokemon trivia that can come in pretty handy, for example they don't know that using Defence Curl before Rollout will give a nice boost in both power and speed. I definitely capitalised on that and trained my pokemon on how to pull this combo off in just a moments notice. For the ones who can learn it anyway.

Keep in mind that the sand was still in play whilst he was doing this, his speed was being boosted in this Rollout. Speed can be transferred into force if you're travelling in a straight line, so if you add all that speed on top of the power boost that's given by Defence Curl... well you get a rocket for a hedgehog.

Sonic shot forward a high speeds and once again slammed into Arcanine with extreme force that knocked them off their feet, I could tell that attack hurt with just the sound that the impact made upon contact.

"Again! Take that Arcanine down!"

Charlotte heard that order and seemed to gain an uncertain look on her face which quickly disappeared as she yelled out an order for her pokemon to follow." Shake that damage off and overpower them with Flame Wheel!"

Whilst still in midair Arcanine's eyes snapped open as they once again turned their sights on Sonic, who was still retracted into his Rollout form and barrelling towards them at impressive speeds.

Their resolve was reignited as flames surrounded their body and they spun like a wheel as they kicked off like a fiery missile that was attempting to meet Sonic halfway.

I saw this and yelled." Don't let them beat you Sonic! Full power!" My blood was running hot at the thought of the clash that was about to happen. This was just like in a cliché anime moment, two forces are about to collide in an epic and dramatic fashion in an all or nothing fight that will determine the victor and it was making my blood run hot that it was actually happening to me, that I was actually a part of something like this.

The world seemed to shut out around me as a ball of blazing flames and brown quills met in the middle, the tension in the air was high as flames seemed to burn Sonic as they fought for a moment, both sides doing their best to overpower the other, giving everything that they have just to get an inch on their opponent. It was beautiful.

And then suddenly the flames cut off, and Sonic was still going.

Arcanine was once again sent flying for the third time today, they barrelled through the air, something which seemed to shock their trainer, if her gaping mouth was anything to go by, as they fell the the floor in front of their feet. Out cold.

But I couldn't catch my breath. This was just the beginning.

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