Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon, or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.

Pokémon: Sinnoh no Isekai

Chapter One-hundred and forty-four: The Vertress Conference, part two

The heroes returned to the stadium in Vertress City in which the Vertress Conference was being held. Today would be the final round of the Qualifying Rounds before the finals. What the rest of the heroes were looking forward to was the battle that Ash, the last one of their group still in the Vertress Conference, would be having against Ideku Badorigo. It would be the third battle that they've had thus far, but the first one where each of them would be allowed to use more than one Pokémon each. It will see both of them push one another further than ever before.

Dawn sat down in the audience, with Kenny on her left and Trip on her right. Cilan, Bianca, and Iris sat behind Kenny, Dawn, and Trip respectively, and Cameron and Stephan sat behind the row of Cilan, Bianca, and Iris. This would be the only chance either Ash or Ideku would have to get into the finals of the Vertress Conference, and although it'll see one of them win and move on further into the tournament, it'll see the other one lose after having come so far. Suffice it to say that both Ash and Ideku respectively had a whole lot riding on this last battle in the Qualifying Rounds.

"This battle will be between Ash and Ideku!" the referee announced, "Each trainer may use three Pokémon, substitutions can be done whenever, and the last trainer with any Pokémon still able to fight will move on to the finals!" Throwing both hands up into the air, the referee shouted, "BEGIN!"

Tossing up a pokéball, Ash called out, "Krookodile, I choose you!"

"Go, Meganie!" Ideku called out as he tossed up a pokéball as well.

The first two Pokémon of the battle between Ash and Ideku were Ash's Krookodile and Ideku's named Meganium Meganie. Right away, Ash with a mildly worried look on his face swapped his Pokémon out immediately. "Kookodile return! Scrafty, I choose you!"

"Meganie, use Reflect!" Ideku called out as Ash swapped his Pokémon around.

Due to Ash swapping out his Krookodile to swap in his Scrafty, Meganie was able to get Reflect off for free. However, Ideku could tell what Ash was planning due to how he had swapped in his Scrafty. "Meganie, return!" Ideku said as he swapped his Pokémon around, "Go, Dragoran!"

"Scrafty, use Brick Break!" Ash ordered.

Before Ash's Scrafty was able to rush in to strike and destroy the Reflect with Brick Break, Ideku swapped his Meganium out to swap in his Dragonite. Scrafty got in and was able to shatter the Reflect and strike the top of Dragoran's right foot, but a fighting attack hitting a partial flying type whose other type didn't negate its resistance to fighting attacks will do very little. Still, Scrafty's Brick Break did do a little bit of damage, meaning that it was Ash who had scored first blood. Also, Scrafty was able to get rid of the Reflect that Ideku had gone through so much trouble to set up.

Gesturing forward, Ideku called out, "Dragoran, use Wing Attack!"

"Scrafty return!" Ash called out as he swapped his Pokémon around yet again, "Hydreigon, I choose you!" Taking Scrafty's place was Ash's Hydreigon, giving him a pseudo-legend dragon to match the pseudo-legend dragon that Ideku had out. Gesturing forward, Ash called out, "Hydreigon, use Dragon Pulse!"

"Dragoran, use Dragon Claw!" Ideku called out. Dragoran flew in to claw at Hydreigon, and although it scored a stinging grazing hit on Hydreigon, the named Dragonite got blasted in the gut by a powerful Dragon Pulse in return.

As the battle between Ash and Ideku raged on, Cameron cheered, "Alright! Ash has Ideku on the ropes!"

"...I wouldn't be so sure about that," Dawn remarked, a hint of suspicion in her tone.

Everyone sitting with Dawn turned to look at her. "What do you mean by that, Dawn?" Cilan asked.

"This is a three on three battle," Dawn said, "Meaning both Ash and Ideku are allowed only three Pokémon each. Ash has already used all three Pokémon he's allowed, while Ideku has only used two of his three so far. Ideku may try to go for scoring chip damage on Scrafty, Krookodile, and Hydreigon with Meganium and Dragonite before he sends out his last Pokémon, whatever it may be, to clean up shop."

Trip, with a look of consideration on his face, looked down into the arena where Ash was battling Ideku. "...If Ideku's got a good fairy type Pokémon on hand," Trip began as he turned to face Dawn, "Then it may be enough to sweep all three of Ash's Pokémon after Meganium and Drag-"

"Dragonite is unable to battle!" the referee called out, unknowingly cutting Trip off and making everyone turn to look back down into the arena where Ash's Hydreigon, more or less looking no worse for wear, flew in place before where Dragoran laid on the ground in defeat, "The winner is Hydriegon!"

As Ideku recalled his defeated Dragonite, the audience cheered as Ash got one point ahead of the roaming trainer from Johto. Tossing up a pokéball, Ideku said, "Go, Meganie!" After his named Meganium came back out, Ideku called out, "Meganium, use Light Screen!"

"Hydreigon, use Flamethrower!" Ash commanded.

Meganie was able to conjure up its Light Screen just in time to avoid the full brunt of Hydreigon's Flamethrower. But it still stung, and it inflicted a burn although Meganie who relies primarily on its special attack stat to deal damage was worried only about the damage over time from burn. Gesturing forward, Ideku called out, "Meganie, use Dragon Pulse!"

"Hydreigon return!" Ash said as he swapped his Hydreigon out, "Scrafty, I choose you!" Coming out in place of Hydreigon was Scrafty who, due to being on the ground, was down too low for the aim of Meganie's Dragon Pulse which flew right over its head, going through where Hydreigon had been flying in place previously. Pointing forward, Ash called out, "Scrafty, use Brick Break!"

"Meganie, use Giga Drain!" Ideku ordered.

Meganie took aim and fired red energy beams to latch onto Scrafty and drain its health in order to replenish Meganie's own. But Scrafty spun around and avoided the beams as it closed the distance to reach the named Meganium and strike hard with Brick Break, shattering the Light Screen and striking down hard on Meganie's burn mark, eliciting a pained cry that made it clear Ash's Scrafty had scored a critical hit. Meganie was then pained by the burn itself, and it looked like it wouldn't be able to take much more punishment after that point.

Gesturing forward, Ideku called out, "Meganie, use Giga Drain!"

"Scrafty, use Headbutt!" Ash commanded.

As Meganie tried to reel back in to take aim with Giga Drain, Scrafty shot straight up in a jump to ram its head into the left side of Meganie's head with a powerful headbutt, sending Meganie reeling back again. The named Meganium swayed from side to side, stumbled around for a little bit, before standing still, shivered a bit, then fell over onto the ground, clearly out of it. "Meganium is unable to battle!" the referee announced, "The winner is Scrafty!"

Once more, the audience cheered as Ash took down another of Ideku's Pokémon. What's more is that while Ideku only has a single Pokémon, Ash still has all three of his allocated Pokémon left, and they only had a few minor scratches between the three of them at best. Things were looking very favorably for Ash as Ideku had recalled his defeated Meganium. "Alright!" Bianca cheered, "Ash is one knock out on Ideku away from qualifying for the Final Rounds of the Vertress Conference!"

True, Ash at this point seemed to have things against Ideku in the bag, and would be seeing his entry into the Final Rounds of the Vertress Conference. Additionally, from what Dawn had seen of all of the other competing trainers, pretty much none of them would be able to stand much of a chance against Ash, what with what all Pokémon that he's got here, many of which are ones he either didn't have at this point in the anime in Dawn's previous life or didn't have at all. That being said, should Ash win against Ideku here, then it's fairly possible that Ash may end up winning a league conference way ahead of schedule.

...And yet Dawn couldn't help but shake the feeling that something was going to end up happening to throw a wrench into that dream. Sure enough, Ideku, holding an Ultra Ball down in the arena, tossed it up in order to send out his final Pokémon for that battle. "Go, Cupidos!" Ideku called out, surprising Dawn and the rest of the heroes and their friends, given that they've never heard Ideku say the name Cupidos before now, so obviously Cupidos was a Pokémon of Ideku's that the heroes and their friends didn't have any knowledge of. True enough, Cupidos turned out to be a Pokémon that the heroes haven't seen Ideku use before now, but what Cupidos had turned out to be ended up surprising all of them.

Enamorus.

"Ideku caught Enamorus?!" Trip exclaimed, "What the hell?!"

The rest of the heroes weren't expecting this either; the last time that they had seen Enamorus, she had appeared back on Milos Island during the first incident involving the Forces of Nature. Ideku had chased after Enamorus alone, saying that he'd handle the problem that she presented. Well, the roaming trainer did end up handling the problem that had been presented by Enamorus, but he had solved the problem in a way that none of the heroes could have seen coming, given that he had very clearly captured Enamorus as he was now using her.

It spelled very bad news for Ash, who similarly looked surprised. "You... you caught Enamorus?"

"I did," Ideku said, his tone even and business-like, a lack of his usual good humor and mirth, "And I told you that I'd be bringing my best to our battle, did I not?"

Ash, although a bit unsure of things now that Ideku had Enamorus out, replied, "...You did say that, yeah." Perking himself back up, Ash went on, "Which will make me winning here all the more impressive! Scrafty, use Headbutt!"

"Cupidos, use Moonblast!" Ideku ordered.

Scrafty charged in to strike the named Enamorus with Headbutt, but Cupidos conjured and cast her Moonblast attack, striking Scrafty directly with a highly potent attack that made it cry out in surprised pain as it was thrown back. Scrafty skidded on the ground for a bit, kicking up a trail of dust in the process, before coming to a stop at last. When the dust settled, everyone could clearly see it that Scrafty had been defeated. "Scrafty is unable to battle!" the referee announced, "The winner is... umm..." Turning to look at Ideku, the referee asked while pointing at Cupidos, "What species of Pokémon is that?"

"She's my Enamorus," Ideku explained.

Nodding once in confirmation, the referee said, "Thanks." Going back to do his job, the referee announced, "The winner is Enamorus!"

As Ash recalled his fainted Scrafty, Dawn felt that her earlier worries were coming to pass; although Ash had a great lead before Ideku sent his last Pokémon out, things were now looking to wrap up in favor of the roaming trainer from Johto. All three of the Pokémon that Ash had in this battle were partial dark types whose secondary typings didn't mitigate the weakness to fairy. In fact, two of Ash's three dark Pokémon had times four weaknesses to fairy, one of which being Scrafty who had just gone down in battle to the named Enamorus.

Tossing up another pokéball, Ash called out, "Hydreigon, I choose you!" After Ash's Hydreigon came back out to battle, Ash called out, "Hydreigon, use Flash Cannon!"

"Cupidos, counter with Mystical Fire!" Ideku ordered.

Both Pokémon charged up and fired off their attacks, with Flash Cannon and Mystical Fire colliding into one another. But Mystical Fire won out, blasting through Flash Cannon and going on to strike Hydreigon. It wasn't all that effective, a fire attack on a dual dragon dark Pokémon, but it did lower Hydreigon's special attack stat, which would make it more difficult for Hydreigon to get damage in on Cupidos. Additionally, the Mystical Fire ended up sending Hydreigon reeling a bit, leaving it open to an attack of opportunity that Ideku intended to capitalize on.

Gesturing forward, Ideku called out, "Cupidos, use Moonblast!"

The named Enamorus conjured and cast another Moonblast, striking Hydreigon directly and eliciting a pained cry from it before the pseudo-legend dragon dropped right to the ground, where it laid there clearly out of it. "Hydreigon is unable to battle!" the referee announced, "The winner is Enamorus!"

"Ash is in very deep doo-doo right now," Kenny remarked in a tone that was equal parts worried and grim, "Unless his Krookodile can pull off an absolute miracle, then Ideku is going to clean up shop."

Iris growled in frustration. "I can't believe that Ideku would cheat like this! And right after I was convinced to drop my dislike of him too!"

Gently shaking her head as she saw Ash send Krookodile out, Dawn said, "Ideku didn't cheat technically, he just..." Letting out a troubled sigh, Dawn went on, "...He just withheld some rather important information is all."

Down in the arena, Ash called out, "Krookodile, use Stone Edge!"

"Cupidos, counter it with Earth Power!" Ideku commanded.

Krookodile conjured up a stream of pointed stones that it cast at Cupidos. However, the named Enamorus countered that by conjuring up eruptions of earthen power from the ground, flying up into all of the pointed stones and foiling Krookodile's attack. One of the earthen power eruptions from Cupidos's Earth Power even ended up clipping Krookodile on the side, sending it stumbling backwards a bit.

Seeing his chance, Ideku called out, "Cupidos, use Moonblast!"

Cupidos conjured up another Moonblast attack and cast it right at Krookodile, hitting it literally a second after it had been able to right itself back out. Krookodile gave a pained cry as it was struck by the Moonblast from the named Enamorus, sending it flying back until it hit the ground and continued to skid along like that for a little bit until it came to a stop. When it did finally come to a stop and after all of the kicked up dust was given enough time to settle down, everyone was able to clearly see it that Krookodile had been defeated by Ideku's legendary Pokémon.

Holding up a hand, the referee announced, "Krookodile is unable to battle! The winner is Enamorus! Ideku will advance to the final rounds!" The crowd went wild with cheers over Ideku's surprise turnaround victory over Ash; he'd gone from one left against Ash's three to sweeping all that Ash had brought with him to the table. People were going to be talking about the battle between Ideku and Ash in the Vertress Conference for quite some time to come yet. Both Ash and Ideku recalled their Pokémon who were still out, and Ideku gave Ash a single nod of acknowledgement before turning around to leave.

...The heroes were going to be wanting to have words with him, however.

"When were you going to tell the rest of us that you had caught Enamorus?!"

The heroes, now that Ideku was the sole person they cared about left in the Vertress Conference, were now trying to grill Ideku for info over his capture of Enamorus. Surprisingly, it was Bianca who had taken the initiative while the rest of the heroes hung back, along with Stephan and Cameron who had also come along on the ride to see how things would go.

Gesturing to Ideku, Bianca said, "Seriously! It would of been nice to give us a heads up that you had caught Enamorus!"

"And I thought that you had made it leave peacefully after business over on Milos Island was settled," Kenny went on.

"I said that Enamorus wasn't going to be a problem anymore," Ideku pointed out, "I just never specified how Enamorus wasn't going to be a problem." Turning to look at Bianca, Ideku went on, "And since when was I obligated to make my capture of Enamorus public knowledge? Ever stop to think that, maybe, I had my reasons to keep my capture of Enamorus a secret?"

Trip, with an unsure look of suspicion on his face, folded his arms over his chest. "...Like a secret weapon."

Ideku nodded once in agreement. "That's one of my reasons, yeah." Looking at the heroes who had entered the Vertress Conference, Ideku said, "Let me ask you this. If you all had known ahead of time that I caught Enamorus, would you have prepped for it if you were paired to face me?"

"Yes," Bianca answered, "I mean, come on! It's a legendary Pokémon! Why wouldn't we prep to face it if any of us were paired to face you? Hell, I would have been wary of it if I had known you had it when you and I had our battle! It's natural for trainers to wanna do what all they can to maximize their chances of winning!"

Ideku closed his eyes, shrugged his shoulders as he gave a hum of a chuckle. "...I agree." With all eyes on him, Ideku said, "I too want to do what I can to maximize my odds of winning. Hence why nobody knew that I had caught Cupidos up until I busted her out in the battle I had with Ash earlier."

Iris gave an annoyed sounding growl. "But still, to keep something like that secret!"

"Oh?" Ideku replied, "Am I not allowed to keep secrets?"

Gesturing to Ideku, Iris said, "When it comes to major things like catching a legendary Pokémon, then no, it's something that you should have informed other people about!"

The roaming trainer from Johto gave Iris a look of dry contempt. "I have my reasons for keeping secrets, believe it or not." To the heroes as a whole, Ideku went on, "Now, is there anything else you'd like to question me on?"

"As much as I respect your privacy and desire to keep secrets that you wanna keep to yourself," Dawn began, "You really ought to inform a Pokémon Professor about how you had caught Enamorus. It would be a boon to Pokémon research if Professors got to study Pokémon such as Enamorus. Hell, Professor Oak in the Kanto region has been chomping at the bit to study my Palkia ever since my Pokémon were moved from Rowan's lab to Oak's in order to have more room."

Ideku gave Dawn a look of consideration for a few moments. "...As far as I'm aware," Ideku began, "No one I know in Johto knows about me having caught Enamorus. That being said, let me handle informing them. I'll start with Professor Elm like what you suggested about telling a Pokémon Professor, then I'll also consider telling my older brother Katsuku. I'll also stress to the both of them to not tell my parents." Said parents were another reason Ideku had kept his capture of Cupidos a secret, not that he needed to share that with the heroes.

Some of the heroes were surprised to hear that Ideku didn't want his parents to know that he caught Enamorus. "...Really?" Bianca asked, "Well why not?"

Ideku was about to speak up, but was cut off by Kenny. "The dude has his reasons," Kenny said to the others while gesturing to Ideku, "I say that we respect his wishes on the matter and let him do things his own way."

The roaming trainer from Johto simmered down, seemed grateful to Kenny. "Thank you for respecting my privacy, Kenny." After a few other things were taken care of, Ideku was about to take off, but he stopped short after turning around to walk away when Cilan called out to him.

"Can you at least tell us what it is that you ultimately wish to accomplish?" Cilan asked.

"...To become a Champion," Ideku said, sounding somewhat cryptic, before taking off for good.

After Ideku was gone, the heroes, as well as Stephan and Cameron, all turned to look at one another. "He wants to become a Champion?" Cameron asked, sounding mildly confused.

"Winning the Vertress Conference does give one the right to challenge the Unovan Elite Four," Stephan pointed out, "And beating all of them nets one the chance to challenge Alder, who's the current Champion of the Unova region, to an official title match. Beating Alder there would result in Ideku taking Alder's place as the newest Champion of Unova."

Jerking a thumb at Dawn, Ash said, "Similar to how Dawn here defeated Cynthia in an official title match and became the Champion of Sinnoh."

Nodding a few times in agreement, Stephan said, "Yes, exactly." There wasn't too much left for the heroes and their friends to do there, so they took off. They had no further investment in the Qualifying Round battles, so they retired for the day, and would return to watch the start of the Final Round battles tomorrow, to see just how far Ideku will be able to go, especially since they all now know that the roaming trainer from Johto now had Enamorus in his corner. Many suspected that Ideku at this point was the hands down favorite to win the Vertress Conference; after all, he had a legendary Pokémon in his corner.

...Little did they know that Ideku has another legendary Pokémon in his corner as well, but Ideku didn't make his ownership of said legendary Pokémon public yet.

The last few days of the Vertress Conference, which covered just the Final Round battles, came and went surprisingly fast for the heroes, who all stuck around to see things through. The final round battles were all full six on six affairs, meaning that in theory the battles in the Final Round portion ought to last longer on average than the battles in rounds prior to the Final Round battles. But things still came and went quickly from the perspective of the heroes, at least as far as they were concerned as they were focusing mainly on Ideku's progress through the Final Round battles.

Predictably, Ideku ended up winning all the rest of the way, cementing himself as the winner of the Vertress Conference. Out of the three full battles he had, only one of his Pokémon, his Simisage, went down in the first of three full battles. None of his other Pokémon that he used went down, and in all of his battles he never used all six of the Pokémon that he was allocated. As a matter of fact, he was able to nearly sweep his final opponent using just Dragoran because the guy had a team composed of nearly just fighting type Pokémon, with the two non-fighting types being Seismitoad and Golem, both of which went down quickly to Meganie.

Speaking of that named Meganium, it stood next to Ideku on the podium where Ideku was awarded the trophy for winning the Vertress Conference. The roaming trainer from Johto, after having started out roughly half a decade prior, had finally achieved victory in a league conference, which was a major step to his ultimate goal, a goal that he's had for so long; to become a Champion. When someone who was trying to interview Ideku for his impressive victory in the Vertress Conference asked him what he was planning to do next, Ideku said that he was going to rest up both himself and his Pokémon so that they could be rested and ready.

"Rested and ready?" the interviewer replied, sounding curious, "For what?"

Ideku gave a bit of a wry smile. "To challenge the Unova elite four, beat them, then challenge Alder to an offical title match so I can beat him as well."

...

The heroes, making their way back to Nuvema Town to meet up with Professor Juniper who had called for them, were walking along the road the day after Ideku won the Vertress Conference. Also it was just them; Cameron and Stephan parted ways with them so that they could pursue their own things. "So Ideku is in fact going to challenge the Unova Pokémon League," Bianca said, "How do you think he'll do?"

"The Unova elite four consists of Caitlin who's a psychic Pokémon user," Cilan began, "Marshal who's a fighting Pokémon user, Shauntal who's a ghost Pokémon user, and lastly there's Grimsly who's a dark Pokémon user."

"Half of them can be handled by Enamorus alone," Trip said, "And as for the other two, well Ideku is a strong trainer, so I'm sure he can fight his way through the Unova elite four and reach the title match with Alder."

Dawn nodded in agreement with Trip, before thinking about how Ideku's actions might very well result in a major upset to the path that things took in the anime in Dawn's previous life. Dawn remembered seeing the Japanese episode of the anime with the World Coronation series where Iris was the Unova champion; if Ideku is able to successfully become Unova's champion before that, will it change how things go? Will Iris have to fight Ideku for the Unova champion title, and if so will Iris be able to succeed in getting the title off of Ideku?

It's amazing what one altered thing, one thing done that normally wasn't done, can do to change everything as a whole. It would be a thought on Dawn's mind for quite some time to come as she and the other heroes continued their journey through Unova. It really got Dawn wondering just how much more changes there will be due to what all that was done differently here compared to the anime in her previous life.

...

A mysterious young man with long green hair was preparing to set off on a journey in order to... well, figure out what all had gone on. He was first wondering how the rumors of Team Plasma being taken down wholly and for good were even possible, then he heard that an arrested Team Plasma grunt had screamed something about a scientist they had employed betraying Team Plasma to Team Scorn. Upon hearing the name of that heinous, up and coming villainous organization mentioned, it cleared up a lot of confusion for the mysterious young man.

He had no idea what it was that Team Scorn could be up to; as a matter of fact, he couldn't comprehend even half of what all Team Plasma was up to until Team Scorn had made them a non-factor. But whatever it was that Team Scorn was up to, the mysterious young man was determined to put a stop to it at all costs. There was no way that Team Scorn was not up to the business of mistreating Pokémon much like Team Plasma had been up to. The very idea that Pokémon could be mistreated filled the mysterious young man with complete disgust.

N, adjusting the cap on his head, would never tolerate the mistreatment of Pokémon.

END, CHAPTER ONE-HUNDRED AND FORTY-FOUR

Author's notes;

This chapter actually wraps up the Vertress Conference shenanigans, seeing Ideku pull an upset victory over Ash by using Enamorus, revealing that he had caught her in the process. The heroes then question Ideku about not only catching Enamorus but also not saying anything about it to anyone, although they do ultimately leave things be, then go on to see Ideku win the Vertress Conference as a whole before making preparations to challenge Unova's Elite Four so he could beat them to earn the right to challenge Alder and, provided he wins there, accomplish his long-held goal of becoming a region's Champion.

As for the heroes, they're heading to Nuvema Town to meet with Professor Juniper, meanwhile the mysterious young man known as N heads off on a journey to discover what exactly Team Scorn is up to after having usurped Team Plasma and disposed of them as a factor. Anyway, things will more or less skip straight to the shenanigans that Team Plasma did in the anime after the Vertress Conference, except here Team Scorn will be the ones acting instead, also they'll be doing things differently. Things will be getting interesting, so don't adjust your set.

Dawn's Pokémon: (on hand) Chi-Chi (female Infernape), Argent (male Arcanine; alpha; Hisuian), Germany (male Garchomp), Zancrow (male Volcarona), Leni (female Lucario), Tsukune (Palkia)

Kenny's Pokémon: (on hand) Godzilla (male Tyranitar), Roshi (male Torterra), Android 21 (female Weavile; shiny), Black (Giratina; Origin Form), Cell (male Scizor; shiny), Shallot (male Glaceon)

Trip's Pokémon: (on hand) Mr. Popo (male Magmortar), HedonismBot (Magnezone), Myde (male Empoleon), Tsunade (female Gastrodon), Deelia (Dialga), Fourze (male Electivire)

Ash's Pokémon: (on hand) Pikachu (male), Krookodile (male; Sunglasses), Unfezant (female), Hydreigon (female), Scrafty (male), Emboar (male)