Three weeks passed surprisingly quickly, at least partially thanks to the routine the group swiftly settled into. Every day, Medicham and the rest of Marcus's team would train, often battling with one or more of Serena and Calem's friend group. All of them were fairly capable battlers (of course, they had to be in order to get into the Tournament, which all three of them had), but Marcus was able to defeat all three of them.

Trevor's team was his Aerodactyl, plus an Aurorus and a Tyrantrum, and those three fossils were supplemented by a Florges, a Raichu, and a Jumpluff, all of which were from something called the "Fairy Egg Group" as he referred to it. It was a fairly well-rounded team besides, of course, having three Rock-types, and though he was able to cover most of Rock's weaknesses, his team had a massive, glaring weakness to Steel-types. Marcus's team, not having any Steel-types, couldn't take advantage of that, but Medicham was able to destroy Trevor's fossils, and in their first battle managed to land an Ice Punch on Trevor's Jumpluff to win an unexpected victory that had pushed Trevor into a hole he couldn't climb out of.

Shauna's team was…not what Medicham had expected, though admittedly the Greninja should have been a giveaway. She was probably the most powerful of the trio, with a team of 'cute' Pokemon that in practice turned out to be a Goodra, Togekiss, Furfrou, Butterfree, Mienshao, and of course her Greninja. She also had a Delcatty and an Eevee that apparently Serena had given to her that she was training up. Clearly, Shauna's definition of 'cute' was a little more flexible than most 'cute'-oriented Trainers, which made her quite a dangerous opponent; thankfully, Marcus's team had managed to pull out a victory anyway, mostly because Shauna's Pokemon were surprisingly understrength for an eight-badge Trainer. Not understrength enough that Medicham was shocked Shauna had made it to the Tournament in the first place, but understrength enough that it was noticeable.

Tierno's team was his Oricorio, backed up by a Hawlucha, Roserade, Talonflame, Crawdaunt, and Ludicolo, all of which were very fond of dancing and used moves that involved dancing as central components of their strategies. Unfortunately for Tierno, his team was horrible with regards to type diversity, with a glaring weakness to Electric-types. Admittedly, Marcus's team didn't have any Electric-types - not since Heliolisk, anyway - but once Drapion managed to defeat three of his team members due to a combination of Thunder Fang, Poision, and his high defenses, it was obvious who was going to win that battle.

And then there were Calem and Serena. Serena joined in on the training from time to time, focusing mostly on her new Altaria. The Dragon-type was somewhat withdrawn at first; while she followed Serena's commands without question, her irritation towards her capture was obvious. After a few days, though, Altaria slowly began to warm to the rest of Serena's Pokemon and Serena herself. By the end of the first week she was practicing along with the rest of the group, engaging in battles as if she'd been on Serena's team her entire life.

As for Calem, since Marcus's arrival he had preferred to practice by himself. It didn't help that everybody else in the group considered him easily the most powerful of them all, and thus didn't seem intent on battling with him. Interestingly, Calem and Shauna were the only people with more than six Pokemon on their team, though of course they would only be allowed to use six in each round of the tournament, and that was only if they made it to the Top 32.

Every time Medicham saw Calem, however, she looked for the vibrations of Life coming from his powerful but unseen Fairy-type. Each time she found it; it wasn't exactly subtle. Each time it left when Calem did, leaving Medicham with a strange pit in her stomach she couldn't really explain.

Professor Sycamore arrived at the start of the third week, looking somewhat frazzled. Apparently, in the aftermath of the Team Flare crisis, he'd bought Lysandre Labs, which had dropped him straight into the midst of a morass of controversy, protests, and even full-on riots. He'd had to call on an old friend and mentor of his, Professor Rowan from Sinnoh, to help deal with all that and still maintain his sanity, and together the two had managed to get things to a point where, at Rowan's request, Sycamore was able to take a couple weeks off to watch the Tournament. He was still working online, and so Medicham didn't see much of Professor Sycamore even after he arrived, but he clearly remembered Marcus as 'the kid with the Luxury Balls' and greeted him kindly.

The third week closed with the arrival of the various parents. Marcus's parents had met up with Calem and Serena's parents on the train, and so they arrived together, while Tierno, Trevor, and Shauna's parents arrived two hours later on the next train. Greetings were exchanged, introductions were made, and then the parents hurried to check into their own hotels, leaving the teenagers to make any final preparations they needed to make for the Tournament.

As for said preparations, Medicham and the rest of the team spent those three weeks learning new moves and practicing their old ones. Medicham herself began to learn how to concentrate Psychic energy into her physical strikes, starting, oddly enough, with her head. Marcus called the technique Zen Headbutt; once she started incorporating Psychic energy into other attacks and not just headbutts, Medicham referred to it as Psychic Strike. In addition to Psychic Strike, she worked on her Fire, Ice, and Electric Strikes, which Marcus called the Elemental Punches, and her Steel Strike, which Marcus called Bullet Punch; unlike the rest of Marcus's names, this one stuck, and before long Medicham was referring to the attack as Bullet Strike.

Drapion spent most of the time learning how to properly use his tail in battle, something he hadn't really been doing since his evolution, and fine-tuning his attacks to contain Bug, Poison, or Dark energy, though he still preferred Dark. Additionally, he learned a new ranged attack that Marcus called Cross Poison, where he essentially fired an X-shaped blast of Poison energy out of his crossed arms. Finally, Drapion had Ice and Thunder Fang, but no Fire Fang, and so asked Medicham to help teach him Fire Fang, which he finally was able to manage consistently by the end of the second week.

Kriesh learned to use the Dark energy she always fired for Flurry Impact to power up a physical strike, which she called Dark Impact. Marcus also taught her a TM that he called Steel Wing; apparently Kriesh was taking a page out of Medicham's book, because she simply called it Steel Impact. The two new moves gave Kriesh some important type coverage; on top of that, she began learning a fairly complicated technique that used her Sniper Ability, not with a ranged attack but with a melee strike. Essentially, Sniper enabled her attacks to never miss; when applied to her beak, she could effectively minutely adjust it in a split second to defend against incoming attack barrages, enabling her to do such things as clash with a flurry of Medicham's punches and snipe Drapion's entire Pierce out of the air. Marcus called the technique Drill Peck; Kriesh referred to it as Barrage Impact.

Cloyster learned how to fire a blast of Ice energy in the same vein as his Water Blast technique, which he of course called Ice Blast, and also began learning how to multiply his Blast techniques with Skill Link. Marcus held off on teaching him Hyper Beam for now, but did teach him a pair of odd moves called Spikes and Toxic Spikes, both of which were of a category of moves known as 'Hazards'. Spikes and Toxic Spikes covered the battlefield in Normal and Poison energy respectively; the former created a sensation of sudden pain in the opponent, the latter injected the opponent with Poison energy, gradually poisoning and weakening them. Cloyster actually called the two moves by the names Marcus assigned them.

Trevenant spent a while learning how to properly move in their new form, but also learned a few new moves, including how to surround their arms with Ghost and/or Grass energy, techniques they and Marcus both called Shadow Claw and Wood Hammer. However, the main new technique was something called Forest's Curse. Trevenants were famous in horror stories for the fact that any tree in the forest could, in fact, be a hungry Trevenant; now Medicham learned the origin of that tale, because with Forest's Curse Trevenant could quite literally become any tree in the near vicinity, disappearing and reappearing as part of that tree, which he could take control of. If the battlefield in the Tournament wound up as a Grass Battlefield and Marcus had brought Trevenant, well, things would probably not go well for the opponent. If there were no trees nearby, though, the technique was essentially useless.

Lastly, Houndoom's main priority was also increasing his type coverage, learning two techniques, Shadow Ball and Sludge Bomb, by TM, as well as learning Thunder Fang himself. He called them Shadow Surge and Poison Tongue, respectively. He also began working, under instruction from Kriesh, to try and decrease the time it took to fire off his Solar Surge. This was difficult, as he'd spent months as a Team Flare Pokemon reliant on his Power Herb to even use the technique, to the point where he considered the technique useless without said Power Herb. This was an immensely difficult mindset to get out of; even after three weeks the best he could do was fire it off after twice the amount of time it took to use it with his Power Herb. Finally, Marcus also taught Houndoom a technique that Hellhound had used, which he called Inferno, which was basically a far more powerful Flame Tongue that used a frankly absurd amount of Fire energy. Houndoom called it Flame Surge.

Aside from individual techniques, all the members of Marcus's team worked to improve their strength, speed, and skill with their existing techniques. Marcus himself read up on previous Tournaments, refreshing his knowledge on what kind of Trainers he would find and what rules he would have to follow. There certainly were a lot of rules, from fairly standard ones like 'Battles may only last thirty minutes maximum' and 'No Legendaries unless the Legendary explicitly states they want to battle for you' to ridiculously specific ones like 'The move Baton Pass is not allowed' and 'No Pokemon with the Ability Regenerator'.

Medicham did seem to recall Olympia's Slowking had Regenerator, which, from what Drapion and Houndoom had told, had been an extremely annoying opponent to face, but to have the entire Ability outright banned from the Kalos Pokemon League Tournament seemed…drastic, to say the least.

It didn't matter to them, thankfully, seeing as none of Marcus's team had Regenerator for an Ability, but it was still somewhat odd.

The days passed quickly, and almost before Medicham knew it, the sun was setting on the final day before the opening ceremony and the first round of battles, the Top 256. Since there weren't exactly 256 Trainers involved, several randomly-chosen Trainers had received byes to the next round, and Marcus happened to be one of them. This meant that his first battle would be the day after tomorrow in the top 128.

Medicham wasn't sure how to feel about that. On one hand, that was an automatic ticket out of the ignominy that was losing in the first round. On the other hand, when Marcus did battle, he'd be thrust into a fight against a Trainer who already had one victory under their belt. Medicham had no doubt that this would be a difficult battle.

Then again, difficult battles were par for the course at this point. Medicham couldn't help but think that just once, an easy battle would be nice.

As the sun set and Marcus recalled the team into their Pokeballs for the last time before the beginning of the Conference, Medicham reached out mentally. "Marcus?"

"Yeah?"

"I just want to say…good luck."

There was a short pause before Marcus responded. "Thanks, Medicham. We're gonna need it."

"All right, everybody." Calem's voice was low as he addressed his recalled team. "Our first-round opponent is a Ground-type Trainer. He's got a Gastrodon which he'll almost certainly send out, so Chesnaught, you'll be my ace for that one. Lapras and Blastoise should be able to clean up the rest of his team."

Xerneas listened as the three listed team members voiced their understanding. Calem smiled. "We're not just aiming for the Top 32, remember. We're better than that. Top 8's our goal. And we may have to fight our friends, or Marcus. But we're not gonna let them get in our way, are we? So get a good night's rest, and tomorrow afternoon, let's show 'em what we've got."

Amidst a chatter of excited, approving voices that quickly trailed off into quiet due to a shared desire for sleep, Xerneas heard Calem walk away. Alone, the Lifebringer let out a near-silent sigh.

Calem was a strong Trainer. Since Xerneas had begun traveling with him, he'd watched from inside his Ultra Ball as Calem defeated several wandering Trainers, Gym Leader Wulfric, and an Ace Trainer named Robbie at the entrance to Victory Road, all without breaking a sweat. He'd done it with…ferocity, Xerneas decided was the best term for it. Calem seemed to treat every battle like it was his last, and clearly didn't prefer to let any of his team members faint. Indeed, in his battle with Wulfric, Calem's entire team had been damaged, but in the end the only one to faint had been Meowstic.

The strange thing was, Calem treated Meowstic as expendable. He allowed Meowstic to go down so that the Psychic Pokemon could set up a combination of Reflect and Light Screen, except instead of a single bodily shield like many used it, Calem used the barriers as a larger shield, capable of lasting even after Meowstic fell.

Xerneas had watched with interest. He'd watched as Lucario Mega Evolved, powered up his Aura while shielded behind the fallen Meowstic's barriers, and ripped through more than half of Wulfric's team. He'd watched as Calem recalled Lucario right out of the way of an Earthquake from Wulfric's Avalugg, then immediately sent in Blastoise and slammed Avalugg with a Hydro Pump before Avalugg could even recover from his exertion. He'd watched as Calem switched around against Wulfric's Mega-Evolved Abomasnow, putting Chesnaught in the way of Grass-type attacks aimed at Aurorus and Aurorus in the way of Ice-type attacks directed at Chesnaught, while Abomasnow slowly fell to a Toxic that Aurorus had hit him with early in the fight.

It was honestly somewhat alarming. But Calem was quick to congratulate his team after the successful battle, and after they'd climbed up Victory Road, was happy to greet his friends Tierno, Trevor, and Shauna. That had been reassuring.

Then Marcus and Serena had come. And for some reason, Calem did not seem to like Marcus. At all. He stopped training with his friends after that, simply trained by himself with his team in a far-off clearing.

Calem's behavior was somewhat strange. Xerneas did not know the full intricacies of Trainer battles. Such things he had not needed to bother with. But he knew from the somewhat sour expression on Wulfric's face as he handed Calem the Gym Badge and the angered faces of other Trainers that Calem's methods seemed to be somewhat controversial.

Did that matter, though? He had gained all eight of his Gym Badges. Did that not mean that, despite his controversial methods, the Gym Leaders had deemed him worthy of participating in the Tournament?

Throughout the whole experience, Calem had asked twice more if Xerneas wanted to battle for him. The first time Xerneas flatly refused. He had not come to hand Calem undeserved victories. The second time Xerneas was about to refuse. Then he hesitated. For there was a difference. The first time had been just before the Ice Gym. Then, Calem had been asking for Xerneas's help to win. It was obvious in his eyes, obvious in his expression. The second time was almost random, on Victory Road. This time it was not a cry for help. It was a sincere, honest question. Not 'can you please help me', but 'do you want to help me'?

He still refused. Explained that his help would ruin the rest of Calem's team's hard work. For what was the point of all that training if Calem had him waiting in the wings? Calem accepted it with nothing but a nod.

Xerneas had thought back to that moment for the past three weeks. Should he help Calem? Should he offer his services? It would be fun, to be sure. A nice change of pace. And Calem was not like N, who had tricked Zekrom into his service. Xerneas had been the one to offer Calem the opportunity to travel with him.

Sure, it would cheapen the efforts of the rest of Calem's team. But Calem had released him from the Ultimate Weapon, treated him kindly, not as a tool. Should he not repay that in some way? Some way besides merely sitting in one of his Ultra Balls?

Xerneas sighed and, for the third time, refused.

He could not bring himself to cheapen Calem's team's victories. He could not bring himself to hand Calem victories Calem hadn't trained hard enough to win on his own. And…there was just some small part of Xerneas that warned that Calem's controversial battling style would end up going a little too far.

When that happened - if that happened - Xerneas would take his leave. Until then, he would stay with Calem and watch the Trainer work.

Medicham's eyes were wide as she scanned the stadium. She'd thought Lumiose was full of people, but compared to this Lumiose looked like a barren wasteland. The stands were absolutely packed with people, talking and eating and waiting for the event to start. Marcus, with Medicham and the rest of his team in their Pokeballs, was standing along with all of the other contestants in a large room at ground level, watching the currently-empty field through a massive glass window.

The packed stands were understandable considering every Trainer battling in the Tournament most likely had several family members, friends, and acquaintances here, and on top of that there were the Kalosians who had bought tickets to see Tournament battles live. Medicham knew countless more were watching from their homes or on benches, on televisions or Pokedexes. The Pokemon Broadcasting Service Channel, or PBS, offered live coverage of the Tournament for practically anyone with a screen, and in addition provided after-battle analyses, interviews, contestant bios, and a massive bracket displaying the various Trainers who would be matched up against one another.

Marcus had taken interest in two major PBS websites. One of them was the bracket, which he had studied for a fair amount of time, and had links to the various contestant bios. He had discovered that he would be facing one of two contestants in the top 128: Brian, another rookie who had completed his Gym Challenge earlier in the year and apparently gained some special training with Olympia, and Sam, a non-binary Hoennese Trainer who had gotten top 64 their first year, effectively given up on Training for a year and a half, and then decided to take advantage of a move to Kalos to try it out again.

Their Pokemon rosters were, of course, hidden, save for their Aces, which all Trainers had been required to submit pictures of to the League. Brian's Ace was a Jynx, which looked somewhat ridiculous, but Medicham knew that with special training from Olympia that Jynx would be a nightmare to face. Sam's Ace was an intimidating-looking Sceptile, which Medicham knew was a Starter, and from her experience Starters were always difficult opponents.

She would not deny she took some pride in seeing her own face emblazoned as Marcus's Ace. Marcus's bio was, unsurprisingly, nearly all about his contributions to the Battle of Geosenge, with a few sentences tacked on about his status as a rookie and his speedy trek through the Gym Challenge. Thankfully, there was no mention of the hospital stay or anything else James and Sarah didn't know, because Medicham had no doubt Marcus's parents would be scanning their son's bio.

The second website that Marcus had become hooked on was the KPLT Grades website. At present it was blank, but Medicham knew from Marcus's exploration of the KPLT Grades website from the previous year that it was a post-battle analysis site where Trainers' performances were analyzed and given a grade ranging from A+ to F, or in cases of disqualification due to rules violations, F-. At one point, in the middle of the second week, Marcus had allowed Medicham to read a few entries over his shoulder, the first of which went something like:

Ali Deytrana: A fairly good showing against third-year battler Jason Dayes despite being a rookie, but in the end bad luck and a small but clear skill difference did her in. Despite taking an early lead with her Salamence knocking out Dayes's Dodrio, a few missteps gave her opponent's Dusknoir a chance to come back (and an ill-timed Ice Punch freeze on Deytrana's Gourgeist didn't help matters). Then, when Deytrana sent in her Skuntank, it turned out that Dayes's last Pokemon was a Dugtrio, and with Skuntank weakened from finishing Dusknoir it had no chance. A shame for such a promising rookie. Grade: B-

Jason Dayes: When you're a third-year battler up against a rookie, you want a better result than what Dayes wound up with. His Dodrio was completely outmatched by Deytrana's Salamence, for one. Dayes should really be thanking his Dusknoir, because it absolutely bailed him out, defeating Deytrana's Salamence and Gourgeist back-to-back. His skill as a battler shone through with that Dusknoir, though (his use of Gravity to counter Salamence's Fly was quite impressive), and a few spots of luck combined to put him in control of the battle. Still, as a third-year battler, you don't really want to go 2-3 with a rookie in the first round. Grade: B

The rest were similar, and Medicham could understand why it was engaging for Marcus to read. The morning after Medicham had seen that entry, Marcus had taken some time to coach Kriesh on what to do if she was suddenly pulled to the ground. Other similar scenarios had resulted as Marcus took in knowledge from his reading.

"Hey!" An excited voice came from the side. "It's starting!"

Medicham looked up to see Diantha standing in the center of the field, alone. The Champion of Kalos looked around, taking in the stands full of people. Her eyes shifted to the window between her and the contestants, and she smiled and gave a short nod. Then she looked back up.

"Welcome, all of you!" she cried. "Welcome to the 116th Annual Kalos Pokemon League Tournament!" Cheers came from the surrounding stands and Diantha held up a hand for silence, a silence that only came after five seconds. Diantha chuckled slightly. "Now, I know you're all excited for the battles, but remember, patience is a virtue. First, the opening ceremony, where we have cordially invited the Kalos Queen herself, Aria, to sing the Kalosian National Anthem!"

As a woman with pink-dyed hair walked onto the field with an Aromatisse and a Vivillon by her side, Medicham tuned out the music that began to play. She had no interest in the Kalosian National Anthem. She did, however, watch as the Aromatisse and Vivillon, utilizing clearly formidable control of their energies, carried Aria into the air as she sang, combining Bug and Fairy energy to create a dazzling display of lights around her. Clearly, this was a routine they had practiced and performed many times, for there was not a move wasted, not a wing or scrap of energy out of place.

Medicham joined in the applause as the performance ended and Aria, with a few bows to the crowd, walked out of the stadium.

Diantha took the field again. "Now, again, I know what you've all been waiting for. So let's get things started!" The crowd roared in approval. "Joining us to officiate this battle is referee Dan Brown! Give him a round of applause, everybody!"

Dan Brown, a blond-haired mustached man in the suit of an Ace Trainer, stepped to the side of the field as Diantha retreated again and the crowd applauded. Dan raised a hand for silence, and as the audience obeyed, he looked at the field and he spoke four words.

"Let the tournament commence."

The crowd went wild.

"Hello, Trainers, and for those of you at home, thank you for tuning in. I'm Steven Stone."

"And I'm April Ray."

"And welcome to the PBS live broadcast of the 116th Annual Kalos Pokemon League Tournament," said Steven. "You all know the drill, but if you don't, here's a quick recap. Hundreds of Trainers enter, but only one will win it all; the Tournament Trophy, a 500,000 Pokedollar cash prize, and a chance to battle the Kalos Elite Four - or Elite Three, as it so happens - and possibly even Champion Diantha herself. And if they defeat the Champion, of course, they become the Champion, something that…well, let's just say I've had personal experience with."

"Yes, Steven, we all know you were once the Champion of Hoenn," said April with a much-rehearsed, long-suffering sigh. "Anyway, the first match of the day is between two rookie battlers: Karen Harris and Raymond Leary. Looks like a fairly even match to me, Steven. What do you think?"

"It's going to be a good one, I can tell," Steven responded. "This being the first round, only one of each of their Pokemon is currently known, their respective Aces. Raymond's Conkeldurr will certainly be a force to be reckoned with. Those pillars look like they could turn anything in their path to rubble."

"While Karen has come packing a nasty-looking Honchkrow as her Ace," said April. "And I know a certain Elite Four member who's not going to be too happy about that. But regardless of whether Harris is a fan or a copycat, let's get into the battle! Karen has lost the coin toss, so she will have to release first."

"We're going to be on a Grass field for this first battle," said Steven. "Not too bad for either Ace…but it looks like Karen has picked a good Pokemon for this one."

"Yes, a Sudowoodo is practically perfect for a Grass field," said April. "Sudowoodo are known for their ability to almost perfectly disguise as a small tree, though oddly enough, they aren't Grass-types."

"And Raymond's response is…ah, it appears he has decided to send in his Ace immediately." Steven sounded somewhat surprised. "Conkeldurr is certainly strong, and its fighting moves can crush Sudowoodo, but remember, Sudowoodo is surprisingly powerful itself. Harris certainly has the potential to 'rock' her opponent's world."

April giggled. Steven tried and mostly succeeded in hiding a sigh.

On the field, Dan raised a hand.

"Battlers...begin!" he cried.

"There's the signal, the battle has begun!" April cried. "And Sudowoodo goes into the trees immediately!"

From the trees came a cry. "Shaking Stomp!"

"Oh, it seems he's firing off an Earthquake from the cover of the trees!" April exclaimed. "An impressively focused Earthquake to not destroy any of the trees around it!"

Conkeldurr glared at the oncoming rupture in the earth. "Ground Slam." The burly Fighting-type raised one of its thick stone pillars into the air and slammed it down, sending a wave of Ground energy at Sudowoodo's opening attack.

"But Conkeldurr appears to be retaliating with its own Earthquake." Steven winced. "And it does not seem like he has the same care for nature."

"Yeah, that tree certainly seems like it's seen better days," April admitted. "And now Conkeldurr is…"

Xerneas ceased to listen. He could see the battle; the commentators were likely helpful to the fans who could not see perfectly and their color provided extra entertainment, but Xerneas could reach out into the Life inherent in the stadium and see the battle perfectly.

This was the first of many, many battles. Each battle would be unique, exciting, and most of all, a show. As Sudowoodo leaped through the trees, dodging blasts of Rock energy thrown by Conkeldurr, Xerneas watched with rapt attention through the network of Life, a faint smile coming to the Lifebringer's face.

And so he watched. He watched as Conkeldurr finally managed to leverage its type advantage to knock Sudowoodo out. He watched as Harris's Honchkrow took the field, finishing Conkeldurr despite taking some damage. He watched as Leary dismantled Honchkrow with his follow-up Eelektross, then had a field day with Harris's unfortunate Azumarill.

He watched as battler after battler took the field, watched as Pokemon after Pokemon fell unconscious or was recalled out of a finishing blow and forfeited, watched as half the Trainers strolled off the field with excitement and the thrill of victory radiating from them while the other half stepped off the field slowly and sadly. To be kicked out of the Tournament in the very first round was humiliating. It told everyone watching that, even after all the training that Trainer had done, that they were weak. That they probably didn't even deserve to be here.

Eventually, some of Calem's friends took the field. Tierno went first, facing off against a fellow rookie that had no answer for Oricorio. Oricorio was surprisingly powerful in battle; his Dancer Ability allowed him to remember and copy any dance he'd ever seen, which included Dance-based Pokemon moves. This gave him a level of type coverage that completely confused his opponent, who managed to finally defeat Oricorio with a Ninetails but was left with just said Ninetails against Tierno's Ludicolo, a match that he simply couldn't win.

Serena came just after Tierno, and quickly proved to be quite a strong Trainer. Her lead was a Jolteon with Quick Feet and a Flame Orb, and her opponent hadn't brought any Ground-types. When he finally managed to overcome Jolteon with his Ace, an Exeggutor, Serena simply sent in her Delphox and roasted it alive. She didn't even reveal her third Pokemon, since she'd submitted Delphox as her Ace.

Shauna was third, and unfortunately, she was matched up against a powerful Fighting-type Trainer who dismantled Delcatty and Mienshao with no effort with his massive Machamp. Greninja finally brought it down, but the Trainer sent in a Primeape next that gleefully trounced Greninja. Worse, the Trainer had an ego to match that of his Fighting-types, and his taunts sent Shauna running off the battlefield holding back tears.

Calem himself went fourth. His match was, to put it lightly, a complete stomping of his opponent.

Trevor was fifth, and his match went similar to Tierno's. He was up against a second-year Alolan Trainer who had knocked out his Florges with a Masquerain, but that Trainer had clearly not read Trevor's bio, because he had not expected an Aerodactyl from a rookie and watched it not only rip through his exhausted Masquerain, but also managed to beat his Alolan Golem simply by being ridiculously fast and using Earthquake. The second-year Trainer nearly managed to turn it around with his own Ace, a powerful Primarina. But since Trevor had known about Primarina, having read his opponent's bio, he'd packed his Raichu, and despite Primarina's efforts Raichu was able to give his Trainer a solid victory.

Xerneas had also taken an interest in a strong-looking Fairy-type Trainer by the name of Emma. She'd had her battle sometime between Calem and Trevor, and it had been even more one-sided than Calem's. Xerneas resolved to continue watching her.

Marcus did not have a battle today, sadly. Xerneas wanted to see him battle. In particular, he wanted to see Medicham, see how much she had grown. Apparently, though, he had received a bye and would only be battling tomorrow.

All in all, the first day of the Tournament was quite interesting and left Xerneas interested in seeing more. If all tournaments were like this, no wonder they were held in such high esteem by Trainers.

So far, he was firmly not regretting traveling with Calem. It had provided exactly what Xerneas had wanted; a ground-level view of Pokemon and Trainer life, something Xerneas had quickly found he was completely out of touch with.

As Calem walked out of the stadium, Xerneas looked back, a strange feeling overtaking him. Xerneas had not felt true excitement for a long time. But now, he could tell, he was firmly excited for what the tournament would bring tomorrow.

Brian Duke: It wasn't a pretty win, but a win is a win, and Duke's Jynx played a big part in it. After his Beedrill was hammered by Hall's Claydol, his Jynx came in and…well, ran away with the battle, defeating Claydol and Crawdaunt before coming just shy of finishing Sceptile. This did mean that Duke was forced to reveal his Hitmonlee, but with Sceptile exhausted it was already over. That Jynx is vicious; whoever Duke faces next is going to have to hope they've got a better answer than Hall's Crawdaunt, or else Duke practically has a free ticket to the top 64. Grade: B+

Sam Hall: A fairly disappointing performance for a former Top 64 Trainer. When your answer to your opponent's Ace winds up getting put to sleep, you need to have a backup plan and Hall…didn't. Both of their other Pokemon were weak to Jynx, and it opened Hall up to a quick loss. Give Hall credit for taking an early lead and managing to defeat Jynx with a Sceptile of all things, but we expected more. Grade: C-

Marcus sighed and put down the Pokedex. "Looks like we're facing Brian tomorrow. Houndoom, you're definitely up for that one, and Drapion, you are too. I'm not making the same mistake Sam did."

He sighed. "As for the third…with a Beedrill and a Hitmonlee…Kriesh, you're my third. Got it?"

Nods and murmurs of agreement came from all around. Marcus smiled. "Let's get into the Top 64 tomorrow."

With that, he recalled the team. The sun was beginning to set on the first day of the Tournament. The number of Trainers had been culled to 128.

By the end of tomorrow, it would be down to 32. The plan was to be one of those 32. Only time would tell if that plan succeeded.

Medicham thought about the rest of the group, all of whom had endured matches today. For Calem, 'endured' was a massive overstatement; Serena had fared pretty well as well, only losing one Pokemon. Tierno and Trevor had also advanced to the Top 128, but poor Shauna had been matched up against a fourth-year Trainer who had utterly crushed her with what looked to be an entirely Fighting-type team.

Calem had earned an A for his match, Serena an A-, while Tierno and Trevor had both garnered B grades. Interestingly, the bracket was lined up so that Serena would be facing Tierno in the Top 128, something that had set the atmosphere in the apartments to one of competition.

Marcus had also stolen a look at Emma's grade. She'd wound up with the rare A+, sweeping through her first-round opponent's entire team with her Wigglytuff and her Mawile. She'd put as her Ace Mawile, rather than Mimi, interestingly; then again, the Ace was the strongest Pokemon on the team, not the first. Medicham remembered the Espurr who had swallowed the Everstone. Hopefully she was doing all right.

Medicham leaned back. She would not be in use for tomorrow's first battle. Maybe she would for the second one, but she could rest knowing that Marcus would not require her services tomorrow morning.

And so, with the echoes of Steven and April's commentary echoing in her ears and thoughts of upcoming battle swimming in her head, Medicham fell into a deep slumber.

"Good work, everybody," said Calem. "He didn't even know what hit him."

Xerneas had to agree. Calem's opponent had looked completely lost halfway through the battle, with his Golem beaten down by Blastoise and his Gastrodon being trashed by Chesnaught. By the time his Steelix had emerged, the opposing Trainer's commands were halfhearted and delivered in a completely defeated tone. Calem had walked away with all three of his Pokemon revealed but none of them knocked out. No mercy had been forthcoming from him.

"Next up we've got a generalist," Calem continued. "William Williams. He's one of those Trainers who forms a team made entirely of some theme, like letters or colors or whatnot. As far as I know, he's got a Watchog and a Whimsicott, plus a Wailord as his Ace. Chesnaught, you're up again, and I think Lucario and Aurorus will get a turn. What do you say?"

Universal agreement brought a smile to Calem's face. "Let's get ready for tomorrow, then," he said. "This time tomorrow, we'll be in the Top 32, and the day after that, we go beyond."

Calem turned and walked away, leaving his Pokemon to get another good night's rest. Xerneas stared after the Trainer. For the fourth time, Xerneas considered simply joining him in battle.

He paused for a minute.

And for the fourth time, he reluctantly refused.

Yeah...I decided to put my own sort of spin on the Tournament, since I felt like shaking the formula up a little bit. I'm a pretty big NFL fan, so I themed my version of the Tournament off of that. The KPLT Grades are based on the NFL Grades from NBC's website, and of course, there are commentators, referees, and all that jazz.

As for the personnel, Dan's from the Journeys Anime, Aria is from the XY Anime, April is from the TV show Gym Freaks in the Kalos games, and Steven is, y'know, Steven.

To be honest, Steven was not always involved in this. Initially, I was planning on using Dana, one of the Chatelaines from the Battle Maison. But when I decided to incorporate April, I realized I wanted a male and female pair. But I also wanted the Battle Maison to still be represented, and so I was looking for male Trainers I could substitute for Dana, and I realized Steven was involved in the Battle Maison in ORAS. And so I realized that maybe this was what he did after he lost the title of Hoenn Champion - he began battling for the Battle Maison full-time and became a sports commentator. It's not like he was just sitting in Meteor Falls and collecting stones worldwide the entire time, right?

Right?

I'll freely admit it was weird and one of my more 'out there' ideas. But I didn't have any other plans for Steven in this, and once the idea popped into my head I just couldn't resist.