"Finish it Boldore, Stone Edge". The Ore Pokémon shot large pillars of stone into the sky, forcing a Talonflame down as one clipped its wing. The rocks then fell inwards to the Talonflame, crushing it similarly to a Max Rockfall.
"Talonflame is unable to battle, this means that Red has won the battle portion of the match, using only his Boldore. We will now begin the performance portion of the match after the trainers have a 5 minute break", the referee announced.
Ash sighed. He'd hoped that the battle would've been more difficult but he'd been able to defeat all the opponents Pokémon with Boldore, who herself barely had a scratch on her.
He wasn't too worried about the performance round. He had previous experience with it and knew some great combinations from clashes of attacks when his Pokémon sparred.
He returned Boldore, contemplating who he was going to use for the performance. He finally settled on Hawlucha and Feraligatr, their acting and dancing styles respectively complemented each other and they'd become quick friends. For his third he chose Torterra who'd proven himself to be able to match the others despite being slower than them.
Looking to the time he quickly released them to tell them the plan
"Its the performance round next 'kay. I want you to put on all of your best shows, try not to knock them out too fast cause I think it's a bit of both performing and a contest. Understand?"
"Lucha"
"Fera"
"Terra"
Ash returned them and walked back out, the bright and once familiar lights shining at him, his face mostly concealed by the wide brim of his hat.
"Lets give them a performance", he said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his three Pokéballs.
His Pokémon left their Pokéballs, Torterra releasing a small leaf storm that partially obscured the dancing Feraligatr and the posing Hawlucha, who was perched on the continent Pokémon's head.
His opponents called out their three Pokémon, a Beautifly, a Skitty and a Glameow.
He wasted no time before giving his first command, "Hawlucha take to the sky with a bounce, Feraligatr follow him with Aqua jet and Torterra use a rock slide to give them something to work with when they get back down."
His opponents went to counterattack but they were stopped by the rock slide from Torterra.
"Now Hyper beam into the air, Hawlucha use flying press and Feraligatr use dragon dance."
Torterra blasted a beam into the air, its pure white glow illuminating the shape of Hawlucha as it crashed into Skitty, which was immediately knocked out by the impact.
Feraligatr slowly lessened the aqua jet, turning it into a dragon dance as he accelerated to the ground. Torterra quickly prepared an iron tail, deflecting the speeding Pokémon towards its opponents.
"Take it Hawlucha", Ash said
Hawlucha stood, using endure as he stood his ground as the dragon dance boosted Aqua jet crashed into him. The impact caused the water from the Aqua jet to heat up, creating a soft mist around the two Pokémon.
This caused their opponents already low score to drop even further as they hadn't managed to stop any attacks.
"Finally let's use flash, Torterra. Use that to finish them with ancient power and close combat."
Torterra glowed, temporarily blinding anyone who looked towards him. A barrage of rocks and fists hit the Beautifly and Glameow. When the light faded, the fainted Pokémon lay surrounded by the rocks that had hit them.
The referee stepped up once again, "Skitty, Glameow and Beautifly are unable to battle and after a public vote, the winner is Red, with an overwhelming 99.7% of votes. As Red has won both the battle round and performance round, the challenge round is unneeded and the winner of the match is Red."
Ash walked up to his Pokémon, giving them all some berries and internally smiling as they ate them all with gusto. They finished within seconds and he returned them all, promising a larger meal later for a great performance.
He walked up to the team he had just defeated and put out his gloved hand. "Thanks for the great battles. I can sense that you all have strong bonds with your Pokémon." They all returned the thanks, wishing him luck with getting further into the tournament.
He walked back up the tunnel, mentally happy with the result. He could tell that Torterra, Hawlucha and Feraligatr were all thrilled, but Boldore was a little less happy. He'd have to do a bit more training later so she could get in the extra practise after her less than ideal.
She had no idea how Ash had managed to do it.
She stood before the bright lights of the stadium. It had been bad enough when she was in the crowd cheering him on during the Kalos league. Performances had nothing on the league, that a large amount of Kalos went in person to watch. This was even bigger, there were tens of stadiums and a lot of people from everywhere were there, which made sense since it was the largest global tournament in years.
She was almost paralysed when she saw the size of the crowd. There had to be thousands of people there, if not tens of thousands and this was only one stadium.
She took a deep breath, softly gripping Delphox's Pokéball as she felt her offering encouragement through their psychic bond. Her focus turned to her opponents, three of them, a guy in a nice suit, likely the performer or coordinator of the group and a girl and boy who wore similar clothes, who were all laughing together.
She could still sense their nervousness though. She didn't even need to use her psychic powers to tell that, it could be heard easily enough in their voices.
She zoned out as the referee announced the rules for the battle round. It was a standard, 5v5 battle, no substitutions except for moves that switch a Pokémon out, a Pokémon gets knocked out then they can't be used again. She'd heard them enough whilst waiting for her battle.
She called out Mawile, who excitedly bit down on her arm, making her flinch slightly. 'Dont worry I'm scared too' she told him through their psychic connection.
"Ok Mawile, let's show them whose boss".
Her opponent, the girl called out a Typhlosion, who roared in challenge at Mawile, who returned a louder one, activating her ability, intimidate.
"The type advantage may be theirs but the battle will be ours, Mawile, use Ancient Power"
The glowing orbs made contact with the Typhlosion, hitting it for super effective damage. The Typhlosion then launched a powerful Flamethrower at Mawile who was knocked back by the attack.
"Try for a stone edge but split it up into multiple pieces"
Mawile raised some rocks and began to dash between them, avoiding any flamethrowers that were sent his way.
"Great job! Now use crunch until you get him"
Mawile jumped on one of the rocks, his mouth wide open to bite down on Typhlosion, who used quick attack to barely dodge. He was quickly caught by Mawile's second crunch and panicked, shaking to try and escape the deciever Pokémon.
"Now you've got him use ice fang to freeze him in place".
Mawile began to bite harder onto Typhlosion, thrilled that his trainer was letting him bite someone. His teeth froze to Typhlosion, making him harder to shake off. After a few seconds, Typhlosion was completely covered in ice.
"Now use another stone edge until he's knocked out"
Her opposing trainer shouted for Typhlosion but after 2 stone edges the ice cracked and Typhlosion fell to the ground unconscious.
The referee made the call, saying that Typhlosion was unable to battle and asked the team to bring out their next Pokémon.
"Come on out Lucario, let's avenge Typhlosion.", the girl said, a Lucario leaving the Pokéball. "Start off with a bullet punch"
The Lucario sped towards Mawile, who hesitated for a second, being hit by the attack, releasing a fire blast back towards the Lucario. It hit, causing Lucario to become burned. Mawile then used Brick Break, launching the Lucario back, knocked out like the Typhlosion had been.
The battle then picked up pace, a close match between Mawile and a Politoed ended with Mawile using a Thunder Fang.
Mawile's streak ended when the boy had used a Salazzle to poison Mawile, stalling with endure and protect until the poison finished Mawile. A bullet punch from Metagross finished Salazzle before she could poison Metagross too.
Metagross next faced a Charjabug who he managed to quickly defeat with just one meteor beam.
She also managed to win the performance round with Milotic, Sylveon and Ninetales, and an Aqua ring, Moonblast and powder snow combo that had illuminated the stage with an aurora like light, ripping into her opponents team after they'd only managed to create a small fireworks like display. She'd managed to win it with 99.8%, the highest performance score in the Tournament so far.
She headed to the Pokémon centre after her match, so far 1024 teams had been reduced to only 512, with only 9 rounds left until the finals.
She handed Nurse Joy her Pokéballs, telling her her Tournament number, 802, so she could be informed when her Pokémon had finished recovering.
She decided to go out for a short walk, to clear her head from the excitement of her first Tournament battle.
After a short while she found herself attracted to the sounds of someone training, the sound of Metal scraping against rock was heard just as she entered the clearing of the makeshift pitch, seeing a Boldore getting hit by an unfamiliar Pokémon, that looked like a collection Liquid Metal that had Golden Nuts on its neck and head.
She pulled out her Pokedex to identify it.
Melmetal, the Hex Nut Pokémon, this ancient Pokémon was first discovered by Alola's Pokémon Professor Kikui, and is known as one of the first Alola Champion, Ash Ketchum's Pokémon. Since its initial discovery, many more Meltan and Melmetal have been found around the world.
She then looked at the trainer who had just called for a break for the Pokémon. He was quite tall, only a few inches taller than her, and wore a black and blue T-shirt as well as a blue cloak and hat.
Her hand unconsciously found Delphox's Pokéball as she began to attempt to read the trainers mind. She quickly threw her Pokéball, calling for Delphox to use a flamethrower.
The Aura Guardian before her noticed and in a split second called for the Wartortle by his side to counter it with a Hydro Pump. The moves met, and cancelled each other out, a thin line of steam rising into the air.
The trainer looked at her in confusion for a few seconds before realising who she was.
"Psychics", he muttered under his breath, still loud enough for her to hear him. "I'm not sure what your business is here but you better stay out of my way. I'm not sure why you yes here but I've got something more important to do here so if you'd like to avoid a war like last time then I'd suggest you go to another region.
"Hardly", she coldly responded, "I think you might like to consider leaving yourself before we make you".
"I don't have time to deal with someone like you. All you need to know is that I need to win this Tournament and I'll be out of your hair a day or two after that."
"Why am I not suprised that a power hungry so called Guardian would be here? I'll meet you in the Tournament then. We can settle it there."
"I wish you luck in getting for enough to face me?"
"Y, like the letter, and you'll be the one needing the luck."
"Ok then 'Y', I'm Red, yes like the colour, yes the irony isn't lost on me."
The two shook hands, their cold grip, showing the other their feelings of the other 'kind'.
"We've identified a few trainers who fit that description Lance", said a woman with purple hair and a black suit.
"Great. I thought it would be too much for them to resist. Who are the main suspects?"
"There are 2 different trainers who I can't seem to read, one of them is likely an Aura user, he's called 'Red' and wears a typical Aura Guardian outfit. On his application the only information was his name and Pokémon and he has the Tournament number 85. No Trainer numbers or other records can be found for him. He won his first match using only one Pokémon and showed his ability to plan in the performance.
The other trainer may also be an Aura User, she doesn't wear anything like the other but she had similar information on her Application and her Tournament number is 802. She also doesn't have a Trainer number or other records. She faced stronger Pokémon but lost one in the battle round but she shows a similar ability to plan as the boy. They could be working together or separately"
"Great work Anabel, I'll pass this onto Looker and the other Champions, them two will be our main suspects but you did say there were other suspects correct?"
"Yes, there are other assorted trainers who did similar with their applications and a few teams that seem to follow a similar team structure as some of the Regional teams."
"They'll all be surveilled, if they lose then they'll be removed from a priority list."
"I'll stay on them two the best I can. I'll ask the city's gym leader for access to the accommodation records for the event. I'll make some excuse."
"That would be great. Contact me if you find anything else if not then we'll meet here again after the second round is complete."
"Ok Sir. I'll see you then"
Mewtwo looked into the sky, towards Arceus' domain, "What are you up to?", he asked, not to anyone in particular.
"I've been wondering the same", a human voice said from behind him
"Aura Guardian, what brings you here?"
"Aaron is fine Mewtwo, I'm curious as to if you've trained anyone in the Psychic arts recently. I will say that I have trained a new Aura Guardian. Something tells me it was needed."
"I have indeed. A fine student she was. Scared and didn't know her full strength. I'm not sure if she still does."
"If I'm not mistaken then you should know who my student is"
"I've been questioning if a certain Ash Ketchum is still alive, Arceus works in strange ways from what I've seen but I feel like I haven't seen the end of his chosen. Or at least his other one."
"Was it the girl. I believe her name was Serena, if what I heard from Ash is anything to go by."
"It is. The flute?"
"Passed along. You?"
Mewtwo nodded in confirmation
The two sat in an uncomfortable silence for a couple of minutes before Aaron continued, "You may not know Arceus very well but I'm trusting him. I hope you will too."
Mewtwo just gave another noise of agreement as Aaron faded away.