Hi everyone. I finally remembered the Authors note. Hope you're all enjoying the story so far. This one might be slightly worse quality than the others. I havent had time to read through till today so I haven't thoroughly checked like normal. Hope you still enjoy it though. This chapter and the next will both be part if the same round/match.
Ash woke up when the sun shone through the small hole in the curtains. Oh and the eager Pikachu that was darting across the room to wake everyone up, ready for the days round didn't help.
He lunged out, grabbing Pikachu to stop him from running when he was quite harshly pushing a half asleep Dewott and Squirtle towards the bathroom.
Pikachu tried for a while to escape Ash's embrace but couldn't escape no matter how much he struggled.
"Please slow down buddy, you're gonna use up all your energy before the match"
Pikachu gave an embarrassed 'Pika' before finally escaping Ash and went back to getting everyone up, albeit at a much slower pace than he was doing before.
Ash forced himself out of bed, checking the time as he did. It read 09:27, only an hour and a half until their match. Ash got himself changed out of his night clothes and into a clean set of clothes and threw on his trademark cloak and hat.
His entire team had been training in overtime after hearing about meeting Ash's old companions almost a year prior.
He checked his Holo Caster, checking how long it would be until they announced who he'd be facing. Only 14 more minutes.
He left the hotel making his way through the thick crowd towards the main stadium.
He was only a minute away from the stadium when his Holo Caster shook to signal that the new matchups were posted. His faced dropped in surprise. The team was of 6, all from Alola and he was very suprised that they were all competing. His suprise quickly turned to joy as he showed it to Pikachu who gave him a grin of determination.
The duo set off towards their stadium with renewed enthusiasm.
They finally made it to the stadium with about 15 minutes until the start of their round and walked up to the Nurse Joy.
"Hello. My name's Red. I'm on next"
"Very well. If you'll please follow me then I'll show you to the waiting room. Feel free to chat with your opponents."
She led him to a room that had 6 people all sat in the middle of the room, strategising.
"Ok so this guys no pushover. He won the battle round with only one Pokémon that didn't even look tired so we'll have to try our best. I want…" Kiawe trailed off as he noticed Ash's entrance. "Alola, the names Kiawe". He said, offering his hand out to shake.
Ash took his hand, giving a firm but warm shake. "Alola to you too, I'm Red".
Kiawe gave him a suprised look but finally noticed the Z-band that was on Ash's wrist. "I see you've been to Alola. I can't say I've ever seen a Z-ring like that before."
Ash looked down at the Z-band that Arceus had fashioned from his Z-ring, that contained all of the Z-crystals, no matter if Ash could even use them like a Primarinium-Z or if he even had th before. "It was specially made for me by a friend. It's a Z-band. Much more efficient use of a Sparkling stone than a Z-ring. It does need all the crystals for it to work effectively though". He shuddered at the end, remembering what had happened when he had first tried to use it with only one of the crystals whilst rubbing his left hand where his glove sat.
He turned to the rest of the group as he offered a hand towards the rest of them, "it's nice to meet you all". Gladion took his hand first, telling him that if it wasn't for 'her' (he was pointing at Lillie) then he wouldn't be here. Lillie then introduced herself, shooting a glare at Gladion as she did, telling him that going was his idea in the first place.
Mallow was next, pushing apart the siblings and taking his hand, shaking it quite a bit more than was necessary with a way too cheery 'nice to meet you'. Gladion must of agreed that it was too cheery as he rolled his eyes. A glare from Mallow quickly shut him up as he began to feign interest in the ceiling.
"I'm Lana and hope you're ready to face Kyogre", Lana told him in a serious voice. He looked towards the others in questioning and they all looked like they were about to burst out laughing. Lana looked at him in shock as he betrayed no fear at someone who supposedly had Kyogre, which caused the others to actually burst out laughing. Finally, a laughing Sophocles came up and shook his hand, apologising as he took Lana away, who was still frozen in disbelief.
An announcement called through the area, telling them all to go to get ready for the team round. "I'm expecting a good match", Ash said walking towards the entrance to his sides area.
He walked out into the sun, his old friends on the other side of the pitch. He grinned, knowing that no matter how good his teamwork was it was near impossible to beat his Alola family's efficiency.
He half listened to the referee explaining the round. Something about a race, only the Pokémon competing, 3 from each team and no sabotaging the other team.
He called out Floatzel, Rowlet and Glalie, who could cover each other with Water, Grass and Ice.
Lillie called out Snowy, Mallow called out Tsareena and Sophocles called out Togedemaru.
The course was relatively short, a section of water in the middle, pillars of rock near the beginning and a dash through some trees at the end.
He heard the referee saying that he would go first and called his first move as soon as he was told to.
"Let's go Glalie, use Icy Wind on the Pillars to connect them". Glalie did just that, the icy pillars thick enough for them all to walk on.
"Ok now Floatzel use Aqua Jet to get across, and Glalie use rollout to build up speed. Rowlet you fly over and catch them if they fall."
His Pokémon shot across the ice bridges making it almost all the way across before the force of the Aqua jet and rollout caused one of the thinner bridges, that both Glalie and Floatzel were going across at the time, to snap.
Thinking quickly, he told Rowlet to use gust from below to slow them down and Glalie and Floatzel to catch themselves with Icy wind. The two responded perfectly, using the momentum they had built up to shoot to the top of the pillars and they managed to make it to the end of the first section.
20 seconds down.
As Rowlet began to fly over the water section, a group of pidgey and spearow appeared and began to attack him.
"Well that's the challenge", Ash whispered to himself. "Leaf blade around yourself to keep them back and Iron tail and ice fang to knock them out of the sky."
Rowlet formed a Leaf Blade, beating back the few pidgey and spearow who got close enough and Floatzel jumped into the air, beating back the flying Pokémon to get higher. Glalie just jumped into the air, biting down and freezing onto a passing by flying type.
They managed to make it to the end of the water area, a path of knocked out Pokémon, laying all around the water.
A minute down.
"Get ready, guys. Keep an ice shard, water pulse and sucker punch ready if anything tries to attack."
His Pokémon cautiously entered the forest but nothing stopped or attacked them and they made it to the end of the course with a time of 1:14.
The course sunk back into the ground, an identical copy to what was originally there replacing the icy and Pokémon filled course.
The referee then started the timer for his old classmates'.
"Let's go Snowy", Lillie said putting one hand out, "Hit it with an aurora beam". Like with his, an icy path covered the Pillars, thinner though more stable looking.
Sophocles and Mallow told Togedemaru and Tsareena to use bounce and the Roly-Poly and Fruit Pokémon bounced across the ice, being careful as they had no doubt seen what had happened to his Pokémon. Snowy ran across the ice, using its slippiness to slide quickly across them.
Around halfway through the rocky area, all the pillars rapidly changed heights, taking everyone by surprise. Togedemaru and Tsareena kept using bounce, using some of the higher pillars to bounce further. Snowy jumped onto Tsareena as she jumped past making it to the end of the section.
25 seconds down.
Ash frowned, already knowing that the Alola natives had already made decent time on him.
Sophocles told Togedemaru to use fling on Snowy and Lillie asked Snowy to use Ice Beam on the water. The Ice type move made a bridge between the start and one of the small rock platforms that sat in the water.
Mallow told Tsareena to occasionally launch magical leaves into the water and air in case anything tried to attack them. They repeated that cycle a couple time before managing to make to the end of the water section in only 15 seconds.
40 seconds down.
"Let's go full force into the forest", Mallow said pointing at the finish line.
The group shot through the forest, only slowing down to avoid some thick tree roots and managed to make it to the end.
"1:02", the referee announced, "this means that the winner of the challenge round is Team Alola. The next round will be the Battle Round. Please can all competitors take a 5 minute rest."
Ash rubbed Floatzel's head as the Pokémon looked up at him to see if he was disappointed. Ash just gave him a grin and said "Never mind buddy. We'll crush them in the other rounds, you did your best."
He returned them all, Floatzel and Glalie who were sleeping together in his competitor box.
He sat down in the competitor room thinking about who he should use. 'Well' he though to himself 'I think that Kiawe, Lana and Gladion will be doing the battle round so I should use Lycanroc, Incineroar and if I need to Pikachu.'
'Pika', Pikachu asked, poking his head out of his pocket in Ash's cloak, a ketchup packet in hand.
"Don't worry buddy. I shouldn't need you to fight. Just enjoy your food"
He heard an announcement telling him to get ready for his round to start in a minute. Taking a deep breath, he pulled out the flute he had been given by Aaron and began to play a tune that he'd been taught to help calm his nerves.
After finishing the song he got up and walked back out into the sun, the warmth from both the song and the sun hitting him.
He heard the referee announcing who he would be facing first.
"Now facing Red first we have the second Champion of Alola, please welcome Gladion"