fates collide // an ash xy love story

xxvii // lights

"And we are back! Live from at the Lumiose Conference is the semifinals round 5 draw 2, the first draw brought us an amazing battle between Ash and Sawyer with Ash Ketchum emerging from the battle victorious. He moves on to the final round, his opponent to be decided right now!"

The crowd cheers in excitement due to Hannah and Alain being a few of the favourites in the league. The two of them don't stop glaring at each other, the audience seeing the tension between the two of them and cheer louder, expecting this battle to be extraordinary.

"To my right is Alain from Lumiose City here in Kalos, and to my left is Hannah from Snowpoint City in Sinnoh!"

The screen above the trainers turns on and displays the two trainers and 6 Pokéballs, showcasing the event about to go down. The screen also says the round and draw number, as well as the name of the referee for the round.

The referee of the round then says, "If the trainers could reveal their first-"

"Wait!" Alain calls out, bringing the words of the referee to a halt. Everyone looks at Alain with confusion, except Hannah, who looks at him with annoyance, 'he's gonna do something really annoying, I can feel it.'

"Hannah," Alain points his finger at the girl across the arena, "I challenge you to a very special battle. A battle that my ancestors did hundreds of years ago and would like to carry on with you."

Hannah turns her head to speak to Weavile on her shoulder, muttering, "Let's see what lie he'll make up today."

The referee speaks through his headpiece for a little bit before gesturing for Alain to continue, "The battle is a demonstration of pure strength and endurance of both you and your Pokémon," Alain smirks at Hannah, "a one on one battle between Pokémon with a mega evolution stone."

The crowd is shocked at the proposal and then begins to cheer. Hannah looks at him confused, 'why on earth would he want to battle me when I only use Laura?'

Hannah looks to Weavile with a questioning look and she replicates it, both having no idea why he would put forth the idea.

'Oh Hannah, you have no idea what's in store,' Alain thinks to himself.

The announcer starts to speak to everyone in the arena, "after deliberation of the idea, it will proceed only if both parties are willing to proceed with the specified battle guidelines."

The referee looks over to Hannah and she nods in confirmation, thinking her chances of succeeding are now higher than before.

The referee nods back to her and says something into his headpiece once again to confirm the change. The screen updates to only show one Pokéball per trainer on-screen.

The signals for Alain to release his Pokémon, and to no surprise is it his Charizard. The crowd expects Charizard at this point from Alain and cheers loudly at his presence. Hannah looks at Charizard though, wondering if something looks off about him.

The referee then tells Hannah to release her Pokémon onto the field. Hannah sighs, holding her necklace once again in her right hand as she releases her Pokémon in her left hand and calls out "go, Laura!"

Laura makes her entrance onto the field, a little confused towards why she was let out first in the battle. So, she turns to her trainer and they silently communicate. After a mere few seconds, Laura nods her head in confirmation as she readies herself in her stance.

"Any more of those 'traditions' we need to do before we go ahead, Alain?" Hannah asks, making air quotation marks with her fingers when saying 'tradition'.