Jessie, James and Meowth stood in the foyer of the building, looking around. Being back at the Johto League made them remember the last time that they were there, where they had made a lot of money from selling goods during the tournament. Meowth had pointed out that they had failed to exploit the demand by trying to expand into a new building, where this time they could simply just buy an old store. This meant that they had been able to set up quickly, and Jessie attaching her now famous name to the company meant that they had endured one of the busiest opening days in memory. The staff had been worked off their feet, and had left at the end of the day, leaving the ex-Rockets to look at the accounts to realize how much money they had just made. This store had apparently become a gold-mine for them.
"I still can't believe it." James said. "I mean, I know that people like to buy things, but that was beyond ridiculous."
"You just have to have the right knack for it." Meowth said knowledgeably. "Good market research and…"
"Meowth, you know we just sold what we sold last time." James said.
"Yeah but, we still had to know that…"
"Jess, are you alright?" James asked, cutting over Meowth.
The red-headed woman stood quietly, looking out across the store, ignoring the bickering that was going on next to her. She turned and smiled sadly at James.
"Doing this again, reminds me of the last time we in Silver Town, when the Twerp competed here. We watched so many of his battles, despite spending years chasing Pikachu, I still respected him. It was one of the things I enjoyed the most about those years, watching him battle somebody other than us"
James and Meowth stared at her. "But Jess, we kept trying to steal from him." Meowth protested. "Are you saying that you didn't really mean it in all that time?"
"No I meant it Meowth. Just… I don't think I knew what effect he had on us until after he was gone…"
"I know what you mean Jess." James said quietly. "Being back here, I just keep expecting to be going to the stadium to sell things and watch him. It's weird."
Meowth looked from James to Jessie and back again. "Guys, I know he meant a lot, but he vanished years ago. He is dead. What's the point of going through all of this?"
"Because of what he did, even in death." James said. "Think about it, if Ash was still around where would we be?"
"What do you mean?" Meowth asked.
"We'd still be in Team Rocket, probably chasing after him and Pikachu. Instead, because of his death and the fact that you insisted we help Pikachu all those years ago, we are now respected. I'm a trainer, Jessie is famous. All because he died, we changed completely. We now have good friends in Ash's friends."
Meowths expression turned thoughtful. "True. I never thought of it like that…"
"Jess." James asked, causing the red-headed woman to look at him again. "Now this place is running, does it need any supervision from us?"
"Not really" she said, shrugging. "It's just like one of my stores now; they don't really need my supervision, just a good manager who we have."
James nodded. "Alright then, why don't we go and watch Misty's battles? We have little else to do here, and we are meant to be supporting her. Her third preliminary was today, but assuming she's through to the semi-finals, we can support her there."
"Yeah." Meowth chipped in. "It would be just like the good ol' days that you two were talking about. Just it's a different twerp battling."
Jessie smiled, and nodded, before looking at James again. "Why not. Anyway James, how many of these stores are we planning on opening?"
"What do you mean Jess?" James asked as they turned towards the door. "Surely one is enough for Johto?"
"What about the other regions? We could have one at each of the tournaments to make as much as possible."
"Hey good idea Jess!" Meowth said. "We could make ourselves as rich as James' parents!"
Jessie and Meowth burst out laughing, as James turned bright red and started stuttering out something unintelligible. Still laughing the three of them left the store, its door shutting and locking behind them as they headed back towards the house that they were staying at with the rest of the gang.
"And the winner is Sam Fernandez!" rang out across the stadium. Sam recalled his Pidgeot before waving to the crowd as he left the field. His opponent ruefully recalled the knocked out Wartortle, shaking his head. He felt that he really hadn't done himself justice; Sam had thrashed him.
As Sam left the stadium he found Mellanie waiting for him. She had also won her third preliminary battle, guaranteeing them both places in the semi-finals. Her battle had been easy, her Machoke making short work of a Chinchou in a complete mismatch. She gave him a quick hug of congratulations, before they headed away from the stadium. As they walked chatting, Sam looked behind him to see somebody that seemed to be following them. Turning around, he looked over at a young girl, no more than six or seven. Mellanie also stopped and turned around, causing the girl to go bright red and look around for somewhere to hide.
"Can we help you?" Mellanie asked kindly.
"I just… Are you Mellanie Rigger?" the girl asked, getting even redder. When Mellanie nodded slightly uncertainly, the girl produced a piece of paper and a pen. "I'm a huge fan of yours… can I have your autograph?"
Mellanie looked shocked while Sam burst out laughing. "Go on Mel, it's not often you get to meet your adoring fans!"
Mellanie looked down at the young girl who looked like she was about to run away and hide. "Of course you can." Mellanie took the pen and quickly scribbled a signature onto the piece of paper before handing it back.
"Thank you so much!" the girl enthused, before turning and running away, leaving Mellanie baffled and Sam still laughing.
"You looked like you had no idea what to do Mel!" Sam spluttered. "It's just an autograph! Oh wait, can I have one to?"
"Shut up Sam." Mellanie snapped, slightly harsher sounding than she intended. Unfortunately it did little more than make Sam laugh even harder. Mellanie just looked at him and raised an eyebrow. "At least I have fans" she said icily. Sam stopped laughing and glared at her.
"That Mel, was a low blow" he said, starting to sulk. Mellanie just laughed and started walking again, knowing that Sam would follow. After a few minutes she turned to him.
"I'm sure you do have fans Sam" she said. "They're just too terrified of you to come and ask for an autograph."
Sam looked at her suspiciously. "Are you mocking me Mel?" he asked.
"Me? Never!" Mellanie said, perfectly straight-faced. She held Sam's gaze for a moment before both of them burst out laughing once again.
The two of them reached a Pokémon Center and walked in, going up to Nurse Joy.
"Nurse Joy, can you please check over my Pidgeot?" Sam asked. The Nurse smiled at him. "Of course Sam. It's always a pleasure to see a trainer who cares about their Pokémon like you two do. Mellanie, your Machoke is healed. He didn't seem to be particularly tired, so he just had quick rest." The nurse handed Mellanie a Pokéball before taking one from Sam. "You two both won all of your battles right?" she asked. When they both nodded, the Nurse smiled. "Then I expect I'll see you both in here again soon, even if your Pokémon don't take any damage you'll still probably get me to have a look over them!" Bidding them goodbye, the nurse turned and handed Pidgeot's Pokéball to a Chansey that took it through deeper into the Pokémon Center. As they were about to leave the building, Mellanie turned and scanned the Center, not being able to shake the feeling that they were being watched. The one that they always took their Pokémon to was somewhat out-of-the-way and so it was often empty during the day, although it tended to be busy in the evenings. Looking across the room however was a man dressed in black, a hat obscuring his eyes. Sam turned to see why Mellanie had stopped walking and saw the man as he raised a hand and gestured for them to join him across the room.
Mellanie and Sam approached the Pokémon Master and took the seats he indicated.
"You two have done well so far" he said to them. "You are aware that there will be a great deal of attention focused on you two now you've gotten through your preliminaries unbeaten? It's not often that trainers who have never competed in a regional league do this."
"We were warned." Mellanie said.
'Champion' nodded. "Furthermore, if you two can get far enough, there is a good chance that the media will focus on you a great deal. Should this happen, they will discover that you were at the training camp organized by Miss Shirona. Any questions that they ask about it, you may answer, except for the afternoon where Sceptile and Charizard trained you. Should you choose to discuss the morning of that same day you may, but I would suggest that you do not discuss battling tactics or training regimes. Neither tends to be a good idea of things to discuss in a media interview."
Sam and Mellanie both nodded. The Pokémon Master looked down at them, before moving away again. "I suppose that all that remains is to say congratulations once again" he said, as he moved away. Before he could get any further, Sam called after him.
"Sir, why are you helping us?"
'Champion' stopped moving, and turned around to look at the two youngsters once again. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, you picked us to train, you picked us to give advice to, throughout our journeys so far you've been there the entire time, it's like you're watching us."
"You two have impressed me so far. And that conversation was mostly about telling you things that many can tell you, but you may not listen to. When I was your age, I made mistakes that if you avoid you could become truly great trainers. If you ignore me, you're being foolish." With that the Pokémon Master walked away, leaving the two youngsters wordless behind him.
Pikachu was sat on top of a small house in Silver Town. He had found the start of the tournament to be dull, with Misty saving him for the later rounds, when she might struggle to win with solely one type of Pokémon. Being back at the tournament had made him want to fight more than ever. It made him remember the days when he had belonged to Ash, and made him regret leaving his former trainer all those years ago. Over the years Pikachu had almost grudgingly started to follow a training regimen similar to the one Ash had made him go through, something that he had intensified since it became clear that he may feature in the Johto League. As a result he was stronger than he could ever remember being. As he reflected on his new-found strength, he wondered about how strong Ash's Pokémon would be had they followed it to the letter for seven years. The thought scared Pikachu; they would be almost unbeatable. Although surely there must be a limit as to how strong they could become? As he mused, he suddenly heard a call from below.
"Pikachu, I know you're up there!"
The little electric type peered over the edge of the building. A teenager with glasses was stood there, looking at him. Pikachu glanced around to see what had given him away to see that his tail had drooped over the side of the building. Sighing at his lapse, Pikachu jumped down and landed in front of Max Maple.
"So, Pikachu, Misty doesn't have a battle tomorrow, so wouldn't mind if you were exhausted. Fancy a rematch?" Pikachu looked at his would-be opponent and looked up and down before jumping onto Max's shoulder.
"I'll take that as a yes." Max said smiling, and started to walk towards one of the training fields. "You know Pikachu; you really should enjoy fighting for Misty in the tournament. She is a good trainer, and will be able to get the best out of you. Furthermore, it'll bring back all those old memories. I assume you do remember your last tournament here?" Pikachu nodded sadly. Max looked at him. "You know you shouldn't mourn him. In the time I knew Ash he tried harder, fought harder and worked harder than anybody, but always cared about others. He would want you to continue to do what you wanted, not thinking of him. If you wanted to battle, he would have been happy for you to battle for anybody, as long as you were happy."
Pikachu looked at Max, who smiled back at him. As they approached a training field, they heard a shout. "Max!"
The young Maple turned to see Misty striding towards him. "May I have Pikachu back?" she asked with a smile.
"I was about to have a battle with him!" Max protested.
"And I am in the middle of a tournament with a Pokémon who I have rarely trained with." Misty said matter-of-factly. "I think my need is greater than yours."
Max nodded, and looked at Pikachu, a sly look in his eye. "What do you think, battle me or train with Misty?" Pikachu jumped off Max's shoulder and landed in front of Misty. "Traitor" came a mutter from Max. Misty laughed, and gestured for Pikachu to follow her.
"So, Pikachu, I've watched you train and I've watched you battle." Misty said. She was squatted down in front of the electric Pokémon, in a small part of a training room. "And so I have an idea as to how you battle. Yet you've also had a lot of time to train by yourself, and fought a lot by yourself." Pikachu nodded. "So when I use you in the tournament, how would you like to do it? I trust you enough to have you fight most of the battles by yourself, with me giving only a small bit of advice. Or I can fight how Ash used to and give you instructions throughout. What do you think is the best option?"
Pikachu cocked his head slightly, and thought about it. The idea of fighting alone was tempting, but put pressure on him if he managed to screw it up. But Misty hadn't spent much time battling with him so there was a good chance that he would be able to fight better without her. He looked at her, still awaiting his answer. Pikachu held up a paw, shook his head and then held up two paws and nodded. Misty smiled. "So you want me to give instructions?" Pikachu nodded again. Misty smiled at him, before standing up. "Alright then, let's see what you're made of eh, Pikachu?"
"Beautifly, Silver Wind. Blaziken, Flamethrower!"
The two attacks shot into the sky, and began to fall back to earth, spiraling back down together. Before May could give another command, Drew gave a low sharp whistle, which caused the two Pokémon to turn back to their trainer. May smiled at them, before recalling them and turning back towards Drew.
"Dawn?" He nodded. "Well, she'll work it out soon enough. We're getting enough training here, I'll be ready to face her in the next contest season."
Drew smiled, and held out his arms, which she willingly stepped into. As May stepped into her boyfriend's arms, Dawn burst through the trees, and skipped across to them.
"Seriously you two? You have to keep stealing away to spend time together? You could just get a room!"
May grinned up and Drew, before turning around, still inside Drew's embrace. Drew spoke over her head to Dawn.
"But this is so much more fun."
Dawn scowled at them, as Drew flicked his hair and smirked back at the blue haired girl.
"Anyway, Dawn, shouldn't you be keeping up your training? Didn't you say you were going to go to be in Sinnoh for the next circuit?" Drew asked.
Dawn grinned. "I would, but we already have ideas to put into practice for next season, and anyway, the competition is so weak, half the time I don't need to train properly. I miss having real competition."
Drew looked at May who smiled sweetly at Dawn. "Well if you weren't always winning, perhaps more people would like to become coordinators and you might have some competition."
"What do you mean?" the blue-haired girl asked.
"Apparently there is an increase in the number of people who are planning to be trainers" Drew said. "People prefer it to coordinating. This might be partly down to you always winning; there is more chance of a success in training than coordinating."
Dawn blushed slightly. "Well what can I say? There is nobody who can coördinate better. I miss having a challenge. Maybe I should enter into battling, see how hard it can really be."
"Yes that's a good idea Dawn." May said, slightly sarcastically. "With any luck you might come up against somebody like Misty, and show just how good you are."
Dawn turned bright red and glared at the brunette. "You know what I mean May!" she said, her voice getting louder. "I'm not saying that I could be the best, but I do think that my Pokémon would be able to handle it."
Drew chuckled. "Talk to Brock at some point. He'll explain why you would struggle."
Dawn let out a loud "Humph", before swinging back towards May. "Anyway, if you're so sure, why don't you come back? Put your money where your mouth is, and face me."
"Maybe I will Dawn." May said. "Maybe I will."
"Or are you scared to be embarrassed?" Dawn goaded, causing Drew to leap in.
"Ladies, ladies, don't fight now." Drew said, receiving glares from both sides. He desperately cast around for a thought that would prevent him from being in the middle of a fight, and suddenly remembered something. Glancing down at his watch, he flashed a grin at the two angry coordinators. "We need to get back anyway, we promised the others that we would be there when the groups were announced."
As the coördinator nodded, Drew breathed a sigh of relief, not seeing the glares that they passed to each other. This argument was clearly not finished.
Mr Goodshow sat with Lance in front of a large screen, with the match-ups on. The computer had given every competitor a score out of 100 based on their earlier history of regional tournaments, with the tournament in Johto being given a slightly heavier weighting than the others. They were then assigned groups based on their scores, so that the competitors with the highest scores couldn't be drawn together. The idea was that there would be eight trainers who would be kept apart from each other, and then the rest would be split evenly, so that the tournament favorites wouldn't face each other before the Victory Tournament. Despite this system, Lance and Mr Goodshow always reviewed the groups before they were released to make sure that there weren't any problems. Two years previously was the only time Lance had manually changed a group after two trainers with a known history of conflict between them were drawn together. They had been put into different groups so that in the smaller stadiums used for the round-robin matches they couldn't fight. Yet this year had thrown up a new challenge.
"Should we allow it?" Lance asked. "I mean, it would provide a good spectacle, but it does seem a bad idea…"
"Why shouldn't we?" Mr Goodshow replied. "I mean, they are both good trainers, but there will be a victory, and why should all good matches be saved for the victory tournament? We should just move it to the main stadium if we want more people to watch it. I guarantee that they will."
Lance looked back at the screen, before turning to Mr Goodshow. "Very well. This is your tournament, even if it's in my region. They will fight in the main stadium."
Delia Ketchum walked into the Pokémon Center. She knew that it was where Misty, Sam and Mellanie all took their Pokémon to get them healed after battles, because it was out-of-the-way, so less likely to be crowded. As she walked in, she saw Gary Oak turn towards her, and smile, beckoning her over. Their group had agreed to meet here for the release of the round-robin groups. Sam and Mellanie were there, although Misty hadn't arrived yet, and the ex-Team Rocket trio were also missing.
"So, kids, anybody you've seen that you'd like to avoid?" Professor Oak asked them, as they waited.
"Misty." Dawn said with a laugh. "No offence guys, but you haven't a chance against her."
Sam and Mellanie didn't even think to protest this, they doubted their chances against her.
"What about Aaron?" asked Max, joining them. "I doubt you'd want him either."
Dawn grinned at Max. "You're a statistical maniac, why don't you tell us who they want?"
There was a ripple of laughter throughout the group, with Max joining in good-naturedly. "Well, now you mention it Dawn…" He was cut off by another burst of laughter which he ruefully joined. "All joking aside, of the trainers who are still in, there are two regional league champions, and Misty who I suspect could be. If you avoid them, you then have to look at those who have achieved last eight finishes. Not including champions, there were twenty-six in the Johto circuit this time around."
"So you mean that they are virtually certain to have one in their group?" Delia asked. "Isn't that a bit unfair?"
"Usually yes, but not necessarily." Max said with a small smile. "There were twenty-six in the circuit, although three of them failed to enter the tournament. On top of that, of the remaining twenty-three, not all of them made it through. Don't forget, some of these trainers are old; they may be past their best. When I bring it down to those who have been in the last-eight in the last few years, the numbers become a lot better; only eight trainers. And don't forget, they are most definitely not invincible, some of them had easy runs, or got lucky in their team choice."
"But still, last-eighters you'd expect to be powerful, surely?" asked Drew. "Luck can only get you so far."
"No. Of those eight, I reckon that two could have gone on and become champions, and three could easily have gone out in an earlier round. If you look at those two, plus Misty and the three champions, then there are six trainers who you definitely want to avoid. Otherwise, as long as you're careful, you should have a good chance."
"Thanks Max." Mellanie said, and was rewarded by a smile from the young brainiac.
The group turned as the doors opened, and Jessie, James and Meowth came in. The trio had been noticeably absent in the first week of the tournament as well as being very busy in the weeks building up, as they had been setting up the new store. Despite this, they had promised to be more supporting in the later rounds.
"When are they being drawn?" James asked as he reached the group.
"Soon" replied Max. "About five to ten minutes."
"Wonder where Misty is then" mused Gary. "She would not want to miss this."
The group waited patiently, discussing things from the first week, and Max extracting a promise from both Sam and Mellanie to battle after the tournament was over. Brock asked after the new store, and had to listen to Meowth gushing about it, until James could rescue him. After a few minutes, Misty burst through the doors, Pikachu by her side.
"Sorry guys, Pikachu just never seemed to tire" she exclaimed. "I've been training with him to get used to it, so I can use him in the tournament."
"Hang on Misty." Max said. "I left you ages ago. Do you mean you've been practicing with Pikachu alone for all that time?"
"Only about three hours or so." Misty said defensively. "And various types of training. He still seems full of energy as well…" Trailing off, she looked down at the little electric-type that did indeed seem to be particularly energetic. Before anybody could say anything else, Nurse Joy walked over.
"I thought you might like to know that the round-robin is about to be announced" she said. "I'll put it on the screen for you."
The group turned, and looked at the screen hanging over Nurse Joy's desk. As they watched, the screen lit up with sixteen groups, each of them with three spaces. The Nurse then walked around her desk to join them in watching. Suddenly the screen flickered and faces started to appear rapidly, with the screen filling up in a matter of moments. The three competitors scanned the screen quickly, to find themselves. As soon as they did, Sam and Mellanie turned to Max, who smiled at them.
"You two are good" he said. "Sam, your group is slightly harder, you have Richard, who reached the quarter-final in Kanto two years ago, but then apparently spent two seasons trying to earn enough Johto badges. He is an interesting one, but you should have a good chance. Audrey is fairly weak, so you should find yourself battling it out with Richard. Mellanie, yours is easier, but far closer; neither of the other two have last eight finishes, although both have competed in Johto twice before. They both reached the first round of the victory tournament, but were thrashed there two years in a row." The two thanked him, before the group's eye was drawn to Misty, who had paled visibly, and had Gary's arm around her in support. In answer to their questioning looks, Misty just pointed at the screen. In her group was somebody who was in her first Johto tournament and had almost no chance in the group. And then, his face glowing above hers was a man that they all recognized from the opening ceremony. Misty had been drawn in the same group as Aaron, the reigning champion of the Johto League.