Ash and all of his friends waited patiently for Clemont, who was drawing up the bracket for their tournament. After a few moments, Clemont stood back to let everyone read it.
-------------------------
Round 1:
Ash vs Cilan
Dawn vs Serena
May vs Brock
Misty vs Iris
-------------------------
"You cant' practice, kind of sucks huh?" Ash frowned, looking at Clemont. Suddenly, the doors opened and everyone turned to the person walking in.
"I can be your opponent Clemont" Miette stood at the door, a big smile on her face. She clenched her fists together and placed them behind her back.
"Miette?!" Ash and the Kalos gang said in unison.
"That's right" She smiled and stepped forward. "I just had to come and visit Kanto, it is where you grew up, right Ash?"
"It sure is, I love this place. I live just down the route in Pallet Town" Ash said, with a smile on his face. He was happy to see Miette, being the densest of all people. Bonnie was frowning slightly, due to the fact that she knew how Miette acted around Serena, constantly teasing her. It was as if Bonnie was commanding it to happen, Miette grabbed Serena and made it out like she was just hugging her.
"I see our competition is still going on, looks like I might get the chance to win" Miette said with an evil smile, although her intentions were still not clear. Bonnie thought of Miette differently. Although what Miette did to Serena annoyed her, she though of it as encouragement from Miette. Bonnie was under the impression that Miette has zero interest in Ash but instead, was trying to push Serena closer to him with this idea of a competition. Serena's face had turned bright red, which made her nervous because there was now other girls in the vicinity that Ash knew.
"I am guessing she is from Kalos, huh?" Misty walked up beside Ash, who was still as dense as a brick in this moment.
"Mhm, she is a Pokemon performer, like Serena" Ash explained, causing Misty's face to drop.
"Pokemon performer? Now I have heard it all! First there is connoisseurs, now there is Pokemon performers?!"
"What is a Pokemon performer?" Dawn asked, becoming curious and standing on the other side of Ash.
"It is kind of like being a coordinator, you have two rounds and the final one is the performance. The event is a Pokemon Showcase" Ash explained to Dawn, to confirm her curiosity.
"Oh right, I see. The Kalos version of a coordinator basically" Dawn said with a slight nod.
"Ok then, looks like I will face Miette" Clemont scribbled the names onto the paper but then stopped midway. "How will this be figured out then, with an odd number?"
"We can have the winner in the fifth match go into a triangle" Misty suggested. "So basically, the winner of the second round match between the three then faces the winner of the fifth match, if the initial victor loses, they still get a chance to come back into the tournament" Misty realized everyone was looking puzzled. "It will make sense later, just go with it"
"Ok so up first is Cilan and Ash. The rules are you can choose three Pokemon, but you can only use one per round. No switches are permitted, the winner is decided depending on who's Pokemon faints first" Clemont announced the rules as Cilan and Ash faced each other in the arena. "Let the battle begin!"
"Pansage, I choose you!" Cilan span and threw his pokeball into the air, releasing Pansage onto the battlefield.
"Pansage!" It said, preparing itself for the fight.
"Quilava, it's your turn, I choose you!" Ash announced his Pokemon, throwing the ball into the air. Quilava landed onto the field and faced its opponent with a lot of concentration.
"A fire type, a nice choice Ash, but don't underestimate Pansage" Cilan warned Ash, who grinned back.
"I never underestimate my opponent, I just look for certain victory! Quilava, use flame wheel!" Ash began the attack and Quilava dashed forward, flames enveloping around it. Quilava jumped up and began spinning, becoming a twirling fireball in the air.
"Pansage, dodge it and use bullet seed!" Cilan ordered and Pansage listened, moving to the left just in time. Before Quilava could recover, Pansage breathed in and then shot out a bunch of seeds, each one having a direct hit on Quilava, but doing little damage due to it's flames. "Continue the attacks, use bullet seed one more time!" Pansage went for it again, breathing in to shoot.
"Quilava, use aerial ace and dodge the bullet seed!" Ash said, to everyone's surprise.
"Did he just say aerial ace?" Brock wondered if he heard Ash right.
"He did" Serena said with a nod.
"Ash never ceases to surprise me" Clemont watched on as Quilava leaped into the air and glided along, dodging the bullet seed with ease. His whole body was encased in a powerful white light, as the aerial ace connected. Quilava then turned back and hit Pansage one last time, before spinning around onto all fours.
"Now, finish it with eruption!" Ash shouted the final move, but Cilan was waiting for this moment.
"Pansage, grass whistle!" Cilan surprised Ash with the move and he couldn't react. Pansage took a piece of the shrubbery from his head and then placed it against his lips, before playing a whistle. The notes flew all over the place, reaching Quilava's ears with a magical effect. Quilava became restless and then fell asleep.
"Quilava, wake up!" Ash said with worry, urging Quilava to fight back, but Quilava continued to sleep.
"Pansage, rock tomb!" Pansage threw his hands up into the air and a dozen rocks formed above Quilava, dropping over the sleeping Pokemon with large thuds. The rocks broke over Quilava and around it, causing a lot of dust to rise. "Finish it with solar beam!"
Pansage kept its arms raised and faced the sun, absorbing the light energy from the sun. Pansage focused all of the energy into one point, releasing it into his hands. The bright light was blinding as Pansage forced it forwards, shooting the solar beam out towards the Quilava, which was still in the dust. The solar beam connected, with a large explosion. The whole room began to shake as everyone waited for the dust to clear, thinking it was over. But..
"Quilava, use flamethrower!" Ash shouted, much to Cilan's surprise. He expected it to be sleeping still. A red light flashes in the dust and then the rising smoke from the explosion broke apart, the flames from Quilava's flamethrower shooting straight at Pansage with a direct hit. Pansage, being weak against fire types was sent flying back, rolling across the ground and landing next to Cilan.
"Pansage! Are you ok?" Cilan asked his partner, who was struggling to get up.
"Pan-sage.." Pansage finally got up and the wobbled left and right slightly.
"Ok then, use bullet seed on the ground!" The surprising orders kept on coming through, as everyone watched with widening eyes, wondering what might happen next. Pansage didn't even question Cilan's tactic, he just shot the bullet seed across the arena, creating even more smoke.
"Quilava, use flame wheel, don't worry about the smoke!" Ash's voice could be hear on the other side.
"Reel it in and use rock tomb to trap it!" Cilan told Pansage, who then focused on the smoke. Suddenly, the smoke broke up and a spinning fireball, with Quilava inside, came rushing towards him. Pansage threw his hands up and the rocks began to fall, one by one, infront of Quilava, then behind it. Quilava became encased in rocks and as the smoke cleared, Ash knew he was in trouble, but a grin broke across his face.
"I know you have something planned Ash" Cilan said with a smile. "But we will end this with Solar Beam!"
"I know you can hear me Quilava, use Eruption!" Ash shouted at the top of his lungs, to reach Quilava. There was another flash of flames as the rocks began to crack. The ground began to shake violently, causing everyone to grab onto their seats. The wind rushed through the arena, nearly sending Pansage and Cilan backwards, but they held their ground. Then, there was a massive explosion underneath Pansage, as the fire rose into the air from the eruption. Pansage was trapped in the powerful fire of Quilava's eruption and fainted on his way down to the ground. Quilava had broken out of the rocks with the eruption, the power being the thing that broke them.
"Pansage is unable to battle, so the winner is...Ash!" Clemont announce, calling the match.
"Pansage, you did amazing, please have a good rest" Cilan said to the unconscious Pansage, returning him to his pokeball. "That was a great match Ash, thank you"
"Thank you Cilan, I was surprised to see how much you have been training" Ash commented, with a smile as he brought out Quilava's pokeball. "Quilava, you was amazing, return and take a nice rest"
"Well, I was basing my battling style off of you and it has worked a charm, but no one can beat you at your own game" Cilan praised Ash's win, and then shook his hand. "I better go to Nurse Joy, I will be back in a moment"
"Ok then, next up is Dawn vs Serena!"
"Goodluck to you Serena" Dawn said as they stepped up to face each other.
"You too, Dawn" Serena smiled and then brought out her pokeball. "Braixen, I choose you!"
"Go Piplup" Dawn threw out her pokeball.
Meanwhile on the pier...
"It seems we have arrived in Kanto" Parker looked around, his friends following close behind. "How should we proceed, boss?"
"We must go to the cave on the map and set up a base of operations, for your training of course. The goal is to win the Pokemon tournament and let the name of team shadow be known!" The man in the black robes took the lead, heading through the forest with his team close behind.
"Erm, Parker?" Jeremy asked, catching up to him.
Parker placed his hands in his pockets and turned Jeremy. "What is it?"
"What Pokemon are we using for the tournament?" Jeremy wondered, gesturing to the pokeball in his hands.
"Don't worry, we will be using THEM in time" Parker said reassuringly.
"Good, I have always wanted to try it out, so I can't wait for that" Jeremy said with excitement.
"When will I get mine?" Elizabeth butted inbetween the two.
"When we arrive at our destination" Parker answered her question and then focused on the path. "Soon enough, everyone will know of our name and we will be the strongest team in the world!"
"You can say that again" Tristan and Jake said in unison, acting like it was a natural thing.
"We sure will guys, our Pokemon have gone through rigorous training for this moment, so we have to do our best!" Jeremy said, trying to usher in some more confidence.
"We won't do our best" Parker suddenly said, leaving everyone confused.
"Huh?"
"We will do our worst on our opponents. They will be rendered useless Pokemon trainers after our battles" Parker smirked with an uncertain amount of evil within him.
One thing was still unclear about this unknown team and it was whether or not the motives of Team Shadow were for better or for worse. Who was this team living in the shadows? And what did they want from the tournament, which was still 5 days away?
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
Just so you are aware, this is called an amourshipping fanfiction, but the main story is based on the tournament, so keep that in mind when the amourshipping comes in later, because it is not too important, it will be in the story though.