Youth cup preliminaries-4

Early in the morning, Ash could be seen running around a park with his Pikachu to running with him.

The last day's match was still playing in his mind. The more he thought the more he realized how much he lacked in firepower.

Most of his Pokemons like Beedrill, Bulbasaur, Wartortle, Haunter, etc. could use strong moves but not up to the required level.

The only Pokemon that could pull our strong moves were Pikachu and Charizard who currently don't listen to him.

Although his Bulbasaur could use solar beams,but it would take very long to charge as he was in the first stage of evolution.

He knew that Bulbasaur had no wish of evolving so he would not force him to evolve without his wish.

His Wartortle knew Hydro pump but nowhere near the level of Misty's water Pokemon. Although his Wartortle wanted to evolve to his final stage, it would take some time to reach that stage.

Misty knew who Ash's ace was so she successfully cornered his Pikachu.

'Seems like I need to focus on developing my firepower more '.

Ash always trained his Pokemon individually and never focused on teamwork so that was a mess up too.

Pikachu sensed Ash's disappointment and rubbed his face on his leg trying to cheer him up.

"Don't worry Pikachu, I am going to be the very best…..this was a good learning experience for me. "

Ash continued running while someone came running from behind and overtook him after saying

"Don't you lose to anyone else before I defeat you loser"

"Gary…."

**********

Fuchsia stadium

"Ladies and gentlemen welcome back to the preliminaries of the youth cup.

Today will be the final day of the event where the top three trainers will be chosen to represent the Kanto region in the main inter-region Youth cup.

For our first match, we have gym leader Sabrina and trainer Misty. "

Sabrina was already famous but the last few matches have made Misty gather some fans too especially the male audience.

Both of them were gorgeous so for some people seeing them fight was the best thing ever.

In terms of firepower, Misty's Pokemon had an advantage but in terms of speed and strategy, experience, and versatility, Sabrina had an advantage.

The last time they fought, Misty had won the clash but this was not a one-on-one gym battle anymore.

The harmony formed by the teamwork of three psychic Pokemon was very threatening.

"Begin !!"

Sabrina chose Alakazam, Slowbro, and Espeon for this round while Misty chose Starmie, Slowking, and Golduck.

Sabrina still didn't bring out her ace.

"I see...Misty chose to fight psychic with psychic " Lorelei from the elite four areas commented.

"Being a psychic herself, Sabrina has a huge advantage as she could use mental commands." Bruno commented.

Back to the match.

All six of the Pokemon used psychic at the same time causing an explosion in the middle of the stadium.

Misty had commanded Slowking to always target the Alakazam as he was the only one who knew teleport in her team while all three of Sabrina's Pokemon were able to use teleport.

Golduck was targeting Espeon as he was able to match that Pokemon's speed, lastly Starmie targeted Slowbro.

After running around the field for a while Slowking managed to trap Alakazam in Trick Room making the fight now purely based on who can pull out stronger moves.

Still, Alazakam was an elite-level Pokemon so Sloking was not exactly in a good position.

Meanwhile, Espeon was having an advantage against Golduck due to his speed. Starmie clashed with Slowbro on equal terms.

Moves like future sight, Psybeam, Psychic, Shadow ball, Hydro pump, etc were thrown around a lot giving a spectacular viewing experience.

At a point in time, both Starmie and Slowbro got each other taken down and called back to their Pokeballs.

This reduced the pressure on Misty a bit as commanding three Pokemon at a time against an opponent like Sabrina was completely draining her up.

Meanwhile, Sabrina didn't break a sweat in the battle.

"Why does it feel like Sabrina is having a harder time ending the match against her than Alex?" Lorelei asked.

"The main damage a psychic Pokemon deals is mental damage which is Sabrina's main weapon.

All of Misty's Pokemon have psychic abilities taking away her advantage.

This match is purely based on who can attack first and have more hits. " Agatha said.

"David had informed me when Misty started her journey starting this year with just a junior-level Staryu.

To be able to reach this level in just a few months is praiseworthy.

Copying moves or not, she has a good battle sense " Agatha continued.

"Do you have some relation with ex-gym leader David ?" Bruno asked.

"I knew him since he was a child. He always pestered me to train him or take him as a disciple and was dead set on only training water Pokemon.

His pestering reached such a level that I had to take some time off to teach him.

From that Old fart Oak, I heard that his daughter has the same love for water Pokemon"

Sadly for Misty, the next minute her Golduck went down by a Grass Knot by Espeon.

Making Slowking face two psychic Pokemon at once.

Slowking somehow managed to take down Espeon but finally fell against a Shadow ball by Alakazam.

"Misty has lost all of her Pokemon, Sabrina is the winner !!"

'Damn, it was so close!!!.'. Misty thought as she called back her Slowking.

"I didn't expect you to grow this strong Misty " Sabrina with some expression in her words.

Sabrina recently thought about changing her lifestyle and actually start making friends. Misty was the first person she thought the could trust as she was connected to Aoki.

Seeing her grow stronger in just a few months to the level that she has to give her best was a very surprising and proud moment for her.

"Next time we fight, I am going to win !" Misty said with a smile. On surface Misty seemed to have no regret of losing to Sabrina as she had given her best but underneeth she was frustrated for loosing.

But she could not afford to loose her cool right now,there was still a match left for her if she wanted to go with Aoki to Unova.

She had the get third place.

With burning determination she looked at Fonsi who had a chill run down his spine.

All she needed to do was defeat Fonsi to get selected as she knew Aoki was taking him down.

**********

"For our second match of semi-finals welcome, welcome trainer Aoki and Gym Leader Fonsi "

Both of them were welcomed with cheers but not as loud as compared to Misty and Sabrina.

"He is here, I wonder what Pokemon he will be using this time. " Loreleri commented.

"He should be using his Charizard due to the type advantage and Clefable for the power of Gravity. " Bruno said.

In the field.

"Do you remember me? " Aoki asked

"First I didn't recognize you but after seeing your Nidoking I remembered. You have gathered quite a strong team so don't hold back because I wouldn't " Fonsi replied.

As soon as the call was made, Fonsi released his Pokemon which were his ace Scizor, Pinsir, and Heracross with the first two being in elite rank.

"You want me to give my best right…sure then "

Aoki said releasing his Pokemon which were Charizard, Clefable, and Salamence.

The appearance of a pseudo legendary attracted a lot of attention as people started to take pictures.

Fonsi immediately became alerted by the lineup Aoki was using.

"Didn't expect him to pull out a Salamence…how scary " Loreleri said.

"That Pokemon is at peak elite stage, " Agatha said making everyone shocked. Aoki had asked Salamence to keep his energy level at an elite level so as to not reveal everything at once.

Lance felt like his eyes would pop out seeing that Salamence.

'Where did he get a Salamence from…they are near to zero in Kanto.

Going by the size and the color of the scales, that thing is a monster.

That thing is almost similar to Drake's Salamence in size ' Lance thought.

"He got a Bagon egg purely by luck from an egg merchant from the Hoen region, " Oak said.

"You knew about him having that Pokemon Professor? " Lance asked.

"I was the one who helped him hatch that egg back in the time when the new Eevee evolutions were announced," Oak said. Although he appeared to be calm, Oak's mind was racing.

Aoki's Bagon evolving to Salamence was completely out of his expectations.

Based on their appearance, Salamence was also an abnormal monster like the other Pokemon that Aoki has.

If earlier Oak just wanted to casually ask what Aoki did for such a growth of his Pokemon, now he had to ask Aoki.

The growth speed made no sense.

It defied all the research that he did on Pokemon growth all these years.

**********

"Begin!!"

As soon as the match started, Fonsi made a series of commands but found all his Pokemon frozen in their spot.

Being shocked he looked at Aoki's Pokemon especially Clefable who had her eyes glowing with one of her arms toward her Pokemon.

"Use Fire Blast " Aoki commanded.

"All of you use Protect at all cost "

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

The blasts of flames covered the three Pokemon.

The effect of Protect absorbed most of the attack from the fire blast but the rest dealt quite a bit of damage to them.

The Fireblast they used was enough to break any normal Protect used by my master-level Pokemon but Fonsi's Pokemon seemed well-versed in Protect.

Moreover, they somehow managed to lessen the impact of Fire Blast as if they were used to that move.

Scizor moved away and used Sandstorm together with the Double team to create multiple copies of himself.

The entire field got covered in a storm of sand making it difficult to see what was going on inside.

Aoki was surprised by their level of mastery of Sandstrom.

Pinsir and Heracross went to the ground using Dig and started using Swords dance.

"Clefable psychic barrier around Charizard

Salamence use Hurricane "

Salamence flapped his wings at full power completely getting rid of the Sandstorm that Fonsi used to buy time for his Pokemon.

While Salamence was flapping his wings, Heracross got near Salamence and tried to use Giga impact but got a flame-charged tail to smash to the face.

"All of you use X scissors " Fonsi commanded just as the Sandstrom faded.

Multiple copies of Scizor, Pinsir who came out of the ground near Charizard and Heracross all used X scissors at the same time at a range that was nearly impossible to dodge.

"Dragon rush and Gravity"

Boom ! Boom ! Boom !

Charizard's and Salamence's Dragon rush connected with Heracross and Pinsir making them fly out and crash into the stadium walls like a bullet.

Scizor was hit with a strong repulsive force almost making him out of bounds but he balanced himself.

"Flamethrower, don't overdo it "

That didn't last long as Charizard and Salamence covered the field in a sea of flames completely eliminating any chance of a counterattack.

Charizard and Salamce flapped their wings to get rid of the flames and what was uncovered was a fainted Scizor protected by a semi-circular barrier.

The stadium was dead silent seeing the scene in front of them. Most people were dumbfounded by the power displayed by Aoki's Pokemon.

People were expecting an interesting match last the last matches but none expected a massacre.

Slowly people started to clap till everyone was clapping for Aoki.

"Trainer Aoki is the winner and moves to the finals.

We will continue the match for third place and finals will continue after a break of three hours"

Fonsi called back his Pokemon and noticed that none of them were critically injured and can be healed back completely in a few hours.

When the last attack hit Scizor going by the power of the flames, he thought Scizor was going to be critically injured, fortunately, Clefable created a barrier just after Scizor fainted to stop any further harm.

'I overestimated myself and underestimated the enemy….

Hah! I still have a lot to learn ' Fonsi thought seeing the leaving figure of Aoki.

After a break of three hours, the match between Misty and Fonsi started to select 3rd place.

This battle took about 25 minutes and was hard for both of them.

Fonsi and Misty used the same team they used the last time which was Scizor, Pinsir, and Heracross for Fonsi and Starmie, and Golduck, and Slowking for Misty.

The first, one to be eliminated was Starmie followed by Heracross, Pinsir, and Slowking.

The match between Golduck and Scizor was spectacular with Golduck only winning by a few seconds due to a psychic outburst caused by a headache after which he fainted too.

Misty had managed to win against Fonsi and secure herself as one of the three representatives for the Kanto region.

Slowking and Stamie had some deep wounds which would take at least two days to heal completely.

Finally, it was time for the final match and the most awaited match after the last few matches.

Aoki vs Sabrina

"Let's see who wins, one of the strongest Gym leaders or the new monster. I am betting on Professor Gunhildr " Lorelei said.

"The top three have been decided so the match is just a formality at this point, " Koga said.

After an interval of 30 minutes, the finals began.

At the stadium both the trainers entered the stadium which was full of cheers.

"Use your full power, Sabrina "

A thin smile surfaced on Sabrina's face as she loudly said " I forfeit ".

Her response surprised a lot of people, especially her followers and people who bet on her meanwhile newly gained Aoki fans became happy.

"Are you sure about your decision ? " the referee asked.

"I am sure "

Hearing this Aoki burst out laughing.

They didn't say much and shook hands before leaving the stadium leaving the crowd dumbfounded.

"Just as I expected, you would forfeit, " Aoki said on the way.

"You knew? "

"Talking with you for the last few days has made me realize something about you that you hate putting effort where it will not make much difference.

Whether you win this match or not didn't matter as you are already selected.

You chose to save your time over a battle that has no value except public satisfaction "

"You are right…moreover, I would rather have my Pokemon relax than get thrashed by your Pokemon. " Sabrina replied with a smile.

She had changed over the last few days by opening herself up to Misty and Aoki.

"Seems like we are in this together, " said Aoki to Misty who was waiting for them.

"Yeah, let's show the world the power of the Kanto region. " Misty said cheerfully.

"Let's celebrate after the Award Ceremony, I will make anything you two ask me "

**********

Somewhere in a large house in a town between Vermillion City and Flannery City, a middle-aged man wearing a cap watched the TV with a smile.

He was Sabrina's adoptive father who was the ex-gym leader of Saffron Gym and a retired higher-ranking member of Team Rocket.

He was now just a daycare owner who took care of baby Pokemon and played with children around the town.

"Some habits never change…

There is a slight change in her smile….she seems free. "

"Seems like Sabrina will be representing the Kanto region now, " said a middle-aged woman that came into the room carrying some snacks with her.

"Yeah...I am proud of my daughter "