Going for Glory ;; An Amourshipping Fanfiction

Chapter 17 - Round Two! Electric vs Dark!

"Here we are, with our second qualifying round!" the announcer was in the middle of the main arena once more, speaking into a microphone. Her voice was met by thunderous cheers from the sold-out crowd, the excitement buzzing through the air. "For this round we will be having tag battles, but you won't be going through based on who wins!"

The crowd murmured in excitement, wondering what she meant.

"The way to win this round is to impress our judges, with your teamwork and co-ordination skills. Each judge will rate every individual out of five points. If you win your battle you get a bonus five points and of course, the losers get no extra points! You need to score a total of 16 points to advance! That's 4 per judge! Now, lets meet the judges!"

A stage rose from the backside of the arena and the judges were sat at the table set on the stage. 

"First, we have Lance, the current champion in the Indigo League!" his name was met with a lot of cheering and whistling. Lance waved to the crowd and sat down. "Next up, Diantha, the current champion in the Kalos League! A fine competitor with her mega evolving Gardevoir! And our third judge is the champion of Unova, here he is, it's Alder!" the crowd continued to cheer, the excitement reaching its peak.

"Our final judge is the Sinnoh League champion, her she is, it's Cynthia!" the crowd sounded like they were losing control. Four league champions sat next to each other in the same stadium, it truly was a sight worth seeing. 

"Woah, our judges are four league champions..." Clemont said in amazement. 

"It's Cynthia!" Dawn gasped, with a big smile on her face. "We haven't seen her since the Unova League, right Ash?"

"Mhm," Ash nodded, looking up at the judges.

"And to add a twist to our exciting round, each partner will be chosen at random!" the announcer announced, completely shocking the remaining 216 participants. 

"What?" Almost everyone in the room around Ash said at the same time.

"You can only have one Pokemon for the battle, so choose wisely!" 

Everyone began to think about their Pokemon to use and who their partners could be. It could be anyone from the other 215 people, a complete stranger with a completely unknown Pokemon. After a few moments, there was a little bit of feedback from the announcers microphone and everyone looked back to the centre of the arena.

"Now, it is time to reveal our first match!" she said, gesturing to the large screen. The four squares began to change every so often, revealing a different name and face. On the left side, one of the squares stopped moving. "And our first participant is Parker!" 

On the other side, once the pictures stopped, everyone looked straight at Ash with concern. "His first opponent will be Ash Ketchum!" 

"Parker's partner will be Jeremy!" the picture showed Jeremy, who was also in Team Shadow.

And then the last picture shocked everyone. Out of all 216 participants, it was pure coincidence that this battle was about to commence.

"Ash's partner is Clemont! You have 2 minutes to enter the arena and prepare to battle! Kanto's prized commentator will now take to the stage and give the crowd a play by play of the proceedings. Let the games begin!"

"Come on then Clemont, we better get out there and get some revenge," Ash said, completely pumped up and ready to battle.

"Right!" Clemont nodded in determination and followed Ash, his pokeball in his hand ready.

"Ok, you know the rules, bring out your Pokemon please!" a referee had entered the stage and stepped back, to allow the participants to begin. 

Ash gave a long hard stare at the scowling Parker, who didn't have Umbreon by his side. Instead, he threw out a pokeball and caught it. "Gyarados, it's your time to shine!" Gyarados came swirling out, of its pokeball, somewhat floating in mid-air. It had a menacing look on its face as it stared across at Ash and Clemont.