72 Top 16

Ash walked down and sat back down, actually the battle didn't last all that long, only about 30 seconds, which surprised most people since they didn't expect Ash to fight like that.

The show continued but most of the battles were either one-sided or super close in the worst way. With Brock, Misty, and Yellow all having completely uneventful battles, they just fought some mob characters, Gary and Green had a similar case.

The only interesting battle in the top 32 was the last battle between Travis and Ritchie, the 2 Ash clones on the ship.

Ritchie climbed to the red corner and Travis moved to the Blue corner. 

"Alright, then Buddy let's give it our best shot," Travis said as his Partner Pikachu jumped off his shoulder and into the field.

"Oh cool you have a Pikachu too, well let's give them some variety, Zippo go!" Ritchie said, releasing his Charmander.

"Gather around everyone for the final battle of the top 32! We have two remarkable Pokémon ready to face off in an epic battle that will test their strength and skill. Are you ready for some Pokémon action?" The announcer said, getting cheers from the crowd.

"In the red corner, weighing in with fiery determination, it's the Flame Pokémon, Charmander!"

"And in the blue corner, with a heart full of courage and a powerful electric spark, we have the Electric Mouse Pokémon, Pikachu!"

"The stage is set, and the trainers are ready. Get ready for a thrilling Pokémon battle! Trainers, get ready, and let the battle begin!"

"Pikachu, Thundershock"

"Zippo Dodge, then Scratch attack"

Pikachu sent out small electric bolts at the fire lizard, however, Charmander nimbly dodged and sent a light scratch.

"Great, now Zippo jumps back and Rapid fire Ember!"

"Pikachu, get out of their Quick attack."

Zippo charged Embers and started spitting them out as fast as he could meanwhile Pikachu was dodging for his life barely staying unscathed until 1 singed his tail.

"Now, get close and Swift!"

Pikachu used the speed advantage he had to dash behind Charmander, then he started throwing stars, each landing into Charmander one after the other, not allowing him to dodge.

"Now Charge Beam!"

"Zippo, now's your chance flamethrower on the ground!"

 Pikachu needed to charge the next attack, so Zippo sent a flamethrower onto the ground obscuring the view, and when Pickachu sent a line of electricity he failed to hit anything until.

"Now let's finish this Fire spin then Slash!"

Some of the flames from the firewall shot off in a circle formation around Pikachu restricting his movements, then from behind Zippo appeared cutting through the flames, and slashing into Pikachu, sending him back and out of the field. 

"And the winner is... Charmander! What a fantastic battle we've witnessed today. Charmander's fiery determination and well-executed moves have earned it the victory. Pikachu put up a great fight, but in the end, Charmander's flames burned brighter!"

Travis and Ritchie walked to each other and shook hands thanking each other for the battle then walking away to find the nurse.

After the crowd's cheers died down the announcer finally spoke up, "What wonderful battles, and I can promise the battles will just get more blood pumping, but for now we shall let our competitors rest and prepare for tomorrow, after all this tournament had only just begun, those of you who lost now not to worry there's still hope. But let's give our top 16 a round of applause!"

After the festivities died down it was about time for dinner, Ash went back over to sit down while also looking at the battles for tomorrow, a lot of competitors got eliminated, even some he recognized, but he didn't bother looking at that, the battles for tomorrow were:

Ash Vs Assunta

Melissa Vs Misty

Otoshi Vs AJ

Samurai Vs Brock

Yellow Vs Dario

Gary Vs Mandi

Jeanette Vs Green 

Ritchie Vs Pete

Looking at the picture he took he sighed and started looking around to find somewhere to sit. He saw a table with his friends so he was going on his way to join them before he felt an arm on his shoulder.

"At this point, I'm not surprised," Ash said before he got pulled back when he stopped he saw Surge holding him by the scruff of his jacket, and his feet were off the ground, meanwhile Pikachu was just getting spun around in his bag.

"So are you going to tell me why you kidnapped me, did you see that my arm is almost healed and want to break it again," Ash said sarcastically.

"Well since I technically sponsored you, I'm taking you to meet with the Elite 4"

"But you haven't given me anything, what is your sponsorship even supposed to do besides taking the rewards from my work."

"Don't worry about that we are here," Surge said as he went into a room still carrying Ash, and the members of the elite 4 were just hanging out, with Tempest talking with Janine.

"Hi dad, your back, who's that, oh it's the guy with the broken arm, Hey Damian it's the one you chose." Tempest immediately got up and started speaking quickly in an over energetic tone.

 "Hey, I'm Ash and Surge kidnapped me when I was just passing by," Ash said before he was hit on the head by Surge.

"Stop that, This idiot kid is the trainer I sponsored for the tournament" Surge announced holding him up

"And he is the reason I have a cast on," Ash added

Tempest puffed her cheeks, "Dad you should have told me I would have called dibs if I knew."

Surge and Ash both raised their eyebrow and looked at each other, Surge just shrugged so they ignored it, meanwhile a dizzy Pikachu finally climbed out of the bad barley not vomiting whatever ketchup-covered food he just had.

Tempest saw the electric mouse, grabbed him, and pulled him into a hug, "He even has a Pikachu, he's adorable!"

"Pika(〃＞目＜)" Pikachu tried escaping and turned to Ash for help, but both he and Surge were looking away and whistling, "P-Pika… Σ(っ°Д°;)っ"

"Anyway can you put me down? This is starting to feel weird," Ash said looking at Surge.

"Oh right sorry," Surge said and let Ash down.

As soon as his feet finally touched the ground he fixed his collar and stretched out his Jacket.

Damian walked up to Ash and held his right hand out to shake, "You can call me Damian, I must say your battle techniques impress me. I hope you can at least get into the top 4."

Ash shook his hand with his good arm, which also had the ring, "Thank you but I'm sure you are much more impressive than me, I mean you made it onto the Elite 4."

Damian looked intrigued, not just with Ash but also with the ring, "That's a fine ring you have, would you mind telling me where you found it?"

"Let's just say it was a gift from a friend," Ash said to be polite, to be honest, he knew they were both analyzing each other, he could also feel something special about Damian, it was something supernatural, but he could tell that he wasn't an Aura user or a Psychic.

They both continued to shake each other for an awkward amount of time, they were only broken out of their trance by the sound of someone coughing breaking their concentration.

"Well I suppose I should also introduce myself, I am Lorelei. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance." Lorelei said, slightly lowering her head and adjusting her glasses.

"Call me Ash, and the pleasure is all mine," Ash said, putting one hand over his chest and giving a deep bow.

"My, my, you it's rare to find such a young man being so polite nowadays," Lorelei said in a flirty tone, but no one paid any mind to it.

Tempest also approached still holding onto Pikachu, "I'm Tempest nice to meet you, though it would have been nice if I had known beforehand,"

"Oh and mister grumpy pants in the corner over there is Darwin," Tempest said before getting in closer, "He doesn't like talking with people much, but also he is salty that if you win your next match he loses money."

Ash raised his eyebrow and looked towards Darwin who had his boots up on the table and was drinking something.

Janine also walked up to Ash, "Hey sorry about her she can get energetic at times, also I'm Janine the acting Gym leader of Fuchsia, I'm a ninja Pokémon Trainer and master of all things poison, but admittedly I'm still learning." 

"Nice to meet you, I guess we were going to meet anyway since I am taking on the Gym challenge."

"Well then I won't make it easy for you, until then I will study more about poison and practice my ninja techniques."

"Well I have to say this was interesting but I do need to go. I need to meet up with my friends before they get themselves kicked off the ship." Ash said, giving a small bow and grabbing Pikachu before walking away.

Tempest looked dejected seeing the electric mouse leave and Damian was left to wonder about Ash.

Meanwhile, Ash quickly escaped before Surge decided to grab him again, he made his way through the crowd and eventually found his table again and sat down.

"Hey, Ash where have you been?" Yellow asked

"Was it Surge-related?" Brock asked.

"It was Surge-related, he dragged me off to go meet the Elite 4 in person," Ash said which made the table go into an awkward silence.

"You mean you met all of them, including Lorelei?" Misty asked

"Yes, why do you-" Before Ash could finish Misty climbed over the table and started shaking Ash violently.

"Tell. Me. Everything, what did she do, was she just as elegant up close, was her Lapras with her, what did she- wait no that's weird, I still want to know!'' Misty said, still shaking Ash.

Ash was trying not to suffer brain damage as Brock and Yellow managed to stop Misty from shaking Ash.

Ash took a second to recover, "I can tell you if you want just don't give me head trauma. Jeez you told us you admired her but this is another level,"

Misty finally realized what she did and laughed sheepishly, "Yeah sorry about that I just really idolized her."

"You know I could just ask Surge to let you go talk to her- " Before Ash finished speaking Misty's arms grabbed on his collar again, "When I said this was a thing now I was joking," he said before more shaking started.

–

The next morning Ash woke up with a slight headache from all that violent shaking last night.

He still managed to get out and prepare for his battle that would be coming up, he planned on using Squirtle since he was pretty close to evolving, and maybe Bulbasaur or Pidgeotto, but he wasn't 100% sure yet since his opponent Assunta was weird.

Walking out of his room he made his way to an empty table to drink some Caffeine to clear his head, when suddenly he felt a slap on his back looking back it was Gary and on the side, Green also sat down on the table.

"Sup guys," Ash said in an exhausted tone

"Hey Ash what do you think about the battles coming up?" Green asked

Ash shrugged, "Probably not going to be too eventful on my side, how about You two, Gary has a wannabe magician who I think is currently trying to rizz up his cheerleaders, and You have that one girl with cheerleaders and a literal red carpet."

Green laughed looking back at Gary's cheerleaders and Mandi, a boy with blue hair and a pink jacket doing magic tricks to impress anyone and everyone.

"Well I think the battle with that weird girl should be easy, she doesn't seem like she had any particularly good Pokemon, it seems like both my opponent and Gary's are full of themselves, that's like the first thing we learn not to do."

Gary meanwhile looked over and shrugged, "That guy has just been showing off third-rate magic tricks since he came on the ship, I don't even know how he got this far, he looks the kinda guy who would act cocky for days before a tournament and get beaten by a single Pokemon."

"Well whatever, I think I do probably have it the hardest, and I doubt I will even struggle so that says a lot about everyone here."

After Ash finished the Announcer walked up onto the stage, "Welcome everyone for the next round of the tournament in the top 16, after yesterday's battles the expectations could not be higher, as promised before battles will now be 2 on 2, the matches have been decided so let's see who will go first."

A screen started randomizing matches and it eventually landed on one match.

Otoshi Vs AJ