229 Jhoto

Morty approached them the next day, "Ash, Gou, Casey, Brock, Max, good morning."

Gou, "Good morning, Morty."

Casey, "You are very chipper today."

Brock, "Morning."

Max, "Hi Morty."

Ash, "What's up?"

Morty, "This week is the Ho Oh festival. I hope you all will attend it."

Ash, "Ho Oh festival? I had almost forgotten."

Max, "Can we train together?"

Ash, "Sure!"

Brock, "It'll be good to relax and have fun."

Casey, "Yeah, I heard Suicune was seen around too?"

Morty, "Well, Eusine insisted Suicune was here."

Max looked at Ash then muttered, "I think, I know why."

Morty, "What? Why would you know that?"

Max, "I have a few suspicions."

Morty hummed, "Anyway, Eusine wants to meet you. He found a record where it is said you ran into Suicune in Grunge City?"

Brock twitched, "Ugh! Don't remind me of that City."

Gou sighed, "Yeah, it was difficult to breath without feeling sick."

Morty grimaced, "I can imagine. Will you consider meeting him?"

Ash, "We can have lunch together and talk after our training."

Morty, "Works for me, I better run now. I still have work and paper piled up to tackle."

They waved goodbye to Morty who walked in the direction of the Gym. Casey then took Ash and Max challenging him to a battle while Gou decided to do a little snooping. He was going to do a bit of reconnaissance on the Suicune thing just to make sure nothing bad was happening in the City. Ash did not need that mess so soon after what happened with Lugia and Silver a few days ago. Brock told them to be very careful and to keep in contact with either him or one of the other on field nurses. Then it was soon time for lunch with Eusine.

Ash, "Hello Mr Eusine, I'm Ash Ketchum, nice to meet you."

Max, "Hi, I am Max, I have read about your book on Suicune."

Casey nodded, "I'm Casey and your book is very fascinating."

Gou, "I'm Gou and I don't know why you want to search for a Legendary. They are more trouble than actually necessary but each to their own I guess."

Brock, "I'm Brock, I'm the official healer of the group. Pleasure."

Eusine eyed them, "Pleasure to meet you all. I suppose after running into Team Rocket over and over it would be a hassle."

Ash muttered, "Understatement, now, what did you want to know?"

Eusine, "It's more like I was hoping you would join me in the search."

Casey, "Oh, well, about that."

Brock, "I won't be able to join, I'm afraid, thanks to the mini tournaments going on for the festival. In fact, I'll have to rush back soon after lunch."

Max, "I'm preparing for the tournament being held in honour of Ho Oh."

Ash, "I'm training him."

Eusine, "Understandable, I won't force you to join us."

Gou, "I could join you, I'm free."

Casey, "Me too."

Ash, "Awesome! We have our plans then."

Brock, "Great you all know where to find me."

Max, "There aren't many taking part in the tournament this time."

Ash, "Perhaps but it doesn't mean it'll be easy to win. The ones taking part no doubt will give their best."

Max nodded, "Yeah, let's train."

Ash and Max got to training while Brock was busy at the Pokemon center and Casey along with Gou helped Eusine. Gou answered the questions that Eusine had about Suicune and how many times they had run into the Legendary Pokemon. Eusine was a little envious but at the same time pitied the teens, while running into Legendary Pokemon was a magnificent encounter. The same couldn't be said about running into the poachers and problematic organizations was a source of many nightmares.

Aside from the tournament there was another event which older trainers could take part in for enjoyment and relaxation. The event was called Extreme Speed where Pokemon would compete against each other using high agility to win the race. Max mentioned Ash should take part in it for the fun of it and Ash decided to think on it. The event would start during the interlude between the tournament battles, so he could take part then. Mr Shelby who was in charge of the participant application was explaining how the race was part of history of Mahogany town.

Mr Shelby, "Ever since Mahogany town was established, the Extreme Race has been part of sports that has seen many great racers among trainers and Pokemon. I hope you all enjoy the race tomorrow."

Eusine returned to the City after a search with no results, "This can't be right. My research says this is one of the pathways Suicune uses."

Gou, "He is probably working on cleansing the water system. From what I have observed most Legendaries are not forgiving if you try to keep them from doing their job."

Casey muttered, "Understatement of the year. The Unown certainly were not happy with us."

Eusine raised an eyebrow, he had heard about the Greenfield incident but not the fact his two young friends were involved. It seems he would have to keep a close eye out for his younger friends, they looked like the type to stumble into the middle of an organization fight. The next day the tournaments started and there were only sixteen participants who were taking part. It seems what happened at the Whirl Cup tournament, affected the moods of many parents and guardians. Most of them were reluctant to let their kids take part in a tournament so soon.

The announcer jovially welcomed the participants and started the tournament after mentioning the reward which was money this time. Ash gave a huff, he supposed after the almost disaster at the Whirl Cup where some of the grunts tried to steal the vials of Mystic Water. Yeah, too early for that, but at least the monetary awards are decent. The first two rounds were between Hoenn and Sinnoh and then two Jhoto kids. The third round was when Max was fighting with Ralts who was feeling battle ready.

Announcer, "In the red box we have Max from Hoenn, in the blue box we have Rosalia from Kanto."

Referee, "Choose your first Pokemon."

Max, "Let's go Ralts."

Rosalia, "I choose you, Gloom."

Referee, "Begin."

Lucario, -How lucky, they cancel each other when it comes to type advantage.-

Abra, -Psychic beats poison.-

Ash, "Yes, it'll depend on their skills to win."

Rosalie, "Poison powder."

Max, "Teleport."

Ralts teleported from where he was sending just as he was attacked. Max called for confuse ray right after he appeared. Ralts acted fast and hit Gloom who was searching for him with a confuse ray.

Rosalie, "Gloom, snap out of it."

Max, "Hypnosis."

Rosalie, "Gloom quick use razor leaf."

Gloom attacked using razor leaf but unfortunately for her, the attack was not even in Ralts direction. Ralts took pity on the Grass type and used a very strong hypnosis on her so she could sleep off the effect of the confuse ray.

Referee eyed the grass poison type for ten seconds, "Gloom is unable to battle Ralts is the winner."

Max, "Great job Ralts."

Ralts, -Thank you Max. That was very exciting.-

Max grinned as they left the field so the next pair of battlers could start their fight. There were five more battles after Max's fight and he was honestly impressed. None of the battles were drawn out like in the last junior trainer's tournament. The other soon to be trainers were using strategy to defeat their opponents while avoiding showing off too much.

Casey, "Woo-hoo! Go Max!"

Gou was holding his phone live streaming, "You are doing awesome."

Eusine, "I must admit, he is pretty good."

Brock was smiling watching the screen, "He is getting better."

Golem, "Go golem."

Brock looked at the door which opened and another trainer came in, "Welcome to the Pokemon Center."

Ralts fidgeted, 'I'm close, I can feel it.'

Max, "You okay buddy?"

Ralts nodded, -Yes, look that's the last one for this round.-

Max, "Yeah, but hey, if you feel like you need a break then tell me, yeah?"

Ralts smiled, -I will.-

The last match was between a girl from the Hoenn region going against another girl from Jhoto. The girl, Onodera from Jhoto won with her ghost type being a stronger Pokemon then the water type. Ralts eyed her and her Pokemon, he wanted to battle them but he knew that luck always never played to their favour. Soon the second round of battles started and this time Max was second in line for battle.

Announcer, "Next up is battle between Max in red box and Tim in the blue box."

Max eyed his opponent from Kalos, 'He is good with his Swoobat. Let's see, Swoobat are psychic and flying type. That is if he chooses Swoobat again.'

Referee, "Choose your Pokemon."

Tim, "Go Swoobat."

Max, 'He did! Works for me.'

Max, "Let's go Ralts."

Referee, "Begin!"

Max, "Magical leaf."

Tim, "Air cutter."

Ralts threw magical leaf and had to jump away from the air cutter. Swoobat the clever flyer had flown around to dodge his cluster of magical leaf before attacking. The flying type may look goofy but he was no slouch when it came to battling.

Max, "Calm mind, Ralts. Don't get angry."

Ralts nodded, -Yes, anger won't help me here.-

Swoobat, -Oh impressive little one. See that Tim, we are not the only ones. This psychic type learned to talk too.-

Tim was eyeing his opponent with a glint in his eyes, "Yes, this will be a fun battle."

Announcer, "Well, well, looks like we have two budding Psychic type trainers among us."

The crowd started to whisper among themselves then and Max twitched feeling annoyed. He was planning on becoming a generalist Master first then planning on taking on the League and after that the Gym. But this was not so bad, no one else except people who are important to him had to know.

Tim, "Imprison."

Max narrowed his eyes, 'So Ralts can't use two moves that Swoobat knows. But question is which ones.'

Ralts, -Max I can't use calm mind nor am I able to use confusion.-

Max, "You are quite a pain, aren't you? That's okay we still can use icy wind to the sky with reflect."

Ralts eyed Swoobat and aimed his icy wind to the sky then used reflect to force the cold wind down. Swoobat who had at first dodged soon realized something was wrong when his wings began to freeze and he started to shiver due to cold. Tim's eyes widened and called for Swoobat to fly lower and out of range of the cold. Swoobat nodded he could feel his wings freeze and that flying would be very painful.

Max was waiting for Swoobat to fly down, "Ice punch."

Tim, "Use future sight to dodge."

Ralts grinned and jumped using ice punch which Swoobat dodged to the left but was slow and the attack hit the wing. The wing turned into ice making it impossible for Swoobat to even fly. Ralts used that moment to use another ice punch freezing his opponent completely.

Referee, "Swoobat is unable to battle. Ralts is the winner. Team Red will go to the semi finals after the intermission."

Max, "You did it Ralts. Great job."

Ralts grinned as he started to glow and his limbs and appendages became longer. In Ralts place stood Kirlia who was looking very proud and smug of his achievement.

Ash, "Would you look at that?"

Lucario, -I had suspected Ralts was close.-

Casey, "By the look of that smug face, Kirlia knew as well."

Gou, "They are doing really well."

Tim, "Congratulations, on both the win and the evolution."

Max, "Thank you Tim."

Swoobat, -Very impressive, you got me good.-

Kirlia grinned, -All thanks to team work.-

Tim, "I better take Swoobat to the Pokemon center."

Max, "Me too. Now don't give me that look Kirlia. You know the rules."

Tim raised an eyebrow, "You have rules for evolution?"

Max nodded, "Yes, Professor Oak and my tutor insists on it and for a good reason too. When Pokemon evolve, they change physically into another Pokemon. That usually ends up with the Pokemon requiring a changed diet. For example my tutor's Charizard. As a young Charmender he really liked sweet stuff but when he became Charmeleon he prefered sour stuff and as an adult he likes savoury."

Tim, "Huh! And here I thought you were being picky."

Swoobat, -I told you so.-

Tim raised his hand, "Sorry, sorry but I still insists vegetables are good for you. But from now on I will add extra honey into your food, okay?"

Swoobat, -I'll accept the compromise.-