Old vs. New

Eventually as the month went by, the construction of the stadium was soon completed with a practically a week to spare before the registration date.

 

The stadium resembled that of a rather large coliseum with inspiration by that of a certain arena within the dimensions of the Astral Plane the Nohrian army resided in during the war.

 

Within the Coliseum itself has several small arena like stadiums around the inside and with the middle of it all was the grand stadium where all the main events of the World Championship were to take place.

 

It was currently the early hours of the morning. The day of registration would commence very soon. Of course it was a given that the Nohrian royals plus anyone connected to them would be first to register for the events happening. Registration was to take place at Windmire’s largest Pokemon Center that was located fairly close to Castle Krakenberg, but still far enough to make sure the castle’s main entrance was kept away from the public eye.

 

Set up for housing followed with regular trainers and the rest of the public were to reside in the local inns scattered throughout the capital.

 

For those such as Gym Leaders, Trial Captains, Island Kahunas, Frontier Brains, Elite Four, and Champions, they would be residing in the private villas of the royal family that were of closer distance to Castle Krakenberg. Ordinary trainers were only allowed to enter the villas if they gained special authentication by the royal family themselves.

 

The only exception to the residence rules were for the royal family, their retainers, and anyone who had close connections to them such as those who were in the army during the Hoshidan-Nohrian War. Any and all connections of the royal family were to reside within Castle Krakenberg throughout the tournament.

 

One of the advantages that both the private villas and the castle had were the vast amount of land that can be used as different battlefields and terrain for training pokemon.

 

Speaking of which…

 

The sun had yet to rise as the dark haired lord stepped out into the woodlands toward the back of the castle.

 

He couldn’t help chuckle seeing several pokemon focused on battling on the different terrain scattered throughout the area.

 

“Alright, everyone, it’s time for a break. Don’t overexert yourselves before the sun even rises!” Satoshi called out as all the pokemon turned to the direction of his voice and approached him. All he could do was laugh upon realizing all his pokemon were training in the early hours.

 

His team was fairly small aside from a few additions after the war. He couldn’t quite remember if he had other pokemon and it seemed the pokemon who were with him throughout since his arrival in Nohr didn’t want to discuss if others belonged to him.

 

Within his older pokemon were Charzard, Bayleef, Noctowl, Sceptile, Staraptor, Gabite, Gliscor, Infernape, Emboar, Serperior, Dewott, Levanny, Krokodile, Greninja, Hawlucha, Talonflame, and Noivern.

 

After the war, he gained new pokemon through both his travel with his siblings in the Alola region as well as those found in Nohr. Those included Decidueye, Incineroar, Lycaroc, Melmetal, Dragonite and a Riolu.

 

“Come now. I know the tournament is soon but the exhibition match doesn’t even start for another two days after this. Don’t worry yourselves too much, you’ll all get a chance for a battle throughout the tournament."

 

The pokemon couldn’t help but cheer in excitement, causing the prince to ponder over their behavior.

 

If they were honest though, they were all glad that this was one of the few occasions where their trainer was genuinely happy.

 

The older pokemon understood this real well. They clearly remembered the experience the trainer had gone through before he was brought to Nohr eleven years ago and they were never the happiest of memories. Then again, Satoshi didn’t always have nice memories of his teenage years here either. He was practically locked up in a separate fortress outside of Windmire to endure rigorous training before he was even allowed to leave around right when he turned eighteen. They would always cherish every little moment when Satoshi was genuinely happy.

 

Eventually several hours had gone by until it reached close to mid morning. Registration had begun and the royal family took full advantage of registering before the first set of competitors even approached the center.

 

Slowly but surely visitors from all across the seven regions began entering towards the capital, whether by planes, ships or even on pokemon.

 

While Windmire flooded in with visitors, the first time in decades since the capital has seen the rise of both tourism and businesses throughout. Slowly but surely trainers had begun coming into the Pokemon Center with the intent on registering.

 

“Oh man! We’re finally here! I can’t wait to take down everyone and claim the master title for myself!” exclaimed a teen with dark hair, brown eyes behind black rimmed glasses who had a certain electric mouse on his shoulder.

 

“We all know you’re here to win, Max, but remember, no one has a clue what the Nohr kingdom’s League is like at all,” commented a short haired brunette with blue eyes wearing a red themed outfit and short shorts over black tights and a red headband.

 

“Doesn’t matter, May, they’re probably not so tough if they’re still waiting to reveal themselves,” retorted the younger teen with the electric type nodding in agreement.

 

“Why do I even bother putting up with the little runt and his lackeys…” quietly mumbled a man with spiky brunette hair and chocolate eyes as he followed behind along with six others behind him.

 

After him was a redhead woman with ocean colored eyes with a white and blue themed outfit. Next to her was a man who had short spiky dark brown haired and dark skin wearing a beige long sleeve underneath a tan colored sweater.

 

Behind them were two other girls. One was a blue haired girl with ocean eyes wearing a black and light pink colored dress. Beside her was a girl with long wild violet hair, honey colored eyes and dark colored skin wearing while and light pink colored clothes.

 

Finally behind them was an older woman with light brown hair and brown eyes wearing a long pale yellow and blue dress with a light pink vest over it. Next to her was a more elderly man with gray hair, lightly tan skin, and a red sweater and khaki pants under a white lab coat.

 

“You worry too much, dear. Max made great progress in the Hoenn League,” answered the elderly professor.

 

“Prof. Oak’s right! I would’ve totally won the whole thing if that ghost type elite four hadn’t cheated!”

 

“Why do you insist that she even cheated? She’s an Elite. She’s in a very high position to even think about using any kind of cheating methods on anyone,” explained the wild haired girl.

 

“Well, even if Iris is right, at least Max got far unlike a certain loser trainer,” commented the blue haired woman causing nearly the whole group to laugh at who she was referring to.

 

“I doubt that idiot Ketchum would even come to this tournament. Knowing that the majority of his pokemon aren’t even with him, he has no chance here. Doubt he’d end up in such a high end strong tournament anyway,” mocked the redhead.

 

“If he does show up, I want him back with me! He has no reason whatsoever to keep continuing on a silly dream he’ll never achieve,” said the older brunette woman to the professor.

 

“Indeed, Delia. I wouldn’t want to take drastic measures to bring the boy back to you if he does show up, but if he refuses, it might sort to it,” answered Prof. Oak.

 

“Excuse me!”

 

The group was quickly pushed aside as three figures ran by them towards the front desk.

 

“Hey!” shouted Max in anger.

 

"Apologies!" said a woman with light teal twintails wearing a maid outfit, though she was mostly apologizing for the other woman in front of her. She wore the same outfit though the woman had light long pink hair up in a high ponytail.

 

"W-we're not too late are we!? We were caught up running some last minute errands for the prince and took longer than usual. I-I just didn't want to disappoint when he looked so excited that I took interest in wanting to particip--"

 

"Lady Felicia, it's quite alright. We aren't nearly done for registrations yet. You came just the right time before we'd get another possible rush though!" answered Nurse Joy.

 

"Even better on your part before Princess Elise came by to assist me."

 

"Well knowing her, she'd probably scold us a little before she goes to talk her brother's ear off," responded a gray haired man in a tight black long sleeve and loose gray pants as he reaches to hold the pink haired maid's hand in assurance.

 

"We should head back as soon as we're done. The king requested us along with Jakob and Gunter for more discussion on planning for tomorrow," explained the other woman.

 

"Quite a busy schedule you all seem to have don't you, Flora?" questioned the gray haired man as Flora nods in agreement.

 

“All done! Your registrations are complete and all good to go,” spoke up Nurse Joy as she handed the pokedexes back to Felicia and the man beside her.

 

"Thank you so much for your patience, Nurse Joy!"

 

“Hey! Who do you think you are going in front of us like that!” shouted Max, finally gaining the attention of the trio in front of the group.

 

“Oh, sorry! We were supposed to have come here earlier but--”

 

“That’s your own fault! I challenge you to a battle if it makes you learn to respect who you’re facing!”

 

"But--"

 

"Felicia." Flora steps up in a calm tone as she looks at the couple behind her. "I understand how you feel, but apologizing won't be enough for them. Just leave things to me while you and Silas return to the prince at once."

 

"I said I wanted to battle her! Not you! She should be the one battling over her dumb mistakes!" yelled out Max.

 

"Well, apologies but we have very important things to do and I would rather not let her be the one dealing with a child throwing a tantrum over a battle."

 

"Just shut it and accept the match already, Max. She does have a point. You're acting like a little kid and there's people already watching," explained Iris as they started to realize there's a few people witnessing the ordeal.

 

All the dark haired teen did was give a scowl before glaring at the light blue haired maid, "Fine then. Pretty sure she's weaker than you anyway, though it's not like that's saying much."

 

It's a miracle how much Flora took in all the insults without as much as faltering to any of it. Though, when you've been part of a war for a few years, words over a simple pokemon battle doesn't compare to something like that. Words mean nothing if it can't be physically backed up and Flora of all people learned that through her prince's efforts.

 

She finally makes her way to her end of the battlefield once they all arrive at an open one outside of the Pokemon Center. She had gestured for Felicia to hurry and find their prince, though Silas decided to stay behind and watch the match, though mainly to make sure the other trainers didn't start an actual fight. He already had a clear indication that they were going to cause a lot of trouble for people through the duration of the tournament. He knows it's not completely fair to judge at first glance, but so far they haven't given off a good impression to any of them and it's most certain the royal family wouldn't want to deal with such a hassle.

 

"Who should be the judge for the battle?" questioned Iris as she looked between the two opponents facing each other, causing Silas to pay attention more to what was happening again as he looked over to the group.

 

"I say Brock should. He has more experience for it after all." answered the redhead girl as the dark skinned, brunette man stepped forward and headed to the middle of the sideline. By then, more people passing by seemed to have caught the scene and decided to stop by to watch the match. A good few already talking more about the maid in question.

 

"Oh my, is that Lady Flora?"

 

"It's rare to see her actually battle so publicly like this!"

 

"You never get to witness an opportunity like this."

 

"Considering she's someone who's dedicated to serving the royal family rather than battling, this will definitely be a battle to remember!"

 

"People do seem to be talking about this woman a lot," mumbles the blue haired girl on Max's side to May.

 

May nods as she looks around to more people coming to witness the spectacle. "Considering how the so-called royal family of this place keeps being mentioned, I can only imagine how important they must really be if they're talking in high regard over a maid. Do you think some people from the royal family would actually be a part of the contest, Dawn?"

 

"Who knows, but first we should see how the battle turns out. I'm not trying to say that your brother would actually lose but considering we're in a completely different place and no nothing about the trainers here, who knows how things will turn out for him," explains Dawn in response, though May doesn't answer back about it as she turns to focus on the match. It's not like she's denying what Dawn's trying to say but she has to support her brother no matter what and believe that he won't lose even if things seem to be against him.

 

Plus, it would be nice to at least knock his ego down a little...

 

"This battle will be between challengers Max of Petalburg City and Flora of--I'm sorry I didn't get where you're from," Brock turned toward the maid as he stopped himself.

 

Flora blinked before laughing a little. Geez, for a group so adamant for demanding for her sister to apologize through a battle, at least a few of them do still have some sort of politeness to them. "It's Flora, of the Ice Tribe Village." she responded.

 

"Right..." the brunette mumbled before clearing his throat to speak again. "--Max of Petalburg City and Flora of the Ice Tribe Village. This will be a one-on-one battle and the match will be over when either pokemon are unable to battle! Trainer, please bring out your pokemon!"

 

"Alright Pikachu, let's teach her a lesson!" yelled out Max as the yellow mouse on his shoulder hopped down onto the battlefield and waited for his opponent.

 

Flora stared for a quick moment. It's strange seeing a pokemon mimic the arrogance off its trainer. She really doesn't understand why they're going this far for a demanding apology from her sister. It's just something someone shouldn't really do to another person, especially put them on the spot like that. It's why she decided to take Felicia's place besides standing up for her sister. She knows that such pressure Felicia couldn't handle and they could've easily taken advantage of her for something like that.

 

"Let's fight together Weavile!" called out the maid as she summoned the duel type.

 

"EEEEEEE, NOT AN ICE TYPE!" suddenly screamed out Iris as she went to hide behind Dawn, though a lot of people had to cover their ears from the ear piercing screech that was let out.

 

"She literally just said she was from the Ice Tribe Village or something, what do you expect!?" yelled the redhead in frustration.

 

"Sorry, Misty..." the wild haired girl shivered behind the coordinator while apologizing to the gym leader.

 

"A-anyway... Are the trainers ready to battle?" announced Brock once he got his mind back to focusing on the match.

 

"Of course we're always ready!" exclaimed Max in a haughty tone.

 

"We're ready when you are." answered back Flora in a softer, though firm tone.

 

"Let the battle begin!"

 

“Pikachu, start off with a quick attack!” commanded the male teen as the electric type gained a speed boost as he ran to attack the canine pokemon.

 

“Dodge it, Weavile!” shouted the light blue haired woman.

 

The Sharp Claw pokemon had no real trouble dodging the attack, making the woman curious as she observed her opponent.

 

“Pikachu, electro ball!”

 

"Counter with dark pulse!"

 

The maid looked on in surprise when the two attacks hit, though it became clearly obvious that Weavile's attack easily overpowered it and hit the electric mouse dead on. She couldn't face him, but from her side view, she can tell that the prince's childhood friend and knight looked just as surprised as she was.

 

'In terms of my battling skills, Felicia is actually better than me. A lot of those from the army outbeat me in battle because I'm not much into battling and only train at bare minimum but....this is ridiculous! This trainer can't seriously be battling in the tournament if he's supposedly using his ace pokemon against mine and being overpowered like this...' the thoughts rushed into Flora's mind. It's why she doesn't like battling even if she does it to stand up to her sister. She accepted that battling isn't something for her but she knew her pokemon would get restless if her prince didn't at least teach her the bare minimum of training.

 

"We're gonna get you for that! Use thunderbolt!!" shouted Max.

 

All the maid could do was sigh. It was a strange situation to be in. Shouldn't she be losing? Why is she stronger than some kid participating in the tournament? That begs the question of...did this boy actually raise that pikachu properly?

 

"Finish with blizzard." she quietly said, almost a near whisper, but her partner heard it and unleashed a raging snowstorm onto the battlefield and attacked the opposing trainer and pokemon.

 

The attack blinded both the opposing training and pokemon as said thunderbolt completely was off mark once the blizzard immediately hit. Pikachu was practically blown back from the force of wind and snow before eventually hitting the wall behind Max, causing him to call out for the electric type in worry. Eventually the storm died down, revealing the mouse pokemon unconscious at that point.

 

Brock was almost hesitant to announce the winner, but he couldn't deny the woman had an overwhelming aura to her especially when it was clear that she wanted to end the match just as much as the rest of them.

 

"Pikachu is unable to battle! The winner is Flora and her Weavile!"

 

It didn't take long for Silas to quickly approach the ice maid as soon as the match was finished. "We should get going. Something tells me they're not going to take losing a match very well and we need to report to the castle immediately."

 

Flora nodded as she returned her pokemon quickly and was about to head off, but she made the mistake of looking back at the other group before taking another step.

 

Everyone in the group besides Gary were rather shocked how the ice type easily knocked out the electric type rather easily. Meanwhile the passersby in the sideline clapped for the victorious woman.

 

“Why you…” Max muttered in anger as he carried pikachu and pulled out a pokeball towards the maid, “I’M GONNA TEACH YOU NOT TO HUMILIATE ME YOU STUPID BI--”

 

"ALRIGHT, THAT'S ENOUGH."

 

A voice practically echoed around them before Flora and Silas quickly saw the owner of the voice they recognized. "Lord Satoshi!"

 

Everyone quickly looked to the owner of the voice, spotting the dark haired prince along with a familiar looking frog pokemon.

 

"Ah! It's Prince Satoshi!"

 

"I thought only the princesses would be out and about before the tournament started."

 

"He must be scouting..."

 

"But he was clearly looking for his retainers. I wouldn't want to get on his bad side for holding his retainers back for any reason."

 

"Prince... But they also mentioned princesses... I wonder what they're like." mumbles Dawn in a hushed voice.

 

"We should worry about that later. We're already leaving a bad impression!" hissed back Iris.

 

The maid and knight quickly made their way to the prince, briefly conversing with him before the two finally head off from the center. The dark haired prince turns to look over the group and the remaining crowd before making a ‘shoo’ing’ motion. "Go on. There's nothing more to see here. The battle is over."

 

The crowd was quick to disperse from the Nohrian prince's words. The group was immediately about to take their leave before Max stepped up again.

 

"Hey! What's your problem trying to stop our match! We were clearly still going and I was about to wipe the floor with her!"

 

"Max! Shut it! What is wrong with you!?" hissed May, practically feeling secondhand embarrassment as her brother tried to actually talk back to the prince.

 

Satoshi gave the young teen a glare, but it's obvious that the rest of the group felt a chill from it as it seemed that the dark haired boy was immediately backing off. "They don't have time to get involved in pointless battles made by trainers who obviously think they're in the right by demanding one from people instead of actually trying to talk to them. Quite frankly, none of us have the time for any of it. I suggest you actually try training more and actually learn to be respectful to people who clearly aren't against you when you try to make them out to be."

 

Without another word from the group, the prince immediately heads off with his water type in tow.

 

“That was...something.”

 

“Didn’t that guy look awfully familiar though,” questioned Misty with a fixed expression.

 

“Kind of but then again I don’t think I’ve ever seen such intimidating red eyes,” commented Dawn.

 

“I don’t know. I’ve felt like I’ve seen that Greninja somewhere before,” added Iris.

 

“Well whatever is, we can worry about it later. Right now we should take pikachu to the pokemon center to heal up,” suggested Prof. Oak.

 

Max only glared where the Nohrian royal stood before holding the fainted electric type close and started to head off. "I don't care what he says. I'll make sure they all learn that I'm better than them and I'll definitely beat them and not make a fool out of me and my pokemon!"

 

Unlike the rest of them though, Gary was lost in his own thoughts. ‘Ash, wherever you are, I swear to arceus you better show up to this tournament and take these guys down. Even if you never forgive me after eleven years ago, I’ll still be rooting for you no matter what.’

 

--

 

A/N: Oh gee sorry for this being so late. I've been fairly busy with school. Plus...honestly it was a bit hard figuring out how to end the battle and end the chapter in the rewritten version. I had to change practically the last half of this chapter as the first draft had the child units involved heavily here, especially Kana. Of course, I had to rewrite all of that into new characters in their place, however I still didn't want to involve Satoshi and the rest of the royals and their retainers yet, so I thought at least some of Satoshi's own retainers would be a better fit and unlike the first draft, actually let Satoshi talk directly to the group for the first timel. Though I do apologize if it did come out a bit disconnected on writing terms between what I kept in and what I rewritten.

 

I know it may seem like I gave off the impression that possibly the whole Nohrian group is on another level, but that wasn't it. I really wanted to show mostly how incompatable Max practically is with pikachu with their lack of bond. You'll find out in future chapters of why I decided to have Pikachu leave Ash as well besides just adding more insult to injury,

 

Next chapter shouldn't take as long to fix a bit and upload. It'll maintain a lot of it's original draft in it's entirety with a few minor tweaks so the wait won't be too long this time.