202 Jhoto - Ecruteak City

Ash hummed as he worked on his book, editing it and adding more details into the story he was writing. Even though Fantastic beast was focused on the past long before even Albus Dumbledore's time in his version, the base remained the same. The war in the mortal, non magical world affected the magical world indirectly. Some of the soldiers would attack without discrimination and killed some of the magicals who were not battlers and had no way to defend themselves.

The book followed the adventures of a young traveller and collector who used his charm and ward knowledge to move magical beasts safely away from the battle areas. It was not easy and there was a clash in one of the larger magical community's where he and his friends had to deal with a crazy wizard. After writing down the main storyline Ash started to hash out the characters details, unlike the first book that consisted mainly of short stories of mermaids, sirens, dragons, fairies, etc, this second book would have a more multi chapter story.

The previous night he and his Ghost Pokemon had a lot of fun during the Ghost King festival and Ash had another memory jolt. He had to sit down on remembering the ridiculously large novel he had read as a young teenage girl. He couldn't believe he finished that monster of a book and had written down what he could remember of it. Gengar had been worried when his eyes had glazed over but Ash had assured him, he was alright and asked for his laptop. Banette and Phantump had given him the laptop and he had poured the information into it.

Ash, 'Saving the information in another object helps with the headache.'

Eevee nuzzled him, "Vui!"

Ash smiled at Eevee, "I'm okay."

Gengar, "Gengar geng?"

Ash, "I'm fine buddy."

Phantump shook his head, "Phaaaaaa pha phan."

Lucario, -You were out of it for a while Meema. Are you sure you want a Gym battle tomorrow after the tournament?-

Ash, "It'll only be the gym battle. I plan on doing the Ace battle the next day after Casey's battle."

Abra, -You worried Casey a little with your plan.-

Ash mused, "Yes, it is a bit different from what I normally do, but I have a feeling I will need the battle tomorrow..... I don't know why."

The Pokemon looked at each other and decided to chalk it up to Ash's aura acting up again and after another hour Ash finally put his laptop down. Gou and Max were already asleep in their own beds and Sorrel and Brock in their room while Casey and Verity had their own room. The next day the tournament announced it's opening with fireworks and a show by a group of coordinators. Verity and Ash had seen a form for volunteers a few days ago and agreed to give everyone a show together.

The two of them along with Solidad who was there to cheer her nephew, Harribel, used their electric, water and fairy type Pokemon to commemorate the opening. Verity's Lapras used mist and sing to set the beginning stage, while Solidad's Bellossom used moonlight and petal blizzard to add extra effect followed by Ash's Wigglytuff used charm, echoed voice and sing. Wigglytuff had been wanting to sing on stage again and Ash had decided to let her sing "I'm a Dreamer", from Sakura Cardcaptor.

A red headed woman came out, "My my! What a fantastic finish! Hello everyone! My name is Shana and I am your hostess for today."

Shana grinned as the crowd cheered, "Welcome to the Juniors tournament and without further adieu let's welcome the first challengers."

Max took a deep breath as he heard his name called, "I can do this. We can do this."

Shana, "On the red side, let's welcome Max Maple from Hoenn region. He is currently a student of Ash Ketchum, Champion of the Archipelago and winner of the Indigo Conference."

Max waved when he saw Ash and the others smiling at him, 'I can do it. I know I can.'

Shana, "On the blue side we have Ursula, from the Sinnoh region. She wants to become a coordinator once she is old enough to officially start her own journey."

Ursula, "Just one more year and I can. Till then I will win other Junior competitions."

Ash, 'She looks familiar... Must be from the future journeys.'

Shana, "Choose your Pokemon!"

Ursula, "Ladies first, let's go Wormadam."

Max, "I choose you Breloom."

Shana, "Begin!"

Ursula, "Sucker punch!"

Max, "Jump high and leech seed."

Breloom waited till Wormadam was close and then jumped high as he dropped a leech seed on the back of the grass bug type. The grass fighting type landed with a flourish and watched as the leech seed grew and started to sap Wormadam's energy out.

Ursula, "What the! Wormadam quick use razor leaf to cut the leech seed off now."

Wormadam used razor leaf to cut the leeching vines off but it was obvious they bug type was already weakened. Max nodded at Breloom and she used headbutt on her opponent knocking her out.

Shana, "Not even two minutes in and we have a winner folks. Wormadam is unable to battle, Breloom has won the match. Max is moving forward to the next round."

Ash cheered, "That's our Max and Breloom!"

Verity, "You guys were awesome."

Casey, "Great job!"

Gou, "Nicely executed!"

Max turned pink hearing the cheers and Breloom hugged him carrying him out getting a squeak from him. Breloom had noticed the dark look Ursula had on her face after loosing, no way was she letting that crazy near her trainer. Breloom carried him to the back and watched as more trainers participated, Harribel, Solidad's cousin was quite strong too, especially his Leafeon. He was both powerful and handsome to look at and the way he defeated his opponents, Max could see Solidad's influence.

Max, "Hey Breloom, do you think if I had waited for May to finish her first journey and let her teach us.. We would be battling in a flashy style too... I know we follow Ash's battling style with our own niche added to it."

Breloom nodded, "Bre loom bre loom loom bre."

Ralts, -Breloom says it's highly possible, as beginners we get influenced by others around us. In our case we are influenced by Ash's battling style, Gou's enthusiasm to find out new stuff, Casey's desire to become the strongest, Sorrel's care, etc.-

Max turned his head to the screen again, "Yeah, I guess so. I wonder if there is a me out there who is."

Beedrill, "Bzzzz bzzzzt."

Mareep nodded, "Maaaaa."

Ralts giggled, -Dont worry about it Max, I'm sure that version of you would be an amazing trainer too.-

Max thanked his Pokemon as he watched a girl from Kalos called Miette in the blue side battle using her Liligant. The blue haired teen was good as well she half wondered if he will be able to battle her at some point. The first rounds were completed by the time lunch came around and Shana called for a commercial lunch break. Max grabbed his four Pokemon and went to see if he could meet up with the others only to run into Miette.

Miette, "Hi there! I saw your battle."

Max smiled, "I saw your battle too. Your Liligant is so regal in the way she moves."

Miette grinned, "Thank you and you have a very powerful Breloom. Just one leech seed and it took down your opponent like they were nothing."

Ralts, -Oh, she better be that capable after all the hell training we did.-

Miette blinked, "Holy Mew! You are no slouch yourself are you?"

Ralts puffed up, -Of course, I plan on becoming Max's main.-

Miette, "Quite an impressive guy aren't you?"

Ash, "Max!"

Casey, "Over here!"

Verity, "Bring your friend along."

Max, "Want to join us for lunch?"

Miette, "I would love to."

Gou, "Hello there, I'm Gou."

Verity, "I'm Verity."

Casey, "Call me Casey."

Ash, "My name is Ash."

Miette, "I'm Miette from Kalos. Nice to meet you all."

Ash, "So are you planning on starting your journey in another region?"

Miette, "Well, after this I was planning on hitting Hoenn actually. I hear they allow fourteen year olds to start their journey there. I envy the trainers based on Jhoto and Kanto though."

Casey, "Look at it this way. You have more time to prepare."

Verity, "And decide if you want to do a Mastery on any subject. I'm working on a Mastery on the Lapras line."

Miette, "That's true... What about you Ash? Are you interested in doing a Mastery?"

Ash, "There are a few lines yes, Lucario and Pikachu are obvious ones. And I have always been fascinated by Absol here. But I plan on doing it in the far future. Right now I'm just putting my observations in a folder and saving it."

Max, "I'm kinda doing the same thing. Just observing and recording stuff. When I am ready to do a Mastery I will use it to get one."

They talked while enjoying the lunch and half way through Sorrel and Brock rushed in and Ash and Verity held out two large burgers for them. The two Doctors in training thanked them and rushed off while eating the extra large burger. Ash huffed saying they forgot their drinks and Gengar appeared and took the drinks and ran after them. Ash thanked Gengar for the help and the ghost Pokemon grinned floating away. After lunch the tournament restarted again and this time there were only sixteen participants left.

Max, "Let's do this Breloom."

Trent a boy from Unova was his opponent this time, "Let's go Whimsicott."

Shana, "Begin!"

Max, "Energy ball!"

Trent, "Use razor leaf."

Max, "Defend using energy ball."

Trent was confused by that order, energy were used to attack an opponent not defend against an opponent. But the meaning soon became clear as Whimsicott attacked only for Breloom to expand the energy ball around himself like a shield. Breloom smirked from behind the ball before pulling back and hitting the fairy grass type with the expanded energy ball. It didn't cause much damage as the energy ball was stretched out a lot and was hit by razor leaf. But it didn't however sting to be hit by it.

Trent, "Are you okay Whimsicott?"

Whimsicott nodded, "Immmmm."

Trent, "Alright retaliate using hurricane."

Max, "Use sword dance to avoid being hit by the sharp winds."

Breloom nodded and as Whimsicott used hurricane, she used sword dance to dodge and weave through the hurricane. She would thank Fearrow and Pidgeot later for training her against her type disadvantage. Breloom moved and got closer to her opponent and Max called out a focus blast which she used on her opponent. Whimsicott was hit hard by the blast powered by sword dance and flew across the field.

Shana, "And Whimsicott is unable to battle, Breloom had won the match. Max is heading to the semi finals."

Max gave a sigh as he ran to Breloom, "Are you okay?"

Breloom nodded, "Bre loom bre bre loom."

Max, "Let's go to the back stage for now and I will take care of your wounds yeah."

Breloom nodded and followed Max back stage while the other participants battled each other. The number would be cut down to eight and then four and finally it would be the last battle. Max paid half attention to the announcement which praised a boy called Ephram and his Skiploom who were battling quite well. He was from Jhoto and Breloom was looking forward to battling them as well.

Shana, "Now for the top eight contenders!"

Max, "We are going against Harribel and Leafeon."

Breloom, "Bre loom bre."

Max, "Oh Miette is going against another girl from Kalos. Hope she wins."

Max stood up when it was his turn, Miette had won against her opponent, "Let's do this Breloom."

Shana, "Ready? Begin!"

Harribel, "Magical leaf!"

Max, "Rock tomb in reverse."

Breloom nodded and created a mound around him from the ground. She could hear the magical leaf hit the shield outside. Breloom jumped out when Max called out a hyper beam and shot it at Leafeon who jumped out of the way.

Max, "Use leech bomb."

Breloom smirked, she had been itching to use that move and Harribel called for bullet seed in return. The leech bomb burst in the sky and rained leech seed around Leafeon with vines coming out to grab him. Leafeon jumped away and used bullet seed on the vines but was still caught by some. The leech seeds started to drain Leafeon from his strength and Max got a little worried that maybe it was too powerful. But Leafeon was no slouch and used iron tail to escape though he was panting from exhaustion.

Max, "Do it Breloom!"

Breloom jumped and used head butt on Leafeon knocking him out, "Loom bre bre."

Shana, "And Leafeon is unable to battle Max and Breloom will be moving to the semi finals."

[A. N.: Hope you all enjoyed this chapter.

The battle scenes took some time to hash out but this one is done.

I hope I'm doing Max's growth in this book well. I try to include everyone's growth as much as possible. But it's taking longer than I originally thought.]