Preliminaries

Julian is near the venue where the Preliminaries is taking place, to his surprise even Ash's match is in Village 1 and it is before his, so he decided to watch the battle.

He is currently in a room filled with computers, it has the data of trainers stored in it, trainers come here to research about their opponent.

Julian had nothing to worry about his opponent but he still decided to see what his opponent is like.

As he walked in trainers saw him and started to talk among themselves, they mostly talked about how strong he is and pitied his opponent.

Soon he arrived in front of a computer and switched it on and entered his Venue number and match number, soon a screen popped up revealing two photos, it is of him and his opponent Travis.

He seems to actually be a veteran pokemon trainer who has participated in the league twice and has reached the qualifiers twice in a row but to his bad luck both of the time, he got put against that one trainer who actually won the league conference.

He couldn't advance to the top 32 because of that.

Julian 'Wow, his luck is bad'

Julian thought and scrolled down.

Julian 'Travis's main pokemon seems to be his Cacturne. He won most of his battle with it'

Julian scrolled down more and saw his profile, only is Tyranitar is displayed on it, they didn't have information about his other pokemons, the gyms are not allowed to disclose trainer's information, the trainers who have their pokemon revealed in the public are displayed here.

Only Julian's Tyranitar has made his reveal.

Julian 'Should I use another pokemon or go with Tyranitar for this one, I think I will go with Tyranitar, at least he will be confident to take on my Tyranitar with his Cacturne's type advantage.'

Julian thought and got up and walked outside, soon he heard the announcement that the Preliminaries has begun, Chloe and Daisy said they will meet him at the venue so he headed there.

Once he reached there he saw Chloe and Daisy waving their hands at him.

Julian "When did you arrive?"

Daisy "Just now, we had lost of fun"

Chloe "Ya, we went to a lot of stores, we even bought something for you and your pokemon"

Julian "Great, let's head in, it about to start, Ash's battle will soon begin, I want to see how much he has improved"

Daisy and Chloe nodded and soon they walked into the stadium, Julian had already asked for a VIP room for them to watch the battle.

After two battles of the preliminaries, Ash's battle is now going to take place.

Julian waits as he sees Ash walk into the stadium with Pikachu on his shoulder.

Julian "Its about to begin"

As Ash walked in his opponent Gilbert also walked in, he is a young boy who seems to be about 12-13 years of age.

He is wearing a martial art's uniform and a thin red bandanna on his forehead.

He seems to be very determined to defeat his opponent and move on to the Qualification round.

Referee "Trainers choose your Pokemon"

Gilbert "Hitmonlee, let's win this"

Gilbert sent out his Hitmonlee, it seemed well trained and strong.

Well, all 600 trainers in this league have gotten eight badges from the gyms around Hoenn, so they are strong. Gym leaders never go all out or use their main pokemon for gym battles or not many would be able to participate in the league.

Ash looked at his opponent then at Pikachu.

Ash "Pikachu let's do it"

Pikachu nodded and jumped into the battlefield and released an electric charge around his cheeks.

Announcer "They have chosen their pokemon, Gilbert is going with his Ace Hitmonlee and Ash is going with Pikachu, let's see in whose favor will this battle be"

Referee "Both Trainers ready?"

Ash/Gilbert "Yes"

Referee "Begin"

The referee waves the flag in his hand and commences the battle.

Gilbert "Hitmonlee, use Double Kick"

Hitmonlee charges towards Pikachu and swings its legs and try to kick Pikachu.

Ash "Pikachu dodge"

Luckily Pikachu is much faster and easily dodges the double kick.

Ash "No Thunderbolt"

As soon as Pikachu dodges the second kick Ash commands, Pikachu at point-blank range release a powerful Thunderbolt which sends Hitmonlee flying through the air and crashing on the ground.

Gilbert "HITMONLEE"

His Hitmonlee has dealt a lot of damage, it struggles to get back to its feet

Gilbert "Hitmonlee we can do this, let's go Mega Kick"

Ash "Pikachu let's finish this, use Thunderbolt again"

Before Hitmonlee could even reach Pikachu, Pikachu sent a powerful Thunderbolt whit hit Hitmonlee directly and sent it flying again, it crashed on the ground.

Gilbert "Hitmonlee, get up"

Hitmonlee struggled, its arms and legs are shaking, it finally got back to its fee but it suddenly falls down face first, knocked out.

Seeing this the stadium becomes silent for a few seconds and burst into cheers.

Announcer "DID YOU SEE THAT, only two moves, Pikachu defeated Hitmonlee with just two Thunderbolts"

Ash "Pikachu you were awesome"

Ash runs towards Pikachu and hugs him.

Not only the audience but Julian is also very surprised by the power behind that Thunderbolt, it was no way near his Electivire's power but from the last time he saw Pikachu use that move it is way powerful this time.

Julian "Hahahahaha, looks like he really improved a lot, but he still has a long way to go if he wants to win any league"

Daisy "He really is impressive"

Chloe "That kid has a lot of potentials, even I was not that strong when I was ten"

Julian "Hmm, soon it will be my turn".