4 figures came walking out from behind the stage, the first was a beautiful woman with Red hair and glasses, she was wearing a one-piece dress that radiated 'elegant'. It was announced to be Lorelei next to her she released her as her Lapras, causing most people to cheer, mainly Simps and the fan girls.
The next that walked out was a man who looked to be in his late 20s, he wore a custom suit that still showed off what appeared to be a spell tag design on the undershirt, on his waist there were also 3 different spellings, and a dreamcatcher. The announcer called him Damian the new Ghost expert, and from his shadow, his Gengar appeared.
The third member was a young man probably 15-16, he had tan skin, his hair was black with red accents, and he wore a black suit jacket with a red undershirt next to him was his Nidoking standing proud, he also looked smug like he was better than everyone else. He was announced as Darwin the Ground type expert.
The final member was a young girl, she wore a green and Yellow dress with a white hat, she looked like she was probably 14-16, next to her was surprisingly an Electivire, which most people on the ship had never seen before since the Electirizer is usually only sold in Sinnoh. The announcer called her Tempest the electric-type expert.
On the side, 2 people were making noise the first was Surge, and the other was the Poison gym leader Janine, a girl with a purple scarf and a ninja outfit, she had purple hair tied back into a spiky ponytail. They both held signs, albeit very cartoonish, with Tempest's face on them.
The announcer continued, "These are the new elite 4 and to commemorate this even the League has prepared a tournament, this tournament will be double elimination, those who win will move on to the next round those who lose may still gain a chance to redeem themselves, anyone is allowed to join in the tournament there are no limitations except for a size and weight limit to your Pokemon."
With that some of the crowd started groaning, the announcer elaborated, "Don't misunderstand, we just mean don't use a Snorlax or an Onix in the first few rounds, we have special fields for that so wait until then."
That made most people cheer up but there were still those people who only trained one big Pokemon that were complaining, "Now we have 32 stadiums prepared where contestants can go, only 1 person from each field can advance to join the main tournament, in the stadiums it is a free for all, also due to the size of the ship every trainer is only allowed 1 Pokemon."
"And finally before any of you start scattering just know that the top 5 will be receiving Pokemon Eggs that the elite 4 and Lance himself prepared, though the members of the elite 4 will choose who gets what egg, except for 1st place of course, and a nice little extra prize doesn't hurt either. Now everyone you can talk with your friends join in one place, or scatter in hopes your friends still make it but get out there and give the new elite 4 a show."
The crowd erupted into cheers as most people scattered to choose a stadium.
Meanwhile, Brock was finally slapped out of his trance by Ash, then he snapped Misty out of her fangirling, "You two need to stop, I expect this from Brock but you Misty I expected more." Ash said like a disappointed father.
"So should we all choose different stadiums?" Yellow asked.
"Well that's kinda obvious, though I don't trust Brock not to try and flirt with a girl," Ash said, making Brock feel physical pain.
"Do you really think that I would do that?"
"Yes x2," Misty and Ash said.
"Pika" Pikachu nodded
"Zu-zu" Brock's Zubat came out of nowhere and also nodded.
"Who's side are you on anyway?" Brock yelled at his bat.
"Well then I will leave Brock in your care, be sure to make sure he stays Focused and I give you full permission to bite him," Ash said to Zubat then walked away as Brock was complaining.
Ash meanwhile walked to the farthest stadium, he saw some but those had people he knew and he wanted to see what would happen so he found one with only Mob characters, surprisingly next to the one he chose he saw Gary in the nest stadium over.
"Hey Gary what happened to your cheerleaders, I doubt any of them are trainers," Ash said standing next to him as they waited for their respective stadiums to open.
"Yeah they went up to the stands to cheer, but honestly they are probably having a drink or just sunbathing."
"Well anyway, you think this will be any challenge at all?"
"Do you want the honest answer or the Modest answer?"
"That actually answers most of them, but anyway you better not lose, I promise you with every fiber of my being if you lose to somebody with a Butterfree, or a Charmander I will not let you live it down."
Gary laughed, "Yeah, and the same goes for you, if you lose to a Pikachu I will never let you forget it."
Ash laughed and went ahead to his stadium to start the battle, "Anyway I hope you at least let me beat you in the quarter-finals if nothing else."
—
James walked over to Jessie and Meowth, he told them about his purchase, and needless to say, Jessie grabbed him by the collar.
"What do you mean you bought a Magikarp, and for 500 did you get hit on the head!"
James would be lying if he didn't expect this reaction, "Why do you care it was my money, besides when it evolves you'll be sorry you ever said that."
Jessie stopped shaking him hearing that, "Wait those things evolve, I thought their only use was to eat them or something."
James pulled out a book and started flipping through it, "Seriously, do you even do any research into Pokemon, here," James said, handing the book that was on the Gyarados page.
"It evolves into that monster, won't it go ramped as soon as it evolves," Meowth said, shivering.
"That only happens with wild Gyarados, if you raise them from Magikarp they are loyal to you, and unlike you, I have the patience to wait."
Jessie shrugged and returned the book, "Well whatever, at least you used your money, so I don't care."
—
The stadiums opened and when they entered it was chaos, they were only allowed to use 1 Pokemon so some went in to take down as many as they could, some went to target someone specific, and some started camping.
On his way in Ash wonders which Pokemon to use, Squrtle was pretty close to evolving but wasn't too good at battles like that, Nidorino was also a choice but he was planning on doing something with him that he can't do on the lower levels of the ship. So he decided on Scyther to brush off the rust.
As soon as he got into the room he could feel people staring at him since he still had the cast on, even with the large Scyther next to him, at least 3 Pokemon immediately dashed to battle Scyther.
The 3 Pokemon in question were Horsea, Slowpoke, and Exeggcute who each launched an attack at him. Scyther however had been practicing with Ash so he was more than ready.
"Agility to dodge then Swords dance into a slash," the Pokemon hit an afterimage of Scyther and he appeared behind them where a single slash sent all 3 of them flying out and got eliminated.
The 3 trainers who just got eliminated looked stunned as Ash just walked past them and Scyther cleaned his blades approaching stronger enemies, he approached a Persian and Tauros clashing, the two kings of Gen 1.
"Give them a Fury Cutter, and don't let up," Scyther dashed forward with the additional +2, getting their attention, Tauros received the first slash sending him sliding back but still up, meanwhile Persian aimed a slash of its own, and Tauros was ordered to charge.
Scyther simply dodged and sent another slash toward Persian then another with his offhand towards Tauros sending them down.
"5 down about 20 to go this is going to be fun," Ash said whether he meant that sarcastically we may never know.
—
Brock was released into his side, he released Graveler since it was his 'lightest and smallest' Pokemon. Zubat wasn't ready to fight and he wasn't entirely used to using him, speaking of Zubat he was sitting on his shoulder and refused to go in the Ball.
Brock was released and started battling, he was actually used to large-scale battles like this, mainly when the Geodudes at home got angry, but because of the limitations put on him, he mainly used Defense curl then Rollout, multiple times, by the time a Pokemon managed to hit him he was at +4 Defense so it barely did anything.
"Smackdown." Graveler sent an open-handed strike to the random Fearow sending it to the floor.
"With that, that only makes half of everyone here out, I wonder how everyone else is doing," Brock said.
As soon as he said that he saw a girl battling and because he had no self-control he was about to run over and use some cheesy line about love on a battlefield, but Zubat bit him, snapping him out of it.
—
On Misty's side, she used her Starmie since it was her best option, she took hit and Run tactics and took a Pokemon down then retreated before she put attention on herself since she couldn't really afford to fight many Pokemon head-on since Starmie wasn't the bulkiest to take the hits, nor the fastest to dodge them.
"Ice beam on the Ground." Starmie spread out an Ice floor to stop the charging Sandshrew, which made the small Pokemon slip out.
"Now Rapid spin and get out of there," Starmie started skating across the ice floor it made, which was not the most surprising thing about the battles going on around her.
Starmie itself had not sustained too much damage, just a few small hits from smaller Pokemon, Misty was still looking at her best chance to advance to the next round.
For the time being all they could do was continue battling so Starmie went after a random Growlith, "Power Gem," Starmie shot out a beam from its center crystal landing on the fire dog.
—
With Yellow She was Probably the most worried about the battles to come, she used Kitty which already brought attention to herself since Kitty was Shiny.
Yellow was looking around trying to see everyone around her, and she immediately saw at least 5 trainers staring at her(T^T).
Immediately a Golbat and a Ponyta charged at Kitty, "Kitty put them to sleep."
Kitty the Butterfree dodged the incoming Golbat and started releasing sleep powder over the Ponyta, then as Golbat tried to attack again he shot a web tying up the bat and sent electricity through it.
But before Yellow could relax a Farfetch'd came out from the top and slammed its leak into Kitty.
"Oh no Kitty please get up."
As the Farfetch'd tried to attack again, he got trapped on webs from earlier, shocking the bird. Kitty got back up to face more Pokemon.
—
Meanwhile from the top stands the members of the elite 4 were watching and discussing stuff.
"So who do you guys think is gonna win, I think probably that girl over there Or maybe that guy over there, no no that one," Tempest said, in a way too energetic tone.
"I don't know about winning but I certainly see interesting contenders," Damian said, specifically staring at Ash.
"What the kid with the broken arm? I bet you half my salary he doesn't even get to the top 8" Darwin said mockingly.
"Sure I'll take that bet, but no crying when you have to give it up."
"So your calling dibs on that kid if he gets on the top 5, Ok will I call hmmmm that boy down there," Tempest announced choosing a random person.
"Ha alright if that's what we are doing then I call….that one kid with a Marowak," Darwin said.
"What about you Ms. Lorelei?"
"Well, I suppose if I had to choose then maybe that girl down there," Lorelei said pointing at Misty.