Joshua returned Flareon and pulled out another from his belt as he threw out the Pokeball Releasing a Pinsir.
Immediately after it got on the field Joshua pointed at Victreebel, "Use [Vicegrip]!"
Pinsir's head mandibles twitched in anticipation as it ran at Victreebel, its mandibles extended wide ready to grab onto the plant.
Ash raised his arm as he pointed up with 1 finger, "Catch it,"
Victreebel released the vines from behind Pinsir as it ran forward and managed to clasp its mandibles on Victreebel, but that didn't help much when it was being carted up in the air.
"Now [Power Whip]," Ash commanded.
Victreebel raised his vine and cracked it as Pinsir was slammed into the ground, but it did struggle and got back up looking at Victreebel.
Joshua clenched his teeth this wasn't going like it should have at all, and with a shake of his head he yelled out, "[X-Scissor] cut down these vines!"
Pinsir's hands glowed green as it ran forward cutting at the vines as they came getting closer and closer to Victreebel, then when it got close it took the shot.
Victreebel received a slash across his body but the slash was minimal compared to what he was doing, the entire time Pinsir was rushing at him Victreebel was charging something in the back of his thought.
Then when Pinsir got close enough to slash at Victreebel, Ash spoke up, "[Gunk Shot]"
As Pinsir slashed Victreebel's body it was greeted by Victreebel opening his mouth and belching a thick dark sludge out and sending Pinsir flying onto the ground with spirals in his eyes.
Joshua shakily returned Pinsir as he looked at Ash, how was he losing to a rookie trainer, and his fans who were yelling about having his children became really quiet.
Ash meanwhile looked casually at Victreebel, "How you feel about that one we haven't used it huh?"
Victreebel used a vine to rub the area where his throat was as he felt like he had a sore throat.
Joshua returned Pinsir, his vision looking blurry at the sudden change in pace, he expected this to be easy but now he was losing, Joshua was now in a pinch, he had never expected that he would be eliminated in the first round itself, he clenched his teeth in frustration, he had to use 'that'.
Joshua pulled out another Pokeball clenching it, "Looks like you need to come out, just listen to me this time."
Joshua looked up, "Looks like I have to use my strongest Pokemon, I need to at least take out one of his Pokemon before getting eliminated," he threw out his last Pokeball which was actually visibly an Ultra Ball.
From the ball was released a large green bipedal Pokemon, it had claws and sharp teeth as it roared in the air, a Tyranitar.
The crowd started cheering again, Tyranitar was Joshua's strongest Pokemon one he used last year, surely it only got stronger since then…right?
Joshua pointed at Victreebel, "Tyranitar look a strong opponent! Beat him for me!"
Ash frowned, what kind of command is that, to be honest when Ash watched the recordings of Joshua's battles he never once used Tyranitar, the only record he found was an article saying that he only lost to Koga because Tyranitar didn't listen to him.
Tyranitar scoffed hearing Joshua, but then it looked up seeing they were in the League again, its eyes Narrowing remembering how it lost last time and it looked down at Victreebel.
It stomped its large foot on the ground beginning his [Thrash] as it started charging towards Victreebel.
Ash raised his eyebrow deciding to take this a little more seriously, "Victreebel [Sunny day] then dodge!"
Victreebel shot an orb into the sky that created a miniature sun and his speed rose just in time as Tyranitar almost stomped him, appearing behind Tyranitar leaves glowing.
Ash raised his arm, "Now [Solar Blade]"
Victreebel's leaves extended into a large green sword as he swung down, but then Tyranitar turned his head around using [Ice Fang] and biting the green blade, not bothering to dodge.
Then before Victreebel could cut off the leaf Tyranitar raised its arm and grabbed Victreebel by the face and threw him on the ground, then as Victreebel was down it raised its foot and used [Earthquake] by stomping on him.
As the pain shot through Victreebel the overall exhaustion caused him to fall down with spirals in his eyes, but it looked like Tyranitar didn't want to stop even though Joshua was yelling for it to stop.
So before Tyranitar did more Ash returned Victreebel, would it disqualify Tyranitar if he attacked Victreebel giving Ash the win, sure, but where's the fun in that?
Ash looked at the dinosaur as people were reacting to the sudden violence by Tyranitar, and Tyranitar just stomped more glaring at Ash almost demanding to keep fighting.
Ash shook his head, "Seems like I need to put this one down, alright I'll start trying," he threw out the next Pokeball, Vileplume.
As soon as Tyranitar saw a new opponent it didn't wait for instructions it just started running wildly, but Vileplume looked down letting his flower hat cover his eyes.
Ash raised his arm "[Grass Knot] on its legs,"
Vileplume gave a smile as he ran forward thanks to the speed boost Chlorophyll gave him, when he got close to Tyranitar it raised its leg trying to stomp, but Vileplume slid going past the attack.
On the way summoning some vines and grabbing the big dinosaur's legs when he arrived on the other side, he pulled Tyranitar face-first into the ground.
"Now [Strength sap]"
Vileplume's vines started glowing green as they took Tyranitar's strength, specifically focusing on taking the strength of Tyranitar's legs so it wouldn't get up.
Joshua gulped and yelled, "Tyranitar please get out of those vines with [Iron Tail]"
Tyranitar didn't like Joshua but it also wasn't stupid so begrudgingly his tail glowed silver and swiped at the vines holding its legs and letting it get back to its feet, but a bit weaker in the legs.
Joshua looked excited that Tyranitar listened so he became confident again until he saw Ash completely unfazed.
Ash sighed "Well then let's end this, [Petal Dance]"
Vileplume smirked and spun around relieving pink and purple petals as they approached and circled Tyranitar swiping and cutting at it every so often.
Neither Joshua nor Tyranitar looked concerned though, it was just petals, "Tyranitar now get in close!"
Tyranitar chose to listen and swiped his arm cutting off the tornado around him, then as he took his first heavy step he stopped, not just that he was completely frozen in place.
The crowd was confused and Joshua looked at Tyranitar, "What's wrong, don't you want to keep fighting? Did something happen?"
"Tyranitar is Paralyzed," Ash's voice spoke as he grabbed one of the petals still in the air, "You see each and every one of these Petals is coated in Vileplume's special [Toxic], it both paralyzes and poisons."
The revelation came like a bag of bricks at everyone watching, and in a certain Gym a girl in a Kimono was watching the TV and chuckled, "He learned that from me!"
Ash dropped the Petal, "Now it's time we end this, I'll admit you did better than I thought, Vileplume use [Venoshock]"
Vileplume finally looked up as from his flower what looked like purple needles were created and all shot at Tyranitar who couldn't even move, and it was still poisoned so double it.
As soon as the last needle hit Tyranitar, Vileplume turned around and tipped his flower hat down as the big dinosaur fell over knocked out.
The crowd was silent then started cheering for the battle they just watched, Joshua looked shocked as he walked off his side and came to Tyranitar's side.
He was about to return it when suddenly Ash's hand came down and gave him an Antidote, "Here, you'll need this,"
Joshua took it with his hand shaking and as soon as he did Ash walked away, so he gave Tyranitar the Antidote.
The announcer spoke up, "And with an incredible show of sportsmanship, Ash has emerged victorious, in an outstanding turn of events we could not ask for a better start, but just you wait there's more to come!"
And with that the rest of the battles started one by one, each of them ending pretty fast, there was apparently a battle that Ash missed between a trainer called Mina and another trainer named Kellyn, apparently in the 3 minutes he was gone it was over.
Then there were Gary and Green's battles, and let's just say Ash got the harder battle and leave it at that. They both didn't even use more than 1 Pokemon, which they didn't forget to flex on Ash.
Also, smaller battles happened, Assunta beat Neesha, Otosshi beat Fergus, and Corey beat Mandi, and other than that not much else other than watching Cross beat his opponent happened.
And then came the last match, Joe vs that Remo guy.
The announcer spoke up, "Now everyone it is time to announce the last battle of the day and the top 32, this decides which of our contestants moves to the top 16 with everyone!"
As he spoke Ash started thinking as he watched Remo walk out, he had weird clothes that looked like a samurai should be wearing it and the strangest thing was an umbrella that he carried that shined whenever he saw the tip.
As both Pokemon were released from both trainers Ash thought back, one thing was that he certainly wasn't from Kanto, and probably not Johto either, he rubbed his chin not even noticing that Joe almost immediately lost his first Pokemon.
As he opened them he saw a Granbull on Remo's side which just confused him more cuz ain't nobody in the anime use a Granbull.
As he thought Remo made a command, "Grano let's end this [Play Rough]"
The name didn't mean anything to Ash but the way the nickname was made, a Granbull called Grano, he thought about that while there was no Granbull named Grano.
But it was similar, as Joe brought out his last Pokemon, a Marowak ready to give her last stand against Granbull.
But then Remo spun his umbrella again, and Ash finally got a good look at what was on top, a Keystone, which finally caused Ash to realize who this was.
Remo was only a part of the Mega Evolution Special and the Lumiose Conference both times losing to Alain, but the point was that he was here.
As Grano sent Marowak flying back and slamming into Joe's side it caused Remo's win, the announcer started talking again giving his congratulations to both Joe and Remo but Remo was the winner and he raised his arms as the cheering started for him.
Ash wasn't sure what to think, he didn't know why Remo was here, or even what version he was supposed to be, as in did he lose to Alain yet, but that didn't help him.
—
Later Ash, Brock, Misty, and Yellow were down sitting next to Joe comforting him on his loss with Ritchie on the other side, "Hey man it happens, but you did good you got so far." Ash said
"Yeah, you did great, better than most people!" Brock said, holding the egg on his lap.
"Yeah, I guess I did do better than I thought I would, but after getting so far I thought I just might have a shot,"
"Hey don't sweat it, I'm your friend so I'll get revenge for you!" Ritchie said, giving a thumbs up.
"Err well," Ash said as Rotom came out and pulled out the picture, you might have that coming sooner than you think, after all, you're fighting him next.
The picture of the brackets was there on full display for everyone to see and to Ritchie's dismay on the bottom, it said.
Ritchie vs Remo
They all stayed silent for a moment but then Ash reached his arm out and grabbed Ritchie's shoulder, "Don't worry I'll plan your funeral,"