"Blue Trainer, please choose your pokémon, or be disqualified." The referee rebuked at Austin, considering that the trainer from Pallet was blankly staring at the pokémon in front of him.

On hearing the man's words, Austin scowled, as he unlocked a pokeball from his belt, before releasing the pokémon within. "I choose you, Bulbasaur"

Bulbasaur bounced upon the ground, drawling his name out, as he stared at the evolved form of Charmander.

Amelia snorted at her opponents choice of Pokemon.

Cynthia meanwhile gazed at the eriely calm Austin as she knew that look very well.

That was a look of a trainer whose blood was boiling. She remembered the time when she faced off against that annoying chanesy trainer who was stalling and using healing moves after healing moves during the battle and as she switched to lucario , she had the excatly same look in her eyes.

"Bulbasaur versus Charmeleon," the referee uttered, "begin!"

"Flamethrower!" Amelia commanded.

"Jump," Austin returned, as Bulbasaur used vine whip to jump off the ground, his powerful vines supplying him more than enough momentum to leave the ground, escaping Charmeleon's flamethrower completely. "—and use Chemical Warfare ."

The plan worked perfectly, as Charmeleon who was still dousing the ground with his constant flow of flames, stood completely vulnerable to the combined status attack from above, hitting the fire lizard right in the face, banishing him on the ground.

Austin however, wasn't done yet. "Follow up with Growl and Energy Ball ."

Bulbasaur , according to his instructions, dropped down to the ground, and growled as Charmeleon took a step back.

Energy Ball formed in Bulbasaur's mouth .

"Charmeleon, Snape out of it and use Fire Blast!"

Charmeleon tried to execute fire blast but a spark ran throughout it's body as it was paralysis.

" Eat it "

Bulbasaur obliged and ate the Energy Ball

Amelia scoffed. What was this trainer thinking?

"Charmeleon, use Fire blast straight ahead on Bulbasaur."

The flames on his tail burned brighter, as Charmeleon took a couple of seconds, before letting out an extremely powerful Fire blast, which slammed into Bulbasaur-

And traversed through him.

Amelia shrieked in surprise. "Charmeleon, look out-"

"Now!" Austin yelled, as a powerful tackle shot from the opposite end, striking at Charmeleon from the back.

Charmeleon was thrown towards the psychic barrier, while the latter hit him in the abdomen, sending him completely unconscious.

Silence pervaded all around the podium for five seconds.

"That…." Amelia replied, "-was brutal." She looked up towards Austin. "You sure you don't have any impulsive vendetta against my Charmeleon, Ash?"

" Uh…. No." Austin replied uncertainly as he couldn't believe that he had let his frustration from his opponent's annoying battle style get to him. He needed to work on keeping his calm during battles.

"Charmeleon is unable to battle. Bulbasaur wins." The referee declared. "Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town moves to the Top-32."

Cheers ran abound, and between the crowds, a certain blonde-haired female smiled.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

" Alright, Pikachu, that's enough. You got your ice-cream now let me have mine." Austin chided his starter, not that it had any effect, since Pikachu tried another jump, this time managing to bite off half the cone from Ash's hand, making his trainer look at him with mock-anger.

The trainer and his starter had come walking to the deck to spend some time together, and had discovered, much to Ash's horror, about Pikachu's undying love for ice-cream with Ketchup on top. It had only been thirty seconds, and the little monster had gulped down two entire buckets of ice-cream.

Three hundred and seventy pokedollars. In thirty seconds.

"That, is beyond you, it seems." Austin scowled, as Pikachu gurgled in happiness, having had its favourite meal on the planet. "How on earth did you-"

"That's one cute Pikachu you have."

Austin looked up at the source of the feminine voice, and found himself staring at a black-clad blonde-haired girl . Said person was staring at the little monster with interest in her eyes.

"Yes, and a murder on my pocket." Austin scowled.

"Well Pokemon are pretty high-maintenance." The girl answered, her smile still on her face. "Everything gets paid back at the end, though."

"Saying from experience?"

"You might say so." Cynthia tilted her head, before kneeling down and caressing Pikachu in the head, as the monster looked like he was about to dissolve into mush.

"Whoa, that's impressive," Austin returned, surprised as the girl looked like she had alot of experience with Pokemon. She looked kinda familiar to him.

Cynthia gave a lop-sided smirk. "It's all from experience."

"I'm Ash," Austin took a step forward, as he reached out with his hand.

"Shirona," Cynthia replied, shaking it. "Nice to make your acquaintance."

"Are you also participating in the tournament?"

Cynthia frowned. "As much as I would like, not really. I'm here with the League Envoys from Sinnoh. I do like battling, but when do we always get what we want?"

"I guess…" Austin replied, his eyes slightly nostalgic.

"So, where are you from?"

"I'm from Pallet Town. It's here in Kanto region."

"Pallet Town." Cynthia repeated. "Isn't that where Professor Samuel Oak resides in?"

"You know Professor Oak?" Austin asked.

"Of course." Cynthia replied, "Professor Rowan of Sinnoh does a lot of collaborative research work with him. Besides, his contribution to the development of the modern Pokeball literally changed the world, didn't it?"

That was true. Prior to Oak's invention, pokeballs used to be custom made from certain woods, and were highly expensive, and at the same time, built for specific pokémon only. It was only because of Oak's discovery of the concept of folded space, did mass production of pokeballs actually begin.

Austin blinked for a few seconds before replying ," I have known the professor all my life. He was the one who gave me Pikachu , my starter."

"Ah," Cynthia realized, " So Pikachu is your starter . I figured it would be Bulbasaur after seeing your match today . Quite the luck you have there for catching a royal pokemon in the wild ."

" Guess I am just lucky ." Austin said as Pikachu tapped on his leg and pointed at the ice cream stand while making his most cutest face causing Cynthia to giggle at his antics.

"Please do not encourage him." Austin pleaded.

"Are you trying for the Indigo league then?" Cynthia asked, changing the conversation.

"Yeah, I started off four month ago."

"Four months?" Cynthia raised her eyebrows. "Then you must have had some serious training done in a while. Your pokémon hardly appear newbies."

Austin looked a tad embarrassed. "Well, I'm trying to cut short the training and have some fun too."

Cynthia chuckled. "That's true as well." She paused as she looked up wistfully. "Though I can understand the innate joy of getting one's pokémon to grow powerful."

"Joy." Austin repeated, a little of nostalgia seeping into his voice. He hadn't really thought of pokémon training as joyful. He only wanted them to grow stronger so as to prepare for the events that will happen in the future.

"You don't agree?" Cynthia asked, interested.

Austin took a deep breath as he thought of his answer before saying ," Yeah , I agree ."

Cynthia smiled as Austin was more interesting than what she imagined.

" And what about your own dream ?"

Austin looked at the sky as he smiled. A simple, honest smile. "I just want travel this world and find my way ."

Cynthia opened her mouth, then closed it as she interpreted his words as Austin finding his own purpose while he meant a way he could go back to his own world .

Whatever she had expected of Ash to say, this, definitely, was not it. The person talking to her, was completely unlike the person who had just thrashed an opponent a while ago at the tournament.

"That's…." Cynthia didn't know what to say.

"It's kind of lame, I know." Austin looked away, staring at the heavens where Pidgeot was soaring in the sky. Her injuries from the tournament had been healed and Austin had let her out to enjoy.

Cynthia glanced at the interesting young man in front of her, trying to place why he felt slightly… familiar, though she couldn't make the connection. "Hey, would you like to have an ice-cream?"

Austin looked back in surprise, opening his mouth to express his thoughts, but the offer, had apparently been a limited-period one, since Cynthia had already shifted to the next individual.

Said individual being Pikachu , who looked upbeat at the mention of ice-cream.

"So Pikachu," Cynthia addressed the little monster, "Would you like to have some ice-cream?"

Austin face-palmed.