Sometime later on the deck of the ship , Austin and the others were talking.

" You really surprised us , Misty ." Austin said with a sweat drop as Misty was holding onto Brock's ear.

" Well , Rudy convinced me to enter into the tournament."

" Oh ! Speaking of Rudy , where is he ? "

" He said he had call to attend to ."

Austin said before feeling something push against his leg.

Looking down , it was Yellow's tentacool who was having a conversation with Squirtle.

" Brock , can you tell me more about the Alola region ? "

" Well , Ash i don't know much but from my research , there isn't a pokemon league in the Alola region and the region comprises of many islands each with their unique ecosystem. The region is considered as a vacation hotspot"

Austin nodded as he was reminded of hawaii.

" Hey, Ash?" Came a somewhat uncertain voice from behind.

Austin spun around instantly, surprised to see Shirona standing there, behind him. "I uh… came to congratulate you for the match. That final move literally kicked that Kingdra's ass." The moment she spoke those words, Misty spun around, as Cynthia shut her mouth, realizing who the other person was as Brock appeared in front of Cynthia with a bouquet of flowers .

" May I ask from which part of heaven have you descended from ."

Cynthia looked confused as Zubat bit Brock's neck with a leech life as he fell to the ground.

Austin face palmed himself as Yellow and Kris came towards the group.

Cynthia looked at Misty while saying "Uh… no offence really. Your Kingdra was pretty powerful too."

"Thanks." Misty replied tersely, glaring at the blonde-haired girl in front of her, and wondering what she might have to do with Ash. "And you are?"

"She's Shirona." Austin introduced, "she's with the Sinnoh League envoys."

Misty raised an eyebrow. She had met the League envoys that were residing in the rooms on her side, and this girl wasn't one of them. She stepped forward elegantly, extending her hand at the stranger. "Pleased to meet you."

Cynthia shook her hand gingerly. "Likewise."

"So you are a trainer?"

"Nah!" It was Austin who answered. "She's a veteran, who now does some boring, unspeakable job for the Sinnoh league. Though, I am supposed to believe that she can kick ass whenever she wants."

Cynthia chortled at that explanation. "That sounds about right."

Yellow and Kris looked at Cynthia in awe .

"You seem to know an awful lot about her." Misty accused, keeping any and all kinds of hostility from her voice. Something about the girl's association with Ash didn't feel good to her.

"Yes," Cynthia chuckled. "Ash did treat me to ice-cream the previous day, rather magnanimous considering he almost lost all his money."

Misty looked questioningly at Ash before elbowing yellow who was frozen in shock while Kris looked worried for her friend.

"Don't ask." Austin scowled. "Anyway, this is Misty Waterflower." He introduced her to Cynthia. "She is a wannabe Water-Master and knows stuff about water pokémon like you wouldn't believe."

Misty blushed under the praise as Austin continued ," That's Brock , he is a bit encentric but is a great guy."

" This is my friend yellow, she ...." Austin said before Yellow's introduction was cut off by Austin getting shocked by pikachu as tentacool had eaten all of the ketchup packets.

Cynthia placed a hand over her mouth to stop herself from laughing at Austin's misery while an extremely worried Yellow came to help Austin up with pikachu looking ashamed before Cynthia scratched the back of Pikachu's ear. "So Ash…" Cynthia began, "I was wondering if we could talk about the… issue earlier?"

Something about Austin's stance shifted. "Are you going to call my pokémon unnatural again?"

Brock and the others looked confused at the weird conversation the duo was having.

Cynthia raised her hands in surrender. "I am not, and seriously, stop with the defensive act. I just pointed out that your Charmander has… issues. Jeez, I didn't threaten you with killing it."

"I have problems with anyone calling any of my pokémon, that." Austin returned sternly.

"Okay." Cynthia, still hands-raised. "Sorry." She replied coolly. "Your Clefairy is pretty powerful though," she stopped midway, before continuing, "as is that Kingdra." She stared at Misty. "You must have trained her pretty well."

"She's been with me since I was four, when she was a Horsea. Protected me against a bunch of Tentacruel."

Cynthia raised an eyebrow. A Horsea standing against Tentacruel? "That was certainly brave of her. Tentacruel are rather… ruthless."

"Do you have Tentacruel back there in Sinnoh?"

"No, but you do get to meet the occasional trainer with one of those things. The world's pretty small, you know." Cynthia answered. And for the record, that Gyarados of yours looked practically legendary. I have never seen anything that large in my life."

"She's… special." Misty answered, flushing slightly.

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

" Finally, we have our Top-4 contestants for our Clubsplosion event. On Team One, we have Harrison from Little Root Town of Hoenn, who will be facing Ash from Pallet Town of Kanto. On Team 2, we have Ritchie from Frodomar city, also of Kanto, who will be facing Jon Dickson of Sento Cherry Town of Johto."

The commentator paused for a moment. "Our judge panel has decided that between the defeated contestants of Team 1 and Team 2, whoever has attained more points in the battles so far will be declared the second-runner up for the tournament."

That rule was true to the standard rules of the League. For every single battle, a trainer was awarded points, based on his intuitiveness, his pokémon, his ability to think outside the box, and of course, the number of straight victories he had up to that point. Considering all of that, each trainer would get a specific point out of ten, which were given by the judges.

The scoreboard flashed as the contents altered, instead showing the faces of the four champions, and their respective points that each of them had scored until now.

Ash had scored a total of 48 out of 60 while Harrison a 51 out of 60. Ritchie on the other hand, had a 42 out of 60 while Jon Dickson had a 47. All in all, Harrison had been leading amongst the top-4 participants.

"So, let's start with Team 1, please welcome, Ash Ketchum and Harrison."

Harrison, who had been standing beside Austin all this while, gave a soft tap on his shoulder. "I guess, this is it. One of us will go to the finals."

"Yeah," Austin agreed, feeling a little odd at considering that it would be only one who could progress to the finals.

He knew this match wasn't going to be easy.

Jon Dickson and Harrison both were pokemon league winners in the anime.

"Then again, it's pretty good for a rookie to get to the semi-finals with so many experienced trainers around. You should be proud of yourself if you don't make it any further." Harrison taunted good-naturedly.

"Yeah, when I defeat you, you'll know how those experienced trainers felt when I moved up and they didn't." Austin countered while he clenched his sweaty palms as he was very anxious about the match.

If one episode trainer's like Giselle were more powerful in then then anime counter parts, did that mean people like Harrison were even more stronger ?

"Trainers Ash and Harrison, please take your places." The referee commanded. The platform let out a hiss, as it slowly sunk down, to be replaced by a thick layer of solid ice. "The battleground for the match will be ice." The man paused again before continuing. "This will be a three-on-three battle, rotations allowed mid-battle. The first person to lose three pokémon, loses." He lifted the red flag, "Red trainer chooses first."

Harrison, who was standing on the Red position, lifted a pokeball up in the air, as he threw it into the icy platform. "Go, Houndoom."