A rough battle had ensued following the announcement of Twin vs Twin. The crowd continued to shout and cheer in excitement, enjoying the matches that they were witnessing. The twins pairs had both been wiped out and there, in the middle of the battlefield, stood two Absols, who were both still untouched. They continued to circle around the arena, watching each other closely. 

"Absol," both twins said in unison. "Begin!"

Both Absols suddenly started using moves of their own accord, Jake's Absol leapt back and breathed out flames, a fiery cannon of flame shooting outwards to Tristan's Absol, who in turn leapt back into the air and shot out shards of ice from its mouth, the ice beam connecting with the flamethrower. Although the flamethrower was stronger, the ice beam still had enough power to counter the move and it caused a miniature explosion, blurring the vision of the two Absols, who now had no choice but to stand and wait for the smoke to clear. This gave the commentator and also the crowd a few moments to recover. They had never seen something like this.

"I-it seems like the two Absols don't need their trainers, the word 'begin' must be a codeword as part of their training. After all, they are brothers and their Absols are probably connected in the same way. This is absolutely incredible ladies and gentleman!" 

Suddenly, although it seemed like the two Absols were not reacting, a large beam of yellow light erupted and then blasted down onto Jake's Absol. In return, a beam of psychic energy done exactly the same thing, precipitously shooting down into Tristan's Absol, the beam of light hitting and then exploding around him. The yellow energy beam caused an explosion around Jake's Absol in turn. Once the explosions had faded and the smoke cleared, both Absol's had fainted and the match was deemed a draw. The crowd couldn't react still, only murmurs from a few dozen spectators could be heard. 

"Well folks, it seems like we have a draw and now we will hear from the judges" the commentator announced, causing everyone to go quiet. 

After the judges announced their scores, it was clear that both Tristan and Jake had made it to the next round. The other two trainers, however, had faltered and had to step out of the tournament. 

More matches continued throughout the day, with various trainers showing off their Pokemon's skills and capabilities. One by one, each of Ash's friends continued to score 15 or more points, securing their spots in the next round. Once the round was over, they announced that round three was going to be in one week time, which gave everyone and their Pokemon time to rest. There was still 180 people remaining from the 216 and it was only the beginning. 

Several hours later...

"You're battle was incredible!" Gary was reacting to Ash and Clemont's battle, jumping up and down and imitating it with his hands with increasing excitement. "You was like, Pikachu, thunderbolt! And Pikachu was like PIKAAAAAA-CHUUUUUUU! And then-"

"Are you finished?" Ash asked him, sitting down at the table, with all of his friends. Gary straightened up and stared into space blankly. Then, he awkwardly sat in his seat and said nothing.

"Pika.." Pikachu sweatdropped for Gary's sake.

"Anyway, I wonder what round three will be.." Iris broke everyone's thoughts off and made them think even harder about any possibilities. 

"Well, to be honest, we will just have to be ready, right Pikachu?" Ash talked to his best buddy, who nodded with determination in reply. 

"You guys are always so confident" Clemont laughed, with a few nods in agreement around the table.

"Well, so long as we are competing, the plan is to never give up till the end!" Ash replied back, with a prodigious amount of confidence. Everyone else had the same confidence, they were prepared to win no matter what, even if they had to fight till the end.

"Also, we have the ever increasing problem with this Team Shadow," Dawn said, causing an eerie silence to break out around the table. Everyone stopped speaking for the moment, clearly feeling tense about the situation.

"Well, whoever they actually are, they are clearly just here to cause trouble to make it easier to win" May seemingly concluded, but Cilan raised his finger, gesturing he was about to speak but still collecting his thoughts.

"Erm...Do you want to say something?" Iris asked a look of concern as Cilan sat, frozen like a statue with his finger pointing upwards. Everyone on the table sweatdropped and stared at the motionless Cilan.

"Well, I think that is an ulterior motive" Cilan suddenly began talking.

"He talks!" Misty shouted like Cilan was actually a statue.

"They clearly want something else, but that goal is still undetermined" Cilan stopped and the doors opened, the bell above the door ringing.

"Oh, its Miette" Ash said, his head turning to see Miette, who cantered into the cafe and took a seat at the end next to Ash.

"I was just looking around the tournament area and they actually posted the next round a week early" Miette took out a huge poster and laid it out on the table. Everyone climbed over each other, heads poking out between shoulders to get a better angle on the poster.

Round 3 will be a triathlon. First, you will be running alongside a Pokemon of your choosing, then you will be flying on a Pokemon, then you will be riding a Pokemon across the ocean.

The rules are as followed:

For the first event, your Pokemon can use moves to stop other passing trainers who are competing, but they can not injure or cause their opponent harm, all moves must be used with the intention of stopping another person from running on. During the second event, you do not need your own Pokemon, it is on a first come first served basis. This will eliminate many trainers before the final section as there is only a limited number. The same rules apply for the final event, a stretch of the river.

Good luck to the participating trainers, because whoever is in the last quarter during the race, is out. The end of the race should see us with 135 trainers left for round four!

"A triathlon, huh?" Ash jumped up and starting jogging on the spot. "I am SO ready for this!"

"Oh no, I am totally screwed" Clemont moaned, sinking down onto the floor. Bonnie was reading the poster and she picked up her brother, who sat askew on the floor. 

"Now, now brother, if you act like this then you will get nowhere! I will train you to become the best runner in the world!" Bonnie started jogging on the spot aswell, but Clemont groaned.

"No thanks," he said bluntly, making Bonnie stop and stare at him.

"I don't think I made myself clear" her voice was cold, making Clemont shiver. "We are going to start training" Bonnie gripped onto Clemont and dragged him out of the cafe.

"Someone help m--!" Clemont's voice trailed off as he disappeared.

"I hope he will be ok," Serena said with worry, staring at the space Clemont was in.

"With Bonnie, Clemont can do anything" Ash nodded with the utmost amount of confidence. He had so much confidence it was oozing out of his body and radiating the entire room. 

"Maybe you're right" Serena smiled at Ash and noticed Miette grinning out of the corner of her eye. Serena then turned bright red and froze on the spot.

"Erm, you okay, Serena?" Ash asked, noticing that she had frozen.

"Wha-what-t? Me? I am fine!" Serena ushered Miette out of the door with her and left Ash standing alone, staring awkwardly, perplexed by what had just happened. He wondered why she had just randomly frozen after agreeing with him, was she that nervous? The kiss from before replayed at the back of his mind, but Ash thought that couldn't have been it. He still needed answers.

"What is it, lovestruck Serena?" Miette teased, skipping around like a child who had just succeeded in being up to no good.

"Can you stop that?!" Serena blurted out, she was very flustered and her face was redder than that of a Magikarp. 

"Stop what? It is only fun and games" Miette admitted innocently. Serena groaned and slapped herself in the face as if it would do something.

"Maybe I am just dreaming" she murmured to herself.

"Serena, you have to calm down. I was only joking" Miette nodded and then flicked her hair back. "I will stop teasing you, ok? I just think you should be quick about it"

"I just can't find the right time, he is always running off to do other things. I have feelings for Ash that I have never felt before and it is killing me that I haven't told him, but I just can't blurt it out" Serena felt defeated, but a sly smirk curled across Miette's lips. 

"Do not worry, I have a plan!" Miette said, before rushing off and out of sight.

"What do you mean a plan?!" Serena shouted to the running Miette, who ignored her. "Don't do anything stupid! URGH!" Serena stomped in frustration and decided to stay outside for one more minute, taking deep breaths to calm down. What she didn't know was, that Miette didn't need to have a plan. Just a few inches away, peeking out of the crack of the door, a certain person heard every word.

Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town, stood frozen by the door, the information flooding to his head like water shooting out of a dam. AND, he had no idea what to do with it.

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Hey guys, just wanted to let you know that I am going to be making a book with some life stories/rants/discussions. Anything that is going on my life really, to interact more with you guys. Is it something you want to see? A comment or a message would be lovely because I don't get many when I ask things of you guys, but I would like to know if you would be interested in seeing what I have been up to for 16 years xD