It had been a long wait, but the day finally came. Vincent and Ricky had trained hard for this day, but they knew that so many other competitors did as well. They watched the opening of the broadcast across college on the TV screen at the college's entrance. To their surprise, Rachel and Charles were the two presenters.
"Wow. I guess they have a thing for presentation. At least the reporters will be ones we know."
Ricky commented. Vincent nodded in agreement, looking at the first two pairs head out to the battlefield.
"And here they are! The first double battle teams are ready to go."
Rachel commented, observing the Sandslash and and Pignite on one side of the battlefield while a Pangoro and a Zangoose stood on the other side of the battlefield. The four stood their ground before a referee, a Beartic, began the battle.

After a long battle, it was Pangoro and Zangoose that moved on; they outperformed their opponents in almost every way.
"Well, that's one way to show your strength! A very powerful display to their future opponents!"
Charles commented.
"Very true. It's still early, but it looks as though they will be formidable opponents in the upcoming rounds."
Rachel added.

After a few more battles, Vincent and Ricky were in for the shock of their day. As they looked at the next two teams, they saw a Servine and a Morowak take their positions on one side of the battlefield and Ryan and Blaze on the other.
"Wait a minute! Is that..."
Vincent could hardly believe it.
"Yeah, I think it's them..."
Ricky replied.
Not only that, but as the battle progressed, they were truly dominating their opponents, despite Morowak's type advantage. Servine was weak to both of the Pokemon however, quickly being eliminated. Struggling to keep up with both Pokemon, Morowak's typing wasn't enough to keep him in the battle, having him eliminated a few moves after Servine.
"Wow! Blaze and Ryan barely broke a sweat! That may be the best performance we've seen so far."
Charles announced.
"They were so in sync, which is one reason why they won, no doubt!"
Rachel continued.
Vincent and Ricky were in a state of pure shock.
"What have we just witnessed?!"
Vincent cried, desperately shocked.
"Okay, calm down. We've trained hard for this, and we'll continue to. For now, we need to win round one. You think we can do that?"
Ricky asked.
"Of course. It's them I'm worried about."
Vincent replied.
"Look, there's no guarantee we'll battle them. We still have to focus on progressing at all right now."
Ricky was trying to reassure him.
"Yeah... yeah. You're right."
Vincent stood up from the bench he was sitting on.
"We've got this."

Ricky and Vincent were called up as the last battlers for the round. They faced off against a powerful looking Excadrill and a Dragonite.
"I don't like the look of that Dragonite..."
Ricky told Vincent. Ricky was actually in a fair bit of trouble, considering he had no effective moves against Dragonite and was also weak to Excadrill's Arsenal of moves.
"Don't worry. I've got your back. I'll handle that Dragonite."
Vincent replied, more confident as typing wasn't an issue for him.

The battle began, and Excadrill immediately used dig.
"A dig early on... is this a sign of things to come?"
Charles asked, the Excadrill invisible. Lucario had to use his aura to detect him. As he concentrated, Vincent was engaging with the dragonite, his Shadow claw hittting the Dragonite's dragon claw. Both attacks cancelled each other out, and Vincent had to dodge a dragon tail with very quick thinking.

Excadrill emerged from the ground, but Ricky had sensed him, able to avoid it. Getting hit with a ground type move this early wouldn't be good. Lucario used bone rush, swinging at the Excadrill with all that he had. The Excadrill used metal claw to block it, making a loud 'clang' every time the bone and the defensive claws connected. Eventually, the bone broke through Excadrill's defence, and Ricky swung at the Excadrill. Ricky couldn't have wished for a better hit. The bone hit Excadrill square in the stomach, sending him flying back. Ricky's bone rush dissipated as the Excadrill got back up, stumbling.

Vincent was having a fairly easy time against the Dragonite. As the dragonite powered up a dragon claw, Vincent used fury swipes to dodge the attack and inflict damage of his own, every swipe hitting his target and draining his HP with every hit that connected.

As the battle neared its end, Ricky and Vincent were beginning to tire. Ricky had suffered a hit from dig while Vincent had been bounced off of the ground with a dragon tail and knocked back further with a thunder punch. They had landed some hits of their own however, as Lucario had hit every punch from a close combat attack and Vincent's dark pulse landed a direct hit. The problem was that Excadrill and Dragonite were larger, bulkier opponents, meaning more effort would be needed to topple them, and Vincent and Ricky weren't sure how they would get that energy.

Ricky was fiercely defending against a series of attacks as he built up his energy, knowing he would end the battle soon. After a few more defences, Ricky countered with an aura sphere, and although it was only half effective, Excadrill had had enough. He fainted, leaving Dragonite alone.

He himself didn't last, as being blasted back with a dark pulse was enough to finish him. With that, Vincent and Ricky had won, against the odds.
"And in amazing turn of events, Ricky and Vincent have won it!"
Rachel told the crowd.
"If they keep up such determination in the future, they'll be candidates to win for sure!"
Charles added.
Vincent and Ricky were pretty satisfied with that win.
"I'm not gonna lie; that was tough."
Vincent told Ricky.
"It was, but you know what? We won, and we're going to move on because of it."
Vincent nodded.
"Of course. Well fought. Let's make it all the way to the finals."
Ricky smiled.
"Agreed."

Ricky returned home, the tournament taking its first intermission. Blaze had some explaining to do; she hadn't told anyone that Ryan would be her battling partner. Two fire types would land Ricky in a lot of trouble, so battling them both really wasn't ideal. Hopefully they wouldn't make it as far as them, but only time will tell.

There you have it! The battle tournament has begun. Hopefully you guys enjoyed this part; I hope it wasn't too short. Anyhow, thanks for reading, and I'll see you in the next chapter.