Chapter 13.

As the Conference got closer, more and more trainers showed up and the entire housing area was filled with trainers by the day of the Conference. Unfortunately, Ash couldn't find any of his friends anywhere, although that might be because there were so many people. On the day of the Conference's opening the announcer told everyone how the preliminary rounds would be done.

"The first five rounds will be one-on-one battles, with each day having the participants using a different battlefield! The five different battlefields the trainers will have to use are; an open plain, a field of ice, a dense forest, a mountainous rocky area, and an underwater arena! Once we move to the starting brackets of the tournament, we will have an open battlefield with the trainers using three Pokémon per battle, with the quarter finalists using an entire team! The trainers were separated into different blocks to decide in what order they will use each battlefield!"

Ash was in block C, he would be in the plain, then ice field, then the underwater battlefield, then the rocky area and finally the forest. Ash wanted to use Charizard for the plains, Aegislash for the ice, and Kingdra for the underwater battles. But wasn't sure who to use between the last two fields. Infernape, Sceptile, Butterfree and Heracross were all good options for any of them, and deciding who to use was something he was still having problems with. Maybe waiting and seeing what Pokémon his opponent used would give him a slightly better idea on who was the better option.

The first battle Ash had was pretty underwhelming, he fought a trainer from Johto who used a Typhlosion to fight Charizard. But the Typhlosion just wasn't able to keep up with Charizard's power and got knocked out after Charizard completely consumed Typhlosion's attempt at a Fire Blast with his own. The next day was a bit more interesting when his opponent released a Cloyster as he sent out Aegislash.

"Begin!"

"Cloyster, Hydro Pump!" it wasn't quite as powerful as Greninja's, but the attack was about the size of Kingdra's so Ash was slightly concerned about this match going either way.

"King's Shield, don't take them lightly." Ash said as Cloyster's attack was halfway to Aegislash. Aegislash glowed with Steel-type energy before a semi-transparent copy of Aegislash's shield formed in front of her to stop the attack. "Flash Team." Aegislash moved her shield to one of her arms before holding it in front of her and charging the energy for Flash Cannon, then multiplying perfectly into about fifteen clones, all with their own Flash Cannons charged and waiting for release.

"Protect!" the other trainer yelled as Aegislash launched her attacks. Cloyster responded immediately by closing its shell and having a shield of Normal-type energy surround it on all sides, protecting it from the attacks.

"Iron Head and Sacred Sword, keep it up until they concede. King's Shield if you need to." After seeing how much time Cloyster needed to recover from the Hydro Pump Ash realized that the other trainer must have focused more on using their strongest moves fast, rather than being able to use the power consistently. So long as Aegislash kept pushing it, she should be able to win. Ash watched as Aegislash covered her shield with Steel-type energy while her other arm was cloaked with Fighting-type energy. She smacked and slashed Cloyster without stopping for almost three minutes without the Cloyster being able to get away and attack. After one harsh Iron Head that threw Cloyster across the field, its shell opened, revealing it was unconscious.

"Cloyster is unable to continue, the winner is Aegislash and Ash Ketchum of Pallet town!"

On his way back to the house, Ash found Gary waiting for him at the stadium's exit.

"Ash!" he said, "I almost thought you were avoiding me and gramps until I actually went out and tried to find you. This place is packed."

"Wait, Professor Oak is here too? And you're staying with him?" Ash asked.

"Yea. He has a small property here because of being a retired Elite Four member. Although, Agatha keeps trying to get gramps to battle her. Apparently she kept trying to take his position as the strongest Elite, but wasn't able to beat him before he retired."

"Woah, I didn't realize his team was that strong." Ash said. Yea, Dragonite and Charizard were monsters, and Pidgeot was apparently really strong, and Ash learned Alakazam was also part of his team, but Agatha was the obvious strongest Elite Four member of Kanto since before Ash could even remember. Either she really got stronger after Professor Oak retired, or he was just that strong.

"Yea. Apparently he also had a Gyarados and Dodrio that were some of his strongest, but after one of Dodrio's heads got a pretty bad injury, he retired almost as soon as he could. I don't blame him honestly. I couldn't imagine having a single team like that and then one of them having such a harsh injury." Ash winced and agreed. Each of Dodrio's heads were important for different bodily functions. If one of them is injured, they usually don't live for very long. Professor Oak probably had his team spend Dodrio's last few weeks together. It was easy to image he wouldn't have the heart to battle anymore. Ash couldn't begin to imagine how he would be able to battle if any of his team died.

"You're really luck you don't have to share a house with anyone out with the rest of us." Ash told him. "There are so many trainers going through the walkways out here that you can hardly move. Looking for someone is almost impossible here. So, what block are you in?"

"I'm in B. I've already won my battle for the day but I wasn't able to completely manhandle my opponents like you did." Gary said. "That Aegislash is a beast, but after seeing Charizard and knowing about your Grovyle, I'm not surprised you were able to find one. Gramps wouldn't tell me anything about it though."

Ash smiled as he thought of some of the training he has done with Aegislash and said, "Yea. When I found her she was almost dead honestly. She refused to eat anyone's life force and since no one had caught her she didn't have access to the Pokémon Center's restoration machines. Thankfully I found her in time and she's been one of my more skilled Pokémon after she got to a good level of power."

Gary whistled. "Wow, I'm surprised. Ghosts usually don't feel that strongly about people to not get any kind of food. My Mismagius definitely isn't like that. I actually found her when she tried to use some of my life force to heal herself after a battle."

The two of them started walking to Ash's house talking about some of the harder battles they had during their journey's and Ash learned that Gary actually almost missed the Conference, only getting his eighth badge about a week before it started. Apparently he used his Arcanine the first day and his Mismagius the second, and was able to beat his opponents, but not without taking a few heavy shots in the process.

On the third day of the preliminaries, Ash and Kingdra fought a pretty strong Seaking.

"Begin!"

"Seaking, Drill Run!" the other trainer said. Seaking lowered its horn before it glowed with Ground-type energy and rushed to Kingdra.

"Dragon Pulse. Push it away and let it tire out before you let it get close." Ash said, remembering how Seaking are typically more powerful with attacks involving their horn than actually special attacking.

The following few minutes were filled with Seaking's trainer trying to find a way to get close to Kingdra before noticing just how tired Seaking was getting.

"Dammit! Seaking! Give it everything you've got, Giga Impact!" the other trainer ordered, with a bit of panic after seeing Kingdra calmly keep Seaking away so easily.

"Kingdra, counter if you can. If not Hyper Beam." Kingdra took a moment to brace herself before watching Seaking charge at her carefully. As Seaking got close enough, she spun and twisted slightly before slamming the Seaking into the wall with one powerful hit. Kingdra then lifted her snout and began charging raw energy before firing a massive Hyper Beam at Seaking before it could recover, knocking it out instantly.

"Seaking is unable to battle! Kingdra and Ash Ketchum are the victors!"

His next battle was against someone who used a Tauros, Jynx, and then a Poliwrath in the previous battles so Ash felt a little safer going with Infernape in the mountain field. Unfortunately, as Ash released Infernape, his opponent decided to use a Flygon, apparently a Ground/Dragon type from Hoenn.

"Begin!"

"Flygon, Dragon Rush!" the other trainer said.

Ash's eyes widened. "Infernape, Dig! When you get out, hit it with Mach Combat!" Dragon Rush was one of the strongest Dragon-type moves in existence. The only two that were stronger, Draco Meteor and Outrage, had very annoying drawbacks that most trainers just don't like dealing with, so they settle with mastering Dragon Rush than the other attacks. Infernape dug underground quickly and Flygon crashed into the ground and Ash watched as the Dragon-type energy dissipated.

"Hahaha, wow. You really are a rookie, Flygon use Earthquake. Finish this up quickly." Ash rolled his eyes. Obviously the trainer was talking about Ash having Infernape using Dig against a Pokémon that could fly. As Flygon lifted its leg to pour its energy into the ground and use Earthquake, Infernape jumped out of the ground and blasted the Flygon away before rushing at it with Mach Punch and pummeling the Dragon-type. After getting hit with a few punches and kicks, the Flygon spun around and hit Infernape away with its tail covered in Dragon-type energy. As it finished its spin, the energy from the tail transferred to its mouth and Ash watched it fire a Dragon Pulse incredibly quickly.

"Fire Blast." Infernape would have to throw everything it could to overpower that with as little time to be able to charge up his attack. Surprisingly, Infernape was able to twist enough to face the attack head-on and let loose a very powerful Fire Blast. Ash was even more surprised when the Fire Blast blew the Dragon Pulse apart and that the Flygon was too surprised to avoid the attack and got a nasty burn on the front of its right wing.

"Lucky shot. Flygon, Earth Power!"

"Infernape, Mach Punch. Push it." Infernape was happy to interrupt Flygon as it tried to use the powerful Ground-type attack. Unfortunately Flygon twisted again and knocked Infernape high into the air with a Slam before charging a large ball of Dragon-type energy above its mouth and shooting it into the air. Realizing what it was, Ash decided to try something. The worst that could happen is something that would have happened anyway.

"Infernape! Hit it back with Iron Tail!" Infernape took a moment to recall exactly how to use Steel-type energy since Ash hadn't had him work with it quite as much as the others, but was able to use the attack well enough before turning so he would fall directly over the ascending ball of energy. Quickly spinning to add a bit more force to the attack, Infernape hit the attack with his tail, reversing its direction and watched as it landed on the exhausted Flygon before exploding and throwing the Pokémon across the battlefield with a trail of smoke.

"Flygon is unable to battle! The winners are Infernape and Ash of Pallet!" the referee said after almost ten second of the Flygon not moving after it landed.

Ash was incredibly proud of Infernape being able to pull off the impromptu counter, which of course made the ape Pokémon walk with a swagger for the rest of the day.

The only real issue Ash had with any of his battles was on the fifth day when Ash decided to let Butterfree fight in the forest and Sceptile and Heracross fight the following day since the three-on-three battles would begin. Ash released Butterfree, who was easily six feet tall at this point and surprising Ash with his size every time he actually payed attention to it now. It's not often that a Butterfree is as big as a Charizard, after all. At the same time, his opponent released a Scizor and laughed at Ash's choice in Pokémon.

"You brought a Butterfree? Wow I was actually looking forward to this match with some of the powerhouses you brought in the last few rounds, but now I almost feel insulted."

"Begin!"

"Scizor, Bullet Punch!"

"Avoid it Butterfree." Ash had stopped telling Butterfree when to use Quiver Dance. By this point, if Butterfree deemed its opponent strong enough, he would use it. While Butterfree did avoid the Bullet Punch, he didn't gain the glow of Bug-type energy that normally showed Quiver dace,one using the same movements to avoid the attack. He then turned, quickly shooting a Shadow Ball at the speeding Scizor, throwing it into a tree with a lot of force. Before anyone else could react, Butterfree used an Air Slash that was strong enough to actually cut Scizor deeply, despite its body being as hard as steel. Seeing the Scizor get up again and try to use an attack, Butterfree shot another Shadow Ball at it which blew up and actually threw it straight through a few trees.

"Scizor is unable to battle! Butterfree and Ash win!" The referee said, although he looked like he never expected to say that in his life. Ash grinned as Butterfree flew back to him and chattered proudly about his win. At least half of the stadium was too astonished to know how to react, while the others were cheering Ash's name, making said boy blush at the sudden realization that he was finally past the preliminary rounds and into the real Conference battles now.

Apparently, Ash has to fight three people to get to the quarter finals. Letting his team know that they had passed the preliminaries made all of his Pokémon heavily praise the ones who battled which had many of them quite bashful about the praise, while Charizard soaked it up with pride. Sceptile seemed to really want to prove his strength after that.

Ash's next opponent, Jeremy Sprites, was definitely a veteran trainer. The guy looked like he was in his early twenties, and according to his previous matches, his Pokémon weren't weak either. Ash decided to start with Sceptile, and his opponent started with a Feraligatr.

"Begin!"

"Dragon Dance, Feraligatr!"

"Stop it." Ash said, without saying anything else. Sceptile got the hint and rushed at his full speed, blurring until he was almost invisible before hitting the Feraligatr with a Slam and throwing an Energy Ball at it immediately after. The Feraligatr was caught completely off-guard when Sceptile suddenly appeared in front of it and used his tail to throw him across the battlefield. Seeing the Energy Ball homing in quickly, Feraligatr was able to move and break the attack apart with an Ice Punch before using Aqua Jet to rush back in at Sceptile.

"Dragon Claw to intercept it." Ash said, again getting an instantaneous reaction from Sceptile who caught the rushing Johto starter, despite being pushed a few feet backwards. Sceptile then spun his arms around to throw the Feraligatr off balance, before slashing with a Dragon-type energy fueled attack that hit the Feraligatr hard. "Giga Drain, Sceptile." Ash said. Sceptile quickly formed a small ball of Grass-type energy and carefully pushed it at Feraligatr before pulling his arms back once it made contact. Feraligatr was barely able to fight back before passing out.

"Feraligatr is unable to battle! Sceptile wins!"

Jeremy waited a moment to think on his next Pokémon, before releasing a strong looking Shiftry. Ash took the opportunity to thank whoever made the rules to allow trainers to use their Pokédex during Conferences.

"Begin!"

"Shiftry, Hurricane!" Shiftry pulled back his fan like hands and brought them together fast and picked up a huge wind.

"Sceptile, Rock Slide to cover yourself. Don't let the attack get you." Sceptile immediately coated his arms in Rock-type energy before making a large mound of boulders over top of himself. As soon as the winds of the attack died down, Sceptile rushed out of the tomb he had made and used the most powerful X-scissor he could. He followed by using Acrobatics and hitting Shiftry repeatedly with the Flying-type attack before it could even react.

"Sucker Punch!" Jeremy yelled, hoping to get a strong hit on Sceptile before Shiftry couldn't continue. Shiftry did end up hitting Sceptile, but not strong enough to stop Sceptile's last attack. Both of them tried to get up a few times, but after failing repeatedly the referee decided to call the match.

"Both Shiftry and Sceptile cannot continue! Trainers, send out your next Pokémon."

Ash had already decided on Heracross, and his opponent had chosen a Pinsir that they released at the same time. Ash chuckled at the coincidence, Pinsir and Heracross had become somewhat "rival" Pokémon of the same species to the point if a group of them found each other in the wild, they would have multiple competitions to beat the other.

"Begin!"

"Heracross, Rock Slide." Ash said quickly, hoping to take advantage of Heracross' natural instincts of competition to push him faster.

"Iron Defense, Pinsir." Pinsir yelled before its body gave off a shine from the Steel-type energy it was channeling.

"Shadow Claw, Heracross!"

"Throat Chop!" Ash had never heard of the move before, but was able to figure out it was a Dark-type move after seeing the energy form around its arms. The clash of the two attack was intense, with Pinsir's attack having the clear type advantage but Heracross able to push back through sheer strength. Heracross followed by raising his other arm like he was going to use Brick Break, but channeled Rock-type energy, before using it to smash Pinsir into the ground. Making it stumble around for a moment before Heracross finished with another Smack Down to its head.

"Pinsir is unable to battle! Jeremy is out of usable Pokémon so the winner is Heracross and Ash Ketchum!"

Listening to some of the news coverage of the Indigo Conference a few hours later was interesting, but a little embarrassing at the same time. They just kept going on and on about Ash still being a rookie and yet showing he has a right to be in Conference, especially after the power his Pokémon had shown in the first multi-Pokémon battle.

Gary scoffed as he walked in after hearing the news caster. "Of course you deserve your place there. I have yet to see anyone else who has trained their team as hard as you have. Yea, some of them have more experience and are just older, but you still have some of them beat."

"Thanks Gary. You still bummed about not making it past the prelims?" Ash asked, not really worried about offending him.

"Nah," he said, "I never really realized I didn't have a Pokémon ready for a forest environment. That Victreebel had a serious advantage against Mismagius there. So who are you using tomorrow?"

"I'm thinking of continuing to use Heracross and Sceptile to keep people guessing at the rest of my team. I already used half of my Pokémon during the preliminaries, so I might just use one of the others again if those two get taken out."

"If? I get you're confident, but you can't expect them to take out three Pokémon on their own each round." Gary said.

"Well yea. Obviously expecting that from them is unreasonable, especially because I don't know much about my opponents. I'm fairly certain they can handle most Pokémon after the training they've been going through, but I know there are some that will just too strong for them." Ash told him. Ash spent the rest of the day with Sceptile helping Butterfree learn Roost. Roost was similar enough to Synthesis for the Sceptile to have enough experience to help Butterfree.

The next day, Ash was fighting Jonathan Martin, a trainer from Johto who looked a couple of years older than Ash. Ash sent Heracross out first this time, and Jonathan released a Noctowl.

"Begin!"

"Noctowl, Air Slash." Jonathan said calmly.

"Rock Slide, protect yourself." Ash said with the same tone. Most of Ash's opponents were very excitable people, it would be interesting to fight someone who could keep their cool in battle. Heracross formed a large amount of rocks that were able to block the Air Slashes. After the final the attack was blocked by the rocks, Heracross enhanced himself with Fighting-type energy and rushed at Noctowl for a powerful Close Combat.

"Psychic, Noctowl." Ash cursed. Noctowl was immune to Ghost-type energy, so trying to stop Psychic with that move would be less than effective.

Ash decided to go with the next best thing. "Megahorn!" while not quite as effective as a Ghost- or Dark-type attack, Megahorn was still enough to disrupt the Psychic. The Megahorn/Close Combat combination was even too much for the Noctowl. After an additional Brick Break, the Noctowl laid unconscious on the ground.

"Noctowl is unable to battle, Heracross is the winner!"

Jonathan sent out a strong looking Yanmega, one of the Pokémon who require learning a specific move to evolve, rather than battle experience or age.

"Begin!"

"Yanmega, Bug Buzz." Yanmega's wings glowed with energy for a second before the attack created a strange distortion in the air with a noise buzzing from it as well. Heracross was visibly off-balance for a moment before he righted himself, charged a Stone Edge and threw the attack at Yanmega. The Yanmega, despite its large size, was able to avoid the attack easily. An Air Slash and Signal Beam were launched at Heracross, who was barely able to avoid the attacks. This back and forth happened for a few minutes with powerful attacks being used effortlessly by the two Pokémon, before Yanmega was clipped by a stone, and Heracross was hit by Signal Beam. Heracross was knocked back and after standing for another moment falls over unconscious, while Yanmega was still flying seemingly unaffected by the intense battle it just had.

"Heracross is unable to battle, Yanmega is the winner!"

Realizing that Sceptile would be at a very harsh disadvantage here, Ash decided to let Charizard make another appearance.

"Begin!"

"Charizard, Flame Burst. Rapid Fire." One of the things Ash had realized while training his Pokémon was that having them use weaker moves that took less time to charge let them fire full power attacks so fast and close to each other that they became almost impossible to avoid. Charizard had been practicing his Flame Bursts on Sceptile and Greninja, Yanmega stood no chance.

"Yanmega is unable to battle, Charizard wins!"

Jonathan recalled Yanmega and sent out an Ampharos without saying a word.

"Begin!"

The small ball on the end of Ampharos' tail and head glowed with Electric-type energy while Charizard charged up a Fire Blast. As Ampharos let loose a powerful Zap Cannon, Charizard overpowered it with Fire Blast before rushing in and hitting Ampharos with a Dragon Claw, then Slam, and finally another Fire Blast at point blank range. Ampharos didn't stand a chance after such a devastating combo.

"Ampharos is unable to battles! Jonathan is out of usable Pokémon, so the winners are Charizard and Ash!"

As Ash, Gary, and Professor Oak were talking about his performance in the Conference, they started talking about his next opponent. Ash was hopeful about his next match. According to his previous matches, Clay Simone, was about as strong as his last opponent. So far he had used a Sandslash, Machamp, Gyarados, Venusaur and Dewgong. All of them were decently strong, a little stronger than Ash's team was as they were training in Cinnabar, but after having them fight with Mewtwo as much as they had been, he wasn't worried about the match very much.

As Ash stood across from his opponent the following day, he was thinking of how he would react against the different Pokémon his opponent could release. He chose to start with Sceptile again today to make up for not letting him battle yesterday, while Clay decided to start with his Venusaur.

"Begin!"

"Venusaur, Sludge Bomb! Then Outrage." Clay yelled. Ash was surprised, Outrage was incredibly powerful for a Dragon-type attack. But because of how much energy is poured through the Pokémon using the attack, it leaves them with a massive feeling of weakness and a large headache.

"Acrobatics to avoid them. If you get a clear shot hit him, but otherwise keep your distance." Ash said after barely a moment of thought. Venusaur belched out a large ball of Poison-type energy that exploded near Sceptile before letting out at least twenty vines covered in Dragon-type energy. Sceptile was able to dodge most of the vines, but every time he had a clear shot to hit Venusaur, one of the vines would suddenly zero in on him and smack him away with a hard swipe. Throughout the next few minutes, the Venusaur would slowly lose strength and collapse, completely exhausted and nearly unconscious. Sceptile was trying to stand proudly, but Ash could see where the Outrage had done a lot of damage.

"Venusaur is unable to continue! Sceptile wins!"

Clay's next Pokémon was his Machamp, who cracked its knuckles as it stared Sceptile down.

"Begin!"

"Sceptile, Energy Ball. Keep your distance, make it move to you." Ash said.

"Bullet Punch, Machamp!" The four-armed Pokémon focused on Sceptile for a moment before its fists glowed with Steel-type energy and Machamp blurred forward.

"Sceptile, Leaf Blade!" Ash ordered quickly. Machamp are typically slow moving Pokémon, he was definitely not expecting one to be able to move so quickly. Sceptile was able get a swipe of his Leaf Blade to cut across Machamp's chest, but the four arms launching hundreds of Bullet Punches in the following second was enough to knock Sceptile out and across the battlefield.

"Sceptile is unable to battle, the winner is Machamp!"

Ash recalled Sceptile and released Heracross the next moment. If the Bug-type realized Ash didn't let him fight such a strong Fighting-type, Heracross would have a chip on his shoulder the rest of the tournament. 'Thank all of the gods that Infernape isn't that prideful.' Ash thought before he refocused on his match.

"Begin!"

"Fire Punch, Machamp. Get in close." Machamp's fists glowed with fire before he rushed at Heracross.

"Close Combat." Ash said, planning on Heracross avoiding the Fire Punch enough to not get too badly burned. After Heracross got a good few hits on Machamp and knocked the wind out of it with Megahorn, Heracross used his horn to throw Machamp away. Ash noticed that Heracross' left arm looked like it had a harsh burn on it and Ash suppressed a grin. With a burn like that Guts would be in full swing and Heracross would be able to use much more power behind his attacks. Heracross flew at Machamp with a Shadow Claw ready and slashed at Machamp's exposed gut, knocking it out as the pain grew too large.

"Machamp is unable to battle, Heracross is the winner!"

Clay decided to let out Gyarados and the nearly twenty-five foot long water serpent immediately roared angrily toward the sky.

"Begin!"

"Stone Edge, Gyarados!" Clay yelled, clearly hoping his Pokémon put enough power into the attack to finish Heracross.

"Counter it with your own Heracross!" Ash said. Unfortunately for Heracross, its aim was just slightly off and the two traded hits with the Rock-type attack. While Gyarados did take a significant amount of damage from the attack, Heracross was dangerously cut up and knocked unconscious very quickly.

"Heracross is unable to battle! Gyarados wins!" the referee was apparently getting excited seeing the Pokémon throw such powerful attacks back and forth. Thinking for a moment, Ash decided to let Butterfree have another chance to show off in the Conference. He didn't want to show off Greninja yet, Charizard already had a second battle, and Infernape and Kingdra would have problems since they didn't actually have attacks that had an advantage over a Gyarados, so Butterfree it was.

"I didn't think I would get to fight that Butterfree." Clay said. "It's definitely bigger in person than on television that's for sure. Gyarados! That Butterfree is strong enough to cut Steel-types, don't underestimate it!" the Gyarados roared in response, without taking its eyes off of Butterfree.

"Begin!"

"Butterfree, Sunny Beam!" Sunny Day was perfect for fighting Water-types, weakening the power of most of their attacks was always a good thing.

"Fire Blast Gyarados! Then Stone Edge!" Gyarados shot a blast of fire almost as strong as Infernape's before surrounding itself with stones and shooting them at Butterfree. Butterfree meanwhile was still charging energy for a Solarbeam, making Ash wonder why he was taking so long. Typically he can fire a Solarbeam almost instantly after Sunny Day. He was just about to yell at Butterfree to move before it was unleashed. The beam was absolutely gigantic, nearly as large as Butterfree was, tore through the Fire Blast and Stone Edge before slamming into Gyarados. Making it roar angrily and try to push back the massive attack, but proving too powerful for the Pokémon. After unleashing the attack for nearly thirty seconds, Butterfree let it fade and revealed Gyarados completely unmoving on the ground, unconscious.

"Gyarados is unable to battle! Clay has no more usable Pokémon, the winners are Butterfree and Ash!" the referee said, looking at Butterfree in awe, as were many people in the stands. That kind of attack was completely unexpected from a Butterfree, even one the size of Ash's. Hell, most Grass-types would have a problem launching a Solarbeam that powerful. Butterfree flew over to Ash, pride obvious in each movement and Ash almost burst out laughing at seeing Butterfree act like one of his dragons.

Recalling Butterfree and taking his Pokémon to the Center had Ash being stopped by almost every trainer he came across to ask him how he trained such a normally weak Pokémon to be so strong. All he would say was that Butterfree just fought hard to keep up with the rest of his team, no reason to tell everyone about who Butterfree would spar with, or why he felt the need to keep up so badly. Ash had a smile on his face for the rest of the day, despite his annoyance at not being able to get his team healed without all kinds of people getting in his way. He made it to the quarter finals in his first Conference! That was almost unheard of, even the nearly undefeated Lance didn't quite make it this far until his fourth. At this far in, whether he won or lost he had already made his announcement to the Leagues that he was there. Now he just had to make a bigger one by winning the Conference.