AN: So we are less than a week away from the Alola League episodes. So I decided to make this before the League kills my hype for it, by not doing what I hope it does. This first couple of chapters aren't necessarily what I hope will happen. For the most part. Also I prefer Lillie's Vulpix's Japanese nickname over the English one. Same with Lana's Eevee.

The Preliminaries: Ash vs. Lillie! Fire and Frost!

"Don't hold back, Ash!" Hearing that only made Ash cringe internally cursing whoever decided that HE would be the one who has to fight Lillie in this conference's preliminary round.

'You'll wish I had.' Ash thinks to himself whilst forcing on a smile hoping Lillie won't be too upset over hurting Shiron as he sends out Torracat. 'And maybe Iris will stop calling me a little kid, Samson will stop making those dumb faces, and Tepig's will learn Fly. Actually that's not a bad ideal to try with Pignite. Would certainly be a nice surprise if I take on Trip again.'

Ash shakes his head dispelling such thoughts as the referee announces the League's first battle to start. Lillie opens her mouth about to order Shiron to use Hail, but doesn't get a chance as Torracat lunges forward with a Flame Charge quickly forcing the girl to order Shiron to retreat.

'Can't let Lillie set up her Hail, Snow Cloak, and Aurora Veil combo. Shiron will be all the more troublesome to take out if I let that happen. Sorry, Lillie.' "Corner her, and use Fire Fang!" Ash calls out as Torracat responds by snarling as flames erupt from his mouth as he backs Shiron into a corner of the rocky arena.

Shiron quickly fires off an ineffectual Powder Snow at Torracat trying to drive him back, it does little as Torrcat closes the distance and bites down into Shiron's leg earning a pained yip from the ice fox as Lillie squeaks in fright unable to think about having Shiron use Tackle to force Torracat to disengage as Torracat hauls Shiron up by the leg he is biting into as flames engulf Lillie's Pokémon.

Torracat lifts his head up before swinging and releasing his hold on Shiron's leg, sending her flying through a boulder as she lands before her Trainer. The flames die down as Shiron lays before Lillie trembling in agony as she shakily forces herself back up.

Torracat retreats back to Ash's side of the field and watches as Shiron eventually stands on all fours and gives a determined bark, though soon after she shudders as the leg Torracat previously bit into gives out unable to hold up Shiron's weight.

Lillie's wits return to her then as she takes a step forward intent on leaving her Trainer's box to aid her Pokémon only to hear a loud tweet from the referee who looks to her disapprovingly, cWhat did I do?"

"You leave your box before the battle is done, and you'll be disqualified!"

"But Shiro-" Before Lillie can continue arguing with the ref, Shiron barks to her whilst giving Lillie a similar disapproving look.

"Shiron, I don't understand what you are trying to say?"

"Believe in her." Lillie blinks as she looks up to see Ash give what is to her an uncharacteristic firm look.

"This is what being a Pokémon Trainer truly is about, Lillie. Believing in your Pokémon's strength and will to fight, and believing enough in yourself to repay the faith they are putting in you to help guide them to victory." To that Ash gets a racuous cheer from the audience finding themselves captivated with the confidence in Ash's tone.

Lillie meanwhile feels apprehensive from the intense aura coming off of the normally carefree and jolly friend she is currently battling. Lillie turns away from Ash to Shiron who is nodding in agreement whilst looking to Lillie trying to convey faith in her through her gaze.

Lillie closes her eyes and focuses on drowning out the thunderous applause of the stadium audience finding their noise making it difficult to focus or even think. The only sound that reaches her is that of her own heartbeat before she hears the cheers of the classmates she isn't on the battlefield with.

"Don't give up, Lillie!" 'Mallow.'

"You and Shiron got this!" 'Kiawe'

"Show everyone how far you and Shiron have come and how much further the two of you will go." 'Lana'

Amidst the encouragement of her friends one other voice reaches her. This one speaks softly but to her it sounds out louder than the others, "How are you supposed to fight me if you lose here, Lillie." 'Gladion.'

Lillie's eyes snap open as gives a determined glare finding the cheers of the crowd returning to her ears, but now they don't seem to bother her as much. The same can be said for the intense presence Ash is giving off.

As a cold aura begins to develop around Lillie as her Z-Ring glows faintly with gold light, Ash frowns and closes his eyes, ''Did our friends forget to root for me as well. Either way, 10 seconds.'

Lillie presses her hand to the Icium Z her Z-Ring holds.

'15 seconds.'

Lillie crosses her arms as the cold aura intensifies. The audience falls into a hush as a large white snowflake made of energy appears before Lillie.

"Snow silently fluttering down from the heavens..." Lillie spreads her arms wide before extending them forward crossing her arms again as Shiron mimics her trainer.

'20 seconds.'

"Countless glimmering crystals of ice." Lillie extends one arm to the left before doing the same.

'25 seconds! Just attack already. You don't need to waste time making a spectacle of it!' As Lillie raises her arms above her and lowers them whilst crossing them once again as the Z-Rings glow brightens even further, Ash nods to Torracat who envelops himself in flames. "O, freezing Z that covers the land..."

As Lillie finally gets to the part of the Z-Move that you need to do to actually start it, the flames surrounding Torracat burn hotter turning from orange to blue.

"Along with my heated soul, return now once more to the heavens!" As Lillie extends her arms out to Shiron a light blue aura envelops her before extending out in streams to Shiron and bathing her in the power of the Z-Move.

'35 seconds too slow.' Ash softly orders out his final attack just as Lillie calls out the Z-Move.

"Subzero Slammer!" "Flare Blitz."

As the ground around Shiron freezes over and she is about to elevate, Torracat has already bridged the distance towards her crossing the battlefield more resembling a blazing blue comet than an attacking Pokémon.

Torracat strikes Shiron with a loud bang followed by a powerful long hiss as his intense flames clash with the ice quickly shifting its state of matter from ice to water before quickly boiling into steam as the battlefield is enveloped in the after affects of the two moves making contact.

The stadium is quiet as the only sound anyone hears is the hiss of steam. Eventually though the steam cloud that's covered the battlefield begins to dissipate. When it does Lillie let's out a gasp as she sees Torracat looking a bit put off having gotten a bit drenched.

Shiron is on the on ground unconscious. Lillie falls to her knees stunned silent unable as she let's out a quiet, "What?" as the referee declares her Pokémon can no longer battle so Torracat is the victor and that Ash will be progressing forward in the conference.

The audience explodes in jubilation having enjoyed the 'shocking turnaround' Lillie's opponent pulled. As Ash strides onto the battlefield to crouch down and collect Shiron and bring her to her Trainer, Torracat quickly drys himself off as he follows after his Trainer who stops before Lillie and places Shiron before her.

"It took 35 seconds for Subzero Slammer to get to the part of the move where the Pokémon can actually do anything with the move. In that time Torracat could have beaten Shiron 3 times over. It normally takes 5 to 8 seconds for the Trainer to get the Z-Move to transfer it's power over to the Pokémon. That's still enough time for Torracat to finish Shiron off." Having said his peace Ash turns around and leaves Lillie on the battlefield to prepare for his next fight.

AN: I don't get what the show has been doing lately with Lillie's character motivation. Is she trying to become an actual Pokémon Trainer now? Or is trying to find her dad like Gladion is? If so, couldn't she or her brother just use the money they have to hire someone to find their dad? They are pretty much rich kids after all. Isn't that how they solve most of their problems?

I don't necessarily think going on TV through participating in this big...

Cut to a clip of Guzma saying, "schoolyard fight" followed by a clip of him speaking in Engrish, "That's Life."

that Kukui organized. I mean they let Team Rocket and Samson Oak compete so we shouldn't consider this League's legitimacy is a bit suspect in my opinion.

Not to mention Guzma and Plumeria are competing as well though they aren't criminals or an abomination. They are just delinquents I'd liken to the jerks who kick sand in your face at the beach and take your girlfriend.

And you'd love every second of it. (If you happen to be PokémonRangerBoy12 from YouTube.)

Then there's the fact that Mohn probably has amnesia and is probably playing volleyball on Poké Pelago with some Swimmer Class Trainers.

Cut to a clip of a furious Lusamine who quickly storms off to find a Nihilego and go Mother Beast on Mohn's ass.

Lillie and Gladion don't know this. We have no guarantee about this other than ot happened in the games, and if he does have amnesia whose to say he even has TV on that island or would get his memories jogged if he saw his kids.

For all we know, Mohn could be dea- (CENSORED BY 4KIDS!) Banished to the Shadow Realm.

I just think this whole Mohn thing could be better resolved if Gladion and Lillie hired a detective (Pikachu?) to find their dad.

Regardless of how the Mohn situation progresses. I don't see Lillie going very far in this League. She will most likely only get as far as battling Gladion and will probably lose to him.

PKMNRangerBoy12 joked about Lillie winning the League back in the episode where she got the Icium-Z and I can't see it actually happening. Though if she did, she'd probably make Lana, Mallow, Kiawe, and Sophocles her Elite Four. Ash would be a bit upset getting the short end of the stick here and would probably flee for the Galar region to put everything that happened in Alola behind him and pretend it never happened. Like he did with BW going forward to XY like I did and will do with series when we the Sword and Shield anime.

I don't see Alola lasting long with Lillie and the 4 other schoolkids as their principal defenders against the Ultra Beasts, Team Skull, or Team Rainbow Rocket. They'd probably do a better job defending the region than any of the other Elite 4s and Champions did.

Rambling over now. See you guys in a week or so for the next match. Bye-onara!

Next Chapter: The Qualifying Rounds Part 1 of 3: Ash vs. Mallow! A Battle Bond Restored!