Usurper

Usurper Chapter 1: Drawing Board

Jubilife Stadium:

12:17 SST (Sinnoh Standard Time)

Pokemon World Coordination Series

Ultra Ball Title Match

Contestants: Ash Ketchum vs Paul Shinji

Current Score: 5-4

"DRAPION USE WICKED BLOW!" The purple-haired trainer screamed from the sidelines

The large scorpion with a similar haircut followed its trainers orders and lunged, landing a vicious blow that the audience could hear. "Dragonite! Are you ok?" A raven-haired boy of around 18 years shouted at his loyal dragon. The cream-colored flying tank nodded. The trainer with purple hair smirked at his opponent. "I must commend you. Seriously. Very few could endure a single hit from my Drapion let alone take out three of my squad." His opponent smiled at him "Thanks, Paul!" Paul nodded at his Drapion and the scorpion lunged at his foe. His tail wrapped around Dragonite and he slammed him into the ground. Paul smirked again, he was certain that this would be the blow that would tie the match. And then he just had to deal with one more.

Only that wasn't the case in the slightest. Dragonite stood back up and unleashed a mighty roar. It's wing looked bent and it was clear that he was in a lot of pain. But he never gave up.

"Drapion back on the attack!" The scorpion lunged at Dragonite yet again but this time he didn't even get the chance. The raven haired trainer smiled, "you're done for now Paul! Dragonite use Hyper Beam! Give it Everything you have!" Paul yelled back "Drapion, try and dodge it and use Wicked Blow up close!" But by the time the words had even left his mouth, an orange and red beam of energy slammed into it. It was clear that the battle was over. On the ground laid an unconscious Scorpion. Before the smoke cleared, Dragonite saw Drapion collapse with swirls in it's eyes and fell down. The official raised his flag. "Both Drapion and Dragonite are unable to battle and thus the battle goes to Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town." A moment of silence fell over the crowd. Paul was one of the preseason picks to make it to the Champions League and advance into the Masters Eight. Suddenly the crowd began to cheer and a cheer turned into a deafening roar. People love to see an underdog win after all. Ash was escorted away into the locker room as a swarm of reporters descended onto the field.

Upon reaching the locker room, Ash checked his rotom phone. In the last year he had finally given in and started using technology to keep in touch with his friends and mom. He turned it on and simply saw You have 473 new notifications. "Holy Miltank....." Ash said quietly. He wasn't the most popular guy alive by any means, but it wasn't like he was an antisocial hermit either.

He began checking some of the text messages. It seemed like some of his friends from Alola had a watch party and sent him pictures from that. There was a swarm of emails from Professor Oak concerning league information. He had around a hundred congratulation texts from various people, most notably some of his older friends such as Brock and Max and May. And finally, most strangely he had a text message from Gary. Gary of all people? They were on decent terms but it would be out of pocket for him to text like this. The text simply read "We need to talk. Meet me at Rowan's lab in Sandgem town at 6pm Today. I know you don't have any plans so don't be late."Ash sighed and looked down at the ground blankly "Well..... Why not?" Ash said to himself calmly. Gary was right, his evening plans consisted of an early bed and maybe a celebratory dinner if he could find anywhere without a line, Jubilife was packed after all.

He started responding to the text messages when his new friend and traveling companion Goh ran in the locker room. "CONGRATS MAN" the younger trainer said to Ash. The older trainer smiled at him. "Thanks, what do ya say let's get outta here. I have an errand to run and maybe if you're lucky Rowan will give you a Sinnoh Starter. Goh smiled and nodded and the two travelers left the stadium dodging the reporters all the while.