Cold Metal, Warm Hearts (Preciousmetalshipping)

4-Digging for Success

After presenting to the cheering audiences of the city, the quartet made their way to the entrance where they first met with the opponents from the other regions.

The tournament started not long after, Silver battled against his first few opponents, the other three doing well in their own battles, it all seemed great, but Lyra was the first in the group to be eliminated, she had lost to a champion from the Hoenn region.

Krystal was luckier though, going through her opponents easily with her bayleef, the other trainer she faced had taken her by surprise as he caught her off guard with his pikachu, however a surprise turn would give the next win to Krys. Silver was quite surprised she was going strong so far.

Silver was just as lucky, his feraligatr sweeping through their opponents like they were nothing, it was really getting his hopes up, maybe he could battle Gold one last time, maybe in the finals even, but he had to wait and see how his rival went about with this tournament.

Gold had his luck too, but it wouldn't last long, since during the quarterfinals, the champion from Alola he faced was dead set on beating him, and as much as Gold's typhlosion tried, it was soon defeated by their dratini. Silver could feel himself getting nervous as he watched the battle, his heart sinking as Gold was announced to be eliminated, maybe that last battle between the two Rivals would have to wait...

The semifinals had arrived and Silver was quiet, nervous even, he wasn't sure who he was going to battle next....until he got a phone call, he picked it up with no questions asked.

-“Is this Silver?” a voice on the other line asked.
-“Yeah....what do you want?” the redhead answered, already suspecting where this was going.
-“I work with your father Giovanni, he cannot call right now since his illness is making him unable to talk properly, he has requested you be his successor as leader of team rocket-” the man's voice was cut off by Silver interrupting him, blood boiling at the audacity of them to call right before the semifinals.
-“How about you tell that old imbecile that im not interested?! I never once nor ever will be leader of that stupid organization like he is! You're just wasting my time!” The redhead growled, about to go off on the man on the line like a hangry morpeko.
-“I am sorry, but this is very important, I cannot ignore your father's request” the man insisted.
Silver was fuming. He was going to punch that imbecile if he saw him, no questions asked.
-“You better explain to him why i'm not going to be the leader of a goddamn criminal organization!” The redhead yelled angrily. “have a good damn day and STOP CALLING ME!” It seemed the man on the line was not expecting that outburst.

Silver hung up and huffed, his explosion of anger made him really tired, its been that way since he turned 20, he felt forced to spend time with his father at times, but when the topic of a successor came to light, Silver wanted no involvement in it, but he was constantly dragged into several requests, and now that his father had fallen ill, it was getting way more frequent.

So here he was, waiting for the match to start, but apparently they had forgotten to tell him who he was battling, which didn't make things better cause the sudden surprise of his opponent being none other than Krystal wasn't lightening his mood, but no matter that, his anger and frustration had brought back his initial motives to come here, to win, to win the tournament and prove he was the strongest trainer ever, and he was not going to let any little setback stop him, especially now.
With his mind set, he took out his feraligatr, ready for Krys to choose her first pokemon to battle with.

She chose one of the three pokeballs on her belt and took out her first pokemon, her bayleef seemed to have evolved into a meganiumin in between battles, but one thing was certain, she had a type advantage.

-“She must've waited for Silver to take his pokemon out first on purpose, Grass types are stronger than water types!” Lyra commented to some of her friends from the side lines, Gold however, watched the battle intently, he seemed somewhat concerned for the both of them, Silver however, seemed to be completely unfazed by the whole situation.

Once the battle began, Silver fought like his life depended on it, his determination was almost overwhelming, it helped that his feraligatr was doing its job pretty well, but Krys' meganium was starting to overpower him, so he then retracted his Feraligatr, taking his sneasel out instead. Krys quickly noticed this and tried to switch up tactics to use her new strategy, she had decided to go with a steelix and she was going to make her move. After switching up her moves, she then used a special move on Sneasel, sending a shockwave over him, causing a lot of damage on its body.
It only took a split second for the sneasel to recover,  but it wasnt quick enough as the steelix then sent another shockwave over it, stunning it again, it was barely holding itself up as it fell to the ground, Krys smirked and took that as her victory, she was going to win this tournament.

But the red head knew this couldn't be the end of his run, he was losing and she had yet to use anything else, he had to think of something fast, retracting the now fainted sneasel, he took out his last pokemon standing, a stantler, as soon as it was out of the pokeball, it attacked the steelix as much as it could, finally causing it to faint.
But it was hardly done, retracting the steelix, Krystal took out her final pokemon, an ursaring, beginning to attack the stantler with all its might, forcing it to dodge it's attacks until at last the battle was won by the ursaring, giving the stantler a final blow. Krys smirked victoriously while the crowd cheered for her. Silver was dumbfounded, he still had a chance, he could take out his feraligatr and finish off the ursaring, but seeing how weak it had gotten with the first few moments, he eventually decided not to risk it, sighing in defeat.

“That's my baby! That was great!” Krys said excitedly, praising her pokemon, the crowd cheered more as Krystal was announced as a finalist.