pokemon adventure

chapter hundred twenty four

Chapter 124

The Hearthome Tag Battle Tournament

Today was the start of the tag battle tournament in Hearthome City. The gang was in the pokemon center and Ash was handing Dawn an entry card for the tournament. Brock explained that Zoey suggested that Dawn enter the tournament too to lift her battling spirit. "She didn't say anything about that to me" said Dawn. She didn't like when anyone made decisions for her without her knowledge. "Come on Dawn," said Ash "I can feel that you are still feeling low spirited because of your loss in the pokemon contest. And this tournament is exactly what you need to perk your spirit up again". The boys agreed and so did Piplup. Dawn hesitated, but she could see that Ash was right and she did need some perking up. So she agreed to enter the tournament.

Soon everyone was at a stadium, where the tournament was taking place. A man named Enta, who was the mayor of Hearthome City and announcer of the tournament, welcomed everyone to the tournament. He made a speech the tag battle tournament was to have two trainer partners work together as one against their opponents. Next he explained that the numbers on the trainer's entry cards were to help the trainers find their partners and see what block they were in. A big tv screen lit up to show the rounds and boxes that held the numbers. There were 32 trainers in total. Enta pressed a button and the trainers' numbers appeared. Tomo was in the E block, Dawn was in the B block, Ash was in the H block and Brock was in the E block. Enta then told everyone to look for their number partners.

It took some time but the gang started to find their partners. Tomo's partner number was 26 and it was a teenaged boy named Bert. Dawn's partner number was number 9 and it was a boy named Conway. Conway had a creepy aura round him. Brock's number partner was 21 and it was a woman named Holly who had a Wingull. Soon Ash managed to find his partner number which was 5, but it ended up as bad luck to him. His partner was Paul; Paul had come to the tag battle tournament too. Ash of course wasn't thrilled to see him and it was the same with Paul. Dawn, Tomo and Brock saw the situation and Dawn thought that Ash had the worst draw. "You make sure to stay out of my way!" Paul said to Ash, rudely. That made Ash cross. "Give it a rest will ya!" he shouted. Pikachu wanted to welcome Paul's Elekid to try to make things friendly, but Ash quickly stopped him. "Don't bother Pikachu" whispered Ash. Ash knew that Paul's Elekid was no friendly pokemon and Pikachu did as he was told. "Brock is Ash going to be okay with this?" asked Dawn. "Ash has made it clear that Paul is no friendly rival," said Brock "all we can do is see what happens during this tournament".

Etna then showed off the grand prize of the tag battle tournament. It was two bells. The bells were called soothe bells and their chimes had the ability to calm pokemon even in a rage or panic. As the tournament wasn't to start till afternoon he told everyone to learn about their partners. Ash felt he shouldn't bother with Paul because he already knew what he was like.

That afternoon the tournament was underway and Dawn and Conway went up first with the partners from block A. The rules were every trainer only used one pokemon and substitutions were not allowed. And the first team to defeat the other team was the winner of the round. Dawn sent out Piplup and Conway sent out Slowking. The other Team sent out a Scyther and Koffing. "You do the attacking Dawn and leave the defending to me" said Conway. Scyther attacked with razor wind and Koffing attacked with sludge bomb. Piplup used bubble beam to defeat the razor wind attack and Slowking used safeguard to protect itself and Piplup from the sludge bomb attack. Koffing attacked next with thunderbolt, but Slowking used protect to protect itself and Piplup from the attack. "You see," said Conway "now you do whatever you want because I'll be covering you". This was why he told Dawn to leave defending to him. Scyther moved in next with x-scissor, but Piplup moved in with peck and pecked Scyther really hard. Scyther fainted from that strong flying type move. Koffing attacked next with gyro ball, but Slowking used psychic to stop it in its tracks and made it fall to the ground hard. Koffing fainted and Conway and Dawn were the winners of the first battle.