Ash Ketchum, Pokemon Master By ZaneT69

Chapter 17

The screening rounds of the Lily of the Valley Conference thankfully didn't take very long... Ash just had his Pokemon sweep his opponents teams.

Ash, Conway, Nando, and Paul had all made it to the preliminaries... so did Tobias, the one who exploited Legendary Pokemon. The lighting of the flame was just performed and the announcer began speaking...

"And with the lighting of the Sinnoh League flame, the Lily of the Valley Sinnoh League is officially under way! And now its time to announce the Sinnoh League first round match ups... so here they are!" The announcer said.

"Conway, Nando, do you both see the guy in the red coat and grey-ish hair?" Ash asked from between his two acquaintances.

"Yeah..." Conway replied.

"He has a Darkrai, Latios, Latias, Entei, Raikou, all three Legendary Birds, and a Cresselia... So try to plan ahead for that." Ash said.

Both nodded gratefully and agreed to plan ahead.

Later...

Ash defeated Nando using only his Infernape and his next opponent, advancing to the Top 16.

In the Top 16 Paul defeated some annoying kid named Barry, advancing to the Top 8, and Ash harshly dealt Conway a shocking and humbling defeat after Conway showed some arrogance.

Ash would battle Paul tomorrow, but Ash was relaxing until then. He was soon joined by Cynthia.

"Have you already chosen your Pokemon for tomorrow's battle?" Cynthia asked.

"Yeah. I'll have to be extra thorough to show Paul how flawed his training methods are by dealing him a very humiliating defeat. He should only need one last push to abandon his abusive and ineffective methods..."

"Yeah. I heard about the trouble he was in. How is Chimchar doing?"

"He's an Infernape now," Ash replied. "I was able to build him up into a major powerhouse after helping him past some of his mental blocks."

"That's good," Cynthia agreed. "What about Tobias? I saw the look of disdain that you gave him."

"I'll crush him like the bug he is," Ash replied coldly.

"Why do you dislike him so much?" Cynthia asked in interest and mild concern.

"Tobias exploits the powers of Legendaries to win badges, money, and tournaments... I suspect that at least one of them is a primary with duties that it is unable to fulfill. I have Legendaries too, don't misunderstand, but I don't use them for personal gain. I train them mostly, but I have a breeding pair of Legendary Birds. The Legendaries that I've caught can request or demand their freedom at any time. I intend to defeat Tobias and possibly campaign to outlaw all Legendary Pokemon from competitive battling. So far all Tobias has done is exploit the power of Legendary Pokemon to defeat children and destroy their dreams. It's all Darkrai doing the work so far. The Legendary Pokemon, several of which endangered species, all deserve better than to be exploited for Gym Badges and money... if enough of them die then those species will be extinct or it will become a mere matter of time until they do. All trainers have a responsibility to look out for Pokemon and to treat them well."

"You're right. I suppose most people just take the Legendary Pokemon for granted and assume that they will always be there or they just consider them Pokemon to be caught." Cynthia replied. "I'm sure the Pokemon League will listen to such a logical and wise argument."