The next day at the Silver Conference stadium.
"Man! Brock had to leave unexpectedly, leaving it all to me to cheer Misty on." Ash and Pikachu were already sitting in the stands, waiting for Misty's match. Originally, Brock had told Ash to wait for him by the entrance, but while waiting, Ash received a message. Brock said he had seen many injured Pokémon at the Pokémon Center, and as someone aiming to be the world's number one Pokémon Breeder, he had decided to stay at the Pokémon Center for the day to help Nurse Joy.
Reading the message, Ash couldn't help but feel that Brock truly lived up to being a future Pokémon doctor. He already had the potential for it. But come to think of it, hadn't Brock gone to the shops to buy things? How did he end up at the Pokémon Center? "Pika-pika, pika-pika," Pikachu, sitting beside Ash, began reminding him that Misty's match was about to begin. Ash immediately shifted his gaze back to the arena.
The match officially got underway. Misty's opponent today was reportedly a veteran who had participated in several Conferences and achieved some decent results. Right from the start, the opponent sent out Ampharos—clearly having done their research on Misty and prepared to counter Water-type Pokémon. Seeing Ampharos, Misty sent out her trump card specifically designed to counter Electric types: Quagsire. Seeing Quagsire appear, the opponent chose not to recall Ampharos, seemingly intending to go head-to-head using Ampharos's sheer power. Ampharos dashed quickly toward Quagsire, its hands radiating an eerie, bone-chilling cold; it looked like Ampharos had been taught moves to deal with Ground types.
Misty immediately ordered Quagsire to use Earthquake. Quagsire slammed its heavy feet down hard onto the ground, and the entire arena trembled violently. This successfully stopped Ampharos in its tracks. Next, Misty commanded Quagsire to use Mud Shot. Several mud-ball-like bombs fired from Quagsire's mouth, heading straight for Ampharos, which was just regaining its balance. But when Ampharos saw the Mud Shot coming, it didn't panic in the slightest. It twisted its body backward, revealing its extremely thick tail glowing with a green light, and batted away all the incoming mud.
"Did it use Iron Tail?" Ash thought to himself. It seemed the opponent's Ampharos possessed exceptional physical strength; Misty would likely need to put in a lot of effort to take it down.
Seeing the Mud Shot blocked, Misty immediately told Quagsire to use Earthquake again. However, the opponent's Ampharos leaped straight into the air and unleashed a Focus Blast from above. The speed was so fast that Quagsire had no way to dodge and took the hit head-on. Quagsire crashed straight to the ground. But the opponent didn't stop there, immediately following up with Hyper Beam, which struck Quagsire hard once more and knocked it out.
Yet Misty didn't give up, quickly sending out Gyarados, her strongest Pokémon. Seeing Gyarados, the opponent let Ampharos stay in the battle. As soon as Gyarados emerged, it unleashed several twisters. The wind force was immense, and because the ground was littered with rubble from Quagsire's earlier Earthquake, the tornadoes swept up the debris, trapping Ampharos inside the spinning vortex. The opponent shouted for Ampharos to use Cotton Spore for defense, but because of the Hyper Beam recoil, Ampharos was currently immobilized. Consequently, it was struck directly by the combined force of the tornado and flying rubble, and was knocked out.
However, that Ampharos seemed to be the opponent's strongest Pokémon; the opponent's subsequent choices, Noctowl and Ursaring, were easily defeated by Misty's Gyarados. Ash and the spectators were left slightly bewildered. After both sides traded blows by overcoming type disadvantages at the start, why had the rest of the battle suddenly become so simple? Noctowl had wanted to open by using Hypnosis to put Gyarados to sleep, but right as it tried, Noctowl was successfully terrified by Gyarados's Scary Face. A Pokémon like Gyarados naturally looked extremely fierce, as if it wanted to eat people, and combined with its Intimidate ability, it completely scared the wits out of Noctowl. Misty promptly ordered Gyarados to use Aqua Tail to knock Noctowl crashing to the ground, followed up with a Hydro Pump to send it packing. Next, the opponent sent out the equally fierce Ursaring, but both its close-range and long-range attacks were blocked by Gyarados, and it ultimately fell to Gyarados's Hydro Pump, completely powerless to resist toward the end!
"Misty, didn't your opponent compete in several League Conferences? How did the battles get easier and easier as they went on?" Ash asked on the walk back.
"We chatted just now. He said Ampharos was his starter Pokémon, and the rest were all caught in Johto. He'd planned from the start to tackle the League using only the six on hand."
No wonder he lost. I must never do something like that in the future; there's no way you can win a championship that way, Ash thought to himself.
"By the way, Ash, it's still early. Let's look around the neighborhood. Once the rest of the matches are over, they'll announce the tournament brackets for the final tournament."
"Sure, I don't have any training scheduled for today anyway." "Pikachu!" Pikachu also clapped its hands immediately, as if cheering in agreement.
Because of the Silver Conference, tourists were pouring endlessly into various shops, and people on the street were all enjoying this annual grand festival. Ash and Misty were walking down the street now, popping into any shops that caught their interest, savoring this hard-earned, leisurely time together.
"Hey, Ash, do you have any plans after the Silver Conference ends?" Finally unable to hold it in anymore, Misty asked the question she had been wanting to ask.
"Me? I'm planning to travel to the Hoenn region. There are lots of Pokémon there I've never seen, and they have a League Conference there too." Ash voiced the idea he had been harboring for a while.
"And what about you, Misty? Are you coming to Hoenn with me, or...?" Even though Ash knew Misty would be going back to serve as a Gym Leader, he couldn't help asking anyway.
"How about the two well-matched young sweethearts over there, and Pikachu too? Care to check out the Silver Conference's latest commemorative badges, meow?" At that moment, a very short, strange-talking merchant appeared and interrupted Misty's reply.
"That's right! For two contestants who made it to the Top 16, we have a specially customized service," a man with short blue hair also stepped forward to pitch to Ash and Misty.
"First come, first served! Only selling this afternoon," chimed in the woman with long red hair beside him.
"Wobbuffet!" A Wobbuffet wearing a hat also popped up suddenly from the side.
Ash and Misty were instantly drawn to the commemorative badges, thinking that making it to the Top 16 really made a difference—people actually recognized them walking down the street. In no time at all, the commemorative badges were made, and Ash immediately pinned his to his clothes, turning right away to ask Pikachu and Misty how it looked.
"It looks great!" "Pika-pika-pika!"
"How about that, Meowth? Did you put the locator inside the badge?" Seeing Ash and Misty leave, Jessie immediately asked Meowth.
"Rest assured, meow, I put it in both of them, meow." Tech work like this was always Meowth's specialty.
"Splendid! Once we make our money, we'll immediately execute the Capture Pikachu Plan!" James said excitedly.
"That's right, how thrilling!" "Wobbuffet!"
With that, after buying their badges and seeing that it was getting dark, Ash and Misty returned to the Pokémon Center to check the upcoming match results. On the large screen in the center of the lobby, photographs of the sixteen contestants were listed, which then suddenly scrambled and rearranged themselves.
"Vincent, Gary, and Kenta whom we met before are all matched against other opponents... So where's my opponent?" Ash muttered as he searched for his own placement.
"Ash, the two of us are paired against each other," Misty said with a hint of sadness. She genuinely hadn't expected to run into Ash so soon.
"Yeah! Since we've been matched, we won't hold back. We'll just give it our all," Ash tried to comfort Misty.
"In that case, let's try making up a phrase: Ash versus Misty, a showdown of pals!" At that moment, Professor Oak suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
"No, the syllable count is wrong," Ash's mother, Delia, followed closely behind.
"Mom! Professor Oak! What are you guys doing here?" Ash asked in surprise.
"We heard the final tournament starts the day after tomorrow, so we specifically came to cheer you on," Delia said gently.
"Ash, Misty, and Gary, you've all made it into the Top 16, so we came over to help you unwind and relax your nerves," Professor Oak said, speaking as someone with plenty of tournament experience.
"Oh, right, Ash, Misty, it's time to eat. I specifically borrowed the hotel kitchen to make dinner," Delia reminded them, noticing the sky growing dim.
"By the way, where did Brock go? He hasn't even come to watch my matches," Misty looked around without spotting Brock anywhere.
"Well, Brock has been really busy these past two days. He's helping Nurse Joy right now," Ash explained why Brock hadn't shown up.
"Such a thoughtful boy! If only Ash could be as thoughtful as Brock!"
"He truly lives up to being Brock!"
Hearing Ash's words, Delia and Professor Oak couldn't help letting out sighs of admiration.
That's only because you guys don't really know him at all, Misty thought to herself privately.