Meowth Meets His Match

Ash was now outside talking to his six Pokemon; Shelgon, Swellow, Corphish, Torkoal, Grumpig and Breloom.

"Okay you guys I have already said this to the others at Prof. Oak's lab when I called him earlier." Ash said. "We are now at the Hoenn League, so we will need to work as hard as we can if we want to win this."

His Pokemon cheered.

"Wow, you've got some Pokemon there Ash." A voice said. It was Morrison.

"Hey Morrison, I was wondering when you would get here." Ash said. "I mean Nurse Joy at the Pokemon Center said you haven't registered yet."

"I'm just about to, but I wanted to check out the area first." Morrison said.

Morrison then showed Ash the eighth gym badge he got; it was a blue badge in a square and triangle shape.

"You better get to the Pokemon Center to register now Morrison." Ash said. "It's not long before the deadline for registering ends."

"You're right Ash, I'll go now." Morrison said.

He then headed to the Pokemon Center.

While the gang was sorting out what to do before the tournament started, Team Rocket started to think of what jobs to get. Since their plan to steal the torch failed, the least they could do now was gather more money from jobs.

"Well Jess it seems the way to get lots of money is selling refreshments." James said.

"Oh I hate doing that sort of thing." Jessie groaned. "The last time we did that, I got aching feet and sore arms."

"Me too." James said. "But then again there are going to be hundreds of people in the stadiums. So we should get plenty of money selling snacks and things."

"Very well." Jessie sighed. "I'll bear with it just as long as we get a lot of money."

So Jessie and James agreed to take the job of selling refreshments.

Meowth on the other hand wasn't thinking about jobs or money now; he was thinking about Tyson's Meowth. He wanted to deal with Tyson's Meowth for defeating him.

"I'll defeat that Meowth if it's the last thing I do." He said to himself.

Meanwhile...

Ash and Morrison were going over the Hoenn League rules with Brock. Like the Indigo League and the Silver Conference Ash had to go through the preliminary rounds before going to the main tournament. In the preliminary rounds Ash and Morrison had to win one battle to enter the main tournament, and the rules said only 256 trainers can pass.

"Are you ready for this Ash?" May asked.

"Pardon me May." Ash answered. "But I've done this before and I will pass the preliminary rounds here too. My Pokemon and I have trained for this."

"Yeah May, don't underestimate Ash." Tomo said.

"And don't underestimate me either." Morrison added.

Meanwhile...

Tyson's Meowth had received a written invitation to a battle with Meowth. At first Tyson's Meowth thought it was a waste of time, but since Team Rocket's Meowth was so desperate to battle, it agreed to. Tyson's Meowth walked to a park, where Meowth was waiting for it.

"About time you showed up." Meowth said, impatiently.

Tyson's Meowth tormented Meowth to hurry up and get on with it. Meowth tried to scratch Tyson's Meowth, but Tyson's Meowth dodged and used Double Team.

"Hah I know just what to do with this." Meowth said.

He used Swift which caused the copies to vanish and hit Tyson's Meowth. Tyson's Meowth admitted that Meowth did know how to fight.

"I'll have you know that I have been training myself for ages to get strong." Meowth said.

This was a lie; he had only trained a couple times, but he liked to show off. Tyson's Meowth moved in with Iron Tail and Meowth used Iron Tail too.

"Now I will show you my favorite move." Meowth said.

He used Thunderbolt, but Tyson's Meowth dodged it and used Thunderbolt. Meowth didn't have the chance to dodge and he got shocked, and then Tyson's Meowth used Iron Tail sending Meowth blasting off in defeat. Tyson's Meowth thought that was actually a good fight and then it made it's way back to Tyson, who had no idea that his Meowth had been invited to fight Team Rocket's Meowth.

Later that day it was time for the preliminary rounds that were held in the mini stadiums in the outer circle of the Hoenn League stadium and Morrison was battling. He was up against a trainer named Jump and Jump was using a Electabuzz while Morrison used Beldum. The gang wasn't sure it was a good idea for Morrison to use Beldum against Electabuzz; he hadn't had it for long and it only knew Take Down. Even though Ash admitted this would be a difficult challenge, he still had faith in Morrison. Of course it did look a bit hopeless for Morrison since Beldum was only using Take Down while Jump's Electabuzz was using Protect, Thunder Punch and Thunderbolt. But then Beldum started to glow and evolved into a Metang.

Tomo looked Metang up on the Pokedex.

"Metang, the Iron Claw Pokemon and the evolved form of Beldum. When two Beldum fuse together, Metang is formed. The brains of the Beldum are joined by a magnetic nervous system. By linking it's brains magnetically, this Pokemon generates strong psychokinetic power."

"Wow, I can't wait until my Beldum evolves into Metang." Tomo said.

The same was felt by Max. Thanks to Metang's new psychic and steel type moves it defeated Electabuzz, allowing Morrison to enter the main tournament of the Ever Grande Conference.

After that it was Tyson's turn against a girl named Vivica and Morrison and the gang watched. Tyson called out his Meowth and Vivica sent out a Persian.

"I think this is going to be a great battle. Seeing Meowth face a Persian." Max said.

"I'm not too sure about that." Ash replied. "It seems Tyson's Meowth really hates Persian. He might have trouble during this battle."

So far Vivica and her Persian were putting up a good fight against Tyson and his Meowth. Vivica's Persian knew Water Pulse, Hyper Beam and Dig as well as Fury Swipes. But Tyson's Meowth proved to be stronger and knocked Persian out with Thunderbolt. So Tyson was the winner, but even though Persian was defeated Meowth still wanted to fight it some more. Tyson knew what Meowth wanted to do and returned it before it could attack Persian some more.

Morrison and the gang saw everything.

"I told you that Meowth really hates Persian." Ash said.

Once Tyson and the gang left the mini stadium he had been battling in, Tyson explained his Meowth's behavior towards Persian. The story was that a few weeks after Tyson started traveling in the Hoenn Region, he came across a gang of Meowth with a Persian for a leader and his Meowth was from that gang. What happened is that Meowth had a fight with the leader Persian and it lost.

"That battle with Persian left Meowth with a lot of damage, especially to it's legs, so when it recovered I gave it the boots. And thanks to the boots Meowth's legs healed. But since it had become an outcast in the pack it can't go home anymore, so I captured it."

"That explains why Meowth hates Persian, especially considering everything that happened to it." Morrison said.

"I take it because it hates Persian, your Meowth doesn't want to evolve huh Tyson?" Ash said.

"That's right and it also wants to prove that even as a Meowth it can beat any Persian that comes it's way." Tyson said.

What the gang didn't know is that Team Rocket's Meowth heard everything.

"That Meowth is the same as me." Meowth said. "Because I was also treated badly by Persian and I really hate them too."

Now it was Ash's turn in the preliminary rounds and he was up against a trainer named Gilbert. Gilbert used a Hitmonlee and Ash chose Pikachu. Gilbert started things off with Rolling Kick and Ash had Pikachu counter with Iron Tail. Next Gilbert went with Hi Jump Kick, but Pikachu dodged it with Quick Attack. Hitmonlee took a lot of damage because Hi Jump Kick missed. Ash then ordered Pikachu to use Focus Punch and Gilbert ordered Hitmonlee to use Mega Kick. Pikachu dodged Mega Kick and punched Hitmonlee really hard.

"Finish it off with Iron Tail." Ash said.

Pikachu struck Hitmonlee hard with Iron Tail and Hitmonlee fainted, earning Ash the win. Morrison and Tyson were impressed with Ash and they hoped they would battle him in the Ever Grande Conference.

After the preliminary rounds were over, the 256 trainers that won the preliminaries made their way to the main stadium for the opening ceremony of the Ever Grande Conference. Ash was given the position of taking the last run with the torch and lighting the sacred league torch.

Back at Pallet Town...

Delia, Prof. Oak and Tracey were watching it on TV.

They weren't the only ones. Misty was watching it back in Cerulean City and Norman and Caroline were watching it back in Petalburg City. So now the Ever Grande Conference was beginning and Ash was excited for this.