[IC] Pokemon: Back in the Saddle Again

[Nacho]

A Pokeball opened inside an empty apartment. From it, sprung a Jigglypuff that ran excitedly towards the door. She hopped up to reach the knob on the door, spinning upside down as she turned the doorknob to open the door.
There were footsteps approaching and Jigglypuff quickly jumped down to the floor.
"Jiggly!" She jumped up again into the arms of her trainer Juan who had just returned from a business trip.
"Hello there."
Juan felt her little feet kicking his chest as she nuzzled her face against his, showing him how much she missed him while he was away.
"Jigglypuff. Jiggly, jiggly, jiggly. Puff."
"OK, OK. Let me get settled."
Jigglypuff waved her hand in the direction of the living room. She hopped out of Juan's arm and ran to the coffee table, retrieving the stack of mail that he had gotten while he was away. It was all the usual stuff that he would look over in due time. Only, at the end of the small stack, there was a red envelope. It was blank. When Juan turned to Jigglypuff, asking her who had dropped this off, she didn't have an answer. Juan went ahead and ripped the top open and pulled out the letter inside.
"It's from Hugo."
"Jigglypuff?" She climbed up on Juan's back as he took a seat to look at the contents of the letter, looking over his shoulder.
Hugo Rich was an old boss of Juan's. One of the first people Juan worked for when he started his work as an even organizer.
The letter was an invite to a Pokemon tournament that was being organized by Hugo and his people. A tournament of top quality that will showcase only the best trainers from different regions.
"Just as ambitious as ever." Juan thought to himself. But it did sound like an interesting concept. Juan thought that this was Hugo's way of asking him to help put it all together.

At work the next day, Juan was surprised to see Hugo in the lobby sipping a cup of tea. Hugo stood up and walked towards Juan with his arms stretched out. By looking at Hugo, in his pressed, royal blue suit, his grey hair slicked to the side, it was clear where Juan had gotten his fashion sense from. Except for the curled, waxed mustache on Hugo's face.
"Juan! Good to see you." For a man in his 60's, Hugo still had it in him to squeeze you with the strength of a Machoke.
"And you." Juan replied, adjusting his work bag.
"Do you have time? I want to talk something over with you."
"Yeah. Let's go up to my floor. We can use the conference room in there."
The trip up to Juan's workplace was quiet. In his head, Juan knew that Hugo was here to talk him into working with him again. The talk would be about the invite he had gotten in the mail.
"I hope you have gotten the invite we sent you?" Hugo broke the silence by mentioning the red envelope.
"Yes. I just did yesterday." The two exited the elevator and walked into the office, making their way into an empty conference room. Juan took his seat, as did Hugo.
"New tournament. Top notch trainers. Sounds like a great idea." Juan said.
"I'm glad you think so. We decided a tournament like this would provide plenty of excitement for spectators. Trainers from all over. Not just any trainers, though. Only the best. We're only asking that they have eight badges to their name."
"And how may I be of help in this tournament?" Juan asked.
"By joining."
"As a participant?"
Hugo nodded his head.
"Mr. Rich, I don't think I should. I mean, I haven't participated in a tournament in ages. I gave that up."
Hugo reached into his bag, taking out a laptop computer. Opening it up, he turned it on and then turned it towards Juan for him to see what was playing. It was a video montage of Juan's old Pokemon battles.
"You've been getting a lot of attention lately. This is only one of the many videos that have only begun to resurface of your old days as a trainer."
Juan watched the screen, seeing himself as a young kid, remembering every move, every action and every result that played back of those old matches.
"It's amazing what the internet can do. Bring back something from years ago and make it......well, relevant again. There are people on here that would love to see you back in action."
"No." Juan bowed his head. "That's not me anymore."
"It would be huge, Juan. Believe me. You're popular again. Remember all the talk about you back in the day? Remember all that? It's back! Just read some of the comments."
"Do those people know of how I lucked out in the League? Twice?"
"So you lost. Who hasn't? The media played that up more than the people did. I didn't see you as any less of a trainer after that."
Juan stayed silent. His right foot frantically bouncing. He glanced back and forth at the screen that continued to play footage from his old days.
"We still have time before we reveal the full list of participants." Hugo stood up and closed the laptop. "You have time to think it over. I too am one of those who wish to see you back, Juan. I had forgotten how good you were until I saw these."

[Nacho]

Later that day, coming home from work, Juan saw his Jigglypuff sitting in front of the television with a bag of chips in her hands. She heard him walk in and waved to him, turning her attention back to the screen.
Juan hung his bag and removed his coat, loosened his bow tie and sat down on the couch next to Jigglypuff, reaching into her bag of snacks.
"Jiggly?"
"As always." Juan replied. "A normal day of work, only I had a meeting with Hugo in the morning." Juan paused for a bit. " Remember the red envelope from yesterday? It's for a tournament that Hugo's putting together. He wants me to participate."
Jigglypuff jumped up with excitement, jumping up and down on the couch, tossing over the bag of chips she was eating, breaking the fragile, little crisps into crumbs that got everywhere."
"Hold your horses, little one." Juan caught Jigglypuff midair to stop her from making anymore of a mess than she already had.
Juan continued to think over the proposal. It was clear to him that there was a tiny bit of himself that wanted to join. Surely his Pokemon wouldn't oppose to it. Afterall, considering how long it's been since he's seriously battled, his Pokemon would surely be itching to get back in an arena. Jigglypuff included.
"What do you think your brothers and sisters would think of battling again?"
Jigglypuff slapped the back of Juan's head. An insult to ask her such a thing. Of course they'd be excited.
As Jigglypuff went on, trying to convince Juan to join, he was beginning to remember how much Jigglypuff loved the roar of the crowd in a packed arena. A true diva that traded singing for battling.
"OK. I'll think it over tonight."
Jigglypuff puffed her cheeks.
"The rules say each trainer is allowed an entry of twelve Pokemon. With you, I need to think of 11 more to bring with me."
Jigglypuff's eyes sparkled with joy at hearing Juan's agreement to join the tournament.
"Guess I'll email Hugo to tell him I'm in."

[Nacho]

The news of Juan agreeing to partake in Hugo Rich's new tournament was received well by Juan's old boss.
The following morning, Hugo pulled up to Juan's apartment. People like Hugo had access to wide, open spaces for the sole purpose of training Pokemon - away from public view. And it was in one of these places that Juan was being driven to, to pick out his other eleven Pokemon.
The town car door was opened. The first one out was Jigglypuff. She skipped up the road, as if she knew where she was going, despite never been here before. Though she figured that the straight dirt path that she followed wouldn't betray her. And surely Hugo and Juan would be right behind her.
"She sure seems excited." Hugo waited on Juan to step out. Unlike Jigglypuff, they walked casually behind her.
"She sure is. I haven't seen her this happy in quite a while."
"JIGGLY!" She had disappeared from the two men's view, having arrived at a duplex that stood out from the surrounding green hills and trees.
Jigglypuff ran back, to meet up with Hugo and her trainer. She frantically hopped up and down, urging them to hurry up.

"You can stay here as long as you want, Juan. Well, at least until the tournament starts."
Hugo opened the door to the duplex, revealing a cozy interior inside. Upon entering the place, the common area resembled any standard living room. There was a kitchen towards the far end, with another exit. There was also a staircase that led to the second floor where there were two bedrooms.
"Let's go to the PC." Hugo walked in front of Juan and his Jigglypuff. He walked out the back exit in the kitchen, walking towards a small shed not too far out.
Inside, there was only a desk and a chair - the room clearly only intended to house the PC.
"Well, have you decided on your Pokemom?" Hugo asked.
"I have. I spent all night thinking it over." Juan stepped up to the desk, putting the chair aside, which Jigglypuff jumped up on.
Juan scrolled and found his preferred eleven. One by one, the Pokeballs appeared, all neatly organized in a round.
"Help me out, yeah?" Juan asked, scooping a handful of Pokeballs that he carried outside. Hugo helped out, as did Jigglypuff, who could only muster one Pokeball in each hand.
Out in the grassy field, Juan, along with Hugo organized the Pokeballs right next to each other, making sure they were properly spaced apart.
"OK, everyone. Come on out!"
Juan gave the order, the Pokeballs opening up, releasing his Pokemon. Out came Rapidash, Ursaring, Mightyena, Dragonite, Gyarados, Electrode, Wartortle, Vileplume, Crawdaunt and Golem.
Happy to see his Pokemon, Juan wished to be able to and hug them all at once. As messy and disorganized at it was, they all huddled together and greeted each other, not just being happy to see Juan, but each other as well.
"Hang on, Juan." Hugo stopped to joyous reunion, noticing that there were two missing. Jigglypuff and one more.
"Jigglypuff?" Juan and his other Pokemon looked around.
Behind Juan, a shadow was creeping up, traveling underneath his feet. It rose up from the ground, two pointy, purple early peaked out, followed by a set of glowing, red eyes.
"GENGAR!"
It was Juan's Gengar. Having fully come out of the shadow he created. Gengar's mouth opened wide, revealing Jigglypuff inside it. And thus, the roster was complete.
"The place is all yours, Juan. I shall leave you to your training as there's a lot to do."
"Yeah, they couldn't hold their excitement back any longer it seems."
Juan's Pokemon had already begun sparring with each other. Ursaring was wrestling with Dragonite, Golem was going against Wartortle, Rapidash and Mightyena were chasing each other around. There was also time to fool around. Gyarados was lending itself for Jigglypuff and Electrode to slide down its serpentine body while the rest looked on.

[Nacho]

Montage. It's a montage. Pokemon training montage. Juan training his Pokemon night and day repeatedly. Sun rises and sun sets. Montage, montage, montage.

[Nacho]

THE DAY BEFORE THE START OF THE TOURNAMENT

Hugo sips tea from his cup. Across from him, Juan has his finger wrapped over the loop of his cup, looking down at the green color of his tea, seeing his reflection in the liquid.
"Nervous?" Hugo asked.
Juan looks up and away from his drink, giving Hugo a weak smile.
"I'm feeling all sorts of things....everything imaginable, I think. But don't worry. I won't back out at the last minute."
"Can you at least say if you're ready?"
"They are. And that's all I need to be confident tomorrow. I know they won't let me down, no matter how far we get."
"Have you thought about the possibility of winning the whole thing?"
Juan laughs and shakes his head. "No. Getting over the first round will be victory enough. Had I not given up on being a trainer, I'd without a doubt be saying that the title is as good as mine."
"I've refrained from watching you train these past few weeks, Juan. I want to be as surprised as everyone when they see you step into the arena come tomorrow. So I hope you've prepared well."

TOURNAMENT BASICS
-32 trainers in total.
-8 groups of four trainers.
-Matches will be best two out of three. A new Pokemon is to be used after each battle is over.
-There will be a group stage, a round of 16, quarter finals, semi finals and a final to crown the inaugural champion.