We were all rather interested to know how he came to have it on his team as in most cases wild variants prefer older more mature trainers that can make the best use of their abilities. This goes doubly so for fighting type variants as battle and power were a part of their way of life. Norman also didn't know how his son had managed to convince the variant to join him but he was still grinning proudly from it. "You are the specialist here Alex what are your thoughts on that Machamp?" Glacia asked with an interested look.

"It's hard to get a good read on it from the short time we've seen it on the field but from what I can see he made a small mistake when training it. The Machop line are born martial artists of great skill yet all the moves we have seen so far don't incorporate any of that and instead rely almost solely on brute strength. Not to say this is a bad thing by any means only that it wastes the pokemons potential utility to a degree." i said honestly and everyone looked thoughtful before turning to Brawly to see if he agreed with what I said.-

The guy himself was beaming happily and gave two thumbs up which seemed to make everyone acknowledge my input. "So how would you have trained the Machamp then?" Norman asked curiously. "Personally it depends on a few factors, talent, personality and elemental disposition specifically. Obviously a variant is going to be more often than not very talented but the level of talent differs from individual to individual. Take my Grovyle Aranyani or Yani as I call her, she is only a shiny but in terms of pure raw talent she exceeds every other pokemon on my team bar the little one for obvious reasons."-

"That might seem hard to believe but she has proven it time and again through her actions. She was the one who developed the healing move that has me so at odds with the Joy clan at this moment in fact all without any real help from me. She even went even further and created an area of effect version as well though I will not be selling that one any time soon. Point is I would need to gauge that pokemons talent before I could set a pace on training."-

"Honestly speaking though Brendan seems like he is doing a fine job raising that pokemon and perhaps only needs a little push to integrate that martial arts knowledge into his move use." I said honestly. "You said that your Grovyle made an area of effect version of that grass type healing move?" Sidney of the elite four asked. He looked like a british gentleman in terms of clothes but had a red mohawk which threw the whole look off. "Yeah, nature mist we call it since it is basically a green mist when used." I said honestly.-

"If that's true then why wouldn't you sell that as well since I can't imagine that it wouldn't be just as popular?" He asked confused. "Because the first move stepped on a lot of toes but was little more than an annoyance in truth but if i released another move that would go from annoying to threatening as it showed that it wasn't a one off. I don't keep Hades in my pocket because I enjoy it's company but because if at any point a pokemon were sent to attack me it could buy me the time I need to release the rest of my team if they weren't already out." I said honestly.

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"Sounds like an overreaction right? I mean you've taken care of all the assassins so far just fine right?" he asked casually. "Here's the thing though, that could change very easily. So far the bounty on my head has not reached the point where these would be assassins are willing to take the risk of attacking me in a city or town where by law most of my team are in their balls. But if my bounty grew big enough the fear of the league stops holding them back and at some point someone is bound to try it."-

"I'm just making sure that I am ready for that sort of thing." I said seriously. No one continued the conversation after that as I had made my point quite clear. We spent the next few hours watching the matches and by the end of the day there were only twenty participants left who moved on to the next round. Only Brendan, May and six other had managed to get to this point without losing even once but their teams were battered and tired and a day long break before the next matches was called for.-

Being the person I am I made a trip to each and every one of these top twenty to congratulate them for making it this far and even dropped the nugget or two of wisdom while I was at it. Sadly watching weaker trainers wasn't all that exciting for me so besides the odd creative moment from one of the participants I was honestly bored watching the tournament play out. Pokemon battling had been around for a very long time so it only made sense that there was a lot of repetitive performances to be seen with the same pokemon species being found on different teams.-

There were a few trainers in the top twenty that were interesting however such as those that came to Hoenn to start their journey for some reason. They had pokemon not typically found in Hoenn on their teams as a result such as a Drifblim or Fearow that were interesting to see. One of the trainers even came from Orre since they had been born there and saved up money for years until they could catch a ship to Hoenn.-

This let me get first hand intel about the region and according to the trainer it wasn't actually as hostile as I had imagined. Yeah everyone was rather rough around the edges but most people were decent enough sorts that didn't go out of their way to bother others. That was a relief since all the information I actually had just said that the place was a lawless place teeming with criminals and knowing me I would end up causing a massacre before figuring out that there had been a serious misunderstanding. Knowing all this was especially helpful for me so i gave the trainer a bit of money as a thanks since it was clear they were strapped for cash and it wasn't a big deal for me to give them a bit of help.-

May was a chatter box about the things she's seen and done since we last spoke and how she didn't know if she could beat Brendan and get the grand prize. She did admit that even if she lost to him she wanted to at least snatch up the Tropius even though she had one already as she wanted to add a dragon type to her team but didn't like most of the normal ones found in Hoenn.