In the Indigo Plateau Conference Athletes' Village.
Tomorrow is the opening day of the Indigo Plateau Conference, but before the opening ceremony, the torch relay will be held first, and the contestants have applied to be torchbearers.
Gary did not join in the fun but stayed in the athletes' village and watched the torch relay on TV.
Naturally, he saw Ash and the others become torchbearers.
"They really stand out wherever they go," Gary exclaimed.
"Huh? How did Ash and the others become torchbearers?" Sabrina was also surprised.
"Ash always likes to try new things. I guess he met someone on the road who was carrying the torch and asked to be a torchbearer," Gary said.
At dusk, Ash and his party arrived at the athletes' village.
Gary was naturally in the players' village. When he saw Ash, he immediately complained: "Ash, you are so slow. I thought you were going to be late again."
"Gary!"
Ash said, "How could I be late for such an important event? I will definitely fight to the end and defeat you in this competition."
Gary smiled and took a look at the Pikachu on Ash's shoulder.
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[LV48 Pikachu/Champion]
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The last time he saw Pikachu, it was only level 40. It has gained 8 levels in two months.
This improvement speed is not slow. It can be seen that Ash has spent a lot of time training Pokémon in the past two months.
"Really? Then you have to work hard. I'm leaving first." Gary didn't say much and turned around and left.
"Why is he leaving?"
Ash looked puzzled and said, "Strange, Gary usually takes the opportunity to ridicule me. Why did he suddenly change his nature?"
"Ash, you are really slow. It's been so long. Don't you see that Gary has been encouraging you?" Misty said.
"Is there?" Ash recalled the past and didn't feel that Gary was motivating him at all.
Every time he had a little problem, Gary would always mock him in a sarcastic way.
"Although Gary did mock, most of the time he was motivating you. Every time you were too distracted, Gary would remind you," Brock interrupted.
"Yes, whether it was in the hot spring town or Cinnabar Island, Gary would point out many of your problems. Didn't you notice?" Misty said.
Although Ash was slow to react, after a journey and encountering so many things, and after Brock and Misty's reminders, he thought carefully and realized that it was really the case.
"Gary, this guy..." Ash didn't know what to say, but he understood Gary's good intentions.
---
The second day.
9:00 AM!
The opening ceremony of the Indigo Plateau Conference began.
A total of 256 contestants participated in the competition.
At this moment, all the contestants appeared in the venue of the Indigo Plateau Conference and lined up in an orderly manner.
Bang!! Bang!! Bang!!!
Fireworks exploded.
A girl with short red hair ran into the venue, holding a torch in her right hand.
"Look, the torch runner is coming. Before this, the torch, which had been passed by hundreds of people, finally arrived at the conference and was heading towards the torch stand in the venue," the host explained.
The girl jogged all the way through the venue, passed every contestant, and climbed onto the torch stand.
Just as she was about to throw the torch into the huge cauldron, two people in ancient Greek costumes appeared on the torch stand and blocked the girl's way.
"Huh?"
The girl was a little confused. She had been told to light the huge cauldron in the venue, so how could there be two more people suddenly?
Even the host was confused, but now it was the opening ceremony, and in the face of such an emergency, he had to continue and forced an explanation: "It seems that there is a woman who is responsible for lighting the fire, and she should give the Holy Flame to the other party."
The girl complained in her heart.
This was the Indigo Plateau Conference.
Her family had used a lot of connections to give her the opportunity to become the igniter.
Now that she was robbed in the middle of the event, she was naturally very angry.
But now it was a live broadcast, and the entire Kanto Region would be watching this event.
The girl dared not be willful and could only obediently hand over the Holy Flame to the roadblocker in front of her.
"Wait a minute, you can't give the Holy Flame to her!"
At this moment, Ash suddenly ran up to the Holy Flame platform and shouted loudly.
The girl immediately turned around, thinking that there was a turn for the better, but the next second, Jessie grabbed the Holy Flame from the girl's hand.
"Too late!"
Jessie snatched the Holy Flame and immediately stepped back, tearing off her clothes at the same time, revealing Team Rocket's uniform.
"So brave."
Gary looked at the Rocket trio that suddenly appeared and finally understood how Team Rocket in the animation world gradually fell into decline.
This is the Indigo Plateau Conference.
Team Rocket is so blatantly making trouble here, which is a slap in the face of the Alliance.
How can the Alliance not cause trouble for Team Rocket?
From this point of view, the Rocket trio cannot be caught, and it may be because of them that Team Rocket in this world is gradually declining.
After careful calculation, the two big money-making projects of Team Rocket in the Kanto Region seem to have been ruined by the Rocket trio.
Ash was about to let Pikachu stop Team Rocket, but James released Weezing and stopped Pikachu with smoke.
Jessie took the opportunity to throw the torch into the big cauldron, and Moltres's flame instantly ignited the huge cauldron.
Immediately afterward, a giant grasshopper-like robot appeared and carried the huge cauldron on its back.
"Oh no, something big happened. The Holy Flame platform was taken away," the host exclaimed.
The audience around was confused, not knowing what was going on.
Some of the more creative ones thought it was a performance at the opening ceremony.
However, as Team Rocket jumped into the venue with their robots, the audience realized that something was wrong and jumped out of their seats.
"Pikachu, use Thunderbolt."
Ash also ordered Pikachu to attack the Grasshopper Robot, but the Grasshopper Robot had an anti-electric coating on its surface and ignored Pikachu's Thunder Shock.
"Bulbasaur, use Razor Leaf." Ash sent Bulbasaur to deal with it, but Bulbasaur's Razor Leaf was burned to ashes by the Holy Flame.
"What!"
Ash didn't expect that the robot made by Team Rocket this time was so strong, and Team Rocket was manipulating the robot to attack Gary.
"Roar!!"
At this moment, a huge creature rushed over.
When Team Rocket heard the noise, they saw a giant bipedal beast rushing towards the Grasshopper Robot.
"What kind of Pokémon is that?"
"I don't know."
"I've never seen it before!" Meowth exclaimed.
Team Rocket couldn't tell what Pokémon was charging at them, but they believed that the robot they had built could definitely withstand the impact.
Dang!!
The giant beast tackled the Grasshopper Robot, and the robot's body tilted to one side.