The next day, early in the morning, Ash contacted Professor Oak's Laboratory, and his assistant helped send over the Pokémon he had registered.
The match between Ash and Ritchie was scheduled for the afternoon. There were only four matches in the promotion tournament each day, and the matches would be held at the main venue.
There were two matches in the morning and two matches in the afternoon. Because they were 6v6 battles, the battle time would be much longer.
Today was the full day of Group A matches, and A3 represented the third match of the day—Ash versus Ritchie—which was the first match of the afternoon.
If a match took too long, the fourth match might have to be played into the evening, or even at night.
Ash left the Pokémon Center early in the morning without saying hello to anyone.
"Everyone, today's match is up to you!"
Finding a remote place, Ash released all the Pokémon that were going to participate in today's competition. Looking at the Pokémon in front of him, Ash said with determination.
"Pika!" "Char!" "Squirt!"
The Pokémon, led by Pikachu, responded one after another. Ash smiled happily when he saw this.
"You're up pretty early!"
At this time, a voice sounded. Ash was slightly startled after hearing it and turned to look. A red-haired boy walked over with his hands in his pockets.
"It's you! You're up pretty early too, aren't you?" Ash looked at the visitor and smiled in response.
They hadn't seen each other for a while since the last time in Celadon City. Team Rocket had also been disbanded, and Silver, the young master of Team Rocket, was no longer there.
But since that time, Silver hadn't returned home. Giovanni was very understanding and wasn't worried about Silver being alone outside.
"I'm not participating in the competition. I can get up whenever I want!"
"Ha! If you wanted to participate, it wouldn't be difficult. I really hope to have the opportunity to compete with you on the field," Ash chuckled upon hearing this.
But after listening to Ash's words, Silver was slightly stunned, then spoke after a moment.
"Do you really think so?"
"Is there any problem?" Hearing Silver's doubt, Ash responded subconsciously while looking at the Pokémon in front of him.
"It's nothing! I won't disturb you anymore. I'm leaving. Good luck with your match!" Listening to Ash's genuine response, Silver knew that Ash wasn't just talking casually.
But obviously, there was no chance at this tournament. Silver took a look at Ash, who was still taking care of his Pokémon's condition, and didn't want to bother him. He said goodbye and turned to leave.
"Yeah! Thanks!" Ash also thanked him.
After that, Silver turned around and left. Ash continued to stay with his Pokémon, about to communicate more with them. However, before Silver had gone far, Ash heard a commotion.
Whoooosh!
Feeling a strong airflow coming, Ash noticed something was wrong.
"Huh?" Ash's expression changed slightly, and he immediately turned around and ran in the direction Silver had left.
His Pokémon immediately followed after seeing this. Ash rushed through the trees and saw Silver's figure in the open space.
A cylindrical glass chamber had trapped him inside. He was completely enclosed. The space wasn't large and could only hold one person. Under such circumstances, he couldn't release his Pokémon.
Above the glass chamber in the sky, a black spaceship was flying, and a black chain was lifting the glass chamber holding Silver toward the spacecraft.
Ash's expression changed slightly when he looked at the huge spaceship in the sky. There was a bright red R pattern printed on the spacecraft.
Ash couldn't help but frown when he saw this scene. There was no doubt that it was Team Rocket's logo, but there was no reason for Team Rocket to capture Silver.
When Giovanni wanted to meet Silver, there was absolutely no need to use this method. In other words, this definitely wasn't Giovanni's doing.
Boom!
Silver clenched his fists and beat the glass with his hands, but he could only hear a faint sound and couldn't break the glass at all. Soon, Silver was pulled back into the spacecraft, and the vessel quickly departed.
"Aerodactyl!"
Ash frowned when he saw this. Without thinking much, he immediately shouted. From his team, Aerodactyl immediately flew over. Ash jumped onto Aerodactyl's back.
Pikachu and Jigglypuff also jumped onto Ash immediately. As Ash mounted Aerodactyl's back, he took out his Poké Balls to recall the other Pokémon.
"Catch up!" Ash looked at the spaceship in the sky and immediately shouted to Aerodactyl.
"Screech!"
Aerodactyl let out a sharp roar, then quickly took off with Ash, flying toward the spacecraft.
Meanwhile, back at the Pokémon League facilities, Misty and the others hadn't found Ash after getting up. It was almost noon, and they had planned to find Ash for lunch, but they hadn't seen him all morning.
"Have you seen Ash?"
"No, I don't know where Ash went," Yellow said a little worriedly. After all, after the lunch break, there would be the match between Ash and Ritchie.
"Is it because Ash is too nervous?" Misty couldn't help but make a guess since they couldn't find him.
"Probably not! Don't you know Ash? He won't be nervous about competitions," Brock responded.
Ash might be nervous about other things, maybe something special, but when it came to battles, Ash was more excited than anyone else.
"Then where do you think Ash went? It's really worrying!"
Misty relaxed a little after listening to Brock's words, but she was still somewhat worried.
"Don't worry. He'll never miss the match," Brock said. As far as Ash was concerned, Brock was relatively confident. If Ash missed anything, he would never miss a battle.
"So what do we do now?"
"Let's go have lunch first! Maybe Ash will come over by himself later." Brock thought for a while and stopped searching since they couldn't find him. Ash should come over for lunch by himself.
Besides, the facility was so large, it was really hard to find people.
But at this time, Brock and the others didn't know that Ash had gradually left the League facilities.