Working Sinnoh With Skill(Old) - Chapter 5 (Patreon)

The day had finally come for Dawn to make her first ever Pokemon Contest Début and Ash was currently watching said bluenette with his lips quirked in amusement as she twirled around in front the video phone in the Contest hall showing it off to her mother.

It was a pink, just above the knee-length dress with a black belt and a white collar that dipped down just enough to show the creamy cleavage of Dawn’s developing breasts.

Yes, Ash could say safely that the dress looked very good on her, and so could all the other teenage males around who were leering at her as she talked to her mother Johanna, a once famous Coordinator who had even won the Grand Festival once upon a time.

Ash spent his time between admiring Dawn in her new dress and glaring hot death at any and every one of the other teen’s who tried to approach her, causing them to usually stumble and spin 180 mid-stride before fleeing.

Who did Ursaring think Pikachu learned where to be intimidating from? Brock?

‘You have to admit though, you didn’t look all that impressive when you first met me did you?’ Metwo’s amused voice sounded in his mind as the Psychic Pokemon communicated to him from his Pokeball around Ash’s neck.

Ash snorted, but didn’t acknowledge Mewtwo’s comment other than that, instead he turned to the 17-ish looking young man, who was a bit taller than Ash swagger arrogantly close to Dawn. He stopped however when he caught Ash’s amber eyes that had taken on a blue sheen as his aura pulsed in his veins and a murderous glare.

The young cocky-looking brown haired teen wisely turned tail and ran like a coward.

He was broken from his glaring on males approaching his territory as the ‘Alpha male’ in any area that Dawn was currently inhabiting when he heard Johanna Berlitz ask her Daughter a question, “Dawn where’s the choker I sent you with the dress?” She asked curiously.

Dawn seemingly panicked, “There was a choker? I didn’t see it anywhere? I might have lost it!” The blue hair girl fretted frantically as she turned in almost every direction looking to see if she could see it anywhere.

Ash was about to try and calm her down when they both heard something that sounded suspiciously like purring behind them.

“Nyaaah.” Ash and Dawn heard as they turned to see whatever was making the noise.

Upon turning around they came face to face with a feline Pokemon, it had a curled, spring-shaped tail with a white fluff at the tip of it. The unknown pokemon had a crescent shaped head with two white-tipped ears. It had a white muzzle, a small black nose, pink eyelids, yellow eyes with blue irises, and two rows of thin whiskers. The grey feline Pokemon had a slender physique and it’s neck had a ruff-like fringe, its legs having similar fringes. Its feet were tipped with white, and had pink paw pads on the underside.

“It’s a Glameow!” Dawn recognized.

“Yeah.” Ash agreed, “I saw a few of them when I was researching Sinnoh’s native Pokemon before I came to this region. When it comes to straight battling they’re usually centered around speed, but they can pack quite a punch because of the variety of moves they can learn. Not sure how they can do in contests.” He explained.

The Glameow purred again as it extended it’s long spiral tail towards them both, showing the black choker with a pink ribbon clasped held upon it.

“What’s this?” Dawn asked as she leaned down a bit to get a better look at the choker.

“Hey that’s your choker!” Her mother piped in from the video phone, a relieved smile upon her face.

They were interrupted by another arrival, this time from a rather curvy girl with short messy orange hair with a pair of dark green shades sitting atop her head. She wore an orange unzipped body warmer, with a dark red long sleeved shirt underneath it, a pink Poketch watch sitting upon her right wrist. Below that she wore a pair blue three-quarter length jeans and brown travelling boots. “Ah, there you are.” The new arrival stated, her voice was calm and confident, sounding warmas she addressed what was assumed to be her Pokemon. Ash could detect a sultry undertone in her voice, the fact that her voice sounded quite seductive and yet she gave none of the signs of attempting to sound like this struck a point home for Ash; whoever ended up dating this girl would be in for a hell of a good bedroom voice.

It was weird Ash concluded, he’d started noticing girls just before he left for the Hoenn region a little before he turned twelve, but it was only now and then and most of the time it was his eyes being drawn to May’s large bust that just seemed to sprout out of nowhere. But here, in the Sinnoh Region he’d been noticing more and more of the female species, mostly Dawn to be honest but he had been paying attention to Dawn way more than he did Misty, or even May.

“Are you the one who found it?” Dawn asked as she stood back up after lifting the choker from Glameow’s tail.

Glameow pounced into the girls arms, the orange-haired girl smiling softly at her Pokemon as she answered, “It was on the floor in the dressing room.” She replied.

Ash blinked as he came out of his introspective thoughts about girls, “But how did you know it was Dawn’s?” he asked curiously.

“Matching it with her was a breeze, she’s the only one in this whole place who’s wearing something that would go with it.” The Orangette answered Ash like it was completely simple. Ash just nodded, pretending he knew what she was talking about.

“I am? Thank you!” Dawn replied brightly as she twirled back around to face her mother on the video phone.

Ash took that moment to blink and stare into space, as if he’d just heard something he couldn’t quite comprehend, ‘Clothes are supposed to be matched?’ He thought to himself puzzled, subconsciously waving goodbye to the orange-haired girl as she left with her Glameow in toe.

“See I’ve got the choker now so you don’t have to worry about a thing.” Dawn proclaimed happily to her mother.

Johanna’s eyes narrowed and she held a finger up in a chastising fashion, “It’s when you tell me not to worry that I worry the most.” She replied with a serious look on her face.

Dawn sighed at her mother’s familiar proclamation, that answer was like a recurring theme with her. Looking around with a puzzled look came over her face, “Huh?” She questioned, the orange haired girl who had found her choker had disappeared.

Ash saw her confusion and answered, “She already left.” He told her.

“Honey!” Johanna but in, drawing her attention back to the video phone, “The last thing you need to be in your first contest is absent-minded so watch out.” She chastised.

Dawn whirled back to her mother with a confident grin, “Don’t worry!” She declared confidently.

“And what do I do the most when you tell me not to worry?” Was her mother’s dull answer, causing Dawn to hang her head in defeat.

Ash decided to save Dawn from any more embarrassment via her mother – he knew just how that could be, what with his own mother constantly reminding him to change his underwear… “Don’t worry.” Ash said as he stepped up behind Dawn and laid a comforting and supportive hand on her shoulder. “I’ll make sure she keeps her head out of the clouds and doesn’t bite off more than she can chew.” Ash told her with a small easy going smile on his face.

Johanna smiled at him in return. “I know I can trust you Ash-dear.” She replied before turning her attention back to Dawn once again, “I’ll be glued to the T.V. watching, so good luck!” She reminded her Daughter once more.

Dawn finally came out of her defeated slump and gave another confident smile, “Okay Mom.” She answered confidently, and with that Johanna cut off the video feed.

Dawn sighed when the screen went blank, “Arceus, dealing with my mother is always a mission.” The bluenette lamented.

Ash laughed as he slipped his arm around her shoulder and started guiding her towards the waiting room for contestants, “I know the feeling, my Mom is the exact same.” He told her. Seeing Ash leave his post for another one Pikachu filled his previous position; hopping on his shoulder and scaring off more males approaching with the same aura filled glares and sparking cheeks Ash had been using earlier, sans electrical intimidation, obviously.

“Really?” Dawn asked, not noticing all the other males in the room shy away from the intimidating looking young Pokemon sitting on her friend’s shoulder.

“Yup.” Ash replied, “Every single time I see her she always goes on about how I need to…”

Ash faced Dawn’s uproarious laughter at his expense with a content smile, happy he’d cleared some of her embarrassment.

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The crowd cheered loudly up in the stands as the dim-lighting of the large Contest Hall was illuminated by a spotlight shining down on the stage at the very middle of the room, showing a beautiful brown haired woman wearing a yellow dress with a microphone in hand.

“Greetings and a warm welcome to all you Coordinator and Contest lovers of all ages.” She spoke clearly, the sound of her voice travelling loudly and clearly over the whole Contest Hall thanks to the speakers lining the walls, “You’ve all come together for one very special reason. That’s to find out who will take home the coveted and fabulous Jubilife Contest ribbon! Now I know you’ve all been waiting patiently so now it’s time for you all to be rewarded.” She declared.

With that declaration sparks flew high into the air from both ends of the Contest stage as the large dome-like roof atop the Contest Hall opened up and slid away, showing the clear and sunny blue sky to everyone present.

“We’re coming at you live and on-stage from the stadium located in Jubilife City! The city of joy!” She continued, “Time for me to introduce our judges, and heeeere they are!” She shouted loudly into the microphone.

“Head of the judges community and Pokemon Contest direction, Mr. Contesta!” She introduced first.

“Thank you, thank you, it’s great to be here.” An older man with greyish black hair and a red blazer replied to the loud cheering he received.

“And now the head of the Pokemon fan-club! Mr. Sukizo!” She introduced next.

An incredible short, almost bald middle-aged man wearing a blue business suit stepped up beside Mr. Contesta, “Remarkable is the word, thanks.” He stated.

“And finally, Jubilife cities very own Nurse Joy!” The brown haired woman introduced last.

The beautiful pink haired nurse stepped up next, “Wow! When it comes to seeing all the amazing and splendid Pokemon, I can’t wait!” She called out to the crowd as she waved happily to her cheering section.

“Oh, I forgot me!” The brown haired announcer said bashfully, “I’m Marian, and I’m thrilled to be the master of ceremonies, thanks so much!” She declared happily, in her loud perky voice.

Marian then ran to the middle of the stage as she got ready to start off the appeal round, “And now it’s time for the first round, where one by one our contestants take their spot on this stage, the purpose of this round is to see how her contestant make their Pokemon shine, showing off power and beauty.

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“Ohhh…” Dawn moaned dejectedly as she tried to fix her hair into a pony-tail, “I’m supposed to be already to go and I can’t even get my hair ready.”

She was surprised when the orangette who had found her choker earlier that day stepped up behind her and began helping her fix her hair up, “Here, let me help you.” She told Dawn.

“Oh, thank you!” Dawn replied, relief evident in her tone.

Dawn smiled as she relaxed and looked into their reflections in the mirror, “I didn’t introduce myself earlier, I’m Dawn.” Dawn said.

“I’m Zoe.” The now named Zoe replied, “So is this your first Contest?” She asked Dawn curiously.

“Yea, how’d you know?” Dawn asked curiously.

Zoe chuckled, “You’ve got that first time vibe.” She answered.

Dawn sighed dejectedly, her thin layer of self confidence popping like a bubble, ” Oh, lovely.” She deadpanned, before perking up, “So have you been in Contests before?” The bluenette questioned.

“Sure have.” Zoe replied proudly.

“Wow.” Dawn gushed slightly, “Have you won any ribbons yet?” She asked next.

“Three contests, one ribbon.” The older girl replied even more proudly.

“Wow, can I see it?” Dawn asked sparkly eyed. She was answered by an orange ribbon case being dropped in her lap gently as Zoe continued to try and fix Dawn’s blue hair into a pony-tail.

Flicking it open, Dawn let out a breath she didn’t even know she was holding as she stared at the sparkling ribbon sitting on blue velvet cushion, “Oh it’s just adorable.” Dawn praised.

“All set Dawn.” Zoe replied after finally getting the bluenette’s hair to settle in a stylish ponytail.

Dawn stood up and handed Zoe her orange ribbon case as she turned to her, “Now it’s my turn to win.” Dawn stated calmly.

“Yeah?” Zoe asked with a raised eyebrow.

“I’m sure of it, there’s no way I can’t do well with everything Ash has taught me!” Dawn declared proudly.

Zoe raised an eyebrow at the admission, “Why are you so sure, he just seems like any normal guy to me, albeit a very cute guy, but a normal guy nonetheless.” The red eyed girl asked.

Dawn felt her teeth grind a little at the reminder that Ash was very cute, and as such a guy many girls would be interested in him. She’d deal with marking her claim on him later, for now she decided to give Zoe the benefit of the doubt, the orange haired girl had been nothing but nice and helpful to her after all. “Well, I don’t think he’d mind me telling you, he seems really mellow about this kind of thing.” Dawn replied, a little unsure before deciding to just go with it. “Back when I was in Sandgem town, right after Ash offered me the choice of travelling with him, Professor Rowan told me that Ash was an incredibly skilled and experienced Trainer, so much so that he could go toe to toe with almost any of the members of the Elite Four and have a good shot in coming out the winner.” She admitted, quite a bit of pride in her voice. She couldn’t help it, not when she was now close friends – hopefully someday more – and travelling companion of such a powerful Trainer.

Zoe recoiled a bit in shock as her eyes went wide, “That guy could take on the Elite Four!?” She shouted in surprise and a heavy dose of trepidation. She could possibly be facing this suddenly intimidating and yet still cute boy.

Dawn nodded, “Yeah that’s what I was told, and I believe it all the way. I mean he showed us some of his official battles on his Trainer information page and I personally saw him defeat three legendary Pokemon in one on one battle in the videos; an Articuno with his Charizard, a Deoxys with his Sceptile and finally a Regice with that little Pikachu on his shoulder.” The blue eyed girl stated soundly.

Zoe swallowed audibly as she collapsed into one of the chairs, “And this guy’s competing in this contest?” She asked, her voice hollow as she rested her head on her arms.

Dawn nodded but had a smile on her face, “Yup, but he did tell me he’s gonna be using one of his newest Pokemon, and that while all of his Pokemon are strong, this one’s near the lower tier on the totem pole because he hasn’t Trained it all that much, he just wouldn’t tell me what the Pokemon was.” She told her fellow female Coordinator.

Zoe sighed in relief, “Thank Arceus, the chances are still slim but at least now I have a chance.” She muttered as she stood up, cursing herself inwardly though for losing her cool so easily, even if she couldn’t exactly blame herself, the Elite Four were on a whole other level of power compared to normal trainers after all, so much so that they could defeat full hordes of Pokemon using only one of their own and have that Pokemon sustain no damage whatsoever. If this Ash guy’s Pokemon were at that level, she honestly couldn’t see what chance she had of winning, maybe in like 5 years of constant Training, but only being a few months into her own journey – it hurt her pride to admit – and if she went up against one of those monsters Dawn told her about that had defeated Legendary Pokemon! Then her Glameow and other Pokemon would be crushed like bugs.

At least he was using one of his weakest Pokemon, or at least his lesser Trained Pokemon.

Mustering her courage, Zoe stood up again and gave Dawn what she hoped was a calm smile, “Well, I’ll see you out there Dawn.” She said as evenly as possible before turning on her heel and hurriedly leaving the changing room.

Dawn watched her go, a bit worried about how nervous she seemed to get after being so calm, just from hearing about how strong a Trainer Ash was, “I can’t really blame her I suppose, but I know Ash, and he wouldn’t be unnecessarily cruel by unleashing Pikachu in the battle round. If he did he could take almost every Contestant here on at the same time and Pikachu would take every single Pokemon out with one attack.” Dawn muttered to herself, a large sweatdrop sliding down the back of her head at the thought of Pikachu being unleashed in a one-on-one battle against some random tournament Coordinator, the poor kid would be lucky if Pikachu toned his attacks down enough not to burn the kids Pokemon to a blackened, twitching charred husk.

Honestly, after seeing Ursaring, who was supposedly what Ash called a powerhouse of a Pokemon, battle Pikachu and get beat around like a volleyball, she had no idea just how to justify how Powerful Pikachu was.

Was the little yellow electric rodent a Pokemon who had ascended into the ‘Legendary’ category? But didn’t Ash say his Charizard was stronger? Was his Charizard also a normal Pokemon who had ascended to the power of a Legendary as well, but even more so? Was there a level above Legendary?

Dawn shook her head to rid herself of the crazy theories, “I need to hurry up and go meet up with Ash in the waiting room.” She told herself as she slapped her cheeks, she needed to drop such stupid theories no matter how true they looked.

Shaking her head again, the blue haired girl opened the door of the changing room and stepped out before she began rushing her way towards the Waiting Room to meet up with Ash.

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Ash leaned against the wall right next to the door of the waiting room with his arms crossed, his head was dipped a bit and he had his eyes closed as he took deep relaxing breaths, taking the short time he had left before the contest officially started to center himself.

It was something he’d been doing in every tournament type event he’d participated in since just before he defeated his old rival Gary, something he considered to be his first big stepping stone. He may have counted his making it into the top 16 during the Indigo League if his loss to Ritchie wasn’t so humiliating.

Charizard was still apologizing for that to this day. Back then he hadn’t been aware of just how much he’d cost his Trainer. The would-be legendary made sure to give at least 120% every battle, even against weak opponents to make up for the devastating loss he’d cost Ash. Ash himself had repeatedly told Charizard it was in the past and he was just happy he was following his orders now, but Charizard was stubborn like that.

The centering was something that had helped him as a mediocre Trainer defeat his childhood rival, and even he had to admit – even if grudgingly – was that Gary was extremely talented and had inherited his brains from his Grandfather, quite the scary combination when it was all said and done.

After he started centering himself was when his career as a Trainer really started to sky rocket. He’d lost very few battles since the beginning of his Hoenn journey. Once against Norman Maple, Once again Brawly, and then his only other real loss in the Hoenn region was against the strongest of the Elite Four of Hoenn, Drake the Dragon Master, who was said to be just as strong as any of the Region Champions thanks to his overwhelmingly powerful team of Dragons; his own official battle team consisting of four different Dragon-type Psuedo-Legendary Pokemon. It was said that Drake had a Dragonite, a Garchomp, a Pokemon from a far off region called Unova named Hydreigon and finally, his most powerful Pokemon, his Salamence.

Ash could remember vividly the defeat he’d been handed by Drake’s Flygon and Altaria way back when. Pikachu and Grovyle put up a good fight but ultimately lost, it had beaten the arrogance completely out of his head, the two strongest in his Hoenn team being completely outclassed by the weakest of Drake’s official team had really brought it into prospective for him, and from then on out he and his Pokemon had been Training harder than ever.

His Battle Frontier career was even better, he again only suffered three losses, one because he underestimated Anabel and twice to Brandon. Sceptile lost to Regirock because he wasn’t even in control of his body at the time and the guy who’d possessed him had no idea how to command Sceptile in battle like he did, and then Torkoal had taken on Registeel, another Legendary Pokemon and was beaten, albeit barely.

Now that Ash thought about it, Torkoal was quite the powerhouse too, it’s not like just any Pokemon could go toe to toe with Legendaries…

Ash shook his head marvelling at his stupidity, even after all this time he still didn’t know the full extent of all of his Pokemon’s abilities, except Pikachu and Charizard. Especially Charizard, actually, he’d pushed Mewtwo to his limit.

‘Mewtwo, each new town or city we stop in, I’m going to trade around my Pokemon and I want you to battle each and every one of them, even the new ones so I know what their limit’s are, so I can work to make them surpass them.’ Ash said in his head eyes still shut as he breathed in calmly and deeply, knowing his own Legendary Pokemon could hear him despite being in his Pokeball.

‘Very well.’ He heard Mewtwo reply in his head along with the familiar pulse of something he felt in his mind whenever Mewtwo talked to him in his thoughts.

He was brought from his centering of himself when he heard a familiar breathless voice panting beside him, opening his eyes he saw Dawn leaning against the wall beside him breathing heavily as she tried to suck great lungfuls of air into her chest.

“There you are, I was wondering what was taking you so long.” Ash told her with a small smile.

Dawn smiled back as she stood up straight, “No need to worry, I couldn’t get my hair up right until Zoe helped me.” She replied.

Ash looked her over, noting the style pony-tail her sleek deep blue hair was in now, “I like it, it shows off your pretty face well and goes well with your dress.” Ash complimented, mentally filing the name ‘Zoe’ away, obviously it was the orange haired girl who had found Dawn’s choker earlier that day, or else Dawn wouldn’t have mentioned her as if Ash had known her.

Dawn beamed at the compliment on her looks, “You think?” She asked as she did a little twirl to show off her hair and dress.

Ash nodded, “Absolutely.”

Dawn smiled back at him a bit shyly as a small red hue spread across her cheeks. She turned her head towards the screen that was showing the Stage to hide her blushing face and began speaking again, “So, when does the actual Appeal Round begin?” She asked.

Ash smirked at her, not all that bothered by her not looking at him when she voiced her question, “Right this very second.” He replied.

Just as he said that Marian began speaking into her microphone on the large screen, “Put your hands together for contestant number one, it’s Zoe!” She introduced as the purple curtains opened and Marian stepped out of the line of the camera to show the orange haired girl standing confidently in her long white shirt and teal pants.

Ash raised his eyebrow at the decidedly male looking clothing, from what he’d learned so far most girls preferred the more ‘fashionable’ and ‘cute’ clothes during events like these… not that he understood it all that well, or anything having to do with fashion. Both Misty and May had dragged him clothes shopping for hundreds of different outfits yet he hadn’t seen them wear one beside their usual outfit once. He knew they owned them all, he’d been talked into carrying them, but while shopping and while travelling, enough times to curse their existence, and yet neither girl seemed to stray from their every-day outfits.

They both watched as Zoe released a well-Trained looking Misdreavous, a Ghost-Type Pokemon, her seal exploding in a large cloud of smoke where a large outline of a giant Misdreavous appeared, before the cloud was dispersed by four other rather see-through Misdreavous’ bursting from the original and flying to the far corners of the large hall and disappearing as the original Ghost-type unleashed powerful wave after wave of the Electric-Type attack Shock Wave.

Ash had to admit, the girl had a lot of skill. She’d go far in the Contest World. Her Pokemon, from what he’d seen so far, weren’t quite as strong as May’s when she’d competed in the Hoenn Ever Grande Conference, but she definitely had as much skill as May did then.

Pretty darn good for a girl who he gathered had only been a Trainer for a few months, and had been doing it alone without a more experienced Trainer like himself for Dawn or Brock for him, helping her out. Still, he could see some flaws, such as the Shock Wave fluctuating slightly because there wasn’t quite enough power being put into it, and how the electricity wasn’t quite as bright as it was when an Electric-Type attack was truly mastered. It wasn’t something the judges of a normal Contest would notice, or even a vast majority of people watching, both inside the stage and on TV; someone would have needed to have extensive knowledge on Pokemon attacks or have worked a long time with an Electric-Type like himself to have noticed, so he doubted she’d be losing points over it.

Electric-Type Pokemon were, after all, the hardest of every type to Train beside the small group that contained Psuedo-Legendary, and even then it was only really cowing their attitude so their heavy amount of fire power didn’t go to their head, causing them and ignore their Trainer’s orders.

Electric-Type Pokemon had a set amount of electricity they could store in their body, too little inside them and they’d be very hungry a lot of the time, not too mention tired, lethargic and just generally apathetic because of how tired they really felt. Too much and they’d become feverish, go through extreme amounts of pain and risk losing control of the power inside them and exploding.

Ash himself had only seen three Pokemon that could hold more electricity than their body’s should be able to handle, two of them would be the Legendary Electric-Types, Riakou and Zapdos. And the third being his very own Pikachu; a fact he’d already spent many afternoons in awe of as he saw just how much power the little mouse had at his disposal.

All three of them, when they really started to use their full power, the color of their electricity would change. He’d only seen Zapdos do it twice and only heard that Riakou could do it, never witnessing it personally, but Pikachu, depending on his mood during the battle, his electricity would flicker between light blue or crimson red.

The crimson red electricity was something Ash figured might have been a side effect, that occurred thanks to that incident with Groudon and Pikachu absorbing the red orb.

It did look cool though, deadly, but very cool. It had a lot of contest potential, and if Dawn made a good enough offer and had a good idea on how to use it – and Pikachu got a handle on how to do it willingly – he would definitely lend her his Starter.

Ash was broken from his musings on Electric-Types when he heard Dawn let out a nervous breath, something he’d been able to pick up on about her when she was nervous because it sounded kind of like her breath shook halfway through each time she blew the air out of her nose and mouth.

“What’s wrong?” Ash asked worriedly.

Dawn let out a small whine, “Did you see that? That was flawless! How am I supposed to compete with that? What if everybody here is that good and I just cant compare?” The beautiful blue haired girl fretted, a worried frown marring her beautiful face.

Ash noted the arrogant 17-year old looking guy from earlier, who he now noted had green eyes and spiky brown hair, and was now wearing a red and black Tauros fighting uniform, swaggering towards them, his leering eyes locked on Dawn’s body.

Ash glared at him, but the boy seemed to have grown a pair since earlier as he glared back right back before a smirk flashed across his face.

Ash stepped things up a notch though as he reached over and gently pulled Dawn by the shoulders into a tight embrace, letting the shorter girl – by a few inches – bury her face in the crook of his neck.

He rubbed up and down her back soothingly with one of his hand while the other was wrapped around her waist. Once he was sure Dawn was returning the hug Ash looked up and smirked mockingly at the other boy, stopping his hand from rubbing her back soothingly for a second as gestured to her before going back to rubbing her back, mouthing, ‘Mine’ as he did so.

While it was a little over-the-top in Ash’s opinion, it worked; the older boy’s face flamed in what Ash deduced to be rage, before he turned and stomped his way back to where he was sitting before.

Ash decided to worry about him later as he turned as attention back to Dawn and lay his chin atop her hair, “Don’t worry about it. I’m not going to lie; that girl is exceptionally skilled.” He told her, his voice low and soothing, “But I’m also telling the truth when I say I guarantee that with the performance you’ve got ready you’ll make it to the finals easily, and with what I’ve taught you so far, you have a good shot at taking the whole thing.” He added reassuringly.

He decided he’d share his earlier thoughts with her as well, just in case she needed another boost. “Zoe’s performance wasn’t flawless, by the way.”

He felt rather than heard Dawn’s curious murmur and elaborated. “Her Pokemon’s Shock Wave was under-powered. It would have looked a lot brighter if it’d been used properly. It could be it hadn’t learned it properly, but it’s also possible her Misdreavous just didn’t have the reserves of power required to keep up the show and needed to sacrifice some power to complete the act.”

This seemed to work, as Dawn straightened, just a little more confident at proof that even something that impressive had fallacies in it.

He let that hang for a moment before he tapped into a little of his old arrogance – something he kept at the back of his mind just in case – and allowed a smug smirk to come across his face, “Except me, of course. I’m absolutely flawless all the time and nobody could even come close to beating me.” He boasted arrogantly.

His plan worked, and he heard/felt Dawn giggle against his neck, the musical sound causing his neck to vibrate slightly from the close proximity of her mouth, sending a pleasurable shiver down his spine.

Dawn pulled back slightly and looked deep into his eyes, meeting amber with blue, “Thanks, you’ve only known me for just over a week and you seem to know just what to say whenever I feel down.” She said as she lifted one of her hands up and gently trailed it down the side of his face.

Ash brought his own hand up and cupped hers against his cheek as they both continued to stare into each other’s eyes.

Dawn licked her lips to moisten them and Ash inclined his head down just a bit, Dawn following suit to raise her head to meet his.

Both travelling companions head’s began to move, making to meet the other in the middle, their lips getting closer and closer.

Five inches.

Four inches.

Three inches.

Two inches.

One inch!

Their lips were brushing against each other’s, parting slightly, rough red lips just about to meet pouty pink in an open mouthed kiss when-

“Mr. Ketchum you’re up next.” The stage manager called into the room as he rifled through his clip board as he turned and left the area.

Dawn and Ash, who had been just about to share a passionate kiss, completely face faulted past each other and face planted right into the floor.

Standing up, they met gazes again, Dawn with an embarrassed red hue on her face and Ash looking guiltily awkward.

Shaking his head Ash gave her a confident smile, displaying an emotion he really wasn’t feeling at the moment, “We’ll talk about this later.” He told her, and without giving her time to answer he leaned forward and pecked her gently on the forehead before pulling back, turning on his feet and vacating the waiting room.

Dawn watched him go, a small smile working across her face before she cursed, “Damnit, so close!” She yelled, thoroughly annoyed.

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Walking in confident strides down the hall, Ash came face to face with Zoe and gave her a nod and grin, “Great work out there, although you should really work on that Shock Wave, your Misdreavous still needs to learn a bit more control and add more power into the attack so they won’t fluctuate like that.” Ash advised as he walked straight past.

Zoe turned and watched him go, a curious frown on her face, ‘He figured all that out just from a brief performance?’ She questioned mentally in slight shock.

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“And now do we have a treat for you!” Marian declared to the side of the stage, “From all the way from Pallet Town in the Kanto Region, I give you Pokemon Ranger Ash Ketchum!” The yellow dress wearing woman shouted into the microphone in her hand.

The crowd erupted into massive cheers as the purple curtains were pulled away to show Ash standing with his arms crossed; calm, cool and collected, a purple tinted Pokeball with a seal on the front clasped in clear view in one of his crossed arms.

Loosening his arm, Ash threw the Pokeball into the air, it opening and to reveal the Pokemon inside, as well as a massive tornado spinning rapidly into view thanks to the seal.

“Pidgeot, show them your power.” Ash’s voice rang out calmly.

Pidgeot fazed into view, almost as large as two average Pidgeot put together. Pidgeot was a large bird of prey The feathers on his head-crest were nearly as long as his body, and were yellow and red. His tail feathers were a red color and like its previous evolutions, his underbelly was a tan color, topping off his markings was a black line that extended from his eyes down to his jaw, making his eyes seem even more predatorial looking.

Flipping elegantly backwards in mid-air as he came out of the Pokeball, Pidgeot flapped his wings powerfully, completely disrupting the towering grey tornado of wind that appeared and dispersing it into nothing but small flakes of energy that fell steadily to the ground from directly above Ash.

The Trainer in question standing calmly with his arms crossed again looking towards the crowd, with his large Pidgeot flapping it’s wings gently above him.

“Wow what a majestic appearance by Pidgeot, it’s much larger than average and dispersed that tornado with nothing but a flap of it’s wings, what power!” Marian gushed.

Ash allowed a small smirk to appear on his face, as he gave the order, “Pidgeot, show them your speed just like we practised and use Twister.”

Pidgeot seemingly blurred out of existence only to re-appear in the exact same spot, except now their was four more Pidgeot forming a pentagon shape above Ash.

“Wow would you look at that, that’s no Double Team folks, this is all pure speed!” Marian chattered into her microphone excitedly.

Each Pidgeot seemingly began flapping their wings harshly, creating a large white towering tornado each, when in fact it was just Pidgeot using the attack and moving on to the other spots and doing the same, too fast for the human eye to follow, thus creating after-images.

When they were done, five, forty feet high tornadoes surrounded Ash. Four of the Pidgeot’s suddenly vanished as the original flapped up into the air higher.

“Oh my, Ash Ketchum is standing between those powerful tornado’s and he isn’t even batting an eye!” Marian shouted into her microphone over the howling winds, using one hand to keep her hair in place from the gale force winds.

Ash called out his next command, loudly and clearly, “Air Cutter.”

Pidgeot held both wings together as they glowed a deep blue, before launching them forward in a whipping motion downwards, creating a large ring of cutting energy that surrounded all five tornado;s and began shrinking, pulling them all together, right on top of Ash! Fusing them all together into one massive two hundred feet high tornado that towered into the sky, the blue cutting energy ring of the Air Cutter, orbiting around the tornado like a planetary ring.

“Oh my Arceus!” Marian screamed in fear, “Pokemon Ranger or not is he crazy?”

She was interrupted by Pidgeot cawing loudly as he took to speeding right up into the air until he was so far up in the sky he was just a dot to the audience.

And then Ash’s voice rang calmly and loudly, despite the incredible loud gale force winds of the towering tornado, “Finish, with Brave Bird!” His disembodied voice commanded sharply.

From above, Pidgeot was covered in fire as he rocketed down from another two hundred feet above the tornado, the fire turning into a shining blue energy before Pidgeot picked up speed and disappeared in a blur so fast he broke the sound barrier and speared straight down through the massive towering tornado in seconds, completely destroying it and bringing Ash into view, his hair messed up a little more, but still standing calmly, his arms crossed and a calm smirk across his face. Pidgeot was at his side already, towering over him by a good few feet at least, his chest puffed out proudly.

The Contest Hall was silent for a few moments, before everyone there burst into a wild thunderous applause, clapping and screaming.

“What a performance! He stood inside the eye of that massive tornado as if it were nothing, showing his absolute trust in his Pokemon! Pidgeot took no damage whatsoever from that extremely powerful Brave Bird! I can’t believe this, this is one of the most amazing performances I have witnessed in my entire life!” Marian gushed in awe.

After calming down Marian spoke up again, this time in a voice that wasn’t at the top of her lungs “And now let’s here from our judges on this spectacular performance.” She said into her microphone.

Ash knew Dawn was probably going crazy with worry, both for her own sake and possibly his after his seemingly dangerous performance and he wanted to hurry this along, so with a bow to the crowd and judges he recalled Pidgeot and walked back to the Waiting Room, gaining another round of applause from the crowd.

“Now that’s confidence, he isn’t even staying for the judges verdict!” Marian gushed, slightly amazed at the set of stones the young Ranger must have on him.

                                                           __________________

Zoe watched the whole performance beside Dawn, wide-eyed and in shock, ‘Is that what it’s like? To be one of the Elite? I’ve seen well taken care of Pidgeots’ before, that one was at least double the size of a normal one, is that the kind of power the Elite Trainers wield?’ The orangette’s thoughts raged.

Dawn was in complete and undisguised awe, sure she had been greatly worried by the foolhardy performance, but the grace, power, speed and trust between Trainer and Pokemon in that appeal was staggering, ‘I still have a very long way to before I’ll even reach half of the skill Ash has.’ She realized, and what more she realized was that she didn’t even care, it didn’t matter to her that Ash could probably achieve her entire dream of being a world class Coordinator within a month or two if he really wanted it, the performance he just showed was just so… Ash!

And Dawn realized, she wouldn’t have him any other way.

Even if he was obviously at least slightly mentally unhinged, what kind of loon stood in the middle of a massive cloud parting tornado? Voluntarily at that?

Dawn shook her head, she really needed to curb some of that boys craziness.

“Dawn Berlitz, you’re up next.” The announcer Dawn wished to kick in the face for interrupting her fond thoughts. A sudden wave of nervousness made itself known in the form of a cold knot in her belly.

Zoe must have noticed this because Dawn felt the slightly older girl pat her on the back. “You’ll do great Dawn. Trust me, you’re psyching yourself up for nothing. If he is the one who taught you I think the only thing you have to worry about are these nerves of yours.” She said confidently, gesturing towards the TV that was currently playing Pidgeot’s performance in slow motion. Even as slow as the camera could go they could still just barely make out Pidgeot as he swapped places with his psuedo-Double Team.

“Y-yeah. Yeah! I can do this!” Dawn agreed, pumping her fist and walking confidently towards the door leading to the Stage. “Thanks Zoe!” She called over her shoulder as she slipped outside.

On her way through the hallway she walked by Ash. Neither said anything, but a strange occurrence happened when they passed. Ash raised his hand and Dawn found herself high fiving him without thinking about it. It was an utterly bizarre gesture where she expected some kind of last minute pep talk. The gesture itself seemed to say ‘Tag, your turn.’.

And suddenly Dawn got it. It was her turn. They weren’t enemies, and even in a tournament like this they weren’t really competitors either. They were friends, partners, in this together. She wasn’t alone; Ash would be right behind her.

Dawn Berlitz walked onto stage of her first Contest with a radiant smile on her face and confidence in her walk. Maybe she would screw this up, maybe she’d even injure herself, worst case scenario, but that really didn’t matter right now. It was her turn and she wanted to give her partner a show.

                                                                      ______________

Ash nodded to Zoe as he re-entered the waiting room. Taking his place leaning against the wall beside the door again, Ash crossed his arms and focused his attention on the screen showing the Stage, where Dawn was just about to be introduced.

‘Go on Dawn, show everybody just how good you are.’ He thought to himself.

                                                                  ______________

“Our next Contestant is a local first timer, a young Coordinator who hails from Twinleaf Town! let’s give her a warm welcome.” Marian introduced, “It’s Dawn!”

The crowd cheered loudly as the curtains pulled back to reveal Dawn in her pink dress.

Dawn breathed deeply and calmly as she could, before a small smile worked it’s way onto her face, her confidence was still in high spirits thanks to her little ‘pep talk’ from Ash back in the waiting room.

Tossing her purple tinted and seal covered Pokeball into the air, Dawn released her starter, “Piplup, spotlight!” She called out.

From the Pokeball, Piplup appeared riding a wave of pure blue sparkling water straight in front of Dawn before it settled down and evaporated, leaving Piplup to land nimbly and gracefully.

“Alright Piplup, use Mist!” Dawn ordered perkily.

“Lup!” The small blue penguin responded as he aimed his head skyward before opening his small yellow beak and unleashing a pure white mist into the air that congregated above the stage in the shape of a cloud.

“Okay Piplup now use Bubblebeam!” Dawn ordered next a giddy smile taking place on her face. Her nerves were easing as she ignored everything except her Pokemon.

Piplup obeyed, aiming skyward again unleashed a multitude of large shinning blue bubbles into the air.

“Okay Piplup time for the big finish, now use Peck!” Dawn called out to her starter Pokemon.

Piplup concentrated and his beak glowed white, before the small beak lengthened to an even larger size; it was now about the size of the beak on Ash’s Pidgeot.

“Wow, Piplup is storing some serious energy!” Marian noted.

Having concentrated all the power he could into his beak, Piplup launched himself skyward and began to peck through every single bubble rapidly, bursting all of them within a few moments and as he flipped down and posed in a bow in front of Dawn, small blue sparkling flecks of energy rained down from above, looking as if it were coming from cloud formed by the Mist attack.

“A truly splendid performance, the combination of beauty, speed and cuteness kept me riveted.” Mr. Contesta said from his seat at the judges table.

“Remarkable!” Mr. Sukizo agreed.

Nurse Joy spoke up last, “It was so easy to see Piplup’s talent, I couldn’t take my eyes off of them.” The beautiful nurse concluded in her usual soft spoken voice.

Dawn smiled gratefully at them as she returned Piplup to his Pokeball in a beam of red energy, before she turned on her heel and rushed out of the stage, trying to calm her heart as it thundered away in her chest.

Johanna, who was watching the performance on the television in her living room sat on her couch with a proud smile on her face as she rubbed the head of her Glameow, “Not bad, it was very well thought out, I wasn’t expecting her to be this good for another few months yet.” She said aloud, pride evident in her tone.

Dawn sighed in relief as she entered the waiting room and turned to her left to find Ash leaning against the wall in his usual position, “Wow…” She breathed out, “My heart was beating like a drum.” Dawn said to him.

Ash opened his eyes and gave her a lazy smirk, “You done fine, great in fact, I bet nobody was expecting such a great performance from someone who was just getting started on their journey.”

Pikachu from his shoulder, sparked his cheeks and gave her a thumbs up, “Pika!” The yellow rodent cheered her on.

They were interrupted by the arrival of Zoe who gave Dawn a smile, “That was a good performance, especially for your first time.” The orangette told Dawn in her low sultry voice.

All three of them were interrupted from further conversation again by the sound of Marian’s voice coming from the screen, “And now it’s time for the judges results! These are the Coordinators who will be moving on down the line to the next round!” She cheered as the camera zoomed in on the large blank screen that was high above the audience in the Contest Hall.

The screen suddenly blinked on as one by one, faces started to appear.

First Ash’s face appeared getting a smirk out of him, “Was there ever any doubt?” He stated arrogantly, only to grin as Dawn smacked his arm playfully.

Next came the arrogant 17-year old looking boy Ash had been having a glaring contest with, and then Zoe’s image appeared third, getting a smile out of the orange-hared girl.

The 4th, 5th and 6th images were all non-descripit trainers Ash hadn’t really been paying attention to during the appeal round.

And then finally on the 7th image, Dawn’s picture appeared, right before the 8th appeared; a large rotund balding man.

Dawn released the breath she’d been holding, “Wow, I made it…” she breathed out in relief.

She was brought out of her relief filled thoughts when Ash placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, causing her to look up at him and meet his eyes, “Like I said, there was no doubt.” He stated, completely confident in her ability.

Dawn looked away as her face flushed red, looking at the screen just as the battles were decided for the next round.

Ash smirked as he saw his opponent was the arrogant older teen who had been leering at Dawn, his battle was first.

Zoe’s was second and she was facing a black haired, green eyed woman.

The 3rd round was between a muscular man wearing a karate-gi and a spectacled woman wearing a long blue dress that went well with her green hair.

And finally, Dawn was last against the rotund man.

The Battle Round roster had been decided, now all they had to do was win their battles.