Working Sinnoh With Skill(Old) - Chapter 6 (Patreon)

"Well it looks like you’re up first Ash.” Dawn commented from beside the young Ranger as they looked up at the screen.

Ash smirked, “Yup, first I’ll take this competition by storm and then I can go and get the Oreburgh City Gym Badge.” He replied mock arrogantly.

Dawn giggled and gave his arm a playful smack.

Zoey, who was watching them from a few feet away narrowed her eyes and made her way over to them.

“Hey.” Ash greeted her.

Zoey’s eyes stayed narrowed on him though, her face set in a frown, “Hold on, are you saying you’re going to be competing in the Sinnoh League?” The orangette asked.

Ash nodded his head in reply, “Yup.” He answered.

“Well than what are you doing competing in Contests?” She asked, she intended it to be harsh, but to Ash it sounded a little childish, like someone who didn’t get their way.

“Eh?” Ash and Dawn replied in confusion.

“You obviously don’t know the difference between Contest and Gym battles, I’d remember that if I were you.” Zoey sniffed out in disdain before turning on her heel and leaving, forgetting her earlier fear in battling one of the Elite when he obviously didn’t even know what to do in a Contest, to her at least.

“What was that about?” Dawn asked.

Ash didn’t respond right away, instead watching the orange haired girl’s retreating back before he answered, his voice somewhat steely, “There’s been a rivalry between Coordinators and League Trainers for a long time now, debates over who the better Trainers are can be pretty violent at times, although generally it’s the League Trainers who win most of the battles.” Ash told her.

Dawn’s eyes narrowed slightly at the thought of Ash thinking League Trainers were better than Coordinators just because he was one and was biased. “Oh, and why is that?” She inquired indignantly.

Ash didn’t even bother looking at her as he replied, “It’s obvious Dawn, while Coordinators can be just as good at battling, the fact of the matter is League Trainers spend more time perfecting their Pokemon’s battling prowess; power, speed, attacks and the like, where as Coordinators have to focus a lot of their efforts on making sure the attacks look beautiful. There are exceptions, but for the most part the more beautiful and appealing techniques can’t contain as much power as normal attacks.” He explained.

“Oh…” Dawn muttered softly in reply, her face flaming in embarrassment because she couldn’t see something so obvious and looked towards the ground to hide her face, a bit ashamed that she was almost accusing Ash of something she knew hardly anything about.

Ash nodded and turned to face her, “Your new friend has an attitude problem.” He pointed out, brushing off and ignoring her snafu. “She’s got skill, I’ll give her that but in a real battle I’d crush her easily.” He told her his voice holding a trace of cold anger in it.

Dawn blinked, she’d never really heard Ash angry except for when that guy had tried to steal her Pokemon, she reached up and touched his shoulder gently getting him to look her in the eye and notice her curious expression.

Ash seemed to notice what she was confused about and answered for her before she had to ask, “I don’t like when people look down on my skills as a Trainer, I’ve travelled for years, been in so many life threatening situations I’ve lost count and battled some of the strongest Pokemon and Trainers this world has to offer, some little girl who knows nothing about me trying to look down her snotty little nose at me pisses me off.” The angry teen explained.

Ash gave Dawn one last statement before he left to go take his place in the first battle, “If she makes it through to the next round, I’ll be sure to put her in her place.” He told her, his eyes glacial on a level Dawn had never seen on him.

Dawn bid him goodbye and watched as he left the waiting room to participate in his battle, Ash could be quite scary when he was greatly angered.

But – she admitted to herself in her mind – that was nothing compared to how much of a turn on he was when he was going to show just why nobody walked all over him.

Dawn shook her head sadly, she couldn’t help but feel slightly sorry for Zoey. The older girl had no idea she was so deep in a hole of her own making.

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“And now! The moment you’ve all been waiting for!” Marian cheered alongside the crowd into her microphone, “The second round Battle Tournament! Now give it up for Ash Ketchum and Bradly Goldmen!” She introduced both competitors who were walking onto opposite sides of the battlefield on the stage from different entrances.

As they got to their positions on the field, Bradley – who Ash had now learned was the name of the arrogant older teen leering at Dawn – sneered at him. “I hope you’re ready, when I’m done with you that hot little babe of yours will see what a complete loser you are and come running straight to me.” He bit out mockingly.

Ash snorted, “Oh, we’re doing the pre-fight banter part of the fight now? Okay then.” He responded as a glare forced itself into his eyes, “Well then, the only thing I need to say to you, is 1 hit; 1 attack is all that it’s going to take for me to walk away the winner of this round.” Ash told the arrogant teen, his tone glacier cold.

Bradley glared in rage as his face flamed red, but before he could say anything more, Marian decided to pipe in, “Okay Trainers, let’s get started with our first match-up!” She declared as the board above her flickered on, in image each of Ash and Bradley appearing with full yellow circles underneath their faces, “Trainers, choose your Pokemon!”

Both Ash and Bradley released their Pokemon at the same time.

“Larvitar.” Ash called calmly as he released his Pokemon from it’s Pokeball, not even bothering with throwing it into the air this time and instead releasing it manually.

Unlike Pidgeot or any other Pokemon that had appeared thus far in the Contest, Larvitar did not appear in any grand entrance of fireworks and sparks or the like, instead, Larvitar materialized in front of Ash in a beam of energy and promptly…yawned.

Larvitar was a small dark green reptilian Pokémon with rocky skin. It had an erect spine on top of it’s head, angular black streak markings below and on the upper corners of it’s red-colored eyes, and several holes or ports on the sides of it’s body. It had a scaled red rhombus-shaped belly of sorts, Larvitar had fingerless arms and legs with a single nailed toe and a tail that somewhat resembling a pine cone.

“I choose you, Xatu!” Bradley hollered loudly.

In front of Bradley, floating down after appearing in a flash of white light, a Xatu floated down flapping it’s wings as multiple rainbow colored fireworks flared around it and it posed grandiosely.

Ash, who could sometimes hear his Pokemon’s thoughts thanks to Mewtwo linking minds with them all so much and sometimes leaving the line open gave a small chuckle as he heard Larvitar’s first thoughts upon awakening and getting ready for a battle.

‘I’m supposed to battle this fruit-cake?’ He thought to himself incredulously, the small green Pokemon’s eyes and mouth being agape in shock at the absurdity of the Pokemon in front of him.

Xatu was a green condor-like Pokémon with long, red and black tipped wings that covered most of the Pokémon’s front. Underneath its wings were designs that resemble red colored eyes. Along with its main green coloration, Xatu’s designs had accentuations of black, yellow, and red. Notably, its head resembled much of its pre-evolution’s round body, with the exception of a longer, slightly hooked beak and dual, longer feather crests. Xatu’s feet had only two toes, one in front and one in back, all in all the Pokemon Xatu usually looked similar to a totem poll, but it looked like a good Pokemon.

This one in front of them, wasn’t. The reason for Larvitar’s shock was it’s appearance, it didn’t have any rare color because of natural causes, it’s green feathers had been painted a hot pink… Thus causing the shock of Larvitar.

Larvitar turned and gave Ash an incredulous look, as if to say ‘You woke me up for this?’.

Ash chuckled at the look, “Don’t worry, we won’t have to see it for much longer.” He told his Pokemon calmly.

Larvitar sighed in exasperation, but nodded in agreement nonetheless, flashing a small thumbs up with his rocky claws.

Marian, who had been staring at the hot pink Xatu with a sweatdrop, finally shook her head and pulled herself together, “Alright, Trainers! Begin!” She shouted into the microphone in her hand.

Almost instantly Bradley took action, he pumped his fist into the air, “Let’s show this loser who’s boss! Xatu end it with one Steel Wing!” He shouted loudly.

Flapping it’s wings, Xatu took into the air and flew straight towards Larvitar as fast as it could, both wings extended and glowing a bright silvery white.

Ash snorted quietly, he’d only been working with Starly for a week and the little bird Pokemon was already faster than this Xatu.

Crossing his arms Ash patiently waited, not issuing any command, Larvitar trusting him just as he had done since the time of his birth and waited patiently as well, knowing Ash wouldn’t leave him high and dry.

When Xatu had passed over the roughly 10 foot mark and closing in, Ash decided to act.

“Iron Defense.” He ordered simply.

Larvitar heard him, but gave no indication that he did other than the slight tensing of his arms before the small green dinosaur gave of a sheen from the light reflecting on his now shiny rocky form.

Just in time too, as Xatu finally reached Larvitar that very second and slammed straight into him with it’s Steel Wing attack, kicking up a small dust cloud that obscured both Pokemon from view.

“OH YEAH! Clean hit this fight is over!” Bradley crowed in apparent victory before looking up to the board expecting the yellow circle to have turned black for his opponent, only to see that his own yellow circle had apparently lost a quarter of it’s own!

“What the hell?” He raged, turning back he stared as the dust cloud died away to reveal both Pokemon, and not only he, but everyone else in the hall were shocked to see the view.

Larvitar, a Rock Type who should be extremely weak to a Steel type attack Like Steel Wing, was standing strong not even flinching, a cold disinterested look in his eyes as he stared at the hot pink Xatu, who’s one wing glowing with the power of Steel Wing was straining against Larvitar’s shoulder, making no progress at all, it hadn’t even budged the small Rock Type one step.

Looking up Bradly saw that Ash; the kid who’d been keeping that little blue haired hottie to himself all day, smirking at him, “W-what the hell?” He stammered in shock.

Ash snorted at him, “It’ll take an attack much stronger than that to even faze Larvitar.” He stated mockingly, “Now I did tell you that I’d end this battle in one attack wouldn’t I?”

“Well then.” He started, “Larvitar Hyper Beam.” He commanded sharply.

Xatu, who’d been straining all it’s power trying to hurt Larvitar with Steel Wing only had a second to look up at the sudden glow, coming face to face with the orange orb forming in Larvitar’s now open mouth, before it exploded into a large beam that the dual Flying and Psychic Type Pokemon took point blank in the face, carrying it all the way to the other side of the Hall where it crashed into the wall leaving a decent Xatu body shaped crater in it.

The entire stadium was quiet, not daring to say a thing, until the smoke from the blast cleared down, showing the wall missing a good sized section and Xatu laying crumpled on the floor, completely unconscious covered in bruises and singe marks. The only good that came out of the attack for the poor Flying-Type was that the pink had been burned straight from it’s feathers, turning them green again.

They were all broken from their shock – except Ash who had returned Larvitar in a beam of red energy to his Pokeball and turned on his heel to leave the stage – as the board above them suddenly made a whirling noise as Bradly’s circle turned fully black before it and the image of him disappeared, replaced by a bigger image of Ash taking up the entire screen with fireworks behind it, the words WINNER, posted above it broadly.

Bradley ran over to his ‘strongest Pokemon’ and began crying heavily on it’s singed body, all the while complaining that the day-care he’d left it in owed him a refund.

Marian sweat-dropped at the scene, “W-well…” She stammered, “It looks like Ash Ketchum has won the round, and in one attack no less! That powerful looking Steel Wing didn’t even faze his Larvitar!” The brown haired woman with the microphone recovered.

The crowd was quiet for a moment, before once again erupting to Ash in eardrum shattering cheers and roars.

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Dawn waved Ash over as he entered the waiting room again. When he reached her Dawn gave him a wide smile, “That was amazing, I’ve never seen a Pokemon like that before.” she told him.

Ash gave her a smile in return, “Yeah, you could say Larvitar was my first ever ‘mission’ as a Pokemon Ranger.” He replied, using his hands to make air quotes.

Dawn giggled at his antics, “How so?” The bluenette asked.

“Well, back 2 years ago when I was travelling through the Johto Region, a bunch of poachers attacked his mother, a Tyranitar and captured her, but in the confusion Larvitar who was just an egg at the time was lost in the confusion, and somehow ended up miles away from his home, where a local professor asked me to take the egg back to it’s home because the poacher’s had failed to capture his mother, and the Tyranitar was going off in a rage at the time because she had lost her child.” Ash explained.

Dawn’s clear blue eyes narrowed in anger, “How could anyone do something like that?” She asked, aghast.

Ash shook his head and shrugged his shoulders, “I’ve no idea, there just seems to be a lot of people like that though.” He replied.

Dawn sighed, “What cruel people.” She spat in disgust.

Ash nodded, deciding to change topic by getting on with his story, “So I took Larvitar with me, and a few days later I ended up holding him personally as he hatched from his egg.” He continued.

Dawn awwe’d as expected, Misty had done it at the time of the hatching and May had done it when he told her the story, “Well…” Ash continued again, “He had a bit of a problem trusting any humans besides me and usually took to hiding away in my backpack. Anyway, so it took a few weeks but I finally got him to Mt. Silver after fighting our way through a bunch of other poachers.” The young Ranger concluded.

Dawn shook her head with an amused smile on her face, her blue eyes sparkling in mirth, “Wow you just seem to get into one crazy adventure after another.” She stated. Dawn paused for a moment before she asked another question that was on her mind, “Have you hatched any other Pokemon from their egg’s?” She inquired.

Ash laughed, “Well, I found a Togepi egg once, but Misty, the girl I was travelling with at the time, kind of stole it from me.” He replied, he paused as a frown came over his face, “That still kinda annoys me, I had to battle a freaking Aerodactyl before I got it and then she just took it stating that as a 10 year old boy I was too immature to handle an egg, if anything Brock should have gotten it. He is a League Sanctioned Breeder after all and could have looked after Togepi way better than that hot-head.” His answer turning into somewhat of a rant, even if it was justified.

Dawn was frankly appalled at what he was saying. Even if he was making light of it that was still theft! Wasn’t this Misty girl supposed to be a friend of his? “She sounds like a bit of a bitch.” She told him, only to slap her hands over her mouth, her cheeks flaring red as she squeaked. She hadn’t meant to say that!

Ash nodded, taking no offense to the slight against a girl a lot of people he assumed had a crush on… Were they idiots? She was a good year older than him, and both her ass and chest were flat as a board, not to mention her violent temper… “Yeah, she could definitely get pretty hard to deal with.” He admitted, his lips quirking upwards, there was just no other way to explain the violent ginger; Dawn hit the nail on the head.

He was silent for a moment, before he erupted into chuckles and then loud guffaws, drawing the attention of some people in the waiting room before they turned back to whatever unimportant things they were doing.

Dawn quirked an eyebrow, but couldn’t help the few giggles that escaped herself, and for the life of her she couldn’t really understand how they got to laughing.

Once they managed to calm themselves down, Ash continued where he left off, “Well, I’ve hatched a few Pokemon eggs, but the only other Pokemon that I’ve hatched that belongs to me other than Larvitar is my Donphan back when he was a cute little Phanphy.” Ash said.

Dawn smiled, and was about to say something else, when she was cut off by Marian’s voice coming from the screen above where they were sitting.

“And now give it up for Zoey and Belinda! Trainers, choose your Pokemon!” Maria’s voice rang out from the screen, showing Zoey and Belinda release their Glameow and Nidoqueen respectively.

Ash and Dawn watched as both battled. The battle lasted a good four and a half minutes. Zoey struggled to match a naturally strong Pokemon like Nidoqueen for a small portion of the match, but managed to come out on top after making Glameow use Shadow Claw to catch Nidoqueen’s Ice Beam and return it to it’s sender, then finished it up with Iron Tail, making Zoey the winner.

Ash nodded when the match finished, that meant he’d be facing Zoey in the next round, as he’d expected.

Her Glameow was pretty powerful he had to admit, but if he had to base it on a level system for their battle between levels 1-100, then Ash would class that Glameow as roughly 20-25, pretty good after only a few months for a girl who focused mostly on beauty, but unluckily for her, despite Larvitar being one of his lesser trained Pokemon, he was a Pokemon he’d trained for over a month before he got him back to his mother, and then Larvitar had trained in the wild with his mother for almost two years before Ash had went to retrieve him, so Ash would estimate Larvitar to be around level 45-50.

Glameow just didn’t have the power or experience to match Larvitar, and Zoey just didn’t have as much experience as a Trainer or a Coordinator compared to the amount Ash himself had under his belt.

He’d helped May for two whole years when it came to Contests, Max had no Pokemon, and Brock preferred to avoid battle’s nowadays, so who else was supposed to help the brunette, especially with how incompetent the girl was for her first few months as a Trainer? He didn’t mean that maliciously, Ash himself was more than willing to admit he’d started out as a terrible Trainer.

Ash didn’t even bother with a greeting when Zoey returned, instead he opted to watch the next battle, and he couldn’t contain the sweat-drop that slid down the back of his head with how it concluded either. Both Trainer’s Pokemon had been about even, their Luxio and Hypno neck and neck for most of the fight, but then near the end they both clashed with their most powerful attacks, Thunder and Focus blast.

Both attacks had completely phased through each other, the Focus Blast was pretty small and it tore a small hole in the torrent of electricity that was the Thunder attack, but that was all, and both attacks continued undeterred and hit both respective targets, knocking both out, and knocking both Trainers out of the Contest.

Ash turned to Dawn with a bemused smile, “Well now, all you need to do is beat this guy and you get an automatic bye to the finals.” He stated amusedly.

Dawn laughed nervously, her earlier fears coming back full force, “Y-yeah, ‘if’ I win.” She stammered, putting emphasis on the ‘if’.

Dawn was surprised when Ash clasped her chin gently with his hand and turned her head to face him, “Hey, no need to worry right?” He asked with a small gentle but most of all calming smile, “Just stick to what I taught you and you’ll be fine. You’re a good Coordinator, you can do this.” He told her.

Dawn nodded not trusting her voice and turned on her heel, hurrying from the room to calm her wildly beating heart and flaming face from the close proximity to Ash’s face, so close she could feel his breath upon her lips.

Ash watched the screen intently as Dawn met her short, fat opponent on the battlefield a few short minutes later, she was a bit shaky with nerves but overall she was fine.

“Now, let’s see how that training for your legs worked out, shall we?” Ash asked nobody in particular, drawing an odd look from Zoey who was behind him, but he ignored her, and instead focused his attention on Dawn’s Pokemon that had appeared from her Pokeball in a wave of glistening pink hearts, her Buneary.

Her opponents choice though amused Ash to no end; what were the odds of a guy like him using a Pokemon like that? He was wearing a biker’s jacket with an image of a Gyarados on the back for crying out loud, and his head was shaved completely. The way it shined it the light lead ash to believe the man actually waxed it to look shinier.

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Dawn was confused about this Pokemon, she’d seen them in passing before but never had much familiarity with them. Acting quickly she pulled her pink Pokedex out and brought up the info it had on the Pokemon standing opposite Buneary, “Vileplume, the Flower Pokémon. Using the largest flower petals in the world, it spreads large amounts of pollen that cause allergic reactions.” The monotone feminine voice of the Pokedex stated.

Dawn nodded and looked over the other information briskly, quickly noting that it was a Grass and Poison Type Pokemon as well as being fully evolved before closing her Pokedex and slipping it into her dress pocket again.

Vileplume had a Prussian blue-colored, bipedal body with a large yellow spotted red flower atop it’s head, with short stubby feet and arms.

She put it away none to soon as the cueball, Mark or whatever his name was, she was just going to call him Cueball though, leapt into action figuratively. “Vileplume use Stun Spore!” He shouted.

Shaking the petal’s on it’s head, Vileplume unleashed an orange spore that flew through the air towards Buneary.

Luckily, Ash had warned Dawn about the attack because of how versatile it could be and told her of a few ways to counter, “Buneary, freeze it over with Ice Beam an then break the ice with Dizzy Punch!” The bluenette ordered quickly.

Buneary opened her mouth and unleashed a thin ice blue beam of energy that met the Stun Spore halfway and completely froze it over into a large sheet of ice.

The small rabbit-like Normal-Type Pokemon followed this up by streaking towards the ice sheet, both ears glowing white as Buneary pummelled the ice apart with Dizzy Punch, sending chunks of ice careening towards Vileplume who couldn’t dodge fast enough because of how awkward it’s body was.

Vileplume cried out in pain as the improved Ice-Type attack struck it over and over again, each attack as Super Effective as the last and dealing quite a bit of damage.

Up above on the screen, Cueball’s circle lost a bit of yellow that was replaced by black from his attack being countered, and then his circle lost almost another quarter straight away from his own attack being used against Vileplume and dealing loads of damage.

“And Buneary freezes that Stun Spore before sending it right back!” Marian commented excitedly.

Cueball growled audibly as the dual Grass and Poison-Type pulled itself to it’s feet shakily, “Vileplume Magical Leaf now!” He shouted angrily at his Pokemon.

Vileplume cried it’s name, accepting the order as it shook it’s large flowered head again, ejecting multiple small green sickles of energy, similar in shape to leaves that floated mid-air for a moment before launching rapidly towards Buneary, who was halfway across the battlefield from when she used the frozen Stun Spore.

Dawn, seeing the attack, shot into action herself, “Buneary, leap over it with Bounce!” She ordered smartly.

Buneary nodded and bounced on it’s padded feet, launching herself flying into the air, a good thirty feet above Vileplume.

Cueball saw what was about to happen the second Buneary started to fall from the air towards Vileplume and saw no way to dodge with how slow Vileplume was, so…”Vileplume, power up.” He commanded sharply.

Vileplume nodded, heeding his orders and stood perfectly still as it began to rapidly absorbs flecks of solar energy form the sun straight into the opening of it’s flower on it’s head.

Seconds later, Buneary crashed straight down on it’s head with a Super Effective and powerful – from all the weighted jumping training forced upon her by Ash – Bounce attack.

Vileplume cried out loudly as it impacted the ground of the battlefield, Dawn saw this and pressed her advantage, “Barrage it with Dizzy Punch Buneary!” She cried out excitedly.

Buneary obeyed jumped straight on top of Vileplum’s flower covered head and began pounding straight down with Dizzy Punch after Dizzy Punch, glowing white ears and all.

Vileplume cried out in pain after every strike, Cueball’s points whittling away more and more after each hit. Luckily for him repeated attacks like what Buneary were doing had penalties attached to them, make them worth far less points then a single well timed attack of the same nature, but he was still in serious danger of losing.

A few moments later, when his score was just below a quarter left, Cueball acted, “Launch Solar-Beam now!” He ordered in a rush.

Dawn finally saw what her opponent had been waiting on – the circle in the middle of Vileplume’s flower glowing a bright white – but was too late to react as a large beam of energy erupted straight from the flower, catching Buneary point blank and launching the small bunny Pokemon flying high into the air with a loud wail of pain.

Dawn cringed at the hit, worried greatly for Buneary, but sighed in relief as she saw Buneary struggle in mid-air, managing to right herself when she reached the apex of her impromptu flight.

Dawn smirked after a moment, “Spin and use Ice Beam!” She shouted up to her singed Pokemon.

Buneary obeyed and began spinning to face towards Vileplume on the battlefield as she began her descent.

A few feet later she opened her mouth and fired a concentrated ice blue beam of energy.

Cueball gaped at the recovery speed – having no prior knowledge to the hell Ash called training that he’d put Dawn’s Pokemon through, mainly Ursaring though – and called out to Vileplume, “Use Protect!” He shouted to his Pokemon frantically.

Vileplume managed to follow through on his command as a small green glowing orb surrounded it’s body, protecting it from harm.

Sadly it was all for naught.

The light blue energy of the Ice Beam hit the ground around Vileplume and it’s shield, before rotating around it as Buneary spun in mid-air, and within a few minutes, a spiral tipped triangle of ice had formed around Vileplume and it’s shield, completely encasing it in ice.

Buneary landed on the ground in front of the ice spiral nimbly, although she winced slightly from the impact of her burned foot from the Solar-Beam touching the ground.

With that, the last of Cueball’s yellow points whittled away. Seeing this as she glanced over to see how much her opponent had lost, Dawn erupted into a loud cheer at the same time as the crowd, just in time for Buneary to bounce over quickly and leap into the beautiful bluenette’s arms.

Spinning Buneary in her arms, Dawn couldn’t help her happy squeal, “We won! We won our first battle!” She cheered excitedly.

She didn’t even bother paying attention to Marian, who was announcing her as the winner, instead she opted for returning Buneary quickly and almost sprinted from the battlefield, intent on seeing Ash before he battled Zoey.

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Dawn met Ash, just a few steps outside of the waiting room, Zoey having already left to go through the opposite entrance to get to the battle field.

Dawn cheered excitedly as she saw him and literally flying glomped him.

Ash laughed as he caught her, spinning her around to prevent being bowled over. “You did great! A little stiff, and you could have kept a better eye out for that Solar-Beam, but nothing more experience won’t help with.” He congratulated her.

Dawn smiled brightly as she pulled back and looked him in the eye, “Thanks!” She chirped back perkily, “Although, is there anything I should improve on?” She asked a second later.

Ash nodded reluctantly, not overly enthused to bring down her good mood with critiques but realizing this would help in the long run. “The power of Ice Beam for one with Buneary, but we’ll work on that later when we’re done with the Contest today. The rest is simply your own inexperience, which we’ll work on too.” He told her, “I have to go have my battle with Zoey now.” He continued, a somewhat feral grin overcoming his features.

Dawn shuddered slightly at the smile, but hugged him tightly nonetheless and pecked him on the cheek, “Good luck~!” She singsonged as she turned and skipped into the Waiting Room happily.

Ash watched her go for a moment, chuckling amusedly.

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Out on the battlefield, Ash took his position on the opposite side from Zoey, taking Larvitar’s Pokeball in hand as he waited for Marian to start the battle.

“Trainers send out your Pokemon!” Marian finally called out.

Smirking, Ash let Larvitar loose the exact same way he had before, leisurely; his Pokemon mirroring the mood and giving a yawn.

Glameow being released in a spiral of pink confetti.

Ash stayed silent, Larvitar following suit.

He’d analysed Zoey’s battle style in her previous battle, she waited for her opponents to attack and countered them, using their own attacks against them for beautiful effects, focusing more on making her opponent lose points than damaging the opposing Pokemon.

Basically, Ash deduced, she was using a very basic form of his own battle strategy. Unluckily for her, he knew the weaknesses of his own battle style, especially in a timed battle like this.

After thirty seconds of doing nothing, the crowd started getting antsy and Zoey’s patience with him finally ran thin, “Why won’t you attack?” She raged.

Ash smirked at her as he crossed his arms, “I can win this battle any time I want, I was just hoping for you to amuse me a little before I did.” He boasted, his voice holding nothing but arrogance, a ploy he was sure would work.

And he was right.

Instantly, Zoey went red in the face, “Glameow Iron Tail!” She cried out angrily.

Glameow blurred forward in a burst of pure speed, reaching Larvitar in a blink.

Ash only smirked as he issued his own command, “Take it with Iron Defense.”

Larvitar, just like his previous battle shined briefly in the sun as Iron Defense took effect, just in time for Glameow’s tail to strike dead center on Larvitar’s forehead, the only tell-tale sign of it actually being hit was the small clenching at the corners of his eyes.

Zoey almost screamed in anger, her face red at the humiliation of it all, “Just keep hitting it with Shadow Claw!” She ordered in a loud shout.

Glameow gave a loud ‘nyaah!’ in reply before both paws were covered in black shadow claws, and the cat Pokemon began to hack and stab at Larvitar.

Only the small green dinosaur Pokemon didn’t flinch once and just stood there, taking hit after hit, looking as if he was taking no damage at all.

All the while, Glameow was losing energy rapidly from the overuse of attacks and while Ash’s score was dropping little by little, Zoey’s had already dropped by more than a third by the time Glameow jumped back a safe distance to take a breather.

Ash was bored from this though and decided to take it up a notch, Larvitar only needed one little push, “Screech.” He ordered simply.

Larvitar nodded and opened his small mouth, and from that small mouth blasting a large torrent of sound waves that ripped across the field towards Glameow at break neck speeds.

Zoey’s eyes widened at the force behind the attack, an attack that wasn’t even supposed to be used offensively! “Glameow, use your tail and jump!” She ordered frantically.

Glameow obeyed and shaped it’s tail like a spring underneath it before launching itself, spinning upwards into the air, just in time for the Screech attack to rip right through it’s previous position, tearing up the field and dying out.

Sadly they weren’t out of the frying pan yet.

“Dark Pulse.” Was Ash’s next command.

Larvitar stuck both small claws together before punching them forward, launching a beam of purple and black interlocking circles from the insides of its claws at the mid-air Glameow.

Glameow couldn’t react quick enough in mid-air and was struck in the chest harshly by the powerful Dark-Type attack, forcing it to the ground with a loud cry of pain.

Thankfully for Zoey, her Glameow was quite strong and resistant as such, so it managed to force itself up on shaky legs within a few moments.

Zoey grinned and was about to issue another attack for Glameow when Ash’s calm voice interrupted her, “Earthquake.”

Too late for Zoey or Glameow to react, Larvitar lifted a small green foot before stomping hard on the field floor, causing the whole hall to shake frantically; the shaking causing Glameow to lose it’s footing, just in time for Ash’s next command.

“Hyper Beam.” Ash commanded sharply.

Larvitar had formed an orange orb in his mouth as quickly as it could form it and fired it in the form of a large beam straight towards Glameow.

Luck seemed to be in Zoey and Glameows favor though. When the Hyper Beam was a few feet from connecting, the shaking of the Earthquake upturned a few rocks that forced Glameow down a few inches, just enough to escape the Hyper Beam’s full brunt of power.

Although not entirely; Glameow cried out in pain as some of the fur on it’s back was completely burned away from the power behind the attack.

And then, Zoey saw something that she just couldn’t believe. She’d been having enough trouble for a lifetime with the Larvitar, but now the small green dinosaur Pokemon was glowing a bright white as he increased in size slightly and changed shape.

The light dying down to show Larvitar’s new form.

“Pupitar!” He cried out the name of his new form.

Pupitar was a somewhat large Pokémon that was encased inside a thick shell made of grayish-blue rock. It had several spikes and holes for eyes and what appeared to be eyebrows above them.

Then, Ash did something that was truly astonishing, he held up the Pokeball in his hand and returned Pupitar in a beam of red energy.

Then he gave a small wave, before turning and walking away, planning on joining the audience.

“W-what are you doing?” Marian asked in shock.

Ash turned and quirked an eyebrow at her, “What does it look like I’m doing? I forfeit and I’m going to go take my place in the audience.” He replied as if she was an idiot.

“Why?” It was Zoey this time who asked, her voice somewhat hollow.

Ash snorted, “I really hate to say it like this, it makes me sound really arrogant, but it’s just not fair for me to be in this competition. I’m leagues ahead of everyone here in experience and my Pokemon are much higher level; I really only took part in this contest to give Pupitar that little needed push to evolve.” He replied.

“That’s it? You completely humiliated me and you expect me to take a hand-out like this?” Zoey ground out, her voice cold with anger.

Ash shrugged, “Take it as you like, I just want someone good enough to push Dawn to do her best, the harder the challenges closer to her level, the faster she becomes stronger as a Trainer, and Coordinator.” He replied shortly, “Don’t think of it as a handout, I shouldn’t have entered this in the first place, facing me is like facing one of the Elite four, if you’ll forgive the arrogance again, and nobody here has that kind of skill, talent or Pokemon needed to face a Trainer like me.” He continued as he turned and walked away.

Zoey watched him go, before turning her head and looking at the screen above her, she was shocked to see that her circle only had the barest minimum of yellow left, ‘He planned that all along! He crushed me as if I were nothing! He did all that to put me in my place for my comments earlier about him not knowing anything about Contests, when in fact he outclassed me so badly it isn’t even funny.’ Her thoughts raged as she left the stage to treat Glameow, Marian having giving her a good twenty-five minutes to fix her up with potions and the like before she faced Dawn in the finals.

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Dawn sweatdropped as she watched Ash walk up into the audience and take a seat, striking up a one-sided conversation with the still dumbfounded man he’d taken a seat next to. “I should have expected this, I really should have since he seems quite insistent on being fair in official matches.” She muttered to herself as she facepalmed.

Again the move was just so… Ash, she couldn’t just help but find it amusing and cute.

Standing up, Dawn shook her head and began making her way to the battlefield; it wouldn’t be long before Zoey would be back and they’d battle to see who took the win in the final match.

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“Start!” Marian shouted twenty minutes later.

Dawn started things off instantly, ordering Buneary to use Dizzy Punch.

Zoey was already starting her own attack though, one that worked just as well for defense. “Block it with Shadow Claw!” The orange haired girl ordered.

Buneary’s punch was blocked perfectly by the ethereally glowing paw of Glameow. Dawn glanced at her yellow circle, biting her lip as she noticed her score drop. “Get out of there, use Bounce!” Dawn cried, not so confident in her Pokemon’s ability in a straight up fight.

Buneary shot straight up using Bounce, but without a word from her Trainer Glameow followed right behind the bunny Pokemon using it’s tail like a spring, soaring above Buneary and using Fury Swipes on order from Zoey followed by a vicious Iron Tail. Thankfully for Dawn’s Pokemon, the blue haired Coordinator was able to quickly order Buneary to block it with her ears, taking Zoey’s points this time.

Glameow didn’t waste a second once both Pokemon landed, spinning around and swing it’s tail hard at Buneary, who barely managed to cartwheel backwards to avoid the whip-like attack. Dawn panicked and shouted an order before she noticed Buneary was safe, and the bunny Pokemon fired off a half-formed and hurried Ice Beam. Glameow easily dodged the attack by rolling to the side.

Luck was in Dawn’s favour, and the Ice Beam’s hastily aimed trajectory came in handy when it hit the ground right below the feline Pokemon, causing it to slide.

Dawn’s eyes widened, seeing her chance, “Use Bounce and land on it’s back!” She barked.

Buneary’s small legs tensed before she launched herself up in the air. Glameow barely got her feet below her before Buneary landed on her back hard, sending her slamming into the cold, unforgiving ice again. “Keep it up Buneary!” Dawn cried.

Zoey bit her lip as Buneary started Bouncing up and down on her Pokemon’s back, her deceptively weak legs causing Glameow to cry out in pain every time the bunny Pokemon landing on the small of it’s back. Buneary couldn’t jump very high without giving Glameow a chance to move, but that didn’t mean much considering how hard Dawn had made her work on completely mastering the attack.

The second Glameow started getting it’s footing, despite the vicious assault on her back, Dawn snapped, “Dizzy Punch!”

Zoey opened her mouth before the attack had even charged, “Shadow Claw, smash the ice!” She cried desperately. Buneary was too fast though, and by the time she finished her command her ears was charged with energy and came down on Glameow’s skull.

To her credit, not even a full second later a Shadow Claw had slammed into the ground beneath her, throwing Buneary off her. Buneary, in the middle of another Dizzy Punch, was caught flat-footed and the normally agile Pokemon hit the ground hard on her back and rolled.

“Hit the ice again, Shadow Claw!” Zoey commanded. Glameow reared back, it’s right paw once more covered in energy before it lurched forward. The angle of the attack sent icy shards screaming towards Buneary, who managed to dodge a portion of them, but could only throw up her arms and take the ones she couldn’t. The kinetic force caused her to stumble back, which Glameow took advantage of as she blurred forward. Glameow’s now steel tail glinted in the light of the sun before it impacted the smaller Pokemon and sent it flying.

“Buneary!” Dawn cried, concerned for her Pokemon, only for her shout to be drowned out by the buzzer, signifying the end of the round.

Everyone looked up, and Dawn’s heart dropped as she saw that her circle had slightly less yellow left than Zoey’s, meaning her opponent had narrowly taken the win.

Sighing sadly, Dawn returned Buneary in a beam of red energy before turning on her heel and leaving briskly, tears beginning to leak from her eyes.

She couldn’t help it, all the time Ash had put into making sure she was good and ready and she couldn’t even win one stupid little Contest; one that he could have won with both his and his Pokemon blindfolded.

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Ash, up in his seat in the audience, ignored Zoey receiving her the Jubilife Contest ribbon and instead opted for getting up and walking as quick as he could through the cheering crowd, intent on following Dawn.

                                                                            _______________________

Ash finally caught up with her near the waiting room again, she was rubbing her weepy deep blue eyes as she walked quickly down the hall.

“Dawn!” He called out worriedly.

Daw’s response was to stiffen slightly before picking up her pace and walking faster.

Sighing Ash ran up behind her and grabbed her by the shoulder, pushing her gently up against the wall and pinning her there with both arms over her shoulders, his face level with hers.

“What’s wrong?” He asked his tone betraying his worry.

Dawn swallowed thickly as thick pearly tears ran from her eyes, “I-I…” She stammered before wailing a little louder, “I’m a complete and utter failure, even after you taught me I still couldn’t win a stupid Contest!”

Ash couldn’t help it, he snorted, gaining a look from Dawn, her wailing stopping for the moment.

“You know…” He started, his tone amused. “In my first official Gym battle, me and Pikachu didn’t even land a single blow before he was taken out. The entire battle must have lasted 20 seconds, and that’s being generous.” He told her.

Dawn’s crying stopped completely as she stared at him gob-smacked, “That’s got to be a lie.” she replied disbelievingly.

Ash shook his head in the negative.

Dawn couldn’t hide her shock, “But-but you’re so good now! You could take on the Elite Four!” She shouted loudly.

Ash laughed, “Did you think I just started out this good?” He asked before shaking his head, “No, I was a terrible Trainer at first. In fact, you’re several times better than I was when I just started. I got this good through trial and error, years of hard work, a few good friends, and loads upon loads of failures.”

Dawn sighed after a moment, “I bet I look like a right mess don’t I?” she asked.

Ash again shook his head in the negative, “No, you always look great to me, even when you have that crazy bed-head of yours.” He replied, his voice thick with emotion.

Dawn swallowed loudly, “W-what?” She stammered out, her face flaming red and her heart pounding in her chest as if it was going to tear straight through her breast.

Ash licked his lips to moisten the thin red lines, “In fact, since the day I met you I’ve been wanting to do this, but couldn’t bring myself to do it until just now.” He stated evenly.

With that, he shocked Dawn, who’s eyes went wide with shock, hope and a little bit of lust as he slipped one hand around her waist and threaded the other through her wavy blue hair and brought his face gently to hers as he pressed his lips against hers, his tongue slipping through the partings in both his own lips and her own pouty pink lips, meeting and wrapping around her own tongue in her mouth.

Dawn couldn’t help but moan into his mouth as Ash’s tongue massaged her own and she shared a deep passionate opened mouth kiss with the boy she’d practically crushed on since the moment she met him.

Suddenly, losing a contest seemed to matter about as much as dust in the wind to her now as she became lost in the moment.