"Piplup! Use your bubblebeam attack!"

Paul stopped walking. There was a loud commotion in the clearing up ahead. Immediately recognizing the voice, he groaned. There was only one person he knew who had a voice that was always so bubbly and high pitched.

Dawn squealed. "That was gorgeous!"

Truth be told, Paul never disliked the blue haired girl, contrary to many people's beliefs. Of course, she was annoyingly loud, but she had spunk. He smirked at the memory of the little blunette blowing up at him when he had temporarily forgotten her name (which he happens to do very often). She was also quite hard working and determined, always trying to keep up with her traveling companions. But there was that one thing about her, her one goal that really got under his skin. There was that one thing that he absolutely detested.

"That was a good job Piplup! I can't wait until we can use that move in a contest! We would win that one for sure!"

Paul groaned. Contests. He hated those things. That must have been the most ridiculous idea that anyone had ever come up with. Various images of contest appeals came up Paul's mind. A buizel in a frozen Aqua Jet. A Venamoth pouring a tea set with Psychic. A Lopunny dancing around like a ballerina. They were all pathetic.

And people say that I was an awful trainer, Paul scoffed. The things that people did in those contests were defacing their Pokemon. More than half of the appeals that coordinators did were only appealing to the human eyes- not to the pokemon. Nobody he thought. Nobody, not even Pokemon, would actually want to embarrass themselves the way they do in Pokemon Contests.

Shaking his head, Paul rolled his eyes. Besides, the real role of a Pokemon was to become stronger and fight in Pokemon battles. They weren't toys or fashion accessories. They aren't supposed to be cute or fragile or dainty. The purple haired boy snorted. Probably less than one tenth of all the coordinators out there would be able to hold their own in a battle. Paul pictured his Drapion towering over the girl's tiny little Buneary, making it quiver in fright, and smirked. In fact, there was only one coordinator he could think of who he believed would be able to last in a real Pokemon battle...

"Blaziken, Fire spin!"

He blinked. Blaziken? Widening his eyes, Paul rushed towards the clearing. It couldn't be... could it? Suspicion rose as he heard the roar of a Blaziken coming from the same direction as Piplup's bubblebeam. When he got there, he saw a gigantic vortex of flames surrounding the little penguin's attack. It was like a tornado of flames and bubbles. The mix of fire and water created an amazing power that Paul had never seen before. This contest move confirmed his suspicions. After all, the combination of "water-and-fire-whirlwind" had only been used by one coordinator before-the coordinator he was just thinking about.

Dawn's POV

I saw May yelled out another command to her Blaziken. "Now push back the whirlwind with Blaze Kick!"

I gasped as I watched the gigantic mass of bubbles and flames hurl itself towards Piplup, who, by the way was freaking out. He was jumping up and down like a lunatic.

"Piplup lup lup lup Piplup luuuuppppppp! His eyes were opened reaaaaaallllllyyyy wide, and I could only see the whites of them.

Hobbling left and right, Piplup frantically looked for any way to avoid the attack without stepping out of the arena. It was no use though. I've already looked for any possible escape route for my poor Pokemon, but there was none.

"Don't give up Piplup!" I yelled out. However, no amount of encouragement would hide the obvious fact.

Piplup would have to take the hit.

That's when it hit me. "Quick! Use bide!"

Piplup stopped jumping back and forth. With a concentrated look on its face, Piplup began to glow a blinding white light right before the churning tornado hit him. Yes, I thought smugly. Bide would send the power of that fire water whirlwind right back at Blaziken. This battle is mine.

I snuck a peek over at the other side of the battle arena. May and her Pokemon both just standing still, as if they were just waiting for Bide to be released. Humph, I thought. I guess they give up. I would have never thought that May would be the type of person to quit when the tough gets going. Oh well.

I was grinning from ear to ear. Oh yeah. I was majorly confident. I bet they didn't think that I would come up with that move! There is no way you'll be able to get out of that May, I thought haughtily to myself. Not even bothering to pay attention to the battle, I reached up and adjusted my hair. I am SO taking a picture of this moment. Finally, I would be able to beat the Princess of Hoenn!

I spoke (or rather thought) too soon.

The second that the power of bide was released, it zipped towards. But, just as it was about to hit its target, May did the unexpected; she dodged it.

Mays POV

When I heard Dawn tell Piplup to use bide, I couldn't help but smirk.

Everything was going exactly to my plan. Glancing over at Dawn, I saw her confident expression. She must have thought that I was caught off guard. Shaking my head, I sighed. Poor poor dawn. She was much too predictable.

When Piplup's bide was released, I didn't miss a beat. "Blaziken, use sky uppercut!"

Responding immediately to my command, Blaziken jumped up into the air, with its right hand glowing.

Of course, there was no target for him to hit, but I had to use that attack to get Blaziken as high off the ground as possible. Still I knew that Sky uppercut wouldn't get Blaziken out of the way of bide.

"Now use Flamethrower to push yourself higher!"

Flipping so that its mouth was facing the ground, Blaziken released a powerful Flamethrower. It hit the ground, and the force pushed blaziken high into the sky.

By the time bide reached the spot Blaziken was, he had already easily evaded the attack and was up in the air. But, Blaziken was coming down fast- much too fast. I knew that I had to do something about it.

Hmm... Let's see. If I let Blaziken land normally, the impact would damage its leg. In this battle it wouldn't really matter that much, but I still don't want my Pokemon to get hurt. I could use Overheat to slow down the landing, but then that would give them an open chance to attack. BUT, if my attack traps Piplup, as well as slows down the landing, then we could land the finishing blow right now!

"Quick, use Fire spin and trap Piplup in a fiery vortex!"

Diving towards the ground head first, Blaziken released a burst of flames from its mouth, trapping Piplup, as well as slowing down the speed that he was falling.

"Finish it off with Blase Kick!"

Flipping in the air so that its feet were facing the ground again, Blaziken stuck out a leg. Flames began to surround the leg as Blaziken came closer and closer to the ground...

"Blaaaze!"

May smiled. This battle was over.

Third person POV

May walked over to Dawn, who was hovering over her fainted Piplup.

"Hey," she said gently. "How is he?"

The midnight haired girl looked up at May and beamed. "No need to worry!"

May and Dawn both began to laugh happily. It has been a long time since they had last seen each other. Now they were finally able to take a break from coordinating and enjoy each others company.

"So, Dawn," May began "I've been meaning to ask you something. Are-"

The brunette was suddenly interrupted by clapping. Both girls looked up and saw a figure walking towards them from behind a tree. Dawn gasped.

"Paul?"

Mays Pov

I saw Dawn's eyebrows shoot up as the figure stepped out from behind the tree. A plum haired boy was beginning to walking towards us. He was smirking and slowly clapping his hands. I couldn't help but shiver a bit. Of course, I was used to getting smirks all the time (thanks to a certain grasshead I know), but this guy's smirk was different. When Drew smirked at me, it was arrogant with a hint of playfulness. This guy's smirk was… scary.

"Paul?" Her eyes were wide and her mouth was hanging open. She looked over at me and whispered furiously. "That guy has been Ash's rival ever since he's arrived in Sinnoh!"

"What are you doing here?" she asked, looking back at the boy. Suddenly she squealed and her eyes began to shine. "Ohmigod did you come here to see my appeal? Did you see it? Wasn't it gorgeous?"

The boy, who I guessed was named Paul, just replied with a curt "No".

Embarrassed, Dawn's cheeks flushed.

"Oh" was all she said. She shifted from one foot to another and looked left and right, trying to do anything but look him in the eye.

However, it didn't matter whether she was trying to look at him or not. Apparently, he wasn't focusing on her. I widened my eyes as he walked right past Dawn, and towards me. Stopping a few feet in front of me, he just pointed at me.

He muttered something gruffly. "May"

I blinked stupidly. "What?" How did this guy know my name? I looked over at Dawn for some kind of explanation, but got nothing. She too was staring at him with her eyes wide. If anything, she seemed a bit... angry

"May," he repeated looking straight at me. "Your name is May Maple." He paused for a second. "Right?"

Just getting a slow, confused nod as an answer, the boy began speaking again. "Daughter of the Petalburg gym leader. Top eight in the Hoenn grand festival. Top four in the Kanto one. Runner up in the Wallace Cup." He took a deep breath. "Am I correct?"

I nodded again, but this time, my nose was wrinkled. What the hell? This guy... Is he stalking me? … What the heck is going on? I was about to open my mouth to say something, but I never got the chance.

"Yeah!" Dawn interjected. "She was SECOND place in the Wallace Cup," she said, looking at him meaningfully. "I came in FIRST place."

I twitched at that comment. True, Dawn received the Wallace Cup ribbon, but that was only because I let her win. Ash had called me a while before the contest, and asked me to go to Sinnoh right away. Apparently, Dawn had lost the last three contests she had competed in, and he wanted the Wallace Cup to be her "pick-me-up". The plan worked. After that, Dawn gained more confidence and began winning more contest.

I bit my lip. So far, we have been able to keep this all a secret from Dawn, but it was hard to hear constantly her brag about "beating me" whenever the subject of the Wallace Cup came up.

Paul looked over at Dawn with a dull expression. His onyx eyes bored into her blue eyes. "Who are you again?"

I choked on a bit of my saliva and began to cough. This guy knew Dawn, Brock and Ash for at least half a year now, when Ash arrived in Sinnoh. He and I have never even met. How is it possible that he knows who I am, where I was from, and my accomplishments, but not what Dawn's name was?

Apparently, I wasn't the only one who felt this way. Dawn's face began to turn bright red as she puffed out her cheeks. Marching right up to him, she pointed a finger right under Paul's nose. "YOU," she growled. "How DARE you! You're such a cruel, cold, heartless, son-of-a-"

Suddenly, Paul shoved her away with an annoyed expression. The push wasn't nearly hard enough to hurt her, but it DID make Dawn stumble a bit. Looking at me again, he said plainly, "I want a battle."

There was only one thing that popped up in my head, and it ended up coming out of my mouth as well.

"Huh?"


Well, here it is! This is my very first fanfiction! Sigh… Many things are probably wrong with it. Please help and review! I don't own Pokemon.