There were two coordinators standing opposite each other. One, a thirteen year old boy with dark rose coloured hair and blue eyes called Jayce, was wearing black jeans, and a white muscle top under a navy blue, button up shirt that was hanging open, was standing with a Raichu in front of him. On the other side, was his twin, Lana, a black haired girl, wearing a pink cargo skirt and a white tee shirt that had a large blue plus sign on the sleeve, was standing with a Liepard before her. She was also wearing a white cap that had a pink version of the Pokémon League Symbol on the front.

"Raichu, use Thunder!" Jayce said, staring at Lana as he called out what ended up being the final attack. With Liepard on its back, there was no real need to confirm, but the judges all pressed their button, causing three red 'X's' to appear in front of their desks. The announcer said, "And with that, Jayce wins the…" but she stopped talking as she saw someone propel themselves over the edge of the grandstands. She said, "Hey! You can't jus…uhm…ahh…you're…"

The man that had spiky black hair grinned and said, "Yes. I am. And…" he turned to look at both Jayce and Lana. "…I am most disappointed in the pair of you."

"Uhh…us?" Lana said, stunned that a Frontier Brain would know either of them.

"What do you mean by that?" Jayce demanded.

"Just that. I should think that anyone in the audience that had ever been to a contest before would be similarly disaffected by your showing here today."

"What do you…"

"So, how about this?" he raised his voice and said, "Alright, people, what do you say about sticking around for an exhibition match?"

There were a number of questions on every audience member's lips. 'Who does this joker think he is', 'an exhibition match between two coordinators?' However, one audience member wasn't asking, or even thinking anything remotely similar. No. she was trying to shrink into herself as she thought, 'Oh Arceus Ash! Why did you go and do that? I mean, sure, there was nothing particularly special in that, but even so, I thought that he wanted to keep low key on this trip. Well, so much for that now!'

Jayce said, "Uhh…I don't know who you think you are, but you can't just jump down and ask for something like that. I'm pretty sure those type of things take time to organise. And, no offence, but I'm pretty sure that the one holding it has to be someone well known."

Lana's face fell, as blood rushed to it. She quickly said, "I'm so sorry! My dumbass brother doesn't know what he's talking about, Mr. Ketchum, sir!" she then elbowed her brother in his side, hard, saying, "That is Ash Ketchum, the frontier brain of the Battle Theatre!" she then grabbed his head and forced him to bow, saying, "He's very sorry."

Ash smiled and said, "It's fine. It's not in this region anyway. Recognition aside, do you accept this offer?"

"Uhh…I don't mean to offend…"

"I've got quite thick skin."

"Then…you must be crazy if you think that either of us stand a chance against you."

"Hmm…okay, fair point. In that case, Ash grinned and looked to the announcer and asked, "Hey, Althea, can I borrow your mic for a second?"

"Sure, I guess," Althea shrugged, handing it over.

Ash said, "Thank you. Now…" He turned it on. He said, "Hello, one and all!" in a very theatrical way. "Now, I'm sure some of you recognised me, but for those who didn't, I am Ash Ketchum, a Frontier Brain in the Hoenn Region. I'm sure you're all wondering exactly why I'm hijacking all of your time." Ash paused for a few seconds to let what he'd said sink in and for the laughs to peter out before continuing. "Well, the reason I'm in this region is private, but for today, the Contest Hall in the Desert Resort will play host to the Battle Theatre!"

In the stands the audience let out a loud cheer, it not being every day that they got to see both a contest and a frontier challenge. May, for her part, thought, 'Well, he did always have a flair for the dramatic.'

Ash turned to the two coordinators and said, "So," and nodded at the audience, "they seem pretty keen to see this."

Lana sighed and said, "You're not really giving us much of a choice here, are you?"

Ash grinned and said, "So I'll take that as a yes then?"

"Yes," Lana resignedly said.

"Alright!" Jayce happily cried, I get to take down a Frontier Brain!" Lana clapped her hand over her eyes and shook her head.

Ash brought the mic up to his mouth and said, "Alright, they have accepted the match, so now, I'll tell you how it goes in my Facility. There are three rounds of land, sea and sky. Now, since we're here, in a contest hall, I'm going to have to change it around a bit, so it will be a series of double battles, still sticking with the same land, sea, and sky themes. Also, to even it up a bit, I'll be using one pokémon during the matches."

"Hey!" Jayce said, "Don't you think that you're underestimating us just a little bit too much there?"

"No," Ash said. "Like your sister said, Jayce, I am far more experienced then either of you, and, because of that, my pokémon are also far stronger than yours. I expect you to come up with a way to deal with that."

"And if we don't?"

"Then you should give up on your journey now."

That comment took Jayce by surprise, and it angered him. "Fine, just give me thirty minutes. I need to transfer some pokémon over."

"Take an hour," Ash said, before turning to Lana. "You go with him." He then brought the mic up to his mouth and said, "Alright, I've given them an hours respite, so please, use the time how you see fit, but for those interested, I'll be in the foyer for the next thirty minutes if anyone wants to ask me any questions, that don't involve why I'm in the Unova Region."

Ash then left the field at a far more sedate pace than Jayce and Lana had as they raced through the building, headed to the pokémon centre. When they got there, Jayce immediately went over to the pokétransfer system and started dialling up their hometown. Before he could press call though, Lana grabbed his wrist and said, "Jayce, what do you think you're doing?!" a concerned look on her face.

"What does it look like? I'm contacting Mum and having her send over some of my pokémon."

"Oh, and which ones would they be, exactly?"

"Which ones? Well, obviously I'm going to need Huntail, Charizard and Gigalith. What are you choosing?"

"I'm not choosing anything yet!"

"What? Why not?"

"Think about it Jayce. Why do you think he gave us an hour to get here and back, when it only takes five to get here?"

"Beats me."

"Besides, that aside, Huntail, really? On a stage field?"

"What's you poi…ohhh…right. No water, huh?"

"Yeah, ya think?" Lana sarcastically remarked.

"Maybe I'd better go with Poliwrath then?"

"Are you asking me, or telling me?"

"What's your problem, sis'?"

Lana sighed and said, "Look, even if it is two on one, we're going up against a Frontier Brain. We need a strategy. That is why he gave us an hour."

"Oh? So, what's this brilliant strategy of yours?"

"I don't know yet. What I do know, is that the pokémon centre has an internet connection."

"An…oh, wait. Isn't that…you know, cheating?"

"No. Knowing your enemy is the first step to defeating them."

Jayce bluntly replied, "Didn't help you just now." Lana grunted in irritation, thinking on the ribbon that she'd just lost to Jayce. Jayce sighed and said, "In any case, I suppose I could wait a while before contacting Mum."

Lana sighed and shook her head, thinking, 'He can never just admit when he's wrong, can he?' She then led the way to the centre's computer and navigated to the Battle Frontier's website. They spent the next twenty minutes watching some of Ash's previous battles, getting more and more concerned about their upcoming battle. When they were done, Lana sighed and said, "Well I don't think that your plan to use Gigalith will end very well."

"Why not? He's got the best defence out of all of my pokémon, and its attacks aren't exactly weak you know."

Lana sighed and said, "Jayce, you saw what I did, didn't you?"

"Yeah. What about it? He's got one himself, so what? None of its attacks are the same as mine."

"Well, yes, but the sheer fact of the matter is that since he has one himself, he will also know all of the weaknesses of a Gigalith, and how to exploit them. That means that Gigalith is out. And most of his pokémon have a great deal of speed. The same goes with Charizard."

"Well, I don't really have any choice in the matter there, Charizard is my only flying type."

Lana sighed and said, "Well, that's true enough too."

Jayce asked, "So, who are you going with?"

Lana sighed and said, "I'll go with Flygon, that's a pretty good matchup with your Charizard, and it knows some bug type attacks that can be used to empower Charizard's flames. For the water field, like you and Charizard, I've only Golisopod as my only water type, luckily it is amphibious," poking fun at her brother's earlier mistake. Jayce grunted in irritation, even as he accepted the point. As for my landed pokémon…I think I'll go with Chandelure."

"Chandelure? Not Aggron?"

"No. Like I said, all of his pokémon are really fast, so I'm going to try and deal with that with my defence. On top of that, in most of his 'land' battles, he makes use of one or more fighting types."

"Again, Aggron has more defence than Chandelure."

"Yes, but because of that, its Special Defence is really weak."

"So what? You just said that he specialises in fast pokémon, so wouldn't that mean that they are more likely to be close combat types?"

"No. Some are, there is little doubt about that. But think about it. Raichu, Garchomp, Charizard, Talonflame, all are fast pokémon that can deal some pretty devastating Special Attacks. That means that Special Defence will be just as important as normal Defence when going up against him."

"In that case, like you suggested, I'll forgo Gigalith and use Gallade instead."

"Kirlia evolved? When?"

"About a month ago."

"How?"

"I was fighting against Team Plasma and it stepped on a Dawn Stone."

"Really? That's odd."

"What is?"

"About the same time, I was fighting against them and Murkrow evolved too."

"Really? That is odd. Well, either way, I think it's about time that we get those pokémon."

"Yeah. You're right," Lana agreed. They then went to the pokétransfer system and dialled the number of the Pokécentre in their hometown and, when a Nurse Joy appeared, Lana said, "Hey Mum."

"Lana!" Nurse Joy said, surprised to be getting a call so soon. "How did the contest go?"

"Jayce beat me," Lana snarkily said.

"Well, there's always next time."

"That's true."

"So…"

"We need you to transfer some of our pokémon to us."

"Alright, but why?"

"We were invited to an exhibition match against one of the Hoenn Frontier Brains after our match."

"Really? Who was it?"

"Ash Ketchum."

"Ash…well well well, what do you know. It's been a while since I've heard his name."

"It's been a…what do you mean, Mum?"

Nurse Joy smiled and said, "When you get back there, tell him that Marnie says hi for me, will you?"

"Sure, but…"

Nurse Joy smiled and said, "He'll know what it means."

"Well, if you say so."

"I do. Now, which pokémon would you like?"

Lana said, "I'd like scrafty, Flygon and Golisopod."

"And I'd like Charizard, Gallade and Poliwrath, if that's okay," Jayce piped in, getting annoyed that his mother had only been addressing his sister since the phone call had started.

Nurse Joy smiled and said, "Sorry Jayce, I didn't mean to exclude you. It's just that your sister usually only calls me from a Pokécentre once before calling me from the next, so I was surprised that she'd called me again is all."

"Oh. I see," Jayce said as he saw a smile appear on his sister's face that he really didn't like."

Nurse Joy went away for a few minutes as she got the pokémon that her children had requested and, when she was back, she said, "I've got them now, well…you know what to do."

"Yeah," Jayce said, "We're already done."

"Okay, then in that case," Nurse Joy said, pressing some buttons from her console. "There we go, done." And keyed the transfer. There was a buzz and a bolt of some kind of energy that dematerialised their pokéballs shot from the top of the pokétransfer device and the exchange took place.

The twins said, "Thanks Mum, as they placed the pokéballs in the empty slots on their pokébelts before starting to cut off their communications with their mother.

Before they could though, Nurse Joy said, "One thing before you go."

"What is it?" Jayce asked.

"Be careful. Ash is a dangerous opponent to face."

"He's…" Lana said.

Jayce though, dismissively said, "We'll be fine Mum. You worry about us too much."

"I'm not worried about you, Jayce. It's your pokémon that I'm concerned with. Ash Ketchum is The Final Frontier Brain in the Hoenn Region."

"So what? He's still just another trainer in the end. Frontier Brain or no."

"Jayce. He isn't 'just another trainer' the Final Frontier Brains are the leaders of a regions battle frontier, and the strongest of them all. Normal tactics won't work against him."

"Goodbye Mum," Jayce said, cutting his mother off, annoyed by her lack of faith in them.

"Jayce," Lana said. "That was rude."

"I was annoyed at the lack of faith that she has in us, Lana, how could you not be?"

"Because it wasn't a lack of faith, Jayce, it was a warning, telling us to be careful. How is that any different to how she usually is with us?"

Jayce sighed and said, "Fine, I'll apologise later. For now, we fight." With that, he left the pokétransfer room and walked at a fast pace back to the contest hall. Lana walked at a slower pace, trying to come up with some kind of a strategy that would work, battling alongside her brother with the pokémon that they had chosen. She could come up with plan after plan for working together in the 'sky' round. Unfortunately, nothing was coming to her for either 'sea' or 'land'. When she realised that she'd stopped outside of the contest hall, she sighed and said, "Well, I guess there's no putting this off." And, with a look of resigned determination, she entered it. When she was inside she saw a lot of people gathered around and thought, 'I guess this is that Q&A thing that he was talking about. Maybe I should stay here for a bit to see if I can find something out about his plans.'

As the idea came to her, she heard a voice say, "I wouldn't bother if I were you."

Lana looked up at the owner of the voice and saw that it belonged to her idol, May Maple. She blinked and said, "Uhh…I…uhh…you are…uhh…"

May looked at the one that would soon be fighting against Ash with a strange look on her face and asked, "What seems to be the problem?"

"I…I'm sorry!" Lana said, bowing at her waist.

"You're sorry? Why? This whole thing is Ash's fault."

"This whole…oh! No. Sorry, not that."

"Why are you apologising?"

"I'm sorry. Urk!" Lana exclaimed, a strange look on her face. Lana let out a calming sigh and said, "Sorry. I'll stop apologising now."

"Good," May said, smiling. Lana smiled weakly at May in return.

"So, uhh…why did you say 'I wouldn't bother'?"

"When he and I were younger he made the mistake of telling the Frontier Brain that he was about to battle the theory behind his battle strategies and got into a really tough battle because of it. Now that he is the Frontier Brain, do you really think that he'll make that mistake again?"

"I suppose not," Lana said. "In that case, I'll go on and have a last-minute strategy meeting with Jayce."

"Alright," May said. As Lana moved away, May said, "Oh! One thing."

"What?" Lana asked, stopping and turning to face May immediately upon hearing her voice.

"Just a word of warning, Ash uses contest moves."

"He uses…what? What are you…no. Why are you telling me this?"

May smiled and said, "The goal of the Battle Frontier is to 'expand the art of battle'. Ash's goal is to face tough opponents. Unfortunately, those have been few and far between as of late."

"That's all?"

"Well, that, and I did try to stop this from happening."

"You did?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"Like you said, neither of you are strong enough to defeat him without help, and I'm not going to tell you how to beat him. I'll just give you this one piece of advice."

"What is it?"

"Every trainer can be beaten, no matter who they are, or what path they decide to take."

"Alright, thanks," Lana said, a far more confident smile on her face as she walked away, though it was also far from cocky.

XXXXX

Lana found Jayce in the competitor's waiting room and he said, "What took you so long sis'?"

"You're not going to believe who I just met out in the foyer!" Lana excitedly said.

"You're probably right," Jayce agreed, having snuck in through the side door specifically so that he could avoid the gathered throng.

"It was her!"

"Her? 'Her' who?"

"May Maple! She was there! And she actually talked to me!"

Jayce sighed, having been on the receiving end of more than one of his sister's rants about the wondrousness of May Maple. "So, what'd she say?" Jayce asked, hoping to get his sister ouit of 'fangirl-mode' as quickly as possible so that they could focus entirely on their upcoming battle.

"She said that Ash Ketchum uses contest moves."

"What? She knows him?"

"Yeah. Apparently they used to travel together a lot."

"Well, they were both in Hoenn at the same time, so I guess it's not that big a surprise."

"What? How do you know that?"

"How many times have you gone on about the majestic feats of May Maple?"

"A few, I guess."

"It's more than 'a few', I assure you. "Then, when we were looking up to history of Ash Ketchum a while ago, I saw that he was competing in the Hoenn League at about the same time that she went to the Grand Festival for the first time. They were also both in the Kanto Region at the same time the next year."

"Is that so?" Lana asked, having been more focused on the pokémon that he'd been using at the time."

"Yes. And they both competed in the Wallace Cup at the same time too, when it was held in the Sinnoh Region the year after that."

"Am I really that bad?"

"Not usually, though you do have your moments."

"Like you're one to talk," Lana scoffed.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

Lana clutched her hands together in front of her chest and twisted her hips as she said, "Oh Lance, Lance," in a mock-sycophantic tone.

"I…" Jayce sighed. "I have no excuse."

Lana grinned. "She also said that every trainer can be beaten, no matter who they are, or what their title is."

"See, I told you that we could…"

"That doesn't mean that it will be anything remotely resembling easy to accomplish though, Jayce!"

Jayce sighed and said, "You're right. What've you come up with?"

"Well…"

XXXXX

Meanwhile, Ash was wrapping up the Q&A session, saying, "And…I can take one more, but that really does have to be the last one." He paused for a minute as he scanned the crowd until he saw a man that was holding a microphone that had a logo on it. He thought, 'Well, I suppose it can't hurt to take a reporter's question. It could also serve as free advertising for the Battle Frontier.' He said, "Alright, you," pointing at the reporter, gaining many groans from the audience.

The reporter said, "I'm with PokéNow."

"Alright, go," Ash said. then he addressed the audience, saying, "If anyone has any pressing questions, that they want answered, or advice for their training, my travelling companion is standing in the back, and will either help you herself, or get you to stay back and I'll address your concerns after the battle. Now, Mr. Reporter."

"Thank you," the reporter said, truly grateful as he had seen the glares being levelled at him. "If I may, my paper would like to know a few things."

"I suppose that's fair," Ash said.

"First, how long will you be in the region for?"

"I'm planning on another two weeks, tops."

"Why only two?" The reporter asked, unthinkingly.

"I'm a Frontier Brain. Why do you think?"

"Of course, sorry."

"That's fine."

"Where will you be going after this?"

"Again, that is private information. Besides," Ash grinned, "if I told you that, you and every other media organisation wouldn't stop hounding me until it was time for me to leave."

Everyone had a laugh at that as they knew it would be true. The reporter said, "Well then, in that case, why reveal yourself the way you did?"

"I told you all back in the arena. Neither of those two deserved to reach the final. The only reason that they did was because there were multiple battle rounds. On top of that, their opponents had next to no experience in battle, focusing more on showmanship than training their pokémon."

"So…what you are saying is that you are using this battle as a way of training them?"

"Partly. However, it is also true that the Battle Frontier has recently been suffering a lack of worthy challengers. This will serve as advertisement, as well as a test to see if the future of the pokémon world holds any place for the art of the battle."

"Why these two then?"

"Honestly?"

"It would help."

"Right place, right time."

"Then…you didn't choose them because you sensed that there was something special about them then?"

"That can only be determined through battle. It could be that there is. Of course, the opposite could also be true. Anything else?"

"Yes. Just one."

"What is it?"

"Will you be taking this match seriously?"

Ash got a strange look on his face as he asked, "Why wouldn't I?"

"Well…you just said that there wasn't any real reason that you chose them, and…well…they are just kids 'n' all."

"I see. Then no. I do not discriminate against, or underestimate my opponents.. doing so only disrespects them and their pokémon. Also, taking preconceptions into battle only diminishes what can beg achieved."

The reporter said, "It only…"

Ash said, "With that, this session is done," getting annoyed at the reporter's insinuations. "Will those that are sticking around for the battle please return to their seats. Everyone else, it has been a pleasure meeting you." Ash then pushed himself up from the table that had been set up for him, and left the foyer, headed down the hallway that Lana had gone through earlier.