"Paul?" Dawn asked tentatively.

Paul groaned internally. He considered simply ignoring her and continuing on his way out, but knowing her she would probably just follow him until she caught up. With that, he turned and faced the coordinator.

"It's too bad you lost," he stated. "You could have won if your Quilava was faster with its moves. If you ask me, it was just bringing Mamoswine down."

Dawn felt a prick of annoyance but decided to be civil. "Yeah, it's a bummer we lost, but you know what? I learned a lot of new stuff, and I'm sure I'll win the next one!" she said cheerfully. "Besides this was Quilava's first contest since it's evolved. We're still trying to get to know the limits of all its new power."

"Hmph," was all Paul said in reply, and with that he turned to go. He was a bit annoyed that she seemed so cheerful about her loss. If it were him he would already be out drilling Quilava and making sure that something like that would never happen again.

"Wait!" Dawn called as she ran to catch up to him. "You know you could at least stay a little longer to catch up with me. After all, the last time we saw each other was at the Sinnoh League."

Paul stopped in his tracks and turned to her. "What is there to catch up on? Obviously we're both still alive and well, aren't we?"

Dawn gave a huff of annoyance and decided to ignore him. "I had no idea you were traveling through Hoenn." she prompted, trying to start conversion.

"Yeah, I'm going to battle in the League to try and level up my Pokemon some more."

"That's great! Ash is in the Unova region now, challenging the Gyms and league there!" Dawn said brightly.

"I was thinking of going there too," Paul replied, "but I wanted to stay closer to Kanto since I'm working to challenge the Battle Pyramid again." He paused, then added, "I'm surprised you're not with Ash anymore."

"Well, there actually aren't any contests in the Unova region, but I heard they'll be starting them up soon." Dawn said. She looked down at her feet. "To be honest, it was pretty hard being on my own at first. I was so used to practicing with Ash and chatting with Brock while he made dinner. It was honestly really lonely being alone." Paul just looked at her. He prayed that she wasn't going to start crying in front of him, he would have no idea how to handle that, but luckily for him she quickly brightened up as she continued.

"But, I've learned a lot about myself and as a coordinator traveling on my own!" Dawn continued. "Me and my Pokemon have gotten a lot better, but of course the competition never stops as you obviously saw. It feels like the better I get, the better everyone else I'm competing against does too." Dawn suddenly realized something. "Oh yeah, by the way why were you here? Don't tell me you're thinking of starting on the path of being a coordinator?" she teased. "Of course not." Paul replied with a roll of his eyes. "I'm challenging the Lavaridge Town gym, but the leader is gone for the day. I saw you on the screen outside and decided to see if there were any good battle techniques that I could use in my battle tomorrow."

"Hey Paul," Dawn said suddenly.

"Huh? What is it?" Paul asked, turning to look at her.

"Wanna have a battle with me? You know we've never actually battled before, it's always been just you and Ash. But you know, I'm just a good a trainer as I am a coordinator."

Paul was taken aback for a moment, but then he smirked. Never being one to back down from a challenge he naturally agreed. "Fine," he replied. "This'll be a good warm up for my gym battle tomorrow. Let's do it right here right now."

"Alright!" exclaimed Dawn. "There's a battle field at the Pokemon Center, let's go right away!"

With that, the two of them exited the contest and headed towards the Pokemon center. During the short walk, Dawn worked hard to try and engage him in some casual conversation, though the most she got out of him by the time they reached the battlefield was that he currently had three badges and was planning to challenge Brandon to a rematch only after he won the Hoenn League.

"Sounds like you're working really hard," Dawn stated as they reached the battlefield. "Anyways hope you don't go easy on me just because I'm a girl," she gave him a wink as she headed to the other side.

Paul grinned. "That's not my style." he stated.

Dawn reached the other end of the battle field and called over, "This match will be 3 on 3, sound good?"

"Fine by me," replied Paul as he took out his first Pokeball. "Electivire, stand by for battle!"

The large yellow pokemon exploded from its Pokemon powerfully. Dawn became slightly nervous as she saw the Pokemon that had almost taken out Ash's Infernape during the quarter finals of the Sinnoh league. But then she snapped herself out of it. "No need to worry!" she said to herself. "We'll just do our best, and even if we lose, I'll just learn from it!" With a fresh attitude, Dawn grinned at herself and chose her first Pokemon. Knowing that Electivire was incredibly powerful, she decided to match strength for strength.

"Mamoswine, spotlight!"

The large pokemon shot out of its Pokeball and landed with a thud. "Ladies first," Paul said with a gesture.

"With pleasure," replied Dawn, not wasting a moment. "Alright Mamoswine: Ancient Power!"

Mamoswine shot the large ball of power towards Electivire immediately. "Use Brick Break," countered Paul without missing a beat. With that, Electivire smashed through Mamoswine's Ancient Power, then landed a direct super effective hit on it's head.

Dawn remained unfazed. She remembered Ash talking about how that was just what Paul's battling style was: turning the opponent's moves against them. She suddenly discovered a new strategy. "Okay Mamoswine, use Ancient Power one more time, but rapid fire!"

Mamoswine launched the move again, but this time with multiple balls of energy. Paul just sneered. "Suit yourself, we'll just use Brick Break to smash them all."
Electivire ran forward and smashed all the Ancient Power attacks into pieces but with all that smashing the Ancient Power broke into a million little iridescent shards, almost like diamonds. The bright light caused by the setting sun reflected off of the facets and caused Electivire to become temporarily blinded.

"What the..!" Paul exclaimed.

"Remember you're not battling just any ordinary trainer!" Dawn replied with a smile. "Alright Mamoswine now use Take Down!"

With that Mamoswine scored a clean hit on an immobilized Electivire, who was blown back and smashed into a tree from the force of the collision. "Hit it while it's still down!" yelled Dawn. "Use Ice Shard!"

Mamoswine swiftly shot the attack at Electivire, who was still enveloped in a cloud of dust and smoke. "Deflect it with Fire Punch!" Paul called, and in the blink of an eye Electivire was up and struck right through the attack, charging onwards towards Mamoswine. With the added power from the Ice Shard, Electivire struck Mamoswine with what looked like a devastating flaming blow.

"Guess that's it," Paul said with a smirk.

"Not so fast!" Dawn said with a smile and Paul looked up, shocked to see that Mamoswine looked just fine. "Don't forget about Mamoswine's ability Thick Fat!" Dawn said with a smirk. "It halves the damage from super effective fire type moves!"

"Ugh!" Paul gritted his teeth. The girl was tougher than she looked.

"Let's finish this Mamoswine! Use Take Down!"

"Block it!" Paul commanded, and with one hand Electivire stopped Mamoswine in its tracks.

"Awh!" Dawn gasped. Mamoswine's eyes widened in shock as well.

"Now Brick Break," Paul commanded, and with that Electivire brought its other hand smashing down.

"Mamoswine!" Dawn yelled. With that final blow, the Tusk Pokemon had fainted. "Return!" Dawn called. "You were great Mamoswine, no need to worry we'll still win this!"

"Electivire, return." Paul said. He looked up. "I have to admit that Ancient Power was pretty good. You almost got me."

"You'll take the almost out of that sentence after this next round!" said Dawn. "Okay Togekiss I choose you!"

"Flygon, stand by for battle!"

Both flying pokemon shot out from their pokeballs and took to the sky. "A Flygon!" Dawn exclaimed to herself. "Paul must've caught it here in the Hoenn region!" Knowing that she wouldn't know any of its battling techniques she knew she had to be careful.

"You have the honors this time!" called Dawn.

"Flygon, use Sandstorm!" Flygon's eyes lit up blue and all of a sudden a vicious tornado of sand began blowing. Dawn's eyes flashed. This is just like the Thunder-Twister combination she was caught in during the contest! There was no way she was going to get beat by that same technique twice, and she suddenly thought of a counter to it. It was risky, but worth a shot.

"Okay Togekiss, use Sky Attack to get into the Sandstorm!" she commanded.

"What?!" Paul's eyes widened.

Togekiss became enveloped in a bright white light and charged head first into the raging sandstorm.

"Now spin!" commanded Dawn.

Togekiss began spinning with the Sandstorm and slowly the whirlwind of sand enveloped Togekiss, with the dazzling light from Sky Attack illuminating the sand so that it shimmered. "Now go for it!" yelled Dawn.

"Urgh! Not so fast! Flygon use Dragon Rush!"

With that Flygon charged head first towards Togekiss. The two collided and an enormous explosion followed. Togekiss emerged flying straight up, but Flygon was blown back.

"Obviously Togekiss's combination move overpowered your Flygon," Dawn said with a grin. "I'll admit that took me off guard all right," Paul said. "But get ready for this! Now Flygon use Screech!"

Flygon let out an ear splitting screech that completely trapped Togekiss.

"Now use Dragonbreath!" Paul yelled.

"Togekiss pull it together!" shouted Dawn, and Togekiss snapped back into it just before the Dragonbreath was going to hit and managed to dodge gracefully, catching both Paul and Flygon by surprise.

"Alright!" exclaimed Dawn. "Now get up close and use Aura Sphere!"

Togekiss shot forward and launched an Aura Sphere when it was just a foot away. With that Flygon pummeled to the ground with smoke rising from it's body.

"Flygon, return." Paul said roughly. "We definitely have a lot more to work on."

"Awesome job Togekiss!" Dawn exclaimed. She glanced over at Paul. "Looks like this next match will decide it all."

"Hmph. Drapion, stand by for battle!"

"Piplup, you're up!"

"Go ahead," said Paul calmly.

"Alright then, Piplup use Hydro Pump!"

Piplup let out a huge jet of water and shot it straight at Drapion. "Block it with Cross Poison." Paul called. With that, Drapion's Cross Poison held back and ultimately obliterated Piplup's Hydro Pump. "Now use Pin Missile!"

"Piplup use Whirlpool to absorb it!" Dawn countered.

Creating an enormous Whirlpool, the Pin Missiles were absorbed into the giant swirl of water, and even gave it a glow. "Now go for it!"

Piplup sent the Whirlpool flying towards Drapion.

"Use Iron Tail to cut through it." said Paul, and Drapion sliced through the Whirlpool and landed a direct hit on Piplup's head.

"The same exact thing happened to Mamoswine twice just a few minutes ago, you really need to stop falling for this" sneered Paul.

"Ugggh, Piplup use Ice Beam on Drapion's feet!" Dawn yelled, and Piplup shot his Ice Beam straight at Drapion.

"Jump out of the way with your tail Drapion!" Paul commanded.

"That's exactly what we wanted!" exclaimed Dawn. "Now use Drill Peck!"

Piplup shot up and aimed its Drill Peck at the exposed underside of Drapion.

"Grab its beak with your tail!" commanded Paul.

With that Drapion used the spikes on its tail to firmly grab Piplup by the beak, shutting of Drill Peck. "Now send it flying!" commanded Paul, and Drapion smashed Piplup towards the ground.

"Piplup, use Hydro Pump on the ground!" yelled Dawn, and Piplup's eyes snapped open at the last minute and it launched its Hydro Pump towards the ground, successfully providing a soft fall. "Now use Whirlpool!" Dawn commanded without wasting a second. As Drapion fell towards the ground it became trapped in the vortex.

"Finish it with Hydro Pump!" Dawn yelled.

"Use Pin Missile to slice through the water!" Paul countered, and with that Drapion's Pin Missile sliced through the Hydro Pump and landed a hit on Piplup. However it was still trapped in the vortex of the Whirlpool.

"I got it!" exclaimed Dawn. "Now Piplup get onto the Whirlpool!"

Piplup got back up and leaped into the water. "Pin Missile!" commanded Paul.

"Dodge and use Ice Beam to freeze it in!" yelled Dawn.

Piplup dodged the missiles with a spin then shot an Ice Beam straight at Drapion's legs, this time successfully freezing the water around it and trapping Drapion.

"Now Hydro Pump!" yelled Dawn.

Paul suddenly smiled. "You froze in Drapion's body, but don't forget it attacks with its arms!"

"Oh no!" Dawn said with realization, but it was too late. "Pin Missile!" commanded Paul.

The two attacks hit both pokemon, and both were blown out of the Whirlpool. As the dust cleared, Drapion was still standing but Piplup was knocked out. "Oh no Piplup!" cried Dawn as she ran forward to help out her Pokemon.

"Return," Paul said indifferently as he returned Drapion to its pokeball. He walked over to where Dawn and Piplup were and held out a hand. Dawn looked up, slightly surprised, but took it as he helped her up.

"That was a good battle," Dawn said.

"It sure was a battle to remember," Paul replied. "Your contest techniques definitely took me off guard."

"Pretty cool, don't you think?" Dawn said with a grin.

"Hn," was all Paul said, but he cracked a smile.

"So what are you going to do now?" Dawn asked as the two began walking off of the battle field.

"I'm staying in the Pokemon Center until tomorrow morning." Paul said curtly. "I'm challenging the Lavaridge Town Gym, remember?"

"Oh yeah!" Dawn said. "Hey, would you mind if I went and watched?"

"Huh?" Paul turned to look at her, shocked.

"It's only polite since you watched my contest," Dawn said with a wink. "And besides, I know Flannery is a fire type gym leader. Maybe your battle will give me and Quilava some new battle ides!"

Paul shoved his hands in his pockets. "You can do whatever you want. I'm challenging her first thing tomorrow morning."

With that, he turned away and entered the Pokemon Center, while Dawn stood outside thinking to herself. Could she actually be becoming friends with Paul? Well she guessed friends was stretching it, since all they did was battle. But still, she had been pleasantly surprised he had watched her contest. Since her departure alone from Sinnoh she hadn't really had many people in the stands actually watching her, which was unusual since she was so used to always having the support of Ash and Brock cheering for her in the crowd. Dawn caught herself grinning to herself and quickly snapped out of it. She decided to go get some food before going back to the Center to rest.