Chapter Three: Paul Again and Jubilife Contest

It's been a few days since the gang has left Sandgem Town, and along the way they met an elderly woman living in the forest with a Turtwig that thought Ash was trying to capture Pikachu until it was all sorted out. So, Turtwig decided to join Ash on his journey and everything went back to getting to the first city... well until an encounter went wrong.

As Dawn and Ash were setting up a table for the lunch Brock was making and Dusk was mixing and combining Pokémon food, Aipom decided to climb a tree to cure his boredom and instead found it to have a few oranges so he used his tail to pick one. He was about to eat it until he heard Piplup below him, asking if he can share the orange but he just stuck his tongue out at the penguin, who then chirped in anger as Aipom jumped up and down in glee until he hit his head on a branch and dropped the orange which Piplup happily ate.

Aipom jumped out of the tree to yell at Piplup that it was his orange, but Piplup argued back that he asked to share it. Turtwig, doing what she did before she was captured, tried to break up the fight but both Pokémon threw her towards a tree trunk which caught the others' attention. "What's going on?" Dusk asked before Aipom used his tail to perform Swift and Piplup opened his beak to use Bubblebeam.

Turtwig finally woke up and decided enough was enough, she jumped into the fray and got hit with Aipom's Focus Punch and Piplup's Peck before getting mad and used Razor Leaf which immediately stopped the two from fighting anymore. "Hey! You can't do that to my Piplup!" Dawn shouted before Brock realized what had happened. "Wait a minute," He said as he looked at the three Pokémon. "Turtwig was just trying to break them up." Ash looked at him in confusion before realizing it too. "Of course!" He said as he finally got the idea. "Turtwig thank you!"

And she decided to repay that thanks by biting him affectionately on the head. (AN: There's a reason I made Ash's Turtwig a female: in the episode it evolves and Paul's Torterra helps it get used to it's slow speed, I guessed that it was because it has a crush on the other.)

"Pathetic." A familiar voice rang out and everyone turned to see the one person that could say a word like that without feeling guilty afterwords. "Paul." Dusk said irritatedly as she stared at the purple-haired boy. "You sure like showing up out of nowhere don't ya?" Ash asked him curiously. "Don't encourage him." Dusk said in a monotone as she glared at him then turned it towards Paul again. For some reason after their battle, she has decided to not trust him at all.

"I want another battle against that Eevee of yours," Paul said as he pulled out a Pokéball. "That last battle left a bad taste in my mouth." He then sent out a Pokémon that looked like a red-and-tan baby chimp with fire coming out of its end. "Chimchar." It said as it stared at the others.

"We're not battling." Dusk answered briskly as she turned from him and Chimchar. "Eevee." "Fletchling." Luna and Robin agreed with their trainer about the decline to battle. Dawn looked at Dusk curiously before turning around to ask Ash and Brock a question until something caught their attention.

"Hey! Get me out of here!" Dusk shouted as she sat in a net with Luna and Turtwig as a Meowth balloon that was connected to the net appeared and familiar laughing erupted from it.

"Listen, is that a voice I hear?"

"It's speaking to me loud and clear!"

"On the wind."

"Past the stars."

"EMBER!"

"Ember! Ember?" Jessie and James asked before small embers hit them, interrupting their motto. "Hey that wasn't nice you little twerp!" Jessie shouts as James just talks to himself about Paul's sudden appearance. "LET US OUT!" Dusk shouts, now furious, and makes the net swing side-to-side as Jessie, James, and Meowth look down to see her and the other two Pokémon. "Where's Pikachu?!" All three of them shout in a panic.

"Pathetic." Was Paul's only reply to the trio. "Why you little twerp! Carnivine use Bullet Seed!" James shouted as he threw a Pokéball. A Venus flytrap-like Pokémon came out of the Pokéball and clamped onto James' head before he threw it off of him and it opened its' mouth to shoot bright green seeds at the two trainers opposing it.

"Chimchar use Ember!" "Turtwig use Razor Leaf!" "WHAT?!" Dusk shouted as Turtwig's Razor Leaf cut the net and Chimchar's Ember fried Carnivine, making it fall into the basket where its' trainer was with Jessie and Meowth. "Turtwig!" Ash shouted as he ran forward and caught his Pokémon before she could hit the ground, and Dusk was caught by an unlucky person.

"Put me down!" She shouted at Paul, who immediately put her on the ground before she turned to glare at the Team Rocket members. "Luna use Thunderbolt!" She commanded and her silver-white Eevee shocked her pelt before releasing a huge bolt of lightning which hit the balloon, making Team Rocket blast off, and unfortunately the explosion created a huge wind which pushed Dusk and Luna along with Paul and Chimchar off of the cliff.

"DUSK!"


"Luna hang on!" Dusk said as her Eevee grasped her jacket with her small claws before she jumped on a cliff ledge then hung from a branch then slid down a slanted ledge before landing feet first in the shallow part of the pool that was coming from the waterfall. She straightened herself to see Paul recalling his Chimchar and then heading into the nearby forest. "Guess I have no choice..." She muttered as she ran after him and followed him from a couple feet away. She looked around before suddenly stopping in fear as she recognized the forest.

"Oh no..." She mumbled as Luna looked at her curiously. "We're in Bewilder Forest, the forest where Stantler live and confuse intruders with by hypnotizing them into thinking they're somewhere else." Just as she said that, a reindeer-like Pokémon appeared and crooned at them. "Don't look at the antlers!" She shouted to Luna as she closed her eyes and heard Stantler croon again, meaning it was trying to hypnotize them.

It stopped after a while, realizing that the duo wouldn't fall for the hypnotizement.

Dusk gulped but refused to open her eyes in fear that the Stantler was still there. So she slowly walked forward with her hand out slightly to feel any trees she might walk into. Another croon caught her attention and she stood still until a snout nudged her arm, making her open her eyes and see a young Stantler staring at her. She stared at it in fright until it nudged her again and walked a bit before looking back at her.

She stared at it in shock before slowly following it to wherever it was leading her. Every few steps it would look back to see if she was following it before continuing forward until the trees started to thin out and it stopped suddenly to croon at her. She walked past it and stopped before reaching the end of the trees to look back at the Stantler, which crooned at her again before turning around and went back in the forest.

She left the forest and looked around slightly before low thumps behind her and turned around to see Ash, Dawn, Brock, Pikachu, and Robin being chased by a furious Ursaring! "What did you guys do?!" She asked as she stares at them in shock before looking at the Ursaring. "Luna use Water Pulse then Thunderbolt!" Luna jumped off her shoulder to form a sphere of water before shooting it and shocked her pelt before discharging a bolt of lightning from it.

Ursaring was hit directly, but the attacks did nothing to calm his anger. "Ursa-Ring!" It shouts as it charges and fires a Hyper Beam straight at her, but Robin flew in front of her and created a huge green shield which blocked the beam from hitting them. "Robin use Peck! And Luna use Quick Attack!" Ursaring was recharging from the Hyper Beam so it didn't have time to dodged as the Peck/Quick Attack combo hit it dead on.

Ursaring kneeled in pain and slowly got up while glaring at the opposing Pokémon... before a Pokéball hit it and it was sucked in. Everyone stared at it in shock as the ball shook before a ding was heard and Ursaring never came out. "Who?" She asked before watching as Paul walked to the Pokéball and picked it up before pulling out his Pokédex to analyze it and then pocketed it.

And as he turned to leave, he gave one look at a shocked, and in his mind: brave, Dusk.


It's been a couple of days since the Ursaring episode, and the four trainers walk into a slightly bustling city known as Jubilife City. Still along the way, Dawn had caught a Buneary who has a 'love-at-first-sight' crush on Pikachu who was freaked out by her way of showing affections. "So everyone in Twinleaf Town thinks that girls are only good for doing contests?" Brock asked as he, Ash, and Dusk waited for Dawn to finish changing.

"Yep," Dusk said as she leaned back into the seat. "It's because of so many girls doing contests that it became a tradition, but I'm determined to prove them wrong!" "Eevee..." Luna whispered as she looked at her trainer in awed wonder before footsteps caught their attention and they all stood up to see Dawn approach them in a pink dress. "What do you guys think?" Dawn asked as she spun in a circle with Pikachu copying her with enthusiasm on his face.

"I'm not saying anything in case I jinx anything." Dusk said as she walked towards the stands to save their seats. Robin came out of his Pokéball and sat on her shoulder as Luna sat on her lap, he looked at his mistress in worry and chirped to get her attention. "I'm fine," She replied as she petted Luna and poked Robin's beak. "I just don't like that Dawn is devoting all of her time to contests and looking good when she could be making sure that everyone around her agrees when instead she just never thinks anything through."

Just as she finished talking, the contest started.

(Should I write out the whole contests or parts of it?)

After the contest was over, Dawn was walking towards them with her head down which was a sign to Dusk that something was wrong. "How about we meet you guys outside?" Dusk asked as she led Dawn into a nearby changing room, leaving the boys no room to argue. "Is this about not winning the contest?" She asked as she turned away so Dawn could get out of her dress.

"I just wanted to at least try to..." Dawn stopped her sentence as she blushed and continued to get dressed and Dusk immediately understood. "You like Ash don't you?" She smirked and watched her sister's reflection turned red. "N-No! Why would you say that?" Dawn shouted as she waved her arms in a frenzy. "Simple: your face went red." Dusk said as her sister sighed in embarrassment before nodding.

It was soo easy to rile up her sister in order for her to admit things.

Paul: 2

Barry: 0

Kenny: 0

Nando: 2

Volkner: 1

Flint: 0

Roark: 0

Lucian: 0

Tobias: 0

Brock: 0

Kurt: 0

Zero: 0

Kevin: 0