First of all, the the chapter ten that was previously posted was actually incomplete, so here is the completed version

5 days later the appeals round of the Saffron City Contest begin. Ash saw Misty looking nervous waiting for her turn and said "hey Misty, calm down, you've trained hard and done your best to prepare for this contest, you'll be fine."

"But what if I mess up in the appeals round and don't even make it into the battle roun..."

"Misty, you're a Gym Leader; just treat it as if you're going to face another challenger."

"You're right Brock, I can do this." At that point the announcer, heard in the waiting room by a PA system, said "and now, we have a new appearance on the Contest scene, but she's no unknown people, I present to you, the Cerulean City Gym Leader, Misty!"

"Well, here goes" Misty sighed and then left the waiting room. When she got to just past the stage entrance, where the audience could see her, the crowd went absolutely wild; seeing this Misty got a huge smile on her face, waved to the crowd and all of her fears disappeared. She then moved to the centre of the stage and called out "come on out, Masquerain" whilst lobbing a pokeball in the air.

Misty, unbeknownst to Ash, had attached a ball capsule to her Masquerains pokeball and said to Brock "she's pulling out all the stops on this one, isn't she?"

"Yeah, she sure is. She doesn't want to screw this up as, in her opinion, it might throw doubts onto her abilities as a Gym Leader and in doing so, throw the Cerulean City Gym into disrepute."

"If her sisters are left alone for long enough it'll happen anyway."

"Nevertheless that's what was causing Misty to be so nervous before."

"I see. Hey, I didn't know that Misty's Surskit had evolved."

"Yeah, it evolved three days ago. You were too busy training Houndour to pay too much attention to what Misty and I were doing."

"I guess so, I was working with Infernape at the same time though, so I guess that it just ate up all of my time, trying to create this new powerful attacking move."

"Really, what is it?"

"Well, it's actually more of a combination attack really."

"Combination, of what?"

"Well, first of all I needed to get Infernape to learn fire punch, so that took me two and a half days. Then, well, the next part isn't really completed yet."

"Well, what is it, who knows, Misty and l might be able to help."

"Well, now I need to get Infernape to be able to hold onto the fire, even after it hits its opponent. But that can wait, Misty's starting."

Ash and Brock heard Misty call out "alright Masquerain, use water pulse and aim it at the sky." Masquerain sent an orb of water sky high and Misty continued "alright, now use silver wind."

Masquerain then aimed silver wind at the orb of water that was starting to fall to the ground. When silver wind got to the orb it flicked opposite sides of it, holding it up in the air, the silver wind then made the orb start to glow, like a miniature moon; the orb of water then exploded in mid air and the water refracted the light of the spotlights aimed at the stage causing an aurora-like effect. Needless to say, the crowd was stunned by the display; their inaction, after about twenty seconds, got replaced by cheers and roars of approval for the show that she had just put on.

When it came time for the judging, Mr. Contesta said "an astounding understanding and use of move type vulnerabilities and how they can be used."

Nurse Joy said "that display showed an excellent display of knowledge of water types and their move sets."

The mayor of Saffron City, who was the third judge, said "an amazing use of the artificial lighting provided, I'm sure that we'll see Misty accomplish great things on the contest scene."

The announcer then called out "and for the second coordinator, we have, in contrast to the rookie that just gave us an astounding display, we have someone whose not only competed in the Hoenn contests, where she just missed out on qualifying for the Grand Festival, but she actually made it to the Sinnoh Grand Festival. So, give it up for Jessilina"

Brock and Ash looked at each other and simultaneously said "what?"

"I thought that Jessie James and Meowth were through with following us, I think that I'll go and have a little talk with Jessie."

"Maybe she's just here for the contest" Brock suggested.

Ash replied "you believe that as little as I do Brock."

"Yeah, but wait till after her turn rather than just denouncing her now."

"Probably a good idea."

"Oh, it looks like she's done too" Ash said, hearing the judges giving their comments on the performance. Once the judges were done Ash and Brock left their seats to go backstage. When they got there Ash said "alright, you go talk to Misty while I talk to Jessie."

"Ok, why?"

"Because, you were the one that was training with her all week "

"Sure thing, see ya."

Ash then went up to Jessie and said "hey Jessie, long time no see."

"Agh" Jessie exclaimed in shock "it's the twerp."

"I'd really rather you didn't call me that."

"Sorry, old habits you know."

"Yeah; so are you still following me around or it just a coincidence?"

"Believe me, we're not after you anymore, not after all the times you've trounced us with that damn dragon of yours."

"That's good to know."

"Why's that?"

"It means that I don't have to 'blast you off again', just don't try anything, alright."

"Got it, as I said, we're tired of getting dragon pulse and thunderbolted into the upper atmosphere."

"Well, I know this'll sound weird, but good luck in the contest" Ash said walking away. When he got to where Brock and Misty were he was just in time to see that both Jessie and Misty had made it through to the battle round. He said to Misty "see, I told you you could do it."

"Yeah, I just somehow calmed down when I got out there."

"Well, no time to rest, your match is up first."

"Really? That's just great" Misty said sarcastically.

"That's enough of that Misty."

"Yeah, sorry" Misty said sheepishly.

"So, what Pokémon are you going to use?"

"You'll just have to wait and see Ash Ketchum."

"Ri-i-ight, well, see you after you've won this thing then."

"Yeah, sure thing Ash."

Ash and Brock then left the waiting room and returned to their seats. Just as they were sitting down the announcer said "alright people, the first match of the battle round is between the rookie Misty, the Cerulean City Gym Leader and Max, the son of the Gym Leader of Petalburg City in the Hoenn region."

In the stands Ash and Brock simultaneously said "Max!" Ash then continued "what's he doing here, I thought that he wanted to challenge the regional leagues."

"Well, you'll just have to ask him about it after his battle with Misty."

"I guess so."

Whilst Ash and Brock were talking in the stands Max had said to himself "alright, I'm up against a water Pokémon specialist, if that's the case..." then, louder, he said "alright Sceptile, I choose you."

Ash, in the stands exclaimed "he has a Sceptile."

Brock said "it's not all that surprising really, he was always particularly enamoured by yours Ash. It's just unfortunate for him that we managed to convince Misty to catch types that can cover her water Pokémon's weaknesses."

Misty down on the stage said "trying to use my reputation against me are you max?"

"The aim of a contest is to come up with strategies to counter the opponents Pokémon."

"That sounds like the philosophy of a gym challenger to me Max."

"A battle is a battle no matter what form it takes."

"Not always Max."

"What do you mean?"

"Only this..." Misty said confidently "...come on out, Vulpix."

The announcer said "in a stunning move and outthinking her opponent Misty has gone out and caught the fire type Pokémon Vulpix."

Joy said "an outstandingly strategic move."

"It shows that she was really thinking ahead" the mayor said.

Max said to himself "I wasn't expecting this I must say. Ah well, I can't get sidetracked just because she surprised me. After all, I did finish in the top sixteen in the Hoenn League."

"So, you finished in the top sixteen in your first Pokémon league competition?" Misty asked Max.

"Yeah, why?"

"Oh nothing, it just seems to me that you're just copying Ash's achievements."

"What was that!" Max angrily asked.

Misty, for some reason, saw a translucent image of Ash standing behind Max. She then said "right, well, the banter's over now Max."

"Very well then..." Max said "Sceptile, Quick Attack into Leafblade."

Max's Sceptile charged a leafblade, gaining a long green blade on the outside of its arm, moved off gaining a white afterimage. Ash turned to Brock and said "hey, doesn't Max's strategy look awfully similar to the one that I used to use?"

"No, it's not similar, it's exactly the same. The problem is that he's trying to use normal battle tactics against an especially skilled Gym Leader."

"Not to mention the type disadvantage" Ash finished.

Down on the stage Misty merely said "Vulpix, use flamethrower."

"Oh no..." Max said "Sceptile, quickly, change direction." Unfortunately for Max Sceptile was moving too fast and was nowhere near far enough away from Misty's Vulpix to dodge its devastating attack. Sceptile, when it landed, was declared unable to battle and the victory was awarded to Misty.

Ash and Brock went down to the waiting room and, when they got there, they went to talk to Max and Misty, who were talking about Max's adventures in challenging the Hoenn League. Ash went up to Max and said "hey Max, that was an interesting combination you pulled out there."

"Yeah, but it wasn't anywhere near enough."

"Of course it wasn't" Ash said.

"Ash, what are you doing" Misty asked excitedly.

Ash turned to Misty and said "what has to be done Misty."

"What do you mean Ash" Max asked.

"I mean, I used that exact same strategy against your father Max, do you remember what happened then?"

"Well, not exactly."

"Pikachu got absolutely humiliated trying to use speed attacks against a Slakoth, and you're trying to do the same thing against, not only another Gym Leader, but one that has a type advantage over Sceptile."

Max got sent into tears at Ash's reprimanding of him and ran out of the room. Misty yelled at Ash "well, I hope your proud of yourself."

Brock interrupted Misty's rant before it got started by saying "it may have been a bit harsh Misty, but you know that Ash's right. Max shouldn't have tried to do what he did. I'll go and talk to him and try to calm him down."

"Thanks Brock" Ash said.

"I guess you're right...again" Misty sighed.