A/N: Chapter 13 is here. Sorry it's late, I've had homework to do, it really sucks to have to do it over the summer. I've also had to tidy my room, buy school uniform for next year, and try and think what to get for my mum's birthday. I would also like to point out that I still don't own Pokémon or any of its affiliated companies, if I did, I wouldn't be writing this fanfiction.

Chapter 13 – Let the Battle Begin.

"I think I'm gonna puke," Ash groaned, clutching his stomach.

"Pika, pika," Pikachu poked Ritchie indignantly, who passed him the tube of beans,

"Your turn Pikachu." The yellow pokémon placed a bean his mouth and smiled,

"Pika-chu." Ash groaned as Ritchie held out the tube and pushed it away,

"No more beans." Ritchie sighed,

"Since Ash is unable to continue, I declare Pikachu the winner of Jelly Bean Roulette round five, and our Champion this evening." The others let out sarcastic cheers, having long given up trying to beat Ash or Pikachu.

"Ritchie, why can Pikachu eat so many jelly beans?"

"I have no idea, but Sparky loves them too. Although, he couldn't eat as many as Pikachu can." He gave the dancing yellow pokémon a dubious look.

"Maybe it has something to do with Ash's huge stomach, as he and Pikachu are very alike."

Dawn groaned again, "Can we go to bed now?"

"Dawn, it's ten o'clock."

"But I still wanna go to bed," she complained.

"If you like, I'll show you were the bedrooms are, but we're sharing." He stood up slowly and the others followed suit. "Come on, this way."

**~**

Nika, danced down the street ahead of Jasmine and Lance, oblivious to the strange looks and comments she was receiving. In fact, she didn't pay attention to anything, until she crashed into a young man who was lugging a suitcase.

"Oh I'm sorry…" she stopped as she recognised him, "Riley?"

"Oh, hello Nika, why the good mood?"

"I'll tell you later, did you get an earlier flight or summat?"

"Yeah, but Alex couldn't, he'll be here later."

"Well it's good to see you again."She pulled him into a hug, then in one swift motion, pulled the blue hat off his head and ran down the street with it, laughing hysterically.

"Nika, come back here with my hat!" He hollered after her, then sighed, and turned to Jasmine and Lance, who had reached him by now.

"Hello Riley, I see you've got rid of your sad old hat?"

"No, Nika ran off with it."

"Why does that not surprise me?" She gestured to the suitcase, "Here, Lance will carry that, you go get your hat back." She picked the suitcase up and dumped it in Lance's hand.

"Do I get no say in the matter?" he complained, but he knew the answer already. Jasmine ignored him anyway, and sighed with satisfaction, as Riley sprinted after he sister to get his beloved hat back.

When they reached the house, Riley was still in pursuit of Nika as she ran round the garden, hat now on her head. She sighed as she opened the door, and Nika ran inside, up the stairs and into her bedroom slamming the door behind her, Riley followed but proceeded to bang on the door,

"Nika give me my hat back!" Noticed the others had probably gone to bed, she went into the kitchen to make her and Lance a coffee, while he took the suitcase upstairs.

Nika sat on her bed with a triumphant expression on her face, Misty looked at her curiously,

"Whose is the hat?"

"Riley's, I stole it."

"Is that who's banging on the door the then?"

"Uh-huh." Just then, Dawn wandered out of the en-suite, dressed for bed,

"Hi Nika, you're back."

"Yep, we won." Then there was another muffled yell from outside,

"Nika, give me my hat!"

"NO!" Dawn gave the door a puzzled look,

"Who's that?"

"Riley, I stole his hat."

"Are you going to give it back?"

"In a while, he's not agitated enough yet."

"Nika, I demand that you give my hat back NOW!"

"You see, now he is, he'll threaten me with Lucario in a moment." Sure enough, another yell came,

"Nika, you have until the count of three before I get Lucario to break the door down. One…"

Nika turned to Misty and Dawn, who were both amazed and confused

"How did you know that?"

"Enough practice."

"…Two…"

"He won't do it you know."

"…Three…" Nika stood up slowly and opened the door, taking the hat off her head and handing it to him.

"Thanks," he poked his head round the door, "Who are they?"

"That's Misty, and that's Dawn." He lifted his hat to them ,

"Hello ladies, please excuse me a moment." His footsteps could be heard running off down the corridor Nika sighed and closed the door, flopping down on her bed.

"I need sleep, I've gotta help with Ash's training tomorrow."

**~**

Ash waltzed down the stairs to where Nika and Misty where waiting for him.

"Training to day!" He cheered in sing-song voice. Misty crossed her arms and gave him one of her looks,

"What drugs are you on this morning Ash Ketchum?"

Nika shouted up the stairs, "Hey Jasmine, we're gonna go train, can we use the pool?"

"Whatever,"

"Great, I haven't used Geoffrey in ages." There was a pause,

"Nika don't you dare go near that pool with your Gyrados!" Ash gave Nika a worried glance,

"Does that mean we can't train then?"

"No, there's a lake, out back. I just asked her to wind her up."

"Why?"

Nika shrugged, "It's fun."

The three of them wandered to the forest behind the house, and sure enough there was a huge lake. Misty and Nika let their huge water pokémon free, and turned to Ash expectantly.

"Ash, what do you want our Gyrados for?"

"To train mine."

"You have a Gyrados?" He set it free, just to prove his point, and Nika's immediately swam over and began flirting with it. Nika groaned and shook her head,

"Great, I forgot Geoffrey was the Gyrados version of Brock." The group watched in horror, as Ash's Gyrados rejected him, quite painfully.

"And it looks like I have the Gyrados version of Misty." Misty hit him over the head with her bag. Then the heavens opened. Nika sighed, this was going to be one eventful training session.

**~**

Nika sat in the executive box, only reserved for friends and family of the two finalists. She was sweating, the heat was unbearable. This was especially odd, since it was raining heavily yesterday. She got her fan out her bag, Brock leaned forward, to try and get some of the cool air she was generating. She offered him a second one, he turned his nose up at the girly object, so she offered it to Riley instead, who accepted. Brock tried to use his hand instead. He sure felt sorry for Ash, at least the stands offered them some shelter.

Ash and Jasmine stood at opposite ends of the field, ready to start. Ash gave Pikachu a glance,

"Are you ready Pikachu?"

"Pika," It replied, getting into battle stance.

"Trainers, choose your pokémon," Both selected the pokéballs, Ash begged for Nika's guess on Jasmine's pokémon to be right, he had no hope otherwise.

"Charizard, I choose you!"

"Gyrados, I choose you!" Nika smiled, she was glad, she had picked up on her sister's unusual strategy, strongest pokémon first, she only used it if she deemed her opponent strong enough, and her Charizard was definitely one to beat.

The judge held up his flags, "Charizard, Gyrados let the battle begin."

"Charizard, Seismic Toss!" Ash watched in horror, as his pokémon was carried high into the air.

"Gyrados, use bite." Charizard's roar could be heard clearly, as the water pokémon's teeth clamped onto his neck. "Now hit it with a Hydro-pump!" Ash glanced over at Jasmine's expressionless face which changed into a smile as Charizard threw Gyrados to the floor.

"Gyrados, use Hydro-pump on the floor!" Jasmine's smile faded, as an enormous jet of water, spurted from Gyrados's mouth, propelling her into the air. The long blue tail wrapped around Charizard's neck, who struggled to get it off. Both trainers watched in fascination at their pokémon's mid-air struggle, and it was only when Gyrados attacked Charizard with a short range Dragon Rage, unordered and let him free, did either take proper action.

"Charizard, use Flamethrower on the pool!" She ordered, Ash knew what she was doing, he'd done it before, Charizard would need to be close to evaporate the water,

"Gyrados, stay underwater, but use Thunder!" Jasmine looked just as shocked as she did horrified, when a huge yellow beam came out of the water and engulfed the huge red dragon. Ash ordered Gyrados out from the depths of the water and both pokémon faced each other, panting heavily, but both were still standing.

"Charizard, Seismic Toss, one more time!"

"Gyrados, let it take you up!" Ash's pokémon seemed a little confused by this statement, but it didn't struggle as Charizard grabbed it and flew it into the air,

"Now, begin charging up!" From where Charizard was circling in the air with Gyrados, as could see and orange ball forming in her mouth, Jasmine saw it too and panicked,

"Charizard, come down now!" Ash smirked, it was what he wanted,

"Gyrados, roll so Charizard is under you, then hit it with Hyper Beam!" The stadium watched in silence at the mid-air struggle that followed, Gyrados won. It's Hyper Beam slammed in Charizard and pushed it into the floor. The collision caused a cloud of dust to fly up, obscuring the view. The stadium held its breath. From the crater that had formed on the battle field, Charizard emerged, it let out a roar of defiance, refusing to give up. Then it collapsed from exhaustion. A red flag was held in Ash's direction,

"Charizard is unable to battle, Gyrados wins." The announcer, was for once lost for words, no-one had been able to take Charizard down before, no-one. The crowd was silent as Jasmine sent out her second pokémon,

"Gyrados, I choose you!" The judge held up his flags,

"Gyrados and Gyrados, let the battle begin!" Without waiting for the other, both trainers commanded their attacks,

"Gyrados, use Hyper Beam!" Both pokémon instantaneously charged up their orange beams, but Jasmine's Gyrados was done first, since he wasn't as fatigued, it blasted out and hit Ash's Gyrados straight in the face. She collapsed, unable to fight anymore. The judge signalled to Jasmine with his green flag. Her strongest pokémon may have gone, but this battle was far from over.

**~**

A/N: Sorry it was so short, but I wanted to put the whole battle in this chapter, but I figured to do it as the next chapter, since this was a day late, I'll see if I can get Chapter 14 published early, then I'll go back to weekly updates, but for now I want to thank,

Texas Longhorn – for his recommendations of this story in his and his several reviews,

And PerlaNemesis- for her countless reviews.

Princess_Tiger