Outside the contest hall Max was sitting down on a bench, looking down at his feet with his head in his hands. When Brock got there and saw how Max was sitting he thought to himself *hmm, he's depressed, still, it's not that surprising considering Ash's actions back there.* He then moved so that he was standing in front of Max and waited until he was looking at him and asked "do you want to talk about it?"

"Not really, but it'd be better if I did, wouldn't it..." Max rhetorically asked Brock. Brock sensed that it was rhetorical but nodded anyway. Max then continued "...before I came out here to Kanto May and I got into a massive fight over which type of competition was more difficult; now as Misty said in there, I'm a trainer and May, as you know is a coordinator. Anyway, she said that trainer techniques and tactics have no place in contests."

"So you entered this contest to prove your sister wrong."

"Yeah, and then Ash yelled at me for the same thing."

"I see, well, I can't tell you the reason behind the fight that you had with your sister, but Ash, in his own way, was actually trying to help you."

"Really, how is that?"

"Ash was trying to make you realize that at times the strategies that you would normally use have to change before it's too late. Now you knew that Misty was a Gym Leader, but you still underestimated her prowess because this was her first contest, didn't you?"

"I guess; but what I still don't understand is, why was Misty entering a contest in the first place?"

"heh, that one I can answer. You see, Misty's sisters were slacking off in their duties as Gym Leaders, so Misty, hearing that Ash was going to challenge her gym once again, asked Ash to 'motivate' her sisters to focus more on their Pokémon training rather than their synchronised swimming shows."

"So what did Ash do?"

"Heh, what do you think he did,..." Max shook his head "...Ash actually proceeded to wage a contest battle against the three of them, using some of Misty's strongest Pokémon."

"Did he win?"

"Yeah, he won alright; and he took out all three of them with just one of his water types."

"Wow, maybe coordinators do have it tougher."

"That's not it Max. Gym battles and Contests require completely different skill sets."

"But you just said..."

"Ash uses contest tricks to supplement his battling skills."

"What?"

"Well, Ash is always going to be a trainer and May is always going to be a coordinator, right?"

"Yeah, I guess so. Why?"

"Well, I'm sure you've noticed that may, in some of her strategies, uses battling techniques that are far more suited for Gym Battles."

"Well, yeah, I guess."

"Tell me Max, with all we've just talked about, who do you think would win a battle between May and Ash?"

"Well, Ash is the more experienced trainer, so..."

"Actually, that may not be the case anymore."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well, Ash just took two years off from challenging any Regional Leagues."

"I was wondering why I hadn't heard anything about Ash in the Pokémon League Tournaments for a few... wait a minute, so you're saying that Ash and my sister have actually been competing for roughly the same amount of time now?"

"Just about, yeah."

"Well, if Ash hasn't been competing for any significant length of time then I'd say that may would probably win."

"I said Ash hasn't competed in any official matches Max, what do you think he's been doing?"

"Well, he'd probably be..." Max's eyes widened at the realisation that Ash had been doing nothing other than training his Pokémon for over two years. He then said "so he's been training all this time?"

"Yeah."

"Then all his Pokémon have probably evolved then."

"From what I've seen, yes."

"well, all of May's Pokémon are also fully evolved now, along with catching a bunch of new ones. That would actually be a match that I'd like to see, come to think of it, the last time that they competed it was a draw wasn't it?"

"Yeah, for the Terracotta Town Medal."

"I think that I could probably call her over for a..."

"Now now, there's no need for that. Both you and Ash are heading for the Indigo Pokémon League, right? I'm sure that she'll be here for that."

"Oh yeah, you're right" Max said laughingly.

"Now, let's get back inside, there's a spare seat next to Ash's and mine."

"Thanks for the talk Brock."

"No problem. How many of the Kanto badges do you have?"

"None, I only got here a few days ago and I heard that this contest was on, so I came here."

"Is that so, then you might want to check out the Pewter City Gym or the Cerulean City Gym."

"Doesn't this city have a Gym in it?"

"Yeah, but I'd advise against going there just yet."

"Why's that?"

"You see, the Saffron City Gym Leader is a ghost type user."

"So I need a way to combat ghost types then."

"I think that she also had an Alakazam, so you also need a way to battle psychic types with some psychic abilities of her own."

"Right, well let's go now, or we'll miss the final rounds."

They got to the stands just in time to hear Misty, out on the battlefield, call out "Vulpix, use Quick Attack and change it into an Iron Tail." They saw Vulpix start to move rapidly causing a white streak to appear in its wake along with seven glowing tails. When Vulpix reached the opposing Pokémon it swung around and rammed uts glowing tail into it. After Vulpix had struck it the opponents Pokémon rolled back and hit the wall behind its trainer, who, concerned for his Pokémon, called out "Geodude!"

The announcer then had no choice other than to announce "with an amazing combination of Quick Attack and Iron Tail Misty has knocked out the opponents Geodude in the final round of the Saffron City contest in one move, that makes her the proud owner of the Saffron City ribbon."

Misty, in shock, said "I won... I actually won?"

The Nurse Joy on the judging panel said "you can really tell that Misty has brought all of her skill in battling to this contest. I'm sure that if she continues to take part in contests that she'll go far.

Mr Contesta said "A disappointing final round, but I'm sure that the runner up learned something from that battle."

The mayor of Saffron City was too stunned at what happened to say anything.

In the stands Brock said "well, I wasn't expecting to see that."

"See what?" Max asked.

"A Geodude in a contest Max."

"Why's that?"

"Because, the only really effective moves that it has are Earthquake, Rockslide and, at times, Rollout, and they don't learn any of them until a pretty high level."

"Oh yeah, you're right."

"Even then they don't really belong on the contest stage though."

"Well, let's go backstage and congratulate Misty."

"Yeah, let's go."

When they got there they saw Ash saying to Misty "now look, I said what I said because Max needs to realise that using speed against an opponent that is equally fast and has a type advantage is not going to work."

"You still didn't need to be so rude about it."

Ash then saw Max and Brock coming their way and said "hey Max, Brock." The two that Ash greeted nodded in acknowledgment and Ash continued on to say "Max, I'm sorry for eating you out like that before."

Max replied "no no, you were right, I used the wrong strategy and a trainers job is to adapt to different situations and changing circumstances."

Misty remarked "that's very mature of you Max."

"Heh heh thanks Misty" said Max, scratching the back of his head. He then turned to face Ash and said "by the way, I'm sorry about the way I acted before."

"That's fine, why did you run off anyway?"

"May and I had a fight before I came out to Kanto."

"Really, what about?"

"Gym Battles vs. Contests."

"Ah, I see" Ash said as if that explained everything. He then continued saying "so, who won?"

"No-one, I was trying to prove that May was wrong when I was out there and that's why I lost."

"That's not the only reason you lost though Max."

"I know."

"So, where're you going to start out?"

"I was thinking about challenging the Gym Leader here."

"Really! You know that Sabrina uses both ghost and psychic types, right?"

"Yeah, I think I can handle her."

"Alright, tell you what. I'll let you challenge her first."

"Gee whiz, thanks" Max said in a dry tone.

"Do you mind if we..." Ash indicated himself, Brock and Misty "...watch your match?"

"No problem, I think it'd be kind of fun for the shoe to be on the other foot for once."

"Thanks. Why don't we go over there now then?"

"Well, Misty's Pokémon are..."

Misty interrupted Max saying "don't mind me, I can take my Pokémon over to the Pokémon Centre for Nurse Joy to have a look at them by myself and meet up with you guys later."

"Ok, bye" Max, Ash and Brock said simultaneously, waving goodbye to Misty going in opposite directions as they reached the outside.