When Whitney and Zachariah had collected their respective Bug Pokémon they met Ashley, Amelia and Mikki outside. Zachariah said, "Well, I'm off."

Mikki asked, "Where are you going?"

"I'm headed to the Whirl Islands. I have good information that there is a water type breeder there that is a pioneer in the care of water types, how about you?"

"There's a contest in Goldenrod City in a few days that I'm going to be competing in. Also Amelia has a gym to beat."

Zachariah said, "I see. Well, if I don't see you again, goodbye."

"Oh I doubt that," Ashley said.

"Excuse me?" Zachariah asked.

"You'll undoubtedly be seeing at least me again."

"Why is that?"

"There is a competition for Water Type Pokémon held in the Whirl Islands in a few months that I'll be competing in. I doubt that neither you nor Amelia would be able to pass it up."

"In that case I shall see you at the competition," Zachariah said, turning to walk back to Olivine City to catch a ferry to Blue Point Isle.

After Zachariah had left Whitney looked at the sky and noticed that it was quickly nearing sunset. She said, "We won't get to Goldenrod City by tonight. Do you want to go to my Uncle Milton's Dairy Farm?" Ashley was all for it, but Amelia and Mikki discussed it amongst themselves for about thirty seconds before agreeing. With that decided Whitney led Ashley, Amelia and Mikki to her Uncle's farm. When they got there she knocked on the door and called out, "Unncle!"

About five minutes later the door opened and Whitney's Uncle said, "Whitney! It's been too long. You know I miss you."

"Oh geez," Whitney said, "I'm really sorry. I couldn't help it though, I had been really busy with business at the Gym and then I had to look after Jasmine for the last week or so."

"Then that's fine." Then he looked past Whitney and saw the three girls. He said, "Who are these people behind you."

"This is Ashley," Whitney said, indicating Ashley.

Ashley said, "Heya Milton."

"Uhh…I don't think that we've met before…"

"We have, but there have been some…changes…since we met."

"Oh?"

"Yeah."

Whitney said, "Anyway, the girl with the black hair behind her is her sist…" Whitney shook her head, remembering the ruse that the siblings had used before continuing. "Uh…sorry, she's her cousin, Amelia Ketchum."

Milton thought, 'Ketchum? Didn't Whitney bring a boy with that name here…what was his name again? Hmm…Well, I'll think of it later.'

"HIya," Amelia greeted, cocking her head as she smiled and rose her right hand in a fist before flicking it to the right, raising her thumb, index and middle fingers in a wave.

Milton said, "Hello."

"And the last one is Mikki, Amelia's close friend and travelling companion."

Mikki nodded her head and said, "How do you do?"

Milton smiled and said, "I'm Fine. It's always good to meet some of Whitney's friends. Speaking of which, what has happened with your brother?"

"What do you mean?"

"I haven't seen him for about a month now."

"Huh? That's not right."

"Care to explain? Although indoors might be better. Why don't you all come in?"

"Thank you," Whitney said, a sentiment echoed by the other girls.

Once they were all inside Whitney's Uncle led them to his living room and offered them all a glass of Miltank Milk while they each took a seat on one of the couches. They all refused as they had each only just finished off a drink that they had bought at the National Park. Milton took a seat himself. Whitney asked, "So, what's this about Wallace not coming here?"

"I haven't seen him in more than a month."

"Why that little…" Whitney said, furious at her brother. "I'm sorry. I've been telling him to come here twice a week. I thought he had been…"

Whitney's Uncle sighed and said, "I'm afraid he's a lot like his mother was at his age."

"Really?" Whitney asked, surprised to hear it as her mother had always seemed to have had a responsible attitude to everything.

"Yes."

"I see. Well I'm still going to have to find out what he's been doing."

Whitney's Uncle looked at Amelia asked, "Have you challenged the Goldenrod Gym yet?"

"How did you know that I…"

"I just remembered that a boy named Ketchum came through here a few years ago. He was challenging gyms too."

"I see," Amelia said, raising her right eyebrow at her sister, as if to ask, 'have you been here?' Ashley merely nodded. "Then yes, I have."

Whitney asked, "How was it?"

"I beat Raticate and Ursaring easily enough, but I had no chance against his Girafarig and its psychic attacks."

"Girafarig!" Whitney exclaimed, shocked that he brother would disgrace the gym in such a way. She pinched the bridge of her nose and dropped her head into her hands as she said, "What was he thinking?" a look of pain crossing her face.

"Huh?" Amelia asked, confused as to what Whitney was talking about.

Milton sighed and said, "The Goldenrod City Gym is a Gym that focuses on Normal Type Pokémon. If the gym leader uses a Pokémon like Wallace's Girafarig, then it calls into question the Gym's specialisation and can lead to an audit of the Gym, which could lead to its closure."

Ashley said, "But Girafarig is a Normal Type."

Whitney said, "Yes. But Wallace focused on its powers as a Psychic Type when he was raising it. Because of that, it is not allowed to be used in a Gym Match for the Goldenrod City Gym." She looked at Amelia and said, "I'm so sorry about this Amelia. I can give you a ba…"

"No way," Amelia said.

"Excuse me?"

"I earn my badges. If he wants to use Girafarig against me, let him."

"But…" Whitney sighed and shook her head before smiling as she laughingly said, "I swear, you're just like your brother."

Amelia looked at Ashley before shrugging and saying, "Eh, I can live with that."

Whitney smiled. She looked to her Uncle and said, "Hey Gramps, do you mind if we stay here tonight? I think it might take a little too long to get to Goldenrod City by dark, so…"

"That's fine. Stay as long as you want. You know I always enjoy our time together."

"Thanks."

Amelia looked at her sister and said, "Alright, with that out of the way, how about you and I have that battle you promised me?"

Ashley said, "Are you sure?"

"Why wouldn't I be? You know that I…"

"I know. But with the exclusion of Gible, I've only had the Pokémon that I have on me for about a week now. Besides, can't you think of a better stage for our battle?"

"You mean…?"

Ashley smiled and said, "How does the Pokémon League sound?"

"Then you are going to go for Gym Battles?" Mikki eagerly asked, having no desire to face Ashley on the contest circuit.

"We'll see," Ashley said, purely to annoy her sister's best friend.

Whitney said, "Well, there's a Contest being held in Goldenrod City in…I think it's about three days now…if you want to compete in it that is."

Ashley smiled and said, "Sounds good to me."

Ashley's statement put the fear of…well…Ashley into Mikki, which was only compounded by Amelia saying, "I might give it a shot as well."

Mikki looked terrified as she announced, "Oh no…oh no you don't. I'm going to have enough trouble with one of you competing. I don't want to have to deal with the both of you."

"Don't be like that, it's been a while for me. Say, what do you say about giving me a hand Amelia?" Ashley said, standing up, before looking to Whitney's Uncle and saying, "Do you mind if I use your backyard to train…umm…what was your name again?"

Whitney's Uncle said, "It's Milton. But as to your request…hmm…as long as you don't destroy anything."

"Thank you. I'll try to not destroy anything, but with using Pokémon Attacks, I'd rather not make any promises that I will be unable to keep," Ashley said as she thought back to the Spiritomb that she and the traitor had released.

"Heh, you're pretty smart then."

"Yeah. Though I don't get nearly enough credit for it." Ashley turned to Whitney and said, "Hey Whitney, can you make sure Mikki doesn't see what we're doing?"

"Sure, but why?"

"It would give her an unfair advantage to see what I'm doing beforehand."

"Hmm…I don't see how it would, but alright."

"Contest performances, whilst different in most ways, are still very much like Pokémon battles. Sometimes you need to change the way you approach a certain aspect in order to succeed. If she knows what I'll do beforehand then she has more opportunity to think about and adjust her strategy than the other competitors."

"I see," Whitney said. "That makes sense. Hey, that gives me a thought." Ashley raised her right eyebrow, the same way her sister had done, silently conveying 'continue' to Whitney. Whitney turned to Mikki and asked, "You're a coordinator, right?"

Mikki said, "Yes, why?"

"How many Ribbons do you have?"

"I've got two so far."

"Which ones?"

"The Origina Ribbon, from New Bark Town, and the Tyrian Ribbon, from Violet City, why?"

"Just wondering. Are those the only Contests you've competed in so far?"

"No. I got to the semi-final in the Catallia City Contest before I was beat by some girl called leaf."

"Wait, Leaf is competing?" Ashley said. She thought, 'I had thought that Leaf was set on being a trainer. I wonder what happened.'

"Yeah, why, do you know her?"

"Yeah. You might be too young to remember, but she moved away from Pallet Town a few years before I became a trainer. As a matter of fact, we were kind of like the pair of you, but as far as I was aware all she had ever wanted was to be a trainer."

"Wow, I never knew," Mikki said.

"Well, either way, how is she? Does she still like to manipulate her opponent's Pokémon?"

"Manipulate their…what do you mean?"

"Well, when I knew her she was always researching techniques that affect an opponent's Pokémon in ways more than just damaging them."

"I don't know about that, but there should be a limit on how fast a Pokémon can be."

"Is that so?" Ashley asked. "Well, that'll just be something that needs to be dealt with at the time." She looked to her sister and said, "Come on sis," and left through the back door as she remembered where it was from the last time she was there.

Milton, following the sisters with confusion as they navigated his house perfectly he looked to Whitney and asked, "So, who is that black haired girl, really?"

"I told you didn't I? She is Ashley Ketchum, although you know her as Ash."

"Wait…that is the boy you brought here…three years ago was it?"

"Yeah."

"Well, he's certainly gone through a lot if that is the same person," Milton said, blood running from his nose as he thought of Ashley's figure.

Whitney sighed and said, "Cut that out."

"So does she…uhh…he…know what happened to her…him?"

"Ashley seems to be referring to herself in the feminine right now, so you had best do so as well. It could be because she simply doesn't want to think about it and keep moving forward, or at least sideways."

"I see. Very well then."

"But as to what happened, she told me that she went to sleep a man and then woke up the way she is now. The going theory is that one of her travelling companions did something to her, although nobody knows what, before hightailing it off of the Lilly of the Valley Island."

Mikki said, "Well that explains it then."

"Explains what?" Whitney asked.

"Her clothes."

"Ah."

Milton asked, "What about them? I thought they suited her just fine."

Whitney snidely commented, "Yeah, I bet you did."

Milton coughed and played with his collar as Mikki explained her comment. "The Sinnoh Region is relatively flat in comparison to the Johto Region. So you find a lot of people wearing clothes, such as skirts and coats that reach the ground, which is fine. However, here in the Johto region there are mountains and caves all over the place. So far Amelia and I have had to cross more than ten just to get here. The skirt that Ashley is wearing will probably transform into rags long before she goes through two towns."

Whitney said, "She's already discovered that."

"Really?"

"Yeah. she's asked if she could store them at the Goldenrod Gym when we leave."

Milton said, "We?"

"Yeah. I've decided to go with her on this journey of hers."

Milton said, "Does she know that?"

"Yeah. We discussed it the other day. Well, after this business with Wallace has been sorted out anyway. I mean really, what could have possessed him to…"

"I might have an answer to that," Mikki said, raising her hand out of habit.

"Oh?"

"You see, Amelia heard that it was a Normal Gym and went in there with Hitmonchan, Rhydon and Ledian…"

Whitney said, "Ah."

"…and, like Amelia said, she went through both of your brother's first two Pokémon pretty easily."

"I see. Well, like it or not, a Gym Leader can learn a lot from losing. Wallace needs to learn to accept that. Maybe Amelia beating him would be better than me trying to lecture him."

"It's possible."

"Well, I'll force him to use the Pokémon that he had used against her the first time they battled then. You can do that?"

"I'm the official leader of the Gym. The leader of the gym is the one that makes the rules for the Gym and my brother is just a stand-in."

"I see. But will he accept that?"

"He won't have a choice."

"So can you tell me more about Ash and Amelia's time in Pallet Town?"

"I really shouldn't," Mikki said, remembering how furious the siblings had been when she told Whitney about the Pallet Town Competition. "Despite what Ashley said, even if she was at one hundred percent, she wouldn't go all out in a contest…I think."

Milton said, "You make it sound like she's some kind of monster."

"Well…there is really no other way to describe her."

Milton said, "When she came here last time she was having serious problems when battling my Niece. If she is really as good as you claim then…"

"Like I told Whitney before, their parents are both renowned Coordinators. Both Ashley and Amelia inherited their parents' talents. There were some…issues…caused by that back at home. They decided to take the path of a trainer for the challenge."

"That hardly…"

"They were beating experienced coordinators before they had their first Pokémon."

"How could they defeat experienced coordinators without having any Pokémon themselves?"

"The competition I was talking about assigns Pokémon to the competitors. That makes them on a level playing field...of a sort."

Milton said, "I see," playing with his moustache. Ashley and Amelia stayed outside until dinner before going back outside until nine o'clock. Every so often Whitney and Mikki could see flashes coming in through the window, but they kept their word and didn't look out of the window once.