Ash winced slightly, turning in his seat amongst the large uproar as the lights high above the Contest Stadium dimmed.
The injuries he received from the beating those three aggressive Zangoose gave him had faded for the most part thanks to his Aura. But still, the large purple bruise he had covering the side of his chest made him wince everytime he moved, even slightly, and the gashes across his face and arms covered by some band-aids still stung mightily.
But it was a welcomed improvement from the previous night when he couldn't even get up off the bed.
Thankfully the more powerful the Pokemon, the more Aura said Pokemon had and by extension seeped out.
He'd allowed Monferno to stay outside of his Pokeball, and Dawn had likewise done the same with Ursaring and Kabutops. So sleeping in the same room with those three plus Pikachu had allowed him to accumulate a nice boosted amount of ambient Aura that helped his wounds recover faster.
Still hurt like a bitch though.
'If only Mewtwo wasn't out exploring the entirety of Sinnoh, looking for something interesting.' Ash lamented to himself.
Mewtwo's powers went beyond understanding sometimes. The cloned brother of Mew was still an enigma sometimes to Ash despite how long he'd known him.
Somehow, Mewtwo could use a rudimentary form of Aura, enough to heal injuries of others with and to form an actual honest to god Aura Sphere attack.
… Ash was still disappointed that Mewtwo couldn't impart on him enough information for him to quite make his own Aura Sphere.
'Still.' Ash thought to himself, absent mindedly rubbing Pikachu, who was sitting on his lap behind the ears, 'I'm close to being able to do it, Riolu has been a big help so far and it won't be to long now until I have it down.' The amber eyed ranger continued in his head.
It was king of embarrassing really. The Aura Guardians of Legend could use Aura to imitate any Pokemon attack, from the beginners use of Aura Sphere to the adept users Quick Attack making them much faster and much more deadly. And then there was the Master level users of Aura, those said to be able to fire off the likes of Hyper Beam or Blast Burn with nary a thought.
Considering he was an adept Aura user, yet couldn't even form an Aura Sphere yet... Suffice to say, there was a reason he didn't discuss the finer points of Aura with his girlfriend.
He was sure Dawn wouldn't think any less of him, but that age old saying seemed to be true after all;
'In the end, a man will always have his pride.'
He admitted to himself that he'd toned down on his prideful boasting and arrogance since way back when he first started his journey. But still, he wasn't perfect, he had a good deal of flaws and one them was his pride.
He was proud of his accomplishments. He was proud of his Pokemon, and he was proud of his abilities as an Elite level trainer of Pokemon.
Hell, his title on his Trainer Info Page was 'Elite Trainer'. That was literally enough for him to retire from his journey and be accepted to teach at one of the Pokemon Academies that only accept those of rich stature and potential themselves to be 'Elite Level Trainers'. Like Poke-tech Academy for one.
And if his battle with Giselle way back on his first journey through Kanto when he visited Poke-tech Academy was anything to go by... he was, to put it mildly, over qualified to teach there. Giselle was supposedly the best trainer there, and he'd defeated her strongest Pokemon – a Cubone – with Pikachu using no real attacks besides Quick Attack to win.
And nowadays he wouldn't even consider his past self mud on his current self's sneakers. He'd only been travelling for about three weeks when he had defeated Giselle. Nowadays? Pikachu would obliterate all of his old Pokemon of that time in one under-powered blow.
...Maybe he should pool all of his winnings over the years and open his own Pokemon Academy? If May and Dawn were anything to go by, he was a damned good teacher.
Ash shook his head, a bemused smile appearing across his tanned cheeks, 'I'm getting way off track here.' He thought to himself.
The point was. Mewtwo could have healed all of his injuries within a few minutes at most with his enigmatic abilities.
But the Legendary Psychic Pokemon was busy, so he'd just have to man up, put on a tough face and take the pain for the moment.
He was broken from his... somewhat depressing thoughts by the crowd quieting down, and a bright spotlight shined down on Marian the Sinnoh Region Contest Announcer.
Looking around the curly brown haired woman, decked out in her yellow/orange dress Ash noted that the battlefield for this Contest was surrounded by a large square perimeter of bushes filled to the brims with a multitude of soft colored flowers.
'To be expected of Floaroma Town.' Ash mused. The town, very literally, worshipped flowers for some reason or another. The reason? Ash couldn't remember for the life of him.
In his defense though, it was Dawn who had asked about the history of the town when they signed up for a night class on preparing Poffins... some Sinnoh Region Pokemon snack that had begun to replace Pokéblock.
And while he could multi-task. He was spent alternating between cooking the Poffins for his Pokemon, and staring at Dawn's pink-skirt clad behind and legs each time she bent over to stir the pot or add more ingredients.
Time well spent in his opinion. Even if his Poffins came out half-assed and he heard basically nothing of Floaroma Towns history. He'd already heard tons of Town histories over the course of his many regional journeys, so what if he couldn't remember one? And so what if he gave his Pokemon burnt Poffins... He could always get Dawn to give him a few pointers. Supposedly she had learnt to make Poffins at a young age from her mother Johanna who was pretty well versed in making them herself, what with her being an experienced Pokemon Coordinator and two time winner of the Sinnoh Grand Festival if rumours were to believed.
Staring at his awesomely beautiful girlfriend was always a good pass time for him...He was sure his Pokemon would forgive him eventually for the nasty Poffins he gave him.
They had to at least, he made each of their meals every single day... So yes, Ash would call that a win in his opinion.
"Greetings and a warm welcome to all you Coordinator and Contest lovers of all ages." She spoke clearly, the sound of her voice travelling loudly and clearly over the whole Contest Hall thanks to the speakers lining the walls and the microphone in her hand, "You've all come together for one very special reason. That's to find out who will take home the coveted and fabulous Floaroma Contest ribbon! Now I know you've all been waiting patiently so now it's time for you all to be rewarded." She declared.
With that declaration sparks flew high into the air from both ends of the Contest stage as the large dome-like roof atop the Contest Hall opened up and slid away, showing the clear and sunny blue sky to everyone present.
"We're coming at you live and on-stage from the stadium located in Floaroma Town! The Town of flowers!" She continued, "Time for me to introduce our judges, and heeeere they are!" She shouted loudly into the microphone.
"Head of the judges community and Pokemon Contest direction, Mr. Contesta!" She introduced first.
"Thank you, thank you, it's great to be here." An older man with greyish black hair and a red blazer replied to the loud cheering he received.
"And now the head of the Pokemon fan-club! Mr. Sukizo!" She introduced next.
An incredibly short, almost bald middle-aged man wearing a blue business suit stepped up beside Mr. Contesta, "Remarkable is the word, thanks." He stated.
"And finally, Floaroma Town's very own Nurse Joy!" The brown haired woman introduced last.
The beautiful pink haired nurse stepped up next, "Wow! When it comes to seeing all the amazing and splendid Pokemon, I can't wait!" She called out to the crowd as she waved happily to her cheering section.
"Oh, I forgot me!" The brown haired announcer said bashfully, "I'm Marian, and I'm thrilled to be the master of ceremonies, thanks so much!" She declared happily, in her loud perky voice.
Marian then ran to the middle of the stage as she got ready to start off the appeal round, "And now it's time for the first round, where one by one our contestants take their spot on this stage, the purpose of this round is to see how her contestant make their Pokemon shine, showing off power and beauty."
"And so! Without further adieu!" Marian spoke aloud, "Let's welcome our first contestant! Kenny from Twinleaf Town!" She introduced.
The red curtains off to the side drew open, and the red-haired so called friend of Dawn's ran out onto the stage waving to the many fans in the crowd.
Ash quirked an eyebrow when he took note of Kenny's outfit. He was wearing a light green matador outfit, the suits designed for bull Pokemon fights, like Tauros or Bouffelant.
'Really?' Ash snorted to himself in amusement, continuing to idly rub Pikachu behind the ear. His partner Pokemon giving a soft mewled 'Chuu' of pleasure as the small Electric Type relaxed and pushed his head further up into Ash's palm, 'Bull Pokemon fighters are usually strong and experienced men, is he trying to compensate for something...?' The raven haired boyfriend of Dawn questioned himself within the confines of his mind.
"Go, Alakazam!" Kenny shouted as he released the Seal encased Pokeball from his hand.
From the Pokeball, an inferno of fire erupted into the air shooting high, his Alakazam spear heading the flames. Moments later, the fire extinguished and Alakazam descended into a graceful flip and landed on it's two legs standing up twirling it's two twisted spoons impressively in its hands.
"Kazam!" Alakazam's voice boomed throughout the arena.
"Light Screen!" Kenny ordered sharply.
"Kazam!" Alakazam boomed once more, eyes glowing a bright gold. From both sides, at the back of, front of and above Alakazam four large glowing golden sheets of glass manifested into existence, before shooting to Alakazam and joining together around the Psychic Pokemon encasing it in a golden cube of energy.
"Now Shadow Ball!" Kenny followed up, grinning to himself.
From inside the golden cube of energy, a purple flickering ball of energy manifested between Alakazam's two spoons, before soon expanding in size drastically until it's size completely dwarfed Alakazam and hid it from view.
The golden cube of energy and the purple ball of energy contrasting and humming together, before with a pulse from the Shadow Ball, it exploded and sent shards of glowing energy scattering everywhere, before the energy in them depleted and they ceased to exist.
Just before the Shadow Ball had erupted though, Kenny made a sharp order, "Teleport!"
From above the explosion, Alakazam phased into view sitting cross-legged and floating in mid-air.
"Now," Kenny began once more, his voice tight lipped with anticipation and glee, "Use Hidden Power!"
"Alakazam!" His Pokemon boomed one final time and glowed with a golden outline of energy. All around the super computer minded Pokemon, hundreds of small glowing blue spheres of energy phased into existence and began to rapidly encircle Alakazam like a planetary ring.
Both the ring of spheres and Alakazam floated high into the air, before Alakazam pulsed with energy and the spheres that made up the Hidden Power attack exploded in mid-air sprinkling thousands of tiny glitters of turquoise energy floating down towards the arena floor.
...The crowd was quiet for a moment, before they erupted into a massive ear-splitting roar of applause.
Pikachu jerked up from on Ash's lap, looking around warily with cheeks sparking electricity from the massive noise, no doubt expecting an attack of some kind.
Ash chuckled and rubbed Pikachu's ear gently once more, "Calm down buddy, it's just the crowd applauding that twit Kenny." The amber eyed ranger told his Pokemon soothingly.
"Pi?" The small rodent Pokemon questioned him with a confused look on his small and cute little red pouched cheeks face.
"Eh," Ash answered, "It was okay I guess, nothing to impressive or anything we've not seen before it was a pretty generic Psychic Pokemon performance, all energy attack based and flare." He continued, his voice normal and level as if nothing impressive had occurred.
And to him it hadn't. He'd seen hundreds of contest performances and from what Ash saw there was nothing all that original in Kenny and Alakazam's performance. Just another Coordinator who thought big flashy attack, make-shift fireworks and making his Pokemon look good were all it took to become a world-class Coordinator.
Pfft... as if!
Ash would admit to himself that Kenny's performance was better than the average Coordinators, but that was all. There was nothing memorable, original or awe-inspiring at all throughout the entire performance.
Ash wasn't one to toot his own horn...well yes, actually, he was, but that wasn't the point! What he was getting at was that the raven haired Pokemon Ranger's performance with his Pidgeot back in Jubilife City was still being shown on TV frequently and talked about it reverent and awed whispers.
Enough to make anyone's head bloat... But Ash's head was bloated enough from his first journey through Kanto to ignore the majority of it.
"Wow." Dawn commented from the waiting area surrounded by every other Coordinator competing. She had adorned her pink dress for the Contest, the only differences from her appearance back in Jubilife being that her hair was still in a pony-tail except her bangs were pleated into make-shift soft flowing curled spirals. And on her necklace was an orange-gold flower corsage given to her by her boyfriend.
Luckily for Ash, the corsage went well with her outfit and contrasted nicely with her golden earrings.
"Kenny is actually really good." The blue haired Coordinator said to herself. "But," She smiled, "It wasn't anywhere near the level of Ash's performance with Pidgeot back in Jubilife though, when he set the measuring bar for me."
Looking down at the Seal encased Pokeball in her hand, Dawn's smile morphed into a large grin, "But just wait until it's my turn Kenny, Ash has been a great teacher and with his lessons I'm gonna completely blow you and the rest of the people watching all over Sinnoh away!" The blue haired trainer stated confidently, and completely ignoring the odd looks she got from the other Coordinators near her for talking to herself.
She wasn't crazy! She was just monologuing to herself! Completely normal and acceptable!
Ash watched on as Kenny returned Alakazam to it's Pokeball and bowed to the judges as they complimented and approved of his performance.
He couldn't help but think back to a few hours previous when he'd had his first official meeting with the 'illustrious' Kenny.
Ash yawned, kicking back he lay down on top of the picnic table he was sitting on folding his arms under his head in make-shift pillow.
Wincing slightly, the raven haired trainer shifted onto his side to keep an eye on his girlfriend who was sitting off to the side, near the battlefield outside the Pokemon Center they were staying at playing with Pikachu and Piplup.
Ash was careful not to jostle any of the five Pokeballs attached to his belt. He'd already greeted the newest arrivals or for some of them 'returners' as it were.
His ribs were still throbbing in pain slightly from the over enthusiastic greeting he got from one of his more affectionate Pokemon he'd decided on getting Professor Oak to send over to him from the Oak Ranch back in Pallet Town.
And he wasn't about to just send her back because she got a bit excited at seeing him. He'd rather take the pain than send her back to the Oak Ranch and hurt his Pokemons feelings in anyway.
"Hey, Dee-Dee!" Ash heard someone call. It was nobody he knew so he just ignored it.
Therefore, he was rather surprised when Dawn bolted up-right from her position sitting down.
"Only one person knows that name!" The blue haired Coordinator fretted to herself. Ash raised an eyebrow in curiosity as Dawn turned back ramrod straight and looked to the side.
Popping his head up on his hand, Ash watched what was about to occur with some form of morbid curiosity.
Walking towards her from the other side of the battle-field was that guy Kenny she had been talking to the other day who had sent Dawn into a tizzy.
And whether he knew it or not, cockblocked the Pokemon Ranger.
"Hey!" Kenny stated "What'a ya know? Dee-Dee's gotten herself a Pikachu, looks like she's all grown up." The red haired boy commented.
"Kenny!" Dawn raged at him, balling up her fists and ignoring both Pikachu and Piplup standing on either side of her, "Stop calling me Dee-Dee!" She shouted at him, her sapphire blue eyes glinting angrily.
"And it's not my Pikachu!" She corrected stiffly, before pointing over in Ash's direction, "It's his!"
Ash raised his arm from his position on the picnic table, not even bothering to sit upright, "Yo." He greeted, introducing himself. "I'm Ash."
"Nice to meet'cha!" Kenny replied with a large smile.
"See." Dawn began, "Ash is my boyfriend, and I've been travelling with him since I started my journey." She explained proudly with a large, bright smile of her own.
Kenny recoiled as if slapped, "Whaaat!" He shouted, his face scrunching up into a shocked yet, aghast expression., "Your 'BOYFRIEND?!'" He continued to yell, pointing wildly at Ash who continued to recline lazily on the picnic table watching in amusement as the red haired boys voice reached a higher decibel.
"Yeah." Dawn replied easily, not hesitating for a moment. Beckoning Kenny to her, Dawn led him over towards the picnic table Ash was sitting on.
Sighing in reluctant compliance, Ash slid down to sitting on one of the seats just as Dawn and Kenny made it to the table and sat down also.
"See Ash, I've known Kenny since kindergarten." Dawn explained once more when everyone was situated with something to sit on. "We used to play together as children."
Piplup jumped up and plopped down on Dawn's lap, where as Pikachu hopped up and lay across Ash's shoulder in his usual perch, quieting down to listen to Dawn's story.
"I'm trying to remember your first Pokemon, but I'm drawing a blank." The blue haired girl continued.
Kenny smirked at her in reply, seemingly forgetting his shock over her revealing that Ash was her boyfriend. "Heh, I'll show ya." He told her as he stood up, pulling a Pokeball from his grey trousers pocket, "Come on out and meet everybody!" The red haired boy called out, releasing the Pokemon from within the confines of the Pokeball in a flash of white silvery energy.
The light died down a moment later, to reveal the Prinplup Ash saw with him and the Alakazam the other night standing proudly with its wings crossed over its chest.
"Preeeeeeeeen-Plup!" It cried deeply, and promptly... ignored Dawn after looking at her Piplup in disdain for some weird reason.
Dawn seemingly didn't notice though, "Wow a Prinplup!" Dawn gushed, "So that means you started with Piplup as well?" She inquired of Kenny.
Dawn pulled out her pink Pokedex before she could hear Kenny's reply and hit the scan button as she pointed it towards Prinplup, "Prinplup, the Penguin Pokémon, and the evolved form of Piplup. One blow from its wings is strong enough to knock down trees." The Pokedex recited mechanically.
"Wow that's awesome!" The blue haired girl praised the evolved form of Piplup. Ash summarised that she no doubt couldn't wait until Piplup evolved into such an impressive Pokemon because at the moment Piplup was rather small and his body was quite awkwardly shaped.
Piplup jumped down from Dawn's lap with an eye smile and ran over to Prinplup, holding his small blue wing out in a greeting.
Only for Prinplup to growl and smack Piplup harshly across the face sending the pre-evolved Pokemon tumbling into the ground with a surprised and pained cry.
"Hey!" Dawn called out angrily, "What was that for?" She demanded.
Ash sat up stiffly and Pikachu swiftly followed suit, growling angrily and cheeks sparking threateningly.
"Uhh.." Kenny trailed off, raising his arms in surrender, "I'm really sorry!" He apologized quickly, "Prinplup just doesn't like when anyone gets in it's space, I'm the only one Prinplup doesn't really have a problem with." He explained.
It was then that Ash spoke up for the first time since the other two humans out of the group sat down at the table. "You better fix that temper of it's soon then because a Pokemon like that is dangerous to those around it." The statement came from Ash's voice more like an order, "Pokemon like those are either to be kept away from others at all times as to not injure them, or they'll be confiscated until a time when they can be allowed to interact with others safely." The amber eyed ranger continued, his voice level and serious.
Kenny turned towards him dangerously, "Says who?" The Twinleaf town native demanded.
Ash snorted at him, he was in now way threatened or intimidated, "It's the law you twit." He answered easily, "I'm a Pokemon Ranger so unless you make sure that Pokemon is trained properly and learns to interact with others without attacking them for no reason other than them being in it's space." The raven haired teen continued, "Well then... I'll have to give my associates up at the Ranger HQ a call and tell them that some kid is toting around a dangerous and lethal without giving it proper training." The statement was made more real by Ash pulling a black rectangular device from his belt that slid out into a cellphone of some-kind that neither Dawn nor Kenny had ever seen before.
Seeing their questioning gazes, Ash answered, "Ranger HQ communicator." He told them simply.
After a tense moment, Ash sighed and put the communicator back on his belt, "So just make sure to keep Prinplup in line, or next time it may not be a guy like me who educates you." Ash told Kenny with a sigh, "You may just end up getting one of the hard-asses on your case and they'll just take Prinplup from you."
Kenny gulped noticeably, "Really, they'd just taken Prinplup?" He questioned. Dawn nodding alongside him, peering at her boyfriend curious as to how he'd answer because he hardly ever divulged any information of Pokemon Ranger Operations despite how long they'd travelled together.
Ash nodded an affirmative, "The hard-asses are up tight assholes who think they know best, so a good deal of the time the self righteous pricks will act on their own judgement without asking anyone else for advice on the matters at hand." The raven haired ranger answered, his voice tinged with exasperation.
In his defense, he'd had to deal with quite a few of the hard-asses over the years, and the majority of them were all arrogant assholes who sneered down at anyone who wasn't famous or another Ranger, and even then they'd still do it behind their backs.
Arrogance effected everyone, Ranger or not. They may have dedicated their lives to the protection of Pokemon, but it was a job that paid very well, especially to those who did it full-time.
Ash himself was only a part-time Ranger because he was on a journey as a Trainer to learn and grow, hoping to achieve the Master level. And even as only a part-time Ranger he still got paid by the bucket load each month.
All three fell silent.
Ash went back to lazing away now that his piece was said. Kenny in a contemplative silence looking inquiringly between Ash, Dawn, Pikachu and Prinplup.
Dawn was staring at her boyfriend quizzically. She realized, that even now there was quite a bit she didn't know about her seemingly perfect boyfriend and mentor.
She had foolishly thought that, because Pokemon Rangers were out to protect Pokemon that they were all good people. Now she realized just how wrong she was, and that there were awful peoples just about everywhere.
She shuddered slightly in revulsion when she remembered the over-weight trainer with the Rhydon who had ambushed her way back in an attempt to steal her Pokemon, only for Ash to appear in all his blazing righteous – to her at least – glory and decimate the man's Pokemon before running him off with a death threat of epic proportions.
She'd later learned from her not as of yet boyfriend at the time that he'd tagged the man with a tracker device before he'd run him off, and made a call to the Ranger HQ to pick up the Pokemon Thief-Poacher.
According to Ash, he was serving twenty-five to life in the Ranger's prison, guarded day and night by highly trained Ranger operatives and Pokemon.
"Ughhh..." Dawn moaned planting her hands on her hips. To the side, Piplup had stood up angrily and puffed his small chest up glaring angrily at the Pokemon that was his evolved form attempting to square off with the much bigger penguin Pokemon. "Why can't they just get along..?" She sighed dejectedly, hanging her head in disappointment.
Ash idly turned his head as he answered, not even bothering to look up, "They're both Water Pokemon from the Penguin species, as well as both belonging to the same evolutionary." He answered lazily, "Usually, Pokemon like that will form rivalries with each other to prove which is the better man, uh, penguin Pokemon in this case I guess." He finished a little lamely.
Kenny turned to look at Dawn, before he grinned and chuckled mischievously. "I saw you at the Jubilife Contest." He stated, "Were you copying me?" The red haired boy asked her.
"No way, I wouldn't copy you if it would save my life!" Dawn rocketed back. She looked over at Piplup who was still puffing up to Prinplup and smiled, "Piplup and I were made for each other, isn't that right sweetie?" She asked her starter Pokemon.
Piplup leaned back and eye smiled as he answered, "Lup, Piplup!" He chirped back with a wave, before returning to his previous position of glaring at Prinplup.
Dawn turned to Kenny questioningly, "You were at the Jubilife Contest?" She questioned, before pressing on, "Were you competing?" The blue haired Coordinator pressed further.
Kenny's eyebrow twitched, and Ash watched the exchange in lazy amusement, "Excuse me?" He questioned disbelievingly, "My match was on TV weren't you watching?"
Dawn rubbed the back of her beanie covered head with a sheepish smile, "Guess I was busy..." She trailed off lamely, "But I can't see you as a Coordinator!" She pushed on, hoping to change the subject with a bright smile.
Kenny snorted at her, "Well, just like you I've already made it to the finals but then I came up against the very same opponent you faced and she was so powerful." He told her seriously, "That girl Zoe and her Glameow are near enough unbeatable!" He proclaimed.
The red haired male Coordinator blinked when his proclomation was met with an awkward silence. "What?" He questioned stupidly as Ash continued to watch in lazy amusement and Dawn looked away with a barely suppressed grin, "What am I missing?" He asked confusedly.
"Well..." Dawn trailed off, turning back to face him and biting her lip to suppress the grin that she knew was just threatening to break through, "Didn't you see her previous match where she went up against Ash?" She asked, "And then Ash, after completely dominating her and using her to make his Larvitar evolve into Pupitar, gave up?" She pressed further once more, with another question.
"...I completely forgot about that..." Kenny admitted with a sheepish smile. It didn't last long though before he turned to Ash sharply, "Are you competing here as well?" He questioned his face set in a stone mask.
"No, he isn't, Ash is competing in the Sinnoh League." Dawn answered for him.
Ash yawned and finally sat up straight, rubbing a kink out of is neck as he did so. "That's right." He answered, turning his amber eyes onto Kenny, "I was really only looking for an opponent tough enough to make Larvitar evolve and just as importantly, to find an opponent who would push Dawn here to her limits and make her break through to a whole new level of battling."
Kenny blinked, "Why would you want an opponent to push Dawn to her limits though?" He asked.
Dawn gave a sheepish laugh, "Well, Ash is my boyfriend, but when I started out travelling with him he was my mentor of sorts and agreed to teach me all about the stuff he's learned about Pokemon from all of his previous journeys over the years and show me the ropes as it were of Pokemon Training." The blue haired girlfriend of Ash answered.
Kenny looked at them oddly for a moment, hiding a slight wince at the mention of the word 'boyfriend' that only Ash caught. Shaking his head, Kenny gave a cheesy grin before leaning closer to Ash, hiding his mouth behind a raised hand. "I'm sure you've got your stories, but they don't hold a candle to my Dawn stories." He told Ash in a mock-whisper.
Ash gave an eerie smirk in return, his eyes flashing with a predatory expression as he glanced at Dawn slightly, "Oh I don't know about that. I know quite a bit of stories that Dawn is embarrassed about."
Dawn stood up, glaring angrily at them both with her hands once again situated on her hips, "You guys wouldn't dare!" Her voice tinged with a threat.
Ash and Kennedy looked at each other and grinned wildly, before turning to look at Dawn and at the very same time replying, "No need to worry!" Then they erupted into loud uproarious laughter.
"Ughhh!" She screamed angrily, "You guys!" Dawn groused, gritting her teeth at them.
Growling, Dawn pointed at Kenny, "If you think I'm like I was way back when we were kids, you've got another thing coming and I'll prove it with a battle right here and now!" The blue haired girl shot off.
Kenny surprisingly enough ignored her rage induced challenge before turning to Ash and looking at the Pikachu on his shoulder, "What I want, is a battle with that Pikachu." He told Ash, "So how about it? Your Pikachu versus my Prinplup, up for it?" He questioned.
Pikachu from Ash's shoulder looked over at Prinplup for a moment, before snorting in amusement and closing his eyes to settle back down onto Ash's shoulder to continue his nap.
"Eh?" Kenny questioned dumbly.
"Ehehehehehe..." Ash scratched his head sheepishly this time, "Pikachu's developed a bit of an attitude lately because of how strong he's gotten over the years." Ash explained, "He won't battle any random challenger nowadays without their Pokemon proving their strength by beating another of my Pokemon." He continued to explain to Kenny.
Dawn snorted to herself in an unlady like fashion, "Yeah, fat load of good it's done your challengers thus far when you decimate them anyway." The blue haired girl muttered under her breath. Thankfully low enough to avoid Kenny hearing, but with his Aura enhanced senses Ash heard her easily enough and shot her a knowing grin before turning his attention back to Kenny.
"...That's kinda weird." Kenny replied flatly, "But okay then." He stated as he stood up and began walking towards the far side of the battle field, where the Trainer box was located to be precise. He looked over his shoulder and sent Ash a grin, "I'll take on any Pokemon you choose with Prinplup, so let's do it yeah?"
Ash grinned right back at him. He'd been getting bored with the lax atmosphere anyway. "All right then!" He accepted, making his way towards the closest side of the battle field where the other trainer box was located.
Dawn followed behind, shaking her head, "Kenny, Kenny Kenny..." She muttered, her fingers placed across her forehead and her eyes shut as she shook her head at the apparent stupidity of her one time childhood friend.
"Alright then." Ash said when he took his place on the field, taking a Pokeball from his belt swiftly, "You ready?" He questioned his opponent.
"Yeah, let's do it!" Kenny replied eagerly as Prinplup fell into a loose stance in front of it's Trainer.
"Let's go, Bayleef!" Ash shouted as he released his Pokemon. In a bright silvery flash of energy, his over affectionate Bayleef appeared on the battle field infront of him. He'd caught her way back near the beginning of his Johto journey, and she was one of the strongest battlers of his Johto Team. Having gone head to head with the likes of Gary's extremely powerful Blastoise and Harrison's Houndoom, triumphing over the Fire type despite her weakness to the Pokemon for an amazing victory.
While she wasn't the strongest Pokemon he had, she was no push over as far as battle-wise. But when it came to him, she was just a big softie and loved to spend time with him whenever he visited her back at the Oak Ranch in Pallet Town.
Bayleef resembled a pale yellow suaropodian dinosaur with a small yellow tail. She had curled leaf-like growths, sprouting in a ring formation around her neck. A large leaf shaped like a scythe protruded from her head. She had red eyes, and had one large toenail on each of her four feet.
"Bay bay bay!" She cried happily before turning on her heel and practically blowing Ash off of his feet as she jumped on top of him and began to rub her cheek up against his happily.
"Hey hey!" Ash laughed, "Calm down girl, we have a battle!" He continued his voice happy and tinged with nostalgia.
Bayleef bounced up and nodded her head happily the scythe-like Leaf on her head billowing around as she did so. Turning on her heel once more, she happily padded onto the battle field and promptly glared at Prinplup.
As if it was it's fault that she couldn't spend more time happily nuzzling her trainer.
"Oh wow!" Dawn gushed from the sidelines, "What a gorgeous Bayleef! She's so big and majestic looking!" Honestly, she was surprised that she was surprised by Ash having another amazing Pokemon. And again, honestly he literally had every Regional starter Pokemon from both the Kanto and Johto regions, and he didn't start with any of them! Not to mention having the Grass starter of the Hoenn region and both the Fire and Grass starter from over here in the Sinnoh Region.
Where the hell did her boyfriend find all these rare Pokemon he had?
...Now that she noticed, some of her boyfriends luck seemed to have rubbed off on her. Having an extremely powerful Ursaring, not to mention a revived pre-historic Pokemon in Kabutops and very rare alternately coloured Ponyta.
She'd only been a trainer for a little over a month. Dawn couldn't help but wonder where she'd be and how good a Coordinator she'd be a year from now. If the rate things were going at raining under her boyfriend continued she could probably end up winning her first Grand Festival!
While Dawn was daydreaming, Ash decided to start the match, "All right Kenny, I'll let you and Prinplup have the first move." He shouted over to his opponent.
"Why thanks, don't mind if I do!" Kenny replied with a grin. Turning, he set a serious look on Prinplup, "Okay Prinplup, use Bubblebeam!" He ordered.
"Preeen!" His Pokemon cried in agreement. Opening it's beak Prinplup began to rapidly fire a multitude series of large glowing blue bubbles.
Ash smirked. A Special based attack from that distance? Child's play. "Bayleef, Mirror Coat." Ash said completely calm, smirk stretching just a tad.
Bayleef nodded before bracing herself against the ground and lowering her head. Her yellow body began to glow brightly with a powerful reflective substance of energy.
When the barrage of bubbles hit dead-set on Bayleef they merely reflected off of the glowing substance on her body, and rocketed back towards Prinplup twice as fast, and twice as powerful.
"What!" Kenny cried in shock, "Quick!" He called quickly, "Cut those Bubbles down with Metal Claw!"
Prinplup's blue wings began to glow a bright silvery white with power just in time. The bubbles rapidly approached and Prinplup just managed to slash it's wings through the air, enhanced by Metal Claw and dissected the bubbles, its body a blur to the human eye as it flowed straight into form against the other bubbles and within moments, every single bubble had been dispersed, all that remained of the attack being small flickers of blue energy that slowly fell to the ground.
"Razor Leaf!" Ash commanded once more, his voice deadly calm.
Bayleef swung her head from side to side a few times rapidly, and sent a barrage of razor sharp rapidly spinning leaves soaring through the air towards Prinplup from the scythe-like leaf on her head.
"Crap, doesn't this guy ever let up? Prinplup jump into the air to dodge!" The red haired trainer called out urgently.
Prinplup swiftly followed suit and bent at the knee's quickly before launching itself soaring high into the air.
"Heh." Ash smirked once again, "Grab it with Vine Whip Bayleef, then drag it down and hit it dead on with Headbutt!" The amber eyed ranger ordered.
Faster than Kenny could issue another order to his Pokemon, two long light green vines rocketed out from the leaf-like formations around Bayleef's neck and swiftly wrapped around Prinplup's wings immobilizing it mid-air.
With a jerk of her neck, Bayleef pulled with all her strength and brought Prinplup soaring through the air towards her.
Using her vines, she ran and pulled herself into a jump with them and met Prinplup mid-air scoring a devastating Headbutt straight to the Water penguin's solar-plexus and sent it rocketing into the ground so hard it bounced back up into the air with a cry of pain before falling into a roll and landing in a heap in front of it's trainer Kenny.
Bayleef landed deftly, just as Kenny gave an encouraging cry of, "C'mon stand up Prinplup I know you can do it!"
Prinplup managed to shakily pull itself to it's feet, although the bottom half of its stomach and some of its chest was covered in a deep purple bruised welt.
Ash looked it over and winced. It wasn't a bad injury for the most part, but it was one of those incredibly painful ones. "Alright, Bayleef." He began, "Let's finish this here in one more move before Prinplup can get hurt to much more." He continued, nodding an affirmative to Bayleef as she looked him in his amber eyes with her own red ones, "Yeah, use SolarBeam." He ordered.
Bayleef nodded, the leaf-like formation around her neck beginning to glow a bright silvery white with power as she absorbed the suns rays into herself.
"Prinplup!" Kenny shouted sharply, "Don't let that Bayleef fire her attack or it's over, use Drill Peck!"
Prinplup obeyed without hesitation and it's beak and crown glowed a bright silvery white as well, before the penguin Pokemon took off in a sprint and jumped high into the air and began spinning so fast it flew towards Bayleef like a Pokemon sized drill.
Ash didn't even blink, "Stop it in place with Vine Whip." He ordered, "Slam it into the ground and hold it there, then unleash Solarbeam and finish it off." He pushed on, adding onto his order.
Kenny's eyes widened in shock as Bayleef obeyed and even while she continued to concentrate on absorbing the suns rays and powering up a Solarbeam simultaneously allowed her two light green vines to rocket from her neck towards Prinplup.
It came as a shock, that between the Grass and Flying type moves, the Grass type move won. Prinplup was caught swiftly between the vines despite he drill like formation it was in and slammed into the ground harshly, splintering the ground beneath the Water Pokemon.
Groaning, Prinplup struggled to stand up but the vines kept it pushed tightly into the ground. And then a second later, it didn't even have a chance to counter because, it's vision was filled with a bright white light before it faded to black.
Bayleef unleashed massive blinding white beam of energy that washed over Prinplup so fast it was over in the blink of an eye.
When the bright light of the Solarbeam died down Prinplup came back into view laying completely out-cold in the splintered battle field below its body.
Even though only the back of Prinplup could be seen by the spectators, it was easy to see that the energy rays of the Solarbeam had burnt it rather badly.
It's blue feathers were signed all over, burnt completely black in some places. Prinplup was just lucky that the beam had washed over it instead of crashing into it full on because with an attack of that magnitude ploughing into it and without its defences up, Prinplup could have been put into a critical condition.
Luckily for Kenny and Prinplup though, Ash was an experienced battler and not a vindictive person. So he'd intentionally had Bayleef position Prinplup so that the beam of energy would wash over the immobile Pokemon, and not crash straight into it. So, it would be fine with a few hours rest and some treatment from the local Nurse Joy.
"Prinplup!" Kenny cried out in worry, rushing over to his Pokemon and checking it over.
"Kenny!" Ash called to him as he began walking towards Bayleef, "Prinplup should be fine in a few hours of rest, but you best go get it checked up on by Nurse Joy to make sure." He told his opponent.
Kenny sighed and returned Prinplup to its Pokeball in a beam of red energy and stood up. "Thanks Ash." He sent Ash a grateful smile, "And great battle, you had me on the ropes and positioned me into a losing position from the very beginning." The red haired teen turned on his heel and began rushing towards the Pokemon Center to get his Pokemon checked up, but not before giving Ash one last parting word, "I learned a lot from that battle, so thanks."
Ash tossed him a wave and a smile, and turned his attention to his Bayleef just as he reached her. "Good battle girl." He praised her with a smile, rubbing her head gently, "You've gotten a lot stronger since way back when we travelled in Johto, I'm proud."
"Bay bay bay!" The Grass type Pokemon chanted happily.
"Hehe!" Ash chuckled before lifting her Pokeball, "You did great, have a nice long rest girl." And with that last parting shot, he returned her to her Pokeball in a beam of red energy before she could voice her displeasure and being separated from him again.
He didn't even blink as Dawn made her presence by jumping onto his back and kissing his cheek from behind, "That was a great battle." She congratulated him.
"It was fun." He agreed, "So that's a childhood friend of yours?" Ash asked of his girlfriend.
"Yup!" Dawn chirped, wrapping her arms around his neck and looping her legs through his arms when he held them up under her thighs to lift her higher on his back, "Kenny's kind of annoying, but he's a good friend for the most part." She lamented to him.
Ash chuckled, "He's pretty good." He commented, "He's very skilled for only being a trainer a few months, he'll go far In the contest circuit." He praised.
"Really?" Dawn asked.
"Yeah." Ash affirmed. "Now." He began, "Let's go get some lunch at a restaurant I saw yesterday on my way back to our room with Monferno, and then we can go check out the Contest Hall." The Pokemon Ranger continued, his statement punctuated by his stomach rumbling loudly.
Dawn snorted in laughter, "I swear Ash, with how much you eat it's a good thing we travel on foot so much and that you like to join in on your Pokemon's physical training regiments or else you'd end up some fat blob that waddled around everywhere." She mock-insulted.
Ash 'hmmm'ed' thoughtfully before grinning, "Now that you mention it..." He trailed off, his hands sliding up from her thighs and cupping her derrière, squeezing the fleshy cheeks underneath her skirt gently, getting a slight moan from his blue haired girlfriend, "You seem to have put on some weight back here, I can definitely feel it."
Dawn gasped in outrage, "Ash Ketchum!" She shouted at him, "My ass is not fat!"
Ash grinned as he began to walk towards where he remembered seeing the restaurant, "Sure sure Dawnie..."
Ash came out of his reminiscing just in time. Because as the latest Coordinator and his Hypno walked off the stage after getting a loud roar of applause from the crowd, Marian announced just who he was waiting to see with the most anticipation.
"Our next contestant is coming up now!" Marian's voice reverberated around the massive Contest Hall, "She hails from Twinleaf town right here in the Sinnoh Region, and appeared in her first contest over in Jubilife Ciy a few weeks ago where she went right to the finals and almost won!" The master of contests continued to build up suspense, "Everybody, give a warm welcome to Dawn!"
The red curtains peeled away and Dawn came jogging out onto the stage, waving her hand to the crowd and smiling wildly.
"Kabutops, spotlight!" Dawn called out as she released the pre-historic Pokemon from within the Seal encased Pokeball.
In a flowing blue wave of water, Kabutops crashed down beside Dawn before slashing his bladed arms and dissecting the wave into tiny little droplets of water that splashed to the ground gently.
"Oh my!" Marian commented into her microphone, "And Dawn stuns us all by releasing one of the incredibly rare, pre-historic Pokemon Kabutops! Just how did she get a Pokemon like that?" She wondered in disbelief.
The crowds roar of applause reached a whole new level.
Ash smirked, "They haven't seen anything yet." He said to himself confidently as he stared down at his girlfriend's form, Kabutops towering beside her and looking at the mass amounts of people rather warily yet awaiting Dawn's orders. The Bug Pokemon's nervousness actually worked out, as it made him twitchy and shuffling, which made him look more... authentic? Ash couldn't quite put it to words, but she was definitely getting bonus points.
Ash was impressed just how far Kabutops had come in just a short amount of time, "Blow them all away with your performance, Dawnie."
"WHAT... THE... HELL?!" Kenny shouted loudly as he stared at the TV scree in the Contest Coordinator waiting room, "How the hell did she get a Kabutops?" He wondered.
It didn't take to long for him to put two and two together though, "Ash..." Kenny sighed to himself, the answer was rather obvious. "Man if that's the perks of dating him I should get a sex change and try and date him myself..." The red haired teen in green matador outfit commented.
Every male near Kenny simultaneously took a few large steps away from him, looking at him warily as if he might just try to grope them.
Taking a deep breath, Dawn calmed her jittery nerves and thundering heart. "Kabutops, Ancient Power!" The blue haired Coordinator ordered.
Kabutops held his bladed arms over his head, and formed a truly massive boulder glowing with bright silver energy, before promptly tossing it high into the air above himself and Dawn.
After a few moments of soaring high into the air, the massive boulder began it's descent straight down towards Dawn where if it hit she would most likely be crushed to death.
Dawn allowed it to continue falling, building up every single nerve in her body and putting up brave façade. She waited another few moments, and just as the massive boulder's descent closed in on her, Dawn snapped out her next orders, "Blow it apart with Aurora Beam, and then catch the debris with Giga Drain!"
Kabutops obeyed instantly and aimed his head towards the descending boulder. From his mouth, Kabutops began to form a small greenish-blue energy sphere and powered it up steadily.
A moment later, the small sphere erupted into a large glowing green trimmed black beam of energy that impacted with the large glowing boulder, piercing straight through the Ancient Power attack and exploding.
The boulder exploded in mid-air and began raining down glowing silver debris. Kabutops flowed straight into his next attack. From the segments on his back, a large tendril of green energy rapidly flowed out into the air and blanketed the air allowing the glowing silver rocks to float gently in the air from the sea of green energy.
"Now..." Dawn breathed out finally, "Finish this off with Night-slash!" The bluenette commanded once more.
Taking off in a fast sprint, Kabutops lashed out with glowing bladed arms of deep red energy, cutting and dissecting the energy of Giga Drain and the glowing silver debris into falling specks of flickering energy which rained down around Dawn.
Three colours flickered within the make-shift rain, the silver from the Ancient Power, the green from the Giga Drain and finally the red from the final Night-slash.
Coming out of his sprint, Kabutops slid easily to Dawn's side bladed arms poised to attack whatever it perceived to be a threat to his Trainer.
The crowd was silent for a moment, so silent a pin could have been heard being dropped over the entirety of the Contest Hall.
But that silent moment didn't last, for the next moment the crowd erupted into a roar of applause so loud, Ash couldn't hear himself think and Pikachu held his long sensitive ears in pain.
"Amazing! Truly a splendid performance, the combination of power, speed and the trust Dawn showed in her Pokemon kept me riveted!" Mr. Contesta said from his seat at the judges table.
"Remarkable!" Mr. Sukizo agreed.
Nurse Joy spoke up last, "It was so easy to see Kabutops' rare talent, I couldn't take my eyes off of both Trainer and Pokemon as they worked in perfect sync." The beautiful nurse concluded in her usual soft spoken voice.
Dawn bowed to the judges with a giddy smile, before returning Kabutops to his Pokeball in a beam of red energy and turning on her heel to walk back towards the Coordinator waiting area.
"Amazing!" Marian shouted loudly into her microphone, her voice echoing over the overly loud crowd, "Let's hope that there's more performance's just like Dawn and Kabutops', and with hope there may even be someone with enough talent to top that amazing performance."
Ash wasn't really paying much attention to the rest of the performances. He was mentally cataloguing every single detail of Dawn's performance. While the performance wasn't perfect, it also wasn't far from it.
The biggest mistake he saw was her freezing up slightly when the Ancient Power attack descended towards her. Not that much of a surprise for someone who hadn't been in many if any dangerous situations, and was certainly nothing to be ashamed of.
Finally, a good twenty minutes later after Dawn's performance, Marian announced that it was time for those moving on to the 2nd round to be selected.
"And now it's time for the judges results! These are the Coordinators who will be moving on down the line to the next round!" Marian cheered into her microphone as the camera zoomed in on the large blank screen that was high above the audience in the Contest Hall.
The screen suddenly blinked on as one by one, faces started to appear.
Ash smirked when the first face to appear on the screen was that of his girlfriend and quite nicely stated that she had the best performance out of everyone who competed so far, and was thus basically the Coordinator to beat and who most would be betting on to take the win and the Floaroma Town Ribbon.
The next five were Coordinators he didn't know, but finally the seventh face to appear was Kenny's.
Ash nodded, he'd been sure Kenny would get through to the next round as well as Dawn. Finally the eighth face to appear was another nondescript Coordinator he hadn't been paying attention to earlier in the Contest.
"Well." Ash started as he stood up, shifting Pikachu from his lap back onto his perch on his shoulder, "That's that." He continued, "I guess I'll go check up on Dawn before the next round starts up."
With that said, he began to make his way from his seat in the audience and down towards the Coordinator waiting area.
-Omake-
A Day In The Life Of Charizard
Charizard woke up slowly, completely relaxed and assured he had complete dominance of his reserve. He stood, stretching, and absently stomped on the protruding tail of one of the lesser Charizard he'd been laying on. It made for an uncomfortable sleep, but nothing taught his flock who was the boss better than beating the shit out of them and sleeping on their unconscious bodies.
He ate his breakfast in peace, atop the mountain his cave was situated on, spicing the juicy Dragonair corpse with some ground up Parasect.
After he was thoroughly sated he flew around for a few hours, occasionally breaking his flight path to grab a boulder and throw it down upon his flock below. It kept them on their toes, or crushed them, whatever method taught them a lesson better.
There was some momentary excitement as one of the reserves newest additions though to challenge him.
Roughly twenty seconds later - Charizard had been sporting and let the little upstart monologue for a bit - the youngling took the place of the boulders he'd been using previously and slammed into another Charizard too slow to get out of the way.
He left the reserve briefly to hunt down and fight his lunch, today's being a particularly ornery Gyarados that had been firing jets of water into the preserve.
He returned to find he had apparently been 'overthrown' by three powerful looking Charizards flexing their arms in front of some unamused looking females.
The ensuing fight was pleasantly challenging, but ended with the three tied together in amusing positions. The females were eyeing him appreciatively, their body language showing their interest. Naturally, within moments Charizard was carrying all four females back to his cave, showing little sign of being affected by their combined weight.
He only emerged for dinner, which was uneventful, followed by practising a few moves. Physical training followed, which he deviated from his normal routine during to use the youngling he'd fought earlier in the air's face as a speed bag to practice his punches.
On the way back to his cave he was ambushed by Charla, and after a long and challenging fight left her satisfied in more ways than one sprawled out on a nice warm flat rock.
He stopped briefly outside his cave to fry another youngling who was trying to claim his home as their own. He made a satisfying 'poomph!' as he hit the ground.
Charizard huffed fondly of the little thing, he reminded him of himself. None the less he entered his cave, only to find a revitalized Charla, her teeth bared challengingly, with the four females from earlier flanking her.
His tail flame exploding, Charizard charged forward with an eager but challenging roar of his own.
Such was the life of Charizard.