This took a bit longer than expected since I've been very busy and a bit unmotivated lately. I'm still not too happy with the result and may make some changes later.

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon or its characters.

Chapter 26: Results

It was the second day of the Wallace Cup. Once more, most of the coordinators met backstage. Ash, Dawn and Zoey were happy to see an old friend again. And so was Nando.

"So wonderful to meet you again. I hope your journey has been a pleasant one?" he asked them after they greeted each other.

"Oh yes, we had a great time in Hoenn," Zoey told him. "But where have you been all the time?"

"I have been traveling through Kanto, earning ribbons, badges and catching new pokémon. I'm just missing one more ribbon and one badge." He saw their other friends behind them. "Would you mind telling me who your friends here are?"

"Sorry, we got a bit excited." Dawn then proceeded to introduce them to each other.

They continued to talk about their respective journeys. Although Nando seemed a bit strange to the others he was very nice and polite, offering advice whenever he could. Drew and May immediately felt that he was a powerful coordinator and his stories only confirmed their suspicions. Their conversation stopped, when the next participant was announced.

"Here is our next coordinator, Ursula from Veilstone City in Sinnoh!" Vivian, who was the MC of that day, announced.

"Poliwrath, it's show time!" she exclaimed, calling out the tadpole pokémon. Ursula was wearing a fancy, red dress, almost a bit over the top.

"Start with ice ball and use psychic!" It created a ball of ice, making it levitate with psychic. "Now water pulse!" An orb of water swallowed the ball, which made it glow brightly. Then Poliwrath used psychic again to move the glowing ball through one of the pools, where it seemed to absorb the water, growing in size considerably as the glow slowly faded. With great effort, Ursula's pokémon moved it to the ground as soon as it was big enough and dropped it. During the process, the ball froze completely.

"Use belly drum!" Now something strange happened. When it started to tap its stomach with its fists, the spiral on its belly began to move. Together with the monotonous drumming, it had a hypnotizing effect on the people. The looks on their faces got sleepy after looking at the spiral. Ursula watched this for a while, making sure that everyone had a good look.

"Now show them your power! Psychic on the ice! Shatter it with focus punch!" Once again, the ice rose from the ground, flying up high before it fell down with high speed. Poliwrath's right fist glowed brightly when it punched it with all its strength, literally pulverizing the enormous ice ball.

The people were enthralled by Poliwrath's performance and applauded it loudly.

"That had a strange beauty to it. And that punch was simply incredible," Vivian shouted.

The judges were also impressed by its skill and mysterious beauty.

"A very unique appeal," Wallace told her. "You can be proud of your pokémon's strength."

"Well done, Poliwrath!" She recalled her pokémon, bowed to the crowd and walked off again. She didn't go backstage, though, for some reason.

"She isn't too shabby." Drew finally broke the silence.

"I don't like her," May said. "There's something wrong with her attitude."

"You haven't even met her yet. How can you say that?" Ash asked.

"Well, Dawn has told me a few things about her. Besides, the expression on her face said everything," she claimed.

"Whether you like her or nor, she might prove to be a formidable opponent," Nando stated. "Better prepare yourself."

"You're right. By the way, isn't it your turn soon?" Dawn asked.

"Indeed. I shall go immediately," he replied.

A bit later, Vivian announced his appeal. His outfit didn't differ from his usual contest outfit.

"Next one up is Nando from Eterna City in Sinnoh!" she shouted at the crowd.

"Lapras, the stage is yours!" The audience looked in awe at the rare pokémon.

"Use ice beam!" By using ice beam repeatedly, Lapras created large pillars of ice. It seemed to be a bit random, until it started to connect them with more ice beams. Soon the ice started to resemble a building. With time, it reminded the people more and more of an icy, glittery palace. Lapras entered it, waiting for the next command.

"It's time for aurora beam and sing!" The multicoloured light from the beam was reflected by the walls, which resulted in a beautiful light show. The walls also made Lapras' song sound more ethereal than before. Everyone listened to the song itself and the echo, which only intensified it.

When it was over, Nando and Lapras received standing ovations.

"Simple, yet beautiful!" Vivian cried. "This is why we love contests so much."

Naturally, the judges were thrilled as well.

"You used only three different moves to create a gorgeous appeal like this. I'm impressed," Wallace told him.

"Thank you, Lapras. You have done very well." He recalled his pokémon and returned to his friends.

"An incredible appeal. I'm looking forward to meeting you in the battle round again," Zoey said.

"It would be my pleasure," he replied.

"Why does my appeal have to be that late today?" Ash complained to Drew, May and Dawn.

"Would you have liked to be number two instead?" May asked with a grin.

"Not exactly. But all this waiting is getting on my nerves," he told them.

"Maybe an ice cream will help you calm down?" Dawn suggested, remembering their little ice cream date in Sinnoh. "You still have a lot of time as your appeal won't be until after the break."

"Sounds good," he agreed. "Do you maybe want to join us?"

"No, thanks," Drew replied.

"I'll stay here too. I want to look at the other appeals," May told them. But most importantly, she didn't want to interrupt their moments.

"Okay, let's go." Dawn dragged him out of the contest hall and got some ice cream at a nearby booth.

They ate it in silence, simply enjoying each other's presence. Then they decided to go for a walk, talking about the upcoming league for a change. Then Dawn asked the question he was so tired of hearing. Nobody seemed to believe that he could do it just because he wasn't a professional coordinator. At least, that's the impression he got.

"So are you ready?" Ash just sighed.

"I think so. Dewott can't wait for it," he answered.

"No need to worry, right? You'll be awesome. I'm sure of it." He shook his head.

"I'll be fine, really! You don't need to worry about me so much." In truth he was glad that she cared about him so much.

"I'm sorry." She hung the head.

"Don't be. I'm grateful for everything you do." Her face lit up again. "We should get back now. Zoey's appeal is about to come up." She looked at her pokétch in shock. "Let's have a race!" Before she could react, he ran off.

"Hey, no fair!" she cried, running behind him.

"You have to be a lot faster than that to beat me!" he shouted. He watched her following him so he didn't see a small road hole. Dawn, on the other hand, had a perfectly good view on it.

"Watch out!" she warned him but it was too late. He tripped over it but regained his balance in time. She caught up with him. "Watch where you're running! You could have hurt yourself!" she yelled.

"Don't be mad! I'm alright. I just thought that the streets in Unova would be a bit better," he defended himself. After all, Trip claimed that his region was more advanced than the others.

"Honestly, you really worry me sometimes," she told him with a sigh.

"Maybe, but that's no reason to yell at me like that!" he claimed.

"Yes, it is! You mustn't be so reckless!" She tried to talk some sense into him.

It resulted in a small argument, in which no one wanted to give in. They yelled at each other a bit but in the end, they quickly realized how pointless it was.

"I'm sorry," Dawn apologized. "I was being stupid. But please be more careful next time."

"Well, I guess I was a bit too reckless. Sorry for worrying you." He especially thought of his outfit, which was the same as the one he wore during the last Wallace Cup. He wore it for her and would have never forgiven himself it had been damaged.

"Now that that's out of the way … let's finish our race!" she said, running off quickly.

Despite his complaints, she didn't slow down and won it narrowly in the end.

"If you … didn't have a head start, I … would have won," Ash said, catching his breath.

"You didn't … complain when you were … the one who ran off at first," she replied, doing the same.

"Let's just … let's just watch Zoey's appeal," Ash suggested.

"Sure," she agreed.

Just when they arrived backstage, Zoey's appeal was announced.

"Here's another top coordinator. It's Zoey from Snowpoint City in Sinnoh, who won the last Sinnoh Grand Festival!" As usual, her outfit looked more like a suit than a dress. It was like the one she wore during the last Wallace Cup but it was light green.

"Corsola, curtain!" she shouted. "Start with mist!" Corsola released a white, glittery cloud, which covered the stage.

"Aqua ring!" A large ring of water surrounded her pokémon now. "Use ancient power on it!" It shot a silver orb at the ring, which absorbed it and started to glow itself. Additionally, it now rotated about Corsola and caused the pokémon to float above one of the pools.

"More aqua rings!" Six rings formed next to it. "Use hidden power, shadow ball and power gem!" Each attack hit two aqua rings. Those hit by hidden power sparkled with electric energy. The shadow balls turned two others black as night. The last two simply increased in size and sharpness.

"Lucky chant!" Similar to the lucky chant used by her Mismagius during the grand festival, this one also released several red tentacles, which grabbed the aqua rings. Corsola used them to slice the water a few times to test the rings before the real show started.

"Use hidden power and psychic to control it." Zoey's pokémon released a lot of orbs, which it shot at itself with psychic. By using the turned aqua rings, it cleaved every single orb before they could hit it.

"Power gem again!" This time, small yellow orbs moved along the tentacles. When they reached the rings, they exploded with bright flashes, whose colour depended on the kind of ring. The first aqua ring also disappeared in a bright, white flash and Corsola fell back into the pool below it.

"Did you see the way Corsola controlled those aqua rings? That was amazing!" the MC shouted.

The judges didn't have a lot to say except that it was an excellent appeal.

"A most unique way to use lucky chant. I must admit, I would have never thought of it. Well done!" Wallace told her.

"Awesome job, Corsola!"Zoey recalled her pokémon, bowed to the crowd and went backstage again.

Drew was the first to talk to her.

"That was an interesting lucky chant. I didn't know you could use it like that," he remarked.

"It is one of her most unique moves. She has already used it against me to counter sing," Nando told him. "And it seems it has become even better since."

"Oh stop it," she said a bit embarrassed. "You're acting like I've already passed but nothing's sure yet. Besides, your appeals weren't bad either."

They continued to talk about it but Ash didn't listen. It would be his turn very soon. As Dewott has been looking forward to this for days now, he wouldn't let him down. A few appeals later the time has finally come.

"Good luck!" Dawn told him.

"I'll be fine," he replied, giving her thumbs up.

The MC announced his appeal.

"Here is Ash from Pallet Town in Kanto!" she shouted.

"Alright! Dewott, it's your turn!" He called out his water type, who looked really determined.

"Use ice beam on your scalchops!" Dewott threw them in the air, hitting them with ice beam. When he caught them again, they had glowing extensions of ice on their sides, making them look a bit like boomerangs.

"Now aqua jet and ice razor shell!" He rose up in the air using aqua jet with his scalchops ready in his hands. As they sliced the water, it froze instantly and even glowed the same way. Thus he created the image of an eye in the pool and repeated it in the other pool with the image being reversed this time. Then he flew up higher and spread his arms. The scalchops left a glowing white trail behind.

"Spin!" Instead of a linear trail, there was now a helix-shaped one. Since it lasted pretty long, it allowed him to make some complex drawings in the air, which looked like stylized letters. When he was finished, he flew above the two pools, still using aqua jet.

"Throw them!" Dewott crossed his arms in front of his chest before throwing his scalchops at the eyes on the pools. Just as before, both of them sliced the water with the ice looking like eyebrows this time before turning around like a boomerang and returning to Ash's pokémon, who caught them again. He removed the ice extensions by swirling them a bit and put them in their usual position. Then he flew back to Ash with aqua jet and struck a pose.

"A razor shell that acts like a boomerang! You people always find new ways to surprise me!" Vivian exclaimed.

Ash was relieved when he received good reviews from the judges.

"A great appeal! It seems you found a real artist in Dewott," Wallace finally said.

"Amazing job, Dewott! You deserve a good rest!" Ash knew that the constant use of aqua jet tired him out completely.

He was tackled to the ground by Dawn on his way back. She hugged him tightly.

"You did it! I told you it would be alright!" Just then she noticed how close they actually were and got off him, blushing madly. "Sorry, I got a bit overexcited."

"No problem. I'm pretty excited as well." He was just as red as Dawn when he took her hand, which she offered to help him up. In silence, they walked back to the others. Nando was the first to speak up.

"You have done well. I hope we will meet in a contest battle. After all, we already had a league battle," he told Ash.

"Yes, I would like that as well," he replied. "But first we have to pass the appeals round."

"Well, you don' have wait too long for that. There aren't many appeals left," May remarked excitedly. "I can't wait to see the results!"

"Calm down and just watch the rest," Drew said to her.

"Oh yeah? How can I possibly calm down when…" She didn't get to finish the sentence though, as Drew gave her a red rose. "Fine, I'll do my best."

"Ah, this warms my heart," Nando mumbled with a smile. He didn't want to disturb those two.

Together, they watched the rest of the appeals. There were some great ones among them but also some with major miscalculations, which usually caused the pokémon to get overwhelmed, thus ruining the appeal.

Finally, after the last one, the MC spoke up again.

"Ladies and Gentlemen! We have seen many wonderful appeals. But only 16 coordinators may pass this round. In ten minutes the results will be published along with the next battles," she told the audience and participants.

As time progressed, more and more coordinators arrived backstage. Everyone was waiting impatiently for the results. Among them was Ursula, who didn't do anything but stare at one of the screens for a change. It seemed like ages but exactly ten minutes later Vivian's voice could be heard again.

"The results are here! The following coordinators will get to the battle round!" 16 faces appeared on the screens.

Ash and Dawn found May, Drew, Zoey, Nando and finally themselves. They let out sighs of relief, which were mostly drowned by sighs of disappointment from those who didn't pass. They gave each other a high five as Drew gave May another rose to congratulate her. After having a closer look, they also found Kenny and Ursula among them. This wouldn't be easy to win.

"Congratulations to those who passed and better luck next time to those, who were eliminated. Don't feel too bad, the judges didn't have an easy time choosing," the MC told them. "Now let's proceed with revealing the battles!"

The screens now showed a graph, which determined the further battles. Ash's first opponent was Sarah from the Fallarbor Contest and the second one would be Drew, who was up against an unknown opponent, if they both managed to defeat them. May and Zoey also had opponents they didn't know and would meet in the quarter finals. The winner of that battle might fight against Ash or Drew in the semi finals. Dawn and Nando didn't know their opponents either and might become opponents in the quarter finals. The most interesting duel was Kenny against Ursula. So, unfortunately, Ash couldn't fight her until the final. On the other hand, he also wouldn't meet Dawn too early but Drew was a potential opponent in the quarter finals. Anyway, all of them were pretty content with the results.

"Are you already looking forward to meeting my pokémon in the quarter finals?" Drew asked Ash. "I won't hold back for you."

"We have to beat those two first," he replied. "And since they made it past the appeals round, it won't be an easy task."

"Ash's right." Zoey agreed with him. "Let's think about possible matches in the future later."

"She's absolutely right," May said to Drew. "Now let's go. We have more training to do."

Ash, however, decided to let his pokémon rest this day. It was a bit strange just watching the others but he knew that they deserved it after all their hard work. Dawn, on the other hand, trained hard with Vibrava, who was chosen to fight in her next battle. She had evolved from Trapinch shortly after her arrival in Unova and now Dawn was confident enough to use her in a real contest battle. May, her training partner this time, wanted to use Blastoise, whose power and typing made it a good choice. Ash already knew from the start which pokémon he would use in the first battle: Palpitoad.

Although he would never admit it, Ash had a lot of fun watching Dawn getting better and better.

I remember the time when she was just a beginner, he thought. She made a lot of stupid mistakes, like throwing that pokéball at my head. But that's okay. It kind of reminds me of the beginning of my own journey. And she's so much more skilled now. It's hard to believe she's the same Dawn I used to teach the basics of pokémon. I can't help but be proud of her progress.

During a break, Dawn and May were sitting under a tree, talking about different contest moves while Ash was watching a rather heated battle between Drew and Zoey.

"Tell me, when are you going to make a move on Ash?" May asked all of sudden.

"What?" Dawn asked, confused about the question. "Why should I make a move on him?"

"Because he isn't going to do it. He's not that type of guy," her friend stated. "You'd have to wait forever."

"But what if he doesn't like me like that? It might ruin our friendship," she countered.

"He isn't that type of guy," May repeated. "You saw what happened between him and Misty and they're still friends."

"I'm still worried. Besides, I'm happy the way it is right now. Just being with him, training with him, spending time with him makes me really happy." She got a dreamy look on her face.

"You two are too innocent!" May said, frustrated. "It would so be much better if you were honest with your feelings, trust me!"

"She's right!" They looked above, where Iris was sitting on one the tree's branches. "Just get it over with!"

"How long have you been up there?" May asked angrily.

"Long enough. Anyway, it also worked for her and Drew so don't worry!" Iris claimed.

"What? There's nothing between me and Drew!" May yelled.

"Yeah, that explains the things I saw," the younger girl mumbled before turning to Dawn again. "Just confess to him!"

"Why is everyone so interested in that all of sudden? I'm out of here!" Dawn said and walked off.

"We should do something," Iris suggested.

"Yeah, it would be so romantic if they actually got together." May didn't have a plan yet, though.

The rest of the day went by quickly. They separated when it was time for sleep and went to bed. For some reason Ash couldn't fall asleep, though, no matter how much he tried. So he decided to go for a walk instead. He took his pokéballs but left Pikachu in the room as he didn't want to wake his friend. As usual, he was drawn to the training fields. There he heard a familiar voice.

"Piplup, ice beam with medium strength! Vibrava, hidden power!" Ash quickly went to the source of the voice where he saw Vibrava's orbs absorbing the power of the ice beam by spinning next to it. As soon as Piplup realized that, he stopped to the side so that they wouldn't hit him.

"Very good!" Dawn, who was standing behind Vibrava, said. "Let's try the blizzard counter again, but with full power this time!"

Piplup released a storm of ice and the vibration pokémon used a variation of sandstorm, which allowed her to surround herself with a sphere of sand. Since it was rotating, the surface was cooled down evenly so only very little cold made it to the center. Thus Vibrava received only very little damage despite her double weakness. Then she let the sphere burst, which damaged Piplup a bit and the sand clouded his vision.

"Well done! It shouldn't be a problem for you anymore. Thank you, Piplup." But Vibrava wasn't content yet. "You want to take a test with a full strength ice beam? Alright, get ready, Piplup!" It took him a while to get the sand out of his eyes. Espeon, who stepped out of the shadows, helped him with that.

"Now ice beam, full power! Vibrava, hidden power!" The orbs had a lot more trouble this time, but in the end they managed to stop the beam and get through to Piplup, who dodged just in time. "Awesome job! Now you don't need to worry at all."

Ash wondered why she was training in the middle of the night so he revealed himself.

"Tell me, Dawn. It's after 11 pm. Why are you still out here, training?" he asked. Needless to say, she was rather shocked to see him all of sudden.

"Ash? What … Vibrava just asked me to do something about her weakness to ice. So we went here and trained to strengthen her defenses," she explained. "We are a bit lucky that her hidden power type is ice so we can use it to absorb the power of moves like ice beam or ice shard, although rock, steel or fighting type would probably be even better to simply overpower them. Anyway, she made great progress."

"I saw that," Ash replied.

Amazing! She went here at this time just because her pokémon requested it, he thought. She's so devoted to her pokémon. Maybe I can help her?

"Would you like me to help you a bit?" he offered.

"Actually, we are done. Why are you even here? Shouldn't you be sleeping?" Ash realized that it might seem like he was spying on her.

"I couldn't sleep so I went for a walk. Then I heard you and you know the rest." He got an idea. "How about we just have an ordinary training session? I doubt that I could fall asleep right now anyway."

"Why not? I'm not feeling too tired right now." But this wasn't entirely true. She was actually pretty tired. She just didn't want to disappoint him by declining.

Time went by quickly and before Ash knew it, it was already 1 am. Dawn seemed extremely tired now. Fortunately, her battle would be one of the last this day.

"We should go now," he suggested. "We've trained for nearly two hours."

"Just … just give me a moment." She sat down at a nearby bench. A few minutes later, Ash was getting impatient.

"Come on, you can rest at your room." When there was no answer, he walked over just to see that she has fallen asleep. He saw no other choice but to carry her to her hotel room. She proved to be lighter than expected so he had no trouble with that. He actually even enjoyed it.

Together with her pokémon, he went to her hotel room, where he dropped her on her bed and covered her with the blanket.

"Sweet dreams," he whispered, getting very close to her face.

Then he left her in her pokémon's care and went back to the pokémon center. The next day would be hard for both of them.

Looker was inspecting the location of a recent battle between the Galactic Hunters and Team Rocket, when he got a call.

"Sir, we have news about the devices they use to control pokémon," one of the other members of the international police told him.

"So what is it?" he asked.

"One of the former scientists of Team Galactic finally talked. It seems they are the remains of the Red Chain Project." Looker's eyes widened.

"You mean those things they use to control the lake guardians and even Dialga and Palkia? This is horrible! But how did they get the information on it. Even we know next to nothing about it. They must have a very high ranking Team Galactic scientist among them," he concluded.

"What shall we do?" Looker thought about it for a while.

"Observe the lakes. Although I doubt that they would try to do the same thing as Cyrus again, we have to make sure. They might want to catch them simply to use them in their war against Team Rocket. Oh, and alarm the professor," he added.

"Yes, sir!" the other member replied and hung up.

This information was very disturbing to say the least. Nobody could say what else they might be able to do with those things.

Credits and thanks for the idea of the Ice Razor Shell go to the Composcreator.

The little argument was inspired by the one during the arc with Kotone/Lyra.

I'm fully aware of the fact that Ursula's and Nando's hometown were never mentioned in the anime so I had to make those up. I think those two were among the most logical choices.