May and Ash's Unova Journey

by NEBSparky86

May and Ash are a couple and Ash has won the Sinoh League. Now May and Ash are going to the Unova region on a new journey. How will the couple handle new Pokémon and new friends? Ash/May fanfic. Please read and review.

38. Chapter 36

Rika: 'Hmm… so this is where I come for to do this… disclaimer. Well… might as well get it over with so I can go back and be the purrfect big sister to Isabella. Sparky does not own the characters and story elements of the Pokémon franchise. He is only using them for entertainment purposes only. Nintendo, Gamefreak and the Pokémon Company own everything. There… all credit due has been given to the appropriate parties. Now if you'll excuse me, little Isabella requires my attention.'

Uh… thanks Rika! ^^' Oh… almost forgot, the OCs, David and Rena Patterson belong to EmperorDraco7 and Jonathan and Abelia Seabright belong to Lily Nadesico. Sorry 'bout that.

Author's note: This chapter will switch between the points of view of the three main couples of this fic. I hope that this helps eliminate any confusion on your end.

36: The Final Push for the Royal Trident Badge

Relena's POV

"Okay Tranquil use your Air-Cutter attack now!" ordered Ash, with his female wild Pigeon Pokémon using her Flying-Type move against a familiar shiny female Monferno that my good friend May was using against her though while it is true that Ash's Tranquil has the type advantage, sometimes advantages aren't everything as the raven-haired male will soon discover.

"Dodge it Scarlet!" countered May, to which Scarlet complied by dodging the Air-Cutter attack fired at her then got ready to make her counter attack since she will make use of her Dream World ability to its maximum then smirked as she gave her next command. "Now use your Thunder Punch!"

'Very well!' complied Scarlet, raising her right fist and felt it surrounded by yellow sparks, which grew into a ball of electrical energy then proceeded with punching at her opponent with it in order to take advantage of Tranquil's weakness to Electric-Type attacks. 'Gotcha!'

Despite being hit by the Thunder Punch, Tranquil could still battle and managed to get back onto her feet, fortunate that she didn't become paralyzed by the attack. "You okay Tranquil?" asked Ash, hoping that Tranquil wasn't too banged up by the attack though a nod of her head confirmed that she's fine.

'Yeah, but still I can see why she is quite a powerful opponent in battle,' commented Tranquil, especially as this was her first time in taking on someone like Scarlet as Ash and May wanted to at least train them for the battle against my mom despite the fact that the six badges they have is more than to allow themselves the chance to participate in the upcoming tournament as even my husband and I were barely able to defeat her which was an accomplishment that rarely anyone else has done. 'Still, I'm not going to lose this match!'

Nodding his head, Ash knew that some of his spunk was starting to rub off on her and they prepared themselves to make their next move. "Alright Tranquil, use Aerial Ace and Quick Attack!" he instructed which Tranquil made use of the combination which caught Scarlet almost completely off-guard as the powerful technique managed to score a direct hit and knocked her back. "Alright, use your Wing Attack!"

However as Tranquil used her Flying-Type move against Scarlet, I saw my friend smilingly wickedly then waited for just the right moment. "Dodge and use your Flame Charge!" she ordered, allowing Scarlet to dodge the attack and countered with her Flame Charge, hitting Tranquil with her increased speed aiding her in the match. "Use Flamethrower!"

"Counter with Gust!" said Ash, both Pokémon used their respective attacks and upon doing so… the Flamethrower was blown away by Tranquil's Gust then the raven-haired young man from Pallet Town decided to strike again. "Use Quick Attack!"

'Alright, here it goes!'said Tranquil before using her priority move to strike at Scarlet but that doesn't mean the shiny Monferno will go down without a fight as like Tranquil, she too is starting to show her own share of spunk in the battle.

"Scarlet, use your Fire Punch attack!" May gave her next command and her shiny Sinnoh born Pokémon's right fist became surrounded in red-yellow flames and delivered a fiery punch to Tranquil's face that sent her flying then the female Normal/Flying-Type stopped herself mid-air in order to use her Gust attack again, this time managing to hit Scarlet where she stood. "If that's how you want it, then Scarlet use Flamethrower again!"

Giving her human a nod, Scarlet used her Flamethrower in order to catch Tranquil by surprise as Ash saw in shock that his Pokémon was struck. "Oh man, May wasn't kidding when she said she's been improving herself following the Wallace Cup… even outside of the Trident Battle Palace" he muttered to himself, biting his lower lip but there's no way in hell that he's going to give up now as she's going to see that he too has been improving before and after every battle.

"Use Thunder Punch again!"

Upon him witnessing Scarlet using her Thunder Punch attack again, he isn't so willing to make the same mistake twice in a row. "Dodge and use Aerial Ace!" he responded, with Tranquil dodging the Thunder Punch and then immediately countering with her Aerial Ace attack in order to deliver the Super-Effective damage right on the spot and caused her to crash onto the ground below. "Alright, we've got her!"

Not quite! came Scarlet's voice, managing to get back onto her feet and yet is surprised that Ash's Unova born Normal/Flying-Type is able to fair this well against her let alone her actually having a difficult time in this battle, then again I'm noticing that Tranquil does tend to see which parts of an opponent she's fighting against are their weakest spots even when she was a Pidove back in the Unova region, the only other Pokémon I could think of that can do so as well are Trip's Tranquil in Unova and Paul's Honchkrow in Sinnoh as they both had the Super Luck ability which makes me curious on if Ash's Tranquil has it too. Though those thoughts were interrupted the moment Scarlet and Tranquil began glowing in a bright white light much to the surprise of Ash and May.

"What's going on?" asked Ash, somewhat shocked to see his Tranquil beginning to evolve.

"Wait, I know what this means…" answered May, being just as surprised as her husband though it wasn't a surprise since they've seen Pokémon evolve before but it's quite rare to see two evolving at the exact same time during the same battle. "Scarlet and Tranquil are evolving!"

I on the other hand remained silent as the process of the evolution between the two Pokémon belonging to my friends took place with Ash's Tranquil turning into a Pokémon that resembled Skyla's male Unfezant and Roberto only difference being that Ash's newly evolved Proud Pokémon lacked the wattle and had brown markings on her underside. As for Scarlet, she had become a Pokémon that looked rather familiar to me since I remember Ash having the same one my friend now has only Ash's wasn't shiny. "No way, Tranquil's an Unfezant now!" said the Kanto-born male, taking his Pokédex to find out more on his Unfezant while May took her own out to learn about what Scarlet had evolved into due to her own share of curiosity.

Unfezant, the Proud Pokémon and the evolved form of Tranquil. reported Dexter, revealing the Pokédex entry of Unfezant and made him wish he had done so when seeing Skyla use hers against me back at the Mistraton City Gym but hey, better late than never as they say. Female Unfezant's flying skills surpass that of male Unfezant.

Infernape, the Flame Pokémon and the evolved form of Monferno. came Dexette's report on Scarlet's evolved form which caused my friend to smile brightly at this moment and both Pokémon began smirking at one another as I had a feeling their battle was about to become more intense than ever. It tosses its enemies around with agility. It uses all its limbs to fight in its own unique style.

As I expected, both Pokémon female were now getting ready to continue their battle now that they were fully-evolved though Ash felt a bit of nostalgic value as it reminded him of not only his battle with Guy and his Exploud but also when he battle May at their final contest together from the end of the Battle Frontier arc. "That's pretty cool if you ask me!" commented Ash, though they still have a battle to finish. "Still, let's see if the entry is true… Unfezant, use your Air-Cutter again!"

"Not quite Ashy, Scarlet dodge it and counter with Mach Punch!" May was quick to counter, having Scarlet dodge the powerful Flying-Type attack and countered with her own priority move which collided with Unfezant's face before she can react to what transpired though both Ash and May were rather surprised that neither one of their Pokémon were willing to back down from this match.

Before the match could continue, I received a call on my PokéNav Plus then was quick to answer it as it was from none other than Mr. Goodshow himself. "Hello?" I spoke, hearing what Mr. Goodshow was telling me from the other end since it's usually important whenever he calls me for some reason or another then nodded my head slowly as I listened to everything that he wanted me to hear. "Okay, I got it… thank you very much."

The moment I ended communication with him, Ash and May gave me a slight glance as though I gave a small sigh since it concerns the fact that it would lead to my raven-haired friend wanting to deal with some much needed unfinished business but it needed to be said. "I've received word from Mr. Goodshow that it seems the Gym Leaders from Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh and Unova will all be gathering together at the Trident Battle Palace for a very special event."

"Oh?" wondered May, becoming curious on what I mean by that though at the exact same time wanted to know when it will happen specifically. "Well what kind of event are you referring to exactly? Just out of curiosity I mean."

"Well here's the thing, all the Gym Leaders from the regions I mentioned before are all given the title of Marquis if male or Marchioness if female so it would be a rare treat to see them gathered together in one place" I explained though there was a silver-lining in the entire thing which should make May somewhat relieved to hear this. "The good news is that since Skyla's coming here, the investigation is over and she's looking forward to facing you guys as well as Hilbert, Hilda and Bianca to make up for not being able to face you guys back at Unova, even Brycen, Drayden and Marlon will be present so you'll get the remaining Unova Gym Badges and not need to go back to Unova at all to do so."

Hearing this, Ash started to beam up a bit since it looks like he and May will be able to earn the remaining Unova League Gym Badges after all then May decided to speak up to me concerning another issue at hand. "Do they all know about, well you know…" she was referring to the fact that two of the Atlantica Islands' Gym Leaders have revealed their true colors and that the Gym Leaders and Elite 4 members from Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh and Unova will need to be well aware of this.

"Yeah, I kinda spoken with Mr. Goodshow on that issue believe it or not" I replied, giving my good friend a slight nod of my head plus there is a chance that we needed to speak with Hilbert, Hilda and Bianca on the issue since Bianca should be on her way here alongside Cheren. "Oh by the way, if you're worried about Team Plasma being at large… then you won't have to worry… the royal guard will be prepared to ensure that crime syndical will be properly dealt with plus N will be fine too."

"Well that is good news at least" commented May, especially as while they weren't going to be returning to Unova… that didn't mean she wanted to see it completely destroyed by Team Plasma or even enslaved by those bastards, she even holds no ill-will towards N. "Guess we have a lot of preparing to do for this upcoming battle with the remaining Unova Gym Leaders."

"Yes, you do" I nodded my head to my two friends, hoping that this information will be good for them to use in order to be prepared for the upcoming battles to come… which could help in getting them ready for the battle against my mother plus I am gonna let Hilbert, Hilda and Bianca know the good news as well. "Trust me; I'm sure you'll do fine as you are more than half-way done with collecting all the Unova Gym Badges."

Ash, May and I returned to the Pokémon Center in order to get Scarlet and Unfezant healed up, as promised… I am going to make contact with Hilbert, Hilda and Bianca so they'll be ready to finish what they've started back at Unova in order to get it properly over with after the final Gym battle with my mother is properly dealt with though at the same time, Bianca was new to the Atlantica Islands but with the training she had, she might need to be prepared to collect my home region's Gym Badges in order to join us in the upcoming tournament but for now we figured that it would be best to prepare ourselves for the continued trek to my home and this is one battle that my husband and I won't be able to witness however. So hopefully the two will be able to handle themselves, then again the same can be said for Jonathan, Abelia, David and Rena.

Then again, Lady Rhea mentioned how Shelly believe it or not was not only her biological sister but their father the Abyss Emperor was cursed by Arceus himself many years ago, and that should either of the two females from Team Trident were to ever touch the Blue Orb then they'll revert to their Primal Forms… needless to say, everyone was shocked to learn of this revelation including my husband and I, but the bigger shock was that Shelly was now the owner of that Tyranitar used by the Iron Masked Marauder back at Johto, apparently following Celebi being freed from the Dark Ball used to capture him, Shelly used her magic to do the same for Tyranitar and he wanted to become Shelly's Pokémon in order to not only repay her but also to fulfill his duty to his tribe plus like Argon, Shelly's new Rock/Dark-Type is able to swim in the water without any issues.

ooooooooooooo

May's POV

The next day…

"Halt," a tall palace guard with an extremely large sword ordered us as we were stopped at the gates of Sol Palace.

"Hey Angeal, it looks like the Princess and the Emerald Prince are in the group," observed guard's younger counterpart as he noticed Relena and Richie.

"I'm aware of that, Zack," the taller palace guard said to the younger guard. "But even the Princess and Emerald Prince should know…"

"Yes Angeal, we know about the Royal Edict," Relena said to the older palace guard. "But my husband and I also live here temporarily until we can find a place of our own that isn't the treehouse on Jungle Diamond Island."

"What the?" my husband asked as he was floored when he heard Relena mention their treehouse.

"Yes Ash, we are a little too old to be living in a treehouse," Richie said quickly before Ash could ask the question.

"What's this about a Royal Edict?" David asked Relena and Richie.

"The Elite Four, champion or champions are not allowed into the Royal Gym," explained younger black-haired palace guard.

"It was an edict that the previous king and queen established when the Pokémon League was established in this region," added Angeal, the older palace guard. "The edict was set up to prevent the champion or Elite Four from coaching challengers on how to beat the final gym and its leader."

"But since they're still living here, we can't exactly deny them entry," Zack said as he opened the door. "Welcome back to Sol Palace Your Highness… Prince Richie."

Relena and Richie turned to us and then Relena said, "I wish you all good luck in the Royal Gym."

"You guys are gonna need it," added Richie before he, Relena, their daughter, Aurora and Michiru entered the palace and the doors closed before we had a chance to enter. "And better make sure that you've got the right gear to tackle the Royal Gym."

ooooooooooooo

"Okay, how are we going to decide which couple goes first?" Jonathan asked us.

"There isn't really a need to decide," my husband said bursting with enthusiasm. "May and I will go first. You guys went ahead of us on Sapphire and Phantom Ninja Islands."

'Yeah, we'll go first so guys have a clear picture of what you'll be up against to get the final badge for automatic entry into the Royal Cup,' Pikachu added with a grin on his face.

"They are allowed to watch our gym battle on a television or Pokénet, right?" I asked Angeal and Zack.

"There's no rule against it here at the Royal Gym," Angeal answered before looking to Zack.

"But you other challengers are gonna have to wait in courtyard for your turn," Zack said as he started to open the same door he opened to let Relena and Richie in. "The only thing we can say is that your first challenge is at the Sakura Gardens."

"You other challengers can enter," Angeal said to Abelia, Jonathan, Rena and David. "But you'll have to wait until the first challenging pair reaches their first checkpoint. Once they reach their first checkpoint, the next pair will advance to their first challenge at Sakura Gardens."

"Well May… Pikachu, Manaphy, are you ready for this?" Ash asked me and our two Pokémon.

'You bet I'm ready!' Pikachu exclaimed happily.

'I'm ready too, Papa!' Manaphy joyfully exclaimed, ready to make his papa proud.

ooooooooooooo

With the doors behind us closed, Ash and I began our charge through the Royal Gym. The Seabrights and Pattersons entered the courtyard behind us while my husband and I headed towards the Sakura Gardens for our first challenge against the gym lieutenants. As we entered the Sakura Gardens, we spotted two young women, about four years older than Ash and I. They appeared to be twins and were dressed in pink dresses and were drinking green tea. As some of the petals from the sakura blossoms gently blew past them they finally looked to us and then stood up.

"Well, well Bernadette it looks like more of our baby half-sister's friends are here to try and challenge the Royal gym," the slightly taller 21 year-old woman said to her sister.

"Yes indeed, Angela," replied the shorter twin. "Guess it's time for us to show Relena's friends that the royal family aren't going to let them push us aside and claim the Royal Trident Badge without a fight."

"I am…" Ash began to say before getting off by the twins.

"We already know who two are," said Angela, the older twin. "You're Ash and May Ketchum, the Champion of Pallet Town and the Princess of Hoenn."

"We've never had the chance to face someone from the Kanto region," added Bernadette. "This is a very rare pleasure. But at any rate, we welcome you to the Royal Gym and to your first challenge… facing Angela and I in a Double Battle."

"You'll also find that not all of the gym lieutenants here will have you face them in direct Pokémon trainer battles," explained Angela Kaiou. "We at the Royal Gym like to challenge the trainers in other aspects other than just Pokémon battles."

"Huh?" asked a confused Ash.

Before he could get an answer, a palace guard stepped in as a referee. The palace guard laid out the rules for the Double Battle. Angela and Bernadette would each use one Pokémon each and we were required to do the same as the battle would be two-on-two. Once the rules for the Double Battle were laid out, Ash and I were ready to go.

"Galvantula, you're on!" Bernadette exclaimed as she threw her Net Ball up and releasing a shiny golden spider-like Pokémon with black outlining and dark colored eyes.

"Armaldo, time to rock and roll," said Angela as she sent out a shiny Rock/Bug-type Pokémon from the Hoenn region.

"Blaziken, take the stage!" I exclaimed as I needed to bring out my Fire/Fighting-type Pokémon that I had started out with as a Torchic.

"Alright Lucario, you're on!" Ash exclaimed as he was ready for our first battle against the toughest gym in the Atlantica Islands.

"Hmm… looks like they're either trying to outmuscle us or use type advantage against us," Angela said to Bernadette.

"It seems that way," agreed Bernadette before looking to her shiny Galvantula. "Galvantula, what do we say to those who try to outmuscle us or use type advantage?"

'Resistance is futile,' answered Bernadette's shiny Galvantula before launching his first attack without a single command given. 'Try this on for size Fighting/Steel-type.'

'What the Houndour?!' cried out a surprised Lucario as he was hit by the usually Normal-type move Hidden Power. 'Augh! It's a Fire-type move!'

"Armaldo, Aqua Jet on that Blaziken," Angela ordered her Rock/Bug-type Pokémon.

'Goodie… fun glorious fun for me,' the shiny Plate Pokémon said as he charged at my Blaziken with a powerful Water-type move that I didn't expect it to know. 'Here comes the Armaldo Train!'

'Not good!' cried out my Blaziken as he was hit with the Water-type move.

"Huh… I thought they were supposed to be tough," Bernadette said to her twin sister. "A Duchess and Marquis who blazed their way through the other 6 gyms before us."

"They're certainly not showing their strength," Angela said to Bernadette. "And I'm pretty sure that my Armaldo inflicted critical damage on her Blaziken."

'Let us finish them off quickly so we can get to the next challengers,' Galvantula requested of Bernadette and Angela. 'I'm starving for a real challenge and not a pair that got here and has suddenly fizzled out before the Suicune Valley Conference.'

"We're not going down as fast as you think," Ash shot back at Galvantula. "Lucario use Rock Slide on Galvantula!"

"Blaziken… use your Hidden Power on Armaldo," I ordered Blaziken. "Let's show them that we earned those badges and titles from the Trident Battle Palace!"

'On it,' acknowledged Lucario and Blaziken as they used their ordered attacks.

'Gah! Water-type Hidden Power move!' cried out Armaldo after my Blaziken had his Speed Boost kick in and then retaliated.

'Good thing I brought a fly swatter with me,' Lucario said before he hurled a boulder at the opposing Galvantula like an ace pitcher from the Electabuzz baseball team. 'And my fly swatter is a blazing hot fastball!'

'Momma!' Galvantula screamed in terror with eyes as big as dinner plates of the boulder screaming in to deliver the knockout blow. 'Waugh!'

"Galvantula is unable to battle," the palace guard announced to everyone. "Lucario wins!"

ooooooooooooo

Abelia Seabright's POV

"Oh man… that Galvantula's gonna feel that Rock Slide in the morning," my husband said to me, David and Rena as we were watching Ash and May start off a bit rocky, but start powering back.

I personally thought that we would be facing gym lieutenants one at a time, but it seemed as if that wasn't the case here at the Royal Gym. But I guess we never thought that the gym lieutenants were going to be Relena's half-siblings. Then again we were challenging the Royal Gym, so we should've put two and two together and figured out that the royal family would be the ones running the gym instead of nobles with Her Majesty, the Queen, as the gym leader. However, I was impressed with Ash and May's comeback… as far as battling against that Galvantula. Once the shiny Bug/Electric-type was down for the count, Ash and May had to focus their efforts on the shiny Armaldo that was still standing.

"Lucario, use Bullet Punch!" exclaimed Ash as we saw him exuding his usual Kanto-style confidence.

"Blaziken, use Sky Uppercut!" May ordered her Fire/Fighting-type Pokémon.

The attacks of both Pokémon connected on the shiny Plate Pokémon, leaving plenty of bruises and I think at least five cartoonish lumps on Armaldo's head with a couple bandages on his face. As much as I wanted to cheer for Armaldo, I was supporting Ash and May Ketchum since they were our friends and they were also paving the way for us on how to defeat the royal family, Relena's half-siblings. Armaldo fell on his backside dazed and defeated with spirals circling his eyes.

"Armaldo is unable to battle," the palace guard referee said to the viewers and those in the Sakura Gardens. "Lucario and Blaziken win! The victory goes to the challenging pair, Ash and May Ketchum of Costa del Sol on Tsunami Island."

"Guess they took Her Majesty's advice and changed their place of residence to Costa del Sol," David said as we remembered that the Queen advised those of us who were planning on staying and living in the Atlantica Islands region to change our place of residence.

"Yeah, I wonder how Gary will react to hearing that Ash isn't going to live in Kanto anymore," added Rena as they were talking about someone neither Jonathan nor I knew about.

ooooooooooooo

May's POV

"Well done Duchess May and Marquis Ash Ketchum, you certainly have earned those titles at the Trident Battle Palace," Angela said to Ash and I. "As a reward for defeating us in battle, both of you can choose which Pokémon you would like to own."

"Huh?" Ash and I asked as we were confused by Angela's statement.

"Aside from winning prize money from us in the Royal Gym, some of us give a little something extra for a performance worthy of the Royal Gym," explained Bernadette. "But be warned… should you lose a battle and you will have to start over from the beginning. Any prize money you've earned is also forfeit. But if you're given an extra prize, like a new Pokémon or a different item, then it is yours to keep with no questions asked."

"Just don't expect to be given rare Pokémon either," added Angela. "You'll both be given either a Joltik, Anorith or a female Scatterbug. All three choices are shiny Pokémon and they were born with their Dream World abilities."

"You first Ash," I said as I wanted my husband to go first as I was pretty sure that I knew what his choice would be.

"I'll take Joltik," Ash said as he helped himself to the Dream Ball containing his chosen Bug-type Pokémon.

"I'll choose Scatterbug myself," I said as I grabbed the other Dream Ball containing my chosen Bug-type Pokémon as the other female Scatterbug I caught back in Unova was given to Jeanette since she could fit our violet-haired Crimson City friend well.

Once we made our choice, the two twins gave Ash and I a slight nod and then snapped their fingers together allowing a door to open. Once the door was open, a PC appeared from behind a bush next to the door. The PC appeared to be like the PCs at the Pokémon Center where Pokémon could be swapped out. My husband and I were fortunate enough that our Pokémon were close to us.

"Before you make your approach to the Leviathan Cliffs, you can take time to heal your Pokémon and even switch them out," Bernadette informed us as she and Angela gestured to the PC. "It is very important that you choose your Pokémon well."

"For the locations that we tell you to go to contain hints as to what you're next challenge is bound to be," Angela added to Bernadette's explanation. "You may even switch out gear to prepare yourself for the next challenge as well."

ooooooooooooo

Once we reorganized our Pokémon and included a couple Flying-type Pokémon to our team, my husband and I then followed the directions we were given. Ash spotted an area that appeared to be an area exclusive for training Pokémon and tried to enter it. I tried to stop Ash as I thought it might've been blocked by a magic barrier, but he had to learn the hard way that it was off limits to him. There was a note that said the barrier could be unlocked once we reached the third checkpoint because the Pokémon in the sealed area were really powerful and they wouldn't be easy to capture or potentially battle either. My guess was that there were powerful Pokémon that lived in the various caves I had heard about in Kanto, Johto and Sinnoh. It was also possibly the home of any Mewtwo Pokémon that Ash had been searching for since we got here to the Atlantica Islands. Once Ash had gotten his bearings, we proceeded forward to the Leviathan Cliffs. Despite the size, Sol Palace was very large or at least the Royal Gym was. I think all of us had half expected the Royal gym just to be in the Throne Room and we'd face off against all of the gym lieutenants before facing the Queen herself. Once we got to the Leviathan Cliffs, we met the next gym lieutenant. This time it was one of Relena's half-brothers, the youngest one, and he was quite a stud, but not as cute as my husband. The Pokémon that was with him was quite the surprise to see. It was one of the seven 'legendary' Pokémon from the Johto region and it was also a shiny one at that.

"Whoa… he's got a Lugia?" Ash asked in amazement at the shiny Diving Pokémon. "How'd he manage to get a Lugia and a shiny one at that?"

"He came on the day when Tsunami Island was hit with that devastating hurricane," the youngest of Relena's half-siblings, Zander, explained to Ash and I. "If it wasn't for Typhoon here, the damage to Tsunami Island would've been greater and some of us would've been killed.

"But that's in the past and we need to focus on the here and now… Ash and May Ketchum," continued Zander. "I'm your next opponent. If you lose here, then you must return the prize money you won from Angela and Bernadette and battle them again. Trust me… having to battle Angela and Bernadette again is no cakewalk and they take no prisoners either."

"Okay… so what do we have to do here?" I asked Zander as Ash and I were wanting to know what we were going to have to do next.

"You're next challenge is an aerial race," answered Zander as he lifted his clothes off to reveal what looked like a cosplay outfit. "One of you will have to race me and Typhoon in a race to determine aerial superiority. But you better watch yourself because things do tend to get nasty."

"Ash… you handle the aerial race," I said to my husband as I knew that he most likely had switched one of his Pokémon for either his Pidgeot, Charizard, Swellow, Staraptor, newly evolved Unfezant or all five of them since Noctowl and Gliscor were not big enough to carry him into the air for the race in question. "My Beautifly couldn't handle trying to fly with me on her back and I don't have any other Pokémon that can fly, I wish I had my Swellow with my rather than having left her at our new home."

"Alright then… I choose Charizard!" exclaimed Ash as he called on one of his older and favorite Pokémon to use.

"Very well then," Zander said as he mounted on his shiny Lugia. "Lugia versus Charizard… who man… I'm getting a chill running down my spine at the thought of that."

'Time to see who the better flyer is then, Zander,' chimed Zander's Lugia, Typhoon.

Ash then got on Charizard's back himself as he was to take part in the aerial race. Zander laid out the rules for the aerial race. They would each make two circuits around the Leviathan Cliffs and have to go through specially made rings to indicate they were making progress throughout the race. He mentioned that attacking the lead racer was encouraged, so long as the rider wasn't being targeted. But from the look of the Leviathan Cliffs, they looked very dangerous to try and pull something like attacking someone from behind.

"I gotta say Ash Ketchum, you surprised me and Typhoon here too," Zander said after the race ended by a nose. "Man, I thought we had you and you came back stronger."

"That was quite a race," agreed Ash after he caught his breath, as did Charizard.

Then Zander snapped his fingers to allow a passage to be revealed to us and another PC next to the door. I had to admit that the Royal Gym was quite impressive and was certainly living up to its reputation for being the toughest gym in the Atlantica Islands… no scratch that. It was shaping up to be toughest gym in the world. The Kaiou royal family certainly wasn't pulling any punches or holding back. But the next gym lieutenant was waiting for us and Zander told us that we needed to head to Iceberg Cellar for our next challenge. Hearing the name Iceberg Cellar hinted that maybe the next gym lieutenant was probably going to use Ice-type Pokémon. I decided to keep Blaziken just in case we were facing Ice-type Pokémon for our challenge. Other having Manaphy, Blaziken and my team leader Amethyst, I called on Glaceon for the possibility that the next battle might have the possibility of a battle between Ice-type Pokémon only. I know that Ash didn't have his Glalie with him because he carelessly forgot to bring his male Ice-Type from Hoenn with him but instead Glalie was at our new home with the rest of our Pokémon, so I loaned him Yuki and then told him that he needed to find an Ice-type Pokémon so that I wouldn't have to bail him out again. Going through the passage, Ash and I began to feel a bit chilly as we descended further down the passage. Once we were through the passage, we saw that we had entered a cellar made from glistening ice that had been finely sculpted into various shapes and a few even looked like pieces of furniture too. On the other side of the cellar, were the next gym lieutenants, three of Relena's half siblings. There were two young men and two young women, still older than Ash and I by at least six years.

"Well, well guys, we've got the first married couple to ever challenge the Royal Gym," said one of the young men as he first looked to his siblings and then looked back to us. "You must've defeated Zander at the Leviathan Cliffs. Congrats to you. I am Derek Kaiou, the fourth oldest son of Her Majesty, Queen Michiru Kaiou."

"Haruhi Kaiou is my name," the young woman said to Ash and I. "Pleasure to finally our baby half-sister's friends.

"Yo, I'm Alexander Kaiou, the sixth oldest son of the Queen," the other young man said to my husband and I. "Hope you're ready to go down, 'cuz we ain't pulling any punches here."

"Laura is my name," chimed in a fourth young woman. "This next competition will pit your Pokémon against ours in an ice sculpting competition. No Ice-type Pokémon will be allowed to be used in this competition and I'm acting as the ref too."

"Well… it's time to get this ice sculpting competition underway," said Derek as two large blocks of ice came from underneath the floor on some dumbwaiter system. "Remember what Laura said, no Ice-type Pokémon can be used in used in this competition."

"Rock and Steel-types would be your best bet to sculpt the block of ice," added Laura. "Come up with an original design that will impress me. I'll be presiding over the competition. And only one of you will do the sculpting.

"I'll do the sculpting," volunteered Ash as he hefted three of his Pokéballs. "You've only got Blaziken and don't have any Rock or Steel-type Pokémon like I do."

"Good luck then," I said as I kissed my husband and let him get to work at sculpting with his block of ice.

"Come on out Charizard, Lucario and Gigalith!" exclaimed Ash as he let out his chosen Pokémon and looked to Pikachu as well. "You too Pikachu."

Ash's Charizard just rolled his eyes and snorted that he had been called out to be an ice sculptor. Instead of joining Lucario, Gigalith and Pikachu, Charizard just decided to watch from the sidelines. Ash pleaded with Charizard to join them in help making an ice sculpture, but all my husband got was a Flamethrower to his head as Charizard's reply. Hehe… his Flamethrower wasn't enough to stop Ash from getting Charizard to participate.

"Come… on… Charizard!" exclaimed Ash as he started pulling on Charizard's tail much to the Flame Pokémon's surprise.

Charizard involuntarily shot out his Flamethrower attack on the block of ice, sculpting what I thought was going to be a beautiful sculpture. Once the sculpture was finished, my eyes widened in surprise as I saw what was sculpted by Charizard. I think even Derek, Alexander and their Steelix, Machamp and Riolu were surprised at Ash's sculpture. As for Laura, she just smiled when she saw Ash's sculpture. The sculpture that Ash had made was one of me in my pink bikini with Manaphy on my left shoulder. Even Charizard was surprised at the ice sculpture that he had made involuntarily.

'If you wanted to make a sculpture of your wife, you could've just told me that instead of having this be a repeat of Navel Island,' Charizard chided his trainer.

'You weren't interested in being an ice sculptor again,' Pikachu said to the Fire/Flying-type Pokémon. 'How else was Ash supposed to get you to cooperate?'

'The sculpture is pretty nice though,' Lucario offered in hopes to cut any tension in the air.

"Sorry Alex and Derek… looks like they're advancing to Checkpoint 1," Laura informed her brothers as she had already decided the match. "Someone really loves his wife if he wanted to make a sculpture of her."

I was quick to jump into my husband's arms as I smiled and said in agreement, "Oh yes. He does love his wife if he wanted to make an ice sculpture of me." Ash was quite surprised when I leapt into his arms. Charizard snickered when he noticed his human having a surprised and confused look on his face. Pikachu also snickered in seeing his pal looking confused and surprised with me in his arms.

"Checkpoint 1 is now open for you to stop and rest," Alexander said informed Ash and I. "You'll be able to stop and rest for the night. And then continue onwards the next morning."

"You've got three days to tackle the Royal Gym," added Laura. "It sounds quite generous of the royal family, but we've seen trainers and their Pokémon look battered and bruised from not resting and healing their scars. So we do require trainers to stop and rest so they can heal."

"Once you've rested up, your next challenge will be at the Comet's Fist Gym," said Alexander as he, Laura and Derek each snapped their fingers to unlock the next door.

"What if we want to continue and press on?" Ash asked Relena's three half-siblings. "I'm really pumped with this gym and I'd like to continue on."

"You can press on, but we don't recommend it," answered Alexander. "You're better off stopping and resting."

'Humph, that's a joke,' snorted Charizard before he got recalled to his Pokéball.

ooooooooooooo

"Come on Ash, let's stop… even if it's for a little while," I whined to my husband as we reached Checkpoint 1. "My feet hurt and they need to rest after standing for so long."

"May, you're not that far along with your pregnancy," countered Ash. "We've got to keep pushing on if we're going to get the Royal Trident Badge. I certainly don't wanna have to rely on getting into the Top 8 in the Suicune Valley Conference just to get in the Royal Cup."

'I can't stand hearing another bribe from the palace servants,' Pikachu said to Ash. 'Not to mention you almost fell for a few of those bribes had I not gotten my shocking point across.'

'I wanna rest Papa,' Manaphy said to Ash as my husband was again fighting a battle that he couldn't win.

"Alright… fine… we'll take a rest," Ash said in an upset tone as he was in a hurry to reach the gym leader. "But we'll rest only for a couple hours and then continue on to Comet's Fist Gym."

ooooooooooooo

Rena's POV

"Alright then," palace guard Angeal said as we saw Ash and May defeat their third opponent and then move on past it. "Looks like they've made it to Checkpoint 1 and are moving on. Good luck in the Royal Gym. You'll need it."

"We'll be fine, besides if Ash and May are able to get that far then we certainly can too right Ren?" asked David, turning his attention towards me as it's clear that he's determined to win the Royal Trident Badge as much as Ash did though to be honest… those two have been hanging around each other for too long even during our childhood days before we began our Pokémon Journey together then with a slight determination on my own face we entered the Gym in hopes that we'll be ready for the challenges at hand plus I need to make certain that David doesn't screw us over since we were in this together.

I have to admit, the Sakura Gardens looked pretty impressive as Relena's family does have good taste… unfortunately this is where we'll have to battle against the first of the gym lieutenants and greeting us were two young women, about four years older than me and Dave plus they looked like they were twins almost like Ash and Anna in a way, but I've prepared my lineup for something like this and prayed my husband did. "My, I didn't expect to see new challengers so soon" commented Bernadette, which made her curious on if the previous challengers decided to not take the generous chance to rest for the rest of the day.

"Sounds like the last opponents who beaten us either chose not to rest at Checkpoint 1 or forgotten to do so" added Angela after a small sip of her tea, which caused me and David to suspect that this was because of Ash being impatient when it comes to getting somewhere or getting something done right away and I felt that David's competitiveness may make us make the same mistake our childhood friend did. "Just hope that you won't try and make that same mistake as we are the most difficult lieutenants of any Gym here in the Atlantica Islands."

"I'm sure that David and I won't make that mistake isn't that right dear?" I asked with a slightly darkened tone to my voice, making my husband somewhat uncomfortable whenever I used that tone and got ready to prepare ourselves for the battle we'll be having. "By the way, we…"

"We are well aware of who you are, David and Rena Patterson" responded Angela with a small shrug much to our slight surprise at the fact that the twins already know about us despite having just met them in person. "Like with Ash and May, we've heard about the two of you."

"We welcome you to the Royal Palace, however like with your friend from Kanto and his beloved wife from Hoenn we shall face the two of you in a double battle" added Bernadette, with a light but wicked smile on her face as they nodded to one another before preparing themselves for the battle against us. "Don't take us lightly though, otherwise it will make progressing a lot tougher."

Giving each other a brief nod, we got our respective Pokéballs ready to take on the two Pokémon that Bernadette and Angela will be calling out but not before one of the twins decided to tell us one last thing that needed to be said. "As we told your friends from also find that not all of the gym lieutenants here will have you face them in direct Pokémon trainer battles. We at the Royal Gym like to challenge the trainers in other aspects other than just Pokémon battles."

"And that is what, exactly?" asked a rather dumbfounded David before the palace guard that served as referee to Ash and May's run in the first part of the Royal Gym came to announce the rules of the double battle and like with Angela's and Bernadette's battle against our friends, the same rules will apply to us as we got ready to begin our match.

"I choose you, Galvantula" began Bernadette, sending out the shiny Galvantula that they used against Ash and May while we had a feeling we knew what Pokémon Angela will be sending out against the two of us.

"Let's show them what we're made of Armaldo!" she spoke, sending out the Rock/Bug-Type Hoenn Pokémon which the two of us nodded to one another, knowing how we can deal with those two especially as our friends were able to do this then we will need to be prepared ourselves.

"If that's the case then go Delphox!" I replied, sending out my shiny Fire/Psychic-Type from the Kalos region and knowing my husband, he is going to make use of his shiny Pokémon from Kalos in order to balance things out for the match.

"Go Greninja!" said David, as expected he did not disappoint and coming into the fray was his signature Pokémon which I still remember when Rich and Relena gave them to us during our travels so we didn't want to let them down.

Shaking their heads, feeling that they will need to be careful not to under estimate us as they did against Ash and May then they turned their attention towards their respective Pokémon, knowing what they needed to do against our Delphox and Greninja. "Galvantula, use your Agility and Electro Ball against Greninja!' ordered Bernadette.

"Greninja, use Mud Sport!" countered David, deciding to take advantage of his Greninja's Protean ability and use it to transform his shiny Water/Dark-Type into a Ground-Type to make him immune to all Electric-Type moves and resistant to Bug-Type ones.

'What the?!' exclaimed Galvantula, wondering what Greninja was up to by attempting to weaken his Electric-Type moves in the ensuring battle though the combination of Electro Ball and Agility is handy in making the Electric-Type attack in question stronger when used on Pokémon slower than himself. 'Don't think that by weakening my Electric attacks, you'll be able to withstand my combination and now it's going to cost you big time!'

'Give it a shot!' grinned Greninja, deciding not to bother dodging the Electro Ball which scored the direct hit and I saw the confident expression that Dave had on his face when he knows that it's going exactly as he planned.

This caught Bernadette by slight surprise, the moment that Greninja used his Mud Sport attack not only to weaken the base power of Galvantula's Electric-type moves by 57% but the moment Galvantula used his Agility/Electro Ball combination and struck Greninja successfully, the attack did no damage due to the Protean ability turning my husband's Water/Dark-Type into a pure Ground-Type. "Quite an interesting move you've done in an effort to counter my combination, however you've just made yourself vulnerable to another attack" she commented with another light smile forming on her face.

Nodding her head to her sister, Angela then turned her attention towards Armaldo. "Use your Rock Polish and Aqua Jet against that Greninja!" she instructed, this was never a good sign since Rock Polish can increase the speed of a Pokémon by two stages while we're already aware that Aqua Jet's a priority attack which means I better act fast if I was to save my partner's Greninja.

Grinning at his now increased speed, he used his Aqua Jet and it came much faster than when he used it against May's Blaziken... coming towards Greninja. 'Here I come!' he yelled, but I had my own wicked smile in mind against the twins.

"Not quite, forget about someone?" I asked, knowing what move I'm going to have my Pokémon use in response to the move that Armaldo tried to use on Greninja. "Delphox, protect Greninja with your Protect!"

'Already on it!' responded my Fire/Psychic-Type and formed a protective barrier which stopped the Aqua Jet dead in its tracks, causing the attack to be deflected away from its intended target which was a close call though there was a smile that caught us off guard.

"Armaldo, use your Rock Slide!" ordered Angela, the powerful shiny Armaldo roared as he performed a powerful Rock Slide that struck both of our Pokémon at the exact same time and to be honest, I never really thought that Rock Slide was capable of striking multiple targets at once let alone be this powerful, sure it wasn't very effective on Greninja thanks to his Protean ability making him into a Ground-Type but I'm more worried about my Delphox as the smoke soon cleared to show how banged up both our Pokémon were. "You didn't think that we'd come unprepared when it came to double battles did you?"

"Well to be honest, we kinda did but at the same time… it's not like we didn't come prepared either" I replied back, as my Delphox got back onto her feet as did Dave's Greninja with the two of us understanding how powerful the Kaiou Family truly was. "We're just getting started!"

"You bet we are, so be ready for a good butt-kicking!" added David, both of us were determined to prove that trainers from Pallet Town were going to be as strong as those from the Atlantica Islands.

ooooooooooooo

May's POV

After we rested for a couple hours, we reorganized our Pokémon parties… and uh… made sure we were presentable to the next gym lieutenant after having a very comfortable and creative way to rest and relax. Heading to Comet's Fist Gym was rather easy as we just had to follow the signs and a shiny Hitmonlee who was making his way to the said gym. Once we entered Comet's Fist Gym, Ash and I were quite surprised to see that it looked like a normal boxing gym. The Hitmonlee then took us to the next gym lieutenant who was actually two lieutenants instead of just one. Two more of Relena's half-siblings would have to be battled against and we would battle them appropriately.

"Seems that we've got two eager Bibarels that they decided to forgo resting at Checkpoint 1," said the 24 year-old young man as he first looked to his sister.

"You'll have to take that up with my husband," I said to the 24 year-old young man.

"Max is my name," the first gym lieutenant said to me and Ash before looking to me. "I hear you've got a brother named Max as well."

"I'm Maddie Kaiou," said Max's sister and second gym lieutenant. "Welcome to Comet's Fist Gym. I hope you're ready, because you just might regret having bypassed Checkpoint 1."

"Here, we use Fighting-type Pokémon in this sub-gym," Max explained to us. "But just don't think that you can steamroll us with your Psychic, Flying or Fairy-type Pokémon. We've covered every possible base."

"I take it this is going to be a Double Battle, right?" I asked both Max and Maddie.

"You got it," answered Max. "Let's get this Double Battle under way!"

'The Double Battle between the challengers Ash and May Ketchum of Costa del Sol and gym lieutenants Max and Maddie Kaiou will now begin,' the Hitmonlee announced as he took the spot as referee for our battle. 'Both gym lieutenants and challengers will use three Pokémon each as this will be a full six-on-six battle. Now let the Double Battle… BEGIN!'

"Toxicroak… boxing time!" Max exclaimed as he called on his first Pokémon, released from a Quick Ball.

"Lopunny… you're on for round one!" Maddie shouted as she called on a Normal-type Pokémon and released her from a Friend Ball.

"Amethyst, take the stage!" I exclaimed as I released my team leader from her Dream Ball.

"Porygon, let's go!" Ash shouted much my shock as I heard my husband calling on the shiny Normal-type Virtual Pokémon that he caught on Emerald Cove Island.

I think even both Max and Maddie Kaiou were surprised to see that Ash called on his Porygon. But I noticed that Max had a grin on his face as thought Porygon would be an easy target. Had Max seen that reddish orange outline that raced up Porygon's body, he would've noticed that Porygon's Download ability had already kicked in and raised its Special Attack stat.

"Porygon, use Conversion!" Ash exclaimed as he hoped to eliminate one problem, which was eliminating Porygon's type disadvantage against the Fighting-type Pokémon we would be up against.

Porygon did as he was told and then became a Bug-type Pokémon thanks to his Conversion which changed him from a Normal-type Pokémon to a Bug-type. Max didn't seem to be deterred by Porygon using his Conversion attack he was determined to prove the error of our folly for not stopping at Checkpoint 1 for the night. But there was something that got me concerned as I saw a Mega Stone dangling on a necklace from the opposing Lopunny. Before I could warn Ash about Lopunny's Mega Stone, it began to resonate with Maddie's Keystone Bracelet. Then we saw that Lopunny could Mega Evolve into a new form. Dexette notified us that Mega Lopunny was a Normal/Fighting-type Pokémon with the Scrappy ability. For me that would've spelled trouble had I called on Elsa instead of my team leader, Amethyst. But if we were going to make it to battle the Queen, we were gonna have to knock down every gym lieutenant in front of us.

"Toxicroak… use Gunk Shot on that Sylveon quick!" Max ordered his shiny Toxic Mouth Pokémon.

"Lopunny, use Draining Punch on Porygon," Maddie ordered shiny Mega Normal/Fighting-type Pokémon.

'Here we come!' exclaimed Toxicroak before firing off some filthy garbage at Amethyst.

"Amethyst use Dig to dodge that Gunk Shot," I countered back as I knew how to deal with the likes of Poison-type Pokémon like the opposing Toxicroak.

"Porygon, use Psybeam," added Ash as he was going to try and take advantage of Mega Lopunny's apparent weakness to Psychic-type attacks.

Amethyst complied and borrowed her way underground to dodge the Gunk Shot attack that landed right where Amethyst once stood. As for Porygon, he was able to get off his Psybeam in time right as Mega Lopunny closed in to use her Fighting-type attack. Mega Lopunny screeched in pain from the Psychic-type attack as it was stronger, thanks in part to Porygon's Download ability raising its Special Attack stat. She was even thrown back after getting nailed with critical damage. As for Toxicroak, Amethyst landed super effective damage that was critical, thanks in part to the fact that she and I were very affectionate with each other. Amethyst was also quick to keep the pressure on as she used Psyshock to nail the lid on Toxicroak's coffin thanks in part to it being a Poison/Fighting-type Pokémon and took doubly effective damage… and again taking critical damage thanks to the bond Amethyst and I shared with each other. Once Toxicroak was hit with both Dig and Psyshock attacks, he was down for the count.

'Boss… she got… me… TKO in a minute flat,' Toxicroak said weakly before collapsing.

'Toxicroak… no!' exclaimed Mega Lopunny as she saw her partner get taken out by Amethyst. 'You'll pay for taking out my mate!'

"Porygon use Agility and then use Sharpen," Ash ordered his Porygon.

'I'm coming to help, Porygon,' Amethyst announced as she tried to join Porygon before he used his Psybeam to cut Amethyst off. 'What?! But…'

'Negative, Porygon will battle Mega Lopunny,' Porygon replied to Amethyst. 'Sylveon shall stay out of conflict between Porygon and Mega Lopunny.'

'Just as stubborn as your human,' Amethyst said to herself aloud.

"Mega Lopunny use Dizzy Punch!" Maddie ordered her mega evolved Normal/Fighting-type Rabbit Pokémon.

"Counter that with Zen Headbutt," countered Ash as he was eager to help claim the first round in the fight against Comet's Fist Gym.

Porygon said nothing, but complied with his trainer's command and both attacks struck each other. I thought Mega Lopunny would overpower Porygon, but my fear would not come to pass as Porygon's Zen Headbutt was stronger and broke through, connecting with super-effective damage and knocking out Mega Lopunny.

'Toxicroak and Mega Lopunny are unable to battle,' the Hitmonlee referee announced. 'Porygon and Sylveon win!'

As the announcement was made, Lopunny had reverted back to her original self as she no longer had the strength to maintain her mega evolved form. But the other four Fighting-type Pokémon weren't exactly a cakewalk for eitherof us. Max and Maddie really pouredon the pressure for us as they were very determined to ensure we didn't walk all over them. Max's Hawlucha and Medicham weren't easy to take down and neither were Maddie's Mienshao and Infernape. They pulled out all the stops and took down a few of our Pokémon, but we still managed to hold out and win thanks to Amethyst and Porygon. Max tried to overpower our Pokémon with his Medicham mega evolving, but that ended up back firing on him even though Porygon and Ash thought they could outmuscle Mega Medicham with Psychic-type attacks.

ooooooooooooo

"Well done to you two," Maddie said after she recalled her Mienshao to her Primer Ball. "You're pretty resilient when it comes to Pokémon battles."

"Just be ready for your next challenge," cautioned Max. "Anastasia is your next opponent and your wife should be familiar with the next challenge."

"Why would I be familiar with Anastasia's challenge?" I asked Max and Maddie.

Max and Maddie then snapped their fingers to unlock the next passage, a PC and surprisingly two dressing rooms. Ash and I looked at each other in confusion as to why dressing rooms appeared along with the next passage and a PC. For an explanation, we looked to Relena's half siblings for an answer.

"You're next challenge is at Blossom Studio," answered Maddie. "You might want to change your clothes because at Blossom Studio, only the best Pokémon Coordinators will make it further into the Royal Gym."

Finally getting the hint, I grabbed Ash's hand and lead him to the dressing rooms as we had to change as if we were participating in a Pokémon Contest like at the Wallace Cup. We had a problem though… neither Ash nor I had our contest outfits with us. Thankfully with the PC there, we were able to switch out some of our gear as well. For the potential contest that was coming up, I planned on using my Eeveelution team to go through the Contest challenge and grabbed the outfit that I wore during the Castelia City Pokémon contest. It was certainly my favorite outfit to wear and I hadn't worn it in a while. As for Ash, switched out some of his gear too and got the outfit he wore at the Wallace Cup in the Sinnoh region. He was lucky that Jessica had readjusted it to his size and that she didn't charge him for it either. Once we had changed and Ash switched out for Pokémon he thought would be good for a Pokémon contest, we proceeded to head towards Blossom Studio. Secretly, I was hoping that the Pokémon contest challenge would require only one person.

'Mama, are you going to use me in the Pokémon Contest?' Manaphy asked me as we neared Blossom Studio.

"I'm sorry sweetie," I answered Manaphy. "But I promise that you'll be in the next Pokémon battle. Is that okay, Manaphy?"

Manaphy sighed as he answered, 'Alright Mama. But you better keep your promise.'

"Has Mama ever broken a promise to you?" I asked Manaphy cutely as I held him in my arms.

'No,' Manaphy answered me happily as he lightly wrapped his long arms around my neck. 'Mama's never broken a promise.'

ooooooooooooo

Rena's POV

"We didn't expect to be beaten once again, this time by two trainers from Pallet Town as opposed to one from Pallet Town and from Petalburg City" began Bernadette, while she and her sister Angela were somewhat disappointed at having lost against us they still managed to give us a run for our money. "Never the less, we shall reward you each with a Bug-Type Pokémon of your choice but be warned as we told your friends, should you lose to any of the other Gym Lieutenants then you'll have to start your challenge all over again and any money you've won will be forfeit."

"Yeah, thanks for the warning…" I said with a sweat-drop at the back of my head and gestured for Dave to pick the first Bug-Type of his choice, his quick-thinking was able to save us from a humiliating defeat though that doesn't mean I wouldn't bail his butt from time to time.

After some thinking, David picked a shiny Anorith and I decided to go with a shiny female Scatterbug and we decided to make the preparations for the next Gym Lieutenant we needed to confront since there's a chance that the latter ones will be way more difficult than Angela and Bernadette. "Oh and a word of advice before you head for Leviathan Cliffs, we highly recommend that you take the chance to heal your Pokémon and even switch them out" explained Angela, wanting to be certain we were listening as both twins snapped their fingers and a door opened to reveal a room with a PC that we can use for the preparations. "Plus it would also be wise to switch your gear as the only we can say is to pick your Pokémon wisely."

"Understood, and thanks" I responded then went with David into the room and we got ready to swap the Pokémon in our respective lineups for the ones back at Professor Oak's lab since I had a feeling I should make use of the gift that Relena gave me since the shiny Articuno could be beneficial for the worst case scenario.

Soon we followed the directions we've been given and soon enough, David was surprised to see that it was basically like an area exclusive for training Pokémon and tried to enter it. Only for him to hit the barrier keeping us from progressing even further… you'd think my husband would have learned his lesson from Ash having made that mistake but then again, they both lack discipline as a skilled Japanese Master would say and I noticed a note that said the barrier could be unlocked once we reached the third checkpoint because the Pokémon within the sealed area were really powerful and they wouldn't be easy to capture or potentially battle either.

"Why do I even bother…?" I muttered to myself as we proceeded to the Leviathan Cliffs and like with May, I'm starting to see that the Royal Gym was much larger than we initially thought though I'm praying to Arceus that Jonathan and Abelia will be careful when they end up starting their run here. The moment we got to the Leviathan Cliffs, we were greeted by Relena's youngest half-brother who was quite stunning but my love for Dave is not going to change one bit and with him was a Pokémon that we've seen Ash having had to race against which wasn't exactly easy but then again, Legendary Pokémon like that were never easy even in battles. "I wonder what that is…"

I got my Pokédex out and scanned the Pokémon that was out in front of us, making me curious to find out more on it. Lugia, the Diving Pokémon. Lugia's wings pack devastating power – a light fluttering of its wings can blow apart regular houses, As a result, this Pokémon chooses to live out of sight deep under the sea.

"Wow, sounds like a pretty powerful Pokémon" commented my husband, especially as we'll need to be prepared to face it, though not the way we originally thought as Zander Kaiou approached the two of us.

"You don't know that half of it, but remember as I told your friends from earlier, lose against me and you'll have to return the prize money you won from Angela and Bernadette and battle them again." explained our new opponent with a serious expression on his face. "Trust me, it will be a pain having to get far and have to start all over again from scratch."

"Ouch, I take it one of us will be facing you?" wondered David, needing to know if the same rules that applied to Ash and May will be the case for them, which Zander silently nodded his head to confirm it to be true. "In that case, Ren… think you can handle this guy in a race?"

"You bet!" I said to my blonde-haired husband, raising the Friend Ball I had in my hand and released the shiny female Articuno into the fray since she might actually be a good choice against an opposing Legendary because like Ash, I'd like to make it a fair fight. "You ready my friend?"

Ready whenever you are Mistress Rena! said the female Ice/Flying-Type with a loud chirp, but neither Zander nor Lugia were going to back down as they intend to use their bond and give it everything they've got in order to win this race… I take it Lugia is going to be my opponent in this race?

Without anything to say, I gave her a slight nod while Zander gave a grin on his face as he was actually looking forward in racing against another Legendary. "This might be interesting, seeing one Legendary Pokémon race against another" he commented, giving his Lugia a nod of his own and we prepared ourselves for the race against one another… determined to see which Legendary will surpass which in terms of speed despite the dangerous racing track that we'll need to go through. "You best come prepared, for defeat!"

"Oh really?" I asked, getting on my Ice Bird's back and the look of determination formed on my face which seemed to be something from Ash rubbing off onto me, almost like with Anna when she was reunited with her brother but hey, at least it's great to see a friend of ours we never saw for year and hoped that she's watching this run. "You haven't seen what we can do when are bond is strong!"

ooooooooooooo

May's POV

Once we entered Blossom studio, my husband and I saw that there was a good sized audience there waiting for the Pokémon contest to start. I guess the next gym lieutenant had gotten some form of notification that Ash and I skipped past Checkpoint 1 and made an announcement over Pokénet. There was certainly a good sized audience that was ready for a contest to start and they were really pumped too. The next gym lieutenant was certainly waiting for us as she opened her eyes and stood up from sitting on her knees.

"I welcome you to Blossom Studio… Champion of Pallet Town and Princess of Hoenn," the next gym lieutenant, Anastasia, said to Ash and I. "I hope you're ready for this Pokémon contest to start.

"Of course we're ready," Ash said eagerly as he grabbed Buizel's Pokéball.

"I see someone's ready to start without hearing the rules of the Pokémon contest," Anastasia observed as she noticed my husband having Buizel's Pokéball in his hand. "I'm sure that you should've picked up on what kind of Pokémon you'll be using for the Pokémon contest here in Blossom Studio."

"Huh?" asked Ash as he was confused.

"Here in Blossom Studio, Pokémon contests are done by Grass-type Pokémon," explained Anastasia as she looked to Ash. "I'm sure you don't want your wife to have to bail you out again like she's done for you twice."

Ash just smirked as he put away Buizel's Pokéball and grabbed Snivy's Pokéball instead and said, "I'm not gonna let my wife bail me out again. I've got my own Grass-type Pokémon to use here."

I sighed in relief that my husband had wisely grabbed one of his Grass-type Pokémon to use in this area. It was rather quite a relief to hear that for once, he was actually prepared though to be honest, I'd thought he would have gone with Venusaur, Meganium, Sceptile or Torterra but hey, Snivy works perfectly too. I just hoped that he wasn't going to expect me to do most of the heavy lifting. Carrying a child in me for nine months for some reason felt like an eternity doing heavy lifting. But back to our next challenge, Anastasia would have both of us use our Grass-type Pokémon to do appeals using combination attacks. The pair that had the highest appeal with the audience would win. Knowing that Ash had very little experience with contests under his belt, I decided that I would take charge and direct the appeals for Blossom and Snivy. When Blossom was called out to take the stage, Zeus let himself out of the Apricorn Pokéball he was caught in to cheer for his beloved mate. As for Ash's Snivy, Pikachu was kind enough to cheer for her so she didn't feel alone, though I imagined that Snivy wouldn't have minded not getting any cheers for her as she was still a rookie at doing Pokémon contests. Anastasia revealed her two Grass-type Pokémon that was using as a shiny super-sized Gourgeist and a shiny Ferrothorn. Seeing a Ghost/Grass-type and a Grass/Steel-type Pokémon made me cringe as I had no idea of what to expect from both Grass-type Pokémon. Plus I was worried about the possibility of having to do a contest battle like in Hoenn, Johto, Wallace Cup and Unova because of the shiny super-sized Gourgeist.

"Alright folks, are you ready to witness a fantastic show of appeals and teamwork?" Anastasia called out to the audience in Blossom Studio.

The audience responded by letting out a roar of cheers, hooting and hollers as their answer to Anastasia's question. With a slight nod of approval from Anastasia and her snapping her fingers to turn on the camera for audiences watching on television and Pokénet, she was ready to begin the contest round. She then looked to me and my husband as she was looking forward to seeing what we could muster up.

"Welcome to the Blossom Studio Pokémon Contest at the Royal Gym," announced one of the audience members who was revealed to be one of the panel members who would critique our performance against Anastasia's Pokémon and their performance. "For the fifth round, this challenge will involve the pair in doing a Double Performance. The side that has the highest amount of points will win. I must stress to the challengers that losing will result in you starting from the beginning again against Angela and Bernadette Kaiou and forfeiting all prize money received from all recent victories."

"Let the fifth round of the Royal Gym… BEGIN!" shouted Anastasia as she was ready to put a stop to our march to facing the gym leader.

"The home team goes first," Anastasia said after she calmed down and snapped her fingers to have her two Grass-type Pokémon go in front of her. "Gourgeist, use your Shadow Ball attack! Ferrothorn, use Pin Missile!"

'We're on it Mistress,' acknowledged both Grass-type Pokémon as they used their commanded attacks.

Gourgeist was first as she produced a flurry of many Shadow Balls that dotted the stage. Ferrothorn was next and used its Pin Missile attack with precise accuracy, striking each shadowy glob of energy and created a chain reaction of harmless explosions.

"Ferrothorn, you're on with Acid Spray," Anastasia then said to her shiny Thorn Pod Pokémon. "Gourgeist, use your Flamethrower attack!"

'Yes Mistress,' acknowledged both of Anastasia's Pokémon as they used their said attacks.

It seemed that I was right to be worried about the possibility of doing a contest battle when Anastasia ordered her shiny super-sized Gourgeist to use her Flamethrower attack. But it seemed for this contest, Anastasia was trying to be more intimidating rather than showing off other aspects of her Pokémon, like Cuteness, Beauty and how smart her Pokémon were. Once Anastasia was done with her appeal round, we looked to the judges for their response on Anastasia's appeal.

"Well done with the combinations," one judge said to the audience. "Gym lieutenant Anastasia certainly showed off how tough her Pokémon can be."

"I think the gym lieutenant was trying to be more intimidating rather than graceful," replied a second as she didn't seem to like Anastasia's appeal round. "Gym lieutenant Anastasia should try to use a more variety of attacks to showcase other aspects of her Pokémon."

"Despite the comments from my colleague here, her Pokémon are very healthy and well trained to be able to pull some moves that demonstrate accuracy and power," replied the Tsunami Island Nurse Joy as she was the third judge.

ooooooooooooo

"Well… I got outclassed by you two," Anastasia said to us as she snapped her fingers to unlock the passage and reveal another set of dressing rooms and a PC. "At any rate, you've got one more challenge until you reach Checkpoint 2. Your next challenge is at the Palace Kitchen. Nathaniel will be your next opponent and he's not to be trifled with. There should be chef's grab in both dressing rooms for you both. Change into them and then proceed. I certainly hope that you can take the heat… Heh, heh."

Giving Anastasia a slight nod, my husband and I went into the dressing rooms and changed our clothes into chef's outfits that were in there. Once we had changed out of them, I went to the PC to switch out my Pokémon and call on my Snorlax. I figured that if Snorlax could eat a ton of food, then maybe he'd have quite the nose in sniffing out the freshest ingredients especially if we were going to be stuck trying a cooking challenge. I kept Blossom as I figured that I might need a Grass-type Pokémon's expertise in regards to how fresh berries might be if we were to use berries as part of the cooking challenge. As for my husband… he didn't bother to change out his Pokémon. He sent his contest outfit back to our home along with my outfit as well and allowed Pikachu to go home to be with Glaceon and his children.

ooooooooooooo

Rena's POV

I was exhausted, especially as Articuno and I barely managed to beat Zander and his Luigia in our race against one another which further proved that the Gym Lieutenants of this gym weren't kidding when they said that they're going to hold nothing back against any challengers who came to face them. "Man that was a pretty intense race and never thought I'd be defeated again by someone from Pallet Town" said Zander, just as exhausted as I was but smirked as it seems that we were proven worthy enough to continue on to our next challenge.

He snapped his fingers and passage was revealed along with another PC next to the door before explaining that we needed to head for Iceberg Cellar for our next challenge since it was clear that this hinted we would be facing Ice-Type Pokémon there and I'm fortunate that Delphox is still part of my team along with two of my other Pokémon that I've thought about using just to be on the safe side. "Okay, I got my lineup ready…" commented Dave, knowing that he was now ready for our next challenge at hand and we made our way to the Iceberg Cellar, to be honest a part of me had a feeling he's just winging it as he went along. Oh well…

Going through the passage, we started feeling a bit chilly as we descended further down and making me rather relieved that I had Delphox after all to keep us warm. Eventually the moment we got through the passage, we arrived at our destination and saw the glistening ice that had been finely sculpted into various shapes and a few even looked like pieces of furniture too.

Waiting at the other end, we saw three more of Relena's half-siblings and I knew that facing them will not be an easy task though hopefully my Pokémon will be more cooperative than Ash's Charizard was when he and May had to confront them in this competition. "Wow, we seem to be having more challengers than ever" began Derek, which caused something to click into his mind. "I guess the previous challengers didn't take our recommendations in resting up for the day rather than continue on straight with the challenge."

"Oh well, their loss if they lose to one of our other siblings and have to start with Angela and Bernadette again" added Haruhi with a small shrug, and then turned to face us. "I hope that you two won't make a similar mistake that your friends have done otherwise it would make things more difficult for the later part of your run."

"Not to mention that you need to be aware that no Ice-Type Pokémon are allowed in this part of the challenge" added Alexander, giving Laura a nod as we needed to know the exact same rules that Ash and May had to follow so we'll know in advance.

Nodding back, Laura revealed two large blocks of ice from underneath the floor on some dumbwaiter system. "I am hoping you are aware that your best bet in winning this competition is Rock and Steel-Types." she began to explain the rules so we will be better prepared for the competition and I decided that David will be the one who will take charge of this competition though I hope that I wouldn't be regretting that decision.

Swallowing hard, I am praying that my husband will be ready to make an ice sculpture that will actually amaze Laura which made me somewhat concerned that one screw up in any part of the competition will cost us royally and make us start the entire run all over again. "Wish me Luck Rena!" began David, getting ready to send out his chosen Pokémon and I watched from within the sidelines as the competition was about to commence.

"Good luck…." I replied, especially as David threw a Pokéball and got ready to send his chosen Pokémon to help him dazzle Laura in ways that will allow us to continue our challenge, I can only hope that Ash and May have a better chance at their run than we are.

ooooooooooooo

May's POV

Once we changed our clothes and readied ourselves for the next challenge, we headed towards the passage with the audience applauding us for our stellar performance in the Double Performance. Ash and I waved to the audience before we headed into the passage. Once we were in the passageway, my husband and I then headed towards the Palace Kitchen for our next challenge. It took us at least half an hour to reach the Palace Kitchen where we saw yet another half-sibling of Relena waiting for us.

"Okay Slurpuff, how fresh is that cream that we just got?" Nathaniel asked an unfamiliar shiny Fairy-type Pokémon. "We need it to be as fresh as possible."

The Fairy-type Pokémon sniffed the said bottle that Nathaniel had inquired about and answered, 'It's still fresh, boss. Though I would prefer that we used fresher ingredients.'

"Can't be helped, my man," replied Nathaniel as he mixed the ingredients he was using. "As long as the ingredients are as fresh as they can be, they'll work for me. Now let's get this soufflé in the oven before our challengers get here."

The Fairy-type Pokémon called Slurpuff then noticed us and said, 'Uh boss… they're already here. Looks like they're ready to go too.'

My husband, the ever curious Pokémon trainer pulled out his Pokédex and pointed it at Slurpuff to learn about it.

'Slurpuff, the Meringue Pokémon,' reported Dexter. 'This Fairy-type Pokémon is known to be very helpful with pastry chefs in their work to make the finest pastries. The sense of smell for Slurpuff is 100 million times better than a human's sense of smell.'

"Wow… now that's a handy Pokémon to have in the kitchen," I said after I heard Dexter's report on Nathaniel's Slurpuff.

"You're right about that, Princess of Hoenn," Nathaniel said to me as he and his Slurpuff approached us. "But this challenge requires only one of you. Hope one of you knows how to cook. Because if you don't, it might come back to bite you in rear."

"I've got this challenge," I said to Ash as I was quick to step forward with Blossom and Snorlax right behind me in tow.

"You sure about that?" my husband asked me.

"I'm positive, honey," I answered Ash confident and calm. "My mom taught me how to cook while I was in Johto, plus your mom taught me a few more things about cooking."

Satisfied with my explanation, Ash gave me a slight nod and backed away letting me and my Pokémon take the stage. I looked to my Snorlax and then said to him, "Now Snorlax, we're here to do a challenge, not to eat. I need your head in the game."

'As long as you've got some of your Pokéblock Surprise, I'll keep my head in the game,' Snorlax said to me.

Producing my Pokéblock Case, I made doubly sure that I had madePokéblock Surprise for Snorlax. Thankfully, I did have some and showed Snorlax that I did indeed have some. Encouraged at the prospect of having a block or two of my Pokéblock Surprise, Snorlax snapped at attention and saluted me as he replied, 'My nose is on the job for you.'

"Alright then, time for the sixth challenge to begin," announced one of chefs that was in the kitchen. "The Chef Master, Nathaniel Kaiou, is facing off against the Princess of Hoenn, May Ketchum. The challenge will be to make Poképuffs for three Pokémon that just happen to have quite the sweet tooth."

I was quite thankful that there was a basic recipe for making Poképuff right in front of me. Calling on Blossom was essential for making this challenge a success. Part of the explanation of the rule that were laid out was that there might be a few rotten berries in the batch we were given. I had let out an exasperated sigh as I felt like I had been punked into being part of Cutthroat Kitchen Emerald Bay. Even though I let out an exasperated sigh, Blossom leapt up to the counter and looked to me a reassuring smile on her face.

'Don't worry about a thing, May,' my shiny female Verdant Pokémon reassured me. 'Being a Grass-type Pokémon allows me to tell which berries are fresh and which ones we can chuck at the ding-dongs who slipped them in our basket of berries.'

Sure enough, Blossom went straight to work sifting through the basket of berries to find which berries were the freshest and which ones were rotten and to be literally be thrown at the idiots who decided to make this challenge seem like Cutthroat Kitchen Emerald Bay. Blossom was sure through in her search for the freshest berries. Snorlax was sure putting his nose to good use as he too helped find the freshest ingredients to help me make the Poképuffs that would knock the socks off the three panel of three Pokémon judges. I may have learned to cook from my mother, but decorating… that was going to be the hard part for me.

ooooooooooooo

"For the love of… sweet Mother of Mew, the rotten Pecha berries were just a joke!" complained one of Nathaniel's cooking assistants after I had been declared the winner of the baking contest.

"This isn't Cutthroat Kitchen Emerald Bay, Brice," Nathaniel said to his assistant. "But it was a rather creative idea. One that I allowed to unfold."

Nathaniel then snapped his fingers to reveal the next unlocked passage and dressing rooms. However, there was something odd about the passage as I noticed that it seemed to be blocked. Ash and I looked to Relena's oldest half-brother for an explanation as to what was going on.

"You need to change out of those chef outfits before you can advance to Checkpoint 2," explained Nathaniel. "And I highly recommend that you take a rest for the night at Checkpoint 2. The last three gym lieutenants and Her Majesty aren't going anywhere at all."

"Thanks for the advice," began Ash, "but I think we can handle pressing on."

"Ash, our Pokémon are tired and they need to rest," I snapped at my husband as I too was really starting to get tired.

"But May, we can keep going after a short rest," insisted Ash.

"Define short rest, Ash," I demanded to my husband in an icy and sickly sweet tone as I had a dark aura behind me.

"Um… maybe a…" stammered Ash as he was starting to become very afraid of me. "How about a few hours to take a nap… shower and refresh ourselves?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch that," I replied to Ash in an even darker tone.

"Okay, okay, we'll stop for five hours!" Ash exclaimed in terror as he didn't like that I wasn't happy with him.

'So sad…' Slurpuff began as he shook his head. 'To think that the male in that relationship is not the one, as humans would say, 'wearing the pants in the relationship.' It is very sad to see that.'

ooooooooooooo

Rena's POV

"Man, I never thought that we'd actually win the competition" commented David, even I was surprised that Laura was amazed by the sculpture that he and his Pokémon had made but I'm not complaining especially as we've been able to reach Checkpoint 1 and I'm looking forward to some rest though some of us are becoming too competitive for our own good. "Come on, we better catch up with Ash and May before they get too far ahead!"

"Wait, are you even hearing yourself?!" I asked with a scowl on my face, more so as it's bad enough that Ash wanted to get this over with in a hurry and now my husband wants to do the same thing… I'm starting to think of many things to say to him right now. "You heard what Relena's half-siblings mentioned beforehand right?"

Needless to say, my words aren't exactly getting through to his thick-skull especially as his confident grin was starting to form on his face. "Come on, we need to catch up with him somehow!" he protested much to my slight annoyance, something about him that's never going to change no matter how hard I can try. "Man I'm starting to know how Ash felt when he was trying to catch up to us when he first started as a trainer."

Mentally face-palming, I felt like dropping a bag of brick onto him right now and yet part of me was fighting the urge to do so since I still need his help to go through the rest of the Gym so instead I gave a small sigh. "Alright, but we'll be resting for two and a half hours okay?" I suggested with a scowl on my face.

"I promise that you've got nothing to worry about Ren" commented David, yet at the same time felt a bit uneasy whenever he saw how upset or angry I was mainly towards him being as impatient as Ash.

As expected, two and a half hours later we changed our lineup a bit in order to better be prepared against the two Fighting-Type that our opponents had with them since if they gave Ash and May a tough time then the same will happen to us cause I'm holding my husband responsible if we lose to them because of lacking patience. We also needed to make ourselves presentable for the ensuring battle to come and we made our way to the next challenge which will be at the Comet Fist Gym.

The good thing was all we had to do was follow the sign and the shiny Hitmonlee which was headed in the same direction we were, upon arrival we were surprised that it resembled a normal boxing gym. It was then that the Hitmonlee led us to the two Gym Lieutenants that we needed to go up against.

"Guess our baby sister has two more friends who decided not to rest up at Checkpoint 1" began Maddie, nodding to Max concerning the fact that we were making the exact same mistake that Ash and May were doing, all because of the impatience of our respective husbands. "I'm hoping you understand the risks you're making by pressing on."

"Yeah, I do but apparently David doesn't" I responded with a scowl on my face, giving Dave a glare which showed I'm still not happy with him for the decision for us to continue on after a short rest.

"In any case, we welcome you to our sub-gym but just because you have Pokémon that possibly have the Type Advantage against our Fighting-Types doesn't mean that you'll be guaranteed a victory" explained Max, explaining the same rules that he and Maddie informed Ash and May.

"Oh we're well aware of that notion" commented David with a shrug, especially as the two of us were getting ready for our first battle towards Checkpoint 2 then he glanced at me which made me somewhat forget about being mad at him for the time being. "Let me guess, we each use three Pokémon for this double battle right?"

"Correct" answered Maddie, giving him a slight nod as the shiny Hitmonlee was now explaining the rules of the Double Battle so we best not to make any mistakes since we were reminded that losing to anyone even when we are this far along in our run would result in us having to return all the money we've won and start all over again from Angela and Bernadette. "Let's get this started Lopunny!"

"You too Toxicroak!" added Max, sending his Poison/Fighting-Type into the fray alongside Maddie's Lopunny but we knew exactly who we're going to send out in order to counter them yet remembered that Lopunny and Medicham have the ability to Mega Evolve so we at least each had one Pokémon capable to Mega Evolve as well.

Raising my Delphox's Luxury Ball, I kissed it for luck. "Go Delphox!" I said, bringing out my Fire/Psychic-Type and hoped Dave has a means of dealing with Loppuny, from the expression on his face it was the case as he held a Pokéball in his hands.

"Go Metagross!" Max, Maddie and I were rather surprised the moment he revealed a familiar Steel/Psychic-Type that Mikki's boyfriend Steven Stone was known to have plus I'd gotta be honest, this wasn't every day to see him reveal a Pokémon that was capable of using Mega Evolution.

As expected, Maddie's Mega Bracelet activated and resonated with Mega Stone that her Lopunny had which caused her to Mega Evolve into Mega Lopunny though David had a few surprises of his own as his Mega Ring activated as did the Mega Stone that his Metagross had, causing Max and Maddie to be rather impressed when they bore witness to Metagross Mega Evolving into Mega Metagross. "This could prove to be a rather interesting match wouldn't it?" Max asked his sister, who replied with a nod of her head.

"Of course, but as you said before… this isn't going to be an easy battle for the two as we'll be making sure to give them a tough match" she spoke, then gestured for Mega Lopunny to be prepared to go on the offensive. "Lopunny, use your Shadow Ball on Delphox!"

"Toxicroak, use Brick Break against that Metagross!" added Max, they were quick to go onto the offensive against the two of us and nodding to each other, we knew what we needed to do in order to show we can handle the latter battles much like Ash and May could.

"Delphox use Protect!"

"Metagross, use Meteor Mash!"

Once our commands were given, we watched as Delphox formed a barrier around herself to protect her from the Ghost-Type move used from Mega Lopunny while Mega Metagross used its Steel-Type move to match blows with Toxicroak, sure Metagross was immune to Poison-Type moves due to being part Steel-Type but that didn't make Max and Maddie any less of a threat so we needed to stay focused on what other surprises that they could throw at us.

ooooooooooooo

May's POV

"Okay are you ready for the next challenge?" Ash asked me as he decided that it was better for us to cut our five hour break very short by four hours.

"Did I even have a choice in the matter?" I shot back at Ash as I glared at my husband, still sore at him for cutting our rest time drastically.

"I really think that we need to keep pressing on at least until Checkpoint 3 before the queen," Ash answered me.

"Let's at least make sure we have our gear ready," I said to my husband after we had seen the notice of what the next three areas were going to be. "Looks like the last three aren't going to give us any hints as to what the next challenges will be since someone already left us a cheat sheet and we won't be able to switch out before Checkpoint 3."

As I got to the PC, my cellphone vibrated as I got a text message from Relena. I looked at the text message to see that she had left a special order that she had ordered from her sister, Jessica. Going through our home PC, I found the special order that Relena spoke about and it had a note with it. What I saw on the note made me cringe a little as I had for the most part had one of my swimsuits still packed in my bag… but it was the pink bikini I was able to keep from losing to Lady Rhea.

'Dear May, I thought maybe you'd like a nice surprise,' the note began. 'I ordered this from Jessica after I had… uh… read your mind. I wanted this to be a nice surprise for you after you had your baby. Hope you like it and I certainly hope that Ash thinks you look drop dead sexy in it. Good luck in the Royal Gym and you know I'm always cheering for you, girlfriend. Your best friend and sister from another mother, Relena. ;)'

"I wonder what Relena ordered for me," I said aloud as I opened the package and then smiled as I liked what I saw.

ooooooooooooo

"Oh man… I just hope your dad doesn't bury me alive after you did that," Ash said to me as we were proceeding to Blizzard Dome after I put on the new swimsuit right in front of him and then slipped my outfit back on before grabbing a coat. "I know how he'd react had he seen me freaking out and my nose bled right there."

"My dad can't do anything to you," I said with a smirk on my face. "Once we hit Checkpoint 3, you'll be at my mercy."

"Oh Snorlax," moaned Ash as we entered the Blizzard Dome to see that Samantha was waiting for us.

"So you've once again disregarded the advice of my brothers and sisters to stop and rest at a Checkpoint, I see," observed Samantha as she shook her head. "You really shouldn't be pushing so hard. No one has ever completely conquered the Royal Gym in one day. And it'll never happen."

"Oh trust me… once Ash and I get to Checkpoint 3, we're stopping for the night and he's gonna be at my mercy," I said to Samantha in an icy tone.

"Assuming that you can make it past me," Samantha said to counter my last statement as she shed her coat. "One of you will face me and three of my Pokémon in a relay race."

"Okay, that sounds easy enough," Ash said as he readied three of his Pokéballs before I cut him off.

"By the way…" Samantha began to add. "The person doing the relay race against me and my Pokémon is doing so without the coat you picked up at Checkpoint 2. You'll be braving the cold to do this relay."

"I'll be doing the relay," I said with authority as I called on Blaziken and Yuki and then looked to my little boy, Manaphy. "I'm keeping my promise to you, Manaphy."

'Hooray!' Manaphy exclaimed happily as he threw his arms up happily.

ooooooooooooo

Once everything was set up for the chilly and blustery relay race, Samantha and I took our places at the starting line. Samantha's main Pokémon, Abomasnow, stood at the starting line and then looked to me and Samantha.

'Alright ladies, the seventh challenge in the Royal Gym will now begin,' Abomasnow announced to us and to those still watching on Pokénet. 'The first relay team to make it back to the starting line will be declared the winner. Ready… and… GO!'

Both Samantha and I started running to reach the first Pokémon we were going to have reach our first Pokémon that were ready for the next leg of the relay race. I had Blaziken ready for the next portion of the relay race as I was hoping that his Speed Boost ability would play a big factor in the relay race. I did have to admit that it was quite cold and it was affecting my ability to perform at my best, but I wasn't going to let the cold bother me. Samantha had a pretty good lead on me at the start of the relay race, but once my blood started flowing I forgot about being cold and got back into the race right before we had to hand off the baton to our first Pokémon partner. Samantha and her team were still in first place when I gave the baton to Blaziken, but his Speed Boost ability then kicked in and he demolished whatever lead his opponent had and even took the lead himself. Once I passed the baton to Blaziken I was able to rest as I was also going to handle the next challenge and I was going to need all of my strength for it. As for Blaziken, he pulled away and made it to where his next partner was to keep going. The next part was in a cold lake and where Manaphy was waiting for Blaziken. My Blaze Pokémon then tapped Manaphy as the signal to begin his leg of the relay race. Before Manaphy jumped into the icy water, he used the Psych Up move and copied Blaziken's boost of speed and finally jumped in the icy water. Thanks to the Psych Up move he learned after I gave birth to Cynthia, Manaphy flew the water like the little Prince of the Sea he was being raised to be. By the time Samantha's Water-type Pokémon was in the water, Manaphy had already reached Yuki to begin the final stretch of the relay race.

ooooooooooooo

Rena's POV

David groaned, we were able to defeat our two opponents though it still proved to be a pretty epic match as we could tell the battles were becoming much harder than ever the more we progressed through the gym. "The two of you were pretty impressive trainers" said Max, despite the fact that he and Maddie have been defeated by us they were not upset by the defeat whatsoever. "I trust that the bond you two share will help you through the rest of your challenges here."

"Especially as your next opponent is Anastasia and I'm sure you already know what kind of challenge you will be experiencing when you reach her" added Maddie, referring to the fact that when we get to Anastasia, her challenge it going to most definitely be a Pokémon contest since May was familiar with them the most due to being a well-respected Pokémon Coordinator from the Hoenn Region. "Your challenge will take place in Blossom Studio and you must dress in outfits fitting for those who wish to continue on with the challenge at the Royal Gym."

"Okay… thanks for letting us know that…" I said, before David and I went to the dressing rooms as we had to change as if we were participating in an actual Pokémon Contest, while we didn't have contest costumes with us… there was a PC in the room so we can get the proper gear plus we will need at least two Grass-Types fitting for contests like this. "Alright, let's get this started."

"I'm sure you'll be fine, besides that outfit looks great on you" commented David, feeling entranced at seeing what I was wearing and I flushed a bit at the remark he made then again, I found that the outfit he decided to put on which suits him fine too.

"Thanks, in any case we better be prepared cause I think I better handle the contest" I explained to him, since it seems being a girl I may have the experience in the contest department… no offence to Dave because of well… you know. "Can't make any mistakes in the competition coming up can we?"

"Good point…"

Giving a light smile on my face, I held my husband's hand as we soon made our way towards the next destination and hopefully I'll be able to give her a dazzling debut that they'll never forget much like May did before me.

The moment we arrived at the Blossom Studio, we've noticed there was a good sized audience there waiting for the Pokémon contest to start and waiting for us was Anastasia herself as she has learned that we made the same mistake that Ash and May have which hopefully won't hinder us too much. "Oh my, I never would have guessed that two more trainers from Pallet Town would grace their presence in my studio" began our next Gym Lieutenant with a confident smile on her face. "I trust that you'll be able to make that same great performance your friends did, and that you know that only Grass-Types are allowed for this contest plus it will have to be a tag team performance as with your friends."

Giving Anastasia the silent treatment, David wasn't sure how to respond to that but I stepped in with a nod of my head since I knew which two Pokémon that I'm going to be sending out in the contest. "You better believe it, and I happen to be prepared so let's get this started!" I smiled; sending out my female Vileplume and David sent his male Exeggutor in an effort to give them a show that will make the audience impressed.

Anastasia snapped her fingers and got ready to begin the round then turned to face the two of us knowing that everyone will be watching this competition not only on TV but on Pokénet as well.

One of the panel members began explaining the rules of the contest and that again we needed to be reminded that we needed to do a great performance in order to have enough points to win this round, unfortunately losing will cause us to forfeit all the money we've won and start with Angela and Bernadette all over again.

"Great, just my luck…" muttered David, more so as he hoped that we knew what we were doing as Anastasia will be starting the performance first with her shiny female Super-size Gourgeist and her shiny Ferrothorn which was another sign that we needed to come up with a great performance to dazzle the audience as well as Ash and May did. 'How does Ash do this without any kind of shame?'

ooooooooooooo

May's POV

"That was… wow!" exclaimed Samantha as she was floored when my team and I cleared her relay race challenge. "You and your Pokémon really showed how effectively you work as a team."

"Yeah, we work well," I replied to Samantha.

Samantha then snapped her fingers to reveal the passageway opened as she said, "Head on to the next challenge where Olette is waiting for you at the Trident Pool and then I hope you and your Pokémon will be ready for Relena's sister before you reach Checkpoint 3."

"Oh Houndour… that doesn't sound good at all," moaned Ash as we both had the terrifying thought of having to face Jessica before reaching Checkpoint 3.

"Well, we'll just have to keep pushing onward," I said to my husband as I shoved him towards the open passage. "Besides, we can't go back to Checkpoint 2 now. Thanks to you."

ooooooooooooo

Taking a better part of an hour, Ash and I reached Trident Pool to see the gym lieutenant waiting for us. She was slender with a medium build and had quite the girlish figure too along with wearing an electric green skintight neck-high one piece swimsuit that showed off every curve of her body. The gym lieutenant also had baby blue hair and emerald green eyes and a deep tan complexion. Once my husband and I entered the Trident Pool area for our next challenge, the passageway closed behind us and the gym lieutenant turned to face us.

"So you're Relena's friends," the gym lieutenant named Olette said to Ash and I as she was facing us. "I've heard about you two. Relena speaks very highly of you two."

"Sh-she does?" stammered Ash as he was struggling to keep his hormones in check before whispering to himself. "Oh man… I feel like this the Emerald Cove Island gym for guys."

"I see someone is struggling to keep himself under control and restrained," Olette observed as she looked at Ash and noticed that he was profusely blushing. "But he is right. Part of this challenge is like Akatsuki's challenge to the female challengers of the Emerald Cove Island gym. I want to see if the men can not only be a strong swimmer, but can also keep themselves in check and not go gaga over a hot young woman."

"Yes, well, he's not doing your challenge," I declared to Olette as I shed my clothes to reveal the skin tight neck-high pink with white stripes swimsuit that Relena got me. "I'm doing your swimming challenge instead."

"I sure hope that you have a Pokémon that can swim," Olette said to me as she got out one of her Dive Balls. "I get to use a Water-type Pokémon while you must use a different type."

I cringed a little bit as I had forgotten about my Snorlax as well as my Samurott, Wartortle and even my Milotic and I wasn't going to subjugate Blaziken to doing the swimming challenge since he was a Fire-type Pokémon. As I was considering which Pokémon to use, my team leader, Amethyst, let herself out of her Dream Ball and looked to me with a smile.

'Let me join you in the swimming relay,' Amethyst requested to me as she still had a smile on her face. 'I'm a good swimmer and I can make good use of my ribbon feelers in the water.'

"I can loan you my Lucario if you'd like," Ash said to me. "That way it'll be like both of us are competing together."

'Yes… please allow me to join you, Mistress May,' my husband's Lucario requested to me. 'I can be of much better use to you than Amethyst in the water. I'm able to do the 200 meter Butterfree, the backstroke and I do freestyle too. I was in a swim club before I got captured.'

Giving both Pokémon a slight nod, I had made my decision as to which one I was going to use. Neptune and Manaphy weren't going to be able to help me because they were Water-type Pokémon and I certainly didn't doubt Amethyst's ability to swim. With my decision made and my husband smiling at me, I looked to both Pokémon and said, "I choose Lucario. Sorry Amethyst, but I'm gonna need you in the next round, so I need you at full strength."

'I understand May,' replied Amethyst as she thoughtfully gave me a nod.

With my selection made, Olette and her Golduck took their place on the starting platform when another of Olette's Water-type Pokémon came out and was the judge. The judge was a shiny male Feraligatr.

'Now the eighth challenge of the Royal Gym at the Trident Pool will now commence,' the shiny Big Jaw Pokémon announced to us and of course those who were still watching on Pokénet. 'Gym lieutenant Olette Kaiou will face the challengers Ash and May Ketchum in a one-on-one swimming relay. One of the challenging pair will partner with a Pokémon that is not of the Water-type while Gym Lieutenant Olette Kaiou is allowed to partner with a Water-type Pokémon. The first pair to completely finish the relay will win. Humans to the start platform.'

Olette and I readied ourselves as her Feraligatr was about to signal the start of the relay. Olette's Feraligatr informed us that we were starting out with the 50 meter Freestyle race. Taking a deep breath and exhaling I gave myself a nod as I felt that I shouldn't have a problem with the 50 meter Freestyle. But I didn't know what Olette specialized in as it seemed like maybe she was a professional swimmer herself. Olette's Feraligatr then laid out the rest of the relay for us as it was quite a challenge. Our Pokémon would do 100 meter Butterfree before it would be our turn and we, Olette and I, would have to do a 50 meter Backstroke race. Our Pokémon would then complete a 200 meter Breaststroke and finally Olette and I would finish with a 100 meter Freestyle race. I was really taking a liking to the Royal Gym as it seemed like they challenged trainers not just in Pokémon battles, but also challenged the trainers' mind and body as well.

'Competitors ready?!' Feraligatr asked in a loud voice and then looked to the Pokémon. 'Pokémon ready?! Competitors take your mark… and… GO!'

Both Olette and I dove into the water and began the relay race with the first leg being the 50 meter Freestyle. I was putting up a valiant effort, but Olette had a commanding lead over me as I could tell that she was swimming like a pro and had most likely trained with professional swimmers. The only thing keeping me in the relay race was the support from Ash; just hearing him cheering me on was enough to keep me focused on keeping our hopes to face the Queen alive. By the time I had reached the end of the pool, Olette's Golduck was in the water and started his run with the 100 meter Butterfree. Once Ash's Lucario saw that I had made it, he dove in the pool and swam after Golduck, demolishing the lead that he and Olette had over us. Lucario wasn't kidding about the Butterfree being one of his specialties as he demonstrated his prowess in catching up to a startled shiny Duck Pokémon.

'Oh Houndour, that Fighting/Steel-type caught up… and just took the lead,' the startled shiny Golduck said to himself as he watched my husband's Lucario pass him and then start the return in my direction.

Once Lucario touched the wall and moved to the side, it was my turn to take the stage and swim 50 meters doing the Backstroke. I lunged back in the pool water and started doing the backstroke to the other side of the pool. As I was doing the backstroke I could hear Ash and Manaphy cheering me on even though Olette was catching up fast. Despite Olette catching up demolishing most of the lead that Lucario gave me, I was still able to reach the other end first which gave Lucario his signal to begin the 100 meter breaststroke. Both Lucario and Golduck were neck and neck as both Pokémon traded the lead during their portion of the 200 meter breaststroke. During the race, Lucario used his Quick Attack to pull away and hold on to his lead until he reached the end of the pool I was at tagged that end so I could finish the relay race and get us heading towards our next challenge. For the final time in the relay race, I dove in the pool and began swimming like crazy as I saw Olette diving in and beginning to catch up to me. With only 40 meters left in the Freestyle portion of the relay race, Olette began to have some cramping in her right leg and she began falling behind. I thought about stopping and looking to see if she needed help, but finishing the race was important and Olette was still behind me by at least a meter and a half.

ooooooooooooo

"Well done May," Olette said to me after she got out of the pool last. "That wasn't the best time to get a cramp in my leg. But you beat me fair and square."

Olette then snapped her fingers to unlock the next passage. Much like the Blizzard Dome, there wasn't a PC to switch out Pokémon and gear. There wasn't even a dressing room to change out of my swimsuit. It wasn't a big deal for me as all I had to do was just slip my clothes on over my sexy swimsuit, which I did. Once I slipped my clothes back on I was ready to proceed with Ash to the next area. Ash noticed that my clothes had a wet outline of my swimsuit as I might've… purposely forgot to completely dry off after I got out of the pool. I know that he was profusely blushing as he noticed my wet clothes.

"Say uh… May…," began a profusely blushing Ash. "Do you think you could… uh… wear that swimsuit in bed tonight? I'd like really like to…"

Having the biggest smile on my face I closed one eye as if I was winking at my husband and then put my index finger on his mouth to shush him as I answered him in a sexy and seductive tone, "Shh… You're going to wait until we get to Checkpoint 3 for us to be very… friendly tonight."

'Oh boy, I know what's happening tonight,' Amethyst said as she could tell by the look on my face of what I wanted when we reached Checkpoint 3.

'Same here,' agreed my husband's Lucario as he gave a slight nod of agreement with Amethyst.

"Funny you should mention Checkpoint 3, you two," Olette said to Ash and I as she got our attention. "Your next destination is Checkpoint 3 and Relena's sister, Jessica, will be your final opponent out of all the gym lieutenants before our mother, the Queen. I hope you battle well because Her Majesty will also be at Checkpoint 3 to watch your battle to determine wither or not you're worthy to face her for the Royal Trident Badge."

'Her Majesty will be there too?!' Amethyst asked Olette as her pink eyes widened in shock at the revelation. 'Oh my… I dunno if I can battle in the presence of Her Majesty.'

'Come on Amethyst,' Yuki said to Amethyst, 'you're our team leader. We need your guidance and leadership if we're ever going help our humans be able to face Queen Michiru.'

ooooooooooooo

Rena's POV

Anastasia was surprised that David and I were able to outperform her much like how Ash and May were able to do so before. "I never expected to see that you would do to me what your friends have before you" she spoke with a small sigh then snapped her fingers to unlock the passage and revealed another set of dressing rooms and a PC before giving a small smile on her face. "Still, I will say this…. Your next challenge will be at the Palace Kitchen and Nathaniel will be the only one standing between you and Checkpoint 2, there should chef's outfits in the dressing rooms for the two of you once you're dressed in them, you'll be able to proceed. As I said to your friends, I hope you'll be able to handle the heat."

"Oh, I know where you're getting at" I smiled back, knowing the old saying rather well as the two of us went to the dressing room to change into our respective chef's outfits before we make our way through the passage towards the Palace Kitchen.

Much like with Ash and May, it took us half an hour to reach the next destination where we were greeted by Nathaniel Kaiou. "I take it that you're Nathaniel?" asked David with a hint of curiosity on his face and our opponent nodded his head to confirm that it was who we expected it to be.

"Yes, I am Nathaniel Kaiou" answered Nathaniel, giving us a nod and a confident expression on his face, something that his Slurpuff was more than happy to emulate. "You must be friends with the Champion from Pallet Town and the Princess of Hoenn, are you not?"

We silently nodded our heads as our way of confirming that were are indeed friends with Ash and May which made him grin at us again since he was intrigued that Dave and I made the same mistake that our friends did beforehand. "In any case, it would be rather intriguing to see how well you will do against me and my Slurpuff in this competition" he continued, especially as we know how great a cook he is so we needed to at least make a great dish of our own.

"David, you don't mind if I take this one?" I asked David, which he gave no verbal reply since I'm actually better with cooking than he was no offence. "Let me guess, the same rules from when Ash and May were here apply to us right?"

'Correct, and if neither of you know how to cook well…'you get the picture Slurpuff answered for Nathaniel which would've been a problem for most but I have knowledge of cooking especially from my mom back at home so I think I'll be able to handle it with what I knew back home.

"Alright, I'm game" I said to Slurpuff then my expression darkened as I turned my attention towards David especially concerning that we need to take a proper rest rather than what he thought to be rest. "As for you David Patterson, when we reach Checkpoint 2 we are going to be staying there for the night and I don't want you suggesting what you think is better for us! Even if it is to catch up with Ash and May, do I make myself clear?!"

David wanted to protest but decided against it the moment he saw the look on my face which was the one I usually have whenever I drop bricks on that thick skull of his. "Understood…" he said in a somewhat frightened tone and I gave a smirk on my face as I turned my attention back towards Nathaniel.

One of the chefs began announcing the same rules that Ash and May were informed of plus I wanted to be prepared to show how well I am to Relena's half-brother and it still surprised the two of us that May's cooking has improved a lot but I'm not complaining at all, as I'm liking how much she's been maturing over her journey. "Alright, let's get this show on the road!" I got ready for the cook-off with Nathaniel.

ooooooooooooo

May's POV

Once we reached Checkpoint 3, Jessica was indeed waiting for us as she had her six Pokémon out of their Pokéballs. This move really confused us as to why we were seeing all of her Pokémon. Argon and Asami, we knew about but the other four Pokémon, we didn't know she had them. Jessica looked to us with a smirk on her face as she was certainly ready to battle against us.

"Welcome to Checkpoint 3 you two," Jessica said Ash and I. "We've been waiting for you."

"This is gonna be one heck of a battle we'll be fighting," Ash said to me.

Before I could say anything, a window opened to reveal the throne room and Queen Michiru sitting on the throne anxiously awaiting for the battle against Jessica to start. Taking a deep breath, Ash and I gathered our thoughts chose the Pokémon we would be using against Jessica and her Pokémon. Ash chose his Lucario, Charizard and Jade to use in battle against Jessica. As for me, I chose Amethyst, Blossom and Manaphy for the final battle before going to the Queen. Once our choices were made, the Queen stood up from her throne and then announced, "The ninth challenge against gym lieutenant Jessica Kaiou will now commence. The challenging pair, Ash and May Ketchum will each use three Pokémon against Jessica's six Pokémon and are allowed to substitute at will.

"Trainers ready?" Her Majesty asked Jessica, Ash and I before she brought her arms down to signal the start of the gym battle. "Let the final gym lieutenant battle begin!"

"Weavile and Vaporeon… you're on!" exclaimed Jessica as her two said Pokémon charged forward.

"Go Blossom!" I exclaimed as I threw her Love Ball up and released her from it.

"Jade, I choose you!" my husband exclaimed as he tossed a Friend Ball up in the air and let his shiny female Sun Pokémon out.

'Is this a joke or something?' Jessica's Weavile asked as he snickered at the sight of Jade.

'You should know better than to consider that you've got the type advantage over that Espeon,' Jessica's Vaporeon cautioned her Dark/Ice-type partner. 'We've seen type advantages be turned upside down before.'

"Jade, use Signal Beam," Ash ordered his shiny female Espeon.

"Blossom, use Magical Leaf," I ordered Blossom.

'We're on it,' acknowledged both Pokémon as they used their said attacks.

"Weavile, dodge that Signal Beam and use Poison Jab on Espeon," Jessica said to her Weavile before looking to her Vaporeon. "Vaporeon, use Ice Beam on Leafeon."

'Here I come little Espeon,' Weavile said as he charged in with his Poison-type attack ready to strike at Jade. 'It's not going to do much damage, but the secondary effect will be well worth the effort to poison you.'

'Snorlax! Ah!' screamed Jade as Jessica's Weavile was certainly fast and closed in with lightning quick speed, striking her with precision. 'Oh no… I don't feel so good all of a sudden.'

"Are you alright Jade?" Ash asked frantically as Jade had become poisoned by the Poison Jab attack.

'Let me return the favor to you,' Jade shot back as she used her Synchronize ability on Jessica's Weavile and poisoned him in retaliation for poisoning her.

'Augh… I should've known she was going to have the Synchronize ability,' moaned Weavile as he was feeling the effects of the same poison status Jade was suffering from.

'Consider that payback for poisoning me,' shot back Jade, before she countered back with her Signal Beam.

As for Blossom, she was having difficulties in dealing Jessica's Vaporeon. I didn't expect to have a complete type advantage as I imagined that Vaporeon would have knowledge of Ice-type attacks. Though Blossom did use Sunny Day and I got see that she had the Leaf Guard ability as tiny leaves acted as a shield to block the secondary effect of the Ice Beam attack. Even Weavile tried to poison Blossom only for more tiny leaves to form a shield and absorb the secondary effect of Poison Jab. However, Jade was exhausted from the fighting as the poison took its toll on her and Weavile as both Pokémon fainted from the poison. The only thing that kept Blossom from fainting was her Giga Drain that sapped Jessica's Vaporeon of the last of her strength.

"Weavile, Espeon and Vaporeon are unable to battle," the Queen announced to everyone. "Leafeon is the winner!"

"Well done you two," Jessica said as she recalled her fallen Pokémon. "Get some rest."

"Return Jade," Ash said as he recalled his fallen Espeon. "Thanks, you battled really hard out there."

'Well done my love!' Zeus exclaimed as he let himself out of his Apricorn Pokéball.

"It seems as if you two will be quite the challenge," observed Jessica as she pushed her glasses up. "Just don't think that you'll be getting a free ride to face the Queen."

ooooooooooooo

Jessica wasn't kidding about not getting a free ride. The fashion designer was quite the skilled trainer as she and her team showed no mercy and took their toll on Ash and my Pokémon. After defeating Weavile and Vaporeon, her team went all out on our Pokémon. Much to Ash's embarrassment, his Charizard was taken down pretty quickly by Jessica's Delphox as she had used Hidden Power which turned out to be Electric-type and caused critical damage and then followed up with Psyshock to put him down. Blossom and Manaphy didn't fare any better against Jessica's Pokémon. Jessica's shiny Eelektross put her down with a Poison-type Hidden Power and Flamethrower and poor Manaphy was taken down quickly by Eelektross… not before my son gave Jessica's Eelektross a Souvenir Scald attack straight in EleFish Pokémon's mouth. As for the fight against Argon and Asami, Lucario and Amethyst had their hands… and paws full as both sides battled hard to try and gain the upper hand over the opposing team. In the end though, Amethyst and Lucario triumphed over Argon and Asami with Her Majesty giving Jessica a slight nod of approval.

"Her Majesty gives her approval for you to face her for your gym battle against her," Jessica said as the window closed and the lights in the throne room dimmed down. "But you'll battle her tomorrow and not tonight."

"Don't worry," I reassured my employer. "Ash will be at my mercy and do whatever I tell him to do."

Jessica let out a chuckle as she snapped her fingers and replied, "Well then… I wish you a good night and rest well. Her Majesty will be waiting for you in the throne room tomorrow morning at 9:30. The PC is now able to be used and that cave you tried to get into is accessible now that Checkpoint 3 is available to you. Your friends seem to be right on your heels too. Rena and David Patterson are already at Checkpoint 2 and the Seabrights are at Checkpoint 1."

ooooooooooooo

Rena's POV

Finally, I could get some much needed rest without having to hear David whine about us being way behind Ash and May after all we all needed some proper rest for the last Checkpoint and eventually Queen Michiru. "Looks like Ash and May got to Checkpoint 3 and the Seabrights managed to reach Checkpoint 1" commented David, especially as he was still in slight disbelief by how well I did in the competition against Nathaniel and how I've done just as good a job in my task as May did.

"Well, we made an agreement that we won't be continuing our run until the next morning and I'm sure that Delphox would agree with me on that" I replied back, with my Fire/Psychic-Type popping out of her Luxury Ball on her own. "Relena's half-siblings did mention that the more we progress, the harder it gets so we need all the time we can get to plan out which Pokémon to use for the remaining challenges before we take on the queen herself."

There was nothing but silence from Dave, as impatient as he was… he had his limits and the same can be said for Ash when it comes to May, which made me wonder if Misty's personality was starting to rub off on her and the fact that Jonathan was a huge fan of Misty herself is something unexpected as well.

The good news was, as long as Ash and May were at Checkpoint 3, we can't progress any further much Dave's dismay so the best course of action was to relax as well as better plan out our respective lineups before we hit the sack cause I don't want things going to crap by the time we reach Checkpoint 3 tomorrow since we heard that Jessica is gonna be the next opponent we'll need to go up against when we win against the remaining two half-siblings which won't be easy then again none of the Gym Lieutenants here were ever easy to begin with…. begging the question as to how Rich and Relena were able to win against them when they first became trainers on their journey. "Well try and get some sleep okay? Besides, I won't let you stay up all night partying" I recommended again, especially as I knew my husband would want to stay up to get ready for the remaining three challenges before we take on the Queen. "Or even attempt to plan our next move without my consent as I'll know if you do… even if we did try to leave tomorrow, we can't go anywhere since we need to wait till Ash and May beat Relena's mom before we can head for Checkpoint 3."

Hearing this was like a bombshell to my husband. "Rena, you could have mentioned that to me before!" he exclaimed, while I gave a small sigh since I'm starting to know how May feels whenever she tried to get Ash to stop doing what he wanted to do and get him to come to see into her way of thinking at times for his own good.

"Well you never listen, much like with Ash!" I replied back with a somewhat annoyed expression on my face especially as he wouldn't like it whenever I get to that point which Delphox gave me a nod as she knew what to do. "So that's why we need to rest, we can at least watch Ash and May battle the queen from within Checkpoint 2 before we are allowed the chance to advance further."

ooooooooooooo

May's POV

The next morning, Ash and I were well rested and ready to face the Queen for our final badge and the chance to gain automatic entry into the Royal Cup. But before we could go to the Throne Room, I made sure that Ash and I were dressed appropriately because we were going to be in the presence of the Queen. Ash was dressed in his knight outfit from Her Majesty's coronation and certainly looked handsome in it. As for me, I put on an aqua blue gown with a red sash on my left shoulder going down to my right hip and white sandals on my feet with a princess cut ruby choker with a red ribbon used as the string. Once Ash and I were ready, our Pokémon teams readied and healed up, we went to the throne room to find the Queen sitting on her throne waiting for us. Once Ash and I bowed to her, the Queen then gave a slight nod allowing us to proceed forward to the arena where we were going to battle against her.

"And now your final test will begin," the Queen said as she stood up from her throne and came down to the battlefield. "You seek to gain the Royal Trident Badge for automatic entry into the Royal Cup. If you want it, then you must defeat me for it. Fail to defeat me, and you must start over and give to me 10% of your earnings that you've won in this gym."

Jessica then came and took the place as the referee for the match. Clearing her throat, she got our attention and then snapped her fingers to activate the cameras for our gym battle. Sure enough, even our cellphones vibrated with an alert from Pokénet that our gym battle was about to start and could be viewed on there. Once everything was in place and Jessica made the rules of the gym battle clear, we were ready to begin the gym battle.

"Now let the final challenge of the Royal Gym begin!" exclaimed Jessica as she was ready for match to start.

"Vespiquen… Slowking you're on my friends," the Queen said tossed up a Level Ball and Dive Ball.

'I am ready to serve you, Your Highness,' Slowking replied calmly.

'My swarm and I are at your service, my liege,' the shiny Bug/Flying-type Beehive Pokémon said to the Queen.

"Charizard, time for redemption, buddy," Ash called out as he wanted his Charizard to have a chance to regain some honor after having been defeated by Jessica's Pokémon.

'I'm eager to redeem myself after yesterday's failure,' replied Charizard.

"Blossom you're on again," I called out as I let Blossom start the gym battle against the Queen.

'Let's get this last victory,' Blossom said eagerly as she took a fighting stance.

"Vespiquen, use Defense Order," the Queen ordered her Vespiquen before looking to her Slowking. "Slowking, use your Amnesia."

'Understood Your Highness,' acknowledged both Vespiquen and Slowking.

"Charizard use your Flamethrower on Vespiquen," Ash ordered his Charizard.

"Blossom use Sword Dance and then Leaf Blade," I ordered Blossom.

'We're on it,' replied both Charizard and Blossom as they got to work and charged at their intended targets.

Blossom used the combo I told her to use and she was able to inflict a critical hit on Slowking before he could raise his Special Defense stat. However, the opposing Slowking seemed to have a very high Defense stat as he was able to survive Blossom's Leaf Blade attack. As for Charizard, he was having quite a time with Vespiquen as she raised her physical and Special Defense stats with her Defense Order move. On top of that, she also seemed to have high Special Defense stats on top of having her defensive stats raised by the Defense Order. Both royalty themed Pokémon also had high Special Attack stats too as they countered back with their own attacks. At one point Charizard had Vespiquen close to the brink of defeat before the Queen had Vespiquen use her Heal Order to regain health lost from Charizard's relentless attacks. As for Blossom, she continued to use her Leaf Blade attack along with Energy Ball and Shadow Ball to try and lower the Special Defense of Her Majesty's Slowking. I had to admit that Her Majesty was pretty tough to deal with and her first two Pokémon weren't budging an inch. But in the end Charizard regained his sense of pride after finally dropping Vespiquen. The rest of the Queen's Pokémon weren't easy to deal with either. Right out of the gate of the second round Nidoqueen and Empoleon dropped Blossom and Charizard which was quite unexpected for us. Her Majesty would continue to dominate us for half of the gym battle as she knocked down Yuki, Pikachu and even had Lucario and Amethyst close to defeat with those two Pokémon. But Amethyst and Lucario came back and took down Nidoqueen, Empoleon and her last two Pokémon, Nidoking and her Serperior, Mika.

ooooooooooooo

"I congratulate you, Ash and May Ketchum for being the first married couple to defeat the Royal Gym," the Queen said as my husband and I knelt on one knee before her. "I hereby award you the Royal Trident Badge as proof that you've defeated the royal family in this gym. Now that you have the Royal Trident Badge, you now gain automatic entry into Royal Cup that will take place after the Suicune Valley Conference."

"Thank you, Your Majesty," Ash said as he received our seventh and final badge for the Atlantica Islands region Pokémon League.

"One last thing for you too as well," Queen Michiru said as a servant came with a Dream Ball and Friend Ball on silver platter. "I heard that you were looking for a Mewtwo, Ash Ketchum. In the Dream Ball is fact a Mewtwo. He is young and could use guidance. If you would Ash, please take him into your care and give him the proper guidance.

Her Majesty then looked to me as she said to me, "In this Friend Ball is a shiny Celebi. She is young and recently hatched from an egg that was left in palace garden where Relena used to play with the Pokémon in the garden. Like the Mewtwo your husband now has, she too needs proper guidance and I have high hopes that they will be cared for and loved."

"We'll take very good care of them," I assured Queen Michiru.

ooooooooooooo

Rena's POV

The barrier that was keeping us from progressing to Checkpoint 3 was lifted which was a sign that the battle against the Queen was concluded plus both David and I were glad that our friends were somehow able to win their match against Relena's mom but we were rather nervous as our turn was coming up next and we went to the PC in order to change our lineups up a bit as well as retrieve my swimsuit since I'm pretty sure bikinis are not allowed for one the remaining challenges at all and best not to risk the chance, plus I am quite a graceful swimmer almost like I was a mermaid then after the proper preparations were made, we headed for the Blizzard Dome in order to confront the second to last half-sibling Samantha Kaiou herself. "You mind if I handle the relay race against the next lieutenant?" asked David, hoping to handle the extreme cold without his jacket much to my surprise.

"Are you sure about this?" I asked back, somewhat surprised that my husband is actually volunteering to go through with the upcoming race right now though I'm not exactly one to complain but some concern was forming on my face. "I mean are you absolutely certain that you'll be able to last in the race without the jacket?"

"Of course" answered David, giving me his usual shrug especially as I've become quite used to the matter if Ash is able to last this long with May throughout their entire journey, a shame that it will be coming to an end fairly soon now that baby Cynthia had been born. "Also I don't want to let anything happen to the mother of our children."

Remaining silent, I gave my husband a slight nod as we made our way to our next destination and upon entering the Blizzard Dome; we came face to face with none other than Samantha, who was greeting us with a confident smirk on her face. "Welcome to the Blizzard Dome, I had a feeling that I would be going up against you two next since you are friends with our baby sister and her husband" she replied with a confident tone to match her expression. "I'm sure that you are already well aware of the rules here."

"Yep and I'm going to be racing you with the three Pokémon that I have" said David, taking his jacket off and while he felt as if he was going to freeze, he hide the expression as he wanted to show he can handle this without the jacket. "I intend to win this no problem."

"Oh I wouldn't say that" commented Samantha, taking her own jacket off and revealed the three Pokémon that she will be using for the race and I went to watch at the sidelines, more so hoping to Arceus that Dave wouldn't freeze to death by the time the race was over.

'O'fer!' I mentally muttered to myself, especially as everything was soon set up for the chilly and blustery relay race between David and Samantha so if my husband doesn't have a Fire-Type and possibly an Ice-Type with him then we're screwed but fortunately, he revealed his Arcanine, Beartic and Hariyama which he's certain his Fighting-Type's Thick Fat ability could benefit him rather well. Once the two were at the starting line Samantha's main Pokémon, Abomasnow began to explain the rules the two racers were waiting for everything to be ready before the race started.

This made me silent as the signal was given and the two teams soon began the race, I mentally wished my husband luck as it's clear that while he can be hard-headed most of the time… at least his heart is in the right place.. then I realized is that Abelia likes being barefoot, which makes me still wonder how she can handle the cold snow, then again her feet tend to be really filthy everywhere she traveled to and even when walking through the snow, it's like she doesn't feel the extreme coldness on her bare feet at all.

ooooooooooooo

May POV

"This is so awesome," Ash said as he held the Dream Ball containing a Mewtwo in his hands. "I finally have my own Mewtwo. He'll be quite the powerhouse once I start training with him."

"Let's not worry about training our Pokémon," I replied to my husband. "David, Rena, Jonathan and Abelia are going through the Royal Gym themselves. We should see if we can go and support them."

From the looks of it, David and Rena were now taking on Samantha at the Blizzard Dome with David being the one who is going up against her using his Arcanine, Hairyama and Beartic as his team for the relay race but part of me is concerned that he might not handle the cold at all though his Arcanine is a Fire-Type so he should be fine… I hope. "Man, just look at them go" commented Ash with a slight surprise but it's clear that some of his personality is starting to rub off on David and especially when it comes to trying to be the very best that no one ever was.

"I know, but I wouldn't count Samathana out yet" I replied back, especially as Samantha is proving to be just as difficult as when she raced against me and how it would most likely be the same case tomorrow when Jonathan and Abelia have their turn.

ooooooooooooo

Rena's POV

"Man, I can't believe that I've been outraced by a guy" said Samantha, somewhat dumbfounded when David managed to barely pull out his win in the race and smiled as she accepted defeat much like she did when she lost to May but the odds are my turn is going to be against Olette which will be one of the most difficult challenges since it reminded me of when we had to take on Rich's mom at the Emerald Coast. "I can see why the lovely red-head married you."

"Hehehehe… thanks" David barely managed to give his reply, trying to deny the fact that he's freezing his butt off without his jacket though it was thanks to his Arcanine that he managed to keep from freezing to death but never the less, Samantha snapped her fingers.

The moment she did so, the passageway to the Trident Pool opened and I gave Dave his jacket back to put on as Samantha had one last thing to tell us before we took our leave. "The time has come for you to head for the Trident Pool, there you will face Olette in the next challenge and after that Relena's sister will be all that stands between you and Checkpoint 3" she informed David and I, though from the expression that my husband was showing… he didn't sound too pleased with the idea of us having to battle against Relena's biological big sister.

"Oh crap…" he barely muttered, starting to wish he did freeze to death as he originally though that nothing can be worse than me dropping a bag of brick onto his head until hearing that we'll be battling against Jessica next after Olette.

"Come on Dave, we don't have time to waste…" I said, pushing David to the passage way and more so as I don't want to hear him complaining even further about Jessica as we still have to deal with Olette first before we ever get that far. "Besides, you'll get to see me in my swimsuit when we get to our destination."

It was about an hour before reaching the Trident Pool to Olette waiting for us in her swimsuit and I felt rather nervous since I'm going to be facing her in the challenge, but my Dewgong never let me down as the moment we arrived unfortunately I needed to bring another Pokémon capable of swimming since I'm not allowed to use Water-Types in this competition, we were greeted by none other than the last of Relena's half-siblings. "Oh my, two more of my little sister's friends came to grace their presence" said Olette, with a light smile on her face and especially as David saw her in the swimsuit and needed to keep himself under control. "You've come prepared for your challenge then?"

"Y…Yeah, we did!" he replied, not wanting to repeat my mistake from the Emerald Coast Gym and it's quite an achievement as he intended to prove he is faithful to me which made me smile brightly at him then I turned my attention back toward Olette who gave a smile on her own face as she spoke.

"Well, seems like I have another opponent who is struggling to keep himself under control and restrained," she spoke, having a feeling that she might be facing David after seeing the expression and him blushing furiously at her though I stepped in with a confident expression on my face.

"Yeah but I'm going to be the one who will face you" I said, taking my clothes off and revealing the white one-piece swimsuit that fitted my figure perfectly, it was a simple design that beautifully highlighted my curves making me unwittingly arousing to my husband. "I take it that I need to use a Pokémon of a different type than the one you're going to use against me?"

"That's correct" she replied back, snapping her fingers and revealing her Golduck by her side but she wanted to be certain that I understood the rest of the rules before we begin the competition at hand. "Just make sure that it is a Pokémon capable of swimming, not just one that is not a Water-Type."

Remaining silent, I knew that there would be a few Pokémon I had with me that are capable of swimming and weren't Water-Types but I needed to choose wisely as I'm sticking with my choice regardless of if I wanted to switch or not then something clicked into my mind as I took out the female Dragonite that I had with me inside the Safari Ball I used to catch her when she was still a Dratini. "Alright old friend, let's see if you'll be able to help me out" I said, sending my Dragon/Flying-Type into the fray and she let out a loud roar as Olette was rather intrigued to see her.

"So you're going to be using Dragonite, this could prove to be interesting" she said, deciding to stick with her Golduck, it being one of her best swimmers and I remained silent as I turned to Dragonite then back towards David.

"Alright, good luck Rena and hope you'll be able to handle her" began David, with a confident grin on his face and I smiled back as I'm certain to handle myself well against Olette. "Besides, we still have to worry about Jessica after this so be careful"

"Oh I'll be fine, don't worry about me" I replied, with a light smile on my face especially as I'm not one to screw up in terms of swimming and especially giving my Dragonite a small nod as we made our way towards the starting platform that Olette and her Golduck were present at especially as they were planning to beat us no matter how hard we try especially being great swimmers against any challenger, male or otherwise.

The shiny Feraligator appeared and began explaining the rules of the competition as Olette and I approached the start platform though he also mentioned that we would be starting with the 50 meter Freestyle race but after seeing what Olette specialized it, I needed to be careful as we also were informed that our chosen Pokémon will do a 100 meter Butterfree before it would be our turn, which we would do a 50 meter Backstroke race while our Pokémon would then complete a 200 Breaststroke and finally we'd finish with a 100 meter Freestyle race.

Once we were ready and set, Feraligator then gave the signal to commence the competition which allowed us to proceed with the challenge as planned. "I wonder how good a swimmer, Abelia is…" began David, silently wishing that Abelia knew how to swim as well as May and I did otherwise she and Jonathan will have a very difficult time here.

ooooooooooooo

Third-Person POV

"Wait, are you serious about this?" came Jeanette's voice, Ash and May managed to get in contact with the violet-haired girl from Crimson City via the video phone as they've been meaning to do so for a while but they were also able to send pictures of baby Cynthia to her in order to show her what their new-born daughter looked like even Jonathan and Abelia were able to send her pics of their twins. "Still, I guess that means you have some unfinished business to take care of then."

"Yeah, even though I managed to convince Ash that we weren't going back to Unova… now that the Unova Gym Leaders were coming here along with the Kanto, Johto, Hoenn and Sinnoh ones, we felt we may as well finish what we've started" answered May with a small shrug, especially as they already beaten Cilan and his two brothers Chili and Cress as well as Lenora, Burgh, Elesa, Clay and Roxie anyway so the remaining Unova Gym Leaders should be easy or so they thought. "We were so busy preparing for the battle with Relena's mom that we never really noticed until now."

"Not only that but you need to be careful yourself because Richie and Relena mentioned that two of the Elite 4 members here have gone rogue" added Ash, remembering the conversation following his and May's battle against Naomi. "Odds are we may end up facing them in the near future, though at the same time while the gym leaders and their lieutenants are powerful then it makes me wonder how strong the Elite 4 is"

"Let's not forget that Blizzard Witch you guys encountered too," said Jeanette with a frown on her face, having been made aware of the famed Blizzard Witch who came after the two co-champions earlier not too long ago and that she'll sooner or later be back to take her revenge later but Ash and May could only hope that it wouldn't be right now or even tomorrow.

Giving a small sigh Ash had to admit that their friend from Crimson City makes a good point on the matter though now wasn't the time to talk about that. "In any case, May and I managed to win all of the Gym Badges at the Atlantica Islands so the only thing that remains is waiting for David, Rena, Jonathan and Abelia to finish their go at the Royal Palace… hope they'll be able to handle it."

"I'm sure they'll do fine Ash, besides it was funny how you Jonathan and David lost to your respective wives a few times at the Trident Battle Palace," she commented, though it made Ash flush red while May laughed a bit. "Sorry, but Relena actually mentioned it as she battled her husband a few times and managed to beat him too from what she told me."

"She did?!" exclaimed May, even she was starting to be surprised that I had a few matches against my own husband and won them even though I never actually mentioned it to my friends earlier since I didn't want to embarrass him then Jeanette smirked at this.

"Yep, she mentioned it to me before while you guys were staying at that hotel," she explained, though at the exact same time her face started changing to show a sad expression as she's well aware of what happened to May's Victini since it was for the best. "I'm sorry about what happened to Victini, if possible then I'd like to do my best to help you feel better in some form or another."

"Don't worry about it, besides it's what Victini… I mean Lucas wanted, to be with the woman he loved" said May, knowing how much Lucas Greyson loved his beloved Cynthia and that despite this, he had another Victini, his brother, serve as the Pokémon to be given to the first-born child of Ash and May which helped to make up for being unable to full-fill the role himself. "Besides, to be honest… I actually got pregnant again before we got here believe it or not."

Remaining silent at this, she glanced at her shiny Whimsicott by her side and stroked the female Grass/Fairy-Type's right cheek as a way to show her affection towards her. "Wait is this true?" she finally spoke, thinking back to what Ash and May just mentioned to her. "When exactly did that happen, specifically?"

"Well it's a surprise, I'll tell you about it later" said May as she soon noticed that Ash's face was now becoming a brighter shade of red which caused Jeanette to giggle at this and more so as it seemed cute that the two were able to make it this far despite their hardships. "The problem is that Relena mentioned that Cynthia might not show up and Lucas may take her place if she's unable to come herself."

"Guess that makes sense as Cynthia is a mother now herself," explained Jeanette with a shrug of her own, knowing such things were unavoidable even when it comes to events that were important to attend whether it be the Sinnoh League conference or the Trident Battle Palace event. "At least you planting your roots may be a start of a new beginning all things considered so you should be proud of that accomplishment."

May nodded her head, especially as all three were watching on the Pokénet the competition taking place between Olette and Rena, yet they were surprised that David not only had a Metagross but Rena somehow had a female Dragonite that she caught from the Safari Zone though is hoping they will be more than enough to help them through the rest of the challenge.

ooooooooooooo

Rena's POV

"Wow, you really kicked my butt there" said Olette, rather impressed that I was able to prove herself though it was still a close competition between the two of us regardless on how well we were at swimming but nevertheless I proved myself worthy so she snapped her fingers to unlock the next passage which would lead to Checkpoint 3 where we'll have to face Jessica next in order to gain access to it.

While like with the Blizzard Dome, there wasn't a PC or a dressing room… I decided to get dressed back into my clothes even though I was still wearing my swimsuit especially as I am sure that David will love seeing me in it more often but right now we needed to be prepared for the second to last battle of this challenge. "I have to admit, you were quite the amazing swimmer there especially with that Dragonite."

"I'm glad to hear you say that" I replied back with a light smile on my face then patted my Dragonite as a way to show my appreciation for her helping me with this competition. "Plus had it not been for me having Dragonite with me in my lineup, we would've started all the way back to Angela and Bernadette which would be a real pain if that were the case."

'Yes, but we still have two more challenges left in the entire run,' commented Dragonite, agreeing with her Trainer's comment as the fight against Jessica and later Queen Michiru will be the hardest battles of any Gym match we've ever experienced.

"She's correct, plus after Jessica will be our mother and I trust you'll know what you're doing as you need to be able to prove yourselves worthy if you wish to win" said Olette, knowing that other than Jessica, their mother Michiru was the most difficult of the trainers and to be honest, her majesty proved to be most difficult Gym Leader ever against Ash and May. "Speaking of which, like with your friends' battle against Jess, our mother will be at Checkpoint 3 watching the match so be certain you stay on your guard."

"Oh man, just when we thought we didn't have enough to worry about" said David as he started showing his worried expression again and I shook my head. "Now I'm starting to wish I was more patient rather than thinking I could charge in like Ash."

"That's what you get for being competitive against one another" I told him, especially as we were going to be heading down the passage way to Checkpoint 3 where Jessica and Queen Michiru will be waiting to greet us much like they did with Ash and May, knowing that Jessica will give us a hard time too before we even get to fight the Queen.

Just as soon as we reached Checkpoint 3, Jessica was shown waiting alongside all six of her Pokémon, who were outside of their Pokéballs then we thought about what we're going to do as we wanted to be certain we had the right Pokémon for this match since we couldn't backtrack to Checkpoint 2 especially as Jonathan and Abelia might be either already there or are about to reach it. "It's a surprise how you two were able to make it this far" said Jessica, giving her wicked smile as she approached the two of us. "Of course, I'm going to make certain you don't progress any further… and I'm certain you're already aware that my mother, Her Majesty, is going to be watching from her throne."

"Yeah we know that…" added David, feeling as if he might screw us over since we needed to actually beat Jessica in order to become worthy enough to battle against Her Majesty especially seeing that Argon was wearing his Mega Stone around his neck much like when he took on Ash and May before. "However, we are not going to back down now when we're this far."

"That's right, plus we'll prove to you how we're just as worthy to face her Majesty as Ash and May were" I spoke with a light smile on my own face, especially as I stood by my husband's side as the battle was about to commence.

Soon the window opened to reveal the throne room where Queen Michiru was awaiting then proceeded with announcing the rules after standing up from her throne, as David decided to go with his Greninja, Metagross and Arcanine while I picked Delphox, Dragonite and Pidgeot because we needed to be extra careful not to let our guard down against Jessica, which was going to be a foreshadowing to when we face her Majesty. "Weavile and Vaporeon, I choose you!" Jessica sent both her Weavile and her Vaporeon into action then we proceeded with using our chosen Pokémon.

"Let's go Arcanine!"

"You too Dragonite!"

The moment went with our respective choices, Jessica's expression remained serious while Weavile and Vaporeon both wondered what we were thinking upon seeing who we sent against the two of them. You've gotta be kidding me! began the Ice/Dark-Type belonging to our opponent as it's clear that we were both using Pokémon that were at a disadvantage against them but they were proven that we don't judge Pokémon by Type. You don't think that you'll win with Pokémon that were weaker than us, sure Dragonite was powerful but she has a double weakness against Ice-Types!

'Don't forget, their friends were able to defeat us despite the disadvantage so the same will be said for the two facing us right now,' informed Vaporeon, before turning back towards Dragonite and Arcanine, knowing that the two Pokémon we chose will have some hidden surprises.

"Arcanine, use Thunder Fang on Vaporeon," David ordered his Fire-type Pokémon.

"Dragonite, use Extreme Speed and Power-Up Punch!" I ordered my Dragon/Flying-type Pokémon.

'Gotcha,' acknowledged Arcanine as he charged at Vaporeon.

'This'll be fun… well, at least for me anyway,' replied Dragonite before she used her combo attack.

'Oh Snorlax!' cried out Weavile as he was hit by both Normal and Fighting-type attacks.

Jessica gave no verbal command to her Weavile, but snapped her fingers in response to the combo attack I had Dragonite use against her Dar/Ice-type Sharp Claw Pokémon. Giving off a wicked smirk, her Weavile then used an Ice-type attack as his counterattack. This attack certainly caught me and Dragonite by surprise as we didn't expect him to know Avalanche. That Ice-type attack did more damage than I thought it would do.

"Oh… so sorry. I didn't realize you weren't expecting that little counterattack," Jessica taunted me with her Weavile snickering at me and Dragonite.

'Two can play at that little game,' shot back Dragonite as she flicked her tail at Weavile and sent him flying upwards in the air and watched him crash to the ground. 'Oh… I'm so sorry. I didn't realize that you weren't expecting that counterattack.'

While my Dragonite was battling against Jessica's Vaporeon, David and his Arcanine were battling tooth and nail against the shiny Bubble Jet Pokémon. They were holding their own, exchanging blows and inflicting as much damage as they could against each other. I was surprised that they were doing so well and still had the capacity to fight. In the end, Arcanine won out before her Vaporeon could use Rain Dance to active her Hydration ability heal the burn that Arcanine inflicted from his Flamethrower.

"Weavile and Vaporeon are unable to battle," Her Majesty announced to us. "Dragonite and Arcanine win!"

The rest of the battle against Jessica was not easy for us as she really poured on the pressure for us to maintain our lead on her. She knocked out Dragonite, Mismagius, David's Exeggutor and his Arcanine before it was down to just my Delphox and my husband's Greninja. But we did bring down two more of her Pokémon before Jessica called on Asami and Argon.

ooooooooooooo

'I'm so banged up, my bruises have bruises,' whined David's Greninja before feeling the full force of Delphox's fury with a couple bricks to his head and one below the belt.

'You're the Pokémon of my human's mate alright,' Delphox said after she rolled her eyes, shook her head and sighed. 'Really tired of the complaining.'

"You two haven't been carrying a brick wall in your bag by chance, have you?" Jessica asked me as she was amused seeing David's Greninja get clocked by a few bricks.

'She's got a brick wall and dictionaries too,' Delphox answered Jessica.

My employer just laughed as she snapped her fingers and opened the passageway and unlocked the PC for our use. Looking at us and then to Jessica, Her Majesty gave her daughter a slight nod acknowledging that we were worthy to face her for the Royal Trident Badge.

"Well… the Queen has spoken," Jessica informed David and I. "She has deemed you worthy to battle her for the Royal Trident Badge. But be warned, Her Majesty has never been defeated twice in a row. If anything, she's bound to be more dangerous after being defeated by her last opponents. Make sure you're well rested, your Pokémon teams chosen wisely and that you're dressed appropriately before approaching Her Majesty in the Throne Room. She does reserve the right to refuse a battle with you for any reason. So make sure you're choice of clothing reflects the commitment to stand in the presence of Her Majesty for your gym badge.

Jessica began to walk into the passageway then turned to us and finished, "One last thing. That passage that was blocked by a magic barrier by Angela and Bernadette's challenge is now unlocked."

Once Jessica left Checkpoint 3, the door was closed and a magic barrier blocked our way to the Queen which thankfully indicated that we were going to have to wait until tomorrow to battle. The third checkpoint was certainly nice and comfortable to stay in. But, I had a feeling that David might want to go to the cave he tried to enter. My suspicion was confirmed as David remarked that he wanted to go to back to the cave and see what kind of Pokémon were in there. I really didn't want to go as I just wanted to rest my aching body and maybe have him give me comfort… the pleasurable kind. Without using bricks or dictionaries, I was able to win out and convinced David to stay at the checkpoint instead of leaving to go to the cave and battle stronger trainers or try to catch new Pokémon.

ooooooooooooo

The next morning, the magic barrier was uplifted which meant that Her Majesty was ready to face us for our third gym badge. David had thrown on some clothes and assumed that I would do the same so we could go and face the Queen; but I had different ideas as grabbed my husband and yanked him back into the checkpoint.

"Come on Rena, aren't you ready for the last battle?" David asked me in a whiny tone.

"Don't you remember what Relena's sister told us?" I shot back to my husband. "She told us that our choice of clothing reflects the commitment to stand in front of Her Majesty. I'd rather look appropriate when we stand before the Queen for our last badge then look like I've been on the road. I'm sure that there's something here for us to wear."

"I still think this is ridiculous," complained David as he and I were approaching the throne room. "We're supposed to be battling the Queen, not go to an elaborate ball or whatever shindig."

"Unless you want another brick-induced head concussion, keep whining," I said to my husband in an acid tone.

My idiot husband didn't think to purchase any formal wear or even ask for something nice. So he settled for the knight outfit from when we were at Her Majesty's coronation. It looked good on him. As for me, I decided that I would wear a purple gown with clear plastic straps, lavender and red trimming. The gown was a special order made by Jessica and looked a bit like my shiny Delphox. Delphox liked the gown for certain, though she mentioned that she'd burn any pumps I tried to put on my feet. I was thankful that the gown came with sandals instead. But Delphox said that she was joking about burning any pumps. Once my ding-dong husband and I were dressed appropriately, we left the third checkpoint and then headed for the throne room where Her Majesty was waiting for us. I guess that like us yesterday, Jonathan and Abelia would be stuck at Checkpoint 2 while we battled against the Queen. At any rate, we made our way to the Queen. Once we left the third and final checkpoint, the door then disappeared behind us and the only way to go for us was to the throne room where Her Majesty was waiting for us.

ooooooooooooo

"I see you've finally come," Her Majesty said to me and David as her shiny Serperior was at her side. "And you're dressed appropriately too."

David and I bowed to the Queen as I replied, "At least one of us made sure that we were dressed appropriately before we came into your presence, Your Majesty."

"What?" David asked me as he noticed I was glaring at him for his stupid mistake of trying to dress normally.

"At any case, you've come so far for to get the Royal Trident Badge and it's time for you to battle me for it," said Her Majesty as she stood up from her throne with her shiny female Serperior following her to the battlefield.

Jessica then came to be the referee for the gym battle; but I think she just wanted to come and see about the gown I ordered from her looked cute. Getting a slight nod from my employer, Jessica then got into the position as the referee and explained the rules of the tenth and final gym battle. The rules were easy, six Pokémon on both sides would be used. But David and I were limited to using three Pokémon while Her Majesty could use all six of her Pokémon, not that we were bothered by that. For me, I had a wonderful little surprise for the Queen should she try to use a Water-type Pokémon against us. The first two Pokémon sent against David and I were the Queen's Nidoking and Nidoqueen. David wondered if Her Majesty specialized in Poison-type Pokémon since she called out two Poison-type Pokémon against us. Instead of risking losing one type advantage, I chose to call on mine and Delphox's new best friend.

"Alright Articuno, you're on!" I exclaimed as I was ready to see how good my shiny female Ice/Flying-type would handle herself against a Pokémon League gym.

It didn't seem right to put her through such demanding position, but she was up for the challenge as she told me that herself. David sent out his Exeggutor as his first Pokémon to use against Her Majesty.

"The tenth and final challenge will now begin!" Jessica exclaimed as she brought her arms down to signal the start of the gym battle.

"Nidoking, use your Megahorn on Exeggutor," Her Majesty ordered her shiny male Drill Pokémon before looking to her shiny female Drill Pokémon. "Nidoqueen, use Stone Edge on Articuno!"

'At once Your Majesty,' replied both shiny Poison/Ground-type Drill Pokémon as they charged at their targets.

'Allow me to handle the shiny Nidoqueen, Rena,' chirped my shiny female Freeze Pokémon. 'I have a little surprise for her.'

"Uh… okay," I said to Articuno as I was a little confused until I got one of the biggest surprises of my life.

'Take this!' exclaimed Articuno as she first dodged the Stone Edge attack and then fired a forceful shot of water at Nidoqueen.

'Impossible!' cried out Her Majesty's Nidoqueen as she was both shocked and startled by the fact my Articuno knew Water Gun.

'I've got more where that came from,' retorted Articuno as she then used another Water-type attack I didn't she could learn.

'Gah! She knows Bubble Beam too, Your Highness!' cried out Nidoqueen before having a blue outline race down her body indicating that her Speed had been lowered.

"Try using your Stone Edge again," the Queen said to her shiny Nidoqueen.

'Not going to happen,' Articuno shot back as she then fired a pulsating orb of water at Nidoqueen to put her down.

'Forgive me Your Highness,' Nidoqueen said as she fell to the ground in defeat, 'I've failed.'

While Articuno enjoyed the moment of her triumph, my husband found that defeating Her Majesty, the Queen wasn't going to be easy. Poor Exeggutor, he didn't have a chance to launch an attack on Nidoking used his Megahorn to effectively put down the Grass/Psychic-type Coconut Pokémon in one move. At least Articuno picked up the slack and single handedly outwitted the shiny male Poison/Ground-type Drill Pokémon herself.

"Nidoqueen, Exeggutor and Nidoking are unable to battle," Jessica announced to everyone there and on Pokénet. "Articuno wins!"

"Well done Articuno," I said happily to my shiny female Freeze Pokémon as I petted her. "I wasn't aware that you could learn Water Gun and Bubble Beam."

'Oh… it is possible for us Articunos to learn both Water Gun and Bubble Beam,' Articuno happily chirped as she enjoyed being petted. 'We can only learn it through TMs that you humans have and the Atlantica Islands have both Water Gun and Bubble Beam as TMs here.* Though I heard rumors that both attacks used to be TMs in Kanto.'

The rest of the gym battle wasn't easy for us. Her Majesty saw to it that personally as her other royal themed Pokémon were eager to counter back and avenge the defeat of Nidoking and Nidoqueen. They certainly took a toll on Articuno as I was forced to recall her before I lost her in battle. Dragonite didn't fare well herself as she was overwhelmed quickly and fell. However Dragonite did manage to bring down Vespiquen with her. The Queen's shiny Serperior was a fierce battler herself. With the Contrary ability and her Leaf Storm attack, she was beginning to overwhelm David's Arcanine despite being at a disadvantage.

ooooooooooooo

"You and your Pokémon certainly are resilient," Her Majesty said to David and me. "You two definitely earned this badge. With the Royal Trident Badge, you now have automatic entry into the Royal Cup competition. Plus I am giving you both a special gift."

"A gift?" David asked as he was confused when a servant came with a silver platter holding a Friend Ball and Dive Ball.

"Yes," answered Her Majesty. "In the Friend Ball is a young Jirachi that was just born. In the Dive Ball is a newly hatched Lugia, Typhoon's little sister, Rita. Both of them are shiny Pokémon."

With quick hands, I quickly grabbed the Friend Ball as I wanted the shiny Jirachi to my team. David picked up the Dive Ball with the shiny female Lugia. Articuno and Delphox came out of their respective Pokéballs to meet their new companion. They were very eager to meet Jirachi and welcome her with open arms and wings.

"I wish you both luck in the Suicune Valley Conference," Her Majesty said to me and David. "Raise your new Pokémon well and treat them with love and compassion."

"Oh Jirachi will become more like a daughter for Rena," David said to the Queen as he pointed to me hugging and showering the shiny female Wish Pokémon with affection.

Abelia's POV

"I gotta say, your friends are sure eager to press on through the Royal Gym," the young palace guard named Zack said to Jonathan and me. "But you're free to enter and challenge the Royal Gym. Good luck to you both."

"Thank you, I think we're going to need it." Jonathan said with a somewhat nervous chuckle as he turned to Zack and gave him a thumbs-up. "Hey Abi… do you feel ready? Think you need to take a little more time to prepare your team?"

"No, it's okay Jonathan. I think my team is more than ready." I answered, taking a deep breath. "There's just something I'd like to do before we start the challenge…"

"So, you're going to use that?" Jonathan asked, knowing very well what I was referring to. I nodded and searched through my bag, and took out what Jonathan and I consider our secret weapon: a Mega Anklet I had gotten a couple years ago, after we got through the Sevii Islands Championship. It was a doozy, I tell you… but it was worth it, and with a Beedrillite and a Scizorite in my hands, I knew how to put it to good use.

"Yeah. We're up against the best trainers in Atlantica." I answered, securing the anklet to my left leg. "Anything that gives us a slight edge will be okay to me, especially since we aren't breaking any rules by doing so."

"You've got a point on that. I've gotten my best team too." Jonathan answered as we stepped through the gates and walked towards the place where we would face our first encounter: the Sakura Garden was right in front of us, and as we stepped in, we saw Angelia and Bernadette, our first opponents, right in front of us. I remembered how Ash and May had defeated them… but we had no idea what to expect from them, and I hoped I would not have to use my Mega Evolved Pokémon right away.

"You must be… Angelia and Bernadette, right?" Jonathan said as we stopped in front of the ring, ready to begin. I took out a Pokéball and hoped to myself I had taken the right decision, while the twin women greeted us with an elegant bow.

"Indeed we are." Angelia said. "We are pleased to meet you two, Jonathan and Abelia Seabright."

"Especially a fellow Bug-type expert." Bernadette continued, clearly referring to me. "I expect a stimulating battle… so, shall we begin? You know the rules already, since you've seen our battle with Ash and May as well as David and Rena, right?"

"Straight and to the point. I like that." I answered, managing a small smirk as I spun my Pokéball in my hands. "Okay then… I'm going to rely on you for this one, my friend. Go for it, Venomoth!"

"I'll be relying on you… Relicanth!" Jonathan exclaimed, throwing the Dive Ball he had used a few years ago to capture that powerful Relicanth while we were training in Dolce Island at the beginning of our journey. He had failed to capture him the first time around, but the second time, several months later, his Pokémon were better prepared, and he managed to catch the wise old warrior.

"I am ready to begin, Jonathan." Said the ancient fish, floating in midair as he prepared to face the enemy. My Venomoth was already flying in front of me and stretching her wings, looking very happy to be helping in this deciding challenge. Well, she was my first Pokémon ever, after all. It wouldn't be fair to keep her out of the running.

"Thank you for calling me, Abelia! Shall we begin, you two?" Venomoth said defiantly, turning a glance to our two opponents.

Both girls were quick to send out their own Pokémon. "We shall. You're up now… Vivillon!" Angelia exclaimed, and a beautiful Garden Pattern Vivillon appeared in front of my Venomoth.

"Go for it… Escavalier!" Bernadette said, and a moment later, the two shiny Pokémon appeared in front of us, ready to battle with ours.

"I would advise caution, Jonathan." Relicanth told my husband. "A trainer of such skill sending a Bug/Flying type against a Water/Rock type such as myself obviously has a trick up her sleeve."

"Yes, of course." Jonathan replied, and I felt a little more reassured since I knew that even if my husband was sort of reckless at times, he knew what he was doing at that moment.

"Very well then. Let's begin." Vivillon, use your Psychic attack on Venomoth!

"Venomoth, do the same!" I answered. Both Pokémon concentrated hard for a moment, and then fired a powerful blast of mental energy at each other, in the form of an overwhelming wave of multicolored light! The two attacks clashed with each other midway through and exploded in a stunning display of light and color!

"Relicanth, attack Escavalier with Waterfall!" Jonathan ordered, to which the old Water/Rock type nodded and rushed at his opponent, surrounded in a wave of churning water. The foe Escavalier protected himself by crossing his spear-arms in front of him and blocking the hit with a timely Protect move, but Jonathan and I were far from having shown all our tricks! "Okay… now, Relicanth… attack him with Aqua Tail!"

"Venomoth! Use Sludge Bomb!" I told my Bug/Poison type Pokémon. As Relicanth rushed towards Escavalier and tried to slam him with his tail, Venomoth shot a powerful blast of purple mud at Vivillon… but the attack was foiled when Vivillon dodged it with a Double Team, creating several after-images of herself.

"Hello, Venomoth! Can you see the real me now?" Vivillon and her three illusory selves exclaimed, as I saw my Venomoth growl in frustration. "If you can't, your defeat will be swift and painful!"

"Vivillon, use Giga Drain… on that Relicanth!" Angelia exclaimed, catching both me and my husband off guard! We were sure they were going to stick to their targets…

"Escavalier, attack Venomoth with Iron Head!" Bernadette ordered. My Venomoth was rushed and hit by a powerful blow from Escavalier's helmet, and Vivillon fired a powerful blast of green energy at my husband's Relicanth, hitting him in the side! Relicanth and Venomoth reeled in pain… but my husband sighed in relief as his Longevity Pokémon managed to remain standing.

"Uuuugh… good thing my Sturdy ability kicked in, else I would probably be down already." Relicanth commented. "Well then, let me answer in kind."

"Go for it, Relicanth! Use Rock Tomb!" Jonathan ordered. Relicanth quickly struck the ground with his armored head, causing a small quake and dropping several stones on both Escavalier and Vivillon! The rocks struck Vivillon's after-images and caused them to disappear, while Escavalier was hit a few times, and both opponents had their speed significantly lowered by the attack.

"Nicely done, Jonathan!" I answered. "And now… Venomoth, so your thing! Use Quiver Dance!"

"Now that's more like it!" my first Pokémon friend exclaimed as she spun around in a circle, making herself faster and boosting her own Special Attack and Special Defense. "Alright, let's see how strong you are when I have powered myself up sufficiently."

"Don't count me out yet!" Vivillon exclaimed, as she unleashed a powerful Hurricane attack on my Venomoth… but she was able to dodge the fiery blast of wind at the last possible moment and dashed in, overwhelming Vivillon with her newfound speed! The colorful butterfly flapped her wings around and released a Stun Spore attack… but Venomoth countered with a nice Gust attack, blowing the spores back at Vivillon and paralyzing her! "Ugh… sorry, Angelia… this is embarrassing… getting hit by my own attack…"

"Now is the time!" I exclaimed. "Venomoth, use Sludge Bomb, right now!"

I could see my Venomoth smirk as she readied herself and spewed out a large blast of toxic purple slime… and this time, Vivillon couldn't react in time and was swamped by the powerful attack, getting knocked out! She staggered for a moment, and then slumped to the ground, her eyes turning into swirls.

"Uuuugh… I regret this, Angelia…" Vivillon murmured before she was out like a light.

At the same time, Jonathan's Relicanth had managed to avoid an Iron Head attack from Escavalier… and countered with a powerful Waterfall attack, this time hitting his target head-on! Escavalier had already taken some serious blow before, and finally fell to Relicanth's assault, giving us our first victory!

"Alright! We won!" Jonathan exclaimed, jumping up and hugging Relicanth for all he was worth. The prehistoric fish's eyes bulged out in surprise as he was still smarting from the battle. "Thank you very much, Relicanth, you were awesome! Good going, Abi! You did a great job yourself!"

"Thank you, Jonathan…" I said, and as Venomoth and Relicanth greeted each other and shook hands, we hugged each other and exchanged a kiss. We were so happy about winning that we just couldn't help it… but we knew we had a long road ahead of us still. "And… it was a honor to face you in battle, Angelia and Bernadette. It was truly a worthy competition!"

Angelia and Bernadette recalled their defeated Vivillon and Escavalier. "The same we can say about you, our esteemed guests." The former said. "I think you've earned your prize now."

"A prize?" Jonathan asked, gently petting his Relicanth. "You mean, we don't just get the money from our win? We get a badge, a TM or something like that too?"

"Actually, no… something even better, actually." Bernadette said. "You can choose a shiny Bug-type Pokémon to take with you and add to your team. However, be it known that if you lose a battle in the Royal Gym run, you will not only have to redo it all from the beginning, but you will also have to forfeit the prize money you have already won. Only the prize items or the Pokémon you might have gotten will be allowed to stay with you."

"Okay… so, what sort of Pokémon can we choose from?" Jonathan said. "I know Abi here will be interested in getting a new Bug-type Pokémon, right?"

"You bet!" I answered, winking at my beloved.

oooooooooo

In the end, I decided to pick a shiny Anorith. It was contained in a Dream Ball, which meant it had its Dream World ability, Swift Swim. He would surely make for a welcome addition to my team, plus he was pretty cute too… but for now, I had to use my stronger Bug-type Pokémon to keep up with the aces of the Royal Gym. It wasn't going to be easy at all, and both Jonathan and I had to give it all we had.

I'll have to say, the next few challenges were not at all what I might have expected: we had to get to the Leviathan Cliffs, though not before having the chance to heal and rest our Pokémon, and even switch them out if we wanted. I'll admit, I had a few Pokémon in reserve that I would have been curious to try out… but I resisted the temptation, since I thought it would give me a bit of an unfair advantage.

Our next fight was with Zander… but rather than a fight, it was going to be an aerial race with him and his Shiny Lugia, Typhoon. I competed with my own trusted flier, my Yanmega with her Speed Boost ability… and while Typhoon and Zander seemed to leave us in the dust at first, we managed to catch up with him at the last possible moment, with Yanmega's Speed Boost giving us exactly the edge we needed to get the win!

Derek, Haruhi, Alexander and Laura were the next Gym Lieutenants we had to face… and it was going to be at Iceberg Cellar too, a place I was not looking forward to deal with… You see, ever since I was a little girl, I never wore shoes, preferring to go barefoot – and this time was no exception to the rule. I wasn't looking forward to getting my feet frozen in that place… but luckily, my beloved Jonathan stepped up to the challenge, which was going to be an ice sculpting competition where no Ice-type Pokémon were allowed. Jonathan chose his Poliwrath, his Empoleon and his Omastar for this challenge… and the three of them, using their own Fighting, Steel and Rock type attacks, surprised everyone by sculpting a beautiful piece depicting me and Jonathan back when we were children, as we had just started out our Pokémon journey! I was moved enough that I glomped Jonathan and gave him a full kiss on the lips, congratulating him on the wonderful idea!

"That was awesome, Jonathan!" I said as I separated from the kiss. "You had the best idea ever… I… I really don't know what to say about that, except… thank you! That… really means a lot to me!"

"Hehehee… hey, I just thought you'd appreciate it!" Jonathan answered. "I guess I was right."

"And all those lessons learning to use my Brick Break attack to sculpt were not wasted." Poliwrath quipped, causing everyone to share a laugh.

After Derek and the other challengers gave us their congratulations and their permission to go to Checkpoint 1, we remained there for the night to rest a little and refresh ourselves… after which, we were more than ready to meet our next challenges. In the morning, we saw barrier blocking the door, only to get an alert from Pokénet telling us that Ash and May were battling the Queen for their badge. Once the barrier was down, waiting us were Max and Maddie, two more of Relena's half-siblings, and specialized in Fighting-type Pokémon. My beloved Jonathan, just as I imagined, used his trusty Slowking for this challenge, whereas I decided to leave this one to my Yanmega, knowing well she could handle anything that those two threw at us.

I was… almost right.

This battle turned out to be much tougher than the previous ones. Max's Toxicroak had been well trained to handle Psychic-type Pokémon, and Jonathan's Slowking took quite a beating from his Sucker Punch attack before finally managing to nail him with a well-placed Psychic attack. And even then, much to our surprise, Toxicroak wasn't down for the count yet. Slowking had to hit him with another Psychic in order to keep him down, and by the time it was over, he was almost exhausted.

Maddie's Lopunny was the greatest threat though. As soon as the battle began, Maddie activated her own Mega Ring… and Lopunny evolved into her Mega form, becoming a powerful Normal/Fighting type Pokémon that turned out to be much more of a challenge than I anticipated. Her Fire Punch, Ice Punch and Bounce attacks were a huge threat to my Yanmega, which she only managed to resist thanks to her Speed Boost ability, and her Fighting type meant that Bug Buzz, my Yanmega's most powerful attack, was only half as powerful as usual. And even with Speed Boost on my side, Mega Lopunny was extremely fast and hit terribly hard. In the end, though, my Yanmega managed to nail her with an Ancient Power attack, which rose all of her stats, and then defeat Mega Lopunny with a combination of Psychic and Air Slash. It was a hard-fought battle… and I reminded myself to send in Beedrill in the next battle, so that I could at least use Mega Evolution myself to even the odds.

We had to face against a Hawlucha, an Infernape, a Mienshao and a Mega Medicham too… yeah, can't say Max and Maddie made things easy on us, but then again we weren't expecting this to be a cakewalk either. I just reminded myself that we should spend more time at the next checkpoint in order to get well rested.

Anyway, as Max and Maddie congratulated us and we went on our way to the next trial, we were glad to know that it wasn't going to be a battle… Anastasia, another one of Relena's siblings, challenged us to a Pokémon Contest at the Blossom Studio, where we would only be able to use Grass-type Pokémon. I decided to go face the competition in Jonathan's place, as there weren't many Water-type Pokémon that were also Grass types… while me on the other hand, had still my Parasect and my Leavanny on hand. I'll admit, I had little experience with Pokémon Contests, being much more used to battling… but in the end, I managed to come up victorious against Anastasia's Bellossom and Lilligant. I'll admit, it wasn't easy at all… but it was very satisfying.

Soon after, came the cooking competition at the Palace Kitchen, which Jonathan was able to ace against Nathaniel. He and his Samurott were able to combine fresh fish and sweet berries to create a really new dish… to which my Volcarona added some special flavor by roasting it with her Heat Wave attack! In the end, Nathaniel found it was a good enough dish for us to pass, and we managed to get to Checkpoint 2… much to our relief, we were finally able to get some good hours of rest before we changed our teams and headed to the next challenge! But our next challenge was going to have to wait as we discovered another magic barrier blocking our path which meant that David and Rena were challenging the Queen for their gym badge.

"Hey Abi, someone left a note here," Jonathan said as he pulled off the note. "Let's see now… Blizzard Dome will involve a relay race… Trident Pool has a swimming relay race…"

"I'll be handling the swimming relay race," I announced to Jonathan. "You and I both saw Ash and David struggling to keep themselves under control when they saw that one half-sister, Olette Kaiou, in her swimsuit."

"You know I'd never cheat on you, Abi," protested Jonathan. "You're the mother of our two children."

"Maybe," I replied as I went to the PC and got out my grey swimsuit and changed into it in front of Jonathan. "But I'd rather not take that chance."

"Uh… y-yes dear," Jonathan acknowledged weakly as he got a nosebleed as he saw me putting my swimsuit on in front of him and then put my clothes on over it.

Once the barrier was lowered a couple hours later, Jonathan and I each grabbed a coat as we were heading towards the Blizzard Dome. Volcarona let herself out of her Pokéball and our cute little mascot, Spinda, followed us in tow as well.

'Hooray! Hooray!' Spinda exclaimed happily. 'You're battling well in this gym! Hooray for Jonathan and Abelia Seabright! Fight! Fight!'

Both Jonathan and I giggled at Spinda's antics and cheering. It was nice to have him with us cheering for us and be the comedic relief whenever we needed it. Once we reached the Blizzard Dome, I began to feel cold as the ground wasn't exactly to my liking and was certainly blustery inside as well. I was at least lucky that we had both gotten a coat from the second checkpoint, but it seemed rather a moot point when Samantha Kaiou told us that the person running the relay race had to do so without a coat on. During the relay race, Jonathan and Samantha were exchanging the lead as were their Pokémon. However, Jonathan and his relay team were successful and Samantha let us through to head for Trident Pool and our next challenge.

"You two seem to be well rested," said Olette Kaiou as she turned to face us, showing off her swimsuit and trying to use her sex appeal on Jonathan.

My dear Jonathan gritted his teeth when he saw Olette and how sexy she looked. Instead trying to struggle with his hormones, my husband closed his eyes as he said aloud to himself, "I'm a married man. I'm a married man with two kids."

"You're really fortunate to have such a loyal husband," Olette said to me as I slipped off my clothes to reveal my swimsuit. "It seems that the wives are the ones who have been taking me on in the swimming relay."

"That's because we know our husbands very well," I replied to Olette as I called on Scizor to help me with the swimming relay race. "I love Jonathan, but I think it would be better if I took you on instead of him."

The swimming relay race was quite something to take on for me. I knew Jonathan would be able to take Olette on, but she was using her sex appeal to try and use it as an advantage like Akatsuki tried to use against me at the Emerald Cove Island gym. I had a rough start to the relay as Olette had a commanding lead throughout the 50 meter Freestyle portion of the swimming relay race. Once Scizor took charge he demolished the lead that Olette set up and kept pace with her shiny Golduck by using Quick Attack and Agility to increase his speed. Most of the lead during the swimming relay race was held by Olette and her shiny Golduck until we got to the 100 meter freestyle leg of the race.

"Man, that's the second time I got a cramp in my leg," complained Olette after we got out of the pool. "Guess the wives really owned the swimming relay. But your next challenge is at Checkpoint 3 where Relena's sister, Jessica is waiting for you."

"Say Abi," Jonathan began to say to me as he eyed me in my wet swimsuit with a grin on his face.

"I know what you're thinking," I said to my husband, "but you're gonna have to wait until we get to the Checkpoint 3."

"I probably forgot to mention this to you and your friends," Olette said to me and Jonathan, "but when you reach Checkpoint 3, you have no choice but to stop your trek through the Royal Gym. Sorry about that."

Jonathan and I headed towards Checkpoint 3 where Jessica, my first employer, was waiting for Jonathan and me with her six Pokémon out and the Throne Room visible with the Queen watching us. Her Majesty then explained the rules for our ninth challenge. It was going to be a straight forward six on six Pokémon battle with Jonathan and I using three Pokémon each. We didn't think it was a big deal until the battle started and Jessica went hardcore on us right out of the gate. Guess those two losses she suffered really hit home for her. Despite the rocky start, Jonathan and I managed to win thanks to Mega Evolution. Had it not been for me, Argon would've forced us to start over from the beginning. He was a tough battler even in his mega evolved form. Once the Queen gave us her approval, Jonathan and I took our last break before it was time to progress to Her Majesty. My feet were screaming at me to stop anyway and Olette had told us that we required to stop before facing the Queen anyway. During our resting time at Checkpoint 3, I saw that there was a gown made for me, a gown that I had ordered from Jessica that was made in the colors of my Volcarona. I was certainly thankful that Jessica gave me and the other models an employee discount even though the gown was free and we were promised free clothes if we worked for Relena's sister.

The rest of the night at Checkpoint 3 was comfortable and very pleasing. I made sure that Jonathan had something nice to wear before we stood in front of Relena's mother. Fortunately, my husband had his outfit from the Trident Battle Palace as his rank was Earl. Once we had made sure that we were appropriately dressed to go before the Queen, Jonathan and I looked at our Pokémon one last time.

"Alright Abi, we should be ready for… just about everything Her Majesty can throw at us," Jonathan said to me as we looked at our selected Pokémon. "I'm bringing in Volcanion because he's come through in clutch for me. And of course I'm bringing Samurott and my recently evolved Greninja too."

"Then that means I'll be bringing Genesect, Beedrill and Venomoth," I said as I gave a slight nod to myself, pleased with the selection I made. "Now let's head to the throne room so we can get our final badge."

"Agreed," replied Jonathan. "At least having a set of badges will show that even we can handle our own against gym leaders."

I gave a slight nod of agreement to my husband and we made our way to the Throne Room where the Queen was waiting for us. I know that Jonathan was sure eager to face Her Majesty for the last badge. Even though I didn't show it, I too was eager and excited to battle for this last badge.

"Welcome to you, the third married couple to challenge the Royal Gym," the Queen said Jonathan and I as we bowed to her. "To be honest, I don't think the royal family has ever been put in a precarious situation where we have our backs to the wall, let alone that we've been defeated twice in a row by either single challengers or even pairs. But now the time has come to see if you're worthy to receive the final badge that you need in order to gain automatic entry into the Royal Cup.

Jessica came into the Throne Room as well as the rest of the princes and princesses to watch this final challenge. My employer laid out the rules of the final challenge. It was a standard Pokémon battle, Her Majesty's six Pokémon against three of my Pokémon and three of Jonathan's Pokémon. Jonathan and I knew from watching Ash and May and David and Rena battle her, the Queen wasn't going to be an easy opponent to take down. As the battle was about to start, mine and Jonathan's cellphones vibrated to alert us about our gym battle against Her Majesty on Pokénet. I was surprised to see that Relena was allowed to enter the Throne Room for this battle. I guess since my husband and I were the final challengers of the season, the Royal Edict must've been uplifted for her since she was born into the Kaiou royal family. At any rate, Jonathan and I were ready for the final test and we planned on battling hard.

The Queen sure pulled out all the stops and went all out on us. Right out of the gate her Vespiquen took out Jonathan's Greninja and took quite a toll on my Venomoth before Venomoth took her down. Not wanting to fall behind Her Majesty, I recalled my weary Venomoth and brought out Genesect while Jonathan brought out his Samurott. The gym battle went back and forth with Her Majesty getting us close to the brick of defeat only for Jonathan and me to fight back harder and win. Genesect and Beedrill sure enough helped secure our victory.

"Well done to you both," the Queen said to Jonathan and me as we knelt on one knee. "This year has certainly been quite the year of firsts for the Royal Gym. Ash and May Ketchum were the first married couple to defeat the Royal Gym. This is the first time the Royal Gym has been defeated three times in row."

"And it's also the first time the Royal Gym was defeated three times in a row by married couples," added Olette.

"Think we might be losing our edge?" Nathaniel asked his mother and siblings.

"Nah, I think we were just caught unprepared this year," answered Jessica. "Those challengers sure knew how to handle themselves under pressure. Especially the Hero of Truth and Heroine of Ideals."

Once we exited the palace, Relena and Richie were there to meet us with our children in their arms. The trek through the Royal Gym was fun while it lasted. But we had to get back to our children so we could be the mother and father Francesca and Marco needed us to be. But there wasn't much time for us to celebrate our victories at the Royal Gym. Ash and May, Rena and David and Jonathan and I had to stock up before heading to the place that would be our final showdown… well, at least for now anyway. The place we were heading to for the Suicune Valley Conference was a place called Denali Island. There, trainers would compete for a chance at glory and to possibly dethrone the Pokémon Princess and Emerald Prince, the co-champions of the Atlantica Islands.

oooooooooooooooooo

And cut!

Author's note: Hope you liked the chapter. Sorry for the wait. Hope you'll review the chapter and keep subscribing too. I enjoy getting all the support you give me. (*)The Gen 1 Articuno was able to learn Water Gun and Bubble Beam via TM. Plus I brought back Water Gun and Bubble Beam as TMs for this fic.