Ch 44: Friends and lovers (not that kind of lovers don't worry)

It was the beginning of round 3 in the grand festival and the contestants were eagerly awaiting to see who would be facing who. After round two there were only a dozen contestants left in the grand festival.

"Alright we're in round three that means the competition is going to be very stiff now" May said. "Well we made it this far to that means we have a fair chance" Dawn said. "I guess your right" May said. "These are match-ups for round 3" The announcer said. The screen showed six match-ups. The first match of the day was Dawn against a young girl from Unova.

"I guess I'm up first" Dawn said. May saw the third match-up was her against Drew. "I guess I'm facing Drew" May said. Drew was standing near Dawn and May with a white rose in hand. "Well May good luck because I am going to make it to the final round" Drew said.

He left the room after handing Dawn the rose. Dawn blushed "I think he likes me" She said. "Alright I guess I'm happy for you. Wait Dawn will you be rooting for me or Drew?" May asked. Dawn didn't answer, she just kept blushing. "Well that answers that question" May said.

Back in the seats Ash and the others saw the match ups for round 3. "So May is going against Drew this should be interesting" Norman said. "May beat Drew twice already, but Drew has changed a lot since we last saw him" Ash said.

Dawn's match was a very close match up. Dawn used togekiss and mamoswine against her opponent's Druddigon and golruk. By the end of the match togekiss and Druddigon were both knocked out. Dawn's points were slightly ahead and she was declared the winner of the match.

"Looks like Dawn's moving on to round four" Felix said. "Now May just has to win" Max said. "She can do this I know she can" Ash said. May stood on one end and Drew stood on the other. "Match three of round three will be May of Petalburg city vs Drew of LaRousse City" Wallace said. "I've been waiting for this rematch May. I'm finnaly going to prove that I am the more skilled coordinator" Drew said.

"I'm more than ready for you Drew" May said. "You better hope so" Drew said as he took out two pokeballs. "Time to show the audiance what you're made of Absol and Flygon" Drew said as he released his two strongest pokemon.

"I know you guys can do it. Go Blaziken and Charmander!" May said. Charmander and Blaziken both took the stage. Moments later Ash's charizard came out of his pokeball on his own. The people sitting directly behind Ash were all stuck beneath the massive charizard. "Hey kid you mind putting your charizard away" One said. Charizard turned to the man and roared in his face.

The man didn't make a sound for the rest of the match. "Why did your charizard come out of his pokeball?" Felix asked. "My charizard's been training May's charmander. His mate had an egg and it's going to hatch soon so he's been practicing his fathering on charmander as well" Ash said. "Your charizards going to be a dad" Felix said.

He turned to Ash's charizard and said "I envy you, you found out about your child before they were born". "Let the match begin!" Wallace said. "Charmander use firespin" May said. Charmander spun his head and breathed out a twirling collum of fire.

"Flygon use dragonclaw , go through the firspin" Drew said Flygon flew through the inside of the firespin directly at Charmander. "Blaziken use blazekick" May said. Blaziken jumped up from behind charmander and bashed flygon across the head with blazekick. The force from the strike hurled flygon to the ground. "That was good quick thinking by May" Wallace said.

Drew lost some points. Despite this Drew smiled and said "Now absol" Absol appeared out of no where ontop of Flygon and unleashed night slash on Blaziken. Blaziken hit the ground on his back and May lost a few points. Charmander's head shot to blaziken when he hit the ground. "Char!" He shouted. Blaziken shouted something back to Charmander.

"Flygon use dragon claw" Drew said. "Charmander look out!" May said. Flygon quickly got up and slashed across charmander with a dragon claw. "Charmander!" May said. Charizard growled looking at Flygon. "I guess Drew recovers quickly" Red said.

Charmander landed beside blaziken and May lost more points. "Now Absol use double team" Drew said. Absol created copies of himself surrounding his opponents "Now use rain dance" Drew said. All of the absol copies opened their mouths and unleashed a ball of water into the air that made it rain.

"What a spectacular appearance" Nurse Joy said. May lost a few points. "With that rain in place both of May's pokemon will be weaker" Norman said. "May's a resourceful girl she can figure a way out of this" Ash said. "Flygon use earth power" Drew said. Flygon hit the ground from above and all of absol's copies vanished.

Charmander and blaziken were both hit by the attack and May lost even more points. Back in the coordinator's room Dawn was watching anxiously still on the fence on who to root for. "I suppose May is sort of my friend. But I think Drew might really like me" She said to herself.

"May don't let him keep the pressure on you!" Ash said. "Absol use slash, flygon use dragon tail" Drew said. "Charmander use smokescreen!" May shouted. Charmander opened his mouth and unleashed a thick black smoke that blided flygon and absol.

The two collided into each other and Drew lost a few points because of it. "Flygon quick use defog to get rid of the smoke" Drew said. "Blaziken use fireblast and Charmander use dragon claw" May said. When Flygon cleared the smoke he saw Blaziken unleashed a massive fireblast and Charmander being hurled by the fire blast at them with his claws glowing violet.

"Move!" Drew shouted. It was too late however, Charmander slashed both flygon and absol before they were hit with the fire blast. "That's it May!" Ash shouted. "Pika chu!" Pikachu said happily. "May is far from beaten I think Drew is getting scared" Norman said.

Drew lost many points because of the combination attack but contrare to what Norman said he didn't seem phased at all. "Nice move May but I'm afraid it will be your last. Flygon use sand attack" Drew said. Flygon used sand attack over and over again .

"Perfect now Absol use sheer cold" Drew said. Absol was directly in front of Charmander and gathered up strength for the attack. "Charmander move!" May shouted. Charmander franticly tried to see where absol was but the sand attack was still blinding him. "Char char!" He screamed.

"Sheer cold will knock him out in one hit!" Max said. "Charmander look out!" Ash said. Charizard franticly roared at charmander. Absol unleashed the sheer cold at charmander. Blaziken recovered from the sand attack just in time to see the attack heading for charmander.

Blaziken dashed forward and pushed charmander out of the way. By doing so he saved charmander but was hit with the cheercold himself. Blaziken fell the the ground unconscious and May lost even more points. "Blaziken!" May shouted.

"This isn't good May's already down one pokemon" Max said. "May don't give up you can still do this" Ash shouted. Charmander looked down at unconsious blaziken and growled. " Blaziken return. Thank you blaziken" May said. "Flygon finnesh this off with dragon tail" Drew said.

Flygon flew down at Charmander with his tail glowing. " Charmander dodhe and use dragon rage!" May shouted. Charmander waited until flygon was close enough then jumped up over him by kicking off Flygon's head.

When he landed on the other side he unleashed dragon rage on unsuspecting absol. Absol was knocked out cold by the powerful dragon rage and Drew lost many points. "Absol!" Drew said. Charizard roared in joy. "Great work charmander" May said.

"Alright flygon use sand attack" Drew said. "Charmander use flamethrower" May said. Charmander unleashed fire on the sand coming at him but some still got in his eyes. "Now Flygon use Dragon claw" Drew said. "Charmander look out!" May said.

Charmander tried to wipe the sand out of his eyes but Flygon was too fast. The green dragon slashed charmander with his dragon claw. "Char!" Charmander screamed in pain. "Again flygon" Drew said. Flygon turned around and hit charmander again. "Charmander!" May said. "Pika!" Pikachu shouted in concern.

Charizard looked scared that charmander was seriously hurt. May's points were nearly gone and only two minutes were left in the match. "Come on May you can still do this" Ash said. "Charmander can you keep going?" May said.

Charmanger slowly got up and turned to flygon. He growled for a moment and then roared. Charmander began to glow and get bigger. "Is he?" Max started. Charizard eye's widened. "Charmander" May said. "I don't believe it" Wallace said. Charmander stopped glowing and roared "Char!". "Incredible May's charmander has just evolved into charmeleon" Wallace said.

"This doesn't change anything flygon use sand attack and then dragon tail" Drew said. Flygon unleashed a burst of sand at charmeleon and then flew straight at him. "Charmeleon use flamethrower then dragon claw" May said. Charmeleon opened his mouth and unleashed a massive burst of fire that burned through all of the sand and then hit flygon slowing him down.

Drew lost a few points becaus eof this. "Dragon tail" Drew said. Flygon swung his glowing tail at charmeleon. "Dragon claw!" May said. Charmeleon's claws began to glow violet and he smashed his right claw into flygon's tail. Charmeleon's counter attack knocked flygon's dragon tail out of the way.

Charmeleon then slashed his left claws up and into flygon's jaws. Drew lost a few points as flygon was hurled into the air. "A dragon move like that should have been really effective against flygon" Red said. "Dragon rage" May said. Charmeleon channeled his dragon energy then opened his mouth and unleashed it on Flygon who was still in the air from Charmeleon's dragon claw.

Charmeleon roared as he unleashed dragon rage on flygon. The violet dragon rage moved like it was a dragon and impacted flygon. Flygon fell to the ground and hit the floor hard. "Flygon!" Drew said. When the dust cleared May and Drew saw flygon was unconscious.

"Flygon is unable to battle, the winner is May!" Wallace said. "We did it, We did it!" May said. Charmeleon roared in victory before turning back to May and hugged her. Charizard roared in happiness. "She won!" Caroline said. "I knew she would do it" Ash said.

"Flygon return, rest well my friend" He said. Drew looked at May for a moment before turning back and walking towards the coordinators room. When May returned to the coordinators room and saw Dawn talking with Drew. "I'm sorry you lost" Dawn said. "Loosing is part of a coordinator's career. I can accept this defeat, but don't let yourself be discouraged Dawn. You're a great coordinator and I know you can win the grand festival" Drew said.

Drew gave Dawn a short kiss on the cheek and said "I'll be rooting for you" Then walked toward the exit. As he walked past May then both looked at each other. "congratulations May, you haven't lost your touch" Drew said. "Thanks I think, you really like Dawn don't you" May said. Drew turned back toward Dawn for a moment. "I'm glad you chose Ash over me. It never would have worked out between us" Drew said.

"You're right it wouldn't have and I think you and Dawn are a good match" May said. Drew left the coordinator's room to go to the pokemon center. When May walked back to Dawn she saw she was blushing and had a white rose in her hand.

Later that night at the Brenton Inn Ash and May were inside the hotel's small pokemon center. "So May now that you're in round four what happens next" Ash said. "Well there are six of us left and we each give another performance. The best two performances move on to round five which is the final round" May said.

"Do you know what your performance will be?" Ash said. "I think I have an idea" May said. "Are you ready to perform it?" Ash said in a concerned tone. "Ash don't worry, round four doesn't begin for three days. We have time to practice" May said. "PIka" Pikachu said in a relieved tone. "Well that's good to hear, we can start practicing tomorrow. Maybe my dad could help us " Ash said. "Sounds good" May said.

Felix was in the pokemon center with Ash and May, but he was on the phone with Delia. "It sounds like you and Ash are connecting very well" Delia said. "I only wish I could been there fifteen years ago. I am thankful I can be part of my son's life now, but I still have to dwell on missing the first fifteen years of his life" Felix said.

Suddenly another call came in "Delia I've got another call " Felix said. He answered it and saw a young woman in red with spikey green hair. "Can I help you?" Felix asked. "My name is Liza I'm looking for Ash Ketchum" Liza said.

Felix turned and said "Ash someone named Liza is looking for you" Felix said. "Liza!" Ash said. He and May hurried over to the telephone. "Ash there you are, It's time" Liza said. Charizard came out of his pokeball and looked at the screen. He growled a little at the screen.

"Charla's egg is close to hatching and it's a long flight from Hoenn to Jhoto" Liza said. Outside the hotel Ash and May were with Charizard. "Good luck Charizard I know you'll be a great dad" Ash said. Charmeleon growled saying something to charizard.

Charizard growled back and then hugged charmeleon. When he let go of charmeleon he took off into the air. "Good luck buddy" Ash said. Later that night in Ash's room May and Ash were talking. "You think Dawn was rooting for Drew in the match today" Ash said. "She seems like she really likes him" May said.

"Does he like her?" Ash said. "I saw him kiss her today" May said. "Well that answers that question" Ash said. "I'm glad Dawn found someone I was afraid she was going to try and come on to me" Ash said. "Do you think I would let her do that" May said. Ash and May kissed each other and didn't notice Red walk in.

Red stepped back into the hallway and shut the door. His pikachu turned to him and saw "PIka" "I agree Max could use some more training we don't have to go back to the room just yet" Red said.