It didn't take the three too long to reach Oldale town and once they did, they stayed the night in the Pokemon Centre there too. The next day they made their way to Petalburg city, where May's family live. As usual, Pikachu and Phanphy sat on each of Ash's shoulders, while Torchic also took a spot on May's shoulder. When they arrived, they headed over to the gym so that they could visit May's family. Like May expected, her younger brother Max thought it would be a good idea to pretend to be their father. His plan was destroyed however, when the real gym leader Norman went to see what the noise was all about with their mother Caroline. Whilst May was showing Torchic off, Ash and Brock took a quick trip to the pokemon centre to buy some food and a Hoenn map since May didn't know the rest of her way around Hoenn. Ash had an intense one on one battle with his Pikachu against his Slaking, which they drew. Max was gushing about how he saw many of Ash's battles on the television, but did nitpick him for losing against some of the elite four members. Ash and Brock slept overnight at theirs, then all four of them began their journey to Rustboro city.

Many things happened along the way: Ash caught two pokemon, Brock caught one pokemon and so did May. Ash caught a taillow and a treecko; Brock caught a lotad and May caught a wurmple. Soon, they arrived in Rustboro city and they got a room at the pokemon centre. There was a poster there that seemed to have caught May's eye. It said that there was a pokemon contest in the city.

"A Pokemon contest?" Ash mused. "I wonder what that is."

Brock found a computer and suggested, "Why don't we look it up?"

They typed the words in and multiple results came up. There were many videos, which they all watched and it was obvious that May had stars in her eyes after they finished watching them all.

"Wow, they seem amazing," May gawked, still fascinated by the concept of them.

Ash smiled, knowing that his friend was happy, "Do you think that it's something you'd like to try?"

She nodded profusely, "Yeah, definitely."

"Then go for it," Ash patted her shoulder. "You don't have to carry on if you end up hating it."

"Right," she clenched her fists. "I'm going to enter one."

"I think I might try one too," Ash thought aloud. "It could help me think of different battle techniques to use."

"That's a good plan," Brock agreed. "It could help you see battles in a completely different way."

"Yes!" May cheered. "Let's sign up."

"Sure," Ash caught up with her. "I need to sign up for the Hoenn league, anyway."

...

"Jessie, I think this is something that you'll enjoy."

"Huh," Jessie murmured as she took the leaflet from James' hands. "That does look fun... are you going to enter too?"

"Maybe, but I'm not really sure."

She imagined him battling in a contest, "You know, I think something like this would really suit you too."

"You think so?" James raised his eyebrows. "I guess that entering one contest wouldn't hurt."

"Exactly," Jessie smiled. "So let's sign up."

...

After registering for the contest and the Hoenn league, Ash went to the battlefield to train his new pokemon. He spent a couple of days on working on their endurance and sharpening their moves. Then he focused on their power and their speed. Ash did teach Taillow, Treecko and Phanphy a couple of new moves, but he didn't want to overwhelm them. For the Rustboro gym battle against Roxanne, Ash decided that he wanted to use Treecko and Phanphy. Once he trained their moves, he experimented with potential move combinations that were possible to create.

Meanwhile, May on the other hand had been struggling a lot more. She didn't even know where to begin when it came to training her pokemon. Max being the great brother that he is, just made fun of her. However Brock came over and began to help her find her feet. Even though she was still a little bit unsure, she felt a lot better and more confident in trying new things with her pokemon. Brock gave May multiple tips on how to increase a pokemon's stat and how that could potentially help in a contest battle. Overall May actually ended up training her Pokemon surprisingly well, considering the fact that she was barely starting out.

"Hey May, what have you come up with?"

"I'm not sure about torchic yet, but I've got something for wurmple."

She got wurmple to use string shot to create a trampoline like structure, then she bounced up on it into the air with tackle. Wurmple then used electroweb and poison sting in every direction. As the little darts hit the edges of the web, they burst into little sparks. The bug type fell from the air, bounced on the string shot trampoline and landed gracefully onto the ground with a flip.

"Well done," Ash grinned. "That was seriously creative."

"Thanks," May smiled as she received the compliment. "How about you?"

"Lapras and I have thought of something."

Ash got Lapras to use mist, surf then he cleared the mist with psychic, revealing the water type using rain dance to make it rain. She used ice shard after that and made a plethora of ice crystals, which were held up by psychic. The water type used dragon dance, then sent a gentle dragon pulse to burst every ice shard. There were small crystals falling down and Lapras used surf once more to finish the act.

"Nice," May applauded.

"Those are looking good," Brock commented. "I'm sure you both will do well."

"I just want to see Ash's gym battle," Max daydreamed excitedly, wanting to compare how Ash battles to the way his father does.

"I just hope that I can win," May said to herself, with eyes full of ambition.