when they got to the pokemon center Daniel asked nurse joy to take a look at houndur and then he and the others sat down to talk.
" So Daniel where did you say you were from?" Ash asked daniel looked at him and smiled.
"you see guys I'm from the johto region and i traveled here to compete in pokemon contest Im gonna make my way to the Kanto grand festival." he said getting excited his first contest would be coming up very soon and he was nervous very nervous. Ash looked at him curious.
"Whats a pokemon contest?" he Misty and Brock asked even pikachu looked confused Daniel looked at the group and got even more excited nurse joy then showed up with his houdnour
"im sorry i couldnt help but over hear you guys. where you talking about pokemon contests?" she asked the group nodded. and daniel stood up
"thats right nurse joy im gonna enter the ceruleon pokemon contest. im just a bit nervous since this will be my first contest." daniel said excited. Dour was also looking very excited as well. Nurse joy smiled at the two of them.
"well pokemon contests can be pretty difficult so i hope you two have been training." she said Daniel nodded he and dour have been training since they left the johto region. ash and the others ooked confused luckily nurse joy noticed and chucked.
"I take it that you guys dont know about pokemon contests" she askeds they nodded
"yeah ive never heard of a pokemon contest before." ash said looking at nurse joy then too daniel.
"well ash a pokemon contest is were trainers called coordinators go to show of their pokemons skills and bilities by showing off and showing what their pokemon can do. thats only the first round the next rounds are battles where you have to deplete your opponents points in a time limit of five minutes and the one with the most points wins. the winner of a pokemon contest gets a ribbon as proof of their victory and you need five contest ribbons to make it to the grand festival thats the goal of every coordinator and im gonna win it right dour. Daniel said to his pokemon who barked happily.
"wow that sounds cool." ash said smiling at the sound of it.
"yeah hey why dont we stay a bit longer and watch the contest i would love to see it." misty said.
"well im happy you feel that way misty because the contest is going to be held at the gym." nurse joy said looking at the group.
"by the way daniel what are dours moves?" brock asked daniel thought for a moment then remembered.
"he knows smog, ember and feint attack oh yeah he also knows howl but ive been trying to get him to learn how to do flame thrower." he said. brock looked at him a bit worried with only weak moves it would be very difficult to win the contest.
"dont worry daniel even weak moves can help pull off a win in a pokemon contest." nurse joy said. later the while the group was eating daniel was looking at his houndour and just couldn wait till the contest Misty noticed and decides to ask a question.
"so daniel what are you gonna do for the contest tomorrow?" she asked daniel stopped eating and thought for a moment he didnt really have a big plan since dour hasnt learned flamethrower yet he needs to find a way to show him off in a interesting way then he got a great plan.
"actually misty i do have a plan smog and feint attack should look good together. dour will use his smog attack and then disapear with feint attack like a hunter stalking his prey he should be able to get a a good score and we can finish it off with ember attack" he said excited Dour looked up from his bowl of pokemon food and smiled at Daniel agreeing with him. ash and the others looked at him and smiled seeing their new friend was so excited for his very first contest. that night daniel went over the plan with dour and the two of them managed to get some sleep after they calmed down. in the morning daniel and the others headed for the location of the contest. when they got there they were superised to see all the people there.
"wow theres more people here then i originaly thought there would be. hopefully me and dour can make it to the 2nd stage." he said ash looked at all of the trainers around him
"are all of them entering?" he asked
"i think they are." misty said looking at a few water pokemon who were practicing with their trainers. they got tp the front desk and daniel showed his id and got registered for the contest. after talking with the others and the group chhering him on the contest was about to begin so ash and the others headed for the stands to watch. the first few contestantsb were all very good as he watched the trainers daniel began to get very nervous and looked at Dour who smiled at him when he got called to the stage he returned dour to his poke ball and sighed he headed for the stage. he looked at the people in the audience and gulped he then looked at dours pokeball.
"OK dour this is it come on out!" he shouted throwing his pokeball releasing his houndour. who looked ewually as nervous as his trainer.
"wow a pokemon from the johto region lets see what tricks these two have up their sleeves." the announcer said.
"OK dour lets go with Ember" daniel shouted dour released a smoke screen instead he was actually shaking.
"hey dour come on that was smokescreen not ember try it again." he said as the two of the struggled ash and the oters watched from the stands.
"uh oh looks like the two of them are just too nervous right now" misty said feeling bad for her new friends.
"yeah seems like they cant seem to focus right now." brock said
"comeon daniel i know you can do it." ash said pikachu cheered for them as well. but dour was just too nervous looking at all of the peopl staring at him and he just ran right abck to daniel.
"hey its ok dour. its ok im scared too its alright." he said trying to calm down his scared pokemon he stood up and sighed
"im sorry but it looks like we wont be able to perform today. im sorry" daniel said apologizing he was actually trying not too cry since he felt like he failed but to his surprise he heard clapping and he saw that the audiance was still cheering him on even though he and dour couldnt put on a good show.
"lets give these two a hand entering a contest takes courage and these two showed it." the announcer lillian said. daniel gave a small smile and left the stage ash and the others went to see him and found him hugging dour. when he saw them he looked away feeling ashamed.
"sorry i got you guys excited for the contest and i couldnt even perform for you." he said feeling bad.
"dont worry about it takes courage to be on stage performing for a audience of people." ash said pikachu nodded. the group watched the contest go on and a girl ended up winning with her vulpix. as the group was leaving the girl actually was waiting for them.
"hey your the boy who pathetically failed in the first round right." she said daniel looked away.
"it was our first contest and our nerves got the better of us thats all." he said not likeing the look she was giving him. she smirked and looked at him.
"well maybe you just need to get better and braver you cant be a coordinater if you dont believ in your self and your pokemon but i guess it makes sense you wouldnt have it in you." she said flipping her black hair out of her face daniel glared at her and dour growled.
"hey just because we got scared in our first contest doesnt mean we are giving up im gonna get better and me and dour are gonna make it to the grand festival you just wait and see." the girl just looked at him then burst out lauging.
"whats so funny" misty said not liking this girl either.
"oh sorry i just cant believe someone who had to drop out because their pokemon got cold feet could ever make it to the grand festival." she said with that same smirk on her face.
"hey all he needs is to train and catch more pokemon besides these contest seem to take a lot of training and prep time as well." brock said.
"yeah so leave him alone." ash said daniel smiled at his friends for defending him.
" well i guess we will just see theres a contest in Amber town i guess i will let you attempt that one." she said about to walk off."
"wait your not gonna compete?" daniel asked the girl just reached into her pocket and pulled out a ribbon case and opened it shocking the group she already had two ribbons.
"nah it wouldnt be fair if i were to enter this contest with you i'd crush you of course." she said as she turned to walk off.
"oh yeah and the name is Kelsey by the way see yah try not to cry when you fail again." she said walking off
Gahhh i cant stand her and i just met her." daniel growled out scowling. he then felt a hand on his shoulder he turned and saw brock smiling at him.
"well then we better head to amber town then according to the map its on the way to vermillion city so we can go there for your contest and then keep going to ash's gym battle." brock said surprising daniel.
"wait you want me too come with you." he said the group nodded and he smiled.
"alright then lets go guys off to vermilion city." he shouted the group thrusted their fists in the air and set off on their journey not knowing what adventures await them.