After finally being able to get rid of the reporters, we walked into the contest hall and searched for some empty seats. We found three on the front row, which was strange as the contest was about to start.
"Took you long enough, twerps." Meowth greeted us.
"We saved you seats, seeing as the reporters wouldn't be letting you go any time soon," James told u.
"Thanks," Ash sat next to Meowth, with me on his lap, Riley taking the seat on his other side, and Lucario sitting beside him. I still don't know how to feel about them. but they did help Ash, so I decided to keep quiet about my doubts about them. "Guys, these are Riley and Lucario, they helped me... with my issue."
I could see they understood by their faces. "Well, nyace to meet you. I'm Meowth."
"James, my wife is competing in the contest."
"Nice to meet you," Riley greeted them politely, Lucario nodding his head beside him. "This is my first time observing a contest... I'm very excited."
"You will not be disappointed," Ash exclaimed. "With both Jessie and Dawn participating, it will be an amazing contest!"
Before anyone could reply, the lights went off and Dawn appeared on stage.
"Pachirisu, spotlight!" She exclaimed, throwing and catching her the Poke Ball.
Pachirisu appeared in a multitude of hearts, doing a small dance in the air before landing, which gained him many awes from the public. Luckily, dawn and Ash both trained him with street performances, to get over his stage fright. He was now used to big crowds watching him perform.
"Pachirisu, Swift!" Dawn commanded. Suddenly, the stage was filled with pink and golden sparkles. "Now, Spark!"
Pachirisu started to zig-zag on the ground showing off his body and the speed of an electric pokemon, under all the sparkles.
"Look at that, she is taking our performance and making it her own." Ash mussed with a bright smile. "Who would have thought?"
"It seems that she is finding her style," commented James. "Sparkles suit her bright personality."
"Iron Tail!" Dawn ordered bringing Pachirisu to a stop in the middle of the stage, showing off his species characteristic tail. "Discharge!"
Now that's just being a copy-meowth! Using the tail to transfer electricity and have it surround his body as a flower is my move! But kudos on the electric manipulation. It's hard and for pulling that off I'll forgive them. They must have worked very hard to succeed.
"Now, come and get it!" Dawn threw a Poffin into the air, Pachirisu used his tail as a spring and caught it before landing on Dawn's shoulder. Acting all cute, while eating his treat. For extra fan service, he nuzzled Dawn's cheek and used Charm on the public. The crowd went wild and many females gushed at the adorable scene.
"That's her best performance so far," Ash said, clapping and smiling proudly.
After bowing, Dawn and Pachirisu, left the stage allowing the next contestant to take her place and perform. Ash excused himself and we sneaked backstage to surprise Dawn. We found her being interviewed by a reporter. She was beaming at the camera and had Pachirisu ridding on her right shoulder, a spitting image of Ash and me.
"That was an incredible performance, Miss. Berlitz. Congratulations!" The reporter congratulated her.
"Thank you!/Thank you!" Both Dawn and Pachirisu replied.
"Can you tell us more about your inspiration for such an appeal?" I sighed at the greedy look in the reporter's eyes.
The news crews might have stopped hounding our family and friends, but that did not stop them from finding different ways of getting interviews and information from them. Both May's dad and Misty have been invited to countless radio and T.V shows as gym leaders just to get storied from Ash. May is always stopped after every appeal and battle for a follow-up/interview about The Saint, and how he influenced her coordinator style. This is why Ash has been very throughout in his media training with Dawn. So, she would not find herself caught by surprise by any of them.
As Ash step forward to help her, Dawn replied: "Yes, I can," the confidence in her response stopped my trainer. A thoughtful look passed on his face and he decided to go back into hiding. I too was intrigued by how Dawn will handle this. "As you can guess I took inspiration from my mentor and travel companion Ash Ketchum. On the first day of my journey, I left home with a lot of dreams and thinking as if I knew it all. Then I was attacked by a cluster of Ariados and saved by him. He then showed accepted me as his companion through Sinnoh and taught me how to be a trainer. While he did not teach me about contests and how to be a coordinator, he has been my inspiration since the day I met him. I once thought I wanted to be just like my mom, but Ash taught me that I only need to be myself. Now, I don't only aim to be a Top Coordinator like my mom, but I also dream of one day being able to impact someone's life like Ash has done with mine. Of being able to help people the same way he does." I could feel Ash trying to stop the emotional sob from leaving his lips and I could only smile. I was not expecting such a profound answer. "This appeal is the combined effort of Pachisiru and me, our homage to our mentors: Ash and Pikachu."
"D-do you aim at becoming a Ranger like The Saint?" The reporter stuttered, after regaining his bearings from an unexpected answer.
"I don't think that there will ever be a Ranger like Ash," Dawn replied, honestly. "While I don't think that Ranger work is my style, there are many other ways of helping out. Simply things for someone can change the lives of people without you knowing it. Just stopping and asking if they need help, and not simply walking away can make a big difference."
Ash turned around and walked back to his seat.
"What are you doing?" I asked him, confused by his sudden decision to leave.
"She doesn't need me to hold her hand anymore. She is all grown up now." Ash answered, voice thick with emotion.
"So, you rather leave now than wait and start crying from another emotional response." I deadpanned.
"Shut up," he sniffled.
I chuckled but kept quiet. I also felt immense pride. After all, Pachirisu was my student. That electric flower had me tearing up. Not even Jolteon can do that! And we've been trying to teach her for months!
As the appeals were coming to an end, the only ones that really stood up were Dawn's, Jessie's, and a guy with a Houndoom that can fire a rainbow Flamethrower.
"I don't know what is that, but I do want to teach it to Houndoom." Ash had exclaimed, when the guy had finished his performance.
I could only nod in agreement, stunned. That was so cool!
"What do you think so far? Not bad for your first contest." James asked Riley.
"I really enjoyed it," he replied. "Especially, Jessilina's. There's a lot of cute and elegant appeals, but her's was quite a fresh performance. So, unique and different."
"Yeah, that's our Jessie... unique." Chuckled Meowth, soon joined by the rest of us.
If there is an adjective that represents her, is: unique. There is only one Jessie in the world. Thank Arceus for that!
Just as I figured the guy with the Houndoom ended up first, then followed by Jessie and Dawn in third. For the fighting part of the contest, Dawn chose Piplup as her partner and advanced all the way to the finals. Jessie, on her part, lost in the semi-finals against Rick, who decided to use his Houndoom all the way. I'm sorry for Jessie but relieved. I didn't want to decide who to cheer for if both of them ended up in the finals.
But that did not mean that we didn't notice the weird things going on in the contest. We continued to cheer for Dawn but kept an eye on the Houndoom and his mysterious trainer. As a twenty-minute break before the finals, started, Ash received a message to meet Jessie and James. He spotted them in the hallway with a tablet.
"I got your message. What was the emergency?" Ash asked.
"You remember when I used that machine to make all of Dustox's moves into a rainbow?" Jessie asked.
"Yeah, I do. I also suspected that Houndoom is doing something similar. But I can't see anything that could turn its flames, or the shadow ball and dark pulse rainbow. Unless it was in his mouth." Ash responded.
"A machine to do that would be too big to fit in its mouth. I should know, I designed it for Dustox." Meowth added
"I did a scan and this is what I found," James said as he handed Ash a tablet.
Ash looked at the information on the tablet and I decided to sneak a peek. "I see. That would make sense. We should probably tell someone this." Ash said giving the tablet back.
"One more thing," James said and then whispered something into Ash's ear and pointed at the tablet.
Mine and Ash's eyes widened. "Why didn't you tell me sooner?!" Ash asked.
"Shit!" I cursed.
"Get Officer Jenny. I am going in there!" Ash yelled as we took off, with Jessie following us.