A few hours before the show is set to start the pair arrives at the contest hall, pikachu following closely behind very curious about everything around them. Great big spotlights have been set up on either side of the hall drawing in more and more people like bug types to a flame, it's clear that people are very excited about the finals tonight as large crowds have formed on the grounds, all excitedly chatting about the contestants, pokémon moves they've seen, and even gossip about the judges.

"let's see if we can get a peek at the challengers they have for tonight's show ash!" grabbing his hand and leading him in through the main doors.

The front hall is a bustling area of activity as contest coordinators and other staff rush around making sure everything is in place and ready. They run back and forth looking important with little headsets on and a clipboard held tightly in their hands, each of them just as stressed looking as the other, probably very grateful that tonight is the last show of the week. The right side of the hall by the registration desk appears to be working as the ticket desk for the event and already had a large line up of people waiting impatiently, hoping to get good seats.

"it's absolutely nuts in here misty! I don't even remember seeing this many people lining up for my last league contest." he says in amazement as they move to join the line for tickets.

"there's something different about the contest circuit I think. There's like an energy about it, it's fancy, exciting, they really pump it up with special effects and man the people that make it to high level competition are some of the biggest celebrities out there."

"I'll admit the last time I was in a contest hall was when I was a kid." ash says chuckling. "either I didn't notice or it must have changed a lot since then."

"ash? Ash ketchum, it that you?!" someone yells across the din of the crowd.

Turning to see who had said that, ash and misty spy the woman who had graced the contest poster they'd found the other night is hurriedly walking towards them.

"Dawn! I was really hoping I'd get a chance to see you here!" ash shouts back.

"wow ash, she's beautiful!" she whispers in to his ear as she crosses the hall towards them, he honestly couldn't disagree. Dawn had certainly changed since their last meeting. Her deep blue hair fell long around her shoulders, framing her face in a pleasant way. Large eyes, colour matching her hair shone bright with excitement were highlighted by shimmering silver makeup. She was wearing the same dress they'd seen her in on the poster, a strapless tight fitting dress that looked as if it were made entirely of silver glitter with thin white stripes crossing over "important" parts as the dress itself appeared to be quite sheer. The dress continued to flow down against her shapely legs, exposed by a split along the side of the dress reaching high up her thigh, landing in a loose pool of fabric around a pair of sharp looking strappy heels.

"what on earth are you doing here?" dawn asks, finally having reached them.

"well I w-, well we were here to see you actually.." he stammers in response suddenly nervous in front of her.

"who's we?"

"well dawn, this is misty, you might reme-"

"oh wow, you're misty! He didn't tell me much about you, but he told me enough to know you were important to him! Nice to finally meet you!" energy is brimming off of her as she reaches a hand up to misty in greeting.

"it's nice to meet you too, you'll have to forgive him for being a little shy when it comes to sharing his feelings!"

"always had his eye on the next pokémon battle didn't he?" she laughs "certainly made it hard to keep his attention.."

"you have absolutely no idea!"

"hey, I am right here you know!" ash chimes in loudly. "you're both not wrong though, I didn't pay much attention in the past, but I'm getting better, I mean misty and I are dating now!"

"no way, you two are dating? For how long? I'm assuming a while now?

"actually he only just asked me out a few days ago" misty responds. "I kind of.. really had to get his attention."

"well congrats you guys! You're certainly seem like you had a lot more patience than I did." she said throwing a sly wink at misty that ash didn't notice

"Still it's really great to see you dawn. It's been too long! I see you've finally made it to the top as a coordinator though." ash said with a big goofy grin on his face.

"aww there's the ash I remembered! And yes, I'm doing great with contests but I've still got a long way to go before I'd say I'm on top of the heap. Somehow my mom still gets more fans at her shows, once I beat her I'll be happy. Every time I've tried she always manages to pull some amazing new trick out from her sleeve and I get blown away in the rankings! She's not going to let me take the crown without a fight that's for sure."

"so your mom is really that good?" misty asks.

"oh absolutely, she's been running the contest circuit for ages now and she's extremely creative, it's almost scary ow quickly she adapts to her opponents. I feel like I'm super close, just need to keep training. This contest series has been a big help in that area, always getting to compete against new faces using new styles, it's amazing!"

"I can't wait to see your match tonight, I really want misty to see the passion for pokémon contests I remember you showing off back when we were traveling together. We were just lining up now to get tickets."

"there's no way I'm letting you do that! I've got a couple private boxes they reserve for coordinators to give to friends and family, why don't you take one of those?"

Both ash and misty gasp in surprise at the offer. Replying in unison, "oh wow that's awesome!"

"you two really are close aren't you.. And yes, it is awesome! I'll get one of the hall managers to give you passes, you won't believe the view you'll have."

"you know, there's someone else who I'm sure wants to say hi to you as well. Pikachu? Pikachu, where are you?" looking around none of them see the little electric mouse. "I'm a bit worried he's gotten lost in the crowd, I'm going to go look for him. Is it ok if you go with dawn to get the passes misty?"

"oh absolutely ash, go find pikachu, I'll wait for you back here."

"thanks! I'll be right back!"

As ash rushes off to find pikachu and dawn leads the way to get passes, misty feels like the pieces of her plan are falling in to place.