As Dawn prepared for the next contest with Harmony's help they figured to let Pachirisu learn a bit more from Chu, her Pikachu with learning to store up electric power that would help with a contest.
"Pachirisu why don't you try storing up electric energy just like Chu did," Dawn says to her squirrel pokemon.
"See that looks pretty cool and will work well for a contest Dawn." Harmony points out with a grin, "And once you store up enough you need to let it all out at once, which can create quite the spectacle."
As Pachirisu did that it looked like blu fireworks in the air.
"You're doing it Pachirisu and it looks beautiful!" Dawn compliments her pokemon. "Thanks for your help Chu! I know we'll win that ribbon for sure!"
"Those kinds of things can make all the difference in a Pokemon Contest." Brock points out. As Pikachu went up to Chu to chat about how a great coach she was being to Pachirisu.
It was then that Pachirisu came back to Dawn with big wide eyes, "I know what you want, a Poffin!" Dawn says, pulling out her bag of them. "You want one too Piplup?"
"Careful Dawn, don't spoil them too much or they'll expect a treat every time you train." Harmony points out, "Which isn't a bad thing, but still."
"Man you two made quick work of that." Ash points out the two pokemon having eaten them rather quickly.
"One could say they have just as much an appetite as you do Ash," Harmony teases earning a blush on Ash's cheeks.
"I'll tell you, you've really got the perfect recipe going," Brock compliments Dawn.
"With Forsythia's help of course," Dawn points out only to look back down to see her pokemon begging for more.
"Oh no, Dawn. This is when you put your foot down and say no more." Harmony says with a shake of her head, "Treats are for when they do something to earn it, not for all the time."
"Right, not until we do more practicing you two," Dawn says, trying to be firm but they go further to beg her for more. "I said no," she repeats but they continue to beg. "I said no!" she says more firmly and both Chu and Pikachu quickly realize what Pachirisu was going to do along with Harmony who darted away a bit.
"Well then, someone's got a bit of an attitude." Harmony giggles as everyone gets electrocuted. "That is going to be hard to train away. Chu can you stop Pachirisu please?" she asks her Pikachu who nods and shoots a thunderbolt at the squirrel pokemon causing it to faint.
"Are you three okay?" Harmony says worriedly, "Did I forget to mention how electric types have trouble training if things don't go their way? Because they can get that way…" she says sheepishly moving to help everyone stand back up.
"Oh no! Not my hair again!" Dawn cries out at her electrocuted frizzy hair.
"It's okay we'll fix it, nothing some brushing and spray can't fix. Don't worry Dawn." Harmony says gently to her friend.
"Hey DeeDee!" a male voice calls out.
"DeeDee?" Dawn says with a gasp.
"Deedee?" Harmony, Ash, and Brock call out in confusion.
"Only one guy knows that name!" Dawn says in a panic.
"That's right, good to see you!" a boy walks up to Dawn.
"Kenny! It is you!" Dawn says with a gasp.
"And loving that hairdo," Kenny teases.
Dawn soon freaks out and Harmony rushes to try and fix her hair a quick spritz from a bottle and Dawn furiously shoving it down was a perfect fix. "Anyone can have a bad hair day!"
"DeeDee huh?" Ash questions again.
"Yeah, probably either a childhood nickname or a childhood traumatic nickname. Been there done that, never fun, and gets under your skin unless you find one for the other person or get over it." Harmony says with a shrug.
"What do you know, DeeDee's got herself a couple of Pikachu, DeeDee's all grown up," Kenny says, almost sounding impressed as Chu and Pikachu had walked up next to Dawn.
"Kenny stop! And you stop calling me DeeDee too! And these aren't my Pikachu! It's theirs!" Dawn says irritated and pointing towards Ash and Harmony.
"She's right, sorry, this girl Pikachu is mine, this is Chu, My name's Harmony," Harmony says as her Pikachu rushes to jump on her shoulder nuzzling her cheek a bit before nodding in agreement.
"My name is Ash," Ash introduces himself as Pikachu jumps on his shoulder happily.
"And my name is Brock, nice to meet you," Brock introduces.
"Yeah nice to meet you," Kenny responds
"See, we've been traveling together for a few weeks now." Dawn points out.
"Best thing ever to go around with friends on a journey, less lonely!" Harmony grins her arm slinging around Dawn's shoulder, "Plus it means we girls get to team up against the guys."
"What! With them?" Kenny says bewildered.
"Kenny left from Twinleaf Town to start his journey before I did." Dawn explains, "We've known each other since Nursery school, and we used to play together a lot. I'm trying to remember your first pokemon…"
"I'll show ya!" Kenny says standing up from the table the group of five were sitting at to catch up and talk. "Come on out to meet everybody!" he calls out, tossing his ball out revealing a Prinplup.
"Wow, a Prinplup!" Harmony and Dawn say getting up out of their seats.
"That means he chose a Piplup as his starter pokemon," Ash points out, getting his Pokedex out.
Prinplup the penguin pokemon and the evolved form of Piplup, one blow from its wings is enough to blow down trees.
Piplup goes to greet it's evolution happily only for Kenny's Prinplup to bat it with its wing.
"Hey! What was that all about! That's not nice." Harmony says, her eyes narrowing.
"What was that for!?" Dawn cries out.
"Uh, sorry sometimes Prinplup gets a bit freaked out if someone gets in its space. I'm the only one Prinplup doesn't have a problem with," Kenny says apologetically.
"Which means it's your job as a trainer to scold it and tell it that's not a good reaction. You know how dangerous that is, don't you? A kid could come up since you're a coordinator and want to greet it and get smacked." Harmony points out, "If you're working with pokemon being performers they have to be able to interact with others, they can't lash out like that." she points out to Kenny. "It's okay now, but if Prinplup evolves and still has that behavior it'll become a really big problem."
"Hey look at that they're acting like Rivals." Ash points out, seeing Piplup trying to make himself look bigger than he was with Prinplup.
"Oh, why not just get along?"Dawn says with a sigh.
"Well, they're both penguin pokemon, remember? And tempers at times can get pretty high." Brock points out.
"And although Prinplup don't particularly like being with others, with a good amount of training they can." Harmony points out once again.
"I saw you using Piplup at the Jubilife City contest, were you copying me?" Kenny points out to Dawn.
Dawn got upset at the accusation. "I wouldn't copy you ever! Piplup and I were made for each other! Isn't that right sweetie?" she asks and Piplup responds happily leaning back to wave at his trainer. "You were at the Jubilife contest? Were you competing or just watching?"
"Uh, excuse me my match was on TV. Why weren't you watching?" Kenny responds making Dawn look apologetic.
"I uh...guess I was busy," she says bowing in apology.
"Yeah, while we were running around looking for you, " Harmony teases, "But I guess we did miss quite a bit of the performer, there was a ton that didn't make it, sad there are only 8 spots,"
Dawn starts giggling, "Wow, I can't see you as a coordinator,"
"Well that, unlike you I've already made it to the finals," Kenny says
"Wow, you did! Amazing!" Dawn says with wide eyes.
"It was the contest right before Jubilife city, and I thought I had my first ribbon. But then I went up against an opponent who was so powerful, I didn't have a chance. She had a Glameow and her name was Zoey. Zoey beat you as well, but Harmony was able to beat her." Kenny points out.
"She wasn't an easy opponent though, she's really talented, I can't imagine her not making it through to the top four for the grand festival." Harmony points out, "Gave me a run for my money so to speak."
"Are you competing in the Floaroma Town contest?" Kenny asks Harmony and Ash and she shakes her head.
"No my team is a bit worn out from our gym battle, plus we're planning a new sequence right now so practice is better than messing up and losing focus," she admits. "Usually that's what I do unless we're really fired up."
"Ash is aiming to win the Sinnoh league," Dawn points out, "and Brock's a pokemon breeder." she tells him.
"But you were in Jubilife right?" Kenny asks Ash confused.
"I had some fun with contests, but no doubt it's gym battles for me!" Ash admits.
"So you guys first hooked up in Jubilife then?" Kenny asks Dawn.
"No, before that! We first met after I rescued Ash's Pikachu for him, and later I watched Ash battle at the Oreburgh Gym, which took him two whole times before he could win his first badge in Sinnoh."
"Hmmm," Kenny mutters thinking as he turns to look at Ash.
"What's up?" Ash asks confused.
"Nothing, see I'm sure you've got your stories but they don't hold a candle to my Dawn ones," Kenny says smugly.
This made Dawn get mad, "You wouldn't dare!" she growls.
"When it comes to stories I got tons of them," Kenny says leaning towards Ash.
"Like what?"
"Hey, we're all ears."
"OR we could not, and leave it alone because it's something Dawn obviously doesn't want us to know, she'll tell us herself if it matters," Harmony says, narrowing her eyes at the guys of their group.
"Kenny do you have to?" Dawn pleads.
"They'll love it! One time Dawn's mom gave her a haircut that she couldn't stand so Dawn tried to cut it herself." he says messing with his own hair before leaning towards Ash, "You can't believe how it turned out, she looked just like a Chimchar!"
"A Chimchar?" Ash and Brock call out looking at Dawn who looked ready to burn someone as they all started trying to hold back laughter.
"Alright, that's enough! It's really rude." Harmony scolds them slamming her hand on the table, "It's not funny because I bet if we went and talked to your parents we'd find out similar stories." she points out narrowing her eyes towards Brock and Ash who immediately stopped with worried looks that Harmony would follow through with her threat.
"If you guys think I'm the way I was back then, you've got another thing coming!" Dawn yells out in anger. "I'll show you a real pokemon battle!" She demands pounding her hand on the table in frustration over Kenny's stories.
"What I want is a battle with either of those Pikachu's!" Kenny says looking at Ash and Harmony.
"What me?" Ash asks confused.
"Did you hear what I said or not?" Dawn growls out frustrated.
"Look I want to make Prinplup stronger, so I want to battle someone with real oomph." Kenny points out.
"Argg, you may have started your journey first, but what a baby."
"C'mon Dawn, he challenged me so bring it on!" Ash says getting excitedly
"Yeah I'm going to pass, I don't want to get into all this mess." Harmony says shaking her head and rubbing her temples, "It's going to give me a headache at this rate."
As the battle started Harmony snickered a bit earning Brock's attention. "It's just funny, seeing that Kenny cares about Dawn at least a bit romantically you see, that's why he was getting her worked up. Like when a guy pulls a girl's hair to show you like them. That sort of thing" she whispers to Brock, earning a chuckle and nod. "He sees Ash as a threat, to be honest, and wants to eye him up."
Chu was cheering Pikachu on during the battle waving her pom-poms she had pulled out from Dawn's bag.
While the battle was still going on a black smoke filtered into the air.
"What the...what's going on?" Harmony says getting up from the bench to try and see, but it was no use. "Braviary, come out and help blow the smoke away!" Harmony says while coughing trying to cover her mouth.
"Staravia use gust to clear everything!" Ash calls out.
With the two flying types blowing the smoke away it revealed James, Meowth, along with Jessie's pokemon trying to shove Prinplup into a bag.
"Wait a minute that's not your pokemon Team Rocket!" Harmony growls out.
"Don't blame us if you were too quick to draw away that hasty haze!" James says almost looking defeated right off the bat.
"I don't know what you're doing but let go of Prinplup!" Kenny says racing closer.
"Hey, where's Jessie?" Brock questions.
"If you must know, getting her nails done!" James retorts.
"Nails done!?" Harmony and Dawn cry out.
"Prinplup with your power you can get out of that hold!" Kenny tried to spark Prinplup up but Seviper's grip was too tight.
"Sorry to spoil the twerp pod, but Dustox's poison sting just sucked the life out of Prinplup sales big time!" Meowth says with a waggle of his claw.
"What! Don't worry! I'm getting you out of there!"Kenny says moving to get to his pokemon only for James to call out his own pokemon.
With that Ash rushed to push Kenny out of the way of the oncoming pin missile and bullet seed attack.
"Are you okay!?" Ash asks.
"Kenny?" Dawn asks worriedly.
"Yeah I'm fine, who are those guys?" Kenny responds.
"They're bad, they're always trying to steal pokemon from us," Dawn answers.
"One step closer and Prinplup gets Punked" James states as Sevipers tail glows purple.
"Stop it!" Dawn cries out, Piplup jumping out of her arms.
Pikachu and Chu go to spark their cheeks.
"You three wait," Ash says causing the three pokemon to stop and look at him.
"You can't use thunderbolt, it'll hurt Prinplup," Harmony points out to them.
As James and Meowth try to leave, seeing as the teens couldn't do anything with Team Rocket trying to throw attacks at them until Piplup moved to take it all glowing.
"What move is that!?" Dawn cries out.
"Looks like bide." Ash points out.
"I don't think so, it looks more like a water move...though I can't remember what," Harmony says with a frown.
"It's whirlpool!" Kenny points out as the move absorbs Team Rocket's moves. "It traps your opponent in a whirlpool and deals them damage over and over."
"Sounds just like what we need, alright Piplup! Use whirlpool!" Dawn calls out.
Throwing the Whirlpool at Team Rocket trapped them inside and was able to give Prinplup the strength it needed to get out of Team Rocket's clutches.
"Hey look Prinplup's just fine!" Ash points out.
"Piplup's whirlpool must have helped it get the boost it needed," Harmony states with a grin.
James, Meowth, and the pokemon tried to get away.
"Oh no, you don't!" Dawn cries out angrily. "You're not getting off that easily!"
"That's an understatement!" Kenny responds standing next to Dawn.
"Use bubble beam!" The two coordinators call out to their penguin pokemon sending Team Rocket blasting off.
"Piplup you were great!" Ash compliments the penguin pokemon.
"Learning a brand new move right before a contest is a great thing to do!" Dawn praises her pokemon.
"And thanks to you Prinplup is just fine!" Kenny points out.
"I can't wait to see you guys in your contest tomorrow!" Harmony coos just as Piplup falls and bumps his head.
Later that night after Prinplup had been checked out by Nurse Joy and Kenny and Dawn started arguing over who would win.
"Tomorrow is sure going to be something," Harmony says with a shake of her head.
And it really was, with Dawn nearly messing up in the beginning and Pachirius freaking out until Dawn used a Poffin to calm it down.
"Whew that worried me a bit, but at least it came in handy, something I'll have to keep in mind," Harmony says with a sigh of relief.
When it came to the first round of battles after Dawn made it, she was up against Jessalina. "You go get and win Dawn!" Harmony calls out loudly having finally realized why Jessalina was so familiar, it was Jessie from Team Rocket. "No wonder they always keep getting hoodwinked, even though they aren't that good with disguises…" she mutters. "I guess she isn't hurting anyone right now, but I'll leave it at that," she grumbles.
Dawn won the battle actually knocking out her opponent before time ran out.
The final stage battle was Kenny against Dawn.
The two looked evenly matched with their bubble beams.
"I would say Piplup actually is a bit better, sometimes it's not just the power of evolution that makes a pokemon stronger, but sheer determination." Harmony points out. "It's why working with the first evolution of a pokemon is really the best thing to do, you bond really well and are able to keep that bond strong as the pokemon evolves." she points out. "Kenny might have the evolved pokemon, but that doesn't mean Prinplup is as strong as Piplup with everything. You saw Piplup's whirlpool, I doubt that Prinplup will really be able to get away from that at some point."
With Dawn using Whirlpool though it didn't damage enough it still was making Kenny lose points.
Dawn ended up using Whirlpool once more with Piplup and Prinplup getting on top of it surfing it.
Dawn was finally able to win with just a few points more than Kenny earning her first ribbon.
"She did it!" Harmony cheers with a grin on her face moving to jump up and down hugging Ash in excitement only to stop as her cheeks heat up and apologize for getting too excited. "I rarely get to see a contest without being a part of one, it's just as thrilling," she says bashfully, turning her head away not noticing that Ash's cheeks were also a bit red from her sudden hug.
Once everything was wrapped up and Dawn called her mom to show off her ribbon which left Dawn crying.
"Hey, what, why are you crying, you won Dawn! That's not something to cry about!" Harmony says with a frown moving to hug her friend.
"They're tears of joy, not sadness," she mutters wiping her tears away.
"I bet your mom's really proud," Brock points out.
"Yeah, and thank you for cheering me on! Now it's onto the Eterna gym for you two! ANd it will be my turn to cheer you two on!" Dawn says with a grin, "And you both are going to win it!" she points out to Ash and Harmony who turn to look at each other with determination.
"Oh I don't doubt it, we're going to win for sure!" Harmony says with a wide grin on her face.
"So it's one to none huh," Kenny speaks up from behind the group.
"Yeah, but you and Prinplup are going to win soon!" Dawn points out.
"I'm sure we'll see you at another contest." Dawn points out to Kenny.
"I'm really glad I became a coordinator you know? Cause there's no doubt you and I will be battling again. See you DeeDee" Kenny says waving her off.
"Huh? Stop. Calling Me. DeeDee!" Dawn cries out after him.
"He sure makes a good rival for you," Brock points out.
"Hey what's so bad about DeeDee anyway?" Ash asks, making Harmony shake her head.
"Never ever ask about something like that," she mutters as Dawn flips out.
"Don't even go there!" Dawn cries out angrily.
"Alright well, we better get some sleep so we can head out tomorrow." Harmony points out. "Sleep off all our excitement and all that." she points out.
"Yeah, we'll have to see what tomorrow brings us!" Ash cheers with a grin.