A/N: Well, Poke-Ranger21, it's sort of like choosing your battles wisely. Ash here is choosing the Pokémon he encounters wisely. He'll start catching Pokémon more frequently down the line, but for most of the first half of his journey, there's not a lot of impressive Pokémon to catch for the long run. It's sort of like he's using META strategies, but not like how we use it. Don't forget, he's spent years training to think like a trainer and doing none-scientific research for years while most don't really think about it. He caught the Buizel not because of stat numbers or move combos way far down the line like we understand, but rather for the fact it's known in the region to be the fastest water type and it can fight on land. If he caught every Pokémon like Dawn does with no prior knowledge, then he'd be spending a lot of time wondering how the four to six Pokémon caught can help him only to turn out they couldn't in each city. So he cut all that out by doing his homework while he was in Twinleaf. He knows what he will catch, not what he could catch.

After their encounter with Cynthia, the two went back into the city to check up on Prinplup and Ralts to see how they were doing. But while they were walking, a woman with blonde hair in a ponytail, an orange sweater and blue jeans spotted them and ran up to them.

"Oh, you found my lucky necklace! I've been looking all over for that!"

"So you're the person that lost this." Dawn realized, looking down at her neck and inspecting the golden coin. "We found this in Amity Square." The woman then smacked her head from hearing that.

"Oh right, duh! I took off my necklace because the leather chafes sometimes and my new eevee chased something she saw and I forgot my necklace. I tell you, having a pet is nice, but being a computer programmer with two pets? It leaves a girl a little pulled in multiple directions." And then a thought came to her. "Say, would you like to adopt my eevee?" Ash was a little surprised by the woman, but Dawn was even more so.

"R-really? You want to give us your eevee?" The young researcher asked in disbelief.

"I don't mind at all. In fact, it would help me. Follow me." She requested and started going home with the two teenagers following. "You see, I already have a glameow called Fluffy. She's just the cutest little thing." She gushed for a few seconds. "And then a good friend of mine from Johto gave me an eevee as a gift. I appreciate the thought but like I said, two pets was a little more than I am prepared for. I was considering giving it up for adoption for a few days now when just now I saw you two with my necklace."

"Summing up, you can't hold two pets, and since we found your necklace, we get an eevee?" Ash said.

"Pretty good summary." Once they reached the woman's home, they saw that it was of modest size. Not too big or small. Inside, there was a bed, a table for two, a tv, a computer surrounded by two bookshelves, and a big machine taking up the corner.

"Your home looks cozy." Dawn observed.

"Yeah. It's not a whole lot, but it's my home. From around the corner of a different room, a glameow and eevee ran up to the woman whom started laughing as she stooped down and played with them.

"He-hey guys. Guess what, I found my necklace!" Both of the Pokémon cheered while Dawn unlatched the back of the necklace to hand it to the woman.

"Say, what's your name? You never told us." The young researcher asked.

"The name's Bebe Strana." Ash then realized it.

"Oh, you're one of the people who came up with the PC's!"

"Bingo." Bebe said as she dangled her necklace in front of her glameow, batting at it like a cat would. Placing it to the side to let her cat play with it, she then focused on her eevee. "Crystal, you know that thing we've been talking about?" The Evolution Pokémon's face went from happy to solemn within seconds. "I know, the past week has been fun, but I can't take care of you and Glameow. But, I found a new owner for you." She picked up the brown and cream furred animal. "Crystal, meet... Oh, you never said you're names either. Heh, funny."

"I'm Dawn and he's Ash."

"Dawn and Ash, that's it. Would you like her to hold you?"

"Vee." She said, hesitant about this.

"Come on, she helped me get my necklace back. She's good." Considering that, Crystal prepared herself to jump, with Dawn getting ready before she caught the little creature in her arms.

"Aww, you're so cute. Yes you are, yes you are." The teenage girl cooed and gushed with the adorable little Pokémon.

"Eevee!" She said in a new much more positive attitude.

"Well, looks like she's yours. Just one more thing to do." Bebe concluded as she took out Crystal's Pokeball and pressed the center, resulting in the eevee glowing blue before it stopped. Bebe gave it to Dawn. "Now she's yours. You know the rest." With a nod, Dawn took the ball and tapped it against the Evolution Pokémon and with three wiggles, the Pokeball clicked. "Yes! I have an eevee! She'll really help in the field of evolution study!" Taking out her Pokedex, she scanned the ball.

Eevee: the Evolution Pokemon. Because its genetic makeup is irregular, it quickly changes its form due to a variety of causes. Its ability to evolve into many forms allows it to adapt smoothly and perfectly to any environment. Probably the most unique Pokémon period.

"Huh. No snark. Rotom must really like eevee." Ash pointed out.

"Yeah. I'll probably have to send another one of my Pokémon home though. Krikky, maybe." Dawn then looked somewhat glum.

"Wow. I had Prinplup and four of our house pets. Now it's just going to be Sparky. Wow. It's weird how sentimentality and pragmaticism contrast. I want to keep my house pets with me, but I'm now taking care of babies or need Pokémon with great potential for what's to come." Ash put a hand on his friend's shoulder, trying to comfort her.

"Catching all the Pokémon in the region will leave those behind when the challenge gets progressively tougher. Even a Kricketune would have difficulty with a Tangrowth."

"Yeah. I understand. And so do my Pokémon." Dawn looked back at the programmer. "Thank you so much for the gift. I will treat Crystal the best to my ability."

"I trust your word. Come by again." Bebe bid farewell as the teenagers left. With it only by this point 9:40, the two were wondering what to do next when a girl wearing an orange and brown uniform with green boots came to them.

"Ash Ketchum?" She asked the trainer.

"Yes?"

"Miss. Fantina is able to see you now. Come with me." She politely requested before walking away.

"I wonder how she did in the contest." Ash pondered.

"You met her before the gym?" Dawn asked, curious.

"After you went to get changed into that pink dress. She sounds very French."

"Interesting." When the three teenagers came up to the gym, it gave an obvious clue to what type it was with the Drifblim on top of the roof.

"So she's a ghost type. This will be tricky." Ash remarked, sweating a little. After a little thinking, Dawn came up with an idea.

"Ash, you go on in and battle her. I'll be right back." The girl told him before running off.

("I wonder what she has planned.") The trainer thought to himself. ("Oh well, I'm sure she'll be back.") With a shrug, he went in.

The inside certainly fit Miss. Fantina. Aside from the flat field and stands, the inside looked like similar to the design of a medieval French castle gone goth, with its dark blue-grey stone brick floors, stained windows, pillars as high as the ceiling with elegant, expensive looking chandeliers over the battlefield giving the room enough illumination without making it too bright or dark, and pictures of weird yet masterful paintings of Fantina posing with different ghost types that looks like colored oil was used and not traditional paint. On the far end of the field was Fantina herself.

"Hey Miss Fantina. Love what you done with the place. How did you do in the contest?" Ash asked, being a courteous guest. She looked both pleased and saddened at the same time.

"Merci, Ash Ketchum. The interior design represents my homeland, and the pictures of all my Pokémon and me were done by my friend and master artist, Allen. Although, alas, I have only made it to semi-finals. That Nando is so magnifique. Peu importe, now it is my responsibility to show you my gym leader arts in ghost types. Es-tu prêt?"

"If that means if I'm ready, then yes I am." Ash confirmed holding out a Pokeball. The male announcer to the side of the field began to speak.

"Now brace yourself for unparalleled grace and charm as the fabulous gym leader, elegant dancer and magnifique local coordinator, Melissa Fantina! Brace as she..." As he droned on, Ash was wondering to himself,

("Who is he saying that to? There's no actual audience in here. I wonder if we're being secretly broadcast?")

"...And now, the match between Melissa Fantina and Ash Ketchum will begin! Each trainer will use three Pokémon, and when all three of one trainer faints, the battle is over. Only the challenger may substitute Pokémon at any time.

"Duskull, battle position!" And with that, a small round ghost with the front part of a skull for a face appeared with one red and white eye rolling around in its head.

"Bibarel, I choose you!"

"Duskull, use Will-O-Wisp!" Surrounding itself in blue fire, Duskull sent out a barrage of the ghostly flame.

"Counter with Water Gun!" Spewing out water from her mouth, the flying fire was extinguished and sprayed the ghost type, getting the first move in.

"Duskull! Fine then, use confuse ray!" From one of its eye sockets, it shot out a beam of rainbow colored energy.

"Dodge with rollout!" Rolling herself into a ball, the beam missed her mobile body as she slammed into the ghost type. What was really unfortunate for the Requiem Pokémon, Bibarel was simply way too fast like this, as every time it tried to dodge or do any attack, it was hit with a progressively more hard hitting attack. When it looked like Duskull was about finished, Fantina blurted,

"Use Future Sight!" Duskull glowed blue for a few seconds before it was bashed by the normal type, landing on the ground fainted.

"Duskull is unable to battle. The winner is Bibarel." The referee said.

"Duskull, return." Once it was back in its ball, she spoke to it, "Bon travail, Duskull." Putting it away, she took out another pokeball. "That is quite speedy little beaver, Ash. But, let's use something more up to speed. Haunter, battle position!" Out came a floating, pointy, cackling head with clawed hands floating not attached to the head. Ash's face remained stoic, recognizing the evolved form of a gastly.

"Bibarel, return." Wanting to save his first normal type for later, he switched things up. "Grotle, I choose you!" On the field came his grass starter.

"Haunter, use Confuse Ray!" It's eyes glowed red before shooting out a red beam of energy.

"Use Curse!" Ash ordered. Getting hit by the ray bringing it confusion, he certainly had something to curse about now."

"Now, use Shadow Claw!" Its right hand glowing with dark energy in the form of a claw, the Gas Pokémon went to strike it on the head.

"Counter with Bite!" Before the ghost type could withdraw, Grotle snapped at the enemy and bit down hard on the attacking hand, causing the ghost type to yell in agony. Thanks to curse raising its physical attacking capability, he was able to bite down that much harder. In fact, the pain caused by the bite was so intense that Haunter fainted.

"Eh?! What happened?!" Fantina gasped in shock as she returned her Pokémon. Ash smirked in response.

"Oh, don't you know that ghosts are weak to dark type moves? And Grotle used curse to become stronger both offensively and defensively." However, it was then that a ball of psychic energy appeared above Grotle and plummeted down like a rock, exploding over the Grove Pokémon's back, causing him to cry out in pain. "What?"

"Oh, don't you know what Future Sight does, garçon?" Fantina spoke in the way he just was, regaining her composure. "It's a move that happens little after its been set, striking when not expected." Ash growled. From the sidelines however, an encouraging voice cheered to Ash.

"Don't worry Ash! You're doing great!" Everybody turned to see that Dawn has returned in a pink and white cheerleading outfit, shaking around pink pompoms. Next to her left and right was Ralts and Buneary in similar, tiny versions of the outfit the teenage girl was wearing, shaking smaller pompoms. Her hair was put up with two side pigtails.

"Dawn?!" Ash exclaimed, his face heating up and blushing like mad as both of his nostrils practically gushed with blood from just how beautiful she was.

"You along with my family helped cheer me on in the contest when I froze. Now I'm returning the favor! Kick Fantina's fanny!" She told him with all her energy as the two Pokémon cheered their names in solidarity. Feeling his words invigorate him, he smiled as he picked up a blown away leaf from Grotle that was next to his feet, and wiped away most of the blood on his face.

"Thanks Dawn."

"Ooh la la, now that is friend if I've ever seen one. What a fille." Turning back to Ash with a big smile on her face, she got out her last Pokémon. "Mismagius, battle position!" From the pokeball came the evolved form of Misdreavus, now looking much more deep purple with tendrils and a big magician hat on its head. "Use Psybeam!" Mismagius's eyes glowed before shooting a rainbow beam of psychic energy.

"Brace for it!" Ash ordered. Grotle stood his ground before the attack connected against the Grove Pokemon's head, taking damage.

"Huh, what could he be planning?" Fantina mumbled to herself before noticing a green aura surrounding the Grove Pokémon, whom roared with energy.

"That's Grotle's ability. I wasn't sure if he'd survive the damage or not, but if he did, I knew that he would grow stronger from the attack.

"So you let Grotle take hit." Fantina surmised. She then smiled. "Well played. Mismagius, Shadow Ball!" The ghost type formed a black orb of darkness before firing it at the grass starter.

"Grotle, use Razor Leaf around the attack!" Even while confused, Grotle could still sense the general direction of the incoming attack, and thus the leaves on his back glowed neon green before firing, spinning around like a vortex. While some were disintegrated and it managed to impact against Grotle, creating another explosion, the leaves that did make it past were flying so randomly that Mismagius didn't have an effective way to dodge and thus was hit by the Razor Leaf from all directions in front of it.

"Impossible!" Fantina exclaimed. While her Pokémon wasn't taken out, it was heavily damaged from the attack. "Oh heavens, what is this? The sense of defeat?! No! We'll never give up! Never surrender!" The gym leader defied. The smoke cleared to show Grotle has fainted.

"Grotle is unable to battle. The winner is Mismagius." The referee declared.

"Grotle, return." Once the sphere absorbed his Pokemon, he spoke to his starter,

"You were magnifique-" Ash cut himself off, then chuckled from his choice of words. "I mean magnificent. Take a good rest."

"Ash, Ash, he's our man! If he can't do it, no one can!" Dawn continued to cheer, happy he landed the hit.

"Buneary!" "Ralts!" Both of her Pokémon aided.

Putting Grotle away, he dug out another Pokeball. "Staravia, I choose you!" From the ball came his bird Pokémon.

"Mismagius, use psybeam!" Rainbow energy once again shot forth from the ghost type's eyes.

"Double Team!" Staravia chirped his name as he split into many afterimages, the beam passing through a fake.

"Oh no!" The gym leader gasped.

"Oh yes! Staraia, use Wing Attack!" His wings glowing white, Staravia started to hone in on the Magical Pokémon.

"Counter with Magical Leaf!" From the gems under its head, Mismagius produced many magically enhanced leaves that cut through most of the fakes, but it wasn't enough as one of birds landed the finishing blow on the ghost type. It crashed into the ground, fainted. "NOOOOOOOO!" Fantina screamed into the air over dramatically.

"Mismagius is unable to battle, and Staravia is the winner. And the match goes to Ash the challenger!"

"Alright, way to go!" Ash cheered as Staravia came to rest on his right arm, getting a scratch under the beak.

"Yay!" Dawn and her Pokémon celebrated with jumps and shakes.

"Merci, Mismagius. You are true hard worker." She said to one of her aces as she returned her ghost Pokemon. She then laughed while performing a twirl. "That was most incroyable! To be beaten by someone like you is real honor."

"I do have to admit, I'm glad I fought you early on. I'm not sure how I'd fare if I fought you in the later half of my journey." Ash admitted as he returned his bird and started walking to her, as she walks to him.

"With your skill and grace, I'm sure you would've beaten me anywhere in the eight. But not just skill you have, but sufficiently strong Pokémon to boot." The two then came up to arm length distance. "You are admirable trainer. I shall honor it with Relic Badge." She presented him with three purple circles connected by aluminum hoops. He took it.

"Thank you. I hope to see you again. You seem like real fun."

"Merci, Ash Ketchum. Au revoir." She said before Ash left the arena. As he left, he saw Dawn running towards him. Prepared, the two gave each other a might hug while Ralts and Buneary hugged one of each of his legs.

"Three badges to go! At this rate, you'll qualify for the Pokémon League in no time!" She remarked, as happy and joyful as she could be with her beaming face.

"Thanks Dawn. I love your outfit and hair." The trainer complimented. Dawn then blushed.

"Thanks." She said blushing as the two let go of their hug and high fived.

A/N: Huh, I wasn't expecting him to win that easily. The two gym leaders before were much closer to defeating him. Well, I finally brought in the cheerleading thing. I'm sure that will please all the pearlshippers reading this. Let me know what you think.