Ash came out of the sleeping quarters avoiding eye contact from Dawn.
"Morning Ash!" Dawn shouted.
"M-morning," Ash sheepishly replied.
Dawn stared at Ash with a frown. "Hey Ash, you okay?" Dawn asked.
"… Yeah. Just fine." Ash replied. Ash then frowned and turned her face away from her.
Dawn narrowed her eyes. "Ash… what is bothering you?" Dawn wondered. They continued on without any of them talking or looking at each other.
They arrived to the next route, only to see Hau's last pokemon get knocked out by a pokemon they never seen before.
"Agh! What are you doing?" the guy Hau battled asked.
Hau smiled at him with a confused look. "What… do mean?"
"You didn't take the battle seriously!"
"Of course I did! And I seriously enjoyed it! That's what counts, right?"
"You are just holding yourself back, and not putting everything you have in a battle!"
"What's going on?" Ash asked.
"Ash! Dawn! This guy is really scary!" Hau shouted.
Ash glared at him with an unamused look. "Don't worry, Hau. He's not gonna scare me!"
"You're Ash?" the guy asked.
"Yeah, what of-"
"Hmpf. Not very cautious, are you? Some pokemon have a lot better self-preservation than you, apparently."
"What does he need to be cautious for?" Dawn shouted.
"I'm Gladion."
Ash crossed his arms with a frown. "Gez. And all that talk about 'self-preservation' and you go and just blurt out your name like that…" Ash mumbled.
"… I battle for my partner, Null. So it can be strong!"
"Well, I battle for my friends, so we all can get strong together!"
"Pika chu!" Ash's Pikachu shouted.
"…most of my time is wasted doing small jobs for team skull."
Dawn glared at him. "Why would you even waste your time with those thieves!"
Gladion ignored her, and focused on Ash. "You will battle me! With all of your pokemon! I won't take no for an answer!"
"Never planned on backing down!" Ash shouted.
Gladion started off the battle with a Zubat, but Ash's pikachu quick knocked him out with a Thunderbolt. Then he sent out Null. After taking some damage from Pikachu, Null defeated Pikachu. Ash sent out Dartrix next, and Dartrix put in some attacks before getting knocked out himself. Ash then sent out Crabrawler. Null attacked Crabrawler, and he was painting and sweating. Ash then told Crabrawler that it was time, and it nodded. Ash did the pose he needed to do, and Crabrawler used Breakneck-Blitz, and Null fainted.
"Agh. It's not like me to slip up like that!" Gladion said.
"Slip…up?" Dawn questioned.
"I need to battle stronger opponents… I'm not ready yet."
"Ready? For what?" Ash asked.
Gladion looked over at Hau. "It's fine to enjoy battling. But you… are just using that as an excuse so you don't have to try hard…" Then he turned to Ash and Dawn. "As he's unable to defeat Hala when he's serious! But his pokemon are strong!"
Hau just smiled at him. "So, you know my gramps? Wait, you think I'm strong?"
The team skull goons appeared. "Aren't you cool, Gladion!" the guy said. Then they both laughed.
"You're so spineless! But that's not surprising from some homeless kid! Luckily, we have enough backbone to cover you!" the girl said.
The guy went up to them.
"Just give it up," Gladion said.
"Huh?" the guy said.
"You can't even beat me! You'll just harm your pokemon for no reason!"
The girl glared at Gladion. "We've wasted our time, thanks to you! We've could've stolen the totom pokemon at Brooklet Hill by now, if you hadn't got in our way! Let's just get out of here!"
"Gladion! You ain't really apart of team skull! You're just hired help for when we need you!" the guy shouted.
"Yeah, you're just lucky the boss likes you! You'll never be a part of team skull! Got it?" the girl said.
Gladion just gave an irritated look.
"Hey! You're giving Hau a hard time for what he does, but what about you?" Ash shouted to Gladion.
"Yeah! You're with a group of people who treat you horribly! You deserve to be with better people than some jealous losers!" Dawn shouted.
"Hey!" the team skull goons shouted.
Gladion just uttered a "humph," and left. "I have my reasons…" he thought.
"Thanks for helping me out, you two!" Hau said.
"No problem!" Ash said.
"What a strange guy!" Dawn said.
"Yeah. Well, it doesn't matter to us! We better just continue on with the trial!" Hau shouted.
"Right!" Ash shouted.
"Anyways, I'll see you two around! Thanks again!"
They all said their goodbyes and left.
Ash and Dawn arrived at a pokemon center and ate lunch there while their pokemon got healed up. They arrived to Broklett Hill, and ran into a blue haired girl.
"Hello, I'm Lana. I'm the trail caption here!"
"Cool! I'm Ash, and this is Dawn!" Ash shouted.
"Nice to meet you two! Can I ask you for your help with something?"
"Sure!" Dawn said.
"Alright, follow me!" Lana then walked off and Ash and Dawn followed her.
Lana stopped in front of water. "See that, over there? That vigorous splashing?"
"Yeah!" Ash shouted.
"I'd like for you to check it out!" Lana gave Ash a lapras pager. "Maybe it could be the legendary kyogre. I heard he comes by these waters."
"kyogre? Cool!" Ash shouted. He then called for Lapras on the water, then grabbed Dawn's hand and helped her onto Lapras.
Dawn blushed as she held onto Ash's chest.
Dawn's pikachu popped out of its ball and enjoyed the ride.
"Pikachu? What are you doing?" Dawn shouted.
"Hey, it's fine! Right, Lapras?" Ash asked.
Lapras made an approval sound.
Lapras arrived at the splashing, and a wishiwashi popped up.
"Woah! What's that pokemon?" Ash shouted.
Ash's rotom dex popped up. "Wishiwashi. One of the weakest pokemon."
Ash groaned. "How disappointing. It defiantly is no kyogre…"
Wishiwashi angrily Tackled Ash, and both he and his pikachu fell down.
Dawn's pikachu attacked back with Thundershock, and it fainted. It then got darker.
"… Great job, Pikachu," Dawn said.
Ash and his pikachu sat up. "Yeah! Thanks!" Ash said.
Ash's pikachu thanked it, too.
Dawn's pikachu smirked with its eyes closed. "Chu!"
They sat out in the middle of the ocean. Ash and Dawn looked out at the beautiful place, and then their eyes met. They smiled at each other with a blush. Suddenly, another loud splashing sound was coming from further ahead.
"Oh no! What is that splashing? Is it that someone is drowning up ahead?" Lana shouted.
"Oh no! We got to save them! Come on Lapras!" Ash shouted.
When they arrived at the place where the splashing was coming from, another wishiwashi popped up.
"What?" Ash shouted.
The wishiwashi started to go after them with a Tackle, but both pikachus took it out with Tundershock and Thunderbolt. It then rained.
Lana appeared. "Another wishiwashi. How disappointing." Another loud splashing sound was heard. "Wow! This sounds much stronger than before! We must check it out!" Lana left.
They arrived to where she was waiting. Dawn looked at the gate there and known she's seen it somewhere. They ran passed the gate, and Lana stopped.
"What's wrong?" Ash asked.
"You do realize what we just passed by, right?" Lana asked.
Ash looked back at the gate and gasped.
"That's right. This is a trail, and I've been testing you this whole time. You've bravely went on, so will you continue to do so?"
"Of course!"
"Alright. Then go to where that big splash in the water is. That is the totom pokemon, so go and defeat it!"
"Alright!" Ash went on to do the trail.
"You two are a cute couple," Lana said.
Dawn got a deep red. "W-what! We are not a couple!" Dawn shouted.
Lana laughed. "You know, I was just seeing how you would react."
Dawn glared at her, face still bright red.
"But that's good to know, that Ash's single that is."
"What?"
"He's pretty cute! I might take him for myself!"
Dawn crossed her arms angrily. "Well sorry to say this, but Ash would never be interested in a girl like you!"
Lana tilted her head to the side. "Do you know what girl he is interested in? Like, would it be girls like you?"
She got a deep red.
"And are you interested in guys like him?"
Dawn looked to the side. "I-I mean…"
"If you don't say anything to him, I may just try and steal him, just to see if he really isn't interested in me."
Dawn glared at her with her hands clenched. "What?" Then she turned her body away from her with her arms crossed. "I'm not worried! N-nor do I care!"
Lana then busted out laughing. "Man, you're so easy! I don't fall for guys that easily!"
Dawn glared at her. "Stop toying with me!"
Lana shrugged. "But it's just so funny!"
Ash ran out and shouted, "I did it!" He came out to Dawn, and told her all about it. Ash got the Waterium Z.
Dawn smiled big, as Ash told her what happened in great detail.
Afterwords, they waved to Lana as they left.
"Bye! And good luck Dawn!" Lana winked at her.
Dawn tried to pay her no mind as she turned bright red.
Ash gave Dawn a confused look. "What is she talking about? Does she not know that you are not doing the island challenge?"
Dawn let out a nervous laugh. "I… don't understand it ether."
Ash then smiled at her. "Anyways, I know I must have screwed up kissing you after my match with Hala, and that's why you don't want to kiss me anymore!"
Dawn give him a confused look. "What?"
"But, it doesn't matter. I am just happy being with you, having you by my side, and seeing you smile. That's all I need."
Dawn smiled at him with a blush. She wasn't sure what to say.
Then a pokemon caught Ash's interest. "Woah! Who's that pokemon?" Ash shouted.
Ash's rotom dex came out. "Dewpider. A water and bug type. To attack or get pry, it uses its water bubble that surrounds its head. "
He sent out Dartrix out. Dartrix used Peck a couple times, and the dewpider was knocked out. So Ash threw it's pokeball and it shook a few times before the pokeball stopped moving. Ash ran up and grabbed the pokeball and put it in the air. "Alright, I caught a dewpider."
Dartrix and Pikachu happily cheered. After that, they went back to the pokemon center and stayed the rest of the night there.
