Well it's time for chapter four. I need to get one thing cleared away before I let you guys read. I know I said that I will write every chapter from now on in script format but I am changing back to the original formatting. I felt that the story lost its potential after using the script format. I thought it would be easier but boy was I wrong. Please bear with me, as I am new to writing stories. The first and second chapters had a lot of detail which made it interesting for some people so I will go back to the old formatting. In this chapter you can expect to see one more rival and one more main character that will join Ash and Dawn on their journey. Also the poll will be open for 4 more days so please go and vote for two pokemon you think Dawn should capture next. So far Feebas is in the lead. I hope you guys enjoy chapter four. Please review.
The City of Life
Television-(Good evening this is Rhonda from Sinnoh Now, live at Freedom Hall where the annual Jubilife City Pokemon Contest will take place tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. I am here with Nurse Joy of the Jubilife City Pokemon Center. Nurse Joy, what exciting sites are expecting at tomorrow's contest?)
(Joy: I expect to see many wonderful performances from all the hardworking and gifted young coordinators that will compete tomorrow. I also expect to see elegance, team work, and trainers being in sync with their pokemon.)
(Wonderful! Well then we'll be seeing tomorrow at the contest at the judges' panel. Have a nice day!)
(Thank you.)
(Trainers and fans, you don't want to miss this year's Jubilife City Pokemon Contest cause it's going to lively) The man holding the mike for Rhonda accidently dropped it on her head. Rhonda turned around and snapped at him in anger. (If you don't cut that out I will…) The camera man knew the argument was going to get ugly and turned off the camera.
At a Pokemon center a few miles away from Jubilife City at 3:30 p.m.
Dawn turned her head away from the T.V. screen and faced the window of the Pokemon Center looking out into the world. Her eyes had a beautiful sparkle as she thought about her first contest being held in Jubilife City tomorrow.
"Wow! I can't believe that tomorrow is my first contest ever. I can't wait. We're going to…."
Dawn didn't finish her sentence and her face suddenly turned from happiness to worry. She had just realized that she forgot to do something very important, something that will affect her chances of advancing to the second round of the Pokemon Contest.
Dawn smacked her forehead and started panicking. "Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, oh nooooooo!
That last scream startled everyone in the pokemon center including the sleeping Snorlax who jumped a little at Dawn's loud shriek. Ash looked at her and rushed to calm her down.
"Whoa, Dawn, are you okay?"
"No I'm not; in fact I'm the complete opposite."
"Why'd you freak out like that?" Ash asked with a concerned look.
Dawn who was still panicking replied back. "The contest is tomorrow and I total forgot about my combo for my appeals round." "Oh how can I be so forgetful?"
"Look on the bright side Dawn. You have over twelve hours until the contest starts, you can use this time to practice," Ash advised her.
Dawn looked at Ash and knew he had a point and looked at everyone else who was staring at her in shock. Dawn felt bad that she had rudely disrupted everyone around her.
"I'm sorry I freaked out like that," she said softly facing the other people in the pokemon center who then forgave her.
Dawn looked at Ash again and asked him a favor. "Ash, if you don't mind could I have a few hours to myself and my Pokemon? We don't have much time left and we need to come up with a combo. I'll call you as soon as I'm ready. Okay?"
"Sure, of course you can Dawn. In the meantime I'll plan out a strategy for my Oreburgh gym battle. "Oh and one more thing, you can use your pokedex to see what moves your pokemon know. That feature can come in handy at a time like this."
Dawn nodded in approval and thanked Ash. She turned around and hurried out of the Pokemon Center. She ran to an open field nearby where she can practice. She took out two pokeballs from her pocket and tossed them up into the air. Eevee and Piplup emerged from inside the balls and landed gently on the cool soft earth.
She took out her pokedex and scanned Piplup first. "Let's see… Piplup knows Bubble, Tackle, Peck, Bide, and Bubble Beam." Then she scanned Eevee. "Eevee knows the moves Dig, tackle, takedown, and Sand Attack." Dawn wasn't happy that she didn't have many options for a combo.
"Let's see," Dawn said walking around trying to come up with good ideas. "I can have Piplup use Bubble and then Peck to create a sparkling sensation," she thought out loud.
"I won't know if it will work until I try." "Okay Piplup use Bubble" Piplup squirted out an array of sparkling bubbles from its beak. "Now use peck to pop them." Piplup jumped all over the place frantically trying to burst the bubbles and ended up bending over panting very hard.
Dawn thought in her head. "Maybe that wasn't such a good idea." Dawn said to herself, "Piplup thanks for trying."
Piplup responded back weakly but proud of his attempts.
"I'll try again with Eevee," she announced.
As soon as it heard its name, Eevee jumped up and down with a rush of excitement.
"Okay Eevee let's use dig first and then jump back up through the hole using Sand Attack while spinning," Dawn called out to her furry pokemon friend.
Eevee dug into the ground and vanished within seconds and a few seconds later it emerged out of the hole spinning while using Sand Attack. The spin created a vortex of sand around Eevee camouflaging it. The combo wasn't quite appealing as Dawn thought it would be but at least she got the bad ideas out of the way.
Meanwhile, Ash was hard at work back at the Pokemon center sharpening Chimchar's, Larvitar's, and Ursaring's speed and attack strength. Garchomp was acting as Ash's assistant trainer showing the rookie pokemon how to effectively dodge attacks. While watching his pokemon train Ash remembered something his brother Gavin had told him years ago.
Flashback:
Young Ash: I don't get it! Gible and I practice a lot but I keep losing whenever we use Draco Meteor. For once I would like to win with a powerful attack.
Gavin: Ash, battling isn't all about power. There's also strategy and observation that is incorporated with it.
Young Ash: But when I see you battle all I see is power and you make it look so easy.
Gavin: Ash, listen to me carefully. It takes practice to become a successful trainer. The very first thing you need to focus on is strategy and to be in sync with your pokemon. To do that you need to keep a careful eye on your pokemon's status and your opponent's pokemon's status at all times. Once you've mastered that, power will come to you naturally. Trust me, if you observe close enough you will see that your pokemon will sign to you when they are ready to move onto the higher ups, but until then you need focus on strategy and observation. Do you understand?
Young Ash: Yes…I understand.
End of Flashback
Ash had noticed that his Chimchar was getting stronger and fast too. Ash thought about it for a second and decided to teach Chimchar a new move.
"Chimchar, how would like to learn a new move buddy?" Ash asked the little orange monkey.
"Chimmy chimmy char char!" sang Chimchar while bouncing up and down.
"Ok Chimchar, I will teach you the move Flamethrower," Ash said.
Chimchar was delighted at the sound of that.
"Okay so listen carefully. To use Flamethrower you must focus all the heat energy in your body into the core of your stomach until you have enough energy that will make your chest puff up. Then you need to release it all at once."
Chimchar understood what his trainer was teaching him and he couldn't wait to try it out.
"Give it a try Chimchar," Ash urged.
Chimchar focused like he had never done before and forced all the energy into one spot. His chest soon puffed and he knew it was time let it out. Chimchar opened its mouth and fired away. The Flame was strong for about two seconds but then it extinguished. Chimchar was a bit disappointed that the flame didn't last for long.
"Chimchar, you did it the right way and even though it didn't last for long it was still very strong. Don't worry with enough practice you will soon breathe a good flame," Ash told his Chimchar.
Chimchar looked at Ash and jumped up and hugged him for understanding. Ash, Chimchar, and the rest of his pokemon had hearty laugh.
"Hey guys! Over here," a voice called out.
Ash turned around to see Dawn and Piplup running towards them with happy expressions on their faces.
Once Dawn and Piplup got to Ash they told him the good news.
"Ash! You wouldn't believe it! It took us a long time but we finally found the perfect combination for our first appeals round. Show them Piplup!" Dawn said in a cheerful tone.
Piplup jumped high into the air spinning like a top while using Bubble Beam. The bubbles circled Piplup multiple times before colliding creating beautiful mini sparkled fireworks.
Ash's jaw dropped wide open. He was amazed that Dawn had come up with such an awesome move for a beginner.
"Dawn…how did you…come up..."
"With such a good move," Dawn completed the sentence for him.
"Yeah, that's what I was going to say," Ash replied.
"Well I had Piplup practice a lot spinning which could be used for dodging, but then I remembered a combo my mom used with her Glameow and Umbreon in a double performance. They used a double spinning Dark Pulse and when the two attacks collide they radiated colorful rainbow waves through the air. I figured if Piplup used a spinning Bubble Beam that the bubbles would eventually hit each other and pop creating bubble fireworks."
Ash replied approvingly, "see Dawn there was no need to worry after all."
"You're right, thanks for the advice Ash. Anyway we need to leave now if we're going to get to Jubilife City by sundown.
Ash agreed and they soon packed and left the Pokemon Center and trekked off to Jubilife City.
30 minutes later. The time is 8:30 p.m. Location: Jubilife City
"Wow!" Dawn exclaimed examining the city sights, smells, and sounds that surrounded her. "We finally made it to Jubilife City."
"Yeah and just in time for dinner," Ash responded rubbing his hungry stomach. "I'm starving, let's eat first," Ash said urging Dawn into an All You Can Eat Buffet.
"Alright, I could use some food too," Dawn agreed.
The restaurant was filled with people most of whom are trainers. Ash and Dawn stood in a line waiting to get their food while their pokemon kindly reserved a spot for them at a window booth. The second Ash and Dawn came back to their table they took one good look at their delicious food before digging in.
"Mmm. This shuuff is goo" Ash said with a mouthful of Ramen noodles.
Dawn agreed by simply nodding her head.
A trainer sitting alone a couple booths away noticed Ash and his Garchomp and immediately knew who he was. He got up and walked over to meet them.
"Hey there. Mind if I join you two?" he asked politely.
"Sure," Ash and Dawn replied at once.
"You must be Ash Ketchum, Gavin's younger brother," he said. "I saw you on T.V. when your brother was awarded a place on the Sinnoh Elite Four."
"Oh… I see." Ash said. "I'm always there with my brother when he has a really big match, but people don't seem to notice me at all. I'm surprised you did."
"Well prepare to be surprised even more," the trainer said. "I'm actually from Pewter City in the Kanto Region. My name is Brock and I used to be the Pewter City gym leader and now I am a traveling pokemon breeder."
Ash and Dawn were amazed that their new friend was once a gym leader.
"Wow! A gym leader huh?" Ash exclaimed.
"Yeah, I left the gym to follow my dream to become the world's best breeder. So I left my family in charge of the gym while I was out in the world following my dream."
"That's so cool, I've never met a breeder before," Dawn piped in.
"So Brock, how would you like to travel along with us?" Ash asked.
"Would I…I would love to travel with you, but are you sure it's okay if I tag along?" Brock questioned.
"Sure, the more the merrier I say," Ash told his new friend.
"So what are you guys doing here in Jubilife City?" asked Brock.
"We came here for my Pokemon Contest which is being held tomorrow," Dawn answered.
"So you're a coordinator huh? My mom was top coordinator in her days," Brock told her.
"Really!? So was my mom." Dawn added.
"Wow, so we've got something in common," Brock said.
"So what Pokemon do you have Brock?" Ash questioned eager to know what Kanto Pokemon look like.
"Well I bet you've seen one of these pokemon quite a bit given the fact they are found in many regions." Brock told Ash.
He took out two pokeballs and tossed one up in the air. A strange looking pokemon emerged. It was relatively big, almost as tall as Brock himself.
"This is a Gigalith, which is a Rock type pokemon that is native to a faraway region called the Unova Region," Brock told them. "The other one is a Steelix but I can't bring it out while we're in the restaurant because it is too tall."
Whoaa! Ash said amazed at his pokemon, especially Gigalith.
"Did you travel to the Unova Region Brock?" Ash asked.
"No, actually I have a cousin who lives there and when he came to visit me he brought a pokemon egg with him. This Gigalith you see here is the final evolved form of the Roggenrola that hatched from the egg."
Ash, Dawn, and Brock talked the night away about their journeys until they left the restaurant. They booked a room for the three of them at a nearby hotel to sleep for the night. Soon the city fell asleep and the night carried on.
The next morning at 10:30 a.m. Location: Freedom Hall
Dawn was getting nervous which was completely normal for a new timer so Ash and Brock tried to comfort her.
The contest was about to begin with an orange haired girl named Zoe going first.
Zoe had entered the contest with her Glameow. The two put on a phenomenal performance. Glameow had used two Shadow Balls that elegantly rebounded of the walls of the stadium until they hit each other giving off beautiful pastel colored light waves and sparkles that surrounded Glameow turning it into a living jewel.
Next up was a unique trainer named Jessilina who entered the contest with her Drapion. Jessilina was unique alright, she had Drapion spin its tail at rapid speeds while she was on top of it spinning like a ballerina with her arms stretched out.
A lot of other coordinators followed with unique performances of their own which were all pretty darn good. But now it was time for Dawn performance and her nervousness was at its peak level.
"Well…here goes nothing," Dawn said getting from her seat. She walked through the long hallway that would lead her onto the stage. She paused at the entrance for a second, closed her eyes and said, "no need to worry."
Dawn ran onto the stage and tossed her pokeball into the air.
"Piplup! Spooootlight!" Dawn yelled in confident voice.
"Pi Piplup." Piplup came out of the ball and did a back flip in the air and landed gracefully on the ground.
"Piplup jump as high as you can while spinning and use Bubble Beam," Dawn called out.
Piplup leapt high into the air spinning magnificently while using Bubble Beam. The bubbles encircled Piplup and then hit each other producing wonderful bubble fireworks. Piplup once again landed gracefully on the ground.
Everyone in the audience cheered loudly for Dawn and Piplup.
Dawn and Piplup soon found themselves back in the room with the other coordinators.
Ash and Brock came in told her how great she was.
"Dawn you and Piplup did a wonderful job out there," Brock commented.
"Yeah you two were totally in sync with each other," Ash added
"Thanks guys, but I still need to make it to the second round so save those nice comments for later," Dawn told them.
"Dawn," an unfamiliar voice called.
Dawn turned around to see the orange haired girl standing behind her.
"Hi. You're Zoe aren't you? I loved your performance. It was beautiful," Dawn told her.
"Thanks. I loved your performance as well Dawn," Zoe replied.
"I've never seen at a contest before. Are you a new coordinator?" Zoe asked with curiosity.
"Yes I am," Dawn answered I started on my journey with Ash about a few days ago.
"I see….." Zoe began but couldn't finish her sentence because she was interrupted by MC Marian.
"And the judges now have the results of the first round," Marian announced.
The T.V. screen showed the faces of seven of the coordinators that were moving to the next round and two of them belonged to Jessilina and Zoe. Dawn was getting worried because there was only one spot left and her face wasn't on the screen. Dawn crossed her fingers hoping to advance.
And I think I'll end it here. This was one long chapter and I had a fun time writing it. This proves that this format works best for me and it adds a lot more quality to the story. The next chapter will feature the second round which is the battle round. The poll results still show Feebas in the lead. If you want a certain pokemon on the list to be Dawn's next pokemon then please vote for it. The poll will be closed in 4 days so if you haven't voted yet and you would like to now's your chance. The HP company sent me the box so I will be shipping my laptop to their services tomorrow to get my screen to stop fading out and flickering. So I may not get my laptop back for about 10 to 15 days. I know it's a long time to wait but I will still work on my chapters during that time. I will write them down and update them once I get my laptop back. Please review.
