As Ashley was catching Scizor Whitney and Mikki were not being idle. They had seen many different Pokémon, but they promptly ignored them, having seen them all before, and knowing everything about them. That was until they came across a green and yellow one (Sewaddle), and a purple and green one (Venipede). Whitney asked, "Hey Mikki, you ever seen one of them before?"

"No, I haven't. I was going to ask you," Mikki replied.

"Well, since neither of us knows what they are, what do you say about catching them?"

"Sounds good to me, which one do you want?"

"I'm not particularly fussed, you?"

"Well, that purplish one looks like it could be a poison type, and poison types and members of my family don't really mix too well together."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Well, alright then," Whitney said as she and Mikki drew their park balls. When they threw them at the Pokémon, they pinged almost immediately, signifying a capture. They both said, "Alright, we caught 'I've no idea'." Satisfied with the Pokémon that they caught they headed back to the entrance of the park to submit their Pokémon for judging.

XXXXX

Zachariah had not been sitting on his hands either. He had captured one Pokémon after another, releasing all of them due to their inability to learn any water type moves. Eventually he came upon a Pokémon from his home region, Surskit. Instead of forcefully capturing it by battling it he charmed it into wanting to go with him. Once the capture was complete he headed back to the park entrance to submit Surskit for judging.

XXXXX

Meanwhile Ashley and Amelia had kept on walking in the same direction, passing by many different Bug-types. On their way Ashley had convinced Amelia to capture a Venonat to submit if they didn't come across any Pokémon that Amelia truly wanted. Ashley, tired of the silence, asked, "So, how's travelling with Mikki going for you?"

Amelia said, "Well," pausing to consider her answer, "good. Well, when she's not hitting me anyway. But enough about me, what Pokémon did you get in the Sinnoh region?"

"Well," Ashley said, "I won't bother trying to tell you everything now, but I ended up with an Infernape and Torterra. They are the final evolutions of the fire and grass type starters in the Sinnoh Region. I traded Aipom for a Buizel. I caught a Gligar, which evolved into Gliscor. I also managed to get the Normal/Flying type from the Sinnoh Region, Staraptor. There is also Gible, who is still here with me."

"Wow, wait…only six?"

"What do you mean, only six?"

"Well…it's just…isn't it better if you have more?"

"I find that if I catch a few Pokémon I can focus on understanding them more, which makes utilising their respective strengths in battle easier. If you do like some other trainers and catch many different kinds of Pokémon then, to get the same level of cohesiveness you need to change out your Pokémon repeatedly in order to gain the same bond with them. Of course, some trainers forgo trying to deepen the bond between themselves and their Pokémon in order to increase the strength of their Pokémon to be able to compete with those that have deep bonds with their own. So, in the end, it's really a trade-off on how deeply you want to understand your Pokémon."

"I see," Amelia said, realising that she wanted a greater bond between her Pokémon and herself, so decided to forgo capturing another nine Pokémon in favour of trying to win with less. "What Pokémon do you have on you now?"

"Like I told you before, I have Gible, the Mareep I traded for with Zachariah along with two Braviary that I caught in order to get here on time."

"Braviary? What's that?"

"It's a flying type that my Pokédex said migrates from the Unova Region."

"Oh, cool."

"Do you want one?"

"Eh?" Amelia gasped, shocked that her sister would offer such a thing after the speech that she just gave about deepening bonds between her Pokémon and herself.

"What do you mean 'eh?'?"

"Well…it's just that after that speech about deepening bonds between your Pokémon…"

"Ah. Well, the reason actually has a lot to do with that."

"How so?"

"According to the Pokédex, Braviary desire to throw themselves into battle. Which normally I'd be all for, but right now I'm still trying to figure out if I want to challenge the Pokémon League again or take on the Grand Festival."

Amelia scoffed, "Mikki would just love that."

"Heh, I bet she would," Ashley smiled.

"Whichever route I take though, I can't really see me giving both Pokémon the amount of battle that they might desire, so…"

"Oh. Alright then," Amelia said, glad to know that her sister hadn't undergone some kind of rapid personality change along with her physical one. Then her eyes widened in desire as she saw a small yellow bug drop down, attached to a branch via a Spider Web. She said, "I want that," pointing at the bug type suspended before them. Amelia tossed her Park Ball at it. It didn't put up a ghost of a fight. Amelia cried out, "Alright! I caught a…yellow…spiderish…Bug-type Pokémon…" and scratched the back of her head as she and her sister laughed at the line. After recovering, Amelia said, "I wonder what it is," and retrieved her CSD to release the Venonat that she caught earlier. When she had her CSD in her hand she browsed through it until she found the details of the Pokémon that she just caught. She said, "According to this, the Pokémon I just caught is called a Joltik. It's from the Unova Region, like Braviary, and has Electric-type properties along with its Bug-type ones and can use Cross-Poison, Electroweb, String Shot and Spider Web."

"There's an Electric-type bug? Cool. So, is that us done?" Ashley asked after seeing the venonat that Amelia had caught bounce away.

"Yeah. I'm good," Amelia said, heading back the way they came.

On their way they heard someone yelling, "Electabuzz are brave and strong, We'll fight you to the end, We'll belt the ball so long, And then we will defend, So if you think you'll win this game, You're in for quite a shock, Electabuzz will electrify, And then we'll rule and rock, Go team go team go."

Ashley said, "That sounds familiar."

"Well, it should," Amelia said, "It's the Electabuzz Baseball Team's theme song. But I don't know why anyone would be singing it here."

"I have an idea, but it's going to be tiresome if it turns out to be right."

"Really? Why is that?"

"When I was going through Johto before we ran into a rabid Electabuzz fan, Misty actually thought that we were mirror images of each other...I've no idea why though. Anyway, she's fanatical about yellow and black Pokémon, so you'd best keep Joltik away from her."

"I see. Well then, I hope that I don't run into her."

"Why not?"

"You know that I go for the Starmie."

"Oh yeah, sorry, I kind of forgot."

"Well, we haven't seen each other for a few years now, so I guess that it is to be expected...still..." Amelia sniffed.

"Now now, none of that. We're together now, aren't we?"

"Yeah," Amelia said, smiling up at Ashley. The two trainers then hastened back to the park entrance to have their Pokémon judged.

When the sisters were about to exit the park and head backinto the reception area to have their Pokémon judged Ashley saw Whitney and Mikki and called out, "Hey!"

Whitney called out, "Hi!" and she and Mikki jogged the last twenty metres or so to catch up to the sisters.

When Whitney and Mikki were standing near them, Ashley asked, "So, how'd you to go?"

"We did great Ashley," Whitney said, "although the best part was learning about these talent competitions held in Pallet Town."

The eyes of Ashley and Amelia widened in shock and a little fear. Amelia's narrowed, glaring at Mikki. She angrily demanded, "You didn't…"

Whitney, surprised at the reaction, asked, "Wha…what's the problem?"

Ashley sighed as she put a calming hand on her sister's shoulder. She said, "Look Whit, Amelia and I don't really like to talk about it. That competition attracts professional trainers from outside of Pallet Town. Some coordinators even compete in it to test, and even increase, their skills. Given that either of us won the thing every year, you can imagine that we didn't gain many friends from it."

"You can't mean that…"

"Basically we won too many. In the end I ended up losing my last friend, until I beat him, ironically enough, in the Johto League. Amelia was left with one."

"I…see…" Whitney said, stunned that the person she knew(Ash) had gone through all of that. "But why would…"

"Well, we were all kids at the time. That competition is part of a festival that is held only once a year. It's a pretty important event that commemorates the founding of Pallet Town."

"Mmm…well…I guess…" Whitney said, unsure that that was excuse enough.

"Anyway, we have a competition to win."

Mikki said, "You know that we can't all win, right?"

"Well, as far as I'm concerned," Ashley said, "I've already won."

"Excuse me?" Zachariah asked as he heard Ashley's announcement as he was walking towards the group. "I beg to differ."

"Oh sure," Ashley said, "I may not have won the competition yet, and I may still not, but I caught a Pokémon that I have wanted for a while now, so…"

"Ah."

"So, are we going to go submit 'em or what?" Amelia asked.

Mikki looked at her friend warily before turning to look at her watch and almost shrieked, "Argh! We're almost out of time." All five participants exited the park to submit their Pokémon for judging. When they got there they saw that the reception area had transformed. Now there was a raised dais at one wall and the entire area was covered in seating, most of which was already being used. At the back there were five seats remaining, which the group took with the two siblings farthest in, then Mikki and Whitney with Zachariah taking the aisle seat.

Five minutes after group was seated Briar stood up on a podium and said, "First of all, I must thank you all for participating in this year's event. It is the greatest turnout that we have had in years. That said, there can only be one winner. After much debate amongst the judges we have decided to award first place to a trainer from the far off Sinnoh Region, Ashley Ketchum."

Ashley blew a hair out of her eye as she stood up quietly saying to her sister, "Never thought I'd win two of these things."

When Ashley was on the stage Briar handed Ashley the Park Ball that she had captured her Scizor in and shook her hand and held on to it while some photos were taken. When Ashley had moved one of her normal pokéballs into her bag and clipped the Park Ball to her pokébelt Briar said, "Now, for your prize."

"Okay," Ashley said, "what is it already?"

"It's this," Briar said, producing an item from his pocket. "We of the National Park are happy to present you with this Prism Scale." Briar handed the Prism Scale to Ashley and she went back to her seat. When Ashley was seated Briar said, "In second place is…oh, good lord, it would appear that the runner up is related to Ashley. Please come to the stage Amelia Ketchum." When Amelia was on stage Briar handed her Park Ball to her and said, "Now, for your prize you have the selection of either a Magmarizer or a Dragon Scale."

Amelia said, "Hmm…I don't really know what either of them do. So…could you please tell me first?"

"Of course. Magmarizer evolves Magmar into Magmortar and a Dragon Scale evolves Seadra into Kingdra."

"Oh," Amelia said. "Hmm…Well…I don't know…Actually, no. I'll take the Magmarizer."

"Very well then," Briar said, "Here you go," Handing Amelia a box with a gem that seemed to have a flame burning within it.

Amelia said, "Thank you," as she took the box from Briar and walked back to her seat next to her sister.

"Now, coming in third place is another trainer from Pallet Town, one Michelle Locxya." Mikki walked up to the stage and accepted both the Park Ball with her Pokémon in it and the Dragon Scale that Amelia had chosen not to accept. Once Mikki was back in her seat Briar said, "The rest of you can pick up the Bug Pokémon that you caught at the reception desk before you leave. Thank you for coming to this year's event and I hope that you shall all come again next year."