Chapter 1

May 4th, 2006

Dawn smiled as she took in her surroundings, the fresh salty air and humid weather was a nice comparison to her own home region. It was refreshing, a good start to a brand new journey. Just from her quick look at Slateport City, Dawn was very excited to set off for her new journey, even if it was later in the competing season. Dawn looked down at her Piplup who was being held in her arms, she smiled fondly at him.

"You excited Piplup?"

"Pip Piplup!" Piplup agreed, grinning the way piplups did.

Dawn began her trek through the city, trying to find a Pokémon Center. The Nurse Joy there would know where the next contest was going to be held. "The Grand Festival will be held here. I have a feeling that this journey will be the most exciting yet; we came so close in Sinnoh that I know we'll win this one for sure. We've trained so hard and we'll definitely win."

"Lup!"

Slateport was a big city; Dawn found that was easy to get lost in the many wonders about it. She had waked in the complete opposite direction on the Pokémon Center, making her way down to the city market and the beach. She didn't regret her mistake, it was fun to look at the various shops and feel the hot white sand between her toes.

She had found the Pokémon Center and walked through the sliding glass front doors, smiling as she recognised the homey and cozy vibes that the centers emitted. There were trainers with their pokémon everywhere, grooming, playing or relaxing, doing whatever they would in their own place of residence. She made her way up to the front desk clearing her throat slightly. "Excuse me?"

The Nurse Joy turned around and smiled pleasantly, "Hello! Welcome to the Slateport City Pokémon Center! How may I help you?"

"I would like to sign up as a coordinator."

Nurse Joy nodded, "Oh yes, just a moment." She tapped away on a little computer before pointing to a screen, "Just place some sort of trainer identification there please, trainer card or pokédex would work."

Dawn nodded and pulled out her card from her pocket, placing it on the screen. There was a ding, confirming her as a valid trainer. "There you are! You're all set to compete for this year's Grand Festival. It will be held here in Slateport City!" Dawn nodded, already knowing that information but didn't want to seem rude.

"Do you happen to know where the next contest is going to be held?"

"The next contest is going to be in LaRousse City." A voice answered. Dawn looked behind her and noticed a familiar looking girl standing there; she had brown hair and friendly blue eyes. "Oh! Hi Dawn, I didn't recognise you from behind."

"May?" Dawn asked.

May nodded, "Yeah, it's me; I understand why you're a bit confused; I do look different than I did two years ago, more womanly. Though you're the same, not the little thirteen year-old I remember." Dawn laughed and nodded in agreement, now Dawn was sixteen, and May being a year older was seventeen. May was very pretty, Dawn noticed, though she had always though she was. She still had the slight tomboyish air around her and the all over friendly personality that she remembered. "You know, how about I get my friend to let you stay with us at his house?" May suggested, "He lives in LaRousse, pretty close to the contest hall too. He'll let you stay."

Dawn suddenly felt a little uncomfortable. "Are you sure that that's okay?" She asked.

May nodded. "Oh yeah, definitely, don't worry about it, I can call him right now."

Dawn was a little hesitant but agreed, "Alright, if you say it's okay."

May smiled. "Let's go give him a call then. He's home right now, probably waiting for me to arrive soon. I accidentally slept in today." She laughed lightly. "He's probably wondering why I'm not there yet."

May led the way to the Center's video phones, May typed in a number that was obviously very familiar to her and hit the call button, waiting for the other person to pick up. "Drew is my rival of sorts; we met when I was eleven. I was scared of pokémon before so that's why I started being a trainer later."

Dawn nodded, in Sinnoh it was common knowledge that they had the trainer age set higher, at twelve years old unlike the Kanto regions age of ten. Most regions the age was ten, Sinnoh's was set the highest out of them all. The ringing noise stopped catching both girls' attention.

"May? " There was a guy on the screen who had a head of green hair, it reminded Dawn of Cilan slightly; another companion of Ash's that she met on her brief trip to Unova. The guy's expression changed, "Did you forget to buy a ticket?" He asked.

"No!" May said defensively, "I ran into Dawn, someone who I met through Ash while I competed in the Wallace cup in Sinnoh. She's a coordinator just like us and she wanted to compete in the LaRousse contest, so I was wondering if it was okay if she stayed with us at your place?"

Drew nodded. "Sure, I don't really care." He shrugged.

May smiled and clasped her hands together. "Great! We'll be there soon!"

Drew nodded again. "Alright, bye." The screen went black as he hung up.

May swivelled around in the chair and smiled. "See, I told you're he would let you stay. He's much less moody and obnoxious than he was when he was younger. The only thing that's kind of the same is that he always gives my Beautifly roses sometimes. I don't really understand why." She shrugged and stood up. "Okay, let's go to the harbour and get some tickets."

"I thought you said you already had yours?"

May grinned. "No, you get the tickets at the port. Drew forgot about that part." She adjusted the strings on her bag to be more comfortable before setting off to the door. Dawn followed after her.

The two girls easily bought tickets and boarded the boat. May had suggested that they sat outside of the ship, so they could enjoy the breeze. Together the two sat down and May decided to start up a conversation. "Have you seen Ash in a while?"

Dawn nodded; she had seen him very recently in fact. "Yeah, I saw him a few months ago actually, he was getting ready for the Vertress Conference in Unova. He had two nice traveling partners named Iris and Cilan."

May nodded, "What we're they like? I haven't seen them at all; I have talked to Ash a bit, though just through the new messaging system in the pokégears and pokénavs."

Dawn nodded, understanding. She had bought a pokégear herself, so she could easily contact her mother while she was away, but it also proved to be beneficial for her to talk with her other friends, ones back home and ones off traveling, like Ash, Brock, Kenny and Zoey, and even the entertaining, yet annoying Barry. "They're nice," She repeated. "Iris is a bit like Ash in a way. She always calls him a little kid though; I think he said that he's a few months older than her; Iris wants to become a Dragon Master. Cilan is like Brock, the older parental figure. He's a pokémon connoisseur and one of the three gym leaders of Straiton City."

"Three gym leaders?"

Dawn nodded, "Him and his two brothers, they're triplets."

"Oh!" May exclaimed. "I think I know who you're talking about. Do they do those triple battles? We have a set of twin gym leaders and they do a two on two battle with the challenger."

Dawn shook her head, "No, if you chose one of the starters from the region's professor, the gym leader you would fight would have an advantage over you. They each specialize in fire, grass or water. I don't know how it works if you don't have one of the starters though. Ash had all three but I think he said he got the water type first so he battled Cilan."

"What's Unova like?"

Dawn thought for a moment. "It's big, it's really industrialized. I didn't see every city in it; I only visited Nimbasa to see the amusement park and their pokémon musicals. I also saw the city's gym leader's fashion show. I went to Undella Town too, I met up with our region's champion and she let me stay in her beach house while she traveled to Virbank City for something. There she met Ash and his friends and brought them back to the villa with her, Ash had just gotten his eighth badge when they met." She explained, "He found a pokémon on his way over, a legendary named Meloetta."

"Another legendary?" May asked, "I swear there's something strange about Ash, he always gets caught up with them for some reason."

Dawn nodded. "He does. Team Rocket tried to take Meloetta; they've become more vicious than from what I remember in Sinnoh, they seem more evil."

"You mean Jessie, James and Meowth right?" Dawn nodded again. "Them be more evil?" May trailed off a bit, "How old would they be by now?"

Dawn shrugged, "I always thought of them being a bit older than Brock so they might be around twenty-five or twenty-six."

May started to count off of her fingers, "Brock's twenty-two right?"

Dawn narrowed her eyes in thought and nodded, "Yeah, his birthday was in April."

"Oh!" May faced Dawn, "Ash's birthday is this month! We should send something to his mom so he can get it once he gets home."

"I think that would be nice to do." Dawn agreed.

The two sat in silence for a while, watching the island of LaRousse City come into view. From her view on the boat, Dawn could tell that LaRousse was very high tech and industrialized, reminding her of Unova. There were large glass and metal buildings peeking through the skyline, there was also a large bridge over it; connecting the island to the two big landmasses it was in-between. Dawn could see the various wind turbines to one side of the island, there were many. She could see little things flying around the city, looking like little black dots in the sky. "Make sure you smile once we enter the city. A robot will take your picture and give you a visitor identification card so you can use different things inside the city. I learned that the hard way. The first time I came here the Block Bots took an awful picture of me." Dawn nodded and the two girls made their way off the ship, as it had now began letting people off since it had docked in.

Dawn put on a smile once she had successfully gotten off of the boat, she could see May, and other people smiling too, the others were probably doing it for the same region. A square robot flew into her face and snapped a picture, a card instantly sliding out of a slot. "Hello and welcome to LaRousse City!" After its brief announcement it flew off to go to another person. Dawn looked down at the card, thankful that the picture wasn't too bad.

"Thank Arceus..." She heard May mutter as she put her own card into her pocket. Grabbing Dawn's wrist, she pulled her out of the busy port and out into a street. "We have to get on a few of these; they use these sidewalks as their main transportation here." She pulled Dawn onto a specific one and let go of her wrist. "Drew actually lives very close to the pier and the contest hall isn't very far away either. I'm glad he lives here so I don't have to worry about living arrangements. LaRousse holds the Battle Tower which is open all year long so many trainers stay here to level up their pokémon for a while and usually the Pokémon Centers are full because of them." They hopped onto another sidewalk, "Also beware of Drew, he'll try and get you to be one of his annoying fan girls. So what if he won a grand festival before me."

"He's won a grand festival?"

May grumbled, "Yeah, two years ago he entered our contest circuit and won the Grand Festival. If I don't win this year I'm thinking of going back to Johto."

"We'll I'm not going to lose to you!" Dawn announced, "I've been training really hard since Sinnoh, and I got runner-up then. I'm going to win here for sure!"

"We'll see about that."

May pulled Dawn off onto a regular side walk and led her to a big apartment building, going inside and up an elevator. It stopped on the sixth floor; there were many more stories above them. May led the way down a long hallway and pushed open a door, not bothering with knocking. There was a man sitting on the couch, he looked over once he heard the door open. He had a small smile.

"Hello."

May returned the smile, "Hi! I told you we would make it, you should trust me more."

Drew stared at her, "You do realize that you're asking for the impossible right?"

May scowled and walked further into the apartment. "I'm going to eat your food."

"Don't eat all of it." He said. Drew looked behind May and waved to Dawn, "Hello."

"Hi." Dawn replied rather shyly, Drew was giving her an analytical look, "I've met you before."

Dawn frowned; she didn't seem to recognise the coordinator. Then again, she didn't recognise May so Dawn didn't really doubt that she had met him another time. His eyes suddenly brightened, "We met at the Johto Wallace Cup."

Dawn thought for a moment, the memory slowly forming in her mind again. "I think we did. You won it right?"

Drew nodded, "I did."

May appeared from the kitchen, a sandwich in her hand. "If you're hungry Dawn, just go and eat whatever you want. Drew won't mind."

Dawn quickly shook her head, "No I'm okay."

"I'm going to have to buy groceries because of you."

May shrugged, "I don't care, buy good stuff like cookies."

"I'd rather not eat things that give me all my daily fat in one bite."

"I feel bad for your future wife and children. All you eat is veggies, gross."

"I don't poison my body with sugars."

"You're not any fun." May retorted, taking another bite of her sandwich. "You eat sweets right Dawn?" May moved over slightly and patted the spot beside her.

Dawn walked over and sat next to her. "I do."

"See, any normal person eats sweets."

"I'm not buying them."

May let out frustrated noise and fell back into the couch, "You're no fun."

"You already said that and I'm okay with not being fun."

Drew leaned forward a bit, so he could see both girls. "Do you know what pokémon you'll be using?"

Dawn nodded quickly, "Yep, I know exactly who!"

"So do I!" May exclaimed, "I'm not going to lose to you Dawn, I want to get my fifth ribbon!"

"I already got mine a few years ago." Drew said smugly, May glared at him.

Dawn smiled kindly at her opponent, one that May quickly replied with her own. The two had made it to the final round of the LaRousse Pokémon Contest. In the first round Dawn had concluded to go for her electric chandelier routine, as this was a double contest.

"And the timer starts now!" Vivian cheered.

"Piplup and Buneary spotlight!" Dawn shouted and threw her pokéballs into the air. Bringing her seals with her to Hoenn, both of her Pokémon appeared with swirling golden stars around them.

"Pip!"

"Neary!"

May chuckled. "Venusaur, Beautifly!" She called gracefully releasing her Pokémon. "Venusaur Petal Dance on Piplup! Beautifly, Aerial Ace on Buneary!"

"Both of you dodge it then use Dizzy Punch and Drill Peck!"

Buneary and Piplup jumped out of the range of its opponents attacks. Piplup's beak shone a bright white colour. He jumped into the air and started to rapidly spin. It headed into the direction of Venusaur, hitting it in the side. Venusaur cried and let out another Petal Dance as instructed by May.

"Bun, bun!" Buneary called as she hit Beautifly with her multi-coloured ears.

May frowned, already losing some of her points. Dawn had also lost some with Venusaur's super effective move against Piplup.

"Piplup and Buneary move back then use Whirlpool and Ice Beam!"

Piplup and Buneary jumped back, Piplup raised its arms over its head and started to conjure up a giant whirlpool.

"Now's our chance! Venusaur, use Poison Powder, Beautifly Silver Wind!" She sprayed purple dust out of the big flower on her back while Beautifly flapped its wings, sending crescent shaped cyclones at the, leading it to Piplup and Buneary, hitting them straight on, knocking both of Dawn's pokémon flying backwards, also releasing the giant Whirlpool that Piplup had been creating, crashing down in the direction of May and her pokémon. "Quickly, Venusaur use Razor Leaf!" Green leaves flew from Venusaur, cutting through the big swirling rush of water and sending it splashing all over the battle field.

Dawn glanced up at the clock, thirty-seven seconds left. She quickly glanced at her points as well that were slowly decreasing as she watched. Dawn whipped her head around seeing May's pokémon attacking hers while they were paralyzed with poison. Dawn gasped, "Piplup use Bubblebeam on you and Buneary!" Dawn was pleading that the water would aid them in some way, especially Piplup. Piplup winced at one of Beautifly's attacks then the buzzer went off, announcing the battle over. The two Coordinators whipped around and stared at the score board. Looking at both sides, May had more than her. Dawn already knew what the outcome would be, it wasn't hard to tell when competing against such an experienced coordinator.

"The winner of the LaRousse Contest is May Maple from Petalburg City!" Vivian shouted.

Dawn walked up to her Pokémon and patted each of their heads, "Good job you two!" She hugged them, "I'll send you to the Pokémon Center to be all healed up! Then you can have all the poffins you want!" She returned each to their pokéballs and stood up. She made her way over to May and held out her hand, "Good job! You were a tough opponent and you deserve that ribbon!" She laughed lightly.

May shook her hand saying cheerily, "Thanks!" before being ushered away by Vivian to get her ribbon.

Dawn was a little upset that show lost, but her happiness for her friend overwhelmed that. Right now the three were watching a movie. May had gone out and bought popcorn since Drew didn't have any.

There was a loud ringing noise and May stood up groaning. "Sorry." She muttered and left the room.

Dawn watched as her friend left. "It's probably Max." Drew spoke up, briefly looking over at her from the corner if his eye. "Max usually calls her whenever their father has a new challenger. He's a gym leader."

"Gym leader?" Dawn asked. She recalled being told that, but never really thought about it.

Drew nodded, "Yeah, he specialises in normal types. I think her dad wants her to take over soon, but May would to win a Grand Festival before thinking of taking it over, she a coordinator before a league trainer. Max always calls her when a new challanger comes."

"If she does win a Grand Festival, do you think she'll become the new gym leader?"

Drew thought for a moment. "I think she would for a few years, then Max would take over soon after."

"How old is Max?"

"Uh, twelve I think. Right now he's taking a year off of traveling and is just training."

May appeared again, "I'm going to head back home; you two can come if you want. Apparently some really strong trainer is coming to challenge my dad. According to Max he's pretty popular too, but I've never heard of him before.

Drew gave her a look, "What's their name?"

May frowned, "I think Max said it was Paul Rebel... Rebel... something, I don't remember." She shrugged, "Actually Dawn, you might know. Max said that he remembered Ash battling him in the Lily of the Valley Conference."

Dawn felt herself tense up slightly, "I do know of a Paul, Ash had a rival named Paul, but I don't know his last name. I'll come with you, it would be nice to see him again, if he even remembers me, he barely remembered who I was while we met journeying."

"I'm coming too." Drew added, "Let me go and get my stuff."

"Shouldn't you tell your parents first?" May said.

Drew gave her a harsh look. Dawn didn't recall seeing any adults enter or leave the apartment while she was staying there with May. "I'm not speaking to them." He said in monotone.

May nodded slightly as he disappeared from their sight, "Right..." Dawn didn't bother to question them about it despite her curiosity.

"Let's go." Drew said, still having the same tone as before.