"Defend the base!" one of the grunts yelled as the grunts threw their Pokémon at Julianna.

"Look out!" Julianna yelled as she ducked out of the way of multiple Icy Winds and Venoshocks.

Quaxwell and Wooper thought beside each other taking out a swarm of Pawniard and Sneasel with Poison Tail and Low Sweep.

As for Charcadet where he went was anyone's guess.

A group of Sneasel and Stunky lunged at Julianna.

"Char!" Charcadet screeched firing an Ember and hitting the Stunky and Sneasel.

And Julianna's shoe.

"Rebelde para que mierda fue eso!" Julianna screeched kicking the fire off of her shoe.

"Char! Char!" Charcadet made a gesture as if telling her to "talk to the hand" before using Fire Spin on a pair of Pawniard setting the grass around them on fire

"Mamá, ¿por qué diablos pensaste que tener una mascota era una buena idea?" Julianna yelled before running in search of the Squad boss.

"Oh my god, the base is on fire!" somebody yelled as the wall of flames created by Charcadet's little stunt grew ever bigger. The flames got to the side of one of the tents and in a few seconds there was fire burning high Julianna couldn't see the sky above her.

"Somebody get the boss"

Needless to say, this wasn't going well.

"Woop!" Wooper suddenly appeared through the haze.

"Oh, there thank god your okay at least Salvador where's Tulio?"

"Woopa!" Wooper pointed with her tail to one of the tents where Quaxwell was trying to beat back the flames with Aqua Cutter.

By the looks of it, her team had managed to out all of the grunts Pokémon.

So where the hell was her pet arsonist?

Loud screaming from the grunts alerted her to Rebelde's ware about.

Charcadet was lighting even more of the camp on fire with Will-o-Whisp.

"Oh por el amor de Dios Charcadet vas a volver a la pelota y nunca volverás a salir!"

A loud revving noise came from behind Charcadet stopping him dead in his tracks.

From out of the flames and smoke a massive overlay-decorated-looking car came screaming out of the camp.

Charcadet stood frozen like a deer in headlights his crimson eyes blown wide open.

Julianna sprang forward somersaulting in front of the Starmobile grabbing Charcadet in her arms and rolling away to safety.

Julianna could feel the wind of the car zip by Wooper and Quaxwell leaping out of the way.

The car spun around on its tiers to reveal a dark-haired man standing on top with a Pawniard, Bisharp, and Kingambit standing beside him.

"You've done a real number on us party crasher Julianna wasn't it?"

"I'm Giacomo. At the deck, I go by DJ Vice! Call me whichever-it's a vibe either way." Giacomo said huskily. Julianna knew the name from somewhere but she couldn't remember from what.

"Nice to meet you and all... but how bout we skip straight to your outro!"

"Don't worry all play a sick requiem well you crash and burn"

"Now let's get this party started!" Giacomo put Starmobile into max speed nearly hitting Julianna again his Pawniard and Bisharp leaped off blades glowing bright green with Fury Cutter.

"Dodge it!" Julianna shouted Quaxwell and Wooper moved out of the way of the Fury Cutter.

Suddenly Julianna heard the loud sound of the Starmobile screaming towards Quaxwell and Wooper.

Julianna was screwed.

"Goh Primeape use Close Combat!" Ash order.

"U...Alright Torkoal use um Iron Defense!" Chloe stammered. Torkoal's body began glowing metallic Gray. Primeape slammed his fists into Torkoal although it didn't do much other than send Torkoal backward.

With Ash just getting his Primeape back he wanted to test its strength compared to his other old Pokémon and decided to use Torkoal one of his most physically defensive Pokémon as a unit of measurement.

At the moment Iris was out to transfer her Goodra and Gabite from Unova, Goh was getting ready for his parent's arrival, so Ash asked Chloe to command Torkoal. Chloe agreed, saying she needed to learn to command her Gimmighoul.

Although it was pretty clear she was still very uncomfortable with commanding Pokémon.

"Alright, Torkoal use um...Flamethrower!"

"Dodge it" Primeape was able to narrowly dodge the Flamethrower from Torkoal.

"Now use Seismic Toss!" Primeape took Torkoal into the air throwing her into the ground.

Their training was interrupted by a series of angry clicks from Finizen.

Over by the academy pond, the Dolphin was arguing with a wild Capsakid trying to take a sandwich from the table.

"Fin!" Finizen tried to wake up Wattrel who was sleeping on the pond's surface, to get her to back him up in his confrontation.

Unfortunately, Wattrel seemed to be dead asleep and ignored Finizen.

"Cap!" the Capsakid stuck out its tongue at Finizen who looked like he was ready to smack the spicy pepper.

"Mr. Ketchum!" a girl with red and blue hair rolled up on a Cyclizar.

"Excuse me Mr. Ketchum you know Julianna Martinez right?"

"Um yes, she's the girl with the Koraidon right?"

"I think so she's in trouble at the Team Star base she tried to fight the boss and there's a big fire! I don't know if she's okay!" the girl stammered out.

"What!" Chloe asked in disbelief. The girl was terrified, Ash had never had much of an opinion on Team Star but this sounded serious Ash needed to investigate.

"Sorry Finizen but your little dispute is going to have to wait" Ash apologized as he returned all his Pokémon to their pokeballs.

"What's your name Ms.?"

"P...Pe...Penny" the girl stammered out.

"Here hop on!" Ash sent out his Dragonite to fly to the location.

"Tell me where's the location?"

"Um... here... the coordinates are on my phone" Penny whispered as she handed the phone to Chloe.

"All right hold on to your butts lets go!" Ash shouted as Dragonite took off into the sky.

Julianna was screwed.

At least until a bright burst of light appeared from her bag.

To her shock, Don burst out of his Pokeball stopping the Starmobile in its tracks.

As quickly as he appeared Don returned to his Pokeball leaving Julianna to face Giacomo.

And behind her the Pawniard and Bisharp.

Which were now charging at her with Metal Claw.

Before she could do anything Charcadet leaped out of her arms launching a large explosion from his hands the explosion created a burst of smog and fire hitting both Pawniard and Bisharp.

The Bisharp staggered backward a burst of flames engulfing it from the burn.

Rebelde had just learned, Lava Plume but that wasn't important. What was important was that her Charcadet had done something selfless.

"Use X-Scissor!" the Pawniard and Bisharp leaped forward crossing their blades with glowing green energy.

"Low Sweep! and Fire Spin!" Bisharp ran around the Fire Spin hitting Charcadet with X-Scissor although it didn't do a lot thanks to the burn.

Meanwhile, Quaxwell was able to knock out the Pawniard with Low Sweep.

Also, her Charcadet used a move that she commanded.

But more importantly, what was that glowing purple aura around Kingambit?

"Mud Shot! and Aqua Cutter!"

Wooper fired a Mud Shot at Bisharp slowing down the Bisharp allowing Quaxwell to outspeed it and knocking it out with Aqua Cutter.

The aura around Kingambit only seemed to grow stronger.

Julianna's stomach dropped straight to her shoes when she remembered one of the abilities Kingambit has.

Supreme Overlord. The purple aura was Kingambit gaining strength from its fallen allies.

"Alright now let's turn up the requiem of your destruction use Kowtow Cleave!" Kingambit got down on its feet before lunging forward bladed hand glowing deep black aimed at Quaxwell.

"Char!" before Kingambit could hit Quaxwell Charcadet got in the way taking the full force of the Kowtow Cleave easily knocking out the Fire Child Pokémon.

Tulio's bill hung open in shock at the fact Charcadet had acted like a teammate and taken the blow for him.

"Hold on stop it right there!" without warning a Dragonite landed in between the Kingambit and Julianna.

"You have no business attacking somebody like that!" Ash yelled stepping off his Dragonite to confront Giacomo.

"Oh, I see your Mr. Ketchum you come to crash the party too?"

"Yes, I guess you could call it that" Ash responded, sending a Torkoal to battle Kingambit.

"Use Stone Edge!" Kingambit slammed its fist into the ground creating a chain of jagged blue stones to rush toward Torkoal.

"Use Iron Defense!" Torkoal withdrew into her shell as it glowed a metallic gray. One of the stone pillars hit Torkoal in the stomach sending the tortoise flying into the air although it didn't seem to face her very much.

"Now use Flamethrower!" Torkoal released a stream of flames from its mouth dealing massive damage to Kingambit.

"I can't just stand there I need to help!" Julianna shouted trying to get Quaxwell or Wooper out to help fight.

"Hey, hey, hey you don't need to do anymore helping you've already helped enough" Chloe grabbed Julianna in a hug.

"But this is my job I'm supposed to take down Team Star I'm supposed to be helping here" Julianna heaved before she broke out in a coughing fit from all the smoke.

"Then why don't you help me put out the fire that's helping" Chloe reached into Ash's bag and sent out his Finizen and Dracovish who started putting out the fire with Water Gun and Fishious Rend.

Chloe sent out her Eevee who used Copycat on Finizen's Water Gun to help put out the fire.

After another coughing fit Julianna ordered Quaxly and Wooper to put out the fire with Mud Shot and Aqua Cutter.

"Use Psyco Cut!" Julianna heard Giacomo's order behind her as Torkoal grunted from the blow.

"Now use Body Press!" Torkoal jumped into the air slamming her body down on Kingambit knocking the Big Blade Pokémon out cold.

Without warning the Starmobile spun forward releasing a burst of black and purple energy.

"What the!" Ash yelled in disbelief "The car is a Pokémon too!"

Julianna got her first good look at the Starmobile at the center of the contraption was a Revavroom powering the whole thing.

"Alright Torkoal come back"

"Lucario I choose you!"

"Use Aura Sphere!" Lucario unleashed a ball of blue aura from its palms dealing massive damage to the Starmobile.

Julianna hadn't even noticed that Finizen had stopped to watch Lucario, eyes blown wide open in aw.

"Use Wicket Torque!" The Starmobile spun forward again with its tires' same black and purple energy.

"Use Steel Beam!" Lucario fired a blast of bright gray energy knocking out the Revavroom powering the machine and causing the Starmobile to collapse.

One of the pieces of the Starmobile came flying at Wooper.

As the piece of metal, Wooper began to start glowing a bright blue.

Wooper's body began to morph, a pair of limbs sprouting out from her side, gills contracting into her body.

Once the blue light cleared the hunk of metal that was bigger than Wooper was now sitting harmlessly on top of Clodsire.

"Alright Miguel, Aceituna the plans to make this performance the best one of your lives correct?"

Crocalor and Smoliv cried in response. Crocalor seemed extremely confident well Smoliv was scared as usual although she wasn't shaking as much as she was before her first performance with Nacli.

He should have Smoliv perform with Crocalor more since she seemed to be most comfortable around Crocalor.

Although there was a more important reason that it was the pair that he had lost his first contest with so he wanted to show Trinity that he could win with this pair.

"Would Florian Castro please come to the stand?" the announcer called over the speaker.

Florian stepped out onto the stage to face Trinity's friend Audrey.

This was going to be his moment.

Audrey sent out a Swadloon and a female Oinkologne.

Florian was going to have fun with this.

"Begin!" the official announced. Florian turned on the music and let the sound take him away.

"Use Incinerate and Razor Leaf!" Florian yelled throwing off the suit he had been wearing for the crop talk he was wearing underneath.

"Protect!" Oinkologne and Swadloon formed a barrier around themselves blocking the burning leaves.

Off course she wanted to upstage him like that.

Although from the cheering of the crowd, his costume change was definitely giving him some extra points.

"Mud Shot and Sticky Web!" Swadloon and Oinkologne went for Sticky Web and Mud Shot creating a field of sticky mud surrounding Smoliv and Crocalor.

"Razor Leaf and Disarming Voice!"

"Use Yawn!" Crocalor released a stream of white bubbles from his mouth.

"Now Smoliv jump on the bubbles" Smoliv bounced across the bubbles letting Crocalor take the brunt of the Disarming Voice and Razor Leaf.

"Now Smoliv Razor Leaf!"

"Protect!" the protect was able to block the Razor Leaf but this gave Florian an opportunity.

"Use Incinerate!" Crocalor fired balls of black and orange fire dealing massive damage to the Swadloon.

Nobody was going to upstage Florian this was his moment to shine.

This was his time the prime of his life and nobody was going to get in the way of that.

"Echoed Voice! and Razor Leaf!" a flurry of leaves went flying towards Crocalor and Smoliv its speed boosted by the Echoed Voice.

"Use Round" the Round and Echoed Voice meet in the middle of the battlefield wiping up the leaves high into the air before they landed amongst the mud and Sticky Webs.

"Bug Buzz and Mud Shot!" It was time for Florian to end this. Although it was going to require a sacrifice.

"Smoliv jump in front of Crocalor then use Helping Hand!" Aceituna jumped in front of Crocalor creating a golden aura around the fire croc. Unfortunately, that meant that she took the full force of the Bug Buzz and Mud Shot knocking the Olive Pokémon out.

But with Swadloon and Oinkologne just finishing their attack that meant that they were open to Crocalor's attacks.

"Use Incinerate on the Sticky Webs!" Florian shouted doing a dramatic almost split pose since this was going to be the final attack.

At least he hoped it was going to be the final attack other whys he was going to look really stupid.

"Florian Castro don't think like that it's obviously going to knock those two out!" Florian told himself he was better than her this plan was going to work and everybody was going to love it.

Crocalor fired the Incinerate from his mouth with a bright golden aura. The fire ignited the quagmire of Sticky Webs mud from Mud Shot and Razor Leaf leaves creating a brilliant fire of red and black with gold tips engulfing Swadloon and Oinkologne in its grip

When the flames tied down Swadloon and Oinkologne were both knocked out on the floor leaving Crocalor the only Pokémon standing and Florian the winner.

"Swadloon and Oinkologne are unable to battle Crocalor is the winner. The victory goes to Florian!" Florian heard the crown cheering as he held himself up in his almost-split position.

He did it he fucking did it he absolutely crushed it out there he had won which meant he was moving up to the great ball tier which meant he was going to be the best performer in all of Paldea.

In your face, Trinity take that you stupid bitch!

Where the hell did that come from? Is that what winning did to him well he felt like he was happier than he had ever been in his life so if the only side effect of his winning was some harsh thoughts about someone who probably deserved it he would gladly keep winning.

He felt like Santiago after he had thought for three days to catch the Milotic but it just felt so, so good to feel the rush in his veins when he did something that felt so wrong yet so right at the same time.

Actually, when he and Julianna meet Koriadon for the first time, the first time he went drinking he felt the same feeling. A rush of joy by doing something that he would normally consider wrong.

He had heard stories from his parents about how reckless his father used to be as a young man and his involvement in the Paldea nightclub scene he had even been to Ibiza off the coast. He used to find those stories ridiculous he had only known his father to be an overly cautious fisherman so the idea of a 21-year-old Juan Castro taking party drugs in Mesagoza or waking up in random alleyways in Montenevera was laughable to him.

But then again that was when Juan Castro was in the prime of his life and that time had long passed and now it was Florian Castro's time to be in the prime of his life.

Anyway, that was too much thinking right now his impressive win over Audrey bumped him into third place well Cherry and Oort took first and second.

So that left Florian to visit with his friends well the formality's wrapped up.

"Holy shit man I thought you came in your pants there at the end there" Oort laughed getting a smack from Kuiper in response.

"What did you though?"

"What no why would you even think that!"

"I mean you did get pretty into it there at the end"

"There's my little Gazpacho!" Florian's mother coming from behind him and giving him a hug mercifully interrupted the conversation.

"Where did you even get that crop top?" his father asked his voice clearly horse from yelling.

"I got it here in Glaseado before the contest I wanted to give the audience a big surprise"

"You certainly did that," his mother said well his grandmother gave him a weird look.

"So you must be those illusive friends that Florian talks to" Florian's father laughed.

"Your Ana and Javier right?" how his mother knew that despite the fact that he barely talked to his parents about his personal life he didn't know.

"Do you guys want to come over to our house for dinner we would be happy to have you"

"Ya sure I don't have anything better to do"

"Sure just let me text my mom"

"Hey just a warning try to be a tad more professional around my family than you are around me there not strict but they still want to think I'm around decent people," Florian asked as they walked a bit behind his parents.

"Are you saying we're not decent people?" Oort asked.

"No! no! Of course not it's just if they knew you were in Team Star they'd make assumptions about you guys"

"Um, you mean assumptions like that Julianna bitch you talked to?" Kuiper asked.

"I mean I guess why?"

"Because the bitch literally burnt the Segin squad base to the ground"

"What!" Florian stated in disbelief sure enough Kuiper showed him the video of Julianna's Charcadet setting fire to the base.

"So what happened to the Segin Squad?"

"They're done for," Oort remarked "With Giacomo defeated they will have crumbled without leadership"

"Shit, that's intense" Florian stated plainly.

Florian felt sick he knew something like this was bound to happen with Julianna but to see it face to face came like a banana peel at the top of a hill.

"On the bright side at least now we know who to use for the Tauros bait" Oort tried to lighten the mood.

"And with their defeat all the Segin Squad members drop to the bottom of the rankings which means we all jump higher in the rankings," Kuiper smirked. "In fact, I've already been getting messages from Alejandro Díaz"

"Alejandro Díaz from the Caph Squad isn't he the guy who crashes parties?" Oort asked.

"Yes, his brother David is the one who buys all the alcohol there both super high in the Team Star rankings and asked if we want to join them for the running of the Tauros?"

"How could I say no to that," Oort said in excitement as they got onto the train back to Porto Marinada.

"What about you Farbuti?"

Florian thought for a moment this was exactly what he needed to get his mind off of his problem with Julianna.

"Hell ya I'm in"

What happened after Salvador evolved into Clodsire was largely a blur for Julianna.

Perhaps it was getting over everything that had just happened in the span of like ten minutes but her brain was running so fast that she could barely focus.

Ash and Chloe kept asking her what happened she answered all the questions with a robotic voice deadpan voice like she didn't just go through fire and nearly have her pets run over.

She remembered Clive/Clavell talking to Giacomo about expulsion or something, not that she really was listening.

Then Giacomo came up to her and gave her some sort of Dark Type gym badge thing all she had to say to the guy was "Thanks"

Then Cassiopeia called and mention something about transferring her some money or something she really wasn't paying attention to them.

But the most surprising of all was that Penny was there she was the one who informed Ash about her needing help.

"Thank you, Penny I don't know what I would have done without you"

"It's... it's alright... You helped me when I needed it" Penny replied.

"Gia!" without warning Don burst out of his Pokeball with a dopey grin on his face he started licking Penny.

"Ah...ew! stop that please!" Penny "yelled" putting her hands up to block Don's tongue.

"Hey, hey Don down stop that!" Julianna forcefully tapped Don on the side to get him back.

"What... is that thing?"

"It's some sort of weird Cyclizar" Julianna replied Penny didn't push her after that.

"You know if you want you can come over to my dorm if you want" Julianna offered. There was no way she was going to spend the night with her mother defiantly drunk and passed out on the couch.

"No...no that's too kind"

"No, I insist if you didn't help who knows what would have happened?"

So that's how Julianna ended up with Penny in her dorm.

It felt comfortable having Penny in her dorm the girl rarely spoke sitting on Julianna's desk chair with her Sylveon on her lap.

"So how did you know I needed help anyway's," Julianna asked lying on her bed and stroking Salvador's spine well the spiny fish Pokémon was fast asleep with Tulio and Rebelde resting on her tail.

"Um... I actually hacked into the Team Star Grunts social media"

"Wow, you're good with computers and stuff?"

"Ya... it's something I do... when I'm bored"

"I hacked into other accounts to see why they... do the things they do" Penny exclaimed pushing her hand through her blue and red hair.

"Team Star use to not be all bad apparently they only joined because they were bullied and felt isolated. Eventually, all these bullied students banded together to form Team Star. Take that Giacomo he used to be head of the student council before Nemona and made all these rules that were too strict soon he was voted out and everybody hated him"

That's where she heard the name Giacomo from she remembered seeing his name on the leadership website when she did research on it before the school year.

"But then he found Team Star and they were able to really bring him out of his shell he was really willing to lighten up he made the code all Team Star members have to follow" Penny stared at her Sylveon running its ribbons, threw her fingers. That was the most Julianna had ever heard Penny speak.

"I... think I talked too much my throat hurts"

"Those Team Star ruffians! oh lo juro they've really gone over the line this time I'm gonna battle everybody in Team Star that I can get my hands on!" without warning Nemona stormed into Julianna's room her hair down and hanging over her face like the ring.

"Oh sorry Julianna I didn't mean to scare you" Nemona laughed brushing the hair out of her eyes "I was just getting ready for bed when I heard about you what happened with you and Team Star"

"Oh hola, Penny what are you doing here?" Penny froze at the sight of Nemona digging her fingers into Sylveon's fur.

"She's the one who told Ash I needed help I was just talking with her"

"Oh man, I wish I got to battle alongside Ash Ketchum" Nemona groaned.

"You know Penny!" Julianna asked

"Ya we get our hair dye at the same store"

"We do" Penny replied in a whisper.

"And she's super good with computers I find out like half the things I learn about Team Star from Penny"

"Actually Nemona I wanted to talk to you about that I got into some of the high-ranking member's socials and you're gonna want to read this" Penny handed Nemona her phone Julianna smiled at the Eevee-ear phone case.

"Qué? ay dios mío! oh, this is not good" Nemona sighed.

"What is it?" Julianna asked.

"There are these two bullies at school and they want to send some of the Tauros from the running of the Tauros to attack them"

"Oh that's awful Julianna remarked"

"Ya...even if there bullies h...hurting someone is not okay" Penny agreed.

"So what are you going to do about it?"

"Well I'm gonna tell the school to be on extra high alert for anything suspicious I'm also gonna watch from the sidelines to make sure nothing bad happens"

"I can help two" Julianna offered "And I can get my friends Cherry and Nashi they'd be willing to help"

"I could... come to... not to battle but I could help by checking social media" Penny offered.

"Awesome that I'll be six of us!" Nemona exclaimed.

"Six?" Julianna asked.

"I was thinking of asking Rika's brother Rinto if he'd be interested he seems like the type who would want to help with this"

"Alright it's settled then" Nemona exclaimed "Tell everyone to meet by the food stands during the festival"

End Credit Song-Day Glow Fire by Future Islands.

So basically Florian and Julianna make some hasty decisions that defiantly won't come back to bite them at all no ma'am I would never:)

The next chapter is mainly Ash and Goh focused with a bit of Inteleon/Team Galactic storyline we finally get the dreaded arrival of Goh's parents and if Finizen gets to finish his fight with the wild Capsikid so look forward to that:)