Yo friends of fanfiction, I'm back with chapter 22 of LPAOD and this one is going to be big for the main plot progression. Enough of my grandstanding, let's get into it!

Don't own pokemon (Nooooo, really?)

Enjoy and review.

In a pokemon center in Johto, Dawn and Paul were just hanging out in their room. The girl of the two looked around the room, as if searching for something, Paul noticed this and asked, "Looking for something?" Looking up from his book.

"Just the TV remote..." She mumbled in response, "Op, got it!" Dawn cheered, turning on the TV set.

"That bored?" Paul murmured, he associated TV with boredom.

"Not exactly." Dawn replied, to Paul's surprised, he thought she wouldn't hear him. She giggled at Paul's reaction and winked at him, "I've got pretty good at hearing your mumbles." Dawn teased, "But, in truth, Zoey said she was in the Ribbon Syndicate, the finals were going to broadcasted, so I wanted to watch."

Paul slowly nodded, trying to get his cheeks back to normal after the teasing, "Right... She was that Tom-boy rival you had, right?"

"The one and only." Dawn said surfing the channels looking for the Ribbon Syndicate, "Oh, there it is!" She exclaimed, changing channel to the right one.

"Welcome TV viewers, thank you for tuning for the finals of the Ribbon Syndicate!" The caster for the TV station greeted, "You joined at the best time!" The camera panned to the right, "On the right we have Zoey Nozomi!" Dawn clapped seeing her friend. "And on the left..." The camera panned to the left and Dawn and Paul's jaws would've hit the floor if there was no gravity... "Ash Ketchum!"

The Judges looked to Zoey, "Please send out your pokemon!"

Zoey nodded and grabbed her pokeball and with a toss it opened, love hearts spilled out the ball along with a Glameow, whom did a perfect twirl on exit, "It's showtime!" Zoey said spinning with her pokemon, which impressed the judges.

Gary let out a laugh in the stands, "There's no way Ash can compete with that!" He shook his head, "We should just think of a new way to get off this rock!"

"Don't count him out yet." Brock retorted, a small smile on his face, "This is about more than a spectacle."

Gary shrugged, "Yeah sure..." He stared at Ash below, "Don't lose now, Ashy Boy..."

The judges then looked to Ash, "Please, your pokemon."

Ash wiped his nose with a confident smirk, "You know what to do, pal!" With those words, Pikachu jumped off of Ash's shoulder and calmly and coolly landed on his feet with confidence. The judges weren't all that impressed, but they weren't rolling there eyes either, and that was enough for Ash to remain cool and calm like his buddy.

The TV announcer, trying to hype up the match, "This will truly be a battle of different styles!" The camera panned to Zoey, "We have the classic contest approach the judges know and love!" Then the camera was on Ash, "And the unorthodox, but tried and true battle heavy style!"

In then cut back to the announcers studio, whom was now accompanied by another announcer, dubbed 'the expert.' "Yes, yes Bob, this will be a truly strange performance." The 'expert' said, frantically looking at his paper and then at the camera, "While Ash Ketchum is a heavy esteemed trainer, I'm not sure if he can keep up with the true style and performative nature of Ms. Nozomi!"

Bob nodded as if he just heard the true in worded form, "Very true, Carl. It's just as you said, Ash is just a trainer, not a coordinator."

Dawn and Paul listened to the two announcers ramble on as the match was getting set up, Dawn just scoffed, "It's clear that they don't know what they're talkin' about..." She grumbled with a sweat drop.

"How so?" Paul asked, paying only about half of his attention on the TV.

"It doesn't matter if Ash is 'just a trainer' if he can knock Glameow out, he'll win, no matter how beautiful Zoey was throughout the match." Dawn explained, clearly enjoying being able to teach Paul something for a change.

Paul slowly got up from the bed, sitting up right, "Oh, I get it." He stuck up one finger, "Zoey can preform her ass, dazzle the judges," Paul slightly cringed when he said 'dazzle' which made Dawn giggle and caused him to blush, "Agh, but..." He spit out, putting up a second finger, "If Ash knocks Glameow out, she'll lose... right?"

Dawn calmed her giggles and nodded, "Yup, getting knocked unconscious is considered the most undignified a pokemon can be, resulting in MASSIVE point removal." She explained, "And a good coordinator knows this, so even if that's how they lose..." She turned back to the TV with an unreadable expression, "We accept it."

The elder of the three judges looked to Ash and asked, "Are you ready?" He nodded, then the judge turned to Zoey, "Are you ready?" She flashed a smile with a thumbs up. "BEGIN!" And with that the final battle for the Ribbon Syndicate has begun.

"Glameow start this off with your secret power!" Zoey quickly began with a snap of her fingers. Glameow got on two feet and did a quick dance, turning a light pink and then let her secret power, a pink beam escape Glameow's mouth.

Ash scoffed, "Pretty, but too bad that's not all that matters here!" He outstretched his arm, "Pikachu thunder bolt!" Pikachu charged up electric energy and turned yellow, and with a shout let out a beam of thunder which collided with the secret power. With a brief fight back from Glameow's attack, it was quickly overpowered by the thunder bolt.

"Damn..." Zoey cursed, biting her lip, "Glameow dodge, quick!" The cat pokemon was able to just barely get out of the way of the powerful thunder bolt, "Quickly, get em with your shadow claw!" Zoey wasted no time, taking advantage of the brief window to make her move.

Glameow was quick, faster than Pikachu unless he used quick attack, but Ash and his buddy knew they didn't need to out pace her, just overpower! "Meet em head on with your iron tail!" Ash commanded. Once again, both attacks collided and formed a dust cloud, it was clear that both pokemon were launched off of each other, but once the dust settled, it was clear that Glameow went much further and was looking more tired.

In stands Gary nodded, "I get it now, Ash know that he can't win a contest match, but..." He let a chuckle, "He can take it down to his level and make it a full on Pokemon battle!"

Brock nodded with a smirk, "Yup, that's how Ash does things..." He looked to Ash who was all confidence, "If he can't win normally, he'll change it to a way he can."

Zoey was no fool, she caught on to what Ash was up to, she knew that he turned this into battle, not a contest. "I guess we have to throw away all our bedazzlement..." She murmured, staring at Glameow, whom nodded back with a smile. "Go now, thunderbolt!" Glameow glowed yellow and let out a streak of thunder.

Ash let out a confused, but humored laugh, "You know I'll win this match!" He snapped, "Now, show em your thunder bolt!" As pikachu was charging up, a shadowy figure appeared next him, "What!?"

"Glameow, shadow claw!" Zoey yelled.

It was clean hit, pikachu was struck by the shadow claw and was launched a bit, "I see, the thunderbolt was a ruse..." Ash mumbled, understanding what just happened. He clapped, "Very impressive!"

Zoey scoffed, "I'm not sure if I should say 'thanks' when you sound condescending!" She shouted across the field.

Ash nodded, "I see, I'm gonna have to take this seriously!" He cracked his knuckles, "Let's get this going, Pal! Quick attack!"

If Glameow was faster than Pikachu without attacks, Pikachu WITH quick attack was almost blur, "Dammit!" Zoey didn't know what to do, she didn't know where the hell Pikachu was going to show up.

"Now buddy!" Ash commanded, and right on cue, Pikachu rammed right into Glameow's side.

"No!" Zoey yelped.

"Don't let up now, Iron tail!" Ash called out, pikachu's tail turned clear silver and slammed right into the already staggering Glameow.

When the dust settled, it was clear as day, Glameow was defeated, "G-glameow is unable to battle!" The judges declared, "Ash Ketchum is the winner!"

And with that, chapter 22 is over! I hope you enjoyed, next chapter should be a bit longer, hopefully, but regardless, I hope you enjoyed, and I'll see you later Friends of fanfiction!