Today the gang were having a swim in a lake for relaxation. Growlithe was staying on land, as he was a fire type.
Max's newest Pokémon, a Poochyena, was sitting next to Growlithe.
Max befriended Poochyena when he found it hurt in Rinshin Town, and he took it to the Pokémon Centre for treatment
After being treated Poochyena didn't want to leave Max, so Max happily caught it.
So now the gang decided to take it easy for a while.
Just then lots of lily pads were floating towards the group.
"What is this?" May asked nervously.
There was nothing to panic about though, it was a horde of Lotad.
Lotad were water and grass type Pokémon and they had lily pads on their heads.
"This lake is probably the Lotad's home," Brock said, "so let's get out so to not disturb them any more."
The others agreed.
Lotad, the Water Weed Pokémon.
It looks like an aquatic plant and serves as a ferry to Pokémon that can't swim.
The Lotad shot water gun into the air.
"All those Lotad have the egg move water gun." Tomo said.
At that moment a girl, with magenta hair turned up, "Excuse me, but is anything wrong?" she said, "I saw the Lotad doing water gun attack."
"Oh no, nothing's wrong," Winter answered, "we were just relaxing here and we realised that Lotad lived here."
"Oh I see," said the girl, "well you should come to my sister's flower shop. You can get plenty of relaxation there."
The girl, known as Natalie, introduced the gang to her two older sisters Nicole and Rita.
"It's nice to meet all of you," Nicole said, "and you are welcome to relax here."
"I take it you grow a lot of flowers here right?" May asked.
"Yes and we also grow berries here too," Rita said, "come we'll show you."
In the garden, outside the shop, there were indeed a lot of flowers and berries.
Winter and Tomo thought it look like their mum's garden.
"I hear that these berries are good for humans and Pokémon, right?" Winter said.
"That's correct," Nicole said, "and these berries also have effects with Pokémon. An oran berry for example helps restore a Pokémon's energy and a pecha berry heals a Pokémon from being poisoned."
An oran berry was a blue berry and the pecha berry was light pink and peach coloured.
"Do you sell any books about all kinds of berries?" Winter asked, "I'd like to know about all the kinds of berries there are."
"Yeah me too." Brock said.
"Actually we do," Rita said, "but before we show our books to you, would you mind giving us some help with watering our garden?"
Rita explained that their pipes for watering the garden needed replacing and so they needed help with watering the garden.
The gang agreed to help at once.
Just then the horde of Lotad from the lake appeared in the garden.
"What are the Lotad doing here?" May asked.
"They're here to help us water the garden," Rita said, "we share our berries with them and they always help us out in return."
So while Rita focused on repairing the pipes, Nicole, Natalie and the gang focused on watering the garden.
The Lotad were indeed a big help, they used their lily pad heads to carry water to and from the plants and their egg move water gun was useful with the plants too.
"It's amazing that all of these Lotad know the egg move water gun." Max said.
"To tell you the truth these Lotad also know the egg moves razor leaf, leech seed, sweet scent and synthesis," Nicole said, "it may seem unusual but these Lotad are quite special indeed."
Brock ended up making friends with one of the Lotad.
By the end of the day the watering was all done and the Lotad went back to the lake.
Nicole offered the gang to spend the night at their shop and the gang agreed.
Brock and Winter bought a book each which showed all the berries there are in the Pokémon world.
"Excuse me Nicole but I must ask," Winter said, "if you grind the berries into juice, would the effects of berries still work on the Pokémon?"
"Oh yes," Nicole said, "many people grind the berries into juice, that way the berries don't go bad and you can mush it into paste too."
Winter understood right away that berries were indeed really useful, especially when a Pokémon was sick or hurt and she read the book about berries till it was bed time.
Next day it was time for the gang to leave, and they thanked the three sisters for letting them spend the night at their place.
The Lotad who Brock befriended decided to go with Brock and Brock caught it.
So with a new Pokémon in tow, Brock and the others said goodbye to the three sisters and continued on to Rustboro City.
---------------------------•••---------------------------
The gang were getting near to Rustboro City, but then a multi-coloured butterfly landed on May's head.
"Hey, it's a Beautifly." Winter said, remembering her Beautifly.
Just then a man and woman came up to the gang.
"I'm sorry about that," the woman said, "I was practicing with my Beautifly, but it got carried away in the wind."
"It's no problem." May said kindly.
The man and woman introduced themselves as Chaz and Janet and they explained about their practice for the Pokémon Contest.
"Speaking of Pokémon contest," Winter said, "Tomo and I saw them on TV on the boat that brought us to Hoenn. Pokemon Contests are when you show off your pokemon's attacks and skills and other things like cuteness and beauty and other things."
"That's correct Winter," Chaz said, "and Pokémon coordinators win a contest ribbon if they win the contest. If you win five ribbons you enter a tournament called the Grand festival, and if you win that you become Top Coordinator."
"Wow that sounds magnificent" said Misty.
Chaz and Janet showed the gang the ribbons that they already had, Janet had two and Chaz had two. The ribbons were both different coloured but they both had a brass pin in the middle.
"The Rustboro Contest is today, so come with us and you can see what the Pokémon contests are like." Janet said.
The gang agreed to.
The Rustboro Contest was held in a building called the contest hall.
Winter asked the receptionist if she could enter too, the truth was she was interested about being a coordinator ever since she heard about them in Hoenn.
"Hang on Winter, aren't you doing gym battles though?" Max asked.
The receptionist explained that it was okay for Winter to do both gym battles and Pokémon contests, "There have been many people who do both gym battles and contests in the past." She said. "And we were already notified about you Winter Sky Storm no Luna Mew Light."
Winter smiled.
"The head of Contest allowed it so do your best." The receptionist said.
"So they know about your identity?" Max asked.
"Yeah," Winter said, "I called Mr Goodshow and the head of Contests, told them about my condition. They accepted me using identity name but I have to use my real name with I make it to the Hoenn League and Grand Festival."
The gang nodded expected for Tomo because he knew about it already.
So Winter got a Hoenn contest pass and got the last opening spot for the contest, she registered with Mudkip and she even got a pink red ribbon case to hold five ribbons in.
"Snow do you know what you have to do though?" May said.
"Yes I do," Winter said, "I practiced something with Mudkip the other day."
The gang couldn't wait to see what performance Winter would put on.
As the contest wasn't ready to start yet, Chaz and Janet talked with the gang outside.
"So Winter why did they call you Luna Mew Light?" Chaz asked and Janet wondered about that as well.
"Luna Mew Light is my real name." Winter answered.
The gang explained to them that Luna was the winner of two conferences in a row and she earned the named as 'Region Princess'. She is the youngest to two the conferences so far.
Luna hates being in the centre of attention so she made another identify as Winter Sky Storm.
Chaz and Janet somehow understood that being famous is not fun you don't get much freedom with news reports and fans chasing after you.
"So your doing gym battles as well?" Chaz asked breaking the subject.
"That's right," Winter said, "when I'm done with the contest, we'll be heading over to Rustboro Gym."
"I better let you know Winter, they use rock Pokémon at that gym." Chaz said.
"Yeah I've heard of that on the computer and my Pokémon are ready for it, especially Mudkip and Treecko," Winter said, "and I've been teaching some of my Pokémon iron tail, thanks to Pichu because my Pichu knows iron tail."
"So you know about steel type moves beating rock Pokémon huh?" Janet asked.
"You're right Winter does." Brock said and he explained about the time when Winter defeated Brock's Geodude and Onix with Pidgeotto and Beautifly because they knew steel wing and water pulse which was Beautifly egg move.
"Wow Winter, you're one smart trainer." Janet said.
"Thanks." Winter said.
Soon it was time for the contest to start. The announcer of the contest introduced the three judges, Mr Contesta, Mr Suziko and Nurse Joy from the Rustboro Pokémon Centre. He also presented the Rustboro Ribbon, which was light and dark pink.
Janet asked May and Max to help her in the contest and they agreed to help. She also explained how the contests worked.
First the Pokémon puts on a performance and the judges gave points for the appeal and the level of cooperation between the Pokémon and trainer.
The most important thing was not to mess up during the performance round or you would lose points.
The next part was the battle rounds between the contestants who make it past the appeal rounds.
"It all sounds exciting." May said.
There were many wonderful performances during the appeal rounds, and then it was Chaz's turn. Chaz used his Venomoth and it was pouring tea into a cup by using confusion. He got the score of 29.5.
Then it was Janet's turn. She had Beautifly use flash to give off a dazzling light.
Max and May threw china plates at Beautifly and Beautifly brose the plates into pieces with string shot.
Then Beautifly used hidden power that gave off little silver particles of light, and then Beautifly landed on Janet's hand to finish. Janet got the score of 30.0.
So far Chaz and Janet had the highest scores.
Finally it was Winter's turn. "Mudkip use ice ball." She said. Mudkip fired three balls of ice into the air. "Now juggle with your tail." Mudkip started to juggle the three ice balls by hitting them one at a time his tail fin. The crowd liked it. "Now Mudkip spin and use iron tail." Winter said. Mudkip stopped juggling, spinning and then he hit the balls of ice with iron tail. The balls of ice broke into little particles of sparkling ice.
Winter and Mudkip shot their arms into the air to finish. Winter got the score of 29.4.
"Wow Winter that was great for your first time in a Pokémon contest." Chaz said.
"Yeah you are your Mudkip performed great together." Janet said.
"I have to say, I found that really fun actually." Winter said.
"So does that mean you will keep on competing in Pokémon contests then?" Brock asked.
"You beat I am." Winter said, "I did tell you that my other dream is a Top Coordinator."
Brock and Tomo nodded.
It was now time for the battle rounds, and Winter was battling with Chaz first.
Winter warned her Mudkip about Venomoth being a poison type Pokémon.
"Use stun spore Venomoth." Chaz said.
Winter had Mudkip use dig to protect itself from the stun spore attack.
Janet explained how the battle rounds worked. Apparently you lost points when your Pokémon got hit by an attack and when your Pokémon's move failed on attacking the other opponent.
Mudkip was doing well against Venomoth, especially with ice ball attack, Venomoth kept on getting hit by the balls of ice.
"Okay Mudkip use water gun." Winter said. Venomoth got soaked by the water gun attack and had trouble flying with wet wing.
Just then the five minutes were up, the battle rounds lasted five minutes per battle.
In the end Winter defeated Chaz by a few more points. Winter and Janet ended up battling each other in the final rounds.
Tomo, Brock, May and Max, who were watching in the seats, were nervous about how this battle had turned out, they had seen Janet battling her two other opponents and Janet was a good battler.
Of course they had faith in Winter, but they had no idea how this battle will turn out.
"Use icy wind Mudkip." Winter said.
"Blow it away with gust Beautifly." Janet said.
Mudkip blew icy wind at Beautifly, but Beautifly managed to fight it back with gust and both Winter and Janet lost some points.
"Let's use bide Mudkip." Winter said. Mudkip braced itself, while his body became outlined in white.
"Use hidden power." Janet said. Beautifly hit Mudkip with hidden power, but Mudkip was still standing strong.
"What is the move bide exactly?" May asked.
"Bide is a normal type move," Brock explained, "and what happens is a Pokémon charges up to use it and then it fires the attack, a bit like solar beam really."
Beautifly struck Mudkip with gust next, and then Mudkip released the bide attack at Beautifly. Beautifly got really hurt by the attack.
"Wow, what a cool attack," Max said, "I'm going to teach my Zigzagoon and Linoone that move."
"Use morning sun." Janet said, and Beautifly glowed brightly. Morning sun was a move that had the ability to heal pokemon.
"Use ice beam Mudkip." Winter said. Beautifly got struck by the ice beam and one of its wings got covered with ice.
"Oh no, Beautifly's wing is frozen." Janet said. She was about to tell Beautifly to try and fight it with gust, but then the five minutes of battling was up.
The final result was Winter had won the Rustboro contest, by a mere point more than Janet. "All right we won Mudkip." Winter said hugging Mudkip. Mudkip was happy with the win.
Winter was presented the Rustboro ribbon.
"This was your first contest as well as first contest win, right Winter." Mr Contesta asked.
"Yes sir it is." Winter replied.
"Well Winter I think you did really well for a beginner as a coordinator," Nurse Joy said, "and I wish you luck with your other contests."
"Thank you." Winter said.
Chaz and Janet congratulated Winter on her victory.
"I cannot wait to see what other contest performances you'll perform in the future Winter," Chaz said, "and I wish you luck in your gym battle too."
"Thank you very much." Winter said.
May looked at Winter's ribbon in amazement, "You know I've decided to become a coordinator too," she said, "I thought that the contest was wonderful, so I've decided to enter the next contest."
"You see May, I told you that you would decide on what to do while on this Pokémon journey." Winter said.
"You're right." May said.
So May had found her goal at last, and that was to be a Pokémon coordinator.
----------------------------•••---------------------------
After the Rustboro Contest was over with, the gang were traveling through route 104 to get to Rustboro City.
Just then May noticed a red caterpillar Pokémon squirming about.
"That's a Wurmple." Brock said.
Tomo checked his PokéDex:
Wurmple, the Worm Pokémon.
Often targeted by bird Pokémon, it desperately resists by releasing poison from its tail spikes.
"Wurmple evolve into Beautifly actually." Brock said.
"Really?" May asked.
"Yeah actually I have a Beautifly." Winter said, "I caught it as a Wurmple."
May thought it looked kind of cute and decided she would capture i. "I want to have a gorgeous Beautifly of my very own and enter it in a contest." She said, and she ran off to capture Wurmple.
"Should we follow her?" Max asked.
"No we leave this capture for her to do herself," Winter said, "I helped May catch her Azurill, so it's best we leave her to catch another Pokémon herself."
"Winter is right," Brock said, "besides May will need to learn to do things herself while being a Pokémon trainer."
Max knew that Winter and Brock were right.
----•••----
Meanwhile May was looking for Wurmple to catch it. But then something caught her eyes, she saw a Bellossom dancing in a field of flowers.
May looked at Bellossom on her PokéDex:
Bellossom, the Flower Pokémon.
The evolved form of Gloom. Bellossom gather at times and appear to dance. They say that the dance is a ritual to summon the sun.
"That Bellossom is gorgeous," May said, "I know I want to catch a Wurmple, but I want to capture this Bellossom too."
May sent out Torchic to battle Bellossom, Winter explained to her some time ago that fire attacks beat grass type Pokémon.
"Torchic use ember on that Bellossom." May said. Torchic fires ember attack at Bellossom and Bellossom got hit by it.
Bellossom got angry and fought back with magical leaf.
"Quick dodge it with agility and then use peck attack." May said. Torchic quickly dodged the magical leaf with agility and then it pecked Bellossom really hard. "Okay use ember one more time Torchic." She said.
Torchic fired another ember attack at Bellossom and this time Bellosom got really hurt by it.
"Okay time to capture this Bellossom." May said and she tossed an empty PokéBall at Bellossom and caught it.
"Hooray my second capture and I did it on my own this time. Now let's try to catch a Wurmple." May said.
May and Torchic took off together to find a Wurmple to catch.
----•••----
Back with Winter, Brock, Tomo and Max, Winter was training her Shroomish.
"You have very good moves Shroomish," Winter said, "but now I'm going to train you to learn new moves okay?"
Shroomish nodded to say yes.
Winter had Pichu help Shroomish to learn sunny day and headbutt.
Shroomish was practicing headbutt on a tree, but then three Wurmples fell out of the tree.
"Hey look at that," Winter said, "pity that May isn't here. Never mind, I can catch these three for myself instead. Shroomish hit those Wurmples with stun spore."
The Wurmples got paralyzed from the stun spore and Winter caught them easily.
"That was a good catch." Tomo said.
"Yes and so I'll end up with my own another Beautifly and Dustox." Winter said, "If I get two Dustox and one Beautifly, I'll sent the other Dustox and Beautifly to mum she'll love them."
Tomo nodded.
Winter found out on her Xtransceiver earlier that Wurmple can evolve into Beautifly or Dustox, Dustox was a moth type Pokémon.
Just then a boy, about Winter's age, came up to the gang.
"You did a great job of capturing those Wurmples and that Shroomish is a good battler." The boy said to Winter.
"Thank you," Winter said, "I'm Winter by the way."
"And I'm Franklin." The boy said. Tomo, Max and Brock introduced themselves to Franklin too. "Hey Winter do you mind I have a Pokémon battle with you?" Franklin asked, "you see I just got home from traveling and I haven't had a Pokémon battle for a while now. So can I battle you please?"
"Of course," Winter said, "besides it will give my Pokémon some practice before our gym battle."
"Great do you know about double battles?" Franklin asked.
"I do actually," Winter replied "to tell you the truth I've battled in double battles before."
"Great then we shall do a double battle then." Franklin said.
Winter and the Franklin started their double Pokémon battle.
Franklin was using Ariados and Yanma and Winter was using Taillow and Zigzagoon.
"Zigzagoon use extreme-speed and Taillow use aerial ace." Winter said. Zigzagoon charged into Ariados at full speed and Taillow charged into Yanma.
"Yanma use sonic boom and Ariados use string shot." Franklin said. Ariados fired string shot to trap Zigzagoon, but Zigzagoon managed to dodge it, and Yanma fired sonic boom at Taillow, who got hit by the attack.
"Okay Zigzagoon use thunderbolt on Yanma and Taillow you use air cutter on Ariados." Winter said. Zigzagoon shocked Yanma hard and Taillow fired blue x shaped blades from his wings at Ariados. Yanma and Ariados got really hurt by the thunderbolt and air cutter attacks.
"It seems Zigzagoon mastered thunderbolt thanks to Pichu and Pachirisu." Max said.
"Yes and Taillow learnt air cutter back at Professor Oak's lab from Winter's flying Pokémon." Tomo said.
"Now Zigzagoon and Taillow use extreme-speed and aerial ace again." Winter said. Zigzagoon and Taillow charged at Yanma and Ariados and Yanma and Ariados fainted.
So Winter was the winner.
"You were great Zigzagoon and Taillow." Winter said to her Pokémon.
Franklin congratulated Winter and thought she was a great Pokémon trainer.
----•••----
Meanwhile May was still looking for a Wurmple to catch. At that time she met a trainer called Franklin, surprisingly enough he looked like the Franklin who Winter and the others were talking with now.
"So May you are on a Pokémon journey?" Franklin asked.
"Yes," May said, "and I'm traveling with my little brother and some friends."
That's nice," Franklin said, "actually I'm planning of travelling myself."
"Oh really?" May said, "well I hope you enjoy your journey. Even though I've only just started my journey, I'm starting to like it little by little."
Suddenly May saw a Wurmple. "Finally, now's my chance to catch my own Wurmple." She said and this time she sent out Azurill to battle Wurmple. "Use bubble Azurill." Azurill fired multiple bubbles at Wurmple and Wurmple got hit by the bubbles. "Now use slam." Azurill grabbed Wurmple with her tail and slammed it onto the ground.
May tossed a pokeball at the Wurmple, and caught it. "All right I caught a Wurmple at last."
May cheered
"Azu, Azurill!" Azurill jumped up and down in happiness and Franklin congratulated her.
May then decided it was time for her to get back to the others, and Franklin decided to go with her to meet her friends.
----•••----
At that time, Brock had just finished making lunch and Franklin was going to join them.
Just then May turned up and she told the others of her success of capturing Bellossom and Wurmple.
"Wow congratulations May." Winter said and she told her of her capture of three Wurmples.
The Franklin who was with May also turned up, and the amazing thing was that the two Franklin look a likes were identical twin brothers.
The Franklin who was with May was called Forrest Franklin and the other Franklin was called Forrester Franklin.
"Well we've certainly have had a good day today." Winter said and the others agreed with her.
While all this was going on, Team Rocket was in route 104 too and they had just captured a swarm of Wurmple in some PokéBalls.
Jessie had also captured a Wurmple for herself.
James found out that Wurmple evolved into either Beautifly or Dustox.
"I reckon that the boss will want these Wurmples into Dustox," James said, "I mean Beautifly don't look as powerful as Dustox are because of Dustox's toxic wings."
"Yeah, but don't forget the headquarters have a lot of Butterfree, even if they don't look that tough." Jessie said.
"That's true." James said.
"Come on, we better leave this forest before someone sees us." Meowth said.
Team Rocket grabbed the pokeballs full of Wurmples and left to find more Hoenn Pokémon somewhere else.
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20/09/2015- Edited
1. I decided that Winter to catch three because the Beautifly and other Dustox will be given to her mum.
2. Bellossom suites May and Poochyena suites Max.
3. Jessie won't be entering contests.