Before the Tag Team Tournament begins, we decide to explore the Hearthome City. There is also a Pokemon Fan Club in this city, and the owner says, "Hello, hello! How, I say, do you do? I am the Pokémon Fan Club Chairman! Indeed, yes I am! When you wish to treat your Pokémon to a treat, what, I say, do you do? If I may say so, and I will, I feed Poffins to my Pokémon! And why, I say, would I do that? Because the giving of Poffins is a way of expressing your love! For example! If I were to give a Sweet Poffin, the Pokémon eating it would become more cute! For example! A Spicy Poffin will add to the coolness of a Pokémon! In such ways I say that Poffins have nothing but goodness for Pokémon! Therefore! I declare this Poffin Case to be a gift from me to you!"
And we all get the Poffin Case, and once we have the case, I say, "Poffins... huh... I remember how my sister Insey loves to make them."
Then we decide to try to make the Poffins. After placing the berries, stirring is the challenge for making those. After we finish making them, Dawn decides to have her Pokemon try hers, but after they taste them, they all don't like it and would rather eat mine.
"Pokemon all have different tastes, just like people have likes and dislikes as well." Tox says. "I think those poffins are good for Glameow or cat Pokemon instead of your Pokemon..."
"You're right..." Dawn says. "But I'm not going to give up!"
We try it again and this time Dawn manages to change another flavor, and this time all of her Pokemon like them. "You found your own recipe." Lillie says with a nod.
After that's done, we head to Amity Square to have some rest, then we also arrive at Bebe's house, and she wants us to raise an Eevee because she's busy. So we get the Eevee from her.
With the things to do done, we go to the Hearthome Tag Battle Tournament. Lillie, Gladion, and Daniel sit this one out while Dawn, Tox, and I enter the Tournament. And as we get our number card, we're trying to find the partner. Mine is Number 15, I found that Dawn and Tox already found their tag team partners, and then I hear a familiar voice.
"Of course, you have to be number 15." Great, it's Paul, and he is my partner. "Of course, I have no choice. You just make sure you don't get in my way."
"Hold on! That's no way to talk to a tag team partner." I say.
Then we also hear the prize being a Soothe Bell, which raises the friendship for a Pokemon. I think giving it to Buneary is a good choice because Buneary evolves with high friendship.
We watch Dawn and her creepy partner Conway win their match, and Paul's Chimchar's Flamethrower almost hit me. "Hey! What was that for?"
"Give Chimchar your suggestions." Paul says.
"Chimchar, you've been working on your Flamethrower, haven't you?" Chimchar nods, and Paul says, "A weak Flamethrower from a weak flame. Even though you have no control over it at all."
Chimchar just lowers his head, I say, "I think your Flamethrower is great. Why don't you let us help you out?"
"Sorry, but we don't need your help." Paul says.
"This is a Tag Team Battle and we have to help each other out!" I say back.
"It's all about you again, isn't it?" Paul asks.
"Sounds like you have forgotten the purpose of this competition. Back to the matter both trainers and Pokemon have to think about each other in a Tag Battle. That is what Cynthia said." Dawn says.
"When every life meets another life, something will be born. So, Chimchar, let's go now." Paul says.
I ask, "Then why did you enter this competition in the first place?"
"So I can meet Fire Type Pokemon." Then he leaves.
Tox says, "Knowing Paul, that reason makes a lot of sense. I think Paul wants to use the Fire attacks to boost up Chimchar's."
"Make sense, but I don't like it." I mutter.
Tox and his partner Holly are up next, and they also manage to win their round. Though Holly starts to flirt with Tox, which causes Dawn to gasp in shock.
Paul and my battle is the last of the first round. I use Pikachu and Paul sends out Chimchar, and our opponents use Rhydon and Magmar. Rhydon can use Surf, and instead of dodging, Paul decides to have Chimchar use Flame Wheel to take it head-on. After Pikachu saves him, it is basically Pikachu that wins the Rhydon with Iron Tail, and Chimchar wins Magmar with a Dig attack.
"I'm glad they won, but it certainly is not the greatest example of teamwork..." Gladion says.
"Yeah. I'm also worried about Chimchar as well..." And just like Lillie is worried about, Paul wants me to stay out of the way, and I try to tell him that we should work together.
During the night, Lillie, Gladion, and I are training our Pokemon and we notice Paul training harshly with Chimchar. "Hey, Paul, what's going on here?"
He ignores me and has Chimchar train with Flamethrower, which accidentally hit me, Chimchar notices it and rushes to me. I say, "You just keep getting stronger and stronger, you know." I say.
"We're not through yet, Chimchar." Paul says, much to our surprise.
"What are you doing, Paul? Why is Chimchar the only one who does that special training?" Lillie asks.
"It's not of your business." Paul says.
"Yes, it is." I say. "We're a tag team. I still don't understand why you enter this thing."
"You won't. It's a good chance to get my Pokemon exposed to powerful battles." He says.
"What do you mean?" Lillie is not that happy after hearing that. "Aren't you being rude to the other trainers and Pokemon in the tag battle?"
"I need Chimchar to be struck by the super-effective Surf attack today, got it?" Paul says.
"But what if Chimchar would've lost?" Gladion asks.
"Then Chimchar will be useless." Paul says.
"If you want to make Chimchar stronger, you've gotta improve its strong points!"
"Please, spending a second in proving a Pokemon's strong point is like babying a spoiled brat and it keeps wasting my time." Paul says.
"I assume you treat all your Pokemon that way?" Gladion asks.
"No, this is actually what Chimchar wants." Paul says.
"Chimchar, is that true?" I ask, and he nods. "But there are other ways to get stronger... You don't have to do it the hard way, you know."
Paul and his team walk away, so Chimchar must follow, and we also notice the sadness in his eyes. We're not going to give up on Chimchar, and just when Chimchar is out of its HP, I have Pikachu interfere. "You've done more than enough. I'm taking Chimchar to the Pokemon Center, understand?"
Paul just turns away and says, "Be my guest."
At the Center, Tox treats Chimchar, and his talent impresses Holly. Tox says, "Chimchar needs rest, but it will be better." The next day, we all confront Paul, and he finally tells us the true story of how he met Chimchar.
Paul saw Chimchar being chased by a furious group of wild Zangoose and followed. The situation began to look bad for Chimchar as he was cornered by a cliff's edge, but in his stress, he pulled off an extremely powerful Flame Wheel and defeated all of the Zangoose. This impressed Paul enough to add Chimchar to his regular team.
"I knew that if I have that kind of firepower, I'm going to win the Pokemon League for sure. But, ever since that day, we aren't able to duplicate that power." Paul says.
"I see... so you want to recreate the stress like those Zangoose so you put Chimchar in that kind of training all the time." Tox says.
"I need to push Chimchar way beyond the limit. If we could just recapture that power, Chimchar will become the strongest of all my Fire Pokemon." Paul says as he tries to leave.
We ask him to have Chimchar rest, and it is thanks to Nurse Joy that he finally agrees.
The next day, Dawn and Tox win their rounds, and it is Paul and my turn. I go with Turtwig, but we are shocked to see Paul using Chimchar. And our opponent is a Metagross and a Zangoose, which puts Chimchar into a state of fear.
And of course, Chimchar is so afraid to use any moves, and I have Turtwig to help him. When Paul has Chimchar use Flame Wheel on Turtwig, Chimchar at first doesn't want to, but does it and hits Turtwig and Zangoose, separating them, and is able to keep the momentum going and hits Metagross as well.
"What's wrong with you?" I ask with anger, and Paul just ignores me as usual. Because Chimchar's fear of Zangoose, he can't attack and Paul mutters, "I guess that's it."
I have Turtwig help Chimchar out and after doing so, Paul decides to just give up Chimchar and turns away. I grit my teeth before helping him command Chimchar. "Chimchar! Flamethrower!"
Chimchar listens to me and attacks, and knocks out the Metagross, and Turtwig also finishes Zangoose in the end. We might have won, but Paul still has his back turned, leaving Chimchar in a state of dread.
At sunset, we find Paul releasing Chimchar, and I ask, "Paul, so that's the end of all that special training?"
"Yeah, that's right. What's the point? Obviously I need to get a new Fire Type." Paul says.
"You're giving up Chimchar?" Lillie asks, "What happened to the two of you getting stronger together?"
"After all of that progress and you're going to throw away?" Brock asks.
Chimchar is about to leave, and Lillie yells, "Chimchar! Come with us!"
We rush to Chimchar and I say, "We'll have a blast working hard."
Chimchar stares at us with disbelief, and I say, "You see, the way you give all you got is awesome. I like working with a Pokemon like you."
Paul just snorts, "You deserve each other. You're all pathetic."
"What do you say?" Gladion is ready to punch him, but Lillie says, "Just ignore him. Chimchar and we just need to prove to him how hard we can be."
And then Team Rocket appears and tries to take Chimchar, while Paul just walks away. We are intent on rescuing Chimchar, Chimchar seemed to be inspired to take action as well, using Flamethrower on Team Rocket's balloon, sending them flying.
Before Chimchar plummeted to the ground, I was able to catch it. After complimenting Chimchar's Flamethrower, we ask if Chimchar would like to be on our team. Chimchar happily agreed, so I toss a Poké Ball into the air. Chimchar jumps up, smacks the button, and we capture Chimchar.
Chimchar: The Chimp Pokemon: Fire Type. It agilely scales sheer cliffs to live atop craggy mountains. Its fire is put out when it sleeps.
The next morning, the battles continue in the Tag Battle Competition. Dawn manages to win the match and now it's our turn versus Tox and Holly.
We each send out our respective Pokémon: Togetic, Torterra, Croagunk, and Farfetch'd. Farfetch'd is easily down first by Torterra, but the attack also hits my Togetic. I say, "You don't have to hit Togetic!"
"It's just your Togetic's too slow." I grit my teeth. Tox decides to continue by using Croagunk, but it is also defeated in the end. I say, "Togetic, you did great."
"What did you two do anyway?" We glare at him, and he doesn't seem to care.
Returning to the Pokémon Center after the match, Tox and Holly bid farewell to each other as Holly says that she doesn't want to let him down the next time they meet, and he agrees.
Finally, the final battle of Dawn and Conway versus Paul and I begins. I decide to use Chimchar,and Paul uses Elekid, and Conway and Dawn call out Heracross and Cherrim. In the end, Paul's Elekid evolves into Electabuzz, and both Dawn and Conway's Pokemon are knocked out.
Paul says, "You're so pathetic. That Flamethrower of Chimchar's should've put Heracross out of the spot, but it's still standing up. If it wasn't for Electabuzz's Thunder, we couldn't have won. You two deserve each other just like I said."
"Talk all you want. Chimchar is awesome and I knew it. And we're just going to get stronger together." I say.
At the awards ceremony, we receive the Soothe Bells, and everyone applauds me for our win. Conway muses, "A tournament that was supposed to emphasize teamwork between Trainers, it was the team that co-operated the least that ended up winning."
That evening, at the Pokémon Center, we discuss the battles that happened. Although Dawn is discouraged about losing, she promises to win her next Contest. Suddenly, Paul passes by, tossing his Soothe Bell at me, "I have no need for that."
Then he just walks away, Chimchar is not happy and I say, "No need to mind him, we're a team now."
"Say, I've gotten an idea." Conway says. "Why not head to the Veilstone Gym in Veilstone City?"
"Isn't that where Paul is from?" Daniel asks.
"Yeah. Next stop is Veilstone City. And we're going to get my third Sinnoh Gym badge for sure." Lillie says.
This chapter is basically the Tag Team Tournament. I hope you like this chapter and the next one will be a new Battle Frontier Chapter.
Ash and Lillie's Pokemon:
Charizard x2 (In training), Butterfree x2 (One Pink), Pikachu, Lickitung, Rhydon, Tangela, Electabuzz, Magmar, Lapras, Eevee, Meganium, Togetic, Aipom, Yanma, Espeon, Murkrow, Gligar, Steelix (Crystal), Sneasel, Piloswine, Mantine, Porygon2, Sceptile, Gardevoir (Shiny), Milotic, Dusclops, Absol, Turtwig, Chimchar, Piplup, Staravia, Bidoof, Kricketune, Shinx, Roserade, Cranidos, Shieldon, Burmy x4, Pachirisu (Shiny), Buizel, Cherubi, Shellos (West), Drifloon, Buneary, Mismagius, Stunky, Bronzor, Finneon, Magnezone, Leafeon, Gallade, Probopass, Rotom
Dawn's Pokemon:
Ponyta, Piplup, Pachirisu, Cherubi, Buneary
Tox's Pokemon:
Roserade, Stunky, Croagunk
Gladion's Pokemon:
Umbreon, Riolu
Daniel's Pokemon:
Girafarig, Bronzor