Ash's Pokémon Journey

Chapter 81-85

Chapter 81

Dusk Contest,

Sootopolis Gym and

Pacifidlog Contest

Today the gang had come to Dusk Town where the next contest was. Ash had his new Absol checked in the pokemon center to see if its wound was all right. Ash told Nurse Joy about what happened in Riyado Town and the snare trap. Of course it made Nurse Joy cross about the people in Riyado Town hating Absol, but she was relieved that they didn't anymore. Ash's Absol was female and to Ash's surprise she knew quite a lot of attacks. Absol knew scratch, leer, quick attack, quick attack, razor wind, sword dance, bite double team, water pulse, calm mind, thunder bolt, flamethrower, ice beam, hyper beam, iron tail, aerial ace, secret power, stone edge, dark pulse, shadow claw, cut and the egg move megahorn. Of course Ash was happy to have an incredible pokemon and couldn't wait to try her out in battles.

Right now the gang was at the contest hall so Ash and May could sign up to enter. At the reception desk, the lady said that there was only one more application left. May decided to let Ash have it; he had given her the last application of entering a contest twice before, so May wanted to return the favor this time. So this time only Ash entered. "You sure that you didn't want to enter this contest May?" asked Max, who was worried about his sister. "Ah don't worry Max," said May "I can just enter the next contest". "Oh not entering the contest May?" asked a voice. It was Harley; he was entering the Dusk Contest too. "What a pity, these could have been my chance to defeat you this time May. Never mind I can just defeat Ash instead". "If you think that you are going to beat me in this contest, well let me tell you this; I am not going to be easy to defeat" said Ash, not happy with Harley's tone. "Just don't disappoint me in this contest" huffed Harley, and he walked off. "Harley hasn't changed one bit," said May "Ash do me a favor and defeat him please". "No problem" replied Ash.

The Dusk Contest soon started and Vivian gave the usual introductions and showed off the Dusk Ribbon. The Dusk Ribbon was purple-pink, with a light pink outline. May was sitting in the seats with Brock, Tomo and Max. "If Ash does win this one, he will have all five ribbons to enter the grand festival" said Brock. "I wonder what pokemon he will use in this contest" said Tomo. May and Max couldn't wait to see what Ash would do.

The preliminary rounds started and for once Ash was first. He called out his Grovyle and ordered it to do aerial ace. Grovyle ran fast across the stage surrounded by white streaks. The judges and audience were impressed with Grovyle's speed. "Now Grovyle fire an energy ball into the air and then fire dragon breath at it" said Ash. Grovyle fired energy ball into the air and then fired dragon breath at it. The dragon breath and energy ball attacks burst into blue-green particles, and then Ash and Grovyle did their finishing pose. Ash got a score of 28.7.

Some more great performances came after Ash; there was a Shellder using icicle spear, Growlithe doing flamethrower, Bellossom using magical leaf and Crobat using air cutter. Finally it was Harley's turn and he called out Cacturne. Cacturne did a combination of bullet seed and poison sting and which gave off particles of yellow and purple. After the performances were over, Ash and Harley made it to the battle rounds with two other coordinators. To Ash's surprise he had to battle Harley first. Harley declared that he would easily get to the final rounds in just a few minutes. But Ash warned him to not under estimate his Grovyle. In the stands May hoped that Ash would beat Harley. "You shouldn't worry May," said Tomo "Harley may be strong, but Ash wouldn't let Harley beat him that easily". "Yeah no just watch the match and relax May" said Brock.

The battle rounds soon came and Ash and Grovyle were up against Harley and Cacturne. Harley ordered Cacturne to start off with poison sting. "Counter that with bullet seed Grovyle" said Ash. The poison sting and bullet seed collided with each other. "Now go in for quick attack". Grovyle tackled Cacturne hard with quick attack. "All right then," said Harley "Cacturne lets use needle arm". One of Cacturne's arms glowed white and it got ready to hit Grovyle. "Use focus punch Grovyle" said Ash. Grovyle's arms glowed and he got ready to punch Cacturne. Cacturne and Grovyle were then punching each other like they were in a boxing match. Brock pointed out that Cacturne would get more damage from Grovyle's focus punch, than Grovyle's damage from Cacturne's needle arm. "That's right," said Max "as focus punch is a fighting type move, Cacturne, being part dark type, would have the disadvantage against it". May watched the match carefully, happy to see that Ash was giving Harley a rough time. "Okay Grovyle, it's time to use x-scissor" said Ash. Grovyle's leaves on both his arms glowed light blue and then he slashed Cacturne in an X like fashion. As x-scissor was a bug type move, Cacturne got a lot of damage from it, being grass and dark type. Cacturne started to pant heavily and then fainted on the spot. Ash won this battle round.

May and the others in the seats were happy that Ash won, especially May. Harley returned his Cacturne and walked off in a huff. He also vowed to defeat May and Ash when they meet at the Grand Festival. Ash's final opponent was a girl named Jill and she owned Bellossom. Jill and Bellossom did what they could against Ash and Grovyle, but Ash and Grovyle were stronger than them, and Bellossom was soon defeated.

So Ash was the winner of the Dusk Contest and was presented the Dusk Ribbon. "Ash, this is your fifth contest ribbon right?" asked Mr Contesta. "Yes sir it is" answered Ash. "Well then Ash, this means you have the right to enter the Grand Festival," said Mr Contesta "I look forward to see your performances there". Ash was happy to hear that as well as happy to have earned five contest ribbons. Brock, Tomo, May and Max were happy for Ash. "And now I just need one more ribbon for the Grand Festival" said May. She was willing to earn her fifth ribbon and enter the Grand Festival at any costs.

Sometime after the Dusk Contest, the gang had left Izabe Island and had come to a city called Sootopolis Gym. This city was where Ash could earn his final gym badge for the Hoenn League. "Finally I can earn my last gym badge," said Ash "then I can register up for the Hoenn League". "I wonder what this gym leader is like" said Tomo. Brock took a look in the guidebook. "Well it says here that the gym leader is a man named Juan and he uses water type pokemon, just like Misty in Cerulean City," said Brock "oh and it says here that Juan was a coordinator in his time and he became top coordinator". "Well this is going to make the gym battle more interesting" said Ash. "There is something else here about the Sootopolis Gym," said Brock "it says that the gym used to be run by a man named Wallace". "Oh yeah I've heard of Wallace," said Max "he was a coordinator too before he became the gym leader and he too became top coordinator. But he's now training to aim to become the new champion of Hoenn". "That means he's going to try to beat Steven, which of course won't be easy for him" said Ash. Ash and the gang knew that Steven was not an easy trainer to beat.

The gang soon arrived at Sootopolis Gym and to their surprise the gym looked like a big concert hall and it had a big garden. "Wow," said May "this is the fanciest gym that I have ever seen". "I wonder what it's like inside" said Max. Just then a butler came up to the gang. "Greetings I am Sebastian the butler of the Sootopolis Gym," he said "what business do you kids have here?" "We are here so that I can battle the gym leader of this gym" said Ash. "I see," said Sebastian "then please follow me and I will take you to meet the gym leader".

Sebastian led the gang to inside the gym; the battle room was huge and it had a huge swimming pool as a battle field. It was nearly the same as the Cerulean Gym. A man, who dressed like a conductor, stood near the pool; this man was the gym leader Juan. "Master Juan, this young man wishes to challenge you to a gym battle" said Sebastian. Ash introduced himself to Juan and Juan accepted Ash's challenge. "I look forward to seeing on how you battle Ash" said Juan. Ash and Juan took their places on the trainer boxes, which were in fact diving boards of the pool. Sebastian, who was the referee, explained the gym rules. These rules were different to the rules that Ash normally heard. This time it was a five on five pokemon battle, but the gym battle was in two rounds. The first round was to be a double pokemon battle and once the challenger defeated the gym leader's two pokemon, it will be a normal three on three battle with the last three pokemon. Ash was surprised with the rules, but he still couldn't wait to battle especially since he intended to win the gym badge.

Juan called out his two pokemon first, a Sealeo and a Seaking. "Since Juan uses water types, it's clear that Ash will be using his electric and grass pokemon" said Max. The others agreed. Of course Ash did send out Pikachu first and for his second pokemon, he called out Corphish. "Why use Corphish?" asked May. "He's using Corphish to save his other pokemon for last," explained Brock "we don't know what attacks Juan's pokemon will use, so Ash is using Corphish first for back up". Ash ordered Pikachu to use thunderbolt on Seaking, but Seaking used horn drill. And when it did that, Pikachu's thunderbolt got repelled by Seaking's horn and it bounced back at Pikachu. "Use protect Corphish" said Ash. Corphish went in front of Pikachu and used protect; so both Pikachu and Corphish didn't get hit by the thunderbolt. "That was good defense indeed Ash," said Juan "but you will have to do more than that to defeat me". Ash decided to try something else rather than use Pikachu's electricity. "Okay Pikachu use swift," he said "and Corphish you use sword dance". Corphish's pincers glowed blue and Corphish stretched them into the air, making him feel stronger, which Pikachu used swift which hit both Sealeo and Seaking. "A good move Ash," said Juan "but let's see how you handle this. Sealeo use your blizzard". Sealeo blew a strong blizzard attack at Pikachu and Corphish. Pikachu of course didn't like it and neither did Corphish, although being a water type Corphish wasn't fazed as much by the blizzard as Pikachu was. "Okay Corphish let Pikachu ride on you so that both of you can attack Seaking and Sealeo together" said Ash. Pikachu jumped onto Corphish's back, as Corphish jumped into the pool, and rode on him in like a surfboard. "Okay, Pikachu you use thunder punch and Corphish you use metal claw". Corphish swam towards Seaking and Sealeo, while he and Pikachu got ready to do their attacks. "A straight forward move huh?" said Juan "a very brave move. Okay Seaking you use hyper beam and Sealeo you use aurora beam". Sealeo and Seaking fired their aurora beam and hyper beam attacks towards Corphish and Pikachu. "Dive Corphish" said Ash. Corphish dived under the water, with Pikachu still on his back, and the two attacks missed them. Then Corphish and Pikachu came out of the water and then Corphish struck Sealeo with metal claw and Pikachu attacked Seaking with thunder punch.

Juan and Brock, Tomo, May and Max were impressed with the tactic that Ash and his pokemon did. "Wow diving like that to avoid the attacks was great" said Max. "That's a best way to use a water battlefield, especially when you go under the water to defend yourself" said Brock. "Ash and I practiced that move together," said Tomo "Ash practiced that with Corphish, and I practiced it with my Croconaw and Poliwhirl". "I have to say Ash, you have an interesting battle spirit," said Juan "Seaking lets use horn drill and Sealeo use aurora beam again". "Pikachu time to use volt tackle" said Ash. Pikachu charged towards Sealeo and Seaking with his volt tackle attack and he charged into them before they could do any attacks. Both Seaking and Sealeo got hit by the volt tackle hard and fainted. So Ash was the winner of the first round. Juan returned his Seaking and Sealeo. "Ash you are giving me a better challenge than I thought you would do," he said "I just hope you won't disappoint me in the second round". "Don't worry Juan," said Ash "I'm not the type of trainer who goes soft in battles".

At that moment the pool was drained of the water; this was to change the battle field for the second round. The new battlefield was some land with a pond of water. Ash and Juan also switched sides with the trainer boxes. As the new battlefield had land, Ash decided this was the good time to use his grass pokemon. He sent out his Breloom to battle next. Juan sent out a Luvdisc to battle next.

May looked at Luvdisc on her pokedex: Luvdisc, the rendezvous pokemon. It lives in warm seas. It is said that a couple finding this Pokémon will be blessed with eternal love.

Ash started off by telling his Breloom to use seed bomb. As the green seeds headed towards Luvdisc, Juan ordered Luvdisc to use agility to avoid getting hit. Luvdisc was a fast pokemon indeed and it dodged all of Breloom's seeds. "Now use sweet kiss Luvdisc" said Juan. Sweet kiss was a move had made pokemon confused. "Use protect quickly Breloom" said Ash. Breloom quickly created a shield that protected him from getting confused by the sweet kiss. "It's a good thing that protect can protect a pokemon from attacks," said Brock "if Breloom got confused from the sweet kiss attack, it could have been trouble for Ash then". "Okay Breloom use mind reader" said Ash. Breloom closed his eyes to sense Luvdisc's next movement. "Use water pulse Luvdisc" said Juan. Luvdisc fired a ball of water towards Breloom. "Dodge it and use bullet seed Breloom" said Ash. Breloom jumped and dodged the water pulse attack and then fired bullet seed at Luvdisc. Luvdisc tried to dodge the bullet seeds but thanks to the mind reader move that Breloom did before, Luvdisc got hit by the bullet seed attack. "Okay now use dynamic punch" said Ash. Breloom ran up to Luvdisc and punched it hard with dynamic punch. Poor Luvdisc couldn't take anymore and fainted. "Wow, I thought the Luvdisc was going to dodge Breloom's attacks again" said May. "Yes, but minder reader helps a pokemon's attack unmissable like lock on does," said Brock "and that was how Breloom managed to strike Luvdisc this time". "I can't wait till my Shroomish evolves to Breloom" said Max.

Juan returned his Luvdisc and sent out a Whiscash to battle next. Ash asked Breloom if he was still all right to fight this one and he was. "Use seed bomb on Whiscash Breloom". "Use surf Whiscash," said Juan "then move into rock smash". Whiscash's surf attack shielded it from Breloom's seed bomb attack and then Whiscash jumped off the surf and landed right on Breloom. As Whiscash was a heavy pokemon, Breloom fainted from the rock smash attack. Ash was amazed on how strong a Whiscash can be and he returned Breloom. Now Ash only had four pokemon left to use. He knew that Whiscash was an water and ground type pokemon so using Pikachu and Manectric was no good, but he did know that grass types were effective on it.

Ash called out Nuzleaf next. "Use energy ball" he said. Nuzleaf fired an energy ball attack at Whiscash. "Dive underwater Whiscash" said Juan. Whiscash dived into the water and the energy ball attack missed it. "Get into the water and use nature power Nuzleaf" said Ash. Nuzleaf, who could swim, jumped into the water and did a hydro pump attack which hit Whiscash. "How can Nuzleaf do hydro pump, since it's not a water type?" asked May, who was surprised with what just happened. "Nature power has the ability to let the user use an attack depending on the location," explained Brock "in water nature power lets the user do hydro pump. My Ludicolo knows nature power too". Nuzleaf jumped out of the water. "Use solar beam Nuzleaf" said Ash. Nuzleaf gathered energy to do solar beam. "Whiscash use hyper beam" said Juan. Whiscash fired hyper beam at Nuzleaf, while Nuzleaf fired solar beam at Whiscash. Whiscash got hit by the solar beam and Nuzleaf got hit by the hyper beam, and both of them fainted from the attacks. So this round was a draw and Ash had three pokemon left and Juan had one left.

Juan returned Whiscash and sent out his final pokemon, Milotic. "I had a feeling that he would use a best pokemon for last" Ash said to him-self. He sent out Manectric to battle; Pikachu was still a bit tired to battle now. "Milotic use hydro pump" said Juan. Milotic blasted a powerful hydro pump attack at Manectric, but Manectric dodged it. "Use thunderbolt Manectric" said Ash. Manectric shocked Milotic well with his thunderbolt. "That was a bulls-eye" said Brock. But then Juan told Milotic to use recover and Milotic healed itself. Ash knew that this would be trouble because he had seen recover before. "Okay then then let's do this this," said Ash "Manectric use charge". Manectric charged up his electricity. "I know this move," said Max "charge charges up a pokemon's electric moves". "You're right," said Brock "and it's clear that Ash is going to show no mercy wit the next move". Juan ordered Milotic to use twister; this was trouble because twister was a move that a pokemon couldn't easily dodge. "We will have to attack this," said Ash "Manectric use thunder". Manectric released a powerful thunder attack at Milotic; thanks to charge it was stronger. As Milotic was hit by thunder and Manectric was hit by twister, everyone was nervous about what was going on. When the attacks subsided everyone could see that Milotic and Manectric were still standing, but Milotic was panting heavily from the thunder attack. Juan was about to tell Milotic to use recover, but then Milotic fainted on the spot. So Ash was the winner of the gym battle.

Juan congratulated Ash on his win. "Ash you indeed showed me your real battling spirit," he said "and I hope you will keep that battling spirit in the Hoenn League". "I challenged the pokemon leagues in Kanto and Johto in the past Juan," said Ash "I understand exactly of how tough pokemon leagues are". Juan handed Ash the gym badge, which was called the rain badge. The rain badge was lavender-blue colored and it was in a shape of three raindrops stuck together. "Finally I have all eight badges to enter the Hoenn League" said Ash. When Juan and Sebastian heard that, they congratulated Ash for obtaining all eight badges. Sebastian explained that the Hoenn League would take place in a city called Ever Grand City and it would take place in three months. "Three months is enough time for me and my pokemon to train," said Ash "as well as entering the Hoenn Grand Festival". "Oh so you are a coordinator too Ash?" asked Juan. "Yep" said Ash, showing his five ribbons. "Well Ash I wish you luck in both the Hoenn League and the Hoenn Grand Festival" said Juan.

Ash was happy to obtain all eight gym badges, and even though he had to wait three months he couldn't wait to enter the Hoenn League.

Today the gang had come to a place called Pacifidlog Town, where May could enter a pokemon contest to win her final ribbon. Truth is though; the gang found out that Pacifidlog Town was the only place left that was holding a pokemon contest, so May needed to win this ribbon if she wanted to enter the Grand Festival. So right now, May was training with her pokemon Combusken, Beautifly, Skitty, Bulbasaur, Marill and Staryu for the contest. "Okay all of you," said May "this is our last chance to win our fifth contest ribbon. So let's give everything we got for this contest". Her pokemon agreed.

Ash was training too; even though he wasn't entering the contest, he wanted to start training his pokemon for the Grand Festival and Hoenn League right away. Right now he was training his newly captured Snorunt. Snorunt was nowhere near ready yet for pokemon battles; he was sort of like the child of Ash's pokemon team. Snorunt did know some good ice moves; he knew powder snow, leer, double team, bite, icy wind, headbutt and protect and the egg move weather ball. "Okay Snorunt you and I are going to train today" he said. Snorunt was happy to be with Ash. "We are going to go through the moves you know and then we'll have you learn some more".

All the while, May was dealing with her Skitty, who wanted to play. "Skitty you can play all you want after the pokemon contest" he said. Just then a boy, with bottle green hair, came up to May. "Your Skitty looks so cute," he said "I take it you will be using it in the contest right?" "Actually I haven't decided yet on which of my pokemon to use" answered May. The boy, whose name was Joshua, explained to May that he was a coordinator too, and that he was going to enter the Pacifidlog Contest too. "Well then, may the best trainer win" said May.

Suddenly a girl, with brown hair, came up to them. "Hey Joshua, I thought you were practicing for the contest" she said. "Don't worry Erica," said Joshua "I have practiced for the contest a lot. So I will be ready for the contest". The girl's name was Erica and she was Joshua's girlfriend. Joshua introduced Erica to May and told her that she was a coordinator too. Erica stared at May. "Joshua and I will not be defeated that easily," she said "so you better brace yourself May".

It was soon time for the Pacifidlog Contest. Vivian did the usual introductions and showed off the Pacifidlog Ribbon. The Pacifidlog Ribbon was purple, with white spots and a lilac outline. "Now this is the final contest to be held before the Hoenn Grand Festival, which is held next month," said Vivian "so I look forward to seeing what performances the coordinators here will perform". May heard everything of what Vivian said. 'Since the grand festival is in a month's time, then my pokemon and I will have to practice once this contest is over' she thought.

Ash was outside the contest listening to everything on the big screen, with Pikachu and Snorunt; he wanted to train his Snorunt instead of watching the contest in the stands. "Okay Snorunt, we are going to help you learn water pulse and ice shard," said Ash "water pulse will be a great move for you to use against fire pokemon, and I have a pokemon with me that than help you learn those moves". He took out a pokeball and sent out his Lapras; as Lapras knew ice shard and water pulse, Ash decided to have Lapras help Snorunt. "Okay Lapras show Snorunt how you do water pulse and ice shard". Lapras showed off her water pulse and ice shard attacks to Snorunt. Snorunt was impressed with those moves and he wanted to learn them. "I can defiantly tell that you have grown stronger Lapras" said Ash.

It was true; Ash's Lapras had grown stronger over the months ever since Ash left her and her mum at Prof Oak's ranch. And she knew a lot of new moves; she knew water gun, bubble beam, mist, sing, confuse ray, ice shard, water pulse, body slam, rain dance, perish song, blizzard, solar beam, hyper beam, psychic, thunder bolt, dragon pulse, brine, safe guard, protect, double team, hydro pump, surf and sheer cold. Her mum knew these attacks too and it was thanks to all the times they had practicing the moves with other pokemon at Prof Oak's ranch.

Back in the contest hall, the preliminary rounds had started and now Joshua was doing his performance. His pokemon was a Houndoom and his performance was a combination of shadow ball and swift. The stars circled around the shadow ball like rings circling around a planet. Then it was Erica's turn and she was using a Jynx. Jynx's performance was a combination of blizzard and psychic, which created an icy tornado. Then it was May's turn and she was using Skitty. Skitty started the performance with assist, what became razor leaf, then she used blizzard on the razor leaf, which froze all the leaves, and then she wacked all the frozen leaves with double slap, which created a rain of ice shards. Erica and Joshua could see that May was a good coordinator.

When the preliminary rounds were over, Ash entered the waiting room and told May that her performance was great. "How was your training with Snorunt?" asked May. "Good actually," said Ash "Snorunt learnt ice shard and water pulse thanks to my Lapras. But we also tried to help Snorunt learn ice beam, but no avail yet". "Never mind," said Brock "I'm sure Snorunt will learn it soon". The results of the preliminary rounds came up and the four trainers who made it to the battle rounds were Erica, Joshua, May and a woman named Janine. Erica admitted that May did well for passing the preliminary rounds, but she warned May that she would have to beat her first to obtain the ribbon. Just then the battling results came; Erica was up against Janine and Joshua was up against May.

The battle rounds started and Erica and Jynx were up against Janine, who used a Seviper. Erica told her Jynx to use lovely kiss on Seviper; lovely kiss was a move that put opponents to sleep. "Dodge that attack and use flamethrower Seviper" said Janine. "Oh-oh," said Max "Jynx will be in trouble since that Seviper knows flamethrower". Seviper slithered past the lovely kiss attack and blew flamethrower towards Jynx. "Okay Jynx use light screen" said Erica. Jynx created a multicolored shield which shielded her from the flamethrower attack. "Now Jynx use psychic". Jynx's eyes turned blue and then she controlled Seviper, by lifting it in the air with psychic. "Now use hyper beam Jynx". Jynx fired a hyper beam attack at Seviper and then Seviper fainted. So Erica was the winner of the first battle round.

Next it was May's turn against Joshua. Joshua started things off thirst by telling his Houndoom to use swift. "Counter that attack with your own swift Skitty" said May. Skitty's swift attack collided with Houndoom's swift attack, creating yellow sparkles. "Now Skitty move in with wake-up slap". Skitty ran up to Houndoom and slapped it with wake-up slap. "I have to say," said Max "Skitty has come a long way ever since May captured it". "Yes and it has learnt some pretty good moves too". Joshua ordered his Houndoom to use dark pulse and Skitty got hit by it. May saw Joshua was a good battler. "All right Skitty, use water pulse" she said. Skitty created a blue orb from her mouth and fired it at Houndoom. "Quick counter that with flamethrower Houndoom" said Joshua. Houndoom blew flamethrower at the water pulse attack and the water pulse evaporated into steam. "Whoa, when did Skitty learn water pulse?" asked Max. "The day before yesterday," answered Ash "May was practicing water pulse with her Staryu, and in the process Skitty ended up learning it too". Max was amazed. "Use flamethrower again Houndoom" said Joshua. "Skitty use blizzard" said May. Normally a blizzard attack would easily get melted by flamethrower, but Skitty put power into her blizzard attack, and the flamethrower and blizzard attacks collided with each other. The two attacks continued to collide with each other, until the time was up. Once the time was up, the winner of the battle round was May and Skitty.

Erica, who saw everything from the waiting room on the telly, realized that May was a good trainer. Before Erica and May had their battle Erica spoke to May. "You may have beaten Joshua," she said "but you still have to beat me to win the ribbon". "Bring it" said May. Then the battle began. May started things off first with telling her Skitty to use tackle. Erica told her Jynx to use psychic and Skitty got lifted into the air by the psychic attack. "Now use lovely kiss Jynx". Jynx blew a kiss to Skitty and Skitty went to sleep. Then Erica told her Jynx to use blizzard and Skitty got hit good by the blizzard attack, and then it woke up from the sleep. "Okay Skitty, let's put that Jynx to sleep this time with sing" said May. Skitty sang the lullaby and Jynx fell asleep. "Now Skitty let's use iron tail". Skitty whacked Jynx hard with iron tail, but Jynx was still asleep. "Okay let's use wake-up slap". Skitty slapped Jynx hard and then Jynx woke up. "Why did May do that?" asked Max "wake-up slap wakes up a sleeping opponent". "That's because wake-up slap's power doubles if the opponent is asleep" answers Brock. Now that Jynx was awake, Erica told it to use psychic again. So Skitty was lifted into the air again, and Jynx used blizzard again. "Counter that with your own blizzard Skitty" said May. Skitty blew a blizzard attack, which collided with Jynx's blizzard attack. "Let's finish this with hyper beam Jynx" said Erica. Jynx fired a hyper bean towards Skitty. "Okay Skitty it's time to use copycat" said May. Copycat was a move that makes the user uses the last move that the opponent was using. So since Jynx just did hyper beam, Skitty fired a hyper beam attack too. Max was amazed with the move copycat. "It's like the move mimic" he said. "Okay Skitty let's use assist this time" said May. Assist was a move that randomly selects one of the moves known by the user's party allies. Of course May had no idea with what move Skitty would end up using, but she had faith in Skitty. Skitty's assist attack became fire spin, from Combusken, and it broke through Jynx's hyper beam attack and struck Jynx. Fire spin gave real damage to Jynx and Jynx fainted.

So May and Skitty were the winners of the Pacifidlog Contest and May was presented the Pacifidlog Ribbon. May finally had five ribbons to enter the Hoenn Grand Festival. Joshua and Erica congratulated May and they wished her and Ash luck in the Grand Festival. Now that Ash and May had five contest ribbons each, they had the Hoenn Grand Festival to think about now.

Chapter 82

Meeting Morrison and

The way to the Grand Festival

Ash and May were planning today on what to do with training their pokemon. As they both had five contest ribbons each, the Hoenn Grand Festival was all they could think about now. And of course, Ash had the Hoenn League to think about now. Ash and May found out from Nurse Joy that the Hoenn Grand Festival was going to be held in Slateport City, and Ash found out that the Hoenn League was to be held in a city called Ever Grand City. So the gang had two things to look forward too.

Apart from obtaining a fifth contest ribbon, May also had a new pokemon. The day after the Pacifidlog Ribbon, the gang encountered a Munchlax who kept on eating berries from some berry trees. The gang had remembered what Munchlax was like, because Max's Snorlax was a Munchlax before he caught it. To stop the Munchlax from causing trouble, May captured it for her own.

Right now Brock had made lunch for the gang; he made sandwiches and rice balls. "So May and Ash, what are you two going to do?" asked Brock. "Well I am going to train my Spoink to help her evolve," said Ash "she told me that she wants to evolve, and my Snorunt needs some more training too". "Can I train with you Ash?" asked Tomo "my Numel wants to evolve as well". "Certainly, we'll battle each other after lunch Tomo" said Ash. "What about you May? What are you going to do?" asked Max. "I'll be practicing with some of my pokemon;" said May "but I won't use Munchlax in the Grand Festival. It's too early since I only just got it". "I agree with that" said Brock.

At that moment a boy with tied up red hair ran past the group and stopped running to catch his breath. "Hey, there," said Ash "what are you in a rush for?" "I'm heading towards an area, where wild Beldum are swarming" said the boy. The boy introduced himself as Morrison and he explained to the gang that a swarm of Beldum was living in a forest a bit far from where they were standing now.

Ash looked at Beldum on the pokedex: Beldum, the iron ball pokemon. The magnetic force generated by its body repels the ground's natural magnetism, letting it float.

"Hey Beldum's final evolved form is Metagross" said Max. "That's right," said Morrison "and I want to catch a Beldum, so that I can have a Metagross like Steven Stone". Steven Stone not only had an Aron, he also had an Aggron, a Beldum and a shiny Metagross. "Can we go and see the Beldum swarm too please?" asked Max "I'd love to see them". "Yeah, I want to see them too" said Tomo. Ash and May saw nothing wrong with that, and they agreed to see the Beldum too.

What the gang didn't know was that two people and a pokemon were already in the forest, where the Beldum swarm was. It was, of course, Jessie, James and Meowth. "So these Beldum evolve to Metagross?" asked Jessie. "Well they evolve into Metang first and then to Metagross" said James, showing her the information. "It's great that we found out about this Beldum swarm," said Meowth "and the best part is that no one else is here yet. Let's get gathering". "Let's" said Jessie and James together. "Meowth get the empty pokeballs ready, while Jessie and I do the rest" said Meowth. "Pokeballs all ready". Jessie sent out her Seviper and Loudred and James sent out his Nuzleaf and Teddiursa. "Seviper you use flamethrower and Loudred use fire punch on Beldum" said Jessie. "Nuzleaf use dark pulse and you use shadow claw Teddiursa" said James. Seviper, Loudred, Nuzleaf and Teddiursa attacked the Beldum swarm with their pokemon and then Meowth captured the Beldums in pokeballs. They ended up capturing thirty Beldums. "You see any more Beldums?" Jessie asked James. "No I don't, we must have captured all of them," answered James "we better skedaddle before anyone finds us and realize that we've captured all the Beldum". "Great idea" agreed Jessie. She and James returned their pokemon and they and Meowth left the area as quick as they could.

Meanwhile, the gang just made their way to the area where Morrison said that the Beldum were. "I can't wait to see the Beldum, and truthfully I want to catch one for myself" said Tomo. "Me too," said Max "I'd love to have a steel type on my team, since I don't have one yet". "We are almost there" said Morrison. Morrison continued to walk on, but then he stopped. "What's wrong Morrison?" asked Ash. "Something isn't right," said Morrison "I mean we should have seen the Beldum by now, but I don't see any Beldum anywhere". The gang didn't see any Beldum either. "Where could they be?" asked Brock. "You don't suppose they could have been captured by trainers already do you?" asked May. "It's possible, I mean news travels fast whenever a pokemon swarm has happened" said Brock. "So that means we can't capture a Beldum at all" said Morrison. Morrison, Tomo and Max were very disappointed that they couldn't catch a Beldum.

Just then Ash told everyone to wait a moment. "What is it Ash?" asked Brock. "I feel psychic energy around here," said Ash "and since Beldum are steel and psychic type, it must mean that not all the Beldum are gone". "Really?" asked Max "then where are they?" Ash took a look at the area and then he pointed to an old tree. "They're in the tree" he said. He ran over to the tree and saw a tree hollow. He looked into it and found three injured Beldums. "Brock come here quick". Brock rushed over to Ash and saw the three Beldums too. He picked them out of the tree and settled them onto the grass. Morrison, Max, Tomo and May saw the three Beldums and were horrified to see them injured. "What happened to them?" gasped May. "It seems they were attacked by some pokemon," said Ash "and it seems to me that the other Beldums that were here were attacked and captured". Truthfully he had looked into the Beldums memories and he saw the other Beldums being attacked and captured in pokeballs. As Brock cared for the three injured Beldums, Ash tried to see if he could sense the other wild Beldums. But he couldn't and he didn't sense any other people in the area either. "It's no good," he sighed "I don't sense any other Beldums, so it seems they are all gone except these three". "Well who ever captured the other Beldums, I hope that they are well looked after" said Morrison.

At that time Jessie, James and Meowth were cheering for their capture of thirty Beldums. They had come to a place far, far away from the area, where they captured the Beldums, so it was no wonder Ash couldn't sense them anywhere. James was looking up on Beldum on his laptop. "Hmm, it says here that Beldum aren't much, when they're Beldum," he said "they only know take down, and they won't learn anymore attacks till they evolve to Metang". "Well that's no good," said Meowth "this well be like sending Magikarp who only know tackle, splash and flail to the boss". "Then we shall train them till they evolve," said Jessie "we've come too far now to get these Beldum for the boss. And I am certainly not going to make a Mankey out of myself with this. So we shall evolve them to Metang and then send them to the boss". James and Meowth agreed with that. So they got ready to train the Beldums they captured and make them evolve to Metang, even if it took them a whole day or two.

Back with the gang, the three Beldums were recovering nicely thanks to Brock's medicines. "Good thing we were here, otherwise these Beldums would still be in pretty bad shape" said Brock. Ash looked thoughtful. "Morrison, Tomo and Max," he said "I think you three better catch these three now. I mean some more trainers may come here to catch these three". "I agree with Ash," said Brock "these three are still recovering, and they may end up more injured later". Morrison, Tomo and Max saw the point, so they captured the three Beldums at once. "We better take them to a pokemon center at once, and then they will get more treatment from there" said Morrison. The others agreed and they went to a pokemon center to get the Beldums healed.

Thanks to Nurse Joy Morrison's Max's and Tomo's new Beldums were fully healed. "Well thank goodness that the Beldums will be okay now" said Brock. "Well I better go soon," said Morrison "I still need to earn my eighth gym badge for the Hoenn League. And then I will win the Hoenn League". "Dream on Morrison," said Ash "I'm entering the Hoenn League too, and you will have to defeat me first to win it". "Well I look forward to challenging you in the Hoenn League," said Morrison "now I must go and get my eighth badge. Later". Morrison left the pokemon center with his pokemon at once. Ash noticed at once that he had a rival for the Hoenn League. "It's obvious," he said to the others "I have got rivals for both the Grand Festival and Hoenn League". "You're right Ash" agreed Brock.

So with Ash finding a rival for the Hoenn League, it was now time for him to start training his pokemon, and the same thing went for May.

Ash and May were busy for the rest of the month, training their pokemon for the Hoenn Grand Festival. During the month some of their pokemon evolved; Ash's Spoink evolved to Grumpig and May's Marill evolved into an Azumaril. Tomo had been training his pokemon with Ash too and some of his pokemon evolved too; his Duskull evolved to Dusclops, and his Numel evolved into a Camerupt, a red pokemon that looked like a camel with two small volcanos on its back. Tomo also trained some of his old pokemon and his Slugma evolved to Magcargo. So a lot of things happened during the month.

Right now the gang was on a luxury cruise ship called the S.S. St Flower. This ship was for contestants of the Hoenn Grand Festival to get to Slateport City. Ash and May were happy that they were traveling in style, and they were allowed to bring friends with them so Max, Tomo and Brock were happy to be on the ship too. This ship had everything; a pokemon center, a game room, a movie theatre, restaurants and a shopping gallery. Ash thought that this ship was better than the S.S. Anne ship and May was delighted to be on a luxurious ship for once.

When Ash and May asked Nurse Joy to take care of their pokemon for the Hoenn Grand Festival, Ash asked if she had a leaf stone. He explained that he decided it was now time for his Nuzleaf to evolve to Shiftry. "Now you think about it, I want to evolve my Staryu into a Starmie" said May. So she asked Nurse Joy for a water stone.

Ash's May and Staryu had become strong over the months and they knew a lot of moves by now. Nuzleaf knew bide, harden, growth, synthesis, sunny day, solar beam, explosion, bullet seed, razor leaf, energy bomb, seed bomb, nature power, faint attack, razor wind, sword dance, dark pulse, brick break, rock slide, swagger, extrasensory and the egg move quick attack. Staryu knew tackle, harden, water gun, rapid spin, recover, camouflage, double team, swift, bubble beam, gyro ball, ice beam, thunder bolt, power gem, light screen, cosmic power, hydro pump, water pulse, thunder wave and flash cannon. So Ash and May decided that it was time for the two pokemon to evolve.

Nurse Joy handed a water stone and a leaf stone to Ash and May, and they evolved Nuzleaf and Staryu at once. Ash's new Shiftry and May's new Starmie looked a lot stronger than they did as Nuzleaf and Staryu. And they learnt new attacks; Shiftry now knew leaf storm, x-scissor, focus blast, air cutter and cut. Starmie now knew confuse ray, shadow ball and psychic. "I cannot wait to use my Starmie in the Grand Festival" said May. "I can't wait to use Shiftry in a pokemon battle" said Ash. They were happy.

At that moment Officer Jenny came up to the group. "Is there something wrong Officer Jenny?" asked Brock. "Yes there is," answered Officer Jenny "you see a man who calls himself Brodie the phantom thief has been sighted on this ship". "Brodie?" said Ash "you don't mean Brodie from Team Magma do you?" "Yes I do," said Officer Jenny "you see after the arrest of Team Aqua and Magma, Brodie managed to escape and now he's a thief". "Since Brodie disguises himself, it won't be that easy to catch him, especially since he disguises himself very cleverly" said Brock, who remembered Brodie. "I know, but if you kids do manage to see him please tell me at once" said Officer Jenny.

Suddenly Officer Jenny got called on her 2 way radio. "Officer Jenny speaking" she said, speaking into the radio. The radio spoke out that something had happened in one of the rooms of the ship. "I'm on my way" said Officer Jenny. The gang asked if they could help in anyway. "You better come with me," said Officer Jenny "since you kids know much about Brodie, I will need your help in case he is here". Officer Jenny and the gang ran into a room where, to the gang's surprise, Raoul Contesta was. Raoul explained that the ribbon cup, which was held on display in the room, had been taken and a fake one was in its place. The ribbon cup was a trophy that would be given to the winner of the Hoenn Grand Festival. "If we don't get that trophy back, then I'm afraid the Hoenn Grad Festival will be cancelled" said Raoul. Ash and May were not happy to hear that, especially since they had come too far to enter the Grand Festival. "We have to do something," said Ash "we can't just let the Grand Festival be cancelled". "You're right Ash," said Officer Jenny "and I have an idea of what to do".

Officer Jenny's plan was they would hold a fake golden pokeball in the same room, where the fake ribbon cup was, and lure out the thief. Everyone thought that was a good idea. So while Officer Jenny planted a gold painted pokeball in the glass container, the gang went around spreading news of the golden pokeball. Then the gang went back to the room and Officer Jenny told everyone to hide and wait to see if Brodie will turn up. "I'll give the signal when Brodie turns up," said Ash "I saw right through him the last time we saw him in a disguise". "That's right, you noticed him when he was disguised as a woman before" said Max, remembering the weather institute incident. "Okay Ash, I'll leave you to point out Brodie" said Officer Jenny.

So Officer Jenny and the gang waited and watched to see if Brodie would enter the room. So far everything was quiet and Brodie hadn't turned up yet. People had come in to see the fake golden pokeball, but none of them was Brodie. When the room became empty again, a woman in a green dress and a green hat entered the room alone. Suddenly Ash jumped out of his hiding place. "Hold it right there!" he shouted "I know you are Brodie and you can't fool me!" Ash was right; the woman revealed herself as Brodie. "I see that you remember me huh kid?" asked Brodie, who remembered Ash. "There's no way I would ever forget anyone who was a member of Team Magma" said Ash. Brodie released a Golbat and told it to use haze, which created a thick black smoke that helped Brodie escape while everyone else was distracted. "Come on after him quick," said Officer Jenny "I left a tracking device on the fake golden pokeball, so we shall be able to follow him".

Thanks to Officer Jenny's tracking device, they were able to follow Brodie up to the deck of the ship. Brodie had the ribbon cup with him and was about to make a getaway, when Officer Jenny and the gang stopped him in his tracks "You aren't taking the ribbon cup anywhere" said Officer Jenny. "We'll see about that" said Brodie, and he called out his Ditto. "Leave Ditto to me Officer Jenny," said Ash "I defeated it once and I can do it again". Officer Jenny agreed to let Ash battle Ditto, and Ash sent out his Marshtomp to battle. Of course Ditto transformed into Marshtomp, but of course this didn't put Ash off track. "Ditto use hydro pump" said Brodie. "Use protect and then move in with mud bomb Marshtomp" said Ash. Marshtomp protected himself with protect and then he fired mud bomb at Ditto, and Ditto got hit by the balls of mud. "Marshtomp and I will not be beaten by your Ditto Brodie" said Ash. Marshtomp pumped up, ready to fight some more.

Suddenly Marshtomp glowed and evolved into a Swampert.

Ash looked at Swampert on the pokedex: Swampert, the mud fish pokemon. The evolved form of Marshtomp. It can swim while towing a large ship. It bashes down foes with a swing of its thick arms.

"Okay then, Swampert use your new move hammer arm" said Ash. Before Brodie could do anything, Swampert punched Ditto hard with his hammer arm attack and Ditto turned back to its real form and fainted. Brodie wasn't happy with that and was about to grab another pokeball, but then Pikachu used thunder wave on Brodie, making him paralyzed. Officer Jenny arrested Brodie at once. "You will be cured of your paralysis after we place you in jail" she said to him.

Raoul Contesta was pleased that the ribbon cup was back safe and sound and he thanked Officer Jenny and the gang. "Now the Hoenn Grand Festival can go on as planned". Everyone was happy to hear that, especially Ash and May.

So with the ribbon cup back and Brodie arrested, Ash and the gang could finally look forward to the Hoenn Grand Festival.

Chapter 83

The Hoenn Grand Festival

It wasn't long till the gang finally made it to Slateport City, where the Hoenn Grand Festival was being placed. And they made it to the area where the stadium for the Grand Festival stood. "Wow," said May "I can't believe that we are really here at the Hoenn Grand Festival stadium". "We are here all right" laughed Ash. There were hotels and restaurants surrounding the stadium and they were where the contestants and their guests were going to stay and eat during the Hoenn Grand Festival. "With us being here all ready, it feels like only yesterday that we started collecting ribbons" Ash said to May. "You're right" agreed May.

The gang headed for the contest hall, where Ash and May had to register. The lady at the desk scanned Ash's ribbons and registered him in with his pokedex and did the same for May. Then she gave them both a guide book which explained the rules of the contest tournament and had maps of the stadium and where restaurants were. After the registering was done, the gang headed over to the door rooms, where they would be staying. The door rooms were outside the stadium, and surprisingly enough they were so big they were like hotels. "Wow, I can't believe that we'll be staying here" said May. "You should see what the dorm rooms are like that the pokemon leagues" said Ash. "Yeah those rooms were glamorous as well" said Brock.

Suddenly a surprise sneaked up on May; it was Caroline. Caroline had come to Slateport City to watch Ash and May participate in the Hoenn Grand Festival. May and Max were happy to see their mum again. Caroline explained that Norman wanted to come too but he couldn't leave the gym, but he did say he would watch it all on TV. Caroline and the gang checked out the rooms they were staying in, and May was like over the moon. The rooms were big and luxurious and they had a big view of the ocean, even Ash, Tomo, Brock and Max were impressed. "Come on May we better see what the rules are for this tournament" said Ash. Brock took a good look through the guide and looked at the rules. "Well for starters," he said "like the Rubello Contest you use different pokemon in each round of the tournament. Second you have to pass the preliminary rounds to get into the main tournament, and get this; only 64 trainers out of 247 trainers will pass the preliminaries". Ash and May were surprised by that. "Well then May, you and I will have to practice then," said Ash "that way both of us can pass the preliminary rounds". "How can you be so calm Ash?" asked May. "Because they had something like this at the Silver Conference in Johto" said Ash. He explained that only 48 trainers out of 200 trainers, including him, made it into the main tournament in the Silver Conference. "Gosh, so pokemon leagues have tough rules too huh?" said May.

Ash and May decided to practice for the preliminary rounds at once; they wanted to pass the preliminary rounds. So everyone went outside so Ash and May could figure what to do. May introduced Caroline to her Combusken, Beautifly, Skitty, Bellossom, Azumaril and Altaria. "Wow May," said Caroline "these six pokemon look wonderful. And I saw your other pokemon; Bulbasaur, Plusle, Minun, Volbeat, Illumise, Starmie, Lileep and Munchlax at Prof Birch's lab when I last spoke to him on the video phone and all of them looked wonderful". "Take a good look at my new pokemon mum" said Max. He showed off his newest pokemon Beldum to Caroline. "Wow Max your Beldum is lovely," smiled Caroline "both you and May have got wonderful pokemon".

Just then at that moment Drew walked up to the gang. "I see you made it here huh May?" asked Drew. "Yes Drew I did," said May "and so did Ash". She and Ash showed Drew their five ribbons. "Impressive, but I doubt you'll be going home with the ribbon cup" said Drew. "We shall see about that Drew" said May, crossly. Caroline asked Max if Drew was a friend of May's, but Max explained that Drew was a rival and that he like to boast about being a great pokemon coordinator. Suddenly Harley appeared and he congratulated Ash and May for getting into the Hoenn Grand Festival. The gang was not happy to see Harley, especially May. Max explained to Caroline that Harley was a deceitful type of person. Harley started apologizing for what he did to May in past contests, but Ash stopped him. "Don't think about putting on a masquerade Harley, because it won't work" he said, crossly. Ash saw that Harley was only acting nice now so that he could try to do something mean later. "Come on May, we need to start our training". So the gang and Caroline left, leaving Harley alone. "Ash please make sure you tell me if Harley is going to try and trick me again" whispered May. "Certainly" said Ash. He and Ash were certainly not going to let Harley ruin their time at the grand festival.

Meanwhile, Jessie, James and Meowth had also come to Slateport City, but they didn't come here to steal pokemon. The truth is Jessie and James had come here for work while the Hoenn Grand Festival was going on. "I don't see why you two wish to find work," said Meowth "both Jumpluff and I know payday and that makes plenty of money, and we got payment from the boss". "Yeah but the money we get from the boss and the money from your payday isn't enough to buy us a car or buy us a house," said Jessie "so if we work hard here we can get a house just for us to stay in, and get us a car so that we won't need to walk or run anymore or use our slow balloon". Meowth saw the point; after all they didn't have a car only a balloon, and the only places they slept in were cabins or pokemon centers so they didn't really have a home to live in. "Okay so where shall we work?" asked Meowth. James had a magazine which had job adverts in the Hoenn Grand Festival. "Well there are waiters and waitress jobs in the restaurants," he said "there are janitor jobs for the dorm rooms and there are working at stalls jobs". "I'll take the stall job," said Jessie "I did a pretty good job the last time I worked at a stall". "Then I'll take the working in a restaurant job," said James "I worked in a café one time". "I can do a janitor job," said Meowth "because I can work with all four of my paws". "Okay then let's go get jobs," said Jessie "but remember no spending any salaries we get during each day we work". "Yeah and we will eat meals and sleep in the pokemon center because they are free" said James. So Jessie, James and Meowth agreed to work very hard and earn lots of money.

It wasn't long now till the Hoenn Grand Festival had begun. Caroline, Tomo, Brock and Max were with the audience, and Ash and May were in the waiting room with the other contestants. Three judges were judging the preliminary rounds. Vivian, who was the announcer for the Hoenn Grand Festival, welcomed everyone and explained about the preliminary rounds; she explained that the contestants had to use pokemon and the pokemon could only use one move, and she explained that only 64 out of 200 contestants could pass onto the main tournament. The contestants started to show off their pokemon; there was a Zigzagoon doing shadow ball, Robert's Milotic gleamed after it came out of the pokeball, Drew's Roselia used petal dance while spinning, Angelica's Electabuzz showed off its thunder punch, Harley had his Cacturne show off its bullet seed, May had her Beautifly use silver wind and Ash had Pikachu use thunderbolt. This went on until all 200 contestants had shown off their pokemon.

The results soon came and Ash and May made it into the main tournament, and so did Drew, Harley, Robert and Angelica. "Phew I'm glad we made it Ash" sighed May. "Yeah, but it's not over yet because we still have some more rounds to get through" Ash reminded May. May knew that Ash was right, but she was still happy that she passed the preliminary rounds.

Next day May was having Nurse Joy check her pokemon to see if they were all right and things. Today was the start of the main tournament. The guide book said that the first round was the appeal rounds and just like a regular contest the contestant had to use one pokemon for the appeal round. It also pointed out only 32 contestants could go to the battle matches. "Don't forget May, the battle matches are double pokemon battles" said Brock. "Don't worry Brock, I haven't forgotten that because Ash and I looked at the rules yesterday," said May "and we had been going through with what to do as well". Caroline could see that May had indeed grown up during her journey.

Meanwhile Ash, Tomo and Max were on a training field. Ash was checking out his Grumpig, Gardevoir, Lairon, Milotic and Armaldo. "Which one will you use in the appeal round Ash?" asked Tomo. "I've decided with Armaldo for this round" said Ash. "Awe, what will you have Armaldo do?" asked Max, excitedly. "You'll see" smiled Ash.

At that moment a boy with blue-green hair came up to Ash, Tomo and Max. "You have some great pokemon there" he said. "Thank you" said Ash. The boy introduced himself as Anthony and he was a coordinator too. Beside him was a purple pokemon with long whiskers and it looked like a big blob.

Ash looked at the pokemon on his pokedex: Swalot, the poison bag pokemon. The evolved form of Gulpin. It gulps anything that fits in its mouth. Its special enzymes can dissolve anything.

"So Anthony, I take it you're in the Grand Festival too?" asked Ash. "Oh yes and I made it to the main tournament like you Ash," said Anthony "and I can't wait to see your pokemon in action". "Wait till you see my pokemon in action" said a voice. It was Angelica. "My darling electric pokemon will easily win me the Hoenn Grand Festival in a flash". She turned to Ash. "You may have defeated me at the Cottonton Contest, but it won't happen again". Then she left. "Who was that?" asked Anthony. "That was Angelica, who thinks she's the queen of electric pokemon" said Max. "Yeah, but she still has a lot to learn about electric pokemon" said Tomo. This meant Ash had to deal with another rival in the Hoenn Grand Festival.

Later that day it was time for the appeal rounds in the Hoenn Grand Festival. Raoul Contesta, Mr Suziko and three Nurse Joys were the judges, and Vivian explained how the appeal round works, about only 32 contestants could pass the appeal rounds and she showed off the ribbon cup. And she also showed off a silver ribbon in a frame; this was a prize for the runner-up of the Grand Festival. Ash and May were in the waiting room with the other contestants, waiting for their turn. Pikachu was with Caroline, Max and Tomo in the audience because Ash wasn't using Pikachu. "You all right May?" asked Ash. "Bit nervous, but Starmie and I are ready to go" said May; she had decided to use Starmie in the appeal round. "My Armaldo is ready too" said Ash. Harley tried to get all friendly with Ash and May again, but they ignored him. Drew was acting the usual with his 'bring it on' face.

The appeal round was soon on the way. First there was a Ninetails using flamethrower. Next was Harley and his Banette did will o wisp and thunder; putting on a creepy performance. Next was an Alakazam using psychic, a Vaporeon using water gun, a Ledian using swift, a Sunflora using ingrain, an Electrode using thunderbolt and a Lickitung showing off its long tongue. Ash and May saw everything on the TV screen in the waiting room. 'Wow the competition is tough' thought May. 'These coordinators are good' thought Ash. Then it was Anthony's turn. He had his Swalot use sludge bomb and bullet seed; the bullet seed made the sludge bomb break into smoke. Then to finish it off, Anthony had Swalot use swallow to swallow the smoke. Next was May and she sent out her Starmie. She told it to use swift and psychic. Starmie's psychic made the stars circle around Starmie like a planet's ring. To finish it off May told Starmie to use rapid spin and the rapid spin broke the stars into yellow particles. Next it was Angelica and she showed off her Manectric's discharge. Next it was Drew and he showed off his Masquerain's bubble and gust attacks. Next it was Ash. He started things off by having Armaldo use sword dance, then Armaldo used rock slide and then he used metal claw and iron tail to break the rocks apart. This went on and on until all 64 contestants showed off their pokemon.

"Phew I'm glad that's over" said May, feeling exhausted. "You and Starmie did really well May" said Ash. Just then Drew came up. "It's clear that you are better than when you started as a coordinator May," he said "but you will have to do better than that if you want to become top coordinator". May puffed her cheeks. "I'll have you know Drew I have been practicing a lot for this thank you" she said, crossly. Drew chuckled. Just then the results were up and May and Ash got into the battle rounds, and so did Robert, Drew, Anthony, Harley and Angelica. Caroline, Brock, Tomo and Max were happy for Ash and May. Then the screen showed who will battle against whom in the first round of the double battle matches. By surprise, Ash would battle Angelica and May would battle Harley in the first round. Angelica and Harley saw this as a chance to get even with Ash and May for defeating them in past contests.

Ash whispered to May, saying that it was clear to them that Harley and Angelica were going to show no mercy in their battles. "Then we shall show them no mercy either" May whispered back. She really wanted to give Harley a piece of her mind this time.

It was now time for the battle rounds of the Hoenn Grand Festival to begin. And now it was May up against Harley first and they were ready to start the battle. 'It's going to be so much fun when May loses' thought Harley. 'I'm going to wipe the floor with Harley's face when I beat him' thought May. Harley sent out his Cacturne and Banette and May sent out her Bulbasaur and Volbeat. "I wonder why May decided to go with Volbeat instead of Beautifly?" said Max. "Well Volbeat would do well against Cacturne as it's a dark and grass type pokemon, and so would Bulbasaur as she knows some poison type moves," said Brock "but why Volbeat instead of Beautifly, well I don't know".

Harley started off by telling his Banette to use screech and Cacturne to use bullet seed. Banette's screech attack put Volbeat and Bulbasaur off from doing anything and then they got hit by Cacturne's bullet seed. "Bulbasaur grab both Banette and Cacturne with your vine whip" said May. Harley told his pokemon to dodge Bulbasaur's vine whip, but Bulbasaur grabbed Cacturne's and Banette's feet with her vines. "Okay Volbeat shadow ball on Banette and Bulbasaur sludge bomb on Cacturne" said May. Banette and Cacturne got hit by the shadow ball and sludge bomb attacks good. "Wow, when did May's Volbeat learn to use shadow ball?" asked Brock. "Last month," answered Max "my Shuppet was practicing his shadow ball attack and Volbeat joined in with Volbeat". "I see" said Brock. Caroline was amazed with how well her daughter was battling. "Okay Bulbasaur you can let go of the pokemon now" said May. Once Bulbasaur let go of Banette and Cacturne, they started spinning around like spinning tops. "Now Volbeat use silver wind" said May. Both Cacturne and Banette got hit by the silver wind attack. Harley was losing points by the minute. "It seems poor Harley is in trouble" smirked Max. "Yeah May is really putting Harley in a tight spot this time" agreed Tomo. Harley was getting angry. "That's it Banette use will-o-wisp and Cacturne pin missile" he said. Banette and Cacturne fire will-o-wisp and pin missile towards Bulbasaur and Volbeat. "Quick Bulbasaur use petal dance and Volbeat use signal beam" said May. Bulbasaur and Volbeat fired petal dance and signal beam and they broke apart the will-o-wisp and pin missile attacks, and then they struck Cacturne and Banette. Harley lost more and more of his points, and then he lost all of his points making May the winner of the match.

May was happy to have won the round and hugged her Bulbasaur and Volbeat at once. Harley was cross with his lost and for earning Top 32 in the Grand Festival. He returned his pokemon and walked out of the stadium in a huff. "I hope to see May lose in this Grand Festival" he said, angrily. A few matches after that was Ash's match against Angelica. 'This is my chance to beat that Ash brat,' thought Angelica 'and once I beat him, I will go on to win this Grand Festival'. She sent out her Electabuzz and her Ampharos. Ash sent out his Flygon and Combusken. "Um wouldn't Grovyle, Marshtomp or Breloom been better to use against Angelica's electric pokemon rather than Combusken?" asked Max. "Yes but Combusken wanted to fight in this battle," said Tomo "the truth is when Ash asked Prof Oak for Flygon, Combusken kept on chirping wanting to battle. And you know Combusken loves to be in battles". "That's true," said Max "he's loved battling ever since he was a Torchic".

Angelica started things off by telling her Electabuzz to use thunderbolt on Combusken. "Flygon take that attack and Combusken use bulk up" said Ash. While Combusken bulked him-self up, Flygon flew in front of Combusken and let the thunderbolt hit him; as Flygon was part ground type, the electric attack didn't do anything to him at all. "What a clever way to defend a pokemon by using a ground type" said Caroline. "I'd like to see Angelica beat that" said Max. Angelica lost points from the electric attack not harming Flygon. "All right then Ampharos you use thunder punch on Combusken and Electabuzz you use focus punch on Flygon" said Angelica. Ampharos and Electabuzz ran over to Flygon and Combusken, ready to punch them. "Flygon use screech" said Ash. Flygon screamed such a loud screech that it stopped Electabuzz and Ampharos in their tracks. "Now use flamethrower Combusken". Combusken blew flamethrower at both Electabuzz and Ampharos and they got really hurt by the flamethrower. Because the move bulk up boosted Combusken's attack and defense, Combusken's flamethrower was stronger. Angelica lost all of her points from that and lost the round.

Angelica was cross with her loss. She returned her pokemon and walked out of the stadium in a huff. "Ash sure showed her" said Tomo. "Yeah, and that Angelica still has a lot to learn about being an electric pokemon master" said Max. Anthony, Drew, Robert and another nine trainers also defeated their opponents to get into the Top 16 rounds. Now Caroline and the gang were in the pokemon center so Ash and May could heal Combusken, Flygon, Bulbasaur and Volbeat. "Phew, I have only done one match and I already feel like I want to collapse" said May. "Hang in there May," said Ash "there are still a few more matches to go if we want to reach the finals". Just then the results for the next battle matches came up on the screen in the pokemon center. May was against Anthony and Ash was against a girl named Madison. The Top 16 battle rounds weren't until tomorrow, so Ash and May could rest up tonight.

Ash and May had made it through the first battle round, but if they wanted to earn the title of top coordinator there was still some matches to go.

Next morning Ash was outside on a training ground with Pikachu. The next battle round wasn't until later, so Ash used this time to do a little training. "I think this is the right time to have Snorunt perfect his ice beam attack, wouldn't you say Pikachu?" he said. Pikachu agreed, so Ash called out his Snorunt. "Come on Snorunt, we are going to have you master your ice beam attack today". Snorunt couldn't wait to get started. Ash also sent out his Milotic; since she knew ice beam, Ash decided to use her to help Snorunt with ice beam. "Okay Milotic, show Snorunt your ice beam". Milotic fired an ice beam at a rock and the rock froze. "Okay Snorunt, now it's your turn". Snorunt had a go at trying to freeze a rock with ice beam, but the control was terrible and Snorunt froze a bush. "Oh dear, this is going to take a while if we want you to master ice beam Snorunt".

"I thought that was you Ash" said a voice; it was Robert. "Hi Robert nice to see you again" said Ash. "Same here Ash" said Robert. He saw Ash's shiny Milotic and was impressed. "You are training your pokemon for the battle rounds this afternoon Ash?" "What I'm really doing is helping my Snorunt master ice beam," answered Ash "but he is having trouble controlling it". "Let me see Snorunt use ice beam, maybe I can see what's wrong" said Robert. Robert was a kind trainer who was glad to help out trainers with their pokemon. Snorunt did an ice beam attack again, and again he froze a bush rather than a rock. "I see, Snorunt does have a problem with controlling its ice beam attack," said Robert "does it know any other attacks?" Ash and Snorunt showed Robert Snorunt's ice shard, powder snow and icy wind attacks. "Those are good," said Robert "Snorunt had complete control over those attacks. Let me speak to Snorunt". Robert knelt down to Snorunt's side. "Snorunt you need to focus all on your energy, in your head, when using ice beam". "Come on Snorunt, let's try ice beam one more time" said Ash. Pikachu and Milotic encouraged Snorunt to try again too. So Snorunt did try to use ice beam again, and this time he succeeded on freezing a rock instead of something else. "You did it Snorunt, you mastered your ice beam attack!" cheered Ash. Pikachu and Milotic cheered for Snorunt too.

Suddenly Snorunt started to glow, and then it grew into a white and black sphere shaped pokemon, with two black horns, big eyes and big teeth. "Ash your Snorunt evolved into a Glalie" said Robert. Ash was awestruck by this.

He looked at Glalie on his pokedex: Glalie, the face pokemon. The evolved form of Snorunt. To protect itself, it clads its body in an armor of ice, made by freezing moisture in the air.

The pokedex also said that Glalie now knew protect, ice fang and crunch. "Thank you for helping us Robert" said Ash. "You're welcome Ash," said Robert "but there is something I would like to ask you". "I take it you wish to battle Latias and Latios, if you and I have to challenge each other?" asked Ash. Ash remembered from the Aquadome Island contest that Robert hoped to face Latias again and battle Latios too. "Yes Ash I do," said Robert "and I warn you I have trained my Milotic and Claydol well to fight against Latias and Latios". "I look forward to it Robert" said Ash. He and Robert had now become friendly rivals with each other.

Sometime later the Top 16 battle round was on the way. Ash was now against a girl named Linda and she was using a Venomoth and a Politoed. Ash was using Sableye and Linoone. Linda and her pokemon did their best against Ash and his pokemon, but Linoone defeated Politoed easily with thunderbolt and Sableye easily defeated Venomoth with fire punch. So Ash could move onto the next round. Next it was May and she battled Anthony. Anthony was using his Swablu and a Pinsir and May was using Combusken and Azumaril. Anthony turned out to be quite a good battler, especially with his Swalot. But once the time was up May had more points than Anthony and May won. Drew and Robert also defeated their opponents easily.

"I must say May you have improved a lot on your battling skills" said Caroline, once everyone was at the pokemon center. "Thanks mum," said May "and I have Ash and Tomo to thank for that. Especially with their other pokemon on helping my pokemon learn new moves". "I find it wonderful," said Caroline "before you hated pokemon because you were afraid of them". "Not only that but she didn't know a thing about them and clearly had no idea how capturing and battling pokemon worked" teased Max. "Hey I like pokemon now and I have learnt a lot thank you" said May, embarrassed. At that moment the results for the matches in the Top 8 round came up. By surprise May's next opponent was Drew. "Oh my, I'm up against Drew" said May. May felt a bit nervous by this, especially since she hasn't faced Drew since the Slateport City contest, but she knew she had to face him sooner or later.

Soon it was time for May and Drew's battle. Drew sent out his Roselia and his newest pokemon a Flygon. May sent out her Combusken and her Altaria. 'So May has a dragon type too huh?' thought Drew. He had never seen May's Altaria before. Drew started things off with his Roselia using petal dance and his Flygon flew towards Altaria and Combusken to attack. "Combusken use flamethrower and Altaria you use dragon breath" said May. Combusken's flamethrower burned Roselia's petals to a crisp and Altaria blew a dragon breath to Flygon, but as Flygon was a fast pokemon it managed to dodge Altaria's attack. "This will be trouble for May," said Tomo "we've seen how powerful and fast Flygon can be because of Ash's Flygon". "Yeah and May, may have learnt from Ash about how to fight dragon pokemon, but Ash is way more experienced at that than May is" said Max. Drew told his Roselia to do solar beam and his Flygon to use flamethrower; this was a double attack. "Fly out of there with Combusken Altaria" said May. Combusken got onto Altaria's back and Altaria flew to dodge the solar beam and flamethrower attacks. "Okay Altaria use ice beam and Combusken use flamethrower" said May. Altaria fired ice beam towards Flygon and Combusken fired flamethrower towards Roselia. "Use flamethrower Flygon and Roselia dodge the flamethrower" said Drew. Flygon's flamethrower melted Altaria's ice beam and Roselia dodged Combusken's flamethrower. May had lost a lot of points than Drew by now. 'Drew and his pokemon have grown stronger since when I battles him in the Slateport Contest,' thought May 'but my pokemon and I have too'. She ordered Altaria to use feather dance, and Altaria made lots of feathers fly towards Flygon and Roselia. The feathers surrounded Roselia and Flygon like crazy. "Feather dance may have the ability to reduce a pokemon's attack power, but this isn't going to stop me and my pokemon" said Drew. He ordered his Flygon to use sonic boom and his Roselia to use poison sting, and the attacks hit Altaria and Combusken. It was at that moment that time was up and by now May had lost all her points, so Drew was the winner and May came in Top 8 of the Hoenn Grand Festival.

May was a bit down from losing, but since she was now a good sport she told her pokemon that they did a good job and congratulated Drew. And to her surprise she got a big round of applause from the audience because of how her and her pokemon battled. Ash defeated Linda and her pokemon, Beautifly and Gorebyss with his Grovyle and Torkoal. So now the gang were resting in the pokemon center after the Top 8 rounds were finished. "How are you feeling May?" asked Ash. "Well I must admit I had hoped that I would win in this tournament" said May. "I understand;" said Ash "when I entered the Indigo League, I hoped that I would win it. But I earned the place Top 8 which wasn't bad for my first pokemon league, so Top 8 isn't bad either for your first time in a Grand Festival May". "Ash is right May," said Caroline "you should be proud of yourself of what you've achieved". "Yeah and you can train hard again for the next Grand Festival," said Ash "just like I kept training hard for the Johto League and what I'm doing now for the Hoenn League". "You're right Ash," said May "I will just continue working hard till I become a Top Coordinator". Caroline and the boys were happy to hear that.

The next day it was time for the Top 4 battle round and Ash and Robert were paired up in the first match. Robert sent out his Claydol and Milotic and Ash sent out Latias and Latios. Of course everyone in the stadium was surprised to see Latias and Latios, except Caroline and the rest of the gang. Ash told them about Robert's request to battle Latias and Latios yesterday. "Since Robert wanted to battle Ash's Latias again as well as his Latios, I bet he has trained his Milotic and Claydol to be strong enough to go against them" said Brock. "Yeah even if Latias and Latios are legendry pokemon, that doesn't mean that Robert wouldn't give up on trying defeating them" said Max. May who was now sat in the stands with the others felt nervous for Ash.

"Okay Latios you start off with shadow ball and Latias you use thunderbolt" said Ash. Latias and Latios fired shadow ball and thunderbolt towards Milotic and Claydol; shadow ball was for Claydol and thunderbolt for Milotic. "Claydol take Latias' thunderbolt attack and Milotic use dragon pulse on the shadow ball" said Robert. Claydol went in front of Milotic and took the thunderbolt while Milotic dealt with the shadow ball attack with dragon pulse. "Move in with shadow claw Latias," said Ash "and you use steel wing Latios". Latias quickly struck Claydol with shadow claw and Latios struck Milotic with steel wing. "Sorry Robert, but I know the trick of using ground pokemon for defense against electric attacks" said Ash. "You are clearly a great battler Ash," smiled Robert "I think this will be the greatest pokemon battle I ever had". "I think Robert is enjoying this" said Tomo. "Well Robert has been waiting for the day that we would have a rematch with Ash, so it's no wonder" said Brock. May felt like this battle was going to be like the battle she had with Drew.

Ash and Robert went on at each other with their pokemon. Ash's Latias and Latios really showed Robert of how strong they were especially with their signature moves mist ball and luster purge. But Robert was no pushover either and neither was his Milotic and Claydol. Before everyone knew it both Ash and Robert lost all of their points together, and even though it looked like a draw the winner was Robert. The truth is Ash lost his remaining points first just before Robert lost all of his, and the rule was who ever lost all of their points in a draw first loses. Latias and Latios were disappointed that they lost, but Ash hugged them. "You two did wonderfully out there" he said. Latias and Latios hugged Ash back. Ash congratulated Robert and wished him luck for the final round.

Soon it was the final round between Robert and Drew. Drew did the best he could with his Roselia and Masquerain, but Robert's Roselia and Claydol were stronger and Roselia and Masquerain fainted by Claydol's hyper beam attack. So Robert was the winner of the Hoenn Grand Festival and the winner of the Ribbon Cup and Drew earned the silver ribbon for becoming the runner-up.

When the grand festival was over a party was held for the coordinators. May enjoyed the party a lot, even though she didn't win the festival. Suddenly Drew came up to her. "Down because you didn't win May?" he asked. "Yeah, you?" asked May. "Yeah, but I'm going to train hard for the next grand festival" said Drew. "Me too," said May "I'm not going to give up until I earn the title of Top Coordinator". Drew was happy to hear that and said to May that he couldn't wait to challenge her again, and then he walked off. It was clear that May and Drew was becoming friend-rivals now. Caroline then said to the gang that she had to get back to Petalburg City now, and she wished Ash luck in the Hoenn League.

So now with the Hoenn Grand Festival over, it was time for Ash to head over to the Hoenn League.

Meanwhile Jessie, James and Meowth were discussing about their jobs. "I ended up with a lot of tips from women because of my handsome looks" boasted James. "Thanks to my four paws I got a lot of cleaning down a lot quicker than anyone else, so I got extra money" smiled Meowth. "Working in the shop was tough, but I got a lot of earnings in the end" said Jessie. "So we earnt a lot of money here," said Meowth "where shall we go to get more?" "At the Hoenn League of course," said James "remember we got a lot of money when we worked at the pokemon leagues in Kanto and Johto. So we can get lots of money there too". "I agree, so let's go there next boys" said Jessie. James and Meowth agreed, so it was onwards too the Hoenn League for them too.

Chapter 84

The Hoenn League Torch

And Meowth meets his match

After the Hoenn Grand Festival was all over, the gang had taken a ferry for Ever Grande City where the Hoenn league was taking place. Apparently this pokemon league was called the Ever Grande Conference. Ash felt excited about entering his fourth pokemon league and he couldn't wait to get there. "Hey Ash do you think you'll win this pokemon league?" asked Tomo. "Well I can't really say," said Ash "because I don't know how strong the other trainers will be. So all I can say is that I'll just keep on fighting till someone does defeat me". Ash understood by now how tough pokemon leagues were, especially since he had participated in three.

Soon they had set foot in Ever Grande City. It was a busy city, filled with shops, restaurants and other buildings. May had a guide which explained about the shops and restaurants in Ever Grande City and she suggested they try out the famous ramen restaurant. With May leading, the gang tried to find the ramen restaurant. Of course with May having poor direction they found it difficult. Then came trouble; a flock Murkrow were in the area and then they started to attack the gang with peck. "Use roar Growlithe!" commanded Tomo. Growlithe roared loudly and the Murkrows flew away in terror. "Phew, good work Growlithe" said Tomo.

Just then a male trainer and a Meowth, who was wearing boots and a hat, ran up to the gang. "Hey you okay?" asked the trainer. "We're fine we just had trouble with a flock of Murkrows" said Ash. "That's the trouble with Murkrow, they love causing trouble wherever they go" said the trainer. Max asked the trainer if he knew where the ramen restaurant was, since his sister had no idea where it was. "I'm going to the ramen restaurant too, so I will lead the way" said the trainer. Thanks to the trainer they made it to the ramen restaurant and they were tucking in to ramen. The trainer introduced himself as Tyson and he said that he was entering the Ever Grande Conference too. So Ash had another rival, as well as Morrison, to deal with in the Ever Grand Conference. "I must say Tyson," said Brock "apart from wearing a hat and boots, your Meowth looks very well raised". "Thanks I've had my Meowth for a while now" said Tyson. Meowth was eating pokemon food with Pikachu and Growlithe. Despite being a dog type pokemon, Growlithe didn't chase or pick a fight with Meowth; Growlithe had been trained to not chase or fight cat type pokemon like crazy.

Suddenly Tyson said that he had to leave now because he was a runner of the torch. "So that means you will be running with the Hoenn League Torch right?" asked Ash. "That's right," said Tyson "and they say that the flame of the torch came from Moltres". "Just like the torch in the Indigo League" said Ash. He explained that the flame of the torch was from Moltres too and he also explained that the flame for the torch in the Silver Conference was from Ho-oh.

On a hill a crowd of people were waiting for the Hoenn League Torch flame to arrive. Officer Jenny, Nurse Joy and Mr Goodshow were there too. But they weren't the only ones; Jessie, James and Meowth were also there waiting for the flame, and of course they were planning to swipe it. "How shall we get the Moltres flame this time?" asked James "I mean when we tried to get it back in Kanto we failed because Moltres appeared and it defeated us". "True, but that's because we used a big dish that was hard to get away with" said Meowth. "Yes so this time we will use a small flame container that we can easily carry away" said Jessie. "Let's do it" said James.

At that moment some police arrived, carrying a flame on a dish, and then Tyson and the gang turned up. Tyson apologized for being late, but Mr Goodshow reassured Tyson that he made it just in time. "Nice seeing you again Mr Goodshow" said Ash. "Ah Ash, Brock and Tomo it's nice to see you three again," said Mr Goodshow "I take it you're participating in the Ever Grande Conference Ash?" "Yes I am," said Ash "and I have high hopes on winning". "Ah full of spirit like always," said Mr Goodshow "and I can't wait to see how you will do in this pokemon league Ash". Max and May were surprised; they knew that Mr Goodshow was the president of the pokemon league, but they were surprised that Ash, Brock and Tomo knew them. Ash explained that they met Mr Goodshow at the pokemon leagues in Kanto and Johto. "And Brock, Misty, Tomo and I were runners of the Torch at the Indigo League, and I got to run with the torch a bit at the Silver Conference". May and Max were amazed. Mr Goodshow also pointed out that he saw Ash and May at the Hoenn Grand Festival on TV and he was impressed with that. Just then Tyson started the running of the torch and Nurse Joy and Mr Goodshow gave the gang a lift in the limo.

Thanks to Mr Goodshow's lift the gang got to the pokemon center, where Ash had to register for the Ever Grande Conference. They even saw the area where the conference was taking place. The stadium stood in the middle of a huge lake, with mini stadiums surrounding it in two big circles; you could say it looked like a ring target. After Ash registered and got the guide book he felt ready now. Just like he did at the Silver Conference, he decided to just use his Hoenn pokemon for the conference; it was his hoenn pokemon who helped Ash get the badges after all.

Suddenly an alarm went off; the flame of the torch was stolen. The gang met up with Tyson and Tyson told the gang what had happened. What had happened was that he, a Nurse Joy and some Officer Jennies had reached the storage room where the flame was to be kept before the conference started. But then a Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny stopped them and told them there was a Moltres in the sky. But as soon as Tyson, Nurse Joy and the Officer Jennies looked up at the sky, the Officer Jenny and Nurse Joy swiped the flame and took it away with them. "It's obvious that it was two crooks disguised as Officer Jenny and Nurse Joy, who stole the torch" said May. "Let's go after them and bring back that torch" said Ash. Without it the Ever Grande Conference wouldn't be able to start.

The crooks who stole the torch were of course Jessie, James and Meowth. Jessie and James disguised themselves as Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny to steal the flame and now they were using a motorcycle to get away. Right now two Officer Jennies were on their tail and Tyson, the gang and Mr Goodshow was catching up. At that moment Jessie and James ditched the motorcycle off a cliff and landed in their balloon where Meowth was waiting for them. "Give back the Torch!" shouted Tyson. Jessie and James took off their disguises and simply replied that the torch was theirs now. "I'm not surprised that Team Rocket would steal the torch," said Ash "especially since they tried to steal it at the Indigo League and the Silver Conference". Tyson was angry and he took out a Metagross from a pokeball. "Use confusion to stop Team Rocket from getting away Metagross" commanded Tyson. Metagross' confusion attack stopped Team Rocket's balloon in its place. Meowth tried to make the balloon fly away with more rocket power but it was all a struggle. "Ash do you have any ice type pokemon with you?" asked Mr Goodshow "an ice type attack won't put out the flame like a water attack would". Ash didn't have his ice type pokemon on him but he did have a pokemon who knew an ice type move. He sent out his Grumpig and ordered her to use bounce and icy wind. Grumpig bounced to Team Rocket's balloon and froze Team Rocket with icy wind. The flame didn't go out or freeze. "Get the torch Grumpig" said Ash. Grumpig took the flame from James and then jumped off the balloon.

Team Rocket was cross by that and they broke out of the ice. "Get that torch back from that Grumpig Meowth!" demanded Jessie. "Don't need to tell me" said Meowth. Meowth jumped down from the balloon and got his claws ready to battle Grumpig. Ash was about to give Grumpig a command, but Tyson's Meowth stepped forward to battle Meowth. Tyson's Meowth dared Meowth to come and get him. "Fine with me puss in boots" said Meowth. Meowth attacked first with aerial ace, and Tyson's Meowth attacked with slashed. "Is it me or does Team Rocket's Meowth look stronger?" asked Brock. "Meowth is stronger than he used to be," said Ash "I can sense that Meowth has trained himself to become strong". "That's a surprise," said Tomo "I mean before it wasn't anywhere near as strong as our pokemon". Meowth then fired a water pulse at Tyson's Meowth, but Tyson's Meowth used iron tail to counter that attack and then it used iron attack to send Meowth flying. "I'm not done with you!" shouted Meowth, while blasting off. Now that Meowth was out the way Tyson then had his Meowth use thunderbolt on the balloon. Jessie and James were sent flying in a matter of seconds.

With the torch safe and sound and back in the storage area, the Ever Grande Conference could go on. Mr Goodshow was grateful and he thanked Tyson and Ash for bringing back the torch. "I must say Ash, I thought you were brilliant back there" said Tyson "I definitely cannot wait to battle you in the conference". "I cannot wait to battle you either Tyson" smiled Ash. So Ash and Tyson had now become friends-rivals.

Ash was now outside talking to his six pokemon; Pikachu, Swellow, Corphish, Torkoal, Grumpig and Breloom. "Okay you guys I have already said this to the others at Prof Oak's lab when I phoned him earlier," said Ash "we are now at the Hoenn League, so we will need to work as hard as we can if we want to win this". His pokemon cheered. "Wow you've got some pokemon there Ash" said a voice. It was Morrison. "Hey Morrison I was wondering when you would get here," said Ash "I mean Nurse Joy at the pokemon center said you haven't registered yet". "I'm just about to, but I wanted to check out the area first" said Morrison. Morrison then showed Ash the eighth gym badge he got; it was a blue badge in a square and triangle shape. "You better get to the pokemon center to register now Morrison," said Ash "it's not long now before the deadline for registering is finished". "You're right Ash, I'll go now" said Morrison, and he left for the pokemon center.

While the gang was sorting out with what to do before the tournament started, Team Rocket started to think of what jobs to get. Since their plan of stealing the torch failed, the least they could do now was gather more money from jobs. "Well Jess it seems the way to get lots of money is selling refreshments" said James. "Oh I hate doing that sort of thing," said Jessie "the last time we did that, I got aching feet and sore arms". "Me too," said James "but then again there are going to be hundreds of people in the stadiums. So we should get plenty of money from selling snacks and things". "Very well," sighed Jessie "I'll bear with it just as long we get a lot of money". So Jessie and James agreed to take the job of selling refreshments.

Meowth on the other hand wasn't thinking about jobs or money now; he was thinking about Tyson's Meowth. He wanted to deal with Tyson's Meowth for defeating him. "I'll defeat that Meowth if it's the last thing I'll do" he said to himself.

Meanwhile Ash and Morrison were going over the Hoenn League rules with Brock. Like the Indigo League and the Silver Conference, Ash had to go through the preliminary rounds before going to the main tournament. In the preliminary rounds Ash and Morrison had to win one battle to enter the main tournament, and the rules said only 256 trainers can pass. "Are you ready for this Ash?" asked May. "Excuse me May," said Ash "I passed the preliminary rounds at the pokemon leagues in Kanto and Johto, and I will pass the preliminary rounds here too. And my pokemon and I have trained for this". "Yeah May, don't underestimate Ash" said Tomo. "And don't underestimate me either" said Morrison.

At that time Tyson's Meowth had received a written invitation to a battle from Meowth. At first Tyson's Meowth thought it was a waste of time, but since Team Rocket Meowth was so desperate to battle, it agreed to. Tyson's Meowth walked to a park area, where Meowth was waiting for it. "About time you showed up" said Meowth, impatiently. Tyson's Meowth tormented Meowth to hurry up and get on with it. Meowth tried to scratch Tyson's Meowth, but Tyson's Meowth dodged and then used double team. "Hah I know what to do with this" said Meowth. He used swift which got rid of all the copies and struck Tyson's Meowth. Tyson's Meowth admitted that Meowth did know how to fight. "I'll have you know I have been training myself for ages to get strong" said Meowth. This of course wasn't true; he had only trained a couple of times in his times, but he liked to show off. Tyson's Meowth went in with iron tail and Meowth used iron tail too. "Now I will show you my favourite move" said Meowth. He used thunderbolt, but Tyson's Meowth dodged and then it used thunderbolt next. Meowth didn't have the chance to dodge and he got shocked, and then Tyson's Meowth used iron tail again and Meowth got blasted off in defeat. Tyson's Meowth thought that was actually a good fight, and then it made its way back to Tyson, who had no idea that his Meowth had been invited to fight Team Rocket's Meowth.

Later that day it was time for the preliminary rounds that were held in the mini stadiums in the outer circle of the Hoenn League stadium and Morrison was having his turn now. He was up against a trainer named Jump and Jump was using an Electabuzz and Morrison was using his Beldum. The gang wasn't sure it was a good idea for Morrison to used Beldum against Electabuzz; Morrison hadn't had Beldum for long and it only knew take down. Even though Ash admitted this would be a difficult challenge, he still had faith in Morrison. Of course it did look a bit hopeless for Morrison since Beldum was only using take down, and Jump's Electabuzz was using protect, thunder punch and thunderbolt. But then Beldum started to glow and evolved into a Metang.

Tomo looked at Metang on his pokedex: Metang, the iron claw pokemon. The evolved form of Beldum. It floats mid-air using magnetism. Its body is so tough, even a crash with a jet plane won't leave a scratch.

"Wow, I can't wait till my Beldum evolves to Metang" said Tomo. The same thing went for Max. Thanks to Metang's new psychic and steel moves Metang defeated Electabuzz, allowing Morrison to enter the main tournament of the Ever Grande Conference.

After that it was Tyson's turn against a girl named Vivica, and Morrison and the gang watched. Tyson called out his Meowth and Vivica sent out a Persian. "I think this is going to be a great battle, seeing Meowth versing a Persian" said Max. "I don't know about that," said Ash "I sense that Tyson's Meowth has a real hatred towards Persian. So I'm worried that Tyson may have trouble with this battle". So far Vivica and her Persian was putting up a good fight against Tyson and his Meowth. Vivica's Persian knew water pulse, hyper beam and dig as well as fury swipes. But Tyson's Meowth proved to be stronger and it knocked out Persian with thunderbolt. So Tyson was the winner, but even though Persian was defeated Meowth still wanted to fight it more. Tyson knew what Meowth wanted to do and returned it more it could attack Persian some more. Morrison and the gang saw everything. "I told you that Meowth had a real hate towards Persian" said Meowth.

Once Tyson and the gang were out of the mini stadium where Tyson had been battling, Tyson explained about his Meowth's behaviour towards the Persian. The story was that a few weeks after Tyson started to travel in the Hoenn region, he came across a gang of Meowths with a Persian for a leader and his Meowth was from that gang. What happened was that Meowth had a fight with the leader Persian and it lost. "That battle with Persian left Meowth with a lot of damage, especially to its legs, so when it recovered I gave it the boots. And thanks to the boots Meowth's legs healed up. But since it had now become an outcast in the pack it couldn't go home anymore, so I captured it for myself". "That explains why Meowth really hates Persian, especially after what that Persian did to it" said Morrison. "I take it because of its hate for Persian, your Meowth doesn't want to evolve right Tyson?" asked Ash. "That's right and it also wants to prove that even as a Meowth it can beat any Persian that comes in its way" said Tyson.

What the gang didn't know was that the Team Rocket Meowth heard everything. "That Meowth is the same as me," said Meowth "because I too was treated badly by Persian in the past and I hate them very much too".

Now it was Ash's turn in the preliminary rounds and he was up against a trainer named Gilbert. Gilbert used a Hitmonlee and Ash chose Pikachu. Gilbert started things off with rolling kick and Ash had Pikachu counter it with iron tail. Next Gilbert went with high jump kick, but Pikachu dodged it with quick attack. And of course Hitmonlee got hurt because of its miss with high jump kick. Ash then ordered Pikachu to use focus punch and Gilbert ordered his Hitmonlee to use mega kick. Pikachu dodged the mega kick and punched Hitmonlee really hard. "Finish this off with iron tail Pikachu" said Ash. Pikachu struck Hitmonlee hard with iron tail and Hitmonlee fainted, making Ash the winner. Morrison and Tyson were impressed with Ash and Pikachu and they hoped they would battle with Ash in the conference.

After the preliminary rounds were over, the 256 trainers who won the preliminaries made their way to the main stadium for the opening ceremony of the Ever Grand Conference. Ash was given the position of running the last run with the torch and lighting the sacred league torch. At Pallet Town Delia, Prof Oak and Tracey were watching it on TV, so was Misty in Cerulean City and Norman and Caroline were watching it from Petalburg City. So now the Ever Grande Conference had come to a beginning and Ash was excited for this.

Chapter 85

The Ever Grande Conference

Today was an exciting day because the qualifying battles of the Ever Grande Conference were starting today. Tyson, Morrison and the gang were at the pokemon waiting for instructions of the battles. Nurse Joy told the trainers the instructions; the rules for the qualifying rounds was that the 256 trainers had to battle in three matches, all double battles, and only 32 trainers had to win all three to make it to the final rounds. If they lost just one battle they would be out of the tournament. "Wow sounds like this will be hard, especially since you can't lose one battle if you want to get to the next round" said May. "Yeah, but I'll beat all three of my opponents no matter what" said Ash, confidently. "That goes double for me" said Morrison.

It wasn't long until the qualifying rounds started. These rounds were being held in the mini stadiums that stood in the inner circle that surrounded the main stadium. Right now it was Morrison's turn in his first double battle and Tyson and the gang were watching him. Morrison sent out a Growlithe and Gligar and his opponent, Gavin, sent out a Marowak and Machamp. Max feared this maybe trouble because Marowak had the advantage over Growlithe.

Morrison started off by telling his Growlithe to use take down on Marowak, but Marowak dodged it and used headbutt on Growlithe. Gligar went next by trying to hit Machamp with steel wing, but Machamp counter attacked with karate chop. "Attack Marowak with flamethrower Growlithe," said Morrison "and Gligar use guillotine on Machamp". Growlithe blew a flamethrower at Marowak, but Marowak blocked it with bone club. Then Gligar tried to attack Machamp with guillotine, but Machamp dodged that and struck Gligar with dynamic punch and brick break. "This doesn't look good to me" said May. "Yeah especially since Growlithe has a big disadvantage with Marowak," said Max "and that Machamp is showing no mercy either". "Morrison can do it" said Ash. Morrison commanded Gligar to use guillotine again, and this time Gligar didn't miss. Since guillotine was a one-hit knock out move, Machamp fainted at once. Gavin's Marowak moved in and knocked Growlithe out with boomerang. So now it was one down to one pokemon now for Morrison and Gavin. To Morrison's surprise Gavin's Marowak knew ice beam. "If that ice beam hits Gligar it will be over for Morrison because one of Gligar's weakness is ice" said Brock. Morrison told his Gligar to watch out for the ice beam attack and commanded it to use iron tail. Gligar managed to avoid being hit by Marowak's ice beam and then struck Marowak hard with iron tail. Gavin ordered his Marowak to use headbutt and Morrison ordered his Gligar to use iron tail again. This time the two pokemon collided with each other with their attacks, and then Marowak fainted and Gligar managed to stay standing. So Morrison won and was able to proceed to the next round.

Later that day was Ash's turn to battle and he faced a trainer named Dominick. Morrison was watching this battle with the others. Dominik sent out a Swalot and a Tropius. Tropius was a brown and green grass and flying type pokemon, with four big leaves on its back and yellow bananas on its chin, and it looked like a dinosaur. "Wow what a cool pokemon" said Max.

May looked at Tropius on her pokedex: Tropius, the fruit pokemon. It flies by flapping its broad leaves and gives the sweet, delicious fruit around its neck to children.

Ash knew that Swalot was a poison type and Tropius was a grass and flying type, so he sent out Grumpig and Torkoal.

Tropius started off by flying high into the air and using razor leaf. "Psychic Grumpig" said Ash. Grumpig's psychic stopped Tropius's razor leaf in its tracks and then sent the leaves back at Tropius, who got hit by the leaves. "Hey that's the move Kelly did with her Grumpig at the Lilycove Contest" said May, who remembered that move. "That's Ash for you; he always uses a move that he's learnt about before" said Brock. "Okay my turn to attack," said Ash "use heatwave on Tropius Torkoal". Torkoal blew a wind of flames at Tropius and Tropius got hit by it. "Ash is giving Dominick a good fight out there" said May. "Never a dull moment when it comes to Ash battling" agreed Max. Morrison was impressed with Ash's battling. "Okay let's fight back," said Dominick "Tropius use gust on Torkoal and Swalot use body slam on Grumpig". Tropius flapped its wings hard to try and blow Torkoal away and Swalot jumped to body slam Grumpig hard with its body. "Torkoal stand your ground and use flamethrower on Tropius and Grumpig use protect" said Ash. Torkoal didn't let him-self get blown away from gust and blew flamethrower at Tropius, and Tropius got hit by it. Grumpig created a protective shield, just before Swalot could hit her. "Phew thank goodness that Grumpig knows protect, otherwise Grumpig would have been in trouble" said Max. "Well to tell you the truth all of Ash's pokemon know protect" said Tomo. Ash decided to fight back now; he ordered Torkoal to use over heat on Swalot and he ordered Grumpig to use power gem on Tropius. Grumpig fired power gem and Torkoal fired over heat and Tropius and Swalot got hit by the attacks. Tropius got really hurt by the power gem attack and it fainted, so Dominick was down to one pokemon. "Okay time to attack together," said Ash "Tropius flamethrower and Grumpig psybeam". Grumpig and Torkoal attacked Swalot together with their attacks, and then Swablu fainted. So Ash passed the first double battle round.

It had been a long day for Ash, Morrison and Tyson with the qualifying rounds. Tyson also won his first double battle round. But they still had another two battles to go before they could battle in the final battles.

Next morning Jessie, James and Meowth woke up from their sleep getting ready for work again. "My feet are still feeling tired from yesterday," said James "I want to sleep more". "We can't though," said Meowth "if we don't start getting ready for work our employer will be mad at us and you won't like that". The truth was Jessie, James and Meowth's employer was a scary man who hated laziness and other things like that. "At least he gives us brilliant meals when we're done," said James "last night's bentos were delicious". "Yeah we go get fed well here" agreed Meowth. "There's no point complaining about this," said Jessie "I mean this pokemon league isn't going to last for too learn. Remember the leagues in Kanto and Johto didn't last long, and neither will this one. So let's get on with it and earn more money for ourselves".

That day was filled with more double battles for the qualifying rounds. The 128 trainers, including Ash, Morrison and Tyson, who made it past the first rounds of the qualifying rounds, were desperate to get to the final rounds. Ash, Morrison and Tyson defeated their opponents and made it to the third round. So by then there were now 64 trainers left.

The next day Ash was battling his last opponent; a trainer named Clark. The peculiar thing about Clark was that he conducted his pokemon in battles like a symphony. Ash called out his Glalie and Grovyle to battle this time. Clark decided right away that he would win this battle because he called out Quilava and Charizard. "Oh-oh since Charizard and Quilava are both fire type, Grovyle and Glalie will have the disadvantage because they are a grass and ice type" said May. "That's true," said Brock "but I'm sure Ash will know what to do; he always does up against a disadvantage".

Ash started first by telling his Grovyle to use dragon breath on Charizard and told his Glalie to use ice shard on Quilava. Clark had his pokemon fight back by telling his Charizard to use flamethrower and his Quilava use flame wheel. Charizard's flamethrower broke apart Grovyle's dragon breath and Quilava stopped Glalie's ice shad from hitting with flame wheel and then it tackled Glalie. "Fight Quilava back with crunch Glalie" said Ash. Glalie bit down on Quilava, and of course Quilava received a lot of pain from that. "Now go in with headbutt". Quilava received more damage after Glalie headbutted it. Clark noticed at once that Ash was indeed a strong trainer. "Okay, Charizard let's get on with heatwave and Quilava move in with quick attack" said Clark. "Glalie counter that heatwave with blizzard and Grovyle counter attack Quilava with your quick attack" said Ash. Grovyle and Quilava tackled each other with quick attack. Then Charizard and Glalie blew heatwave and blizzard at each other. The blizzard and heatwave attacks collided with each other and caused an explosion. While that distraction was happening, Ash ordered Grovyle to use dragon breath on Quilava. Grovyle's dragon breath hit Quilava and Quilava fainted.

So Clark was only down to one pokemon, but this didn't ruin his battling spirits. He ordered his Charizard to strike Grovyle with wing attack, and Grovyle got hit by it and fainted from the flying type move. So now it was just down to Clark's Charizard and Ash's Glalie. "Charizard attack with flamethrower" said Clark. "Use protect Glalie" said Ash. Glalie created his shield to protect himself from the flamethrower attack. "Now use water pulse Glalie". Glalie fired water pulse and Charizard got hit by the water attack. Clark was surprised by that; he didn't expect Glalie to know water pulse. "Ha since Glalie knows water pulse, this is going to be trouble for Clark" said Max. Max was right; Clark's Charizard felt weak from the water pulse attack. "Okay Glalie let's finish now with dark pulse" said Ash. Glalie fired a dark pulse attack and Charizard got hit by hit. After this last hit, Charizard fainted, giving Ash his third win and his right to battle in the final rounds.

That night Ash was glad to have something to eat and a rest. Brock explained that tomorrow there would be no battles because the trainers could rest up for the final rounds. By now there were 32 trainers left in the tournament. "I least I will have more time to think on what six pokemon I should use for my first final battle," said Ash "I've been through full six on six battles before, and I do understand how difficult it is to choose what pokemon to use". "Well my pokemon are going to me my Swampert, Steelix, Girafarig, Metang, Growlithe and Gligar" said Morrison. "What about you Tyson?" asked May. "My six pokemon are Meowth, Sceptile, Donphan, Hariyama, Metagross and Shiftry" said Tyson. "Well I'll just think all the way through my Hoenn pokemon tomorrow to choose my six pokemon" decided Ash. So all the next day was resting and planning for Tyson, Morrison and Ash, before the start of the final battles.

As for Jessie, James and Meowth all the next day was a lot of janitor work, mopping the seating area and cleaning the benches.

The day after the resting day was the start of the final battle rounds; it was now the Top 32 rounds. Ash was up first and he was against a girl named Katie from Lilycove City, and Tyson and Morrison watched in the stands with the others. The final rounds were held in the main stadium and the trainers battled on four different stages. That meant they would battle either on a water field, rock field, grass field or ice field, and the fields would change after three of either trainer's pokemon had been defeated first. Ash and Katie's battlefield had been chosen to rock field first.

Katie sent out a Venomoth first and Ash sent out Combusken. As soon as the referee declared the match to begin, Katie started off by telling her Venomoth to use stun spore to paralyse Combusken. "Stop that stun spore with flamethrower Combusken" said Ash. Combusken's flamethrower stopped the stun spore before it could cover him. Just then Katie returned her Venomoth; the trainers were allowed to substitute pokemon during the battles in this league. Katie then sent out her Golduck to battle next. This was clear to Ash that Katie would probably keep switching out her pokemon because of type disadvantage; this happened before at the Silver Conference. Ash returned Combusken and sent out Absol next. "Why didn't Ash send out Pikachu to battle Golduck?" asked May. "That's because he figured out that Katie may substitute pokemon again if he did send out Pikachu," said Brock "Ash has been through something like this before and you should always think really clearly on what pokemon to use". "You're right about that Brock," said Tyson "after all you can never tell what pokemon your opponent with use until you see it yourself". Katie ordered her Golduck to use fury swipes, but Ash ordered Absol to dodge and use thunderbolt. Absol dodged Golduck's fury swipes and then shocked it with thunderbolt. Katie was surprised by that. "I'll have you know Katie that my Absol knows quite a lot of moves" said Ash. He was about to give Absol another order but then Katie returned Golduck and sent out Dugtrio. 'I had a feeling she would switch out her pokemon again' thought Ash. Katie ordered her Dugtrio to use dig. "Watch out Absol," said Ash "we don't know where it's going to come out again". Suddenly Dugtrio burst out of the ground and tackled Absol. "Okay Absol use your ice beam". Absol injured Dugtrio good with ice beam. "Now use razor wind". Absol released a blade of energy from her scythe and Dugtrio got hit by it and fainted.

So Katie had five more pokemon to use with Ash still with six. 'Hmm that Absol is indeed strong' thought Katie 'but I'm pretty sure it won't deal with this'. She sent out Misdreavus next. "Why send out a ghost type?" asked Tomo "dark type pokemon beat ghost type pokemon". "Katie must have a trick up her sleeve; I mean she wouldn't send out Misdreavus if she didn't" said Brock. "Absol use sucker punch" said Ash. Absol jumped into the air and gave Misdreavus a good punch before Misdreavus could do anything. "Now finish off with night slash" said Ash. "Use destiny bond Misdreavus" said Katie. "Oh-oh" said Ash. He knew that if a pokemon used destiny bond, its opponent would faint after the user had fainted. He tried to stop Absol but it was too late; Absol defeated Misdreavus with night slash and then as soon as Misdreavus fainted Absol fainted as well. So Katie had only four pokemon while Ash had only five pokemon now.

Katie sent out her Venomoth again and this time Ash sent out Pikachu to battle. Katie ordered her Venomoth to use stun spore on Pikachu, but Ash told Pikachu to use protect to prevent him from getting paralysed. "Good thing Pikachu knows protect otherwise Pikachu would have been in trouble" said May. Ash ordered Pikachu to use thunder wave and Venomoth became paralyzed. "Oh no Venomoth, try to use psybeam" said Katie. But Venomoth was too paralyzed to do anything. "Now's our chance Pikachu thunderbolt" said Ash. Pikachu shocked Venomoth hard with thunderbolt and Venomoth fainted. So Ash defeated three of Katie's pokemon first.

So now it was time for a field chance and this time it was a water battle field, and there was a few minutes break. After the break, Katie sent out her Golduck again to battle and Ash sent out his Corphish to battle. "Golduck use fury swipes on that Corphish" said Katie. "Corphish counter with crab hammer" said Ash. Golduck scratched Corphish with fury swipes and Corphish punched Golduck with crab hammer. "All right Golduck use confusion" said Katie. Golduck used its confusion to lift Corphish into the air and tossed it into the pool. Bad news was Corphish was now confused. Ash knew this could be trouble, since you could never tell what a pokemon would do if it was confused. "Try to pull yourself together Corphish" he said. It was no use; Corphish was so confused he couldn't really listen to Ash well. Katie ordered her Golduck to use hydro pump on Corphish. Ash tried to have Corphish dodge it, but thanks to Corphish's confusion he couldn't move so Corphish got hit by the hydro pump and fell into the water. It looked like that Corphish could be in big trouble. Suddenly a glowing light was coming from the water; it was Corphish and he was evolving. Corphish came out of the water as a Crawdaunt. Ash was happy for his pokemon's evolution and ordered Crawdaunt to use night slash on Golduck. Crawdaunt, who wasn't confused anymore, slashed Golduck hard with night slash and then Golduck fainted. But then Crawdaunt fainted too; he was too exhausted to continue fighting anymore. So Katie was down to two pokemon, while Ash still had four.

Katie sent out a Scizor and Ash sent out Swellow. "Even though Scizor is part bug type, Swellow will have trouble because of its steel type" decided Tyson. "Don't decided on Swellow's defeat yet," said Tomo "Swellow has a special move that could turn the match around". Tyson had no idea what Tomo meant, so he decided to wait and see what Tomo meant. Katie ordered her Scizor to use quick attack and Ash ordered Swellow to use aerial ace, leaving the two pokemon tackling each other. "Use metal claw Scizor" said Katie. As Scizor was moving to struck Swellow with metal claw, Ash ordered Swellow to use double team to avoid getting hit. Katie had Scizor attack some more till it could hit the real Swellow. "Swellow use heat wave" said Ash. Swellow blew a heat wave attack from his beak and Scizor got hit by the attack. The fire attack was too much for Scizor and it fainted. Katie, the audience, Tyson and Morrison were shocked that Ash's Swellow knew heat wave. "I take it that's the special move that you were talking about earlier Tomo?" asked Tyson. "Yes, to tell you the truth nearly all of Ash's flying pokemon know heat wave" said Tomo. "Tomo's right and heat wave is good to defend a flying type against ice and steel" said Brock.

Katie was now down to her last pokemon, a Walrein. Ash knew that Walrein was a water and ice type, but he stayed with Swellow so to use the others later. "Swellow use steel wing" he said. Swellow charged towards Walrein to use steel wing. "Use avalanche Walrein" said Katie. Walrein's body glowed light blue and white rings of energy appeared in the sky, and then an avalanche of snow appeared out of the rings and Swellow got hit by the avalanche. Ash knew that this was trouble since avalanche was an ice type move. "Now Walrein use water gun" said Katie. Walrein fired a water gun at Swellow and Swellow got hit by it and fainted. "Wow, Katie's Walrein looks strong than we thought" said Max. "Yes one maybe tricky for Ash" said Tyson. Ash sent out Pikachu to battle next since he was an electric type pokemon. "Let's use thunderbolt Pikachu" said Ash. Pikachu fired thunderbolt towards Walrein, but Katie told her Walrein to use mimic and Walrein used thunderbolt to counter Pikachu's thunderbolt. "Oh no, mimic will be trouble since it keeps on copying Pikachu's attacks" said Brock. Ash ordered Pikachu to use agility and Pikachu jumped from the pool's floats one by one very quickly and Walrein had no idea where Pikachu would attack from next. "Now let's use thunder". "Use blizzard Walrein" said Katie. Pikachu fired thunder as Walrein fired blizzard. Walrein got fried by the thunder and Pikachu got cold from the blizzard. Walrein took real damage from the thunder attack and fainted. So Ash was the winner and could battle in the next round. Katie congratulated him. "I was amazed by your pokemon having many different moves" she said. "Ah well different moves can be useful in battles," said Ash "especially since when you pokemon is at a disadvantage with an opponent". Katie agreed.

The rest of the day was more six on six battles, and Tyson and Morrison passed their rounds. That evening it was time for the results of who would be battling who in the Top 16. To the gang's surprise Ash and Morrison were facing each other in the next round. Ash looked at Morrison; Morrison was in shock that he had to battle Ash and we ran out of the center. "Oh-oh," said Ash "Morrison is in shock that he has to battle me. I felt in shock too when I battled my friend Ritchie at the Indigo League". "Well it was going to happen sooner or later," said Brock "it's true that Morrison has to battle you Ash, his friend, but Morrison has to accept it tomorrow". Ash felt worried about Morrison.

The next day was the Top 16 battles and now Ash and Morrison were battling each other. This field was an ice field. Pikachu was not going to battle this time; he sat in the stands with the others, and his pokeball was at Prof Oak's lab. Ash stared at Morrison; Morrison was still not at his best because he was battling with Ash. 'I have that feeling that Morrison will not battle his best in this,' thought Ash 'so I will have to set him straight'. He sent out Sableye first and Morrison sent out Girafarig. "Hey that Girafarig won't be able to do anything on Sableye because normal and psychic moves don't work on Sableye" said Max. "You're right" said Tyson.

Morrison ordered his Girafarig to use light screen. Ash ordered Sableye to use brick break and the brick break attack smashed the light screen. "Now use shadow claw Sableye". Sableye scratched Girafarig good with his shadow claw attack. "Use tackle Girafarig" said Morrison. That was a big mistake; since Sableye was part ghost, the tackle did nothing. 'I knew it,' thought Ash 'Morrison isn't concentrating at all because of this challenge with me'. He ordered Sableye to use dark pulse and Girafarig fainted.

Just as Morrison returned Girafarig, Ash shouted out to Morrison. "Hey Morrison!" he shouted "this is not the type of battle I wanted with you. If you are going to keep on like this, then you should quit this battle now!" Morrison was shocked by Ash's words and gritted his teeth. "I'm not quitting!" he shouted "and I will give you a real battle now". He sent out Growlithe and ordered it to use flamethrower. "This is more like it," said Ash "dodge it Sableye and use power gem". Sableye dodged the flamethrower and fired a power gem from his gem at Growlithe. "Dodge it with flame wheel Growlithe" said Morrison. Growlithe dodged the power gem attack and then tackled Sableye good. "Now use flamethrower again Growlithe". Growlithe blew another flamethrower and Sableye got hit by it. Sableye took so much damage from that fire attack and fainted. "This is the battle I wanted from you Morrison" said Ash, happy that Morrison snapped out of his shock.

Ash returned Sableye and sent out Milotic. Morrison and the audience were surprised by Ash's shiny Milotic, even Tyson was impressed because he hadn't seen Milotic yet. "This is going to be great" said Morrison. He returned Growlithe and sent out Marshtomp. "Use hydro pump". Ash smirked and told Milotic to use mirror coat. Marshtomp's hydro pump attack bounced off Milotic and hit Marshtomp. Morrison didn't expect that. "Marshtomp use hammer arm" he said. "Use attract Milotic" said Ash. Milotic winked and sent off pink hearts from her body and the hearts hit Marshtomp, and Marshtomp became attracted to Milotic and couldn't fight. "Hah," chuckled Brock "since Marshtomp is Male and Milotic is female, well Marshtomp is too smitten to attack". "You're right and I've seen the move attract before" said Tyson "Now Milotic use iron tail" said Ash. Milotic whacked Marshtomp with her iron tail, and then Marshtomp got thrown into an ice burg and fainted.

Morrison was surprised by Ash's Milotic and sent out Growlithe again. "Why is Morrison using Growlithe against Milotic?" asked May "I mean water beats fire". "I'm guessing that since Growlithe has been in a fight Morrison decided to use it first, and then he'll use the others later" said Brock. "That makes sense" said Max. Morrison told Growlithe to use flamethrower and Ash told Milotic to use water gun. Milotic's water gun went through the flamethrower and hit Growlithe. Growlithe couldn't take any more after the water attack and fainted. So Ash still had five pokemon left and Morrison had three left.

During the few moments of break Morrison apologized to Ash for his behaviour. "I understand you're shock of facing me because we are friends," said Ash "but I'm glad you realize we can still have a great battle". Morrison agreed.

After the break, Ash and Morrison were ready to fight again. The field was now a grass type field. Morrison sent out Steelix and Ash sent out Shiftry. "Wouldn't Combusken been better than Shiftry?" said Max. "Yes but Shiftry knows some fighting type moves" said Tomo "and fighting beats steel". Morrison told his Steelix to use dig. When it went underground Ash told his Shiftry to be careful. Just then Steelix came out and tackled Shiftry. "Shiftry use seed bomb" said Ash. Shiftry fired seed bomb at Steelix and the seeds hit it. "Okay use focus blast" said Ash. Steelix got hit well by Shiftry's focus blast, but it still stood. "Use dragon breath Steelix" said Morrison. Steelix blew dragon breath at Shiftry. "Leaf storm Shiftry" said Ash. Shiftry fired leaf storm at Steelix. The two pokemon got hit by each other's attacks and both Shiftry and Steelix fainted.

Morrison returned Steelix; he still had two pokemon while Ash still had four pokemon. Ash sent out Manectric and Morrison sent out Gligar. "Gligar is a ground type, so Manectric's electric attacks won't work" said Max. "No but don't forget Manectric knows ice fang and that would work on Gligar" said Tomo. Max and May forgot about Manectric knowing ice fang. Morrison told his Gligar to start things off with steel wing. "Use swift Manectric" said Ash. Manectric's stars stopped Gligar from getting close to him, while Gligar was trying to fly towards him. "Now let's move in with ice fang". Manectric bit down hard on Gligar with his ice fang attack and ice began to form on Gligar. Poor Gligar had trouble flying because of the ice. "Try and break that ice Gligar" said Morrison. "Finish it off with one more ice fang Manectric" said Ash. Manectric bit down on Gligar again with ice fang and Gligar fainted from the ice attack.

Morrison was now down to his last pokemon; Metang. Ash returned Manectric and sent out Shiftry again. "Why isn't Ash using Combusken or Torkoal?" asked May "I mean fire does beat steel". "Yes but don't forget Metang is also part psychic type;" said Brock "when you're facing a psychic pokemon or any other pokemon that knows psychic moves, it's best to use a dark type because psychic moves don't work on dark type pokemon". "Oh I see" said May; she still had a lot to learn about pokemon types, even if she had been journeying for a while now. Morrison didn't know about psychic moves not working on dark type pokemon, and he ordered his Metang to use confusion on Shiftry. But of course nothing happened. "You should know Morrison that psychic moves don't work on dark type pokemon" said Ash. Morrison face palmed himself in embarrassment for not knowing that. "Use dark pulse Shiftry" said Ash. Shiftry's dark pulse attack hit Metang good. "Okay let's try this then," said Morrison "Metang use bullet punch". Metang gave Shiftry a good punching. "Use leaf storm Shiftry" said Ash. Shiftry glowed green and fired a cyclone of leaves at Metang, and Metang got hurt by the leaves. This was too much for Metang and it fainted. So Morrison lost and earned himself Top 16 place in the Ever Grande Conference.

When the Top 16 rounds were over, everyone went to the pokemon center to heal their pokemon. Ash picked up Pikachu's pokeball from Prof Oak, so Ash was all right to use Pikachu again. Morrison congratulated Ash on his win, and he promised to not behave on how he acted today, because of battling a friend, ever again. Just then the results for the Top 8 rounds, that were happening tomorrow, appeared. This time Ash was against a man named Jones. "I know that guy," said Tyson "he is a ground type pokemon trainer, so he only uses ground type pokemon". "Wow, he must be a strong ground type trainer if he could defeat all eight gyms with ground type pokemon" said Max. Ash was interested by that, and he couldn't wait to battle Jones. So there was still some more battles for Ash to get through if he wanted to win the Ever Grande Conference.

The next day was now the Top 8 of the battle rounds in the Ever Grande Conference. Ash put up a good fight against Jones and his ground type pokemon; Jones had Flygon, Rhydon, Swampert, Camerupt, Claydol, and now he was on his sixth pokemon Sandslash. Ash used Salamence first, which managed to defeat Flygon but was defeated by Rhydon and its rock slide attack. Ash's Swampert defeated Rhydon but it was defeated together with Jones' Swampert. Ash's Milotic defeated Camerupt but was defeated by Claydol's psychic attacks. Ash's Armaldo got defeated by Claydol too, but Ash's Grovyle defeated Claydol. But Jones' Sandslash defeated Grovyle. Jones' Grovyle seemed to be very strong and its roll out and crush claw attacks were trouble. So now Ash was down on his last pokemon Cradily and they were on a grass field. Jones tried to have his Sandslash do the same combo attack of rollout and crush claw on Cradily, but Ash had a trick up his sleeve. He ordered his Cradily to use grass knot. Grass knot was a grass type move that made the user's opponents trip up. Thanks to grass knot, Sandslash couldn't get far with rollout. Then Cradily used solarbeam, and thanks to solarbeam Sandslash and Jones were defeated.

So now it was time for the Top 4 battles, but to Ash's surprise his opponent was Tyson. Even though they were friends/rivals, Tyson and Ash promised to have a good battle between each other. Of all the people who were excited about Ash's and Tyson's battle, the only one who was more interested was Meowth. He still didn't like Tyson's Meowth but he was still interested on how that Meowth would go against Pikachu. He asked Jessie and James to cover for him with work because he wanted to watch the battle. Of course Jessie and James were not happy with Meowth wanting to skip work, but since he was their friend, they were willing to let him skip just this once. So Jessie and James told their boss that their friend was sick and their job today was remodelling a rundown shack.

Now it was time for Ash and Tyson's battle and they were on a grass field. Tyson sent out his Sceptile and Ash sent out Glalie. Ash ordered Glalie to use blizzard but Tyson ordered Sceptile to counter with solar beam. The blizzard and solar beam collided with each other and created an explosion. The explosion caused both Glalie and Sceptile to faint. "We've only started the battle and our first pokemon have both been defeated pokemon" Ash said to Pikachu. Pikachu agreed. Tyson returned Sceptile and sent out Shiftry, and Ash returned Glalie and sent out Beautifly. Ash ordered Beautifly to use silver wind, but Tyson had Shiftry dodge that. "Use shadow ball Shiftry" said Tyson. "Counter that with energy ball Beautifly" said Ash. The shadow ball and energy ball collided with each other and caused a bang. "Quick use stun spore" said Ash. Beautifly released stun spore from her wings and Shiftry became paralyzed by the stun spore. "Now use silver wind". Tyson tried to make his Shiftry dodge, but Shiftry was too paralyzed. Shiftry got hit by the silver wind and then Beautifly finished the battle off with aerial ace. May was impressed with Ash's Beautifly; her Beautifly's strength didn't match Ash's Beautifly yet. Tyson sent out Hariyama next. Ash ordered Beautifly to use air cutter. Tyson told his Hariyama to dodge it and to use arm thrust. Hariyama dodged Beautifly's air cutter attack and hit Beautifly multiple times with arm thrust. "Now use close combat Hariyama" said Tyson. Hariyama repeatedly punched and kicked Beautifly at a fast speed, and then Beautifly fainted. "Man Tyson is defiantly a very strong trainer" Ash said to Pikachu. Pikachu agreed since he saw everything. Ash returned Beautifly and sent out Swellow. "It's good Ash is using Swellow against Hariyama," said Brock "but what will Tyson's Hariyama do?" "Hariyama use brick break" said Tyson. "Dodge that with quick attack" said Ash. Swellow's quick attack helped him escape before Hariyama could hit him with brick break. "Swellow time to use brave bird" said Ash. "Use focus punch Hariyama" said Tyson. Hariyama and Swellow charged at each other with their attacks and an explosion happened sending the two pokemon backwards. Swellow was still all right but Hariyama was unable to battle. So Tyson lost three pokemon first and it was time for a field change.

Ash was talking with Morrison and the others while it was break time. "Tyson is stronger than I thought" said Ash. "I agree and his pokemon are no push overs either" said Brock. The others agreed. Meanwhile Jessie and James were working on remodelling the shack. "I'm glad it's near the end of this pokemon tournament" said Jessie, who was painting. "Me too," said James, who was hammering, "and I hope we are getting good money for this". At that time Meowth had been watching the battle between Ash and Tyson. He was hoping to see Tyson's Meowth battle.

Now it was time for the second half of the battle between Ash and Tyson and this time they were on a rock field. Tyson called out his Donphan and Ash called out Crawdaunt. "Use rollout Donphan" said Tyson. Donphan started to roll towards Crawdaunt. "Use surf Crawdaunt" said Ash. Crawdaunt created a wave of water and it hit Donphan while it was still rolling. The surf attack not only soaked Donphan, it also stopped Donphan from rolling. "Now ours chance Crawdaunt use crab hammer". Crawdaunt whacked Donphan hard with crab hammer and Donphan fainted. "Wow, Ash sure knew how to deal with Donphan's rollout there" said Morrison. "Ash has dealt with pokemon that know rollout before" said Tomo. Tyson's next pokemon was Metagross. Morrison got excited about seeing a Metagross; after all his Metang would evolve into Metagross. Ash ordered his Crawdaunt to start off with dark pulse. "Dodge that and use bullet punch" said Tyson. Metagross dodged the dark pulse attack and it punched Crawdaunt with bullet punch. "Now hammer arm" said Tyson. This was trouble; since Crawdaunt was now a water and dark type pokemon, he was now weak to fighting type moves. Metagross managed to hit Crawdaunt with hammer arm and Crawdaunt fainted. "I should have known that Metagross can learn fighting type moves" said Ash. He returned Crawdaunt and sent out Combusken. Max pointed out this could be trouble because Combusken was fighting type as well as fire type. But Tomo told him not to underestimate things yet. Of course Tyson told his Metagross to use confusion, and Combusken was sent into the air. "Use ember Combusken" said Ash. Even though Combusken was still controlled by Metagross, Combusken fired ember at Metagross and Metagross got hit by the ember attack. "Sorry Tyson, but Combusken and I have had practice against dealing with the move confusion before" said Ash. Combusken pumped up ready to fight some more.

Suddenly Combusken glowed and evolved into Blaziken. Ash was happy to have finally got a Blaziken for his own.

He looked at Blaziken on his pokedex: Blaziken, the blaze pokemon. The evolved form of Combusken. Flames spout from its wrists, enveloping its knuckles. Its punches scorch its foes.

Blaziken now knew the moves blaze kick, blaze kick, brave bird and flare blitz. "Use flare blitz" said Ash. Blaziken surrounded himself in red-orange flames, and while he charged towards Metagross the flames turned blue. Blaziken charged straight into Metagross, and of course Blaziken received damage after using flare blitz. Metagross took a lot of damage from that flare blitz attack and fainted.

Now Tyson was down to his last pokemon; Meowth. Team Rocket Meowth watched with interest to see what Tyson's Meowth can do. Ash ordered Blaziken to start things off with flamethrower, but Meowth dodged and used slash on Blaziken. Blaziken of course didn't like that and tried to fight back with his own slash attack. "Meowth use water pulse" said Tyson. Meowth fired water pulse at Blaziken and Blaziken got hit by the water attack. "Now let's use thunderbolt". Blaziken got a real shocking from the thunderbolt because he was still wet from the water pulse. Then Blaziken fainted. "Woah, if Tyson's Meowth can take down a big pokemon like Blaziken then we have a difficult battle here" Ash said to Pikachu. Pikachu agreed. Meowth was interested by this battle. Ash returned Blaziken and sent out Swellow. "Swellow use aerial ace" he said. Before Tyson's Meowth could do anything, Swellow charged into Meowth. "Now peck Swellow". Now Meowth was getting pecked by Swellow. "Use pay day on Swellow Meowth" said Tyson. Meowth fired his coins at Swellow and Swellow got hit by the coins. "Now use thunderbolt and then use iron tail Meowth". Meowth first shocked Swellow and then whacked him with iron tail, and then Swellow fainted. "Oh man," said Max, who was surprised with this, "that Meowth sure is difficult to defeat". "I agree" said May. Brock and Tomo agreed too.

So now was down to his last pokemon, and that of course was Pikachu. "Pikachu start off with quick attack" said Ash. Pikachu tackled Meowth with quick attack. "Use double team Meowth" said Tyson. Meowth multiplied itself. "Use swift Pikachu" said Ash. Pikachu fired swift and all the stars hit Meowth and all the copies. Team Rocket Meowth was smirking while he watched. "Pikachu is giving that Meowth a good beating," he said "I hope that twerp will hurry up and beat it". Tyson ordered his Meowth to use payday and the coins hit and distracted Pikachu. "Now use slash" said Tyson. Meowth gave Pikachu a real slashing. "Pikachu use iron tail" said Ash. "Counter with your iron tail Meowth" said Tyson. The two pokemon started to clash at each other with iron tail like they were sword fighting. The fight went on and on with Meowth and Pikachu throwing attacks at each other. Tyson's Meowth was clearly not giving up on the battle and neither was Pikachu. Finally Pikachu couldn't take anymore and fainted, while Meowth was just barely still standing. So Ash lost and earned himself Top 4 place. He congratulated Tyson and his Meowth. "Best of luck in the finals" said Ash. Team Rocket Meowth was impressed that Tyson's Meowth was able to defeat Pikachu, but still considered it a show off.

Even though Ash lost he was happy to have earned Top 4 place because he earned Top 8 in the Kanto and Johto Leagues. The others and Morrison thought that Ash did brilliantly in his battle against Tyson. Tyson and Meowth went on into the final battle round and Tyson defeated his opponent. He became the winner of the Ever Grande Conference.

After the battles were over, it was time for the closing ceremony. Tyson received the 1st place trophy for winning the tournament. His opponent in the final earned the silver medal for second place. And Ash earned a bronze medal because he came in third place. Morrison and the others who didn't win earned a pokemon league badge. The pokemon league badge was coloured red and blue (dedicated to Groudon and Kyogre) and it was in an emerald green cloth. After a last round of clapping and cheering, the stadium flame went out and the Ever Grande Conference was officially over.

After that Tyson and Morrison were saying good bye to the gang. Since Tyson now had the chance to battle the Elite four in Hoenn, he was going to train with his pokemon some more before that happened. Morrison and the gang wished him luck with that. Morrison said that he was going to train his pokemon some more too, and he said to Ash that he would beat him the next time they fought in a pokemon battle. Then Tyson and Morrison left too. Ash was happy to have earned a medal for once in a pokemon league, as well as happy to have been taking part in it. But of course this would mean that his journey in the Hoenn region would now be over.