Ash's Pokémon Journey

Chapter 101-105

Chapter 101

The Kanto Grand Festival

After travelling some more, the gang made it to the Indigo Plateau. "We are finally here" said May, happily. "The Indigo Plateau looks more amazing than I imagined" said Max. Ash, Brock and Tomo started at the area. "This place brings back memories" said Brock. "Yeah especially memories of when I participated in the pokemon league here" said Ash. Tomo remembered that too. "It's amazing that they will be holding the grand festival here, despite they never did it before until now" said Tomo. "Well a lot of things have changed since then" said Brock. "Come on Ash," said May "let's go register for the grand festival right now". May was very excited about this, and it wasn't long until Ash and May registered for the grand festival with their ribbons and pokemon. May and Max contacted their mum next to let her know they were at the grand festival. Unfortunately Caroline couldn't come because she and Norman were kept very busy, but she promised to watch May all the way on TV and wished her and Ash lots of luck.

After the phone call was over, a commotion happened in the lobby. A Vigoroth and two Aipoms were running around. The gang ran over to the three pokemon. "What's going on?" asked Ash. When the tree monkey pokemon saw Ash they calmed down. "I think they know you Ash" said Brock. Ash started at the pokemon. "Hey are you three?" he said. Before he said anything else Nurse Joy came up and asked what the noise was about. She saw the three monkey pokemon. "It's alright Nurse Joy, I know these pokemon" said Ash. He explained that he met the two Aipoms in the forest. "I reckon the Aipoms decided to follow me, and I also reckon this Vigoroth, who lived in the same forest, must be their friend and decided to come with them". "Oh that's alright then since no harm has been done" smiled Nurse Joy. Ash told the three monkey pokemon to come outside with him because they were causing too much noise.

The monkey pokemon did as they were told and soon they were outside with Ash. "What are you three doing here anyway?" asked Ash. The Vigoroth and Aipoms explained, in their language, they were interested in Ash because of the psychic power he had and they were impressed with how he battled Team Rocket and the fake Slaking. "Oh so you three like me then?" asked Ash. The three pokemon nodded yes. This was a surprise one after another for Ash. Ash took out three empty pokeballs from his ruck sack, but then the three monkey pokemon ran away. "Okay, what was that about Pikachu?" asked Ash. Pikachu had no idea.

Suddenly a surprise came up to Ash; it was Ritchie and Sparky. "Hey Ritchie what are you doing here?" asked Ash. Ritchie explained he had heard from Prof Oak that Ash was participating in the Kanto Grand Festival. "The Indigo Plateau brings back memories of when we battled each other in the pokemon league here, so Sparky and I decided to check out the grand festival" said Ritchie. Ash was happy to see Ritchie again, since they hadn't seen each other since Johto, and Pikachu was happy to see Sparky again. Ash showed Ritchie his Kanto ribbons and the six frontier symbols he had. "Wow Ash, you have done a lot on your journey" said Ritchie. "How have you been doing Ritchie?" asked Ash. Ritchie explained that he had been traveling through Kanto, and now he was thinking what to do next. "I've been thinking of going to Hoenn because I haven't been there yet". "That's a good choice Ritchie," said Ash "I liked traveling through Hoenn and you will too".

Later Ash and Pikachu went back to the others with Ritchie and Sparky. Brock and Tomo were happy to see Ritchie again and introduced him to May and Max. A girl, the same age as Brock, had been talking to May, Max, Tomo and Brock. Her name was Solidad and she was a pokemon coordinator entering the grand festival too, and she lived in Pewter City like Brock. Brock and Solidad were old friends. This meant that May and Ash had another rival for the grand festival, apart from Drew and Harley. Solidad told the others that she was an old rival of Drew, having gone against him in contests in the past. She also said that Drew cried when she beat him in his very first contest. This made May remember when she cried after Drew beat her in her first contest; so the rivalry between May and Drew was the same with Drew and Solidad.

The next day it was time for the Kanto Grand Festival to begin. Ritchie sat in the seats with Brock, Tomo and Max. "Last time I was in the seats was when the pokemon league was held here, and now I'm here sitting for the grand festival" said Ritchie. "Well sit back and enjoy this" smiled Brock. While fireworks were going off, Lilian started to do the introductions. First she showed the grand prize, the Ribbon Cup. This Ribbon Cup had bigger, fancier handles than the one on the Ribbon Cup in Hoenn and had a red small ribbon in the middle. Then she showed off the second prize; the silver ribbon in a frame. Next she explained that the preliminary rounds were going to be held in two separate stadiums; there were 270 participants in the grand festival. The judges for the first stadium were of course Mr Suziko, Mr Contesta and Nurse Joy. But there was also a special guest Judge; Vivian from Hoenn had come to be a judge for the Kanto grand festival. Everyone was happy to see her. For the second stadium three other Nurse Joys were doing the judging, and a woman named Jessadia was to be the host.

Jessadia was really Jessie in disguise. Team Rocket had come to the grand festival to find work and Jessie wanted to be a TV announcer. James was the cameraman and Meowth and Wobbuffet were helpers. So Team Rocket weren't causing trouble here.

The rule for the preliminary round was the coordinators had to use one pokemon with only one move and only 64 trainers out of the 270 could pass. This was the same rule from the Hoenn Grand Festival. Soon the preliminary round was on. There was a Rapidash sprouting flames, a Goldeen jumping out of a pool, a Venasaur using frenzy plant, a Tropius using solar beam, a Pichu using thunderbolt, a Jigglypuff singing, a Tyrogue using karate chop on a pile of slates and a Salamence using flamethrower. Next was Ash's turn and he had his Scizor using hyper beam on the ground. Then it was May's turn and she had Combusken use sky uppercut on a frisbee. Solidad had a Lapras and it used sheer cold, creating a big pillar of ice. Next Drew's Masquerain created a gust of wind with silver wind. Last up was Harley. He was using his Banette and it used will o wisp while laughing like a phantom. Ash and May could see that Harley hadn't changed a bit.

After the preliminary round was over the final results came up. Ash, May, Drew, Harley and Solidad made it to the main stage with 59 competitors. Ash and May were happy to have made it past the preliminary rounds, but there was still the main preliminary round and battle rounds to get through.

That evening Ash and May were thanking Combusken and Scizor for getting them through the preliminary round. Ritchie said he found the pokemon contests very interesting, and couldn't wait to see more. Solidad was with the gang too and said she couldn't wait to see what else Ash and May would show in the grand festival. Unbeknown to Ash, Vigoroth and the two Aipoms had been watching him and the two Aipoms were interested by the contest.

Next day it was time for the main stage to begin; first up was the main preliminary round. The Nurse Joys were no longer judging, Mr Suziko, Mr Contesta, Nurse Joy and Vivian were being the judges with Lilian hosting. Jessie was just going to interview the coordinators back stage.

Drew was up first and he used his Absol. Absol started off with flash, and the light from the flash made Absol's fur glow. Then Absol used water pulse, creating a watery tornado. Last of all, Absol used razor wind cutting the watery tornado apart to sparkles. The audience loved it.

Harley was up next and he used his Octillery. Octillery blasted fire blast onto the stage, and then danced amidst the flames. Brock, Tomo and Max thought this was another typical performance of Harley. Ritchie found it strange himself.

Next up was Ash and he used his Magneton. First Magneton fired magnet bomb, which was an attack of light blue orbs, into the air. Then Magneton fired a tri attack at the magnet bomb orbs. The fire, electric and ice orbs collided with the magnet bomb orbs and they burst into red blue and yellow particles. Ritchie was impressed with Ash's coordinating skills.

Soon was Solidad's turn and she used a Slowbro. Slowbro used psychic to balance itself on its tail and move across the stage like it was skating on an ice rink. Then Slowbro used water gun while twirling, creating a watery spiral. May and Ash could see that Solidad was a good pokemon coordinator.

Soon it was May's turn and she used Munchlax. First Munchlax fired a solarbeam, shaped as a big ball, into the air. Then Munchlax punched the solar beam with focus punch. It created sunny sparkling particles.

While the others were going on May was feeling relieved that the preliminary round was over. She just hoped she would make it to the second round, the battle rounds. "Don't be nervous May," said Ash "you put on a very good performance to be proud of". "I agree," said Solidad "your move was a move even I couldn't think of May. And I can say the same thing with your move too Ash". Harley and Drew, who were standing near them, even admitted in their minds that Ash and May's moves were good.

That evening Ash and Ritchie were talking alone at the park. Pikachu and Sparky were with them. "Pokemon contests interest me Ash," said Ritchie "it's like looking at pokemon talent shows". "Thinking of becoming a coordinator now?" teased Ash. "No it won't suit me" chuckled Ritchie. Just then the two Aipoms and Vigoroth came up. "It's you three," said Ash "have you been here all this time?" "You know these pokemon Ash?" asked Ritchie. Ash explained he met them in the forest and they followed him here. "So what do you three want?" he asked the pokemon. One of the Aipoms pointed to the grand festival stadium. "I think this Aipom is interested in watching the grand festival Ash" said Ritchie. "Really?" said Ash. Aipom jumped up and down to say yes. "Well then you three can come and watch the grand festival with my friends, but you mustn't cause any mischief understand?" said Ash. The Vigoroth and two Aipoms promised to behave.

Next day the results of who made it to the battle rounds of the grand festival came up. Only 16 trainers passed the preliminary round, and Ash, May, Drew, Solidad and Harley made it to the battle rounds. Ash and May were happy to have made it to the battle rounds. Brock, Tomo, Max and Ritchie were happy for them too. Vigoroth and the two Aipoms were sitting in the seats with Brock, Tomo, Max and Ritchie.

Just then the big screen revealed who was battling against whom first. To May's surprise she had to battle Harley first. "Oh man this is like back at the Hoenn grand festival when May had to battle Harley first" said Tomo. "You're right" said Max. Harley called this a great opportunity for himself to get back at May and defeat her like he did in the Wisteria Contest. Ash, Solidad and Drew were against other opponents.

Harley and May took their positions for their battle on the stage. May sent out her Butterfree and Eevee to battle. Harley sent out his Cacturne and a new pokemon a Wigglytuff. This Wigglytuff looked like it was using scary face; it seemed it was making itself creepy like Harley. May started off by telling her Eevee and Butterfree to use tackle. "Time to pump up Wigglytuff" said Harley. Wigglytuff inflated itself and Eevee and Butterfree bounced off Wigglytuff when they tried to tackle it. "That's a good technique to use," said Ash, in the waiting room, "using Wigglytuff's ability to inflate as a balloon like that. My Wigglytuff can do that too. But Harley better watch himself because there is a weakness to that". Drew and Solidad stared at the match. "Jump Wigglytuff and use poison sting Cacturne" said Harley. Wigglytuff jumped into the air and then Cacturne hit Butterfree and Eevee with poison sting by surprise. Thanks to that surprise attack May was losing more points. Harley told Cacturne to use needle arm next. "Eevee use shadow ball and you use gust Butterfree" said May. Butterfree's gust attack helped Eevee's shadow ball fly to Cacturne fast, and Cacturne got hit by the attacks. Cacturne fell to the ground in defeat. So Harley had one pokemon to battle and May still had two.

In the seats the Aipom, which wanted to watch the grand festival, watched what was going in with interest. In the waiting room Solidad was impressed with what was happening. Drew just watched in silence. Ash knew May had to watch it for the Wigglytuff, especially since it was still inflated.

Harley fought back by telling Wigglytuff to use body slam. As Wigglytuff was inflated it was heavy than normal. Eevee and Butterfree got out of the way before Wigglytuff could crush them. Wigglytuff grabbed Eevee with its ears and flung him into the air and then swatted Butterfree into the air with its ears too. "Now use double slap" said Harley. Wigglytuff slapped Eevee and Butterfree hard with its ears. Both Eevee and Butterfree both fell to the ground, but they weren't defeated yet. "Ready to give up toots?" asked Harley. He felt he would win this. May wasn't giving up yet and she told Butterfree to use psybeam. Wigglytuff used its pumping up ability to get away. Butterfree tried to hit it with psybeam again, but Wigglytuff was able to dodge it again and again. May was losing more and more points. "Okay let's do this then, Eevee use swift" said May. Eevee sent stars at Wigglytuff and Wigglytuff got hit by the stars. Because Wigglytuff got hit by the swift attack, Wigglytuff lost the air inside it and started to fall to the ground. "That's Wigglytuff's weakness," explained Brock "when it gets hit by a move while inflated the air it used to inflate itself comes out just like a real balloon". As Wigglytuff was now helplessly near the ground, May ordered Eevee and Butterfree to use tackle. Wigglytuff was hit hard by the double tackle attack and was defeated.

So May won the match and Harley earned Top 16 place in the grand festival. May hugged her Butterfree and Eevee for the victory. Harley of course was angry with his defeat. Ash was happy for May's win, Solidad was impressed with how the match turned out and Drew just smiled. In the seats one of the Aipoms was cheering with excitement. It was clear that this Aipom liked watching the contests.

Ash was up next and he defeated his opponent's Raichu and Ivysaur with his Rhydon using mega horn and Hitmonlee using high jump kick. Drew defeated his opponent's Medicham and Loudred with his Roselia using petal dance and Masquerain using gust, and Solidad defeated her opponent's Zangoose and Girafarig with her Slowbro using hyper beam and Lapras using ice beam. Soon the first battle round was over and there were eight coordinators left to challenge the second battle round.

The results for the next battle round came up and May had to battle with Drew, while Ash and Solidad were up against different opponents. "So it's time for May to go against Drew again" said Max. "Well it was going to happen sooner or later" said Tomo. May sent out her Combusken and Squirtle and Drew sent out his Flygon and Absol to battle.

May started first by telling her Squirtle to use rapid spin and her Combusken to use mega kick. Combusken jumped of Squirtle, while he was spinning, and went for a mega kick. Flygon used sandstorm, and then Absol jumped into the sandstorm and used flash. The flash was really blinding Combusken. Then Absol struck Combusken with iron tail. May ordered her Combusken to use sky uppercut and Squirtle to use bubble. This was a combination move; Combusken glided through Squirtle's bubbles, while getting ready to use sky uppercut. Absol fought back using razor wind which knocked both Combusken and Squirtle back. Next Flygon blew a flamethrower attack. "Combusken use fire spin" said May. The two fire attacks fused with each other, exploded and Flygon and Combusken got pushed back. Next Drew did a combination of his own. Absol used razor wind and Flygon used dragon breath making Absol's razor wind more powerful. Combusken and Squirtle tried to dodge the attack, but they couldn't and were hit by the move.

There was no doubt about it; Drew had grown stronger ever since the last time Drew met up with the gang in Neon Town. Even May admitted that Drew was strong, but she wasn't going to let herself get beat this time.

Drew ordered his Flygon to use steel wing and his Absol to use iron tail. May made a move by telling her Combusken to use fire spin and her Squirtle to use bubble. The fire spin and bubble attacks created a fiery, bubble tornado and it hit Flygon and Absol. This was the tactics fusion of fire and water that May learned from Tucker when he used it against Ash at the Battle Dome. Ash was impressed with May using a fusion of fire and water her own way. Brock, Max, Tomo and Ritchie were impressed too, especially Ritchie because he had never seen a move like that before. Drew was amazed by that move, but he wasn't going to let May beat him yet. He ordered Absol to use flash. Squirtle quickly used rapid spin and being in his shell helped prevent Absol's flash from blinding him. Flygon tried to hit Squirtle back with steel wing, but Squirtle managed to fly above Flygon. "Use ice beam Squirtle" said May. Squirtle struck Flygon with ice beam. Flygon crashed to the ground and was knocked out cold. Absol moved in and struck Squirtle with iron tail, knocking Squirtle out cold.

So now May and Drew were down to one pokemon each and they returned Flygon and Squirtle. By now there was two more minutes to go. May ordered Combusken to use mega kick and Drew ordered Absol to use iron tail. The two pokemon bounced off each other when they hit each other. Then Absol used razor wind and Combusken got hit by it. Combusken fought back with fire spin, but Absol used water pulse which not only doused the fire spin attack it also hit Combusken. Poor Combusken started to get weak.

Suddenly Combusken started to turn red hot, like it was getting sunburnt. What was happening was Combusken was learning the move overheat. May knew this and she told Combusken to use overheat. Absol got hit by the move. "It's great that Combusken learnt overheat," said Ritchie "but it lowers the user's attack power after being used". "You're right so May better concentrate now if she wants to win" said Brock. She ordered Combusken to use flamethrower next, but Absol used water pulse to douse the flamethrower attack. Combusken move in next by using double kick on Absol. Absol fought back by hitting Combusken with razor wind. May's point bar was getting near to being empty. Drew ordered Absol to use water pulse. Combusken managed to survive that by using overheat. By now Combusken looked like it would faint after being hit by one more attack. Absol move in with iron tail, and Combusken used sky uppercut. Combusken hit Absol before Absol could hit Combusken. Just then the time was up and, as luck would have it, May was the winner because she had more points than Drew. So Drew earned Top 8 in the grand festival.

"All right May finally beat Drew!" cheered Max. This was the first time that May was able to beat Drew. Brock pointed out that it was overheat that helped May win this. Aipom got excited by this match. Harley was cross; he was hoping that Drew would defeat her like he did at the grand festival in Hoenn. Solidad and Ash both agreed that May did great there. Drew told his Absol that it did well and then he smiled at May, telling her congratulations. And May was happy to have won this battle.

Ash was up next and he defeated his next opponent with his Donphan and Tyranitar. As soon as he entered the waiting room the Vigoroth and two Aipoms came into the room. "Hey what are you three doing here?" asked Ash. One of the Aipoms grabbed Ash's hat and then the three monkey pokemon ran out of the room. "Hey come back here!" shouted Ash. He ran outside the stadium where the three monkey pokemon were waiting for him and Aipom threw back Ash's hat. "What do you want?" asked Ash. "I think they want to battle you Ash" said Brock. Brock, Max, Tomo and Ritchie had followed Vigoroth and the Aipoms after they left the seats in a hurry. "They were excited over the battles and now I think they want to join us" said Brock.

Ash called this a chance to catch them and he called Pikachu and his Donphan to battle them. Donphan used ice shard on Vigoroth and Pikachu used thunderbolt on the two Aipoms. Vigoroth fought back using crush claw on Donphan and the two Aipoms used scratch on Pikachu. It was clear that the Vigoroth and Aipoms were good fighters. Donphan tackled Vigoroth hard with rollout and Pikachu struck the Aipoms with swift. Ash then threw three empty pokeballs at the three monkey pokemon and caught them. Ash felt pleased with himself as the three pokeballs transported to Prof Oak's lab.

Just then Scott arrived. Scott had come to watch the rest of the grand festival. On the big screen it showed Solidad defeating her opponent's Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan with her Lapras and Butterfree. "Solidad looks really tough to beat" said Ritchie. Ash knew that trying to defeat Solidad will not be easy for him and May.

Next day was the semi-final, and to everyone's surprise Ash and May had to battle each other and they were up first. "Well this had to happen sometime" said Max. "Yeah those two didn't end up facing each other in the grand festival in Hoenn, and now they are in this grand festival" said Brock. "I wonder how this will turn out?" said Ritchie. Scott was sitting in the seats with the others.

Ash sent out his Kabutops and Omastar and May sent out her Munchlax and Combusken. May started off by telling her Munchlax to use focus punch and Combusken to use sky uppercut. Kabutops rub his scythes together and did metal sound. Munchlax and Combusken didn't like the noise and were stopped from attacking. "Now spike cannon Omastar" said Ash. Omastar fired spikes from his shell and they hit both Munchlax and Combusken. "Combusken use fire spin and Munchlax you use solar beam" said May. Combusken blew fire spin towards Omastar and Munchlax fired solar beam towards Kabutops. "Kabutops use aqua jet and Omastar use brine" said Ash. Kabutops used aqua jet to dodge the solar beam and hit Munchlax, and Omastar used brine, which shot through the fire spin attack and hit Combusken. "May's getting creamed out there" said Ritchie. "I agree with that; Ash's Kabutops and Omastar are stronger than May's Combusken and Munchlax" said Brock. Even Max agreed that May was going to lose this one. May decided to go with her emergency move; telling Munchlax to use metronome. Munchlax started to wave his arms about. Ash warned his two fossil pokemon to be careful because there was no telling what move Munchlax was going to do. Munchlax's metronome became bullet seed and Kabutops got hit by it. "Combusken mega kick" said May. Combusken kicked Omastar. "May's fighting back here" said Tomo. "But is it enough though?" said Brock. Combusken uses overheat next, but Kabutops used hydro pump which doused the fire move and hit Combusken. Omastar moved in next by hitting Munchlax with rock blast. Munchlax and Combusken were getting weaker by then. "Now Omastar use rollout and Kabutops use water gun" said Ash. While Omastar use rollout, Kabutops used water gun on Omastar; this gave Omastar's rollout an extra boost. Omastar tackled Munchlax hard and Munchlax knocked Combusken back too, and they went straight to the back wall. Munchlax and Combusken were knocked out, so May lost to Ash and earned Top 4 place.

May went into the hallway, where Brock, Max, Tomo and Ritchie were waiting for her. "You were magnificent out there May" said Tomo. "You made it to the Top 4, higher than the place you earned at the grand festival in Hoenn" said Brock. "I'm proud to say you're my sister May" said Max. It was then May started to cry because of her loss, and her brother and friends started to comfort her.

Solidad went on to defeat her opponent and now it was the finals between Ash and Solidad. Solidad was using her Pidgeot and Slowbro and Ash was using Pikachu and his Lapras. Despite Ash having an advantage of pokemon types, Solidad proved to be difficult for Ash to defeat. Slowbro's psychic moves and Pidgeot's speed made it tricky for Pikachu and Lapras to lay a move on them. Even Lapras's sing and confuse ray attacks and Pikachu's thunder wave attacks didn't help; the Slowbro and Pidgeot kept on dodging the sing and thunder wave attacks and the confuse ray move didn't put off Slowbro. It wouldn't have worked on Pidgeot due to being a normal type as well as flying. It wasn't long until Ash ran out of all his points while Solidad still had way more than him.

So in the end Solidad was the winner of the Kanto grand festival and she earned the Ribbon cup, and Ash earned the silver ribbon for being in second place. Everyone clapped and cheered for them. That evening it was the party of the ending of the grand festival. Jessie was finishing her job as a presenter by presenting the party and talking to the coordinators. Solidad told May and Ash that she found it fun going against them. Drew got ready to leave, but May told him she couldn't wait to face him next time in a pokemon contest. Drew said the same thing.

Ash had his silver ribbon, in a frame, and his five contest ribbons sent to his mum back in Pallet Town. He didn't want them to get ruined while he was still traveling. Scott told Ash that Brandon was now in Fennel Valley, a place not far from the Indigo Plateau. Ritchie decided to leave too but he wished Ash luck at the Battle Pyramid, and he left. So with the grand festival now over, it was time for Ash to try and earn his last frontier symbol again.

Chapter 102

Battle Pyramid 2,

May starts to think

And Ash's training day

After leaving the Indigo Plateau, the gang was now at Fennel Valley. Here was where Ash could challenge Brandon again to earn his last frontier symbol. When they reached the Battle Pyramid, they met with a Nurse Joy who was a fan of both Ash and May because of their successes at the Hoenn league, and the Hoenn and Kanto grand festivals. Truth is Nurse Joy was a fan of both pokemon battles and contests and she liked to battle too, despite being a pokemon nurse.

Scott told Ash that Brandon was busy at the ruins, so it was the good time for the gang to relax at the pokemon center. Apart from having the usual healing center and dining area, the pokemon center had an exercising area, a hot spa, battle fields and a contest stage. This pokemon center had everything.

Ash asked Tomo if he wanted to have a practice battle with him, but Tomo wanted to get something to eat. Just then Nurse Joy said to Ash that she would battle him. Ash was surprised to hear that because he had never battled a Nurse Joy before, but Nurse Joy insisted on battling Ash. So Ash and Nurse Joy went onto a battle field and got ready to fight. Nurse Joy, of course, sent out her Chansey and Ash sent out his new Vigoroth to battle. Ash thought this was a good idea to see how tough his Vigoroth was. Nurse Joy and her Chansey gave Ash and his Vigoroth a real fight, to his surprise. Vigoroth couldn't leave a single scratch attack on Chansey because of Chansey's speed, and Chansey knew powerful moves like Dynamic punch and solar beam. Poor Vigoroth was defeated in a minute after being hit by solar beam. Ash couldn't believe it, but it did give him a real battle.

That night Ash went to visit the ruins himself to see what Brandon was doing. Brandon was in the ruins doing looking at an ancient puzzle and figuring out how to solve this. This puzzle was one that had squares that had to be moved to solve the puzzle. "Making a discovery Brandon?" asked Ash, who just found him. "Correct Ash," said Brandon "now watch me solve this puzzle". He moved a few squares left and right. "This will open up the sealed chamber, where the pokemon I'm looking for is". "You looking for another one of the legendary golems?" asked Ash. Brandon stared at Ash. "So you know about the three legendary golems do you Ash?" he asked. "Yes I do" replied Ash. He didn't dare tell Brandon about meeting the legendary golems before, just in case he wouldn't believe him. "Well Ash I'll tell you this then," said Brandon "I will be using Registeel for our battle tomorrow". "Ah the steel type, I look forward to that" said Ash.

Ash went back to the pokemon center and told them about what Brandon said. "So instead of using Regirock like before, he's going to use Registeel this time" said Max. "What pokemon are you going to use Ash?" asked May. "Well my best bet would be using a fire pokemon for this," said Brock "steel types are weak against fire, fighting and ground, but fire is their real weakest point". Ash had a think. "I will go with my Ninetails this time" he said at last. The others agreed to that idea and Ash got his Ninetails from Prof Oak's lab.

Next day everyone went to the Battle Pyramid. Nurse Joy and her Chansey wished to watch the battle too with Scott. Like the first time Ash went against Brandon, this match was a one on one battle and Samuel told Ash and Brandon to release their pokemon. Ash sent out his Ninetails and then Brandon sent out his newly captured Registeel.

May looked at Registeel on her pokedex: Registeel, the iron pokemon. Tempered by pressure underground over tens of thousands of years, its body cannot be scratched.

"If its body cannot be scratched, then it will be tough to defeat" said Max. "I wonder how Brandon caught it then" said Tomo. "Must have used his Regirock to catch it" said Brock.

The battle began and Ash told his Ninetails to start with flamethrower. The flamethrower scored a direct hit and then Ninetails tackled Registeel with quick attack. Registeel wasn't fazed by that one bit. "Registeel is made with hard iron alright" Max pointed out. "Ash is going to have to try harder than that if he wants to win this time" said Brock. Registeel attacked next with metal claw, but Ninetails used dig to get away and then it tackled Registeel. "Not bad Ash," said Brandon "but you will have to do more than that". Ash knew Brandon was right because he knew hoe strong Registeel could be because of the one he met before. "Okay then," said Ash "Ninetails lets go with this; use will o wisp". Ninetails fired blue flames from her mouth and they hit Registeel. Registeel got burned. "Making Registeel get the burn is a good way to weaken it" Brock pointed out. Scott thought Ash was going really well. "Registeel use sand storm" said Brandon. Registeel made a strong sandstorm attack and Ninetails didn't like this. "Now use lock on". "Oh no," said Ash, remembering this move, "Ninetails brace yourself because Registeel's next move will hit you". Ninetails nodded to say she understood. The next move turned out to be zap cannon. "Use protect Ninetails" said Ash. Ninetails quickly protected herself from the zap cannon attack. "Quick move in with quick attack". Ninetails quickly tackled Registeel with quick attack. Brandon ordered Registeel to use zap cannon again and this time Ninetails got hit by it before she could do anything. Worse part was Ninetails got paralyzed by the attack. "This is bad," said Max "Ninetails will now have trouble with battling". "Yeah and with this sandstorm it will be tougher too" said Brock. Ash told Ninetails to use fire blast and Brandon told Registeel to use zap cannon again. The two attacks collided with each other and caused an explosion. After the bang and the smoke and sand cleared, both Registeel and Ninetails were standing. But then Ninetails fainted onto the ground; that last attack was too much for her.

So Ash lost to Brandon for the second time. Ash comforted Ninetails and told her they tried and returned her to the pokeball. "Ash lost again" said May. "Yes, but he gave a good match against Registeel" said Scott. Brandon returned his Registeel and spoke to Ash. "Again Ash you put up a wonderful fight against my Registeel," he said "but you and your pokemon need to fight as one if you are ever going to defeat me". Ash heard of this saying before; it meant that in a pokemon battle the mind of the trainer and the mind of the pokemon have to be combined as one if they truly want to win. Ash felt he had something to think about.

Brandon then said that he was going to leave the Battle Pyramid again to search for another special pokemon. "This pokemon will be Regice right?" asked Ash. "Correct young man" replied Brandon. Since Brandon had Regirock and Registeel, Ash knew he only needed to get Regice now. So Brandon left to search for Regice, leaving Ash to think about what to do now.

After losing to Brandon a second time, made Ash uncertain on what to do. He knew that he had to find a way to become one with his pokemon, but he didn't know how yet. Ash wasn't the only one who was feeling down; May was feeling down too. Truth is ever since they arrived at the pokemon center May had trouble figuring out what to do for herself. She had seen Ash work so hard to make his dream of pokemon master come true, and Brock working hard to become a pokemon doctor. But she didn't know what to do to make her dream of top coordinator come true, and the loss with Ash at the Kanto Grand Festival made it really difficult for her. Tomo, Max and Brock could see that something needed to be done to help Ash and May get back on their feet.

Max got an idea; he thought that maybe Ash and May could have a battle with each other to lift their spirits. He told Brock and Tomo his idea. "I don't know about that Max," said Brock "Ash is the one who May lost against in the Kanto Grand Festival. He's also stronger than her so it wouldn't be a fair match for her". Max realized that Brock was right. "So what can we do?" he said. Then Tomo had an idea. "Maybe we should ask Drew for help," said Tomo "he lost to May in the Grand Festival, so maybe she would know what to do". "You know what, that is a great idea Tomo" said Brock. "Yeah Drew can help" agreed Max.

Meanwhile Ash got a surprise in the pokemon center; Prof Oak had arrived at the pokemon center. Prof Oak had heard that Ash had been losing to the Battle Pyramid twice, so he came to give Ash some encouragement. He also had some things to give to Ash. First Prof Oak showed Ash two big banners that Tracey made and on them were prints from Ash's pokemon at the lab. Since Ash did have many, many pokemon it was necessary to use two big banners. Second Prof Oak gave Ash a boxed lunch that his mum sent for him; Delia figured eating her cooking would help Ash get stronger like it always did. Third Prof Oak gave Ash something from Misty; she had sent one of her special Misty lures to give him. "Wow this will be handy for fishing for new water pokemon" said Ash. The last gift Prof Oak gave Ash was a postcard from Gary. Gary was doing pokemon search in the Sinnoh region. Reading Gary's postcard made Ash know what Gary would say to him if he was here; Gary would make Ash remember that Gary lost to him in the Johto league but it didn't make him depress. Gary would also be telling Ash not to feel down because of a loss either. Seeing that that Ash perk up. "Thank you Prof Oak, this was what I needed," said Ash "now I do know what to do for myself and I will beat Brandon no matter how many more times it will take me to earn that symbol". So Ash felt back on his feet again and everyone was happy for Ash. So now they had to figure out what to do for May.

Suddenly a Roselia appeared at May's feet; it was Drew's Roselia. Drew had arrived at the pokemon center. Max, Tomo and Brock were surprised to see him, they wanted to call him for help, but they didn't need to now because he had turned up. Drew and May had a talk alone in the hall where Nurse Joy kept a contest hall. "You startled me there Drew," said May "I mean I was thinking about you before you even turned up". "Really?" teased Drew. "Only because you're my rival," said May, quickly, "you see I had been thinking about pokemon contests and rivals". "I see," said Drew "so May how have you been ever since your loss against Ash?" "Alright I guess, but the truth is I'm not sure what to do with myself," said May; she decided to be honest with Drew for once, "with Ash being stronger than me and seeing how stronger Solidad was than Ash I just". "That means you're shaken with this things," said Drew "you have discovered your weak point but you don't know what to do about it to overcome it". "Right as always Drew" sighed May. "Well May you and I should have a contest battle here," said Drew "after the grand festival having a battle on this contest stage will clear the air for the both of us". "Go for it" said a voice. The voice belonged to Ash; he and the others had been listening. "This is a great idea" Max, who agreed with Drew's idea. "You should let your brain rest a bit May" said Brock. May hesitated for a minute and then decided that she will have a battle with Drew. Drew and the others were happy that May agreed.

"Oh looks like I came just in time" said a voice. It was Harley. Harley was visiting the pokemon center. "I think it will be nice seeing a contest battle between May and Drew". For once Harley wasn't here to stir up trouble, he just wanted to see how May and Drew turned out after the Kanto grand festival. So everyone got ready for the contest match between May and Drew. Prof Oak and Scott offered to be the judges and Nurse Joy offered to be the announcer. Everyone else in the pokemon center and sat in the seats with Ash and the others and Harley joining them. May sent out her Butterfree and Combusken and Drew sent out his Roselia and his newest pokemon Butterfree. "I hope this will help May perk up" said Max. "No sweat," said Ash "if anyone can turn May fiery, it's Drew".

May started by telling her Combusken to use fire spin and Butterfree controlled the flames with psychic. Roselia broke the fire spin apart to smaller flames with petal dance. May's Butterfree used psychic to send the smaller flames back towards Roselia and Drew's Butterfree. But then Roselia used magical leaf to counter the flames. Next Drew's Butterfree used gust, and the flames and leaves struck Combusken and Butterfree. "Wow that was good" said Tomo. "It's obvious that Drew has worked hard with his pokemon old and new to come up with new tricks for pokemon contests" said Ash. May moved in with telling both her Combusken and Butterfree going after Drew's Butterfree. Drew ordered his Butterfree to use psybeam on Combusken, but Combusken dodged it and hit Butterfree with sky uppercut. "Use petal dance Roselia" said Drew. May ordered her Butterfree to use gust, but the petals broke through the gust and struck Butterfree. Butterfree was still nowhere strong enough yet to beat Drew's Roselia. May went in by telling her Combusken to use over heat, but Drew's Butterfree used protect to protect it and Roselia from the attack. Finally Drew ordered his Roselia to use solar beam and his Butterfree to use psybeam. The two attacks hit Butterfree and Combusken directly and they fainted. So Drew was the winner of the match. May thanked her pokemon for battling so hard. "I see everything now," she said "and it's thanks to Drew".

That evening May and Drew spoke to each other. "Thank you Drew," said May "that battle made me understand that I still have a lot more growing to do and you were right I do need to find my own battle style. The battle styles I've been doing recently are based on other people's battling techniques especially ones I picked up from Ash's pokemon battles. So I will find my own battling style and I will also get new pokemon friends to pick up new techniques". Drew was happy to know that May understood what she had to do now. "I look forward to seeing your new battling style May" he said. Drew and May looked at each other; what they didn't recognize yet that this was the start of an unexpected relationship between the two of them.

Drew then pointed out that he was going to the Johto region to compete in the pokemon contests there and Solidad was going to do the same. Harley who found May and Drew talking to each other said that he was going to Johto too and he took off in a hurry. May told the others about Drew and Harley's plan of going to Johto. "That brings back memories" said Ash, who remembered Johto.

So now May and Ash were over their losses and now all Ash needed to do was figure out what to do for his rematch against Brandon.

A few days after meeting up with Drew and Harley, Ash was about to go off camping in the mountains. Ash had decided that to help find a way to defeat Brandon and combine his mind with his pokemon, the best thing to do was re-experience the same feelings he had back when it was first starting to become a pokemon trainer; like going back to the beginning again. Ash was taking Pikachu, Venusaur, Charizard and Blastoise with him; he had gotten the other three from Tracey earlier. "So Ash why are you going with Venusaur, Charizard and Blastoise as well as Pikachu?" asked May. "Well May what's the first thing that happens when someone becomes a pokemon trainer?" asked Ash. "I know the answer," said Max "they get a starter pokemon, and Bulbasaur, Chamander and Squirtle are the starter pokemon of Kanto. And Venasaur, Charizard and Blastoise are their final evolved forms". "That's correct Max," said Prof Oak "and I call this a great idea". After Ash got everything together, Ash and his pokemon left to camp out for the night.

Ash and his pokemon came to a clearing in the middle of a forest. "Okay guys," said Ash "the first thing we need is to set up camp and make us a bed for us to sleep on tonight". He didn't have his tent or sleeping bag with him. To make a bed Charizard gathered some big logs and Venasaur used razor leaf to cut them into smaller logs. Ash and the pokemon made a big square; big enough for both Ash and his pokemon. To make it soft Blastoise used rapid spin to gather up thousands of leaves and Venasaur gathered them with his whips. Soon the bed was ready. "That's good, now we need to gather lots of food for us all" said Ash. Good news was there were plenty of fruit trees in the forest with hundreds of berries. Charizard used steel wing to get all the berries down and Blastoise, Venasaur and Pikachu caught them. The last thing to do now was make a fire to warm everyone up as it was getting nearly dark by now. Ash gathered some wood together. "Charizard I need you to use ember on the wood," he said "but since you are a big pokemon to must do a small flame, understand?" Charizard did as he was told and lit the fire with a very small ember. So Ash and his pokemon had a good fire to keep them warm.

"You know what you guys?" Ash said to his pokemon "being together with you four reminds me of the times when I first got you. Pikachu you were given to me by Prof Oak the day I first became a pokemon trainer. Even though there was a choice between Bulbasaur, Chamander and Squirtle, you were the one I wanted". Pikachu was happy to hear that. "Venasaur, when you and I first met was when you were a Bulbasaur back in a village where Melanie took care of injured and abandoned pokemon. Later when we visited that secret garden you evolved into Ivysaur, and then just before I went to Johto you evolved into Venasaur". Venasaur remembered that. "Charizard when you and I first met was when you were a Charmander. We found you when you had been abandoned by your last trainer and you were weak from the rain, but luckily we managed to get you to safety and Damian was arrested and Misty, Brock and I adopted you and the other pokemon Damian had". Charizard remembered that and he was still happy that he and the others were now with Ash, Misty and Brock. "Later on you evolved into Charmeleon and then when I was in trouble with Aerodactyl you evolved into Charizard and saved me". Charizard roared happily from remembering that. "Last of all Blastoise, when we first met you were a Squirtle and you and other Squirtles were a pokemon gang because of your abandonment of your trainers. Then Misty and I caught you and another Squirtle and then Michael, who we met then, adopted the rest. Later on you evolved into Wartortle and like Venasaur you evolved to Blastoise before I went to Johto". Blastoise felt proud of hearing that. "We have gone through so much for a very long time yet I remember all this as if it was only yesterday" Ash finished.

Through the next few days Ash and his four pokemon spent a lot of time together, playing and training etc. They also slept together on the same bed. Bad news was they were being watched by Jessie, James and Meowth. "Well, well, well the twerp and his pokemon are alone" said Meowth. "Getting Pikachu and that Venasaur, Charizard and Blastoise will get us to the top with the boss" said Jessie. "Forget it," said Meowth "we tried to get those three and Pikachu lots of times but we failed lots of times too. It's not easy to steal fully evolved pokemon you know". "Then we will get Pikachu and skedaddle" said James. Meowth and Jessie agreed.

One night Ash and his pokemon were warming up by a fire, when suddenly what looked like a van selling noodles came up. Jessie and James (disguised as noodle sellers) came out of the van. Ash saw them and sensed it was really Team Rocket in disguise. "Hello there traveler," said Jessie "would you and your pokemon like some noodles?" "No we don't thank you Team Rocket," said Ash "your disguises can't fall me. Venasaur razor leaf please". Venasaur's razor leaf sliced off Jessie and James' disguises and revealed who they were. "I can see through your disguises because of your hair Jessie" said Ash. "Grr I told you to hide your hair Jessie!" growled Meowth. "No one tells me what to do!" shouted Jessie. "Guys this isn't the time to argue. James was right because Ash and his pokemon were ready to fight. "Venasaur send them away with power whip please" said Ash. Venasaur sent them flying with power whip. "You would think by now they know I can see through their disguises wouldn't you?" Ash said to his pokemon. His pokemon agreed that those three were idiots.

At that moment a voice called out; "what do we have here?" It was Brandon and he had seen everything. "Ash I felt the bond between you and you're pokemon when you stood up to Team Rocket" said Brandon. "Well these three have been my pokemon ever since my first pokemon journey through Kanto, and we know each other very well by now" said Ash. I understand" said Brandon. "So I take it you found Regice?" asked Ash. "Yes and that's why I'm here to accept your challenge of battling me again," said Brandon "but I have a condition; I want to have a four on four pokemon battle. I wish to see the battling style you and your four pokemon have". Ash accepted.

Next day Ash and Brandon went back to the pokemon center together, where everyone was waiting for them to welcome them back. Before Ash and Brandon could start their battle, Scott told Ash something that he forgot to mention before. The truth was if Ash won the battle frontier he would enter the Battle Frontier Hall of Fame and he would be a candidate to become a Frontier Brain himself. "What an honor to become a frontier brain of your own battle facility" said Max, who thought it would be cool to become a frontier brain. Ash couldn't believe it himself. Scott also revealed that he was the owner of the battle frontier and explained he built battle facilities to expand the art of pokemon battling.

So now Ash knew he could become a frontier brain himself once he defeated Brandon, but he still had to defeat him first.

Chapter 103

Battle Pyramid 3 and

The Terracotta contest

Now Ash and Brandon were ready for their third challenge. Ash knew this would be a tough one especially since Brandon had found Regice and he didn't know what other three pokemon Brandon was going to use. But Ash had faith in his Pikachu, Venasaur and Charizard and Blastoise and he believed he could do it this time. Prof Oak was going to watch the battle as well as Nurse Joy, Scott and the others. The Battle Pyramid's top was open; it was so Ash's Charizard would have the space to fly. Samuel did the usual introductions and explained the battle being a four on four pokemon battle.

Brandon's first pokemon was a Dusclops. Ash sent out his Charizard to battle first. "Charizard let's start with flamethrower" said Ash. "Dusclops will o wisp" said Brandon. The flamethrower and will o wisp collided with each other and caused a small explosion. This meant Brandon's Dusclops was strong as Charizard. "Okay Charizard use air slash" said Ash. Charizard fired air slash attack from his wings. Dusclops got hit by the attack, but then it used shadow punch and punched Charizard. "Whoa that Dusclops packs a punch" said Tomo. "Yeah I think its strength matches Charizard" said Max. Brandon told his Dusclops to use mean look; with mean look Ash wouldn't be able to switch out Charizard. "Charizard it's time to use shadow claw" said Ash. Charizard flew to Dusclops and scratched it with shadow claw. "Shadow claw is a ghost type move," said Prof Oak "an excellent move to use against a ghost type". "I'm impressed with this" said Nurse Joy. "Okay then Dusclops use confuse ray" said Brandon. Poor Charizard got confused by the confuse ray attack, and then Dusclops punched him with shadow claw. "We can do this Charizard," said Ash "we have fought against lots of tough opponents like this in the past. We even faced difficulties like this too, but we never gave up and we are certainly not going to give up now are we?" In his confused state Charizard heard Ash and he started remembering all the battles he had been in ever since he was a Charmander. He even remembered the times he battled when in a paralyzed, frozen confused or a sleepy state. At that moment Charizard snapped out of his confusion and he fired flamethrower at Dusclops, which scored a direct hit. "Well done Charizard," said Ash "now let's show them your strongest move, blast burn". Charizard's body became engulfed in blue flames and then he punched the ground very hard. Energy from the punch went all the way to Dusclops, and then an explosion of red-orange flames burst out of the ground and hit Dusclops. That made Dusclops really hurt now. "Wow what a move" said Max. "What was that?" asked May. "That was blast burn, the strongest fire type move of all," said Prof Oak "Ash's Typhlosion and Blaziken know this move too because only the fire type starter pokemon can learn this move when they have evolved into their final forms". "So when May's Combusken evolves to Blaziken it can learn it too" finished Brock. May thought blast burn was an excellent move indeed. At that moment Brandon told his Dusclops to use shadow ball, which scored a direct hit on Charizard. Now both Charizard and Dusclops were exhausted. "Charizard shadow claw" said Ash. "Dusclops use shadow punch" said Brandon. Charizard and Dusclops struck each other with their attacks. As soon as they did that both Charizard and Dusclops got knocked out, so the first match was a draw. "Those last two attacks were too much for them to carry on" said Brock. "It was a close match between two strong pokemon" said Prof Oak.

Brandon and Ash returned their Dusclops and Charizard and sent out their next pokemon. Brandon's second pokemon was a Ninjask and Ash's second pokemon was Blastoise. Ninjask started off with aerial ace, but Blastoise used rapid spin and Ninjask was bounced off when it tried to tackle Blastoise. "Bubble beam Blastoise" said Ash. Blastoise stopped spinning and sprout bubbles from his mouth and they hit Ninjask. "Ash and his pokemon are putting on such good fights, I can't take my eyes off them" said Nurse Joy. Ninjask fought back using sand storm, making sand fly everywhere. Then Ninjask used sand attack, and the sand got into Blastoise's eyes and blinded him. And then Ninjask tackled it with aerial ace. "Use rain dance Blastoise" said Ash. Blastoise made it rain and the rain washed the sand storm away, and the rain got into Blastoise's eyes and cleaned the sand out. So now Blastoise could see and get back to fighting. "Show them your special move Blastoise, use hydro cannon" said Ash. Blastoise fired two big orbs of water from his cannons and one of them hit Ninjask. Thanks to rain dance the water attack was strong and Ninjask fainted. "I know that move," said Max "the final evolved forms of the water starter pokemon learn that move. I saw a Feraligatr do it on TV once". "Now Brandon is down to two pokemon, while Ash has three" said May.

Brandan's next pokemon was Solrock and Ash stuck with Blastoise. "Blastoise would have the advantage over this," said Brock "but then again there's no doubt that Solrock will show no mercy". Blastoise off with using water gun, but Solrock used confusion to stop the water from hitting it and make it hit Blastoise instead. "Okay then Blastoise use gyro ball" said Ash. Blastoise got into his shell and spun around, like doing rapid spin, and got ready to tackle Solrock. But Solrock managed to dodge that. "Solar beam Solrock" said Brandon. This was bad news since solar beam was a grass type move, even worse was the rain dance was finished by now and the sun was shining brightly. Ash was about to tell Blastoise to use protect, but the Solrock beat Blastoise first; Blastoise got a direct hit by the solar beam attack and fainted. "Poor Blastoise didn't stand a chance against that" said Max. "Now Ash is down to two pokemon as well" said Brock.

Ash returned Blastoise and sent out Venasaur. Even though Ash knew that Solrock was part psychic type while his Venasaur was part poison, but he had faith in his pokemon. Solrock started with psywave, and Venasaur got hit by it. "Venasaur leech seed" said Ash. Solrock got tangled up by Venasaur's leech seed and its energy started to drain. "Now show them your power whip" said Ash. Venasaur's vines glowed purple and then they struck Solrock very hard. "Now finish this with razor leaf". Venasaur fired his leaves at Solrock and they hit Solrock before Solrock could do anything. After the razor leaf attack Solrock fainted, leaving Brandon with one more pokemon. "I wonder which pokemon Brandon will be using?" said Max "I mean last time he used Regirock and Registeel".

Brandon's last pokemon was a Regice; just like Ash thought he would use. May looked at Regice on her pokedex: Regice, the iceberg pokemon. Its body is made of ice from the ice age. It controls frigid air of -328 degrees Fahrenheit. Its body can't be melted, even by magma. "That must have been the pokemon Brandon was looking for" said Scott. "This is a rare sight indeed" said Prof Oak.

Brandon started by telling Regice to use blizzard. The blizzard attack was very strong and cold and Venasaur didn't like it. "Brr its freezing" shivered May. "Venasaur won't last against this cold" said Max. Ash knew that Venasaur wouldn't take the cold. "Let's warm it up in here with sunny day Venasaur" said Ash. Venasaur made the sun shine bright. "With that Regice's ice moves will weaken a bit" said Max. "Yes but this is a legendary pokemon we're looking at here" reminded Brock. Ash decided to try and end this quick and ordered Venasaur to use frenzy plant. Regice got struck by big spikey roots, but is nowhere near weakened yet. Regice attacked back and it scored a direct hit at Venasaur. Then Regice punched Venasaur really hard with focus punch and Venasaur fainted. So now both Brandon and Ash were down to one last pokemon each. "Oh man, with the way how Regice took down Venasaur this is going to be touch for Ash to defeat it" said Max. "That Regice is as strong as Regirock and Registeel" agreed May. Tomo believed that his brother can do it.

Ash called out Pikachu to battle last and Pikachu started by using thunderbolt. Regice attacked back with Blizzard, but Pikachu quickly used dig to avoid the cold. "Iron tail Pikachu" said Ash. Pikachu came out of the hole and struck Regice with iron tail. "That Pikachu is good" said Nurse Joy. "Well Pikachu and Ash have gone through a lot together" smiled Prof Oak. Regice attacked next with ice beam. Pikachu managed to dodge the ice beam, but the field got covered with ice. "Be careful Pikachu," said Ash "the ice will be too slippery and give you trouble". "Use focus punch Regice" said Brandon. Regice moved in to use focus punch, but Pikachu paralyzed Regice with thunder wave. "Now show Regice your focus punch Pikachu" said Ash. Pikachu gave Regice a very good punch. Regice fought back and managed to use ice beam, and the ice beam formed two pillars of ice and trapped Pikachu. While Pikachu was trapped Regice used the move rest. This was bad because rest would fully heal Regice and get rid of the paralysis. Pikachu managed to free himself with iron tail, but then Regice woke up and fired ice beam at Pikachu. The attack was a direct hit and Pikachu was trapped in a block of ice. "Oh no" said Tomo, worriedly. The others feared that Pikachu had lost the battle now. "Come Pikachu!" shouted Ash "you can get out of there, I know you can use thunderbolt!" The situation looked hopeless and Samuel was about to declare Brandon as the winner. But then Pikachu did break out of the icy prison with thunderbolt and the thunderbolt also hit Regice. Regice fought back by using focus punch on Pikachu, and then Pikachu fought back using iron tail and focus punch. Regice used ice beam and trapped Pikachu in ice again, and then it used rest. "Pikachu we must attack Regice now!" called Ash. Pikachu managed to free himself from the ice with iron tail, and then he charged at Regice with volt tackle. Regice woke up and tried to use ice beam again, but Pikachu dodged the tackle and hit Regice with volt tackle dead on. Regice couldn't take any more after that and it fainted.

So this time Ash was the winner of the Battle Palace challenge at last. Ash hugged Pikachu immediately. Everyone cheered for Ash. "He really did it" said May. "I knew he would" said Tomo. "A brilliant battle" said Max. "It sure was" agreed Brock. Scott, Prof Oak and Nurse Joy were impressed indeed. Brandon returned his Regice and walked over to Ash and Pikachu. "Ash you and your pokemon really fought as one in this battle," he said "therefore I will present to you the Brave symbol". The Brave symbol had a square in the middle with an X shape. So Ash finally obtained all seven frontier symbols.

After that Scoot gave Ash a plaque which held all of his seven symbols. The plaque was prove that Ash held a position in the Battle Frontier Hall of Fame for his victory and this also meant that Ash was qualified to become a Frontier Brain himself. Ash turned to Scott. "Hey Scott, could you keep my position as a Frontier Brain on hold until further notice please?" he asked "I do not wish to become one yet because there is still so much of the pokemon world I haven't visited yet like the Sinnoh and Unova regions. I wanted to continue going on more journeys, seeing and capturing new pokemon and compete in more pokemon leagues and contests before I settle down to become a Frontier Brain". Scott smiled at Ash. "I understand completely Ash," he said "so you can just let me know when you want to become a Frontier Brain and we will sort it all out together". "Thank you" said Ash. So Ash had a future of becoming a Frontier Brain ahead of him, and the others thought that Ash would make a great Frontier Brain.

After that Scott decided to leave to see if he could find more trainers to compete in the Battle Frontier. Brandon and Samuel left with the Battle Pyramid to explore newer ruins. Prof Oak had to leave too with Ash's Venasaur, Charizard and Blastoise because Tracey phoned him to say that the pokemon were starting to fight again and they needed the peace keepers back. So the gang said goodbye to everyone and set off in their own direction. Ash's battle frontier quest was now over.

After leaving Fennel Valley the gang made it to a town called Terracotta Town. Here was where the gang had to plan what to do next. With the Battle Frontier challenge and the Kanto Grand Festival all over, this meant their journey in Kanto was over too. So May and Max had to go back to Hoenn, Brock to Pewter City and Ash and Tomo to Pallet Town.

Before they could start their planning, they realized a festival was going on and they also noticed that a pokemon contest was being held. This contest was an unofficial one, so anyone could enter this whether they are a coordinator or not. Ash and May signed up for it right away. Ash decided to use Pikachu for the preliminary round and his Sceptile for the battle round. May decided to use Eevee for the preliminary round and her Combusken for the battle round. The rule was though only the top two trainers of the preliminary round would get to the battle round. Ash and May were determined they would to get to the battle round.

It wasn't long when the Terracotta Town contest would begin. Brock, Tomo and Max were sitting in the audience seat. Nurse Joy and a man were to be the judges and the man was also the announcer. The announcer explained the rules about only the top two trainers of the preliminary round would get to the battle round. Nurse Joy showed off a contest ribbon the winner of the contest would get. It was a pink and white bow ribbon, a bit bigger than a normal ribbon with a bigger pin.

The preliminary round soon began. First up was May. The crowd cheered for May because they remembered her from the Kanto Grand Festival. Her Eevee first used dig, creating a lot of holes, and then fired a lot of shadow ball attacks out of the holes. The shadow balls created a display of colorful fireworks and everyone loved it. Next up was man with a Magikarp, a woman with a Gloom, a boy with a Charmeleon and another boy with a Seel. It was soon Ash's turn; everyone remembered him too from both the Kanto Grand Festival and the Hoenn League and Ash got a lot of cheers and hard claps. Pikachu started off with running around the stage with quick attack and then he used thunderbolt. The pressure from the quick attack turned the thunderbolt into an electric ring and Pikachu used iron tail to hit the ring and send it bouncing across the stage. Pikachu created two more electric rings and all three electric rings were bouncing all over the stage like balls on a pinball machine game.

After the preliminary round was over the final result was Ash and May making it to the battle round. May and Ash looked forward to it. Max was worried because he didn't know who to route for, Ash or May? Tomo and Brock told Max not to worry. "The best thing to do is just route for them both and wait to see what will happen in the end" said Brock.

Suddenly there was the sound of commotion in the air, and it sounded like trouble. "I wonder what's going on?" said May. The trouble turned out to be Team Rocket. Jessie and James and Meowth had caught some trainers' pokemon in a big net. "Why am I not surprised they would be causing trouble here?" asked May. "Because they trouble wherever they go" answered Max. Ash had Sceptile use leaf blade on the net and the pokemon were set free from the net. May was about to give her Combusken a command, but her Combusken was kneeling down on the ground like he was in pain. "What's wrong Combusken?" asked May, worriedly. Suddenly Combusken glowed and evolved into Blaziken. May was thrilled to have a Blaziken. Blaziken jumped and used blaze kick to send Team Rocket flying. So with Combusken now a Blaziken, Sceptile had a real challenge to deal with.

Soon the battle round of the pokemon contest was starting and Ash and May sent out their pokemon. Sceptile started off with bullet seed, but Blaziken managed to dodge. "Use aerial ace" said Ash. Sceptile used aerial ace and tackled Blaziken. Blaziken managed to fight back with flamethrower and Sceptile got hit by it. Sceptile and Blaziken had a real fight with each other, being two fully evolved strong pokemon. Sceptile fought hard with iron tail, leaf blade and dragon breath, with Blaziken using flamethrower, blaze kick and sky uppercut. Soon they became exhausted from fighting so hard. Suddenly Sceptile began to glow green and Blaziken glowed orange-red; their abilities over grow and blaze were activated. With time nearly up for the battle, Blaziken used over heat and Sceptile used solar beam, creating an explosion with smoke covering the screen.

At that moment the time was up. When the smoke cleared the screen revealed that Ash and May had similar points with each other. So the result was a tie and everyone agreed that both Ash and May did great. Nurse Joy presented the ribbon, but she only had one. Ash and May knew what to do; Ash had Sceptile cut the pin in half so both Ash and May had half the ribbon each. The announcer what that was a real friendship thing and everyone clapped and cheered for them one last time. This had been a good day for the gang.

Chapter 104

Separation 2 and

Back to Pallet Town

Today was the gang's last time together. With the Terracotta Contest now over, it was time for everyone to start on getting back to their homes. Now they were waiting for a boat to take Max and May back to Hoenn.

Right now everyone was having a last picnic lunch together in a park and everyone had their pokemon out. Ash had Pikachu, Sceptile, two Aipoms, Donphan and Vigoroth. May had her Blaziken, Munchlax, Eevee, Squirtle and Butterfree. Brock had his Marshtomp, Bonsly, Nosepass and Forretress. Tomo had Growlithe, Pidgey, Natu, Ponyta, Poliwhirl and Teddiursa. Max had one of his Loudred, Ralts, Ditto and his newly captured Aipom, which he caught before they left Fennel Town. All the pokemon were tucking into Brock's pokemon food.

During lunch May made an announcement. "Everyone I have decided that I will go to Johto and compete in the contests there too like Drew and Solidad is," she said "but I wish to go to Johto alone". She turned to Max. "I'm sorry Max, but you can't come on a journey with me this time. If you do I will end up asking you for support and help. I want to travel on my own to learn to be more independent, catch new pokemon friends, find my own battling style and try out new tricks with my pokemon old and new. That's why I want to go on a new journey on my own". Ash, Tomo and Brock understood. But max felt upset; he wanted to go on another pokemon journey, but since he wasn't ten yet he couldn't. Max left the others to be on his own for a bit. Ash went to follow Max to cheer him up a bit.

Max was sitting on a swing when Ash caught up to Max. "Upset that you won't be going to Johto with May?" asked Ash. "Yes," said Max "and the truth is I have been jealous of you and May. You and May get to participate in battles, contests and tournaments, but I don't get to do any of those because I'm still only nine years old". "It's true it's tough to have to wait to be ten years old to be a real pokemon trainer because I hated it myself when I had to wait to be ten years old," said Ash "but you only have one more year to wait and then you'll be doing plenty of things with your pokemon. How about this? Why don't you and I have a pokemon battle together now? Think of this as a farewell gift". Max liked the idea and so did the others.

So Max and Ash had their last pokemon battle together. Max used his Loudred and Ash used his Vigoroth. Vigoroth started off with scratch and Loudred used mega punch. This was cheering Max up because he was battling with Ash, which he hadn't done for a long time. Vigoroth and Loudred put up a good fight with each other. Then suddenly Loudred glowed and evolved into an Exploud. "Cool I now have an Exploud!" cheered Max

Tomo looked at Exploud on his pokedex: Exploud, the loud noise pokemon. The evolved form of Loudred. Its howls can be heard over six miles away. It emits all sorts of noises from the ports on its body.

Loudred evolving into Exploud meant that now Max had a Whismur, Loudred and Exploud. Ash and Max decided to call their battle a draw and stopped the match. Max was happy with the battle as well as getting an Exploud. "Thank you Ash," said Max "best goodbye present ever". "So what will you be doing when you get home Max?" asked Brock. "I'll be having Dad teach me about being a gym leader," answered Max "and when I turn ten I'll work hard and go on a journey to make myself and all my pokemon strong. And once I've grown up I will become the new gym leader of Petalburg City".

At that moment May realized that the boat for Hoenn would be coming soon. Everyone picked up all their things and food and returned all their pokemon (except Pikachu and Growlithe). Brock made packed lunches for May and Max for their journey home. Soon the boat had come and now it was time for May and Max to leave Kanto. Ash, Brock and Tomo said their goodbyes to May and Max, wished May lots of luck in the contests in Johto and wished Max lots of luck on learning to take care of Norman's gym. Max and May said their goodbyes too to Ash, Brock and Tomo. While the boat was leaving the gang waved to each other until May and Max were out of their sight. That was the last time that May and Max was to ever journey with Ash, Tomo and Brock.

"Well they're gone" said Brock. "Yeah" said Ash. It felt all so soon because it felt like only yesterday the second Kanto journey started. "Well he better go too, Tomo and I need to get back to Pallet Town". "And I need to head back to Pewter City" said Brock. Ash, Tomo and Brock came to a route where a sign post laid. One sign showed Pewter City to the right and the left showed Pallet Town. "Well Brock it was nice travelling with you again" said Ash. "I hope we'll get to travel with you again soon" said Tomo. "It was a great adventure" replied Brock. The brothers said goodbye to Brock and made their way to Pallet Town and Brock made his way to Pewter City.

So Ash and Tomo were walking back to Pallet Town alone, again. "We'll soon be home again and back to our mum Tomo" said Ash. "I take it we'll be going to the Sinnoh region next?" asked Tomo, who knew about what Ash had planned. "We will but not yet," said Ash "there is something important I need to do". "What is it?" asked Tomo. Before Ash could answer they saw a blast of electricity in the sky. "That looks like an electric pokemon is in trouble," said Ash "let's go". The brothers and their pokemon ran over to see what was going on.

The trouble turned out to be Team Rocket, who had caught an Electivire in a net. The net was electric proof and Electivire couldn't use its electric attacks to get out. Ash and Tomo were cross with this and were about to command Pikachu and Growlithe to help Electivire. But they didn't need to do anything. That Electivire belonged to Gary and he turned up. Ash and Tomo were surprised to see Gary. "Electivire use iron tail" said Gary. Electivire broke the net apart with iron tail and set itself free, and then it sent Team Rocket flying with thunder punch. "Those three are never going to learn that they can't beat us" said Ash. Gary was surprised to see Ash and Tomo. "What are you doing here Gary?" asked Ash "I thought you were doing research in Sinnoh". "I was but I came back to see Grandpa and tell him what I have been researching about so far" answered Gary. Tomo looked at Electivire and opened his pokedex; Electivire, the thunderbolt pokemon. The evolved form of Electabuzz. It pushes the tips of its two tails against the foe, then lets loose with over 20,000 volts of power.

"Wow so my Electabuzz will evolve into that huh?" said Tomo. "That's right Tomo," said Gary "and they are many cool pokemon in Sinnoh. Come over to the lab and I will tell you about it". The brothers agreed they would, but they wanted to see their mum first. Gary said goodbye to them and said he will be waiting.

Ash and Tomo knew there were a lot of stories to tell and share once they got back to Pallet Town.

When Ash and Tomo got back to Pallet Town, they stopped at their house first. But Delia and her pokemon weren't in the house. "Mum must have gone shopping and her pokemon must have all gone with her" said Ash. Since no one was home, the brothers decided to go to Prof Oak's lab instead. But when they got to the lab they saw no one in the lab, not even Tracey. "That's strange, where is everybody?" said Tomo.

Suddenly a bang of party poppers made Ash and Tomo jump with fright. It was Tracey and Mr Mime. "Welcome back Ash and Tomo" said Tracey. Prof Oak, Gary and Delia entered the room, and so did Delia's Persian, Victreebel, Ledyba, Marill, Beautifly and Delcatty. "That was a surprise," said Ash "it made us jump". "Sorry Ash, but we decided to give you two a proper welcome home" said Prof Oak. Ash and Tomo thanked everyone.

Ash handed over his plaque of frontier symbols to his mum and told her he won the battle frontier challenge. He even told everyone that he would become a frontier brain in the future, but not now because he wanted to continue travelling first. "Well I look forward to see you as a frontier brain Ash" said Gary. Just then Ash's two Eevees entered the room and they jumped into Ash's arms. "Hey you two, missed me?" said Ash. The Eevees licked Ash to say yes. "Hey Ash," said Gary "Grandpa told me that you wish to evolve those two into Glaceon and Leafeon right?" "That's right I do" said Ash. "Well I'm heading back to Sinnoh tomorrow, so I can evolve your Eevees for you while I'm there" said Gary. Ash was delighted and accepted Gary's offer. "I take you wish to go to Sinnoh next Ash?" asked Tracey. "Yes but there is something I need to do first before I go there," said Ash, in a serious tone "I want to train my aura power first".

Ash explained to Gary and Tracey about his discovery of having aura powers. "Oh yes Grandpa told me that you found out that you are related to the aura guardian Sir Aaron" said Gary. "I heard of this too" said Tracey. Delia knew it too because Ash told her about what happened in Rota sometime after he left that place. "Well you see while I was still at Rota, Sir Aaron's Lucario told me to train my aura before he died" said Ash. He had told everyone about Lucario too. "So I decided to train my aura before I start heading over to Sinnoh". "I call that a great idea Ash," said Gary "when you've got amazing powers it's always best to learn and understand what powers you have in case you have trouble with them." Tracey, Prof Oak and Delia agreed. "Ash while you still travelled around Kanto I contacted my friend Prof Rowan in Sinnoh and told him about your aura powers," said Prof Oak "and in Sinnoh there is an aura guardian who can help you train your power. The man's name is Riley and I had Prof Rowan contact him for me". "Have you got a reply from him yet?" asked Ash. "Yes I got an answer from him yesterday," answered Prof Oak "Riley said that once you come back to Pallet Town Ash, you must go to Rota and Riley will train you there". "I understand so Rota is where I will go before going to Sinnoh, I will head over there tomorrow" said Ash. He turned to Tomo. "Sorry Tomo but I can't take you with me to Rota; I have to go there alone to train my aura". Tomo felt disappointed but he knew that training aura was important to Ash. "Never mind Tomo," said Tracey "you can help me around the lab until Ash gets back from Rota". Tomo appreciated the offer and accepted it. Ash told Tomo that when he got back they would go to Sinnoh together.

So next day Ash was ready to head over to Rota alone. He left his five other pokemon the two Aipoms, Vigoroth, Donphan and Sceptile at the lab with all the other pokemon; he was only taking Pikachu with him. Tracey and Tomo wished Ash luck with training his aura and Delia and Prof told Ash to be careful and to always listen to Riley. Ash bid farewell to everyone and headed off for Rota with Pikachu.

So Ash had aura training to think about first before he could go to another region.

Chapter 105

When May and Max went home,

When Brock went home and

Team Rocket have a think

After bidding farewell to Ash, Tomo and Brock, May and Max were back in Hoenn and they were making their way home to Petalburg City. "Oh I can't wait to be home" said May. "I can't wait showing dad my new pokemon and tell him everything that what happened in Kanto" said Max. "Try not to talk so much this time Max," said May "last time we came back you spoke a lot". "Speak for yourself May," said Max "you talked like there was no tomorrow". The brother and sister argument thing would never change.

Soon they reached home and Caroline and Norman were there to greet them. "I'm happy to see my children home" said Caroline. "Welcome home May and Max" said Norman. Max hugged Norman and May hugged Caroline. "I'm sure you two have plenty of stories to tell us like you did when you last came home," said Caroline "so let's go to the living room and then you two can talk about your journey in Kanto".

Once the family entered the living room, May was greeted by her Manaphy. May sent her Manaphy to her parent's house after she captured it so no one would know that she had a Manaphy, and her parents took care of it ever since. There was also another pokemon in the living room; it was a Togepi. "Whose Togepi is that?" asked Max. "That is my pokemon," answered Caroline "a pokemon breeder gave it to me when it was still an egg. I feel like I'm raising more children with Togepi and Manaphy". "People having been finding out about Manaphy have they?" asked May, worriedly. She didn't anyone to know in case someone wanted to steal Manaphy. "Don't you worry May," said Norman "we've kept Manaphy hidden in the house ever since you sent it to us. We've also never told anyone about your Deoxys Max. We understand it's important to keep legendary pokemon a secret in case someone steals them". May and Max were happy to hear that. "Now then you two get on with your stories" said Caroline. Max and May told their parents about all the pokemon contests Ash and May entered, then the battle facilities Ash defeated, then about all the places they visited, then about the pokemon they met and caught and about all the people they met on the journey. They also told them about visiting Rota and Samiya. "Well you two have gone through a lot" smiled Caroline.

Suddenly there was a knock at the door, and Norman went to answer it. Brendan and Wally had come to see May and Max because they heard they were coming home. "How have you been Brendan and Wally?" asked Caroline. "Good thanks," said Brendan "Wally and I have been traveling to new and old places and seeing new pokemon. And of course there's with our mothers being worried about us". "That's understandable" chuckled Norman. "What are you going to do now?" asked May. "We've decided to go to Johto so I can participate in the Silver Conference" said Brendan. "What a coincidence," said May "I'm going to Johto too to participate in the contests there". May and Max explained to everyone about May's plan of going to Johto alone. "You see I want to go on a journey on my own this time," said May "I want to learn new things, catch new pokemon and find my own battling style all on my own". Caroline and Norman understood the situation and they believed May will do well. "What are you going to do Max?" asked Norman. Max asked his dad to teach him about being a gym leader. "Once I turn ten I do want to go out and battle gym leaders and enter a pokemon league," said Max "but I want to learn about being a gym leader too so that one day I can take over as the Petalburg Gym leader when you can't do it anymore". Norman was delighted to teach Max about being a gym leader. "I had hoped that one of you would follow in my footsteps of being the gym leader of my gym" he said. So May and Max's plans were accepted.

Everyone went into the greenhouse to meet with all of May and Max's pokemon; they were all in the greenhouse including May's pokemon which had been at Prof Birch's lab. Norman's pokemon Slakoth, Vigoroth and Slaking got on well with May and Max's pokemon, especially with Whismur, Loudred and Exploud. May rounded up all her pokemon; Blaziken, Beautifly, Skitty, Starmie, Azumaril, Bellosom, Altaria, Bulbasaur, Plusle and Minun, Lileep, Volbeat, Illumise, Munchlax, Squirtle, Butterfree, Manaphy and Eevee. Next Max rounded up all of his pokemon; Zigzagoon, Linoone, Whismur, Loudred, Exploud, Spinda, Castform, Kecleon, Snorlax, Shuppet, Wingull, Ralts, Beldum, Shroomish, Seel, Anorith, Poochyena, Zangoose, two Munchlax's Rattata, Raticate, Ditto, Aipom, Deoxys, Delcatty and three Skitty's. May told all of her pokemon about her plan of doing contests in Johto and her pokemon looked forward to that. Max told all of his pokemon that he was going to travel once he turned ten years old in a year's time, but right now he was going to learn about being a gym leader, what to do with his pokemon and taking care of the gym. His pokemon understood because Max told them about his dream of becoming the next gym leader of Petalburg Gym before.

Just then Norman walked up to Max. "Since you want to learn about being a gym leader Max," he said "how about you and I have a battle to see how well you and your pokemon battle together". "Can I really battle you Dad?" asked Max. Norman nodded yes. "I so want to do that" said Max, excitedly.

So everyone went into the battle room in the gym. Max and Norman took their places on the battlefield and Caroline, May, Brendan and Wally sat on the seats. "I hope Max will be okay," said May "I mean his pokemon aren't strong enough to beat dad". "Yes but this will be good practice for Max," said Caroline "remember he did say that he wanted to challenge the gym leaders once he went on a journey". "You're right" said May. Norman sent out Vigoroth and Max sent out Zangoose. Brendan and Wally were surprised to see that Max's Zangoose was shiny. Vigoroth started with scratch and Zangoose countered with his scratch attack. Then Zangoose moved in with crush claw and scratched Vigoroth good with it. "Max isn't doing badly for his first gym battle" said Brendan. Wally agreed. Norman commanded Vigoroth to use flamethrower. "Dodge that and use brick break Zangoose" said Max. Zangoose dodged the flamethrower attack and struck Vigoroth with brick break. Norman thought his son was doing well. "Nicely done Max, but you'll need to do more than that" he said. He ordered Vigoroth to use focus punch and Vigoroth punched Zangoose really hard. "Use crush claw Zangoose" said Max. Zangoose tried to use crush claw, but Vigoroth dodged it and used flamethrower on Zangoose. The flamethrower attack really gave Zangoose a lot of pain, and then Vigoroth used scratch on Zangoose, Zangoose couldn't take anymore after that and he fainted. So Norman won the challenge. Max went over to Zangoose and told him he did well for the first gym battle. Norman walked over to Max and told him he did well. "You have learnt your first lesson of losing a battle and find you have much to learn" said Norman. "Yes and I wish to learn more" said Max. Caroline, May, Brendan and Wally thought that this was a first good gym battle for Max. "This makes me feel that I cannot wait to learn new things when I go to Johto" said May.

After the battle was over, Brendan and Wally made their leave. They had to go and visit their families before setting off for Johto. "I hope I'll see you in Johto Brendan and Wally" said May. "Same here May" replied Brendan. He and Wally said goodbye to the family and left. Caroline turned to her kids and told them she was cooking a welcome home meal for them. May and Max couldn't wait for that. Through the rest of the day until bedtime, May and Max couldn't stop talking about what they wanted to do and things.

The next day May was packing her things for Johto; she wanted to leave for Johto as soon as possible so not to be behind Drew, Solidad and Harley. Caroline entered the room. "Look at you," she said "you seem to be growing up more because of you traveling". "Well I hope to grow up more when I'm traveling alone in Johto this time" replied May. "I have something for you to get you started" said Caroline. She presented a new outfit to May for her to wear. It was a sleeveless and short orange tunic with a black collar, black bike shorts, black socks, red and white sneakers and a green and white bandana. (It's the outfit from the Wallace cup arc in the anime) "Oh wow its lovely thank you mum" said May. May was happy with her new outfit and changed into it at once.

After all the preparations and things May was ready to leave for Johto. She was only taking Munchlax, Eevee and Squirtle with her because she decided to start small and save room to catch new pokemon. Norman, Caroline and Max wished May lots of luck and said their goodbyes. Max still wished that he could go on a new journey, but he had his own pokemon journey to look forward to in a year. And he had a lot of learning to learn about being a gym leader from his dad. May said her goodbyes to her family and went off to catch a boat for Johto.

So May and Max had a new future ahead of them.

After saying goodbye to Ash and Tomo, Brock was almost at Pewter City. He was wondering how his family was doing especially Forrest since he was going to be the new gym leader. Well he had a lot of founding out to do once he saw his family again.

Once he reached his house he was welcomed home by his whole family at once, especially his brothers and sisters. Brock was happy to see that everyone was doing well and he was happy to see that his parents were okay this time and not in hospital. Over dinner Brock told his family about his journey through Kanto. "What are you going to do next Brock?" asked Lola. "Well I thought about going to Sinnoh where Ash and Tomo will be heading next," said Brock "but at the moment Ash will be doing some special training before he goes there. So I'm not going anywhere yet until Ash was done with his training". The truth is Brock knew that Ash was going to train his aura powers because Ash told him before they got separated from each other. "You certainly like travelling with that Ash kid don't you Brock" said Flint. "Whenever I'm on a journey with Ash, there's no telling what will happen" laughed Brock. That was a true fact; going on a journey with Ash was always filled with mysterious journeys.

After dinner Forrest wanted to show Brock his new pokemon. His pokemon looked like a Rhydon but bigger, with dark brown-grey skin, orange markings a bigger horn on the nose and a smaller horn on the forehead; this pokemon was a Rhyperior the evolved form of Rhydon. "Wow when did you get that pokemon?" asked Brock. "A couple of weeks after you last visited us," answered Forrest "I caught it when it was a Rhydon with dad's help, and then just four days ago I used a protector to make it evolve into Rhyperior". "Well it's a great pokemon," said Brock "has Dad contacted the pokemon inspection agency yet about you becoming the new gym leader for the gym?" "Yes he has sent of a notification, we are just waiting for a reply" said Forrest. "That's great," said Brock "hey I have an idea. Why don't you have a pokemon battle with me? I would like to see you and your Rhyperior in action". "Can we really battle big brother?" asked Forrest. "Yes" answered Brock. Forrest was happy because he had always wanted to have a pokemon battle with his brother Brock.

The two brothers went to their parents and told them their plan of battling each other. "I think that is a wonderful idea" said Lola. "Me too, I would like to see my sons in action" agreed Flint. The brothers were happy that their parents agreed.

The whole family went to the gym, where Brock and Forrest could battle. Lola sat on the benches with the rest of her children, Brock and Forrest stood on the battle ground and Flint acted as the referee. It was a one on one match. Brock sent out his Nosepass and Forrest sent out his Rhyperior. Brock started off by telling his Nosepass to use tackle and Forrest told his Rhyperior to use horn attack. The two pokemon charged at each other hard. "Power gem Nosepass" said Brock. Nosepass fired a power gem attack and Rhyperior and the attack hit it. "Use horn drill Rhyperior" said Forrest. Rhyperior tried to hit Nosepass with horn drill but it missed. Brock then ordered Nosepass to use rock smash, and Nosepass hit Rhyperior good with rock smash. "Quick use ice beam Rhyperior" said Forrest. Rhyperior fired an ice beam attack from its mouth and the ice beam hit Nosepass. Nosepass became trapped in a block of ice. Brock was impressed. "I see you taught your pokemon some good moves Forrest" he said. "Yep" said Forrest, proudly.

At that moment Flint declared the match over; this match was only a demonstration and not a real one. Brock thawed out his Nosepass by having his Ninetails use flamethrower. "Well Forrest you did great with battling with Rhyperior" said Brock. "I agree," smiled Flint "and I couldn't be more prouder of you". "You will make a great gym leader Forrest" said Lola. The others agreed too. "Hey Brock," said Forrest "can you help me teach my pokemon Rhyperior, Onix, Larvitar, Geodude and Bonsly new moves and other battle strategies?" "Of course, we'll start training and teaching tomorrow" smiled Brock. Forrest was happy to have a brother like Brock.

So Brock had something to do until Ash finished his aura training, and that was helping Forrest learn and train to be a good gym leader.

Out in Vermilion City, Jessie, James and Meowth were taking a break at a café. "Ah it feels good having a break by the sea" said Jessie. "Yeah and these fish and chips are great" said Meowth, tucking into some fish. James on the other hand wasn't eating or thinking about the sea. "Is something wrong James?" asked Meowth. "Yes do you remember when we last visited our headquarters to see the boss?" said James. "Yes I remember," said Jessie "the boss called us there after we sent him those Chamander eggs we found". "We were sure lucky to had found those abandoned Chamander eggs," said Meowth "I mean we failed to rob all the eggs at that day care center, but then we found the eggs the day after that". "I never thought anyone would abandon their own Chamanders," said Jessie "especially since they evolve to Charizard". "Yeah but abandoning pokemon is what happens," said Meowth "and we got paid by the boss for them". "Yes but it's our visit to the headquarters I keep thinking about," said James "I ended up seeing wat happens to the pokemon we agents all bring in to the boss".

James explained to the others that he saw how the agents trained the pokemon all of Team Rocket stole or captured. He saw the agents using strong pokemon toughen up the weak pokemon, and the strong pokemon acted like big bullies to the weaker pokemon. Saw the agents cracking whips on the floor to make weaker pokemon work and train harder, and the worst part was they weren't given the chance to rest much. "I do get that they were trained to make the pokemon stronger for Team Rocket," finished James "but you don't see me abusing my pokemon, or train them hard like there's no tomorrow. I'm not letting them train my pokemon". "So am I," said Jessie "to be honest I saw some agents picking on some baby pokemon and shouting at them to grow up quickly. I'm not letting any of them have my dear Smoochum". "Even I have to admit the training looks very harsh," said Meowth "I am a pokemon too and I understand what it's like to be abused because I was abused in the past too". Jessie, James and Meowth were bad, but they weren't as bad as the other agents because Jessie and James didn't abuse their own pokemon.

"You know sometimes I wonder why we keep doing this," said James "I mean we have worked hard for the boss, despite the twerps and police have ruined our plans, and yet we don't get well paid or respected. And Butch and Cassidy get more than we do. Not to mention we keep on having to get part time jobs for more money". "You're right James, but this is all we can do right now," said Jessie "something will come up for us". "I hope you're right Jess" said James. Sometimes Jessie, James and Meowth wondered if something would give them a better hope in their future.

"So what shall we do for our next destination?" said Meowth. The trio wasn't so sure where they could go next. "I know," said James, suddenly "we can go to the Sinnoh region. I've been there before as a boy because my parents own some vacation houses there and it's a wonderful place. There is also plenty of pokemon there that you can't find here in the Kanto region". "Really?" asked Jessie. "If that's true then we should go there then," said Meowth "we could catch many valuable pokemon there for the boss". "And get new pokemon for ourselves" added Jessie. So the trio agreed to head over to the Sinnoh region.

So Jessie, James and Meowth's next move was head to the Sinnoh region.