Ash's Pokémon Journey

Chapter 116-120

Chapter 116

Meeting Benny,

The Floaroma Contest

And the Valley Windworks

Next day Ash and Dawn were training for the pokemon contest. Dawn had decided to use Pachirisu and Piplup this time. Ash wasn't sure but he did plan to use Budew, just not sure who else. Dawn had a practice with her Pachirisu; it knew bide, charm, quick attack, spark, sweet kiss and discharge. Tomo had his Electrike to help Dawn's Pachirisu and his Pachirisu to control their discharge attack. Tomo's Pachirisu knew the same attacks Dawn's Pachirisu knew but he also had the egg move bite. "Thanks for helping me with this Tomo" said Dawn. "No problem," said Tomo "remember I have a Pachirisu too that needs more practicing". As the Pachirisus were new, they had catching up to do if they wanted to be strong like the other problems.

Suddenly Dawn's Smoochum egg what Brock had been holding onto started to glow. "Dawn it's time for your egg to hatch" said Brock. The gang went to the pokemon center, and with Nurse Joy's help the baby Smoochum hatched safely from the egg. Dawn was awestruck with how cute her Smoochum was and picked her up at once to hug her. "I so have to call my mum about this" she said, and ran to a phone at once with Smoochum. "Well Dawn's happy with her new pokemon" said Ash. "Yeah and no doubt she'll want to use Smoochum in a contest soon" said Brock.

After the hatching of Smoochum and Dawn introducing Smoochum and Pachirisu to Johanna, it was time to get back to training. But then a red-brown boy round Dawn's age walked up to the gang. "Hi Dee-Dee" he said to Dawn. "Kenny is that you?" gasped Dawn. "That's right Dee-Dee" said Kenny. "Stop calling me that already" said Dawn, crossly. The boys were confused by Dawn being called Dee-Dee by Kenny. Ash, Brock and Tomo introduced themselves to Kenny. Kenny remembered seeing Ash on TV in the Hoenn and Kanto contests and grand festivals, and even saw him win the Jubilife City. "So Ash you entering this contest too?" asked Kenny. "Yep," answered Ash "and I've decided to go with Staravia and Budew". "So Dawn are you travelling with these guys?" asked Kenny. "That I am" said Dawn. Kenny explained he was entering pokemon contests too. He entered his first contest some time ago but he lost in the finals against Zoey and her Glameow; it was where she won her first ribbon. "I've got to say Ash you did great against Zoey and her Glameow, I had trouble trying to beat her" said Kenny. "Pikachu and I have learnt tricks for battles for the past three years" said Ash.

While everyone had drinks at a café Dawn explained to the others that Kenny and her knew each other since nursery school, and have been friends ever since because he lives in Twinleaf Town too. And Kenny left to become a pokemon trainer a few months before she did. Kenny noticed Dawn's Piplup and realized that Dawn chose Piplup. He revealed his starter pokemon was Piplup but it was a Prinplup now and released it.

Ash looked at Prinplup on his pokedex: Prinplup, the penguin pokemon. The evolved form of Piplup. It lives a solitary life. Its wings deliver wicked blows that can snap even the thickest of trees.

"Wow so my Piplup will evolve to that too" said Ash. He explained to Kenny of his Piplup and how he caught it back in Kanto. Dawn's Piplup tried to make friends with Piplup, but it wouldn't acknowledge it. Dawn wasn't happy with that, and Kenny explained it had only opened up to him at the moment. "That's penguin pokemon for you," said Ash "they are the proud, stubborn and spoilt type".

Next Kenny ended up telling funny stories about Dawn back in nursery school. Once she cut her hair herself and she looked like a Chimchar in the end, then while performing in a play Dawn was dressed as a Slowpoke and she sneeze so loud that she fell off a rock she sat on and created a mess, then one day she appeared in her pyjamas and had two non-matched shoes on. The boys, Pikachu, Growlithe and Piplup thought it was very funny. This of course made Dawn mad at Kenny and wished to battle him to prove what she could do. But Kenny didn't want to battle Dawn; he wanted to battle Ash and his Pikachu. Dawn thought Kenny was being a coward but decided to let him have his way; besides she knew that Ash would defeat Kenny easily because of how strong Pikachu was.

Ash and Kenny got into battle positions. Kenny sent out Prinplup and Ash sent out Pikachu. Ash started off by telling Pikachu to use quick attack. Kenny told his Prinplup to attack with drill peck. "Spin and dodge Pikachu" said Ash. Pikachu dodged with the spin move before Prinplup could peck him. "Thunder wave" said Ash. Pikachu zapped Prinplup with thunder wave and Prinplup became paralyzed. Dawn thought that thunder wave was a very useful move and she should have her Pachirisu learn that. Kenny thought that Ash was good, but he wasn't giving up yet. "Prinplup bubble beam" he said. Prinplup fired bubbles towards Pikachu, but Pikachu used dig to dodge. "Now Pikachu thunderbolt" said Ash. Pikachu fired thunderbolt at Prinplup. Prinplup tried to use metal claw to use it as a lightning rod to prevent from getting too much damage from Pikachu, but Prinplup was paralyzed and couldn't do the attack and was shocked by the thunderbolt hard. "Now Pikachu finish this off with iron tail" said Ash. Pikachu struck Prinplup hard with iron tail, before it could do anything, and it fainted. So Ash was the winner of the battle.

Dawn knew that Kenny would lose to Ash, but she didn't rub it in. "It's no wonder you were able to defeat Zoey Ash" said Kenny, while he tended to Prinplup. "It's as I said to Zoey, Pikachu and I have grown strong together over the last four and a half years" said Ash. Through the rest of that day Kenny spent time looking at Dawn's other pokemon Buneary, Pachirisu, Burmy, Smoochum and Ariados, and asking Ash questions about his past journeys. Another thing that happened was Prinplup managed to become friends with Dawn's Piplup and Dawn's Piplup learnt a new move whirlpool. So today was quite a good day.

So since Kenny was going to take part in the Floaroma contest, Dawn knew she would have to deal with two rivals in this contest.

The next day it was time for the Floaroma Contest. Marian did the usual introductions and showed off the Floaroma Ribbon. The ribbons were orange with a white stripe on each end. In the dressing room Ash, Kenny and Dawn were waiting for the contest to begin. Ash was wearing a blue tunic, white trousers, brown belt, brown boots and gloves, a blue hat and a red cape. (This outfit is the knight outfit he wore in the episode legend of the pokemon knight) Kenny was wearing a white shirt, black tie, a jade green waistcoat, a jade green jacket with yellow markings, jade green trousers with yellow markings, a red sash, white socks and black shoes. Dawn was wearing her pick dress, but it had yellow roses on it and she had her hair tied long with a red hair ribbon with also two big curls on the front and two yellow hair barrettes and she also had a bigger red ribbon tied round the back. Kenny couldn't stop staring at Dawn in her dress; truth is he really liked her despite he liked to tease her so much. The tree rivals promised that they wouldn't go easy on each other.

It was soon time for the contest to begin and Dawn was first in the preliminary rounds. She sent out her Pachirisu with a line seal, and this one created blue lines. Pachirisu broke the blue lines with his electricity and blue particles were created. Pachirisu landed on his tail, but the tail slipped on the stage and he began rolling around. Because of that poor Pachirisu started to get stage fright. Dawn had an idea; she had a poffin in her pocket and threw it to Pachirisu. Since poffins were Pachirisu's weakness he got out of his stage shock at once and grabbed the poffin while using spark. Then Pachirisu used discharge which lit up the area, and then he used sweet kiss to finish it off. It wasn't bad, but Dawn still had some more work to do to make Pachirisu work better in contests.

After Dawn was a Buizel, a Magmar, a Sealeo, a Magneton, a Koffing and a pokemon called a Kricketune. Kricketune was a black, red and cream coloured cricket pokemon, and it was a bug type pokemon. Next up was Ash and he sent out Staravia with a smoke seal, and this one created white smoke. To start off, Ash commanded Staravia to use aerial ace. Not only did Staravia show how fast he was, he also made the smoke break apart. "Now Staravia it's time to use whirlwind" said Ash. Ash threw a lot of ripped pieces of paper into the air while Staravia used whirlwind. The pieces of paper flew all around by the wind like they were dancing. Then Staravia air cutter to break the papers into smaller pieces and the paper fell like snow. Kenny thought that Ash was good with contests.

Next up it was Kenny's turn and he sent out an Alakazam with a fire seal, which surrounded Alakazam in a fiery flame. His catch phrase for contests was 'hit it'. To start off with Kenny told Alakazam to use light screen, which surrounded Alakazam all around. Then Kenny ordered it to use shadow ball. So while Alakazam was still trapped in the light screen it used shadow ball, which made the light screen explode and break apart. But Alakazam had used teleport to get away; this was like watching a magician escaping from a box that exploded unharmed. To finish off Alakazam used hidden power, while it meditated into the air, and the hidden power broke apart into particles. "Kenny is good at this," Ash said to Dawn "now we have three common rivals to deal with in pokemon contests". Ash meant Zoey, Nando and Kenny.

Soon the appeal round was over. Dawn was worried she might have not made it into the appeal round because of her and Pachirisu's failure. But when the results for the second round came, she made it to the second round along with Ash and Kenny and five other coordinators. So Dawn became relieved for now. The results for the battle round came and Ash was up against Kenny during the first rounds. "Don't think you'll defeat me like you defeated me yesterday Ash" said Kenny. "Give me everything you throw at me" said Ash.

Soon the battle rounds were up and Dawn was determined to show Kenny how good she was with battling, after what she learnt from the boys. Her first opponent used a Solrock, and Piplup easily defeated it with bubble beam since it was a rock type pokemon.

Soon it was time to Ash and Kenny to face each other. Kenny sent out his Prinplup with a star seal that created lots of yellow stars. Ash sent out his Budew with a flora seal that created lots of pink flower petals. Kenny started off with bubble beam, but Budew countered it with bullet seed. "Razor leaf Budew" said Ash. Budew fired a razor leaf attack, but Prinplup dodged it and pecked Budew hard with drill peck. "You're okay Budew, use leaf storm" said Ash. Budew released a leaf storm attack and Prinplup got hit by it. Kenny thought Ash's pokemon were incredible. He ordered Prinplup to use mist, and Prinplup created a mist attack and Budew couldn't see through it. Then Prinplup attacked Budew with drill peck again and Budew got really hurt from that attack. "Use synthesis to heal your self Budew" said Ash. Budew healed herself a little with synthesis and then Ash ordered her to use mega drain. She released a green beam from her bud and it grabbed Prinplup, sucking it's energy, and then the beam went back into Budew and the energy from Prinplup healed Budew. Ash ordered Budew to attack with bullet seed, but Prinplup dodged the bullet seed attack and hit Budew with bubble beam. Just then time was up and, by surprise, Kenny had a few more points left than Ash. So Kenny won this battle round, and Ash lost this one.

Budew was disappointed with herself of losing. But Ash gave her a hug. "You did great in this battle," he said to her "we just have to get you stronger for the next time you battle". Budew understood. Ash congratulated Kenny on his win and went to join Tomo and Brock in the seats. In the waiting room, Dawn was surprised that Kenny defeated Ash. "Wow Kenny is strong," she said "but that won't mean he'll defeat me too".

Dawn and Kenny went on to defeat their other opponents until it was time for them to battle in the final round. Kenny sent out his Prinplup with a star seal and Dawn sent out her Piplup with a bubble seal. To start off with Dawn ordered Piplup to use bubble beam and Kenny told Prinplup to do the same. The bubbles collided with each other. Next Dawn ordered Piplup to use peck, but Prinplup used metal claw to intercept and send Piplup in the air. "Use drill peck Prinplup" said Kenny. "Use bide Piplup" said Dawn. Piplup stored up some energy to use bide, while he got spun around by Prinplup. Then Prinplup pecked Piplup and Piplup fired bide attack at Prinplup, who got hit by it. Kenny ordered Prinplup to use metal claw, but Piplup flipped to get out the way. "Whirlpool Piplup" said Dawn. Piplup fired a whirlpool attack from his beak and Prinplup got trapped by it. But Prinplup used bubble beam to escape from the whirlpool attack. Next Prinplup used mist and then moved in to use drill peck. "Use whirlpool Piplup" said Dawn. After creating a whirlpool, Piplup rode on the whirlpool to dodge the drill peck attack. Kenny ordered his Prinplup to jump into the whirlpool too, and then the two penguin pokemon collided with each other with metal claw and peck. Then they attacked each other with bubble beam and the bubbles collided. After that time was up, and the result was Dawn had some more points left than Kenny. So Dawn was the winner of the Floaroma Contest.

Dawn was happy to have won her first ribbon. Kenny said to himself that next time he will beat Dawn. Ash was happy for Dawn, but he vowed that next time he'll defeat Kenny when they face each other in another contest. Mr Contesta presented Dawn with the Floaroma Ribbon and Dawn cheered while showing off the ribbon. Piplup and Pachirisu cheered too.

That evening Dawn phoned Johanna. "I'm sorry that I'm calling you mum," she said, remembering what her mum said to her before about phoning, "but I had to phone you to show you my first contest ribbon". "It's alright dear," said Johanna "but remember you and your pokemon have to keep working hard together to be a really great team". Dawn promised her mum she would and the phone call ended. Just then Kenny turned up. "I'll be looking forward to seeing you in another contest Ash and Dawn" he said. He then said goodbye to the gang, calling Dawn Dee-Dee, and he left. Dawn of course was not happy with being called that. "What's with the name Dee-Dee Dawn?" asked Tomo. "Don't go there!" shouted Dawn, waving her arms about. It seemed something embarrassing happened to Dawn when she was first called Dee-Dee in the past.

So with the Floaroma Contest over, the gang could get ready for their next destination; a place called Eterna City, where Ash and Tomo could earn their next gym badges.

After the pokemon contest was over, the gang could continue their journey. But first Ash had something to do. He had been thinking about evolving his Togetic, Misdreavus and Murkrow, and he phoned Prof Oak about it. "I think it's a good idea to evolve those three Ash, said Prof Oak "Togetic, Misdreavus and Murkrow are strong and ready to evolve". He called Togetic, Misdreavus and Murkrow over so Ash could talk to them. "Hey Togetic, Misdreavus and Murkrow," said Ash "I want to ask you three if you wish to evolve to Togekiss, Mismagius and Honchkrow?" Prof Oak showed the pokemon pictures of Togekiss, Mismagius and Honchkrow. Togetic, Murkrow and Misdreavus took a look and said that they did want to evolve. So Prof Oak sent them over to Ash, while Ash sent over Budew, Staravia and Turtwig. Then the call ended.

Ash sent out his Togetic, Misdreavus and Murkrow. Dawn was impressed with them. Ash did a check over with his pokemon. By now the pokemon that learnt lots of moves by now. Togetic knew; Female; growl, charm, metronome, sweet kiss, yawn, safe guard, double edge, head butt, swift, ancient power, wish, hidden power, psychic, shadow ball, mimic, secret power, magical leaf, aerial ace, steel wing, silver wind, air cutter, heal bell, shock wave, heat wave, ominous wind, water pulse, drain punch, attract, double team, protect, and the egg move extrasensory. Misdreavus knew; growl, psywave, confuse ray, mean look, pain split, perish song, psybeam, shadow ball, psychic, calm mind, double team, protect, hidden power, aerial ace, charge beam, will o wisp, dark pulse, power gem, swift, icy wind, ominous wind, sucker punch and the egg move screech. Murkrow knew; peck, haze, pursuit, night shade, wing attack, mean look, icy wind, hidden power, shadow ball, protect, double team, steel wing, aerial ace, swift, sucker punch, dark pulse, defog, air cutter, heat wave, ominous wind, roost and the egg move drill peck. "Well Ash I would say your pokemon are indeed ready to evolve" said Brock.

Ash took out his dusk and shiny stone out from his back pack. First he touched Togetic with the shiny stone, and then Togetic glowed and evolved into Togekiss. Togekiss was bigger than Togetic with a bigger body and the arms had been replaced with big wings. The triangle designs on her body were smaller full shaped triangles, with no holes in middle. She had a tail of three feathers and three spikes on the top of her head. One spike had a red tip, the other was pure white and the third spike had a blue tip. "Wow what a cute pokemon" said Dawn. "You okay Togekiss?" asked Ash. Togekiss nodded yes and nuzzled Ash. While stroking Togekiss on the head, Ash checked her on the pokedex and saw she now knew four more moves; extreme speed, aura sphere, air slash and sky attack. "Impressive" smiled Ash.

Next Ash touched Misdreavus with the dusk stone and Misdreavus evolved into a Mismagius. Mismagius was a purple witch like pokemon with lighter shade of purple markings. Her head looked like a witch's hat and the rest of her body looked like a cloak. Her mouth was shaped like the letter w and her eyes were the same as they were when she was Misdreavus and there were three red spheres around her chest that looked like jewels. "Nice" said Tomo. Ash saw on his pokedex that Mismagius new a new move; magical leaf.

Then at last Ash touched Murkrow with the dusk stone and he evolved to a Honchkrow. Honchkrow was a big bird, with a bigger body, big feet and bigger wings. The top of his head looked like a fedora hat with spikes at the back. Honchkrow had a white and prominent crest of feathers on the chest and it looked like a beard and on the inside of his wings there were red feathers. There were also red feathers at the end of his tail. Ash saw on his pokedex that Honchkrow now knew night slash, sky attack and super power. "Wow you three are amazing in your new forms" said Ash. Togekiss, Honchkrow and Mismagius were happy that they evolved. Then Ash returned them, sent them back to Prof Oak and brought back Staravia, Turtwig and Budew. "Well now that's over let's start heading out for Eterna City" said Brock. "Hold on a minute," said Dawn "there is something I want to do first".

Dawn explained she wanted to go to the Valley Windworks. The Valley Windworks was a power plant east of Floaroma Town, where they made electricity with wind power. "Once a week a swarm of Drifloon end up flying there and it gives trainers a chance to catch them," said Dawn "and the swarm will be here today and I want to get one".

Tomo looked at Drifloon on the pokedex: Drifloon, the baloon pokemon. Drifloon is filled with air and can either expand or shrink to express its feelings. It also likes damp weather.

Drifloon were purple with two small black eyes, a yellow cross on the face, hair that looked like a cloud and it had two tentacles with yellow heart shapes at the end. It also looked like a baloon.

"Wow, I want one too" said Tomo. Ash and Brock wanted to check it out too, so the first stop was the Valley Windworks.

When the gang arrived, the owner of the power plant welcomed them. He kept an eye on trainers when they turned up to catch a Drifloon, and he made sure that no one caught more than one, especially a whole swarm. The rule was to catch one Drifloon per week. It wasn't long till the swarm of Drifloon turned up and Dawn used her Piplup to catch a Drifloon and Tomo used Growlithe to catch one. Dawn and Tomo were happy with their new captures.

Satisfied now that Dawn and Tomo captured a Drifloon each from Valley Windworks, the gang could now start their journey for Eterna City.

Chapter 117

Meeting Cheryl,

Meeting Gardenia

And The Amber Castle

One day the gang came to a forest called the Eterna Forest; this forest led to Eterna City. But now they were being distracted; Growlithe was running in the forest. "What's the matter Growlithe?" asked Tomo, who was chasing after him with the others. Suddenly Growlithe stopped at a tree and on the tree were some wild pokemon eating some honey that was smeared on the bark of the tree. "Ah well since pokemon can't resist the smell of sweet honey, it's no wonder Growlithe ran all the way over here" said Brock.

Suddenly a few Burmy turned up to eat the honey as well. Seeing the wild Burmys made Dawn think of her Burmy. Just then a green haired woman with a Chansey came out from some bushes. "Chansey use attract" said the woman. Some hearts came out of Chansey and they hit the Burmys. Two of them ended up falling in love with Chansey; that meant they were male. "Okay Chansey we only need to catch one of them," said the woman "use double slap". Chansey started to slap one of the male Burmy, but the Burmy started to use protect. Another thing was the other male Burmy attacked Chansey with tackle. Ash knew that Chansey was in trouble and he told Pikachu to use swift. The swift attack hit the other male Burmy and then Ash caught it. The woman told her Chansey to use egg bomb and Chansey hit Burmy with her egg. Burmy was weakened then and the woman caught. "Finally this male Burmy is mine" she cheered.

The gang introduced themselves to the woman, and the woman introduced herself as Cheryl. Cheryl explained she was a treasure hunter and she was searching for enchanted honey. "What's enchanted honey?" asked Brock. "Enchanted honey is honey that's supposed to taste 100 times sweeter than normal honey," said Cheryl "and that's why I'm here in Eterna Forest to find it". She presented a map of Eterna Forest to the gang. "The red X on the map shows that's where the Amber Castle is; a castle that no one has ever visited yet and where the enchanted honey was supposed to be". The gang found this very mysterious and exciting. "Hey Cheryl can we go with you?" asked Ash. He and the others wanted to find the Amber castle and enchanted honey too. Cheryl agreed.

After explaining about her mission, Cheryl sent out her Burmy. "First of all I need my Burmy to evolve into a Mothim," she said "Mothim has a powerful sense of smell that will help me find the enchanted honey". "Wouldn't it have been better to catch a Mothim in the first place?" asked Dawn. "My grandfather used to say that all roads begin with a Burmy," said Cheryl "I caught three Burmys before, but they evolved into Wormadams". She sent out three Wormadams; Wormadam was a bush like pokemon with the head at the top. These three Wormadams were different; one was green with flowers, second was brown with rocks and the third was pink. "Oh yes," said Brock "a female Burmy evolves into a Wormadam and a male Burmy evolves to Mothim".

Ash looked at Wormadam on his pokedex: Wormadam, the bagworm pokemon. The evolved form of a female Burmy. Its appearance changes depending on where it evolved. The materials on hand become a part of its body.

Brock explained that the green Wormadam (plant cloak form and bug and grass type) evolved from Burmy in a forest, the pink Wormadam (trash cloak form and bug and steel type) evolved from Burmy in the city and the brown one (sandy cloak form and bug and ground type) evolved from Burmy in the mountains or caves. "Since my Burmy is female it will evolve into a Wormadam too" said Dawn. "And mine will evolve into Mothim since its male" said Ash. He sent out his Burmy. "If our Burmys battle each other yours may evolve into Mothim," said Ash "Dawn send yours out too so she can have a turn after me". Dawn thought that was a good idea and sent out her Burmy.

Ash and Cheryl took their places to battle. Cheryl kept her three Wormadams out to cheer for her Burmy. "This is very kind of you to help me out Ash" said Cheryl. "I helped out a friend in the past with a Paras," said Ash "it will be my pleasure to help your Burmy". Cheryl told her Burmy to use tackle and Ash told his to do the same. Since the Burmys were on the same level with each other, they both got thrown back from tackling each other. "Let's use a different move," said Ash "Burmy use bug bite". "You use bug bite too Burmy" said Cheryl. The two Burmys bit each other with bug bite. "The Burmys are doing well with this state" said Dawn. "Well they were just caught," said Brock "so those two are on the same level with each other". "Okay let's use hidden power Burmy" said Ash. "You use hidden power too Burmy" said Cheryl. The hidden power attacks collided with each other. "How about this, use string shot Burmy" said Ash. Burmy fired a string shot and Chery's Burmy got trapped in it. Cheryl was surprised by that. "Excuse me Ash, but I don't know if my Burmy knows string shot" she said. She asked her Burmy if he knew string shot, but he didn't know it. This meant Ash's Burmy had won this battle.

Ash had a think. "If you ask me," he said "I think the best thing to do now is have Cheryl's Burmy learn string shot before we battle again". "I agree with that," said Brock "and it will give Burmy some confidence too". "Can we have my Burmy learn string shot too?" asked Dawn; her Burmy didn't know string shot either. So Ash's Burmy got to work by teaching Cheryl and Dawn's Burmys to learn string shot. Cheryl's three Wormadams stayed out of their pokeballs to cheer on Cheryl's Burmy. It took some time, but soon both Dawn's and Cheryl's Burmy learnt string shot thanks to Ash's Burmy. "Okay now that we've sorted out with teaching your Burmy string shot Cheryl, let's get back to battling" said Ash. "Okay" said Cheryl.

Suddenly there was a buzzing noise. "Oh no, Beedrill are nearby" said Ash. He was right; a swarm of Beedrill was heading their way. "We must have disturbed them" said Dawn. It was a bit too late to run, so the gang had no choice but to fight the Beedrills. Ash ordered his Burmy to use hidden power and Pikachu to use thunderbolt. Dawn told her Burmy to use hidden power and Piplup to use bubble beam. Tomo ordered his Growlithe to use flamethrower and Cheryl ordered Burmy to use hidden power. Together the six pokemon scared away the swarm of Beedrills. "We did it!" cheered Tomo. "That's a relief" sighed Dawn.

Suddenly Ash's, Dawn's and Cheryl's Burmys started to glow. "I think they are evolving" said Cheryl. She was right; Ash's and Cheryl's Burmys evolved into black, yellow and orange moth type pokemon, they were Mothims. Dawn's Burmy evolved into a Wormadam; since she was green she was the plant cloak form so she was bug and grass type. "Wow, I finally have a Mothim" said Cheryl, happily.

Ash looked at Mothim on the pokedex: Mothim, the moth pokemon. The evolved form of a male Burmy. It does not keep a nest. It flies over fields and mountains in constant search of floral honey.

Ash saw on his pokedex that his Mothim now knew confusion, poison powder, gust and psybeam. "Now that I have a Mothim, we can search for the enchanted honey" said Cheryl.

With Mothim's sense of smell the search for the enchanted honey had now begun.

Now that Cheryl had a Mothim, she and the gang could search for the enchanted honey, but at the moment the only honey Mothim picked up was the ordinary honey from the tree Cheryl had spread on earlier. By now it was getting near to getting dark, so Brock decided they get rest down for the night and continue their search tomorrow.

Next day Cheryl and the gang started again with their search for the enchanted honey. But Mothim wasn't doing well on finding the honey or Amber Castle. Right now they came across a Gloom; Mothim had become attracted to its nectar. Suddenly a woman with orange and black hair, and dressed like a jungle explorer came out. "Ah a Gloom, so magnificent" said the woman. It was clear this woman liked grass type pokemon. Just then Gloom sprayed its smell and ran away. "Ah I wanted to catch it, never mind" said the woman.

The woman introduced herself as Gardenia to Cheryl and the gang, and Cheryl and the gang introduced themselves to Gardenia. "Do you trainers have any grass type pokemon?" asked Gardenia. Ash said he had a Venasaur, Parasect, Leafeon, Sceptile, Meganium, Shiftry, Breloom, Cradily, Tropius, Budew and Turtwig. Tomo said he had a Grovyle, Sunflora and a Lileep. Brock said he had a Weepinbell, Ludicolo, Lileep and a Nuzleaf, and Dawn said she had a Wormadam. "Wow that's impressive" said Gardenia. She was mostly impressed with what grass pokemon Ash had. "Ash will you be challenging the gym in Eterna City?" "Yes, and so will my brother Tomo" answered Ash. "That's great to hear" said Gardenia. Truth is she was the gym leader of the Eterna Gym and she asked Ash if she could battle him. "Hold on though we are searching for some enchanted honey" said Dawn. "It's okay," said Cheryl "you have a fun battle Gardenia and Ash".

So Ash and Gardenia took their places to have a battle; the rule was 2 on 2. Gardenia sent out her first pokemon; this pokemon was called a Cherubi and it was like one big cherry and a smaller cherry stuck on a big leaf.

Dawn looked at Cherubi on her pokedex: Cherubi, the cherry pokemon. The small ball holds the nutrients needed for evolution. Apparently, it is very sweet and tasty.

Ash sent out his Budew to battle Cherubi. "Wow Ash, your Budew looks magnificent" said Gardenia. "Thanks and we are ready to go" said Ash.

Ash started by telling Budew to use razor leaf, but Cherubi dodged the leaves. "Use extrasensory Budew" said Ash. Budew fired an extrasensory attack, but again Cherubi ran to dodge it. Then Gardenia returned Cherubi and sent out her second pokemon a Turtwig. "Wow did Gardenia return Cherubi?" asked Tomo. "I think she did it because she was testing Budew's strength" said Brock. Ash told Budew to use bullet seed, but this Turtwig dodged it easily. To everyone's surprise, this Turtwig was faster than any other Turtwig. "Budew use sludge bomb" said Ash. Budew fired a sludge bomb attack at Turtwig, but Turtwig dodged the sludge bombs and tackled Budew very hard. "Wow that Turtwig is strong," said Tomo "I thinks it's stronger than Ash's Turtwig". Brock agreed with that. Budew was still okay to continue fighting and Ash told her to use bullet seed. But again Turtwig dodged the bullet seed attack and tackled Budew hard again. The last tackle was too much for Budew and she fainted. Tomo was looking surprised of how strong Gardenia's Turtwig was; this made him understood that he would need to train his pokemon more before challenging her to a gym battle.

Ash returned Budew and sent out his Mothim to battle. "As Mothim is a bug and flying type it gives Ash a type advantage," said Brock "but how will Gardenia deal with this?" Ash ordered Mothim to use psybeam, but Turtwig dodged the psybeam attacks. 'Okay,' thought Ash 'that Turtwig is faster than my Turtwig. In fact I think it's almost as fast as a Rapidash. I need to slow Turtwig down, but I know how'. "Mothim use confusion". Mothim held Turtwig in the air with confusion, and Turtwig couldn't run away from this. "Now psybeam" said Ash. Mothim hit Turtwig with psybeam. "Success" said Dawn. "One thing about confusion is it stops a pokemon in its tracks" said Brock. Dawn thought this could be useful to her because she knew her Smoochum could learn confusion. Gardenia was impressed, but she wasn't beaten yet. "Turtwig use leech seed" she said. Turtwig released a seed from the sprout on its head and Mothim became trapped from the seed and vines, having his energy zapped. Ash knew he was in trouble now. "Leaf storm Turtwig" said Gardenia. "Use protect Mothim" said Ash. As Turtwig fired leaf storm, Mothim used protect, and the leaf storm didn't attack him. But he still got his energy sapped from the leech seed. Gardenia ordered Turtwig to use leaf storm again, and this time Mothim got hit by it before Ash could do anything. The leaf storm attack and getting zapped from leech seed was too much for Mothim and he fainted.

So Ash lost the match; he wasn't disappointed because this was good practice against Gardenia and it made Ash and Tomo understand what they would be up against when they challenged her at her gym. "I was impressed with your Budew Ash," said Gardenia "why I think it will evolve soon". "Really?" asked Ash "because my Budew wants to evolve and she's not the only one because my Piplup and Shinx are eager to evolve too". Ash explained to Gardenia about how he met Budew, Piplup and Shinx, their old trainer who died and about them being together for a long time. "I understand" said Gardenia. With the battle over, Ash and Tomo had some time to think about what to do when they challenge Gardenia to gym battles.

That night Cheryl explained to Gardenia that she was searching for the Amber Castle for the enchanted honey. "Ah I've heard of that" said Gardenia. Cheryl explained that her grandfather, who was a treasure hunter too, never succeeded on finding the enchanted honey so she intended to find it. "Well," said Gardenia "you know that the enchanted honey is made from the nectar that Combee gather?" Cheryl said she did. "Well I come here to Eterna Forest to catch new grass type pokemon all the time," said Gardenia "and there are some pomeg plants where Combee gather and there's also a big Combee wall, which is a big gathering of Combee". "That makes sense to me," said Ash "so the honey must be near the Combee wall". So everyone agreed that tomorrow they will go look for the pomeg plants and Gardenia agreed to lead the way since she knew Eterna Forest very well. "Oh Cheryl," said Gardenia "since you are a treasure hunter, do you think you can tell me what this is?" She took out a light green plate, with a darker outline, from underneath her cloak. "Hey that's a plate" said Ash. "You know what this thing is Ash?" asked Gardenia. Ash took out two plates from his back pack. "Those look the same as the one I have here but different coloured" said Gardenia. "You see I found this red plate in a bush before we went to Jubilife City, and I found this light brown one when we were in Oreburgh City;" said Ash "I found it buried in the ground at the Oreburgh mine". The light brown plate had a darker outline too. "Well Ash you can have my plate too, I don't need it for anything" said Gardenia, and she gave her plate to Ash. So Ash had three of these mysterious plates. "Okay everyone let's get some rest for our exhibition" said Brock. Everyone else agreed and soon they were all asleep.

The next day Gardenia guided Cheryl and the gang to the area where pomeg plants were; pomeg plants grew pomeg berries. There were no berries on the plants right now; they were growing flowers at the moment. Suddenly a Nuzleaf turned up. Gardenia said it was a Nuzleaf who brings her messages and the message Nuzleaf had for her said there was an emergency at Eterna City, so Gardenia had to leave. Cheryl thanked Gardenia for her help and Gardenia wished Cheryl luck on finding the enchanted honey. Then Gardenia left with Nuzleaf.

Suddenly a yellow, orange and black pokemon, which looked like a combination of three honeycombs and honeybee, came out from behind a plant. "It's a Combee" said Brock. "Then the enchanted honey must be close by," said Dawn "let's go". So after finding a Combee, Cheryl and the gang felt they were getting close on finding the enchanted honey.

As Cheryl and the gang chased after Combee, Dawn looked at it on her pokedex: Combee, the tiny bee pokemon. It collects and delivers honey to its colony. At night, they cluster to form a beehive and sleep.

While the group were chasing after Combee, Team Rocket was walking through the forest too. They had heard about the enchanted honey and wanted some for themselves. Story is they knew that smothering honey on honey trees was a great way to gather up some wild pokemon, so they wanted enchanted honey to attract lots of wild pokemon. "Okay so how will we find this honey?" asked Jessie. "Look for Combee," said James "as a boy I was told that Combee gather nectar to make the enchanted honey. So we find Combee, we find the honey". "Hey is that a Combee there?" asked Meowth, pointing to the right. Jessie and James looked and yes there was a Combee there. "That's a female Combee," said James "it's got a red-pink mark on the top of the middle face, and it will evolve into a Vespiquen". It showed a picture of Vespiquen to the others; it was a big bee pokemon and looked just like a queen. "The male Combee doesn't have any special marks like the female and they don't evolve into anything". Meowth looked at the Combee. "You know, she doesn't look every happy," he said "I wonder why?" Meowth was right; the Combee looked cross. Team Rocket walked to the Combee and Meowth asked it what was wrong. Combee replied in an angry tone. "What's she saying?" asked James. "According to her buzz," said Meowth "she'd fed up because of how bossy the Vespiquen is. And she wants to evolve soon so she can leave the hive". "That's right," said James "the female Combee aren't allowed to heave the hive until they evolve". This gave Jessie an idea. "Hey Combee," she said "we can help you to evolve, but we would like some enchanted honey in return. We want to use it to gather up wild pokemon for ourselves". Combee started to talk. "She said she will get the honey after she evolves" said Meowth. "Well then let's get to work" said Jessie.

Meanwhile Cheryl and the gang had come to a waterfall and there were Combee walls everywhere. Mothim, Pikachu and Growlithe went towards a waterfall and noticed a cave behind the water. Cheryl was getting excited and everyone ran into the cave. The cave was huge. Pikachu, Growlithe and Mothim sniffed the air. "Since pokemon can smell the aroma of honey, I reckon that Pikachu, Growlithe and Mothim can smell it in this cave" said Brock. "That means the amber castle must be in this cave" said Cheryl. Pikachu, Growlithe and Mothim started to run ahead and the humans followed them.

At that time Team Rocket was getting ready to help Combee evolve to Vespiquen. "Okay what shall we do first?" asked Meowth. James was looking at info on Combee on his laptop. "It says the only moves Combee knows are gust, sweet scent and bug bite, which isn't bad," said James "but it says it can learn air cutter, string shot, ominous wind, mud slap and swift. "Then that's what we'll do then; we'll help Combee learn these moves with our pokemon's help" said Jessie. Jessie sent out her Dustox to teach Combee to learn air cutter, string shot and ominous wind. Meowth offered to teach Combee swift and James sent out his Ursaring to teach Combee mud slap. "Okay Combee it's time for you to learn some new moves to help you evolve" said Jessie. Combee was getting excited.

At that time Cheryl and the gang were following Pikachu, Growlithe and Mothim in the cave. The cave was dark with many tunnels; it was easy to get lost in. "Oh man," moaned Dawn "we have been walking for ages and we don't seem to be getting anywhere near yet of finding this amber castle". "It's true we just find rocks and tunnels and more" agreed Ash. Cheryl was getting worried if they would ever find it and now they were walking down the darkest part of the cave.

Just then the group reached to what looked like a dead end because they arrived at a big wall. Cheryl looked at the wall. "This wall looks like it's moving" she said. The truth is this wall was really a big Combee wall. The Combees started to attack to make the group go away, but Cheryl had her Mothim use supersonic. The supersonic attack made the Combees stop attack and separate from each other, revealing a golden-yellow chamber that looked just like a castle. "It's the amber castle" said Cheryl, happily. The big Combee wall was to protect the amber castle and keep intruders out. There were Combee walls everywhere and pools of honey.

Inside the amber castle there was a Vespiquen watching over the chamber, like a queen watching the throne room on her throne.

Dawn looked at Vespiquen on her pokedex: Vespiquen, the beehive pokemon. The evolved form of a female Combee. It houses its colony in cells in its body and releases various pheromones to make those grubs do its bidding.

Cheryl bravely started to walk towards Vespiquen. "No Cheryl" said Dawn, worriedly. Combee started to gather around Cheryl, fearing she may attack the queen and castle.

Back with Team Rocket, Combee had successfully learnt air cutter, mud slap, ominous wind, swift and string shot thanks to Dustox, Ursaring and Meowth. "That's great Combee," said Jessie "now we start battling with you to make you stronger and evolve". Jessie decided to use Dustox, James decided to use Mime Jr and even Meowth agreed to battle Combee. Combee was ready to battle.

Back in the amber castle, Cheryl was bravely talking to Vespiquen. She was saying to her that she wasn't here to attack her colony or her castle and not here to steal the honey. "My grandfather was a treasure seeker and tried to find the amber castle and the enchanted honey, but he couldn't find it. That's why I am here to fulfil his steps of finding your honey. I wish to take a little bit of your honey to add to my grandfather's treasure collection". Vespiquen stared at Cheryl. The gang waited in worry to see how Vespiquen would react.

Meanwhile Combee and Meowth were having a battle with each other. Meowth moved in to use fury swipes, but Combee dodged and used mud slap on Meowth. "Okay time for swift" said Meowth, and he threw a swift attack. Combee countered the attack with swift. "I've got to say Combee," said Meowth "you sure know how to fight for a small bee pokemon". Combee liked the compliment. Suddenly she started to glow and then evolved into Vespiquen. "You did it Combee!" cheered Meowth "you evolved!" Vespiquen couldn't stop buzzing for joy. Then she started to talk. "She's saying that now she's evolved she can leave the hive at last" said Meowth. Vespiquen talked some more. "Now she says she has to see the Vespiquen of amber castle to let her know she's evolved before she leaves" said Meowth. "That makes sense," said James "a pokemon must always talk to the leader of swarms and such before they leave it for good". "Don't forget about the enchanted honey you promised us" reminded Jessie, giving her an empty honey jar. Then Vespiquen left.

Back in the amber castle Vespiquen had one of her Combees fill Cheryl's empty honey jar with some enchanted honey. She had accepted to let Cheryl have some honey. "Thank you Vespiquen" said Cheryl, happily. She had the gang had a taste of the enchanted honey. "Wow this really is sweeter than normal honey" said Brock. "Delicious" said Dawn. "And me without any bread" said Ash. Growlithe and Pikachu liked the honey too.

Suddenly Vespiquen, who Team Rocket had helped, arrived. "One of the female Combees must have evolved" said Brock. "Since it evolved she will leave the amber castle and start a home somewhere else" said Cheryl. The two Vespiquens talked to each other and then the second Vespiquen filled up her empty jar with the enchanted honey. "It probably is taking some honey to remind it of home" said Brock. Then the Vespiquen left the amber castle. "I hope that Vespiquen will live a happy life somewhere" said Cheryl.

What nobody knew was the Vespiquen took the enchanted honey back to Team Rocket. "Thank you Vespiquen" said James, taking the jar. "With this we can attract many new wild pokemon" said Meowth. "Well Vespiquen time for you to start a colony somewhere then" said Jessie. But Vespiquen didn't fly away. "What's wrong?" asked Jessie. Vespiquen buzzed. "She's saying she wants to stay with us and get strong some more" said Meowth. "Really you want to stay with us?" asked Jessie. Vespiquen nodded yes. "Well then welcome to out group" said Jessie, in surprise. Jessie took out an empty pokeball and caught Vespiquen. "A new team member for me!" cheered Jessie. James and Meowth were happy for Jessie. "Come on let's leave this forest to find a honey tree and use our honey to attract wild pokemon" sad James. "Yeah forward onto pokemon capturing" said Jessie, and the trio left the forest happily.

Meanwhile the group had left the amber castle too. "I can't thank all of you enough for your help" said Cheryl. "We're glad you found the enchanted honey at last" said Ash. "What are you going to do now Cheryl?" asked Dawn. "There is still so many treasures for me to find," said Cheryl "so I will leave now to continue searching for treasures". Cheryl said goodbye to the gang and left by herself. So with the enchanted honey and amber castle finally found, the gang could now leave the Eterna Forest to get to Eterna City.

Chapter 118

Buizel,

Lucian and

The Eterna Historical Museum

After leaving Eterna Forest, something exciting happened. There was a pokemon dress up contest, which was a contest with pokemon dressing up or imitating a different pokemon. And the prize for the competition was a pokemon egg. Ash entered with Pikachu, who imitated other pokemon like Mudkip or Lotad or Wobbuffet. Brock entered with Croagunk dressed up like a Politoed, Dawn entered with Piplup dressed like a Weedle and Tomo entered with his Castform dressed like a Shuppet. In the end Brock and his Croagunk won, and Brock got the pokemon egg which made him very happy.

Now the gang was on route 205 on their way for Eterna City. Suddenly two people rushed by with injured pokemon. Ash asked a fisherman what happened, and the fisherman explained that there is a wild Buizel in the river which loves to pick fights with pokemon. "I'd stay away from there if I was you, or your pokemon will be badly hurt like my Zigzagoon" said the fisherman, and he rushed away to a pokemon center. "Let's go see this Buizel," said Ash "if it's as strong as that fisherman said, then I say it will be perfect for my team".

The gang soon came to a river and Ash, Dawn and Tomo started fishing. "When do you suppose this Buizel will turn up?" asked Tomo. "Don't know," said Ash "so we'll have to be ready for this. Suddenly Zoey turned up. "Hi there" she said. Dawn was happy to see Zoey and showed her, her Floaroma ribbon. Zoey explained she recently lost in a pokemon contest, so she still had two contest ribbons. "By the way Ash and Dawn, there is a pokemon contest in Hearthome City". "Really thanks for telling us that Zoey" said Ash. "You here for some fishing Zoey" asked Brock. "Yes I hope to catch a water type pokemon" answered Zoey.

Suddenly Tomo's fishing rod started to pull, which meant he got a bite. "Awe is that Buizel?" said Tomo. Tomo pulled onto his rod, but what he caught was not a Buizel. He caught a black and light blue fish, with a pink-purple stripe across the middle and pink-purple spots on the tail, which looked like butterfly wings. "That's a Finneon" said Zoey.

Dawn looked at Finneon on her pokedex: Finneon, the wing fish pokemon. The line running down its side can store sunlight. It shines vividly at night.

Tomo sent out his Bidoof and told him to use headbutt. Bidoof headbutted Finneon hard and caused it to flinch. "This one's mine" said Tomo, and he tossed a pokeball. In a matter of seconds, Finneon was caught. "That was a good catch Tomo" said Zoey. Tomo saw on his pokedex that Finneon was female and she knew pound, water gun, gust, attract, rain dance and the egg moves psybeam and sweet kiss.

Just then Dawn's rod started to pull. Dawn reeled it in and out came Buizel.

Ash looked at Buizel on his pokedex: Buizel, the sea weasel pokemon. It stores air in the sacs on its neck and uses them as flotation devices, and swims by spinning its two tails like a propeller.

'That Buizel is different than the one I saw before' thought Ash. This Buizel looked tough and cross; nothing like the Buizel that Lizabeth and her family had, which was very friendly. "Okay this one is mine, go Piplup" said Dawn, throwing Piplup's pokeball. Dawn ordered Piplup to use peck, but Buizel dodge it. It even dodged Piplup's bubble beam attacked and then attacked Piplup with water gun. "You're okay Piplup use bubble beam again" said Dawn. Piplup fired some more bubbles, but Buizel used aqua jet, which broke the bubbles apart and it tackled Piplup. "Wow that fisherman wasn't kidding about Buizel being strong" said Ash; he was impressed. Piplup was getting exhausted from battling Buizel. Dawn tried to tell Piplup to hang in there, but Buizel knocked out Piplup with another aqua jet.

After defeating Piplup, Buizel turned to Zoey. This Buizel was a real fighting machine and wanted to fight Zoey now. Zoey accept the challenge and sent out her Glameow. Zoey told her Glameow to use shadow claw, but Buizel dodged it and attacked with sonic boom. "Use fury swipes Glameow" said Zoey. Glameow's fury swipes attack knocked the sonic boom attacks away. Then Buizel attacked with water gun, but Glameow dodged it. Next Glameow attacked with shadow claw and Buizel used aqua jet. The two pokemon collided with each other, but in the end Buizel defeated Glameow with aqua jet. 'That Buizel really is something' thought Ash.

Next Buizel turned to Tomo for a battle. "Okay Buizel it's my turn" said Buizel, and he sent out his Electabuzz to battle. "There's no way Buizel can defeat Electabuzz" said Dawn.

What no one knew was Team Rocket had been watching everything this whole time. "Well, well, well, there's a pokemon that's great for Team Rocket" said Meowth. "I agree," said James "and when we get more Buizel from around it could toughen up the others for us". "What shall we do about this battle," sad Jessie "that twerp's Electabuzz will easily defeat that Buizel and the twerp will catch it for sure". "No problem Jessie, my Weezing can handle this" said James. His plan was to interrupt the battle between Buizel and Electabuzz.

At that time Buizel was using aqua jet, while Electabuzz moved in with thunder punch. But before the two pokemon could collide with each other a smoke screen attack appeared and interrupted the battle; the smoke screen was from Weezing. "What's going on here?" asked Zoey. "It's a smoke screen" said Brock. Ash sent out his Staravia to blow away the smoke. When the smoke cleared, everyone saw that Buizel was gone. "Where'd it go?" asked Dawn. "It must have left when that smokescreen came" said Brock. Ash didn't like the look of this.

What had happened was Buizel swam away from the smoke in the stream, and then it met up with Team Rocket. "You're one strong Buizel," said Meowth "and that is why we would love to have you become a part of Team Rocket". "Yes you will help Team Rocket become stronger" said Jessie. Buizel frowned, shook its head and started to speak. "It's saying that it won't join us and it fights alone" said Meowth. "Hey don't be like that," said Jessie, a bit crossly, "once you join Team Rocket, you can fight all you want". Buizel still refused. "All right then," said James "we'll do this the other way". He and Jessie decided to just battle Buizel and catch it themselves. James sent out Chinchou and Vileplume and Jessie sent out Grumpig and Cloyster to battle. "You will be ours Buizel" said Jessie. "No it won't!" shouted a voice.

The voice came from Dawn. The gang had been worried about Buizel and Ash used his aura to locate where it was, and thanks to that they found Buizel with Team Rocket. "There is no way we are going to let you have Buizel!" shouted Dawn. "Be off with you twerps," said Jessie "we are going to get it". Dawn wasn't going to let Team Rocket get Buizel and she sent out Piplup, Buneary, Wormadam, Pachirisu, Smoochum and Drifloon. "Piplup bubblebeam, Buneary ice beam, Wormadam razor leaf, Pachirisu discharge, Smoochum powder snow and Drifloon shadow ball" she said. Dawn's pokemon and Jessie and James's pokemon began to fight. Buizel saw the situation and joined in the fight. With Buizel's help Chinchou, Vileplume, Granbull and Cloyster got defeated and Team Rocket quickly fled the scene with their pokemon, before they could be blasted off again.

After Team Rocket fled, Buizel turned to Dawn's Piplup; it wanted to fight him again. Dawn returned Wormadam, Pachirisu, Buneary, Drifloon and Smoochum and then got ready to battle Buizel with Piplup. "Piplup use bubble beam" said Dawn. Piplup blew the bubbles, but Buizel's water gun was stronger and over powered Piplup. "Use peck" said Dawn. Piplup tried to peck Buizel but it was too fast. Buizel fought back with sonic boom, but Piplup dodged it. Buizel used aqua jet next and Piplup couldn't dodge the attack this time. Piplup attacked with bubble beam, but Buizel dodged the bubbles and attacked Piplup with water gun. This was getting tough for Dawn and Piplup. Zoey suggested to Dawn that she should battle like this was a contest battle. Dawn remembered what it was like battling in a pokemon contest, and she ordered Piplup to spin and use bubble beam. Piplup spun round like a top and fired bubble beam. The bubbles spun round Buizel like a tornado. "Buizel doesn't know a thing about battle combinations" said Brock. Dawn ordered Piplup to use peck and Buizel got pecked hard by Piplup. Dawn threw a pokeball at Buizel to catch it, but Buizel wasn't weakened enough yet and broke out of the pokeball. Buizel attacked with sonic boom and Piplup got knocked into the river. "Piplup stay right there" said Dawn; she had an idea. Buizel charged towards Piplup with aqua jet, but then Dawn ordered Piplup to use whirlpool. Buizel got hit by the whirlpool and then it got hit by Piplup's bubble beam attack. Buizel became really weak, so Dawn tried the pokeball again. This time it was successful and Buizel became Dawn's new pokemon, and the pokeball went to Prof Rowan's lab since Buizel was Dawn's 8th pokemon.

Piplup was really weak after battling Buizel and needed to be taken to a pokemon center to heal up. Zoey decided to stay by the river to catch a water pokemon for her-self. "I'll see you guys at the Hearthome Contest" said Zoey. The gang said goodbye to Zoey and headed off for a pokemon center.

After catching Buizel, Dawn tried to introduce him to her other pokemon. But Buizel didn't greet the pokemon. Piplup didn't like Buizel's attitude and ended getting into a fight with Buizel. Dawn wasn't happy with this. "You must remember Dawn, Buizel spend it's time training and fighting alone," said Ash "I have an idea though. My Piplup, Shinx and Budew are itching to have a pokemon battle, so how about they have battles with Buizel?" Buizel accepted the challenges because he was itching for a pokemon battle too.

So Ash got his Piplup, Shinx and Budew from Prof Oak's lab, and then he and Dawn got ready to battle. Ash sent out his Piplup first. "Piplup use bubble beam" said Ash. Dawn ordered Buizel to dodge and use water gun, but Buizel used aqua jet instead. Unfortunately for Dawn, Buizel wasn't listening to her commands and was fighting alone. "Okay Piplup let's move in with pound" said Ash. Piplup tried to use pound, but Buizel dodged it and attacked with sonic boom. Piplup got hit, but he was still willing to fight. "Steel wing" said Ash. Piplup managed to hit Buizel with steel wing, but Buizel fought back with sonic boom. Through this whole battle Buizel didn't listen to a thing Dawn said and wouldn't do as she said. "Enough now" Dawn said; she wasn't getting anywhere with this. So the pokemon battle was called off.

"Dawn I think you need to spend more time with Buizel before you try anything with him again," said Brock "Buizel is new to being a member of a team". Dawn could see that Brock was right; Buizel was a loner who liked fighting.

At a pokemon center, where the gang went to heal all their pokemon, there was something special on TV. A pokemon battle was being shown, but this battle was from a champion league. A champion league was a league where trainers could battle the elite four in any region if they won the pokemon league in any region first. There was a man with light purple hair and wearing glasses was battling a Scizor with a Girafarig. "That's Lucia of the elite four" said Dawn. "Wow I hope I can meet the elite four here in Sinnoh" said Ash. He, Brock and Tomo explained to Dawn they met the elite four members of Kanto, Johto and Hoenn before and the champions too. "Wow that's unbelievable" gasped Dawn; she thought they were lucky. "I wonder if we will meet the Sinnoh elite four?" said Ash. "Actually you will Ash" said a voice.

To the gang's surprise the voice belonged to Lucian of the elite four; he was at the pokemon center. "I have heard about you Ash Ketchum," said Lucian "I know the elite four from Kanto, Johto and Hoenn and they told me about you. In fact they told the others about you too". Lucian explained the other Sinnoh elite four members were a man named Aaron, who specialized in bug type pokemon, a woman named Bertha, who specialized in ground type pokemon, and another man named Flint, who specialized in fire type pokemon. Lucian specialized in psychic type pokemon. He also explained that the champion of Sinnoh was a woman named Cynthia. "Wow it will be great to meet them" said Ash. "I must ask Ash did you ever get to battle any of the elite four members from Kanto, Johto and Hoenn?" asked Dawn. Ash explained he battled Lorelei and Drake. "I lost to them of course but it was fun and exciting to battle elite four members, oh and before Koga became a member of the Johto elite four, I battled him at his Fuchsia Gym and won the badge". Dawn thought Ash was very lucky indeed.

Suddenly Buizel started to talk to Lucian. "Buizel's saying it wants to battle Lucian" said Ash. Buizel understood that Lucian was a strong trainer and that's why he wanted to battle him. Dawn wasn't happy with that, but Lucian accepted the challenge. Dawn and Lucian got ready to battle, while Ash, Tomo and Brock watched from the sides. "Buizel is going to get into trouble with this" said Tomo, who remembered how strong elite four members were. "Yes but it will give him a battle that he wants" said Ash. Lucian sent out a pokemon that looked like a big bell.

Ash looked at the pokemon on his pokedex; Bronzong, the big bell pokemon. In ages past, this Pokémon was revered as a bringer of rain. It was found buried in the ground.

The pokedex also said that Bronzong was a steel and psychic type pokemon.

Dawn started off by trying to tell Buizel to use aqua jet, but Buizel used water gun instead. Bronzong deflected the attack with iron defense. Dawn tried again to have Buizel use aqua jet, but Buizel used sonic boom instead. Again Bronzong used iron defense to deflect the attack. Bronzong fought back by using gyro ball. Dawn tried to have Buizel dodge the attack, but Buizel charged in with aqua jet. Bronzong tackled Buizel very hard, but Buizel was still willing to fight. "Alright Bronzong, time to use flash cannon" said Lucian. "Oh, oh," said Ash "Buizel is done for now". He knew how strong the move flash cannon was; some of his pokemon knew that move. Buizel tried to fight back with water gun, when Bronzong fired flash cannon, but flash cannon broke through the water gun and scored a direct hit on Buizel. Buizel couldn't take anymore after that and fainted.

Lucian apologized to Dawn and told her to take Buizel to a pokemon center at once. Soon Buizel was in the pokemon center getting healed up, and he was better in no time. But because of that loss Buizel was upset. "Losing that battle to Lucian must have been Buizel's first loss," said Ash "remember he was unbeatable back at the river". Ash walked over to Buizel and knelt down beside him. "There's no need to take that loss so hard Buizel," he said "everyone loses in pokemon battles most of the time. But losing in pokemon battles helps you grow stronger. Pikachu and I have lost in pokemon battles before, but we keep on training to grow stronger. So you will be stronger with more training and battling against pokemon that are stronger than you". Buizel looked at Ash, wondering if he was speaking the truth.

A moment later the gang went outside with Buizel. Lucian was outside too. The gang told Lucian about how Buizel was feeling upset right now. "Buizel just needs to make a choice," said Lucian "a choice on what to do with defeat; either it continues to battle or not". Just then Ash's Piplup, Shinx and Budew came out of their pokeballs. "What's wrong you three?" asked Ash. Piplup, Budew and Shinx wanted to do some pokemon battling again. "Okay you three," said Ash "Piplup and Budew you two fight against each other, and Shinx you battle with Pikachu". The four pokemon went off to battle each other. "Your Piplup, Shinx and Budew are quite extraordinary Ash" said Lucian. "Well truth is Lucian, they belonged to somebody else before I obtained them for myself," said Ash "you see they used to live with an old man, but he died and those three were alone when I caught them". "Well it's good that you came into their lives Ash" said Lucian.

Buizel looked at Pikachu, Piplup, Budew and Shinx while they did practice battles. And then he got up from where he was seating and went over to the four pokemon. "It seems Buizel wishes to join them," said Lucian "watching Pikachu, Piplup, Budew and Shinx battle has brought back Buizel's fighting spirit". Ash could see that Lucian was right. "Hey Dawn, why don't you and Buizel battle me again?" he asked Dawn. "Huh?" asked Dawn. "That's a good idea Ash," said Lucian "but I will battle you with Buizel". "What? Really?" gasped Ash. The others were surprised by Lucian's request too, but they agreed to his wish.

So Ash and Lucian took their place to battle. This time Ash decided to use Shinx to battle Buizel. "Shinx start off with tackle" said Ash. Shinx charged to use tackle, but Buizel dodged. "Here's something you won't be able to dodge Buizel, use swift Shinx" said Ash. Shinx fired a swift attack from his tail and Buizel got hit from the stars. "A good attack; swift never misses" said Lucian. He ordered Buizel to use sonic boom and Shinx got hit by it. "Time to charge up Shinx" said Ash. Shinx charged himself up, ready to use an electrical attack. "Now spark". Buizel charged in with aqua jet and the two pokemon tackled each other. Thanks to charge though, Shinx's spark attack was stronger and it overpowered Buizel. Lucian was impressed with how Ash was battling him. He turned to Dawn. "Okay Dawn now it's your turn to give Buizel a command," he said "it's time to see how you and Buizel do now". Brock and Tomo agreed that Dawn should try battling with Buizel now, so Dawn stepped forward to take over. She ordered Buizel to use sonic boom, and to her surprise Buizel did as he was told. Ash ordered Shinx to counter sonic boom with iron tail. "Okay Shinx use spark". "Aqua jet Buizel" said Dawn. Again Buizel followed Dawn's command and Buizel and Spark charged at each other with their attacks.

At that moment Lucian told them to stop. "That is enough" he said. He explained there was no need to go on further because Dawn and Buizel had learnt to fight together. This also meant that Buizel was finally starting to listen to Dawn. Lucian said goodbye to the gang and went on his way.

Now that the problem with Buizel was sorted out, the gang could concentrate of heading towards Eterna City, happy to have met a member of the Sinnoh elite four.

Today the gang had made it to Eterna City, but right now they were visiting the Eterna Historical Museum. It was a history with artifacts and displays from the past.

Suddenly a security alarm went off; that meant there were burglars, stealing something, in the museum. The gang ran over to find out what was going on, and they came to a chamber of the museum where a glass container had been smashed. There standing on a balcony above the gang were three men, with masks on, with a Sunflora, a Magmar and a Poliwrath. When Ash saw the pokemon he could see, with his psychic power, that they were actually Dittos in disguises. One of the men held a big light blue orb in his hands. "We've got the adamant Orb brothers, so let's go" he said.

Suddenly Officer Jenny arrived to try and arrest the men. She had a purple and cream coloured skunk pokemon with her.

Ash looked at the pokemon on his pokedex: Stunky, the skunk pokemon. It sprays a foul fluid from its rear. Its stench spreads over a mile radius, driving Pokémon away.

Before Officer Jenny told her Stunky to do anything, one of the men ordered his 'Magmar' to use smokescreen. The smoke was thick and Officer Jenny ordered to have the security doors shut.

When the smoke was cleared the burglars and their pokemon were gone, along with the orb. The police began questioning people at once, and the gang was asked questions too. Suddenly Gardenia turned up; she had heard about what had happened at the museum and came to help out.

Just then Officer Jenny turned up, claiming she had caught a suspect. To the gang's surprise, she had Nando with her. "Nando, what are you doing here?" asked Ash. Nando explained he had come to visit the museum, but the alarm went off, he and his Sunflora and Roselia were surrounded by police, and his Sunflora ran away from fright. Officer Jenny was suspecting that he was one of the men who stole the Adamant Orb. "Hold on a minute Officer Jenny," said Ash "Nando is no thief". "Ash is right; he's not one of the men who stole that orb" said Tomo. "Then explain this" said Officer Jenny. She held a photo of a Sunflora holding the orb, taken from a security camera. "That Sunflora, Magmar and Swellow that the men had were really three Dittos in disguises" said Ash. Everyone gasped. "Are you sure Ash?" asked Dawn. "Yes," answered Ash "Nando is innocent". "I agree with you on that Ash" said a voice.

The voice came from an Officer Jenny; this Officer Jenny was from Viridian City in Kanto and she had come to Sinnoh for a visit because it was her day off. "You should trust Ash with his words," Viridian Jenny said to Eterna Jenny "Ash has helped all us Officer Jennys in Kanto and the ones in Johto, Hoenn and the Orange Islands with solving mysteries and catching criminals. So you should listen to Ash". Eterna Jenny wasn't really convinced that much and she told her men to take Nando away to question him and find his Sunflora.

Meanwhile the police were patrolling all over the museum and everyone who was there was not allowed to leave the museum yet. The real thieves noticed the police. "What shall we do now bro?" asked one of the men. The eldest of the brothers was the one holding the orb. "First off Dittos transform into Poochyena, Growlithe and Houndour," said the eldest "we don't them to know that you are Dittos". The three Dittos did as they were told. "Now we take off our masks, dress up normally and I'll hide the orb in my bag". So the three brothers took off their masks, dressed themselves to look like normal people, instead of robbers, and got ready to try to leave the museum unnoticed.

At that time Viridian Jenny was explaining to the gang about the adamant orb. The adamant orb was an orb that was said to power up the moves of the legendary pokemon called Dialga. "Oh you mean Dialga the pokemon of time?" asked Ash. "Oh yeah," said Dawn "we saw the statues of Dialga and Palkia, the pokemon of space, outside the museum". Gardenia explained that the legend says that the Sinnoh region was created by Dialga and Palkia, and there were lots of shrines dedicated to them in Sinnoh. And the adamant orb was said to have been dug up from one of the shrines. "What about a shrine for Giratina?" asked Ash "I've also heard about a legend that Giratina also created Sinnoh along with Dialga and Palkia". "That's true Ash, but unfortunately that pokemon was banished from this world because it was said to have been very violent," said Gardenia "so there isn't really any shrines dedicated to Giratina". "Oh" said Ash. This made him wonder if that was true.

But now this was no time to be thinking of legendary pokemon. "Come on everyone we need to find the real thieves and prove Nando's innocence" said Ash. Everyone else agreed with Ash. Ash sent out Pikachu, Mothim, Budew, Shinx, Piplup and Gardevoir to help out. Tomo sent out Growlithe, Pidgeotto, Chimchar, Bidoof, Snubbull and Octillery to help. Dawn sent out her Piplup, Pachirisu, Drifloon, Buneary, Buizel and Smoochum to help out. "Everyone split up to search for Nando's Sunflora and the thieves" said Viridian Jenny. Everyone went their separate ways.

Meanwhile Sunflora was still hiding in the museum. When the police got close to it Sunflora became frightened and trapped them with leech seed. Right now Ash and Dawn were alone together and Ash was concentrating on his aura to find Sunflora and the thieves. "I've found them Dawn," said Ash "and Nando's Sunflora is near where they are". "We must hurry Ash, I'll get the others" said Dawn and she ran off.

Meanwhile the thieves were walking around the museum normally, hoping no one would suspect them. The eldest brother had the adamant orb in his bag. Also Nando's Sunflora was still walking around, hoping to find Nando. Suddenly the gang along with their pokemon and Gardenia and Viridian Jenny turned up. Ash saw the thieves, right through their disguises. "Gardevoir bring that man's bag to me" he said. Gardevoir used confusion to bring the bag to Ash, and then Ash opened up the bag and found the adamant orb. The thieves could believe they were found out so easily. "You thieves can't fool me and I know your Growlithe, Houndour and Poochyena are really Dittos in disguise" said Ash. Hearing what Ash said made the Dittos transform back to their real selves. "Now you're going to get it kid" said the eldest brother, who wanted the orb back.

Ash's Piplup, Shinx and Budew stepped forward to fight. The three Dittos transformed into a Piplup, Budew and Shinx to fight back. "Those Dittos will never beat the real thing" said Ash. He ordered his Piplup to attack Piplup with peck, his Shinx to attack Shinx with ice fang and his Budew to attack Budew with extrasensory. It wasn't long till the six pokemon got into a fight. "You should give up kid" said the middle brother. "Yeah your pokemon will be beaten by our Dittos" said the youngest. "No they won't!" shouted Ash "my pokemon will beat your Dittos!" Piplup, Budew and Shinx agreed.

Suddenly Piplup, Shinx and Budew started to glow and Piplup evolved into Prinplup, Budew evolved into a Roselia and Shinx evolved into a bigger version of itself.

Ash looked at Shinx's evolved form on his pokedex: Luxio, the spark pokemon. The evolved form of Shinx. Strong electricity courses through the tips of its sharp claws. A light scratch causes fainting in foes.

"Okay then, Prinplup steel wing, Luxio spark and Roselia leaf storm" said Ash. Before the thieves' pokemon could do anything Prinplup, Roselia and Luxio defeated the Dittos, and then Pikachu used thunder wave to prevent the thieves from escaping. "Caught you!" said Ash. He and his pokemon were happy with their victory.

Soon the police arrested the thieves and their Dittos. Before they were taken away, the thieves admitted that someone asked them to steal the adamant orb from the museum and they were going to get money in return. So the case was steal open, despite the orb was returned safely. Nando was happy to be free and back with his Sunflora. He thanked the gang, especially Ash. The gang was happy to have helped Nando. Eterna Jenny apologized to Nando and thanked Viridian Jenny, Gardenia and the gang for helping. "Think nothing of it," said Viridian Jenny "always doing my job even when I'm on my day off".

Ash felt suspicious about what had happened today and he turned to Eterna Jenny. "Officer Jenny," he said "are there any organizations here in Sinnoh that cause trouble?" He wondered if there was an organization in Sinnoh like Team Rocket in Kanto and Ex-Team Magma and Ex-Team Aqua from Hoenn. "Actually Ash there is" answered Officer Jenny. She explained that in Sinnoh there was an evil team in Sinnoh called Team Galactic. "I bet they asked the thieves to try to steal the adamant orb" said Viridian Jenny. Eterna Jenny believed that was the case too.

So despite the adamant orb was safe and Nando was proven innocent, the gang had to worry about a new evil organization and wonder when they were going to meet Team Galactic.

Chapter 119

Ash's Gym battle 2,

Tomo's Gym Battle 2,

And Meeting Matt

Today it was time for Ash and Tomo to face Gardenia for their second gym badge. This time Ash was going to challenge the gym first and then Tomo would get his. The Eterna Gym was a dome shaped building and since Gardenia used grass type pokemon the gym had trees and bushes inside and out of the building. Even the battlefield had trees and bushes and grass. Ash and Gardenia took their places while Gardenia's assistant Yoko explained the match was a three on three pokemon battle. Tomo and Growlithe promised to play close attention to this battle, since it was Tomo's turn to battle Gardenia next.

First off Gardenia sent out her Cherubi and Ash sent out his Mothim. Ash took a quick look at the sky and saw the sun shining very bright. He reckoned that Gardenia's pokemon would use the sun to their advantage, especially when using solarbeam; he knew this because he had been there before. Ash started off by telling Mothim to use tackle, but Cherubi dodged it. Ash told Mothim to use psybeam next, but Cherubi dodged it at great speed. The reason why Cherubi was so fast was because it had the ability chlorophyll; an ability that raises a pokemon's speed in sunlight. Gardenia attacked next by telling Cherubi to use solarbeam. Thanks to the sun solarbeam didn't need recharging. "Protect Mothim" said Ash. Mothim protected itself from solarbeam with a protective barrier. "Now use aerial ace" said Ash. Mothim charged at Cherubi and tackled it hard. "Nice, but you'll need to do more than that Ash" said Gardenia. She ordered Cherubi to use solarbeam, but the sun had been covered up by clouds. So instead she ordered Cherubi to use magical leaf. "Counter that with hidden power Mothim" said Ash. The magical leaf and hidden power attacks collided with each other. "Wow, Ash's Mothim is getting good with this despite it wasn't that long ago he evolved from Burmy" said Dawn. "That's because Mothim had been spending time with Ash's Dustox, Beautifly, Butterfree and Venomoth at Prof Oak's lab," said Tomo "so he ended up learning things from them". "It's as we said to you before Dawn, newer pokemon learn a lot of things from older pokemon" said Brock. Dawn started to understand that. "Okay Mothim let's use aerial ace again" said Ash. Before Cherubi could do anything, Mothim charged and tackled it. "Now time to use psybeam". Mothim fired a psybeam attack and Cherubi got hit by it. Cherubi couldn't take anymore after that and fainted. So Ash was the winner of the first round.

Gardenia returned her Cherubi. "Well Ash, you certainly knew what to do despite the sun being out" she said. "I've been in battles with trainers using the weather to their advantages; rain, sun, snow and even the wind" said Ash. Gardenia sent out her Turtwig next. Mothim remembered when he battled Gardenia's Turtwig before. "Let's show that Turtwig how strong you are now Mothim," said Ash "use confusion". Mothim held Turtwig in place with confusion, and then Mothim used psybeam and Turtwig got hit by it. "Your Mothim has gotten strong ever since I last battled it Ash," said Gardenia "but we are not through yet". She ordered Turtwig to use leech seed and Mothim got trapped from the vines before Ash could tell Mothim to do anything. "Quick move in with poison powder Mothim" said Ash. Mothim quickly released poison powder from his wings. Turtwig tried to get away from it, but it got poisoned by the poison powder. "The poison will certainly bring that Turtwig down a notch" said Tomo. "Ash must have known that Turtwig would use leech seed like it did last time, so he planned to use poison powder to help a bit" said Brock. Despite being poisoned Turtwig could still fight and it tackled Mothim very hard. The tackle and the leech seed were too much for Mothim and he fainted. So Gardenia was the winner of the second round.

Ash returned Mothim and sent out Leafeon. "Oh wow Ash," said Gardenia, liking Leafeon, "did you evolve that from an Eevee?" "Well I got him as an Eevee when he was an egg," said Ash "and then I had an old friend of mine to evolve Eevee into Leafeon for me with the moss rock in Eterna Forest, since he was coming here to Sinnoh". Ash and the gang saw the moss rock that evolved Eevees into Leafeons back when they were still in Eterna Forest. Seeing Leafeon made Gardenia decide to get herself an Eevee and evolve it to Leafeon.

Turtwig was still willing to fight and started off with tackle. But Leafeon used protect to prevent being harmed from Turtwig's tackle. "X-scissor Leafeon" said Ash. Leafeon slashed Turtwig hard with x-scissor and since it was a bug type move it did hurt Turtwig a lot. "Wow Ash's pokemon surprise me every time" said Dawn. "Ash's Leafeon and Glaceon are stronger than they ever were from Eevees" said Tomo. He knew because he had already seen their strength. A moment later Turtwig fainted from the poison. So Ash was the winner of the third round.

Gardenia returned Turtwig. "I'm really impressed with the bond you and your pokemon have Ash," said Gardenia "but you still have one more of my pokemon to beat". Her last pokemon was a Roserade. "We must be careful Leafeon," said Ash "Roserade is part poison type as well as grass". Leafeon understood. Leafeon started off with tackle, but Roserade used grass knot which made Leafeon trip over. "Now Roserade weather ball" said Gardenia. Since the sun was shining brightly, the weather ball attack became a fire type move and it hit Leafeon bad. Poor Leafeon fainted after being hit by that move. So Gardenia was the winner of this round.

Tomo, Dawn and Brock were speechless from seeing that, especially it was only one move to take down Leafeon. Ash returned Leafeon and sent out Glaceon to battle. "Since it is an ice type, it should have the advantage over Roserade right?" asked Dawn. "Yes, but with the bright sun about it will be hard for Glaceon to defeat it especially with weather ball" said Brock. Ash knew the bright sun was going to give Glaceon trouble, so he decided to change the weather. "Glaceon make it hail" he said. Glaceon glowed light blue, made clouds cover the sun and made it snow. "That's a good idea to change the weather," said Brock "the move hail not only makes it snow, it also powers up ice type moves". "And Roserade's weather ball will be an ice type move now" said Tomo. Dawn was learning some new things today. "Okay Glaceon time to use blizzard" said Ash. Glaceon blew a blizzard attack, and Roserade got hit by it. "Don't give up yet Roserade, use magical leaf" said Gardenia. Roserade fired a magical leaf attack, but Glaceon countered the attack with ice shard. Then Glaceon fired an ice beam attach, which hit Roserade dead on. Roserade couldn't take that last ice type attack and fainted. So Ash was the winner of the gym battle.

Ash thanked Glaceon and hugged him. Watching the gym battle made Tomo understand of what he would be up against for his gym battle. Gardenia handed Ash his gym badge; it was called the Forrest badge and it was green with white outlines and was shaped like three trees of a forest, with the trunks whited out. "You gave me an exciting gym battle Ash" said Gardenia. She turned to Tomo and said she will battle him tomorrow because her pokemon needed healing. Tomo understood and couldn't for his turn.

The next day it was time for Tomo to battle Gardenia. Thanks to the time he had, Tomo was prepared for this gym battle. "I wonder what pokemon Tomo is going to use?" said Dawn. "Well since he saw what I was against yesterday, I'm sure he has picked the right pokemon for it" said Ash. The rules were as normal a three on three pokemon battle.

Gardenia sent out her Cherubi and Tomo sent out his Ninjask. Tomo started off by telling Ninjask to use aerial ace, but Cherubi dodged it thanks to the speed. Today was a bright sunny day too. "Ninjask is going to have trouble with Cherubi's speed" said Dawn. "No need to worry Dawn, look" said Ash. Dawn looked and noticed Ninjask was glowing white and it was starting to fly faster than normal. "That's Ninjask ability called speed boost," said Ash "it makes a pokemon move faster than normal each turn". "Oh I see, then it will catch up to Cherubi's speed" said Dawn. Gardenia ordered Cherubi to use magical leaf, but Ninjask cut through the leaves with slash. And then Ninjask slashed Cherubi with x-scissor. "Now finish it off with aerial ace Ninjask" said Tomo. Ninjask tackled Cherubi fast and hard and Cherubi fainted. Tomo was the winner of the first round.

Gardenia returned Cherubi and sent out Turtwig. Tomo knew he had to watch out for Turtwig as well as Roserade. "Ninjask use aerial ace" he said. Ninjask moved in with aerial ace and thanks to speed boost it was able to catch up with Turtwig and hit it. "Okay Turtwig use leech seed" said Gardenia. Turtwig fired a leech seed attack and poor Ninjask got trapped by the vines and its energy got sucked out. "Don't give up yet Ninjask use aerial ace again" said Tomo. Ninjask charged at Turtwig again fast and hard and Turtwig fainted from the attack. So Tomo won the second round.

"Wow Ninjask defeated Turtwig too" said Dawn. "Yes but it's still having its energy sucked by the leech seed attack" Brock reminded her. Gardenia returned Turtwig and sent out Roserade. Roserade used weather ball, which of course became a fire type attack because of the sun, and poor Ninjask got hit by hit without having a chance to dodge. Ninjask fainted by the attack. "Oh, oh Tomo will have to watch out for that Roserade" said Dawn. "Yeah, but I'm sure he knows what to do with this after watching Ash battling it yesterday" said Brock.

Tomo returned Ninjask and sent out Charmeleon to battle. "Charmeleon is perfect for this as it's a fire type pokemon" said Dawn. Tomo ordered Charmeleon to start off with flamethrower, but Roserade dodged it. Gardenia ordered Roserade to use weather ball. "Protect, Charmeleon" said Tomo. Charmeleon created a barrier and protected itself from the weather ball attack. Tomo ordered Charmeleon to use flamethrower again, and this time it hit Roserade. Because of the bright shining sun Charmeleon's fire type attack was stronger than usual. Roserade was still standing though. "Okay Roserade use flash" said Gardenia. Roserade flashed very brightly and Charmeleon was blinded by the light. Because of his blindness, Charmeleon could not see anything. "Calm down Charmeleon," said Tomo "if you can't see with your eyes listen out for Roserade instead". Charmeleon stopped panicking and stood still to listen out for Roserade. Roserade fired a weather ball attack. Charmeleon managed to find out where the attack was coming, thanks to his listening, and he countered the attack with overheat. The overheat attack overpowered the weather ball attack and hit Roserade. Roserade fainted after being hit by that fire type move, making Tomo the winner of the gym battle.

Gardenia gave Tomo his Forest badge. "Ash and Tomo both of you gave me great gym battles;" she said "both of you and your pokemon are awesome". The two brothers thanked Gardenia for the compliments, then the gang said goodbye to Gardenia and got ready to leave Eterna City. Ash and Tomo now had two gym badges and only another six to go.

After leaving Eterna City, the gang were cycling on rental bikes on a cycling road; this was the way to Hearthome City. Suddenly Brock's pokemon egg started to glow. "Guys it's time for my egg to hatch" said Brock. Luckily there was a pokemon center nearby and Brock handed his pokemon egg to Nurse Joy. "I'll get everything ready for the hatching right away," said Nurse Joy "oh and Ash there is someone waiting for you in the lobby. Ash was surprised to hear that there was somebody waiting for him, so he decided to check out who somebody was. Tomo and Dawn decided to go with him.

In the lobby was a man wearing a light purple shirt and dark grey shorts. "Are you Ash Ketchum?" asked the man. "Yes sir I am," answered Ash. "Who are you?" The man explained his name was Matt and he was the owner of the Battle Frontier that was held in Sinnoh. "Scott of the Kanto Battle Frontier is my best friend and he told me about you Ash," said Matt "that's why I am here to see if you wish to participate in the Battle Frontier here in Sinnoh". Ash couldn't believe to hear that there was a Battle Frontier in Sinnoh.

While this was going on Jessie, James and Meowth were outside a cave called Wayward Cave. "What pokemon do you suppose are living in this cave?" asked Meowth. "Well according to some research that I did," said James "pokemon called Gible and Bronzor live in here. And they evolve into Garchomp and Bronzong". He showed Jessie and Meowth pictures of Garchomp and Bronzong. "Hey they look perfect for Team Rocket" said Meowth. "That's what I thought so too," said James "so let's go in the cave and capture some Gibles and Bronzors". The trio entered the cave.

Meanwhile Ash and Tomo were explaining to Dawn about the Battle Frontier back in Kanto; the seven battle facilities being like gyms, only tougher, the owners of the facilities called Frontier Brains, earning frontier symbols and if you defeated all of them you would enter the Battle Frontier hall of fame. They also explained to her about Ash entering the Battle Frontier and winning all seven symbols. "Another thing is Dawn," said Ash "after somebody wins the Battle Frontier, they have the honour of become a Frontier Brain themselves". "So since you won the Battle Frontier Ash, does that mean you are a Frontier Brain too?" asked Dawn. "Not yet exactly," said Ash "you see I asked Scott if he could hold my position as Frontier Brain until further notice. I wanted to continue travelling on pokemon journeys before becoming a leader of my own Battle Facility". "I understand," said Dawn "and I'll look forward to seeing you becoming a Frontier Brain". "So Matt what's the Battle Frontier in Sinnoh like?" asked Ash. Matt explained that there were five battle facilities spread around Sinnoh and the challenger wins small golden plaques with pictures of each facility. "Well Ash do you want to challenge the Sinnoh Battle Frontier?" asked Matt. Ash turned to the others. "I'll do it," he said at last "if I can win the Kanto Battle Frontier, I'm sure I can win the Sinnoh Battle Frontier too". So it was official that Ash would challenge the Battle Frontier in Sinnoh. So there were three things for Ash to challenge, the Sinnoh League, the Sinnoh Grand Festival and Sinnoh Battle Frontier.

Suddenly Brock rushed into the lobby. "It's time," he said, excitedly, "my egg is going to hatch now". Ash, Brock, Dawn, Tomo and Matt rushed into the emergency room. "You're just in time" said Nurse Joy. The egg glowed brightly and the egg hatched into a small pink pokemon. "That's a Happiny" said Matt.

Ash looked at Happiny on the pokedex: Happiny, the playhouse pokemon. The pre-evolved form of Chansey. It carefully carries a round, white rock that it thinks is an egg. It's bothered by how curly its hair looks.

"So this pokemon evolves to Chansey huh?" said Ash. Brock was happy to have a new Happiny. Just then Matt took out a white stone, which looked like an egg, from his pocket and gave it to Brock. "This is an oval stone," he said "it evolves Happiny into Chansey and Happinys love to carry these". Happiny took the stone from Brock and placed it in her pouch. This was a start of a new life for Happiny.

With Happiny hatched from the egg, it was time for the gang to leave. "I look forward to seeing you Ash at the first Battle Facility" said Matt. He told him the first Battle Facility was outside a place called Alamos Town, so the gang decided to go there first before going to Hearthome City. Matt also decided to watch Ash battle the facilities. "I'll see you there Matt" said Ash. Then the gang left on the bikes along the cycling road.

Meanwhile Jessie, James and Meowth had come out of Wayward Cave holding a big bag full of dusk balls. "Well we did it," smiled Meowth "we captured a lot of Gibles and Bronzors". "Yes so let's send them to the boss now" said Jessie. "This load will give us a good pay" smiled James.

Today had been a good day for both the gang and Team Rocket.

Chapter 120

Ash talks with Mewtwo

And The Battle Castle

The gang were camping out in the middle of nowhere. They had just left a place called Alamos Town. Because of an incident that took place there, Dawn couldn't stop thinking of their visit. "I must ask," she asked the boys "was that incident with Dialga and Palkia like the incidents you told me about". "Yes, but normally it's a bad guy that's behind the incidents" said Brock. "Yeah but there was no bad guy this time who was at fault in Alamos Town" said Ash. "Except Baron Alberto" joked Tomo. The others laughed. "I have to say," said Brock "we did get Dialga and Palkia to stop fighting, but we never found out why they were fighting with each other". "You're right Brock," said Ash "but we'll probably find out why the next time we see them. I have a feeling that somehow we may end up meeting Dialga and Palkia again". Dawn hoped if they did it wouldn't have anything to do with another raging battle.

Because of what had happened in Alamos Town, Ash decided to talk to Mewtwo about it. He went a bit away from the others with Pikachu and took out his master ball. 'Mewtwo it's Ash' he said. Mewtwo was flying over a forest when he heard Ash's telepathic message. 'Ash,' said Mewtwo 'I've heard from wild pokemon that a disturbance happened in a place called Alamos Town. What happened?' Ash explained to Mewtwo about the fight between Dialga and Palkia. 'They have stopped fighting now thanks to a song called Oración, which has the ability to calm down raging pokemon. But I have a feeling that we may end up meeting them again'. 'Did someone do anything to them to make them fight each other?' asked Mewtwo, remembering what happened with Groudon and Kyogre. 'No there was no bad guy there controlling them,' said Ash 'and the others and I never found out what caused them to fight each other'. Mewtwo frowned. 'Mewtwo I fear that Brock, Tomo, Dawn and I are going to go through rough times here in Sinnoh'. Mewtwo believe that as well and he promised to tell Ash at once if he felt any disturbance with Dialga and Palkia again.

After having the talk with Mewtwo Ash went back to the others. So there were three things to deal with during the journey in Sinnoh. 1. Deal with Hunter J. 2. Find out about Team Rocket. And 3. Find out what the deal between Dialga and Palkia was all about.

Today the gang were walking in a big grassy field in the middle of nowhere. Ash was looking at a map Matt gave him. This map was to direct him to where the first Sinnoh battle facility was. "So Ash are you excited about this first battle facility?" asked Dawn. "Oh yes, it will be great to challenge another battle frontier" said Ash. "You'll have to prepare for yourself Ash," said Brock "no doubt these frontier brains will be as tough as the ones back in Kanto". Ash agreed, but he still couldn't wait to start challenging the Sinnoh Battle Frontier.

Suddenly a navy blue sports car drove up to the gang. It was Matt. "Hi there kids" said Matt. "Hey Matt," said Ash "are you here so to watch me challenge the first battle facility?" Ash had a feeling that Matt would want to Ash challenge the battle facilities, like Scott did in Kanto, and he was right Matt did want to watch Ash. Matt offered to give the gang a lift and the gang accepted. Ash, Tomo and Brock feared though that Matt would be a speeder like Scott was in his sports car. But the good news was Matt drove normally. Matt drove the gang to a magnificent stone castle, with a big flower garden. "Ash this is the first battle facility, the Battle Castle" he said. "Wow it's gorgeous" said Dawn. "Well here we go" said Ash, who felt ready for this.

Matt and the gang walked up to the castle and Ash called out; "I'm here to challenge you to a battle!" It was then the castle doors opened and then a smart looking butler came out. "Greetings," said the butler, bowing to everyone, "please come on in". The gang followed the butler into the castle; the inside of the castle was as beautiful as it was outside. "Wow this is lovely" said Dawn, in amaze. "I see you've kept the castle clean as always Darach" said Matt. "It is how Lady Caitlin likes it Matt" said Darach. Matt explained that the castle was run by a woman named Lady Caitlin and Darach is her butler. "So will I be battling Lady Caitlin?" asked Ash. "No you will not be battling me" said a voice.

The voice belonged to a woman who came out to greet Matt and the gang. She was a beautiful woman with very long blonde hair and she wore a white and pink dress with a very light pink see through veil and a big white hat. "It's nice to see you again Lady Caitlin" said Matt. "It has been a while Matt" said Lady Caitlin. Matt introduced Ash for Lady Caitlin. "I have come here to challenge the Battle Castle, Lady Caitlin" said Ash. Darach stepped forward and said that Ash was to battle him.

Darach made tea and cakes for Lady Caitlin, Matt and the gang. Lady Caitlin explained that Darach was the frontier brain of the Battle Castle, the Castle Valet. She also explained that she was also a member of the elite four in the region Unova. The gang were surprised to hear that. "That's a surprise," said Ash "meeting an Unova elite four, and yet we haven't set foot in Unova yet". Lady Caitlin smiled. "I heard about you Ash from Lucien," she said "he told me that you met the elite four members of Kanto, Johto and Hoenn". "It's true I have," said Ash "and I hope to meet the other elite four members here in Sinnoh, and hopefully the elite four in Unova too". Lady Caitlin smiled. "So tell me who is it that I'm challenging".

Matt explained that even though Lady Caitlin was the owner of the Battle Castle, Darach was the frontier brain of the castle. He was Castle Valet Darach. "Oh so since you're a Unova elite four member Lady Caitlin," said Brock "I take it Darach took over as frontier brain for you?" asked Dawn. "Not exactly," answered Lady Caitlin "you see Darach as always been the frontier brain of the Battle Castle even when I was still a child". Matt explained that Lady Caitlin has psychic powers, but she always loses control of them when angry or upset. Ash understood; it reminded him of Sabrina just a little bit. This also meant that Lady Caitlin used psychic pokemon. Lady Caitlin admitted that in the past she always got upset whenever she lost a pokemon battle. So because of that Darach became the frontier brain and battled challengers in the Battle Castle. The gang understood. "So Ash, are you ready to challenge me?" asked Darach. "Yes I am" answered Ash.

Everyone went to a room of the castle, where the battles took place. The battle room was big and beautiful with yellow-gold and green carpets; it was really like a grand ballroom. The battle field was also a big yellow-gold carpet. There was even a balcony with big throne chairs, where Lady Caitlin sat to watch the battles. Matt and the gang sat in the chairs too to watch the battle, and Growlithe, Pikachu and Piplup sat on the balcony too. Dawn liked this; it was like being a princess to her. Darach and Ash took their place on the battle field to begin the battle.

This was the start of Ash's Sinnoh Battle Frontier challenge.

The rule for this challenge was a three on three pokemon battle. Darach sent out his first pokemon Staraptor.

Tomo thought Staraptor was cool and looked at it on his pokedex: Staraptor, the predator pokemon. The evolved form of Staravia. It has a savage nature. It will courageously challenge foes that are much larger.

Ash thought it was awesome and couldn't wait for his Staravia to evolve to that. He sent out his Swellow to battle first. Dawn looked at Swellow on her pokedex. "Since Swellow is a flying type like Staraptor is, wouldn't it end up difficult for Ash?" she asked. "It can do," said Brock "but Swellow like to face tough opponents like Staraptor does. That's why Ash chose Swellow to battle first". Lady Caitlin was excited to see how Ash battles, and so was Matt.

Ash started off by telling Swellow to use peck. But Staraptor dodged it. "Wow that Staraptor is fast" said Dawn. "Yes, but don't count out Swellow's speed" said Brock. Ash ordered Swellow to use aerial ace, and this time Swellow hit Staraptor. Dawn was impressed with Swellow's speed and so were Lady Caitlin and Matt. Darach ordered Staraptor to use close combat and Staraptor started kicking, pecking and hitting Swellow. "What move is that?" asked Dawn. "Close combat is a fighting type move," said Brock "it wouldn't really do a lot of damage to Swellow since it's a flying type, but Darach's Staraptor is strong. But one thing about close combat is that it lowers the users defence". "Swellow break away from Staraptor with agility" said Ash. Swellow flew away from Staraptor with speed. "Now use heat wave". Swellow fired a heat wave attack from his beak and the flames hit Staraptor. "Wow" said Dawn. Dawn was impressed with Ash's older pokemon every time she saw them in battle. "You are clearly impressive Ash," said Darach "but now Staraptor use brave bird". Ash ordered Swellow to use brave bird too. Brock explained to Dawn that brave bird was a very powerful flying type move, but it could cause damage to the user too. Staraptor and Swellow charged at each other with brave bird. Swellow suffered more damage than Staraptor did. "I don't think Swellow will be able to take any more after this" said Tomo. He was right; Swellow and Staraptor charged at each other with aerial ace, and then Swellow fainted. Darach was the winner of the first round.

Dawn was surprised with what just happened. "That's the strength of the battle frontier Dawn," said Brock "they are said to be stronger than gym leaders". "Wow" sighed Dawn. Ash returned Swellow and sent out Glalie next. "Ah now Glalie is an ice type," said Matt "it will have an advantage over Staraptor". Darach ordered Staraptor to use brave bird. "Counter that with blizzard" said Ash. Glalie blew a very strong blizzard attack, while Staraptor charged in with brave bird. Staraptor did charge into Glalie, but it did receive a lot of damage from the blizzard attack, and getting more damage from using brave bird. "Alright Glalie, time to use roll out" said Ash. Glalie rolled very fast towards Staraptor and tackled it very hard. Then Glalie tackled it again and this time Staraptor fainted, giving Ash the win this time. Brock pointed out that using brave bird made Staraptor weak enough for Glalie to defeat it.

Darach returned Staraptor and sent out his next pokemon, Empoleon.

Dawn looked at Empoleon on her pokedex: Empoleon, the emperor pokemon. The evolved form of Prinplup. If anyone were to hurt its pride, it would slash them with wings that can cleave through an ice floe.

Ash returned Glalie. "Why did Ash do that?" asked Dawn. Brock explained that steel type pokemon beats ice type pokemon, and that Empoleon was part steel type as well as water type. Ash sent out his Manectric to battle next. "Using Manectric is a good choice because electric beats water" said Dawn, who remembered that. First Manectric charged up with charge and Empoleon used bubblebeam. Manectric dodged the bubbles before they could hit him. Manectric used thunderbolt next, but Empoleon used iron defense which protected Empoleon from receiving a lot of damage from the thunderbolt. 'I should have known that Empoleon would do something like this' thought Ash; he had done that move before with his pokemon who knew iron defense. Darach ordered Empoleon to use hydro pump, but Manectric dodged it and then tackled Empoleon with quick attack. "Try to use thunderbolt again Manectric" said Ash. Manectric fired thunderbolt, and this time Empoleon got hit by it. "Nice," said Tomo "but Empoleon isn't defeated yet". Lady Caitlin explained that Darach has trained Empoleon well ever since it was a Piplup, and they never let electric pokemon get them down so easily. Darach ordered Empoleon to use ice beam next, but Manectric used flamethrower to counter the ice beam attack. Darach, Lady Caitlin and Matt were getting impressed with Ash's battling style by the minute. Darach then ordered Empoleon to use aqua jet and Ash ordered Manectric to use thunder. Manectric got tackled by Empoleon and Empoleon got shocked by Manectric. Empoleon ended up fainting from the electric attack, but Manectric fainted too because he couldn't take anymore after that. So this match was a draw.

Dawn was starting to see the point about battle facilities being tough to beat. "Now they are down to one final pokemon, and Ash still has his Glalie left" said Brock. "But what pokemon will Darach use?" asked Tomo. His answer soon came; Darach's final pokemon was a Honchkrow. Ash sent out Glalie again. Dawn was hoping that Glalie will be able to defeat it.

Darach started off by telling Honchkrow to use dark pulse. "Counter that with your own dark pulse Glalie" said Ash. The two dark pulse attacks collided with each other. "Use ice beam Glalie" said Ash. Glalie fired ice beam towards Honchkrow, but Honchkrow dodged it. Glalie fired ice beam again but again Honchkrow dodged it. "That Honchkrow is fast" said Dawn. Ash decided to switch ice beam to avalanche. This time Honchkrow had trouble with dodging Glalie's chunks of ice. "Okay Glalie let's use blizzard now". Glalie blew a strong blizzard attack and Honchkrow got it by it and it became frozen. "Honchkrow's in a block of ice!" gasped Dawn. "Ice attacks like blizzard and ice beam can cause an opponent to become frozen" said Brock. Ash then told Glalie to use gyro ball and Glalie tackled Honchkrow very hard. Honchkrow fainted after that, giving Ash the win. So Ash became the winner of the Battle Castle challenge.

Tomo and Dawn cheered for Ash, and Brock remarked that Ash's pokemon did very well. Lady Caitlin and Matt were impressed with how Ash battled Darach. Darach returned his Honchkrow. "Well master Ash Ketchum," he said "I must clearly say of all the battles I've had in the past that was the best one I ever had. And you are indeed an impressive pokemon trainer". "I agree with that," said Lady Caitlin, who just walked over to them, "I hope I will get to have a battle with you in the future Ash". "I look forward to that Lady Caitlin" said Ash. Darach presented Ash a small gold plaque with a picture of the Battle Castle on it. "This is the Battle Castle plaque Ash and it's proof of your victory here" said Darach. Ash was happy to have won his first Sinnoh Battle Frontier plaque. Matt presented to Ash a small case that he could place his five frontier plaques in.

With the Battle Castle challenge over with, it was time for the gang to continue onto Hearthome City. Matt told Ash that the next battle facility was somewhere outside Hearthome City, before driving away in his sports car. Then the gang said goodbye to Lady Caitlin and Darach. "I hope to see you in Unova Ash" said Lady Caitlin. "I hope so too" said Ash. And the gang left.