I couldn't stop adding!

That's my excuse for the late arrival of this chapter. Hey, it's pretty good, right? The excuse I mean ;)

I like this chapter. Honestly, it was fun to right. I cloud your minds even more with this one, just fyi.

"Is everyone here?"

"I think so!"

"Yeah everyone's here."

"WAIT! What about Iris?"

"Who cares? I'm getting hungry."

"SHUT UP ASH! This is important!"

"I was only kidding…."

"At least I have my sandals."

"Well why you two are arguing, I see one Nurse Joy over there…"

"Oh no you don't rock for brains!"

"OWW! Why always the ear Misty?"

"…Umm is this typical?"

"YES!"

"Pikachuuuu!"

People claim they've been to parties. Those people say their's was the greatest ever. Those people claim that they are allegedly the best at throwing a rockin' celebration that brings the city to its knees.

Those people obviously hadn't been to Ash Ketchum's reunion party. Everyone who Ketchum had met on his journey has converged on one technologically advanced city for the most wonderful gathering most people would ever see. These revelers were here for games, for festivities, for food, for girls. Okay so the last part was just for Brock, but he had enough love going around for the entire gang.

Why the festivities?

It wasn't like it was a special holiday. It was smack dab in the middle of autumn, in a musty day, where it was moderately dry, decently chilly, quite a bit windy, and partly cloudy. Gray splashed across the sky in a way that almost seemed to be trolling the inhabitants of the region. The color was dark enough to threaten rain, but gray enough to leave the possibility of rain up in the air. The air was was light enough to feel safe to not prepare yourself, but dense enough to make you second-guess every decision. So everyone brought plenty of rain gear, since ya know. Obviously the one day you forget to protect yourself, it will rain.

But this day was special for Ash. Because of everyone's friendliness with the boy from Pallet, it was special for them as well, but Ash especially. Why? It was a simple answer:

It was the day Ash first set foot on a musty dirt road to begin his epic journey.

Ash organized the ENTIRE thing. It was one of those miraculous moments where he actually behaved as mature as an adult. He sent the invitations and followed up with every single one of them; some on multiple occasions, just to make sure they were coming. He arranged for the decorations to be placed up perfectly ahead of time by finding the best companies and the best materials. He made sure not one piece of confetti was out of place. He found every contact he didn't currently have, even when he had to dig deep to find some tough ones like Morrison. He picked out the gathering location after long nights of thorough research. He picked a place with plenty of room, but not so much room that he would be throwing away Poke on unused rented room; a place luxurious enough to accommodate even the pickiest of individuals, yet one that would compel anyone to go outside. The boy from Pallet even went so far as to make sure everyone knew what weather was predicted. And to top it all off, he set up everyone's rooms exactly how he knows each individual person would like it.

"Alright I'm here, I'm here!"

"Axew!"

"Finally Iris! Alright Brock we're…Ah rotten Tomato Berries! Max, can you be so kind as to separate him from Nurse Joy please? . . . Max? Whe-"

"-Already took care of it."

"OW OW OW! LET. GO. OF. THE. EAR!"

"Fine."

Of the 33 guests invited, most had arrived. Tyson courteously and apologetically turned down the invitation, saying Meowth was going through one of its "funk phases" and refused to move from its current training spot in Hoenn.

The other lone person who hadn't shown up was May. She had the Johto Grand Festival to take care of. After watching her superb victory earlier, Ash made sure time was arranged to watch her compete in the semifinals. He and the 31 guests had watched her match today. The unanimous cheer that erupted after her stunning victory from the nice hotel in Nimbasa City probably disturbed all the nearby luxury resorts.

The place was expensive to rent out, and even with 34 people chipping in (May and Tyson still sent some Poke with their warmest regards to make up for their absence) they didn't quite have enough. Not by a long shot. So when Ash heard that 3 mysterious and anonymous donors had given up quite the shiny coin to meet ends with the remaining tens of thousands of Poke they were missing, one can imagine how surprised he was. When he investigated further, attempting to figure out whom he had to thank for such a gracious gift, he couldn't figure much out of the hotel manager…just that the trio was in trench coats and dark shades. Ash wasn't sure if that was because of a privacy policy, or because that's literally all the manager knew.

Presently, Brock was busy getting behind the photo booth to set up a timer for the group photo.

Ash looked around and smiled. He was so happy, seeing everyone who showed up. He had thought his party would be a bust, that no one really cared much about him. Clearer he wasn't father from the truth.

His first invitations were to his old and new traveling partners: Misty, Brock, Tracey, Max, May, Dawn, Cilan, and Iris.

After some thought, he decided it would be most polite to send the next wave to his closest adult connections: Delia Ketchum, Professor Oak, Professor Birch, Professor Juniper, and Looker (who still went by Looker, and still never said his real name. He also mentioned to be prepared for him to bolt at any moment. Understandable, he IS part of the International Police).

The next wave was to his biggest rivals, because everyone knows Ash and his off-field attitude to his competition: Gary, Ritchie, Morrison, Barry, Paul and his brother Reggie, Bianca, and Stephan.

And after long consideration, he thought, "What the heck, why not?" and also invited the gym leaders he had kept in touch with and was closest to: Erika, Whitney, Jasmine, Pryce, Watson, Flannery, Norman of course (and his wife Caroline), Winona, Candice, Volkner, and most recently, Elesa. Okay that was a lot of leaders. But it made for an entertaining battle tournament.

Luckily for Ash not one person left him out to dry.

Surprisingly, they were also graced with the presence of the Marina Group. The group was arriving to perform in Nimbasa in the coming month, and since Ash knew them well he went ahead and invited them over. Lizabeth instantly brightened upon hearing from her favorite companion she met outside of her family. Well, next to Brock. She even jumped out of her Group's moving caravan-RV hybrid to sprint to Ash's hotel. Her family brought up the rear shortly after her explosive entrance to the hotel lobby.

The family checked in. As soon as Lizabeth saw Brock, she dropped everything she was doing and ran over to hug him. Well, maybe Brock initiated the embrace. You can never tell with him.

Lizabeth's family laughed and found the adults pretty quickly. Ash had this assumption that "older people" had a "sixth sense" for finding each other.

And thus, the Marina Group had joined the party.

It was probably the most fun everyone attending had all year. There was something for everyone - an exercise gym, a battlefield, a sports arena, a bowling alley. However these commodities were only used at night and dawn. During the day, everyone mingled, joked, laughed, cried, and embraced outside in gathering places. The event lasts a week, so it is okay that it takes a while to do everything. And it is also fitting because the Driftveil Bridge was under heavy repair at the moment—the main reason Ash was throwing the party at the present time.

Each day had a different activity planned. Tomorrow was the battle tournament, which pretty much everyone was psyched about. Even Nurse Joy was entering. It was going to be an exciting and fun time for everyone.

However each activity wasn't always so serious. Ash made sure each day's plan was another fun curveball that was extraordinarily different than the one the day before. And it had really paid off so far. Heck, there was a pie-throwing contest yesterday. Except it wasn't your typical pie-throwing contest. Because Ash organized it, the event had to be the most exhilarating and intense thing ever done with dough-crusted fruit puree. So the targets ended up becoming the competitors. Even Pokemon became involved, which really shook things up. Toward the end, Norman somehow got himself involved from the sidelines where all the adults hung out and laughed, and started owning everyone. So naturally everyone started targeting him. It was the most fun Norman had since…well since his gym battle with Ash. The Gym Leader ended up with a cherry coat, a blueberry puree face, grape hair, and mixed fruit pants. Yeah. Fun times.

Even though Ash had stressed so much about preparations, he had no intention of continuing those nervous feelings. He came to relax, and even had a Snorlax Yawn Spa set up just to alleviate him of some of his more stressful moments. Of course the Snorlax was his own pride and joy.

"Alright, everyone ready? "

"YEAH!"

Brock clicked a few buttons behind the giant camera currently perched atop a sturdy tripod.

"One…"

Brock sprinted from behind the camera screen into his position.

Ash continued on Brock's initiative.

"Two…"

Finally everyone smiled and shouted the last word,

"THREE!"

Blinding lights flashed on periodic and systematic times and everyone smiled for the memento this was sure to be. When it was clear the camera was done taking pictures, they cheered. And a moment of peace followed.

Then Brock did something unexpected. He nonchalantly whistled while looking to the right and poured a cup of burning hot tea on Lizabeth's foot. She yelped in pain and started bounding around. Unfortunately, she didn't have room to bounce, so she ended up knocking over Candice and Tracey. They fell over and bumped into Gary and Stephan. The small group of victims all instantly blamed each other, and eventually started minor scuffles. This caused backfire onto other people, and before you know it there was a group of young people in petty arguments and minor hand fights, makeshift wrestling matches, and word stand-offs. Some were busy redoing their wet hair, some were frantically trying to readjust themselves, some trying to get out from under the dogpiles. All the while the adults just laughed and shook their heads.

Then the camera flashed again.

Everyone stopped and blinked a couple of times. They stared at the camera lens. Then everything clicked in their brains and the internal gears started turning. They all slowly turned their head to a certain Pokemon Doctor-in-training. They all yelled,

"BROCKKKKKK!"

"Oh look at the time, gotta go make dinnerrrrRRRRRRRR!"

He was already sprinting away from a mob of infuriated teenagers at the end of his sentence.

The two that stayed behind were Ash and Cilan. Ash because he knew Brock would pull some nutball move like this, and personally actually was pretty intrigued and excited to see how a goofy picture came out. Cilan because he had dinner to make with Brock later on, and wanted to be on his good side, since he was going to be in close quarters with him for a good period of time.

Cilan sighed and said, "Well…looks like I'M gonna have to go make the preparations while Brock calms down that crowd."

The adults laughed and went back to the bar to enjoy a nice, relaxing conversation with some ice cold glasses of various non-alcoholic bar drinks (it was still early in the evening, and no one was a heavy drinker in the group).

Ash meanwhile decided to go inside and peak on the news to see how a certain coordinator was doing.

"Such a dazzling party!"

Elesa was the gym leader at the local Nimbasa Gym. Ash had recently beaten her and earned the Bolt Badge. She didn't tell anyone this, but he was the first person in over 10 weeks to have beaten her. There was that one person…Trip?...he challenged her not too long before Ash. He came pretty close – even backing her into a 1v3 situation. However Tynamo more than pulled through for her, beating his Servine, Vanillite, and Timburr whilst barely enduring one scratch

When she received the invitation from Ash, she was ecstatic.

Even though she was older than Ash, and through the fact they just met, she still saw him as one of her closest friends. Not many people taught her something in the middle of a battle. Plus the conversations she has had with him during the party made them all the closer. She was so busy nowadays, she was happy to finally get away from it all – the paparazzi, the modeling industry, the gym, everything. She had a week to relax.

Meeting all the gym leaders from different nations was a true treat in her eyes. It was nice learning how other gym leaders ran their gym. She was also looking forward to the battle tournament. She couldn't wait to see how she faired against other gym leaders.

She found it funny Ash had befriended more female leaders than male leaders. She could see why – his caring attitude would charm any girl. Not like a crush, just a charm. Although she did understand how much a girl would like the kind of boy Ash is.

Suddenly a glass of lemonade popped up in front of her. She flinched and reeled for a second before looking to the right and seeing Flannery smiling, basically in her face with the drink. Elesa, stunned by the blunt proximity, shrieked and backed off. While backing up she tripped over a root and fell flat on her back. Into mud.

Flannery looked down for a second, a little stunned as to why Elesa did such an ungraceful and dramatic movement in reaction to her kind gesture. Elesa looked at herself for a second and noticed she was caked in mud.

Elesa paused. Flannery was scared she might have just ruined a shot at a new friendship.

The Electric Leader stared at herself for a moment.

"My favorite shirt…"

Oh no! Flannery backed up a bit.

Elesa looked from arm to arm.

"I just bought this…for 1K Poke…off of last month's money…"

Flannery stuttered, "I…I-I-I-I-…..I'm…"

She looked up at Flannery.

"This was my favorite shirt…and I ruined it off of duty…oh what will the boss say about this…"

Flannery's eyes widened with terror.

"Look Elesa I'm sooo soo sooooo sorry! I didn't know…"

Elesa got up and started moving toward Flannery. Step…by step…by step. She moved closer, appearing to be fuming about what just happened. Then she did something unexpected.

She doubled over and started laughing hysterically. She slapped her knee and just pointed at Flannery, tears in her eyes. Flannery stood there for a second, shocked. She didn't know what to say or do.

Elesa went up to the Lavaridge native and gave her a hard pound to the back.

"GOTCHA! You thought I was mad, huh?"

Flannery went dumb. "Derrr…uhhhh…"

Elesa smiled and spoke, "To be honest, it's nice to be dirty."

Flannery was still shocked. "Gahh, gerrr, uhhh…"

The Nimbasa leader chuckled. "I was just joking ya know? I don't have much ability to be so drastic during the day."

Flannery straightened enough to speak, "What?"

"You're aware of the fact I'm a model right?"

"Yeah…"

"Guess how often I get to feel the cool feeling of mud."

"…Once a month?"

"If I'm lucky."

Flannery gasped and exclaimed, "But I end up getting dirt all over me every day!" She then added spitefully under her breath "Especially since people love using Ground attacks on Fire type."

Elesa laughed. "Embrace those moments! I don't get to experience them." She held out her hand and winked at her new friend.

Flannery smiled and shook it. "This doesn't mean I'll go easy on you in the tournament."

Elesa feigned disappointment by making a WAY over exaggerated finger snap, "Ahhh darn it! Guess we can't be friends now. Darn."

Flannery laughed. "So ermm…lemonade?"

Elesa smiled. "Yeah."

She took the cup and went inside to take a shower in her room.

She opened the door and closed it behind her with the familiar clicking sound a card key door makes in a hotel. She scanned the room and saw how well Ash knew her already. Her room was outfitted with technology and the latest appliances. You could hole up in her room for a year and not be bored. But there wasn't one thing suggesting a connection to being a gym leader or a model. It was also very contemporary, but lacked the flashy and fancy lights that her gym had. She liked it. The neon lights made her feel stressed.

She took a quick shower to clean herself off. She threw her outfit in the washing machine and changed into her relaxation clothes. They were actually from her latest catwalk where she met Ash. She found it ironic they were also the same clothes she was wearing when she formally met him.

Well, if getting uncomfortably close to him to get a close look at his Pikachu counts as formally.

She giggled at the thought and walked out the door.

She was walking down the hall when she saw a TV set to the Contest Channel. She remembered hearing about one of Ash's former companions who couldn't make it due to her participation in the Johto Grand Festival. Between this, and her innate curiosity and interest in contests (since they hadn't been introduced in Unova yet), she couldn't help but pay attention.

Sure enough a girl named May was on the front lines.

THAT'S HER NAME! MAY!

The girl with headphones sat down on the couch in the waiting room for some restaurant next to her. She didn't care to look at the sign stating the name of it, which seemed pointless. She was too absorbed by the TV anyway.

A reporter's voice spoke to her in HD:

Man I love how technologically advanced Nimbasa City is.

"…And that's how Skitty triumphed over Roserade. Came right down to the wire. I have never seen such an intense Quarterfinals! Whadya say Jet?"

A woman with silver hair that looked like an airplane wing…

Now how did she pull that style off? I mean I've done it once but it took forever for me to get my facial features to accommodate it.

…and a blue business suit showed up on cam. She responded cheerfully, "Couldn't agree more! Especially considering these are the same rivals who have duked it out since they began back in Hoenn."

Elesa mused to herself, "Well that makes sense. I've heard stories about her rivalry with Draw."

Jet continued, "Drew is such an aspiring young coordinator who had been the favorite this contest. But somehow he lost to May, whom no one thought should even be in this Grand Festival!"

Oh that's his name. Drew.

While the first commentator continued, a voice perked up next to Elesa.

"Yeah. The bane of our existence."

Elesa looked over to see Dawn walking up to her, smiling.

"Ah hi there! You're Dawn correct? I've heard so much about you from Ash and Brock."

Dawn giggled. "Yeah. I get told that a lot."

Elesa chuckled. "You interested in May too?"

Dawn's eyes lit up like a hearth fire. "AM I EVER! She is like, my IDOL!" She laughed at herself. Elesa smiled and closed her eyes, a cute gesture that signifies content.

They turned their attention back to the TV.

Jet was continuing the story on May. "…Now one thing that has always intrigued me is her personal life. She used to hate Pokemon!"

The other commentator (apparently names Chandler…it said so on the underbar) seemed ecstatic about responding to this. "I couldn't agree more Jet. The Pokemon Trainer that has made a name for himself in 4 different regions, Ash Ketchum, really trained her to where she is at the moment. Her style is basically the exact same as his. The only other trainers I have seen make as a much of an impact on the contest stage is the Sootopolis duo, Wallace and Juan!"

Jet responded, "Ah yes! Ash has even entered two contests in his life. He won one of them, tying with May, and the second he ended up losing. However don't take that loss for granted! He only used a Buizel and made it through 2 rounds! And he lost to a Lanturn, which had a clear advantage, and he still almost beat it! I wonder if Buizel had learned Ice Punch by then if Ash would have won."

Chandler had fire red hair, and was wearing a red tuxedo, but you could only see the neck of his attire due to the camera angel and zoom. "Ah yes. I'm surprised the two never ended up a couple considering all the time they had together."

Jet seemed to light up at the talk of relationship gossip. "So true! However the main topic coming up after the break is this relationship she has with Drew! She seems to have been hanging around with him more. And he hasn't stopped with the incoming flurry of flowers either! So I will refrain from swallowing up the TV's time, and let the prepared video show." The camera zoomed out form Jet and Chandler.

The screen flashed pictures of Drew and May sitting and laughing on a park bench, focusing on the looks on their faces. Next, it showed the unmistakable smiles they had in the middle of a scrimmage match outside the Grand Festival arena in Olivine. It continued on showing pictures of them walking through Blackthorn City. It was a slideshow of everything May and Drew, and the amazing times they appeared to be having. A pink background surrounded the standstill photos of May and Drew, the coordinators oblivious to the fact they were being watched, and it showed. It seemed like they were genuinely having fun. It lasted for 2ish minutes.

After a blur dissolve transition, the screen flashed to multiple, quick-changing clips of Drew giving May a rose and May blushing at it. The clips were from Hoenn, Kanto, and Johto. They were mostly from the locker room, the scene behind them full of the nervous and chatting competition. Yet May and Drew appeared to be in their own world all the same. There was an interview of Drew playing as audio in the background. "What do I think of her? She's a beautiful girl. She's unpredictable. You never know what she might do. Whether she will go defend left or attack right…whether she will use a new move or a new combination…whether she will split a double battle into two one on one's or not…whether she will use lemon scent in her hair or leave it alone…She's a beautiful girl, certainly. She's a beautiful girl." That last line echoed and reverberated throughout the video. The romantic music in the background ended and one last picture of Drew and May's faces really close appeared, and the cam slowly zoomed in on the center. Then a line appeared on screen:

It said: "Contest Rivals to Potential Couple?"

Elesa and Dawn thought it was cute when suddenly they heard a large crash down the hall.

At first Elesa thought nothing of it, yet something egged her to get up and rush down the hall and see what happened. Dawn for some reason followed suit behind her – probably out of curiosity. She found herself using her ears to lead her to where the sound came from. She made her mind echo the crashing sound in her head, trying to decipher where it came from when it happened.

She found herself in front of the door to the club lounge. She stared at the door, an eerie and ominous silence behind it. She looked behind her and saw an equally worried Dawn behind her. Her eyes were twitching and clouded with anxiety. Elesa realized that hers probably looked much the same.

She opened the door, bracing for what might be behind it.

The lemon-haired girl found Ash, frozen like a statue, in a position like he had just thrown something. His chest was heaving, and he was breathing like he just ran the marathon. Sweat had formed on his brow, and his eyes were crossed and flushed with red and yellow like an angry bull. Elesa gasped and followed Ash's hard gaze forward. She found herself looking at a TV.

An obliterated TV with a shattered drinking glass implanted in it.

Yeah. Not sure what to make of that huh?

You can't tell where I'm going with this, huh? Well good news! You learn absolutely nothing new about Ash next chapter since I will switch over to May's PoV from this basic area! Yay! More mind-clouding!

Keep an eye on Elesa and Dawn throughout this short story. Hint hint.

Quick Note - I received the idea of the "Pokemon Contest Couple to Be?" blahblha whatever form LoveAndHeartbreak's video on YouTube. Go check him/her out (don't remember gender ^^')

Betcha didn't expect a party, huh? Yeah Neither did I. Honestly, I don't know what goes through my brain when I come up with these stories L-O-L Rofalcoptah-Lawl-OhEmEfGe-BarbIckCue-Pohwn-Sawwce

R&R, por favor. "Please" for you Spanish illeterates out there.

-Px