Chapter 3: A Feebas' Dream!

362:04:02:6:10

Viridian City Outskirts, Kanto Region, Kaiyou League Federation

Ash looked around the clearing she'd found. It was large enough to train in, plus it had a pond right there. "This looks like a good place to train, Raijin." She told her partner, who was in what was quickly becoming his favorite perch on her right shoulder.

"First of all, let's meet the rest our team." Ash told him. Pulling out a Cherish Ball and two Luxury Balls, she threw them in the air, the former towards the pond, and the later to the ground near it. As the Monster Balls reached their respective surfaces they activated releasing from within the held pokémon. Shuurei came out in the water, while a Pidgey and Rattata appeared on the ground.

"Hello," Ash broadcasted at them, "My name is Ash, here on my shoulder is my Pikachu, Raijin, and in the pond is my Feebas, Shuurei."

"Pikachu." (Hello.) Cheerfully greeted the small rodent waving his paw.

"...Fee..." (...Hi...) Was the barely heard acknowledgement from the fish's direction.

"If you would like," Ash continued addressing the two pokémon she had yet to meet, "I'll become your trainer, and we can work together to accomplish our dreams."

"Rat ratta ttata?" (Does that mean we get to play together?) Was the eager response from the very young female Rattata, who appeared to be trembling with suppressed energy.

"Pid pidgey." (I would like that.) Confidently responded the male Pidgey.

"Yes, we would play, among the many other things we'll do together." Ash answered the small rodent, while nodding her acknowledgement to the Pidgey.

"Ra! Ttata ra!" (Yes! Play time!) The happy Rattata called out.

"First of all, I have to call you something. Pidgey, how would you like to be called Sora, named for the great expanse of your medium. And Violet for you, Rattata, after your fur color." Both pokémon quickly gave their agreements at their new names. As had happened before, the inscriptions baring their species names fell of the Luxury Balls, before getting replaced by their new names, in Pidgey's case, the kanji for "Sora" appeared on his Monster Ball, and in the Rattata's, appeared the katakana standing for "Baioretto", which was the transcription of Violet in katakana.

"Now in a few days I'll be entering a Pokémon Contest, unlike the regular battles you may have heard about, or even participated in yourselves, in a contest power is not the most important thing, but instead acting beautifully and with elegance while both evading and attacking your opponent is what is important. I know Shuurei will enter it with me, but in case I need more than just her, would any of you like to participate in it too?" Ash looked over her pokémon once she finished addressing them.

"Pika chu! Cha!" (Sounds fun! Yes!) Raijin quickly agreed.

Thinking it over, Sora also agreed, due to the fact that the ability to not only defeat his opponents, but to look good while doing it would help him get a good mate in the future. Violet also gave her agreement while saying something very fast that none of the others could make out, aside from the word "fun".

"Good," Ash smiled at her pokémon, whom she hoped to eventually make good friends with, "first of all, let's find out what moves each of us know."

Without indication as to how it was activated, the holographic screen of the Pokédex appeared floating between them, with 3D figures of Shuurei, Violet, and Sora there. Information of each began scrolling in screens that appeared next to each figure.

"Feebas, the Fish Pokémon." Dexter's voice announced, "Feebas' fins are ragged and tattered from the start of its life. Because of its shoddy appearance, this pokémon is largely ignored. It is capable of living in both the sea and in rivers. It seems few trainers will raise it, and it is ignored by researches."

Ash could not help but sweatdrop. 'All its entry does is insult them...' "Don't worry Shuurei, ignore that! We'll prove them wrong!"

"Its Ability is Swift Swim. It's move set is: Splash, Captivate, Dragon Pulse, Mirror Coat." Dexter finished Shuurei's information.

"Pidgey, the Tiny Bird Pokémon. It is docile and prefers to avoid conflicts. If disturbed, however, it can ferociously strike back. Its Ability is Keen Eyes. The move set: Tackle, Gust, Defog, Foresight." 'Not bad.' Ash thought, 'but did it change the information?'

"Rattata, the Mouse Pokémon. Scurries around quickly, searching for hard objects to gnaw. It appears to be jittery and unable to remain still. Its Ability is Guts. The move set: Tackle, Tail Whip."

"Not a bad move set for any of you, in fact, it's very good in some cases. First, Shuurei is the one who will participate in the appeal this time, so the rest of you will be training for the Battle Round. For now we'll start with evasion training for all three of you. The good thing is, we can also train your endurance and speed at the same time. Raijin, Violet, I want you to play a game of tag around this clearing. You have to run as fast as you can and evade the other whenever they try to tag you, try to evade by twirling to the sides or jumping in a loop over the other to make it look good. Rest when you get tired. As for you Sora, I'll start helping you in your evasion in a bit, after working with Shuurei on the appeal. For now, fly around for as long and as fast as you can, every once in a while aim a tackle at either Raijin or Violet, to keep the on their toes, but do be careful because when you're near the ground they can also attack you. Also while in the air practice twirling to the sides and looping so as to help you with your evasion training later on." Hearing their orders all three pokémon immediately took off to their tasks, Violet with much more enthusiasm than the others as to her it was like a really fun game of tag.

"Now Shuurei, I have an idea for your appeal, but first we need to see how long you can remain out of the water, without it being uncomfortable or dangerous for you." Receiving the fish pokémon's agreement Ash picked her up and held her until told otherwise. Around 7 minutes later Shuurei signaled her to be placed in the water. "Seven minutes, that's more than enough time, appears rarely last a minute, let alone longer, and contest battles have a time limit of 5 minutes, of course your time will probably be reduced in the middle of fighting, but we can work on that. For the first part we have to get you high in the air. Unfortunately, we won't have time to strengthen your body enough to allow you to use Splash to jump that high in time. But you can use a weak Dragon Pulse on the floor to lift you up. Now as the force lifts you in the air I want you to use Splash to release water droplets from your body, while using Mirror Coat to reflect the light in the arena onto the droplets and around yourself, causing a rainbow effect. Then once you reach the highest point of the arc you'll use the strongest Captivate you can to spread as many of its hearts around the arena as possible, once you feel yourself begin to fall stop using Captivate but keep the Mirror Coat and Splash going until you reach the ground. Any questions?" It only took a few minutes of explanations and corrections before they were finally ready to start.

After 30 minutes of practice, the Feebas was exhausted, but making good progress. Ash was confident they'd have it ready by the time the contest started. "Take a break Shuurei. You deserve it." Saying so the water pokémon started swimming lazily around the pond.

Now that she had finished training with Shuurei for the moment. Ash looked around only to see Raijin and Violet still running around, with only minor signs of being tired. Sora was also still flying with the occasional dive, twirl or loop thrown in. Calling him over, Ash prepared for her own personal training alongside her pokémon. "Sora, now we will practice your evasion, while I practice my accuracy and speed. I will be firing non-tracking Aura Spheres at you as fast as I can. Once you prove to be good enough to evade them easily I'll start using tracking ones. These you'll have to evade until they either dissipate or you make them crash into something. Understood?"

"Pid!" (Ready!) Saying so the bird pokémon took off flying. Instead of flying straight, he started doing random evasive maneuvers so as to make it much harder to aim at him.

Seeing Sora's movements in the sky, Ash prepared herself to use her special skill. Concentrating Ash forced her Aura into a sphere between her hands and aiming at the bird she released it. She immediately commenced forming another attack, trying to get it to form faster. Once she felt she had increased the speed enough for now, she'd begin trying to make them stronger without slowing the creation process.

Out of his own initiative Sora began to evade the attacks with the minimum of dodging necessary. Sometimes flipping over the attacks, other times twirling around them, but always trying evade with the least amount of movement needed, so as to make it look more impressive.

During the next 15 minutes Ash managed to reliably decrease the creation time from ten seconds to seven. By that point she was fairly exhausted, but was happy to note that not only had she increased the speed of creation, but had managed to keep up the exercise for 30 seconds longer than the last time. Seeing that Sora still had energy she let him know to continue his training, while she sat herself down to meditate and work on controlling her Aura better.

Two hours later, she opened her eyes to see Violet sleeping on her lap while Raijin stood next to the pond where Shuurei had her face out of the water, and both were launching their respective ranged attacks at the flying Pidgey. Who, while still dodging, looked to be getting tired. Seeing the time she called her pokémon back.

"Good job guys. I can tell we're already improving greatly. But for now, take a rest. I'll make us some breakfast, then afterwards you can all rest, while I go get us registered for the Pokémon Contest. We'll continue training this afternoon. But for now you can do whatever you want." Seeing her pokémons' agreement she started taking out her supplies to cook, and while she wasn't the best at cooking, she wasn't bad at it either. Ash also made sure to have Dexter remind her to top off their supplies before they left town in a few days.

362:04:02:9:08

Viridian City, Kanto Region, Kaiyou League Federation

Walking around, the young pair had yet to find the Viridian Contest Hall, but they were not in any hurry, they still had time. Before long, while passing an alleyway they began to hear voices from within.

"Why is this crate so heavy?" One of the voices complained.

"Shut up." Another responded. "If these pokémon prove good enough we might get one of them for ourselves. If not they will still make Team Rocket money by being sold in the Game Corner as prizes."

'Team Rocket? Game Corner? The only one of those in Kanto is in Celadon City, does it belong to Team Rocket?' Ash decided to stay, listen in and stop them. "Raijin, stay quiet, but prepare to unleash a powerful Thundershock at them, try not to hit the crate, we don't know what pokémon are in there or if they might be badly hurt by your lightning." The Pikachu nodded at his trainer to show his understanding. "Dexter send Officer Jenny a message with our current location and tell her to come quietly. Let's get closer, Raijin."

Quietly moving forward they could hear grumbling coming from up front as well, as scratching from the crate being pushed. "This better be worth it." The first voice spoke again, this time they were able to tell that it was a girl's voice. "Team Rocket doesn't have worthless pokémon." Responded the second voice, now distinguishable as male.

After another few seconds of slowly getting closer Ash and Raijin finally saw the criminals, as well as a path cleared of debris leaving from one of the buildings and heading towards a van at the other end of the alleyway. Both criminals were wearing similar uniforms, black shirt and pants that completely covered them with a big red letter "R" in the middle of the chest, white gloves and boots, and a black cap on their head. They were apparently pushing the crate across the ground, instead of using any type of wheeled conveyance to make it easier. Despite their actions, Ash could see that right next to where they exited the building, leaning against the wall, was a wheeled platform that looked to be made to carry such creates. Seeing all the effort they were putting in moving it, while ignoring the solution to their problems, she could not help but point out the device to Raijin and comment. "Guess they didn't join Team Rocket due to their high intelligence."

Unfortunately for them, her comment made Raijin snicker loud enough for the Team Rocket members to hear and notice their presence.

"Oh no!" The female Team Rocket member exclaimed overly dramatically, "We've been discovered. Now we're probably going to get defeated by some young inexperience trainer barely week into their journey and then thrown into prison for the next million years, where we'll be forced to break rocks, and make license plates for the rest our lives. Then we won't even get the peace of death, as after death we'll turn into ghost pokémon in some foreign country where we'll be used to battle for the rest of eternity until our souls finally dissipate from our suffering!" Ash knew she was staring incredulously at the female Rocket, she could see both Raijin and the male Rocket doing the same. "I can't even think of anything to say to that." The young girl commented to her partner.

"Pika." (Indeed.) Agreed the small pokémon.

"There you go again, Fu. Where do you keep coming up with such ridiculous notions? As if we'd get beat by some wet behind the ears trainer barely out of their diapers, and even if we do get caught, we'd defeat anyone with our super powerful pokémon. And where did you even get the part about turning into ghost pokémon?" Commented her exasperated partner.

Turning around both saw the young trainer with a Pikachu on their shoulder. "See!" The girl shouted, "We're doomed!" Ignoring her, the male studied the trainer standing opposite them.

"Ha!" He suddenly said, "It's just a little kid, we'll beat him in no time and steal all his pokémon too! It's your bad luck today, brat. You came against us! The greatest pair of Team Rocket grunts!"

"He actually refers to himself as a grunt?" Ash asked Raijin, said pokémon just shrugged.

"In the future be ready! Cuz here is where our motto will go once we reach Agent status." The man continued causing both Pikachu and trainer to sweatdrop.

"Now listen to my name and know fear! I am Ippantekina Isaki!" The Rocket Grunt finished speaking, then after a few seconds of silence glared at his partner.

"...Fu Yume..." She said softly, not caring, still imagining all the horrors that were about to happen to them.

"Now feel our power and despair! Go, our super powerful pokémon!" Ippantekina exclaimed dramatically while throwing a Poké Ball in front of him, his partner also threw one with much less excitement while mumbling in despair under her breath. "Why couldn't it be an experienced trainer, we'd defeat one of those no problem...unless they were competent...or determined...or actually had pokémon other than a Magikarp...probably not even then, those Magikarp can be tricky. We're so doomed."

Not knowing what to expect, Ash still prepared herself for a tough battle against whatever pokémon came out. "Get ready Raijin, this is Team Rocket. Whatever pokémon come out will be tough to defeat."

"Pika!" (Right!) Her partner agreed while jumping in front of her and preparing for the hardest fight of his life. The reality, once it came, went far beyond what they expected and both fell over to the ground in shock. Seeing this, the male Rocket smirked. "I see you're starting be afraid, took you long enough."

There in front of the Team Rocket stood two pokémon, one hovering in the air with relatively powerful sweeps of its wings. The other snarling and emitting it's ominous roar for the whole world to hear and fear.

"Rattata!" (Be afraid!) Was the beast's roar. It's partner, twice its size and with similar coloration floated in the air.

"Zu bat." (I'm kinda hungry.) It mumbled to itself, not really paying any attention to its location.

"Bua hahaha!" Ippantekina laughed in what Ash thought was supposed to be an evil manner, if he'd actually laughed and not merely enunciated the syllables.

"Raijin," The girl told her partner after standing up, "just get this over and Thundershock them unconscious...they're just embarrassing."

"Pika." (Agreed.) Deadpanned her partner, and with a half strength Thundershock sent their opponents, both human and pokémon, into unconsciousness. At this point, that action came as a relief for the female Rocket member as it prevented her from continuing her increasingly worse imaginings. "You think Team Rocket requires their members to take drama classes?" Ash asked her partner after mentally reviewing the actions of the four members she'd encountered. "Cha pikachu." (Wouldn't surprise me.)

Walking over, Ash picked up their Poké Balls and recalled both pokémon before placing them in storage mode and into her pockets. Then she walked over to the crate with Raijin to see what pokémon the two idiots had been transporting.

"Huh, they might be complete morons but they have high tech equipment, this is an environmentally sealed suspended animation chamber. Whatever pokémon are in here would not feel the passage of time since it was closed." The girl told her Pikachu. "Oh well, curiosity killed the cat and all that," She absently commented as she searched for the control panel, "but satisfaction brought it back to life." Finding the controls and not wanting to waste time trying to manually bypass them, "Dexter, please open that for me."

In less than second there was reaction from the crate. With a beeping sound the top of the crate lifted up while folding halfway unto itself, once it was completely opened it descended into the crate, sliding seamlessly into place, leaving it with the appearance that no top existed.

Wanting to see what was inside, the youthful Pikachu jumped up to his trainer's shoulder to look inside. Walking closer Ash looked inside and suddenly stopped moving. After a few seconds, Raijin started to get worried.

"Pikapi?" (Ash?) He asked while poking her in the cheek. Her response nearly made him fall. "SO CUTE!" She broadcasted with full force, which translated as a very loud shout...inside your head.

The insides of the crate was covered edge to edge with brown fur, with patches of cream, and in some areas even lighter colors. In some areas distinctions could be made, a brown paw here or there with pink pads on the underside, a brown bushy tail with a cream tip, some of the tails where a very light grayish-brown color with white tips. Long light brown ears with a darker brown interior, cream colored furry collars and in some areas, large brown eyes began to appear. While she couldn't tell how many there were, Ash was easily able to guess that there had to be over half a dozen young Eevee inside the crate.

Over half a dozen young Eevee, that had just been woken up, were full of energy, and saw two new playmates looking at them from outside their sleeping place. Needless to say, by the time Officer Jenny arrived fifteen minutes later, Ash wasn't sure if that was the most fun she'd had in her life, or the most arduous. Raijin on the other hand, knew which it was for him, having decided a few minutes before, that it was every mouse for himself and hidden himself inside the crate and allowed the Eevee to place their full attention on his trainer.

And so it was minutes later after explanations, and handing over the grunts pokémon that as the police van began to pull out the members of Team Rocket woke up, the man upon seeing his location began to bang his head on the side, while the girl started crying hysterically. A sudden shout was heard as the van moved further away. "I don't want to be a pokémon!"

"Now," Spoke the amused Jenny, seeing the girl she'd met the day before completely covered with tired Eevee, "What do we do about all these Eevee?"

[I'll take care of them.] Ash signed, [They seem to be comfortable enough with me. ]

Thinking it over, the teal-haired woman commented, "Well, you are endorsed by Professor Oak. And yesterday's events were an accident. Furthermore they do seem to be happy with you. So as long as you promise to take good care of them, it should be fine." Ash quickly agreed with her.

Looking over the eight Eevee, three of which were a lighter color, the trainer could not help but think that'd she'd have her hands full with them, but she was looking forward to it, they were fun! "Eevee," She addressed them all, "how would you like to stay and travel with me?" None of the Eevee even seemed to think about it, before they agreed. "Very well, since you can't all remain out here all the time, I'm going to place you in Monster Balls. I'll also be thinking of names for each of you" Saying thus, she slipped her left hand into her jacket and brought out four storage mode Monster Balls unlike any she'd used before. The bottom half-sphere was the mostly standard white color, while the opening indentation was dark grey, the activation button was silver. The top half however was a metallic green color, in the front part equidistant from each other and rising from either side were four red teardrop-shaped gems, the bottom two being slightly smaller, and above them in the middle was a small half-spherical yellow gem. These Monster Balls, where specially handmade by an expert from the Johto region, they were Friend Balls. After throwing the first four, she pulled out four more and repeated the process. After the Monster Balls returned to her she placed them in the left side of her jacket.

"So," Began Officer Jenny, "what were you doing before encountering that pair from Team Rocket?"

Becoming slightly embarrassed, the young girl responded, [I was looking for the Contest Hall to register, but I can't seem to find it.]

"Don't worry!" The older woman spoke getting pumped up, "As an Officer of the Law, it's my duty to help people in need. I'll get you there in a hurry!" Then, before the younger girl could say anything, she was grabbed by the hand and pulled behind the over excitable officer. Raijin ran after them and jumped unto his partner's shoulder.

362:04:02:9:45

Viridian City Contest Hall, Viridian City, Kanto Region, Kaiyou League Federation

After another wild and enjoyable ride with the older woman that ended with a more normal parking, her skid stopped right outside the door, instead of in front of the desk.

[Thank you] Ash signed to the older woman who saluted her before going full throttle and doing a wheelie all the way down the road. "She's kind of fun, don't you think so Raijin?"

"Cha!" (Yes!) He agreed, having been unable to enjoy the previous ride due to a case of severe unconsciousness.

Walking inside she went right to the front desk.

"Are you here to register for the Contest?" The woman behind it asked, Ash nodded and handed over her Pokédex. After verifying the information, she was handed back her Pokédex along with a Kanto Contest Pass, plus a Ribbon case. Bowing her thanks, Ash left. "Well Raijin, we have 2 days to get a lot of training done. Let's get to it." Ash unwaveringly told the small rodent.

362:04:04:8:00

Viridian City Contest Hall, Viridian City, Kanto Region, Kaiyou League Federation

Two days had passed since she'd registered for the Contest, and here she was waiting for her turn to make her appeal. She looked very different from her normal appearance, unlike her usual clothes, there was no mistaking her for a boy. In fact the only similarity between now and her usual dress mode was the long messy hair, and the Pikachu on her shoulder, though in the case of the former, it looked to have been made to look that way deliberately.

To start with her hair was completely uncovered, and she was wearing a long red dress, and knee length red boots, though those could not be seen. Raijin looked like his usual self, aside from a small red bowtie on his neck. In her hands she carried a violin case, though for now it was mostly for show, in time she planned to teach her pokémon to follow her orders by listening to her playing so as to make her appeals and Contest Battles that much more impressive.

"Everyone, Good Morning!" A voice announced from within the Contest stage. "This Viridian City Contest is about to begin. So get ready for a fantastic display of love and creativity between Coordinators and their pokémon. Only one contestant can win the prize, the Viridian Ribbon. You'll need 5 ribbons just like it to be able to enter the Grand Festival!" Taking a deep breath she continued speaking, "Now let me introduce you to our fine panel of judges. Our head judge and perennial fashion plate, Mr. Contesta!"

"Always a pleasure to be here." He replied, he had grey hair and wore a red suit.

"Up next, the president of the Pokémon Fan Club, Mr. Sukizo!" Lilian continued.

"Thank you. This is nice." Replied a Japanese looking man wearing a grey business suit.

"And finally, Viridian City's own Nurse Joy, who's Pokémon center was unfortunately destroyed a few days ago by pokémon thieves!"

"It's an honor to be included." The nurse replied.

"Now let's get right to the First Round." Lilian announced, "In the opening round contestants, both Coordinator and pokémon, will showcase techniques and performance. Now, is everyone ready?" And so over the next several minutes various coordinators showed their appeals, mostly to the delight of the crowd.

"Now give it up for our final coordinator, Haiko from Pallet Town!"

Walking into the arena with the violin in hand, Ash reached the center of the stage and grabbing the Storage mode Cherish Ball hanging from her neck, she changed it into active mode and bringing it up, kissed it, "Do your best!" and launched it so it would fall in the area she calculated would allow Shuurei to be right above her at the highest point of her jump. She immediately brought up her violin and began playing before the Cherish Ball had even touched ground. Once it reached, it instantaneously released the Feebas within, who flipped in the air once and before touching the ground herself released a Dragon Pulse that sent her flying into the air where she continuously flipped over herself while using Splash and Mirror Coat at the same time. 20 seconds later she reached the highest point of her jump and stopped flipping while looking towards the crowd. "Now use Captivate as strong as possible!" Ash told her. Knowing what was coming the young fish had already begun charging the Captivate before reaching that spot, so she released it just as she reached the apex of her jump, filling the air over the stage with large pink hearts. As soon as she felt her momentum stop, she stopped emitting the captivate but kept up her other two attacks while she began flipping again until she reached the ground on the other side of her trainer. Once there, she stopped both her attacks, at the same time as Ash stopped playing. Recalling her pokémon Ash bowed to the audience and judges, and then left the stage.

"What an excellent combination of attacks! Such a beautiful display!" Lillian exclaimed. "The first round of judging is complete, now in our main screen will be displayed the eight Coordinators who will move on to the second round. Let's hear it for these hard working Pokémon Trainers." Ash was happy to note that she was one of those 8, though she was unsurprised to not recognize any of the others.

"Now, for the second round, these eight shall be paired off by the computer for single elimination contest battles. In this round victory goes to the Coordinator who attacks most beautifully and effectively lowers the opponents points within the 5 minute time limit."

Ash was glad to note that she was in the first match, that would allow more time for Shuurei to rest between the first and second match, she was determined to try to win the whole contests using only her.

"Now we begin he first match between Joey and Haiko. Start the clock now!" Lilian announced from the judges table.

Once more taking the Cherish ball from her necklace, she kissed it and threw it while bringing her violin up, she began playing before it had even opened. At the same time on the other side of the stage, a young boy wearing comfy-looking shorts brought up a Poké Ball and tossed it in the air while exclaiming, "Go, my friend! Show the world you're Top Percentage of Rattata!"

Both Monster Balls flew through the air and opened at the same time, releasing their respective pokémon. On the young boy's side an exceptional looking Rattata emerged, and from the Cherish Ball emerged Shuurei already holding a Dragon Pulse in her mouth that she wasted no time launching at the unprepared Rattata. Neither trainer nor pokémon were able to react in time, so the purple pokémon took a direct hit flying across the stage, costing its trainer a quarter of his points.

"And Haiko begins with a devastating Dragon Pulse that doesn't let Joey react in time, this cost him some serious points right of the bat." The announcer commented.

"That Rattata must be pretty strong to still be standing no matter how weakly after your Dragon Pulse. Let's wait and see what he does, we might be able to end this in one move, begin preparing a Mirror Coat, but don't use yet. Be ready to change the move in case we need to use a different tactic."

"Fee!" (Ready!)

"We can't lose here Rattata, use Tackle!" Joey commanded his pokémon. Said Rattata began running towards Shuurei with full intent of tackling her.

"Keep holding the Mirror Coat energy, and use splash to jump over him to evade, repeat the same strategy until I tell you otherwise." Ash told her partner while changing the tone of her playing.

As soon as the Rattata was almost upon her Shuurei used splash to jump over the mouse pokémon while twirling in mid air to land facing it. After several more tries and loss of points for the misses, Joey once more spoke up.

"This is not working Rattata, get in close again and use Hyper Fang!"

"This is it, once it reaches the point of no return activate Mirror Coat." Ash commanded while once more changing the tone of her music.

The Rattata's fangs began glowing as it ran towards the fish once more. Once it got too close to stop, the Feebas activated Mirror Coat and took the damage from the mouse's attack, and immediately returned it doubled causing the mouse to be blown away fainted.

"The winner by knock out is Haiko!" Lilian announced.

Recalling Shuurei, Ash bowed to her opponent and went into the waiting room, and while watching the remain battles of this round held the Cherish Ball between her hands, while concentrating her Aura on healing her pokémon. While it was a good way to heal a pokémon she could not do it, unless she put most of her concentration on it.

"Pika pikachu pichu ka?" (Why did they use a wrong name for you?) The curious Pikachu asked, having noted the wrong name since the first time his trainer had been called. "Protection." Ash declared emphatically. Upon seeing her partner's questioning look she elaborated her answer. "Raijin, you need to understand that in this world lives a horrible breed of creatures. My childhood friend Gary has a horde of them following him, but as he's just a trainer those that follow him are of the lesser breed. Coordinators, unfortunately, attract a breed a thousand times worse! That's why I used the name Haiko, it's my native language for Ash Child. It's also why I dress like this now, no one would mistake my normal appearance for this one. And while I prefer this mode of dress, it's just not practical for living in the wilderness as we will a lot of the time during our journey. It will also stop those horrible monsters from recognizing me outside of contests."

"Pika pikachu?" (What are they called?) The electric mouse asked while trying not to imagine what kind of horrible creature scared his trainer so much. "They're called fanboys and fangirls." Ash replied, shuddering at the mere thought of their name. For his part Raijin felt a chill in his spine just from hearing the name. He vowed to use a full power Thundershock on any of those creatures if they ever came close to either him or his partner.

Less than 15 minutes later, after the final match of the round happened, Ash was once more called to the stage. "Now it's time for the first semi-final match between the winners of the previous matches. The Coordinators are Haiko and Sakura. Start the clock now!" Spoke the announcer.

Once more Ash brought the Cherish Ball to her lips before launching it across the stage. "You know what to do, Shuurei!" As in the previous times Ash began playing as soon as she let go of the Monster Ball.

On the other side the pink haired girl called Sakura also threw a Poké Ball, "Let's go to the top!" She said.

As soon as both Monster Balls landed a Jigglypuff emerged from the Poké Ball, and dodged to the side. From the Cherish Ball emerged Shuurei, and as expected by the opposing trainer she did have an attack ready for launch, only it was not a Dragon Pulse, but a Captivate that covered the whole stage, making the dodge worthless, and lowering the Jigglypuff's special attack.

"Jigglypuff, use Pound!" Commanded the Coordinator. The pink pokémon started running towards the fish while holding out one of her hands to hit with. As soon as she was near enough to Shuurei, said fish pokémon used Splash to jump over the other pokémon and facing downwards from above her, fired a destructive Dragon Pulse, that not only damaged him through the explosion, but also by throwing him against the floor, while launching Shuurei up into the air where after some flips, she fell back down and hit the Jigglypuff over the head with an improvised Slam that knocked it out. Thus finishing the match after less than 30 seconds.

"You did very well, Shuurei. I'm proud of you. Only one match left." Bowing to her opponent Ash recalled her Feebas and walked away.

"Wow! What a fast match, it ended barely after it started." Lilian exclaimed, "Now it's time for the second semi-final match." 5 minutes later the match ended with a time out, and a winner was declared by the higher amount of points remaining.

"And now we start the final match, to see who wins the Viridian Ribbon! The finalist are Haiko, who has surprisingly used only one pokémon throughout the whole contest. Even more amazing is that the pokémon she's used is a Feebas, widely considered the most useless pokémon of all! And yet together they have been winning easily. Perhaps the widespread thoughts on Feebas are wrong? Or perhaps even more Astounding is that she has not spoken a single word, but uses her violin to command her pokémon, now that is a deep bond between Coordinator and pokémon." the MC wondered aloud, "And the second Coordinator is Nibuimaru, who has also used one pokémon, having gone through all previous steps with his Slowpoke. Which of these Coordinators will win? Start the clock now!"

"We have to win this one, Shuurei. It will be the first step to showing everyone." Ash told her pokémon as she kissed her Monster Ball and threw it.

"Prove your worth, Slowpoke!" The other trainer said as he threw his Poké Ball. As soon as it landed and released Slowpoke he spoke again, "Water Gun now!"

On the other side Shuurei had fired of a Captivate as soon as she emerged. "Mirror Coat, and swim up the Water Gun. As soon as the Water Gun finishes and Mirror Coat takes effect fire a Dragon Pulse." Ash ordered as she intensified her violin playing.

Surprisingly it took the Slowpoke only 2 seconds to begin firing the Water Gun, Shuurei just activated her Mirror Coat and as soon as she was hit used her Swift Swim ability to rapidly swim towards her opponent. She was only a few feet away when the Water Gun stopped. At that moment her Mirror Coat activated it's second part damaging the opposing pokémon and she launched a Dragon Pulse that also hit it's mark and sent it flying.

While hurt the Slowpoke was not down and stood back up. "Slowpoke, use Yawn." Its trainer ordered.

"Shuurei use Captivate, concentrate it and force the hearts to push the Yawn back at the Slowpoke." Was Ash's counter command, while not sure if it would work, there would still be enough time to dodge if it didn't. Fortunately for them it did work and the Yawn hit the pink pokémon with no apparent effect. Not wasting any time, Ash ordered Shuurei to use another Dragon Pulse. The attack once again hit, launching the pokémon into the air, where it promptly began snoring, the Yawn finally having had effect on the slow thinking pokémon. Said pokémon fell to the ground and at last feeling the effects of the final Dragon Pulse fainted.

"After an impressive battle by both coordinators the winner is Haiko with her Feebas!" Lilian shouted.

Bowing to her opponent Ash went and picked up Shuurei and hugged her close. "Very well done. You did it. You won us our first contest!"

"Fee!" (Yes!) Happily responded the Feebas.

"Now Ladies and Gentlemen, join us as we present Haiko the Viridian Ribbon in honor of her victory in this, the Viridian City Pokémon Contest. Congratulations." The Viridian Ribbon was a star-shaped golden badge with a viridian colored ribbon attached.

362:04:04:10:30

Viridian Forest Outskirts, Kanto Region, Kaiyou League Federation

"Well Raijin, this is it. We leave this city for now, but we'll be back. Our final badge awaits here. We have to far stronger before we challenge That Man. I want us to be strong enough that He would be no challenge to us."

"Next up is Viridian Forest, we should be out the other side in 2 days if we walk straight across. I think that would be best. Then once on the other side we can stay at the Pewter City Pokémon Center while we train to face the Gym. I already know which attack I want you to learn while we prepare for that match." Ash told her companion who was in his usual place on her shoulder.

"Pika chu!" (Let's go!) He answered, Raijin could not wait for his first Gym match. If it was anything like contests it would be really fun!