In penguin we trust

"We're ready to go in the performance round in the Jubilife City Poke`mon Contest, so let's give a big hand to our first coordinator from Twinleaf Town - Dawn." An announcer said as a spot light flicked on over a blue haired girl in a simple green dress.

"Piplup, here we go. Spot light!" The coordinator said as she chucked her Poke`ball into the air which released the blue themed bird in question. "All right, Piplup, BubbleBeam." She commanded which was obeyed. The attack spun around and around the bird which ended in a star shower display, but then there was a snag.

"I'm getting dizzy!" Piplup shouted as he fell from his high spot, and fell on his head. The whole contest announcement was Dawn playing pretend, and she with the others were by a lake - having lunch.

"Nice try, but not quit." Ash said as he held an 'x' sign.

"Try again." The vixen said as she showed off an 'x' of her own.

"No one said it would be easy." Brock commented while holding up his 'x' and manning the grill. Their words meant a lot to her, and she took them all to heart.

"We may have messed up, but we look great doing it." Dawn said proudly to the others.

"That for sure." The penguin shouted in his native tongue.

"Piplup, use BubbleBeam and spin at the same time." Dawn commanded and it was obeyed. At first it was perfect, but just like last time the bird lost control causing all to try to evade the big raindrops.

'Save the grill. Save the grill.' Brock thought as the picked up and tried to keep the warm food safe. Renamon on the other hand was rapid punching each and every one of the balls that fell near herself or Ash.

'That try failed too.' Dawn thought in defeat and saw that her three friends gave her three red 'x' signs for the second attempt. Unknown to them were their constant foes - Team Rocket in the same area, but not in the best of condition.

"Oy, I haven't eaten is so long my mouth is thinking of goin on strike." The white cat of Kanto said to the others.

"That works for me." James commented as he felt the same as his male friend. His small, pink friend muttered something in agreement as well.

"Starving!" The blue blob of blunder shouted for the others to hear.

"Fighting won't feed us. And we will never find the horde of plenty foolishly flat on our backs." Jessie informed the others and with all their might - got up to their feet, and began to stand and look around.

"I'm upright…more or less. So, where's my reward?" The sensible male stated and questioned while looking about. His answer came in the tone of his crush.

"Dead ahead!" The red haired one squealed to the others.

"Munchy mountain!" Meowth shouted once he saw what she was looking at, and really liked the sight of all that food.

"Wow! An orchard of goodies without the work." James stated after catching sight over what his friends were looking at.

"Picked at the peak of freshness with gobs of greatness as a reward of us being us." Jessie said as she grew very happy of this sight.

"Fangs don't fail me now. It's feedin time!" The cat said before grabbing one of the items, and was about to eat it before a voice stopped him.

"Hey, zip that lip." The human female of the team shouted causing the cat to bite into his left arm instead.

"Now I got bite marks." The furious feline shouted up at her.

"And we've got company." The female human said which confused her formerly four legged friend, so she clarified. "Think of it. Those footprints came from the Poke`mon who harvested this heap and who'll be beside themselves with anger if we steal it/" She informed while pointing at the duck footprints right beside them.

'If we steal this then Ash will be onto us in no time at all.' James thought before seeing his two friends make grass baskets, pour the mountain into them, give a basket to the other two, and sped off.

"Aw, let them be angry." The girl and gato shouted as they fled not knowing that the guy of the team was already having second thoughts. As they fled a Quagsire, Poliwag, Golduck, and Wooper were coming back with more food for the pile.

'Hmm. I thought we certainly retrieved more food than this.' The blue themed fowl thought even though most of his kind would be throwing a temper tantrum about the whole thing.

"We're going to starve!" The other three shouted while bawling up a storm.

"Do not worry. I am sure we will find the missing food if we start looking now." The duck billed one commented, and with that they started looking about. IN another part of the location the thieves had summoned their transport, and were putting their taken treats into it.

"Upsie Daisy." James said as he picked up the bag Wobbuffet was offering to him.

"That's all there is and there ain't no more." Meowth said to the one putting them into their mechanical Magicarp.

"With these berry baskets we will never have to worry about gift giving again." James said as a hint that he didn't wish to hold onto them any more then they had to before seeing one of them roll out of the baskets.

"Don't worry, I got it!" The cat shouted, but his action unfortunately caused a catapult affect with some of their stolen goods. The group screamed in disbelief at the sight of some of their food flying away.

"De ja ve. Except we're looking for what might have been." Jessie informed in a miserable tone as she and the others were looking for their lost stolen goods. "Someone's singing." She added after hearing a rhythmic beat going on to the left of her. They followed to the sound to a clearing that had three very large duck billed monsters dancing around some food.

"I'll give you 10 to one odds that those are our berry banqueters." James said since they were duck-like as were the footprints.

"Those pointy footprints don't square up with those big feet." Meowth pointed out at the size of the feet before them, and how they didn't seem the same as the ones before.

"I'll say one thing. They sure know how to have a good time." The red head informed them at the sight of the happy dancing before them.

"And that would make givin them those three party animals to the boss for a present the perfect political ploy." Meowth said to them and explained how he saw the three coming into his room, and after a while their boss joining the three to form a mariachi band of sorts. This was one thing they really couldn't see their serious boss doing, but neither had the heart to shoot that idea down, so the two rolled with it.

"We'll be in great shape, too." Jessie shouted out with joy.

"Sporting our fat wallet." James said after her.

"Plumped up and rich." The three of them shouted together. It wasn't until they saw another figure approaching the dancers that the three ducked down into the thick grass again.

"Excuse me, Ludicolo." The Golduck said to the three. "I hate to say this, but those are our berries, and we would like them back." He said to the three in a calm tone before gesturing to his three tagalongs who began to speak.

"Those sad sacks are sayin that that big sack of berries that just blasted off was theirs in the first place." Meowth explained what the three were saying to his team, but disregarded the Golduck since he wasn't interested in a polite poultry.

"Now we know who not to be afraid of." James pointed out even though there was something different about the Golduck before them.

"I'll do you one better than that. First we convince those singing saps that we've got their best interest at heart, and that their trust in us is well deserved." The girl of the team stated to the others.

"And then we grab the grateful gabby gullible." James said soon after her comment since he knew how her mind worked.

"Yeah, that's right. We bad." Meowth commented with an evil grin which the others did as well.

"So, where did you three procure those berries?" Golduck questioned while making sure there were no signs of lying coming from his fellow Water class.

"All we know is that these berries, so we thought that they were a gift from Arceus for all of our wonderful singing." The three answered back which the blue one saw that they were telling the truth.

"That's a lie." The three others shouted back in protest.

'Shot into the air, and our were stolen. If they aren't the thieves than perhaps…' The duck Poke`mon thought before hearing something coming to his left. The clapping came from white wigged/ black cloaked strangers.

'What's all this about.' The seven thought before listening to what they were, and why they were here. They were things called judges, and they were in favor of the food being in favor of the Ludicolo, but the Kanto duck had a feeling that the three had no idea who they were. As the red/gray haired one spoke Golduck couldn't help, but smell their berries all over these visitors.

"Before you leave tell me: why do all of you smell like every berry that my friends and I have collected." Golduck questioned calmly which got them nervous, but Meowth knew what to do.

"Hey, what did you say!" The cat shouted and even though the humans did not know what Golduck said they took it as bad considering how their friend reacted.

"Fighting words deserves fighting time." Jessie said as she and James took off their costumes and had Poke`balls ready to be thrown. "Seviper, let's go!" She called out to reveal the black/purple snake.

"Let's fight!" The serpent shouted after emerging from his sphere.

"You, too, Carnivine." James said as he threw his sphere, but just like always the plant circled back and bit him in the head. "Carnivine, I am not a piece of fruit! No matter what anyone says!" The human shouted out knowing that the three others were looking right at him.

"Poison Tail!" The woman said which was obeyed, but Golduck stood ready, and actually caught the base of the tail before it could reach his body.

"Stay." The Kanto duck ordered which the snake nodded in agreement.

"Carnivine, quick, your strongest Bite." James said as a way to free the snake, but the moved worked out badly due to Golduck using the tail as a sword and scored three good slashes before flinging the human owned creature at the attackers.

"Fall back. All of you - head back into the brush." The blue themed one shouted which caused them to do as he said, and run away. Once hidden away the four watch as that human bunch and the group nearly busted a gut when they saw the humans being spun around and the there others being juggled.

'Is he the one to lead us?' The Quagsire thought as they decided to get back to fleeing, and wondered if there was anyone else that was better suited than this duck.

"The next time we decide to befriend a Poke`mon let's choose a Nosepass." Jessie shouted once they were free Back with the heroes Dawn called it for training, and helped Brock with food while Ash fed his Poke`mon and Renamon simply began to eat.

'Another great meal.' Renamon thought as she ate, but set some time aside to watch Ash watched his Starly and Turtwig eat. 'I wonder if he's good with children.' She found herself thinking, and as the warrior tried to forget that that thought ever came up the penguin fled their campsite.

"Strange, Piplup was just here before." Brock commented as he noticed the one in blue was missing from their group. This caused the other two humans to take notice that they were short one Water squirter.

"This should be far enough. I doubt even Renamon could hear me here." Piplup said once he was in a different section of the brush. "Here goes nothing." The creature added before leaping up, and attempted the attack again, but it ended the same way - disastrously. Quickly approaching them were the other Water Poke `mon who seemed to be having an argument.

"I am certain that those humans and their allies are the rightful ones that stole our food. We just need to go back and confront them about it." Golduck explained in a civil tone as he chased after the others.

"Forget it! We're gonna find a Poke`mon that isn't afraid of fighting those Ludicolo." Quagsire shouted back as he and the other three ran in front of the water fowl.

"I am telling you that I am certain that they are not to blame." The duck tried to reason with them, but was denied. "You might want to…" He offered to them since he saw an obstacle in their path, but they shut him up.

"What's that…" Piplup muttered as he was coming out of the dizzy spell only to be ran over by three Poke`mon. Once that had occurred Golduck walked over to his team and sat on his heels. "What's the matter?" The owned creature questioned since he believed they were in distress.

"It is nothing, little one. Please, run along and enjoy your day." Golduck said in a calm tone since he knew that they could resolve this problem just fine.

"Nothing?! You call losing our food supply - Nothing?!" The Poliwag shouted at their supposed leader.

"Just leave it all to me." Piplup said and walked off, and just like a flack of Mareep the other three followed the little guy. Even though he had his doubts the Kanto creature followed after them, but noticed that someone else was watching them as they walked off.

"I'm almost afraid to ask, but what is Piplup doing with all those Poke`mon?" Dawn questioned after Ash recalled his team, and they found where Renamon last smelled the bird in question only to watch them leave.

"Going on a march." Ash answered back before checking dexter about the Orange League Island creature.

"Golduck - the Duck Poke`mon. It makes it's homes in lakes, and is able to swim faster than a gold mentalist." The machine said to them which all sounded very impressive.

"Hmm? Looks like Piplup is leading them all somewhere." The owner of said creature pointed out to the rest of them.

'Whatever gave you that idea.' Renamon thought in her most sarcastic tone before looking back at the group, and knew the creature Ash looked up saw them as clear as day.

"Let's follow them, and see where." The Pewter City Gym Leader offered to them which they approved and did just that. Within the lake the heroes were near the villains were enjoying their ill-gotten gain.

"Wouldn't you know - we finally have a great plan. Then we're faced with hyperactive, Poke`mon." James said to the others as he ate away a berry of blue.

"We've got the berries. Mark my words. That Golduck will be back." Jessie comforted her old friend that the Kanto duck, and crew, will return.

"It'll be a whole lot easier giving that one to the boss then a bunch of kooks who ate too much candy." Meowth added, and none of them realized how true their words were.

"Is that them?" Piplup questioned after they sang a marching song, which Golduck only kept the beat by clapping his hands, but stopped when he saw three singing birds.

"Yes, but we need to exercise caution when dealing with bigger opponents." Golduck offered only to see the Piplup already storming over to them.

"Excuse me! Excuse me!" The penguin shouted which they did hear.

"Someone say something?" Ludicolo in the middle asked while looking around before looking down. With that Piplup started explaining the tale again which the larger ones answered back.

"Who are those, Poke`mon?" Dawn asked the others.

"They're Ludicolo." Brock answered her since he does have one, and he is a very good friend of the family.

"Let me see." The new girl said as she activated her dexter for some information.

"Ludicolo - The carefree Poke`mon. When Ludicolo listens to happy music it's power grows stronger, and it just has to dance." The pink machine explained to them before she closed the lid.

"So, what is Piplup doing anyways?" Dawn asked the rest of them since she was a bit lost.

"It would seem Piplup is trying to be like Ash, and help out those wild Poke`mon with a problem.

"Look, kid, this isn't your fight, so just run along." The three said as one before

dousing the creature with a small Water Gun.

"Let's see how you like this!" Piplup shouted and used Peck, but the three countered with Growl that acted as a barrier. "I've got everything under control." The creature said after feeling the skeptical look Golduck was giving him even though the Kanto bird was wandering if he needed a hand.

"I think your right, Renamon. I think Piplup is trying to help them by acting as their leader." Dawn said back even though the others could clearly see that for themselves.

"Piplup? Then the twerps must be hovering close by." James informed the others as he decided to take a look around with the periscope and just stumbled onto this scene.

"Come on: details." The female to his left shouted out and wished the periscope could be used by all at the same time.

"It would appear that Piplup has befriended Golduck and his crew." The human reported back, but did not understand why since the water fowl clearly had some serious skill of his own.

"It's perfect! They'll tangle with the Looney Ludicolo, and wear themselves out. Then we'll grab Golduck." Jessie said to them which James secretly did not like. After spending so much time with Ash, in their own way, he has developed his own sense of honor. Sadly he liked Jessie too much to oppose her, so he just went along with her plan.

"Here I come again!" Piplup shouted out, but this time the taller trio simply sidestepped away, and the little one slammed belly first into their periscope.

'Hmm?' Ash, Golduck, and Renamon thought as they saw Piplup seemed to have stopped above the water instead of falling in. The owners of the periscope saw this as well, and didn't like it.

"Huh?! It's a plastic Piplup! You're fogging the lens. Out of the way." James said while gently swiveling the scope from left to right, but the human female didn't like that method so she butted in.

"Out of my way!" She shouted to James before giving the scope a good hard spin which sent it into the water.

"Piplup." Dawn said with worry before racing onto the scene with the other three right behind her. "It's the twerps and Renamon too. Right on cue. With Renamon's ferocity and Ludicolo lunacies - how can we loose. Let's grab the whole bunch." She said after seeing the heroes through the periscope and felt quit happy with that idea.

"What's going on out there?" The coordinator questioned to the others as she saw bubbles and had a feeling that they weren't fart bubbles.

"Nothing good." Renamon commented, and knew that she was right. The penguin, who was still mad of being flung, did not notice the surfacing vehicle, or the opening hatch when the metal device has surfaced.

'I know that Magicarp.' Ash thought once the water craft completely surfaced, and got out a water bottle from his backpack to drink in order to pass the time since he knew what was coming next.

"They're done." Renamon whispered to Ash as he was putting the empty bottle in his pack, and so the hero decided to get down to business.

"What ever you guys are doing here it can't be good." Ash pointed out once his bottle was safely back in the pack.

"Your so selfish. Stealing all your Poke`mon will be good for us." Jessie stated to the hero.

"Think of someone else for a change." James added to her comment with his Mime Jr. agreeing with what he said. The owned water fowl finally made it to land and decided to do something about it.

"It looks like Golduck's gaggle of pals have that pipsqueak on the Poke` payroll." Meowth commented once Piplup explained that he was the guardian of the friends of Golduck.

"Some bodyguard." The red head commented and did not see the beginner level bird a threat.

"They needed someone to fight for them and Piplup agreed." Dawn said while giving her head a firm head smack.

'But now I am having my doubts.' Golduck thought and wondered if he should step in and settle all of this, but before he could do anything the little one took off and started using Peck on their ship.

"Piplup, stop." Dawn called out once the penguin was flung back into the water with a sway of the fish's tail.

"Renamon, could you lend a paw?" Ash asked and gestured over to the sub before them.

"Diamond…" She started to say, but noticed the villains retreated back into the ship out of safety. "Any other ideas, Ash." Renamon stated to her friend who pulled out a piece of paper from his back pocket.

"I knew that we'd be facing one of their subs eventually so I printed off a couple of specs from the internet." Ash informed before looking at specs for the Magicarp submarine.

"Um, Ash, it's turning it's sights on us." Dawn commented before the fish fired two smaller Magicarps that turned into ropes that trapped Golduck and company along with the Ludicolo and Renamon.

'Hmm? Interesting strategy.' The vixen thought as she felt bound, but not helpless. Piplup, coming out of the water again saw that her new friends, and the Ludicolo were being pulled in which caused him to try to help.

'Must help them. Must help them.' Piplup thought as he pulled on the ropes, but after seeing that had no effect the bird attacked the metal fish which held no affect. Still the penguin would not give up.

"I know Piplup promised to help them out and all, but I hope it isn't a big mistake." Dawn said as she watched her friend put all his heart into helping the others.

'It won't be if I can find the right pipe.' Ash thought as he looked at the specs, and hoped he would find the answer in time.

"That pretentious Poke`mon's a pain." Jessie said as she watched all the efforts through the periscope, and was getting bored with the whole sight.

"Yeah…well I've got just the right thing to ease your pain." The feline said to her with confidence in his tone. Once the penguin was flung from the right fin again Meowth launched several homing remoraid missiles which hit their target.

'That hurt.' Piplup thought after getting up from the first attack only to be struck again. Even with a BubbleBeam attack that only struck a few they still kept up their attack.

"Look at them all." Brock commented before looking at Ash. 'Now would be a very good time for an Ash hero moment.' The gym leader thought as Ash was looking at the map. Inside the three were feeling pretty confident in what was happening outside.

'Ah, there's the fuel line. Now to weaken that spot.' Ketchum commented once he spotted the right spot to end this. As Piplup was being pounded Ash swapped his casual gloves to his warrior gloves.

"It's useless. I-I just can't beat them." The Sinnoh bird muttered in defeat as the flying fish surrounded him. Dawn saw this and decided to try to cheer her partner on.

"Piplup. Piplup, you've got to get up. You promised to help everyone, so you can't stop now." Dawn informed while running closer to her partner who heard it all. "Yes, you can…YOU CAN DO IT!" She shouted to her partner.

'She's right. I can do it.' The flightless one thought before leaping into the air. 'Time to try this contest move under battle conditions.' Piplup thought once he reached up to where they were, and started doing the attack.

'Now, that's cool.' Brock and Ash thought in awe, and so was Dawn. The group watched as the BubbleBeam ring destroyed all the opponents, and this time the attacker landed on his feet instead of his face.

"That's showin `em, Piplup. Yeah. But your not done yet, so keep it up." Dawn requested which was followed by another BubbleBeam ring that went around the Magicarp which caused a whirlpool that caused the metal beast to release the others and sink into the water.

"Now that they stopped going gaga, and we've taken over any other bright ideas?" Jessie demanded to the cat creature who was feverishly typing on the console only to have nothing happen.

"Since we're all going down the drain I suggest we dance." Meowth offered to his female friend which irritated her even more.

"Who do you think you are? A Ludicolo?" The red head questioned out of anger before realizing that their ship was spinning faster and faster causing her to become dizzy. The human heroine of the group was praising her partner for what just happened.

"So, is everyone here, okay?" Brock questioned as he checked on the Golduck and his friends. Ash checked on the Ludicolo and Renamon which he gave his partner a hug.

'He's so affectionate, but I'm okay with that.' The fox thought as she returned the gesture. Their moment of peace lasted a few moments before they all heard a familiar bubbling coming before them.

"Sometimes air is as good as food." Jessie said after the craft surfaced and they all got out for some air.

"Especially if you haven't been breathing much." James added since it felt most of their time today was within the tin can. Ash saw this as his chance to thwart them for the day.

"Time for a tag team, Renamon." Ash said to her and lit up both gloves with his aura. "Aura Sphere Barrage." The Pallet Town protector shouted and launched several spheres at where he saw the main part of the fuel line was, and once it was exposed the fox did the rest.

"Diamond Storm!" The digital vixen shouted and unleashed a real barrage attack at the exposed spot which resulted in an explosion. All of a sudden it started raining various berries which surprised them all.

"This is different." Brock commented at the unusual weather.

"Tell me about it. How did Team Rocket manage to get all these berries?" Ash questioned to the others, and it was then the blue duck heard his comment.

"I am sorry for…" Golduck tried to explain himself, but the trio cut him to the quick.

"It's okay. Don't worry about it." They said back and shook on it to make it official. Again the peaceful moment of Water class was cut short by Team Rocket as they trudged to shore.

"And to think I used to love swimming as a girl." Jessie said once she, and the others made it to land. It was then they saw fourteen angry eyes - glaring at them. "You're probably wondering where we got those berries. We were actually holding them for you for safekeeping, really." Jessie tried to weasel.

"You can't blame us for wanting to have a little snack." James said as a way for backing up his female friend's claim.

"We are dead." Wobbuffet said to them since he knew that they knew that Team Rocket was the thieves. The pink creature comment in agreement, and it was then Golduck and the lead Ludicolo tried a unified Water Gun attack on the invaders of the land.

'Is it possible that there is something going on between those two humans?' Renamon thought as she heard their conversation before flying away too far, and it sounded like Jessie approved of romantic moments over battle moment, but the rest of the conversation had the canine doubt that there was a connection between the two.

"Come on, guys, let's help them pick up all these berries." Ash said to the others, and with a little bit of teamwork they were able to rebuild the pile. Once it was done the group decided it was time to go.

"Take care, everyone." Dawn shouted out to them while waving good-bye.

"See you around." Ash added while waving, but Brock decided to remain silent. Once they said their good-byes the team went on their way.

"Wow, if it wasn't for Piplup none of this would have gotten straightened out." Ash stated, and thought the young starter did a bang up job.

"Piplup, you were awesome." Dawn praised which her partner did not mind one bit. "Piplup, let's try out our move again." She offered and the bird stood ready. "Piplup, use BubbleBeam." She shouted out which the bird did, and perfectly this time.

"That's a lot better." The canine stated as she watched the show above her.

"Hey, Dawn, Piplup's looking strong for sure." The stone expert stated to her, and had a feeling the fight helped out greatly.

"I think we're both ready for our Poke`mon contest now." The coordinator commented to them, and felt that statement to be true. "Great, Piplup, you're looking good." She shouted out to her best Water class.

"I know." The bird answered back after landing on the ground.

"Hey, race you to Jubilife City." She offered to them and ran ahead of them. The canine decided to remain with her partner, so she didn't really try until Ketchum chose to go faster.