Pokemon Trades

*One day...*

The gang was at a Pokemon Center. They were watching the news Marian was broadcasting. She was showing a rebroadcast of Kenny winning a Pokemon contest in Sage Town a few days ago. She also said that Kenny now had two contest ribbons. Ash realized at once that it was like him now. Suddenly a surprise entered the room. Zoey had turned up. Dawn was surprised to see her again and she was happy to see the gang again. Hearing the broadcast about Kenny winning his second ribbon made Dawn feel a bit down because she only had one ribbon and Ash and Kenny were ahead of her.

"Don't go feeling like you've lost yet Dawn." Ash said.

He picked up on her feelings.

"Remember there are still lots of other Pokemon contests you can enter and soon you will catch up to us."

"Thank you Ash." Dawn smiled.

Just then Marian announced on the TV that the next Pokemon contest will be held in Solaceon Town.

"That's on the way to Veilstone City." Zoey explained.

So the gang's plan was to go to Solaceon Town and then Veilstone City.

"Are you going to enter the Solaceon Contest Zoey?" Dawn asked.

"No I want to work more on new combinations, so I'm not participating in this one." Zoey answered.

"Then will you train with me tomorrow, please?" Dawn begged. "I'd love to see your Pokemon."

Zoey agreed to train with her.

So the next day Zoey and Dawn decided to practice having a contest battle. Ash and Tomo decided to practice battling for the gym in Veilstone City. Brock decided to watch Ash and Tomo.

Tomo released a blue, yellow and green Shellos and a Combee.

"Wow, you got new Pokemon Tomo?" Zoey asked.

"Yep I caught Shellos and Combee after we left the Hearthome tag battle tournament." Tomo answered.

Ash had out his Chimchar and Riolu. Zoey was seeing newer Pokemon already in one day. Zoey sent out her Glameow and Dawn sent out her Buizel.

"Okay Buizel we will practice for your debut in the Solaceon contest." Dawn said.

Buizel understood. Suddenly Ash's female Aipom popped out of her Poke Ball.

"What are you out for?" Ash asked Aipom.

Aipom said, in her language, that she wanted to watch Zoey and Dawn's contest battle. Ash explained the situation and asked Zoey and Dawn if it was okay for Aipom to watch them.

"Of course you are welcome to watch Aipom." Dawn said.

Aipom was happy to hear that.

The practice was soon underway. Dawn had Buizel use Water Gun but Glameow countered it with Water Gun. The Water Gun broke out into beautiful sparkles.

"The Water Gun only made Glameow look good, not you Buizel." Dawn said, worried.

All the while Tomo was having Combee and Shellos practice battling each other. Tomo found out on his Pokedex that Shellos had the egg moves Counter and Mirror Coat, to his joy, and had Shellos practice that while Combee threw attacks at Shellos. Ash had Chimchar and Riolu practice battling each other. While the practice battles were going on Buizel was staring at them instead of paying attention to what he was supposed to be doing now. Dawn got Buizel to pay attention again.

"Aqua Jet." She told Buizel.

Buizel had the water surround him in a dome shape and went into an attack. But Glameow used Shadow Claw to counter it.

"That's not right either Buizel." Dawn said. "You see the water thing did look pretty but it would be better that you twisted when it came to using that move. You saw how Glameow moved, so you'll have a much better impact when looking confident."

Buizel wasn't exactly amused by this and then he turned to Ash and his Pokemon while Chimchar and Riolu battled it out.

"I think Buizel's more interested in Ash's practice battle than contest practice." Zoey pointed out.

Chimchar was using Bullet Seed on Riolu, but then Riolu glowed green and ended up using Bullet Seed next.

"Hey Ash, I think Riolu just learned a new move." Brock said.

He was right as Riolu just learned the move Copycat. Copycat allowed the user to replicate the move the opponent used.

"Wow Riolu, you grow more and more every day." Ash smiled.

Riolu was happy whenever he made Ash proud.

*Back with Dawn and Zoey*

Before Dawn could give Buizel another command, Aipom jumped in and used a contest move by using Swift and jumping from star to star. Then she used Bounce to jump high in the air and Attract to surround herself with pink hearts while spinning.

"Wow Aipom you looked spectacular." Dawn said, very impressed.

"I would like to use that in a contest. Hey Buizel knows Swift too, so I should have Aipom teach him a thing or two about this." Zoey was impressed by Aipom's move too.

Ash saw what had happened and heard what Dawn just said. He stopped the practice.

"Dawn, I need to talk to you about something." He said.

"What is it Ash?" Dawn asked.

"Well Dawn." Ash said. "You know every time we trained for battles and contests you have always seen my female Aipom watch you train for contests."

"Now that you mention it I have." Dawn said. "And Aipom really likes it whenever I ask you to borrow her to help some of my Pokemon for contest appeal practice."

"Exactly, so I have been thinking for some time now that I should give you my female Aipom."