Phantom

After Ash challenged the Lavaridge Gym, he had his heart set on capturing a Torkoal for himself because he thought that Flannery's Torkoal was a cool Pokemon. He got his chance when the gang arrived at the Valley of Steel. It was a valley that many steel type Pokemon lived in and a lost wild Torkoal was roaming the area. Ash saved it from some Magneton and then captured it for himself. Sometime after that the gang came across a swarm of Spinda. Spinda were normal type Pokemon and their eyes were spiral shaped. Tomo and Max liked the Spinda and caught one each. Then Ash and the others reunited with Wattson again when they passed through Mauville City. Wattson was having a issue with two Manectric and Electrike at his gym. The gang offered to help and Ash and Tomo took on one Manectric and Electrike while Wattson battled the other Manectric and Electrike. In the process Wattson captured the Manectric and Electrike while Ash caught the other Manectric and Tomo caught the other Electrike. So it had been quite a trip for the gang.

Since Ash had four gym badges now, it was time for him to challenge Norman at the Petalburg Gym. But first the gang had come to Verdanturf Town where the next Pokemon contest was going to be held. Both Ash and May were entering this contest and they were thinking about what Pokemon to use.

"I'm going to use Skitty." May said. "Skitty and I have been practicing her juggling with some juggling balls."

"And I'll enter with Kirlia, we came up with a clever combo." Ash said.

The others were interested in seeing their tactics, but Brock told them that they needed to head to the Pokemon Center to give their Pokemon a checkup.

When the gang got to the Pokemon Center, they got a surprise. Drew was there with his Roselia, but Roselia was seriously injured and Nurse Joy was taking care of it.

"Drew, what happened?" May asked.

Drew explained that he had battled a masked coordinator who called himself Phantom and Roselia was badly injured by Phantom's Pokemon.

"So take my advice; stay away from Phantom." As Roselia was badly injured, Drew wasn't able to enter the Verdanturf Contest.

May was surprised by this Phantom and that he was stronger than Drew. Ash wasn't scared; he liked battling other trainers no matter how strong they were.

Ash and May decided to start practicing for the contest with their Pokemon in a nearby park. May went over Skitty's moves. Skitty knew Tackle, Attract, Sing, Double Slap, Copycat, Assist, Headbutt, Blizzard and the egg move Tickle.

"Okay Skitty I am going to enter the contest with you this time." May said. "So we are going to practice."

Skitty was very playful but she did want to be in the Pokemon contest. Ash was checking Kirlia's attacks too.

"Okay Kirlia, let's give it our all to win the Pokemon contest tomorrow." He said.

Suddenly a gust of wind stopped the gang in their tracks. Then somebody wearing a suit, top hat, cape and grey mask appeared.

"You must be the Phantom." Ash said.

"That's right." The Phantom said. "And my purpose is Pokemon battling."

"If you want a battle, I will give you a battle." Ash volunteered.

The Phantom liked Ash's confidence and agreed to battle him. The Phantom sent out a Dusclops and Ash chose Latias. Ash knew Dusclops was a ghost type and ordered Latias to use Thunderbolt. The Phantom had his Dusclops counter the attack with Shadow Ball, and the two attacks collided with each other. Phantom ordered Dusclops to attack with Shadow Punch. Shadow Punch was a tricky ghost type move. Two black shadowy fists came out of Dusclops' hands and Latias kept getting hit by punches. Ash had to think of something quick.

The Phantom was about to call out another attack, but then the sound of a car was heading their way. The Phantom returned Dusclops and started to run away.

"Hey, what was that about?" Ash asked, a little annoyed.

A car pulled up close to where the gang was standing and a lady got out of the car. She seemed to be a very rich lady because she wore expensive rings on her fingers.

"Where did the Phantom go?" She demanded.

"He just left." Ash answered.

The lady stared at the gang.

"I need you to do something for me." She said.

She introduced herself as Mrs. Grimm and explained that she felt her son, Timmy Grimm had a connection with the Phantom and she wanted to know who the Phantom was.

She brought the gang to her home, which was an enormous mansion. Mrs. Grimm called out for her son Timmy. Timmy Grimm was about a year older than May and he seemed to be shy.

"I hope you have been studying Timmy." Mrs. Grimm said.

"Yes mom of course I did." Timmy said.

Then he went back to his room.

"Is Timmy a Pokemon trainer?" Ash asked.

"Absolutely not!" Mrs. Grimm shouted. "I will never let Timmy play around Pokemon. He is going to take over my company so he has no time for that nonsense. Now I have to get back to work, so let me know about the Phantom when I get back."

Then Mrs. Grimm left.

"God I'm glad she's not my mom." Max said.

"I can't believe that she doesn't want Timmy to be around Pokemon." Tomo said. "That is a really unfair thing to do."

"Yeah and Timmy didn't look happy being with her." May pointed out.

"It is true." A voice said. "Timmy isn't a happy boy."

The voice belonged to a man.

"Please excuse me, I'm Mr. Grimm." The man said. "And I'm Timmy's dad. I know all about the Phantom."

Mr. Grimm explained that he used to be a Pokemon coordinator in the past, but he had to stop doing that because he got married to Mrs. Grimm due to her hatred of Pokemon.

"But I still loved Pokemon so I disguised myself as a masked coordinator known as the Phantom." He showed them the costume that he wore when he was younger.

"This is the same thing that the Phantom wore when I battled him, but it looks older." Ash said.

"That's right." Mr. Grimm said. "I used this to continue being a coordinator in secret from my wife. But it started to get difficult so I hid my costume and quit being a coordinator. but when Timmy was born, he took after me and loved Pokemon too. He has always wanted to have Pokemon of his own, but his mother had prohibited him from ever having a Pokemon as well as prohibited him from going on a Pokemon journey. One day Timmy found a lost wild Duskull and wanted to keep it, but of course my wife prohibited it. Timmy was really upset after that, but I decided to help. I gave a new design of my Phantom costume to him."

"Wait, you mean Timmy is the Phantom?" May gasped.

"Yes and when he becomes the Phantom he becomes very confident with his life." Mr. Grimm said. "And he has become a very good coordinator."

"I agree." Max added. "His Dusclops was very strong."

"Please excuse us sir." Ash said. "But why does Mrs. Grimm hate Pokemon so much? What have they done to make her hate them?"

"There is a reason behind that." Mr. Grimm said. "But right now I need you to help me with Timmy. I know that he really wants to enter the Pokemon contest tomorrow, especially since this is his only chance to do so."

The gang agreed to his request and Mr. Grimm offered to help too.

Meanwhile Timmy was staring at his Phantom costume.

"What should I do?" He asked himself. "I fear mom will find out what I'm doing."

Just then his dad came into the room and so did the gang. Timmy tried to hide his costume, but Mr. Grimm assured him that it was okay.

"Timmy we are going to help you enter the Verdanturf Town Pokemon contest." Ash said.

"Really?" Timmy asked in surprise. "What are we going to do."

"We have a plan." Brock said.

That afternoon Mrs. Grimm came home from work. May, Max and Tomo were outside in the garden and May was practicing with Skitty. As soon as Mrs. Grimm left the limousine, a gust of wind blew.

"Hey it's the Phantom!" Max shouted.

The Phantom was standing on a balcony of the mansion.

"The Phantom is here?" Mr. Grimm questioned.

He and Timmy came to see what the matter was. Mrs. Grimm was surprised to see Timmy because she thought that he had something to do with the Phantom. This was Brock's plan; the plan was for Brock to disguise himself as the Phantom and Mr. Grimm and Timmy could appear in front of Mrs. Grimm to make her believe that the Phantom wasn't Timmy. Brock left in a hurry to escape and Mrs. Grimm just smiled.

"I thought it couldn't really be Timmy." She said, walking into the mansion.

So the plan had worked.

"You better prepare yourself for the contest tomorrow Timmy." Ash said. "Because I will be in that contest."

"And so will I." May added.

"Well Ash and May, you better prepare yourselves too because I plan to win that contest." Timmy said.

He couldn't wait to finally participate in a Pokemon contest for once.