Jubilife Contest

*The next day...*

It was time for the Jubilife contest. Ash was in his contest outfit and he was in the waiting room with Brock and Tomo. Brock and Tomo wanted to watch the preliminary rounds in the waiting room.

"Where's Dawn?" Brock asked.

"She's probably dealing with her hair." Ash said. "If she doesn't hurry up, she'll be late for the preliminary round."

Dawn was in the dressing room and trying to deal with her hair. Just then Zoey made a appearance. She was wearing a cream colored coat that had black and yellow striped cuffs and a yellow design on the front and was red on the inside, a pair of light green trousers and white shoes. Zoey was tomboyish. Dawn introduced herself to Zoey while she fixed up her hair.

"Since you have that first time vibe, I can tell you've never competed in a contest before." Zoey said.

"Have you entered any contests and won any ribbons?" Dawn asked Zoey.

Zoey said that she had entered three contests and won one ribbon showing it to Dawn. Zoey had a yellow-gold ribbon case and her ribbon was pink with white outlines.

"Well now it will be my turn to win." Dawn said.

"Yeah well break a leg and I'll see you in the finals." Zoey said.

With her hair fixed, Dawn was now ready for the contest.

By now the contest had begun. The presenter for the Pokemon contests in Sinnoh was a woman named Marian. Marian was a cousin of Vivian and Lilian, which was the reason she closely resembled them, minus a mole. The judges were Raoul Contesta and Mr. Suziko as well as Jubilife City's Nurse Joy; just like Hoenn and Kanto. Marian showed off the Jubilife Ribbon; it was aqua blue with white outlines.

Dawn then entered the waiting room.

"There you are. You're late Dawn." Ash said.

"I know. I had trouble with my hair." Dawn explained the reason she was late.

"Figures." Tomo muttered.

Then the preliminary round started. Zoey was first and she called out Misdreavus. Her catchphrase for contests was 'curtain' and the seal on Misdreavus's capsule ball was a smoke seal, so Misdreavus appeared in a puff of purple-grey smoke. Misdreavus used Double Team, while still surrounded by the smoke and created a spooky shadow silhouette in the smoke.

"Wow that brings out the spookiness of Misdreavus since it's a ghost type Pokemon." Ash said, impressed.

"Zoey is a good coordinator." Brock agreed.

Then Misdreavus used Confuse Ray, which broke the smoke apart and revealed Misdreavus and then it used Shock Wave and showed how strong it's electric type move was. To finish Zoey posed and Misdreavus landed on top of her hand. Dawn didn't take her eyes off for a second.

After Zoey there was a Rapidash, a Beautifly, a Buizel, a Scyther, a Bidoof and a Weepinbell.

"Now here's a coordinator everyone has seen in contests from the Hoenn Region and the Kanto Region." Marian said. "And he was runner up in the Kanto Grand Festival give it up for Ash Ketchum."

The crowd cheered loudly once Ash stepped onto the stage; they had seen him in his past contests and grand festivals on TV. Ash sent out his female Aipom. He had a star seal on his capsule ball so Aipom was surrounded in multi-colored stars. Aipom started off with Swift and the stars broke the stars from the seal, creating hundreds of yellow particles. Next she used Double Team to create multiple copies of herself and then used Focus Punch to destroy the copies. To finish she spun around like she was dancing and balanced on her tail to pose.

"Wow Ash is good at this." Dawn said. "No wonder he was runner up at the Kanto Grand Festival."

"Just relax Dawn and have a good time out there." Brock said.

Next up was Dawn and she sent out Piplup. Her catchphrase was 'spotlight' and her capsule ball had a bubble seal, so Piplup came out with a lot of bubbles.

"Bubble Beam." Dawn told Piplup.

Piplup's bubbles pushed the seal's bubbles into the air. Then Piplup used Peck, enlarging his beak, to peck all the bubbles really quickly and created white particles after all the bubbles burst. To finish Dawn curtsied and Piplup puffed up with pride. Johanna, who was watching on TV back in Twinleaf Town, thought it wasn't bad but it was still a little stiff to her. So Dawn still had a lot of work to do.

Soon the preliminary round was over and Dawn collapsed to the floor. She had been nervous the whole time. Ash offered his hand to help her get back up.

"Come on Dawn." He said. "It's too soon to be relieved. We still need to get through the battle rounds."

Just then the final results of who will proceed to the battle round appeared on the screen. Only eight coordinators could go through to the battle rounds and Zoey, Dawn and Ash were three of them. Then the cards of the coordinators shuffled around and the result was Ash had to battle Zoey first. Zoey and Ash turned to each other.

"I'll be showing you the difference between a contest battle and a gym battle." She sternly said to Ash and then left.

Dawn didn't like how coldly she treated Ash just because he competed in both gym battles and contests.

"Ash?" She said, worried.

"I'll show her what I can really do." Ash commented.

Then he and Pikachu headed to the stage.

Soon it was time for the battle rounds and Ash and Zoey took their positions. Brock, Tomo and Dawn watched from the stands. The time for the battle round was five minutes. And instead of having a points losing line like back in the Hoenn and Kanto contests, the board had a points losing circle under the picture of the coordinators. The Sinnoh contests were different compared to the Kanto and Hoenn contests.

Ash released Pikachu from his Poke Ball. Zoey sent out her Glameow, which had a party seal and lots of pink confetti came out.

"Let's go Pikachu." Ash said.

Pikachu ran over to Glameow to attack.

"Don't move." Zoey told her Glameow to stay still.

Ash recognized this because he had seen it before; this meant Glameow was waiting for Pikachu to attack so it could move in next.

"Pikachu, use Dig." He said.

Pikachu dug underground.

"Stand your ground Glameow." Zoey said.

Glameow stood it's ground waiting for Pikachu.

"Now Pikachu." Ash said.

Pikachu emerged from the ground and shocked Glameow with Thunderbolt.

"Ha Ash is showing Zoey a thing or two." Tomo smiled.

"Glameow move in with Fury Swipes." Zoey said.

Ash smirked.

"Pikachu let Glameow hit you." He said.

Pikachu stood still, smirking.

"What is Ash doing?" Dawn asked.

She was surprised Ash told Pikachu to stand still.

"This is one of Ash's tricks." Brock said.

Glameow did scratch Pikachu, but then it was shocked by static electricity and paralyzed.

"What was that?" Dawn gasped.

"Static." Brock informed her. "Whenever you make physical contact with a Pokemon that has the Static ability, you are paralyzed. Ash was using that against Zoey."

Ash called out to Zoey, telling her that this was something he learned from battling in the past. Zoey was surprised with what was going on; Ash was battling like he was challenging a gym and he had the advantage at the moment.

"Glameow, use Shadow Claw." She said.

Glameow moved in with Shadow Claw, but Pikachu used Agility to dodge.

"Now Pikachu, time for Volt Tackle." Ash said.

Glameow tried to dodge it but was unable to move due to the paralysis and it got hit by the attack. Glameow was seriously injured. Suddenly time was up and the board showed Ash was the winner of the first battle round. Zoey stared at Ash; she felt like she underestimated him.

Dawn was up next with her Ariados, and it defeated the opponent's Bidoof. Everyone liked Dawn's shiny Ariados. Next a coordinator with a Buizel defeated her opponent's Beautifly. Then a coordinator with a Weepinbell defeated her opponent's Rhydon.

Next up it was time for Ash to battle Dawn in the semi-finals.

"Dawn isn't going to have a easy time battling Ash." Tomo said.

"You're right." Brock agreed. "The best thing we can do is see how Dawn performs."

Ash released his Pikachu from his Poke Ball. Dawn called out her Ariados; the capsule ball had a line seal and Ariados was surrounded by white lines.

"Ariados, use String Shot." Dawn said.

"Jump Pikachu." Ash said.

Pikachu used his tail like a springboard to dodge the String Shot move.

"Now Flash." Pikachu released a flash, creating a very bright light and it caused Ariados to close it's eyes.

"I recognize that springy tail trick anywhere." Tomo said.

"So do I." Brock added.

They remembered seeing Ash use that tactic with Pikachu in the past.

"Quick Ariados, use Psychic." Dawn said.

Ariados used Psychic to lift Pikachu in the air and hold him there.

"Pikachu, use Signal Beam." Ash said.

Pikachu fired a Signal Beam from his mouth and the beam hit Ariados; since it was a bug type move it didn't do much damage to Ariados, but it was enough to escape Psychic.

"Come on Ariados, let's use String Shot." Dawn said.

Ariados fired a String Shot, and this time Pikachu was wrapped up in it.

"Alright, now Ariados use Sludge Bomb." Ariados fired a Sludge Bomb attack and since Pikachu was still wrapped up in webbing, he was hit by the attack.

"Pikachu, use Thunderbolt to free yourself." Ash said.

Pikachu managed to use Thunderbolt on himself and the web came off, then Pikachu fired Thunderbolt at Ariados shocking it.

"Now Iron Tail, Pikachu." Pikachu struck Ariados with a metallic silver tail.

Suddenly time was up and Ash had more points than Dawn, so he won the contest.

After losing the battle Dawn talked to her mom on the phone; she was trying to act brave and strong, but really she was a cry-baby.

"Don't cry, Dawn." Johanna said, a bit sternly. "And you don't need to call me every time you lose and win a contest. You talk to your Pokemon and your friends Ash, Tomo and Brock for that, especially Ash. As you have seen, he's much more experienced as a coordinator than you, so you can definitely talk to him with contests about mistakes and your plans. Now go and watch Ash battle in the final round."

Dawn said goodbye to Johanna and the phone call ended.

By now the coordinator with the Weepinbell defeated the coordinator with the Buizel and now she was up against Ash. Since she was using a grass type Pokemon, she thought defeating Pikachu would be easy. But she underestimated Pikachu and with the moves Signal Beam, Mega Kick and Mega Punch, Weepinbell was defeated. So Ash won the Jubilife contest.

Ash was presented with the Jubilife ribbon.

"I had a feeling you would compete in the contests here in Sinnoh Ash." Mr. Contesta said. "And I look forward to seeing more of your skills here too."

Ash smiled and was happy to receive his first Sinnoh ribbon. Just then Zoey stepped forward.

"After seeing how you won the contest with your battling skills." Zoey said. "I realize I was wrong about you who competes in gym battles, not knowing the difference with contest battles."

"It's as I said Zoey, I learned a lot of tactics and tricks in gym battles and other Pokemon battles in the past."

"People can learn from contests and battling." Mr. Contesta spoke up. "To get to the top you have to learn everything there is about contests and battling especially if you are competing in both contests and gym battles."

Zoey realized her mistake and took out her hand to congratulate Ash and apologize to him. Ash accepted her hand.

"I'm glad you understand." He said.

Zoey was now a new contest rival for both Ash and Dawn.

After the contest was over Zoey said goodbye to the gang and walked off to her next destination while the gang planned to continue heading to Oreburgh City for Ash and Tomo's first gym battle.