Rubello Contest

Today the gang made it to Rubello Town and Ash and May were practicing for the Pokemon contest tomorrow. The Rubello Contest had two different rules than previous Pokemon contests; one you had to have one ribbon to enter and two you had to use a different Pokemon for each round. May decided to use her Beautifly and Bulbasaur and Ash decided to use his Sableye and Torkoal.

"Hey May are you sure that you want to use Bulbasaur?" Max asked.

"Of course I'm sure Max." May said. "Bulbasaur and I have been going through some things for this contest, haven't we Bulbasaur?"

Bulbasaur nodded in response.

Max wasn't certain if it was okay for Bulbasaur to be in the contest yet, especially since May had caught her recently.

Meanwhile Ash was practicing with Sableye and Torkoal in an open area and Tomo was watching with Growlithe.

"What are you going to do with Sableye Ash?" Tomo asked.

"Well Sableye is a ghost type Pokemon and he also knows a lot of moves so we need to think of how to make Sableye look impressive." Ash said. "The question is how?"

"Do you need any help?" A voice asked.

The voice belonged to a woman with a little girl beside her.

"Who are you?" Ash asked.

The woman was named Savannah and her daughter's name was Sandra.

"I can't believe we're talking to Ash Ketchum mom." Sandra said.

Savannah explained that she and her daughter watched him in contests.

"I enter Pokemon contests too." Savannah said. "To tell you the truth I'll be entering the contest tomorrow as well."

"So you'll be another contest rival for me then tomorrow." Ash said. "You got any ribbons yet."

Savannah showed Ash a red contest ribbon with pink-red outlines.

"It's the only one I've got, so if I win the contest tomorrow it'll be my second ribbon." She said.

"But you will have to defeat me first." Ash smiled.

Savannah asked Ash again if she could help him with Sableye and Ash accepted, so Savannah and Ash practiced together.

Later in the afternoon...

Ash and Savannah had finished practicing and they, Tomo and Sandra went to the Pokemon Center to heal their Pokemon.

"There you are Ash." May said. "Where have you and Tomo been?"

Ash introduced Savannah and Sandra to Brock, May and Max.

"Savannah will be entering the contest tomorrow too May, so you and I have a rival." Ash said.

"She's not the only rival of ours that's here." May said.

She explained that Drew was here and he was competing in the contest tomorrow as well.

"Then we better be on our guard tomorrow May." Ash said.

The next day...

It was time for the Pokemon contest. Vivian did the normal speech and introductions and then she showed off the Rubello Ribbon. The Rubello Ribbon was purple with light purple outlines. Ash, May, Savannah and Drew were standing in the waiting room, while Brock and Tomo were in the stands with Sandra. Savannah was feeling nervous and jittery, while Ash and May were calm.

"Don't worry about a thing Savannah." May said calmly. "Just have fun in the contest."

"Strange for you to say that May." Ash teased. "Especially considering you were worse than Savannah is previously."

May's face turned red.

"Yeah well, I'm not nervous this time." She argued back.

Drew was just sitting calmly in the waiting room.

The appeal rounds soon started. May got to go first before Ash, Drew and Savannah. She ordered her Beautifly to use Sunny Day and then finished it off with Silver Wind. Next was Savannah. She ordered her Flareon to start off with Fire Spin and have it run through the attack with Tackle; Flareon ran through the Fire Spin attack like going through a fiery tunnel. Then she ordered Flareon to use Swift and have it hit the stars with Ember. It created orange-yellow stars. Next it was Ash's turn. He ordered Sableye to start things off with multiple Shadow Ball attacks and then struck them with Shadow Claw. It created a dark purple aurora. Then at last it was Drew's turn. He had his Roselia use Petal Dance when it came out of the Poke Ball; it was like a curtain of petals before Roselia's arrival.

After the appeal rounds the result was that Ash, May, Drew and Savannah passed the preliminaries. For the battle round, Ash was up against Drew and May was up against Savannah.

"I've been waiting to battle you again for a while Ash." Drew said.

"Well now you've got one." Ash replied.

Savannah felt a bit nervous because she hadn't battled in a while.

"You'll do fine Savannah." Ash said. "But if you'd like I could give you some pointers on Pokemon battling since you helped me out yesterday."

"Thank you Ash." Savannah said. "But I'll stick with how I always battle."

"Yeah Ash, don't butt in with Savannah." May said, a little annoyed.

Ash asked May if she wanted a few tips about how to battle with her Bulbasaur since he knew a lot about Bulbasaur due to his Venusaur starting off as a Bulbasaur.

"I don't need any of your help Ash." May said, a bit rudely. "Bulbasaur is my Pokemon so mind your own business!"

Ash and Brock looked at each other; it was clear to them that May was acting too overconfident. Even Drew could see that.

Soon it was time for the battle rounds. Ash sent out his Torkoal and Drew sent out his new Pokemon; a Masquerain. Masquerain was the evolved form of Surskit and it was a beautiful moth-like Pokemon. Ash commanded Torkoal to use Flamethrower on Masquerain, but Masquerain was a fast flyer and easily dodged the Flamethrower.

*'Masquerain certainly is a fast flyer.'* Ash thought. *'I'll just have to slow it down.'*

"Use Smokescreen Torkoal." Ash said.

Torkoal released thick black smoke from his nostrils and shell.

"Blow that smoke away with Gust Masquerain." Drew said.

Masquerain's gust easily blew the smokescreen away.

"Now use Silver Wind." Torkoal was hit by the attack.

"You okay Torkoal?" Ash asked.

Torkoal was okay.

"Now use Fire Spin." Torkoal released a vortex of flames.

"Counter that with Bubble Beam Masquerain." Drew said.

Masquerain blew a lot of bubbles which broke the vortex of flames and then struck Torkoal.

"Since Bubble Beam is a water type move, Torkoal has taken a lot of damage." Max said.

He was right; Torkoal was starting to pant from that last attack. Ash could sense and feel that his Torkoal was in a lot of pain and knew that if Torkoal got hit one more time he would take more damage.

"I surrender." Ash said, holding up his right arm. So Drew was the winner of the battle round.

Everyone in the audience was in awe of Ash's surrender.

"It's obvious that Ash knew Torkoal couldn't take anymore right?" Max said.

"That's correct." Brock nodded. "And if there's one thing Ash hates it's seeing Pokemon in pain."

"It's true, he doesn't." Tomo agreed.

The judges were touched by Ash's surrender.

"I can see Ash is a kind trainer." Mr. Contesta said.

"Yes he is remarkable." Mr. Suziko said.

"I'm always happy to see a trainer who cares about his own Pokemon." Nurse Joy said.

Savannah in the waiting room was touched by Ash's kindness towards his Pokemon. May just stared at that. Ash congratulated Drew for his win and Drew just smiled.

Next it was May and Savannah's turn to battle. May sent out her Bulbasaur and Savannah sent out a Lairon.

Tomo looked Lairon up on his Pokedex.

"Lairon, the Iron Armor Pokemon and the evolved form of Aron. Lairon tempers it's steel body by drinking highly nutritious mineral spring water until it is bloated. This Pokemon makes it's nest close to springs of delicious water."

It was nearly time for their battle to start, but there was a problem. May's Bulbasaur was really nervous and it had stage fright from seeing the big crowd of people.

"Hey come on now Bulbasaur, it's show time." May said, slightly irritated.

"I was afraid of this." Brock said. "Because May was acting overconfident in the waiting room, Bulbasaur has become upset with the fact May didn't notice this."

"So that means May is acting like one of those cocky trainers who only care about the winning streak right Brock?" Tomo asked.

"That's correct." Brock answered.

"This is going to end badly for May." Max said.

He was right. At first Bulbasaur had trouble concentrating on the battle because of her nervousness; she got hit by Lairon's attacks even though May told her to dodge. Next Bulbasaur kept hesitating when May gave her a order. Then at last Bulbasaur was severely hurt by Lairon's Metal Claw. The judges called this a loss for May. She couldn't believe this.

"May, your Bulbasaur was clearly not ready for this." Mr. Contesta said. "In a Pokemon contest both the coordinator and their Pokemon have to be one with each other."

"That is right." Nurse Joy added. "Look at Ash for example. When he forfeited the match it was clear that not only did he care about his Torkoal, he was clearly one with Torkoal. You must always understand your Pokemon's feelings."

Hearing that made May feel very ashamed; she had clearly not thought about Bulbasaur at all, only herself. Ash saw everything in the waiting room and decided to have a talk with May.

May and Bulbasaur sat on a bench outside the contest hall.

"I am so sorry Bulbasaur." She said, sadly. "I only thought about winning my third ribbon, but I didn't think about how you felt."

Bulbasaur nudged May gently to cheer her up. Just then Ash walked over to them.

"There you are." He said.

"Hey Ash." May sighed. "I take it you saw what happened?"

"Everything." Ash answered.

"I'm sorry Ash." May apologized. "You were trying to help me, but I brushed it off as if I already knew everything about my own Bulbasaur. And what's even worse is that I acted like a complete fool."

"Everyone, especially Pokemon trainers, get carried away with wanting to win especially when they've been on a winning streak lately." Ash said. "I've seen many Pokemon trainers act like that, especially new ones. And the one thing that everyone must know is that whether you're battling in a contest or gym is that both Pokemon and trainer have to be in sync with each other in order to succeed at anything. Just like I'm in sync with my Pokemon when I'm battling, and also like when you were in sync with Beautifly and Skitty when you won your two contest ribbons." May knew Ash was right and thanked him. Ash suggested that they go watch Drew and Savannah's battle. May agreed.

When Ash and May got back to the contest, they saw Drew's Masquerain put up quite a fight against Savannah's Lairon, especially with it's Hidden Power attack. In the end Drew won the battle and the contest, so he earned the Rubello Ribbon. Drew now had four ribbons, which meant that he only needed one more to enter the Grand Festival.

That evening the gang had dinner with Savannah and Sandra at the Pokemon Center. May learned a lot today, especially about how to always think about how her Pokemon felt about things. And she promised herself to never act overconfident again.