Dawn's Double Training

There was some big news going around the Sinnoh Region. First, Team Galactic had been defeated. Saturn, Mars and Jupiter had received life in prison for stealing the meteorites from Veilstone City, the theft of the Adamant and Lustrous Orbs, nearly destroying Iron Island, and nearly destroying the world. Charon received a life sentence as well as the grunts. Looker and the police shut Team Galactic's headquarters down on Mt. Coronet and everything concerning Team Galactic was all over. Since Cyrus was in another dimension, he was no longer a threat. Next was the announcement of Hunter J's death. The police had divers and water type Pokemon dive into Lake Valor to see if they could find Hunter J or her crew. The ship was completely destroyed when it exploded in the lake after Mesprit and Uxie made it fall into the lake. There they discovered Hunter J and her crew dead. So not only was Sinnoh free of Team Galactic, but Hunter J as well. No one was missing the villains.

*One day...*

The gang was visiting Brussel Town because Zoey was entering a Pokemon contest there to earn her fifth ribbon. But they weren't the only ones there, Candice was there watching Zoey too.

"Candice, what are you doing here?" Dawn asked. "Shouldn't you be at the gym?"

"I haven't had any challengers lately so I decided to come here once I heard Zo-Zo was going to participate in this contest for her fifth ribbon." Candice said. "So Dawn, why didn't you compete?"

"I'm entering the contest in Daybreak Town." Dawn explained. "And when I heard Zoey was competing here for her fifth ribbon I had to come and watch."

"What a nice friend you are." Candice smiled.

It wasn't long before Zoey defeated her final opponent and won her fifth ribbon. The Brussel Ribbon was green with white outlines. Candice and the gang congratulated Zoey because she was qualified to enter the grand festival.

To celebrate Zoey's victory Candice held a sweets party for her. There was ice cream, cakes and pudding for everyone.

"So Dawn, how have you been doing?" Zoey asked.

"I've been working hard." Dawn said.

"Dawn said she was competing in the Daybreak contest." Candice said.

"Oh that one is a double performance and double battle." Zoey said.

"That's right." Dawn said. "Because I messed up at the double performance at the Hearthome contest I felt I really wanted to jump back in and challenge myself one more time for a battle performance. After all Zoey you did tell me back then that if you want to improve you should never be satisfied with where you are."

"It's good you remembered." Zoey said. "I look forward to seeing you at the Grand Festival."

Suddenly Tomo cried out in pain because his tongue felt very hot. He quickly gulped down some water.

"Phew this ice cream bar is spicy." Tomo said.

"That's because this is a Snowpoint tomato berry ice cream bar." Candice said. "It has yummy ice cream on the outside with a tomato berry jelly on the inside."

"No wonder it's spicy." Tomo said.

He remembered how spicy a Tomato Berry was.

"Why would you fill a ice cream bar with that?" Dawn asked.

"Well sometimes certain things you didn't think would go together actually end up very well together." Candice explained.

"I see." Dawn said, surprised.

Everyone continued digging into the sweets.

*Later that night...*

Dawn was outside with Piplup, Pachirisu, Buneary and Phione. She wanted to practice some more double performances with them for the Daybreak Contest.

"Okay let's try this." Dawn said. "Phione, use Bubble."

Phione released bubbles into the air.

"Now Buneary Ice Beam." Buneary released Ice Beam which froze the bubbles and popped them into icy blue spheres.

"Nice. Okay Piplup and Pachirisu it's your turn. Piplup, use Whirlpool." Piplup created a big whirlpool. "Now Pachirisu, use Discharge."

Pachirisu released Discharge onto the whirlpool, making the whirlpool electrifying and all lit up.

"That works great too." Just then there was the sound of clapping. Zoey had been watching Dawn and was impressed with how she was working with her Pokemon. Dawn admitted that she was still nervous about the Daybreak contest because she had never entered a double contest before, so she didn't really know what combinations to make for the battle rounds. Zoey offered to help; as she now had five contest ribbons, she agreed to help Dawn practice for her fifth ribbon. Dawn accepted the help right away.

*The next day...*

Ash and Tomo saw on the news that Paul just won his eighth gym badge. So he was all set for the Sinnoh League.

"Great." Tomo sighed.

He was worried because he and Ash needed one more badge.

"Don't worry Tomo." Ash said. "There's plenty of time for us to earn our eighth badge before the Sinnoh League starts. Once we are done with the Daybreak Contest we'll go straight to Sunyshore City for our last badge."

"Okay." Tomo said, cheering up right away.

Just then Candice came in feeling sick after eating too many sweets last night.

"Hey Candice, have you seen Dawn?" Ash asked.

"Yes, she's outside with Zo-Zo and they are training together with real kiai." Candice answered.

Candice was right because Dawn was outside with her Pokemon Piplup, Pachirisu, Buneary, Phione, Mamoswine and Cyndaquil and with Zoey too. Dawn decided to use Mamoswine again so he could make up for messing up the Lilypad Contest.

"My plan is to come up with a way to combine Mamoswine's Ice Shard with another move." Dawn said.

Zoey liked that idea and so did Candice; being an ice type trainer and all. Candice wasn't planning to go back to her gym yet because she wanted to watch the training session.

"Can you have Mamoswine show off Ice Shard?" Zoey asked Dawn.

There were some big rocks on the ground, so Dawn had Mamoswine hit one of the rocks with Ice Shard. The rock broke apart from the Ice Shard attack.

"That was great Dawn. Using Ice Shard was a great idea." Candice said.

Now it was time to work with the second Pokemon move. Piplup was up first.

"Piplup, Bubble Beam." Dawn ordered.

Piplup fired some bubbles in front of Mamoswine. Then Mamoswine used Ice Shard, but Piplup was frozen in the ice. Growlithe quickly unfroze him with Flamethrower.

"Freezing your own partner is not the best move." Zoey sighed.

Candice knew exactly what needed to be done because she knew a lot about ice type moves and how to use them to her advantage. So she sent her Abombasnow to demonstrate.

"Now Dawn and Mamoswine watch closely because we are going to show you a variation of Ice Shard." She said.