Hearthome Contest

After Ash's victory at the Battle Hall, the gang headed to Hearthome City. Not only was there a contest in the city, but there was also a gym where Ash could obtain his next badge. Ash and Tomo wanted to head to the gym, but when they arrived they saw Nando. He had come to see the Hearthome Gym as well.

"Sorry, but the gym is closed. The leader is not present." He apologized.

There was a notice about it plastered on the door.

"That's a bummer." Ash said. "Tomo and I wanted to challenge the gym before the Pokemon contest tomorrow."

Suddenly the gang noticed a red and black cricket-like Pokemon next to Nando.

"This is my beloved Kricketune." Nando said.

Ash looked Kricketune up on the Pokedex.

"Kricketune, the Cricket Pokemon and the evolved form of Kricketot. It crosses it's knife-like arms in front of it's chest when it cries. It can compose melodies ad lib."

Dawn thought a musical Pokemon like Kricketune suited Nando well.

"Since you can't battle Fantina, I suggest you compete in the Hearthome tag battle tournament." Nando advised.

"It's a famous tournament that takes place in Hearthome City and Pokemon trainers from all over come to battle and win." He explained.

The gang thought it was very interesting and Ash and Tomo decided to enter it and even Brock became interested in entering it.

"Nando, are you going to enter the tournament too?" Ash asked.

"No, I'm just going to concentrate on the Pokemon contest." Nando answered.

"Speaking of the contest, we better register for it Dawn." Ash said.

Dawn agreed.

So Ash, Nando and Dawn made their way to the contest hall to register. Along the way Nando explained that he only had one ribbon and one gym badge. Ash said he had one ribbon and two gym badges and Dawn said she only had one ribbon too. Just then they saw Zoey sitting near some stalls with her Glameow, Shellos and Misdreavus. Dawn was happy to see Zoey again and happy that her foot was better.

"This is Zoey." Ash introduced her to Nando. "Nando is competing in contests and gym battles just like me."

"I am pleased to meet you." Nando told Zoey.

"Same here." Zoey replied.

Ash and Dawn were glad Zoey understood, back at the Jubilife contest, that there was nothing wrong with participating in both gyms and contests. So at least she wouldn't act cold to Nando like she did to Ash at first.

After everyone registered for the contest, they went to the Pokemon Center to have their Pokemon checked out. Dawn decided to use her Piplup and Pachirisu in the appeal round and Buizel and Wormadam in the battle round. Zoey was with her and was commenting that her Pokemon were looking good and ready.

"It was thanks to your help that we are ready." Dawn said.

She remembered the training. Zoey warned her not to get overconfident and things like that.

"I'm actually still nervous because this is the first time I competed in a double performance." Dawn admitted.

"Just have a good time out there." Zoey reminded her.

*Meanwhile...*

Ash was with Brock and Tomo. Tomo was playing a game of heads and tails on his Poketch. A few days ago Ash, Dawn and Tomo got vouchers for a new app for their Poketch's called the Coin Toss and with it you get to do heads and tails with a coin that had a picture of a Magikarp on the front. Ash had his Cranidos and Shieldon out; he was going to use them for the contest appeal round and Leafeon and Glaceon for the battle round.

"Are Cranidos and Shieldon ready for this, Ash?" Brock asked.

"Yep I created a cool combo with them." Ash answered. "And one of my new seals will look great for them."

Ash pulled an envelope out of his backpack and inside were capsule seals; some were seals called liquid seals, some were called burst seals and the rest called twinkle seals.

"You were lucky to have gotten this Ash, especially since the seals are hard to get." Brock said.

*Flashback*

Before arriving at the Battle Hall, the gang went into the shop to get some supplies. But this shop was having a lottery competition. The lottery was one of those drawing a ball out of a box and the first prize was an envelope of special ball capsule seals that you can hardly get. Of course Ash and Dawn wanted a go at getting them at once. There were other coordinators in the shop too wanting to get them. In the end Ash won the prize, much to everyone else's disappointment.

*End flashback*

"That was certainly lucky of you to have gotten them Ash." Brock said.

"Yeah and I can't wait to try them out." Ash said.

*The next day...*

The Hearthome contest was ready to begin. Marian did the usual introductions and showed off the Hearthome ribbon. The ribbon was red with a white middle. Ash, Dawn and Zoey were in the waiting room, waiting for their turns. Dawn had a yellow ribbon to go with the red ribbon on her dress and her hair barrettes were stars. Zoey was wearing a yellow shirt and blue coat and shoes, white trousers and a green broach. Ash wore a cream colored coat and trousers, a cream colored top hat with a dark green ribbon around it, a white shirt, a dark green vest, white gloves, a dark green bow tie and brown shoes.

Nando was the first to perform and he sent out his Sunflora and Kricketune. His catchphrase was make your mark. Their capsule balls had song notes on them and they released blue staves of horizontal lines and hundreds of yellow musical notes. Sunflora started to use Grass Whistle and Kricketune used Sing and together with Nando playing his harp they started to play a lovely melody. It was obvious Nando taught his Pokemon music and how to sing. Zoey was impressed with Nando's skill and could see that he really had what it took to be a coordinator.

"Nando is a real musician, isn't he?" Tomo asked.

"He has a way with it." Brock said.

After Nando was a performance with a Solrock and Lunatone, then a performance with Steelix and Smoochum, then a performance with a Duskull and Psyduck and then a performance with Cubone and Marowak.

Then it was Dawn's turn. She sent out her Piplup and Pachirisu with party seals. Pachirisu started off by using Sweet Kiss and then Piplup trapped the hearts with bubbles. Next Piplup used Whirlpool and Pachirisu used Discharge to light up the whirlpool and then it exploded into light blue sparkles.

Next up it was Ash's turn and he sent out his Cranidos and Shieldon with burst seals. The burst seals made a fiery explosion like a small bomb.

"Use Flamethrower." Ash told Cranidos and Shieldon.

The two fossil Pokemon released Flamethrower into the air.

"Now use Rock Slide and show everyone your hard heads." Ash said.

Cranidos and Shieldon made some small rocks appear and then they both used Headbutt to break the small rocks apart. To finish it the two fossil Pokemon roared loudly like a pair of dinosaurs.

Then it was Zoey's turn. She sent out her Shellos and Glameow with line seals. Shellos started off by using Mud Bomb and Glameow broke the mud bombs with Iron Tail. Next Glameow used Secret Power to let off a pink light and then it used Shadow Claw on the light. It created an aurora of lights. Then Shellos used Water Pulse and Glameow broke the water in two with it's claws. The water made a lot of rainbows when shining in the aurora lights.

Now the appeal round was over and everyone had to wait for the results in the second round. Dawn felt for sure her performance would have gotten her into the battle round. Piplup felt confident too.

"I thought you did great for your first double performance Dawn." Ash said.

"Thank you Ash. Your Cranidos and Shieldon were great too." Dawn said.

Just then the results came up and eight coordinators would make it to the battle round. Nando, Zoey and Ash's pictures appeared but Dawn's didn't, so she didn't make it to the second round. Nando, Zoey and Ash couldn't believe it and neither could Brock and Tomo.

*Back in Twinleaf Town...*

Johanna saw everything on TV including the results.

"These things happen." She said.

In the waiting room Ash didn't know what to say to Dawn; he could feel she was very upset with this. Piplup and Pachirisu gave Dawn apologetic looks.

"I'm sorry I let you down." She told them.

Buizel and Wormadam felt sorry for Dawn too. Brock and Tomo came into the waiting room to try and cheer Dawn up.

"Dawn you were still really great out there." Tomo said.