The Masked Coordinator

Soon after defeating the Lavaridge gym leader, Ashlyn decided that she wanted to find a Torkoal. Alain was also interested on finding one as well. They got their chance when the gang arrived at the place called the Valley of Steel. It was a valley where many steel type Pokémon lived and two lost wild Torkoal were roaming about. Ashlyn and Alain saved the two Torkoals from some Magneton. Ashlyn caught the female one which she named 'Shula' and Alain caught the male Torkoal.

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Sometime after that the gang came across a swarm of Spinda. Spinda were normal type Pokémon and their eyed were spiral shaped. Max liked the Spinda and caught one.

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The gang finally arrived in Verdanturf Town where Ashlyn and May can compete in the Pokémon contest. The two girls immediately went to the Pokémon Center to sign up. When they got there, they were surprised to see Drew there with Nurse Joy and her Chansey.

"Hey there, Drew!" May called out.

Drew turned to her at the sound of her voice.

"Oh, hey May." Drew greeted, solemnly.

"Drew, is something wrong?" May asked.

"I won't be able to enter the contest." Drew replied.

"What? Are your Pokémon all right?" May questioned, worried.

Then she noticed Drew's injured Roselia in Nurse Joy's arms.

"What happened to Roselia, Drew?" Alain asked.

"We went against this masked coordinator who called himself

Phantom and Roselia got hurt badly by the Phantom's Dusclops." Drew answered, "I've never thought his Dusclops would be so powerful."

"I'm sorry that you can't compete, Drew. But I hope you get to compete in the next one." May assured him.

"Thanks, May." Drew said, slightly smiled.

"Ashlyn and I will be waiting." May smiled.

"Just make sure that you two be careful of him." Drew requested.

"We will." Ashlyn promised.

Then Drew left the Pokémon Center.

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Soon the girls finished signing up for the Contest. They were both excited. Ashlyn wanted to have Miku for the contest. May decided that Skitty and Plusle would be in the contest which the two were also excited about.

So both girls were practicing with their Pokémon when suddenly a gale 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." Ashlyn stated.

"That's right," The Phantom confirmed, "and my purpose is Pokémon battling!"

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

"Very well then, I accept your challenge." Phantom said and released his Ghost type, "Go Dusclops!"

"Dusclops!" Dusclops appeared in front of Phantom.

"Tesla, let's go!" Elena called out her electric starter Pokémon.

"Raichu!" Tesla jumped in front of Ashlyn.

"Dusclops, use Shadow Punch!" Two black shadowy fists came out of Dusclops' hands.

"Tesla, Protect!" Tesla projected a green colored barrier around herself, Dusclops' punches were bouncing off the barrier.

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?" Max asked, confused.

A car pulled up near where the gang was standing, and a lady came 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?!" The lady demanded.

"Uh he just left in a great hurry." Brock 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 that her son, Timmy Grimm, had a connection with the Phantom and she wanted to know who the Phantom is.

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Mrs. Grimm 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 a shy type.

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

"Yes mum of course I have." Timmy responded.

Then he went back to his room.

"Is Timmy a Pokémon trainer?" May asked.

"Absolutely not!" Mrs. Grimm shouted, "I will never let Timmy play around with Pokémon. He's 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 what you know about the Phantom when I get back."

Then Mrs. Grimm left.

"Yikes, I'm glad she's not our mum." Max commented.

"I can't believe that she doesn't want Timmy to be around Pokémon." May added.

"That's a really unfair thing to do." Alain added.

"Yeah and Timmy didn't look happy being with her." Ashlyn agreed.

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

The voice belonged to a man.

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

Mr. Grimm explained that he used to be a Pokémon coordinator in the past, but he had to stop doing that when he got married to Mrs. Grimm because of her hate for Pokémon.

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

"This is the same thing that the Phantom Ashlyn battled wore, but this outfit is older." Alain observed.

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

"Wait, you mean that Timmy is the Phantom?" May asked, surprised.

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

"I agree with that one," Max agreed, "his Dusclops was indeed very strong."

"Please excuse me sir," Ashlyn interrupted, "but why does Mrs. Grimm hate Pokémon so much? What had they done that made her hate them?"

"There is a reason behind that," Mr. Grimm replied, "but right now I need your help of helping Timmy. I know that he really wants to enter the Pokémon contest tomorrow, especially since this is an only chance for him."

The gang agreed to help, and Mr. Grimm offered to help too.

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And so, the gang and Mr. Grimm came up with a plan that will help Timmy enter the contest. The first part was to get Brock dressed up as the Phantom while Timmy hung out with the others that way Mrs. Grimm wouldn't suspect that the Phantom is Timmy.

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

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

The Phantom (Brock in disguise) was standing on a balcony of the mansion.

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

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.

Then Brock left in a hurry to escape, and Mrs. Grimm just smiled.

"I thought it couldn't really be Timmy." she said, and she walked into the mansion.

"You better prepare yourself for the contest tomorrow, Timmy," Ashlyn warned him, "because I'll be in that contest."

"And so will I." May added.

"Well Ashlyn, May, you better prepare yourselves too because I plan to win that contest!" Timmy declared.

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It was the day of the contest. Ashlyn and May were at the contest hall. They were waiting for Timmy, who hadn't turned up yet which worried them.

"If Timmy doesn't hurry, he might miss the chance to sign up." Max said, worriedly.

"Do you think something's wrong?" May asked.

Just then Timmy did turn up and he quickly registered himself in the contest.

"What happened Timmy?" Ashlyn asked.

"We thought that you would be here before us." Alain stated.

Timmy explained that his mum was making him do a lot of homework, but his dad helped him get out of the mansion without her noticing. "I hope I can make it up to him somehow."

"Well, the way to do that is doing your best in the contest." Ashlyn assured him.

"You're right," Timmy agreed and put on his Phantom mask. "Let's do this, Ashlyn, May!" he declared.

"Yeah!" Ashlyn and May cheered.

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Vivian did her usual announcements and showing the Verdanturf Town Ribbon which made the three coordinators excited. Alain, Max, Brock, and Drew were in the audience. Ashlyn would be going first in the preliminary rounds.

"Miku, center stage!" Ashlyn let out her Emotion Pokémon.

"Kirlia! (Hello!)" Miku the Kirlia appeared on stage.

"Okay Miku, Misty Terrain!" Miku creates a dome of pink energy that's surrounding her.

"Wow! That Misty Terrain looks absolutely gorgeous as it surrounds Kirlia!"

"Magical Leaf!" Miku raises her hands above her head, then brings them forward and releases multiple glowing light green leaves from her hands.

"Confusion." Miku's eyes glowed blue and the leaves were outlined blue. Then the leaves moved above her to form hearts around her.

"Amazing! Kirlia is using 'Confusion' to form hearts while using 'Misty Terrain'!"

"Finish it with Flash."

A light from Miku's body shone through the leaves making a green-yellow light shine on the audience.

"What dazzlement Kirlia has displayed for us!"

The crowd cheered in amazement.

"Now let's see what our judges have to say."

"Dazzling." Contesta commented.

"Remarkable." Mr.Suziko added.

"Truly a colorful and fun display of Kirlia's psychic moves." Nurse Joy added.

"Well there you have it. Let's see the scores."

Contesta: 10

Mr. Suziko: 10

Nurse Joy: 10

Total: 30

"A perfect 30! The highest score of the start of the day!" Vivian announced, "Now let's continue on with our preliminary competition!"

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A few more contestants went after Ashlyn was done. May did her performance with Skitty and got the score 25.9 which was an improvement. Timmy and his Dusclops did theirs and got the score of 27.8.

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The results were in, and Ashlyn, May and Timmy had made it to the battle rounds.

"Ashlyn, May, no matter who wins, no hard feelings right?" Timmy said.

"Of course, I want you to give me all you got just like I will give you all I've got." Ashlyn requested.

"Same for me." May added.

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So the three manage to defeat most of the contestants which left it down to the last three: Ashlyn, Timmy, and May. May went against Timmy. However, May lost against Timmy. But she held no hard feelings towards Timmy. She told Ashlyn and Timmy to do their best out there. So Ashlyn was going against Timmy in the final round.

"So here we are to our last two finalists, Ashlyn and Phantom!" Vivian announced.

The crowd cheered in excitement.

"Whoever wins will win the Verdanturf Town Ribbon!"

Then the screen above the stage showed Ashlyn and Timmy with their full points.

"Let the battle begin!"

5:00 to 4:59

"Dusclops!" Timmy released his Beckon Pokémon.

"Miku, let's go!" Ashlyn released her Emotion Pokémon.

"Dusclops, Shadow Punch!" Dusclops's hands become outlined in a gray aura, then it punches the air and a black shadowy fist come out of its hand, outlined in a gray aura which headed towards Miku.

"Miku, Double Team!" Miku created copies which the punches hit most of them. However, Miku was unharmed.

"Now Shadow Ball!" Miku and her copies formed a black and purple ball of energy in between their hands. Then she fired them.

"Psychic!" Miku's eyes glowed blue as the Shadow Balls were outlined blue and hovered in front of her.

"Would look at that! Kirlia has perfect control over those Shadow Balls! A great blend of a ghost and psychic attack!"

"Dusclops, Will-O-Wisp!" blue fireball appears in between Dusclops's hands and fires it at Miku.

Miku fired one of the shadow balls at the flame and the two attacks collided with each other, cancelling each other out.

"Dusclops, Shadow Punch again!" Dusclops's hands become outlined in a gray aura, then it punches the air and a black shadowy fist come out of its hand, outlined in a gray aura and aimed it at Miku.

"Miku, Shadow Ball!" Miku moved two Shadow Balls in front of her and fired them at Dusclops.

Both attacks were slammed against each other, trying to power over another.

"Dusclops and Kirlia are really going out with their punches!"

Then the two pushed away from one another.

"Now Shadow Ball again!" Miku fired the rest of the Shadow Ball attack at Dusclops who grunted at the attack.

Before either could make another attack...

0:00

"Time's up! Let's see who the winner is."

The screen showed Ashlyn and Miku.

"And the winner is Ashlyn Ketchum!" Vivian announced.

The crowd cheered as Miku jumped into Ashlyn's arms and Ashlyn hugged her close.

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"And now, the Verdanturf Town Ribbon is presented to Ashlyn and her Kirlia which means that the Verdanturf Town Pokémon is officially over!" Vivian announced.

Contesta presented the Verdanturf Town Ribbon to Elena who gently took it.

"Well done, Ashlyn. Once again, another great performance." Contesta complimented.

"Thank you, Miku and I had fun at this contest." Ashlyn thanked him.

"Kirlia!" Miku agreed.

Contesta chuckled, "I hope to see you in the next contest."

"I'll try to." Ashlyn stated.

Ashlyn and Miku smiled.

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Timmy and the gang met up with Timmy's parents. His mother had been watching the contest the whole time. She was amazed at his performance with Dusclops. She agreed to let him be a coordinator as long as he doesn't fall behind on his schoolwork. The gang was happy for Timmy and Dusclops.

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And so, with her fourth ribbon on hand, Ashlyn and her friends now head towards the Petalburg Gym for a family reunion.

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Pokémon Caught: Mightyena (Lela)(F), Marshtomp (Finn)(M), Shiny Combusken (Hestia)(F), Kirlia (Miku)(F), Kirlia (Lancelot)(M), Swellow (Percy)(M), Linoone (Ziggy)(M), Grovyle (Kazuki)(M), Beautifly (Willow)(F), Shiny Milotic (Ula)(F), Corphish (Sebastian)(M), Lairon (Hagane)(M), Sableye (Jacinth)(M), Shiny Flygon (Libelle)(F), Shiny Electrike (Damini)(F), Shiny Bagon (Idris)(F), Torkoal (Shula)(F)