Rubello Contest
Today the gang made it to Rubello Town. Ashlyn and May were practicing for the Pokémon contest in two days. May decided to use her Illumise and Bulbasaur while Ashlyn decided to use Keiko (Mew) and Jacinth (Sableye). Apparently, Jacinth wanted to give a try at doing a Pokémon contest. Keiko definitely wanted to try as well and Ashlyn decided to let her.
Ashlyn was practicing with Keiko (disguised as an Eevee) and Jacinth in an open area with Alain watching.
"What are you going to do with Jacinth, Ashlyn?" Alain asked.
"Well Jacinth is a ghost type Pokémon, and he also knows a lot of moves so we need to think of how to make look Jacinth impressive." Ashlyn replied.
"Question is how though?" Alain added.
"Do you need any help?" A female voice said.
The voice belonged to a woman with a little girl beside her.
"Who are you?" Alain asked.
Ashlyn recognized the woman as named Savannah and the girl beside her was her daughter, Sandra.
"I can't believe we are talking to Ashlyn Ketchum, mum." Sandra beamed happily.
Savannah explained that she and her daughter had watched her in contests.
"I enter Pokémon contests too," Savanah 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." Ashlyn confirmed.
"You got any ribbons yet?" Alain asked.
Savannah showed Ashlyn a red contest ribbon, with pink-red outlines, "It's the only one I've got, so if I win the contest tomorrow it will be my second ribbon." she said.
"But you will have to defeat me first." Ashlyn smiled.
Savannah asked Ashlyn again if she could help her with Jacinth and Ashlyn accepted, so Savannah and Ashlyn practiced together.
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Late afternoon, Ashlyn and Savanah had finished their practicing and they along with Alain and Sandra went to the Pokémon center to rest their Pokémon.
"There you are Ashlyn," May spotted Ashlyn and Alain, "Where had you and Alain been all this time?"
Ashlyn 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 to deal with." Ashlyn said.
"She's not the only rival of ours that's here. Drew's competing in the contest too." May pointed out.
"Then we better be on our guard tomorrow then, May." Ashlyn suggested.
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Next day it was time for the Pokémon 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. Ashlyn, May, Savannah and Drew were waiting in the waiting room, while Brock, Alain and Max were in the seats with Sandra. Savannah was feeling nervous and jittery, while Ashlyn and May were feeling calm.
"Don't worry about a thing Savanah," May assured her, calmly, "just go and have fun in the contest."
"Strange for you to say that May," Ashlyn teased, "especially since you were worse than Savanah is before."
May went red in the face, "Yeah well I'm not nervous this time!" she argued back.
Drew was just sitting calmly in the waiting room.
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The appeal rounds soon started. May got to go first, before Ashlyn, Drew and Savanah. She ordered her Illumise to start with sunny day and then finished it off with Sweet Scent. Next was Savanah. She ordered her Flareon to start off with fire spin and have 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 made a creation of orange-yellow stars.
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Next it was Ashlyn's turn to perform. She had faith that Jacinth will do a great performance.
"Jacinth, let's go!" Ashlyn released her Darkness Pokémon.
"Sable!" Jacinth the Sableye appeared on stage.
"Well this is a surprise! Ashlyn has decided to use a ghost type Pokémon for this contest!"
"Okay, Jacinth, Multiple Shadow Ball!" Jacinth created many Shadow Balls all around the stage.
"Wow! Look at the many Shadow Balls Sableye is able to create!"
"Finish it with Shadow Claw!" Both of Jacinth's claws becomes surround by a black aura with a purple outline. The aura then takes the form of a claw. Then Jacinth slashes the Shadow balls with it, leaving behind light purple trails of the claws.
"Amazing! The combination of both Ghost type attacks created a beautiful shade of dark purple aurora around the stage! Now let's see what our judges have to say."
"Beautiful." Contesta commented.
"Remarkable." Mr. Suziko added.
"Both attacks truly bring out the ghost side of Sableye." 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! Another high score of the day!" Vivian announced, "Now let's continue on with our preliminary competition!"
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Then at last it was Drew's turn. He had his Roselia use petal dance when it came out of the Pokéball; it was like a curtain of petals before Roselia's arrival which earned him a perfect 30.
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After the appeal rounds, the result was that Ashlyn, May, Drew and Savanah both passed the preliminary rounds. For the battle results,
Ashlyn was against Drew and May was against Savanah.
"I've been wanting to battle you again for a while, Ashlyn." Drew admitted.
"Well now you get to." Ashlyn stated.
Savanah felt a bit nervous because she hadn't been in a battle for a while.
"You'll do fine Savanah," Ashlyn assured her, "but if you like, I could give you some pointers on Pokémon battling since you helped me out yesterday."
"Thank you, Ashlyn," Savannah thanked her, "but I'll stick with how I always battle."
"Yeah Ashlyn, don't but in with Savannah." May huffed, a little crossly.
"May, do you want some tips about how to battle with your Bulbasaur?" Ashlyn offered.
"I don't need any of your help Ashlyn," May denied, a bit rudely, "Bulbasaur is my Pokémon, so you mind your own business!"
Ashlyn, Alain, Max and Brock looked at each other; it was clear to them that May was acting too overconfident. Even Drew could see that.
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Soon it was time for the battle rounds. Ashlyn and Drew were going against each other once more. Both were excited to be in this contest battle.
"So here we are to our last third and fourth finalists, Ashlyn and Drew! These two are going to head-to-head once more!" Vivian announced.
The crowd cheered in excitement.
"Whoever wins will win the Rubello Town Ribbon!"
Then the screen above the stage showed Ashlyn and Drew with their full points.
"Let the battle begin!"
5:00 to 4:59
"Keiko, let's go!" Ashlyn released her Legendary Pokémon.
"Masquerain, come on out!" Drew released his new Pokémon.
Drew's new Pokémon was a Masquerain the Eyeball Pokémon. Masquerain was the evolved form of Surskit and it was a beautiful moth-like type Pokémon.
"It's Mew! Ladies and gentlemen, Ashlyn has Mew as her Pokémon partner to participate in the Rubello Contest!"
"Keiko, use Flamethrower!" Keiko shot out a stream of flames from her mouth.
But Masquerain was a fast flyer and easily dodged the flamethrower attack.
'Masquerain certainly is a fast flyer,' Ashlyn thought, 'then I'll have to slow it down.'
"Use Blizzard!" Keiko releases a powerful blizzard from her mouth causing Masquerain to shiver and flying weakly against the cold wind. Ice was beginning to form on Masquerain's wings.
"Use Gust to get out of the wind!" Masquerain quickly flapped its semi-frozen wings to get away from the ice type attack.
"What an attack! Mew's Blizzard attack has caused some ice to form on Masquerain's wings! Masquerain is still managing to fly!"
"Try and use Silver Wind!" Masquerain flaps its wings and releases a cyclone of wind that has silver crescents of energy in it at Keiko.
"Thunder Wave!" Keiko becomes surrounded by blue electricity and it fires static shock waves, clashing against the Silver Wind, creating beautiful sparkles to fall down on the stage.
"Wow! The two opposing attacks have caused both coordinators to lose points while creating a magical effect!"
"Iron Tail and Agility!" Keiko's tail glowed a metallic color and then she disappeared and reappeared in front of Masquerain who was slightly able to fly and slammed her tail into Eyeball Pokémon who cried out in pain of the attack.
"Masquerain!" Drew called out.
Masquerain was flapping weakly in the air. It still had some ice on its wings which was giving a heavy effect on it.
Before the two coordinators could make another attack...
0:00
"Time's up! Let's see who the winner is."
The screen showed Ashlyn and Keiko.
"And the winner is Ashlyn Ketchum!" Vivian announced.
The crowd cheered as Keiko and Ashlyn bowed.
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Ashlyn knew that May had lost to Savannah. May's Bulbasaur had stage fright and couldn't concentrate on the match because of her nervousness. So she was easily hit by Savannah's Lairon's attacks. It was mostly because May was too overconfident. She felt bad for May. It's obvious that overconfidence can lead someone to their downfall. But this loss will teach May to be more considerate towards her Pokémon from now on. Brock said that he'll have a talk with May as the others waited inside.
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Ashlyn and Savannah were going against each other. Both were excited about this.
"So here we are to our last two finalists, Ashlyn and Savannah!" Vivian announced.
The crowd cheered in excitement.
"Whoever wins will win the Rubello Town Ribbon!"
Then the screen above the stage showed Ashlyn and Savannah with their full points.
"Let the battle begin!"
5:00 to 4:59
"Keiko, let's hit the stage!" Ashlyn released her Legendary Pokémon.
"Mew!" Keiko appeared on the stage.
"Lairon, come on out!" Savannah released her Iron Armor Pokémon.
"Lairon!" Lairon appeared on the stage.
"Lairon, Metal Claw!" Lairon's claws glow white and ran towards Tsuki.
"Keiko, Water Pulse!" Keiko creates a blue ball of water between her paws. Then she slams the ball into the ground, and waves of water come out from around her body.
The waves slammed into Lairon who cried in pain from the attack.
"What an attack! Mew was able to show such a powerful Water type attack!"
"Lairon!" Savannah cried out, "Are you okay?"
"Lairon! (I'm okay!)" Lairon confirmed.
"Alright then, use Sandstorm!" Lairon summoned a tornado of sand and came towards Keiko.
"Psychic!" Keiko's eyes glowed blue. Then the storm stopped right in front of Keiko and the sand began to make shape of a Lairon, "Ram it into Lairon!"
The sand Lairon rammed in Lairon who cried out in pain.
"Incredible! Mew was able to use Lairon's own attack against it! What a comeback!"
"Lairon, can you still go on?" Savannah called out.
Lairon nodded, "Ron!"
"Use Rock Slide!" Multiple gray rocks appear around Lairon. It then sends the stones flying towards Keiko.
"Swift!" The pink tip of Keiko's tail glows yellow and it releases multiple yellow stars from it at the stones which clashes against the stars, creating sparkling dust across the stage.
Before either could make another attack...
0:00
"Time's up! Let's see who the winner is."
The screen showed Ashlyn and Keiko.
"And the winner is Ashlyn Ketchum!" Vivian announced.
The crowd cheered as Keiko into Ashlyn's arms and Ashlyn hugged her close.
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"And now, the Rubello Town Ribbon is presented to Ashlyn and Mew which means that the Rubello Town Pokémon is officially over!" Vivian announced.
Contesta presented the Rubello Town Ribbon to Ashlyn who gently took it.
"Once again, another great performance, Ashlyn." Contesta complimented.
"Thank you, Contesta. Keiko, Jacinth and I had fun at this contest." Ashlyn thanked him.
"Mew!" Keiko agreed.
"Sableye!" Jacinth agreed as well.
Contesta chuckled, "I hope to see you at the Grand Festival."
"We'll be there." Ashlyn declared as she, Jacinth and Keiko smiled.
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That evening the gang had dinner with Savannah and Sandra at the Pokémon center. Sandra told her mom that she was proud of her who was brave enough to enter the contest and got to the second round. Savannah was happy to hear that.
"Hey, Ashlyn." May spoke up.
"Yes, May?" Ashlyn asked.
"I want to apologize to you," May replied, "I'm sorry that I acted so overconfident and was so rude towards you when you were clearly trying to help me."
"It's okay, May. It happens to most of us." Ashlyn assured her.
May smiled softly, "Thank you, Ashlyn."
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And so, May had learned a lot today, especially about to always think about how her Pokémon felt about things. And she promised herself to never act overconfident again and she was glad that her friends were there to help her become a better coordinator. For Ashlyn, she now had five ribbons to enter the Grand Festival. Now she only needed three more gym badges to compete in the Hoenn league.
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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), Crawdaunt (Sebastian)(M), Lairon (Hagane)(M), Sableye (Jacinth)(M), Shiny Flygon (Libelle)(F), Shiny Electrike (Damini)(F), Shiny Bagon (Idris)(F), Torkoal (Shula)(F), Swablu (Alta)(F)