When the second battle between May and the Phantom/Timmy began, Timmy's mother, Mrs. Grimm, also finally arrived at the venue, albeit a little later than Ash had hoped. In fact, she had already guessed deep inside of her heart that the masked Phantom was her son, Timmy. However, she just didn't want to except that her lovely son could be the Phantom.
She nodded towards Ash without saying anything else, and just watched the rest of her son's battle from the audience section, along with Ash's own group.
In fact, Mrs. Grimm also really loved Pokémon when she was a child, but something happened that completely changed that.
When she was younger, her family had forcefully separated her from her lively little Poochyena.
It's not that she doesn't like Pokémon, she just doesn't want her son experience the same pain of separation like she previously had felt. Since she thought Pokémon's and human are destined to be separated again, it was a better idea not to be together in the first place, to completely avoid this hidden issue.
This was her very paranoid idea, and this had also affected her husband and son very much.
Ash had already known about this the last time she talked to him and his group, so yesterday he made a bet with Mrs. Grimm, asking her to keep an eye on Timmy. He was betting on whether Timmy would run out to participate in this Pokémon Contest at all cost or no.
Now it seems that Ash won their little bet, and the bet was that Mrs. Grimm would quietly watch Timmy's battle if Ash won, which he clearly did.
For Pokémon Trainer, sometimes the Trainers can do more things in a battle than anywhere else. To them, a battle was a way to talk and experience new things.
"May, let's have fight a battle without leaving any regrets!" Tommy was going to give it his all and treat this Pokémon Contest as if this was last even Pokémon Contest that he was part of.
"Go, Dusclops!" He spent all his efforts to get this Dusclops from a Pokémon Breeded with the help of his father when it was just a newly hatched Duskull. The bond between them was this high for this exact same reason.
"Skitty, get on stage and she them what we can do!" May also sent out her Skitty, the one she was training to be her second Contest Pokémon after her Beautifly.
These two Pokémon, one was of the Ghost-type and the other was of the Normal-type, are very interesting in type restraint.
Ghost-type skills are ineffective against Normal-type Pokémon's, and Normal-type skills are also invalid against Ghost-type Pokémon's.
Simple thing, honestly.
How this battle will be fought all depends on how the Trainers on both sides respond to each others move. This battle can go towards many different directions for both of them .
However, May was at a disadvantage here. Ash has never truly trainer any Ghost-type Pokémon so far, Annihilape doesn't count as Ash had only battled with him a couple times when Ash sometimes brings his older Pokémon's with him to bond. And not to mention his Wobbufett that hardly does anything.
And May also has very little to no experience on how to deal with such Ghost-type Pokémon's.
"Dusclops, use Focus Puch!"
That is to say, concentrated everything on one single punching. Timmy was indeed quite talented in such things. He could even have his Dusclops learn how to use a Fighting-type attack just to restrain the Normal-types that it normally can't deal with. And it just happens that Skitty was a pure Normal-type Pokémon.
May failed to react in time, and her Skitty was hit hard by this punch as she didn't attack him to stop the attack from being charged, and her points was immediately deducted significantly. Not only because of the damage her Skitty took, but also because of how she wasn't able to react in time.
There was new kind of flash in Timmy's eyes. Mrs. Grimm had never seen Timmy look so confident. The son she always knew and remembered was the kind of submissive child who didn't even dare to speak loudly because people would look at him.
Maybe this is what he really looked like when he could something he truly liked to do. Putting on that mask releases his true self, something she could never bring out.
"Skitty, use Double Slap!" May gave her order, but the Double Slap had no effect on the Ghost-type Dusclops.
Her only means to deal damage was now to use Blizzard, which usually doesn't even work in the first place, and Assist, which she has no control of what kind of moves will be used.
Skitty was beaten back again, and May finally gritted her teeth, "Skitty, use Assist!"
This time they were a little lucky. Skitty used Torchic's Ember attack, which immediately caused damage to Dusclops for the first time in this battle.
"Skitty used her Assist skill to use a teammates Ember, which really was a strock of luck!" Vivian couldn't help but praise May's good luck.
"Dusclops, use Will-O-Wisp!" Timmy immediately changed his tactics and used his own fire to extinguish it.
A forest-blue fireball appears out of thin air, which would definitely be a good trick to frighten people in the night, it would be even better if it was in a forest.
May's score was deducted again as her Skitty was hit again and couldn't do anything's
"Skitty, are you okay?" May exclaimed, her Skitty has fallen into the burn condition, and Will-O-Wisp was even worse as it did more and more damage as time passes.
"Dusclops, give that cat the final blow, use Focus Punch again!" At this moment, Timmy was high-spirited and full of fighting spirit. He pulled his cloak down and announced his final attack.
This was the final blow, or she he thought. If the two use Assist and it turns out to be an attack that doesn't do anything to Dusclops, May will lose the fight right here.
The only way now is to give everything she had in this move.
"Skitty, use Blizzard!" At the last moment, May ultimately chose to use Blizzard, which had continued to fail again and again. She believed that her Skitty would definitely respond to her heart and mange to land this attack.
It really did succeeded, Blizzard was an incredibly powerful move, and Dusclops flew away and stood there, completely frozen.
At the end of the time, Timmy still had more points, so he won this match.
"Yes! We did it, Dusclops!" Timmy happily cheered up, but in the next second in the corner of his eye, he saw someone who was watching him from below very closely.
It was his mother.
But he didn't say anything and turned around and came back to the waiting area.
Ash was gently comforting his girlfriend, who had lost the battle.
"Ash, the next tound will be a battle between you and me. I know I can't beat you, but I will fight and try my best until the very end!" Timmy said his final words and left the area.
"Okay, whatever. Babe, go to Pikachu's and the others side and watch the rest of my battle." Ash just nodded at him, gave May a little pat on the head, and handed over two cookies to her. May was immediately happy and cheered up from her lose, after all, food was more important to her than anything else.
"Dear viewers, the Verdanturf Town Pokemon Contest has finally entered the final round!" Vivian was now looking forward to the appearance of Ash and his beautiful Meganium.
"Go, Dusclops!" Timmy's fighting spirit has reached its highest point. Although he can't see his Dusclops expression, his momentum was equally strong.
Ash smiled and threw out his Poké Ball,
"Let your petals bloom, Meganium!"
Before this battle, Meganium had already defeated Dusclops instantly with one single move, Petal Dance, but it shouldn't be that easy now as knocking out the opponents Pokémon in a single move was not allowed.
"Petal Dance!"
Ash decisively used Petal Dance again, but a weaker version compared to the last time. If he was defeated by the same move for the second time, even Ash himself would not be able to justify it.
"Dusclops, use Psybeam!"
Offense was the best defense, Timmy actually used his Psybeam to resist Meganium's weaker Petal Dance.
Seeing this, Ash smiled softly, "Synthesis!"
The beautiful petals were flying high, the new colorful lights were bursting, and Meganium absorbed the rays from all the lights to make herself sparkle. This was simply a beautiful performance.
"It's so beautiful. Ash and his Meganium's performances are really breathtaking!" Vivian can't find the words to praise Ash and Meganium. She even sported a new blush.
"Damn it!" Timmy gritted his teeth when he saw Judy how many of his points had been deducted.
Seeing his expression, Mrs. Grimm was finally moved. She had never seen her child want to do something this much, and he was doing well in it too.
"Dusclops, use your strongest Hyper Beam!"
Timmy still lost his sense of proportion and used the strongest move his Dusclops knew.
How will Ash chose to deal with such a situation?
"Petal Dance!" It was still that same Petal Dance. The petals were so strong that they could even tear the Hyper Beam into so many pieces. This immediately caused all the audience and judges to be stunned.
Ash's Petal Dance was both a perfect Pokémon Contest move and an extremely powerful move.
"Damn it! What should I do?" Even though he was full of fighting spirit, all his attacks were torn to pieces by Ash. That feeling of powerlessness made Timmy feel desperate.
"Timmy!" At this moment, Mrs. Grimm support, aka her voice, arrived to help him.
"How could you be so easily swayed? Dusclops is still fighting because he put his trust in you. You have to believe in your Pokémon and fight hard until the end!"
She finally understood her sons stubbornness came from her, not his father. If she had this same courage and persistence as her son, her Poochyena would still be by her side. There was the kind of bond a Trainer and a Pokémon can share.
"Yes!"
After receiving his mother's approval, Timmy suddenly regained his old fighting spirit. He no longer needed to feel entangled or confused. He wanted to have a good fight with Ash, one he could feel proud to know.
"Dusclops, use Will-O-Wisp!"
The same forest blue fireball appeared again, but this time it enveloped him. Timmy's eyes flashed, "Ash, I understand, thank you for everything you have done for me! I will fight you with all my strength!"
All the audience members saw Dusclops rushing towards Meganium in a new found speed.
"Focus Punch!"
That punch that had accumulated all of Timmy's fighting spirit, and even the previous Will-O-Wisp, making it have a overwhelming feeling to it.
But Ash's order was still the same calm and gentle ever present voice, "Vine Whip!"
With only the last few seconds left, Meganium's Vine Whip poked out like a snake, rolled up Dusclops' thick hind legs, and threw it to the ground!
"Time is over! Ash and Meganium defeated the Phantom by a huge score and won the Verdenturf Town Ribbon of this Pokémon Contest!"
Ash defeated the Phantom, aka Timmy, and got his second official Pokémon Contest Ribbon.
May's Skitty has also gotten a better handle at using her Blizzard attack, and Timmy had also been recognized by his mother, allowing him to continue his dream of participating in future Pokémon Contests.
Not only that, the day after leaving they left Verdanturf Town, Brock's Lotad also finally evolved into a Lombre, but now he was looking even more slow.
Brock was not usually one training his newer Pokémon's, but they still evolved relatively early compared to most people's Pokemon's. This is the power a good Pokémon Breeder can being to a Pokémon without them needing to do things other than their most basic training.
"Ash, it looks like there was a fire happening here!"
Plunging into the deep forests again, May found that the scene here was very different from the forests they had encountered before, even compared to more weirder ones.
There were large amounts of water on the ground, which should have been left by the thunderstorm that happened just a day ago. A large number of trees have collapsed, and many of them had deep scorch marks on their trunks.
"They must have been hit pretty hard by those lightnings to do this much damage; the wood is still quite hard." Ash casually broke off a thick branch from the fallen tree, "I'll keep this thing for Grovyle to deal with.'
That guy always looks like he's going through a phase, with that bitter branch in his mouth, but he's very reliable in battle, and his Bond Value and compatibility with Ash was astonishingly high.
The last time he personally trained his Grovyle, which was just a few days ago, Ash saw how much progress he had made under his Scizor. He can now cut things with a more fluid motion along with making his leaves harder to cut things with.
"Pika!"
"Lal!"
"Toge!"
Pikachu, who was on Ash's shoulder, just chilling, suddenly got alerted about something and jumped down from his shoulders. Ralts and Togetic, who had just snatched the branch from Ash's hand and were now playing with it, also stopped and looked anxiously in a certain direction.
"Everyone, come on!" Ash's body suddenly flashed with a bright blue light as he too noticed what was going on, and he quickly led his group to follow after where his Pikachu was running of to.
The group could clearly tell that the fallen trees here were all burned to their current satee by those bolts of lightning, but there was also a little Swablu stuck underneath one of these such trees, which seemed to be very injured.
This blue and white little bird, aka Swablu, was quite common around many parts of the Hoenn Region, and its evolved form was the famous "Dragon Traitor" Altaria. Ash also wanted to catch and train one of these Pokémon's as they were both good in Pokémon battles and good in Pokémon Contests, but he could never find one that was a good enough match for him and his ways.
This one was a special one, although he could tell it had a good enough talent, it was also one that had a decently low match with him.
"Come on, don't be afraid." May was now very familiar with such Pokémon's. She gently stepped forward to picked it up and applied some medicine that Brock gave her for it.
Ash and Brock both looked at her with a smile, she has made a lot of progress in her ways of being a Pokémon Trainer.
Back then, this girl couldn't even figure out what her Starter Pokémon was and what he could do. Even when she began her journey to go to Littleroot Town, she had used her bicycle to avoid the Pokémon as much as possible by using the local roads.
"Big Bro, was this one of the Pokémon's that got injured by the thunderstorm last night. Maybe it was hit by this falling tree when it was trying to fly away, its wings were most likely also injured here, and just maybe it was separated from its companion?" Max expressed his judgment, As and Brock both nodded to what Max said, it seemed that this was most likely the case for this poor Swablu.
Seeing that May has become such good friends with this Swablu, Ash smiled and said, "In this case, May, you can take her with you first. We will go out soon to find the rest of her companions."
"Really? That's great!" May immediately hugged the bandaged Swablu and laughed, "Don't worry, we will definitely find the rest of your companions."
The little guy looked very happy to be in May's arms.
This forest here was very big, which wasn't that surprising since they were all rather big, so Ash and his party also want to explore the forest and look for the rest of the companion of this injured Swablu.
But even when the light was getting darker and darker in the sky, they we were about to leave the forest but still they didn't see any traces of any other Swablus or Altarias. During the thunderstorm last night, they might have left the forest and flown elsewhere for their own safety.
At this time, they came to the side of a lake, which should have been the favorite habitat of Pokémon like these Swablus and Altarias. It was also a good camping spot for them, but it was still the same empty scene they saw before.
"Why is this happening!" May was very anxious to say the least, "Has everyone already left here?"
At this time, the Swablu had also recovered to some extent from its injuries and was now flying next to May. May looked at it and said, "Swablu, how are you doing? Do you want to come with me?"
She suddenly understood Ash's way of subduing some of his Pokémon's. They had become good friends along the way, even if it's for a very short time. If she really had to break away with her little new friend, May would really not want to part with her.
She really wanted to catch this Swablu and welcome her to become her new partner.
But just when the Swablu was about to agree to May's question, several new figures suddenly appeared on the lake.
They were the Swablu and Altaria tribe she belonged to. They actually flew back to look for their missing companion.
Seeing this, the Sawblu immediately flew to the side of its companions, turned to look at May and was ready to goodbye to her.
"Swablu!" May stretched out her hand, then put it down and said with a smile, "You have to take care of yourself, you got it!"
"Sis, are you okay?" Max ran up to Mays side and asked her carefully, "It took a lot of effort for you to become good friends with that!"
However, May nodded, "This is for the good of Swablu!"
Ash quickly pulled Max back over and scolded him not to interfere here, "You will understand in the future, some Pokémon Trainer definitely will not catch Pokémon's just based on their likeness for them."
Everything was based on the love of that specific Pokémon and their bond.
May said goodbye to Swablu, her eyes were full of tears, but they didn't fall down. She was still happy for Swablu.
Ash patted her shoulder and said, "Love, traveling is about constant encounters and constant separations. Isn't it great to just meet new things and experience them while they last?"
"Yes, it's great to be friends!" May looked at Ash and wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes, "I'm truly grateful to have meet you, Ash! I'm so grateful to my bicycle, it allowed me to meet you!"
May looked at his taller figure and kissed him under the sun while it was still gazing out into the horizon.
Ash smiled and hugged her waist to make sure they both remembered this moment well.
He then looked in the direction where all those Swablus and Altarias were leaving towards.
It was at a sunset like this one where he released his old Butterfree. He doesn't know if his Butterfree was doing well or not right now. He must have had many new Catterpie babies to take care of with his wife, that Pink Butterfree.
The encounter and separation with the Swablu made May feel a little more aware of the Pokémon's in her heart.
As the group of friends spent the night camping in this forest, they all thought about the life they have lived so far.
They were able to get out of this forest the very next day and were not too far from Petalburg City.
"Ash, have you decided which Pokémon to use to challenge my dad?" May seemed to see Ash more in a new light now, if that was even possible.
"Ralu Lalu!" The Ralts in Ash's arms held her own Pokémon food and ate it happily.
Ash gently patted the red horn on its head, "I promised Mr. Norman that I would take this little guy back to challenge his gym!"
"But brother, my dad is very strong, wouldn't it be too bad to use your Ralts?" Max looked at the "weak and innocence" in Ralts and worried, he really liked Ralts the most out of all of the Pokémon's he saw Ash use.
Unexpectedly, as soon as these words came out of his lips, the little girl suddenly became unhappy and waved her fist towrsa Max, showing that she was very powerful.
"Cor! Cor!" Corphish also waved his big pliers from the side, looking eager to have a battle.
Ash has been carrying the troublemaker with him all the time recently, and it seemed that he was about to evolve very soon, looking very restless.
His Bond Value has also reached 180/190, but it hasn't been improved since then. Ash's didn't know if he can complete their Bond Evolutions after he evolves. Of course, he will not insist on this too much. There will always be people who cannot get the full value of compatibility, even if they have a very very deep bond.
His Kingler was one of the best examples of this.
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GOT IT