Two days before the Lavender contest, May's Metapod finally evolved into a Butterfree. May had won the Lavender Town contest. Her shiny Butterfree enjoyed doing a performance in front of an audience. She used her Gorebyss in the battle rounds. Everyone was happy that May have won and now had two Kanto ribbons.
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Today, the gang had made it to the Battle Dome and they just exited the Pokémon center. Suddenly they were surrounded by reporters and cameramen. The reporters and cameramen have heard about Ashlyn and Alain competing in the battle frontier challenge and they wanted to ask them questions.
At that moment, Scott appeared, "Hold on, everyone. Please save your questions for the press conference." He requested.
Both Ashlyn and Alain were puzzled that they were going through something like this; they didn't have to go through this when they faced Noland and Greta.
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The press conference was held in another building.
"You must be quite the trainers since you both have already earned two frontier symbols," a female reporter said to Ashlyn and Alain, "would you mind sharing your secrets?"
"Well," Ashlyn responded, "my strategy is a best defense is a strong offence. As long as I stay strong so do my Pokémon."
"What are your thoughts on Tucker?" Another reporter asked.
"Well this will be our first-time meeting Tucker as well as battling him." Alain replied.
"But we'll beat him just like we defeated Noland and Greta." Ashlyn added.
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After that the press conference was over, Ashlyn and Alain had to get ready to face Tucker.
The Battle Dome was a dome shaped building and inside was millions of seats surrounding the battlefield. Scott explained to Brock, May and Max that Tucker was a big superstar, and he likes to entertain people with his battle frontier battles. Tucker had millions of fans and all the seats were filled. Scott and the others sat in special seats above the battlefield.
Ashlyn was introduced to the audience and an announcer explained about her going through the Indigo league, Johto league, Hoenn league, the Hoenn Grand festival and her winnings of the Orange league and the Whirl Cup. Then a purple haired man, dressed as a musical stage star, appeared on the stage. Ashlyn knew that he's the frontier brain, Tucker.
"I welcome you to the Battle Dome!" Tucker greeted Ashlyn, "and this battle will be a battle for the Tactics Symbol!"
The Tactics Symbol was shown on a big TV screen and the symbol had an arch shape as well as small arch shape and two crescent shapes on each side.
Tucker then sent out what Pokémon he was using; Arcanine and Swampert. The referee was standing on a flying platform, and he explained that the battle was a double battle. He also said to Ashlyn that she was allowed to transfer any Pokémon if she wanted to; a transfer machine was set up behind her. Ashlyn had to think hard on what Pokémon to use.
'I can't use any grass Pokémon for Swampert because of Arcanine,' Ashlyn thought, 'but I can use a different Pokémon that does know a grass move and I will also use a flying type for this.'
"I'm going to do a quick switch." Ashlyn decided and ran over to the machine.
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A minute later, Ashlyn made her choice and sent out her Pokémon; Rory (Shiny Gyarados) and Tatsuya (Dragonite).
The battle had now started.
"Tatsuya, Extreme Speed on Arcanine!" Tatsuya flew straight towards Arcanine. But Tucker's Arcanine used Extreme Speed too and they tackled each other with their extreme speed attacks.
"Okay Rory, help out with Surf!" Tatsuya flew into the air, while Rory did his Surf attack. But Swampert knew protect and it jumped in front of Arcanine and used Protect to protect it and Arcanine together.
This meant that this battle will not be easy for Ashlyn.
"Okay Rory, use Thunder Wave!" Rory releases rings of yellow electricity from the tip of his tail.
Swampert go in front of Arcanine to tackle it, but Arcanine charged in with Aerial ace and tackled Rory.
"As you can see Ashlyn," Tucker said, "You're going to have to come up with better tactics to beat my Arcanine and Swampert."
'He's right about that,' Ashlyn thought, 'his Arcanine and Swampert is a real working pair. But Tatsuya and Rory are strong too, and we will beat them.'
"Arcanine, use Flamethrower!" Arcanine shot a stream of fire from its mouth.
"Use Water Gun, Rory!" Rory shot of water from his mouth.
The flamethrower and water gun collided with each other, creating a lot of steam.
"Tatsuya, use Blizzard at Swampert and Arcanine!" Tatsuya summoned a snowstorm that somewhat blinded Arcanine and Swampert.
"Rory, Hyper Beam at Swampert!" Rory shoots out a yellow-orange beam of energy from his mouth at Swampert.
It hit Swampert. Soon enough, the Blizzard faded away.
"Okay Swampert, it's time." Swampert's tail glowed orange; this meant it was gathering water vapors from the air to use a powerful water move, "Now use Water Pulse!"
"Quick, Protect, Rory!" Rory quickly curled around Tatsuya and projected a green barrier around Tatsuya and himself as the Water Pulse attack trapped them a watery tornado.
"Now Arcanine, use Fire Blast!" Arcanine's Fire Blast attack combined with the water tornado creating a fire and water tornado.
"Behold my creation of a combination attack," Tucker announced, "one that causes two attacks to cause a lot of damage; my fire and water fusion!"
Everyone in the crowd was cheering; it seemed this was Tucker's famous move. Ashlyn and the gang were surprised by this; they had never seen anything like this.
'Please stay strong you two.' Ashlyn prayed as she stared at the tornado.
Soon enough, the combination attack ended. Rory kept the green barrier up.
"Swampert, use Dynamic Punch on Gyarados!" Tucker ordered.
"Dragon Rush!" Ashlyn countered.
A blue dragon shaped energy covered Tatsuya and she slammed into Swampert before it could attack Rory.
"Now Rory, use Hyper Beam on Arcanine!" Rory fired Hyper Beam at Arcanine and Arcanine got hit by it.
But Swampert and Arcanine were not beaten yet.
"This is the fighting spirit I like to challenge," Tucker grinned, "Arcanine, use Fire Blast!"
"Rory, Double Hydro Pump!" Rory created copies of himself and fired a powerful stream of water from his mouth at the fire attack.
The fire blast and water gun attack created a thick mist, and no one could see a thing. Ashlyn saw this as a chance to attack.
"Tatsuya, Rory, use Hyper Beam!" The two hyper beams went towards Arcanine and Swampert, who still couldn't see in the fog.
Tucker had no time to give his Pokémon a demand and Arcanine and Swampert were hit by the attacks. Swampert and Arcanine couldn't take anymore and were defeated.
So Ashlyn was the winner.
"Rory, Tatsuya, you did a wonderful job." Ashlyn rubbed their heads. The two Pokémon cooed at their trainer's touch.
Tucker returned his Arcanine and Swampert. Scott and the gang were happy for Ashlyn, but the audience wasn't cheering because Tucker lost.
Tucker walked up to Ashlyn, clapping for her, "Ashlyn, you showed an impressive grasp of tactics with flexibility," he said, "You're a top-notch tactician."
"Thank you, Tucker." Ashlyn thanked him.
At that moment the crowd cheered for Tucker's good sportsmanship and for Ashlyn.
"Thank you again, Ashlyn for a battle that was entertaining far beyond words." Tucker held his hand out to her, "Good luck my friend, wherever you go."
Ashlyn held his hand and the two shook hands, "Thanks."
At that moment, Scott and the others came up to Ashlyn and Tucker.
"Congrads, Ashlyn." Alain smiled at Ashlyn.
"Thank you, Alain." Ashlyn smiled back.
"That was awesome, Ashlyn!" Max exclaimed.
"Totally!" May beamed.
"Quite a turn around." Brock commented.
"Well Ashlyn, I have to say that I was impressed by your battle." Scott admitted.
"Thanks, Scott." Ashlyn thanked him.
"Now let's give our winner another huge round of applause!" Tucker announced.
The crowd cheered once more. Then Tucker turned around to walk away.
"Till we meet again." Tucker declared.
"Wait a minute, what about the symbol, Tucker?" Ashlyn asked.
Tucker turned around reached his hand next to Ashlyn's ear and pulled it back to show the symbol between his index finger and thumb and held it out to her, "It was behind your ear."
Ashlyn blinked and then smiled as she gently took it from his hand.
"Alright! We got the Tactics symbol!" Ashlyn poised with her Pokémon.
"Raichu! (Symbol number three!)" Tesla cheered.
Rory and Tatsuya roared in happiness.
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Alain battled Tucker the next day. For Alain, it was quite the challenge. He chose Slowking and Swellow to go against Arcanine and Swampert. Luckily, he won and received the Tactics symbol from Tucker. Both Ashlyn and Alain were very happy to receive the Tactics Symbol.
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Pokémon Caught: Shiny Arcanine (Sonia)(F), Magby (Fuji)(M)