Today the gang was taking a break from travelling and May started to practice for the Fallabor contest. She had a new Pokémon on her team; a Skitty.

The other day May found an unwell Skitty, and she and the boys took it to a Pokémon doctor to be healed.

After Skitty was healed, May caught Skitty and was happy with her new Pokémon.

May's current team was Torchic, Beautifly, Azurill, Skitty, Volbeat and Illumise.

Winter was training her Pokémon too, apart from Pichu and Pachirisu, she had Corphish, Feebas, Zigzagoon, Poochyena, Seedot, S.Bagon, S.Trapinch, Torchic, Taillow, Kirlia, Riolu and S.Aron.

Winter had found out that the Lavaridge Town gym used fire type Pokémon and she decided to use Corphish and, if she could, Feebas to gain some experience.

Suddenly a a bipedal Pokémon resembling a cross between a mongoose and cat. Although it is classified as a bipedal Pokémon, it usually walks on all fours. Its fur is mostly white with deep red, scar-like markings on the face, chest, and forepaws. It has two long, black claws on its forepaws, and pink paw pads on its hind feet. It has pink eyes, long ears, and a small red nose. When it opens its mouth, two sharp fangs can be seen on its upper jaw. There are small tufts of white fur on its shoulders, and it has a large, fluffy tail. It ran past the gang at a fast speed.

"Woah." Winter said.

"Hey it's a Zangoose." Max said excitedly.

Tomo looked at Zangoose on his PokéDex:
Zangoose, the Cat Ferret Pokémon.
It has feuded with Seviper for many generations. Its sharp claws are its biggest weapons.

"Wow, so does that mean that Zangoose and Seviper fight with each other all the time?" Tomo asked Max.

"Yes, and once they start fighting they don't stop until one or the other is defeated."

"Gosh." Tomo said.

Just then another Zangoose appeared, but it started talking.

"Hang on a minute," Winter said, "is that you Nicholai?"

Nicholai was a Pokémon trainer, who liked to dress up as different Pokémon and who the gang met in Petalburg Forest.

Nicholai was happy to see the gang again and he introduced Zangoose as his new Pokémon.

"So how have you been Nicholai?" Winter asked.

"I've been great thank you," Nicholai answered, "I've been to different places, seen some cool new Pokémon, as well as catching some new Pokémon for myself, and I've been participating in different Pokémon battles and gym battles too. The truth is I battled the Petalburg Gym some time ago."

"Really, did you win?" May asked.

"No I lost. Your dad is really strong and hard to beat," Nicholai said, "but I plan to try again after I get a bit stronger."

"Well then, why don't you have a battle with me?" Winter asked, "My Pokémon has been itching for a battle."

"I accept your battle Winter, but you won't beat me this time." Nicholai said.

Nicholai and Winter had a Pokémon battle together the last time they met, and Winter defeated Nicholai's Zigzagoon with her Taillow.

Winter and Nicholai got ready to battle, and Brock became the referee and declared the Pokémon battle a two on two battles.

Nicholai dressed up as a Marshtomp and released a Marshtomp from a PokéBall. This meant that Nicholai's Mudkip was now a Marshtomp.

Winter sent out Seedot to battle, as Marshtomp was part ground type as well as water, electric type attack wouldn't work but grass would.

Nicholai ordered his Marshtomp to use water gun, but Winter ordered Seedot to dodge the water gun attack with quick attack.

"Fire mud shot Marshtomp." Nicholai said. Marshtomp fired a mud shot attack at Seedot, and Seedot got hit by it.

"Use sunny day Seedot." Winter said. Seedot glowed a white color and made the sun shine brightly.

"Let's use iron tail Marshtomp." Nicolai said.

"Use solarbeam Seedot." Winter said. Seedot fired a solar beam attack from its acorn cap straight at Marshtomp. Marshtomp got hit by the solar beam attack and fainted.

"Whoa how did Seedot use solar beam so quickly?" Max asked confused, "Usually a Pokémon has to store energy first before using solar beam."

Tomo explained that if a Pokémon uses sunny day it can use solar beam next without having to store energy first. May and Max thought that was a brilliant strategy.

"You should teach that to your Bellosom May," Tomo suggested, "that kind of strategy may work for you too in Pokémon battles, actually it does cause Winter used a couple times herself in battles."

May thought that was a good idea.

Nicolai returned Marshtomp, changed his costume for a Zangoose costume and called out his Zangoose.

"Be careful Seedot," Winter warned, "Zangoose is no pushover." Seedot understood.

Nicholai ordered Zangoose to use sword dance, but Zangoose didn't do anything; instead it started looking elsewhere as if it was searching for something. Then it ran towards some bushes.

"Hey Zangoose what's wrong?" Nicolai asked.

"Oh-oh," Max gasped, "I bet that Zangoose has sensed that a Seviper is nearby."

"What do you mean Max?" May asked.

"Well you see as Zangoose and Seviper are natural born enemies, they can detect each other's presence even from a distance," Max said, "and once they do they have that urge to fight each other and they can't resist it."

Zangoose did detect a Seviper, but this Seviper was Jessie's. Team Rocket was in the area looking for rare Pokémon to take of course.

Jessie, James and Meowth revealed themselves when they saw Seviper willing to fight Zangoose.

"Not you three again." Nicolai said.

Nicolai met up with Team Rocket as well when he saw the gang last time.

"What do you want?" Nicolai demanded.

"Since we had nothing to do at the moment, we shall take your Pokémon." Jessie said and she ordered her Seviper to attack, but Seviper was too busy concentrating on Zangoose.

"Oh-oh." James said.

James knew that Seviper and Zangoose were natural born enemies and he told Jessie that.

Jessie was about to give her Seviper a command but then Zangoose sent Jessie, James and Meowth away with crush claw.

The crush claw was for Seviper but Seviper dodged and the attack struck Team Rocket instead.

So Seviper was left alone to fight Zangoose.

First Seviper wrapped up Zangoose in its coils, but Zangoose bit Seviper to get free.

But then they rolled into a river.

Nicolai and the gang ran after them to help Zangoose.

Seviper struck Zangoose hard with a poison tail attack and was about to bite Zangoose next.

"Oh no you don't, Seviper!" Winter said. She said sent Feebas and ordered her to use ice beam. Feebas froze Seviper in a block of ice and then she whacked it with iron tail and sent the Seviper down the river.

Next Winter helped Zangoose to shore

Zangoose was pretty hurt and needed medicine and a good rest at once.

"Well done Feebas." Winter smiled, giving her a rub.

----•••----

Meanwhile Team Rocket found Seviper and decided to come up with a plan to defeat Zangoose.

Jessie understood her Seviper's feelings because she hated her rival Cassidy very much.

"Okay Seviper, we are going to train for a bit and then we'll get back at that Zangoose." Jessie said.

Seviper understood.

----•••----

Back with Nicolai and the gang, Nicolai was thinking about what to do with Zangoose.

Zangoose obviously wanted to fight Seviper again after it recovered.

Winter offered to help because she had battle Jessie's Seviper lofts of times.

Nicolai accepted Winter's help and he changed into his Zangoose costume.

Brock offered to changed into a Seviper costume that Nicolai also had because her Pokémon doesn't want their trainer to dress like that, Brock and Nicolai decided to fight each other as if they were really a Seviper and Zangoose.

Winter pointed out to Nicolai that he had to watch out for Seviper's tail and fangs. "Another thing you should know is that a Seviper can learn glare attack which would make you paralyzed."

Nicolai could see that trying to defeat Seviper would not be easy, but he wasn't willing to give up.

Suddenly Team Rocket and Seviper turned up again and Seviper was ready to fight Zangoose again.

Zangoose got up ready to fight.

"I don't think that Zangoose is fully recovered yet to fight." Winter said to Nicolai.

"Don't worry Winter, Zangoose and I will win." Nicolai said.

As Jessie was battling Nicolai, James decided to fight the gang to grab their Pokémon. He sent out Cacnea and ordered it to use sand storm on the gang.

Winter was about to call out her Corphish, but then Feebas popped out of her PokéBall by herself. Feebas wanted to fight.

When James and Meowth saw Feebas, they started to laugh.

"That ugly thing couldn't defeat a Caterpie." Meowth laughed.

Winter got angry and told them not to insult her Feebas.

At that moment Feebas started to glow, and then she evolved into a Milotic.

As Milotic was shiny she had light blue ears and yellow scales instead of blue scales, glittering underneath the sun.

Winter and the others thought Milotic was indeed beautiful.

"Okay Milotic fight that Cacnea with ice beam." Winter said. Milotic fired ice beam attack, which froze Cacnea, James and Meowth. "Okay now let's use one of your new moves, use twister." Milotic spun round and created a tornado, and then the tornado sent the frozen James, Meowth and Cacnea flying.

Winter congratulated Milotic and hugged her.

"You were great Milotic, but I'll call you Yuna since I have another Milotic at Professor Oak's lab." Winter smiled.

Yuna cooed happily happy with her new name.

Meanwhile Jessie and Nicolai were still battling each other. Zangoose was still tired, but it wasn't willing to stop fighting and neither was Seviper.

"All right Seviper let's use flamethrower." Jessie said.

Jessie had taught her Seviper the move flamethrower.

Nicolai was surprised by that and ordered Zangoose to dodge it. Zangoose jumped just in time to dodge the flamethrower. The Nicolai ordered Zangoose to use crush claw. Zangoose scratched Seviper good and then Seviper fainted.

Jessie returned Seviper. "You may have one this time twerps, but you haven't seen the last of me." She said.

She ran off as fast as she could to find James and Meowth.

Nicolai was happy with the victory and told Zangoose that it did a great job.

Winter was looking at her Milotic on her X-Dexter and saw that Milotic had learnt a lot of new moves. She now knew water gun, wrap, refresh, twister, recover, aqua tail, attract, captivate and water pulse.

"I can't wait to use Yuna in battles." Winter smiled.

Since Team Rocket was now out of the way, Winter and Nicolai decided to continue their battle.

Winter called out Poochyena and Nicolai changed and sent out Zigzagoon.

In the end Winter and Poochyena won.

----------------------------•••--------------------------

Today the gang had finally arrived at Fallabor Town, where the next Pokémon contest was.

By the time the gang got to the registration desk, there was only one more application left and Winter let May took it.

So May was entered in the contest and Winter wasn't.

May felt sorry that Winter wasn't able to enter the contest, but Winter reassured her that she could just enter the next Pokémon contest.

The contest was tomorrow and it was already nearly the end of the day, so the gang could rest up.

While the gang were in the lobby, May saw a young woman with a humanoid, bipedal Pokémon that resembles a yoga practitioner. It has a gray body with red and yellow adornments. A red headpiece with three bulb-like extensions covers the upper portion of its head: one on top and one on either side. Its large, focused eyes are slightly covered by the headpiece, and its red lips seem to be in a rounded or puckered position. Its legs appear to be covered with puffy, red pants that have a large yellow spot on the knees and yellow bands next to the hips, beside the woman.

"That's Medicham, a fighting and psychic type Pokémon." Max said.

May looked at Medicham on her PokéDex:
Medicham, the Meditate Pokémon.
The evolved form of Meditite. Through daily meditation, it hones its spiritual power. It can sense what others are thinking.

The woman, whose name was Grace, was also a coordinator and she had three ribbons.

The gang introduced themselves to Grace, and Winter showed Grace her three ribbons.

"Wow that's a good start for you Winter," Grace said, "are you going to enter the Fallabor Contest?"

Winter shook her head, "No I arrived too late to sign up for it, but May is going to enter it." She said.

Grace asked May how many ribbons she had, and May admitted that she had none.

"Never mind, I'm sure you'll win one soon," Grace smiled, "but you have been practicing right?"

"Oh yes, I had practiced with Snow for both the preliminary rounds and battle rounds."

"That's good to hear, because practicing hard with your Pokémon can really bring out the true power of your Pokémon." Grace said.

"I agree with that." Winter said. She knew because she had seen the true power of her Pokémon, after some training, before.

The gang had a good night's sleep, and soon it was the day of the Pokémon contest.

May was doing some last minute practicing, but then Drew turned up.

"From the look of that, it seems that you are entering today's contest, am I right?" Drew said.

"Yeah what's it to you?" May asked.

"So you'll know I'll be winning my fourth ribbon here." Drew said. He had three ribbons now.

May chose to ignore Drew's arrogance.

Winter met up with Drew too and Drew asked Winter if she was entering too.

Winter simply explained that she missed the chance to sign up.

"Well you haven't had won anyway," Drew said, "besides you've only got one ribbon."

Winter twitched, "Actually Drew I have three ribbons." She said, showing her contest ribbons.

"You have the same amount has me." Drew said, "But not for long."

Winter was not happy by that comment same has your Pokémon.

Drew asked Winter for a Pokémon battle, and Winter accepted.

They went outside to do their Pokémon battle.

Drew called out Roselia and Winter called out Kirlia.

"Roselia use petal dance." Drew said.

"Use magical leaf to counter that attack Kirlia." Winter said.

Kirlia's magical leaf attack broke apart the petal dance attack.

"Roselia use stun spore." Drew said.

"Oh no you don't. Use safeguard Kirlia." Kirlia made a shield around him before the stun spore could hit him.

"Sorry Drew, but I already know that the move safeguard can protect a Pokémon from getting paralyzed and others like that," Winter said, "now Kirlia use psychic." Kirlia fired a psychic attack, and Roselia got hit by it.

"Okay Roselia return." Drew said, he forfeited the match. "I can see that you are a good battler, but there is still no way you could defeat me in a contest battle."

Winter scoffed, "We shall see about that when you and I do get the chance to face each other in a contest." She said and turned to Kirlia, "Great job, soon you've be able to evolve into Gallade."

Kirlia smiled how he wants to evolve into the fighting Pokémon.

May saw the battle and started to feel the nerves again about the contest.

Winter told May to relax and believe in herself and her Pokémon.

May took in Winter's words.

Soon it was time for the Fallabor Contest.

Winter, Tomo, Max and Brock took their seats in the seating area.

Vivian introduced the judges and showed off the Fallabor Ribbon, which was colored pink.

May, Drew and Grace easily made it passed the preliminary round thanks to their Pokémon Beautifly, Roselia and Medicham.

The fourth contestant who made it to the second round was a woman named Charlene and she used a Seedot.

May was up against Charlene.

Charlene was a good battler, but May's Beautifly managed to defeat her Seedot with silver wind and gust as bug and flying moves beat grass type Pokémon.

After May's battle against Charlene, Drew was up against Grace.

May watched the battle round carefully in the waiting room as she was going to battle the winning opponent next.

Drew ordered his Roselia to use magical leaf, but Medicham used meditate to dodge it.

Roselia used its petal dance attack next, but Medicham used confusion to stop the petals from hitting it, then it flung the petals back at Roselia, who got hurt by the attack.

There was no doubt about it, Grace was a good Pokémon trainer, even the judges were impressed with her battling skills.

Drew ordered Roselia to use solar beam now. As Roselia was storing energy to do solar beam, Grace was ordering her Medicham to use ice punch on the ground.

When Roselia released its solar beam attack, Medicham created some ice pillars with the ice punch attacks.

Then the solar beam attack bounced off the ice pillars like a mirror and then the solar beam struck Roselia.

This was a good term of defense indeed and everyone liked the tactic.

Roselia was really hurt by now and couldn't really do anything.

Grace ordered Medicham to use meditate again.

"Oh-oh," Winter said, "the next attack will be powered up thanks to meditate."

The move meditate had the ability to increase Medicham's attack.

Grace ordered Medicham to use high jump kick next.

Roselia got kicked hard from the attack and fainted.

So Drew lost this round and Grace was against May next.

May felt nervous because she had to go against Grace who defeated Drew, but she didn't back down.

May released her Beautifly and Grace sent out Medicham.

May ordered Beautifly to use tackle, but Medicham dodged it.

Grace and Medicham were fighting well against May and Beautifly, especially with Medicham's confusion and ice punch attacks.

But May managed to make a comeback.

Grace ordered her Medicham to use high jump kick, but Beautifly dodged it.

As the high jump kicked missed, Medicham got hurt and then Beautifly used silver wind on Medicham and hurt it more.

Medicham and Beautifly put up a good fight against each other, until the time for battling was up.

In the end May won the battle, and she thanked her Beautifly at once.

Winter, Tomo, Brock and Max were happy for May for finally winning her first ribbon.

"Way to go May!" Tomo said and Growlithe barked happily.

Winter cheered along with Pichu and Pachirisu, "Yes, May did it." She said.

"She really won it this time." Max said.

"Yeah and if she keeps doing well, she'll actually make it to the grand festival." Brock said.

May was indeed happy when Mr Contesta handed her the ribbon, her first ribbon. Grace congratulated May, and by surprise so did Drew.

"Just because you won this contest, don't get full of yourself." Drew said to May.

May was happy to have finally earned a contest ribbon, but she still needed another four ribbons to win.

---------------------------•••---------------------------

Sometime after the Fallabor Contest, the gang was out in the countryside.

"It feels nice being out in the countryside like this, especially when the weather is nice." May said.

"Funny to hear you say that May," Max smirked, "it's usually the cities that you like the most."

"Hey I like being in a green area too thank you Max." May argued.

"I think this is a good place for us to relax for a bit." Brock suggested.

The others agreed with that.

Suddenly a Torchic appeared in front of the gang.

"Did you call out your Torchic from the PokéBall May?" Max asked.

"No that' not my Torchic." May replied.

They looked at Winter.

"That's not my Torchic either." She answered.

"Maybe its wild." Tomo said.

Just then a young man came up and picked up the Torchic. "You can't just rush off on your own Torchic." The man said

Winter asked if the Torchic was his.

"Well this Torchic is one of the many Torchic that my dad and I look after for a while." The man said.

"Oh I get it," Winter said, "this means you and your dad breed Torchics and look after them for a while before they go off to new starting trainers' right?"

"Yes that's right, but how could you know that?" The man asked.

The gang told the man about the time when they met Mr Swampy and all the Mudkips he looked after.

"Oh yes, Swampy actually told my dad and me about you guys," the man said, "he also told us how you saved his Mudkips from thieves."

"That's right." Winter said.

Max asked the man if they could see the other Torchics and the man agreed.

The man, named Keith, led the gang to where he and his dad lived.

The house seemed to look like a farm house. Keith introduced his dad, Rooster, to the gang.

"Ah it is so nice to see trainers once in a while," Rooster said, "I used to be a trainer myself when I was a kid, but then I decided to be a breeder instead."

"Why did you decide to be a Torchic breeder?" May asked.

"I had a Torchic as a starter Pokémon and it evolved all the way to Blaziken," Rooster said, "and our partnership is what made me decide to be a Torchic breeder." The gang understood.

"Is your Blaziken here with you?" Tomo asked.

"Afraid not, it passed away from old age a few years ago." Rooster said.

"Oh sorry." Tomo apologies.

"Ah it's all right youngster, besides I have plenty of memories of my old partner in my head."

Keith asked his dad if the gang could see the Torchics and Rooster agreed.

Keith and Rooster led the gang to some sort of big chicken coup and there were lots of baby Torchics running around.

"Wow, so many Torchics." May said in awe.

"This defiantly reminds me of the entire baby Mudkips we saw with Swampy." Max said

"Are there any Torchic eggs here as well?" Tomo asked.

"Yes there are, and we keep them in the house." Rooster said.

There were lots of Torchic eggs in Rooster and Keith's house; the eggs were orange with a yellow pattern.

The gang couldn't take their eyes off the eggs.

Winter and May sent out their Torchics to show Rooster and Keith.

"Awe, you two have got fine Torchics there," Rooster said, "I bet you got them from Professor Birch right?"

"Well I did yes," May said, "but Snow got her Torchic from a Nurse Joy in Dewford Town."

"Ah I see, well you two have done wonderful jobs of raising them." Rooster said.

Winter and May thanked Rooster.

Suddenly where was a crash noise from outside.

"What was that?" May gasped.

Rooster and Keith feared that the Torchics were in trouble, so they quickly ran outside to see what was going on.

The gang ran outside too.

There was trouble brewing outside, two women; one had blonde hair named Misa and the other one has red hair named Bree, they were both stealing the baby Torchics.

"Hey what do you think you're doing!?" Rooster shouted.

"We'll be taking these Torchics, they'll be great Pokémon for us." Bree said evilly.

"Oh no you don't!" Keith said. He sent out a Mightyena to stop the women.

"Ha that pup can't scare us." Misa smirked. She sent out a large, brown bipedal Pokémon. It has a long, shaggy, white mane that covers most of its face. It has long ears, a long pointed nose, and a large mouth with teeth that are usually gritted. Its eyes are opaque yellow with black sclera and pupils. It has three broad leaves with brown spokes on its hands.

"Oh-oh that's a Shiftry, the most ferocious grass Pokémon of all." Max said.

Shiftry, the Wicked Pokémon.

The evolved form of Nuzleaf. By flapping its leafy fan, it can whip up gusts of 100 ft/second that can level houses.

Shiftry attacked Keith's Mightyena with razor wind attack. Winter sent out her Torchic to help as fire is strong against grass. "Use fire blast Torchic." Winter said. Torchic fired a kanji symbol attack from his mouth right at Shiftry and Shiftry got hit by it.

"Grrr, get out of our way annoying brats!" Bree growled.

"How about NO! You thieves aren't taking the baby Torchic anywhere." Winter said angrily.

"Tor!" Torchic chirped in agreement.

Suddenly Torchic started to glow.

Everyone one watched as Torchic grew into a bipedal, chicken-like Pokémon. Most of Combusken's upper body is yellow, while most of the lower body is orange. An orange, pointed design adorns the center of its waist at the dividing line of the two colors. It has orange eyes, and short, wide beak. There is a feather crest on top of its head with three orange points. Its tail is short and pointed. It has three, sharp claws at the ends of its long arms, and scaly, gray legs with well-developed thighs covered in shaggy yellow feathers.

"Wow, that's a Combusken." Max in awe of the new Pokémon.

"So my Torchic will evolve to that too." May said.

May took out her PokéDex:
Combusken, the Young Fowl Pokémon.
The evolved form of Torchic. Its kicking mastery lets it lose 10 kicks per second. It emits sharp cries to intimidate foes.

Winter was happy with the evolution and ordered Combusken to use its new sky uppercut. Combusken's claws glowed light blue and then he uppercut Shiftry.

"Now use flamethrower Combusken." Winter said Combusken fired flamethrower at Shiftry and then Shiftry fainted.

The two women tried to run away, but Mightyena and Combusken stopped them.

Rooster tied the women up with rope and Keith called for Officer Jenny.

"I thank you for your help Winter," Keith said, "if it wasn't for you and your Combusken, the two women would have gotten away with our Torchics."

Winter smiled, "I'm glad we were able to help."

Combusken chirped.

Soon the two women got arrested by the police, and the gang thought it was now time to leave.

Rooster and Keith thanked the gang and said goodbye to them.

May was thinking about Winter's Combusken and she couldn't wait for the day that her Torchic would evolve.

-----------------------------•••--------------------------
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~•••~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
26/10/2015- Edited

1. I know that Winter didn't enter the Fallabor Contest but I wanted to stick with how May beat Grace and got her ribbon.

2. Since we had Mudkip and Teecko breeding area why not a Torchic breeding area. Ah, little chicks or Torchic's running the area.

3. Some of these are made up characters I got the idea from my little sister.