When Ash, Alice, and Brock arrive at Saffron City, Ash says, "So now it is the day..."

"Yeah, you are going to face Sabrina again." Alice asks, "Are you nervous?"

"Of course I am..." Ash says. "I mean, I know she becomes good, but still..."

Brock says, "This time we are going to cheer you on no matter what, so you just need to focus on your gym battle."

Ash nods, and then they hear Nurse Joy calling him, and he is confused as he walks towards the counter.

"Nurse Joy? What's the matter?" Ash asks in confusion, and Nurse Joy says, "As you can see, I have a package that has your name on it."

Ash is confused as he gets the package, but just as he opens it, there are two Pokeballs that come out of the place. "Two Pokeballs? And a letter? What is this about?"

Ash says, "I don't know, but it says that the letter is going to be given to the dojo master in the fighting dojo..."

Brock asks, "I know that the fighting dojo here is famous, but who would want you to do his work?"

Ash is looking for the signature, only to find nothing, and they don't dare to open the letter for fear that it might ruin whoever wants them to send the letter.

As they go to the Fighting Dojo, they meet what seems to be the Dojo Master. After giving the letter to him, he reads it and says, "So it is from Sir Adam of the Rota Kingdom. What a surprise."

"What? Sir Adam?" Ash asks. "Why would he wants me to give this letter to you?"

"He must have his own reasons." The Dojo master says, "The letter said that has given two Pokeballs, do you have them?"

Ash gives the objects to him, and he goes into the backroom and then they wait for a few seconds. After time has passed, the Dojo Master comes out with two Pokeballs and says, "They are now your Pokemon."

"My Pokemon?" Ash is surprised as he opens it, and a Hitmonlee and a Hitmonchan appear out of the Pokeball. "Wow...those two are really strong Pokemon."

"Yeah." Alice says. "But is there a reason why Sir Adam wants you to give Ash those two Pokemon?"

The Dojo Master says, "Let's say that Ash reminds him of his own son who he doesn't have the nerve to face him."

"Wait, Sir Adam has a son? How come he never talked to me about it?" Ash asks in confusion. Dojo Master says, "I don't know what happened to his son, but it must be bad news for Sir Adam if he doesn't want to talk about it."

"Okay..." Ash says as they bid the Dojo Master farewell, and Brock asks, "Who is this Sir Adam?"

"He is the head of my mom's royal guard, he has been my teacher for aura wielding."

"I see." Brock says. "Sounds like he is a nice person."

Now they are inside the Saffron Gym, and they are surprised by an invisible face in front of them, but it reveals to be a Haunter, and it is laughing.

"Oh, hello to you again, Haunter." Ash greets the Pokemon, who floats back to Sabrina, who greets them causally, "I have been waiting for your arrival, Ash."

"Sabrina, right?" Ash asks, feeling a little nervous, Sabrina smiles and says, "Of course, I know that you are afraid of my darkness, but don't worry, during the years I have been training hard with Haunter by my side, so you don't need to worry about my Psychic Powers."

"I see." Ash says in relief. "I am here for a gym battle, so I hope you are ready."

"Of course I am." Sabrina says as they go to the battlefield, they also meet Sabrina's father, and Ash also greets him.

"So now you know that I am her father?" The man says to Ash, who shrugs and says, "I just thought that it will be fun to say that you were her photographer, but that was me being immature back then."

"I see." The man laughs, and they also greet Sabrina's mother, as they hear that the family has been living happily, much to Ash and Brock's relief.

"So what are the rules?" Ash asks Sabrina, who says, "It will be a four-on-four battle."

Sabrina sends out her first Pokemon, and it is a Slowbro. Ash says, "Slowbro, huh? Then I am going to use this Pokemon."

Ash sends out Electrode, as the battle begins. "Electrode, use Sonic Boom."

The Pokeball-like Pokemon fires off the attack at the Slowbro, but it just uses Amnesia to raise its defense and forgot the pain, Sabrina says, "Use Hydro Pump."

Slowbro fires the attack at the Electrode, but Ash has it uses Agility to dodge the attack.

"It looks like Slowbro is a hard Pokemon to beat..." Alice says.

"Indeed, it is good at special defense and defense as well." Brock says.

Electrode has a hard time battling against Slowbro because of Amnesia and the fact that it uses Slack Off to recover its health. But in the end, Electrode manages to land a Thunderbolt, and it eventually knocks out the Slowbro with the Paralyze and stops him from using Slack Off.

"Good work, Electrode." Ash says as he recalls his Pokemon. Sabrina says, "I see, so you are switching out."

"Of course." Ash says as he readies his second Pokemon.

Sabrina uses Hypno next, Ash chooses Marowak as his next Pokemon. Hypno uses Confusion, while Marowak blocks it with the bone.

"Use Bone Club!" Marowak starts to use the bone to attack the Hypno time after time, and it just shakes it out despite being damaged.

"Use Bonemerang." Ash yells, but this time Hypno dodges it by using Teleport, then Hypno uses Hypnosis, causing Marowak to asleep, but thanks to it holding a Chesto Berry, it wakes up instantly and uses Brutal Swing, knocking it out in the end.

"It is a good thing that we have some Chesto Berry from Solati." Ash says with a sigh, "Or else our Pokemon is going to fall asleep again."

Sabrina's third Pokemon is a Mr. Mime, and it uses Psychic to knock out Marowak, so Ash uses Arcanine next.

"Arcanine? Why use this Pokemon?" Alice asks in confusion. Brock says, "Maybe he wants to use the fact that Mr. Mime is a Fairy Type, and it doesn't work well with Fire Type Pokemon?"

Arcanine uses Flamethrower, and Mr. Mime uses Mimic to do the same. Then Arcanine tries to use Crunch, but it is blocked by Barrier.

"Use Thunder." Ash widens his eyes as the move hits Arcanine, dealing a lot of damage and also paralyzing the Pokemon.

"This is bad...Arcanine, I know you can do it, just don't give up until it is over. Use Extreme Speed!" Ash yells, and Arcanine feels motivated as it gives the Pokemon damage.

"Good, now use Crunch again." Ash yells, but this time Arcanine falls into the trick of Substitute.

"It won't be easy if I just let you defeat me like that." Sabrina says as Ash tells Arcanine to use Fire Blast to break the substitute, and then he uses Crunch again, Mr. Mime also uses Psyshock, causing both of them to faint.

"A Tie again." Alice says. "Both of them are equally strong."

Brock says, "I agree with you...she really becomes tough. The problem is if Ash can beat her as well?"

"I never had an exciting battle before, you really are something." Sabrina says.

"You too, Sabrina." Ash replies.

"Here is my last Pokemon. Alakazam!" Sabrina sends out her final Pokemon and Ash says, "Gengar! I choose you!"

Alakazam and Gengar go on the field, Haunter is surprised that Ash has a Gengar as he floats towards the Pokemon, it tries to make a funny face, and Gengar also does it back, the two of them are playing together as Ash coughs a little.

"Gengar, I know you are happy to see the fellow Pokemon, but we have a battle to go, so please wait until we are finished."

Gengar nods as he focuses on the Alakazam on the field. It uses Shadow Ball first, but Alakazam dodges it using Teleport.

"It is just like last time..." Ash mutters. "Alakazam's Teleport sure is a problem."

Alakazam uses Psychic, Gengar just hides in the shadows to dodge it. Then Gengar fires a Dark Pulse and hits Alakazam. It also uses Recover to gain all its HP back. Alakazam uses Calm Mind and then Future Sight, which hurts Gengar badly. Gengar can still move, and Ash comes up with a plan, Gengar uses Hypnosis on Alakazam, causing him to sleep, then followed by Nightmare and Hex to defeat him.

"Alakazam is unable to battle, Gengar wins! Which means the victory goes to Ash Ketchum."

Ash hugs his Gengar, who decides to play a prank on him by using the trick that Haunter showed him, Ash was holding a bomb and then it explodes, causing him to sit on the ground with soot on his body. As for Gengar and Haunter, they are both laughing as Alice and Brock also give out a wry laugh.

Sabrina says, "Well done, Ash. I see that you have improved a lot during these years."

"Yeah." Ash says. "And here is the Marsh Badge."

Sabrina is a little confused about why Ash is given the badge, and her father says, "Oh, Sabrina doesn't know about this, but please give me one."

Ash nods as he does it, and then Sabrina's father gives him a new badge, Sabrina asks, "Father? Does our gym have the ability to exchange expired badges for new ones?"

"Of course, this is for the recycle." Sabrina's father says as they all laugh.

After bidding farewell to the family, they are now back at the Pokemon Center, Ash puts his twelfth badge in his badge case, and Alice says, "Wow, look at how many badges you have..."

"Indeed. Every battle is really precious to me, and I really want to become a Pokemon Master." Ash says.

"You only have 4 more gym battles to go, two of them are in Cinnabar and Viridian, and the other two are in O-Hina and Mulberry City. Which do you want to do first?" Brock asks.

Ash says, "Hold on a second." He takes out his cell phone and checks out something, and then he says, "Okay, O-hina Town is the next one."

"Really? Why is that?" Alice asks in confusion, and Brock says, "You know, I am curious about it as well."

"Because there is a festival held in O-hina Town." Ash says. "The Princess Festival! Remember that? Brock?"

"How can I forget about that?" Brock says, "So it is the time, huh?" Brock asks.

"Princess Festival? What is that?" Alice and Eevee ask in confusion.

"It is a kind of festival commemorated by various events, activities, and sales geared towards women. During the Princess Festival, there are drastic discounts at stores and restaurants for women only." Brock says.

"But what matters the most is that there is the annual Queen of the Princess Festival, a competition where the winner receives a special collection of Pokémon dolls."

After seeing the dolls, Alice says, "They are so cute, I will really like to have them as well."

"Not only that, there is also a Contest held on the same day as well, maybe we can win both of them." Ash says as both he and Alice are fired up, much to Brock's amusement.

Here is the Saffron City Gym battle, in the next chapter, it will be more Pokemon capturing and I will try to add one of Ash's contest rivals in the story. I hope you like this chapter.