Today the gang had come to Dusk Town where the next contest was.

Winter had her new Absol who she named him Kek, checked in the Pokémon Centre to see if his wound was all right.

Winter told Nurse Joy about what happened in Riyado Town and the snare trap.

Of course it made Nurse Joy cross about the people in Riyado Town hating Absol, but she was relieved that they didn't anymore.

Kek already lots of attack like; scratch, leer, quick attack, quick attack, razor wind, sword dance, bite double team, water pulse, calm mind, thunder bolt, flamethrower, ice beam, hyper beam, iron tail, aerial ace, secret power, stone edge, dark pulse, shadow claw, cut and the egg move megahorn.

Of course Winter was happy to have an incredible Pokémon and couldn't wait to try him out in battles.

Right now the gang was at the contest hall May could sign up to enter.

At the reception desk, the lady said that there was no more application left, it was disappointing to May who couldn't it.

"That's okay I'll enter the next one." May smiled.

"Oh, not entering the contest May?" A familiar voice asked.

It was Harley, he was entering the Dusk Contest.

"What a pity, these could have been my chance to defeat you this time May." Harley said.

Winter twitch, "Watch it Harley I warned you once didn't I." She said.

Harley flinched and left with a huff.

"Man, I hope someone beat him in his place." May frowned.

"You and me both May."

----•••-----

The Dusk Contest soon started and Vivian gave the usual introductions and showed off the Dusk Ribbon.

The Dusk Ribbon was purple-pink, with a light pink outline.

May and Winter was sitting in the seats with Brock, Tomo and Max.

"Can't wait." May said excitedly.

The rest nodded agreeing they couldn't wait to see the performances.

----•••----

The preliminary rounds started and for Mark was first, the gang recognise him from the previous contest with his Pokémon Sableye and Tortoal.

This time he called out his Grovyle and ordered it to do aerial ace. Grovyle ran fast across the stage surrounded by white streaks.

The judges and audience were impressed with Grovyle's speed.

"Now Grovyle fire an energy ball into the air and then fire dragon breath at it." Mark said.

Grovyle fired energy ball into the air and then fired dragon breath at it. The dragon breath and energy ball attacks burst into blue-green particles, and then

Mark and Grovyle did their finishing pose.

Mark got a score of 28.7.

----•••-----

Some more great performances came after Mark's performance, there was a Shellder using icicle spear, Growlithe doing flamethrower, Bellossom using magical leaf and Crobat using air cutter.

Finally it was Harley's turn and he called out Cacturne. Cacturne did a combination of bullet seed and poison sting and which gave off particles of yellow and purple.

After the performances were over, Mark and Harley made it to the battle rounds with two other coordinators.

To the gang surprised Harley was battling against Mark first.

Harley smirked and mumbled this will be easy to deal with.

----•••----

In the stands May hoped that Mark would beat Harley.

"You shouldn't worry May," Tomo said, "Harley may be strong, but Mark wouldn't let Harley beat him that easily."

"Tomo is right May, that Mark person is a not going down without a fight." Winter said remembering his match against Drew before.

"Yeah no just watch the match and relax May." Brock said.

----•••-----

The battle rounds soon came, Mark and Grovyle were up against Harley and Cacturne.

Harley ordered Cacturne to start off with poison sting.

"Counter that with bullet seed Grovyle."' Mark said. The poison sting and bullet seed collided with each other. "Now go in for quick attack." Grovyle tackled Cacturne hard with quick attack.

"Alright then," Harley said, "Cacturne lets use needle arm." One of Cacturne's arms glowed white and it got ready to hit Grovyle.

"Counter back with a focus punch Grovyle." Mark countered. Grovyle's arms glowed and he got ready to punch Cacturne.

Cacturne and Grovyle were then punching each other like they were in a boxing match.

----•••----

Brock pointed out that Cacturne would get more damage from Grovyle's focus punch, than Grovyle's damage from Cacturne's needle arm.

"That's right," Max agreed, "as focus punch is a fighting type move, Cacturne, being part dark type, would have the disadvantage against it."

May watched the match carefully, happy to see that Mark was giving Harley a rough time.

Winter smiled, carefully watching Mark Grovyle movement.

----•••----

"Okay Grovyle, it's time to use x-scissor." Mark said. Grovyle's leaves on both his arms glowed light blue and then he slashed Cacturne in an X like fashion.

As x-scissor was a bug type move, Cacturne got a lot of damage from it, being grass and dark type.

Cacturne started to pant heavily and then fainted on the spot.

Mark won this battle round.

----•••----

May and the others in the seats were happy that Mark won, especially May.

-----•••----

Harley returned his Cacturne and walked off in a huff, he also vowed to defeat May, Winter and Mark when they meet at the Grand Festival.

----•••----

Mark's final opponent was a girl named Jill and she owned Bellossom.

Jill and Bellossom did what they could against Mark and Grovyle, but Mark and Grovyle were stronger than them, and Bellossom was soon defeated.

----•••----

So Mark was the winner of the Dusk Contest and was presented the Dusk Ribbon.

"Mark, this is your fifth contest ribbon right?" Mr Contesta asked.

"Yes sir it is." Mark replied.

"Well then Mark, this means you have the right to enter the Grand Festival, I look forward to see your performances there."

Mark was happy to hear that as well as happy to have earned five contest ribbons.

----•••----

"Oh, Mark got all five ribbons as well." Winter smiled amused.

"I'm surprised as well, now I just need one more ribbon for the Grand Festival." May said and she was willing to earn her fifth ribbon and enter the Grand Festival at any costs.

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

Sometime after the Dusk Contest, the gang had left Izabe Island and had come to a city called Sootopolis Gym.

This city was where Winter could earn her final gym badge for the Hoenn League.

"Finally I can earn my last gym badge," Winter said excitedly, "then I can register up for the Hoenn League."

"Pipipichu!" "Chichipa!" Pichu and Pachirisu exclaimed pumping their ting paws in the air.

"I wonder what this gym leader is like." Tomo said curious.

Brock took a look in the guidebook, "Well it says here that the gym leader is a man named Juan and he uses water type Pokémon, just like Misty in Cerulean City." He read out, "Oh and it says here that Juan was a coordinator in his time and he became a top coordinator."

"Well this is going to make the gym battle more interesting." Winter said.

"There is something else here about the Sootopolis Gym," Brock continued, "it says that the gym used to be run by a man named Wallace."

"Oh yeah I've heard of Wallace, he was a coordinator too before he became the gym leader and he too became top coordinator. But he's now training to aim to become the new champion of Hoenn." Max said.

"That means he's going to try to beat Steven, which of course won't be easy for him." Winter said.

Winter and the gang knew that Steven was not an easy trainer to beat.

----•••----

The gang soon arrived at Sootopolis Gym and to their surprise the gym looked like a big concert hall and it had a big garden.

"Wow," May said in awe, "this is the fanciest gym that I have ever seen."

"I wonder what it's like inside." Max said.

Just then a butler came up to the gang, "Greetings I am Sebastian the butler of the Sootopolis Gym." He introduced, "What business do you kids have here?"

"We are here so that I can battle the gym leader of this gym." Winter said.

"I see," Sebastian said, "then please follow me and I will take you to meet the gym leader."

----•••----

Sebastian led the gang to inside the gym; the battle room was huge and it had a huge swimming pool as a battle field.

It was nearly the same as the Cerulean Gym.

A man, who dressed like a conductor, stood near the pool; this man was the gym leader Juan.

"Master Juan, this young lady wishes to challenge you to a gym battle." Sebastian pointed politely to Winter.

Winter quickly introduced herself to Juan and Juan accepted Winter's challenge.

"I look forward to seeing on how you battle Winter." Juan said.

Winter and Juan took their places on the trainer boxes, which were in fact diving boards of the pool.

Sebastian; who was the referee, explained the gym rules.

These rules were different to the rules that Winter normally heard.

This time it was a five on five Pokémon battle, but the gym battle was in two rounds.

The first round was to be a double Pokémon battle and once the challenger defeated the gym leader's two Pokémon, it will be a normal three on three battle with the last three Pokémon.

Winter was surprised and excited with the rules, she still couldn't wait to start the battle since she intended to win the gym badge.

Juan called out his two Pokémon first, a Sealeo and a Seaking.

"Since Juan uses water types, it's clear that Winter will be using her electric and grass Pokémon." Max stated.

The others agreed.

"Crawdaunt, Zangoose go!" Winter released both her Pokémons onto the field.

----•••----

"Why use Crawdaunt and Zangoose?" May asked confused.

"I think I know, both Crawdaunt and Zangoose knows fighting type and let's not forget that Zangoose also know electric attack moves." Brock answered, "Also we don't know what attacks Juan's Pokémon will use, so Winter is being guarded seeing Juan is a coordinater as well."

----•••-----

Winter ordered Zangoose to use thunderbolt on Seaking, but Seaking used horn drill to block the attack and when it did that. Zangoose's thunderbolt got repelled by Seaking's horn and it bounced back at Zangoose."

"Use protect Crawdaunt." Winter said. Crawdaunt went in front of Zangoose and used protect; so both Zangoose and Crawdaunt didn't get hit by the thunderbolt.

"That was good defense indeed Winter," Juan praised, "but you will have to do more than that to defeat me."

'I need to try a different approach huh?' Winter thought, "Okay Zangoose shadow ball and Crawdaunt you use sword dance."

Crawdaunt pincers glowed blue and Crawdaunt stretched them into the air, making him feel stronger.

Zangoose quickly launched four shadow ball, which hit both Sealeo and Seaking.

"A good move Winter," Juan commented, "but let's see how you handle this. Sealeo use your blizzard." Sealeo blew a strong blizzard attack at Zangoose and Crawdaunt.

"Counter back with flamethrower Zangoose!" Winter countered.

Both blizzard and flamethrower countered each.

"It's not over, Zangoose on Crawdaunt and let's attack them together." Zangoose and Crawdaunt nodded, Zangoose jumped onto Crawdaunt's back as he jumped into the pool, she rode him like a surfboard. "Okay, Zangoose get ready for a electric charge punch and Crawdaunt metal claw." Winter ordered. Crawdaunt swam towards Seaking and Sealeo, while he and Zangoose got ready to do their attacks.

"A straight forward move huh?" Juan said, "A very brave move. Okay Seaking you use hyper beam and Sealeo you use aurora beam."

Sealeo and Seaking fired their aurora beam and hyper beam attacks towards Corphish and Pikachu.

"Crawdaunt dive." Winter said, Crawdaunt dived under the water, with Zangoose still on his back, and the two attacks missed them.

Then Crawdaunt and Zangoose came out of the water and then Crawdaunt struck Sealeo with metal claw and Zangoose attacked Seaking with combined attack of brick break and thunder together.

"A combined move." Juan said impressed.

-----•••-----

"Wow diving like that to avoid the attacks was great." Max said.

"That's a best way to use a water battlefield, especially when you go under the water to defend yourself." Brock stated.

"That's not all Zangoose was able to combine electric and brick together, making it more effective." Tomo added.

----•••----

"I have to say Winter, you have an interesting battle spirit." Juan said, "Seaking lets use horn drill and Sealeo use aurora beam again."

"Zangoose use thunder, Crawdaunt use metal claw again but this time charge it with the thunder." Winter said, shocking everyone.

Crawdaunt used metal claw and Zangoose released a thunder attack at the metal claw, the metal claw absorb the electric attack.

The metal claw was now a yellowish, whitish colour with static around Crawdaunt pincers.

Crawdaunt charged towards Sealeo and Seaking with his thunder metal claw attack and he charged into them before they could do any attacks.

Both Seaking and Sealeo got hit by the combined move hard and fainted.

So Winter was the winner of the first round.

Juan returned his Seaking and Sealeo, "Winter you are giving me a better challenge than I thought you would do," he said, "I just hope you won't disappoint me in the second round."

Winter smiled, "Don't worry Juan, I'm not the type of trainer who goes soft in battles." She said.

----•••----

At that moment the pool was drained of the water; this was to change the battle field for the second round.

The new battlefield was some land with a pond of water.

Winter and Juan also switched sides with the trainer boxes.

As the new battlefield had land, Winter decided to use her water Pokémon Gorebyss who she sent out.

Juan sent out a Luvdisc to battle next.

May looked at Luvdisc on her Pokédex:
Luvdisc, the Rendezvous Pokémon.
It lives in warm seas. It is said that a couple finding this Pokémon will be blessed with eternal love.

'A female Luvdisc,' Winter thought, 'Good thing that my Gorebyss is also a female so attract and sweet kiss is out of the moves for both Pokémon.' Winter started off by telling her Gorebyss to use shadow ball.

As the dark purplish ball headed towards Luvdisc, Juan ordered Luvdisc to use agility to avoid getting hit.

Luvdisc was a fast Pokémon indeed and it dodged all of Gorebyss shadow.

"Luvdisc use water pulse." Juan said.

"Gorebyss use your water pulse to counter." Winter said.

Both water Pokémon sent out thier own water pulse, causing both attack to explore and rain was made.

"Luvdisc/ Gorebyss use tackle now." Juan and Winter ordered.

Both Pokémon once again tackled each but their speed both double.

----•••----

"Woah, their fast." May said.

"It's due to the rain created from the collision of both water pulse." Brock said as he held his hand out, "Both Pokémon has the ability called Swift-Swim, it's doubles the speed when it rains."

"I see."

----•••----

"Luvdisc use ice beam." Juan said, Luvdisc fired an ice beam attack towards Gorebyss.

"We'll use that ice beam, Gorebyss use aqua jet and keep on going." Winter said shocking everyone.

Gorebyss use aqua jet and she was charging towards the ice beam.

----•••----

"What is Snow thinking?" May asked confused and worried.

"She has a plan." Tomo assured.

"Are you sure?" Max asked.

"Yes, Sky must've got a new combination in." Brock replied.

----•••----

Ice beam hit Gorebyss aqua jet, the aqua jet is frozen and now it looks like a frozen torpedo launching, Gorebyss kept on charging hitting Luvdisc.

"Hey, it work." Winter cheered, "Ice Aqua Jet is a complete success." [I don't not known Ice Aqua Jet]

Gorebyss nodded and cheered happily that the combination worked.

----•••---- 

"No way!" May exclaimed.

"That was wicked cool!" Max and Tomo shouted.

"I know what you mean, she used the ice beam to her own advantage." Brock smiled.

----•••-----

"I must say Winter I am surprised and quite impressed with all the combination move you and your Pokémon was able to do." Juan commented, "Now Luvdisc use heal pulse."

"Oh no you don't, Gorebyss agility then giga impact." Winter said quickly.

Gorebyss vanished and reappeared in front of Luvdisc during her healing process and charged at her with a giga impact.

Luvdisc couldn't take anymore attacks and fainted making Winter Gorebyss the winner of the second round.

----•••----

Juan returned his Luvdisc and sent out a Whiscash to battle next.

Winter sent out Grovyle next, who was ready to battle.

"Use energy ball Grovyle." Winter said. Grovyle fired an energy ball attack at Whiscash.

"Dive underwater Whiscash." Juan said. Whiscash dived into the water and the energy ball attack missed it.

"Grovyle into the water and use nature power." Winter said. Grovyle, who could swim, jumped into the water and did a hydro pump attack which hit Whiscash.

----•••-----

"How can Grovyle do hydro pump, since it's not a water type?" May asked, who was surprised with what just happened.

"Nature power has the ability to let the user use an attack depending on the location," Brock explained, "in water nature power lets the user do hydro pump. My Ludicolo knows nature power too."

----•••----

Grovyle jumped out of the water, shaking the water out of his body.

"Use solar beam Grovyle." Winter said. Grovyle gathered energy to do solar beam.

"Whiscash use hyper beam." Juan said. Whiscash fired hyper beam at Grovyle, while Grovyle fired solar beam at Whiscash.

Whiscash got hit by the solar beam and Grovyle avoided the hyper beam before it could hit Grovyle making him safe from the hyper beam attack.

Whiscash fainted, leaving with Juan only have one Pokémon left.

----•••----
Juan returned Whiscash and sent out his final Pokémon, Milotic.

"So Milotic is the final Pokémon Juan has, I had a feeling that he would use a best and strongest Pokémon for last." Winter said to herself and she sent out Manectric to battle.

"Milotic use hydro pump." Juan said. Milotic blasted a powerful hydro pump attack at Manectric, but Manectric dodged it.

"Use thunderbolt Manectric." Winter said. Manectric shocked Milotic well with his thunderbolt.

----•••----

"That was a bulls-eye." Brock said.

----•••----

'It's shouldn't be that easy.' Winter thought, 'Juan must have a plan.'

"Milotic use recover." Juan said. Milotic healed itself.

'Recover is a smart move to heal but the more the Pokémon uses it, the power weakens each time.' Winter thought, 'How many can Milotic handle?' "Manectric use charge." Manectric charged up his electricity.

----•••----

"I know this move," Max said, "charge charges up a pokemon's electric moves."

"You're right," Brock said, "and it's clear that Sky is going to show no mercy with the next move."

"Ouch, Milotic is in for a shock." Tomo whines.

"You got that right." May agrees.

----•••----

Juan ordered Milotic to use twister; this was trouble because twister was a move that a Pokémon couldn't easily dodge.

"We'll attack this head on," Winter said, "Manectric use thunder." Manectric released a powerful thunder attack at Milotic; thanks to charge it was stronger.

As Milotic was hit by thunder and Manectric was hit by twister, everyone was nervous about what was going on.

When the attacks subsided everyone could see that Milotic and Manectric were still standing, but Milotic was panting heavily from the charged thunder attack.

Juan was about to tell Milotic to use recover, but then Milotic fainted on the spot.

So Winter was the winner of the gym battle.

Juan congratulated Winter on her win, "Winter you indeed showed me your real battling spirit," he said, "and I hope you will keep that battling spirit in the Hoenn League."

"Of course Juan, I understand the leagues are tough." Winter said.

----•••----

'Yeah and she basically won twice.' Brock and Tomo thought.

----•••----

Juan handed Winter the gym badge, which was called the rain badge.

The rain badge was lavender-blue colored and it was in a shape of three raindrops stuck together.

"Finally I have all eight badges to enter the Hoenn League." Winter cheered.

When Juan and Sebastian heard that, they congratulated Winter for obtaining all eight badges.

Sebastian explained that the Hoenn League would take place in a city called Ever Grand City and it would take place in three months.

"Three months is enough time for me and my Pokemon to train," Winter said, "as well as entering the Hoenn Grand Festival."

"Oh, so I was right, your a coordinator too Winter as well?" Juan asked.

"You bet. I enjoy the combination of combining Pokémon attacks together." Winter explained, "It's quite fun and unpredictable for the opponents for gym battles." She showed her five ribbons.

"I could see. Your Pokémon also enjoy it." Juan smiled. "Well Winter I wish you luck in both the Hoenn League and the Hoenn Grand Festival."

"Thank you." Winter smiled.

"And May I wish you good luck at the Pacifidlog Contest."

"Thank you very much Juan." May smiled.

Winter was happy to obtain all eight gym badges, and even though she had to wait three months she couldn't wait to enter the Hoenn League.

----------------------------•••-----------------------------
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=

Sorry for the wait!!

1. From the Pokémon games, I understand the form of the Pokemon having only four moves in the games.
In the I anime with Best wishes and XY, I heard that they made it that the Pokémon can only have four moves. That's ridiculous right, in all the earlier series's all the Pokémon was able to know more than four moves.

2. I had Winter battle against Juan similar to Ash from the anime, by of course it's different.

3. Winter, Brock and Tomo will mention to Dawn in the Sinnoh region about Steven and Wallace, when they hear about the Wallace Cup.