"Ash, thank you!" The finals started soon after the battle between May and Harley, where he was later taken by some security guards for some questioning.
Even though she already thanked him when they were alone, May still shouted her thanks to him when she came to the stage.
She really loved Ash, and this was just one of the reasons onto why she loved him. Her current strength was inseparable from Ash's guidance; she knew that, Ash knew that, Brock knew that, her family knew that, Vivian knew that, the judges and the audience probably knew that as well. Ash helped her calm down in the battle just now, and that was still just one of the things he did for her.
Ash jsut smiled back at her with his usual demeanor and lightly shook his head, "Babe, it's you who is the one with the potential, I'm just helping you reach the place where you deserve to be at, tho that still doesn't mean I will go easy on you, we'll still do our best to defeat you."
"Let's have a battle to remember by!" The two lovers shouted in unison.
Ralts and Bulbasaur took to the stage, and now it was a battle between two little friends.
"Bulbasaur, let's strike first, Razor Leaf!" May launched the first attack. This was simply a friendly welcome, nothing more, nothing less.
Since she was being so nice, Ash decided to also be a little more nice, his Ralts understood the assignment and casually made it a small Shadow Ball without needing to hear his direct order.
She defeated those Razor Leaf head-on without any issues and then used another one to hit Bulbasaur hard on the head.
The collision of the two skills, plus the attack power of the second round was immediately obvious. Ralts eats Ash expensive power candies as snacks, not to mention all the other things she eats on a regular basis. Coupled with the day and night training she and all of her family, Ash's other Pokémon's, receives, her current strength was too scary for just being a Ralts and not any of its evolved form.
If she still wasn't willing to evolve into a Kirlia, Ash believed that they would have already reached the level of Bonds Evolutions.
His little cute girl was simply like an unleashed beast. Before Bulbasaur could even emerge out from the smoke of the dark green explosion, another attack, a Psychic this time around, caught him and he fell onto the stage after feeling its oppressive force.
"Bulbasaur, use Vine Whip!"
However, its two flexible and decently powerful Vine Whips were all but useful in front of Ralts, in front of absolute power, and they were easily stopped by a Confusion this time around, and she was now even controlling them around, hitting Bulbasaur with its own Vine Whips on the face.
In front of Ralts, May and Bulbasaur were unable to fight back at all and their systems were shut down. Ash had still not given out any orders from his own mouth until now. He simply didn't even need to, his little girl had become more and more violent as of recently.
In the final blow, Ralts created another Shadow Ball and launched it towards her opponent, and Bulbasaur immediately lost her ability to fight.
Ash won, which now meant that he won his fifth official Pokémon Contets Ribbon. Now he was fully qualified to participate in the upcoming Grand Festival.
Since he had already reached this far, it would be a good idea to take the Top Coordinator trophy home to make his mother happy. Plus, this was something that a real Pokémon Master should be able to accomplish.
The Pokémon Contest on Izabe Island was over. Now Ash had gotten enough official Pokémon Contets Ribbons to not bother participating in any other ones, but May still needed to win two more to get her five needed. Without him or any other surprise Pokémon Coordinators, Ash believed that she will do absolutely fine with her current strength.
———
After the Pokémon Contest was over, Ash went to the backstage where he told Vivian to wait for him.
There he asked about what happened to Harley to which she responded to not yet knowing what his result will come out to to.
Now, the main reason on why they wanted to talk to each other.
—
"Ash, I love you." She said it with the most sincere smile she could muster up. She didn't know how to say it, but all she knew was that she fell for this young man.
"Vivian, I love you you, too." Ash said as he hugged her slim waist.
Ash then told her all about his other girls and what it truly implied for them, and to which she said that she knew and really didn't care about that much.
The two then looked at each other and kissed, their first true kiss in their new relationship.
[Well, that was anticlimactic. I thought of so many things that could have happened, but this is the lamest way it could have ended. Like at least have sex!] Ciel said as he was walking away from Vivian.
———
"This time we are going across Izabe Island and to the Harbor in Seiros Town, right?" May was full of confidence for the next Pokémon Contest she would be a part of, "This is a large island, so we might be able to encounter various Pokémon's while traveling around."
As her strength improves, she also begins to catch more Pokémon to expand her team, well more so trying to find the best ones for her.
They were currently going to the nearest Harbor on the other side and take a boat to the location of Ash's next and last Gym Battel, Sootopolis City.
This is also where he and May will meet Maya.
———
Not long after walking out of the main city in this island, they met a young lady, her name was Samantha. After Brock's Lombre accidentally used the Water Stone she had on her bag and evolved into Ludicolo, they just stood their befuddled on the random accident they had witnessed
But one thing for sure was that the compatibility between Brock and his new Ludicolo was very high, it was like a soul-match, and Ash was also very amazed.
He believed that if Brock had his powers, he had his Ludicolo could have immediately used a form of Bonds Evolutions.
The group then said their goodbyes after Ludicolo was rejected and walked towards the same way they were going to, the Harbor.
———
"Big Bro, what kind of place is this?" Max said distressedly while holding the navigator, "This PokéNav is completely useless! Every time we actually need it, it doesn't work!"
Brock took put his trusty travel brochure and said, "This place is not recorded at all on the map of Izabe Island, all it shows is the general area and no name. This is probably on one of those palaces that we are supposed to see and turn back."
This is not even the most important thing here. The most concerning thing is the hidden quicksand pits all over the wasteland, which thankfully Ash sensed it before Brock accidentally took a step in its direction. They didn't even put out any warning sign around the entrance.
A blue light flashed on Ash's body that then extended all around him, but he suddenly smiled a little and picked up a pretty large and heavy looking boulder like it was nothing and casually threw it to the eye of the quicksand.
"Now this is what you should be looking at!"
Everyone immediately began to look around them and saw some big orange ant looking Pokémon's quickly emerging from the bottom of the pit. Their huge mandibles gnawed the large boulder into powder.
"That Pokémon is a Trapinch!" Max immediately recognized the Pokémon, and then said, "Big Bros Flygon also evolved from a Trapinch like this!"
"So it seems that all these quicksand holes are all the lairs of the Trapinch's living around here." Ash pointed to the quicksand pits all around them. It would be uncomfortable for him but extremely dangerous for others if they fell into one of these situations. "My Flygon is currently training in the Lab with the others, otherwise I would have let him come out to play with his fellow past species. I don't know if there are any nearby Pokémon Centers, if there was I could go and teleport him over to me."
As soon as he finished speaking, someone came riding on her desert car.
It was a good-looking young lady that was on the off-road car. As soon as she got off the vehicle, she sternly shouted to the group, "You guys, get out of here quickly! This is a dangerous area that is forbidden to enter! Did you guys not see the warning signs placed around here?"
Brock didn't seem to care about anything she said, well more like he didn't hear her talking, so he immediately rushed up to her and said, "Hello there my lady, what may your name be?"
"I am Elisa, the Pokémon Ranger administrator who is in charge of protecting this area!" The young lady proudly introduced herself.
"In this case, please save me. I have fallen into the bottomless quicksand of love that is you—!"
Heartbroken. The appearance of his special Spinda made him feel broken again. Ash just smiled at his friend's attempt and fail.
"I'm sorry, but when we came came, there was no such warning signs. It was all forest and then this desert, no nothing to stop us." May quickly explained their situation as to not get into any trouble.
"No warning signs? Sigh. Looks like they ate them again. Every time I think I stopped them from eating those signs I placed, they somehow still manage to chew them into nothing."
The others just laughed and introduced themselves to her.
"Below this lair, there are many caves known as the 'Trapinch Underground Labyrinth'. If you or anyone else fall into it, it will be extremely difficult to escape from their without losing any body parts. Although our groups have investigated the inside, because Trapinch's here constantly keeps digging the cave, even we can't fully grasp how much we have left to explore, or where they might be next."
Although she said this, in fact, Ash's Aura Sense had already clearly already explored all the nearby cave mazes while they were talking, all he needed to do was to actually concentrate on it. Not only that, he also discovered something quite interesting.
It was a mysterious area not that underground, with clear clean water and lush grass, like a perfect underground paradise.
But he was unwilling to disturb the paradise that belonged to all the Pokémon's living here, so he turned around and headed to the safe area that Elisa told them about.
"There are so many wild Pokémon here!" May and Max both cheered up by seeing all the new kind of Pokémon's here.
A bunch of Rhyhorns led by two Rhydons, a few Tauros', Phanpys and Donphans, and some Girafarigs.
Ash also had a Phanpy, which he hatched with from the Pokémon Egg he received in the Johto Region and has been training currently training with his Tyranitar and Groudon. Like hisRalts and Growlithe, he had also already reached the level of evolution after going through the arduous training of his older and stronger Pokémon's.
But Ash still hopes to wait until they are a little more older and stronger before to evolves them. They were all hatched by him, so he always payed more attention to their growth. Tho by no means does that mean he chose to ignore any of his other Pokémon's; whether they be his bunch of other Tauros' or the Pokémon's with his mother, he always pays attention to them.
"It's our job to protect these Pokémon!" She said proudly.
When they arrived at the place she mentioned, Ash asked Elisa for something, "Can I borrow the phone here for a bit?"
Although there was no Pokémon Center here, there was still a Pokémon Teleportation Device here that allows Elisa and her group to be able to transport the Pokémon's here to be taken to the Pokémon Center for treatment.
Ash teleported his Dragonair, sad Milotic, and Sharpedo back. This Izabe Island was a large island, and it will take some time to cross here. Teleporting them back was more efficient.
Dragonair's Dragon Rush has basically taken shape, and now all he needs is time to go and practice it with his Rayquaza and the Eon Duo.
Then, Ash exchanged for his Absol, Flygon and Vigoroth.