Going forward and beyond {Path of the Aura Ranger: Book I}

X Pikachu's P.O.V

After the high of May's win in the Johto Grand Festival and Dawn's first battle round win, the rest of the Sinnoh Grand Festival continued as normal. Mostly... Dawn took us all by surprise by using her two newest pokemon for the Top 16, one of them being a baby! Luckily she won it by clever use of Pollen Puff to poison her opponent's Bibarel and Wormadam, and then take them down by combining Ribombee's Fairy Wind with Cyndaquil's Flame Charge to create a ruby-pink armor. By the time the buzzer went off, Dawn had half of her points left, while her opponent had one-third left. For the Top 8, Dawn went back to her experienced pokemon and used Ambipom and Buneary against the other coordinator's Vespiquen and Chatot. That was an interesting battle, mostly because Dawn's opponent took the fight to the air, most likely expecting Dawn not to know what to do. Dawn's answer, took even me by surprise, she had Ambipom use Swift and then Buneary attack with Bounce while using the stars as an aerial platform.

That got a huge chunk of points deducted from her opponent!

However, it was in the semi-finals when things got interesting.

All four of our friends had made it, Jessie was facing Dawn, while Zoey was battling Nando.

They were going to be the battles for the ages! I exclaimed in my head.

"I hope I am not late," someone said from beside us.

"Johanna!" Ash exclaimed in surprise, before smiling at her and standing up to receive her with a hug. "What are you doing here?"

"My daughter made it to the semi-finals, did you not expect me to come and see her perform live?" Johanna laughed, sitting on Lucario's seat, who had offered it and decided to seat by the steps next to her. "She has grown up so much in such a small amount of time. She made it farther than most rookie coordinators could dream of... farther than I did on my own Grand Festival," she gave a watery chuckle. "Glameow and I got eliminated at the Top 16."

"Well, she did have a good mentor," Riley commented, smiling at Ash, who blushed under the compliment.

"That she did," Johanna smiled at my brother.

Before Ash could open his mouth and deflect the merit, Dawn and Jessie step onto the stage, getting the whole stadium's attention.

"This takes me back to the beginning of Dawn's journey," Ash commented. "Jessie was Dawn's first rival and now they are going to face each other on the biggest stage... I am so excited!"

"Vileplume, Piplup, spotlight!" Dawn called out, her pokemon coming out in a shower of pink flowers.

"Mime Jr, Arbok, show time!" Jessie released her pokemon in a cloud of white smoke.

"Piplup, Bubble Beam!" Dawn went for it as soon as the buzzer went off.

"Arbok, Poison Sting!" Jessie counterattacked, there was one spike for every bubble, and the accuracy and control were wonderful... or at least, it would have been if it had not been what Dawn was expecting. As soon as the Poison Sting clashed with the Bubble Beam, they exploded like fireworks. Which had Jessie's points lower by one-third. "You used Stun Spore hidden in the bubbles!" Jessie exclaimed in realization. "The poison and spores caused a chemical reaction, that ended in fireworks. Not bad!" Jessie laughed, before smirking at her challengingly. "But this is far from over!"

"I would not expect any less from you!" Dawn replied.

"Double Team!" Jessie ordered, and coordinated copies of Mime Jr and Arbok surrounding Vileplume and Piplup. Before Dawn could order their dissolution, Jessie continued her combination. "Dazzling Gleam!" All the copies of Mime Jr shone, creating a beautiful pink aurora around Dawn's pokemon, which lowered Dawn's points by one-fourth and blinded her pokemon. "Now Arbok! Iron Tail! Mime Jr, Charge Beam!" As soon as the blinding light disappeared, the copies of Arbok attacked in a pincer attack with electrically charged steel tails.