Ash the Dragon Specialist

Lily of the Valley Conference - Part I

"Mom!" Ash threw himself into Delia's arms. He had missed her so much and was so happy to see her again. He was especially delighted that she could make it. Not to mention, Drayden-sensei and Porfessor Oak were there too! Though, he was quite sad that Cilan could not have made it, but understood that his gym was new and he could leave his brothers to deal with it on his own. Cilan did promise, however, to watch every single one of his battles on the T.V.

"Ashy!" Delia beamed at her son and kissed him on the forehead. "Oh, Ele, thank you for taking such good care of our boy," she proceeded to give pats to a very happy Altaria, before wrapping her arms around Celeste. "Cel, you did such a great job during the Sinnoh Grand Festival! Losing against the one who ended up winning the Ribbon Cup is nothing to scoff at!"

"I am so proud of you. You've made Opelucid Academy proud and had your Coordinator Porfessor in tears after your battle against Nando." Drayden-sensei agreed with Delia and huggs Celeste. Drayden-sensei had Celeste in tears, sobbing on his chest. After all, Drayden-sensei might have been Ash's mentor, but he had been her Dean and every student wanted to make him proud.

Meanwhile, Professor Oak was greeting Ash. "Ash, my boy, how are you feeling? Ready?"

"As ready as I'll be," Ash chuckled. "I am nervous but that is normal."

"That it is, have I ever told you how proud I am of you? Because I am," Professor Oak's expression was warm as he spoke, making Ash and Nephele feel elated. "I still remember the little boy and small Swablu that used to follow me around the Lab. Now they are all grown-up, both you and Gary are. Did you know that Gary had entered the Indigo Plateau Conference and made it up to the Top 32?"

Ash smirked at that, Top 32 was not bad for a rookie, but Ash knew he will make it further than that. He will show Gary and prove to anyone that ever doubted or belited him back in Pallet Town how wrong they've been. With that in mind, the qualifying rounds came and went rapidly, Ash breezing right through them. When the Top 32 came around, Ash smirked at who he had been paired up with.

Nando.

"I will avange you!" Ash jokingly proclaimed in the training grounds, a couple of hours before his match.

"You better do!" Celeste replied, not joking at all. "I might have had fun and all, but I still lost to him! By only a couple of points! Do you know how frustraiting that is?!" Ash wisely shook his head, he knew better than to get on her bad side when she got like this. "Very! It was fucking frustraiting! So, crush him for me and make it to the Top 16!"

Ash laughed. "I will. You know, Nando approached me and told me that the match-up must have been fate. He thanked me for inspiring him to take on the Sinnoh League in the first place and wished me luck."

"That's Nando for you," Celeste shook her head fondly. "But we need to focus on his pokemon, not how good of a person he is! Nando tends to use Bug and Grass-type pokemon, so Fire and Flying pokemon would be effective. Bt keep in mind, that Nando had also used Lopunny, a Normal-type, in the Sinnoh Grand Festival. So, who knows what kind of Ace he has under his sleeve."

"Unlike someone like me who is known to specialize in one type of pokemon," Ash sighed, before taking out his Pokedex. "Let's see what we are working with."

Pokemon: Altaria (Nephele).

Gender: Female.

Ability: Natural Cure.

Type: Dragon/Flying.

Move set: Peck, Astonish, Sing, Fury Attack, Disarming Voice, Refresh, Perish Song, Safeguard, Take Down, Mirror Move, Dragon Breath, Dragon Dance, Aerial Ace, Double Team, Dragon Claw, Dragon Pulse, Sky Attack, Cotton Guard, Sunny Day, Solar Beam, Flamethrower, Dazzling Gleam, Mist, Ice Beam, Moonblast, Outrage, Sleep Talk, Protect, Substitute, Draco Meteor, Play Rough, Fire Blast, Bulldoze, Will-O-Wisp, and Tera Blast.