ENGLISH NAME	JAPANESE NAME	POKEMOPOLIS NAME	DODGINESS RATING	ANIMATION	STORY	TEAM ROCKET	MORAL LEARNT
585: Old Rivals, New Tricks!	591: Pokémon Kontesuto! Tatsunami Taikai!	Three, Four or Five?			Dawn goes for her 5th ribbon, Kenny for his fourth and Jesse for her third	Legit losers	It's good for your self-esteem to be at least as good at something as a 10 year old girl

Today opens with.... Pokémon Ping Pong!

Barry has Ash and Pikachu joining him in training alongside Empoleon, working on their Ping Pong skills for the upcoming Tournament. Ambipom seems pretty enthusiastic as well, and Kenny and his Prinplup come up to remind her that their Contest Battle is tomorrow and he expects to win his 4th Ribbon and catch up to her. Dawn seems oddly confident of getting her fifth ribbon though, and tells Barry that she intends to use Ambipom in BOTH rounds of the contest. Ash is also confident of winning the Ping Pong Tournament, but both he and Dawn should be careful, as Barry and Kenny must have been up to some training as well.



Inside the Pokémon Centre, Dawn is telling them that she has to be extra careful because this is for her fifth ribbon. Kenny is determined to win his fourth ribbon though, but they're not the only ones hoping for victory, so is Jesse!

Outside, "Jesselina" is dressed up while James and Meowth recall that she worked out a new contest strategy from the Gabite she saw at the last contest. Before each move it held still as a stone before WOOOSH! and making its moves. She thinks there is only one Pokémon with the cuteness to maintain that kind of poise - Mime Jr!

"Mime mime mime mime!" squeaks Mime Jr.
"That's what I said!" gushes Jesse happily.

Back outside the Pokémon Centre, everyone is training away as Mamoswine dozes off to the side with one eye on proceedings. Just then a shard of ice barrels down towards Prinplup out of nowhere, and it stands staring as it slowly, slowly, slowly gets inches closer and closer.... and then Ambipom saves the day!

Phew! If it hadn't been for Ambipom then that block of ice would have eventually reached Prinplup and done relatively little damage!

Dawn asks Mamoswine if it was responsible for the random ice shard, but it simply pretends to be asleep. So despite the fact she suspects it almost murdered somebody, she laughingly taunts it, saying that it wants to take part in the contest, then turning her back on it as it continues to pretend to sleep. It blows another ball of ice over her shoulder and she laughs that she has caught it out and she knows it wants to be in the contest. Piplup is less than tolerant of the dangerous attacks though, and bounces about angrily from foot to foot but Dawn calms it down, telling it that Mamoswine wants to take part in a contest and one day it will. Brock reminds Ash of how Ambipom used to act when it was Aipom, and he goes over and tells it that he is sure it will be great and they'll all be rooting for it. And hey, Mamoswine will have a part to play to!

Haha, they dressed it up like a girl!

Marion gets them all psyched up the next day for the Contest, while Barry is excited to be at his first real contest. Backstage each of the contestants are watching as the Sandalstraw Ribbon is shown and the judges are introduced, including the token Nurse Joy.

Out first is.... Jesselina! She calls out Mime Jr in a twirl of hearts while James, Meowth and Mime Jr. watch on from the rafters in trenchcoats and sunglasses, and then Jesse calls for Teeter Dance, and Mime Jr does.... nothing!

It simply sits in place for ages, the audience and judges looking a little confused as silence falls over the arena..... and then Mime Jr. finally unleashes Teeter Dance and sends waves of pink over everyone, causing everyone to come up off of their seats and dance - the crowd, the twerps, the Pokémon, Team Rocket, Marion, and the Judges! Everyone dances!

Backstage, Dawn and Kenny are impressed by Jesselina's change in style, and the judges are too, leaving those to follow her with big shoes to fill. One by one the trainers come out until finally it is Kenny's turn, bringing out Machoke with Focus Energy to make its rocky muscles twitch before a huge barbell three times Machoke's own weight comes down. Machoke grabs it and..... hauls it up one handed! It poses bravely showing off its muscles. Backstage, Dawn is impressed while an older contestant behind Jesselina looks horrified as he realises he isn't a major character and isn't going to be going anywhere soon. Dude probably doesn't even have a name!

Kenny leaps up onto the barbell and poses on it while Machoke continues to hold it up. His round over, he heads backstage where he meets Dawn and tells her that he saw the Wallace Cup and he intends to catch her and beat her after being behind her so far. She seems oddly touched that he saw her win the Wallace Cup but he reiterates again that he is here to BEAT her, and she tells him to keep watching as she heads out onto the stage.

Ambipom comes out with a combination of Double Team and Focus Punch, creating a snowfall of glitter from the musical note seal on the Pokéball. Next is Swift, Ambipom using the moves it picked up in Ping Pong Training to smack them about, wrap them up in a whirlwind and then use Double Hit to break up the whirlwind into a golden glow that snows down around a posing Dawn and Ambipom in perfect synch. And Mamoswine watches all this wide-eyed and surprised until Ash asks it what it thought and it promptly pretends to be asleep.

Dawn rejoins the twerps and suddenly doesn't look quite so confident, having to wait for the results of who made it to the next round. Kenny is chatting with Barry, and Dawn tells Ash and Brock that he has vowed (in a friendly way) to catch her, beat her and surpass her. He spots her looking and gives a friendly fist-pump, and then Marion announces the next round contestants will be..... Jesselina, Kenny, Dawn, and misc x5!

This week could finally be Misc X5's time to shine!

Dawn and Kenny cut some friendly threats at each other over who will get their fifth ribbon first, while Jesse is presented with flowers by Meowth, and James congratulates Mime Jr. on a job well done.

Marion announces the random pairings for the second round, and it looks like Kenny will make it through to the final without having to face Jesse or Dawn, who will need to fight each other after their first matches to see if they make it to the final..... unless of course Misc x5 takes the victory!

(snicker)

Surprisingly, the characters who actually have names seem to do pretty well, until it comes down to Jesse vs Dawn, Seviper vs Ambipom!

Both Jesse and Dawn are low on points and Ambipom manages to hit a quick final shot on Seviper just as time runs out, knocking Jesse's points down just enough to give Dawn the victory and knock Jesse out of her chance for a third ribbon. A big improvement from Jesse, but not enough. So it's Dawn vs Kenny as we all knew it must be, Ambipom vs Prinplup, with a wide eyed Mamoswine watching on.

Prinplup comes in with Drill Peck and Ambipom counters with Swift to take the advantage and surround Prinplup with Double Team. Prinplup uses Bubble Beam to deal with that though, but this gives Dawn an idea and she has Ambipom use Focus Punch on the Bubbles approaching it and knock them back at Prinplup. Barry is delighted, that was a Ping Pong move! Kenny has Prinplup use Metal Claw to knock the Bubble Beam back again, and they both hit the bubbles back and forth, over and over, and the Contest turns into a Ping Pong match!



Prinplup hits the Bubble Beam back again and follows it with a fresh one, and Ambipom uses Double Hit to smack all the bubbles back with its arm-udders. Prinplup leaps forward with Drill Peck and Ambipom comes at it with Focus Punch, and they crash together with an explosion that knocks both back, with Ambipom just getting the edge.

Kenny won't be denied though, and has Prinplup leap high and spiral down with Metal Claw at Ambipom. Dawn tells it to take the hit head on and use Double Hit, but Prinplup blocks Ambipom's arm-udders and forces them wide (oh my!) and leaves Ambipom wide open for a full force Drill Peck that crashes Ambipom into the ground and out cold.... Kenny wins! Kenny Wins!

Kenny and Prinplup hug in delight as Dawn congratulates Ambipom on getting beaten up by a fat penguin. The wide-eyed Mamoswine looks on.... and up in the rafters, a delighted Jesse is saying that it serves the twerpette right! But she's going to want a new Pokémon for her next contest, and Meowth tells her that it will be him; he will get the next ribbon for her or eat the whiskers off of his furry face!



Indeed!

Kenny is rewarded with his fourth ribbon, meaning he has caught up with Dawn. As Dawn stands with the other twerps applauds, she wonders if she got too wrapped up in the contest being for her fifth ribbon.... which is a nice way of saying that Kenny got lucky! Brock tells her that she will get the ribbon next time, and she tells her Pokémon that they'll do just that.

At the Pokémon Centre as the sun sets, Kenny is telling them that he is leaving already because he wants to catch some new Pokémon and do some more work. Dawn tells Kenny that she'll beat him next time and he claims it will be the other way, and then Kenny heads off with his fourth ribbon and the knowledge that he's just as good as that 10 year old girl.

Would that we could all say the name.

Barry points out to Dawn that Ambipom made really good use of its dual arm-udders during the Contest, and he thinks she should take part in the Pokémon Ping Pong Tournament that he has such a hard-on for. Dawn seems a little surprised at the idea, but Ambipom appears more than keen enough for both of them.

And thus, Gentle Dodgers, we have firmly established our next distraction before Ash gets after his next Gym Badge!



Hooray?

BEST QUOTES

"Mime mime mime mime!" "That's what I said!"

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