Contest time!
Finally, the grand stage!
Liam had worked hard and long to get to this point, but it was worth the pain. While he had won several contests with Hrimnir, his Kyurem, he just had to try out something new he had seen on the streets of Castelia City: Capoeira! A fighting style which was very close to dancing in its modern form, almost no contact during the fight, but well executed kicks missed the other only by a hair's breadth. His own fighting style was a lot more brutal and direct, relying on overpowering his opponents and taking them out as quickly as possible with jabs to the eyes, nose and throat and knees into the groin, kidneys or stomach. He was flexible and fast enough to perform the Capoeira moves; he just needed to learn to do so, at least for a choreographed performance.
His training to use Capoeira in a contest begun with finding the right partner, his Kyurem most certainly lacked the physical ideal for this kind of style, it was too huge and too bulky, amongst other things. After searching the Pokédex for a good partner he came up with Blaziken, a Fire/Fighting type with the right body shape and even size, on average it was as tall as he was; perfect. Obtaining one wasn't much of a problem either, with the resources of the Team Plasma-research division he soon found a Pokémon he could trade on the GTS for a newly hatched Torchic from a certified breeder.
Now that he had the perfect partner, he could start his training in earnest. Finding a school was a matter of hours, joining it with his flexibility and awareness helped to get lessons quickly, too. He spent a half year in the school, learning the basics, then the more advanced moves, all the time working on a choreography he could use on a contest. Torchic was watching every training session to learn as much as its trainer. The rest of his spare time was spent with training Torchic to evolve it to Combusken. From that point he and Combusken worked together during the training sessions to get a feel for each other.
They also performed at several contests to get the permits and Ribbons required for the final showdown in the Central Park of Castelia City, a huge event!
Finally the big day was there. Combusken had evolved the other week and together it and Liam had trained almost every hour to get their moves right. As a special bonus for this event Liam had obtained a Blazikenite and a Mega Ring for the climax of their show. Selling this obsession to his superiors took a lot of talking and explaining, but in the end it was all to bring out the full potential of the Blaziken, just not exactly in a battle. Colress bought the idea wholehearted, knowing Liam had and was still performing very well with his research on Kyurem. Thus, the audience contained Colress, the sage Zinzolin and a few more of his colleagues, all but the first in disguises, including Liam.
Thanks to his reputation in the Contests, his starting time was in the evening, the last performance, just like he wanted and needed it. He and Blaziken had watched the other competitors closely, eager to see what they had to offer, and it was a show worthy of the final day! Flames in different colors had danced across the stage: one trainer had come with a black Charizard and performed extremely well. Their show had also included music, but the Pokémon had done most of the work.
Then it was Liam's turn.
The lights on stage turned off, leaving only the diffuse illumination from the city brighten the park. The audience was hyped thanks to the other performances and some, who had seen Liam and Blaziken before, knew they were up for something big.
They entered to the sound of low wind blowing across the black stage. Blaziken's steps were each lit by flames from its feet, while Liam's shoes mimicked this with LEDs.
Brief spot lights cast stark shadows around them, Liam's outfit loosely resembling the look of his Pokémon, black and red, wide cut pants, a red vest and black wrappings around the forearms, the wrappings included more LEDs.
As they reached the center of the oval stage, light electronic music underscored with violins started their performance. Both squatted down, moving easily around each other in a circle as if gauging the stance and abilities of the other. As the music turned up some more, Blaziken threw a Roundhouse kick which Liam just barely dodged. The return was a low sweep prompting the Pokémon to roll over the scything leg with a one handed handspring. Another quick round of gauging followed, just to turn into an almost balletic combination of low sweeps, handsprings and high kicks, each so narrowly missing the seemingly intended target, that the audience was left breathless.
Every now and then they slowed down, feeling the other and the music, letting the energy of both flow through their veins.
Then the music erupted into a fulminant crescendo, the climax was near. The stage light flickered, giving their performance an almost stop-motion like quality, enhancing their speed even further. "Now," Liam whispered after dodging a scything kick that would have crushed his ribcage and countering it with a sweep flowing into a spin which ended by bending his torso down and throwing an overhead kick which would connect his heel with the shoulder of Blaziken, if it hadn't already moved to the side for a sweep of its own.
Nodding, Blaziken performed a blisteringly fast combination of low and high Roundhouse kicks to create a flame vortex around its body. Liam had opened the distance with back handsprings, the last one without his hands touching the ground, so he could touch the Mega Ring around his wrist mid-air to add a surprise as no one, but his colleagues knew what would happen.
Out of the flame vortex jumped Mega Blaziken like a meteor ready to strike Liam in the chest with its knee. The counter was a very low dodge and the music and choreography turned to eleven!
The dancing battle was getting more intense, the stage lights were completely off again and only the fully illuminated limps of the two performers could be seen. Kicks were dodged; punches redirected, a continuous dance of action and reaction, attack and counter, so fast that the lights were leaving afterimages on the eyes and cameras.
The last move came with their shins hitting each other high in the air as both performed a spinning kick aimed to the head of a standing opponent.
Then the music ended, the flames on Blaziken and Liam's LEDs vanished and the performance was over.
Bright white flashlights lit up, bathing trainer and Pokémon in clear light for the first time since their show had started. This was the cue the audience had waited for, it exploded in standing ovations. They had seen something they wouldn't forget, the dynamics were fast, perfectly timed and unique, just the perfect thing to end the contest with!