It was almost time. It was almost over. They were coming.

"Come to the mount-ain, mount-ain, mount-ain, come to the mount-ain, mountain top!"

It thought It was crazy. Hell (isthisit? isthisall? isthishell?), It KNEW It was crazy.

But soon It was going to go home (home home home whycan'tIremember)

"Al-most, al-most, ally-ally- oxen free!"

All It had to do was wait.

. . .

Roxanne snapped her bubblegum. It was a beautiful sunshiny-sweet day in the neighborhood. And seeing as they were in Veilstone, that was pretty freakin' sweet!

She smiled at her Lucario. "Skidmore, my sweet! Cannest thou not feel the glory that will..uh…that will…uhhh…."

"The glory that will be rising triumphantly from the chaos of a mighty battle, to prostrate itself before thy beauty?"

Roxanne gave a giggle-snort. "Righey-O, Skidmore-sweetie! I knew I kept you around for a reason!"

Skidmore rolled his eyes. "I thought that you kept me around because you had no idea how to take care of yourself."

"Well-THAT'S NOT THE POINT!" Roxanne blustered.

The tone of Skidmore's reply may or may not have been sarcasm. Except it was Skidmore, so it totally was. "As you say, Roxanne. As you say."

Skidmore was in more of a funk than usual. He and his Roxanne had been perfectly happy to bum around Sinnoh, all on their own. He was strong enough to take good care of both Roxanne and himself, thank you very much! But then they had the misfortune to wander into Jubilife City and see a flyer for a "Tag-Team Race of the Ages!". And then Roxanne, with an attention span more fit for a six year old than a sixteen year old, had been unable to talk of anything but it. It had taken a week, but he had caved.

So now they were milling around the courtyard in front of the Department Store with about a hundred other Trainers, all waiting to find out who they were going to be stuck with for the duration of the race.

It was going to be a long day.

. . .

In the end, it was an hour late that the MC finally got everything set up. During that time, the crowd had grown to 250 people, and Roxanne had managed to get into battles with 18 of them. Skidmore had won all 18, but it was still rather tiring to battle again and again, and again. But that was the price, he reflected, of being the only Pokemon on a team.

Roxanne was bouncing up and down. "Skid! Skid! That girl over there, with the Steelix and the Skarmory! Let's battle her next, come on!"

"IF ALL CONTESTANTS COULD PLEASE CEASE ALL BATTLES AND AWAIT FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS! THANK YOU!"

"Awww…."

The MC had a manic grin on her face, and the slight tinge of madness in her gaze was a testament of how long she had stayed up suffering through meetings running only on espresso coffee to get the race up and running, and was now only caring about the fact that the whole darn event was almost over. "NOW! ALL OF OUR LOVELY CONTESTENTS, PLEASE LOOK DOWN AT YOUR TICKET, AND NOTE THE POKEMON!"

Roxanne dutifully looked: A Butterfree.

"YOUR PARTNER WILL HAVE THE SAME POKEMON ON THEIR TICKET! PLEASE FIND YOUR PARTNER!"

Roxanne began to swing around like a mad Tauros, waving her ticket around like a banner, and narrowly avoiding slapping the milling contestants all around her. "BUTTERFREE! BUTTERFREE!". Skidmore slapped himself in the face with his paw, and swore to never let Roxanne talk him into anything. Ever again.

"You're the girl with the Butterfree ticket?"

Roxanne whirled around, beaming, ready to meet her partner, who would surely be tall, handsome, and very nice. "Yes! And you are? I'm Roxanne!"

Her partner smiled. "My name is Terrance, Terrance Vinson. It's a pleasure to meet you, Roxanne. Is that your Lucario?"

Roxanne grinned. "Yeah! What kind of Pokemon do you have? Are they strong? Cute? Nice? Can they fly?"

Terrance gave a slightly bemused grin in response. "I have a Teddurusa named Amberly and a Smoochum named Juliette."

"So they can't fly?"

Terrance's grin was beginning to look rather baffled, rather than bemused. "No."

Roxanne shrugged. "Oh well. I'm sure that we'll win anyway! Let's GO! C'mon Skid!"

. . .

Roxanne thought that she had done rather well in the race partners department, all things considered. Terrance seemed like a good sort of guy to hang around with, and he WAS awfully cute…She'd certainly done better than the Steelix-Skarmory girl, who was already being handcuffed to an angry looking guy with dyed blonde hair and a Beheeyem. Wait…Handcuffed?

"-AND THE HANDCUFFS WILL ONLY BE REMOVED AT THE END OF THE RACE BY A MEMBER OF THE STAFF!"

Roxanne turned wildly around, as she hastily was cuffed to Terrance by a haggard looking woman. She grabbed the woman before she could run, and screeched at a note only normally reached by Zubat "CUFFED? THE FLYER DIDN'T SAY ANYTHING ABOUT THIS, NOTHING!"

The staff woman gave a frantic shake of her head. "Miss, you must not have read it carefully enough, the cuff rule is clearly stated under-"

Terrance took on a placating tone as he was cuffed without resisting. "Roxanne, I assure you, I'm not going to try anything untoward to you while we're wearing these."

Roxanne ignored him, and tightened her grip on the panicked looking staff woman, who clearly wished that she had never heard of a tag team race with a cuffing rule. "I READ THAT FLYER VERY-VERY CLEARLY AND NOWHERE ON IT WAS THERE ANY MENTION OF A 'CUFFING RULE! IT SAID NOTHING ABOUT THAT, NOTHING!

"Yes it did. And I mentioned it to you several times when I was attempting to talk you out of it, remember?"

Roxanne froze. "Wha?"

"The flyer said: "All contestants must consent to wearing handcuffs for the duration of the tag team race. The cuffs will be removed only after both contestants cross the finish line."

Roxanne loosed her grip, and the beleaguered staff woman dove into the crush of people and vanished. "….Oh. Oops."

Terrance playfully gave the cuffs a tug while he released his Teddurusa and settled him on his shoulders to ride piggy-back style. "Cheer up, Roxanne! This is going to be fun!"

Roxanne sighed. "I guess…But Skidmore, you have to tell me these things! Who knows what kind of mess I could get into the next time!"

"Of course, Roxanne. Next time I will make myself perfectly clear."

Roxanne gave a madcap grin, and tugged back on the cuffs. "Well, who knows, this could be really fun! Terrance, let's beat the crap out of all of these people!"

Terrance gave a grin in return, and his Teddurusa pumped a paw into the air. "I look forward to it, Roxanne!"

Cheerful again, Roxanne, Skidmore, Terrance and Amberly wiggled their way through the crowd to the starting line.

The MC took a breath, hoisted up the megaphone, and made a fervent wish for ten hours of sleep on something other than a chair. "ON YOUR MARKS! GET SET! GO!"

. . .