Pokémon

Johto…is…different. A lot different. I mean I thought Kanto was strange but I mean…you have no idea what it's like in Johto. Okay I know that sounds stupid since you and Brock and Misty already travelled through here but Johto is a world away from anything I've ever experienced before. Hoenn was…so normal…and so much like home. But Johto…there's so much diversity and tradition…and the level of the competition in the Contests is…in a whole other league. I guess since their newest to get into Contests after Kanto means that they have a lot of fresh blood but there are so many Coordinators who just…think outside the box…or aren't even thinking about the box I'm thinking of! The only consolation is that I'm holding my own against Solidad, Drew…and Harley…not that I really pay that much attention to him…he kind of sucks. With Drew it's kind of a friendly rivalry now…we get each other's styles…Harley just hates me and Solidad is…she's…kind of ethereal. Floating above us all, effortlessly. Not that they're the only competition! There's this girl Christina who is…a little crazy…and I guess you'd say rugged? Yeah that describes her…which is kinda hilarious considering her Pokémon…and then there's Juliet…she's the complete opposite. She wears this big sun hat, and sunglasses and is always so fashionable…that I feel kinda small next to her. Then there's Eric whose kinda sweet but when you face up against him in battle he's…real determined…and lastly…there's Darius. He's an idiot. Kinda like Harley actually. Well…except Darius isn't just a horrible person but he's a really harsh coordinator…I mean not like that guy Paul you met out in Sinnoh…not that bad…but…he really pushes his Pokémon hard. And he hates losing. When I won the Violet City Ribbon he tried to set a swarm of Beedrill on me! But I got past that…and I caught so many cool new Pokémon. Okay I'm rambling…hope things are cool in Unova, message me soon okay Ash?

May!

.

"Alright let's finish up with Spark," May yelled encouragingly, watching as her Flaaffy sprang into the air, pirouetting and then sending out three columns of electricity which danced around the grand before somersaulting down and landing poised in front of her smiling, May reached out and picked up her Pokémon hugging it to her and spinning around, "that was great!" She put her baby pink-coloured Pokémon down on the ground, contented with another winner practice – if she didn't win the Azalea Town Contest then the Judges were clearly blind. She was sure she wanted to use Flaaffy for the Appeal Round but for the Battle Round she wasn't sure. Flaaffy had won her her third ribbon at Violet City and May had been itching to use one of her latest Pokémon. She fumbled in her bag and threw out a Pokéball, her Nidorina landing in a crouch beside Flaaffy, grinning at May after a few moments of uncertainty. May could remember fondly catching Nidoran in Ilex Forest, it hadn't even been intentional.

She'd only been travelling with Wartortle and Flaaffy at the time and she had to admit she'd been a little…run down. She'd lost a second successive contest after qualifying for the Battle Round…going down against Christina whose Teddiursa had mastered a particularly potent Focus Punch. The end result though she hadn't wanted to relive it was that she had been knocked out with two minutes to spare. Then Nidoran had sprinted out, and the little grey Pokémon had looked up at her and May knew she had to catch it. She'd sent out Wartortle and realized that the Nidoran thought it was a lot more powerful than it actually was. A combination of a Hydro-Pump and the subsequent collision with a tree had knocked Nidoran out and May had caught her there and then.

Some trainers might have sent Nidoran out and used it in an Appeal Round as a sympathy ploy – a cute, seemingly innocent Pokémon to pull on the judges heart-strings. But that wasn't May's style. Instead she'd nurtured Nidoran until had evolved into Nidorina right after the Violet City contest. Simply having thought about it had made May's mind up, she led Nidorina and Flaaffy back towards one of the benches outside the Pokémon Center and rummaged through her bag before producing some food for them and putting it in bowls for them so that they could eat and then turned to face them.

"You know what guys, we're gonna win our Fourth Ribbon tomorrow – Flaaffy I want you to open up for us and then Nidorina I'm gonna take you to the Battle Round, then we're gonna wipe the floor with Christina or Darius or whoever else thinks they can take us on right?" They both nodded affirmatively, making encouraging, if slightly muffled noises as they munched on their food. May swung her head to the right and grinned ecstatically as she spotted a familiar Butterfree swoop down. It landed softly on her shoulder and May looked to it's owner as Drew crossed toward her. "Getting in some last minute training?" she quizzed.

"Not entering tomorrow," he grinned, "but I heard that a certain Coordinator from Petalburg City was so I thought I'd come watch, besides I wanted to see how your Nidoran…or Nidorina was doing," May smiled, she'd been travelling with Drew when she caught Nidorina. Of course her Nidorina hadn't been alone, it had been travelling with a male, which Drew had caught. Drew tossed out a Pokéball and a Nidorino landed softly just beyond them, sweeping it's head back in the sunlight before crossing excitedly toward Nidorina, Flaaffy and Butterfree. May and Drew left the Pokémon to converse amongst themselves – somehow their Pokémon had all bonded really closely together…May wasn't even sure how it had happened but they were attuned to one another.

"So are you ready for tomorrow – I'm guessing you were doing some training?" Drew enquired.

May nodded, "Sure was, Flaaffy is gonna open for me and then I'm taking Nidorina into the battle round…we've been working on some pretty spectacular moves right Nidorina?" The Pokémon lifted its turquoise-coloured head and bobbed it yipping excitedly. "I have a real good feeling about this, and not just because I found out Harley came runner up in the Alto Mare Contest!"

"I'm not surprised…his Pokémon are too…intimidating to win that many points from the judges," Drew grinned, "although Solidad said when she went up against you in Cherrygrove City you had a Gengar May? I didn't think you like Ghost Types."

"Neither did I," May laughed as she tossed out her Gengar's Pokéball, letting it circle around their heads before it landed and wrapped her in a crushing hug, "Drew meet my Gengar, yeah Solidad didn't know what hit her Slowpoke when I sent out Gengar…in fact it's the only type I've ever seen her lose her composure."

"How come you aren't using Gengar in the Contest?" Drew asked, looking at Gengar who grinned and then crossed to join the other four Pokémon.

"I might have won the Cherrygrove Ribbon but I need to work on my relationship with Gengar…our bond just needs a little cementing that's all," May said, unsure whether she was reassuring herself or Drew, she drew out Gengar's Pokéball and withdrew it, following by withdrawing Flaaffy and Nidorina, "and I'm going to win," she said turning with a renewed fortitude in her eye to face Drew, "and nobody can stop me."

.

"Welcome to the Azalea Town Pokémon Contest," Adrian – the MC called out, "I've got a great feeling about today's contest – and I know that our judges can't wait to see what our coordinators have in store for them! Give them a big hand folks." Drew gave a mild applause as the familiar panel of Mr Contesta, a Nurse Joy and Mr Sukizo strolled out to the desk, waved and then took their seats. Adrian cast his auburn-coloured head skyward toward the audience; assembled in the amphitheatre and then grinned…sometimes Drew was left wondering how Adrian could smile so much without getting into any pain. "Alright with that formality over with let's get on with the Contest – here's our first Coordinator, Juliet from Goldenrod City!"

Drew watched the door at the rear of the amphitheatre as it opened and a girl sprinted out. She was wearing a pair of kitten heels and a short, summery, cerulean-coloured dress. She cast back her fantastic mane of brunette hair, crowned by an enormous sun hat and then tossed out a Pokéball in silence. The seal released a flurry of lights that sparkled away and in the centre a Beedrill appeared, flexing its wings rapidly before jerking its pincers outward and firing off a Poison sting, sending out a barrage of amethyst-tinged stings. The stings collided with the lights creating what resembled a fire-works display as bright shards tumbled to the ground around Beedrill.

"And Juliet makes her first bid for the Judges points with a Poison sting combined with the initial seal," Adrian commented, clearly as deeply consumed as the audience where with Juliet's focused bid. Drew watched and spotted her jerk her head as Beedrill sprang up and then darted to the ground in what Drew at first assumed was a simple Aerial Ace, then he spotted the development of the move. Beedrill's pincers began to glow a magenta colour as it swept down low over the arena, it touched it's pincers together and then somersaulted back on it's self, sending shimmering magenta waves radiating through the arena. Juliet stepped forward onto the field and Beedrill drifted back in a completely controlled way to her shoulder. The audience were quiet a moment and then burst into a standing ovation, Juliet bowed humbly before awaiting the judges scores.

Drew watched them and nodded as she scored almost full marks and then followed her as she retreated. "Well wasn't that a way to start our Contest, our next Coordinator is Christina from Ecruteak City!"

This girl was a world away from the elegance of Juliet. She had a cropped, blonde, boyish hair-styling and complemented it with camo-mini shorts a tee-shirt and a mahogany waist-coat lazily thrown on over the t-shirt. She was grinning but in a mischievous way as she sprang into the air, pirouetting and hurling out a Pokéball. It opened and released a spinning blur as a silhouette sent a column of light – Solar Beam Drew recognized after a few moments, shooting toward the ceiling of the amphitheatre. Not contented with that, as it dropped down it increased the velocity of the spin and sent first a trial of petals blazing into the sky, followed by a flurry of leaves. The Pokémon – a Vileplume, Drew realized as its telltale scarlet flower expanded atop of its head, maintaining with great effort the combined move. It then paused and finally sent a blinding Energy Ball flying into the rafters, it collided with the solar beam and sent petals and leaves floating out across the stadium. "Good job!" he heard Christina yell out as again the crowd rose in standing ovation though Drew himself felt only taken in enough to clap enthusiastically.

"Another almost perfect score for Christina there," Adrian enthused, "flying the flag for the girls here's May, all the way from Petalburg City in the Hoenn Region – give her a big hand guys." Adrian in suitably flamboyant style span off the stage. He hovered beside the judging panel awaiting her entrance. The judges looked up in unison as May strolled out and Drew focused on her. She seemed confident as she strolled out in a crop-top and harem pants, paired with a new pair of sandals. Clearly she'd spent time on ensuring she looked the part. Not the Drew thought she needed the addition but if it helped her confidence for the contest then that was all that really mattered.

"Time to shine – Flaaffy let's do this," May hurled her Pokéball toward the centre of the performance stage as Flaaffy somersaulted out of the ball, landing perfectly poised on the floor as the seal – a set of fire-works sparkled away into nothingness, "let's start this off with rain-dance." Flaaffy moved obediently, spinning on its paws around the room, waving its arms as though trying to use assist or metronome but instead of producing a random move forming a large cloud within the amphitheatre.

Where are you going with this May? It's too risky.

"An unusual start from our Coordinator here, where will she go from here?" Adrian asked rhetorically as at that point the cloud broke and rain began pouring.

"Flaaffy use Thundershock," May called out confidently and Flaaffy nodded.

"Flaaffy," it cried, glowing like a golden statue as a bolt of lightning struck out into the rainstorm above, it repeated the move four more times, "Flaaffy."

"And now there's a brooding thunder storm over the contest stage," Adrian called out, "this could be risky!"

May bit her lip – this performance had to pay off, just a little longer, "Flaaffy jump up!" the Pokémon obeyed and at that point a bolt of electricity struck down from the cloud, striking Flaaffy. May heard Adrian howl but ignored it, focusing upon Flaaffy. "Alright Flaaffy now use Discharge!"

She heard Flaaffy growl as it absorbed the electricity and then sent it dancing out in separate bolts toward the edge of the stage, "Finish it with Spark!" Flaaffy leapt up into the sky once more, catching a second bolt of lightning striking down from the cloud and then spun round, landing on the ground in crouch and sending out the electricity like an Octillery, stretching out its tentacles. May bowed and Flaaffy curtsied.

Drew looked around him as the crowd rose in unanimous applause, far louder than the two preceding Coordinators had received. "A dazzling display from May," Adrian called out, "but the question on everyone's lips – did the judges love it?"

"Remarkable!" praised Mr Sukizo from his seat.

"A wonderful and electrifying performance." Concurred Nurse Joy.

May looked to Mr Contesta for the final word on it, her fingers crossed that his words might seal a perfect score, "This is exactly what Contests should be about and the standard we expect in Johto – an innovative use of moves to fit the environment to perfectly suit your Pokémon type, you should be very proud May!"

May closed her eyes and then at the roar from the crowd opened them again as she surveyed the scores.

"A perfect thirty points," Adrian cried out, "we'll definitely be seeing May in the Battle Round!"

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So this is my first Pokéfic and I'm a little rusty but it isn't normally the stuff I write about, and obviously this is completely AU. It's set after the Wallace Cup episodes and yeah there are some AU Pokémon but I'd hope that you could imagine them complementing May's Team. I'm not sure about the scoring system cause I'm not sure we ever saw that in the anime but obviously pointers there would be really helpful and generally any help would be appreciated in improving this fic cause I actually really enjoyed writing it. Reviews welcome.