Type: Fighting
Characters: Maylene, Bruno, and Brawly
Verse: Game - HG/SS
Genre: Well it is supposed to be Humor, but I am not very good at it you see.
Full Summary: Even at an eating contest, Maylene finds herself biting off more than she can chew.
Additional: Charles. The most original name ever. Oh, and I own nothing. Except Charles.

Pentatonic Scale

Once the infinite bowls of piping hot rice were placed at the bar in front of her, Maylene knew right then and there – she was in Heaven.

Using all of her willpower to wait until the referee blew his whistle, her glowing eyes rolled over every fine detail of the feast. White rice, egg, and seasoning, all mixed together perfectly in individual little bowls. A substance that always gives the false impression of being a humbling small meal – but has the ability to fill up a starving man with a single bowl. Truly, a fitting material to use for such an eating contest, she thought giddily. Maylene rubbed her hands over her stomach in a futile attempt to calm it down as she watched the steam wisp up from the rice and moisture filled her gums.

"And…begin!"

With lightning-fast reflexes that could only come from a person trained in the arts of fighting, Maylene shot out her hand to grasp a pair of chopsticks while using her other hand to scoop up her first bowl and thrust the edge to the tip of her mouth, shoveling mouthfuls of rice into her gaping gullet. Some stray grains fell out of the side of her mouth, but she didn't have time to think about them. After downing her first bowl in less than fifteen seconds, she grabbed the available iced glass of water and took a few swigs, forcing any stuck clumps down her throat. When she finished, the small girl gripped on a second bowl and began repeating her previous steps. Maylene barely made any noise as she devoured the food like a ravaged hyena.

"Over here we have Maylene, the tiny girl from Sinnoh, just shoving down that rice as if it's an afternoon snack! Makes you wonder if all Sinnoh-natives eat like this on a regular basis, if a little kid like her can do this no problem, right?" the announcer spoke into his microphone as he sat back in his chair at the front of the restaurant, chuckling to himself at the strange sight. Then he turned his head to the other spectators, "And over at the other side, we've got Charles, he was the third runner-up last year, let's see how he fares this yea – OH, looks like he couldn't contain it all! Ew, that's going to leave a stain…"

Amateur, Maylene rolled her eyes and grinned against the edge of the bowl as she continued gulping down the meal – a few minutes had passed and she was already at her twelfth bowl. She watched the man called Charles get up out of the corner of her eye before making his way over to the exit behind her.

As she grabbed over to the last currently available bowl (she may just have to steal someone else's rice if they weren't quick enough) and raised it up to her lips, a sudden force wacked against the back of her head and her face mashed itself into the once-perfectly molded bowl of rice, leaving a messy impression of her nose and lips. Out of shock, the cup dropped out of her hands and a screaming crash met everyone's ears a moment later. Almost immediately the area grew quiet as fellow contestants ceased their competitive eating to crane their necks over and see what caused the broken glass.

The small girl only sat there, grains of rice sticking in her nose and on her cheeks, her eyebrows twitching in confusion and anger…What the hell just happened? Her last available bowl was now just a bunch of rice mixed with broken shards on the floor…and the cook had yet to come out and give her a whole new tray of food. This would cost her at least two minutes or more of time. With that much time wasted, she could potentially be placed in second – or third – place before the cook gave her a refill! And then Maylene would actually have to pay – pay! – for her food! Oh, whoever just cost her win is so about to regret it. Redness rising in her face, she whipped her head around, pink hair brushing furiously against the perpetrator's elbow.

"What was that for?" she shouted at the strange man standing behind her.

Tulip tinted eyes met the broad backside of a shirtless man with raven hair pulled back into a loose ponytail. As she shouted to him again ("Hey, I'm talking to you!"), the man slowly turned around and looked at her with tightly squinted eyes and relaxed eyebrows.

"Sorry about that…I tripped," his deep voice casually apologized.

Maylene continued glaring at him, stunned.

Then, "What? That's all? Listen here, you just cost me my win, you clumsy caveman!"

The man's expression did not change. "I said I was sorry, and that is the truth. Excuse me," he turned his head back around for a second before shuffling his feet, and began making his way toward the restaurant entrance. The girl was about to stand up in her seat and continue shouting at him, however one of the cooks suddenly appeared before her with a full tray of rice bowls neatly placed in his hands. Maylene stopped for a second to think, and then concluded that if she put a step on it she could still have a chance of winning, and grabbed the nearest bowl before resuming her eat-a-thon. As she scooped the mix of egg and seasoning into her gullet, the strange almost-competition-ruiner stayed clear in the back of her mind.

…

"Well I don't know about you guys, but I think it's pretty clear who the winner is," the announcer's voice resonated through the restaurant after thirty minutes of competitive eating. Making his way over to the center of the bar and meandering around the towers of bowls, he took the hand of the little girl and raised it up above her head. "Maylene of Sinnoh, everybody! As the victor, she will have her massive bill paid for on the house, as well as –"

"Hey," Maylene wriggled her arm out of the announcers hand and gave an intent glare to the man, before sharply whispering, "Where'd that caveman go."

The man looked at her quizzically, before lowering the microphone from his mouth. "I'm sorry?"

"The guy! The guy that messed me up and nearly made me lose!" she hissed through her teeth. "After he left, where did he go?"

The announcer continued giving her a puzzled look. "I…I think he turned to the right after leaving the building…maybe over to the fountain," he admitted. "But he's gone now, so don't you want your prize?" he asked, holding up a fine-sized cheque with a generously large number printed on it.

"I'll come back for it after I finish kicking his ass!" Maylene roared to the entire restaurant before leaping up from her seat and dashing out through the glass doors, leaving a small comical puff of dust in her wake.

The poor announcer was left standing alone in the center of the room, microphone and cheque gripped neatly in his hands. "W-well," he raised the amplifier up to his mouth after a stiff moment, "Looks like our winner has…some sort of errand to do," the area became filled with sniggers, for everyone clearly heard what her so-called 'errand' was, "But she says she'll be back, so I'll just go ahead and present the second and third-place winners with their prizes."

.o.

Maylene shot out of the building like a dart and twisted her way to the right, her destination being the Celadon fountain she remembered passing on the way to the eat-a-thon. As she raced down the streets, forcing unaware citizens to dodge out of her path of destruction, a flash of white emanated from her pokéball belt and her lucario materialized out of thin air, running beside of her.

The fighting trainer looked over to her pokémon, sweat beading on her forehead, "What're you doing?" she asked, bemused.

The lucario merely glanced to her and gave a grunt.

"This isn't a pokémon battle, here, it's something between humans. Just going to go kick that guy's ass," she nonchalantly declared as the outer edge of the marble fountain came into view. The lucario gave another grunt in response, but refused to go back into its ball, non-verbally vowing to protect her if anything went wrong. Maylene gave a grin upon catching a glimpse of the familiar broad back and pulled-back raven mane, and began cracking her knuckles in anticipation.

"Hey, you!" the girl called out before turning her run into a lightning sprint. Maylene watched the man slowly turn around with the same non-expressive face as she leapt into the air, her arms outstretched and her feet clamped together, turning herself into a missile aiming right for the man's collarbone.

With a rapid reflex that escaped even the eyes of Maylene, the man spun all the way around on his feet and held up his arms over his face in a cross position. As her pointed feet collided with his forearms, the man's stature slid back a few inches as he whipped out one of his hands and seized one of the girl's ankles tightly in his closed fist. Maylene had absolutely no time to react as her opponent spun around and forcefully flung her back in the direction she came from; colliding into her lucario's outstretched arms and giving a big "Oof!" from having the wind momentarily knocked out of her.

The bulky opponent remained in his position, arms held up at chest length waiting for the girl's responding attack. Instead, Maylene leaned against her pokémon as she caught her breath back, her hand over her heart.

After a few moments of heavy breathing, she found her bearings again. "Hey!" she suddenly straightened her spine up and whipped her hand out, finger pointing accusingly to the man's face. "So tell me, what kind of a low-life hits a girl?" she demanded, pointing her bandaged nose up in the air out of spite.

The indicted man only raised an eyebrow. "You were the one who attacked me," he said calmly.

Maylene's finger slumped pathetically. "…Er," a light blush formed over her cheeks. "Th-that's not the point! You were the one who nearly made me lose back there at the eat-a-thon in the first place!"

The man gave a sigh through his nose and crossed his arms over his chest. "So you're saying I should have let you break my neck just now?"

Before Maylene had a chance to retort, another young man ran in from the corner of her eye, waving his arm frantically.

"Bruno, what the hell's going on here?" the blue-haired man called as he neared his companion, casting a sideways glance over to the little girl. "I was trying to get us some Protein Shakes but then I heard some voice yelling at you…" he drifted off as he continued looking over to Maylene. Then, "Hey, you're the girl from the restaurant!" he shouted as he pointed toward her.

Maylene crossed her arms indignantly. "That's right," she growled, "I was just getting revenge on your friend here, got a problem with that?"

The newcomer maintained his stare over to the girl…before giving a snort and covering his head with his palm. "Are you kidding me?" he asked in between guffaws.

The light blush increased its intensity across her face. "Wh-what's so funny?" Maylene demanded, uncrossing her arms and holding them out in fists. Proclaiming her intent of a fight wasn't exactly something she wanted to have laughed at, and her fists open and closed heatedly at her sides. "Don't underestimate me just 'cause I'm a little girl!" she hissed.

The man continued to laugh. "No, dude, you made Bruno nearly slip over himself just now, I'm definitely not doubting you or anything," he waved his hand in front of himself as the companion named Bruno cast a glance toward him, obviously still coming to terms with the fact that he had indeed almost stumbled, "But little missy, you're getting your priorities a little messed up here."

Maylene raised her eyebrow. "And just what does that mean?"

"Brawly," the burly man gave a sigh as he turned his squinted eyes over to the opposite direction. "Leave it. We need to get going, or we'll miss the Seagallop ferry." He didn't wait for the companion to respond before pivoting on his feet and walking away.

"Hey, wait a minute," the man named Brawly extended his hand toward Bruno's back, but the muscled man ignored him and continued increasing the distance. "Jeez," he ran a hair through his cerulean hair before looking down to the girl standing before him.

Maylene crossed her arms again, a frown implanted firmly in her cheeks.

"Listen," Brawly began, "Bruno wasn't trying to thwart you or anything back there at the restaurant."

"Pff," the girl scoffed, shifting her weight from one foot to the other, "That's believable. Not. You're telling me that the caveman honest-to-God tripped right behind my seat, and instead of catching himself on his own he decided to use my head as an elbow cushion?" she rolled her eyes, and her lucario made a slight chuckle.

Brawly gave a sigh. "No, that's not what I'm saying," he once again drew a palm to his forehead, "Bruno was actually trying to help you."

Maylene blinked. Then her eyebrow cocked. She could stand there and shout "What?" but it was obvious the man had a story, so she didn't say anything, instead waiting for the man to continue his explanation.

Brawly lowered his hand and looked at her with a serious face. "Do you remember any of the other contestants there?"

"…Er," she tilted her head at the random question before thinking about it. "I…guess I remember a few."

"Well, Bruno and I were there at the contest ourselves, watching everyone stuff themselves silly – well, mostly watching you, since you were rather an unusual sight after all," he added with a laugh. "But after the first few minutes of the contest, this one dude sat up and puked all over himself, it was crazy how fast it took him to regurgitate everything…"

"And over at the other side, we've got Charles, he was the third runner-up last year, let's see how he fares this yea – OH, looks like he couldn't contain it all! Ew, that's going to leave a stain…" the memory of the announcers flamboyant words flew back into Maylene's head as her eyes widened slightly.

"Yeah…yeah, I do remember that guy," she admitted, "but I still don't really understand where you're going with this."

"Then you'll just have to keep listening to me, won't you?" Brawly gave a playful smile. "Anyway, Bruno and I saw the dude upchuck everywhere, and a couple of people came and helped him clean up before telling him that he was disqualified from the eat-a-thon."

"Yeah, and then he left after that," Maylene said, remembering the sight of the man making his way over to the exit behind her.

The blue-haired man shook his head disdainfully. "No, it might have looked that way to you, but as soon as the guy was right behind you, he slid his foot under your seat and looked as if he was really close to knocking the chair out from under you."

…

"What?" the girl blurted out.

"Out of extreme jealousy that a small chick was beating him, is what I'm guessing," the man shrugged, "But I swear it's the truth, we both saw it with our own eyes. And then Bruno," he gestured over to the shrinking silhouette of the burly man over in the distance, still making his way over to their destination, "Bruno over there, just leaped out of his chair before I had a chance to say anything and sprinted over to you before just kicking the hell out of that guy's foot out of the way…" Brawly then sighed, "Of course, when he kicked the guy's foot away, he swung his elbow behind him for balance, and with the extremely small space between the cheating bastard and you, Bruno ended up knocking you in the back of the head…and I know you can recall what's happened from there since."

Throughout his explanation, Maylene's heart began sinking deeper and deeper into her chest. So he was only trying to help her stay in the competition after all? And that was why he turned around to look at someone for a few seconds before leaving; he was glaring at the cheater? But…wait…

"Why didn't he just say that?" Maylene shouted exasperatedly, throwing her arms in the air. "He could have just told me that he was trying to help me instead of not saying anything and acting like he seriously just tripped on me!"

The man gave a light chuckle and crossed his arms. "Now, I didn't personally talk to the big guy after he left – I stayed behind to watch the rest of the contest to make sure no one else tried anything fishy…and I left immediately after the contest ended and went off to buy those Protein Shakes, as I'm sure you remember as well. But since I know the guy like I do, I'm sure he didn't say anything because, in the end, he didn't help you. That Charles guy was trying to trip you and get you out of the competition – and since he knocked your cranium around, Bruno thought he ended up doing just that – forcing you out of the eat-a-thon. What difference did it make as to who messed you up, as long as it happened anyway? Of course, he didn't stick around long enough to see you actually win."

The girl began shaking her head, disbelief rolling around her skull. "He couldn't have just explained everything? That would have made it all so much easier!"

"He's not much of a wordy person, as I'm sure you noticed," Brawly slightly laughed. "I'm sure he felt that he could deal with the blame of you hating him and move on…However, I'm sure he wasn't expecting you to actually follow him and attack him head on – quite literally. Now that caught him off guard," he said, laughter once again flowing into his grin.

At his words, Maylene's glance fell to her feet and she took her hand to rub her shoulder, redness brushing across her face. "But…I really thought…I was so mad at him…" she then lifted her eyes up to him after stumbling over her sentences for a few moments, "But he…didn't look all that surprised to me. He actually looked pretty well-prepared...as if he was expecting me to come after him…"

At that moment Brawly burst out laughing. "Oh, believe me; you startled the hell out of that guy," he said, loud booming laughs decorating his words, "And can you blame him? He nearly got torpedoed at by this petite little chick!" he began clutching his sides at the thought.

The blush intensified over her nose – thank God her bandage was hiding away a good deal of her embarrassment. "W-well," she turned her head over to lucario to avoid Brawly's eyes, "I-If what you're saying is true, then I got to go apologize to him right?"

It was then when Brawly's laughing slowly ceased. "Nah," he waved his hand, "Don't worry about it, he's probably already made his way over to the docks and is just impatiently waiting for me now."

"…Where're you going?"

"Quest Island," he answered her. "For some good old fashioned battle training."

Maylene stood in her spot and began thinking. Quest Island…she hadn't been there before, but knew it was available to exceptionally strong trainers. "People need a Rainbow Pass to get there…right?"

"That's right."

"…"

Brawly tilted his head over to the side at her silence. "Everything ok?"

The girl raised her head up, pink hair bouncing at the movement. "I'm fine…well, thanks for clearing everything up. I just wish I could go apologize to Bruno…"

"Hey, it's not a problem," Brawly flashed a smile and a wink to her, "I'm sure the big guy's not holding anything against you, he's probably still thinking he deserved it for messing your contest up, anyway."

For once, Maylene gave a soft smile. But he didn't really deserve it at all if he was only helping me, she thought. "…Well," she straightened her back and looked straight into Brawly's eyes, "You should get going, then, if Bruno's waiting for you. You shouldn't miss your ship," she slightly widened her smile.

Brawly flashed another grin. "Well, all right then, you take care of yourself now. Sit in a beanbag chair or something next time you take part in a contest!" He gave a strong wave with his hand before turning around on his feet and dashing out to the direction that his companion had left in a few minutes before.

…

"Sigh," after the blue-haired man disappeared, Maylene stretched her arms before walking over to the edge of the marble fountain and plopping herself down on the white rock-hard decoration. Her lucario followed suit, and as it sat down next to her she turned to her companion and gave it a grin.

"Quest Island, huh…?" she muttered slightly, giving her lucario a rub on the head. "Well, he did say that you need a Rainbow Pass to get there… I wonder where they got theirs…"

The pokémon gave her a look, obviously understanding where the predictable little ball of energy was headed with her words.

…

"Ok, Lucario!" she suddenly sat up straight and began shouting out to the streets, "Let's go get that Rainbow Pass and meet up with Bruno and Brawly! If I beat him, then it's still his fault!" she yelled out playfully, outstretching her arms so that she could try to grab the sun. "If he beats me, then I'll apologize!" she looked over to her pokémon, "Well, whaddaya think of that plan?" her eyes overflowed with determination and brightness as she flashed her best smile to her friend, giving it a thumbs up.

The lucario offered no grunts, instead silently placing a paw over its eyes. Somehow…it knew that by the end of the day, its master was going to end up on the ground, giving the burly man the biggest apology of her life. But, it softly chuckled to itself, that was probably her original plan anyway.

end