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Walk The Frontier
By Shadow
Chapter Two
***
"Hello everyone! And a big welcome to you as the Goldenrod City Contest gets underway! Today we have a multitude of high skilled Coordinators among us, including three of the top five ranking Coordinators in Johto. This will be one heck of a day, so hold onto your seats, because here come our contestants!"
Drew plugged his left ear as the announcer shrieked into her microphone, creating some nasty feedback that made the entire audience gasp. Finally, the horrid sound died down, and Drew let out a sigh of relief. Today was his day, and his alone; he was going right up to the top, no matter what the competition was like.
At least Soledad isn't here, Drew thought. But all my other competition is… I haven't seen May in a contest since the Kanto Grand Festival. Well, I saw her on TV at the Wallace Cup, but that hardly counts.
His thoughts were cut off rather abruptly as the line of Coordinators moved forward. May was a few feet in front of Drew, walking proudly into the spotlight with her competitors. Drew followed moments later, wearing his usual confident smirk as the blinding lights hit his face.
Each Coordinator filed out quietly and quickly as the announcer for Johto, Jillian, said their names and ranks in the scoreboards across the region.
"And we have May, a talented Coordinator from the Hoenn region with quite a few wins under her belt. As of now, she ranks number five in the Johto region!" Jillian screeched, causing another burst of feedback.
May, after nearly being scared out of her wits by the over-eccentric Jillian, took a meek bow, and walked off stage. Drew watched her retreat to the back, never taking his eyes off her until the announcer yelled into the microphone yet again, "And next up we have Brooke, another Coordinator from the Hoenn region representing LaRousse City!"
Drew blinked, and immediately shifted his attention to the "Brooke" girl. His eyes widened when he realized it was the very same girl that had called him an asshole just yesterday. LaRousse City? His hometown? If that was true, whey didn't he remember who she was? Was she really too… "unimportant," for him to remember, as she had put it?
"Brooke is new to being a Coordinator, but she has made more progress in the field than any other in Contest history! She currently ranks number four in the Johto--"
Brooke elbowed Jillian in the stomach, shutting her up before she could continue. Drew stared in awe, along with the rest of the stadium, at the brown haired girl as she took the microphone out of Jillian's hands and said, "You should speak a bit quieter. It will stop all the feedback."
With that, Brooke gave the mic back, and proceeded to walk off the stage, leaving the audience so silent, Drew's heartbeat was drumming like thunder in his ears.
Woah, was all he could think. Eventually, Jillian continued her introduction of the Coordinators, but she seemed a lot more… reserved. At least the feedback was gone, even if that was a rather… rough way of dealing with it.
After Drew's introduction, he walked to the back room, trying to locate the Brooke girl. Unfortunately, the only brown haired girl he could find was May, and so, with a sigh, he decided to pester her instead.
"Hey May," Drew said kindly for once. May replied with a distracted greeting of her own, though she was more focused on the screen displaying the rest of the Coordinators, as if she was looking for someone.
"Second to last we have--"
"Fabuvinnie!" a voice cut off. Both Drew and May turned to each other and blinked, before staring back at the screen. The camera cut to a young boy, seemingly about their age, making a dramatic entrance with a long, flowing, black cape. With one swoop of his hand, he took the microphone out of Jillian's hands, and yelled "I'm doing this for you Marina! Ha! Jimmy, I know you're out there! Look who's winning now!"
May sweat dropped as she watched the scene unfold, wondering how in the world Jimmy was associated with… this guy. Drew seemed just as dumbfounded at the display, wondering when the day would stop being so… weird, and just go back to the normal contest events.
"Okay…then…" Jillian said as the boy made his way off stage. "That was Vincent from New Bark Town…."
The crowed clapped, though, it was a rather awkward sounding applause. May was sure that Jimmy was cringing in his seat at the guy's display, and laughed as she pictured him sinking into his seat with his ridiculous hair still giving him away.
"Please, you couldn't have found that display entertaining," Drew said snidely.
"It was… interesting," May responded, but before she could say more, Jillian started her screaming again:
"And last, but certainly not least, we have Marina! The number one Coordinator in the Johto region, and possibly the best in the world! We're sure to have an exciting day with her on the field!"
A blue haired girl appeared on stage, waving to the audience as if she was used to the huge uproar they were giving her. May just stood there, staring at the screen longingly: one day, she would be in Marina's place….
"Marina huh?" two voices said skeptically in unison. May knew one of the voices was Drew, but the other was unfamiliar. Both her and her green haired friend whipped their heads around to see Brooke staring up at the screen with crossed arms.
"You're that girl," May stated.
"You'll have to be a bit more specific," Brooke replied sarcastically. "Because you are also, what they call, a girl. Besides, I'm not here to chat with the likes of you. I'm here to pick a bone with Drew. Remember who I am yet you bastard?"
May fumed, and was about to take a stab back at this "Brooke" character, but Drew put a hand out in front of her, stopping May in her tracks. He gave her a glance, nodding that he could handle it, and May backed down… grudgingly.
Drew turned his attentions back to Brooke, his face serious, "I can't say I remember you exactly, but I thought you were familiar. You seem to know who I am pretty damn well though. Even though we lived in the same place, it doesn't make any sense that you would know me, and I wouldn't know you."
Brooke let out a groan, "Fine; I'll take that as a 'no, you don't remember me' then. Maybe you will when we battle." With that, Brooke turned around and walked away from the green haired boy, leaving him, once again, dumbfounded at her attitude.
"Do you know her?" May asked after a moments worth of silence. "Cuz uh, she's more of a jerk than you are. And that's saying something."
Drew whipped around, ready to retort, but was again interrupted as Jillian started to call out names for the appeals round. The tension that was building up between the two rivals suddenly dropped into nothingness as they concentrated on the screen above them:
"First up we have Brooke!" Jillian said excitedly, though, her voice was unusually quiet… for her….
Brooke walked onto the stage, her face contorted into a vile looking smirk. She took a battle ready stance, which was strange for a Coordinator, and simply threw a Pokeball into the air.
The ball exploded into a beam of red energy, which eventually formed into a Swellow.
"Swellow!" it cried as it gracefully swooped around and landed on Brooke's outstretched arm.
"A fairly untraditional start, but Brooke hasn't been known to disappoint. I wonder what trick she has up her sleeve with this appeal?" Jillian asked.
Brooke wasted no time in throwing her arm up to let Swellow take to the skies. The bird Pokemon once again circled around, but this time to the opposite side of the stadium. Brooke was still smirking as she widened her battle stance a bit more:
"Swellow, start things off with Twister!" Brooke cried, pumping her fist into the air to emphasize her enthusiasm. Swellow obeyed almost instantly, its wings glowing white with power. As soon as it had gathered all of its energy, the bird Pokemon flapped its wings, created a vortex of swirling wind.
"Okay, now show them a bit of speed! Fly around to the other side of that Twister!" Brooke commanded, and Swellow did just that, flapping up high, and then diving down so it was parallel with its own attack. "Now use Heat Wave!"
"Heat Wave?" May exclaimed in bewilderment. People in the audience seemed just as stunned as May, their mouths hanging open as Swellow began to glow a red hue.
"Fire!"
"Swellow!" Swellow cried, releasing its body heat. The bird Pokemon then dove into its own Twister attack, spinning around with it to create a flaming tornado of doom. The judges stared at the masterpiece for several moments, until finally, Swellow burst out of the attack, bringing the display to a halt. All that was left to signal that the display had been there at all was a trail of red sparks left from the Heat Wave attack, which gave Swellow a sparkling shine as it once again circled, and landed on Brooke's arm.
Brooke bowed, the smirk still written on her face as the camera cut to a close up. The crowed roared with excitement, cheering out Brooke's name in a pseudo-worshipping-type chant. Finally, the judges released Brooke's score: 29.4.
"Nearly perfect," May whispered. "That's going to be tough to beat."
No kidding, Drew thought as the next Coordinator took the stage….
***
Several appeals later, it was Drew's turn to take the stage… and he knew exactly what he was going to do. His Roserade had not seen the appeals stage in quite a while, and was ready with a new set of attacks for a mind-boggling presentation.
Drew let out his usual confident smirk as he grabbed a Pokeball of his belt, "Roserade let's go!"
But before he could even throw the Pokeball into the air, something extremely unexpected happened: another Pokeball from his belt exploded open, revealing the one thing he'd dreaded carrying for an entire month now. Out came a Spinda, spinning around rather dizzily as they always did, and then falling on its posterior.
"And Drew has chosen a rather strange Pokemon for appeals this round: a Spinda!" Jillian announced. Drew stood there, staring between the announcer, the judges, the screen and his Pokemon multiple times.
What in the name of Arceus am I going to do?! I can't use Spinda! It's not my Pokemon, not to mention that it has no formal contest training… damn it all! Drew shouted in his mind. Everything today just had to be working against him….
"I guess the best I can do is roll with the punches," Drew sighed as he readied himself for what was to come. This was going to be… hard. He hardly knew anything about Spinda, let alone this Spinda. All he knew is that it was psychotic… and by psychotic, I don't just mean normal Spinda craziness. I mean… insane… off the chain, or however other way you want to say loony.
I guess I'm going to have to rely on luck. It's worked for May… so this time its my turn. Please, please, please, give me her luck with this next attack! Drew begged in his mind as he shouted, "Spinda, use Assist!"
"Spin?" Spinda asked, twirling around clumsily to look at Drew. It cocked its head to the side as it nearly tripped, and then landed on its other foot at the last second. "Spinda!" it finally said, twirling back around and letting out a Petal Dance. Drew inwardly sighed in relief, glad that luck had come through for him.
"And Spinda let's loose a beautiful Petal Dance! But will that be enough to sway the judges?" Jillain asked.
No. Not enough… yet, Drew thought, his confidence returning as he ordered Spinda to use another Assist. Fortunately, luck came through again, and this time Spinda let out an Air Cutter, one of his Absol's attacks.
"Spinda!" it yowled as it stumbled around the stage, slicing the Petal Dance into many little flower bits.
"Spinda, now use your Teeter Dance!" Drew shouted.
"Spinda!" it yowled enthusiastically. It then started to dance in place, back and forth rhythmically as it said its name over and over again. The audience suddenly fell quiet as they became mesmerized by the special dance that only a Spinda could do.
Unfortunately, Drew was also a victim of Spinda's spell, and suddenly started to mimic the dance, step for step, without even realizing what he was doing. Laughter started to erupt from the audience, and even from the judges as Drew and Spinda stepped in time with each other.
It took a terrifyingly loud laugh from Jillian (into the mic, I might add) to snap Drew out of his trance, and end his appeal with a bow. Thankfully, Spinda seemed to catch onto what was going on, and bowed with him. The crowed roared to life with a mix of cheering and laughter as the judges went onto scoring the performance.
To say Drew was embarrassed would be an understatement. He couldn't even look at the audience, judges, or the camera as he returned Spinda to its rightful place in its Pokeball. All he cared about now, was getting the heck out of there, and so, without waiting an extra moment, Drew left the stage. He didn't need to stick around and see his score. He was sure it was horrible.
Drew shoved passed another Coordinator who was to go on after him. Clearly, the guy was entertained by Drew's performance, because he was barely able to contain his own laughter. Drew sent him a venomous glance, shutting him up instantly, and continued on his way back stage, shoving his hands in his pockets.
"Hey Drew!" a voice called. Drew knew it all too well. It was May. He continued to walk silently as May caught up with him, panting with effort, "Aren't you going to wait around for your score?"
"Didn't you see how stupid I looked?" Drew snapped back, irritated.
"You mean you didn't do that on purpose?" May asked, blinking. Drew said nothing, but his face going red was enough of an indication to confirm what had just happened. It was then, and only then, that May did start laughing, and by laughing I mean cracking up. Drew scowled, going even redder. "I can't believe that was an accident!"
"Believe it May," Drew growled, clearly not entertained.
"You didn't tell me you got a new Pokemon," she commented after she'd calmed a bit. Drew was still walking away from the contest, content with not seeing his score. "And would you please stop? You need to see if you made it to the next round!"
"That's cuz it's new. And it wasn't exactly mine to begin with. The trainer just gave me the damn thing and ran away! Believe me, I don't want this Spinda, at all. And for the record, there is no way I made it to the next round. Not with a tasteless performance like that."
"I beg to differ," May said, pointing to one of the big screens that was displaying the current Coordinator. "That guy, is tasteless."
The Coordinator on stage was none other than Vincent from New Bark Town, his cape flowing ever dramatically as he struggled to get the hang of appeals. His Meganium ran around the stage, desperately trying to catch up with one of its own attacks.
Vincent shouted orders to Maganium, but it only seemed to confuse the Pokemon further as it tripped over its own vine whip and toppled to the floor. Again, the audience erupted into laughter, though, this time it was for an entirely different reason.
Drew couldn't help but let out a smirk at the display, knowing that May was right. He was definitely better than… that guy.
"Thanks May," Drew said after Vincent had left the stage. He flipped his hair as usual, and pulled out a rose from nowhere, handing it to his rival. "But even if I hadn't messed that up, your appeal was better."
May blinked, and took the rose with a stupefied expression written on her face, "Uh, thanks Drew…."
Drew just laughed lightly, flicking his hair again and walking away. May stood there, staring at the flower for a few more moments, and then to Drew's retreating figure. He'd gone back the way he came… which meant he wasn't leaving.
May smiled warmly, even though Drew couldn't see it. So, at least he was staying to see his score. After that, May couldn't do anything else to persuade him to stay and watch her. Her score had been very high as well, second only to Brooke. Even Marina had done worse in appeals then one would expect. It just seemed to not be anyone's day.
***
Jimmy watched as the scoreboard displayed the contestants that moved onto the next round. Sure, he had been devastated to see Vincent participating, but at least there was no way he was making it into the battle section.
Poor desperate Vincent, Jimmy thought as the screen displayed various trainers. First to make it to the next round was Brooke, followed by Marina, and May. Curiously, Jimmy continued to stare down the list, wondering if Drew had managed to make it despite his… rather strange performance.
He blinked in surprise as the last picture appeared on screen; indeed, Drew had somehow made it to the next round.
"I guess this really did get more interesting," Jimmy concluded, sitting in his seat comfortably. "Now its just a waiting game. Wonder who gets matched up with who?"
***
A/N: LOL, I had so much fun writing this chapter you have no idea. Second part of the contest soon. And ooh, Brooke is a mean little Coordinator, but I have a great idea for her. She isn't exactly a main character in this story, but she'll be around.
