Chapter 9: Contest Pains

POV: Azure

My head was throbbing. I had never felt such an intense headache in my life.

"Maybe we should rest?" Lucy suggested "You really don't look so good,"

I blinked down at her "No, no, we're almost there, I can feel it,"

"We have a few more days to go still," She replied with a look of concern.

"Oh," I replied, closing my eyes against the pain in my skull. Of course, closing my eyes also meant I wasn't looking where I was going, and I tripped and fell to the ground.

"See, we should rest," Lucy told me.

"Maybe just for a few minutes," I replied, curling up into a ball and gritting my teeth against the pain.

My ears began to ring, making me groan. It was as though I was dying.

Just as suddenly as the headache came on, it disappeared.

I sat up shakily, looking at Lucy. "It's gone," I told her.

"That's weird. I've never heard of a headache like that before," She told me "You were practically screaming in pain,"

I blinked at her, I had only opened my mouth to groan.

"Telepathically," She explained. "And I thought our mind-training had been coming along quite well,"

"Huh," I said out loud "Let's get going before it decides to come back,"

She nodded in agreement.

We kept walking, until we came across a long, beautifully constructed bridge.

"Where are we?" I asked Lucy.

"If my calculations are correct… this is Alamos Town," She told me.

"Have we been walking the right way?" I asked her "I thought we were going to Floaroma Town,"

"I guess we must have taken a detour," Lucy said sheepishly "You weren't paying much attention to where you were going, and I was paying attention to you,"

"Oh well, I guess we can stay here the night," I told her.

We crossed the bridge, and a flyer pasted against a shop window caught my eye. "This town has a contest!" I told Lucy "And it's tomorrow!"

"We should definitely enter," Lucy told me.

"But who will I enter this time?" I asked her.

"Not me," She replied quickly "Maybe Lexi since she didn't get a chance in the gym battle, and she already has contest training so it shouldn't be too hard to put together a quick routine with her,"

I gave a small chuckle, knowing the exact reasons why Lucy didn't want to be my leading Pokémon in the contest.

"Okay, Lexi it is," I said, releasing Lexi from her pokeball. "Would you like to be in a contest tomorrow?" I asked her.

She grinned up at me, and jumped around in delight.

"Okay, then let's register and get into training!" I said, pumped up for a new contest.

xOxOx

After booking our room at the Pokémon center and registering for the contest, I headed for a part of Alamos that seemed to be deserted, and started my training.

I started Lexi on the basic aim training, throwing rocks and pebbles in the air and getting her to hit them with electrical attacks. After a few misses, Lexi began to hit them all perfectly.

We then switched from spark to signal beam, perfecting Lexi's aim with this attack as well.

After practicing all of her moves, I began to put together a series of attacks for our appeal round, as well as working on a new secret move.

It was difficult to make this appeal different to our last contest, and teach Lexi a new move, but after a while we had finally put something together I was satisfied with.

"Oh wow, where did the day go?" I asked my Pokémon, surprised to see the sky lit up with orange light. It was almost night time.

"I'm starving," Lucy told me.

"Me too, and I'm sure all of the other Pokémon are," I said, feeling guilty that I had made Lexi train for the whole afternoon without stop.

"Let's go somewhere nice," I told my Pokémon, heading back to a restaurant we had passed before our training. I treated my Pokémon to an amazing meal that cost a lot more than I had planned, before we headed back to the Pokémon Center. I showered, and changed into my pajamas, before falling into a restless sleep, filled with flashing images.

I woke up the next morning feeling like my eyes were filled with sand, and my headache was back again.

"You were screaming again," Lexi told me tiredly.

"I'm sorry," I groaned, sitting up in bed.

"Let's get ready for the contest," She said sadly.

xOxOx

Looking around the room, I was surprised to see that The Mystery Team were nowhere in sight. This would be the first contest I had entered without them.

I raked a hand over my face, feeling the tension from my headache. It was going to be interesting competing in a contest when my head was throbbing.

I watched a few performances, noting how good these contestants were, before it was finally my turn.

I headed to the stage and released Lexi, her starting out her performance with sparks flying from her body.

We continued our performance with Lexi using quick attack in a circular movement, followed by swift. This combination created a small, starry tornado.

"Keep that up and use charge," I called to Lexi.

Her body glowed yellow, at the bottom of the tornado.

"Now use charge beam," I said.

Lexi stopped running, her body surrounded by yellow sparks. She aimed a massive electrical attack in the center of the tornado, which hit all of the stars on its ascent towards the ceiling. As the charge beam hit the stars, they exploded into sparkling lights.

Lexi finished our performance with a bow.

"What an amazing performance," Nurse Joy said "Your Pokémon looks so happy on the stage,"

"Agreed, your Pokémon seems to love the life of a performer," Mr. Contesta added.

"A lovely performance," Mr. Sukizo finished.

Lexi and I headed to the next waiting room with the contestants who had already performed, her skipping with excitement next to me.

When the scores came through, I was both excited and pleased to see we had made it to the next round. We were paired up with another girl named Ella, who was competing with her Smoochum.

I headed to the stage again, this time for our battle round.

Ella released her Smoochum in a flurry of hearts, as I released Lexi.

"Smoochy, use sweet kiss, followed by powdered snow," Ella called to her Pokémon.

Smoochum winked at Lexi, before blowing a huge amount of heart shaped kisses at my Pokémon.

She then gave a little twirl, releasing a frozen snow powder after her first attack. The hearts froze with ice, and kept heading towards Lexi.

"Lexi, use quick attack to dodge, followed by charge beam," I told her.

Lexi managed to avoid the frozen hearts, while her body glowed with yellow light.

She released her electric attack, which hit Smoochum dead on.

Smoochum cried out in pain, before hitting back with ice punch.

The attack hit Lexi, but not with enough force to cause much damage.

"Signal beam," I called.

Smoochum dodged the attack and Ella called "Heart stamp,"

"Use quick attack to get out of the way, followed by signal beam again," I cried.

This time our attack hit Smoochum, and it was obvious that the super-effective bug type move had done a lot of damage. I watched as the point's indicator screen dropped on Smoochum's side. But her trainer didn't think they were out of the battle yet.

"Smoochy, use heart stamp again," She called.

"Dodge and use charge," I told Lexi.

Lexi dodged out of the way, her body glowing yellow. Smoochum's moves were coming out a lot more slowly after the signal beam attack.

"Now use charge beam," I told Lexi.

"Dodge Smoochy!" Ella called, but Smoochum was just too slow. The attack hit her dead on, and she fell to the ground, fainted.

"This battle round goes to Annie and Lexi," The announcer said.

"Your Pokémon did really well," I told Ella.

She gave me a small, teary smile "Thanks, so did yours,"

I smiled back at her and headed towards the waiting room, looking forward to our next battle. As we waited, I massaged my head, hoping to relieve some of the pain from my headache.

xOxOx

I had been paired with a monster. The man stared back at me with beady eyes, a huge grin on his face. He wore a sailor's uniform, and his arms were the size of large tree logs. My head throbbed just looking at him.

"Let the battle commence," The announcer called.

I released Lexi, her body sparking all over.

The Sailor released his own Pokémon; a Poliwhirl.

"Water gun," He called.

"Use spark," I told Lexi "And aim it at the water gun,"

Lexi's attack hit the water gun before it had a chance to hit her. It spiraled up the water gun attack, hitting Poliwhirl dead on.

The Pokémon was visibly affected by the move, but it didn't cause it to faint.

"Come on Poliwhirl, use rain dance, followed by double slap," He told his Pokémon.

"Use quick attack to dodge, following by charge beam," I told Lexi.

Lexi narrowly dodged the double slap attack, before hitting back with charge beam. Unfortunately the attack missed.

"Use water pulse," Sailor called.

"Dodge again," I called, but it was too late, and the attack hit Lexi. Fortunately, it didn't look like it caused much damage.

"Finish this off with spark," I told Lexi.

"Dodge and use body slam," Sailor called.

"Wait until the last second and use spark," I cried.

Lexi waiting until Poliwhirl's body barely touched her, before unleashing her spark attack.

Both of the Pokémon flew backwards, but only one of them fainted.

We had made it to the next round.

"Dang it," Sailor cried. He hurried out of the room.

"And the winner of this battle round is Annie and Lexi," The announcer called.

I returned Lexi to her pokeball and hurried off the stage, wondering if she would have enough energy to compete in the next round.

xOxOx

After watching the last battle, it was clear to see that the person I would be up against was good. Really good.

Hannah's Pokémon was a very well trained Clefairy.

She grinned at me from the other side of the stage, you could clearly see how confident she was.

"Let the battle commence," The announcer called.

"Come on out Tinker," Hannah called, releasing her Clefairy.

"Let's go Lexi," I called, releasing Lexi.

Hannah didn't waste any time "Moon blast Tinker,"

"Dodge and use charge beam," I called to Lexi.

The attack scraped Lexi's back, but she managed to avoid the majority of the blow.

Tinker dodged out of the way of the charge beam.

"Use double slap," She told her Pokémon.

"Wait until they're close and use spark," I told Lexi.

Lexi waited until Clefairy's hand was just about to touch her, then followed with a powerful spark attack.

Both of our Pokémon looked exhausted from both this battle and their previous ones.

"Tinker, use meteor mash," Hannah told her Pokémon.

"Use signal beam," I told Lexi.

My attack hit first, causing an explosion. Both of our Pokémon flew backwards.

Clefairy got back to her feet, but Lexi looked beat.

"Are you okay?" I called to her.

"Shi, Shinx," She called back, her feet wobbling as she stood up.

"Can you continue?" I asked her.

She turned back to me and gave a small smile.

That was when her body started to glow white and change. She grew slightly bigger, and longer, and tufts of black fur appeared around her neck.

"Luxio," She called.

"Oh, wow, you evolved," I said, aiming my pokedex at her. She had even learned a new move; Thunder Fang.

"Let's try out thunder fang," I told her.

Her teeth began to spark with electricity as she ran towards Clefairy.

"Dodge and use meteor mash," Hannah told her Pokémon. Clefairy wasn't fast enough and the attack hit dead on. She flew backwards, but still didn't faint.

The buzzer sounded; the battle was over. I looked at the score board to see my points were slightly higher than Hannah's. I had won my first contest.

Lexi skipped happily to me, and I threw my hands around her neck. "We won! And you evolved!"

"Lux, Luxio," She said happily.

Hannah picked up her Clefairy and headed off the stage.

"And this contest's winner is Annie and Lexi," The announcer said. The crowd cheered for us.

After receiving my ribbon, I waved to the crowd and hurried out of there, determined to get back to the Pokémon center. My head had not stopped throbbing throughout the whole contest.

As soon as we stepped into my room, I collapsed to the ground in a ball. I couldn't help but wonder if this pain would ever go away.