"Khaos, use Ember!" Luvia commanded, Khaos opened up his mouth, revealing a collection of burning ashes before firing them at a purple moth like pokemon with green wings.
"Dustox, use Confusion to hold it in place!" Another feminine voice called out, a thin blue line outlined the poison moth's body, as a volley of orange bullets headed straight for the bug type. Psychic energy flowed around the embers, gathering all of it and having it form into one giant ball of fire.
"Now throw it up in the air!" Faithfully following her trainer's order, Dustox tossed up the fireball in the air where it bursted open, causing small, red sparkling cinders to come floating down. Luvia gazed at the sky, starstruck by the sight, "That was amazing, June."
"Nah, that was nothing," The red haired coordinator began, being modest about the amount of practice she's done for her upcoming contest, "but anyway, thanks for helping my Dustox get Confusion down Luvia, with it, we'll definitely have a shot at winning the contest tomorrow." The poison moth pokemon flew towards her master who began petting her Dustox right between between its antennae.
"No problem, training with you gave me the chance to work with Khaos more." Luvia looked at her Houndour, making eye contact with the hound, the pokemon quickly turned away while exhaling a puff of smoke from his nostrils. After laughing at Khaos' antisocial behavior the two friends walked back inside the pokemon center with their pokemon following behind. They sat down at a table and went over their plan for today.
"So with Miranda helping Leo with his training, I figured we could head over to the Contest Hall since my routine for tomorrow is set." June informed her companion.
"That sounds good." Luvia responded. After finishing up, June and Luvia went over to the where the contest would be held tomorrow and were surprised by the number of people that had set up stalls to sell to customers.
"Sure are a lot booths for such a small contest," June thought out loud, looking over all the different stands that were getting their merchandise ready for the contest, "why don't we look around and see if there's anything good." The duo wandered about looking at shops that were planning on selling snacks, commemorative photos that would be taken of the contestants and other various items before finally deciding to walk over to the Contest Hall and have June register.
"Huh?" Luvia questioned, she felt as if a pillow had been placed on top of her head before feeling something sharp nearly pierce her skull.
"Ouch," Luvia cried, rubbing her noggin and looking up to see a round blue bird with white cloud like wings, "is that..." The trainer paused as she thought back to the first day she left Littleroot Town and had failed to capture a Swablu similar to this one, more than likely being the same one from that day.
"Did you enjoy that, Luvia? It took me hours of brushing and cleaning to those wings to have feel like silk." A calm but arrogant feminine voice called out, one that both June and Luvia recognized without fail.
"Amelia." June growled, turning around to face a young, pale skinned girl about the same age as both with perfectly long, straight and golden white hair, a black plastic clip-on headband and her bangs swept to the side. She had bluish-green eyes and wore a white long-sleeved collared shirt with a red vest over it, complete with matching gold buttons, a pair of black dress pants and black flats.
"More importantly, I assume that you'll be entering the contest tomorrow, am I right Juniper?" Amelia asked with smirk on her face, already knowing the answer to the question.
"Of course," June replied with a grin that matched Amelia's, "I wouldn't want to miss out on the chance to humiliate you in front an audience."
"Not even in your dizziest daydreams," Amelia scoffed, turning around and running a hand through her hair and slightly tossing it before calling for her Swablu to follow her, "by the way Luvia, you might want to get that nasty bump on your forehead looked at. You might end up scaring Leonard away with it." The comment from the blonde caused the brunette to panic lightly, feeling her forehead to try and locate said bump.
"Arceus, that princess is always such a pain." June watched Amelia and her Swablu until they both disappeared in the crowd of vendors. Focusing back on Luvia, June saw her best friend still examining her forehead.
"Luvia," June spoke in a deadpan tone, "you do know there's no actual bump on your forehead, right?"
"Huh," Luvia stared at June with a look of confusion on her face before changing to one of relief and embarrassment, "O-oh! Right..."
"Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the first Pokemon Contest of the season! My name is Vivian Meridan and I'll be your host for today's contest which is currently being broadcasted from Rustboro City!" A woman standing on a stage, in front of a crowd of people, spoke into a microphone. The woman herself was tall and wore a pink dress with a red blouse over it, her red high heels gave her extra height and white gloves to ensure that she wouldn't drop the microphone.
Vivian held up a small, golden, diamond shaped medal with two red strands of ribbon protruding from the sides, "Today, sixteen coordinators will be competing for the Rustboro Ribbon, making the winner only four ribbons away from qualifying for the Grand Festival so without further ado, let's get started!" The crowd up roared with excitement, putting pressure on some of the coordinators who were getting ready backstage.
"Hurry it up Luvia!" June demanded as her friend frantically hurried to finish up preparing the redhead's hair.
"Ok, you're now officially ready for television." Luvia stated, taking a good look at June. She had on a simple white dress that reached down to her knees with a pair of black flats, her hair was curled and tied in a ponytail. After hearing that she was finally ready, June quickly hugged Luvia before running out of the dressing room and into the coordinator's lobby with all the other contestants, waiting to be called to perform.
Catching her breath, June was unaware of a certain blonde standing in front of her until she heard someone clearing their throat, "I'm surprised you actually decided to show up." Looking up at her rival, June noticed Amelia wearing a crystal blue dress, the same length as June's, with black heels. Her wavy hair was straightened and tied in a ponytail, similar to June's as well.
"Oh don't worry about me, I'll be just fine." June reassured Amelia, while taking the opportunity to smooth out any wrinkles in her dress.
"Now please join me in welcoming our first contestant, Amelia Brooks!" The host announced, her voice being carried from the stage, signaling the start of the appeal around, "Looks like I'm first, as usual." The blonde tossed her hair before walking to perform, leaving June to watch her appeal on the television in the lobby.
Once again, the audience let out another round of applause as Amelia walked on stage. The stage itself was the size of a tennis court with one exit that lead into a corridor straight to the coordinator's lobby. The audience sat in rows of dark red seats which were separated in sections of left, middle and right. The blonde closed her eyes and reveled in the sound of applause until she received the signal to start performing.
"Showtime, Swablu!" Amelia took out a pokeball and threw it in the air, causing an array of colorful flower petals that scattered over the stage, revealing Swablu.
"Start off with Sing!" The bluebird closed its eyes and began singing a soothing lullaby that created music notes in colors of green and red that danced around Swablu in the air.
"Now use Fury Attack!" Swablu's beak began glowing pure white as it flew towards a music note and jabbed it using its beak, causing the note to make a popping noise as it burst with the colors from note to slowly float down. The flying type quickly chained this action with the other notes making its appeal feel like a small fireworks display thanks to the popping noise.
"Finish up with Safeguard!" The bird flew down in the middle of all leftover sparkling powder from Sing with its body glowing white. Swablu cried out its name and a silver sphere shaped barrier completely surrounded it and using the colors from the music notes to decorate Safeguard , the barrier looked like a Christmas ornament, fascinating the audience. The barrier quickly dispersed, scattering colors of silver, red and green. The blonde snapped her fingers, getting the small bird to fly back to her and land on her shoulder.
"Let's give another round of applause for Amelia!" The audience clapped once more for the pair of coordinator and pokemon before they walked off stage and back towards the lobby, while the name of the next contestant was called to the stage.
"Now for our final contestant..."
After watching the performances of the other coordinators, June was mentally preparing herself to go on stage, "Now put your hands together for Juniper Avion!" Hearing her name being called, June rushed on to the stage with a big smile on her face despite being incredibly nervous on the inside.
"Dustox, take the stage!" June shouted as she threw a pokeball in the air. Black smoke erupted from the spherical device which confused everyone in the audience, "Use Gust!" Heavily flapping its wings, the black fog was blown downward towards the stage, slowly spilling into the audience, obscuring June from sight while revealing Dustox to the audience.
"Keep it up with Poison Powder!" Dustox's wings began glowing purple as the moth flapped its wings towards the haze, scattering purple specks that decorated the smoke on the ground as it made its way under the chairs of people in the audience. The excited crowd reacted in the way June was hoping when she had planned on making her appeal close up and interactive.
"Gather it up with Confusion!" As Dustox's body was outlined by a thin blue line a telepathic force, all of the smoke accumulated and formed it in the shape of a ball in the air above the purple moth, allowing June to make another appearance.
"Finish up with Moonlight!" One by one rays of white light broke through sphere of thick and sparkling smoke before completely blasting away the fog. In its place, a full moon shined down on everything below as the crowd marveled at the sight as Dustox flew down and perched on its trainer's head. Listening closely to the cheers that were congratulating her for her performance, the redhead waved to the crowd as she walked back to the coordinator lobby where she immediately met up with Luvia.
"You guys looked amazing out there!" Luvia praised the redhead, unaware that Amelia was walking up behind the introverted trainer.
"Yes Luvia, compared to everyone else, one could say June's performance was certainly 'something'," The blonde princess commented earning a scowl from the redhead, "I'd even say that we'll be facing off against one another for the ribbon in the next round."
"I didn't realize you were so eager to battle." Amelia blinked at June in surprise before smiling.
"You do know only two coordinators will be advancing to the battle round, correct?" Shocked by this piece of information, June turned towards Luvia who nodded her head, confirming Amelia's statement and right on cue the contest's host, Vivian began announcing the appeal round results.
"First, I'd like to thank the contestants for a wonderful performance in front of today's crowd! You were all incredible but only two will be able to duke it out in the next round! So without further ado, let's see who will be moving on the battle round!" Pointing up towards the jumbotron positioned on the ceiling.
"Taking the top spot this round after making the most of a combination of very simple moves, in first place is Amelia Brooks!" Vivian announced as a picture of Amelia was displayed on the jumbotron screen. Back in the coordinator's lobby the blonde smirked at June who was still staring up at the television.
"And the coordinator who will be facing off against Amelia has shown a dazzling display of creativity, our runner up is none other than Juniper Avion!" Hearing that she had advanced to the next round June turned towards Luvia and hugged her
"These two coordinators will be fighting for the Rustboro Ribbon after a short intermission!"