"It's no good…" Cynthia shook her head slowly while discussing with the others about Lady Venus in the midst of the tournament. "Despite her actions, there's still no way to tie her to Chiper. The Pokémon she could be handing out could be a regular one just given out of pure curiosity. With no evidence to go on we can't say anything…"

"So she's just allowed to get away this this?" Serena shook her head in disapproval. "It's not right!"

"I know…." Cynthia moved some of her hair back. "But for now you'll just have to comply with her rules. If she is with Chiper perhaps she'll slip up somewhere…"

"So play along in this giant game now…? Wonderful…" Elizabeth sighed heavily while leaning back in her seat. "This isn't what I signed up for, darn it…Lady Venus my butt…"

"I wouldn't let the crowd hear you say that." Wes warned. "They could report you and get you thrown off the team with the snap of a finger with Venus around."

The fact that the possibility existed made everyone sweat slightly. "Right…she calls the shots now and even the slightest bit of slander could cause problems for us. I feel like those on the other teams have realized this as well…" Marcus suggested while pointing to the other sides of the arena. The other trainers on the teams didn't look very pleased with the current outcome of things.

Rui let out a heavy sigh while glancing around the stadium. She was unable to detect any Shadow Pokémon in the vicinity so she gave up and leaned against the railing, defeated. "It's no use…I can't see anything. They're getting better at hiding the presence of Shadow Pokémon…but I can still see them if I try hard enough."

"Keep searching." Cynthia asked politely. "If you spot one, let me know immediately. We'll go over to apprehend them and possibly gather more information."

"Yes ma'am!" Rui saluted.

"Huh…that motivated her rather quickly." Lovrina commented.

"If she told me to do anything I'd be motivated to do it too." Elizabeth stated with a star struck expression.

"Right…." Lovrina was just going to leave that one alone. "So…you all have fun with this tournament thing. I'm really interested in seeing how this turns out."

"Yeah I bet you'll enjoy this…" Marcus rolled his eyes at Lovrina. He may have been staring a little longer than he should've been which caused Lorvina to quirk a brow. "A-Anyway…! Looks like Lady—er…VENUS, is about to say something."

"Be careful, it's infectious." Rui pointed out.

"Having fun are we? My new rules are making things so much more exciting, aren't they?" Venus waved to the crowd and of course they loved her presence and everything they had to offer. "I think the people watching on TV have fallen in love with me too, but who can blame them?"

Kasumi rubbed her temples in an annoyed fashion, groaning as Venus' ego filled the entire atmosphere. "The more she talks the sicker I get."

Cynthia folded her arms across her chest, staring at Venus intently. "If she's also invading the airways…that means she's got Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, and Unova in the palm of her hand at this rate. Who knows what other regions could be watching. I don't like this one bit…but there's still naught we can do just yet…"

"So, you know that little points system? Yeah, I'm abolishing that. You're all far too wonderful to be rated on a performance from a while ago. Nobody deserves to be a one! To Lady Venus, you're all 10s!" Venus' cheerful voice uplifted the crowd already. The fact she could shift their mood with a simple sentence was very troublesome. "So from now on, fight to the finish! Last region standing wins!"

"Well…there goes the unique aspect of this tournament…" Wes shrugged. "Combined with her ability to just boot people out this round and possibly for the following ones…This'll be a drag. But either way, it looks like I'm up next…" The Hero of Orre stretched before heading down to the battlefield.

"Good luck…!" Rui waved Wes off with a bright smile.

"So…are you gonna claim him anytime soon or something…?" Kasumi questioned.

"…!" Rui's face turned bright red at Kasumi's question. She shook her head, laughing nervously as her hands waved as if to dismiss the situation. "I-I…We were just partners…!"

"See how she doesn't deny it…" Serena teased, like she was really one to be talking considering her situation.

"Leave me alone…!" Rui covered her red face with her hands and turned away. Poking fun at her was worth the needed laugh everyone had given the situation.

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Somewhere in the audience, Team Rocket was watching everything go down. Jessie seemed quite bitter about the fact that Venus was capable of enamoring a crowd faster than she could. "Who does that upstart tramp think she is!? If I was up there on stage I would…!"

"Now now…!" James had to do whatever he could to calm Jessie down. The Venus slander had to be kept to a minimum because who knows what kind of hell the audience could raise if they over heard anything. "Let's just sit quietly and observe this outcome…"

"Yeah…" Meowth nodded in agreement. "This place is filled with crazies now. Last thing we need is to stand out like sore thumbs. We'll get mauled…!"

"Chiper is truly terrifying…no wonder the boss wanted us to keep an eye on them." James took notes. "We still don't know who's pulling the strings either."

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"Umbreon, Dark Pulse. Espeon, Psybeam!" Wes commanded. Both Eeveelutions jumped forward, releasing beams of their respective type towards the lone Metagross standing against them. The Metagross took the direct hit from both beams and slid backwards towards the trainer, Max.

"Agh…!" Max grunted from Metagross' struggle. He had a Ferrothorn out as well, but Wes made short work of that when the battle started! "How is this guy so good!?"

"Wes has really been tearing it up out there!" Ash exclaimed. "He's really good at double battles. He looks like he's been doing this for a long time."

"That's right!" Rui nodded with a matter of factly tone. "When Wes and I took down Chiper together, all the battle done were double battles! Some of them were really intense, too…but Double Battling is like a second nature to him. Probably why he doesn't do well in single battles so often…"

"Metagross, Flash Cannon!" Max shouted. Metagross opened its mouth, gathering energy before releasing a silver beam of pure steel towards the Umbreon and Espeon duo.

"Dodge, both of you!" Wes shouted. The dark and psychic type split off in two directions. Once Umbreon landed, Wes issued his next command. "Umbreon, Quick Attack!" Umbreon darted forward with incredible speed, slamming headfirst into Metagross' face to send it sliding backwards. "Espeon, Iron Tail!" Espeon jumped onto Umbreon's back, flipping forward as its tail shone brightly before slamming into Metagross' head. Espeon's force was surprisingly overwhelming as Metagross was crushed into the ground, KO'ed.

"Metagross is unable to battle! Therefore, Wes is the winner!" The referee exclaimed.

"Let's go Wessss! Let's go!" Rui clapped; though she was really the only one cheering with such exuberance. "Ah…?" Looking at the others, she once again just exposed herself to the group. She had to tone it down a little bit.

"At this rate you're gonna cause a scene…" Elizabeth teased. "But his skills are very impressive in double battles. I don't think we'll have to worry about him in this round."

"It's not him you should be worried about…" Grace's thoughts trailed off and she took a glance at Lovrina. It seemed the two of them were thinking the same thing. Lady Venus had her sights set on the Kalos Team and definitely planned to remove them the moment she could.

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Next Time: Double Mayhem!