A Guide To Her Heart
Episode 25: The 5th Ribbon
"Violet!" Drew called out loudly as he starred off into the dark abyss that loomed before him. It was so pitch-black that he couldn't see his hand in front of his face, let alone where he put his foot down. "Violet!" he shouted again, not sure why he was calling out her name.
"Sneasel, sneaz!" came the familiar, harsh call as Onyx Ice faded into view from the darkness to stand in front of Drew. The boy gave it a confused look and took a step forward. Then, without warning, the ice Poke'mon let out a bellow, breathing out a flurry of snow and ice that hurled forward at him. The harshness made him throw his hands up, his hair and jacket tossed up by the freezing gale, and he had to steady his stance so the blizzard wouldn't toss him off his feet. The stinging cold made his skin burn wherever it touched and he gritted his teeth as a shiver of cold shot down his spine.
His emerald eyes shot up, revealing the far wall of his and Violet's room at the Poke'mon Center with moonlight trickling in from the window and dancing along the sheets. He took in a deep gulp of air as he sat up in bed and pressed his hand to his forehead before running it through his hair. Glancing to his left, he noticed the mauve-haired Coordinator lying asleep next to him, her back turned towards him and the window and the sheets barely hanging on her hips; it was still to hot to sleep with too much cover. Her body rose and fell softly as she slumbered, unaware of his troubles. Thoughts of today (probably yesterday, by now) flooded his memory and a sudden wave of guilt washed over him. His mood had been anything but welcoming yesterday and now he was regretting it. Despite her being his opponent in the upcoming festival, the boy found himself unable to stay angry at her for long regardless of whether or not the situation was her fault. Before he had realized it, his hands had reached over to touch his traveling partner's shoulder, but just as his finger tips barely brushed the skin of her shoulder he stopped himself, realizing his mouth was half way opening in the beginnings of saying her name. No, he would let her sleep. Turning and clambering out, he glanced out the window. The moon was high, still bathing the grass outside in a intangible blanket of silver, but he didn't care about the hour. Heading towards the door, he grabbed a poke'ball from his bag on the way out and carelessly throwing on his lavender jacket, never minding his sweater.
He managed to silently leave the room as well as the Poke'mon Center, having to sneak past a dozing Hope at the front desk. Once outside, a gentle gust of wind rushed at him, tossing up his hair and sending his jacket into a fray, carrying the faintest smell of sweet scent. Sighing and longing for the company, he released the red energy from his poke'ball and watched as it materialized into his trustworthy rose-bearing Poke'mon. It blinked its little black eyes up at him, nudging its bud-like face with the soft petals of its roses to wake itself up.
"Roosrr?" it hummed groggily.
"I know it's late Roselia, but I thought we should get in some practice before the contest today," he explained. The statement was fairly true, but his being up and about was mostly because he couldn't sleep.
"Roossrr!" grumbled the grass-type Poke'mon, putting its roses on its leafy hips and glaring up at its Coordinator. Drew felt an agitated flush creep onto his face as he folded his arms.
"C'mon, Roselia! Just - " The green-eyed boy cut himself off all a sudden as the distant sound of gushing water rushed towards his ears. Apparently Roselia heard it too because it cocked its head slightly to the side, giving its owner a curious look. "I don't know," Drew said to his Poke'mon. "Let's go find out."
The countryside grass was gentle beneath the bottom of his shoes as he ran among the buildings, glancing in between walls to search for the source of the sound. Getting closer to the far edge of town, near the tunnel, his ears picked up the noise getting louder. He made a final sharp turn between two small cottages and skidded to a stop, Roselia on his heels.
"Blastoise, use - " A ebony-haired boy standing next to a large massive, blue-scaled tortoise cut himself off, blinking as he noticed the green-haired boy standing just a few feet from him.
"Steven?" Drew said, raising an eyebrow. "What are you doing out here?" Steven glanced at the Coordinator and then at his Roselia who was standing daintily by his side. The mahogany-eyed boy crossed his arms and straightened himself, his stance giving off an aura of slight arrogance, must like Drew's own, but the smile on his face friendly nonetheless.
"Probably the same thing you're doing," Steven replied. "Training for the contest." Drew blinked his green eyes in the darkness.
"You're a Coordinator?" he asked.
"Yep," the other boy grinned, giving his Blastoise a pat on its massive shoulder.
"Blasssssssttt!" it rumbled happily.
"It's why I left home in the first place - to go participate in contests. I came back when I heard there was a contest in my hometown," Steven went on. In a split second, Drew's processing speed doubled. Verdanturf was Steven's hometown? Of course, why hadn't he seen it before? It made sense since the Nurse Joy here was his mother. At first Drew felt on the worse side of stupid for having not that of that early, but he almost immediately convinced himself that it was the soft, country air destroying his brain cells... that or Violet... or this new kid... Wait! If Verdanturf was Steven's hometown, then he had probably dealt with rockfalls in the tunnel before. That's why he was so helpful in the tunnel yesterday! All at once, Drew didn't feel quite so inept and ever so slightly less... jealous? Ugh, he hated that word. It was only just now that he realized he hadn't been talking.
"Thanks for helping Violet and me out yesterday," he said so it at least appeared he was aware of the conscious world.
"Don't mention it," Steven replied. "I'm used to it." Ah, so he was right! "You participating in the Contest then? Good luck. I hope I'll get to battle you," he went on happily. Drew wasn't entirely sure if he shared Steven's eagerness; he had seen what his Ursaring did to that wild Loundred yesterday and he didn't want to picture how that would've played out if that had been his Roselia or Vaporeon... Not that he was scared or anything. Despite this, Drew plastered a smirk to his lips and ran a hand through his bangs.
"You better hope you don't battle me, because that'll be the end of the line for you!" he retorted. Steven let out a chuckle.
"If you say so. So, where's Vi?" he asked. Finally, something easy to talk about.
"Back at the room in the center," he replied. This is when he noticed one of Steven's black eyebrows raise.
"You two share a room?" he said questioningly. Drew blinked a couple times. It had become so normal, he never thought anything of sharing a room with Violet, but upon further thought he supposed it was a bit...unusual..suspicious..?
"Yeah, so?" he shot back with a shrug. Steven grinned and shook his head.
"Man! Mom would never let me share a room with my girl, ever! Not in a million years!" So he had a girlfriend? More of Drew's jealous slowly faded away. Maybe this kid wasn't so bad after all...
"That's parents for you, I guess.." the green-haired Coordinator said carelessly before motioning away. "Later." With that he started walking away from the boy and his Blastoise.
"See ya!" he heard Steven call behind his back as Drew turned a corner, back in the direction of the Poke'mon Center.
"Rossr?" Roselia muttered, nudging the leg of his jeans with its roses as they walked.
"I don't feel like practicing anymore, Roselia," he said, putting his hands in his pockets. He felt his Poke'mon give him a condescending stare and he couldn't help but laugh under his breath. It didn't matter. They wouldn't need to practice. It wasn't like there was going to be any real competition anyway.
"Violet, slow down," Drew insisted as he watched Violet stuff about a quarter of a waffle in her mouth, syrup trickling down her chin.
"Mhmmffm! Ibefmph-" the boy cut off the mauve-haired girl by tossing a napkin at her face. After a moment of rubbing and a loud gulp, she tried speaking again. "I can't! I have to hurry up so I can have time to everything else I want to do today!" Drew rose an eyebrow at her.
"And just what do you plan to do?" he asked, truly curious.
"I want to look around town, maybe play around a bit in Rusturf Tunnel, possibly get in some training, go shopping..." In Drew's mind, she was beginning to train off because he was ignoring her. He felt a slight twitch of anger and maybe even a rush of heat to his face.
"Sorry, but no," he said curtly, putting down the bite of his own waffle he was about to take. Violet looked up at him all a sudden, blinking her large, purple eyes at him.
"Wha..?" she mumbled in a distraught tone.
"You won't be doing any of those things today," he growled, folding his arms and watching as his girlfriend opened her mouth widely to protest but once again he cut her off.
"Because you're going to be watching me in the contest today," Drew added with a smirk. It was true that Violet had never truly watched him in a contest. In Lavender Town, they were both participating. In Saffron, she had been captured. In Lilycove, she was participating with him. And in Fortree, she was off doing her own thing. But not this time. He wasn't entirely sure why he was so intent on having Violet there for him this time, but he didn't feel like trying to explain it to himself. At once he saw the mauve-haired girl's face change at her eyes light up with laughter.
"You scared me!" she squealed. "I thought you were mad!" With that, she popped a piece of a Rawst berry in her mouth and Drew chuckled as he watched her face turn pink at how sweet it was.
After waiting for Violet to finish gorging, the pair made their way to the Contest Hall, the tall red building smack dab in the center of town. The sliding doors parted as the two walked into the hall. It was easily the best-decorated and classiest building in town, with a medium-sized chandelier hanging from the ceiling, banners decorating lamps that adorned the walls, and leather couches that bordered the bases of the walls where Coordinators and fans sat.
"Contest pass, please," requested the lady at the front counter as Drew and Violet approached. The green-haired boy absentmindedly handed her his card and waited with his arms crossed as she ran in through a machine. That's when the faint sound of quiet, hidden giggling drifted by his ears. Almost at the same time, he felt a nudging on the back of his arm. He turned to look at Violet over his shoulder, only to have her point off in another direction. Following her line of sight, his eyes fell on a girl in the corner of the lobby. She was distinctively shorter than him but had to have been at least 13 or so. She had dirty blonde hair that was flipped out at the ends and wore a pink t-shirt and a mini-skirt (which was slightly too short for Drew's taste, but who was he to judge?) It seemed she had spotted him because she looked up at him, large brown eyes blinking rapidly. An unmistakable blush appeared on her cheeks and she quickly looked down at her Mary Jane shoes which made click-clack sounds on the tiled floor as she slowly made her way over to them.
"H-hey... Mr. Drew..." she stuttered. Mr. Drew? He was, like, 16!
"Yeah?" he asked in almost a careless voice.
"Can I have your autograph, please?" she whimpered, holding out a small, pink book with her head bowed. A wide smirk spread itself on Drew's face and he swore he saw Violet's eyes roll. Wow, he wasn't sure he had ever seen the mauve-haired girl do that.
"Sure," he replied, taking the notebook from the younger girl. There was a pin in the spiral of it and he slipped it out, wondering if he had heard the girl squeak when he took it from her. He was sure he did. Quickly scribbling something down, he handed it back to her. By then, the receptionist had finished with his Contest Pass and returned it to him. "See ya," Drew muttered to the little girl, flipping his bangs as he turned and walked away. The girl grinned and then looked down, only for Drew to hear an ear-splitting squeal ricochet into his ear canal. This was going to be too good; he had to turn around and watch. Sure enough, he turned on his heel to see Violet rushing to the little girl's side to see the cause of her glee. The female Coordinator snatched the autograph book from the little girl to read, "Stay cute. Love, Drew." swirled onto the page in Drew's scriptive handwriting.
"HEY!" shouted the little girl. Violet's face quickly flushed the color of a Cherri berry as she threw the book bag to the girl, her eyes narrowed and her nose scrunched up angrily. The young top Coordinator stomped towards her boyfriend and Drew imagined steam coming out of her ears, blowing her hair into a mess. Her face bordered on Shadow-scary and suddenly the green-haired boy was regretting his little tidbit of fun.
"I'm watching you today, why?" she growled, stomping past Drew into the stadium room behind the front counter. The boy let out a deep breath as he watched her disappear, loosening his sweater's hold on his neck. Violet angry equals not fun.
"What'd you do?" came a slightly amused voice from the entrance. The sliding doors closed behind a slightly dark-skinned Coordinator, dawning his red and black jacket and pushing his curly bangs out of his face.
"Nothing," he replied to Steven, looking away. The charcoal-headed boy walked up to the shorter boy's side, chuckling.
"Don't worry. You'll get used to it," he exclaimed. "Girls get even more jealous than us guys." Drew tried to picture Violet beating some other girl up over him, but he couldn't conjure the image. Violet? That jealous? Yeah right.
"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the Verdanturf Town Poke'mon Contest!" announced Vivian Meridian in her knee-high, sparkling, red dress. "The time until the National Grande Festival is winding down! This may be the last chance of some contestants to get their fifth ribbon! But only one can win! Are you ready?" The crowd erupted into applause, accompanied by loud shouts of "YES!" and cries for their favorite Coordinators.
"She sure knows how to get a crowd pumped up, huh?" Drew heard Steven asked from his side.
"Yeah," the green-eyed boy said quietly as he peeked out behind the curtains that cascaded down from his spot backstage. His eyes however weren't on the announcer, but rather the audience. His emerald irises darted this way and that, searching for an array of purple that would signify a certain someone in the audience. To his disdain, he didn't spot anything and he shoved the curtain away, baring his teeth at nothing in particular. Was she so upset that she wouldn't watch?
"You okay?" Steven asked quickly.
"I'm fine," Drew bit back, turning to look at the other Coordinator just as Vivian declared that it was time to start the preliminary rounds and the first contestant took the stage. The two young men sat down on a bench, starring up at the monitor as a boy with a Raichu took center stage. Drew watched his performance, criticizing it and critiquing it to distract himself from his thoughts. It was decent, but just decent, which is why he received only a 21. Performance after performance that followed was quite similar and the young Coordinator quickly found himself bored. No wonder these Coordinators were still trying to get ribbons at this time. They sucked. His consciousness pointed out that he was also still trying to get a ribbon, but he reminded himself that he had had a few interruptions.
"Next, let's welcome, from our very own Verdanturf Town, Steven!" The sound of Vivian announcing the name of the Coordinator next to him knocked Drew out of his thoughts.
"Well, wish me luck," Steven smiled as he stood up. Drew refrained from telling him that he would do no such thing, but gave him a friendly glance nonetheless and watched as he walked onto the stage.
Clamors of applause thundered throughout the stadium as Steven appeared on stage. It was probably just because this was his hometown, Drew told himself.
"Blastoise, let's go!" he shouted, tossing a shiny poke'ball high into the air. A flash of white light consumed the stage, followed by a burst of large, glowing blue bubbles that erupted out of the poke'ball. A moment later, a bulky, cerulean turtle busted out from the epicenter of the bubble storm, showing off its massive muscles and the huge cannons that jetted out of its shell. It hit the ground with a loud 'thud', flexing its arms and striking a pose.
"Stoise!" it grunted, punching the air.
"Hydro pump, followed by ice beam!" Steven ordered. A powerful stream of water exploded out of the guns that protruded from Blastoise's shell. The liquid gushed high into the air then, at its peak, the giant, blue turtle opened its mouth and a blue-white beam shot from between its jaws straight up to meet the water. Upon contact, the mountain of water froze instantly.
"Now before it comes down, skull bash attack!" the charcoal-haired boy exclaimed as he dashed to center stage, right next to his Poke'mon.
"Stoise!" it rumbled and launched itself into the air, its head tucked in. Rushing upwards, its head collided with the large falling chunk of ice and the mass burst into a flurry of falling ice shards, some of them rather rugged and sharp.
"What is Steven doing in the middle of the stage?" Vivian gasped. "He's going to get crushed!" The flurry of mini-glaciers thundered down into the ground, Blastoise hitting soon after, and the impact sent a humongous plume of white mist into the air, covering the stage in its icy cloak. Exclamations of shock resounded throughout the crowd.
"Steven?" cried Vivian as she began to rush to the middle of the stage. Even the judges stood up.
Was he suicidal? Drew thought as he watched the fiasco unfold on stage. But just then, some of the smoke began to clear and through the haze one could make out the undeniable figure of a boy. Afterwards the cloud quickly dispersed to reveal Steven standing safely between shards, each no more than an inch away from him. He looked upwards at the crowd, grinned, flashed a peace sign, and was responded to with a thunderous roar of applause.
"Wasn't that amazing?" Vivian squealed. "He didn't even get scathed!"
Drew wasn't surprised with the upcoming scores, although the judges might've just given him high marks for having guts, but his final score of 29 definitely gave him a sure-fire shot in the finals.
"Not bad, huh?" Steven grinned as he returned to the backstage lounge after receiving his score.
"Hmph," Drew grunted. "If you call suicidal 'not bad'."
"It's not suicide," the black-haired boy shot back. "It's calculations and a master of physics."
"Whatever," the other Coordinator sighed, rolling his eyes. He wasn't paying attention any more. He was once again scanning the crowd for a familiar head of mauve hair.
It wasn't but a few performances later that it was his turn on stage. He appeared beneath the spotlight with his signature flick of the hair and was answered with an eruption of calls, mostly those females. He held the pose for a split second, just so he could let his eyes dart among the people for a fray of purple hair. None. A scowl almost appeared on his lips.
"Come on out, Roselia!" he declared, tossing his poke'ball.
"Roossrrr!" the grass Poke'mon chimed as it burst out of its capsule, accompanied by a flurry of sakura petals.
"Petal dance!" Drew shouted with a ferocity that almost disturbed his Poke'mon. The rose-bearing creature gave a twirl, sending a blizzard of more pink petals into the air.
"It's Roselia's signature petal dance!" Vivian said on her play-by-play.
"Shadow ball!" the green-haired boy added loudly.
"Ooh! There's a twist!" the red-clad announcer said in surprise.
"Rosrr!" Roselia declared, aiming its roses into the air as an orb of dark energy began to form. When it was about the size of a basketball, the grass-type gave a twirl as it fired it, sending it upward with a spin. The sphere of darkness shot upward through the petals, sending them upwards into a spiraling tower tipped off by a dark globe.
"Quick! Solarbeam!" Drew exclaimed. Amazingly, Roselia immediately fired a golden beam of light from its roses straight up through the center of the flower tower and into the shadow ball. The blackness absorbed the solar energy at first, but then it began to expand for just a moment before completely exploding. The energy rushed outward, disintegrating the flower petals and covering the stage in a sparkling dust.
"Wasn't that interesting?" Vivian beamed. "Judges?" Drew didn't listen to his scores of three perfect 10's, but managed to put on a fake smile for his fans have he gave a bow, returned Roselia to its poke'ball, and made his way back stage.
"Great job out there!" Steven complimented as Drew lumbered down the couple steps into the backstage lounge.
"Thanks," the green-haired boy mumbled carelessly, not meeting the other Coordinator's eye. As he sat down on a nearby bench, thoughts raced through his head. Did Violet completely leave? Where did she go if she did? He clenched his eyes shut, surprised at his own frustration.
"That was the last contestant, so let's find out our finalists!" he heard Vivian announce through the monitor. Out of practice more so than interest he picked his head up to glance at the screen. He wasn't surprised when his face appeared first, then followed by Steven's. The remaining two finalists were some other Coordinators that both had at least 5 points less than both of them - not worth the effort.
Steven and he was to fight one of the others: Steven fought a girl with a Zigzagoon and Drew a boy with a Tropius. Drew used Flygon in the 2nd round and carried out his battle in a fog, almost completely giving no effort. In fact, Flygon managed to fend mostly for itself without much command. The Coordinator was grateful for that, because for some reason he couldn't force his brain to concentrate on the contest. It kept drifting off into other thoughts.
"And the winner is Drew! He'll move on to face Steven in the final round!" Vivian announced. The green-haired boy blinked into reality, having to shake his head a little. It was like he had been absent for his own match, completely unaware of what had been going on! Wait... did she say he would have to face Steven? He turned to look at the brown-eyed boy on the corner of the stage behind him. The Verdanturfian flashed him a thumbs-up, but in his head Drew groaned. He wasn't looking forward to facing that Ursaring - now he would actually have to think.
The match started not long later, Drew still forcing himself into consciousness. It held a similar feeling to that of trying to make yourself stay awake when you haven't slept for days. Why couldn't he concentrate?
"And we'll start the clock!" Vivian exclaimed. Thankfully, the sound of the beeping stirred Drew enough to look straight ahead at his Flygon opposing Steven's great bear Poke'mon.
"We'll start things off! Ursaring, use hyper beam!" Steven declared. With a hefty roar, Ursaring bellowed and a ray of golden energy shot from its mouth. What Drew did next was a split second decision. In fact, he almost stumbled over his words as they came out of his mouth.
"You too, Flygon!" he ordered and Flygon whinnied as an equally bright beam of energy shot from its mouth, slamming into the beam conjured by the bear. Upon contact the attacks created an eruption of energy, sending a storm of smoke into the air, and Drew heard the sound of two point bars dropping an equal amount on the screen over his head.
"Use slash!" Steven retaliated all-to-quickly.
"Rrrwawrrinng!" the bear growled as it surged through the smoke, its massive front claws glistening as they aimed for Flygon.
"Dodge!" Drew shouted and Flygon's lean body wiggled around Ursaring, whipping around it like a snake.
"Hammer arm!" the other Coordinator declared and too fast for Drew to register it, the large, brown Poke'mon had swung around, its mighty arm glowing bright white, and slammed it directly into the flank of his dragon Poke'mon. It screeched, sounding much like a banshee, and was flung across the stage.
"Ouch! That's going to take Drew down some more points! And with that, Steven takes the lead!" Vivian said as Flygon pushed itself to its feet, its shoulders arched and poised for an attack. Drew tried to think, but for some reason nothing came to mind. Agh, he didn't have time anyway!
"Flygon, use dragon rush!" he cried.
"Rrriieegh!" whinnied the dragon, encasing its arms in a soft purple aura before thrusting itself into the air with its wings and speeding for Ursaring.
"Close combat, Ursaring!" Steven shot back. Ursaring flexed its powerful paws and rushed forward. The two met and Flygon struck first, swiping its claws at the bear's face. Ursaring blocked it with a paw and swiped with another, only to have Flygon weave out of the way. This process continued for moments more, Drew watching on with a frustrated look on his face.
"Hey, Drew!" came the familiar, squeaky call from somewhere beyond the stage. The sound cut through the air like a bullet to Drew's ears and he immediately turned his head out into the audience to look. Just at the foot of the stage was a bouncing Violet waving frantically. She had come!
"Rrrriiiiieeeggggyyhhh!" wailed Flygon pathetically. Drew's head jerked back just in time to see his dragon being tossed across the stage by Ursaring's powerful swipes.
"Ooh! And there goes more of Drew's points!" Vivian went on. The green-haired boy gritted his teeth, wishing a certain announcer's microphone would decide to stop working.
"Flygon, get up!" Drew ordered. The green dragon pushed itself up, flinching only slightly, but steadied its stance for battle. Pride surged through the Coordinator looking on at his Poke'mon and he smirked. There's no way we're losing to these two, Drew thought. As if Flygon had heard him, it looked over its shoulder with its long neck and caught its Coordinator's gaze, a twinkle in its eye. Drew nodded.
"Aerial ace!" he shouted. Flygon gave a battle cry and surged into the air, performing a loop-de-loop before zipping towards Ursaring.
"Stop it in its tracks!" Steven retaliated. Those words were like someone had pressed 'pause, rewind, and play' in Drew's head as he glanced at Violet out of the corner of his eye.
"Aerial ace!" Drew commanded. Wings spread wide, Flygon dove for Onyx Ice.
"Stop it in its tracks!" Shadow hissed. Onyx Ice abruptly grabbed Flygon by the wings, stopping it dead.
The scene played over in Drew's head in a split second and he flashed back to the current time just as Ursaring caught Flygon by the wings, stopping its assault.
"Flygon, use your tail!" Drew ordered at once.
"Rryyeeigh!" it whinnied and its tail lashed forward between its hind legs. The powerful tail whipped forward, slamming Ursaring in the face, and sending it backwards along the stage.
"Now dragonbreath!" the green-haired boy followed-up, a 'no mercy' glare in his eye. A burst of green flames erupted from the dragon's mouth and soared towards the bear.
"Rrrrriinnng!" it growled, throwing up its strong arms to protect its face. The flames lapped around it, singing its fur and lighting the bear up like a green night-light. When the attack subsided, Ursaring lowered its defense, glaring but slightly scathed by the flames.
"And lots of points lost for Steven now! Looks like Drew's not done yet!" Vivian went on.
"Whoo! Way to go, Drew!" the green-haired Coordinator heard from a particular mauve-haired girl from the sidelines.
"Ursaring, let's kick it up a notch! Use bulk up!" Steven ordered and the great grizzly flexed its muscles, letting out a mighty roar as a crimson aura slipped in around its body.
"Careful, Flygon!" Drew said.
"Reiigh!" it screeched in confirmation.
'Dragon rush!" Flygon surged forward, purple eclipsing its forearms and claws.
"Close combat!" Steven ordered and once again the two Poke'mon were locked in a claw-to-claw contest of slashing and dodging.
"Use your tail!" the green-eyed boy declared and Flygon's powerful tail surged upwards again.
"You won't fool us twice! Hammer arm!" the other boy exclaimed and one of Ursarings gigantic arms took on a glowing white light, slamming downwards to meet Flygon's tail. The two attacks rammed each other and Drew was admittedly surprised when Flygon's tail held up to the sheer power behind Ursaring's arm. Both the dragon and the bear showed bared teeth as each pushed back and forth in their power struggle.
"Hyper beam!" ironically, both Coordinators shouted at the same time. Rays of light exploded from both Poke'mon's mouths, only to smash together and create another explosion of smoke.
"Flygon!" Drew cried.
"Ursaring!" he heard Steven exclaim from across the stage. Neither Coordinator answered but when the smoke cleared, both Poke'mon stood on opposing ends of the stage. Ursaring was down on one knee, panting hard and holding itself up with its fist. Flygon was on all-four's, it's tail weakly laying by its side and its wings a bit limp. Both had scathes and burns from the explosion, but they looked on with glares.
"Wow! Both Poke'mon are still standing!" Vivian said, astounded. "Wait a minute! Look at Flygon!" Drew blinked in surprise but glanced at his dragon. Ms. Meridian was right. One of its forelegs had folded underneath it, and the other one was trembling terribly.
"Flygon, come on! You've got to get up!" Drew encouraged, wishing he could send his ferocity to his Poke'mon.
"Rriieeggyhh.." it whinnied weakly and the boy watched the strain beneath the green scales as the Poke'mon pushed itself upward. Just as it appeared that it would be able to get to all-four's again, Drew's heart dropped. Its legs fell out from underneath it and Flygon collapsed to the stage floor, its wings laid out uselessly over its back and its eyes fluttered close.
"Flygon!" he cried.
"Oh on!" Vivian frowned. "It looks like Flygon's unable to battle!"