The first day of the Wallace Cup. And a scene with the last of the Galactic Hunters commanders.
Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon or its characters.
Chapter 25: First Appeals
The Wallace Cup started in the morning. Marian from Sinnoh was the MC today. As the event was completely sold out, the hall was full.
"Ladies and Gentlemen. Welcome to the first Wallace Cup in Unova, which is also the very first official contest ever held here! We are proud to present you many of the best coordinators from every region. But in the end, only one will be able to win the prestigious Aqua Ribbon, which counts towards the all the grand festivals. But before I start explaining the rules, Wallace, Hoenn's champion and top coordinator would like to have a word." Everyone looked around as he was nowhere to be seen.
Just then several aqua rings rose from one of the pools, now floating above the stage. A turquoise orb followed, exploding between them and making the water sparkle. Then a tornado appeared, which soon started to glow green until it disappeared again in a bright, green flash, revealing a milotic in its full length. Wallace himself was riding her with his outfit being completely dry despite all the water thanks to Milotic's safeguard. He jumped off when It used surf and dived into the other pool. While the people were cheering, Marian handed him the microphone.
"Thank you. I'm glad to see so many people watching the contest and I hope that you will enjoy it to the fullest. I'm also happy about the enormous number of coordinators that followed our call to make this Wallace Cup an unforgettable event. We will see beauty, power and friendship between coordinator and pokémon. So let's start! Show me your skill! Show me that you are worthy of the next Aqua Ribbon! Give the good people here a show they'll never forget!" He gave the microphone back to the MC just as Milotic emerged from the water again, taking its place next to him.
"Coordinators, you heard our champion! But before we start I'll explain the rules and concepts of contests to those who don't know them yet," she announced.
It took a while before the first coordinator was finally able to make his appeal. Right after, it was May's turn. She was wearing the same dress she wore during the last Wallace Cup, probably because Drew and the others told her that they really liked it.
"Our second participant is May from Petalburg City in Hoenn!" Marian shouted.
"Kingdra, take the stage!" The water and dragon type appeared in one of the two big pools."Start with waterfall!" Her pokémon created a pillar of water, swimming to the top.
"Rain dance! Then twister!" Very dark clouds appeared above the stage, causing heavy rain while lightning illuminated them from within. Kingdra formed a tornado within the pillar of water, which made it look like a whirlpool, only much taller and more slender.
"More twisters!" Several other tornados rose next to the first one. Lightning was coming from the clouds. It was a truly frightening storm but May didn't think it was enough.
"Use hydro pump on the cloud!" A surprisingly massive stream of water came out of its snout, going right into the clouds, where it caused the rain to become much stronger.
"Now agility!" This raised its speed, which was already high because of its swift swim ability, to remarkable levels. Kingdra moved gracefully though the storm, evading the lightning strikes and the moving twisters with ease. Then it swam up the waterfall that had been turned into a whirlpool again, despite the strong current.
"Use dragon pulse!" The dragon pokémon shot a large, turquoise orb into it, making it expand while glowing green. It swallowed the other twisters, becoming even bigger before exploding with a green flash. At the same time the rain stopped, leaving only Kingdra itself.
May bowed to the audience which erupted into cheers.
"If you ever wanted to see one of Kingdra's legendary storms, you probably won't get a better impression!" Marian shouted. "Unless, of course, you get caught on a cruise. But you probably wouldn't like that."
Apart from the usual judges, Mr. Contesta, Mr. Sukizo and the local nurse Joy, Wallace himself also judged the appeals and battles. After the others gave some very good reviews, he spoke up.
"An appeal worthy of a powerful and majestic pokémon like Kingdra. Well done!" he told her.
"Awesome job, Kingdra!" The coordinator recalled her pokémon and went backstage where she was ambushed by her friends.
"A great appeal!" Dawn squealed. "You're as good as through!"
"You did well bringing out Kingdra's reputation," Drew agreed.
"I never thought appeals would look that good," Iris, who came to visit them along with Cilan, remarked. "Now I can't wait for the others."
"And the audience thinks the same way," Cilan said. "If it goes on like that, the event will be a huge success."
They talked a bit more until it was time for Kenny's appeal. His clothes were similar to those he used to wear during normal Sinnoh contests.
"The next coordinator is Kenny from Twinleaf Town in Sinnoh!" the MC announced.
"Empoleon, go!" He sounded not very excited, even a bit sad. "Use the blizzard missile!" Empoleon's beak glowed white when he started to spin rapidly, flying towards one of the pools quickly. Upon hitting the water, a frosty explosion occurred which froze it just as it was flying away by the force of the move. It created a crater-like terrain.
"Get it out of the water!" Empoleon jumped into the pool and, with all its strength, pushed the ice out of the water.
"Metal claw!" His pokémon formed the crude chunk of ice into a perfectly shaped ball.
"Ice beam on the water, then balance it on your beak!" The surface of the pool was frozen quickly. Then Empoleon grabbed the ball, walked over to the ice and placed it on the top of its beak. But instead of letting it spin, the emperor pokémon started to spin itself while the ball stood still. This was also the reason it chose the ice to stand on. It would have never worked on a less slippery surface.
"Drill peck!" Empoleon spun even faster now. Although nobody could see it, it used a very weak ice beam to counter the attrition of the ice. After a while, it hurled the ball up in the air with its wings glowing white.
"Metal claw!" It made a clean hit, which sliced the ball in half. Kenny and his pokémon bowed to the crowd, which enjoyed their performance quite a lot.
"What an interesting concept!" Marian shouted. "Instead of letting the ball spin, you just spin yourself. And the explosion at the beginning sure was powerful."
The judges saw it the same way and also complimented Empoleon its sense of balance.
"A wonderful idea to reverse the old trick. Definitely a worthy appeal!" Wallace remarked.
The others congratulated him backstage.
"It was a great appeal," Dawn told him. "I'm sure you'll pass this round."
"Thanks. We worked hard for this to work, after all," he replied emotionlessly.
"Hey, cheer up a bit. Even I think you did well," Drew said truthfully for once.
"Yeah, sure." Kenny just walked away without looking at them.
"Oh dear, he's really down. Maybe I was a bit too harsh to him?" Dawn asked when he was out of hearing range.
"You had to tell him. He wouldn't have given up otherwise," Ash told her. "By the way, what's with all the spinning appeals?"
"Well, it does look good so you can't blame people for trying it," Drew remarked. "Besides, it was the first one. Or are you referring to your own appeal? And maybe Dawn's?"
"Forget what I said," Ash answered, concentrating on the current appeal. "You'll see our appeals soon enough. Maybe you should prepare yours?"
"There's still a lot of time. I'll watch a few more," he replied.
The next appeals were not bad but nothing special either so Drew's would be a nice change.
"The next contestant won the last Johto Grand Festival. Let's welcome Drew from LaRousse City in Hoenn!" Marian shouted.
Drew got a big applause. He was wearing a fancy, green suit.
"Let's give them a show they'll never forget! Tentacruel, go!" he exclaimed.
"Start with toxic spikes!" His pokémon shot lots of purple glowing spikes in the air. As they were about to fall on the stage, he gave another command. "Catch them with your special bubbles!" It sprayed bubbles in all directions, which trapped the spikes inside. It made them glow purple.
"Freeze them with blizzard!" Drew commanded. Tentacruel froze the bubbles, which now fell down, with a quick storm of ice. Extending and using dozens of tentacles, it caught all of them before they could fall to the ground and break.
"Juggle them!" Tentacruel threw all the frozen bubbles in the air, before starting to juggle all of them with enormous speed. Despite many orbs flying around seemingly uncontrolled, Tentacruel had no problem keeping them in the air.
"Now spin around!" Even while spinning, it didn't drop even one orb. With time, it got faster and faster. Suddenly it threw them up in the air.
"Rapid spin!" The spin became so fast that its image started to blur. When the orbs fell down, Tentacruel didn't even attempt to catch them this time. Instead, they were shattered by the force of the tentacles. Upon destruction, they released some kind of purple smoke, which covered the stage but was soon dispersed by wind Tentacruel created with its movement.
Then Drew's pokémon stopped, striking a pose along with him.
"You will hardly find a better juggler than a Tentacruel," Marian shouted. "After all, they are said to have up to 80 tentacles."
Of course, Drew wasn't surprised to hear some very good reviews from the judges.
"A perfect control of dozens of arms at the same time," the champion told him. "I'm glad you decided to use this appeal here."
With a smug look on his face, Drew went backstage.
"See how awesome spins can be in a proper appeal?" he asked Ash when they met there again.
"Our appeals are just as good!" he replied. "Besides, you don't know whether you passed yet."
"I couldn't possibly fail after an appeal like this." Drew got a bit more serious. "Don't worry, I'm sure you'll do just fine."
"It's not me who I'm worried about." He casted a worried glance at Dawn who was watching the other appeals nervously.
Why is she like that? he wondered. After so many contests this should be a piece of cake. Zoey told me that she wasn't like that during their journey through Hoenn. So why now?
"What do you mean? She looks normal to me," his friend claimed.
"No, there's something wrong. I can see it." Drew shook his head.
"Maybe it's because you know her better," he guessed. "Anyway, if it's true, you should talk to her and calm her down a bit."
Ash was thinking the exactly same thing. So he approached her during the break after the first 40 appeals. She was currently sitting alone at a table and has been eating the same sandwich for nearly 20 minutes now.
This is not good. Not good at all, she thought. Why am I so nervous all of sudden? Is it because of so many powerful coordinators participating? Or is it because of Ash? Am I afraid of embarrassing myself in front of him? We trained so much that I can't just lose in the appeals round now.
"Hey, what's bothering you?" He sat down next to her. "Don't even try to deny it."
"What?" She winced at his sudden appearance. "Oh, uhm, how can you tell something's wrong?"
"Oh come on. It's obvious. You have been spacing out quite often recently," he replied. "Why are you so nervous?"
"Well, it's just that this contest is so much bigger than those in Hoenn. Just imagine, only 16 of over 100 participants will go on to the next round," she explained. "Of course, I'm kind of nervous."
"You don't have to. You have already shown me your appeal. I'm absolutely sure you will make it. And then you'll win the Wallace Cup!" he reassured her. "Well, unless I beat you on the way there."
Somehow, these simple words made her feel a lot better.
Even if I lose, he won't judge me. He's not that type of guy, she reassured herself. I'll just do my best and it'll be fine.
"Thanks, Ash. I needed that." She finished her sandwich quickly. "But there's no way you will stop me now. Let's get back to the others, shall we?"
They met them backstage again, where they could already see the next appeals starting. Soon it would be Dawn's turn. Shortly before it was time for her, Ash wanted to wish her good luck but she was already gone. But since there was no time to look for her, he just waited for her appeal.
"Now it's time for Dawn from Twinleaf Town in Sinnoh!" Marian announced. Dawn was wearing her grand festival outfit, but in blue instead of yellow.
"Kabutops! Spotlight!" she exclaimed. "Start with rain dance!" He spun around a few times, causing dark clouds to appear above the stage, which started a heavy rain. It triggered his swift swim ability.
"Rock polish! Then swords dance!" His body started to faintly glow white while he was swirling his sickles, which glowed even brighter.
"Aqua jet! Go!" With great speed, he flew around, slicing the surface of the water. "Stone edge!" By shooting them at the right places, he drew patterns in the pools when they hit the water. After showing off his speed and the sharpness of his sickles a bit longer, the rain subsided and he stopped near one of the pools.
"Let's start the real show! Use waterfall and ice beam!" Kabutops swam up a big pillar of water, which rose from the pool, freezing it from above when he arrived at the top.
"Now swords dance, aqua jet and rapid spin!" Her pokémon jumped up high, his sickles glowing brightly once again. Then he got encased in water and began to spin while holding his sickles in front of him. It created a drill similar to the one in her battle against Trip.
"Go!" Suddenly, he shot down vertically, directly on the top of the frozen pillar, making his way through the ice to the bottom where he stopped. It was now completely hollow.
"Aurora beam!" A multicoloured beam was shot up the pillar, while the pokémon was spinning. As the surface was pretty irregular, it reflected the light accordingly to create a beautiful, glowing tube, which illuminated the whole contest hall in all kinds of colours. All the time, you could still see him spinning inside the tube as the lower part of the tube wasn't hit by the beam. But now it was time to finish it.
"Use screech!" Kabutops released a piercing noise, which first shook the pillar and then shattered it. Both Dawn and her pokémon bowed to the audience before the people cheered loudly.
"I must admit, I had to wonder whether someone put something in my drink during the break. I've never seen such a colourful appeal!" the MC shouted. The judges agreed with her, complimenting Dawn on a great appeal.
"A balanced appeal which showed the speed, power and beauty of your pokémon equally. I'm really impressed," Wallace told her, which almost made her heart stop.
"Thank you, Kabutops." She recalled him shakily and went backstage again. Before she could get back there, though, Ash found her, his arm already raised. She gladly gave him a high five.
"See? There was nothing to worry about," he told her.
"You're right. Thank you for your help," she replied excitedly. "Did you hear what he said? A compliment from Wallace himself!" Ash knew how much she admired the champion. She let out a squeal before she got serious again. "But we aren't done yet. There are still dozens of other great appeals."
"No need to worry, right? I'm sure we'll make it." They went back to the others, who were already watching the next appeal.
"Hey, Dawn," May greeted her. "That was an awesome appeal. And it's great you didn't freak out because of your hair this time."
"Yeah, Piplup had to calm you down with a bubble beam to the face back then." Zoey remembered that scene, which caused Dawn to blush. "Your calmness surprised me a bit as even May was pretty nervous today."
"Yeah, Dawn was very nervous at that time," Ash said. "But she's much better now. I have no doubt that she'll make it to the next round."
"I would be surprised if she didn't. It was a really good appeal," Zoey told him.
"If even Zoey says that, you'll make it without a problem." May said, laughing.
The last two appeals weren't bad although a bit similar to some previous ones. But with more than 100 appeals, this was bound to happen sooner or later. Hopefully, the judges would consider that. Then the first day of the Wallace Cup was already over. Most coordinators tried to relax for the rest of the day but Ash wanted to train instead. And Dawn volunteered to help him. Before they could do this, however, there was another thing: It was time for Misty, Tracey, Gary and Brock to leave.
Gary somehow managed to sneak away unnoticed. One day they tried to visit him and just found an empty room. Of course, they weren't too surprised as he had been very busy the whole time, rarely partaking in the others' activities.
Now it was time to say goodbye at the harbour.
"It's a shame you can't stay for the rest of the Wallace Cup," Ash said to Misty.
"It's alright. We came for you, not for the Wallace Cup. Besides, we can still watch it on TV. It was nice to see you again, even though it didn't work the way I hoped," Misty told her friend. "Take care and win that damn league for a change, will you?"
"I'll do my best," he replied, rolling his eyes. "And you take good care of your gym!"
"I will, unless my sisters have already ruined it completely." She shuddered, remembering the last time she left it to them. Misty turned to Dawn. "Get him! And if he makes trouble, visit me and I'll give you a mallet! Because of it, he won't forget the birthday of a close friend ever again."
"Oh, that explains it," Dawn mumbled, remembering her birthday. "As I've said, I don't think I'll need something like that."
"Maybe you could actually get through that thick skull of his," She gave her a hug. "Take care!"
"You too!" Dawn answered with a smile before Misty said goodbye to the others.
"Well, I'm sorry for having done this. It really caused you some trouble, didn't it?" Brock asked.
"It's alright." Ash waved it off. "You only tried to help her and I can't stay mad at an old friend like you."
"I'm glad. I'll miss the nurse Joy in Castelia City but at least I still have the one in Pewter City. Anyway, good luck in the league." He turned to the coordinators. "And good luck to you in the Wallace Cup."
"Have fun with your studies," they replied.
"Maybe he'll get a girl once he's a real doctor?" May remarked, which he fortunately didn't hear.
"I had a great time. Oh, and you're one lucky guy!" Tracey said to Ash, glancing at the girls briefly.
"What do you mean?" he asked, obviously not getting it.
"Still as dense as ever." Tracey sighed in frustration.
He gets the girls without even trying! he thought.
"Anyway, I hope you'll return to Kanto soon." Tracey turned to Dawn, handing he a folded paper. "I made this for you and Ash. Misty inspired me to do it. You deserve it for getting her out of this without too many tears shed. But look at it when you're alone! Otherwise it might be a bit embarrassing."
"Oh, thank you but I actually didn't do anything. They did it by themselves," she claimed.
"No matter, take it. You will like it, trust me," he just said.
"Okay, thank you again." She put it into her bag.
They chatted a bit more with May, Drew, Zoey, Iris, Cilan, Kenny and also Pikachu before going aboard. As the ship set off, they waved each other goodbye. Soon you could hardly see it anymore so they returned to their normal activities.
During the training Dawn revealed a few pokémon she hasn't shown him yet, including Metagross, Ninetales and Absol. It was then that she realized that he has only been using his Unova pokémon so far.
"Ash, I'm starting to wonder why you don't train with your Sinnoh pokémon or the others," she told him. "Why do you keep training with your Unova pokémon only?"
"Oh that." He seemed to be a bit embarrassed. "It's because of Trip. Since he's a new trainer I decided to use only the pokémon I caught in Unova in the league. It would be a bit unfair to wreck his whole team with Infernape."
"You boys and your pride!" she exclaimed. "So it's just to show him that you're the better trainer?"
"Well, technically, yeah," he answered, scratching the back of his head. Dawn just sighed.
"I know you can do it. You're just making it a lot more difficult than it is," she told him. "Anyway, let's continue!"
A few hours later, they went back to their respective rooms, too exhausted to continue. It would be his turn to do an appeal tomorrow.
There Dawn remembered the picture Tracey gave her. She wondered why he told her that she would be embarrassed if someone saw her looking at it. Then it hit her.
Is it something dirty? She blushed at the thought. No, he didn't make that impression. Let's just have a look. Fortunately, Piplup is already asleep.
It was beautiful to say the least. The picture showed a dark room, dimly lit by a few candles and the full moon behind a window. Her older self was sleeping on a couch with her head resting on Ash's lap. He was softly stroking her hair while looking at her lovingly. There was a peaceful expression of utter contentment on her face. He looked so mature and handsome to her. But the things that really caught her eye were the clothes. She was dressed as a bride and he was wearing the formal suit of a groom.
It's … absolutely beautiful. She looked at all the details and the emotions in that picture. They made her eyes shine. No wonder he told me to look at it when I'm alone. My friends would tease me for the rest of my life. Anyway, I hope this will come true one day.
Dawn looked at it a bit longer until she decided to finally go to sleep. She would have to thank Tracey somehow.
In the meantime, Ash was having trouble falling asleep. He was a bit nervous himself about his appeal. What would she say if he didn't make it past the appeal round? After all, he entered the Wallace Cup for her. But there was no point in worrying now.
I'll just do my best and everything will work out, he thought. Still I don't want to make of fool of myself in front of her, I mean, all of them.
He also wondered why he was so nervous about something like that all of sudden as he usually wasn't like that. It took a lot of time until he finally dozed off.
A man in the typical black uniform of the Galactic Hunters commanders with long, red hair and cold, grey eyes was standing on a cliff, watching Canalave City below him. Next to him, a darkrai with glowing red eyes was floating.
"When is she finally going to show up? How many nightmares do we have to cause until she reveals herself?" he mumbled.
He has been waiting here for days now. But this day, it would finally end. A signal beam suddenly hit Darkrai in the back. The man turned around, looking at Cresselia floating high above their position.
"There you are. Darkrai, use dark pulse!" It shot a dark beam at its arch-enemy, who dodged it easily, countering with another signal beam, which hit her opponent.
"You useless thing! Can't you even dodge on your own? Do I have to tell you everything? Dark void!" The dark orb hit Cresselia without having any effect. Obviously she was protected by safeguard. She used future sight, firing a lightning bolt into the sky.
"Use dark pulse until she's finished!" he yelled. After his first dark pulse missed due to her speed, her eyes glowed blue and it got surrounded by a blue aura. "Miracle eye? I didn't know Cresselia could use that move. But it certainly explains a lot." She smashed Darkrai into the ground with psychic, where he was hit by a powerful lightning from the future sight attack. Another signal beam nearly finished it off.
"Enough!" he shouted. "No use fighting a legendary pokémon with one who won't even use its tremendous speed to dodge properly. Infernape, Houndoom, Camerupt, Magmortar, finish her!" Cresselia used psychic again to crush the ground they were standing on, causing them to lose balance. She followed up with a storm of hidden power orbs, which caused great damage to the fire types. Then she finished off Houndoom with psyshock.
"Wonderful! She lives up to her reputation. A psychic type that can even fight Darkrai! We must have it! Use flamethrower!" The three remaining pokémon shot streams of fire at Cresselia, who blocked all of them with protect. Another attack with hidden power knocked out Magmortar and activated Infernape's blaze ability. However, before it could do anything, Cresselia's psyshock knocked it unconscious as well, which only left Camerupt. As his trainer didn't bother giving a command, it could only watch as a psychic attack knocked it out.
"Well done," the man congratulated the psychic type. "But it takes more to defeat commander Phoenix! Heatran, show her real power! Start with magma storm!" A powerful storm of fire engulfed Cresselias surroundings, trapping her inside a large vortex of flames. She tried to attack it with psychic but it had only little effect due to its typing. "Now flamethrower!" Even more flames surrounded Cresselia, burning her badly while she couldn't move at all. As the view on her was blocked by the fire, Phoenix couldn't see that she used moonlight to heal herself while assembling dozens of hidden power orbs.
"That should take care of her." He raised his right arm, revealing one of their stone cannons. But when the smoke cleared, she was still floating there, having taken much less damage than he thought. Furthermore, she was ready for a counter attack. "Impossible!"
A storm of orbs hit the surprised Heatran, knocking it out.
"I knew it, it must be ground type," he recalled his fainted pokémon and readied another pokéball. "Alright, playing time is over. Darkrai, dark pulse! Come on out, Moltres! Use sky attack" As Cresselia was still recovering from the fight with Heatran, she couldn't dodge in time and was hurt badly, only to be hit by a powerful flying move which smashed her into the ground.
"Very good! But since she caused Heatran so much pain, hit her once more with flamethrower!" The flames hit her in the back, making her cry out in pain. Just then he shot her with his cannon, turning her to stone. "Magnificent! A piece of art! A pity the old man won't appreciate it. Anyway, let's do this."
He took out a device and pressed a button. Within seconds, several kadabra teleported to his position and brought him to one of their bases along with Cresselia.