Me: Time for the final battle of this contest, and then I can finally get back to plot!

Auberon: *coughs*

Me: *sighs* And Evolving Pokémon, and catching them, fine, fine. Sheesh Auberon! You got your moment with Scarlet, stop bugging me!

Auberon: *blushes* Sh-Shut up!

Me: Anyway... ignoring the weird elfy kid, sorry about the two week (at least) delay! School is catching up with me, and I still hate battles as always... so, yeah... sorry guys!

Episode 35- A ribbon at last?

"Last chapter, we saw Lucy and Scarlet battle, and Scarlet winning after some encouragement from Auberon! Now it's onto the finals of the contest!"

"Scarlet, stop biting your nails!"

"I can't help it! I've never got this far in a contest before! I'm nervous as hell!" Scarlet replied. Alice sighed a little at the girl.

"You'll do fine! I'm not as strong as Lucy, and you beat her! You'll probably beat me!" Alice said. (*cough* No duh *cough*) "I heard that!" Hehe... please don't kill me! Oh wait; you're not one of the characters who are likely to go on a murderous rampage, phew. "You must meet some evil people." Alice said to Scarlet.

"Not evil, just crazy... insane... Etc... Etc..."

"Right... you guys scare me sometimes, really." Alice said. Don't worry, they scare me too, and I made them!

"Shuddup authoress." Scarlet said, Asher nodding in agreement with her. Fine, fine, you gotta go on soon anyway.

Scarlet promptly began to bite her nails again. *sigh* I don't know whether to kill you or give you Nevee's meds! I think they make any 'sane' person insane, and any insane person sane! "And how would being insane help me?" You'd be less nervous.

"You are as weird as ever." Alice commented. I know. "I wish you'd stop saying that." I know.

Theme: Third Generation of Pokémon,
Comin' at you we're number one!
We're better than ever and we're never givin' up,
Gonna keep on fightin' 'til we reach the top!
Cos' we still gotta catch 'em all,
Never gonna let you fall!
Third generation of Pokémon,
Comin' at you we're number one!

"I am officially torn on who to root for." Auberon said, leaning back in his chair and promptly falling back into the people behind them... again.

Psst! Jaspa, you don't keep making him do that do you? "No." Okay then.

Auberon clambered back to his seat and peered over the side again, waiting for the girls to run on. Yeah, he is torn about this people, and we all know why! *winks*

Auberon's cheeks went red and he shot a glare at me. Hotaru giggled to herself knowingly, whilst Nevee just sat there being, well, Nevee! She's completely oblivious as usual. All she's gone on about since Scarlet and Lucy's battle has been Asher's evolution.

"Asher's the cuuuuutest Chameleon I've ever seen!" See?

"Actually," Jaspa started, glaring at me, "she had shut up about it a moment ago." Oh... heh... oops? "I hate you." I know, I know. Heh, actually he and Indi probably hate me the least... other than Nevee...

"They're coming on!" Auberon the yelled.

"And here are our finalists! Alice Shadow from Olivine City, and Scarlet Stone-Ketchum from Pallet Town!" Lillian announced. And ya know? Its only now I realised I'm using Hoenn/Kanto's MC for Sinnoh. *sweatdrops*

Scarlet and Alice ran on, both holding a Poké Ball.

"Go, Asher! You're up once more!" Scarlet called.

"Bella, you're turn again!" Okay, I know this isn't possible... but I swear she chose a Buneary on purpose because of how Asher likes Bunny. (Yeah... Scarlet let Nevee nickname her Buneary...)

"Yay! Bunny Rabbit!" Nevee cheered, finally shutting up about Asher. *sweatdrops* She likes the 'Animalia' cards Ruby mentioned in like, the first RJC chapter ever.

"This should be interesting." Jaspa said, leaning back in his chair. Indigo's arm was squished a bit by this, since she had her arms latched around his, normally this wouldn't be an issue though, but Indigo flinched. Jaspa gave her a silent apology. The hardness of his newer skin and his weight must mean it hurts more...

~X~X~X~

"It's not Bunny, Asher! You can fight her!" Scarlet said. Alice sweatdropped at the name, and so did Asher. He still calls her Buneary, by the way. "I don't like the weird nickname any more than you, but Nevee will kill me if I don't call her it! She's descended from ex-vampires, she might suck my blood!" You... you're just joking aren't you? "Of course." Phew... "You're weird." She added, looking at the sky.

"Bella, you ready?" Alice asked. The Buneary nodded.

"Asher, you ready?" Scarlet repeated. Asher nodded too.

"Let's, get, BUSY!" Lillian called.

"Swift!"

"Flamethrower!" I don't think I need to tell you who called which. The Flamethrower was ordered a few seconds after the swift, and at first it had seemed Scarlet was going to order a different attack.

Much like in her earlier battle against Lucy, the flames coated the Swift and caused a glow to emanate from them. But this time is was a stronger fire move, so the effect was stronger too, some of Alice's points already dropping.

"What a beautiful use of her opponent's attack!" Lillian-who-really-should-be-Marian said. "Can you not put that please? I am glad I'm not stuck in Kanto and Hoenn, it's a nice change!" Alright, alright, sheesh-kebab! "What... the... hell?" Never mind...

"Use Bounce!" Alice ordered, sweatdropping at the exchange. Bella used her attack, using it to bounce on each of the stars and destroy them, creating an effect that made some of Scarlet's points also drop. Then Bella bounced on top of Asher's head, making him wave a fist at her. The attack didn't really do that much damage, but the effect it had created made up for that.

"Dragon Rage!" And you know what I just realised about that attack? The first time I described it, during one of Kirara's battles, it was a beam... last time, it was a shock wave. *sweatdrops*

"IT'S KIRA!" A familiar voice yelled from somewhere in the region. (I missed that gag. XD)

The shock wave hit Bella, but she managed to recover pretty quickly, hopping up into the air again to avoid a Flamethrower Scarlet had ordered just after the previous attack hit.

"Alright Asher, focus Dragon Rage into a beam and also use Flamethrower!" Scarlet said. Asher did just that, the purple beam firing straight ahead and the Flamethrower managing to swirl around it as if it were a Fire Spin.

"Swift again!" Alice ordered.

The two attacks collided, bursting into various coloured sparkles that surrounded both Pokémon, meaning the amount of points that dropped was equal on each side. I don't even think there's a difference in the point count currently! This is probably gonna be a close one...

4:01

"Iron Tail, Asher!" Scarlet called.

"Jump Kick, Bella!" Alice said. Iron Tail was charged quickly, and Bella was already heading at Asher with her own attack.

~X~X~X~

"Is it me... or do these Contests always end up like Gyms?" Indigo said. *sweatdrops* I'm afraid it's not you... according to one old reader, I'm better at contests than gyms... sure, I admit I can come up with a few techniques... but with how crap I am at these battles and they think I'm better at them... then I can't imagine how bad the Gyms seem to people.

"Oh, very, very bad." Auberon said. Oh shut up! No one cares what you think! *blushes embarrassed* "Hahahaha!"

"Don't anger her, she has mom's temper." Jaspa reminded the elf. "They are the same person remember."

"Ah shuddup." Auberon pouted.

"Lookie! Lookie! It's neck-a-neck!" Nevee said, pointing at the battle. Is it me, or is she the most absorbed in the battle today? None of you seem to be paying attention!

But anyway, Nevee was right. The points were equal, and the two attacks last called had somehow clashed in the middle, neither was budging! (Yeah... running theme in my battles right now, I know XD)

"I can't believe Nevee is noticing more than Jaspa!" Auberon said. Jaspa shot him a glare. Hotaru just sweatdropped at them all.

"The sooner we save Ruby and the others, the better. I can't stand this madness for much longer." She said.

~X~X~X~

"I officially don't get how a Jump Kick can be clashing with an Iron Tail." Scarlet said. Heh... neither do I! And I wrote this! "I'd fall over 'anime style' if I wasn't in the middle of a battle." Shuddup...

"Dizzy Punch!" Alice ordered. Bella stopped her previous attack, jumping back and promptly making Asher fall to the ground as the clash stopped. Some points on Scarlet's side dropped from the ungraceful landing. Bella then leapt at the Charmeleon (I just realised I've been spelling it wrong...) and her bent ear lashed out hard, hitting the Fire Type.

"Smokescreen then Dragon Rage!" Scarlet called out. Asher was up again quickly, blowing the Smokescreen right into Bella's face, making her back off coughing, and let the smoke fill the area like in her battle against Lucy.

The Dragon Rage burst out of the smoke in a shock wave again, cutting a gap in the smoke and hitting the normal type rabbit.

"Ice Beam!" Alice said.

"Flamethrower!"

Naturally, these attacks could not clash. The Flamethrower melted the Ice Beam and burst through to hit the Buneary, but Bella managed to jump out of the way just in time.

"Swift again!"

"Iron Tail!"

The stars were smashed, making sparkles around them, dropping some points on Alice's side.

2:29

~X~X~X~

"Just over two minutes to go... who is winning?" Auberon asked. Look for yourself! "No! I don't wanna!" So immature...

"I think... its Scarlet. It's only by a couple of points at the moment, but it's Scarlet." Jaspa said. Um... where's Indigo? "Toilet." Oh, okay. Why don't I have a good feeling about this...?

~X~X~X~

"Go for another Dizzy Punch!" Alice said. Bella nodded, preparing her attack again. Asher kept himself on guard, ready to dodge when he needed to. Scarlet was waiting too, thinking of a way to counter if needs be. Then she smirked a little to herself, remembering a strategy her mother had taught her, and that she had been using with her Pokémon in training. It wasn't the best strategy for contests, but it may just help her win this battle.

She waited for Bella to finish the Dizzy Punch and jump up, heading for Asher, and then called out: "Use Rage Wave!" Asher, even though this hadn't been used in training before, immediately guessed which attack she meant.

"Huh?" Alice said. You obviously never saw any of Ruby Stone-Ketchum's League Battles.

Dragon Rage quickly fired, full power. Without any previous warning, Bella hadn't gotten chance to dodge, and was hit by the full brunt of the attack. More points dropped as Bella took a lot of damage... eh? One second! Dragon Rage can only do 40HP damage at time!

"Well, believe it or not, I broke the laws of whatever and made it so it can do more." Scarlet said. And remind me how long you've been a trainer? "Coordinator. But... hum... a couple of months?" Well, in your world yes, technically it's been about... Six months or so. (No joke either! O.O This went by fast for me!) But that's not the point! How the heck did you manage that at such a low experience?-! "Not a clue. Ask yourself, you write this crap." True...

1:49

"Are you alright Bella?-!" Alice called. Bella managed to get back up, though looking like she couldn't take much more, and nodded. "If you're sure... alright, use Swift!"

"Fire Beam!"

"I swear, I hate that tactic already." Alice sighed. "That one isn't all that hard to guess... but still..."

Attacks continued back and forth, points dropping, damage being taken... and then, suddenly...

0:02

Bella suddenly collapsed, and three red X's appeared on the Judges' screens. The timer stopped one second before the end of the match. Holy CRAP that is close if I ever saw it!

"And the winner of this year's contest is SCARLET!" Lillian announced.

"YES!" Scarlet cheered, jumping up and down. Asher leapt up onto her back, cheering too. Alice smiled at the scene, returning Bella was a thank you.

~X~X~X~

"Scarlet finally gets a ribbon." Indigo smiled, seeing the screen as she walked back to the stands, stopping to watch for a moment. But then she felt a shiver go down her spine, and she turned around, eyes widening in horror. "Wh... Wh-What're you d-doing here?"

"You didn't really think that just because I was knocked out of the contest that I'd leave you alone, did you?" Dax smirked.

Indigo gulped.

~X~X~X~

Me: Next chapter will be semi-bad, semi-'normal'. I think so anyway. Well, sorry for the delay again, school sucks. R&R!