Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon or its characters.

Chapter 38: Appeals in Fear

The fourth day of the Wallace Cup began just like the third, only with a little more sunshine. Rays of sunlight woke Ash from his unpleasant sleep, yet he had no motivation to get up. No, he didn't feel rested at all, just like Dawn, who had struggled to wake up properly, but she didn't have a choice as she had to prepare the breakfast. Even while doing that, she often caught herself staring out of the windows. The weather was perfect, not too hot but also not too cold and with very few clouds in the sky so the chance of a storm was minimal. If there was going to be a storm, it was going to be of a different kind, the kind everyone feared. It was easy for people to say that the threats of a madwoman like Shira wouldn't stop them from enjoying the event but staying calm when the attack could happen at any moment was much harder, especially with so many innocent people around, people they wouldn't be able to protect. Because of that getting out of the bed was already a challenge for both of them and they weren't the only ones. Their pokémon were just as nervous, especially Piplup, who refused to leave Dawn's side at all despite not being at the contest hall yet.

Not even their daily interactions were safe and they found themselves eating in silence, a highly unusual behavior for them. They were simply not in the mood for many words, but at least, it wasn't an awkward silence as nobody expected the other one to say something. If there was anything that could truly tell just how worried Ash was, it was the fact that he ate barely more than Dawn. Anyone who knew about his hunger would get suspicious immediately, but Dawn already knew the reason and could understand him all too well.

They almost expected their mothers to burst in and tie them to their chairs just to make sure that they were safe, but the morning remained quiet. In the end, they left the house a bit later than usual. The exact time of the attack, if there would be any, was still unknown so they had to be on their guard.

Unsurprisingly, their friends seemed just as nervous and apart from the initial greetings there was little talking. The clear sky was like a mockery of the gloomy atmosphere among the people. As predicted by many, a lot of seats were empty, which wasn't all bad for Dawn as it allowed her to call out a few pokémon to take the empty seats so that they could watch and maybe even learn a few things. Besides, in case of an attack, she wouldn't have to waste precious time by calling them out. Ash, May, Drew, and Serena went to their rooms to change into their contest outfits before it was time for the waiting game. In addition to the threat, they also had to make sure that their appeal worked, which wasn't easy, considering they were always slightly distracted, but they were going to do their best anyway.

Just as expected, the appeals were of much higher quality than the previous ones, but at the same time, there were fewer coordinators so this day should be over relatively soon. In fact, a lot of spectators were hoping that they'd get be finished quickly in order to evade Shira's possible attack. Drew was the first of the group to make his appeal.

"Absol, Claydol, show time!" he exclaimed, trying to spark at least a bit of enthusiasm. "Absol, use wind rush! Claydol, get ready!"

Absol's claws extended while emitting a purple glow, hinting at a psycho cut variant. Then it charged forward, cutting the air itself in the process and leaving a white trail behind. It was like it was walking on the water and soon started circling the area around which Claydol was levitating right now. While Absol was getting faster and faster, the water began to move along, maybe also due to a psychic move by Claydol. Apparently, the goal was to create a water tornado, which took some time and in the end, Absol was moving so fast that it was barely visible. As more water was sucked in from below, the tornado got taller and eventually blocked the view on Claydol. Usually this wasn't a wise move, so he had to do something to make up for it. Upon reaching the appropriate height, the water was used to stabilize the tornado instead until Drew thought that they were ready for the next phase.

"Hidden power!" That command was for Claydol since Absol basically walked up the tornado like it was a spiral staircase, now slow enough so that human eyes could see it. The water glowed green from the side due to Claydol's move when the dark type reached the top, where it jumped up high. "Psycho cut!" While spinning, it shot several blades on the tornado without a visible effect except for preventing the water from rotating. In fact, most people were worried about Claydol inside. Absol jumped into the tornado, disappearing behind the water as well.

Suddenly, the psycho cut blades showed first results as the tornado fell apart, but in a most interesting manner. At first, the upper part simply lowered a bit, giving it the look of an orb. Then it opened up like a flower, revealing Claydol levitating in the center with Absol sitting on its head. The audience couldn't help but think of Drew's stage name, Emerald Blossom, as it looked exactly like that and even stayed that way for quite some time. Without a doubt, a massive amount of energy and power was required to control that large amount of water with psychic. Claydol, however, didn't show any sign of exhaustion and just slowly let the 'petals' sink into the water, where the green glow disappeared and everything returned to normal.

"Simple and brilliant! What started as a stage name, ended up as one of the most interesting appeals so far," the MC shouted.

Drew received a lot of applause although it wasn't quite what he deserved, and it would have been so much more with a full contest hall.

Damn Shira, he thought. She stole my glory.

Nevertheless, he was pleased with his and his pokemon's performance, praising them before recalling them and returning to his room. His part for today was over so there was no reason not to change his clothes once more and watch the rest as part of the audience.

When he joined Dawn, Misty, and Zoey, it was almost time for Serena's appeal. They expected him to make fun of her but he remained silent. Even more surprising, he didn't even brag about his performance, nor did he show any reaction to their praise, the gloomy mood was already getting to him. Instead, he was just watching the appeal while keeping an eye on the area around him.

Serena was standing in the spotlight. She had to take a few deep breaths before she was able to overcome her nervousness and call out her pokémon.

"Delphox, Slowbro, time to shine!" The pokémon appeared at opposite sides of the stage. "Create the avatars!"

Delphox held its stick with the burning end in front of its face, gazing deeply into the flame for a while before breathing fire through it, creating a vortex in front of itself. Using its psychic powers, it made the fire take shape until it looked like a large, fiery version of itself. Meanwhile, Slowbro was drawing water from the pool and made it levitate nearby. Just like Delphox, it used psychic to make the water look like its copy and even managed to capture the goofy look on its face, much to the amusement of the audience. The avatars approached the center until they were directly facing each other.

"Begin!" Copying their masters' every movements, they started what looked like a fistfight. Delphox started by shooting its first forwards, making its fiery copy hit the slowbro copy in the face. Slowbro reacted by looking like it was hit as well and took a step backward before rushing forward and hitting the opponent with its head. Every contact also meant a lot of steam and with time, the avatars got smaller and smaller. Even the pokémon's expressions were mimicked by the avatars although it wasn't difficult in Slowbro's case as it was always the same.

Nevertheless, the audience was impressed by how in synch everything looked. They could only imagine how hard it was to move and control them simultaneously. Unfortunately, the fight itself was rather primitive with blows being traded one after another, yet that was pretty much the only weakness of the appeal.

"Time to merge!" As soon as Serena felt that the avatars were small enough, they simply merged, creating a vortex of water and fire, which collapsed soon. With a small explosion, the water was evaporated and rose up as steam. Maybe that was also the reason the roof opened soon after.

"Ladies and gentlemen, a battle of the elements. Too bad there can be only two pokémon in the appeals." Serena bowed, praised her pokémon and left quickly .

It seemed the excitement was a little too much in the end but at least the appeal worked flawlessly. On her way out, she saw Miranda approaching, but simply ignored her. Unbeknownst to her, Miranda didn't try anything, she was just as concerned about her appeal and the attack as the others. Hers was next, which also meant that Serena would miss it, which was something she wasn't sad about in the slightest.

Once Miranda was at the stage, she didn't waste any time.

"Talonflame, Dragonair, go!" she said somewhat unenthusiastically. Clearly, the atmosphere had quite the effect on her as well and tuned the usually attention-loving girl into a nervous and scared woman. "Rain dance, twister and flamethrower ..."

Unlike Miranda, her pokémon showed determination and didn't hesitate. Dragonair lifted its head and created storm clouds above, yet it didn't start to rain. Instead, several tornados appeared on the platforms. It was the signal for both pokémon to start using flamethrower on them. The fire made its way up the tornados into the storm clouds, turning them red and making it look like a burning sky.

"Brave bird! Dragon rage!" The coordinator was a bit more motivated now. While Dragonair was still using flamethrower, Talonflame was flying around, gaining a red glow. Then the dragon type, created a single, larger tornado, which shot up into the clouds. It caused a red lightning to shoot down, hitting Talonflame in midair. It didn't take any damage, though, but gained a huge crimson fiery aura instead. It made it look like it increased in size by several times and nobody could deny that it looked incredibly majestic like this, which was also due to the burning sky and the fire tornados. It spread its wings, causing flames to shoot out of its tips and let out a shriek that echoed through the hall. A few seconds later, it was over with the red aura disappearing along with the tornados and clouds, giving way to the blue sky above.

"If Miranda wants a stage name for herself, she's on a good way." The applause was maybe the biggest so far, but she didn't seem to care and just recalled her pokémon. She hurried off the stage, making way for the next coordinator.

"As much as I hate to admit it, she has talent," Drew muttered, folding his arms. "That was more impressive than your blue phoenix, Dawn."

"Well, it's not like had prepared it. It was Zoroark's quick idea," she replied, knowing that he was completely right. She was sure to get to the battle rounds.

"Is he making fun of my appeal?" Everyone present turned to their right to see Serena approaching, looking just tired instead of mad. "Go on, do it. I don't care."

To everyone's surprise, he didn't, and even praised her instead, at least a bit.

"It wasn't bad. Maybe you could have let them mimic moves like water gun and flamethrower to add a bit more variety. Apart from that, there's not much I have to complain about." Not only Serena but also the others were speechless. He was actually making suggestions on how to improve her performance. "What?"

"At least Shira's threat improved his manners for one day," she said, chuckling slightly. "Pity it won't last."

He wasn't in the mood to argue and tried to just watch the last few appeals before the dinner break. Most of them weren't too interesting but maybe it was because of the atmosphere. Anyway, it was over soon and the hall was empty in record time. Ash and May met the others on the way outside still in their contest outfits as they were too lazy to change back just for dinner. Fortunately, Zoey invited them to join her at her friend's house in Saffron City for dinner, an offer they gladly accepted. That way, they didn't have to show themselves in those clothes in a restaurant.

The friend was a nice, old woman, who made a massive amount of food for them and encouraged everyone to eat as much as possible. However, not even Ash and May were willing to eat a lot, despite the food being truly delicious. It seemed fear could ruin any meal. Sensing the depressed atmosphere, the woman tried to cheer them up by praising their appeals or initiating conversation, but it was no use. If anything, it only made everything worse as they were slowly losing their patience. She obviously had good intentions, though, so they didn't say anything about it.

Eventually, it was time to return and as much as they hated going back there, it was too late to bail out.

Inside a dark cave, the Storm Raider grunts were waiting for further orders. It served as a emergency hideout and was one of the few bases they had left after the fall of the main base. Next to them, the psychic types, who would teleport them to the target location, were sleeping. Unlike the atmosphere at the Wallace Cup, the one right there was light-hearted as the grunts kept making jokes about the attack and how they would scare the crap out of the people. The whole cave fell silent, when their leader was teleported inside.

"Is everything ready?" Shira asked the captain of the bunch.

"Yes, the mortars are ready to be deployed. We're just waiting for the command," he replied.

"Good. Just a few more hours. Get some rest, things are going to get brutal soon enough." She sat down next to them so they could wait together and also used the opportunity to have a closer look at the grunts.

Most of them seemed pretty relaxed even with her around, a few were just sleeping but there was one who caught her eye. Of course she didn't know it but he was the grunt who had seen her talking to her boss. So far, he'd been smart enough not to tell anyone about it, having tried to hide it instead. Now his nervousness was showing, though. He was fearing for his life since he thought that she didn't actually know what she was doing. Despite the darkness in the cave, that was only lit by a few torches, she noticed his fear.

"What's the matter, Matt?" she asked when she was sure that he wasn't expecting it.

"What? What do you mean?" he asked, barely hiding his nervousness.

"You're being awfully quiet and frankly, you look like you're going to burst any second? What the hell is wrong?" The others nodded in agreement, looking at him as well.

With everyone's attention on him, he had to think of something quickly or he was as good as dead. Maybe it was best to voice a few concerns that were common among the others.

"Well, those galactic bombs are quite powerful. Are you sure it's safe to use six of them at the same time, in such a small area? What if they rip us apart?" Apparently, he said the right thing as the other grunts started talking among themselves. "Besides, I still don't understand what it is about. What's the point? We won't be able to free the others that way."

Shira waited for the others to fall silent before she answered.

"I told you, it's a demonstration of power. Compared to this, even the poison is nothing. We will scare them so much, they will let our men go immediately and also fulfill all of our wishes. With that kind of power, there's nothing that can stop us." she stated. "And don't worry. As long as we follow the instructions, we'll be completely safe so gather your strength for now so that you won't make mistakes later."

Although he wasn't less worried than before, at least she turned her attention somewhere else for now. It gave him time to think of an escape plan. This wasn't how he wanted to die, not like this.

Shira, on the other hand, wasn't worried about the operation one bit. She was worried for completely different reasons. Sooner or later, her boss would find out about her ambitions so she had to be strong enough to overthrow him by then. The most important part was to get her men out of prison, the rubble she had right now was certainly not enough. With the others and a few of those galactic bombs, she'd be able to destroy anything and anyone. It was a pity they were so expensive, much more expensive than the original that had been used by Team Galactic, but then again, these ones had completely different uses. As far as she knew, it had taken quite a bit of persuasion to make Charon improve them, maybe he had known what would happen to him once his usefulness was at an end, which was pretty much the case right now. Although she didn't know where he was right now, she couldn't imagine the boss just letting him go or keeping him at one of the bases.

Yes, there were so many bases, but her boss refused to let her men stay there, instead they had to use this natural cave. At least it was highly unlikely to be found by the police, which happened to a few other, smaller bases lately as her threat increased the activity of the international police significantly. It didn't matter, soon they would pay.

Just because things were already bad, it didn't mean they couldn't get worse. The coordinators returned to the contest hall only to find out that the remaining appeals had been postponed for unknown reasons. Their only guess was that the police was taking extra security measures, but all they did was making the audience even more scared. Most people just wanted this day to end as quickly as possible so this was counterproductive, but then again, there was hardly anything they could've done without receiving a lot of criticism. It was a hard day for them as well, no doubt about that.

Apparently, the involuntary break didn't help improve the next few appeals. Either they were extremely nervous or exhausted as the mistakes they did were difficult to explain otherwise. With enough time, the level of skill rose back to an acceptable level and then it was already May's turn. Needless to say, she'd seen the last appeals and was determined to do better than that. Actually, she was maybe the most determined coordinator this day.

"Venusaur, Glaceon. Take the stage!" The two pokémon appeared on a platform at the center of the pool with the ice-type on top of the grass type. "Start with the icy mirrors!"

Venusaur used tentacles to lift Glaceon up high, where it jumped up, shooting a lot of tiny ice shards at the water. Upon hitting, they froze just a small part of the surface, creating small ice floes. The modified ice beam made them reflective, just what was needed for the appeal. Venusaur grabbed all of them with countless tentacles and kept holding them around herself.

"Now the prism!" Glaceon used ice beam on the water in front of the grass type, creating a block of ice, which got turned into a triangular prism of ice by a razor leaf move. Then she held a few of the mirrors right behind it. It took her quite a while to adjust their positions and the audience was already getting impatient when May gave the command. "Aurora beam!"

The light passed through the prism, getting dispersed in the process before getting reflected by the ice. The different rays of light took different routes, which seemed awfully complicated at first glance but in the end, all of the hit the flower on Venusaur's back. She absorbed it and use the light to power up a solar beam, which she also shot through the prism. It was much more powerful than the aurora beam but instead of hitting the flower, it got reflected by several other mirrors, which had been out of reach so far but which she used to focus the light again. As a concentrated beam, it shot up into the sky, getting stronger the more power she used for the solar beam. She kept it up for several seconds with the light getting dispersed and focused again before shooting into the sky.

The best part of the appeal was the laser barrier around her, which consisted of countless rays of light in different colors without blocking the view on the pokémon. The coordination required to this without flaw had to be enormous so unless the end was a total disaster, the people were sure that she would make it to the battle rounds.

All of sudden, Venusaur changed the positions of the mirrors and kept spinning them, making the pillar of light disappear but also creating a light show, which reminded them of a disco. Eventually, the ice melted due to the warm light of the solar beam, in contrast to the cold light of the aurora beam, despite it having been created by Glaceon's powerful ice moves. Fortunately, Venusaur let go of it in time so that it didn't look like an accident and retracted her tentacles again.

"Beautiful, just beautiful. A perfect combination of ice and light." The audience seemed to feel the same and she received a big applause, at least considering the amount of spectators.

"Flawless. I'm proud of you." May recalled her pokémon, waved at the audience and left the stage.

Her double appeal was among the more modern ones, in which one pokémon played the bigger part and the other one mostly supports it by doing things the main pokémon was unable to do. There were many who despised this kind of appeal, calling it primitive and simple but not even they could deny that a lot of magnificent appeals had been created that way. May's appeal was one of them. She joined the other soon after and thus would still be able to watch Ash's appeal.

"Hey, nice appeal," Serena told her.

"Congratulations. You haven't lost your touch." Drew gave her a quick kiss but to his disappointment, she just sat down next to him.

"Thanks," she replied.

Despite her awesome performance, she didn't appear in a very good mood and didn't even react to the other compliments. Drew wasn't surprised by this. With every appeal, the attack was becoming more likely, it was only a matter of time. Apparently, the audience had similar thoughts as more and more seats got empty. When they looked up, they saw Wallace, looking both worried and angry, as if he had had a big argument, maybe with Max Wright. Never before has anyone seen him this pale, on the verge of breaking down. Seeing him like this was especially painful for Dawn and everyone who looked up to him and a few of them started asking themselves, whether it wouldn't have been the better decision to cancel or at least postpone this year's Wallace Cup.

It didn't matter, it was already too late for that now. They could only hope that it wouldn't start during Ash's appeal. It was his turn soon after and just like the others he looked worried although he tried to hide it during the appeal.

"Greninja, Aurorus! I choose you!" Greninja immediately jumped into the water whereas Aurorus stayed on the platform at the center. "Let's get this started!"

And let's get this over with, he thought to himself.

"Create the ice palace!" Aurorus used stone edge on the water next to her, making water shoot up high because of the explosion and then she froze it in midair. The resulting, massive sculpture couldn't really be called a palace, it was crude and with a lot of pointy edges and it was only going to get worse as she kept using stone edge on it, blasting the ice until it looked incredibly fragile. "Get up there!"

To everyone's surprise, Greninja walked up the sculpture. They expected it to collapse with every touch but it didn't happen and the water type reached the top easily, not even slipping once. He stayed there, waiting for the next phase of the appeal.

"Now the targets!" Aurorus combined stone edge with hidden power, creating rocks with a crimson aura, which were ready to be shot at any target. "Go!"

One by one, the pointed rocks moved towards the ice sculpture and then shot upwards. On the top of the ice, Greninja was waiting for it and, with impressive precision, hit it with a tiny water shuriken. Upon contact, the aura turned blue and the rock flew a bit further away before exploding like firework. It was crucial that they wouldn't explode near the sculpture or the little shockwave might be enough to destroy it, a fact Ash had found out the hard way. What made this really difficult for Greninja was that the rocks were moving up on different sides so he had to move around as well, careful not to shatter the ice in the process. His balance, speed and precision were flawless, though and he got every single rock, thus creating a nice, little firework although that was merely a small addition. The pokémon's skills were the most important part.

"Now finish it!" Greninja made an impressive jump next to Aurorus before grabbing a pebble she'd left. Almost casually, he threw it casually at the ice, causing first cracks to appear the moment it touched the ice, which quickly spread until the whole sculpture shattered and fell into the water. To show that it was over, the pokémon bowed.

"To be honest, I was worried that the ice would shatter and bury Greninja under its weight but it seems it knew just how to move without damaging it. Good job." The applause wasn't as loud as Ash had hoped the day before but then again, there weren't a whole lot of people left in the hall and now he didn't really care anymore.

He went back to his room to change into casual clothes again as he wanted to be with the others as quickly as possible. Together they would be stronger, better prepared to repel any attack and the others would be easier to protect. When he was with them, there were only a few appeals left.

"Ash! You, Greninja and Aurorus were amazing!" She gave him a kiss, to which he only reacted halfheartedly. The fear was too present right now.

"Thanks but I'm a bit tired now." May and Drew moved a bit, allowing him to sit next to his girlfriend. "Thanks."

Nobody was in the mood for talking anymore. If Shira was really going to strike, the attack had to be imminent. Or maybe it really was just a distraction. Whatever the case, they were more nervous than ever and only back at their places, they would feel safe again. By now, barely anyone apart from the judges and Wallace himself, was paying a lot of attention to the remaining appeals. They even missed Ursula's appeal, which was pretty good, considering the circumstances.

Time went by horribly slowly until, at last, the final appeal was over. A short break followed, during which the successful participants were chosen, a difficult task, not only because there had been a lot of noteworthy performances but also because they had to ignore the circumstances and just do their job, no matter how grim the situation looked. After about half an hour of agonizing waiting, the judges appeared again and everyone knew that the result were about to be presented. Of course, the coordinators could have just gone home and watched the results on TV but hardly anyone was able to do that. After all, they were still coordinators and no matter how nervous or indifferent they looked, getting to the battle rounds was incredibly important to them.

"We've seen many magnificent appeals and believe me, the judges didn't have an easy time. Only 32 coordinators can make it but the matchups will be determined tomorrow. So here they are, the chosen ones!" It appeared that the MC was the only one showing true enthusiasm, probably because of professionalism.

Half of the audience stood up when the faces of the coordinators appeared. There were a lot of disappointed sighs and several sighs of reliefs. Ash, Drew, May, Serena, Miranda and Ursula were among those who made it but instead of celebrating their success, they mostly just congratulated each other briefly. May and Drew, and Ash and Dawn also hugged each other but that was pretty much it. Right now, everybody just wanted to go home.

"Congratulations to the winners. And to the rest, don't despair! I'm sure you will be more successful next year. Just don't give up. I hope I'll see you all again tomorrow, when the fourth winner of the Ocean Ribbon will be determined!" There was probably no one left to listen to her as everyone was busy leaving the contest hall. They thought they were finally safe. They thought the attack would happen later, when they were back home. They were wrong.

A bright flash, which came out of nowhere, lit up the sky for a moment and suddenly, it was black. There weren't any clouds blocking the view, though. No, it was the sky itself, that was black. The sun was still there and shining, albeit not as brightly as before, thus it didn't feel like it was nighttime. Needless to say, people were terrified, unaware of the fact that this was just the beginning. Lightning struck the surrounding area even though there weren't any clouds and then the pokéballs started to behave strangely. Sparks appeared around them and all of sudden, every single pokémon in the hall was released, looking just as surprised as their trainers.

Quite a few people began evacuation the rest of the audience and Ash thought that they were probably undercover agents. However, he also noticed that many of them were struggling with their equipment, which failed to work just like the pokéballs. On Wallace's platform, he could see Max Wright unsuccessfully trying to contact his men.

"Afraid?" Ash heard that strange voice again. "It should be. It is helpless."

There was a weak earthquake, which was followed by another and then another. By now, everyone was panicking but at least the agents were trying to help them.

"Stop messing around!" Zoey shouted at her friends, who were mostly trying to figure out what was wrong with their pokéballs. "We have to get out of here!"

Before they were able to do it, something else happened. It was both fascinating and terrifying, and impossible to ignore.

Through the open roof, the black sky turned into a dark reflection of the city. It was like looking from above at a twisted city full of dark clouds with massive crystals in midair and upon looking directly above, they noticed a building that resembled this contest hall. To the south, there was an ocean or a huge lake on the sky, exactly at the position where the sea was supposed to be on their level.

The fascination didn't last for long, as there were more important matters at hand. For now, they just wanted to get to safety.