Last time, on Tony' Journey…
Skyla and Karen concluded their battle in the first round of the Roulette Rumble – with Karen as the victor! How will Skyla handle this devastating loss?
What will happen next? Find out now!
For whatever reason, Skyla returned to the waiting room.
The cheery face of the former Mistralton Gym Leader was now morose and somber, her eyes lacking the usual sparkle they held. Her shoulder were slumped and her arms hung down loosely, swaying with each slow step she took.
All of that training… all of that hard work… and all for nothing!
Needless to say, she wasn't taking her defeat very well.
Tony was waiting for her, of course. He knew she'd be coming back here, to this dark room that probably wasn't helping with her despair. A concerned look was on his face, growing all the more anxious as he saw just how depressed his girlfriend looked. "Skyla…" he said, breathlessly.
Skyla gave a moan to acknowledge her boyfriend's presence.
"Are you okay?" Tony asked. He immediately cursed his own ineptitude. Of course she wasn't okay.
Skyla gave a nod, silently lying to the blond.
Tony put his hand on her shoulder. "Do you want to talk?" he asked.
Skyla shook her head.
"Well, too bad," said Tony, ushering her into a relatively secluded corner in the middle of the room. The second match was already underway so most of the trainers were crowded about the monitors, watching the competition in progress.
Tony led Skyla to the corner before turning her around and looking her right in the eye. "I'm sorry," Tony said. "I know that losing hurts."
Skyla looked away wordlessly.
"I lost in the last N1," Tony reminded her. "I know how you feel."
A frown creased Skyla's lips, and Tony knew at once that he had said something wrong. "You didn't lose at the N1," the girl muttered despondently. "Your match got sabotaged by Team Plasma. You didn't lose on your own merit. I did." She scowled. "And on the first round, too…"
Tony winced. "You were a Gym Leader, though," he reminded her. "Part of being a Gym Leader is that you're going to have to lose eventually."
"There's a difference," Skyla retorted, "between losing to a challenger in a Gym Battle and losing in the first round of a televised tournament, Tony."
"S-Skyla…"
"You have no idea what this is going to do to me," Skyla ranted, her face turning red. "How am I ever supposed to take back the Mistralton Gym if I get beaten on the first round of a tournament, huh?" she demanded, folding her arms.
Tony didn't answer; he couldn't think of anything to say. He mentally cursed himself. So much for being Skyla's boyfriend; he couldn't even comfort her when she was depressed!
Skyla turned away. "J-just leave me alone for a little bit," she said. "I don't want to talk about it."
Tony felt like someone had punched him right in the gut. "O-okay…" he whispered, stepping backwards. Any happiness and anticipation he had had in his heart was now thoroughly crushed by the tone in his girlfriend's voice. How could he enjoy the tournament without Skyla? Was he, as her boyfriend, even allowed to continue if she couldn't compete?
"Don't be like that, Skyla!"
The upbeat yet serious voice of Bianca surprised both Tony and Skyla, who turned to face blonde in surprise. Bianca's mouth was curved into a frown, albeit not an unkind one, and her brow was furrowed.
"I lost in the first round of the N1, too," Bianca told Skyla. "I got humiliated in front of thousands of people on national television! Did I let that get me down? No! Do you know what I did, Skyla?"
Skyla shook her head.
"I trained harder," Bianca declared, "and I tried harder. I didn't give up. Sometimes I got a little sad because I'm not as good a trainer as Cheren is, but I'm not giving up."
Skyla blinked. "But…"
"She's right." Cheren's neutral tones announced his approach, his hands folded behind his back as he looked over Skyla. "I lost my very first Pokémon Battle to Tony" he cast a quick look to said blond, who shrugged in response "but I didn't let it hold me back."
Tony nodded. "Losing is important," he agreed. "If we never lost, we'd never know we need to improve ourselves and our Pokémon."
Skyla looked towards the ground, her arms still folded. She didn't say anything.
"I've got this," Tony whispered to Cheren and Bianca.
"Like you so masterly had it before?" Cheren retorted.
Tony ignored him. "You lost," he told Skyla.
"I hadn't noticed," Skyla muttered sarcastically.
Tony winced, but ignored the stinging tone of her voice. "You lost the battle with Karen and Zoroark. So, what have you learned?"
Skyla opened her mouth to say something bitter and shut it. No. She had already lost a battle; no need to lose any friends with unkind and unmeant words. She took a deep breath and calmed herself.
What had she learned?
She learned that Karen liked to use her Zoroark's Illusion Ability to her advantage – well, she had known that before, but now she got to experience it first-hand. She learned that allowing her opponent to make the first move was a worthwhile strategy. She learned that speed was a valuable asset, but taking your time and being patient were necessities.
Huh. She had learned a lot from that, hadn't she?
Tony smiled hopefully, praying that Skyla's silence was a ponderous one. "Did you learn something?" he asked.
"Yeah," Skyla admitted at last. "I did."
Tony nodded. "Good. See? You lost, yeah, but you can use that loss to improve yourself. That's why you started training with Elesa, isn't it? So you could be stronger in case Team Plasma ever came back?"
Skyla nodded. "You're right." She sighed. "That is why I started training. But… it wasn't enough…"
Tony winced; here we go again, he thought wearily.
"Hmph. There you are."
The teens' conversation was put on hold as they whirled around in search of the source of that voice.
"That's not funny! Down here!"
Karen Silph's mouth was curved into a fierce scowl as she glared at Tony, Skyla, Bianca, and Cheren, her tiny foot tapping on the ground. "I'm not that short!" she whined. "Stop making fun of me!"
"We're not making fun of you…" Cheren muttered.
Skyla sighed. "What do you want?" she asked the tiny blonde.
"I was wondering where you had run off to," Karen replied, folding her arms. She looked up at the much-taller girl, raising her eyebrow. "I didn't take you for a sore loser," she observed.
Tony groaned. "Karen…"
Karen ignored her step-brother. "I just wanted to say," she told Skyla, "that you were… a worthy opponent."
Silence fell as the others stared wordlessly at Karen. "Eh?" Skyla muttered at last.
"Did I stutter?" Karen asked, raising an eyebrow. "I said that you were a worthy opponent. You put up a decent fight." She held out her hand expectantly to the taller girl. "So," she said, "good game."
Skyla stared at the hand for a moment. The old Skyla Fuuro, from months ago, would have taken such a gesture as an insult, a mockery, a cruel joke played from the winner to the loser. But she wasn't the same girl she was before; she was older and wiser now, and as obnoxious as Karen could be sometimes, she was at the very least a good winner. She took the blonde's hand and shook it. "Yeah, you're right," she said. "It was a good game."
Karen grinned and released Skyla's hand. "That's one down," she said, casting a look at Tony. "You'd better not lose during the first round, too," she told him, "because I still need to wipe the floor with you!"
Tony found himself smiling. "We'll see."
Karen turned and walked off. "We will," she replied. "See you later."
Bianca frowned as the tinier blonde vanished into the crowd. "Smug little…" she muttered to herself.
"No, no, she's right," Skyla interrupted. "And you were right, too, Tony," she added, taking her boyfriend's hands. "I learned a lot from that battle. Besides, even if I'm not the world's greatest trainer, I'm still the world's greatest pilot!"
Meanwhile, in Johto…
"Achoo!"
A young man with brown hair and a blue jacket rubbed his itching nose. "Oh, great," he muttered, "somebody's talking about me." He paused and grinned. "Not that's necessarily a bad thing..." he added.
Back in Unova...
"The point is," Skyla concluded, " I shouldn't be moping and doping like that – and I shouldn't be taking it out on you guys." She bowed her head. "I'm sorry."
"It's okay, Skyla," Tony said, blushing at the warmth of Skyla's hands. "We understand."
"That's right," Bianca agreed with a cheery grin. "Losing stinks sometimes, but that doesn't mean you should give up! You have to get up and keep trying again and again!"
Cheren nodded, adjusting his glasses. "If you learned something," he said, "then it wasn't a total loss. That's my motto, anyways."
Skyla nodded. "Good motto. Thanks." She smiled at Tony. "Especially you," she said before wrapping into a warm, soft hug.
"I-it's nothing, really," Tony stuttered, his face bright red. It turned all the redder when something warm and moist pressed against his scarlet cheek, resulting in a wet, smacking sound.
Bianca gaped. Cheren removed his glasses and gave them a quick swab with the edge of his shirt, before rubbing his eyes to make sure he wasn't hallucinating.
Skyla wiped off her mouth. "Thanks," she told Tony again, smiling widely. Her boyfriend nodded dumbly in response. "Come on," Skyla said to the group, "let's go and watch the match." She walked off to find the monitor.
Bianca and Cheren stared wordlessly as Skyla walked off to watch the battle. They looked to Tony, their eyes wide and questioning.
Tony regained enough of his senses to smile and comment, "Out of my league, eh, Cheren?" before walking off to join his girlfriend.
Cheren wisely said nothing at all.
The match was practically over by the time our heroes decided to watch it. Actually, it was practically over the moment it began.
Two Pokémon stood on the battlefield, facing each other, scarlet eyes locked with scarlet eyes. One was panting heavily, clutching a badly wounded wide. The other was smirking widely, unharmed and unhindered.
The audience was cheering, but not as wildly as they had for Skyla and Karen. The fight between the two girls had been intense because they were so evenly matched, whereas this battle was completely one-sided.
Grimsley didn't seem to mind though. For a match between two trainers that had signed up on their own accord, it was highly entertaining. He seemed to have found a diamond in the rough with his little tournament.
Said diamond was a beautiful woman, slender and tall, with snow-white skin and long black hair, kept in a pair of elegantly combed and curled pigtails, twirled like little tornados of inky locks. Her mouth was painted with bright red lipstick that made the wide smirk that adjourned her face all the more bright and cheerful. She was clad in an elegant dress of burgundy fabrics, an old-timey dress (it had a hoop skirt and ruffled sleeves) that somehow worked on such a lily of a female.
Her Pokémon was just as regal as she; a tall and sturdy Cofagrigus, his golden body polished to perfect, untarnished by his enemy's futile attacks against him. A blue bow tie was wrapped underneath his face, giving him a more sophisticated look than his rival.
"If Ah may say so," the black-haired woman giggled, her voice thick with a heavy country accent, "ya'll might want to consider surrenderin' right now, darlin'. Ah'd hate to have ta make ya Pokémon suffer any more than he already has."
Her opponent, a shorter woman with blue hair and a yellow dress, scowled widely. "Watchog is fine!" she snapped. "Right, Watchog?" she asked hopefully and meekly, turning her nervous eyes to her badly injured Pokémon.
Watchog was a bipedal rodent-like Pokémon with brown and yellow fur. It stood almost at human-height, its body long and lean. It had two scarlet eyes on its head, mounted above a mouth with a protruding pare of incisors. The Normal-type was panting heavily, struggling to keep standing as it glared at its Ghost-type opponent. "W-wah…" it chattered weakly.
"Come now," the countrywoman said, "ya'll ain't stupid. The poor thing can't take much more of a lickin', can he? Ah think ya'll better just give up now."
The opponent's eyes flashed with fury. "Watchog, use Crunch!"
Watchog winced unhappily but did as it was told, charging the Cofagrigus as best it could with its wounded leg.
The countrywoman sighed. "Well, if it's a whoopin' you're a-wantin'…" she said with a shrug. "Cofagrigus? Be a dear and put that poor creature out of its misery."
"Meh-heh!" Cofagrigus cackled, grabbing Watchog's face with one of his inky black hands. With a snicker, the Ghost-type whirled about, building momentum, and tossed the Normal-type into the air.
"Waaaaaaaah!" Watchog cried as it arced through the sky, its limbs flailing uselessly as it plummeted down towards the battlefield below.
"Now!" the countrywoman shouted. "Energy Ball!"
Cofagrigus formed an orb of glowing green radiance in his hand and tossed it like a baseball. The sphere struck the still-airborne Watchog right in the gut and then exploded in a flash of green energy.
"No, Watchog!" the Normal-type's trainer cried.
Watchog was sent flying into the air once more, this time in absolute silence he plummeted to the ground and hit the dirt-battlefield, kicking up a cloud of dust in the impact. When the cloud cleared, there was Watchog, lying on the ground and out-cold.
"Watchog is unable to battle!" Grimsley shouted. "The winner is Madame Simone!"
"We did it!" Madame Simone cheered. She grabbed her Cofagrigus' hands and pulled the happy Ghost-type into a bizarre but adorable dance. "We did it, we did it, we did it, we did it!" she chanted over and over, kicking her heeled feet up into the air over and over as she pranced with her partner.
"Meh-heh!" Cofagrigus cheered.
"The second match is over already!" Grimsley announced to the cheering crowd. "Madame Simone will advance to the next round whereas our unfortunate competitor Ms. Lily will have to try again another day. How sad!"
"Thank you very much, competitors," Shauntal announced. "You both performed admirably."
Madame Simone turned to the silent Lily. "Ah tried to warn ya'll darling," she called across the battlefield, a wide smile on her face. "Ya'll could've saved yerself the trouble."
Lily scowled and returned her Watchog before stomping off.
Madame Simone shrugged before prancing off back to the waiting room, blowing exaggerated kisses at the audience. "Muah! Muah! Thank ya'll so much! Ya'll are very kind!" she called as she walked inside the gate that led back to the waiting room, Cofagrigus following her.
Only when she was in the secure darkness of the tunnel did she allow herself to scowl hatefully, her eye twitching as she clenched her fists. "Grimsley…" she hissed.
Author's Note:
The sneezing scene is a shout-out to my friend TrainerNaps and his story Pokémon Gold and Silver: The Adventure of Will. Check it out! ;D
Well, Skyla may not like losing but she seems to have learned from it, and Karen was a pretty good winner to boot. Things are looking up so far. Maybe it's about time I ruin things again, eh?
Nah, I'll let 'em enjoy themselves. XD
Also, surprise southern belle. I wonder who that could be.
Reader Question Time! Episodes of the X and Y anime are out early! What's your opinion of it so far if you actually took the time to watch them? Me personally, I think they're actually pretty darn good. It feels like a lot more effort went into the writing this time! :D
That's all for now! Tune in next time for Tony's first match of the tournament!
Tony's Party:
1: Lucky, female Butterfree
Ability: Compound eyes
2: Sunny, female Larvesta
Ability: Flame Body
3: Lancelot, male Karrablast
Ability: Swarm
4: Strike, male Scolipede
Ability: Poison Point
5: Clover, female Swadloon
Ability: Leaf Guard
6: Rock Candy, female Dwebble
Ability: Sturdy
