The Floaroma Contest
Zach and Dawn arrived in the town of Floaroma and as the name suggested there were indeed flowers everywhere, there was hardly any bare patch of grass within the town as flowers covered the ground as far as the eye could see! It wasn't anywhere near the population size of Oreburgh City but the town was vastly more populated than their hometown of Twinleaf!
"Well Dawn we're finally here, you'll have your first ribbon in no time!" Zach exclaimed as Dawn felt her cheeks light up from how much confidence he had for her before she gave him a warm smile.
"Well I have been practicing a lot, hopefully I at least do better than last time."
"You'll do great, I'm sure of it!" Zach grinned while giving her arm a light nudge. "Besides Zoey decided to pass so she could continue looking for a Water type, means the competition won't be anywhere near as tough!"
"She still has me to deal with though," May smirked upon making her arrival. The brunette then turned to face Zach before giving him a wink. "Congrats again on capturing Dratini, a cute Pokemon like that suits you!"
"Wait how does she know about that? She wasn't there." Dawn blinked from confusion before May held up her Rotom Phone.
"We do talk when I'm not with you guys," May giggled while Dawn couldn't help but puff her cheeks as her thoughts drifted towards what else they were potentially discussing. "And don't think this'll be easy for you, I've been practicing as well!"
Suddenly a large crowd gathered as a new individual began making her approach. The girl appeared to be around their age, she had a light skin tone along with long black hair and bright purple eyes. Her outfit consisted of a short purple dress, light purple stockings, purple heels and a rather large light purple sunhat with a purple flower tied around the middle.
"Who is that?" Dawn asked causing the girl's eyes to twitch before she slowly turned to face her, fire flaring within her eyes as she cast off a murderous gaze.
"Who am I?! I'm Amelia, I'm a big deal in the Kalos region! I was a fan favorite up until the Master Class tournament!"
"You perform in Showcases then? Kalos doesn't have Pokemon Contests."
"I seem to recall that Serena won that tournament and became the new Kalos Queen, I don't remember an Amelia..." Dawn stated causing Amelia to do a hard grip on her sun hat as a deep growl emitted from her throat at the mere mention of the honey blonde girl.
"Don't you dare say that name... the Kalos Queen title should have been mine, I was robbed!"
"I don't know much about Showcases either but how were you robbed? I thought it was up to the fans to decide who wins?" Zach questioned. Amelia turned to him with a growl before quickly calming herself as she realized that with how close the two girls were either one or both of him were his girlfriend. She stepped forward and placed her hand upon his chest while her paparazzi quickly snapped pictures, May and Dawn growled and practically spat venom from her action but both were pleasantly surprised as unlike whenever one of them did that, he stepped back away from her!
"Silly boy what are you doing with these two peasant sluts? That Lucario of yours looks quite powerful and that rabbit thing is adorable too, you could get with any girl maybe even Cynthia herself!" Zach twitched at the mention while inwardly barfing at the gross thought. "Why don't you ditch those two and become my boyfriend? I'll treat you right and I'm also rich on top of my natural good looks!" Amelia stroked her long hair as she attempted to seduce him.
Zach however clenched his fists as he shot her a glare. "First off, gross... I'm Cynthia's nephew, why on earth would I want to date her? Secondly May and Dawn are not sluts, they're two of my closest human friends and I'd date each of them a thousand times over you any day! You may be beautiful on the inside but you're definitely ugly on the inside, you may think you're all that but at least we can see that you're just a bitch!" He didn't like using the word but given she insulted May and Dawn he felt it was justified.
Amelia's eye twitched as she realized her little game wouldn't work. It was so easy peeling guys away from their girlfriends or supposed 'just friends' before, she'd done it plenty of times just to emotionally sabotage her opponents and once they were dealt with she promptly dumped the boy! "Yeah well why do I care? You're just a nobody!"
"He's not a nobody, he's a future champion!" May exclaimed, her arm wrapped around his as she flashed him an affectionate look before glaring at Amelia.
"Yeah and his looks aren't why we like him!" Dawn growled as she placed her hands on her hip. "He's very compassionate and loyal, not once did he give up on a disobedient Pokemon whose name shall not be said and it broke his heart to see the Pokemon abandon him. He helped me get over my first Contest loss and he helped me get my dream Pokemon, Buneary!"
"He also took in an abandoned Pokemon when she had nowhere to go and he helped our friend Korrina find Lucarionite! He also rarely speaks ill of anyone so you can see that you're a special case when he came to our defense like he did!" May spoke up.
Amelia's eyes darted between the two as her eyes burned bright with rage! The affection the two displayed for him was indeed genuine and though he didn't say it, it was quite clear the feeling was mutual. It was sickening to see but she also felt jealous, not about them in particular but the fact that they had genuine feelings for each other. Something that she'd never had as people only liked her for her looks, status or money! Of course it was basically her fault for manipulating so many guys but she wasn't going to admit that!
"You two better watch out because I'm going to crush you like Durants!" Amelia growled before stomping on past them as she proceeded into the Contest Hall.
Dawn and May glared after her for a moment and probably would have continued to do so had Zach not spoken up. "Don't you two need to get registered for the Contest?"
"Oh my gosh, you're right!" Dawn exclaimed, quickly turning around before racing on inside. May quickly pecked his cheek before rushing on in after her while Lucario stared at his trainer and crossed his arms, wondering how long it'd be until he just asked one of them out already.
"Scor!" Scorbunny cried out as she leaped up into her trainer's arms. Zach smiled down at her before scratching her behind the ear.
"Let's go cheer them on."
"Good morning Floaroma Town it's your favorite MC Marian here once more bringing you a spectacular show! Several of your favorites have returned but we've also gotten some new faces! Before we begin however I'd like to reintroduce our judges Mr. Contesta and Mr. Sukizo!"
"Greetings one and all!"
"Remarkable to be here, simply remarkable!"
"And Floaroma Town's very own Nurse Joy!"
Nurse Joy gave a polite bow as the crowd put on a cheer.
"Now without further ado let the appeal performances begin!"
Oddly enough Amelia had been selected to go up first, the girl flashed May and Dawn a smirk as she walked out of the waiting room and out onto the stage. She then grabbed hold of two Pokeballs before tossing them up into the air. "It's time to shine my beauties, Espeon and Dragonair!" The balls burst open to reveal a Espeon and a purple Dragonair!
"Espe!"
"Drago!"
"Now... Attract!" Amelia did a twirl before putting on a pose. Espeon and Dragonair copied her actions as they put on poses of their own resulting in a large heart shaped energy ray popping up behind the trio as the crowd began cheering for her.
The judges gave each other a nod before their scoreboards updated to showcase a 10, 10 and a 9.5 resulting in a near perfect score! Dawn and May gritted their teeth while in the audience Zach tightly clenched his fist at the sight.
After a few other Coordinators went up and put on some performances of their own it was now May's turn. The Hoenn brunette had changed from her usual attire and currently wore a white blouse with a pink overlay along with a white skirt which consisted of several waves of various shades of pink along with a singular wave of violet! Her hair was the same way it usually was but instead of wearing her bandanna she had a bright pink ribbon holding up part of her hair. Her pink heels matched the rest of her outfit as she stepped onto the stage while reaching out for some Pokeballs.
"Eevee and Munchlax take the stage!"
Zach couldn't help but hang his head upon her speaking up. Even May had a catchphrase, he really needed to get one of his own!
Eevee and Munchlax burst from their balls and May leaped up before twirling about as she threw out her arm. "Alright Munchlax use Metronome!"
Munchlax began waving his fingers back and forth, his mouth opened shortly afterwards and began to spark before firing off a powerful stream of flame up into the air!
"Alright Eevee use Shadow Ball on the flames!" Eevee opened her mouth and fired the black and purple ball of static energy up into the flames, the ball emerged from the other side cloaked in flame before bursting apart, sending light harmless flames flying down onto the stage as the crowd let out a cheer while the judges updated their scoreboards.
"Nine, eight point five and eight point five?! That's robbery! She should have a perfect score across the board!" Zach couldn't help but shout causing several people around to look at him. May heard as well and gave him a wave while smiling in his direction before turning around to head off the stage and Dawn replaced her almost immediately. Dawn had ditched her usual attire as well for the event, her long blue hair was completely uncovered however two crescent shaped moon hair braids with stars connected to it by little braids sat on both sides of her head, a necklace that matched her hair braids was currently around her neck. She wore a long dress that was white at the top, light blue in the middle and dark blue on the bottom half with a bright blue bow tied around her waist. She also wore bright blue gloves along with a pair of blue heels! Zach had to admit that both her and May were looking quite attractive in their contest attire.
"Alright Pachirisu and Piplup, spotlight!"
"Pachi!"
"Piplup!" The two Pokemon emerged from their balls in a burst of light.
"Alright Piplup use Bide, Pachirisu use Spark just like we practiced!"
Piplup began glowing bright red as blue electricity sparked off Pachirisu's cheeks before the squirrel gave Piplup a shock! Piplup let out a light grunt and took the hit before firing a bright red energy beam up into the sky with a loud cry!
"Spark once more!" Dawn threw up her arm as Pachirisu's cheeks sparked before blasting the red energy beam with her electricity resulting in blue electrical sparks surrounding the beam as it flew up into the roof above! The crowd cheered while the judges updated their scores.
"Eight, eight and eight?! What is this, she did way better than Amelia!" Zach shouted. Dawn heard and blushed brightly before silently giving him a wave as she departed from the stage. Not everyone felt that way however as some people around him turned to look at him.
"Shut up Amelia was awesome!"
"Yeah, I bet that blue haired girl is your girlfriend! No need to feel sorry for her, she's losing to the future Kalos Queen!"
"Please what Amelia did was bland and unoriginal, even I could come up with something better than that and I'm not skilled in the slightest!" He narrowed his eyes as he glanced towards the stage. Something was definitely off and he was going to find out what!
Thankfully both May and Dawn managed to proceed to the next round alongside Amelia and five others. Dawn won her fist match up surprisingly easy and as the crowd cheered for her she turned to look towards where Zach had been cheering for her only to not see him present. She tilted her head before showing a visible look of concern as she hoped that he was okay, he wouldn't have run off unless there was a good reason to.
May and Amelia now walked onto the stage and the Hoenn girl shot Amelia a glare as she gripped at two Pokeballs. "Blaziken and Altaria take the stage!"
"Espeon and Dragonair, time to fight my beauties!" Espeon and Dragonair reemerged from their balls while Blaziken and Altaria burst out in front of them.
"Blaziken use Sky Uppercut on Dragonair, Altaria use Moonblast!" Blaziken rushed towards Dragonair before delivering a swift uppercut to it while Altaria charged up a bright pink energy ball before firing it at Espeon, both attacks took away a light chunk of Amelia's score and left her at two thirds!
"Attract!" Both Pokemon posed and much to May's annoyance it turned out Espeon and Dragonair weren't the same gender as hearts appeared in both Blaziken and Altaria's eyes despite Blaziken being male and Altaria being a female! May then looked up and gasped as for some reason the Attract had eaten over half of her score!
Zach saw what was going on in the lobby and clenched his fists as he realized his suspicions was confirmed, somebody was definitely not playing fair here at all! He turned to Lucario.
"Your aura picking up on any bad vibes yet, buddy?" Lucario had his eyes closed as he meditated and read the aura around him which was hard to do given the packed stadium. His eyes soon shot open as he let out a confirming growl before waving his paw as he rushed towards the backstage area. Zach narrowed his eyes as he knew it was wrong to go back there but upon seeing May lose unfairly to Amelia he growled out before pushing on ahead. "She is not going to win today!" He was determined to find out what was going on and make sure that Dawn didn't get robbed as well!
He pushed on ahead and luckily it didn't take long to find the culprit as a trainer sat hunched over a laptop while rapidly typing away at a keyboard. His glasses shined bright as a cackle emerged from his mouth. "Heheheh, that date with Amelia is gonna be awesome! I-Hey!"
"Scor!" Scorbunny grabbed his laptop before racing off in a white blur, the rabbit Pokemon then held it up towards her trainer allowing him to see that this mysterious trainer was smart enough to get into the Contest Hall's system and manipulate the code in Amelia's favor! Granting her a near perfect score while throwing in a 9.5 to avoid suspicion while also not flat out giving May and Dawn awful scores as Amelia likely wanted to 'crush' them herself!
Zach's eye twitched before he looked towards the trainer with pure rage flaring in his eyes. "You've been cheating?!"
"That I have and you would too if you could date a girl as lovely as that Amelia!" The nerd trainer smirked.
"Actually I did have the chance but I turned her down cause she was a bitch to my friends, the ones that you helped rob today!" Zach growled out.
The trainer's eyes widened as he stood up and backed away. "Oh crud, you're the boyfriend of one of those girls! No matter, Slowking and I will beat you and we'll ensure our lady's victory!"
A Slowking emerged from his ball and gazed towards Lucario with a rather calm look.
"Psych-"
"Extreme Speed!" Lucario disappeared in a bright white blur causing the trainer to quickly remove his glasses and wipe them off before placing them back upon his head.
"W-Where did he go?!"
"Now use Thunder Punch!" Lucario reappeared behind Slowking, his fist electrically charged as he threw it out before delivering a punch right to the Pokemon's stomach! Slowking's eyes widened before the Pokemon keeled over in defeat. The trainer stood there in shock for a moment before turning to face Zach with an angry glare.
"Mark my words, you'll rue the day that you messed with Conway! Computer delete!"
"Yes Conway," The laptop prompted to delete it's data causing Conway to cackle before giving Zach a mocking wave.
"And now you've got no proof of my or her doings! Not that it matters as your girlfriend's gonna get creamed anyways, later!"
Zach clenched his fists as he watched Conway walk away, there wasn't much else he could do apart from beating a confession out of him. May had witnessed the fight though on her way to the dressing room, at first she was confused as to what he was doing backstage. She then took in the confrontation and realized that Amelia had been screwing with them and cheating her way to the top! May clenched her fists as she cursed the girl's name before stepping closer to Zach and revealing her presence to him as she took a hold of his hand before leaning her head up against his own as he continued staring off.
"You knew that we were being wronged?" May asked.
"I had suspicions when you didn't even get a single ten, Dawn getting eight across the board made me realize that something definitely wasn't right and after seeing you get cheated like that against Amelia? Well I had to investigate, she doesn't deserve to win." May smiled at him before giving his arm a light tug.
"Well Dawn's worried about your disappearance, let's get you back out there in the stands before you're seen back here!" May was sure she'd get in trouble too as people would likely assume they were having fun with each other back there.
"And here we are ladies and gentlemen, the finals of the Floaroma Town Contest!" Marian exclaimed as she threw her arm up. "Give your applause to Dawn and Amelia!"
Amelia cast off a vile smirk to Dawn while shooting her a murderous glare as she thought Conway was still backstage assisting her! Dawn gave her a light glare in return before shifting her gaze towards the audience and relief quickly filled her as she saw Zach had returned along. Dawn quickly waved towards him while giving off a bright smile before turning to Amelia with a more confident look.
"You're going down slut," Amelia cackled. "I told you that I'll crush you and crush you I shall! Espeon and Dragonair, fight my lovelies!"
"Piplup and Buneary, spotlight!"
"Piplup!"
"Buneary!"
Amelia cackled as she threw out her arm. "Attract!"
"Piplup use Bide!" Piplup began glowing bright red as Dawn compensated for his inability to fight while making no such action for Buneary which briefly surprised Amelia before much to her surprise Buneary appeared completely normal while hearts appeared in Piplup's eyes!
"What?!" Amelia growled in frustration. "Explain this to me, I know for a fact that Buneary has a gender! Why didn't Attract work on her?!"
"Because Buneary already fell in love and her love for that Pokemon is far stronger than your fake love!" Dawn explained with a light smirk while Amelia's eye began to twitch. "Now use Ice Beam!"
"What Pokemon is that?" Zach questioned. Lucario began sweating while Scorbunny puffed her cheeks and cast a heavy glare towards Buneary.
"Buneary!" Buneary shot a beam of ice across the field, striking Dragonair before encasing the purple dragon in a block of ice and costing Amelia quite a sizeable chunk of score! Amelia's eyes took notice resulting in her letting out a gasp before looking up to see Conway in the stands waving his hands at her. Amelia let out a growl as her eyes turned towards Zach. 'The boyfriend, of course!'
"Espeon use Psychic on that annoying rabbit!"
"Buneary hide behind Piplup!" Piplup had already agreed to being used as a shield in the event of him not being struck while Bide was active. Buneary leaped behind Piplup as a blue glow soon surrounded Piplup's body, the penguin Pokemon was prompty lifted up before being slammed down against the ground! Piplup's eyes soon burst open and he emitted a loud cry before firing off a bright red energy blast at Espeon, knocking the Psychic type Eeveelution off of her feet before she landed in a defeated slump! A loud buzzing sound was heard as a series of red X's appeared across the scoreboard indicating that Amelia was out!
"And we have our winner folks, Dawn wins the Floaroma Town ribbon!" Marian cried out as she held up the bright pink ribbon. The crowd cheered for Dawn while Zach punched up at the air and shouted out the loudest.
"Alright Dawn!"
Dawn stared at the ribbon in amazement as Marian held it out to her, she proceeded to thank the MC before turning to show off the ribbon to her Pokemon. "We've finally got our first ribbon, just four to go now!"
"Piplup!"
"Buneary!"
Amelia shook with rage as she glared at Dawn, fire burning within her eyes as she clenched her fist. "I swear I'll make all three of them pay for humiliating me like this..."
"You were awesome out there, Dawn! Your contest outfit was amazing and your performances were beyond spectacular!" Dawn blushed at Zach's words before nervously rubbing her arm.
"Thanks Zach but I'm not sure that everyone else agrees."
"Dawn, Amelia was cheating! She had an associate of hers get into the Contest's system and manipulate it so that Amelia would look good and also give her the opportunity to unfairly crush us by taking away more points than she actually should have!" May explained as flashed Zach a light smile. "Zach found her out and put a stop to it just in time, unfortunately her associate wiped the proof but at least she didn't get the win!"
Dawn turned back to Zach as a large grin crossed her face, she quickly pulled him into a tight hug as she squealed out. "Oh thank you, thank you, thank you!"
Zach blushed lightly as he returned the hug. "You'd have done the same for me, I couldn't stand seeing you two being cheated like that."
May and Dawn shared a brief look before Dawn separated from him.
"So you two are going to Eterna City next?" May questioned with a light head tilt.
"Of course, that's where my next Gym battle lies!" Zach stated with a light smirk.
"C-Can I tag along? I don't want to burden you but Eterna Forest is just... spooky! The thought of crossing it alone just terrifies me and I'd greatly appreciate having you two traveling along with me!"
May saying that made Zach's mind jump straight to Ghost types, he'd yet to capture one and he'd love to have the opportunity to do so! The old and supposedly haunted mansion would be a great place for it but he knew Dawn wouldn't want to go in there and neither would May from the sound of it so he'd just have to hope that a Ghost type just happened to cross paths with the three of them as he wasn't going to go dragging the two of them somewhere that made them uncomfortable!
"Sure, you don't mind do you?" Zach turned to Dawn who quickly shook her head before offering May a smile.
"Not at all, it'd be nice to travel with you again!"
I think this Contest is better than the previous one. Also if you don't know who Amelia is she's an actual character from XYZ, a character with a cool design and potential to be Serena's answer to Harley/Paul yet they strangely made her a one off character... and made Nene a full on rival because reasons? I always liked her and decided to incorporate her here. She's obviously not a love interest for Zach, only May and Dawn are.
And yeah Serena's the Kalos Queen in this universe!
May's contest outfit for this fic is her ORAS Contest attire while Dawn's is the outfit she showed off to Chloe in the recent Darkrai/Cresslia episode!
Anyways let me know what you think and if there's anything that you'd like to see in the future! :)