Chapter 19
Aura, Darlene and Kibbs all arrived back at the Pokemon Center with still several hours left before the tournament was to begin. As they ascended the stairs, Darlene and Kibbs decided to go straight to Aura's room while Aura went to drop off Diamond's new gift in Dan's room with the rest of the party supplies. Aura then hurried back to his room to meet up with everyone else.
When Aura entered, he had caught everyone's attention by announcing his return. Dan looked over the back of the sofa and greeted his friend with a quick wave. "You done with whatever it is you had to do? The tournament will be starting in a few hours."
Aura nodded. "Yep, nothing left to do now but go over what we know and make sure I don't make a fool of myself." He lightly knocked on his head with a goofy expression that made Dan snort and roll his eyes before turning back to the TV.
Right away, Diamond's ears popped into sight as the Braixen stood on the cushions to peer over at her trainer. "Don't say that, Aura! We've been working hard since we got here!" She looked back at Stan and Prince and nodded. "We're all ready to put in everything we got so you win this thing!"
Aura snickered and smirked at his partner. He walked towards Diamond and leaned against the sofa. "Oh really now? Well if you're really ready to give it your all, then you wouldn't mind joining me for a little study session to review our battle stats, hm?" He grinned slyly at the eager fox who suddenly averted her gaze and nervously scratched her cheek. She'd seen him briefly looking over hers and the others' statistics on his Pokedex late at night after training, and seeing all those confusing numbers on the screen made her head hurt.
"Oh stop teasing the poor girl." Darlene interjected. "And since when have you cared about statistics?"
Aura laughed and stepped back. "Heh, well as a trainer it does help a lot to know this stuff to understand their limits and see how much they grow, but," he suddenly shot his mother a stern yet almost sarcastic glare, "I still stand by my belief that any Pokemon is capable of achieving true power no matter how weak they might be from the start." He glanced at Diamond and grinned. "But it does feel good having great partners who were always strong from the very beginning."
Diamond blushed as Aura scratched under her chin before planting a firm kiss atop her snout. From behind them, Aura heard a quiet chuckle and turned to see Kibbs smiling at him coyly from her spot on the table. When he furrowed his brow and asked what she was smiling at, Kibbs shook her head casually. "Oh it's nothing, I'm just so proud to see you all grown up like this. It hasn't even been a month since you started your journey and already you've made good friends and even found such a wonderful girl to be with…" Slowly, her coy smile turned somber as a few tears pooled in her eyes. "Even after what happened…"
Aura looked at her a bit concerned. "What's wrong? What were you saying?"
Kibbs quickly got control over her emotions and shook her head with a brightened smile. "Don't worry yourself about me, I was just thinking about our life back in Johto when you were still young." Suddenly she started giggling cheerfully. "Oh you were such a little rascal back then, always getting into situations you needed help getting out of when you'd play with the wild Pokemon."
Aura shrugged. "I remember those days. Even though I didn't have many human friends, I still had the forest Pokemon to play with." He sighed and shook his head, looking to Diamond and expecting her to feel empathy for his past. "But I don't regret that one bit." He said assuringly, "being with Pokemon just felt more comforting, so it's only natural I ended up falling in love with one so amazing." He planted another passionate kiss on the fox's lips and chuckled as her face and ears turned bright red.
Casually walking around the couch and sitting down beside his mate, Diamond looked at Aura a bit questionably as he put his arm around her shoulders. "I thought you had to review our battle stats?" She asked with a slight stutter as she was still feeling somewhat flustered from his display of love not twenty seconds earlier.
He flashed a wide grin at her. "I just said that to tease you: I already reviewed our statistics and came up with a few counter measures to potential problems we might face in the first round after looking over the public registry."
Diamond's confusion was physically visible in her widened eyes and blank stare as her mind was already still flustered from his previous show of affection, and now her mind had to process what Aura had just said. Aura laughed again while Diamond scowled and scolded him for making her so confused. Meanwhile, a single tear streamed down Kibbs' cheek that thankfully went unnoticed. Behind the maternal joy of seeing the boy she considered a son, the canine felt sorry for what he had to go through several years back in the Johto Region.
It was finally time for the tournament to begin and Aura led the way down to the lobby with his trusty team by his side. The moment they reached the bottom of the stairs the reality of the situation finally set in as they all looked over the vast sea of trainers here to either compete or spectate the highly anticipated event.
Diamond tightly folded her ears back in an attempt to muffle the constant rise and fall of completely indistinguishable voices all trying to speak over one another in hopes of being heard by their peers; but the only thing the chaotic banter seemed to achieve was drowning out Diamond's own thoughts.
"Can we go somewhere quieter please?!" Diamond loudly barked as she now took to roughly squishing her ears down with her paws.
Aura could barely understand what she even said, but it didn't take genius to know what she meant from the way she was desperately covering her ears. Seeing that Diamond had even tightly shut her eyes and was practically wincing from the overpowering noise, he quickly took her arm and led them all down a hallway until the jumble of voices was no more than an inaudible echo.
Diamond sighed as her body finally relaxed. She slumped down on a bench and thanked Aura for getting them out of there. He huffed and scratched his head before responding. "I know it's tough for you to handle the noise, but soon enough you'll have to get used to it." He sat down beside her as the others stood by silently to allow them this moment. "You were probably just not prepared for how loud these kinds of events can be, granted though that might partially be my fault, but I'm sure you can tough it out."
She flicked her ears gently and listened to the voices echoing through the hall. "I'm sorry, but I think I need some time to get used to the noise before I'll be ready to go out there again…"
They watched Darlene walk over with her arms crossed and a stern gaze directed towards the lobby. "Don't blame yourself, dear. I'm sure that nobody is ever fully ready to handle this kind of noise right away. We still have twenty minutes anyway before you guys need to be downstairs in the stadium so don't get yourself worked up."
A grateful smile spread across Diamond's lips. So with nothing else to do but wait, everyone else either leaned against the wall or sat down on the bench or the floor, though less than a minute later Daniel unzipped his bag and pulled out a few snacks he was intending to share as they watched the battles. He tossed a granola bar filled with dehydrated Mago berries. "I know it's not Pecha, but I figure chewing on something sweet might help Diamond relax?"
"Worth a shot?" Aura quickly tore the top part of the wrapped and peeled it away before handing it to Diamond. She'd never had Mago berries before, but after a curious sniff of the bar she didn't hesitate from eagerly taking a bite and joyfully humming as she chewed. "Heh, I'm guessing we should probably get another box or two for the road?"
Diamond just nodded in response while snapping off another mouthful of the soft yet mildly crunchy treat. When she'd finished her snack and Prince offered to take the wrapper to a nearby trash can, they remained in the hall for another couple minutes before Diamond calmly sighed and stood up. "Sorry for making us wait, but I think I'm ready to try going out there again."
Aura nodded and stood up while cupping a hand to his ear. Even though the crowd seemed to have actually gotten a bit louder during their rest, Diamond assured him that she was aware of this but was now better prepared for the gradual increase in volume as they approached. With no reason to doubt her on this, they casually walked back to the lobby while Aura kept a close eye on his beloved mate. Aside from a brief moment of her ears flicking back, Diamond seemed to be handling the noise much better now and they were finally able to pass through the crowd without any more distractions and eventually reach the underground arena with plenty of time to spare.
A single folding table had been set up just outside the doors with a banner over it reading "Competitor Check-In!" with several trainers lined up in front of it. Aura turned to his mother and Daniel. "You guys go find some seats while we go check in." They both nodded and Darlene gave her son a quick hug before joining the countless other spectators funneling in through another door. Ushering his team to follow and stay close to him, Aura stepped into the line.
Once it was their turn, Aura approached the table and the lady behind it greeted them with a smile. "Thank you for taking interest in the tournament. May I see your registry card and trainer ID please?" Aura pulled out both his ID and the numbered card he received when they initially registered. After both cards were handed over to the woman, she quickly slotted them into a black box wired to a small laptop. A green LED blinked on the scanner and each card was promptly ejected and returned to Aura. "Best of luck to you, Mr. Borealis, and thank you for your participation." She smiled and placed a small object on the table. "Also please keep this pager close if you intend to leave the stadium at any point, it will let you know when your match is next."
Clipping the small electronic box to his belt, Aura hurried inside with his team and scanned the bleachers for the others, spotting them further up the opposite side and heading over to meet with them. Although just as him and his Pokemon had climbed the stairs, he noticed another familiar face walking over from the opposite end.
"Aura! Dan! Good to see you guys again!" Gwen called as she hurried over. She exhaled a small chuckle and smiled. "Hope you're as excited as I am for this!"
Dan shrugged. "Hard to say since Aura's the one competing, but we'll be cheering him on from up here." He gave an enthusiastic thumbs up.
"Excuse me, but I don't believe we've met." Darlene interrupted with a kind smile. She extended a hand towards the trainer. "My name is Darlene, I'm Aura's mother. And this is my partner, Kibbs." Gwen returned the smile and politely accepted her hand in good manners.
The Growlithe nodded gently as well. "I helped raise Aura so I suppose you could consider me his second mother too… Although, you probably can't understand me, heh." She giggled bashfully and scratched the back of her neck, though shock quickly took to her widened eyes as the young lady glanced down and, after a moment of silence, chuckled cutely.
"Funny thing about that: I actually can understand you… For the most part at least." Gwen parted the long, blonde hair covering her ear and pointed at the small earpiece looped around it. "My parents are developing these Pokemon Translators and are letting me test their most recent prototype. It's kind of a win-win situation since they get free beta testing while I get the chance to actually understand Pokemon."
Aura crossed his arms and nodded confidently. "Yeah, I remember Kelsy told us a bit about your translator." He glanced up at her with a curious grin. "By the way, how is the progress going? You mentioned wanting to catch a Psychic type to help test how accurate the translations were."
Gwen nervously laughed. "Right. Well I haven't managed to get a Pokemon with telepathy yet myself, but my dad liked the idea and got a few to help out back in the workshop. Although, the updated software in this one has apparently proven to be far more accurate at the cost of a small delay." Suddenly, the girl's attention turned from Darlene to the familiar Braixen sitting beside her trainer. Gwen beamed and casually walked to sit beside Diamond. "Don't think I forgot about you, Diamond," she gently stroked between her ears, "Kelsy's told me time and time again about how you kept her spirits up. Haha! I think she considers you almost like a big sister!"
Diamond suddenly blushed and glanced away with her paws on her cheeks. "Th-thank you. I'm happy to know she's doing well after what happened."
"Oh! Oh! Is it my turn to introduce myself?!" Stan suddenly meowed from the floor under the bleachers.
Aura looked at him a bit curiously, noticing the crumbs around his mouth and paws. "Stan? What were you doing under there?" The Shinx averted his gaze, muttering "n-nothing" under his breath until Aura bent down and noticed a small pile of torn wrappers and crumbs just out of view. Aura looked at the lion cub coldly and shook his head. "You could've just asked for a snack you know." Stan hung his head and apologized with Aura telling him to apologize to Dan as well considering those were his to begin with. Again Aura sighed but gave a hushed laugh. "That little guy is Stan. He's the newest addition to our team and as you can tell he's a bit of a glutton."
Aura and Gwen quietly snickered before a sudden loud ping echoed through the massive battle hall. "We apologize for the delay, ladies and gentlemen, but we are finally ready to begin this year's Festival of Good Harvest Pokemon Tournament!" The crowd roared excitedly while the commentator waited for them to settle down. "This year we have a total of forty competing training joining us for today's preliminary round! Now listen close, trainers, because here are the rules: Every battle will have a strict time limit of seven minutes and each trainer may use only one Pokemon, however it's not always possible to win a battle that quickly which is why I would like you to turn your attention to above the battlefield!"
Everyone looked up at the four massive televisions which at the moment only displayed the symbol for the Kalos Pokemon League on a light blue background. "These monitors are wired into a special camera below it that uses the same technology as the Pokedex to continuously scan the field and whatever Pokemon are in its sight." Suddenly the referee sent out an Ambipom and immediately the monitors scanned and displayed a photo of Ambipom along with its gender, ability, trainer and a green bar that tracked its damage. "If neither Pokemon faints before the time limit is reached, whichever Pokemon has suffered the least damage will be considered the winner! Now please keep your attention towards the monitors as the matchups are decided!"
The referee called his Ambipom back to his side and screens were instantly changed to display forty photographs of the individual participants. Every photo promptly flipped over at once to hide their faces then gathered at the center of the screen like a deck of cards before fanning out in a circle that rotated at blinding speeds as the cards were digitally shuffled. This continued for a solid twenty seconds to create some suspense before the cards were spread out in pairs with a line connected between each pair. Finally the photos flipped back over to reveal the randomized matchups and the order in which each battle would take place.
The entire group went wide-eyed upon seeing the two trainers selected for the first battle. The announcer boomed over the mic. "And it looks like the honours of starting off this year's tournament go to mister Aura Borealis and miss Gwendalyn Haswell!" Aura and Gwen both looked at each other at a loss for words. "As this is the first battle, both trainers will be given five minutes to prepare before we begin, so best of luck to them both!"
"Imagine the odds of that!" Dan laughed. "No offense, Gwen, but we'll have to give most of our support here to Aura. But still, good luck out there!"
Gwen started laughing. "Sounds fair enough, after all you two are traveling together." She faced Aura with a confident grin and nodded. "At least we can rest easy knowing this is gonna be a fair battle. But no hard feelings when I knock you out of the rosters!"
Aura shared her laughter and gave a thumbs up. "None at all since we'll be the ones to stomp you!" They both exchanged another sudden laugh before shaking hands and getting ready to head down to the field and stood at opposite ends.
The announcer's voice came back over the speaker with enthusiasm. "Looks like both trainers didn't need much time to prepare after all as they both stand ready to begin! So without further adieu, let's get things started!"
Again the announcer's microphone cut out followed by the referee's voice coming through next. "As stated before, both sides will be permitted one Pokemon for this match and the battle will be over once either side is unable to continue or if the battle proceeds the set time limit! Both trainers! Please decide on your Pokemon and call them out the moment you hear the buzzer!" While Gwen unclipped a ball from her belt and firmly held it up, Aura's team was still by his sides so he looked down at them and nodded.
A loud buzz echoed through the stadium and Aura and Gwen each called out their first Pokemon at once. Gwen hurled her Pokeball high into the air calling out for the Fire and Flying type Fletchinder; whilst Aura pointed forward and made a rather lucky choice by sending out Stan who held a large type advantage over their opponent.
"Ah-hah! Quite the matchup we have here, folks! Aura may have come out with his team in full view which would allow Gwendalyn a better perspective on her choice, but looking at the type matchup between these two Pokemon, Gwendalyn finds herself in a tricky spot by using a Flying type! Could she have been anticipating Aura to use his Riolu?"
Both trainers paused as a whirring sound came from above the field as both Pokemon were scanned. A black diagonal line cut through the screen with one half turning red and the other turning blue as the stats of each Pokemon were displayed on either side next to an image of their trainer. It took them a second to realize the coloured backgrounds represented the coloured outline of their respective trainer boxes.
Again the referee's voice boomed through the intercom as him and his Ambipom partner raised their hands. "The first match of the preliminary round will begin in: Three…! Two…! One…! BATTLE!" The moment the referee shouted and his Ambipom copied his movements by throwing its arm-like tails down, Aura and Gwen each called out to their Pokemon.
"Charge and use Spark!" Aura called. The Shinx's body erupted with blinding static electricity as he focused this energy into increasing his defences while simultaneously powering up his Electric type moves. With a sharp roar from the electric lion cub, the condensed static energy that surrounded Stan's body intensified as he rushed forward.
"Agility, Fletchinder!" The Fire type bird let out a harsh screech and its body became coated in a dim light while its pupils dilated. The exact moment Stan finally pounced at the avian, Fletchinder suddenly darted through the air as nothing more than a red hued blur which startled the cat as he landed back on the ground no longer coated in sparks. Gwen glanced at the screen overhead and watched as the icon for her Fletchinder blinked for a moment before its speed stat rose with a single upward-arrow pinging beside it, however Gwen scowled at the sight of Stan's considerably high attack stat compared to her Pokemon's slightly lower defences. "That might be an issue if we don't handle it fast! Fletchinder, Growl!"
Swooping back around behind Stan, Fletchinder took in a deep breath and let out a shrill yet coarse cry that distorted the air in such a way it sent circular shockwaves towards Stan that caused a dull blue light to seemingly flow down his body as his offensive capabilities were temporarily hindered.
"That's not gonna stop us! Stan! Let's even the playing field using Leer!"
Stan scowled and shot a vicious glare at Fletchinder. His eyes gleamed as a sinister aura emanated from the Shinx that managed to affect Fletchinder psychologically, making it shudder as Stan's intimidating gaze struck his foe with a heavily distorted sense of fear. A faint blue light flowed down its body as its defences temporarily fell.
"It's not often you see trainers bother with moves like that, but the fact remains that with both Pokemon having their stats lowered like this they may as well be unchanged!"
Gwen tossed up her fist. "We still have the agility advantage here! Bombard him with Ember!" Fletchinder shot straight up to get some distance before it began to spit out balls of fire while diving back down.
Stan helplessly began dodging the rain of fire as best he could, but thanks to Fletchinder's agility it still managed to strike many direct hits. Diamond nervously began to rub her necklace, as she normally does to help her anxiety, as she watched her teammate unable to do a thing in this situation without Aura's help. She glanced up at his scowling face as he hastefully thought over their options, and the sudden expression of realization she saw made her body tense.
Aura clenched his fists and boldly shouted. "It's risky, but hold your position and charge power into your tail!" Prince and Diamond suddenly looked up at their trainer nervously then locked their sights on Stan. Surely Aura must know what he was talking about Stan thought; so faithfully trusting his trainer and following his given command, Stan skid to a halt and faced his opponent fiercely as Fletchinder took an extra moment to stop and correct his aim, not expecting the sudden stop from his foe.
It barely took less than a second before Fletchinder continued the assault and Stan winced harshly from taking one Ember attack after another, at the very least by charging his energy it would give him some resistance for the time being. Confusion ran through the crowd as there were only three minutes left on the timer, and as it stood, Stan's health bar had been largely depleted whilst a small "fire" icon appeared next to Stan's image.
"It appears that Shinx was inflicted with a nasty Burn from Ember!" The commentator announced. "Not only will it do damage over time, but until it's healed Shinx will suffer from a drop in attack power! I don't think Aura was anticipating an outcome like this, but there's still the chance his risky strategy could turn it all around in the last few minutes!"
Aura's gaze never faltered from the tip of Stan's tail, watching it completely stone-faced until he noticed a flicker of light. He grinned. "Alright, Stan! Let out some of that spare energy for an extra blinding Flash!" Stan's pupils rapidly constricted into narrow slits as he let out an unexpectedly ferocious, yet still very youthful sounding roar as a concentrated beam of blinding light shot out from the star on Stan's tail that severely hindered Fletchinder's vision. The fire bird Pokemon was forced to cease its attack and started to sporadically flap its wings to correct it's balance, only throwing even more off balance which forced it to eventually slam into the floor, dealing a small amount of damage but nowhere near enough to make a difference.
Glancing up at the screens and seeing Stan's health bar nearly empty and coloured bright red, and with less than two minutes left on the clock, Aura knew he had to end it here and now. He took in a deep breath. "Give this next attack everything you've got! Put every last bit of energy you charged up into your strongest Spark ever and finish this!" Stan's body had been violently sparking ever since he started charging power, with Flash not taking much at all either, his body still held a great deal of condensed static that was barely being contained.
The air grew thin for a moment and a few people suddenly began to yelp as they were shocked by the drastic increase in static electricity caused by the Shinx. With one last cry to attack, Aura gave the order for Stan to charge at the grounded Fletchinder with a full powered Spark. Stan's body expelled a great deal of electrical energy that formed a vibrant yellow-hued bubble around the feline as he lunged forward. However, soon the stored energy became heavily unstable and Stan could no longer keep it compacted around his body. He winced as his health slowly began to deplete from his overcharged electricity yet it oddly managed to bring gasps of shock from all who watched.
"Is… Is Stan learning how to use Wild Charge?!" Daniel exclaimed as him and the others stared at his status screen. "I've heard that Shinx were capable of using Wild Charge, but it's not very often you see one actually able to condense the needed levels of energy to actually execute it without extreme training or even evolving!"
Despite how it may have seemed from an outside perspective, Aura could physically feel Stan's harsh struggle just to withstand his own electricity at this intensity. He watched as the feline's movements slowed and were becoming clumsy and it wouldn't be long before he drained himself past simple exhaustion. "Let go!" Aura's voice boomed with a certainty that stunned almost everybody in the stadium. He narrowed his gaze at his Pokemon and raised his hand. "You're not ready yet to turn all that power into Wild Charge!" Aura's heavy scowl turned to a sharp grin. "So instead just let go of that energy and use Discharge!"
Stan's eyes suddenly filled with life as he stabbed his claws into the turf to quickly stop himself. He arched his back and straightened his tail as the surrounding veil of light was re-absorbed into the Shinx.
"Grrreaaow!" Stan screamed into the air as his tail-star bathed the entire arena in light while his body tensed and rerouted all of his excess electricity into that one focal point, compacting the energy even further until finally releasing it all in one massive lightning bolt of pure energy that rose to the ceiling and even further condensed into a shimmering sphere. It didn't take long for an ear-splitting "CRASH!" to blast through the stadium, causing a couple light fixtures to explode over the battlefield from the inconceivable amount of lightning bolts branching out and striking down across the entire battlefield.
"Fletchinder! It's now or never so give it your all with Flame Charge!" Fletchinder let out a warbled cry as he surrounded himself with raging fire and shot back into the air, just barely managing to maneuver around the sporadic thunderbolts whilst still taking some damage from any that struck too close.
The complete disorder and chaos expected from a powerful Discharge attack made it difficult for Fletchinder to close the gap between itself and Stan; while every bolt that struck the field would only kick up more and more dust which eventually blocked both Pokemon and trainers from view. Not even the scanner could see through the thick shroud and now displayed an error message over both Pokemon's stats. Once the massive Discharge finally ceased, for several seconds there was nothing but complete silence throughout the stadium until finally the speakers let out a short buzz.
"Th-the… The time limit has been reached!" The announcer stammered. "After an incredibly devastating battle, we wait with bated breath for the dust to clear and reveal our winner!" Soon enough, the error message on the screens went away as it detected both Pokemon through the settling cloud and scanned the field with some difficulty, but by the time the scan had been completed and both Pokemon's stats were displayed once more, everybody could already see the results.
"Both Fletchinder and Shinx are unable to battle! Therefore both trainers are eliminated!" The referee shouted, raising both hands into the air followed by his Ambipom doing the same.
Aura tightened his fists while Diamond and Prince both tried to comfort their trainer. However he just quietly shook his head and smiled. "Thanks, but everything is gonna be okay." Neither Pokemon got the chance to ask what he meant as the announcer spoke up.
"What a shocking performance! Never in the history of this festival has there ever been a tie during the first match…!" The announcer trailed off as the scanner let out a harsh whirring sound and the status screens finally updated.
Aura looked up with a proud smile as the crowd erupted in a volley of cheers from the finished scan of the two Pokemon. "We're not going down that easy, are we, Stan?" Suddenly the Shinx's ear twitched as a flurry of sparks arched across his body when he let out a weak cough. The Shinx struggled to his feet with a dazed look in his eye while panting quite heavily.
The referee cleared his throat and dropped his hands. "Hmhm… As the official overseer of this match, I recall my previous statement and now declare that Fletchinder is no longer able to battle making Aura the victor!"
"I-I can't believe it!" The announcer boomed. "Somehow Aura's Shinx managed to pull through and win with only one percent of its health remaining! This truly is the greatest Pokemon Battle I have ever seen throughout the entire history of this festival!"
Gwen sighed and returned her Pokemon while Aura couldn't keep up the cool act any longer and rushed onto the field with Diamond and Prince in tow and knelt down beside the Shinx. He gently stroked his back and proudly smiled while taking Stan's ball off his belt. "You were incredible! Once we get you all healed up I promise there'll be a big feast with your name on it!"
Stan smiled back and chuckled. "Thank's, Aura…" A joyful tear fell from Stan's eye as suddenly he could no longer stand and collapsed from exhaustion. Aura returned him to the Pokeball and stood up when he saw Gwen approaching them.
"Honestly I thought me and Fletchinder had you on the ropes even after I made a bad call." She rubbed the back of her head and laughed. "It sucks that we didn't win, but my team and I won't stop routing for you!" She gave Aura a thumbs up and they stepped off the field while a cleanup crew sent out their Pokemon to quickly clean and repair all damages while the two trainers headed back upstairs to have their Pokemon healed.
Once the injured Pokemon had been given to Nurse Joy, Aura, Gwen, Prince and Diamond went and took a seat in some nearby chairs. "So," Aura began, "I assume you've got more than just Kelsy and Fletchinder under your belt?'
Gwen smirked and grabbed three Pokeballs off her belt and held them between her fingers. "I actually have four in total. It'll be a little bit still before Stan and Fletchinder are healed up, so I'll introduce you guys to the other two." Gwen set one Pokeball off to the side and enlarged the others to activate them. Gently squeezing both sides of the spherical capsules, the lids popped open and released their inhabitants; meanwhile, the one she had set aside started to gently wiggle.
Emerging from the light that arched out from the balls, a Marill with glistening blue fur cheerfully hopped on the floor whilst a majestic Vivillon fluttered down onto Gwen's shoulder. "Aura, Diamond, Prince, I want you to meet Marill and Vivillon!"
Both Pokemon cried out with an excited hello while Aura and his team returned the greeting. "Huh, I guess it wouldn't have mattered much who you sent out before since these two are also weak to Electric types."
Gwen shrugged as she scratched Vivillon's belly with her finger. "Yeah. That's why we haven't made an attempt at the Lumiose Gym yet, though for now I'm focusing on training Marill and Kelsy to carry the team against the Cyllage Gym."
Marill smirked and flexed it's small arms confidently. "Marill! Mair mari, rill!" It exclaimed. Vivillon giggled and fluttered down to Marill and landed on its head, though Marill seemed a bit annoyed as it started to shake around and push Vivillon with its tail.
"Haha! Don't worry, Marill, Vivillon isn't going to use his Powder on you." Gwen assured. Marill looked up at the mischievous Bug Pokemon and sighed as it flew back onto their trainer's shoulder. "See, a while ago Vivillon and I were training against a Pansear and a gust of wind blew his Powder right into Marill's face. Poor girl wouldn't stop sneezing."
As Gwen chuckled lightly, she was interrupted by the third Pokeball clattering against the floor and popping open on its own to reveal a somewhat irked looking Herdier with much of its normally thick fur trimmed down and groomed. "Why wouldn't you let me out too?!" Kelsy spun around and her eyes gleamed as she looked up at the familiar scented Braixen. Her tail wagged violently as the dog panted from excitement. "Oh my gosh! It feels like forever since the last time we met!"
Diamond had a nervous smile. She was overjoyed to see Kelsey again after so long, but she was a bit taken back by the dog's hyperactive personality compared to how she acted previously. "It has been a while… H-how've you been?"
Kelsey barked happily and began hopping up and down. "I've been doing great! You really inspired me to get stronger after the way you helped me before and then after we beat Viola I managed to evolve! After that we made some new friends and I told them all about you and Aura and Dan and-" Kelsey suddenly paused as she flopped onto the floor panting heavily. "Phew… A-anyways! After Gwen told me she saw Aura at the store I couldn't wait to see you again and show you how strong I got! Also I can't wait for your surpri-mmph!" Kelsey's maw was suddenly latched shut by a hasteful String Shot from Vivillon.
Diamond felt somewhat relieved to have a moment from Kelsey's over-excitement, however she did glare at Aura for a second for him not telling her that he knew Gwen was in town as well. Finally Kelsey managed to scratch off the thread bindings and took a large breath. "What were you about to say? Something about a surprise?"
Kelsey averted her gaze and scratched her neck. "N-nothing… It was just…"
Gwen forced out a loud sigh which thankfully made Kelsey stop talking. "Truth is that when Aura and I bumped into each other at the store he told me about your birthday coming up."
Aura nodded. "Heh, I kinda wanted it to be a surprise, but when you were recovering from the poison a few days ago I did some shopping and that's when we bumped into each other."
"Yeah. Anyway after that I told Kelsey about it and…" She paused and glanced at the dog as if buying time before shaking her head. "Well, I kind of started looking for a gift for you and Kelsey kind of spilled the beans."
Diamond's ears perked up. She didn't know how to respond to this and in her flustered state began to rapidly shake her head. "I-I shouldn't have asked! Hopefully this didn't ruin it though, so please just don't tell me anything else!" She suddenly covered her folded ears with her paws and tightly shut her eyes, a vibrant blush was clearly visible spreading over her cheeks. "S-sorry! I'm not used to this so I really hope I didn't just ruin the surprise!"
Gwen laughed and ushered for Aura to ease her nerves. "Don't worry about it. Thankfully Vivillon put a muzzle on Kelsey before she could tell you what it was."
The Herdier nervously chuckled and lowered her tail. "S-sorry about that. I guess I just got too excited to see Diamond again."
Aura smiled. "Everyone makes mistakes in the heat of the moment. But moving on, at least now you and Diamond can spend some proper time together since last time was a bit difficult. Gwen tells me that you practically idolize Diamond."
Kelsey furiously nodded and let out a gleeful bark. "Yeah! Even though I was so scared of never seeing Gwen again, Diamond was so nice to me and made me feel better like a big sister! Plus, after we finally managed to win our first Gym Badge we saw a picture of you guys and the Gym Leader told us how super-duper strong you were and it made me want to become just like Diamond!" She took in a deep gasp and panted heavily.
Aura and Gwen started laughing while Diamond was simply awestruck by how much the young dog Pokemon truly looked up to her, the way Kelsey referred to her as a "big sister" was the most prominent part of it all and just thinking about it made Diamond feel warm. She wanted to ask if Kelsey really meant all that, but she was interrupted as Nurse Joy came over with Stan and Fletchinder's Pokeballs and returned them to their respected trainers.
"Well, we'd better head back downstairs and meet up with your mom and Daniel." Gwen readied her Pokeballs to return the other three but was halted by Diamond suddenly crying for her to wait.
As Gwen's eyes trained on the fox Pokemon along with the eyes of everyone else, Diamond meekly tucked her head down and tapped her necklace. "C-could you maybe let Kelsey stay out of her ball? I-I wouldn't mind spending some more time with her…"
Gwen looked at her Pokemon followed by glancing down at the ball containing Fletchinder. She paused as Aura suddenly let Stan back out of his ball and watched the Shinx satisfyingly stretch and quietly moan as his back made a silent pop. Gwen finally smiled and held out Fletchinder's Pokeball. "Well then we might as well make it fair for everyone." The ball popped open and Fletchinder spread his wings whilst emerging from the energy perched atop the back of a chair. "If Kelsey's gonna stay out of her ball, then everyone else should be allowed as well!"
With a collective cheer from her team, Gwen set each of the empty Pokeballs back into her belt. Vivillon and Fletchinder perched on each of her shoulders while Marill leaped into her arms. With that now settled, Gwen happily giggled and urged Aura and his team to hurry up or else they might miss even more of the tournament.
Aura laughed and, with his loyal Pokemon at his sides, hurried after Gwen back to the arena where they rejoined the others and thankfully made it in time to watch the third battle onward.
