It's No Contest
The Pokémon Centre's yard was mostly empty in the late hours of the night. Even Kai and the young boy who had agreed to train with him retreated back inside after Kai's Poochyena had knocked out his Zigzagoon. In the end the only person still out was Hilary. Surskit and Wurmple stood by one of the trees in the yard, watching Hilary working with Ralts. The on-duty human nurse called out to the training yard when it was five minutes until lights out in the yard but Hilary was only vaguely aware, focusing her attention on Ralts' performance.
"I considered everything and I know what I want my performance to be for tomorrow's Contest," Hilary said, talking mostly too herself. She breathed deeply, already feeling the shakes from nerves. "It's the best idea I've had out of all of them so it's really important we get this down, Ralts. It's just like moving the leaves around."
Ralts smiled and clutched her helmet. Several leaves on the ground around her jumped into the air and were swept up in a controlled whirl.
"Yes, but we practised that heaps, you need to go the next step," Hilary grumbled, arms akimbo. "You've already done it a few times before. Use Magical Leaf."
Ralts pouted and dropped the leaves. She then almost doubled over summoning the energy that caused a rainbow aura to light up over her body and leaves magically appeared in the air around her. Ralts forced them the swirl around a little bit until they reached the speed of a small whirlwind then suddenly they popped out of existence. She sighed in exhaustion.
"That's great!" Hilary cheered. "Just one more, let's go!"
"Excuse me!"
Hilary squeaked and turned around, cowering a little bit in front of the stern visage of the red-headed nurse. Tonight her thick bun was wound up as tightly as her attitude. Of the three nurses who worked shifts at Rustboro Pokémon Centre, she was the one people least wanted to cross.
"Didn't I say five minutes ago that it would be lights out?" she snapped. "Yard closes at ten! Stop dilly-dallying, get your Pokémon together and get inside!"
"Yes, Nurse Jessica!"
Hilary returned Surskit and Wurmple and then picked up Ralts and scurried to the doors. The nurse's sharp eyes watched her. She sighed with relief once she was safely behind the doors of the elevator.
"Yikes…" she murmured, speaking to her Ralts. "Why's she got to be so bitchy all the time?"
Ralts shrugged. Hilary sagged against the wall. "Sorry to make you go through all of this – making you learn a whole new move in just a few days – but I really want this for my performance tomorrow. I'm sure it'll look great… I just hope the judges think so too…"
Ralts made a sympathetic sound and rubbed her shoulder reassuringly.
"We'll give it another go tomorrow morning after a good night's sleep," Hilary said determinedly. Ralts smiled and put her agreement forwards as Hilary stepped out of the elevator and returned to her room.
The Rustboro Contest Hall was loudly coloured almost to the point of being obnoxious and the beyblader boys were almost afraid to set foot too close to it. The building was exceedingly grand, defined primarily by the grand arches that crossed over each other, giving the portico around the building the atmosphere of a stalactite cave rather than a real building. It rationalised the space between the buildings – old and new – and the outskirts like it absolutely belonged there and yet the bright pink and gold colour scheme and the big, red bow above the main doors made it stick out like a bad painting.
Inside was equally ostentatious; the main hall was a theatre in the round with a golden stage and a great dome ceiling. However, Hilary could only admire it wistfully from afar. The stands were empty but a stage crew was bustling around it. From the sounds of the stage manager's shrill yelling they had just finished dismantling something and were immediately putting something else up.
"Going to be amazing, isn't it?" someone piped up, startling her. Behind Hilary was a woman with mousy brown hair that was longer in the bangs than anywhere else, dressed in a light blue boat neck dress; a style that was casually mature in a way that reminded Hilary of her mother. "Ehe, sorry to sneak up on you."
"Don't worry about it," Hilary said, putting her arms up apologetically. "I'm not really supposed to be here."
"It's okay. It's nice to see the stage before it gets all glammed up for the Contest. Makes the transformation look amazing every single time."
"Actually, I'm not competing on this stage."
"No?" the woman said, looking at Hilary curiously. "Aw… got excited there for moment. Thought that there was going to be a new face in the master rank. Then does that mean you're competing in tomorrow's super rank?"
"No, I'm competing in the normal rank."
The woman gasped. "But that's in an hour! You don't look ready!"
Hilary blinked. "Ready how?"
"You're not dressed up! Can't go into a Contest just looking like you normally do, that'll reflect poorly for sure. Don't worry, though! I know just the thing."
The woman physically turned Hilary around and pushed her in a direction unknown before Hilary could even protest.
Meanwhile, Mari and the boys were waiting on the edge of the fountain in the square before the Contest Hall. As non-competitors they had plenty of time to spare. Tyson had already taken to carrying around his egg, which led to a lot of pestering from Daichi about how he was going to be a mommy just like Kai, something that Tyson argued vehemently against. The reason they were waiting, however, was that they were currently down a member and Tyson had already starting tapping his foot in irritation a while ago.
"Argh! Where is Max?" he finally exploded, throwing his arms up in exasperation. Togepi cried out as well and copied his actions, which made Kai sigh and force her to lower them.
"I don't know," Ray muttered, fiddling with the PokéNav distractedly. "If he had a PokéNav of his own or one of those Pokégears then I could text him."
"Why can't we just go without him?" Daichi grumbled.
"Yeah, actually, why don't we?"
"I don't want to be associated with that building," Tyson grumbled, jerking his thumb in the direction of the Contest Hall, "any longer than necessary."
Mari was the only one who paid any notice to a set of footsteps approaching them closer than any others. She turned to the source and smiled. "Emerald! Here to see Ruby?"
"Of course," he replied, beaming proudly. "Can't believe he's finally going to participate. He always wigs out right before a Contest but this time it looks like he's going through with it." The others turned to listen and he leaned in to whisper almost conspiratorially, "I think he wants to show off in front of Hilary."
Daichi blew a raspberry. "Why would he want to do that?"
Emerald shrugged. "Maybe feels like he's become a master and she's the pupil, so he's got to show for something, right?"
"You seem excited for the Contest," Ray remarked. "I thought battling was more your thing."
"It's my talent, can't lie. But I'm really proud of Ruby trying to express himself to his full potential. I think he's going to be really great. Was thinking of going in early to see him backstage, you were thinking of doing the same for Hilary, right?"
"No, are we allowed?"
"Yeah! Come on, let's go see them." Emerald grabbed Tyson by the front of his shirt, dragging him towards the Contest Hall despite him digging his heels in and protesting.
People were already starting to trickle into the stands at the little outdoor auditorium that was hosting the normal rank. Hilary peeked out of the curtains and noticed with dismay that most of those early arrivals were the overenthusiastic parents of children. Walking away from the stage, Hilary looked around the backstage area at the participants of the lowest ranked Contest, suddenly feeling awkward and embarrassed. Most of them were children. There were only three other people there of a similar age to her and two of them didn't even look like they were competing, instead they were fawning over a chubby little girl in a cute red dress who had a purple scorpion at her side.
Come to think of it, the rest of the contestants already had their Pokémon out. Hilary released Ralts, crouching down next to her. "Are you ready to rock this place?" she asked jokingly. Ralts threw a hand in the air, giving a cheer but it was forced and weakened towards the end. "I know, I'm getting butterflies too…"
Ralts cocked her head to the side, unsure what 'butterflies' were. Probably something wriggly and wormy if there were comparable to the nervous feeling she was getting in her stomach.
"Hilary!" they heard someone call to them. "Ralts! So glad you made it. Omigosh, your dress is so cute~!"
Hilary chuckled nervously at Ruby's observation. It was technically an unauthorised costume rental but she was assured that as long as she didn't get it wet or dirty and returned it afterwards it would be fine. It was a frilly, pink princess dress with off-the-shoulder straps and a lacy petticoat. It even came with matching pumps.
"Thanks," she said, standing up and getting a good look at Ruby. She did a double-take on his outfit. "You look really… cool."
Ruby grinned proudly. He still insisted on covering his forehead with a headband but this time it was fuzzy and dark grey, matching his charcoal and ash grey suit with sleeves and trousers that gave way to jagged black half way down. The hems were lined with grey faux fur, matching the headband and a fluffy stole of the same material on his shoulders. He flicked the tail of his stole.
"You really think so? Made it myself. Had this sketch down for so long and I promised myself that if I ever entered a Contest with Nana while she was still a Poochyena then I'd totally make it."
At his heel, Nana barked, making Hilary look down. Aside from Nana there were two other Pokémon with him: a yellow and pink kitten and another Ralts, all of them wearing clothes. "So you decided on Nana?"
"I want to make a really, really good impression in my first Contest and I think Nana will help with that. Kiki would have been great but her move pool isn't very expansive right now. Rara gets overexcited and then she gets disobedient, absolutely not cool in a Contest!"
His Ralts didn't seem to be affected by the frank remark, too focused on doing her own joyful little dances. However, Hilary and Ruby weren't too distracted to overhear familiar voices coming their way.
"Huh, so we really are allowed back here," Tyson said, looking around interestedly. "Or at least there was nobody to stop us."
"Ruby!" Emerald called out, leaping to give his little brother a hug. He dodged, which left his older brother to spectacularly face-plant the floor.
"Don't jump me! You'll put wrinkles in my outfit before the show," Ruby grumbled.
"I'm sure nobody would notice from the audience," Ray tried to rationalise.
Ruby scoffed. "Of course they'd notice!"
Emerald picked himself up off the ground, massaging his sore face. "Ehe, you won't talk him out of it. Ruby's really vain. Won't even be seen in public without a headband becau-"
Ruby elbowed him in the gut before he could finish that sentence, winding him. While his big brother lay on the floor trying to catch his breath he casually straightened his sleeve. "Sorry but was there a reason you came here?"
"Ow, that's cold, Ruby," Tyson said. "We just came in to wish you guys good luck before the Contest, that's all."
"Where's Max?" Hilary asked.
"We're not sure."
While the trainers were chatting and bantering, Hilary's Ralts stood to the side anxiously. Throughout the exchange Rara had continued to dance and spin around energetically but she suddenly halted when she noticed the other Ralts. Rara frowned, sensing the waves of emotion coming off Ralts.
"She's so upset and nervous… I'll just have to make her a happy chappy!" Rara thought. Then she beamed. She danced her way over to the other Ralts, who turned to her, startled. "Hey, other Ralts! What's shakin', bakin'?"
Ralts stared at her, bemused. "You're the other trainer's Ralts."
"Indeed I am, Pam."
"My name isn't Pam, it's Ralts."
Rara laughed. "I know that! It's just an expression. But you seem down in the dumps. What's got you feeling like a chump?"
Ralts hummed thoughtfully, looking down at the floor. "To be honest, I'm kind of… afraid? What if I can't live up to Hilary's expectations in the Contest? What if I'm not good enough?"
"Don't be afraid. You've prepared for this day and you'll only do your best – you've got this Contest!" Rara told her, dancing all the while. "And your trainer will love you all the same if she's a good trainer. Here, try this."
She unclasped her outfit – a white dress, open at the front and with puffed sleeves – and handed it to Ralts. Hilary's Ralts was taken aback.
"But that's your clothing!"
"Doesn't matter, chatter! Ruby will make me a new one, no problem. Besides, everyone here's all dressed up except you, Budew."
"I'm not a Budew, I'm a Ralts."
"I know that! It's an expression," Rara laughed, guiding Ralts to put the dress on. Ralts had never worn actual clothes before and it felt strange having this soft, silky piece of fabric touching and rubbing her all over constantly. Rara did up the clasp for her and stepped back, throwing her hands up with glee. "Now you're a ready teddy!"
Ralts looked down at herself, swaying to watch the hem of the dress swish and looking over her shoulder to try to see the back of it. It fit Rara like a glove but it was a bit too long on Ralts and the hem trailed onto the floor like a train. Rara spun around with her arms up excitedly.
"Woohoo! It looks so good on you. And in the Contest you'll do great, just wait!"
"Rara!" Ruby called out. Rara giggled and turned to run back to her trainer (or dance since every move she made was odd and had a rhythm to it). "There you are. Contest's about to begin so you need to be in your ball now."
Rara whined and flung herself over Ruby's feet. Ruby sighed and rolled his eyes. "Alright, you can sit with Emerald in the audience." His Ralts suddenly jumped to her feet, cheering.
Hilary came up behind her Ralts, making the little Pokémon look up. "We should get ready too." Ralts nodded and turned to Rara, who was already being taken away in Emerald's arms. She gave a thumbs-up to Ralts, who was able to smile as Hilary returned her.
The little amphitheatre for the normal rank was around the side of the Contest Hall with a small, semi-circular stage that was mostly veiled by a hot pink curtain. It had a proportionally tiny set of stands for an audience that was still thin even though the Contest was about to begin. Even after the trainers all got to sit down there was space for more people to get in, easily. Max finally caught up with them, running into the stands and leaning on his knees, panting.
"Max! Where have you been?" Tyson yelled at him before he got a word in. "We got tired of waiting for you."
"Sorry!" he said, trying to sound really apologetic but he was too out of breath for that. "Lost track of time."
"That doesn't explain where you've been," Ray pointed out.
"Some girls were really impressed that I got through the Rustboro Gym with a Wingull, so they wanted to see his moves."
"Oh? How did that go?" Mari asked interestedly.
Max caught his breath and straightened up, shrugging. "I think we did well. One of them had a Zigzagoon and a Wurmple and the other had a Nincada so that stacked the odds way in our favour." He plonked himself down on the bench beside Emerald, pulling out the ticket he'd been given at the door. "By the way, what do we do with these things? Is this a ballot?"
"It is," Emerald answered. "First stage of the Contest is visual judging and it's up to the audience to vote on which Pokémon they find most visually appealing. Higher ranked Contests give you electronic voting buttons but these lower ranks only have enough budget to do things really old school. Haven't actually done this very often so I don't know the details but the MC will give out the instructions. Think she's coming on stage now."
The speakers began to play jovial music and confetti exploded over the stage from two confetti canons at the front of it. A woman with curly, brown hair wearing a flashy orange dress that had a great big bow on the back walked out onto the stage, microphone in hand and giving the crowd a friendly wave. She stopped in the middle of the stage and clutched the microphone in both hands.
"Good afternoon and welcome to today's normal rank Pokémon Contest," she said in a friendly voice. "I'm Erin and I'll be your announcer."
"Hi mom!" a child down the front called out.
"Hi sweetie," she answered, giving a special wave just to him and Tyson was suddenly struck with a wave of nostalgia. If the stage and the curtains were replaced with a beydish this could have been one of the small-time beybattles he was lucky to sometimes attend when he was younger and the BBA had only just started to attempt to take beyblading out of the streets and into proper arenas. It was the kind of thing where the budget was so low that the referee had to be someone's mom or brother volunteering and the matchups were drawn on a piece of paper by a lone official (namely Mr Dickenson) seated at a fold-up table and chair. But in those days winning was so unimportant anyway and everyone just wanted to play and take part.
As Erin continued her MC routine, talking about the Contest generally, Emerald muttered under his breath: "Wow, lacks some pizazz."
"I'm liking things so far," Max said almost defensively as if Emerald's comment had riled him, putting his elbows up on the bench behind him and leaning back. "It kinda reminds me of the first time I went to a beyblade meet."
"A meet?" Ray and Daichi asked simultaneously, looking at him quizzically.
"Before beyblading became competitive," Kai piped up, drawing attention simply for his sudden contribution, "a tournament was referred to as a meet. They were crapshoot knockout tournaments where nobody stood to gain anything but for some reason people wanted to participate."
"It was mostly about meeting people who also liked beyblades," Tyson added. "There weren't a lot of us back then."
"Oh," Ray said as Daichi's eyes widened in realisation. The Chinese boy smiled. "I didn't realise that even city bladers had such humble beginnings."
"First off," Erin continued, making up for her subdued enthusiasm by sounding like a generally nice person, "let's welcome our judges for today's Contest, they're quite special. Rustboro's very own celebrities: Hoenn's leading interior designer, Walda Pepper; former head of the corporate giant Devon Corp., Mr Stone; and one of the charming ladies from the Pokémon Centre reception desk, Nurse Jessica."
She gestured to a foldable table set up in front of the stage with a tablecloth and three chairs, one for each judge. The judges turned around to wave to the crowd amidst a modest round of applause. Nurse Jessica had dolled herself up in a blue pencil dress with capped sleeves and put her hair in a curled side ponytail, sprayed to rock-like hardness. Mr Stone waved to them with his hat, matching his loud yellow suit and pink bowtie and handkerchief. Incidentally, the garish colour combination helped him blend in with the building. The other judge was a shy, frail-looking woman with strictly bobbed hair in a cerise shift dress that had a long-tailed ribbon on the collar.
"What's Mr Stone doing here?" Daichi wondered aloud. "I thought he was going to do inventing or something."
"Yeah, but you can't just quit responsibilities at the drop of a hat," Mari pointed out, "especially when you're committed to them."
"Either way, he's retired," Emerald added. "Can pretty much do what he likes."
"And now, without further ado, let's meet today's contestants!" Erin exclaimed, stepping aside as the curtain opened. The audience's applause rose and people even cheered as this was the part they'd been waiting for. The eight contestants were lined up along the stage.
"First part of this Contest is the visual appeal. Contestants will present their Pokémon as they're introduced and at the end of the round the audience will get to vote on their favourites. The ballot is on the back of your entry tickets. All you have to do is mark the boxes beside all of the Pokémon you liked and bring it down to the ballot box at the judges' table. All clear? Okay! Let's begin the appeals. First up is contestant Number 1: Shido Sanders and Skorupi."
A black-haired little girl in a red dress with messy light blue streaks in her bangs stepped forwards, waving both hands to the audience, even the one holding her pink parasol. She took out a Pokéball with a blue sheen on it, like it was wrapped up in a casing. She twirled and unfurled her parasol in one smooth motion that was distracting enough that when she threw her ball up in the air it seemingly came from nowhere. It opened but rather than just bright white light a rain of confetti appeared as well, raining over the big, purple scorpion that appeared and then disappearing with the rest of the light. The scorpion scuttled out to centre stage, waving its arms about. The pincers and tail stinger were dressed in mittens specially sewn for them with cute little bows. Some of the audience cooed at the adorable accessories.
"Wait, does that mean we can potentially vote for all of them?" Mari asked.
"Yeah, if you want to," Emerald answered, turning back to the stage as the second contestant was called up.
"You haven't been to a Contest before?" Tyson asked Mari with mild disbelief. "I thought you were really into Pokémon."
"Battler, mainly," Mari said, leaning back with a pout. "Been to Contests before when I was little and with my parents but never really understood the rules. Really, though? We can vote for all of them?"
"If you want to," Emerald said again with a sigh. "Or you can vote for none of them, up to you but that's not really beneficial. The point of the first two rounds is to decrease the cohort of contestants down to the final four so I think it's better if you take it seriously."
"What are we supposed to vote on?" Daichi said. "Am I supposed to look at the clothes?"
"Doesn't matter," Emerald muttered, taking a little pen out of his pocket to make a mark while the fourth contestant was out. "It's your decision and nobody's going to police it anyhow but it's nice if you take it somewhat seriously."
"So if I don't like the scorpion because I just think it's ugly then that's valid?" said Tyson.
"He said to take it seriously, Tyson," Ray admonished. "What about it is ugly?"
"It's a giant scorpion. What about it is pretty?"
"Really odd pronunciation of Skorupi," Emerald whispered to Mari, who shrugged and rolled her eyes long-sufferingly.
The visual appeal went on efficiently with each contestant stepping forward when called, letting their Pokémon show off for about ten seconds, and then returning to their spot in line with the Pokémon at their side. It took a few minutes at most and almost before they knew it they were up to the last two contestants on the stage. Hilary's gut squeezed with nervousness.
"Contestant Number 7: Ruby Birch and Nana," Erin announced.
Hilary turned to look at him but Ruby was already striding out to the front of the stage. With a practiced flourish he drew his Pokéball from his jacket. To her surprise, he'd also encased it in that blue capsule many of the other contestants had. The ball opened in a puff of stars and smoke and Nana leaped out. She did a turn in mid-air so that her lavish tail swished behind her impressively and the sharp lines of her pleated cape swayed stiffly as she landed. Her ears wiggled, poking out of the earholes of the cap she wore. Ruby did a flashy move, almost like a dance step, and he and his Pokémon struck a pose together. The entire audience sucked in a stunned breath and then let loose with a loud round of applause and cheering that was more unanimous than those that came before.
"Gosh, Ruby's incredible," Mari breathed, admiring his Poochyena in all of her pampered glory. "Hard to believe that he's never tried to enter a Contest before. He's a natural."
"It's nerves," Emerald said, putting a hand on Rara's head. She'd finally sat still and he could feel vibrations through her helmet as large amounts of psychic energy thrummed through her, directed towards the stage.
Ruby and Nana went back to take their place and Erin announced the last contestant: "And finally, contestant Number 8: Hilary Tachibana and Ralts."
Hilary started at the words and stepped up to centre stage, looking down at Ralts' Pokéball. The world felt like it was in slow motion before she reached it. Everyone else seemed more prepared for this than she was. What should she do? Her eyes glanced at the judges' table. She'd never felt eyes on her so consciously before and Ruby was such a tough act to follow. She stopped in the middle of the stage with the ball in both hands and took a deep breath. Then she threw it up, sending it spinning gracefully and Ralts spilled out in a wave of ordinary white light. She looked down at her Pokémon and Ralts looked at her too. They had a moment of shared vision; both of them on the same wavelength and they smiled at each other. They may not be experienced at this but they'd do their very best.
They both twirled, letting the hems of their dresses flutter up in the air and feeling the subtle electricity of their synchronicity. They struck a pose afterwards, holding it as they looked out into the crowd. Hilary fought a twitch when, for a moment, nobody did anything. But then people quickly began to clap and smile. She looked up as her friends hollered their support and her heart lifted. Rara jumped up and down cheerfully in Emerald's lap, sending psychic waves to Hilary's Ralts. Ralts smiled and sent some back.
"That's it for the visual appeal," Erin announced as Hilary scuttled back to her place, feeling elated. "Weren't the contestants fantastic? What a tough competition! May even boil down to only a few points. Everybody cast your votes and coming up is Round 2 of the Contest."
The contestants all exited the stage to the left, just as they were instructed at the beginning while murmuring broke out amongst the audience trying to decide how they would vote. A stage hand arranged for them to line up in their number order, ready to be organised with amendments for the next round. Hilary was ushered behind Ruby and almost immediately he pounced on her.
"Hilary! You did so well!" he squealed. "So excited to see your performance appeal!"
The stage hand shushed him while Hilary just smiled awkwardly. "It's not that great. I wasn't really prepared to do any of that. But you went up there and you looked like you've been doing Contests your whole life. I hope we make it to the next round."
"Not that great?! Hilary! You and Ralts were so beautifully in synch; there's no way you won't."
As the trainers in the audience went down to submit their tickets, they found that the ballot box was not what they expected. Instead of being merely a box, the big purple thing was more like a feeder, slurping up tickets as they were placed in the slot.
"Wow, we definitely never had anything like this at the meets," Tyson remarked when the machine stole the ticket right out of his hand as soon as he slotted only a part of it in.
"Why do they have such high-tech stuff?" Daichi wondered aloud, flinching when his ticket was also automatically snatched from him.
"Did you expect hand counting?" Emerald joked but sweated at the serious look the bladers were giving him. "They have to have the numbers ready to see who to eliminate before the next round. Much easier to do that digitally."
"Man, imagine what that must have been like before stuff like this," Mari chuckled.
"Well, Contests have gone through a few different formats, even in the past couple of decades," Emerald explained, "so says my mom, at least. Possible that this format only appeared because of stuff like this."
The results were coming in and the screen at the back of the stage displayed them to the audience. All eight Pokémon were up there with their names and their points represented with bars. The contestants watched the results over the shoulder of a stage technician monitoring the stage via video, holding their breaths in anticipation for the result. The audience quietened down as they all returned to their places and the voting ended. The final scores were rearranged into order from highest to lowest and two lowest were highlighted in red.
Two of the contestants in line ahead of Hilary whined but she just sighed in relief. Fifth. She was in fifth place so far. At the very least she could go on to the next round. On stage Erin was announcing the results and the next round of the Contest while the stage hand was hurrying to get the contestants to line up in the new order, with Ruby definitively at the front.
"Time for the second stage of the Contest: the performance appeal!" Erin declared, to which the audience clapped excitedly. "This round is always a crowd pleaser. The remaining contestants will have to show off some appealing performances to the judges. With how close the visual appeal came, the performances are bound to be exciting. So without further ado, let's welcome back Ruby and Nana."
He started and gulped so audibly that Hilary heard it from near the back of the line. She watched him worriedly as he stepped out on stage, wondering if he was going to be alright. However, as soon as he was in front of the audience his persona changed completely and he was naturally exuding confidence like he was giving it away for free. Nana trotted out beside him, nose held high. Ruby stayed towards the back of the stage, letting Nana assume the spotlight position as he guided her with instructions through a series of moves and tricks that had the audience cheering in awe. When it was done Nana posed again, making sure her tail and cape were in view. The crowd's applause lingered for a while after it and the judges all nodded approvingly. Nurse Jessica looked especially excited by the impressive performance.
"My, my, such a natural!" Mr Stone laughed.
"Marvellous! Simply dazzling!" Jessica exclaimed.
"A result like this from a Poochyena, of all Pokémon…" Walda muttered. "That is some truly impressive grooming and training. Wonderful."
Backstage, rather than praising, some of the contestants moaned:
"Aw, shit. How are we supposed to compete with that guy?"
"What the hell? Why is he doing normal rank?"
At the end of the performance Ruby and Nana both took a bow and returned backstage. Once he was out of the light and far from the eyes of the audience he hugged himself as if he was cold. "Aw, man, think I looked like a dork…"
"Ruby, you were really great," Hilary whispered to him while the second contestant went out to perform. "The judges clearly loved you."
Ruby giggled and played with his stole nervously. "Y-yeah, guess they really did, huh?"
Nana yipped in agreement, wagging her tail happily. Being in a Contest with Ruby was so far living up to her expectations and she was enjoying every moment of it.
"I'm getting worried about my performance, though," Hilary admitted. "You went for a little while and mine's really short."
"Doesn't matter so long as you make a good impression," Ruby said, perking up a bit now that his mind was drawn away from his own performance. "Performances have a time limit of one and a half minutes but anything under is permissible so long as it dazzles."
The crowd was giving a big round of applause as the second contestant finished up. It had been a lot shorter than Ruby's, giving Hilary a bit of internal relief. The third contestant caused quite a stir with the audience and the little girl who was fourth up also got an admirable ovation. Hilary and Ralts exchanged glances for support and good luck before they stepped out onto the stage for their performance.
Once they were out the clapping from the audience gradually subsided as they all began to politely wait for her to get started. Hilary copied the actions of the previous contestants, choosing a place towards the back of the stage to stand while Ralts went out to centre stage. Ralts looked back at her nervously. Hilary smiled and gave her a thumbs-up.
"It's okay, Ralts. We've got this! Remember our first move is Double Team." Ralts nodded and turned to face the audience, spreading a line of illusory copies across the stage. "Great! Now Teleport."
Ralts teleported and all of her copies teleported too, moving around the stage randomly with each jump. The audience murmured but Hilary couldn't tell if they were impressed or not. She ignored the nervous sweat on her temple to give out her next instruction:
"Now, bring it all in and use Magical Leaf."
Ralts put her hands on her head to help her concentrate. The Double Team illusions swirled towards her like they were careening towards a black hole. At the same time, Ralts' body began to shine with an aura of rainbow colours, which from the audience's point of view were increasing in vividness as the doubles re-joined the original. The aura suddenly burst out in the form of multi-coloured leaves. The crowd was instantly impressed, even though the leaves quickly popped like bubbles and Ralts slouched with the exhaustion of trying so hard.
"Wahaha! Even the simple stuff can be quite impressive!" Mr Stone guffawed, applauding their efforts.
"Well, suppose there was nothing technically wrong," Nurse Jessica said harshly. "But the timing was very good. They clearly practised at this very hard."
Walda remained quiet but was smiling a little bit more than she had been at the beginning of Hilary's performance. Ralts took a bow the way Hilary had shown her and Hilary curtsied.
The audience politely applauded for them again as they walked offstage to make way for the final contestant and when their performance was over there was a short period of grace, just like the first round, this time for the judges to make their decisions. The contestants could only sit and wait while the judges deliberated but when the final scores came through they were up on the screen and with the lowest two scores highlighted in red again.
"I'm fourth now," Hilary thought, taking a calming breath. "I wonder if I can do this. Ruby said the last round would definitely be the hardest and I've only barely been scraping in so far."
"This is it!" Erin announced with more of a boom in her voice and vigour in her movements. As the Contest wore on she was getting excited and the audience was building too. "Down to the final four contestants and the final stage: the improvised appeals. All four contestants will come before both the judges and the audience and take it in turns to make one appeal move, trying to impress while at the same time trying to stay composed as their rivals attempt to unnerve them. Penalties apply for making more than one appeal in a turn. Now, welcoming back our four top contestants: contestant Number 7: Ruby and Nana!"
The pair ran out on stage upon being called, followed suit by the others as they were called out.
"Number 4: Victor and Clamperl, Number 1: Shido and Skorupi, and Number 8: Hilary and Ralts!" Erin turned to the Contest participants. "Everyone do your best, okay? Let's see some appeals!"
Ruby was quick to step up for the first move, as it was his right for having the highest points so far. "Nana, start things off energetically with Roar."
The crowd applauded enthusiastically at Nana's gorgeous vocals. Clamperl took its turn immediately afterwards, shooting a Water Gun high into the air. For her turn, Shido hummed thoughtfully and looked at her Pokémon.
"Skorupi, what do you think we should do?"
The Skorupi clicked some form of response. Then he promptly stabbed himself on the top of the head with his own stinger. The audience quietened a bit, some people chuckling sheepishly or clapping awkwardly.
"Hey! What is this?! This is a Contest! Don't you have any discipline!?" Nurse Jessica fumed, startling both the girl and the Pokémon.
"Don't be such a miserable old hag!" called a young man near the front row sitting next to his quieter twin. "Let her do the Contest her way!"
"What did you call me, you little brat?!"
Further back in the rows the bladers and two trainers were slightly taken aback, watching on awkwardly.
"Wow, only round one and things are already dramatic," Emerald remarked.
"Why did it stab itself in the head?" Tyson asked. "That makes no sense…"
"Acupressure," Mari answered, folding her arms and leaning back. "It's a power boosting move but it doesn't seem to have gone over well."
Hilary cringed. "Oh man, things seemed to be going okay when the first two started. I don't want my turn overshadowed by this! Think… Ruby gave me heaps of advice during the week. 'If you end up going last in stage three, doing something quirky or unexpected can draw heaps of attention to your appeal', hmm…"
"Ralts," Hilary decided, snapping her Pokémon's attention to her. "Use Growl."
Ralts turned to the front of the stage and glanced at the microphones placed over the edge, angled towards the performers. She stepped a little closer to them and let out high-pitched growl. The unsettled crowd was immediately silenced and the all turned to the stage.
"Aw! Such a cute noise!" Jessica gushed, forgetting about the boy in the audience. The crowd cooed and squealed, cheering for Ralts. She and Hilary looked at each other and smiled proudly.
"Whew! What a save," Erin sighed.
"Well, looks like it's my turn again," Victor announced, brushing the lapel of his shiny ocean blue suit and primping his pompadour. It made Hilary gawk at him in disbelief – an eleven-year-old with a hairstyle like that was unfathomable to her. "Get their attention with Aqua Ring."
Clamperl's serene blue rings encircling it with the gentle splash of water drops was mesmerising and the audience was quickly entranced. Hilary was also transfixed by the beauty of it but snapped out of it when she realised that the order had changed for some reason. The contestants and judges suddenly turned to her expectantly and it was with trepidation that she realised she didn't know how this ordering system worked. She assumed they would just go through all four appeals in the original order.
"E-erm," she stammered, trying to think of something quickly. "Magical Leaf…?"
Ralts stared at her uncertainly but carried out the move as requested. It didn't work as well as it had before or even as well as the previous night, with the leaves barely flickering into existence.
"Rookie error," Ruby tutted, glaring at Hilary disappointedly. "Startle them with Bite."
Before Hilary and Ralts had time to wonder what he meant by that Nana leaped at them, snapping her jaws hard enough that her fangs clicked. They both shrieked and leaped almost a foot in the air. Meanwhile, Shido had been crouched beside her Pokémon, whispering to him as if they were actually having a conversation. Once Nana had shown off she got to her feet, spinning her parasol.
"Okay, we'll do better this time, Skroupi. Knock Off!"
The hard bang of his claw meeting the floor startled the others. Clamperl's shell snapped shut briefly and Nana's fur fluffed a little. Ralts flinched.
"Yeesh! Not a good round for Ralts," Erin commentated. "But Skorupi is definitely going to be rewarded in the next turn."
Hilary glanced at the prompt screen as the orders changed for the next round of appeals. She was back to going dead last while Shido had risen to second place. However, Victor still had the first turn and instructed Clamperl to use Iron Defence. It hunkered down and hardened up, braced for anything. Skorupi had a better turn with fairly decent barrage of Pin Missile and Nana's energetic Assurance got the audience cheering much louder than they had before. She shook her fur smooth and she posed elegantly.
Hilary bit her lip, pondering what to do now and for lack of any better ideas, asked for Confusion. Lots of practise had already made Ralts good enough that she could manifest the psychic waves visibly and the audience applauded to show their appreciation.
The contestant order switched again (Hilary still didn't have much idea of what dictated that) and Ruby had rocketed right back to first place. "Well, this is it," Erin said. "Final round of appeals. Make it count, guys!"
"Since I'm in a good position, might as well use it," Ruby muttered to himself, then commanded: "Lash out, Nana. Sucker Punch!"
"Whoa!" Emerald exclaimed as the crowd similarly gasped from the swift dark attack. "That's new for Nana."
"Did it so well too," Mari said, eyes wide in amazement. "Seriously, why doesn't Ruby battle? His Pokémon would probably be good at it."
Skorupi shot out a Poison Sting that caused Nana to shy as it came a little too close to actually hitting her. Ruby snapped furiously at Shido: "What are you doing?! This is a Contest; don't let your Pokémon aim at others!"
"Eek! Sorry! Skorupi says sorry too. Got a bit excited."
Victor harrumphed, giving Hilary a spiteful side eye. "Why couldn't you have done better? Then I could take the last turn. Oh well, Clamperl, we'll just have to settle for Whirlpool."
Water cascaded out of its shell and began to twist, rising up in an unsteady whirl that sent spray and water drops all over the stage. Hilary gasped. The dress!
"Ralts! Teleport!" she screamed, trying to pull her skirts together so they wouldn't get so wet. Ralts grabbed the hem and teleported over to the drier edge of the stage. Hilary stumbled, bewildered and disoriented. Nauseous too. Teleportation was so instant – she was in one place and then suddenly another with nothing in between, an experience so incredible that she thought she must have been unconscious at some point, no matter how briefly. Unable to get balanced, she slipped off the heel of her pumps, arms flailing to grab something and latched onto a curtain, tearing half of it down as she tumbled to the floor.
The audience burst into snickers and giggles. The stagehand rushed out to ask if she was okay. Hilary sat up, refusing to look up as her cheeks burned with embarrassment.
"Er…" Erin stammered. "W-well, that's it for appeals. So, uh, let's give the judges time to finalise the scores and then we'll see who gets to take home the normal-rank Contest Ribbon. Ah… is she okay?"
Hilary rubbed her aching head. Ralts patted her legs apologetically, making it doubly felt through her empathetic psychic powers. A cup of water was held out in front of her and she took it, gulping it down to push back the feeling that she was going to be sick.
"Alright?" the stagehand asked, crouching down and folding her hands across her knees. "First time teleporting with your Pokémon?"
Hilary lowered the cup to her lap and nodded.
"Shocking, isn't it? Don't worry, practise a bit more with it and you'll get the hang of it quickly."
"Y-yeah…" Hilary replied slowly. Her stomach was still churning. "Sorry about the curtains."
"Never mind, we can fix them. Can you stand? Looks like they're ready to announce the final results."
The stagehand helped her up and told her to go and stand in the original order with the other seven contestants. Erin and Mr Stone were on stage together and Mr Stone had in his hands a display case, showing the Contest Ribbon to the audience: a round, gold medal with two red ribbon streamers.
"What a wonderful event! All judging has concluded and we're ready to announce the result," Erin said, beaming happily. "But first, let's congratulate all of the contestants for all of the hard work they put into making this Contest spectacular." She paused to give the audience time to applaud and cheer. "And now it's time to reveal the final scores and announce the winner."
The results of the final four appeared on the big screen, tallying up the totals of all three stages. They were numbered from 1 to 4, although it had been easy to see who the winner would be from the beginning.
"Contestant Number 7: Ruby and Nana!" Erin announced. The crowd immediately cheered in agreement. Ruby gasped in delight and rushed forward to accept, almost tripping over his own feet in the process. Nana wasn't helping, with the way she was running around his legs.
"Congratulations!" Mr Stone beamed, stepping forward to hold the case out. "In honour of your victory, I'm glad to present you with the Rustboro normal rank Contest Ribbon."
Ruby's mouth was moving as if he was trying to say something ("thank-you so much!") but all that came out were excited squeaks and squeals. With quivering fingers he grasped the Contest Ribbon and then crouched down to pin it to the collar of Nana's cape. The audience cheered and applauded as Nana jumped into Ruby arms and he lifted her up, new ribbon on display.
"That wraps it up for this Contest," Erin said. "Hope you enjoyed it and thank-you very much for your participation, everyone. Remember, there are always more exciting events and fabulous Contests happening at the Rustboro Contest Hall and hopefully we'll see you soon at one of them. Bye now."
With the Contest over the audience began to disperse and the contestants left the stage. Hilary sighed tiredly. Just the emotional toll of going through all of that was exhausting, it made her wonder what Ralts must be feeling. She looked down to her psychic companion, who puffed and then plonked on the floor in exhaustion, leaning against her leg. Hilary picked her up.
"I know, I'm beat after all of that. It sucks to have come fourth but I guess we should have expected that. Everyone up there in that final round looked way more prepared than us. Their clothes even matched." She tugged on Ralt's dress. "We should get changed and you should give this back to Ruby's Ralts."
Ralts whined. She'd been starting to like the dress. Just then, as if on cue, Ruby called out to them. He came jogging over with his bag in one hand and Nana cradled in the other, proudly displaying the shiny new ribbon.
"Hilary, still here," he said, out of breath but probably more from his excitement than anything else. "Look! We did it! Won our first Contest! So happy!"
Nana howled in agreement.
"Gee, thanks for rubbing it in," Hilary thought, smiling even though on the inside she was aching with disappointment. "You two really earned it."
Ruby nodded. "But you two did really well too. Making it to the final round in your first Contest is a big deal, especially because you're a beginner at Pokémon training too. Enjoyed it, didn't you?"
"What, the Contest? Yeah… but I was a lot more successful at battling. Maybe I should focus more on that."
"Don't quit!" Ruby exclaimed, aghast. "There's always more opportunity. Contests are held at Halls pretty much all of the time; at least one on every day. You can wait about a week for the next normal rank."
"No, I really can't, even if I want to. We've got to get moving."
"Don't worry, there are Contest Halls in other towns and cities too. In fact, if you take the route east of here there's a tunnel to Verdanturf Town. It has a Contest Hall too. Think I might even go there myself. So energised right now! Want to just go out there and win every ribbon there is to win in all the Contest Halls of Hoenn!"
Ruby was spinning and swinging his free arm around in such a state of euphoria. Nana grumbled at being jostled this way, which amused Hilary because it was the first time she'd seen the Pokémon in any way disgruntled with her trainer. They were otherwise the perfect pair. "Thanks for doing this with me, Hilary."
Hilary blinked in surprise. "Doing this with you? But I was your competition. And you weren't especially nice to me during that final round." She pouted and put a hand on her hip. Ralts copied her.
Ruby giggled and rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry, but it was in the spirit of competition, right? Having a friend up there next to me, competing with me, made me feel brave in a way. Every time Nana and I went up to do something I was freaking out. Like, what if I'd made a mistake on Nana's outfit that I'd missed and people saw? Or I messed up the instructions for the performance and confused her? Or I made a really bad judgement in the improvised appeals and paid for it badly?"
Hilary stared at him nonplussed while he continued to list off ridiculous ideas about how everything could have fallen apart on stage. Eventually she interrupted: "Ruby… do you put yourself down like this a lot?"
Ruby started and jumped back defensively. "Like what? Just saying, there are things that could happen and—"
"But none of those things happened. You were really good at this and so was Nana. You should have been able to win this Contest Ribbon years ago, probably." Her voice rose as she spoke, almost angrily. "The only reason you didn't was because you're so full of self-doubt and paranoia. Nobody likes a guy who keeps saying they're not that good and then beats everyone; that's false modesty. You need to believe in yourself a little more strongly because you're way more capable than you think—your score was miles ahead of the guy who came second. So next time, unless something actually went horribly wrong, I don't wanna hear it."
Ruby gulped and nodded. Hilary's expression softened. "Well, you won today, so that should be proof that you don't need to be so scared of competing. Speaking of it, I also wanted to give back this dress."
"Keep it," Ruby replied. "Rara gave it to her and I can just make another one if I want to. Plus, you'll need a costume for your Pokémon in future Contests. Actually, kind of like the way it trails when your Ralts wears it. Maybe I should make a train on Rara's new dress. Since you're taking it, you should have this too."
He put Nana down and rummaged through his bag to pull out a white case with a ribbon logo on the clasp, the very same logo adorning the Contest Hall, in fact. What shocked Hilary most about it was that it was very small – no bigger than a year planner – and it expanded to a more useful size with a push of the button on the clasp, just like a Pokéball. "This is a costume and accessory case."
"B-but don't you need that for your costumes and accessories?"
"No. This one was meant to be Rara's exclusively but the only thing it had in it was that dress. Usually, Rara was wearing it so the case ended up being empty. Easier to keep everything in the one case anyway. So just take it."
Hilary took the case by the handle, lifting it out of Ruby's hands. It was very light and sturdy like it was made for travelling. "Thanks. This thing is amazing. I guess I shouldn't be disappointed about my result since there's still so much about Pokémon Contests that I don't know. How did you make those special effects come from the Pokéball in the first round?"
"Special effects? Oh, do mean from the seals? Didn't I tell you about that?! Gah, how stupid of me to skip something like that! I'll explain but I think first I should change out of this outfit. Emerald will be waiting for me in the foyer."
"Yeah, Mari and the guys too."
Once they'd gotten back into their regular clothes (and Hilary surreptitiously returned the dress she was wearing) they left the backstage area through the foyer door, still talking about seals. Emerald ran up to Ruby and scooped him into a huge hug, lifting him off his feet.
"So proud of you, little brother!" he exclaimed, squeezing tightly. Rara joyfully joined in to make it a group hug, latching onto Ruby's leg. "First Contest win. How do you feel?"
"Like I'm dying," Ruby wheezed.
As quick as a flash, Hilary found herself also being hug-tackled, this time by Mari.
"Wow, Hilary! Got super far in the competition even though it was your first time! How long has Ralts known Magical Leaf?"
"Only a few days," Hilary grunted, trying to push Mari and her too-tight hug away.
"Oh, pity. Would have been so useful against Roxanne."
"What are you saying? I beat Roxanne!"
"I know, but you could've beaten her harder with Magical Leaf."
While the bladers chimed in to congratulate Hilary on getting as far as she did, Emerald put Ruby down and grinned.
"Alright, Rube, where to now?"
"Don't call me that! Almost tempted to say tomorrow's super rank but there's no way to prepare for that one in time. I know, let's go to Verdanturf!"
"Go to Verdanturf? And here I thought you hated travelling."
"Travelling rough. Fly me on your Skarmory! Going to get every ribbon there is to get in Hoenn."
"Seriously? That's a lot of ribbons."
"Yes! Come on, let's go!"
Ruby grabbed him by the sleeve and dragged him out the door. The other group of trainers gawked at them bemusedly.
"They seem to be in a hurry," Ray remarked.
"Speaking of which, so are we," Tyson reminded them. "Now that this is over, can we please go about finding Polyphon T?"
"Porygon Z," Mari snapped.
"Whatever."
Mari growled and shook her head. They left the building, walking out into the square. "If we get back to the Pokémon Centre and get our things together quickly, could probably leave by the afternoon… problem is, which way to go?"
"Goin' where, chicky?" a familiar voice called out loudly, one that made Mari's blood boil and her skin crawl. Hilary and the bladers just stared in vague alarm as the lanky boy from trainer school stood a few paces ahead of them with his hands in his pockets and a raggedy canvas backpack with many pins and patches messily sewn on.
"You?!"
"Aren't you the guy who was at Day School?" Tyson asked. "Derryn or something?"
"That's me," he said, giving them a lopsided grin and pointing his thumb at himself.
"What are you even doing here?!" Mari yelled at him, pointing accusingly.
"Who me? Aw, nuthin' – just checkin' out some fuckin' Contests afore hittin' the road," he said. Hilary and the bladers winced at how obnoxiously loud he was being, especially with the swear word in the middle. Some passer's by also sent him dirty looks. "Ain't not a problem? Thought y' wanted t' see me what with y' always bein' wherever the hell I am!"
"Why would I want to be anywhere near you?!" Mari retorted.
"'Cuz my moves are white—white-fuckin'-hot, that is!" Derryn shouted back at her, taking a Pokéball off his belt and spinning it on his finger. "How'a yours? Care t' find out? We'll take y' down, chicky! Go, DEMOLISHER!"
The Pokémon he released was a stone grey quadrupedal beast, like a small, squat, stone-plated rhinoceros. It roared and pawed the ground aggressively. Tyson quickly looked it up in the Pokédex.
"Rhyhorn, the spikes Pokémon. Strong, but slow-witted, it is infamous for powerful charges that have been known to topple buildings. Due to its limited mental capacity it often forgets why it began to charge in the first place. Having such short legs means it is inept at turning."
"Ha! I knew there was no way there could be a Pokémon called a 'demolisher'," Daichi commented, looking onto Tyson's 'dex.
"That's DEMOLISHER t' y', Red," Derryn snapped.
"Go, Rush!" Mari said, throwing out her Net Ball. "Let's see you demolish this!"
"Are you kidding?!" Hilary exclaimed. "This is a public area! There are people around!"
"Yeah, but everyone seems to be moving," Max observed as people were indeed giving their group a very large berth now. "Maybe we should back away from here too."
It was probably a very good idea. Mari and Derryn had already begun shouting orders and instructions to their Pokémon in what was promising to be a long, long battle.
A/N: A long battle that shall be skipped because we already had a long Contest and I'm tempted to say that I never want to do this again. Next time Contests crop up, since there will no longer be a need to explain how these anime-multi-game hybrid Contests work, they will probably be much more abbreviated.
I am also terribly sad and sorry that I spent so much time getting this chapter out, especially when my New Year's Resolution was to try to update my multi-chap stories faster. I would make an excuse but all excuses basically just boil down to Real Life anyway. Good thing is, I have a fairly good idea of how to execute the next chapter (so it should come out a bit faster than this one, because there was so much planning involved with Contest rules and whatnot) and it will be sillier but slightly more plot relevant.
(P.S.: under normal circumstances, when you put in an OC for me to include it will probably take a pretty long time for them to show up as I plan where I need them, but sometimes the circumstances make it so that they fill in a story niche way too easily that I can't justify not including them. A few OC's popped up in this chapter because Hellhound2608 submitted them and I thought "man, that's just too easy".)