A/N: I have had a lot happen over the summer in regards to my families health and my own wellbeing so sorry to update later than I wanted. At the latest I want to update this story every month but alas it wasn't written in the stars for me. I might have finished this earlier in the month if it wasn't for the long story I worked on for my friend's birthday.
Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon or these charecters. I only own my thoughts.
"Do you wanna come backstage Solidad?" Drew asked when the ragtag group arrived at the Goldenrod Contest Hall.
"I'll just wait in the lobby, I don't want to bother the contestants…" Solidad told Drew politely.
"Yeah we can't let her steal ideas from us while we get ready," Harley, who had followed the pair from the pokemon center to the contest hall, commented slyly.
"I also have to be in the stands to fulfill my end of our deal," Solidad said with a playful smirk.
"Your deal?" Drew questioned.
Harley just walked into the hall with a slightly embarrassed "Hmph!"
"You'll see later," Solidad reassured as she bid goodbye to the confused Drew. Solidad entered the contest hall and found a place to sit before they opened the hall for general admission. At first, when Solidad sat down some young girls approached her, they seemed to be fans. She talked with them for a little, taking pictures and giving some contest advice before they went off. She didn't get recognized a lot like that while out and about like that so she was a bit frazzled when someone else came to talk to her again.
"Oh my is that you Solidad?" An older woman with some of her friends called out to Solidad. She couldn't recognize the woman so she assumed she was an older fan. Before Solidad could respond to the woman she clarified who she was.
"Do you remember me? I'm Sandra Robinson. I lived next door to you in Azalea Town."
"Oh uh… yeah I guess I do remember. Hi Mrs. Robinson…" Solidad said as she tried to avoid the woman's gaze.
"You've gotten so big! You had just turned 10 the last time I saw you," Mrs. Robinson gushed. "Time goes by so fast," Soledad replied with little enthusiasm.
"How's your father? He seemed distraught after-"
"He's fine. He got remarried," Soledad cut her off.
"Oh I see… is your stepmother nice?"
"I don't know… I've never met her," Solidad replied.
"Ah, I see… well it was nice catching up!" Mrs. Robinson said as she awkwardly backed up with her friends. The group exchanges some looks between them and back at Solidad as they shuffled into the now open house. Solidad was used to those pitiable looks, one of the reasons she was hesitant to perform in this area.
Solidad soon entered the stadium as well to find a seat for the performance. In the crowd of people, she spotted an old friend of hers, Yuma. The woman had recently retired from contests and became a pokemon breeder and mentor to young coordinators. Solidad reached out to her friend and decided to sit with her, it would make her look less pathetic if those old ladies from before saw her again…
"You got a lot on your mind?" Yuma asked when she saw Solidads brows knit together in frustration.
"I guess, Johto really wears me out…" Solidad said.
"Really? I thought the Johto circuit was relatively easier, at least compared to Sinnoh and Kanto…" Yuma said putting her hand up to her chin.
That wasn't exactly what Solidad was talking about but she didn't have the time to interrupt her friend as the Johto MC, Evalin Meridian, grabbed her mic and began to hype up the crowd for the contest.
"Good morning to all you wonderful contest fans and welcome to the Goldenrod City Contest!" Evalin projected out to the crowd, which in return gave a resounding cheer of acknowledgment.
"With us, we have our judges Mr. Contesta! The pokemon fan club president Mr. Sukizo and Goldenrod's very own Nurse Joy!" Everyone clapped and whooped for the recurring Judges. Solidad just clapped slowly as she thought about Harley's bet, she'd have to join the loud cheerers and the wooers to keep her end of the deal the two made. Now knowing an old neighbor and friend were around her in the audience to witness her she felt even more foolish.
"Now without further ado let's get started with our first round!" Evalin called as soon young and old coordinators began the appeal round with their pokemon partners.
One of the first contestants to come out was Yuma's protegee Mollie. She wore a pretty pink dress and sent out an Absol. The pokemon used Night Slash to create a ring of purplish dark energy around her.
"A real queen of darkness right before us!" Evalin commented.
"That reminds me of a strategy you used in the Sinnoh grand festival…" Solidad commented as she took in the spectacle the nervous little girl had presented.
"Yes I taught her some new tricks," Yuma boosted as Mollie finished her performance and scurried offstage.
Soon after Mollie had gone Drew sauntered out for his performance. His outfit was inspired by the cool, rocker aesthetic popular this performance season. Drew didn't think to much about his own outfits but when he learned Johto was a "glam" contest region he had to get something. Sure there were other outfits similar to his purple leather outfit but Solidad thought that look suited him quite well.
"Flygon use Flamethrower!" Drew called out. Flygon used his Flamethrower attack on the stage igniting the ground around Drew in a true "scorched earth" approach. Then Flygon used Dragonbreath, its turquoise breath created a tornado around Drew and once that dissipated Flygon was seen perched upon his shoulder and the residue of the dragon attack was sucked into the fire around them making it sparkle like gems. Drew resembled a knight on a battlefield with his tough but beautiful Flygon by his side. The audience roared with applause. Yuma seemed impressed too.
"I don't think I've ever seen Flygon use an appeal like that…" She commented. Solidad nodded her head in agreement.
It made her think back on her own appeal performance in that Wallace cup years ago…
For her first-ever Wallace cup Solidad used her Slowpoke, before it had evolved into Slowbro, for her appeal performance. She had 2 ribbons at that point of the Kanto contest season. It was just her luck that the Wallace Cup fell within that season, she had to travel to Lilycove City in Hoenn to participate but it was a once in a lifetime opportunity.
She had just watched Harley's performance in the waiting room. He defiantly put on quite a spectacle even though his Cacnea wasn't really suited for the watery stage. It definitely was as exciting as he claimed it would be. Solidad wasn't shaken by his threat to win however, she knew that her and Slowpoke would pass the appeal round with flying colors. She just had a feeling.
She used a combination of Water Pulse and Confusion making a controlled, pink hurricane around the arena. It wowed the audience and judges which made Solidad beam with pride as she got off the stage and returned backstage.
In the hall the cocky Cancea boy from before leaned against a wall, she hadn't realized he had waited for her.
"Finally someone interesting to compete against," Harley declared when he made eye contact with Solidad. She was a bit confused so she darted her head from side to side to see who he was talking about. When she saw nobody else around she pointed weakly at her own face to signal he was talking about her.
"Yes, I'm talking to you. You have talent but I'm gonna crush it and make you lament that you lost to a rookie coordinator," Harley sneered before walking past Solidad and into the restrooms. Solidad was left a bit dumbfounded wondering if he wasn't just all bark and no bite with his attitude. Half an hour later the screen would display who would move onto the next round. Both Solidad and Harley had managed to advance. This newfound rivalry would continue another day.
Harley himself seemed to jump out of Solidad's trip to memory lane as it was his turn on stage. While Harley already dressed extravagantly in his day-to-day life his outfit for the Johto contest circuit was really something else. He donned a regal outfit that took visual cues from Cacturn and looked like it could be straight out of the show "Roselia of Vaniville". He however ditched the hat in favor of wearing his hair up in a ponytail with a crown of thorns weaved into those long purple locks.
Matching his appearance Harley sent out Cacturn for his appeal round. With a combination of bullet seed and cotton spore Cacturn was able to create a downpour of fluff, it almost looked like snow. It'd probably be a nightmare for someone with allergies though… Finally cut was used to break up all the fluff so that the stage would be clear for Harley to take a confident bow.
As the performance ended Solidad was reminded of the deal she had made with Harley. She inwardly apologized to Yuma for the commotion she was about to make.
"WOOOOOOO! GO HARLEY GO!"
Yuma looked over dumfounded at Solidad. Harley too seemed to meet her gaze in shock as if he didn't believe the calm Solidad would create an uproar like that.
"Well someone has a fan," Evalin teased into the microphone for the whole audience to hear. People cheered and laughed as Harley and Solidad both turned a deep shade of red.
A few moments later the results came out for those who had advanced past the appeal round. Harley made it through so at least Solidad's cheers didn't ring pointless. Hopefully, the tricky Harley would honor his end of the embarrassing deal.
A/N: Is "Roselia of Vanivelle" a clever play on "Rose of Versailles" or am I just cringe? Let me know with your reviews it'd be much appreciated :)