Pokemon - Hoenn Hero!
Episode 3 – You'll have to be a bit more Pacifidlog!
Last time, Marina and Rainier arrived on ship and explored the fabled Mirage Island, retrieving the passengers' stolen bags from the group of Wynaut that lived there. Two days later, they now arrive in Pacifidlog Town. What events await our heroes on the island?
"Aw man I'm SO hungry!" Marina slouched with both of her hands covering her stomach. She hadn't eaten in a long time, much like everyone else on the ship. Well…Almost everyone!
"I feel great! Let's go!" Rainier was the most cheery person in the ship. He couldn't wait to get off the ship and do some exploring for some wild pokemon!
"Well it's no wonder you're being so optimistic…You hid your sandwiches from those Wynaut back on Mirage Island! You had the only piece of food left on the ship!" Marina was getting grouchy. Like everyone else on board she had starved for the past two days.
"Ah, and what lovely sandwiches they were! I've gotta thank Mom for wrapping them in foil! If she hadn't, the Wynaut wouldn't have missed them!" Rainier patted his stomach in delight while Marina just gave him an evil expression on her face.
"Yeah but did you see everyone's faces on deck when they saw you eating them? I've never seen so many angry faces! And there were some passengers drooling so much we could have had a pool on deck! It was really selfish of you to eat them in front of everyone!" Marina was letting her hunger make her really angry. Rainier hated feeling like it was his fault so just tried to pass the blame to someone else.
"Well then, you shouldn't have given your own sandwiches to the Wynaut! Yours were wrapped in foil too, the Wynaut wouldn't have noticed them either! But no…You had to be too nice for your own good!" Rainier just crossed his arms and tried to ignore her. Marina raised her hand as she wanted to hit him, but realised she was too tired and lacked the energy to fight with him. The boarding platform had now been lowered and the passengers were able to get off. Watching from on deck, Marina saw the crowds of people run off of the ship at full speed and into town to grab some food to eat. She could see queues building up outside of all the fast food stands and restaurants.
"No! I want some food too! Now there are queues!" Marina couldn't believe her bad luck. She hurried down the deck's stairs and made her way off the ship. It seemed that Rainier and Marina were the last two off the ship. Marina looked around and noticed they were on a lovely beach, but what grabbed her attention the most was a hotdog stand a few hundred yards away. She ran there as fast as she could and ordered about seven hotdogs which she began to munch on. She felt like she hadn't eaten in weeks! Rainier caught up with her and decided to order a hotdog himself. He spaced his sandwiches over the last two days but still felt like his hunger wasn't completely satisfied. While Marina stuffed her face, Rainier picked up a small brochure from a small rack next to the hotdog stand and read through it.
"Hmm…According to the leaflet there's a village not far down the beach where all the houses are made of logs and float on the water on top of a Corsola colony. Sounds pretty cool!" Rainier wasn't much of a person for sightseeing but it sounded interesting to him. The Corsola colony was the icing on the cake and he felt like he had to go there and maybe catch a Corsola for himself. Marina wasn't really listening. She was too busy eating the hotdogs!
"………Ok then, I'm gonna check it out. The island's not very big so I'll catch up with you later. I'm sure I can find you. Later!" Rainier walked off while Marina finished her second to last hotdog. As she was about to take a bite out of the last one, a coconut fell out of the tree next to her and landed inches away from her.
"Hey! Watch it! That could have really hurt if it had hit me!" She said with her mouth still full of hotdogs. She looked up and saw a flying-type pokemon resting in the tree. Grabbing her pokedex she flipped it open with one hand (the other was still holding a hotdog!) and pointed it at the pokemon.
"Swablu, the Cotton Bird pokemon. Its wings are almost like clouds, which makes this pokemon very light in weight. Swablu are usually found in large flocks that migrate to different areas depending on the season".
"Well this one sure isn't in a flock! Maybe I'll capture it! Come on out Spheal!" Marina released Spheal, the only pokemon she had. It clapped its hands with joy as usual which Marina thought was always nice to see.
"Ok Spheal, how about a Water Gun?" Spheal nodded and sprayed the Swablu with enough force that it was knocked out of the tree and landed on the sandy beach. The soft sand was a comfortable cushion, but nevertheless, the Swablu was quite angry at being disturbed. Swablu jumped up from the spot and started flapping its wings to take to the skies. As it flew up it swerved round and came back towards Spheal.
"Water Gun again! Shoot it out of the sky!" Marina wanted to test out what was better – Spheal's accuracy or Swablu's evasiveness. As a Water Gun headed straight for it, Swablu dove out of the way. Its dodging skills were indeed impressive. Swablu reached Spheal and started pecking at it repetitively. Spheal gave out a cry and winced from the pain.
"Don't give in to that! Body Slam it!" Spheal jumped into the air to prevent itself from being pecked by Swablu and came back down with extra force behind its weight, attempting to Body Slam the Swablu. Swablu swiftly flew away and swerved round again for another dive at Spheal.
"Ok then, let's try a Powder Snow attack to slow it down! Spray it all over the place so it can't avoid it!" Spheal spat out some snow which Swablu flew straight into. It caused some damage, but not too much. However, the snow began to make its wings become stiff and Swablu found it hard to fly around easily.
"Ok Spheal, let's try a Water Gun again!" Spheal shot a stream of water at Swablu. It managed to avoid it, but was unable to dodge a second Water Gun from Spheal and its wing was hit. Swablu fell to the sand again, struggling to get up because of its almost frozen wings and because of the damage from the Water Gun attack.
"Finish it with a Body Slam!" Spheal leapt into the air. Unable to move out of the way, Swablu had no choice but to watch Spheal deliver a powerful attack. Swablu cried out loud and fell unconscious with its tongue sticking out to the side.
"Good work Spheal! Now let's try this!" Marina picked up one of her other pokeballs from her waist and pressed the button on it to enlarge it.
"Pokeball, go!" She yelled. She was excited at the thought that this might lead to her very first capture! Sure enough, the pokeball hit Swablu and engulfed it in a red light, which was soon sucked inside the pokeball. As the pokeball hit the floor it started shaking from side to side. Marina widened her eyes and clenched her fists.
"Come on! Come on!" She prayed and prayed in her mind. The ball shook for a few seconds more and finally stopped. She stopped for a second to watch the pokeball.
"Is that it? Did I catch it?" She slowly walked over to the pokeball and hesitantly picked it up. Examining it closely her facial expression went from one of intrigue to one of excitement.
"I did it…I DID IT! I caught my first pokemon! Woo hoo! I'm the greatest pokemon master!" She shouted in excitement. She hugged the pokeball and rocked back and forth with it. A few snide remarks quickly broke her out of her good mood.
"You call that a capture?"
"Yeah, your technique was terrible!"
"You'll never win with moves like that!" Marina opened her eyes and looked round to see a few people scattered around that had been watching her.
"Huh? What won't I win?" She had no idea what they were talking about.
"The pokemon contest of course! You need to brush up on your skills if you wanna even think about winning!" Marina looked sad and a little puzzled as she watched the people walk off.
"A pokemon contest? What's that?" She said to herself out loud. Placing the pokeball with the newly caught Swablu in it back around her waist she decided to go find out what a pokemon contest was. Her mind was elsewhere, and Spheal was still out of its pokeball.
"Oh, I almost forgot! Thank you Spheal! You did a great job! This is the first step for us on our journey! Hopefully you'll help me catch other pokemon too! Now take a rest!" She knelt down to pat Spheal on the head before returning it to its pokeball. As she walked into town she ate the last hotdog and started her search to find out what a pokemon contest was. Funnily enough there were still queues outside the restaurants and fast food stands.
"The passengers from the ship must have been REALLY hungry like me!" She chuckled to herself. A young girl of about nine walked by and Marina decided to ask her about the contest.
"Excuse me! Is there a pokemon contest being held around here? I want to find out what one is!" Marina politely asked but the girl gave her a look of disbelief. She was only nine but she knew much more than Marina about pokemon contests. She placed her hands on her hips and proudly told her of the contests.
"Well, a pokemon contest is where pokemon coordinators use their pokemon to create dazzling appeals with their pokemon's attacks! The pokemon with the best appeals will win the contest and the coordinator will be given a ribbon as a prize! It's an amazing event! I can't believe you've never heard of pokemon contests before!" The girl took a breather and Marina was reminded of that knowledge-bragging attitude that Rainier often had. She was intrigued by the fact that by entering the contest she could show off some style and have lots of fun with it too. And the ribbon as a prize sealed the deal. Marina was determined to enter!
"Really? Wow that sounds cool! Can you tell me where the contest takes place?" Before Marina could even finish the sentence, the girl pointed over to her left.
"The contest hall is over there if you're interested! Have fun!" The girl gave a quick wave to Marina which she returned and Marina hurried on to check out the pokemon contest hall. As she arrived outside she couldn't believe how big it was! She admired it for a few seconds and then entered the lobby. The whole thing was new to her so she stopped to take the time to examine everything. There were many trainers in the lobby taking care of their pokemon by giving them cute accessories and grooming them. There were pokemon that she hadn't seen before. She was tempted to get out her pokedex and get information on every pokemon in the room until she remembered what she was really there for. She walked over to the main desk where a woman was putting on smile. It looked like she had been holding her smile for hours!
"Umm…Excuse me Miss, but I'd like to enter the contest please!" She was a bit nervous about asking since she had never been in a contest before and wasn't quite sure exactly what she was getting herself into.
"Of course! Could I see your ribbons please?" Marina just responded with a blank expression. She had no idea what ribbons she was talking about.
"Uh…ribbons? What ribbons? What do I need those for?" Marina's clueless face caused the woman to drop her smile. She tilted her head a little and looked a little strangely at Marina.
"Have you even entered a pokemon contest before young lady?" She asked. Marina kept her clueless face and just shook her head. The woman returned a smirk and rolled her eyes back.
"Well then this is really the wrong contest for you to start with! This is an R-1 contest, meaning that the coordinators entering this contest need at least one ribbon to participate. Since you've not entered a contest before I take it you don't have a contest pass yet?" Marina shook her head again. She was a little disappointed and didn't feel like smiling anymore. The woman went to her computer and tilted a miniature web camera so it was pointing at Marina.
"Smile!" The camera flashed a little and Marina was still showing her clueless face. The woman began some fast typing on her keyboard.
"Uh, could I have your name please?" The woman stared at Marina who was STILL showing a blank expression on her face. She snapped out of it as she realised her brain needed to function for her to answer the question!
"My name's Marina. Marina Mare."
"Ok then Marina, just a second!" The woman did some more typing and then picked up a green card and scanned it with her computer. She then handed the card over to Marina.
"Here you are! This is your contest pass! Just present this when you next enter a contest! Good luck!" Marina stood at the desk looking at her contest pass. It had a big picture of a ribbon on it and a gold holographic symbol in the corner. She continued looking at it but her silence was broken by a girl who come to the desk and stood right next to her.
"Hello! I'd like to enter the contest please!" The girl was talking to the woman behind the desk. Marina turned round to look at the girl. She looked a few years older than Marina. She wore a red tank top that was similar to Marina's orange one, and she wore brown trousers that had short legs. Marina wondered if they were baggy shorts or short trousers. She also wore a stylish dark green hat and brown boots. Her hands were covered in black gloves with no fingers. She had short, dark brown hair and blue eyes which contrasted with her hair. Looking at her, Marina thought she looked incredibly stylish. Marina knew there was style involved with the pokemon's attacks and appeals, but Marina could see that this girl wanted to look stylish herself.
"This is an R-1 contest…May I see your ribbons please?" The woman behind the desk robotically responded.
"Oh, sure! Hang on a sec!" The girl seemed very laid back about things. She took off her bag and pulled out a thin metal case. She opened it and showed it to the woman. Marina leaned backwards to get a glance at the ribbons. She couldn't really see them clearly without making it look obvious that she was staring at them. Shutting it back up again, she placed it in her bag again.
"And here's my pass!" The girl pulled out a contest pass similar to Marina's and showed it to the woman who then scanned it and handed it back. The girl's details were pulled up on screen.
"Ok Allie, you are contestant number 18! Good luck! The contest begins at 2pm!" The girl placed the contest pass back in her pocket. Marina looked at the clock on the wall and noticed it was now almost noon. Marina decided to talk to the girl to get a bit more information on pokemon contests since she seemed to have more experience.
"Hey, my name's………" Marina stopped mid sentence to see that the girl had gone! She turned around and saw her walking out of the automatic doors. Marina raced outside to catch up with her.
"Hey! Wait! Uh……Allie!" Remembering the name that the registration woman said, she called the girl by her name. Sure enough, the girl looked round.
"Hey! You were the girl at the desk! What's up?" Allie seemed incredibly mellow about a girl who she had never seen before coming up to her and calling her by name!
"Umm…Well, I wanted to talk to you about pokemon contests! I've never been in one before you see. Could I talk about them with you?" Marina began to go a little shy.
"What, here?" Allie joked. "Come on, I'm heading down to the beach to practice! You can join me!" She began to lead the way and Marina followed her.
"Uh, my name's Marina! I'm from Sootopolis City!" Marina tried to strike a conversation as they walked to the beach.
"Well, you already know my name's Allie! I'm from Fortree City! Nice to meet ya!" Allie shook hands with Marina as they walked down the street. Allie took them to a section of the beach Marina had already been to. Marina noticed the familiar hotdog stand. Allie went to get a hotdog and Marina stood next to her. The guy working there remembered Marina and decided to crack a joke.
"Hey, Bill! Looks like we're gonna need a new shipment of hotdogs! I don't think we have enough to feed this kid again!" The hotdog worker yelled. Marina wasn't amused by the joke and showed off a face accordingly. Allie just giggled and ordered her hotdog. Allie took Marina over to a bench and they both sat down.
"So…How many contests have you been in so far?" Marina asked. Allie held her hotdog in between her teeth as she used both of her hands to count.
"Umm...About eight I think…Although I've only won two so far. I'm getting better and I hope to win more contests now."
"Can I see your ribbons?" Marina put her hands together in excitement. She really wanted a good glimpse at the ribbons! Allie pulled the case out of her bag again and gave the case to Marina. Marina carefully opened it up and saw two ribbons in there. They almost looked the same, but were different colours. One was a bright orange colour, while the other was a dark blue colour. Marina closed the case and handed it back to Allie.
"Now I still don't understand…What exactly is involved in a contest?" Although she had an explanation from the girl in the street, she still wasn't entirely sure exactly what entrants did. Allie had just finished the last bite of her hotdog and stood up, grabbing a pokeball from her pocket.
"You want me to run through a pokemon contest with you? Hey, you can join in! Stand up! Let's go!" Allie grabbed Marina by the arm and yanked her off the bench and onto the sand.
"The first round is all about your style and technique! The way your pokemon show off their appeals depends on whether you get through or not! Let me show you an example! Go, Quilava!" She threw the pokeball in her hand and revealed one of her pokemon. As the pokeball opened, it didn't appear as pokemon normally appeared after being released. A huge flash of fire surrounded it which died down to reveal the pokemon. Marina was amazed at the entrance it made!
"Ok, now I want you to use your Flame Wheel! Combine it with a Quick Attack! Show us a pokeball!" Quilava built up its fire until it surrounded the entire pokemon. Quilava ran around in a circle repeatedly at blindingly high speeds and began to run around in patterns inside the circle. Quilava soon stopped and ran back over to Allie. Marina looked closely at the fire that was still burning on the sand. It was in the shape of a pokeball!
"It's all about combos and techniques that get you through the first round! Why don't you give it a shot? Try to be creative and make your own combo appeal!" Allie urged Marina to take part. Marina stepped forward and paused to think about what pokemon she'd use. She had only just caught Swablu and didn't really know many of its attacks, so she decided to go with Spheal since she'd had some experience battling with it.
"Ok Spheal, let's try to impress Allie!" Marina threw the pokeball in front of her and Spheal appeared. It cutely clapped its hands again.
"Aww! That's so cute!" Allie's eyes began to sparkle as she thought it was really adorable. Marina couldn't believe that something as simple as that could make a difference to its entrance, especially since she didn't even order Spheal to do it! Marina only knew three of Spheal's attacks at the time and thought of an interesting combination.
"Ok Spheal, use your Water Gun and – " Before she had even finished the sentence, Spheal had already launched a Water Gun at Quilava, knocking it unconscious since it wasn't prepared to take the attack! Allie quickly recalled it.
"Spheal! What are you doing? I didn't finish! Sorry Allie!" Marina scratched the back of her head as she apologised. Allie showed a slightly unhappy look on her face, something she hadn't showed until now.
"OK, this time, use your Water Gun in the air and use your Powder Snow to freeze it!" Spheal shot a Water Gun straight above itself which collected into a pool of water in mid-air. Spheal then sprayed snow up at the water and froze it. Realising what it had done, it leapt out of the way. The water had indeed frozen, but the result was a large ice block falling about a dozen feet which landed close to Marina. Marina jumped back in fear.
"Oops…That wasn't exactly what I was going for! I wanted to make a beautiful statue out of ice! I guess it didn't work…" Marina bowed her head in disappointment. Allie went to pat her on the back.
"Don't feel too bad! It was your first time! You just need to practice more! Ok, after the appeals, the top scorers go ahead and battle in a mini tournament! Let's battle two on two!"
Marina raised her head back up. She was still fairly new to battling and wasn't too skilled at it yet. Her facial expression was an unusual one – worry mixed with excitement!
"Um…Ok then!" Marina realised that although she wasn't particularly good at battling, she needed to battle more to get better! Allie ran about 20 feet away and turned around ready for battle. She wanted to make space for the pokemon to battle in. Marina wondered which of her two pokemon to pick. Since Spheal was already out, she figured she'd start with it. She looked Spheal in the eyes and it nodded, almost like it knew what she was thinking. Spheal leapt forward into the invisible battlefield. Allie hovered her hands over the pokeballs on her belt. She was trying to decide which of her pokemon to send out. She did have a couple of tough pokemon on her, but decided not to use them since Marina was still a new trainer.
"So you're battling with Spheal then? Ok I'll try this one!" Allie threw a pokeball into the air without announcing who she was picking. The pokeball opened and Marina saw a pokemon that she recognised. It was fairly common in the Hoenn region.
"Oh cool! A Poochyena!" Marina was about to get her pokedex out but decided not to since she already knew a little bit about Poochyena. Marina knew it was a Dark type, but that didn't really help much since Spheal didn't know any attacks that were good against Dark types. Marina bit her lower lip trying to think of which attack to start the battle with. Marina looked up as she heard Allie call to her. Allie was waving her arms at her too.
"C'mon! Let's get moving! I've got a contest to get to soon!" As mellow as she was, she didn't want to miss the contest. Marina just picked an attack at random and decided to wing it.
"Ok Spheal, Water Gun!" Spheal used the attack it was probably most asked to use since Marina got it.
"Watch out, Poochyena!" Poochyena, although small, was quite agile and easily managed to dodge the Water Gun. "Ok, let's show these guys a combo attack! Listen up Marina! The judges love combination attacks! Ok Poochyena, try a Sand-Attack and Dig!" Poochyena began to kick sand at Spheal with its hind legs. A dust cloud began to form and Spheal was unable to locate Poochyena. After the sand cleared, Poochyena had disappeared, leaving behind a hole in the sand.
"Hmm…How are we gonna hit Poochyena now?" Marina asked Spheal. Spheal looked from side to side trying to figure out where Poochyena would surface. For several seconds, Marina and Spheal looked around cautiously waiting for Poochyena to appear. Allie had a big smirk on her face because she knew she was beginning to worry her opponent.
"Now Bite attack!" Allie shouted. Poochyena sprang up from underneath the sand and leapt into the air from behind Spheal and as it fell back down it got ready to land on Spheal and bite it.
"Watch out Spheal! Powder Snow!" Marina needed to call out an attack for Spheal's protection. Spheal sprayed some snow at Poochyena who was unable to avoid it since it was in mid-air. Poochyena became encased in ice and fell onto the sand.
"Woah! Nice move! Ok Poochyena, return!" Allie recalled Poochyena who disappeared from the ice as it was sucked back into the pokeball in the usual red beam of light. The ice remained on the battlefield where it slowly started to melt from the tropical weather. Allie grabbed another pokeball and released her next pokemon.
"What's that?" Allie had never seen one before and thought it looked quite scary. She got out her pokedex to get some information on it.
"Houndour, the Dark pokemon. This pokemon is better at team work in a pack to corner their prey but is still a formidable opponent using fearsome barks and bites. Houndour has traits of both fire and dark types." Marina closed her pokedex and put it back in her bag.
"A fire type huh? Great! Spheal is a water type so it should have no problems! Ok Spheal, Water Gun!" Marina was being confident. She knew that Spheal was a water type so figured she had already won this match.
"How predictable! Dodge it and use your Smog!" Allie knew a Water Gun was coming. Houndour leapt high into the air and sprayed a huge cloud of smog onto the battlefield. Spheal couldn't see a thing and couldn't do anything if it couldn't see its opponent. Houndour leapt back in front of Allie, out of the way of the Smog attack.
"Ok Houndour, let's wrap this up! Flamethrower!" Houndour fired a powerful Flamethrower, an attack that Marina had never seen before. The Flamethrower hit the smog and combined to make an explosion that sent Spheal flying a few metres to the side of the battlefield. Marina had shielded her face with her arm but Allie just stood there smiling since she'd used this strategy before and was always unharmed. Marina rushed over to Spheal to find it couldn't get up. She knew she had lost this one.
"Spheal, return…How could I lose that one? Water versus fire should have been no problem…" Marina was sad about her defeat in this round.
"Don't forget Marina, there's more to pokemon battles than just types! Many trainers try to develop strategies to defeat pokemon they're weak against. The strategy you just witnessed was an example of that. Well don't forget, you've still got one pokemon left! You could still win!" Allie tried to comfort Marina. Marina grabbed the other occupied pokeball, the one with her newly caught Swablu…But Marina was concerned about whether it had recovered after the battle when she captured it. She realised she had no choice and threw the pokeball.
"Ok Swablu, this is my first battle with you so I'm counting on you to do your best!" Swablu turned round to face Marina and nodded in agreement. Swablu flapped its wings and flew into the air. It didn't seem worn out at all. Marina was astounded at the healing capabilities of being inside a pokeball.
"Ok Houndour, Flamethrower attack!" Allie called the same attack that finished off Spheal.
"Watch out! Fly away!" Marina worriedly called her Swablu to avoid the attack. Swablu was quite fast in the air and managed to safely avoid the attack. Houndour repeatedly attempted to fire Flamethrower attacks at Swablu, but it kept avoiding them by using amazing aerial techniques. Marina looked up at Swablu and was really impressed with her new pokemon. Allie was looking quite frustrated that none of her attacks were working.
"Houndour! Smog attack!" Houndour spat out some more toxic clouds at Swablu, making it unable to see where it was going.
"Swablu! Can't you blow the Smog away with your wings?" Marina asked. Swablu used the idea and began rapidly flapping its wings to blow the Smog attack away. As it was busy doing this, a sneak attack from Houndour caught Swablu off guard. A Flamethrower attack from it hit Swablu and it became instantly incapacitated as it fell to the sandy beach floor.
"What? No way!" Marina was devastated. All that skill Swablu had at avoiding attacks and defending itself against the Smog attack were all put to waste due to a sneaky move by Houndour. Marina recalled Swablu and was feeling quite low again. Allie recalled Houndour too and went over to Marina. She put her arm around Marina's shoulders.
"Cheer up! I know you're feeling bad right now but my Houndour is quite experienced! And you're still only just getting started on your journey! Don't worry, you'll get better! I know you will!" Allie smiled at Marina. Marina looked up to see her face and returned a weak smile.
"You think so?" Marina asked. She wondered if Allie was serious or if she was just trying to cheer her up.
"Sure you will! You just need to become more familiar with pokemon attacks and strategies and you'll be a great trainer! Well, if you want to brush up on your battle skills, and you're interested in entering pokemon contests, you should come with me now to the contest hall. It starts in about half an hour so I have to get moving, and you can watch how the other coordinators and I work!" Allie filled Marina with hope. She knew Marina had potential, she just didn't know how to unleash it yet.
"Ok, let's get going!" Marina seemed to have brightened up just like that. She accompanied Allie to the entrance to the contest hall and they had to part ways for a while.
"Good luck in the contest! I know you'll do great!" Like Allie had in Marina, Marina had confidence in Allie's abilities and knew she was going to do great in the contest. "I'll be cheering for you!" Allie gave Marina a pat on the back.
"Thanks! That means a lot to me! I hope you enjoy the contest! And don't forget to study up on the techniques and battle skills used!" Allie felt the need to remind Marina again.
"I won't! I'll focus really hard! Now go and win that contest!" Marina gave her some final words and Allie went through the coordinators' entrance, while Marina went into the lobby to get ready to enter. A familiar voice called to her.
"Hey Marina! Over here!" The voice shouted. There were lots of people in the lobby, so Marina had to look hard to figure out who was calling her. The person waving his arms at her seemed to be the most likely person. She realised who it was as soon as she looked at his face.
"Rainier! What's up?" She rushed over to her brother.
"Well I went to visit that floating log village down the beach and caught me a couple of new pokemon!" Rainier boasted about his new captures. He now had twice as many pokemon as Marina.
"Well I caught a Swablu and I wanted to enter this contest but I need at least one ribbon to enter…" Marina tried to brag about her Swablu right back at Rainier since he always did it to her.
"Hey, I take it you're here to watch the contest? Me too, you can sit with me!" Rainier walked into the contest hall stands with Marina trying to push past the crowds to keep up with him. Rainier sat down in the middle of the stands. Marina quickly sat down next to him so that no-one else could take the seat. Within minutes, the contest was under way as the judges and the host made their entrance to the contest arena. The host had a microphone in her hand and she stepped forward to announce the contest.
"Welcome pokemon fans to the Pacifidlog Pokemon Contest! I'm your host Vivien and I'll be here to comment on today's pokemon contest! The winner of the contest today will receive this beautiful ribbon!" The cheery host showed off a ribbon which was displayed on the big screen on the wall in the background. "Now, without further ado, let's bring on the contestants for the first round!"
For a large portion of the contest, many coordinators release a pokemon each to perform for the audience and the judges. Marina frequently got out her pokedex to get information on the pokemon. Marina was surprised to see not only pokemon attack combinations, but also interesting skills like juggling balls and balancing acts! Marina realised that if she can't get her attack combinations to work, she should try a different kind of act instead. After each coordinator had finished performing, the judges displayed a score ranging from 0.0 to 10.0.
"And now we move on to contest number 18! Say hello to Allie, a two time winner from Fortree City!" The crowd applauded her quite loudly.
"She must be fairly popular, especially if she's won two ribbons." Marina thought to herself. She pictured herself in Allie's place with hundreds of fans cheering for her. Marina liked the idea that she might become famous if she manages to win lots of contests! Allie stepped into the arena and let out her pokemon. Marina had seen three of Allie's pokemon already, but not this one.
"And here is Allie's Jolteon! Let's see what kind of display Allie and Jolteon have for us today!" Vivien commented.
"Ok Jolteon, try a Thunder Wave and Quick Attack combination!" Allie was confident in this combination as it had worked before. Jolteon used its Thunder Wave to create rings of electricity which it then jumped through using its Quick Attack. It made a complicated course of rings to jump through which it managed to perfectly go through one by one.
"Now let's finish off with a Pin Missile! Show the audience how much you love them!" Jolteon fired a Pin Missile attack at the back wall. Like when Quilava made a pokeball shape on the beach with its fire, Allie's Jolteon made a picture too. It used Pin Missile to draw a heart shape on the wall. The crowd were really impressed and flattered with it.
"Amazing! And now let's go to our panel of judges to see how they scored!" Vivien looked at the judges who each displayed a score. Allie and Jolteon received a 9.6, a 9.7 and a 9.4. Allie gave off a huge smile.
"What an incredible score! That will be tough to beat!" Vivien flattered Allie.
"Wow, she's pretty good!" Rainier commented.
"Yeah, I know her! We battled and practiced in the beach while you were gone!" Marina shouted at Rainier since the crowd were being so loud. The final few contestants made their appeals and Vivien announced the next part of the contest.
"Ok fans, now that the first round of appeals is over, we move onto the second round! We harshly cut down the number of contestants to only four! The four highest scoring coordinators go through to the second round, a mini tournament where the contestants must battle each other to proceed! And here are the four trainers who made it through!" Vivien cheerfully pointed to the giant TV screen on the wall and four faces were displayed.
"The second round competitors are: Mandy, Nick, Allie and Joe!" The crowd cheered with applause and Marina joined in too. She was really happy that Allie made it through to the second round! The first match was between Allie and Mandy. Mandy was a slightly older girl than Allie who used a Bellossom in her first round. Marina wondered if she'd have other cute pokemon with her, or if she had some tough brutes.
"Let's move on to the first battle of the second round! Mandy versus Allie! As each pokemon gets attacked, or fails an attack, the coordinator will lose points. The winner of this round is decided when either pokemon is unable to continue the battle, when one coordinator loses all of their points or if the five minute time limit ends, whoever has the most points wins. Let the match begin!" Vivien's explanation left Marina confused. She still had no idea what she meant. The faces of Mandy and Allie were displayed on the screen, each with a yellow bar underneath them. Allie was the first to let her pokemon out.
"I choose you, Quilava!" Allie threw her pokeball onto the battlefield and released her Quilava. Mandy was looking quite confident as she threw her pokeball out. She decided not to announce the pokemon she was using to surprise her opponent. A large fire type pokemon appeared from her pokeball into the arena. Everybody in the audience gasped, as did Allie.
"Hmm, it looks like a Quilava, but bigger!" Marina said to Rainier.
"That's a Typhlosion! Quilava's evolved form! She's gonna have a tough time beating her pokemon's evolution!" Rainier doubted that Allie would win this one.
"What a surprising twist! Allie has picked Quilava, while Mandy has picked a Typhlosion! Will Allie be able to win this one? Let's see what happens!" Vivien announced the start of the match.
"Typhlosion! Use Flame Wheel!" Typhlosion flared up into a fireball and charged at Quilava.
"Watch out Quilava!" Allie began to panic. Quilava attempted to dodge the Flame Wheel but was hit. Combined with Typhlosion's size, speed and power, the Flame Wheel attack was a painful one which knocked Allie's points down by almost a quarter! The yellow bar under Allie's face on the big screen went down. Quilava struggled to get back up.
"Don't give in Quilava! Let's try a Swift attack!" Quilava shot several stars from its mouth out at Typhlosion which made a direct hit. Mandy lost a few points but not many.
"Let's show them a true Swift attack!" Mandy got her Typhlosion to use the same attack. Typhlosion spat out even more stars than Quilava.
"Watch out! Smokescreen!" Quilava sent out a Smokescreen to protect itself from being hit by Swift. As the stars flew into the Smokescreen, Quilava had dodged out of the way. After the smoke began to clear, Quilava was nowhere to be seen.
"Where has Quilava gone?" Vivien wondered. The crowd sat in awe as they too wondered where Quilava had disappeared to. A small hole was revealed after the smoke had completely cleared.
"It's gone underground! It must be using Dig!" Marina said to Rainier. Mandy was unsure of where Quilava was going to come up.
"Strike it Quilava!" Allie yelled. Quilava sprung up from underneath Typhlosion and sent it into the air a few feet, soon after falling onto its back. Luckily for Allie, Mandy's points dropped quite a bit, although she still had more than her.
"Let's stop this little pokemon in its tracks! Hyper Beam!" Mandy commanded. Typhlosion built up a Hyper Beam and fired it almost instantly, giving Quilava no time to dodge. As the Hyper Beam exploded as it hit, Quilava was sent flying and fell unconscious. The judges displayed a red cross on each of their panels to announce that the match had finished.
"That's the end of the match! Quilava has been defeated and Mandy is the winner!" Allie felt bad that she had lost and recalled Quilava. As Allie left the contest arena, she went outside to sit and reflect on things. Marina went outside to join her while Rainier stayed to watch the contest battles.
"Allie! Hey Allie!" Marina shouted to her as she ran up to sit with her.
"I can't believe it…I lost in the second round…" Allie's usual mellow attitude had seemed to have vanished. She was now feeling quite depressed.
"Don't feel too bad! You had very little choice of winning against Quilava's evolved form…Don't blame yourself for it, blame your opponent for using Typhlosion! That was pretty unfair…" Marina tried to cheer Allie up, pretty unusual since Allie had been doing all the cheering up!
"Well, I guess you're right…I can enter more contests and hopefully I'll be able to get enough to enter the Grand Festival this year!" Allie perked up a bit but left Marina confused.
"The Grand Festival? What's that?" Marina asked.
"When a coordinator wins at least five ribbons they can enter the Grand Festival, where the top coordinators compete in a big contest tournament! I want to enter the Grand Festival and win!" Allie explained one of her dreams to Marina.
"Wow, if I'm entering contests too then I guess that's one of my goals too! Maybe I'll see you there too! But I have to practice a lot before I can get good enough to win the ribbons I need!" Marina joked about her own skills.
A little later, Rainier had emerged from the pokemon contest and met up with Marina and Allie. Allie and Marina had been chatting about their goals and inspirations and talking about things in general. The two had become good friends.
"Hey Marina, you missed some awesome battles! Anyway, we should get moving to Slateport since there's so much to do there. I talked to someone inside, they said that today's ship leaves in about ten minutes! We gotta catch it!" Rainier seemed really eager to move on. He had caught a couple of pokemon, watched a contest and did some exploring. He was tired of Pacifidlog already.
"Well, ok then. I guess now the contest is over there's not much point in me sticking around. Hey Allie! Why don't you join us?" Marina looked at Allie with sparkling eyes. She wanted her new best friend to join her.
"Thanks for the offer, but I'm gonna stick around her for a while longer to get some practice and battle some trainers. But maybe I'll see you at another contest! If not, I can always meet you at the Grand Festival!" Allie smiled at her and held her hand out. Marina did the same and they shook hands.
"I hope we meet again real soon!" Marina happily said.
"Yeah me too. Well, you'd better get going or you'll miss your ship!" Although Allie wanted Marina to stick around for a short while longer, she knew they had to go.
"Goodbye!" Marina shouted to Allie as Rainier dragged her along to the ship. As they boarded the ship, Marina ran up on deck to wave goodbye to her new friend. She had learnt a lot from Allie, and even taught Allie a thing or two. Marina waved until the ship had travelled far enough that they were out of sight.
Marina has had a very eventful visit to Pacifidlog and now has another goal to compete in pokemon contests. Will she be able to win enough ribbons to enter the Grand Festival? Find out in due time…