Chapter 3: Last Minute Tune-Ups
A year slowly but surely passed and now Galar was a week away before its first ever contest was going to be hosted.
In the time that had passed, Ruby and Emerald had naturally continued fine-tuning their performances ready for the big show itself. Tony had done the same, spending most of his time visiting the Silverlock sisters and joining in with the training with Dawn continuing to mentor the group. She was experienced enough as a coordinator and didn't need to train as much, though she would still join in for the fun more than anything.
Practices had gone on for about a week before Nessa finally revealed further details about the contest. Ever since her advert had aired, a lot of Pokémon enthusiasts had already expressed an interest in entering and the contest itself had already become a big trending subject on social media. So to whet the audience's appetites, Nessa believed they needed more of an insight on what kind of show she was planning to host. It had come in the form of a website that had been created to further generate interest for the contest. The website revealed everything and Ruby, Emerald, Tony and Dawn all looked at it as Ruby got it up on their computer. The computer sat in a corner of the living room and although it wasn't used much, the Silverlock family always kept it around anyway. Emerald, Tony and Dawn stood behind Ruby as she scrolled through the website. She was on a page titled "What is the Hulbury Pokémon Contest?" and upon reading; she came across a paragraph that said, "The Show Rounds". It read:
For the Hulbury Pokémon Contest, we strive to stay true to what made Contests popular in the Hoenn and Sinnoh regions. But we also want to add a little more trainer participation to spice things up a bit! The show will go as follows:
QUALIFIER ROUND
This round will allow you and your Pokémon to either work together, or solo, to show off your talents! If your Pokémon is a keen singer, a fine dancer, a great actor or has an unusual talent that you think may impress the audience, give us a show and you may be lucky to qualify for the contest itself!
We allow as many entrants as possible, but only 64 of you may actually enter the contest itself by passing this important round!
PERFORMANCE ROUND
This is where the fun begins! You and your Pokémon and show how great you work together with a spectacular performance that shows off a Pokémon's appeal! Whether it's a display of cuteness, coolness, beauty, toughness or cleverness, your Pokémon's performance could be the difference between victory and defeat as it'll be down to our judges who makes it past this critical round!
Only 64 contestants will reach this round and only 32 may pass on to the Double Performance Round!
DOUBLE PERFORMANCE ROUND
Those who make it to this stage get to show off not one Pokémon, but TWO in a double performance! Much like the above category, if your Pokémon can make an appeal so spectacular to the audience and our judges, you will proceed to the quarter-finals! Show us all a sensational performance and beautiful coordination between your Pokémon pairs!
The remaining 16 contestants who pass this round will move onto the quarter finals!
THE CONTEST BATTLES
These battles will be held through the quarter-final, semi-final and final stages of our show. If you pass the performance round, you may end up in a battle that is not like your usual Pokémon battles. To win these battles, your Pokémon will battle each other and as they fight, they will take points away from one another depending on how good they can make themselves look compared to their opponents. The one major change in our show is that we do NOT allow knockouts unlike the Hoenn and Sinnoh contests. Knockouts will result in an instant disqualification. The winner will be the Pokémon who has the most points left when the five minute time limit is up.
The winner of our contest will receive the title of "Master Coordinator" and a fabulous cash prize of £50,000!
As a reminder, we do not allow Dynamaxing in this contest so we don't want to see any coordinators wearing a Dynamax band, or else you'll be disqualified. This show is about showing off your Pokémon in creative and inventive ways and we don't think Dynamaxing will do that.
Good luck coordinators and we hope to see you all at the Hulbury Pokémon Contest in the coming year!
So there they were. That was the show they were getting themselves into and what was on offer. Tony seemed mostly interested in the cash prize, his eyes widening as he read it.
"£50,000…" he gasped, "I could do with that kind of money…" he said to himself.
Dawn was especially interested in seeing the changes they'd made to the usual contest formula. It was clear Nessa didn't want to do things exactly like in Sinnoh.
"Over in Sinnoh, we have separate contests for single and double performances." she explained, "We don't do both in one contest! And the qualifier round's an interesting new addition too as we don't do that either."
"I thought Nessa would want to create her own spin on the formula and not just copy the ones before her exactly." Ruby replied, "I will say, it's a no-brainer what I'll be doing for the qualifier round. Just let Freddy the Toxtricity have a song and he'll pass with flying colours!"
"But won't you need to do more than that?" Emerald asked curiously, "I mean everyone's seen Freddy sing many times before. You've got to add a little something more to make his act seem new again."
"Excellent point my little sister!" Ruby congratulated, "Which is why I'll have Freddy use some of his moves to liven up the performance. I'm sure a couple of Overdrives will create some electrifying effects to go along with his song number."
"I'm sure that'll work." Emerald said optimistically, "As for me…I think I know what I want to do for the qualifier round…" she said thoughtfully.
And so later that day, she had decided to put on one of her favourite movies, Disney's Beauty and the Beast. She fast-forwarded the movie up to the famous ballroom scene and then brought Kerchak out of his Pokéball so she could show him what she had in mind. Kerchak had watched the film with her before and enjoyed it so he was curious why Emerald had it on this time.
"OK Kerchak, we've been given an update on what the contest is looking for and they begin with a qualifier round where both coordinator and Pokémon can work together to show off some kind of talent." Emerald explained, "I want me and you to do this dance together like in Beauty and the Beast."
She motioned to the paused film on TV. Kerchak was taken aback by such an unusual idea.
"Me and you do that dance scene together?" he said, completely perplexed, "Oh I'm not sure if I could do something like that. That act we've been practicing is one thing but this is another."
"You never know if you don't try it!" Emerald said optimistically, "Come on Kerchak, me and you will perform an adorable act together! A human and Pokémon dance act will really impress the audience and get us through that qualifier round!"
Kerchak still didn't seem convinced.
"I dunno…I'm sure you'd be better off asking another Pokémon to do that." he said uneasily, "Why not ask Mei-Mei? She's the dancer of the team."
But Emerald was determined to convince her first Pokémon to try. She took one of his huge hands into her own and looked up at him with pleading brown eyes.
"Please Kerchak, at least give it a try." she begged.
Th Grass-type Pokémon grimaced. Dammit Emerald, why did you have to do the Lillipup-eyes trick?! How could he say no to his trainer when she looked at him with eyes like that?! He sighed heavily.
"OK…let's try." he muttered.
Emerald beamed with delight. At least her starter Pokémon was willing to give it a go. In order to practice for the contest, Emerald and Kerchak watched the ballroom scene multiple times to try and memorize Belle and the Beast's moves and dance like they did while also adding some of their own moves to the routine. During practices, Kerchak had surprisingly found himself getting into it rather easily. Maybe it was his musical nature as a Rillaboom that gave him a natural talent for dancing. He didn't put too many steps out of line and despite a few occasions of accidentally stepping on Emerald's toes, he picked up on the moves rather quickly and by the end of the month, they had got the dance mostly down. Ruby, Dawn and Tony had been rather impressed when they watched their rehearsals.
"You two are wonderful together." Ruby said kindly, "Who'd have thought a trainer and her Rillaboom would make such sweet dance partners?"
"I think you'll pass that qualifier round no problem." Tony complimented, "If you keep practicing, you two will carry out that dance as if it comes naturally to you."
"Thanks everyone!" Emerald said with pleasure, "Of course, there's always the chance where all that practicing doesn't pay off and we screw up on the day itself, but I'm sure we can do it!"
"You will! No need to worry at all!" Dawn insisted.
"You're sure fond of saying that, aren't you?" Ruby joked.
"It's my way of reassuring others when they're nervous. And it's kinda motivational for myself too." Dawn explained, "Although for some reason, whenever I say that, that's when mom worries the most."
"It doesn't make me worry so no biggie!" Emerald chimed, "So how's your acts for the qualifier round going?" she asked.
"Me and Freddy pretty much got ours down." Ruby answered, "Freddy's such a natural talent that he doesn't need a rehearsal!"
"I've chosen Blossom the Roserade for mu qualifier round." Tony explained, "She'll be performing a dance, albeit a different one to you and Kerchak. I'll be holding rings for her to jump through, which is my way of participating along with her."
"I bet that'll be cute to watch." Emerald said eagerly.
"And for me, I thought me and Pingu could do a synchronized swimming act." Dawn put in, "I bet something like that will impress the judges!"
"Now that's something we should definitely see." Ruby said with interest, "It helps that Hulbury Stadium is a Water-type Gym so there'll be a pool for you and Pingu to perform in. I bet Nessa even thought ahead and made sure there's a pool available for any coordinators who want to do a water-themed act."
"Would make sense." Dawn concurred, "The Wallace Cup did the same thing when I participated in it. They had a pool for Pokémon to use as part of their acts if they so wished. Wallace himself was also a Water-type specialist like Nessa is."
"Heh, how about that? Both in Sinnoh and here in Galar, you're in a contest hosted by a Water-type specialist." Ruby chuckled, "Ain't that a weird coincidence?"
Everyone chuckled. Yes, what were the odds of something like that happening? It only made Dawn wonder if this contest was going to be very similar to the Wallace Cup with this in mind. If she ended up winning, it'd make for an even more bizarre coincidence!
Now everyone had a qualifier act in mind, they went back to practicing for the appeal round. All four trainers had a go at experimenting with different Pokémon to see which one would be best for the appeal round. Although Emerald and Kerchak had already been practicing for that, Dawn advised to give her other Pokémon a try and not to rely too much on Kerchak. A true coordinator didn't rely on one Pokémon to win contests after all. In the end, Emerald agreed that Kerchak could be used for the qualifier and Contest Battle rounds. At least in a Contest Battle, his previous training wouldn't go to waste and he might even get to use his act in a way to battle against his opponents. So for the appeal round, she decided to go over her other Pokémon and see what performances she could coin up with them.
She currently had Vixey the Ninetales, Mei-Mei the Pangoro and Razer the Haxorus with her. She could see Vixey's beauty being appealing, Mei-Mei's dance moves making for a fun performance and Razer would be great for a tough act if that's what she wanted to go with. Dawn stood by her and watched as Emerald tried Vixey first. The Sinnoh girl thought Vixey looked very beautiful and was sure her moves could reflect that.
"Show Dawn how fabulous you are, my darling Ninetales!" Emerald cried, "Use Flamethrower!"
Vixey held her head up high and waited for the Flamethrower to build-up inside her throat. All nine of her tails stood up straight, presumably to make herself look more impressive to anyone watching, and then she unleashed the huge tongue of flames from her mouth. It was like watching a geyser go off, only with flames instead of water. Then afterwards, Emerald ordered Vixey to use Shadow Ball. The vulpine Pokémon launched the shadowy sphere at the flames and upon impact, it exploded into purple and black sparkles of energy that showered down onto the ground. The result looked somewhat eye-catching but to Emerald, it didn't look quite right. This act felt like it needed more wow factor to her, something that would truly catch the audience's eye.
"That didn't quite feel exciting enough. I must add a little something more to make it look truly spectacular or I'll crash out at the first stage!" Emerald exclaimed.
"I can see what you're going with." Dawn put in, "But if you want my advice, I'd suggest maybe changing the order of the moves a little? Like maybe start off with Shadow Ball and THEN use Flamethrower. That might create a more spectacular effect."
"OK, I'll try that." Emerald said brightly, "And to make it look really dazzling, I could have Vixey use Extrasensory as well."
"You sure could!" Dawn agreed, "Psychic moves can really look beautiful in a contest performance. Let's give it a shot!"
And so they tried again with Emerald telling Vixey to use Shadow Ball first this time. But in order to liven the act up a little more, Emerald thought about adding in an extra move by having Vixey juggle the Shadow Ball with her tails. Vixey flicked the ectoplasmic sphere of energy from one tail to the other until it reached her ninth tail and then after that, she launched it in the air and followed up with Flamethrower. The spurt of flames swept over the Shadow Ball, breaking it into bits and creating more of a dazzling effect than last time. Then to finish off, Emerald ordered Vixey to blast the flames with Extrasensory. The kitsune Pokémon opened her mouth and blasted the fire to bits with a swirling funnel of psychic energy that spiralled through the air. The result created some truly eye-catching results with a colourful shower of lights and sparkles raining down onto the ground below. It was simply beautiful to watch and the girls could hardly take their eyes off of it.
"Wow, that was gorgeous!" Dawn complimented.
"MUCH better than the first time!" Emerald whispered in wonder, "I'm sure to pass the appeals round with this performance!"
"Oh I'm sure, but please don't get too confident." Dawn warned her friend, "It can really blow up in your face when that happens." she added glumly.
"Oh…did that happen to you?" Emerald asked.
"I'm afraid so." the Sinnoh teen sighed, "In at least two different contests, I failed to even make it past the appeals round because I got overconfident and was so sure my Pokémon's performances were perfect that I didn't think to iron out any creases they might have. Thanks to some helpful advice from Zoey, I improved from that and since then, I've never lost an appeals round again!" she added, sounding more cheerful.
"That's great!" the Galarian teen cried, "I'll make sure not to get overconfident and then I won't crash out! Thanks for your help Dawn. You're really proving to be a great teacher!"
"Oh I have good advice, but I'm no teacher!" Dawn said bashfully, "I feel I've still got a long way until I get to that stage. Still, you're welcome!"
The two girls hugged each other in gratitude. Although Emerald appreciated Dawn's help, a part of her was starting to have doubts about this contest. Dawn was entering too, which meant she and Ruby would have to go up against her at some point. How could Emerald possibly battle against the girl who was teaching her so much? It just wouldn't feel right. But as Dawn would likely say: "No need to worry!" If they went up against each other, they'd make this the greatest contest the world has ever seen!
After many more weeks of practice, Emerald eventually decided that Vixey would be the one for the appeals round, although she appreciated Mei-Mei and Razer's hard work and promised they'd have a shot if there was ever another contest after this one. Now everyone was practicing for the double rounds. Like before, Dawn had given them a demonstration of a double performance to show how it worked. She had Martha the Mamoswine and Chomper the Pachirisu to show off their double performance as that was the best example to give.
"This combo inspired many imitators because of how pretty and creative it was." Dawn explained, "Show them Martha by using Ice Shard on Chomper!"
Martha obeyed. Ruby, Emerald and Tony watched with confusion. Surely using Ice Shard on her own Pokémon was a bad idea! But they soon saw it wasn't as Martha launched the shard of ice at the electric squirrel Pokémon and instead of doing damage to Chomper, it form a hollow sphere of ice around him. It looked as if Chomper had been encased in a giant hamster ball made of ice. The Galarian teens were impressed. Who knew Ice Shard could work like that? But then the pièce de résistance came in when Dawn ordered Chomper to use Discharge. The squirrel Pokémon unleashed a huge blast of electricity from all around his body that caused the ice sphere to sparkle beautifully in front of everyone's eyes. Then Chomper began to run around inside the sphere, creating more luminous effects that had everyone completely spellbound by what they were watching. It was quite hypnotic to watch the dancing lights leaping from the ice sphere as Chomper ran around inside with electricity crackling around him.
"Wow, that looks so pretty!" Emerald exclaimed.
"I see why you call this creative because I've never seen such a creative combo of moves like that before, even in double battles!" Ruby gasped.
"I doubt I could come up with anything like that myself." Tony murmured, "How did you think this up?"
"I dunno! It just came to me one day so I tried it out!" Dawn replied, "I did take some advice from a pretty hard-to-please kid to get it just right and now it's become one of my most memorable contest combos! I even call it the "Ice Chandelier" and it always amazes the audience whenever I use it. It even helped me defeat Ursula after she had me on the ropes for most of the battle!" she added.
"Who's she then? Another rival of yours?" Ruby asked.
"Oh yes, and unlike Zoey, you'd hate her if you met her." Dawn muttered bitterly, "She was such a brat and always thinking so highly of herself! I've beat her every time we've faced each other and she still thinks I win on just "dumb luck". Maybe it's not that I'm lucky, maybe she's just not as great as she thinks she is!" she grumbled.
"Oh my god, she's a female version of Bede!" Ruby sighed in exasperation.
Dawn was right, she WOULD hate Ursula if she ever met her! Anyone who reminded her of Bede was instantly a bad egg for Ruby.
"Who?" Dawn asked curiously.
"I don't want to talk about him." Ruby said quickly, grimacing as painful memories of her rival came back to her, "Let's just hope this Ursula girl doesn't enter this contest."
"Oh last I heard, she's training for contests back home." Dawn said dismissively, "She won't be coming anywhere near us so we're safe. But let's have no more negativity. Now you've seen my Ice Chandelier, I bet you three have some ideas for your Double Performance acts!"
"I've already got an idea on which two I want to use." Ruby declared, "I'll use Shard and Soundwave. Two Dragon-types oughta make for quite a performance. I'll even call it the "Double Dragon Act"!" she declared.
"Sounds fun!" Emerald agreed, "For me…Ooooh, I have a lot of options so I might be a while on that." she mused.
"I have some idea myself but I'll come back to you on that as I'm not fully sure yet." Tony replied.
"That's OK! We've still got time before the contest even starts so no hurry!" Dawn said cheerfully.
That was true, but the Galarian teens were starting to feel the clock ticking down a bit now as the contest was a few months away already and they'd only just finished practicing for the qualifier and appeal rounds. They'd have to pick up the pace if they wanted to be completely ready!
And so the next few months were spent on practicing for the Double Performance round. Like Ruby had said, she had chosen both Shard the Duraludon and Soundwave the Noivern for her double act. Two Dragon-type Pokémon teaming up together would surely make for something amazing. Dawn watched excitedly as she'd never seen a Duraludon or a Noivern before, especially as Ruby had used neither when battling her in the Champion Battle, so watching them in action was new for her. Galar sure had a lot of Pokémon that you couldn't find in Sinnoh! Ruby's Pokémon stood together as their trainer prepared to command them.
"OK, this can go either catastrophically wrong or incredibly right. Fingers crossed it's the latter!" she said, doing so as if to emphasize her point, "Soundwave, you start off with Flamethrower."
Soundwave obeyed and the dragon-bat Pokémon blew a huge breath of flames up into the air. Everyone stepped back a little, already feeling the heat just by standing there watching. Dawn even noticed that this Flamethrower seemed much more powerful than Vixey's Flamethrower. Noivern must be powerful Pokémon if their Flamethrowers were more powerful than an actual Fire-type's!
"Keep it up, mate! Now Shard, use Flash Cannon on Soundwave's Flamethrower!" Ruby commanded.
Shard took aim and fired his attack from his mouth and up at Soundwave's Flamethrower. The resulting combination of fire and steel combined together to make for a really spectacular effect. A sparkling fiery ball formed in the air just above the two dragons with light reflecting from the Flash Cannon and shining in multiple directions from the still blazing flames. Everyone watched in astonishment. Even Ruby was surprised how well the combo was turning out! The result was simply spectacular! But she wasn't finished yet.
"Now comes the potentially dangerous part…use Air Slash on the fireball, Soundwave!" Ruby yelled.
Soundwave flew towards the steel/fire ball hybrid that he and Shard had formed. Before he hit it, Ruby quickly advised everyone to take cover in case anything went wrong. She didn't want anyone to catch fire like she did when Bugs's first time practicing his act went wrong. Soundwave sliced through the steel fire ball and the resulting Air Slash caused it to fall apart into a neat shower of sparkling metal fragments. Luckily, it didn't seem that this part of the act would be a danger to anyone as the falling metal fragments quickly burnt up before they hit the ground. Soundwave touched down on the ground and folded his wings, pleased with his performance.
"I would say that was…adequate." he purred in his usual deep, gravelly voice.
"That really was quite a show!" Emerald cheered, "You two were awesome out there!"
"We?!" Shard blurted irritably, "I hardly did anything out there! Soundwave was doing most of the work so I'm left wondering why I'm even here!"
"Yeah, I have to agree." Ruby muttered, "It's a double act so both Pokémon have to have an equal share in the performance, otherwise it won't win favour with the judges. It can't be mostly Soundwave doing everything."
"What else can Shard do?" Dawn asked.
"The only moves he currently knows are Dragon Pulse, Dark Pulse, Thunderbolt and Flash Cannon." Ruby explained.
"Then how's about you have Shard add a little extra before Soundwave uses Air Slash on the steel fire ball?" Dawn suggested.
"I guess I could get him to use Thunderbolt on the steel fire ball to add more to it and create more additional effects after Soundwave breaks it up." Ruby murmured, "And I could also get both Dragons to break it up together to show a bit of teamwork with one another…yes, I think I've got it! Let's try this instead!" she declared, snapping her fingers.
Upon a second try, Ruby tried the same thing as before with Shard and Soundwave using Flash Cannon and Flamethrower to create the spectacular steel fireball from earlier. But this time, Ruby ordered Shard to add an additional Thunderbolt to the steel fireball. Shard took aim with his stubby metal hands and blasted at the steel/fire mix with a jolt of electricity. Electricity hit the fireball and the steel from the earlier Flash Cannon conducted it so there was no way Shard could miss it. The Thunderbolt danced around the steel fireball, creating an even more spectacular sight than before. Then to finish off, Ruby had Soundwave hit it with Air Slash like before, destroying the combination and reducing it to a beautiful shower of sparkling lights that rained down gently to the ground below. Everyone cheered.
"That was much better!" Emerald cheered, "It looked more amazing than before!"
"And both Pokémon contributed equally too." Tony said brightly, "That's what I call a double act."
"I agree that it was better." Ruby said appreciatively, "But I dunno…it still feels like it could do with a little something extra to make it even better. Call me picky if you will, but it feels like the act is a little too…static, shall we say? I feel my Pokémon need to move a bit more to make the performance livelier."
"I'd say that's a fair assessment." Dawn said supportively, "How about when Shard and Soundwave use their attacks, they move their heads around to make the flames and steel beams wave around?"
"Or I could have Shard start off with Flash Cannon and then have Soundwave fly around while using Flamethrower to create a tornado effect…" Ruby suggested, "And maybe Shard could spin around as he uses Thunderbolt to give it a neat twister look. I'll definitely try those ideas out and see which ones work the best."
"That's what practicing's all about!" Dawn said optimistically, "You'll find the perfect way to execute your act in the end! How about you two?" she turned to Emerald and Tony, "Any ideas yet?"
"I've got mine." Emerald said eagerly, "I've chosen Thor and Gemstone for my Double Performance! Let's show them guys!"
She threw her Pokéballs and brought out two of her favourite Pokémon she had amongst her larger roster, Thor the Raichu and Gemstone the Starmie. Unlike Ruby's double act, Dawn recognized these Pokémon as the Pikachu and Staryu line could be found in Sinnoh. Seeing Thor even made Dawn think back to her adventures with Ash and his Pikachu. Ash's Pikachu was still a Pikachu of course, but the sight of a Raichu was enough to provoke those memories for Dawn.
"It's been so long since I last saw him. I wonder where he is now…" she murmured.
"You say something?" Emerald asked curiously.
"Oh don't mind me! Just seeing your Raichu's making me all nostalgic, that's all!" Dawn said quickly.
Emerald understood. She of course knew about Ash and his famous Pikachu. What Pokémon fan didn't at this point? She turned back to her Pokémon to show her sister and friends what Double Act she had in mind with Thor and Gemstone to carry out.
"OK you two, let's show everyone what you can do together." Emerald said encouragingly, "Whenever you're ready, let's go!"
Thor and Gemstone took up their positions, standing beside each other as Emerald gave the commands.
"Gemstone, use Surf and Thor, ride along the wave!" Emerald cried.
That made Ruby giggle. Raichu could learn Surf anyway so it seemed odd to tell Thor to ride along Gemstone's wave. Gemstone flexed its appendages and conjured up a huge wave of water that shot up from nowhere. Thor leapt into the air and landed on top of the wave, balancing himself perfectly and riding across it despite having no surfboard. Ruby, Tony and Dawn watched with awe as Thor rode the wave. That alone was already going to impress the audience, and it was only the beginning of the act! Then as the wave reached its peak, Emerald ordered the electric mouse Pokémon to use Brick Break down the middle of the curtain of water. Thor jumped into the air, somersaulted and ploughed straight down the centre of the wave as if he was cutting it clean in half with his tail. Dawn smiled approvingly. That was a good show of toughness that would surely impress the judges! The wave was gone and Thor stood triumphant, looking like some mighty god that had just made the sea bend over backwards and play nice for him. But the act wasn't done yet.
"Excellent work you two! Now for the best part!" Emerald declared, "Gemstone, use Dazzling Gleam and Thor, use Thunderbolt!"
The two Pokémon obeyed and launched their attacks simultaneously. What resulted was a gleaming cloud of colourful energy from the Dazzling Gleam and Thunderbolt acting simultaneously together to create a breath-taking display that everyone watched with total awe. Emerald was overwhelmed with excitement. This was going so beautifully!
"Just as I hoped for!" Emerald cried excitedly, "Now for the big finish! Gemstone, Thor, jump into the electric fairy cloud!"
The Pokémon did just that. Gemstone spun through the air like a shuriken and scythed through the cloud while Thor jumped through it too. This resulted in both Pokémon being coated in the sparkling fairy energy from Dazzling Gleam and the coat made both Pokémon look very shiny. What a pretty sight it was to see two Pokémon sparkling in the light like so! Then to finish off, Emerald had Gemstone spin around through the air and had Thor use Quick Attack to move quickly around the area. Both moves ended up really making the Pokémon shine, quite literally, as the fairy energy they were coated in continued to sparkle. Gemstone looked like a Catherine Wheel in a bonfire display, minus the fireworks, and Thor looked like a beam of light quickly zipping around and around and around. Ruby, Tony and Dawn were left speechless as Thor and Gemstone stopped what they were doing and struck a victory pose to conclude the act. Emerald bounced up and down with joy.
"Yahoo! That was incredible! What an act that was you two! You were brilliant!"
She hugged Thor and Gemstone gleefully. The duo nuzzled their trainer in gratitude. It took a while for Ruby, Tony and Dawn to finally recover and give their thoughts.
"Em, I think the contest may as well not have the Double Performance round because who the hell could possibly top THAT?!" Ruby exclaimed, "That was the most amazing double performance I've ever seen!"
"Your Pokémon displayed great teamwork and you showed off their toughness and their beauty at the same time!" Dawn screeched in amazement, "Gosh, even I doubt I could match that performance!"
"Uh…yeah, what they said." Tony said sheepishly. He didn't know what else he could say to that.
"Thank you, thank you!" Emerald said appreciatively, "I'm so glad you loved it! Wow, imagine the look on Nessa's face when she sees this act!"
"I imagine she'll just say "Stop, you pass already! No need to carry on!"." Ruby joked, "You should keep this up Em, this act's a sure winner."
"Absolutely, little gem." Tony agreed, "You'll pass with flying colours…literally given how colourful your act is." he chuckled.
"It just depends if I even get to the double performance round in the first place." Emerald reminded them, "I still got the other rounds to win first."
"We know, and we're confident you'll get past them." Ruby said reassuringly, patting her sister on the shoulder, "You're already showing plenty of promise."
"You are!" Dawn put in, "You know, for someone who's never coordinated before, you've caught on pretty well." she added with a wink.
Emerald rubbed the back of her head shyly.
"Heh, heh…really? Wow, I guess this is just right for me." she said meekly, "I will say, this is proving to be so much fun. I dare say I find this more run than actual Pokémon battles! So when all this is over, I think being a coordinator should be what I do with my life as a Pokémon trainer from now on."
"If that's the way you feel, I'm with you on that." Ruby said supportively, "Sapph's found her next calling and I'm glad you've found yours too. I think you'll go far as a coordinator, Em."
Emerald was so touched that she hugged Ruby in thanks. Her big sister really knew how to say the nicest things to her! Tony and Dawn awed. A strong bond between sisters was always going to be a sweet sight to watch.
After that, the rest of the year was spent practicing on all fronts with everyone keeping their single acts and double acts up to scratch to be ready for the big day itself and Dawn teaching the Galarian teens how to perform contest battles. She had to admit that this was going to be slightly trickier than other in Sinnoh as this contest didn't allow knock outs so she would have to prioritize teaching them how to win effectively without resorting to a knock out. At the same time, she was glad this was a rule as she often felt knock outs went against the point of contests and preferred to win without them. For Ruby and Emerald, they had a lot of getting used to as Contest Battles were so much different to regular battles and they were used to battling the traditional way. Tony had an easier time catching up as he wasn't as experienced as the Silverlock sisters in battling so he proved to be more flexible. During one rehearsal, he was even able to beat Ruby with his own Cinderace, which he called Hotfoot, winning rather easily against Bugs! Ruby had been unable to believe what she'd seen as this was the first time she'd ever lost at anything, practice or not!
"No way, you totally trounced me!" Ruby gasped, "I know Contest Battles are their own thing compared to regular battles but man, you're proof just how much I've got to learn to adapt to this new style!"
"I'm as amazed as you are, Champ!" Tony chuckled modestly, "I never thought there'd be a moment in my Pokémon career where I could say I beat the Champion herself! Although this was just a practice so I imagine the actual result will be very different."
"True." Ruby agreed, "Still, I'm not feeling so confident I'll get far in this contest if this is how badly I'm gonna do in the Contest Battles." she said doubtfully.
"Hey, don't put yourself down!" Tony said hastily, "We're still practicing, so there's plenty of room for improvement Ruby. You'll get the hang of it, don't worry."
Ruby still doubted she'd ever be as skilled at coordinating as she was at battling but she supposed Tony had a point. More practice would help out and maybe she'd get further than she expected.
During the remainder of the year, Emerald had kept a close eye on Tony. Ever since his "funny turn" had occurred, she had been worried about his health and hoped it wasn't anything serious. Thankfully, he seemed to be OK as he didn't display any further signs of ill-health. During one training session, he'd gotten over-excited and broke down in a coughing fit, which of course got Emerald worried again but Tony had to insist that he was OK again.
"Like I say, I got carried away there." Tony said reassuringly, "It's nothing little gem, I assure you."
But Emerald wouldn't budge.
"Tony, it IS something. I've not known you to have moments like this." she said firmly, "Please tell me what's going on. I don't want anything to happen to you, OK?"
She took Tony's hands into her own and gazed pleadingly into his eyes. Tony wanted to drop the subject but he also didn't want his close friend to worry about him. He ran a hand through his long brown hair and sighed.
"OK Emerald, I can't keep lying to you." he said gently, "Allow me to put you at ease. The truth is, my health is gotten more...delicate in recent years." he explained, "Though thankfully, it's nothing too serious. I just have the occasional dizzy spell and getting too hyped up can make me cough like you've seen before. But we've been to the hospital and had our checks and they say that if I keep taking medication, I should be able to stop them happening frequently and I'll hopefully make a full recovery."
Emerald sighed with relief, glad that Tony had opened up at last and admitted what was wrong.
"At least it's nothing to worry about." she said brightly, "Gosh, I was convinced you were much worse off than you described!"
Tony laughed uneasily.
"Let's get back to training." he said quickly, "And I'll try not to overwork myself again."
"You better or else I'm gonna have to fetch a stretcher and take you to the doctor's myself!" Emerald joked.
And so the practices kept up until the next year arrived. It was the month of May and the contest was due to begin the very next week. The excitement was already rising amongst the people of Galar despite that. One would've thought the contest was right now with how hyped everyone was!
Ruby's birthday had also come and gone in that time and she was now fifteen years old. Despite only being a year older now, it was clear to Emerald and even Hop that Ruby was starting to develop more in her body shape as she reached that slight bit closer to adulthood. Hop was also sure that her chest was a little bigger than before, something that flustered them both up. Her voice also deepened slightly, making her sound closer to the adult she was becoming rather than the teenager she had been. She didn't care about that as all that mattered to her was that she was still herself.
"No matter how old you get, you're still my Ruby." Hop said kindly, "And of course, I'll be rooting for you in that Pokémon Contest. You'll be amazing out there!"
"Thanks Hop. I'll try to be." Ruby said appreciatively.
Emerald and Sapphire had also had a birthday come and go in the time that had passed with the twins both fourteen years old now. There hadn't been any real change with them yet but Ruby joked that their time would come in a couple of years and they would have to be ready. Sapphire had promised that she would watch the contest on TV back at the Master Dojo so she could root for her sisters.
"I hope you both get very far and at least one of you wins." she said supportively.
"I'll laugh if it ends up being me vs. Emerald again and it's ANOTHER tie!" Ruby joked.
"It'll be like that's our destiny in life, to always tie with one another!" Emerald joked back.
"True that, but hopefully it won't be." Sapphire replied, "It'd be better if the first ever Pokémon Contest doesn't end in a draw. It wouldn't be much of a great debut."
"Oh don't worry about that." Dawn reassured everyone, "In a contest, it's pretty much impossible to end in a tie anyway. Even when it looks very close, the winning result is always at least by a single number. As for who's gonna win…well, we'll find out next week!" she said cheerfully.
And soon enough, that week came. Hulbury Stadium was alive with activity as everyone was running around getting things ready for the big day and Nessa herself was waiting for the big moment to introduce everyone to the contest. Even if she wasn't competing, she ironically felt more nervous and also excited than everyone else did! She was dressed in a sparkling white dress that made her look as if she was about to attend a wedding rather than a show. She had white pearls around her neck and the dress had a slit in it for one of her legs to come through. Her hair was fully lose and brushed neatly. She was standing by herself in her dressing room, her arms wrapped tightly around herself. Her heart was pounding. Thankfully, the contest had attracted enough interest to go ahead but that didn't mean she was out of the woods yet. Things could still go wrong and she knew it!
"Please be a hit, please be a hit, PLEEEEEEEEEASE be a hit!" she repeated to herself repeatedly under her breath.
She wouldn't be able to take the embarrassment if her first ever Pokémon Contest ended up being a colossal failure. It had to succeed, it just had to!
While Nessa was fretting to herself, Ruby, Emerald, Tony and Dawn arrived at Hulbury Stadium to get ready. They had all chosen their costumes to wear and were going to the changing rooms to get changed into them. The contest was due to start in an hour so they had time for it. It amazed the four to see just how many people were here today, be they spectators to watch the show or competitors they were going to be up against. There were hundreds of potential contestants, but as they knew, only so many of them would make it into the show itself by passing the qualifier round. And that was when the real action would begin.
As the four were making their way over to the changing rooms, Emerald accidentally bumped into someone. It was pretty crowded and she was having a hard time avoiding everyone. The person she bumped into yelped and nearly fell over. Emerald found herself looking at a very off looking person with long blonde hair, round spectacles, a ridiculously tall top hat with Pokéballs floating around it and a feminine looking face. The person was also dressed in what looked like the Psychic-type Gym uniform, a purple t-shirt with blue, yellow and red waves on it, matching shorts with the number 026 on the right thigh and a few sponsors on the left thigh. Curiously enough, they also wore a black cravat and classy knee-high boots. It was an odd combination to say the least with this person looking like someone trying to mix up an aristocratic gentleman and a sports player with the resulting combo looking utterly ridiculous as a result. The coordinator glared at Emerald, the round spectacles fixated on her as if trying to pin her down. Emerald gulped.
"Oh my gosh miss, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to bump into you!" she apologized.
"Who are you calling MISS?" the trainer sniffed, speaking in an arrogant, male voice.
Emerald went red in the face and hid behind her hands in embarrassment.
"Oh crap, you're a guy?! I'm sorry about that too! I thought you were a girl!" she cried feebly.
"Oh you're not the first ill-educated oaf to make such an assumption." the boy said in annoyance, "My overly feminine appearance doesn't help matters. So what are you here for little girl?" he snorted.
Emerald glared at him angrily. She'd only known this guy for five seconds and she already hated him. He seemed way too arrogant for her tastes and she didn't appreciate being insulted for such an innocent mistake like assuming his gender like so.
"For your information, sir, I'm entering the Pokémon Contest!" Emerald retorted, "And you don't need to be so rude, I said I was sorry, OK?"
The boy snorted again. It was the kind of noise someone made if they thought something was absolutely laughable.
"You're entering the contest?" he sneered, "Someone must've trapped you in a Trick Room because this is no place for a little squirt like you. If I were you, I'd use Amnesia on yourself and forget you ever came here because you should be somewhere else, little girl."
Emerald was outraged. Who the hell did this stuck-up git think he was saying things like that to her?!
"Oy! I'll have you know that I fought the Champion, who is my sister by the way, to a draw in last year's Galar League!" Emerald snapped angrily, "Who the hell do you think you are talking to last year's runner up like this?!"
"I know you were an ill-educated simpleton." the boy scoffed, "You're so out of touch that you fail to recognize the fabulous and the talented Avery standing right in front of you. And you're also attempting to use Trick on me if you expect me to believe for a minute that you're the one who fought Ruby Silverlock to a draw last year."
"It's the truth you asshole! You can ask herself!" Emerald shouted.
"Look, I haven't got time to waste on you. Why don't you just Teleport on out of here and bother somebody else?" Avery said dismissively, "Oh and I'd take that stupid hat off if I were you, you look simply ridiculous!"
He grabbed Emerald's trademark tam-o-shanter and pulled it down over her eyes just to further wind her up. Before Avery knew it, he was being throttled mercilessly as a furious Emerald grabbed him by the neck and shook him up and down furiously like he was a sack full of pennies. Several people stood and stared incredulously at the sight of this skinny shrimp of a girl shaking the much taller Avery around like he weighed nothing.
"DON'T TOUCH MY HAT YOU CRETIN!" Emerald bellowed at the top of her lungs.
Ruby, Tony and Dawn ran over to break up the fight. They hauled Emerald away while Avery was left on the floor rubbing his neck. He couldn't believe that Emerald could be so strong. Ruby stood over Avery, her arms folded and a look of pure death in her eyes.
"OK, care to tell me what you did to provoke my sister like so?" she said coldly.
"I did no such thing, Champion!" Avery protested, trying to sound pathetic, "She attacked me of her own violation! It had nothing to do with me!"
"Nice try, dick-face. I know my sister well enough to know that she NEVER attacks anyone unless provoked." Ruby snapped, "Now answer the damn question! What. Did. You. Do. To. Wind. Her UP?!" she snarled.
"He insulted me, refused to believe me when I said I was the runner up last year, told me I should go somewhere else and then yanked my hat over my eyes!" Emerald answered, still fuming from what had happened.
"Oh did he?" Ruby said, her voice like poison, "Well for your information, Emerald WAS the runner-up last year! She fought me to a draw and was by far the best opponent I'd ever had in all my time battling other trainers!" she snapped viciously, jabbing Avery in the chest, "And insult her all you like, Emerald could beat someone like you in her sleep!"
"Humph, we'll see about THAT." Avery said haughtily, "If she's as skilled as you claim she is, then she will have to prove herself in the contest, won't she? Then we'll see who's laughing at the end of the show. Avery, Teleport!"
And with that, he ran off to prepare for the contest, not teleporting away despite what he said. Ruby huffed loudly.
"Great…just what we need, another jerk to put us in a bad mood to start off." she grumbled, "You know, maybe just for once, we'll be able to enter some kind of event without having to deal with pricks like him."
"Even Paul wasn't a jerk like he is!" Emerald fumed, "How dare he put me down like this! I could whup his ass in a battle with my arms tied behind my back!"
"Well Emerald, you'll get to show him what for in the contest!" Dawn declared supportively, "We'll all show that clown how great you really are!"
"I honestly hope he doesn't even qualify." Tony said bitterly, "Nobody insults my little gem like that and gets away with it!"
It wasn't often Tony got mad but when he did, he made sure to let people know about it. Emerald even felt he was surprisingly scary when he lost his cool.
"We'll deal with him in due time." Ruby insisted, "For now, let's get ready for the show."
And so the teens all changed into their costumes for the contest.
Later on, the hour struck and it was finally time for the show to begin. The audience attending Galar's first ever Pokémon Contest was huge, almost as big as the average audience Nessa would see in her Gym battles during the Gym Challenge. She stood on stage with a microphone in her hand. Despite her nerves, she did her best to hide them and present the show with as much bravado as possible.
"Ladies and gentleman, I thank you all for attending Hulbury Town's first ever Pokémon Contest, which is also the Galar region's first ever Pokémon contest it has ever hosted!" she announced.
The crowd cheered in response.
"For the Hulbury Pokémon Contest, we promise you all a stunning show that will show off incredible performances, amazing acts, a Pokémon's true beauty and most importantly, the sensational bond between trainer and Pokémon as they coordinate with one another to give you all a show you'll never forget." Nessa continued, "Our show may be a little different to what previous contests in other regions have done but we hope you'll enjoy it all the same. In the meantime, let's introduce our three judges for the show…"
She motioned to a podium which had three people sitting behind it. Two of them were men and the third was the local Nurse Joy who worked at the Hulbury Town Pokémon Centre. One of the men was in his fifties with grey hair, a very handsome face and a charming, excited smile that suggested he was ready for this show. The second man was younger with black hair and a sour expression on his face. He looked as if he didn't want to be here and would rather be at home counting paper clips or sharpening pencils than judging a show.
"Joe Harrows!" Nessa introduced the first judge.
"How are you doing everyone?" Joe said, speaking in a thick Unova accent and winking at the cameras that were trained on him.
"Samuel Callow!" Nessa introduced the second judge.
"Hi there." Samuel said bluntly, his voice lacking any enthusiasm whatsoever.
"And Nurse Joy!" Nessa concluded with the third judge.
"I'm glad I could be here to judge Galar's first ever Pokémon contest." Nurse Joy said gleefully.
"If you coordinators want to make it to the finals, you'll have to impress these judges to get anywhere close to that cash prize and the title of Master Coordinator!" Nessa went on, "And believe me, they WON'T be so easy to please so you best give us your all for this show. Now without further ado…let the Hulbury Pokémon Contest…BEGIN!"
She threw her hands up as the crowd screamed in anticipation. The tumultuous applause was enough to excite Nessa and let her know everyone here today was eager to see her show. Now to see if she could deliver what she promised as the qualifier rounds began and the first contestant took the stage…
Everyone seems to have performing and contest battling down and have been practicing real hard. Now let's see if it pays off in the contest itself! How far will Ruby, Emerald, Dawn and Tony get? And is Tony's health truly getting better like he thinks it is? Tune in next time as "The Contest Begins"...
Trivia: No doubt anyone who's played Pokemon Shield will recognize Avery here. I felt having him as a contest rival for Emerald was the best way to include him given he wasn't in the Isle of Armour story I wrote. And much like Ruby and Emerald here, I too thought he was a girl until it was confirmed he was male, so that joke is pretty much based on my own reaction. XD
Also Avery using a Galarian Slowking is a natural reference to the Crown Tundra DLC in where those who play Pokemon Shield will get to battle him with one as his ace instead of Galarian Slowbro after you clear the Galarian Star Tournament the first time.
For those who may have missed it, two of the judges are based on John Barrowman and Simon Cowell respectively, though I doubt I've been that subtle about it. XD I just thought with those two having been judges on shows like The X Factor, Dancing on Ice and more respectively, it only made sense to have judges based on them for this show. ^^