Saturday, February 17th, 2018
I started the day by slowly crawling out of bed, still feeling tired in part because of the events of the previous day's Brawl match. The moment that I sat up on my bed, Shadow's head popped up from where she'd been sleeping and she looked directly at me. I felt a soft ping across our connection as I unsuccessfully stifled a yawn. Even without her sending anything more than that small ping, I knew exactly what she wanted. "We can start training as soon as I'm ready," I reassured her with another yawn.
Her Brawl debut had been the previous day and it hadn't gone quite as well as either of us had hoped. My opponent's last Pokemon had been a Beedrill, and with Blitz already down, she was the best choice that I had to take it down. Unfortunately, her Confusion attacks were still a bit on the weak side and she'd been taken out by Beedrill's Twinneedle before she'd hurt it enough to knock it out.
When I'd tried to tell her that she'd done a great job as soon as she'd been healed after the match, she'd only retreated slightly from our connection. It had taken me staying up much later than usual, but she'd finally opened back up. I think the thing that had finally done it was the promise that we would spend plenty of time training so that she'd be ready for her next match.
Now slightly regretting that promise, I shuffled towards the bathroom to shower and get dressed. As I passed my front door, I noticed that there was a letter on the floor that must have been slid underneath, but I was too tired to be curious and continued moving past it.
I wasn't sure how long I was in the shower since I completely zoned out, but I was jolted back to reality when I heard a loud knock on my front door. "In the shower!" I called, though there were several more knocks after only a few seconds. Grumbling, I turned off the water and hastily started drying myself off, only to be interrupted by yet another series of knocks. "Give me a minute!" I loudly said, and this time I apparently had been heard since the knocking stopped.
A minute later my hair was still pretty wet, but at least I was clothed so I swung open the door. Unsurprisingly, it was John who was standing on the other side and I gave him an annoyed look and flatly asked, "What?"
Whatever had caused his excitement completely eclipsed my greeting and his grin didn't droop in the slightest. "Are you pumped for the battle?" John giddily asked.
"What battle?" I asked, now slightly curious. I wasn't planning on challenging any more gyms in the near future and my next Brawl match wasn't for another week. Plus, I didn't even have any information about that match yet so there wasn't anything to get excited about there. I thought he might have been talking about one of his own, but I couldn't remember him telling me any specifics about his upcoming matches either.
Apparently, that's what it took to bring him back down since his expression slowly shifted to puzzlement. His eyes shifted down and when I followed his gaze I saw that he was staring at the letter that I'd seen on my way to the bathroom. "Do you always ignore your mail?" John asked with a hint of a smile returning.
With John watching expectantly, I sighed before leaning down to pluck the letter from the ground. A quick glance at the envelope revealed that it was addressed to me and was from some company named Boltund Bikes. After opening the envelope, I started to skim the first page in the letter where it said that they were always on the lookout for trainers who travel the old-fashioned way, and this year they'd identified John and me as two such trainers. They were proposing a 'very special Brawl match' in one month's time where we would duke it out for a sponsorship from the company.
There was also a second page in the letter, but a skim revealed it to mostly be legalese. From what I could gather, the sponsorship would involve giving the winner of the match a small stipend and one of the company's bikes to use. When I'd finished my quick read, I looked back up at John to find that his wide grin had returned in full force. "So what do you think?" He asked excitedly.
"Sounds like a good deal," I admitted, now somewhat understanding his excitement. Though after a second, I added, "I'm a little weirded out that they knew that both of us have been hiking around though."
John hesitated, "Yeah, that is a little weird. Maybe they asked Tammy?" Before I could respond, he pushed past that, "But that doesn't really matter though, right? It means people are starting to notice us!"
"Yeah, I guess so," I said, choosing not to mention that I didn't really want to get noticed.
"So what do you think a 'very special Brawl match' means?"
"They've probably got some weird format that they use," I said with a dismissive shrug. "You could probably look up other times they've done this and see."
"That wouldn't be nearly as fun though. How about we both wait and find out when we're supposed to?" I didn't have any complaints about that, making John even more pumped up about our battle. He suddenly hesitated and said, "There was something else that I wanted to talk to you about, but now I can't remember what it is."
While he trailed off, I glanced over towards my living room and saw that all of my Pokemon had woken up and were looking at me expectantly. "While you're thinking, I'm going to give these guys breakfast," I told John and he absently nodded from where he stood in my entryway with his eyes closed.
I was in the middle of pouring a bowl of food for Scout when John exclaimed, "Duh!" When I looked over at him expectantly, he explained, "The state contest finals are in two weeks and my family is coming down to watch it. You should definitely join us!"
I thought about it while I finished pouring Scout's breakfast, then shrugged, "Sure. Sounds interesting." I hadn't done any research into what the contest circuit looked like here so I was curious to see how it worked.
"Awesome, I'll check with Cait too!" John enthused. While I did think it would be great if we all went, I wasn't sure if Cait would be interested in Contests given her distaste for the different Brawl formats. When I voiced my doubts to John, he simply shrugged. "Well, we won't know until I ask. Actually, I'm going to go do that before I forget again."
With that, John gave me a short wave and headed out my door, leaving as quickly as he'd arrived. I stared after him for a few seconds, before snorting at his antics and returning my attention to feeding my team. When they'd finished their breakfasts, I returned everyone and started making my way over to the nearest training center. Along the way, I realized that we had something specific to train for now instead of the usual focus on general improvements.
Friday, March 2nd, 2018
John, Cait, and I waited near the entrance of the Minneapolis Convention Center waiting for John's family to arrive. The plan was for all seven of us to sit together like we had when they'd come down for our Brawl matches back in November. They also had our tickets so entering without them wasn't exactly an option.
While we stood around, John decided to fill the silence with the most stereotypical topic possible. "The weather has been great lately. I hope it keeps warming up cause I'm starting to get the itch to get back on the road." He paused to flash me a grin, "Especially since I'll be riding my new bike."
"You mean I'll be the one with the new bike," I said, returning his smile. While before I had just been looking forward to another match with my friend, John's never-ending excitement regarding our upcoming battle had been infectious and now I was as excited as he was.
Cait simply snorted, having grown used to our banter over the last couple of weeks. "You know the match isn't until the nineteenth, right? And there's no way it'll be warm enough to leave by then."
"C'mon, you can't tell me you're not going stir crazy too," John said.
After a reluctant pause, Cait admitted, "I never thought I'd say this, but I am getting a bit bored by the Brawl now that we're at three and a half months." When John opened his mouth again, Cait quickly cut him off, "I still don't like the extra formats though."
John smiled cheekily, before turning a bit more serious. "Actually, what are you planning on doing when the Brawl is over? Move back in with your parents?" Immediately after his question, John winced and glanced at me, "Sorry."
I barely managed to avoid rolling my eyes and said, "It's fine." I appreciated them trying to spare my feelings, but I was long past the point where I would get upset by the simple mention of someone's parents or home. Actually having friends and spending plenty of time with my Pokemon had done wonders to alleviate my homesickness. In an effort to push past the awkward lull in the conversation, I asked Cait, "So anyway, what are you thinking?"
Cait sighed, "I'm still trying to figure it out. After living by myself for months, I'm not exactly thrilled by the idea of moving back in with my parents. But I don't want to rough it like you two and walk everywhere. It might be different if I had a ride Pokemon, but I also don't want to add a Pokemon team purely for transportation purposes. Honestly, I'm probably going to end up moving back in with my parents since I can't afford an apartment or car on my own yet." I was about to say that I was sorry to hear that, but before I got the chance, she fired herself right back up, "But that just means I'll have to work even harder!"
"Now that's the spirit!" A woman's voice came from behind Cait and when I looked, I saw Meggan smiling like a Cheshire cat. After being momentarily surprised by Meggan's appearance, Cait flushed slightly when she realized that her former rival had heard her declaration.
In direct contrast to Cait, John smiled at Meggan's appearance. "I didn't know you were coming to this." Cait had given John and me Meggan's number after our battle as she'd asked. While I hadn't had a reason to use it, I was pretty sure that John texted her more than Cait did.
"It was sort of a last-minute thing," Meggan said with a shrug. "I've got people waiting for me inside, but I had to pop over and say hi."
John looked a bit disappointed at that, "Oh. Alright. Well, maybe we'll see each other inside?" When he ended his question on a hopeful note, Meggan smiled again and gave us a small wave as she walked over to where tickets were being checked.
I waited until I was sure Meggan was out of earshot before giving John an amused look. "Damn. You really got it bad for her."
"What?" John asked with a confused look and it took him a good second to realize what I meant. When he finally figured it out, he insisted, "I just like talking to her about battle strategy."
With a slight frown, Cait pointed out, "You almost never talk to me about strategy."
While I almost believed John, it didn't make it any less amusing to watch him fumble for an answer. As if to kick him while he was down, our conversation was once again joined by another person. I barely noticed Erin coming out of the crowd before she poked John in the side and asked, "So who's your girlfriend John?" It was John's turn to flush and while he was still recovering, Erin flashed Cait and me a wide smile, "Hi guys."
Cait and I returned the greeting before John finally managed to sputter, "She's not my girlfriend!" Erin gave John a disbelieving look and turned to me with a raised eyebrow. Unable to help myself, I nodded and her smile grew. With a groan, John covered his face with his hands and after a few seconds tried to change the subject, "Where's everyone else?"
Erin shrugged, "Dad's parking the car, and Mom and Julie had to go to the bathroom." She started peppering John with questions about Meggan after answering while John staunchly ignored them. I stayed silent throughout the exchange, enjoying the pre-show before the event we were actually there to see. Conversely, Cait completely ignored the rest of us and spent the rest of the time that we were waiting looking something up on her phone.
After a few more minutes, the rest of John's family arrived, and after the three of us had assured John's mom that we were doing well, we finally entered the convention center. Since we were running a bit late, it was very easy to find the half-empty row that matched our tickets. We quickly got situated in our seats with John's parents at one end with Julie followed by Erin, Me, John, and Cait. Given the conversation in the lobby, I decided to situate myself between the siblings to try to keep disruptions to a minimum.
There were only a few minutes until the supposed start time, so I simply inspected the room instead of striking up a conversation. I'd never been to the convention center back home, so I wasn't sure how it compared, but I was impressed by the size of the theater the contest finals were in. Everything except the edge of the stage was hidden by the large red curtains, though I assumed it was as large as the rest of the room, especially given that there were Pokemon that were going to be competing on it. The one oddity was that there were some buttons on my seat's armrest, but nothing seemed to happen when I pressed one.
After a few minutes, a woman entered the stage from the right side and briskly walked along the stage's edge. When she reached the center of the stage, a spotlight turned on, revealing that she was wearing a suit. With a welcoming smile, she announced, "Welcome everyone to the annual Minnesotan contest finals! My name is Emily Hartt and I'll be your host for the weekend. Before we can get started with the main event, let me introduce your esteemed judges!" As she finished, Emily raised her arms and the curtain started to rise.
The other side of the curtain revealed a massive stage along with a long table with five people at it. There were no spotlights on the stage, leaving the presumed judges shrouded. They were also facing away from the crowd, making it even harder to guess their identities. On some silent cue, the judge on the far left stood up as Emily said, "As a two-time winner of this very contest, no one knows Beauty quite like Roger!" At his name, a spotlight lit up, revealing a well-dressed man with a purple flower pinned to his shirt. He deeply bowed to the crowd, earning himself a good amount of applause.
The next man stood up as Emily began his introduction. "As one of the best trainers in the league, it would be an understatement to call Herman Tough!" When the spotlight shined on the second-best trainer in Minnesota, it showed that he was rather underdressed for the event, simply wearing jeans and a sweater.
The next judge to stand was the woman sitting in the middle of the table. "While most people would expect her to be the Cute judge based on her specialization, anyone who's challenged her knows that she's more than worthy of being your Smart judge!" I made the connection a split second before a spotlight revealed Meggan as Emily introduced her. The gym leader was wearing a light blue dress that I was pretty sure she hadn't had on underneath her coat back in the lobby.
Erin whistled lowly and leaned over me towards John to say, "Your girlfriend looks good, John."
John stiffened and his eyes darted down the row, though he relaxed slightly when it looked like the rest of his family hadn't heard Erin. "She's. Not. My. Girlfriend." John hissed through gritted teeth, making me reconsider my decision to sit between them.
Thankfully for everyone involved, Emily continued her introductions as the next judge stood. "Our next judge is taking a rare few days off in order to be with us all. Like Meggan, you might not associate her with her position because of her type specialization, but Lizzie is a true enthusiast of all things Cute!" In contrast to her counterpart in St Paul, the Minneapolis gym leader was fairly young, looking only a few years older than Meggan. Like the Smart judge, she was wearing a dress, though hers was pink with black accents.
"Last, but certainly not least, is our special guest for this year's contest finals! All the way from Unova, it's the queen of Cool herself: Roxie!" I sat up in my seat as the spotlight revealed the Virbank City gym leader, the first person from the Pokemon series I'd seen in this world.
Erin must have noticed my surprise since she asked, "You a fan?"
"Uh, yeah," I haltingly answered, hoping that Erin wouldn't ask any further questions.
Thankfully, she just replied, "Cool. Her music is a little heavy for my tastes."
Glad that I'd dodged that particular bullet, I returned my attention to the stage to get a better look at Roxie. She was wearing an outfit that was fairly similar to what she wore in the games, though she did look a bit older than what I remembered, putting her closer to Meggan and Lizzie.
"And those are your judges!" Emily announced, prompting the audience to applaud while the five judges bowed, nodded, or curtsied at the crowd before returning to their seats. Once the room had quieted down, Emily resumed her introductions. "Over the next three days, we'll slowly pare down from twenty expert coordinators to find the best coordinator in Minnesota. Our judges will vote for their favorite in each heat, with each judge's vote being worth double for their particular round.
"If a tiebreaker is needed, you in the audience will step in to help us out!" As Emily spoke, the buttons on my seat softly lit up, revealing that they were numbered one through five. "And now, without further ado, let's get the show going with the first heat of tonight's round: Beauty!"
Less than a minute later, Emily had exited the stage and five trainers stepped onto it. As one, they sent out their Pokemon, making the stage suddenly a lot more crowded with the addition of Salazzle, Lilligant, Miolotic, Alolan Ninetales, and Malamar. The last Pokemon was definitely a bit of a surprise as I certainly never would have associated an upside-down squid with beauty. Moments after all of the Pokemon had appeared, a familiar psychic barrier appeared on the stage, separating them from their trainers and the judges. Emily's voice once again filled the room through the speakers, "The five minutes for the appeal round begins… now!"
The five Pokemon instantly sprung into action. Salazzle began by firing a Flamethrower into the air, with the flames quickly shifting between red, orange, and blue. Lilligant summoned a number of leaves and petals that started swarming around her in an entrancing pattern. Milotic created several flowing rings of water around its body, and then its scales and tail began shimmering with rainbow colors. Ninetales breathed deeply before exhaling a wave of Icy Wind that sparkled in the room's spotlights. Finally, Malamar began creating multiple layers of Reflect and Light Screen that were easier to see than usual and shimmered in the light.
For several seconds, I watched in stunned silence at the display in front of me. It was complete chaos, though admittedly, beautiful chaos. "This is crazy," I softly muttered.
Both people sitting next to me turned towards me. "It's not normally like this," Erin said.
"It's the finals," John started to say at the same time, but cut himself off. He glared at Erin before staunchly returning his attention to the stage.
Erin softly laughed at her brother and then resumed her explanation. "Regular contests have solo appeals, so one piece of the added difficulty for the finals is that they're literally fighting for center stage." What she said was evident on the stage as Salazzle and Ninetales were doing their best to stay in the center of the focus, making their attacks mix in a way that looked surprisingly good. "They're not supposed to attack each other, but disruptions are actually encouraged."
"I'll be honest, I didn't think you would know this much about contests," I said, not trying to hide my surprise.
Erin laughed again. "It would be impossible not to learn about contests growing up with Julie." I glanced down the row to look at the youngest member of the Zimmerman family and saw that she was raptly watching the spectacle with wide eyes.
We returned to silently watching the appeals on the stage, where apart from Ninetales and Salazzle's posturing, they were mostly staying out of each other's way. That changed after a few minutes when Lilligant created a large glowing orb that floated to the top of the stage, illuminating the stage and room.
Ninetales and Mioltic instinctively shied away from the Sunny Day, disrupting their own attacks. Salazzle's flames grew more intense and started getting away from her under the fake sun, but the Pokemon quickly used Will-O-Wisp, turning the fire purple and bringing them back under her control. On the other hand, Malamar was completely unaffected by the move. In fact, it took the opportunity to use Psybeam, creating a light show as the purple beam began bouncing around the barriers that it had created around itself. Finally, Lilligant started creating additional smaller red balls with Weather Ball that joined her previous moves in swirling around her.
"See, this is why I wanted to come," I heard Cait comment to John from a couple of seats away. "You get to see move combinations that aren't realistic to use in battles, and you're still forced to think on your feet."
Unfortunately for Milotic's trainer, she seemed to trip up on that last piece as her Pokemon continued doing what I assumed was its normal routine. The serpent Pokemon tried to use Hydro Pump, but the move was significantly weakened by the sun. With only thirty seconds left, Milotic finally used Rain Dance, but unlike with the previous weather move, this didn't really affect its opponents. Salazzle's purple fire barely shrank under the drizzle while Lilligant's orbs seamlessly shifted from red to blue.
There was a loud buzzer noise and Emily's voice once again filled the room. "That's it for the first heat of the Beauty round! What a show folks! We'll be back with the results in just a bit!" With that, there was a brief intermission as the stage was cleared and commercials were played for people watching the show on tv. After a couple of minutes, the five trainers and their Pokemon walked back onto the stage with the coordinators holding signs numbered one through five. Lilligant's trainer looked very confident while Milotic's and Ninetales' looked nervous, with the former almost hiding behind her sign. Once they were in place, Emily followed the trainers onto the stage to stand in the middle. "And now let's hear from our judges and audience. Please select the number for who you thought had the most Beautiful appeal!"
I considered my options for a while before finally pressing the five-button on my armrest for Malamar. The refracting Psybeams had been really impressive and I thought that they deserved some extra consideration given how they'd been completely unaffected by what the other coordinators had done on the stage.
After a bit, there was a bell chime and Emily said, "Last call for votes! Make your selections!" She waited a few more seconds, then glanced down at a tablet before announcing the results. "With three points from Roger and Roxie, Salazzle has won first place! Lilligant earned herself second with votes from Herman and Lizzie, and Malamar secured third with a vote from Meggan!"
With Milotic and Ninetales tied at zero, it came down to the crowd and after a dramatic pause, Emily revealed that Ninetales had earned more votes from the crowd. Milotic's trainer sighed as the results were called, looking disappointed but not surprised. She got a quick hug from Ninetales' trainer before exiting the stage with her serpent Pokemon dully slithering behind her.
Emily stayed silent as the two left the stage before turning back to the remaining coordinators. "We'll see the rest of you tomorrow for the Tough round, but for now we've got the second set of Beauty appeals!" As the four remaining coordinators walked off the stage with their Pokemon, I settled into my seat. I knew that we would be here a while, but I was really looking forward to seeing how the other sets would go.
Sunday, March 4th, 2018
For the fourteenth time in three days, I waited for Emily to announce the round's results. It was the last set before the finals so everyone was on the edge of their seats to see which coordinators would be the last ones to qualify for the Cool round. As I'd hoped, I'd had a lot of fun watching each of the rounds and it had been fascinating to watch how things evolved over the course of the contest.
The other four heats of Beauty had been about as competitive as the first, though from what I could tell, that had mostly been because there had been five Pokemon on the stage at a time. The Tough round had been much calmer in comparison, but there had been plenty of posturing. Even though there had only been three Pokemon on the stage for the Smart round, it had actually been the most brutal as they all worked to outmaneuver their opponents while simultaneously controlling the others' movements. Finally, the two Cute rounds in the morning had been by far the tamest. I wasn't sure if that was purely because of the round type or if everyone was playing it safer given that only two coordinators from each heat would advance to the finals.
On that note, Emily was finally ready to announce the results of the round. "With a roaring success of four points, Eve and her Butterfree won our judge's hearts! Rich's Simipour and Larry's Wigglytuff tied with votes from Roxie and Herman respectively!" Altaria's trainer looked downcast at the news that she hadn't received any votes, but waited to hear the full results instead of immediately leaving. With it down to the crowd's votes, Emily continued. "Like our judges, you all loved Butterfree and she received the most votes with Simipour eking out second!"
I was a bit disappointed at the results since I thought Wigglytuff had had a particularly interesting appeal that combined Sharpen and Bounce. That said, I could see how it hadn't received many votes given that cute wasn't the word I would have used to describe it. With the results in, Wigglytuff and Altaria's trainers returned their Pokemon and glumly walked off the stage. The remaining two coordinators took a few more seconds to wave to the crowd before they left with their Pokemon as well.
"We'll see Eve and Rich in a bit for the final Cool round, but first we have a real treat for you all!" Emily announced as she flashed the audience a smile. "A special performance from our guest judge! Roxie!"
The room quickly filled with excited murmurs from the crowd and there were even a few whoops. I was actually excited as well since I'd listened to a few of Roxie's songs on Friday and had been surprised to find that I really enjoyed them. After allowing the crowd a few seconds to quiet down, Emily added, "That'll be right up next followed by the finals!" With that, the large red curtain once again dropped over the stage, giving them the opportunity to set up for the concert.
I spent the brief intermission discussing the day's rounds with my friends until the lights dimmed in the room after a few minutes. A single spotlight lit up the right side of the stage, showing Emily who raised her right arm. "Ladies and gentlemen. The Toxic Shock: Roxie!"
The light on Emily faded and the curtain slowly raised as a guitar started playing. Once the curtain had gone high enough, a different light shone on the stage, showing Roxie playing by herself. After a few seconds, another guitar joined in and another flash of light revealed Toxtricity who was also playing. Next, a loud clacking joined the melody as a large Scolipede appeared, rhythmically hitting its antenna together. The music continued building until the sudden inclusion of an impossibly complex drum section, which turned out to be from a Tentacruel sitting in a large tank of water. The jellyfish Pokemon was holding drumsticks in a number of its tentacles and was absolutely going to town on two drum sets simultaneously.
While other people in the crowd were getting visibly excited, I simply leaned back and enjoyed the music. The volume of a live concert was definitely a lot louder than when I'd listened to the songs in my room and I could see Erin's point about it being a bit much, but it was still a really cool and unique experience to be at a concert where three of the musicians were Pokemon. Several songs later, Roxie and her Pokemon stopped to a standing ovation and cheers from the crowd.
As we were applauding, Erin leaned over to me and spoke loudly so she could be heard, "Nevermind! I definitely see the appeal now!"
On the stage, Roxie gave a final loud riff of her guitar before giving the crowd a sweeping bow. Her Pokemon mimicked her motion and I discovered the unusual sight that was seeing a Tentacruel bow. The crowd continued its applause as the curtain dropped back down, once again hiding the stage to prepare for the contest's final round.
After a shockingly quick two minutes, the curtain raised back up, once again revealing the five judges sitting in their seats. I was a bit surprised at how fast they managed to reset the stage, including removing a large tank of water, but figured they didn't want to lose any momentum after Roxie's show. As if mirroring my thoughts, Emily's voice filled the room, "Now that we're all in the right mood, let's get the final round started!" There was another short round of cheers from the crowd.
The top four coordinators in the region were introduced for the last time before sending out their Pokemon for the final show. Phil was using a Greninja, Teresa had a Luxray, Eve sent out a Lurantis, and finally Rich sent out the Skarmory he'd previously used in the Tough round. There was a quick countdown from Emily and the moment she called 'start,' Luxray gave an impressive Roar that was almost as loud as Roxie's music had been. Amazingly, the other three Pokemon were completely unphased and began their routines.
Greninja started off by using Double Team to create several shadow clones and then all five of them started firing off Water Shuriken in random directions. After its Roar, Luxray slammed its paws into the stage, and electricity sparked off of its fur and into the air above it. Lurantis swung its arm-sickles through the air, creating green, purple, and black after images as it seamlessly transitioned between different attacks. Skarmory ruffled its feathers, which glinted dangerously in the spotlight, before taking off and doing aerial maneuvers above the stage, making sure to stay clear of the electricity that Luxray was putting out.
The Pokemon continued showing off their moves until Luxray once again caused a disruption on the stage. The lion Pokemon repeated its previous motion, slamming its paws into the stage, but this time electricity traveled horizontally along the stage's floor instead of vertically. Greninja jumped up to avoid the sparks and each of the clones somehow created a log underneath them that they safely landed on. Lurantis completely ignored the oncoming attack as it continued moving through its kata, presumably counting on its resistance to electricity to protect it.
Its resistance turned out to be a non-factor since the electricity harmlessly covered the stage, making it glow soft yellow as sparks continued to flash occasionally. With Electric Terrain in place, Luxray went back to firing off other electrical moves, which now looked even more impressive as arcs of electricity came up from the ground to meet its other moves.
Not to be outdone by Luxray's field move, Skarmory Screeched and summoned several dozen floating rocks above the stage. It then resumed flying above the stage, perfectly avoiding the constantly changing obstacle course of Stealth Rocks it had created.
Even though the ground had been proven to be safe, the Greninja clones stayed on their logs and added Acrobatic flips to their ongoing Water Shuriken appeal. Finally, Lurantis's kata slowly became more complex and its blades began to glow brighter and brighter even as it continued using different attacks. I spotted Leaf Blade, X-Scissor, Cross Poison, Psycho Cut, Night Slash, and at least one more that I couldn't recognize. Moments before the buzzer sounded for the end of the round, Lurantis made a final sweep of its scythes and the entire room was illuminated by its Solar Blade.
While it wasn't quite as loud as it had been for Roxie's concert, applause filled the room and all four coordinators moved forward to bow alongside their Pokemon. The pause for voting was by far the longest of the contest as the judges and audience slowly deliberated their choices. After some thought, I finally decided to put mine towards Lurantis since the sheer range of moves that it had used had been spectacular. Though the other performances certainly gave me things to consider as well for my own training.
Thinking about it some more, I was a bit surprised to find that I was fairly interested in giving a contest a shot sometime. The main downside was that Scout was the only one on my team that really had the personality that I thought would do well in a contest. That was hardly the end of the world though since my team was only half full and I cou-
I abruptly cut off that train of thought. If I managed to figure out a way to return home, there was almost certainly no way that I'd be able to bring my Pokemon with me, and that meant that catching more Pokemon would be wildly irresponsible of me. And I did want to return home.
Right?
I barely paid attention to the end of the contest as Rich and his Skarmory were declared the winners. I was too busy trying to figure out what I wanted.
A/N: I've got some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that for the last month or two I've had some uncertainty about the story. I have a long list of events that more or less covers the entire remainder of the story, but I'm far from satisfied with how they string together. As such, I decided to take a bit of a break from this story and work on another one rather than forcing myself to keep working on this one.
The good news is that it worked. I actually feel way better about this story than I did just a week ago, so I won't be taking the hiatus that I'd expected to. Instead, my plan is to keep working on the two fics simultaneously. While that means updates will likely be slower, I'll be able to work on whichever I feel motivated for, which will hopefully make for a better end product.
If you like my writing and want to check out my other story, it's another Pokemon fic that's titled Shadows and Darkness. Chapter one should be posted by the time you're reading this.
Thanks to Star for betaing. Next up is Chapter 28: Money Match
