"Now we can go to the Battle Pyramid, right?" Ash said.
"Not so fast," May replied. "I still have a Contest to do! I've heard there's a great Contest Hall in Cerulean."
"Actually..." Max began. "I… don't think you do have a Contest to do."
May frowned. "Really?"
She counted to herself. "One, two, three… huh. You're right."
"How do you miss that?" Pikachu asked.
"Hey, it's easy to lose track," Ash said. "Remember, she won some of those twice."
"That's right," May agreed, deciding the excuse was good enough. "Anyway, what that means is that there's a free slot or two."
"Couldn't we just skip?" Ash asked. "I mean, there's still that Battle Pyramid thing."
May blinked. "What would be the point of that? There's still a Contest, and that means someone can have a go – either one of my Pokémon, as training for the Grand Festival, or one of your Pokémon so they can try out something they don't normally do."
"Did you just argue that every Pokémon can get benefit from Contest performances?" Max asked, looking skeptical.
"Of course I did," May answered. "Sorry, did you not notice I'm a Coordinator?"
"Then can I argue that battling is the thing which every Pokémon can get benefit from, as I'm a normal trainer?"
May nodded. "Which is why it's a good thing that Contests include a battle section."
"She's got you there," Brock chuckled.
"Yeah, I guess," Max admitted. "So… what Pokémon do you think could benefit from that kind of thing?"
"All of them, I just said," May answered. "But if you mean specifically, well… actually, have Latias and Latios done any?"
"I don't think so," Ash said, thinking. "And if you mean together, I think we'd need to organize someone else to take care of Altomare for a day or two."
"I suppose so," May agreed, thinking. "Well, it'd be interesting to see the two of them doing something in an open-air Contest Hall."
"Do they have those?" Brock asked. "How would it be a hall if it was open air?"
May shrugged.
"Maybe it would be called Hallowed Ground?" Lucario asked.
"Is that a pun in Pokémon?" Max said.
"Everything is a pun in Pokémon," Lucario told him seriously. "Everything also rhymes."
"I don't think you're telling the truth."
"That's your opinion."
"Apart from that," May said loudly, getting them back on topic, "Max and Casper could have a go, to make sure they can still get Mega-Evolution working. Or you could give Arc a chance to see what he can do with the Electric type."
"What about me?" Brock asked.
"Well, you've got Zorua, Stantler and Ninetales," May replied, shrugging. "I mean, theoretically you could do just about anything as a Contest Appeal given how good they are at illusions."
"I'm not just good at that," Brock said, a little hurt. "I could have… well… I could do my maracas?"
"...no, Brock," May said. "Just no."
"I would like to hear more," Reshiram requested. "What is this concept of which you speak?"
"It's kind of like Truth, but not quite," Zorua told him. "It's an important part of how illusions work – you see, an illusion is most useful when your opponent doesn't know it's an illusion."
Reshiram nodded, slowly. "That makes sense. If the foe is not aware of the possibility, they will not look for the error."
"Right!" Zorua agreed, and turned into a Mienfoo. "So," he went on, speaking in a flawless Mienfoo dialect, "we need to learn how to speak like other Pokémon, or not talk at all."
He shrugged, using the agile body he'd transformed into to stand on his forepaws. "But that's just the start. You need to make sure you don't use a move that the Pokémon you're pretending to be couldn't have, and ideally you want to use moves which look like ones the Pokémon you're pretending to be would use in that situation. So if I was an Oshawott fighting a Fire type, then I'd be pretty obvious because I don't know any Water-type moves."
Reshiram tapped a claw on the ground, making it shake just enough to knock Zorua out of balance. The Dark-type tumbled onto his front, flashed once, and reverted to his base form.
"It's one reason our signature attack, Night Daze, is kind of useless most of the time," he went on. "It's a real giveaway for a Pokémon in the know."
Spinning around on his back, Zorua contemplated the Dragon-typed Legendary. "So the real trick is to show someone what they want to see – something that seems like it must be true to them, and something that they'll ignore the problems with because of how much they want it to be right."
"Sadly, your words ring true," Reshiram said. "Many times, I have considered this – that humans and Pokémon alike are willing to believe a falsehood so long as it is pleasing to their sense of justice. That it conforms to their ideal."
For a moment, his gaze turned to the tent in which N slept – his trainer, someone who had worked to overcome the lies-like-truth woven around his life.
He regarded Zorua again. "What did you call this?"
"Truthiness," Zorua replied.
Reshiram considered that.
"It is a silly name."
"Okay, I've not been able to let go of this," May admitted. "I keep thinking of Contest ideas for your Pokémon."
"Really?" Ash asked. "What, for all of them?"
"It's kind of a useful thing to think about," May replied. "It helps me keep in practice, and now that I'm not focused on my own next Contest all sorts of ideas are popping up."
"Really?" Lucario said, interested. "What would you suggest for me?"
May glanced at him, frowning. "Let's see… well, a good start would be some work with the Dragon Uppercut – if you can lift yourself. Then you could use those seeker Aura spheres, locked onto yourself, and juggle them in three dimensions until you land."
"That… does sound impressive," Lucario agreed, contemplating it. "It's also the kind of thing I think I'd need to practice a few times, to make sure I don't blow myself up with a massive barrage of Aura spheres."
"Of course," May nodded to him. "That's why it's a good Appeal. When you do something that was easy to you even when you first thought it up, it's pretty obvious – and the judges notice it, and they mark you down."
"Right," Lucario said. "Okay, I think I might have to try that one just to see if I can actually do it."
"That's if you and Ash just don't have one of your spars, of course," May added. "I mean, you could even do that on a flooded Contest hall floor – if the hall allows that sort of thing – and to most people that would be pretty impressive on both your parts."
"What about me, then?" Pikachu said.
Ash translated, and May shrugged. "I'd say something electrical, but obviously that's a really shortened form of the real answer. The question is what to do – can you launch yourself into the air with a Magnet Rise?"
"I can launch myself into the air with a boxing glove," Pikachu replied smugly.
Ethan cued holographic subtitles, because apparently May was going to be talking to Pokémon for a while, and May read off what Pikachu had said. "...yeah, that would be a pretty interesting finisher. Aside from that – well, if you can make yourself produce nice patterns with the electricity it would be good too. Or if you can throw lots of it around and then absorb it all back into yourself."
Pikachu nodded, thinking that was probably something he could do.
"What about Crobat?"
"Crobat?" May repeated, interested. "Okay, let's see… I did read once about what bats could do, with the sonar, and an idea I had was that Crobat could use his sound to create illusions made out of resonant sound waves."
"That's not remotely something bats can do," Brock said. "Anyway, wouldn't that only work on other bats? Or other echolocating Pokémon."
"Maybe," May admitted. "But it's a neat idea, anyway… or if there were seals on the Pokéball to produce some smoke, then he could sculpt the smoke with soundwaves to make a shape in the air."
She frowned. "The problem would be preventing his wingbeats from messing it up, but I think it has some potential."
"I've got to admit, I like this game," Max said. "Do you seriously have one for every Pokémon?"
"I might have forgotten some, but I've got most," May answered.
"Delta?"
"Delta..." May repeated. "Okay, that one might take a moment. Part of his problem is how big he is – it makes it hard for him to steer inside some contest halls..."
She thought, tapping her chin, then nodded. "Right. I think what you'd need to do is to use Water Pulse and Ice Beam."
"Okay…" Max said, trying to see where she was going.
"Delta fires Water Pulses across the arena," she explained. "He freezes the outside as they go, then flies into them and breaks through with a big splash of water. That's the start, and from there it's about aiming properly and perhaps bouncing a few Bullet Seeds around inside the ice."
"That's a pretty good one, yeah," Max conceded. "And… well, what about Ferris?"
"Ferris is a bit too young to carry off a routine by himself yet," May answered promptly. "But he could definitely work with Guy, or one of the others."
Max frowned.
"Guy could juggle him around," May explained. "They're both immune to poison, too, so that's a good way to add some colour to the Appeal."
"Charizard?" Ash asked.
"That would be dangerous to the spectators," May told him. "Though I suppose if it was an open-air one he could do some nice airborne fire-dances."
"And finish with a Blast Burn?" Brock asked.
May frowned. "Probably that would be a bit… scary. It's very powerful, and there's a big shockwave."
"I can see that," Ash agreed.
Brock raised a hand, then lowered it again.
"Oh?" May asked.
"I was going to ask about Geodude, but I realized the geokinesis thing makes it really obvious," Brock said.
"I don't know, you could do some pretty impressive and unusual stuff," May said. "Couldn't you make a diamond as part of the routine, or something?"
Brock shook his head. "Diamonds take billions of years to grow at the kind of pressure and temperature you get a hundred miles below the surface. I think that display would kill everyone in the audience, and then it'd take far too long to reach the end."
"Yeah, that would be outside the time limit of an Appeal," May agreed.
"I think I've got a hard one," Ash said.
"Go on," May told him. "What's this difficult one?"
"Tyranitar," Ash answered.
May began to speak, then stopped. "You're probably right, he'd need some other Pokémon with him – his party piece is the Hyper Beam, and that would melt through the wall. And the audience."
She frowned. "He might work well with Mawile, though, especially if they do that kaiju thing they did back on Shamouti."
"And then there's another really hard one," Max chimed in. "Pidgeot."
"That would actually be pretty good for her," Ash said, thinking about it. "But… yeah, you'd have to have an open air Contest Hall for that one."
"I might ask about that," May mused. "I'll see if I can ask the local Nurse Joy."
While they waited for May to get back, some of the friends' Pokémon started to spar or practice their moves.
After about three minutes, they were asked to move, and so switched instead to sparring just outside town.
"That was a pity," Roland said, shaking his head and holding a large metal shooting stick. "I was just starting to get into the swing of things."
"You were?" Lucario asked, looking impressed. "Go ahead, then – if you need a target, I'll be glad to supply it."
"I… think I'll be fine," Roland decided. "If I do want a spar, it'd probably be better against someone closer to my own size – when I evolve, I'll be a lot bigger and there's not many Pokémon twice as tall as a Gallade."
"You have a point, there," Lucario agreed. "Dodge training?"
"Not again," Roland replied. "I've had enough of dodging Aura Spheres for a week. I think I'm just going to do some kata."
So saying, he spiked the shooting stick into the ground, then took a deep breath.
The Kirlia bent his knees to find his centre. His palm went back, glowing faintly, and then he lunged.
He delivered three palm strikes in quick succession, then flicked around to the other side of his simulated opponent. Not missing a beat, he hit twice more, then flicked away again.
Lucario watched with interest as Roland stacked up the hits. They didn't look individually very damaging – Roland simply couldn't commit to a follow-through as he had to be ready to deliver the next punch almost straight away – but combined into a ringing thwacka-thwacka-thwacka which came pretty much continuously.
Then, after about three seconds, Roland missed. He spun out, bounced twice, and skidded to a halt on the grass.
"Not bad," Lucario said. "I think that was forty hits?"
"I'm going for at least sixty," Roland replied, getting back to his feet. "But yeah, the idea is supposed to be that I can compensate for a moving opponent, as well, and that I teleport too fast for them to really line up an attack – the thing I have to watch out for is area bursts."
"It's a pretty good start," Lucario agreed, with a critical eye. "But that by itself can't make a style. What else do you have?"
"Well, teleporting out of the way of a close-in attack is kind of my first instinct," Roland said. "But sometimes that's not really feasible, and I'm working on other options too – like using a burst of psychic energy to deflect an attack. If my hands aren't free it'll still help, and if they are it just means I can divert more powerful attacks."
The Lucario nodded. "That's another good one, I think… what about a Pokémon which can keep you from getting in close?"
"Actually, I have something pretty good for that, too," Roland replied. "I was thinking about how a Pokémon could stop me from getting in close, and I realized it would probably be some kind of all-around effect."
"That or faster reflexes than yours, but go on," Lucario invited.
"Right," Roland allowed. "But for the continuous all-around effects, I thought it would be pretty neat to be able to blow it away. So I tried setting this up."
He took a stance, then flickered away. Lucario caught a glimpse of him at the other end of the park, then again and again – for a fraction of a second each time, getting much closer than the last. Then a wall of air hit him, making him take a step back with the sheer force of it."
"I use a psychic shove to make some moving air," Roland explained. "Then I flash-step to catch up with it and do it again, and pile up a big attack – the problem is that I need to slice my teleports really closely, because the wavefront travels at like seven hundred miles an hour."
"Impressive," Lucario said. "Now, let's see… if you're going to be larger as a Gallade, don't you think you should train against a martial artist who's currently a bit shorter than you?"
"I suppose that makes sense," Roland nodded.
"Good," Lucario stated. "Pikachu!"
"...can I change my answer?"
"A what?"
"An open air Contest," May repeated. "I was talking about this with my friends, and I realized – there's a lot of Pokémon who can't take part in traditional Contests, at least not fairly. My friend has a Pidgeot, and when she flies around it's beautiful – but her turning circle at speed is much larger than the entire contest hall."
"I do sort of see your point," the Nurse Joy agreed. "But there's a problem with the Battle phase as well – having an open air arena would mean that flying Pokémon would have a major advantage as they could just evade being hit."
"Then you could make it so they lose points while they're outside the arena," May countered. "Outside the battle section of it, at least. Don't make it instant disqualification, but make it count like they're doing something graceless and repetitive – that way even if they're wowing the audience they'd only break even while doing that."
The organizer frowned.
"Well, it sounds like it might be interesting," she allowed. "Is there a good spot to use, though? I'm not sure I can think of one."
"I'll have a look," May said. "We want an open space with a good view of the sky, right? And at least as much space as a typical Contest hall."
"At a minimum, yes," the Joy agreed.
May waited for a moment, to see if there was anything more.
"Excuse me, miss?"
She turned, a little surprised, and realized she was at the head of the counter queue. "Oh! Sorry about that, I forgot..."
"Okay, so I think I could do something with that," Flygon said. "I'd need to aim the Earth Power just right to make my entry, but then I should be fine."
"I think that would be pretty spectacular," Brock agreed. "It seems kind of odd that you know Dig, though."
"I did used to be a Trapinch," Flygon pointed out.
"I know, it just seems like something that wouldn't carry over..."
"Hey, guys!" May called.
Ash looked up, turning his attention away from where Swellow was doing something she called the "Buccaneer Blaze". A bright flash lit up the area, and he turned back to see Swellow landing and preening to herself.
"Aw, yeah!" she said. "Did you see that?"
"...actually, no," Ash admitted. "Sorry."
"Oh, come on!" Swellow sighed. "Okay, I'll try again later, but it'll take a while to get my wings damp again."
"Right, so they don't catch fire," Ash said, remembering what she'd told him. "Okay – and sorry, Swellow."
"Eh, it's okay," the Flying-type decided, waving her wing. "It happens."
"I thought it was cool," May supplied. "Anyway – I wanted to say, I think Altaria and I found somewhere for the open-air Contest."
"You did?" Ash said. "That's pretty good news, yeah – oh, do you know when it's scheduled?"
"Tomorrow, I think," May answered. "Yeah, it's too late in the day to have it today."
In reply, Ash sent out Pidgeot.
"...no, I said tomorrow," May clarified.
"Yeah, but I thought I should go and handle the Battle Pyramid," Ash explained. "I wasn't going to go today if there was going to be a Contest, but I can just fly over and do it this evening."
"I think that makes sense," May agreed, after thinking about it a bit. "Does that mean you'll need to pick up your team, though?"
Ash nodded. "Yeah – actually, Swellow, can you handle that? I'm definitely going to need Pikachu and Lucario, and I may as well bring the others along."
"Wait a minute," Brock said, raising a finger as Swellow vanished off into the orange light of the evening. "Does this mean you're going to go without us?"
"Well..." Ash winced. "You're right. But I can at least check whether Brandon is actually open for battles this late, and then phone you guys if he is."
Lucario came loping over, carrying Pikachu under one arm.
"I lost the game of janken," Pikachu explained, then wriggled free and landed on his feet.
"What would have happened if you'd won it?"
"Then I would have carried Lucario over here, of course," Pikachu replied, then paused. His tail flicked to one side.
"You know," he went on. "I think Lucario probably rigged that one."
"You did let me set the rules," Lucario pointed out, then Returned himself before Pikachu could get another word in.
"Okay, Pidgeot, let's go!" Ash said.
"Be careful," Brock advised. "It's going to be getting dark when you land."
"I know," Pidgeot replied. "There's still a bit of light, and I can land within an hour of sunset anyway."
She crouched, then took off with a rush of wind.
A moment later, Swellow darted up to follow her.
"Okay, Scott said the Battle Pyramid is on Cerulean Cape," Ash told Pidgeot. "He didn't say where, but it should be pretty easy to spot!"
"Yes," Pidgeot agreed, as they lanced up into the sky – her air-control layers enfolding her trainer and keeping the wind from touching him. "How big is it?"
"It's… uh…well, a hundred feet on a side? More?" Ash said. "And it's covered with what I think are black solar panels."
"Okay, if it's that big I shouldn't have trouble," Pidgeot decided. She tilted up, accelerating, and the ground fell away beneath them.
They swept over the water, curving around to come at Cerulean Cape from the east, and Ash leaned out to one side a little to get a better view.
"I can't see it!" he said, after a few minutes. "What about you?"
"No sign," Pidgeot agreed. "But I do see something else..."
She glanced back at her trainer.
"Hold on tight."
Ash prudently did so, and Pidgeot flipped one wing over to enter into a dive.
They swept back down through the sky, faster than they'd gone up, and Pidgeot let through just enough of the wind to make it feel interesting before pulling up and alighting on a field as lightly as thistledown.
"And there," she said.
Ash got off, and looked around.
"What is it?" he asked, puzzled. "I guess the grass here is all kind of yellowed?"
"That's right," Pidgeot agreed. "Weren't you telling me the Battle Pyramid can fly?"
"...oh," Ash realized. "I… yeah, you're probably right. We missed it, huh?"
"Not by long," Pikachu reported, giving the grass a feel and a sniff. "I can smell the Battle Pyramid, I think it left less than a day ago."
Ash shook his head. "That's… yeah. I was all psyched up for it, too."
He patted Pidgeot. "Well, at least that means your Contest debut's next."
Pidgeot winked at him.
A moment later, Swellow arrived.
"You are way past fast," she said, panting, and hovered there for a moment before landing. "Unfairly fast."
The larger Flying-type shrugged her wings. "I've just got a better power curve, that's all."
Swellow shook her head. "Okay, but still..."
"Well, I guess we'd better get back to Cerulean," Ash said. "Pidgeot, do you think you're up to another flight?"
"After that one?" Pidgeot asked, a little incredulous. "Please. That was nothing."
Flint looked out the window of the Slate household, and made an interested noise.
"What is it, Dad?" asked his second son, Forrest. "Trouble?"
"Don't think so," Flint replied. "Just that there's a giant black pyramid landing on the outskirts of town."
Forrest looked out the same window,
"Huh," he said, after a moment's examination. "So there is."
He looked at the position of the landing pyramid.
"Isn't that the old quarry?"
"Good spot for it," Forrest agreed. "Good strong bedrock. Should be able to take the weight."
He turned to their calendar, and wrote something on in pencil. "Go… see… the pyramid."
"This is going to feel really weird," May said.
"Don't worry," Mr. Contesta told her. "It's actually quite simple. You need to give your opinion of the moves used and the tricks pulled, and to help decide where appeals are ranked relative to one another. It doesn't usually matter if you're not quite sure, because the top eight go through and usually there's not a draw for eighth place."
"Is it going to be a problem that I know two of the people taking part?" May asked.
"Not really," the Joy replied. "Not unless they end up around eighth place, because then we'd have to discuss just between me and Raoul where the appeals rank."
Contesta shrugged. "It works a lot better when there's three – so there's a deciding vote – and with Mr. Sukizo with a bad leg..."
"I guess," May agreed. "It still feels strange to be judging a Contest. Even if it's one I helped set up."
"This is how a lot of us get started!" Contesta said. "Though I must admit I've made a point of following your career."
"How?" May asked. "I can barely follow where my own career is going to take me."
"It's not been easy," the male judge said, with a chuckle. "Now, let's see… I believe your friend Mr. Ketchum is first."
He checked the notes. "I see he has a Ribbon from Hoenn…"
"Yeah, that was… an odd one," May admitted. "It was a bit of a case of overwhelming firepower, rather than finesse, for the battle stage."
"That can work," Joy said. "It's what the Appeal stage is for, to make sure everyone at least can do style... Ah, here we go."
Ash threw the Pokéball, and Pidgeot emerged with a bright flash into the afternoon sun.
Not wasting a moment, she flew up – up, into the sky, accelerating faster than she ever could with a passenger, and rode the edge of the sound barrier for a long moment – producing a continuous stuttering roar, and a flickering condensation shock-cloud as little parts of her envelope went through the mach-one barrier.
Reaching her planned demonstration height, she rolled in and began to circle – her wings glowing gold with the light of a Sky Attack, half-charged but with the barrier around it deliberately incoherent. The golden flames began to wisp out behind her, then her wake vortex caught them and a brilliant trail of flame stretched out behind her.
From below, it was as though she was painting in sunlight on the blue-white sky – drawing a circle, then tightening her angle and tightening it again.
Wings beating steadily, and staying just outside the transsonic regime to avoid disrupting her pattern, she wove a delicate Celtic-knot pattern in the sky as she criscrossed inside her original circle again and again.
Though it wasn't visible from the ground, Pidgeot had an exultant light in her eyes – it was rare she got to really show off.
"What even is that?" Raoul asked. "I don't think I've seen anything like it!"
"That's Sky Attack!" May told him. "Pidgeot's dumping the energy of a Sky Attack into the air, so it gets swept along behind her!"
"And Sky Attack's all about a long-term buildup, so the energy's stable!" Joy realized. "A very impressive move!"
She watched as the flames began to dissipate, then frowned. "But wait a moment – I see something else going on…"
Pidgeot flew faster, tightening her curve – reaching out with her air control, taking the energy and momentum of her flight path and transferring it to the air itself.
Her spiralling movement began to gel, forming a whirling ring of air, and then the ring transformed itself into a kind of inverted tornado – one which drew on all the Sky Attack energy she'd left in the knotwork, pulling it so it drained out and turned itself into a single tube of brilliant golden light.
As it formed around her, she became invisible in the eye of the tornado – cloaked from view by the flames around her – until she appeared again, far higher than she'd been before, and doing a backflip into a full-power dive.
The moment she crossed the sound barrier was only visible, at first – a white shockwave which broke around her form, a moment before she plunged into and through her artificial tornado and shredded it into dispersing scraps on the wind.
Then the sonic boom came, a SLAM which rumbled overhead for several long seconds – finally concluding just as Pidgeot alighted in front of her trainer once more.
She adjusted her footing slightly, then spread her wings and posed.
"...well, that one's probably going through," Nurse Joy said. "Don't you think so?"
Contesta nodded. "Definitely. Full marks, I'd say!"
He looked up at the sky, where the last remnants of the Sky Attack were just fading away. "And I can see why it was something you couldn't do in a normal Contest hall. We might need to do more of these."
He coughed. "Well, anyway. Our next performance is going to be Gracie and her Gyarados!"
Brandon picked up the phone. "Hello?"
After a moment's pause, he smiled. "Scott! It's great to hear from you, boss."
"I'm glad to hear from you as well," Scott agreed. "I was going to call yesterday, but my phone's batteries were out and I was halfway across a mountain hike. Listen, I wanted to let you know that I've pointed Ash Ketchum in your direction – he completed the Battle Tower a few days ago, and that was the sixth Frontier Symbol he needed."
"You pointed Ash Ketchum to me?" Brandon repeated. "You mean you gave him the location of the Battle Pyramid?"
"Of course," Scott said. "Why?"
"Well..." Brandon began, a little apologetically. "I… moved it yesterday afternoon."
Scott was silent, so Brandon went on. "I'd been on Cerulean Cape for a couple of weeks, and I'd landed on a grass field. You know that's not good for the grass, so I moved to a quarry outside Pewter yesterday so the grass on Cerulean Cape could recover."
"That's fine," Scott assured him. "Now, all I need to do is find Ash Ketchum again. Last time it took me months, so let's hope it's quicker this time…"
"We've seen quite a diverse set of Appeals today," Joy said into the microphone. "And now we're going to see one more – this time someone from not too far from here!"
"It's only the other side of a mountain range," Contesta agreed. "Please welcome Brock Slate, and his Flygon!"
"Remarkable?" May tried.
Joy toggled her own microphone off. "I don't think you have quite the same life to it old Sukizo does."
Brock came out onto the grass of the stage as they spoke, wearing something a little more showy than his normal casual clothes – but not much.
"Flygon!" he called, sending the Dragon-type out with a whoosh of smoke from a borrowed seal. "Heaven and Earth!"
Flygon's wings buzzed as he took off, and Brock started to move as well – running across the arena, pacing the Dragon-type as he moved.
Then Flygon rolled over and dove – losing altitude at an increasing rate, until he hit the ground and vanished into it with a kind of shoonk sound.
Brock turned to the right, and walked nonchalantly in that direction instead.
"What just-" Joy began. "That's certainly unconventional!"
Flygon came bursting out of the ground again, and Brock's next step landed him smoothly on Flygon's back as the Dragon-type emerged. He held out his hands to help him balance as Flygon rose into the sky, wobbling a little, but Flygon's corrections kept them both together and prevented his trainer from falling over.
"Flygon's one of the few Pokémon which can learn both Fly and Dig without some pretty advanced training," May supplied. "And I think what's going on here is that Flygon's able to feel Brock walking overhead – that's how he's lining them up right."
As she spoke, Flygon went into a dive again – levelling out just above the grass of the arena floor. He slowed down, wings buzzing as the airflow rippled over them, then went into the ground with a crunch and left Brock suddenly running along the grass.
The Ground-type burst out of the ground twice more, taking the helical trajectory of a Barrel Roll which happened to be half underground, then emerged one last time and rose to hover on the tip of his outstretched tail.
He held it for a three-count, then settled to the ground.
"And I think that's a very good display to finish out this set of Appeals!" Contesta said. "Now, if you'll just give us a few minutes to confer..."
On impulse, May held up Altaria's Pokéball. "Do you think it'd be okay for Altaria to give the crowd a show while we wait?"
"If you think he can do his Appeal alone," Joy decided. "What do you think, Raoul?"
"I don't have a problem with that," Raoul said, spreading his hands.
May sent out Altaria, and the Dragon-type – having overheard the conversation – took off like a shot as Brock and Flygon left the arena. He began to sing, a humming tone which resonated in the clear air over the stadium, and his cloudy wings flicked out to steer him on a series of balletic movements.
"Right," Joy began. "So I think that was one of the good ones. There's four more contestants than slots, so we need to identify the four we thought were most lacking."
"There's one I thought shouldn't go through," Contesta said. "It struck me as poorly executed – the Pelipper."
"I know what you mean," May agreed, thinking about it. "Yeah, that was… not very good."
The Pelipper had tried to make a flat disc of water and then dive through it, using Protect to stay dry, but he or his trainer had messed up the numbers somewhere and Pelipper had hit the ground hard as part of the pull-out from the dive.
The Protect had let Pelipper bounce, but it hadn't looked very smoothly done.
"Right, so that's one," Contesta nodded. "The other one that I wanted to bring up was that girl – the one whose Fletchinder set her dress on fire. Do you think that one was deliberate?"
"I… think it was," Joy said, after some consideration. "Did you see how quickly the dress went up? I think that was stunt gel – and most dresses don't completely detach like that to leave another outfit underneath."
"I think I agree with Nurse Joy," May voted.
"Then we'll call that one a pass," Contesta said. "Okay, that's the ones I wanted to raise – what about you, May?"
May frowned.
"Well, there was that Gyarados," she began. "I mean, it was impressive, but it felt like the Appeal itself was kind of… 'look at me, I have a flying Gyarados'. Rather than doing anything creative with the moves."
"You may have a point," Contesta mused.
Some minutes later, Ash's Pidgeot climbed into the air. Opposite her, a tough-looking Aerodactyl made the same climb – somewhat more laboriously – until they were both at the starting altitude.
"Do you need a reminder of how the scoring system works?" Joy asked.
"That would help," May said gratefully, looking down at the switches and buttons.
"It's fairly simple," Joy told her with a smile. "When you think a Pokémon's doing well, you hit the red button that corresponds to their side of things. When you think a Pokémon's doing badly, you hit their blue button. And if you think a Pokémon isn't doing anything either way, you just leave their buttons alone."
"If there's more votes for a side of the battle to lose points, then that side loses them," Contesta told her. "But if both sides are messing up, then they both lose points."
"I think I understand," May told her.
Seeing her nervousness, Joy chuckled. "Don't worry, we'll keep an eye on how you're scoring."
Contesta picked up his microphone. "Begin!"
Almost immediately, Pidgeot burst into a forwards charge. The very boldness of it seemed to surprise the Aerodactyl, who began closing in himself only to be confused as Pidgeot dove just underneath him – barely out of claw range.
Rising back up and pulling a precise backflip, wings hooded forwards to shed momentum, Pidgeot's beak flashed red for a moment – then she swept her wings away just as she unleashed an Aeroburst to hit Aerodactyl from above and behind.
May pressed the button that showed Pidgeot had the upper hand, and noticed the other two were doing the same.
"This is one of those interesting ones," May said, watching as the big Aurorus walked through the battlefield – frost forming around his hooves. "I think you could do this in an arena, but not really properly."
"Yes, that's one reason I think we might keep doing this," Contesta said, then flicked his microphone on as Aurorus spread his frill – lines of icy blue crawling across it. "And I think we're about to see a big Ice Beam!"
Aurorus duly fired, sending out a burst of intense cold, and Brock's Flygon dodged the first sweep of the beam. Then he climbed hard, wings beating the air as he shot up past the roof and out into the open sky.
May paused, waiting for a moment, then pressed the button indicating Flygon was making a mistake.
"I wondered if you'd catch that," Joy said, then got on her own microphone. "And Flygon dodges the attack – but he's done so by going out of Aurorus' range! That's a penalty situation."
"It certainly is," May agreed. "And that means Flygon's losing points the whole time he's up there!"
Brock waved his hands, attempting a kind of semaphore, and Flygon visibly got the message – diving down, then flicking to his right and avoiding an Ice Beam as Aurorus opened fire again. Satisfied, May released the button and watched as Aurorus fired another Ice Beam – this one aimed just ahead of Flygon so the Dragon-type would literally fly into it, though Brock's Pokémon fired out a blast of sand and then got through while the ice was obstructed.
"And that's an excellent use of Sand Tomb!" May said, switching to giving Flygon the upper hand – and producing a drop in Aurorus' score. "The question now is whether Flygon can keep up that kind of active defence – or whether he'll turn to attacking instead!"
Flygon dropped lower, alternately dodging attacks and hitting them with a move of his own, then rolled sideways and dove into the ground with a kerrunch of moving earth.
A second later, he burst out from the frost-mantled ground underneath Aurorus – slamming an Iron Tail into the Ice-type, and knocking it staggering to one side.
"A good use of Flygon's underground-flight technique there," Joy said, then did a double-take as Aurorus flash-froze the entire arena floor into solid ice. "Oh, my word – that's something I wasn't expecting! It's going to give Flygon some trouble as well!"
At that point, the time-out bell rang.
"Or not," Contesta added. "An impressive finisher there from Aurorus, but it came a little too late to get the full effect. As such, through to the next round are Brock and Flygon!"
He chuckled. "And, uh… anyone know how to thaw out an arena?"
There was a ripple of laughter, then May sent out Blaziken to do it.
They watched for a few seconds.
"I didn't know your Blaziken could ice skate," Joy said.
"Neither did I," May admitted. "I think he's been asking Glaceon for lessons."
"Okay, Pidgeot," Ash said. "Just one more battle to go."
He looked across the arena at Brock. "Remember, he can stay underground, but because he's able to fly you don't have to stay in range of the ground – just don't spend the whole battle going too fast for him to catch up."
The counter appeared on the screens, then they called for the Battle Round to begin. Almost at the same time, both timeshifted trainers threw their Pokéballs.
Flygon emerged first, and immediately launched out a burst of dragonflame – one which he hit with a pressure wave far too diffuse to call a Boomburst, then flew through the ring-shape in order to pick it up in his wake and drag it at Pidgeot.
Pidgeot saw it coming, and clapped her wings together – air control making them have the impact of surfaces nearly ten times their real size, so Flygon was met with a wall of air that slapped away his green weapon and nearly knocked him out of the sky.
Rather than match her air-control head on, Flygon stabilized, then ducked underground for a few seconds. He emerged behind Pidgeot as she climbed into the sky, and followed her with a Dragon Pulse – this managing to get a glancing hit on her, before she realized what was going on and pulled a cobra.
Flygon's attack run was fouled, and he twisted his neck around to hit Pidgeot while she was nearly stationary – only to get quite a surprise as a Tailwind containing all her momentum curled around and picked her back up again. She shot to altitude, faster than Flygon could follow, then slowed a little and began to construct something from three or four Razor Wind attacks at once.
"It looks like Pidgeot's putting together another of those flashy air constructs," Joy said, looking up into the sky.
Some of Pidgeot's Sky-Attack flame was beginning to bleed into the swirling air overhead, forming a kind of multi-layer tornado shaped like a contra-rotating set of drills.
"That's right," May agreed. "But one of the downsides of that is that she has to stay up so high it comes with penalties… and another one is that Flygon doesn't seem to want to know."
"Yes, Flygon's staying underground as much as possible," Mr. Contesta said. "But that's a problem as well."
Flygon's head popped out of the ground, and he fired off a Dragon Pulse – a stream of energy which reached up towards the sky, but which missed Pidgeot by some distance as she had so much time to react to it. Flygon glanced at Brock, checking to see if there were any more instructions, then dove back underground in a motion like a swimmer – his tail surfacing for a moment before vanishing back into the ground.
A moment later, Pidgeot launched her own attack down. She dropped with it, giving it some direction, then pulled up and away – letting her three-layered Drilling Razor Wind plunge down towards the grass.
Flygon emerged for another attack, saw the incoming wall of gold-laced air, and vanished prudently back into the earth. The layered Razor Winds hit with a kind of grinding sound, turning a large section of the grass in the middle of the arena to flying flecks, but when it faded it was clear that Brock's Ground-type had evaded by the simple expedient of being underground.
"And Flygon loses some points there for the same reason Pidgeot is," May reported. "It's a stalemate, but one where whoever blinks first has a chance to gain the upper hand."
As if in reaction, Pidgeot dropped lower – air currents visible as they formed off the edges of her wings and tail. She rolled, flicking them down at the grass in pairs, and Flygon emerged with a sudden whoosh and cloud of earth to slide neatly between two of them and counterattack.
"A sudden change in approach for both Pokémon!" Contesta said, interested. "Let's see where that goes!"
"Okay, that's good!" Brock called. "Run out the clock!"
Flygon glanced at the board to confirm, and saw that Brock was right – he had a small advantage, enough to win if he didn't take any hits for the rest of the Contest. So, predictably, he dove into the ground with a crunch – his tunnel nearly sealing up behind him, leaving only a small pile of dirt to mark his passage.
"Interesting gamble there by Brock and Flygon," Joy said. "Let's see if it pays off!"
She looked up at Pidgeot, who was using her ghostly white wings-of-air to hover over the middle of the stadium.
The Flying-type opened her beak, and a red light began to build up. Then, almost straightaway – far faster than the normal charging time – she fired a low-powered Aeroblast straight down into the middle of the arena floor.
Red pressure-energy sliced down, got perhaps twenty feet deep, then exploded. The blast sent chunks of earth flying into the air, fissures opening up all along the battlefield, and a moment later Pidgeot hammered her wings down to blow away the dust.
One of the earth chunks exploded, releasing Flygon – looking battered but still in one piece – and he fired a Sand Tomb, surprising Pidgeot and blocking her view for the fraction of a second he needed to tag her with a Dragon Tail.
Then the bell sounded, terminating the match.
"Well!" Mr. Contesta said, as the two score meters reacted to those last few moves. "Quite an exciting finish to this first Cerulean Open-Air Contest – and it looks like we might need to get a new arena!"
He glanced at Joy and May, to see if they had any last-minute input, then went back to the microphone.
"And, in a photo finish, the winner is… Flygon!"
"So, May, how did you find your first time judging a Contest?" Joy asked, some minutes later.
"It's exhausting!" May admitted, with a sigh. "I mean, I thought it was hard enough keeping track of what everyone was doing in a normal Contest, but when you're judging you can't really switch off even for a moment – you need to know what's going on, and you need to provide commentary as well."
"Now you know what it's like for us," Joy chuckled. "Anything you think you could improve?"
May frowned.
"Well… I think I reacted slowly a few times," she said. "Apart from that, well – I'm sure I must have made some mistakes, but I can't think of any."
Joy nodded. "That's not surprising, really. For what it's worth, I thought you were quite good for your first time."
"But," Raoul added, taking up the thread of the conversation. "The biggest thing we both thought you should know is that you seemed to have trouble forgetting that you were acting as a judge – both your Altaria and your Blaziken seemed to be trying to steal the show."
"...in my defence, I didn't intend Blaziken to do that," May said. "But… yeah, I know what you mean. I was thinking it'd be a good idea to give the spectators something to watch, but I didn't really think through how it would look."
"There were a few other issues, but they're not as important," Joy told her. "We can discuss them in greater depth later… but I did want to compliment you on the idea. This has been a great success… though it's also blown quite a large hole in the ground, and we'll have to move the stadium."
"I'm more impressed you got it set up in a day in the first place," May noted. "How did you do that?"
"We hired some Diglett builders who've started working with a contractor in Saffron," the medic informed her. "They do extremely fast work."
She made a face. "Unfortunately, they're also expensive, so we can't just have them fix the floor every time it gets broken..."
AN:
Hopefully this was interesting! I decided to do something related to a Contest, but not with May as a Contestant.
