I was still thinking about what Serena had said when I woke up.
"Bonnie, come on, if you spend any more time up there, you'll miss the opening ceremony," Clemont, I think, it might have been Dawn, yelled from downstairs.
I had been debating whether or not to wear a hat with my outfit, which surprised me, I never spent that much time doing that kind of thing. In the end, I decided against it.
My outfit was a simple brown tank top with a white skirt that bounced as I bounded downstairs.
"Good, you're ready," Dawn said, she almost looked tired.
"Where's Clemont?" I asked.
"He left earlier with Ash, Serena, and Max."
"Oh," I had wanted to talk strategy with Max before the first match.
"May and Drew left a few minutes ago but I stayed behind to make sure you wouldn't miss the first match, so come on."
"Piplup," Piplup cheered.
"Are you excited to compete again?" Dawn asked, surprising me, we had been walking in silence for a while so her talking caught me off guard.
"I think I am, it's been three years since I lost in Unova so it's about time I compete again," I said, but I couldn't help thinking there was another reason that I didn't realize.
"Any other reason?"
"What?"
"Oh boy," Dawn said, putting me in a state of confusion, "It's worse than I thought."
"Okay, you guys have lost it," I said, inching away from Dawn.
"Bonnie!"
I looked up, "Max, there you are."
Max ran over to me and for some reason, Dawn started to smirk.
"I'll leave you to it," she said.
I turned back to Max who looked embarrassed for some reason, "Shouldn't we get going?"
"Ye-yeah, we should."
Max and I walked side by side into the arena. The deafening roar of the crowd was a startling change room the relatively quiet outside. Max raised his hand to start waving to the crowd, a good portion of the crowd began screaming with excitement, Max had hundreds of supporters, some because of his father as a Gym Leader, some because they liked watching the Maple siblings grow up, but most of them were fans he won over with his skills.
The crowd only grew louder when Ash came out and waved to the crowd with Serena at his side.
He ran through the traditional, "Welcome to the blah blah annual Kalos League", most of the competitors, including me, zoned out. After awhile a huge gasp and more cheering could be heard.
"They must've announced the news," Max said, gently elbowing me to get my attention.
"Hm, oh, Ash told you guys?"
"Yeah, while we were outside training."
"Anything about names, Serena didn't let that slide for us."
"Yeah, if it's a boy his name will be Aaron, if it's a girl they're debating either Sarah or Elaine."
I zoned out again before Max elbowed me. I looked at him and he simply pointed to a screen. Ash had moved off to the side and his place had been taken by one of the organizers.
"And, the moment you've all been waiting for, let's see the matchups!" The organizer yelled.
I checked the corners first, I was in the bottom right, and Max was in the top left.
"Opposite sides of the bracket, so we just have to keep going until we face in the finals," I said, holding my hand out for Max to shake.
Max took my hand and shook it, "Yeah, but I'll win the finals."
"You wish, I'll win."
"And this first Match of the League will be between Max Maple of Petalburg City and Kai of Hau'oli City."
Max turned around to walk to his platform, most of the other competitors were leaving, I started leaving too, but I had an urge to do something.
"Good luck Max!"
He turned around and waved at me, I thought his face seemed red but he was far away so my eyes were probably playing tricks on me.
"Miss Bonnie?" one of the organizers asked.
"Yeah, that's me."
The woman nodded and lead me up a few flights of stairs where my brother was waiting for me.
"Good, you're here, the match is about to start," Clemont said, motioning to an extra seat.
"Nene," Dedenne squeaked when he saw Pikachu.
Both electric types stood close and began talking through electricity, I sat down to the left of Serena.
"This Kai kid, is he any good?" May asked.
Ash stared at Kai who was entering the arena, "I think I saw him in the Silver Conference last year, mostly fighting types."
"What do you think he'll use?" I asked.
Ash smiled, "Max has made a name for himself with his strength, and if memory serves, Kai's strongest, which he'll probably use, is an Incineroar that can use Malicious Moonsault," after looking at the confused faces of everyone around him he added, "It's a Z-move only Incineroar can use."
"Alright, hush, the match is starting," Dawn said.
"Let the first match of this year's Kalos League, begin."
Kai sent out Incineroar while Max released his Milotic.
"Kai's screwed," May said.
"Not exactly," Serena said, "Milotic is a relatively new addition to Max's team, while Kai's Incineroar was most likely his starter and better trained than Milotic."
I saw May about to protest before Drew interrupted her.
"Serena's got a point, May."
May crossed her arms and pouted, she might've said something but I was too focused on Max. He had tensed up when he registered what Kai had sent out. Maybe Serena is on to something, I glanced at her then looked down at the battle, come on Max, I know you can do it.
"You're worried," Serena sang.
"What, no I'm not, I just want my friend to face me in the finals, nothing more."
She muttered something under her breath that I couldn't quite hear, I was about to ask her about it before May interrupted.
"Boom told ya Kai was screwed."
I turned back to the battle. From the looks of it, Milotic had managed to land an attack on Kai's Incineroar. Kai seemed to talk to Incineroar and then to Max before he did a series of poses.
"Oh no," Ash mumbled.
"Is that?" I asked.
"A Z-move, yeah."
"USE MALICIOUS MOONSAULT!"
Kai's command shook the stadium, I stared at Max who's shouted command never reached my ears. Incineroar was preparing to land on Milotic, whose tail began to glow white. Just as Incineroar was landing, Milotic used its tail as a whip, knocking Incineroar to the arena wall.
The crowd fell silent, a dust cloud began to clear. I held my breath. What if? No, he couldn't've failed.
"Incineroar!"
Kai's piercing scream cut through an ocean of silence. While echo rang through the entire city, I thought I heard Max whisper.
"Milotic?"
"Milotic," Milotic cheered.
The stadium burst into cheers at Milotic's call.
"Yes, yes, yes, yes!" May yelled.
"Alright." Ash cheered.
"I knew you could do it, Max!" I yelled.
Kai walked towards his fallen partner and appeared to say something and helped him up. Max returned Milotic to its Pokeball and walked over to Kai. The two seemed to have a short conversation and shook hands.
May waited by the door for her little brother.
"Max, I'm so proud of you," May said, hugging her little brother.
"May, can you get off of me?" Max said.
May released her brother and messed with his hair.
"Great job, Max, you were awesome," I said.
"Thanks, I had no idea it'd work until I saw Incineroar against the wall."
"Well, it was genius and outside of the box so no one could've seen it coming," Clemont said.
"And taking out a Z-powered Incineroar is no small feat, Max, even I was impressed," Ash said, "Now sit down and let's watch."
There were plenty of battles after Max's, the league was supposed to be a two-day affair, with the second day devoted to the semi-final and final battles. I wasn't really paying attention to most of the battles, I trusted myself to beat them, but Max was fully focused on the battles. I was fully zoned out before Max elbowed me, hard.
"What?" I said, the elbowing was getting old fast.
"Look," he said, pointing out to the battlefield.
I gazed out at the approaching challenger.
"Trent," I grumbled.
Dawn looked at us, "I thought you three were closer than the heads on a Dodrio, what happened?"
"We met up with Trent back when we were in Hoenn. None of us had lost a competition until Bonnie lost a contest. He insisted that she wasn't strong enough to travel with us-"
The room turned to me and Max paused, I simply nodded.
"-I told him if he couldn't watch his friend fail and help her get back up, he didn't deserve to travel with us, and we left. He kept being a jerk and then-"
"Claimed to be in love with me, and that's that." I finished.
I turned back to the field, Trent's Tyrantrum had nearly obliterated his opponent's Pidgeot, and one last command left it unable to battle.
"Hey," Max said, nudging me, "You're up next."
"Right," I jumped out of my seat and sprinted down to the arena.
"Alright, let's hope I chose well."
"Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome, a pride of Lumiose City, battling and coordinating prodigy Bonnie, and her opponent, Mega-Trainer Astrid!"
A Mega Absol, great.
A/N: Bonnie and Astrid's battle will come (hopefully) tomorrow (And if not, I'll try to have it up as soon as possible) I'm going to gloss over more battles for the reason that this is supposed to be short. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, see you soon.