Ch 21: Festival of the Elite
Gladys procured the Ground Badge from an inside pocket and I was rewarded with the second out of four badges I needed to be eligible to enter the Ilragorn League. She complimented my team, particularly my Haunter, referring to him as 'a smart cookie.' As I was on my way out, Gladys asked if I would be attending tomorrow's annual celebration in Wintervale since I was in the area anyway. Upon asking what the celebration was about, Gladys could not help but go off into a long-winded answer as the woman loved to stretch out conversations whenever needed.
Apparently, every year Wintervale hosts a big party in their Downtown District named The Festival of the Elite, where the actual Elite 4 of Ilragorn attend and interact with the crowd and there's lots of food and little competitions and battles and only the best trainers attend. She made it sound all very exciting, and the thought of getting to see the strongest trainers on the island in person wasn't an everyday kind of opportunity, so I promised Gladys that I would attend and she promised that I would have a wonderful time.
I ended up getting a room at a trainer hostel right on the outskirts of Downtown Wintervale, so I would be right there where the action was tomorrow. I ended up sharing a room with a seasoned trainer in his late twenties named Donovan who was a pretty nice guy if not self-defeated over the fact that he would likely never be good enough to enter the league. He'd been a trainer for 15 years but still had yet to win a single badge. He just kept rotating around the major cities, doing just well enough to win enough battles against newer trainers but never quite being able to earn a badge no matter how prepared he went in. He was kind of a bummer, but his Vespiquen was harvesting honey all night and I stocked up on a lot of that, so it was worth his sad stories.
I spent the following morning in the lobby of the hostel, using the pay phone to try to call my parents back in Lunaris to see how they were doing, but no answer. I didn't leave a voicemail. I wondered what Evan was up to and how statistically likely it was for me to bump into him at some point during my quest to get the badges, and how far he was from me. It wouldn't hurt if he was a little further, wherever he was. He just always had such a negative vibe with me, always putting me down and setting me up for failures while we were growing up. Mean rumors about me at school - rumors started by him. Jokes about me being the odd one out in the family, 'he was probably adopted', anything to seclude me. The best part about leaving my hometown was that I didn't have to deal with unexpected visits from that asshole.
Stepping out of the hostel and down the sidewalk, heading central downtown, I tried my best to forget about all these unprocessed feelings involving my family, and just soak in all the good energy from the crowds of people everywhere excited about the upcoming parade and the Elite 4 coming to town.
The people of Wintervale were all very proud to show off their likely bought pokemon, with some notable characters like a Pelipper that had a large rain cloud hovering over it and soaking everyone walking underneath it, annoying many people, but the water enthusiast owner of the Pelipper couldn't care less. There was a Tyrogue belonging to a very young boy and the pair of them were successfully breakdancing for tips on the corner of Marshadow Street and Bewear Avenue.
"Adam, is that you, you lucky fuck?" a familiar voice snatched my attention away from all the fun around me and I looked left and right for the source. A dark skinned arm wrapped around my shoulder, and I was face to face with Marvin Bloom, a guy I never thought I would see again. "Damn, you actually made it out alive of there? I gotta tell you man, that shit was probably the scariest situation I had ever been in in my life, bro."
I was stunned to see him, and wasn't sure how to react. I had mixed feelings to say the least.
"Uh...weren't you, like, right about to try and, like, kill me right before that scary Kabutops showed up and you ran away, or am I not remembering that correctly?" I asked, removing his arm off of my shoulder and stepping back from him.
"Dude, we're trainers. That's all just talk to amp shit up and make battling more fun. I wasn't seriously about to kill you over I-can't-even-remember 'cause it was so unimportant, man. We're past that bullshit. We're here now. Tell me how you got out of there, man, what'd you do about that Kabutops?"
I blinked, took a breath to digest in everything he said, then calmly responded, "I had a Tropius without a grass move and I just had to keep Headbutting it until it went down, then I caught it."
"You caught that thing?"
"Why wouldn't I? He was an awesome pokemon. Won me a ton of my battles."
Marvin's eyebrows lowered at that. "You like pokemon now? Thought you were all about using them just to get money and your bedroom back or something."
"Oh, yeah," I smiled to myself, remembering my old animosity toward pokemon. "I just kind of outgrew that, man. Trust me, it's not something that goes away overnight. I've just had a lot of time to think about that, and I think I was just misplacing my anger toward my brother and my parents toward pokemon, but now that I've cut them out of my life...I don't know. I mean, why hate pokemon? Why hate? Just use your energy for something you love. I think you'll be way happier that way."
Marvin had his arms folded over his chest and he kept his face unimpressed by what I thought was a very acceptance award grade answer.
"What about you?" I threw the question back. "What are you doing here? And you still beat up your Axew while it remains unevolved?"
"Actually," Marvin unfolded his arms and loosened his body language up a little. "You were right about that shit. It was fucking up my mons. I stopped hitting them, stopped going so hard on them, and now my Axew ain't no Axew no more."
"He's a Fraxure, congratulations," I complimented.
"Bitch, no, he's a Haxorus," Marvin scoffed at the idea of him being anything less, but his delivery made it funny and we shared a laugh, and the tension between us slowly kinda sifted away as the guy who I had originally pegged for an abusive crazy pokemon trainer with an anger problem back in Duggie's Ruins had actually managed to pull a complete 180 and turn out to be a pretty interesting, cool guy.
Marvin told me that he was in town to get the chance to level up his pokemon against some of the toughest trainers on the island that would be attending the festival, in the Sparring Tent in the center of the festival. He insisted that the Sparring Tent should be our #1 goal, so we headed there. On the way there, I asked him how many badges he's gotten over his years as a trainer and he told me that he had actually gotten all 4 of them for the very first time recently, due to the drastic changes in improving his team. After doubting the authenticity of this, he revealed to me four glimmering badges on the inside lapel of his jacket. I recalled how not that long ago he was a dirty-mouthed, abusive jerk spouting a weak Chinchou and a weaker Axew back in that cave, but now his team was so synergized that he had beaten Zach, Gladys, and two others of possibly even fiercer capabilities as a battler. I had to admit, I was in awe of how quickly he had turned his team around.
Upon reaching the Sparring Tent, we were greeted with a small show as a fight had broken out in front of the tent, apparently over someone not being eligible to enter - point was, a Hariyama and a Mudsdale were trading slugs against each other, and this kept most of the people's attention away from the entrance to the tent, where two desks were aligned on either side where trainers were to sign their names and pay some sort of entrance fee.
"Fuck that," Marvin said under his breath, eyes on the hand-drawn sign that read MANDATORY $100 ENTRANCE FEE, and he slunk into the tent with astounding speed while all the organizers were too busy tending to the fight out front. I followed after Marvin, feeling bad about not paying but relieved over the money saved.
"Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage - the amazing, the beautiful - Ms. Tyra of the Elite 4!" a voice boomed over a loudspeaker set up in the rafters of the circus tent. The tent was was that big, with fold-up chairs set up in a circular pattern, all facing inward to the center stage where spotlights (that were actually Lanturns tied to the upper rafters with rope using their own bulbs) were casting down on the prettiest woman I had ever seen. She was a bit older than the girls from back in my school, she was probably in her twenties or thirties, but she moved with the grace and sophistication of some royal queen who had been ruling over her monarchy for decades, the long black dress she wore seeming to glide along the floor as she moved.
"Good afternoon, Wintervale City, my favorite city in all of Ilragorn," Tyra winked at the crowd of whooping fans, batting her long, fake eyelashes and throwing out a beautiful but phony laugh. "Sounds like you missed me, too. I just want to say, as the first member to step out onto this stage today-" Marvin and I exchanged looks as we settled into some open seats near the back of the tent, amazed at our good timing and unusual luck. "-we are truly honored to represent this beautiful island that has stood here through the tests of time. Let's hear it for Ilragorn, people!"
"For Ilragorn!" the crowd mimicked.
"Also, I do want to apologize on behalf of our missing member, Morgan. While it's not exactly unusual for the kid to always be running late to these events-" Tyra smiled playfully, and the crowd laughed on cue. "I'm sure wherever he is, he truly wishes he could be here. And you can all rest assured that when we get our hands on him, we will certainly chew his ears off for not making it to this fantastic event! But in the meantime, the show must go on!"
The icebreaker of the Elite 4, or in today's case Elite 3, starting their show in the Sparring Tent was that one audience member picked via their name at random from the Sign-In sheet got to come up and have a 1v1 against each member, right in front of all the open-mouthed spectators in awe over the highly experienced trainers and pokemon before them. Marvin and I were both secretly regretful that we didn't put our names on the list, because the opportunity to duke it out with an Elite 4 was one of extreme rarity.
"Do we have a Yolanda Zimmons?" Tyra said into the microphone, and a very excited girl ran up to the stage to hug Tyra and shower her with gratitude and apologizing for having to battle, to which Tyra replied with sass, "Oh, baby, you don't have to be sorry about battling me, trust me."
Tyra revealed a slender Gardevoir as her pick, then with a flick of her bracelet, Gardevoir transformed in a ray of pink light into Mega Gardevoir, with her previous plain dress exploding into a gorgeous hoop skirt. Yolanda trembled with nerves as she chose a Luxray to defend her name, and the crowd respectfully cheered for both of them, not wanting to make Yolanda feel too intimidated.
Tyra's Mega Gardevoir rose to the air using her psychic energy, and blasting Hyper Voices, huge projections of pink fairy energy being screamed out of her mouth, at the Luxray. Luxray managed to dodge the first blast despite receiving no help from its trainer, the nervous Yolanda, by leaping over it and barely avoiding the edges of the blast. While still airbound, Mega Gardevoir had assaulted Luxray with a second Hyper Voice, and it knocked out Luxray instantly, much to the crowd's delight. They seemed to have bets on how quickly battles would end against the Elite.
The second member of the Elite 4, a bespectacled bald man named Bob, had his turn on the stage next. Bob turned out to be the proud owner of a Mega Tyranitar, a towering dark/rock dinosaur-like pokemon with short arms, a thorned tail, and an enraged roar. Tyra called upon a 'Steve-maybe Steven?' to fight him. Steven was also a bit shell-shocked from the experience of battling island royalty and was just as nervous as Yolanda was, but Steven managed to use typing to his advantage and he chose to use Whimsicott, a grass and fairy pokemon. It did not change much though, because although Whimsicott Giga Drained Mega Tyranitar with a super effective move, it didn't really seem to damage it at all, and the stampeding dinosaur hurled an Ice Punch right in the Whimsicott's stomach, knocking it out in one move.
The third and final member was another man, and the crowd chanted his name even more cheerfully than they did for the lovable Tyra. His name was Kristopher, and he was another trainer in his twenties. He had that fresh off the boat, handsome, heroic look to him that made him likely the most relatable to the crowd, all of them aspiring to be more like Kristopher than Bob or Morgan likely.
Kristopher had a Mega Manectric as his partner, and he was paired to battle with a Mr. Morris who came in cocky, desperate not to have another Yolanda or Steven embarrassment. Mr. Morris used a Donphan and rushed to throw out an Earthquake, but Kristopher was just as quick to call out 'Magnet Rise!' and Mega Manectric was floating a few inches off the ground, as if standing on an invisible platform, completely evading the shaking stage.
"Ice Shard!" Mr. Morris said.
"Flamethrower!" Kristopher said.
Donphan stopped shaking the earth to spit out a small icicle from its mouth, hurtling toward Mega Manectric, who fired off a stream of fire that melted the ice instantly, and struck Donphan all along his back.
"Rock Slide!" Mr. Morris tried.
"Thunderbolt the rocks!" countered Kristopher.
The crowd applauded the bursts of electricity firing out of Mega Manectrics back and proceeded to destroy every single chunk of rock Donphan had hurled in his move, the sound of rocks shattering and electric sparks going off exciting everyone.
It ended right after with Mega Manectric throwing off one more Flamethrower on the Donphan, connecting the hit straight in Donphan's squat face. The speediness and efficiency with which Mega Manectric carried out its moves and attacks were just too much for Donphan to keep up.
There was a surprise guest appearance, and for a moment, the crowd was murmuring that perhaps Morgan had shown up after all, the irresponsible young new member that he was. But the crowd got something even more worthwhile to them, because Tyra welcomed to the stage - Ava, the Ilragorn Champion of coming on 20 years now.
The audience rose to their feet and gave a standing ovation as Ava shimmied up onto the stage and Tyra graciously handed her the microphone. Ava was not as old and weak as Gladys was, but Ava was no longer a young woman.
Marvin muttered something under his breath as Ava talked, looking at her with massive distaste, but he stopped when he noticed me staring.
"I just wanted to thank all of you trainers for coming out here and supporting us, whether this is your first time here or this has been your annual ritual since you got your first pokemon," Ava said, her hand pressed over her heart. I felt really bad about not putting money in the donation box now. "The Elite 4 are much more important to us than you could ever imagine, and every donation helps. They symbolize everything good about this island. Don't get me wrong, I love and respect our police force with as much admiration as I can muster - but over the years, I have seen that it is always the Elite that protect us from the worst forces that are on this island."
It was an odd speech, and had a somewhat ominous tone to it, as if she wanted to say more, but she seemed content with just saying that as the crowd clapped until their hands hurts for their champion.
After leaving the Sparring Tent, majorly impressed upon seeing the best trainers on the island work around type disadvantages, Marvin and I proceeded to spend the day befriending each other and actually getting to know each other. I bought him Fresh Water which was incredibly overpriced and reminded me of the greedy Vendor's Market in the Gord taking advantage of new trainers with big pockets, but he appreciated it. We played a ton of carnival games with horribly basic names like Catch the Most Vivilions with A Net or Klefki the Arbok, where you had to throw Klefkis around the necks of moving Ekans. It was really hard, especially because the Klefki kept paralyzing whoever was trying to throw it with Thunder Wave.
There was a parade where the Elite 3 and Ava each had their own float to stand on, with the one that had been planned for Morgan instead being occupied by a gleeful Gladys, who looked relieved to be out of her gym. Me and Marvin had a ton of battles against trainers all day, with plenty of small tents set up to purchase potions and revives, so being far from the pokemon center was really a non-issue.
All in all, I finally got the stress-free, fun day of frolic and play that I don't think I'd gotten even one time since I'd left home so many months ago. And little did I know, this was the last day I would be feeling like that for some time.