Hey guys! I know it's been a while since the last update...my apologies. Those appeal and battle scenes are still killer. But I was able to get myself in gear and finally finish the first part of the Grand Festival! Without further interruption, enjoy!
LAST TIME: Ash, Misty, Elizabeth, and Delia travel to Indigo Plateau with Aiden, Michelle, and Brandon for the Grans Festival. After dinner the night before the Grans Festival kicks off, Michelle gets a new dress from her grandmother, and meets up with her rivals: Clarisse, Eryn, and Zella.
Chapter 66: High Class Appeals
"Ladies and gentlemen. The moment you've all been waiting for has finally arrived. Welcome to the Kanto Grand Festival, here at the beautiful Indigo Plateau!"
As Lilian Meridian made her opening announcement, a series of spotlights went off around the perimeter of the arena, turning on one-by-one and lighting up the stage in rapid succession. Once they were all on, Lilian became starkly visible in the middle of the stage, causing the audience to let out a raucous cheer. Up ahead, through the glass roof that covered the stage, fireworks could be seen exploding into the sky, only heightening the crowd's excitement.
"I'm Lilian Meridian, and as always, I'll be your host for this competition," Lilian continued. "This year's Grand Festival will feature 270 outstanding coordinators, all of whom will be competing for the coveted title of Top Coordinator, along with the prestigious Ribbon Cup!"
Three spotlights moved in to converge on an elaborate podium standing at the head of the stage. Perched atop the pedestal was the aforementioned Ribbon Cup: a beautiful gold trophy with a pink enamel ribbon etched on the front.
"Because we have so many coordinators competing, the preliminary round of appeals will be held in both this stadium as well as our auxiliary stadium right next door," Lilian explained. "All 270 coordinators will have the opportunity to showcase just one move from one of their Pokémon. Following this preliminary round, our top 64 coordinators will move onto the main round, right here on this stage!"
Once again the crowd broke into applause, but Aiden was instead shooting his parents a bewildered look. "Only one move?"
Ash hummed and nodded his head. "The preliminary round of appeals is always tricky. You've got just one move to impress all of those judges."
Aiden bit his lip and allowed his eyes to wander back towards the stage. "That doesn't sound easy."
"No, it doesn't," Misty agreed. "But your sister is a very talented coordinator. I don't think she'll have any problem with the preliminary round!"
"Because we have two separate stages for our preliminary round, we'll start off with two separate sets of judges!" Lilian continued. "In our auxiliary stadium, the Nurse Joys of Celadon City, Saffron City, and Lavender Town will be our judges, along with our auxiliary stadium emcee, my sister Vivian!"
The audience broke into polite applause as the auxiliary judging panel and emcee were displayed on the video board.
"And here, in our main stadium, coordinators will be judged by Mr. Contesta, Mr. Sukizo, and Cinnabar Island's very own Nurse Joy!"
Once again, polite applause followed.
"Now," Lilian spoke into her microphone once more, "without further ado, let's get this year's Kanto Grand Festival underway!"
More fireworks exploded above the glass roof of the stadium, bringing back the audience's vibrant cheers. Elizabeth tilted her head back to watch the display, her eyes sparkling as the fireworks went off. Delia, who was sitting next to her young granddaughter, watched on and allowed a small giggle to escape her lips.
"You like the fireworks, Lizzie?" Delia asked sweetly.
"Yeah!" Elizabeth chirped, lowering her head and rapidly nodding. "They're so pretty, Grammy!"
The audience in the main stadium watched the appeals on their stage live, while then watching the appeals from the auxiliary stadium on the video board. With each Pokémon showing off only one move, and two separate stages being utilized, the performances came in rapid order, barely giving the audience any time to breathe between appeals.
"Next up on the auxiliary stage, it's Eryn!"
Michelle's family (and Brandon) all turned their attention onto the video board, where the familiar brunette coordinator had just stepped out onto the stage. With a wink, Eryn tossed her capsule covered poké ball and cried, "Buneary, go glitzy!"
The sphere popped open, bright white lines of light emerging and wrapping themselves around Buneary like a flexible cord. The normal-type landed feet-first on the stage before springing back up, the white lines twisting around her before bursting into sparkles. The bunny Pokémon continued using her bounce attack, jumping from one corner of the stage to the next as she performed intricate flips at center stage while floating through the air. The audience marveled in amazement, and once the appeal was over, Eryn and Buneary were awarded a score of 25 by the three Nurse Joys.
"What a cute girl!" Delia commented once the appeal was over. "And very talented, too!"
"Grammy, that girl is really nuts," Aiden replied point blank.
"Aiden!" Misty gasped.
"What? She is," Aiden droned.
"Michelle said she was fangirling over you and your dad again last night when they ran into each other," Brandon noted.
"Not surprising," Aiden grumbled. "Creepy and weird, but not surprising."
"Now on the main stage, it's Clarisse!"
The blonde coordinator appeared at the back of the stage, giving the audience a small wave before throwing her poké ball.
"Swablu, time to shine!"
The ball burst open with a flurry of white confetti, pouring down on a small blue bird-like Pokémon with fluffy white wings.
"Looks like Clarisse got a new Pokémon," Aiden commented, pulling out his poké dex to scan it.
Swablu, the cotton bird Pokémon. Swablu cannot stand things to be dirty, so it uses its cottony wings to clean them off. They are very friendly and not at all afraid of humans.
"Use cotton guard!" Clarisse commanded.
Swablu threw its wings up, the cotton on them quickly expanding and making its wings look much larger than they had before. Once the cotton was fully puffed up, Swablu began to spin around, the extra cotton flying off of its wings and surrounding Swablu's body like planets in orbit. With all of the cotton off of its wings, Swablu smacked them down, causing all of it to land on the stage like one giant cloud, which the dual-type Pokémon landed delicately on top of.
"Outstanding!" Lilian commented. "Let's get the score from our judges!"
Everyone's attention went to the scoreboard as the numbers for Clarisse and Swablu's performance were put up. They received three 9's, giving the duo a total score of 27.
"She did a bit better than Eryn," Misty noted.
"I'm pretty impressed!" Ash admitted with a chuckle. "Using cotton guard that way was really interesting. No wonder she's one of Michelle's rivals!"
"Yeah, Clarisse is pretty good," Aiden agreed. Misty raised an eyebrow and glanced over at her son, but said nothing otherwise.
Several more appeals passed by until the next one of interest to Michelle's gathered supporters was announced on the auxiliary stage: Zella's.
Pushing some of her black hair out of her eyes, Zella threw her ball directly in front of her and yelled, "Umbreon, show off!"
A flurry of gold stars came shooting out of the capsule covered sphere, Umbreon jumping out in the midst of them.
"Zella has an Umbreon?" Aiden practically gasped.
"It's cute!" Elizabeth giggled.
"Use moonlight!" Zella commanded.
Umbreon stiffened up its body, turning its head up towards the glass roof of the auxiliary stadium. The sunlight that was flooding through it suddenly intensified, glowing down on Umbreon like a spotlight. The gold rings on the dark type's body began to glow, glittering light emanating off of its black fur.
"That's it?" Aiden deadpanned. "That's her whole appeal?"
"Not every appeal has to involve physical attacks or even movement, champ," Ash replied. "Appeals are all about showing off a Pokémon! That's exactly what Zella is doing."
"But how can Umbreon use an attack called moonlight during the daytime?" Aiden questioned.
"Moonlight is a status move, and its strength is dependent on both the weather and the time of day," Ash elucidated. "It's more effective at night than during the day, but because it's such a clear and sunny day, moonlight's power increases."
"The fact that moonlight results in an appearance like that during the day proves that Umbreon is very strong," Misty added. "Plus, it shows off Umbreon's appearance. It's clear that Umbreon is very well groomed and cared for!"
Zella and Umbreon's scores were soon flashing up on the board, coming in for a total of 26.
"It looks like the judges liked seeing a different kind of appeal," Brandon noted.
"Yeah, but her score still wasn't as good as Clarisse's," Aiden calmly argued.
"True, but Zella's score is only one point lower," Brandon replied. "Their appeals were very different, but the scores are pretty close. I think that just goes to show you anything can happen at the Grand Festival."
More appeals followed Zella's…plenty more, in fact. Everything was starting to drag on until, after one appeal on the auxiliary stage, Lilian raised the microphone to her lips and announced, "now on the main stage, it's Michelle!"
The young coordinator's entire family perked up as her name was announced. When the heavy velvet curtains were drawn back, Michelle became visible to the crowd, decked out in her new dress, silver shoes, silver bracelets, and a silver headband in her hair that had been pulled to the side in a neatly curled ponytail.
"Roselia, curtain call!" Michelle yelled, throwing her poké ball above her head.
The ball popped open, pink flower petals cascading through the air as Michelle's dual-type Pokémon appeared.
"Petal dance, let's go!" Michelle commanded.
Roselia held her roses above her head, spinning on the tips of her toes as pink petals shot out from the red and blue roses above her. The petals rose up to a certain height before falling back down on Roselia, creating the shape of a water fountain.
"Send them back up!" Michelle called.
In the blink of an eye, Roselia leapt towards the edge of the petals, continuing to spin beneath their rain and sending them all straight back in the air. As they rose, the petals began to come together, eventually forming the shape of a large rose similar to the ones on Roselia's hands.
"Pretty!" Elizabeth squealed, leaning forward in her seat.
"That was great!" Brandon commented.
"Definitely the prettiest appeal I've seen all day!" Delia giggled in agreement.
"A wonderful performance by Michelle and her Roselia!" Lilian announced. "Let's get their score now from the judges!"
All three judges looked up with smiles as the individual scores appeared on the front of their podiums: three 9s to equal 27.
"Wow, she got the exact same score as Clarisse," Ash marveled.
"A rivalry tie," Misty noted. "Interesting."
"I don't think Michelle wants to tie her, though," Brandon interjected. "I think she wants to beat her."
"Of course! You always want to beat your rival," Ash agreed. "But 27 is a pretty good score. Something tells me Michelle isn't too disappointed with that. She can focus on beating Clarisse in the battle rounds!"
XXX
Michelle snuck backstage, smiling at Roselia's poke ball that was clutched to her chest. She felt as though she were floating on air, her feet not even touching the ground.
"Michelle!"
Her head snapped up, the smile stuck on her face. Clarisse came running up to her, the blonde girl's hazel eyes twinkling with excitement.
"Your appeal was amazing!" Clarisse gushed.
"Thanks! So was yours!" Michelle returned. "I can't believe we ended up with the exact same score!"
"That's because the judges have such good taste," Clarisse teased with a giggle. "I bet you and I will make it through to the next round no problem!"
"Yeah!" Michelle's bubbly disposition soon faltered, however, as she continued, "but Eryn and Zella were really good too."
"They were," Clarisse agreed, sobering up as well. "I have to admit; I was kind of surprised. With the way they were acting, I kind of thought maybe they were in over their heads. But obviously they got here for a reason."
Michelle shook her head, as if trying to get those thoughts of her head. "But it doesn't matter. You and I are going to meet in the battle rounds no matter what!"
Clarisse returned Michelle's determined smile. "Right! We will!"
XXX
"And that's that! We've seen all 270 appeals in the preliminary round. Now it's time to cut that number down to 64! Let's see which coordinators will be moving onto the main appeal round!"
Misty made an uncomfortable noise as the pictures of the advancing coordinators began to flash on the screen. "That sure is a huge cut. It's more than half!"
"Don't worry, Misty," Ash assured his wife with a loving smile. "Michelle's got this in the bag!"
"I agree with you," Misty replied, returning his smile. "I think I'm just surprised by how many people get cut!"
"Contests are so different than regular battles," Aiden noted. "At least those are one-on-one and you've pretty much got a 50-50 shot. Here, even if you think your appeal was great, your chance of getting eliminated is a lot greater than moving on…"
"Coordinating is definitely a tough business," Brandon agreed.
Clarisse's picture soon appeared on the screen, and Michelle's followed immediately after. Backstage, both girls began to celebrate with one another, exchanging high fives and bright smiles. Up in the stands, Michelle's family celebrated in a more tempered fashion.
"Thank goodness," Misty sighed, leaning back in her seat.
Aiden turned to look at his mother, one eyebrow raised. "I thought you agreed with Dad that Michelle was safe."
"Oh, I did," Misty breathed. "That doesn't make me any less relieved to see I was right, though!"
"The next round of appeals is going to be trickier than the first," Ash mused. "Michelle's going to have to use two Pokémon instead of just one. Hopefully she's got a good strategy!"
"I'm sure she does!" Delia chirped. "Michelle is very responsible and always thinking ahead. Just like her mother!"
Misty giggled delightfully, while Ash started to pout. "Hey, what about me?"
"Ash, dear, I love you, but responsibility and planning are not two of your stronger traits," Delia patiently reminded her son.
While Aiden and Brandon snickered, the pictures continued appearing on the screen, revealing two more advancing coordinators they had grown very familiar with: Zella and Eryn.
"Hey look at that," Brandon noted, nodding towards the screen.
"Aw man," Aiden groaned. "Now we've got at least one more round of crazy to sit through."
XXX
Unfortunately for Aiden, the craziness was likely going to extend beyond just one more round.
Eryn had performed an impressive double appeal with her Spinda and Spoink, in which she used Spinda's teeter dance to manipulate Spoink's psybeam.
Zella's performance featured her Mismagius and Nidoqueen, and was about as equally stunning as Eryn's performance. Though the second appeal round wasn't close to over yet, everyone was fairly confident that those two would be moving onto the battle rounds.
When it was finally time for Michelle to show off her double appeal, her supporters were sitting on the edge of their seats. They all knew double performances were something Michelle didn't have a ton of experience with, and it would be interesting to watch her perform one on stage.
"Pichu, Skitty, curtain call!" Michelle cried, throwing the two balls out in front of her. They popped open simultaneously, a flurry of pink hearts accompanying it. The two Pokémon appeared with obvious energy, Skitty landing on all four paws on the stage while Pichu landed easily on the kitten Pokémon's back, leaning over the normal type's head.
"Pichu, use charm, and Skitty, use double slap!" Michelle commanded.
The little mouse flipped off of Skitty's back, pressing her little paws to her mouth and blowing a kiss that released a shower of pink hearts similar to what had come from the creature's poké balls. Skitty spun around and began to smack the hearts with her tail as they fell, shattering them into nothing more than pink sparkles.
"Pretty!" Elizabeth squealed.
"Michelle sure knows how to win her little sister's heart," Delia giggled.
"Yeah, hearts and glitter are two of Elizabeth's favorite things," Ash commented with a smirk.
"And the pink," Aiden added. "Don't forget about the pink!"
"How could I forget?" Ash chuckled.
"Pichu, thunderbolt! And Skitty, assist!" Michelle ordered.
"Assist?!" Aiden and Brandon cried.
"That's a risky move," Ash breathed, his voice flooded with nervousness. "There's no guarantee that Michelle ends up with what she wants!"
On the stage, Pichu built up her electrical energy and fired off her thunderbolt. Just as she was releasing her attack, Skitty jumped up and held her paw out, an orb of white appearing before it. A burst of electricity suddenly emerged from the sphere, slicing through Pichu's own thunderbolt and creating a burst of light that engulfed the two small Pokémon.
"She sure got lucky," Aiden sighed.
"Let's finish this up!" Michelle declared. "Pichu, charge beam! Skitty, ice beam! Go!"
Pichu and Skitty both spun around to face one another. Pichu threw her paws down and formed a ball of electricity, while Skitty opened her mouth and spit out a stream of light blue energy. The two attacks collided at center stage, creating a relatively large dust up. When it settled, however, an ice coated ball of electricity was visible, twinkling as the light beneath its thin, delicate surface crackled.
"Hey," Ash marveled, his eyes lighting up. "That looks a lot like the appeal Dawn made up when she was Michelle's age!"
Misty smirked and looked over at her husband. "Think it's a coincidence?"
"Not a chance," Ash refuted, his smile still set wide. "Michelle's been doing some research, for sure!"
The crowd broke into wild applause as Michelle and her two Pokémon bowed to them. The judges, meanwhile, were busy tallying their scores, and as they finished, the numbers flashed on their podiums: each one revealing a perfect 10.
"And Michelle gets a 30 for her double performance; a perfect score!" Lilian announced. The crowd went wild once again, while Michelle laughed excitedly and embraced her equally giddy Pokémon.
"Guys, that was amazing!" Michelle breathed. "I'm so proud of you two!"
She continued to giggle as Pichu and Skitty jumped up in her arms, licking her face as the trio celebrated together, the memory that she was sitting in the middle of the Grand Festival stage quickly slipping from her memory.
XXX
"What electrifying performances from our top 64 coordinators! Let's give them another round of applause!"
Upon Lilian's request, the audience went wild. As they settled down, the emcee giggled before continuing, "now it's time to reveal the 32 coordinators who will be moving on to tomorrow's double battle rounds! And here they are!"
Backstage, Michelle's breath hitched as the pictures were revealed. She knew she was pretty much guaranteed to make it into the finals; her Pokémon had earned her a perfect score on their last appeal, after all. Still, her nerves were working in overdrive. Not only for herself, but for Clarisse. Her appeal had been beautiful as well, a stunning effort between the blonde's Espeon and Girafarig. Still, it hadn't been strong enough to give Clarisse the perfect score that Michelle had gotten, and now Michelle feared that her rival, and friend, wasn't going to make it through to the battle rounds. It didn't help that she hadn't been able to find Clarisse anywhere after her appeal.
Michelle's picture appeared on the screen, and the young redhead finally released her breath. She was still nervous, but knowing for sure she had made it through helped put her mind at ease just the smallest amount.
More pictures appeared, and towards the end of the reveal, Clarisse's picture popped up. A full smile grew on Michelle's face, and just like that, her nerves were officially calmed. She jumped off the bench she'd been sitting on and looked around the holding room, hoping to see Clarisse somewhere in the vicinity. Unfortunately, she was still nowhere to be found.
"Pi-chu?" Pichu squeaked from her trainer's shoulder.
"I don't know," Michelle sighed. "Maybe we should go look for her."
Michelle walked out of the room, looking up and down the hallway. When she looked to the right, she saw the back of a platinum blonde head, and knew it to be her first ever rival.
"Clarisse!" Michelle called.
The girl stopped in her tracks and spun around, a small smile appearing on her lips when she saw who was calling her. "Hi, Michelle."
The redhead took off in a sprint in order to catch up more quickly to Clarisse, even though the blonde wasn't going anywhere.
"I didn't see you after your appeal!" Michelle continued once she was closer. "I wanted to tell you how great it was!"
Clarisse's smile grew sheepish at the compliment. "Thanks, but I don't think it was all that good."
"What?!" Michelle gasped. "It was amazing! The way you got Girafarig to control Espeon's psybeam using psychic was awesome! Using two Pokémon of the same type to show off their abilities was genius!"
"Maybe, but I can't help feeling like I let them both down," Clarisse sighed.
"Huh?" Michelle breathed.
"We've been working so hard for this, for the Grand Festival," Clarisse explained. "I want everyone to see how hard my Pokémon have worked and all that they've done for me. But to be honest, going up on that stage is really nerve wracking. I didn't know I'd be that nervous! You could totally tell I wasn't confident up there, and it affected the way my Pokémon performed. I needed to be strong for them, and I failed."
Michelle hummed thoughtfully before smiling again. "But you still made it through to the Top 32. That means you couldn't have messed up that badly!"
"Maybe not to the judges, but I know that I did," Clarisse groaned. "I'm just disappointed in myself, that's all."
Michelle's smile twisted into a frown, and she slowly nodded her head. "I can understand that. But look…you made it to the next round! You know what to expect out on that stage now. Go into that first battle with all of the confidence in the world!"
Clarisse finally gave Michelle a bolder smile. "You're right. Thanks, Michelle. I sure am lucky to have a friend like you."
Michelle giggled and tilted her head to the side. "Hey, me too!"
So Michelle is now in the Top 32. But so are her rivals! What will happen when the battles get underway? Stay tuned!