Chapter 2: Beauty Contest
Archie looked around at the top of the steps once entering the actual hall. IT was full of people.
"Where to find a red haired nerd.." He mumbled to himself before spotting Maxie not too far away. Luckily there were plenty of seats around him.
"I thought you left." Maxie didn't even look at him. He was looking at some pamphlet with Emi on the cover.
"Yeah, well. I was offered a battle after this show so I decided to stick around for that." Maxie just rolled his eyes and closed the pamphlet as the lights dimmed. A very energetic girl stood on the stage, dressed in a frilly dress and holding a microphone. She started talking about the contestants and about who was competing and with what pokemon. She seemed to falter at Emi and then grew even more excited.
"And the last contestant is the rising star, Emi Koizumi with her rumored new Pokemon, Paku!" THe girl giggled and then hurried off stage. The people seated around Archie and Maxie whispered something, but mostly; 'I'm sure LIsia will win." They seemed to be her fan club.
The contest was a beauty one. Teh first two contestants weren't really into it. Although their pokemon were beautiful they didn't quite put much effort into the moves. One had a Milotic that was beautiful to the crowd, but the moves used didn't show off beauty at all. And they were plain if they even remotely did. The waterfall move was beautiful on it's own but by itself it didn't show much creativity.
Archie sighed, glancing away. Maxie was mumbling to himself on how awful they did for the contest. It was getting annoying.
The next contestant was a Bellossum. They did a bit more to add appeal but not much. It didn't look like it was supposed to be beautiful. The bellossum had used a sweet scent move before mixing the pink aura with magical leaf. It was better than the plain Milotic but it was more cute than anything.
"I didn't even think you were that into contests." Archie glanced towards Maxie who didn't show any shred of embarrassment, although he had to of been.
"I catch it on tv every now and then." He muttered. Archie glanced towards the stage as the Bellossum and girl left. Next was Lisia. Even Archie who didn't pay attention to contests knew who she was. Although he didn't know that her main pokemon was an Altaria.
Her act was far more impressive than the rest. It even got Archie's attention. She had started off witha mist that shrouded the whole hall. The whole arena was full of anticipation as the stage was blocked and the duo was hidden.
A light suddenly form at the center of the arena and a pink glow from above sifted through the mist, completely eradicating it and making the whole area glow and sparkle. You could see the droplets of water just hanging there... Suddenly there was an even brighter light as a harsh wind and light blew away the mist, and standing on the stage, looking elegant and... certainly poofy was a just mega'd Altaria, it's feathers glistening from the mist that had formed around it. It shook itself and lifted it's wings as if in triumph and the whole arena burst into a loud cheer.
"It wasn't that impressive." Maxie muttered. "She's holding back." As Maxie muttered this, Lisia sashayed off the stage with Ali and the very bouncy girl from before came back to announce the last, but certainly not least performance. The little scamp from before came on stage. The lights shining down on her and the gown flowing behind, she looked older. Maxie gave a sort of huff.
"At least she actually took the part to look beautiful..." And he was right. The others had half assed their outfits, wearing every day outfits or so. LIsia was the only one who seemed to make an effort and hers didn't really even seem to match the category. Emi's was... gorgeous. She even had long gloves on with the same type of diamond that was connecting the dress with the jacket on the wrists. She lifted her hand up and the crowd grew silent as she then gave a curtsey and up on her head.. appeared a little fluff ball. It climbed onto her head, resting all four paws to keep balance. It was a purple and white big eared cat like pokemon. It looked like it belong to an eeveelution, and definitely not powerful. It's ears had triangle like gold marks on them and it had a diamond mark on it's forehead. IT sure was fluffy. Fur was coming out of it's ears even, and it had three very long tails. And it had wings.
Archie leaned over to whisper to Maxie.
"What in the world do you think that is?"
"I dunno. But it certainly isn't what I imagined." Maxie looked dissapointed, but Emi smiled and began the show. She lifted her hand up high and the little pokemon, "Paku" scurried up it and suddenly the diamond mark on it's forehead, and the diamonds on Emi's outfit glowed as well. It was a vivid pink. Suddenly little crystals started to form in the air. They were small and floated around at first, but gradually grew bigger the closer they got to the stage.
Maxie reached forward and grabbed a bigger one closer to him, but flinched and pulled his hand back.
"What on earth.."
He didn't have time to really evaluate what the little shock was, because all attention was brought to the front as Paku jumped up and a colorful wind blew around it. The wind traveled through the hall and twirled the crystals around the audience. Children laughed as the crystals twirled and danced in the air, but then a vivid light shone from them all, blinding everyone.
"I can't see!" Archie couldn't help but yell as he covered his eyes.
"Uncover your eyes, dolt." Maxie nudged Archie. Archie opened his eyes to see that all the crystals in the air had frozen, and a chill was hanging in the air... And at the center of the stage, the mystical wind blowing around her was Emi.. Standing on top of an elegant tower made of ice. The tower was thin and branched out into an almost abstract design. She smiled at the crowd. Paku had landed on her head, the gems had glowed so brightly...
Emi then held out her hand a bright bow that seemed to be made of pure light appeared in her hand. It was entrancing. She looked like some sort of goddess... It was different than the others. The othe contestants had seemed to use their pokemon to do the beauty making, while she was working with her pokemon to make the show absolutely beautiful. Archie could hear Maxie mumble something, but he wasn't paying attention as Emi drew back the bow of light, and tons of arrows appeared in it's hold...
The crowd seemed to panic a bit as they realized what was going on, but before any of them could voice their worry, Emi shouted something in a different language and let go of the arrows.