Chapter 3
Get Off My Turf! A Contest Showdown!
The group of three walked out of the tunnel, the fresh air greeting their nostrils. The soft grass under their feet was much more relaxing than the hard rock. Selena was the first to speak.
"What now?" she asked.
"I'm not sure… Archie and Maxie said to wait for them before doing anything drastic, remember?" Felix answered.
"Uh-huh. But what to do?" As if by extraordinary coincidence, Selena saw a contest hall right after she finished her sentence.
"I'm gonna go train, if it matters to anyone." Kazo said, walking off into the closest route.
"And I'm going to check out the trainers around here and see if they want a battle. Felix turned around and began chasing after Kazo into the grassy route. "I guess that leaves me only one choice." Selena said, grinning. She walked into the contest hall.
A lady with blue hair, similar to the one at the Saffron contest, greeted her.
"What pokemon will you be competing with?" she asked. Selena bit her lip. She had no idea who she was going to use! Maybe Lotad... "Lotad!" She blurted out, without giving it too much thought.
"Okay… What will be your battle pokemon?"
"Excuse me?"
The woman at the counter sighed. "In Hoenn, contest matches are decided by battles after appeals."
"Ah… Okay." Selena said. "Tyrogue."
The woman pressed a few buttons on a computer and gave Selena a ticket with the number "28" on it. "You're number twenty-eight. The waiting room is to your right."
"Ladies and Gentlemen, Trainers, Breeders, and all you Coordinators at home watching, this is the Verdanturf Pokemon Contest! Thirty trainers will come on to the appeal stage and will be graded out of thirty by our respectable panel of judges. Only sixteen out of thirty will proceed to the battle rounds. Now, the coordinators are getting ready, so I'll introduce today's panel of judges." Said the MC.
She walked over to the judges. "First off is Mr.Sukizo, the contest manager! Next up, is Mr.Briney, the cruise ship captain and leader of the Wingull fan club! And last but not least, is Verdanturf's very own Nurse Joy!" The MC then walked center stage. "Looks like the first contestant is ready. Let's bring out a crowd favorite, finalist in the Hoenn Grand Festival, Drew and his Roselia!" Applause shattered the still air as Drew ran down center stage. He threw a pokeball in the air and Roselia came out in a burst of petals. It landed elegantly on the floor, and winked.
"A beautiful entry!"
"Petal Dance." Drew said calmy. Roselia spun around, leaving petals in the air, spinning around slowly as if being controlled like a puppet. "Magical Leaf!"
"Selia!" Roselia blasted multicolored leaves at the petals, and the petals were shredded. They slowly fell to the ground along with the multicolored leaves. The crowd clapped loudly as Drew flicked his hair.
"Hmm… A 28! A great score earned by Drew! We'll most likely be seeing him in the next round." Drew walked backstage. "Next up, another favorite of everyone's, a semifinalist in the Grand Festival, here to earn another ribbon, May Birch!" May ran on stage and waved at the crowd. She took out a whistle and blew in it. A Beautifly dove from the ceiling and landed on May's shoulder. She blew the whistle again, and Beautifly flew off her shoulder and began using Silver Wind. "String Shot!" The Butterfly pokemon then blasted thread out of its mouth and the silver wind was tangled up in a string shot. However, since the wind was moving so quickly, the string moved quickly as well, as though it was a snake. Then, Beautifly flew in the air for the grand finale. Using String Shot, it drew a picture of a Beautifly in mid-air! It eventually came to the ground.
"A Beautiful display! What will be May's score…? A 29! Amazing! Expect to be seeing more of May in the following rounds."
"Coordinator 7!" Selena sat in the waiting room.She had been practicing a new routine with Lotad. It was risky, but it could work. But, the waiting itself was the most nerve racking! She was participating with elite coordinators… she'd be lucky to make it into the next round. She went over her strategy as applause came from the stage. "Coordinator 15!" Time was going by very quickly and her heart began beating quicker. She could only do her best now, and her only hope was that her best would be enough. "Coordinator 28!" That was her cue. She got up, and ran on stage. She tried to stay calm, and waved. "Go! Lotad!" She sent out her lilypad pokemon. "Lotad! Rain Dance!" Lotad grinned, and water began pouring down from the sky. The water from the rain piled up inside the leaf on its head. She took out a plank of wood and a cylinder. She made a makeshift catapult by placing the plank of wood on the cylinder. Lotad, still with all the water on it back, walked onto the catapult. "Water gun!" Selena ordered. Lotad blasted water at the plank and was shot into the air. It did a somersault in the air and one backflip, but, as it did, the water flew out of its leaf! It began falling again, this time alongside the water that left it, and it landed mere instants before the water did, and the water placed itself back in Lotad's leaf.
The crowd applauded Selena. She was new, but she liked this routine, and thought she did well.
"That was a great routine from Selena and Lotad! But what do the judges have to say? Oooh! A 26.3! A very solid score."
"Now that the first round, the appeal round, is over, let's see who will be going into battles! If I call out your number, please come on stage!" The MC took a breath as she began reading off a piece of paper.
"2! 1! 4! 6! 7! 10! 11! 13! 14! 15! 19! 23! 24! 25! 27! And 28!" Selena screamed in joy as she ran up on stage. "We will randomly pair up everyone on stage with someone else for the battle rounds. Here are the pairs:
"1 and 2!"
"4 and 19!"
…
"28 and 11!"
Selena looked around for number eleven. It was another girl, about her age.
"May the battles begin!"
"Ooh, it was a close victory, but Drew won over May… Looks like Jimmy lost to Lisa…"
Selena had been watching the battles closely. Each coordinator had points as well. Every successful attack dropped your opponent's points. At the end of five minutes, the person with the most points wins the battle.
"Time for the last battle in this round! Bring out Selena and Kayleigh!" Selena and the other girl walked onto the stage. "Ready… go!"
"Weepinbell!" Kayleigh sent out a plant pokemon.
"Tyrogue!" Selena sent out her martial arts pokemon.
"Weepinbell! Use Stun Spore!" Weepinbell shot yellow spores directly at Tyrogue. "Tyrogue! Dodge it with Agility!" Tyrogue shot itself out of the way and ran to the other side of the stage. "Use Mach Punch!" Tyrogue ran with amazing speed and charged into Weepinbell, making it lose a few points. "Weepinbell! Acid!" Tyrogue was blasted with poison and walked around in circles, taking damage from the poison all the time. Selena's points were falling fast.
"C'mon Tyrogue! Tackle!" Tyrogue shook out the poison and rammed into Weepinbell. "Weepinbell! Swallow it whole!" Weepinbell opened its mouth, and as Tyrogue rammed into it a second time, Weepinbell ate it! There wasn't much time left, and every second Tyrogue was in Weepinbell, Selena lost points. "Tyrogue!" she screamed. "Mach Punch over and over!" Weepinbell's eyes grew as large as dinner plates as Kayleigh quickly lost points as Tyrogue punched Weepinbell from the inside. "Spit it out, Weepinbell!" The pokemon did as it was told, and it shot Tyrogue high in the air.
When he lands, he'll faint and we'll lose all our points! Selena realized. "Tyrogue! Use Mach Punch!" Tyrogue smiled and flew to the ground with its fist glowing. It slammed into Weepinbell, and at the last second, Kayleigh lost all her points!
"And Selena wins that match! We will now go into quarter finals…"
---
"Hand it over. You owe me." Felix waited for the youngster he defeated to give him the money he won. "Fine!" Said the youngster, throwing the money on the floor and running away, sobbing. Felix took the money and stuffed it in his pocket. Felix began walking back into Verdanturf. Kazo appeared beside him, and began talking. "D'you know where Selena is, Felix?"
Felix shook his head. "Haven't seen her for a while, at least until before."
"Maybe she's at the contest hall watching the contests?" Kazo proposed.
"Maybe… But there's only one way to find out."
"Race ya!" Kazo said, already starting to run.
"No fair!" Felix used his powers to make a branch get into Kazo's path, tripping him. Felix ran right by him. "Never mess with a Telepath." he said, passing Kazo. Kazo got up right away, and managed to tie the race.
They walked into the contest hall. The stage in the next room was booming with applause. Felix checked out some of the posters on the walls as Kazo examined the Berry Blenders. "So that's what they look like…" he said to himself. "K-Kazo…" Felix stammered, calling Kazo over. Kazo walked towards the poster that Felix was looking at. It was a list of people that entered the contest. The people that were eliminated were bordered in red, the people still in the tourney were bordered in green. Felix pointed at the picture of contestant #28.
"Selena!" Kazo said, confused. "She never told us she was a coordinator!"
"And she's outlined in green… so she must be good. Let's go watch the contest!" Felix proposed. But Kazo was way ahead of him. He was already through the doors and getting a seat in the audience. The MC spoke.
"And looks like Selena's getting into the semifinals! Next match – Selena versus Tyra!" Kazo watched as Selena's Tyrogue did backflips and continuous punches to take out the Seviper in front of it.
"Selena is in the finals! Next match, Selena versus Mika!" Selena stepped out, sweating. She was not going to lose now.
"Ready, Begin!"
"Tyrogue! Go!" Selena said, throwing her pokeball.
"Go! Doduo!" said Mika, revealing a two headed bird.
"Doduo! Peck!" The bird began charging at Tyrogue, and as it came very close, Tyrogue punched one of the heads! The other head came in for a counter attack though, and evened out the score with a peck attack.
"Tyrogue! Use low kick!" Tyrogue swept its foot along the ground and tripped Doduo. It then Karate Chopped it.
Felix and Kazo watched in awe as Selena's Tyrogue attacked the Doduo. The score was evened out. With mere seconds to go, could Selena win it?
