A/N: Whoo! A whole lot of OCs in this chapter, enjoy and please tell me if I did a good job with your OCs
"Well, you sure took your time..." grunted Mandy as June and Aretha met her in the contest hall, already in her purple shiny dress. "And who's this?" she asked, motioning towards Aretha.
"Aretha, this is Mandy, Mandy, this is Aretha" said June, gesturing with her hand.
"Hi Mandy!" said Aretha merrily, holding out her hand for Mandy to shake.
"Oh... hi" said Mandy coldly, ignoring Aretha's hand. "Anyway June, Where have you been? You can't just decide to wander off in the middle of a contest, what if you miss it? You would have thrown away all those hours of practicing, what were y-"
"Don't nag me, I'm not a little girl" snapped June. "I decide whether I wander off or not, I was helping Aretha and Noel search for their gastly"
Mandy blinked in surprise. "What? Why have you gone all... weird all of a sudden?"
"Maybe I've finally grown" said June simply. "Come on, we have to go, they're gonna start without us" and, taking Aretha's hand she marched off towards the stage.
"Is she always like that?" said Aretha, hurrying beside June.
"Mandy? Yeah, but you get used to it, really" said June.
"I suppose you do" said Aretha.
They reached the stage, and with stage fright already seeping in, they stepped forward.
They were momentarily dazzled by the spotlights shining on them, eventually; they managed to see the oreburgh contest stage in all its glory. A huge, cavernous sphere shaped theatre, with what seemed like thousands of seats at the back where people eagerly watched the enormous coin shaped stage, where around fifteen trainers stood in a row, nervously wringing their hands and gazing over the vast audience. Aretha and June blinked, and ran forward to the stage, where a smart hostess in a flashy pink suit smiled a very toothy smile.
"Aaaand who do we have heeere?" she purred, smiling at the two girls. "Ooh, contestants four and six, no? You're a tad late, naughty!" she said, wagging her finger patronisingly. The audience laughed. "Well, and that is it with our beginning ceremony, and now, let's get this show on the road!" the audience cheered and clapped as one of the spotlights turned toward a long table with three smartly dressed people perching on fancy chairs.
"And these are our fabulous judges, first, our very own Nurse Joy!" the spotlight turned and rested on the face of the very well known pink haired nurse, who smiled politely. "And next is the very experienced contest judge, Miranda Mirabella!" the spotlight turned to light up a slightly elderly woman with heavy makeup and droopy eyelashes.
"I am so glad to be heere" she crooned with a slight Spanish accent. "And finally, our gym leader, Roark!" The spotlight turned again to reveal a very glum-looking Roark, who smiled feebly and waved his hand.
"Hey, any idea why Roark looks so bored?" whispered June while the hostess introduced the three main events.
"I've heard rumours, but I'll tell you later" Aretha replied, her eyes darting over a red faced Mandy entering the stage.
"Our trainers will now ready their Pokémon for the first competition, the appeals show, good luck!" said the hostess with a graceful wave of her hand.
June, Aretha and Mandy sat in the backstage benches, grooming their Pokémon before the much acclaimed appeals show. June and Aretha chatted happily, June attacking Ukko's tuft of hair with a comb and rubbing special oil for grass types on Dancer, making her leafy skin shine. Aretha was cleaning her piplup's feathers with a fuzzy brush. Mandy was sitting a little way off, trying to clean Harkie's fur with a spiky comb.
"Stay still Harkie! Sheesh, how are we supposed to win if your fur looks like a total mess?" grumbled Mandy, trying unsuccessfully to brush dust out of his fur.
"Houndrrrough!" barked Harkie, before viciously attacking the comb and chewing it to smithereens.
"Aww, Harkie... that's the fourth comb you've chewed up this week! Aww shoot, guess I should start working on Alice's scales" said Mandy, releasing her ekans, who greeted her with a flick of her tongue. Mandy smiled and as she sprayed her snake with a purple glittery lotion, her eyes fell wistfully on June and her new friend Aretha.
Her new friend... Mandy's blood boiled, normally she would have been sitting right next to June, telling her all about her spectacular triumphs over the last few weeks, with June nodding and hanging on to Mandy's every word adoringly (she would make sure of that). But because June's pipsqueak friend had decided to sit right next to her, Mandy had had to sit on a grotty bench as farthest away as possible from the two...
Mandy growled, what was up with June lately? She had been acting more... rebellious since she met that Aretha girl, and what was that all about having grown up? Was June breaking off of Mandy? Then she suddenly hit upon a thought...
Was Aretha going to replace her?
She shook the idea off, that was ridiculous! June and Mandy had been inseparable since years ago! June had only met that Aretha girl tonight. Yet she couldn't be sure... she had to prove June that she was a way better friend than Aretha, her mind lingered over to the clothes store they had been in... Of course! She could get June some clothes! After all, she couldn't be walking around with that icky skirt and bow through the whole of Sinnoh, could she? Smiling at her oh-so brilliant plan, she settled down and started to polish Alice's scales.
Meanwhile...
"Okay okay, so, I walked into the mansion and this creepy voice started to call out my name and I was freaked out!" said Aretha happily.
"Wait a second; I thought you were going to tell me about why Roark looked so unhappy back at the judge's table! It almost seemed like he didn't like contests or something"
"He doesn't" said Aretha mysteriously.
"What? Then why did he apply for contest-judging?" said June.
"Well, like I said before, they're only rumours, but they might just be true" said Aretha. "Well, what I heard was that Roark met his dad (Byron) a few days ago and somehow they got in battle, the thing was that Roark and Byron would each battle with only one Pokémon, Roark's strongest and Byron's weakest"
"What happened?" asked June.
"Well, Roark lost spectacularly and he was a little down-in-the-dump after the battle, so I'm guessing he came to the diamond cutters to cheer himself up or something"
"Well, it wasn't a very good idea" said June.
"It wasn't, but it might take his mind off the loss... wait, I think the appeals are starting! Come on, let's look" Aretha grabbed her friend excitedly and rushed forward to peek through the door to the stage.
"And, our first contestant is... Alta Reya from Fortree city!" the hostess announced as a girl with blue hair and a white t-shirt and jeans stepped on the stage with a surprisingly calm smile.
"Ria, time to show these individuals our sophisticated contest appeals!" she cried out, throwing a Poké ball into the air.
"Odd way to speak" said Aretha, her eyes fixed on the fluffy altaria materialising from the ball.
"Right, Ria. Use cotton spore!" Alta commanded. The altaria flew up and shook her wings vigorously, cotton puffs fluttering off them.
"Pretty..." drooled June, staring at the fluffy cotton puffs.
"Now, follow up with twister!" Ria nodded and flapped its wings, a twister forming and sucking in the cotton puffs. "And now, sky attack!" the altaria fluttered its wings and began to glow white, then, with surprising speed, charged at the fluffy tornado. Shattering the puffs into silver sparkles that coated Ria.
"Wow, a very good appeal! What are our judges' thoughts about this?" said the hostess, motioning over to the judges.
"Very good! The cotton spore made a great effect when combined with twister" said Nurse Joy.
"Marvellously fluffy and splendid!" crooned Miranda.
"Nice, I guess..." said Roark, fiddling with an odd-coloured rock.
"Well done, Alta. Let's give her a round of applause!" the crowd erupted in applause as Alta nodded politely and recalled her altaria, walking out of the stage and going to the backstage.
"You were pretty good!" said June, smiling warmly at Alta.
Alta smiled at June in a quite a creepy manner. "June Elizabeth Fletcher, or am I mistaken?"
"Um... y-yes?" said June, stepping back a little. "How did you know...?"
"Aha! Nervous and paranoid, also quite nosy" said Alta, whipping out a swablu-patterned notebook and writing on it.
"What? I'm none of those things! I just want to know where you got my name from."
"Impetuous, defensive and decidedly intrusive" wrote Alta. "Your real personality has unfolded! You can never escape me, June Elizabeth Fletcher!" Alta grinned at June and walked off, leaving June and Aretha completely gobsmacked.
"Whoa... who was that?" asked Aretha.
"No idea" said June. "But, come on, let's watch the other appeals"
June and Aretha settled down to watch the appeals comfortably until a guy in a red hat intruded on them.
"Uh, contestant number four?" he said.
"That's me!" said June.
"You're next, okay? Good luck" he said, stalking off.
"Oh my god..." said June, her face turning very white. "I... oh shoot; I don't think I can do this..."
"SHUT UP!" screamed Aretha out of the blue. "You are not going to win with that attitude, now, get the heck out there and KILLTHEM!" Aretha shoved a very surprised June out of the door.
"Okay, okay! But let me get my Poké balls first!" June said quickly.
"Here, now shine!" yelled Aretha, chucking June's Poké balls at her.
"Very nice entry, Jessica" congratulated the hostess as a pink faced girl with golden hair walked off the stage. "And now, from Floraroma town, here's June Fletcher!" the crowd clapped encouragingly as June walked forward, her stomach doing a somersault.
She squinted at the audience, feeling her insides twist and turn. Blushing furiously, she picked up Dancer's Poké ball and hurled in the air.
"G-go, Dancer!" she said, the very eager budew materialised in front of her and did a twirl, heightening June's confidence.
"Okay Dancer, spin and use stun spore!" Dancer chirped happily and spun gracefully on one of her stubby feet. The golden spores flew out of Dancer's vines and, as June expected, made a small golden tornado.
"Now, Ukko! Charge!" Ukko leapt onto the stage, his fur crackling with mini electric bolts.
"And... spark!" Ukko grinned and, with his fur being surrounded in near-blinding blue electricity, tackled the tornado, dissipating it and sending bright blue sparks and golden dust all over the stage.
"Wow! I have never seen something like that before!" said the hostess. "And what do our judges think?"
"Excellent! The expert use both the electric sparks with the delicate spores was a complete success!" said Nurse Joy.
"Wonderfully flashy and glittery!" said Miranda.
"Cool" said Roark.
June couldn't have been happier. Beaming, she recalled Dancer and, with a confident bow, picked up Ukko and walked off as the audience clapped.
"Whoooo! That was... scary, but SO AWESOME!" yelled June as she stepped through the door.
"See, I told you!" said Aretha happily, hugging her friend.
"Ahem, excuse, but I'm next, no support for me?" said Mandy, popping up by them.
"Oh, yeah! Sure, uh... good luck and bowl them over" said June. Mandy gave her a long stare before marching off.
"What's up with her?" asked Aretha.
"Just the usual" replied June. "Come on, let's see her appeal!" June and Aretha hurried forward to see through the door, looking at Mandy waltz through the stage with a cocky grin.
"Do you think she has good appeals?" said Aretha.
"Probably" replied June, looking at Mandy's confident grin.
"And now, here's Mandy Peirato from Veilstone city!" said the hostess, Mandy stepped forward and, with a confident smile. Released her ekans and houndour.
"Go, Alice and Harkie!" the dark Pokémon and the snake Pokémon landed gracefully in front of their trainer.
"OK, Harkie, smog! Alice, slither around and use poison sting!" Harkie grinned, and belched out a thick dark smoke. Alice, meanwhile, slithered around the cloud, shaping it into a rough ball shape, and then she fired glowing purple darts at the smoke, shaping it into a heart shape with glowing purple darts around it. The crowd was impressed, even Roark had stopped polishing an odd looking rock to stare at the coal black heart, and, when Mandy thought that things couldn't get any better, disaster struck.
A contestant's pachirisu, who had been sitting in the shadows for quite some time, decided to stretch its legs and play by the curtains of the stage. Harkie saw it first and, feeling a snarl rumbling in his throat, lunged for the pachirisu, stopping the smog and dissipating the heart.
The pachirisu squeaked in terror and ran up the curtains when she saw Harkie running towards her, but Harkie, determined on capturing the pachirisu, shot a badly aimed ember at the pachirisu, who easily dodged it. Unfortunately, the curtains didn't, which caught fire immediately.
"Oh my god..." said June, as a bunch of men desperately tried to put the fire out with fire extinguishers, while Mandy tried to put Harkie back in his Poké ball. Eventually, the fire stopped and Mandy was able to recall both her Pokémon.
"AYIIEE! Look what you've done to my stage!" screeched the hostess, staring at the burnt up curtains.
"I-it was only an accident" muttered Mandy.
"Accident? You! You are disqualified and banned from every contest in Oreburgh for LIFE!" she screamed, pointing an accusing finger at Mandy. "And I don't want to see your face ever again, get out! OUT!" Mandy gave an audible whimper and, with tears streaming down her face ran out of the stage, pushing past Aretha and June and locking herself in the bathroom.
"Mandy! Open the door! Come on, that lady was probably exaggerating!" yelled June.
"Leave me alooooooooone!" whimpered Mandy, practically howling the last word. "I don't want to see anyone ever agaiiiiin!"
"Leave her" said Aretha. "She needs to cool off"
"But Mandy... True, you're right" said June. "Come on; let's watch the rest of the appeals"
"Actually... I think I'm next..." said Aretha. "You were fourth and Mandy must have been fifth and I'm... oh snap, I've gotta go!" and, picking up her Poké balls hastily, ran forward to the stage. June settled down by the door to watch.
"Oh! Right, right, eh... this is Aretha Harbinger from Eterna city!" said the disgruntled hostess, Aretha looked nervously around the vast crowd and, taking a deep breath, released her piplup and gastly.
"Okay Lazuli, bubble! Storm, roll and use night shade!" Lazuli, happy to be involved in something, shot bubbles at Storm, who cackled and began rolling around the air, emitting a black beam from his eyes, when the beam caught contact with the bubbles, something odd happened, the beam seemed to solidify and stuck to the bubbles. The solid beam began wrapping around the gastly, wrapping him in a mass of black bubbles; he continued rolling until he was three times bigger than before.
"Aaand, mean look!" commanded Aretha. The huge black ball stopped spinning and settled on a particular angle and, with a muffled cackle, Storm's eyes glowed a bright purple and, magnified by the countless bubbles, shone through the semi-clear mass of bubbles eerily and June could have sworn that the lights had dimmed, making the huge pair of purple eyes look scarier.
There was a slightly muffled scream from the crowd, Miranda, Nurse Joy and the hostess screamed like little girls while Roark jumped but kept silent, the gastly finally released the bubbles, which exploded in a flurry of purple sparks.
June gulped, she hoped that the judges liked it, she tried to scan their faces to see any trace of anger or disgust and just when she was studying the hostess' small frown the crowd erupted into an uproar, and, to June and Aretha's delight, it was the good sort.
"Wow! In all my years as a hostess, I have never seen something so... scary! What do our judges think?" said the hostess.
"That was a completely refreshing experience! The use of both bubble and night shade combined with the spontaneous result of mean look was invigorating!" said Nurse Joy.
"Splendidly horrifying!" purred Miranda.
"That was pretty good, actually" said Roark, glad to be brought out of his boredom.
Beaming, Aretha picked up her Poké balls and walked briskly out of the stage, meeting June and cheering deafeningly.
Well, to be frank, June was the one cheering the loudest.
"Whoooo! You were awesome! Even Roark loved it!" screamed June. "You are so going to get that shiny egg!"
"Come on, I need more than a good appeal to win, in fact, we should be getting ready for the dress up competition" said Aretha seriously, but with a smile on her face. "Besides, there might be no shiny egg at all"
"Oh yeah! The dress up contest! Man... I hadn't thought about that!" said June. "Have you thought of anything?"
"Yup! But I'm not too sure if it will work, I mean, it's going to take up the whole of Lazuli's concentration" said Aretha, resting her chin on her hand thoughtfully.
"Well, at least you have an idea of what you'll be dressing your Pokémon as..." said June, biting her lip.
"Maybe you should take a look at the other trainers' Pokémon, and maybe you'll get an idea of what you would dress your Pokémon as, that's what I did"
"Good idea, hey, could you help me look for an idea?" said June.
"Sure!" said Aretha.
Within minutes, June and Aretha were strolling through the trainers area, examining the trainers Pokémon.
"Well, I don't suppose it's enough to tint Ukko's fur a bit to make him look like a luxio..." muttered June.
"It isn't" said Aretha with a nod. "How about... dressing Dancer up as a happiny?"
"I was wondering that too, but her vines are too big for a happiny's ponytail thing" said June, waving her hands over her head to illustrate her point.
"Come on, it hasn't got to be perfect" said Aretha.
"I know but I want it to be... whoa... wait a second, how about that one?" said June, pointing to a small Pokémon by the windowsill.
"Oh wow, it might just work but... wow, if it works, it'll probably be the best entry... but your budew will need a whole truck full of concentration" said Aretha.
"And balance" said June.
"Yes, and balance" said Aretha. "Tons and tons of balance..."
Later...
"Right, ladies and gentlemen, we have come to the second part of the diamond cutters contest! The dress up competition! For the ones that don't know already, in the dress up competition, the contestants must use their creativity to transform their Pokémon into entirely different ones! Or so to speak" said the hostess. "Due to some decisions made by our judges, we will be reordering our trainer's competition number, the new order is shown in the big screen"
"Aww crap, I'm third" muttered June, staring at the numbers blinking in the screen "And you're second!"
"Good" said Aretha. "I want to get this as over as fast as possible, I think Lazuli is getting a little itchy. Say, who's first?"
"Um... a boy called Jaden Namikaze... hey, he's on now! Let's watch!" the hurried towards the door to peek at a boy with spiky brown hair and brown eyes with a black shirt, red jacket, black pants, black and red sneakers and a red hat stand in the middle of the stage with what seemed to be a tiny milotic slithering around him.
"Our first entry is Jaden Namikaze with his dratini!" announced the hostess.
"Wow! The likeness is impressive!" commented June.
The dratini stopped slithering around and shot a small squirt of water from her mouth adorably, making the audience go "aww..."
The hostess smiled an ample smile "Well, very nice! A milotic! What do the judges think?"
"It is very nice, but the fins in the sides of her head are a little big..." said Nurse Joy.
"So what? How else is he supposed to hide the wing things on the side of her head?" protested June a little loudly.
"Adorably believable!" said Miranda.
"Cute" said Roark. Jaden grinned and picked up his dratini, a smile shining out from his face. He turned and walked out of the stage.
"You're up next!" said June, nudging her friend. Aretha nodded and walked forward.
"And here is Aretha Harbinger with her piplup!" said the hostess. Gulping, Aretha stepped forward.
"Okay Lazuli, come out!" she said, Lazuli the piplup came out painted a bright orange, with odd ruffles of yellow feathers around her neck and a yellow and orange flame-shaped crest stuck to her head, Aretha took some red balloons with a flame symbol on them.
"Lazuli, use peck!" said Aretha, throwing the balloons in the air, Lazuli chirped happily and, with a glowing beak, punctured them neatly, the balloons exploded and red, orange and yellow ember-like confetti fluttered down, making it look as if Lazuli had spat embers out.
"Wow! That torchic certainly is believable! What do our judges think?" announced the hostess.
"Very creative! Not only is the torchic believable, but the flame confetti was a very creative touch!" said Nurse Joy.
"Stunningly creative!" said Miranda.
"Pretty" said Roark.
June stopped looking at Aretha and turned towards her budew.
"Dancer, are you sure you can do this?" asked June. "If you can't, don't worry, ok?" Dancer looked up at her trainer, who looked down at her with concern on her face, she wasn't sure if she could do it, and balancing in that teeny platform June had put her was taking up most of her concentration, she sighed, but nodded, seeing her trainer's pleading eyes.
June brightened up. "Great! And, could you maybe please hop around a bit? It would be awesome, I mean, you only have to give a big hop and your disguise will do the rest" again, Dancer nodded.
"Great! I knew I could trust you!" said June and gave her a very careful hug so not to ruin her disguise. "Hey, here comes Aretha! Okay, you come in when I tell you to, Okay?" and with a smile on her face, June rushed past Aretha.
"Okay, and here is June Fletcher with her budew!" announced the hostess. June's grin spread out further and, with a swift wave of her hand, called Dancer up to the stage.
Dancer stood still for a few seconds, she wanted to make June happy, of course she did, but it was so difficult moving around... but, sensing her trainer's worry, gave a gigantic hop and bounced towards the stage...
Dancer's skin had been dyed black, except for the bud on her head, which was tinted a pearly pink, June had cut out two felt triangles and stuck them to the sides of her vines to look like ears, and a second pair to act as arms, and a small pig's snout stuck where her nose would be. But what was more striking about the disguise was the bottom part. Using some thick wire, a block of wood and black silk, June and Aretha had constructed a spring with a small platform, where Dancer could just balance herself covered by a 'dress' of black silk to hide Dancer's feet.
"WOW! I haven't seen any spoink disguises since... well, I haven't seen any in the whole of my career!" said the hostess, clapping her hands together in delight. "I certainly want to hear what our judges have to say about this!"
"Amazing! Not only is the spoink believable, but her budew must love her trainer a lot to balance in that small platform and even bounce around!" said Nurse Joy, giving Dancer a wink.
"Bouncingly believable!" crooned Miranda.
"Complex" said Roark, frowning at the tiny platform Dancer was standing in. June let out a half choked giggle and, picking Dancer up carefully, ran out of the stage where Aretha was already cleaning Lazuli up.
"Hold still, Lazuli... ah, now you've smudged your feathers on that side! Oh, hey! Here's June!" Aretha nudged Lazuli off her lap and went to meet her friend. "Well, what did the judges think?"
"Heheh... they liked it" giggled June. "Phew! That was scary! I thought Dancer was going to fall! She nearly fell off at the first bounce but from then on it was pretty smooth" June's smile widened and she gave her budew a cuddle. "Okay, better clean you up, right?" she let Dancer drop from the hug and giggled as she leapt off the platform and began to shake the decorations off vigorously, she took some special liquid soap and began washing away at Dancer's tinted skin.
"Hmm... June, who are you gonna use for the contest battle?" asked Aretha, washing what remained of the orange tint off Lazuli.
"Uh... I think Moon..." said June, cursing herself inwardly for not knowing what a contest battle was.
"Oh, I'm using Storm... OW! Hey, what was that for?" screeched Aretha after getting a sharp peck from her piplup.
"Piiip, Piplupip!" yelled Lazuli angrily, waving her flippers around.
"Uh... you want to be in the contest battle?" guessed Aretha.
Lazuli shook her head. "Piiip, pluuupiplup" she said.
"Sorry, I don't speak Pokémon" said Aretha with a smile, her piplup sighed and leapt off her lap.
"Anyway, I should get Moon ready" June said, she picked up Moon's Poké ball and released her. "Are ya ready to do a contest battle?" said June happily. Moon gave her a sharp glare.
"Glah...Memeow" said Moon, eyeing June nastily.
"Great!" said June happily. "Okay, how about if I start by spraying this glitter on your f-OUCH!" June leapt backwards, thin red lines from Moon's scratch had etched themselves onto her skin painfully. "Okay, maybe no glitter this time..."
Later...
"Okay, contest fans, we have reached the final event for the diamond cutters contest, the contest battle! In this event, our contestants will battle using moves that exemplify beauty and flair!" announced the hostess, she then motioned to the large screen with a manicured hand. "Here are the contestants battle rivals for this event" the screen flickered and showed a considerably low amount of trainers, which were organised in pairs, connected by a thin red line.
"Hm... I'm first" announced Aretha blankly, staring at the screen.
"Who are you battling with?" asked June, looking at her own picture. "I'm with a kid called Roxas"
"I'm with Aaron" Aretha replied. "I should go now, look, he's already on the stage!" Aretha pointed at a brown haired boy with a silver button up with undershirt, grey pants with a black belt and a silver hat.
"Oh... he looks tough" said June, biting her lip.
"Yes, but toughness isn't everything, you don't need to be too tough for a contest battle" replied Aretha confidently, she then turn and walked towards the stage.
"Good luck!" yelled June behind her, she watched as Aretha walked towards the stage and stopped opposite to him.
"Right, first we have Aaron from metropolis town and Aretha from Eterna city!" announced the hostess. "The trainers will each have a determined amount of time to battle, and, let's begin!"
"Right magnezone, Game on!" Aaron took a Poké ball from his belt and threw it in the air, a vaguely UFO-like Pokémon materialising from it.
"Wow! A magnezone!" said June happily, registering it in her Sinnoh dex.
"Ok, Storm, do your best!" Aretha called out her gastly, who circled her head before settling down to glare at his opponent.
"Magnezone, use hidden power!" the magnezone span slightly and twelve glowing spheres began to rotate around it, and then they turned to icy spheres, which launched themselves at Storm.
"Use confuse ray!" Storm released a purple glowing orb from its forehead and launched it at the icy hidden power, the spheres stopped and, with the confuse ray guiding them, turned and headed towards the magnezone.
"Hyper beam!" yelled Aaron, but as the magnezone charged its attack, the purple glowing icy spheres hit his magnezone, making him wobble in the air.
"No! Use hidden power and thunder bolt!" yelled Aaron urgently, his magnezone emitted a low buzzing sound and once again, the glowing spheres began spinning around the magnezone and turned to ice, then the magnezone unleashed a thunderbolt together with the icy spheres, Aretha gulped, she knew it would take more than a simple confuse ray.
"Eh... Night shade and hypnosis!" she yelled feebly. Storm's eyes glowed red and unleashed black circles that expanded as they left his eyes, he then followed up with a black beam that shot through the very centre of the circles, making it look as if though they were black rings threaded through with black string, the combined beam hit the thunder-ice bolt, clashing together and shooting sparks at the centre of the two meeting beams.
"Storm, think you can make another confuse ray?" whispered Mandy worriedly, the gastly nodded and unleashed the purple glowing ball at the centre of the beam, which started to spin rapidly over the very centre of the clashing beams, strengthening Storm's black beam and pushing it towards the magnezone, hitting it with a loud bang.
"Time up!" announced the hostess. "Let's see the scores!" everyone turned towards the giant screen. "And, Aretha Harbinger wins this round!" Aretha cheered as she recalled her gastly, and ran out of the stage, meeting June.
"Yes! I won!" said Aretha happily. "I thought I wasn't going to for a moment, that was scary!"
"It sure was!" said June. "Oh wait, I'm next!" June picked Moon's Poké ball hastily and ran towards the stage, where a boy with red spiky hair, black long sleeved shirt, green shorts and a long red scarf.
"Okay, next we have June from Floraroma City and Roxas from Celadon city!" announced the hostess.
"Okay Rimochi, battle time!" Roxas yelled out, calling out a Flareon with a headband wrapped around his left front leg. June gulped.
"Erm... Moon, come on out!" said June nervously, her glameow shot out of her Poké ball and settled in front of her.
"Right Rimochi, flamethrower!" the flareon took a deep breath and shot a wide fiery beam from his mouth, so hot that the air around it went remarkably warm.
"Okay Moon, use scratch!" Moon took no notice of her trainer's command, instead the leapt through the air and dipped the puffy end of her tail in the beam, she winced in pain but struck Rimochi in the face with her burning tail. As the flareon recovered from the violent hit Moon walked towards it and winked charmingly at the flareon, catching him in her charm attack.
"No! What are you doing?" yelled June.
"Rimochi! Snap out of it!" yelled Roxas, but his flareon paid no attention, preferring to stare lovingly at Moon, Moon grinned and leant closer to him, muttering something and pointing to the far end of the stage, Rimochi looked at the place where Moon was pointing at obediently.
Moon's smile widened as Rimochi was distracted and struck him hard with her paw, cackling cruelly and she watched the poor stunned flareon get up, trembling slightly. The flareon turned towards Moon and tried to sink his fangs into her leg, but Moon dodged it and scratched him viciously.
"Time up!" announced the hostess. "Now, let's see who won this contest!" she turned towards the screen. "June Fletcher is the winner!" June looked up; her points had been deducted considerably from Moon's disobedience, and had only just won over Roxas' team, nodding apologetically to Roxas, recalled her glameow and ran out of the stage.
"Wha... what was that all about?" asked Aretha as June walked through the door.
"Uh... things went a little bit out of control back there..." said June feebily.
"I realised that" said Aretha. June nodded and called out her glameow.
"Moon! What was that all about?" she asked her angrily, Moon glared at her and stalked off with her tail in the air. "Moon, come back now!" scolded June as fiercely as she could, but Moon just shook her head and climbed out of June's reach.
"Your glameow has a serious attitude problem" said Aretha disapprovingly.
"I realised that..."
later...
"Okay, contest fans; we have seen some stunning appeals, glorious disguises and beautiful battles" said the hostess, smiling a very pearly smile. "Since the Pokémon centre has kindly given us three Pokémon eggs, we will nominate the three trainers with the highest scores!" the hostess smiled and motioned to the big screen, where three trainer silhouettes stood ominously.
"Mh... oh snap, I hope I win..." whispered June at Aretha, nervously biting her lower lip.
"Same here..." said Aretha.
"I'm probably not going to win, thanks to miss Moon's battle" June said acidly.
"You never know" replied Aretha, her eyes fixed on the screen.
"Okay, now in third place, we have..." said the hostess, the lights dimming and the spotlights turning a serious indigo. The hostess let the suspense grow until it was unbearable and finally announced. "June Fletcher!"
June froze, had it been her imagination? She stared at the screen to see her smiling picture and sure enough, it was, with a bronze coloured three by it. Shaking, she walked slowly towards the stage, the bright spotlights temporarily blinding her, and received her ribbon, a diamond shaped bronze coloured emblem with two long red and gold ribbons, and a red egg with orange swirls in the top and bottom.
HOLY CRAAAP! I WOOON! She screamed inwardly. HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE? She turned towards Aretha, who gave her a cheery thumbs up. June giggled stupidly and smiled, feeling a little dizzy.
"In second place we have... Jessica Lilybay!" a girl with long golden hair and a frothy pink dress jumped and walked forward, her face turning as pink as her dress, she received her egg, which was a yellow one with brown streaks around the middle, she received her ribbon, which was almost the same as June but silver instead of bronze and smiled.
"Oh wow, I wonder who's in first place" she whispered to June, June nodded and stared straight ahead.
"And finally, in first place, we have... Aretha Harbinger!" June jumped and looked in surprise at her friend, who looked equally shocked. Aretha gulped, and walked nervously toward the stage, where the hostess gave her a white egg with big blue spots and small orange spots. Aretha smiled at June happily, June's face mirroring hers.
Later...
June and Aretha had already changed into their daily wear, Aretha wearing navy shirt with a silver crescent in the middle and light blue jeans, with silver converses and June had changed into her ordinary green and pink outfit, they smiled, admiring each other's eggs.
"Wow, I still can't believe they gave us these!" said June happily, admiring her red and orange egg. "Mine feels really warm... wonder what it is?"
"I know!" said Aretha, stroking lightly the smooth shell of her egg. "What kind of Pokémon do you think mine is?"
"Bet it's a squirtle, they're blue and orange, right?" said June, running her finger along the orange curls of her egg.
"But where would all this white come from?" said Aretha, motioning to her egg. "I think it's a mudkip, they're blue and orange and have whitish undersides..."
"Oh dear... I know what your egg is, Aretha..." said a familiar voice behind her, making Aretha jump.
"Oh, hey Mandy, feeling better after your loss?" asked Aretha.
"I know what it is, want me to tell you?" asked Mandy with a slight sneer, ignoring Aretha's question.
"Ok, what is it?" asked June, Mandy's sneer widened and she whipped out her red Pokédex, the picture of a blue serpentine Pokémon with a huge jaw and orange and white spots along its body flashing in the screen.
"A huntail, tsk... what a pity" said Mandy, snapping the Pokédex shut. "The ugliest and more useless Pokémon in the whole world, along with feebas and magikarp"
"But I heard that huntails are very strong. And anyway, feebas and magikarp evolve into pretty strong and beautiful Pokémon" said June.
"Shush" snapped Mandy, but the she brightened up, smiling at June sweetly. "Congrats on your victory, dear! And to celebrate, I bought you some clothes!" she grinned as she whipped out a clothes bag and pushed it towards June rather forcibly. "Don't worry about the price, you deserve it, Juney" June looked at her uncertainly and dove her hand into the bag.
June pulled out a small white t-shirt with a turquoise star in the middle and long rainbow coloured sleeve, a denim skirt, white socks and white trainers with a plastic rainbow badge-like symbol in the backs, and even a new big white cotton handbag, inside she found a white coat with rainbow coloured fluff around the hood and a large silver g-clef shaped clip, almost as big as her bow.
"Wow! These are... thanks!" said June, leaning forward to give her a hug, which Mandy avoided.
"Ya' welcome" said Mandy. "Hey, can I see your egg?" she said, snatching it off June before she could reply. She put her blue head on the top of the egg, as if listening to the inside. "Aww, how cute, I can hear it mewling!" she thrust the egg towards June's ear so she could listen too, and sure enough, there was a faint whining noise coming from the inside. Aretha tried to listen to her own egg.
"Hm... I can't hear mine..." she said, a little disappointed by this fact.
"Maybe it's asleep" said Mandy and, without warning, snatched the egg off Aretha and began screaming at it, while shaking it violently. "WAKE UP HUNTAIL! WAKE UP UGLY USELESS-"
"Mandy!" yelled June, snatching the egg off her and giving it to Aretha "Don't do that! Can't you try being nice for once?"
"So what? It's only a huntail..." said Mandy sheepishly.
"So what? What do you mean so what? It's a live Pokémon! Don't you have any respect for that?" said June angrily, her temper finally drawn out.
"Oh, so that's how you thank me for the clothes I bought you? Well, fine!" yelled Mandy angrily.
"Take your clothes, I don't want them anymore" said June, thrusting the clothes bag towards Mandy.
"Keep them" hissed Mandy poisonously, and before anyone could stop her she called out her skarmory and climbed on his back. "I'm way too pretty for them anyway. Come on, Morty, let's go back to Hearthome and challenge Fantina again" she chucked the clothes bag forcefully at June's face and flew off into the air and out of view. June looked at the sky and sighed.
"...I blew it, now she won't ever talk to me again and no one will accompany me on my journey" muttered June dolefully.
"Actually, I wanted to talk to you about that" said Aretha. "I was wondering if... maybe we could travel through Sinnoh together, I mean, it's much safer that way..."
June looked at Aretha with surprise. "I... er, of course!" Aretha grinned and gave her friend a careful hug so as not to squash their eggs.
"Come on June, we should go to the Pokémon centre, it's really late and we should get some sleep" said Aretha, walking towards the Pokémon centre. "Aren't you coming? Come on!" June smiled at Ukko, who sat right underneath her, Ukko returned the smile.
"I have to say, things couldn't get any better, right Ukko?" she said.
"Shinx, inxinx!" said Ukko happily, June's smile widened and trotted towards Aretha.
A/N: Alta belongs to altariafan, Aaron belongs to certain destiny, Jaden belongs to slayerboy929 and Roxas belongs to certain destiny.