Chapter 2

As the contestants and spectators were getting ready for the contest, at the back of the stage, an old chubby man in a smart suit was sitting at his desk searching for something. "Where's my cell phone?" he asked himself. "Ah-ha!" he said in delight as he picked up a banana from the desk. "Here's what I'm looking for!"

He pressed a few times on the banana and used it as a phone. "Hello? Is anyone there?" Then he came to the realisation as he moved it away from his ear and looked at it. "Hang on a second! This isn't my phone! Yes it is!"

"Who said that?" he asked himself as he looked at himself in the mirror. "Ah! Who are you!" he yelled in a sudden fright.

He shook his head rapidly to get back to his senses. "Stupid thing," he muttered as he tossed the fruit away and then picked up his phone, much to his glee. "Ah-ha! Here's what I'm looking for!" he said before he used it as an electronic razor.

While he was 'shaving' a man came and knocked on his opened door getting his attention. He was medium built, had bushy eyebrows and was wearing a grey tight t-shirt, black jeans, and brown shoes. "Bill," he started. "Are you alright?"

"Of course I am, Brian," Bill replied positively and enthusiastically. "Why?"

"Me, Karen and the TV producers have been talking and we're a little worried that you might be a little… confused."

"Confused? No chance, my boy!" Bill said loudly. "He might be," he continued as he pointed at the mirror, reflecting the mirror image of himself. "But I'm definitely not! Now come on! Let's go!"

With that, Bill quickly got up and walked out the room. "Bill, wait a minute," Brian called in alert. "You've forgot your…"

Suddenly, a bunch of girls screamed in fright from outside the room. "Trousers," Brian finished as he scratched his head in embarrassment.

Meanwhile, at the spectators' gallery of the contest hall, Black Jack and Keith sat next to each other while there was a vacant seat next to Black Jack. That seat belong to none other than Jerry as he came down the stairs carrying a huge tub of popcorn and three large beverages.

He struggled to get through a large crowd to get to his seat. When he did, he gave one beverage each to Black Jack and Keith before sitting down on his seat.

"So when is the show starting?" Jerry asked as he quickly stuffed some of the popcorn in his mouth.

"It's starting right now," Black Jack said as a man wearing a tuxedo walked up on stage carrying a microphone.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" the judge exclaimed enthusiastically into the microphone. "Welcome to the Golden Ribbon contest!"

The audience gave a long and loud cheer, apart from the slightly surprised Black Jack who responded by saying, "Jeez, it's not pantomime."

"First, before we meet the contestants, I would like to introduce three of the smartest and wisest minds of talent today!" the host said enthusiastically as he pointed to the judging panel at the left side of the stage. "Unfortunately, they couldn't be here today, so we have Karen Tuskbourne with us today…" he continued as the woman with brown hair and dress waved to the audience as they cheered for her.

"Bill Fireman…" the host continued as the chubby old man was taking a nap in his chair until a middle-aged man wearing a tux woke him up, getting him to wave to the audience.

"And Brian Powell," the host finished as the crowd started booing at Brian.

"I haven't started," Brian replied back arrogantly.

"And now," the host continued. "Let us meet the contestants!"

One by one, the trainers, accompanied by their respective pokemon, walked onto the stage. As Black jack and his two students expected, Alice, Dawn and Peach came up on stage, along with a coordinator that they didn't expect to see… Drew, the coordinator who refused to participate at first. He entered the contest along with a beautiful grass type pokemon, Roselia.

"I thought he wasn't going to turn up," Keith whispered to Black Jack.

"Neither did I," Black Jack whispered back. "Maybe it was something I said."

"Okay folks!" the host yelled excitedly. "In the first round is the voting round. The contestants and pokemon won't need to perform in this round but the audience, that's you guys, will have to vote for the contestant you want to see go to the next round. Under your seats are keypads with numbered buttons, press the numbered button that matches with the number of your favourite contestant to help them get through to the next round. The top eight contestants who gets the most votes will go through, the rest will go home."

"Huh?" Jerry replied, feeling confused.

Black Jack let out a small annoyed sigh. "Just press Alice's number, eighteen," he replied as he pointed the button of Jerry's keypad as he picked up his.

"Everybody ready?" the host yelled. "Vote now!"

Everyone in the audience pressed their buttons, hoping to see their favourite go through the next round. "Voting over!" the host announced. "While the votes are being counted, we'll have the judges' opinions."

He turned towards the judges. "Karen," he said. "Who do you think might get through?"

"Oh, I don't know, they all look absolutely fabulous," Karen said passionately. "They all look precious like the precious pokemon I have at home."

"Thank you, Karen," the host said as he turned towards Bill. "Bill, what do you think?"

"I have no idea," Bill said, amazed at the sight of each pokemon present. "Decisions like these can be so hard. I can't make a decision like this." He then mumbled to himself, "Yes you can." He then yelled, "Who said that?"

Shocked, Bill began looking around, wondering who said it, not realising that it was actually him who said that while Brian placed his hand on his face in embarrassment. "Continue, mate, continue," he said.

"Thank you, Bill," the host turned to the third judge. "Brian?"

"I don't get it," Brian said. "Trainers feed their pokemon pokeblocks. Why? Well, they said that eating those sweets would make them look smarter, look cooler, look more beautiful, etc. Like those two Mr. Mimes over there," he continued as he pointed at them. "I don't know what pokeblocks they've been feeding on but they both look the same to me. Therefore, I have no clue who's going through."

"There is an old saying, Brian," Karen said, trying to sound smart. "The real beauty comes from the inside."

"That's just something you ugly people say," Brian replied back, which annoyed her as the crowd started booing him again. "I take it that you people see yourselves as ugly too," he said.

Karen became angry at Brian's remark as an anime vain started to throb in her forehead. "How dare you, you..."

"Brian! Not in front of the children!" Bill exclaimed alarmingly at her, knowing what she was going to say.

"Bill, I'm Brian," Brian said loudly to him. "She's Karen."

"Oh, sorry, Karen," Bill said as he turned towards Brian.

"Can we just get on, please?" Brian said in an annoyed tone. "Getting rather awkward here."

"Okay, okay," the host said. "Can I have the results please?"

A man in everyday clothing and headphones ran up to the stage and delivered a piece of paper to him. "Thank you, Charlie," the host said as he took the paper.

"It's Bob, actually," the man said as he walked away.

The host began to read out the top eight contestants. As Black Jack hoped, Alice was through to the next round. Peach and Dawn were also through, much to Jerry's joy. Drew was also put into the next round. As Black Jack looked at the eight contestants, he predicted that Drew, Alice, Peach and Dawn would be in the top four.

After the announcement of the top eight contestants, they were given a half-hour recess. Alice was in her dressing room backstage, helping QT practice some moves for the contest. The room was a luxurious looking room with a white polished desk with a mirror next to one of the yellow walls, a leather couch, a number of celebrity posters and red carpet.

While they practised, there was knocking on the door, catching their attention.

"Come in," Alice responded. The door opened, her friends and uncle entered the room.

"Nervous?" Black Jack asked.

"Yeah, a little," Alice replied, trying to sound honest. Despite that she was trying to sound brave Black Jack knows better.

"Ya mind if I help you out Alice?" Jerry said enthusiastically. "I got something big in my head that would blow the crowd away."

"Thanks, Jerry," Alice said. "But I want to show everybody what I can do without help this time."

"Huh? Why?"

"Because after all this time, I've been getting help from Uncle Jack with my contests. Right now, since I'm in the toughest pokemon contest around, I want to show everyone that I've got what it takes to be one of the best."

"She's got you there, Jerry," Keith said.

Jerry hung his head low, feeling embarrassed again. "Why does it always have to be you who mock me?" he muttered.

"Don't you want to at least show us what you're planning?" Black Jack asked.

"Sorry, uncle," Alice replied. "But you know me, I don't like to ruin surprises."

Black Jack showed a fitting smile, feeling that his niece would bring out a great performance. "Fair enough," he said. He then turned towards the other two kids. "C'mon you young cubs. Alice and QT's still got more practising to do."

As they left, Alice let out a huge sigh, trying to release her nerves, knowing how hard it would be to impress the most difficult judges. She remembered her first participation in her first pokemon contest...

-Flashback-

She was sitting in a locker room. She was sitting on a bench with a coloured cube in her fingers called a pokeblock, a pokemon sweet she was planning to feed one to QT, a Togepi at the time who was sitting next to her, to increase her statistics, such as her cuteness.

Apart from QT there was no one else in that room, not even Black Jack. Earlier that day before the contest, she had some practising for that event with some help from him. As the start of the contest was getting closer, Alice asked for her uncle to practice alone with QT in the locker room, which Black Jack agreed to.

The real reason why she wanted to be alone was because of her nerves and she didn't want to show him how weak she was. Her nerves was getting too much for her as tears began to form in her eyes.

Seeing this, QT let out some small cute chirps, assuring her that they would do great in that contest. Alice turned towards QT and showed a small smile as she wiped the tears off her eyes. Like most of her pokemon, every time she looked at them, her nerves would leave.

-End Flashback-

Alice looked down to the floor, still breathing heavily to release her nerves. She felt a small paw touching her. She turned to her right and saw her Togetic, QT, touching her hand. "Toge, toge," QT chirped in an assuring tone, which helped Alice show a smile on her face. With QT by her side, her confidence increased.

After the intermission, the boys went back to their seats and to observe the performances of the top eight contestants.

One in particular was Peach and Smitty the Skitty, who Black Jack spotted as a possible top contender, was one of the first contestants to come out on stage while the host introduced her to the crowd. The crowd applauded for her while Jerry couldn't help but stare at her vacantly, while Black Jack looked at him as though he was acting strangely.

As Peach and Smitty got to the center of the stage they bowed politely to the applauding audience. Then they got into position ready to perform their act.

"Go! Smitty!" Peach yelled. "Use your Assist move!"

Smitty leapt into the air and glowed energetically blue as she shot out a huge stream of water out of her mouth. "That's a Water Gun attack," Black Jack said noticeably.

As the huge stream of water came falling down, Peach ordered Smitty to use her Ice Beam attack. Smitty obeyed as she shot a blue beam out of her mouth, hitting the falling liquid, turning it into a huge block of ice.

"Way to go, Smitty," Peach said. "Now, use your Assist move again."

An energy ball on Smitty's raised paw as numerous spinning leaves came shooting out of the ball. As the leaves came shooting out, they were quickly changing into different colours as they continually hit the ice block, knocking down small parts of ice and they scattered into the away, slowly falling as they sparkled beautifully, while audience looked on in astonishment. Black Jack, being a hard man to impress, also enjoyed that moment as he nodded his head. "Not bad," he said.

"Okay, Smitty, stop," Peach instructed. The glowing ball on Smitty's paw disappeared as she lowered her paw as they both gazed at the ice object in front of them, which is now a stunning looking statue of Peach hugging Smitty.

Peach clasped her hands and looked at the ice sculpture while smiling like a child in a candy store. "Oh, it's… beautiful, Smitty!" Peach cried with high admiration in her voice. The pink kitten turned round and cried happily as she leapt into her trainer's arms. She caught her beloved pokemon began hugging. The way they hugged each other looked exactly the statue that Smitty created.

The judges were much impressed as the audience as they them a combined score of 29.5 points. It was a good score since the highest score the contestants can get was 30.0. After seeing what their score was Peach and Smitty happily danced around with joy and then they bowed to the delighted and applauding audience before walking off the stage.

The next contestant to walk on stage was Dawn, who was being accompanied by Coral, her Gorebyss. In Dawn's hand was a bucket of different coloured balls.

When they got to the center of the stage they politely bowed in front of the audience.

Dawn leapt backwards as Coral got ready. "Okay, Coral," Dawn said loudly. "Water Gun!"

Coral raised her head upwards and shot a fountain of water out of her mouth. A lot of the audience felt the cool and pleasant drizzle as it spread from the mountain.

Dawn picked a few balls out of the bucket and tossed them towards the fountain. The fountain successfully caught each ball and Coral managed to keep them floating on top of it, much to the amazement of the judges and the audience.

"Now, form your water gun into a ring," Dawn instructed.

Obeying her instructions, Coral, still holding her Water Gun attack, separated her water gun and slowly turned her fountains into a horizontal hoop above her while the coloured balls moved about in the hoop, much to the audience's and the judge's amazement.

"Form your water gun into a heart, Coral," Dawn instructed.

Listening to her instructions obediently, Coral slowly formed her water gun into a vertical shape of the heart, while still keeping the balls moving inside the Water Gun, impressing everyone even more.

"Now, throw them back into the bucket, Coral," Dawn ordered.

Coral slowly formed her Water Gun back into a fountain again. She then separated her fountain back into two again, one of them shooting out each coloured ball while Dawn successfully caught each one and placing them back into the bucket, much to the astonishment of the audience. "Not bad," Black Jack thought, noticing how good the performance was while nodding his head, slightly.

After the performance was finished, they both bowed to the audience receiving a standing ovation while the judges gave her a total score of 29.5, the same score as her friend Peach had. After Dawn giving Coral a great big hug in celebration, they both bowed to the audience and then to the judges before walking off the stage.

"Alice is up soon," Black Jack thought to himself, thinking how good Peach and Dawn were. "I know she's got something big coming up."
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