Here it is the next chapter go on and enjoy! (sorry I didn't update in a while)
Disclaimer: Still don't own Pokemon
Ages:
Ash: 14
Iris: 14
Chapter 6: Round one: Facing Fears
"The Princess of Unova Pageant there are three rounds," Nurse Joy said after the fireworks, "Wisdom and Courage is round one. Round two consist of Strength and connection with Pokémon. Finally round three is Beauty and Talent!"
"Huh, so it's three rounds," Ash said, "I wonder how it's all going to play out,"
"Alright ladies," Nurse Joy said indicating to Iris and the other contestations, "round one is about to start." Nurse Joy pressed a button on a remote she had in her hand.
In the large area a field arose it seemed to be a large circle and had 24 seats on it, Nurse Joy gestured for each girl to take seat, which they did. Iris took a seat and it just so happened to be right across from Misty's, who shot a dagger at her Iris just looked down at her hands Axew, who sat on her lap seemed to be growling.
Nurse Joy started to explain how this round was going to work, "On your application form each of you were told to write down your worst fear, wither it be a fear of heights or a fear of the dark, each of you is going to have to find a way around it and obtain one of these," the pink haired lady held up a 6 tiaras, each one sparkly silver.
"Everyone will be split up into 6 groups. There will be 4 girls in each group, each group will go one at a time and since there is one tiara for each group that means only one girl from each group will advance to round two. At the end the six girls that remain the judges will give them a score on their performances."
"Oh and one more thing about the rules," Skyla said, "no Pokémon are allowed to be used in this round, it's all based off of how much courage and wisdom you have so try your best to sail right over your fear's head!"
All the girls in the circle looked around nervously; Ash could see Iris's eyes were wide with fear. He turned his attention over to Misty who, oddly, didn't look the least bit scared.
"Oh crap, how is Iris going to get through this round?" Ash wondered, Pikachu's ears drooped. They both new full well that Iris was petrified of Ice type Pokémon, she would completely freak out at the sight of one, "I mean she screams and then her hair gets all frizzy-"
"Pika pi chu pika," Pikachu said giving a sly grin, making Ash blush
"Right and then s-she hides behind me," he added remembering all those times an Ice type would appear and Iris would jump behind him for protection, "but anyway what is Iris going to do, especially if she can't use any of her Pokémon?" Pikachu could only shrug.
After Nurse Joy and a few Audino collected all the girls' Pokémon Nurse Joy announced, "Alright now it's time to see who's in what group," she pressed another button on her remote and lights glowed from beneath each chair. The colors, which were, yellow, pink, green, blue, purple, and red, started flashing they flashed at a fast pace before slowing down and finally halting. The light under Iris's chair was green; along with three other girls she would being going against, luckily for Iris, Ash saw that Misty was in the red group.
"That's a relief," Ash sighed, knowing that if both Iris and Misty were together Misty would be ruthless to win.
"To determine who goes first," Nurse Joy continued, "our judges will take turns spinning this color wheel, Elesa you'll go first,"
The electric type Gym Leader approached the color wheel that sat to the left of the judges table, grabbed the wheel and gave it a good hard spin, "There it goes," she says, the wheel spun around several times before it slowly stopped on the color purple, "well it looks like the purple group is going first,"
The four girls seated in the seats with the glowing color of purple gave nervous glances at one another before slowly rising to their feet. Nurse Joy ushered them to the middle of the circle. After that she pressed a button on her remote and the circle started to transform! The seats where the other 20 girls sat started to swivel and move into rows along the sidelines, leaving Nurse Joy and the 4 girls in the purple team standing in the small circle that was left behind. Then like branches sprouting from a tree four straight paths jutted out of the circle and all connected to a podium.
Nurse Joy started to walk across one of the paths, "Each of you will race down these paths, to get to this podium to get the tiara," the pink haired lady sprinted down one of the paths and place a tiara on the podium, "but you have to be careful on your way down your worst fear could pop up at any moment, so be ready to face your fear!"
"But, there's also one other thing to beware," Roxie piped up, "if you chicken out on facing your fear or you come in last, be ready to take a dip in my signature recipe of neon green slime!" she pumped a fist in the air, "hit it Nurse Joy!"
With a push of a button the paths moved a good three of four feet apart before bright neon green slime bubbled up between the gaps of the paths and pooled around the small circle of ground the podium sat on.
"Wow slime, this is gonna be high flying fun! And nice touch Roxie," the flying type leader said clapping her hands happily.
"Yes, this is going to be…interesting," Elesa added looking at the slime with slight disapproval
Most of the girls seated in their chairs near the side lines had grossed out expressions on their faces, laughing at the purples groups' misfortune of going first or pulling their feet close to their chest even though the slime was nowhere near them. Ash could see Iris was looking at the slime with slight curiosity with a bit an adventurous gleam in her eye, misty seemed irked at the slight of the slime. The four girls in the purple group seemed a bit more intimated now than before and stared awestruck, were whining about their outfits or were carefully taking off their high heels.
"Alright ladies are you ready?" Nurse Joy asked when all four girls of the purple group were standing on a path, "Okay on your mark. Get set. GO!"
A horn blared, the girls started off down the paths and the crowd cheered. Ash just couldn't believe what fears these girls had. One of the girls that raced down their path got stopped by her fear of what looked like argyle socks and sweaters, at the sight of the clothing she screamed and cowered screaming, "Get these hideous cloths away from me!" it was almost unbelievable! But in the end of the purple group's turn a girl that had a fear of tapioca pudding (TG2012: Hey I'm coming up with these thing right off the top of my head…and besides you'd be surprised about what people are afraid of). Other girl's fears made a bit more sense a girl that was in the yellow group (the group that went 2nd) had a fear of Zubats that came flying out of a cage that hung above her path, while another that was in the white group was terrified of heights and screamed in horror when a portion of the path she was racing on suddenly levitated a few feet up into the air.
By the time the first three groups went, three girls stood beside Nurse Joy with tiaras on their heads while nine girls stood near the sidelines, most of them covered in green slime.
"Our next judge to give our color wheel a spin is Skyla," Nurse Joy announced
"Okay," the flying type expert came up to the wheel, "let's see how fast this pretty color wheel can go!" she grabbed the wheel and let it rip! It went around at least fifteen times before stopping on the color:
"Well looks like our green group is going next!" Nurse Joy said happily.
Ash, who had followed a few people down closer to the front, could see Iris flinch and clutch the sides of her seat a bit harder.
"Come on down ladies!" Nurse Joy called as the green light started to pulse underneath Iris's and three other's seats as if they forgotten what group they were in.
"Come on Iris, you can do this!" Ash called along with a few others who were cheering for other girls
"Pika pi chu pika!" Pikachu cheered as well
After Nurse Joy placed the tiara on the podium and the participants for this round peeled themselves from their seats, all four girls lined up on to one path Nurse Joy assigned to them. Ash watched as Iris's face was tense; it was the face she got when she was thinking hard to figure something out.
"Damn it, looks like Iris is lost at what to do," Ash muttered, "well she just going to have to do her best and wing it, I guess,"
"Pika pi chu pika," Piakchu said in agreement
"Alright on your mark, get set, GO!" Nurse Joy yelled setting off the blare horn.
All four girls set off running as fast as they could down their paths. Ash knew for a fact that Iris was a fast runner, even a little bit faster than himself, he watched with a grin on his face as she quickly started to pull ahead of all the other girls. But even with her speed, Ash could tell Iris was having trouble with her footing, the shoes she was wearing were not made for running and it was quickly showing how unstable they were. The black gladiator sandals slapped against Iris's small feet, something her pink and white shoe wouldn't do, they were slick at the bottom giving her no traction what so ever. Iris was leaned over half the time trying to keep her balance her ponytail hair style bobbing with each of her movements.
(TG2012: For all you guys that are ready this, it's true running in gladiator shoes is not as easy as we make it look, ladies you can agree with me on that part…)
"Come on Iris!" Ash cheered, as she made it to the half-way point on her path, "just a little bit father-"
He didn't get to finish because he had to cover his ears as two of the girls screeched in horror as their fear popped up in front of them which happened to be a pile of squid (dead of course) and a giant Galvantula!
"Ew! OMIGOSH SQUID! THAT'S LIKE SUPER MAJOR GROOOOSSSS! AHHH!" the girl that stood shaking in front of the slimy squid wailed
"DON'T LET THAT DAMN THING NEAR ME!" the one who was in the presences of a Galvantula that was happily starting to come her way, "IT'LL LIKE SHCK ME AND LIKE RUIN MY OUTFIT!"
(TG2012: and another rule Nurse Joy forgot to mention, the Pokémon will not hurt the competitors, just scare the shit out of them…but I guess you guys already kinda figured that out…)
Ash sweatdropped, "Geez, these girls are afraid of really weird stuff,"
"Pika pi chu pika!" Pikachu pointed to the paths to see that Iris was in the lead and a girl with curly pink hair was quickly catching up. Iris seemed to notice and ran even faster but she came to a screeching halt when her greatest fear came crashing down from above.
"Cryogonal!" the Crystallizing Pokémon cried, in an instant it's icy breath let out a mist of cold air right in Iris's face.
"Oh, no," Ash said, "she gonna lose it-AHH!," Ash slapped his hands over his ears, Iris cry of fear was so loud it probably woke of sleeping Pokémon all the way in the next city!
"I-IT'S…IT'S AN ICE TYPE POKEMON!" Iris cried, her body quickly reacted and she started to shiver uncontrollably and her teeth began to chatter nosily as the hit one another, "GET THIS DAMN THING AWAY FROM ME!"
"Iris come on!" Ash yelled, "you can't just stand there you're going to have to do something, or you're gonna lose!"
"Yeah Iris, you can do it!" Ash looked to his left to see the girl with the green hair standing at his left
"We know you can!" cried the one in pink who appeared at his right
Iris seemed to hear them and turned to look at Ash and the two girls, Iris took a breath before shakly turned back to look at the Cryogonal, a visible shiver shimmied down her spine.
"Come on Iris you still have a chance to do this!" Ash yelled pointing to where the pink haired gilr was stopped by her fear(TG2012: I can't really come up with a fear at the moment I know you guys are smart you can come up with something…)
Ash watched as Iris took another deep breath as the look of determination flashed in her eyes. In an instant the purple haired beauty leaped into action! Iris rushed at the Cryogonal!
"Look at her go folks!" Skyla said standing from her seat, "it seems like one of our contestants has decided to get through her fear but force!"
"You go girl!" Roixe cried
Elesa sweatdropped a bit at how the other two judges lack of class, but none the less she cheered too, "Do your best to shine bright and you can concur any fear!"
(Tg2012: kinda cheesy but it was the best I could come up with)
Ash watched Iris's darting movements, Iris leaped left then to the right trying her hardest to go around the Cryogonal but the Ice type blocked her every attempt due to it's swiftness. She bobbed left, right the Cryognonal matched her every movement all seemed lose but that's when Iris went left but faked the move and went right instead maneuvering her way around the Ice type Pokémon.
"Alright Iris, you did it!" Ash cheered, the two girls and Pikachu cheered as well
Iris rushed past the Cryogonal with a confident look on her face, but her joy was short lived as she slipped on a bit of the slime that was on her path and landed right on her butt. The purple haired teen started to her feet but just as she did so the Cryogonal floated right in front of her blocking her past once again.
"CRY CRY CRYOGONAL!" it cried as icy cold of frost pooled in the air
Ash could see Iris face fall, and out of the corner of his eye he say that red head, Misty, with a smirk on her face. Ash gritted his teeth, "Iris come on you have to get around that thing again! There's no way you're going down in the first round are you?"
"Looks like one of our ladies are stuck again," Nurse Joy announced, "but look is seems like one of our other competitors have made it through her fear!"
Ash looked to see the girl with the fear of squid slowly pulling herself from the large pile of slimy sea creatures she had forced herself to trudge through. The girl seemed disgusted at how much slimy substance the squids had left on her but she seemed like she wanted to win just as bad as Iris and kicked it into high gear and ran down her path again.
"Oh no, Iris has to hurry!" the green haired girl said
"She can't lose now!" the one in the pink added
"PIka pi chu pika!" Pikachu said waving his tiny yellow fist
"Come on Iris, you can do it," Ash said to himself, "you have get through your fear if you want to beat Misty,"
Iris glanced over her shoulder and seemed to notice the squid girl gaining on her; Ash watched Iris bear her teeth, "UGH! Theirs is no way in hell I'm letting this damn Cryogonal make me lose," she took a few paces back, and then ran at full speed at the Cryogonal and jumped right on the Pokémon's face!
"CRY!" the ice type shouted it wasn't expecting that
The surprised Pokémon bucked and thrashed trying to remove the teen from its face but Iris held on tightly. Ash could see this was a struggle for Iris, she was shaking all over and her teeth were clenched tight to keep them from chattering but somehow she still managed to hold on to the Ice Type Pokémon.
"Come on Iris, you can do it!" Ash yelled,
Iris seemed to trying to climb over the Ice type Pokémon, it seemed to be working until she reached the top that's when her weight became too much at the top and Cryogonal started to tip backwards! But due t it's levitate ability, the Pokémon hovered for a moment, Iris looked about ready to leap off but instead her weight made the Pokémon flip but not once but twice and made it fall face down on the path. The two didn't stop though due to the Cryogonal's super cold and slippery body the two went sliding right down the path at incredible speed, with Iris clinging on the back of the Ice type Pokémon!
The girl that had trudged her way through the squids gasped at the sight of Iris and the Cryogonal and started to run faster but it was no use, with each second Iris and the Cryogonal went faster and faster.
"Oh no! Looks like Iris is gonna crash!" the green haired girl cried as the purple haired teen and the ice type Pokémon were speeding towards the end of the path.
"She has to find a way to stop!" the girl in the pink squealed, "or she's gonna crash right into the podium!"
Ash didn't know what to say as he watched Iris scream as she clung to the Cryogonal, no one in the audience could pull their eyes from the scene.
"Looks like there's no stopping that Cryogonal!" Nurse Joy announced, but then she gasped "but wait what is this competitor doing?!"
Ash watched the purple haired beauty, even at that incredible speed, as she suddenly let go of the Ice type Pokémon and slowly and shakily made her way to her feet. Her arms wobbled at her sides as she tried to keep her balance, her purple ponytail flapped behind her and Ash could see determination flash in her eyes and a small smile curl on her lips.
'What is Iris doing?' Ash thought
"Pika pi chu pika!" Pikachu whimpered covering his face with his hands
The Cryogonal speed closer and closer. Iris braced herself for the impact.
THAWM!
The Cryogonal cried its name in pain as it slammed head first into the podium. The sudden stop sent Iris lunging forward she seemed to be ready to grab the tiara but it didn't happen that way. The impact of the Cryogonal had flung sliver head piece high in the air making Iris miss it just by a hair!
"Oh no, the tiara!" Elesa cried jumping to her feet, "ahh, it's going to land right into Roixe's slime!"
"A slime covered tiara!" Roixe exclaimed, also rising to her feet and pumping her fist in the air, "Awesome, I've never seen that before!"
Skyla leaped to her feet, "Sorry, Roxie, but I don't think that's gonna happen, look!"
Everyone looked as Iris climbed off of the Cryogonal's back, took a few paces back and ran at the podium at full speed and then using the podium as a launch pad leaped onto it and thrusting herself high in the air. The crowd gasped as Iris reached and nabbed the tiara from the air, she seemed happy for a moment before her face fell as she realized that she was falling right towards the ground!
"Iris!" Ash called as he watched as she fell.
However Iris was ready, placing the tiara in her mouth she put her hands out. She planted them on the ground and did a back flip and landed on her feet, she wobbled a bit but managed to land perfectly.
The crowed started to cheer.
"Alright, Iris you did it!" Ash cheered
"Pika pi chu pika!" Pikachu waved his little hands in the air
"Yea Iris!" the two girls cheered
"And we have our fourth winner!" Nurse Joy announced coming over and placing the tiara on Iris's head.
The crowd cheered even louder, but then busted into the laughter as the other females were trusted backward into the green slime like what had happened three times before. Ash smiled as Iris waved at the crowd at the corner of his eye he could see Misty sitting in her seat and her group of friends standing nearby they were all stewing angrily at Iris's win, but Misty seemed more pissed than any of them, her face was as red as a Cherri berry.
Ash took the opportunity to turn and blow a raspberry at the red head, only making her dtamp her foot in frustration and turn away a scowl on her face, the raven haired boy laughed 'Misty better watch out,' Ash thought with a smile, 'because Iris's isn't going holding back one bit,'
The next round went by quickly in which a girl who had a fear of ghost won the tiara. When it was time for the last group, the red group and Misty's group, to go all four girls lined up on their assigned paths, Ash couldn't help but notice a rather confident looking smirk on Misty's face. When Nurse Joy sounded the horn and the last round began, the raven haired teen couldn't believe what he saw. While the other three girls were withering in the face if their fears Misty was having no trouble at all. Because what popped up in front of the red head was a Stoutland! The normal type Pokémon tried to scare Misty, by snarling, bearing its teeth and barking its name, but she wasn't having it. The water type trainer stared the thing down and started to yell at it to tell it who was boss and she actually scared the poor Pokémon and it let her get by as it coward in fear of the red head! Misty was able to obtain the tiara in less than five minutes flat!
"I can't believe it!" Ash grumbled
"You can't believe what? Iris whispered, Ash was standing at the sidelines were the rest of the girls wearing tiaras stood
"Misty, she's not afraid of a Stoutland!" he said, "I've traveled with Misty and I know full well that bitch is afraid of Bug type Pokémon!"
Iris blinked, "She is! B-but that's not fair, she didn't actually face her fear! That's cheating!"
"It's not cheating until one of the judges find out," Iris jumped as Misty made her way over to the side lines after Nurse Joy had declared her as the sixth winner, "and even if anyone did tell, they wouldn't believe you," she said eyeing Ash and his growling Pikachu, "because I wrote down Stoutland as a fear and there's no changing it, unless I said so of course, but why would I do that?"
"Misty your such a-"
"Don't want to hear it, Ketchum," Misty snapped holding up her hand before walking back to where her little group of girls stood.
'I-I can't believe someone would cheat like that!" Iris growled
Ash sighed, "Well there's nothing we can do about it…" he could see Iris looked a bit sad and a bit angry, "but there's no need to worry about it,"
"Yeah, you'll beat Misty, even if she does cheat!" the two girls wearing green in pink said together.
"Yeah, just do you best and you'll do fine," Ash said with a smile and placing a kiss on Iris's forehead, making her smile.
"All of you ladies did an awesome job facing your fears!" Roxie said over her microphone a few moments later when all of the winners of round one stood in the big open area again
"But of course some of you shined brighter than others," Elesa added indicating to the six girls that stood before her all wearing tiaras
"As in every completion there's always a few that fly way over the rest of the competitors so we've given each of you a score," Skyla said,
"That's right each of the judges will gave you a number ranging from 1 to 5, and after adding all three numbers up each of you will have a score for round one based on your performance of facing your fear!" Nurse Joy said before she pressed a button on her remote, and up on the large screen was each of girls' images and names right beside it.
That's when each judge started to critique each girl's performance in round one.
"Melissa, even though you were a bit hesitant to come over your fear of the dark," Elesa said, "you overcame it and shied brighter than ever, so I'm giving you a solid five!"
Melissa, a girl with green pigtails squealed with happiness, "Thank you, Elesa," she said
"Alright Skyla gave Melissa a 3, Roxie gave her a 2 and Elesa gave her a 5, making Melissa Moore a total of 10 points!" Nurse Joy said, in an instant the number 10 was placed by the image of the girl named Melissa, "those 10 points put you in fourth place!"
Melissa didn't seem too pleased with her place in the completion but she smiled as the crowd cheered for her.
"What score do you think Iris will get?" Ash asked the two girls that stood beside him
"It depends," the one in pink simply stated with a shrug of the shoulders
"Pi chu pika?" Pikachu asked titling his head to the side
"Yeah what do you mean it just depends?" Ash asked also feeling confused
"Well every year at this pageant they try to find three people to be the judges," the one in green started, "sometimes there girly girls, others it just may be people who care less, I even remember one year where the judges were all drag queens!" she giggled
(TG2012: you guys know what a drag queen is right?)
"What's you point?" Ash asked
"This year they chose Elesa, Skyla and Roxie," the pink haired one continued, "now that I think about it this year has the most balanced judges yet!"
"Balanced?" Ash asked, still confused
"Yes, balanced, Elesa is a pure girly girl and loves all the high end fashion, and stuff like that, I mean she is a model after all" the one in green said
"While Roxie is the exact opposite, she doesn't give a care about fashion and rather rock out and have fun with her band and Pokémon, besides she's a rock star!" the one in pink said.
"And what about Skyla?" Ash wondered glancing at the flying type Gym Leader
"She's kinda in between, she's not totally girly girl but she's not totally a hard core tomboy," the green on said
"Each judge represents each type of personality a girl could have, Elesa: girly girl Skyla: neutral (or in between girly girl and tomboy) and Roxie: tomboy, do you get it now?" the pink haired one asked
Ash nodded, "yeah…I think,"
'So it'll all be based on the judges opinion and point of view of how they saw Iris…so it could go either way really, I just hope the judges like what they saw,' Ash thought looking at his very special purple haired friend
"Next for critiquing is, Iris Dragonlight!" Nurse Joy said
Ash could see Iris gulp, but she steps forward in front of the judges table. Her hands were folded in front of her, they were shaking somewhat, nervousness could be seen in her big brown eyes.
Wanna know what the judges think of Iris's first performance? What will happen in round two? Stay tuned for the next chappy of A Different Kind of Princess!
Okay that's it. Sorry if it seemed a bit rushed, anywho hoped you liked it!
BYE:Toadettegirl2012
PS: Review please
PPS: I was planning to post two chapters of this fanfic at the same time but I ran out of time :/ sorry guys! Don't worry I'm planning to have the last few chapters of this fanfic by the time I post the Holiday Fun fanfic for June…which will be on the 16th I think…wait that's today, ugh okay let's just say the last three chappys will be up ASAP!