Disclaimer: in this and the entirety of this story, I will make no claim to own the franchise of Pokemon in any way, shape, or form-this is merely a respectful fan fiction. Nintendo and Game Freak completely own Pokemon. Neither do I own the OC's used throughout the story, all of which belong to their respective authors. However, I do own the characters of Maecenas and Mycroft, neither of which may be used without my permission. And now that that's over and done with…
Screams of adulation from the thousands of Trainers gathered around filled the night air and camera flashes erupted from all sides like a sudden lightning storm as Palmer raised one hand and grinned in acknowledgement. There was no doubt that it was him, all right – the windswept blond hair, tanned and weathered face, and intense, fiery eyes could only belong to the heroic leader of Sinnoh's Battle Frontier. Those among the crowd who had battled him in the past respected him as a master of battle strategy with a nearly invincible team, while the others know him as the celebrity trainer whose battles always racked up top ratings on Sinnoh TV.
Palmer twirled around and struck a dynamic pose, the ends of his long, dark green coat flowing out behind him and the lights of Pokѐtopia arching dazzlingly above him.
"He's looking well," said Maecenas with amusement. "All that youthful energy he unleashed on my team so painfully is still there, all right."
Next to him, Mycroft gritted his teeth in irritation. Maecenas had battled the Tower Tycoon twice, which was one of the few accomplishments he had that Mycroft did not.
He planned to say something defensive in response, but at that moment Palmer took the microphone from the announcer, who strode off to the sidelines, and began his speech.
"Welcome to all of you!" his voice boomed out over the assembled masses. "Welcome to Pokѐtopia! This is an awesome place – really awesome – and I'm sure that all of you here are looking forward to the tournament. Believe me, so am I, and I'll make an effort to watch as many of your battles as I can.
"Now, as some of you may know, this tournament is being held to commemorate the construction of a new stadium in Pokѐtopia. We're currently at the site where that stadium will be built." At this point Palmer uncovered an easel standing next to him, on which was an artistic depiction of a huge, glass-roofed battle dome. "The office building beside me"--he waved a hand in indication –"has been deserted for a few months, and it will soon be demolished and construction will begin. I was asked here to combine the tournament's opening ceremony with a groundbreaking for the new stadium. So, without any further ado, let's get it under way."
Striking another pose, Palmer threw two Pokѐballs into the air. "Regigigas, Dragonite, on stage!"
Palmer's two Pokemon appeared in twin blazes of light and stood at attention in front of him. Gasps, shrieks and gradually, another round of applause filled the air – along with a renewed flurry of camera flashes – at the sight of the Legendary Pokemon.
Alex de la Roche, who was standing in the front row, couldn't believe her eyes. She had always loved Pokemon myths and legends more than almost anything, and here she was now looking at an actual Regigigas! Its white-and-gold muscular body, powerful, clawed arms, intricate markings, and the bushes growing from its shoulders and feet were all like those she'd seen pictured, but the Pokemon was just so much more amazing in person. It seemed to exude an aura of astonishing power.
"It's incredible," she breathed, then noticed that she and Maecenas, who was standing maybe five feet away from her, had been speaking in unison. Both of them colored slightly, and Alex hurriedly turned away to snap some more photos.
On a command from Palmer, the Regigigas stomped slowly over to the office building, its heavy footsteps shaking the ground and kicking up clouds of dust. It placed both gigantic hands against the building and, with a mechanical-sounding roar, lifted the whole thing into the air. Even more surprised shouts rang out from the crowd. It seemed unbelievable, but there it was right before their eyes: the Pokemon in front of them had just ripped an entire skyscraper clean out of its foundations by its own power. Suddenly the old legend about Regigigas towing the continents with rope seemed a bit less unbelievable. However, even this was nothing compared to what they would see next.
Regigigas shifted the building onto its shoulders amidst a rain of rubble and broken glass and stood immobile in that position for a moment, not even showing any signs of strain from its tremendous burden.
"Now, go!" roared Palmer. The dot patterns on Regigigas' "face" glowed with a golden light, and in one incredible movement it hurled the entire building into the air. At the same time, Palmer's Dragonite, which had gone relatively unnoticed next to its more spectacular companion, took to the skies, racing along with the building as it ascended like some gigantic rocket.
As the skyscraper reached its maximum height, the Dragonite reared back and spat a fireball at it, which was joined by a Hyper Beam fired from below by the Regigigas. Time seemed to slow down as both converged on the airborne building and slammed into the sides.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
An explosion of indescribable magnitude rocked Pokѐtopia to its
deepest foundations as the building erupted into a mass of fireworks.
One dazzling burst after another lit up the Pokѐtopia skyline,
expanding into multicolored stars of light. It was the most
incredible show of pyrotechnics that any of the tournament
contestants could ever remember seeing. One blast followed another
far too rapidly to keep up with, eventually merging into one giant
blizzard of light. The Dragonite, silhouetted sharply against the
blaze, roared and struck a pose. Just as quickly it was over, with a
huge cloud of smoke hanging in the night sky and the last few embers
drifting down to earth.
"That's right!" shouted Palmer, although compared to the explosions his voice now seemed much smaller. "Welcome to the big leagues!"
Whistling, cheering and clapping broke out from the members of the crowd who weren't still mesmerized. All of them were covered in a fine powder or cement, and smelled slightly singed.
"Whoa! How did they DO that?!?" asked Xavier, voicing everyone's thoughts.
Kane thought about this for a moment. "I suppose that they must've loaded the building with fireworks after it was vacated. It must have been really tough to choreograph it and take all the safety precautions and everything. But man, was it worth it!"
Markus was starry-eyed. "I still can't believe the way Regigigas just lifted that building!"
Ferk pointed to the crater that marked the spot where the building had stood. "Now that's what I call a groundbreaking!"
Universally tired out from the long day of travel and the spectacular opening ceremony, the trainers wearily stumbled off, headed for the contestants' village. It had been, without a doubt, quite a show.
***
The contestants' village consisted of a group of buildings near the ocean, some distance removed from the main city. Near the gateway there were the ubiquitous Pokemon Center and PokѐMart, and at a crossroads in the center stood a giant computer board that would display rankings, battle results, and so on once the tournament started.
Maecenas had collapsed into an armchair in the house he'd been provided with, no. 7B, with his Pokemon gathered around him. He had found some wild onions and basil growing under the windows, which he'd combined with a few choice ingredients of his own from his traveling bag to make his signature bruschetta (which was strong enough to give anyone garlic breath for a week). He and his team were now enjoying a midnight snack before turning in, munching on pieces of toasted bread slathered with the delicious spread and listening to the waves crashing against the shore in the distance.
Lucario stood next to Maecenas, manning the snacks platter and passing the bowl of bruschetta to anyone who wanted it. Paleo, Maecenas' Bastiodon, stood near the entertainment set, with Manaphy perched on its head. Both of them looked restful and content. Honchkrow was perched among the branches of the chandelier, holding a bread slice in one claw and looking out over the proceedings with a regal air. TerraFirma the Torterra was already curled up, asleep, in a corner, taking up most of the rest of the space in the room. Ludicolo, who had quickly located and consumed an enormous pack of soda in the house's fridge, had then promptly stumbled over to the sofa and passed out.
"Well, it was a pretty amazing first day, wasn't it?" Maecenas asked them, running a hand through his hair wearily. "Pokѐtopia is as awesome as ever, it was a great dinner--at least until the Rhyperior attacked--the opening ceremony was mind-blowing, and we've already met a lot of interesting new trainers."
You certainly seemed to think so, thought Lucario at him, with the telepathic equivalent of a chuckle.
"I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about," said Maecenas stiffly, looking flustered.
You're turning brick red again, was Lucario's only response. Well, she certainly is quite pretty…
Maecenas groaned. "You're impossible. Well, anyway, here we are in Pokѐtopia again! Are you all ready to dominate this tournament?"
A lusty cheer from those members of Maecenas' team that were still conscious filled the night.
***
Lucianne Delaray was not surprised to find herself unable to sleep-she hadn't expected anything else from her first night in a big city. Although the shock of the change of environment had been pretty jarring, she was still looking forward to the Pokemon battles to come, she admitted grudgingly to herself.
She somewhat regretted the scene she'd caused at dinner that night. Attacking the other contestants could hardly have given them a good first impression of her. She'd just lost control somewhat with that incredibly annoying guy with the ponytail who kept flirting with her. She'd be sure to apologize to the spacey-looking kid that Destructor had hit with a mangosteen the next day.
Luce unbraided the decorative feathers from her hair and placed them on the table next to her bed with a sigh. Pokѐtopia was an amazing place, all right, but she hoped not too many more things would go wrong.
In the house at the extreme rear of the village, close to the ocean, Varacei Alger was excitedly leafing through the rulebook. It mentioned that the tournament would begin with several rounds of single and double battles, then have a "qualifying event"-Varacei frowned-to determine the Tag Battle rankings. Battles would be randomly assigned to the Pokѐtopia Colosseums, although requests would be taken, and the final challenge for whatever tag team survived would be held in Stargazer Colosseum. That was the planetarium at the highest point of the island, Varacei realized, as he found it on the map that had been provided.
He was happy to see that the tournament battles wouldn't begin until the day after next. The opening night had certainly started things off with a bang, but some practice battles the next day would be even better.
There was a sudden BOOM! and a flash of light. Apparently Topaz, his Rotom, had gotten away and shorted out some appliance or other downstairs.
One last firework, thought Varacei to himself, closing his eyes contentedly. But now that the pyrotechnics were over, the battles would begin.
Hey, everyone, it's Maecenas here. Well, I'm anxious to hear what you all think of this chapter. It was pretty fun to write, and the Regigigas scene was one I had in mind before I ever even thought about writing a fan fiction. Hope you enjoyed it?
Tomorrow will finally be the beginning of the battles for which you've all been clammering. Mycroft vs. Varacei, Alex vs. Markus, and Maikeru vs. Someone will definitely be appearing, but I could use some requests for any others. And since it's just practice for the first day, no one gets eliminated! Also, in Varacei's part at the end, I hinted as to how the tournament will be set up. I've included a little of everything, and I'm planning on a Pokemon Contest and a tournament dance at some point as well. I wonder if anyone can guess what the "qualifying event" will be.
A further apology for my one-sided use of characters is in order, since I'm still sticking to the characters that are the easiest for me to use. Since this was more of an event chapter than a character one, hopefully I can diversify starting next chapter. I'd appreciate getting a little more info on the personalities of the following Trainers:
-Mimi Darius (PokemonJoe1)
-Celeste Skye (Nicolette7)
No offense to either of you, and they're both good characters, but if I knew just a bit more about them, I'd have an easier time deciding how to fit them into the tournament.
Also, in a note to everyone, I could still use a lot more male trainers. The ratio of romantically available male-to-female Trainers is something like 4: 20 right now. Anyone who hasn't yet sent in an OC should feel free to do so-I'd be more than happy to use them!
Character credits:
Maecenas and Mycroft-Yours Truly
Alex De la Roche-nellchan0013
Markus-Legendary Fairy
Kane-KK the Prophet
Luce-kyuuketsuki fang (for some reason, whenever I upload my stories Fang's name vanishes, but hopefully by typing it out fully this time I can avoid it. Further apologies if not.)
Ferk-SilentlySnowing
Xavier-LastPrelude
Varacei-Startix etc. etc.
From now on, you can vote for three favorite characters, since several of you seemed torn. It's just to give me a general idea of who's the most popular. Thanks again for everyone's comments, reviews, and support!
Again, feel free to suggest battle pairings, and virtual cookies to those who caught the Nintendo Power reference!
Maecenas out.