Chapter 19: Performing Arts
"Jigglypuff, what are you doing in there? Get out before we get in trouble!" Olivia scolded as she struggled to prop herself up on a cement wall.
"Jiggly," the Normal-type replied, taking a sip of a fruity little drink and adjusting the sunglasses on her face.
"Where did you get those things, huh? I better not have to pay for whatever you stole!" Olivia shouted, losing balance and crashing back into the ground on her own side of the wall.
After a full morning of searching, she had finally found her Pokémon – floating on an inner tube in somebody's backyard pool.
"Jiiiggly…"
"No! I didn't abandon you, I promise!" Olivia insisted as she pulled her head up over the wall once more. "I spent a lot of time looking for you yesterday! I even faced pirates for you!"
"Puff?" the Balloon Pokémon replied in disbelief as she raised her sunglasses.
"I'm telling the truth, Jigglypuff! Here, I even have a witness. Meet our new friend!"
The girl held onto the wall tightly with one hand and used the other to take out a Pokéball and throw it up into the air; the Azurill from the day before materialized on the ground just below the wall on Jigglypuff's side. It had decided to come along with Olivia the night before and had willingly tapped the center of one of her empty Pokéballs with its forehead.
"Jiggly-puff!" the Balloon Pokémon exclaimed, hurrying over to greet the Polka Dot Pokémon.
"Azu! Azu!" Azurill chittered as it introduced itself.
"Ooo! I just knew you'd be friends!" Olivia exclaimed, watching over them with admiration.
Using all her might, she finally managed to pull herself up so she could take a seat on top of the wall and return her two Pokémon to their balls. Then she climbed back down and hit the ground running. She didn't stop until she reached the hotel just in time to catch Aiden, Eziray, and Lyla as they were taking off.
"Sup Olivia?" Lyla asked, raising an eyebrow as the fangirl caught up with them with a large grin on her face.
"I'm so glad found you guys!" she exclaimed as she leaned over to catch her breath. "I found Jigglypuff too!"
"That's great!" Lyla replied. "Now you two can go run off to the beach together and stay out of our hair!"
"Funny you say that, Lyla, considering how annoying you are!"
"Maybe so," Lyla said with a slight grin as she took Aiden's hand in hers just to provoke the fangirl.
"And it's begun," Eziray said with a sigh as Olivia went off and Lyla continued to taunt her.
The bickering didn't go on for too long, however, because there was a slam of a door which quickly hushed the two up as they glanced over to see what was going on. A man with a guitar had stormed out of a nearby café and the owner wasn't far behind him, begging him not to leave.
"Come on, Stacy! You're on in five minutes. How am I supposed to find another lunchtime performance in 5 minutes?"
"Not my problem anymore, man!"
"I'M RUINED!"
"Hey!" Aiden called once the other musician was out of sight. "I can fill in for him…"
"Oh thank the heavens!" the owner exclaimed, noticing the guitar slung over Aiden's shoulder. "Are you any good, kid? Eh. Don't answer that actually. Beggars can't be choosers, right? Come on in!"
"And just like that, Aiden's got his first Hoenn gig!" Eziray exclaimed.
"Alright, Aiden!" Lyla exclaimed as she began to follow him towards the café.
"Wait a minute, Lyla," Eziray said as she suddenly grabbed ahold of Lyla's shoulder.
"Yeah?"
"I don't think we should go in there with him…"
"What? Why not? It's Aiden's first gig in Hoenn and I wanna see it! Besides, I don't want to give Olivia reason to harass me anymore than she already does."
"That's the problem actually…I mean I wanna see it too, but you and Olivia are bound to tear into each other or start a bar fight or something. You've got a contest to register for too, y'know!"
"You're right…" Lyla trailed off with a sigh. "I almost forgot about it too…Oh well, I guess I'll have to catch his next concert then."
"Hey Aiden! We'll catch ya later, mmkay?" Eziray called, waving to Aiden as Olivia's face lit up.
"Where you headed to?"
"The Contest Hall!"
"Ah, roger that then. See ya in a few!"
"G'luck, babe!" Lyla exclaimed in one last attempt to poke the bear. It worked too; Olivia was fuming.
"Let's go, trouble-maker," Eziray said, pulling Lyla away.
"Myaah!" Skitty cheered as she raced down the street.
"Skitty, where are you off to?" Lyla asked.
"She's probably just excited to stretch her feet! She's been at the Pokémon Center all night you know. In fact, I think everyone should come out to stretch their feet and smell the fresh sea breeze! Charo, Baby, Gracie, Speedy – come on out!"
"You too, Mudkip and Eevee!"
The Pokémon all materialized before their trainers and began sprinting down the street, save Speedy who walked alongside his trainer.
"So your Treecko evolved," Lyla said as she studied the Grovyle. "I never congratulated you, so congrats Ez!"
"Groh!"
"Yes, and congrats to you too, Speedy! I bet you feel really strong now…I wonder if any of my Pokémon are getting ready to change too."
"It takes time. Time, love, and training!"
"I know, and I can't wait!"
"Speaking of training, who are you registering for the contest? You've gotta dedicate the next two days working with whoever you choose, y'know!"
"I might actually go with Skitty again…"
"Vui?" Eevee whispered to herself, perking her ears in disbelief at what she had just heard.
"Really?" Eziray asked.
"I'm reluctant to use Mudkip because he's a little too wild for me to handle sometimes. And as for Eevee, I'm not sure if she's ready for a contest yet. Or rather, I'm not sure I'm ready to use her yet…I just can't think of any good appeals for the–"
"VUI!" the Normal-type in question boomed as she leapt into the air, rotating, and released a flurry of star-shaped disks from her tail.
"Wow!" Eziray exclaimed as Eevee landed and bowed.
"Eevee…I'm speechless. Did Espeon teach you that for the contest?"
"Eee!" the Evolution Pokémon replied with a nod.
"Well you better think up an appeal now, Lyla. You can't let her down after she put in the effort to learn that for you!"
"You're right," Lyla replied with a smile. "Eevee it is!"
"Alright, you're all set!" the lady at the front desk said as she handed back Lyla's Contest Pass.
It had taken the girls about twenty five minutes to hike up to the Contest Hall, but it would have been even shorter if they hadn't gotten booted off the tram due to Mudkip harassing the driver.
"Thanks much!" Lyla replied as she put her Contest Pass away.
"Anytime! Good luck!"
"So now what?" Eziray asked as they stepped outside.
"Do you think Aiden'll still be playing if we headed to the café right now?" Lyla asked with slight disappointment for missing his first gig.
"If we hurry, we might catch one song!"
"And it's all downhill from here!" Lyla exclaimed as she called Mudkip back to his ball and scooped Skitty up into her arms. "But I think we should try the tram again, just to be quick."
"How about a race?" Eziray replied as she called back all of her Pokémon except Speedy.
"I was thinking the same thing! Alright, Eevee, we've got a lot of training to do starting now. First, we're going to work on your speed and stamina, so try to keep up with Eziray's Grovyle all the way down the hill. Ez and I are gonna see if we can take the tram. Meet you at the bottom!"
"Vui!" Eevee exclaimed as she readied herself for take-off.
"Groh," the Grass-type grunted with a nod.
Then the two Pokémon took off – Speedy leapt from tree to tree while Eevee tried to keep up by sprinting around them. Speedy tried to stay at a pace slow enough for Eevee, but she still lagged a little bit. This made her pretty angry, however, and she sped up into a Quick Attack. Unfortunately, she forgot about the trees and crashed right into one.
"Vui…" she trailed off as she watched the stars swirl around her head. Then she shook it off and thought for a moment. She wondered if leaping from branch to branch like Speedy would be quicker and easier than sprinting along the ground.
"Vyle!" Speedy exclaimed, returning to see if she was alright.
"Eee…" she trailed off as she attempted to climb the tree, but she just slid right back down.
Speedy sighed and took a seat as he waited for her to try a couple more times. After a few minutes of failed attempts, however, he let her know that it was time to go and took off. She paused for a moment to think again and then she figured out how she would be able to get up.
"Ee-VUI!" she exclaimed as she multiplied by five with Double Team.
The four duplicates climbed on top of each other, leaning against the tree. Using Quick Attack, the original sprinted forward and up the Eevee ladder before leaping onto the lowest tree branch. Then she hopped from branch to branch until she felt she was high enough.
"Vui…" she trailed off, studying the gap between her branch and the one of the tree in front of her.
She closed her eyes and jumped with all her might, just barely grabbing hold of the branch she had aimed for. She struggled for a moment as her hind legs dangled below her, but she eventually managed to pull herself up onto it. She panted for a moment and then tried again with the next branch. As she hopped from branch to branch, she grew more and more used to it. Pretty soon, she had quite a momentum going.
"Groh?" Speedy said as Eevee finally passed him.
He was pretty shocked at first but then he smiled and increased his pace until he was slightly in the lead again. The two Pokémon continued to race through the trees together until they reached the bottom of the hill. Speedy wasn't that tired out because he was used to it but Eevee collapsed and panted until the tram arrived.
"Workin' her hard, Speedy?" Eziray asked as she stepped out of it.
"How was it, Eevee?" Lyla asked as she picked up the discolored Evolution Pokémon.
"Mya! Mya!" Skitty exclaimed, picking up on a familiar sound and charging forward.
"Now where are you going?" Lyla asked as she held Eevee tight and followed the Kitten Pokémon.
"Let's go, Speedy!" Eziray exclaimed as she and Speedy took off too.
Skitty led them back to the café where Aiden was playing, just in time to catch his last song.
"Skitty," Lyla began as she took a seat at an empty table up by the stage. "You really amaze me with how well you can hear."
"Isn't he great?" Eziray asked, taking a seat across from Lyla.
"He's incredible…" Lyla replied.
"Awww, are you falling in love?" Eziray teased.
Lyla smiled without responding. She wanted to enjoy the music now, Eziray as well. Deep down, however, Lyla wondered if she really was falling in love with Aiden.
When the song was over, he received a rather loud applause – especially from Olivia. He thanked the crowd with a wide grin and then stepped off the stage to meet with the owner.
"Thank goodness you were around when you were, kid!" the owner exclaimed. "Here's for your performance! There's some tips from the customers in there too."
Aiden thanked the owner as he was handed a pretty fat wad of cash. Eziray and Lyla cried out with joy upon seeing it because they were happy not to be flat broke anymore. As Aiden and the three girls stepped out into the street, he was immediately showered with compliments – from Olivia and Lyla especially. His glory was cut short, however, when a young red-headed girl with braids interrupted them.
"Excuse me, but have you four seen a Mareep wandering around?" she asked, her deep blue eyes filled with panic.
She was a bit younger than them, about thirteen or so. Her two wine red braids fell to her shoulder blades and she had full bangs in the front that fell to just above her eyes. Her cheeks were spotted with a few tiny freckles and she was dressed in a red flannel shirt with the long sleeves that she had rolled up, jean capris, and white tennis shoes without socks.
"Can't say we have," Eziray replied with a frown.
"But we could help you look for it!" Lyla offered.
"Really?" the girl asked, clasping her hands together next to her face.
"Yeah! We can split up and cover more ground. Then we can meet back up here in an hour!" Lyla continued.
"Sounds like a plan! See you soon," the girl said, racing off.
"It's funny," Olivia began, "that when I begged you guys to help me find Jigglypuff this morning, you refused. But when a complete stranger comes around, you're all for it! Do you even know what a Mareep is?"
"I'm working on it…" Eziray trailed off, trying to figure out how to look it up on her Pokédex.
"You've had that thing for how long and you still don't know how to work it? Here, give it to me," Aiden said.
"No! I can do it!"
"And about not helping you, Olivia," Lyla finally replied as Aiden and Eziray played tug-of-war with the Pokédex. "We told you we would. You just had to wait until after the continental breakfast!"
"Yeah, well, while you were stuffing your face, Jigglypuff could have been suffering all alone somewhere…Besides, you all have a week's worth of meals for the three of you stashed away up there in your suite. What the hell did you need to go to the continental breakfast for?"
"Because it was free…"
"Did you get your Pokédex updated back at Birch's lab like Professor Oak said? There are only Kanto natives on here…" Aiden trailed off as he scrolled through the dex.
"Of course I did! It wouldn't be working with all these Hoenn Pokémon otherwise. Give it to me, you're on the wrong menu," Eziray snapped as Lyla sighed and pressed a couple buttons on her own Pokédex.
"Mareep, the Wool Pokémon: It sheds its fleece in the summer but grows it back in a week. If static electricity builds in its body, its fleece doubles in volume and touching it could be very shocking!" the Dex informed.
"Thank you, Lyla," Aiden said.
"Mhm!" she replied. "Come take a look everyone."
Olivia and Aiden hovered over Lyla's shoulders and took a look at the Pokédex to see the image of a Mareep. Eziray, however, was still fiddling with her own Pokédex.
"It's a little yellow and blue sheep thing, Ez. That's all you need to know," Lyla called.
"Got it!" Eziray replied back without even looking up.
"Then I guess we should begin the search then?" Lyla asked as Aiden and Olivia gave her some space. "I'll head North, Aiden West, Eziray East, and Olivia South?"
"Yes! The beach!" Olivia cheered as she raced off.
"We're not really splitting up, are we?" Eziray figured.
"No, Ez, we're not," Lyla giggled. "But Eevee, I want you to help look too."
"Vui?" the Normal-type replied, cocking her head.
"You should be constantly working and improving that Quick Attack of yours, so this is the perfect opportunity for that. I want you to cover as much ground as possible and then meet back here in an hour or if you find the Mareep, got it? And try not to stop or walk too frequently okay…but don't hurt yourself either. Learn your limits."
Eevee nodded and took off running. Lyla watched after her until she was out of sight and then sighed.
"What's wrong, Lyla? I'd say you're really getting the hang of being a trainer," Eziray complimented.
"Really?"
"Yep! And it's really not a bad idea to cover as much ground as possible…so, with that said, Charo, Gracie, Baby, come on back out!"
Eziray sent out her remaining three Pokémon to join the search and gave them all a nod. Speedy, Charo, and Gracie took off but she decided to keep Baby with her. Aiden followed suit by sending out Combusken and Espeon as well; the Fire-type stayed with him and the Psychic-type set off on her own. Lyla didn't want Mudkip running amok so she kept him in his ball.
"Alright, let's go…THIS WAY!" Eziray exclaimed, racing off.
"Eziray, that's the way that trainer went, it's pointless to look there," Aiden shouted.
"Then this way!" Eziray exclaimed, making a quick turn.
"That'll do," Lyla said as she and Aiden followed.
"Do you think it could have gotten down into the sewers?" Eziray wondered as they walked along.
"Well there's only one way to know for sure…" Aiden trailed off.
"I'm not going down there…" Lyla said as Eziray removed a manhole cover and they all took a good whiff.
"You still have Mudkip, don't you?" Eziray asked.
"Of course. Sending him off into the city by himself is like sending a small, hyperactive child into an antiques shop…I thought it best to leave him out of this search."
"Well, you may have to reconsider."
"Are you joking? Didn't you hear what I just said? Besides, can you imagine what it'll be like to bathe him after this? If you wanna volunteer, be my guest!"
"But what if the Mareep is down there?"
"…Fine. But the blood is on your hands if something bad becomes of this!"
Lyla reluctantly withdrew Mudkip's Pokéball from her bag and sent out the little mischief-maker.
"Mud?" the Water-type asked, peering into the sewer below them.
"Yep, you're going swimming, love. You're gonna go down there and find a lost Pokémon that looks like this," Lyla explained as she held out her Pokédex for Mudkip to get a good look.
"Mud-kip!" he exclaimed excitedly, leaping down into the sewer.
"Hey, stay focused!" Lyla shouted down to him. "I don't see him anymore…He better have heard me, damnit."
She hesitated for a moment and sighed. Then she turned to her friends and the three continued their search. Lyla kept Mareep's image on her Pokédex and asked every person they encountered if they had seen it. Unfortunately, no one seemed to be of any help. As they walked along, they scanned the streets carefully, looked into trashcans, behind fences, under benches, around corners, in between bushes, on top of buildings (with Baby and Skitty's help), and in any other potential hiding places they came across. Thirty five minutes went by with no luck.
"Hey, what was that?" Lyla asked as a bolt of electricity fired up into the sky about a block away.
The trainers rushed towards it, only to find a kid training her Minun.
"I'm sorry," the young trainer said with a frown. "Are we not allowed to be here?"
"Don't worry, we're not here to get you in trouble. We're just looking for a lost Pokémon. Have you seen it?" Lyla asked, showing the girl her Pokédex.
"Actually, I did see a Pokémon like that. It went that way," the girl said, pointing to the West of them.
"Thanks!" Lyla said as they followed the girl's directions.
"No problem!"
"Alright, so we're on its trail now," Lyla said, watching closely for movement.
"I'll go look by that big dumpster!" Eziray said, rushing forward.
"It's been nearly forty minutes now; do you think one of the others has found her?" Lyla asked.
"Maybe not, if she's over here I mean. I don't think the others have searched this area yet," Aiden replied.
"This is getting hopeless. Why did I volunteer us for this again?"
"Hey, you just wanted to help out. I'm sure you would want some strangers to help you find Skitty if anything ever happened to her."
"I guess you're right…Do you think it'd be hiding in one of those flower pots over there?"
"Hey guys!" Eziray said, rushing towards them with a growling doglike Pokémon in her arms. "Is this a Mareep?"
"No, Eziray. That is a Houndour," Aiden said, as he gritted his teeth nervously.
"Put it down. PUT IT DOWN!" Lyla cried as the Dark Pokémon took a deep breath.
Before Eziray could say anything else, the stray Houndour blasted her in the face with Flamethrower and fled.
"I'd say you got lucky there, Ez," Aiden said with a chuckle. "That thing looked pretty ticked."
"Hey, that was a pretty cool Pokémon. I shoulda caught it since it wasn't the Mareep…"
"Let's just stay focused," Lyla said with a sigh as they continued on.
After a while, Lyla suggested that maybe the girl with the Minun had been full of shit. Then she headed into a nearby Pokémart to see if anyone saw anything. Aiden went along too to stock up on supplies with some of his pay from earlier. When they came back out, Eziray greeted them as she held up an enraged Voltorb.
"Hey, look what I found!"
"Eziray, does that look like a sheep to you?" Lyla demanded. "Where did you even find that?"
"I know you know what that is," Aiden muttered.
"Of course I know what it is! I just think it's cool to find Kanto natives here. Lyla, wanna hold it?"
"No, I don't want to hold it…Hey, is it evolving?"
"EZIRAY GET RID OF IT!" Aiden shouted.
"Oh shit…" Eziray trailed off as she chucked it as far as she could.
"Why would you do that?" Lyla demanded, but before she could get a response, a large explosion took out an entire row of fences and some benches.
"Because it wasn't evolving, it was self-destructing," Aiden explained.
"That's actually an attack? Shit. That thing was like a frigging time bomb then, huh?" Lyla said as Eziray burst out laughing. "Wait you knew it was going to do that?"
"Mya?" Skitty meowed, ears twitching.
"It's not funny, Eziray. Knock it off!" Lyla insisted as Skitty darted off. "I mean I think the city should be doing about this if those things are just lying around."
"You're insane," Aiden said with a grin as Eziray's laughing began to cease.
"Hey…where's Skitty going?" she asked.
Lyla turned in time to catch Skitty turning a corner.
"Skitty!" she called as she raced after.
As the Kitten Pokémon proceeded forward, the sound of a cowbell became more and more distinct. She turned another corner and immediately saw a blue Pokémon with yellow wool and a cowbell around her neck.
"Maaaaah…" it sighed to itself, really depressed about something.
"Myaaa!" Skitty exclaimed, running up to the Pokémon, purring.
"Mah-ree…" it trailed off when it noticed Skitty.
Skitty smiled happily and vigorously shook her head from side to side to make her own bell jingle. Then she paused and looked up at the cowbell curiously.
"Mah-mah!" the Pokémon exclaimed before shaking her head too.
Lyla, Aiden and Eziray all turned the corner just in time to catch the endnof the little concert. It brought smiles to their faces to hear the Pokémon laughing joyfully as their bells rang noisily.
"Well, we found the Mareep," Lyla observed.
"With about five minutes to spare" Eziray added with a sigh of relief.
"Oh Mareep! Where have you been? You should know better than to go running off now. Your big day is coming up, you know!"
"Maah…" the Mareep sighed, looking down sadly.
"Hey, what's wrong? Aren't you excited?"
The Electric-type didn't respond and her trainer frowned.
"Oh, don't tell me you're getting stage fright now!"
"Stage fright?" Lyla echoed. "Are you a coordinator?"
"Yes, I am!" the girl replied. "I probably look like such a novice right now but it's really Mareep who's new at this!"
"Hey, no worries Mareep!" Lyla began, bending down to comfort the Pokémon. "I'm a coordinator and I'm pretty new at this too! I know exactly how you feel, but believe me, making your debut is a blast regardless of how well you do!"
"She's absolutely right!" Mareep's owner exclaimed. "And you perform so beautifully! They'll love you, I promise."
"Mah-reep!" the Wool Pokémon cheered, feeling much better.
"Thank you!" the girl said, turning to Lyla. "My name's Robin by the way."
"I'm Lyla!"
"So you're new to contests, huh? Well, I know a thing or two I can share with you if you'd like," Robin offered as she clicked open a case, revealing an ocean blue ribbon with light blue spots and a pastel green border. "I won this in Lilycove City about a month ago."
"Oh wow, it's beautiful! I haven't won any yet…" Lyla admitted as she gazed over the ribbon with admiration. "So I'd love some advice!"
"Then how 'bout a battle then? I wanna see what I'm working with here!"
"I'm so down! Hey Eevee, are you too tired out from your little jog?"
"Vui!" Eevee exclaimed, bounding forward.
"Oh, your Eevee is so pretty! I love her coloring and shiny coat!" Robin complimented.
"Ee-ee-vui!" Eevee exclaimed, puffing out the fur on her chest like a true superstar diva.
"A little full of herself though," Lyla muttered.
"Alright, well Mareep, how about one last practice battle!"
"Mah!" the Wool Pokémon exclaimed.
The two trainers and Pokémon took their positions and readied themselves for battle.
"Alright, Eevee, let's start things off with that Quick Attack of yours!"
"Ee-vueh!" the Normal-type exclaimed, charging forward.
"Counter it with Tackle, Mareep!"
The Mareep charged forward as well, but not nearly as fast. When the two collided, Mareep was drastically overpowered and flew back quite a ways.
"Nice power!" Robin praised as Mareep stood. "But I'm afraid it takes more than that for contests. Mareep, slow it down with Cotton Spore!"
The Electric-type concentrated and dozens of cotton balls were suddenly released from her fleece and surrounded the two Pokémon.
"Seems pretty harmless to me…" Lyla trailed off. "Eevee, give it another Quick Attack!"
Eevee charged forward once more. Although the cotton balls did turn out to be harmless, they proved to be quite an obstacle as they randomly drifted about and into Eevee's way. They clung to her fur and tripped her, causing her speed to decrease significantly and allowing Mareep to move out of the way with ease.
"But who says they can't be harmless?" Robin began with a grin. "I'm sure you know that wool can accumulate a bit of static electricity. Mareep, use Thunder Shock!"
The orb at the end of Mareep's tail began to glow and spark wildly and then she released a wave of electricity from her entire body, which Eevee managed to avoid, but all of the cotton balls became charged as a result. Eevee happened to brush against one and it gave her a painful shock.
"How creative," Aiden commented.
"Try to find a spot that isn't so concentrated, Eevee!"
The Evolution Pokémon gave a quick nod and then darted forward, doing her best to avoid the floating balls of electrically charged wool until she found a spot where she could move around with a little more ease.
"Let's try a long range attack now, use Swift!"
"Light Screen, Mareep!"
As Eevee aimed and fired, a bright yellow wall formed just in front of the Mareep, shielding her from the attack.
"Lookin' good, Mareep!" Robin praised as the sparks rained over Mareep from the Swift attack hitting the Light Screen. "Now let's try that new move we've been working on!"
The Mareep concentrated and the orb on her tail began to glow once more. It slowly ceased and there was a pause. But as Lyla opened her month to speak, a large bolt of electricity came down from the sky.
"DIG!" she managed, but the Thunder hit and she wasn't sure if Eevee had got the message in time.
"ALRIGHT!" Eziray cheered when the light dimmed and the dust settled, revealing a deep hole in Eevee's place.
Before anyone else could say anything, Eevee popped up straight underneath the Mareep and forced it up into the air.
"Maah!" the Wool Pokémon cried as she tried to endure the super effective Ground-type move.
"Now give it another Swift Attack!"
Eevee quickly sent Mareep back into the ground with one last Swift attack that finished it off. Then she landed and immediately began grooming her tail which had been completely singed by the Thunder attack.
"Mareep, that was a great performance," Robin began as she called back her fallen Pokemon. "Hey, you're actually really not that bad for a beginner! You're doing a great job raising your Pokémon so far, and it's important to have tough Pokémon, even in contests. You just need to work on your style a bit."
"My style?"
"Yeah! Like your performance…There are five basic ways to impress the judges and audience, and that's by making your Pokémon look cool, cute, beautiful, smart, or tough. I'd pick one and stick with it depending on the appearance and personality of the Pokémon you're appealing with. You can of course add in a small mix of the other four to really show off, but that's a bit more complicated."
"Remember Skitty's appeal in Rustboro?" Eziray interjected. "That's exactly what she's talking about because it showed off how cute Skitty is!"
"I get it!" Lyla exclaimed with a grin.
"And another thing!" Robin said before she lost Lyla's attention. "As you know, you lose points when your opponent's moves hit and you do quite a bit of dodging to avoid that. It's fine but if you really want to make your opponent lose some major points, try using the attack."
"Use it?"
"Yeah, like send it back at them somehow, or even better, use it to make your Pokémon look better!"
"Oh yeah, it seems like Selena did a lot of that," Lyla realized as she reflected.
"Oh my gosh! You competed with Selena? I am not worthy!"
"Am I missing something?"
"Selena has to be the most talented coordinator to take the stage in Hoenn! I mean her Pokémon could crush gym leaders, but so elegantly that it'd bring tears to your eyes to watch. She's the one who inspired me to become a coordinator! She just came out of nowhere about two years ago and in six months, she already had her five ribbons. It took our Grand Festival Champion more than three times as long to get her five. In fact, everyone expected Selena to take Grand Festival Champion last year, but…she just didn't show up to the finals…."
"Something must have happened to her or her Pokémon," Aiden suggested.
"Maybe, but she won't tell anyone! And it seems like she fell off the face of the Earth until just recently, I guess. I don't watch TV much, but someone told me she competed in Rustboro. Oh my gosh, she probably went on some sort of super intense training trip or something. SO COOL!"
"I wonder why she came back from her hiatus all of a sudden. I mean the next Grand Festival isn't for a while, is it?" Lyla asked, cocking her head.
"I guess she just didn't want to get rusty. Ohhh…I really hope I can get five ribbons before the next Grand Festival! I mean I started doing contests just before last year's Grand Festival and I don't have much to show for it yet, but I really think I'm getting the hang of it. It would just be so awesome to compete with Selena this year! I don't even mind losing!"
"I'd be happen with just one ribbon," Lyla said with a sigh.
"I know exactly how you feel. I entered so many contests before I won my ribbon and it was just so discouraging…I really wish you the best on Friday! If I don't win that ribbon, than I sure hope that you do!"
"You mean it?" Lyla asked, face lighting up.
"You bet!" Robin said extending her hand. "It was really cool meeting you Lyla! See you Friday?"
"See ya then!" Lyla exclaimed as she shook Robin's hand.
"She was so nice!" Eziray exclaimed after Robin and her Mareep parted.
"I know! After meeting Selena, I had the impression that coordinators are too competitive to be friends with one another, so what a relief. I'm so happy to have a contest buddy now!"
As Lyla finished her statement, her stomach grumbled and she put her hands over it and moaned a bit.
"Hey, let's head back to the hotel now," she suggested. "I think it's time for a late lunch…"
Aiden and Eziray nodded in agreement and the three headed off to the hotel together where they ate as planned. They then dedicated the remainder of the day to working on Eevee for Friday. A lot of progress was made and Lyla even thought up an appeal for the preliminary round of the contest. When it got dark, they wrapped it up and headed back to the hotel once more for a very good night's rest.
Author Notes:
As I keep saying, I like to incorporate aspects from the show and the games so I decided to put a little focus on the five categories of contests in the games (cool, beauty, etc.) in Robin's tips. And I haven't really mentioned it since the first chapter, but Skitty has a black collar with a bell around her neck so I hope that the jingle bell scene didn't confuse anyone. Anyways, I hope you all liked it! Please be sure to subscribe and review and whatnot if you liked it ^^