It wasn't so bad here. There were tales of May Day being a claustrophobic nightmare, and afternoons being like the rush hour from hell, but this was just like ay other town. In fact, with the amount of people still at work, the afternoon was a lot quieter than usual. Probably in the evenings, things would have picked up by then.

Which was unfortunate, since the troupe had to be gone in a couple of hours. Or rather, the pokemon commissioned to them had to be gone in a couple of hours. Simisage, Simisear, and Simipour. To be frank, they didn't fit in at all. For one, they looked atrocious. It was impossible that a creature with leaf, flame patterns, or whatever the hell that was on the water type could ever pass off as a monkey. And here they were, forcing him to use these strange elemental designs, that only a mother could love.

Cross watched the three idly from a lazy eye, while reclining on an earthen brown wooden crater. He was always backstage while the circus was doing the opening acts, waiting his turn. Because all you needed to get comfy was a patchy terrain, a place shrouded from the public eye, and a box. His attire was typical for a circus ring leader, except it was completely in black and white. Bleached and drained of any colour. The rest of his band were exactly the same; since they followed suit to anything that the master did. In Cross' eyes, they were an adorable lot, all quite a deal younger than him. Around that age when school ends, and children had to be off on a pokemon journey, or take private studies. And what if you didn't have the facilities to do either? Well, that was what the circus was for.

The Elementals had been truly and utterly feral since their arrival. Each of them had a crazed look in their eyes, and each time Cross tried to associate with them, all he got was a face full of leaves /torrential spit blast / inferno from Hell. Not even the circus' own Aipom could associate with them, since apparently, normal type pokemon were just too common for them. Inwardly, Cross smiled;- he knew quite a few people he could relate these abominable creatures to. And why had he gotten these pokemon anyway? He ran a circus, not a gym. The pokemon were obviously meant for brute strength and battle, not elegant acrobatics. How would they be on stage? Were they any good actors? Would they terrify the entire audience? For their species, they were extremely large, all three easily passing the height of the group Slaking. And that thing was a fat monster. So how on earth was he supposed to explain what the elementals were meant to do?

"Bah… Cross, this reception sucks!" Colt, Cross' younger brother. On his shoulder was a rather lively looking Ambipom - Cross' Ambipom, he was sure, but somehow it's possession was leaning slightly in Colts favour. He made a mental note to fix that as soon as they were on the road again. Colt was almost a spitting image of the ringmaster - same silver slicked back hair, same narrow eyes, same facial makeup. The same personal passions, the same expressions when angered. The same apparent beliefs that pokemon should not be automatically seen as superior to humans. "I'm a tamer, not a damn unicyclist, and there I am working my butt off on the demented bike in the middle of the day and what do I get? 'Where are the pokemon, we want to see the pokemon moves, I want to see a contest, what are humans doing here? Whine, whine more!' Let's just get that old geezer's job done, then get out of here." Just as Cross was just about to reprimand his little brother for his language, the elementals took that as their cue to enter the stage. Each of the giants purposefully made their way forwards, paying the two humans no mind at all.

"C… Colt! Do that tamer thing, make them go a little slower, I'm not ready yet!""Doesn't work on pre-owned pokemon. Doesn't work on those things. No can do."

Cross tried to construct a single word, but all he managed to do was open and shut his mouth like a goldfish. He wasn't ready at all, and as luck would have it, his members on stage at this moment probably weren't either. The people who gave him this job didn't even give him a script or theme to follow of sorts, obviously not knowing how hard improvisation was on stage. It's very different than improvising in a board room, a place were you visit regularly, and in an environment you already know… oh, how wonderful it would have been to be as privileged as they were.

Usually, drawing back the curtains and entering the stage as the main attraction was the highlight of Cross' day. Unfortunately, due to a certain three idiots in the back, he had to sprint in-between them - not only was that terrifying enough, as he felt that he could be back stabbed at any given moment, end ended up reaching the front slightly flustered. Which was never a great first impression.

"Ladies and Gentlemen…" the two people in stage, a bleach blonde girl and boy unicycle jugglers, obviously busy and in deep concentration, looked up in confusion. Their pale irises spoke one word to Cross in annoyance - as soon as they tumbled off stage, he knew that he was going to get a great deal of yelling at after this performance. He knew the qualities of his band well, and he knew that those two hated to be interrupted at any given moment. At least, this time, it wasn't strictly his fault. Just as Colt had explained earlier, the gathered crowd had whined at the appearance of yet another human. Still, they were pretty hopeful since Cross wasn't here to perform any acts. And then, all at once, there was a gasp; a soft whisper that hushed the entire mass of people, and the ringmaster was met with a number of agape and awed faces to match. That probably meant that the giants had entered the stage. Each of them moved forwards like robots, and quite possibly, the audience thought they were too. The pansy looking water thing took centre stage, completely omitting Cross from the view of the audience. Like they cared. Hopefully, they wouldn't ruin anything.

"The noble capital of Silverlight presents… Region wide 'Shadow City' Tournament! This is nothing like a gym battle, or even the Battle Frontier. This is were the best of the best gather, this is where the colossus of all Pokemon come to fight!"

To emphasise the point, the three elementals each fired a powerful blast in the air, as well as flexing their muscles, striking impressive stances, and overall behaving like narcissists/Colt in front of a mirror.

"Those of you who are confident in your skills in a trainer, trust me, you will not be disappointed! This is for the best of the best, the colossal giants, power that you have never dreamed of? Who thinks they could have the strength, to take down one of the beasts?" Of course, that question was a rhetoric. Just as Cross paused, to think of an ending speech, someone near the back had spoken 'Amelda could.'

Another silence. More whispers, and then the same line over again. 'Yes… the princess… Amelda, the fighting… the crimson fire…' it swept across the market like they were in a pantomime, and even for Cross, this feeling was surreal. The only person who was not among the chorus was a girl atop a Zebstrika - her hair was a brillant red, and Cross just knew that it had to be Amelda, since her face told that she was unsure whether to take up the challenge or not.

For some reason, that Cross was not sure of, he invited her to the stage.

And for some reason, that she was not sure of, she agreed.

As soon as she did so, the crowd roared. There was the overbearing chant of "Princess, Princess," as Cross took her hand gently and helped her onto the side of the stage. He stared blankly at her scarlet eyes, for just a moment, before admitting that he truly had no idea what he was doing. At which point, she stared decisively into his, saying that she knew exactly what to do, in such a way that there was no possibility that he could doubt her. Yet…

'Fire versus Fire! Priiiiiiiiiincess!"

Princess?

It seemed that Amelda was quite the celebrity here for her fighting skills. He could tell by the way she stood, that radiant stance, that she has probably done this many times before. But she probably hasn't faced anything of this size yet.

Fire versus Fire. Amelda stood straight in front of Simisear, who was the nearest elemental to them on the stage. The pokemon seemed near close to being three times her height, but that didn't seem to waver her confidence one bit. Which made Cross remind him of himself, more than anything else.

Simisage didn't hesitate. It sent a powerful fire blast of towards Amelda, who seemed to be completely unfazed by it. She went under, fists at the ready, aiming for the elemental's feet. It's claws seemed to sharpen, timing the girl's attack to counter slash. At that crucial moment however, she skidded straight in between his legs, and followed up behind with a sky uppercut.

Sky Uppercut?

How was she able to use a pokemon move?

It was then that Cross noticed the amulet hung across her neck. It was glowing red, faintly; it's power just begging to be let out. So that's what the initial attraction was. Another Soulstone. Possibly, the Fighting type. At this rate, the kid could easily make it ignite; easily gain the eons of power that he could only have dreamed of unlocking...

While Simisear was still airborne and upside-down, she leapt forwards and closely followed with a double slap, flipped upwards so that she was above it, took a hold of its waist and started on the decent back downwards towards the ground. Cross had watched the jewellery item closely throughout the duration of the takedown, however even when the smoke and dust was cleared from the ground impact of the attack, it was still the same. Still that same, faint, dying glow. Even that peformance wasn't enough to make a Soulstone ignite – then what would?

Amelda seemed just as surprised as the rest of the audience to find Simisear still standing. The crowd cheered yet again, although seeming to support neither side. The girl seemed all too happy to charge straight back in, and give Simisear a second beating, but one flickered gaze in Cross' general direction and the Soulstone's life energy died down to nothing.

Now, what was that for?

She came towards the elemental with a full blast of energy, but even now Cross could see it was all for show. Probably by the obvious, and yet amazing feat, of allowing herself to be hit with a full fire blast in the face. No, really, it was something quite special, the fact that her body was still intact after that. The rest of the act went that way as well - Amelda allowing an enraged Simisear to attack her as much has he liked, so he appeared stronger at the end of it all than he actually did. The final strike was made by Simisear, of course, with a well aimed punch to the girl's face and she was sent skidding and flying all the way across the stage, back at Cross' feet. Motionless.

A few unsettling moments passed, until Cross gathered up the courage to check on Amelda's condition. This wasn't easy for him under normal circumstances, but was it really right to allow a stranger up onto the stage to get pummelled by an angry pokemon on steroids? His unsteady hand moves towards her head, who's face was still buried into the wooden frameworks of the stage. Of course, he could only hope that Simisage wouldn't make a fiery backstab at this point in time…

Amelda on the other hand didn't even need the help; she made that quite apparent by acrobatically flipping herself onto her feet, extending her arms then making a rather large bow to the audience. Her face was smiling when she heard the applause and cheers, and retained her proud position, even with the ends of her plaits still burning. Cross was speechless, yet at the same time, felt that he couldn't let this opportunity go - he had just met quite an extraordinary person. It was worth asking whether she would travel with the troupe - although chances were, she'd decline. But still.

"That… was amazing end to our performance. You really are quite the character, young lady."

She turned to him, her smile beaming. "No problem. Fighting Fire Princess Amelda, at your service!"

A/N: I must say, this was going to be longer, but the second half of this chapter's been so freaking hard to write... And because I've been writing on different days, the style keeps on changing. Most frustrating. But hey, I'll figure out something.

~Memoir~