~ Meteor Mashed! ~
Finally, the Cake Contraption time was up. Cofagrigus told everyone to put down their berry shooters. Then, he got off his throne and began to count each Pokémon's cake with a team of expert Yamask counters. (While a team of expert Watchog watchers kept a close eye on the participants in case someone tried something unfair.)
After they had finished, Cofagrigus sat back down on his throne, looking impressed.
"Well, what do you know, the number of cakes you Pokémon have made is far above anything I have ever seen during my time as an attraction master," Cofagrigus said. "But what's more surprising is the fact that we have a tie!"
"A tie?" the Pokémon chorused.
"That's right! These two are tied in first place!" He took Rem's left hand and Lombre's right hand. "You two made an impressive amount of cake today, young ones! But a tie is a tie, and that means we should have a tiebreaker!"
The other Pokémon were staring daggers at Rem and Lombre. They seemed to be annoyed at the fact that they were the ones who ruined the special Cake Contraption, but one of them was going to get the treats instead. None seemed too interested to watch the tiebreaker, and some were already glumly walking out of the building.
By the time Cofagrigus was thinking of what they were going to do to break the tie, the building was empty of participants except for Rem and Lombre themselves.
Lombre wriggled her hand out of Cofagrigus' grip and folded her arms in front of her. "¡Ay! Just a minute there," she said with a frown. "Are you sure I'm tied with him? Isn't that too big a coincidence? Maybe your Yamask miscounted, in which case you should recount all my cakes. Here, I'll help you. Uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis, siete..."
Rem harrumphed. "Let the experts do it," he said sarcastically. "If you're going to count aloud all your cakes, we'd never get out of here." He turned to Cofagrigus. "Instead of a tiebreaker, don't you have anything else in consideration to determine the real winner? I mean, it was pretty clear that I handled the berry shooter with more expertise and flair..."
Lombre glared at him. "Expertise and flair indeed! What does 'flair' even mean, anyway?"
Rem grinned. "Only cake-making experts will understand," he said smugly.
Lombre put her hands on her hips. "Wait just a second, mi amigo. Are you saying you're a cake-making expert whereas I'm not?"
Rem turned away as if he was bored with this conversation. "Come on, how many times have I told you that already?"
"Oh, so what you're calling flair is the fact that you shot that poor Watchog in the face? If that's what you meant by 'flair', then you're right, I don't think I'll ever have as much of it as you."
"Not so fast; who shot that Yamask in the face, huh? Twice, even. I don't think that was me."
"Grrrr...!" Now they were practically neck and neck. Each one was trying to stare the other down.
Cofagrigus' patience snapped.
"Enough!" he shouted, clapping all four hands on his head. "I think I've heard enough of this petty bickering! Tell you what, young ones? You both win! You both get to keep the prize! Just stop it with the arguing, you're driving me insane!"
He hurried over to the door and put a hand on the handle. However, before going out, he paused and turned back.
"And that's the conclusion of today's special Cake Contraption," he said quickly. "Thank you for playing and we hope you do not come again."
And with that, he went out and slammed the door behind him. All the Watchog and Yamask followed suit, leaving Rem and Lombre alone with their treats.
"We hope you do not come again!" That's a nice one, Cofagrigus! Lopunny knows her Attraction Master buddy is frustrated, and she smiles pitifully for him watching the scene unfold.
Pairing 8: Rem x Lombre is still at that: war. Both think they're better than the other, but Lopunny is dying to know what they will do next since the treats belong to both of them now. Will they cease fire, or will they not?
We had broken off when Treecko told Amelia that he could also sing. Now the Umbreon's eyes were wide.
"Oh, so you also sing? Wow, we do have a lot in common, then!"
She shook her head. "Well, I would never have guessed. I thought your friend was right since you come off to be that sort of person who is better at exact stuff."
Treecko sipped his tea coolly. "That's what they all say," he said. "They are wrong."
Amelia didn't say anything else, but instead began to sing a rather popular song. Treecko joined in not long after.
"Hmm." Amelia stopped, smiling. "How about this?"
She began to sing a different song, this time less known. Her voice was sweet and silvery. It was obvious that she'd had a lot of practice, and it wasn't surprising because singing was one of Amelia's favorite things to do.
Treecko was silent for a minute, listening to her singing.
The Cake Zone of Wish Park was not as hectic and loud as the Dance Zone, of course, but it was still filled with many random noises. There were the sounds of the cotton candy machines (they sell sweets in the Cake Zone; popcorn belongs to the Dance Zone), friends talking to one another, cries of baby Pokémon and those of their mothers trying to calm them down.
However, Amelia's voice was loud enough to be heard above the noise, luckily for Treecko. If it wasn't, he wouldn't have known what song she was singing.
Finally knowing what it was, Treecko joined in again. He was singing more quietly than Amelia, perhaps because he wasn't used to people hearing his singing, but Amelia heard him nevertheless.
She grinned. "OK, so you are good and do know a lot of songs. But I bet you don't know this one!"
With that, she began to sing again. This time, the tune seemed lilting and strange, as if it wasn't even a proper song to begin with. It seemed more like a lullaby.
"Blue moon floating, blue seas sparkling. You emerge from a little egg, by the ocean..."
Treecko listened.
And he listened.
And he listened some more.
However, Amelia was right. He didn't know this song! He was positive he had never heard of it before.
...or had he?
Suddenly, his thoughts went back to the first time he'd met Amelia in front of Chandelure's tent in the Dance Zone. The time before he told her that he liked to sing too. His mind went back to the walk from the Dance Zone to the Cake Zone.
"Oh, no, not that," Amelia quickly said. "I was singing a little song I made."
"Oh?" Treecko stared at her. "You like to make songs? That is none short on impressive."
Amelia blushed good-naturedly. "Yeah, I like to write songs. I sing, too, of course."
...They started walking towards the Cake Zone part of Wish Park. Both Pokémon were quiet, so the walk was filled with silence.
However, Treecko realized that if you listened hard enough, you could hear that Amelia was singing softly.
The calm, cool, and clever wood gecko thought he detected a foreign feeling.
He felt like... singing along.
To Manaphy's little lullaby.
Suddenly, Treecko's eyes went wide. Of course he'd heard that song before! It was one of those she'd made herself and sung when they were walking to the Cake Zone from the Dance Zone. The song had a lilting tune, and he remembered that it was about Manaphy.
Amelia was still singing. "Sandy beach, Manaphy, and I. Krabby singing..."
Treecko took a deep breath and began to sing too.
"Wingull winging. Sandy beach, Manaphy, and I..." Unlike the Umbreon, he kept his voice quiet. He wasn't too confident at all about his singing. After all, it was not as if many people had heard it before.
He finished quietly, "This is Manaphy's little lullaby."
Oooooohh! That wood gecko may not believe it himself, but he actually has a pretty nice voice. No, Lopunny quickly corrects herself. It's not wrong to say that he's really good at singing. Well. Who could have guessed? Then again, even Treecko's teammate Lombre was wrong about him. He really is a secretive Pokémon!
I wonder what Amelia thinks about his singing~?
All right, now we move over to the Beach Cove! When we last saw them, Oshawott and Lizzy were down one point because of a penalty kick from Timburr's team. Let's see how they're doing now!
...
The game had worn on, and by the time the sun was high in the sky, the scores were even. Oshawott had scored by shooting a powerful and well-aimed kick at the top right corner of the Tech Area goal. He seemed to know which part of it was the opposing team's weakness. Although he had been quite boastful of his beach soccer skills, Lizzy had to admit that Oshawott was good.
Now Timburr was running down the beach with the ball on his heels. Oshawott stood in front of him, getting ready to steal the ball when he passes by.
Timburr passed by.
Oshawott kicked and hit his target.
Which unfortunately wasn't the ball.
Instead of kicking the ball, he inadvertently kicked at a wooden bench standing at one side of their playing field and stubbed his toe.
And the next moment he was hopping about, clutching his foot and yelping.
It would have been funny to watch if it were a cartoon, but since this wasn't a cartoon and also because Lopunny wouldn't be too happy if she and Oshawott returned to the Dance Zone with the latter in a limp, Lizzy rushed over to him. Soon Timburr and his teammates did, too, and the match was practically abandoned.
Oshawott was, of course, trying to pretend that it was nothing to go nuts over. He put on a wavering smile on his face and tried to shoo the others off.
"It's nothing," he said, trying to hide his foot from the others, but Lizzy knew better. In the short-lasting moment during which she'd caught a glimpse of Oshawott's foot, she saw that it was bleeding. Another part of it was bruised blue. He must have stubbed it rather hard.
"Your foot is bleeding!" she burst out.
Oshawott waved her off. "It's nothing!"
"You should bandage it," Lizzy said.
"No way," Oshawott said with a frown.
"I-it's for the hygiene," Lizzy said, not about to take no for an answer.
Oshawott rolled his eyes. "Well, OK, if that will get you to just stop pushing me to do all sorts of wimpy things, but where are you going to get a bandage, anyway?"
A weird smile suddenly took over Lizzy's face. "Watch and learn," she said, and then she suddenly put her hands into her fleece.
Oshawott was, of course, totally weirded out when Lizzy pulled out several Oran Berries, a few shiny marbles, an Unfezant feather, some stems of flowers, an interesting-looking leaf, and a pretty patterned ribbon out of her fleece.
"What...?" he started to say when Lizzy shushed him.
"Wait. I know I've got it in here somewhere... Hmm..."
And yet she still pulled out a worn-looking paper scrawled all over with Unown letters, some stubby crayons, some acorns, a handful of colorful beads, some pale pink shells, and a shiny Amulet Coin. ("Oops, I forgot to return this to Meowth. Ha, ha. How f-forgetful of me." She blushed.)
"OK, how did you—" Oshawott started to say with even more apparent astonishment when Lizzy finally pulled out a white bandage triumphantly out of her fleece.
"Yay! Got it!"
Then she began to deftly clean the sea otter's wound and bandage it. After that she stood and stepped back. "U-um, voila."
Oshawott tried moving his foot about. It hurt way less than before.
"Hey, this is actually pretty neat!" he said with satisfaction. "Nice one, Lizzy!"
The Flaaffy blushed. "Uh, you're welcome, I guess."
"That was some kinda cool," Timburr said. "How many stuff have you got in your fleece, anyway?"
Lizzy blushed even more because now everyone was staring expectantly at her. "Uhh, I don't know," she said awkwardly. "I just absentmindedly keep things I like in my fleece, then sort of forget I ever put it there. I can be really forgetful that way."
"Still, that's quite useful," Timburr said. "It would be nice if I had fleece to store odds and ends in. I'm always leaving nails and screws behind whenever I'm working on some construction project."
After that, the match continued. Oshawott wouldn't hear of stopping the match, and the Tech Area team and Lizzy just decided to play along, although Lizzy was reluctant. She'd had enough of beach soccer. She was not good at it at all.
She was more or less OK with it when Oshawott was doing all the dribbling and shooting and scoring, but unfortunately she wasn't about to have her way throughout the match.
"Lizzy!" Oshawott suddenly called, and before Lizzy knew what was happening, he had passed the ball to her. It miraculously reached her feet without being intercepted by anyone from the opposing team. Before she knew it, she was somehow dribbling the ball over to the Tech Area goal, which Roggenrola was guarding.
"Oshawott!" she cried, intending to pass the ball back to him so he could shoot, but Oshawott was shaking his head. He was being guarded by Timburr and Golett, so passing the ball to him was out of the question.
Lizzy was thoroughly alarmed when the truth finally dawned on her: she was going to have to shoot.
Wow! Isn't it useful to have fleece that can also act as a storage? Lopunny also has fluffy fur, of course, but there's no way she's putting anything in it. It'd totally make her look fat.
Anyway, Lopunny's back to waving her pom-poms! Go for it, girl! You can do it! Show 'em what you've got! Shoot! Score! Give me an L! Give me an I! Give me a Z! Give me another Z! Give me a Y! Go, Lizzy!
...
OK. We left off where Darwin had left Tepig to wait by himself in the Dance Zone. Since then, Tepig had been doing nothing but sit around in front of Chandelure's tent. He could have gone off to do something somewhere else, but he didn't. He would have loved to do that, yes, but another part of him fretted that Darwin wouldn't be able to find him when she finally came back.
Not that she did.
Tepig was starting to believe that he'd been really naive to actually expect that Darwin would return, because by this time he had already convinced himself that there really was something between Darwin and the Hypno character she had been going on about. Now he could imagine Darwin scouring the whole Wish Park to find Hypno.
Tepig sighed. He liked to think that he tries hard, but it always seemed as if his endeavors didn't end how he'd expected them to. Just like with Darwin.
"Beheaded French queen, indeed." Tepig muttered.
Lopunny is about to enter Chandelure's tent to get her Dance Inferno ready when she sees Tepig Pokabu just sitting there looking forlorn. Maybe you'd think that Lopunny was only a radio host, but she was actually also some kind of spy.
(Nah, she isn't. Just pulling your leg.)
However, the moment she sees Tepig alone, she knows something is wrong, so she hangs around behind him to try to hear what Tepig is mumbling. When he mentions a beheaded French queen, Lopunny knows that the problem is Darwynette de la Verde.
She frowns. Pairing 9: Tepig x Darwin isn't going well at all, but she would see if she could do anything about that. (And she always has something to do about everything. She's Lopunny, after all.)
Hmm, aren't you curious? What can the marvelous Lopunny do about this disaster? Stay tuned on Wish Park FM~!